Carnage in Karachi

ferozk #49 I am fully with you on the need for respect for teachers. (and btw, looks like you also took my post to hellbound literally - please read that post and the one from hellbound to which it responds, and you will see it was in fact meant to do the opposite, namely to take hellbound to task for his referring to your being a teacher as if it was something low). My own father`s first job was as a lecturer at Government College Lahore, and he was in the education corps of the army for the remainder of his career, after which he moved on to become the founding director of the Institute of Modern Languages in Islamabad that you may know of. And throughout his life he had maintained friendships with people in the education field in universitites and colleges, many of whom were absolutely wonderful people with great values and great learning (one of them, now long passed away, was a principal at your aitchison college and a more intelligent and principled person never walked this earth, imho). So, I grew up with nothing but the highest regard for the teaching profession.

You make an important point concerning a key weakness in the Pakistan education system - namely learning by rote. I think this point is so fundamental that it ultimately determines the character of a nation. Indeed, this is the key difference I noted when I first came to the US for higher studies: the US students were not particularly more knowledgable about the subject matter, but were much more questioning (in a constructive sense) of what was being taught. In talking to some other students from the subcontinent (pakistani and indian) at the same university, I learnt that they too had noticed this difference. Now that I have had children go through their school systems, it has become even more clear to me of the vast difference between the two schooling systems: they emphasize creativity, respect for others, appreciation of different cultures, and self-confidence from Day 1 in school.

I am glad that you are using your position as a teacher to get your students out of this ``rote mode``. For some of them, it may already be too late (since some of the most important things - like respect for all cultures, logical thinking, values - are largely done in kindergarten). But nevertheless, it is never to late. You can tell the difference between the product of a good school and/or household where these basics were taught decades afterwards in an individual. So, hats off to you and all the other fine people in the education field in Pakistan!!


AnOrdinaryHindu #38 and CoolAl #58: Thanks for noting to satyamwada that if he reads the post carefully he will see that the reference to ``lowly schoolteachers`` was meant sarcastically. And CoolAl, whiile you and I may disagree on certain things, I am sure you are a fine chap in real life. As are all other chowkies, even though our chowk discussions may get a bit wild sometimes.

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#51 by ferozk

“I thought that there was hope in this nation, but now I simply accept the fact that Pakistan will always remain stuck in the same rut of its self induced paranoia and its self-inflicted wounds.

“One of them is that as long as there Pakistanis living in Pakistan, Pakistan will never amount to much in this world...”

“because the people of Pakistan are the worst enemies of Pakistan and are more capable of ruining Pakistan than any imagined alliance of any nations in this world.”

I may be a perennial optimist but when I read pouring of heart like this, the first thing that comes to my mind is: whether the writer has some sense of history and politics to write such a huge disrespect to the people of Pakistan or for that matter any other country that he/she lives in.

What is this big trip about “amounting” to much?

Why Pakistan can’t just be a small little country and people doing what they need to do to better their lives? The idea of being “something” that has been sowed into Pakistan middleclass via the grandiose-ness of Islam shows up in the thoughts of all slightly better educated, professedly elitist, Secular and liberal ideologues. Even the Non religious types have those Islamic grand designs engraved in their hearts.
(The cheap Ice cream lovers call themselves elite…Ugh….)

What is that “something” that haunts these lower middleclass types so much? Is there any example of that? It does not take long for these middleclass ideologue to realize that their dream of being “something or much” for their country, is little too much for the poor folks to handle. When a majority of the population refuses to bite into their middleclass ideas of being “something”, we get tirades like we see spread over several gut wrenching posts here.

People lose hope because their hopes are based on false expectations. If a middleclass person’s blown out expectations are not met, the whole country is found to be “stuck in a rut”. The People of Pakistan are the “worst enemy of Pakistan”.

What is the reality of Pakistan?
It is a poor country.
It has very little educated population.
It has no democracy.
And the people of the country just wanna live their lives peacefully.

Is there any other “fault” of Pakistan? How all these faults are different than the 70% of the countries in the world?

The problems unique to Pakistan are:

It has an ongoing social strife.
It is in the eye of the storm.

Is that unique at all?

Germany went thru a huge social strife after the first WW. It ended up in the clutches of fascism and finally ran amok all over the world for five years.
The country of Algeria and many countries around Vietnam went thru worst social, economical, political strife. These are just a few snippets from the history. So is there any thing that is unique about Pakistan?

Have Pakistan middleclass witnessed a regime like Pol Pot yet?
Have we any idea what holocaust was like?

People of Germany, Vietnam, and Algeria did not choose those conflicts. The conflicts, the discords emerged due to various socio-economic conditions. Some were due to the adventures of their own rulers like in Germany. Some were the results of a protracted struggle for freedom that engulfed the world.

Near home, Pakistan has twice seen the worst human disasters. First, the partition and second, the Pakistani rulers inflicted on East Pakistan.
Has the current Pakistan seen any thing like that in the last 56 years?

