- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
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Something very disconcerting in the modern age is immigration-immersed mail-order-bride crimes which destabilize our faith in globalization and human values.
Consider this short parable about an Asian man courting an Asian mail-order-bride with comic book stick-figure drawings and a values-centric short-story and how the bizarre courtship (and ensuing crime!) reveals an eerie underlying 'anti-immigration mania' hidden in the 'labyrinths' of modern pluralism politics. Why do such 'fables' inspire so many crime stories such as Traffic?
Anyone a fan of American Psycho?
====
A strange immigrant from Asia named Ajay Shah settled down in Washington, D.C. and began looking for an Asian mail-order-bride on the Internet. Ajay intended to marry her and then help her live in the USA as a rightful passport-holding American citizen. Ajay found such a bride in the beautiful and charming Madras Indian woman named Seema Nair who was very eager to move to the USA by finding the right Asian-American U.S. citizen to marry. Seema only wanted to be sure she was sincerely in love with Ajay and that she was compatible with him and could trust him. Seema found the Internet mail-order-bride service/registry and its personality-questionnaire and the connected video-chat with Ajay very revealing/helpful.
Seema was a big fan of Amar Chitra Katha comic books which presented colourful aphorisms and morality tales and were comparable to Mighty Mouse and Tintin comics in the Western world. Seema wanted Ajay to send her a homemade stick-figure comic book heroic character paired with a villainous character someone else drew. Seema wanted to Ajay to draw the heroic stick-figure character and pair it with a villain and then attach a simply story about the value of friendship, democracy, justice, and teamwork (and hopefully community values in general!). This would give Seema a very clear picture of who she was about to marry and with whom to settle down in America.
Ajay agreed to do the deed and drew a colourful orange-and-green colored Batman-oriented superhero who represented community spirit and democracy-optimism and paired his stick-figure doodle with a villainous Transformers (Hasbro) robot named Cyclonus (a wolfish warlock of sorts). Ajay then wrote a short blurb-story about Batman confronting Cyclonus about the terrible problem of mail-order-bride related crimes. These crimes involved fraudulent documents or worse, spouses using the services to target vulnerable people to kill(!). Batman believed mail-order-brides symbolized networking faith, while Cyclonus thought mail-order-bride service/registry related crimes represented the reality of networking destabilization.
Well, Seema loved Ajay's drawing-pair and attached short-story, so she confided in Ajay that she was a big advocate of women's rights in India involving the savage burning of brides because of dowry-related corruption. Seema even worked with a UN organization regarding this terrible problem. Ajay was very impressed and proposed to Seema --- and she accepted! Two months later, Seema moved to D.C. and married Ajay and one year later they had a son (and named him Amlan Shah). One year later, Seema turned up dead in a river, and cops had no suspects. Ajay took their son Amlan to San Francisco and raised him. Ten years later, as Amlan dreamed to studying at UCLA, Ajay had a shocking conversation with his son...
AJAY: I want to talk to you about your mother...
AMLAN: Yes, I know no one ever discovered her murderer!
AJAY: Amlan, my son, I killed your mother.
AMLAN: What? Are you mad?
AJAY: Believe me; I'm not trying to fool you.
AMLAN: Why did you do it? We have to turn you over to the police.
AJAY: No! This is what Seema would have wanted...
AMLAN: What?
AJAY: I intend to write a novel about Seema, fictionalizing her death.
AMLAN: What will your 'book' be about, you fool(!)?
AJAY: Calm down; my story will be about Seema being murdered despite her idealism.
AMLAN: I get it; you're going to use mom as a 'political-diplomat' to hype immigration!
AJAY: That's correct...
AMLAN: Dad, why didn't you just consider writing a normal story with mom's help??
AJAY: Seema was destined to be a martyr, and I wanted to make her immortal...
AMLAN: You're not a prophet; you're a madman.
AJAY: Trust me, Amlan; this story will be very popular; Seema will become a celebrity.
AMLAN: This is so deranged...
AJAY: Mail-order-bride services and immigration are so flawed (you don't understand).
AMLAN: Why did you make that Batman-Cyclonus doodle and story for mom (she loved it!)?
AJAY: Amlan, we will be servants of God in America.
