In no country you can be asked so frequently a question like “What do you think about Pakistan?”. It is not an open question. The expectation is to hear the positive message you will deliver. But real life and real countries are more complicated. Particularly, when you have to talk about a state led by Imran Khan who waged months of a hybrid war against your homeland. To sustain a tourism turned to local populations, Pakistan image must be restored through transparence and governance change. Driving foreign travelers discourse will not compensate the devastating PM positions of the autumn 2020.
Here below is a comment I received about my paper “Kind regards from Pakistan”. What I had to say would became longer than expected. That’s the reason why I decided to present it as an article.
Table of content
- Feed back received from “Neatgye”
- Answer to “Neatgye”
- The calumnies struggle intended to cut mountain communities from their livelihood can’t be ignored.
- Pakistan wonders & good people have been widely documented.
- Silencing an embarassing case is the opposite of helping. - Pakistan efforts for promoting foreign tourism have been recently seriously damaged for years to come. - Wonderful, kind, and loving people of…
This article will present, with an actual case, how it is possible to counter the theft and the impersonation of a business website that has been turned into a defamatory destruction weapon against the reputation and the livelihood of its owners. We will explain the method and the tools which are used for this “regain your name” campaign through content creation, use of social media and search engine optimization (SEO) best practises.
We will assess the efficiency of the measures already implemented, and we will introduce the new actions which are currently being considered.
How a family business “website” became a defamation war machine?
A Sunni woman from Karachi, in her mid thirties, moved to Hunza valley in Northern Pakistan. A few years later, unable to adapt, unable to face the harsh mountain conditions, estimating she does not get the level of recognition her self-attributed talents should deserve, she turned her initial enthusiasm into hatred. In a country haunted by Muslim extremists, she harasses the local ethnic and religious Wakhi minority with pornographic tales, slandering allegations, calumnious denunciations and hate speech. Her…
Pamir Serai guest houses offer a Wakhi family homestay at Zood Khun and Baba Ghundi Ziarat in the high Chapursan Valley, Pakistan. Added to the main website, a simpler one was designed for travelers enabling them a fast loading in case of poor connection. In this paper, the main issued addressed for this fast loading will be presented.
Options retained for building a fast loading website
It was decided to use a light CMS, Blogspot, preferably to Wordpress, the CMS of the main website. Just a few pictures have been posted after the images were resized to avoid any extra compression from the system while showing them. Embed posts have been contained to their strict minimum. The result is a quite basic website. It may not en joy a great SEO. But, it is very easy to use and fast. The user experience is smooth on mobiles and laptops. The information delivered to travelers is complete enough. …
Zine El Abidine Belhareth, زين العابدين بلحارث, président de l’association tunisienne جمعية تراثنا Tourathna, nous ouvre les yeux sur le dangereux mais insoupçonnable processus de radicalisation en cours dans son pays.
Le 29 octobre 2020 était le jour de la fête du Mouled, al-mawlid an-nabawîy, l’anniversaire de la naissance du prophète Mohamed. C’est à cette date qu’un Tunisien a assassiné trois personnes dans un sanctuaire chrétien niçois. Dans cette même ville un autre Tunisien avait déjà causé 86 morts et 458 blessés, en 2016, lors de notre fête nationale. Le récent triple crime, porté par une société quasi-unanime, montre une complète déconnexion entre le ou les auteurs d’une offense réelle ou fantasmée et les suppliciés. …
Articles and publications on public news papers, magazines and on line media by Bernard Gua.
Links to publications in French and English on different media: Agoravox, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukrinform (Ukraine national news agency), Russia Beyond the Headlines and Diploweb.
Agoravox
AgoraVox is a French language website of news powered by volunteers and non-professional writers, created by Carlo Revelli and Joël de Rosnay in March 2005, offering items by single or multiple writers. AgoraVox was one of the first citizen journalism websites in France, and is similar to the community sites L’Echo du Village (1998) and Indymedia (1999). Many more or less participatory sites have emerged since, such as Rue 89, Le Post, Mediapart and…
Expertise, travel, photography, writing, activism websites and blogs of Bernard Grua.
