So after a mini hiatus I write the part II of my very contentious earlier post. I hope the folk who criticized me so vociferously do read this edition as well.
As soon as I got home in Islamabad from the airport I had forgotten about my encounter with the "smoking guy" and the police officer. I was looking forward to my sisters wedding which I was here for. As I had written in the last post weddings in Pakistan are a huge deal. When I mean huge, I mean really really huge. Festivities that go on for at least a week, one ceremony after another. Too much food, too much 'bling'. Sorry I digress, weddings in Pakistan can wait another day. Coming back to the dichotomy in Pakistan. In my last post I presented a bleak view of the conditions with the airport story but the flip side of the coin was shown to me on my trip to the mosque on Friday.
Fridays are always fun in Pakistan. You feel spiritual as soon as you wake up. There is something very mystical about them. Everybody cleans up well, wears sparkling white clothes, gels back their hair, puts on perfume to go to the mosque for 'Friday Prayer'.
I've attended the same mosque every Friday since I was about 10 years old, and now I make sure I visit it every time I'm in Pakistan. It used to be a very modest building back when I was a young boy but now its blossemed into this beaituful mosque having tall marbled minarets with an adjecent library and academy.
Before 2005, it used to be that one could enter and exit the 'house of God' without any fear but these days thanks to our 'true' believer friends, the 'Taliban' and the ones that they inspire, it feels like you are an Arab passing through an airport checkpoint in the US. Two sets of pat downs, all items to be displayed etc etc. But it has become an unfortunate necessity and I salute the boys and girls who are standing at the checkpoints as they are always the ones who end up loosing their lives when the crazy lunatics do decide to blow themselves up. For those who haven't been following closely, last year their were over 70 bombings in Pakistan, that's a bomb going off once every five days or so and most of them were at mosques or schools. Obviously, what else would you like to bomb to show your dismay towards the great satanic forces of the west right? Vulnerable worshipers and kids, makes complete sense!
I finally enter the mosque and get situated to listen to the lecture by the maulana prior to the namaz. After the Friday prayer you have kids going through the isles collecting donations while the management makes announcements/pledge calls for different charitable causes. One of these announcements caught my attention. The announcement was of group of young men who were in the local city hospital brought over from Parachinar (Parachinar is capital of Kurram Agency has an area of 1305 square miles and situated in KP province of Pakistan right on the border with Afghanistan) after deadly clashes while fighting the Taliban.
After the prayers were over and everyone was leaving I went over to the gentleman who had made the announcement to inquire more details. He directed me to another gentleman who gave me the phone number to a man by the name of Muhammad who was looking after the injured at a local hospital in Islamabad.
After calling a few different people I was able to get a hold of Muhammad who went on to explain to me that the injured were indeed civilians from Parachinar, some who were severely injured in fighting against the Taliban. The Taliban and their allies have been trying to get a foothold in that region for many years now but have been met with brave resistance from the local community. Their reasons for doing that are very straightforward, they don't want to get screwed over by the Taliban or the US drone attacks, if not the US army itself. For them its all about survival, the Taliban hate them and they don't particularly like the US army either. So if they don't fight, the Taliban end up getting a foothold in that area which would give them easy access to Peshawar and Islamabad. Furthermore, it would give the Allied forces in Afghanistan reason to bomb that area with drone airplanes which would also lead to civilian casualties. So the solution is to take up arms against the Taliban themselves.
After talking to him I was very intrigued and wanted to pay the hospital a visit. The next evening I took a break from the crazy wedding activities and headed over to the hospital where Muhammad was waiting for me. Muhammad who looked to be in his early thirties, an accountant by profession, was a pashto speaking typical 'pathan' in appearance; tall, broad, fair in complexion, and very soft spoken. If I ever brought him over to my house I can hear my mom saying 'Ali, why couldn't you ever turn out to be this gentlemanly'.
Muhammad and I exchanged pleasantries, and while we made our way to the hospital ward where they were admitted he explained to me who these injured guys were, what and how they sustained their injuries and what all their needs were? Upon arrival I saw several men between the ages of 18 - 25 all having sustained severe injuries. Some with amputated legs, others with broken bones, shrapnel wounds, you name it. But what hit me the most was not the severity of their wounds, but the magnanimity of their spirit. Muhammad introduced me as a 'khairkwa' - (concerned person) from the mosque who had come to visit them, thank them and hopefully assist them. I was greeted by them like a brother, like one who had been fighting alongside them in Parachinar. A few of them went on to tell me how they received no support from the Government or any other sources in their quest to resist the Taliban, but their spirits were high and as soon as they got better they would go back, be it on one leg. They were doing it for their survival and more importantly for the survival of their religion. The message that they wanted me to convey to whoever I met in the west was that 'not all of us are like them, and we will not sit back let our lands be conquered and our religion be hijacked by thugs'.
