I think, all said and done, we should forget about nationalism, patriotism and the love of motherland. These terms never meant anything to us nor do they anymore. All institutions in the country are collapsing or have collapsed or have had aspersions cast upon them. Trust, faith and confidence have given way to hypocrisy, lies, pretence and selfishness. We do not even love and respect our professions. Uniformed personnel are found frequently indulging in heinous crimes like rape or extortion. The law enforcers are committing things which they are supposed to prevent. The law advocates are behaving like street hooligans.
Politicians, the supposed leaders of the nation, blatantly lie and distort situations publicly. Media, the fourth pillar of the state, has been proven to be corrupt up to the hilt. The common man has compromised all moral values at the altar of mere survival. The youth has lost faith in religion, principles and ethics. Protracted power outages in this heat have completely jeopardised family life in that temperaments are running out of control and living a peaceful life has turned into a veritable battle.
Our social fabric is in tatters. We are making efforts to find the reasons behind this breakdown; hence we are busy justifying and rationalising corruption and innocence on various public forums. But I think let us forget all this. As the crystal breaks it turns into small pieces and no genius can put it back together unless it is melted and recycled. We are in a similar situation.
AMJAD H MIRZA
Lahore
