A sad day for Asia

The earth quake with an intensity of 8.9 on the Richter scale has completely destroyed the region with a death toll touching almost 20,000 people and counting. I wish the affected nations all the best and our sincere prayers are with all the departed souls.

Surely a sad day for us all

SA Tribune Still blocked

If you all recall that a few months ago the South Asia Tribune website was blocked by the Pakistani Government for carrying anti-establishment articles criticizing Musharraf, well the site still remain blocked thought out Pakistan - though it can be accessed via anonymous proxy server

SA Tribune is run out of Washignton DC by the former The News Editor who was forced to quit due to army Pressure in 2002, he now runs this journal which has recorded 44 million hits in its career.

The recent artile I cam across was of the NAB chief harassing Farooq Jangda to exhort 53 Million for Shehzad Ali Khan - who has deep contacts within the army.

The mighty rule - but the mighty also fall very heavily in the end

Orthodontic Seminars in Karachi

It has been a pleasure to be responsible in starting a forum to advance the knowledge of Orthodontics in Karachi. Every Monday morning close to 25 well trained orthodontists get together to discuss cases at length, where the forum is open for cross questioning. This has been really informative for all especially the upcoming in-training orthodontists around the city. I still marvel at how eager, the new generation of Pakistan, is excited to learn and feel proud to be called a Pakistani.

This week while at KMDC there was a detailed case study on two different cases, one who was treated with Functional Herbst Appliance and the other case was a complex TMD Patient, who has been through Anterior Positioning Appliance and is presently undergoing Orthodontics, the discussion was outstanding.

The previous week we had a good discussion at Alvi Dental Hospital and to keep you all posted the following week is scheduled to be held at AKU. I really appreciate the effort of all involved to give their time and effort in this process

Good Job

Thank You Spider

My thanks go to the Spider Magazine for recognizing this Blog - was delighted to read this Blog's URL in the "Blogs We LIke" column.

Spider keep up the good work - and hope we can entertain the public with our own rants be it poilitical or not.

GO SPIDER

Musharraf bribes PPP with Zardari's release

It ain't a mystery no more, Musharraf is trying to hold his presidential seat by the ends of the coat tails for his dear life. Long past are the days where he talked about justice and democracy, he now is preoccupied with the curse - which many leaders of Pakistan have been unfortunate to have encoutered "THE CURSE OF THE CURSI (SEAT)"

General/President Musharraf has now sold out all his beliefs by simply releasing Zardari in an attempt to draw the PPP onto the negotiating table, they surely will come but mind you people we have another deal in the making which will be the final nail in the coffin "The ultimate return of BB" She then will haunt us with her croaky shrill and classy lotta politics. Rumors have it that PPP would refuse to entertain the Army with one simple answer - release Zardari then talk to us. Now to help Musharraf PPP will now demand the return of BB. The Sharif's must be boiling out there in the Saudi desert wishing they had a sweet deal too.

Passage of a Leader - Yasir Arafat

It was sad to see a great leader pass away who was the sore pin in the Jewish lobby for ages. The Jewish lobby has been pushing for his removal for a long time and attribute this reason as the reason for the roadblock in the so called "Roadmap for Peace". I now wonder if the Palestinian cause under a differnet compromising leadership will suffer after the demise of this great leader who fought to the bone for this noble cause. May his sole rest in peace

Back to Pakistan

After my stay at UPENN for a period of 6 weeks I am back to my motherland - you might see a change in the blogs as now it is more of a reflection on the world around me from Pakistan instead of when I was in the US. Talk to you later

Bush off to the woods

What a ruler to set by example, the day after he won the elections, he announced he needs to take a break. So fellow americans your President is off to Camp David for a week of much needed rest and also to repeat exactly what he did four years ago. Shows how concerned he is about change, this guy needs brains having the lowest IQ, his Yale trascripts never found and his last four years were spent lazing around.

The movie Farenheit 9/11 said that he was off work for 60% of his first year in office, are we about to see a repeat. We shall wait and see.

