imagink

Published by HARDNEWS (South Asian counterpart of Le Monde Diplomatique, Paris) [Author: Shivani Chaudhry | Date Published: September 2009] It’s that time of the year again, when the ghost of a recent past knocks on fear’s doors and holds the future hostile… A day eight years ago when history seems to have turned its current course. A day after which nothing seemed the same, after which, as a line from W.B. Yeats says, “All, all is utterly changed…” Or is it? In some parts of the world, it is. For some groups of people, it is. September 11, 2001 — a day that still holds freedom hostage for the world’s majority; for the world’s “other” people; a day that redefined liberty, terror, movement, freedom, self-expression, tolerance, identity, and geopolitics. Much as I would rather not talk about this 9/11, I feel compelled to, given the paralysed state of the world, where a self-imposed fear defines who can and who cannot be. Where the other is more sought after, more rejected, and mo...