Food security in Pakistan has taken two different dimensions during the last six years. It has gone from malnutrition and lack of natural access to the basic amenities of life to abject haplessness after disasters, earthquake in 2005 and then floods 2009. Man made disasters emanating from terrorism and war on terror made people leave their homes and hearths to get displaced within their own country, primarily KPK and FATA; commonly known as Internally Displaced People (IDPs).
Defining hunger and categorizing it into plausible words is not going to help in the downward spiral Pakistan is in. Hunger and lack of subsistence is a traditional, historical problem in this land. As Gandhi once said that the world has enough to feed its inhabitants, Pakistan has enough to feed its people. The rotten feudalism inherited from earlier monarchies and then the British colonialists has kept majority of the Pakistani populace mal-nourished, under privileged, and kept a political system in place that segregates most of the people in this country out of the decision making process. Thus, inequality, lack of opportunity, and injustice. This is a ready recipe for exploitation of the most by a privileged few. It ingrains fear of the powerful, which, in turn, keeps the powerful well entrenched.
Structural food insecurity is what we call the looming large hunger in the country. This is the mother of all evil in the Pakistani society. Dependence of the tenets on the landowners for every morsel they take makes them incapable of any struggle for democracy, freedom, equality, or social justice. Famous revolutionary Urdu Poet Habib Jalib (1928-93) puts it poignantly into his many verses. One of them saying, ”Whenever I ponder upon the reasons for apathy in my environ, I reach the a single conclusion: slavery going back into many centuries is the cause of social apathy.” This is very much in sinc with Frantz Fenon’s idea of Internalization. Here internalization doesn’t have a racial colour. It is rather a feeling of inferiority in front of the ruling elite, the masters, of accepting the state of life as fate, something irrefutable.
When this internalization takes its roots into the socio-cultural structure of the society, the political will for a righteous social order based upon equality dies down. And it is at this point that the “slaves begin kissing their shackles”. Structural/historical poverty is strengthened by poverty coming out of malpractices in governance, like price hikes, hoarding of edibles, and so on, as well as natural catastrophes like earthquakes and disasters. Pakistan has seen many since 2005, besides the menace and terrorism and the ensuing displacement. Thus, the country has a horrible share of man made and natural disasters within an extremely corrupt political system.
Last year’s flood affected people are facing the new rains under the same roofless settings with no food to swallow and least clothes to cover their bones. And all this is happening amid tall claims of national and international organizations, NGOs, and naturally the Pakistani government’s claims of spending a fortune to help these people. Any recent media presentation, just a scratch on the surface, will lay bare the truth, the ugly truth of people being left in the lurch. A recent program on AVT Khyber, the only Pashto TV network (August 26th, 2011; 2200 hrs,) interviewed a number of flood-affected families from Charsadda, a town at 20 minutes drive from Peshawar, shows how miserable life has become for these families who were below the poverty line even before the floods last year. The respondents authenticated the sorry truth that corruption, nepotism, and apathy has taken the better of Pakistani society. That the people running relief organizations are running the show to fill their own pockets, to reward their friends and relatives as well as people with political connections, and are least interested in even thinking about the hapless families reeling under abject poverty right in front of them. Food and money has been taken away from them after being brought to these places (since this is usually the condition for such deliveries) and then being distributed among those who already have enough, while the needy remain hungry spectators, forced to beg for their daily subsistence in nearby cities, Peshawar being the nearest big town.
“We used to live well, had a house of our own, had three meals a day, and could buy clothes for the family. It is not far. It is nearby. Flood took it all away.” “I am living in this small tent, where it rains more than outside (pointing to the little tent, where hardly a single person could crawl in). They gave us nothing. I am forced to go with my small kid to beg for a day’s meal,” narrates a middle aged bearded man. He starts to sob while telling his story. “I can only get 100 or 200 Rupees after being humiliated all day long with my little son in Peshawar. People despise me; say nasty things in front of my child. I don’t have any other option. Now the kids are asking for new clothes, because eid is coming up. We live on alms. But it was last year. People helped during the heat of the moment. I tell my kids that whatever I could get, we barely get a meal out of it. Now if someone comes forward to give us more, we might be able to buy some clothes. Look at what I am wearing. He pointed to his shalwar and kameez, both different sizes and colours. The government is nowhere.” He stars wailing loudly,” May Allah burn all the powerful in government in hell. I am a Pakistani. I am born here and will die here. I have done everything in my prowess to serve my country, but nobody is bothered about me and others like me.”
