I wonder whose dream has come true — that of Zuckerberg or Farook, or of the strong US gun lobby
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Two news reports filed from the land of opportunities on the same day makes me wonder in what case exactly does the American dream come true. First, there was the announcement made by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan that they will donate to philanthropic causes almost 99 per cent of their Facebook stocks, currently valued at around $45 billion. The Zuckerbergs are not the first to make such a pledge; they are following the footsteps of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and a number of other billionaires, who have also pledged their treasures to charity rather than passing them on to their immediate family members. Parts of their wealth have already been donated to international organisations and have been used to fight diseases such as HIV, malaria, polio, tuberculosis and the Ebola virus. America is not the only country with billionaires; they live all across the globe. The act of Zuckerberg and other American billionaires sends a powerful message to those who work only to hoard wealth for their future generations.
The other news report came from San Bernardino, California, wherein an American citizen, Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, apparently of Pakistani-origin, went out heavily armed to shoot at Farook’s colleagues. The weaponry found at their residence points towards preparations for an attack. I doubt that a wife could be that emotionally attached to her husband to start shooting in revenge for her husband’s work-related conflict. There must be more to the story. I wonder whose dream has come true — that of Zuckerberg or Farook, or of the strong US gun lobby, which might advance the argument that Farook’s colleagues should have also had guns to fight back with?
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2015.
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