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Is Pakistan in denial about tackling its problems?

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Is Pakistan in denial about tackling its problems?


The aftermath of the devastating monsoon floods continues

By Aleem Maqbool
BBC News, Pakistan

The aftermath of the great monsoon floods is still a major problem facing Pakistan which is also suffering from regular suicide bomb attacks by Taliban militants. But as Aleem Maqbool reports, there seems to be little determination and will to tackle the country's problems head on.
In Mianwali, in Punjab, by the banks of the River Indus, we surveyed the impact of the floods with a local businessman and landowner.
All around, we could see the devastation caused to his farms, and the effect that would have on hundreds of labourers.
I asked him whether he believed money had in the past been embezzled instead of going into flood prevention projects, as many have suggested. And who, generally, he blamed for the lack of preparedness.
His response was surprising.

Many flood victims have been neglected
"You know, we've never had so much water come down the Kabul River (from Afghanistan) and flow into the Indus?" he said. "Strange, isn't it?"
I took a moment to digest the question, then asked if he was trying to suggest Afghanistan or America had something to do with the floods.
He paused for a moment.
"India," he said, without a hint of irony.

Slightly taken aback by what this educated and erudite man was saying, I suggested that there had been the highest rainfall ever recorded in Pakistan, and surely that could not have been caused by India.
He scoffed: "Don't you know they have the technology to create artificial clouds and send them across the border?"
I decided to leave the discussion at that.
Blame culture

But in Pakistan, there does seem to be a bogeyman for every one of its multitude of crises.
That often, of course, diverts attention from the underlying problems and serves to shield those with true responsibility.

It may... be that the ruling elite here do not really think things are all that bad
Take the huge cricket scandal this year in which Pakistani players were accused of cheating in return for large sums of money.
Initially, there was shock and a sense of shame, but very soon Pakistani politicians and diplomats were accusing the British press, and, yes, the Indians, of a conspiracy to destroy Pakistani cricket.

This week Pakistan's cricket board may have been pushed into announcing a new code of conduct for its players, but no one here really believes that much will change.
The board's chairman - who was accused of not providing enough security when the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by gunmen here last year, who was in charge during a disastrous tour of Australia when rumours of cheating resurfaced, and who is seen by many around the world as having handled the latest crisis badly - remains comfortably in charge.
President Asif Ali Zardari even sent him a note of congratulations this week, following the news that at least one match was found to be free from cheating.
The West, Zionists, and the international media, all often prove handy bogeymen, but so too does President Zardari himself.
It seems the focus of hatred and blame does not have to be foreign.
Crisis after crisis
In over a year of living and working in Pakistan, a country I have a lot of affection for, I have not been able to escape a sense that this is a state, in many ways, in denial of just how big the issues are that it is facing.


Perhaps people have decided there is simply nothing they can do to change things, and so it might be better just to pretend everything is fine
Look at suicide bombings. In the last couple of years, hundreds upon hundreds of civilians have been killed in these attacks.
I remember meeting 14-year-old Adnan in Peshawar, a couple of days after nine members of his family, including his parents and all his siblings, were killed in a bombing in a packed market place.
I remember visiting the site itself, with bits of flesh still clinging to the masonry.
But Adnan is unlikely ever to get a comprehensive inquest.
The bombing which killed his family and well over 100 others, was out of the newspapers in a matter of days.
On most occasions, the innocent victims are reduced to little more than a body count.
It has been the same pattern - attack after attack, crisis after crisis.

Huge potential

In the last few weeks, we have travelled the country and witnessed scores of people fighting over scraps of aid following the floods.
Whole families sick through the lack of clean drinking water, and thousands and thousands of homeless people with no means of earning a living.
But astoundingly, all this barely registers with Pakistan's 24-hour news channels and newspapers any more.
Instead, for much of the last fortnight, the media here has been focussing on a highly technical battle between the government and the judiciary. A sophisticated - and some would say manufactured - crisis, when people's much more basic needs require urgent attention.
Perhaps people have decided there is simply nothing they can do to change things, and so it might be better just to pretend everything is fine.
But it may also be that the ruling elite here, from the political class, the army, and the powerful intelligence agencies, do not really think things are all that bad in any case - for them, at least.
There is such huge potential in Pakistan with its enterprising people, its rich swathes of arable land and its beautiful northern resorts.
But if the adage that "recovery starts with an acknowledgement of the problem" is true
, then many will be worried for Pakistan, because there are plenty of serious problems here - but there seems to be very little appetite for really confronting them.


