Speaking from the Chalkface

... In fact, it was a wise Head Teacher who considering the whole picture, once said that teaching itself was like being on a mouse-wheel. 

"No matter how fast you go, or no matter how much you slow down, you are always in the same place."

Puts the whole business of the delivery of education into perspective when I take this view.

The PashTones!

We live in a world full of cultural crossroads. The PashTones represent an adaptation of Pashto folk songs in American folk/acoustic styles. On their website, the PashTones write that they wish "to expand current modes of engagement and exchange between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the West by opening into the register of poetry and music." It is always a positive step when people take a genuine interest.

The after-effects of last year's floods in Pakistan still continue to affect millions. 20 million people are still in need of urgent assistance in the affected areas.  An estimated 1.9 million homes were damaged or destroyed in the tragedy, and efforts are still needed to help rebuild lives. All proceeds from this album sales will go toward Oxfam's flood relief efforts in Pakistan. 

 

 

Enjoy the three track sampler.
Follow the PashTones further on Facebook.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Part 2: John Mohammed - Across Borders

Continued from previous posting. Despite the descent into chaos, John Mohammed has decided to fight for his adopted culture.

"I saw the rural, religious Pashtun way of life I had come to love so much being diluted, contaminated and poisoned, in particular by arrivals from the Middle East," he says. "The way they practise Islam is very different to the tribal areas. They use money and influence to impose their own set of values." 

Peaceful Islam

In the early 1990s, John Mohammed joined the BBC World Service Pashto service and helped to set up New Home New Life, a now Iconic Afghan radio soap opera, known as The Archers of Afghanistan. Six years ago, he set up a radio station which broadcasts across the Afghan-Pakistan border and which tries to promote tribal traditions along with peace and reconciliation.

More recently, John has switched his attentions back to Afghanistan and is spearheading the formation of a new Islamic university in the predominantly Pashtun city of Jalalabad.

"It makes perfect sense. There is currently nowhere in Afghanistan where a young man can do higher Islamic studies. They go to Pakistan, where as we know some of them have become radicalised," he says, emphasising that his university will give a platform to moderates.

But this promotion of peaceful Islam has set him on a collision course with militants. His beloved Pakistan has now become too unsafe for him.

"Swat is a militarised zone and people I see as foreigners there now treat me like I'm the foreigner, even though I lived there for 40 years. It's hard to work out who is who any more - who is Taliban, who is criminal. The waters are very muddy."

Download the podcast from the BBC telling this remarkable story.

Part 1: John Mohammed - Story from Swat

"There is only one John Mohammed - unique."

When I learn that John Mohammed Butt has spent most of the past 40 years living amongst the Pashtoon tribes, who inhabit the hinterland between Afghanistan and Pakistan where he is regarded as a native Pashtoon and revered as an Islamic scholar, I can't help but sit up and learn more.

Until recently, home for John Mohammed was a tiny village in the Swat Valley. He arrived in Swat in 1969, he says, as a young hippy and stayed. When his fellow hippies grew up and went home to become accountants and lawyers, John remained - becoming fluent in Pashto and studying Islam.

He laughs. "When people call me an ageing ex-hippy, I always reply that I am ageing maybe, but I'm certainly not ex. I'm still a hippy."

But John's world changed in the late 1980s, with the arrival of militants, who came to the border areas from all over the world to fight the war against the Russians in Afghanistan. His beloved Swat, once a popular tourist destination, was also unable to escape downwards spiral into battles between the Pakistani military, the Taliban and the people.

"I saw the rural, religious Pashtun way of life I had come to love so much being diluted, contaminated and poisoned" he says.

Read more here and in the next posting.

Source: BBC

Educational Technology Debate

On my journey through the whole Crystal Maze of Educational Technology, I keep coming back to a few simple questions about what works, what is ethical and what are the costs. Some of these questions, perhaps remain open ended, but provide for genuine debate and what I feel would make for valuable areas of investigation for my upcoming research project.

The Educational Technology Debate (ETD) seeks to promote a substantive discussion of how low-cost information and communication technology (ICT) device initiatives for educational systems in developing countries are relevant to the very groups they purport to serve – the students, teachers, and their surrounding communities.

Aujhourd'hui

Aujhourd'hui

11.1.11

11

=
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Mashar - مشر

 إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون

An elder dies, (a Mashar in our community) and he leaves behind his worldly suffering and the body that had imprisoned him of late. He moves on. Our Creator calls. Here, in this world, people  mourn the loss and the space left behind by the Mashar. This is a prescribed plan in Allah's design for us all -  the people who have lived and died before us have already taken this path - and so the Mashar is not alone. We have yet to follow, be released from our own bonds and shackles and make that journey. Allah has already written this for us all.

May Allah  guide us all and grant the Mashar*, the Kashar**, the Shaheed*** and all their loved ones faith and peace.

Ameen.

Tor_Khan تور خان 

*an elder, **a younger one, ***a martyr

Journey of Hope

In 2010, Central Asia Institute projects have continued with educating a roster of 68,000 students, including 54,000 girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They also established 42 new schools, and also initiated two dozen other temporary schools in shelters, tents and rented buildings. To date the Central Asia Institute has 172 schools, dozens of literacy and computer centres and a budding scholarship program for advanced students. 

Despite the gloom surrounding the region and the pain of the people, I want to begin 2011 with the view that there is always hope. I continue to remain in awe and admiration of Greg Mortenson's work and including a link here to the CAI publication that reflects on the previous twelve months, appropriately enough entitled Journey of Hope.