Friday, December 12, 2008

Violence as a tool

Q. Yes, Mr. X, who would you like to thank the most for your victory?

A: Of course, our brave cadres, who made it possible. Also to all the people who voted for me.

Q.: Analysts say, your victory comes at a cost of upset communal harmony and institutionalization of violence as a political tool. What do you think?

A: What do you mean by communal harmony? You answer first.

Q.: …. That is in its usual meaning.

A: What usual meaning does it have? The so called educated few tried to equate this with unhindered attack by intruders to our sacred values by forced conversion, despite marriages and defamation. If you mean this along with no retaliation from people a communal harmony, then we will eradicate it soon. Again what do you mean by institutionalization of violence? Throughout the history they have been using violence to forward their agenda and recently the intensity has increased. Can you cut diamond with aluminium knife? No, similarly counter violence will erupt one day or the other if people are made victim of indiscriminate violence for long.

Q.: In the past, the violence has been treated as, more or less, a law and order problem the security forces, especially the police have tried hard to have the violence. But this time they were not only spectators, but were found to be assisting the perpetrators of massacres on /…………… Do you justify this role of state agencies?

A: You know, there is no scarcity of people eager to fish in the murky waters. The allegations that the police took one side or the other one is hoax, though isolated incidents of imperfect dealing of situation could have been there. Why do you think all this violence occurred? This is because people could bear no more of exploitation and retaliated spontaneously. One day or the other it was bound to happen. You can’t imagine a peaceful society till the rogue elements remain within it.

Q.: Are you advocating for the use of violence against such elements, apparently the muslim minority in our case?

A: Not to anybody in particular. Anybody who intends to weaken the foundation of our sacred religion will face storm retaliation from people and that is it.

Q.: For the profoundness of the violence, it seems to be well planned to cause maximum fatalities and destruction of property. It is said that your party had a major role in mobilizing the unemployed youth in the act and innumerable instances of rapes, burning alive and mutilation are coming out. None of them appear to have been brought to book in the present context and your election campaign is said to have given crucial responsibilities to the same youths. How do you justify the heinous crimes of someone who claims to protect the religions values?

A: As in the every other unrest I can’t rule out few aberrations from the people. If you watch closely, the other side must have committed even more acts of rape and likewise….

Q.: What do you mean by the other side? You are now the elected leader of the state and still hesitate to acknowledge the minorities as people?

A: No, no. Don’t take it otherwise. So far as the fatalities and destruction are concerned, that was bound to happen once as people had withstood a lot and it had finally reached the boiling point.

Q.: Repeatedly you are referring to people as the main force driving the vitriolic campaign. But for us, journalist of ordinary intellect, people from both the sides appear to be the victim of a well orchestrated violence that they disliked the most. They were dragged to it and many of them lost everything in no time. How can you claim that it was the retaliation by people?

A: Simple answer- See the election result. Why would they vote for us if they were so unhappy with the state of affairs? One more thing, people can’t afford to be always combative. But when the moment comes, they never fail to be so.

Q.: Your victory is believed to be the result of wide spread horror and aggressive policy of your youth wing to polarize the society along the communal lines. Many intellectuals have equated this polarization as a lethal poisoning of a multicultural yet harmonious society…………..

A: All nonsense. It is these very intellectuals who intend to poison our noble way of living by justifying acts of the intruders. They will keep barking for their lives and nobody will listen to them.

Q.: Finally you seem to justify the violence unlike many leaders from your own party. Do you think the face of politics has changed for ever after this successful experiment with violence? What is your vision for future? Will you hesitate to take help of violence to get crowned again?

A: You seem to have been emotional again. But as a politician, we have to accept some odd realities, you can’t clap with one hand you can’t renounce the use of violence till the danger of offense against you remains. Once they abandon their propaganda politics to erode our values, there will be no need for retaliation and thus violence. By its very nature, counter violence can’t exist without violence and we intend to create a situation in future when peace will prevail after the root of violence is dealt with.

