It was cold. That’s for sure. It was dark- but in dark times, what difference does it make. Two twin boys. Not more than five or six years of age. They were one and apart. They were alone. Perhaps orphans. Their only source of refuge was in each other and the power of imagination only children so young possess. They were all too innocent and all too unprepared. Will they survive? Have they survived? These questions come back to haunt me sometimes. Sometimes.
Only occasionally do my thoughts betray me. Only occasionally do they escape me. My concerns. My worries. My questions. My comments. My consciousness. My being. And barely do I succeed in bypassing the gate-keeper who is there to stop me from wondering off into the forbidden territories as he directs me back to that deep pit where I am meant to belong. Merely reminding me of the official dogma of the land, he says “Mind your own business”. And I listen. I succumb. I give in. To myself.
And yet, in times like these, when speaking and humanizing an event seems too much a task a sane person can endure, a painful madness is what we fear is in store for us. We are reminded again and again. ‘Live and let live’goes the conventional wisdom. It has a soothing mesmerizing effect. We know it is a flawed, conveniently distorted rationalization of going out in the world seeking a good ‘normal’ time, but we buy into it. We are sold into it. For convenient and flawed reasons. To unsee what hides in front of us. Behind us. Beneath us. Just a bit tilted towards the invisible side of the lane.
Those two kids. Beautiful kids. I wonder what has become of them. But are we ever the same persons. Am I the same kid who thought Jupiter and Mars were where girls and boys came from? Who argued with so passionate fervor that Karachi is bigger than Pakistan? Who couldn’t help saying ‘Qaizemaizam’ was the founder of our nation? I don’t know what happened to that little kid. I’d love to meet him. All I have are a few memories of him and the exciting world he lived in. I wish I could go back. But could I wish the same for them. Would they like to go back? In that single moment. When history stops and mourns. It mourns existence. Will they like to go back? Will they like to be where they are today? I’ll never truly know.
It was in Quetta. That beautiful valley town enchanted with cherished memories of my childhood. Ziarat, a popular hill station resort, was not far away- a weekend’s distance. My family spent four years in Quetta when I was a kid. But this time I was on a short visit. This isn’t something so ancient. Ancient treasures aren’t very well received anyway. The image of Jinnah’s residency in Ziarat exists today in my ancient imagination. But so does this. This moment. This memory. This reflection. This guilt.
It was two or three years ago. I met up with old friends. We hanged out in different places across the city. The freezing night was begging for a heavy garma garam (freshly hot)meal. We decided to have some juicy seekh kebabs of the Lazzat Kadda (House of Taste), a small celebrated restaurant near Liaquat Market. It was late when we got there. It gets late pretty early in Quetta. We laughed off the evening.
It was when we were leaving that a friend directed our attention towards those two young invisible boys. Two intensely shivering, identical souls were sleeping on the side of the footpath. They had grabbed on to each other viciously and tightly. As if their young lives depended on it. As if the universe was hanging in balance. They were using each other’s bodies as blankets. They were both only wearing the thinnest of shalwar kameez outfits. They were fighting a battle against an obscenely cold-hearted weather in an obscenely cold-hearted world. Alone. Scared. Resilient. Powerful.
There are times. Sometimes. When I escape myself. That shivers go down my spine. Not from feeling cold but from feeling overwhelmed by horror. The horror of the event is unspeakable. But what is terrifying to me most is not the event. It is not the scene of seeing two chipmunks left alone in the tragedy of existence. It’s those words that give me nightmares. It’s those words that are truly breathtaking. They force me to self-reflection. They allude me to the society I live in. They push me to myself. They ask me whether I am still there. As a person. As a feeling being. As there. Available. To not ‘live and let die’. To care enough to ‘live and not let die’.
Those words were uttered by a shopkeeper. He said ‘they’re used to it. No worries’.
Sakeena, a 10 year old who has never been to school, never enjoyed playing with dolls let alone the funky hi-tech gadgets, is carrying a 1 year old in her lap, sitting on a table distant to begum saheba’s. Her dull glitterless clothes, unadorned arms and ears tell us, she’s the odd one. Sakeena’s job is to take care of the child who she can hardly carry, feed him, change his nappy and make sure he doesn’t cry while begum saheba enjoys her lavishly decorated table and socialising exercise. Sakeena has no right to run around, play or enjoy with her age-mates at the dinner and absolutely no sharing the table. She may get some food though.
