Paris, Encore Une Fois!

C'est Paris, créé avec Google Picasa.

Bienvenue à Paris!

Salaam. Paris calling. Bonjour tout le monde. Je vous écris cette lettre de Paris.

It's been complicated, and even though I should be familiar with the damp, I'm not quite over the weather shock after having moved from the Arabian deserts to Yorkshire. Whilst I've made a certain peace, I have needed to make minor escapes after feeling trapped by the terminally wet and grey skies - even if crossing the Pennines to view things differently (not that much to be honest), though most recently I had some time in the heart of London, which, of course, is a city which I have always found to be an exciting and dynamic place. 

Over the Eid break, I took the long train journey from the north of England picking up the Eurostar Service from London Kings Cross/St Pancras International to Paris, Garre du Nord. I have been staying close to the Rue de Quatre Septembre in the 2nd Arrondissement (2^e) in the area known as Opera. The summer air, tight cobbled streets and open air cafe atmosphere has been a welcome relief and yes, I've done the touristy things as well - taken an open top bus ride to see the sights - Notre Dame, the Latin Quartre, the Seine etc. I've paid a visit to the Louvre, seen da Vinci's Mona Lisa and taken the walk along the Jardin de Tuileries, the Place de la Concorde, the fashionable Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. Of course, no trip to Paris is complete without a trip up the Eiffel Tower.  

Aujourd'hui, c'est ma dernière nuit à Paris. Here's taster photograph. More to follow InshAllah.

The Piano

The Piano, an animated short by Aidan Gibbons is a film that speaks on many levels, and incredibly, all without voice. It begins, very simply, with a man playing a piano and during the course of the film we learn a little about his life, his thoughts, his sense of separation and his hope. Overall, a very touching experience.

I have seen this in three versions - two different soundtracks and a completely silent version. It so happens to be the film that is a focus of study with my class of 10 year-olds. Click here for the version used in schools, whilst just below, I present the original version featuring 'Comptine D'une Autre Ete' by Yann Tiersen.

Je Suis Tor Khan

Created in Wordle. Inspired by randomness.

 Tor_Khan تور خان

Aujhourd'hui

Aujhourd'hui

11.1.11

11

=
!

Je Ne Comprends Pas ...

Le monde est un endroit étrange. Je ne comprends pas ...
The world is a strange place. I do not understand it ...

Bon Appétit - نوش جان

پُلاو
Pulao

Pulao is one of my favourites. It is made by cooking basmati rice in a broth-like sauce and can be made with lamb, chicken, beef or vegetables. Qabili Pulao is baked in the oven and topped with fried sliced carrots and raisins. Chopped nuts, chickpeas and potatoes may be added as well.

I am not the chef here, Dear Readers. The credit goes to the Mrs. Alhamdulilah I am well looked after, and this is her page.

It is Pashtoon tradition to share a meal. Please be seated on the dasterkhwan and join me.

Bon Appétit & نوش جان

Tor_Khan تور خان

Emirats Arabes Unis: L'Envol Du Faucon

Flight of the Falcon aka Musings from the UAE

As promised, I return with my UAE related theme. This video is inspired by the documentary Emirats Arabes Unis: L'Envol Du Faucon (United Arab Emirates: Flight of the Falcon) produced by Pierre Brouwers for Media 9 and featured on Vodeo.tv.

Reproduced using Windows Movie Maker with footage from the documentary and photographs from my collection. The soundtrack features a snippit from Ishy Bilady - عيشي بلادي - the country's national anthem.

Tor_Khan تور خان

Weekend Over ...

Au Revoir Toronto, Canada - Salaam Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Déjà Vu

AfPak/PakAf

Rudyard Kipling once wrote, "Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old."

... I'm not at all sure about the recent AfPak/PakAf strategy emanating from the US. The Americans are failing miserably in Afghanistan because increasingly the Afghans associate them with military and not aid and development. There's a protracted war with the Taliban where there are many civilian casualties. Then there are the Drone Attacks launched by Americans in the Pashtoon belt to target the militants (whilst Washington and Islamabad look the other way). This does the Americans no favours amongst local civilians. Kinds of feeds the beast they say that they are trying to tame. See Eric Maroglis's commentary on the issue.

