Jakob Steiner
sissies and thugs – an alternative approach to explaining Karachi’s violence
Verkaaik looks at urban militancy in Sindh with a focus on Hyderabad where he researched intensively. As his choice of location suggests he is not prone to walking along stereotipical representation of Pakistan – while Hyderabad is by no means some small village, he is the first foreign author on Pakistan I read who is not based in Islamabad, Lahore or Karachi. On the other hand he does not present himself as theshalwar kameez wearing gora who has understood it all and is at par with the locals. His account is sober, but makes use of both – his intellectual background and understanding of cultural, political and historical complexities and his personal experience as a part-time resident of the city and member of the local society.
“How and why [...] can only be a matter of speculation.” – Teil II der Sino-Pak Serie
Um die pakistanisch-chinesischen Beziehungen wirklich realistisch einzuschätzen, braucht es in erster Linie einmal realistische Berichterstattung zu beiden Entitäteten unabhängig von ihrer Verbindung. Erst dann wird es auch für amerikanisches und europäisches Publikum möglich Intentionen abzuschätzen. Nur ist man da auf beiden Seiten noch sehr weit entfernt.
porous border: an observation from the durand-hinterland
The Afghanis sometimes bring their family members from back home for treatment. So far so good, these are no big numbers. What’s surprising though, is that we expect the number of Afghani Refugee patients to plummet. Many of them return to their high pastures in Afghanistan during summer. For one, that ridicules our understanding of a refugee (who I would expect to only be in the host country, because it’s really impossible for him, for whatever reason, to live where his home is).
exchange rate: $ to PKR
The US – Pakistan relationship dubbed as a double game – little understanding is there for the fact that the flaws of this bond should be looked for on both sides and how they deal with each other.
Hitchens on Pakistan – on the frontier of poor polemics
It’s important to note, since Hitchens, in his to date last article on the issue, uses Rushdies’ Shame and the narrative concept of his Midnight’s Children, to transfer the appaling misconceptions he has so far introduced for the rather impersonal country (with it’s elite as a concept, not so much a Pakistani person) to the Pakistani as a person, or in a wider sense as a society.
bam-e-dunya’s ailing eaves
While the Western media likes to speculate (based on sexy ethnic-great-game-evil-china-theories) what’s really going on in the misty zone between the yellow, the brown and the white, some people actually look at situations with their senses and not just their twitter acounts active.
Aluis Isprangar al-Tiroli – Aloys Sprenger: Beginn einer Suche
Promovierter Mediziner, diente Aloys Sprenger offiziell als Arzt für die East India Company von 1843 bis 1856 am Subkontinent. Dabei war er unter anderem Rektor des Dehli College in Dehli (heute Zakir Hussain College), Rektor der Ahlia Madrassa in Calcutta (heute Aliah University). In Dehli gründete er die Vernacular Tranlation Society, welche möglicherweise die erste Wochenzeitung am Subkontinent in einer Landessprache publizierte. Ausserdem war er Prüfer für Islamisches Recht in Lucknow – 150 Jahre bevor das Wort Sharia in Europa als diffuse, schlecht verstandene Bedrohung herumgeistert.
mufeed matlab
Bloggers from Pakistan do tend to have a considerbale higher impact on reporting on the country, since they fill a void that is left by foreign journalists who consider the place too unsafe to report.
Mortenson II – opportunities
Endorsement is fine, projects need such support. But it would help the aid discussion, if some projects would be less viewed through the glasses of aid-from-outside-with-a-backlash-intention but with Ali’s warning in mind (do question moral certainty and superiority!) and from a local standpoint.
Mortenson – remote narratives
For me this is most aptly portrayed by the extensive use of remote in the context of referring to anything virtually in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is just outside Kabul or Islamabad.
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