With this interview, we shall try to explore the significance of another term: Violence. This negative term has intricate relationship with the concepts of human rights and justice, and thus creates an equally contentious issue. A politician who can glibly justify violence as in the above interview has, of course, a peculiar comprehension of the term human right and justice. For this prototype of communal politics, both of these are the propaganda tools of so-called intellectuals who intentionally ignore the threat of the intruders that is ruining the religious values. Thus the indiscriminate violence, and gross HR violation leading to injustice as seen by the intellectuals forms for him the rational tool to achieve the goal of uplifting the sacred religion.

I argue that the mad lust for power and wealth in part of the politicians that characterizes the present day politics is the foundation of all these weird concepts. None of the religion in the world avoids condemning the inhuman acts of murder, rape, arson and vandalism. Even those who comprehend well the mottos of the religions deliberately mislead the young minds so that they can be exploited for their mean purpose. The reiteration of the violence to be the people’s retaliation by the politician forms the stereotype that is cultivated with persistent effort. There is practically nothing connecting the present day victims of the communal violence with any real or imaginary intruders who used violence to forward their agenda in the past.

The fact that a person who answers such sensitive questions with such on arrogance and absurdity in a self-congratulatory tone has won the elections shows how these tools of deception can be used to ascend to the power. The manipulation of the people’s sentiment should have been such that the very crimes that used to be despised vigorously earlier hid behind the shadow of the need to restore the glory of relegion. A rapists who would be beaten to death otherwise, was crowned to be the protector of the religion.

These propaganda cydes feed the ambition of immoral politicians by creating such imaginary threats to people’s long-cherished values, thus prompting them to think fool about their neighbours. The artificial urgency to safe guard those mocked values easily gives a sense of purposefulness to the young minds. At an age when emptions prevail over the rationale this pleats the seed of hatred against the imaginary enemies. Over time, this gives a plant whose fruits act like a poison to social harmony.

The Quest for Justice

Justice: The Agenda with Gravity

What is meant by justice in different contexts

Somewhere in the hinterland of Pakistan, there was a girl who exceptionally got the opportunity to get education in a city. When she went back to home in the village this time, her intentional disregard for the burqa, created the furor among the elite villagers. Her advocacy for education for other girls made the situation inflammable. She was adamant on her stance and would face the village elites with eye-to-eye contact, that puzzled the other girls and women who could not even imagine this. This extreme absurdity of the girl along with her growing influence became the big headache for the elites whose hegemony was unchallenged for decades.

The village was about to adapt with the eccentricity of the girl when a militant hailing from the region came home after many years. As soon as he heard about the girl, he gave no second thought and gave his verdict: she should be stoned to death right now. But the village youths had still brighter ideas regarding how to deal with her. Finally everything was planned well.

The other evening, the ‘city-dweller’ girl was teaching a group of girl children how to write Urdu alphabets.

“Just let the other children go. Then we will execute.” A boy murmured to others in a group of six boys after peering inside the room through the window. “It will get darker also by then. It will be better”. Somebody answered. “In the name of allah, we should teach the lesson to the other girls as well. No need to wait anymore. We are obeying the order of almighty to eliminate the infidels”. The militant spoke in a decisive voice and stepped forward.

After entering the room, he ordered all of the children to go out, who hurried as they saw the lethal weapon lying across his back.

“How dare you disobey the god? You were brainwashed by infidels on the city and came here to spoil the young minds. They are killing our people all over the world and you come to this village as their agent, for this immoral act, no punishment will be enough, still we are going to try one. Would you like to be shot or otherwise?” the militant almost shouted these words in half Urdu and half Arabic while pointing the rifle to her.

This all occurred so swiftly and unexpectedly that the girl was confused. Was this the reality? A man who was never seen in the village earlier was now threatening her life. She took a long breath as if to assimilate the significance of developments.

“How exactly am I disobeying the god?” She asked in trembling voice “and who are you to judge this?”

“Your damned teaching of the young girls with the propaganda education of the infidels is bound to ruin our sacred culture and religion. They have taught you to altercate with the village elders. I am here to enforce the holy laws of our shari’at court. Would you like to bear the ugly death right now or after one hour?” he once again pointed the rifle to her forehead.

