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The temperature was….

very low!

The number of people waiting in line…

was a lot!

However I managed to get 3 tickets for the opening night of 2012 in Paris at Champs Elysees and it was worth it.
It took us about 30 minutes to get in and there was a lot of pushing and shoving because the French cinemas don’t reserve seats, they just let you buy a ticket and find your own seat and the Cinema was one of the largest, with about 500 seats.

Now I had seen the trailer for 2012 and I was waiting for this baby to come out and I can assure you I wasn’t disappointed. The movie was very, very entertaining.

I don’t want to spoil it for you hence I will be as vague as possible.

Since 2012 hasn’t happened and there are a number of theories as to why it would happen, the movie took the standard theory of the world ending in total destruction as the basis. The plot line revolved around 2 people, a scientist and a writer.

The Government of several nations hatch a secret plan to save man kind and the rest of the movie involves some really nerve wrecking scenes and hilarious humor.

The movie isn’t much of a talker, apart from the end where they had an Obama styled moment of HOPE but luckily the rest of the movie is jam packed with cities blowing up, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tidal waves and high-tech satellite imagery.

If you love science fiction and action and comedy you have got to go see this movie. I’ve added the trailer below, do watch it, find out where your closest cinema is and book a freakin’ ticket.  Do not DOWNLOAD this movie, DO NOT watch a shitty version of it and DO NOT think about NOT seeing it.

After the endless nights of watching GEO News or ARY Digital or CNN or BBC News, i’ve gotten bored with the same old stories re-running and re-running. Its so obvious that world leaders do not learn from past mistakes and keep making them over and over again.

Fear not, because some of the best entertainment are the awesome TV shows coming out of USA.

First up is House!

House

For those of you that don’t know House,  you might as well move to Afghanistan. House is one of the “awesomesttest” show out there. Its all about a highly qualified, obnoxious, self-centered, rude diagnostician who destroys everyone around him in his own caring way. The show has real interesting medical cases which Dr. Gregory House and his team solve every Monday. The show is currently airing its 6th season and if you haven’t seen it, I highly suggest you order a copy or rent it from your nearest video store or download it. (pretend you never read the downloading part)

But for now check out the trailer.

Stargate SG-1

If your into space exploration, alien culture and languages than Stargate SG-1 is the tv-show for you. It spawned off the original movie Stargate, where a archaeologist dig in Egypt finds this huge device that allows wormholes to be opened to other planets in other solar systems and eventually galaxies. Remember Mac Guyver? Well Dean Anderson is in this show and boy is his acting AWESOME.  The show has 10 seasons or space exploration and humans kicking some alien butt. Naturally, I have located a trailer for this TV Show, however before watching the TV Show I highly suggest you watch the movie Stargate

Stargate The Movie

Stargate SG-1

Heroes

Now Heroes has been a controversial show since its launch, millions of people loved it than got bored with it and than claimed it was boring. Hello? Heroes is the most downloaded TV show on the Internet loved by millions across the globe.

The show is based on the theory that some humans have special abilities, who can fly, move objects, heal very fast, erase memories, time-travel, freeze time and the list goes on. Now I personally loved the drama and the abilities and the action and I never got bored with it, perhaps once or twice because there wasn’t enough action but I stuck by it and Heroes is now in season 4. It comes out every Monday so right after House this is the TV Show you should watch. Do note that it isn’t an easy show to follow, it has a complex storyline and instead of each episode being called an episode and each season being called a season its split into chapters which equal episodes and volumes which equal season so again its in volume 4.

Thats all for now, there are other TV shows that I watch on a regular basis and will update this blog with those TV shows in the coming days.

I’m out for now.

In one of my previous blogs, I mentioned about the Youth Advisory Council of Pakistan(YAC).  A group started by MQM and led in its early days by Ali Rashid and Ali Raza Abidi. With lots of internal conflicts YAC split. Ali Rashid led YAC whilst Ali Raza Abidi incepted Professionals Research & Advisory Council of Pakistan (PRAC).

Although during my tenure in YAC which involved strategy and web development I had mixed thoughts about PRAC and its success. I disagreed with their online tactics of degrading rival political parties, in my mind MQM is better than playing blame games.  The hacking of the group and the inability for Ali Abidi to maintain basic security made PRAC a laughing stock. I met Abidi at an MQM meeting hosted by Dr. Farooq Sattar and in the small chit chat, Abidi seemed like an idealist. His only objective was to impress the higher echelons of MQM and he would not take no as an answer. There were rumours that PRAC is shutting down, MQM is fed-up with PRAC, but Abidi steered his growing group through all the stormy waters. Instead of giving up and disappearing from the new political scene, he stayed put.

