By Fram Dinshaw Just when things seemed to have quietened down along the Canada Line construction corridor, businesses and residents are protesting increasing noise pollution caused by the constant drilling. Accustomed to the traffic congestion, new complaints relating to building the new transit line from Vancouver International Airport to Downtown indicate that the noise is [...]
By Fram Dinshaw Since 1947, when India and Pakistan achieved independence from Britain, the death and destruction carried out in the name of Kashmir amount to two full scale wars (in 1947, 1965,), and a vicious but little known insurgency waged against the Indian government since 1989 which only now shows signs of lessening. In [...]
By Fram Dinshaw I cannot write about Pakistan without mentioning Kashmir – a beautiful yet cursed land it has fought over with India ever since both countries became independent over 60 years ago – a conflict every bit as bloody but much less well known than the Arab-Israeli struggle that has raged for just as [...]
By Fram Dinshaw There you were thinking Pakistan was in serious enough trouble, what with Bhutto being killed sparking riots across the country, and the situation in the North West Frontier steadily simmering away, occassionally erupting into full scale battles between Taliban militants and government troops. All that’s pretty big news for sure, but it’s [...]
By Fram Dinshaw Right now I’m listening to some pretty tasteless pop music, a love song just in time for Valentine’s Day, and I’m probably just going to take it for granted I can indulge that simple pleasure whenever I want without anyone stopping me – after all, this is the free and easy West [...]
By Fram Dinshaw This place is one of the most lawless on Earth – a land of tribal vendettas, bearded militants with Kalashnikovs, weapons smugglers, and al-Qaeda terrorists who’ve basically been allowed to run riot as they plot attacks across an entire country – and the wider world. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was [...]
By Fram Dinshaw. In my last post I mentioned that Pakistan after Bhutto’s death was a land tormented by jinns, evil spirits who emerge after sundown to wreak all kinds of havoc on unsuspecting people. Two such jinns hell bent on destroying Pakistan as we know it are the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who on the [...]
By Fram Dinshaw Something somewhere just has to give now in Pakistan, after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination last December in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Since her death, unanswered questions as to how she died and who killed her have swirled like jinns around her grave.
By Fram Dinshaw When I was very young, about five years old, I went to Karachi with my family, where my dad’s cousin used to live and was getting married. Of the few things I remember from that time long ago, there was the colour, life, and vitality of a subcontinental city, with teeming bazaars, [...]
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