http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=243840 or http://www.mosharrafzaidi.com/
Why we’ll all be okay
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
by Mosharraf Zaidi
The seriousness of Pakistan’s problems is so severe that it is natural for people to be sick with worry about the future of the country. Pakistani blood is treated cheaply by terrorists, by other countries, but most of all, by the military, religious and political elite of Pakistan itself. Pakistani children don’t have enough schools, their schools don’t have enough teachers, their teachers don’t have enough training, and their training doesn’t have enough substance. Aspiring Pakistani mothers face dire social indicators, including high maternal and infant mortality rates, poor primary school enrolment rates and water-borne diseases that have no business being in business in the 21st century. Baby girls are raised to face a lifetime of gender-based discrimination. Politicians are corrupt, judges are self-righteous, and there is no electricity. A national obsession with symbolism that borders on the insane has made more of a mockery of faith and ideology in Pakistan than any cartoon or conspiracy ever could.
Last Friday afternoon at the TEDx Karachi event, with the country as pregnant as it ever is with these burdens, a number of speakers did something that we all need to do a lot more of. They inspired hope. TEDx organisers Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Awab Alvi, Batool Hassan, Meher Jaffri, Hiba Ali Raza, Asad Rahman and Sumaira Jaffery should be proud of themselves. It is not easy to be hopeful and optimistic in this environment. They helped make it easy.
TEDx Karachi speakers spoke from the heart, embraced the collective vulnerability of millions of Pakistanis, and infused their inspirational messages with the rigour and granularity of real-world success. They didn’t just do this by appealing to our rational best selves. They did it by appealing to the connectivity we all share as human beings. For one afternoon at least, I was forced to consider how important inspiration just might be, in the long, arduous and exhausting quest for a Pakistan that works for all Pakistanis, not just those that have captured the state using guns, God and giveaways.
What rational reason did Abdul Sattar Edhi have to do what he has done for as long as any of us can remember? Edhi ambulances are almost the only certain thing in the uncertainty of Pakistan. So too is our comfort in making donations to his charitable work. The same Pakistan that we lament, Bhutto and Zia’s Pakistan, is the one that produced Abdul Sattar Edhi.
Edhi is not alone. He just shines brighter than most of Pakistan’s galaxy of heroes. All of them were the product of this same broken, orphaned, dysfunctional and dangerous Pakistan. If we spend so much time lamenting the bad and the ugly that we do unto ourselves in this massive and confounding country, perhaps we should spend just a moment every day, celebrating the good too?
We should celebrate Prof Abdus Salam. Not only because he won a Nobel Prize, but because despite the manner in which Pakistan shunned and rejected him and his people, he never stopped loving Pakistan. We should celebrate Shehla Zia Khan who helped set the table for public-interest litigation in Pakistan, and fought tirelessly for women and minorities her whole life. We should celebrate Akhtar Hameed Khan who helped define development. We should celebrate Hakeem Said who taught us what the word Hamdard really means. We should celebrate Razia Bhatti, who valued the truth over the best job in her business.
And whoever made the rule that we need to wait for people to die before we celebrate their genius? We don’t and we shouldn’t. Nor do we need to agree with everything these heroes say and do. But we must salute them for standing up and doing magnificent and courageous things.
We should celebrate Asma Jahangir’s lifetime of work for the rule of law and human rights, in the face of aggressive and sometimes violent opposition. We should celebrate Ansar Burney, who fights for poor people in prisons. We should celebrate Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, an uncompromising leftist in an era when most on the left have found rolling green hills of neocon pastures much more comfortable. We should celebrate Junaid Jamshed, a born-again Muslim preacher and entrepreneur, in an epoch of pop music celebrity worship and self-worship.
Of course, we’re not comfortable with celebrating heroes we don’t agree with. We should get over it. If the problem is that we’re too married to our ideas about what Pakistan should represent, then the other side — whether it is left, right, centre or elsewhere — isn’t the only guilty party. We, wherever we are on the spectrum, are just as guilty.
