#Pakistani architecture

[paulpingminho]

[retropakistan]

Vintage Rawalpindi: A Glimpse Into the City's Timeless Elegance

Going through these pictures is like embarking on a nostalgic voyage through the vintage alleys of Rawalpindi like stepping into a time capsule, where each cobblestone held tales of a bygone era

Find out more about this historical city on @retropakistani's Instagram post

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[themousefromfantasyland]

Why are people not talking about this:

In the Little Mermaid 2023 remake, they changed the setting of the story.

Despite what many believe, the original 1989 animated movie wasn't set in Denmark. Judging by the architecture of Prince Eric's castle, the animals present during Kiss the Girl, and the landscape of the land itself, the movie is set in the European Mediterranean. Disney all but confirmed this in latter years. There were actual theories about Eric's kingdom being in Italy.

In the remake, Eric's kingdom is an island heavily implied to be on the Caribbean sea.

Eric is adopted and his mother, the Queen is super alive in this, and she is black. Grimsby here is portrayed by a Pakistani-British actor, making him ambiguously brown. Carlotta was replaced by a character named Lashana, and she is portrayed by a Trinidadian actress.

The island population is super diverse, with black and brown people everywhere.

They have a tropical climate and the only trees seen are palm trees.

Instead of waltzing when they visit the kingdom, Ariel and Eric dance Caribbean music.

When Eric shows several maps to Ariel, he suspiciously cites the names of a lot of South America countries, like Venezuela and Colombia, implying that the kingdom is closer to these countries than it is to Europe. He even cites my country, Brazil, referred as the Brazilian Empire, which dates the movie from anywhere between 1822 and 1889, when Brazil was indeed an Empire.

@ariel-seagull-wings @princesssarisa @angelixgutz @amalthea9 @thelittlehansy

[ducksido]

Welcoming Chinese!yuu and Louisiana!Yuu

First Impressions:

Mexican!Yuu: “Wait, Louisiana!Yuu, you deep-fry everything? We’re gonna get along real well.” Brazilian!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, you have a festival where people launch lanterns into the sky? That sounds magical.” Aussie!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, you mean to tell me you wrestle gators for fun? Mate, I think we just became best friends.” Sicilian!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, your tea culture is incredible. You’re making me want to sit down and just drink tea all day.” Romanian!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, you believe in ghosts? I knew you and I would get along just fine.” Jamaican!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, your music is all soul, huh? I wanna hear that jazz you keep talking about.” Southern!Yuu: “Oh thank the Lord, another proper Southern soul! I was startin’ to feel outnumbered.” Florida Man!Yuu: “Wait, y’all have voodoo in Louisiana? You gotta show me how to hex people!” Czech!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, you mean to tell me your legends include dragons? I need to hear them.” Thai!Yuu: “So both of y’all believe in spirits and ghosts… maybe too much. I’m sleeping with the lights on.” Vietnamese!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, I swear we are practically family. Our cultures are so interwoven, this is great!” Pakistani!Yuu: “Your Lunar New Year is huge?! I have to experience that celebration at least once in my life.” Egyptian!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, your country has dynasties that lasted thousands of years? Respect.” French!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, your Creole and Cajun food is a masterpiece. I demand a taste test.” Québécois!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, you speak French too?! Finally, someone who understands me!” Greek!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, your philosophy and history go way back. We need to have a deep talk.” Irish!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, your bayou legends sound like my old Irish ghost stories… We should swap.” Scottish!Yuu: “So both of y’all believe in spirits? Have you ever met a banshee?” Italian!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, your food is an art form. I must learn your cooking techniques.” Aboriginal!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, your connection to the land reminds me of home. I respect that.” Arab!Yuu: “Your respect for ancestors is something I deeply admire, Chinese!Yuu. It’s a beautiful tradition.” Philippine!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, you party like we do. Your Mardi Gras and our festivals would be a dangerous combination.” Myanmar!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, your architecture is breathtaking. I want to see your temples.” South Georgia!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, you ever had proper sweet tea? Lemme tell you, it’s a necessity.” Singaporean!Yuu: “Chinese!Yuu, we have so much in common. Our food culture is legendary.” Indonesian!Yuu: “Louisiana!Yuu, I see you have spicy food. Let’s see if you can handle my spice.”

