Boston to Baghdad

America's fragile ceiling was shattered on April 20th, when two bombs disrupted the festivities at the finish line of the prestigious Boston marathon. Fortress America had avoided being attacked since 2001. After billions of dollars spent on gathering intelligence within and outside the country, and eradicating every nail clipper to ever pass through an x-ray machine, America's fortune ran out. Three people died and body parts were strewn all over and a nightmare that has become routine in other parts of the world, returned to this nation.

And so began an all too familiar media frenzy with incessant, speculative, inaccurate coverage, compromising all journalistic ethics possible. From CNN's much lampooned blunder to FOX's over the top xenophobia, the race to get the "exclusive", had compromised what little reputation TV journalism had had left. As the manhunt for the alleged bombers became a live TV "action thriller" event, with gun battles, car chases, explosions, macho reporters and more carnage, New York City went on high alert. When it was all over, crowds poured out on to the streets chanting USA! USA! and the police and FBI agents were declared America's brave heroes. The good yet again had prevailed and "evil" was demolished. This time the countries of Chechnya and Dagestan were demonized and the faces of two young Caucasian men, became the personification of "evil". The media tried their level best to extract the word "Islam" from the equation, even before it was apparent. "Islam" yet again became the dreaded word that conjured up ideas of suspicion, terror and mistrust of the other. The only difference between the brothers and Timothy McVeigh (the Oklohama City bomber) were their names. They were all radicalized by a violent ideology that only changes labels with changing times.

The day the Boston marathon was transformed from an event of human endurance to a moment of human depravity, the same day Iraq lay waste to horrific bombings. From Baghdad to Kirkuk to Nasariah, 31 people died and scores were injured. The media barely paid attention as Iraq is a place where death by indiscriminate carnage is routine. While the world was gripped by what had happened in Boston, and the hunt for the two bombers was escalating, and the minute by minute coverage was keeping people on the edge of their seats, many in Iraq were just going about their business, picking up body parts and calling it another day in the life of a nation devastated by sectarian violence. America bares responsibility for the state of affairs in Iraq. But now that the US troops have left, so has the attention of the world.

What happened in both these places, as horrific as it is, has become the new normal. The cycle of violence of this nature, around the world, has become common and a matter of fact. In the west there is much more scrutiny and exposure, as it is framed as an attack on "their way of life". In other places like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, it just makes it past the daily police blotter for a few days. Any kind of inoculation against such terror can only be temporary, as the roots of the problem are complicated to address and the willingness to do so is limited. The desire to create water tight defenses by spending billions and spawning an industry and society of surveillance is greater, than engaging in meaningful global conversations to address the causes of disenchantment, injustice, poverty and a sense of exploitation that leads to violent revolt.

Around the same time the Boston bombing took place an important report was published which largely went unnoticed by the mainstream media. Any discussion or debate around it, which should have dominated the news cycle, was only cursory. The "Torture Report" as it has come to be known is a 577 page document issued by a panel convened by the Constitution Project, and chaired by two former members of Congress, Republican Asa Hutchinson and Democrat James R. Jones. The report looked at the broad range of policies and practices that were adopted by the U.S. to deal with detainees after the September 11th attacks. “Perhaps the most important or notable finding of this panel,” the report’s opening states, “is that it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” And most of the people who endured the torture were Muslim by faith. And that rarely goes unnoticed. The apparatus that sponsored the people who grossly violated the Geneva conventions will never be held to account. There will be no "Nuremberg Trials" this time, and the absolute truth will remain cloaked. President Obama made that so in the first term of his presidency.

As long as Guantanamo Bay exists as a symbol of the torture America engineered under the pretense of national security and the Israel-Palestine conflict festers as an open wound as more and more Palestinian land gets eaten away. And as the wars that are waged around the globe under the pretext of "fighting terror" never cease to end, the doctrine to radicalize against the west will freely be available to those motivated.

As any meaningful law to address gun violence in America got diluted into a government gutter, discussion about the gun battles that took place between law enforcement and the bombers were largely outside the realm of the gun control debate. There were hundreds of rounds fired the day the alleged bombers were killed and arrested. There was very little said about where they could have procured their arsenal. The defenders of the 2nd Amendment, criticized those who raised this issue for using the bombing to push an agenda. While those on the other side argued that tougher gun laws could have made a bad situation less worse. Or maybe could have even prevented such an incident. The fact is, in a largely free society such as America, it is easy to procure raw materials and know how if you had the intention to do harm. And that is what was on display in Boston.

As the mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers of the dead and maimed cried in despair, so did the mother of the bombers who lost her children to a kind of thinking that she claimed she did not give birth to. For all the mothers everywhere who have seen their loved ones blown away to senseless violence, there is no balm, only pain and torment.

Justice is a sacred word that enshrines and protects the idea of our humanity. It is a very personal idea that means the same to all those who have been wronged and victimized. In an ideal democratic society, justice belongs to all and is delivered in equal measure with due process no matter who you are. But when justice becomes the privilege of the privileged, democracy is diluted, giving rise to militancy and violence. Justice is a rare commodity thesedays. When revolutions develop as a counter measure, as seen in the middle east, they are quickly co-opted by another form of corruption as seen in Egypt. Even within established democracies, where the rule of law is sacrosanct, and the notion of "justice for all" has been established via robust institutions over centuries, the "torture report" on America exposes the weakness that lies within. As long as there is a deficit of justice, and there are stark imbalances in resources, power, information and 22, there will be an ideology that will foster violence in an ever shrinking world.

