Afrah Jamal

Thanks to the lovely Nefer & Haya for the launch Invite Published in Daily Times / Jul 21, 2012 Under the title: So You Think You Can Escape? Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal 'In this game there are no second chances. You either win or you die.’ The man who penned these words 41 years ago was busy planning his escape from an Indian POW camp that was not really supposed to exist. Today, as a defence analyst who owns a successful business empire, he sits amiably on a stage flanked by officers from his old command, some well-known personalities from the media, and at least one fiery cricketer-turned-politician who aspires for the premiership. (See Pix Here ) The extraordinary tale of a Pakistani army captain adrift in enemy territory who went knocking at the US Consulate gate and the American Marine Sergeant on duty who saved the day (part of it anyway) appeared in print a few years ago. That, however, was not the end of the captain’s ordeal. What happened in the interval b...

Received some wonderful Images through email today. Thank you Bakhtiar Khalid. They were taken by one Bill Spence(born August 12, 1940 in Iowa City, Iowa). He was with a US Army Security Agency in the early sixties and snapped his way through Peshawer (the same), Badaber Station (Bases were called Stations back then) Lahore, Rawalpindi, Kaghan Valley, KhyberPass, Kohat, Darra Adem Khel, Pak-Afghan border....all the way to Kabul, Afghanistan. Images Posted on my Facebook Page Here "A performer, teacher, recording artist and a hammered dulcimer player from New York. Spence began playing the hammered dulcimer after hearing Howie Mitchell at the 1969 Fox Hollow Festival in Petersburgh, New York. He made his first dulcimer following a plan in Mitchell's book. The only hammered dulcimer recordings available at the time were by Mitchell and another player, Chet Parker on the Folkways label. Spence developed his own style, working out tunes he heard on recordings of other instrum...

Published in Daily Times / 7 July 2012 Under the Title; The Realm Next Door Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Many thanks to S.M. Boyce for the review copy. S M Boyce’s debut novel calls upon captivating magical backdrops to reach for those glimmering shards of whimsy, lying forgotten in the dark recesses of imagination. Seven years in the making The Grimoire: Lichgates is a heady brew that cheerfully vaults into the fantasy genre. 20-year-old Kara Magari’s hike comes to a dramatic close when she stumbles upon Ourea, the realm next door where conniving rulers, diabolical shape-shifters, conflicted humanoids and mysterious muses lurk in the shadows, and dragon sightings do not trigger alarm bells. Boyce’s sweeping epic fantasy adventure is carried on the wings of its supernatural soul suffused with mystical sensibilities. The Grimoire — a book of wisdom at the centre of this transformative experience — dictates (to an extent), the destiny of the ‘ Chosen One ’, and offers useful in...

Thanks to Liberty Books for the review copy Author: James P Farwell Foreword by: Joseph D. Duffy Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal Published in Daily Times / Saturday, June 23, 2012 under the title: Sound-'Bites' The shifting sands of local politics, the riotous nature of its circus acts and the principal players responsible for their upkeep make for an interesting case study. As an expert in strategic communication, James P Farwell has spent a decade advising the US Department of Defence (DoD), the US Special Operations Command and US Strategic Command on the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. His candid new book traces the muddled contours of a Pakistani-style political arena showcasing a disgraced nuclear scientist, a deceased prime minister and a disgruntled dictator and the far-reaching impact of their sound-bytes. An astute observer, Farwell attempts to cut through the constant haze of confusion that hangs over Pakistan. He admits that General Musharraf, an easy targ...

By: Afrah Jamal Published in Daily Times / Saturday, June 09, 2012 ( Published with a wrong Pix..that's not me..hope it gets fixed on Daily Times site soon) Update: (Pix on DT website Fixed. Thanks DT) & when they revamped the site in 2014, the wrong pix was uploaded again. Ah well. i tried. Minor aftershocks from the Abbottabad raid when they hit tend to put a damper on the Pak-US relationship. Of the two actors to receive star billing in that operation, one is dead, and the other is behind bars . The sequel featuring a dodgy doctor may not have the same raw appeal as the Osama liquidation original but it does offer up some stirring moments from the shadowy world of espionage. Shakeel Afridi comes highly recommended by the agency (not our own) and government officials (again not our own). The revelation about the good doctor’s duplicity has unnerved many the same way the wicked terrorist’s discovery by the US SEALs team did. Notwithstanding ringing endorsements b...

Published in Daily Times / Saturday, May 26, 2012 By Afrah Jamal The headline in a local daily about alleged disdain of Karachi’s elite schools for the national anthem was framed to trigger a firestorm of protests. The outrage came right on cue. A small group of enlightened souls recently gathered to mull over the national anthem controversy over tea and cookies did not look too worried about this blatant attempt to reinterpret the patriotism handbook. Some educational institutions may have already bidden adieu to an established tradition but the latest fracas over the disappearing practice of singing the anthem could be an opportunity, for some, to reassess a tired, old arrangement. No one denies the importance of the Qaumi Tarana ; no one would dare, in such an emotionally charged environment. However, they are conflicted over the exact manner it can best serve the nation in its present day crisis mode. The anthem may be non-negotiable. And in a land split across cultural,...

Published by Daily Times / 5 May 2012 When characters in a modernised version of Sherlock Holmes make a passing reference to Karachi — they only have Daniel Pearl in mind. When the ISI agents are featured on TV shows — it is because they can stand in for the US’s favourite Cold War foes. Such imagery goes well with the popular narrative doing the global rounds. A widening gulf between Islam and the West, the oscillating nature of the Pak-US relationship, and the alarming levels of toxicity within, is a source of concern and confusion. Now, it is the subject of a book. At the launch of Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West, veteran columnist Irfan Husain briefly touched upon these incongruities. In the book, he delves deeper into a cheerless terrain where reason has been cast adrift and paranoia is king. Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam and the West meticulously sifts through centuries of suspicion and decades of scorched earth left behind by Palestine, Iraq and Afgh...

