"It’s been a long night in our peaceful cities, It’s been a long night and we're battered and bruised, I have seen us looking a lot better, My heart breaks when i remember you. Who says we can’t be free? From all of the things that we used to be, Re-write our history, Who says we can’t be free?" [Adapted from '
Who Says']
Friday, 28 May, 2010
Lahore suffers an attack on two Ahmedi mosques during Jumu'ah. 80+ innocents dead. Thousands of lives severely affected. Elite still safe and having korma for dinner.
These people go out everyday and pay bills, they work hard during the day at whatever life they have built for themselves. In the evenings, they come home to their families and have dinner together. They sleep and prepare for the next day to come. They live day to day because they have no other options. There is no other way of life. They are a people who have been abandoned by those who were to lead them. Hey mr. foot-soldier, their well fed, sheltered and protected lives are unchanged by your actions. Your actions have failed you, as your people have failed you. Don't go, come have a smoke with me.
You and your friends band together out of a feeling of loss. you eat together, you pray together and you memorize excerpts from a book in a foreign language. You don't know what the words mean but they are considered sacred and there is a sense of purpose to be had in believing in them. You establish community meeting places... the caretakers of these establishments see a group of misguided souls and they feel that there is power to be had here. They start herding you. Slowly this community becomes the center of your world. You feel like you belong to something. Something possibly pure, something glorious... The deep rollers and their over bearing personalities start to control social behavior. You are now part of the hive. They will protect you and you will be their tool.
You are told that there are people living in another part of the world who suppress you and are evil. They are keeping us from achieving greatness. We were great once. That was 1,400 years ago when we were kings. We should be kings again. Wouldn't that be nice? But those evil people we can't control because they are too far away... so for now, let's just deal with the next best thing.. lets go to the market and hurt the people there. This will send a clear message to all governments. We will be considered a force and people will listen to our ideas and will do as we mean. So you go into the market, you pick places of worship because people are at their weakest there.. the same things you claim you fight for you destroy. Oh this is a different sect! Their mythology is slightly different than ours.. it's their fault they were born into these communities and raised to believe something. They intended us harm when they chose to live a certain way. Let's start with them.
So you go and spray bullets on innocent people who are just living their lives trying to make ends meet in a difficult world. You kill them because they do not belong to your established community so they are lesser human beings. If they die.. it's nothing to us. Wait. Do you hear those cries? Now there is a child somewhere that has lost a father. There is a mother somewhere who has lost a partner. She needed him to help raise her family. She has lost her support. Do you hear that? There is a mother weeping for her child. She will never see her child, hold him or see how her future unfolds. She has lost a part of herself. She has lost a reason for living. Is that what you are fighting for? To rule a nation of people with broken wills and battered hearts? Instead of ruling the people you so crave, you have left us with nothing but sorrow and heartbreak. The very land you wish to make 'pure' you have soiled with your menace. You have reduced it's beauty. We are declining and you are driving us there. I feel the wave of depression that you unleashed millions of miles away... you and your friends have lost your humanity.
And you fat, gutless leaders who hide in their homes and travel in their motorcades... you who want to lead us have sold out your own people. You are drunk on the false sense of power. You want monuments dedicated to your egos... your zaat, your menacing lineage. You must hate this country with a passion... you must hate the people that surrounded you... i have no other explanation for you.
I am from a land with great potential. With warm hearted and hard working people. There is a certain sense of civility missing though... honesty, patience and tolerance are not appreciated enough. We're not straight arrows but we have the potential to be great. We need strong charismatic people with progressive ideas to help guide us. It's not that you are not smart. You have proved your mettle while trying to attain office. It's not that you are inept because you understand the people and what they respond to. So it's probably the lack of desire to help your people. The lack of empathy and interest needed to do your job. It's a lifestyle for you. Somebody else will do the nation building part. I am ashamed to recognize you as a Pakistani. I am ashamed that you are part of my people.
So mr. foot-soldier and mr fat and gutless, have mercy on us, let us be, let us live good lives... let us breathe and eat and share the warmth that we have to offer. Help us believe in ourselves. Let my people go.
