What it means to be me in Corporate America?

This is interesting if a bit cloudy and confusing. While I understand the rhetorical strategy of the author juxtaposing contradictory and ambivalent images to make her point, it could be a great deal more powerful with some more editing of this device and the insertion of some straight narrative. For example, each paragraph having the same device of juxtaposition throughout the work does not allow the reader clarity into the implicit thesis of this piece. My suggestion would be to alternate the paragraphs of juxtaposition with clear, direct narrative, so that both simultanous narratives build slowly and reinforce/dialogue with each other.

As for the content; I would advise the author to revisit the essay and edit sentences that come off too wildly:

``...What does one do when they know they do not sell in Corporate America, despite being from an ally country: When you know you’re worse than marijuana, worse than pot, worse than Viagra?...``

How does Viagra fit into this metaphor? What is the metaphor? Unclear.

``...This loneliness is the worst of its kind. It’s the unrepresentative ethnicity in all the top hundred best product target-demographics. You then don’t feature on any Viacom or Clear-Channel billboard...``

Is this lonliness the average existential lonlinesss of being a human being? Or is it, as the author seems to suggest the special lonliness of being a Pakistani Muslim? If so, be prepared to convince us that your lonliness is different from ours....

``...You get so desperate that you think of organizing to latch onto the Gay rights movement to promote your ethnicity...``

A sentence that does not serve the essay if we apply it to the Aristotlean/Toulmanian model of an ethical essay: logic, emotion and ethics. The author makes too many assumptions; to name a few: that to support Gay rights is a questionable ideal, the unfamilliarity with the Gay Rights movement (perhaps the author might look up South Asian Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Sakhi, Samar, and how gay and lesbian South Asians have become a vital force of social/legal/pol/rel activism in the US-esp. those working with the hundreds of Pakistanis who have been deported to Pakistan after 9/11 for minor legal infractions), and the idea that marginalization that this piece seems to allude to has no linkages. Too distracting, questionable and opens a can of worms the author may not be able to keep a lid on.

``...So desperate that you spell out India with chewing gum on the bus, hoping some old Anglo-Saxon can get annoyed at India...``

Not very strong.

Also the themes of failed states, corporation and religion are too huge to evoke and then abandon. Either go into these themes a bit more or focus on one more thorougly. Otherwise we are abstracted off the page.

Otherwise, a compelling emotional undercurrent. Edit it and develop it more and see what happens.

I don`t visit Chowk very often. So instead of replying to each of your posts, I am replying to all of them.

Your frustration is understandable. It is the latest feeling following pride, defiance, and disgust towards India. I am hopeful that this will transform into admiration and acceptance (as Pervez Hoodbhoy expressed a few months back about India`s system of education). And then Pakistan will have some real progress.

Pakistan despite being a pampered child of the US (spoilt brat?) hasn`t managed to move much in the last 60 years. An India-centric phobia/hate has been the explanation for everything. For a long time we had those amusing comparisons ``Pakistanis are well-fed and clothed; unlike the starving Indian masses``. ``Pakistanis are handsome (tall and fair Central Asians) unlike the brown paunchy yindoos``. Even the seemingly ``liberal`` (actually anything but that) Najam Sethi`s Friday Times caricatures the yindoo as a tuft-bearing brahmin/bania. And of course that vastly over-rated shyster Jinnah (a 2-bit lawyer then fast fading into irrelevance) could not resist drawing comparisons between himself his ``State`` and the measly bania/brahmins across the border. India as the de jure mother state of the Indian Sub-continent kept quiet and continues to brush off this puerile nonsense like water off a duck`s back. For Pakistan a string of military defeats till 1971 put the myth of martial prowess to rest. The 1980s and 90s put the myth of diplomatic prowess to rest as Pakistan`s predictable references to Kashmir were all but drowned out. And in the last decade, Pakistan has continued to fall behind India, economically, culturally, socially, scientifcally and horiffically and tragically. Today even in per capita terms (PPP-GDP) the difference is significant. What ignoramuses like Niaz Naik and Maleeha Lodhi don`t realise is that if India`s misery numbers - poverty, literacy, etc.are high (because of its huge population) its prosperity numbers are correspondingly high. OTOH Pakistan - never a contender on absolute numbers is now fallen behind in percentage terms.

