Upcoming documentary
If you are following my new media group on Facebook, you may have seen that I am going to try to lay the groundwork for a documentary. Its going to be set in Asia, but it will take me some time to decide which country will be suitable. As of now, I have the list narrowed down to two choices: Pakistan and the Philippines. My strong interest in these countries (along with networking) has made me fortunate enough to have available contacts and resources that will be critical to the success of a project.
A view of Korangi road in Karachi.
Pakistan’s largest city and financial capital, Karachi, draws me in not only because it is full of culture and warm hospitality, but because it has been in the news a lot lately. For the past few years, violence has shadowed itself over the city in the form of target killings, kidnappings, and executions that carry with them an undertone of ethnic, political, or religious strife. As of this moment, ethnic clashes are raging between supporters and opponents of a proposed boundary that would divide the province of Sindh, which Karachi is part of. This is in addition to the attacks on Shiite Muslims by hardline Deobandi movements (fundamentalist Sunnis) and the shootouts that erupt between police and gangsters.
I have covered the Karachi crisis in earlier posts, particularly last year when the violence began to match the levels that were seen in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez. This time though, I am ready to go there in person and capture everything I see — it may include interviews with the most fiery activists who represent warring political factions or ride-alongs with the paramilitary Rangers on patrol. It might be simpler things though, like the vendors closing up shop on the beaches for the evening. Whatever I encounter, I will be eager to write about it in detail. This is a city that has been calling me since I was crossing through the Indian subcontinent back in 2009 and the time has come to go.
Journey to the southern Philippines
There is another area of the world that has had my attention recently…the Mindanao region in the Philippines. For years it has captivated the attention of the US military as Muslim rebels — the most notorious of whom are the Abu Sayyaf — fight for control of the southernmost islands with the Philippine Government. Foreigners are frequently targeted for kidnappings and the main island was the scene of a massacre that left nearly 60 people dead in 2009.
The bustling streets of Isabela City, Basilan’s capital.
If the Philippines ends up being the more suitable location I will start off in Manila and work my way down. Key cities to visit in the south will be Zamboanga and Davao, but my real interest will be in Basilan, Jolo, and the rest of the Sulu Archipelago. While there, I plan to attend several Friday prayer sermons in the mosques, meet local police/politicians, and immerse myself in the daily life of places like Isabela City (capital of Basilan). There are questions I plan to ask, but I will save them for when the trip progresses and becomes closer to a reality. To give you an idea, I have been hearing a lot of paranoid conspiracy theories lately about the “War on Terror” and whether or not Al-Qaeda and their affiliates really exist. These delusions have penetrated into even the most respectable people (including friends of mine and people I have gone to school with). Knowing this, I’d like to bring the answers to them.
Sound interesting? If it does (or if you have other ideas that I should be focusing on) please send me an email through unitedworld.ch [at] gmail.com. A trip like the ones above is something I am ready and committed to do. As always, I will do my best to provide nothing short of an experience that we can all share together.
Blind hatred and irrational foreign policy really screw up the world
While hardly a good source of information on the Iranian people or the majestic country they live in, the English-language “Tehran Times” sometimes features stories that show why the Middle East and at times, the Muslim world, are in the situations they are in. It does this unknowingly, of course, and the masses who read what the online paper puts out think it’s actually promoting honesty and truth. Lately there has been a lot of coverage about the inroads Iran is trying to make across the international community, mainly in areas outside of the Western sphere of influence. Malaysia is one of those inroads…and the Tehran Times recently featured an article boasting of the warm relations between the two countries.
Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has said that close cooperation between Iranian and Malaysian parliaments helps promote unity in the Muslim world.
Larijani made the remarks during a meeting with Pandikar Amin Mulia, the speaker of the lower house of the parliament of Malaysia, on Monday on the sidelines of the second meeting of the General Assembly of the Forum of Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians for Education, which opened in Tehran on Monday and closes on May 1..During the meeting, Larijani said that the Iranian parliament supports every effort to strengthen ties with Malaysia in all spheres.
The holiest city in Shia Islam…Najaf.
Pakistani soldiers speak out
A few days back the Associated Press published this story. It was picked up by DAWN, Pakistan’s largest English-language news agency and for good reason. The article gives a much-needed position that counters the rhetoric spewed out by so many western news agencies and American politicians that accuse Pakistan of working with the Taliban. While Pakistan certainly HAS made its mistakes, berating the country relentlessly as it suffers from countless terror attacks disrespects the many soldiers who have laid down their lives to keep terrorism far outside the borders of any western country.
DAWN reports via AP:
KALPANI BASE, Pakistan: The wind was howling and the snow outside their bullet-pocked bunker lay knee-deep as the men of the 20th Lancer armored regiment bedded down for the night, nearly 2,500 meters (8,000 feet) up a mountain on one of the world’s most inhospitable borders.
They cheered themselves up by singing songs. Their commander gazed at photos of his 4-year-old daughter on his computer. But as the men chatted, it became clear that they were feeling a bit underappreciated.
Why did the West accuse Pakistan of not pulling its weight in the war on terror? They asked. Hadn’t large numbers of their comrades died at the hands of militants?