Let us celebrate Imran Khan. He’s clearly learning disabled when it comes to recognising and accepting failure. But that’s not always been a bad thing. Cricket is just a game, but Khan’s cancer hospital was built with Pakistani money in the same lost decade of BB and Nawaz Sharif that we lament all the time.
Let us celebrate Agha Hasan Abedi. The end of the BCCI was ignominious, for sure. But before it fell, it rose to be the 7th largest bank in the world. If any of the Citibank, IMF or WB bureaucrat babus that are responsible for keeping Pakistan afloat had half the imagination and audacity of Abedi, Pakistan may not have been the economic basket case that it is today.
Let us celebrate the Pakistani policeman and soldier. Officer or not, they put their bodies between us and the bullets and bombs that seek to destroy us. They don’t make foreign policy. They don’t steal land. They don’t promote extremism. They just go out on the battlefield and fight. For us.
Nobody is suggesting that we should stop thinking critically. But the darkness and gloom that prevails over most Pakistanis, no matter what kind of ideology we claim to represent, is a disease for which there are living, breathing, walking remedies all around us.
Dr Umar Saif is an award-winning computer scientist that left a teaching and research position at MIT to teach in Pakistan. Novelists Mohsin Hamid and Mohammad Hanif moved back to Pakistan after long periods abroad, so that they can contribute their unique talents to their country. While they were abroad, a sea of nameless, faceless journalists, lawyers, accountants, doctors, bankers and farmers got up and went to work every day, doing the best they could. Did they run the traffic light on occasion? Litter out of their vehicle? Drive out of lane? Sure they did. But if we start condemning and convicting every little thing, there will be no chance for us to see the beauty in us and around us. We cannot be held hostage to ugliness all the time. It is unproductive, uninspiring, and subhuman to be so beholden and captivated by our failures.
At TEDx Karachi, the final speaker was Jacqueline Novogratz, best-selling author and head of the Acumen Fund, which seeks to stimulate for-profit ideas that help poor people tackle problems like housing, cash-flow and clean water. Jacqueline spoke of how deeply inspiring her relationship with Pakistanis has been. Novogratz inspires admiration instantly, but we should listen carefully. If the Pakistanis working with the Acumen Fund can inspire a globally renowned thinker and doer, why shouldn’t they inspire Pakistanis themselves?
On Sunday night, Coke Studio premiered its third season. Sure, multinational sponsorship of everything should be questioned. Sure, fusion music should be critiqued. But when producer Rohail Hyatt was pouring his life-force into putting Arif Lohar at the centre of an arrangement that sparkled because of Meesha Shafi’s haunting voice, and Louis Pinto’s enduring percussion genius — he wasn’t paying attention to the bad and the ugly. He was making good on Pakistan’s promise. There is genius and beauty in all of us. We should spend a little time, every day, just appreciating that. We’ll all be OK, because we’ll never let Iqbal and Bulleh die. I’ll drink a Coke (and for fairness’ sake, a Pepsi) to that.
Dear Zaidi, It is said that Ab Lincoln was building railway lines while still in the midst of a civil war. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
I am sure you know it but let me repeat. I was looking at the world wide data for commodities and found Pakistan’s output rather high on quite a few. Surprised me a little despite the woeful yields. Just imagine if we could be at the easily doable 75% of the world averages and convert the surpluses into finished products. We could feed plenty of people. There is yet another silver lining that I see and that is, we have begun to ask serious questions. Perhaps we will arrive at an honest answer sooner than later.
Posted by Pervez Khan | 09. Jun, 2010, 10:50 amTHANK YOU. We need more of this hope and inspiration. And yes, I do believe we will be ok.
Posted by beena sarwar | 09. Jun, 2010, 11:44 amBeautiful… You are absolutely right.
Posted by Hassan Abbas | 09. Jun, 2010, 11:45 amBeing optimistic is all we can do, but along with that we need to devise a mechanism that can help us get rid of this problem terrorism, so that we can live in peace.
