Pakistan Growing Numb

I recently had a conversation with one of my friends and he said, “Its not that bad, the power only goes out for 4 or 5 hours in the city.”

ONLY 4 or 5 hours? Four hours: half a work day, two-thirds of a sleep cycle, the length of a round- trip flight from Islamabad to Karachi. Imagine the amount of productivity lost in those “mere” 4 hours.

Unfortunately, what would shake and rattle any other country is simply a cursory note in Pakistan. How can a nation sit complacent when one of its youth is shot point blank by the very people who are supposed to protect him? How can a nation quietly watch the flogging and killing of two brothers? How can a nation remain unaffected as its countrymen continue to drown from flood waters? It seems as if as a nation we have become almost cavemen-like; we are only concerned with our immediate surroundings and surviving to the next day.

After a simple flash of the ever-present “breaking news” sign, reports of suicide bombings, target killings, and drone attacks seem to scroll by unacknowledged on the news-ticker. Calamities are jumbled between stories of Bollywood breakups, the U-17 boy’s fencing team’s dismal performance in Madagascar, and the KSE’s .00145% gain. Unless a tragedy occurs in a major city like Islamabad, Lahore, or Karachi, it hardly receives air time. However, when a terrorist attack occurs abroad, Pakistanis sit anxiously by their TVs holding their breath, praying that there are no connections to Pakistan.

The population’s complacency is leading Pakistan to descend into a state of monstrosity. Lives lost are simply numbers on a page, bomb blasts a minor traffic inconvenience. Disaster has become nothing more than water cooler gossip. “Yeah, there was a blast in DG Khan or Peshawar or somewhere. A lot of people died.” “What can we do? Allah reham karay ga.”

The sentiments of the Pakistan populace are somewhat understandable; it is similar to donor fatigue. Many Pakistanis are already overburdened simply with making ends meet, and tragedies happen far too often for them to keep track of. The world continues to spin and mourning idly does not serve any purpose. However, we must not grow numb to brutality. Accepting terrorism as the norm is accepting defeat.

This perpetual cycle of victimization must end. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like a politician, don’t vote for them. As the popular saying goes, “When you point one finger, three point back at you.”