NYTimes Photo Report on Peshawar Pakistan

I really enjoy the multimedia presentations of different places around the world on many of the many US newspaper websites. Here is a very interesting one from the New York Times website. It's a photo report on Peshawar Pakistan. Peshawar is a battleground between the Islamic extremist groups like the Taliban and the Pakistani government. Click the link below to get to the slideshow. The pic above is the first one in the show... a striking black and white shot.

Peshawar Under Seige

Water-Truck Poetry

Here's a shot out of my window on the way home from church a couple weeks ago. The water trucks glut the road and make traffic difficult. One redeeming aspect is that the trucks are colorful and seem to have creative designs all over them. When I crept up on this truck I noticed something more creative than usual... poetry on the back bumper! Below is a cropped picture for your close-up viewing.

"Mountains can fly = River can dry; You can for - get me = But I can not you"

If anyone knows Urdu out there perhaps you can tell me if this is a typical Pakistani poem or something else that I'm not familiar with. (I'm just guessing it's Pakistani). Help from the readers?

Friends in Pakistan are Facing Abuse

You may know that Pakistan has been put under Emergency Rule or Martial Law by P.M. Musharraf. The Pakistani population is Dubai is rather large and I have a number of Pakistani friends. One friend had returned to Pakistan to live with his family recently. Mansur is his name. His father is a leader in one of the opposition parties there and his Father's been in hiding for a while now to avoid police interrogation and abuse.

Just this week students gathered at a Lahore University called LUMS to protest martial law. My friend's sister and some co-workers were there for the rally and they were beaten by police trying to disperse the rally. My friend has written about it on his blog. You can read about it there.

And mostly I encourage you to pray for Pakistan. Pray for peace, justice, and for God's purposes to be accomplished there even in this time of turmoil. I'd also appreciate prayers for the safety of my friends there.