this written by me shortly after 9/11, and was pub in a legal magazine ... sharing ... some of my friends may have read this earlier, if so, plzz ignore ... ARMAGEDDON . . . The End, or the Beginning ? The unremitting images were an assault on the imagination --- on intelligence --- on emotion, as they flashed, relentlessly repetitive, on television screens round the world. This was not a scenario that called for any suspension of disbelief. It was belief that stood suspended, on that fateful day that is predicted to perhaps change the world forever. The cliché was proved true with chilling impact: truth is indeed stranger than fiction. It is Reality that contains Imagination, not the other way round; and the human imagination is but one dimension of a reality that manifests so many diverse truths to several widely differing perceptions The images, horrifying as they were, had yet a certain eerie glamour about them. Horror weaves its own fascination. Tragedy on this scale evoked from the traumatized citizenry of New York and Washington an almost cathartic outpouring of grief, of coming together to heal, of candle-light vigils, of reaching out to help, stranger to stranger, with food, succour & water, even as the world watched, appalled and spell bound, barring some cynical reactions and outbursts of rejoicing at the perceived come-uppance of an arrogant Superpower. The world by and large, however, grieved with America --- some genuinely, some appearing to. World leaders pledged support to America, peoples round the globe --- at least such parts of the globe as have access to television --- felt tears well up in their eyes as poised and presentable anchorpersons of the CNN and the BBC narrated heart-wrenching stories of brave, selfless men and women rising to combat this evil that had targetted with uncanny accuracy and stupefying success, the hub of the American economy, the heart of its military might. America is bruised and the world is required to bleed. Cut to Kashmir. A people living with war and violence night and day, day after day, over several years. Walking the tightrope between the militants and the military. Unable to pinpoint the enemy because he may well turn out to be the friend innocently given shelter to. Hopeless, despairing, resigned, battling poverty as much as acid attacks and violent death. Bruised so much and for so long, that the world no longer bleeds for them. Receiving scant succour from their own Government. Lacking the necessary packaging, they command no world audiences. The world knows of their plight, but is vague as to the cause and ambiguous in its response, unsure where to cast the blame. Who are the villains? The militants who terrorize, or the military who try to contain them? And the militants, are they freedom fighters or terrorists? Is it a war by proxy instigated by a hostile neighbour, or a struggle by people fighting for self-determination? Their plight is worse than sudden death: slow torture, dying a thousand living deaths in a wretched lifetime. Living constantly in the shadow of death, with the enemy permanently camped on the doorstep, unable to get rid of him because he is one of their own. The women who live under constant threat of acid attacks if they defy the dress code imposed by the diktat of self-proclaimed defenders of the faith --- their own faith, not an alien one! These are people who have little to offer them courage or hope. The world is largely indifferent to their plight --- no candle-light vigil for the dead and the dying --- no food, succour or water --- no glamorous media persons to evoke world sympathy to their plight --- no resources to combat the evil that stares them daily in the face --- no respite from the miasma of fear that fouls each breath they take. All terrorists are not equally terrorist, it would appear --- nor are all victims equal. The exigencies of realpolitik allow for neither permanent foes nor constant allies. Consider how the geo-political map of the world has been redrawn after each of the two world wars, and even more unrecognizably, after the dismantling of the Soviet bloc. Allies and enemies interchange. Notions of colonialism, hegemony, occupation, terrorism, undergo subtle shifts of perception. Take the present attack on the World Trade Centre: It was a Japanese architect who designed the twin towers that were brought crumbling down in an attack designated by the Americans themselves as Pearl Harbour II; yesteryear’s foe-turned-ally designs the symbols of power and affluence that are brought down by a terrorist attack suspected by the Americans to have been organized and master-minded by Osama bin Laden, decidedly a present foe who was, till fairly recently, actively aided and nurtured by the US itself in its fight against America’s then enemy no: 1 --- Russia --- now an ally-in-the-making, whose co-operation is sought by America to counter the present enemy who was till recently an ally. Machiavellian realpolitik? America seeking cooperation from, among other nations Russia, to get at Osama Bin Laden, whom America itself had once nurtured, funded and supported, to carry out a proxy war against Russia! The irony would be amusing, if it were not grotesque. It could be argued, of course, that what the mujahideen perpetrated against Russia were not acts of terrorism, but a true freedom struggle, to liberate Afghanistan from the Soviet stronghold. As now the mujahideen contend that America is enemy no: 1, what with the CIA carrying out vicarious wars in several sovereign jurisdictions. It could also be argued that the situation in Kashmir is not quite comparable to the recent attack on American soil. Each situation has its own truths peculiar to itself. So what is the truth? Which is the just war? Who has right on his side? Who is flexing military might unjustifiably? Who is unleashing terror against innocent victims? Aren’t all victims ultimately the innocent? Don’t human lives carry the same value everywhere, or do some bleed more when struck, than others? The Truth, if there is any Absolute One, may well lie embedded under layers of manipulative misinformation, deliberate disinformation, garbled gobbledook, all disseminated by orchestrated propaganda. Is it the dog that wags the tail, or the tail that wags the dog? One truth, however, has emerged, allowing for no escape into illusion: Terror knows no territory. The apocalyptic events in America should have ensured, one would have thought, that the world would at last come together to wipe out the scourge of terrorism from all over, wherever perpetrated. Unfortunately, expedient pragmatism of the most cynical kind seems to hold sway among the policy-makers in Washington, as agony gives way to arrogant aggression. This portends not the end of Armageddon; rather, the beginning of one that may conflagrate for years. Lennon’s Imagine is not yet likely to become Reality ! ****
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 16:56:31 +0000
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