Obama—the view from Pakistan
There are only a few topics the media here in
It all took off during the primaries when we got pretty excited as a nation that Obama¿s father was a Muslim, and so was his step father, and that (according Fox TV) he was religiously indoctrined in some hush-hush madrassah in Kenya and then in Indonesia for four years. We went as far as to extoll the virtues of him not being "one of them". How cool it would be to have a Muslim in the most powerful seat in the world. Obviously in the world of today everyone is looking for a foot in the right door, and the White House is one hell of a door.
This was followed by echoes of all kinds of allegations from Obama being in league with former terrorists and student activists, to him wanting to rain bombs into
To me though Hillary Clinton as a choice was surprising because historically Pakistan has been in bed with the Republicans for the longest time, obviously this has mostly to do with us fighting wars on their behalf first in Afghanistan in the Zia era and then later inside Pakistan in the Musharraf era. Suffice to say billions of dollars in aid was provided because Republicans like speaking to a one-man government and we were more than happy to provide that in the form of one military dictator after another. Plus the fact that Democrats tend to lean towards
However with the dawn of the new democracy here in Pakistan, crippled as it may be, most people were looking for some sort of change in world politics to catch our breath as a nation, and perhaps this is why they were in favour of Hillary Clinton as the other two seemed a bit too aggresive in pursuing war policies. With that candle blown out by the democratic nomination going Obama¿s way our press and media simultaneously decided to go completely rah rah in favor of Obama even though he promised to take decisive action against the people in hills. This was aptly witnessed by articles such as this one which chose to justify him as someone who was in touch with the world more than McCain whom most Pakistani¿s regard as something of a senile geriatric. No one does about turns like our media and they went to no end to discount his war rhetoric with pieces on his humanity his charm and what not. On the blogsphere things were no different as most of Pakistani bloggers comprise of the elite litterati. Liberal and free speaking they supported Obama hands down as "The One", many even sported his badges and widgets on their webpages, assuring their readers of a new dawn of change trickling down to us if he was elected.
Well now that Obama has been elected. The initial "Yes we can" articles have suffered a rude shock by the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel, a Jew (read "horrible people with intent to blow us all to smithreens") as his chief of staff. Right now the papers are desperately seeking any new snippet, any tidbit from his exercise regimen to his "alleged soft corner for Muslims" to keep the viewers and readers interested.
If only we as a nation knew just what to make of our fair weather friends through our long chequered history of them. Frankly, his appointment may lead to the fabled baseball diamond on the South Side White House lawn being replaced by a basketball court, but that¿s about the only "real" change it will bring in D.C. Even if he is The One, we know he is not the one for us, even if he promises to end the Kashmir conflict the ground reality is the people of Pakistan are fed up of the Kashmir conflict and various other conflicts we seem to be interested in rather than giving our 170 million inhabitants the basic necessities of life. As a rickshaw (auto) driver pointed out to me yesterday, what matters to him is the price of LPG he puts in his auto not the fate of a valley he will never see or be able to vacation in.
Faisal K Blogs @ www.deadpanthoughts.com
http://karachi.metblogs.com/