The bleeding of the west's moral values
How many people remember the world before the events of September 11, 2001? If UN estimates on annual birth rates are accurate, more than 230 million children have been born since then.
Like the so-called baby boomers who came after the second world war, and those born at the end of the Vietnam conflict, the children of post 9/11 have their own violent historical marker to define their generation. But while the baby boomers and the generations after Vietnam came into this world breathing the air of peace, the children of post September 11 are being born into a world at perpetual war against terrorism.
The scars of war can only begin to heal after the conflict is over, and wars can only be over when one side is defeated or surrenders. The 'war on terror', entering its fourth year, has left scars on both sides deeper than those from the battlefield. Some see it more as a clash between cultures - the western way of life versus Islam. And victory, as others have defined it, cannot be from military might but through the winning of hearts and minds.
Terrorists can inflict painful blows but cannot possibly defeat, or force a surrender from, the powerful governments that are now fighting them. Neither can these governments win the hearts and minds that are essential for victory as long as they refuse to recognise the root causes of terrorism.
If that means that the 'war on terror' is to be open-ended, does it also mean that we have to indefinitely tolerate the uglier consequences of this war? Images of American abuse against Iraqi suspects represent the more graphic side of this ugliness, matched only by videos of hostages having their throats cut by terrorists. But there are other, less graphic yet more disturbing, excesses that have stained the moral values the west forces on the rest of the world.
America frequently finds fault with China's treatment of prisoners, but defends its own policy of indefinitely locking away terror suspects without access to lawyers, family or a trial.
When thinking of the world after September 11, I am reminded of pre-handover Hong Kong when governor Christopher Patten ridiculed the so-called Asian values championed by regional leaders like Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Mr Patten and others equated Asian values with the denial of democratic, civil and human rights, using examples like the jailing of former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, and the treatment by Myanmar's rulers of democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar remains an outcast. But Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, who was demonised for seizing power by toppling a democratically elected government, is now warmly greeted in western capitals for his willingness to help hunt down Osama bin Laden.
It may seem to some that the world after September 11 is one of ever-shifting values to fit agendas, where anyone who disagrees is labelled unpatriotic or a terrorist. Holding your breath may provide some relief from this stench, but please bear in mind the health risk of doing this until the air clears.
Michael Chugani is the editor-in-chief of ATV English News and Current Affairs