“There is no law in this ruined land and you can shot me if you want. But what you are doing is in the blatant violation of the Allah’s teachings and he will never forgive you.” She tried to be more composed and raised her voice. “Your barbaric acts will be ultimately judged by the almighty and you will suffer for inhuman injustice that you are cultivating. Killing one will never deter our determination for justice……”

“Enough, Enough”. The militant banged his foot twice in the floor, speaking in English this time. “You deserve a death worse than shooting and that will teach you how to fight for your damned justice”.

He then signaled with hands to other boys, four of whom entered, caught the girl in hand and began dragging. He came out of the room, fired twice in the air to remind the villagers not to interfere on the matter. In the dark, the fainting shrieks of the girls were heard. Otherwise, the silence and thus peace prevailed in the village.

The other day, the girl was at her home but barely alive as the group of six had raped and assaulted her throughout the night taking care not to kill her outright. She had been given a lifeline: if she can perfectly contain this news by shutting her mouth, she won’t be killed. But this was impossible for the rebellious girl. She would rather die than suffering this humiliation quitly.

On the fifth day, a group of heavily armed militants arrived in the village and an important announcement was made: Everybody in the village should turn up on the ground of local mosque the next day at 12:00 noon for a special event.

In the ground the other day, a turbaned man stood on a makeshift stage with machine gun led militants on his either side. Then he began his fierce speech that was somehow a new occurrence to that village. “With grace of the almighty, today we have come here to perform a sacred task, the task, indispensible to maintain the morality and the ethics. We should punish those who trespass the rule of god without mercy so that nobody will dare to do so again. What can be such a punishment? The adulterers who defame the glory of married life, who challenge the omnipresence of the almighty and who threaten to break the sacred laws are to be punished that way.”
The speech was interrupted by shrill crying of the girl who was rapped in a red-line-on-white cloth, being dragged by three militants.
“In name of the sacred almighty”, the speech continued, “ we are going to teach a lesson to all the adulterers this way.” The preacher took a stone from a bag kept under the table and so did all the others militants. He then threw the stone to the girl who appeared to be tied inside the cloth. That followed a series of stones one after another. The villagers stood almost frozen as the girl first yelled violently and finally everything became fainter and fainter till few militants fired in air in celebration.

I constructed the plot of this story from a recent news story from Pakistan in which a girl was stoned to death for ‘adulteration’ after being gang-raped. To create the final seen I have taken help from the movie ‘The Kite runner’ based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel which vividly depicts the life in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. For the social background I was offered some help by the documentary ‘Swara: A Bridge Over Troubled Water’ directed by Samar Minallah. This film explores the age old tradition in Pakistan in which a bloody dispute between two families is settled by getting the daughter of the murderer to any of the family member of the victim. This innocent girl then incurs the wrath of her new family and suffers a tragic fate for whole life.
This story attempts to start a serious discourse on another most controversial issue: Justice. Just like the human rights, it has got different meanings in different contexts and even in a single context for different people. ‘Justice’ has been the motive behind almost all of the insurgencies and conflicts around the world. Nobody advocates against it but it has been the most battered virtue in the modern world.
In the story above, the justice for the educated girl means the respect to the rights of people to live a dignified life. This dignity, for women, comes from abolition of the masculine and the feudal hegemony in the issues like how one should live. This, in turn, comes from a non-extremist education that gives knowledge and promotes skills helping the women to be economically self-reliant. This needs to challenge some of the established norms in the society like the taboo for educating the daughters.
On the other hand, justice for the militants comes only when the Shari’at laws can be Implemented throughout the world after crushing the infidels who have spoiled the once-sacred empire of the god by promoting nudity, adultery, blasphemy and atheism. Demolishing the institution of the infidels to avoid their influence from poisoning the faithful masses is thus the only way to achieve the justice. The girl in the story formed a prototype of a poisoned soul intent on poisoning the others in her village to upset the sacred tradition. Thus she became the biggest threat in establishing the justice.
In the confrontation between the two opposite saviors of the justice, the far more powerful militants prevailed over the poor girl resulting in her brutal murder preceded by the gang rape that illustrates the hidden aspect of the drive of the extremists to justice. One way or the other, the girl was to be killed once she dared to educate other girls defying the taboo, but the episode of rape was created to teach other potential defectors how the issue could be dealt practically. Also, any potential victim of the rape would also know how she would be dealt in case she was unable to comply the threats to keep the matters hidden. This practically assures many of the prospective rapists the impunity leading to scores of untold stories of rape.In the ground the other day, a turbaned man stood on a makeshift stage with machine gun led militants on his either side. Then he began his fierce speech that was somehow a new occurrence to that village. “With grace of the almighty, today we have come here to perform a sacred task, the task, indispensible to maintain the morality and the ethics. We should punish those who trespass the rule of god without mercy so that nobody will dare to do so again. What can be such a punishment? The adulterers who defame the glory of married life, who challenge the omnipresence of the almighty and who threaten to break the sacred laws are to be punished that way.”
The speech was interrupted by shrill crying of the girl who was rapped in a red-line-on-white cloth, being dragged by three militants.
“In name of the sacred almighty”, the speech continued, “ we are going to teach a lesson to all the adulterers this way.” The preacher took a stone from a bag kept under the table and so did all the others militants. He then threw the stone to the girl who appeared to be tied inside the cloth. That followed a series of stones one after another. The villagers stood almost frozen as the girl first yelled violently and finally everything became fainter and fainter till few militants fired in air in celebration.

