The Bitter Truth

Baluchistan is burning with hate; love care and respect are only extinguishers

I couldn’t resist to these lyrics from Goo Goo Dolls Dolls IRIS in pretext of contemptible condition in Baluchistan, the largest province of Pakistan.

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming

Or the moment of truth in your lies

When everything feels like the movies

Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive

Amidst all these rallies and sit downs and what not for even the least possible important issues in this country, I wonder how come no political party or group of social activists come up with even a small scale protest for Baluchistan. Be it gas load-shedding or Shezan juice ban issue, they come up with ideas in seconds but when it comes to Baluchistan, no one speaks up. I have read more pieces on an ongoing drama serial Humsafar than on Baluchistan’s current situation. Feels like Baluchistan is our step brother, infect worse than that. We all use their resources but deny facilitating them in any way. Even media, the so called front-row solider for much talked about revolution forgets to mention Baluchistan the way it deserves. We so proudly show indian award shows, movies and paid American content on our local channels but no one dared to do a documentary on Baluchistan. We celebrate Kashmir Solidarity day every year as public holiday, but we never even once mentioned ‘a moment of solidarity with balochs’. They all have equally sacrificed for Pakistan as anyone else here did. Instead of talking things out we start military operations. I never heard about any convention for Baluchistan with sole intention of coming up with a solution of ongoing problems, inviting all the political parties and tribal leaders and Jirga members that proved fruitful. Things can’t be improved by only saying they will.  

Americans presenting bills in their parliament that Baloch’s have rights to struggle for a separate country, and all we did was to issue a ‘condemn statement’. Pakistan has become a human hunting ground like they kill caged animals in South Africa, the worst part, many NGOs and social activists are campaigning against it but so sadly and shamefully we aren’t even speaking about our brothers and fathers being murdered brutally for ethnic and sectarian reasons!

We all talk about equality and harmony and what not. We celebrate countless days with full zest and ensure participation, make Facebook events and even pages and make them trend on twitter, blog posts, Op-eds and every other action possible. I never came across any such thing for Baluchistan. It’s not Baluchistan by the way, it’s about all of us. I randomly searched “Baluchistan” on Facebook to find out if we have any pages; this was the first page I came across with over 8K likes. I don’t know if I was overwhelmed, ashamed, and sad or doomed seeing this. I hardly know any famous poet, scholar, sportsman, actor or any other prominent figure from Baluchistan. All we know about Baluchistan is their incapable and comedian politicians which we Alhamdulillah have in abundance across Pakistan. I refuse to believe that there never existed a scholar, poet, sportsman or actor in Baluchistan, our largest province, richest in natural resources, brave people. No one ever highlighted them, every time we see/read something about Baluchistan is they are terrorists and what not. My humble request to literate brothers and sisters from Baluchistan to come forward, let the world know that you exist. Make yourself count, write about Baluchistan, about its culture, people, traditions so that we all know, we could relate all that to ourselves.

We haven’t done anything for Baluchistan, except for looting them day and night and keeping them from all basic necessities of life. I couldn’t find any stats for developments in about last decade in following fields:

• Education (Universities/schools/colleges)
• Health (hospitals in metros and non-metros and government plans for public health)
• Economic Activity (conducive environment for general business activity)
• Industry (setting up of new industries)
• Agriculture (development/production of agriculture and contribution in GDP)
• Safety and security (government support for public safety rather than detaining them)
• Skill development (vocational training institutes and centers)
• Poverty alleviation (
• Infrastructure (general road/train/airport)
• Exports
• Tourism
• Technology (general development)

Now that we haven’t done anything yet, we have very little time to actually do something. Baluchistan is slipping away; we all have to play our roles. At least talk about it. Tell them we love them and they are part of us as closer as any other parts of this country. Write about it, learn about it, make documentaries, do some shows on the core issue (not that dramy bazi like Geo’s the great debate, a constructive one), promote trends on twitter about Baluchistan. Although I don’t have hope for anything good from politicians but still if they could consider above listed areas to work on so that they could loot more money from these many avenues. There’s a famous poem by legendary poet Ahmed Faraz, “ab mer dosray bazu pe”. These were originally written in other contexts, listen to them with reference of Baluchistan, patriotism might emanate through eyes.

Remember, Pakistan is our motherland; no one really likes to see her mother’s hands being chopped off. 

Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Paindabad

      

                              

Brand Yourself: How to Stand Out

‘Did u know what Ali say?’

