Tunnel Vision

The world has become a Global village. It is more interconnected then ever, thanks to internet, social media and telecommunications revolution. 

More and more students travel abroad for higher education and specialized training in their fields. We interface with more people from different religious, social and cultural backgrounds. What happens in one part of the world has repercussions in the rest of the world too. 

Keeping that Multicultural and Multiethnic and interconnected World in view, look at what KPK Govt is doing to the school's curriculum . They are reverting it back to the older version (2002) and taking any references to other religions or cultures out of the text books. They are  removing chapters about Raja Dahir, Ranjit Singh and any symbolism or symbols of religions other then Islam. 

People of other religions live in Pakistan even if it is a Muslim majority country and they are also Pakistani citizens. Do they have any rights in Pakistan? People of religions other then Islam inhabit the globe. Shouldn't our children be aware and educated about those religions and cultures as well, considering that we live in a global village?

Instead of looking forward and moving forward we are reverting back to an older curriculum on the behest of Jamat e Islami. Why does JI being a minority in the Provincial Government get to impose it's will and agenda on the majority? Since it's inception the JI has been trying to bring about an "Islamic Revolution' and their version of "Islami hakoumat."  In order to do that they need to cultivate a certain mind set among the supple minded youth of Pakistan and for that they have always been trying to dictate what needs to be taught in the school. Even now they are taking advantage of the precarious position of PTI Govt which needs JI to stay in power and are railroading their agenda through. 

Previous provincial Govt of ANP tried to bring the schools' s curriculum up to date and tried to get rid of the Jihadi propaganda  from the school books that was incorporated in 2002 to create a mindset in the youth...to be more accepting of the Militaristic Jihadi ideology promoted during those days and to have a crop of willing partners and indoctrinated kids as fodder for the Jihadi movement. 

Pakistan is still harvesting the crop of that poisonous ideology of sectarianism, violence in the name of religion, intolernce and bigotry. Recent incident of murder of a young Christian couple by a bigoted closed minded racist mob is an example of what happens when you preach intolerance and don't teach tolerance and co existence. When you teach them only one way and that their way is the right way and everyone and everything else is wrong, you are creating "US" and the "OTHER". You are drawing lines and divisions...You are painting a black and white picture of the world, when that is not so...there are shades of grey.  

When we make omissions in history we are not giving them a complete and honest picture of the facts...then we are cheating our kids and we are lying to them, we are teaching them lies. People learn lessons from history but when the history is distorted then we don't get to learn any real lessons from history and that is why we end up making mistakes. In todays world our children need to have a multifaceted broad based education. They need to be educated about the rest of the world's cultures, history and religion. We need children and youth having the ability of critical thinking. And we need strong human beings that are able to make good choices. If we don't give them options how will they learn to make choices and life is all about making the right choices. When we restrict their education we are limiting their horizon and their ability to think.

Our culture cultivates obedience. We never encourage our children to ask questions. We order them and accept them to obey. We are afraid of them thinking for themselves as they might challenge the authority. ( That might be parents, teachers or a Mullah) 

We are afraid to learn about other faiths and cultures for fear that it might affect our faith. We feel that if we teach the kids all inclusive history they will rebel against their culture and their religion...but strong people are the ones who when offered choices are still able to make the right choice. Strong faith is when there is sin all around you and yet you refuse to sin. Faith is when you are surrounded by people of other faiths yet you still stick to your own. 

If we want to have good educated citizens we need to give them the skills of critical thinking. And critical thinking comes with the ability to critique and that comes with choices. When we just teach them one thing to the exclusion of everything else we are handicapping our kids.  We give them TUNNEL vision not BROAD HORIZONS.

 We want them to see and understand only one thing, our ideology and our way of thinking. That is indoctrination, not an education. These kids will struggle to understand the real world. They are ill equipped and handicapped to deal with a multicultural, multiethnic world with diversity of political and religious thought. It is better to expose our children to multiculturalism while they are studying in schools. That way when they face the real world they know how to navigate that world and be able to better engage with the rest of the world.  We need to equip them to be successful engaged global citizens by educating them about other cultures, religions and world history. 

 We can't build walls around us and live in isolation in this ever inter connected world even if we wanted to.

Selective, narrow education not broad based all inclusive education will produce narrow minded bigoted people. 

A smart nation is an educated nation. We need critical thinkers not followers who are good at rote and nothing else. Our education system is producing pen pushing clerks not visionaries. No wonder there is dearth of good leadership in Pakistan. 

We fear that ability to think might lead to challenging of status quo, undermining authority and change... some people can't have that.  They want followers who obey orders of Imam and Amir, not ones who question. But by doing so they are cutting their own roots and handicapping themselves because in the end there will be no leaders or visionaries or thinkers coming out of this narrow minded limited propaganda that we call an education. That is not good for anyone and not good for the country. We need a progressive all inclusive syllabus. 

We spoon feed our youth, we don't let them think for themselves and when faced with choices in real life they involute or get confused and go astray. They look for help from an elder, a leader, a hero or a master. They wait to be led, they don't know how to problem solve and they don't know how to take their destiny in their own hands. They don't know how to take initiative because we didn't give them that ability...we made them obedient followers not leaders.

Do we want to produce leaders or followers, do we want to produce visionaries or pen pushing clerks? The choice is ours and it all depends on how we educate our kids.  Our children need broad horizons not tunnel vision.

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.