Posted by Zainab Ali | 09. Jun, 2010, 11:47 amI recall Ms Salma Jan whom I first saw many years ago. She was the force behind Aziz Jehan Begum Trust for the Blind (AJBT.) Retired from government service, she taught herself the use of a computer and went on to make a website for the Trust herself. As she told me, her mother went blind in her sunset years and she urged Ms Jan to do something useful for the blind. The AJBT runs a school and vocational training facilities for the blind; they have developed texts in Braille and audiobooks. What makes this even more remarkable is that Ms Salma Jan was in respiratory failure for the most part of her latter years; this was because of the rib fracture treatment which used to be done for TB in the past. I remember seeing her working away at her keyboard while breathing oxygen from a cylinder. Sadly she passed away some years ago, but her legacy lives on.
Posted by Aamer Iqbal | 09. Jun, 2010, 12:19 pmgreat piece and he is surely consistent in righting great material. We all will be ok the day we unite as once and stand against the atrocities of terrorist who are making us immune to bloodshed all around us.
Posted by ali hamdani | 09. Jun, 2010, 12:19 pmThis is the kind of hope about future that we need to inject in ourselves in these tough times. The path to future should be paved with liberal and rational thoughts if we are to appreciate the beauty of life in its true spirit.
Posted by Rashid Saleem | 09. Jun, 2010, 1:18 pmLoved reading this article today. We should indeed celebrate all our (extra)ordinary heroes. And yes we shall all be okay.
Posted by Meher Siddiqui | 09. Jun, 2010, 1:55 pmExcellent stuff! Heartening to see a positive piece which does not rely on hoary nationalism or the decrying of the US-Hindu-Zionist-Capitalism conspiracy.
ps: Please leave a comment on the blogspot site, if required; the declared email is not, as the name might suggest, monitored
Posted by I Bins | 09. Jun, 2010, 3:22 pmYou have left out some remarkable names in your roll of honour and included some questionable ones. The one who sticks out like a sore thumb is Mr Jamshed whom I admired more in his “celebrity worship” days. Then, he was at least real while he is now an embarrassment glaring down from TV screens with exaggerated fake piety, his appearance screaming at you that he is now a spiritual entity, a cut above the rest.
Good to see Prof Abdus Salam and Agha Hasan Abedi in your list. Both deserve posthumous recognition from Pakistan’s government and its people.
Posted by Sakib Ahmad | 09. Jun, 2010, 4:31 pmBeautiful. One of your most inspiring and uplifting pieces. Lovingly written…
Posted by Emrys | 09. Jun, 2010, 4:48 pmBrilliant piece my friend, written with passion and integrity and that too unaided by the stuff that cheers – silver linings are bloody hard to find – i’ve grown old looking for them – like the fire flys in Lahore, silver linings too have disappeared.
I agree with Saqib about JJ – he is a fraud – screwed anyone on two legs when he was rocking and now bangs his forehead on hard floors for fast mark-of-zorro on forehead. No sir, he is no here. One song (terrible ditty) & waving of flag (cheap shot) is not enough – and he is a bad musician to boot. Madam Nur Jehan should have been there – she sang her heart out, lived and died here rather than India which adored her & made it in a man’s world. Yes Salam Sahib on top of the list & shame on all of us for remaining silent over the genocide of Ahmedis – Abedi Sahib – you were too young to know but there was a hell of a lot of Colombian money laundering going on not to mention the annhilation of our sand-brethren who built palaces on gifted lands and killed all the houbara bustards so that they could perform better in bed. AHA was their man. Brilliant yes, but so was Lord Dracula in his own winning ways & that flashing smile. And Manto Sahib who was the first to expose what is now our first skin – hypocricy. There are heroes except anyone with brains and integrity is programmed to fail. But on the whole, a great piece & may the force be with you!! Masood
Posted by Masood Hasan | 09. Jun, 2010, 4:50 pm@Pervez Khan: I’m so glad this was able to stimulate some hope and optimism.
@beena sarwar & @Hassan Abbas: Thank you both. Your feedback is uplifting.
@Zainab Ali: Very right. ON five different occasions since last year, I’ve dedicated my column to the need for a CT strategy. I know some people within NACTA are working to draft one. Very slow. Perhaps, inshaAllah, dayr aye durrust aye?