A few days ago George W. Bush took part in a ritual that is only native to the United States of America. He inaugurated a monument to himself. Like many presidents before him, a presidential library was erected in his honor which will house documents and other presidential paraphernalia for future generations to explore. A time capsule of sorts in dedication to the eight years he helmed his country. At the commemoration ceremony, flanked by all the surviving presidents who were taking part in this exclusive ritual, the "war president" got teary while giving the closing speech. The only time I remember seeing genuine emotion in a man who took America to an erroneous war, whose killing still has not stopped. It is what it is.

Stalemate

It is March and everyone in this part of the world is waiting for the cold gray to withdraw and the earth to give way to green. As temperatures begin to warm and the mood begins to shift, there is hope that a desperately needed change in other aspects of life will also follow. To hope is but human, but in the current climate to expect, seems foolish. Someone once said, the measure of one's success is how well one deals with disappointments. It seems as though humanity has become accustomed to dealing with disappointments very well.

No matter where you turn, there seems to be a condition of stalemate. A recent report about the two year long civil war in Syria stated that the pace of killing there had surpassed Iraq. The conflict has claimed 70,000 lives in half the time. The world waits for "red lines" to be crossed for intervention, while the slaughter continues unabated. When all is set and done, the world will look back and wish it had intervened earlier to stop the killing. Much like Rawanda, the postmortem would be painful and unfortunately it is already much too late for many.

Stalemate in Washington D.C., seems to be the norm. Political bickering and partizan jockeying has resulted in a congress that has reached its highest level of dysfunction. Nothing gets done and the chances of anything concrete happening get more and more distant. The sequestration is taking its toll on essential services and the people in power don't seem to care. Decisions to reign in the out of control deficit are far from being reached. Its been barely three months since children were gunned down in Newtown, Connecticut and any meaningful legislation on gun violence has all but withered away. A ban on assault weapons, the kind that was used in the horrific tragedy, which President Obama promised would be the cornerstone of his gun control reform, has all but vanished from the debate. More time and energy is being spent in hearing and rehashing the age old debate over same-sex marriage than on issues that really matter to the larger public.

North Korea seems to be using its bull horn again to rile up a giant. Angered by the punishing sanctions that prevent its elite from indulging in open debauchery while its citizens starve, Pyongyang has unleashed bellicose rhetoric threatening America and its regional partners with nuclear war. By shredding the Armistice agreement they have effectively returned the two Koreas to a state of war. In response America flew its nuclear bombers to the peninsula in mock drills to send a message that open threats will not be taken lightly. Whether this would just be another North Korean high wire act or a real cause for concern, only time will tell. The stalemate continues as the world has not found a meaningful way to engage this secluded nation that has taken its own people hostage for four generations now.

In Pakistan, it is election season once again. In May, for the first time in its history, Pakistan completes a full term of its democratically elected parliament and president. No one is rejoicing or celebrating this achievement. In the 66 years of its existence, Pakistan has seen extreme political upheaval. Assassinations, military coups, terrorism and sectarian wars have scarred the nation to despair. Pakistan as a result hinges on becoming a failed state with nuclear weapons, and therefore has become the most dangerous place on earth in the estimation of many security experts. The current party in power, like its predecessors, has enriched itself to the hilt. President Zardari, who once spent time in prison for corruption, recently built a bomb proof mansion for himself and his son on 25 acres of land outside Lahore. With sprawling lawns that can hold 10,000 people behind 13 foot reinforced concrete walls and a basement swimming pool, the mansion is his latest addition to a corrupt legacy. While most ordinary citizens deal with rampant inflation, acute power shortages and live in fear of sectarian violence and suicide bombers, the ruling class continues its record of profiteering and mismanagement of the state. As the much maligned previous president and dictator Parvez Musharraf returns to his homeland to take part in the elections, there is very little hope that much is going to change in Pakistan. The stalemate and status-quo is bound to continue.

In neighboring India things are better, but rampant corruption undermines everything that could be desirable. The dynastic politics at the top spearheaded by the Gandhi family, is the source of all corruption and dysfunction in the system. The family tightly controls the reigns of power by making despicable deals with nefarious factions to hold on to power. Making sure that Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi stay at the helm at any cost. Much like his father, Rahul Gandhi is being groomed to be Prime Minister, but has very little talent to show for it. His brother-in-law Robert Vadra, has become a political liability by being mired in one corruption scandal after another. Yet he continues to enjoy a close relationship with the family. As long as the political establishment in India revolves around this family, progress in India will be stunted. An alternative has not emerged, therefore the stalemate continues and the prospects do not look promising at all. In a recent study it was found that only 2.5% of Indian's pay income tax. And only 42,800 people declared an income over 10 million rupees ($184,000). The Indian finance minister finds these figures "laughable". Today, India buys more Rolls Royces, Mercedes Benzes and other luxury items than most nations. This is an indication of the corruption that is plaguing the country today. While indicators such as poverty and education show marginal improvement, India is poised to become the fourth largest military power in the world by the end of the decade. The private sector does what it can to move the country forward, but when the ruling class is made up of criminals, there is only so far a nation can progress.

