Global media’s war

The global players claiming to be champions of democracy and freedom of the media are using their media outlets as instruments to further their political, economic and foreign policy agendas.

Interestingly the so-called independent and liberal media of various countries supports them so that they can realize their national objectives. Hence they too are the agents of global political and economic powers.

Foreign Channels contributing to local channel's content. Why?

This can be illustrated by the role of the CNN, BBC and others who supported their governments in the Gulf and Iraq wars. It is a classic example of a ‘marriage of convenience’ and ‘symbiotic relationship’ between different forms of power including political, economic, coercive and symbolic media power as identified by John B.

Thompson. By closely monitoring the international media one can easily conclude that they are protecting and promoting their national interests. Gone are the days when wars were only fought on the battlefield. Now the media has become an indispensable component of the war strategy. Manipulation of the media by political powers during wartime has altogether redefined the concept and definition of war.

At present, Pakistan is engaged in a media war which is planned and systematic. The country is not only the victim of physical terror but also of media terrorism launched by the foreign media and their sponsors. Often, questionable and baseless stories are aired by the foreign media which besides tarnishing the image of the country are meant to put pressure on the Pakistani government, leading to an environment of uncertainty, fear and political turmoil. Why are VOA and BBC programmes being aired on private Pakistani TV and radio channels? What is the agenda? Are these being run out of altruistic motives? Or is it simply to improve the image of the US and Britain in Pakistan? The public has a right to know under what terms, conditions and arrangements the private channels allow this. It is shocking that our indigenous media should be offering space to foreign and local forces that can be charged with airing programmes against Pakistan’s national interest. 

Refugee for your sins, What a crap!!

On a lazy sunday afternoon while going through the news, something caught my attention. There was a news item on msn, it had the heading “Adulterous Saudi princess in UK asylum bid”. It was about a Saudi Princess who went to Uk she fell in love with a guy, and now she is pregnant with his baby.

(read the whole story at the bottom of the page)

Longtime back i read a novel by Jean Sasso ‘ THE PRINCESS’.  It was about an arab princess sultana who was born and raised in the Al-Saud family which is one of the many Royal families living there. The book itself had many shocking truths that the world had never known before. It showcased the life of an Arab princess, who was born in a male dominant society, she being a female was looked upon with pity by her father and brothers. Male dominance in KSA is very common, women are shunned there and are just present for the sake of pleasure of men. Their lives start with a look of remorse from their fathers & brothers, and later on they are married to an old rich Arab as their 2nd, 3rd or even 4th wife. These rich old Arabs are probably big businessmen or some deprived prince, who only know women as a source of pleasure in bed. All their lives these women live with maids and servants as they long for togetherness of their husbands.

Considering  the fact that all their lives these Arab women lead a life under a veil and quietly fade away without much notice, this particular princess broke the status quo and did something not very acceptable in the Arab society. Well not that committing adultery is very welcomed or is a great achievement in other parts of the world. She did commit adultery but she knew its restricted in her homeland, now she has to suffer. She is now asking the british government for security and to allow her to stay in UK to seek refuge, so that she wont be punished for it. If she and her boyfriend will go to KSA now they will face death penalty for sure, i am not encouraging what she did was right but my question here:

Is this what everyone should do? Do something wrong and flee to another country to seek refuge?

Adulterous Saudi princess in UK asylum bid: report

Released on – Monday,20 July , 2009 -17:35 02

A Saudi princess who fell pregnant during an affair with a British man has been granted asylum here after she claimed she could face the death penalty if she went home, a

newspaper report said Monday.

A court granted refugee status to the young woman, who is married to a member of the Saudi royal family, after she told the judge her adultery made her liable to death by stoning in Saudi Arabia, The Independent said.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office in London refused to confirm the report, saying it did not comment on individual cases. A spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London was unavailable.

According to the newspaper, the princess — who was granted anonymity by the court — is one of a small number of citizens of Saudi Arabia who claim asylum in Britain but whose cases are not openly acknowledged by either government.

Recognition by the government would be viewed as criticism of human rights in Saudi Arabia, which would embarrass both sides, it said.

The princess reportedly met her boyfriend, who is not a Muslim, during a visit to London. She became pregnant the following year and returned to Britain to have the baby in secret.

Since then her family has broken off contact with her, and she persuaded a court that if she returned home then both she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law, namely flogging and stoning to death.

How the advertising space of Axion bank became THE advertising space of a band – Bad Cirkuz

I was just randomly browsing through the Cannes Lions Festival and i stumbled upon this, this i personally believe is a revolution and one of the most extra ordinary ideas that an advertiser can come up with. This is just simply mind blowing and when i was checking it out, i had my mouth wide open with my jaw dropped 10 feet below (ok thats an exaggeration!) lol.