Why else were they in this hellish place if not to keep them at bay? “They say we aren’t doing enough,” said their commander, Capt. Imran Tanvir. “What more can we do?”
Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in battles with al Qaeda and Taliban militants since it deployed soldiers to its western border, more than all the foreign deaths in Afghanistan since 2001.
Although it sees India to its east as its biggest military challenge, it regards its Afghan flank to the west as critical enough to warrant stationing 130,000 soldiers there.
The base called Kalpani is on the front line in the 10-year war against militants, a war that allies Pakistan with the US and Nato in an uneasy, distrustful partnership.
Pakistan feels scapegoated for the coalition’s failures in Afghanistan.
Read more from the article “Braving ‘hell’ to keep militants at bay” here.
Now here’s a border to cross
I saw this on Youtube today…a bus ride from Pakistan-administered Kashmir to China’s western Xinjiang province. The views are spectacular and somewhat reminiscent of my 2009 visit to Nepal, except in a region that is even more isolated from westerners.
The travelers who put this video together used footage from a trip they apparently took back in 1992, so its possible and likely that some of the customs and laws have changed since then. If (when) I get the chance to go to Pakistan, I’d like to make a similar video that reflects the current decade and international events.
Social media wipes out its gains for the world
Al-Jazeera featured this as an opinion piece a couple of weeks back and I thought the author did a great job with it — he traveled to Nairobi and went on to see the refugee camps in Somalia, where a famine is killing and threatening to kill hundreds of thousands of people. I agree with what he says about the age of technology, because every time I use Twitter I end up looking at the “trending topics” in absolute disgust. Social media has been able to do great things, but for every person it helps it has to turn at least 100 others into mindless drones.
Here is the article…it is titled “Somalia: Without a #Tag“
I have recently returned from a trip to Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp. I was asked to join Al Jazeera’s Director General on this trip in order to help create greater awareness about the situation through “new media” tools. Having read about the stories coming out of Somalia and looking through a ton of photo galleries and videos, I thought that I had somewhat prepared myself for the trip.
I could not have been more wrong.
For the first time in my life, I now know what it means when people say “words cannot describe what I have seen”. It was tough – very tough. The people who make it to Dadaab are the “lucky” ones – others have perished on the side of the road.
The stories that were told were devastating … parents having to decide which child to leave behind so that they could make sure the fittest would be able to make it to camp. Imagine having to leave your weakest child behind, on the side of the road, to die. That’s it, left for the vultures. The lucky ones will die before and at least get a burial.
Another told a story of how his baby had to breast feed from his dead wife so that they would have enough strength to go on with the journey.
I felt ashamed to call myself a human being.
In the article, the author lists the topics that were trending while he was putting the story together. As I share his experience here on my website, this is what has people the world over mesmerized:
- What’s your Beatles #1?
- #whyimsingle
- #Yahoo
- #IfICouldGetAwayWithIt
- Brett Pill
- Eddie Murphy
- Dead Island
- Oscars
- Hey Arnold
- Garrard
I never would have imagined
I got back to my hotel room after having a well-prepared steak here in Mexicali and found a memory from the past via Youtube…
It’s the movie “Aladdin”, from 20 years ago. I remember watching this when it first came out and I was very young…at that time all of the references to the Middle East, the region’s geography, and Islamic history would have gone way over my head. I find it funny that I was hearing about these things so many years before I embraced a strong interest in them.
In the first few minutes there are a lot of scenes that take place in bustling bazaars. Little did I ever know then that I would see sights like that in the future…in the busy streets of cities like Delhi and Chennai. Nor did I ever imagine touring some of Asia’s largest and most magnificent mosques. I remember watching the movie and thinking that the setting seemed magical…not only was I right, but I would see it for myself.
Always amazing how our earliest experiences contrast with where we stand today, isn’t it? Enjoy watching the movie if you have time.
America finally gets its priorities in order
America is cash-strapped right now…as the situation deteriorates, demands are being made that we end our involvement overseas and “stop spending money that we don’t have”. President Obama even declared that it is time for the US to focus on nation building here at home. Yes…the women of Afghanistan who risk falling back into medieval tyranny aren’t going to be able to make the cut as we seek to spend money only on vital national interests. It is awful to admit this, but America just can’t sit in denial anymore…not with a $14 trillion debt. The children of Afghanistan, who were promised a better future back in 2001 as then-president Bush asked America’s own children to donate one dollar each to the cause, can’t be spared either. And those Libyan rebels seeking to rid the world of Muammar Qaddafi? We just can’t afford to give them any funds for the time being.
That’s because America has *REAL* problems. City planners in Michigan are hard at work taking down one particularly grisly obstacle to America’s prosperity right now:
A woman who put a vegetable garden in her front yard has been charged with a misdemeanor and could even be facing jail.
Julie Bass, of Oak Park, Michigan, created the garden after her front yard was torn up to replace a sewer line.
But a neighbour complained and called the city, who deemed it unsuitable.
Every front yard in the area is grass.
