Waking up this morning to learn of more than 80 people dead in a bomb attack on a market in Peshawar, the title of my new book, Overtaken By Events, never seemed more apt. All too apt. I can’t even remember all of the string of seven or eight violent events in Pakistan over the past few weeks - I should have written them down and kept a timeline.

What I’m trying to do, in my books and this blog, is to keep a longer-range and longer-term perspective on Pakistan, to look at the country, and listen to its people, with an attitude of human and personal sympathy, and to document events and impressions on the fly in a way that will be both relevant and helpful a year or two, or five or ten years, from now. I think I succeeded in that in my first book, Alive and Well in Pakistan.

I have to do my Urdu homework this morning before class, but I felt a need to post something. Here’s a powerful quote from my long March 2009 conversation with Ghazala Minallah, a woman in Islamabad who has been at the forefront of the lawyers’ movement for the past 2-3 years:

“What should I say to Americans who say, ‘Well, this is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with Osama bin Laden and the War on Terror and the fact that Pakistan is a naughty country?’”

“You can tell them that Osama bin Laden and all these other naughty people are playing havoc with us, more than they are with the Americans. We are at least as concerned about it, if not more so, than they are. And if they would only wake up and kindly pressurize their own government not to meddle in our affairs, and let us get on with it.

“And to look at it from the point of view of the people of Pakistan, for God’s sake. We want democracy over here. We do not want military rulers. We do not want terrorism. We want peace. We do not want mullahs ruling us either. The majority of this country, unlike what the West believes – they believe that the middle to lower class would not have a problem with maulvis. You just go out in the street, and you ask the people what they would think about maulvis ruling them. People may be religious, but that does not mean that they want maulvis ruling them. And they are sick to their teeth of terrorism. Because they’re the ones who are affected!”

As many of my friends know, I have an extensive collection of refrigerator magnets from around the world and America. Whenever I go somewhere new in my public speaking, I make sure to get a fridge magnet. Whenever a friend goes somewhere interesting, I ask him or her to bring me back a magnet. If I speak at a university - as I did at Pomona College in Southern California last February, for example - I specify, only half in jest, that my fee is $X, plus one t-shirt (size XL) and one fridge magnet.

The Moghal-era Badshahi mosque in Lahore, available as a fridge magnet. Photo by Pete Sabo.

I have magnets from everywhere from Cincinnati to Singapore, Pittsburgh to … well, not Pakistan, because there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as a Pakistan fridge magnet.

It dawned on me recently that I’m in a position to rectify that. I think it’s a shame that there aren’t scenic and touristy fridge magnets of Pakistan, which I’ve known for 15 years as a pleasant and interesting country to visit. So, in addition to prints and cards and other formats, I’m experimenting by having fridge magnets made from some of Pete Sabo’s great Pakistan photos. 10 copies each of the first two have arrived, and I’ll be taking them with me next month to Orange County and San Diego (Nov 5-9), TCU in Fort Worth (Nov 17-19), Portland (Nov 21-22), and Minneapolis (Nov 27-29).

Monkeys on the road to Murree, available as a fridge magnet. Photo by Pete Sabo.

These 4″ x 5 1/2″ magnets will sell for $5 each, and proceeds will support my ongoing work of writing and speaking about the human dimension of Pakistan. Look soon on the Gallery page of this website for an enhanced online store offering magnets and much more!  :-)

Fauzia Minallah (left) with her sister-in-law Ghazala Minallah, Islamabad, March 2009. Both women figure in Ethan Casey's books Alive and Well in Pakistan and Overtaken By Events. Photo by Pete Sabo.

My friend Fauzia Minallah in Islamabad just sent me a moving short video that she’s made titled “The Multi-Colored Scarf of Peace.” She wrote: “Hi Ethan, how are you?Things are not very good in Pakistan infact it is a nightmare now. You must watch the video … This is how I am feeling these days, all the best and GOODLUCK to you for coming back to Pakistan.”

Here’s the last installment of my column in the Books & Authors section of the Pakistani daily newspaper Dawn, which I’ve enjoyed writing the past several months:

“One of my purposes in writing about Pakistan and Pakistani communities is to counter their prevailing image in the West, which is unfairly negative and severely incomplete. The way to do that is not to write only positive things. No reader would find that credible, and it’s neither true nor compatible with my self-respect. True friendship entails telling the full truth, and I’m a true friend of Pakistan.”

It’s been another long stretch since I posted on this blog, and the reason is that I’ve been kept all too busy finishing the manuscript of Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip, my new book to be published in March. I’m working with a very good, thoughtful and patient editor, and together we’re doing well keeping the project on schedule. But there’s a lot involved in the publishing side of a book, as I’m learning - from selecting a printer, to hiring editors and page and cover designers, to selecting photographs for the cover and inside pages, to planning ahead for launch events and other marketing well into next year. All this while also writing the actual book, plus starting a graduate program in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, including Urdu language class every morning at 9:30.

Ethan Casey at the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, October 2, 2009. Photo by Irfan Ali

I’ve also continued traveling around North America speaking to both Pakistani and mainstream audiences. In September I visited Chicago and Toronto, and over the first weekend in October, Todd Shea and I spoke at an Islamic center and two churches in Fresno, California. Many thanks to my good friend and collaborator Fawad Butt in Chicago, Andy Merchant and the Canada-Pakistan Business Council in Toronto, and Irfan and Monica Ali and Dr. Mohammad Ashraf in Fresno. Those in-person visits help in pre-selling copies of Overtaken By Events as part of a $50 two-book package with the limited remaining copies of Alive and Well in Pakistan, and those sales are helping fund the printing of Overtaken By Events. I’d love to visit your city when I can. In the meantime, learn how you can support my work by visiting the Books page of this site.

My Dawn column has just been cancelled - along with other columns - which is unfortunate but, in a way, well timed. I’m a bit over-committed through the autumn and need to stay focused on finishing up the writing and publishing of Overtaken By Events, planning ahead for its promotion in the spring and summer, and doing well in my classes. I also will be continuing to travel: in November I’ll be visiting Orange County and San Diego (to speak at a fundraiser for Shehzad Roy’s Zindagi Trust - look for more from me on this), Fort Worth (speaking at Texas Christian University), Portland (speaking at the Multnomah County Public Library at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 21), and Minnesota. To see my full travel/speaking schedule, visit the Calendar page.

On the updated Books page and Store page you’ll learn about several ways you can support this project. We also will soon be offering Pete Sabo’s photographs in fun new inexpensive formats, including postcards, Eid Mubarak cards, and perhaps the first-ever Pakistan-specific fridge magnets. But if you enjoy and appreciate my work and can’t support it in any other way, consider pre-purchasing your copy of Overtaken By Events today. It will be mailed to you in the spring, as soon as it’s published: