The Express Tribune Magazine - July 20

JULY 20-26 2014

READY TO BE

MOOCed?

Can open access online courses be a game changer in higher education?

JULY 20-26 2014

Travel

Malaysia Tops

Cover Story

A look at Kuala Lumpur’s best attractions

Ready to be MOOCed? How online courses are revolutionising education as we know it

38

Feature

Tunes of resistance Pashtun singers keep music alive despite threat from militants

46

30

4

Regulars 6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people

48 Reviews: TV and books 54 Tech: Panic Button app

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir, Senior Subeditor: Dilaira Dubash & Subeditor: Mifrah Haq Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Munira Abbas, Omer Asim, Sanober Ahmed & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk Twitter: @ETribuneMag & Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ETribuneMag Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com

PEOPLE & PARTIES

The Norwegian brand Floyd opens its first outlet in Karachi

PhoToS couRTESy cATAlyST PR

Usman and Mariam Malik

Ruabab, Frieha and Amber

Angeline Malik

Anoushey Ashraf

Nadia Hussain

Areeba, Maria, Ahlam and Nawar

6 JULY 20-26 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS couRTESy cATAlyST PR

Nusrat and Maha

Nadia Mistry and Ali Saleem

Shazia

Sana Habib and Kiran

Saadia Nawabi and Urmia

Majida Malik and Maliha Iftekhar

8 JULY 20-26 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES oREo partners with Paramount Pictures for the release of Transformers — Age of Extinction in Pakistan

PhoToS couRTESy XENITh PublIc RElATIoNS

Hassan Fawad and Faisal Waheed with guests

Fatima, Shafia and Rabia

Sarwat Gilani

Zhalay Sarhadi

Saad Niazi and Ali Samir

10 JULY 20-26 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES cinestar cinema launches Pakistan’s first IMAX cinema in lahore at the premiere of Transformers — Age of Extinction

PhoToS couRTESy bIlAl MuKhTAR EvENTS ANd PR

Fahad Hussayn, Talal and Amna

Alyzeh Gabol, Khalid Sulman, Zarmina and Shahzada Farhad

ey

Asad and Anusha

Zara

Ali Azmat

Huma Amir and Murtaza

12 JULY 20-26 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS couRTESy bIlAl MuKhTAR EvENTS ANd PR

Niya, Samiya Razi and Reem Wasay

Mahira and Vasay Chaudhry

Syed Noor

Sumaira and Natasha Saleem

Noori, Fariha and Zainab Cheema

14 JULY 20-26 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Nando’s holds the Espetada carnival in lahore

PhoToS couRTESy oRIgAMI ENTERTAINMENT

Sophie, Natasha and Maira

Uzma and Maria B

Anam Waqar

Sarah Waqar

Rabia with her daughters

16 JULY 20-26 2014

COVER STORY

30 JULY 20-26 2014

READY TO BE

MOOCed?

Will online courses revolutionise education as we know it?

BY MUHAMMAD ADIL MULKI AND ADNAN RIZVI DESIGN BY MUNIRA ABBAS

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge,� said the cofounder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, a decade ago. The idea may have sounded outlandish at the time but has since shaped into a digital reality. Throughout human history, civilisations have attached great importance to education and scholarly pursuits.

Numerous higher-learning institutions were established in many cultures — from the Platonic Academy in Greece to Takshashilla (Taxila) in the subcontinent to the Taixue of Han Dynasty and the Gundishapur Academy in Persia. With human progress and the introduction of new technologies, however, the media of imparting knowledge have evolved. From the time when primitive people used hand gestures to convey their messages to the current era of e-learning, this evolution is nothing short of revolutionary. And the latest feather in its cap is the introduction of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Understanding MOOCs A MOOC, as the name suggests, is an online course targeting unrestricted and limitless participation via the internet. Additionally, it also helps build a vibrant online community of students, teachers and researchers for interactive discussions, which are in addition to the traditional course materials such as readings and problem sets. Participation can range from a few hundred to several thousand people engaged simultaneously.

Courses from leading Ivy League institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Yale, taught by some of the most prominent names in academia are an example of what MOOCs offer. Almost all MOOCs are free and without any credit, except for those providing a certificate for which a nominal fee is charged. Traditional courses from universities, however, are charged, formally structured and credited. Even though there are no specific prerequisites to join a MOOC, they require the participants to stay up-to-date throughout the programme 31 schedules.

