By Akbar Babwani

The main causes of liver damage are:

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.

7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver.
Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to “schedule.”

Because:

Evening at 9 - 11pm : is the time for eliminating unnecessary/toxic chemicals (detoxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes). This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will have a negative impact on health.

Evening at 11pm - 1am: is the detoxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 1 - 3am: detoxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.
Early morning 3 - 5am: detoxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the detoxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.
Morning 5 - 7am: detoxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 - 9am: absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 - 10am rather than no meal at all.

BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS

1. No Breakfast:
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating:
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking:
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption:
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution:
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation:
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
7. Head covered while sleeping:
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness:
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts:
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely:
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

The Wahhabi Movement [Part1]

Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, born in 1703 in the town of Uyaynah in the Najd area, was the founder of the Wahhabi creed. His father, Abdul Wahhab, who was a Qazi (judge) in Najd, banished him for preaching what he and almost all scholars (including his other son, Sulaiman bin Abdul Wahhab) called heresy. Ibne Wahhab was given refuge in Yamamah where, incidentally, Musailamah Kazzab (the chief of Banu Haneefah who falsely claimed prophet-hood during the time of Hadrat Abu Bark) used to live. In 1740, Ibne Wahhab was approached by the British colonialists, who arranged a meeting between him and Muhammad bin Saud, chief of the A’nnza tribe in Al-Diriyah.

For seven years, Ibne Wahhab continued to preach his heretical ideology under the protection of ibne Saud. In 1747, Ibne Saud publicly accepted the Wahhabi Madhab and declared full support for Ibne Wahhab and his followers. This established what is called Emaarah Qabiliyyah (Tribal Authority) in Al-Diriyah under the political leadership of Ibne Saud and spiritual guidance of Ibne Wahhab.

From 1747 to 1755, the Wahhabi movement began to spread its authority by raiding neighbouring villages and forcefully converting people. In 1757, Muhammad Bin Saud defeated the Amir of the city of Al-Ihsaa and hence became ruler of the whole of Al-Diriyah. He died in 1765 and was succeeded by his son, Abdul Aziz who later married Ibne Abdul Wahhab’s daugther, hence uniting the political and spiritual sides of the movement.

The fact that the current Khalifah was Turkish had been a thorn in Ibne Saud’s side for a long time, who believed it an insult for Arabs to have an Ajami ruler. Two years after Ibne Saud’s death, Abdul Aziz started moving towards ousting the Turkish forces from the Arabian Peninsula. He carried his father’s mission forward by raiding and capturing more villages and towns. In 1787, Abdul Aziz formed what is known as Wilayat ul-A’hed (Inherited Authority). This was done in a large public gathering under the chairmanship of Muhammad ibne Abdul Wahhab, who issued a fatwa deeming it legal under Shariah to establish a hereditary monarchy. In this gathering, Abdul Aziz declared himself Amir-ul-Mo’mineen (while the true Khalifah was actually in Istanbul) and appointed his son Saud as the Khalifah after him. Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab also issued a fatwa of Jihad against the Turkish forces.

In 1788, Abdul Aziz combined forces with the British to form a huge army, and invaded Kuwait. They handed the state over to the British as a gift, who had failed to invade Kuwait on several previous expeditions. By now, the Saudi family ruled most of the Arabian Peninsula. Between 1788 and 1791, this army of Wahhabi followers and British soldiers managed to overthrow and occupy Kuwait, Medinah, Iraq and part of Damascus. Thousands of Shias as well as followers of other Sunni Madhahib (Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi’i) were slaughtered because they refused to accept the Wahhabi creed. Wahhabis called these people Mushrikeen while they had no qualms about the fact that most of their own forces consisted of British Crusaders.

Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab died in 1792 but his son carried on with the obscene mission. The Ottoman Caliphate was under attack on several different fronts but by 1810, the Wahhabi threat could no longer be ignored. In 1811, Muhammad Ali Pasha, the governor of Egypt under the Caliphate, declared war against the rebel forces of Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad and sent out an army under the command of his son, Tosoun Pasha. In 1812, Tosoun defeated Abdul Aziz and liberated Medinah.

In 1815, Pasha’s second son, Ibrahim, marched out with a second army and by 1816, managed to liberate Damascus, Iraq and Kuwait. Within a year after that, the Saudis were forced back to their stronghold of Al-Diriyah. In 1818, Ibrahim Pasha’s army laid siege to Al-Diriyah and the rebels surrendered. The Saudi family, however, was under the protection of British soldiers in Jeddah and Abdul Wahhab’s son fled to Riyadh with most of his followers. This ended the first phase of the Saudi/Wahhabi rebellion.

