by Omar Javaid
A nation where all are doing their bit to dig their own mass graves, nailing their own coffins, chopping off their own limbs, poising their own wells, burning their own property, killing their own sons, raping their own daughters, looting their own property, as a revenge because someone in their home has done something the same with them under a racial, ethnic and sectarian pretext.
When the same group morph themselves into judiciary, executive bodies, public educational institutions, revenue collection department, local and intercity transport, railway, water/gas/electricity distribution departments, etc their blood-lust, for their own blood, only gets institutionalized ...
Our survival as a nation is miraculous, sometime I think, just like survival of a person who suffering from a dozen terminal illnesses, whose limbs have been amputated, whose sores have become infectious beyond curable limits, with vultures hovering over his head - sometime biting chunks of meat out of his body and yet he is breathing ...
A nation where all are doing their bit to dig their own mass graves, nailing their own coffins, chopping off their own limbs, poising their own wells, burning their own property, killing their own sons, raping their own daughters, looting their own property, as a revenge because someone in their home has done something the same with them under a racial, ethnic and sectarian pretext.
When the same group morph themselves into judiciary, executive bodies, public educational institutions, revenue collection department, local and intercity transport, railway, water/gas/electricity distribution departments, etc their blood-lust, for their own blood, only gets institutionalized ...
A nation drinking its own blood, a nation which has done plenty to roll itself on a course of suicide ... but yet it is surviving. Wondering what could we have we done without our nuclear arsenal .. Would ethnic groups soon began to fight over it's control as well? When two cats are fighting over a bone, bleeding each other to death, then its easier for a third one to steal it from the two; that's what study of history tells us. Case in point: how Muslims lost control of Spain against the Christian Invaders.
Opps I forgot one thing, in a failed state list even, our nation is not at the top, presently securing a 12th position (with 102.3 points), an improvement from the last year 10th position (with 102.5 points)... wow, but hold! lucky we are at least in some aspect, because Haiti and Cote d'Ivoire (where on the world is that) have done better then us to move up in the charts that's why we are now at 12. In 2005 though we were some where down in the list at 34th number (with 89.4 points).
Wait, wait, we shouldn't get so critical, should we? At least are still better then 10 countries on this plant, doing better then only then Somalia (on the top now), followed by Chad, Sudan, Congo (D. R.), Haiti, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea (in sequence) ... but with the determination we are striving for the top position, it might be only a matter of time.
But wait we are not doing much better on the list of least corrupt countries. In 2010 we were at the 143 out of 181 countries, in which most corrupt ones were at the bottom. Around 40 countries are even more corrupt then us. However since 2004 we are drowning fast in the list, as back then we were at 129, in 2009 we reached 139 and now for 2010 its 143rd in the list.
No please, its too easy to put the blame at politicians, in fact that's what each and every person of this nation is best at, making someone else a scape goat almost instantaneously when we see a finger pointing at us. From kids playing on the streets, to the politicians sitting on the top echelons of power, does the same, making one think that this is perhaps a national characteristic, being passed on us from generation to generation? Some elderly would tell if the same was the case back in 50's or 60's as well.
No it's not a the Zionists, the CIA or Mossad or even RAW conspiring against us, eating us gradually from the inside ... yes they might be to some extent, but only if we were not busy in drinking our own blood, we could have also stop others to do the same ... why would your enemy won't do something to us, which were are doing to ourself. The intruders are only smart enough, trying to cash in the opportunity we have created for them, but its ain't their fault.
It is us drilling the holes in the same boat we are riding in a turbulent sea, it is us igniting the fire in our neighbour's home, as if the same fire can never spread into your own, it is us destroying this nation with our own hypocritical narcissism, what's blinding us to see nothing but our own selfish interest or the interest of the group we associate ourself with? ...
We like to be called by different ethnic, racial and sectarian names, but consider our Ideological and National Identity as scrapable. If this is not a behaviour leading to a national suicide then what it is then? Even international ratings are showing how exceptionally well we are striving to sink down in chaos at socio-cultural, economic and political levels ...
If the reader think two international agencies might have got it wrong, then lets also check the human development index rating of in which Pakistan is at125 in a list of 169 in the year 2010. Satisfaction with Life index ranks Pakistan on 166 in a list of 178. Four independent agencies telling more or less the same story ... if anyone still think this is just a coincidence, then he must be dreaming, and don't want to wake up.
Despite the being in such a sorry condition, we at individual levels, instead of attempting to bring change in our own life and in our circle of influence, are doping ourselves with unhealthy food and safe sex (on screens) in good times, and drinking our own blood when tides are against us ...
How can this nation change when each one of us want to seek change in anything but our ownself? Did our parents taught us so? Did their parents taught our parents so? ... Perhaps our forefathers after partition assumed that their job is done and now its time to eat and sleep only ... and when the going gets rough they began to look at others to assume some responsibility as they had already done enough (sic), I might be wrong here perhaps but what else could be reason? ... and perhaps we are only following their foot steps, excusing with rhetorics like "what really an individual can do?", "It is a hopeless situation", "No one wants to see us happy", and some lunatics are even exclaiming "If Americans could come and invade us then things would get better ... ".
