Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The ultimate question posed here (the staggering difference between the desi and the west) does not
seem too unanswerable to me. You almost
seem to have answered it yourself in
the last paragraph: As the reason for your knee-jerk ``Heck NO``, you mention that Pakistanis who come here do at least as well
as their western peers, and usually better.

So for instance, compare yourself and your life till now, to the culpable truckwalla and his likely upbringing and life experiences upto the point of the accident. You will surely see many factors wherein lie the differences.

I think the more interesting (and less obviously answerable) conflict is in comparng the present to teh past - the truck walla to the laborer of two hundred years ago. But there I feel that a more pervasive (i.e. not restricted to the desis) degeneration has taken place. The modern day motivations for the majority of human existence are fear (of being found culpable, inadequate) and self-promotion (as someone who is not culpable, inadequate, afraid).

Only the trees store the potency, reality of prior existences.

Good thoughts in the article. Thank you.

Got me thinking. Well, I see the first 2
paragraphs as metaphors for (1) Self Respect even pride and (2) Selfishness -to say the least. I subscribe to the notion that ancestry has nothing to offer except false notions. I also subscribe to the notion that individuals and cultures need to be proud of themselves before they can do others proud.

The comment by the elderly acq. clearly indicates that ``we`` suffer from a deep rooted complex that makes us doubt our abilities. Why it exists is something to wonder about.

Some obvious factors, in my opinion, are the British Raj, the Mughal Raj, the various other Raj`s and Invaders. I think that these kingdoms programmed us to doubt ourselves and admire the ``raj al waqt.`` Even religion and dogma contributed. We were always made to feel that we are great because of our faith and family name and not because of our accomplishments and actions.

That we feel ``intellectually impotent`` is a natural outcome of several hundred years of ``intellectual genocide.`` The day we stop this ``genocide`` things will begin to change very rapidly. I cant speak for others but I am willing to admit that in the back of my mind this ``stereotype`` of a ``dumb darkie`` does exist. And that I do take competition with the Westerner as a challenge. Regrettable isn`t it? But then this is what happens when a society or culture is made subservient. May our children be ``truly free.``