@Aamer Iqbal: Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Will try to learn more about Salma Jan.
@Ali Hamdani: Your consistent feedback is really very, very helpful. Thanks for taking time and sharing your thoughts, as always.
@Rashid Saleem, @I Bins & @Meher Siddiqui: Thanks a lot.
@Sakib Ahmad: I am certain I’ve left out many. But as I said, we don’t have to like every aspect of every hero. Please do share names that you think belong in a list of Pakistani heroes.
@Emrys: Thanks Emrys. I should write a separate piece one day about Pakistanis in spirit, like yourself!
@Masood Hasan: Huzoor! I’m humbled by the feedback. Thank you so much.
Posted by Mosharraf Zaidi | 09. Jun, 2010, 5:31 pmYour piece made the dying optimist in me get a much needed revival. After the latest string of attacks and the abysmal state of the country, I’d lost all faith in any recovery.
It’s nice to ponder on the brighter side of Pakistan…if only for a moment. Here’s to hoping that your words, one day, become a reality.
Posted by Ayesha | 09. Jun, 2010, 7:58 pmWhat an absolutely well written and much needed article. Well done!
Posted by Wajeeha | 09. Jun, 2010, 9:18 pmOnce in cab which stopped at a traffic signal in Islamabad with at least 5 cars ahead of us. When the signal turned green, the cab driver starting honking the horn. On pointing out the obvious that the car ahead of us could not fly above the cars in front of it, the driver said its ok Sir, at least the horn is irritating the drivers. Many a times, it seems, we dont do any good because we either feel mistreated by others or think that if everyone is wrong why should we do the right thing.
We need to break this vicious circle of hopelessness and inspire people to do good no matter how small the deed. Doing good for the sake of goodness…
your piece recognizes such people and is inspires others to follow their example. There is hope we could break this vicious cycle.
Beautifully said, Mosharraf!
Posted by Saad Paracha | 09. Jun, 2010, 10:52 pmThe work that Mr. Ansar Burney did in the field of human rights is become a history. He and his organisation got released more than 800,000 (Eight Lackh) illegally and unlawfully confined prisoners from around the globe.
He is the one because of whom thousands of underage children as much as 3 to 12 years of age get released from slavery and private prisons in Middle Eastern countries and that changed the history of entire Middle East in the field of human rights all the credit goes to Mr. Burney.
We should feel proud on our HERO’s like Mr. Burney …
Posted by Amjad Bhatti | 09. Jun, 2010, 11:50 pmAny Pakistani who values honesty and integrity and practices them in present environment should be admired and considered a HERO. If all of us followed we will be much better than just OKAY.
Posted by Abdul Majid | 10. Jun, 2010, 12:14 amReassuring. sure, we’ll all be okay. Thank you for writing this
Posted by Salman Humayun | 10. Jun, 2010, 1:38 amSorry for pressing the wrong button. Please disregard the last para of the previous incomplete post. It should read:
From time to time Haroon-ur-Rasheed Sahib writes similarly uplifting articles in “Jang” under the title “Ik charaagh aur charaagh aur charaagh aur charaagh”. It was through his columns that I came to know of Dr Amjad Saqib (Akhuwat) and Dr Zaheer Ahmad (Ta’meer-e-Millat Foundation). An example of Haroon Sahib’s column:
http://jang.com.pk/jang/oct2009-daily/19-10-2009/col4.htm
Posted by Sakib Ahmad | 10. Jun, 2010, 3:46 aminteresting article Mosharraf.
Lets hope the poor, disabled and older citizen of Pakistan will have a peaceful and a happier future.
Posted by Haroon Sahir | 10. Jun, 2010, 4:08 amThank you for such a positive article. There are a lot of good things also happening in Pakistan, which the doom-sayers tend to ignore. Philanthropy and private enterprise has risen to meet challenges posed by poor governance in areas such as education, medicare,security, postal services to speak of just a few. The need is to bring down public tolerance for poor government performance and not take the “sirkari” lethargy for granted. The press has done a good job with bringing Corruption to the forefront and this could have a positive effect on turning the tide against corrupt elements.
