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| India-Pakistan |
| Game over |
| 2009-04-02 |
| By Omar A Khan Maybe it's finally time to face the reality staring us from the wall – the experiment has failed and the Quaid's dream is a distant and rapidly receding memory. Everything that could have gone wrong in a nation's sixty-year history has indeed gone horribly wrong. Looking back over the years, there are few glories but a growing string of calamities. A few sporting glories here and there briefly managed to camouflage a system built on the most rotten of foundations: corruption. But it couldn't last. With no illusions to either being a political analyst, this writer can only offer what can be termed as an honest layman's point of view. The way it appears to these untrained eyes is that this nation has been ruled by a coterie of the privileged few since its inception in 1947. The poverty stricken populace is represented by a perpetually toothless parliament by people who are among the wealthiest in the land, having been born into families that own tracts of land that stretch as far as the eye can see. This is a country where a Seven Star monstrosity is being erected at the cost of billions for the rich and famous to congregate and sip their imported lattes while 90 percent of the people struggle to find clean water to make a cup of tea. There would be joy among the masses if the Taliban ripped down this obscene tower of wealth and symbol of social injustice. Maybe it is time to welcome the Taliban with open arms because in actuality it is a movement driven and fuelled by extreme depravation, injustice and poverty, rather than any religious scriptures. The Taliban would be far more representative of 90 percent of the masses than almost all of the people occupying seats in our National Assembly today or any other year of our miserable history. If the Taliban sweep to power -- as they are destined to, unless there is a dramatic, impossible reversal in the way wealth, resources and justice are shared in this country -- the only person to suffer would be you and I: "The Haves." We, seven percent of the population who read English-language newspapers and watch English-language TV stations and watch pirated Hollywood movies and have a "liberal" outlook that is western-leaning in orientation, would find our lifestyles stifled. How would the common man's lot be any worse than it already is under our successive civilian or military governments? The Taliban will one day come to power because those who "have" in this country have never given an inch to those who have nothing. On the one hand, we have in our Parliament individuals representing the poverty stricken masses who can hardly count how many acres of land they own. On the other, there are those who toil night and day to put together a square meal because they haven't an inch of land they can call their own. The feudal landowning classes are the ones who have by their 60 years of avarice invited the Taliban in, and hopefully when the Taliban do arrive, the first thing they do is redistribute land and wealth based on people's talent and hard work, rather than the fortune of being born a landowning parasite. The second set of parasites have been the military and the corrupt bureaucracy who time and again have tasted and been seduced by fruits of power and have slowly but surely attempted to turn the state into a perfect example of modern fascism. Then there is the denial syndrome and the conspiracy-theory syndrome, which leave us living in a delusional, detached world several steps removed from reality. Each time we stumble, it's always because of a "hidden hand," or those who want to "tarnish the image of Pakistan," but it can never, ever be of our own making. Anyway, let's keep things simple: the Taliban are not interested in wasting their time tarnishing anything, what they want is to rule of Pakistan, a goal they have stated in no uncertain terms. But the current favourite explanation for any of the countless atrocities we are surrounded by is that "the terrorists could not possibly have been Pakistanis, because no Muslim would kill his own people." History would beg to differ, as more Muslims have been slaughtered by fellow Muslims than by those nasty "infidels," and continue to be slaughtered. From what could be made out through our TV networks, none of the attackers of the Sri Lankan team were Japanese or Canadians, or Nepalese Hindus carrying Norwegian SIM cards, or indeed Martians. They were, each single one of them, men born into the Muslim faith. The sole terrorist captured at the slaughter at the Police Academy likewise uttered only three words as he was captured "I am Muslim," and even then we have experts and anchors claiming "no Muslim or Pakistani can be involved in terrorism." Which must mean that the Taliban are made up of non-Muslims pretending to be Muslims? Is that what the official line of denial is? Let's also face it: the Indians would be deranged if they, with their "hidden hand," are encouraging a Taliban revolution in Pakistan, because with 100-million-plus disaffected Muslims there, it would hardly take long for the flames of Taliban terror to start firing in India as well once they have dealt with Pakistan, seemingly some time fairly soon. The Americans, despite their best intentions, remain completely and woefully off-target in so many respects. First up, the entire neutral and Muslim world judges them to a large extent upon their actions in respect to the Middle East problem and the matter of Palestine. If only the Americans would even pretend to make the odd token meaningless vote once every ten years censuring Israel for its catalogue of brutalities against human rights and the Geneva Convention it would help pacify millions of inflamed passions. Alas, the Americans are never seen to be attempting even a façade of justice when it comes to the Palestinian issue, and each additional Israeli aggression inflames and arouses passions, adding thousands to the Taliban's recruitment drive. Then