Well, undoubtedly Pakistan is a place where new records are set every day, but the recent crisis where the entire lot of country’s sugar disappeared is one of its kind. It was amazing how the crack down was launched, and in no time media screens were flashing with reports that thousands of sacks hidden from the public eye were discovered.
But like always, out of unknown reasons the accused party, which especially included Sugar Mills Foundation, were brought to the table of talks with highest honor, and as if they have achieved a fantastic feat, and were awarded. This was no less than a “Mafia” style operation where you hijack the masses and get your illegitimate desires approved. It doesn’t matter who was behind this whole drama and to which party he/she belonged, but simply letting them run away with their crime is a shame.
It was amazing to see how Punjab Law Minister on air claimed that Mr. Wattoo has played an unfair game and his action has deprived masses of billion. Whatever is the reality, I don’t hold the establishment accused alone but I am ashamed that being Muslims just for the sake of money they have given sleepless nights to their needy brothers and sisters, and that too just before a holy month like Ramadan. What a shame. There is no other word to describe them as “criminal” and “thief” and they should be tried in the court of justice, no matter who they are.
@Syed: Yes, I’ve heard that, too. Some pigs will defecate on what they can’t eat. I don’t know if big animals, like lions perhaps, deliberately leave leftovers for smaller ones; probably the smaller ones just nip in and grab what they can. I know the big males eat first; the females usually have to wait until they’re finished.
Two hunter friends of mine, from a small plane in Alaska, once watched a ten-foot, thousand-pound brown bear return to his moose kill for a second meal. On top of the moose was a wolverine, weighing maybe fifty pounds, which had found the unattended moose and claimed it for its own, baring its teeth at the bear. With one swipe of its paw the bear sent the wolverine cartwheeling into the woods. End of story.
@Hamid & Shakir: Do we ever really get the whole story about our great leaders?
@Hend: What I meant was under the new nation called Pakistan, which, governments being what they are, have a strong influence on such earthly matters. Most of our problems are “alimentary, my dear Watson.” Food. Yum.
Now if it had been twelve or twenty wolverines on the moose carcass, the bear story might have had a different ending, wouldn’t it?
I heard that in jungle, when big animal eat enough, they leave the remaining food for small ones, only pig after eating destroy the remaining food and doesn’t leave any thing for others. I am not sure wheather its true or not, but when ever I see the politicians, civil and military beurocracy, it remind me this quote.
@Shakir Lakhani
though i have no doubt with what you said………..i believe there should be some respect reserved for him………….end justifies the mean and in the list of all the leaders(after quaid),,he has something to stand out
James, this man Bhutto who said “We shall eat grass…” was the biggest villain in Pakistan’s history. While he was talking about eating grass, he used to drink Evian bottled water imported from France. It was his intransigence that led to Pakistan disintegrating in 1971.
James
your words are kind but Indus valley civilization is actually 5000 years old and the site of one of the oldest civilizations on the earth. The malaise of blackmarketing and bribery is not something that has suddenly come up now. Due to the cycles of famines, droughts interspersed with periods of prosperity, hoarding of commodities and profiteering was perfected to an art form in the subcontinent of South Asia.
This is not to say that Asians are dishonest people but dense population and shortages were more common here than anywhere else in the world.
I find Syed’s argument incorrect because he expects people not to do above things just because they are Muslims. You can practice a new religion but the age old attitudes, mindsets and practices are harder to give up.
In this region the politicians are also corrupt and they encourage and benefit from this. Lot of the citizens have a vested interest in this cycle.
If things have to change then we have to stand up and demand more accountability from leaders and traders. We have to be more socially active and rather than playing victims, we have to start boycotting such people by not buying sugar and sugar products (sweets, biscuits, cookies, cakes etc.) at inflated prices even if that means some sacrifice on our side. We have to show that we also have a say in the economy by flexing the collective economic muscle of the common man.
@Syed: Okay, I see what you mean. It might help you to remember that Pakistan is only 63 years old, whereas the UK is over a thousand, arguably, and maybe Pakistan’s system of internal organization, in this case regarding food distribution, hasn’t been smoothed out yet. I’d say give ’em time, they’ll figure it out.
I found Bhutto’s well-known line “We shall eat grass…” to be a bit revealing. To make sacrifices to get up to speed with Pakistan’s fellow nations in the modern world is expensive, and shortages are the price. Prices and incomes are relative to where you live, though; sugar costs me $.45 per pound, but I bet it’s not nearly that much in Pakistan.
AS
Hoarding and blackmarketing have nothing to do with religion, these are cultural and opportunistic traits prevailing in Asia and specially our great South Asia. What you are asking people to learn is a daunting task given that they have not learnt it in last 3000 years.
What I am saying is that there are sales on basic food items that we all need in this holy month in this particular store in the UK, yet there are food shortages in muslim countries and suppliers are hoarding sugar so that once the demand is much more than supply, the price can rocket up and make them more money.
I’m not saying that the people putting on Ramadan sales do not have the right to call it that as they are not muslims. I am saying that muslims should learn something from them.
Yes we have sales on at christmas, etc. and I’m not ‘peddling any fanatical views’, I’m actually praising what is happening in the U.K. Read my note again guys!
@Hend: I think he’s objecting to the fact that the people putting on the Ramadan discounts aren’t Muslims, so maybe they don’t have the right to call it a “Ramadan” sale. I don’t give a hoot who puts on Christmas sales. What say, AS?
James
I am still not clear about AS’ comment, what is he objecting to?
Don’t we have sales for Christmas or other religious occasions or even memorial day. Some people are peddling their fanatical views without a limit and objecting to everything that comes to their notice. This is pure nonsense. I too would like to raise an objection of my own to their using the internet and computers during this holy month. Hello!!! Is anyone listening to me???