The creation of Pakistan is considered to be an awe-inspiring yet shocking moment in time, kick-starting the somewhat tumultuous history of this nation. The generation that succeeded Partition cherished this land, born out of the sacrifice and struggle of countless lives. And although it has been like this for many generations, never has an attempt been made to archive this event...until now.
The Oral History Project (OHP) aims to archive the events leading up to, during and after Partition — and the resulting birth of Pakistan. By conducting interviews and collecting old photographs, the OHP will eventually be a kaleidoscope of information. It will be the proverbial beacon for those who wish to know more about Pakistan, its creation, the people behind it and the immense sacrifices made.
Award-winning documentary film-maker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is known for her documentaries and her writing. Based in Karachi as well as many cities across the globe, she has won accolades from all over the world — the most notable being the Livingston Award for journalism and being the only non-American so far to have received it.
We sit in the office of the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), the umbrella to the OHP and other projects, such as last year’s Shanaakht festival. Instead of some quiet neighbourhood, the office is in the heart of Karachis suburbs. Around us, a score of volunteers go about their work, tabulating and archiving eyewitness accounts, arranging interviews and gathering data. Telephones are ringing and phone calls are being made. The walls are plastered with either charts, maps or black and white photographs. On closer inspection they seem familiar
— names of places, familiar buildings and pictures of people from all walks of life at a crucial moment in our history.
It is clear that Sharmeen is perfectly at ease here and I ask her how the OHP began. “It began last year when I got a group of friends together and we realised that we have no identity as Pakistanis, and the only way we can get it is by exploring our history.” And so the nonprofit CAP was formed. “Our main objective is to preserve and archive our country’s history, and to make sure people from all walks of life have access to it.”
What was the inspiration behind this auspicious, elaborate and tedious project? Sharmeen adds, “The generation responsible for creating our country is either very old or about to pass on. If we do not start preserving their stories — the events they actually saw unfolding before their very eyes in 1947 and the ideology behind the creation of Pakistan — we’ll never be able to progress. Otherwise there will always be this question of our identity: Who we are and why was this country formed? We’re aiming to create a history database, primarily interactive, but one that will also give the seeker an academic overlook into the events.”
So far the project has had its fair share of troubles and Sharmeen is quite forthright about them, “Major funding issues…. When you think of nonprofit in Pakistan, how do you manage to come up with the money if you’re not running a hospital or a school? Most of our work is based on digital equipment. We train people to go out and conduct interview, take pictures and collect data. It is quite difficult to arrange funding.”
Funding, of course, is an important aspect of the OHP, and even though it aims to do something of national interest, there has been little to no interest from the government in CAP and its projects. “There hasn’t been a single cent that has come in from the Government of Pakistan, which is why we’re seeking out corporations, MNCs, wealthy families and asking them to donate to us because we want to be independent from the government in all aspects, including the views on Partition.” But shouldn’t the government be worried about that? “The government should be thankful to us; we’re doing something that has never been done before, not even by it,” Sharmeen says.
Even though this is probably like archaeology — carefully brushing the dust away from a prized find — Sharmeen and her team has uncovered a plethora of unheard stories. “The response we’ve been getting is fantastic. Some of the stories that have emerged have been absolutely amazing. For example, we interviewed someone who was working at a refugee camp on the border when cholera broke out and many people who had made it through the transit died in that camp, at the doorstep of freedom. We’ve also heard from people involved in mob violence, people who’ve admitted to taking part in the killings.” She goes on to tell about how this project isn’t just about politics, but also about the way of life, the physical struggles and quite literally the catharsis of Pakistan’s creation and afterwards.
“Our line of questioning right now is targeted towards the 80 something year olds, people who have been through Partition. But we’re moving beyond that,” she says. One of the things they’re trying to find out is what everyday life was like after Partition, how was life like in Karachi, Lahore? What changed? When they came over what happened? And for this they’re talking to indigenous people in their language, for example to Sindhis in Sindhi and so on and so forth. “We’re aiming for diversity, in terms of language and in terms of people.”
