Lone ranger syndrome - Masood Hasan
The sight of Punjabs chief minister spraying insecticide on the deadly dengue mosquitoes which have taken over Lahore and other cities, as only well trained commandos can, has left me with mixed feelings.
It is good to see the provinces top man taking to the streets and going to the very heart of the problem, leading by example, as it were. But it is not by a long shot the correct approach and neither is it going to change the situation, now or in the future. What is palpably wrong with this approach is that it sends no message to the hordes of slothful and indifferent bureaucrats and other sundry professionals who neither work nor are ever going to work. Leading from the front may work in societies where some system, some infrastructure exists and some sense of duty prevails. We have nothing like that. If the CM thinks that it will shame and embarrass the officials into much-awaited action, I am afraid he is in for a long wait.
The question is, why does the CM, of all people, have to do this? It is quite possible that his public-image-builders think it is the best thing to do under the fever-laden skies of Lahore particularly. But had the photo-op featured hundreds of fumigators at work and the CM lending a helping hand, it might have been different. As always, our solution to a problem, which is basically one of system failure, is to go the route of the Lone Ranger, and go down guns blazing.
Why has this city, the provincial capital of Pakistans most prosperous and populous urban sprawl, been subjected to this deadly virus which has killed hundreds, laid off thousands and brought the civil administration to its knees? A frequent visitor to the Civil Secretariat says that all other work is at a standstill, the babus knee deep in proposals, some outlandish, some plain stupid, on how this latest gift is to be handled. Experts from Sri Lanka are to arrive or are they already here? What, pray, will they teach us which we do not know? The dengue is not a rogue mutant from an evil galaxy light years away which now seeks new colonisation and has chosen Lahore for its attack.
The root cause of dengue is known to all, including me and I am not from Sri Lanka. The issue is that Lahore is ****** and polluted and ranks amongst the most polluted cities in the world, and that our people are dirty by nature. The areas where the killer mosquitoes reside are known to all the permanent sites and the ones that spring up every time it rains. But while sanitation is better now than it ever was, a lot remains to be done, and given the attitude that prevails here, people supposed to work to keep the city shipshape simply dont. When things get out of control all hell breaks loose, but those who should be punished and made examples of get off without so much as a teeny-weeny bite. If people have been fired for neglect of duty, I might have missed the news, but so far I havent met anyone who has heard of such a thing.
Lahore should not be the focus of all the things that happen. But what, for instance, prevents this citys planners from eliminating the two rivers of black sewage that run right across the citys most populated areas and the various drains, like the famous one in Shadman where even passing it in a car with windows rolled up, is an obnoxious experience?
Last evening I saw, right next to it, the faithful lined up in the area mosque where most sermons are directed to stir up hate or spread mischief all washed up bowing to the Almighty. I doubt that the mosques frequent visitors have ever so much as staged a walk to pressure the authorities. Gulberg V, where the very rich live, has this awful drain but it flourishes year after year. I doubt water lilies are sprouting there and not mosquitoes. The Samnabad river is unbelievably ****** and it has a shade of black that at least I have seen nowhere. Why cant we do away with it? Can we ask the Sri Lankans who seem to be the new flavour of the month?
When you think of people without power, and therefore water, without law and order, without a hope in hell of getting a job and without even the semblance of prices ever going down or things getting slightly better, the dengue onslaught is just the last straw thats broken this fractured donkeys back again. They are cutting deals the shameless along with the other shameless in Islamabad our pride and joy, cricketers. A Pakistan captain, no less, is in a criminal court in England.
But Mr Gilanis government, finally having coughed up a few billion to pay those caught in the vicious circular debt and restoring some power to the people, has the gall to issue obscenely large paid-for-by-us advertisements congratulating themselves on this terrific achievement. What is this? Good governance or a terminal cancer? As for the leaders of the nation, whatever they do is not going to work the forces are far too strong, the current of the raging river far too vicious for us to survive and the odds hugely stacked against us. We have made a right royal mess of everything. The civil structure sucks big-time.
The self-appointed and self-applauding paragons of discipline and order, the armed forces, are just as bad. Its only the blinding glinting light from their polished brass that prevents anyone from seeing what is going on. With self-serving bogeys erected everywhere, shadowy figures that skulk about undermining the state, the boys are having a ball defending the countrys ideology which is fine and dandy, except that we have no ideology other than to cheat, deceive, lie and stab.
Some months back, Ms Sanam Bhutto wrote a tearful piece about how her heart bled seeing the pathetic condition of her beloved Larkana. But when some of us asked her what had she and her family had done (other than build opulent mausoleums) for the uplift of the wretched Sindhis of Larkana, which her family owns anyway, the lady maintained a frosty silence and then went to Sydney to deliver an impassioned speech on human rights and her book.
Thus, the sight of the president wading in the floodwaters of Sindh hasnt exactly reduced me to tears and a lifelong allegiance to his acquired clan. His wading will do no good, and neither will the huge action committees that are the norm, where 45 men and women with 45 microphones gaggle on till the cows come home about what should be done. The Russians have a saying: A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
And, lastly, thank you Punjab for finally felling the trees along the canal, soon to be replaced by concrete and smoke-belching, fuel-guzzling ramshackle vehicles and the hissing limos of the rulers. This will improve traffic, no? A monkey from Nathiagali would have given a better solution than that provided by the experts, but who is going to invite him? We have successfully changed the climate of Islamabad, I hear the mountains of concrete have killed the mountains of green and rain which fell heavily in the Potohar region has now evaporated. But, hey, we have plazas, dont we?
