Interns Interns Interns

My favorite new South Asian art gallery in Philadelphia (ah heck, who am I kidding, the only South Asian art gallery in Philly) is looking for some bright young folks interested in working at their gallery.

They write:

Twelve Gates Art Gallery seeks part-time interns. Twelve Gates specializes in South Asian art. Students of South Asian Art/Art History will be preferred.

The candidates will assist gallery management in the full spectrum of gallery operations including show installations, marketing which includes emailing exhibition promos to clients, Creating annoucements cards, managing mysql databases of clients and artwork photos, answering phone calls and interacting with visitors.

The gallery regularly hosts special events like film screenings and concerts. Active participation in their planning is required.

Basic knowledge of photoshop, php, perl, pdf, excel a plus. These skills will be taught if needed.

This is an unpaid internship but it will be a great opportunity for the intern to gain some exciting art gallery experience.

To apply email your resume and cover letter to info@twelvegatesgallery.com.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow Twelve Gates Art Gallery on Twitter.

Pakistani Americans Protest in Philadelphia

On August 4, Philadelphia’s Pakistani Christian community gathered in Center City to protest the killings of six Christians in Pakistan:

More than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted on Saturday in a rampage that lasted about eight hours by a crowd the authorities estimate was as large as 20,000 strong. In addition to the seven members of the Hameed family who were killed, about 20 people were wounded.

He took it to the bank

So I was reading the Metro this morning and noticed a small paragraph on the second page:

“Habib Khan, 49, pleaded guilty yesterday to running an unlicensed money transmitting business in which he charged a fee to wire at least $2.1 million to Pakistan. He never registered the business and hid the transactions from a bank he worked with.”

Okay, who is this dude? Which bank did he work for? What is going on?

I ran across a press release and a couple of court documents, but no story.

Come-on media elite. You know I’m obsessed with Pakistan. Especially Swat Valley (according to the documents he was wiring the money there.)

What’s the real deal? Stupid small-time crook or terrorist mastermind?

Any guesses on the sentencing, folks?

“Thank God we left Pakistan”

My mother’s reaction upon seeing this video of three Taliban members beating a 17-year old girl from Pakistan’s Swat Valley region.

If possible, force yourself to watch the video in it entirety.

Spoiler alert * It’s hard to watch it without getting very very angry.

Gunmen in rickshaws

Seriously. How fast do rickshaws really go? I kind of want to see what a gunman in rickshaw would look like. Okay, maybe I don’t. But really, what sort of security can’t get after a couple of rickshaws.

Pakistani kid gets the stuffing beat out of him

How did I miss this story by Jill Porter?

In Pakistan, the four Daniel children were harassed and bullied in school because they were Christians in an Islamic world. The family fled to America in 2006 so that they could be safe. Two weeks ago, the youngest son was beaten in school – not because he was Christian. Perhaps just for the thrill of it. Or perhaps, in sad irony, because he is Asian. Jeremayah Daniel, 14, was jumped from behind as he was leaving Samuel Fels Senior High, in the Northeast, on Jan. 15.

How sad. And how common. I remember talking to a friend in high school who came from Sudan who recalled being repeatedly harassed by neighborhood kids at his neighborhood high school. The sad fact of the matter is if you’re from another country and you have the misfortune of attending your local Philadelphia high schools, you’re going to be teased. Harassed, bullied, hazed -whatever the word is. Because you have an accent. Because you look different. Sometimes, because you get better grades. My advice to the Daniels (who naturally I know through relatives), is pray their kid gets into a magnet school.