China: developing a strong socialist culture
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to the development…
N Korea’s ‘socialist utopia’ needs mass labour
In January, thousands of North Korean students travelled to Mount Paektu, a sacred mountain where the ruling family claims its roots and where leader Kim Jong Un is building a…
A (mock) revolution gone awry
Composed on the grandest of scales and couched in the most sublime of languages, the epic represents the highest form of poetry. Typically, this genre describes the glorious saga of…
Changing the past
Here’s a riddle for you. Why do I think of Milan Kundera when I drive past the Teen Talwar roundabout in Karachi and am in a pensive mood? Naturally, when…
The soul’s spokesman
The hunger strike started by Bhagat in Mianwali Jail became a saga of heroic resistance in the Lahore Central Jail against the racism of colonial authorities that imposed undignified labour…
Revolution today
IT is New Year’s Day, 2050. Pakistan’s 400 million people make it the world’s third most populous country. A four-decade-long youth bulge is as intense as ever, with half of…
The revolution that made a superpower
The Chinese take the first week of October off to celebrate the creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The establishment of the PRC was the fruit…
Know thy enemy
In the recent Iran-Israel conflict the Islamic Republic of Iran was able to withstand the combined onslaughts by the two bullies. Israel was the un-disputed bully of the Middle East…
Can the US afford a Zohran?
While President Donald Trump was making headlines this week on the global stage, particularly playing ‘daddy’ in the Israel-Iran conflict, a political earthquake was recorded in New York City after…
Democracy and the left
The history of the Left in Pakistan has been riddled with divisions, factionalism and ideological sectarianism. And it is not only in Pakistan where such divisions emerge from time to…
