Goverment Brothels?

There is nothing black and white in politics as opposed to the way the politicians might want to see it. There is reason that sincere individuals who really dedicate their life to the welfare of other human beings stay out of the politics and if they enter the politics they become legends. How much can be sacrificed in the name of politics and what are the limits, I don't know. Here is an account of a 'State run' brothel, in the form of higlights from the actual story, in Jammu and Kashmir by a country that is the largest democracy in the world.

With shady intelligence agents, betrayed militants, corrupt officials, underage girls, and a gritty brothel, the case has all the makings of a John le Carré novel, set in the gorgeous Himalayan valley of Kashmir.

When the deputy inspector general of [Border Security Forces], K.S. Padhi, was arrested, he said, "This was part of our counterinsurgency operation. We were doing our job. We used to enlist girls for spying purposes.' It means it was part of state policy."

a 14-year-old known as Yasmina, also alleged that many of her customers were top bureaucrats, politicians, and security officials.The list of those she named – now under arrest without bail – is a who's who of the Kashmiri state. They include a senior Congress Party state leader, an independent legislator from Srinagar, the principal secretary to the former state chief minister, the deputy superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir police, and the deputy inspector general of the border security force.

Jammu and Kashmir has been the major dispute between Pakistan and India and the reason of three wars between the two nuclear armed countries. The full story can be read here.
india kashmir

Where are we going?

It was my understanding that the humans on this planet have reached a level of civilization and understanding that we would never go back to the old times. By old times I mean when it was ‘ok’ to kill anyone for anything as long as you could justify it to yourself. But I think my understanding was wrong, the world has become even more ignorant, we are not willing to leave the boundaries of ignorance and hatred we have built around us. While the west flourishes in latest knowledge and know how of everything from atoms to humanity itself the rest of the world continues to dig deeper and deeper into the darkness. The latest conflict in Middle East between Lebanon and Israel is a new testament to us. I am not going to dig into the political dimensions of this issue, because there are plenty of people out there doing that. What breaks my heart is to see children getting killed in Nazareth to dead bodies lying in the morgue in Lebanon. Everyone is justifying there side of the story, but it does not change the fact that the majority of people how are actually being killed have nothing to do the actual conflict. Most have them probably have never even touched a handgun. But both sides are terming it as collateral damage or collective punishment. It just does not end over there, the rest of the world leaders from whom we would expect more maturity are more concerned with being politically correct and making sure that their long term benefits don’t get hurt. We as humans should be ashamed of ourselves to reach at this point today. It was enough that this killing was going on in Iraq, then came Sudan where refugees are being slaughtered for political reasons and now comes the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Although I am a firm believer in God but sometimes this breaks me to the point where I have to sit and pause for a moment and say ‘God if you are really there why are you letting this to happen to your own people?’. Are we just going to sit around while the politicians get the politics straightened out and what if they don’t, will we just let more people being killed in the meantime?

The picture with a thousand words...

I took this picture from All things Pakistan. This is a very interesting blog and has been doing a great job.
The more you look the more meaning you will find in the human misery and suffering that resulted from the earthquake, but just like All things Pakistan pointed out, looks like we have all forgetten the great tragedy and its after effects. We as humans cannot be cured from tragedy like this by just putting a bandage on the arm. A tragedy like this will take years to heal.

Are we free?

Unfortunately, in the third world countries the concept of freedom very much is defined as how 'bold' one can be in the face of the 'western nations' and how these countries don't like to be dictated by the other countries. Pakistan is no exception to this, as we here the political parties shouting slogans everyday to give the ordinary people a false sense of freedom. The fact though is that the ordinary person is not even free to think, now, if you can't even think free how can one act free. In this report published by the Daily Times we get a clear picture of the ground reality. Although the reports subject is minorities nevertheless it gives as a broader understanding as to how free we are. The system that has been around us was primarily developed to benefit the religious groups, army and the big wigs of the main political parties, because it is in their interest to raise a generation that has a distorted view of the world and the issues in the Pakistan. Although the whole report is available on the Daily Times website and also at watandost.blogspot.com/, here are few important highlights:

According to the report, textbooks have often served as a tool in the hands of successive governments, for propagating their biased outlook towards history, politics and religion in order to shape a certain national identity. Authoritarian governments and the “ gatekeepers of ideology” have always ensured the deliverance of carefully sifted contents to the students in order to mould them in favor of a reactionary system. The outcome, the report said, was that the system had produced a generation that was prejudiced and intolerant.

The report referred to the textbook statements, which eliminate the claims of any community other than Muslims over the country. The report points out that the lack of different viewpoints in textbooks leads to contempt and hatred for other communities.
Highlighting the disparities in textbooks and curriculum of the government and privately managed schools, the report criticizes the role of state sponsored textbooks for discouraging critical thinking through books which emphasize more on religion, civic obedience and the duty of the individual to the state.

It says that the intervention of the state in the educational process had distorted historical facts and had encouraged students to be non-critical, submissive to authority and to treat education as a process of selective memorization. The report said that educating students on these lines could make students only see a world that was limited to Pakistan and Muslim countries. “There is no reference to human unity, human rights and individual freedom in these textbooks”, the report said, adding the outcome manifests itself in the form of violence and intolerance prevalent in the Pakistani society.

The bottom line is that the process of real freedom will not begin from the borders of the country but from within each citizen of the country by freeing our thoughts from being indoctrinated by a select few as to what we should think and do. Although we do not like to admit it, we are living in a communist style govt. country where the freedom is only in the air we breathe.
We still have to be freed!