First Post of the Year

A New Yorker journalist is blogging from Pakistan and discovers that our media may not be the most optimistic in the world:

When I arrived in Pakistan yesterday, I grabbed some national newspapers and opened up Dawn, an English-language daily. The lead front-page story reported on a suicide bombing that had killed three dozen people at a polling station in the west of the country. By habit, I turned inside to the pages with more granular, national news. On page 3 I found the following headlines:

“JOURNALISTS UNSAFE IN PAKISTAN: REPORT” “RAILW¥ TRACK BLOWN UP” “N-SMUGGLING SUSPECT FREED” “MILITANTS KILL 3 FOR ‘SPYING’” “ZARDARI VISITS BENAZIR’S GRAVE” “BLAST CONDEMNED”

I turned to page 4:

“VILLAGES FACE THREAT OF INNUNDATION” “PROF TORTURING EX-WIFE” “PROTESTORS BLOCK RAILW¥ TRAFFIC” “JOURNALIST W¥LAID” “AUTOPSY REPORT CONFIRMS EXORCIST TORTURED WOMEN” “FIVE INJURED IN CLASH” “CHILD DIES AS WALL COLLAPSES” “PIPELINE BURST”

On to page 5, then:

“ALL POWERLESS AGAINST SUDDEN POWER FAILURES” “GATWALA WILDLIFE BREEDING AREA IN DISARR¥” “WOMAN, DAUGHTER SEIZED FROM ‘ABDUCTORS’” “20 PERCENT DROPOUT FLIES IN FACE OF ENROLLMENT PLAN” “KIDNAPPED” “MAN KILLS FATHER AND SISTER” “TWO DIE IN ACCIDENTS”

Surely an adorable zoo animal gave birth somewhere, people.

Check out the rest of his blogging from Pakistan here.