How Louisiana!Yuu & Chinese!Yuu Fit In:

Louisiana!Yuu (The Bayou Legend)

Brings the party—Mardi Gras, jazz, and crawfish boils? Everyone is well-fed and having a great time.

Has the wildest ghost stories and will sit you down at night to tell you about the horrors of the swamps.

Cooks with love and spice—you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted their gumbo. Sam is already making them feel at home.

Tough as nails—they’re not afraid of gators, storms, or even Florida Man!Yuu’s reckless antics.

Chinese!Yuu (The Ancient Scholar & Martial Artist)

Wise beyond their years, carrying a deep respect for philosophy, tradition, and honor.

A master chef—their dumplings and noodle dishes leave the whole group fighting over the last bite.

Has incredible festival knowledge—Lunar New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat races—they bring the celebration wherever they go.

Can and will humble anyone in a fight—whether it’s martial arts or a battle of wits, they’re always a few steps ahead.

[guiltygearconfessions]

Submitting my thoughts as an Indian and Pakistani fan of GG, but I'm kinda disappointed that a lot of analysts who cover Zepp don't seem all too concerned with looking closely at aspects of South Asian culture and history or anything outside of India when it comes to Zepp. Yes it is Indian but you can't discuss India and just magically divorce it from shared cultural ties with Pakistan (and by extension Bangladesh, however I am not Bengali and thus can't speak much on it.) For example Gabriel's blue uniform is so clearly based on a veshti combined with the female air force uniform for Pakistan, or that Zepp's symbol is based on the Garuda Commando Forces logo- even the uniforms of said force match much closer to Zepp's uniforms than any stated "inspiration" I've seen. Hell even the slavery system within Zepp is a reflection that our countries still struggle with caste and class based slavery on a much larger scale (it's affected my own lower class family). This isn't even to mention Potemkin who seems much more tied to how Indo-Pak militarism, nationalism, and facism can affect areas like Kashmir. People are quick to call "German and Russian" influences but the only ones I remotely even observe as a brown person are literally just Pot and Gabriel's names. I dunno. It's just vexing to me. Like it's a country made by dissatisfied Indians post-crusades, so the idea that the old government was somehow less south asian is like. Weird to me. Like there's nothing to indicate that other than people conflating out architectural styles with Russian ones too. Like a lot of Zepp seems to resemble Rajasthani and Punjabi (both sides) architecture in particular but I'm just saddened knowing nobody will look that far into it simply because they might not have that same cultural attachment to it.

Side note I'm also not a fan of how Daisuke refuses to give names to Zeppian characters that match with their ethnic background. For every Leon Mining, Gabriel, and Potemkin, we could've gotten like... actual references to our rock and metal scene. Even "Zepp" as the country name dissatisfies me. Creators and fandoms have such a bad habit at making something or acknowledging something as "South Asian" and then refuse to elaborate on it beyond a few visuals. It feels gauche.

Something something the prevalence of ki not being touched upon for any of South Asia / Zepp by extension within GG is also a major annoyance when we share a lot of faith based aspects with regions like China and Japan.

This has been kinda long winded but holy shit fighting games really just annoy me sometimes with how they treat South Asia as a whole. I just feel it very strongly with GG in particular since Daisuke was very close to peak. So close. I will say he clearly put in a lot of effort that non-south asians probably wouldn't recognize at a first glance, but the smaller details surrounding Zepp and some of the assumptions made about Zepp fandom wise combine into a "nobody will get it like I do" situation.

It's genuinely very cool to see someone's perspective and analysis on it who has more experience and understanding than most western gamers. I appreciate you sharing!

[cere-mon-ials]

2024 in what made me happy: a misc list

the broadcast schedules of cdrama. this year, for the first time, i finished a cdrama because i saw one gif set of wu jinyang telling wang xingyue that he was handsome in the pouring rain. after the double, i watched and loved love like the galaxy, watched and loved amidst a snowstorm of love. then, i began watching and loving blossom as it aired new episodes every single day. i love what this has done to my drama-watching routines because it's not as fickle as a binge drop and it's not as sedate as weekly drops.

no, but weekly drops too. especially, only murders in the building and running to reddit to see what all the hot new theories are. and, culinary class wars — that was a good month.

