In Pakistan and India, invented cultural nostalgia is having disastrous consequences
Creating a make-believe world can be beneficial – and devastating.
I have just finished watching a short smartphone video of seven- to 10-year-old kids playing in some dusty, Seraiki-speaking village of Pakistan’s south Punjab. Each boy has fashioned for himself a crude wood and tin sword, ensconced in a scabbard tied to his shalwar’s narra. What is it for, asks the off-camera interviewer, who seems to be enjoying himself. I am a Muslim, says one proudly, pulling out his sword and waving it in the air. It is for cutting off the heads of kafirs. Your name? Ertugrul, he replies.
A year on: Students enrolled at Chinese universities still struggling to adjust to online learning in Pakistan
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Monday Feb 01, 2021
Mehwish Muzaffar, a PhD student, taking online classes on the roof of her home in Vehari, Punjab on January 30, 2021. Photo:author.
Today, like most days, Mehwish Muzaffar, a PhD student, has to take her online classes at the rooftop of her home. She lives in a remote village in the Vehari district of Punjab.
It is bone-chilling cold this morning. Wrapped in the warmest blanket she could find, Muzaffar sits glued to her laptop, listening to a lecture streamed all the way from China.
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Multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter claim that the Pakistani government has appointed a retired army general as the head of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), a regulatory agency that oversees the county’s entire medical profession. The claim, however, is false; the claim was made in a hoax news report and the government has made no such appointment.
The claim was published on January 21, 2021 a Facebook page called “Vocabulary and Dawn News’ Informative Articles”, which has more than 50,000 followers.
The page s profile picture is identical to the logo of major Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn, which can be seen here.
Pakistan has damaged its universities beyond repair by rewarding professors with phoney achievements
Across the world, organisations ranking institutes have been exposed as inconsistent, changing metrics from year to year, and omitting critical information. Dec 19, 2020 · 07:30 pm Times Higher Education declared Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan as Pakistan’s top university, although it is known for violent intolerance, not research or teaching. | Fayaz Aziz / Reuters
Over half a dozen international “well-reputed” university ranking organisations annually publish their ratings. They tell you which university or department is better than which other, both within a country as well as between countries.
Feel free to swallow their poisonous bait but do so at your own risk. These cunning ones easily take simpletons for a ride. At best, you will get questionable stuff. More likely, it will be meaningless nonsense or a fat bunch of lies.