Guess who saw an anti-NATO, pro-Pakistani military rally in the Blue Area (high end shopping district) of Islamabad and only had their cell phone camera with them? I’m not leaving the house without at least my point-and-shoot Canon with me again.
The details of exactly what happened are still unclear, but everyone agrees that 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed at their own border outposts by NATO forces.
This has led of course to several demonstrations in Pakistan’s larger cities. Yes, the US flag was burned at several of these, and the government is making some moves to distance itself from the US, including kicking US forces out of a leased base, Shamsi Airfield in Balochistan.
I’ve gotten a few concerned emails from folks back about this perceived rise in anti-Americanism in Pakistan, and I would just like to ask you to quickly evaluate the opposite situation. If Pakistani forces had crossed into Afghanistan and killed 24 American soldiers, how angry would many of you feel towards the Pakistani government? At the same time, would any of your anger spill over onto an average Pakistani person you met in the US? I think the answers to those two questions should answer all of the questions or concerns any of you might have about my safety.
Many of the locals turn their noses up at Islamabad’s shopping, as they have experience with the much larger and better-stocked stores in the larger cities like Lahore and Islamabad. This gora (white person), however, has found shopping in the capital to be quite a fun experience.
Perhaps the most fun bit of shopping in Islamabad is that, in common with many other Asian locales, there is a thorough and blatant disregard for copyright. It’s going to be difficult for me to bring anything back through customs, but very well-stocked and well-organized stores carry all manner of treasures – some clearly pirated copies, others indistinguishable from their legitimate counterparts.
Even to someone jaded by the availability of nearly everything being for download on BitTorrent, the stores are amazing. To someone interested in South Asian culture, they’re a special treat, because there are still many classic Bollywood and Lollywood movies that are difficult to find online. I picked up copies of such Pakistani classics as Maula Jat and Hitlar, Son of Hitler on VCD for a few hundred rupees. (Still haven’t figured out what to do about having a DVD case with a scowling Pakistani man with a blade and “HITLER!” in 144 pt. font on it when I go through Israeli customs. Ditto for the Pakistani army officer’s cap I picked up at a thrift store in Rawalpindi.)
One interesting thing that I’ve noticed throughout my trip is that people react very differently to folks in these shops based on how in touch with Pakistan you seem. Even though I haven’t necessarily learned much Urdu during my time here, I have definitely become much more comfortable with using the few phrases I know. Isn’t it strange how half the battle with language learning is actually developing the confidence and accent to employ the phrases you know? I went through the same experience in 2007 when I traveled in Italy.
I also picked up a very sharp Pakistani cricket jacket that I tend to wear out and about quite a bit now that the weather’s gotten a bit cooler. (Quite the temperature range during the day. Tomorrow’s forecast is for a high of 75F and an overnight low of 50F.) It will be interesting to see the reactions my new jacket gets over the next three months in India, Israel and the US!
This isn’t very scientific, but I think my increased Pakistanification has led to a bit more generosity from sellers when it comes to goods that aren’t labeled with a fixed price. If you show a little respect for someone’s culture by learning a bit of the language, and even more importantly some basic knowledge of local customs, politics and history, people are definitely much more willing to extend their hospitality, and this includes shopkeepers and cab drivers.
The same goes for when I’m shopping with a local person, from a friend to my good friend Danyal’s father. When shopkeepers see that I am friends with Pakistani folks, I immediately receive the local price. I think this is a sad commentary on the fact that the majority of foreigners in Islamabad have their own places to hang out and don’t associate with Pakistanis all that much. I see plenty of other foreigners around Islamabad, but usually in the company of other foreigners, not local people. That’s a true shame, because I feel that I’ve learned more about Pakistan from talking to ordinary people I meet in my daily life – the guy I bought a pile of pirate DVDs included – than I have from most of the so-called Pakistan “experts.”
There is one product I have consistently struggled with though, and that’s canned fish. I’m a fiend for sardines and tuna, and both are readily available, although only at enormously inflated prices at the kinds of places expatriates and wealthy folks shop. I can honestly say that in over two months in Pakistan, this is the only local cultural difference I’ve been at all stymied by.
My single most expensive purchase, although well worth it, was a Butterball turkey for Thanksgiving. A 10 pound bird cost me 4,000 PKR, about $45. Not only was this my first Thanksgiving outside of Buffalo, NY, it was also the first where I was responsible for the bird, which I brined in a secret blend of spices before roasting. It was the most tender, delicious turkey I’ve ever had, although due to an unfortunately slow oven I didn’t serve it until 5AM. Everyone of course still got to enjoy the meat over the course of a few days.
I’ve had many interesting experiences around Islamabad that weren’t worthy of a post all their own, but that I thought together helped paint a more complete picture of my trip and experiences here.
My big goal for this week was to get my visa extended. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of Pakistani bureaucracy, which so far is the only element of this trip I haven’t enjoyed. I believed the New York consulate when they told me it would be a straightforward process. Instead, it involved trips to three different offices of the Ministry of the Interior, and one shockingly rude staff member who refused to accept my form submission because it was minutes outside of application submission hours — i.e., after 12 noon. Even more fun is the knowledge that, since the new policy is to only grant a 1 mo. extension each time, I will be going through the whole process again in 3 weeks.
