Much adversity, but our time is now

It is a testing time to be a Pakistani. This is Pakistan’s time; there should be no looking back now.

About a year ago to the day, in the aftermath of last year’s floods, the World Food Programme announced that roughly 70 per cent of Pakistan’s population did not have adequate access to proper nutrition. The summer months of 2010 were akin to a prolonged nightmare for Pakistan and its people with millions either dead, homeless or hopeless. But natural disasters occur and you have to deal with them. The aftermath of the floods resulted in global mobilisation of both Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis. Most importantly, many Pakistanis who were spared by the devastation opened their eyes and arms for compatriots who needed their help. The tragedy of last year’s floods is not that they happened, but rather that we failed to ensure preparedness once the rains returned this summer.

A year later, it is sad to see the country rapidly heading to a similar state of crisis. It is almost criminal that millions are once again suffering from severe flooding, in the same areas that lived through a nightmare as recently as last year. We cannot control what the heavens drop down on us, but we can control how we cope with what is dropped.

While the rains are drowning lives in Sindh, mosquitoes are biting away in Punjab. Dengue fever is not foreign to Pakistan. We have faced the disease for several years and yet we are dealing with it as if we are as helpless as Londoners were against the plague in the 17th century. Learning from what has occurred in seasons passed, we should establish working systems not only to treat the disease but also to prevent it from happening in the future. The task is not impossible as Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia have all combatted the disease. Instead of implementing precarious stopgap measures and hoping the disease does not return, we need to face the problem and solve it.

In demanding times, great nations rise. The Japanese did whatever they could when struck with an earth-shattering quake and accompanying tsunami. In the aftermath of the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plants, the Japanese government asked its citizens to reduce electricity usage. As a result, recent data shows that usage has decreased by 20 per cent.

As citizens, we have shown in the past that we are able to serve when called upon. But instead of simply reacting, we need to start pre-empting. We have to start asking ourselves what it means to be a nation and not just a collection of people. We need to ask ourselves what is required to put Pakistan back onto the right path. Young people need to get involved. This is our country and we have to make it the place we know it can be.

While we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand, there is no need to be unnecessarily pessimistic. We are in an era of struggle, but we must not forget that it is the generations that pull nations out of such holes that are etched in the memory for eternity. It is a testing time to be a Pakistani, but also one that presents immense opportunity. Let us cross the hurdles we face, learn from our mistakes and reclaim this era. This is Pakistan’s time; there should be no looking back now.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2011.