This is a presentation of the websites and blogs that I created and/or co-admin: Regards sur le mode, Bernard Grua Photography, Bernard Grua Mediablog, Stop Cyberstalkers, Best Inventory, Pamir Serai Guest Houses, Bernard Grua Medium, Bernard Grua Flickr, Stop trolls, No Mistrals for Putin, Sanctions contre Poutine, Stop Cyberstalekrs Flickr.
Bernard Grua | Regards sur le monde
Even if some remarkable people who crossed your life will inhabit your spirit for the rest of your existence, with the time going on, remembrances of places visited are inexorably fading. That’s the reason why I would like to present the unusual relation I got with Pakistan. Almost one year after I came back from a summer trip in this country, it unsuspectedly invaded my life for already 15 months. It is such an intense experience that it may replace all other impressions I kept from my wonderful and actual stay, there.
Shangri La, the valley of Eden
I traveled to Hunza and Chapursan Valley, at Pakistani borders with Afghanistan and China, during summer 2018. Like all external visitors, I enjoyed the pristine nature and the outstanding sceneries which were a pure delight. I was amazed by the kindness and the education of the inhabitants so different from the global image Pakistan has abroad. In Sost and in Chapursan Valley, I staid in Pamir Serai guest–houses (light version of Pamir Serai website). I had to report about these wonders. I made numerous photographies and wrote articles about what I observed. Part was in…
On August 21, 2020, Zark Masood commented on my article: “Can we believe in what travelers say about Pakistan? Are they accurate, fair and independent?”. His local feed-back brings relevant points requiring additional explanations. This is the purpose of the following discussion.
Feed back received from Zark Masood
Totally disagree with you. I can play the same game with you like everyone is praising Pakistan due to its natural environment and hospitality but you though everyone is praising and if i do the same, no body will read this blog so you tried to convey a negative perspective of Pakistan so that people can give you more claps. See we can play the blame game on both side. But the points you raised were good but let me tell you that there is no gender discrimination in Pakistan. …
All this year, I have been under rabid attacks coming from a radicalized cyber-criminal of Pakistan, R.A. Thousands of posts have been published against me on Facebook and Twitter using anonymous or impersonating profiles. Facebook has been extremely poorly cooperative. Twitter moderation was inefficient, when not supporting, de facto, these criminal activities. National and local police, Interpol, Nantes (my city) Mayor and Municipality, addressees of endless calumnious denunciations, never answered any of my requests in contradiction with the obligations they have according to French law. French justice and lawyers could not sanction a stalker acting from an international judicial loop-hole…
Pakistan is a new eldorado for Vloggers and Instagrammers, especially young attractive ladies, who enjoy a support they could not find in other countries. Authorities and national companies find, here, an efficient PR tool in their attemp for creating a country new image. On their side, these travelers can enjoy a mass of followers they could not reach in other less gender seperated societies, offering them the precious status of “influencers”. Do their stories actually reflect a travel experience or are they more advertising clips for their sponsors and successful ego staging?
1. Audience won in advance, commercial and state support, Pakistan is a paradise for influencers
1.1. An exceptionally favorable environment for audience development
Pakistan became a new El Dorado for vloggers (video bloggers) and travel Instagramers, especially young physically attractive women. “Travel vloggers” have a much higher number of fans than they could hope for in countries where the separation of genders is less marked.
It is an opportunity for grabbing the envied status of “influencer”. These foreign juveniles fascinate the male Pakistanis living in a society experiencing a strong segregation between men and women. If we launch a Google query, for example, on the Polish-British Eva Zu Beck (465 K subscribers) or the Canadian Rosie Gabrielle (304 K subscribers) we see that…
Bernard Grua | Travel photographer & blogger
Contributor to French and foreign medias: geopolitics, heritage, history, expeditions | https://bernardgrua.net https://bernardgrua.blogspot.com | FR EN SP GE
