Pakistan frees CIA contractor Raymond Davis
03.16.2011 at 03:33pm
According to the BBC, “blood money” — very likely from the U.S. government — was paid to the relatives of the three Pakistani men killed in the Davis affair. The BBC reported that under Pakistani law, relatives of a murder victim can pardon the alleged killer. In Davis’s case, 18 members of the victims’ families appeared at a court hearing and requested Davis’s acquittal, after receiving “blood money” payments.
For background on the Raymond Davis affair, see this post.
So what do our Pakistani posters think about this development?
my first (and rather quick and maybe incoherent) take is at: http://www.brownpundits.com/2011/03/16/raymond-davis-is-free/
Omar,
Going past your self-deprecation while making prognostications; there is no real “other” take on this is there…
Nor was the outcome in any doubt.
I am jumping out on a limb, but here goes. Were you educated and hold peerage with the current batch of Pakistani elites (military included of course)?
Omar, you are indeed to modest. Your analyses are on-target, funny, wry, and sadly, resigned.
Funny old world. I recognize Razib K. on brownpundits from the “old” days at Sepia Mutiny. Around 2005 or so, that South Asian (but India-centric and Western diaspora-heavy) blog had one of the most interesting, lively, and informative comments sections that I have ever encountered.
Stopped reading after it turned into the sort of thing you might read in a “South Asian studies” college seminar about how hard it is to be a well-educated and affluent brown person in the West. Oh, boo hoo (but I kid! I used to make the same joke over there. Not entirely fair as they discussed the range of issues and not just upper middle class issues. Not entirely fair as there is some psychological pain in assimilation, or whatever it is we are supposed to call the process of becoming American these days. I immigrated in the days when you still said the Pledge of Allegiance in school. To be honest, I prefer those early diaspora days, but maybe that is just middle age talking. It seems harder for young people today because they are asked to be too many different things in a multicultural world, IMO. Again, that may be my age talking….)
I used to read about Indians working on humanitarian projects in Afghanistan back in the old days of that blog, including one funny (but was it true?) story about Indian doctors working in a hospital and the nearby Americans unaware of their work. Hmmm, sounds funny in the recounting, but I remember that anecdote well.
So, Dr. Betz at Kings of War is onto something (as are other scholars) about the way diaspora “live” and connect online….
The other interesting point, and one pertinent to the study that takes place around here, is the way in which you regarded diaspora news sources as more definitive than the “typical” newspapers or whatever an official or academic might say. Interesting. Why, psychologically, do we do that? And not just immigrant diaspora. Why, if we interact in a space like this, do we assume the interaction is more authentic? A point that may be taken advantage of in ways good and bad, if you see what I mean….
Pierson, “peerage” would not be how I describe it (strictly middle class), but yes, most middle class Pakistanis abroad are from a relatively narrow spectrum and we do all seem to know each other within far less than 6 degrees of separation. Working class Pakistani migrants come from a larger pool of working class Pakistanis, but even there, migration is not spread evenly across the land. Central Punjab (especially Gujrat district), Mirpur (Kashmiris in UK), Karachi and parts of Pakhtoonkhwah are heavily represented, but South Punjab, Balochistan and rural Sindh are relatively under-reprsented. And yes, I do have a military connection, probably more than average.
Madhu, I am not sure what you mean by trusting diaspora news sources over typical newspapers. Can you clarify that a little?
Omar,
“Peerage” as in classmates etc., not in the sense of title. And as you explained above, you are classmates with some with far less than 6 degrees of separation.
Sorry, Omar, my comment was a bit impressionistic and poorly worded.
I meant something like the following:
In my environment, I encounter a fair amount of physicians from different countries: the UK, Germany, India, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, etc. and etc. The older docs, and some who have lived in the West longer, seem to pay attention mainly to Western media with a smattering of diaspora newspapers. The younger and “newer” docs are more connected and wired. Not a novel observation. A trend that has been going on for some time now….
From time to time, someone will complain to me that, “Americans don’t know what is really going on!” The funny thing is this: they rarely question their own dogma any more than the Americans they complain about question theirs. In fact, I’ve sat in on some uncomfortable scenes, like the time a Saudi and Turkish doc were complaining to a room full of doctors of Indian descent about the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist and how the West is self-serving in these descriptions. The younger one (quite successful, actually) seemed especially bitter. “Don’t mention Kashmir or Pakistan,” I thought, “Oh, please don’t go there.” Happily, the conversation turned toward a more appropriate medical conversation. A certain lack of self-awareness there, shall we say?
Most people I know are outraged when something happens to “their” kind but don’t really care about any one else, and only the Americans are ever really blamed. Rarely any self-criticism for why things are the way they are. A certain lack of self-awareness as I said. Perhaps there is some shame in those that live comfortably in the West while their compatriots suffer at home. Interesting that they are more bitter at America than their own regimes, or their own selves.
I once complained to a Syrian friend of mine that she never said anything bad about the Syrian regime. “They watch you there,” she said darkly. Well, I guess I understand that. But it’s strange, isn’t it, this anger at everyone else but the very persons oppressing your own? There is a certain amount of xenophobia mixed in with Anti-americanism (and here I don’t apologize for all things done by Americans. We make mistakes.) At any rate, haven’t time now to flesh out all of these random thoughts. I like the people I meet, I need to stress. But being an immigrant means being a natural contrarian. If you whine to me about America, I will tell you to go stuff it. If you whine to me about India, I may tell you to go stuff it too….