Another family consisting of old and ailing parents and their teenage sons and daughters were living in a traditional sugar mill, a small room where local sugar from sugarcane is produced in a tiny mudroom. The old woman couldn’t walk, the old man crying while not being in any better shape than his wife. The young lads sitting in dismay while the mother and father narrating their plight. “They just take the rations from right in front of us and give it away to undeserving people. I ask my boys to go and ask for it, but they don’t. ‘Allah is watching. These people (NGOs getting the supplies from WFP) have humiliated us so many times that there is no use going in for it anymore.’ “When they go out to find work, there isn’t any. We just don’t know what to do.” The old woman sitting in the cot is too weak to even walk a few steps. She has a small pouch containing some cheap medicine. “I can’t walk. These are the drugs someone donated to me. I don’t know what are these for, but I take them. I went myself to get some ration. There were young and strong men and women who pushed me back all the time. I couldn’t even get the chance to look at the food items.”
These are no isolated incidents. It is all over. Families in Punjab and Sindh are under the open sky with little children walking naked without any food for days. Just a glimpse into the TV and one finds misery all over. The government, as usual, is trying to get hold of the political give and take by forming (and breaking) alliances to control Karachi. In Karachi the people are dying of bullet wounds and torture and also out of poverty. Poverty is no lesser factor in the big cities than in the rural backwaters, the militancy ridden border areas, as well as the displaced people waiting for the misery to end. A recent prime minster Gillani visit became a public relations fiasco when immediately after his departure the people started fighting for the food he brought to distribute for the camera flashes. One can go on and on citing examples. As one comedy show very cynically puts it on Geo TV: “everything is getting costlier during Ramadan. Prices are skyrocketing. But we still have one very rare commodity getting cheaper every passing day. It is human life in Pakistan.” This is the bitter, sad, but real truth of Pakistan.
Pakistani majority’s downwards spiral into poverty needs no statistics, no reports. It is not an issue to be discussed. It is a historical reality in this unfortunate land. The problem is not poverty per se. Poverty exists everywhere on earth, because “the world has enough to feed all men, but not enough to satisfy even one man’s greed”. The problem is Pakistani state and society’s inability to the curb the ever growing manifestations of newer forms of poverty. We haven’t been able give home to the earthquake’s affected people after almost 6 years, despite getting support, alms, and charity from every nook and corner of the world. IDPs remain hapless till date. People ruined by floods still remain under the harsh skies, with the new monsoon catching them in their homeless abodes.
The inability neither to find a solution to historical poverty nor the ever-happening man made and natural disasters is the real problem. Nobody is ready to deal with the problem by looking the monster in the eye. Unless and until we develop the genius to look into the social structure for immediate, mediate, and long-term solutions for poverty, things are never going to improve. Petty politics couldn’t feed empty stomachs. It only fuels the fires of hatred and anarchy.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Social Media: Is There A Pakistani Spring In The Making
I often wonder how the generation changed in Pakistan. How do people younger to me live their lives? What is the motivation and what are their pastimes, how do they make sense of the life cycle? There are naturally many many reasons. One can't just compartmentalize life like inanimate matter. To make it simple I look for the "instruments of identity", something very crucial for young men and women. I will narrow it down to the educated population of young Pakistan. Here I face the digital divide. What severs me from the younger people is their communication advantage. Cell phones, Media, the new media like Facebook and Twitter.
These young men and women have a very global platform for the formation of their identity. In good old days we used to say, "if you don't have good enough friends in the immediate environ, look for wiser, ageless friends, read books. We used to read books. Then we started watching television and got into the world of 24/7 TV, the breaking news syndrome, the soup operas, and the replication of cultural formats through imitation and interaction.
But this is not the end of it. The newest identity instruments are the interactive social media. There is a lot of talk about the potential of this social media to transform the transitional societies. The recent developments in the Islamic world beginning with the unrest in Iran a couple of years earlier and heightening in the present day turmoil in the Middle East harkens for a realistic analysis of the role of this highly trumpeted new savoir. The Arab Spring has entered into The Winter, but the euphoria has yet to be analyzed.
