2+2=5 ?

When the protagonist of the classic Orwell novel 1984 is asked during torture whether 2+2 equals 5, he wonders if the state makes it true and everybody is made to believe it, does that make 2+2=5 true?

Used in a novel published in 1949, Orwell’s allegory for totalitarianism, revisionism and the sheep like behavior of gullible citizens still rings true. 

Pakistan too suffers from this 2+2=5 syndrome. Does our educational system produce a crop of students who are able to think out of the box, challenge existing notions and have the courage to bring change? Is creativity encouraged or discouraged. Sadly the answer to these questions is no. Our educational system does not produce such a crop of students and yes, creativity is discouraged. Barring the institutions that are located in our apparently progressive and elite urban bubbles, curiosity and questioning is discouraged, though putting the blame solely on the educational system would be unfair. 

Take a look at our culture, after all every institution that exists in this country is derived from our culture. Does our culture promote values of free speech, encourage curiosity and applaud change?

Years ago when studying biology in my 9^th class, our teacher skipped the chapter on evolution because it was un-Islamic.  In my 2^nd year, my physics teacher spent two class sessions explaining to us in no less detail about the physical and mathematical proofs of Shab e Mairaj. No questions were asked, nor were we expected to ask. Who would have dared to ask? 

Including religious content in school textbooks and especially scientific textbooks discourages the student’s ability to think and reason with an open mind. Recently, Maulana Sherani, chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology called for ‘introducing a uniform system of education throughout the country, integrating religious teachings with the contemporary, mainstream education’. In other words, he envisions a madrassafied educational system of Pakistan while remaining completely oblivious to the rising sectarian tensions, religious extremism and economic strife. But Maulana sahib is a product of this system, what else he could have said?

Putting aside educational institutions, would questioning our values be allowed in our culture? The images of Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti and Sabeen Mehmud pop up as a warning. Question and you will share the same fate. Many pens stop. Many cerebral cogs cease to work. The murderer of Sabeen Mehmud was an IBA graduate, but more so he was the product of this culturally constrained educational machinery. When confronted with facts which threaten to bring down everything you have been taught to believe is true, turning to violence is only but natural. What sort of educated aalim was Aamir Liaquat Husain when he spewed vicious comments on the Ahmadi minority on live television? Weren’t those who introduced Blasphemy law and laying foundations of hatred towards no Muslims, products of this system?

Extremism is a product of this system and it exists on both ends of our country’s religious spectrum. Moderation is but a wispy figment of our imagination. 

Look at the scenario unfolding on Pakistani social media. The people either out rightly accept a news or out rightly reject it. Everything is seen in a George Bush-esque black and white perspective. The amount of vitriol that is spewed out, the amount of hate that is generated, the number of unfounded accusations passionately advocated, give us an insight into the mind of an educated and tech savvy Pakistani- the so called future. The exploits of Imran Khan’s social media supporters have been discussed by every respected journalist. Say anything about PTI and you would be harassed by trolls who will insist on you to take your words back. Scratch that, you will find many extremist organizations like ASWJ running their social media accounts with ease and spreading their toxic ideology to the gullible and mostly young social media users. Don’t forget the Rawalpindi sponsored ghairat brigade as well. Criticize the ‘boys’ and you will face an onslaught of jingoist zombies who will make you cringe with their indoctrinated wisdom.

 Moderation has become but a wispy figment of our imagination. The age old machinery continues to churn out more obsolete products.

The practice of revisionism and adding religious hues to textbooks that started in Bhutto’s time, intensified in Zia’s era and given an added momentum in Musharraf’s years has put Pakistan on a path which only leads to religious fascism. 

No matter how much funds are reserved for educational growth, it still won’t matter if the children are taught to believe in the superiority of their own faith, suspect minorities and present faith inspired counter arguments. Our textbooks glorify the battles between Muslims and Hindus. The Hindus are introduced as uncultured folk who are shown the light of culture by the Muslim invaders. And they always end up deceiving Muslims. Imagine being a Hindu child in a Pakistani classroom. In our secondary level social studies textbooks, Muslims of Pakistan are always told to be related to Arabs, Turks and Persians. No link to South Asia is ever mentioned. One religion is taught to be made up of a Master Race and other minority religions are taught to consist of second class citizens. What sort of adults will our children become after being fed with such drivel? Outside of academic institutions, people around these children continue to inculcate them with ideas of segregation, intolerance and being subservient to the existing moth eaten culture which has brought Pakistan to this state where governance without patronage of criminal activities is impossible and where vote is still given on caste, creed and connections not on the manifesto and resume.

For these moth eaten societal structures to change we have to ask ourselves the ultimate questions

If your religion says that 2+2=5, would you accept it?
If your culture says that 2+2=5, would you accept it?

