Charpai is used all over Pakistan, but the decoration differs from area to area. Chopal is a center place in different villages and Charpai is the most important factor in it.
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Pakistani Politics and News Channels Coverage by Shiraz Paracha
Recently Bilawal Bhutto visited flood affected areas; he visited victims’ homes and camps, he made speeches and was with victims in very informal way. Most of his activities had tremendous news value, it would make good TV footage but Pakistani TV channels ignored the activities of the leader of a very important political party. Negative news were reported about Bilawal Bhutto's visit but no context was provided about security issues/threats to Bilawal.
Similarly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, too, visited flood affected areas, gave speeches but he did not get much live coverage. Also only negative news about his visits made headlines.
Mulana Fazaul-u-Rehman has millions of followers but he doesn't get the media coverage what should be his due share. The same is true for the Awami National Party. The media (TV) coverage of ANP gatherings is usually slim.
Sindhi and Baluchi parties are ignored by TV channels. Stories about missing persons from Baluchistan are missing on our TV screens. Baluchistan issues are missing. Many other critical stories and issues are not covered. There are not many critical stories about the performance of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
Strangely, however, Pakistani TV channels give hours of air time to Imran Khan’s meetings and activities. Camera tricks and angles are used to show small crowds big. Imran is promoted as a savior and hero but the elected Prime Minister is demonized. Tahir-ul-Qadri gets undue coverage in the media. Altaf Hussain and the MQM use terror tactics to get live coverage on our TV channels.
An overview of the past few months’ TV news coverage shows a pattern where the ISPR, the PTI and the PAT are presented in positive light while the rest of the parties are either condemned or ignored. The ISPR is transcending its boundaries but the media are uncritical. ISPR prepared PR footage is shown as exclusive news, the media are bashing everybody except Imran Khan. It is very disturbing revelation. This trend is bad for Pakistani journalism.
As a student of psychological warfare and propaganda, I feel that some powerful elements of the Pakistani establishment and media are playing mind games with our public. Our public is not very media literate yet very sophisticated and settled propaganda techniques are used to influence the public opinion in favor of certain point of views, personalities and institutions. The public is treated as passive consumers of propaganda thanks to the media. Non-professional owners, editors, presenters and reporters are misleading the public. The military media alliance to deceive the people of Pakistan can further harm the health of our society.
Weaker are nations more exposed to Cultural influences from strong nations By Mohammad Asad Islam at the Crossroads
No single nation or group can today afford to remain aloof from the rest of the world. Economic development has ceased to be local. Its character has become world-wide. It ignores, at least in its tendency, political boundaries and geographical distances. It carries with itself -and possibly this is even more important than the purely material side of the problem -the ever-increasing necessity of a transfer not only of merchandise but also of thoughts and cultural values. But whereas those two forces, the economic and the cultural, often go hand in hand, there is a difference in their dynamic rules. The elementary laws of economics require that the exchange of goods between nations be mutual; this means that no nation can act as a buyer only while another nation is always a seller; in the long run, each of them must play both parts simultaneously, giving to, and taking from, each other, be it directly or through the medium of other actors in the play of economic forces. But in the cultural field this iron rule of exchange is not a necessity, at least not always a visible one: that is to say, the transfer of ideas and cultural influences is not necessarily based on the principle of give-and-take. It lies in human nature that nations and civilizations which are politically and economically more virile exert a strong fascination on the weaker or less active communities, and influence them in the intellectual and social spheres without being influenced themselves. Such is the situation today with regard to the relations between the Western and the Muslim worlds.
Mohammad Asad's Islam at Crossroad
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