Are we an apathetic nation

11
160

Earlier in 2011, the whole world stood amazed as protests shook various countries from North Africa to the Middle East. The revolution, that ousted Tunisian ruler Zine al Abeddine Ben Ali from Tunisia after 23 years of authoritarian rule, spread like wild fire. Mass protests brought about revolutionary change in Egypt and Libya, and caused political unrest in several other countries.
The riots in Tunisia are believed to have been sparked by the suicide of a young man who could not find a job, and was barred from selling fruit without a permit. 10 months later, an incident redolent of the one in Egypt, took place in Islamabad and bystanders waited for history to repeat itself. Raja Khan – a father of two – set himself on fire in front of the parliament, because he was fed up with his financial troubles. However, his self immolation went rather unnoticed because he belonged to a country where poverty, unemployment and social disparity are a norm rather than an exception. He belonged to a country which continues to be a silent bystander as foreign forces kill its people, or rather “suspected militants”, under the façade of fighting terrorism.
Revolts were not just restricted to the Arab or African world but also made an appearance in the developed world. Americans expressed their frustration in the form of “Occupy” movements all over USA, starting with “Occupy Wall Street”. The protests were against social and economic disparity, high unemployment, corporate greed, and corruption. All of these issues and many more, are prevalent in the Pakistani society. To make matters worse, Pakistan has had its share of natural disasters. IFRC president Tataderu Konoe predicted, in the beginning of 2011, that there might be political unrest in areas devastated by floods the year before. We clearly proved him wrong. Pakistani people have consistently endured food shortages, load shedding, sharp inflation, rising unemployment and wide scale corruption. Yet, other than occasionally chanting slogans and burning flags, there have been no major revolts. Are Pakistanis simply apathetic or have we lost all kinds of hope?
The point here is not to suggest all Pakistanis should get out on the streets and start a political upheaval. The point is to try to understand why we are so numb that nothing seems to concern us anymore. The only time I saw consciousness and uprising at a national level was when Pervaiz Musharraf ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary in 2007. I was studying at the Lahore University of Management Sciences at that time and I could feel the vibe of restlessness and anger, along with faith and hope, in the air. I remember putting tapes on our mouth as a remonstration against the crackdown on media, holding a protest demonstration outside the Chief Justice’s house for days, and putting up videos and pictures of hundreds of students marching on the roads of Lahore online. That one decision, to fire the Chief Justice, acted as a catalyst to get millions of people out on the streets. Maybe we again need a thrust, just one shove, to push us off the cliff. The media played a colossal role in motivating the public at that time. Even now, the power of media cannot be undermined. A song “Aaloo Anday” recently went viral in Pakistan with tens of thousands of hits within a few days of being released on YouTube. BBC called it “one of the most biting and daring satires the country has seen in years”. This song provokes the need to understand current political discourse in Pakistan, laments the screwed up politics of our country, and at the same time, its wit forces a smile upon your face. Hopefully, it played a small, but significant, role in instigating the people of Pakistan to rise and, at the very least, acknowledge all things wrong with the country.

The writer is Johns Hopkins graduate. She is currently working with Bloomberg and can be reached at [email protected]

11 COMMENTS

  1. Rather then indifferent I think ignorant sounds more reasonable. We react to almost everything, the question is if our reactions are based on logic or emotions. The reason why this band wagon of demagogues exist in Pakistan today, is our failure to understand the consequences of our own actions or even reactions for that matter.

    P.S: No major revolts because we have a system.

  2. We are facing a severe genetic disorder! I am not sure if there is a medical term to explain this, probably not because medicine describes the current state of disorder with your body or brain and not necessarily an over the time deformation effect on the community as a whole! However I believe we have become numb over the years (years as in last 200, 300 years), subjugation to adversaries and atrocities has made it easy for us to live with any situation now … its become part of our DNA. We have evolved to be an insensitive nation and in this race of survival of the fittest we are surely placed better in case the whole world gets fucked up all of a sudden … we will sustain and live another day! It takes generations to degenerate and will take decades to generate and evolve into higher level of human beings … and there is no short cuts on the time line! We just happen to be born in the wrong time and wrong place on the history time line … cant do much to change it over night ! Will have to live with this … only catalyst can be a good leader who may give us a evolutionary jump for a few years, period!

