Chowrangi

Sheikh Saadi has said,”Hur Kay bud bashud naykee na beenud”, when applied to the present affairs of nations it means that people expect others to behave as they do. People also like to criticize others, while their own affairs are on fire.

You don’t have to be a genius to read the signs. We have a growing middle class, being reared on a diet of radical consumerism and aggressive greed. Unlike industrializing western countries which had colonies from which to plunder resources and generate slave labor to feed this process, we have to colonize ourselves, our own nether parts.

We have begun to eat our own limbs. The greed that is being generated and marketed as a value interchangeable with nationalism can only sated by grabbing land, water and resources from the vulnerable. What we are witnessing is the most successful secessionist struggle ever waged in Independent Pakistan. It’s the secession of the middle and upper classes from the rest of the country. Its a vertical secession, not a lateral one. They are fighting for the right to merge with the elite of the world.

There are political parties who believe in every negative or positive tactic to grab the rule. Their political strategies are very questionable. Political workers in the struggles have been dealt with brutally, killed, beaten, imprisoned and under false charges. The minute a state starts using force upon its own people, the whole world shrinks and colors fade to become black and white.

We are living in times when to be ineffective is to support the status quo which no doubt suits some of us. And being effective comes at terrible price. I find it very hard to condemn people who are prepared to pay that price. It’s time for us to sit up and think.

Other posts by Commoner

• Balloting Process for President - September 6th, 2008
• President in Making..... - September 6th, 2008
• Zardari Makes Final Moves - September 5th, 2008
• After Angoor Adda, Another Strike - September 5th, 2008
• Angoor Adda: US led NATO Forces launch first ground attack in Pakistan - September 4th, 2008
• Choked Life - September 4th, 2008
• Looming Fears - September 3rd, 2008
• Gilani's Escape - September 3rd, 2008
• Threats with Love - September 2nd, 2008
• Another Truce and TTP - September 2nd, 2008