Be Pakistan

Obama – A Fan Of Great Urdu Poets

Pakistan has a very rich and beautiful culture. Its Food, Music, Languages, poetry and loving people. This is the reason that Pakistani culture always leaves a magical impact on the people having an interaction with it. This is the reason why i was not surprised at all to hear US President Barack Obama’s remarks about Pakistani culture in recent interview with Dawn newspaper. Interview covered a wide range of issues, but i would be including a subset of it in my post.

While answering to the question

“Any plan to visit Pakistan in the near future?
He said ‘I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook’
‘What can you cook?’
‘Oh, keema … daal … You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.’
‘You read Urdu poetry?’
‘Absolutely. So my hope is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,’ said Mr Obama.

Complete interview

Pakistan Netizens Posting Record Data To Google Map Maker

Google Map Marker

Pakistan is showing fast growth in it’s IT sector these days. It’s online users are growing at a very fast rate. Pakistanis are coming up with many online business models and contributing to over all Internet achievements. Not only in IT Industry but even in Telecom industry Pakistan’s growth has been remarkable in recent year and its progressing continuously.

Since the release of Google Map Maker,  a service that allows you to create a map by adding or editing features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more. Pakistanis have contributed a lot in populating its maps in Pakistan.

Recently reported by a news agency ANI, citing Bangalore-based ‘Lalit Katragadda’, the founder of “Map Maker” says:

“Pakistan netizens are posting more localized information and data to the Google’s ‘map maker’ than the web users of any of the 160 countries which are using the leading internet search engine’s experiment.”

Below is the full press release by ANI:

Silicon Valley (California), May 23 (ANI): Pakistan netizens are posting more localized information and data to the Google’s ‘map maker’ than the web users of any of the 160 countries which are using the leading internet search engine’s experiment.
Lalit Katragadda, the founder of Map Maker software informed that a particular Pakistani based in London has posted most frequent edits to the Google’s Map Maker,  a user-operated software.
Katragadda, who is based in Bangalore, told The Nation via teleconference that the software updates information instantly after a user sitting anywhere in theworld within 160 countries posts an edit to the live Map Maker.
When questions were put forth regarding the authenticity of the data provided by any of the net users, Katragadda said, it can always be verified by the software.
“We can always verify from authentic as well as independent sources within an hour’s time,” he added.
Any such experiment, related to a country’s geographical territory can always be a sensitive issue, and could have some implications, but the Google’s Map Maker had not come across any political issues till now.
“We have not faced any political issues so far,” Katragadda said. (ANI)

Source

Donate $5 for Swat Pakistan IDP’s From US Cell Phones

Pakistan Refugees

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at the State Department promising what she called 21st century tools to meet global problems. It turns out you may have one of those tools in your pocket right now.
Tuesday Clinton enabled every American with a cellphone to help some two million Pakistanis driven from their homes in and around the Swat Valley in the battle against the Taliban. A quick text message from your personal phone sends in a $5 donation. This is in addition to the $100-million U.S. government aid package Clinton went to the White House to announce on Tuesday.
“Now, Americans can use technology to help, as well. Using your cell phones, Americans can text the word “swat” — to the number 20222 and make a $5 contribution that will help the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees provide tents, clothing, food, and medicine to hundreds of thousands of affected people,” Clinton said Tuesday in the White House briefing room.
Clinton tried it out herself, off camera. “And before I came over here, we did that in the State Department. So we are making some of the first donations to this fund.”

For details visit

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/19/clinton-text-aid-straight-to-pakistan/

http://riseofpakistan.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-work-by-clinton-for-swat-relief.html#links

Pakistan Refuses Visas To British Officials – Protest Against Pakistani Students Arrest

Islamabad, May 7 : Pakistan has refused to issue visas to a team of British officials who were supposed to visit Islamabad to facilitate signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both the countries on extradition of unwanted, suspicious persons.
According to the officials Islamabad has decided not to issue visas to register its protest against the arrest of Pakistani students over suspicion of them plotting terror attacks across Britain.
“Pakistani authorities refused to issue them visas to register strong protest against the British government’s decision to not only arrest its citizens without any substantial charges of terror but also to deport them despite the fact that allegations levelled against them could not be proved,” The Nation quoted diplomatic sources, as saying.
The British government has been trying to resolve the issue. The matter was also discussed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown with President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent stay in London on way to Washington.
“The authorities in Islamabad are still reluctant and they are not in mood to reverse their earlier decision of not issuing visas to the British officials, what to talk about the signing of MoU,” sources added.
When asked as to what prompted the Britain to push for an extradition treaty with Pakistan, sources said: “the authorities in UK are concerned that their courts could come up with a decision in favor of students if they move them with a plea that they could be maltreated in Pakistan if they were expelled because of the poor human rights record of Pakistani law enforcement authorities.”

Source

Clinton Admits US Liable For Situation In Pakistan

Clinton

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that the United States too had a share in creating the problem that plagues Pakistan today.
In an appearance before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, Hillary Clinton explained how the militancy in Pakistan was linked to the US-backed proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
‘We can point fingers at the Pakistanis. I did some yesterday frankly. And it’s merited because we are wondering why they just don’t go out there and deal with these people,’ said Clinton while referring to an earlier hearing in which she said that Pakistan posed a ‘mortal threat’ to the world.
‘But the problems we face now to some extent we have to take responsibility for, having contributed to it. We also have a history of kind of moving in and out of Pakistan,’ she said.
‘Let’s remember here… the people we are fighting today we funded them twenty years ago… and we did it because we were locked in a struggle with the Soviet Union.’
‘They invaded Afghanistan… and we did not want to see them control Central Asia and we went to work… and it was President Reagan in partnership with Congress led by Democrats who said you know what it sounds like a pretty good idea… let’s deal with the ISI and the Pakistan military and let’s go recruit these mujahideen.’ Read the rest of this entry »