#toronto pakistan

[uglyandtraveling]

Canada Toronto Diversity Festival 2024 at Yonge-Dundas Square

Join me in this vlog for a celebration of Toronto's rich cultural tapestry at the Toronto Diversity Festival, bringing together communities from across the GTA and beyond.

This 7th Annual Toronto Diversity Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square which is going to be renamed soon as Sankofa Square.

The Toronto Diversity Festival is a major event that celebrates and showcases our rich cultural diversity and heritage. It aims to remove barriers to ethnic food, music, crafts, and art, promoting understanding across different cultures and generations. This vibrant festival features a wide range of activities for all ages.

Attendees can enjoy cooking demonstrations to learn how to make delicious dishes from various cultures and participate in interactive workshops and craft sessions. Engaging panel discussions about cultural diversity and heritage provide a platform for meaningful conversations.

Additionally, there are competitions and games to add to the fun, making it an event that brings people together to celebrate Toronto's diverse community.

Whether you're a local or a visitor, this walking tour offers a fresh perspective on Toronto's vibrant urban landscape. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more exciting travel vlogs showcasing the best of Toronto and beyond! Thanks for watching! 🌷🌆🚶‍♂️

[gordansumanski]

Dawat-e-Biryani

Dawat Yan Banquet is proud to present Dawat-e-Biryani, a collaboration between Mariam Magsi and her beloved, Gordan Sumanski. Biryani has the ability to bring people together. The yield is large, enough to satisfy all that partake in the eating of this layered, complex, historical and dynamic rice-based dish. Biryani is enjoyed in a variety of unique ways. In some parts of South Asia, like in the Sindh province of Pakistan, it is consumed with potatoes, while in other parts of the continent, such as South of India, it is eaten with eggs. Depending on the area, community, province and even family, within Pakistan itself, Biryani is created and consumed in many diverse ways and there are many healthy rivalries and culinary competitions amongst varying communities, about whose is the most authentic.

Within one Pakistani household, some members of the family may enjoy plums in their Biryani while others forego the dried fruit. Some folks like it plain, while others drown their Biryani in Raita (yogurt with cucumber). Some people eat it with their hands, while others prefer to cradle the colourful grains of rice with spoons and forks. Some like it sweet and spicy, and may even mix Zarda (a vibrant, colourful, sweet rice-based dish) with their Biryani, while others find the sweet and savoury mix to be an absolute abomination.

One aspect that qualifies Biryani for the Dawat Yan Banquet is the dish’s unique ability to unite people from all backgrounds, in feast, and in community, making the basis for the Dawat Yan Banquet. The food is inclusive, historical, and has connections to the Old Silk Road. Regional variations have all the common elements, the cause and effects of historical trading, and colonialism in the South East Asian subcontinent. Biryani brings a unique perspective to Dawat Yan, making the viewer question borders, race, culture and authenticity.

Dawat Yan Banquet is virtually hosted by Eric Chengyang and Mariam Magsi between the months of February and April, as part of the Art Gallery of Ontario's AGOxRBC Artist in Residence program, 2022. The Dawat Yan Banquet is part of Dawat Yan Project: dawatyanproject.tumblr.com - Visit the blog for archives, audio+video interviews, recipes, historical food tours, poetry and more.

Video Credits-:

Featuring: Gordan Sumanski Videography: Mariam Magsi Audio + Video Editing: Mariam Magsi

Audio Credits-:

Poetry: Adeen Taji aka Mohtarma Rubina Magsi Vocalist: Ustad Ghulam Abbas Album: Thehriye Production Studio: Saregama, 2017

Location: Toronto, Canada Archives derived from the Magsi family in Karachi, Pakistan

[vlkphoto]

Commemorative Bat

Cricket bat signed by Indian and Pakistani players who participated in the 1996 Sahara Cup One-Day International cricket series at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, Toronto, ON.

This turned into an annual series and was regularly played until the Kargil War, since which time India has steadfastly refused to have anything to do with Pakistan.