i refused to listen to podcasts, and it made some small room to listen to other, more useful, voices. i didn’t finish books i cared little for. i closed tabs and deleted bookmarks more often. i didn't attend any weddings, in an attempt to recover from the weddings i did attend in 2023 and the 2025 invitations currently dinging on my whatsapp.

got a job, hated it, found some courage to turn back on the excellent pay, and left it. got another job soon enough, one that now keeps me on my toes but isn't painful on my heels.

my mother's saree collection, and to the first year of my life when i got to wear them on the reg.

learning chinese and refining my urdu. i can now recall maybe 15 chinese characters without fumbling and read a faiz poem slowly, with a pencil and in a quiet room. it's great because it's so difficult.

saife hassan, whose direction of zard patton ka bunn has (a) seized me back into pakistani drama (b) given me meenu and nofil's tender, sweet romance (c) brought back feelings that i thought dead and wouldn't want to articulate in this space.

the ambition in as byatt's possession, which crept into my dreams to remind me that i am slacking and in cixin liu's three-body problem, which crept into my nightmares to remind me that the grand architecture held in the entirety of my imagination is a speck in the universe. i can't tell you if i loved or even enjoyed either book but i don't think it matters. i have reserved the remaining two books of liu's trilogy for 2025.

steaming white rice with a spoonful of ghee and a smattering of salt, the most delicious appetizer to any meal.

last year, after avoiding them because they were always priced higher, i began buying poetry books. this growing bedside stack has been my solace and i love reaching for a random page to find something i needed to read in that moment. i began this year with my dearest heaney and i intend to end it with cavafy.

the discipline of a simple skincare routine, which i am not always good at keeping up with and my skin isn't all that better either but i am trying.

syd & carmy & richie & tina & marcus & chef terry & everyone else in the bear.

the soundtrack of lovely runner kept me company on some of the longest commutes and shut out loud arguments in the ladies compartment. the soundtrack of love like the galaxy felt like the soundtrack of my life for about three months this year. the soundtrack of the last samurai came out of nowhere to aid me during difficult work sessions. i am always in search of appropriate times to blast the soundtrack of gully boy, the weeknd's my dear melancholy, and frou frou's details. there's no lack of appropriate times to blast a rahman album.

driving, i guess. i resisted for as long as i could because i am a public transportation person but i do not live in a city that is conducive for it. i do feel a strange sense of accomplishment at learning this skill.

the classics that i missed when they were being defined as such: i loved moonstruck's ridiculous commitment to being perfect because of its loudness and not despite it. sandra and keanu really did something special with speed (i know!!!) and i was beyond thrilled to experience that kind of textured action filmmaking. michael clayton and the pelican brief were wonderful watches as smaller, quieter, revelatory films where stars get to be actors. lee mi-sook in an affair changed me at a molecular level.

i fell in love all over again with short films and documentaries: loved sean wang's silly and heartfelt nǎi nai & wài pó, loved maryam takafory's touching irani bag. i rewatched amit dutta's nainsukh a full decade after i first watched it in college and i am yet to figure out how he did it.

monsoons, which i didn't get to experience this year but about which i read a miscellaneous ton in search of a doctoral thesis topic for whenever i choose the take the plunge. i am never not thinking about those winds and those rains from my childhood and the limited future i can imagine for myself.

my k-pop listening has suffered because my favourites are serving in the military but i held on thanks to the loving embrace of enhypen. i watched their online concerts with utmost pleasure. best performances: enhypen. best album: ateez's golden hour, part 2. best music video: stray kids' chk chk boom.

hozier singing i think i'll take my whiskey neat / my coffee black and my bed at three / you're too sweet for me.

so much hozier, london grammar, rahman, the hindi cinema by the decade playlists on spotify, and terrible tiktok music that unfortunately sound fab in the car music system.

my loved ones and all of you, who are better than me in every way that counts.