Did we misunderstood the Devil ?

A question came into my mind and I need to answer it. Where do all these villains come from? Voldemort, Darth Vader, Shafqat Cheema, Hitler, Stalin, Nixon, how do they become the persons they are? Is it entirely their own fault? Wrong choices as we are often led to believe. Or, does the fault lies with the society in which those people grow up. Or, does the blame lies on both parties.

Evil has been there. Ever since man decided to be inquisitive. Curious of either knowledge, wealth or the opposite sex. They say that curiosity killed the cat but in Adam’s example, curiosity spawned advanced civilizations.

The many quests to explain the advent of evil and villainy represents mankind’s effort to make sense of the universal dichotomy, i.e. yin and yang, good and evil, black and white, left and right. But there is a flaw to this dichotomy. Enter Relativity.

What may be construed as something bad in one culture might be completely acceptable in another culture. For example, kissing a woman in public is considered scandalous and unethical in Asian cultures, while in western civilization its part of their daily life. An interesting observation that I have made in my studies is that the culture of a civilization in which a religion occurs, enormously affects that religion. Case study for this observation would be the concept of male female social interaction and dressing norms in Islam and Christianity. The sacredness of the cow in Hinduism, which actually started out with the fact realized by the ancient Indians that the cow was an extremely useful, and a hardy animal for ploughing fields and thus eating it would a waste of resource, hence it was declared sacred.

So here lies the grand flaw. Who decides what is right and wrong. Dare I say God? But who’s God? Christianity’s God? Jewish Yahweh, Muslim Allah or Hindu Brahma. Greek Zeus or the Norse Odin? In the end of it all we achieve is a debate about who’s Deity is the right one.

But getting back to villainy, I think that villains are not evil but misfits in a society. But what makes them misfits in the society? Societal actions or their own decisions?

We are what our society makes us. Before falling in love with Jane, Tarzan always thought that his mom was a gorilla. Some tribes in Papua New Guinea still engage in cannibalism whereas in the rest of the world cannibalism is seen with utter revulsion. So people living in different cultures always think that their own culture is just and right.

But what about the villains? Growing up in our society where a convict becomes a president, can you blame a teenager for becoming a robber? Who has he to idolize? The Quaid? Who is often grossly misrepresented? Each party and faction molds his image to suit its own interests? Dare I say Bibi Aka Shaheed Rani? Who before her death was just acquitted of all the corruption cases through the infamous NRO? Should they idolize ‘Dactar Amir Liaquat’? Or should they idolize Rehman Malik?

As time passes by we consign the memories of Arfa Karim and Dr. Abdus Salam to our national dustbin of memories, we should ask ourselves aren’t we collectively responsible for helping people like Zardari and Rehman Malik rise to power?

But, should we put all the blame on the society then? Critics would argue that an adult is fully capable of making his own decisions, but how can he make the equation work when all the factors of equations come from only one set of inputs (so-called evil inputs).

May be, according to the villain, what he does is right according to him and that doesn’t sit too well with the society. He’s like an outsider, a misunderstood person. Perhaps villainy is like looking at the same thing from two different angles. The Dalai Lama is a terrorist to communist china while he is a spiritual superstar for others. We can’t really decide what villainy is. I know this is a hard thing to say but I think (only think) that evil itself is relative.

I think one of the many doors in the universal hall of mysteries needs to be unlocked. Whether it would be a good revelation or the end of all things, we call moral. I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Forgive my blabbering...Couldn’t help but share them.

Infinity and Beyond !

My following article appeared on Tribune Blogs on 19th Feb 2012. Thanks to my editor for choosing such a good title. my original title sucked :D

July 21, 1969 was seen by many as the culmination of man’s evolution from a cave-inhabiting savage to an astronaut. That landing on the moon owed more to the imagination overdrive of the Western civilization than the technological advancements of the time. Looking at it from a purely economic point of view, it would be safe to say that space programs around the world have introduced spin-off technologies that have actually sped up human technological evolution and had a major impact on our daily lives.

Now let us descend from the lofty heights of the western civilisation’s achieve

ments in space and have a look at our own space program. Having relatively encouraging beginnings, our national space program was the brain child of Dr Abdus Salaam and with our test two-stage space rocket firing on June 7, 1961, Pakistan became the third Asian country and the 10th in the world to achieve this milestone. And as time progressed, Pakistan launched a couple of satellites into space including Badr1, PakSat-1 and 1-R. Although it is commendable that we have at least a presence in space, our enthusiasm must not end here.

At present, it seems that SUPARCO, while functioning to meet standard requirements of remote sensing, mapping and satellite communications, is missing the fabled ‘spark’ that might make it an economic pillar of the country rather than being a docile space agency that relies on Chinese technology and launching sites .

