Nuclear powers can count too!

Thank you all for your replies.

Two issues come to mind upon initial reflection. First, the distaste for imported remedies brought up by my friend amaniar (can I say ``father``?, old school joke, the ignorant need not bother). Second, the inability of intellectuals - more specifically expatriate intellectuals - to take any real actions, other than just think.

In response to the first, I can only say that an idea is as strong as its underlying logic. It does not matter from whence it came, but only where it may take us. Sure, western democracy is an alien concept to the subcontinent. But, to be rather plain, no one who can afford it will turn down a bi-pass surgery in the west should he/she suffer a stroke. Ideas are strong because their application may be universal, not because they have some illustrious legitimizing lineage.

As for the second, let me say that the issue is quite comlex. I`ll relate a analogy that a friend of mine related to me when I mentioned my own fears that an expatriate intellegensia is impotent at best. A light-house cannot go to every ship and show it the right path. It is only when a captain of the boat has the good sense to seek out the light-house that he/she may benefit from the illumination that it offers. That is how I am increasingly inclined to think about these issues. We all do whatever little we can in our own ways. It is all like a trickle into the occean. While we may not be able to free ourselves from our moorings to a safe financial future and succumb to passionate urges to dive into the occean in order to banish disarray, we (expatriates) can do much all the same.

Also, I thought I`d mention to those of you who took an interest in the article, to check out some websites maintained by the PEASANT`S LANDLESS MOVEMENT in Brazil. Just add those keywords onto your browser search engine and you`ll be sure to find something. There are plenty of similarities between the accounts of Latin American countries and Pakistan, and happily these problems have solutions...

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Mohammad Ali Syed