Najma, a 28 year old who looks to be 40, skinny and dark is sweeping the floor of a ‘bangla‘ (a huge mansion). Her two-year old has an ear infection and she does not have money for antibiotics. Her concentration is everywhere. She has to finish work and get her child’s ailment sorted somehow. She takes a day off next day to see the doctor and to take care of her child who does not have proper clothes on his body and no footwear whatsoever whether it’s summer or winter. She gets told off as there was a grand dinner at saheb’s place and begum saheba was in thick soup when Najma didn’t turn up as there was a big mess in the kitchen to be sorted after dinner. She was scolded, insulted and eventually fired.
A child surrounded by a garbage heap, sorting paper and recyclables and eating our rotten left-overs from it at the same time – A child covered with houseflies sleeping on a pavement outside a jeweller’s shop (where jewellery of millions of rupees is being chosen). He dozed off while waiting for his father to go home, who sells Kulfi outside a popular shopping centre – A child who sits outside a fast-food restaurant and begs usfor roti and cannot afford a chicken wing let alone a mighty burger – A child who cleans our windscreen for a few rupees and we shun him away because his water is dirty and would ruin our car – A baby sleeping in the lap of a begging mother unaware of the cruel world he has come to. She covers his face to avoid bright headlights of the cars passing by but we can see his beautiful but muddy feet sticking out of her chaadar – A child who sells a rose bud outside a restaurant where we spent thousands of rupees for what? Yes, one meal –
A woman who washes our expensive branded and imported (etc.) dinnerware, breaks a small chip and is shouted at, beaten and declared unfit for her job – A woman who cleans our extravagant dining table, but is never allowed to share it, dusts our sofa but can’t sit on it and we love it when she sits on the floor near our feet – A driver who drives our luxurious car but waits for a bus for hours around midnight to get home and see his children on the weekend – The guard/chowkidar who sleeps outside on the next door plot under a tent or in our car porch while we sleep in our air-conditioned room away from heat and mosquito bites – The labourer who builds our beautiful house in scorching sun, just to sleep in a place one can hardly call a room, but it’s all-in-one home for him (kitchen, bedroom, lounge etc.).
Close your eyes..
Imagine the muddy feet, the dirty smelly clothes, no surety of food for the day, no money in the pocket, let alone banks, no transport. Recall their mistakes and shortcomings; recall our anger, lack of forgiveness, zero tolerance, and humiliation they face every day. And now, switch sides.Imagine they were us and we were them. Scary thought, isn’t it? They didn’t choose their fate neither did we. So why not fear the Creator who put us in a MORE difficult test than them by giving us authority over them.
The dehumanization of the society has reached its limits. The above examples are complacently accepted. Humans are not equal. They are unequal just because they were born to parents of different social statuses. And the one who has money and authority is superior. The kings and queens found everywhere in our society show their grandeur with harshness and humiliation towards the subordinates at home as well as the less fortunate outside home. Softness, empathy and forgiveness are considered weaknesses.
But this is not what we were taught, is it? ‘We are Muslims and we are proud’, ‘we love the Prophet (SAW)’ and ‘we are ready to die for him’ etc., but are we ready to live in a way he taught us to and follow his footsteps if it kills our big ego? Forgiveness, controlling anger and ignoring mistakes were compared by the Prophet (SAW) with strengths of a wrestler. He taught us that superiority came with piety and not money. Do we think that the mighty and wealthy Arab leaders who lashed and tortured the bodies of Khubab and Bilal (RA) were superior to them? No! Bilal, the black, the poor, the slave, the worthless was the most precious in the eyes of the Prophet (SAW). Did he eat in a separate corner, in different plates, a left-over food? Dig out something that supports us doing so with our servants. But, sharing tables is probably too much to ask for as far as our magnificence is concerned.
“When the slave of anyone amongst you prepares food for him and he serves him after having sat close to [and undergoing the hardship of] heat and smoke, he should make him [the slave] sit along with him and make him eat [along with him], and if the food seems to run short, then he should spare some portion for him [from his own share]” (Muslim).
