One would have expected - that when former USA president Bill Clinton was here, his 'address to the nation' would have been in a friendlier manner, But such was not the case. Instead the manner he presented himself, on our state-owned TV was no different from any other of the countless tin-pot dictators who have been running our country. Clinton was unsmiling - he looked very stern and he spoke very harshly, which was downright obnoxious. Of course Clinton was not here to win votes, had that been the case, the manner he made his speech would have been much more pleasant,
He was thumping the desk whenever he made a point - no one actually remembers all that he had said; the details are fuzzy now. Few things cannot be forgotten he said Pakistan is a pariah nation and needed to be warned of dire consequences. As if the lowest forms of life on the planet is a Pakistani. Clinton instead of presenting a pleasant demeanour and a diplomatic one, he was extremely ferocious and just as domineering. In a way it was good he had presented in that manner/ Pakistanis have always known that our relationship with United States of America are terrible. All that Clinton's speech did was to confirming this fact. He looked very authoritarian and did not even smile once. However had he smiled and spoke to us in a friendlier manner, we might have been fooled into thinking that suddenly the great and almighty United States of America has become very close to us. It was going resolve many of our problems and would have done away with the differences which existed - but that sense of complacency would have been short-lived, because later we would have found out that the USA has imposed additional sanctions on Pakistan. A friendly speech of that type would have been remembered as historical back-stabbing- which would have been much worse.
This was a long time ago, but the memory of an USA president addressing to the people of Pakistan was something really odd, instead of some of our myriad local tin-pot and worthless dictators making a speech we had a foreign one in their place. Clinton made absolutely no effort to make himself look nice or be nice, it was obvious that it was his intention all along - he come with dreadful warnings and terrible consequences for poor, weak and pathetic Pakistan. His obvious reasons for visiting our invisible and insignificant country, was not to be friendly - his harsh tone sounded more like he wanted not only our people, but the entire country to tremble at every word he spoke, warning us that Pakistan could squashed like a bug on dirt under his shoes at any time - after all we are a 'Third Word' country and do not deserve treated any better, not even be given any type consideration and respect. The only way treat every single Pakistani, regardless as to who is, is to humiliate, snub and insult him at every opportunity. In any case all the so-called ‘First Worlders’ have always viewed Pakistan with sheer contempt.
We do not exist in the eyes of the world, but recently we have begun to as a result of situations, which had nothing to do with us at all. But we know that once when everything is over and done with and all outstanding issues are resolved, we would be very quickly forgotten - lost in oblivion just as before. Only when expediency requires it, would it be necessary to make it worth noticing Pakistan, otherwise for all practical purposes we actually do not exist - particularly for the media in the USA. Who cares if Pakistan is around or not, anyway?
Who cares if ordinary Pakistanis were deeply disturbed and extremely offended by Clinton's imperious speech? But then the opinions of ordinary Pakistanis have never counted for anything - they never did, prior to Clinton's speech, they did not when he had made his speech and never ever will in future. The people of Pakistan already oppressed – we have had military rule for 40 years. We continue to suffer this miserable situation and to rub salt on our wounds, we have a president from a foreign land telling us that we have to abandon the whatever dignity we have left, bow before the president of a foreign power and the people of his country - do we have choice?
He was thumping the desk whenever he made a point - no one actually remembers all that he had said; the details are fuzzy now. Few things cannot be forgotten he said Pakistan is a pariah nation and needed to be warned of dire consequences. As if the lowest forms of life on the planet is a Pakistani. Clinton instead of presenting a pleasant demeanour and a diplomatic one, he was extremely ferocious and just as domineering. In a way it was good he had presented in that manner/ Pakistanis have always known that our relationship with United States of America are terrible. All that Clinton's speech did was to confirming this fact. He looked very authoritarian and did not even smile once. However had he smiled and spoke to us in a friendlier manner, we might have been fooled into thinking that suddenly the great and almighty United States of America has become very close to us. It was going resolve many of our problems and would have done away with the differences which existed - but that sense of complacency would have been short-lived, because later we would have found out that the USA has imposed additional sanctions on Pakistan. A friendly speech of that type would have been remembered as historical back-stabbing- which would have been much worse.
This was a long time ago, but the memory of an USA president addressing to the people of Pakistan was something really odd, instead of some of our myriad local tin-pot and worthless dictators making a speech we had a foreign one in their place. Clinton made absolutely no effort to make himself look nice or be nice, it was obvious that it was his intention all along - he come with dreadful warnings and terrible consequences for poor, weak and pathetic Pakistan. His obvious reasons for visiting our invisible and insignificant country, was not to be friendly - his harsh tone sounded more like he wanted not only our people, but the entire country to tremble at every word he spoke, warning us that Pakistan could squashed like a bug on dirt under his shoes at any time - after all we are a 'Third Word' country and do not deserve treated any better, not even be given any type consideration and respect. The only way treat every single Pakistani, regardless as to who is, is to humiliate, snub and insult him at every opportunity. In any case all the so-called ‘First Worlders’ have always viewed Pakistan with sheer contempt.
We do not exist in the eyes of the world, but recently we have begun to as a result of situations, which had nothing to do with us at all. But we know that once when everything is over and done with and all outstanding issues are resolved, we would be very quickly forgotten - lost in oblivion just as before. Only when expediency requires it, would it be necessary to make it worth noticing Pakistan, otherwise for all practical purposes we actually do not exist - particularly for the media in the USA. Who cares if Pakistan is around or not, anyway?
Who cares if ordinary Pakistanis were deeply disturbed and extremely offended by Clinton's imperious speech? But then the opinions of ordinary Pakistanis have never counted for anything - they never did, prior to Clinton's speech, they did not when he had made his speech and never ever will in future. The people of Pakistan already oppressed – we have had military rule for 40 years. We continue to suffer this miserable situation and to rub salt on our wounds, we have a president from a foreign land telling us that we have to abandon the whatever dignity we have left, bow before the president of a foreign power and the people of his country - do we have choice?
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