Rug Pundits » Audio

SufiLore #4 – Pakistan has a Rock scene?

Jakob Steiner — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:13:37 +0000

It’s quite old by now, and wasn’t picked up for more than 3 articles really, but for a glimpse the Western media was as if they had discovered something new (which it wasn’t): PakRock. It’s worth documenting the videos at least.

[Article/Video] Pakistan Rock against the West by Adam B. Ellick

In my opinion he chose examples that underlined his idea, and completely left out other representatives of the rock scene who wouldn’t fit his article.

[Article/Video/Audio] An American Accent to Pakistani Rock by Robert Mackey

The reasonable of the three articles.

[Article] Never mind the Taliban by Declan Welsh

“Wannabe rock stars have it tough in Pakistan. Last month a new band, Poor Rich Boy (and the toothless winos), took to the stage of a cramped Islamabad cafe for their breakthrough gig. On the first night, one person turned up.”

Let us satisfy our readers by providing them information the expect: In Pakistan it’s dangerous to make music! Come on Mr. Walsh, you can do better than such cheap stuff.

SufiLore #3 – Database

Jakob Steiner — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:43:19 +0000

In an attempt to shorten my delicious list – some databases I have recently stumbled over:

[Database] Helmand Archives by Richard B. Scott (USAID) – Afghanistan

Material on Helmand from 1974 till today, by a ret. USAID officer.

[Database] South Asian Idea Weblog - India/Pakistan

A collection of material by Scholars on South Asia, most notably perhaps Samia Altaf.

[Database] HumanSecurityGateway Document List

All Reports from the HSG, not very user friendly, but always good material.

[Database] Pakistan Security Research Unit Publication List – Pakistan

Sounds quite suspicious to me, since they explicitly ask for contributions with a “punchy line” – I doubt that’s what we need. But some of the authors seem to be good, used with caution. Apart from that it looks like they are going on about topics that have been developed in many other papers more elaborately.

[Database] South Asia Resources from UC Berkeley

[Database] The Audio/Video Archives of the Carr Centre at Harvard

Contributions by Stewart, Semple, Allawi, Rasheed Rashid, Mustafa Kamal among many others.

Daniyal Moeenuddin on “When to go and When to stay”

Jakob Steiner — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:30:30 +0000

A short radio feature on the recent attacks in Pakistan on “The TakeAway” with Issam Ahmed (Christian Science Monitor) and Daniyal Moeenuddin.

Flawed Questions, Missed Alternatives, Rethinking Causes – lecture by Nazif Shahrani

Jakob Steiner — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:05:57 +0000

Christian Bleuer on Ghosts of Alexander has provided some excellent material on AfPak – a lecture at ANU by Nazif Shahrani, which can be accessed here as an mp3.

He is talking about alternatives to the current war that were never considered, a Bonn agreement that was leading into the wrong direction looking for the wrong approach to a solution, and why the West needs to rethink its idea of “security” and how to keep it.

Personally his comment on the last point – that the problem the West has with the Muslim world is a “breach of trust” and thus a solution with arms is in no way leading to a solution, just leading to more distrust – is the most valuable. That “trust” is a vital component if you want to e.g. make business with a carpet dealer in Pakistan, if you want to travel from Urumqi to Kashgar with a truck driver or if you want to build a school in Kashmir with a mistri you hardly know. That trust is different from what we understand under the same term when dealing with other people in e.g. Europe. And that difference needs to be understood and felt (unfortunately I am a poor creator with words and thus won’t attempt an explanation here, Nicolas Bouvier in his L’Usage de Monde does give some insight for all those who can’t experience it themselves), can be learnt on the small scale (carpet dealer, truck driver, mistri) and may then be applied on the large scale (international cooperation, trade, nation building).

He does endorse McChrystal’s assessment, but criticizes him for not presenting a strategy to meet the goal (”people centered approach”).

Kilcullen also has a lecture on “Small Wars”, I haven’t listened to it yet.