The world has chosen - Four More Wars?

The entire world was so engrossed in the US elections that it appears that it was too choose the President of the World, in a way yes, the power weilded by the White House affects many countries that destiny lies at the its mercy.

This time around it was not the Florida chads but almost turned into the "Ohio Provisionals" had it not been for the fact that Bush had a lead of 130,000 votes and for Kerry to nab 90% of the 150,000 or so provisional ballots was very unlikely and once Kerry was sure it was well beyond the 8000 lawyers hired by the Democrats to watch over the elections he finally conceeded the next day by a courteous five minute call.

As per my late swing towards Bush, my heart still refused to accept Bush, who am I to argue as the poeple have spoken and so with a sore heart I wish Bush all the best and hope he awakens from his slumber and does indeed make a difference in the world mind you I hope this time for the better. With the House and the Senate safely tucked in his back pocket it is now upto President Bush to either have Four More Years or walk into Four More Wars ?

Why is it important for Bush to win

I have been a staunch supporter for Kerry throughout the pre-election campaign and still hate Bush to the guts, but right at the last day, I might have a change in my overall decision. Why? You might ask, I feel that in the past 4 years the US has lost its credibility in the entire world and that I feel is important for an actual downfall of the US (Bully of the world). Let’s analyze each scenario and weigh the advantages of each

IF KERRY WINS

If in case Kerry wins then he promises to do an about-turn of the international policy and try his best to join hands with the disgruntled nations and improve the US ties with each of them, this in effect will undo what Bush has done, bear in mind that he does not plan to stop the army in Iraq and he will remain on a war footing for sometime to root out the Anti-US terrorist aspect.

IF BUSH WINS

If in case Bush wins then we see him continuing the same course of action, he will not pull out the forces from Iraq and the US will sadly continue to loose men on a day-to-day basis. Unfortunatley with the present attitude Bush will not be able to mend the relationships with the disgruntled nations and US will remain at daggerhead with all.

The effect on the Islamic world (Both Bush & Kerry)

The Islamic world will remain under constant pressure, too root out terrorist activity, soon I predict attention will revert to issue of nuclear arsenal, and Iran followed by Pakistan will come in the spotlight. This scenario happens in both republican or a democratic leadership. So we Pakistani's in actual affect do not gain to benfit in either way but looking at the overall picture I would rather have Bush at the helm of affairs to continune is his slumber and destroy the failing US economy and also the reputation of the United States of America.

Keep your fingers crossed, its midnight of the election with polls opening in 7 hours

Prediction: Kerry Wins

Of all analysts trying to predict the ultimate winner in the US elections let me also put "my two cents worth".

My prediction John Kerry as the next President of the United Stares of America. Slate.com has him leading by 10 electoral votes as of 31st October leading by 277-267 so let see how the future holds. It sure would be nice change, Muslims are united for Kerry

O'Reilly Not Innocent

Bill O'Reilly settles out of court with is producer/accuser for an undisclosed sum, rumors have it estimated to be more the $50 Million, "shoot he got off cheap" - I would have loved to milk that sucker for more.

An out of court settlement is basically an admission of guilt

BILL O'REILLY GUILTY - he now wants to put this case begind it, but ofcourse we shall never forget - its like sweet revenge but would appreciate more juicy gossip

Ashlee Simpson - Caught Lip Sync'ing

For those who don't know Ashlee Simpson - she is a singer who was performing live at Saturday Night Live - in her second stint to sing on stage a song started and the band played its tunes, BUT the vocals to the first song were heard, while Simpson held her microphone at her side. Flustered, she improvised a few dance steps before bolting from the stage. NBC quickly cut to a commercial.

Caught red handed trying to LIPSYNC - a crime, all do it but she got caught and when you get caught it's a bug SIN

Perfectly fits into the Southwest airlines commercial - Wanna Get Away - Ashlee sure wish she was in the Bahamas instead of on he SNL stage.

