Author: sammilogger

What is life? Is it primordial, eternal or temporary? Here I want to focus on worldly life ie from birth to death. It may be very hard to define life. Like beauty we might say description of life lies in the eyes of beholder. Every person will see life through own frame of reference. Having lived little over half a century I feel like attempting to define life. One word that comes to my mind is, ‘struggle’. It is a perpetual struggle. Struggle to assume life, Struggle to maintain life. Struggle to improve life. Struggle to succeed in life. Struggle to create and succeed life. Struggle between good and evil. Life isn’t a motorway. It’s rather a bumpy road. It’s a struggle to circumvent or bypass these obstacles. Life is a struggle in pursuit of excellence. It is a struggle to seek knowledge. It is a struggle to pursue objectives set by oneself. In initial stages of life one is living for oneself and then we grow to live for some one else. Life is a time slot given to us to do our part. Life is an event to play out our destiny. We are programmed to achieve something or be a source for some one else’s achievement. In life we are slaves of destiny. Our body is temporary dwelling for life. The dimension of time blessed to us is defined by ourselves through our resolve, effectiveness and perseverance. Prophets achieve much greater in lesser time than a common human. We take birth from already living systems, are brought up in a set of environment, exploit our faculties, take on various journeys, exhaust our resources, die, and take new form of life. We can also say life is the spirit which keeps our body living. Where does spirit come from and where does it go? It goes back to, from where it comes by abandoning the nonliving part right here on this planet.

In 2005, I had a great interaction with legendary Sahibzada Yaqub Khan (Allah may bless his soul). He asked me about my areas of interest to start a convo. I replied, ‘it was human brain and cosmology’. Then what followed impressed me how great he was. Black holes fascinated me in my college days. As FSC student, I once asked my Physics teacher about Black Holes and he was pleasantly surprised. On the subject, first book I read was, History of Time by Stephen Hawking; another legend (God bless his soul). He was an undisputed authority on the subject. I also benefitted from his books Universe in Nutshell and Grand Design. Scientists once thought the sum total of mass available in universe is not zero which is essential for prevailing equilibrium. Later they discovered there is anti-mass too and these Black Holes are anti-mass.

Couple of weeks ago there were news that NASA is going to release first ever images of a Black Hole on 10 Apr 19. Of course my inquisitiveness multiplied and I was anxiously looking up to the Big Day. Lo and behold it appeared in media on 11 Apr. The information merely signifies immense vastness of universe and correspondingly immense inadequacy of what all science has so far discovered. I have no word to adequately describe smallness of our galaxy, our planet; Earth and Homo-sapiens in this scheme of things. A pygmy black hole located within our Milky-way Galaxy some 27000 light years from Earth is several Million times the mass of the mighty Sun. Another located in Messier 87 Galaxy (55 Million light years from Earth) is 6.5 Billion times the mass of Sun. Isn’t it mind boggling and let me say, so far science only knows a fraction of expanse of the universe. I am reminded of Shakespeare quote from Hamlet, ‘I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space….’ That’s truest description of all the mighty homo-sapien. This should bring us to extreme humbleness keeping in view our true value and worth in Allah’s boundless universe. All praises be to the Great Creator.

Post WW2, US and USSR emerged as two contending superpowers. End of cold war saw USSR wanning and US emerging as sole super power. Ever since then, the US has maintained its hegemony on the globe. To every rise there is a fall. It appears that, US hegemony is being challenged on multiple grounds. At the grand strategy level, China has put US in a reactive mode. Wanning of the super power is definitely going to take time, but how much; remains in debate. George Fiedman in ‘Next 100 Years’ seems overtly optimistic, while contending that next complete century belongs to the US. However, there are indications which can prove him wrong. Farid Zakaria sounds more realistic in his book, ‘Post American World’. At global level there are signs of wanning like; surrendering space in global leadership, being reactive, displaying frustration, losing allies and subordination of countries. In 1991, whole world was with the US, in War against Iraq, in 2001 War against Iraq, half of the world stood by the US, whereas, in 2017, in UNSC on Recongnition of Jerusalem as Capital of Israel no one was with the US. That’s how US has lost in global leadership. If we take homeland issues, there too, the US is fast losing ethical standing. I see practices akin to 3rd world gaining grounds in the US. Daughter of POTUS running office in White House. Trump making his incumbency a must for economic well being of the US and extra ordinary powers to police and intelligence organisations should have been ethically alien to superpower but these are there. In all fairness the US wanning may complete in 3-5 decades. However, a frustrated, agitated and reactive sole superpower led by a mercurial leader is extremely dangerous for the world peace.

