Happy New Year.

Here I am still waiting for the clock to strike 12 and the New Year to begin. All over the world people are happy and celebrating the New Year. Some have already celebrated the new year and are on the first day of 2013 and some like us are still waiting. I see all the celebrations and I wonder what is it that makes the New Year Happy? Why is the new year happy? What is happy about the new year? Nothing has changed...just the hour and the date on the calendar.
Poor people are still poor, wars are still on going, there is still inflation, global warming, food and fuel shortages and it is business as usual. If the new year was magical and if really and truly on Jan 1st things would all be better like someone waved a magic wand, then it will be a real Happy New Year.
It would be like a reset button. On every first of the year everything is fine and all is well and everyone is really happy and we the people are given one more chance. Our mistakes are forgiven, damage done by us humans is undone and we are given another chance to get things right...only then the new year will truly be a Happy New Year. A new beginning every year. If New Year is not magical and does not bring true happiness and peace in the world, then all this celebration and fake happiness doesn't make any sense. It is just another day on the calendar, only the year has changed telling you that there is one less year in your life to make things right... One less year of your stay in this world...what is happy about that?

The tsunami that turned out to be a ripple in the pond

Pakistanis want change. They are tired of the status quo and the corruption that has permeated all levels of the society. Imran Khan's popularity shows that people want change. He is a new face and an honest guy who is enthusiastic about changing Pakistan. But somehow his immense popularity among the masses fails to translate into electoral victory. People translate their desire for change through their votes. Something weird happens when they get into the voting booth...they somehow press the "repeat" button in the voting booth instead of the "change" button! Is the voting booth some magical place where you enter and reality is altered or is it simply that we don't understand what change is?
I think we want change but we want others to change we want others to bring the change for us. We forget that change starts with ourselves; it can't be imposed upon you. We all dream, but don't want to take an actual step in the right direction to make that dream come true. We go in the voting booth and forget what issues the country is facing and who is best equipped to fix them instead we remember our tribal, ethnic, regional allegiances...we vote in self interest, not in the interest of the country.
 This doesn't bode well for Imran Khan or change. Constituency politics are alive and thriving, as seen by the recent by election results in Pakistan, where all the old faces were voted back into power in Punjab. The Bhuttos and the Sharif brothers will never be dethroned in their consituencies. Ameer Muqam no matter what party he joins will always win elections in his constituency, the Sherpaos, the Hotis and the Saifullahs will always win in their constituency.
 As long as regional, ethnic and tribal loyalties take priority over loyalty to the country there is no hope of change. Because of this, things don't look too good for Imran Khan as the face of change in Pakistan. People have high expectations from him but he can't perform miracles. Even he realized the limitations of our traditional electoral system and knew he couldn't win the elections without the help of old school career politicians who are always voted in by their people. He had to play ball. So he compromised his principals and added some old faces to his party, old horses with the new brand of PTI on them. He did this out of desperation to perform well in the elections. These sell out opportunistic politicians who go to the higest bidder jumped on Imran Khan's smooth sailing PTI ship. They went on (supposedly) the winning side...they thought they will be swept into power with Imran Khan's much hyped Tsunami. But then when someone came with a higher bid to win them back they jumped the PTI ship. They probably smelled trouble and just like rats, jumped the ship before the storm hit PTI. And now the much hyped Tsunami is starting to look more and more like a ripple in the pond. 
Revolutions don't come and change doesn't come just because someone says so. I think the problem with Imran Khan is that his most urgent and firm stand is the drone attacks to the exclusion of everything else. People of Pakistan have more urgent needs and a more severe situation staring them in the eyes: no jobs, no electricity, no water, high fuel and food prices and no sense of security or justice.
 The problem of home grown terrorism, the Balochistan issue, and he sees drones as the most important issue to highlight in his campaign? What about his main platform that he had started the party for....Justice? Why not follow up on that? Because justice is what this country needs badly. Just because the Chief Justice has been reinstated, justice hasn't been served. The whole judicial system needs an overhaul. People should be provided swift justice and no one should be above the law; that will solve a lot of Pakistan's problems. A little accountability goes a long way. As long as people feel above the law and as long as justice can be bought, no matter how many laws you put on the books and no matter how many revolutions you start nothing will change. We don't need any new kind of government or revolution and we wouldn’t need any interim government if there was accountability.
  The same old politicians, bureaucrats, judges and other leaders will have to do their job honestly if they know that they will be held accountable for their actions. People can keep voting in their family, tribesmen and bradri people but then those people will have to work honestly for fear of accountability. That is one way to bring about the change we are all dreaming of and hoping for. Provide justice for all and things will slowly start falling into place. And people will be forced to change.