JULY 20-26 2014

COVER STORY

MOOCS Development MOOCs are a recent development in distance education which began to emerge in 2012.

Below is a timeline of MOOC development.

2008

2000 - 2007

Open education

2009

Online distance learning

Open education resources

ITunes U, Khan Academy

Connectivist MOOC (cMOOCs)

Open source software Open content

Learning management system MIT — Open Courseware Consortium Open University — Open Learn

The concept of online learning is fast picking up an audience, which is evident from the spike in enrollment numbers for MOOCs that have escalated from a million in 2012 to over 10 million as of date. The list of subjects offered through MOOCs is extensive, including everything from psychology to computer science to astronomy and history.

The primary components of MOOCs include video lectures, virtual group projects, peer-to-peer assessments and social meet-ups for students belonging to the same geographical area. Timings are flexible and a course can be taken at whatever time is best suited to the student.

Moreover, some platforms, such as Coursera, have also added a further option of sub-titling and closed captioning for disabled students. While there is no substitute for live, person-to-person interaction between an instructor and a student, the structure and precision with which MOOCs are designed and delivered compensate for that missing element substantially.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch 32 Even though MOOCs have taken the world by storm, they JULY 20-26 2014

In May 2013, a first ever MOOC-based Master degree programme was announced as collaboration between Georgia Institute of Technology and Udacity. This, however, isn’t free but comes at a price tag of $7,000.

have not been spared of criticism. The prime difficulty being faced by MOOC providers is to keep students engaged in online courses. According to research data gathered by Coursera, the course completion rate currently stands at a deplorable 10%. These statistics cast a doubt over the efficiency of a programme that is unable to sustain a major portion of the class.

Upholding academic integrity standards and receiving quality feedback is also problematic due to the massive size of the classes. There is also concern regarding misuse of content when courses uploaded online by professors are used by institutions in some cases as a proxy to traditional classes.

A recent study by Penn University also suggested that 80% of the MOOC users worldwide already have an advanced degree and belong to the upper income echelon — 80% of the students in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the largest users of MOOCs, came from the richest six percent of the population, thereby defeating the idea of democratic reach and equal access to education for everyone.

Lack of accreditation for MOOCs is also another issue,

2010

2011

2012

2013

Udacity

Coursera

Stanford xMOOCs

MITx

edX

Futurelearn

The enrollment numbers for MOOCs have escalated from a million in 2012 to over 10 million as of date as noted by UNESCO in its policy brief. It is important for external educational bodies to recognise and validate the courses in order to be formally recognised by universities and employers.

Is Pakistan ready to be MOOCed? Most Pakistanis, who grew up during the good old PTV days, would have some recollection of the programmes aired on the channel from time to time, developed by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), teaching courses such as ‘silk worm farming’, ‘bee-keeping’ and even the famous ‘tractor ki daikh bhaal’ (looking after your tractor). We may not have realised at the time but this was our first encounter with

the concept of an ‘open’ institution or ‘distance learning’. It is hence no surprise that AIOU is Asia’s first open university with a course enrollment rate of 3.3 million in 2011.

The potential for MOOCs is massive in the developing world since a huge part of the population cannot afford higher education at leading global institutions. However, one of the dilemmas that prevent it from being used to its maximum is the low rate of internet penetration in countries like Pakistan. Despite the technology boom, Pakistan has only achieved 16% internet penetration to date with a 15 million population online via mobile phone. Any drastic development on this front remains a distant dream as more than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line. As a result, internet affordability remains an issue for a large segment of the country. While MOOCs may not be able to address plagues such as ghost schools, teacher absenteeism, political influence and lack of quality curriculum that haunt our local educational system, those who have access to the internet and are willing to embark on the journey can bypass these hurdles with the help of MOOCs. In Pakistan, the Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science 33 JULY 20-26 2014

COVER STORY

MOOC Major Players

There is a lot of collaboration going on in the global market when it comes to MOOCs. Several universities and professors are currently engaged in offering online courses. While some colleges are starting their own initiatives, some are offering their courses through other platforms. Top names in the field are:

edX is a joint venture being run by Harvard, MIT and Berkeley. edX intends to add other university partners over the course of time and to make the platform open ware so that anyone can use it to provide MOOCs. edX is a non-profit entity with 2.5 million users and more than 200 courses being offered.

