When I Travel, I Feel More Like

Our Countries Are Weaker: They Cannot Protect Us From Imported Goods, They Can't Protect Us From Climate Change, They Cannot Protect Us From Epidemics. These Things Cross Borders. But The Kind Of Cooperation That Would Protect Us From Those Things Was Completely Lacking And Because Of This There's Been A Backlash. People Feel Vulnerable.

There Really Still Is A Deep Wound, You Know, In The Collective Psyche Of Pakistan. And The Violence Has Left Enormous Human And Emotional And Psychic Damage. That's Not Going To Go Away. But That Said, I Think I'm Cautiously Optimistic That We're Looking At A Better Future.

So In Many Ways, The Bombing At The End Of This Year And The Terrorist Attack Of Last Year In Peshawar Have Bookended Both Those Years In A Very Unfortunate Way. But At A Bigger Picture Since, The Impression In Pakistan Is That Things Are Actually Improving On The Terrorism Front Quite Dramatically.

Transience Is What Is Normal. The Problem Is That We Are Busily Trying To Create Political Structures And Cultural Expressions That Deny That And To Deny That Is To Deny The Basic Idea Of What Is Human.

It's In Being Read That A Book Becomes A Book, And In Each Of A Million Different Readings A Book Become One Of A Million Different Books . . .