[keyishacolecat]

do you have any book recommendations? pls i need lots 💙💙

this is such a loaded question friend. but lucky for u, i am procrastinating assignments, my take out has yet to arrive, and i just finished another book!

horror fic has been my choice for the last several books

the centre by ayesha manazir siddiqi is about a young Pakistani woman living in the UK. she's a translator for Urduru films. language and translation are central to this book. people are becoming fluent in a matter of weeks in complex languages.... the centre is gorgeous if not entirely mysterious, magical even. but whats the catch?? beautifully written. vivid details. anisa is a flawed, honest, and genuine feeling mc, as are the people in her life. i just finished it a couple hours ago n i miss my girls.

slewfoot by brom is set in 17th century Connecticut. our protag, Abitha, is not from this town but she does he best to adhere to the Puritan standards, if not for her well being, than that of her husband's. something stirs in the outskirts of the village, in the forest and beyond. she finds help from an unlikely source while also fostering a deep inner power of her own. these characters felt so well thought out, the writing is magnetic and the action is well paced. it puts so many preconceived notions right on their head. i loved this book and can't wait to read brom's other novel, the child thief, a retelling of peter pan and the lost boys!

sister, maiden, monster by lucy a. synder was oh so gay and oh so cosmically horrendous. this is like h.p. lovecraft wasn't a weird racist. this is like if biblically accurate angels were once just women in love. this is horrifying, visceral, and relevant to our COVID world. i was gawking at so many of the details. there are so many monster themes actually, it's perfect. the story is told through 3 povs of 3 different women. and we love women! and horror! i didn't expect to pick this one up but I'm so glad i did.

mary: an awakening of terror by nat cassidy do u know what it's like to be virtually invisible? forgotten? disaffected? do u know the pure joy of having a precious collection, adding to it over time, and it being almost ur only reason for living anymore?? then you're a lot like mary. and mary is a lot like plenty of women who get the chance to live beyond adolescence, who are cast out by society-- deemed invaluable. mary is utterly lost at a time in her life she feels she should have it all figured out. she goes back to her hometown, an ambiguous small town in the middle of the desert, and some unlikely characters help her piece things back together. i finished this book feeling so close to mary. we are friends now. there is mystique, horror, fables, myths, bad guys, mysterious architecture, and well mary is not the most reliable narrator. loved this one too.

the last house on needless street by catriona ward i had no idea where this book was going and i loved piecing the narrative together through several characters and their povs. it forces u to confront ur own biases regarding mental health. u are sympathetic to the characters in the most painful, heart wrenching ways. there is murder. there is mystery. there is missing children. there are cats. this book surprised me and it was fun to have to find a couple reddit threads to be sure i was understanding the story correctly. i felt like i read this kind of fast! which is always fun too.

brother by ania ahlborn this one pissed me off a bit. but in a good way because i was so deeply invested. this one is set in Appalachia. i'm not one for stereotypes, especially bc i think Appalachians have a bad rep and it's of no fault of their own. that being said, the insular feel of the book and the absolute claustrophobia those mountains create in this story were like a character in it of itself. our protag, michael, knows there's something beyond. he's seen them on colorful postcards. but his own mind and his own heart seem utterly trapped here. this one is heartbreaking. it's horrifying. and it'll make u dizzy from the amount of times u change ur mind. excited to read her other novel, Seed, because this one stuck with me so much!

a couple honorable mentions that fit the theme:

the vegetarian by han kang korean food. infidelity. art. nightmares. inexplicable mindfucks! this story was scary because it felt very.. possible? no monsters this time. no spells. just... the mind deteriorating. could happen to any of us.

a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers what if girlbossing is just a quick pivot from sociopathy?? what if the crimes are so much more gratifying than say, fame or fortune or even love?? women can be sociopaths too, you know!! this one is fun bc the protag is crazy and it's fun to slip into these characters. cathartic even. omg did i mention, she's a foodie too! just like me :-)

[semper-legens]

53. The Roles We Play, by Sabba Khan

Owned?: No, library Page count: 286 My summary: Where is home? Not an easy question for Sabba Khan - born in England to Pakistani parents from Azad Kashmir, raised in the British Asian community, and struggling with her identity and culture. This graphic novel explores this question, drawing from Khan's life and from her musings about heritage and assimilation. My rating: 3/5 My commentary:

This is an intensely personal graphic novel about the complexities of identity - specifically for author Sabba Khan, a Muslim woman whose parents are from Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, considered to be part of Pakistan but not necessarily culturally a part of it, who grew up in England and later went into architecture against the wishes of her parents. As you can probably tell just from that summary, Khan's identity is one that has been made necessarily complex by geopolitics; she is part of the Mirpuri diaspora, she is British, she is Muslim in a country that looks down on Muslims. One of the stories she relates is emblematic of the division in herself. When going through airport security, she is pulled aside for being Muslim. When she reaches her destination, a sacred Muslim site in Gaza, she is initially disallowed entrance for not appearing Muslim enough. Caught between worlds, particularly after she makes the monumental decision to stop wearing a headscarf and dress more revealingly, something she agonises over as a symbol both of her own views and of a possible latent desire to assimilate. It's a very complex book, philosophical and introspective as much as it is personal.