"Journalism by Remote Control"

Journailst based in Iraq are unable to move about physically and they feel enclosed in a prison hence to compensate for their loss of mobility, most reporters have increasingly turned to their trusted Iraqi staffers—translators, drivers, fixers—to collect first-hand information from news scenes and conduct interviews with Iraqis.

Imagine how scared shit the American Army is out there -pissing in their pants - as see it

O'Reilly stuck after all

(Image taken from Slate.com produced by Darryl Cagle)

Bill O'Reilly (FOX- O'Reilly Factor) finally gets in a jam, from which it wont be too easy to walk away from, an argument to which he can't interjet between the sentences, over-talk the opposing comment, or shut the phone down upon.

Never liked his guts - I hope Bill serves some time still it might be difficult to get even with his arrogant reporting style. Enjoy some deep conversations with Martha Stewart.

Kerry slammed for pointing out Lesbian Mary Cheney

Kerry is loosing ground in the polls and is trailing bush 48-46 and experts say it is due to his comments on Mary Cheney being a lesbian. The reference to Mary actually weakens Bush's stance on being anti-gay and for Kerry to use this reference in the debate, people say was an underhanded punch.

My opinion is who the hell cares - Cheney in the past has referred publicly accepting that Mary (his daughter) is unique and even when John Edwards had mentioned Mary in the much nastier vice presidential debate, Cheney had thanked him "for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter."

For us Pakistanis - we wonder what's the issue? Gay or Lesbian - please talk about something worthwhile

Michael Moore on Jay Leno

Well tonight Michael Moore made an appearance on the Jay Leno show. Dressed in the same shabby pants, t-shirt and baseball cap he again rattled the Bush and probably have the Republican supporters yelling at the TV screen. I believe his new book is a must read where he documents all his evidence in more detail.

He complained that Pay-per view and FCC cancelled his 1-day before election show (ofcourse against Bush) probably due to pressure form the administration and in exchange the pay-per view agency is set to telecast an Anti-Kerry show in exchange - Interesting I would rather had seen Michael Moore break Bush from Limb to Limb

Kerry does a SLAM DUNK

Kerry rolled Bush into a joint and smoked him away in the last presidential. Economy is Bush’s weakest link but still Kerry rolled him over – on the overall effect I think Kerry won

Lets hope it translates into a victory in November – Keep your fingers crossed

Intent to produce WMD

This is the most hilarious comment from Bush trying to justify that Saddam had intentions to produce WMD and hence supporting his intention to go to war. Well with intentions like these the world would be a messed up place, I give you an example, what if i wanted to kill that teacher who has made my life a living hell, would I be sent to jail for just having that thought. Now apply the same analogy to Saddam. Saddam did not have the means to make the WMD but he surely wished he had some, this is a free world he can wish all I want, too bad for Saddam he wished to the wrong person - Bush's, both Senior and Junior.

Bush can't justify his going to war on just the presumption that Saddam might have WMD's. We all know there was Oil to go after and that too was mentioned in the 1st Presidential debate where Kerry said that the first things that were controlled were all the oil wells and there was no other plan for the rest of the war - how selfish can the Americans get.

Kerry catching up

Well observing the Election Scorecard found on Slate.com its actually a better picture then viewing the millions of polls conducted USA-wide, they usually have a twist but what Slate does is combine all those polls and comes out with an average, they look at how each state is changing and can you guess what the latest predictions are? Kerry is close behind Bush with only 18 Electoral votes difference between them - thats a considerable gain since my last post where he was trailing by more then a 100.

My preception is that the media played up with the NO-WMD in Iraq issue well - its damaged Bush's credibilty to a greater extent. The second presidential debate is on tommorrow I expect that to be a thriller with Bush recovering from the 1st debate by being a little bit more mature and not just acting like a sissy and repeating that - "Kerry also signed the consent to go to war" my dear 'ol fellow Bush you presented the wrong facts to the nation and now blame it on the Congress for pushing you into the war it was your desciosn to twist the facts.

