Author Archives: sm

The ONLY Job…

… where clients take feedback from their 6-year-old, and expect you to incorporate her advice. I recommend this discussion board to anyone thinking of hiring a designer: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2218393664&topic=2844#topic_top If you don’t want to be on this board, take designers seriously, … Continue reading

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Fire

He was caught behind the fire, and I searched desperately for a source of water to douse the heat. I yelled at my husband, and he came running through the flames, both legs still flaming, until he reached carpet and stamped out the flames. By that time, the kitchen was ablaze. I flung open the front door and yelled at the top of my lungs, and my employee, still waiting at the elevator bank, came rushing back in. My husband and I were hanging over the balustrade, 9 floors up, yelling ‘Fire!’ Continue reading

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A Twisted Old Tale I

Capulet saw himself in a robe of softest silk, trailing on the ground behind him. Huge emeralds sparkled at his collar, and his sword shone blue from encrusted diamonds in the hilt. Behind him, in large swathes of movement, a crowd so immense that it stretched beyond the eye could see, the people of the continent roared out a chant of ‘Our Captain, our King’. Continue reading

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Imran Khan and Swat

And, if you haven’t conducted a poll, what long-standing connections do you have in the Valley that opens you up to the pulse of its population? What network of people have you set up to gather and analyse information from the general population (and, especially, from the women), besides what the Swat Bar Association head (who happens to also be a card-carrying member of the party) passes on to you? Continue reading

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Throttled by Fear

In Pakistan, we learn that might is right and when you have might on your side, why compromise? Use violence and political threats, and when you know that fear is a driving force in a nation, you will invariably get your way. Continue reading

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Blame It On The Rain

A logical, thinking human being will point out that the cornerstone of the Prophet’s life, whom we are to emulate, was compassion, decency and honesty, and that he never would have allowed women to be locked up inside 4 walls, that the first muslim society was an open, tightly-knit community, where men respected women, rather than slandering them. Continue reading

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Barbarians – May They Rot in Hell

This is the religion of the Taliban. It is not mine, nor is it the religion of 160 million people in Pakistan. This is neither humane, nor compassionate, and by their own laws, that strange men held down a young girl in public should be enough to convict them of the same crime. Continue reading

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Social What??

In a meeting for Take Back Pakistan (TBP)  several weeks ago, a gentleman approached our group and asked for help with his school at Shirin Jinnah Colony. Apparently, his school, run under the aegis of the Baseer Foundation, has been … Continue reading

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Urgent Appeal From the KaraFilm Festival Organizers

The KaraFilm Festival has suffered an underhanded blow by its sponsors, who waited until the last possible minute (15 days before the scheduled opening) to walk away from an event that has been instrumental in reviving Pakistani cinema. 4 days … Continue reading

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Israel’s ‘Talking Points’

The more vicious Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians, the more Jews around the world will find themselves in a twenty-first century version of Hitler’s Germany; hated and despised and targetted, Israel is effectively recreating the conditions which led to their … Continue reading

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