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Kite-Flying Gets a Bad Rap

Kite-flying is usually a competitive sport in Pakistan and India, one in which kids and adults glue glass or metal on the string and try to use it to cut loose other kites. The problem is that sometimes motorcyclists and kids get their throats cut by the string in the air.  Reuters claims that there are "dozens" of injuries and/or death each year, but we wish they'd been able to get a better sense of the danger of this very old tradition. Since kite-flying is only allowed in Pakistan from Feb. 25 to Mar. 10, and some Islamists in the country have recently declared the sport un-Islamic, it sounds as if it might very well be getting rarer.

Photo by François Gonnet

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