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.

IDPs with Pakistani IDs ( Homeless within the homeland )

IDPs are the people with Pakistani ID cards...Pakistani citizens not allowed the freedom of movement in their own country.
If there is no freedom of movement within your own country and you are told to stay within your own province then we are 4 separate states living within one common boundary.
If this is being done for security reasons then it is the same as saying that all the people from KPK are terrorists and terrorist activities are only limited to KPK.
Yes, there are Taliban in the tribal areas but all tribals are not Taliban and not all Taliban are Pashtuns.
Was Lal Masjid in KPK? It was in the State Capital Islamabad.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested in Rawalpindi.
Ramzi Yusuf was arrested in Islamabad.
Omar Saeed Sheikh was arrested from Lahore.
Ramzi binalshibh arrested in Karachi.
OBL was killed in Abbottabad a Garrison town because of the tip given to USA by an Afridi Pashtun doctor.
Mullah Baradar captured in Karachi.
Saeedul Islam ( Punjabi TTP deputy chief ) arrested in Karachi
So you see all terrorist activities are not limited to KPK and all terrorists don"t live there. Some do but not all. We all know of different factions of Taliban and TTP. They are known to everyone and everyone knows that the Taliban are not restricted to KPK only.
Here is a point to ponder, if Pashtuns were all Taliban and Taliban sympathizers then they wouldn't be the ones being targeted by the Taliban. KPK would be spared.
But KPK and it's people have taken the brunt of Taliban attacks. Their leaders murdered, their schools destroyed, their security shattered, their Masajids not safe anymore, economy destroyed. Why would a friend do that to a friend?
If Pashtuns were all terrorists none would be sitting in IDP camps waiting for the army to clear their areas of the presence of Taliban so that they can return to their homes and businesses which they have lost for now along with their dignity... waiting for some Govt handout to feed themselves and their families, when once they lived in their own homes and ran their own businesses and their kids went to school. They might not have been rich but they didn't beg for anyone's help. They were content in their homes and their lands living with honor. Even that has been taken from them.
If Taliban were their kith and kin then all these people would be happy that their kith and kin are ruling them. They would not be homeless in their own country. Refugees in their own homes.

When you draw distinctions and set up boundaries limiting freedom of movement then you are the one dividing the country...the one drawing the lines...making the distinction that we are not all one but divided. We are Pashtuns, Punjabis, Sindhi and Baluch and we are all Pakistanis as long as we stay in our own home territory  and are not welcome anywhere else in the country. My home is not your home. You stay in your home and i will stay in mine. You are not welcome anymore. 

Two Hats

.

Wearing two hats..
Each one for each country that I am in.

Each one for the two people that I am.
Two people living in one.
Shifting accents, language, demeanor, gait and dress code with each hat.

Like a shape shifter...shifting shapes.

Shifting personality and attire with each shift in landscape and continent.
One way in one and another way in another.
Shifting from jeans and t-shirt to shalwar kameez and chaddar.
Changing my perpetual smile in USA to a sober look in Pakistan
Two cultures, one me.

Part of both...both a part of me.

Two in one.

  

Malign Malala

You (Malala haters) see her as a disgrace to the country. I see her as a pride of the country.
 We have this weird way of looking at things. Har aik cheez ko hum apni izzat aur anna ka masla bana laitay hain. Hide the truth and keep covering up the rot for the sake of appearances. Malala makes us look bad..she tells the world that we shoot girls going to schools. But it is not "we"( Pakistanis)  or do we consider the Taliban as "we"? The only people that Malala makes look bad are the Taliban. So it makes sense that the Taliban supporters and sympathizers have been making all sorts of accusations against her and trying to tarnish her image because she makes their heroes look bad, The TALIBAN. It all makes sense. 

We hide abuse in our culture to maintain a certain image. It's a matter of appearances and honour, no one cares about the reality. "Khandan ki izzat kharab ho gee." "Naak kat jaye gee!"
Women are told to endure abusive husbands and bad marriages for the sake of family image. We hide crimes like rape, incest and sexual abuse.
We have an image to maintain, so we lie and hide the rot of the society. That is what gets us in trouble...when the stink gets unbearable.
Facts are facts and by not talking about them the problem doesn't go away...it gets worse.
" All is well" attitude, when nothing is well, is what stops us from progressing.
If we keep lying to ourselves for the sake of appearances then the problem stays...it festers and it gets worse. How can we fix anything if we fail to admit that a problem even exists?
Covering up a tumor under pretty clothes doesn't make it go away...without admitting that there is a tumor and without proper treatment it will spread and kill the patient in the end.