‘Ali, who Ali’  

‘The one whose always smiling’

‘Oh the Jolly Ali’

You might come across conversations like these in offices, colleges/universities and social gatherings on a daily basis.  We all have a habit of discussing our colleagues, classmates and relatives etc. We always attribute people on basis of what they are good at doing or what they repeatedly do.  This becomes your identity or personality, something you are known for. So instead of letting people decide our identity we could make our identity by ourselves.

This phenomenon of attributing own-self is referred to as “Personal Branding”. It’s similar to general branding concepts and practices. A brand has a character, personality and charisma. In simple words it is building up and sustaining reputation in corporate world for something and then people start recognizing and recommending you for that. The key is to live up to what we are known for. There arises a question: how to brand ourselves and why should we?

Why should we brand ourselves?

A very common emotion about brands is, we highlight and promote branded possessions. No one tries to copy an average person, people always go after brand personalities like rock stars, movie stars or social tycoons etc. because they stand out, they have that one thing that makes them prominent.

In a stagnant economy like ours, we don’t have very many jobs or opportunities to excel. We can create opportunities and capitalize them being prominent. An idea escalated by an average employee doesn’t carry weight and appeal to make the top management consider it seriously but same idea when presented by a shining star is immediately taken. Secondly the trust, management can’t afford to experiment on certain projects or tasks. So someone who’s not proven yet or his capabilities are unnoticed will have lesser chances of getting the assignment.  We have thousands of housing schemes but we all know about Malik Riaz and trust his schemes for what it has delivered in the past (social and moral issues aside).

Branding our personality will offer brighter future prospects. A very common example is of a barber. A normal barber in any market charges Rs. 150 but another man who has made himself a brand and calls himself a ‘hair stylist’ charges thousands of rupees for same services. Brand is not something that only a foreign qualified or an elite class member can make. All it takes careful assessment of what you are, and getting so good at that, people start recognizing you for what you do rather than who you are.  Steve Jobs is another example of a very successful brand, so successful that it overshadowed the organization.

How to brand ourselves:

It might not be as easy to brand ourselves as it may seem. It’s not changing yourself or who you are. Branding yourself is to simply do whatever you do with class and style, adding charm to it. It could be anything, from your technical knowledge at work to your adventurous lifestyle otherwise, from humility and friendships at work to your community service initiatives, from being innovative at work to independent research etc. branding yourself is realizing what you are good at and labeling, what you enjoy doing regardless of your career or job and adding style and charisma to that. This doesn’t mean that your passion should, in anyway, contradict your career or job, find a balance between the two. Be with right people who are capable to give you proper limelight that you require. Getting along with likeminded people doesn’t offer any value addition. In order to introduce your brand, you need to first get social acceptability among peers. Make your brand sound catchy and appealing so that people are attracted to it. Once brand is successfully introduced, all you need to do is to be consistent and do what you have to. Make your brand appearance count and noticed. Develop a new personality and character for the brand so that people follow you.  

Transition from product to brands takes time, hard-work and consistent effort. Branding yourself, as I see it, is personal-development. There's a huge difference in being unique and prominent, for unique you have to possess extra qualities and skills but for being prominent, all you need is action. This wouldn't offer immediate success, but eventually lead to the path of success. An idea about how to shine on corporate skies among other stars.

Poverty, Pakistan and Future

Poverty erodes moral values.  It causes the morality of poor people to shatter. Poverty cripples down the strength of society and gives them a hard surface to live on. Nonetheless moral values of the society turn out to as a great peril for the poor people. These social values push poor people to the line of selfishness which eventually makes unethical and illegal means acceptable for them. Consequently it takes them to the heights of problems where there is no alternative pavement and they tend to erode away from their morality and end up committing crimes and violating acts. If there is poverty then moral values will degrade because poor people cannot buy food, cannot educate their children and cannot buy things that they desire.

Some people think that poverty causes people to divert from their moral values. This change may result from the inefficiency of organized policies by the government. The irregularity of institutions influences the proper flow of funds as well as the purchasing power of every class of the society. However, it is difficult for poor people to buy commodities to feed their families, since the commodity prices are too high. In consequent the situation leads the poor people to do unethical things. Then again the unethical acts erode the morality away. As in the case of Pakistan, a quarter of Pakistan’s population in living under the poverty line unable to live under average living conditions.

