[Reader-list] Next time , throw a book-Saima Shakeel in The Dawn

[rashneek kher]

Thanks a lot Shuddha,I also loved reading it.

regards

rashneek

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 10:53 AM, shuddha at sarai.net <shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:

> Dear Rashneek Kher,
>
> Thank you for forwarding this excellent article, I really enjoyed reading
> it,
> it's take on Zardari reading Machiavelli is spot on !
>
> best
>
> Shuddha
>
> On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:50:27 +0530 rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com>
> wrote
>
> > Along with a shoe, one wishes someone would throw a book or two at some
> of
> > our newsmakers. Maybe, just maybe, it would do a world of good to them
> and
> > to us, the 175 million Pakistani people who are affected daily by their
> > words and (mis)deeds. However, in the case of some newsmakers, it appears
> > that they are already hard at work studying some old classics ….
> >
> > *What they are reading*
> >
> > President Asif Zardari: *The Prince* by Niccolo Machiavelli
> >
> > Granted, the sixteenth-century treatise on statecraft will read like a
> > virtual autobiography to the man who could very well write its updated
> > version when he finally retires to his sixteenth century chateau in
> France,
> > the Manoir de la Reine Blanche.
> >
> > Machiavelli, a public servant, based his famous work on the political
> > machinations of the Medicis and Borgias, the two most powerful families
> in
> > Renaissance Italy. Many critics argue that The Prince is a political
> satire
> > and meant to be read as a tongue-in-cheek account. Others disagree, and
> the
> > fact that it was first published five years after Machiavelli’s death
> makes
> > one think that he, for one, did not consider it a laughing matter.
> >
> > Why am I convinced that this treatise must be the president’s bedtime
> > reading? Well, mostly because the similarities between him and the prince
> > are too astounding to be mere coincidence.
> >
> > Machiavelli’s prince does not wish to preserve moral good or spiritual
> > integrity; he simply wants to attain and maintain his power. Having come
> to
> > power through sheer luck or the blessing of some powerful figures, he has
> an
> > easy gaining power but must work hard to keep it. His power is dependent
> on
> > his benefactors’ goodwill which is a fickle thing at best.
> >
> > Also, consider the following excerpts from the treatise:
> >
> > “A man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to
> ruin,
> > since there are so many men who are not good.”
> >
> > “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a
> > necessity of the present.”
> >
> > “The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing;
> > and
> > when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned.
> But
> > when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all
> > costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.”
> >
> > See what I mean?
> >
> > Fauzia Wahab: *Gone with the Wind* by Margaret Mitchell
> >
> > Anyone who has seen the PPP’s central information secretary in action
> > cannot
> > doubt that she has been working hard learning a trick or 10 from that
> queen
> > of melodrama, Scarlett O’ Hara. The South may have swept through by the
> > victorious Yankees and Tara, the O’Hara family estate, burnt to a crisp,
> > but
> > Scarlett stubbornly refused to budge or face reality. She was determined
> to
> > do anything (and I do mean, anything) to defend her landowning,
> > slave-keeping lifestyle.
> >
> > Our own Ms Scarlett has been seen snorting, snickering and screaming on
> TV
> > channels to defend what in any civilised society would be considered
> > indefensible. This includes a president who takes off on a ‘joyride’
> while
> > the country is drowning to host what can only be described as his son’s
> > ‘coronation’ in Birmingham. The same president who later said in the
> speech
> > he made to supporters in Birmingham that his late wife and her father
> spoke
> > ‘from inside him’ at a very critical time in the country’s history and
> > urged
> > him to declare ‘Pakistan Khappay’.
> >
> > Dear Scarlett, just like Rhett, we frankly don’t give a damn.
> >
> > *What he should be reading*
> >
> > Bilawal Zardari:  *All the Shah’s Men* by Stephen Kinzer
> >
> > It’s not too late. While he is still completing his education, the young
> > man
> > would do well to read Kinzer’s gripping account of how the arrogant and
> > corrupt regime of the US-backed Shah was overthrown in a bloody
> revolution.
> > The book gives details of how the Iranian people, who’s benign lord the
> > Shah
> > claimed to be, finally turned against him with such ferocity that the
> royal
> > family and their cronies were forced to flee the country in order to save
> > their lives.
> >
> > Even today, despite their many differences of opinion and dissatisfaction
> > with the rule of the ayatollahs, the one thing that the Iranian nation
> > agrees on is that there can be no return of the monarchy. The only way
> that
> > the late Shah’s only son, Reza Pahlavi, who continues to style himself
> > ‘heir
> > to the throne of Iran,’ can hope to re-enter the country is through
> foreign
> > backing. And we all know what that leads to.
> >
> > Reza Pahlavi at least has claim, however flimsy, to be the scion of a
> royal
> > dynasty. (His grandfather Reza Shah was commander of the Persian Cossack
> > brigade who became king as the result of a coup.) Bilawal Zardari has no
> > such claim.
> >
> > He claims that his late mother always taught him that, ‘democracy is the
> > best revenge.’ Well, the Oxford-educated lad should know that there is no
> > place for a dynasty in democracies. India is learning that at its great
> > expense. Bilawal must discourage demagoguery within the People’s Party
> and
> > encourage other, more senior, party leaders to take over the reins.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Rashneek Kher
> > http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> > http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
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>


-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com