Karachi, a City Born of Dreams, Bred with Love and Left to Rot

Reading your article was time well spent. (I disconnected and then read). No seriously its time we spoke. Giving taxes does not help(50% debt servicing and 25% defence-read golf clubs and kickbacks). What we truly need is philanthropic activity. We must act in our own areas. From building schools, providing basic health to informing the people of their rights, we must start to work. Actions speak louder than words. Lets take over the budget piece by piece and put the money where it belongs!!

KARACHI IS A DUMP--

leave the lousy city alone man. Everyone admits its a screwup...accept that and move on. I think everyone`s heard this bitching over and over again. Its getting old my man. Let sleeping dogs lie and leave the country. If its that bad, why are you still living there. Leave it, and go and party somewhere else. If you can`t deal with it, shut up and deal with it. Everyone has their own problems in this world. I don`t think anyone gives a damn about some of yours at this time my man.

Down and Dirty in NYC

FOZ

``No, I am not repulsed by Pakistan’s state. I am saddened so deeply that my heart sinks.``

Touche.

-!Kamran Akhtar!-

Great article.
Karachi remembered once again in poetry:

A BEGGAR FROM KARACHI

Once like the current multitudes in Chappals
These legs also walked your dusty streets
As this was home but now all but lost in memory
Clifton Beach, Saddar and the market no
Empress would much care to bless.

Paan stains or is it the crimson of blood now?
Of the many young and now old, pierced hate
The metal of unholy bullets in still bodies
Widows, orphans and the ravages of
Jinns let loose in the bazaars of fearful lives.

Peace once walked through this city but
Like Mir, sons die there for many perceived sins
And the loss has now reached the healer Hakim who
By educating children was termed guilty of doing good
Sentenced to death at age 78 to leave us horrified.

Many names not as famous come to mind too but
Space and the pain of this madness erases
The dreams burnt in the hot Tandoors of hate
Bigotry, selfishness and the smoke of street heroin
All are now experiencing the futility of addiction.

Very easy it is to blame the outsiders for oppression
But amongst ourselves oozes a little truth
The City of Lights calls for an era that once was
When the people of Karachi lived around the clock
And were not forced to plead for peace
Like this distant beggar from the past.

Ras H. Siddiqui 11-2-98

Three parts and three groups..probably not....our inaction comes from the percieved differences we point out...forget them...many groups have a stake in this city.....(and that stake is wedged in its heart)...yet, i reiterate, rise above your line of vision and everything blurs into one. Pain, anger, rage.....these emotions cant be hijacked by `groups`.....they flow through all of us....point is, do we harness them into one source or , dilute them through cosmetic `differences`?

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I would diagnose the general deterioration of all sorts of public spaces in Pakistan and South Asia generally as a symptom of a cultural disposition to look after the private (familial property, personal space) and trash the public (institutions, facilities, and spaces). We suffer from what economists term the free rider problem which results in the under supply, in free markets, of public goods such as clean streets.

The situation has gotten worse with the increase in population and falling government revenues. Remember that less than 1% of Pakistan pays taxes and though bureaucrats take most of this home, we can`t hold the public and its general free riding tendencies as faultless.

Wasiq Nawaz

RE: aminai

Excellent observation Ali: it is the Diaspora of Asian cities- nee Indo-Pak- which marks the real difference in social development on both sides of the border. I was wondering if you visited Banaras, now that is a phenomenon.

RE: Studebaker

Amit Chauduri wrote a very nice novel based in Calcultta. It is called `A strange and sublime address,` you can find it in his compilation titled `Freedom Song.` I just want to see the city after reading this delightful work.

Re: Zeemax

You wrote: `The city can easily be divided into three self-sustaining parts and it already is no longer a single city socially and politically.` Now, how many cities can be categorized similarly- New York City, Hell A, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bombay, Hyderabad...

It seems a little obvious to me that you are not completely aware of the socio-economic demographics of Karachi (three groups!). It would be interesting to see what you believe are 1) Ethnicity Ratios, 2) Literacy Rate, and 3) Population Growth Rate, in the roshnion ka shehr.

Regards,

Faisal

Re : Velcro Fly

[The time is right to break the establishment`s back...rise beyond your words and the city is for the taking....see you at the front lines!]

Velcro .. Karachi is not for the taking as the city is now .... it`s for the taking as at-least three cities by at-least three diferent groups of people. The city can easily be divided into three self-sustaining parts and it already is no longer a single city socially and politically !

