7 October changed everything like 9-11 did

7 October 2023 seems to be as significant a day now as 9-11 has become in our lives. Again, it has impacted everything.  

I had just completed my undergraduate studies and was back in Islamabad. I was shocked by the attacks , fresh from the grief of losing my friend. I could only see the attacks in terms of death and destruction of individual lives, so called innocent citizens. International media also bombarded us with their deaths, as it does. I did rage and rage and rage at the carpet bombing of Afghanistan. I was raging at the idea of our sisters and brothers dying next door. I remember thinking of Afghans as our neighbours, so close to us.  I couldn't take the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. 

I vowed to never set foot on American soil. 

The rest is history. 

This time around for 7 October we have a live streamed genocide. What has changed this time? 

For me, besides the rage, grief and mountains of injustice, everything is so much clearer. The West has completely exposed itself as a barbaric collective, bathed in blood. The blood of every Indigenous peoples ethnically cleansed by the West started to haunt us as Israelis destroyed hospital after hospital, journalist after journalist, school after school, family after family, baby after baby. This carnage immediately conjured up history of North America, the Trail of Tears, the broken treaties, the murder of millions of bison, the stealing of children and the final act: reservations. 

I can't stand a single Western leader: walking corpse Biden embracing Zionist Bastard Netanyahu,  Fuckboy Rishi Sunak, Shitty Macron, Fuckboy Trudeau, Nazi Witch Ursula von der Leyen, Vapidly Giggling Kamala, Corpse lady Pelosi, Jeering and filthily Greedy Hillary. 

Against this we have the hypocrisy of the West's proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. 

Putin's speech on Victory Day triggered me to take an amateur deep dive into World War 2 and, the staggering awe inspiring sacrifices Soviets made to defeat Hitler, the same Hitler who was inspired by American genocide and  institutional racism  in North America. See: What America Taught the Nazis:

Whitman’s “smoking gun” is the transcript of a June 5, 1934, conference of leading German lawyers gathered to exchange ideas about how best to operationalize a racist regime. The record reflects how the most extreme among them, who relied on Krieger’s synoptic scholarship, were especially drawn to American legal codes based on white supremacy. The main conceptual idea was Freisler’s. Race, he argued, is a political construction. In both America and Germany, the importance and meaning of race for the most part had been determined less by scientific realities or social conventions than by political decisions enshrined in law.

See  U.S. Treatment of Indians Inspired Hitler’s Hunger Policies: 

The article is entitled “Hunger as a weapon: Hitler’s Hunger Plan Native American resettlement and starvation in Yemen”.It recalls how Hitler was impressed by U.S. resettlement programs that opened the “West” as it was called to white European settlement and agricultural development. Key among them was the Indian Removal Act of 1830.The Southeast tribes of Cherokee Creek Choctaw Chickasaw and Seminole were the first to be dispossessed they noted although the Cherokee tribe is best remembered for its “Trail of Tears” forced relocation.

Everything happening today in Palestine is a re enactment of Western greed and appetite for genocide which was invented by them as they colonised and pillaged the world. 

Legal and political terminology for genocide had to re-gurgitated for the world when South Africa took Israel to court.  Nothing came of it. We all know it is ethnic cleansing. Nothing came of it. We know this is how Europeans massacred Indigenous populations and took the Americas and Australia and so on. Nothing came of that. No one took the Europeans to court as a moral case. Because this terminology, definitions and laws are based on the European world order.  

Almost a year afterwards, I don't have much left in me to watch minute by minute. It's too much to bear. Also, for me to see this, bear witness to it, I will say Struggle Against Zionism instead of genocide. We know the Palestinians are fighting. It's not merely genocide. It's ongoing ethnic cleansing since 1948. But it's also a moral, political and armed struggle.  

It's a struggle against Western Imperialism and the face that Imperialism exposed by arresting students on college campuses, blocking protests, harassing and firing pro Palestinian voices in their own workplaces, arming Israel, gaslighting victims, defunding UNRWA, blocking anti Israel commentary/analysis on tech platforms, etc. List is too long.  

Political discussions in Class 6

I love hearing about the daily happenings in Kavita's school. 

There is a girl who used to go to the top of the class and mimic the class teacher whenever she isn't around. One time the teacher caught her and started arguing over the inaccuracy of the mimicry. 

I thought this girl has a cool personality but she also said she would throw a person on a wheelchair down the stairs and started laughing! Other girls started laughing too. 

