The reply is off topic so you can highlight to read - nothing I haven’t said before
Why? What has my country of origin really given me? I repeat these ad nauseum because these are the less damaging stories I can state - others involve key leadership including former PMs and Presidents whom I personally witnessed in either compromising positions or using their positions for personal wealth. Maybe if I didn’t have this much serendipitous exposure I wouldn’t be this acerbic about Pakistan but then Allah plans out all our lives
Education? Useless - my country’s education system said I would amount to nothing.
Today I am respected and known by C-suite execs and make enough to put my finger on any possession or experience that is beyond any halal and many haram earning Pakistanis.
Religion? What I got I got from my parents who had good teachers. The mullah who tried to teach me beat kids for the heck of it so I got him fired and his replacement was more interested in talking about sex to a 6 year old. Forget becoming a Hafiz I learnt that the purpose of a good muslim was Allah is anaouzubillah a sadist and the purpose of a muslim should be enjoying themselves. No different than any catholic priest abusing children except they are called out while doing the same in Pakistan gets you killed.
I actually learned more about religion much later in life from someone who was a banker in his normal career - not anyone that resembles anyone in the Islamic ideology council.
Social values? When I went for my driver’s license a maulana came out wet from wuzu and asked me for $1000 to get it done otherwise there will be “delays”. As I got over my shell shock and sadly resigned to the system he preferred that I put it in his shirt pocket direct because he was in wudu.
My University teacher for Islamic studies while talking about no superiority between Arab and Ajam then went on a tirade about Mohajir being Khabees qaum and some Punjabis being daal khor hijras.
My younger brother was put into a Madressa for Hifz and only came out learning about hoors having transparent skin and kids being sodomized. They wouldn’t dare touch him in this premier madressa with the schools leader a prominent “scholar” even today but made no qualms about sexually abusing other kids.
Military values? I am from a military family with a Pak number in single digits with no less than 10 senior officers in the family cousin group with 2 3 stars, an AVM and an Admiral. None of them wanted me to stay in Pakistan.
Met people and companies in Pakistan R&D who sold TRASH to military and sensitive org folks who bought the said Trash because money was exchanged under.
My first foray into business found me in front of a serving colonel and my partner to which the colonel asked “Fatima ka Bhai”(the sadness of which never leaves me) for his bribe which he put into his fridge as a picture of Quaid e Azam and Pakistan & Army flags were on his desk with pictures of him being decorated by 3 stars.
And then there is PDF right here - the multiplication of extremist and racist filth here has only reinforced my beliefs that Pakistan is a terminal cancer patient kept alive on IMF, Saudi or Chinese steroid injections and those will disappear eventually. The people don’t want change that has them actually work - breaking a streetlight shouting “ Ya muhammad!” Is fun and exhilarating, killing a daughter for honor because she refused to be sold to a personal financial gain is acceptable and being liberal automatically requires you to shed clothes or hate the military and just constantly parrot “establishment this, establishment that”. This isn’t a bunch of people lacking good leadership, they lack a moral and ethnical compass completely. I don’t have to relate to it and behave this way.
Doesn’t the United States(or many other first world countries) have similar issues?
Yes and in much more sinister and sophisticated ways via mass media and otherwise. Corruption in plain sight within the system, racism embedded and so on.
But the one difference I found was that at some point and somewhere people get caught and even as a foul system there are enough running checks and balances that have just the right amount of impact to make the idea of justice real. Right now that system is also losing its shine but also making gains in other places. But most importantly, I can be an honest person here without having to ever having to resort to bribery, nepotism or cheating to succeed here even if that chance is 1/200.
The same in Pakistan is the same odds as winning the lottery 1/1000000 and frankly I don’t gamble with mine or my family’s life.
So when I talk of my veterans in the United States I respect the profession. Whether they were sent to conflict for the right and wrong reasons - and the accusations of abuse notwithstanding they fought to defend this land and the people living in it. Many of them actually come from Pakistan and other muslim countries as well as being natives. As for behavior of killing millions of muslims, if we did an actual body count of muslims vs muslims compared to other folks I would be surprised if the former isn’t more. After all, operation searchlight has stories of Pakistan Army officers shooting Bengalis while making them climb trees for sport - legal testimony available to that as well and for the 92 operations and even recently in FATA. Troops are troops and the caliber of officers varies across all forces in the world. That doesn’t mean you don’t love or value the Pakistani military and its people.
Much like in personal life you don’t choose family but can choose your friends(and thankfully life companion) so I didn’t choose Pakistan but had to live with it but I don’t have to live with it anymore.
And the number that now think like me and want out of Pakistan is much much more than the people who will undoubtedly be cussing at me and saying good riddance. The feeling is mutual.
