Monthly Archives: April 2003

The burden of old age

Health

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

HOW many birthdays should one have celebrated to be called old? In other words, at what age does one qualify to be a ‘senior citizen’? Or rephrased in very mundane terms the question would be, when does one become a pensioner? Of course, many would give cliched answers such as the one in self-help books, if you are young at heart you never grow old. There are others who comfort themselves by saying that the body might age but the mind doesn’t: it improves with age and experience!
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The day Baghdad fell

War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

LAST week Baghdad fell. It signalled the end of the aerial attacks which devastated Iraqi cities in the three weeks of ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’. The day of the fall of the Iraqi capital was a sad day for the Arab world, the Third World and the activists of the global peace movement. Another form of war has now begun — the one that follows on the heels of a military victory. That is the battle the conquerors have to wage to win the hearts and minds of the vanquished.

The end was not unexpected. Given the tilted balance of military power between the two, the rout of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had been a foregone conclusion even before the so-called coalition forces launched their massive assault on March 20.
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Religion has nothing to do with it

International Politics, Islamisation, War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa

‘Even the Crusades that have been projected for centuries as religious wars between Christianity and Islam were basically a struggle for the control of trade and territory, financed by the merchants of Venice,’ says Hamza Alavi

AS the active conflict in Iraq draws to a sanguinary close, there is much speculation about the future scenario in the region. Although it is generally accepted that the Americans, with their overwhelming military might, will succeed in subduing Iraq, no one doubts that the country is still nowhere close to peace and stability.
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Internet and the war media scene

Media, War and Peace

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

THE American war against Iraq is expected to make a profound impact on global politics. The key feature of the emerging international political system is the massive participation of the people at the popular level across international boundaries. Never before have the common masses felt so deeply involved in contemporary affairs or attempted on this scale to influence the course of history.
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