AMLAN: I will keep your terrible secret and monitor your 'crusade' but I'll never agree.
====
Consider this short parable about an Asian man courting an Asian mail-order-bride with comic book stick-figure drawings and a values-centric short-story and how the bizarre courtship (and ensuing crime!) reveals an eerie underlying 'anti-immigration mania' hidden in the 'labyrinths' of modern pluralism politics. Why do such 'fables' inspire so many crime stories such as Traffic?
Anyone a fan of American Psycho?
====
A strange immigrant from Asia named Ajay Shah settled down in Washington, D.C. and began looking for an Asian mail-order-bride on the Internet. Ajay intended to marry her and then help her live in the USA as a rightful passport-holding American citizen. Ajay found such a bride in the beautiful and charming Madras Indian woman named Seema Nair who was very eager to move to the USA by finding the right Asian-American U.S. citizen to marry. Seema only wanted to be sure she was sincerely in love with Ajay and that she was compatible with him and could trust him. Seema found the Internet mail-order-bride service/registry and its personality-questionnaire and the connected video-chat with Ajay very revealing/helpful.
Seema was a big fan of Amar Chitra Katha comic books which presented colourful aphorisms and morality tales and were comparable to Mighty Mouse and Tintin comics in the Western world. Seema wanted Ajay to send her a homemade stick-figure comic book heroic character paired with a villainous character someone else drew. Seema wanted to Ajay to draw the heroic stick-figure character and pair it with a villain and then attach a simply story about the value of friendship, democracy, justice, and teamwork (and hopefully community values in general!). This would give Seema a very clear picture of who she was about to marry and with whom to settle down in America.
Ajay agreed to do the deed and drew a colourful orange-and-green colored Batman-oriented superhero who represented community spirit and democracy-optimism and paired his stick-figure doodle with a villainous Transformers (Hasbro) robot named Cyclonus (a wolfish warlock of sorts). Ajay then wrote a short blurb-story about Batman confronting Cyclonus about the terrible problem of mail-order-bride related crimes. These crimes involved fraudulent documents or worse, spouses using the services to target vulnerable people to kill(!). Batman believed mail-order-brides symbolized networking faith, while Cyclonus thought mail-order-bride service/registry related crimes represented the reality of networking destabilization.
Well, Seema loved Ajay's drawing-pair and attached short-story, so she confided in Ajay that she was a big advocate of women's rights in India involving the savage burning of brides because of dowry-related corruption. Seema even worked with a UN organization regarding this terrible problem. Ajay was very impressed and proposed to Seema --- and she accepted! Two months later, Seema moved to D.C. and married Ajay and one year later they had a son (and named him Amlan Shah). One year later, Seema turned up dead in a river, and cops had no suspects. Ajay took their son Amlan to San Francisco and raised him. Ten years later, as Amlan dreamed to studying at UCLA, Ajay had a shocking conversation with his son...
AJAY: I want to talk to you about your mother...
AMLAN: Yes, I know no one ever discovered her murderer!
AJAY: Amlan, my son, I killed your mother.
AMLAN: What? Are you mad?
AJAY: Believe me; I'm not trying to fool you.
AMLAN: Why did you do it? We have to turn you over to the police.
AJAY: No! This is what Seema would have wanted...
AMLAN: What?
AJAY: I intend to write a novel about Seema, fictionalizing her death.
AMLAN: What will your 'book' be about, you fool(!)?
AJAY: Calm down; my story will be about Seema being murdered despite her idealism.
AMLAN: I get it; you're going to use mom as a 'political-diplomat' to hype immigration!
AJAY: That's correct...
AMLAN: Dad, why didn't you just consider writing a normal story with mom's help??
AJAY: Seema was destined to be a martyr, and I wanted to make her immortal...
AMLAN: You're not a prophet; you're a madman.
AJAY: Trust me, Amlan; this story will be very popular; Seema will become a celebrity.
AMLAN: This is so deranged...
AJAY: Mail-order-bride services and immigration are so flawed (you don't understand).
AMLAN: Why did you make that Batman-Cyclonus doodle and story for mom (she loved it!)?
AJAY: Amlan, we will be servants of God in America.
AMLAN: I will keep your terrible secret and monitor your 'crusade' but I'll never agree.
====
