text:
"Mothers and children at a city playground."
I also remember a playground a few hundred yards away from the theater, where mothers used to take their children to play. Now, only men loiter in the city parks; it is unsafe to bring children outside.
"Mothers and children at a city playground."
I also remember a playground a few hundred yards away from the theater, where mothers used to take their children to play. Now, only men loiter in the city parks; it is unsafe to bring children outside.
Mohammad Qayoumi is president of California State University, East Bay. He grew up in Kabul and came to work in the United States in 1978. Since 2002 he has volunteered his time in reconstruction efforts, serving on the board of directors of the Central Bank and as senior advisor to the minister of finance.
How disheartening it must be to live in one of the few countries in the world to have regressed by any measure.
If Afghanistan is truly the graveyard of empires, surely such examples of a functioning state would not exist. These photos go to show that a "normal" country did at one point exist, and it is worth bearing in mind the self-respect which once went with it as everyone tries to solve Afghanistan's problems.
Once Upon a Time Afghanistan: Nostaligic to many
Yes there used to Afghanistan of Zahir Shah, Great Modern, Liberal society. free from Interference, not confused. But then the great Powers included that country in the great games of supermacy and Neo-Colonialism. They started interfering and then it all started. Russians came, Americans came, Pakistanis came, Saudis started pumping money, Egyptians started sending Israeli weapons, and Afghanistan started falling into chaos day by day.
Normal Human being kept on suffering and still there is no hope of any progress.
Those were the days when we used to Adore American way of life, Jeans, Joggers, Marlboro, Coca Cola, Martin Luther Kings, Freedom, Equal Opportunity, Justice. But now I was recently Kidnapped by Uzbekistan Security agencies on 10-12-2009 and relaesed on 12th April 2010 (124 days). But still I do not Blame Uzbekistan and only blame America for my Kidnapping. If the leader of the world liberals would not break those principles Uzbekistan will not be able to do any thing illegal.
Read my story: www.harleytourism.com/haroonchoudhry.html
I think it IS a normal country right now. Maybe people should look the their country's problems first, like obesity in the U.S. Millions of people there need to read a book or ten on how to lose weight.... at least that's what I think.
It is disheartening to see a country or civilization regress. Sadly, I believe the pace for which it is happening is greatly increasing. In the last 30 years look at Rhodesia, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, United States, Great Britain.
All the countries that have regressed round the world have done so due to the end of the imperialist colonial era: Zimbabwe, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, etc etc the list goes on. They were all built up into modern societies, typically as members of the British Commonwealth or as clients of another Power. And yes, I agree a lot of it has to do with the Soviets pernicious influence or outright insurgency around the globe, but also that the US let the Saudis export their reprehensible wahabbist primitivism to the rest of the islamic world.
Neoconservatives call these regions The Seam, as in a strip of land around the world filled with unstable countries lacking in civilizing influences. Leftist bigots see nothing wrong with people in these countries being forced back into medeival lifestyles.
Afghnistan was fine under the Soviets. It only became a medival hell hole thanks to American backed Taliban that drove Soviets out and installed a theocracy in its place.
Thanks for the drive down the memory lane
I remember those days well.
Too bad the Russians and Indians were involved their machinations in Afghanistan in the 1970's and started the process that has destroyed the fabric of the society.
But why did the Afghans not stand up against these foreigners?
One can also blame the Pakistanis for defeating the Russian invading army and one cen certainly blame the Americans and their stooges the NATO stooges for brutally occupying the country now.
And why did the Mujahideen not partake in the democratic process after the Pakistanis had defeated the Russian invading army?
Do you mean your Psychedelic memory lane?
Is it sensory stimulation or senseless propoganda that resulted in making you believe what you wrote? It is well documented that the Soviets got lured in to Afghanistan because of the machinations of the US-Pak-Saudi troika. Afghanistan bore the brunt of the great game starting from the late seventies until the fall of Soviet Union (Ref: The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski).
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the US abandoned that region until after 9/11. Meanwhile Pakistani intelligence agencies flirted with their imaginary 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan pushing that country in to deep morass. (Ref: Pakistan: Between mosque and military by Husain Haqqani).
It's fair to say that the Pakistanis, by themselves, could never overpower the Soviet army then or the Mujahids now. They needed the Western support in the form of money, weapons & training. The US also has much to answer, however it is trying to do the damage control; albeit too little too late.
Pakistan an alley or an enemy ...!! ??
NPEGASUS you are right after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US abandoned that region until after 9/11. but why ?? they created taliban with the help of pak army and when soviet union was over they left it and let pakistan clear the mess. Pakistan has been trying to coup up with its neighbours, from one side it has neighbour with whom they fight two wars and it cant leave other side of the border unattended.
this region will never be at peace since this was divided in such a way that there will always be disputes like kashmir b/w pak-inda and tribal areas b/w afghan-pak.
these counties have to establish political reforms rather then using their military to solve the problems. war is never been a solution.
Once Upon A Time In Afghanistan
Mr. lalqila, I don't know where do you get your information about Pakistan defeated Russia in Afghanistan! Afghans defeated the Russians and Pakistan got rich by beibg a middle man and brain washing all those poor Afghan children who lived there in a refugee camps, in the Madrassas that Zaiulhaq built with the US and saudi Arabia money. Before the Russian war in Afghanistan there were few hundred Madrassas in Pakistan by the late 1980s, and they grew to more than 20000 madrassas.The result is the chaos that is created by these terrorist who are the product of the Pakistan terrorist camps. Even today Pakistan is brain washing the young muslims from around the world and inviting them to come to Pakistan for training, and sending them back to the west for terrorism.
Afghanistan was a peaceful country when we had border with India, after the partition of India in 1947, and creation of a new country by name Pakistan, Afghanistan's future beacme unstable because of Pkistan's bad relationship with Afghanistan by Pakistan invadind Baluchistan and seizing a part of Afghanistan under the Durand Line Treaty, which never existed, and never signed by any ruler of Afghanistan. Afghanistan will never have an stable government as long as Pakistan is inveloved in the rebuilding process, Bush Administration made the biggest mistake by accepting pakista as a partner, and Obama's Administartion has realised that now by making a decision if United States get attacked again by any terrorists from Pakistan, the US forces will cross the Afghan border to Pakistan and destroy all the terrorist camps which Pakistan government has been ignoring them for the last 25 byears.
Pakistan: neither an ally, nor an enemy
You need to review modern history. The US did not create the Taliban but it made the mistake of abandoning the region because of its mypoic policies. The Taliban came on to the scene in 1994 much after the US left the region. Afghanistan's immediate neighbors, mainly Pakistan, helped usher in a radical Islamic government in the nineties in Kabul to suit their interests. Afghans who were tired of endless wars grudgingly accepted the Taliban rule.
Pakistan is a prisoner of its own doing; not that of partition with India or the differences with Afghanistan. Despite some terrorists have turned their guns inward, Pakistan continues to see virtue in shielding some groups for strategic use. The region will suffer more deaths and disasters until Pakistan's love affair with terrorist groups continues under some excuse or other.
Thanks for the drive down the memory lane
Lal Qila,
Reality alert please....this is a global forum as opposed to a Pakistani forum wherein you can write your drivel and believe in it unchallenge, thanks to both government and private censorship observed across the "Kafir" inventing internet. It took the same Afghan motivation to oust the Soviet forces as that which had ousted Colonial Britian before it and beyond. That you need to project past and recent Afghan glories as though they were your own offers us a better insite your post-colonial Peon mindset than what the realities dictate. The Afghans came to liberate themselves from the Soviets as they are again doing against the Pakistani invasion via proxy (the Taliban). Pretty soon if not already, your vanglorious "people" will experience the same extreme prejudice from the Afghans as did your ancestros...you can bet on that...
Yup, I believe Khosrow has got it right. I was a young US Marine during the Soviet occupation. The Afghan Mujahideen were being wiped out as a result of Soviet air sorties. The US responded with money, stinger missiles, and training. The aid was brokered by the Pakistani government and given to folks like Hekmytar Gilbudeen. (Taliban leader).
Once the Soviets withdrew, the US began an expensive StarWars initiative program - and even leaked the plans to the Soviets. The result was breaking the financial back of their arms race. Without their military, and reforms, their hold on their Union couldn't last.
The US abandoned Afghanistan afterward - Thinking Afghanistan is best ran by Afghani's (which I still believe) But the Pakistani masadras, Like Daarl Ul Saloom, were breeding grounds for venomous intolerance and hate ( though others that are newer are far worse)
It is a damn shame that the path of Afghanistan has changed in such a way. Thank you for sharing this with us - there is hope yet. We just have to get Bin Laden so the war can end and the foreigners can go - Afghanistan needs to then get rid of it's warlords and corruption.
Based on the fact that you dragged India into this, I guess you are a Pakistani.
Let us assume for a minute that Indians were involved in the Soviet Mission, still the country fell into disarray after the Soviets left. The Taliban (lets say a force of reorganised Mujahideen) then with Pakistani support took over the country. The Taliban period from 1990 onwards took the war ravaged country further into medieval ages.
Now, this is not the Indian version of events but an internationally accepted version. You can check multiple sources if you wish.
Stop dragging India into everything........especially for things Pakistan should take responsiblity for....
Kabul of past and kabul of now
you know friends.
Pakistanis did not defeat Russians. it was afghans who defeat them. but unfortunately you know that these afghans were not capable of delivering what the need of Afghanistan was on that time and even this Democratic govt can't deliver what we need now.no body is to blame, but to blame the afghans and ourselves.
It took afghans/Pak only a decade to drive out the Russian Invaders whils it took India a couple of centuries at least to regain their land from its colonial masters but still are struggling to regain independance in its true from.
Yes the Afghans are applying the same motivation to drive out the Americans(some believe maybe helped by sympathisers from Pak) and have nearly succeeded, again in less than ten years.