BBC News - Is Pakistan in denial about tackling its problems?
 
He scoffed: "Don't you know they have the technology to create artificial clouds and send them across the border?"
I decided to leave the discussion at that.

There are a few basket cases in all countries, we have a significant number here so you can expect some people to express such views.

Similarly I would like to state the they might have interviewed many people for this article but this particular statement makes for a more interesting read, that is why it was probably included. Journalism isn't effective if it does not contain an odd statement or two.

But you never know, India might have a weapon called ' HAARP ka ****''.

**** standing for Bharats Atmosphere Alteration of Pakistan.
 
I will like to generalize it a little bit, we tend to believe a lot on destiny, conspiracy etc and very little on our own hardwork and skill. That seems to be root of the problem and it is culturally like that in SE Asia.
 
In the last few weeks, we have travelled the country and witnessed scores of people fighting over scraps of aid following the floods.
Whole families sick through the lack of clean drinking water, and thousands and thousands of homeless people with no means of earning a living.
But astoundingly, all this barely registers with Pakistan's 24-hour news channels and newspapers any more.
Instead, for much of the last fortnight, the media here has been focussing on a highly technical battle between the government and the judiciary. A sophisticated - and some would say manufactured - crisis, when people's much more basic needs require urgent attention.
Perhaps people have decided there is simply nothing they can do to change things, and so it might be better just to pretend everything is fine.

While the article does not bring anything new as far as a foreign audience like me is concerned, the author barely touches a very important piece of information that he needed to emphasize more on. The Pakistani media, as the author rightly put it is least bothered about some important events that have taken place. While one may agree terror attacks are extremely hard to pin point and thus prevent, the regularity at which they have occurred in Pakistan and lack of news on any such preparedness is astounding. The media of all agencies should be the first to pick up on a city's preparedness. Take for example India, the Mumbai attacks carried scores of articles on how badly equipped the police forces were or how the intelligence agencies had over looked security loop holes. There are scores of other reports, for example a Bomb Blast that occurred in Bangalore but fortunately killed nobody is still making news as the local media tries to find out answers.
Even the investigation carried out after the blasts in Pak get no news presence at all. I have to admit I read The Dawn occasionally but still any searches in this regard yields very few results.

At the end of the day the police may be doing their bit but accountability usually exposed by media is severely lacking, same goes with countless other issues as well.

In some other cases, media by hosting anti -Indian figures and reports only try and get viewership and not introspect in matters that are important to Pakistan.
 
Is Pakistan in denial?

It doesn't matter. For the world is fast moving ahead. If Pakistan did not mend its ways and that too quickly, then once this WoT is over, Pakistan will lose whatever significance it has today by virtue of being a front-line state in the WoT.
 
I will like to generalize it a little bit, we tend to believe a lot on destiny, conspiracy etc and very little on our own hardwork and skill. That seems to be root of the problem and it is culturally like that in SE Asia.

I would like add one more point is we worship out politicians.
Whenever our politicians goes out, there are people who die to touch their feet or to take their blessing or some thing like that. They kill others on name of these politicians and they trust their words.Even media take advantage of these mentality a lot.
You will never see something like these in western world.
Common man never thinks why he is following some one? what is reason? Is it worth following him? For example still there are people who consider Lalu Prasad Yadav as their "mai ****" (parents/mentor), they will run behind his car on road wait for him for hours in afternoon. They will never think that what they got after doing this. May be some goodies on day of election thats all and some speeches which make less sense than dialogs in B- grade Bollywood film.

Unless and until common man will not open their mind we all will gonna remain into denial mode.
 
