Citizen Tekk: "Your Mechanic" Interview at TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco 2012

The best TechCrunch Disrupt in history recently occurred with Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook speaking for the first time since his IPO, along with Jack Dorsey of Twitter, and Vinod Khosla. Here, we catch up with the startups that made the conference happen. The incumbent “Uber Conference” passes wisdom to the new cup recipient “Your Mechanic,” while we also catch up with Prius disrupter “Lit Moters.” Don’t miss footage from the most exciting tech conference of 2012.

Vision 2047: Healthcare Technology Revolution for South Asia

It is a great challenge of the 21st century to provide the best possible universal health care at the lowest possible cost. It's in fact a dual challenge. While aging and obesity related diseases are the dominant concern in the West, there is continuing worry about more basic issues of hygiene, vaccination, nutrition and access to health care professionals in the developing world. What is common between these two is the increasing reliance on technology.

Technologies ranging from new toilets, water purification, bio-fortification, diagnostics and computing and communication to nano-biotechnology and bioengineering are being developed and deployed to prevent and fight all kinds of diseases around the world. In this show we will discuss the current state of health care and go into how these efforts are proceeding.

Evening in the Bay: Basant Kite Festival 2012

PACC organized yearly Basant kite festival in Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area in June 2012. Winner of SaReGaMa Jeffery Iqbal was the main performer for the event. Naima Azam of Evening in the Bay show, covered the event for WBT-TV and brings you colors and highlights from the event. We also announced the winner of the WBT-TV raffle in this show so look for your ticket number to see if you won the 40" LCD TV.

Vision 2047: Women's Rights

Women in many societies around the world are made to follow the wishes and dictates of men. Has this been so from the beginning of time or was there early human societies where women were considered equal to men, or dare we say, superior to men? What were the factors that lead to women's supression to the will of men in the society? If it were physical force that was required to earn a living in agrarian societies that lead to it, have we reached a point in human civillization, with the inventions of mechanized farming and robotic production methods, that from now on, women could assert their freedom from men using equal mental powers? How bas is this situation as it applies to South Asia? Farrukh talks about these important topics with Ali Hasan Cemendtaur and Riaz Haq.

Vision 2047: Child Labor

Child labor is a curse on a society and a family to be stuck in poverty for very long time if not for generations. At the same time it is a survival technique for many extremely poor people of the world. Sometimes, children are sold by their parents into slavery and forced child labor due to usury and loans that their parents can not return. Farrukh discusses the issues relating to child labor in South Asia and its impact on society with Riaz Haq and Ali Hasan Cemendtaur.

Viewpoint from Overseas: Will PPP win the next election in Pakistan?

Despite poor performance, PPP managed to win the NA-151 (Multan) election. The ground realities show that there is a potential that PPP will win the next election. Faraz Syed and Riaz Haq (from riazhaq.com)discuss the factors that will help PPP win the next election.

Viewpoint from Overseas: A conversation with Abrar Hasan

In Pakistan Cheif Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan is asking the new Prime Minister of Pakistan to take action against the President of Pakistan in the corruption cases file against President Asif Zardari. The previous Prime Minister was asked to do the same and when he did not comply with the court's request, he was held in contempt of court and punished in a technical way so that President could not pardon him. This leave the President in the situation where he had to remove the previous Prime Minister Gilani from the post and appoint a new Prime Minister from President's political party. Would the new Prime Miniter comply? Faraz Syed ask Abrar Hasan this question.

Abrar Hasan is a prominent lawyer and a constitutional expert based in Karachi, Pakistan.Abrar Hasan has written several books on constitutional matters, and intent and interpretation of law. A few of his books are part of law curriculum in Pakistan. He was elected Vice Chairman of Sindh Bar Council (1984) and President of Sindh High Court Bar Association (2006–2007). In the wake of the state of Emergency imposed by Pervez Musharraf, Abrar Hasan was arrested on 4 November along with 1,500 opposition leaders including lawyers and journalists. He actively took part in the movement for the restoration of Cheif Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Vision 2047: In Search of Meluhha, the Indus Valley Civilization