So how does the average Pakistani cope with these facts - no average response. We see a lot of diversity

- acceptance and affiliation - like Adnan Sami who wanted to defect to India

- the sensible admiration with some token noises about ``Kashmir`` bomb etc., - Pervez Hoodbhoy

- the artistic confluence - watching Hindi movies by the ton ``edge of the seat`` hysterics while watching Lagaan (like my friend Zaheer who outdid every Indian in the audience)

- ``South Asianising``. Everything Indian is passed off as ``South Asian``. So Friday Times has a column on the South Asian arts summer in London - Ha! Ha!. A exposition containing Indian and Indian - from movies to art to fashion to food - becomes South Asian - something like Canadians (who unnecessarily) call themselves North American!

Now we come to the serious stuff.

- Peace advicates - who are actually fierce India haters in alliance with the SAJA/South Asian crowd

- the supercilious smirkers - boasting an English high school education, US undergrad degree, green card and horses and servants at home - ``hing eaters`` ``ghaas waale`` are the stock in trade; coupled with referencs to Sumit Ganguly (I like that guy he knows how to hit!)

- And then the fanatics.

When India started this SAARC tamasha in the 1980s there was some basis for comparison. We had a controlled economy - a Hindu rate of growth. Pakistan OTOH had been ticking along well fot three decades. Even then Pakistan was a pretender to equivalence. Then it was an annoyance. Today Pakistan`s pretence to equivalence is a farce fast becoming tragic.

So how about getting real and facing up to reality.

Keep up the whining, the self-rigteousness and the castigation of india and israel. None of this will help you build up a good self-image or make you feel internally that you have done all you could in a good situation. But I guess that culturally and by choice, you feel that whining and complaining is the right thing to do. So go right ahead !

The funniest part of your article is complaining about Sumit Ganguly. Here is an individual who came to the US in the 70`s, when India and Indians were a complete unknowns. Here is an individual who has risen to the highest levels of scholarship in his field purely through his own efforts. Here is a person of integrity who has been heckled and attacked by the RSS and VHP forces in america for speaking the truth about Gujarat and Kashmir. But as he is an indian nationalist, he is evil, he is cunning etc.

Let me make one constructive suggestion. Instead of whining endlessly, take Sumit Ganguly as your role model. Aspire to his level of scholarship in Pakistani studies. Aspire to his integrity as a critic and supporter of Pakistan. Aspire to his level of influence in the US think tanks. Good luck!

Inimitable style of hammering those SOBs with a tong & a Hammer ...boy it feels good like a catharcis.

``..........Of all those pseudo intellectuals who are called on a TV show for an impartial opinion, and deny their Indian origin despite the South Indian sun on their face; those..........``

I bet if they read this will start singing ``baby dont hurt me, baby dont hurt me ooyoooyooooo``

This bharat is a humongous patriarch of the Indian subcontinent (South East Asia)looming ever.... so overshadowing its neigbours that more ppl. hate india [including its OWN ppl.]Every indian is first marathi, gujrati,Bengali & bhaiya but all are anti -pakistan muslim & Islam( Well,not ALL but almost or enough )

Sarwari

If people lie all the time about Pakistan ... are you SURE they are telling the truth about India all the time ......?? ... what you believe you know are 100% khara facts ? ... and YOU know all there is to know about one billion people ? even the one and only Sun is ``South Indian`` uss paar ? never mind the one and only uppar walah ? (Is there a east Punjabi and West Punjabi Sun too ?)

kya hoga aapka ....

``A failed individual, however, is that who lets hate consume him or her.`` - you said it ...

re: Pakistan doesn`t need us, we need Pakistan.

Here is what Pakistan does need:

1) To abolish ordinances such as the hudood ordinance and blasphemy laws (among others) brought about in the dark ages of Zia.

2) To do away with martial law, and feudal tyrants

3) To continue developing from within, increase literacy, more empowerment programs.

4) To do a major overhaul of our education system

5) To rethink its position on Kashmir

and the list continues...

Why the `ell do we want to sell ourselves to Corporate America anyway?

``Pakistan doesn’t need us, we need Pakistan. I’ll keep hanging on.``

Bravo! and you are not now, nor will you be, alone.

Sorry for using your board for this. But chowkies may find this Bina Shah piece interesting.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review7.htm

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My apologies to the writer featured on this board, but this current discussion might apply as a sidebar to the article featured, and the board we were using has been relegated to the past!