After this very emotional meeting, Muhammad and I walked out while he explained to me how he has along with taking care of the wounded, been working with the community in Parachinaar for years now trying to build schools and basic health care centers in that region. He also explained to me how little support they have received from the Government and how most of his funds are from private donors, mosques etc.
Muhammad and I are in constant touch now and I'm pretty sure in the coming years after my Carter Center campaign is over I will move to the North West part of Pakistan and help him in his quest to bring more attention to this forgotten part of Pakistan where 'men of honor' still exist in abundance.
I had written earlier that Pakistan is a place where you will find corruption and apathy in abundance, but it is also a place where you will find selflessness and valour in people like Muhammad who will literally fight for the just cause till their last breath. For those who say that Pakistan is a failed state that will crumble soon, I say that you need come and meet Muhammad and his merry men of Parachinar and if you stay a little longer I'm sure you'll have no trouble in finding millions like him all over the country.
Love from Sudan
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Trip to Pakistan and Referendum in Sudan Part I
It's been eighteen months since I got here, and its seems like I left Minneapolis yesterday. Don't get me wrong I remember most of my most of my time here and its been a very tiring and rewarding time, its just that whenever I go back to the US or Pakistan I expect things, people, relationships to be just as they were when I left and that is almost never the case.
Take my recent trip to Pakistan a few weeks ago. As has been the case since I left Pakistan a decade ago, whenever I go back its a bigger cultural shock than when I go back to the US.
Part of it is cause things don't change at the same rate in the US as they do in the developing world. Whenever I visit Islamabad there is always more people, more roads, more traffic, more buildings, more shops, more police, more beggars, less order, less trees, less parks, less tolerance, whereas in Minneapolis things are not really changing at all - I think I like it better that way, I think I'll always keep a home there.
My trip to Pakistan this time was for my sisters wedding, my only sisters wedding, and those of you who don't know how big of a deal weddings are in Pakistan, go watch "Monsoon wedding" and multiply that by like four. That's how crazy it was - festivities that lasted for a week.
But I'll start my story with my journey to Pakistan. On my flight from Doha to Islamabad, I met this young lady who was on her first 10 day trip to Pakistan. She was going to evaluate the efficacy of a USAID funded program and was currently doing her master's in Public Policy. As it was her first trip to what "TIME" magazine calls the most dangerous place on earth she had many questions about Pakistan. How are the people like? Hows the food like? What are good places to go? etc etc. I answered her every question as truthfully as I could, maybe more truthfully than I think she would have liked I suppose.
Pakistan is a very confusing place, you will find extreme corruption and honesty at the same time, you will find apathy and enthusiasm also in abundance and it drives even a guy like me whose lived 18 years in the country absolutely nuts.
Lets take my flight back as an example, when boarding the plane from Doha all the passengers who were mostly Pakistani were relatively orderly, queuing properly, not being overly loud just like people from any other place, but as soon as the plane landed in Pakistan it was like all of them were bipolar. Even before the plane had stopped moving most of them got up from their seats and started removing their luggage, the cabin crew kept mentioning on the PA system that we haven't stopped yet but had no affect on what seemed like a herd of wilder-beast on their annual migration from the Serengetti to the Masai Mara. Bags were falling over, people started arguing and I was just sitting back and telling myself "yup, nothings changed, I'm back home".
I had told the USAID lady earlier during the flight that the problem in Pakistan is not that there aren't proper rules or policies in place, the problem is enforcement, and as soon as she saw these people getting up from their seats on a moving plane she looked at me and smiled.
Finally everyone got off the plane to get into the bus that had to take everyone to the terminal at the same time so God knows what the hurry for leaving the plane was all about. Once on the terminal, passed the immigration and customs to the baggage claim you could see signs everywhere which read NO SMOKING, in both Urdu and English but as I expected 6 or 7 people lit their cigarettes. I confronted one of them and pointed out the signs to him, to which he replied, I'm back home, I can do whatever I want. I pointed him out to a police officer who politely told me off "kuch nahin hota jee..cigarette hee to hey" - "doesn't matter sir, its only a cigarette". For the LOVE OF GOD, it is not "only a cigarette", its the law.
That is the problem in Pakistan, these same people who were probably day laborers, who are abused and overworked in Dubai but because there is someone who enforces the law no matter how inhuman that law might be, refuse to revolt or say anything, but in their own country take advantage of the fact that no one is there to enforce the laws.
