Al-Baal Café ends the year...

...with the beautiful song by greek duo Kostas Hatzopoulos and Katerina Nitsopoulou also known as Anemos.

Miazis me fotia (tr: you look like fire) she sings in greek with a hint of middle-eastern and medieval sounding tunes playing in the background. I absolutely LOVE it, and I am sure you will too.

Purchase the CD A Mediterranean Odyssey for more amazing tunes like Miazis me fotia.

Rain over Rawalpindi

One persons death can have such a great impact on the world. I spoke with a friend in Pakistan who tells me about streets with not a single car on them at 8 pm in the evening, not a store open, and flights not going in the major cities of Pakistan, like Lahore. Riots, violent attacks on any car that dare go out in the street for whatever errand.

Benazir Bhutto was a strong personality if anything and with her death, whatever indescrepancies she has been associated with, they will be forgotten and instead the last memory of her in her signature white "duppatta" (headscarf) waving and smiling to her supporters, defying all threaths to her life, will remain in even her opposers mind.

I have been phoned by swedish media asking me to comment on her death and if there were going to be any memorials for her by the pakistani community in Sweden. Her death and funeral has been all over swedish media. People really were affected by her, in whatever way, she did leave a lasting mark.

As I wrote earlier, as a child growing up she was an inspiration to me as a Muslim girl looking at a strong, intelligent and charismatic Muslim woman, defying all rules of traditional conduct. And perhaps her last sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice for her country forces us to think that perhaps she did care about the future of Pakistan.

Initial reports on her death said that she had died from a bullet wound, or some sort of shrapnel from the bomb, in her neck. Now all of a sudden the official version has changed dramatically. She died from a fall in her car somehow banging against the sunroof?

Few believe that theory. I doubt we will know for sure what version was the real one.

The future of Pakistan? People I talk to are worried, sad and depressed. They fear something worse is waiting. We can only pray and hope things calm down.

The hunt goes on to find the culprits of the murder of this mother of three, daughter of the east, reunited with her father and main inspiration.

In the news:

Email only to be used "If I am killed"

Oxford friends remember "fiery and fun" Benazir.

84 flights cancelled.

BB manuscript rushed into print

Happy Birthday & gTunes!!

It's been exactly one year since I started www.globalthemes.org and today, 11 000 vistors and more than 1000 posts, two Photobloggies 2007 Awards nominations, 20 photographers from diverse backgrounds and more than 40 themes of photography later, the blog is still going strong and has become a hub of psoitivity and photographical exchange on the web.

To celebrate the past year, a sister blog called gTunes has been set up where all the fabulous Global Tunes that have been playing on www.globalthemes.org will be collected with info on artists, videos and pictures.

So if you haven't visited www.globalthemes.org or gTunes yet, now is the time!