Few months back I got a chance to interview Shahid Afridi. A day before the interview I went to the Regal Electronic Market of Karachi to purchase an audio recording device. While looking for the recorder, we passed through the city’s largest cell phone market. It was almost 9 p.m. but still very noisy and crowded there. Many people were infusing their cell-phones with ring-tones, some were trying to fill the bellies of their handsets with cheap songs and some were selling used sets to buy newer ones. At one shop, as I was peeking at different things and colorful gadgets, I saw some pornographic material in a cell phone. I was shocked to see something like that in a public place. As I noticed things more closely I saw that every other shop was busy in transferring such material into the sets. Cell phones, which are usually used in the civilized world as tools of communication, have been transformed into micro-cinema houses in Pakistan which run adult stuff at very low costs. I noticed that most of the customers in those shops were very young people, mostly in their teens.
Then I recalled how one of my friends once showed his cell phone to us which was filled with same material. He told me that his mobile has a memory card of 20 GB and that made it possible for him to carry several 45 to 50 minutes’ length films in it. I asked him from where he got all that stuff and he laughed at the stupidity of my question. He told me sheepishly that Saddar is the best market for such stuff at very nominal rates. But it was the set that ranged around 15000 to 20000 PK Rupees and that is not affordable at all for our youngsters to carry such expensive appliances. But those who cannot get access to such things are doing number of other things with their cell-phones.
I have been teaching from number of years in one capacity or other so I have interacted with students from primary classes to Masters Level. And believe me no one is safe from this mafia which is ruining the minds of our youngsters. These days everyone carries 3 to 4 sim cards firstly because they are absolutely cheap and secondly because it is easy to give everyone its due share by having 3 to 4 different numbers. Then due to cheaper packages of mobile companies which costs nothing more than few hundred rupees they talk to each other whole nights. I definitely don’t understand how they manage to pay attention to the school and college classes in the morning. Carrying 5 to 6 inches’ long mobile sets switching it to the vibration mode hiding from the eyes of elders at the houses is a piece of cake for our youngsters. You can notice it yourself how many children own their own mobile set. Are we getting the whole point? Are we thinking what this trend can do to our young generation?
We feel elated when we see a new package offered by any telecommunication company. We feel irritated when we see that telecommunication sector does not provide enough employment chances because it is not labor intensive industry but do we ask question what this trend of money making is doing to the tender and impressionable minds?
I also need to ask one very relevant question here. What is the role of teachers and parents in all this? We see bigger campaigns for the eradication of polio, hepatitis and other physical illnesses but what is our role to prevent this soul-killing epidemic? Providing each and every facility to our children is our goal irrespective of what it can do to their future on the hindsight. I usually involve parents when it comes to the use of internet and cell-phones but parents generally reply that no, no my kid is very naive; he does not feel like doing such vulgar things. Then I feel tempted to ask that whether their kid is not human who is not immune from the attacks of evil which never let any opportunity go by easily to annihilate us, humans. I just want to know is there anyone listening because out there is a jungle and especially responsible and good parenting becomes a weapon to survive.
Photo Credits: Flickr here
I saw some pornographic material in a cell phone.
you mean transferring Modernism and Enlightenment in cell phones? ;)
Mufti Saab, in reality both are equal. A kid gets involved in porn stuff would actually be harming himself both mentally and physically. If this activity becomes habit then later that kid after marraige will produce a generation who would have lesser moral values(or no moral values). The end result would be quite obvious, the disaster.
That’s other thing if you are going to issue a fatwa that watching porn is another form of spreading peace? ;)
How very irksome it seems to hear continuously about the moral degeneration of youth with out ever knowing what models they get to emulate. I remember to have heard the objection of some biggots in late 6os that flying by plane was illegitimate (haraam) because planes flew over the mosques where we keep Holy Quran. Then came TV, and it was declared absolutely unislamic. With a vicious smirk on his pious looking appearence, a collector of donations for madarsa in a train journey demonstrated how Imran Khan rubbed the ball for shine. And then he roared with moral indignation: “this is what you let your women folk see on TV. Hell’s gates will never close!” Making, keeping pictures were / are haraam. Someone asked: why do people carry their wallets into the mosques; the currency notes have portraits of Quaid-e- Azam? If that doesn’t make one’s prayers useless, where is the harm in other areas? Today we see these very same pundits of moral uprightness vocalizing their half baked verdicts on television. It is now HALAAL !How many moral wits have refused to get their NICs?