Remember, Zaid Ibn Harith (RA) who was a slave and the Prophet (SAW) freed him and gave him the choice to go with his father, who had come, to take him, but he refused to go with his father and preferred to stay with the Prophet just because he was loved and cared for. He says he was never told his mistakes and the Prophet (SAW) used to cover what he did wrong without even mentioning it to him.
Once the Prophet (SAW) reprimanded a companion like this,
‘O Abu Dhar! Did you abuse him (your slave) by calling his mother with bad names. You still have some characteristics of ignorance. Your slaves are your brothers and Allah has put them under your command. So whoever has a brother under his command should feed him of what he eats and dress him of what he wears. Do not ask them (slaves) to do things beyond their capacity (power) and if you do so, then help them.’(Sahih Bukhari)”
Gentleness and kindness are rare traits, very valuable in the scales of Allah. They are not weaknesses. They are actually extremely difficult traits to stick to in this materialistic world where everyone can get their mission accomplished at the point of a gun, money or a big tongue which cause similar damage to the weak ones. Kindness is a forgotten virtue. To kill an enemy might be easy in the current times, but killing ego is a hard job. But it raises us in the eyes of Allah and we are actually following the Prophet (SAW) when we do it. What a deal and what a surely victorious way. He went on to say, ‘Seek me among your weak ones, for you are given provision (or help) only by reason of the presence of your weak ones’.
Once a man came to Prophet Muhammad (saw) and said, “O Allah’s Messenger! How many times should I forgive the mistakes of slaves?” The Prophet (SAW) kept quiet. The man repeated his question three times, and the Prophet replied at the third time, “Forgive them seventy times every day.”
We are in a more difficult test than they are. Their hereafter is easier, while we have to answer for every word that we uttered that broke them, every opportunity that we missed to help them and every action that we did to look down upon them as inferior human beings. It was the equality, justice and liberty Islam talked of that attracted the poor and slaves to the call of the Prophet (SAW). We must correct ourselves and create a society that cares, loves and forgives shortcomings of each other.
“O God, grant me life as a poor man, cause me to die as a poor man and resurrect me in the company of the poor.” His wife asked him why he said that, and he replied: “Because (the poor) will enter Paradise (before) the rich. Do not turn away a poor man even if all you can give is half a date. If you love the poor and bring them near you, God will bring you near Him on the Day of Resurrection.” – Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1376
Every day, the news channels give an estimated figure of deaths due to target killing, bomb-blasts, sectarian barbarism etc. But those figures are inaccurate. There are more deaths than we can fathom. Each day, we all die as a society, nation and as human beings. We turned off our humanity a long time ago. We all have just been cold, semi-alive bodies lost in our own lives and with each day we get a step closer to death.
Incidents such as the Abbas Town and Ziarat Mansion bomb blast, Hazara genocide, Badami Bagh arson attack, etc do bring us back to life in a state of shock. We wake up, we sympathize, we protest, we help and then we go back to feeling indifferent. One may argue that there is nothing wrong in moving on with our lives. We all have duties and responsibilities to fulfil and chores to run. A calamity occurs, we wake up and we leave our houses to help the victims and then slumber again as a dead nation.
And then there are those under-privileged people who we ignore and fail to help every day? Have we ever spared a moment to think how the people who work for us, for example, our maids and drivers manage to feed and support their families on the low wages we pay them?
We have become indifferent towards suffering unless it hits us. We do not care if a child works for us for low wages, instead of attending school but we make it a point that our children should be enrolled in English medium schools and expensive only. We do not worry about how our maid feeds her children for the entire month, but we do worry when we fail to get a reservation at a new restaurant and when we do go, we never feel guilty when our bill comes down to almost being equal to our maid’s monthly salary. We never notice the ragged clothes of the beggars on the roads but we try our best to be the first ones to reach the ‘Exclusive Lawn Exhibitions’. We do not care if our driver needs his salary in advance to buy medicines for one of his family members and we insult him for always asking for money as long as our cabinets are stuffed with the best multivitamins and health supplements and we can afford the best medical facilities.