My fingers are crossed its Kerry's turn to shine and I wish he plays to destory Bush's crediblity even furthermore by hitting on Bush's tax breaks and other internal issues (which this debate is primarily about)

To me Bush and Kerry are the same for the Muslim world but i just simply hate Bush's gutts for what he did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CYA tommorrow after the debate.

Part of Patriot Act Overturned

"Part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush administration's war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on the 9th of Sept 2004

U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favour of the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the power the FBI has to demand confidential financial records from companies as part of terrorism investigations. The ruling was the latest blow to the Bush administration's
antiterrorism policies.

The FBI first received power to get customer records in 1986 legislation, but its power to obtain confidential data was greatly expanded by the Patriot Act -- a controversial law the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the 9/11 attacks to help it battle terrorism."

At least the US Justice system realizes that this act is not that Patriotic after all

"Terror's Children" preview at UPENN

On my first week in UPENN I was surprised to see a preview of Terror's Children produced by Sharmeen Obaid. A decent documentary where she talks about reasons why third world nations are breeding grounds for raising terrorist. I would appreciate the effort she out into producing such a documentary and also having it displayed at UPENN, the crowd was appreciative of the efforts. Sharmeen - change happens with one stone at a time, you have placed the first pebble in the huge pond, now the beacon is handed down to others to follow suit. Well done.

@ UPENN

Hey blog readers out there.

I have moved out of Karachi for sometime - and I am right now sitting in Philadelphia trying to attend a course at UPENN. Its been 2 days an I am bored shit without any cricket. To be honest I am not complaining too much as I love NFL. It's pleasant out here at Hoagie land - for sometime you might get the American version of my views here. Will keep you all posted on my day-2-day events.

Pakistan Cricket team falters

It was indeed sad to see another crumble of the batting order during the match against the Indies. Faltered at 131 all out was embarrasing and hence dashes our hopes again of a heroic come back.
We should not loose hope I think there is light a the end of this tunnel with Bob Woolmer at the helm of affairs.

Pak vs West Indies Game Plan

Hey call me a coach or whatever but every Pakistani has a theory on how to handle the cricket team to make it a winning combination.

Teeth Masters Winning team - Stick with the present lineup Afridi way down the order and Shoaib Akhtar as replacement second line of attack bowler, he does not know how to handle the used ball let alone the shinny one and bowls all over the pitch. Rumors have it that our Mr. Ego (Shoaib Akhtar) Is pissed at Inzi and Woolmer for demoting him. Dear Coach - Let him stay there and allow his nuts (EGO) to cool down. Now back on to cricket - Inzi should attack the new batsman like when R. Gavaskar and M. Kaif came in during the last ICC Pak vs India game, the spinners were in action but Inzi did not employ an attacking silly point which could have exerted more pressure on the new batsman and maybe a wicket for us to celebrate, in effect Inzi cooled down and let the new batsmen settle - Ganguly on the other hand had a pressing field each time for new player.

Good Luck Pakistan we are rooting for you.

Cowasjee retaliates to Musharraf

Ardershir Cowasjee in his article in DAWN on Sunday the 19th says

"Some bright spark has calculated that 96 per cent of the 160- odd million citizens of this country feel so, and the general has duly accepted the figure. Question : after his four-day visit to Karachi last week to inaugurate Ideas 2004 (arms for peace indeed!) does he know that the figure of 96 has perhaps been somewhat reduced?"

Precisley what i wanted to say Musharraf has to find out which 96% of the Pakistani population believes he NEEDS to stay in power

We Will - We Will Rock you - Pak beats India

Hey pakis out there - we finally did insert the nail in the coffin - India all out for 200 should have been a walk in the park BUT NOOO India vs Pakistan match needs to be a thriller.

Finally we barely made it but was fun to see Afridi belt two sixes on Irfan Pathan - before the start of his 8th over his average was amazing and lo behold three balls and two sixes later afridi had balanced the equation - on to the Semi's

Save the Whale Campaign (Save Musharraf)

Watch for todays headlines - Daily Times was loaded with news reports that Musharraf should remain in the driving seat - well welcome to the new turn of affairs - Economy takes a back seat and Save the Whale "Save Musharraf" campaign comes to the front.