While talking about Pakistan the first and foremost question is about the present usage of the social media. This should also be put within the context of the number of users and then their usage. The country has dipping literacy rates, sprawling poverty, and problems like access to Internet. Even electricity is an elusive phenomenon in this country for the last many years, let alone its dependent instruments like Internet.
This makes Facebook and Twitter a privilege. There could easily be two views about it. One it is pastime of the rich, and two, it is pastime of those who are educated, or urban, or at least have access to the Internet. Unlike mobile phone, it is not a peoples’ gadget. In fact, both the ideas are true, but the latter bears more weight than the former. Internet is cheap and so are computers in the Pakistani market. So, what you need is access. In small towns and villages young men and women are surfing on their cell phones. So, the cell phone revolution has taken technology quite a few steps further. Although FB and twitter options are not available on Blackberries and cell phones in Pakistan (or they come and go), one can always access the email account to see the messages on the social media and enjoy the colourfulness of the page whenever there is access. Although Blackberry access is limited to post paid accounts, Internet surfing could easily be done on prepaid ones. Almost everyone has more than one pre paid sims. The cheaper Chinese cell phones with BB functions as well as lowering of the prices of the branded ones gives boost to the number of users.
Now technologically speaking access to Internet is possible to more people across the financial border than it is widely believed. But this theoretical reality is challenged by another factor, namely education. Yes, from a financial and theoretical perspective it is possible for everyone having a cell phone to avail Internet and, in turn, the social media. But in reality one needs enough education to use and operate the social media. Access is also limited to urban centres and the social media is not offered on simple surfing. This takes the real fun out of the whole socialisation paradigm. The social media are primarily fun media. In every corner of our present day world it began as entertainment. People enjoyed the chats, the pictures, and the gossip; and then like everything new getting matured entered into the phase of development. This phase of organizing social opinion of getting an alternative platform for debate is not the very essence of social media, but is, in fact, the outcome of user fatigue after the fun gadget loses its fun charm.
The question that comes to ones mind immediately is about the usage of the social media by the ones who have the luxury to use it. They use it as a pastime. This is the most common answer one gets. The issue of preference of FB over Twitter is the more self-presentation options the former provides than the latter. There is a group of people, journalists mainly, who prefer Twitter to FB. These are mostly managers or administrators. They follow the celebrities, other channels, and most of the international media on Twitter. “It doesn’t need to request for friendship. In fact, there is no friendship on Twitter. You just share things,” said one journalist.
But for the common user, the educated, young it is interaction, looking for partners and loving gossip, FB is more attractive. “One can post photos, have a long chat on a single post, also has the option of chatting with individuals while posting on the page.” The question of turning the tide is an important one to consider. Namely, is it possible to turn the gossip and chat box into a platform for democracy? Potentially, the answer is yes. Practically, it is not in sight. The moment of happening is not known. The direction is not towards human rights, discourse on immediate, regional, or global issues, and other relevant actions for support of democratic discourse.
The present usage is most of the time a supplement to the mainstream media. News from the mainstream are posted and discussed. The discussions on the postings do not go very far. These never add another dimension to the original content from the mainstream media. But we should keep in mind that this is not simply a Pakistani issue. A UC Berkeley study shows that in the US, over a period of 10 years, only 10% content on FB was original. 90% remains cut-paste or chat. This shows the real use of social media, especially FB. It remains an interactive platform among friends. The word friends naturally has a different meaning than the traditional one. The old use of the word ‘distant friends’ for books has now been transformed into ‘virtual friends in real time’. The reality of their being and the instant interaction is something really amazing.
At this point one can talk about supporting a movement, discourse on democracy, and other such angles. But the trend in vogue doesn’t seem to encourage this development. We either have to wait for the level of maturity at a global level or engineer a debate. The former will take time while the latter is unethical. It is like the notorious ‘lesbian blogger from Syria’. This is not an option, because it will ruin the very credibility of an interactive process meant for good. So, the best option is to wait and see. The last and most important word of caution could be that social media mouse clicks are no alternative to active participation in actions for democracy, human rights, and social change. The lazy clicks won’t change the world, no matter how many millions these could be. Awareness is not action. In fact, action is awareness.