Malala was threatened and shot, girl's schools were blown up, even boy's schools were blown up and that is a fact.
People complain about her being the darling or even an agent of the West and they are unhappy about her address at the UN. She in her speech at UN didn't say that our country Pakistan is bad or Islam our religion is bad.
She is a Pakistani who is showing to the world that Pakistani girls care about their education and will go to any lengths to get one. That is a pretty positive image for our country.
The only people that look bad because of her message are the" Taliban"... ones who attacked her, destroyed schools, attack our security forces, attack our law enforcement personnel, blow masajid and kill innocents in their supposed war against the West... the Taliban.
I wonder if Malala haters care more about the "tarnished" image of the Taliban/ Zaliman than the victims of Taliban? Is she bringing a bad name to their heroes?
One person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist. Your heroes (Taliban) are my terrorists and i don't care about the negative image her existence brings to the Taliban. I am glad someone has the guts to speak the truth and she is doing it.

People call her a fake and a product that her father helped create or groom.
She is a victim and a product of her circumstances...she or her father didn't manufacture a heroine.
Those who criticize her father, this what i have to say to them; Father's job is to mentor his children...and her father did his job well. He helped groom Malala into a thoughtful, confident and courageous girl.  

What is wrong with Malala promoting Girls education?
Education is an Islamic cause not a liberal cause.

Liberals didn't put a bullet in her head to make her a heroine...Taliban did.

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.

That is when people come out in the streets.

         
When do people come out in the streets? When people have nothing left to lose and they have even lost all hope, is the day the people come out on the streets. Then only anger remains and they want to correct all the injustices done to them. Sub ko uss din say darna chaheyae.(Everyone should be afraid of that day).
 I hope that the anger is channeled sensibly and does not lead to further chaos and breakdown of the society. The poor man has been squeezed enough in Pakistan; middle class has been squeezed into lower middle class and lower middle class into poverty. The rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer. It is such a paradox...the very rich people of a poor country. The people are rich and the country is poor? I wonder how so?  The rich and influential will have to watch their backs, the people are coming. The day they can't even buy bread, like it happened in Egypt, revolution will come.
But in our country the situation is very confusing, the people are confused. It is a total "khichri" of things. Too many actors and too many players are confusing the picture on the ground for the ordinary people. Manufactured revolutions being thrown at the people as if they are the real deal. The pseudo revolution manufactured by the establishment itself, using faith as the salable goods, against the political system (democracy) in which thousands have already lost lives. Misguided and misfiring for the reason that it is not a true movement of the people by the people themselves but because they are being used as pawns in the bigger games of thrones. The pawns think they are their own masters...forgetting that they are just pawns in chess masters hands.
There are plots and subplots in the unfolding drama in Pakistan.  The rich and influential are fleecing the country and see nothing wrong with it. This is the land of might is right and the day the poor rise and become the mighty and snatch their rights from the few Rich and powerful will be the day Pakistan truly becomes "Pak"istan. It is "na" Pakistan right now. Pakistan is the Precious Pretty bride over which all the suitors are fighting without asking the poor bride what she wants. The parents of the bride making the wrong decisions for her...let the bride speak please.

I Protest!

I protest the anti Muslim Movie that was meant to provoke Muslims. I protest!
 I also protest the way we the Muslims protested in response to this movie. I protest!

The provocateur provoked and we responded. We responded in a fashion that they wanted us to respond in...violently and senselessly destroying our own property and killing our own people to express our rage and by doing so we fell into their trap. They want to portray us and our faith as violent and by our reaction we reaffirmed that.

The movie maker has succeeded in defaming our religion...not with his movie but by the Muslims reaction to the movie all over the world. Mission accomplished!

Muslims violent reaction to the provocation has put Muslims on the defensive again in the World. Here we are on the airwaves explaining to the world that our faith is not violent and synonymous with terrorism but a religion of Peace. But actions speak louder than words...

The violent vocal minority has become the identity of Islam. They are loud armed and organized. The silent majority has to start making noise and get loud so as to drown the voices of the violent minority.

Here are a few things that i think were fueling these protest...
1- People are angry about a lot of things and this movie gave them an excuse to take out their anger and frustrations... burning and destroying their own country's property and killing their own people to vent their anger over a lot of other things.

2- There is a huge Outrage Industry in the Muslim world. And the leaders of these Muslim countries know how to manipulate it. It's a cynical manipulation of the people. Divert attention from what is wrong at home and in their own countries to outwards. America is an easy bogeyman. Let them chant down with America, they take their rage and frustrations of all that is bothering them on America and the movie, so they don't look inwards and ask questions about what is actually wrong in the Muslim world. Keep the people distracted so they don't see what is actually wrong with their countries and ask for answers there.

