Hello Portland, Hood River and Beyond!
I am blogging from the Beautiful Serena Hotel in Islamabad.
After leaving Portland on Wednesday morning I met with the rest of my fellow fellows at a hotel in Washington DC, from there we spent a few days learning about the International Center for Journalism, their program and their funders. One of the backers of the project is the Wilson Center, named for Woodrow Wilson. Secretary of State John F Kerry is a public trustee of the Wilson center. A few times I heard causal references to him. As in, Senator Kerry visited India recently, etc. We went there and met with experts on Pakistani policy. We also got advice from journalists who have been reporters in Pakistan for national news agencies at the ICF. The over arching theme of these talks always came back to the issue of para military attacks, of course that is only a small part of the landscape in Pakistan. One interesting statistic that cam out of the meeting is from the Pew Center
Pakistan exists because Muslims in India did not want to forever be a minority block. After Muslim groups threw their lots in with the movement led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress to over through British rule many wanted a separate state. A separate state would allow them to live like first class citizens, not a social and religious minority in India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who organized Muslim leaders and as a matter of that fact founded Dawn, a newspaper. He also became the first governor general or Quaid al Azam. The history of this border building and then the subsequent sedition of Bangladesh, which was contested by yet another military ruler with horrifying force and bloodshed of primarily Bengalis. There are other highlights that you can learn about by picking up Husain Haqqani's book, Magnificent Delusions. If one was not born at that time or maybe public school/private university history curriculum never ever mentioned south east Asian history at all it would be easy to see India as a nation of gentle vegetarians, it seems to me that US Indian foreign policy sees India that way.
I am tempted to look at the whole India/Pakistan two state solution next to Israel/Palestine two state solution.I can see now why some people on the left in and about Israel think a one state solution is the only possible way for peace. I am not going to go way into that statement right now. I am not saying that I think a one state solution is the answer, in fact I am all for people setting their own policies based on unifying language, customs and ethnicity. Building walls and isolating each other costs money and lives. If both neighbors agree on a fence it is one thing but if one neighbor is being walled out of the food and water resources that is genocide.
I really just wanted to lay this out here so that I can start talking about ways to make sustainable practices along side development that can tear things up and battles between civilian and military interests that keep it that way. I am gifted with a new found awareness of what it is like to live in a place where the military is operating in strict contrast to civilian prosperity. Our government keeps this conflict under wraps in the US except for in places where it can't cover it up anymore, like at Standing Rock. I am going to keep sniffing out innovations in water policy (or getting around bad water policy) for Water World and securing music for City Of Women.
I stumbled upon this gem on the tube in my hotel. This is the story about a large scale restoration project that has raised water levels enough on the plane to bring back grasslands. The place is Zoige in Sichuan Provence. Many years of yak herding turned the swamp into a desert. Small, gentle dams move the already present water back to the plains hardened by overuse.