Gang war in Karachi matches Juarez violence
Human rights agencies in Pakistan are reporting that more that 1,100 people have been murdered in the southern city of Karachi in the first 6 months of 2011, matching the drug war casualties that have been seen in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez during the same period. The violence does not appear to be abating…on Tuesday, over 20 people were killed across the Pakistani economic capital, which forced police and paramilitary forces to impose a ban on passengers riding on motorbikes.
A nighttime view of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city
While Karachi is bracing for more violence, authorities in Mexico have been reporting that homicides and violence in Ciudad Juarez have been declining throughout the year. The border city seems to be steadily emerging from the wave of violence that has gripped it since 2008, leaving more than 3,000 dead in 2010 alone.
Iran points its bloody finger at Egypt
The Iranian regime never ceases to astound me with the utter contempt and disdain it has for the population that it rules over. Last year, I considered its condemnation of the UK’s student crackdown to be the dumbest statement made in 2010, but this appalling and painful proclamation FAR outstrips that in stupidity and evilness.
“Iran calls on Egypt not to use violence against protesters“
This isn’t just insulting and morbid because of what Iran did to its civilian population after a rigged election in 2009 or the draconian laws it inflicts on them day by day. Look what the regime did right as it issued this blood-drenched warning to its Arab neighbor. Keep in mind, both of these stories came across the news wire at the same time.
“Iran hangs Dutch woman arrested after protests“
Yep…just hours (or minutes) apart. You just can’t make this horror show up. The woman who was hanged, Zahra Bahrami, was conveniently convicted of a “drug smuggling” charge shortly after she was detained for taking part in Iran’s march to freedom. That wipes away all suspicion, doesn’t it? Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak may be mocking Egyptians with the speech he made on Friday, but nothing can compare to the hatred Iran has for its own people. Its way of mocking their executions and the pain they have felt is like nothing else I have ever seen.
Tragically, Zahra’s murder is just one of scores that have taken place this year. In January alone, some 70 people have been hung from the gallows. The fact that the regime is slaughtering so many of its people indicates it isn’t as thrilled about the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia as it would like us to believe it is.
The bloodiest show on earth
Some gangs and criminals seem as if they have been competing for the title of “world’s worst mass murderers” these past few days, which have seen some terrifying acts that are hard to accept as the work of fellow human beings. Yet they are, and here are the worst examples. Read about what happened and decide for yourself who deserves the title.
Al-Shabaab rebels plot attacks in Somalia
The Pakistani Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) — As floodwaters ravage Pakistan and the government is overwhelmed attempting to bring relief to tens of millions of affected citizens, the Taliban sees a perfect opportunity to exploit the crisis and advance its medieval goals. On Wednesday, the UN began reviewing its security because of Taliban threats to attack international aid workers tending to the victims. Can it get any worse than that? Yes, it can, actually. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber blasted a mosque filled with worshippers, assassinating a former parliamentarian and dozens of others. Shortly before that, another Taliban explosive targeted a school as tribal elders met to discuss peace for the region.
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab rebels — Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords plunged the country into anarchy and genocide. Amidst this, the majority-Muslim country cannot even enjoy a few weeks of calm during the holy month of Ramadan. As the UN-endorsed Somali government struggles to hold onto its waning territory in Mogadishu, Al-Shabaab sees the holy month as a time to mass murder as many innocent Muslims as possible. On Tuesday, the group’s “special forces” picked up a machine guns, strapped themselves in explosives, and stormed a hotel where Somali lawmakers were staying. 4 of them were ruthlessly chased down and assassinated by the gunmen, while some 30 other people fell prey to the crossfire and subsequent explosion that occurred when the attackers pulled the triggers on their bombs. Like TTP, the group has also made threats against aid workers who dare to distrubute food to the suffering Somali population.
Los Zetas – Perhaps the most violent of Mexico’s drug cartels, the Zetas have greatly expanded their influence and their horrific intimidation techniques. The group sent shivers throughout the Americas in June when Guatemala’s Police Chief announced that it was suspected of decapitating four people and leaving their heads outside of the National Congress. Now, the Zetas are being blamed for an all-out massacre of 72 migrant workers from Central and South America. According to a lone surivior, who is currently being treated for gunshot wounds, the migrants were on their way to the US when they were kidnaped by suspected Zetas. The migrants refused to work for the cartel, so the gunmen quickly opened fire and stacked the bodies in a ranch house. A shoot-out ensued when Mexican Marines arrived on scene.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq — A band of thugs refusing to accept their fate as nothing more than a societal cancer in the trash bin of history. When the conflict in Iraq was at its worst, the so-called “antiwar” movement claimed that the “resistance” fighters blowing up women and children in markets were only doing so because of “the occupation” by the United States. Now, the US is leaving…the last combat brigade departed last week. Yet, unsurprisingly, the enemies of Iraq are anxious to continue slaughtering Iraqis, as Wednesday’s sadistic attacks show us. It now goes without saying that the “resistance” hates the Iraqi people on every level and that even the most dedicated “war critics” must be doubting that the fanatics crossing Iraq’s borders to mass murder its people are most concerned with “occupation”. After all, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States are “occupied”, yet their people are left alone in peace by the crazed bombers.
Terrible…I don’t even know which one of these is the worst, all of them seem equally determined to tear down our world.
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