My first column in a national Pakistan newspaper

Hi/Assalamualaikum –

After multiple pitches the media, spread over 12 months, I am finally published in a national newspaper in Pakistan. Yes, it’s a blog post and I’m very proud of it!

https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/84003/connecting-bridges-and-spreading-the-colours-of-pakistan-to-america/

I have been asked to write more articles which I will happily do as I’ve much material to work with via the UMass Donahue Institute and their international exchange programs in Pakistan.

Please enjoy.

My first international byline!

As written about before, last summer I coordinated an art project in Amherst by the artists at the Karachi-based Phool Patti. It was such an amazing time and opportunity for cultural exchange between Pakistan and America and we had some good local media coverage. However, we had no Pakistan coverage outside of the social media sharing.  I thus wrote two first-person columns about the project. One was about how the project came into being and the reaction of local Americans to the trolley.  The second was about the reactions of the local Pakistanis to the trolley. I pitched the articles to Pakistan newspapers including Dawn and the Express Tribune. After making initial contact with editors, they did not express interest in publishing either article.  I simply gave up after that but kept the drafts.

Last year, Mujahid Torwali and I started to collaborate on getting some student supplies for his underfunded government school in the Swat Valley of northern Pakistan.

Me and Rizwan: “Voice of America Deewa” (Pashto) Interview

Rizwan Ali Shinwari is a PhD fellow in the political science department at UMass Amherst. Through mutual friends we met in 2018. But, just four days after we first had coffee, he was injured very badly in a bike vs. car accident. He then spent several weeks in the hospital recovering from surgery and his injuries. To this day, he is still recovering.

My top 8 moments from Pakistan 2019

This guy, at the Peshawar wedding. He did this for five very long minutes. I’m sure he was just cold and had never seen a movie about Dracula.

Pakistan 2019: Karachi

Ahhhhhh, Home Sweet, Karachi!

During 2017 visit, I spent the majority of my two week trip in Karachi. So coming back felt familiar. Well, I mean, it’s a city of 15 million so can it really ever be familiar to a foreigner, right? Well, at least the hotel was.

Being a “celebrity” in Pakistan

First, I’m not entirely comfortable with “celebrity” to describe my experience. It was just as much about being an “oddity” in Pakistan. Fine.

Before my first trip to Pakistan in 2017, I was told/warned by co-workers who had previously traveled there that because of my skin color and height (6’4”/1.95 meters) I would attract extra attention from strangers. Given I was anxious about the image of Pakistan that I had formed over years of negative media coverage (never will one see a story in the news titled, “Today Was Peaceful in Pakistan” because headlines like that don’t sell ad space) I just thought this attention would be negative in nature and unwelcome.

I’ve never been one to desire attention from crowds of people, regardless of the country. It goes back to my childhood when, despite my advanced height even then, I just wanted to blend in and not be noticed.

Once I got to Pakistan, I did receive A LOT of attention from strangers. When I walked into a store or a room or down a street, it was as if everything stopped and all heads turned to stare at me. When I walked around in public, many who saw me would follow me with their eyes as I walked past. Fortunate for me, I was always with my Pakistani friends and I could whisper to them that I was being stared at and they reassured me that I was a novelty to them. However, I could take the multiple staring episodes for only so long. Eventually I would make eye contact and either nod my head at them or smile and wave. Nearly 100% of the time they smiled, waved back or approached me to shake my hand or take a picture.

During the recent trip, I experienced very little of this in Islamabad where foreigners are much more common in public. Peshawar was the opposite experience. We had been told by faculty at a Peshawar school visit that they couldn’t remember the last time an American had been on campus. I had grown comfortable enough at this point to approach staring people in Peshawar with a smile and a shake of a hand. Note: I did this only with young and adult men and I rarely made eye contact with women much less smiled at them. Its an established cultural rule to not engage with women unless they engage you first.

In summary, I think my experience feels less like a celebrity and more like a diplomat. I think my simple presence on a street, in a classroom or a restaurant sends a message that Americans want to be engaged with Pakistanis. Too many times I heard from Pakistanis that they thought the U.S. hated their country and expressed surprise at seeming me and my colleagues.

Pakistan 2019: Peshawar

I had the enormous pleasure of traveling to the city of Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Peshwar’s age is not scientifically confirmed but it could be up to 3,000 years old. During its long history it was a stop along the Silk Road that has connected Europe with Asia for hundreds of years. Peshawar was also the staging area for the freedom fighters (mujahedeen) who fought the Soviets during the occupation of Afghanistan. The famed Khyber Pass is less than an hour away and Kabul is just a few hours by car.

Pakistan 2019: Islamabad

In 2017, I visited Pakistan for the first time.

Before I went, I peppered my Pakistan-experienced co-workers and Pakistani friends with lots of questions about the country. Some answers were detailed while I often got a version of “Pakistan affects people in different ways” which meant “Ken, you’ll just have to get there and see what happens!”. The 2017 trip was shocking in several ways. First, the graciousness and curiosity of the Pakistani people. Second, the environment of Pakistan was a firehose of stimuli affecting all of my senses.

My 2019 trip shaped up to be the same “cultural firehose”. But this time, with my previous experience still fresh, I was prepared.

Or, so I thought.

Artists plant and paint “Pakistani flowers” in Amherst

In June, a well-traveled artist group from Karachi, Pakistan visited Amherst. But first, some background.

In 2014, Becky Howland and Mike Hannahan from the UMass Civic Initiative traveled to Karachi to finalize the Balochistan University Partnership, program funded by the U.S. Department of State. While there they were contacted the U.S. Consulate General Karachi to gauge their interest in helping a local artist group paint a mural at the Pakistan American Cultural Center (LINK). Of course, they said yes and they were soon side by side with “Phool Patti” with paintbrushes in hand.