Note:
The following letter was sent to Brampton Guardian, but was not printed. It is about Miss Pakistan World Beauty Contest in Brampton, Aug 2010. This pageant was held despite millions of Pakistanis were in desperate situation. Ms Sonia Ahmed was the organizer of the pageant.
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DONATIONS
1. For Donation, do not text any other word, only PAKISTAN. Send it to 45678

2. In a short while, you will receive a message asking for confirmation. Reply it (without any text)for YES. If you ignore it, it is NO.

3. You will receive message that $10.00 has been charged to your bill.

HOW MANY DONATIONS I CAN MAKE PER MONTH?
1. Six

WHERE DO I GET THE TAX RECEIPT
1. This feature is being programmed by MGF currently

Pakistanis have a cultural bias to show oneself in best possible light, be it real light or through smoke and mirrors. In this quest some acquire accoutrement to enhance, inflate, expand and puff-up ones persona by various means such as degrees, testimonials, summary of achievements and bestowing himself positive epithets such as Hajji, Doctor Sahib, or military ranks. I have seen multi-page visiting cards listing degrees, past achievements, positions held in obscure organizations, almost since birth.

Letter published in Toronto Star

letters To Editor, Toronto Star
January 30, 2010
Stamp dredges up colonial past

The following letter was published in Toronto Star:

Those among us, who want to do something, stand up and do it. But there is a strong tendency among Muslims to go alone. This is true in many endeavors including Islamic or social work. Instead of joining an existing organization, we want to start one. It has harmful effect on existing organizations, and the chances of success of new organization are also not very good. It is a Loose, Loose situation.

I received a call from an elderly Muslim. He was enquiring about Ramadan Chicken. I provided canned response that we do not handle distribution and he needs to go to the food bank to pickup. He then told me that he was 85 years old, and that he uses a walker and depends on WheelTran for transportation. My heart melted, and I offered to pick some chicken for him from the food bank and deliver to his home.

Most people rejoice on others happy occasions. We wish them well on those occasions. We wish Christians “Merry Christmas” on Christmas and to other religions we utter greetings to signify well wishes. For Muslims Ramadan is a special occasion. We wish each other ‘Ramadan Mubarak’. Many non-muslims express similar sentiment in many different words.

I answered my phone; silence for a while, a sure sign of telemarketer’s call from automatic dialer. It dials hundreds of telephone, until a phone answered by a human being. Telemarketer scrambles to make the call, as he has been working on something else. There is a time lag, momentary silence which gives away his presence. I have developed a strategy against telemarketer by hanging up when I detect the tell tale silence.