Coursera is a for-profit venture that provides a platform to universities and colleges to offer free courses. A percentage of any revenue that comes from ‘verified’ course participation at a nominal price and uses biometric and typepattern recognition technology to identify students goes to Coursera. These ‘verified’ enrollments are issued an e-certificate upon successful recognition.

Coursera has more than seven million users and works with 108 partners that include Yale and Johns Hopkins.

Information Center (LEJ Center) serves as the focal center of the Virtual Education Project Pakistan (VEPP) that is led and supervised by Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, the former chairman of the HEC, in association with Professor M Iqbal Choudhary. The LEJ Centre at the University of Karachi has launched the ‘LEJ Knowledge Hub’, a MOOC platform that is helpful in finding the right courses and also integrates local content such as that developed by Virtual University. “This is probably the most exciting project that I have undertaken in my lifetime, as it can change the landscape of education in Pakistan and in other countries,” says Rahman.

Former information minister and senator, Javed Jabbar, who has also participated in content creation for Virtual University, echoes the same sentiment. “They [MOOCs] represent an enormous leap in expanding access to information, knowledge and education and reducing the vast disparities in the quality of professional capacity-building education that currently exists in Pakistan.” He emphasises that federal and provincial governments, the private sector and public-interest organisations in Pakistan need to enhance their respective levels of awareness of, and support for, MOOCs to make them more widely available to the public.

34 Cases such as that of Abdullah Ahmad, who works as a JULY 20-26 2014

MOOCs represent an enormous leap in expanding access to information, knowledge and education and reducing the vast disparities in the quality of professional capacity-building education that currently exists in Pakistan Former information minister and senator Javed Jabbar finance professional, bear testimony to the relevance of MOOCs for the average Joe. “When I was growing up and my family could hardly keep up with the tuition fee at Pakistani universities, Yale was so far away, it was not even a distant dream. But through a MOOC I enrolled in via Coursera, I was able to attend a course on financial markets conducted by their ace professor Robert J Shiller.”

Udacity employs individual professors rather than working with universities and is able to attract renowned scholars. The focus of Udacity is in the field of computer sciences. Currently, it has 1.6 million users enrolled in 38 courses.

Khan Academy was established by an MIT graduate as a non-profit online library housing short tutorials but later attracted funding from Google and Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation. Khan Academy lectures have received more than 440 million views but it does not have any arrangement to provide material from universities and much of the content is related to secondary education.

Iversit is a multi-lingual platform which works with professors to provide free Iversity o and open courses online. It intends to target one million users in 2014 with over c 100 courses.

Moreover, it allows anyone to upload a course and charge a nominal w fee, which is later split with Iversity.

Similarly, Muhammad Ali, a Karachi-based banker, was able to explore his love for astronomy through MOOCs. “I did not have the time to pursue my love for astronomy, as there were no institutions in Pakistan imparting cuttingedge knowledge on the subject and I didn’t know what I would do if I studied it,” he says. But technology has finally enabled him to study astronomy from institutions such as Duke and Princeton from the comfort of his home, for free.

“I feel like I am already over the moon.”

MOOCs can also help raise the bar for education in Pakistan if they are made part of the university curriculum, states Dr Javed Leghari, also a former HEC chairman, in his opinion piece. Students should be registered for MOOC credit courses, classes should be arranged in a traditional classroom environment under tutor supervision and proctored exams and independendent quizzes administered by the university should be conducted in addition to the MOOC assessment. Currently though, Pakistanis have little choice when it comes to participating in MOOCs since many rely on video lectures on YouTube which is still completely banned in Pakistan.

A knowledge-based future?

While Pakistan is still struggling with the basics, there is

plenty of innovation taking place in the MOOCs market globally. Recently, a UNESCO moot ended up experimenting with MOOCs on mobile phones, opening up a new dimension called MobiMOOC, which may be used to set up courses for a wide audience. The layout and media of MobiMOOC permits the use of regional languages and a variety of mobile and static devices, allowing the course format to be moulded according to a variety of regions.

Such advancements should be welcomed since knowledge sharing has always accelerated the progress of humankind.

The continuous stream of learning traditions from the ancient and classical civilisations of Greece, Rome, China, India and Persia has immensely helped develop the world as we know it today. While the path that MOOCs seek is a lot more even in terms of access to academic resources, it is not completely devoid of potholes — the merits of conveyed knowledge versus a well-rounded education may continue to be debated for many years to come. But maybe that is just one more indication of how much we have yet to learn.