there is the small matter of their constantly supporting the wrong side. Alas, throughout history, the Americans have almost always ended up supporting Third World leaders who end up turning on their own peoples. Countless corrupt generals have been propped up by US governments in the short-sighted effort to secure their own goals, whether it was to contain communism or obtain markets, or both. The party line is the noble cause of spreading "freedom and democracy." But, certainly, nothing in this world comes without strings attached, and American-backed democracy usually comes with economic dependence and servitude contained in the small print. Why don't we see the American ambassador ever opening schools for the poor or opening hospitals for the masses of Pakistan? Why don't they even attempt to win hearts by occasionally siding with the people of Pakistan rather than with our blood-sucking leaders? Surely, they realise that the billions that are pumped into the country in the name of the "War on Terror" are just a way for a parasitic elite to feast on the spoils while the masses continue to rot. Most have already started shipping their enormous wealth abroad to safety in their plush apartments in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona and Dubai. The paintings, the carpets, the jewels, suits and gowns have already reached safely and it's a matter of time before the exodus of the elite that occurred in Iran in 1979 is re-enacted here in Pakistan. The question is: will it be weeks, months or a year or two? Unless there is an immediate turnaround in the manner in which wealth, opportunity and justice are distributed in this country, Pakistan is doomed and most certainly the Quaid's Pakistan will, alas! never come to pass. Sixty years of greed and corruption have finally cooked the goose and thus: Game over. The writer is a filmmaker and entrepreneur |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #14 same old story. The rich rape the poor and a revolution is born. Funny thing is that there is a solution out there to this problem. It is a brilliant, God given plan for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It worked well for about 200 years until the "liberals" and "progressives" decided to trash the whole system, just for kicks. It's slightly different here in the US. The rich get greedy and force the middle class to work and then throw the fruits of their labor to the poor. What the rich always seem to forget is that, when all is said and done, they are grossly outnumbered. |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-04-02 23:21 |
| #13 Omar doesn't admit that Islam itself has kept Pakistan down but he does at least admit that the terrorists of Pakistan are muslim. He doesn't acknowledge the terror and discrimination against Hindus that have reduced their numbers from about 15-20% of pakistan (actually w pakistan) at partition to less than 2% today. |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-04-02 17:02 |
| #12 Sounds like a tough situation. Suggest you consider mass converting to Buddhism. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-04-02 15:15 |
| #11 Why don't we see the American ambassador ever opening schools for the poor or opening hospitals for the masses of Pakistan? Maybe because the Taliban considers truly educating and treating girls and women equally unIslamic and the Americqn taxpayers would abhor the idea of funding the madrassas? |
| Posted by: Danielle 2009-04-02 14:39 |
| #10 I can't think of anything else from there. They make low end bagpipes. |
| Posted by: Tarzan Glusoter9161 2009-04-02 13:37 |
| #9 The writer is a filmmaker and entrepreneur Why was fool left off? |
| Posted by: NCMike 2009-04-02 13:04 |
| #8 Didn't they invent the first PC virus, the Brain. I can't think of anything else from there. |
| Posted by: Galactic Coordinator Omavising9607 2009-04-02 12:47 |
| #7 Pakistan is a sovereign nation. The US can't simply go in there and build schools. We have to work through the Paki government too. Hence so many of our problems in Afghanistan. But be careful when you start arguing that things can't possible get worse -- they always can. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-04-02 12:46 |
| #6 Pakistan votes for change. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2009-04-02 10:11 |
| #5 Geneva Conventions? I was unaware that the "nation of Palestine" was a signatory. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2009-04-02 09:14 |
| #4 People that stupid deserve to perish under a taliban regime. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles the flatulent 2009-04-02 08:56 |
| #3 How would the common man's lot be any worse than it already is? One way to find out - let the taliban take over. Of course, then it's too late. |
| Posted by: Spot 2009-04-02 08:40 |
| #2 Why don't we see the American ambassador ever opening schools for the poor or opening hospitals for the masses of Pakistan? Why don't they even attempt to win hearts by occasionally siding with the people of Pakistan rather than with our blood-sucking leaders? Cause the leaders are smart enough not to declare war against the United States and lose? [The Germans, Japanese, and now the Iraqis have learned that trick in getting the American ambassador opening schools for the poor or opening hospitals for the masses. The leaders of Vietnam and North Korea didn't learn that one, settling for a antebellum status.] |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-04-02 08:38 |
| #1 Why don't we see the American ambassador ever opening schools for the poor or opening hospitals for the masses of Pakistan? Why don't they even attempt to win hearts by occasionally siding with the people of Pakistan rather than with our blood-sucking leaders? Maybe its because you are a completely ignorant, zealous, piece of shit country that has contributed nothing to the world at large except the most extreme terrorism and stone age intelligence. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-04-02 08:13 |