The Verdict
I don’t want to make New Year's resolutions

I don’t want to make New Year's resolutions

When we don’t even know what will happen to us minutes later, how can we plan for the coming 12 months?

Saba Musheer January 01, 2011

With the start of 2011, everyone all over the world is busy finalising their resolutions for the new year and assessing their efforts at accomplishing, or perhaps failing, to meet their goals for the previous one.

In my opinion, New Year resolutions may not be such a great idea for the people of Pakistan. The reason is clear and simple. Every morning, many of us leave for office, children leave for school, college or university, not knowing whether we will reach our destination safely or even return home safe and sound.

Even those who stay at home fear for their loved ones who stepped out. Drivers of public transport don’t know whether they’ll be able to reach the next stop or not; shopkeepers don’t know how long they will have the money they earned a little while ago, lest they get robbed; people entering mosques or imambargahs keep in mind that this might be the last time they are here. There is no end to this list.

Today, everyone in the country feels insecure and petrified. Everyone thinks twice before getting out of their house. Everyone is in a state of panic. Every second person in the country feels that he/she is being targeted.

Some fear they might become a victim of target killing or a bomb blast; some are scared of being robbed or kidnapped, while others worry about losing their jobs or businesses. Amid all these circumstances, does making a New Year resolution sound like a good idea?

I might sound pessimistic to some people. Some would even say that everyone around the world is insecure because of terrorism and people may even call me unpatriotic, but for me a resolution is when a person resolves to do, or not to do something.

When we don’t even know what will happen to us minutes later, in fact seconds later, how can we plan for the coming 12 months?

WRITTEN BY:
Saba Musheer A Karachi based journalist who manages the Sunday pages of The Express Tribune.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

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COMMENTS (21)

Mumzy | 13 years ago | Reply What if we make a resolution to appreciate life and try to live it as fully as possible even if we know for sure that we are going to die in an hour(which we dont). I realize tat we have so much negativity around us that such thoughts are inevitable. By thats what the enemy(terrorism, inflation etc.) wants...right.The question here is that do we succumb to the enemy's wishes or are we stronger that that.....

Ali Hassan | 13 years ago | Reply Very true, good post.

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Sania Aslam | 13 years ago | Reply I fully agree what was written. With a situation like what we are facing there should be no new year resolutions.

Syed Abdul Wahab Gilani | 13 years ago | Reply @Author: Give your proposal a try, i hope you'll live to tell the tale next January what you found ;)

Shaikh | 13 years ago | Reply I agree with you saba, but you see atleast we can hope for the good from upcoming year. Well nice post saba !!

Shehryar Jafri | 13 years ago | Reply That is true Miss.Saba that we dont even know what is going to happen in the next few seconds to us but if you are a true Muslim then you should not call it a problem of Pakistan, but a religious fact. It is indeed in many hadith's that we will die when time comes and that time is designated to us when we were born. So i would say here that we should not criticize on the corrupt activities going on in Pakistan but should make resolutions to make our place a better and our life a better one to live. If we are going to die it does not mean we cannot plan on our future. This means we should not even save our money for future just in case we die. Think about this too :)

Rajat | 13 years ago | Reply Whoa... Paranoia at its best...

UZi | 13 years ago | Reply Oh FFS, its not like you're living in a warzone yet. As such, Karachi is only slightly worse off, security-wise, than it was before suicide blasts became fashionable amongst the holier-than-everybody-else; and is in fact much better than it was in the 90s. Jeez.

Irfan Shah | 13 years ago | Reply This was a pathetic blog post. I expected something better than this and I just lost my precious time.

Sabir Shah Hoti | 13 years ago | Reply Hope is the major factor in our life which also teach us by our great religion if we are hopless this is a great curse for us therefor please make strong your faith on GOD dont get disappointed but one tging is true that New Year resolutions is only for the properiose community persons who took a target for achieving such positive goals not like .

Ali Aslam | 13 years ago | Reply not a very interesting post to read..thumbs down! completely pointless..if this is the case as you put it, then should we must stop living..!?!?

Hina | 13 years ago | Reply @Ali: I couldn't agree more!

Hina | 13 years ago | Reply Completely pointless. Who on earth knows what will happen to them the very next second? Does that imply we stop living or aspiring for a better life? Sorry, but i don't agree with your standpoint one bit.

akhter | 13 years ago | Reply oh!!! Your trying to spread fear among those who intent to come in paki.

Sana Saleem | 13 years ago | Reply I absolutely agree with you ! This is very depressing but Allah knows when we will have Good days Again !

tipu | 13 years ago | Reply @Atheist: i cant argue with u ,bcz u r athiest.

Atheist | 13 years ago | Reply @Tipu.....why doesn't the Almighty do anything when thousands get slaughtered each day? Why can't he protect those who go to mosques to worship and who often end up being blasted? Why is he just watching all the bloodshed?

Azka Asif | 13 years ago | Reply Heard of think good and have good.

Ali | 13 years ago | Reply Well sounds like you were skeptic of your own writing, any ways whilst I can see where you are coming from but surely this can be said for anyone and everyone around the world. We must stay put and positive instead of getting downtrodden, we are not sure of our existence but so is no one in the world so lets just enjoy and work towards the good times. I am sure they will eventually come.

tipu | 13 years ago | Reply That is called extremism Saba. If u have faith in Almighty u never think this way and i think this is the biggest problem of our Nation today that we have lost faith in Almighty.

parvez | 13 years ago | Reply There is no certainty in life. Agreed we have a really bum deal with life in this land of the pure but the idea is to make the best of it and try not to live in fear. I think it's a mental thing which should be overcome. You could call it positive thinking the naysayers may call it deluding yourself. The choice is yours and yours alone.

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I don’t want to make New Year's resolutions

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