These young men and women have a very global platform for the formation of their identity. In good old days we used to say, "if you don't have good enough friends in the immediate environ, look for wiser, ageless friends, read books. We used to read books. Then we started watching television and got into the world of 24/7 TV, the breaking news syndrome, the soup operas, and the replication of cultural formats through imitation and interaction.
But this is not the end of it. The newest identity instruments are the interactive social media. There is a lot of talk about the potential of this social media to transform the transitional societies. The recent developments in the Islamic world beginning with the unrest in Iran a couple of years earlier and heightening in the present day turmoil in the Middle East harkens for a realistic analysis of the role of this highly trumpeted new savoir. The Arab Spring has entered into The Winter, but the euphoria has yet to be analyzed.
While talking about Pakistan the first and foremost question is about the present usage of the social media. This should also be put within the context of the number of users and then their usage. The country has dipping literacy rates, sprawling poverty, and problems like access to Internet. Even electricity is an elusive phenomenon in this country for the last many years, let alone its dependent instruments like Internet.
This makes Facebook and Twitter a privilege. There could easily be two views about it. One it is pastime of the rich, and two, it is pastime of those who are educated, or urban, or at least have access to the Internet. Unlike mobile phone, it is not a peoples’ gadget. In fact, both the ideas are true, but the latter bears more weight than the former. Internet is cheap and so are computers in the Pakistani market. So, what you need is access. In small towns and villages young men and women are surfing on their cell phones. So, the cell phone revolution has taken technology quite a few steps further. Although FB and twitter options are not available on Blackberries and cell phones in Pakistan (or they come and go), one can always access the email account to see the messages on the social media and enjoy the colourfulness of the page whenever there is access. Although Blackberry access is limited to post paid accounts, Internet surfing could easily be done on prepaid ones. Almost everyone has more than one pre paid sims. The cheaper Chinese cell phones with BB functions as well as lowering of the prices of the branded ones gives boost to the number of users.
Now technologically speaking access to Internet is possible to more people across the financial border than it is widely believed. But this theoretical reality is challenged by another factor, namely education. Yes, from a financial and theoretical perspective it is possible for everyone having a cell phone to avail Internet and, in turn, the social media. But in reality one needs enough education to use and operate the social media. Access is also limited to urban centres and the social media is not offered on simple surfing. This takes the real fun out of the whole socialisation paradigm. The social media are primarily fun media. In every corner of our present day world it began as entertainment. People enjoyed the chats, the pictures, and the gossip; and then like everything new getting matured entered into the phase of development. This phase of organizing social opinion of getting an alternative platform for debate is not the very essence of social media, but is, in fact, the outcome of user fatigue after the fun gadget loses its fun charm.
The question that comes to ones mind immediately is about the usage of the social media by the ones who have the luxury to use it. They use it as a pastime. This is the most common answer one gets. The issue of preference of FB over Twitter is the more self-presentation options the former provides than the latter. There is a group of people, journalists mainly, who prefer Twitter to FB. These are mostly managers or administrators. They follow the celebrities, other channels, and most of the international media on Twitter. “It doesn’t need to request for friendship. In fact, there is no friendship on Twitter. You just share things,” said one journalist.
But for the common user, the educated, young it is interaction, looking for partners and loving gossip, FB is more attractive. “One can post photos, have a long chat on a single post, also has the option of chatting with individuals while posting on the page.” The question of turning the tide is an important one to consider. Namely, is it possible to turn the gossip and chat box into a platform for democracy? Potentially, the answer is yes. Practically, it is not in sight. The moment of happening is not known. The direction is not towards human rights, discourse on immediate, regional, or global issues, and other relevant actions for support of democratic discourse.
The present usage is most of the time a supplement to the mainstream media. News from the mainstream are posted and discussed. The discussions on the postings do not go very far. These never add another dimension to the original content from the mainstream media. But we should keep in mind that this is not simply a Pakistani issue. A UC Berkeley study shows that in the US, over a period of 10 years, only 10% content on FB was original. 90% remains cut-paste or chat. This shows the real use of social media, especially FB. It remains an interactive platform among friends. The word friends naturally has a different meaning than the traditional one. The old use of the word ‘distant friends’ for books has now been transformed into ‘virtual friends in real time’. The reality of their being and the instant interaction is something really amazing.