We are morally degenerating as a society. The gap between the rich and the poor is at its widest now. It’s about time we realize that we cannot overcome this gap by feeding a poor person once a month, giving a hundred rupees note to a beggar, handing down our old clothes to our maids, etc. If we do that, that is good but there are better things we need to do and much bigger steps we need to take in order to bridge this gap.
‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.
Your maid complains about her husband’s unemployment? Pull some strings and get him employed and if all fails set him up a thela, (a cart where he can sell little things).You provide grocery to various households? Instead of that, pay the school fees of your driver’s child so that one day he can grow up to be someone who can feed his family on his own. These are just two examples. Look around and you will find plenty of opportunities and ways to help them live on their own and not just survive on your mercy.
We HAVE to cut down on our luxuries so that others can get their basic necessities. Please wake up, feel the pain and responsibility, empathize, support and be human(e).
Scorching heat of summers in Pakistan, along comes Ramadan. The heat makes me crave cold water. I sit right in front of the fan and don’t bother moving an inch. Just when I start to relax.. BOOM! The power goes off. Leaving me appalled wondering whatever happened to all the promises that were made to the naïve nation about very little load shedding in Ramadan? Profanity, frustration, anger comes naturally in these sorts of situations. What happens after the power goes off can’t really be described in words. I’m sure 90% of Pakistanis would agree with me on that. Cursing the Government, WAPDA, KESC, etc. While the world progresses we’re going back, back to the Stone Age. While the world discovers new ways to generate electricity, we on the other hand are still struggling to get the oldest form of it.
I’m a Non-residential Pakistani and spending a few days in Pakistan makes me wonder how do Pakistani citizens cope with these kinds of situations? Usually Electricity doesn’t seem so important and vital, but in Pakistan, It could be used as a synonym of blessing. The day when there’s very little or no load shedding is considered lucky. People joke about how good the day was because there was no load shedding. Such is the situation in my land of pure where certain people are bent on turning it onto the complete opposite of pure, where people are deprived of their basic rights. The rich here keeps on getting richer and the poor, poorer by day.
According to Pakistan’s Planning Commission, poverty rate has jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 percent in the last three years. Thanks to leaders chanting slogans like “Roti Kapra aur Makan” the same old slogan has now become ‘zaher, kaffan aur Qabar’, literally, the suicide rate due to the poverty has risen tremendously. “Two-thirds of the country’s population is reportedly suffering from depression, and a trend of suicide among the people has seen a sharp increase in the first quarter of this year.
Lack of financial resources, insecurity and identity problems have pushed the suicide rate up by 24 percent as compared to last year” – Daily times
A recent incident in which a 12 year old burnt himself to death because he could not afford books shook me as I thought to myself how awfully unfortunate we are to have people who want to educate themselves, something which is everyone’s basic birthright regardless of his social status, but is forced it give it up.
It doesn’t end here. While he struggles to make the ends meet, he’s being bombarded with enormous issues like unemployment, terrorism, corruption. Unemployed due to illiteracy, if literate, yes you guessed it right, he need a “Sifaarish” because just a degree, doesn’t work. Hence, most of the competent and talented people leave the country as they are offered much better job opportunities abroad and the incompetent corrupt leeches are left sucking our blood and cycle goes on. It hurts me to say this, but if you are poor, life in Pakistan is terrible. While our leaders are busy in their usual dirty politics and mudslinging, each claiming he’s “Ghareeb awam ki awaaz” the poor die every day sometimes of hunger, sometimes of target killing, drones, suicide bombs and the list goes on. USA has attacked its targets in the northwest of Pakistan since 2004 in the name of “War on terror” in which scores of innocent bystanders have lost their lives along with some suspected militants. Most of them were commoners like you and me. Makes me wonder, what exactly is our definition of “war on terror”? War against terror has become terror itself. It’s hard for me to distinguish between “friend” and the enemy. And if a drone or a target killer hasn’t killed you, worry not, we have suicide attacks and other forms of terrorist attacks, where again it’s a poor Pakistani who suffers. From the summer of 2007 until late 2009, more than 1,500 people were killed in suicide and other attacks on civilians.
