Jeff Bridges opens up his Crazy Heart The celebrated actor claims to turn down most offers and is staggeringly laid-back, yet here he is, up for an Oscar again <!– Remove following to not show photographer information –> (Mario Anzuoni) <!– Remove following to not show image description –> Jeff Bridges <!– Remove following to not show enlarge option –> <!– –> // Tom Shone <!– –> The sixth floor of the Casa del Mar hotel, in Santa Monica, is crammed with movie stars. Tall, willowy Maggie Gyllenhaal strides down the corridor in slingbacks and blue eye shadow, discussing schedules … Continue reading Jeff Bridges – The Seriously Cool Actor!

We British are such a bunch of drama queens The hysteria over swine flu made me sick Barbara Ellen The Observer, It’s probable that you are not reading this wearing a “swine flu” surgical mask, but if you are, please take it off for two reasons. The first is that the “swine flu pandemic” (which cost Britain an estimated £1bn, with fewer fatalities worldwide than regular flu) is now deemed semi-officially “over”, with the UK’s 24-hour helpline closing this week. The second reason to take the masks off is that people who wore them, even when they weren’t at international … Continue reading The British hysteria over swine flu made me sick!

Sarah Palin: queen tea party Sarah Palin’s tub-thumping speech gave a foretaste of her campaign for the presidency, with divine help from God Sarah Palin, queen of the tea party. Photograph: Rebecca Cook/Reuters When someone bounds on stage before a roomful of conservatives and shouts “I’m so proud to be an American! Happy birthday Ronald Reagan!”, it can mean only one thing: Sarah Palin is running for the presidency. Normal people don’t begin conversations with those two sentences, but presidential candidates do, all the time. Palin was speaking on Saturday before one of the nascent (and probably evanescent) tea party … Continue reading The Wicked Witch of the West : Sarah Palin ?

Stagnation in the Middle East A western journalist writing about the Middle East’s problem with apathy and corruption has hit a raw nerve in Egypt Joseph Mayton guardian.co.uk, Lying, cheating and stealing. It is a perception that many foreigners have of the Arab Middle East. In Egypt, Mr White Man is seen as a cash cow – and when so many Egyptians live in poverty, who can blame them? But when Tim Sebastian, the prominent journalist, host of the Doha Debates and former presenter of BBC HARDtalk, talked about Cairo’s rip-offs in a New York Times article, Egyptians were infuriated. … Continue reading A western journalist writing about the Middle East’s problem with apathy and corruption has hit a raw nerve in Egypt

Over the top Masood Hasan You may recall the story about a man who wandered into a Jinn’s lair. Seeing the man, the Jinn laughed happily and then started weeping profusely. The perplexed intruder asked the Jinn why he had laughed and then cried. The Jinn replied, “I laughed because I was so happy to see a man after such a long, long time.” “But,” persisted the man, “why cry?” The Jinn sighed, “Because I am going to eat you.” This is the quandary in which ordinary citizens find themselves every day, as they open newspapers and get slapped with … Continue reading Dance of the baboons – Pakistani Lawyers!

Aakar Patel Every day, after lunch, I sit at a desk and translate a page of Rumi’s Masnavi. I have been doing this since last year — which is something a man can confidently say in February. I use the version of the poem translated from Farsi to Urdu by Qazi Sajjad Husain, principal of Madresa-e-Alia Fatehpuri, in Delhi. It is six volumes of thick, handmade paper and printed legibly, which is rare for cheap Urdu books. I translate it from Urdu to English, copying each verse first and then writing my translation under it. I write in a notebook … Continue reading Reading literature in another language

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi Zia’s policies produced a generation whose intellectual and psychological ties are weak with Pakistan as a nation-state and it invariably views the domestic and international processes within religious parameters. The main discourse of this generation is Islamic-conservative, and greater emphasis on public display of religiousness Two mutually unrelated incidents last week show the growing dilemma of a large number of Pakistanis to relate themselves in a meaningful manner to the imperatives of citizenship of a nation-state. They may talk of Pakistan and its sovereignty when it is relevant to achieving their individual and group agendas or to … Continue reading Mullahs and the destruction of cricket in Pakistan

Indonesian extremists block horror film A man holds pirated DVDs of Indonesian horror movies at a streetside market in Jakarta. A new Indonesian horror movie about a menstruating ghost ran foul of the country’s highest Islamic body. –AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo JAKARTA: Indonesian film producers said Friday they had withdrawn a horror-comedy movie about a menstruating ghost from cinemas due to threats from extremists. “We did this because the reaction to the film is outrageous. The situation is still tense,” K2K production house manager Evelin Hutagaol told AFP. “Hantu Puncak Datang Bulan” (The Menstruating Ghost of Puncak) was screened to a … Continue reading A Menstruating ghost, The Mullah and Indonesia!

Christians pray during a rally to condemn attacks on fellows Christians, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 in Karachi, Pakistan. — AP Photo Metropolitan Peshawar celebrates Christmas amidst terror Peshawar celebrates Christmas amidst terror WASHINGTON: Pakistan plans within this year to revise its laws against blasphemy, which have long been criticised as a way to abuse minorities, a government minister said. Shahbaz Bhatti, minister for minority affairs, said religious reconciliation was a little-noticed priority for President Asif Ali Zardari’s civilian government in Pakistan, which lies on the frontline of the US-led war against extremism. Bhatti, a long-time Roman Catholic activist whose position … Continue reading Minority affairs’ minister sees blasphemous blasphemy law revision this year – Mullahs will stoke fire

Smokers’ Corner: Right click for revolution By Nadeem F. Paracha Anyone questioning the padded extremism and soft authoritarianism peddled by enlightened moderation is a liberal extremist who is undermining religion and promoting corrupt politicians and violent ethnic thugs. Just what exactly was Pervez Musharraf’s ‘enlightened moderation’? Though vague, it did seem to have enough bite to at least create (a malformed) narrative amongst a new generation of young middle-class urbanites. If you observe closely much of what is being emitted by this section of society, you can safely suggest that ‘enlightened moderation’ was, at best, a heavily padded and soft … Continue reading Right click for revolution in Pakistan