Balochistan (Quick Study), Pitcairn's Island, Nevada, Amsterdam

Balochistan Government, Pakistan: http://www.apnabalochistan.com/

Baloch Tribes, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baloch_tribes

Balochistan, Pakistan, ref. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochistan_(Pakistan)

Insurgency, ref. Harrison, Selig S. "Pakistan's Baluch insurgency: A sophisticated armed fight for a province's autonomy." Le Monde Diplomatique, October 2006: http://mondediplo.com/2006/10/05baluchistan

You wouldn't think five dead girls out in the "back of beyond" of the world's most dreadful geography would cause so much trouble . . . .

But may I be less arch.

Balochistan has been on my radar for better than a year, coinciding with the development of my interest in political discussion, the establishment of this blog, and interest in the Pakistani part of The Islamic Small Wars.

I had thought the area would sooner or later garnish widespread attention for its separatist leanings, a part of the global reaction to the development of political maps insensitive to distributions of tribal populations. Instead, the Baloch name has been splashed across the front pages of western (and northern hemisphere) newspapers with a grizzly end-of-summer love story.

Next season's CSI or Cold Case television series: look for a domestic (U.S., UK, Denmark, France, etc.) honor killing episode.

In both Christian and Islamic circles, there are those who want an event and issue like this one to feed up into a global "clash of civilizations", but it is just not that.

Settled in 1790 by mutineers from the storied H.M.S. Bounty, Pitcairn Island is one of the British Empire’s most isolated remnants, a mystical hunk of rock that was largely ignored until 1996. Then Pitcairn’s secret was exposed: generations of rape and child molestation as a way of life. Delving into the South Pacific island’s past, the authors chronicle its 10-year clash with the British legal system, which ripped apart a tiny society.

Ref. Prochnau, William and Laura Parker. "Trouble in Paradise." Vanity Fair, January 2008: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn200801

William Golding's Lord of the Flies (Wiki ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_flies) also may be heavily referenced in matters involving isolated populations and tribal evolution.

Howevermuch we may revere "reason", laws do not come from such alone: they would seem to evolve to address personal and social drives and impulses in ways that suit "the strong"--for the monarchs, there's nothing ever wrong with monarchy--and may be maintained within a culture as a normative way of life.

Note: while Balochistan now garners some unwanted scrutiny on the world stage, whatever may be going on in Saudi Arabia as regards witch hunts, stonings, amputations, and such does not, will not, and all that at least not yet.

I guess I'm writing but loosely this afternoon, but following the same train, snoop into legalized prostitution in Nevada or the Netherlands, and how about those hashish brownies at the bar (many, take your pick) in Amsterdam (http://www.onlinepot.org/amsterdam/amsterdammap.htm).

Legalized illicit sex and drugs in some quarters and outlawed rock and roll (not Islamic, so I've heard) in others may remind all that the world is not quite the comparatively stable thing one may know from any of the world's cradles of affluence and democracy. It has its hidden corners and hideaways, its dark zones, and its heretofore free-ranging tribes traveling along with assumptions and prerogatives that would seem to have made a virtue of murder, a lesser sin compared to letting young girls run loose in search of their mates.

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