A State of perpetual numbness!

It has been quite sometime since I last made an entry here. I have been wanting to post on several dozen topics. From the Cyclone disaster in Pakistan to the pathetic social state of the Silicon Valley Pakistanis. And now the recent landmark Supreme court decision overturning Musharraf's dismal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry.

Each time I would site down and attempt to write a post, I would be overcome by a state of perpetual bluh'ness, for lack of a better word. A Feeling of what for, who the heck cares would overwhelm me. Be it the desi community of the Silicon Valley, particularly the Pakistani and Muslim communities that tend to be passive to all things other than Religion.

This is a phenomenon I find most prevalent amongst Silicon Valley Muslims, who come from diverse cultural, ethnic, predominantly middle class backgrounds. But have chosen to adopt a new cultural identity that revolves around the Mosque, and all things Islam. For crying out load there is more to life other than the Mosque. I am not saying to stop attending the Mosque. I merely want point out that there is a serious imbalance in our community, which in the long run will prove detrimental.

It's either work or religion around which life for many Silicon Valley Pakistani revolves. The other day I was talking to a friend, who is fairly active in this community, runs a weekly email digest, he was complaining that their is no culture here. The Silicon Valley in itself is quite dead, in terms of a vibrant social life with concerts and plays. He further went on to comment that the people of the Valley are extremely one pointed on their respective careers, leaving little time in day for social and community interactions. If you want culture, be it art exhibitions or musicals your best bet would be to visit San Francisco.

The current Corporate buzz these days revolves around "The Human side", from Cisco's " Human Network" to Dows "Human Element", you are left with Corporations mouthing almost Utopian sounding words, yet what effect is that having on the people you live and work in and about this area we call the Silicon Valley?

We in the Valley live under this false pretense of being connected, sure we are connected technologically. Getting a hold of someone through email, instant messenger, or your social network of choice. You can connect to people, share pictures, mini applications called wigits, these various communication tools have done more damage to society as a whole than good.

I recently logged into my Facebook account, and the first thing I saw was a number of friends had been busy installing various wigit, or mini-Aps. For what? What do these tiny bits of code do for you, or how does it help you interact with people better? Does it? I personally am feeling the internet has been determinantal to society. It has isolated us even more than before.

Where is this Silicon Valley Pakistan and Muslim community headed? in a state of perpetual numbness they are, if something is not related to your career or Islam they are not interested. For crying out loud there is more to life that all this. What about enriching yours and your children's lives with art, poetry and music? How about encouraging your children, in addition to their school work to taking up (e.g) a musical instrument, be it guitar, violin, or tabla, dhol, harmonium.

Further, how much longer will this community remain passive, Your motherland is drowning from the after effects of a violent Cyclone, however there is not a wink from anyone. And I mean anyone. Apart from a few emails flying about, appear for donations from Hidaya, Islamic Relief, OPEN there hasn't been any discourse on the topic.

Millions of people have been either displaced from their homes or killed, the least one would expect is some constructive dailogue on the subject.

The bottom line is where is this community headed? Where are the thinkers, philosophers, poets, musicians, artists of the Silicon Valley? Can this ever evolve into a vibrant community engaged at levels of life. Or will it continue to remain passive and impervious to all things non Technology, Business or Religion? These are questions we all, the denizens of the Silicon Valley need to reflect. What will you do? How will you change your life?

Wake up my fellow Wadiwallahs, wake up!

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

Narrowing of Silicon Valley Muslim World View

Over the past year, since I moved to the Silicon Valley I have been interacting with various community groups and organizations. Paying lip-service to many, and endorsing a few fully where I was able to engage with folks who were on a similar thought pattern as mine.

I wont name names here, but every organization or project I would attempt to dangle my feet in, I would very quickly start thinking on how to get out. Initially every entity looks attractive from the outside.

An openness to accept new ideas is missing in this community. If you try to make statements other than what is acceptable within the context of a certain ideological framework, you will surely find yourself out numbered and marginalized by the vast majority. It's as if there is a deliberate attempt by the Silicon Valley Pakistan and Muslim communities on a whole to shun out all-things-other, that is all things that don't related to religion and money.

Now I could be overtly generalizing, but take the recent Mohsin Hamid event at Stanford - Mohsin Hamid a renowned Pakistani novelist, author of two books "Moth Smoke" and "The Reluctant Fundamentalist".

The turn out was OKAY, but not great - I expected far more people, as there are a sizable number of Pakistanis in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area in general who have heard and read Mohsin Hamid's novels.

Further, in the recent Sahil Bachao campaign I helped spearheaded in the Silicon Valley, as part of the larger team effort in Karachi, Pakistan there was little interest displayed by the BayArea Pakistanis. My question is, aren't there any Pakistanis out here that have any iota of interest left for all-things-other than religion? If an event or cause doesn't make explicit reference to religion or making money, then it is not important. This seems to be the mainstream attitude amongst Silicon Valley Pakistanis and Muslims in general.

Many a times it is extremely frustrating dealing with the vast majority of the Silicon Valley Muslim and to some extent Pakistani communities who will brand you as "kafir" (unbeliever) upon the slightest notion that your views are not compliant to theres. This is a largely educated Muslim community, highly professional working in several of the fortune technology companies - however to much a due quite insular and impervious to listening to all-things-other than religion.

This intolerance to all-things-other, is a trait which is found in much of the Muslim world. Exactly the reason novel ideas aren't able to take root. How is a society to progress with such an attitude that shuns at all that don't see eye-to-eye with them. There is more to life than just religion and money, what about enhancing once culture, or rather cultures in the case of Muslims who come from a large cultural spectrum.

