Of Knowing Men to Remain Human

“Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor - all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked - who is good? Not that men are ignorant - what is truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.” W.E.B.Du Bois, Souls of the Black Folk
The idea of know thyself as the highest good offered by Socrates and immortalized by its inscription at the Delphic oracle has always been an easier said than done axiom of human existence. How do we know ourselves? How do we know others? Do we meet the other beyond good and evil or we always compartmentalize human capacities into ostensible yardsticks developed by time-ridden ideas born to be transitory? Compartmentalization of other individuals and groups into black and white, into true and false, into good and evil, making it easy to issue verdicts but very difficult to do justice. In such quests for righteousness we always forget that all the ideals human beings follow are destined to decay. Ours will have the same fate. It is humanity alone that survives.
Humanity is the most oft- and yet ill-defined precondition of our existence on this planet. Now how do we define humanity? Is there a certain way, a method? For many there is, but for a few there isn’t. Let us talk about those who defy the orderly definition of humanity. Who think being human is the greatest good unto itself. Living human and letting others live a human life as the ultimate act of humanity. This very emotion gives birth to the noble human capacity to do good to the point of sublimation, of achieving the greatness to forgive and forego. To forgive the mistakes of others, mistakes that might be a simple difference of perception, or even something not easy to digest within a given time and space dispensation, the environment in which we are born and brought up, the culture, our heritage and our identity.
From this point onwards the journey of sublimation enters the phase of foregoing. Of unlearning what we cherish as heritage, as culture. Every humane movement in the history of mankind has this distinct feature as the cornerstone of its development. Those who cannot unlearn are incapable of innovation. And those who can’t innovate perish. They cling to worn out ideas till the ideas have worn them out. Iqbal prophetically said in his lectures “worn out ideas are never risen to power in a society that has worn them out.”
Now the dilemma of our nation also lies partially in this crisis of identity. Though no single factor could be cited as an ultimate reason for good or evil even for a single individual, let alone for a society. Each reason constitutes the fabric of the whole. From the very onset Pakistan has been a battle-place of ideas. Vertically grafted ideas, ideas developed by a small elite from the figments of their imaginations, have become the test of loyalty for the nation. Every individual or group, no matter how original or large it might have been, has had to fit into the frame. People with distinct cultural identities and histories were declared enemies of the state, because they were not able to remake themselves into the imaginary national identity. The irony is that this class never believed or practiced it, but still vigorously imposed it upon the masses through the media and education. They did this is a soft manner while the writ of the state was often used to decide such conflicts of identity. The ones who dared to differ with the mainstream being the ones in conflict.
Preconceived notions of national identity damaged the organic growth of the state and society. Thus, the absence of leadership and grassroots democracy. Democracy cannot flourish under preconditions. Indeed, the greatest precondition for democracy is the absence of preconditions. As Bernard Shaw aptly put it: “There is only one golden, rule that there is no golden rule.” Looking for golden rules drives a society into ideas of utopia and utopias are never human. The common good cannot be predefined, because the common man acts most, thinks least. This is why Freud once said,” Civilization is best served by people who don’t even know the meaning of the word.”
If we start talking about the mistake we, as a nation, made and continue to make, it will become an unending tale of woes. Let us not talk about it. It will bring nothing but leave a bad taste in our mouths. Let us be positive and talk about what we can do. We need to reorient ourselves. First and foremost we need to unlearn the compartmentalization of others into boxesof ethnicity, sects, creeds, and language. A multi-threaded social fabric like Pakistan’s cannot exist with such pretentions. Tolerance is not a natural, inherent human capacity. It is developed through the use of the faculty of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not offered as a favor to anyone; it is respected as the right of other not to be harmed by our prejudices. When we forgive someone we should always keep in mind the fact that we are sublimating our own beings to a higher level. Not simply letting a culprit lose.
Our society needs this soul searching immediately. It is already late in the day, but it is never too late to do good. This is the only way we can save ourselves from the “tragedy of our age…of knowing too little of men”

