Today, I was reading a report on the cash-for-peerages scandal that the Labour Party has gotten itself embroiled in, in the United Kingdom and for some reason, I started thinking about the word peerage. Since I'm a little inquisitive by nature, I decided to look the word up in my favorite online dictionary.
Upon reading the definition, I was astounded. I was shocked. And, I was troubled.
Allow me to elucidate.
When I was a young boy, I used to study at one of the best educational institutions for young boys, in Pakistan. There were other boys with me there who came from a more feudal background. One of them was Shahid. He is a orthopedic surgoen now, reportedly also living in the United Kingdom. (Shouldn't it be United Queendom?) Whatever. I digress.
One night, after dinner, we were talking about our respective families, and he told me that he comes from a long line of gaddi-nasheens. Literally, that translates to he-who-sits-on-a-cushion. The word he used was peer (pronounced as in English but with the middle syllable î in pîr pronounced flatly). The general notion of who a peer is, in Pakistan, is someone who is religiously and spiritually elevated-- someone to whom one pledges one's allegience.
The important thing to note here is that there's a religiously-ordained aspect to this pledge of allegiance, i.e., those who are pledging this allegiance consider it their religious duty to pledge their allegiance to the peer. Moreover, the position of the peer as defined in Pakistani feudal society is hereditary, as the reader might already have presumed by my use of the phrase 'long line of gaddi nasheens' earlier in this post.
Now go take another look at the entry for peerage on my favorite online dictionary.
Are you astounded? Are you shocked? Are you troubled?
Is it a wonder that Islamic fundamentalism is coming back to bite the Western democracies in their asses?
Upon reading the definition, I was astounded. I was shocked. And, I was troubled.
Allow me to elucidate.
When I was a young boy, I used to study at one of the best educational institutions for young boys, in Pakistan. There were other boys with me there who came from a more feudal background. One of them was Shahid. He is a orthopedic surgoen now, reportedly also living in the United Kingdom. (Shouldn't it be United Queendom?) Whatever. I digress.
One night, after dinner, we were talking about our respective families, and he told me that he comes from a long line of gaddi-nasheens. Literally, that translates to he-who-sits-on-a-cushion. The word he used was peer (pronounced as in English but with the middle syllable î in pîr pronounced flatly). The general notion of who a peer is, in Pakistan, is someone who is religiously and spiritually elevated-- someone to whom one pledges one's allegience.
The important thing to note here is that there's a religiously-ordained aspect to this pledge of allegiance, i.e., those who are pledging this allegiance consider it their religious duty to pledge their allegiance to the peer. Moreover, the position of the peer as defined in Pakistani feudal society is hereditary, as the reader might already have presumed by my use of the phrase 'long line of gaddi nasheens' earlier in this post.
Now go take another look at the entry for peerage on my favorite online dictionary.
Are you astounded? Are you shocked? Are you troubled?
Is it a wonder that Islamic fundamentalism is coming back to bite the Western democracies in their asses?
posted by Diabolic at 6:50 AM
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