To General, With Love
In a very public display of affection and somewhat a ceremonious act, Punjab's chief Minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi could not stop but express his unequivocal and honest support for General Pervaiz Musharaf. Having confidence in General's amazing capability to stay in power and in view of upcoming elections in 2007, Chaudary announced, "Let there be no misunderstanding on this issue. The assemblies will elect him president for a second term as he has taken the correct decisions in the interests of the country and its people."
Not many local newspapers felt the aspirations of Chaudhry, nor the admiration he had for the great General.
Daily Times of Lahore, however, was gracious enough to keep a close eye on the Chaudhary's activities. In view of ensuring salvation for the general populace, as well as entertainment for political observers, they not only
reported this incident but gave Chaudhary a cover picture and made his interview the into a headline. The only other time Chaudhary achieved this milestone was when he managed to defeat the Indian Punjab's Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, in a
'Chicken-Tikkah' eating contest during his
recent visit to the Indian Punjab. A memory that still stings the Punjabis on the other side of Wagah.
This is not the first time that the Chaudhary has expressed his true feelings about the man-in-charge. Similar sentiments were expressed by him when Former Prime Minister, Nawaz Shariff, was the man in shining armor for the Chaudhary. There might be many more skeletons in his closet, coming out only with feasible political climate around the Chaundary Ranch. Whether its Chaudary's unfathomed talent with consuming 'murghs' or his sophistication of words to describe the General, it can be safely said that this Chaudhary has ambitions that go far beyond the
borders of Punjab.
Murgha Website of the Day: www.chaudhrybrothers.com
Check out Chaudhary's official profile at http://www.chaudhrybrothers.com/assets/profiles.htm
The New Murgha in Middle East
From:
Time Magazine Cartoon of the Week Jan 22 - 28
- click on the image for the full-scale version.
Female infanticide in INDIA - ramifications, revelations and dilemma for the murgha
"India is missing about 10 million daughters since the widespread use of ultrasound, estimates a new study."
This strikingly disturbing fact caught my unguarded attention when reported by an article in New Scientist. The research is based on a survey of 1.1 million households in 1998 ad was carried out by Dr Prabhat Jha of St Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Dr Rajesh Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research in Chandigarh, India. The 'shock and awe' factor sinks in further deeper when you look at the births on the basis of gender. The study reveals an increasing tendency to choose boys when firstborn has been a girl. In such cases, the sex ratio is just 759 girls for every 1000 boys. More alarmingly, for a third child, just 719 girls were born per 1000 boys, if both the older children were girls.
This practice of female infanticide is not something new in poor and under-developed regions of third world. Marina Porras has indicated in her study, "Female Infanticide and Foeticide", that such practice occurs "due to the preference for male babies and from the low value associated with the birth of females". Reading such figures would make one think that this would be a practice in rural arears carried out by uneducated masses who are forced into these circumstances due to poverty, economics disparity and Indian custom of dowry. The reality is that this evil is more prevalent in the urban centers of the educated elite of Indian society. Scott Baldauf reported in Christian Science Monitor that this practice is most common among India's elite, who can afford "multiple trips to an ultrasound clinic", and the "hushed-up abortion" of an unwanted girl.
The disturbing use of ultrasound technoloy aiding the ancient believes and custom of female infanticide is making a true murgha out of the much-praised benefits of globalization and our much-acclaimed 'technology era'. Thomas Friedman's concept of explaining globalizationn through "Lexus and the Olive Tree" is challenged by such heinous practices. It cannot be ignored that the forces of globalization, availibity of technology and the entrepreneurial drive of Indian doctors has entered into a succesfull collusion with the Indian psyche of preferring males over females. Mr. Friedman, being the great ambassador of globalizationn and praising it further more in his new book, "The World is Flat", has conveniently overlooked the by-products of globalization in such areas. True that productivity and entrepreneurship has increased in countries like India through the "Ten Forces that Flattened the World", but what about the lack of similar increase in the Human Development Index in such societies? While we are all busy discussing outsourcing, offshoring, free movement of capital, free trade and its implications; we have easily closed our eyes towards such horrors taking place in this cyber-age of ours. It is, indeed, hard to appreciate the mammoth growth of call-centers and IT companies in New Delhi's suburbs when you are told that "the number of girl babies is 845 per 1,000 boys" in the same high-rent suburbs. Great times, indeed!
