By  Mowahid Hussain Shah

October 17 , 2013

Distant Connections

 

The present sometimes can be intruded upon and interrupted by the past in unexpected ways.

A recent visit to the oceanfront resort town of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina – about an eight-hour drive south of Washington, DC – provided fresh evidence. With its 97 golf courses, it is a renowned golfers’ paradise, but of little use to me because I don’t play golf. In close proximity is Brookgreen Gardens, designated as a national historic landmark founded in 1931 by Archer and his wife Anna Huntington. Our guide, Elaine, intrigued American tourists when she elaborated that the park’s layout and architecture is heavily influenced by the impact of Muslim Spain on the imagination of Archer, who visited Andalucía in his youth. Indeed, the running fountains, gardens, and archways are redolent of the grandeur of Alhambra, albeit on a miniature scale. It was heartwarming to see the reach of Muslim heritage in the insular environment of the American South, where the US Civil War began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in 1861.

Today, despite the tremendous post-9/11 upsurge of Western interest in the Muslim world, the political representation of Muslims on the international stage remains pitiful. In the US, too, the nearly 10 million-strong Muslim community has neither dreamt big nor built big.

 

A 90-minute drive north from Myrtle Beach is the sleepy small town of Southport in North Carolina. To cite Thomas Hardy, the town is so far from the madding crowd that it served as a locale for the filming of the movie aptly titled “Safe Haven.” But massive events – as 9/11 revealed to the Pakistani public and the region – even though happening from a great distance away, leave their own great impact. And an unexpected proof was to find at Southport a memorial to the crew of the American tanker, SS John D. Gill, torpedoed at Cape Fear, off the coast of North Carolina, by a German U-boat on March 12, 1942.

Even American naval veterans of World War II are not fully aware, even today, of the daring seamanship exemplified by the range and reach of German U-boats, which 70 years ago struck the US eastern coastline, sinking over 171 ships.

The barriers of physical distance and years are transcended sometimes in ways not anticipated. On the drive back to Washington, one saw signage for the Ava Gardner Museum – dedicated to the glamorous Hollywood star of yesteryear – in her tiny hometown of Smithfield, North Carolina. It warranted a visit.

Prominently displayed inside the museum was a poster for the movie, “Bhowani Junction,” proudly proclaiming that it was filmed in Lahore, Pakistan. Ava Gardner took Lahore by storm when she stayed there at the Faletti’s Hotel in 1955 to film “Bhowani Junction” with co-star Stewart Granger. The museum depicted a quote in bold letters from Ava showing that, in a 50-year career, she considered her role in that movie as amongst her most emotionally demanding.

And so, too, are the demands of responsible leadership, which remains largely elusive in Pakistan, despite being blessed by talent and strategic geo-political locale. But can you get respect without self-respect?

 

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

PREVIOUSLY


Election 2004: Decisive but Divisive

Muslim Youth & Kashmir in America

The Big Picture: Wealth without Vision

Oxygen to Global Unrest

Punishing the Punctual

Change without Change

Don’t Be Weak

Passionate Attachment

The Confidence of Youth

The Other Side of Democracy

Campaign of Defamation

Pakistani Women & the Legal Profession

A Pakistani Journey

Farewell to Fazal

Mukhtaran and Beyond

Revamping the OIC

7/7 & After

Nuclear Double-Standard

Return to Racism

Hollywood – The Unofficial Media

The Sole Superpower

The UN at 60

A Slow Motion World War?

