The Most Dangerous Animal in the World

FLASHBAK: On June 8, 1963, the Illustrated London News ran the following story about an exhibition at the gorilla house at The Bronx Zoo in New York City. The exhibit told visitors:

“You are looking at the most dangerous animal in the world. It alone of all the animals that ever lived can exterminate (and has) entire species of animals. Now it has the power to wipe out all life on earth.”

What the visitors saw was, without a doubt, the most dangerous animal in the world, and the frequent comment by visitors was “It’s true!” for they were looking into a barred mirror. And there is considerable truth in this simple, but effective statement that was made then. The message was clear…

FAST FORWARD: The Taliban are the ugly one’s. Arabs are okay now –Bollywood has stopped portraying them as the ‘bad guys’, and the Chinese and Russians are ‘dick heads’ in the making. The good one’s are the rest of us north of the Tropic of Cancer. The red planet is our neighbor, and the alien is “the girl next door” with her rare look earth.

FLASHBACK: Arundhati Roy’s one of her best unloads –years ago, handed out a mirror (some may disagree but dissent breeds debate) amid chatters of a manufactured global disorder:

Roy may be the girl next door with her Beethovenistic telegram above, for billions living in the Tropic of Cancer region -more specifically around the Third Pole –the Water Tower of Asia.

Curated by Irshad Salim, Islamabad