Adil Mulki works for a private bank and is interested in the outdoors, wildlife and science. He can be reached at vagabonds.odyssey@gmail.com Adnan Rizvi is a banker and an investment analyst. He tweets @syedadnanrizvi JULY 20-26 2014

35

TRAVEL

malaysia tops

A panoramic view of the country’s capital and its best attractions TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DILAIRA DUBASH DESIGN BY HALIMA SADIA

Tourists who visit Malaysia always return with a top view of the country — quite literally. Kuala Lumpur, which is home to Malaysia’s tallest towers, takes tourists to new heights with its natural beauty and towering cityscape. And if you are planning your next family vacation there, here are a few things that can help you map out an affordable trip that will incorporate the best of what the city has to offer.

38 JULY 20-26 2014

National Monument Chinatown

A moment for monuments Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Parliament House and the Perdana Botanical Gardens, the monument honours the Malay soldiers who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom during World War II and the Malayan Emergency. Take a tranquil moment here to breathe in the beauty and get in touch with the country’s history.

must

visit

Bukit Bintang

The Petronas Twin Towers

Catch a bird’s eye view If you aren’t afraid of heights, don’t miss the view from the observation deck on level 86 and the sky bridge connecting the once world’s tallest buildings.

The bridge has the ability to sway, but as the guide will reason, that is only to stabilise the towers.

Open Tuesdays to Sundays: 9:00am - 9:00pm.

Cost of tickets: Adult RM80 Child RM30

Rate of exchange: RM1 = PKR31.07

Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle It is also known as ‘Star Hill’ because of its shopping and entertainment combo.

For nightlife lovers, this is the place to be. Take a long walk along the beautifully lit-up Jalan (road) Bukit Bintang shopping strip and stop by at the streetside cafe or pub for a quick bite. If you’re tired, walk up to the nearest massage parlour and rejuvenate yourself.

Why shy away from shopping It is the town’s commercial hub where you can sample authentic Malay street food and indulge in some retail therapy. From home decor to accessories, this place is a paradise for bargain buys. For successful haggling, slash the price of the item by 50% and then work your way upwards till there is a consensus.

Closing time: 10pm Steal buys: Charm bracelets RM10 (each) Wall Masks RM60 (for a pair)

KL Tower See you at the top The tower stands tall at the peak of KL Eco-Forest Park and is the seventh tallest telecommunications tower in the world. You can move up to the observation deck and capture some stunning views on your camera and later grab a meal at the tower’s revolving restaurant, Atmosphere 360.

Operational hours: 9:00am - 10:00pm (everyday) Observation deck ticket: Adult RM49 Child RM29 Family package RM138 (2 Adult + 2 children)

39 JULY 20-26 2014

TRAVEL

all that

attracts Aquaria KLCC

Lagoon Sunway

Aquaria KLCC If you’re travelling with children, this will be a fun and educational experience for them. They have an underwater tunnel with a moving walkway where giant turtles and sharks float right above you.

Operation hours: 10:30am - 8:00pm Entrance fees: Adult RM50 Child RM40 (3 years to 12 years) Senior citizen RM30 (60 years and above)

Bird Pa rk

Sunway Lagoon This is a one-stop fun destination for tourists. You will need an entire day to complete all the rides at their Water, Amusement, Extreme and Scream Parks.

Don’t miss out on the Waterplexx 5D and the suspension bridge that offers a 360° view of the parks and the Sunway Hotel.

Operation hours: 10:00am - 6:00pm Entrance fees: Adult RM120 Child RM90 (11 years and below) Senior citizen RM90 (60 years and above)

40 JULY 20-26 2014

Snowalk Freeze your joyous moments by visiting Malaysia’s largest snow-play attraction at i-City Leisure Park. In controlled temperatures of below 5 degrees Celsius, enjoy riding the ice slides and taking pictures with the ice carvings.

Operation hours: 10:00am - 1:00am Entrance fees: Adult RM22.50 Child RM18.00 Senior citizen RM18.00

Bird Park This walk-in aviary is simply mesmerising with its manmade waterfalls and landscapes. You get a chance to get up close and personal with the birds and even take pictures with the tamed ones at the photo booth.

