Chowraha

Note: This was originally posted on "Project: Carousel" a student led online community working under the auspices of The Centre for Media and Film Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Any form of speech used for pulling communities together to criticize a government or ruling group’s action has historically met with tightening of laws, suppression of freedom and unjust actions at the hands of the rulers. Growing tensions in Tunisia over the dissatisfaction of Tunisians over poverty and soaring unemployment coupled with the unproportional wealth of the ruling elite in their country are increasingly catching much needed attention but perhaps still not as much as is necessary. Only very recently has the international world begun to take notice of the disturbances in Tunisia and it could be thanks to the cyber world ensuring the protests make it to the eyes of the outside world. Anti-goverment protests triggered after  young unemployed university graduate...

The extremely sad assassination of Salman Taseer has shocked Pakistanis throughout the world and is a shrewd reminder of how Pakistan’s state of affairs have reached a point that not a day goes by without a disturbing news. Living outside of Pakistan, I am trying as quickly as possible to hover all the details, and reactions about the tragic death of a well-renowned governor of the country. There are articles over the net discussing groups that hold the assassin as a hero and others condemning the vileness that is attached with any murder. The incident is a sombre reminder of where Pakistan is coming from, and the direction in which things are leading. For me, it is an episode of bafflement, a reminder that things in the country are no longer wrong or right, they are chaotic and we have ended up in this in a complicated trail of events because of our own short-sightedness and lack of sensitivity. There are speculations on whether the murderer acted under the instructions of a bigge...