Sunday, May 9, 2010

A Tale of 2 Faisals -- and the Nation-States that Shaped them

Two Faisals -- one became a topper, the other a terrorist. How did this happen?

Thousands of Indians from all over the world sent messages of congratulation through newspapers, phone calls and sms, to a 28 year old doctor, Faesal Rasool Shah from Kashmir. Faesal topped the IAS exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

Indians everywhere exulted at young Faisal's success.

Indians get to celebrate doctors -- not terrorists.

Q.How that did that chain of events materialize? Out of thin air? Or from an ETHICAL path chosen 65 years ago?

The scene shifts earlier in the very same week, to another Faisal, to an image of a smiling young man in designer sunglasses, Fisal Shahzad. But this time the young man, a Pakistani-American from an upper middle class, privileged, influential air force family has clumsily detonated a bomb in Times Square in the US, country of his adoption.

Q.How that did that chain of events materialize? Out of thin air? Or from a less- than-ethical path chosen by a colonized nation-state 65 years ago? A path that was forged against its own people? A path of destruction, bloodshed and an embittering border where none before had existed? Is young Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American the direct descendant in a six-decade history of Brit colonialism, Brit-driven Partition, Pakistan's puppet-state collusion with US neo-imperialism?

And that other more enduring and ever inspiring Faisal from India's Kashmir, how did he survive against tragic adversity? How did he accomplish excellence?

Which Nation-state withstood neo-imperialism of the US military-Corporate-Complex and produced a topper instead of a terrorist?
-----------
more....that's what a blog is for...reflection....