Irfan Husain
The wait for a messiah by Irfan Husain
24 July, 2010
Older readers will recognise this mantra from the past: “South Korea stole our first Five-Year Plan.” According to this urban legend, when a Korean was accused of this petty larceny by a Pakistani, he retorted: “Yes, but we implemented it.” The other pat on the back we give ourselves is about how PIA helped establish [...]
The debris of development by Irfan Husain
21 July, 2010When I was at university many, many years ago, one of my favourite subjects was development economics. Here, we studied the possible trajectories a country could take to achieve rapid growth to lift itself out of poverty. In those innocent days, we did not consider the implications of rapid economic expansion. Pollution, environmental degradation, and [...]
Giving in to temptation by Irfan Husain
17 July, 2010Being human and fallible, we are all prey to temptation, and in this, I rather tend to be with Oscar Wilde when he said: “I can resist everything except temptation.” It would seem that our DNA is programmed to lust after whatever is prohibited, and what is supposed to be bad for us. Thus, we [...]
Who will cast the first stone? by Irfan Husain
14 July, 2010First, the good news: the Bangladesh High Court has abolished all physical punishments based on the scriptures. Thus, people will no longer be sentenced to lashing, chopping off their hands, or stoning to death. Unfortunately, Mrs Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is an Iranian widow, and was sentenced to be stoned to death in her country for [...]
Disease as destiny by Irfan Husain
10 July, 2010Another July, another birthday. As I grow older, the interval between birthdays seems to grow shorter. A reader with a very good memory kindly sent me greetings a few days earlier than my birthday, and hoped that I would continue writing for “another 20 years”. The thought of churning out hundreds of more articles fills [...]
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