Vision 2047 looks back 4000 years to South Asian region's past where a thriving yet peaceful civilization was flourishing in the fields around Indus river. This was the time of Egyptian, Chinese and Mesopotamian civilization. Filmmaker Saqib Mausoof embarks on a journey "in search of Meluhha", a documentary that tells the story of "Indus Civilization through the eyes of its inheritors". Where was Meluhha? How Meluhha connects to Indus Valley Civilization (IVC)? How did the civilization disappear into the pages of history? We will ask Saqib what he discovered during his research while making the documentary. We will also ask Riaz Haq of RiazHaq.com, a writer and researcher about the irrigation systems, housing and urban development and technological innovations of people of South Asia 4000 years ago. Ali Hasan Cemendtaur will join us and talk about what he found out about IVC while attending a program at India Community Center (ICC) and organized by 1947 Partition Archive, where leading researcher on IVC Professor Jonathan Kenoyer talked about his latest discoveries.

Viewpoint from Overseas: Prime Minister Gilani replaced by Raja Pervaiz Ashraf

Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani is replaced by President and under the pressure of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. New Prime Minister is Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Let's discuss with Ali Hasan Cemendtaur, Sabahat Ashraf and Riaz Haq what is going to happen now.

Viewpoint from Overseas: New Province of Pakistan?

The new provinces are becoming a need for Pakistan to improve the administration. However, the new province idea introduces the issue of ethnic division of the country which can get very ugly and violent. In this show, Faraz Syed, Ali H Cemendtaur, and Sabahat Ashraf discuss the need of new provinces and its' political implications.

Vision 2047: Population Growth in South Asia

Population in South Asia is growing faster than most other region of the world. UN world population projections for 2050 places India as the most populous nation of the world followed by China, United States and Pakistan as 2nd, 3rd and 4th most populous. Can South Asian region survive the Malthusian catastrophe? Find out what we can and needs to do to survive this population growth disaster by 2047. Watch this very interesting Vision 2047 show.

Viewpoint from Overseas: Should Pakistan's Chief Justice resign over his son's corruption allegations?

An interesting debate on Family-Gate issue in Pakistan. The highlights: whether Pakistan's Chief Justice's son Arsalan Iftikhar is involved in black-mailing and collecting money by exploiting his father's position. The issue remains open whether Cheif Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is involved with his son in black-mailing Malik Riaz or not. Riaz Haq, Ali H Cemendtaur and Faraz Syed look into this issue and explore different aspects of this case.

Vision 2047: Public Education in South Asia.

Unlike monarchies or dictatorial regimes where 'uneducated' people are truly needed for the preservation of the status quo, democracies count on intelligent decisions of the populace. Democracies thrive when the masses are educated. Moreover, the modern environments created by human beings are truly complex and 'education' is needed to successfully operate in them. In South Asia we want to see an effective public education system--a system that would ensure basic literacy of all the children in their mother tongue. Employing technology, the goal of 100% literacy can be achieved, especially if there is a strong political will to make it happen.

Vision 2047: Public health and productive South Asian societies

Strong, healthy and active people are essential for a prospering society. Healthy people need good nutritious food as well as preventive and curative health care system. Farrukh Shah Khan talks to Ali Hasan Cemendtaur, journalist and author, and Riaz Haq, blogger who writes on Countries of South Asia. The show covers the problems in public health system in India and Pakistan and how to tackle and solve these problems.

Evening in the Bay: Urdu Academy Mushaira (Part 1 or 2)

Urdu Academy of North America held it's second annual Mushaira (Poetry Recitation) on April 1, 2012. Famous as well as up and coming poets from North America and South Asia took part in the Mushaira. Tashie Zaheer (President of Urdu Academy, North America), Sarfaraz Abad, Musqit Nadeem, Ahmar Shahwar and others recited their poetry. WBT-TV covered this event for our audience. This event will be shown in two parts. This is part 1 of the 2.

Evening in the Bay: Shair-e-Mashriq (Poet of the East)

Known as Shair-e-Mashriq (Poet of the East), Allama Iqbal is perhaps the most important poet of the 20th century. Indian Community Center organized an event to celebrate the work of this philosopher poet. Different aspects of his life were discussed and his poetry was recited by the talented community members. WBT-TV team went to cover this event for the show "Evening in the Bay".

