Failure is not an option

“Billions of years ago, when the Vogons had first crawled out of the sluggish primaeval seas of Vogsphere, and had lain panting and heaving on the planet’s virgin shores … when the first rays of the bright young Vogsol sun had shone across them that morning, it was as if the forces of evolution had simply given up on them there and then and written them off as an unfortunate mistake. They never evolved again.

“The fact that they did is some kind of tribute to the thick-willed slug-brained stubbornness of these creatures. Evolution? They said to themselves, who needs it? And what nature refused to do for them they simply did without until such time as they were able to rectify the gross anatomical inconveniences with surgery.

“Meanwhile, the natural forces on the planet Vogsphere had been working overtime to make up for their earlier blunder. They brought forth scintillating jewelled scuttling crabs, which the Vogons ate, smashing their shells with iron mallets; tall aspiring trees of breath-taking slenderness and colour which the Vogons cut down and burned the crabmeat with; elegant gazelle like creatures with silken coats and dewy eyes which the Vogons would catch and sit on. They were no use as transport because their backs would snap instantly, but the Vogons sat on them anyway.”

This is how Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy introduces one of the species central to the series plot. I must confess there are moments when I think these lines are written about us.

Please do not mistake this assertion as self-loathing. I am ferociously proud of our people’s endurance. As these lines are being written, mercury keeps rising throughout the country, breaking previous records. And yet life shows no signs of stopping. Only a year ago, a substantial part of this country was underwater. But look at our farmers and see how passionately they are cultivating crops. This is the land where Covid came and left in awe. For over twenty years, it fought terrorism on its soil, endured the death of eighty thousand citizens and yet wants to play cricket, party and live life to the fullest. And inflation. My God, the inflation. All-time high. But people keep toiling, no matter what. So what if it is almost Vogon-like? The will to survive matters, and it shows.

No self-loathing. But indeed, outrage over the ruthless waste of the infinite resources the providence has bestowed upon us. I write these lines after spending over a week in Balochistan’s capital. As we were inundated with information about the endless resources found in the province, its massive size, its seven decades of underdevelopment and how nearly empty it was of population, I could not help but feel furious. Who wastes resources like this? And as I visit city to city, province to province, from time to time, it is basically the same story playing out over and over again. Unimaginable wealth and potential beyond the dream of avarice. Neglected, abused and misused by half-wits who would look the other way if opportunities danced the conga before their eyes.

What accounts for this? Lethargy? Incompetence? Sabotage? Ignorance? Corruption? Disloyalty? Well, in a country with such animated history, it is unfair to rule out any of these factors. But they are just a part of a much bigger whole. They cannot possibly explain the systemic failure spanning a nation’s entire lifetime. There must be something else.

My explanation is more straightforward than you would expect. I think it is one of those things where a grown-up man continues to behave immaturely for years but then, with just one or few shocks in life, comes to his senses and suddenly starts sounding wise beyond his age.

We have wasted God-given abundance for a long, long time. But my purpose here is not to accost anyone. What is the point? My goal is to remind you that a better tomorrow is possible. With the resources we have, it is criminal to lose faith. That from someone who had perfected losing faith into an art form.

The reason I insist that we have to keep fighting for a better tomorrow is that failure is not an option. And that I have seen fresh proof of hope. For instance, twelve years after visiting Reko Diq, as I am informed by the concerned authorities that there are billions of tons of copper there, I cannot but count our blessings. Likewise, the news that lithium deposits are found in the country when the world is getting hungrier for the metal is enough to keep you happy for days.

Minerals are just one aspect of the natural resources gifted to the country. A wise man recently pointed out that after the result of the new census, Pakistan has become the fourth most populous nation in the world. What is the most appealing part of this picture is the demographic dividend we have. Spend some time with the country’s youth, and you might be surprised by their thirst to prove their mettle.

But as I have been pointing out for some time, a population of this size is a double-edged sword. When the going is good, it can be an engine of growth and an enticing market for foreign investors. However, if the going gets tough, please remember that a declining birthrate is not the only reason demographic collapses occur. A nation’s inability to feed and shelter its people can also lead to demographic collapse. As Lenin once put it, “Every society is only three meals away from chaos.” We cannot afford such an eventuality.

Somehow we have become too morose. Since we do not give up easily, this attitudinal problem only prolongs our suffering. I know the news is rarely good. But how we react is precisely the difference between the nations that fail and those that refuse to until they find true greatness.

Let me quote Frank Abagnale Sr from Catch Me If You Can: “Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out.” Ask yourself which mouse you are.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2023.

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