Published in Daily Times / Saturday, March 31, 2012 / Under the Title of: And Then There Was One ...? Reviewed by Afrah Jamal To enter Panem, built atop the ashes of a civilization, one must walk past its impoverished 99% living under the spell of a shiny Capitol and remain unfazed at its fondness for teenage death matches. Suzanne Collins envisions a future that thrives on pageantry and the class divide, has ghoulish cravings and a weakness for heartrending reality TV. It summons young contestants or tributes, as they are called, from 12 starving districts to take part in games with ridiculously high stakes. For some, this is considered fun. Navigating this cold, comfortless terrain shrouded in gloom, one comes across a familiar soundtrack of hunger, violence, media circuses and rebellion from this era running unobtrusively in the background. Katniss Everdeen, a resourceful 16 year old, narrates her life of hardship in the coal mining district simply known as District 12, shar...

At Book signing with Irfan Husain- Author of Fatal Fault-lines Pakistan, Islam & the West Liberty Books at Beach Luxury Le Book Signing Irfan Husain with Moderator Zohra Yusuf Chairperson HR Commission Pakistan & an EXPRESS Tribune fotog Asif Noorani At Q/A Session (Below) What I was aiming for.. (From Sarah Haris's Album) All Images Copyright to Moi

First Published in Daily Times /Saturday, March 17, 2012 Elegiac laments for a fading film industry are interrupted midway with news that could give the documentary film medium at least a new lease of life . It owes its resurrection to a young filmmaker, who mined troubling sound-bytes overheard in theatres where war, injustice or social disparity reigns supreme. Clips aired at the third Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) held earlier this year provided glimpses of her work, including the internationally acclaimed ‘Saving Face’. At the time, she had an Emmy stacked away for one documentary and was just weeks away from winning an Academy Award for another. At the time, she had been relentlessly crusading to rid societies of those anachronistic practices (among other ills) that weigh them down in the modern world. And — despite these glittering credentials — her work was largely unknown amongst Pakistanis. The young Oscar nominee who took the stage that day would soon be the face o...

Thanks to Possibilities Publications for the review copy Published by Daily Times / Saturday, February 25, 2012 Reviewed by Afrah Jamal Runaway Teams beware. Qaiser Abbas is an organisational psychologist, author of books like the Tik Tok Dollar and the upcoming Leadership Insights — and one canny facilitator who introduced Pakistan to the concept of ‘Management by Adventure’, or as he likes to call it, MBA. His mission of rescuing wayward teams from doom makes him dash in and out of companies on a regular basis. Prompted by the success of such expeditions, he proceeds to refine these insights for a book on team-building and a lecture on group dynamics. As someone who specialised in using experiential learning methodology in outdoor training, Abbas swears by well-structured one-day team-building programmes over time spent bonding over social activities. His recent book takes an in-depth look at this phenomenon to determine the value of team-building, show the expertise needed ...

Published in Daily Times Saturday, February 11, 2012 Reproduced on Claudine Le Tourneur Dlson's Website Translated from French by Priyanka Jhijaria Reviewed by Afrah Jamal A programme about Hira Mandi did the internet rounds a couple of years ago. It claimed, among other things, that the sons of the ‘dancers’ reportedly end up as lawyers, doctors, artists — a few join politics and some even reach the military. These outrageous statistics may be one of the reasons the documentary was banned from the mainstream media. That and its primary premise — the plight of the fallen women — would prompt the conservatives to howl with dismay before scurrying off to bury any evidence in the backyard along with other bodies. Claudine Le Tourneur d’Ison embeds such wrenching moments in a bold narrative where its doomed protagonist can hail the brave new world and its genteel patrons from an extraordinary vantage point. The expedition to the underworld with the unfortunate progeny and ...

Thank you Peter Taylor for the email..& the kind words..you made my day (28 Jan 2012) Peter Sent a Signed Copy ...(26 March 2012).. Published in Daily Times / Saturday, January 28, 2012 Reviewed by: Afrah Jamal When Peter Taylor, BBC’s acclaimed investigative journalist, hunts down ‘terrorists’, he just wants to talk . Churchill’s philosophy of ‘ Jaw-jaw instead of war-war ’ appealed to the audience in one episode of the 2007 BBC Doha debates titled ‘Talking to al Qaeda’. A former ISI chief present on the occasion admitted that they had already established secret channels of communication. But as the host pointedly asked, to what end given the American National Intelligence report that the enemy regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability regardless. Since then this region has watched hastily made peace deals crumble and efforts at diplomacy fail. Five years down the line however, the Taliban are toying with the idea of opening a liaison office in Qatar....

Published in Daily Times / Saturday, January 14, 2012 By Afrah Jamal One cannot initiate a change of guard in Pakistan without sending the entire nation into a paroxysm or rattling the international community. Not when said change comes atop a war of (some very mean sounding) words between the state and its military. The New York Times (NYT) editorial, ‘Pakistan’s besieged government’ (January 12, 2012) appears concerned about the fate of Pakistan’s democracy. They hint at “disastrous patterns” and bring up the olden days, implying that a repeat of those times is perhaps in the offing. They then observe that “no civilian government in Pakistan has ever finished its term” and hope that this one would be allowed to do so. Their concern is touching. The latest crisis precipitated by the firing of the Defence Secretary and the prime minister’s ill-timed statements against our omnipotent military commanders triggered warning bells for Pakistan’s fledging democracy. These back to b...