If you are reading this, then I guess, you are intrigued: what is “Global Village Space”? Why another magazine in a small saturated English market? How will it make a difference? Will this last or disappear like many new entrants before? Well! Let me answer these questions.
Magazine: You may nickname it “GVS” – in your hands is our first print publication, but we have existed on the net, and on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, since January this year. We have published around four thousand pieces and reached around six million page reads, and with the grace of God, by the end of November we have started to get around one million page views a month.
But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. We are interested in serious issues; our readers are young, urban and middle class; they are concentrated in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and they are in London, New York, Dubai and Riyadh – wherever you find Pakistani professionals, men and women, eager to understand, and absorb a quintessential Pakistani perspective about Pakistan and the world around it.
Global Village Space (GVS) is to give Pakistan its unique narrative about itself; Pakistan’s story with all its challenges, failures and achievements – its resilience; the good, the bad and the ugly. We have thus published about politics, society, business, law, entertainment, cricket, Lollywood and everything else – we have not defined any boundaries; not yet.
But we are deeply interested in the Muslim world and how its changing, evolving into something new. You will thus find, GVS, in its very first issue, brings an in-depth focus on the turbulence inside Saudi Arabia – Dr. James Dorsey’s piece will be a treat for all those who want to make sense of what’s happening.
An exclusive discussion with Prince Turki Al Faisal, on how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had fought together in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation is of historic value and so is a special piece by Ambassador Cameron Munter on US-Pakistan relations.
Antonio Patriota, Brazil’s ex-Foreign Minister explains his country’s perspective on the possible expansion of UN Security Council; something that concerns us- the Pakistanis. Saad Rasool examines the growth of a new political consciousness that has dethroned a King – by a court.
And Saeed Afridi – using the lens from London – helps us understand a lot more about CPEC than meets the eye. Moeed Pirzada, tells us about a little-heard “Meeting on a December night” in Dacca, fifty-five years ago that changed the history of South Asia. There is much more in color and shape to stimulate your mind – and I will love to hear back from you…!
Najma Minhas
Managing Editor