In 1824 the Wahhabi followers started gathering and reorganising their movement under the leadership of Abdul-Rahman bin Abdul Aziz. This was a very slow phase and there were no major expeditions carried out for 40 years. By 1865, they were in a position to take action, and they focused their attentions on Riyadh, which is very close to Al-Diriyah. This time round, however, they faced much tougher resistance from the villages in the Riyadh area and the friction resulted in tribal warfare which lasted for 25 years.

Since the main bulk of the Turkish forces were occupied with the attacks on the borders of the Islamic Khilafah by the British Crusaders and their allies, the governor of the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Rasheed dealt with the uprising. He managed to crop this second rebellion and forced Abdul-Rahman and the Wahhabi fanatics into exile in 1891. They dwelled temporarily on the borders of the desert in the Empty Quarter (Al-Rebi’ Al-Khaali), before settling in Kuwait. This ended the second rebellion of the Saudi/Wahhabi alliance. Abdul-Rahman bin Abdul Aziz died between 1892 and 1900 and his son Abdul Aziz bin Abdul-Rahman succeeded him.

In 1901, Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman, who was now twenty one years old, left Kuwait determined to regain power over all of the territory once occupied by his forefathers. He, along with forty followers, managed to enter Riyadh in the middle of the night by scaling the city walls and took refuge in the house of a political ally, a man who had served his father before he was sent into exile. The man’s wife provided information about the whereabouts of the Amir of Riyadh, a man named Ajlan. In the morning, when Ajlan left the mosque after attending Fajr prayers, they assassinated him. This demoralised Ajlan’s garrison and they surrendered Riyadh, being fully aware that the Saudis enjoyed full support by the British and that the Turkish forces were completely occupied with fending off the European incursions on the Islamic borders.

***Part 2 coming soon

Ever since I installed a update KB905474,my windows have been turned into a nagger nothing more. The latest update by Microsoft is a part of Windows Genuine Advantage program that was started some time ago. It is another attempt by the software giant to counter software piracy but the question remains is it working because the update is still optional not mandatory. Across the planet almost 90% of the pc’s run on Microsoft Windows and they are loosing billions of dollars as a result of piracy.

It was in news that by September of 2006, it will be mandatory for all windows user to varify runing copy of windows. Other technologies such as Internet Explorer, DirectX and Windows Media Player have already been baged under the GWA program and downloads are only availble to users runing legal copies of windows. As always many methods to by pass this are availbe across the internet and all one needs is to google a bit.

Pakistan is among the top ten countires where pirated softwares are being used and at current will be among the toppers quite soon. Pakistan is generating around $27million per year and most of the revenue genreated is sent abroad only 10% or less stays in Pakistan. A report by BBC looks into piracy and its causes in Pakistan. The goverment of Pakistan seems to be power less to enforce laws regarding piracy, as a result Pakistan had become a hub for pirated softwares. Every few months they do a crackdown on pirates. For few days or weeks all the software recks remain empty but after that its life as usual.

Micrsoft seems to be less intrested in Pakistan and their watch dogs are more intrested in cracking down on small businesses and enterprises using pirated windows and putting heavy fees on them. Some how this seems not to be working at the level of a home user and if one decides to buy a legal copy of windows, its quite impossible to get one in this country. From personal experience I can tell after looking hard I was unable to find a single software vendor that was selling a legal copy. Only way that seemed possible was to get it either with Laptops or Branded computers non other then that. As it is clear by Microsofts behaviour towards Pakistan that it does not consider a viable market and hence is less focused.

The cost of the orignal software also plays a key role in stopping computer users here from buying legal copies. For instance legal copy of Windows XP Professional costs around $190, when converted to Pakistani Rs:12,000. A pirated cd is available at Rs.25 [50 cents US]. Then why would a user even consider of going legal, to him a 25 Rs cd is doing the same job as a Rs.12,000 one. The Pakistani users have developed a habbit of buying cheap softwares and wont be ready to pay any thing then the current cost for pirated ones. The goverment of Pakistan not seems intrested in bargaing with Microsoft on pricing of their softwares and denouncing piracy. There are already sufficent laws to stop sotware piracy but those laws are not being implemented by the goverment.

As long as the Pakistani users will not break habbit of buying cheap software which seems to be quite hard to break and Software marketing their softwares with a price that suits a average Pakistani users pocket the pircay can not be tackled effectively. Free software will be the future as the goverment will increase its crackdown on pirated softwares and goverment have started towards the implimentation of such open source softwares. Linux Pakistan is one such group working towards this goal.

Finally I got passed nagging illegal copy message and I am more careful now before installing new updates, I want to use a legal copy of windows but the cost is keeping me from doing so.

