Issue 41 Vol II, June 15, 2007

L I T E R A T U R E

Den of the Yellow Devil
Surjan Zeervi in the World of Barbie
Dr. Jaspal Singh

Surjan Zeervi is one of the outstanding journalists of Punjabi. He was the news editor of the Nawan Zamana at Jalandhar and spent nearly four decades there before migrating to Canada. Now he is a resident of Toronto and is a very keen observer of North American way of life. Being associated with Nisot, a Punjabi journal brought out from Toronto, he regularly contributes perceptive articles. Recently he collected twenty one such articles and got them published in a book form, Ehh Hai Barbie Sansar (This is the Barbie World). These articles encompass a vast spectrum as they vividly portray social, economic, political and cultural aspects of life in the USA and Canada. Most of the write ups pertain to the present day political and economic activities of the prime movers of the industrial military complex of the only super power.

Though some of the articles were penned in 1998 and 1999, yet others appeared only in the first few years of the 21st century.  Majority of the articles pertain to the years when George W. Bush has been president of the USA and as the only super power it has been trying to establish its complete hegemony over the entire globe. With the demise of Soviet Union in the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, American imperialism has held its sway over all the continents. The most pernicious impact of American imperialism became visible only in the beginning of twenty first century more particularly after 9/11 when the symbols of American economic and military power were hit by the Islamic terrorist groups. Consequently America unleashed a devastating war on Afghanistan, the country that according to the USA harboured the Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist outfits. The war in Afghanistan internationalised Islamic terrorism extending its boundaries in all directions covering all the continents of the world. This was precisely what the US industrial military complex wanted, so that it could assume sweeping powers over all aspects of human life in the world. Now it could impose its draconian will even on its own citizens usurping some of their basic rights and at the same time it could declare war on Iraq under false pretexts in order to control its oil wealth and to get rid of unobliging rulers. The Iraq war brought unlimited wealth to some of the US construction companies with which many US politicians and business tycoons are associated. No doubt this has taken place at the cost of 6.5 lakh innocent Iraqis and a few thousand American lives that its forces have lost in the Iraqi sands. Incidentally none of the American rulers have sent their own sons or daughters to fight in Iraq. Only common people are made to suffer and sacrifice their lives to fight the corporate war which even the former UN Secretary General had declared as illegal.

Barbie for Zeervi is a symbol of the inhuman American capitalism that cares only for its profits irrespective of the loss of human dignity and well-being. After the implementation of NAFTA many North American corporations multiplied their profits generating more unemployment that eventually touched the hallmark of 14 percent. Zeervi says that there are many votaries of free market in India as well who are utterly unaware of its noxious consequences. This phenomenon of course has improved the ‘quality’ of garbage in India that the rag-pickers have to rummage in order to escape starvation. Canadian commentators dub Indians as a nation of noise-makers and even the contribution made by Nehru and Gandhi is nothing but a great ‘national failure’ of the last century. The pen-pushers of the Toronto Star like Richard Gowin think that the British gave India parliamentary democracy, autonomous judiciary, a meritorious civil service, free intelligentsia and a disciplined army. But after the departure of the British, he maintains, India became a home to one third of world’s poor. If one believes Gowin it would mean that India was a veritable paradise before independence and that colonial occupation and exploration of the country was justified and freedom of the country is its greatest failure.

Zeervi throws some light on the functioning of some of the multibillion dollar corporations of America particularly the now bankrupt and World Com which carried out multiple frauds, cheating their own innocent shareholders for millions of dollars while their directors and other functionaries fraudulently minted millions. Even the perceptive organs of the media were stunned to see the socially irresponsible behaviour of the immoral corporate sector. Such corporate seams and scandals were dubbed as cancer by genuine economic analysts.

How does a doll called Barbie shape the psyche of the young women in the American system? Zeervi says that the doll has her own house, car, wardrobe, boy friend and many other friends. Her eyes and eye-brows, neck, lips, slim waist and so on are perfect for a beautiful woman. In short she becomes an ideal to be achieved by every young woman. As a symbol she is the motive force of the consumer society. The doll phenomenon also explains the reckless capitalistic mode of production that unleashes an unbridled commodity fetishism, which obliterates the difference between illusion and reality. Rather the illusion seems more real than the reality itself.

A very interesting write-up in this collection about the process of ‘aging’ and how the unscrupulous multinational drug companies target the old, infirm and on the threshold of old age. The tendency to look young is among human beings is fully exploited by these companies. That is why most of them spend more money on research and development of ‘life-style’ drugs than on life saving ones.

Sometimes a debate rages in the Canadian media whether the socio-economic model adopted by this country is still relevant or whether it should blindly follow the American model and if possible should integrate itself with the American Republic. Some of the multinational corporations and institutions propped up by them make concerted noise that Canada should merge into the USA for its future development and security. It means that Canada will have to dismantle its entire health and social-security system that at present is the envy of many nations in the world. In fact, the corporate world needs ever bigger playing fields for its operations so that it could reap richer dividends. Contributions toward welfare schemes reduce its margin of profit. Whether Canada goes the American way can not be predicted at this stage, yet to think of an issue like this does not bode well for the future of the Canadian way of life.

Zeervi perhaps is the first Punjabi journalist to think about such problems in this age of globalisation. His understanding and range really are global. In English thinkers like Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore or Aijaz Ahmad has been dilating on such themes from time to time. But Punjabi intelligentsia has been rather slow to think about these issues pertaining to the future world order. Zeervi got these articles published in 2005, though some of them were written in 1998. By the time they appeared in a book form, reality had changed as some of the facts. It would have been better had the author revised and updated these articles before sending for publication.

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