This past week, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan flew to India to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the countries’ volatile relationship. Tension has accumulated over the past half century, starting with the military three conflicts since independence from British rule in 1947 and the ever-present nuclear threat…
Full Article PAKISTAN: Zardari Meets with Indian PM for a ‘Play Date’Author: Winston Esposito
PAKISTAN: Obama and Gilani at Nuclear Security Summit — Easing Tension
On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in South Korea to discuss relations between their respective countries. How Pakistani citizens view such a meeting however, has been entirely dependent on its presentation in the media.…
Full Article PAKISTAN: Obama and Gilani at Nuclear Security Summit — Easing TensionPAKISTAN: One Meeting, Two Newspapers, Multiple Versions
Earlier this month the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, chaired a meeting for the heads of all allies of his political party, the Pakistan People’s Party. People may be left with two different impressions of how the meeting actually went depending on which Pakistani newspaper they read the following…
Full Article PAKISTAN: One Meeting, Two Newspapers, Multiple VersionsPAKISTAN: Trying to Get Its Political Act Together
On February 14, 2012 – however fleetingly — love was truly in the air in politically torn-Pakistan, although, it had nothing to do with Valentines Day. Pakistanis of all partisan stripes appeared to agree that the action of the National Assembly to make future elections as free and fair as possible was a critical step in the right direction.
Full Article PAKISTAN: Trying to Get Its Political Act TogetherPAKISTAN: Two Different Media Ways of Describing a Reason to Duck!I
Two top Pakistani newspapers recently reported the same basic story, and it came as no shocker: Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani-American business man described as being at the center of the memo (Memogate) scandal and now abroad, will not come to Pakistan to testify.
Full Article PAKISTAN: Two Different Media Ways of Describing a Reason to Duck!ICHINA: Bashing Won’t Solve Problems…but It May Get You Elected
China Daily recently published a seemingly heartfelt article titled “Blaming China won’t solve US problems.” It began the piece with the consoling fact that “blaming China will not solve problems in the United States or help presidential candidates win more votes”.
Full Article CHINA: Bashing Won’t Solve Problems…but It May Get You ElectedCHINA: Scoffing at U.S. Stumbles Over Efforts to Stop Iran’s Nuclearization
It comes as no surprise that many countries are unwilling to aid the United States in their attempt to stop Iran’s nuclear program if such efforts hurt their pockets. But even when their intentions are apparently sincere, methods can prove ineffective. That was the point of a recent article in…
Full Article CHINA: Scoffing at U.S. Stumbles Over Efforts to Stop Iran’s NuclearizationPAKISTAN: Beyond Memogate
It looks as if the military is still firmly in control of Pakistan, judging from one nuanced assessment on the website of The Dawn, one of the two dominant English-language newspapers in Pakistan. Written by well-regarded feature writer Waris Husain, the analysis suggests that the nation’ highest court, in its…
Full Article PAKISTAN: Beyond MemogateCHINA: The Ridiculous Republican Hunt for “Red” Huntsman
As Republican presidential candidates continue to use China as a topic for gaining voter approval in the current Republican Primaries, it shouldn’t go unnoticed that the “bad mouthing” is being heard beyond our own shores. The English-language Chinese newspaper “China Daily” recently published an article highlighting the election’s topic fixation.…
Full Article CHINA: The Ridiculous Republican Hunt for “Red” HuntsmanPAKISTAN: Well, It’s Worth a Try, Anyway!
A surprising article in The News, a top English-language newspaper in Pakistan, showed the country’s upscale newspaper enmeshed in a very good cause: anti-corruption.
Full Article PAKISTAN: Well, It’s Worth a Try, Anyway!PAKISTAN: Is It Military Vs Civilians– Or ‘The News’ Vs ‘The Dawn’
A widely publicized but supposedly secret memo appears to show the country’s civilian leaders all but begging Washington to protect them from a punitive military coup. The scandal is now being called “Memogate” in the press.
Full Article PAKISTAN: Is It Military Vs Civilians– Or ‘The News’ Vs ‘The Dawn’CHINA: Confucius Institute Prospers as China Attempts to Change Foreign Misconceptions
The Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) has recently joined with seventeen other foreign universities to set up Confucius Institutes, non-profit institutions that promote Chinese language and culture internationally, in fourteen countries overseas.
Full Article CHINA: Confucius Institute Prospers as China Attempts to Change Foreign MisconceptionsPAKISTAN: Author Wonders — Have We Learned the Lessons of the Past?
In a recent, and seemingly controversial, article in the Opinion section of the prominent Pakistani newspaper The Dawn, author Ardeshir Cowasjee wrote an article about the failures of the Pakistani government and people in light of a famous book written by the late American author Barbara Tuchman titled The March of Folly (1984)…
Full Article PAKISTAN: Author Wonders — Have We Learned the Lessons of the Past?CHINA: Advice on How to Understand the Chinese In Bits and Bytes
A recently published article in China Daily by Natalie Thomas discusses the recent success of Charlie Custer in taking on the role of relaying information about current events in China…
Full Article CHINA: Advice on How to Understand the Chinese In Bits and BytesPAKISTAN: In the Dawn Newspaper: Pakistani Optimism Despite Crisis
Pakistan has been “taking it” from all sides recently, perhaps some relief is in order. The Dawn, the internationally well-respected daily newspaper in Karachi, gave the opinion spotlight to an article arguing that the notion of “an economic crisis in Pakistan” was at best overblown and at worst malicious. Avers…
Full Article PAKISTAN: In the Dawn Newspaper: Pakistani Optimism Despite Crisis