1 in a 1000

29:2 Do men think that they will be left alone on saying: "We believe", and not be tried?

 ‎2:155,156 And We will most certainly try you with somewhat of fear and hunger and loss of property and lives and fruits; and give good news to the patient. Who, when a misfortune befalls them, say: Surely, we are Allah's and to Him we shall surely return

Afflictions

increase when mentioned, reduce with silence,

are eliminated by patience

and turned into happiness through thankfulness to Allah – Hazrat Ali (AS)

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Back to blogging

I haven't blogged regularly for more than a year now, and many interesting things have happened personally, professionally and beyond in the interim. I have missed writing more and in a more considered fashion than the snippets I've posted as notes or comment updates on Facebook, and I never really got on well with Twitter, so here I am, back to blogging.

Let's get started.

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Brian's No Baggage Challenge

Firing up the old blog just to spread the word about my friend Brian's excellent initiative for Give Children The World, a charity he has volunteered with regularly in the past.

I'll let him explain:

I plan to travel for 2 weeks luggage-free through FL, TX, & NY from Dec. 30 to Jan 13 to raise money for Give Kids the World, a charity for terminally-ill kids I volunteered with for 7+ years. I've asked friends and family to sponsor me for $1/day that I travel with no bags (15 days total). So far, people have pledged $415 in donations. I'm hoping to raise at least $500. If you're interested in joining in, let me know and I'll add your contributions to the total. Simply donate your pledge online directly to GKTW once my trip is over.

You can read the details here or here, or watch the introductory video he's made on YouTube.

Please do support his efforts if you can!

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The HMGB1RD has flown away

=(

Lesson learned: there is a threshold above which you should not perform preventive maintenance. The expected benefit of smooth running in the future cannot be recovered at the time of sale in the form of a higher price.

Anyway, great car. Great to drive, and great to look at. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

My only regret is that I didn't learn much by driving it, since I already had much experience driving another Civic. If I were to do it all over again, I'd be tempted by a Jetta or a Miata, but I'm not sure either of those choices would have been as reliable or as versatile as my Civic.

I wonder what I'll buy next?

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Done

It has been more than a month since I posted anything, in large part because of what I was trying to accomplish. This time yesterday I was in the middle of defending my PhD dissertation. I was given 20 minutes to speak (and did so very badly - should have slept the night before), and then there was a question & answer session (which went well). At the end of it, I was told to leave the room, and my fate was decided. I was then called back and welcomed into the community of scholarship.

I can't begin to explain all the emotions I've felt over the last 24 hours, and many of those emotions are simply too personal to blog. You'd imagine it would be pure elation, but it's not. I concluded yesterday that there is too much misplaced hype about getting the degree. It has some limited meaning, as a marker of your ability to finish, and the job market/signaling value it brings. Far more important however, and what we really should be intently focused on, is the question of how much we learned, and how much we published. On both of those counts, I have unfinished business.

I was strangely detached from much of grad school: under-confident; distracted from subjects that truly fascinate me. The beauty of getting done is that it frees me up to work on whatever I want.

Let's see what the future brings. Thank you all for your support/wishes/duas.

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Objects in mirror...

Disclaimer/Warning: Racing is crazy fun on the track, and mighty stupid on public roads. Be sensible.

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Attacks in Pakistan since 9/11

More attacks since yesterday:
11 killed in Peshawar, at least 45 in two attacks in Lahore, 12 killed in Multan


There is a partial list of attacks on Pakistan since 9/11 here. It makes for grim reading. Since it is an incomplete list, it isn't accurate, but it does give a sense of the deterioration.

Pakistanis killed in terrorist attacks since 9/11 (reported in a partial list in Wikipedia, as of 12/8/9)

2001:     17

2002:     71

2003:     87

2004:   201

2005:   131

2006:    338

2007:  1067

2008:  1529

 2009:  1334* 

* (as of Dec 8th)

This does not, for the most part, include Army operation losses, or the Lal Masjid events. It does include some riots. Particular groups, like Shias, ANP personnel, Christians and foreigners (among others) have been targeted more often.

It might be the case that Wikipedia is used far more nowadays than in 2001, and that as attacks have risen, so too have efforts to compile data on them. So there may be some compilation bias here. However, looking at other sources not only confirms the general trends, but claim far higher casualties.

For example, the Indian think-tank Institute for Conflict Management (whose facts and figures, but not qualitative analysis I usually trust), lists the following table (HT: Tariq):

Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan

	Civilians	Security Forces	Terrorists	Total
2003	140	24	25	189
2004	435	184	244	863
2005	430	81	137	648
2006	608	325	538	1471
2007	1523	597	1479	3599
2008	2155	654	3906	6715
Total	5291	1865	6329	13485

Moreover, given the fear and insecurity these attacks cause, they have a disproportionate effect on the economy. The NWFP alone cites Rs. 305 Billion in losses to infrastructure and economy.

It is poor reflection on the state that we haven't been able to check these attacks. The mismanagement and corrosion of our governance systems has not been checked by the gravity of the situation. It is poorer reflection on us as a civil society that we haven't been able to organize a competent political organization in response. For the most part, we simply stagger from one attack to the next in dazed confusion.

Meanwhile, reports of unchecked proliferation of so-called madressahs continue...

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