Gen146;s problems

Pakistan8217;s nuclear secrets go on spilling over. In the American media, and particularly in the NEW YORK TIMES, they8217;re still busy ...

Pakistan8217;s nuclear secrets go on spilling over. In the American media, and particularly in the NEW YORK TIMES, they8217;re still busy connecting the dots of the audacious trading network. At the centre, of course, is A.Q. Khan. Who, according to the NYT, built himself into the largest, most sophisticated exporter in the nuclear black market. Or as the WASHINGTON POST columnist Jim Hoagland christened him, 8216;8216;Pakistan8217;s Nuclear Ali Baba8217;8217;. On Musharraf, there8217;s continuing ambivalence. After all, said the NYT, the General has become, more than any Muslim leader, 8216;8216;a bridge, or a pivot, between Islam and the West8217;8217;.

NEWSWEEK dwelt on Musharraf8217;s Problem Next: his own military. What will he do about the spendthrift and pampered institution, even if he manages to dodge the extremists? The magazine pointed out that Pakistan8217;s military hogs 22 per cent of the national budget, spends 70 per cent of the government8217;s tax revenues and Parliament has yet to debate a defense budget 8212; it simply 8216;8216;rubber-stamps8217;8217; it. This institution is threatened by Khan8217;s revelations, which may provoke western countries to levy sanctions against Islamabad. Smoke 8217;Em Out

Last week, Mohamed ElBaradie, director general of the IAEA, had dubbed the Pak revelations the tip of the iceberg. This week, he wrote in the NYT of the 8216;8216;sophisticated worldwide network8217;8217; that can deliver systems for producing material required for weapons. 8216;8216;If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction8217;8217;, he intoned, outlining steps to amend the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty.

ElBaradie also wrote of the need to confront the 8216;8216;root causes of insecurity8217;8217; in areas of 8216;8216;longstanding conflict8217;8217;, including South Asia. He urged the world to abandon the 8216;8216;traditional approach8217;8217; of defining security in terms of boundaries. Terrorism today, he said, must be fought with 8216;8216;an infectious security culture that crosses borders8217;8217;.

Bush made a speech on nuclear nonproliferation and US papers noted the return of the 8216;we-will-smoke-them-out8217; idiom: 8216;8216;We will find the middlemen, suppliers, buyers8230; we8217;re not going to rest until you are stopped8217;8217;.

Educating US

This week in the American media, Bush8217;s top economist was reported as saying that outsourcing of US service jobs to workers overseas is good for the nation8217;s economy. He called the trend a welcome chapter in world trade liberalisation. He was diving into an election year debate that is becoming increasingly raucous.

N. Gregory Mankiw8217;s argument 8212; that shipping jobs to low-cost countries benefits US consumers who can avail of lower labour costs 8212; has been seconded by other economists and business leaders. But it is unlikely to seduce the Democrats who are set to make 8216;8216;economic nationalism8217;8217; a centrepiece of their campaign.

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For NYT columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, the real issue lay elsewhere. He said America8217;s response to the outsourcing furore should be to bolster its 8216;8216;second-rate8217;8217; education system. He drew comparisons between US and India, unflattering to the former country. In Bangalore, Kristof quoted an Indian friend on this one, children learn algebra in elementary school and the average upper middle-class child finishes elementary school with a better grounding in math and science than the average child in the US.

Kristof8217;s prescription: The US must value math and sciences, not just humanities. Revere Plato, but also remember the sign at the entrance of his academy: 8216;8216;Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here8217;8217;.

Osama, on screen

And now, Osama, the film. The first movie to be shot in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, opened Friday in New York and Los Angeles; it has already drawn a lot of attention on the festival circuit. But why 8216;Osama8217;? Why this name for the story of a girl who passes herself off as a boy in order to work in an Afghanistan still ruled by the Taliban?

Because, Barmak told TIME, his film is also about horror. And because 8216;8216;under the pressure of his name, our people lost their culture, their personal and national identities8217;8217;.