Actions that Redeem or Destroy a Nation - II
By Mohammad A Chaudhry
Pittsburg, CA
“Princes and governments are by far more dangerous than other elements within a society” Machiavelli (1469-1527)
According to Mr. Najam Sethi in the last seven years about 30,000 people have lost their lives in 3,000 terrorist attacks, which included 236 drone attacks. About 27,000 innocent people got killed in the suicidal or bomb attacks, and some 3,000 in the drone attacks. Much is, however, made of those who unfortunately lost their lives in the drone attacks, but hardly any politician ever talks about the unfortunate 27,000 whom these butchers killed in broad daylight in all the cities of Pakistan. Politicians have discovered that America- ashing is the best way to win the public applaud. Of the 117 drone attacks that occurred in the year 2010, 104 occurred alone in the North Waziristan, and North Waziristan is a hub of Al-Queda.
The most criminal part played by the politicians and perhaps by the agencies has been that they chose playing with fire as a healthy pastime. This lack of resolve never let the people unite against the terrorists. There are matters that should never be dealt with lightly, and terrorism is one of them. It happened in Pakistan only that the murderers of the leading ruling party become instant heroes because the party had been too busy in fostering a spirit of “Reconciliation” among the politicians, or was busy in "wiping out” the blot on the name of the founder of the party. Little do they realize that it is in his name that they are ruling now.
America in the Civil War lost about 625,000 lives but learned the following four lessons: the States learned to stay together and never ever to think of secession; they learned to operate fairly independently within the defined lines, respecting the Federal laws and its agencies; they learned not to accuse each other and to remain shy of talking about it; they learned that Americans will never have to define themselves by a clan or a tribe or a religion.
As has been put beautifully by David Von Drehle, ‘We (Americans) are people who order a coke from Atlanta and some New England clam chowder at a dinner in Los Angeles… the Civil War gave us, to an unmatched degree, the nation we became - including all the good stuff. Had secession succeeded, it’s unlikely that there could have been a stable, tranquil coexistence between an independent North and South. Slaves would have continued running away. The riches of the West would have been just as enticing. There never would have been the sort of roisterous hodgepodge of wide-open energy that America became. Secession was about making more borders. At best, Americanism is about tearing them down…”. “With malice toward none, with charity for all”, these words of Abraham Lincoln became the panacea.
The politicians in Pakistan who are visualizing to be “the kings”, in the provinces that want to carve out of the body of Pakistan, should not forget that the trains still would be passing through these provinces; and the roads and canals too. Who would stop these powerful landlords from not putting toll-chains at every “border” of the newly created provinces?The interests of one province would still clash with that of the other. It is not in the division that the solution lies; it lies in amity and in understanding and in sharing, in establishing the best institutions in provinces like Baluchistan and Sindh and Pukhtunkhwa and in the exchange of students as it is happening here in America. Good fences do not always make good neighbors.
CASE NUMBER TWO: Pakistan experienced the worst kind of floods in the year 2010. According to the Human Rights Commission “twenty million people were affected. They are living here and there. And no one is talking about it. :Large number of women are affected, large number of children are affected and nobody care about them”. So said Mr. I. A. Rahman, the Secretary General of the Commission. The “Tut-punji” government (I could not resist the temptation of using this unique Punjabi phrase, could neither attract enough aid for the affected people, nor could it do much to settle the displaced ones. The man sitting in the President House at the people’s expense could not find time to even visit the washed out people. Vanishing of amity and concern for the poor in a nation, and by its elite, is a reflection of the loss of Faith.
Nations that are alive act differently. Japan suffered twice the losses which no nation on earth has suffered: once during the Second World War, and the second time this year. Now they say in Japan, “Builders will build Japan like they did after WWII.”
Even the mafia there, known as ‘Yakuzas’, have turned out to the best well-wishers of the Tsunami-affected people. They have been the first one to reach there, and they are the best watch-men to oversee that no one takes advantage of the other.
The inner strength of a nation in moments of disaster and tragedy becomes a source of its early revival. Yen, the Japanese currency, paradoxically rose instead of sinking. They call it “counter intuition”. The swaths of the densely populated people were destroyed twice; first by the 9.0 earthquake, and then by the Tsunami, and yet the Yen soared to its highest level against the global currencies since WWII. Is it not amazing?
According to Bloomberg Business-week, a town like Kamaishi, near the epicenter of the earthquake, was back in business only after three weeks. “Those who wanted new clothes could pick through the donated piles-bags full of dress, sweaters and pants - mostly brand-new and rumored to be purchased by the government with freshly printed money…after three weeks the streets were no longer clogged with debris and even some local businesses got back to work in earnest… water, food - we have here now… the other refugees think we have it too easy”. Most affected were the old people. Those who survived, would line up for food with the server cautioning them, “Sorry, be careful, it could be hot”. This is how nations confront disasters. And this is what we term as “Islamic”. The Second World War made Japan the second largest economy; its second destruction would definitely take it to still higher heights.
Investors and speculators and insurers, all are lined up to partake in the reconstruction work. The richest Japanese with billions of dollars worth of companies abroad are selling their enterprises, and are bringing back their foreign assets, and are converting their foreign currencies into Yen to put that money to a patriotic use at home. Did anyone in Pakistan ever do such a thing? Please let me know. They often do the reverse of it. In the 2005 earthquake, I saw the donated water-proof tents being sold on the roadsides in Murree, and duly bought by the rich in order to protect their cars from dust and rain. The prediction is that Japan is likely to see a rebound in the second half of the year.
Natural disasters sometimes create winners as well as losers, as they bring rare opportunities in the aftermath. In the disaster of Afghanistan, India and China became the winners, and Pakistan due to its own ambiguous stand on terrorism, nose-dive decline in its economy and worst of all due to the ineptness of those who are at the helm of the affairs and because of the political instability and terrorism, became the biggest loser in every respect in the Afghanistan war.
Not so in case of those who are smart enough to fish best in the troubled waters. Before the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan, for example, Korea steel makers were just struggling. The shares of POSCO, the world’s third largest steel producer, tumbled 21% as raw material prices soared. Now with the prospect of less competition from its hobbled neighbor, and due to increased demand when the Japanese people start rebuilding, business looks better than never before. POSCO’s shares increased 10%. India’s Mittal will not be basking in the sun either with closed eyes to let this opportunity pass by.
The mineral wealth of Afghanistan is estimated at 900 billion. Chinese have already jumped on the bandwagon headed for the digging, and have already paid 3 billion dollars for the right to mine lithium and copper. JP Morgan has already brokered a deal in which Western investors would be investing an estimated $50 million in a gold mine in Northern Afghanistan. As predicted by the Time magazine of March 28, 2011 by Bergen, the author of “The Largest War”, Afghanistan is far from being hopeless. According to him, “Afghans have lived through a version of Somalia.”. Afghanistan could become either South Korea or Somalia, but now the Afghans want security and prosperity. Afghanistan sat too long over a collapsed economy, and had had enough of civil war, or to be ruled by the war lords. A change in Afghanistan is on the horizon as the Afghans are beginning to like the taste of modernity. One in three own a cell phone, and even basic health is available to most.
It is a moment of great concern for people like us who loved and served Pakistan to the best of our abilities to see that country going down even at a time when a country like Mongolia, one of the last places on earth, would begin talking of equating and comparing itself with Canada after having found the huge untapped metal ore resources. Mongolia is anticipating an 8% growth in its GDP in 2011. Pakistan, wake up!!!
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