Afghanistan falls, bit by bit to the Taliban. What was the point of the past 20 years? Pakistan bears so much guilt which will never be acknowledged or accepted. It was a bad situation, yes, but I can’t believe the decisions made were the right ones for anyone – not Pakistan, not Afghanistan. There is […]
Honour guard into hell
Rumsfeld surely has one of the more substantial honour guards into the afterlife with tens of thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis killed because of him. As Afghanistan teeters on the brink of America’s latest abandonment it’s hard not to remember that this man’s hands are covered with blood. I saw something on Twitter some […]
Afternoon in Balat
This afternoon, the GF and I took the ferry up the Golden Horn to Balat. It was a stunning journey; the Golden Horn is lovely no matter what, but today it was clear and sunny and very beautiful indeed. We got off at Fener and had lunch (ok, nothing special) and then strolled through the […]
Restless
Lockdown comes to an end quite soon – tomorrow is the final day, and the government has said it will announce what comes next on Monday. So I daresay Monday itself will be a sort of free for all. The GF is quite restless and fed up. I’m fed up too, but also I feel […]
Moon sighted?
News is coming that the moon has been sighted in Pakistan, shortly after the former science minister gave a statement that it would be scientifically impossible to sight the moon in Pakistan tonight. Rumour has it that the prime minister’s wife, the peerni as she is known, declared that Eid could not be on Friday […]
Moon sighting
Thursday is Eid here in Turkey, and in most of the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the usual nonsense continues. After the triumph of science last year, the science minister and information minister have changed portfolios, and the new minister, a particularly unimpressive son of a great poet, hastily announced that the phases […]
Happy endings
Yesterday, Saturday, was the day the government had decided, somewhat belated, to allow farmers to bring their produce to sell at Istanbul’s street markets. Why supermarkets are allowed to function in a lockdown but open air street markets are not remains a mystery for the ages – but so little of the pandemic response has […]
A small tumult
News from Lahore, of a marriage planned. It was not unexpected at all, but both very pleasing and very sad as the intended is the offspring of a dead parent’s dearest childhood friend, and she would have been very happy indeed. Although also, undeniably, the tumult would be a large one, not small. Also, I […]
Decisions
It has been a working day, one of the more difficult ones, where it was hard to concentrate and finish anything. One of the things on my mind was the question of whether to go to Pakistan. It has been nearly a year and a half since I was there, and the last time I […]
What I noticed
Coronavirus ravages India Pakistan next? The trial of the murderer of George Floyd Football Super League rises, falls Pakistan, India overtures on Kashmir Downing Street sleaze – I wish they’d just call it corruption US refuses to send vaccine precursors to India US recognises Armenian genocide Attacks on Arabs in Jerusalem President of Chad falls […]