Fading Empire

Following the news recently, I've seen that there have been gun-battles between government forces and rebels (or secessionists, depending upon your point of view) in Peshawar and Swat, in Pakistan. It's just over thirty years since Moonface and I travelled there, and it seems that the structure of the state has disintegrated in the intervening years.

The time-lapse between the second war & Pakistani Independence, and our visit; is the same thirty years as between our visit and now. It was then a relatively safe and welcoming place to travel around, although the Muslim males were very aggressive towards Moonface, even though she used to wear a headscarf and full-length dresses. We travelled in Swat: I remember it as being a dry dusty valley, a mountain kingdom of white low square houses, most roads were dirt, with cannabis plants growing wild by the wayside. Even then, we saw men with old rifles carried casually over their shoulders, as their enititlement to manhood. I have no wish to return.

:¬[