I…don't want to sound like an absolute rube, but I have to say that some aspects of this did not work for me. For one, there was a lot of text for a graphic novel. Now, I'm not opposed to reading a lot of text in the abstract (Lord knows I have never learned how to shut up) but the sheer amount of text going on here felt a bit excessive for the graphic novel format. I kept wondering if Khan's point could not have been made better in prose, because sometimes the illustrations didn't add much to the point being made. It also wanders a little too far into the navel-gazing for me, I prefer a bit more individual personality in this sort of a story. Though, I hasten to add, that is a matter of more personal preference than a criticism of this book per se. There's a lot of complexity in this book, and I think it's a very worthwhile read for anyone who doesn't understand how someone's life can be caught up in issues of identity, or how a person might be consumed by what is often derisively called "identity politics".

Next, vampires and blood in a school in Whitby.

[livingingloworld]

June 16th, 2024

Goodmorning ladies, gents and ladigents🕵🏽‍♂️today I woke up pretty fatigued and decided to skip my morning run. I took a shower, got dressed and met everyone downstairs for breakfast. This morning was a little hectic as we all had to pack up our bags for wales and leave the rest of our baggage at the hotel for when we return. In the midst of this event three of our classmates got extremely ill due to food poisoning and either had to be left behind or took it very easy throughout the course of this morning. Once we finished eating breakfast and organized our baggage we met with Ivo who led us to the The British Museum. This museum was the biggest museum i’ve ever stepped in, there was three floors filled with global history and I’m sure an immense amount of stolen artifacts from all over the world. We only had about an hour to look through the museum so I strategically planned my visit by going downstairs visit one part of Africa which had bewildering tribal art and statues from western Africa. I made my way back upstairs to the Egyptian exhibition where I found myself quite disgusted by the display of bare naked Egyptian bodies of the most influential which I discovered was stolen from Africa by a British scientist. The Egyptian exhibit had a vast difference compared to the European history exhibition which was filled with beautiful architecture, paintings and books to represent their history of rapping and stripping the resource and people of every colony they ever stepped foot on… Lastly I made my way across the museum to the Asian continent where I spent my last 10 minutes admiring the Indian/ Pakistani exhibit and not once did I read Britain was at fault for the division between the two countries.. My mother is originally from Karachi, Pakistan and I had the brilliant opportunity to visit Pakistan as an adolescent so I feel very drawn and connected to the history of Pakistan becoming a country and the role that Britain had played into dividing not only their culture, family, traditions but also the many wars that followed behind the division which just RECENTLY ended in 1999. I noticed that our tour guy (Not Ivo!!) and the British museum has a biased perspective of Britains involvement in the division between India and Pakistan that it was quite sickening and made me leave the museum with an unsettling feeling. Subsequently we headed back to the hotel to get our bags and took a 5 hour train ride where we landed in Aberystwyth, Wales. There we checked into our personal dorms and met with the director of Wales for a welcome Welsh dinner. I was quite worried for what I would be able to eat as a vegetarian as many stapled dishes in Wales are made out of meat but surprisingly they had accommodations for me. Once we finished dinner my group walked the campus where we saw the most beautiful view of downtown that sits right of the lining of the Irish Sea, before making our way back to the dorms to settle in for an early restful night.

[global-newz]

Unveiling Historical Inaccuracies in Heeramandi: Viewer Critique

Introduction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s much-awaited streaming debut, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazar, has sparked a debate due to its portrayal of Lahore’s red-light district. Let’s delve into the critique of historical inaccuracies raised by a Pakistani viewer.

Viewer Critique: A Lahore-based viewer took to social media to highlight discrepancies in Heeramandi’s depiction of the 1940s era. From geographical misrepresentation to linguistic inaccuracies, the critique dissected various aspects of the show, including setting, language, songs, and costumes.

Geographical Misrepresentation: The viewer lamented the absence of Lahore’s essence in the show, pointing out discrepancies in architecture and landmarks. They emphasized the importance of authentically showcasing Heeramandi’s skyline, which prominently features the Shahi Qilla-Grand Mosque.

