Friday, December 28, 2007
Bhutto briefly
I figure I should say something, briefly, on Benazir Bhutto, as controversial as a figure as she may have been in Pakistani politics. A friend wondered at me why I was displeased with the news of the assassination because she was a woman, and whether I would be equally upset if it had been Narwar Sharif instead. Of course, it would've been upsetting if her rival had also been killed, but I think it is all the more upsetting knowing that, in the balance of things, it was a man who killed her. Men are the ones who do such things; women, only rarely (and when they do, it is incredibly surprising) so. Men seethingly hate, actively work out their rage, execute brute actions in their anger, and, in politics, do so towards other men (ie. war, suicide bombings, AEDs, etc). Women, of course, also experience this hatred and anger, though in other forms (ie. rape, domestic violence, oppression... did I mention rape and brutality?). To know that some man would have sunk to a new low by assassinating a woman, especially one who, despite her polarizing influence, was still nonetheless a former Prime Minister, and, more significantly, the first woman to reach that level of power in a Muslim country, should be enough to make anyone upset.
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2 comments:
Equally sad, is that she was mobilizing to dismantle the extremists / Al Quaida. Sharif is a bit cracked, and so I had hoped they would at least attempt to work things out when the elections came closer (this week!) & join forces. What will happen to Pakistan now?
I just watched Charlie Wilson's War today, interesting scenario even if it's partially true about what happened in the 80's & Pakistan's involvement.
It is grievous indeed, though she is not the first person on whom political violence has been focussed in Pakistan. I was actually quite surprised that a country like Pakistan had any women in such prominent political positions, though perhaps because I've only been paying attention to that country recently. She was a brave woman for returning from her self-imposed exile to that country.
To your commentary on the heinous actions of violent men, I am eager to agree that men hold the greater responsibility in most of our social and political problems. There's almost always a way where a man can influence the outcome of a situation for better or for worse, and so the responsibility ought to be on his shoulders to do the right thing.
But concerning men and women in violence, is murder in the name of hate or rage so much worse than other forms of murder? Given your views on abortion (which I assume are relatively unchanged), is the termination of a child for the pragmatic reason of freeing oneself from an imminent dependent any less heinous than hatred and murder of one's enemies? Is not hate less the opposite of love than apathy? Given your position as a doctor who probably knows the situation very well, in who's hands is the right and power to choose? Does the man or the woman tend to decide whether to excercise that power (for my part, I don't know)? Finally, how many abortions happen in a year?
Some will most passionately disagree with the above characterization, but that's how I see it at least.
Even in the above case, I would regard it as a failure of the responsibilities of the man more than of the woman. Let it not be said however that women don't take the lives of others into their hands when they have the power.
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