I am certain if Ali had cared to see the face of the person downloading pornographic content, he would have found not a teenager but a grown up person. The CD/DVD/Video shops all over the country display, sell and keep almost all sorts of material. Obsene jokes on cell phone make rounds mainly to middle aged subscribers. It doesn’t require a degree in psychology to note that teenage is a turbulant time, rebellous to the core. Not for nothing do they say ” boys will be boys”. They will become men when they see men. If the models are given to perversion, the future is bound to be away from what we call morals. And why blame technology? Qazi hits the nail when he says we haven’t engaged our youth. Yes, their harmone flooded energy needs to be channelized to positive pursuits. And a positive pursuit does not necessarily mean a moral one. It is a poor culture that doesn’t cater to future needs. Taking the symptom for the disease doesn’t either talk highly of the doctor. Let us sharpen our understanding of the time, i.e, our time, not some distant glory ( which in fact wasn’t glorious at all. Read a celebrated writer of the time and you will find the same complaint of degeneration.) Reminds me someone’s gem of a comment: “It is an illusion that youth is immoral and unhappy, an illusion of those who have lost it.”
Well, what would prefer… a 15 year old seeking salvation by blowing himself up, along with a dozen others, or that same kid getting his jollies on the phone?
The article speaks volumes about how a typical Pakistani thinks. The overriding need to protect different segments of our population is evident everywhere. Teenagers being protected from so called bad influences, civilians being protected by the all powerful military junta and the list goes on and on….
Invariably, this leads to an overzealous urge to censor everything under the sun which doesn’t help at all and in fact piques the curiosity of those being supposedly helped. A recent example is the banning of Youtube.
The need to communicate is a basic human instinct and the availability of cell phones is nothing but a new way of interacting which has gone on for ages. This need has been fulfilled through generations by the age old art of letter writing, it is a pity indeed that an increasing percentage of our populace is now devoid of this skill.
I agree that the young should certainly be protected against exploitation but till what age ? Parents with kids in high schools should be expected to show an interest in what their sons and daughters are doing. But the need to protect adults enrolled in colleges just eludes me.
I am no psychologist, but this article just proves that young people will always find new ways to communicate when such contact is discouraged especially when it occurs between the two genders. As for pornography, it’s just an outlet for our society’s frustrations. I would remind our readers that there has always been a demand for locally produced soft porn in our country. For those not aware, a majority of it comes from the province where video/cd outlets have been closed or burnt down over the past year or two.
At the end of the day young people will always find new ways to communicate regardless of their religion, physical location and cultural norms. The urge to prevent this from happening for no convincing reason seems to me to be really absurd.
I had read numerous articles by Ali in Herald, if it’s the same person, and highly regarded him for his informative pieces, until just now, because the text here at ATP is substandard and lacks appropriate editing.
It was also obnoxious on Ali’s part to let us know that he has interviewed Afridi, player of a sport in Pakistan.
The presence of a vibrant Telecom Industry in a country, along with its Information Technology sector (generally known as ICT), is measured these days along with the other four pillars; Business Environment, Education, Economy and Governance, in a knowledge-based economy model.
A quick glance at any of these pillars, with the exception of ICT, will show that we severely lag behind on these fronts. Therefore, the emergence of a strong ICT sector in Pakistan, should be looked up to, rather than down on.
Mobiles or Cellfones (for American brothers), can be used progressively. Scientifically-inclined youth can develop different applications; educational applications, to be downloaded on to mobiles for distribution and other contsructive purposes.
What Ali saw, should not have schocked him, if he has lived in Pakistan long enough. The reasons for youth’s love for pornography and other ‘anti-social’ activities would make a long list here. For starters, though, may be they are not engaged by us? No?