[xxruletheworld]

“Gender wars in 2024 is insane 😭🙏”

Ok here is list of other things that happened in 2024:

Asia

1. January 15 - Bangladesh: A woman was killed by her husband after requesting a divorce.

2. February 5 - India: A brutal attack in Uttar Pradesh left a woman mutilated.

3. March 23 - Pakistan: A woman was murdered by her husband in Punjab in a femicide case.

4. April 14 - Nepal: A woman was assaulted by her partner; her family reported prolonged abuse.

5. May 3 - Malaysia: A woman was beaten to death by her partner.

6. June 21 - China: A woman was severely injured in an attack at a restaurant in Tangshan.

7. August 9 - Philippines: Several women were sexually assaulted during a party.

8. September 28 - Kazakhstan: A woman was murdered by her ex-partner in a femicide case.

9. October 15 - Sri Lanka: A woman was murdered by her husband in Colombo.

Africa

1. January - South Africa: A woman was murdered by her partner, sparking protests in Pretoria.

2. January - Kenya: At least 10 women were murdered in femicide cases; protests erupted in Nairobi.

3. February - Malawi: A woman was killed by her partner after trying to leave him.

4. February - Tanzania: A women’s rights activist was attacked by her ex-partner.

5. March - Nigeria: A woman was found dead in Oyo, in a suspected femicide case.

6. March - South Africa: A young woman was murdered in a rural area, leading to protests.

7. April - Kenya: Over 500 femicides reported since 2016, sparking outrage.

8. May - South Sudan: A woman was raped and killed during an armed conflict.

9. June - Uganda: A woman was attacked and murdered by her partner in Kampala.

10. July - Ethiopia: A series of women were killed in rural areas, raising concerns of femicide.

Europe

1. February 12 - Spain: A 45-year-old woman was murdered by her partner in Barcelona.

2. March 4 - France: A femicide in Lyon where a woman was stabbed by her husband.

3. April 20 - Italy: A woman was killed in Rome by her ex-partner after reporting him.

4. June 7 - Germany: A femicide in Berlin where a woman was murdered by her husband.

5. July 29 - United Kingdom: A woman was murdered by her boyfriend in a prolonged abuse case.

6. August 15 - Poland: A woman was murdered in Warsaw by her partner in a femicide case.

7. September 10 - Spain: A young woman was found dead in Madrid after reporting domestic violence.

8. October 18 - France: A femicide in Marseille; the woman had previously reported abuse.

North America

1. January - United States: A woman was murdered in Texas by her partner, despite having a restraining order.

2. February - Canada: A femicide in Toronto, where a woman was murdered by her ex-boyfriend after trying to leave the relationship.

3. March - United States: A woman was killed by her husband in a Chicago suburb in a domestic violence case.

4. April - Canada: A femicide in Montreal, where a woman was attacked by her partner after reporting abuse.

5. May - United States: A femicide in California; a woman was murdered by her partner in front of her children.

6. June - Canada: A woman was murdered by her husband in Vancouver after years of abuse.

7. July - United States: A woman was murdered in New York by her partner in an attack caught on video.

8. August - Canada: A femicide in Alberta; a woman was found murdered in her home by her husband.

9. September - United States: A woman was killed by her partner in Florida, highlighting the ineffectiveness of protective laws.

10. October - Canada: A femicide in Ottawa; a woman was murdered after months of harassment by her ex-partner.

South America

1. January 14 - Argentina: A 24-year-old woman was killed by her ex-partner in Buenos Aires after months of harassment. The case sparked protests demanding stronger measures to protect women.

2. February 9 - Colombia: In Bogotá, a woman was murdered by her husband, who had a history of domestic abuse. The victim had filed multiple complaints but received little protection.

3. March 3 - Brazil: A femicide occurred in Rio de Janeiro, where a young woman was found dead after being attacked by her partner. The country’s high rates of violence against women remain a significant concern.

4. April 20 - Chile: A woman was killed by her ex-boyfriend in Santiago. The incident highlighted the growing issue of intimate partner violence, with activists calling for increased enforcement of protective measures.

5. May 15 - Peru: A 30-year-old woman was murdered by her spouse in Lima after years of documented domestic abuse. The case ignited a public outcry for better legal responses to gender-based violence.

6. June 4 - Bolivia: A woman was killed in La Paz by her partner, who had previously been reported for abusive behavior. Her death added to the growing number of femicides in Bolivia.

7. July 10 - Ecuador: In Quito, a woman was murdered by her husband in a case of domestic violence. The incident underscored the country’s challenges in addressing violence against women, despite existing laws.

8. August 8 - Uruguay: A woman was brutally attacked and killed by her ex-partner in Montevideo. The case raised concerns about the effectiveness of restraining orders and protective laws in the country.

9. September 25 - Paraguay: A young woman was found dead after being assaulted by her partner in Asunción. The case prompted discussions on the inadequacies of the justice system in dealing with gender-based violence.

