Beyond our decrees of separation

 

Beyond our degrees of separation

 Writers influence readers’ identities through deeply-embedded themes. Discuss and analyses with regards to the memoirs read so far.

 

A Pakistani reader might relate to the writings of Hassan Miraj more so than Judith’s as Hassan’s work mainly consists of themes of Pakistani households. A Pakistani reader might be able to explore their identity trough the themes that embedded in the writings. Some of the few major themes that can be explored include, identity, nostalgia and diaspora.

The theme of identity is explored by both Hassan Miraj and Judith Ravin, however talked and portrayed in extremely different ways. “The more I talked to him, the more I realized religion could actually bring human beings together rather than divide them” this reference is taken from the story ‘Fatima to Fatima’. There is a theme of identity with the context of unity. It implies that even though we as individual people have separate identities and all are unique in our different ways, our similarities are what bring us together. In this context the Muslim identity that both the characters possessed brought them together even when both the men were inherently from countries that disliked each other, however in a foreign country the face of someone who shared the same identity brought ease to the other.  Another reference to this theme is from the narrative ‘Four Blind Brothers’ where it is quoted “all four projects had utilized the same word in the vernacular of the respective speakers.” This may be interpreted as people presenting their identity to be above our better than the other person when they all might mean the same thing. In the story we see four people arguing over who’s cause is worthy enough to receive the large sum, yet fail to understand that all of them want the same thing but because of the communication barrier fail to realize that, this could also be interpreted as peoples identities being so unique that they fail the see the similarities they have and come together on that.

 Another theme that has been talked about in various stories is the theme of nostalgia, remembering moments from their childhoods, or revisiting old memories. The theme of nostalgia is the main focus of the narrative ‘Boxed Memories’ where the writer says “every box was a time machine that took me to unanticipated zones of a time warp.” From the quote with reference to the story the readers can interpret that through objects one can revist old memorires that the person might have forgotten about. The readers could also interpret that the smallest objects such as a half sharpened color pencil, when attached with a memory could be hard to let go. It is only human nature to keep objects that might remind them of the good times they have had in life, even when the object may appear as garbage to some. In the story service exchange we read about the theme of nostalgia linked with a certain event in life coming to an end, in this case the end of the main characters military service. To commemorate this event the main character takes a walk down memory lane to where it all began. “Dad was also lost in thought, but his face shone with nostalgia. He picked up the story.”

One other theme that has been talked about frequently throughout the book is the theme of diaspora. Through the stories the readers get to read about many characters that are away from their home towns, the readers might feel for and identify with the characters trying to practice their traditions from their home countries in the foreign place that they are in. “throughout Eid in the Muslim diaspora, mosques and religious centers are filled with people wearing mostly ill-fitting finery.” The readers from this may interpret that even though the people in the mosques are far away from their homes and even though they are in a foreign country that does not understand their ideas and their culture, they still make the effort to carry on their culture because that would be their identity

 

 

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

 

In reference to the picture we see that on one side we see a relatively poor family as compared to the person on the right, if we compare this picture to the prompt “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.”  We can argue that although human beings and animals are supposed to be equal, however their equality is dependent on the place they are born in. humans can have more or less according to the family of country they are born into similarly the animal does not get to choose whether it is born into confinement or amongst the free creatures of its kind, likewise humans do not chose to be born in a first world  country where they might receive more opportunities than someone born into a third world country. Even though they are supposed to be equal some og them live better lives than others

 

Turning Point: 9/11 War on Terror

Reflection

Watching the first two episodes of the documentary “turning point: 9/11 war on terror” left me coming out of the documentary with more opinions about the 9/11 incident and Americas response to it, than when I initially went into it. Although I did have a problem with the documentary itself.

The first episode reminded us of what actually happened in the incident of 9/11 and gave an insight on the terror attack from the perspective of people present there, I did empathize with the victims but calling it one of the biggest terror attacks was an over statement. The episode also gave us a background about Usama bin laden and Afghanistan’s history, it was dreadful to watch a once perfectly functioning state fall like that. The documentary seemed biased in the sense that it was glorifying the US and blaming the acts of terror solely on the Muslim terrorist organizations such as the Taliban without admitting that America itself might have pushed them in that direction. The US supplied afghan mujahedeen with deadly weapons and encouraged the mujahedeen’s to fight ruthlessly against the Soviet Union, not realizing that this was crossing the line between war and terrorism. After the war against soviets USA called back its troops without ensuring a clear transfer of power allowing a civil war to happen within Afghanistan leading to the Taliban taking over. Although, Taliban getting power over Afghanistan was not entirely the USAs fault I do believe they are to be blamed for the most part which the documentary failed to mention.

Coming to the dreadful event of 9/11 and the actions taken after it were impulsive on president Bush’s part the reaction to 9/11 was immediately to use military power against anyone involved with the incident. The anger Americans felt because of the incidents were understandable but if the government makes impulse decisions based on emotions it might lead to war, in this case they were not only declaring war against terrorism but the entire Muslim nation itself. Even the interviews showed in the documentary showed aggression and anger when the event was full of grief, I believe Bush used the anger and patriotism of the Americans to wage war against the Taliban, not exactly Taliban but also any origination and individual involved in the incident. Although I agree with the fact that you can’t talk peacefully to people who talk to you using violence, but no single president or person should be given this much power.

The Taliban was a group inspired the wrong teachings of Usama bin laden and their reign of oppression and terror indeed had to be brought to an end, they were enabling terrorist groups such as al Qaida and also based their rule off the teachings Usama bin laden that took the idea of jihad and completely butchered it, they oppressed the entire Afghanistan took away basic human rights and women’s rights were near to nonexistent. The era of terror should have been brought to an end but seeing the fact that a country that was part of the reason why Taliban existed and the reason their rule was enabled came to “save the day” when their own country got affected as a result, was a bit disturbing.

By: Khadija Ali