Posted by Imtiaz Rastgar | 10. Jun, 2010, 11:52 amThank you for this amazing piece. To be honest I didn’t know who Akhter Hameed Khan, Razia Bhatti and Shehla Zia were. We should all consider it our collective responsibility to give more recognition to people like them whether we agree with them or not as you say. Try to keep their stories alive. Young people, for the most part, don’t know about them; we only get bombarded by the doom and gloom pronouncements of the media. And all they do is induce this helpless feeling, this inability to bring change. I am not saying that we should be shielded from the news. No way. But perhaps if it were accompanied with stories of these heroes, these beacons of hope, it will inspire youth (and other people) to take the initiative themselves. Enable them to reclaim their power.
Posted by hira | 10. Jun, 2010, 12:02 pmI appreciate your concerns, commitment, courage and candid opinion. We all deserve little more peace of mind, respect, dignity and socio-economic securities. Would you like to share your perceptions on a possible way forward?
Waseem Hashmi
Posted by Waseem Hashmi | 10. Jun, 2010, 5:30 pmyou lost me at umar saif. don’t believe everything he says about offers from mit.
Posted by jacobianmatrix | 10. Jun, 2010, 11:57 pmBeing the eternal optimist even I needed this dose of fresh conviction.God bless keep it up.
Posted by Shabbir Dogar | 11. Jun, 2010, 9:48 amPakistani blood will remain cheap for terrorist until we react. Once again excellent read my zaidi. We need military intensity to weaken their missions and rehab to cure their minds from this plague.
Posted by Hira Mir | 11. Jun, 2010, 9:51 amI agree that we need to celebrate and cherish our heroes, with so much pessimism there should be some room for rejoice. More importantly we should acknowledge the services of thousands of soldiers and policemen who gave their life so that we could live.
Posted by Sadia Hussain | 11. Jun, 2010, 7:08 pmA lovely post indeed , i would definitely agree with one of the comments above to posthumously recognize the efforts of Prof Dr. Abdus Salam and Agha hassan sahab..
The underlying problem has to be the dumb/deaf of the people of pakistan. It is our own silence which has been our true murderer at the hands of our own people ( or whoever )..Being optimistic is good, but speaking out is the need of the hour.
Your post has done a wonderful job of telling its readers that there is still hope =) ..Frankly speaking, There is only little we need to do ..
Excel at what you are doing and love your Pakistan,rest should come easy.iA.
Posted by Bilal Siraj | 12. Jun, 2010, 11:39 amYou are right, Mr. Zaidi. I have been feeling for some time that we Pakistanis have taken self-loathing to new heights lately. While it is important to look clear-eyed at the facts, it is also extremely important to believe in the light at the end of the tunnel. I believe we need someone like Oprah Winfrey to point out the good amongst us. Here in the U.S., news bulletins regularly highlight acts of goodness and kindness performed by ordinary people. Why can’t we have our “Person of the Week” like ABC news? Maybe TV channels can invite the policemen and the rescue workers on TV instead of always talking about gloom and doom.
Posted by Naveed | 13. Jun, 2010, 6:22 amMr. Ziadi, Thank you for writing all that I had inside but never had the talent to put them on paper. I am writing from Kabul Afghanistan, and what you have written for Pak brothers/sisters is of the same importance for your brothers/sisters beyond your borders.
Posted by Ghaznavi | 13. Jun, 2010, 2:11 pmExcellent article!
Great heroes! can’t miss out out on Asim Ejaz Khwaja (Harvard, 5 gpa MIT! – that guy keeps a low profile but he is doing some excellent research work with big names in Economics)
Posted by Wajahat | 14. Jun, 2010, 1:18 amDear Mr Zaidi,
Excellent piece Mr Zaidi. You missed a Few Good Men, which you can include in your next piece.
I always believed that the land which produced such brave and beautiful souls like Justice Cornelius, Rustam Kiyani, Dr Abdus Salam, Sir Chaudary Zafar ullah Khan, Imran Khan, Jahangir Khan, Asma Jahangir, Faraz and Faiz cant be all that bad.