I cant see what relevance the invention of Internet by the west has to do with anything. The West are not classed as "Kafirs" anyway because the share same religious History as Islam and respected for being the people of the "book" and for their belief in one god.
The true Kafirs are people that practice pagan religions with muitple gods.
Afghanistan is not and was not , Kabul
Kabul has always been very different from rest of the country, Kabul was very modern, very advanced at that time. but rest of Afghanistan, or to rightly say the southern parts and Pashtun Afghanistan was never that modern.
So calling this foto essay a representation of Afghanistan is wrong
Kabul was not the capital of Afghanistan at first it come later capital, At first Kandahar was the Capital of Afghanistan and a Pashtun Named Afghanistan Shah Baba had an empire on that time Afghanistan was included Pakistan tell on ocean of India, Iran and so..... still you people are investigating on views of Ahmad Shah Baba.
This is picture is after that time and about of how Kandahar and other province were modern you can investigate.
yeah, i agree with MYK007, these photos are only representing Kabul not the rest of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is not and was not , Kabul
To MYK007 and Soraya,
It may serve you both well to educate yourselves on the fact that no nation on Earth can ever aspire to take on board economic growth and development equally for all its citizens, unless we apply a big-government approach that harbors utopian ideals. The Soviet Union tried this as did China, and both today serve as poster-boys for the failure of such schemes. If we were to qualify your reasoning that somehow just because Kabul was all modernizing while the rest of the country remained "different', then every state that borders Afghanistan would be qualified as failures, especially Pakistan. A comparable reflection of Afghanistan and Pakistan makes one thing clear to all, in that Afghanistan was where it was from her grass-roots liberally inclined foundations, whereas the synthetic state of Pakistan with its supposed sovereignty extending over occupied peoples, owes its very existence to Colonial Britain than to the nationalities it feigns to represent as a coherent state.
Given that Afghanistan remains intact today after three decades of warfare, while Pakistan has consistently experienced internal threats of separatism from within, we ought to ask ourselves why it is that Pakistan which experienced no Soviet invasion nor a secondary invasion via proxy (as per the Taliban), is burdened with illiteracy rates reportedly running as high as 80%. Furthermore, given that the underlying reason for Afghanistan's drift to the Soviet Union in the first place had everything to do with the nation's need to raise her defenses against a Pakistani Islamunist state that had already occupied Afghan lands and showed every sign of extending deep into Afghan territory as they did with the Taliban, what the entire world need to ask themselves is if we'd like to live with a nuclear proliferating, Jihadi sponsoring failed state such as Pakistan. We need to fix Afghanistan over her solid national foundations in preparation for the pending Pakistani fallout.
Interestingly enough, you've also conveniently positioned yourselves as concerned parties to Afghanistan's Pashtuns, in concert with what we know to be a consistent propaganda effort by the Pakistani state, no doubt in the hope that you can bank on the ignorance of those Pashtuns raised and nurtured in your state sponsored Madrassa networks to keep Afghanistan marginalized. The facts however tell us that the pre-communist modern Kabul was a collective effort of practically every Afghan ethnicity, and especially that of its Pashtun rulers! All vehicles of the state therein catered for Afghans seeking education from all parts of the country, with the rural communities included. Any ceilings to national advancement owed itself more to financial constraints rather than any malignant intention on the part of the leaders. The proof in this lays in the fact that until the Soviet invasion that delivered a strategic advantage to Pakistan, the Afghan governments were free from rural unrest and insurgencies. The modernized Kabul presented herein was overwhelmingly accepted by both the urbane as well as rural Afghans with pride, with self-harming rivalries only emerging from contesting views towards modernization, rather than any significant challenge from Islamofascist retrogrades that began enjoying Pakistani support well before there was a Communist coup and a subsequent Soviet Invasion. Simply put, Afghanistan had never been ruled by Mullahs in her history and if we can help it, she will never again. In fact, we will bury Islamofascism along with the State of Pakistan.
…….whether Afghan or allied governments acknowledge this or not, the ordinary Afghan has always known as Americans are increasingly realizing that we are at war with the State of Pakistan….seems to me you've forgotten your ancestral warning cry that went something like this…
"Tooth of a tiger
Venom of the Cobra
Vengeance of an Afghan…"
………….. Wallah Chpraedum!
I just showed these pictures to my Uncle who grew up their during the time these pictures were taken and says that this is not the Afghanistan he has ever seen. He grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, but he says these pictures might have been in some upper class, rich places, but the majority did not live like this. He says this was not reality or realistic.
How can you be at war with another Muslim country? And one whose population includes Afghanis? Karachi is now the most populated city in the world, with a metro population of 18 million. This would not have been possible without the huge Afghan refugee community. I'm sorry but war is not the answer, only education is. In time you will see that sectarian violence will end in Pakistan and everyone will live side by side in peace... and this will begin in Karachi. My neighborhood of Sahafi Colony, in Karachi, is a mixture of all different ethnicities and religions and we are living peacefully.
Every body will agree with you the kabul was not as the rest of afghanistan.
but we have even lost kabul, which was a modern and beautiful city.
Every body will agree with you the kabul was not as the rest of afghanistan.
but we have even lost kabul, which was a modern and beautiful city.
Kabul was not and is not afghanistan
i agree with MYK007 that kabul was not the same as rest of afghansitan.
but we were lucky that we have a modern city in the country . today we don't have at least that kabul.
The Real Kabul of Elites and Monarchs
These pictures are really representative of Kabul and is an example of how the elites constructed a whole new world in the middle of the most poor nation in the world.
There is nothing wrong in displaying the old pictures but with its glory it also brings shame. With its magnificence it also delivers utter disgust for the more than 90% poorest of the poor.
Both sides must be highlighted.........
Once upon a time in Afghanistan...
Yes, these pictures represent only a tiny elite in Kabul, or rather in Sher-e Naw, Wazir Akbar Khan and on the campus, totally isolated from the reality of the countryside. Many of them probably never visited a village. Not surprisingly this elite living in exile has built a very romantic image of the past, far from the reality... few women did work and wore Western clothes in Sher-e Naw, but certainly not in less affluent parts of the capital.
I started traveling in Afghanistan in the early 1970s and the huge gap between Kabul and the rest of the country was undeniable.
There was no electricity, no roads, no schools in the countryside. In the rural South the question was not whether girls went to school or not, boys did not go to school. I spent time in the 1980s in Zabul, Uruzgan, rural Kandahar, Logar, Ghazni... I was regularly mistaken for a Kabuli in Zabul (which saved me a couple of times !), people in the villages had never seen Westerners. Young mujahidin often asked me to tell them what Kabul was like, it was like another planet for them, they had never been there and were afraid of the city. Easy to imagine what they felt in September 1996 when they entered Kabul after joining the Taliban.
The gap between the cities (particularly Kabul and Mazar, Kandahar and Herat have always been more conservative) is still very much there.
These pictures are incredibly disheartening
Few things are worse to look at than destroyed hopes before their destruction. However, I am unsure how advanced the rest of the country was, compared to Kabul. We should remember that in the late 1800's a few select American cities looked stunningly modern, even though the large majority was still without electricity or running water. In Africa, there is often one modern capital city in a country where everything else is third world. I am pretty sure you are romanticizing to some degree, but I still sympathize for what must be a very painful thing for you.
The pictures may represent the upwardly mobile middle class
The pictures may represent the upwardly mobile middle class and not the great unwashed; but I assure you before the Indian planned Russian Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 a majority of the poor, the lowest common denominator, wanted to be just like the ladies and gentlemen in their western attire.
Now the lowest common denominator as AK 47's and a certain glint in his eye when he sees the American Occupier or his NATO stooges.
Afghanistan and its upwardly mobile elite
First of all Mohammad Qayumi is exaggerating and romanticizing and for an educator to be so ill informed or oblivious to the plight of 95 % of the rest of Afghans is a shame. The educated elites of Afghanistan always point out that women wore skirts and mingled with men in university campuses...there is only one in all of Kabul. There is a a misinformation campaign going on by some of the minority ethnic groups in Afghanistan to show the majority ethnic group as backward and uneducated; but the reality is that the Pasthuns represent a large majority of the upwardly mobile urban elites.
Lal Qila you must be a self hating Indian because you tend to blame India for every major catastrophe in the world. If you are a Paki then you are in denial and don't see the corrupt and duplicitous ways of your government that trained both Ahmad Shah Masud and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in fomenting dissent and carrying out subversive activities in Afghanistan in the early 70's and now they are harboring and training the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Wake up and accept the fact that Pakistan is a banana republic and a false state unlike Hindustan- the land of the Hindus and Afghanistan- the land of the Afghans...what is Pakistan...the land of the pure which is made up of Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochis, Mohajirs and Pashtuns and half its territory belongs to Afghanistan and the rest to India.
""If you are a Paki then you are in denial and don't see the corrupt and duplicitous ways of your government that trained both Ahmad Shah Masud (sp) ""
Pakistan didnt have anything to do with Massoud - "lion of the panjshir"; or at least didnt want to. If there was a relationship it was very mixed compared to their support for other regional warlords. In fact, they actively campaigned against US funding Massoud. We (the US) poured millions through the ISI, assuming that they would fund whomever was actively campaigning against the Soviets. They preferred to fund people like Hekmatyar who were ethnic Pashtun and were more closely linked to islamist groups in Pakistan. Massoud was a Tajik who was more interested in a (relatively) secular government. When the CIA finally linked up with Massoud directly, they were surprised to discover that money they thought he was supposed to receive never materialized. (although its not clear whether those funds were diverted by ISI or simply stolen by his own cohort) The subsequent civil war that took place after the departure of the soviets was partly between these different groups, some of whom were supported by Saudi/Pakistani money, others whom were less preferred because of ethnic/religious/ or political leanings. All of this is discussed in detail in Steve Coll's "Ghost Wars".
