The Pakistani Spectator

Sebastian Strangio is a twenty-four year-old freelance writer, actor, polemicist and all-round bon vivant from the great metropolis of Melbourne, Australia. Last year, he graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Masters degree in politics, and hopes to write professionally in the near future. His blog, Like Pulling Teeth, is available here.

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?
Although I’ve been writing for a long time, I only established my blog, Like Pulling Teeth, about three months ago after graduating with my Masters in International Politics from the University of Melbourne. In 2007, I edited the student paper, Farrago, and realised that I was producing more writing than ever before, yet had no outlet for it. So I created Like Pulling Teeth as a repository for articles and rants that are yet to find a proper (published) home. My main focus is politics (especially of the Asia-Pacific) but I also blog on music, film and anything else that piques my interest.

The object behind every blog is the attainment of a state of being. Do you agree with this statement?
In the reader or the writer? Since a blog has no defined end-point and is never really ‘finished’, I suppose the attainment of a state of being — a loyal readership, a more or less consistent worldview — is a logical objective. My own blog holds up a mirror to what’s exciting or interesting me at any one time.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?
It’s a great feeling when unknown readers stumble across your blog and leave supportive comments. It makes the whole effort worthwhile. Many of my close friends have blogs also, and I get a great deal of enjoyment out of keeping track of their writing — especially those I know outside the blogosphere.

Do you think the use of Twitter and other social networking tools by politicians is bandwagon jumping or what? Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?
Over the long term, I don’t see a whole lot of difference. In democratic states, especially in the industrialised West, politics has become incredibly reactive. Politicians govern by the polls, rather than on the basis of principle or ideology, and the classic left-right dichotomy no longer has any real meaning. Rather than trying to shape public opinion through leadership, politics has devolved into a risk-averse game of catch-up between what the public is understood to be ‘saying’ through the polls and what politicians are willing to risk on any particular policy initiative. The internet may create new opportunities for politicians, but I doubt whether it will have much effect beyond the traditional media. Of course, technology has given individuals more opportunity to engage in horizontal, peer-to-peer political debate (through blogs and so forth), but I don’t think we will see any increase in top-down political influence. If anything, the opposite. During Australia’s last election campaign, then prime minister John Howard made a few ham-fisted attempts to use YouTube videos to ‘communicate’ with young voters. The result was painfully predictable: the videos were edited into parodies skewering the prime minister, and only damaged his party’s campaign. I think the anarchy of the internet makes it a high-risk prospect for politicians.

What do you think is the most exciting or  innovative use of technology in politics right now?
Technology is most exciting in its power to subvert mainstream political discourse. As with the example mentioned above, the ability to reproduce data (videos, image, text) and distribute it rapidly across great distances is rapidly creating a new currency of political debate. This is most interesting at the grassroots, and is usually something that eludes the major political parties, who tend to be very late to jump on any particular bandwagon. And, inevitably, the internet produces a lot of rubbish. But the ability to take official discourse and reconfigure it with a few clicks of the mouse has the potential, in theory at least, to swing elections. In undemocratic countries too, technology can be incredibly empowering. Even the Chinese government is struggling to control what its citizens see and read online.

What do you think sets your site apart from others?
In terms of debate, I often think that the technological revolution has had more of a quantitative effect that a qualitative one. About 20,000 new Wordpress blogs created each day, 95% of which either die an early death or wind up unread. What I’ve tried to do with my blogging is to sit towards the top end of the scale in terms of quality. I’m a perfectionist, so I write three or four times more material than I post. Visitors to my site can be guaranteed that anything they read will be well researched and thought out.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success, what would it be?
Probably the ability to see something through to its conclusion. I would have started a blog a lot earlier, but only did so when I knew I’d have the time and inclination to update it regularly.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for — what would your top 3 choices be?
Russia — I’ve long had a morbid fascination with the decay of the old Soviet empire, and I’d love to be there when Russia begins its belated, phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the USSR.
Iran — Mostly for my political interest…
Algeria — Since reading the vivid descriptions in Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace, I’ve longed to see the Algiers Casbah and the wide boulevards of Oran’s nouvelle ville.

