Everyone who owned a computer in the 1990s can probably recall those precious desktops that used to come with a brand new Windows 95. If you’re too young (read: infantile) to know this, remind yourself that you too are going to age one day, and Snapchat won’t be cool forever. Like iPhone covers today, choosing a background image on your Windows 95 said something about you. There were the peace-lovers who chose a picture of a deserted tropical island surrounded by crystal-clear waters; others went for the graphic Windows logo disintegrating into pixels as it wafted by; there was the blue close-up of a CD/hard drive for the techies and even a crudely designed haunted house for the kids/proto-hipsters. My personal favourite, I still remember, was a background called “Mystery”. It was a picture of a grand old study, with leather armchairs, a handsome heavy wooden oak desk and floor-to-ceiling books with pleasingly symmetrical rows of leather-bound volumes. “Mystery” was my happy place. This was a room where people read musty volumes by the warm fire, where they used things like Atlases and globes to plan voyages near and far; this was a place where I am sure they could have sweet baked goods whenever they desired. It was a happy place.
Do you think that mentioning Balzac is an intellectual thing to do?
It is perhaps because of this happy association that I have always liked places that remind me of it: old bookshops, my father’s study, lawyers’ offices. In very few other places would you see row upon row of leather bound books, carefully catalogued and arranged to tickle even the most demanding fantasy in your OCD heart. Because of the rows of books you see in most lawyers’ offices, I assumed most of them are learned and smart. They’d have to be, right? Why have the leather books otherwise? But then I find myself wondering what’s going on with the legal profession when I read the news about the decision in the Panama Papers corruption case, which has been ongoing against our current PM. It’s a big case, an important case. We imagine that our courts, with their dapper cloaks and fabulous embroidery, would obviously give sage and well-written verdicts to guide and reassure the troubled country that justice was being done. So the highest court in the land began the 549-page judgment in the Panamagate scandal thus:
“The popular 1969 novel “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo recounted the violent tale of a Mafia family and the epigraph selected by the author was fascinating:
‘Behind every great fortune there is a crime.’ – Balzac”
There comes a moment when I want to protest. Who, in a position of “learned” privilege, would start what he thinks is going to be a widely read (and historic) document with a quote from The Godfather?
The rest of the ruling is long and fairly vague: by and large the judgment says they don’t want to give a judgment. Not yet anyway. The media has picked up on The Godfather quote and poked lots of fun at it. The criticism against them is that they are picking up a frivolous part of the ruling and ignoring the meatier insides. But I can understand why the media has a field day with it.
Much has been made of the Panama ruling's reference to popular works of fiction
Do you really think that mentioning Balzac or indeed Kahlil Gibran is an intellectual thing to do? It reminded me of a time I overheard a politician talking about their time in office as being like The West Wing. I love popular culture (obvs) and believe it has a strong and vital role to play in cultural discourse at all levels. But there is something worrying about powerful people describing their very real (and loaded) experience of local government in terms of a racy American TV show. I want to yell and say “But you’re real!” and I am not sure if that’s scarier to me or them. Maybe they know something I don’t, but if they are happy to compare themselves to bit parts in cancelled shows, then I feel bad for them and us.
So can we not be better in Pakistan? Can we not have powerful figures that can talk about corruption scandals without resorting to movie trivia from abroad?