President Obama visited Israel and Palestine this month. Grand speeches and hand shakes were on full display. With loud applause and some heckling, President Obama, like six presidents before him, talked about the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland as citizens and not a caged people. The two state solution was again reaffirmed and rebroadcasted as the final solution to a final problem. The reality on the ground clearly shows a different picture. The two state solution idea seems to have long left the station. The Israeli settlements have all but ravaged and raped Palestinian lands and show no signs of stopping. A wall that clearly imprisons a people continues to expand. The Palestinian people are divided into two states and the only solution they see is a one state one. Therefore the stalemate promises to continue and the plight of the Palestinian people grows even more uncertain and dire, and the moral character of a democratic nation called Israel sinks even lower.

In Kenya a new president was elected. After a heavily disputed election, Uhuru Kenyatta - a man who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity - was affirmed president by the Supreme Court. An election that was largely fought along sectarian lines and narrowly won by Uhuru Kenyatta proved that Kenya had not healed from its last ordeal. The last disputed election that took place in 2007 saw thousands of people murdered due to tribal animosity and allegiances. According to the ICC Uhuru Kenyatta was one of the men who orchestrated some of the bloodshed. Now that he is president, he is requesting the charges to be dropped. For the time being his opponent Raila Odinga has accepted defeat and agreed to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court. But a stalemate hangs over, and that could boil over into violence and carnage at any given time.

Another European nation had to be bailed out this month. Cyprus which had all but lost its banks, was rescued by the European Union and the IMF with a 10 billion euro hand out. Some think Cyprus was blackmailed into taking the hand out at the cost of some serious hardship to its citizens. Who's next is anyone's guess as the experiment known as the European Union continues to unravel at its seams.

As the new Pope called for global peace and reconciliation in his Easter message, some in the Vatican Square and else where looked up and applauded. In the real world, the idea of real peace hung in the balance as usual. Maintained by force, like in Northern Mali and by deterrence as in the Korean peninsula, peace in some places is a complicated entity to have. As the honeymoon with the new Pope is in full swing, there is an expectation of change. But not much is likely to change, as change disrupts order. Catholicism and the Vatican survive on conservative values, catering to a base that looks up to it for the continuation of those standards. How much it will swing to bring more people into its fold, is any ones guess.

So as the world turns and seasons change, there is hope that there will be a movement towards amend, away from a condition of stalemate to a resolution of consequence. For those who suffer as a result of no action or action that is not desirable, hope in the future or in some abstraction is the only place for solace. That is what it is.

Carnage

A midnight alert on my iPhone reported "Two Explosions in Hyderabad. Many dead. Scores injured". I was perturbed. I immediately called my father who lives in Hyderabad. He was distressed and disturbed. The carnage that was on television was hard for him to see. Body parts scattered in the rubble, maimed bodies in white bandages strewn across crowded hospital beds and women wailing over their loved ones. Two bombs had killed 17 people and left 120 injured in a congested neighborhood of the city. Hyderabad rarely makes it to the international scene; on February 21, it made headlines across the globe for a few hours.

I left Hyderabad in the early 90s and have since returned periodically from my adopted home in Brooklyn, New York. Watching my city from a distance and sometimes feeling a foreigner when I am there, has given me a rare insight into its evolution. The seamless intermingling of Islamic and Hindu culture in this city, has defined everyone's identity for centuries. This aspect has always been a matter of pride and charm for those who have lived here or have passed through. Most Hyderabadi's consider themselves to be part Muslim and part Hindu and can appreciate each other’s food, customs and traditions with very little effort. My father speaks, reads and writes fluently in Urdu, which is most often considered a Muslim language. He grew up in British India, when Hyderabad was a Muslim kingdom and Urdu was the official language of the region and everyone had to learn and speak it. It is no longer the case. For many urban denizens Urdu has become as foreign as German or French.


Growing up in Hyderabad was complicated at times. There would be periodic tension in the air when religious riots would break out in the "Old City". The older part of this 400-year-old city is a congested maze of magnificent beauty and filth. Ancient monuments, majestic palaces and ornate doorways lie hidden among urban blight and narrow alleyways. Hindus and Muslims live packed together in this part of the city as they have for centuries. Their religious public ceremonies dominate the streets during festival season.


Sometimes horror stories of Hindus killing Muslims and vice versa would fill the morning headlines and the whole city would shut down. People living in the new part of town, who were mostly middle or upper middle class, would be left angry, disturbed and befuddled by the violence. Everyone always knew the riots were ignited by the religious mafia and its criminal political cohorts, for reasons beyond most people's comprehension. The dark and painful legacy of the India-Pakistan separation and the butchery that took place along religious lines at that time, always loomed large. A few people would be knifed, the police would declare a curfew, some arson would take place, the city would turn into a ghost town for a few days. Hardworking people and businessmen would be disgusted and distraught. Us children would be happy for not having to go to school. Then life would slowly return to normal until the next flare up.


While the violence during the riots would be senseless, in no measure can it be compared to what took place this week. We never heard of bombs or explosions. In the past seven years Hyderabad has been a victim to at least five explosions that have caused mayhem, gripping the city in fear like never before.