That said, Lal Qila is still a complete nutjob who lives in a fantasy world
Your a great example of how Pakistan in the past and now involving and disrupting peace in Afghanistan. I am sure your an educated person but yet your here bringing the subject of problems between Pakistan and India which no one cares. Americans and NATO are the one can only fix the issue lets face it they have the worlds power and better then Pakistan. Guess who are looking for a Job in Afghanistan?? Pakistanis and Indians I think its time to put up a fence just like US and get these Illegals out of Afghanistan. Afghanistan had life once upon a time it doesn't matter how modern but peaceful. No one lost their Father, Mother, Husband, Son or Brother back then. It was modern to its own standards. Respect, Peace, Quran.
It is the fact that its hard to finish this mess in Afghanistan but it will happen one day not so far. Afghanistan is climbing to glory but it takes time. Pakistan was not but Indian and now you have a country named Pakistan. Afghanistan was there and will be there for ever. HOOA
I saw this or a similar book (I think it may have been from an even earlier time period) at a book sale recently and had similar reactions to those of the author. Of course the book is an example of the government putting its best face forward - but how many people would guess that Afghanistan ever had any of these things? Perhaps the saddest of all to me were the pictures of happy schoolchildren, particularly the girls, knowing that such opportunities today are barely even available in Kabul. I really thank the author for publishing these photos. It's all too easy to blame intractable conflicts on ancient hatreds, or ancient mindsets, but in doing so we ignore their more modern causes. We'll never help Afghanistan if we wrongly assume that "they" are genetically incapable of having a stable, prosperous country. The Taliban don't represent everyone.
Pakistani delusion surfaces in the comments
LAL QILA, you said "...but I assure you before the Indian planned Russian Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 ..."
You must be really illogical and deluded. Russia was one of the two powers then and India was a poor country. India planned the invasion and Russia executed it? Really, see a psychiatrist (or see through the groupthink that exists in Pakistan).
You also said "And why did the Mujahideen not partake in the democratic process after the Pakistanis had defeated the Russian invading army?"
Because Pakistanis enslaved Afghans through the Taliban in order to fight India. There was no chance for democracy given by Pakistan. Really, are you that blind?
"are you that blind?" Lal Qila?
Yes he is. It's quite clear from this and other posts that Lal Qila has a completely warped sense of history that often goes well beyond fantasy. I don't even know if he believes it. I'm just shocked that he doesn't feel embarrassed after he reads over the utter lies he routinely posts. Perhaps he just gets a rise out of experimenting in fiction.
Poster Lal Qila - Pakistani, or Indian Muslim? Or neither
Lal Qila is Urdu for Red Fort, the name of the Mughal-era fort in Old Delhi that for over 200 years also served as the Mughal seat of government...so I must ask, is the person who uses the screen name Lal Qila on this site really a Pakistani, or is he an Indian Muslim? Or is he simply a provocateur whose aim is to rile up Indians and Westerners? Or perhaps both...?
With a neighbor like Pakistan.....
One can not choose one's neighbors when it comes geography. You are where you are.
It is Afghanistan's misfortune that it has Pakistan as the neighbor just as it is India's misfortune that Pakistan is its neighbor.
But Pakistan is lucky because Afghanistan is overwhelmingly Muslim and India has substantial Muslim population. So Pakistan was able to take over Afghanistan by creating Taliban and keeps India on the boil using its Muslim brothers in India.
Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security advisor told 9/11 Commission in 2004 that Pakistani Army was the 'midwife' of Taliban. UN report on Bhutto killing released on 4/15/2010 confirmed this fact when it noted that "The PAKISTANI MILITARY ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF AFGHANISTAN IN 1996". So in a way, Pakistani government was in charge of Afghanistan when 9/11 attacks were carried out and hence Pakistani government was responsible for those attacks.
Declassified DIA Washington D.C., "IIR (intelligence Information Report) Pakistan Involvement in Afghanistan," dated November 7, 1996 states how "Pakistan's ISI is heavily involved in Afghanistan," and also details different roles various ISI officers play in Afghanistan. Stating that Pakistan uses sizable numbers of its Pashtun-based Frontier Corps in Taliban-run operations in Afghanistan, the document clarifies that, "these Frontier Corps elements are utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary combat".
Declassified U.S. Department of State, Cable "Pakistan Support for Taliban" from Islamabad dated Sept. 26, 2000 states that "while Pakistani support for the Taliban has been long-standing, the magnitude of recent support is unprecedented." In response Washington orders the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to immediately confront Pakistani officials on the issue and to advise Islamabad that the U.S. has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors. [The Department] also understand[s] that large numbers of Pakistani nationals have recently moved into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, apparently with the tacit acquiescence of the Pakistani government."
'Quetta Shura Taliban (QST) based in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, is the No. 1 threat to US/NATO mission in Afghanistan. At the operational level, the Quetta Shura conducts a formal campaign review each winter, after which Mullah Mohammed Omar (Afghan Taliban Chief) announces his guidance and intent for the coming year' as General McChrystal narrated in his August, 2009 report to President Obama. But US can not even use its drones to destroy QST that is causing daily deaths of US/NATO soldiers in Afghanistan since 2002!
With a neighbor like Pakistan, Afghanistan and India are doomed to suffer from terrorism for all time to come.
with a neighbour like pakistan ...
its also Pakistan's misfortune that it has neighbours like India and Afghanistan. If Pakistan is considered lucky having Afghanistan overwhelmingly Muslim and India has enough Muslim population then there would have been peace in the country and it has nothing to worry about from its both borders.
its easy to read new news and conclude that Afghanistan and india are doomed to suffer from terrorism for all time when you dont know the ground realities.
if pakistan would have been terrorist country then with whom it is fighting against ?? His allies Talibans in Afghanistan, with USA against taliban or Who ??
if pakistan is a terrorist's heaven then why there are daily suicide attacks in the country killing hundreeds of innocent poeple ??
it was easy for US to provide all financial and military support to train and help taliban against soviet union and leave when its over and now every one criticizing pakistan for helping them out.
60 suicide attacks only in 2007 killing 770 and injured 1574
4 suicide attacks between 15th Feb and 15th Mar 2008 killing 150 people
33 suicide attacks in North West Frontier Province (near Pak-Afghan border) killing 374 people and 640 injured
these are figure only two years before and there are many incidents in last two years
pakistan is in a condition no country would like to be in and yet pakistan is perceived very lucky having neighbours like Afghanistan and India who brought such peace to the country.
Wrong questions, incorrect inferences
You keep on asking wrong questions. Pakistan is both the perpetrator and the victim of terrorism. Pakistan sees some groups as threats while others as assets. The compulsions of Pakistan's paradox are also of its own making, not that of Pakistan's neighbors.
There are many countries in the world with unsettled borders or differences with their neighbors. Through out its existence, Pakistan has found necessary to address its concerns militarily or use the services of mujahadeen despite aid and support from the West and other patrons. Evidently, the malaise runs deep in Pakistan. In the words of Obama, Pakistan has a cancer in its midst.
That was exactly i was talking about on a group on Face book..,PLEASE ALSO JOIN US AT..., http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119831038049708&ref=ts
Mr. Qayoumi's memories and the pictures of Kabul portray a different world. Colonialism, foreign invasions and cultural wars have devastated Kabul, as well as most of Afghanistan.
It would be hoped that persons like Mohammad Qayoumi, educated and articulate, continue and make the occasion to remind readers and policy makers that things had been different, that there is still the collective memory of its population to aspire for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.
Rebuilding from ground up will be long and hard.
As a Turk, I'll quote a line from a Turkish author from the SE part of Turkey, Cahit Sitki Taranci: "No challenge is unbeatable, so long as there is the flicker of light out of my window"
This book, with additional photos solicited from families,should be republished as "Afghanistan Before the Russian Takeover." It should be widely distributed in Afghanistan to show people what they lost and could have again. It should also be sold in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Indian machinations in Afghanistan started in 1965
Indian machinations in Afghanistan started in 1965 with the intent to dstablise Pakistan from (i) eastern frontier adjoining Indian along Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh (ii) western frontier adjoining Afghanistan, viz. the Durand Line and (iii) outright training of Mukhti Bahani terrorists on India for 3 years, then let them loose into East Pakistan to destablise it and failing that Hindoo India invaded East Pakistan outright in 1971, whilst America the "friend" of Pakistan stood idly by needlessly moving back and forth its useless Fifth Fleet.
Of course whilst India invaded East Pakistan, Afghanistan, right on cue, from wily Indians, informed the Government of Pakistan that it too is going to take action along the Durand line. This is a well documented fact.
After gobbling up East Pakistan the blood thirst of India was not over, now its machinations increased multifold in Afghanistan and suddenly Wali Khan was going to India to receive money and training to create unstablity and possible succession of the Frontier Province. Of course India was also found culpable in other terrorist movements in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces of Pakistan ad infinitum.
In your fabulous grasp of history and facts...
... you conveniently overlook that there was no country called Pakistan or people called Pakistani until just over 60 years ago. If historical peoples and natural borders have any weight, then it should actually default to an Afghan-Indo border somewhere in the middle of Pakistan, no ? You certainly know, in your far-reaching base of omniscience, that the term is an acronym and not a centuries old historically established ethnicity (like the Afghanis or Indians) ?
If you condemn Jews for callously and forcibly establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine or the US/UK for enabling or sponsoring it (and I might agree with you to some extent or another but will skip the larger argument for now), why wouldn't you hold an hapharzardly demarcated Islamic country (albeit by the Brits) to the same standards ?
Or is it that just you can't see past your particular religious/ideologic prism - the same egregious shortsightedness of which you regularly accuse America/Europe/India/Christians/Hindus/anyone not from your madrassa/etc. ?
