August 24, 2010

Gunning for Doom

I've grown up hearing that there is always good and bad in men. They exist side by side. There is always a potential of doing good when someone is doing evil, and there is always a potential of doing evil if someone is doing good. But you know what scares me? If those two brothers were actually robbers and murderers, I wouldn't have really cared much about what the mob did to them.

The seemingly frightening prospect of my humanity having gone south is a reality, true for most of us. Some of us deny it, others accept it. Maybe it is because of all the harshness and coldness, and all the beastliness and terrorism and injustice and what not, that has numbed our senses into accepting anything and everything. Our ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, and our ability to care is slowly but surely disappearing. Our humanity is dying. I know mine is.

I have never been able to assimilate the brutality that I have seen in my life. I have never really stomached the unfairness. I still remember that little boy of 10 years, standing at Daewoo Station in Sahiwal with a huge box slung over his weak tiny shoulders asking anyone who would care:
صاحب مین آپ کے جوتے پولش کر دوں؟ (May I polish your shoes sir?)
Seeing him there made me weak-kneed. But how many of those little boys are there in this country? What are we giving to them, what are we teaching them?

We have never taught our children to love this country. We have taught them to love themselves, their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We have taught them there are different social classes in this country and only the right class gets to have fun in this country. We have taken away everything from the people and left them with God to count on for sustenance.

The thing called national character is negligible amongst us. We are a bunch of shoddy hypocrites, liars, traitors and betrayers. Our sense of right and wrong is skewed to the hilt.

Just today for instance, I went to get my fee deposited in my university. You would imagine, children of a university that is considered elitist in the echelons of society would have some sense of making a line; but no, you would be wrong. It was a fish market. People were coming out of nowhere, and breaking the line and joining it randomly, and had no regard or respect for who was standing in the line before them. It just got me thinking: if this youth which is the future of Pakistan cannot respect the right of a person standing for hours in a queue before them, how can we expect them to care for anyone other than themselves in this country?

And that aptly describes our predicament. We are selfish. We might not have been, but we most certainly are now. Everything has to be about us, and us only. We tend to forget that there are other human beings who deserve the same rights that we do.

Some of you might think that what I'm saying is all cliched, but think about it. If you think the talk of demanding that the person sitting next to you be given his or her rights, the same that you demand for yourself, is a cliche, then something is seriously wrong with you and you need to sort it out.

On the national front, DG Rescue 1122 has come out on all cylinders blazing and has said that none of his men were involved in beating Mughees and Muneeb, and that instead, his men kept them in safe custody for 3-4 hours. He further went on to state that both the boys told the Rescue workers that they belonged to different localities. What he couldn't tell was why the video showed one Rescue 1122 worker tying up the elder brother with rope, and then beating his life out of him. Shame on you Dr. Rizwan Naseer for having stooped to the level of horse shit that is plenty in this country. Eight days after their deaths, when the heat turned up on the role of Rescue 1122 in the whole saga, you suddenly decided to have a report made to be presented to the media and the masses.

Only God will deliver justice in this country. No one else. Altaf Hussain meanwhile has indirectly called for Martial Law to be implemented. As much as I despise and loathe the current bunch of hooligans and loafers who rule over us, I certainly would not want the army to take charge because that will torpedo all progress that has been made in this country; which is negligible but still. If the masses that is YOU, still cannot fathom why this country has never progressed and might never after such political statements from "democratic" heads of "democratic" parties, then may God help you.

There is so much more to say but as always I have run out of words to say and write. May God have His mercy on all of us. Amen.