I constructed the plot of this story from a recent news story from Pakistan in which a girl was stoned to death for ‘adulteration’ after being gang-raped. To create the final seen I have taken help from the movie ‘The Kite runner’ based on Khaled Hosseini’s novel which vividly depicts the life in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. For the social background I was offered some help by the documentary ‘Swara: A Bridge Over Troubled Water’ directed by Samar Minallah. This film explores the age old tradition in Pakistan in which a bloody dispute between two families is settled by getting the daughter of the murderer to any of the family member of the victim. This innocent girl then incurs the wrath of her new family and suffers a tragic fate for whole life.
This story attempts to start a serious discourse on another most controversial issue: Justice. Just like the human rights, it has got different meanings in different contexts and even in a single context for different people. ‘Justice’ has been the motive behind almost all of the insurgencies and conflicts around the world. Nobody advocates against it but it has been the most battered virtue in the modern world.
In the story above, the justice for the educated girl means the respect to the rights of people to live a dignified life. This dignity, for women, comes from abolition of the masculine and the feudal hegemony in the issues like how one should live. This, in turn, comes from a non-extremist education that gives knowledge and promotes skills helping the women to be economically self-reliant. This needs to challenge some of the established norms in the society like the taboo for educating the daughters.
On the other hand, justice for the militants comes only when the Shari’at laws can be Implemented throughout the world after crushing the infidels who have spoiled the once-sacred empire of the god by promoting nudity, adultery, blasphemy and atheism. Demolishing the institution of the infidels to avoid their influence from poisoning the faithful masses is thus the only way to achieve the justice. The girl in the story formed a prototype of a poisoned soul intent on poisoning the others in her village to upset the sacred tradition. Thus she became the biggest threat in establishing the justice.
In the confrontation between the two opposite saviors of the justice, the far more powerful militants prevailed over the poor girl resulting in her brutal murder preceded by the gang rape that illustrates the hidden aspect of the drive of the extremists to justice. One way or the other, the girl was to be killed once she dared to educate other girls defying the taboo, but the episode of rape was created to teach other potential defectors how the issue could be dealt practically. Also, any potential victim of the rape would also know how she would be dealt in case she was unable to comply the threats to keep the matters hidden. This practically assures many of the prospective rapists the impunity leading to scores of untold stories of rape.