All others : I'm just saying that Afghanistan sincerely deserves some good fortune soon and has been subject to the whims of other nations, but for a more balanced or palatable view, Rory Stewart's books would probably serve better to make an argument or shed insight than Lal's usual distracting vitriolic commentary and meandering hyperbole.
Distortion of facts seems to be a Hindoo trait
Distortion of facts seems to be a Hindoo trait perhaps part of deep-seated racism against non-Hindoos.
100% of Muslims of The Sub-Continent are natives to the land whereas only 5% of the Jews living in Palestine (in 1948) were born in Palestine.
So while Muslims have a full right to continue living in their own lands in The Sub Continent, the New Jews, migrants and forced imports from Eastern Europe, do not have any right to uproot the Palestinians and forcibly set themselves into the homes of the Palestinians.
Muslims would be happy to give 5% of Palestine, according to the 1948 numbers, to the Jews; and the 20% of Muslims trapped in Hindoo India should also be accorded their right to freedom and 20% of India should be partitioned further to provide a homeland for the Muslims.
The Balkanization of Pakistan is inevitable
Lal Qila is in Old Delhi and you are an Indian hater...go figure. Pakistan should reunite with India and spend all that money allocated towards defense on educating its masses and create jobs for its citizens a la TATA, BIRLA, MITTAL..etc..etc. The funny thing is that I cannot tell a Paki from an Indian Hindu or Muslim...you all look the same but carry so much baggage. Lighten up Hindu hater.
I have to admit that Lal Qila...
... actually has a fair point (for once) with his percentage breakdown and logic in pointing out the indigenous population's right over those of immigrants (Indians/Afghans that practice Islam vs. non-Middle Eastern Jews) in regards to standing.
However, and reverting back to his usual antics, he equates India and Pakistan and ridiculously inveighs that perhaps a larger percentage of the subcontinent be designated for Muslims.
Let's see:
Freely admitting the shortcoming in my grasp of statistical reality, my argument of there being no such thing as Pakistan until 60 years ago or any mention of a people called Pakistanis in history vs. clear evidence of long-standing Afghan and Indian history went largely unaddressed. Why am I not surprised at an attempt to distract the original point in favor of a warped opinion and more vitriolic blabber ?
Also, anyone rational (key word) that compares a country that is largely stable and where freedom of religion and protection of minorities and civil rights is a fairly accepted fact (however sincerely but still better than many) to a chronically unstable state in which only an overwhelmingly majority of adherents of one religion and the military have their run of the country - and which didn't exist until very recent history and hasn't established anything resembling prosperity or freedom of choice - will inevitably not choose (or even entertain) the option of diluting the former's territory to expand the latter's existential state.
... but thanks for the thought, Lal. Duly noted somewhere between "not a really good idea" and "um... what ?". Before you retort with some supposedly pro-Islamic inane rambling (which readers of this site know isn't a reflection of the many, many reasonable Muslims ), it has nothing to do with religion - a basic fact that some people (ahem) are incapable of grasping.
The entire subcontinent should be returned to the Aryans :) Wherever they went.
I love how he promulgates this idea of 'nativism', and how apparently muslims by nature deserve some kind of unified homeland because, you know how they all get along. Oops! Unless they're Baluchi... or Shia! Or Ahmadi!
Yes India might have a few large industrialists TATA, etc but they pale into insignificance when you consider the size of the country and over a billion population of which a majority live in abject poverty as depicted by the movies such as Slumdog Millionaire, midnight children.
How can so much evil come to the hearts of so many and change the course of a nation ? Where are those people now that are pictured here ? Hope needs a vision, Mr. Qayoumi has recalled a time not much different than mine growing up in the 50's an 60's in America, but those times have changed too. I praise His work in the challenge to bring memory and education to all. I can only cry that when man has two paths that though not always by his choice, a dark one can win. This eye-opening story a message to many world situations today. So glad I was able to see this and took the time to read it. Now too share it with others,
Kinda warms the heart to see all the wonderful changes religion forces on people.
Indian machinations in Pakistan and beyond
"The Pakistanis are straightforward and sometimes extremely stupid.
The Indians are more devious, sometimes so smart that we fall for their line"
Richard Nixon
Nixon called Indira Gandhi an "old witch";
"the Indians are bastards anyway";
"help India push the Pakistanis out";
"I don't want him to come in with that kind of jackass thing with me… Keating, like every ambassador who goes over there, goes over there and gets sucked in.";
"Those sons-of-bitches, who never have lifted a finger for us, why should we get involved in the morass of East Pakistan?";
"If East Pakistan becomes independent, it is going to become a cesspool. It's going to be 100 million people, they have the lowest standard of living in Asia."
– Nixon's dislike of 'witch' Indira
Your quotes of Richard M. Nixon on India don't make the impression you're perhaps hoping for. Nixon has been criticized and even demonized by the popular press since his resignation in disgrace. Try quoting more recent presidents of the United States.
Which has nothing to do with anything??
It is worth pointing out that Nixon felt this way because India was initially (and in many ways still is) a quasi socialist state that during his time played Soviet and American interests against one another.
But whatever. This guy is insane.
The erosion of civil society in Afghanistan can be blamed on many things, including colonial imperialism, however in my opinion religion is this state's worst enemy.
Institutionalized religion's cons aren't limited to Afghanistan
Establishment of religion as basis for a country simply doesn't work, and laxity in regards to separation of church and state hinders compounds the problem. In addition to stunting the continual evolution of mankind, it gave us the quandries of (among others) Pakistan, Israel, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and the disaster that was Bush's re-election. Let's not even delve historically into the Crusades and the internecine fallout within Sunnis and Shiites and ...
Pakistan not religion is this country's worst enemy
The vast majority of Afghans follow the Sufi tradition not the Wahhabi brand of Islam fostered by the Saudis and its client state Pakistan. Pakistan is the real enemy here not the religion of Islam.
Hi Kinda warms the heart to see all the wonderful changes religion forces on people.
www.arabalife.com http://arabalife.com/trafik-ceza-borcu-sorgulama-plakadan-arac-borcu-sorgulama-araba-borc-sorgusu
nice to look at, but that was a long time ago
this is inspiring, but it's up to the afghans. the only the the US can do is keep the country form becoming a playground for foreign powers. as it stands, we only exacerbate that problem.
While the comments pointing out that the photos are only representative of Kabul are correct, they miss the point. The images and analysis of Afghanistan consistently portrays the country as hopeless backwards and incapable of modernization. The photos demonstrate that this is not the case. They show that the country could have taken an entirely different direction.
So what should we reminisce about?
From what I have understood reading the article, what the writer primarily wants Afghans to miss is the contravention our cutlural values by bare-legged women, not just a a developing country in 50s. I never comment on articles but what made this a first time was that the statement 'men and women mingled casually at movie theaters and university campuses in Kabul' is used as an evidence that Afghanistan was not always "medieval". This is unfortunately not the first time I have heard this; people keep comparing the city to what it is now.
I hope of all people, our revered writers try to change the mentality instead of further promoting it.
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"Development" does NOT mean "Westernization"
An Afghan colleague once complained to me that the false, growing belief among Afghans that "development means westernization" could prove to be the downfall of all the progress that Afghanistan has made over the last decade in terms of the improvement in the lives of its people.
Sadly, the author of this article has fallen into the same trap by showing "western dress" to be a sign of progress or development, and it is unfortunate that an educated person is making the same, ignorant mistake that many others do in equating development with westernization.
It is comments like these that cause the backlash towards positive change and that are the source of so many of Afghanistan's problems today.
This is not just in Afghanistan but throughout the Arab & Muslim world. We must draw a strong line between modernization and westernization. Many are exploiting the concept that any development and changes brought about by Western assistance will be synonymous with eroding and attacking their culture. We need to ensure this falsehood is pointed out (and ensure it is in fact, false!!!).
5 minutes with Hamid Gul ex ISI chief
5 minutes with Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), talks about American pressure on the Pakistani Army, fighting in the tribal agencies, and the prospect of political reconciliation with the Taliban
Video here: http://lalqila.wordpress.com/
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The book depicts sophisticated middle/upper class people in an urban environment. Missing (or ignored?) are the majority of Afghans, mostly agrarian and poor, who populate the vast hinterland . Thus these photos concentrate on a tiny segment of society. Even for public relations purposes, depicting the modern face of ANY country, vis a vis its privileged classes, is patently disingenuous: this is, for all intents and purposes, a "minority" report that ignores the majority's status quo. I can understand how you might be wistful when viewing these photos but aside from conjuring comforting childhood memories your nostalgia elides the fact that this lifestyle afforded opportunities singularly available to a few.
Bored, you're right, but missing the point. Afghanistan has always been a poor country : when you see pictures of dry, dusty land with low mud huts, that's nature's way of telling you that it can't sustain much human presence. So Kabul might indeed have been an island of privilege, but it was a showpiece designed to show the rest of the countryside what was possible, and what they shouldl aspire to.
In other words, it is comforting to know that the Afghan people, who we are told are tribals with only a talent for fighting each other and foreigners, have normal aspirations for a normal boring middle class lifestyle.
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I would like to ask the author the basis upon which he says that Pakistan was responsible for destroying Afghanistan's armed services after the Soviets left. I think the author should be reminded that the great armed services that he refers to were completely destroyed and dismantled by the Soviets. In fact the author should be grateful for Pakistan's role in ousting the Soviets from Afghanistan. As he has been living in sunny California since the 60's I think he's knows little about the ground realities and should be informed that millions of refugees from Afghanistan have been housed here in Pakistan over the past 30 years. One wonders whether any other country in the world has done more than this for Afghanistan ??
