And all for nothing
Perhaps people are happy, sort of, as things are and do not really want anything very much to change
The writer is editorial consultant at The Express Tribune, news junkie, bibliophile, cat lover and occasional cyclist
There was a sense of anticlimax as the Prime Minister addressed the lower house of Parliament on Monday May 16. I watched in the upstairs office, the family watched in their lounge and sundry others around the place followed proceedings on their phones and tablets. And when it was all over and the channels went back to the evening round of talking heads there was…. nothing. A ringing silence. Unless I missed something there was no street protest at this latest stumble along the democratic road, no banners waved calling for an end to this-that-or-the-other. Nobody worked up the energy to burn anything down or casually murder anybody else. Just nothing.
So part of Tuesday was spent looking for something and yes, came up with nothing. There is a collective sense of ennui among the wider populace as to the political storm now raging over their heads. My unscientific survey of the usual suspects from relatives to friends across the internet and a scattering of real-life face to face conversations drew not one iota of passion, not a flicker of anger, nary anything but a weariness of abyssal depths with politics and politicians in general. When asked folks said they would probably vote for whoever they voted for last time and no, they did not think that even if there was an election tomorrow that anything very much would change. And that included the party in power as of today.
But what about how much safer things seem to be say I? The drop in terrorist incidents? Shrugs and words to the effect that it was generally quiet hereabouts anyway (it is) was the reply. So how about the economy? Further shoulder exercises. So what does light the fire for you? Loadshedding? Taxation? A few smiles at that one. Education?
Ennui. Wall-to-wall ennui wherever I poked and enquired. The passion that is bringing people, ordinary people, into the streets in other countries around the world that are faced with political crises is here in deep hibernation. Governments have been brought down by street protests, politicians indicted and one at least — Dilma Rousseff — suspended and probably to be impeached for doing a little creative accounting. But nothing of the sort here.
Street gatherings appear to now be the province of the sacerdotal classes that can pull tens of thousands to block the roads in minutes, and the giant rallies that the leaders of political parties address to lobotomising tedium in terms of TV coverage are ersatz affairs, devoid of spark and sparkle as the bussed-in participants baa in unison.
Perhaps people are happy, sort of, as things are and do not really want anything very much to change. After all nobody is throwing the ‘failed state’ thing around anymore, loadshedding is not as bad as it was last year and the National Accountability Bureau is on a trophy-hunt that is putting a few heads on the office wall to say nothing of giving us endless footage of oodles of ackers being counted by gobsmacked investigators. There is that new road, that one that they never finished that finally got done a few months back… and look at that new mall coming up on Fauji Chowk. And that uber-smart makeup shop with a shop selling expensive underthingies for discerning matrons on the floor above. What about all that huh? What’s not to like about all that?
Nopes… not a whiff of anything remotely redolent of a desire for anything to be much different to what is now. Things… those indefinable ‘things’… have got better very quietly for a lot of people. Everywhere. ‘Things’ are not as bad as they were. ‘Things’ are OK. Probably. And no I don’t want to rock the boat if this improvement in the quality of thinginess goes on. But what about the politicians say I. Don’t you think some of this is down to them? Don’t you think that it is the workings of parliament and the provincial assemblies that have been behind all this good-thingy stuff? A few shrugs. A sheepish smile or two and back to watching the antics of our political masters who may, or may not, be responsible for all sorts of errr… things.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2016.
So part of Tuesday was spent looking for something and yes, came up with nothing. There is a collective sense of ennui among the wider populace as to the political storm now raging over their heads. My unscientific survey of the usual suspects from relatives to friends across the internet and a scattering of real-life face to face conversations drew not one iota of passion, not a flicker of anger, nary anything but a weariness of abyssal depths with politics and politicians in general. When asked folks said they would probably vote for whoever they voted for last time and no, they did not think that even if there was an election tomorrow that anything very much would change. And that included the party in power as of today.
But what about how much safer things seem to be say I? The drop in terrorist incidents? Shrugs and words to the effect that it was generally quiet hereabouts anyway (it is) was the reply. So how about the economy? Further shoulder exercises. So what does light the fire for you? Loadshedding? Taxation? A few smiles at that one. Education?
Ennui. Wall-to-wall ennui wherever I poked and enquired. The passion that is bringing people, ordinary people, into the streets in other countries around the world that are faced with political crises is here in deep hibernation. Governments have been brought down by street protests, politicians indicted and one at least — Dilma Rousseff — suspended and probably to be impeached for doing a little creative accounting. But nothing of the sort here.
Street gatherings appear to now be the province of the sacerdotal classes that can pull tens of thousands to block the roads in minutes, and the giant rallies that the leaders of political parties address to lobotomising tedium in terms of TV coverage are ersatz affairs, devoid of spark and sparkle as the bussed-in participants baa in unison.
Perhaps people are happy, sort of, as things are and do not really want anything very much to change. After all nobody is throwing the ‘failed state’ thing around anymore, loadshedding is not as bad as it was last year and the National Accountability Bureau is on a trophy-hunt that is putting a few heads on the office wall to say nothing of giving us endless footage of oodles of ackers being counted by gobsmacked investigators. There is that new road, that one that they never finished that finally got done a few months back… and look at that new mall coming up on Fauji Chowk. And that uber-smart makeup shop with a shop selling expensive underthingies for discerning matrons on the floor above. What about all that huh? What’s not to like about all that?
Nopes… not a whiff of anything remotely redolent of a desire for anything to be much different to what is now. Things… those indefinable ‘things’… have got better very quietly for a lot of people. Everywhere. ‘Things’ are not as bad as they were. ‘Things’ are OK. Probably. And no I don’t want to rock the boat if this improvement in the quality of thinginess goes on. But what about the politicians say I. Don’t you think some of this is down to them? Don’t you think that it is the workings of parliament and the provincial assemblies that have been behind all this good-thingy stuff? A few shrugs. A sheepish smile or two and back to watching the antics of our political masters who may, or may not, be responsible for all sorts of errr… things.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2016.