The other day, driving home from seeing The Mechanic with Jason Statham, (a perfectly good Saturday popcorn movie, by the way) the friend I was with pointed out the jail where Z. A. Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973-1977, was executed on the orders of his successor, military dictator Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. It was a sudden reminder of Pakistan’s tumultuous history on a day when I was otherwise just goofing around and not really thinking much about where I was or what it meant to be there.
One pleasant side effect of the visa adventures this week is that I’ve gotten much better at negotiating with cab drivers. No meters here — only the fierce wills of two men fighting for supremacy. (Yes, I do hear “The Burning Heart” from Rocky IV in my head every time I hail a cab.) The standard cab here is a small Suzuki, usually an ancient Khyber, although I did ride in an immaculate new cab the other day with dashboard mounted GPS and a stereo playing music off of a USB thumbdrive. Traffic is not bad at all compared to what stories had led me to believe, although I’m sure Karachi and Lahore will prove to be a little more wild and wooly!
This is repeated information from a previous email installment, so you might want to skip this over if you’re also on my mailing list.
In the past week I had the opportunity to visit two university
campuses, Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader, i.e. Jinnah) and Bahria (Naval) Universities… I even got to sit in on a few classes at
Bahria. One of the courses was an introduction to
Political Science, which I hope to make arrangements to return
to again. The dialogue was fantastic, although I was shocked with the
level of discontent among the students with their elected government.
As a reminder, Pakistan just left military rule a bit over 3 years
ago. However, when asked who wanted a return to dictatorship, perhaps two-thirds or three-quarters of the classroom raised their hands. The young, educated elite here are extremely frustrated with their government. I’m not sure what this implies for the future success of the electoral system here.I’ve found a bit of a second unpaid job here as well — every
undergraduate I meet here, upon finding out that I’m a Master’s
student from the US, wants to pick my brain about the GRE, the
application process, which grad schools are the best, how to improve
his English vocabulary and writing, etc. Perhaps I should get a few
of my grad student colleagues together and start a consulting firm?
This is a bit of a personal note, but I’ve had the chance to cook two Italian meals for my host family here. The first, as pictured a few posts back, was a huge pot of pasta fagioli, which came out exactly like my grandmother used to make it — thanks to my Mom’s flawless transcription of her old recipe and clear instructions! The second time, I tried to make a nice batch of rotini with red sauce and meatballs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the oven to work, so I tried just pan-frying the meatballs a bit before adding them to the sauce. Big mistake — they completely disintegrated. Oh well, it turned out very tasty, although not as I intended.
Neither meal’s leftovers lasted more than 24 hours in the fridge.
The local news has been fairly heavily dominated by the accusations that retiring Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen has made about ties between the Haqqani network and Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s CIA equivalent. The sudden outburst of rhetoric from the US about how Pakistan isn’t doing enough in the war on terror, is too closely linked with anti-American groups, and is interfering with Afghan sovereignty has me a bit frustrated.
The truth, as usual, is much more nuanced than what is being presented in the media back home. The Haqqani network probably does have pretty deep ties with the ISI. However, it also has very deep ties with the CIA. The network’s founder, Jalalludin Haqqani, was supported by the US government during the Afghan-Soviet war. If the ISI are terrorists by association, then so is the Reagan White House. If we are going to continue to criticize Pakistan’s establishment for its ties with some pretty disagreeable groups, then we need to examine the US government’s own connections to unsavory groups and vicious governments all over the world.
I also believe it is a disrespectful libel to continue to describe Pakistan as timid, unwilling to combat extremism or not “carrying its weight.” Total US military fatalities in Afghanistan are about 1700. Total Pakistani military fatalities just in combat in Khyber-Pakhtunkwa, the province where the US invasion pushed most of the Taliban and foreign militants who had been running the show in Afghanistan pre-2001, are about 3900.
That doesn’t include the military troops killed in very high-profile attacks on Pakistani military installations, including a suicide bombing near the headquarters of the Pakistani Navy (I’ve driven with feet of where he detonated) and the General Headquarters building, the Pakistani Army’s Pentagon, nor does it include the many Pakistani civilians killed in bomb blasts throughout the country, including a few years ago in a markaz (commercial area) a few blocks away from where I’m staying.
There is indisputable evidence that some extremists have managed to infiltrate the Pakistani armed forces. At the same time, US Army major Nidal Hasan killed 13 in the Fort Hood shooting in late 2009. I haven’t heard any suggestions that the US Army is no longer a reliable partner in the war on terrorism. With Pakistan’s proximity to such a huge group of radical extremists, of course there are going to be a larger number of such infiltrators. This isn’t a reason to cut off aid to Pakistan at all. In fact, it’s a reason to increase military aid, as the Pakistani military faces challenges that our own fortunately has largely avoided.
I am not saying that Pakistan, its government and military are perfect. Believe me, there are many valid criticisms of all three. However, the one-sided portrayal in the US media does not treat the issue with the nuance and context it deserves, nor does it often enough make clear the role that US foreign policy in the 1980s played in creating the terrorist groups we now expect Pakistan to play such a large role in defeating.
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