Visiting journalist discovers Acadian culture

I am Asif Magsi, a visiting journalist from Pakistan and I am working for three weeks at The Daily Advertiser through a journalist exchange program.

I hail from Balochistan; the southwestern province/state in Pakistan.

Balochistan is the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces in terms of area, covering 44 percent of the country’s land mass, but smallest in terms of population. Balochistan is home to less than 5 percent of country’s population.

Despite immeasurable natural wealth, Balochistan stands out for its terrible social indicators and is backward, less developed and a virtual prison.

With thousands of military check-posts dotting the province, the people living in the province are under siege. Balochistan is the land of anguish, death and violence in numerous forms, although it had once largely been peaceful before the military operation against the nationalist Baloch separatists in 2006.

I was lucky enough among many others who got selected in the U.S. State Department’s journalist exchange program “The US-Pakistan Professional Partnership Program for Journalists 2014.” Visiting the United States is like a dream come true for any journalist back there at home. When I reached Washington, D.C., after a hectic 18-hour flight on Aug. 5, what I observed was totally different from what we were told and taught about the United States in Pakistan.

The most common misunderstanding and suspicion in Pakistan about the United States is that, the United States wants to defang Pakistan’s nukes and the United States cannot accept Pakistan as powerful, nuclear and a stable Muslim state.

Most of the people back there in Pakistan believe that whatever wrong happens in their country, including the big political changes, is all because of U.S. and western conspiracies against them.

They believe that United States, as a state, and its people are enemies of them because they are Muslims. And the interesting thing is that it’s all ridiculously paradoxical and satirical that most of the above mentioned clichés are based on conspiracy theories that are in Pakistan.

What most of the people (the general public) know about Pakistan is that Pakistan was the country where Osama Bin Ladin was captured by U.S. Navy seal commandos and the country where young activist Malala Yousufzai was attacked by Taliban.

Most of the people in the United States just don’t care about Pakistan and what is going on there. Still, people from both the countries know very little about each other.

When I met some scholars in D.C., they did talk about Pakistan and they appreciated the sacrifice of more than 70,000 lives, which Pakistani soldiers and civilians made in the U.S. war on terror after 9/11.

Then I moved to Lafayette, on Aug. 9, where I was placed in the newsroom of The Daily Advertiser. I was warmly welcomed by the staff. While working with them, I was amazed how much freedom the press has in the United States under the historic First Amendment. The press in the United States is free and freedom of speech has very minimal limitations and journalism is a safer profession as compared to the place from which I came.

In Pakistan, the press and freedom of speech are badly under threat and very often journalists are killed for just doing their jobs and the threats to press and the freedom of speech are unparalleled.

Let’s talk about Lafayette. Lafayette is surely the most unique and only one of its kind of place that I ever visited. I visited downtown Lafayette with my mentor, entertainment writer Dominick Cross.

I was amazed that how dedicated the young and old musicians and artists of the town have been to preserving the heritage, tradition and the old culture of the town. The other interesting thing is the Cajun music in Lafayette, which I am enjoying a lot whenever it is played by young bands. The vast variety of food in the town is exceptionally unique and much diversified where Japanese, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, Lebanese, Italian and Middle Eastern food is available — and, yes, the Indian spicy foods, too.

The craft beers and drinks are one of a kind. Still, it is my first week in Lafayette and so far, so good, and I am going to discover a lot more and will surely meet lot of interesting people in the town.

— Asif Magsi is a Pakistan-based reporter, human rights activist, blogger-cum political and social interviewer. He likes to research on social issues around the world. Follow him on Twitter at @asifmagsi2; he can be reached at amagsi@theadvertiser.com.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/opinion/2014/08/25/visiting-journalist-discovers-acadian-culture/14597751/