It seems that the government, corporate institutions and the common people have not yet fully realised the importance of space sciences for a country’s economy. An effective and active space program can help boost a country’s economy in more ways than anticipated. There are uses of space technology in agriculture, medicine, GPS, and many other areas. The enriched baby food used today owes its origins to NASA, from back in the days of the Apollo missions. It doesn’t take an economist to realise that the spin offs from space missions like the Apollo missions have resulted in the growth of several multi-billion dollar industries from which the USA has benefited incredibly. Scott Hubbard, former NASA scientist, now working at Stanford University, notes that for every 1 dollar invested in NASA projects $7-8 worth of goods are produced in the industry. precious few satellites into space and renting already orbiting satellites ( like Pak Sat-1). Its budget is less than even Ukraine, Belgium or Iran’s space agencies and competition with India’s ISRO is hopelessly out of the question at the moment. Concerning space sciences, Karachi University’s space sciences

institute ISPA is suffering from neglect, so much so that the class rooms have broken light bulbs, the whole facility is running on generators and the only “powerful” telescope provided is malfunctioning and hopelessly obsolete – I wish that was an exaggeration.

The future of earthlings lies out there in space. Now, one might argue that Pakistan already has enough expenses on its plate without adding space exploration expenditures to the list. However, if we don’t catch up with the changing times then we might be left woefully behind. India has already sent an unmanned spacecraft to the moon and is on its way to becoming a major space power, leaving Pakistan to squabble with the US and Afghanistan over petty issues and countering home grown fundamentalism.

The question is not about whether Pakistan should takes giant leaps in advancing its space program but about whether Pakistan would be economically able to stand in the comity of nations. Is our entrepreneurial spirit so dead that we can’t even imagine the possibility of Pakistan’s space age? Recently I wrote a blog about putting a Pakistani on the

moon. Ludicrous though it sounds, the purpose of that article was to observe the imaginative power and the entrepreneurial zeal of my fellow Pakistani readers. Many blog sites in the Pakistani blogdom refused to even publish that (except for a couple). It makes me wonder if Jules Verne was denied publication rights to Journey to the Moon (a century before the Apollo missions) by the French, just because it was highly ludicrous. It is that imaginative power and spirit – not squabbling over vague religious doctrines – that propels nations to excel in economics, science and technology.

Currently the Pakistani space program comprises of:

- Satellite Development Program Remote Sensing & GIS Applications,

-Space Science,

- Core Technologies Development,

- International Cooperation & Infrastructure Development.

The satellites that are in operation are Pak Sat-1, Pak Sat1-R, and the Badr Series satellites. Suparco has planned to launch an optical imagery satellite soon and a high resolution remote sensing satellite by the year 2014. These plans are integrated within the Space Program 2040, whose purpo

If there is a time for Pakistan to make a giant leap then now is that time. With a stagnant space administration, lack of education and research in space sciences, if we can overcome the institutional barriers to stop us from succeeding there is nothing to stop our minds.se is to present the full benefits of space technology to the nation. As commendable as these steps may be, an active effort still has to be made to make the public aware of these achievements. A crop of scientists and engineers has to be cultivated so that the future growth of Pakistani space program is not moribund. Since Suparco is still dependent on Chinese and Russia

n technology to develop satellite, communication and launch systems, to launch a truly indigenous satellite and space vehicle efforts have to be made to promote s

pace technology in our schools, universities and colleges. If we can build sophisticated weapons of mass destruction, why not use the same technologies in areas of science and technology.

If Pakistan is to survive for a thousand years then the time for developing a comprehensive space exploration strategy is now!

The Great Brain Waste

My following article also appeared on Express Tribune Blogs

In May last year an Australian embassy press release stated that more than 5,000 Pakistani students have chosen Australia as their destination to study.

How many of these people actually go abroad to study?

The answer is nil.

Living in Australia, I can say that 99% of these so-called students are actually professionals and underachievers of society who go abroad to seek a better life. Let’s face it: who would want to live in a country where there is daily load shedding, nepotism, corruption, government ineptitude and terrorism, right?

Although this Pakistani talent is moving out in search of greener pastures, the truth is that most of it is being put to use in cutting tomatoes for restaurants, driving taxis and cleaning toilets. This phenomenon is known as brain waste.

According to the Encyclopedia of World Economy , brain waste is defined as the underuse of migrant talent in the host country. In the same encyclopedia, which quotes Ozden’s 2006 study, it is mentioned that the brain use of Pakistani migrants is just 38%

The problem is that the toilet cleaner or that person who chops veggies in restaurants is a highly educated man or woman who might possess a masters or bachelors degree but can’t get a decent job. Misconceptions about race and religion are also important factors for Pakistanis being jobless or being caught in sub-standard jobs in the West.

