SAARC comes to town

  

Welcoming arch on Link Road

      Two cops were stationed on our corner all day on Thursday, in anticipation of a motorcade of  SAARC dignitaries.   The caravan  was scheduled to drive from Gan in the south, go as far north as possible,  loop around Daisy Magu at the end of our street, and go down the newly paved Main Road to the Convention Center.   Flags of the eight SAARC nations fluttered all along the route.  Most businesses sported colored rope lights for the occasion.
      Around 3, the cops closed Daisy Magu.  We couldn't even walk across it.  I certainly couldn't get the car out to pick up Jon from work.   A dump truck with the bed full of men parked at the corner, ready to watch the parade.  Neighbors began gathering at intersection.  Maxine and I covered ourselves with insect repellent and joined them.  It was  a jolly time. Maine played with Aisha, our neighbor across the street.   Aisha's mother had her toenails covered with bright green mashed up leaves.  She explained, with the help of another neighbor who works at the beauty parlor, that the leaves will leave the toenails a pretty orange color. "You want?"  Not a good shade for me, so I declined.  As it grew dark, the young girls counted the stars as they came out.  I joked with them, by signs and gestures,  "You see three ?  I only see one!" Finally two sets of 6 cars with darkened windows sped along the street.  The teenagers craned their necks to see how the cars could possible take the high speed bump two blocks down.  The cops removed the cones, and the streets were opened.

Sculpture for Nepal

Sculpture for Afghanistan

   There was more pomp and speechifying elsewhere.  Further south, the motorcade featured open cars and flags.  Each SAARC country designed and authorized a public sculpture featuring the culture and religion of that country.  Two are in our neighborhood: the one from Nepal and the one from Afghanistan.  The head of government unveiled and dedicated his or her nation's statue with ceremony, necessitating more closed roads (no alternative, you just wait) on Friday.
 

  On Wednesday evening as we drove south on the Link Road to Equator Village, I noticed a large crowd along the side of the road.  It seems that the sculpture for Pakistan, which featured a bust and words of Pakistan's founder and some symbols from ancient Pakistan, had drawn a a protest from local people who thought that the symbols were idolatrous objects of worship.  Two men tried to topple the statue.  They were arrested,  and police removed the piece until the next day, when they replaced it for the dedication.  Early this morning, the monument was torched.

Offensive portion of official banner

     At Gan airport, members of the former president's opposition party arrived by boat to tear down part of the official SAARC banner.  The theme for SAARC is Building Bridges, "across more than 100 languages, across 10 major religions, across gender, " etc.  Seems that someone who looks like Jesus is just too much for some.