Eid Al Adha In Karachi

The preparation for eid in Pakistan is becoming more and more technology driven with online purchase of animals to the decorations. More and more we are getting sucked into the material world and while preparation are normally in full gear atleast 2 weeks before the day of sacrifice somehow the spirit it is expected to invoke dont seem to be anywhere near.

Evermore we are interested in putting up a good show with the value of the animal telling what your social status is supposed to be so we now hear people spending millions to get a good animal.... and that is not it... one animal is not enough... it has to be a few animals atleast to ensure we have been able to get the full celebrations and then the slogan all is being done so poor people can have a good meal as all this meat is obviously not going to end up on our platter. A convenient argument indeed.

Not only this... we have given our kids an insane notion that watching the animal bleed to death is an exciting event that is why our brothers and children are capturing the moment of kill on camera. Then with the advent of movie cameras and mobile phones video enabled we will see alot of it ending up on Youtube and Facebook supposedly for delight of others. I wonder what is different between us and the cheering crowds in a Colosseum enjoying a good kill. We just cant seem to have enough...... from bombs exploding all across the country one could have expected nation to have ended up being a bit sobre but..... sorry that is not really it. We are a nation undeterred..... our ways no matter how corrupted seems to remain.

The blood from the animal has to flow out of the street.... and we will not make any effort to clean the mess create after the cull. Oh how can we... we are too busy celebrating the festival with RELIGIOUS FERVOUR.....

I am a pro-animal person so I may sound alot crazier but I believe if we are about to slaughter an animal we should do it with humality. I believe the idea is not to have good meat but to answer to what Allah has asked us to do without questioning despite the fact that it is difficult. Well I believe for us killing that animal really isnt difficult. It is very easy... I mean our bros have killed alot of innocent people in the past year without remorse.

I know alot of our kids would learn through text book why the sacrifice has been done but we as a unit never try to put the feeling of humality in our kids so they can appreciate the meaning of this sacrifice and to tell them how difficult it is to do it but we are bounded by the edict.

Landed on 25th Nov to celebrate Eid with the family and as ever for sometime the time spent during Eid AlAdha in Karachi is more painful than fun. The way we celebrate eid seems to contradict the very essence of it. But this is not only with this Eid it seems we as a nation are moving far from our social and moral basis and on to unchartered territory where anything goes.

There is a talk of alot of despondency in the country due to the current state of affairs and all of us are waiting for a knight in shining armour to save us from these perils. I find this mindset disturbing but then when I see our everyday attitude it all seems to make sense. The mess we create is not for us to clear but for others to foot. We throw our garbage out of the house we expect the municipal council to clean and we dont want to pay taxes or share in any solutions. It is not our problem... government is suppose to make life easy even if we are hell bent on making it worse for ourselves. When things will go wrong we will know exactly how bad the municipal council was in doing its business and when something good is being done... no good is good enough for us.....

I just dont seem to recognize my country anymore. It is on a path I have no understanding of. It is not just me but alot of educated masses are sitting on the wings to get an opportunity to leave. The more people leave the more insanity prevails as saner elements seem to leave leaving either old people or insane elements taking charge.

Do I expect things to change? No.... will things improve.... No....

Violence

I was on my way to Karachi for a business meeting and the flight was delayed so I opened up my e-mail and started checking it… one of my friends in living in Laos sent an email being upset by an event that took place near the place she lives…. She described the event as follows;

This morning Bee (my maid) told me about an accident that happened to her friend last month. The guy was driving his motor bike on a road around the corner where I live and was hit by a large truck full of sand. The truck-driver pulled over and checked out the guy who was lying on the street severely wounded, but still alive. In Belgium any person would call an ambulance or even a MUG to try to save the guy. Not in Laos. The driver got back into his truck and drove it back and forwards over the guy, twice to make sure the poor man was certainly dead. (we would call this murder)

This seems to be common practice here. If the guy survives, the driver would have to pay for all the hospital and medical costs for as long as the guy suffers from the accident. If the guy is dead, he only has to pay a single fee once to the guy’s family and be done with it. Everything is about money, and money only, something people here don’t have. In this case the truck was owned by a road construction company, and that company’s insurance paid the family fee. The driver himself was jailed for 1 week and then released with no further consequence, and zero Kips to pay.

I sat there at loss wondering how to respond to her mail…. Earlier in the morning… before leaving my home I heard that once again a bomb has exploded in Peshawar killing two people and injuring scores…. Seems to be pretty common in my country these days.

I sat there wondering do I hold the moral right to express my disgust on the event when my only countrymen are committing crimes of similar magnitude or beyond….

One wonders what drives us? We humans have given all animals some kind of trait like fox is scheming, sharks are vicious, bear are dangerous…. Where infact the most dangerous and ruthless of all predators are humans. Animals instincts are matter of their survival. People know a fed shark will not attack but you cant be sure that a fully fed human wont kill.

We have single handedly annihilated species from the face of the earth and captured and played with many in circus arena!

What happened in Srebrenica when Serbs killed 8000 muslim men in front of the eyes of Dutch “PEACE KEEPERS” to Abu Gharib humans have a tendency of showing the most ruthless and cruel side of their existence and continue to live without remorse. Is there s kind of mutation in our genes that makes this really cruel cannabilistic and sadiest streak to prevail…. Are we all made up of it? Why is boxing or ring wrestling such a big money spinner… I think humans live of the pleasure of kill….

Were the Dutch peacekeepers innocent by standers or relishing the scent of a kill I cant judge but one thing is for sure no one can be naïve…

My post is not meant as an indictment of Dutch Peacekeepers but a simple indictment of human race.

Just sit back and imagine…… how many millions have we killed as part of our selfishness and hatred and lust…. How many… humans, animals and plants…. One wonders how can one not appreciate the beauty of life and how can you not be touched and changed for ever when you hold a new born…. A human, an animal or a bird…. The beauty of that person can melt any…. And today we selfishly destroy everything and we have very good and profitable reasons for it…

From extinction of rhinos to possible extinction of its own race and from rain forest to polar ice cap we have not left anything untouched….

So one thing we can be sure of… till this world is functioning we can be sure of cruelty and ruthlessness demonstrated by humans and suffering in all form and at all levels.