Is the OHP a one-sided story or are there people contacted from the other side of the border who would want to share their points of view? “We’ve been working closely with someone based in Delhi at the moment conducting interviews from the Indian side, but this is going to be a lifelong project which will continue to grow.” Although they do have connections, it is clear that Sharmeen wants CAP’s very own people to be involved no matter where the stories come from. “Once we have enough funding, we aim to send more and more volunteers across cities and villages to collect stories. We’ve just sent two people to Lahore to conduct interviews there and the idea is to send people across Pakistan eventually.”
What about the volunteers. Who are they? “Most of them are students who either have just finished their secondary education or are awaiting their results, or those who have done their Bachelors and have some time on their hands.”
Plans are already underway to build a museum that would hold all of the OHP’s collection along with storage of all the information in multimedia formats for people from all walks of life. All of this will be carried out under the watchful eye of CAP that has carefully planned out its growth; so far as to even select the location for the museum somewhere in the heart of Saddar primarily because they want everyone to have easy access to it.
After having undergone Hollywood’s spin saga treatment, tragedies involving a very large ship striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic or perhaps what happened in some concentration camp in Poland is what comes immediately to the minds of the present generation of Pakistanis when one talks of the horrors of the past. While the loss of human life in such events is immeasurable, the sacrifices of humanity’s determination should also not be forgotten. Right now, people are either saying that these are the darkest times in Pakistan’s history or the beginning of a new age.
Whichever way you choose to look at it, only the past can act like a beacon and guide us towards the future. And with people like Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and projects such as the Oral History of Pakistan, the beacon will continue to burn bright.
19.9.08
GOD IS IN THE DETAILS
There was a time when it was thought that the smallest particle of matter was an atom. Uncuttable, as named by the Greeks, this particle was the basic building block of all matter. Everything is made up of atoms, the air we breathe, the water we drink, our very own bodies are made up of it. Fast forward to 1897 and physicist J. J. Thomson made a startling discovery through his work on cathode rays: he discovers subatomic particles. This effectively destroys the concept of atoms as being indivisible units and being the fundamental particles.
Everything changed from that moment. From that instance of peering into the depths of microcosm, we saw a whole new world – a universe, if you will – come to light. We saw that atoms are made of particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons; protons and neutrons are made of weird particles called quarks and gluons. Further particles were also discovered, thus the Standard Model was made and hence, Particle Physics was born.
This peeling away of the layers of the smallest particles known to man has given insight into far greater things: like the creation of the universe. How can something so small and tiny give us insight about something as massive and colossal as the very creation of the universe, that is, The Big Bang?
That is where the hunt for the most elusive particle comes into play. Scientists across the world have been hunting the particle which is theoretically responsible for the creation of the universe. It existed for the briefest of seconds when there wasn't even a concept of seconds just moments after the Big Bang (approximately one billionth of a second). It is the only particle in the Standard Model to still be theoretical and hidden from the prying eyes of humanity. Its scientific name is the Higgs boson, named so after Peter Higgs who has theorized its existence. But physicist Leon Lederman gave it another name, he called it: The God Particle.
The funny thing is, Lederman originally wanted to call it the Goddamn Particle (his publisher censored the term and renamed it) and Higgs was against the idea of attaching religion to his theory. But what is this God Particle exactly? Let's start first with the complicated definition and work our way towards the simpler one.
The Higgs boson is a particle, much like protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks and gluons and so on and so forth, but it is a highly unstable particle. It is part of a field, also theorized by Peter Higgs, called the Higgs field. This field pervades all space and the Higgs boson the carrier of it, interacting with other particles (just like the fictitious Jedi Knights from Star Wars interact with the Force). The Higgs boson is an important aspect of the Standard Model of Particle Physics—but no one's ever found it.
