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| Pakistan Is ... by Jeremy at 9:09 pm EST, Dec 6, 2003 | |||
This is a nation of confounding murkiness, where every kind of deception, collusion and outright sham are recurring motifs in the political theater. It seems that most Pakistanis, including a great many of the college-educated, continue to believe that the World Trade Center was attacked as part of a Jewish conspiracy. When I responded with incredulity, I was pitied as a naif. Even in largely Pashtun Peshawar, the masses are being tugged in multiple directions, including toward modernity and the West. Internet cafes, which the Taliban would never have tolerated, are opening one after the other. Training in English is a chief selling point of private academies. Music and movies are sold openly. Pinups of Indian actresses are marketed side by side with those glorifying Osama bin Laden. More than 200 cable-TV operators are collecting a $4 monthly fee from tens of thousands of subscribers; even more people are stealing the service. While wandering through Pashtunabad, I asked to enter a small, dark room where young Taliban men lived. They were suspicious of an American, but with customary Pashtun hospitality, a cushioned seat was offered and tea was poured into clear glasses half full with sugar. If not South America, then perhaps South Asia? (Oh. And piracy is like terrorism. Don't forget.) | |||
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