The Other View
Political toilets
How heavily Pakistan is politicized after 10 years of Afghan war and advent of free media can be gauged by the fact that doors of public toilets carry political slogans rather than vulgar jokes now. From Hazara province demands to NATO murdabad. From Altaf Hussain kutta, MQM kafir to satire on Wahabism – all is [...]
Austrian Weapons and Swiss Money – On Foreign Repute
This Police man however, with a proud smile pointed on his chest, where the logo of the Elite Force, comprising of bullets and two Glock pistols, is prominently placed. He was well aware, that the Glock pistol is an Austrian product.
foreigners’ language proficiency in pakistan – not just a utility
Even if you are one of those journalists who base their stories basically on what the taxi driver from the airport to the hotel tells them, it would give you the chance to understand what he really has on his mind, and not just what remains when you pit together the few English phrases he happily produces.
The range of the Pakistani Left – recent commentary
When one talks about the Left in Pakistan (also when it talks about itself) one is pretty quick wuite far on the left, with comrades and worker’s struggle.
schmidle and fair on the laden raid – that imagination
Hoping to look into the role of exciting, exotical and eastern mountaineering as part of careers in the east that have become part of our understanding of the area that is belted by Hindukush. Karakoram and Himalaya, I am currently with Francis Younghusband in Tibet. While he was determined to understand the locals here, he always manages to portray the locals as backward through narratives that are a mixture of empire-supremacy, political opportunism, ethnology and heart-felt-love for or heart-felt-despise of the people. I smirk now and again at his descriptions – after all, that was a whole century ago. Todays’ writing that becomes polciy relevant like Younghausband’s did in it’s day is, chastened by the ever present threat of being accused of Orientalism or breach of political correctness, a lot less obvious in such revealings of imagination. But when it does come up, it leaves me with a cringing smirk.
Debate Culture Pakistan – the danka-nama
The idea is though to make this newsletter, as the danka-nama, into a platform to debate anything that includes the concepts of culture and Pakistan (these terms of course also being the basic premises of the whole site). Yes, that is a wide and vague scope, but one that comprises a lot of interesting and controversial potential.
[Video] The Colbert Report/Norwegian Muslish Gunman’s Islam-esque Atrocity
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“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).
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