Artistic Traffic In Pakistan

It has been over 14 years since I last visited Pakistan and this is certainly something I do not remember although my mom is well aware of the tradition that dates back over 100 years. Literally every inch of a truck is covered with artistic design made by hand and then carefully placed onto the truck and each region has their own design to leave their mark and it certainly brings a roadway to life.

Here is the reporter’s first hand claim from her blog:

It’s my first trip to Pakistan, and one of the things that immediately jumped out is the trucks. I realize that sounds strange, but the trucks here are like no other I have ever seen. They are not lumbering and drab monstrosities but a canvas of spectacular and intricate art, a kaleidoscope of exploding colors. I am not one to have much patience for traffic, but here I could sit and watch the roads for hours. Each truck is unique, each a different combination of designs, poetry and other adornments.

What made the “truck art” even more intriguing was just how intricate it is. The designs are made up of tiny pieces of tape, all done by hand. The artisans’ fingers move at breathtaking speed and precision.

Arwa Damon, CNN’s Jakarta-based correspondent covering stories from Indonesia and the surrounding region, graduated from Skidmore College with a double major in French and Biology and a minor in International affairs was born in Boston but went on to spend most of her childhood in Morocco and Turkey. She is fluent in English, Arabic, French and Turkish which is certainly a very useful ability to communicate with the local populous.

It is certainly great to see a different perspective of coverage regarding the news from Pakistan and one that you rarely see here in the West.


Photos: Artistic Gallery From Pakistan

An Angry Jon Stewart At His Best

Whether it is fair or not for Jim Cramer to be the face of Jon Stewart’s nightly tirade can be debated some other time but I don’t think I have seen Stewart as pissed off as he was last night. The fall of the financial markets and the deceptive game the networks played by saying they did not see this coming really seemed to have gotten him ticked and not in the way he was angry against Paul Begala and Tucke Carlson of CNN’s Crossfire. 

You have to give some sort of credit to Cramer for coming on The Daily Show to face the criticism — or the fact that he was incredibly naive to think he could come on the show and it would be a cakewalk and the bad press would just blow over.

You can say a lot of things regarding Jon Stewart about whether he has his liberal bias or whether he sometimes takes quotes out of context with going after people but one thing you cannot accuse him of is being unprepared for an interview. He has always shown his intelligence and ability to be quick on his feet in almost a Meet-The-Press kind of way by allowing Cramer to go up against his own words yesterday which led to his downfall.

Mr. Cramer can now hide behind his tears and hope that his show does not get canceled but I think this is only a start of the way things need to change on the cable news networks and it is about time those networks starting giving Jon Stewart the credit he deserves for journalistic integrity — something they all lack.

Here is the entire unedited interview in three parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: