
AMONG psychopaths, outrage and clowns the rest of us appear to have been condemned to live. And only the woolliest of optimists can believe it’s about to get better.
Because it’s not.
The outrage machine is on fire and in overdrive. And the problem is everyone’s a part of it. Even when they think they are not. Especially when they think they are not.
The rage, the outrage, really kicked in and was sustained with that photo. The girl in the photo looks like she could be from anyone’s home — your home.
Look away now if squeamish or disinclined to hear more terrible stuff in the midst of already numbing tragedy and despicableness and opportunism.
All the details in the Kasur abhorrence contributed to the national revulsion.
It was a little girl — society reacts viscerally to crimes against children, especially little girls. It was where she was found and the numbing image that rocketed around the country.
Is that — is that a tiny body, a little girl, tossed into the garbage and lying on a pile of rubble? The stomach churns every time.
It was what appeared to have been done to her. And it was the troubling memory of something vaguely similar having floated out, miasma-like, from Kasur in the recent past.
But it was also that image of her alive.
The picture that has become grimly iconic. The one of her in a brightly coloured sweater with a pink jacket on top. A picture of a confident young girl looking calmly into the camera.
The winter sun bounces of her brown hair. Her light complexion radiates health, her cheeks are full and her mouth maybe on the verge of a smile. Her eyes are clear and bright.
You can almost hear a million grandmothers say Mashallah as they first see that picture and mothers and fathers everywhere nod in approval.
Because she looks like she could be their daughter.
The rage, the outrage, really kicked in and was sustained with that photo. The girl in the photo looks like she could be from anyone’s home — your home.
Not a wretched Afghan child we’re used to seeing in bazaars and at traffic stops. Not one of the countless kids of countless maids who have marched in and out of your home over the years.
Not some child brought up in urban squalor or in rural misery. Not some child of another faith or coming from the lowest stratas with dirty or dangerous jobs.
In the pink-jacket photo — of a confident, healthy, cheerful girl with light hair and light eyes and light skin — she looks like a girl who could be sleeping in your child’s bed.
And if you can understand that, that that single, grimly iconic photo helped build and sustain the rage and why it did, you may realise the next miserable, horrifying steps of the outrage machine were inevitable.
We will never know if she was going to be the last victim or not. Perhaps without the public rage, the police would have finally done their job. We can only know that the suspect has now been caught.
But the rage — total rage — once activated was only going to go in ever more dangerous, more unhinged directions. APS brought hangings back. So this time it had to be a hanging plus.
Hang him in the street outside her home. Hang him in a public square. The biggest one you can find. Hang him in a stadium. The biggest one you can find. Build a new stadium if there isn’t one big enough.
Squeamishness prevents from really guessing where the rage could go next.
Islamic State has demonstrated some of the more unhinged methods in recent years. Or maybe some of the standard methods borrowed from friendly, like-minded states. Maybe an Afghan Taliban-type hybrid violence.
But the only thing the rage won’t do is go away.
The outrage machine is here to stay because everyone is a part of it. In some way or the other. At some point or the other. Whether we want to admit it or not. Even, depressingly, in the little girl’s case.
So the grotesque direction the outrage machine took after a suspect was arrested and his identity revealed shocked, but it should not have surprised.
Take insidious propaganda behind the scenes, add a clown on TV, throw in a political government to attack, and the outrage machine is reloaded and turned around and ready to go in an instant.
Those gasping for sense may have wanted the court to handle the issue more responsibly, but that’s just clutching at straws. The outrage machine has already savaged the court, causing it to lurch in one direction and then the next.
Who, really, has both the power to stand up to the outrage machine and possibly a prayer of getting it to amp down? One does comes to mind, but the silence from that quarters has been deafening.
Then again, if you really think about it, if you were in his boots, better to let the outrage machine consume others than to suddenly find it firing back at you.
So on and on it will go.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, climbed aboard the outrage machine because she was revealed to be a girl who could have been anyone’s daughter. Once the machine was firing on all cylinders, some have been shocked at the bloodlust it has revealed.
And now a few are shaking their heads at the inevitable politicisation of it all.
But outrage machine is here to stay. Because at some point or the other, we’ve all been a part of it.
The writer is a member of staff.
cyril.a@gmail.com
Twitter: @cyalm
Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2018
Comments (11) Closed
The rage is justified in this case. It was not the first girl who was killed in such a horrible manner by a lunatic, vulgar rapist,there are 11 others who met the similar fate. Does the number matter. Even one is enough to jolt the conscience of the people.
It seems that we ae alive and thinking about our children. It appears that the writer is against death penalty. He is trying to present the other side of story. I must declare that I have no sympathy for the rapist& murderer. He should be hanged in te Public Square. Islamic punishments must be implemented to do away with the crimes.
How can one sympathize with a depraved soul lost fr ever in the darkness ? We do not follow the liberal agenda of the west.
This writer must find someone with better command over the English language to proofread their work before publishing it. This article is so faulty in its syntax and grammar that it is hard to focus on the message it attempts to convey.
The photo of little girl Zainab and the innocent could- be handsome model Naqeebullah makes people sad, each time they see. Both cases must be decided asap.
All children are alike ,naive, innocent, loving darlings for those who can see and feel. For those with stone hearts they are unknown beings.
@F.Sumbal his English is not at fault here. Its your comprehension thats to be blamed. Cyril's articles are always to the point. Dawn deserves cuddos for having him as a member of their staff.
@Shahzad Akbar Shaikh Cyril Almeida, the writer, has a knack to communicate sensitive and difficult messages with clarity and impact. He uses the language well to achieve his objectives.
@A.M. Khawar oh yeah. I am a big fan of his.
There should be outrage but at the failure of our police and government and their inability to prevent 12 deaths and the abuse of thousands more. The state has to be responsible and the state must have the resources to do its job!
The arrest of culprit is the product of this "Outrage Machine". Criticize it all we want... let's condemn it... let's nod our heads in disapproval at people shouting at top of their lungs to hang him at the largest public gathering one can find. But let's not deny that the outrage machine produced the result which was the job of government machinery.
Soul stirring..........
True, but it was the outrage machine which pushed the government bodies to find the culprit so there are two ways to look at outrage machine.
PS Good write up as always Thanks