Why is he being punished for something he has not done? Be it drones, target killings or suicide attacks.. It’s the common Pakistani who suffer not the elite, not the politicians, not the bureaucrats. A poor man’s fault is his poverty and death is his punishment. This simple innocuous man does not know who his President is. He’s unaware of his Prime Minister. He’s unaware of the ghastly politics. He’s unaware of his Chief justice. Moreover, he’s unaware of his own rights. His main concern is shelter and bread for his children then why is he being punished for something he knows nothing about? Why is life so terrible for him and every day the same?
“When the rich become a slave to their desires, the poor are exposed to all kinds of exploitations”
It’s he who deserves awards like tamgha-e-imtiaz for bearing so much yet remaining hopeful, not someone who lives in mansions, owns Ferraris and Lamborghinis, flats and villas abroad and will be the first one to flee if, God forbid, something goes wrong.
Let’s put ourselves in his shoes. We whine like kids for the slightest displeasures in life yet he still manages to smile. Despite all the hardships and torture he goes through, he’s still hopeful for Pakistan and prays that someday he will live in a country Jinnah dreamt of where everyone will be treated equally and no one will sleep hungry. Let’s hope and pray to the Almighty that He bestows upon us a responsible and God fearing leader who feels the pain of the poor, who knows there are millions of people out there who would sleep hungry and millions who don’t have a roof on their heads and who is aware that he is answerable to Someone, Some Day, for the people’s plight living under his rule.
How different this world would be if leaders, followers and individuals could prioritize on something other than ulterior motives. Somehow or the other I feel we are all to an extent being governed by the ‘what’s in it for me ideology?’. It has become so hard to live selflessly in this dog eat dog existence where long gone are the days of altruism. I don’t consider myself any different from everyone else but lately I have begun to envision things that impinge on my conscience.
This planet is host to 6.8 billion people out of which 925million people are malnourished, in other words 13.6% of the world population is living with hunger. The very notion that it sounds just like a number, and perhaps nothing more than mere statistic is disquieting. Most of us are too besotted with our lives to shed even a momentary thought on how the current state of affairs will affect and is affecting the sordid lives of the many who live under a dollar a day.
It is infuriating that the destitute have to bear the brunt of thriving economies who are actually flourishing at their expense. I don’t think anyone can challenge the fact that most Multi National Companies are akin to colonialists who use, abuse and exploit resources in the poor host countries. Fact is developed countries, the US of A a case in point, are only capable of displaying ‘realpolitik’ and there show of compassion is a downright farce. The past, present and future depicts their blatant human rights breach and yet they claim to idolize humanity and world peace.
Nonetheless I do not consider the role and interference of any foreign element as the sole contributor of the social, economic and political upheaval of our country. The acute shortage of energy, inflation and high unemployment prevails because we as a people have no gumption to take to the streets and envision a revolution that liberated parts of the Middle East. It is unnerving that nobody cares if the taxpayers money is being spent on setting up ostentatious monuments or to bail out inefficient public sectors. It is unnerving that nobody spares a thought on the 32.6% of Pakistani people who are living with poverty day in and day out struggling to make enough for a few morsels of food.It is unnerving that we take pride in the beauty of the capital city of Islamabad and ignore the existence of 35+ slums home to thousands of people who believe it or not are also residents of the capital city. Since Zia’s regime in 1985 the CDA was given the sole responsibility of upgrading and rehabilitating the inhabitants of katchi abadis and how far have they come since 1985 in accomplishing this feat? In these past 27 years they managed to legalize ten squatter settlements and provided them with electricity, water and gas connections. A survey would reveal how little their lives have change since 1985 because realistically speaking they are still inhabitants of SLUMS. For heaven’s sake Japan rose from ashes after being nuked in less than 27 years and the best we could do is provide basic civic amenities?
Development has never been Pakistan’s agenda. It is a country endowed with rich natural resources which unfortunately it cannot even excavate on its own. It has a coastal line of 1050km which if fully utilized by setting up wind mills can make a huge difference in the lives of people living in surrounding villages but the only thing standing in the way of such an investment is priority, good leadership and sheer will power. It is about time some kind of initiative is taken to make everyone’s life better and not just that of a specific segment of society. Like Mark Twain says:
‘ The secret of making progress is to get started. The secret to starting is to divide your complex, overwhelming task into small, manageable tasks, and then start the first.’
