Sunday 20 January 2013

Why Pervez Hoodbhoy, Why?



How much bullshit is enough bullshit? That’s the question Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy ought to ask himself, or you ought to ask Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, after he produced some high quality bullshit in Express Tribune this Saturday.

Cricketer Khan and Maulana Qadri? Really, you were a professor? Do you also use Lohar Sharif and Husband Zardari?

The corruption in Pakistan, which amounts to billions of rupees daily according to a government friendly and government appointed NAB chief, is not really an issue. The youth are over-zealous pawns and contraceptives will save Pakistan! Right.

How desperate, bitter and biased do you have to be that you invent a country to justify your bullshit?

Have any of you heard of Italy? It’s a country in Europe, shaped like a boot. It’s where Pizza came from.

Well, there’s a separate Italy, the real Italy that only Mr. Hoodbhoy knows of. It’s a land filled with joy, ruled by the happy go lucky Silvio Berlusconi. It is totally unaffected by the corruption and ineptness of its rulers and it just keeps getting “richer and better”.

The fake Italy we know has fallen on tough times. Berlusconi’s corrupt government coincided with a steep decline in the country’s fortunes. It doesn’t keep getting “richer and better”; in fact the economy has shrunk in the golden corrupt hands of Mr. Berlusconi. Things were so bad that they ushered in a technocratic government to fix the economy. That’s exactly what we have been dreading since Maulana Qadri came onto the scene.

Mr. Hoodbhoy though isn’t only an expert on Italy; he also knows a little something about the USA and her devious presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Thing is, the Americans have it as bad as we do, have you ever heard them complain? I mean Romney only paid as much tax as our “unscrupulous parliamentarians.”

Very accurate on all counts.

The Americans don’t mind at all. The occupy Wall Street movement was actually a protest against skin tight pants. Long overdue, I know. The institutionalized corruption and lending to banks hasn’t hurt them either, just that people don’t have jobs, the country’s debt keeps soaring and it narrowly avoided a so called fiscal cliff.

Romney paid almost $2 million in personal income tax in 2011. That is 20 Crore PKR. That is almost 19 Crore more than what Lohar Sharif and Showbaz Sharif paid combined that year. That is 20 Crore more than what our President Husband Zardari paid. That is not “only a little more”.

Anyways, let us not dwell on the details. Bottom line is that corruption obviously isn’t Pakistan’s problem, or Italy’s. Or America’s. Then what is?

The professor seems to have sourced a 7th grader’s essay to answer that question. Saving the issues of poverty and illiteracy for another time, he chose to focus on 1) population. His insight really is unparalleled. He would also like you to believe that this problem would have been brought under control if it weren’t for the big bad Jamaat-e-Islami and their 2/3rd majority in parliament.

Then we move to 2)terrorism, which Lohar Sharif and Husband Zardari would have defeated by now if it weren’t for Maulana Qadri’s three weeks in Pakistan or Cricketer Khan’s objection of drones. Contrary to what the mad cricketer says, drones work. Just look at how North Waziristan is now a terrorist-free zone thanks to drone attacks.

Last is the economy. You don’t have to collect taxes and redistribute wealth, you just have to 3) create more wealth. Husband Zardari has been creating wealth by printing wealth, doesn’t seem to have worked.

Not to worry though, Lohar Sharif will do it. The pathetic GDP growth in Lohar’s two stints as PM, the even more pathetic GDP growth of Punjab the last five years, and PMLN’s vision to implement Bush style tax cuts that left US economy in tatters all tell Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy (PhD) that Lohar is the man.

Mind-blowing analytical skills.

Meanwhile, “the fist shaking, rostrum pounding” Cricketer, whom the professor desperately wants to group with the Maulana, has included both terrorism and the economy in his “empty thunder” that offers “nothing real”. He has been out administering polio drops, demanding justice for the Shia-Hazaras and his party has actually given an economic policy, which the heroic PMLN have not.

This is obfuscation of the most shameless kind. Lies and more lies. There was no point to Hoodbhoy’s piece apart from attacking anyone threatening the two established parties. Not an inch of substance.

Why?

18 comments:

  1. Hahaha and it was in the morning today that i was ranting abt HoodBhoy's article :P Job Well Done :)

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  2. Did SkyIsNeela just troll the Intellect-Chawal Physicist to analytical death? :)

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  3. A round of applause for you, sir/madam.

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  4. To say he is a Professor - is a disgrace in itself. I live in Denmark and nations everyone is concerned in EU are PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) and the primary reason for this is high debt and major tax evasion. Mr Pervez, not Musharaf, Hoodbhoy - its quite evident your area of expertise is certainly not Economics - and certainly International politics.

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  5. Excellent mix of analytic depth & youthful exuberance, keep up the good work

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  6. I guess Hoodhboy didnt see that coming. The fact that his physics is falling over deaf ears, he was switched to politics , but then thats another ball game. Better stick to Higgs Boson sir, that might earn you a half decent legacy.

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  7. no logic in this verbal diarrhoea
    no rebuttal of the original article just name calling and recounting of pakistani media myths

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  8. Hey genius, taxes paid are compared by percentages, not amounts. Romney paid a 14% effective tax on his declared income. Thats 9% less than what shareefs paid which is close to 25%. (25 - 9 = 14. just in case if your math is as bad as your logic.)

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  9. Well written article. Hoodbhoy would definitely go back to his drawing board.

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  10. So much win. Haven't heard all that much about 'Professor' Hoodbhoy but I'm now assured of his being an absolute clown, thank you.

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  11. After reading that article I can see why LUMS sacked him. Well done. Good job on exposing this guy.

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  12. I would give this 6 stars out of 5 had your name not been Ali "Awesome". ;)

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  13. Spot On. glad to have a sane voice in "blindly faithful" youth. dded in my reading list so that i can read more of your stuff. God job Ali

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  14. Hoodbhoy debunked by Professor Asad Ahmed of UC Berkeley:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th5JSZVWjKE

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