Operation hours: 9:00am - 8:00pm

flavours a mouthful of

recommendations Pack an umbrella as it rains almost every evening, at the most for two hours.

Do not spend money on a cab ride that will cost you around RM20 to RM25 to drop you at the next street when you can easily walk the distance. This way you will get a chance to experience the bustling street life as well.

Visit Chinatown and Central Market before hitting the high-end malls

or you’ll end up regretting the unnecessary amount you spent on wares that are available worldwide.

All malls shut down by 10:00pm, so plan your trips accordingly.

Pack the most comfortable pair of sandals as you will be walking a lot.

Free Wifi is available at most places, so you won’t necessarily have to buy a local sim.

Akin to their culturally diverse population, Malaysian cuisine is heavily influenced by Chinese, Indian and Thai flavours and can easily satisfy a wide variety of palates. Although Malays are a little light-handed with the spices, the overwhelming variety of food helps to make up for it.

Rice and seafood are staples here so do help yourself to the freshest calamari, lobsters and prawns that are on display in tanks at most restaurants. And if you wish to sample traditional Malay food, just hit the streets.

The chicken skewers and roasted chestnuts are great for snacking and will keep your energy levels and spirits high as you indulge in some retail therapy alongside.

Given that a meal in Malaysia is incomplete without fruit, every menu includes a platter of sliced fruits in the dessert section.

The star and dragon fruits are particularly refreshing. Also, fresh fruit juices, especially watermelon, are the perfect accompaniment to a meal. T

Dilaira Dubash is a senior subeditor on The Express Tribune magazine desk.

She tweets @DilairaM

FEATURE

Tunes

of resistance Pashtun singers hope to defy militancy and preach harmony through music TEXT AND PHOTOS BY HAMID HUSSAIN DESIGN BY TALHA AHMED KHAN

Even though Sami Naeemullah and his band of musicians cannot see, they still have a vision for their village, Jhok Qureshiwala, in Dera Ismail Khan district. They hope to bring peace and promote love in a land fraught with hatred and fear.

The plains of Dera Ismail Khan sit at the gateway to South Waziristan, a militant stronghold that has often spewed violence into the settled district in the form of radical Islamism and Shia-Sunni rivalry. This has sent many local singers and musicians packing, and they have either wound up their business or left the country. But a few, like Naeemullah, the visually impaired 19-year-old, have stuck around and still practice their art.

“A couple of years ago, armed militants attacked us while we were performing at a wedding in Pakka Malana village in DI Khan,” he recalls.

“We fled the scene while the hosts were badly beaten by the extremists.”

The young Saraiki artist started learning singing eight years ago as part of his education at a local government institute for the blind, and now performs alongside five 46 other youngsters, all blind or visually JULY 20-26 2014

impaired, hailing from different villages of Dera Ismail Khan. The band mixes modern and folk Pashto and Saraiki songs. They often perform at weddings, and once even the district administration officials of Dera Ismail Khan invited them to a musical event.

“We are singing to promote the message of peace and love as there is violence all around, and music is one of the ways to promote happiness in our broken society,” he says.

It may not be surprising, after all, that armed extremists are more of a challenge to his passion than his physical disability. When they forced musicians to abandon their profession, and sport beards and veils instead, the centuries-old Pashtun traditions saw a regression. The murder of Ghazala Javed in 2012, a famous Pashto female singer, sent shock waves across the Pashtun community, forcing other singers to reconsider their line of work.

In the aftermath of the incident, many singers, including Haroon Bacha, Shehenshah Bacha, Nazia Iqbal, Sardar Yusafzai, Bushra aka Shazia from Swat, Wazir Khan Afridi, Sarfaraz Khan and Spogami were also either threatened or attacked.

Wazir Khan Afridi, a Pashto folk

Late singer, Ghazala Javed, who was gunned down in June, 2012.

Singers through songs can bring great positive change in the thinking of the people and that is what extremists worry about Pushto singer Sarfaraz Khan

singer from Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, says he has been kidnapped thrice and was released on the condition that he would quit singing.

But Afridi remains adamant in his pursuit: “Music is part of our culture, society. How can we detach ourselves from it?”

There are some other singers who have persisted against the odds.

