We breed as rabbits,we die like vermin
Our (mis)ruling elite has this uncommon ability to insult the intelligence of the common man. As people fell like chips (bargaining chips actually) in Karachi while the PPP, ANP and the MQM remained entangled in a deadly turf tango, we were told that criminals and a third party were responsible for the bloodbath. Journalists who insisted that the killers and arsonists were all protected by the same political outfits were immediately branded as conspiracy theorists working at the behest of the third party or the famous foreign hand. And guess what, the moment these very political parties iron out their key differences and get into bear hugs, vehicles are torched no more, mobs of masked young men get swallowed by the very narrow lanes that had spewed them, and people stop dying without knowing their killers.
Logically speaking, killings and violence should have witnessed a sharp increase, as surely the third party would not have wanted the political forces to succeed in thwarting its endeavours. But then, politics and principles are conflicting concepts in Pakistan. Clearly the third party belongs to these three very peaceful political parties. Poor, ordinary people died so that the ruling elite could continue to live out its privileged existence and play out its power games.
This isnt the first time it has happened, and it definitely wont be the last.
This callous inhuman politicking brings one fundamental question to the fore: why is human life so cheap in Pakistan? Why dont the heavens fall when hundreds are mowed down inexplicably and then forgotten shamelessly? Cruel as it may sound but the answer is shockingly simple: There are simply too many of us. Too many poor. Too many mouths to feed. Too many jobs to create. Too many illiterate children to educate. Too many sick to heal. Just too many dispensable statistics. So what if we lost over 25,000 in our War against Terror? Who cares that 17 died in a single day only because Zulfiqar Mirza didnt know what to say. Nobody broke a sweat when 300 irrelevant perished while the MQM, ANP and PPP flexed their muscles. Our mandated autocrats it would be blasphemous to call them democrats or creatures of democracy have already buried their hatchets and are planning their umpteenth reunion while the dead rot away forgotten.
Unless the runaway population problem is treated as a national crisis, nothing will work even if the government was being run by celestial beings. And that is hardly the case here anyway. Our country is broke and run by a morally bankrupt leadership. Within 36 months, an unprecedented number of federal finance secretaries, finance ministers, governors of the state bank, planning commission head honchos etc have been shuffled like a worn out deck of cards. The government continues borrowing over Rs1.28 billion every single day and spending it like crazy. Billions of rupees were blown away without lighting an additional light bulb. Corruption has already eaten away at the national innards. The executive is treating the judiciary with a disdainful contempt, but for some strange logic of saving the system from de-railing the courts are taking it lying down.
Exploitation of the poverty stricken has reached alarming proportions and the countrys urban ghettos and rural hinterlands are proving to be fertile recruiting grounds for the religious extremists and terrorists. The army top brass routinely mumbles its customary dissatisfaction with this national ailment or that and then goes back to the comfortable ways of its own exclusive world. The few and far between government actions aimed at keeping its head above the water remain precisely that: few and far between. And while all this non-action is taking place, we quietly continue breeding like rabbits, oblivious to the consequences and smug in the belief that the green grass will never run out.
For starters, the grass is almost gone as there is little margin for its replenishment here. There are so many of us that just to maintain the present level of our collective national misery for the next decade, we need to maintain an economic development rate of double digits while we are inching forward at a miserable 1.2 per cent annual growth rate. At 180 million, we are the sixth most populous country in the world and are doomed to become the fourth largest population by 2050. News flash: In a country where supposedly nobody is indulging in this despicable thing called sex, we are adding 11,500 children to our ranks every singly day. That, ladies and gentlemen (and our ruling leaders) comes to over 479 babies every hour or almost eight babies per minute. And you thought nothing much could be achieved in 60 seconds?
By 2025 alone, our projected population is expected to touch a numbing 210 million. And if you think that isnt alarming, here are a few more statistics to make your day. Already, over 40 percent of us live officially under the poverty line. This by the way comes to almost 7.2 crore abjectly poor and desperate individuals. Add to this the fact that over 65 percent of our population is under 25 with barely 16 percent being literate in the real sense of the word and the explosive impact of the simmering rage of the young and the disfranchised human bomb becomes fairly clear. Add another 30 million (were talking minimum projections here) to this boiling cauldron of social discontent over the next decade and the consequences should not be difficult to fathom.
Ever wonder why agitating mobs are getting bigger and bigger in size and turning more violent? There are simply too many, too angry at being squeezed into a suffocating socio-economic environment, and too young to fear anyone in taking down any system that does not deliver change.
Far from developing, Pakistan may also not be able to exist in its present physical form unless we make a serious commitment towards population control. We are even unable to provide resources to our present population let alone cater for the coming human waves. Whatever development plans are made by whoever are laid asunder by population explosion.
Unfortunately, both the federal and the provincial governments of the day appear criminally oblivious of this critical issue. Negligible funds, if any, have been allocated for creating awareness amongst masses about population control. The unmet need for family planning persists above 30 percent with a very high rate of abortion registering a significant urban-rural differential. Crores of Pakistanis dont have the foggiest idea how population control could change their lives for the better and even the paltry few that do realise its importance, dont know how to go about it.
Shahbaz Sharif will never have enough money to build homes for the shelterless because there are simply too many. Gilani can run from pillar to post inaugurating this project or that but it will prove nothing more than expensive photo-ops because there are simply too many of us who remain uneducated, undernourished, and now increasingly hopeless.
We have a large population, which with the right capacity building could be our biggest asset but if left untended it harbours the potential of causing an implosion from within. The lot of the existing population will only get better over the years with the pacing of the coming generation. Doing so makes social, economic, and even political sense.