Theoretical physicist John Ellis is one of the scientists searching for the Higgs. Ellis explains that the Higgs field, in theory, is what gives fundamental particles mass. He offers an analogy: Different fundamental particles, he says, are like a crowd of people running through mud. Some particles, like quarks, have big boots that get covered with lots of mud; others, like electrons, have little shoes that barely gather any mud at all. Photons don't wear shoes—they just glide over the top of the mud without picking any up. And the Higgs field is the mud.
Ellis isn't the only one looking for the particle. Over 8,000 "detective" scientists from over 85 countries are polishing their magnifying glasses. On September 10th of this year, the proverbial magnifying glass of the detective scientists (nearly 27 miles long and located on the French-Swiss border) was switched on. Housed in CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It pushes particles, like protons, up to speeds of light and creates collisions between them.
The resulting debris from these collisions will confirm whether the Higgs boson exists or not. The particle itself is impossible to see, as it exists for the briefest of moments, but the decay rate and the remnants of the particle can be detected. This detection could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how particles (atoms, electrons, et al) acquire mass.
The LHC has six massive detectors all lined up across the giant ring and each detector has been given a specific task. The main tasks of the four are as follows:
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) – The first of two general purpose detectors, its job is to look for clues of extra dimensions, the origins of mass, and signs of new physics. It will also hunt for the Higgs boson.
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) – The second general purpose detector will, like ATLAS, will be after the Higgs boson and look for clues into the nature of dark matter.
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) – This detector look for clues of quark-gluon plasma, a liquid form of matter that existed shortly after the Big Bang.
LHCb – Shortly after the Big Bang, it is theorized that equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created in the Big Bang. This detector will look for clues and investigate what happened to the missing anti-matter.
The final two detectors, TOTEM and LHCf are smaller in scale and deal with specialized research.
So these are the 'unusual' suspects and the detectives, and now their games of hide and seek begins. And some say that this is quite the dangerous game. Already people have been theorizing that the LHC will create havoc and put the existence of the world in jeopardy. To put the fears of the world aside, the LHC has formed a group called the LSAG (LHC Safety Assessment Group) to address the safety issues of the upcoming experiments.
Regarding the accidental discover or making of black holes, the LSAG website states, "Speculations about microscopic black holes at the LHC refer to particles produced in the collisions of pairs of protons, each of which has an energy comparable to that of a mosquito in flight. Astronomical black holes are much heavier than anything that could be produced at the LHC. According to the well-established properties of gravity, described by Einstein’s relativity, it is impossible for microscopic black holes to be produced at the LHC."
And with regards to cosmic rays, "over the past billions of years, Nature has already generated on Earth as many collisions as about a million LHC experiments – and the planet still exists."
There is also no need to catch your breath. Although the LHC has come online, it will take about two months for it to get ready for the first proper experiment. And there are many questions that it can answer.
But some continue to speculate that we will learn absolutely nothing at all, and even that could be a good thing. In fact, Stephen Hawking, the world renowned mathematician and theoretical physicist, in a BBC interview said "I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of one hundred dollars that we won't find the Higgs." In the same interview Hawking mentions the possibility of finding super partners and adds that "whatever the LHC finds, or fails to find, the results will tell us a lot about the structure of the universe."
His statement permeates the entire scientific community which awaits any kind of results: Good or bad, find or no find. If the Higgs is found, it will prove a 40-year-old theory correct and the world will peer into the depths of its own creation. If there is no Higgs particle, it will prove that we have much to learn about the universe and that there is something even more fascinating than the God Particle that we do not know about.
Everything changed from that moment. From that instance of peering into the depths of microcosm, we saw a whole new world – a universe, if you will – come to light. We saw that atoms are made of particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons; protons and neutrons are made of weird particles called quarks and gluons. Further particles were also discovered, thus the Standard Model was made and hence, Particle Physics was born.
This peeling away of the layers of the smallest particles known to man has given insight into far greater things: like the creation of the universe. How can something so small and tiny give us insight about something as massive and colossal as the very creation of the universe, that is, The Big Bang?
