Saturday, August 14, 2010

Water on the Brain?

You have to have a certain gift to so consistently put your foot in your mouth with unfortunate choices of metaphors.

The office of the President of Pakistan has sent out an official message from him on the occasion of 14th August, which begins with the following words:

“Today is a watershed mark in the history of the country..." 

As if this choice of words at a time when almost a tenth of the all Pakistanis are under water in the biggest floods in recorded memory were not bad enough, please look at the phrasing his message writers then manage to come up with:

“The enthusiasm of the Independence Day this year however has been dampened because of the unprecedented floods..."

Dampened??? Did they actually say this without any sense of irony? You might be forgiven for thinking some juvenile was giggling away in the office while coming up with such atrocious puns. But you may be forgetting the way with words the PPP spokesperson Farahnaz Ispahani has. Remember, it was she who claimed recently in an interview with CNN that the criticism of President Zardari's trip to his French chateau and the UK at the time of such devastation in Pakistan from torrential rains, "would turn out to be a storm in a teacup." Five Rupees has a post on that particular episode, with the clip, here.

On the other hand, why blame Ms Ispahani, when her boss himself comes up with gems such as "storms will come and storms will go" on the same trip.




Can we say that Zardari and his advisers seem more than a little wet behind the ears? Or would we be then accused of being wet blankets?

25 comments:

Mackers said...

The PPP government has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. At this rate they are headed towards a watery grave

khabardrama said...

Is that Farahnaz IsPANI by any chance?

Ugly Shoelace said...

Zardari actually has a brain?

Ahsan said...

This government is a blogger's wet dream.

mcphisto said...

reading the first four comments have left me with watery eyes due to excessive laughter.

Mackers said...

Now it is PM Geelani's turn for a metaphor.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that the government is hoping this will soon be water under the bridge.

Ali Qureshi said...

i have a feeling, this post is going to be inundated with comments

aqm said...

ms spokeswoman comments will not hold water

aqm said...

ms spokeswoman comments will not hold water

Anonymous said...

Kiye karaye pe paani phair diya.

Anonymous said...

^ Interesting chain of metaphors going up there =)!

Wow. Talk about bad PR, PPP Govt. They really are soaking wet behind the ears, not just little!

Nitpit said...

Did anyone notice this story in ET:

"Desperate (to help) housewives"
http://tribune.com.pk/story/38443/desperate-to-help-housewives/

It seems that the first few lines were written by the sub-ed in Karachi because s/he wanted to show off his (pathetic) mastery over wordplay on American TV series.

Tilsim said...

For our dear President, these pokes are water off a duck's back.

Fellow countrymen,

let's not drown in these multitude of sorrows.

Roll back your flood of tears

Come come, raise your glasses

let's drink to a better tomorrow,

this watery, muddy, but still happy

Independence Day.

Anonymous said...

Ye bakwaas 'bund' karo!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Or, to translate the earlier comment into English: stop this 'barrage' of nonsense!!!!

Sab pey bhari said...

Err... Pyala, kya Zardari sahib aap ki bakri bhi choralee hai?
Why the sudden line of anti-Zardari claptrap? We have enough of it out there. Let's have something original.

Anonymous said...

Chulloo bhar paani main doob marney kay kaabil hai yeh government...this stream of consciousness is indeed delightful!

Talk Talk said...

Sigh. These poor urbanites after being trampled upon and dissapointed by all their 'heroes' (i.e. Immy Khan, Mushy, Zaid Hamid, hell even Zakir Naik) are having a field day with Zaradri.
This is really getting over the top, this Zaradri bashing. Really is. And I don't even like the bugger. :P
But really, kids, I mean grown up men and women, let's move on, shall we. Pyala is starting to sound like a bad hum sab umeed sey hein episode.

Zeeshan H said...

What's with the stream of Zardari-defending comments? Looks set to turn into a deluge. Way to rain on our parade, guys.

Vanguard said...

Well Zardari has landed himself in hot waters.

Thanks guys for cracking me up

Anonymous said...

Zardari say nafrat karnay waalon nay sab kuch par pani phair diya hai...

I had some foreign affairs related news to ask the people from Pyala:

1) How much coverage and verbal support is the uprising in Kashmir getting?

2) Is it true we're about to ditch the Arabs?

Anonymous said...

Just had a look and realised the people Cafe Pyala targets are pretty diverse, so the pro-Zardari types are perhaps being over sensitive.
I mean you guys have made fun of/criticised Zardari, Nawaz, Shahbaz, Imran Khan, Altaf Hussain, Zaid Hamid, Hameed Gul, Ali Azmat, Salmaan Taseer, Rana Sanaullah, the army, maulvis, Geo, The News, Dawn, Dawn TV, Express Tribune, Express TV, The Nation, Vibe TV etc etc
Is there anyone left?

Vanguard said...

@anon 4:04
the article is by Kaswar Klasra, the same guy who was at the centre of controversy earlier in which he named a certain US journalist as a CIA agent and caused a big controversy. I don't think The Nation has ever recovered whatever little credibility it had before that.

Pakistan can thus gain entry into an elite club - currently comprising US, India and Israel - with common security perceptions vis-a-vis the Middle East and South Asia.

WOW! I want to smoke what this guy smokes

Marachi said...

A very ... err ... wet post this.
Not very funny either.
Come on, guys, you can do better than this.

Also, it is interesting to not that some people get very surprized if Zardari gets a positive comment. It's as if in their world view the wide world detests him.

Good to see that smug smirk vanishing from their faces and being replaced by a surprized frown.

"What? You support Zardari?"

Yup. If 'liberals' like you (not you CP) can support that reactionary cunt called iftikhar Chaudry, why can't libs like us support Zardari? Hein Jee.