Nothing you do today to change things for a better tomorrow will have any kind of detrimental or drastic consequence on your life. What stands between the development of Pakistan is not just the inept leadership but also the complacent Pakistanis.
Unless the residents have a desire of self-help for the change of their life, even if they wait for 5000 years, there will be no change. If the village residents try to change their life now, even with little support of government, they will be able to change their life in 2-3 years’. (Ex Korean President Park Jung Hee)
These simple words underline the spirit of the a movement which revolutionized the life of Koreans. The lesson is very important __ No one will bring change for you, if you don’t want it yourself. And small consistent changes, will lead to a big and visible transformation.
Korea was ruined by Japanese colonization and inter-Korean war. In 1950s, the plight of Koreans was miserable and the nation was extremely poor, with very little food to survive. Harsh winters added to their miseries and ‘food n shelter’ was first priority for all Koreans. Per capita income was $79 in 1960, while that of Pakistan was $91 during the same Year.
Koreans studied Pakistani 5-year plan system and adopted it in 1962. They started industrialization and the results were soon obvious in shape of industrial growth and development of cities, but the rural areas were still lagging far. Koreans soon realized that sustainable growth cannot be achieved without rural development. The standard of life in the villages was very low, with only 20% of the villages having electricity and only 20 % houses having roof. Roads, infrastructure, tools and equipment for farming were missing altogether. The positive things were good literacy rate and mandatory military service which produced a disciplined workforce.
In 1970, Saemul Undong (New Village Movement) was launched, aimed at improving the life of villagers. The idea was to pave the gap between rural and urban life, improving the living standard in rural areas and increasing the opportunities for the villagers to earn more. The idea was to stop migration to cities. ‘A better village to live in’ was the goal of the movement.
Government started with SMU in a unique way. They asked the villagers to participate in the program on self-help basis. Three principles of ‘diligence, self help and cooperation’ were decided to be the basis of the movement. The underlying spirit was to work with diligence as there is no freebie in the world and ‘early bird catches the worm’. The lazy and lethargic Koreans were taught to take actions for fulfilling their desires. The spirit of cooperation was also very important, as one cannot wash face with one finger.
When the movement started, government was not in a very good financial situation, so they asked for the cooperation of residents of villages. It provided 335 packs of cement to each of 33,267 villages in the country. Government suggested ten projects such as making roads, reforming roofs of homes, constructing public wells, making small water reservoirs and small bridges etc .Villagers had to decide one of the projects and then implement it. They had to arrange the material such as sand and pebbles themselves, and had to work together to execute the project. They had to select Seamaul leaders for themselves, who were volunteers, and would play the role of coordinators and arbitrators.
After one year of evaluation, the success ratio was about 50% .The performance of 16,600 villages was good, and they had completed their first task. It was a turning point, the government decided to generate competition. They gave 500 sacks of cement and one ton steel to only these 16,600 villages, which were able to complete their first task, while remaining villages were told to do something with self-help and then government will decide accordingly.
This produced amazing results; a lot of villages improved very quickly, and more and more were joining the movement actively. Based on this, government classified the villages into three categories according to their progress, and supported the outstanding villages more, which generated high competition.
The government established central council for the movement, to analyze and evaluate the performance. A training center was instituted to train the leaders elected by villagers. This helped in development of leadership at grass root level. Women and youth were given equal participation, each village selecting a a leader, woman leader and young leader for the project. These voluntary leaders helped the government to plan, cooridnate and carry out the projects in a proper manner.
New projects were considered on the basis of their benefits to the entire community. The government did not interfere directly into the selection of projects. It was just overseeing the technical aspects and providing help with which the villagers couldn’t do themselves.
Soon they realized that without improving the income of villagers, their life could not be improved, so the next step was to improve the income level of villagers and eliminate poverty. Projects were focused to improve roads to the farms so that tractors and other machinery could be used in farming. Farmers were provided with basic tools and were trained for the better productivity. Irrigation system was improved and small water reservoirs were built to preserve water. Also green houses were developed to do farming in winters. Investments were done in live-stocks and villagers were encouraged to grow live-stock for better income.
