In the News

While I was celebrating the holidays in California, I heard a news report about Benazir Bhutto's assassination. I consider myself an expert on the dissemination of news. Therefore, I know to avoid FOX, watch CNN but trust BBC International. It's really not as simple as that, of course. Perhaps when you are curious about the weather. Not when you are examining the history of a country as complex and chaotic as Pakistan.

I came home to Orlando and immediately visited the Winter Park library to check out Benazir Bhutto's autobiography: Daughter of Destiny. I was confident that this book would give me a descriptive account of her experiences in Pakistan during the Zia dictatorship up into the time that she came into power.

I was not surprised by her accusatory tone towards the US and the Regan administration. Last year I read The Guerrilla Wars of Central America: Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Definitely a year by year account of United States sponsored massacres and destruction via political, military and financial intervention. (related wiki article here).

Sorry, back from the tangent. I was inspired to write this blog after reading this recent Creative Loafing article. Which lead me to read this article on Slate. Both focus more on her bravery and determination to put the country back in the hands of the people rather than her families' alleged financial corruption. As it should be.

Daughter of Destiny painfully describes the period after Zia's coup during the unjust trial of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He is imprisoned for 2 years then hung. For eleven years Benazir suffers imprisonment and exile between intermittent public campaigning while Pakistan is subject to martial law. Nevertheless, the grim details of the Zia dictatorship, the endless human rights violations, and the memory of the father she lost rouse Bhutto to restore democracy.

It is important to address that Pakistan is currently in a state of martial law. Amid the debates surrounding nuclear arms, ties with Afghanistan, the Bhutto investigations, the focus must be redirected to Pakistan's people.

"Militancy and greed cannot become the defining images of a new century that began with much hope. We must refocus our energy on promoting the values of democracy, accountability, broad-based government, and institutions that can respond to people's very real and very urgent needs." - Benazir Bhutto