The AfPak/PakAf strategy sets out a pathway, that we've been along before. US failure to bring peace and order to the Pashtoon belt, is now the joint responsibility of the US and Pakistan military. There's lots of talk about financial aid, military upsurges, engaging Pakistan's civil and military leadership and nation building through increased diplomatic ties etc. There are promises of huge amounts of US dollars being pumped into Pakistan to manage (through brute force if needed) the restive Khyber. With an impoverished economy, the obligations to comply are self-evident. The US calls the shots. Pakistan pulls the trigger.

Déjà Vu: Circular History

Isn't this a case of US policy to Afghanistan being directed through Pakistan another instance of déjà vu? Think Afghan Mujahideen vs the Soviets - it was to all effects America's war too, chanelled through Pakistan. Whilst it is acknowledged that the restive areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the tribal Pashtoon belt are important, the press-release of the AfPak/PakAf strategy doesn't really talk about engaging with the leadership in Pashtoon areas. It focuses mainly on the establishment - the military and the weak governments in Kabul and Islamabad. 

Does anybody believe that the military campaign in the Malakand Division and the displacement now of about 2.5 million people, that the US (renting out the Pakistan army) will break the Pashtoon spirit? The Taliban came from somewhere, someone trained and armed them and they have drawn their recruits from amongst the disaffected and unemployed in the tribal areas. But the Taliban and the Pashtoons are not the same. The sad part is that from deep within the Pashtoon areas, the Taliban have risen from apparent obscurity and have shaken the notion of what it is to be Pashtoon by means of violent break with our cultural past. Two and a half million people displaced, so far (and likely to increase), scattered and broken and living on the plains in tents are not Taliban.

There's a lot at stake here and one can see why some may blame the Americans if the Taliban are not broken soon. The track record doesn't make one very optimistic. American involvement in Afghanistan puts us all in the situation that we find ourselves in today. Afghanistan and Pakistan need roads, and electricity, they need clean water and development so that people can go back to their villages and live a decent life. Disengage with people's long term needs by destroying their lives and livelihoods and keeping them in camps makes them vulnerable to the messages of swift justice, revolution and order of the Taliban. If the US doesn't deliver and displaced people are sent back to the tribal areas, then the human time bomb ticks on.

History is a great teacher if we look back and are prepared to learn. The Brits, the Russians and the Americans have all been caught up in fighting protracted wars with the Pashtoons, so Pakistan should know better. The difference between the aforementioned examples and the Pakistan military operations are that the former were/are fighting in foreign climes. This is Pakistan's own backyard and the perception is that Pakistan is doing Americas dirty work. Also crucially, for the Pakistan army the situation is even more critical - warfare weaponry and techniques have changed and arial bombing by the technologically superior is met with suicide blasts by those on the ground. Of course, both hit the innocent - ordinary civilians - women; children; menfolk. This is where I'm most saddened.

Muted Voices

I wish the world could see it from another perspective. Pashtoons are tired of the wars in Afghanistan; tired of great games played out between the Russians, the US and earlier British Imperial forces. Tired of the war on terror, and tired of being associated with the Taliban. Tired with the hopeless lack of investment by successive governments on the receiving end of US aid to build up utility, education, communication and road infrastructures. Tired of being exposed to third-rate schooling options. Tired of being considered backwards and treated as so, and tired of being muted and constantly ignored.

Whiskers and Tails

Cautionary Tale/Tail*

There is a reason that I don't like slugs - fat, ugly, slimy and destructive - but more on that in a moment.  To begin with, my story, where the moral, I suppose, is about sharing the truth, but keeping enough of it back so that you don't feel like you are lying.

Nostalgia, perhaps, clouds some of the more accurate points here, but when I was little, once, quite unannounced, I made an impulse buy using up every little penny I had saved and came home with a cavy. It was small, twitched its nose, had little bright eyes and ran around in the straw. I wasn't really allowed - we had rules around animals that had to be followed, but staring at me as it did from behind the glass window of the pet store, it adopted me as much I adopted it.