Forgive me but i seem to be able to draw a strong parallel here . between the India of the 70 and Pakistan , I remember when any problems occurred it was blamed on a foreign hand , I guess with the advent of the 24/7 media in mid 90 this perception changed as people started to question , I think Pakistan need to do the same .
 
it is really annoying to see bunch of Indians poking their nose around without peeking their own collar. Even today by global index Indians are much more poorer, desperate and destitute which is reflected in the attitude of every Indian who seeks economic refugee in the gulf at 1/3 wage. Indians have become synonymous with desperation willing to do anything and everything in middle east. And communal politics so bad they will pull each other leg for few benefits.

India's economic policies

In 1947, the average annual income in India was US$439, compared with US$619 for China, US$770 for South Korea, and US$936 for Taiwan. By 1999, the numbers were US$1,818; US$3,259; US$13,317; and US$15,720.[27] (numbers are in 1990 international Maddison dollars) In other words, the average income in India was not much different from South Korea in 1947, but South Korea became a developed country by 2000s. At the same time, India was left as one of the world's poorer countries.

Since its independence, the issue of poverty within India has remained a prevalent concern. As of 2010, more than 37% of India’s population of 1.35 billion still lives below the poverty line. More than 22% of the entire rural population and 15% of the urban population of India exists in this difficult physical and financial predicament.
Poverty in India | Economy Watch

Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India.

India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.
*

More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected.
 
i for one will agree with this article......
here is one example -every other day some nut case blows up a mosque in pakistan(and i believe there was one recently) .and there was no protests againt such an act.....
but i did see a protest in pakistan when a judgement was handed down in India regarding Ayodhya when Indians showed the world some maturity in dealing with things(actually i was a kind of happy for the kind of mature response shown by hindus and muslims of India),

i mean pakistan has so many ills at home but they do not care about it or i would say they dont even care if the govt does anything to prevent acts like those that grip pakistan today...but they start giving a voice to stuff that is not related to them in anyway,,,,,am not saying that there is no problem in india...we do have our share but we make sure the govt acts/does something to solve them

hope people wake up and do something that would make their govt actually perform and do not give into "blame India game that they are playing" .

if you still wanna blame india for it...i have just one question "what have you done about it ? since your nation is blaming everything on india what have you done about it?
India does blame pakistan for just one thing - terrorism and what has india come up with? we have beefed up security , we have brought proof that the world accepts(of course which you cant see.but even china does not come to your aid when you refute the as false).but what have you done?
 
Most of the ills of Pakistan like talibans and bla are operated by forigen hand unlike india where much of the ills are not only indigenous but have spilled over or exported to neighboring countries as well.

Ills in our country will be cured the day foreign hand in amputated. The ills in Indian society are likely to grow at the pace of their wealth. infact we are at threat of having those ills spilling over. The hindu anti-Pakistan extremism sported in India is directly connected to rise of Talibans and madrassa extremists against India.

Fix your home before blaming others!
 
Most of the ills of Pakistan like talibans and bla are operated by forigen hand unlike india where much of the ills are not only indigenous but have spilled over or exported to neighboring countries as well.

Ills in our country will be cured the day foreign hand in amputated. The ills in Indian society are likely to grow at the pace of their wealth. infact we are at threat of having those ills spilling over. The hindu anti-Pakistan extremism sported in India is directly connected to rise of Talibans and madrassa extremists against India.

Fix your home before blaming others!

My dear chaps have you read the title of the thread? Kind of applies to your post here. We accept we have a problem with naxals , by god’s grace problems in the northeast are almost over. Militancy is down in Kashmir from just 10 yrs ago , i know i was posted in Jammu then , but we have reached this point by acknowledging the fact and working towards it . Case in point after 26/11 we strengthened security and the intelligence apparatus. We knew it was you guys we said so in the world forums but we took measures’ to ensure it does not happen so easily again.

The Hindu anti-Pakistan extremism ,
I can confidently say after living 35 yrs in India there will be a handful of those Looney’s , most people want a better tomorrow a brighter future for their kids . hence we concentrate on education , basic health care , nutrition and money. Pakistan does not figure in our daily dose of problems to look at , while the government does its job we as individuals look towards ourselves to move forward and prosper . if you want to be strong don’t focus on what your enemy does , chart your own course .
 

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