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist. Email: masoodhasan66@gmail.com
The sight of Punjabs chief minister spraying insecticide on the deadly dengue mosquitoes which have taken over Lahore and other cities, as only well trained commandos can, has left me with mixed feelings.
It is good to see the provinces top man taking to the streets and going to the very heart of the problem, leading by example, as it were. But it is not by a long shot the correct approach and neither is it going to change the situation, now or in the future. What is palpably wrong with this approach is that it sends no message to the hordes of slothful and indifferent bureaucrats and other sundry professionals who neither work nor are ever going to work. Leading from the front may work in societies where some system, some infrastructure exists and some sense of duty prevails. We have nothing like that. If the CM thinks that it will shame and embarrass the officials into much-awaited action, I am afraid he is in for a long wait.
The question is, why does the CM, of all people, have to do this? It is quite possible that his public-image-builders think it is the best thing to do under the fever-laden skies of Lahore particularly. But had the photo-op featured hundreds of fumigators at work and the CM lending a helping hand, it might have been different. As always, our solution to a problem, which is basically one of system failure, is to go the route of the Lone Ranger, and go down guns blazing.
Why has this city, the provincial capital of Pakistans most prosperous and populous urban sprawl, been subjected to this deadly virus which has killed hundreds, laid off thousands and brought the civil administration to its knees? A frequent visitor to the Civil Secretariat says that all other work is at a standstill, the babus knee deep in proposals, some outlandish, some plain stupid, on how this latest gift is to be handled. Experts from Sri Lanka are to arrive or are they already here? What, pray, will they teach us which we do not know? The dengue is not a rogue mutant from an evil galaxy light years away which now seeks new colonisation and has chosen Lahore for its attack.
The root cause of dengue is known to all, including me and I am not from Sri Lanka. The issue is that Lahore is ****** and polluted and ranks amongst the most polluted cities in the world, and that our people are dirty by nature. The areas where the killer mosquitoes reside are known to all the permanent sites and the ones that spring up every time it rains. But while sanitation is better now than it ever was, a lot remains to be done, and given the attitude that prevails here, people supposed to work to keep the city shipshape simply dont. When things get out of control all hell breaks loose, but those who should be punished and made examples of get off without so much as a teeny-weeny bite. If people have been fired for neglect of duty, I might have missed the news, but so far I havent met anyone who has heard of such a thing.
Lahore should not be the focus of all the things that happen. But what, for instance, prevents this citys planners from eliminating the two rivers of black sewage that run right across the citys most populated areas and the various drains, like the famous one in Shadman where even passing it in a car with windows rolled up, is an obnoxious experience?
Last evening I saw, right next to it, the faithful lined up in the area mosque where most sermons are directed to stir up hate or spread mischief all washed up bowing to the Almighty. I doubt that the mosques frequent visitors have ever so much as staged a walk to pressure the authorities. Gulberg V, where the very rich live, has this awful drain but it flourishes year after year. I doubt water lilies are sprouting there and not mosquitoes. The Samnabad river is unbelievably ****** and it has a shade of black that at least I have seen nowhere. Why cant we do away with it? Can we ask the Sri Lankans who seem to be the new flavour of the month?
When you think of people without power, and therefore water, without law and order, without a hope in hell of getting a job and without even the semblance of prices ever going down or things getting slightly better, the dengue onslaught is just the last straw thats broken this fractured donkeys back again. They are cutting deals the shameless along with the other shameless in Islamabad our pride and joy, cricketers. A Pakistan captain, no less, is in a criminal court in England.
But Mr Gilanis government, finally having coughed up a few billion to pay those caught in the vicious circular debt and restoring some power to the people, has the gall to issue obscenely large paid-for-by-us advertisements congratulating themselves on this terrific achievement. What is this? Good governance or a terminal cancer? As for the leaders of the nation, whatever they do is not going to work the forces are far too strong, the current of the raging river far too vicious for us to survive and the odds hugely stacked against us. We have made a right royal mess of everything. The civil structure sucks big-time.
The self-appointed and self-applauding paragons of discipline and order, the armed forces, are just as bad. Its only the blinding glinting light from their polished brass that prevents anyone from seeing what is going on. With self-serving bogeys erected everywhere, shadowy figures that skulk about undermining the state, the boys are having a ball defending the countrys ideology which is fine and dandy, except that we have no ideology other than to cheat, deceive, lie and stab.
Some months back, Ms Sanam Bhutto wrote a tearful piece about how her heart bled seeing the pathetic condition of her beloved Larkana. But when some of us asked her what had she and her family had done (other than build opulent mausoleums) for the uplift of the wretched Sindhis of Larkana, which her family owns anyway, the lady maintained a frosty silence and then went to Sydney to deliver an impassioned speech on human rights and her book.
Thus, the sight of the president wading in the floodwaters of Sindh hasnt exactly reduced me to tears and a lifelong allegiance to his acquired clan. His wading will do no good, and neither will the huge action committees that are the norm, where 45 men and women with 45 microphones gaggle on till the cows come home about what should be done. The Russians have a saying: A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
And, lastly, thank you Punjab for finally felling the trees along the canal, soon to be replaced by concrete and smoke-belching, fuel-guzzling ramshackle vehicles and the hissing limos of the rulers. This will improve traffic, no? A monkey from Nathiagali would have given a better solution than that provided by the experts, but who is going to invite him? We have successfully changed the climate of Islamabad, I hear the mountains of concrete have killed the mountains of green and rain which fell heavily in the Potohar region has now evaporated. But, hey, we have plazas, dont we?
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist. Email: masoodhasan66@gmail.com