At this point one can talk about supporting a movement, discourse on democracy, and other such angles. But the trend in vogue doesn’t seem to encourage this development. We either have to wait for the level of maturity at a global level or engineer a debate. The former will take time while the latter is unethical. It is like the notorious ‘lesbian blogger from Syria’. This is not an option, because it will ruin the very credibility of an interactive process meant for good. So, the best option is to wait and see. The last and most important word of caution could be that social media mouse clicks are no alternative to active participation in actions for democracy, human rights, and social change. The lazy clicks won’t change the world, no matter how many millions these could be. Awareness is not action. In fact, action is awareness.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Of Feeling Pity and being Human
I went home to my village. Not far from Peshawar. Homecoming is always sweet. Family, loved ones, known faces, with centuries of acquaintance in every eye. I am a kind of a celebrity over there. The guy from the city who made it without the help of his village roots, his family name and his father's pride. These are bad times for landowners. The money modern luxury, or even comfort, requires couldn't be found toiling the land. This is the Pashtoon heartland, inhabited by people who love family feuds and losing their sons in them. Loss is a cultural thing. Loss is a sense of pride.
But this time around I saw a woman working at home. I saw her earlier also. She had this calm and quiet demeanor, something that aspires respect and sorrow at the same time. She didn't have the tongue in cheek attitude of the housemaids. She had that deep sorrow in her eyes. Quietly doing all she was asked to do. I asked about what she earns a month. "500 Rupees and food," was the answer. "And she works all day long, till you ask her to leave," I asked. "Yes, she is a good woman," came the compliment. I was told the woman had a home and land of her own. The family had lost it. They had to come from nearby village to secure a few meals, and this is what she got.
Her eyes followed my kids, my wife, and myself with appreciation, sadness, and solemnity. "What is she thinking." Nobody need to be an Einstein to solve the riddle. Her own kids' hunger, her own haplessness, and uprooted life compared with the homecoming of the city guys. I can't enjoy anything. I just sat there. My wife came to me, whispering in my ear,"she looks different". "I know," I told her. She had never served as housemaid before. She had lost all she had and is new into servility. "We should help her," she said. "Sure", I told her, "This is the least we can do."
Individual philanthropy is good, but it is never an answer to such an enormous question of poverty. It never retrieves self respect. The begging bowl doesn't vanish with the magic wand of individual philanthropy. It satisfies the ego of the giver, while puts a loaf of bread into the mouth of the needy, without the guarantee of this arrangement being permanent. There is also a difference between philanthropy and generosity. Generosity fulfills the needs of the needy, or it doesn't but gives some support, without necessarily feeling empathy for the needy. It thus never rehabilitates. It never helps the needy regain her/his self respect. Philanthropy on the other hand is a helping hand with a heart. If one can't see the need of ones own little children in the eyes of those in need, there is little hope that the people in need would ever be able to rise above subhuman level.
Is our society ready to take this step towards humanity? This is the question all of us have to ask ourselves. This is nothing to be taught, but something to be felt. It is the process of sublimation among individuals as well as social units, the society as a whole. The excuse of being in trying times and under immense pressure from all sides is not a valid one. It is, in fact, during the worst times that the greatest achievements in humanity could be made. If this is true, our time is ripe.
But this time around I saw a woman working at home. I saw her earlier also. She had this calm and quiet demeanor, something that aspires respect and sorrow at the same time. She didn't have the tongue in cheek attitude of the housemaids. She had that deep sorrow in her eyes. Quietly doing all she was asked to do. I asked about what she earns a month. "500 Rupees and food," was the answer. "And she works all day long, till you ask her to leave," I asked. "Yes, she is a good woman," came the compliment. I was told the woman had a home and land of her own. The family had lost it. They had to come from nearby village to secure a few meals, and this is what she got.
Her eyes followed my kids, my wife, and myself with appreciation, sadness, and solemnity. "What is she thinking." Nobody need to be an Einstein to solve the riddle. Her own kids' hunger, her own haplessness, and uprooted life compared with the homecoming of the city guys. I can't enjoy anything. I just sat there. My wife came to me, whispering in my ear,"she looks different". "I know," I told her. She had never served as housemaid before. She had lost all she had and is new into servility. "We should help her," she said. "Sure", I told her, "This is the least we can do."
