A time of fear

President Trump reached out and touched three members of my close family last weekend, a touch that was a curse rather than a blessing. Christians, the three women — a widowed mother and her two daughters — had decided that enough was enough and bailed out, selling up their worldly goods to fund an exit assisted by the church. The father in the family was killed in the Bahawalpur church massacre on 28^th October 2001 in which 18 died, three of them my relatives. They wound up in Bangkok, Thailand, went through the tortuous process of registration and acceptance of their refugee status by the UN and were to be rehomed to the USA. Until last weekend that is when Trump struck and suspended all refugee programmes for four months. They are distraught.

The plight of my family members is a microcosm, as are all the personal stories that are quickly emerging in the wake of the ban on immigration or acceptance of refugees into America from seven predominantly Muslim states. In the last 24 hours there came the tale of a 5-years-old child who was alleged to have been handcuffed at the point of entry as he was adjudged a terrorist threat. The media pounced on it, and it was across all the channels as I went to bed. To listen to the cacophony you might be seduced into thinking that there was a universal outrage manifest — but you would be wrong, so very wrong.

The American heartlands display no sense of outrage and Trump supporters speaking in support of the move to block foreign nationals that might pose a threat make appearances as the channels honour the ‘balance’ pact. But they are few and far between truth to tell. For the most part the media is riding the ‘outrage’ wave, despite a large portion of the world being of the opinion that The Big Orange is bang on message.

Australia has come out in favour of the ban to the surprise of nobody. Australia — a country founded on the sweat of immigrant convicts that systematically butchered its indigenous peoples. Yes…that Australia. Other countries are at best equivocal, mindful of the American hegemony and their relationship with Trumpton.

Over a million Brits have signed an online petition urging the government to cancel the state visit of President Trump. This at least guarantees a debate in Parliament, but the British government will be going ahead whatever the outcome of the debate and Queen Elizabeth II will be pictured next to President Trump doing her best to try not to look like she is chewing a wasp. There will be street protests, arrests in all likelihood, and none of it will make a scrap of difference.

Here in Pakistan the frisson of unease is palpable, especially among those that have been frequent fliers in the direction of the US, or were planning to visit over the summer. The fears they guardedly express are couched not so much in terms of their own exclusion for whatever reason, but for what is happening to the wider world around them. We are up to our hocks in clichés about an Orwellian America, and parallels being drawn between the rise of fascism in Europe prior to WW2, of a burgerised takeaway fast-food Nazism that comes with a choice of dressings. Pick your own prejudice. You want a soupcon of Islamophobia with your fries? Coming riiiight up Sah!

Protest till you are blue in the face; shout till you are hoarse from bellowing into the wind. Fight tooth and nail for your rights and the rights of others — and for now there is no victory in sight. This is the New New, and a lot of people inside and outside of America like it very much. They voted for The Big Orange and he is delivering on his promises. A man of his word. Principled even in the narrowest interpretation of the concept. Big O has brought fear of The Other to a point at which it is a policy tool, one which will define the Pax Americana for years to come. Three women weep in Bangkok and wonder if they were right to choose the Land of the Free.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2017.

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