Further links

BBC Repot
Linux Pakistan
Software Piracy

Every body is familier with Adobe Photoshop and how it has revolutionized the way we edit and look at pictures digitally. For years photoshop have been the standard and first choice of every body when it came to image editor. My affair with photoshop started some 5years ago. I started using PS version4, when opened the interface made no sense to me what so ever and closed it many times. One day I finally decided to give it a try and messing with some pictures, and now I still feel like I am learning about it. I have never been good with brushes but I always wanted to paint some thing and belive me I tried a lot as well. With Photoshop I felt like I finally had the freedom I always wanted to express.

The reason for telling such a long story of my affair with photoshop is finally I decided to give a try to GIMPshop a free source graphic editor which is becoming quiet popular. Some people say it is a rip off of Photoshop cause its options are very similar to that. I installed GIMPshop for windows today and started to play around on it. The 1st thing I noticed right away was that the program is not using as much resources as the Photoshop and has a very familier feel that I had with PS, but the menu is a bit irritating cause I can not find many things right at my disposal. Still I am gona go on and use it further trying to find its potential. Can it replace the PS? I dont think so cause I would still prefer photoshop over GIMP for the only reason that I have used PS for so long and just the feel of that familiarity is to good. Not want to underestimate GIMP in ne way.

Lets see what I think of this program as I use it more often now.

**GIMPshop is a variant of GIMP developed by Scott at plasticbugs.com**

Nawab Akbar Bugti

Sardar Akbar Shahbaz Khan Bugti (July 12, 1927 - August 26, 2006) was the cheif of the Bugti tribe living in Balouchistan, Pakistan.

On the 26th August, 2006 Akbar bugti was killed when a rocket exploded in the cave he was using as a hide out. Akbar bugti died along with his 2 grandsons *still unconfirmed. This is the goverment version of the story and the Balouch nationalists will be telling a different one, I am sure about it but will we ever know the TRUTH?

Nawab Akbar Bugti was the ex-governor and cheif minister of Balouchistan. He was a nationalist leader and he always talked about Blouch rights but at many times he was also seen as one of the oppresors of his own people whom he claimed to be fighting for. He was a respected politician and across the political scene his death can not be welcomed under any circumstances.
One thing I can not understand is this why Mushraf is so keen to talk with Indians for peace but not ready to listen to his own people and just put guns to there heads. Look at his policy in Wana and Balouchistan. Was the only way to solve these situations is use of excessive force against countrymen. Why cant we sit for a change and listen to each other and try to solve bitterness that we have towards each other. Pathans and Balouch are proud people and like any proud man they thaught it was there right to defend there motherland, but isnt Pakistan our motherland and we all are the children of this great land.

The battles being raged in Balouchistan against my countrymen, the situation being exploited by India and Iran to there advantage, not to forget US. Further destabilizing the already fragile situation. The fight of Balouchistan is different from that of Wana as in Waziristan the fighters did not demanded for a seporation of there territory from main land Pakistan, but the BLA (Balouch Liberation Army) is frequently targeting civillians espescially Punjabis of there terrorist activities, clearly balming them for the whole situation. I have tremendous amount of respect for Nawab sahab, I have never read once that he was ever said a thing about Pakistan, although he was a nationalist leader and always talked about greater autonomy for his province. Ever since he moved out of Dera Bugti to the mountains to rage his battle against army he was seen as the leader of BLA, but Nawab sahab never advocated sepratist views.

One must try to understand why have it had lead to this senseless voilence. Both sides are wrong but it is goverments duty to provide its people with there basic rights, but how can they when they can not even protect its constitution. Poor constitution have been changed so many times that it have lost its true form and essence. Every dictator that came changed it according to his needs, to prolong his rule.

I would like to say even more but for now I just wana ask is this the way to solve our problems, put guns on each others head and then expect to get our demands fulfilled. If goverment says Bugti was runing a state with in a state, I think he was, but who allowed it. It was the goverment to fulfill there short term goals and kept a blind a eye from these Sardar/Mirs/Chakkars. When will they start thinking beyond there short term intrests. How many of innocents should die before they even start thinking. Have we forgotten the bitter experience of loosing eastren Pakistan in 71? Why are we repeating the same mistake over and over again? When will we learn, that if a Balouch gets killed he is also our brother so as a army personel. Why are we letting others use us for there advantages, why can not we see beyond our pride. When will this whole thing stop what bitter lessons more we need to learn. Tribal system is deeply routed in Balouchistan and NWFP which can not be ended so quickly. If goverment is serious to help the people then it should start acting like and do more then it says, should really listen to the basic call of Pakistanis.

I just hope his death wont lead us to another major conflict. In the end I would like to say he was a brave man, and did not compromised on his principles till his last breath. Now it dosent matter how hard Musharaf tries History will remember “Nawab Akbar Bugti” as the legend who raised his voice against a dictator “Musharaf”, neihter how wrong bugti was but they just legitimized his cause. He really was the “Tiger of Balouchistan“.

May his soul rest in peace.