Open your Islam infested minds and go see poor folks who come to the public meetings of BB, or NS or travel long distances to attend political rallies- these people have hope in Pakistan. These hooded lower middleclass think that BB and NS are wrong but the people of Pakistan don’t. These ideologue think that the poor man walking in the fields, carrying all the burden of poverty, has no mind of his own, are stupid themselves.
My recommendation to these champions of morality and dreamers of “something” would be to go attend some political rallies legal or illegal, meet some people, talk and work with them only then would you realize that hope is something bigger and is not impacted by your crooked ideas.

Closer these middleclass hypocrites come to the reality, more hope they would have.

Feroze,

This has nothing to do with me. Trust me when I say this, there is no love lost between TAhmed and me.

But, I do believe you missed the irony in his post. Maybe you should read that post again...

Teachers are a treasure especially the good ones. nothwithstanding their economic standing, some command respect. They are institutions.

As regards my comments on the subject, there is some argument adrift between me and Romair on a similar article `Karachi Blast - The Untold Story` by Sharmeen Saleemy.
Cheerios

Oops, I just saw #35. Ignore my previous post please..

Wow!! This is the best tap dancing I have ever seen....I particularly loved the last line..


-- as for your personal slur, it reflects your low level of intellect so does not warrant a response --

ROTFL!!!!

Dude, are you for real?!!

Feroz, 51

``but I have accepted a few simple truisms about Pakistan. One of them is that as long as there Pakistanis living in Pakistan, Pakistan will never amount to much in this world.``

...if ``Pakistanis`` don`t live in Pakistan, who does or should...the Polish?

If that`s how the ``elite`` of Pakistan think...no wonder!!!

re: Romair # 12

I am to be blamed for the mess in Pakistan. You are to be blamed for the mess in Pakistan. The citizens of Pakistan are to be blamed for the mess in Pakistan. Pakistanis, regardless, of their economic or social or political or cultural or ethnic distinctions are to be blamed for the mess in Pakistan. Anyone, who own claims Pakistan as a nation of their birth and is a citizen of Pakistan is to be blamed for the mess in Pakistan.

Pakistanis have no one to blame, but themselves for the mess in Pakistan.

Romair, you are always eager to make distinctions and in this case, it is a collective responsibility and we better face it and accept it.

The only people, who will disagree with my words, will be the people associated with the military, because in a true sense, they are the ones, who lord over Pakistan and are above the law and are never held accountable for actions or misdeeds. Pakistan is not a nation with an army, but an army with a nation and it makes perfect sense for the military to lord over Pakistan. The military thinks that it can lord over Pakistan since it conquered Pakistan four times since 1947.

Romair, why is it that you have chosen to place the onus on everyone, but the military?

Ciao

feroz:

...understand the bit about venting your `aggression` or frustration...:)...the land and people will survive...despite ...or rather inspite of its people...(sigh)...

a digression:

…embattled conrad black (Hollinger, Jerusalem post, lord baron,, canadian born british lord baron) got his start when he and his friend bought a sherbrook quebec newspaper…it was a two man effort…they’d sweep the floor, distribute the paper alongwith other mundane things…one night they got in a bitter argument over some local issue and how to tackle it in the editorial to reflect the community’s pov…conrad wrote that the two friends could not agree on the terseness of the language to be used in the editorial…and the debate moved to the effectiveness of the editorial…one of them argued that nobody’s reads editorials anyways ..how they were just a waste of time…and how the real editorial thrust of the paper is in its news coverage and op-ed pieces…so they tried to test it out…by copy pasting a page out of the local telephone directory in the editorial space…to see if anyone responds or notices…the experiment was successful…

…nobody noticed or complained…

rgds,

t

re: Temporal

Temporal, it a bit hard to chill, when you see a person nearly killed and then you hear about moral pontification in an editorial about the killings in Karachi. I am really disjusted at the Pakistani society and I was simply using your post, as a foil, to vent my aggression.

The editorial, in question, is laughable because it is so morally secure in its own infallibility. I was raging at the sheer futility of that editorial`s suggestion, because it will amount to nothing in the long term. I was angry at the fact that for the 57 years of our nationhood, we have been always quick to blame, but we have never held one person accountable for the misdeeds committed in this nation. Who has ever been held responsible for anything in Pakistan in the last 57 years? I would appreciated the collective wisdom of the print media in Pakistan, if it had simply ignored penning an editorial on the Karachi blast. Writing such such editorials is a simple insult to the intelligence, or lack of it thereof, of the people, who live in this land, which was the original inspiration for George Orwells` ``Animal Farm``.

Ciao

re: omar_r_quraishi (various posts)

Omar, I am judged as an elite in Pakistan. I am judged such, because I wear western clothes; I speak English; I am educated; I have a job; I am economically better off than most of the Pakistanis; I have travelled outside of Pakistan; I live in a city and because of my life style choices. I am judged as an elite, because of my family background and the because of the circle of my friends.