Culture is one of the all-things-other that has been shunned to the side, and replaced with religion. Religion is good, but not the only thing - there is much more to life. Your faith is merely a component, an important component mind you of your life.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

Re: [sv-pak] From Pakistan to SF

Indeed a sordid comparison it is. Life in the Silicon Valley vs. life in Pakistan, or for that matter anywhere else. Even here in the United States the Silicon Valley isn't the norm. Technology is the life line of this region, iPod's to iPhones - laptops, PDA's you name it are prevalent here.

Not that they aren't in Pakistan, yes they are but the difference is they are seen as luxury items. Like say high-speed internet connection such as DSL or Cable. It is seen as a luxury item, even though the DSL service from some of the name brand carries such as CyberNet really "suck", they are slower than Dial in services - or so has been my experience.

The Silicon Valley, a singularity in the space-time continuum it is. Take a trip to Southern California and you will find it is a whole other world out there technology though as prevalent as here int he SF Bay, it doesn't dominate the pop culture of SoCal as it does here in the Bay.

Recently, a fellow Wadiite, a well known blogger who goes by the by line of iFaqeer did a Video segment on Technology in Society.

-AR



Zunaira Durrani <zunaira.durrani@gmail.com> wrote:

From Pakistan to SF (External article hyperlink follows my own comments)

In other news, Zamir Haider has written a sordid comparison of life in
Islamabad and San Francisco. According to Haider, he doesn't see iPods
in Islamabad and the sight of a Pentium 4 in Pakistan would shock
many. For the record, Illusion in Jinnah Super sells all models of
iPods the moment they hit the market in the US--people carry them to
work and play. Of course, I don't need to remind anybody people are
fairly mad about keeping their computers updated.

The point is, why does Haider paint such a backwater-caveman picture
of a major Pakistani city to CNet editors? It is already easy to sell
the idea that we live in the dark ages back in Pakistan to the media
here--thanks to Fox. I'm so gutted! :( Read on....

From Pakistan to S.F., it's a whole new tech world
In Northern California, iPods are everywhere and everyone talks about
the latest in gadgets. In Islamabad, not so much.
By Zamir Haider

http://news.com.com/From+Pakistan+to+S.F.%2C+its+a+whole+new+tech+world/2100-1041_3-6171019.html

__._,_.___

TCF - Nurturing Pakistan's Future....one child at a time....

Cupertino, March 23, 2007: The Silicon Valley Pakistani-American community organized a stupendous event commemorating Pakistan's republic day. It was on this day 57 years ago that the All India Muslim league met in Lahore to draft the Lahore resolution, which later came be known as the Pakistan Resolution. This document stipulates the creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the the Indian Sub-Continent, for a historical prospective see my March 20th post.

The event was well attended by individuals from all walks of the SiliconWadi life. You had people from the SiliconWadi legal fraternity, to the typical Techie Pakistani, to representatives from Congressman Mike Honda's office., to members of the RagingGranies group. The sponsors of the event were Izaan Corporation, Mirchi Cafe, The Citizen's Foundation and several other individuals and Pakistani well wishers from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Net proceeds from the ticket sales were donated to The Citizen's Foundation. The event agenda consisted of community based entertainment, talks and presentations by the The Citizen's Foundation CEO General (rtd) S.P. Shahid, not to mention the final entertainers were like visits from the past. One such visit was by Nahid Naizi, this is someone who was well known and loved back in the 1960's in Pakistan - well before my times. The other was Alamgir, whose fame reached its pinnacle around the mid to early 1980's.

Listening to Alamgir sing sent me on a nostalgic journey down memory lane, where I was transported back to my school days, particularly when he sang "Mehney tumharee gaagar sey kabhi pani piya tha...." Oh gee-wizz 'tis was a trip down nostalgia lane. A mere school boy I was then, performing in the annual C.A.S. School play with this particular song as the background music!

However, we mustn't loose sight of the actual purpose of the event, which was centered around the The Citizen's Foundation (TCF).

TCF is a not for profit charity organization, founded in August of 1995 in my hometown Karachi, Pakistan with the explicit purpose to promote education and make a difference for the vast majority of Pakistan's children living under extreme dire circumstances.

TCF since its inception has grown into a multi million dollar charity, benefiting countless children across the length and breadth of Pakistan. They have amassed a following both within and without the country with chapter groups being established all across the world. Here in the U.S. we have TCF-USA which was the sponsoring chapter for this event in the Silicon Valley.

Upon speaking with the TCF USA leadership team, Mr Amjad Noorani and Daniel Noorani, and the CEO General S.P. Shahid I found myself converted from being a skeptic to a follower. Indeed this is an organization that has and is doing a great deal of good work in Pakistan.

TCF USA has also been active in forming alliances with Corporate groups, such as the Microsoft Pakistani Employees and Cisco Pakistani employees who have managed to get TCF USA on to the list of approved charities for Cisco dollar-for-dollar matching program.

Following is a film that was directed and produced by some friends from Newsline Video in Karachi.

Against The Tide - The TCF Story Part I



Against The Tide - The TCF Story Part II



Following is an introduction to TCF, this Video was also presented by General (rtd) S.P. Shahid at the Pakistan Day event in the Silicon Valley



Click to make a donation to TCF
TCFUSA is a non-profit organization registered under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code

Corporate employees please check with your respective Human Resource departments if TCF USA is a charity approved for matching funds before making any donation.

Copyright C. 2007 Abdulrahman Rafiq (ARR)