IN 1948, George Orwell wrote 1984, his most celebrated novel. The book was published the very next year. George Orwell could not have imagined that his piece of fiction would turn into a factual tale just 20 years after 1984 (year, not the book). How incredible it is that the words coined by the great author have taken a concrete shape with almost exact corollaries in 2004. Take for example, Thought Police (read: the US government) or Big Brother (read: Homeland Security).
The CIA and the FBI were catnapping when the terrorists destroyed WTC buildings and insulted the entire US government machinery. As a result, no one can now dare take a picture of the Chesapeake Bay or a famous building in the US, especially if he or she has a dark complexion. Doing that might make them end up behind bars.
Imagine a person in Virginia reading an email and typing some words in reply, but later on finds that someone has hacked his computer, which has led to the authorities looking at him suspiciously. This may sound outlandish, but its not a figment of somebody’s imagination. Take the example of a Pakistani American who was the mayor of a small Pennsylvanian town. His neighbour reported to the FBI that the mayor was a suspicious person who was seen dumping some strange things in his backyard. FBI officials came barging in, breaking down the main door to his house, held his wife who was wearing a nightgown to gunpoint, confiscated the Cipro they found, convinced that they had found clues to manufacturing anthrax. Then they made the Pakistani go through a gruelling trial. The fact of the matter is that the mayor and his wife were only cooking biryani and told the FBI that Cipro was being used for his wife’s urinary infection.
And Pakistani-Americans must be cautious about another thing: Do not sustain any injuries prior to hopping onto a bus or boarding a plane; and if you do sustain an injury, please postpone your visit, otherwise you shall be disrobed by the airport security staff on the pretext that you may have received that injury while you were getting trained at an Al Qaeda camp. This is only for Pakistani-American citizens, permanent residents and visitors from Pakistan.
Why Pakistanis are being targeted in this manner is a good question, particularly when one takes into consideration the fact that Gen Musharraf is a vital US ally in the war against terrorism. Some people are of the view that had he played hard to get, his countrymen would not have suffered that much.
These days, the Patriot Act appears to be the only legislation that America is operating under. All constitutional amendments seem to be in abeyance. To think that the day has come when one feels safer while speaking one’s mind may not be that advisable an idea. One must accept this reality, for it is here to stay.
Nobel prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote the Gulag Archipelago in 1974 about children spying on parents, neighbours reporting friends to the KGB and vicious Soviet repression. The details in the book are so disturbing that the reader is left terrified, realizing that unlike 1984 it’s not a piece of fiction.
Guantanamo Bay is one of America’s gulags. Solzhenitsyn was sent to the Russian gulag for writing a joke about Stalin, and found out that there were millions that were held, tortured and killed there — a horrible secret that the Russians kept not just from the world but their own people. One can easily draw a parallel between the Russian and American gulags. Hundreds are held for lame reasons, without substantial charges or legal recourse and subjected to treatment that clearly violates the Geneva Conventions. What further boggles the mind is the fact that Guantanamo Bay is not located on American soil.
America is also going through a process whereby it can turn into a virtual gulag (bearing in mind the technological developments). However, technological advances have their downside as well. Individuals that the department of Homeland Security wishes to keep an eye on can be spied on in a most intrusive manner imaginable. And if they find a person guilty of something or the other, they can become even more intrusive and finally the net closes in on them to the point that virtual imprisonment can be created. Thanks to the Patriot Act, little substance is needed to charge a person before he is sent off to the American gulag.
One understands that with the Al Qaeda threat, vigilance has become a very important issue for the US. But one doesn’t understand why this can’t be done as per American constitution.
The Muslims living in America are constantly monitored by the Big Brother and can get arrested on trivial suspicions like Brandon Mayfield of Oregon whose fingerprints they claimed were found on a bag on the train that was bombed in Spain. Mayfield had reverted to Islam and the FBI paid no heed to Spanish statements that his fingerprints differed markedly from the ones on the bag.
If the Big Brother is not satisfied with your statement, no one in the world can convince him. After all, he’s the Big Brother.
IN 1948, George Orwell wrote 1984, his most celebrated novel. The book was published the very next year. George Orwell could not have imagined that his piece of fiction would turn into a factual tale just 20 years after 1984 (year, not the book). How incredible it is that the words coined by the great author have taken a concrete shape with almost exact corollaries in 2004. Take for example, Thought Police (read: the US government) or Big Brother (read: Homeland Security).
