Argonautica Polaris

Island freshwater currents

Today in the regular discussion forum we have written about the riots in Pakistan.
A BBC article show a bleeding student, burning cars and fast food restaurants. We discussed what may be the cause of the demonstrations, because they now seem to be including many other issues than the cartoons. We also discussed the finnish legislation, that it is stated that we have freedom of religion but also that it is not allowed to disturb the peace at religious meetings or otherwise abuse the religion of other people.

Earlier on, I had been reading a website about an other side of Pakistan. The one I have linked to the title of this post.

It is amazing to think that when 2000 years BC, when the west coast islands of Finland was inhabited by a few sealhunting villagers with their bronze-tools the Indus Valley, which is now part of Pakistan was a cultural and urban area with cities as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Since I am intrested in the arts and attended an art-school for some years, I particularly fell for the ceramic figurines on this site. There is something very human about them and it would be a fun project for the future to arrange a ceramic-course in early Indus valley figurine-making.

In the library I also found a CD with gypsy music, with some of the indian tonal scale very audible in some of the tracks. I figure to use it somehow in the next edition om the folk-music magazine. Gypsy-influenced music transformed into finnsih tango is very popular around here. Gypsies came as far as I know from the area around the Indus river.

That punjabi which is spoken in parts of Pakistan is an indo-european language was also news to me, this I found on an other webbsite. I will get back to that later.

I hope now that when Finland during a period of this year takes over the presidency of the EU, we will be able to work for more understanding between Europe and the nordic countries in particular and countries such as Pakistan.

I hope never again I will have to see one of the nordic flags burned.

The link below is to a site about archaeological findings at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley.

posted by "Amira" @ 9:29 AM