Civilizational heritage isn’t essential for a nation to rise. New Zealand is one of the youngest nations. Post act of terrorism, they captivated and charmed the word through their actions. They proved Epictetus right, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”. We all were amazed and awestruck with response of New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern was there to lead and a vibrant nation was in sync to respond. The empathy, alacrity, passion and unity were par-excellence. What other nations take months and years to do NL did in moments, hours and days. No great game, no vices, no biases, no Islamofobia and no prejudices could hinder this great nation. The people and the leader were crystal clear and rock-solid in testing moments. Hithertofore, relatively less known Jacinda Arden has emerged as one of the best leaders the world has. At the same time the nation living ‘down and under’ has set standards for the world ‘up and above’. New Zealand has left great lessons for us to emulate.

Dr Ellis Silver recently gave a theory, Humans are not from Earth”. He postulates that humans were created on another planet and relocated to Earth. This goes in line with Islamic belief that Prophet Adam and Mother Eve were shifted to earth from another location. I am also reminded of Charlse Franklin who said, “No one gets out of this life alive….” Thus we were sent to this planet with a purpose. Notwithstanding our success or failure, the truest of us ‘the soul’ will shed our body (its temporary abode) on this planet and return to the planet where we were created. Nature took approximately, 13.45 Billion years (from Yuval Harari book, Sapiens) to create enabling environment on this planet for its best creature to survive. This speaks of importance of this creature. Humans are the only specie which has combo of ability to think and communicate. Extremely meagre time period bestowed upon us to live on this planet imposes on us attainment of pinnacle of greatness in very short time. Only one percent of us reach to that level. However, we all see transformation of our personalities for good as well as for bad. Events, books and various exposures transform our personalities. We develop thoughts which transform into actions, these transform further to our habits which define our personality. Based on positive or negative transformation we become on- the-whole good or evil. I for one have been lucky to get more of positive transformation (with sprinkling of negative). First and foremost, an aspect that entrenched in my personality was injunction of Holy Prophet PBUH, ‘leave the place better than how u took over, if you cannot add much, just plant a tree’. I can also name two books which transformed my personality. ‘Defeat into Victory’ by William Slim and ‘Awaken the Giant Within’ by Anthony Robbins. On not so positive side, another book which kept me more of a human rather than an angle was ‘The Company of Women’ by Khushwant Singh. I am at loss to understand whether this book affected me positively or negatively but I stand happy with my transformation Alhamdo Lillah.

Stress savvy modern living is impacting human health. It is said that, “we are what we think”. Stress is created more by internal factors than external. Our thoughts, our desires and our inhibitions contribute in generating stress. Negative emotions like greed, jealousy, ungratefulness, impatience and lust directly impinge upon our state of happiness. In modern living there is a maddening race and competition for materialistic pursuits. Beyond basic needs of humans as defined by Maslow’s Theory of Heirachy, I feel happiness is something which is most essentially required for well being of us. All the physical ailments are compounded by stress and unhappiness. Hazrat Ali (KUWH) said, “the one who is content with his destiny is the most blessed”. This thought has been lurking in my mind since decades, “does money bring happiness?” Happiness in my view is the most important emotion of human life. Money alone cannot bring happiness because money is directly proportional to lust. One keeps on pursuing sufficiency of money. Insufficiency of money gets stronger with more money. The most important ingredients of happiness are contentment, gratefulness and positivity. Lately I came across Yuval Noah Harari book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow which carries a section titled, The Right to Happiness. He says material achievements alone will not satisfy us for long. Indeed the blind pursuit of money, fame and pleasure will only make us miserable. He cites examples of developed countries with highest rise in GDP but no improvement in GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness). He says dramatic improvement in conditions as humankind has experienced in recent decades, translate into greater expectations rather than greater contentment. Thus we should shun materialistic pursuits and feel contended with what ever we are blessed. I am reminded of Stephen Hawking (God bless his soul) who by all standards, physically led a miserable life. In his biography, I was amazed to see him advising others to enjoy what they are blessed and not to regret for what they are not blessed. Allah may bless us genuine happiness. SAMREZ

The world is in transition from uni to multipolarity. The region is in transition due BRI, new regional alignments and ongoing Sino-Indian rivalry in IOR. Pakistan too is in transition from security to economy dominated state and from kleptocracy to democracy.