Media For the Commoners

"It was that simple. Chou En-lai knew that he was addressing lonely men, men whose mentalities had been branded with a sense of being outcasts. It cost him nothing to make such a gesture, to speak words of compassion. He offered no programs of industrialization, no long term loans, no mutual defense pacts. To the nations smarting under a sense of inferiority, he tried to cement ties of kinship." Richard Wright, The Color Curtain.
This is the voice of compassion we direly need from all quarters. The have-nots of this country have become a city within the city, the city of the poor. Marx’ words about being two cities within a single city, one of rich and one of poor, can easily be generalized for the whole Land of the Pure. What does the city of the poor, that part of the nation that is the dominant, silent majority, reeling under abject poverty or a minority among them (the so called middle class) ready to go down the spiral to be devoured by it, need to become part of the scenery rather than being the spectator?
What can we offer and how can we do it? The how becomes more important than the what because we have to look for venues of compassion. The only compassionate partner of modern men and women, no matter how backward he/she is, is the media. What type of media might bear the word “compassion”? It is community media. What is community media? Even the present day mass idiot boxes pose to be community spokespersons through giving local tickers and making a mockery of people's miseries by claiming to be “the first on the scene”. They don't qualify to do it. There is no question about it.
Community media is a media that develops out of the needs of a smaller human denomination and responds to its needs, answers its questions, and advocates for its needs. Corporate media, the media running on fear and favor, to be precise, do not qualify to do it at all. The needs of the impoverished and those "smarting under the sense of inferiority" can only be met by something more altruistic. Here again many will object that such an arrangement is impossible in the world of cut throat competition. This is also what we call mediated reality. If good schools are possible, and good hospitals are possible, than why not an altruistic community media? The need of the hour is to understand the meaning of this important phenomenon. To understand how it operates.
First, community media is a patient, audience-based enterprise. One should have the patience to listen to stories and also the acumen to tell stories. One can never tell a story if one is not positive enough to listen to one.. Our mainstream media malaise of stuffing people with preconceived questions is not of any use. Questions must arise from the very soil and souls that are being presented. It is their version of reality that is important, not what we decide is important in our cozy (and not too cozy) drawing rooms. Our being "knowledgeable" is the worst qualification for the job. We need to "come to" them "with the trust of a child," borrowing the words from Peter Gabriel's famous song “Red Rain”.
The very word community media means it is their media, not someone else's. The second most important step is to give the people their voices back. It should not transmit messages in "packages", giving the name of the reporter and the channel that streams it. The person and the community should get their name acknowledged. It is important to build confidence and develop a horizontal system of communication. People should get their views back in a form where they can see themselves; individuals as well as communities should be able to identify themselves. It is the same with movies and drama all over. And those with the tall talk about objectivity know well that there is none. The most objective is what helps the people who lay claim to it the most. That doesn't succumb to narrow, vested interests. If we make this the yardstick there don't exist many. So, enough of the objectivity chirping. And still it is objective. It is never based on fables. It is the truth of a people. Let it be in the open, let it see the light of day.
There is need to develop a network based upon community radio (the most effective), newspapers, or even TV that uses reporting methods in a humane manner. The above picture is one such example. The little guy is feeling comfortable with the camera. He is interacting. The kids are not afraid. They are enjoying being part of the process. All this comes after a patient hour or two. The reporters roam in the area with their elders, listening to their stories, the little ones watching the whole process. Then comes the moment that they let themselves play around in front of the camera. And all this ends up in a photo (also a video clip) where the media is no more an outsider.
The need of the hour is thus to develop a network that lifts images, without bias and prejudice, from the simplest level of human existence (and these shouldn't be social outcasts, exceptional problems), to the mainstream. Every part of the country should get its share of presence on the national mainstream. This can only be done if we learn the art of reporting for the poor, understand the need of "cementing ties of kinship", to give the silent, dominant, unrepresented, but never honored majority of this country, a voice.

The Pashtoon Problem

"How does it feel to be a problem? they say I know an excellent colored man in my town; or I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word."

W.E.B.DuBios' words about African Americans could easily be used for Pashtoons in Pakistan. I am born and brought up listening to the question by our countrymen. The word problem is easily interchangeable with Pashtoon. "How is it in Peshawar. They say it is too dangerous out there", a young Karachite asks on phone the other night after telling me that 12 buses were burned that evening, there was no electricity, and that he was scared to death after seeing these horrors. "This is routine here and I am sick of it. I was so stressed I thought I would get some peace after talking to you." Like DuBios puts it, I didn't answer a word. I didn't say how can he ask about the wild Frontier with such fear, if he is feeling unsafe in the megapolis. I couldn't dare say, out of courtesy, that the whole house is on fire. The problem is not only being born as Pashtoon, but we are all living and intensifying the problem. We have become the problem.

But the child in the image doesn't know how we are being depicted. She doesn't even know she is born a problem, she is Pashtoon. She even doesn't know her home is no more, her parents might be drowned, everything lost, nothing left. She is just looking out for someone to come and help her out. She exactly doesn't know what she needs; might be feeling hungry, having a temperature, or feeling damp and cold.

The catastrophe that struck KP is enormous. It has swept away the whole region from Gilgit Baltistan to Nowshehra in one day. The steep terrain didn't give anybody time to settle or even grasp the real intensity before it destroyed everything. UN lost one of its biggest warehouses in Asia. Fifty thousand tons of food commodities washed away in a day, only a couple of thousand left. Immediate relief became impossible. Relief agencies are still grappling with the situation.

But the important question is how our countrymen see the problem. "Experts" are weighing the veracity of statements issued from KP. "Saying Northwestern Pakistan is the most impoverished region in Pakistan is statistically incorrect. Baluchistan is poorer." "And this street talk about KP being neglected has not been proven."

Look at the child in the picture and tell her she does not deserve food or shelter, because "statistics" don't support her need. The problem is not whether there is enough to satisfy the needs of all that have been affected by this catastrophe and that not everybody's needs could be met immediately. Some will get relief soon while others might have to wait. Waiting might cost some their lives. All this understandable, though not easy to live through.

The problem lies in not being able to raise above the narrow parochial thinking. Of not being able to get out of the divisive mode of US and THEM. Of seeing the Pashtoon as a problem. Of not seeing these impoverished people as worthy of our national sympathy, of being mainstream Pakistan. Where will all this lead the nation, if there is any left after all this narrowness. Isn't it high time to come out of our shells, see reality in the face, and understand our inner problem of seeing the other as a problem, of making a problem out of our own very national organism.

People of KP are in trouble. There are more dead in a few days than the toll countrywide during continuing disaster, the "slowly approaching Tsunami." The swiftness of destruction caused enormous damage to this already battered part of the country. Let this smaller time window not add to the miseries of these people. Let neglect not add fuel to the fire of annihilation. let not innocent linger and die because they can't statistically prove their haplessness. lets be human once in our national lifetime. This might be beginning of the long awaited nation building, something that we only witness on TV shows on Independence Day festivities, festivities that went on even amidst the cries and shrieks of the God forsaken problems.