Wide Angle Zoom: Pakistan's so-called Memogate and its consequences

Faraz Syed talks to Ali Hasan Cemendtaur about the recent so-called memogate in Pakistan, the scandal based on a memo allegedly written by ex-Ambassador Husain Haqqani to US Adm. Mike Mullen, asking for American help to rein in the powerful Pakistani military. They discuss various players in the memogate and who said what and now with Pakistan's Supreme Court is getting involved in the investigation of the matter, where is this scandal heading towards. Exciting debate and discussion.

Evening in the Bay: Launch of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Northern California Chapter and PTI Fundraiser

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) is youngest political party in Pakistan but is gaining wide spread support in Pakistan very fast. Its founder, Imran Khan is attracting large crowds during political rallies in Pakistan. PTI is also very popular among over-seas Pakistanis around the world. Recently, some young volunteers launched PTI's Northern California Chapter with a fundraiser. Evening in the Bay's Naima Azam was there to talk to these young leaders. The program's keynote speaker was one of Pakistan's senior politician Makhdoom Javed Hashmi who is now member of PTI. Salman Ahmed of Junoon fame was also present to show support to the new PTI chapter and to sing some of the patriotic songs of Junoon. Salman also talked to WBT-TV's Faraz Syed about his possible upcoming US concert tour. More than 170 people attended the event.

Vision 2047: Fresh drikaing water is running out

Fresh Water is a fast shrinking resource in this world. Even though 67% of the world is full of water but that water is not drinkable for most life on earth. Growing human population along with industrialization of the world is reducing the supply of fresh drinking water. In developing countries such as India and Pakistan, consumption of water that is not properly filtered and treated results in epidemics of water borne diseases. In case of Pakistani urban centers, especially in Karachi , fresh water even when supplied relatively clean gets contaminated along the way, often mixing with sewage water. Farrukh Shah Khan discusses the issues relating to clean water supply in South Asia with Ali Hasan Cemendtaur who proposes some solutions to this growing intractable problem.

Wide Angle Zoom: Javed Hashmi of PTI and Salman Ahmad of Junoon interviewed at PTI Fundraiser

Faraz Syed interviews Javed Hashmi of Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaaf Party founded by Imran Khan at a fundraiser for PTI in San Jose, California. Salman Ahmad of Junoon fame was the main performer for the event and we interviewed him also for this show. He shared a fantastic news with our audience.

Vision 2047: Solutions to solid waste problems in South Asia

Solid waste is a major problem facing all modern countries and communities. South Asia with its huge population is facing particularly large solid waste problem. In this show Ali Hasan Cemendtaur talks about origins of modern garbage problems and how to control and dispose it. Special solutions to Indian and Pakistan are discussed. 3 Key solutions are: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Vision 2047: Solutions to Garbage problems in South Asia from WBT TV on Vimeo.

Conversations with Maryam: Amjad Noorani

Maryam talks to Amjad Noorani who is on the advisory board of The Citizens Foundation (TCF), USA, a non-profit organization working for education of underprivileged children in Pakistan. Founded in 1995, TCF operates 730 schools with 102,000 students enrolled -- half of them are girls. The schools are in all provinces of Pakistan. “Education is a fundamental need for any country. [..] Education is the key solution – without it, nothing is going to be accomplished". TCF is working hard to change the national education system in Pakistan, with focus on education for the underprivileged.

Conversations with Maryam: Amjad Noorani from WBT TV on Vimeo.

Eik Fikr Eik Behs: Quiadat aur Taqleed

Ali Hasan Cemendtaur discusses with Farrukh Shah Khan the leadership and fellowship. Leaders, and many times, successful people are usually the role-models of some younger people. This puts social responsibility on leaders and famous people to not set bad examples for younger generation or those who are making these leaders their role-models. We discuss what these responsibilities are.

Eik Fikr Eik Behs: Quiadat aur Taqleed from WBT TV on Vimeo.