Most of the Afghans are brain washed by Indian government in Kabul against Pakistan. You are indeed right that Afghanistan was destroyed by Soviet occupation which was supported by India and the Afghans still prefer India as a friend and Pakistan as an enemy, millions of Afghans who lived in Pakistan as refugees now returned back to Afghanistan with university degrees who are helping in the re-development of the country. There are still 2 million registered Afghan refugees left in Peshawar (exluding the statistics from other cities and unregistered ones), how many Afghan refugees are there in India? Pakistan is facing a great war challenge in it's tribal areas because of helping Afghanistan against Soviets in 1980s. Afghans should be thankful to Pakistan for what it has done for it's neighbouring Islamic country no other country has done more for it. India is exporting terrorism to Pakistan which has proved several times. Pakistani forces have caught many RAW agents in it's tribal areas fighting against Pakistani troops which entered from Afghanistan, they have also caught many trucks full of Indian made weapons in tribal areas, for India interfering in Pakistan, Pakistan is forced to interfere in India.
Indeed, Subhan Allah, brother. Your country is "forced" to pursue terrorism to achieve it's objectives.
FACT: You live in a la-la-land believing your own delusions. (Like your cleric who recently proclaimed that the 'f' in facebook was a Christian cross.)
Perhaps the intense hatred of non-Muslims, and Hindus in particular fostered by your Quran makes you conjure up delusions from your posterior.
I lived in Pakistan for a while and I know that anything can be correct about you people doing against Afghanistan, I never met an Indian in my whole life and they are not like you guys.
Pakistan is the worst virus in this world.
Don't let the pictures deceive you!
Afghanistan was a backwards country then, and would probably remain so after the Americans leave in vietnamesque fashion. Afghans - or at least the vast majority- were, and still are, a feudal, staunchly tribalistic and xenophobic people, deeply resistant to outside interference, at least, to a greater degree than their neighbours - in retrospect, perhaps they might have benefited from an extended period of British rule, or maybe not. But I digress.
Around the time of these pictures, Afghanistan was a testing ground for omiscient foreigners' - mainly American - grandiose and ill-conceived plans to create "a model society". Afghan society was so embryonic and rudimentary. It was an anthropologists wet dream; a mice lab on which to indulge their scholarly fantasies. Needless to say, the experiment ended in disaster.
The pictures reflect a period in which Afghanistan's "urban elite" enjoyed a brief spell of American and Soviet largesse in a backdrop of cold war paranoia. The perceived modernity was artificial and confined to a small minority. You needn't be too sorry.
Considering the Taliban were in part, a foreign creation, maybe Afghans have every right to be xenophobic.
P.S. Adam Curtis's terrific video-supplemented blog on the West's historic relationship with Afghanistan is most enchanting.
Thanks for the pointer to Adam's blog, it was fascinating. But I don't agree with your comment about "Afghanistan was a testing ground for omiscient foreigners' - mainly American - grandiose and ill-conceived plans". Or rather, I don't agree with how you make it seem like a bad thing :-) .
Afghanistan is part of the Eurasian landmass and on what they call the crossroads of history, which is a polite way of saying that any possible shit that could have happened has happened. It would have been stranger for it to have been ignored by major powers than for it to have been a part of power struggles.
And about foreigners or grandiose or ill-conceived plans, that too is a constant in history. Buddhism was started by a single individual in present day Nepal, and spread thousands of miles. The Mongols came out of central Asia and rolled over everything in their path. Etc. So just because white / European / Christian people are involved in foreign adventures, it's not automatically a bad thing. The American involvement in Afghanistan was both about making defensive alliances as well as an idealism about spreading American values, which are generally a good thing.
Its all about drug business my friend, bankers want to control the world by supporting US and British government and they control the drug market in the world and make money for the bankers, Afghanistan produces more than 93 % poppy of the world before 2001 Afghanistan was producing a very less amount comparing to today's production.
I was living in those days in Afghanistan and I could see everything!
First of all i declare that i am a Pakistani to remove any confusions.
No fight, Indians and Pakistani are unlucky that partition was done in haste and due to bloodshed, the dream of Jinnah as having Pakistan and India as friends never materialized. Can we both just say sorry for what we did on partition and genuinely move on. I wish to see a genuine peace between the two countries so that i can visit India as a tourist and not worried that i may be abducted by agencies and be presented as part of some conspiracy.
I guess Pakistan adopted entirely wrong policy for Afghanistan in 1979 (it was good for zia). There was no warm water approach by Russia and they would have eventually left but after the war, there was nothing left in Afghanistan.
The photo essay is good no matter it shows only elite because now even the elite do not exist like this in Afghanistan so surely there had been regression in Afghanistan (which is exactly the purpose of essay)
I agree with your sentiment, my friend. I enjoy lively/candid discourse as much as the next person but cringe at the venom of some of the posts.
Well done
The article was good but the comments were far more informative. One thing I might suggest -- perhaps everyone here needs to concentrate more on making a living, paying attention to family. I realize that under the circumstances this can be very, very difficult. But literally nothing could be more important.
Having said that, I realize that almost everyone in the region would like to be left alone., and for all the right reasons. But how realistic is that?
As a little kid in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades Geography was my favorite study, and so it remains today. I was particularly interested, at that young age, in your part of the world. That such dramatically different cultures could, and did, exist! Wonderful, I thought (and still do).
Don't let the various power struggles ruin your lives. Ignore them. Don't play into their hands. Live. They are nothing without your participation.
True statement. Yes there used to Afghanistan of Zahir Shah, Great Modern, Liberal society. free from Interference, not confused. But then the great Powers included that country in the great games of supermacy and Neo-Colonialism. They started interfering and then it all started. Russians came, Americans came, Pakistanis came, current political news Saudis started pumping money, Egyptians started sending Israeli weapons, and Afghanistan started falling into chaos day by day. One wonders whether any other country in the world has done more than this for Afghanistan?
Dear Mr. Qayoumi!
I lived in Afghanistan for more than 14 years and I just moved abroad, its easy to just say and judge about Afghanistan from miles away, but u never tried to help the people and pay the motherland back its debts, your generation ruined our lives and our futures, you all think of your selves.
Have you ever thought about helping the people of Afghanistan? Im sure never!
Its not a pride to wear small cloths and enjoy the ROCK N ROLL, on that time you just have seen Kabul, not other provinces and parts of Afghanistan! Why don't you come back to Afghanistan and teach in one of its universities? Don't think of yourself because you are old now and you have enjoyed enough, its time to pay back at least something to the poor people of our country.
You can't dare to do so!
Islam is a gutter 'religion' that glorifies death and violence
And also the subjugation of women. That is why the Islamic world is so rotten.
Well Smarg! What ever you think about Islam is your choice, however i must say that what you understand about it is not true. Islamic world is rotten because of not following Islam rather than vice versa.
More like once upon a time in "Kabul".
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United States should pay reparrations to Afghanistan
Actually Afghanistan was not always like this. The socialist parties and Russian supporters were very modern in their outlook and the country basically had a very chick upper and middle class. Poor people in country side aspired to become modern and given time it is what might have happened. But United States to take the Vietnam revenge started making troubled in that socialist country causing bloodshed which prompted the Afghan government of the time to call for Russian help. Once Russians rolled in United States started exporting wahabis from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan and then this country sank a few centuries back. Actually it was United States which pushed Afghanistan back and brought heroine to Afghanistan to finance Taliban against Russians.
Although these pictures are true and reflect progress, but it was limited to Kabul and perhaps a couple of other major cities. Unfortunately, the rest of Afghanistan were living not less than a barbaric life - even to date. Should we even call it real progress or swimming against tide? You are lucky to have good memories of Afghanistan. Thank you for sharing.
Playing Game with the Nations and the world
the bloody *U*S***&**U*K* are playing with the nations, they just draw a game plan and based on that they recruite only the stone hearted pepole, and pass them a Killing certificate, the bloody troops in Iraq & Afg doesn't know anythning else beside just killing the innocent people, the bloody **C*I*A** suppored *T*A*L*I*BAN** are just thier toys and dance on thier plans, so both are Terrorists.
and I feel sorry for the people of the US & UK some of them honestly send thier sons/doughters to buthchery, when they retrun home, they will be stone hearted and only thing the might know will be killing of human being.
otherwise there was peace, stability, human right/women right,
so these are the tools that they use against these poor countries
we all Muslim/Christin/Hindu/etc. should stop supporting such bloody ideas
else we are also sharing the crime they are commiting for thier own interest and benefits, how can they justify the killing of the innocent people, do you think only this will be enough, they say, we appologise for the lose, it is war and colitral damage, if they are human being, then thier "Inside" will punish them one day for sure in this world. as a muslim if we are not accepting the other heavenly religions (christinity/jews) and thier profits, we are not good muslims, but the f**nk **U*K**&**U*S** intoduce these people as the enemy of the world. as wise people what do you thinkg.???
This was definitely an eye-opener and thanks to Mr Qayoumi for bringing this out. But I feel, Mohammad Qayoumi's portrayal of the 1950s and 60s Afghanistan seems to be limited to Kabul. Do the early Afghanis really think that Kabul represented the whole of Afghanistan? This is one of the major criticisms I have heard from some of the Afghanis who were not from Kabul. And they never fail to give a completely different picture of Kabul compared to the rest of the country. I would like to see comments from people here who have seen the old Afghanistan and not just the old Kabul. The Afghani friends that I have are too young (and probably biased too) to be able to give us a good idea of Afghanistan vis-à-vis Kabul. Moreover, as per my understanding, not only different parts of Afghanistan was physically (appearance of cities and towns) different, but the people and their cultures differed a lot too. For Example, Kabul was very much Western (as depicted in Mr Qayoumi's article here) while there were other parts where the native culture was much more prevalent. It's interesting to see how few people can shape the destiny of thousands of people and entire nations.
