Back in January 2007, I wrote about beggars on the streets of Lahore, Karachi and the growing indifference in our society towards these extremely poor and forgotten people. Hundreds of organized gangs are operating in almost every big city of Pakistan who amputate the organs of little kids, old and young people and then leave them on streets to make good money for them. But what about the unfortunate beggars themselves?
We see them every day at traffic signals and footpaths from our car windows and most of the times just throw a coin at them and try to ignore them as they don’t exist. This level of indifference in our society is sad. May be we were put on this side of the car window for a reason, to be able to help those on the other side.
Our courts are too busy solving the legal and constitutional issues, the law enforcement agencies are occupied keeping an eye on politicians or arresting and deporting them, and all of us are too busy debating all this … but, for whom? Maybe it is those who are debating the ‘big picture’ who are really missing the big picture that can only be seen in the small pictures.
The photograph above by Jawad Zakariya, once again reminded me of the miserable life of these unwanted people in our country. Society rejects them and police harshly beats them on daily basis, adding to their misery.
Jawad writes with this photograph on flickr and I can totally relate to him as many times I must have done the same:
As I was taking photos in and around Data Darbar. This old man asked me to come over.
“Will you print these photos in the newspaper?”, he asked. Before I could explain that I wasn’t affiliated with any paper, he continued. Tell them how the police brutally beat us up all the time….and he showed me the injuries on his arms and legs.
“Why do they do that?”, I asked.
“Because we sit here begging. This is Data Darbar ! where else can I go.”
… and he started crying … print this in the paper maybe then they’ll stop … then he thought for a moment …
maybe if you print it they’ll get more angry….
another pause …
print it, maybe some higher up will see it and make them stop.“They hit old crippled men”…..”shameless animals”….”Is this why we made this Pakistan”…..”Is this Why ???”………..he kept asking as he wept.
I had no answer … I got back into my Civic … turned on the AC … and started driving away.
“Is this why we made this Pakistan?” I have asked myself this questions many times and never found an answer. Can you think of an answer?
Every society has to be judged upon how it treats the weakest citizens amongst its “population”.
As a pakistani-born, raised up by pakistani parents, brought up amongst/amidst/pakistani´s , and having gained the primarily and secondary socialiciation process in Pakistan its appropriate to reflect about this very fundamentel question raised here………!!!
In a society as the pakistani, based on the values that formed Pakistan into the existence,(and there has been so many shaeed and qurbanies since ) we need to REFLECT all of us .
-the path we are on from a sociological perspective, in a very
fine and exclusively well-formulated manner this man, my fellow pakistani formulates it. What he formulates is the core of the socioeconomical truth for many of our citizens, a desperation!!!
Are some of us ” Primus inter pares”, or are we all equal?????
[quote] “Theory suggests that if the rich prosper then eventually the poor will too … We need quick macro growth and that will trickle down” [unquote]
Here is what John Galbraith, the famous Berkeley economist, once said on trickle down economy: “if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows…”
WE Hold These Truths To Be….
self-evident that
1. The Beggar mafias and syndicates descends upon Karachi and other cities near Eid (so please stop blaming Pervez Musharraf because it unfortunately happens every Ramadan does it not because that is the time Muslims distribute zakat?)
2. That yes, there is real poverty in Pakistan which is not discussed by this article and which cannot be alleviated by Reaganite supply-side economics and claims of “Pakistan-shining” by Pervez Musharraf’s party —just wait until Americans have got what they want because then they will treat enlightened Pakistanis just like they treated their enlightened Ba’athist allies.
3. That yes, Pakistan is only partly shining because Pervez Musharraf is not corrupt unlike Benazir and Nawaz than in the “democratic” ’90’s but the problems have now unfortuantely multiplied and will not resolve unless institutions are strengthened and individuals weakened.
If two things can be removed from the mindset of pakistani’s then probably they can make some progress …first one is to stop comparing themselves with India as there is no comparison between the two as the size,mindset of people ,economies and culture of two countries are very different from each other and secondly if anyone has been to india you will notice that people do not invoke god’s name in everything they do rather they take responsibility for their actions unlike in pakistan so if people have doubts as to why pakistan was created they should do some soul search and they will get the answer.
Last week geo TV hosted all the top scorers in Inter exams from all over pakistan.
A question was asked by the host in the end and replies of all of these top elite of education institution should serve as an eye opener for all the politicians.
Lahore,Pakistan is probably the only major city in the world where no one goes to bed on an empty stomach.Allaoakbar.I am surprised that the photo of the begger was taken by Jawad near Data Sahib in Lahore.It is precisely this shrine which is open 24 hours and any body,rich,poor,traveller,destitute,homeless can have food and shelter.Nevermind the beggers and poverty in India,can any country of the world match this.No questions asked.In writing this I feel humbled and pray for the blessings of Allah.It revives the faith of humanity for looking and caring for the poor and needy.I wish more can be done.Masalam.
Very nice post even though some commenters are trying hard to distract discussion away from real topic into useless things. I guess it demonstrated the ‘indifference’ that the post talks about.
Theory will suggest that if the rich prosper then eventually the poor will too. Some of the economic development that is happening in IT and other areas if continued and if the stocks prosper then eventually that will help teh poor too. We need quick macro growth and that will trickle down