Allow me to propose something that might sound radical, maybe even stupid: All foreigners should stay in India and Pakistan.

Better yet, more of us should move there and stay there.

Sound crazy?

That's the point, and it makes sense considering the circumstances. Nuclear war, even the threat of nuclear war, is crazy, and that's what could
happen.

I can hear my detractors now: "What on earth is staying in a (would-be) war-zone going to accomplish?" Well, for once, the world might finally take ownership of a problem for which we are collectively responsible. And, I think anybody living in a multi-cultural country like Canada should realize humanity does not exist by one country alone. We should not abandon something we are intrinsically a part of.

Nonetheless, an increasing number of governments are urging their citizens in India and Pakistan to leave the region as soon as possible. I am one of them I have been living in India for more than nine months. In fact, I'm one of an estimated 3,000 Canadians who have been asked to leave. The reason is obvious. We're supposed to be taking the precaution of securing our own safety if war breaks out, especially considering both sides have nuclear weapons.

There are reports that if a nuclear warhead hit where I am living in Delhi, which is easily within range from Pakistan, two hundred thousand people would die in five seconds, the blast would then destroy everything within a 10-kilometre radius, and severely injure 300,000 more people -- blinding them, burning them, traumatizing them for life. This, from one bomb.

Within 10 hours, India says it could retaliate to destroy all major cities in Pakistan. And a full-scale war could leave up to 12 and of course, our personal instinct would be to avoid such a death. Bear in mind though, our instincts are not bydefinition informed by a sense of justice. It's fight or flight. But if we can't get past this, then tell me why I want to bother being a part of the human race. Taking care of yourself, and what youperceive to be your own community, can only be justified so far.

Eventually you have to admit that you're being a bigot.

As you've perhaps heard, many people are leaving, like I myself might have to leave. I don't want to be a martyr, and doing something on my own won't solve anything. But I also don't want to be a hypocrite by saying my life is valuable but my Indian brothers and sisters are not.

It's easier for me to say this. I've lived in India, I've made friends, I've fallen in love with the country and its people, and the magic that lives here. So perhaps I have a better sense of people being cheated. Of how this is not a foreign country. This is part of my home that is in danger.

And it's in danger because we allow our political and military leaders to play these games, with lives we're expected not to care about.

The only way this is going to end is through a massive gesture of solidarity. Don't call me a hippie, and shrug this off. There are no Mahatma Gandhis today, and so no one person can stop this, especially if the rest of us turn our backs.

Greg Younger-Lewis shook heads. Inside, the entire room.