Killing our own Targets

The recent target killings in Karachi caused a spur and a big one at that too. What was surprising once more was that only a day after the wave everything was back to normal people acted as though it never happened. I mean lets look at scenario, Universities were closed down in respective areas, also markets and jobs, quite allot of activity was stopped due to this madness of sorts. Yet people resumed life as though its something normal.

Now you can look at this in two lights; one Karachi as a city has become extremely resilient and is sending a message to extremists groups that "screw you!! you are not going to bring us down" and if thats the case then hats off to the city and its denizens for being who they are and showing the world whats what. But like I said earlier there are two ways of looking at this, the other being that we have become desensitized to such acts of violence that we remain indifferent and brush the "dirt" of our shoulders. If that is the case then I sincerely think that we have literally lost the fight. 

Think about it; people die, and the only reaction that can be mustered is a casual "oh it happened, really?, oh well". It was not long ago that as a younger lot we use to feel a tinge of sadness at even the passing of a complete stranger thinking how hard it must be for the family of the said individual, even if it was an expected death by natural causes. 

Now let me put that very same reasoning onto the recent wave of target killings; last I checked 20 or so people were killed, that means 20 families including wives and children have lost a special individual in their lives. My condolences go out to them. 

Yet also I hear this utterly obscene excuse of an argument for self-justification of said desensitization "well they probably deserved it". My Reply "WHO died and made you judge". Seriously the courts exist for a reason and no matter how many acts (sinful or otherwise) the person may have committed, his life is not in your hands or anyone else's. Now some might argue that our courts are unreliable hence such violent forms of political killings can be justified. Well if you don't like the local legal system their are bodies who deal with this sort of stuff on an international level. Now people will say all sorts of things to provide an excuse as to why not go to said bodies but at the end of the day they are "excuses".

In Conclusion (I am still wondering how offtrack I just went), our society does not lack capability to act against such crimes but rather does not want to anymore (quite sad really) citing that it has done all it can quite a defeatist argument if you ask me. In reality we have killed our own targets, those targets being are ambitions, goals and aspirations. Nowadays everyone settles down into the usual routine work, home, tv, sleep and back to work with the occasional night out for dinner and feign some form of contentment towards it. And whats worst of all if anyone dares to make the "SINFUL" mistake of actually trying to be someone and making a difference, society tries with all its might to bring that person "back" into a supposed state of normalcy. 

I think what we as individuals should focus on is breaking these taboos and actually dare to dream, to try and be better than what we expect from ourselves. Always breaking barriers and constantly improving, for at the end of it all, we always will have allot to learn.

Something to mull over

“The greatest blasphemy of all is a child going hungry, a child condemned to the slow death of starvation. The miscarriage of justice is blasphemy. Misgovernment is blasphemy. An unconscionable gap between rich and poor is blasphemy. Denial of treatment to the sick, denial of education to the child, are alike examples of blasphemy.” – Mr Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan (Muhammad Mahboob vs The State (PLD 2002 Lahore 587))


I hope this rings some bells for Pakistanis..... 

Facebook : The Reminder

It recently struck a chord, the Facebook dilemma that is. It seems not so long ago that I was double minded on the entire issue arguing Religious sentimentality over economic and social logic and vice versa. Then I saw news of further pages such as the one that got Facebook banned in first place popping up, all claiming that "we do this to show Islamic extremists we are not scared" and "we honor the spirit of the first amendment" - such as the case for Americans - This, and here I emphasis the expression, changed my views altogether. Though I consider myself a more modern Pakistani and mind you let us not associate the term modern with overly secular values, I pray and I fast and devoutly believe in Islam and its message to be peaceful and to show compassion for people, even though they might be riding on your last nerve. But my message to anyone, honestly enough is enough (and this I say to both sides east and west), I mean sure most westerners have adopted this very nice vision of Muslims as a negative force in society (though I still sincerely believe that most still think better of us as a community), and also believe in the right of freedom of speech and/or expression either way you look at it, but that does not provide an excuse for charging the sentimentality and feeling of a community who have no association with extremist militancy. Let us look at this from the cartoonists perspective they might think and happily assume they are acting for a greater cause considering the environment of the world today; honestly I can't blame them, we have to look at our own failings as a people of the world. Most of us even the so called "modern elite" have never countered the west with proper dialog leaving it mostly to the illiterate masses to sort the issue out by the only way they know how. Which would be a show of force; violent rallies and the ilk. This behavior is broad casted in the media so aggressively it resembles a hypodermic syringe being used on the world and the syringe contains a supposed "representation" of us as we are. We as a society live in parallel dimensions so to say mostly resembling a Marxist's rant regarding economic and social disparity between two extremes of social classes this is according to media messages. Yet the western world has truly yet to see the middle class of all this, the Muslims who go out and earn a living, inculcate positive values into their offspring, practice tolerance and wouldn't mind in fact enjoy sharing a intellectual conversation with people of other faiths. The world in which we exist today has become a social war zone where people are being targeted because of their faith, and it comes as no surprise that we are an easy target for our reactions tend to only make matters worse. It was only a recently a Friend said that "Facebook was the best place for such a thing to happen" I was intrigued and asked how and his reply "Facebook is an international forum on which we the educated lot of Muslims exert dominance, it is through that forum we can argue and show who we really are on an extremely large scale, it would provide the perfect medium through which we can make a difference". That reply showed me perfectly the two sides of the whole controversy. The Facebook ban can be justified and I still agree to certain facts but then let us see the other end of the spectrum is it not about time we forgo emotionally charged sentimentality and think logically we cannot keep having bedroom discussions and think we are doing are part or burning tires for some, we have to start looking at situations in a new light and show the world how are Way of Life not religion really is. The solution I pose is a simple one let us change our way of thinking, our motto should be "Feel, Think and Act" not "Feel and go for the kill".