smokerings

[ forgive me a cruel chuckle. ]

who'dda thunk i'd be endorsing F-16s.
i guess i know how they felt when women could finally smoke in public. its terrible, it shouldn't be done, but if it means thumbing the patriarchal system, i guess you'll get a grin out of me.
so, while hello kitty and the like have apoplectic fits, allow me to introduce you to the new face of the Pakistan Air Force ...

Saba Khan
'Equals'

The air force academy is still male-dominated, and it's not clear what the real feelings of the male cadets have been to the induction of women onto the fighter pilot programme.

Officially, most have welcomed the move.

But when one male cadet said the women should be shown compassion, female cadet Saman Ahmed was swift to say they were there to compete on equal terms.
"We don't expect compassion, we don't get compassion, and we don't want compassion," she said.
And this confidence is not without reason for Cadet Ahmed has already won praise in her engineering studies, beating both men and women.
Her excellence is not confined to the classroom, either.
During a rifle exercise, I watched as she shot all five bullets right in the bull's eye.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4533367.stm

so from the thousands of women who cradled their babies in one arm and their kalashnikovs in the other and faced the men in their war machines, we now have women flying the war machines. historically, wars have meant greater participation for women.. but so have revolutions. and its great (i guess) that women are now, "finally" part of this whole mad war, but they've been part of the revolution for so many more years...
in reterospect, the last thing we need is die-hard feminists going like "yay, we can be fighter pilots now, patriarchy's finally dying out, pakistan's finally become more moderate".. for god's sake, no its not. hatch as many "conspiracy" stories you want (musharraf wants the army to be looked upon as "liberal," theyre making a few concessions to the west, its just affirmative action, whatever)... ultimately, stuff like this just distracts us from the real battle.

roger dat, houston. over and out ;)