Individual philanthropy is good, but it is never an answer to such an enormous question of poverty. It never retrieves self respect. The begging bowl doesn't vanish with the magic wand of individual philanthropy. It satisfies the ego of the giver, while puts a loaf of bread into the mouth of the needy, without the guarantee of this arrangement being permanent. There is also a difference between philanthropy and generosity. Generosity fulfills the needs of the needy, or it doesn't but gives some support, without necessarily feeling empathy for the needy. It thus never rehabilitates. It never helps the needy regain her/his self respect. Philanthropy on the other hand is a helping hand with a heart. If one can't see the need of ones own little children in the eyes of those in need, there is little hope that the people in need would ever be able to rise above subhuman level.
Is our society ready to take this step towards humanity? This is the question all of us have to ask ourselves. This is nothing to be taught, but something to be felt. It is the process of sublimation among individuals as well as social units, the society as a whole. The excuse of being in trying times and under immense pressure from all sides is not a valid one. It is, in fact, during the worst times that the greatest achievements in humanity could be made. If this is true, our time is ripe.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
A Nation Losing Hope
Pakistan is one of the countries we euphemistically call “transitional societies”. The transition has gone rotten due to the apathy of the society and state to get out of the transition phase into a stable life cycle.
What are the people of this land thinking? They live in a constant fear of death, their own, that of their loved ones. Rising prices of the everyday subsistence commodities is spiralling everyone down into the pit of poverty. Joblessness and social inequality is pinching harder every passing day. The unholy silence of all political actors to bring any positive change in the country has become unbearable. The mainstream political parties are busy in personal vendetta, forgetting the mandate of the people altogether. This is the narrative of a situation, which the common man directly experiences in the shape of terrorism, corruption, social and political inequality, and the loss of faith in life and its humane cycle by the youth of the nation.
This is the present of Pakistan. The present has become too painful, because it has a sordid past. More than a decade of terror-ridden environment, endemic corruption from the very onset of the national existence, and the abysmal living conditions for many of the hapless for many decades has really taken its toll.
People don’t trust anybody. They are not even thinking about change. And this is dangerous. If a people lose all hope, they naturally decide to take desperate measures in desperate situations. Civil wars are an outcome of such anarchic life situation. If nobody helps, lets help ourselves. Take the control of things into our own hands. When small sections of a society are forced to think on these lines, they decide to go for and Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil; with the conviction that they are destined to win. They are convinced of the rightfulness of their action. This is a partial truth also. Their grievances are justified and their struggle is right. But the problem begins with the very modalities of the struggle for emancipation and the final victory of truth.
The people of Pakistan are truly the victims of atrocities by design. But the problem lies in the way they decide to tackle their misery. They don’t have a clear perception of the root causes of their problems and there is no intellectual leadership to spearhead this analytical-strategic movement for the ultimate victory of the right over the wrong. The superficial media analysis on TV talk shows is the only intellectual asset the poor people have right now. The political leadership has already been discredited and the number of sacred cows is on the rise everyday.
Where do we stand as a nation? In a void. The country is really divided into the haves and have-nots. The whole world is being run like this in one way or another. But across the globe either there is an institution called government that stands between the haves avarice for power and the larger populace yearning for justice. Or there is a relationship of benevolent autocracy ruling the interaction between both sides of the divide. Pakistan was an example of the latter until lately. This is no more. The haves are busy cobbling up newer alliances to retain as much power as possible, be it being in the government or the phony role of the opposition. They are but not mindful of one thing. The alliances and manoeuvrings are for the sake of ruling the masses, through carrot or stick, whichever works best at a given moment.
But the problem right now is that there is nobody to rule. People no more believe in the sham called democracy. They are on their own. They are living in an anarchy that is not yet declared as one. The dangerous side of the issue is that nobody accepts the abyss gazing back into our eyes. There is no more room for pretentions. This is the moment of truth. The governance structure’s failure is no allegation anymore. Trust deficit is not an issue anymore. Nobody cares or thinks about the trust issue. People are convinced that there is no government, despite the TV appearances and the money sucking buildings known as pillars of the state, home of the most corrupt in the land.