So I brought it home and called it Winnie. As in Winne-the-Guinea. Except, primarily because it was a rodent, my parents were not sure at all. .Notice, I said I started by saying that I came home a 'cavy'. Well popularly they are known as guinea pigs, though back then, in the 1980s, in Yorkshire, pigs, in a Muslim household didn't fit, so I had to describe the animal with caution.

Since the day Winnie came to live with us, I learned an important lesson in life - without lying, you pick your words carefully. Fortunately, I don't think my parents would have known the word for guinea pig in Urdu or Pashto, but they were sensitive around the word 'pig'. Really sensitive and looking back, I think I understand given their world view point. In any case, I would refer to my new pet as a cavy or a guinea. Winnie the Guinea. That bought me some time so that meanwhile Winnie would come out of her cage and nibble sunflower seeds sitting on my lap, even though my folk continued to eye her suspiciously. Something just wasn't right and it was only a matter of time before a slip of the tongue when the little creature was referred to as a guinea pig  - Winnie the Pig. I couldn't justify a pig, so after a few days in the house, it banished to a hut outside the house and was not welcome inside.



Cochon d'Inde

Once I got over the initial faux pas, my parents did however, put enough trust in me, to not make me miserable. n the ensuing weeks, it had several description changes. "It's actually from Guinea, hence the name Guinea," I think I pleaded. (Wrong, in fact - these animals are South American, and not African as I now know). After I did the geography thing - Guinea, (too far away, not culturally accessible), I switched places. India was familiar - my parents were born in British India, so I even opted for the name that mentioned India - Cochon d'Inde. French. Except Cochon d'Inde translates as Pig of India. Oops.

By the time I knew the word "cavy", Winnie was outdoors; though, like I said, I was allowed to continue keeping her. Summers felt long back then. She ate well, and played well and grew to a nice size. She loved the garden, would sometimes get to run and hide in my father's vegetable patch and was admired by the neighbours. She died one October, when a cold snap hit. I was devastated. Maybe it was the chill that got her, but I found a slug, on her cage, alive and well. In October!

For years, I believed the slug had somehow caused Winnie's death. The other kids in the neighbourhood backed me up and I grew a disliking for slugs. As an adult, I'm still put off by (after the rain or their sudden appearance in the dark on a damp night). I dislike the way they are attracted some of my favourite plants in garden. I dislike accidentally stepping into them. That turns my stomach. Be done with them - whether its plants, my shoes or Winnie!

Needless to say, I've been a fan of slug pellets ever since.

Blood Stones

Diamonds are Forever

Diamonds are Forever so the James Bond film went. Indeed even before that Diamonds, apparently were, a Girl's Best Friend. But it is the West African diamond trade as exemplified in the film Blood Diamond that brings a whole new dimension to the real values attached to these precious stones.

The film showed - and many had claimed before the issue was really taken public - that diamonds were being used to contribute to human rights abuses through exploitation and torture and financing the civil unrest through the activities in African conflict zones. This is a contemporary tale of enslavement, human violence and brutal exploitation and is a remarkable film, bringing home to the audience how simple folk with very normal agendas are dragged into the conflicts around them. When people fear for their children, when they fear for their lives, extreme things can happen. The film makes the suggestion that diamond traders in far away places know exactly about the actions of War Lords operating in Africa and the human issues at steak. The viewer is left with a hanging thought - the continuing trade of blood diamonds serves to keep pockets within Africa in a state of lawlessness and that ultimately we have a moral duty to ensure that diamonds sold for thousands in Europe and the US have not at some point been mined by children, amputees or torture victims for little or no pay.

It's a powerful statement - there are diamond traders, jewellers and people with money in elite European and American circles literally wearing the blood and sweat of exploited Africans, around their necks.

