khuda hafiz: rau maiN hay raksh e umar

rau maiN hay rakshe umar daikhiyay kahaaN thamay

in a cosmic sense, we are drifter

do not know the hand fate will deliver

this moment, tomorrow, next year

but

being blessed we strive

at least for some this is true

we do not give up

mostly

in George ka khuda hafiz - I george fulton (of George Ka Pakistan fame) says:

* You do not chart your own destiny in Pakistan; Pakistan charts it for you.

* The assassination of Salmaan Taseer saw not only the death of a man but also represented for me the death of hope in Pakistan.

* Extremism permeates all strata and socio-economic groups within society.

* As for the dwindling moderates and liberals, they are scared.

* Pakistan has made me cynical, disillusioned and bitter over time.

and more in George ka khuda hafiz - II

* ...the omnipotence of the military apparatus ...will be the catalyst of this country’s eventual downfall.

* In addition to being the largest landowner in Pakistan, the Pakistani Army is the world’s largest mercenary army.

* ...it is the army’s reliance on US military aid that has made Pakistan a client state of the US. This inherent contradiction is not disseminated in the media.

*...Like the right, the liberal elite believe all Pakistan’s woes belong to others...the liberals put the blame on the mullahs, the masses, the uneducated and the unwashed — anyone, but themselves.

* [For every Rs100 collected by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in taxes, it misses another Rs79 due to tax evasion.] What’s the difference between Salman Butt screwing his country for money and the rest of us?

* We espouse liberalism but don’t practice the egalitarian values — distribution of power and wealth — that underpin liberalism.

* The English language has created a linguistic Berlin Wall between us and the rest of the country.

* Even Pakistan’s intellectual elite has largely abandoned its responsibility...are too compromised — suckling on the teat of donor money, scholarships and exchange programmes — to challenge the US narrative.

****

please read some of the comments in both articles

i have written about this schsim, this lingonomic wall between the people in pakistan here.

excerpt:

both of them speak in different languages and past each other

as if both live in different solitudes

and

despite this awareness they are seemingly incapable of communicating with each other

this is the conundrum leading both of them unwittingly to the edge of precipice