Sarfaraz Khan, a mainstream Pashto singer from the Khyber Agency, went into hiding for almost a year following threats from militants, but is now back in business. His work, however, is not as thriving as it used to be; where he would successfully produce an album every three months, he now only manages to scrape out one every year due to fear. “Singers through songs can bring great positive change in the thinking of the people and that is what extremists worry about,” he says.

The director of the Bacha Khan Trust Foundation and author of The Militants Discourse, Khadim Hussain, agrees that religious extremists attack Pashto singers, artists and musicians because they promote harmony and peace in society, while extremism flourishes in chaos and anarchy. He believes the government can play a strong role in promoting art as a counter-narrative to the extremist’s harsh interpretation of life.

The government’s role, so far, has been counter-productive though.

Nearly two years ago, the Swat district administration ordered all music shops to close down immediately as they were thought to be promoting obscenity. Usman Oasyar, head of the Swasto Art and Culture Association, filed a petition against it on July 16, 2012, following which the ban was lifted. “It is cultural legacies that live forever and not weapons and armies,” he says. “If there are press clubs and other associations, then why not art and culture associations at every district level?”

The circumstances may not be promising but hopes are high as

young singers from educated families continue to pursue this field. Singer Gul Panara, who is a student at the Peshawar University, renowned singer Fayaz Kheshgi, who is a former union council nazim and belongs to the influential Kheshgi family, and Ahmed Khan, famed for his Pashto song “Rasha pa naz rasha” and who recently completed his Bachelors in business administration from Cecos University, Peshawar, are just some of the examples. Armed with nothing but their melodies, all these artists want is to strike the right chords in their region’s history.

Hamid Hussain is an Islamabad-based journalist. He tweets @Hamidlawangeen

Visually impaired Sami Naeemullah sings with his bandmates with similar diasabilities.

TV

Big shoes to fill The recreated television series Fargo does justice to its cinematic counterpart

BY SAMEEN AMER

38 38 JULY JUL JJU UL ULY U LY L Y 113 13-19 3-- 19 3 19 2 2014 01114 014 0 4

When it was first announced that the American television channel FX was planning to produce a television series based on the Coen brothers’ acclaimed film Fargo (1996), it was debated whether the small screen project would be able to meet the (very high) expectations that were generated by its association to the Hollywood classic.

The Academy Award winning movie — which tells the story of a car salesman (William H Macy), who plans to make money by hiring criminals to kidnap his wife and seeking ransom from her father, and the police officer (Frances McDormand) who investigates the resul resulting homicides — was unique and compellingly odd, and its com combination of acrid humour and dark drama made it a memorable experience for viewers. But it remained to be seen whether the formula would successfully transition to television or end up fe feeling like elaborate fan fiction?

Now that the series has aired, it is safe to conclude that the project has definitely lived up to its potential. Each of the ten episodes of FX’s Fargo be begins with the familiar title cards that claim it is rooted in reality: ““This is a true story,” the screen shows. “The events depicted took place in Minnesota in 2006. At the request of the survivors, the n names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.”

It’s the same discla disclaimer that was used by the Coens, and just like the film, everythin everything that follows it is entirely fictional.

Set in the same bac backdrop as the movie, the series takes us to Bemidji, Minnesota, w which finds itself engulfed in desolate winter.

We meet Lester Nyga Nygaard (Martin Freeman), an awkward insurance salesman, who iis belittled by his nagging wife, overshadowed by his brother a and still bullied by his high school nemesis.

His existence seems b both pathetic and desperate, but when a shady drifter crosse crosses his path, Lester’s dark side awakens and f his life changes forever.

The drifter is Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), a remorseless criminal and murderer who causes mayhem wherever he goes. When a chance meeting in a hospital waiting room brings Nygaard and Malvo together, it sets off a series of events that leaves a bloody trail leading back to these two men. As the body count rises, they manage to elude the authorities, fooling or intimidating anyone crossing their path — except the persistent Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman), the mild-mannered cop who struggles to overcome the incompetence around her. She works with a Duluthbased officer, Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks), as she tries to nail down the culprits. Thereon, the series explores two different kinds of evil, evidenced in Lester and Malvo, as well as the confrontation between good and bad.

The Coens didn’t play an active part in the creation of the series, but show-runner Noah Hawley (who imagined the project as a limited series, with the potential of becoming an anthology in another season) has done a remarkable job capturing the film’s spirit and bringing it to television. Fargo inherits the desolate cinematography, bleak tones, and Midwestern affectations of its big screen counterpart, and adds more quirk to the proceedings. Of course, since it is following a widely recognised cinematic work, it lacks originality, but it does not wilt in the shadow of the film that inspired it. It makes good use of its connection to its predecessor with amusingly clever references, the most obvious of which comes up during a detour into a subplot that leads us to the ransom money from the film.

