Record Floods in Pakistan
I remember from my childhood, when our elders, specially my grandfather Haji A. Majeed Shaikh and my mom, used to tell us horrifying stories of floods that swept away hundreds of villages in Pakistan during the era of ex-Prime Minister, Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. I never knew the devastation, horror, terror, and deceases caused by such natural disaster. The odd memories of last disaster have not faded that the mother nature is testing the Pakistani people with its yet another horrifying calamity.
Everybody is well-known with the idea that a hard/solid stone can even be cut by the fierce force of water. The floods naturally cause the biggest disaster. Not only, they destroy the property, but they take with them all the essence of living - be it livelihood, agriculture, infrastructure, health, and above all the lives. The reconstruction of worldly things is delayed for couple of months but the resurrection of souls is not possible.
This natural calamity not only is the call for raising funds and helping those who have been displaced mainly but also is a big call for correcting our actions and bringing a educated revolution of mending our ways of development for the masses of the country. It now calls for thinking differently. Why we as a nation help our poor brotheren only when they are under the mercy of nature? Why we as a nation only come out and start raising funds to provide the people the basic necessity? Why we as a nation only think with a short-term thought and vision? Why we as a nation only leave our racism / ethinicity in the times of badly-hit times? Why we "educated class" ring the bells of the other friends for helping these calamity stricken people only when there is calamity? Why we call this is the time of the test for all of us?
I do accept that this is the time of the test for every countrymen, but I also think that mother nature wants us to think differently. When I say think differently I mainly mean two things. Why not we work continuously and consistently for building infrastructure that is not only strong but also viable for long-term like 30 to 50 years. Why not we voluntarily provide services to our country in various fields and build the strong foundation for developing. Just think of a building or a computer software, the higher you want to construct the building the stronger the base/foundation you need. Similarly, for computer software, the sophisticated software you want to develop, a comprehensive and clear architecture of software you need to design first.
We must mend our ways to build the country. A sudden help to poor because of natural shock will never build the country stronger but it will take our country back something like 10 to 20 years in development everytime a natural calamity hits us. We now know on average in every decade, we face 2 to 3 natural shocks and each shock takes us 10 years back. These habits will not change our future at all.
Let's hold our hands together and promise for untiring and endless efforts and hardwork for building our country each and everyday. Let's promise that we will not only act during the times of natural shocks but we will act more during our daily lives.
May Allah rest the bereaved families struck by the calamity. May Allah build the hearts of our people stronger to help eachother in everywalk of life. May Allah purify our hearts so that we can think of eliminating evils rather than fostering them.
Very well said. I would like to add here that in terms of giving charity, Pakistani nation stands at the top in the whole world. I read this some years back in a research report. I dont know to what extent it is true but I have seen our people really contributing a lot during the time of distress in any part of Pakistan. We have the examples from the terrific earth quake back in October 2005 where people contributed a lot and we all witnessed that. Where does this big sum of money goes? I won't blame the government. In the best case, if all the contributed money is distributed fairly, even then the way it is distributed does not fulfill the purpose and we see our nation in the abyss of poorty and distress. As you said, we have to think in long terms. We really need to. We need a solid infrastructure and thats where the responsibility of government and every member of the society comes in. Sound projects should be deployed and the nation should not cry if they are deployed in a particular province. We have to think as a nation. Further, we all as workers should work honestly and earn from fair means. Only the later thing alone can make miracles, brings self-dependency on individual and collective basis and change the whole scenario of our society. Moreover, it is our responsibility as "Educated Masses" of our society that we should educate at least one person of our society who otherwise cannot get literate. We all PROMISE while signing our admission form in intermediate that we will teach at least one person but I have not seen anyone actually acting upon that. If we don't have time, we can may be hire someone who can perform this job on our behalf. This can also reduce unemployment. This all look subjective unless we start implementing these things on individual level.
ReplyDeleteI would conclude with a saying that " Do not give a man a fish, rather make him learn how to do fishing and he will never be starving".
Dear Sohail,
ReplyDeleteI am really glad to see your steps towards rousing the concience of our people and really speaking most of us do feel the same thing but can not take the steps towards improving our society. I m happpy that my brother have got personally involved into helping the affected people by going to the "Khairpur KT Bund" with various NGOs. I will forward your message to as many of my friends in circle as possible and I will also try my level best to do my part towards this noble cause.
Hoping to see your motivation in future also.
Best Regards,
Haresh Kumar
Great man! I am happy about it. May Allah grant you more success. Amen!
ReplyDelete