An Evening with Pervez Musharaf

In August, Mama Wordbones suggested we sign up for the Baltimore Speaker Series this year and I jumped right at the idea. I’d thought about doing this before but something always got in the way. Last night, the first of seven lectures, the featured speaker was Pervez Musharaf, the former president of Pakistan.

Musharaf spoke about social and political developments over the past three decades in South Asia which includes Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Suffice it to say that his perspective of the issues and challenges facing this region were thoughtful and somewhat enlightening. His lecture lasted about an hour followed by a question and answer period. It was good brain food.

When we arrived at the Meyerhoff there was a small group of demonstrators outside shouting “Perez Dictator!”

Shouldn’t they have been shouting “Former Dictator?”

During the lecture a member of the audience, who claimed to be from Baluchistan, interrupted the former Pakistani leader several times before being ejected from the hall. This little bit geopolitical drama, though annoying, seemed oddly appropriate given the volatile nature of this region of the world.

Next up is Jean-Michel Cousteau on October 20th. So far so good.