CTV and CFMT Correspondant Rubina Ahmed has seized an opportunity and is now in Islamabad covering the issues making news in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She has agreed to share her perspective as a journalist and as South Asian from Toronto. We look forward to more her and wish her the best!

PART TWO: SPECIAL TEA AND A PROTEST

Hi Guys, So I'm trying to show the two sides of this country...One side being quite religious...the kill Bush type, and the other being the laid back young people who just want to get along and have fun.

We went to this area called Jinnah Supermarket (if you have been to Islamabad you would know what I'm talking about) they have some cafe's and places for young people to hang out. This one manager was really helpful and told us all the different things that people are into here...he directed us to one restaurant and order "special tea". Of course as anyone who knows Chinese restaurants in TO knows, ordering "special tea" after hours is BEER IN A TEAPOT. Same here. Can you believe it? This is a side of pakistan I have never seen... I mean the non-family side. In that respect I've seen lives here quite similar to ours.

On friday I went to that huge mother of a protest in Rawal Pindi...that was an experience. There was something like 4000 screaming men chanting anti-american slogans... and there is me the little brown girl with this big white guy trying to get some sort of story. They screamed things like, "American dog" and "Long Live Osama". I was getting pushed and harrased. It was wild. there was one point where we had had enough and took refuge on a rooftop. From there we could see everything going on down in the streets.

Despite it all I think the Pakistani people are very understanding of the important role they are playing in this worldwide crisis. The ones you see rioting in the streets and causing problems are the minority and many of them are fueled by the heated discussions and speeches from friday prayers...not many of them walk away thinking they hate the west or anyone for that matter....but there are always those who do despise the west and their policies. These are the ones that are trying to rally people against the government...

Let's just see what happens and hope everyone can keep things in a broad perspective.

Rubina Ahmed in Islamabad...talk to you soon.

Part One: Adrenaline
Part Two: Special Tea and a Protest
Part Three: Thoughts from the Flight Home