A nation of watchers?

In response to Mr. Ayaz Amir’s beautiful column in Dawn on Nov. 30th – http://www.dawn.com/weekly/ayaz/ayaz.htm, I wrote him the following letter.

————————————-

Dear Mr. Amir,

I just read your column in Dawn.  It is a most beautifully written reflective account of what a military dictator promises and then fails to deliver and leaves in ruins through the turbulent history of our beloved Pakistan.

Sir, when would this cycle end!  This was after 40 years that people of Pakistan showed some resistance against a dictator, last time was when they forced Ayub to quit.  Yet this time just like every other time, all signs are that we as a nation will revert back to our cynical resignation.  Is it a failure of our politicians that we as the people of Pakistan are always forced to choose between evils and whenever we do it’s always a military dictator who gets our disinterested nod.  Coups, emergencies, martial laws, rigged elections, the leaders we elect being thrown out or assassinated, we accept calamities as the norm in our country.  If our generals fail to learn from the destructive legacies of their predecessors and the utter futility of even their sincere intentions, our nation doesn’t do much better.  Our wounds never heal yet we fail to learn from them.  As our next hero delivers another inevitable blow, we wince with unbearable pain and are forced to look at our amputated bleeding body.  The pain turns to anger but the anger remains just that, a mere feeling, it doesn’t turn to rage.

There are four types of people in the world – people who make things happen, people to whom things happen, people who watch things happen and people who don’t know things are happening.  We are certainly not the last kind.  We are a nation of watchers.

We must set a different precedence this time for this cycle to end but I doubt we will.

with utmost respect and admiration,

your biggest fan,

Khurram Mahmood
A Pakistani Software Professional and a passionate member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Walnut Creek, California

 

Jo Naqsh-e-Kohan Tum Ko Nazar Aye, Mita Do

 

Spanish royal sex cartoon banned

Spanish royal sex cartoon banned I find this utterly confusing, after the Danish cartoon incident we were told that offending people was a fundamental right of every individual in a free society and this right must be protected by the state, those who complain loudly when they are offended are actually bigots and extremists not yet enlightened by the modern ideals of democracy and freedom of expression. A free society, we were told, is where individuals can say or write whatever they want with impunity.

Here we are witnessing a court banning a cartoon depicting the Spanish Royal couple having sex.  There is also a possible jail term for the individuals involved. I find this action of the court not only duplicitous but highly offensive as it deprives me of another one of the fundamental rights in a free society, the right to have some fun at the cost of somebody else.