‘Cake’ sets the bar high with exceptional storytelling on April 30, 2018The newly-released Pakistani movie ‘Cake’ is a Sindhi family drama set in Karachi and rural Sindh. I have had the chance to watch it on a Silicon Valley theater screen in California. Cake is nothing like the usual Bollywood fare featuring an “item song” included in a series of song-and-dance sequences. Instead, it has a […]
Social media and tribalism on April 29, 2018Social media news feeds are driven by users’ profiles to reinforce their preferences and prejudices. News feeds are customised for each user. Any posts that don’t fit these profiles don’t get displayed. The result is increasing tribalism in the world. American and British intelligence agencies claim that Russian intelligence has used social media to promote […]
Rape: a political weapon in Modi’s India on April 25, 2018An 8-year-old Muslim girl Asifa Bano was locked in a Hindu temple, drugged, gang-raped for several days and then bludgeoned to death in Indian occupied Kashmir, according to a report in a leading American newspaper. Support of Rapists The horror of a Muslim child’s rape and murder was made even worse when the ruling BJP-affiliated […]
The myths surrounding Pakistan’s Muslim identity on April 21, 2018The partition of India to carve out the Muslim majority state of Pakistan was strongly contested by the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress. It was also opposed by many within the Indian Muslim community from both the right and the left extremes of the political spectrum. In the end, the vast majority of Indian Muslims sided […]
Pakistan daal consumption declines sharply as meat consumption rises on April 20, 2018Pakistan’s per capita daal (pulse) consumption has sharply declined to about 7 kg/person from about 15 Kg/person in 2000, according to data released by Food and Agriculture Organization and reported in Pakistani media. Meat has replaced it as the main source of protein with per capita meat consumption rippling from 11.7 kg in 2000 to […]
How Industrialized West Enables Corruption in Developing World on April 13, 2018Some have called London the “Money Laundering Capital of the World” where corrupt leaders from developing nations use looted wealth from their people to buy expensive real estate and other assets. Private individuals and businesses from poor nations also park money in the west and other off-shore tax havens to hide their incomes and assets […]
The story of Pakistan’s M8 Motorway on April 9, 2018Construction on the recently completed 893 kilometer long Gwadar-Ratodero motorway, also known as M8, was started by a Chinese contractor back in early 2004 on former President Pervez Musharraf’s watch. The work was soon abandoned when three Chinese engineers were killed by a car bomb during the first week of May, 2004. In 2003, a […]
Aviation boom in South Asia on April 7, 2018Aviation market in South Asia is among the fastest growing in the world. It is soaring in terms of both domestic and international travel. Last year, Indian commercial aviation market grew to 176 million passengers and Pakistan’s reached 22 million. A total of 22 million passengers (7.2 million domestic, 14.6 million international) flew commercial airlines […]
Fintech to enhance financial inclusion in Pakistan on April 2, 2018About 100 million Pakistani adults lacked access to formal and regulated financial services as of 2016, according to a World Bank report on financial inclusion. Only 2.9% of adults in Pakistan had a debit card, and only 1% of adults used them to make payments. Just 1.4% of adults used an account to receive wages […]
Prof Saba Mahmood – an exceptional scholar on March 24, 2018Dr Saba Mahmood, a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, passed away on March 10, 2018. She was only 56-years old when her life was cut short by pancreatic cancer. She is survived by her husband Professor Charles Hirschkind, and her son Nameer Hirschkind. Born in Lahore in 1962, Mahmood went […]