According to the Human Development Report 2011 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan ranks at the 145th spot among low human development countries; whereas, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India and China are among medium developed countries. Norway is at the top along with USA. New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Germany and Sweden are among the top 10 countries.
Multidimensional Poverty Index
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) examines factors at the family level such as access to clean water, cooking fuel and health services, as well as basic household goods and home construction standards that together depict a more complete portrait of poverty than income measurement alone does. Some 1.7 billion people in 109 countries lived in multidimensional poverty in the decade ending in 2010, by MPI calculus. 1.3 billion people are estimated to be living on $1.25 a day or less. Niger has the highest share of multi-dimensionally poor, at 92 per cent of the population, followed by Ethiopia and Mali, with 89 per cent and 87 per cent respectively. In South Asian Countries 27.4 per cent of Pakistan’s population is living in severe poverty when juxtaposed with Bhutan – that has a meager 8.5 per cent.
Comparing different policies
If we examine the countries falling in the High Human Development list compare them and we can easily conclude that all countries that evolved economic policies based upon human development, who gave their masses the central place in their planning, with their core philosophy orbiting the uplift of the common man reached the mount of advancement. Such countries fall in the earlier group and none of these 47 countries belong to the black world that is historically claimed to be the birth place of the earliest homo erectus and homo sapiens. Many of the countries included in the top end of the HDI index belong to Europe and some from Asia and America. Japan, South Korea, Israel, UAE, Bahrain, Cyprus, Singapore, and Hong Kong represent Asia while Argentina and Chile represent South America. On the other hand, in the latter group, from 142 – 187, the sway is with African countries, except Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea and Timor from Oceania and Pakistan. Yemen, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are the rest of the countries from Asia. What stands out is that no county from Europe and the Americas is included in these 46 Low Human Development Countries. In Asia Pakistan is ranked with Nepal and Myanmar. A nuclear power, so weak in the field of human development cannot survive without changing the fundamentals of its policy making. Einstein said, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.
What the UNDP Report tells us
The UNDP Report confirms that man has learnt through his experience and not by metaphysical guidance. According to the report the nations at the top are those who paved their way themselves and never played as second fiddles whether rightly or wrongly. They shaped their destiny with their own hands.
Prehistoric problems and how humans responded
First problems, in prehistory, that our ancestors had to face, were the fear of the unforeseen, apprehension over survival, hunger, lack of knowledge and lack of communications among themselves. But they never surrendered, and tried their utmost to make their environment comfortable and safer for themselves. Their fears compelled them to create groups and tribes, and before 1,000,000 BC men had started living together. They distributed various assignments among themselves. Division of labour, this was termed. Their own need, and power of others, compelled them to act even against their own wishes. They were not fighters; they were not fawns of the powerful; they were only thinkers who resultantly invented and discovered many things. They introduced such ideas which transformed the style of living for their future generations. In 15000 BC they made the ‘bow and arrow’ for easy hunting and in 11000 BC they made vessels of fired clay; in or around 10,000 BC they started agriculture. It was constant journey of progress, evolving with the needs of the hour. In 8500 BC they learnt to make houses made of mud bricks simply to save themselves against mother nature.
Evolution of man: traversing time dilations
All this was being done on a small canvas and in different patches and places of this world. A few people used their neurons; their tendency to observe minutely; their capacity to analyse, the facts and situations – they were called the homo sapiens (wise man). The rest only stifled their brain like animals or used it at the lowest level; they were still homo erectus or ‘Chopayas’ (quadruped) as is ascribed in Surah ‘Al- Furqan’ or homo sapiens in the offing. It means that homo sapiens and homo erectus are similar apparently, but the tendency to use the brain or talent places them in different categories. And if a person still lacks the quality of analysing things and issues and does not have capabilities to arrange facts according to their appropriate position, he is still a homo erectus.
If we look back into history or even in prehistory, we reach the conclusion that the rulers and the powerful never used the brain for the welfare of public. There are exceptions but during the last 5000 years we can hardly pick five or six rulers who did something which genuinely benefited the common man, and their period of rule was not more than a 100 years in total. The situation can only be altered if we adopt the habit of reasoning and no other way out.
Europe did not reach the stage it is today with a sudden jump. Rome was certainly not built in a day. From 753 B.C. to date, this continent traversed many upheavals. From Miletus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to Einstein; this region remained the laboratory of world level experiences. From religious rivalries and crusades to the civilised revolutions, Pyrenees and Alps remained constant. Europe was the cradle of industrial revolution, enlightenment, agricultural revolution, glorious revolution and in the end two horrible World Wars. All these ups and downs taught the Europeans that they should function along with the proletariat and not by dragging them. They finally learnt that the core purpose of this life is the uplift of human beings and making them ultimate useful citizens for the whole country.
What the UNDP Report divulges
The UNDP Report confirms some basic facts:-
1. The western countries are in a dominant position as far as human development is concerned.
2. Scandinavian countries are at the top of the table. An efficient and equitable distribution of resources made all the difference which finally shaped the countries into being prosperous.
3. The presence of USA, Canada and New Zealand, in the top 10 countries means that those nations that managed to evolve economic and political policy making have progressed beyond those that failed to do so.
4. Niger, Mali and Ethiopia have a subterranean historical background but it couldn’t help them out as they failed to make an effective allocation and utilisation of their resources.
5. Those that collected knowledge, refined it, and made effective use of it for their own prosperity were able to sit at the helm of authority.
6. Progress means an effective use of decision making by employing the faculties of the human mind
7. “Followers” can never
rule the world.
The writer is a Grade-20 government officer and a freelance writer. He can be reached at shahidkhursheed2009@gmail.com