What is your favorite book and why?
Difficult question, since it changes from week to week. Right at the moment, it’s a toss-up between Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and Gore Vidal’s Washington D.C. — Eugenides for his lyricism, Vidal for his elegant, elegant prose-style and sharp summation of the American political condition.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
Their hands.

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?
Not that I can remember. All my friends and family have been very supportive to me in my writing.

How can bloggers benefit from blogs financially?
I think every blogger would love to earn money from their site! But any site popular enough to bring in a steady income would probably require full-time maintenance…

Is it true that one who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
Not at all. Think, for instance, how much time many of us spend in front of the television, or otherwise wasting time. A blog is spare time put to constructive use.

What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?
I’m don’t think I’ve ever seen a corporate blog — but I’d probably avoid it if I had.

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world friendlier and less hostile?
Well, the mere fact that an Australian like myself can communicate in an instant with Pakistani readers — across what Samuel Huntington might term a ‘civilisational divide’ — shows that the internet can encourage inter-cultural communication. There are limits, of course. There are those — nationalists, fundamentalists, xenophobes — who are actively hostile to the idea of a global community, and who may use the internet for contrary purposes. Then there is the proportion of the developing world that either still lacks affordable internet access, or who lack the (predominantly European) language skills necessary to put it to good use. (I hear this is a particular problem in the Middle East, where development of an Arabic-script web interface has proven very difficult). Since it is very often ignorance that breeds hostility, the best that we can do as bloggers is to seek out like-minded individuals the world over and try to enter into an equal dialogue.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers?
I can’t really say, since the only blogs I read regularly my friends’. For American politics, I very much like the Drudge Report and Camille Paglia’s monthly column on Salon.com. Arts & Letters Daily is also an excellent hub for lucid, intelligent articles on all sorts of topics.

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?
I wrote one post  (http://spstrangio.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/the-death-of-hare-brained-utopianism/) in response to a newspaper column about feminism that got a good reaction. The author was arguing that the feminist revolution was ‘over’ in Australia because women were exercising their freedom in all sorts of ‘unsuitable’ ways. I took the liberal position, that
women, like men, should have the right to make their own decisions, irrespective of the outcome.

What is your perception of Pakistan and its people?
Pakistan gets a considerable amount of press in Australia, but the emphasis is mostly on the country as a ‘hotbed of Islamic radicalism’ — to use the stock phrase — which glosses over a lot of its complexities. I have an inkling that Pakistan’s future is more multi-faceted than many journalists make out. Most of the Pakistani blogs I have read express a great deal of frustration with Pervez Musharraf’s rule, but you don’t hear much about the liberal opposition to Musharraf in the papers here.

Have you ever been stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?
I guess every blogger is unique in some way. Occasionally I come across an unusually fascinating blog post or website through Google, but then forget to bookmark it… so I can’t name any.

What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?
The richer a society becomes, the more its sense of perspective diverges from the imperative of survival. This is visible everywhere: in politics, education, infrastructure, the arts.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
I don’t think I can answer this off the top of my head. But I was crushed after Italy (I am half Italian) lost the 1994 World up Final to Brazil. I was about eleven.

What is the future of blogging?
I imagine things will continue along the same trajectory as they are at the moment. Technology will increase the amount of freedom that bloggers have and how they relate to each other; but in terms of content, well,that’s up to us.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
So far the effects have been limited, but I’m hoping that my blog one day helps me in my ambition to write professionally.

What are your future plans?
I am leaving for Cambodia at the end of the month, where I am going to work as in intern at the Phnom Penh Post www.phnompenhpost.com). It will be a fascinating time to be in Cambodia — the trials of the remaining Khmer Rouge are scheduled to begin this year, and the parliamentary elections in July could be a turning-point in the country’s political history. I am planning on making many posts while on my travels in Southeast Asia.Beyond 2008, I hope to move into journalism r some sort of policy-making role in the Asia-Pacific region.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?
Thank you for your interest in my site!