Podcast 0001: First Audio Cast of NED Nama

Posted by Sabahat (iFaqeer) on September 7, 2007

With this post, we are adding a feature we’ve planned to add from the beginning; podcasting. From time to time, we are going to put audio and video files on this blog that are relevant to NED. As far as possible, we will also try to produce original content or add introductions and commentary to bring the content home to NEDians. [Of course, this is besides the links and embedded content from YouTube, and so on that we will include--so send in your favorites!]

You can subscribe to NED Nama as a podcast using your favorite podcast reader (such as iTunes, iPodder, etc.) by copying and pasting the following link in the “Subscribe to Podcast” dialog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/NEDNama

It is also available on Odeo at: http://odeo.com/channel/558343/view

We’re working on submitting it to the iTunes Store so you can just search on NED University and clicking on subscribe.

For our first podcast, we have an interview with Riaz Haq (President of NED Alumni Association of Silicon Valley and Chair of the Convention Steering Committee for 2007) and Tanweer Alam Mallick, an NEDian based in Chicago. The interview was recorded on September 2nd, 2007, for ABN Chicago, an Urdu-language radio-and-Internet program. The audio file is here–just click on this sentence if you want to download or hear the file directly. You can also listen to it by subscribing with iTunes or on Odeo. We’re working on submitting it to the iTunes Store so you can just search on NED University and clicking on subscribe.

Enjoy!

PS: This link is added to complete the Odeo set up: My Odeo Channel (odeo/118b513e4dd45e71)

NED: A Political and Social History. Part I (1980)

Posted by safwan_shah on August 30, 2007

When I joined NED, we were in the 2nd or 3rd year of Zia’s Pakistan. It was a strange era as we hadn’t yet realized how rapidly the country was changing. The refugees from Afghanistan had not yet impacted the entire country; there was a lot of moral preaching and some moral policing but nothing that was remarkable. In retrospect that was a strange era – we were actually in limbo and didn’t know it is probably the best way to put it. Cultural norms were starting to change as more and more people took sides on religious issues.

In a surreal sort of a way, Pakistan was becoming rigid in its innermost ideology but we had no way of knowing that. There was just no way anyone could predict where we were headed. You would very occasionally see someone who carried an unkempt beard … there would be about 10 to 15 students in the on-campus mosque – at most. Everyone was very nice and cordial. No one would be judged on their looks, likes and interests. Calling a progressive a “dhahria” (atheist) was perhaps the worst one would hear; and calling Jamatis “agents of the US” the other opposite. There was still a Friendship House (the Soviet empire hadn’t yet folded) and we would get the occasional CIA or KGB recruitment on campus … WAIT! There is more to read… read on »