I'm a bit behind on listening to my podcasts of the always-fascinating CBC Radio One foreign-affairs show "Dispatches," so I just heard an intriguing report from late March about the class differences in fast food in Pakistan.
Western tourists (myself included) are often convinced that one way to get into the "authentic" culture of a place is to eat cheap fast food: noodles from tiny kiosks, fritters from roadside stands, that sort of thing.
But when "Dispatches" correspondent Natasha Fatah went to Karachi, she found out that the local elites wouldn't be caught dead eating a kabab from an open-air grill. So are they flocking to white-tablecloth French restaurants instead? Nope. They boost their prestige with a trip to McDonald's or KFC.
Check out the Dispatches website for the full report (search on "Are You a Burger or a Bun Kabab?" from the March 25/28 broadcast).
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistan. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Friday, March 6, 2009
Greg Mortenson REALLY travels like a local
OK, I realize I'm very late to this party--the book came out three years ago. But I just finished reading Three Cups of Tea, the story of mountain climber-turned-philanthropist Greg Mortenson, and I was captivated.
For those of you who, like me, somehow missed this book when it first came out, here's the scoop. After a failed attempt to climb K2, Mortenson descends from the mountain ill and disoriented. He washes up in the village of Korphe in northern Pakistan, where villagers help him get better. He is grateful but isn't sure how to properly thank them--until he sees village children doing their lessons outdoors because they have no school. He promises to come back and build one.
What follows is the story of Mortenson's charming, naive, insane, determined quest to raise money for the Korphe school, co-written by journalist David Oliver Relin. This one project soon turns into Mortenson's life's work; he has since built dozens of schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. Along the way, he has also forged enduring relationships with people from a host of different ethnic groups. Very few of us have the courage and dedication to "travel like a local" to this extent, but it makes for a fascinating and inspiring story.
Relin did phenomenal amounts of research and it shows in the evocative details, which sometimes become a bit overwhelming. The book could have done with some trimming by a ruthless editor, but stick with it--the story is worth it.
Mortenson has just released a new version of the book aimed at children--not surprisingly, since children are the focus of his work in Central Asia and since children back home in North America have been some of his most ardent supporters (through the Pennies for Peace fundraising campaign).
All in all, Mortenson's story is a wonderful antidote to the tide of doom and gloom in the news at the minute.
For those of you who, like me, somehow missed this book when it first came out, here's the scoop. After a failed attempt to climb K2, Mortenson descends from the mountain ill and disoriented. He washes up in the village of Korphe in northern Pakistan, where villagers help him get better. He is grateful but isn't sure how to properly thank them--until he sees village children doing their lessons outdoors because they have no school. He promises to come back and build one.
What follows is the story of Mortenson's charming, naive, insane, determined quest to raise money for the Korphe school, co-written by journalist David Oliver Relin. This one project soon turns into Mortenson's life's work; he has since built dozens of schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. Along the way, he has also forged enduring relationships with people from a host of different ethnic groups. Very few of us have the courage and dedication to "travel like a local" to this extent, but it makes for a fascinating and inspiring story.
Relin did phenomenal amounts of research and it shows in the evocative details, which sometimes become a bit overwhelming. The book could have done with some trimming by a ruthless editor, but stick with it--the story is worth it.
Mortenson has just released a new version of the book aimed at children--not surprisingly, since children are the focus of his work in Central Asia and since children back home in North America have been some of his most ardent supporters (through the Pennies for Peace fundraising campaign).All in all, Mortenson's story is a wonderful antidote to the tide of doom and gloom in the news at the minute.
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