#5SmartReads - April 11, 2022

Hitha on Pakistan, the profitability of romance, and one of the most critical Senate races

April 11, 2022

I didn’t know that no prime minister in Pakistan completed a full five-year term since independence, but Imran Khan is the first to be removed from office in a no-confidence vote.

And while elections are slated to be held in the next 6 months, I hope that they are indeed fair and free elections and Khan’s promise of rooting out corruption is achieved in Pakistan.

WHEN? And more importantly, when will art created by women, for women, that leaves us feeling happy and delighted instead of tortured and hurt be respected? Because it more than deserves it.

It’s not enough for books to be optioned (and I am thrilled that so many were, after the successful premiere of Bridgerton). But most are languishing in development purgatory, with no screenwriter or director announced to the project.

I’ve said before that reading romance has been the single best improvement to my quality of life in the past few years, and I stand by it. The same goes for watching shows and films that make me feel seen and loved and happy.

Hollywood - follow the money. It’s in this genre.

“A World Health Organization official recently aid we may be entering a "period of ceasefire" with the virus, but Chakravarty says "it takes two parties to agree to a ceasefire. Another word for a one-way ceasefire? Surrender.””

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom about the pandemic…but we are still living in it, and in yet another rising wave of infection.

And this article reminded me that the fourth wave of the 1918 pandemic (which hit in 1920) was the deadliest yet. "“People just didn’t want to deal with it, just as we don’t want to deal with it.”

“Until you have walked in our shoes, there is no way to know how you will react after losing a child—or how you will react to being accused of killing them. For me, it was an out of body experience. I kept telling police that I didn’t know why my baby died; They kept throwing my statements in the trash. After four hours of being berated while trapped in an interrogation room, I just wanted them to stop. I was tired. I was broken. Finally, an officer handed me a statement that said I had hit my baby and that’s what killed him. I resisted in the only way I could. I signed my name in the wrong place on the confession.”

No commentary from me. Just read this article.

I still consider Pennsylvania my home state, so it’s no surprise that I’ve been following the 2020 Senate race closely.

I view it as a bellweather for other tight races all over the country (especially those without an incumbent), and I’ve also seen some parallels from this race to other high-visibility races back in 2020 and 2018, except with some role reversal.

In PA’s case, the Republican candidates are attracting the national attention and fundraising (appropriate, given that the two frontrunners were not PA residents until they filed). The Democrats, meanwhile, are exclusively focused on their local game in the primary, which I think is the right investment of their energy for the general election. But the polling makes me nervous, as does the large number of undecided voters on the left.

This piece does a nice job of summarizing the state of the race - well worth your time.

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