Temporal,

Like Mrs. Ashfaq Munir`s Resentment a lot. The recliner and its halo of contentment/cushy throne, tv guide was a nice metaphor. Have you been following this couple in your poems beside this one? Would like to read more!

Hobbyty

re: ``...Save me $12 and just email it to me - if that`s possible....``

I`d be glad to. How would I get a mailing address?

re:``...- I am unsettled by the proposition that we may make definitive statements about these, especially since I don`t think these by definition are amenable to such. Also what we may find and construe to be ``pretty much the same story`` is actually superficial - perhaps it is the journey and the elusive destination that we might understand ``truth`` to be?

Perhaps you are unsettled because underneath the ephemeral and mystical phenomena of spirituality, there are the hard and cold eco/soc/pol/gend/cul realities that cannot be wafted away in ``god`` smoke. Let me give you an everyday example:

Quite recently my uncle died unexpectedly. We were besides ourselves, particularly because we are quite close to his family and secondly, he died the morning of his younger daughter`s wedding, while he was praying. You can imagine the pain this situation caused for the daughters, mother/wife and family, the dillemmas that arouse immediately afterwards in terms of appropriate plans of the daughter`s wedding, and mourning.

At the prayer service of his funeral at an Islamic center in Queens, the women crowded into our small room and read the Q`uran and waited to hear from the men when they would begin prayers, most particularly my uncle`s eldest daughter who was (admirably and maturely) shouldering the organization of directing the women and who wanted to pray for her father.

20 minutes later we get word that the men have prayed and its time to go to the cemetary. No one from the men`s section thought it was imp. enough to inform the women who wanted to pray as well that they had begun their (and is it the ``official`` prayer, being that men call the time?) namaz. We were a bit upset that we did not have the opportunity to pray for our uncle, but there you are; the journey for truth.

When we got to the cemetary, the women stayed on the outskirts of the grave (several feet away) while the men gathered around the grave. The men brought my uncle`s body to the grave and the men started to pray. I stayed on the outskirts because I knew that women were not allowed to be at the gravesite, supposedly because women crying at a graveside causes pain for the deceased party? In essence, women are considered a polluting and emotional entity and therefore are culturally prohibited (in this Pakistani interpretation) from being a part of the the burial service. My aunty stayed with us on the outskirts while her husband was being buried.

As we listened to the prayers of the men, we heard some women voices. Apparently my cousins had insisted on being at their father`s/Mamu`s grave and praying, despite the Mullah Sahib`s directions for them to leave the area.

The women and many men in our family think that the daughters and nieces who read at the grave are to be commended for their action. A few conservative members have opined that it was not appropriate and whats more, will cause my deceased uncle pain and all kinds of hocus pocus complications in the afterlife.

My point is, before we discuss spiritual journeys and quests for truth, we must discuss who has access to these journeys and what kind of interpretation enforces the cultural mores of the practice of religion. We must examine the day to day manifestations of how religion works in terms of gender-the ultimate division of humankind. IF women are barred from the ceremonies of death and other sites of spiritual practice, really, how can this be considered a ``superficial`` matter?

u are what u are and nothing`s gonna effect that, not even corporate america, so why get all worked up about it?

i personally don`t care what anyone thinks of pakistan and it`s a waste of energy to sit and get frustrated about it.

striving to be a decent/hard working pakistani who does good in this world is more important than fussing over the `image of pakistan.`

...yeah, what saminashah said in #1...

Great ending Aisha,

We do need Pakistan. Some of us more than others.
People have often called me too optimistic, but
no matter what happens, Pakistan is FINALLY
on the right track (in ideological direction)
today.
It is time to kick out all fanatic ``guests`` and
their local hosts.
America and Pakistan`s Khakis have both finally
come to their senses. The Frankenstein that
they have created has bitten their masters.
The sad irony is that Pakistanis in general had
very little to do with the creation of this
monster.
Pakistanis have very little to be
ashamed of except that now they have to be brave
enough to retake their religion from madmen.
Laws enacted since Zia need to be repealed.
And Pakistani women need to kick some ....

Ras

saminashah #13:

[...My apologies to the writer featured on this board, but this current discussion might apply as a sidebar to the article featured, and the board we were using has been relegated to the past!...]

let`s move to speaker`s corner...will post those two and another one...when perhaps the begum and janab were courting...that will be a better place than this board...

...my apologies to aisha

lve,

t