Why the Drones Annoy this Pakistani Novelist.

30 Mar 2010

The US drone attacks have been the subject of political debate and controversy for some time now. Some say the Pakistani Government is complicit, but whatever the case, the issue has been enough to aggravate many.

Mohsin Hamid here, gives a Pakistani citizen’s view of the drone attacks as he is invited to speak in Cleveland after the release of his second book, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Hamid writes about modern life in Pakistan, and his debut novel Moth Smoke, was an expose on life in Lahore, following people who lived there all there life, and students who come back from the United States. He’s a Princeton Grad himself (no biases).

His eloquent presentation of the argument starts at around the 7:45 mark. The rest of the speech and Q & A’s are on YouTube as well.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C4DCeAVFco]

Mohsin Hamid is one of Pakistan’s new intellectuals that have been educated abroad, and might even currently live abroad, but are significantly expanding the country’s ‘cultural capital’. Their works are centered on Pakistani issues and life, and they themselves have become well respectd voices and ambassadors. Fatima Bhutto, niece of late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is also part of this movement as an author, poet and journalist. She writes regularly for the Daily Beast.