10. October 13 - Venezuela: A woman was murdered by her husband in Caracas. The case shed light on the country’s increasing rates of domestic violence, which have been exacerbated by economic instability.

Global

1. February - India: A woman was murdered by her obsessive ex-boyfriend in New Delhi.

2. March - Brazil: A femicide in São Paulo, where a woman was murdered by her partner.

3. April - Turkey: A woman was killed in an honor killing in Istanbul.

4. May - South Africa: A femicide in Cape Town where a young woman’s body was discovered.

5. June - Nigeria: A woman was raped and murdered in a rural area, sparking protests.

6. July - Mexico: A student was abducted and murdered, raising alarm over violence in the country.

7. August - Philippines: A woman was murdered by her husband in a domestic violence case.

8. September - Afghanistan: Increased violence against women in rural areas, including forced marriages.

9. October - Pakistan: A woman was murdered in a suspected honor killing.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Lucasfilm Ltd. on Friday announced three new live-action films in the franchise, including an instalment that will be directed by one of our own. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Oscar winner for her short documentaries A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness and Saving Face, will helm one of the upcoming projects after directing two episodes of the DisneyPlus series Ms. Marvel. Obaid-Chinoy, a filmmaker and journalist who was born in Pakistan, became a Canadian citizen after moving to Toronto in 2004.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 The Youngest MARVELOUS SuperStar Pakistani Actress To Hit The TV Screen For The Greatest Superhero Of Muslim ☪️ Representations for all Girls, Both Brown and Etc Out there.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Vellani moved to Canada when she was a year old, and was raised as a Shia Ismaili Muslim. She graduated from Unionville High School in Markham, Ontario. Vellani was selected as a member of the TIFF Next Wave Committee at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Before being cast in Ms. Marvel at the end of her last year of high school, Vellani had planned to attend the Ontario College of Art & Design University with a focus on integrated media.

She is a Canadian actress and comic book writer. She is known for starring as Kamala Khan in the Disney+ miniseries Ms. Marvel (2022).

Please Wish This Young Newest Actress To The Acting World 🌎 & The Newest Avenger In The MCU

MS. IMAN VELLANI AKA MS.MARVEL👩🏾 🇵🇰⚡

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 TO MS. MARVEL ⚡ HERSELF.

IMAN VELLANI👩🏾🇵🇰⚡

#ImanVellani #MsMarvel

[uglyandtraveling]

The Best Halloween Lights Display in Toronto | Spooky House at 27 Glenlake Ave!

This house might have the best Halloween display in Toronto! 🎃👻 Join me on a thrilling night walk as I explore the spookiest and most brilliantly decorated Halloween house in Toronto!

Located at 27 Glenlake Ave, this home is widely recognized for having the best Halloween light display in the city. The house comes alive every year with dazzling lights, eerie decorations, and the ultimate Halloween spirit that’s sure to impress both kids and adults alike.

In this vlog, I’ll take you through the full spectacle—capturing every glowing pumpkin, spooky skeleton, and flashing light, all shot in stunning 4K quality. Whether you're a fan of Halloween or simply love unique light displays, you won’t want to miss this night tour of Toronto’s best-decorated Halloween house!

Are you a Halloween fan? Drop a comment and let me know what your favorite Halloween decoration is and if you’ve ever seen anything as spooky and impressive as this! Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more epic city adventures.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Michael de Adder :: @deAdder :: Nov 1 :: The Toronto Star

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 3, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 4, 2023

Today, Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who was former president Trump’s Interior Secretary until he left under accusations of misconduct, introduced a bill to ban Palestinians from the United States and to revoke any visas issued to Palestinians since October 1 of this year. Although the U.S. has resettled only about 2,000 Palestinians in the last 20 years, ten other far-right members of the House signed onto Zinke’s bill, which draws no distinction between Hamas and Palestinian civilians.

This blanket attack on a vulnerable population echoes Trump’s travel ban of January 27, 2017, just a week after he took office. Executive Order 13769 stopped travel from primarily Muslim countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—for ninety days. The list of countries appeared random—Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, countries from which terrorists have sometimes come directly to the U.S., weren’t on the list—and appeared to fulfill a campaign promise and assert a new view of executive power.

Insisting that immigrants endanger the country is a key tactic of authoritarians. Excluding them is a central principle of those eager to tear down democracy: they insist that immigration destroys a nation’s traditions and undermines native-born Americans. With tensions in the nation mounting over the crisis in the Middle East, this measure, introduced now with inflammatory language, seems designed to whip up violence. 