On a much serious note this is simply superb. The whole idea is very simple yet very very effective. I dont think the banner ad spaces available on the website can be utilized more effectively than this, what more can you ask for than a like Concert! I mean then you’d only be expecting movies being shot n shown right there and then.

Axion is a bank in Belgium and to reach more towards the youth market, they went a step further. They engaged the audience by providing them something totally unique, persumably a life changing experience. Just read  between the line – What more a struggling youth band can ask for other than a great deal of exposure by performing live for their audience? And my friend a hefty 6.8 million impressions in banner advertisement is no mean feat when it comes to exposure.

Anyways enough of talking see for yourself the story of how the advertising space of a bank became the advertising space of a band. You’ll get the picture yourself and even if you dont get it, feel free to comment!

Babar Iqbal, the 12 year old cyber Maestro

Do you know what happens when you’re born in an overwhelming surrounding of computers & monitors, and that happens to be Mr Abdul Shahid Sadiq’s home in Dera Ismail Khan?

You get a family from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Just not a typical family, a family which has 5 kids; and all of those kids are extraordinary in their own self. How? Well quite simple, The family has 5 kids (3 boys & 2 girls), all of whom are Microsoft Certified Professionals. The list include Asif, Kashif, Babar, Saima and Asifa.

This in itself is an achievement to have a family of 5 MCPs, but no the story doesn’t end here. Asifa Khan is the second youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the family, she achieved the status at a minuscule age of 11 years, 4 months and 17 days.

Babar Iqbal

Whereas Babar Iqbal at just a mere age of 12 years has recently added a fourth crown in his elusive list of achievements. Babar a genius cyber kid just at the age of 10 years, achieved a whole lot more than many of us could dream of accomplishing in our entire life. When he was only 9 years old, he was awarded with Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Youngest Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), at the age of 10 he was given Youngest Certified Web Professional Associate (CIWA).

More recently he made a fourth record in his 12^th year as he got the Youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) at Dubai. Hmmm I am wondering what was he up to for 2 years, no records?! The competition had participants from all over the world, they aged between 20 – 35 years. But this little Dexter from Pakistan stunned the IT experts’ world over as he just walked all over of them as he stormed towards yet another achievement. He also surpassed his compatriot Irfa Kareem Randhawa, who made this record at the age of 9 years and seven months.

I am starting to wonder what the world is coming to, with little kids at such small ages creating such headlines. People I warn you, don’t be surprised if a few years down the road the first word that a new born utters might be “Internet”.

Hopefully greater things can be expected of this exceptionally talented teenager, as he has plans to be the youngest PhD in the world and contribute significantly to the world by his skills of IT. I wish him all the best for his ventures in future and would like to pay tribute to the proud parents of Babar, it is because of them that this 12 year old is taking the world by storm and making our nation proud.

OzencSoner the infamous Carpet Maker

OzencSoner – a Turkish citizen who has received much fame throughout the world for his great feat. He  made a prayer carpet with brighten threads. This invention represented in an international exhibition and overwhelmed the peoples around the world. The mechanism works in the direction of Mecca; the more the  praying carpet is in the direction of Mecca the brightness increases. And when it is in the proper direction of Mecca it lightens up completely.

Here are the pictures: Watch and admire.

Levels of brightness when at different angles from Mecca.

The not so cool things to do while networking online

“Hello I am starting my own social networking site would you like to join? please please please get registered and make your friends do the same!! It has got all the features that you can find on facebook, you can upload videos, pictures, news, text and even pdf fileS!!! see how cool is it and what more you need you can twitter there as well!! . Its the perfect solution to all your social networking needs, you will have your own MYSPACE and create a LINKEDIN profile there yay! All in one webiste – Now thats social networking at its best!”

Its not new that you get such spam messages in your mail box daily. With the addition of such social networking sites on daily basis, one needs to identify or rather get themselves famaliar with certain DO’s and DON’Ts.  As the number of sites are growing daily therefore, the ‘Unspoken Rules’ of online networking evolve accordingly. But Alas! only if one knew where to look for these rules.

Worry not my friends you have come to the right place, here your’s truly (that happens to be me ) will enlighten you all with maistakes not to make if you wanna be good at online networking, so here goes:

RockBrigade with Jal Pari & Pappu Yar.. Crazzy night \m/

Fridays are meant to be fun days at work, and this friday was no different. Work and those light moments and all the laughters in between; gave me a feeling that its is gonna be a nice weekend ahead. Well guess what i gotta a suprise call asking me if i am available to party tonight.. and my reply was… you guessed it right ‘HELL YEAH!’.

The sound of a party that would rock like anything felt really sweet to the ears. I just had one dilemma now, see a couple of days ago i got a couple of invites to a local channels jam session which was feautring the best in the business. The invites were for the 16th and 17th of July courtesy of ARY Music’s ‘SUMMER JAM’ and the list of talent on display was unbeatable.

Atif with the Jal Pari

Pappu Yar!!