  3. we are the people having the greatest threshold to react…to call pakistan a nation is misnomer to me..we do not live upto the modern defination of a nation.. pakistan is the territory containing people of different nations historically..we all have to accept this fact and i think then we would be able to consider and react to the issues in collective..

  4. Wow , the way you are magnifying revolutions itself is "pathetic" .
    History shows us that revolutions destroy nations , take the french revolution for example , the death of the royals was followed by the deaths of thousands of innocent french .Take the bolshevik revolution foe example , it destroyed their nation , brought an even more brutal regime at the helm , take the iranian one for example , again the same thing a nation destroyed , infrastructure weakened .
    Romanticizing revolutions is not the way to go , it slaughters tolerance and gives the enemies of the state a chance to try their luck , Belgium and Prussia were examples during the french revolution .
    I would say , its a good thing there hasnt been any revolution , because there is a system , Pakistanis in general are "tolerant" not "ignorant" >

  5. Commonly “Apathy” comes about due to 2 main reasons:
    1. that ppl have suffered so many bad experiences and endured so much adverseries and atrocities in their life. Now they less care about anything. Often times when one becomes apathetic it is a defense mechanism, or stress relief.
    2. that ppl have not yet dealt with any hurt or pain. This leaves no room for empathy, compassion or any kind of interest towards others. Eventually, they just don’t care about anything.

    so now, if we feel that our nation has become apathetic it is obviously due to reason no. 1
    but this doesn’t mean that Pakistanis are ‘born apathetic’. Its the environment that forces us to become apathetic. In this “media-saturated” society, where media daily reports of dozens of killings, suicides, bomb blasts, protests etc
    Do u think that we can survive in this situation without being “apathetic”???
    im not saying that we should not be empathetic. we are still very able to be compassionate. But then “every cause has its effect”, and i was just trying to explain it!! to explain that being pakistani doesnot mean that we are not normal human beings, and that we lack certain human qualities. its simply that.. the kind of environment surrounds us or the kind of situation we are in.. has certain effects on us.
    otherwise, PAKISTANIS ARE AS HUMAN AS OTHER NATIONS ARE.. AND THEY CAN BE AS EMPATHETIC AS ANY OTHER NATION COULD BE!!

  6. Commonly "Apathy" comes about due to 2 main reasons:
    1. that ppl have suffered so many bad experiences and endured so much adverseries and atrocities in their life. Now they less care about anything. Often times when one becomes apathetic it is a defense mechanism, or stress relief.
    2. that ppl have not yet dealt with any hurt or pain. This leaves no room for empathy, compassion or any kind of interest towards others. Eventually, they just don't care about anything.

    so now, if we feel that our nation has become apathetic it is obviously due to reason no. 1
    but this doesn't mean that Pakistanis are 'born apathetic'. Its the environment that forces us to become apathetic. In this "media-saturated" society, where media daily reports of dozens of killings, suicides, bomb blasts, protests etc(there's a long list).
    Do u think that we can survive in this situation without being "apathetic"???
    im not saying that we should not be empathetic. we are still very able to be compassionate. But then "every cause has its effect", and i was just trying to explain it!! to explain that being pakistani doesnot mean that we are not normal human beings, and that we lack certain human qualities. its simply that.. the kind of environment surrounds us or the kind of situation we are in.. has certain effects on us.
    otherwise, PAKISTANIS ARE AS HUMAN AS OTHER NATIONS ARE.. AND THEY CAN BE AS EMPATHETIC AS ANY OTHER NATION COULD BE!!

Comments are closed.