Human rights

Human Rights: The Hazy Picture

(An uneasy silence prevails in the room,)

A: These human right activists are the most qualified for elimination. Where does their …sympathy go when we are killed? Do they think we have iron bodies? Enough is enough. So long as they keep on intentionally defaming us, no mercy towards them.

B. This is not the first time they are doing it. They are same as the bastard judges who feel great to free the terrorists who kill us.

A: By the way how did this all reach the media? The fools over there must have been seeking for some …stuff. This son of a bitch will keep hunting us even after his death.

C: That is what has puzzled all of us, sir. A so called prominent writer has written a long article on the issue.

A: What if these Impotents keep writing? We should teach the lessons to them as well. We risk our lives for their security and these … treat us like the damned enemies! What the hell are they going to do if we eliminate this weed too? What do you think inspector?

D: Sir, if you don’t mind, killing him right now will create a create a lot of trouble. His arrest didn’t go smoothly as planned and people saw it. It is already in the newspaper that he was abducted by the government forces………

A: (interrupts) What the hell is the meaning of emergency then? They keep breeding like the piglets due to this … laxity. They are planning to hit more district headquarters in the west and daily killing our boys with ambushes. Is this the way to fight a battle.

D: They even appealed the minister of home affairs. He is known to have assured them of cooperation.

A: Forget these damned politicians and their… politics. This all wouldnot have happened in their absence. The hellhole of multiparty democracy is behind all this. They sleep with … in five star hotels and order us to sacrifice our lives. This is all they want. We should teach the lesson to them as well. I will just see how the damned parasites can save this bastard. Just bring him in.

( A handcuffed and blindfolded person is escorted inside the room by one soldier.)

What the hell is your last wish before death.

E: ( trying to maintain the composure) Let peace prevail in this country and no more persons like me will have to die so untimely.

A: You seem to be a hardened terrorist not deterred by even the death. You prefer to die rather than disclosing the names and locations of your seniors.

E: I swear by the name of the god, sir. I have no links with them. It was the first time they called me to observe their ‘base teritorry’ to showcase their achievements there. I went there as a scholar and it has nothing to do with their ideology.

A: What about the damned article you wrote about human rights? All of us should be hanged for its violation. Is this not that you want?

E: Never sir, I was just discussing the violation of the human rights due to the conflict. I still maintain that anybody proven guilty for its violation should be brought to book.

A: (Bangs the table loudly.) Stop giving lectures now. We know how to deal with this damned human right and its activists. Where does your … sympathy go when we are massacred? What do the bloody politicians and judges do to save our life? Does your rotten mind ever think this way? No, you all have been the victim of the propaganda of the terrorists.

Take him out now!

( He is taken out by the same soldier.)

Now there are rumours about another ceasefire and the terrorists want to further consolidate their position. There is no alternative to acting swiftly. Inspector! You get one more day to extract something from this scholarly terrorist. There should be no hiccups tomorrow, ok?

Inferences from the above drama in real life:

  1. Might is right.
  2. You are either with us or with them, not in between.
  3. One who fights is supreme to decide anything related to the war.
  4. Human right is the propaganda tool to defame the armed forces, often on behalf of the enemies.
  5. The security of the people comes as a mercy of the armed forces, not as the right for sustaining the institution financially and morally.
  6. Let many innocents be butchered but a single culprit should not escape alive.

And the list is open.

How do we start a discourse on human right then? Though much is talked about this throughout the world and assertions to the protection has been a cliché among the politicians, the ground reality of its implementation is often comparable to the case above. The inferences the army general draws from the turn of events are often reflected in a wide perspective. As such the question of human rights has been viewed as a thorn by the warring parties in any conflict.

The inferences of the above incident from the side of the detained professor would be in contrast to the above inferences. That is where an open-ended dispute starts for which a justifiable solution becomes beyond reach as the factors like the emergency or some anti-terror act are in place. At the same time the keens of the disappeared or detained persons have to suffer from the agony of loss of a family member with the incessant humiliations and setbacks from the crippled legal system and the puppet civilian government.