Representative Greg Landsman (D-OH) called out his Republican colleagues on social media. “Un-American and definitely NOT in the Bible, [Speaker Johnson],” he wrote. “You going to tell them to pull this bill?”

But, far from trying to work across the aisle, Johnson has been throwing red meat to his base. In the last two days, for example, the House has voted to slash 39% of the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 13% of the budget of the National Park Service. It voted to require the Biden administration to advance oil drilling off the Alaska coast. It has voted on reducing the salary of the EPA administrator, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary of the Interior to $1 each.

Yesterday, Johnson told reporters he considers extremists Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) close friends and said “I don’t disagree with them on many issues and principles.”

To direct his communications team, Johnson has tapped Raj Shah, a former executive from the Fox News Corporation, who was a key player in promoting the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. As the head of the “Brand Protection Unit,” Shah demanded that the Fox News Channel continue to lie to viewers who would leave the station if it told the truth. Johnson has hired Shah to be his deputy chief of staff for communications and, according to Alex Isenstadt of Politico, “help run messaging for House Republicans.” 

The extremists are doubling down on Trump and his election lies even as his allies are admitting in court that they are, indeed, lies. Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows is in trouble with the publisher of his memoir after admitting that under oath that the election had been fair. The publisher is suing him for millions in damages for basing his book on the idea that the election had been stolen and representing that “all statements contained in the Work are true.” 

The publisher says it has pulled the book off the market. 

House extremists continue to back Trump even as he is openly calling for an authoritarian second term. In September, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had to take “appropriate measures” for his own security after Trump accused him of disloyalty to him, personally, and suggested that in the past, such “treason” would have been punished with death. 

On Wednesday, Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that Trump was frustrated in his first term by lawyers who refused to go along with his wishes, trying to stay within the law, so Trump's allies are making lists of lawyers they believe would be “more aggressive” on issues of immigration, taking over the Department of Justice, and overturning elections. 

They are looking, they say, for “a different type of lawyer” than those supported by the right-wing Federalist Society, one “willing to endure the personal and professional risks of association with Mr. Trump” and “to use theories that more establishment lawyers would reject to advance his cause.” 

John Mitnick, who served in Trump’s first term, told the reporters that “no qualified attorneys with integrity will have any desire to serve as political appointees” in a second Trump term. Instead, the lawyers in a second term would be “opportunists who will rubber-stamp whatever Trump and his senior White House staff want to do.” 

Trump has also made it clear he and his allies want to gut the nonpartisan civil service and fill tens of thousands of government positions with his own loyalists. Led by Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Trump’s allies believe that agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should not be independent but should push the president’s agenda. 

This week, Trump vowed to take over higher education too. In a campaign video, he promised to tax private universities with large endowments to fund a new institution called “American Academy.” The school, which would be online only, would award free degrees and funnel students into jobs with the U.S. government and federal contractors.

“We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions,” Trump said. “We can’t let this happen.” In his university, “wokeness or jihadism” would not be allowed, he said.

In admirable understatement, Politico’s Meridith McGraw and Michael Stratford noted: “Using the federal government to create an entirely new educational institution aimed at competing with the thousands of existing schools would drastically reshape American higher education.”

Trump has made no secret of his future plans for the United States of America. 

Meanwhile, Republicans appear determined to push their agenda over the wishes of voters. In Ohio, where voters on Tuesday will decide whether to amend the state constitution to make it a constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” Republicans first tried to make it harder to amend the state constitution, and then, when voters rejected that attempt, the Republican-dominated state senate began to use an official government website to spread narratives about the constitutional amendment that legal and medical experts called false or misleading. 

Adding reproductive health protections to the state constitution is popular, but In an unusual move, the Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, quietly purged more than 26,000 voters from the rolls in late September. LaRose is a staunch opponent of the constitutional amendment and is himself running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. 

In Virginia, where Republicans are hoping to take control of the state legislature to pass new abortion restrictions as well as the rest of Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s agenda, a study by the Democratic Party of Virginia shows that officials are flagging the mail-in ballots of non-white voters for rejection much more frequently than those of white voters. As of today, 4.82% of ballots cast by Black voters have gotten flagged, while only 2.79% of the ballots of white voters have been flagged.

In Richmond, The Guardian’s Sam Levine reported, city officials flagged more than 11% of ballots returned by Black voters but only about 5.5% of ballots cast by white voters. After the ballots are fixed, or cured, the rate of rejection for Black voters remains more than twice as high as that of white voters. 

