Everyday people die in the Motherland. Not from natural causes, but because they commit suicides; or they are killed because they dared to be Sunnis in Shiite areas and vice versa. Every day, even more people die because they are weak and feeble with hunger; too tired to get up and beg for money to provide for themselves in the unbearable heat. Their shame is dead
.
People also die because they dared to be honest and truthful; hardworking and caring. Because they are humiliated for doing an honest day’s work; because their bosses expected them to find an easy way out. People are hunted, brutalized and threatened with police torture if they are unable to pay loans of a mere Rs. 13,000. Their shame has also gone south. Meanwhile the punk ass rockstars ruling over us like Julius Caesar take billions in loans and then wash their dirty linen in public to make it white again. In all the process, THEIR loans are forgiven and they are allowed to spend the stash on vacation in Florence. They never had any shame.
Our shame, has also taken a hit. It is mortifying to note that even I do not have enough shame to be ashamed. Of almost anything. I am not ashamed when people are killed and maimed in blasts; I am not ashamed when senior citizens are pushed around and made to wait in queues all day long; my shame doesn’t bother me when I see people ogling at some accident site on the hapless victims who are waiting for some angel to come to their rescue; my shame also does not take a dip when I see poor street kids being beaten up for “laughing too loudly” outside someone’s house. Shameful and yet, none of us is really ashamed.
They all go outside to demonstrate, hell they’re so shameless they even yell it in the National Assembly in front of all the citizens of the Motherland, the slogans of “Shame, Shame” and yet, none of them has any shame. If they did, we wouldn’t have legislators being called to court to explain where they got their degrees from. We wouldn’t have leeches like Fauzia Wahab saying “no one in Pakistan is poor enough to sleep hungry at night”. If they had any shame they would’ve listened to the people; if they had any shame they would’ve become pinnacles of modern democracy. If all of us had any shame, we would’ve hung our heads in sorrow and grief for the victims of all this confusion.
When will we awaken from this slumber and be sorry for ourselves? When will start to take in reality? When will all this confusion go away?
We are indeed unique. The shameless cogs of a shameless nation.
But there is hope. There always is.