That is where the hunt for the most elusive particle comes into play. Scientists across the world have been hunting the particle which is theoretically responsible for the creation of the universe. It existed for the briefest of seconds when there wasn't even a concept of seconds just moments after the Big Bang (approximately one billionth of a second). It is the only particle in the Standard Model to still be theoretical and hidden from the prying eyes of humanity. Its scientific name is the Higgs boson, named so after Peter Higgs who has theorized its existence. But physicist Leon Lederman gave it another name, he called it: The God Particle.
The funny thing is, Lederman originally wanted to call it the Goddamn Particle (his publisher censored the term and renamed it) and Higgs was against the idea of attaching religion to his theory. But what is this God Particle exactly? Let's start first with the complicated definition and work our way towards the simpler one.
The Higgs boson is a particle, much like protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks and gluons and so on and so forth, but it is a highly unstable particle. It is part of a field, also theorized by Peter Higgs, called the Higgs field. This field pervades all space and the Higgs boson the carrier of it, interacting with other particles (just like the fictitious Jedi Knights from Star Wars interact with the Force). The Higgs boson is an important aspect of the Standard Model of Particle Physics—but no one's ever found it.
Theoretical physicist John Ellis is one of the scientists searching for the Higgs. Ellis explains that the Higgs field, in theory, is what gives fundamental particles mass. He offers an analogy: Different fundamental particles, he says, are like a crowd of people running through mud. Some particles, like quarks, have big boots that get covered with lots of mud; others, like electrons, have little shoes that barely gather any mud at all. Photons don't wear shoes—they just glide over the top of the mud without picking any up. And the Higgs field is the mud.
Ellis isn't the only one looking for the particle. Over 8,000 "detective" scientists from over 85 countries are polishing their magnifying glasses. On September 10th of this year, the proverbial magnifying glass of the detective scientists (nearly 27 miles long and located on the French-Swiss border) was switched on. Housed in CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It pushes particles, like protons, up to speeds of light and creates collisions between them.
The resulting debris from these collisions will confirm whether the Higgs boson exists or not. The particle itself is impossible to see, as it exists for the briefest of moments, but the decay rate and the remnants of the particle can be detected. This detection could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how particles (atoms, electrons, et al) acquire mass.
The LHC has six massive detectors all lined up across the giant ring and each detector has been given a specific task. The main tasks of the four are as follows:
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) – The first of two general purpose detectors, its job is to look for clues of extra dimensions, the origins of mass, and signs of new physics. It will also hunt for the Higgs boson.
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) – The second general purpose detector will, like ATLAS, will be after the Higgs boson and look for clues into the nature of dark matter.
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) – This detector look for clues of quark-gluon plasma, a liquid form of matter that existed shortly after the Big Bang.
LHCb – Shortly after the Big Bang, it is theorized that equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created in the Big Bang. This detector will look for clues and investigate what happened to the missing anti-matter.
The final two detectors, TOTEM and LHCf are smaller in scale and deal with specialized research.
So these are the 'unusual' suspects and the detectives, and now their games of hide and seek begins. And some say that this is quite the dangerous game. Already people have been theorizing that the LHC will create havoc and put the existence of the world in jeopardy. To put the fears of the world aside, the LHC has formed a group called the LSAG (LHC Safety Assessment Group) to address the safety issues of the upcoming experiments.
Regarding the accidental discover or making of black holes, the LSAG website states, "Speculations about microscopic black holes at the LHC refer to particles produced in the collisions of pairs of protons, each of which has an energy comparable to that of a mosquito in flight. Astronomical black holes are much heavier than anything that could be produced at the LHC. According to the well-established properties of gravity, described by Einstein’s relativity, it is impossible for microscopic black holes to be produced at the LHC."
And with regards to cosmic rays, "over the past billions of years, Nature has already generated on Earth as many collisions as about a million LHC experiments – and the planet still exists."
There is also no need to catch your breath. Although the LHC has come online, it will take about two months for it to get ready for the first proper experiment. And there are many questions that it can answer.