The loss of faith in everything civil in this country is the most dangerous turn in our national history. It is no more child play, as most of the self-beguiling spin-doctors still try to believe. I won’t like to end the whole discussion on a pessimistic note, but the reality facing us squarely allows no other way of defining the present. The present quiet among the masses in Pakistan is the immanent sign of an unprecedented upheaval to happen. Something that won’t be controllable through any means known to the national gurus and the international big brains. To avert all this needs honest action. There is no more time left for soul searching, the euphemism to buy time for doing nothing. The trillion-dollar question is “who will get into this action, who will make the move.” There is none to answer this question. The question confront us belligerently while the clock is ticking.
What are the people of this land thinking? They live in a constant fear of death, their own, that of their loved ones. Rising prices of the everyday subsistence commodities is spiralling everyone down into the pit of poverty. Joblessness and social inequality is pinching harder every passing day. The unholy silence of all political actors to bring any positive change in the country has become unbearable. The mainstream political parties are busy in personal vendetta, forgetting the mandate of the people altogether. This is the narrative of a situation, which the common man directly experiences in the shape of terrorism, corruption, social and political inequality, and the loss of faith in life and its humane cycle by the youth of the nation.
This is the present of Pakistan. The present has become too painful, because it has a sordid past. More than a decade of terror-ridden environment, endemic corruption from the very onset of the national existence, and the abysmal living conditions for many of the hapless for many decades has really taken its toll.
People don’t trust anybody. They are not even thinking about change. And this is dangerous. If a people lose all hope, they naturally decide to take desperate measures in desperate situations. Civil wars are an outcome of such anarchic life situation. If nobody helps, lets help ourselves. Take the control of things into our own hands. When small sections of a society are forced to think on these lines, they decide to go for and Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil; with the conviction that they are destined to win. They are convinced of the rightfulness of their action. This is a partial truth also. Their grievances are justified and their struggle is right. But the problem begins with the very modalities of the struggle for emancipation and the final victory of truth.
The people of Pakistan are truly the victims of atrocities by design. But the problem lies in the way they decide to tackle their misery. They don’t have a clear perception of the root causes of their problems and there is no intellectual leadership to spearhead this analytical-strategic movement for the ultimate victory of the right over the wrong. The superficial media analysis on TV talk shows is the only intellectual asset the poor people have right now. The political leadership has already been discredited and the number of sacred cows is on the rise everyday.
Where do we stand as a nation? In a void. The country is really divided into the haves and have-nots. The whole world is being run like this in one way or another. But across the globe either there is an institution called government that stands between the haves avarice for power and the larger populace yearning for justice. Or there is a relationship of benevolent autocracy ruling the interaction between both sides of the divide. Pakistan was an example of the latter until lately. This is no more. The haves are busy cobbling up newer alliances to retain as much power as possible, be it being in the government or the phony role of the opposition. They are but not mindful of one thing. The alliances and manoeuvrings are for the sake of ruling the masses, through carrot or stick, whichever works best at a given moment.
But the problem right now is that there is nobody to rule. People no more believe in the sham called democracy. They are on their own. They are living in an anarchy that is not yet declared as one. The dangerous side of the issue is that nobody accepts the abyss gazing back into our eyes. There is no more room for pretentions. This is the moment of truth. The governance structure’s failure is no allegation anymore. Trust deficit is not an issue anymore. Nobody cares or thinks about the trust issue. People are convinced that there is no government, despite the TV appearances and the money sucking buildings known as pillars of the state, home of the most corrupt in the land.
The loss of faith in everything civil in this country is the most dangerous turn in our national history. It is no more child play, as most of the self-beguiling spin-doctors still try to believe. I won’t like to end the whole discussion on a pessimistic note, but the reality facing us squarely allows no other way of defining the present. The present quiet among the masses in Pakistan is the immanent sign of an unprecedented upheaval to happen. Something that won’t be controllable through any means known to the national gurus and the international big brains. To avert all this needs honest action. There is no more time left for soul searching, the euphemism to buy time for doing nothing. The trillion-dollar question is “who will get into this action, who will make the move.” There is none to answer this question. The question confront us belligerently while the clock is ticking.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Selling Dreams of the Wretched
"Today I believe in the possibility of love; that is why I endeavor to trace its imperfections, its perversions", Frantz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks.