Hyderabad is no Aleppo, Kabul, Quetta, Baghdad or Tripoli. But the city has dramatically changed over the last decade and the population has increased significantly pushing the city to grow in every direction possible, including skyward. IT companies from Microsoft to Infosys all have offices here and the droves that service them keep increasing. Much like the movie industry transformed the fabric of the city in the 80s and 90s, the technology boom has rearranged the city in the last decade, tearing one city into many. The boom has created wealth and economic mobility never seen before. But large sections of the city have not been touched at all by the shine.


Hyderabad has had its share of political upheaval some of which is still on going. The painful violent invasion of Hyderabad in 1948 by the national police, effectively assimilated it into the Indian Union. The Naxallite (peasant revolt) movement which started in the 60s in the rural areas sometimes brought violence into the city. A regional uprising to split the state into two distinct ethnic provinces that started in the 60s, has had a resurgence and has caused chaos on every front over the last few years. So when the recent explosions took place there were a range of groups who could have had a motive to pursue it. But as always, due to the long history of animosity and involvement of Pakistan and its terrorist groups in spreading havoc in India, the obvious glance shifted westward.

As usual the Muslim groups with various beefs to pick with the Indian government came under scrutiny. Pakistan's inbred terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and its ilk were mentioned. Then speculation that this attack could be a reprisal for the executions of two terrorists in Indian custody was seen as a possibility. Last November Ajmal Qasab the only surviving gunman from the 2011 terrorist attacks on Bombay was expeditiously hanged. The 25 year old terrorist who had done the bidding of his Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers from Pakistan, by spraying innocent bystanders with bullets, was sentenced to death by a court and executed in secret for populist political reasons. Early this month, Mohammad Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man who was involved in planning the attacks on the Indian Parliament in 2001 was suddenly pulled out of his 12 year long solitary confinement and put to death in secret. His family was not informed of his impending execution and his body was never returned to them. His trial and sentencing was fraught with controversy and exposed the failings of the Indian justice system and the media. The gaping holes in the case against Afzal Guru were exposed in the press by Arundhati Roy and others.


In reality there are many groups within India that have reasons to cause mayhem only to make a point against a system that has failed to deliver. Human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, lack of social justice, a decrepit justice system and a corrupt and criminal political class have all created a toxic environment. For example, since 1990 when the struggle for self-determination in Kashmir became militant, 68,000 people have died, 10,000 have disappeared, and at least 100,000 have been tortured at the hands of the Indian Army. Whether "Saffron Terrorists" (Hindu Terrorists) or your run of the mill "Islamic Terrorists" carried out these senseless killings in Hyderabad, only time will tell. Maybe an official report ten years too late will reveal something unexpected. But the truth will always remain masqueraded so long as there is no faith in the system. 


Indiscriminate carnage of civilians has become a recurrent phenomenon around the world. Choosing "Soft Targets" has become the order of the day. As a result a sense of depraved indifference has risen in the minds of ordinary citizens, against the system, towards those who kill and those who get killed. May it be terrorist organizations doing the killing or governments and their military establishments (as in the case of Sri Lanka), scenes of mass murder have desensitized the public. Making the shock and the memory of it as short lived as a blink of an eye. There will be no memorials, no hour long TV shows about the victims of the Hyderabad blast. Just return to business as usual. Life is cheap and disposable in a nation of too many.
 
There is no dearth if senseless killing in the world. There never was. From dictators to democracies, they all take part in the art of senseless killing and find means to justify their actions to the world. President Bashar Assad in Syria butchers his own people claiming to be protecting his nation from terrorists. The President of the United States authorizes the use of drones and violates the sovereignty of nations to kill people who supposedly threaten his country. Close to three thousand people have died in US drone strikes mostly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. Many of them unproven terrorists. Some women and children as well. China recently contemplated using a drone to kill a drug lord. So it is only a matter of time when other nations will procure flying objects to kill, playing judge, jury and executioner from the sky.
 
Poverty, destitution, uncertainty and a loss of faith in the system often breeds high levels of religious zeal. Spiritual congregation, places of worship and Ashrams fill the void for some. Revolt using violence as a means of expression also fills a void for some who feel they have been wronged. One has to appreciate life to not want to end it. There are too many today, to whom death is but a momentary blip, a speck on the road to oblivion, a way of making an illusory impact. Executing killers makes one a killer and only breeds more killing. Whether you do it from the sky or from the ground, killing can never be an answer or a solution to anything. It is what it is.
 

Invasion

This month American's marked the 40th anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court ruling which commonly goes by the name Roe V. Wade. This Supreme Court ruling was a cornerstone in the evolution of America and legalized the much-stigmatized act of a medical abortion across the nation. Thus saving lives of those who sought these services in the shadows. 

Twenty years ago a minor adjustment was made to that ruling. The court gave individual states the legal right to impose regulations as long as they didn't cause an "undue burden" on a woman's abortion rights. 

That opened the floodgates, and since then states with conservative or Republican administrations have been trying to limit abortion rights of women to the best of their ability. The rationale to do so has ranged from the religious, moral, political to the downright absurd. 

As a result women have suffered yet again, whose consent or approval was largely ignored, as their innards became the property of the state.

