Archive for August, 2010

Given all the pain and gloom that surrounds the life of an ordinary Pakistani today, it is no surprise that this year’s independence day (14th of August) was a quiet affair; somber expressions of joy and government events were limited to things like a formal flag hoisting in the morning.

Floods in Pakistan have displaced around 2 million people by now and there seems to be no let up in nature’s display of brute force. Currently there is another spell of rains and another round of floods adding to the misery of Pakistani’s across the country.

Pakistan Flag. Image by Flickr user takebackpakistan. CC BY-NC-ND

Bloggers have used various ways to express their feelings for their homeland. Farrukh Zafar, a blogger from Karachi, highlights the achievements of Pakistani’s at the international level:

In every 40 Pakistanis, 39 whine today about Pakistan’s worst law and order situation, the flood disaster, the plane crash, the fake degrees of its politicians, the shameless acts of thePresident, the declining performance of Pakistan cricket team and so on. BUT I WILL NOT.

… Then came August and a team from the Lahore Grammar School (LGS) 55-Main Gulberg, popularly known as LGS Kabana from Pakistan, won the NASA-affiliated Space Settlement Design Competition held in the United States of America! …

More at: ‘I Told You to Respect Pakistan’

Xainab, on a slightly depressed note, writes in her blog about why her Independence day celebrations have changed:

How can we celebrate independence, I wonder, when we’ve done nothing to deserve it? How can we rejoice in the motherland when she lies before us ravaged and broken? How can we pat ourselves on the back when we’re anything but proud Pakistanis? How can we go watch the lights when all around us there seems to be nothing but darkness? How can we sing songs and be merry, when we live every moment in fear of the next disaster?

Talking of hope and solidarity on this independence day, Sakina Younis writes at Pro-Pakistan.com:

Let’s do as much as we can in our capacity and prove to the world that we are truly the progeny of that generation of people who understood virtues of sacrifice, hope, brotherhood & solidarity. We are Pakistanis, we live in a land that was born on the premise of faith and determination. Struggle is not a new concept for us.

More at: Yaum-e-Azadi 2010

The idea behind this post is not to add to the despair and problems of an average Pakistani. The idea is to highlight that given all the problems that surround a Pakistani, this nation is still strong enough to bounce back. People still have hope. People still have faith in themselves. They have always and they have again stood up to this national disaster.

Pakistan is indeed the land of the pure, only if it was governed and managed properly, our independence day would have been merrier, happier!

Article originally published on the Aaj.Tv website. Click here to visit.

“This would normally be a rather pleasant time of the day, 45 minutes past 6PM in the evening, but it is dark, very dark outside. I can hear the deafening roar of the skies as the powerful wind howls past by my window. It is a vicious storm brewing up as it begins to rain mercilessly. I will have to choose whether I have to leave for home or wait till the storm subsides”, Ali was thinking and talking to himself in absolute silence.

It had been a regular day at work for him and for all that he knew about Karachi, he was sure his ride home was going to be nothing short of war. He was sure the streets would be flooded and transportation would already have come to a grinding halt. Ali was sure he will find no electricity when he gets home; their power production units either ‘trip’ or they shut them down when it rains.

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