The Value of a Life

[The Green Bean]

It's been a while since I last posted here. Many things have happened in that while that have changed my perspective towards politics and life itself. A few weeks ago, a colleague was shot dead while taking his daughter shopping. Nobody knows who or why. Nobody knows if the killer is behind bars or not--many have been killed because of their beliefs here and shiahs, like myself, are more under threat. A few weeks earlier, there was a bomb blast near my office--on a route I take everyday. Lucky for me I had left a few hours early. Targets? Shiahs.

It's painful to even type but day by day the value of a life in my eyes, including mine is diminishing. A guy rear-ended me last week and was critically injured. I was concerned, but, I felt, not enough.

If I were to die on the hands of terrorists, I would be nothing more than a victim of circumstances. Humans are selfish. They don't care for people. Only individuals. I can relate to the pain of those who lost friends and family on 9/11. At least they felt they got their revenge. In fact, I now openly support American drones strikes on our territory. Not only that, but our army should be deployed in all major cities with militant cells.

Humans are selfish. What they will do for a little money... The Islamic ideology of hatred has originated in Saudi Arabia. I'm not only saying because I am a shiah, I don't adhere to the same beliefs as the Iranians, I'm saying what I have seen. Highly veiled slurs against Shiahs are common in Saudia. They don't let them pray except as the Saudis see right. They tear religious books, taunts and use violence.

They stop just short of saying that Shiahs are infidels who should be killed. That, of course, is the job of the proxies and madrassas in other less stable countries. The new graffiti in my city? Kill shiahs. If you don't kill one, you are yourself a kaafir. Even TV shows are airing this. Despite all this, the mainstream public disagrees that this is genocide.

Even though some alleged killers have been arrested, it's not enough. Justice must be delivered. These people killed and their madrassas stopped. Most Pakistanis are Barelvis. The Deobandis (backed by Saudi), have started exterminating them alongside Shiahs. Why is nothing done about this? The government is corrupt and inept. They are too busy making money to be bothered about his minor issue even though politicians are being regularly targeted. They liberal PPP (who lead the last government which ended in March), said liberals are being killed by extremist. Yet, the president and PM have taken no concrete steps in saving their own. They blame others for the law-and-order situation when they themselves are responsible.

There is every chance that the election on 11th May is swept by Imran Khan. I don't agree with his policies, but transparency and an actual policy is better than none. If he comes into power, as we all hope, Pakistan will be a different country when the next elections come around.

Humans are greedy. The Americans are backing the wrong horse if they want world peace. Saudi Arabia is an authoritative dictatorship. Iran is much better. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islamism. It's a threat to the region. Does America care? I doubt it. On the one hand it is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and on the other pumping billions of dollars into Saudi Arabia. It's your dollars that are buying the bullets which end up in your soldiers!

Appeasing the Saudis is the only plausible reason of supporting Islamists in Syria. Isn't that what you are supposed to fight? Why fund what you want to fight?

A lot to say in a few words. Hope it makes sense. It took me my months to get my thoughts lined up...

 

[Juror No. 8]

The Americans are backing the wrong horse if they want world peace.

Whoever said the American government wants world peace? War is a highly profitable business and makes population management much easier.

Never let a crisis go to waste!

 

[Nebor]

This was an interesting post on your part. A fairly radical departure from the type of things you used to write.

 

[Doppel]

This was an interesting post on your part. A fairly radical departure from the type of things you used to write.

Concur.

It's unfortunate how few non-Americans post on these forums, in fact. Most of what shapes the world view of people here is reading and some very limited travelling, typically as part of a vacation. Not so many bona fide foreigners, certainly damn few not part of the West.

 

[Atreus21]

Thoughtful post. I don't know what to tell you. I think it was Theseus who said to Hercules, "Suffer, and be strong."

As I understand it, one religious figure that Christians, Jews, and Muslims have in common is Abraham. Recall the commandment to love your neighbor.

 

[cirrrocco]

TGB, a very thought provoking post from your side. unfortunately being a shia in pakistan is now virtually a death sentence especially if you are of the white collar variety.

Stay safe buddy.

 

[Braznor]

The Saudis have poured billions and billions to export Sunni Wahhibism across the world. This is the real cause of the growth of terrorism in the world. There are many variants of Islam including sufism in India. If Iran abandons its anti-Israel policy, they might be very good partners for the civilized world in the war against terror. The current Islamic terror is the direct byproduct of the hate industry spun by Saudi money.

 

[The Green Bean]

TGB, a very thought provoking post from your side. unfortunately being a shia in pakistan is now virtually a death sentence especially if you are of the white collar variety.

Stay safe buddy.

There are an estimated 40million (25-30%) Shiahs in Pakistan. That's about the size of the total population of Canada. It's not just Shiahs that are being killed. Barelvis, and even Islamists are being killed. Pakistan's largest city is also the most diverse. It gives us a good idea of the fault lines in the whole country.

