Manipulating emotions in a time of tragedy

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>[bJP News]: Manipulating emotions in a time of tragedy

>Thu, 27 Sep 2001 10:59:30 -0400

>

>Title: Manipulating emotions in a time of tragedy: A tangled skein of lies

>Author: TVR Shenoy

>Publication: Indian Express

>September 27, 2001

> ONCE the lion makes his kill and has his

>fill, the hyenas

> feast on the remains. Should we be

>surprised at those

> who howl that the blame for the World

>Trade Center

> murders falls squarely on the United

>States itself?

> ‘‘The Americans are racists!’’ ‘‘The

>United States is

> suffering for fifty years of prejudice

>against the

> Palestinians!’’ ‘‘The western media are

>biased!’’ ‘‘There

> is a pogrom against Arabs, Muslims, and

>Asians in

> America!’’

>

> Somewhere in Hell, Joseph Goebbels is applauding the

>children of his

> heart. He perfected the Nazi tactic of the ‘Big Lie’,

>of ‘throw enough

> mud, and some of it is sure to stick’. The pupils

>cannot better the

> master, but they can try to emulate him.

>

> Where should we begin

> unravelling this tangled skein

> of lies? Could we begin by

> taking a closer look at our

> own moral credentials, our

> right to sit in judgement? On

> October 31, 1984, a murder

> was committed in Delhi. In

> the next week, three

> thousand innocent Sikhs paid

> with their lives in India’s capital. More died

>elsewhere.

>

> On September 11, 2001, over six thousand people were

>murdered.

> The killers were Asians, and they slew in the name of

>Islam. Yet, not

> a single Muslim has been chased and hacked down by

>irate mobs. A

> single man, a Sikh, was slain, mistaken for one of

>bin Laden’s

> followers. Within hours, the president of the United

>States warned

> his fellow citizens not to take the law into their

>own hands. Compare

> this with the utterances of the then Indian prime

>minister on the

> massacres of 1984: ‘‘When a great tree falls, surely

>the earth

> beneath shall shake a little!’’

>

> What of the alleged ‘bias’ in the American media? The

>‘proof’ is the

> fact that they have been giving out the names,

>origins, and

> motivation of the assassins who hijacked the four

>passenger jets.

> Cub reporters are taught, or were in my day, that the

>essentials of

> our trade are summed up in six words: Who, what,

>where, when,

> why, how. The FBI released the names of nineteen

>hijackers —

> Khalid Al-Midhar, Mohamed Atta, and the others in the

>roll of infamy.

> These are Muslim names, and the men were using

>passports from

> various Arabic nations. It would have been

>contemptible journalism

> had the media not reported this.

>

> If, however, you are looking for a genuine case of

>media

> ‘manipulation’, look no farther than Arafat. In the

>West Bank city of

> Nablus, an Associated Press Television News

>photographer who

> captured a macabre celebratory rally was threatened

>by the Tanzim,

> military arm of Arafat’s Al Fateh group. When

>informed, Ahmed Abdel

> Rahman, Arafat’s cabinet secretary, said the

>Palestinian Authority

> ‘‘cannot guarantee the life’’ of the cameraman if his

>film was

> broadcast.

>

> How many Indian media channels gave this episode —

>one of many

> such Palestinian attacks on the media — the attention

>it deserved?

> It is so much easier, isn’t it, to flay Israel!

>

> But why should I blame my brethren of the media? For

>half a

> century, even the professionals in the Indian Foreign

>Office have

> insisted on seeing West Asia through blinkers. We

>persist in thinking

> of ‘friends’ instead of of ‘interests’. (Individuals

>have friends and

> enemies; nations have interests, most of which do not

>change with

> every ministerial reshuffle — or military coup.)

>

> Another myopic habit is to define ‘success’ or

>’failure’ by using

> Pakistan as the sole measure. Anything that benefits

>Pakistan is

> seen as a setback for India, and vice-versa. Coming

>down to

> specifics, has General Musharraf really pulled off a

>coup by joining

> the American ‘war on terrorism’?

>

> Pakistan’s CEO does not seem to think so. Speaking

>off the record to

> opinion-makers, he had complained, ‘‘India ne poora

>khel bigad diya!

> (India has spoilt the whole game)’’— presumably by

>offering to

> cooperate against militancy — leaving Pakistan no

>choice but to

> follow suit. Later, I was stunned to hear Musharraf

>publicly justify his

> decision by citing the Treaty of Hudaibiyah as well

>as an earlier pact

> with the Jews of Medina.

>

> These events from the early years of Islam hold a

>special resonance

> for Muslims. They were covenants made with

>non-Muslims to get

> some breathing space for the new religion. By

>mentioning them,

> Musharraf was saying two things. One, he was

>indicating that any

> agreement is likely to be nothing but temporary. Two,

>he was

> implicitly identifying Americans as either Jews or

>pagans — both

> loaded terms today! Pakistan’s ‘cooperation’ with the

>US is, as

> Musharraf rudely expressed it, nothing better than

>‘‘the lesser of two

> evils’’.

>

> Far from discouraging American involvement in

>Pakistan, India should

> welcome it. The presence of American troops in

>Pakistan will give

> Islamic militants a different avenue to achieve

>‘martyrdom’. It will cut

> off the terrorist highway from Afghanistan to India,

>or at least put a

> few stumbling blocks on the way.

>

> What about financial aid to Pakistan? Musharraf wants

>US $30 billion.

> In the past decade, Pakistan’s elite stashed $35

>billion in foreign

> banks — irrespective of how much the US gives, most

>of this money

> will end up in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, or

>some other tax

> haven. (Not that Pakistan is likely to get all it

>wants given the

> recession in the US.)

>

> Writing off old debts, another of Musharraf’s

>demands, will do little to

> jump start the Pakistani economy. Here is an instance

>of the mess

> that country is in: scarcely 1 per cent of the people

>pay income-tax.

> Twice as many Pakistanis are drug-addicts as are tax

>payers.

>

> Even the Pentagon’s insistence on secrecy could

>benefit India.

> Pakistan is giving visas by the bushel to

>journalists. With no battles

> to report, they will justify their expense-accounts

>by reporting on

> the internal conditions in Pakistan itself. More

>power to them!

>

> In 1990, during ’Operation Desert Storm’, Saddam

>Hussein fired

> Scuds at Israeli cities in an attempt to draw the

>Jewish state into

> the conflict. Eleven years later, Musharraf lobs

>verbal missiles at

> India in a desperate bid to divert his furious

>compatriots. Israel

> wasn’t provoked, and nor should we be.

>

> Understand Musharraf’s demand that India ‘‘lay off!’’

>for what it is —

> a childish snarl. The poor man is being forced to

>strangle his Taliban

> brethren; the least we can do is to make some

>soothing sounds

> occasionally as ‘‘the accused turns approver’’.

>

> The attacks of September 11, 2001 were epochal

>events. As the US

> president put it: ‘‘Now we will see who our friends

>really are.’’

> Shouldn’t India’s Foreign Office, if not our

>professional

> America-baiters, make a similar calculation?

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