So who is the murgha here and who will be enduring the ramifications of using technology for the means of female fecticide?
I will let you guys determine that!!
Comments Section Upgraded to meet the Murghas' demands!
Listening into some of the local murghas and few others scattered all across the globe, the comments section has been upgraded. Now, you don't have to be a BlogSpot member or Anonymous to leave a comment. You can simply enter your name and email address and post a comment in order to express your reactio to the posts.
So my dear murghas, you no longer have to fear the great evil we are here to fight. Wage the war against the EVIL and leave your name and email address when you leave a comment and let your voices be heard.
Speak of the Murgha and the Murgha is there!
The great Greek philosopher, Aristotle once said "All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire." An indepth analysis of the murghas demonstrates that they also exhibit the above stated causes and in retrospect are victims of their own actions. For the murghas, who do discover that they had being conned and deceived by the other person, this discovery is rarely met with their acceptance of being marked as a murgha. Hence, its not unusual for a murgha to completely and wholeheartedly reject the notion of being a murgha. Pride plays a stronger role in this reaction than anything else. This straight-out rejection rather reinforces them as a murgha.
With the launch of this wesbite, such reaction was not surprising among the murghas in the surrounding farms. Not to count the murghas before they are hatched, I was overwhelmingly surprised by the positive response given by the murghas who came across this site. Clearly, they have taken the first step into self-discovery. However, more alarming was the lack of response from an individual known for her quality collection of murghas. But then, this kind of reaction is quite the characteristic of the perpetrator of such evil.
As an observant bystander I must add that it is important for the murghas to maintain order in their lines if they are ever to overcome the great evil that surrounds them. Fingerpointing and ridiculing other murghas around them will only create chaos in the farm and strengthen the very evil they are fighting against. It is imperatively important for the murghas to follow the advise Gandhi once gave to his Indian murghas , "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."
What is a MURGHA
According to the Oxford English Dictionary,
murgha is a two syllable word derived from the Urdu language and is used to describe the
male domestic fowl kept for its meat. Also know as '
Rooster' by the English speaking world, French use the word '
Poulet' to describe this widely popular bird, in fact the most common bird in the world. According to the
Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds, the chicken population stood at an astounding 24 billion in 2003.
Murgha is primarily assigned to the task of protecting the eggs laid down by the various female partners that surround it. However, the females simply flock around him since it also serves as a look-out for them and makes good use of his distinctively loud voice to warn the females and their young ones of the incoming predators.
Murgha is a polygamous species, however its not uncommon for his females to be sleeping around with more than one
murgha at the same time. Infact, the females are known for their ability to use a
Murgha for providing them with shelter, food and all the luxeries of farmlife. In return, the
murgha tirelessly anticipates to receive a simple promise of love from the female and the commitment on the female's part to bring an end to her frivolous and adulterous ways. To the credit of the female, she smartly and shamlessly plays the
mugha around (usually more than one murgha at the same time) and enjoys her popular status among her admirers and suitors. To say that a murgha would not go out his way to earn the admiration of the female would be to take an ostrich-in-the sand attitude - ostrich himself being another famous cousin of murgha.
However with time and careful analysis by anthropologists and linguists, the pervasively peculiar bahaviour of murgha has transcended from the local farm into the auspicious modern Urdu dialect. '
Murgha' is hence mostly associated with a male that is being played upon by his female counterparts. But this definition does not limit the richness and the wide application the term '
murgha' enjoys. Briefly, a person who is being used by any other person, group, organization or an ideology to carry out their interests can be referred as 'murgha'. For example, a political use of the word '
murgha' can be illustrated by the relationship between George Bush and Tony Blair. In this scenario, Tonly Blair can be effectively referred as Bush's murgha where Bush tried to legitimize Iraq's invasion using Tony Blair as the murgha in order to gain support and build the 'coalition of the willing'.
Reading future postings on this blog will make the term '
murgha' more clearer!