But some continue to speculate that we will learn absolutely nothing at all, and even that could be a good thing. In fact, Stephen Hawking, the world renowned mathematician and theoretical physicist, in a BBC interview said "I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of one hundred dollars that we won't find the Higgs." In the same interview Hawking mentions the possibility of finding super partners and adds that "whatever the LHC finds, or fails to find, the results will tell us a lot about the structure of the universe."
His statement permeates the entire scientific community which awaits any kind of results: Good or bad, find or no find. If the Higgs is found, it will prove a 40-year-old theory correct and the world will peer into the depths of its own creation. If there is no Higgs particle, it will prove that we have much to learn about the universe and that there is something even more fascinating than the God Particle that we do not know about.
18.9.08
The Unit
Developed by writers/producers David Mamet (Wag The Dog) and Shaun Ryan (The Shield) based upon Eric Haney's book about the Delta Force, The Unit is an action adventure TV series, charged with explosions, terrorists plots and even a sprinkle of family drama and crises.
Heavily inspired by and based around the growing supposed war against terrorism, The Unit juxtaposes the lives of the team members of the Special Forces on their dangerous missions against the lives of their loved ones back home. The format of the show isn’t driven just by stunts, explosions and terror plots, but also by real human drama and everyday life. This show is as much about family as it is about camaraderie.
At times though, certain storylines fall into the stereotype category, something seen more of in the earlier seasons than the later ones. For example, there were more Arabic speaking terrorists than any other in the first two seasons.
Dennis Haysbert (24, Major League movie series) plays the commanding officer of the Unit’s Alpha team, and his role on the show commands every scene. Haysbert is undeniably the Hannibal Smith (of the A-Team fame) of the team; charming yet determined, his character, Sergeant Major Jonas Blane thrusts a newcomer to the team into the fray of a terrorist hijacking without blinking an eye.
Scott Foley plays newcomer Sergeant First Class, Bob Brown, whose lifelong ambition has finally brought him to the infamous Unit. His first day on the job is not only a total hands-on experience but a matter of life and death. While he adjusts to the bullets that are being shot at him, his wife Kim (Audrey Marie Anderson) adjusts to being a wife of a member of the Unit. And that’s where the real drama of the series kicks in. Granted it’s not as audacious as Desperate Housewives but this is about real people in real situations.
The Unit is an action adventure drama now available on DVD.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vO8GbqP9AVBQ_W1l-aa_cPSwft2HnsYKrNXItgIMQhoyNf_vT_xLkHzjpbkt2rK5AdT-dkVAOgSsEmTiTmkLfHoS2GYrYSa7xxyT1QHpn2LdiBeFne6H5nZdYswYClQtCGZE8kXfKQ9NykCJNv1mHT=s0-d)
Heavily inspired by and based around the growing supposed war against terrorism, The Unit juxtaposes the lives of the team members of the Special Forces on their dangerous missions against the lives of their loved ones back home. The format of the show isn’t driven just by stunts, explosions and terror plots, but also by real human drama and everyday life. This show is as much about family as it is about camaraderie.
At times though, certain storylines fall into the stereotype category, something seen more of in the earlier seasons than the later ones. For example, there were more Arabic speaking terrorists than any other in the first two seasons.
Dennis Haysbert (24, Major League movie series) plays the commanding officer of the Unit’s Alpha team, and his role on the show commands every scene. Haysbert is undeniably the Hannibal Smith (of the A-Team fame) of the team; charming yet determined, his character, Sergeant Major Jonas Blane thrusts a newcomer to the team into the fray of a terrorist hijacking without blinking an eye.
Scott Foley plays newcomer Sergeant First Class, Bob Brown, whose lifelong ambition has finally brought him to the infamous Unit. His first day on the job is not only a total hands-on experience but a matter of life and death. While he adjusts to the bullets that are being shot at him, his wife Kim (Audrey Marie Anderson) adjusts to being a wife of a member of the Unit. And that’s where the real drama of the series kicks in. Granted it’s not as audacious as Desperate Housewives but this is about real people in real situations.
The Unit is an action adventure drama now available on DVD.
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