For a city of 20 million people, 12 homicides a day is about 20 murders per 100,000 people per year. That is 1/3 of USA cities like New Orleans and Detroit. However, it's the nature, reasoning of the killings and follow-up that is most shocking.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTiTwe_gYc

That's how it happens. Nothing is done about it. Or nothing concrete at least. In the last instance, it was a Deobandi cleric shot dead. It was probably the secular MQM party (which is made up of immigrants from India) that carried out the revenge attacks. They have 90% of the seats in the both the national and provincial assembles from the city. Of course, elections in Karachi were rigged in 2008. The MQM along with the ruling party PPP are accused of having "secular" militants with weapons that even the police are scared of taking on. The Taliban insurgency near the Afghan border meant that many secular Pashtuns ended up in Karachi. The three liberal parties (PPP, MQM, ANP) and their militant wings have been killing each other since 2008. Since 2011, The Taliban and their allies (SSP, ASWJ) are said to control areas of the city. Not only are they a threat to political workers, but like my colleague, they have started killing the local population.

It's human nature and I'm pretty sure most of you will agree--when someone who I support ideologically kills someone who I oppose, it doesn't pain me. I don't see the victim as an individual but as an ideological evil. Are we all guilty of taking that liberty? It hurts more to see one of my own affected where as killings have been going on for decades.

As long as the liberal forces in Pakistan remain corrupt, people will keep moving towards radicalization. It doesn't make much sense when terrorists kill politicians who themselves have posted inept corrupt policemen to protect them. To summarize, the Saudi infiltration of our madrassas is a big problem. Corruption is a much much bigger one.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Extremism is the ultimate false flag.

 

[Craig234]

It's human nature and I'm pretty sure most of you will agree--when someone who I support ideologically kills someone who I oppose, it doesn't pain me. I don't see the victim as an individual but as an ideological evil. Are we all guilty of taking that liberty? It hurts more to see one of my own affected where as killings have been going on for decades.

That's a useful point.

Americans of all parties would express shock and outrage at anything like that. They'd NEVER be like that.

But when the shooting starts, things change, and people do tend to shift to that type of thinking.

I call it the McCoy-Harfield syndrome - I'm not sure if you have heard that bit of American history, but it's about two rural families who had a famous feud.

They were unable to reach any peace for years, because they always had to keep killing more of the other side for 'revenge', it would 'disrespect' their people who had been killed if they didn't. And that is a sort of logical cycle that's a trap keeping them with no choice but more killing. I use it to illustrate how people get into that mindset unable to have peace.

Once the violence starts, before long people do start to get more interested in winning it than ending it.

How often in war do we hear how we 'can't end the war, that would make the sacrifices of those who have been killed meaningless'?

One way to end it is for the violence to go on to the point people just get exhausted by it - but until that point, it's very, very difficult to sell them on 'peace' short of 'total victory'.

That reminds me of another delusion I think we have in the US. I was listening to some commentator talk about how 'the American people refuse to be terrorized' referring to the recent Boston bombing that killed three. I'm sorry, but that has nothing to do with 'refusing to be terrorized'. It's not that hard to do that with two young people. If we had anything like what we see in countries like Iraq or Syria, that sort of armchair bravery would quickly disappear and seem irrelevant and naive.

People are people, but I think we don't appreciate what others actually go through much.

It's sad to hear what you are having happen there, and it's sad how many here will respond with something like 'well that's all those people know, they're like that'.

I don't think it's terribly easy to end that sort of thing - it's a lot more tempting to win it than to look for peace. As you said, why would the winning side care?

That's a luxury that's mostly clear when there is an absence of violence.

While I'm pontificating on this, I'll add another observation. Violence perpetuates itself because the perpetrators tend to blame the victims because between the choice of feeling guilty and feeling 'they deserved it', people prefer to feel 'they deserved it'. That's why you so often see a total lack of remorse among the people who commit great violence - and encourages more of it.

By continuing to kill, it reinforces that the previous killings were necessary and the right thing to do. To say 'this is horrible, we should stop killing' is to suggest you have done wrong.

Not many socieites are very good at admitting that. Germany was an exception in doing so after WWII; the US has parts of the population who have sometimes done so.

It took us a century to start to question 'maybe we did some wrongs' regarding native Americans. Vietnam was an exception that it took just a few years for some to question.

Chris Hedges writes in "War is a force that gives us meaning" about the way society deals with war - the sort of mass hysteria that develops to support war when it starts, and how after war, when the natural reaction might be regret, societies usually have a sort of amnesia where they decide to not look at the war and not really discuss it. And history seems to support that.

Indians and Pakistanis don't seem anywhere close to looking at the need for an end to violence over winning, and not even Pakistani factions, it sounds like from your comments.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

This is the way I have felt for the past 5 years as well. Why a human life is considered so valueable as we shit on people daily is beyond me.

Everyone that thinks they make a difference in the helping of others is... laughable. You say you help people, yet you go to work everyday to help corporate people earn their 350x your pay salary. I'm not saying you're bad for it - I'm saying you're a complete dip shit if you think you make the slightest bit of difference in the world.

Stupidity is a violent, rapidly spreading disease that has also become rampant; for that - the value of human life has diminished.