As for love, we are seeing signs of fatigue in hatred towards Fata in the international community. Accompanying it is the yearning to see the human face of Fata. People want to know whether beneath the gun running image there lies a human face, smiling faces of little kids, school going (longing to have a school at all), men and women living in human relations (like any part of the world), parents wanting to get food for their sons and daughters, women looking forward to see their men alive and stressless, men making it possible to see their families without fear of losing them or themselves. This all is not yet consciously brought to the table by the world around Fata, including the ignocent Pakistanis living out of the troubled region, sharing the national existence, but not feeling the pain of the wretched of this part of the earth as part of the national organism.
This makes the world of non-pashtoons a human denomination ready to know about Fata soon, if not already keen enough to be conscious of this yearning. But here we are faced with another very basic question. What if the world asks to give the real picture of these people? Are we ready, do we have the skills to do it? If yes, how? Who will do it?
We need a story, a truth going out. Who will write the story? It is already there, myriads of them. Who will narrate it and how? This is the question. Everybody could narrate it. But the problem with a story is that it needs to fit the flavor of the audience. The world is literally a stage to put this tiny little place and this small number of people on it. Most of the audience will reject it on the very basis of being too negligible a part of the world, a spot whose existence is not even recognized as a human denomination by the people living within the geographical boundaries of the state, Pakistan. Why should we listen to it? Believe me I have been thorough this in the West, especially Europe. "Why to work on this tiny little spot. The whole country is a mess. Whats special about this part?" I won't go into the answer scheme, because it is a topic within itself.
What it tells it is that the story is not easy to tell. It is difficult. It needs a strategic narration. bringing the human face of Fata to the fore is against the vested interests of the best story telling apparatus at hand, the mass media. What other options do we have to give the right forum to the human story of Fata. There are not many, if we are talking about the world as an audience. We do talk about community media a lot, but if the world is the stage and the whole of it is watching, we need something bigger to tell the story. But it is easier said than done. The mainstream doesn't sell humanity, it sells sensation. But it never admits doing it. It needs a human face. The arguments the mainstream has against the human story of Fata is threefold. One, there is no access to the real story (they can't afford saying there is no story,) secondly, there is no good narration; and thirdly, they are afraid of experiments. They have businesses to run and appetites to feed. In the age of breakneck competition, one can't afford novelties. This is the meekest and most low tuned of all three arguments, never heard so obviously, but it is there.
Now teachnically, all these three arguments could be summarized into three main themes: access to real life situation in Fata, capacity of local journalists (the ones with access), and the editorial policy (financial interest, to be honest.)
How to deal with the issue? How to make the story public? The workable scheme in this regard is to build the capacity of journalists with access to look for the human aspect of the story, their own story, and then narrate it in a manner that could have the possible positive impact on the global audience. Now this issue is directly related to another very important aspect, the market. Being acceptable to the market is one big challenge. Rest assure that even if the former two hurdles are overcome, the mainstream will still not budge an inch. It will still remain apathetic to the humane aspects of life in this region. It needs proof that something could sell. Yes, the mainstream might buy the so called success stories, the profiles of the exception that prove the very opposite in real life. There is need to prove the market value of the stories from Fata. This is more of a public relations job than that of reporting, story telling. It is a strategic component of the whole issue.
Creating a market, proving that the human story could be sold, without losing the financial package, is the job. We need community media to make this happen. Journalists, amateur story tellers (students, anybody with something to tell,) should use the venues of proliferation, community media, to get help in getting their stories to the next level, to the audience that matter; not yet the real audience.
Media follow the news elite. They also have to do a lot of PR, cover whatever an elite says. The elite also has to keep their public face alive, no matter what their personal opinions are. They will always put a nice word for the humane image of Fata. They might not simply do it out of pretension. This might be their first exposure to such stories. If this is well done, more than half the battle is won. The mainstream gets a taste of the human side of the wretched of the earth. Once this image reaches the public through an elitist corridor, the bandwagon starts rolling. People will ask for it. Media will be forced to allocate resources, appoint professionals, change the editorial design, and all that it takes. They smell blood, they go for it. They went for human rights, lawyers' movement, and so many other things; not out of their love for it, but because they smelled profit, they smelled getting an edge over the over.
The children of Fata do have a chance to be heard. It needs a strategy to make their voice heard, their faces seen, their impressions recognized as a testament to being human. Even a humane cause needs a crafty strategist with a soul to make it happen. Humanity is not easy to serve, but it is doable for sure.
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