To be contd.........................
Take my recent trip to Pakistan a few weeks ago. As has been the case since I left Pakistan a decade ago, whenever I go back its a bigger cultural shock than when I go back to the US.
Part of it is cause things don't change at the same rate in the US as they do in the developing world. Whenever I visit Islamabad there is always more people, more roads, more traffic, more buildings, more shops, more police, more beggars, less order, less trees, less parks, less tolerance, whereas in Minneapolis things are not really changing at all - I think I like it better that way, I think I'll always keep a home there.
My trip to Pakistan this time was for my sisters wedding, my only sisters wedding, and those of you who don't know how big of a deal weddings are in Pakistan, go watch "Monsoon wedding" and multiply that by like four. That's how crazy it was - festivities that lasted for a week.
But I'll start my story with my journey to Pakistan. On my flight from Doha to Islamabad, I met this young lady who was on her first 10 day trip to Pakistan. She was going to evaluate the efficacy of a USAID funded program and was currently doing her master's in Public Policy. As it was her first trip to what "TIME" magazine calls the most dangerous place on earth she had many questions about Pakistan. How are the people like? Hows the food like? What are good places to go? etc etc. I answered her every question as truthfully as I could, maybe more truthfully than I think she would have liked I suppose.
Pakistan is a very confusing place, you will find extreme corruption and honesty at the same time, you will find apathy and enthusiasm also in abundance and it drives even a guy like me whose lived 18 years in the country absolutely nuts.
Lets take my flight back as an example, when boarding the plane from Doha all the passengers who were mostly Pakistani were relatively orderly, queuing properly, not being overly loud just like people from any other place, but as soon as the plane landed in Pakistan it was like all of them were bipolar. Even before the plane had stopped moving most of them got up from their seats and started removing their luggage, the cabin crew kept mentioning on the PA system that we haven't stopped yet but had no affect on what seemed like a herd of wilder-beast on their annual migration from the Serengetti to the Masai Mara. Bags were falling over, people started arguing and I was just sitting back and telling myself "yup, nothings changed, I'm back home".
I had told the USAID lady earlier during the flight that the problem in Pakistan is not that there aren't proper rules or policies in place, the problem is enforcement, and as soon as she saw these people getting up from their seats on a moving plane she looked at me and smiled.
Finally everyone got off the plane to get into the bus that had to take everyone to the terminal at the same time so God knows what the hurry for leaving the plane was all about. Once on the terminal, passed the immigration and customs to the baggage claim you could see signs everywhere which read NO SMOKING, in both Urdu and English but as I expected 6 or 7 people lit their cigarettes. I confronted one of them and pointed out the signs to him, to which he replied, I'm back home, I can do whatever I want. I pointed him out to a police officer who politely told me off "kuch nahin hota jee..cigarette hee to hey" - "doesn't matter sir, its only a cigarette". For the LOVE OF GOD, it is not "only a cigarette", its the law.
That is the problem in Pakistan, these same people who were probably day laborers, who are abused and overworked in Dubai but because there is someone who enforces the law no matter how inhuman that law might be, refuse to revolt or say anything, but in their own country take advantage of the fact that no one is there to enforce the laws.
To be contd.........................
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Update from "Those of the Sudan"
Today is the first day in a few months where I have nothing to do to the point where i'm finally writing something. Its 44 degree Celsius (111 F) in the shade and I have this fan in my office which is preventing me from dehydrating to death.
It's the middle of shipping season which means that the roads (gravel) in South Sudan are dry enough to have supplies shipped on them to the 16 sub-stations we have West of the Nile. All the food, construction supplies, fuel, car parts, UN food for training, you name it is shipped from Rumbek where the hub is to all over south west Sudan.
Working in a place like this you start questioning pretty much everything about life and nature, and inequality and well pretty much everything thing else that can be questioned. It bamboozles you when you see the things you see here and look at the calender to see the year 2010 written on it.
Most of the people living here in the South are at least 100 - 200 years behind the rest of the world. If you see a good house made of bricks with a water tank and lights, the first thing that comes to mind is the word "NGO" and the second "MINISTER".
Being a person of faith you get frustrated when you see people living in abject poverty, dying because of lack of basic facilities taken for granted elsewhere in the world. You try to do what you can, but you just keep facing one obstacle after another. You keep going and you keep getting hurt and it wears you down and you just hope you can keep going and not become cynical and turn into those people who you hated in the first place and were the reason why you come here. The people who are of the view that, "we are who we are because we deserve it. We live in a big house, have cold and hot water, have AC, a nice car, because we worked hard for it. Nothing is by chance" they say. "If you work hard enough you can achieve all that you want" is another one of their favorite lines. Well i can assure you, none of these people have been to South Sudan, or Haiti, or even the south side of Chicago.
