Fuse the News

I don’t have any major disagreement with what President-elect Obama said during his election campaign, that we need to build the economy from bottom up, and I hope he would be able to do so. But for me the most important question is that what he really means by “Building it from bottom up”. I will discuss what I have to say, about this most important question, later in this article, but let me describe the whole scenario first, according to the most recent progress, on this issue.

 I am really enthusiastic about his speech which he is planning to deliver on Thursday, which, according to the media, is going to be his major speech, on economy. He is planning to propose some major tax breaks for working families and businesses, which according to his advisers, will fall somewhere, between $675 billion to $775 billion.

 We all know that he was not feeling comfortable, with the idea, of giving big businesses any tax cut, during his election campaign, except of those who will create jobs within USA. But reconsidering his options about such tax cuts is not something we didn’t expect; at least I was very sure about it from the very beginning. Now here is the point where we need to discuss the difference between, what needed to be done, and what can be done?

 We all have seen the miracles of “free trade”, as all the devoted advocates of free market has been trying to tell us, but we still need to see the miracles of good governance and we still want to see the miracle of peoples, seeking change.

 Pundits and advocates of free market are trying to tell us that what we are facing right now, in the shape of, financial and economical crises, is a fruit of bad governance and deregulation which has nothing to do with the ideology of free market. But how can we forget that the key stone of the free market is to generate “Profit” no matter what it costs. That’s what big financial companies did or tried to do, over the past years, and what we are facing right now is the cost of their ambition, to generate “Profit” at any cost. That’s how free market works.

 Now let me tell you, what is the bottom line of the economy and how can we build it from bottom up?

 For me, the bottom line of the economy is the affordability of an average consumer and how it affects the whole financial system. Housing industry collapsed because an average home owner was unable to pay his mortgage on time. Financial institutions collapsed because they lent to such consumers who didn’t afford such amounts and if they did they simply lost that status because of losing a job or for another such reason. Every thing collapsed because an average consumer’s level of affordability went down.

 Corporations, big businesses and financial institutions were forced to sent jobs abroad just because of cheap labor and affordability issues. So at the end of the day it’s all about affordability of not only an average consumer but a multinational business as well, because today’s financial markets are all connected to each other. World has become a global village. Nobody can set his own standards within his geographical limits as everybody has to compete globally.

 Now all I have to say is that according to me, building economy from bottom up, literally means, building the affordability of an average consumer. Creating more jobs and creating more opportunities for working class can be the ultimate act to stimulate the economy. Working class is the one who need serious tax breaks. They are the peoples who will ultimately create wealth and will enable economy to function once again.

Well, for me the answer is “Yes”. I don’t know about others and to be very honest I don’t even care if anyone else believes it or not. But I do feel obliged to those scientists who finally discovered “True love” and proved it with brain scans of new and old couples to show that some couples can respond with as much passion, after 20 years of living with each other, as most couples exhibit only in the beginning of their relationships. Wow, What a discovery!

 I do agree with the fact that this finding has actually changed the conventional view about love and sexual desire and how it fades out with time, but for only those who badly needed some clinical proofs to endorse their love or their ideas about love. There is no doubt that such peoples are in overwhelming majority these days.

 Well in these days if you tell somebody that after 20 years of being married you still look at your partner as you did when you first met, he wouldn’t believe you or most probably would call you a liar or a person who is simply fooling himself. Now you can refer to this scientific research and tell them that peoples can’t fake brain scans.

 Problem with such peoples is that they don’t have enough time to even think about their own feelings and how they react to things and why? They are too much pre occupied with their daily lives, tight schedules, financial problems, social issues and much more. They still love and have sexual desires; they do have good and bad times and make memories, sometimes without even giving it much attention. They just do all these things because it is human nature and they look at love and sexual desire as it is just another physical need like eating and sleeping. They don’t think much about the chemistry of love and relationship. Having sex is all what they need so all the other things like passion, spark and charm of relationship fade out as years pass.  That’s why they don’t know and can’t even understand that true love and life long passionate relationship can actually exist.

 True love does exist and I have seen many couples in my life that spent their whole lives being in proud and passionate relationship.

 My own parents in law are married for more than 35 years but they still can’t stay away from each other for longer periods of time. They have 4 children and 6 grand children. They still love and pamper each other like newly wedded couples. They do actually enjoy being together, if this is what we call true love.

 I can still see a glow in the eyes of my maternal grandmother when she speaks about her late husband who passed away 22 years ago. She can still remember the old good days and it makes her smile like he is right there to hold her hand and tell her how much he loves her. I think this is what we can call true love and it surely exists.

As I mentioned in my previous post yesterday, Electricity shortage crisis in Pakistan is getting worse every day and raising huge amount of rage and anxiety in society. This crisis has disastrous effects over Pakistan’s economical and social sectors. During the last week almost all major cities of Pakistan had witnessed so many violent and peaceful civil protests and rallies, addressing this issue only. Still no reasonable solution has been offered from Government. Yesterday, almost all major print and electronic media has reported another violent protest against power shut down in Faisalabad. Reportedly hundreds of angry peoples came out in the streets chanting slogans against Unannounced power shutdown on daily basis.  Angry masses burnt Tyres and blocked traffic on major roads, rampaged Government offices, setting Government vehicles on fire, threw stones at Police, while Police Authorities at the other hand fired Tear Gas shells at angry crowd and started baton charge. Police action ignited the extreme rage among the peoples against authorities and put the whole city in complete chaos. Some business organizations and Trade Unions also got involved later on that literally paralyzed all social and economical activities through out the city. This one was the largest public protest of its kind during this crisis, but the most important thing about this protest is the involvement of Business organizations and Trade Union’s, as Faisalabad is a house of looms, small businesses and Agricultural University, with the population of well over 2.5 million. Without a shadow of doubt this Electricity shortage and Power shutdown has a disastrous affect on Businesses and Industries.

As you may remember the last few months of Musharaf regime, it is not hard to figure it out that situation in Pakistan is not much different these days for an ordinary citizen, living and working in Pakistan. Most of the old problems are still there which forced Musharaf to step aside and hand over the power to new parliament, elected by peoples, seeking change in their daily life. But the new Government doesn’t seem to fulfill their promises, they committed to peoples when they asked them for vote. President Asif Ali Zardari stated last week that he knows the peoples involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chair Person of Pakistan Peoples Party and his wife, Benazir Bhutto. Nobody knows how valid his claim is but this statement raised a huge wave of anger and discomfort among the workers of his own party. They now want him to expose the names and bring them to the justice but his silence is making his case worse. Judicial turmoil which shook the whole nation in Musharaf’s last few months in the office is not completely resolved yet. Peoples don’t seem to trust current judiciary completely. Recent tension and threat of war between India and Pakistan is making it more difficult for peoples of Pakistan to think and decide about their future. Obviously they are not expecting much form the Government at this point. Unannounced power shut down on daily basis in another issue that is affecting not only an ordinary household but main industries as well. Nation’s economy is in great danger but there is nothing much Government can do right now. A new wave of anger and frustration is clearly visible among masses in Pakistan as they are reacting vigorously to each and every issue that comes along. Street protests are becoming very common every day. It is a new age of frustration in Pakistan that needs to be stopped as soon as possible or the consequences can be much greater then we can possibly think.