Fargo has assembled a very talented cast: Billy Bob Thornton creates a chilling, creepy portrait of sociopathic wickedness. Martin Freeman is impeccable as Nygaard (his Minnesotan accent isn’t bad either), whose encounter with evil reveals a selfish persona.

And relative newcomer Allison Tolman is a terrific find; she impresses throughout in the role of Molly, who is the only one not fooled by Nygaard, and whose search to uncover the truth basically underpins the series.

The supporting actors all perform well, although some of their characters don’t get the attention they deserve. The amazing Bob Odenkirk, who plays the ineffectual police chief, gives a good performance even though his role is perhaps a tad too dull. Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key portray FBI Agents and are on hand to provide some comic relief, but their characters could have used a little more exploration. Oliver Platt performs well as the supermarket king who hires Malvo to uncover a blackmailing plot, but his storyline comes to an end a bit more abruptly than one would have hoped.

On the whole, this revisit to the snow-covered landscape of Fargo takes us on a dark, captivating ride. The show is still worth watching even if you are not familiar with the movie, but for the fans of the film, there are little Easter Eggs that pop up from time to time and make the series just that little bit more special. Fargo is propelled by a terrific cast, and expertly interweaves different storylines. However, it does take a few lessthan-convincing turns, and the execution of the end leaves a bit to be desired. Even though its overall plot and pacing might be slow for some viewers, FX’s Fargo never stops being interesting. And even when its characters are irredeemable, it remains a thrill to find out how things will eventually fare for them.

Rating: Sameen Amer is a Lahore-based freelance writer and critic. She tweets @Sameen

BOOK

Burying your head in the sand Frances Harrison reminds the world of a brutal war that it would much rather forget

BY MAHEEN SABEEH

50

Available at The Last Word Books for Rs950 JULY 20-26 2014

Every war drowns out another… Rwanda drowned out Bosnia. Somalia drowned out Rwanda. Sierra Leone drowned out Somalia, Iraq drowned out Israel, Afghanistan drowned out Iraq… and so on and so on until no one remembers anything.

— The Book of the Dead by Janine Di Giovanni Journalist and author Frances Harrison aims to tell the little-known climatic, blood-soaked ending of Sri Lanka’s decades-old brutal civil war in her shocking and heartbreaking book, Still Counting the Dead — Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War. From the introduction, Harrison is clear that the book is a snapshot of the ‘final’ months of the civil war. The aim, as she explains early on, is not to spend time looking into excruciating details that led to the war in the first place, but, rather, to report how the criminal massacre of thousands of innocent people went unnoticed and ignored by the world.

A brief yet significant timeline featuring specific events in Sri Lanka’s political history serves as an able historical guide for those interested in matters of origin. It begins from 1972 when “Vellupillai Prabhakaran forms a militant group called the Tamil New Tigers,” and ends in the middle of April 2012. And to map the various religious beliefs within Sri Lanka, Harrison writes in the introductory passages: “Predominantly Hindu and Christian, Tamils were the majority in the north, but the Sinhalese, who are Buddhist and Christian, formed a majority in the rest of the tiny island of 20 million people. Sri Lanka Tamil links to the 60 million fellow-Tamils who live just across the water in the Southern tip of the Indian mainland made the Sinhalese insecure.”

After giving some background, Harrison immediately delves into the subject matter. She cultivates extraordinary sources while writing this book; she speaks to British aid workers, Catholic priests, prorebel, on-the-ground journalist(s), ordinary Sri Lankans, those with sympathies for the Tamil Tigers, as well as those who got caught in the crossfire.

In the opening chapter, the world’s foremost international humanitarian organisation, the United Nations, comes undone. It’s hardly surprising given the United Nations’ checkered past of blithely watching while atrocities are committed on abandoned spaces in countries, but the numerical research makes it even more horrifying.

British aid worker, Dixie, who had worked inside the rebel territory for four years as a UN aid worker, recounts the uncensored truth and is one of the many courageous voices Harrison spoke to. “We were leaving people under a tree with not much. They’d lost everything already,” she tells Harrison. “Tent displacements were the norm, and many arrived on foot. We would give them a hut. We kept finding people under mango trees.”