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text:
Ignoring important business information in order to
save money is like saving up sex for your old age. What we learn from history
is that people don't learn from history – Warren Buffet
Despite a plethora of negative publicity and bad relationships with the industry's press, analysts and other vendors, Atego, due to the efforts of Dr Jay Gambrell its founding chairman,
has reorganized its management problems and proven that it is financially sound and technologically competitive. During these difficult times, the company has kept pace with the quality of its MDD (model driven development) products and has remained a leader in the Ada market space.
Let me state as a matter of full disclosure that I have in the past been a not-to-polite critic of Atego and its management. Hence it is only fair that I report on the positive changes that have occurred and address the topic that I previously found to be of concern.
A company is judged by factors not necessarily related to product offerings and quality. It is incumbent that a company maintains positive relations with the press and industry analysts. With all the changes at the company, it might be construed that the company is failing and it's best to avoid dealing with it. It takes a strong executive, once having been made aware, to ensure that changes are made.
To summarize:
1) MDD developments have been shown to reduce development cost (as compared with similar
developments that didn't use MDD) by more than 30%
2) Artisan Studio users enjoyed similar results that are comparable to IBM's Rhapsody product
3) Atego has made management changes and placed an emphasis on positive relationships within the
4) Atego has reorganized their marketing efforts freeing up their staff to better interact
with customers as well as with vendors and the press.
5) Atego bought IBM Rational's Ada product line to consolidate their marketing and sales efforts in this market
segment. Atego inherited Rational's Ada customers, many of whom remain IBM customers for other products.
Let me address the rumors that Atego is financially vulnerable. Let's face it – I'm capable of reading abalance sheet, but not sufficiently sophisticated to be able to detect financial slight of hand. While Atego now boasts a much larger balance sheet and revenue and profit line, I still believe when it comes to ascertaining Atego's financial well being I rely on IBM Rational, one of the best managed companies in the world.
For IBM to entrust Atego with their customer base that not only used their Ada products but many of the other IBM products as well, they certainly did a detailed and exhaustive analysis of Atego and their long term viability. For me, that is the most compelling reason to dispel any rumors of financial instability. And they did this in spite of the fact that Atego's biggest competitor for modeling is IBM!
Let me point out that financial strength and operating profitability are different. Atego remains profitable, but their activities and expenditures are closely watched, as they should be in a responsibly managed company. Atego claims to be the largest independent embedded tools provider – a reputation they will have to earn again and again every day.
I find Gambrell, who has an extensive banking background, to be a most responsible executive – which also gives me confidence in Atego's future.
As a former Executive VP of a public medical devices company, I have personally encountered problems with recalcitrant managers that tried to build personal empires at the expense of the company that paid their salaries. I was fortunate to have had feedback from our marketplace from individuals who were so incensed at their treatment that they took the effort to complain (loudly and without limiting their use of language for emphasis) to me personally. Some might consider these folks to have a pathological need to bitch – for me they were a godsend that enabled me to correct problems that could have adversely impacted our emerging company.
So it is in my business DNA to offer unsolicited (and perhaps unwanted) information. It is to Gambrell's credit that he didn't dismiss the bad news as being from a pain in the butt.
I did tell Jay that I'll have to find a new target for my somewhat slanted sense of humor – but that I'm delighted for his success. Now I can focus my efforts on delving into the more recent and promised product offerings coming from Atego. There are several promising process related tools coming, so let's see what a renewed focus from Atego will deliver. This will not keep me from being a critic if I see fit – but I'm excited for the industry that an alternative modeling compny has come of age
For those that might remember my comment that "the wheel is spinning but the gerbil is dead", I'm glad toreport that the gerbil is doing fine.
What Medical Device Embedded Developers and Vendors Need to Know About Obamacare
Medical device companies and embedded vendors that sell to this market segment are facing, depending on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, a huge downturn in this market segment. Unless Romney is elected president and the Republicans get control of the senate, the provision of the Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) tax on medical device manufactures will have significant repercussions. It is ulikely that this tax will be overturned if the current makeup of congress and the white house remains in 2013.
Especially hard hit could be the hundreds of small companies developing medical software applications. Many of these apps can significantly impact and enhance the practice of medicine. The IRS is deciding now whether to treat apps as medical devices subject to the tax – somehow I don't find comfort in the potential outcome.
As a result of the looming device tax, many medical manufacturer companies are moving production overseas, good jobs are going to Europe and Asia, and many cutting-edge medical devices will now be produced elsewhere for import into the U.S. It would be irresponsible for CEOs to wait until after the election and the seating of the new congress to not take appropriate actions to protect their company.
Therefore the impact of the Obamacare tax may cause irreparable disruptions. Embedded vendors will need to re-strategize their sales efforts and offerings to the medical device segment. Vendors will need to show:
- That the use of their tools, operating systems, processors, etc. will result in a lower development cost (data based)
- That these will result in products being shipped earlier meeting targeted windows of opportunity (again supported by data)
- That such tools, OSes, etc., will be reusable for future designs and developments
Ada Developers Rejoice: IBM and Atego Play "Let's Make a Deal"
For some reason people take their cues from price action rather than from values. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get – Warren Buffet
We have a condo in the New Hampshire Mountains on a beautiful lake. The town of 2000 inhabitants swells to 12,000 in the summer – and every weekend brings forth a litany of "yard sales" and "flea markets". It's fun and instructive to see so many folks seeking "hidden treasure" out of what is another persons "junk".
Watching these events brings to mind how some embedded companies seek out such "treasure" by acquiring someone else's problems. As Warren Buffet wrote, "given a lot of inside information and a million dollars, a company can go broke in a year".
On occasion a deal gets put together that actually (surprise and shock) makes sense and is beneficial to all involved. In this case, IBM, Atego and, most important, Ada developers each come away with something special.
Atego has entered into an agreement with International Business Machines Corporation to acquire the IBM Rational Apex® Ada Developer product family, including the IBM Rational Apex integrated development environment. Under the terms of the agreement, Atego will acquire the Rational Ada Developer product line, including all products and intellectual property. The IBM development and support staff responsible for IBM Rational Ada Developer will join Atego. The acquisition will see all of the IBM Rational Ada Developer employees integrated into Atego's global business operations. Atego will rebrand the product family to' Atego ApexAda Developer' and the core IDE product 'Rational Apex' to 'Atego Apex'.
Let's take a closer look at the deal. IBM Rational has over the years made significant acquisitions in order to create a one-stop total design and operational capability to their customers. Going beyond their model-driven development (MDD) capabilities and integrating in quality controls, the Jazz worldwide cooperative development platform, as well as business metrics, and validation/verification and integrated change and requirements management solutions, Rational has uniquely positioned themselves for the high end, high gross margin business software market.
Ada solutions to IBM represent a small return on investment and a smaller revenue stream to the overall direction of the company.
Atego, however, has an MDD capability but is more focused on the embedded world across many verticals. For some of these markets, Ada use remains an important endeavor and developers that use Ada are better served by an organization that can better focus on their needs.
In a recent 2012 EMF survey of embedded developers, 8.6% of respondents indicated that they use Ada in their developments (a sizable market). 76% of these respondents indicated that they build on legacy code while 20% indicated that they bring forth legacy code. Interestingly, only 4% of respondents state that their new applications are NOT dependent on legacy Ada applications.
When asked what was the most important factors in making the decision to use Ada, 20% each replied "availability of open source objects" and "improved use of existing software" while 16% responded "easier integration of independently developed software components".
This market intelligence data strongly supports the market potential for the Atego acquired technology. Remembering the opening Buffet quote, this is the "Value" that Atego acquired – although the "Price" was not mentioned.
Many embedded acquisitions are predicated on price – whereas strategic value is often overlooked.
In EMF's opinion, every stake holder came out a winner. It's nice to see that happen in this case.
What We Need is another Sputnik
On a personal note, it was in October 1957 that the world awoke to the beep-beep sounds of the Russian launched Sputnik satellite. And the race was on.
I was a first semester freshman EE student at Washington University (St. Louis) – and we were abuzz with the implications. I was too young to understand my good fortune in choosing EE over Chemical Engineering – but it was an exciting time.
In April 1961 The Russians launched Yuri Gagarin and his Vostok 1 spacecraft into orbit making him the first human in space (Alan Shepard was to fly in March 1961 but his flight was put off until May 5, 1961).
Jack Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election in a close finish over Richard Nixon (thanks to a 120% voter turn out in Chicago – and Nixon refusing to challenge that vote). President Kennedy challenged us to "put a man on the moon within the decade". The technologies to make this happen hadn't been invented yet, and the collateral off shoots of the space program made possible microprocessors, advance medical devices, enhanced communication systems. For the billions the government invested in the Program, the payback was measured in the trillions of dollars that accrued to our economy not to mention the giant leap in our life styles that this technology afforded us.
So how did Kennedy, the supposed liberal, pay for this? He lowered taxes and encouraged and supported private businesses which resulted in enhanced revenues for the US Treasury. This will probably come as a shock to most progressives today – particularly those that loved Jack Kennedy (maybe they got confused with the actions of his brother Teddy). Lower taxes and eliminating unreasonable restrictions on small business resulted in a large increase in US revenues.
2012 EMF Survey of Embedded Developers: Where Developers get their Most Trusted Information – Comparing EMF Blog Readers Responses to those of the Industry Respondents
A special link was sent to our Blog readers asking them to take the 2012 EMF Survey of Embedded Developers so that we could compare their responses with respondents from the embedded industry to questions regarding where developers get their most trusted information and other factors in their decision making process.
This is a brief summary – a more detailed paper will be developed later.
First we asked the following important question: Which of the following resources do you find to be the most useful for researching the purchase of RTOSes or compilers, simulation tools, requirements management tools, product management and program management tools for your designs?
