Sojourn to the Land of Plenty

Columnist A RASHID visits the USA.

I had the privilege of touring some parts of United States a few weeks short of 9/11, 2001, while Americans still maintained the psychological profile of “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, the dictum of four times president, Roosevelt, who carried the American nation to victory through the adversity of Second World War. I am also a witness to the psychological frame acquired by the American nation after 9/11, the watershed day that made the miracle of instant transformation of that great nation from a fearless to a fearful entity.
During my sojourn to the land of opportunity and plenty I could vividly feel the truth in the American slogans: “a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” and “the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” I could also unmistakably observe that America is really a land of opportunity and plenty. A mega country with everything mega: from economy, polity, culture and freedom, down to crime and calamity.
The usual denominator in assessing profits and losses is billion and a trillion is also not a rare unit of measure in financial matters. If a fire rages there, it takes away billions and trillions. Similarly floods, earthquakes and other calamities do the same. Like all from the Third World countries, I also spent more time of my visit around the East Coast, the hub of corporate America. The most impressive features of East Coast were the gigantic bridges and motorways including the 10 lane New Jersey Turnpike, leading to New York. Motor traffic is monitored by aeroplanes and radars on these roadways. In the congested portions of the freeways, preferential car pool lanes are provided for the motorists having more than one person in a car. Overhead rail link, between New York City and JFK airport contends to be one of the wonders of the world. Niagara Falls complex in New York State in the North is one of the most outstanding miracles of nature.
The Smithsonian museums of Air and Air Space in Washington DC is a living testimony of fabulous scientific know how of American people. Everything, from the prototypes of Wright Brothers down to the series of Apollo mission’s modules, including the first moon landing craft that carried the man with joint step of humanity on moon and the moon rock brought by the astronauts of Apollo mission, is physically displayed as an indelible evidence of their mastery of aerospace technology. Similarly, the numerous other museums of natural history as well as of different subjects on the works of great scientists and thinkers punctuate the towns and cities of America. Washington DC, the capitol of United States should truly be called a city of memorials. The Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Ivo Jima Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Einstein Memorial and several other monuments of national excellence create awe in the mind of the onlooker.
On 4th July, the National day of United States, I chose to be in Gettysburg, the venue of the final round of American Civil War, to witness the celebrations there. We witnessed the parades of soldiers clad in the uniforms of Civil War time style. We dined in a restaurant of Civil War era. The restaurant staff, including the waiters and waitresses was attired in the costumes of Civil War day’s fashion. The battlefield was immaculately decorated with various stalls where American history, in general, and that of the Civil War, in particular, was being highlighted by documentaries, paintings and sculptors. At night the battlefield became the venue of exquisite fireworks. Having spent over a month in the East I moved to the west, taking a flight from New York to San Francisco and from San Francisco to Sacramento, the capital of California. From Sacramento our host (an old colleague) took us to his home in Chico and for two weeks showed us round California and Nevada by road. The lay of the land in California had a striking resemblance with our part of Punjab. But the treatment and exploitation of the natural gifts of the land by the American people bore no similarity to the ad hoc and apathetic agro economics of Punjab.
The orchard fields of almonds, walnuts and peaches etc, laden with crop, spread over hectors and miles with immaculately clean surface of the ground underneath. Not a leaf is seen on the ground as if the entire orchards are swept clean every night. The first leg of our journey was from Chico in California to Reno in Nevada via Roseville, Auburn and Lake Tahoe. One of the notable features of the journey was a canyon of the woodland through which the road way ran for about 40 miles. Only a streak of sky is visible through the exuberantly thick primary forest all along. The other grand landmark is Lake Tahoe, a portion of which also falls in the state of Nevada. The lake suddenly appears at the end of the canyon plateau from where one has to look down to the grand lake with blue water, with awe. The relief as well as the landscape changes abruptly and one climbs down to approach Reno.
Reno, like Los Vegas, is one of the island cities of casinos where gambling is legal. Apart from the night life casinos and night clubs, the most fascinating features of Reno, which we happened to witness, by chance, was, the yearly jamboree of vehicles of old vintage. This festival is held yearly where people bring their vehicles from all over the country to contest for prizes given to the best kept cars. The old cars from early 20th century to date, done up to the best of it are paraded through the bazaars of Reno, while the public, standing on sides, acclaims. This festivity continues for days and the locals make it as success through their hearty participation and appreciation of the huge amounts spent by the owners to decorate and keep the cars in a very high state of fitness.
Elsewhere in America, there are places through the length and breadth of the country which are rightfully the envy of the whole world. Rocky Mountains in Colorado, in the Central United States and Grand Canyons in Arizona in the south have no parallels elsewhere in the world. Man made wonders of Disneyland and Hollywood in Los Angeles in the Southeast and Disney World in Florida in the south speak of the quintessence of human achievements. Hundreds of miles of RCC roadways in the marshy areas speak of the financial spine of the country. National memorials, museums, zoos, mega shopping centres and diversity of terrain and topography attract flocks of tourists from all over the world.
Personal freedom existed in far exaggeration of the realities of the modern times. There was no law under which any government official could get hold of anybody to check his or her credentials. Resultantly, millions of illegal immigrants thrived and shared the economic resources of America. Many of our political leaders, who openly malign America on every count, have their firm bases there with their siblings holding the forts for them and making fortunes. Despite wholesome knowledge of their antecedents, America never discriminated against them. This attitude stemmed from the overall ethos of introversion of American people. One political scientist wrote in 1950s that most children know only two persons in government — the police officer on the corner and the president of the United States. There is also a great conceptual paradox here that the outlooks of the common person and the governments are poles apart. The government is always as much outward looking, as the common man is inward oriented. The American government has always topped the world governments in spreading and maintaining its colonial and neo colonial tentacles around the globe but the approach of the common citizen always has domestic orientation.
After 9/11 of 2001 America has undergone a change. The Americans are rethinking to redefine personal freedom and will perhaps do away with the concept of unconditional freedom, which remained the hallmark of United States for over 200 years. The world will never be the same again after 9/11, is not as surprising as the fact of America not being the same again.