Sunday, November 25, 2007

Local paper warns of "Iraq-like invasion of Pakistan"

On thursday this week I was at a friend's house when another American called to tell us about an alarming article in the local Dawn news. It was titled: "US plans invasion of Pakistan."
This local reporter, whose name was not given with the article, had just spent a week in the United States. Upon his observances that Pakistan's political situation was the top story on all the major news networks and in all the national papers, he concluded that the United States government was preparing the population to launch a full scale attack on Pakistan. The anonymous correspondant also claimed he had inside information about this upcoming military operation. He claimed that currently the US government is just looking for a general who wants to take on the task of "liberating" Pakistan.
Interesting how he could make such a bold claim after only one week in the US. The article was not on the front page of the paper, and the English could have used a thorough editing from the middle school English teacher, yours truly. Yesterday I had to chance to see this article myself and I proceded to read it aloud to a group of other ex-pats. We had a good laugh, but I was running out of breath due to all the run-on sentences. I couldn't even really make sense of some parts of it due to the poor writing and sentence structures. The mysterious author certainly did not note how the logistics of this attack would work out. Is the US going to pull troops from Iraq and Afghanistan to come over here? Who exactly would be the enemy? The US supplies training and supplies for the Pakistan army. Pakistan is thought to be a staunch ally in the region.
In my opinion, the author of that article could use some further study in politics and grammar.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Watching from the Sidelines

It's been a while since I've been blogging regulary. It seems that since this emergency rule thing started that the net here has become excruciatingly slow. It could just be our provider but you never know.
Many friends have been writing me asking how things are under the "emergency rule." Honestly, things haven't really been much different. Our school was cancelled for one day, but that was just because Benazir Bhutta was under house arrest in the same block. There were mutliple death threats out against her and the security forces had blocked most of the streets leading to the school. After they decided to keep her in house arrest for a while, we just got used to the road blocks and the riot police. I haven't felt any more or less safe than before the emergency was declared.
What I try to explain to people who aren't here in Pakistan is that the political scene here is a game where only the players are involved. Yes, politicians, lawyers, and some journalists were affected by the emergency, but the regular person in Lahore is not. Kids still go to school every day, and people still go to work. Most Pakistanis here amuse themselves by watching the political drama from the sidelines. I just read on www.dawn.com that Nawaz Sharif will be flying into Lahore tomorrow. How does that affect me? Well I will be sure not to drive around near the airport, and I'll be sure to check BBC online to see if he's arrested or shipped off to another country again. Apparently Saudi Arabia isn't taking him back this time.