Zeemax

Re Studebaker #8

Last time I was in Calcutta it was impossible to open the car window because of the stench and millions of people were living on the streets, washing their clothes in the gutters, pissing and defecating on the streets, the whole city was covered in a thick smog ... you mean all that has changed ?

Zeemax

Re: Studebaker

My experience of Calcutta is very limited, but this last December, I did have the opportunity to ride the famous Metro which, as you put it, rivals London`s. I had never dreamt that I would make such close acquaintance with so many strangers as I did in the 30 minutes on that train. Nor did I believe I would get out of it alive. I literally spent most of my time occupying a volume about one-fourth of that required for normal human respiration. My feet were off the floor for extended periods of time. I have travelled on some pretty full buses in Karachi, but this.... this was miraculous!

Re: Amin Saleh

Charlottesville, VA is a perfectly reasonable --- nay, outstanding --- place to live. One thing I will admit: It is neither Karachi nor Calcutta.

Finally, on the general issue of Indian cities. I have been to Bombay, Hyderabad, Delhi, Calcutta, and several cities in Orissa. While I really like the liveliness and rich atmosphere, I do think that the better residential parts of Karachi (Defence, PECHS, KDA-I, Gulshan, North Nazimabad) are far cleaner, nicer looking, and more upscale than equivalent parts of any Indian city. Of course, the ``official`` parts of Delhi and Calcutta have no equal in all of Pakistan for their grandeur and class.

I think the difference in residential areas between Indian and Pakistani cities reflects a real difference in attitude. People in India live more simply, less wastefully, and with less ostentation. The standard of living for upper and middle classes in Pakistan is far higher than in India --- not necessarily because Pakistanis can afford it, but because it is just the way to go. And once you get used to it, it is hard to go back to simpler living. Of course, there are Indians who live far more lavishly than any Pakistani --- especially in Bombay and Delhi --- but they are outliers.

One other feature of Indian cities which one does not find in most Pakistani cities is the number of people living on the street. Sure, there are terrible slums in Karachi (actually, `slum` is a misnomer, since it indicates actual construction. These are shanty-towns). But these are localized. In Bombay, especially, one feels as if half the city sleeps on the sidewalk. Maybe that has changed (I was there in 1985).

I think the influx of Gulf money has something to do with the situation in Pakistan, but I leave that to sociologists.

Ali Minai

ref: ZEEMAX reply #1

Calcutta used to be a slum. Not anymore. Looks like Karachi and Calcutta have moved into opposite directions.

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.....and until when the rain pours down and washes away all the dust that has hidden our dreams and has obscured the view of the sky so blue, we will have to live and dream with eyes wide open and hands stretched far...and as for now when only blood rains from te sky and bullets fall onto the ground after their fatal blows...and so far as we are more and more ethnically conscious and religously confused and lost....or even remain the way are and the ways we have been,there is no chance in hell that i see any prospect of a change for Pakistan,let alone for Karachi!

Kamran:

Interesting observations. I was once an idealist, too. An eternal optimist. A self-professed revolutionary patriot. A Pakistani nationalist wanting to rid Pakistan of the scum that rules it. But I`ve almost given up hope. Like you, I love Pakistan more than anything in the world. But it is the reality on the ground that has made me a cynic, a pessimist, and worst of all, a biggot.

But the interesting, and the positive thing is that these aspects of my current state of mind have yet to become permanent. Because, once everything is said and done, my sanity and reason resurface to reassure me that it`s not any single racial, ethnic, and religious group that`s to blame for what is wrong in different parts of Pakistan. Well, at least not entirely. But at the core of it, what you have in Pakistan is a good old class-conflict. The military-feudal-bureacrat-big business class versus the poor-peasant-labor-artisan-service-small business class.

The following was published in Dawn`s opinion page a few months ago. It sums up well the present state of the federation. Here`s an excerpt. Note, however, how the author overlooks the role of the military in the present mess.

Take care...



A way out of the crisis

By Dr Khalid Mahmood Shaikh

THE country appears to be stuck in a moral, social, economic and political quagmire, and is gradually drifting towards chaos and anarchy. What we see and watch, and what appears daily in the Press present a pessimistic scenario and a very gloomy picture of our society.

Theft, murder, robbery, gang-rape, child abduction and abuse, gruesome massacre and terrorism are just some of the ills rampant in society. Family values are on the wane, women are subjected to perverse nature of violence, and even worse is the fact that the writ of the government is becoming less and less visible.

There is a speedy increase in the rate of crimes in society. Acts of the most heinous and horrific nature are being committed every day of which very little appears in the media. Cheating, deception, fraud, selfishness, hypocrisy, falsehood and dishonesty have become the chief characteristics of our nation. The majority doesn`t believe in morality and ethics.