Moving beyond rehetorics, China- Pakistan friendship is manifesting in CPEC and future economic inter- dependence. It’s worth pondering that which country gains more. I see this partnership highly asymmetric. In every sense while China is a giant, Pakistan is a small fry. China is like bullet train with Pakistan attached as an age old bogie. In the context of geostrategy and geoeconomy, China is going to be greater gainer however, Pakistan is bound to gain even beyond these two contexts. 1400 years ago, Holy Prophet PBUH ordained Muslims to, ‘seek knowledge even if they had to go to China’. As regards knowledge, even today it will be highly beneficial for Pakistan on way to China. Key attributes of society like, knowledge, wisdom, harmony, patience, tolerance and discipline are scarce in Pakistan but in abundance in China. Besides FDI from China we should also look for CDIK (Chinese Direct Investment of Knowledge) in Pakistan.

Geostratagic location of Pakistan has repeatedly bestowed upon her a pivotal role larger than potential. Earlier such roles for the US were on way to fighting, destruction and mayhem. The third such role for China is on way to construction and development. The mere positivity of future role guarantees much better dividends than previous roles full of destruction. Geography has intertwined destinies of Pakistan and China.

It is expected that China will capacitate and uplift the functionality, management and work ethics in Pakistan. The bogie at the tail of bullet train will be compelled to catch up with speed of the train.

‘Resilenece’ and ‘Turbulence’ are two words that best describe Pakistan. It may be apt to say that, “Resilience thy name is Pakistan”. In the midst of another bout of turbulence, it’s so nice to see a political leader who inspite of daunting challenges is thinking and acting for our future generations. Clean and Green Pakistan campaign is a trend setter for Pakistan. A country which was let to run the way it is, has found a Godsent opportunity to cleanse itself of physical as well as societal filth. The journey is long and arduous but maiden step speaks of success. There is a visible resolve in incumbents to take harsh decisions. Putin’s rise to success was initiated by his unbeleivebale firm handling of oligarchs. Pakistan too is a country where mafias have grown stronger than government. It’s high time to rein in these self-serving monsters of Pakistan. Accumulative effect of judiciary as well as government is creating shivers in spines of untouchables. My request to all is that as a social obligation for our future generstions, let us put in our bit in these efforts. Let’s not be deterred by enormity of the task in hand. Drops will make the ocean In Sha Allah.

Raising of Indian status on STA to Tier 1 country and relaxation of sanctions related to Indian defence procurements from Russia indicates how desperate is US to woo India

“Actions speak louder than words”, however in media savvy times, words are also essential to build perceptions. It is also said that, “Perceptions are stronger than reality” which can now be modified as, “Perfection is THE REALITY”. Battle of Narratives has become so critical these days because our well intended actions can be projected in such a way that a malicious negative perception outweighs our actions. It is also said that it’s important not to do a wrong, but it’s equally important not to do a thing which can be perceived or projected wrongly. IK and his team are taking good actions but they seem to be not doing so well in battle of narratives. Agreed it’s too early to judge this government, however, it may get too late to quell once created debilitating narratives. The issues which people are facing are harsh realities, but, if people lose hope these realities will become monsters. PTI government needs to orchestrate a campaign for building narratives. People may accept load shedding, poverty, financial harships etc if they are shown light at the end of the tunnel. It’s important to speak loud and repeatedly to tell to the people THE TRUTH. If they feel government is making progress on generating electricity, reducing debt burden and increasing money in National coffers, they will find a hope. In absence of this information people are at the mercy of narratives being thrown by theives who enjoy playing on this turf; this being their strength.