According to planning commission of Pakistan, poverty rate has risen to 37.5% from 23.9% during last three years. It is estimated that in 2005, 35.5million people were below poverty line and in 2008 the number increased to 64million with ever highest rate of inflation and unemployment.

Seemingly, the government and NGOs work hard for the public especially the poor class. They launch different welfare programs to provide the basic necessities to the poor people. Although, the efforts to bring a change within the society they think to have their own gains first. Corruption as it is named it gulps the majority of the funds that is collected as taxes from the people for the people. The elite class, being right hand of ruling class, exploits the poor through both organized and unorganized means i-e: government policies, regulations and monopoly in business. Inequality in society has increased crime rate, individuality, racial hatred etc and has made the environment conducive for terrorism and illegal acts.  Thus leaving the entire economy bankrupted and hollowed. Therefore poor people cannot afford to pay the fees for the education of their children because of the rising academic fee caused by the inflation and also by the inadequacy of cheaper and well-standard educational institutions. Since the children of poor families do not get admission in the schools they acquire the means of bribery. Though bribery is unethical and crippling down the moral values but there are no tracks for their easy survival.

Doubtlessly the government should lower the prices of the goods and services so that the people can buy things that they desire. Unfortunately, inflation plays a vital role in influencing the prices of the commodities. Hence it compels the poor people to do injustice within the society. They either buy from illegal markets or turn into beggars and thieves that deceive innocent people. Yet their moral values turn into a game of selfish spins. In my documentary by Geo, I have seen a lady beggar who lives in a full of every equipment that a middle class person would have. She used to beg for the purpose of earning extra money for the family. However Poverty eroding away morality includes, in the case of Pakistan, high crime levels (bribery to higher government officials and theft), disputes and killings within family for the sake of property, smuggling, human trafficking, slavery, gambling et cetera. And so this moves the poor people having fewer resources and means adopting unethical ways.

In Pakistan’s case, more curses of poverty are rising crime rates, rising corruption in government and private sector, social inequality and injustice, nepotism, radicalism, human trafficking, slavery, feudalism and gambling. Though the lesser privileged class thus chooses the path that drives away from ethics.

According to HDI (Human Development Index) of Pakistan, it shows that Pakistan’s HDI is 0.504 which gives the country a rank of 145 out of 187 countries. Comparing to the regional HDI data Pakistan stands below the regional average. HDI represents the quality of basic needs within a country in a statistical data method which helps to judge the gaps in the well being and life expectancy of the local people and connected to the outside world.

Pakistan government has started numerous projects for poverty elevation from country. But the ruling class shapes all the moral values as per elite’s aspiration which results in a spiral downward hierarchy. Moreover, Pakistan government has a project through the World Bank which is called the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) that empowers the rural and urban poor providing them access to resources and services. There are several projects that were sponsored by Government of Sindh (Sindh Rural Support Program), Government of Pakistan, Action Aid, Oxfam, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Program, Swiss Development Corporation, Department for International Development (UK) (DFID), Food and Agriculture Organizations(FAO), Norwegian Agency for Development Co-Operation (NORAD), NOVIB and other national and international organizations to attain sustainable development, women empowerment, poverty alleviation, food security, agriculture, land and water resources management, institutional development, social change and economic development.

The government is supposed to work for welfare of people and give rights to the excluded, less privileged and exploited ones. It should work for equality between the less-privileged and privileged ones and enforce code of conduct as per international standards for punishing those who go against the rules, deteriorates the stability, which eventually results in global unrest. Government should be transparent and accountable for duties &responsibilities. It should also be able to deal with all types of disasters in addition to political, cultural, social, natural, and economy related.  NGOs also carry out the similar responsibilities.

Poverty does change the behavior of individuals in attaining the rights that are constituted for them. When they don’t get the access through defined means they opt for unethical means, because the higher class doesn’t struggle for the common interest rather for individual interest. Apart from the efforts of the Government, NGOs also help in alleviating poverty, maintaining sustainable development, peace, equality and stability within the country by making the basic needs accessible to everyone regardless of social class, gender, minority or ethnic groups. Creating welfare programs and by maintaining the codes of conduct. Media also plays a vital role in normalizing the behavior as well as promoting the moral values within the society, which currently is being also under-utilized, causing a cultural change that creates conflicts within the society and country. Therefore the unfavorable financial conditions of an individual may lead to deviate from his moral values just to achieve motives by unfair means.a