History tells us, either nations change themselves or they are wiped out brutally by a foreign invader, why there are no Muslims in Spain today? What happened in Baghdad when Halku Khan attacked, what happened to Mughals in 1857, what happened to Ottoman Empire after WW1. What happened to Persian and Roman Empires when Muslims Invaded them around 1400 years back? And the fall of various nations, the Luts, the Aa'ds, the Sumood's, the people of Noah's (a.s), the people of Yusuf (a.s) etc as explained in Quran with vivid details ... the recipe of disaster is not hidden from us, the list of habits which we must avoid is right in front of us, its constituents known to many among us, but yet we don't want to avoid taking the poisonous pill ... Then be it, lets wait for the final hour to come, the fire to burn down our own home, the water to sink our own vessel, and let the historians document yet another example to prove the point that those who don't learn from history tends to repeat it on themselves.
This article first appeard in The Fortress Magazine, August 2011 issue.
Wait, wait, we shouldn't get so critical, should we? At least are still better then 10 countries on this plant, doing better then only then Somalia (on the top now), followed by Chad, Sudan, Congo (D. R.), Haiti, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea (in sequence) ... but with the determination we are striving for the top position, it might be only a matter of time.
Alert, Warning, No Information / Dependent Territory, Moderate,
* Failed States according to the "Failed States Index" of Foreign Policy, also check http://www.fundforpeace.
But wait we are not doing much better on the list of least corrupt countries. In 2010 we were at the 143 out of 181 countries, in which most corrupt ones were at the bottom. Around 40 countries are even more corrupt then us. However since 2004 we are drowning fast in the list, as back then we were at 129, in 2009 we reached 139 and now for 2010 its 143rd in the list.
No please, its too easy to put the blame at politicians, in fact that's what each and every person of this nation is best at, making someone else a scape goat almost instantaneously when we see a finger pointing at us. From kids playing on the streets, to the politicians sitting on the top echelons of power, does the same, making one think that this is perhaps a national characteristic, being passed on us from generation to generation? Some elderly would tell if the same was the case back in 50's or 60's as well.
No it's not a the Zionists, the CIA or Mossad or even RAW conspiring against us, eating us gradually from the inside ... yes they might be to some extent, but only if we were not busy in drinking our own blood, we could have also stop others to do the same ... why would your enemy won't do something to us, which were are doing to ourself. The intruders are only smart enough, trying to cash in the opportunity we have created for them, but its ain't their fault.
It is us drilling the holes in the same boat we are riding in a turbulent sea, it is us igniting the fire in our neighbour's home, as if the same fire can never spread into your own, it is us destroying this nation with our own hypocritical narcissism, what's blinding us to see nothing but our own selfish interest or the interest of the group we associate ourself with? ...
We like to be called by different ethnic, racial and sectarian names, but consider our Ideological and National Identity as scrapable. If this is not a behaviour leading to a national suicide then what it is then? Even international ratings are showing how exceptionally well we are striving to sink down in chaos at socio-cultural, economic and political levels ...
If the reader think two international agencies might have got it wrong, then lets also check the human development index rating of in which Pakistan is at125 in a list of 169 in the year 2010. Satisfaction with Life index ranks Pakistan on 166 in a list of 178. Four independent agencies telling more or less the same story ... if anyone still think this is just a coincidence, then he must be dreaming, and don't want to wake up.
Despite the being in such a sorry condition, we at individual levels, instead of attempting to bring change in our own life and in our circle of influence, are doping ourselves with unhealthy food and safe sex (on screens) in good times, and drinking our own blood when tides are against us ...
How can this nation change when each one of us want to seek change in anything but our ownself? Did our parents taught us so? Did their parents taught our parents so? ... Perhaps our forefathers after partition assumed that their job is done and now its time to eat and sleep only ... and when the going gets rough they began to look at others to assume some responsibility as they had already done enough (sic), I might be wrong here perhaps but what else could be reason? ... and perhaps we are only following their foot steps, excusing with rhetorics like "what really an individual can do?", "It is a hopeless situation", "No one wants to see us happy", and some lunatics are even exclaiming "If Americans could come and invade us then things would get better ... ".
History tells us, either nations change themselves or they are wiped out brutally by a foreign invader, why there are no Muslims in Spain today? What happened in Baghdad when Halku Khan attacked, what happened to Mughals in 1857, what happened to Ottoman Empire after WW1. What happened to Persian and Roman Empires when Muslims Invaded them around 1400 years back? And the fall of various nations, the Luts, the Aa'ds, the Sumood's, the people of Noah's (a.s), the people of Yusuf (a.s) etc as explained in Quran with vivid details ... the recipe of disaster is not hidden from us, the list of habits which we must avoid is right in front of us, its constituents known to many among us, but yet we don't want to avoid taking the poisonous pill ... Then be it, lets wait for the final hour to come, the fire to burn down our own home, the water to sink our own vessel, and let the historians document yet another example to prove the point that those who don't learn from history tends to repeat it on themselves.
This article first appeard in The Fortress Magazine, August 2011 issue.
Enough has been expressed,historical facts are giving a very strong signal. there could be hundreds of reasons but the bottom line is, are we as nation ready to change and of-course the first change has to come from within.
ReplyDeleteQayum Sayeed