Elite vs. Street

Iqbal Today

Macedonia to Multan

Defending our Own

2006 & Maulana Zafar Ali Khan

Error against Terror

The Limits of Power

Cultural Weaknesses

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

Global Storm

The Farce of Free Expression

The Changing Mood

Condi & India

Xenophobia

Looking inward

Re-Thinking

A Tale of Two Presidents

Close to Home

Flashpoint Kashmir

The Spreading Rage

Confronting Adversity

The Illusion of International Law

Other Side of Extremism

Five Years after 9/11

The Educated Ignorant

The Decline of Humor

Icons

Six Years of Insanity

The War Not Being Fought

Munir Niazi

Compliance & Defiance

Counter-Message

Miscast

The Goddess of Wealth

The Meaning of Moderation

The Tora Bora of Fear

Clash of Civility

The Early Race

Challenge & Response

Will & Skill

Zealotry

Movie-Media and Pakistan

Hug with a Thug

Quest for Integrity

Unconquered

Vanity

Bringing Back the Past

Stuck in Iraq

Islam, Science and the West

Turmoil over Turkey

Leaders versus Leadership

Might Does Not Make Right

Kursi First

Vision & Will

Battle of the Billionaires

Assassination Alley

Extremism and Change

Rosy Expectations

Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain

Not Winning

Beyond Baghdad: Five Years after

The Hijab of Democracy

Hate, Fear & Hope

Weapon of Words

Hide N’ Seek

Yanking in the UN

Obama’s Breakthrough

Let Lahore Be Lahore

National Mood & Sports

Flirting with Fire

Trips Abroad

Georgia on the Mind

Duel for the White House

Zia to Zardari

Palestine: Avoiding the Unavoidable 

Not Working 

In the Ring 

Obama’s America

Smiles & Dreams

Quiet Deeds of Good

Crime and Indifference

Journey of Understanding

VIP-hunting

Terror via Counter-Terrorism

Umpires or Vampires?

The Long Road

Yesterday’s Reminder

Appeasement and the Real Threat

Israel’s Washington Agenda

New Challenges

Cairo and Beyond

Re-fighting Old Battles

America ’s Super Villains

Activism in America

Style without Substance

Overcoming Barriers

Ashes to Afghanistan

The Looming Change

Fear and Possibilities

What Is Not Debated 

Hired Guns

Rampage at Fort Hood

Manmohan in Washington

The Long Duel

Green Nukes

Vision and Division

Avoiding Why

Striving to Matter

Shame-proof

Anxiety and Opportunity

Putting Iraq in America

The Right Strategy

Looking Beyond

Rot at the Top

Strategic Folly

Daring & Caring

Over-Stepping on Turkey

Sudan : Perils of Provincialism

Old Fears, New Target

Europe ’s Stain

The US-Pakistan Enigma

The Status Quo Is Unacceptable

9 Years after 9/11

License to Steal

US Muslims at the Crossroads

Tumor of Terror

An Arab Voice

Disastrous Decisions

Double Game

Sticky Wiki

What Quaid Was Not

Money Conspiracy

Pharaohs & Pirates

Greed and Cricket

Change & Challenge  

Forty Years after 1971

Abandoning Our Own

Rewarding Failure

Osama and Obama

Tsunami of Tolerance

Representation and Presentation

Meek and Weak

Change or the Same?

No Easy Exit

Nation to Non-Nation

10 Years after 9/11

Shining India?

Big Power, Small Politics

Rule of the Gun

Proxy of the Powerful

Fight for Fairness

Republican Race

Actors or Directors

Speaking out

Professional Sycophants

More Provinces?

Too Much Information

Soft Separation

Soft Poison

Unemployment & Over-Population

Seize the Day

The Arab Awakening

Ben Bella

At University of Gujrat

Good People Behaving Badly

Playing Over-Smart

Do Less

Resisting the Resistible

Performance, Not PR

Home-grown Havoc

Salutation to the 65 th Year

Plague of Provincialism

USA Elections 2012

Rage

Fight or Flight

Rift and Drift

Obama II

Me and We

Small Role or Small Actors?

On Losing

Who Will Guard the Guards?

Loyal to Their Loot

Prevail or Fail

Perceptions and Reality

Toll of Occupation

Re-think, Re-examine, and Self-correct 

The Washington Tribe

Voice and Vision

Moral Slump

Wall of Illusion

Under One Banner

Bitter Harvest

Gallows and the Throne

Scent of Power

At a Standstill

Leaders and Leadership

The Deadline

Fighting Darkness


2001

 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.