Everyone on my compound, EVERYONE, works harder than I do. They work more, they eat less, they don't have a fan at night, they don't take antimalarial pills like me, they can't afford a thermos to keep their water cold. They work all day, but the combined salary of all my staff in Rumbek would be less than my salary. How f'd up is that for lack of a more appropriate word.
Yes, I know I know, I can state the reasons for this, their lack of education, no market structure, sixty years of civil war bla bla bla...... but the fact of the matter is that none of these can reasons can provide any comfort to the families whose kids die of malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, the heat, just simple every day things.
I'm not saying this because I'm ashamed of what I do or who I am and I want to run away into the jungle never to be seen again. I promised myself that I'll do something about and till the last useless breath is taken by me, I will keep trying! It probably won't change a thing, but I'll keep trying. I was taught by my faith that "saving the life of one person is like saving entire humanity" so, I will take it step by step, one person at a time and at least when its all said and done I can look up to the heavens and say, "well I did try, probably not as much as I could have, but you know I did".
One thing that I have learn't here, though which I'm sure all of us have heard from elders or read in books at some point in our lives, is that nothing except for the human relationships we make matter in life. That holds true more than anything when you come to a place like South Sudan. I once read this research that concluded that the majority of people on their death bed did not care about anything that they were leaving behind except for the human connections they had made in their lives. Not money, not cars, not their extravagant portfolios, nothin.g
I have people here that I haven't offered anything except for a few days worth of food, helped lessen their suffering temporarily, and greeted them with warmth, and in return they are willing to lay their lives for me. I say this with tears in my eyes but I would leave Sudan a content person because there is ntohing I have done for them yet I have been showered with so much love.
I remember when i was leaving town to go back to Pakistan and Minneapolis for the new year vacation, I walked out of my room and everyone wanted to see me off. We drove in multiple cars and everyone wanted to carry some little luggage of mine to the airstrip. How many people come to drop us to the airport when we are leaving our homes in the West? Maybe our closest friend or our wives and parents? And that is after you have spent years and years with them. Here, you have people who will show you so much love and ask NOTHING in return. And when you see such suffering for such amazing people it just breaks your heart and you don't know what to do except for looking up and yelling "WHY, why them with all the suffering and why not me, what is so much better about me"
Anyways, sorry about the mundane, depressing talk, and for all 10 of you who have decided to read on, on the bright side of things, I am supporting a few local business agricultural ventures, locally run NGO's, and bright local kids who want to go to university. Some of these ventures include girls' boarding schools run by wonderful missionaries who are overcoming tremendous obstacles to provide education to the local women.
I'm also supporting Sudanese kids who are trying to seek higher education in universities is East Africa as the educational structure in South Sudan is not good enough yet. I work with hundreds of Sudanese involved with the health programs and many of them are very bright kids who work with us as field officers and area supervisors, compound staff, etc and are unable to continue education after secondary school due to various problems at home.
I'm telling ya'll all of this because I know many of you have asked me on various occasions on how they can help. I'm in the process of starting a website dedicated to the people/groups that are being helped and also registering an NGO so that ya'll can be tax exempted as well, but that might take a bit. In the mean time if someone needs any details or wishes to help they can deposit money in my US accounts. I can provide you with the details upon request.
I'll leave you with a few "Only in Sudan" to lighten up the mood:
Only in Sudan - will MEN have plastic pink colored flowers on the handle of their bicycles for decoration. I repeat, MEN
Only in Sudan - will you see people driving their bicycles without any brakes and using their feet to stop themselves (true story)
Only in Sudan - will the same people be using different signatures each time they sign
Only in Sudan - are you LEGALLY required to turn on the hazard light of the care if going straight through a round-about (20 USD fine if you don't)
Only in Sudan - is it ILLEGAL to drive WITH sunglasses on
It's the middle of shipping season which means that the roads (gravel) in South Sudan are dry enough to have supplies shipped on them to the 16 sub-stations we have West of the Nile. All the food, construction supplies, fuel, car parts, UN food for training, you name it is shipped from Rumbek where the hub is to all over south west Sudan.
Working in a place like this you start questioning pretty much everything about life and nature, and inequality and well pretty much everything thing else that can be questioned. It bamboozles you when you see the things you see here and look at the calender to see the year 2010 written on it.