The responses were:
Industry | Blog Readers | |
Co-workers | 57.3% | 52.7% |
Industry publications | 47.2% | 52.7% |
Vendors' Web sites | 42.3% | 41.8% |
White papers | 42.3% | 52.7% |
Online forums | 39.9% | 56.4% |
Conferences | 37.1% | 25.5% |
Webinars | 32.7% | 21.8% |
Vendors' sales representatives | 16.5% | 7.3% |
Wiki blogs | 16.1% | 23.6% |
Other | 2.8% | 1.8% |
Not surprisingly, online forums, white papers, industry pubs and co-workers were the leading source of information for our Blog readers, while vendor's websites replaced online forums among industry respondents.
Second, we asked the following important question: In general, what characteristics are the most important to you in buying embedded products and tools?
The responses were:
Industry | Blog Readers | |
Price/cost/value of product | 69.1% | 73.2% |
Ease of use of product | 61.4% | 58.9% |
Quality and reliability of products | 57.7% | 60.7% |
Compatibility of products | 41.5% | 35.7% |
Technical support | 37.8% | 48.2% |
Speed/performance of products | 28.0% | 21.4% |
Reputation of supplier/vendor | 16.7% | 12.5% |
Leading edge technology | 15.9% | 16.1% |
Sales service and support | 8.9% | 7.1% |
Personal trusted relationship to rep or support people | 8.1% | 7.1% |
Ease of dealing with vendors' processes | 6.5% | 1.8% |
Other | 1.6% | 0.0% |
The responses were similar with our Blog readers' emphasizing technical support and the quality and reliability of products.
The third question was: As Cloud Computing and Machine to Machine computing become prevalent, how important is cloud enabled to your future embedded products purchases?
Industry | Blog Readers | ||
Critical | 3.2% | 8.9% | |
Very important | 7.3% | 8.9% | |
Somewhat important | 19.4% | 21.4% | |
Not very important | 23.0% | 23.2% | |
Not at all important | 43.1% | 35.7% | |
Responsibility of another vendor | 4.0% | 1.8% |
EMF believes that in the future Cloud computing will usher in a new and large market for embedded designs and technologies, it seems that our readers are far ahead of the industry in recognizing its importance.
The fourth question was: How important is brand awareness (prior knowledge of the reputation and quality of the brand or company) in your selection of an embedded product or tool?
Industry | Blog Readers | |||
Critical | 3.6% | 7.0% | ||
Very important | 26.9% | 22.8% | ||
Somewhat important | 45.8% | 45.6% | ||
Not very important | 16.2% | 17.5% | ||
Not at all important | 7.5% | 7.0% |
The responses were basically the same – brand awareness is important.
In a paper to be developed later, we will look at branding issues in which we compare responses from developers that are aware of a vendor with those of developers that aren't familiar with a vendor (such considerations as ranking on search engine, geographic location, and accessibility to a sales person and references from current customers).
These data can be crucial to vendor's sales efforts.
For those of you that have sales or marketing responsibilities and would like to gain such insight, please contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com (508-881-1850) and I'll be glad to chat with you.
Beware of Chip Companies Bearing False Gifts
Back in the mid 1960's American Airlines ran a very successful ad program (the ad was "Take me along if you Love me") in which business travelers were allowed to bring their wives along on their business trip – at no additional cost.
Thousands of business travelers took advantage of the offer and sales soared. Leave it to some marketing moron to contact the traveling "wives" and ask them how they enjoyed their trip. Seems that many of the "take me alongers" were not the wives but someone else.
Hundreds of divorces ensued and the airline was sued by many and sales took a turn for the worse.
Fast forward to 2011 and it seems that the grandsons/granddaughters of those hapless AA marketing mavens might now be working for Freescale.
Freescale is giving away free the MQX operating system – but is Freescale helping or handicapping their customers?
In a recent EMF survey of 660 embedded developers, we were able to compare design outcomes among all of the major operating systems (using our unique Dashboard tool – see video).
Citing just a few highlights,
ThreadX | Micrium | VxWorks | MQX | |
Time from design start to shipment (months) | 10.5 | 11.3 | 16.3 | 15.8 |
Percent of Designs completed Behind Schedule | 29.8% | 40.0% | 51.1% | 56.6% |
So we are left wondering whether Freescale realizes what they are doing to their customers – and whether the grandsons/granddaughters of American Airlines marketers can find a place where their efforts can't do any more harm. The Obama administration comes to mind.
Percent of Hardware Budget Devoted to COTS Hardware
Considerable attention and speculation has been given to the use of COTS hardware across different vertical markets, and whether this trend is expanding, remaining stable or declining. If the use of COTS is expanding, one would expect to see an economic benefit to its use – hence, a more important measure of COTS utilization would be reflected in the budgeted amount of COTS hardware as a percentage of total hardware cost.
In a recent 2011 survey of embedded developers (653 respondents), EMF asked respondents to report the percent of their total hardware budget that was devoted to COTS hardware.
Table I presents their responses according to vertical market. Whereas Aerospace/Avionics and Military had the highest response (these data reflect the percent of the COTS hardware budget compared with total hardware budget) Datacom and Electronic Instrumentation had a better than average response.
Percent of Hardware Budget Devoted to COTS Hardware | |
2011 EMF Survey of Embedded Developers | |
Industry Average | 23% |
Auto-Transportation | 19% |
Aerospace-Avionics | 30% |
Consumer Electronics | 22% |
Datacom-Networking | 27% |
Electronic Instrumentation | 24% |
Industrial Automation | 20% |
Medical | 20% |
Military | 32% |
Office Automation | 14% |
Telecom | 23% |
Table I
Table II presents developer responses according to chip architecture.
It is interesting to note that the budgeted percent of COTS hardware is consistent across all architectures, DSP and FPGA, but it is significantly larger for dual core and multi core developments. This might be due to the recent inclusion of multiple cores in embedded developments where the focus might be on software development within a mostly reusable hardware configuration. It will be interesting to see if this data is repeated in 2012.
Percent of Hardware Budget Devoted to COTS Hardware | |
2011 EMF Survey of Embedded Developers | |
Industry Average | 23% |
8-bit | 21% |
16-bit | 22% |
32-bit | 24% |
64-bit | 23% |
128-bit | 26% |
Dual Core | 28% |
Multi-Core | 35% |
Table II
Information regarding the survey and data can be found at
Survey data and the use of the EMF Embedded Dashboard used to compute these data can be seen at:
Give me some of That UK Venture Capital – They must be throwing it away
Never ask a barber if you need a haircut – Warren Buffet
The giggles keep coming – Atego has purchased another company (albeit a competent one – notwithstanding a questionable fit). This time it was Hi Rely, a service company that actually knows what its doing – although at a premium price.
I guess that in Jay Gambrel's "Alice in Wonderland" dreams he believes that he's going to match IBM's 35,000 person service capabilities. Jay once told me that he's a banker and that he doesn't have to understand how the embedded world works.
I've known Vance Hildebrand for a long time – and I have previously recommended him and his organization. At least Hi Rely offers a useful service and has good people – good offerings and good people, however, do not necessarily create a positive and revenue producing combination. Time will tell.
Knowing Vance as a friend and colleague, I asked him why he sold to Atego – going in my mind from Upper East Side to downtown Newark. I asked if a) he's in trouble with his bookie, or, b) grandma needed implants to get her job back at Hooters. For the record, Vance loved my email to him and told me that he passed wine through his nose while laughing so hard. He offered to explain his willingness to be bought out by Atego after the May ESC conference. Vance has not responded to my emails since the wine-nose incident and we are on the lookout for a much too happy guy. Vance was paid in dollars (or Euros) and not in Atego stock – I told you that he is competent.
So Jay, please tell us who these more than generous VC folks are so that companies with good prospects and poor financial positions can gain access.
Jay, as a gesture of good will from this side of the puddle – and hoping that I can throw a bone to your financial backers, I'd like to introduce you to Gregg Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri.
So let me posit the following question: What differentiates the Atego acquisition strategy from Mr. Miller's business? The answer is that neither seem to make sense – BUT Mr. Miller has made $20 million with his product he calls "Neuticles".
Mr. Miller felt strongly that post-neutered dogs were too ashamed to show their face (or southern exposure) to other dogs, so he created fake testicles (Neuticles) that he sells for $100 a pair (not including surgery). To date he has sold over 250,000 Neuticles. Truth be told, I have a distant cousin who had Pekinese-sized Neuticles implanted in her Great Dane (we suspect nothing sinister) . The dog probably had emotional problem to begin with.
I guess that Neuticles is an easier sell than realtime Java
So Jay, don't give up – if Mr. Miller can find gold with his "not of this planet" inspiration, so can you. Rumor has it that there is an embedded Unix company for sale.
Interpreting Embedded Survey Outcomes – Different Surveys Report Different Results
Surveys of embedded developers to establish market parameters regarding RTOS use must be careful to avoid unintentional bias.
I have recently been contacted by senior executives from RTOS companies mentioning UBM's survey of embedded developers that placed FreeRTOS as the most used RTOS for embedded use in 2011 (14% of respondents). FreeRTOS placed 3rd in the 2010 UBM survey. Year-over-year EMF data is at substantial odds with these findings.
EMF takes no position on how UBM conducts their survey or on their results. EMF data for the past two years have shown that FreeRTOS usage has garnered less than 1% of total developer responses. This encompasses over 1200 responding developers. This is a significantly lower response than the 14% reported by UBM. EMF has no idea of how this discrepancy came about. We stand by our data as our surveys and responses are restricted and carefully monitored. We make no judgment regarding UBM's methods or results. We are responding to requests to report our findings.
In EMF's 2011 Annual Survey of Embedded Developers, eleven thousand embedded developers were statistically selected and sent invitations to participate in the 2011 survey. Six hundred and fifty three developers responded to our invitation. PIN numbers were assigned to each request so that we could insure that only those invited participated in the survey – and that they could respond only once.