Political incompetence in the highest echelons is equally disturbing and comes undone as well. Harrison writes, “Many blame China — the largest arms seller to Sri Lanka and its biggest donor by 2008. Beijing remains openly supportive of Sri Lanka’s right to defend itself against internal threats, even at the cost of human rights. Other countries backed Sri Lanka including Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan and even the Maldives…” Lesser known British involvement in arming the Sri Lankan army is a daunting fact that is also revealed at one point in the book.

Personal stories also put the catastrophic statistics that Harrison uncovers into a clearer perspective. What makes this book so terrific and heartbreaking is that Harrison gets people to tell painful stories without passing crude judgment. A priest recounts seeing thousands of innocent dead civilians on his nightmarish journey to an army camp. People were made to beg to be spared from what can only be described as executions for no apparent reason other than bloodlust.

Another young man recounts quenching thirst by drinking water from a fresh water pool filled with floating dead bodies.

It isn’t just a story of injustice, courage and compassion, it’s also about the animalistic nature of violence that turns soldiers into sadistic mortals: “As the survivors were driven out of the war zone later that night they saw hundreds of naked male and female bodies lined up on the ground, illuminated by lights powered by generators.

The victorious soldiers were using mobile phones to take trophy photos of the dead rebels.”

Still Counting the Dead doesn’t shy away from putting the rebels under a microscope: “The rebels succeeded because they were ruthless — willing to obliterate challengers, even from their own side, and kill innocent Sinhalese civilians.” An eerily familiar footnote for many in Pakistan is the description of the lives of the poor Sinhalese who had no choice but to join the rebels: “Ordinary people lived with the constant threat of suicide bombers, terrified even to let their children walk to school.”

Author Frances Harrison Forget everything you know about Sri Lanka. Forget the grace of Kumar Sangakarra — quite possibly one of the last gentlemen left in the cricketing world — and the sandy beaches, islands and the elephants. None of it begins to capture the blood-soaked ending of Sri Lanka’s decades-old civil war in 2009. By the time you finish reading this book, you’re hit with a sense of nausea because it is a scathing portrayal that discloses how the world abandoned millions of people stuck in war not of their own choosing. There are no victors, just casualties in a world where turning a blind eye to injustice is simply easier than taking a stand for the sake of humanity.

51

Maheen Sabeeh is a freelance contributor. She tweets @maheensbh JULY 20-26 2014

PHOTO COURTESY: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

SMS to SOS A mobile phone app that sends out a distress signal to your loved ones

By Nisha Masroor

DesigN By saNoBer ahMeD

Imagine standing by the roadside and being approached by armed men who rob you of your valuables. Or a stranger looking you up and down to the point where you feel queasy. How many times have you felt unsafe and wished for a way to call for help?

Amnesty International, the global human rights NGO, has recently launched a mobile phone app which can turn an Android phone into a device used to send out a distress signal with a feature called the Panic Button.

“The aim of the Panic Button is to increase protection for activists around the world who face the ever-present threat of arrest, attack, kidnap and torture,” states Tanya O’Carroll, Amnesty’s technology and human rights officer, in a press release.

While the app is specifically designed for activists and journalists who find themselves in danger due to the nature of their work, anyone can use it. The functionality of the app is quite simple. Once installed, it asks the user to save three contacts that will instantly be sent a text message 54 requesting help if the key in the app July 20-26 2014

or the phone’s power button is pressed five times.

The success of the app depends on two factors: security and speed. The person in danger often has to quickly react; that is why Amnesty has linked the power button to the trigger so that the alarm can be set off with ease and speed, even from inside a pocket, says O’Carroll. Moreover, it is imperative that the app be hidden, since in most cases when an activist or journalist is arrested or attacked, the attacker seizes the phone and uses it to locate other contacts in their network. To prevent this, the app continues to send location updates to the user’s chosen contacts once the Panic Button is pressed, and alerts others that they should activate a plan to secure communications within the network.

Last year a similar initiative, called the VithU app, was launched in India

by Star network in association with Channel V, after several rapes in Delhi and Mumbai. Keeping in view the law and order situation in Pakistan, an app like this is the need of the hour here too and one hopes that it makes a difference on the ground.

Nisha Masroor is a freelance writer.