Wake up people until december you are going to be bombarded with evidence upon evidence that Musharraf must say - according to the man himself "I have the pulse of the Nation" and according to that wierd pulse 96% want him in power - Yikes which artery does he have Constitution Avenue in Islamabad.

The pulse of Pakistan says -
1 - dont make a mess of the traffic by test drivign those Merc's
2 - dont beleve that you are the saviour - we soundly believe in Allah
3 - dont assign retired generals to take over ministeries - Pakistan is not a post retirement job for army personnel
4 - GET OFF THAT BUTT (Seat)

--- until next time

President Musharraf and Karachi

Mind you Karachiites - whenever President Musharraf is in Karachi you are
bound to be cursing out loud and not simply under your breath. The
establishment is so scared that they block traffic both ways, my advice to
management is that it shall always be Allah's will, you can't do anything to
prevent it. You might deter the small crooks but the big fish will find a
way, and my gut felling is that it will be from an insider.

Until then Karachi can wait for his Royal Highness to attend his meetings, its cheaper to fly everyone to Islamabad then have Musharraf drop into our
city

Zaafir Habib Alvi

A picture of my baby boy Zaafir

Mushy stuck forever

The latest -

Shaukat Aziz and Sh Rashid Ahmed - puppets of the present govt said today that our dear 5-year old "Dick"tator Prez Musharraf does not have to step down from power and they hoped that he would accept to retaining both the Military and Prez post, as no constitutional restrcitions exists.

YIKES - what is the world heading towards are we in the process of another 10-yr like ZIA rule that destroyed all sanity of Democracy - i think we are.

Mushy believes that once he goes all hell will break loose - MAYBE as then all those power hungry so called democrats the MNAs and MPAs will try to get the throne -

When musharraf came he wanted to EMPOWER the people - all he did was empower himself and his pockets -

GOD HELP US ALL

Oprah's Pontiac Giveaway

You must have heard Oprah in her show gave away 276 brand new Pontiac's for the 19th anniversary, estimated at almost US$ 8 Million. Though it was donated by GM but it sure did create stir world wide.
For GM the cost was equilavent to almost 50 prime time adverts but even that cannot create a stir as this stint simply has done - almost worth a 300 ads and a massve campaign overnight
Wish I could get on one of those giveaway shows

US Election Scorecard on Slate

As of 15the Sept Bush is leading the Presidential race by a solid lead of almost 70 Electoral votes (307-231)

Bush has 212 Solid votes and 95 closely contested wins

while

Kerry has 170 Solid and 61 closely contested wins

I hope these predictions stand overturned as my gutt tells me Bush should be OUT - but who am i to say - Pakistani, a third world citizen

BUT still am very PROUD to be a PAKISTANI

Off to UPENN

Hey all - finally i got my Visa - im now off to UNIV of Pennsylvania for a degree in the field of Endondtics (Root Canals)

'47 The Unfinished Agenda

Saturday night I had the opportunity to preview the documentary
" '47 The Unfinsihed Agenda" a well produced peice by Saadia Ashraf.

Talks about the problematic borders of Pakistan - Its a step in the right direction to promote the Pakistan cause albeit a bit twisted to the Paki version nevertheless amazing job

Well done Saadia

BandBaja.org

Bookmark this site if you are interested in discovering the latest Pakistani music scene.

They publish an online monthly newsletter, which is an outstanding piece of work, as well as a decent BLOG -

BandBaja you ROCK

ChangeThis.com

A website that one should surely pay a vist -

this group of individuals ask people to write manuscripts published in adobe format on any topic that is of interest - browse through the website im sure you might find some good reading.

To love thy Child

Allow me to introduce my baby boy - Zaafir Habib Alvi. To say the least simply a bundle of joy.

I come home from work and walk into the ever joyous welcoming smile greeting me on the driveway, that simple act lasting for probably barely a minute washes away all the tensions from work. Not to say work is hectic - I love dentistry but even then its amazing.