3- Also in the wake of Arab spring different groups are vying for power and might be using this outrage to garner support for their cause or their group. Islamism was waning in the Islamic world but this will help reinvigorate that movement too.
Pakistani Govt announced a holiday so people could protest...they did it just to gain cheap popularity with the masses and divert attention from the leadership that is highly unpopular these days.


4- It wasn't just people protesting the anti Muslim movie...there were criminals in the guise of protesters too who used this as an excuse to loot and plunder as well. Attacking banks and businesses, killing anyone who got in the way of looting and then running away with the stolen goods. How Islamic is that?


The hypocrisy is that we demand that people of other faith respect our faith yet we don't give their faiths the same respect. The minorities don't feel safe in our country. We burned down their Church because we want them to respect our faith...we don't respect their houses of worship but we want them to pass legislation to defend our faith?

When will we think with our heads and not our hearts? When will we learn that destroying your own property to protest something that happened abroad is not the way to go. It doesn't even make sense. Burn down your own house because the people in the other house made you angry?

Innocent Pakistanis were killed, Pakistani property was destroyed, some Pakistani has lost their source of income, some Pakistani family is grieving the loss of a loved one...how is that avenging disrespect to our Holy  Prophet (PBUH). Would our Prophet (PBUH) be pleased with his Ummah's actions?
I ask these protesters how much they follow Prophet (PBUH) in their day to day lives? If they truly followed Him they wouldn't be acting in this manner.

The guy who made this anti Muslim movie and the people who were part of violent protests collaborated to make this a Calamity.

I believe in Protest, Protest but Protest Intelligently.
Peace!

Imran Khan... a Post Processed, Photo shopped, Manufactured Hero.

I am writing this with apologies to my freinds who are staunch Imran Khan supporters and there are quite a few of them, as his rising popularity shows. But before you all blow a fuse and come after me with a knife, please read what i have to say...it is for your own good and i hope somehow the message gets to Imran Khan as well, as it is for his own good too.

Some over enthusiusiatic supporters have been recently replacing Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's face in Photographs with Imran Khan's face. One or two such pics might have been considered  good humoured fun, but now it is reaching to the point of ridiculousness! 

How ungrateful a nation can we be...that we are all OK with replacing our Founding Father's face with a newbee politician who has yet to prove himself as a great leader...who hasn't even been elected to office yet and who has yet to show his achievements. How can we be fine with that as a nation?

I am a great fan of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and i personally find it offensive. And i feel by doing so we are insulting our founding father. How can we as a nation do that? Have we stooped to such a low now that we have forgotten our real heroes ...without whose efforts, there wouldn't even be a Pakistan, a place we could call a home for the Muslims of the Sub-Continent?

Apart form that, my dear Imran Khan supporters, it gives the impression of propaganda.You are trying too hard.

It is like you guys are trying to send Subliminal messages to the public, but it isn't even subliminal, it is so overt. It is childish!

It gives the impression that you are trying to manufacture an image for Imran Khan. It gives credence to the idea that he is a manufactured Hero/candidate. It perpetuates the myth.

I admit that he is very popular among the masses but popularity alone doesn't translate into success or heroism. Yes he has done great things with his hospital and he won the Cricket World Cup and he is a very honest guy but that automatically doesn't translate into a hero of such a calibre that he could replace Jinnah. If that is the criteria then we should be putting Abdus Saattar Edhi's photo in place of Jinnah's photo as well...he has done a lot of good for the people of Pakistan too and much more than Imran Khan...if i may say so.

He has to deliver and actually do something tangible for the country before we declare him a hero and start comparing him to JInnah. 

This is the first time in history that i have seen someone become a hero before he has actually done anything. All this leads to the speculation that someone and some people are trying too hard to make him into a hero.

Let him be...let him get elected first....and prove himself... let him implement some policies that will change the course of the country and once that happens he will be my Hero as well... But like i said...Populism doesn't equal Heroism.

The perfect example is Barack Obama...he was going to change the world...people loved him and he was very popular but his popularity didn't translate into action.

And even if Imran Khan can change the course of our nation, he still can't replace Jinnah... no one can take the place of Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Mohammad Ali Jinnah is Mohammad Ali Jinnah! 

I know our nation is in need of a real Hero and we the people want a Hero real bad...so bad that we are willing to manufacture one in our heads just to feel good. For a people needing real change this doesn't bode well