Agricultural complexes were made for profitable products such as mushrooms and tobacco, which helped to increase over all income. Greenhouses allowed farmers to harvest during harsh winter season. Fishing villages changed their production methods from fishing to breeding fish. All of this improved the income level of villagers. As a result, agriculture household income was more than that of city workers. After only four years, the rural community household income was $674, more than that of urban household income of $644. This economic growth led to subjugate poverty and brought revolution in the mindset of people.
Residents were given the sense of ownership and they were the direct beneficiaries. During initial stage, the focus was on improvement of thatched houses, heating system inside homes and agriculture roads. Then the focus shifted to more infra-structure reforms. Electricity and water supply, agriculture machinery, irrigation system, all were aimed to improve the life of villagers with their involvement. The concepts of hard-work and self-help were embedded in this whole movement.
Due to proper evaluation system, government soon realized the mistakes of the movement. Villagers lacked technical skills to build bridges and roads. So government provided technical support and training required for the projects.
Grass root level leadership evolved as a reason of this movement, which lead to the development of Korea on many fronts. Corruption wasn’t a problem in this project, as population was involved in it, and the residents carried out the projects themselves. They also contributed financially to the extent they were able to do. The collective participation brought in transparency and better utilization of resources. The change went from rural to urban areas of Korea, whereas it is usually the other way around.
Korea today has become one of the top growing economies in the world, with national income of $ 20,014 per capita, (remember in 1960, Korea was at $79, and Pakistan was $91). This is despite the fact that Korea has no natural resources, and it relies only on its human resource. It is now one of the most advanced countries in internet usage, banking system and industrialized nation.
Korea has started to implement this project in African countries. While other countries prefer to perform charity work, Koreans are trying to engage villagers by asking them to contribute equally. For instance, the project of establishing a goat bank is very good idea. Villagers are given goats, to raise, and when they breed more goats, the original ones are returned, thus establishing a live-stock bank.
In Pakistan, if we want to do something, our ‘actions must speak louder than words’; so the projects must be aimed at ‘doing more-talking less’ spirit. The basic element in these projects should be consistency and continuity, learning from past experiences and improving with time. We can learn from these experiences as we are a resource rich country. We don’t have the problem of poverty similar to that of Koreans, our infra structure is not very up to the mark, but we do have something to build upon, so we don’t have to start from zero. Our villages are usually big, and we lack consensus on leadership and projects. We are heavily divided and our women don’t work usually as labour workforce in building the bridges and widening the roads. So we need to make certain changes in this model and in our society too, for our growth and development.
All we need is to participate on community basis, helping ourselves, and taking bold initiatives. When this movement started in Korea, a lot of people criticized it, but government continued persuading villagers to take part in the development process, and it yielded results. The evaluation of projects was step-wise and better performing villages were rewarded on the basis of merit. This helped a great deal in raising awareness and competition level.
Saemaul Movement members hold a briefing session with locals in Tanzania, to explain the concept and meaning of the Saemaul Undong
Most important notion to learn is the reforms of the mind-set, to ‘we can do it’. Starting by simple, small projects, doing something tangible, will lead to something better and bigger eventually. We think of big projects first, but sometimes we need to think ‘small’ and ‘in the box’. Making roofs for homes, kitchens in houses, toilets, small water reservoirs, improving sanitary conditions, building small bridges, improving water supply and sewerage systems- eventually the change will be getting bigger and visible which will help in improving the living standards.
Another point to focus is to increase the income of villagers, to stop urbanization. We believe in giving alms and charity, but instead we should focus more on trying to make poor people earn more money. Increasing their income will change their mentality. As I mentioned earlier, Saemaul Undong wasn’t focusing on education and public health in the start, because people were mostly concerned about food and shelter, but as the movement went on to bring the change, people started thinking about education, health, learning opportunities and community life. Koreans did that successfully and now their rural life has almost all the facilities of their urban life so more and more people are preferring rural life.
In short, collaborative efforts will bring change, and rural development is the key to sustainable development even in the industrialized nations. More importantly, the focus should be to ‘ do more, talk less’
