It would have been nice if we were able to roam about a bit more and take in the sites, but in a city that size we wouldn't have got much else done. There are obviously certain dangers too, assassinations, kidnappings and robberies are quite common and armed security is everywhere. These dangers along with the increase in instability and fundamentalism since Sept '11 and what followed has all had a major effect on the Karachi way of life. Public events such as music festivals are now rare and medium to large contemporary music venues are practically non-existent on the surface.
Despite this, there are a lot of courageous creative people, who are eager for their city to progress. They are putting a lot of time, effort and thought into how they can reclaim public space and work against those that wish to hold their city to ransom with fear. The awesome Habab University of The Liberal Arts, creative venues, hubs and incubators such as Co Pakistan, The Nest I/O, and T2F and artists like the Tentative Collective, Yasir Husain and Aamir Habib are all dedicated to the progression of their city and it's people and the work they are doing is fantastic.
Social mobility is an issue, we were only there a week, and though the widening gap between rich and poor seems to be a global phenomenon, the scale in Karachi is more severe. based on limited anecdotal evidence only it would seem that education standards vary greatly and with a high bottom rung to middle class it seems it would be highly difficult to work your way up the ladder.
Education may be an issue, but like all the issues facing Karachi there are groups and individuals working to address it. Citizens Archive of Pakistan has been busy collecting stories, images and video to tell the story of the people of Karachi. They've taught in schools and are involved in a range of programs aimed at disseminating their rich archive to children. Their core aim is to promote pride and sense of identity through education.
Pakistan Science Club is a community Science group whose main resource is the passion of it's volunteers and students. PSC go into schools and teach and mentor young scientists in their own workshop in their community, they make it fun and their creations are pretty mind-blowing.
People were definitely more open to sharing their thoughts on basically anything as well, there's a lot to learn from each other in how we approach stuff, not just work and innovation, but how we communicate too.
A week wasn't enough, but I feel privileged to have been introduced to some of the creative minds of Karachi and I look forward to working with them, and to one day returning to Karachi.
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