Linguistic Inaccuracies: Inaccurate portrayal of language was another point of contention, with the viewer highlighting the prevalence of Punjabi over Urdu in 1940s Lahore. They criticized the show’s dialogue delivery, which favored Urdu despite historical context suggesting otherwise.

Musical Representation: The viewer critiqued the show’s soundtrack, deeming it disconnected from the era. They argued that the selection of songs lacked authenticity, overlooking Punjabi masterpieces that were prevalent during the period.

Costuming Concerns: Bhansali’s penchant for elaborate costumes drew scrutiny, with the viewer questioning the authenticity of the attire. They criticized the glamorous portrayal of courtesans, highlighting the disparity between on-screen depiction and historical reality.

Conclusion: While Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazar promises an epic saga, its historical inaccuracies have sparked debate among viewers. The critique underscores the importance of thorough research and authenticity in portraying historical narratives, urging filmmakers to delve deeper into the essence of the era they seek to portray.

[paulpingminho]

[mybeingthere]

Noorain Inam (Pakistani, 1998) is based in London. In 2023 she had a solo exhibition "A dream that visited every night".

She completed a BFA from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2019 and an MFA Painting from Slade School of Fine Art in 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/phoolsunga/

[retropakistan]

Vintage Rawalpindi: A Glimpse Into the City's Timeless Elegance

#Rawalpindi in the 1970’s

Courtesy : Vintage Pakistan

[feelmir]

death of a true war criminal,zero accountability

Death of true war criminal, good riddance, zero accountability

The infamous US war criminal, Henry Kissinger died centenary in his bed in Kent, Connecticut, while his millions of victims all over the world were not so lucky. Kissinger would be celebrated and feted as genial geopolitical analyst, hailed as the man of rapprochement and détente between the United states and China, of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), arms limitation treaties between the US and the USSR, aimed at restraining the arms race in long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons, which had resulted in the signing of SALT I and SALT II in 1972 and 1979, the evil who fooled Gorbachev to struck the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987. Kissinger might not have been motivated by hatred of communism. But he was a reactionary who empowered and enabled the sort of reactionaries for whom anticommunism was a respectable channel for America’s racist and exploitative socio-economic traditions.

Bush’s declaration of protection for Kissinger, coupled with his rejection of the Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court, extinguished a glimmer of hope that Kissinger would someday join Pinochet under arrest. It was always a fantasy. The international architecture that the U.S. and its allies established after World War II, shorthanded today as the “rules-based international order,” somehow never gets around to applying the same pressure on a hegemonic United States as it applies to U.S.-hostile or defiant powers. It reflects the organizing principle of American exceptionalism: America acts; it is not acted upon. Henry Kissinger was a supreme architect of the rules-based international order.

Of course, the western mainstream would hide the dark side of the evil responsible of mass killing scored more than 4 million deaths according to the Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimating that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976, a period of eight brief years when Kissinger made Richard Nixon’s and then Gerald Ford’s foreign policy as national security adviser and secretary of state. America, like every empire, champions its state murderers. Every single person who died in Vietnam between autumn 1968 and the Fall of Saigon died because of Henry Kissin Kissinger materially sabotaged the only chance for an end to the war in 1968 as a hedged bet to ensure he would achieve power in Nixon’s administration. In February 1969, weeks after taking office, and lasting through April 1970, U.S. warplanes secretly dropped 110,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia. By the summer of 1969, according to a colonel on the Joint Staff, Kissinger — who had no constitutional role in the military chain of command — was personally selecting bombing targets. A second phase of bombing continued until August 1973, five months after the final U.S. combat troops withdrew from Vietnam. By then, U.S. bombs had killed an estimated 100000 people out of a population of only 700,000. The final phase of the bombing, which occurred after the Paris Peace Accords mandated U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, was its most intense, an act of cruel vengeance from a thwarted superpower. Kissinger inflicted indirectly rather than by edict. In 1971, the Pakistani government waged a campaign of genocide to suppress the independence movement in what would become Bangladesh. For Kissinger, the Cold War was a geopolitical balance among two great powers. The purpose of Cold War statecraft was to maximize American freedom of action to inflict Washington’s will on the world — a zero-sum contest that meant restricting the ability of the Soviet Union to inflict Moscow’s — without the destabilization, or outright Armageddon, that would result from pursuing a final defeat of the Soviets. On September 4, 1970, Chileans elected the democratic socialist Salvador Allende president whose program was more than redistributionist, nationalizing the firms Anaconda Copper and Kennecott held by these two companies, Allende informed them he would deduct estimated “excess profit” from a compensatory package he was willing to pay the firms. It was this sort of unacceptable policy that prompted Kissinger to remark, during an intelligence meeting about two months before Allende’s election, “I don’t see why we need to stand idly by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” The coup was only the beginning. Within two years, Pinochet’s regime invited Milton Friedman, Arnold Harberger, and other economists from the University of Chicago to advise them. Chile pioneered the implementation of their agenda: severe government budgetary austerity; relentless assaults on organized labor; privatization of state assets, including health care and public pensions; layoffs of government employees; abolition of wages and price controls; and deregulation of capital markets. “Multinationals were not only granted the right to repatriate 100 percent of their profits but given guaranteed exchange rates to help them do so,” Grandin writes in his book Empire’s Workshop. European and American bankers flocked to Chile before its 1982 economic collapse. The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loaned Pinochet $3.1 billion between 1976 and 1986. Pinochet’s torture chambers were the maternity ward of neoliberalism, a baby delivered bloody and screaming by Henry Kissinger. This was the “just and liberal world order” Hillary Clinton considered Kissinger’s life work.

