The Value of a Pakistani Soldier’s Life in American Dollars

The United States led NATO investigation into the military raid inside the Pakistani border with Afghanistan has come out with a conclusion that further strengthens Pakistani Government, Pakistani Military and Pakistani people’s opinion about America and NATO’s lack for respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty and now more so Pakistani soldiers’ lives. The American Government in Washington thought it best, probably taking from the Raymond Davis case, to offer monetary compensation to the families of the martyred and wounded Pakistani soldiers; 24 brave and loyal Pakistani men in uniform brutally killed by the US led NATO airstrike inside Pakistani border on the night between November 26 and 27, 2011.

USAID - A Pakistani Soldier's Life in Dollars

Would the Americans take the same deal if this situation was reversed? If the Pakistani forces ‘by-mistake’ killed 24 of American troops?! Probably not.

But thinking in retrospect such an incident was imminent with Pakistan’s deteriorating image as that of a ‘Sovereign’ state. The Prime Minister Gilani lead PPP Government did little than lip-servicing and attempting to gain political mileage by continuously ‘condemning’ the drone strikes in Pakistani territory. The United States and the NATO forces had already established a compromised image of Pakistani sovereignty due to the weak play by the country’s government. Has the PPP lead Pakistani Government shown a solid stance over drone attacks and American intrusion into Pakistan to capture Osama Bin Ladin, chances are that the November 26 deaths of the 24 Pakistani soldiers could have been averted.

The latest statement issued by the American State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner did acknowledge the blunder by the US led NATO forces but consistently fell short of a clear-cut, unconditional apology to Pakistan, the families of the martyred Pakistani soldiers and the Pakistani people; “We accept responsibility for mistakes committed by the US side in the Nato air strike incident”. Mark Toner went on to state that the US was ready to monetarily compensate families of the martyred Pakistani soldiers.

It seems that the Americans claiming to be Pakistan’s closest ally in their war on terror in Afghanistan haven’t quite yet understood the Pakistani people. The Pakistani people are being alienated to the Americans and their cause in Afghanistan with every single passing day. The Obama Administration has recently done more to damage rather than build Pak-American relations as evident from popular public sentiment widely covered in the local and international media. The question now is whether the Obama Administration will pay heed to this conspicuously visible dissatisfaction by the Pakistani people or will they continue with their isolated agenda that will dangerously polarize the regional situation both in regional and global perspectives.

Religious USA: Crazy about Muslims!

Here is a video clip by the American TV channel ABC that carried out a social experiment to identify and analyze the causes of religion based discrimination against Muslim Americans by the non-Muslim American public. It exhibits a behavior which is a mix of regret-mixed-punishment, humanistic support and at times politically correct indifference.

Many people, especially Muslims, may take it as a surprise. The primary reason being that such images break-down the “American Dream” image that most of the immigrants and other aspirants embrace based on the pro-American media projection that does not provide a wholesome picture including potential discriminatory behavior from certain domestic social segments.

The questions that arise from this observation are multi-dimensional:

1. Why now? Why did not this realization exist earlier amongst the media and the Muslim minority/immigrants?

2. No more an ‘Eastern Phenomenon’! We all thought (or were made to think) that such social drawbacks were exclusive to the Eastern and essentially non-Western part of the world. Well guess what!

3. Does this mean polarization?! Or better yet getting real, tolerant and appreciative of the goodness that both the East and the West can bring together.

An argument based explanation to the aforementioned observations can be put under two broad-categories:

Interactive Diversity: Too Close for Comfort

The answer to the above questions is pretty much related to society’s increasing exposure to diversity and the globalization of media. Such discriminatory behavior is not exclusive to any single society of the world. It is but a human aspect that is amplified as diverse cultures get too close to ignore; mostly through circumstantial happenings. When the diverse social practices come in close a range  they trigger the previously dormant ‘diversity dynamics’. This essentially results in challenging, directly or indirectly, the lifestyle and philosophic approach of the host society.

Social history vouches that changing human behavioral attributes founded especially on religious beliefs are the most difficult to even engage with. Religion for both the practicing and non-practicing alike has been a ‘Untouchable & Unquestionable’ aspect of one’s private life. It is like a heavily guarded forbidden ‘treasure’ the inquiry of which only brings about a sense of vulnerability and fear of loss.

Media-Wise: Oh so THAT’s my Culture!

The other key catalyst has been the media that has brought about these diversity dynamics through amplified projection of the otherwise politically correct and very blurry social boundaries. The media earlier were isolated in the sense that either their broadcast was limited to a geographical territory of their origin or there was no real media competition in the satellite broadcasting scenario. Since lately the West dominated popular satellite media primarily lead by CNN and BBC has started to face considerable competition from Eastern satellite channels specifically from the middle east such as Al-Jazeera TV and the Asian/South Asian regions primarily comprising China, Pakistan & India. This proliferation of the media has amplified realization of the cultural & value-system differences that exist between the East and the West. These have further provided the Eastern representatives in the form of immigrants, workers and next generation a heightened sense of belonging to their roots and highlighted the contrasts with the host culture of the country of their residence. This form of ‘media advocacy’ motivates these immigrants to practice, project and share their root culture and religious beliefs more frequently and with much bolder visibility.

Huh! Huh? : I am one of them! Am I one of them?

This is exactly what’s been projected in the ABC social experiment video. The previously dormant Muslim practices and the now greater first-hand visibility of the root culture via Eastern (and specifically media of Muslim countries) media to the host country have suddenly created a certain level of ‘strangeness’ amongst the people. What once seemed familiar has now taken several new dimensions to which the general public does not have the answers and thus do not feel ‘confident’ dealing with it. In the wake of religion based tension and armed conflicts with intertwined political interests involving both the East and the West; the public remains overburdened by negative news. The need is to design on ground public activism and media talk-shows that address all such dimensions, answer questions and show both sides of the story for the global community to achieve mutual understanding. Through this mutual understanding would then arise appreciation for the positive contributions of every culture to the ‘Global Culture’. As it is with human history we did succeed in coining the term ‘Global Village’ without preparing the diverse peoples for what was coming ahead. It’s now time for consolation and consolidation.

Time for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to deliver to the common Pakistani

The lawyers movement for restoration of the previously dismissed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has always claimed that the movement was popular and had full support of the common Pakistani citizen. One of the spokespersons for the popularly called “Lawyers Movement” and currently the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Ali Ahmed Kurd, had frequently stated over numerous national TV programs that the “Pakistani Public” wanted the dismissed Iftikhar Chaudhry back as the Chief Justice. Ali Ahmed Kurd also claimed that the decision for re-instatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry would be made on the roads by the people. As per the spokesperson of the Lawyers Movement the eventual beneficiary was a common citizen of Pakistan.

Well most recently a video (shown below) of a 17 years old girl being publicly and brutally flogged by some extremists in Swat located in the Northern Areas of Pakistan has been aired on all Pakistani and international media screens.

The chief Justice has so far summoned the officials both from the federal and provincial governments on Monday April 6, 2009 and ordered production of the victim girl as well. The question that hovers on the mind of every common Pakistani is whether or how soon would the girl gets justice and the criminals are punished as per the law under the Constitution of Pakistan. Another question or rather fear that haunts a Pakistani is whether this incident would only end in the incident being tried and settled in the rogue extremist courts falsely labelled as Islamic courts and do not follow the Constitution of Pakistan.