Emerald City/Gemstone Graveyards

Closer to home, the valleys of Swat in Pakistan and Panjshir in Afghanistan hold amongst the biggest deposits of precious stones in the world (check out the map above). In particular, Emeralds. My mother relates a familiar story from her childhood of how foreigners would descend on the emerald mines in Swat, pay a pittance to the miners (often minors) and leave with pockets full of gems. Even at that time - the British Raj was drawing to its close and the emergent state of Pakistan had just come together - the international gem trade had its eye on Swat. It is, by all accounts, a tale of exploitation.

Fast forward to today. When I take a look at Swat's emerald trade - the parallels with Africa are disturbing - the Emerald mines are now almost totally in the hands of the Taliban, who are engaged in their own reign of fear and repression. In a twist that is a classic case of déjà vu - the emeralds of Swat, mined by the locals are being used to finance activities that do not benefit them. There are buyers out there, in far away places, who marvel at the crystal green beauty. Except take a little look closer, and what you may see, is the colour of blood.

Masked Identity 2: Incognito in a Second Life

Behind the Mask

In my previous posting, I wrote that I was able to get beyond the mask without feeling that I need to get behind it. That said, there are times, when masks ARE very much divisive. I'm not talking about face coverings necessarily. A mask of untruths, never helps. Speaking on the phone, is only a partial conversation when you can't actually read the expressions of the other speaker. The written word is particularly notorious - masking out so many of the signals we get in a face-to-face communication situation. So much of what is sometimes meant can be left out, the danger being that we get a partial message that somehow becomes an official statement because it is written. And then there are social chat forums, like Second Life.

An Avatar in a Second Life

In Vedic philosophical traditions, an avatar is said to be an incarnation of a transmigrated soul. In other words, your alternative self (from the one that is or was). In the cyber-world, this usually means your online guise. In Second Life, your avatar can be created from a set of characteristics - you can define facial features, body type - dress style, gestures etc. Sounds like fun maybe, but scratch beyond the superficiality of it, then it is perhaps the ultimate in a communication behind a mask. I need convincing that it is actually healthy.

I've drifted away from the novelty that IRC chatrooms once held. Many internet providers won't go there anyway since chat rooms have fallen into a kind of disrepute for being associated with the darker corners of the internet. On a positive, I once did have a really interesting conversation with someone in Mexico City when we stumbled upon a chance meeting in a chatroom, but often I've found that lots of the 20-30 something chatrooms are where insults are traded and where you're bound to stumble across a nut. Maybe I should try a forum for gardeners*.

And maybe perhaps my opinions on Second Life are equally onesided. I suspect so. My avatar, Tor Nandahar**, is actually a cool guy, but he's picky. Really, having done the test drive, having walked the walk, having been patient and having given myself time to watch and learn, I'm not all that enamoured - I'm not speaking about the technology here, which I think has its plusses - but with the frustration of being in a public forum where all I want to do is "speak" with a couple of interesting people - fickle encounters do not please. In anycase, most folk in their artificially beautified form look a little too perfect (albeit in a surreal animated world) to be all that real anyway.

There are positives - island communities where beautiful avatars live in bliss and where people are there by invitation only. There are instances of educational use of Second Life, so I tried to float into an ESL forum. I thought it might be fun, but I found a strangely haunting Robinson Crusoe experience where I was the only one on the island. I was able to read the notices, but I did not find another soul there. The game-play aspects are interesting. Avatars can fly and you can earn Second Life credits (Linden Dollars) to spend. You can build your own islands have have your friends over to party.

Would I recommend? As a Virtual Learning Environment, maybe. Second Life is a helpful way to connect people from distant places, but only if the perfect cosmetic self is as important as having a meaningful human interaction.

* I miss my garden, and whilst I found some really helpful tips on USENET forums, I'm not sure most gardeners would not bother too much with beautified fantasies of themselves in a forum like Second Life
** based on my nom de plume, Tor_Khan

Wordle Art

Old hat for some, and even though I've come across this before, I've only just tested out the wonders of Wordle. It's a kind of WordArt. In this case, Wordle has been designed to link to randomised words from this blog. Pretty neat, n'est ce pas?