:::The Desi Flavor:::

A Pakistani Festival Of Change

Sufi’s Choice - In Pakistan, dancing was banned for many years, and some clerics would like to do the same to music. A new festival is changing things. (via ArtsJournal)

For Lahore, the 10-day festival was a huge, at times startling cultural event. The music ranged from pop to classical but the finest show was the pure Sufi night. Festival president Faizaan Peerzada runs an event that aims to transform Pakistani life. By promoting Sufi music he hopes to 'counter the extremism of the mullahs who use the mosques to spread ill-will against the west'.

Competing with foreign music channels

Pakistan Music Channels competing with foreign music channels - Globalization has enabled Pakistani’s to lose interest in local channels because of the glitz and glamour of the foreign media. Viewers prefer Indian music, soaps, films and Hollywood movies, thus resulting in local channels being relegated to the background.  Inspite of all that, the local music channels like Indus Music, The Musik and G Channels are able to match up with foreign music channels, because of their witty, educated presenters and colorful sets.

Lahore Carpet Industry

Metroblogging Lahore has a feature on carpets and the carpet industry in Lahore. Via Global Voice Online

Related:

: Combating child labour in the carpet industry

The project, Combating Child Labour in the Carpet Industry in Pakistan, is based on an agreement signed between the PCMEA (Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association) and the ILO in 1998. The agreement outlined the PCMEA-ILO partnership to eliminate child labour in the carpet industry in Pakistan. The project, which started in 2002, aims to provide non-formal education, mainstreaming, and pre-vocational education to about 23,000 carpet weaving children, and access to micro credit to the 1,000 poorest carpet weaving households. The first phase of the project was successfully implemented in three districts (Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, and Hafizabad) and, in the second phase, the project has been expanded to three other districts (Multan, Faisalabad, and Toba Tek Singh).

 

More current details can be found at the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour.

: Child slavery in the carpet industry

: More from Global March

The Bonded Labour Liberation Front estimates that eight million children are bonded in Pakistan. Half a million are allegedly bonded in the carpet industry alone. A UNICEF report estimated that there are 1.2 million children are engaged in the Pakistan carpet industry. A minimum of 250,000 children live and work in brick kilns in complete social isolation. They are totally illiterate and have no hope of escaping from this inferno. In fact these children are bonded labourers, driven into this miserable state by the fact that their entire families have been ‘pawned’ to the owners by virtue of their having pledged their labour in return for so-called ‘advances’ taken, sometimes by their ancestors, which, even after the entire family having toiled for years on subsistence wages in prison-like conditions, is not accounted as repaid.

Lollywood Film Festival in UK

UK will host Europe's first ever-Pakistani film, media and Arts festival, titled “Pehlee Dharkan” (First Hear Beat) in the second and third week of September. The focus will be on educating the British
public about Lollywood – the Pakistan film industry and what it has to offer.

 

From September 16 to 18, “Pehlee Dharkan” will be holding a film festival at the Glasgow Film Theatre. It will screen contemporary cutting edge films from the budding independent cinema movement, a retrospective selection of classic Pakistani films, short films and documentaries on political, environmental and health issues in Pakistan and films made by the British Asian Diaspora.

Two exhibitions will also be held at the Tramway Theatre between September 13 and 25. They are titled “Billboards Art of Lollywood”' showcasing the hand-painted film posters (oil on canvas) which are such an intrinsic part of the film industry in Pakistan and “Art on Wheels”, a photography exhibition by Peter Grant of Pakistan’s lavishly decorated trucks.

Related:

: Introduction to Lollywood

: Downloading Lollywood movies from DesiTorrents

(tags: Lollywood)

 

Update - Asians in Media has more on the festival.