Looking Without; Looking Within

Salman Akhaterji

i have not been to states ( i am thinking of it training).

AAp padelikhe hay but mental understanding no.

sure american is more valuable than paki or hindu.Every body has value. Is same all over. in saudi you know paki and hindu at untouchable level.Yemani are treated as donkeys.There is order

in Arab-saudi they never chop head of white man ok. so shut up.but dark heads are chopped like all time.Is same all over. do not crybaby.If you have mony everthing ok. In karachi ppl die for short of medacine but big generals go states checking for loosing sex stamina.( i know more secrat stuf ok) Ya bengalies killed what about sindhis killed or Baloachi or Mohajirs, what about Bihahis in B.Desh bloody bengalis killing them. they are poor ok. shut up. World as is. no change as you no like.Poor are suffer you do not know. States living intelectual fool.

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What a great article.

It is very sad to see, but the truth is that Pakistanis are not morally very different in their reactions to terrorism than Americans, Israelis or anyone else. Where we, or our allies, suffer there is great indignation and call for revenge. Where our tormenters are suffering we see it as justice. There are pragmatic strands and rigid strands of thought, but very little space for consistency and objectivity when analysing oppression and brutality. Theirs is considered bad, ours is... understandable and sometimes mistaken, but rarely accepted as evil.

Both Americans and Pakistanis seem to bathe in self-righteousness, allowing their self-interest and political strategies to determine their emotional responses to human suffering. Palestinian oppression, Burman oppression, Chinese oppression, Indonesian oppression, Afghan oppression, Iraqi oppression, Saudi oprression.... sometimes a blind eye, sometimes an intense focus, sometimes the focus endures, sometimes it is removed as geopolitical alliances are remade. Then the self-righteous energy is redeployed at the bidding of the political class.

Those who look for consistent standards are sometimes dismissed as cynics for doubting the sincerity of our war-mongers when they cry about the next fashionable cause. Sometimes they are accused of naive idealism when they expect those war-mongers to be equally concerned about repression by their clients and allies (over whom they, after all, have more control and responsibility). But these cynics/idealists are the foundation of the group we should try to strengthen.

The peace movement is weakened on both sides because it seems to play into the hands of the geoploitical enemies of the day. By calling for restraint it makes it easier for the other side to walk over us. This makes it imperative that peace-minded people make links across borders, so that challenging human rights abuses consistently is seen as joining an international movement for impartial justice, not joining an enemy.

The mainstream of opinion in Pakistan and the US is not so hawkish out of malice, but from fear. Unfortunately, Governments will never support a citizen`s movement for global justice and will always try to undermine it. But maybe it is the only long-term solution we can be part of.

Hi Salman . . . seems Uncle O(Sam)a wants you? cheers . . . Macbeth, try Merchant of Venice . . .