In 2011 developers reported using an in-house RTOS (20.1%), Android (19.3%), XPE (16.5%) and CE (15.9%). FreeRTOS was used by 0.9% of respondents. From our perspective, the suggestion that FreeRTOS use would exceed that of in-house, Android, XPE, CE, or VxWorks use is beyond any reasonable reality check.
How to Tell the Difference between Market Intelligence and Market Stupidity
Ignoring important business information in order to save money is like saving up sex for your old age. Warren Buffet
An archeologist was searching along the Amazon River when he stumbled onto a tribe of warriors. They were both shocked and surprised to see each other. The archeologist cried out "Lord, please save me for I am totally screwed". A black cloud appeared and a loud voice cried out "you are not screwed – pick up the rock in front of you and kill the chief". He picked up the rock and threw it hitting the chief in the head killing him instantly. The archeologist looked up to see 40 tribesmen coming at him with their spears aimed at him. He looked to the cloud and a loud voice said …
"OK – NOW you're screwed"
Sometimes market advice seems to work that way.
A decade ago the merchant computer board industry was abuzz with CompactPCI (cPCI) forecast to replace the VME Bus. Market analysts were calling cPCI the two-billion dollar marketplace. Given that cPCI was controlled by three vendors (by definition a commodity marketplace), we called it the "zero-billion dollar marketplace". Advocates told me that I was looking at the tip of the iceberg. I said that we were looking at the tip of the ice-cube!
The outcome was a no-brainer. commodity markets don't grow as strong and as large as polyopoly markets (those that support a broad range of vendors). In addition, virtually every cPCI design was custom – not off the shelf. So who won? Not us – we were correct in our analysis, but no one bought our research. Other market research firms made a lot of money selling what vendors wanted to hear – but those vendors (Force Computer and Motorola Computer Group, among others) are long gone.
We never regretted our strategy – although we didn't make any money in having the correct analysis. Ten years later, we are still here and doing fine.
The EMF Approach to Comprehensive and Reliable Market Intelligence
EMF's Market Intelligence Program involves three steps
- A comprehensive and statistically accurate survey statistically derived to insure randomness
- An initial series of cross-tabs to provide an overview of the survey results
- And an interactive Dashboard that enables you to explore the data set to determine relationships in the data that can be essential to one's efforts
No survey is adequate unless the data can be interrogated from a multitude of perspectives to establish relationships and correlations. EMF does this using a unique tool we call the Executive Dashboard.
A well constructed survey and the use of the Dashboard can provide the following:
• Determine comparisons between your competitor's products and yours
• Determine developer metrics: number of developers per project; number of lines of written code as well as total lines of code; cancellations; designs completed ahead of or behind schedule – and how many months behind schedule; and, comparisons between pre-design expectations and final design results – and be able to do this for any vertical market, any chip architecture used, etc.
• One can look at developers' most pressing concerns, what design processes are used and what developers believe are best practice
• Look at product line deficiencies and needs
• Look at what developers are planning to use and do
• Degree of satisfaction of customers with products and tools
• Find market messages that resonate with potential customers, and keep products aligned with these benefits
We have put together a series of videos to illustrate how our surveys are constructed and how the dashboard is used. We encourage you the reader and embedded professional to think about how you evaluate information that is critical to your success.
You don't want that black cloud telling you that "now you're screwed". The only thing worse would be if you had paid for that information.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2010 team profiles: Cleveland Browns
Originally Published: April 13, 2010
Gary Horton | Scouts Inc.
Scouts Inc. takes a look at all 32 NFL teams headed into the 2010 season: the decision-makers, the offensive philosophy, defensive outlook and three main team needs. Find your favorite team -- or its rivals -- in the sidebar on the right.
To continue reading this article you must be an Insider
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Need more information?
Gary Horton spent 10 years in the NFL as a scout and another 10 years at the college level as an assistant coach and recruiter. He is the founder and most seasoned member of the Scouts Inc. staff, and his extensive experience at all levels of football make him an excellent talent evaluator.
- RG III: Goal Week 1 but career comes first
- Cards ink 3rd-round pick Mathieu to contract
- Rodgers wants Pack to retire Favre's No. 4
- Pats' Brady not surprised Welker left team
Scouts Inc. Profiles All 32 NFL teams
As we move into summer 2010, the NFL will return sooner than you think. Scouts Inc. takes a look at where every team stands in terms of shot-callers, philosophy on both sides of the ball, and three main team needs.
All NFL teams
- Arizona Cardinals
- Atlanta Falcons
- Baltimore Ravens
- Buffalo Bills
- Carolina Panthers
- Chicago Bears
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Dallas Cowboys
- Denver Broncos
- Detroit Lions
- Green Bay Packers
- Houston Texans
- Indianapolis Colts
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Miami Dolphins
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- Philadelphia Eagles
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- San Diego Chargers
- San Francisco 49ers
- Seattle Seahawks
- St. Louis Rams
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Tennessee Titans
- Washington Redskins
- Bowen: 5 second-year breakout candidates
- Edwards: The NFL's all-time Top 20 coaches
- Tuley: Best early-season win-total bets
- Red Flags: NFC East | North | South | West
- Kiper: 2014 Big Board | Top TEs | OLBs | ILBs


text:
Brendan M Gillen founded Interdimensional Transmissions in late 1994 when he heard far too many ancient voices in his head. Positive that dimensions were colliding and that he could literally feel the deepest will of some mystic past, he decided not to ignore these voices but to contemplate their input, and thus Interdimensional Transmissions came to fruition and the idea-based project Ectomorph found a true home. Since then the vision has continually grown organically and mutated into something that is hard to describe yet easy to feel. His sets effortlessly combine a multitude of seemingly disparate genres into a coalescing solid sound system sensation - pure transcendent psychedelic wizardry. A polymath or sonic alchemist or something. He has recently produced Erika's solo debut, provided a remix for "Hexagon Cloud RMXD" and collaborated with her on the song "Gardeners".
NO WAY BACK at all
May 26, 2013 - Detroit |
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North Hex
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Weekend Lovers
April 6, 2013 - Detroit |


text:
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
The best weapons and vehicles in the series' history!
This guerilla warfare is perfectly suited to Bungie's peerless combat and variety, which excels regardless whether you're racing through the legs of giant Scarabs on your quad-bike, or facing off against four Hunters in a neon-drenched nightclub atop one of Reach's spacescrapers.
Wield those shields
To help finish the fight, Bungie has assembled the best weapons and vehicles in the series' history, from reinstating the pistol to its former glory and including the Revenant - a small, nimble Covenant tank - to introducing new equipment collectibles, such as the armour lock, hologram and jetpack, which bring significant, complementary changes to combat tactics.
Useful and enjoyable in the main campaign, these equipment collectibles come into their own in multiplayer, where they are assigned as class-specific loadouts. As in the campaign, these new additions are infused into the classic structure to ensure evolutionary gameplay, which marks the pinnacle of the Halo multiplayer experience.
A lotta bang for your truck
But if the promise of jetpacking your way to domination, or watching your enemy cluelessly empty a full clip into your hologram doesn't whet your appetite, then perhaps the new modes will. Joining the regular Slayer and CTF modes, Invasion is the best of the new team death match types, which sees 8 vs 8, Spartans vs Covenant fighting on a dynamically changing battlefield, punctuated by increasingly powerful load-outs.
Next page: 10 Years in the Making
I'm Sorry?
What genre is that? THe one QUake and Doom started, and was then revolutionised by Half-Life?
Or the sperate one that Halo: Combat Evolved resides in? H:CE beginning life as an open ended world with wildlife and interaction and ended up as a console-ised copy-pasted, generic, bland shoot-hide-repeat-fest.
Seriously, the codex level.. how did everyone not feel like they had been utterly ripped off? It was teh SAME LEVEL REPEATED 5 TIMES.
I had to make my own pleasure in it by, in a level where you open a door and the enemies run and jump on the flying bike things, reloading about a squillion times until I managed to headshot each enemy and steal their bike. Skipping a whole section of the level. Great fun. Completely unintended by the developers. For obvious reasons never played 2 or3, and yet my definition of "FPS" is still perfectly intact.
Anyone that's interested in a really enjoyable game check out Star Wars: Republic Commando on Steam. Cheap and fun.
Over to you fanbois (i won't be reading this thread again anyway)
I've never played a good console FPS
..and of course it all boils down to the control system. No matter how good the graphics, story and gameplay, the frustration of getting shot in the back while i'm slowly panning around to do a 180 makes me rage. No console controller is as fast or precise as a keyboard and mouse.
But don't listen to me, I'm just a grey haired old bastard that still plays Q2 over 12 years since it came out. I seriously doubt that people will be playing Halo in 12 years' time.
True successor to Combat Evolved?
I won't be playing that, then. I'm one of those supposedly "resentful" PC FPS gamers, and when the original Halo came to PC I gave it a shot. It was one of the most depressingly disappointing games I have ever played. Dull, repetitive, derivative crap, and from what I've played of the others when I've been drunk enough, they're no better.
And pointing out a large number of flaws in a mediocre FPS series right before giving the game 95%? Riiiight...


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I am Director of Georgetown's Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an Associate Professor in Georgetown's Philosophy Department.
I did my graduate training at Oxford, Princeton, and Berkeley. I have been visiting faculty at the Dept. of Bioethics at the NIH and at Johns Hopkins University.
My research interests all focus on ethics, from the very applied to the very abstract. In applied ethics, I am most interested in bioethics, including law and public policy issues. On this, I bring to bear two perspectives that are often thought to be in deep conflict— analytic philosophy and feminist theory.
At the most abstract level, I am interested in the metaphysics and epistemology of ethics—in particular, whether and in what sense moral claims can be said to be objective and again whether and in what sense these claims can be captured in law-like generalizations.
The writings and projects links at the top give a more complete summary of my work.