In one of his speeches Justice Kiyani says
There are quite a few thousand men who would rather have the freedom of speech than a new suit of clothes and it is these that form a nation, not the office hunters, the licenses even the tillers of the soil and drawers of the water.
Since those days, we have come a long way. We have already won the battle of freedom of speech. Pakistan is one of the very few countries in the developing world where criticism of government has become a national sport. In Sri Lanka you can go behind bars or in your grave for criticizing the PM.
We have already won the independence of judiciary. CJ is the only chief justice in the world who has been removed twice by a dictator and reinstated twice by popular lawyers struggle and street support. Recipient of Harvard Law Schools Medal of Freedom is a living legend.
Now the battle is raging for reform of the parliament and rules of accountability. If we win this battle we shall be the only Islamic country with the most powerful media, judiciary and a democratic set up in which the President is answerable to the courts.
Your article is a message to all those with so many negative bones in their bodies, to please dig deep in their souls and come up with something positive.
It is nice to know that while there are so many columnists who earn their living by spreading doom and gloom, there are a few among us who can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
All those who think that it is hard to be positive under current circumstances, should know that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Rise & shine.
Best Wishes
Nadeem Sheikh
Toronto
Posted by Nadeem Sheikh | 14. Jun, 2010, 1:52 amHeartwarming and desperately needed – as is obvious from the response.
But … our elected leaders will not sue Matt Waldman … they will not listen to the voices of reason within Pakistan that cry out against repeating the mistakes of the past and while the people you know at NACTA try to come up with a CT strategy they are busy getting enmeshed, once again, in the Great Game (or the beginning of the beginning of the End Game) which is what got us where we are today.
It is not the people of Pakistan that lack capacity. Yes, Pakistan does not lack heroes and yes, there is a fair bit that we can be proud of in Pakistan.
I am waiting for the day when we will finally choose leaders who have the capacity to lead. Leaders who will make us proud.
Posted by raana | 21. Jun, 2010, 11:12 amDear Mr.Zaidi
I’d like to applaud your excellent article. In these often difficult times for our nation, it’s all too easy to focus on the negative and believe everything is lost. We need writers of your calibre to stand up and remind us of all the good things that go on on a daily basis in our country.
Just wanted to mention that I’ve seen so many of these positive things recently through an inititiave called Azme Alishan: the teams of local people who came out on to the streets of Lahore to join Azme Alishan’s ambassadors in tidying up their communities, the school students queuing up to make their Azms and pledging to do their best for Pakistan, the enthusiasm of the young musicians who penned new patriotic songs for the ongoing National Song Competition. All these things and more give me hope that our nation’s future can be brighter than many people today expect it to be.
Just as it’s important for writers like yourself to keep highlighting these things, it’s equally as important that publications like The News continue to provide a platform for them. It’s an unspoken mantra of the media industry the world over that good news doesn’t sell newspapers, but now more than ever Pakistan needs strong voices to speak up for all that’s good in our country. That The News was prepared to set aside other agendas and make space for your article is a credit to The News. I hope we see this policy continue for a long time to come.
Posted by Ayesha Khan | 21. Jun, 2010, 6:02 pmDear Zaidi,
Congratulations on very well written and inspiring piece. We as Pakistanis need to continuously motivate and inspire each other, as this as well as our constant belief in God will help us out of these dark days.
Continue the inspiration…..
Posted by Ms. Kanaria | 18. Aug, 2010, 9:49 amIn Pakistan, unfortunately, corrupt are promoting corrupt. Media also promotes corrupt people. They do not highlight people like Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan. Nasim Yousaf in his recent essay “Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan — An Inspirational Social Scientist” has revealed that Dr. Khan was nominated for Nobel Prize. How many people in Pakistan are aware of this revelation, may I ask? This itself shows media do not promote the right people to bring positive change in Pakistan. Country is getting from bad to worse. There are many article on Dr. Khan on the internet.
Posted by Salma K. | 28. Oct, 2010, 9:41 pm