The social fabric is torn by divisions. Ethnicity is an added menace. There is no social cohesion and the individuals lack civic sense. Social behaviour, norms and etiquettes are on the decline. Age-old social and moral values are dying out very quickly. There is no such thing as a civic society existing any more.

On the economic front, we are on the verge of collapse and the threat of being declared a defaulter nation continues to loom large on our heads. We were a country gifted with a fertile land and rich resources, but mismanagement, corruption and lack of accountability has ruined us. As a consequence, while major state enterprizes have proved to be white elephants, the huge foreign debt is threatening to shake the very foundation of the country.

Adding to the misery is the culture of tax-evasion, corruption in the tax-collecting machinery, flawed government policies, and the lack of political will to implement basic structural reforms. While a microscopic minority possesses and enjoys all the resources of the country, millions live out their lives at a mere subsistence level.

Among the various segments of society, the situation is the most dismal in the political arena. It presents a very sad picture. Would it not be more appropriate to say that political intrigues and conspiracies, in fact, gave birth to all the various crises that have gripped us today?

We have a very long and tragic constitutional history. At the very beginning, delaying tactics in constitution-making paved the way for autocratic and dictatorial regimes, thereby giving democracy a false start. No sincere and serious efforts were made to put the country on the right track. Democratic norms and institutions were not encouraged intentionally by those who had their own agenda to follow.

Power-hungry feudals and a corrupt bureaucracy joined hands to make the most of the situation. In intellectual and moral terms, they were, at best, dwarfs and pygmies. What the new-born nation, created in the name of an ideology, needed at the time was a leadership with a vision which could have given the country a sense of purpose and a practical line of action. What the nation got, instead, was, to put it brief and mildly, a group of demagogues and rapacious bureaucrats who lacked courage, determination and statesmanship. They succeeded one after the other and gradually brought the country to a complete collapse.

Since we have yet to taste true democracy in our midst, the lack of democratic thinking and behaviour of our people is self-explanatory. Our own brand of political culture has only succeeded in promoting ethnicity, tribalism, hatred, intolerance and violence, and ethnic and sectarian conflicts have ravaged the country. We have, in fact, miserably failed to create a civil society.

----/ / / ----

Kamran:

This is a good effort. One can safely substitute `Pakistan` for `Karachi` without taking anything from it.

Let me use flying metaphors. The build-up was a great take off, lazily speeding down the runway, climbing, soaring gaining alttitude, then nosediving to gather more speed, stick forward, throttle full, then pulling back with full force going into a loop. One third of the way into a loop the plane stalls. Ground is faraway, remedial measures can be taken to get out of this stall. Some throttle, rudder and ailerons and deft maneuvering with the stick can bring one out of the stall. If one panics at this stage, if one is paralysed with fear now, then all is lost. Why do I have a feeling that this flying bird ---- Karachi or Pakistan is that stage?

regards

Zeemax

Do you think Lahore is not decaying. Maybe you might want to move to Charlottesville, Virginia to avoid your senses from seeing the decay.

I mean why do we want others to improve the condition before we are ready to accept it. Why do we want a revolution but not a discussion. Why are we not willing to use fair play and magnanimity to improve general standard of living. Why are we willing to snatch wealth from those who have it.

Civilization is not about immediate gratification but a slow evolution. How many of us have the time and patience to undertake a broader consensus of what needs to be done. It took quite a few students from Aligrah to convince people that a separate Pakistan would be to their advantage. Maybe it is time for us to get out there in the villages to convince them how to use their political power. What to expect from their members (stable legislative action) and what not to expect from them (hand outs).

Any takers.

Karachi is a rapidly decaying city. It`s little more than a slum now with nil progress. It has been indeed left to rot for political reasons. The people who made Karachi have chosen to destroy it so soon it will be another Calcutta.

Above being the reason I moved to Lahore after spending most part of my life in Karachi !

Zeemax

Interesting when you mention that you say it as you

see it. Selective reality comes to mind. Possibly for too long we (yes we, the guardians of the future etc) have walked on the cruthces of eloquence as we set out to delineate the inherent disparites of our wonderful society. You might not like what I have to say. I endorse all that you speak of (..well, mostly....) but I feel it is time for us to move on to action. We all know what the problem is. These are exciting times for Karachi, for us. I wouldnt trade it for the lull- before-the-storm Karachi that our parents long for. The revolution will not come...it needs to be coaxed, to be cajoled (seduced even) by us. The time is right to break the establishment`s back...rise beyond your words and the city is for the taking....see you at the front lines!