Raza Rumi

On the flourishing ‘column’ industry despite the slow growth of readership’

What is so peculiar about the Pakistani media opinion factories churning out problems and solutions products day after day? Frankly, they are self perpetuating oligarchies and boring at best. The slightly discerning mortals who browse the daily newspapers in English and vernacular languages or bother to engage with the electronic media discussions are struck by certain repetitive trends. Let me map them out before rambling any further. On a note of caution, there is no intention of making generalisations here. Exceptions, they say, prove the rule!

The curse of self-importance

Nowhere else would you find brazen references to the importance of a writers’ opinion particularly among the Urdu language newspaper columnists. Despite the slow growth of readership, the ‘kalam-navees’ industry is flourishing. A few years ago, a new Urdu newspaper with a hefty advertising budget, ensured that a few big names in the column industry were under its wings.

Syed Ahsan Ali

In our beloved country, how many times have we noticed small, poor kids scanning piles of garbage to get something to eat. These are usually the places where animals also compete for the same food source.

Now that above photo has got all your attention I want to mention a big source of food wasting in Pakistan. That is wedding dinners. These days I am involved in arranging for a wedding dinner in the family for a modest gathering on 250 to 300 guests. This opportunity has provided me the first hand knowledge of how to set a wedding dinner menu and how much extra food has to be cooked knowing in advance that a big portion of it will be wasted. It hurts.

Adil Najam

I am off to Washington DC shortly to speak at an event organized by the UET Alumni Association of North America this Saturday evening. I am delighted to be going there, but even more delighted that such an association has been created for the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, and is active and alive – indeed, the UET Alumni Association of North America has been active since the mid-1990s.

But it does make me wonder why Alumni Associations of Pakistani educational institutions – although some do exist and a few are quite active – do not, in general, prosper as much as one would expect? Why is this so? Would it make a difference if they were organized? And, if so, how do we go about doing so?