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Transcription: [00:08:18]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
I am on
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
lets get close to the mic
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
[[?]] Alicia gave us these cards she gave the hanging strings to the young people then gave hanging string to the old people so I have to hold it in hand [[?]]. I came to this country in 1964 from Pakistan. I had to go to graduates school at University of Maryland, I had graduated from university of [[?]] university of Maryland good, I had graduated from university of [[?]] in Pakistan with a masters degree in mathematics, I was 24 years old at that time and Pakistan was 17 years old at that time. Im older than Pakistan
{crowd"}
(laughter)
[00:09:16]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
I came here to go to graduates school just like many other Pakistani's came here to graduates schools because Pakistan had not yet established the higher learning institution beyond masters degree. They do now, Pakistan governments had a very large expense and a large number of us to come here and to many other countries to get higher education and go back and serve the country, we did not come here as immigrants, we did not come here to settle, We did not fit the Statue of Liberty slogan give me your tired your poor your oppressed yearning to breath free. We had been under colonial rule for long time but we had thrown out the colonial rulers about 17 years before I came here so we were free, and we were all a part of the middle and upper class families of Pakistan so we knew what to do. When we came here we wanted to go back, but what happened was some did and some did not and their was a reason for that. Pakistan had been under colonial rule for a very long time and the colonial rulers had established an oppressed oppressive frustratingly suffocating system of government to control the population. During that time all the top jobs were held by the foreigners for the middle and low level jobs they trained the locals they trained them in the same system to oppress and control the population, when the foreigners finally left, those who were trained by their masters for lower and middle level jobs became the rulers they continued the same oppressive and suffocating system. When we came her we discovered something, theirs freedom and we can breath free we can can claim our dignity and now we have to decide between the love of a country and the freedom
[00:11:56]