Recently Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill into law, which went into effect on February 6th, 2012. The law will force Texas women to undergo an ultrasound, hear a detailed description of the fetus and then wait a full 24 hours before receiving abortion care. Mandatory sonogram bills have since been introduced in 14 states. Arizona, Louisiana and Texas have already enacted ultrasound laws. The Texas law -- which is one of the most extreme, requires doctors to tell a woman the size of her fetus' limbs and organs, even if she does not want to know. The law also forces physicians to make an image of the fetus and the sound of its heartbeat made available to a woman before she can undergo the procedure. Perry, who made the bill an emergency measure, said that the law will "ensure that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying and understands the devastating impact of such a life-changing decision."

Two weeks after the Texas law was passed Carolyn Jones, a journalist, went into a clinic for an abortion. Pregnant with her second child, Jones was told by her doctor that he was worried about the shape of her baby's head. After two sonograms a specialist's office revealed a problem that was preventing her son's brain, spine and legs from developing correctly. The specialist warned that if the child made it to term, he would suffer greatly and need a lifetime of care. Jones and her husband decided they would abort their child. It was an extremely traumatic decision for them to arrive at. Her trauma was elevated to an inhuman level when she had to go through a third mandated sonogram because of the Taxas law. She had to hear the heart beat of her unborn child yet again and listen to a mandated script by the administering doctor, describe the fetus in detail. Jones is still traumatized by that experience so much that she has launched media campaign showing how this law violates a woman's right to chose with a gross invasion of her privacy.

Abortion has always been a contentious issue in America. Despite the progress made by various feminist and women's rights groups over decades, it still dominates the political and social debate like a lightening rod. To a large extent there has been a level of consensus on all sides, when it comes to pregnancies caused by incest or rape. Recently in New Mexico, a Republican "woman" lawmaker Cathrynn Brown, introduced a bill that will force rape victims to carry their pregnancies to term during their sexual assault trials or face charges of "tampering with evidence" which carries a three year prison term. Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime.

Today in America, four states, Arkansas, Mississippi and North and South Dakota have only one legal abortion clinic. Eight states outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Louisiana has no exception for rape or incest victims and no law prevents rapists from demanding visitation rights. And eight states have mandatory ultrasound laws much like Texas. One factor that unifies all these states is that they are overwhelmingly Republican. So much for progress, in the "land of the free".

In Morocco a year ago, a 16-year-old committed suicide after a law forced her to marry her rapist. Her parents and a judge had pushed through her marriage to save her family's "honor". The incident sparked an outcry forcing the government this month to change a draconian law that allows rapists avoid charges if they marry their victims.

On December 17, 2012, the barbaric rape and murder of a young woman in the capital city of India ignited a nation to its core and sent shock waves across the globe. The debate that followed exposed the depraved nature of Indian society and the people who rule over them. It brought into daylight the criminal nature of its political class, which includes many alleged rapists, it exposed the ineffectual, understaffed and impotent police force and last but not least revealed the true nature of a culture that has lost its social bearings. The horrific incident that took place in New Delhi held a mirror to a nation that needs serious self examining. Since this incident, there have been many that have followed and many more went unreported. Exposing further a scourge that faces a people, whose deities and leaders, present and past are women

The incessant desire to only have male children and using illegal sonograms to abort girl children has lead to a lopsided sex ratio that has had a dire impact on Indian society. The lack of a free social space outside of marriage, where men and women can interact in a healthy manner, has led to a perversion that Bollywood and the internet feed and exploit, causing women to fear for their safety after 7 PM in most parts of the nation. Whether the December 17th incident, which still manages to stay alive in the media, will actually bring forth any meaningful change, is a daunting question that lingers over India like a dense New Delhi fog.

Whether life begins at conception or at birth is a matter of opinion. Whether women have equal status in society is based on geography and circumstance. In most cases, women certainly do not make equal pay for equal work. What is evident though across the globe, is that for a great many women, things are as worse as they have ever been. From acid attacks and honor killings, to rape, date rape and gender discrimination, women in this day and age, in all societies, still face an uphill task. While there is a universal realization that there is a need for change, progress most often is incremental and sometimes comes at a heavy cost. The assumed threat that men fearfully face from a woman's freedom - social, sexual and economic - is immense, and varies from culture to culture and nation to nation. Even though at the heart of the abortion debate, lies the freedom of a woman to choose, it is often wrapped in a moral or religious veil only to inflict guilt and deprivation, a means of taking away the shame from men and placing it on the women. There is no law on this planet that legislates what men can do or not do with their body. But there are a plethora of them when it comes to women.

This week in America there was a ban lifted on women serving in the armed forces. From here on women will be allowed to enter a battlefield with no strings attached. They will be allowed to do the killing, which for a long time has been only a man's prerogative. So now women can both give life and take life if they chose, but only with a gun. Still rape looms large over the American armed forces like a disease with no cure. And through out history rape has also been used as a weapon of choice by marauding armies. Maybe with women being involved things might be different.

Equality does not necessarily mean that women have to do everything that men can do. Equality means for women to have the unequivocal freedom in every way to decide what they want to do with their lives. But there is no doubt that the participation of women in every sphere of life creates a balance, that is so desperately needed if our planet and our species is to survive.

There is a perception that in the urban landscape of much of the world, women are on an equal footing. While this may be true for more and more women, draconian laws do affect them in their personal space. From menstrual pain, birthing pain to menopause, there is no question women have it harder than men. The reasoning behind making it even harder for them can only stem from a desire to dominate and feel power over.