Aamir Zaki the Maestro

Tanseer Darr

Khalid & Farooq

Gumby the Drum Bee

Omran Shafique at Lead

Anas and Rameez with Omran

We going crazy at Ali Azmat’s performance

The like of One of Pakistan’s greatest music legends AMIR ZAKI was performing there, to acconpany him he had TANSEER DARR of the band KARVAN, then they had OMRAN SHAFIQUE of the band MOUJ/co-VEN playing as well (he has somehow now become a session player but trust me man he’s damn good).

The lineup included  the very melodious FAROOQ & KHALID of AAROH and finally GUMBY – arguable the best drummer around.

Hmmm a delighful line-up how can I not go and attend this, plus it was a freebie . Somehow i could not attend the event on the 16th so i was looking forward to it, but i had a feeling its gonna be a much sophiticated setting where the attendees will be much sophisticated who will be sitting throughout the sessions and admiring / enjoying the music. What i actually looking was for a crazyy night where i could dance to the music, head banging and just scream out my lungs!

BlackBerry for kids? Child asks creators

It took a child to stump the creators of the BlackBerry, one of the world’s top selling smartphones and a part of most executives’ attire.

“Are you going to make a phone more for kids so that my Mom will let me get one?” the child said from the packed audience at the annual general shareholders’ meeting at Canada’s Research in Motion on Tuesday.

The world’s No. 2 smartphone maker has so far aimed its near-ubiquitous BlackBerry mobile phone mostly at executives, with U.S. President Obama being its highest-profile user.

The child’s question met with hums and haws by RIM Co-Chief Executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis before they summoned up a vague response.

“There’s lots of opportunity and, you know, if the current BlackBerries aren’t acceptable to your mother, hopefully the next ones will,” Lazaridis said.

The interaction was striking in light of a recent research note written by 15-year-old Matthew Robson, an intern at Morgan Stanley, on “How Teenagers Consume Media,” which caused a stir after it was published by the bank. http://vasifabbas.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/15-year-old-boy-causes-frenzy-in-the-mediamarketing-industry/

At the otherwise uneventful shareholder meeting, RIM said it was advancing its campaign to win over more people to its devices, which includes sponsorship of the U2 360 Tour by one of the world’s most popular rock bands ever.

The RIM CEOs said they spent the last 25 years, since RIM was founded, catering to highly demanding industries, and for three years to the general consumer market.

15 year old boy causes frenzy in the media/marketing industry

Matthew Robson a 15-year-old intern at Morgan-Stanley & Co. International, is shaking up the financial and media industries in London upon release of his report about teen’s media habits today. So far, much of the news coverage seems to be centered on his finding that Teens don’t use Twitter, although this has been documented in previous studies. What he has to say about all media channels is of interest.

Plus, like certain other precocious teens I know, Matthew presents his conclusions in a straight-forward, unambiguous writing style that more senior, highly educated financial analysts rarely achieve. Here are a few of Matthew’s main points , from the report.

Click here to get the complete report: Morgan Stanley Teen media consumption

Radio. “Most teenagers nowadays are not regular listeners to radio. They may occasionally tune in, but they do not try to listen to a program specifically.” The reason? “(W)ith online sites streaming music for free they do not bother…” (Except when in Dad’s car going to and from summer camps, school, or dog-walking chores.)

Television. Teens watch less TV nowadays “because of services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows them to watch shows when they want. Whilst watching TV, adverts come on quite regularly (18 minutes of every hour) and teenagers do not want to watch these, so they switch to another channel, or do something else whilst the adverts run.” (Except when ads come on that they actively enjoy like those by Comcast in the U.S. market.)

Newspapers. “No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.” (Except for the comics section and for The Onion, which is sort of a newspaper.)

Gaming. “Whilst the stereotypical view of gamers is teenage boys, the emergence of the Wii onto the market has created a plethora of girl gamers and younger (6+) gamers…As consoles are now able to connect to the internet, voice chat is possible between users, which has had an impact on phone usage; one can speak for free over the console and so a teenager would be unwilling to pay to use a phone.”

Micheal Jackson cardiac arrest due to Morphine OD!!

Michael Jackson died on 25th June, 12 days later cnn come up with yet another report. I could not get my hands on that report :@, but anyhow i found this video stating almost a similar story. It was claim in this report; that a cause for the legend’s death could be the use of morphine. According to the video report Michael Jackson was on some sort of drugs. There were numerous marks of needle insertions in his both arms, some were fresh because of the autopsy and some were not so. But in any case it was pretty eminent that his arms had injection marks 2,3 days old.

It was further mentioned in the report that Jackson got the cardiac arrest on Thursday night due to an overdose of a morphine called Demerol, the doctor who gave the injection had been clarifying that it wasn’t his recommendation.

All i want to say is that the man is dead, and after all what he has been through in his life, drugs could have been the least of surprises. Rest in Peace MJ