Snakes And Ladders

The advent of the year 2003 brings a mixed message to the world. If in the words of our leaders “you are with us” the message is one of hope and impending victory. If you are “against us”, there is much to fear as defeat is near. And since there is no clear third option available post 9/11/2001, especially if you are from “that part of the world”, the word on the street is that you can quietly kiss your civil liberties and rights goodbye. And please do not cloud the logic of our authorities here by saying that the main reason for your pursuit of the American dream was because you had little or no rights where you came from. No “midnight knocks” here but dissent is now in the realm of the intolerable. Just ask our media. News on every TV channel is the same flavor of our administration driven vanilla. We are right and everybody else is wrong. Newspapers are faring somewhat better but our current administration whom we elected “with a clear and resounding majority” (?) appears to be calling the shots for all of us. Welcome to the land of opportunity. Now please take your shoes off (so far so good) and have fingerprints and mug shot taken.

Today, if you are foreign born you are a suspect. Brown pigmentation and a beard are certainly unhelpful. If you are an Afghan, one who did not become a part of the one million that died to keep this world safe for democracy, you are suspect. And what if you are of Pakistani origin? The once most “Allied Ally” of the United States is looking a bit bewildered again these days. As America today hugs Russia’s Putin, and the media here explains to us the virtues of India’s democracy, the days when the White House was thanking Pakistan quickly fade into memory. It was really just wishful thinking anyway. Nobody wants to recall the times when tyrants were embraced by Washington, not only in Iraq but also in many other places around the globe including Pakistan. There are no “Freedom Fighters” today. The laws of supply and demand also apply to policymaking.

While looking for some kind of connective analogy to the current situation of many Muslims in the US (as one familiar with “that part of the world”), I now recall a South Asian board game called Ludo. It was played with dice on a patterned cardboard square, which when flipped over, became another board game called “Snakes and Ladders”. Playing Ludo was a long and tedious process, one that required both luck and tact to overcome the competition. But for those of us seeking a faster pace the preferred route was Snakes and Ladders, which depended mainly on your luck with the dice. You started off from the bottom of the board at Square 1 and aspired for Square 100 at the top to win. You or your competitor moved your respective counter or chosen colored token the number of spaces that your dice scored (1 to 6). And each time you scored a 6 you got another chance to roll and advance.

But on this path of the 100 squares you encountered either 1) An uneventful square from where you could advance on your next roll or 2) you were lucky enough to hit a square that featured the bottom of a ladder (the longer the better) to boost you up the board and nearer your goal or 3) If you hit the square that featured a snake’s head from where you suddenly lost all your upward mobility and had to slide your counter down to where the snake’s body ended (a couple of snakes were very long) to start all over again. And somehow this game brought me back to reflect on post 9/11 America.

Both patriotism and dissent working together have historically been the essential elements of this system we live in, that being our cherished democracy. America has prospered due to it and unfortunately may also been attacked on 9/11/2001 because of it. But the success that has accompanied this grand red, white and blue experiment has not been without blemish. The Native American cultural and physical sacrifice, African slavery, Asian exclusion, Japanese internment and racial segregation are still stark reminders of past injustice. But let us not for a moment think that we can ignore them today.

Post 9/11 America is becoming more like a Snakes and Ladders game experience. Being dark complexioned and having an accent is not adding to your luck here. And although one can justify the anger and rage, blame placed on a religion and people who are somehow related to the perpetrators of 9/11 is not valid. What we have to guard against is official government policy and its implementation as a result of that murderous episode. Singling out people on the basis of national origin for INS registration is not wise. Everyone who is not an official immigrant or naturalized US citizen should be interviewed and fingerprinted. And no harassment or jail time should be associated with the voluntary appearance of people with minor visa violations. This cannot be helpful towards our ultimate goal, the fight against terrorism.

Now, turning to beliefs. Islam is a religion and not a profession. Terrorism on the other hand has become a profession but is not a religion. Let us keep the two separated. Arabs, Iranians, Pakistanis and other people from the Islamic world are not the enemy. Adolph Hitler cannot be the sole example for all that is German or the Christian belief. He was a madman. And just as Germany had its twisted mind, the Islamic world has produced some of its own. It is a time to make alliances with what is good in those countries, not bomb them into the arms of suicide bombers. It is time to give some semblance of dignity to the Palestinian, Chechen and Kashmiri people and not join the superior powers they face who happen to disagree with their aspirations.

There are as many games played in foreign policy as there are in the real lives of individuals. But one just cannot give a group of violent fanatics a chance to change the world as it now appears they have. America should build a taller pair of buildings at the WTC site. We need to tell the world that we can come back from this wound. We need to defeat those who brought this terror to us. But let us also defeat them in the battlefield of ideas, by separating them from the cesspools of injustice where they find their recruits. Let us not by our actions increase the size of these cesspools. We will not be able to defeat terrorists by arresting and deporting aliens here who are already a part of our economy. They desperately want to become a legitimate part of America. We have to give them cause to hope. Many come from poor or oppressive societies. We need to provide them with a ladder or two. Some snakes that live where these people came from have already bitten us. I believe that we now have a common enemy.

Footnote:

I have used the plural "Dice" instead of the single "Die" here for clarity and to reduce confusion with its other meanings.