Capturing the Queen

Living in New Rome as I do, I have many occasions to question the very enterprise of truth or veracity. In my sometimes discombobulated state, I have found comfort in Prof. Harry Frankfurt's concise, philosophical essay -- "On Bullshit". His essay is particularly illuminating about why a bullshitter is a worse enemy of the truth than a lier. As Prof. Frankfurt notes, the difference between the two (i.e., a lier and a bullshitter) is a bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what she's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: she "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. [S]He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

Prof. Frankfurt also points to one source of bullshit's unprecedented expansion in recent years, the post-modern skepticism of objective truth in favor of sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Prof. Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect as the rest of this exquisite essay, "sincerity itself is bullshit." Ergo, Bush and Co. in New Rome are more precisely defined as bull-shitters and not liers as Jon Stewart recently implied by discussing this essay with Prof. Frankfurt on the Daily Show.

What does all this philosophical rumination have to do with the latest shocker from Bangladesh -- the indictment and arrest of Begum Sheikh Hasina on charges of extortion? All will be revealed, patient reader, in due time...

With all customary respect due to our esteemed and erstwhile politicians and to the military-backed, caretaker government, this current state of events has provided yet another martyr-complex-laden photo opportunity (replete with morning prayers and white chador; mysterious ailments to come) to one of the two queens (let's call her the Queen of Hearts and the other one the Red Queen) whose collective, 16-year reign has played into the Devil Kissinger's notorious appellations for Bangladesh --"bottomless basket case". Whew! If our goal is to expose these two women and their respective parties for what they truly represent -- the plutocratic interests of the rich and the few -- wouldn't we have been better served by patiently building a case against each of them, rather than whisking them off to court and then to jail and/or house arrest in luxury SUVs? How about a gag order so that no rabble-rousing speeches may be rendered by either of them while they are under investigation? What, there is no law on the books to sanction such an order? Make one up for hell's sake! BTW, given that the queens (not to mention, their friends and family members who mooch off of them) live WAY beyond their means, how hard can it be to implicate them with financial corruption? Or, from the kindness of our hearts, do we just want to provide for some long-overdue exile/vacation for them in Saudi Arabia (a la Nawaz Sharif) or even better, in Dubai (like Ms. Bhutto)? They HAVE been working so hard after all.

I also understand that the National Revenue Board (NBR) is busy compiling lists of tax dodgers, but what about the innumerable citizens who've funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to foreign banks instead of investing them in Bangladesh's financial sector? How do we change the corrupt mentality of the current generation of the affluent and their irresponsible, ney, criminal, parents? You know who you are:o) More importantly, into which ocean can we drown the new crop of 20- and 30-year old millionaires who gave Dhaka the glittering socialite scene it had sorely lacked in my humble youth. We better build some new jails! Or, here's an idea: let's ship the young lafangas off to some party central, e.g., Ibiza, so that Bengalis can finally break free of our nerdy, thaila-carrying, Tagore-quoting image. Put them to good use for "queens and country" I say!

Can a house that has been left unattended for so long (despite the best efforts of the honest few) be refurbished in a matter of days? Therein lies the hubris of the military. Administering a country is not like executing a commando mission, or even a full-scale war. Thus, getting rid of strategic targets will not necessarily ensure long-term success. And now, the denoument (drum rolls):

For all you standardized test-analogy-junkies, the queens and their cronies are to Bangladesh's civic society (or potential thereof) as "bullshit" is to "truth". The rest of us who've either remained indifferent or gone along with "business as usual", despite our non-bloody hands, are to our country as "lies" is to "truth". We should have known better and acted differently instead of squandering away the last couple of decades. It's time for our ritual ablutions, if you will. But, my cynical self is afraid that "all the perfumes in Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand."