Impressionable Pakistani youth

During the past few years, everything has gone wrong in Pakistan. Our antics in Afghanistan during the 1980s are finally surfacing. Military coups are back in fashion. Every new Democratic rule is making people lose faith in democracy itself. We are stuck in a vicious cycle. Rigid military rule after a coup, a shameful departure, new elections, a corrupt democratic rule, public discontentment, military coup. Then there's the natural disasters. It started with an earthquake in 2005, followed by flood in Sindh, breakage of hunza jheel, and now a country wide devastating flood in 2010. This year the monsoon gave us all it had. In the coming years, it might not have anything to give at all. It doesn't take a Nostradamus to foresee that the future has more troubles in store.

In times like these, the youth seeks meaning. They search for hope. They want to know who's responsible. They need to vent their anger on the culprit. The case here in Pakistan, is that either the culprit is no one or ourselves. Under the circumstances, people need a scape goat. They need someone to point at, an easy way out. They don't wish to blame themselves, nor do they feel the need to collect evidence. Consequently, a new kind of individuals emerge who say what people want to hear. It doesn't have to be true or based on evidence. All that is required is a little rhetoric. Their speeches are charged with emotions. They attract people, specially youth, with their attractive personalities and good oratory skills. They give the masses what they want, not what they need. They openly embrace racism and hatred. With their drawing room discussions and biased knowledge, they try to prove their claims. What needs to be understood, is that they are charmers. We can not afford to become snakes in their baskets and dance to their tunes.
What is wrong with men like Zaid Hamid, Imran Khan, Ali Azmat etc? Firstly, they use data that does not belong to them and do not even acknowledge where it came from. Funny how Zaid hamid is all anti US anti Zionist and yet most of the information he so shamelessly dispels is from Noam Chomsky, a Jewish analyst living in the US. The claims they make about US imperialism and Israel being a terrorist state are more or less true. However, their ultra nationalist ideas about buying rifles and attacking NATO forces head on is both naive and non-sensical. Israel might be a terrorist state with one of the worst Human Rights record, considering the possibility of all Muslims brothers coming together to fight it is absurd. Your Muslim brothers in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq don't care about you. Nor does your state care about them. OIC has not agreed on one thing since it's creation. But Mr. Zaid Hamid thinks otherwise because his friend said so in their lounge discussion. He plans to go to India and place Pakistan's flag there. Make India ours. You can expect a 5th grader to talk more sense than that. India can slap our asses back to the stone age if it wishes. Plus we've already set a good example by treating Bangladesh the way we did. India must be dying to join a union. Mr. Imran, who is rightly named Taliban Khan, is a mullah with a liberal face. Even though in a country where people like Altaf Hussain, who should be selling balloons in the street, can run parties, Imran seems God sent. However, listen to him closely and objectively and it will become clear that the story is not very different. What kind of a place do we live in where our expectations have sunk so low that we happily accept for president one who can at least read and write, is not a well-known crook and lives in Pakistan.

The point I'm trying to make is that men, like the ones mentioned above, say inspirational things with great vigour. They show us a direction and a purpose. However, everything that sounds nice, is not true. Getting inspired by groundless rhetoric will not provide the solution. Open your eyes and seek what needs to be done.

Impending doom

I must admit, I have never been this productive during summer vacations in all my years. Not only did I finish five books, I also completed a month long internship at HRCP (remind me to comment in detail about that), I won an MUN (yes yes everyone there was at least 5 years my junior), I'm helping the flood affectees through a joint collaboration of the British Council, Faces Pakistan and NCIDE (okay fine not really helping but it's the intention that counts). Also, I'm cooking round chupatees and cutting aloo chips everyday. Quite something for a mere two and a half months?
I will not comment about the flood because a) everyone is doing that and b) I'm not very sad anymore because now I'm doing something for them and c) stress kills.
The books I've read are ones no one really cares about. So I will refrain from commenting on them. I will list them regardless. 1) Wretched of the Earth by Fanon 2) Selected writings of Che 3) Selected writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh 4) Aam Fiqri Mughaltay. Wait! that's four. I went out the other day and spent bloody Rs 1500 on books (why do we write RS or $ first but pronounce it after the amount?).
The internship at The Human Rights Commission went well. Except, I had to explain to my family what HRCP is. 'Wo jahan Asma Jahangir kaam kerti hein'. and the reply 'oh. wo kisi ka ghar basana nai chahti'. Yeah err. Anyway for the first time in my short and adventure less life, I met a foreigner. Man I've never even met an Indian before. lol. He was Guatemalan. I was inside a cramped room in the basement with him all the time. Then I found out he has a girl friend. Anyway that place, just like everywhere else, was filled with elitist bimbos. While a few of us went to the mess and ate aloo with daal, they ordered in McDonald's. Stupid. I gave my presentation yesterday and it went very well. So that's over and done with.
I'm collecting old newspapers these days. We'll sell them and give that money to the flood affectees. Yes go ahead and laugh. You won't be laughing when we'll be swimming in hundreds of rupees of radee money. No seriously, If you have any, give it to me. I want to win a certificate for most radee collected.
My college starts from the 23rd. On a scale of 1 to 10 of disgust, 10 being the highest, I am definitely feeling a 9 and a half. You ask why. Well here's why. Once upon a time, Kinnaird college hired only teachers with the maximum size of the brain being equal to a peanut. Brain sizes ranging from a grain of sand to a poppy seed were in special demand. Then the principal changed and the new policy demanded that the teachers should at least be homo-sapians. Now the roasted pistachio brains couldn't let that happen so they started a revolt and after false accusation and involvement of thugs, got the principal removed. All this happened last year. So now, on the 23rd, we'll welcome our new principal, who I've heard suffers from sex deprivation. Good luck to me. What awaits is a ban on mobile phones, gate timings as late as 2:30 pm, lesser independent thinking and maybe even shiny white uniforms with head scarves.