[partialbirthabortion]

Hey! Where did you visit in Pakistan? I'm going to live in Turkey for a few months next year and I have family friends visiting Karachi at the same time.. they invited me to fly there to meet up with them (they're originally from Karachi so familiar and can show me around) so I was thinking about doing that + being solo there for a bit. But I'm not very familiar culturally, I'm in my mid 20s and female, and my family friends were happy to invite me but sort of perplexed by my wanting to and essentially said it would be really challenging for any US tourist. I've been India before and that point will have also lived in Morocco for a few months.. but they have me feeling hesitant about it.. just wondering what your experience was like

Hey! This trip I was in Karachi, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghan border, but I've also done Lahore, Mohenja-daro, Balochistan and also to Wagah for the border ceremony! Gilgit and Hunza Valley are on my list. I lived in Karachi for several years and graduated high school there, and my parents still live and work there, so I'm very culturally competent and my listening comprehension for Urdu is, like, passable enough especially once I've been back in the country for a few days; all this to say, my experience there is definitely different than yours will be! If you have spent significant time in Muslim-majority countries like Turkey and Morocco, and also have been to India, I think you are more likely to have a comfortable time than most. You'll frankly probably land and think, yeah this feels like South Asia but Muslim, and you'll have a good grasp pretty much right away.

Many people will stare at you. Many people will talk about you openly. Many people will ask for pictures with you or take pictures of you WITHOUT asking (for the record, I say yes to women and children and no to men without women or children around, because men will touch you in ways I KNOW are culturally taboo while taking a photo). There's no queuing culture and can be a lot of shoving. Traffic will feel tremendously hazardous. There are not very many women out and about in most places, especially outside of cities. Pakistan is very poor and petty theft is very common. You have probably experienced all of these things before and will be totally fine! People are very genuinely excited to meet you and are hugely hospitable. It can be a lot of fun and a really wonderful experience depending on your own risk tolerance.

I will say, having lived there, there just isn't a ton to do in Karachi besides eat. It's a desert on the ocean. It's incredibly hot, it's dirty, it's infrastructure is old and during monsoon sewage washes back onto the street. It's not a tourist city at all. If your family friends live in Defense, it will feel wealthier and more westernized, and if they live in KDA or Clifton, it will feel a little less so.

In Karachi I would suggest: The Mohatta Palace Museum, Empress Market (for the bazaar experience), one of those good barbecue places on the beach, Jinnah's tomb, renting a beach hut on one of the semi-private beaches for a day (and riding a camel or convincing a performer to let you hold a mongoose), Javed Nihari and if you do absolutely no other street food (which will often make you sick tbf), you HAVE to go to Yusuf Kebab and get a bun kebab special.

