We, the Pakistanis! Do we look like chicken?
No really, is that how we look like?
I believe we do look like chicken to you. The reality is that you Americans have always seen the world the same way you view chickens. You don’t have to see the slaughter and suffering of the chicken, do you? You have factories for that kind of stuff. And even in those factories you don’t have to do the killing yourselves, do you? You have machines for that. But could you stand seeing as to what a chicken actually goes through?
I was watching Jim Carrey’s “Yes Man” the other day. I happened to go through a scene where the main character faints in a chicken slaughtering factory when he learns about the techniques adopted. Then it occurred to me that this was not the first time I was seeing an American movie in which Americans have problems seeing chicken, or any other consumed dairy animal for the matter, being slaughtered. The fact is that they are never usually exposed to such a scene. But ironic as it is; they love eating chicken.
But the question neither starts nor ends with the chicken. It’s much more than that. It’s about being concerned of only the end product.
Multi-national corporations exploit people all over the world. Because they are unwilling to hire expensive labour at home, they simply go to places where they know labour is extremely cheap, and take complete advantage. Such corporations make billions of dollars. Labour is exploited by being made to work in extremely inhumane conditions. They are deprived of all basic facilities, including proper food and sanitation. They have zero job security, and have to work on daily wages. When they have an emergency, they have to choose between that emergency and feeding their children. This does not however end here; there are many more facets to this exploitation, which includes environmental damage and market monopoly.
But then again; do the employers have to see all this? They only have the final product in their mind and they’re happy. Little do they know, or care, that in the production of that certain product was there a huge exploitation of human beings.
Then they have their government; a government they voted for, a government which is usually at war, a war to make the world a better, and more peaceful, place. They have their “brave” American men and women who fly overboard to fight for this just cause. Obviously, the lives of Americans are precious you know. All being done to keep the American people safe at home. But then again, who are they exactly at war with?
The United States of America is the Big Show, or the Undertaker, of the Global arena. In fact it’s much more than that. Never has a power accumulated such military and technological might as has the United States, or so it is said. This being the case, one may presume that such a power, if at war, will be at war with an entity that is, at least, possessive of strength worthy of any comparison. But where is it that American bombs fall? Is it, say, China? The European Union? Forget the EU; is it even a European country like France and Germany? The once almighty, United Kingdom? Or, even, India? Hell no! Of course it’s not any of these. It’s always some weak Vietnam or Afghanistan or Iraq. Its always “terrorist” countries. Countries where people need to be liberated, even if they have to be killed for it. (liberated from the circle of life)
My question to Americans; have you ever thought over the chances of your dying in a terrorist attack? Today there is a much larger probability of you being abducted, raped and, then, murdered by a friendly neighbour than to be blown up in a Muslim suicide attack. I’m sorry that you lost three thousand people in one such attack ten years ago. But if you are going to repeatedly justify the same for the implied killing of the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, then you shouldn’t expect the slightest sympathy. Let me remind you that you voted, and hence you’re no less responsible for the happenings.
What about the case of Pakistan? According to US, we are double-dealers. Today we have betrayed the “Global” (or Western) Community by not handing over Osama Bin Ladin, presumably, the “greatest threat” to the world. We are just a bunch of fanatics who support terror, and cannot reconcile with modern times. Simply put, we are belonging to a terrorist state; a state that exports terror.
You see the big beards of terrorists. You see how uncivilized they are. All on your large TV screens. But have you ever seen a drone? Have you ever seen a little girl die from a drone attack? Have you ever seen the loss of a whole family from one drone attack? Is it in your knowledge that your brave men regularly bomb schools (madrassas)? I think I may have used a politically incorrect word, i.e.madrassas, because you have, unfortunately, dehumanized “mullahs” to such a level that you believe that just eradicating the world from their very existence would make the world a better place. But do you know that in many of the madrassas bombed, the students, or “mullahs” as you may call them, were within the age span of 10 to 18. We here, who live in the real world, see them no different than elementary school students in the U.S. It cannot be denied in any case that the large majority of people who die of your drone attacks are civilians. But wait, what do you see?
The only thing you see is the same thing you see in Palestine. You don’t see the murder of little girls in Israeli bombing raids, do you? You see little lads throwing pebbles on Israeli Tankers bulldozing their homes, as terrorists. However, you don’t see Israeli soldiers throwing bombs at the helpless Palestinians in Gaza, do you?
But yes, you do protest. How silly of me to miss that out. Many of you protest against the war. Many of you are against the war. The reason, however, mostly being that you have to stop the increasing deaths of your soldiers. “Brave” soldiers, aren’t they. They are homesick, and the only thing they fear is death, and other small things, such as the battle field. But then again you are only disturbed when the effects enter your comfort zone. What about us? Us over here! Do you see us? Can you see us? What about our lives? Do our lives carry the slightest of value?
We then come again to the point we started with. What are the workers in sweat shops to Americans? They are merely a transaction in a balance sheet under the heading of “expense”. Not a very expensive expense though. What are we to Americans? We are hurdles to a better world. When we go through the process of humiliation and death; we end up as merely “collateral damage”. What’s collateral damage? Well, it’s kinda like chicken.
Saad Lakhani is a motivated young writer, a student of Social Sciences from Karachi
