January 2008

The Archives

• noted

  Let Them Eat Cake

  01.14.08 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  Of course, one needs flour to make cake. The Dictator Formerly Known As The General recently opined that the flour crisis is not real and that the cost of flour in Pakistan is, in fact, cheaper than neighboring countries. Let it be noted that the price of flour in Pakistan is 3 or 4 times [...]

• homistan, optical character recognition

  Prison Lyrics

  01.12.08 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  In 1953, when Dast-i Saba (Wind’s Palm) was published, Faiz Ahmed Faiz had been in jail for almost two years. He would remain in jail for another two. He was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the nascent state of Liaqat Ali Khan and arrested in early March, 1951.
  You can read about Faiz’s prison days and [...]

• homistan

  Nicholas Schmidle

  01.11.08 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  For crying out loud. Hadh hoti hay. Our mango republic, ran by the Dictator Formerly Known As The General, has lost its mind.
  I have often highlighted the reports and writings of Nicholas Schmidle, a freelance journalist, reporting from Pakistan on numerous occasions. I have often exchanged emails with him. He was, contra majority, writing, [...]

• homistan

  Lahore High Court

  01.10.08 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  The last afternoon before I left the country, we snuck to the rooftop of Lahore High Court to cast a parting glance at the city. The image still remains imprinted. A while ago, I highlighted the photos of rizwan on flickr, who had some amazing - yet routine - captures: perhaps my favorite photo, a [...]

• noted

  DWM

  01.09.08 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  CM friend Baraka thinks that there is a stereotype about Muslim women out there that does not show them as the thinking, feeling, lively people with loving hearts and independent minds that we know them to be. And she is doing something about it by calling for real-life stories about Muslim women in relationships/dating being [...]

• imperial watch, straw polls

  Yea, that’s right! That’s right! We bad!

  01.09.08 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  The assumptions nested in our electoral punditry are astounding. What’s more astounding is that we do not question them, especially when they barely conceal true, noxious racialist thinking. Why, for instance, is Don Imus a pariah, when Dick Morris and Chris Matthews can proceed without pause with lines of questioning based on the assumption that [...]