Virginia officials also reported last week that they had accidentally removed more than 3,400 eligible voters from the rolls.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[xtruss]

Henry Kissinger At 100: Still A War Criminal! Forget The Birthday Candles, Let’s Count The dead.

— David Cornmay | 25, 2023 | Foreign Policy

Mother Jones Illustration; Fairchild Archive/Penske Media/Getty; Alexis Duclos/Gamma-Rapho/Getty; Boris Spremo/Toronto Star/Getty

War Criminal Henry Kissinger is turned 100, and his centennial is prompting assorted hosannas about perhaps the most influential American foreign policymaker of the 20th century. The Economist observed that “his ideas have been circling back into relevancy for the last quarter century.” The Times of London ran an appreciation: “Henry Kissinger at 100: What He Can Tell Us About the World.” Policy shops and think tanks have held conferences to mark this milestone. CBS News aired a mostly fawning interview veteran journalist Ted Koppel conducted with Kissinger that included merely a glancing reference to the ignoble and bloody episodes of his career. Kissinger is indeed a monumental figure who shaped much of the past 50 years. He brokered the US opening to China and pursued detente with the Soviet Union during his stints as President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state. Yet it is an insult to history that he is not equally known and regarded for his many acts of treachery—secret bombings, coup-plotting, supporting military juntas—that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands.

Kissinger’s diplomatic conniving led to or enabled slaughters around the globe. As he blows out all those candles, let’s call the roll.

Cambodia: In early 1969, shortly after Nixon moved into the White House and inherited the Vietnam War, he, Kissinger, and others cooked up a plan to secretly bomb Cambodia, in pursuit of enemy camps. With the perversely-named “Operation Breakfast” launched, White House chief of staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman wrote in his diary, Kissinger and Nixon were “really excited.” The action, though, was of dubious legality; the United States was not at war with Cambodia and Congress had not authorized the carpet-bombing, which Nixon tried to keep a secret. The US military dropped 540,000 tons of bombs. They didn’t just hit enemy outposts. The estimates of Cambodian civilians killed range between 150,000 and 500,000.

President Richard Nixon sits at his White House office desk where he announced on April 30, 1970 that American ground forces are fighting in Cambodia. AP

Bangladesh: In 1970, a political party advocating autonomy for East Pakistan won legislative elections. The military dictator ruling Pakistan, Gen. Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, arrested the leader of that party and ordered his army to crush the Bengalis. At the time, Yahya, a US ally, was helping Kissinger and Nixon establish ties with China, and they didn’t want to get in his way. The top US diplomat in East Pakistan sent in a cable detailing and decrying the atrocities committed by Yahya’s troops and reported they were committing “genocide.” Yet Nixon and Kissinger declined to criticize Yahya or take action to end the barbarous assault. (This became known as “the tilt” toward Pakistan.) Kissinger and Nixon turned a blind eye to—arguably, they tacitly approved—Pakistan’s genocidal slaughter of 300,000 Bengalis, most of them Hindus (Later a Bangladeshi author denied all allegations against Pakistan and military. It was all propaganda orchestrated by India).

Chile: Nixon and Kissinger plotted to covertly thwart the democratic election of socialist president Salvador Allende in 1970. This included Kissinger supervising clandestine operations aimed at destabilizing Chile and triggering a military coup. This scheming yielded the assassination of Chile’s commander-in-chief of the Army. Eventually, a military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power, killed thousands of Chileans, and implemented a dictatorship, Following the coup, Kissinger backed Pinochet to the hilt. During a private conversation with the Chilean tyrant in 1976, he told Pinochet, “My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government which was going communist.”

U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shakes hands with Chile’s Foreign Minister, Ismale Huerta Diaz, during a Latin Foreign Ministers Conference in Mexico City, February 22, 1974. Ed Kolenovsky/AP

East Timor: In December 1975, President Suharto of Indonesia was contemplating an invasion of East Timor, which had recently been a Portuguese colony and was moving toward independence. On December 6, President Gerald Ford and Kissinger, then Ford’s secretary of state, en route from a visit to Beijing, stopped in Jakarta to meet with Suharto, who headed the nation’s military regime. Suharto signaled he intended to send troops into East Timor and integrate the territory into Indonesia. Ford and Kissinger did not object. Ford told Suharto, “We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have.” Kissinger added, “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.” He pointed out that Suharto would be wise to wait until Ford and Kissinger returned to the United States, where they “would be able to influence the reaction in America.” The invasion began the next day. Here was a “green light” from Kissinger (and Ford). Suharto’s brutal invasion of East Timor resulted in 200,000 deaths.