As a father of two girls, I always tell my children that they are no different in any respect and there is nothing they can't do, as long as they set their eyes on the prize. There is no doubt that there are challenges only they will face just because they have a vagina instead of a penis. But then again I am delighted by the fact that they will always have a nurturing quality that will give hope to this world, when all hope is gone.

I am currently making a documentary film about a man who built the first Thermo-Nuclear Weapon or the Hydrogen Bomb. In the many interviews we have done of scientists who were engaged in building these weapons of total annihilation, one question always arose. How is it that humanity has not blown itself to oblivion considering the number of nuclear weapons we have lying around the planet. Is it pure chance, good planning, deterrence or a miracle? An interesting and unorthodox answer came from an octogenarian worldly wise scientist.

He said "Because there are women in this world".

It is what it is.

Again and Again

In the four years I have been writing this blog, there have been three deliberations on mass killings. In July of 2011 Anders Behring Breivik unleashed terror on a youth camp on an Island outside Oslo in Norway. Last year Jared Laughner fired at a US congresswoman in Arizona, in the process killing six. Earlier this year in Colorado at a movie theater James Holms ended the lives of twelve, one among them a six year old. There have been many single shooter mass killings in between these events about which I have refused to write, partly because I had no new arguments to add to the debate. But when this month in Connecticut, the horror was brought too close to home, when little children paid the ultimate price, I was compelled to write yet again about a plague that is eating at a nation and its people. This unconscionable event has reignited the gun control debate with much vigor, as a president shed some rare tears at the loss of innocence in the aftermath of a bloodbath.

As I have argued in my previous postings, the remedy to the abominable violence in America is staring in everyone’s face. The will to act as always is muted and mired in ugly politics. The will to do something meaningful is as short lived as the memory of such tragedies. Whether the memory of this catastrophe will last longer, long enough for a nation, a president and a congress to decisively act, only time will tell. The solutions have never been more apparent.

A day before the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, half way across the globe a knife-wielding man attacked 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China. The latest in a series of attacks at Chinese schools and kindergartens that have left many in shock. While many were traumatized, there were no deaths reported. Japan, a nation that has the toughest gun control laws in the world, saw about twelve people die of gun violence this year. United Kingdom, a western nation with tough gun laws, has one of the lowest gun related homicide rates in the world. So when supporters of gun ownership in America hide behind the 2nd Amendment - an arcane constitutional law that awards every citizen the right to legally own guns - and say that "guns don't kill people, people kill people", the evidence to prove otherwise could not be starker.

 Much like a world without nuclear weapons is unthinkable so is a world without guns. Many solutions have been proposed to tackle this recurring slaughter and many are intelligent and implementable. The solutions have to be practical and realistic. With gun ownership being very high in the US a buy back program –like the one that was enacted in Australia in 1996 and 2003 - is not possible and is prohibitively expensive. Though successful buy back programs have been implemented on a city and state level. Some argue that the fact that people own guns, and there are enough of them who are responsible, it prevents gun violence. While this “deterrence” idea might work with nuclear weapon states, there are numerous examples to show that it simply does not work when applied to individuals. In a country where gun ownership is a state issue, and owning assault weapons is as easy as owning a pet, and where passions around ones constitutional right to own guns run high and deep, the solutions have to be sensible to avert anarchy.

Regulation needs to be on the ammunition side. The constitution gives one the right to bear arms, but does not say anything about the amount of ammunition one can carry. One could conceivably make ammunition extremely expensive, and regulate it like one controls prescription medication and  contraband. The president has already called for a ban on assault weapons in the aftermath of the Connecticut massacre. Sales of automatic and semi-automatic weapons have shot up as a result. The weapon of choice in the recent killing, The Bushmaster, has become a rare commodity. Americans have begun hording guns and ammunition, in fear of regulations that are to come. The NRA (National Rifle Association) has come out swinging, vowing to fight any regulation as they lobby the gun manufacturing industry more than gun owners. Any regulation will be an uphill task in gun crazy nation and it will test the president and the congress' metal. The manufacturing industry, the vendors and the illegal black market need to be tightly managed and policed to see any improvement.

There is no doubt that the culture we live in, not just in America but around the world is increasingly turning violent. From women and children caught in real war zones to fictional wars on larger and larger TV and movie screens, exposure to gun violence is a constant. While some argue that media violence does not directly spawn violence in humans, there is no doubt that it certainly creates an attitude that is numbing towards violence. So when a nation like the United States which clearly has serious mental health issues amongst its citizenry, looks at the symptoms of gun violence, it has to pay attention to a population in crisis. Being the leading manufacturer of weapons, weaponry and violent media in the world, America needs to look within. The shooter in Connecticut was the son of a gun enthusiast, and was on the verge of being committed to an institution for a mental disorder. Proximity and proclivity to weapons created conditions that turned explosive with extreme consequences. In most mass shootings in the US, a similar scenario has been the backdrop.

The debate over guns and its place in our society has been ongoing for decades with very little action. With more and more senseless killings in places where you would least expect it, the debate for the time being has reached a feverish pitch. Leading to a nation waking up in a paranoid state, more suspicious of their neighbor and the community that they live in. This unintended consequence will only lead to a more guarded society, where people will only feel safe by being under the gaze of surveillance cameras at all times or by having a false sense of comfort by having more people in uniform around them. What is needed at this point it to step back and make an assessment of the world we want to live in and understand where as a society we are heading.

