Karachi Heatwave

All of us have become so used to seeing tragedies and violence in our daily lives that the death of 3,000 innocent people and creation of mass graves are no longer enough to be a burden on our collective consciousness.

Those of us who are not there in Karachi don’t even feel necessary to protest, let alone come together and help our fellow citizens in the hour of need, apparently because the people who died in the current heat wave belonged to all sorts of socioeconomic, cultural and religious backgrounds and did not had any distinct identity.

This reflects the growth of dangerous phenomenon in our society which points out that we no longer associate ourselves as strongly with our national identity as we do with other religious or ethnic biases.

The people who think that it was largely a natural calamity and the fate had written for these poor people to die on roads without a drop of water are mistaken. It is a result of anthropogenic interference in nature and lack of good governance on part of both the federal and provincial government. The people in power are complicit in the deaths of these people because it was part of their duty to save these people once the heat wave had started to take a toll.

The crisis in the city was building up since long as people were unable to get even the minimum water supply and electricity. This shows that there is no longer a government in Karachi as citizens and civil society organizations are providing help to each other and giving those services which should have been provided by the public sector and government officials.

All of us really like to talk about the massacre of Rohingyas in Burma which is no doubt condemnable, but not about the people who are dying on daily basis in our own country. It is time that we come together as nation and start solving our own issues which are grave in nature, because only then we would be in a condition to help those who are suffering around the world.

Freedom of Expression and Paris Attack

The killing of innocent people in Paris this week has once again generated a debate about freedom of expression. It is worth noting that this right was for the first time advocated in the famous declaration, which followed the French Revolution. The theoretical paradigms of free speech were laid down by the famous political philosopher J.S. Mill who argued that self-culture is important for any society if it has to evolve and exist.

Mill also argued that even opinions that go against popular narratives must be protected because they would help in proving the truth as those theories which would not be able to compete or stand the test of time will eventually wither away. It might also be appropriate to mention here, that many of the scientific facts that are now popular were once considered blasphemous by the Church and during the medieval period many scientists had to face persecution, because their discoveries or ideas went against the dogma.

Coming back to the condemnable event that happened in Paris, let us first analyse the aims of those who make caricatures of the Holy Prophet (SAW). The only major aim would be to anger the Muslims so that they respond in a way that will help generate a momentum of hatred among the non-Muslim population regarding them in the western world. So in my own opinion, these caricatures do not fall under the category of freedom of expression. As these acts only generate a reactionary chain of events so they must be avoided. In this regard the debate which is already taking place within UN regarding defamation of religion must again be taken up by the world body and a set of international norms, if not laws, may be set to regulate this behaviour.

This is the way we can help transform the opinion around the world – by trying to create consensus on the fact that these blasphemous caricatures are counter-productive and irrational not by becoming violent. There is also a need to show the world that the barbaric actions of certain individuals do not represent the larger community and generalizations in this regard should be avoided.

I am all in favour of freedom of expression, but anything that is not rational or would not lead to any substantial increase in human knowledge must not be allowed to prosper under the ambit of free speech.

Inhumane International System

If you look at what is going on in the world the only conclusion you reach is that the current international political system – UN, EU and other multilateral organizations- is inhumane and needs to be revamped. The hypocrisy in this system is so apparent that almost anybody can point it out.

More than 100,000 people have lost their lives in the ongoing Syrian conflict and there are more than 400,000 refugees according to UN estimates and what’s the outside world doing about it? Instead of stopping this bloodshed the big powers are instigating more violence by supporting and supplying weapons to particular groups. Nobody gives a damn about the people who die, the families who lost their loved ones and are then forced to leave their homes and live in camps outside their country.

The Syrian conflict not only represents the failure of the international community, but it also shows how indifferent we have become as humans. The tragedy lies in the fact that we first see other people through a particular lens usually defined by our religious, sectarian, ethnic or political bias and then we decide whether their misfortune deserves our attention or not.

The west which is so proud of its democratic traditions doesn’t support it in other countries especially in Middle East. General Sisi overthrows the democratically elected government of President Morsi in Egypt and we are told that it wasn’t a coup because apparently ‘millions of people’ supported it by coming on streets. If this is true then what about the sanctity of the vote? The basis of political authority as defined by western scholars rests on the premise that it will be built with our consent, but the champions of democracy forget their own standards to pursue their interests.

Recently while doing research on Sri Lanka I came to know that the place where thousands of Tamils were massacred is now a tourist resort and this is just one example there are many other stories which never got and will never get our attention as long as we don’t get united and condemn/protest and try to stop the atrocities being committed in the world. It’s time that we start looking at others through a single lens which is defined by humanity – if there is some left in our world.