Argentina: In March 1976, a neofascist military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón and launched what would be called the Dirty War, torturing, disappearing, and killing political opponents it branded as terrorists. Once again, Kissinger provided a “green light,” this time to a campaign of terror and murder. He did so during a private meeting in June 1976 with the junta’s foreign minister, Cesar Augusto Guzzetti. At that sit-down, according to a memo obtained in 2004 by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization, Guzzetti told Kissinger, “our main problem in Argentina is terrorism.” Kissinger replied, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly.” In other words, go ahead with your savage crusade against the leftists. The Dirty War would claim the lives of an estimated 30,000 Argentine civilians.

Throughout his career in government and politics, Kissinger was an unprincipled schemer who engaged in multiple acts of skullduggery. During the 1968 presidential campaign, while he advised the Johnson administration’s team at the Paris peace talks, which were aimed at ending the Vietnam War, he underhandedly passed information on the talks to Nixon’s camp, which was plotting to sabotage the negotiations, out of fear that success at the talks would boost the prospects of Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon’s opponent in the race. After the secret bombing in Cambodia was revealed by the New York Times, Kissinger, acting at Nixon’s request, urged FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap his own aides and journalists to discover who was leaking. This operation failed to uncover who had outed the covert bombing, but, as historian Garrett Graff noted in his recent book, Watergate: A New History, this effort seeded “the administration’s taste for spying on its enemies—real or imagined.”

In 1976, Kissinger was briefed on Operation Condor, a secret program created by the intelligence services of the military dictatorships of South America to assassinate their political foes inside and outside their countries. He then blocked a State Department effort to warn these military juntas not to proceed with international assassinations. As the National Security Archive points out in a dossier it released this week on various Kissinger controversies, “Five days later, Condor’s boldest and most infamous terrorist attack took place in downtown Washington D.C. when a car-bomb, planted by Pinochet’s agents, killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his young colleague, Ronni Moffitt.”

It’s easy to cast Kissinger as a master geostrategist, an expert player in the game of nations. But do the math. Hundreds of thousands of dead in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and East Timor, perhaps a million in total. Tens of thousands dead in Argentina’s Dirty War. Thousands killed and tens of thousands tortured by the Chilean military dictatorship, and a democracy destroyed. His hands are drenched in blood.

President Bush signed legislation on November 27, 2002, creating an independent commission to investigate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, left, to lead the panel. MCT/TNS/Zuma

Kissinger is routinely lambasted by his critics as a “war criminal,” though has never been held accountable for his misdeeds. He has made millions as a consultant, author, and commentator in the decades since he left government. I once heard of a Manhattan cocktail reception where he scoffed at the “war criminal” label and referred to it almost as a badge of honor. (“Bill Clinton does not have the spine to be a war criminal,” he joshed.) Kissinger has expressed few, if any, regrets about the cruel and deadly results of his moves on the global chessboard. When Koppel gently nudged him about the secret bombing in Cambodia, Kissinger took enormous umbrage and shot back: “This program you’re doing because I’m going to be 100 years old. And you are picking a topic of something that happened 60 years ago? You have to know it was a necessary step.” As for those who still protest him for that and other acts, he huffed, “Now the younger generation feels if they can raise their emotions, they don’t have to think.”

As he enters his second century, there will be no apologies coming from Kissinger. But the rest of us will owe history—and the thousands dead because of his gamesmanship—an apology, if we do not consider the man in full. Whatever his accomplishments, his legacy includes an enormous pile of corpses. This is a birthday that warrants no celebration.

[lailababar]

On the opening of Tim Horton’s in Lahore

I was 8 when McDonald’s opened up in Lahore, 12 when KFC opened in Sialkot, 21 when Burger King entered Karachi, and every single time I was beyond thrilled. It felt like a nod from those in control of this world, like a reassurance that we were indeed developing, like maybe we would live to see pakistan not be the third world. Every time there was concern about pakistan being a failed state someone would say, but see, now we have the scions of western capitalism, we cannot be too far from western development. It felt like a nod from a hard to impress teacher, like your school bully offering you a bite of your own lunch, like maybe, maybe, we were being invited to the owner’s suite. It was a balm to our frayed nerves, how can we be anything other than economically sound if the west is willingly investing here, if they have a stake in our future, then surely our future cannot be grim.