I can't expect that much love and affection from any other child except your own. Zaafir with his smelly diapers :) is still my twinkle twinkle star of my life - oops and also my wife Sadiqa (she'll love the side note - wish me luck tonight)

Wide world of people - talk to you later

Email to Blog service

Im impressed at the developers at GOOGLE to be able to develop such a user friendly service – you name it anything published by GOOGLE is outstanding – I am a loyal fan of google – here is an EMAIL-BLOG test

CYA next time

Mobile Blogging into the Next Frontier

Technology leaps forward by leaps each and every day the open world with its unregulated policies permits companies to be creative and hence today I can blog from my cell - what the future holds next year, I dare not even predict

On the other hand the Government of Pakistan feels threatened by each and every new idea and regulations are created to block the progress. What good is a govt that is consumed with monitoring of its own people - it should be worried about other problems -

might one need to outline the problems - i doubt as we all are well aware of the present state of affairs in Pakistan

Until next time

Bush in his acceptance speech

excerpt from Slate.com

Back to the Future
What Bush would do if he were president.

For $2.4 trillion, guess what word—other than "a," "and," and "the"—occurs most frequently in the acceptance speech George W. Bush delivered tonight.

The word is "will." It appears 76 times. This was a speech all about what Bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president.

Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so he asks you to envision them. He asks you to be "optimistic." He asks you to have faith.

"Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb and found the strength to climb them," said Bush. "Now, because we have made the hard journey, we can see the valley below. Now, because we have faced challenges with resolve, we have historic goals within our reach and greatness in our future."

Are the Saudians guilty of 9/11

Surprisingly

After the Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11" was released it has haunted the Saudian Government to such an extent that they have launched a web campaign and adverts were displayed on Slate.com (picture attached)

Are the Saudians really guilty or is it just a clean up affair? One has to wonder - I am secretly glad that the Saudians were shipped out in time BUT then agaiin WHY? why them only i would then say BUSH is to blame and is guilty - he must have been in a haste to remove all evidence ASAP -

According to the Richard Clark in his book titled "Against All Enimes" he quotes Bush as saying that "find if Saddam is involved". Bush only wanted revenge and that meant removing Saddam and invading Iraq like he has done so already

DOWN with BUSH

Here is a hyperlink of the website which it redirects to check it out -
http://aboutsaudiarabia.net/home/911_commission_says.html

Vodafone & Orange controversy

Rumors have it - (Pakistani gossip scene)

The reason why Vodafone and Orange backed out of the Cell Phone licenses in Pakistan was due to the reason (rumor) PIA was going to sign a purchase agreement with AIRBUS but at the last moment with some US pressures backed out and committed to BOEING this infuriated the French Govt and told VODOFONE and ORANGE (both french multinationals) to back out of further commitments in Pakistan

Can anyone attest to this rumor

SA tribune Blocked

To all those pakistanis facing the problem of censorhip through the PAK GOV - as they have blocked an ANTI-MUSH artcile on SA Tribune - interested email me at

EMAIL: Devilzadvocat(at)hotmail(DOT)com
SUBJECT: SA TRIBUNE - to filter through my junk mail

CYA

What about Dentistry

Well the name goes - Pakistan Dentist - where is the blog for dentistry - well my advise to the world get a second opinion - ALWAYS - today i saw many mishandled patients - dentists are more interested in making money then doing a service - PEOPLE get a consultation then look on the net for a solution - or drop me a an email explaing the issue - ill try my best - email me at drawab "@" gmail "." com remove the necessary colons - im trying to avoid SPAM

Anyxhost.com free 150 MB Hosting

Anyxhost.com Unix Web Hosting Plans

check this link out - this has 150 MB of freehosting with all the works anyone interested check it out

New here

New out to blogging -

Hi to the world out there - Im new to blogging and hope to enjoy it - just recenlty i got INVITED to GMAIL by a guy in Spain who offered the invitation in return for a POSTCARD from Pakistan - well the postcard will be mailed out tom -

CYA