In Karachi I would AVOID: going to the public beach. Do NOT do this, if your family friends are Pakistani they might not guess how bad it gets, but do NOT go to the public beach as a foreign woman. I have been three times and was sexually assaulted all three times, and have never had it happen to me anywhere else in Pakistan. You draw an immediate big crowd and it gets really dodgy.

As for solo traveling, I have solo traveled in Lahore and it was great! It's feels like a grand Mughal city, a beautiful blend of architecture, historical sites, good food, and juuust enough tourist infrastructure to be accessible. I stayed in a hostel and had an amazing time, never felt unsafe, and liked some of my roommates so much we went out together several times. Islamabad is beautiful and very safe (crawling with foreigners) but it doesn't feel like the rest of Pakistan at all, and it can be really expensive. It's the only place I would suggest going into the mountains as a solo traveler (The Monal is an amazing mountain top restaurant) although I hear Hunza Valley can be okay during tourist season. Mohenja-daro would be totally fine but I don't know if they're open since the flooding earlier this year. You could do Wagah as a day trip from Lahore but it's a big time suck and there's nothing to do besides the very short border ceremony. I would definitely NOT go to KPK or Balochistan as a solo female.

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Shahed Saleem creates mosque pavilion as a "reconstruction of migrant histories"

London-based architect Shahed Saleem has created a colourful pavilion in the shape of a mosque, which has been erected at the V&A museum as part of this year's Ramadan Festival.

Saleem, who is of Indian heritage, designed the pavilion for the Ramadan Tent Project's annual festival, which celebrates the holy month of Ramadan.

He drew on his own lived experience as a second-generation immigrant for the design while aiming to capture the collective feelings of distance that are sometimes endured by the wider Muslim diaspora.

This led him to design the pavilion as a reconstructed mosque with different architectural motifs and bright colours acting as various fragments of identity.

"As a child of immigrants I have experienced and learned how to negotiate different cultural worlds," Saleem told Dezeen.

"I have seen how migrant communities deal with loss and distance from homelands, and how they attempt to reconstruct and reassemble cultural memories and histories in a new place," he continued.

The pavilion is made up of elements found in mosque architecture including arches, a dome, a staircase, a roof and a mihrab – a semicircular niche that orients the direction of prayer.

"The pavilion represents this by showing historic fragments as being collaged and held together in a new structural frame," Saleem said.

"There is an overall sense of porousness and precarity, suggesting that the new narratives created through the reconstruction of migrant histories and experiences is an ongoing and dynamic process."

Saleem built the Ramadan Pavilion from plywood sheets glued and screwed together with steel brackets and fixings, while glulam timber was used for its structural and reinforcement elements.

Meanwhile, the minaret – the red and pink striped tower – has a vertical steel post and steel-framed base. In traditional mosques, the minaret is built into or stands next to the mosques and is used to call Muslims to pray.

"Through the colours, finish and shapes, I wanted to give a sense of fun and playfulness, to suggest a childlike innocence and also to give joy," Saleem explained.

"This is because issues around migrants and Islam in Europe are highly politicised, and the aesthetics of the pavilion suggests that joy and commonality is also possible and offers another way of engaging with other cultures."

For reference, the architect turned to the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A's) collection of prints and photographs of mosques and other examples of Islamic architectural design, as well as the architecture of British mosques from the 1960s to the present day.

"Each of these elements has been derived from 19th and 20th-century drawings and photographs in the V&A prints and drawings collection which depict historic Islamic architecture from north Africa to India," Saleem said.

"I have taken references from these images to create the elements for the pavilion. The pavilion is therefore a postcolonial reinterpretation of colonial representations of the Islamic world."

This year, Ramadan begins on Wednesday 22 March and lasts for 30 days. The month is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community.

The Islamic calendar follows the lunar cycle, which means that Ramadan falls approximately 10 days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar.

Visitors to the Ramadan Pavilion will be able to attend a series of curated events, performances and workshops.

Mosques have been used as sources of inspiration for other installations around the world. Saudi Arabian artist Ajlan Gharem's Paradise Has Many Gates installation reimagines the traditional mosque as a cagey, steel-wired structure.

At the Islamic Arts Biennale in Saudi Arabia, Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari designed three dismantlable mosques to demonstrate the potential of bamboo.

The Ramadan Pavilion is on display at the V&A's Exhibition Road Courtyard in South Kensington until 1 May 2023 as part of the Ramadan Festival. 

The photography is courtesy of V&A.