Our (mis)ruling elite has this uncommon ability to insult the intelligence of the common man. As people fell like chips (bargaining chips actually) in Karachi while the PPP, ANP and the MQM remained entangled in a deadly turf tango, we were told that criminals and a third party were responsible for the bloodbath. Journalists who insisted that the killers and arsonists were all protected by the same political outfits were immediately branded as conspiracy theorists working at the behest of the third party or the famous foreign hand. And guess what, the moment these very political parties iron out their key differences and get into bear hugs, vehicles are torched no more, mobs of masked young men get swallowed by the very narrow lanes that had spewed them, and people stop dying without knowing their killers.
Logically speaking, killings and violence should have witnessed a sharp increase, as surely the third party would not have wanted the political forces to succeed in thwarting its endeavours. But then, politics and principles are conflicting concepts in Pakistan. Clearly the third party belongs to these three very peaceful political parties. Poor, ordinary people died so that the ruling elite could continue to live out its privileged existence and play out its power games.
This isnt the first time it has happened, and it definitely wont be the last.
This callous inhuman politicking brings one fundamental question to the fore: why is human life so cheap in Pakistan? Why dont the heavens fall when hundreds are mowed down inexplicably and then forgotten shamelessly? Cruel as it may sound but the answer is shockingly simple: There are simply too many of us. Too many poor. Too many mouths to feed. Too many jobs to create. Too many illiterate children to educate. Too many sick to heal. Just too many dispensable statistics. So what if we lost over 25,000 in our War against Terror? Who cares that 17 died in a single day only because Zulfiqar Mirza didnt know what to say. Nobody broke a sweat when 300 irrelevant perished while the MQM, ANP and PPP flexed their muscles. Our mandated autocrats it would be blasphemous to call them democrats or creatures of democracy have already buried their hatchets and are planning their umpteenth reunion while the dead rot away forgotten.
Unless the runaway population problem is treated as a national crisis, nothing will work even if the government was being run by celestial beings. And that is hardly the case here anyway. Our country is broke and run by a morally bankrupt leadership. Within 36 months, an unprecedented number of federal finance secretaries, finance ministers, governors of the state bank, planning commission head honchos etc have been shuffled like a worn out deck of cards. The government continues borrowing over Rs1.28 billion every single day and spending it like crazy. Billions of rupees were blown away without lighting an additional light bulb. Corruption has already eaten away at the national innards. The executive is treating the judiciary with a disdainful contempt, but for some strange logic of saving the system from de-railing the courts are taking it lying down.
Exploitation of the poverty stricken has reached alarming proportions and the countrys urban ghettos and rural hinterlands are proving to be fertile recruiting grounds for the religious extremists and terrorists. The army top brass routinely mumbles its customary dissatisfaction with this national ailment or that and then goes back to the comfortable ways of its own exclusive world. The few and far between government actions aimed at keeping its head above the water remain precisely that: few and far between. And while all this non-action is taking place, we quietly continue breeding like rabbits, oblivious to the consequences and smug in the belief that the green grass will never run out.
For starters, the grass is almost gone as there is little margin for its replenishment here. There are so many of us that just to maintain the present level of our collective national misery for the next decade, we need to maintain an economic development rate of double digits while we are inching forward at a miserable 1.2 per cent annual growth rate. At 180 million, we are the sixth most populous country in the world and are doomed to become the fourth largest population by 2050. News flash: In a country where supposedly nobody is indulging in this despicable thing called sex, we are adding 11,500 children to our ranks every singly day. That, ladies and gentlemen (and our ruling leaders) comes to over 479 babies every hour or almost eight babies per minute. And you thought nothing much could be achieved in 60 seconds?
By 2025 alone, our projected population is expected to touch a numbing 210 million. And if you think that isnt alarming, here are a few more statistics to make your day. Already, over 40 percent of us live officially under the poverty line. This by the way comes to almost 7.2 crore abjectly poor and desperate individuals. Add to this the fact that over 65 percent of our population is under 25 with barely 16 percent being literate in the real sense of the word and the explosive impact of the simmering rage of the young and the disfranchised human bomb becomes fairly clear. Add another 30 million (were talking minimum projections here) to this boiling cauldron of social discontent over the next decade and the consequences should not be difficult to fathom.
Ever wonder why agitating mobs are getting bigger and bigger in size and turning more violent? There are simply too many, too angry at being squeezed into a suffocating socio-economic environment, and too young to fear anyone in taking down any system that does not deliver change.
Far from developing, Pakistan may also not be able to exist in its present physical form unless we make a serious commitment towards population control. We are even unable to provide resources to our present population let alone cater for the coming human waves. Whatever development plans are made by whoever are laid asunder by population explosion.
Unfortunately, both the federal and the provincial governments of the day appear criminally oblivious of this critical issue. Negligible funds, if any, have been allocated for creating awareness amongst masses about population control. The unmet need for family planning persists above 30 percent with a very high rate of abortion registering a significant urban-rural differential. Crores of Pakistanis dont have the foggiest idea how population control could change their lives for the better and even the paltry few that do realise its importance, dont know how to go about it.
Shahbaz Sharif will never have enough money to build homes for the shelterless because there are simply too many. Gilani can run from pillar to post inaugurating this project or that but it will prove nothing more than expensive photo-ops because there are simply too many of us who remain uneducated, undernourished, and now increasingly hopeless.
We have a large population, which with the right capacity building could be our biggest asset but if left untended it harbours the potential of causing an implosion from within. The lot of the existing population will only get better over the years with the pacing of the coming generation. Doing so makes social, economic, and even political sense.