Most of the people living here in the South are at least 100 - 200 years behind the rest of the world. If you see a good house made of bricks with a water tank and lights, the first thing that comes to mind is the word "NGO" and the second "MINISTER".
Being a person of faith you get frustrated when you see people living in abject poverty, dying because of lack of basic facilities taken for granted elsewhere in the world. You try to do what you can, but you just keep facing one obstacle after another. You keep going and you keep getting hurt and it wears you down and you just hope you can keep going and not become cynical and turn into those people who you hated in the first place and were the reason why you come here. The people who are of the view that, "we are who we are because we deserve it. We live in a big house, have cold and hot water, have AC, a nice car, because we worked hard for it. Nothing is by chance" they say. "If you work hard enough you can achieve all that you want" is another one of their favorite lines. Well i can assure you, none of these people have been to South Sudan, or Haiti, or even the south side of Chicago.
Everyone on my compound, EVERYONE, works harder than I do. They work more, they eat less, they don't have a fan at night, they don't take antimalarial pills like me, they can't afford a thermos to keep their water cold. They work all day, but the combined salary of all my staff in Rumbek would be less than my salary. How f'd up is that for lack of a more appropriate word.
Yes, I know I know, I can state the reasons for this, their lack of education, no market structure, sixty years of civil war bla bla bla...... but the fact of the matter is that none of these can reasons can provide any comfort to the families whose kids die of malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, the heat, just simple every day things.
I'm not saying this because I'm ashamed of what I do or who I am and I want to run away into the jungle never to be seen again. I promised myself that I'll do something about and till the last useless breath is taken by me, I will keep trying! It probably won't change a thing, but I'll keep trying. I was taught by my faith that "saving the life of one person is like saving entire humanity" so, I will take it step by step, one person at a time and at least when its all said and done I can look up to the heavens and say, "well I did try, probably not as much as I could have, but you know I did".
One thing that I have learn't here, though which I'm sure all of us have heard from elders or read in books at some point in our lives, is that nothing except for the human relationships we make matter in life. That holds true more than anything when you come to a place like South Sudan. I once read this research that concluded that the majority of people on their death bed did not care about anything that they were leaving behind except for the human connections they had made in their lives. Not money, not cars, not their extravagant portfolios, nothin.g
I have people here that I haven't offered anything except for a few days worth of food, helped lessen their suffering temporarily, and greeted them with warmth, and in return they are willing to lay their lives for me. I say this with tears in my eyes but I would leave Sudan a content person because there is ntohing I have done for them yet I have been showered with so much love.
I remember when i was leaving town to go back to Pakistan and Minneapolis for the new year vacation, I walked out of my room and everyone wanted to see me off. We drove in multiple cars and everyone wanted to carry some little luggage of mine to the airstrip. How many people come to drop us to the airport when we are leaving our homes in the West? Maybe our closest friend or our wives and parents? And that is after you have spent years and years with them. Here, you have people who will show you so much love and ask NOTHING in return. And when you see such suffering for such amazing people it just breaks your heart and you don't know what to do except for looking up and yelling "WHY, why them with all the suffering and why not me, what is so much better about me"
Anyways, sorry about the mundane, depressing talk, and for all 10 of you who have decided to read on, on the bright side of things, I am supporting a few local business agricultural ventures, locally run NGO's, and bright local kids who want to go to university. Some of these ventures include girls' boarding schools run by wonderful missionaries who are overcoming tremendous obstacles to provide education to the local women.
I'm also supporting Sudanese kids who are trying to seek higher education in universities is East Africa as the educational structure in South Sudan is not good enough yet. I work with hundreds of Sudanese involved with the health programs and many of them are very bright kids who work with us as field officers and area supervisors, compound staff, etc and are unable to continue education after secondary school due to various problems at home.
I'm telling ya'll all of this because I know many of you have asked me on various occasions on how they can help. I'm in the process of starting a website dedicated to the people/groups that are being helped and also registering an NGO so that ya'll can be tax exempted as well, but that might take a bit. In the mean time if someone needs any details or wishes to help they can deposit money in my US accounts. I can provide you with the details upon request.
I'll leave you with a few "Only in Sudan" to lighten up the mood:
Only in Sudan - will MEN have plastic pink colored flowers on the handle of their bicycles for decoration. I repeat, MEN
Only in Sudan - will you see people driving their bicycles without any brakes and using their feet to stop themselves (true story)
Only in Sudan - will the same people be using different signatures each time they sign
Only in Sudan - are you LEGALLY required to turn on the hazard light of the care if going straight through a round-about (20 USD fine if you don't)
Only in Sudan - is it ILLEGAL to drive WITH sunglasses on
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