During the Maoist conflict in Nepal when the incidents like the above one occurred at large scale I used to have a bitter dispute with my Medico friends who were convinced by the claims of the government forces. The atrocities whatsoever committed by the security forces could be, in their opinion, justified by the vigor with which the rebels were committing the same. The factor of innocence of the suffering civilians didn’t practically came to their consideration. This notoriously flawed comprehension of the matter was the routine among the upper and the upper-middle classes who could not experience the atrocities of the war first hand. Like the army general in the above case they seem to understand human rights as a relative phenomenon which is to be opposed vehemently whenever their interest is threatened. Blatant disregard for the suffering of the others is way to safeguard their interest.

I would like to add another dimension to this discourse on human rights by referring to the communist version of this concept: we can’t imagine ensuring the human rights to the majority of the people so long as the oppressors of the people keep leading the country. So long as the regime has its foundation on the coercion and exploitation of the majority of people to ensure the welfare of the few in power, it becomes the mere slogan. The social structure which promotes inhuman competition to become wealthy by any means, from fraud to crime has its innate limitation in this regard. So long as the constitution safeguards the interest of the oppressors and the political system provides impunity to the rich and the powerful, how can we promote the human rights? Thus to end all the evils like human right violation, discriminations based on gender, cast, religion, and financial status, we need a political system where the majority or the proletariat rules. Crime and impunity is deep inside the foundation of both the feudalism and the capitalism both of which advocate the exploitation of the majority. We can go the courts to get the justice but the corrupt judge will free the criminal as a consequence of the under-table dealings that we never know, but we will have to suffer for life. We may seek the help of the police to catch the culprits but there always exists a rear exit in the legal system for those power and money.

By elections, we can change the rulers but not the inherent ruling mechanism with knee-deep corruption, inefficiency, hypocrisy and nepotism. The concept of the human rights will always remain different in the theory and the textbooks from that in practice. Ultimately the only way to safeguard the interest of the people including the protection of the human rights, is to demolish this mechanism to establish the people’s rule through the revolution led by the proletariat.

With little doubt most of these allegations to the present political system are true and they can’t be sidelined as propaganda. Indeed the concept of human rights has suffered a huge setback in the present system. But when we come to the solution as pointed by the communists, it doesn’t go as smoothly. Particularly, the relevant records in the communist states in the past have not been that impressive and the gross disregard to the protection of the human rights has acted as a trigger in the collapse of those regimes.

The political set up has been an important determinant in this regard. The decades old confrontation between the communists and the capitalists characterized by the cold war is over now. But a crucial dispute still exists: does capitalism intend to ensure welfare of every citizen as advertised or inherently select a few for whose interest those of the others are to be sacrificed?

The fundamental flaw in the traditional communist states was that the process of choosing a leadership on behalf of the proletariat masses was soon skewed. This soon led to the emergence of an authoritarian ruling elite theoretically representing the masses but not fundamentally different from any other dictatorship. The spirit of the ‘commune’ or togetherness of the people thus changed into the evolution of a hierarchy with the role of the masses limited to living a life as outlined financially, socially and culturally as dictated by the ruling elite. The cultural revolution in china defamed for the cruelty of the communist forces to the dissenters and the alleged purge or killing of them exposes the vulnerability of the communist regimes to take extreme courses with little control of the masses over the rulers.

Given the innumerable experiences worldwide, where capitalism has induced, promoted, sustained and institutionalized the violation of the poor people’s right to live, the question arises: how can it be regarded as the better protector of the human rights than communism? The latest version of capitalism with crucial role of the media in shaping the attitudes of people has categorically subverted this discourse thus projecting itself as the best protector of the human rights. Practically this term thus implies different meanings in different contexts, giving different criteria for its violation with respect to different people.

