Owais Mughal
We first saw this photo at Metroblogging Lahore and found it very appealing to share it here:
This photo is of a banner seen at the gate of a factory on Multan Road, Lahore. The banner reads in English as:
“Less literate, illiterate and hardworking but dedicated boys are required urgently for work in the factory.”
Credits: >man!< at Metroblogging Lahore
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
But if the guys are really illiterate, How will they read the banner ?
It’s quite clear that the factory owner wants his workers to be ‘less literate’. And this is simply because a ‘less literate’ factory worker is more susceptible to exploitation from management than a ‘more literate’ one.
I feel sorry for the factory owner as well as the company. This factory is surely going to suffer in the long run.
I’m not sure about that.
If I am a factory owner, I would love if innovations come from the grass roots level.
Moreover, the workers would be able to articulate the problems faced at the factory floor in a better way and would also be able to suggest creative solutions to the same.
I think it’s unfair to link ‘arrogance’ with ‘education’. Also, if you say, making informed decisions, and resisting exploitation is ‘arrogance’ then I guess I’m wrong.
I love some of the comments posted on ATP. Just the other day someone called those who celebrated Independence Day “bayghairat”. Now those who are educated are “arrogant” and think hard work is beneath them.
I have to agree with this factory owner that once people get education in our country, they become arrogant and think of beautiful ethic of hard working as most denigrating. Another way to look at it is to see if our educational system is suited to the needs of our own needs. Why is it that the educated men from villages do not live in villages and migrate to Urban areas? On lighter note, Mushtaq Yousufi described our culture as “Charpai” culture where everything can take place on Charpoi.
Another great banner. Reflects the ‘adabi zauq’ of the employers! Along with Mehanti, being Jafaa-kash is another requirement.
Unfortunate but true in a way. It is commonly believed in semi-urban and rural areas that once the boy has attended a few years of school, he becomes useless, as he can’t either get or government job or do manual work.
After the ‘shararti logoN ke liye sazaa ka maqul intezam hai’, this is another interesting banner photo at ATP.