I’ve been in Karachi the last few hours and honestly I am shell-shocked. My brain energised by a fresh doze of oxygen, serene countryside, expanded intellectual thought and insight into the Western world’s opinion on the happenings here and in our immediate surroundings, finds itself rattled.
With all honesty, I can say that what I’ve witnessed on the media and read in the papers leads me to believe that everyone here is doing as they please, when they please and how they please, without let or hindrance. In most cases, this would be an ideal situation. Given the current situation in Pakistan, this is a disaster.
Friends dropped in for lunch to catch up. Revelations were not only in abundance but horrifying. Especially when they opened up YouTube on my laptop and let me see, with my mouth wide open needless to say, the goings on. Glasses being thrown by guests on a talk show! I guess we’ve evolved fast. It didn’t stop there. Three ladies at a talk show hurling abuse at each other I was told. I didn’t believe it. Lo and behold, there it was for the world to see. Diamond market, beds, planes, prostitutes. The words used even had a sinner like me wincing.
When I heard a senior politician, himself accused of being a “lota” in the recent past tell a lady parliamentarian that her antecedents were not only well-known but more than dubious, it really left me feeling rotten. Walking away we moved to the TV. What can I say but everything I’d seen a few minutes ago was being confirmed on a live performance.
One of the top, I am told, anchors hosting a show was having the toughest time maintaining order. The participants were two men and two ladies, including the anchor. The lady guest had been a minister till recently, the others were equally familiar. The discussion was utter nonsense; just garbage being thrown around. The climax was all four participants shouting at the top of their voices, at the same time, completely oblivious of surroundings. I can’t believe that I was witnessing this. It gets better or worse, as you like.
Following all this was the replay of a famous cricketer turned politician’s recent interview. Still in shock, I relaxed just a bit thinking finally some sense would permeate the atmosphere. I was of course unaware that a rather successful event he’d led had successfully managed to halt the movement of some NATO trucks for a couple of days. This apparently had seriously fuelled the dying embers of his internal fire. Good for him.
The issue I have is that how does he intend to go to Obama and convince the “intelligent man” that his ‘super advisors’ have set course on a disastrous plan that is a one-way road to defeat. Somehow I don’t see it happening. Not only because he said he’d do it if he was prime minister, and isn’t, but because I don’t see Obama doing anything other than what he perceives is the correct option of many that must have been considered, regardless of who says otherwise.
Of course, when emotions get the better of us we all react with its ‘better to die than live this existence’. Tipu Sultan did it and succeeded. Since then, it is the clarion call of all our self-sacrificing leaders. At the event, I believe, there was a multitude of theatricals including unnecessarily harsh words.
Be all of this as it may, media is playing to the gallery; unfortunately an uneducated gallery that relates to the theatricals as entertainment literally. They are also, tactlessly, promoting indiscipline in an atmosphere that already has disciplinary issues.
There are some regulars who appear on the electronic media who are hell bent on achieving celebrity status and I am sure are invited as such. I am including the anchors in this list. The entire atmosphere sucks. Talk shows are intended as the product of serious research; they seek to solicit the views of qualified people and present them to the people at large to draw their own conclusions on current issues. Today, it has become fashionable for every show to be Hard Talk. Sadly, the substance is absent.
Drones are going nowhere. They provide the alternative to hand-to-hand combat and that doesn’t happen in the modern world. It’s like telling them to operate jet planes without fuel. While this war is on, they will be an inherent part of it.
There is a need for serious review on the part of media. And on the part of our leaders. The people need to be directed towards positive thought and to think and act within reason. With these shenanigans on the media, irresponsible statements fuelled by the inability to litigate libel, the impression being delivered is one of utter chaos. Media owners, editors and anchors must take the responsibility of the impact of their presentations.
Regrettably, Pakistan’s misfortune is that no one seems to care. This, I am told, is Real Democracy.
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