The execution of Saddam Hussein in charges of violating human rights by killing the dissidents was given much publicity. But now it has been established that the whole adventure of Iraq war was the collusion of the sadistic attitude of the Bush administration with the fabricated hypothesis of the WMD. The flip-flop of the previously credible intellectuals in the US and the west on the issue is amusing to see. The uniform criteria to judge the HR violation would have justified the reciprocation of the Hussein’s penalty to Bush once the hoax of the WMD was exposed, for massacre of the more than six lakhs of Iraqi civilians. But this never happens here and Bush will now serve the humanity through some charity. This is where exactly the present day scenario matches the most barbaric moments in the history diluting the memories of brutalities of the communist era. Significantly, everything seems to be running smoothly now with no threat to humanity as in the past just because our media is able to present the things this way.

The impotence of the liberal democracies, the civilian governments was exposed during the foreplay of the Iraq war when the massive demonstrations worldwide could make no difference in the chain of events.

The controversy arising from the use of variable criteria or the double standards in defining the term in different situations has enormously challenged the

Is any acceptable still implement able definition of the human rights possible?

. The catastrophe that devastated Iraq is now coming to media attention mainly because of the tug of war in US exists about the planned pullout of its troops from Iraq

Agent Orange

Beyond Physics and Chemistry

The lessons from the Agent Orange

My interest in politics is often judged to be incompatible with my career in medicine by a good deal of my friends and well-wishers. Why dip hand in the filthy game of power and wealth? This is the frequent question with sincere advice to practice the sacred profession to save the lives. This is the only way of leading a decent life, they say. On the other extreme are the students affiliated to the student wings of political parties who advocate an active role of students in politics. The dominance of the disruptive attitudes over their ideological instances has been, however, a stain on the images of these organizations.

I maintain a somewhat middle pathway in this dispute though my fear is not of being labeled an extremist. Many observations in the past few years have urged me to argue against the arbitrary dissociation of our professional roles from the social and thus political responsibilities.

Dioxin is a chemical used as a herbicide that causes defoliation or fall of leaves. It is also a stable carcinogen and can cause 28 lethal diseases. Being extremely stable and able to cross placenta it can harm the later generations too. This is exactly where the role of the science and the scientists ends and that of the politicians begin. The politicians of the most prosperous democracy of the world used 366 kg of such lethal chemical in a war orchestrated by themselves. That affected 4.2 million people out of a total population of 40 millions in Vietnam, killing 500,000 persons and the other 650,000 are already identified with several forms of physical and mental deformities that can be identified with dioxin. What could the poor scientists do? When the effect of this notorious Agent Orange came to be known, 5,000 US scientists, of whom 17 were Nobel Laureates and 129 were the members of the Academy of Sciences demanded withdrawal of chemical agencies from the warfare. But it was their job to demand and the politician’s job was to continue the disastrous killing spree and thus nothing changed.

How does our profession advise us to react in such a circumstance? At most, we can avoid reading or hearing the news if we can’t cope with the emotions of ire, shame or fear. Otherwise enjoy the life with whatever we earn and live like the every other content gentle person in the neighborhood.

This has been a great paradox in the lives of the geniuses of the every other field. Those 17 Nobel Laureates of the US whose demands to stop poisoning the innocent civilians were rejected may be wondering: the breakthroughs that they achieved in different fields of science can well be used in the future to wipe the people out.

In this bloody political turf of power, prejudice and inhuman cruelty, where do we stand then? Can we really boycott all this by merely isolating ourselves from the politics? Can any of our efforts to resist against this insanity be significant? Or should we seek asylum with the aggressors to be secure under their umbrella soaked in the blood of speechless millions? Should we discover more precise and lethal methods and offer them in order to appease them? After all do we have any moral responsibility to such genocides committed as we condone?

The answers to these questions are obviously tough but it is not easy to escape them too. Conscience of a professional often gets hurt at the moments he thinks seriously about these issues.

Of course the US is not the only aggressor of the humanity though it leads the category till now. Innumerable power centers throughout the world, many of them puppet of the US, few of them opposing it and many others with apparently absent link with it are in the race. The challenges to the anti-establishment forces, especially those who have respect to human dignity, are tough worldwide.

I have no delusion of uprooting the current global and the state order with protests from the professionals. But the life other than the professional that we lead is also equally important. The significance of the world outside our office