Today PRAC has over 3000 members, growing at a dizzying rate and they have hosted their first summit which was broad casted live.  Whether PRAC has achieved all its objective or not, they have managed one thing, they have given MQM a much needed online face where anyone can come and discuss MQM without fear of being gunned down. Abidi has established himself as a social media expert, a skill MQM web developers require dearly. He has made himself easily approachable and generally comes off as friendly and he has developed a team that works even when he is not present.

I’ve quoted this before, but in this case it applies again.

Sherry Rehman said that no one can leave politics but politics can leave you at any time.

With all the anti-prac propoganda, Syed Ali Raza Abidi still stands strong.

Mistral House from Lalique

As I sit at the George V café on Champs Elysees in Paris reading the latest news updates on dawn.com from my PDA phone I cannot help but ponder on the future of Pakistan more specifically the future of luxury in Pakistan.

Luxury is the hidden desire amongst all of us to do better, to work harder, to earn more so we can enjoy the feeling of wearing a pair of sneakers from Louis Vuitton or admire the magnificent craftsmanship of the Antinea Vase by Lalique that is the constant reminder that yes, I worked hard to get here.

People often define luxury by its economic text book definition where they state that luxury is an indulgence, luxury is expensive; luxury isn’t required.

I say luxury is the key to our success.

If we were to live in a communist society where everything was distributed equally, where luxury is a word that does not exist what would be our incentive to work hard? To innovate? We would be no different than zombies.

What if the student in Pakistan who is in University studying to obtain his bachelors degree was to suddenly realize that no matter how hard he works he will still wear the same black trousers and white shirt for the rest of his life and work the same mundane job because that’s what he is trained for. Without luxury our entire economic system would collapse. Luxury and I repeat; is the very essence of what makes us work hard. The 12 years in school, 4 years in university and a further 2 years doing your masters is all so we can achieve that childhood dream of flying first class, wearing the top brands and decorating our homes with items that dazzle the visitor, because if we stop dreaming we might as well stop living.

With the tough economic situation Pakistan is in and the ping-pong war being played out in the North now spreading out to Baluchistan its even more imperative that the business society of Pakistan continues to promote luxury as it truly an important component in the salvation of Pakistan.

Having watched the speech of Altaf Hussain on his 56th birthday, where he promised to bring the much needed change in Pakistan. He claims that MQM can solve the sugar crisis, the wheat crisis, the suffering of the Kashmiri’s and the Serakis. On a number of previous occasions MQM has lent moral support to their balochi counter-parts.

Most people would laugh off Altaf Hussain and MQM as just another corrupt organization, however out of all the present political organizations MQM is the fastest growing and possibly the least corrupt.

Having made the above statement, in no way do I defend that MQM has no corruption, I am quite sure on its lower levels and unimportant ministers there is wide-spread corruption. This basically means that “people” mis-use the political and street power of MQM for their own personal advantage.

However their are certain leaders within MQM that I have come to respect and admire, Mustafa Kamal, Haider Abbass Rizvi and Dr. Farooq Sattar. Out of the three Haider Abbass Rizvi is one man who whenever he speaks, people listen, he is ALWAYS well dressed, rarely raises his voice and talks about the facts. A number of people when asked who should become the next prime minister of Pakistan unanimously chant Mustafa Kamal, I however beg to differ. Mustafa Kamal as hardworking as he may be does not possess the character and personality of an leader. He can rule, yes. But can he lead? Haider Abbass Rizvi on the other hand, seems always to be well prepared in all his TV shows and speeches and more importantly, he gives the impression that he has a vision for Pakistan.

However, MQM has a long, long way to go before they can be consider presenting a serious candidate and for that they must adopt best practices, modify their organizational structure and spurt out ONE message only. The number of social groups that have sprung up online some official some unofficial seem to project a more racist MQM and a Altaf Hussain MQM only.  The time has come where Altaf Hussain must realize that in order to win Pakistan over, it will take more than a few of his speeches. MQM would need to attract more educated, subject-matter experts into its organization in order to build an efficient government. Political parties in the past have always assigned ministries AFTER they have been elected into power. Its time that MQM sets the stage apart, and highlight key individuals who will run those ministries after election.

Less than 3 years left to find an energy expert, agriculture expert, education expert and a commerce expert.

The clock is ticking, and the people of Pakistan are getting tired and restless. Its time MQM takes the steering wheel with Haider Abbass Rizvi in the driving seat and give Pakistan the “leadership” it so desperately requires.

If they are to win the elections in the coming years, its imperative they penetrate Lahore and to do that, they need to first united Pakistan under one flag. The national flag of Pakistan.