So much for comedy - this kid is merely an attention-seeker with little to no sensitivity. 

Another kid asked Kavita if she is on Israel or Palestine's side. 

The thow-the-wheelchair-down-the-stairs girl spurts "Imran Khan" all the time! As if it's an exclamation! 

Stay tuned for more anecdotes. 

What do I really want to write about?

What do I really want to write about? 

I've been dreaming, fantasising, even obsessing about writing for some time. I want to write political and social commentary, as I observe lived experiences, politics and social interactions. My professional experiences in the Development world have really informed my politics too and propelled me obtaining a Master's Degree at SOAS. The master's degree was already a prerogative in 2008 to further one's career and get a decent contract. Is the Master's degree required for this line of work? I was trained to take a critical look at Development and, unless one obtained a Master's to learn how to better write, a Master's degree is absolutely not required for the desk work, field visits, and meetings. The pretence of technical expertise can be obtained from a course and experience. 

Real expertise is of course necessary for agriculture, nutrition, and health experts in specialised agencies but bulk of the job is bureaucratic with a corporate agenda and style. 

There's much to write about and, link it to the Global order. The most telling are, of course, personal anecdotes. 

Here's one: 

A French guy at the sushi bar: "We should have never left Africa."

Here are more: 

A Canadian woman in response to a critical article in American press about expatriate perks: "We deserve a sushi restaurant. We work hard!" 

A Canadian woman sharing an apparent epiphany: "I look at our way of life in Canada and know that people in the world want different ways of organising their societies." 

An American woman in a USD $12 million proposal development brainstorming session during the Ebola Epidemic: "Wouldn't it be amazing if we taught everyone to wash their hands?" 

A Kenyan woman: "I want to take Liberia and dump it in the Ocean." 

I've always found the attitudes of Westerners enlightening. How do they see their roles, their place in the world and how they carry the legacy of imperialism in them. 

There's been almost complete silence by my Development colleagues on the Genocide in Gaza, regardless of whether they are from the Global North or Global South. 

Feminism and interest in Leftist thinking has also informed how I think and express myself. I think I've always been critical , questioning religion , questioning the Development Industry

I was thinking about extrapolating my life experiences and analysing them with a feminist lens, a material / structural lens. Becoming a mother was one of the most significant moments of my life and, my life is now only about that role as Kavita is suffering with lupus. 

Kavita may see me as a strict mother full of rules but she may take for granted how much I love her, display that affection, and teach her all I know. I could never take anything granted with my mother and, it remains the most problematic relationship of my life. I've often wondered how feminists make peace with their patriarchal mothers. 

My father is in an interesting character. I've seen him as a progressive man who has ensured his daughters are educated and was not interested in marriage as a duty. However, my mother's toxic conflict that divided the family made me question his patriarchal nature.  

It's only recently my father told me about his membership in the Communist Party and how he came on a train from India to Pakistan.  (He also told me about his charsi days) My mother's stories are of privilege and are much more clanish as she comes from a big family. My mother has has had more outward patriarchal attitudes. 

My father would have made a great committed atheist but he's a believer despite his politics and love of the arts. 

Who makes you who is of great interest to me. One thing I share with Aboo is my love of pseudo philosophising and I subject Kavita to grand lectures. She will inherit the skill to think at different levels. 

My mother's toxic legacy is of ruined sibling relationships and playing politics amongst each other. I have no more any shame of acknowledging what a hypocritical and abusive character my brother is now. He is the typical nice guy who appears non macho, non alpha but conveniently uses religion and nationality for himself and against women. And has violent ideas despite appearances. 

Imran Khan is that man, too. 

Lastly, I have been thinking about culture and ethnic/national identity. The culture identity has totally burst for me. I don't know which romantic rock I was living under. What culture do I really have? Or any urbanised folks long since removed from kinship to the land? My father and family left their roots in India during Partition. He has has told me his father was removed from his village because he wouldn't bow down to the landowners. My mother's side also left their ancestral village Bhera and are now scattered all over as they left Pakistan being Ahamdis. Neither my parents spoke Punjabi with us. Living abroad as Pakistanis , we followed the Pakistani State narrative. We do not have a culture but strong Ahamdi identity. And, as members of capitalist societies how are we really different from Americans? Finally, my family is completely broken and has not adhered to any value so what can I really aspire to? 

And importantly, what do I pass to Kavita? 

This is all I've been thinking of?