Another important and closely related problem is the under utilisation of Pakistani talent. This means that even if you get a decent job in a high-rise building abroad, you will still face a barrier during job promotions and other office activities. This talent is being wasted in a foreign country. It should really be put to good use in Pakistan. This is why the brain drain in Pakistan and the subsequent brain waste are co-related. Hundreds of Pakistani doctors, engineers and IT professionals are working in super markets, packaging factories and restaurants abroad.

Many Pakistani students go away merely to secure a nationality. They do not even bother to show up for classes during the semester and appear only at the time of exams. After my recent encounters with some of these students, I realised that most are here in a foreign country to secure a better future for their families by sacrificing their own. Sadly, these people add nothing to the knowledge of the host country and finally become parasites. The labour that could have been done by any other common person is now being done by our doctors, scientists and engineers.

Recently, I met a former government teacher from Punjab who after being frustrated by low salaries moved to Australia to work in a kebabshop. All he wants is to earn enough money to move back to Pakistan and open a restaurant in five years, so that he and his family can live “happily ever after”.

After witnessing the government’s legendary acts of corruption, who can convince that poor teacher not to leave his job and pursue a career which is unsuitable for him? The truth is that Asians generally choose their careers on the basis of a given situation and not their talent. Hence, Pakistan which already faces a shortage of teachers, is short of one more.

Who knows how many other doctors, engineers and scientists will leave Pakistan to be contractors, taxi drivers and restaurant owners at the expense of their true skill?

Unfortunately, these talented and highly skilled individuals will remain unutilised unless something substantial is done to stop this brain waste and restore normalcy in the state of Pakistan.

Explanations

Explanations are required everywhere, you enter into your house at 2 in the morning and you have to explain the reason to your mother who will dutifully explain to your sleeping dad in the morning ( though with some neccesary alterations).

You have to explain yourself to the security official at the airport when he finds a jar of mayonnaise in your bag, you have to explain that its just mayonnaise and not liquid rdx or semtex explosive.

Then, you have to explain when you are in a foriegn country that you dont eat bacon, salami or ham.

Life is full of explanations isnt it?.Dont you get sick of explanations everynow and then? and you know what's the next irksome thing is?....listening to explanations. you have to listen to persons explaining to you why they stole your coffee powder or why their offensive behavior can be attributed to their drink addiction. See, i do not give a damn whether you are addicted or not and whether you had abusive parents or not. You have commited a wrong and accept that. The End. But no, we always have explanations.

If the security official finds a mysterious looking mayonnaise in my bag then instead of explaining about the origin of that mayonnaise jar i would rather prefer to have him take the jar and test it and bring it back to me, and just in time so that i dont miss my flight. ( develop a new technology einsteins)

If i have not submitted my assignment on time then i would just say sorry and 'wont happen again' to the teacher and thats about it instead of wasting my time bilging out worthless explanations.

Once a senior employee asked me that why were the sales not happenning on my store , i just replied " customers are not coming, cant do anything", that person actually waited for a minute on the phone as if he was expecting further explanations from me, when he didnt see them coming, he launched on a lecture of his own and after 10 minutes when he sought my apologetic explanation, i calmly replied " if the cutstomers come, i will sell, if they dont, then i cant do anything......anything else?", he promptly put down the phone. Leaving me free to finish the novel that i was reading befre he called.

Another set of explanations that i really HATE is explaining about my country and religion. Why do i always have to explain that Islam is a religion of peace and and we want peace and tolerance. If you you think otherwise then good on you, dont waste your time asking me for apologetic explanatons and neither would i waste my time convincing you...you see i have other more important things to do in life...starting with paying the house rent.

Here's something for the south asian journos out there, please stop being cheesy and corny about Indo Pak relations ...i mean what was that Aman ki Asha thing?...isnt that corny enough...imagine me walking to my indian friend's house and saying " i have come to your house with the message of peace and love"...how corny and cheesy would that sound? apart from being comical. Would it be really dificult to just live peacefully without any annoying displays of cheesiness ( GEO News i am talking to you).

And finnally when you die you have to explain your actions to God ( if you believe in one), ...even there you have to explain!...Christ!!....and you know what i''ll do when i get there? i would say....Dear God...here's what i have done, you have as witnesesses the two angels on my sides, send me either to hell or heaven i dont care...but just dont prolong it like Saas Bhee Kabhi Bahu thee ( it might have ended..-is it? but we have Teray Pehlu Main on the other side of the border that comes on Geo Tv..what episode are we on now?)

See ya

Bye