In Newtown, Connecticut a memorial was held for 26 adults and children. The president presided over the memorial. There were 28 who died that day. A mother and a son were missing at the memorial. The killer deserved some sympathy as well. He was not born to kill. No one is. It is society that molds an individual therefore everyone needs to bear some blame. To accept the perpetrator as a product of the same society that awards him or her the means to commit a crime, is a place to begin the healing.

It is the end of the year. To end it in an uplifting manner is what one hopes and expects. I was resisting broaching this topic in my year-end post but could not relent. The shooting in Newtown left an indelible mark on America and me. It shook me to the core. Weeks after the incident the conversations in living rooms, cafes and corner shops are still ripe, as the national debate takes absurd turns. Parents are worried, politicians feel an urgency to act, communities are perturbed and schools and innocent children are now expected to prepare for a calamity on a daily basis. So as the year comes to an end it is with hopeful eyes that I look to the future and hope that sanity will prevail. It is what it is.

Homeward Bound

Every year or every other year I make a trip to Hyderabad, India from Brooklyn, New York in search of my childhood. Born and raised in a middle class home in this city, I left for America in my early twenties. Like many in my generation and my socioeconomic class, the search was for change and an education. The year was 1991 and all that I had conjured up of the outside world was through movies, magazines and music. And the drive to see it for real was strong. So I boarded a plane and put on a seat belt for the first time and was off to an American university.

In all the years away, there was always a strong draw to return to the place where I was born, to stay in touch with all those minuscule things that made me who I am. Now that I have two young children and aging parents, the reasons to return have slightly changed. To expose my offspring to the air, aromas and customs that defined my childhood has become a driving desire. To keep them in touch with their acquired "Indian-ness" by birth, is something my wife and I put considerable effort into. As I drive them around my city, through the congested, hot, filthy, chaotic streets, pointing at vestiges of my past, sometimes I find myself boring them with too much detail. To show them the walls I used to climb over to get to school and point at the roadside stalls where I would devour spicy dangerous delectable Indian fast food preparations and to subject their taste buds to a range of flavors hoping it would be an uplifting experience is always a delight. And to spend hours with my octogenarian father over a plate of the best Biryani money can buy, and hear him describe his childhood and the magical kingdom this ancient city once was under the Nizam (the King) is priceless. As I toured the old palace museum where the Nizam once lived and ruled, I could see my father become nostalgic and emotional as he remembered those irreplaceable days of peace, prosperity, piety and just clean, quiet, cool air. As we drove through the congested “old city” he pointed at ornate dilapidated terraces and narrow alleyways, which defined his childhood view, much like I showed mine to my children.

The places where we are born and raised always shape who we are. Whether the beginnings are pleasant or not is immaterial. The friendships forged in those carefree innocent times last a lifetime. Though the friends I search in my hometown have all moved away, and those who are here are caught in the humdrum of life, a phone conversation with an old friend makes everything fresh all over again. An old friend is a movie star, another a successful film director, a schoolmate is the commissioner of police and others own palatial homes and fancy cars, but the memories of when we all played marbles and cricket in an open field, or drove out of the city on motorcycles to catch a late night roadside meal, is what instantly brings us together. People change, the city changes, the country transforms, but somethings never change.

India is a country that is always changing and not changing at all, at the same time. Being the world’s largest democracy, cobbled together by a complicated and tenuous history, it manages to stay together despite all the regional, political, ethnic, religious and communal conflicts tearing at its heart. As some one once said “India is the best functioning chaotic democracy in the world” and nothing can be closer to the truth. At the heart of it are human bonds and relationships that endure time and act as the glue that keeps it all together.

As I have seen my city grow from a quiet, peaceful, southern sleepy town, to a concrete jungle of a metropolis, trying to compete with the great cities of the world, I always seem to ask myself was this inevitable? How much of a role did the nation where I currently reside had to play in this transformation? When I drive around the narrow congested city streets and see BMW SUVs and Mercedes Benz’s on the narrow roads and see brands such as Microsoft, Intel, Accenture and McDonalds displayed on tall shiny buildings where once stood million year old rock formations, the answer is staring at my face. The economic liberalization that took place in India in the early 90s had opened the floodgates. And what was left in its path was a mammoth structural upheaval that is still ongoing.

America’s economic boom of the mid nineties was fueled by the information technology revolution spawned largely in Silicon Valley. Part of that boom was fueled by cheap labor procured in the Indian sub-continent and China. The two southern cities that swallowed a giant share of that business were Bangalore and Hyderabad and that legacy is still intact. Though the progress has slowed as a result of a global economic slowdown, the IT parks and glass facade buildings that were erected almost overnight to house American companies, still define the modernization of India. The IT revolution transformed the social fabric of urban India at a fundamental level. To attract foreign investment Indian cities dreamt of becoming western style metropolises, with giant malls, slick airports, subway systems, high rise apartment complexes and six lane highways. But what was not engineered in a sound fashion was the infrastructure to support such an undertaking. But the Indian’s were adept at adapting to the quirks of a failed state. Having your own dedicated diesel generator solved power shortages, buying your own water solved lack of clean potable municipal water, lack of public hygiene was solved by living in a gated community and driving in air-conditioned cars with tinted windows, served as blinders to the disparity and dysfunctionality that lay outside.

