New York: shattered perspectives
Smarth Bali
pens pictures of a city struggling to return to a semblance of normalcy and reflects on the number of perspectives there are tothis human tragedy
New York, September 15
In the night, the city of New York acquires a grim, eerie, almost celluloid character.The smoke billowing from the devastated buildings in downtown New York is atranslucent veil hiding much of the skyline. Searchlights that scan the ravaged LibertyStreet area for survivors remain an enduring metaphor of hope for the people of thecity. Tangled and twisted concrete and steel, smoldering grottos in the mounds of rubble, and ash-sprinkled roads cast a pall of mourning over what is the financial andcultural hub of the world.New York is a victim of its own prominence. A battered hero among the greatestcities of the world - famous as much for the throb that gives it an aspirational status,as its notoriety that titillates the tourist. From wannabe millionaires to sleaze salesmerchants, the city is now a groaning giant that lies beat and ravaged by the greatestscourge of our times - Islamic terrorism.Manning an employee assistance hotline as a volunteer in a Fortune 500 company,which had 1,500 employees perched on the World Trade Centre (WTC), I hear repetitive queries. "Do you have an update on …", "You sure this is an update?","Can you tell me if someone from the company saw him? His colleagues, thedoorman …", "Will you inform me if she is found safe? You certainly will?"I answer as best as anyone who does not have first-hand information.There are perspectives to the same disaster. One story after another. A scroll of images. A cant of refrain. In all these, the television screen is the backdrop. Acontinuous reminder of that one day that shook the world. Where shall we findanother example of such a fabulously wired but helpless microcosm? Which other nation can match such impotent might?"She came in for an orientation programme on Monday and this Tuesday was to beher first day at her new job…" the narrative lapses into stifled sobs. "He called fromthe office and said they had been hit…he wasn't sure if he would make it…said I loveyou very much…," and tears take over. Everyone has heard of a tragedy here, fewknow of miracles, and even less have seen one. The anchors are everywhere, fillingin airtime with routine aplomb. Some cannot help emotion tearing through their professional composure…a voice chokes with emotion, and a deep breath later, eyesfocussed on the teleprompter, the reportage begins to air a dismal situation.Osama bin Laden is on everyone's lips. Even those knickerbockers that cannot pointout Europe on a world map, know about this "FBI most wanted". You can hear hisname sprinkled in conversations, entered in Google search, and spit out with hatredprefixed with expletives everywhere. And with the death toll mounting in the WTCcrash, so does the popular view to retaliatory action - exterminate bin Laden."Gitoutta this Israel-Palestine shit, man!", "Bomb the motherfuckers inAfghanistan," "Nuke the Afghanis"…Not surprisingly, most of this is knee-jerk reaction. The serial bombings in Mumbai,India, were not enough to convince the US and other Western nations that terrorism isa serious threat; the infiltration of Afghans in the Kashmir valley remains an "Indo-Pakconflict". The US had to see it for itself to believe that "rogue states" are more than just that. Now that the US is a victim of Islamic fundamentalism, the attack is on the"civilised world"! The rest of the world never was part of the "civilised world" andattacks of terrorism on its soil were never an attack on humanity and civilisation. Theblood of innocents spilled in the Third World is not as deep a red as that spilled on thestreets of New York. The position of primacy the US appropriates is a clear indicationthat it means the world to itself.
tehelka.com- New York: shattered perspectivesfile:///D:/My%20Documents/POLITICAL%20STUFF/Article%20on%20...1 of 23/22/2009 12:02 PM
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