Omar, you can call me an elite, because that would be within reasonable limits of the common preception in Pakistan. As to cigars and Danish ice cream, there are a luxury in a nation, where there is wide spread poverty. Do I feel sorry for my indulgences? No; I am not sorry, because life in Pakistan has too few moments of indulences to offer and I will take my pleasures, where I can afford them. Omar, at one point in time, I thought that there was hope in this nation, but now I simply accept the fact that Pakistan will always remain stuck in the same rut of its self induced paranoia and its self-inflicted wounds.

I have not lost interest in Pakistan, but I have accepted a few simple truisms about Pakistan. One of them is that as long as there Pakistanis living in Pakistan, Pakistan will never amount to much in this world. I now simply accept, what I once to used to regard with a high degree of intolerability and that is, Pakistan, which was created in the name of Islam will one day be destroyed in the name of Islam. Lastly, Pakistanis and Pakistan does not need external enemies, because the people of Pakistan are the worst enemies of Pakistan and are more capable of ruining Pakistan than any imagined alliance of any nations in this world.

I was not born to save Pakistan from Pakistan and as long as I am alive, I will do my utmost to enjoy life within the limitations of what life has to offer a person, who lives in Pakistan. I tried once, in a far away past, to try and save Pakistan, but how do you save a nation, which does not wish to be saved? I know what my true feelings about Pakistan are, but I am not sure, how Pakistan feels about me.

I agree with your ``let and let live`` philosophy and I wish Pakistan would leave me alone to live as I wish, but it does not and it forces me to live according to its own brand of morality, which I find intolerable. Despite, all my ill bodings about Pakistan and Pakistanis, I have this naive faith in the goodness of humanity, but that faith is sorely tested, when it is exposed to Pakistanis in a collective sense.

Ciao

omar quraishi. . .

at least feroz admits his elitism. at least feroz admits to his responsibility regardless of his elitism, or in spite of it, or in terms of it, or whatever. tell me. . .can you or are you willing to admit the same thing? are you willing to admit that YOU are part of the problem rather than writing editorials placing the blame solely in the hands of the government. . .?

if not then that remark to him sounds rather childish and laden with chootiyapa.

re: tahmed32 # 26

Incidently, you wrote the wrong spelling of ``Feuhrer``. The correct spelling is ``Fuhrer``.

Teachers are considered as belonging to a lowly class in Pakistan and in many ways, that is a reflection of the Pakistani society. Pakistani society, on the average, is very disdainful towards learning. Education system of any nation is always a mirror to the ethic and morality of the citizen it produces and Pakistani education system is rife with violence and intolerance. There are armed gangs, who roam Pakistan`s colleges and try to instill their own sense of morality on to the other students. There is no freedom of expression or the freedom to critically think about issues. Pakistani educational system`s traits of learning through rote memorization makes for student and then, of citizens, who are mentally stunted.

A few days, one of my students asked me as to which ``caste I belonged to`` and then clarified by asking if I was a Punjabi or some thing else. There are routine questions asking me, whether I am a Sunni or a Shia and when I tell them, that I am a Muslim, they are invaribly disappointed. I teach a class on current issues and always, when we discuss the internal problems of Pakistan, there is a student who defends Punjab and is aggressive towards anyone, including myself, when there is critical comment on Punjab. That particular student equates Punjab with being Pakistan and is highly patronizing in his comments towards other provinces and ethnic groups in Pakistan.

Your comment about me being a lowly school teacher is valid, because that is how the Pakistani societial mentality judges a profession of a teacher in Pakistan. A teacher is not judged by his or her education in Pakistan, but by their social status. A teacher is never accorded respect in Pakistan, as my students keeping remind me that their cell phones are more than what I make in a month. While I was teaching at Aitchison College, I was judged by the clothes I was wearing; my collection of neck ties (which seemed to impress them), the value of my shoes, the watch I was wearing, the car I was driving and the neighborhood, in which I lived. A teacher who is honest and devoted to his/her profession is leered at and ridiculed by the students. A teacher who does not accountance to favoritism is treated with contempt. Students expect a teacher to pass them them and are not interested in learning.

Hence, I was amused by your comment since it truly showed the Pakistani mind`s appreciation for education.

Ciao

(From the CHOWK Archives)


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?

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 died here for many perceived sins

And the loss has now reached the healer Hakim who

By educating children was pronounced 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 limits and the pain of this madness erases

Man 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 beggar from the past.


by

Ras Siddiqui


(This writing was dedicated to Hakim Said, the real HAMDARD who was recently shot dead in Karachi)

#45

Veeresh-ji

I think thats precisely his point that PTV represents the point of view the goverment wants to express through the so called ``bootlickers``. Hence the shift is significant.

(disclaimer: I have watched maybe 10 mintues of PTV in my life)