Today is International Men’s Day. So here’s to refugee men fleeing abuse, trans men denied healthcare, queer men bullied for being different, Black men racially profiled, disabled men excluded from work, and all the other men who fail at being “real men.” May we continue to cultivate our humanity.

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

Israel kills innocent Palestinians. Activists spray-paint a plane. Guess which the UK government calls terrorism | Sally Rooney

Uppsala University promoted research stays in Israel at the exact moment Israel was intensifying its genocide in Gaza. Scandalous, but not surprising - write 90 staff members and students: www.unt.se/debatt/artik...

Often wondered if Pak Bsky not taking off is a partial blessing, as we know the Boots and their cronies would block it as soon as they perceived a genuine shift from Twitter.

Then again, what does that leave us with?

🙄

www.dawn.com/news/1907660...

A few years ago, I compiled a few of those essays into a googledoc at the request of a former guildmate who asked me to recommend some of her literature.

I'm linking the same document below for anyone who'd like to read some of Roy's work:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

"The year they came for the internet"

www.dawn.com/news/1882236...

The sheer irony of it being less than 48 hours since posting this, and Bsky has already been blocked by the PTA.

I absolutely hate that the prospect of more folks from Pak Twitter migrating here is directly correlated to how likely this insane government is to ban nationwide access to this site.

Thinking about Arundhati Roy's essays, some of which I read over 20 years ago.

"Come September"
"Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy"
"The End of Imagination"
"Public Power in the Age of Empire"

...And others.

What I'm struck by the most is how much they predicted what was to come.

🚨Heads up: LinkedIn just automatically opted everyone into training their AI tool.

To opt out, go to Settings -> Data Privacy -> TURN OFF data for generative AI improvement🚨

(Thanks to @/Cheyenne_Curtis on Twitter for highlighting this)

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #295,722!

Pakistan's digital infrastructure is being upended in the name of "security" (read: control and surveillance), and there seems to be no redress.

www.dawn.com/news/1850247...

"Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule: How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/28/elon-musks-shadow-rule

Proud to share a new Feature Story that I co-wrote for the World Bank focusing on building #climateresilience and #reconstruction efforts in Sindh!

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/08/03/-i-decide-my-own-destiny-taking-ownership-for-a-resilient-sindh

Goodbye Mouse Khala.
You and Poppy created spaces that helped define so many of our adolescent experiences in Islamabad.
You will be missed.

https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2023/07/19/farewell-zishan-afzal-khan-you-were-everything-khaas-about-islamabad/

"Already the most invisible character within society in the book, in essence, they wanted me to minimize her existence for their comfort, while discounting the experiences and feelings of the marginalized."

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/31/opinions/lola-akinmade-kerstrm-sweden-lgs-intl/index.html

At least this time I got the handle I wanted.