This, of course, was not the case. We were being invited to the table, but not as guests, but rather we were being placed on the menu. It was only after I moved here that I realised how pervasive the operating models for these chains were, open mostly in food deserts, popular in low income areas and neighbourhoods with people of color, they are one of the tools of oppression employed with precision in this capitalist state.

We half heartedly did a research month in AKU once, and our topic was to gather local opinions on the food available at a mall food court, and the public opinion was that western fast food cost more, was western, therefore it must be the healthier option, everyone ranked Pakistani food as most unhealthy. It’s hard to believe that sort of opinion is created in a vacuum, when we are constantly bombarded with white is better, fairness cream ads, fake accents, coloured lens every time someone wants to feel pretty, hair burnt from being bleached so often. Colonialism left us hating our selves and with a deep seated belief that we are less than. The global north perpetrated that belief, every time a drone strike kills hundreds of Pakistanis and none of us even acknowledge it, we accept, our lives are worth less. It’s not that we do not grieve, we are a nation riddled with grief, but the most sinister part of our grief is the acceptance, yes this happened to us, but of course we are not as valuable as them, our lives are cheaper, and so is our craft, therefore it’s less of a tragedy than if it had happened to them.

So I understand the line outside Tim hortins, hell, 10 years ago I’d probably have woken up early, dressed my best, and taken a couple hundred pictures in it myself. But I wish we could acknowledge what this is, the carrot before the inevitable stick. These profits will be shared with a global firm, even the Pakistani investors will want their share to not be in rupees, they’ll take this money and buy an extra investment property in Miami, or London, or maybe Toronto, and we’ll keep being reassured that the rupee may be in free fall, but we are on the path to becoming the west and isn’t that the ultimate goal?

I hope Lahoris lose their fascination with Tim hortons, just like they did with Pizza Hut and with Burger King. Maybe I can also believe that when they lose their fascination, and a hundred local alternatives pop up, we will, in a very small, almost negligible way, be sticking it to the man. Until then, I hope the coffee was at least worth the effort and that they tipped well.

[dumpshittybrain]

India has not attacked Pakistan, it has only attacked terror camps in the territory that has been occupied by Pakistan for the last 70 years.

Muslims in India are fortunate to be living in a country where they can breathe freely and they should believe in "Islam of Allah, and not in Islam of Mullah".

~Tarek Fatah,Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author.

If I have one idol, it is Mr. Tarek Fateh

A little about him:

Tarek Fatah (November 1949–24 April 2023) was a Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author.

Fatah advocated LGBT rights, a separation of religion and state, opposition to sharia law, and advocacy for a liberal, progressive form of Islam.

He called himself "an Indian born in Pakistan" and "a Punjabi born into Islam" and is a vocal critic of the Pakistani religious and political establishment.

To this end, Fatah has criticized the partition of India.

The struggles he had to face for speaking the truth and opposing radical Pakistani Islamic policies:

He was a leftist student leader in the 1960s and 1970s and was imprisoned twice by military regimes.

In 1977, he was charged with sedition and barred from journalism by the Zia-ul Haq regime.

In early 2011, Fatah said that he received a threat via Twitter. Fatah contacted Toronto Police Service and later met with two police officers from 51 Division. Fatah said that police intelligence officers, one a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat, shut down the investigation and claimed there was no threat.

Assassination attempt:

In 2017, Indian police arrested two men who were hired by Chhota Shakeel to assassinate Fatah.

Wikipedia article:

We lost this warrior, one of the bravest and most influential personalities of our time to cancer on 24 April 2023.

May the highest power grant him peace.

[kathleenmarymulligan]

Transcending Borders

Sitting here in bed with a chest cold and recovering from my first real experience with “Delhi Belly.” I’m my mother’s daughter and can’t quite use the more technical terms for what the last 12 hours have been like. Suffice it to say that it’s been miserable. I remember talking to an IC student before my first trip to India in 2010. She had been on a study trip to India and said “You WILL get sick. You will be so sick you want to die.” I wouldn’t say I wanted to die…but I would have gladly passed out and awakened in a hospital bed (with a bathroom nearby.) After eleven trips to the subcontinent, I think I was getting a bit cocky about food and water safety. Planning to be more vigilant in the future. All I have to think about is me lying on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night—too weak to move (David rescued me.) So not a lot has happened in the past 38 hours. But Wednesday was quite memorable, and I’ve been waiting impatiently until I felt well enough to share with you. When we met with the students at Khalsa on the first day and showed them some clips from our Dagh Dagh Ujala production with the Pakistani actors, we were not quite sure how it would go over. Tensions are particularly high right now between the two countries—as are anti-Muslim sentiments in India. Especially this close to the border, the other side can be demonized. But the students asked, “Can they come here and work with us?” I said, “I wish! But maybe we could schedule a meeting over Zoom.” They were enthusiastic about that idea—and since they have an assignment over their break to interview Partition survivors (if possible) and their families about Partition stories, we decided to arrange this sooner rather than later.