While urban India thrived by gobbling rural India, the lack of a cohesive, effective, honest and just local and federal government had made sure that something’s could never change. People who had money could buy into this dream that there was actual change taking place and their life would only become more and more like the west. And those who did not have much before, suddenly felt they had a chance to climb the ladder. And those who did not have anything had to contend with inflation that was debilitating and downright destructive of their very livelihood. A vision for the nation was lacking at a fundamental level and that is a problem that plagues India even today. There is no plan for a universal health system that could serve everyone equally, there is no vision for an education system that could offer quality education for all, and there is no effort to improve the hygiene conditions as well. Yes India is a large country with over a billion people and to provide effective services for all is a challenge. But when you see federal and state governments constantly mired in corruption scandals of mammoth proportion, you cannot accept that as an excuse. 

Any urban street in any city or town in India serves as a great metaphor for the nation that is India clamoring to make progress. The road is narrow with potholes. You could hit a speed bump or a deep crevice at a moments notice. The traffic lights may or may not light up. The traffic policeman who wears a surgical mask to save himself from the pollution can barely stay awake and in control in the heat and grime. The air-conditioned  SUV, the Porsche, the auto-rickshaw, the cyclist, the bus, the truck, the motorcyclist and the pedestrian all squeeze for space on the same road barely six inches from each other. A sidewalk is non-existent as it has been encroached. Yet no one crashes into each other and the street manages to move on in a loud din of horns and some road rage. And when the traffic light does work and you come to a dead halt, the beggars in the most destitute condition holding babies under their arms knock on the tinted window of the newest car for a hand out. The window sometimes rolls down and out comes a hand with some money and the traffic sluggishly moves on.

If you were to interpret the scenario above, as a slice of the way the nation functions this is how it would appear. Indians can now buy the best cars, afford Italian marble under their feet and breathe air-conditioned air but then the infrastructure to support that lifestyle is riddled with problems and has not progressed much in terms of reliability and  sustainability. The haves and the have-nots each assert their space on the road to success squeezing through by the skin of their teeth. The corrupt government stalls and proves ineffectual and leaves behind a huge population to beg for their existence literally and figuratively. The rich get richer, the middle class struggle to move up buying apartments in concrete high rises and the poor struggle to contend with inflation that makes their basic necessities of life a luxury.

Cellphones and Cable Television have permeated through the Indian population like water. These two technologies have transformed the social fabric by touching almost every social-strata like never before. Cable television with its multitude channels is a relatively recent phenomenon. In over less than two decades it has turned the Indian psyche inside out. Aspirations for consumer products across the board have sky rocketed as a result of what television projects and the lifestyles it promotes. Again American influence in the television space is quite dominating. From Indian versions of franchise reality and game shows to sitcoms and movies, America continues to define the lifestyle for the urban upwardly mobile population. Television in all the various regional languages continues to promote traditional and religious values through mythological stories and TV god-men/women. Channels owned by political parties keep the volatile nature of Indian politics alive in people’s living rooms. The Bollywood juggernaut dominates the media landscape and unifies the nation in a warped sense by not only selling a form of cinema that is largely escapist, but also every other consumer product sold by its many celebrity stars. As an outsider when I flip through the TV channels I struggle to find an identity that I could call Indian. What appears to me is confusion. A space where there is a struggle going on to ascertain who we are as a people, a culture war, a clash of aesthetics and ideas that do not meld together.

With all its complexities and various disenfranchised groups and separatist movements India manages to move forward as a largely functioning democracy. Freedom of expression is largely held sacrosanct. But recently that has also been grossly and fearfully threatened to the discomfort of many. When Aseem Trivedi was arrested on sedition charges for highlighting the corruption in India’s power elite in a cartoon, the ugly bullying nature of Indian politics was exposed. The recent arrest of two young women for voicing their opinion on Facebook about the city of Bombay being shut down for the funeral procession of a highly divisive political ideologue Bal Thackery, showed the mafia element that threatens India’s fragile democracy.

The India I grew up in and the India I visit have grown much like I have. I have put on some weight and have lost hair on my scalp, so has India. But my heart has not changed and so has India’s. In the urban chaos and rural upheaval you can still find people who live close to the earth and embody a life style that is sustainable. They practice age-old methods of recycling and consume only what is equitable in ingenious and clever ways. They need to be encouraged on a national scale. Families stay close and embody the ancient codes passed on through the primordial texts holding the social fabric together. Even though the high uncertainty of life makes people more and more religious and the thirst for gold increases as it is seen as the only reliable source of security, people to a large extent live a secular life, respecting each other’s diversity of religion and ethnic make up. The economic disparity I grew up with seems to have gotten starker but the genuineness among people rich or poor I would like to believe has remained the same.

So as I wind up my recent trip to India I come to a realization that I will always live in two places at the same time. Remembering my childhood with my children and reminiscing with my father of a time that today sounds like a fairy tale, I always am left with one question to ask myself. Will my children think of my time as a fairy tale, or will they remember it as a time when everything began to fall apart and all that was sacred and pure, began to fade way. Only time will tell. It is what it is.