Rantings.... or reality?

Ever wondered why things never improve in Pakistan and why mostly the people willing to live here or currently living here are the ones who can afford to live in a bubble, filled with expensive (owned or not) cars, army of 'servants' and high paying jobs or businesses?

The concept of willing is very important here. Willingness is not that you do not have a choice to leave the country and that is why you are willing to give your best to Pakistan, or take whatever the country has to offer you, but willingness is staying put even when you have the choice of going away.

Actually had been thinking about it from the time I came back to Pakistan, thinking of a myriad ways I may be able to make a positive difference. Gradually I came to realise, there are a million reasons why instead of improving, Pakistan has actually deteriorated over more than 60 years. Nothing ever gets solved here, not because it cannot be solved but because the so-called enlightened and willing, do not want things to change.

I have been thinking if logically it is possible for a country to nosedive at this rate, especially with the number of people who keep on saying, “I have the right ingredients, and right theories to take us to the heights… and I stay here even though I have a choice not to do so, because I want to make a difference…. ” if all those people who say these things are actually being honest, should we actually be nose diving at all?

But it is a harsh truth that we are on a downward trail, have always been going this way, although not quite enough that everything crashes to an end, at least not yet. And I feel there is a very particular reason for it.

The reason is we do not WANT to make a difference; we only want to create this illusion that we do. We have become so used to blaming the government or the ‘establishment’ for everything, that if actually things did improve we would not even know what to do

Although it is relevant to ask at this point, what is government? Is it an abstract, intangible idea? Does it come from outside, rather from within? Who is government? Some chairs and tables perhaps? I fear not. It is the same willing ones, who chose to stay here, not because they can make a difference, but because here they can AFFORD to live in that bubble. Anyway, coming back to the reasons why the willing ones would not want the difference:

The country becomes perfect, or even close to perfect and the government provides equal opportunities to everybody, health, education and employment, and puts an end to corruption.

• Who will now be our meagrely paid maids, drivers, gardeners, nannies, cooks or tailors? The stress is on meagrely paid. For that is what will happen once everyone has equal opportunities, it would become expensive to afford such luxuries. It would become impossible to exploit labour.
• How will we mint money by asking for donations for our own private NGO? People would have education and employment both, what would then be the need for establishing NGOs, therefore the system stays bad, the NGOs and the foreign qualified or even local elite school qualified brats mint money.
• Why would the labourers and workers revere us for our rights slogans? If opportunities are equal, the reason to ask for more would stop to exist. So, anybody with their socialist or communist jargon would have to pack their bags and leave behind their dreams of being the messiah.
• What would be the advantage of living in Pakistan when one cannot actually get all kinds of things done with a little bit of money? We would not be able to get a driving licence, get away from killing a person while drunk driving, get degrees without studying, use electricity without a bill, basically getting away with anything by paying a bit of cash.
• Would anybody actually think us as (highly?) intelligent or (well?) informed? (Mostly intelligent and well informed conversations are constituents of some Pakistan bashing, bemoaning the brain-drain, corruption, mass poverty…. Oh but am living here cause I can afford having a maid in this country, which isn’t possible abroad with even a $90k per annum).

Here one, who is intelligent and informed, can sound very intelligent and well-informed because there is less competition. Moreover, one can talk about revolutions and over-hauling the system to bring about a positive change in the lives of the workers/labourers. But does anybody bother to ask how much these people pay their own 'servants' or 'maids'..?.. or even if they should be having such helps....

It is a safe haven for the rich, well paid; so-called secularists along with the stick wielding mullahs.

But here I must say one thing. At least the stick wielding mullahs are less of the hypocrites, for they do not profess of revolutionary Utopian ideals. They belong to the group that had slaves and still have, although sort of refined now. So they are not being hypocrites. They are just being themselves living here.