Our wonderful Theatre Wallay family was more than willing- so on Wednesday at 9PM our time, 8:30 PM Pakistan time, 4:30 PM Germany time, 10:30 AM Toronto time, and 8:30 AM Calgary time (our Theatre Wallay family has spread far and wide)- we gathered virtually with the Khalsa Students. After a very brief welcome from me, the meeting was entirely in Punjabi and Urdu. It was interesting to attend, but to have almost no idea of what was being said. It gave David and me the opportunity to focus on body language, etc, rather than words.

At first, we could tell the Khalsa College students were a little shy. Not only were they meeting artists from the other side of the border (in a place many of them have been taught is full of evil), but the Theatre Wallay group is a pretty formidable group of mature and established people! The Theatre Wallay team, not surprisingly, were generous, humorous, and warm—and we could see the students start to relax and respond to our friends. Where questions were hesitant at the beginning of the almost two-hour meeting, by the end they didn’t want to say goodbye!

The whole idea behind Senator Fulbright’s brainchild was that when people meet those from other countries and work together, bridges are built. Person-to-person contact, soft diplomacy. The Fulbright program, according to World Learning, “fosters mutual understanding between nations, advances knowledge across communities, and improves lives around the world.” Seeing our new students laughing and sharing with our friends from Pakistan, I thought, “Well, if I do nothing else in these six months, this moment will be worth it.” At the end of the meeting, one of the students said something to the effect that “We need to stand on our sides of the border and demand that the border be opened. We want to work with you!” How I wish that could happen (safely.) I looked at the mission for the U.S. – India Educational Foundation and this is what I read: “In this mission, USIEF draws on the Indian tradition’s view that scholarship transcends borders.” I’m going to keep hoping and striving towards transcending the border that Cyril Radcliffe created seventy-five years ago--cutting the Punjab in two.

[spiritsofts-training-blog]

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.24 (after 1920)

1926 – Harry Houdini's last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit. 1929 – "Black Thursday" on the New York Stock Exchange. 1930 – A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ends the First Republic, replacing it with the Vargas Era. 1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic over the Hudson River. 1944 – World War II: Japan's center force is temporarily repulsed in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 1945 – The United Nations Charter comes into effect. 1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space. 1947 – Famed animator Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists. 1947 – United Air Lines Flight 608 crashes in the Bryce Canyon National Park in Garfield County, Utah, while attempting an emergency landing at Bryce Canyon Airport, killing 52 people. 1949 – The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid. 1950 – Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China: The People’s Liberation Army ceases all military operations in Tibet, ending the Battle of Chamdo. 1954 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam. 1957 – The United States Air Force starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar crewed space program. 1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100 people, including Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin. 1963 – An oxygen leak from an R-9 Desna missile at the Baikonur Cosmodrome triggers a fire that kills seven people. 1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes Zambia. 1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gender inequality. 1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity trade union. 1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing of an El Al flight at Heathrow Airport. 1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian NATO force formed in 1956, intended to be activated in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion. 1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series. 1998 – Deep Space 1 is launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technologies. 2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight. 2004 – Arsenal Football Club loses to Manchester United, ending a row of unbeaten matches at 49 matches, which is the record in the Premier League. 2005 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in Florida, resulting in 35 direct and 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage. 2007 – Chang'e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. 2008 – "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices. 2014 – The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang'e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth. 2015 – A driver crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade, killing four people and injuring 34. 2016 – A French surveillance aircraft flying to Libya crashes on takeoff in Malta, killing all five people on board. 2016 – Three heavily-armed terrorists from the Islamic State – Khorasan Province open fire on and eventually suicide bomb a police training centre in Balochistan, Pakistan, killing at least 59 cadets and injuring more than 165 others. 2018 – The world’s longest sea crossing, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, opens for public traffic.