"Here's the other side of Newsweek's Muslim Rage photo. Something the mainstream media wouldn't be too keen to show you in highlighted characters and red strips. Today, tens of hundreds of people showed up from 8 year olds to 60+ senior citizens in different cities of Pakistan to clean up the mess created by the few individuals who somehow always end up defining Pakistan. Here's to all of today's participants, you're the reason why we have a good future. Pakistan is proud of you.
“Turn every stone in Pakistan and you find a diamond,” said Sabina Khatri – one of the six central characters of Ho Yaqeen, a project that aims to promote a positive image of Pakistan. She sent chills down my spine.
What Sabina said stayed with me; working for a news organisation has made me feel despondent and desolate. As news of torture, rape, kidnapping, sectarian violence and bomb blasts pours in, I am left wondering where the good news is.
Are any good things happening in Pakistan?
If they are, why don’t I know about them? Why doesn’t the world know about them?
How long will Pakistani news be synonymous with tragedy?
This is why people like Sabina and Sharmeen matter – they give us hope that good things are indeed happening in Pakistan.
At the event, a documentary was screened, based on the life of Sabina – a mother of two and a teacher by profession – who has changed the lives of 90 children in Lyari.
The audience could make comparisons between the documentary and the ongoing crisis in the violent neighbourhood. I overheard sighs, and murmurs of “see” and “sh*t”. They emphathise, I thought.
I saw people wiping tears, sniffling as they watched the screen with the beaming faces of Lyari’s children – hopeful children who dream of a “new Lyari”. In one scene, the children circling Sabina had their eyes shut, imagining a Lyari without the reverberating sound of gunfire, without echoes of horror.
As the documentary concluded, a roaring applause erupted in the auditorium. The audience didn’t stop until Sharmeen came to the stage. She explained that this series focuses on the “everyday heroes of Pakistan who can inspire so many people to do good but nobody knows them.”
In my university days, I was the first to dismiss these efforts, saying that they don’t bear any fruit at all. I used to say ‘things never change in Pakistan,’ but as a journalist who is constantly aware of ‘what is wrong with Pakistan’, I feel this negativity is the reason that there is a dire need for a buffer; something that can dilute the effect of the adrenaline rush after breaking news.
The university-going Sidrah spoke from inside me:
What change will this bring?
As though she read my thoughts, Sharmeen answered my question unknowingly:
It’s not easy to bring about change. Change doesn’t come overnight.
It doesn’t matter who sponsored the event or who attended it; what matters at the end is that despite the despair and helplessness, there are people who are working to make Pakistan better and hopeful. We need to be able switch-off so we can zoom out of the bitter reality and find some peace, and events like these make this possible.
KARACHI: After being in the country for more than two weeks, German journalist Joachim Holtz is of the view that reality is far better than perception.
“This is my second week in Karachi and before coming, I thought I would not survive even a day,” said the senior journalist and foreign correspondent of the German channel, ZDF. He was speaking to the journalist community on ‘Pakistan’s image abroad- a German view’ at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday.
Back home, the journalist feels that Pakistan has no image at all. “Pakistan is simply the name of an Islamic country in South Asia. There is mostly fear and some respect amongst Germans for the country and mostly, they have a blurry image of strange people living in a far away land.”
While some Germans were aware that Pakistan has delicious mangoes and the people love cricket, Holtz said that there are many who believe that Pakistan is an extremist, nuclear-armed country. “But they know very little or nothing about the country itself.”
Changing perceptions
Citing Pakistani and German newspapers, Holtz said that he only found news about bombings, Raymond Davis, the assassinations of Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, floods and their destruction. He said a few German papers have covered events such as the Karachi Literature Festival, while one newspaper wrote a feature on sufism in the country.
Contrary to what he had read, Holtz seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his trip. Apart from visiting the Empress Market in Karachi and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, he also took a dip in the ocean last week. He went to Murree, Lahore and several cities in Sindh, including Sukkur, Hyderabad and Thatta. “I have never met any unfriendly person while travelling. There is so much hospitality, even the poorest have welcomed me with a cup of tea. I love it here!” exclaimed a delighted Holtz.
Moin Khan, who travelled half the globe on his motorbike, as part of his campaign called 'A different agenda.
Pakistan is an interesting country to say the least. We have pobably as many (if not more) news channels here than entertainment channels. Unfortunately, where other countries use their media to benefit their people and show case talent from within it, we use ours mostly to spread fear and loathing for ourselves.
I was recently browsing the internet to see if we had success stories of our own, for motivating our people, when I found out about so many gifted people in our country about whom we hardly hear anything. The media shows one interesting story about these people and then goes back to how Pakistan is going to the dogs.
Unlike what our own media shows, we are not terrorists begging America to love us and show us their mercy – that’s just our government. The nation, on the other hand, is a bunch of highly gifted individuals with the potential to do great things, inspire others and perhaps be the future think tanks of the world. Here are some examples of the individuals from Pakistan that I was able to come up with in a matter of 20 minutes on Google.
70-year old Mushtaq Ahmed Siyan (PhD student):This amazing person is from the small town of Gujranwala and a poor man, but one that can speak, write and read English and did his MPhil in 2010 and is currently doing his PhD in Education. Why did he do this? Only to show the world that he can, not for employment but just because.
Two brothers make a gas powered fan: The first time they made a gas powered fan was in 1970 and now they have perfected the design. The fan runs for up to four hours and only consumers one rupee of gas!
Pakistan’s First Fuel Efficient Car:Made by12 Pakistani students from NED, the car can travel 80km in a single liter. The last report on these individuals indicated that they were trying to secure sponsorship to take their car for a world competition back in 2010, whatever happened to them, is still unknown. I’m sure we can use such cars inPakistan nowadays, but unfortunately no one from the government has tried to turn this project into a reality.
Ali Nawazish:He took 23 subjects in his A’levels andscored21A’s, 1B and a C.He didn’t require any tuition, just a lot of hard work and energy drinks. He’s currently enrolled in the Cambridge University.
Car + Power Generator – A Pakistani invention: Necessity is truly the mother of all inventions and we, in Pakistan, therefore have a lot of great inventors. A generator that can power your house can also be used to run a car. The person who made this invention isn’t even a college graduate. This speaks wonders for our people and yet no one from the government cares.
Moin Khan travels the world on a motorbike:Moin KhanTraveled half the globe, from America to Lahore, on his motorbike as part of his campaign called‘A different agenda’. He too realized that Pakistan wasn’t presented in the best of ways and wanted to do something to change that. His story is one to be shared and learned from. He was able to change the minds of many regarding Pakistan and its people during his six month trip. He can easily be used as a good will ambassador by our country for youth across the world, but then again, that would require the government to give a hoot about its people and the image of the country, which it currently does not.
With so much talent present in our country, why doesn’t our government invest in education, vocational training and infrastructure development? We need to fix our problems ourselves and not rely on the so called friendships of other nations.
We have all the potential we need, all we require now is for the government to listen and act
