Flipping through the newspaper a few days back, news that two Pakistani students recently won the first round of The Middle East and Africa Windows Phone 7 Challenge went like a surprise impulse through me. Pakistani students? Like seriously? Something at the back of my mind poked that if Ibrahim Shahid and Ali Moeen Nawazish can set world records of highest As in O and A level respectively then why not this?
I concluded that Im no exception to those people who have drowned themselves in cynicism and resigned the relationship to optimism. Always whining, complaining and making sure to do nothing. For us, success stories like this should ring bells of hope. Maybe, its too early to loose hope!
We have our issues, rather a plethora of challenges. But with every odd we have those omens of hope that urge us to dream. On one hand we have the dismal state of women in our country, the mere thought of which evokes images of frailty and helplessness, yet we have the phenomenal examples like that of Naseem Hameed who became the fastest woman sprinter of South Asia, Arfa Karim who became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world and that of Pakistani women winning gold in Asian Games.
Of course, a few milestones like this doesnt mean that all is well but even with the given flaws in our system, if our people have the spark of striking at international level, then this means that there is more potential to be explored.
The statistics for us have not been very positive lately. But we are not empty handed after all. With a little effort we have managed to produce a blooming telecom industry ranking as fourth heaviest user country of SMS worldwide and largest in Asia Pacific region.
For a third world country these figures are surely an achievement. If we can do this then is it impossible to do more? Why have we written off our fates in dark scripts already?
The above mentioned arguments dont mean that we should turn a blind eye to our problems. However, the only possible way we can conquer our tribulations is by developing faith in our potentials and finding an antidote to our fatal pessimism. If a country like Japan can rise out of ashes and stun the whole world by becoming a vibrant economic power, why not us?
HABIBA YOUNIS
Rawalpindi
