Defending Pakistan in America

Bad news from Pakistan should define the country no more than bad news from America is allowed to define America.

During a trip to the United States earlier this summer, I found several friends and acquaintances offering sympathy and empathy that I was braving life in Pakistan. They were especially concerned about the perils of daily life in Karachi, our beloved teeming coastal metropolis. Despite assurances that we were going about our Karachi lives with reasonable happiness, comfort and gratitude to the Almighty, the tut-tutting and tsk-tsking did not ease up. Virtually everyone I spoke with confronted me with the reports of terrorism, gang warfare and street crime that tend to keep Karachi (and indeed, the rest of Pakistan) in the news. “You poor thing” was the common theme.

Karachi does have its share of troubles — what place doesn’t? — but it is also a thriving city of 20 million and counting. There are parks, golf courses, shopping malls, cinemas. There is a breakneck social scene and a flourishing population of world-class restaurants. The cultural calendar is full all year round, with plays, concerts, readings, recitals, debates and discussions. There is an expanding middle class with ever-increasing disposable incomes and everybody wants a piece of the action. Property prices are constantly up, the stock market keeps soaring and new construction is frequently seen.

Of course, none of this makes Karachi particularly unique or distinctive. But these features do establish that Pakistan’s largest city isn’t the hellhole that people perceive it to be sitting from afar.

After repeatedly defending my city, I began to wonder what our US holiday might look like if we focused exclusively on the negatives. Over a two-week period, my family and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time as we zig-zagged up and down the east coast. But there were some inevitable hiccups.

What should have been a pleasurable four-hour car ride from Washington DC to New York turned into a torturous 11-hour nightmare because Interstate-95, the major east coast artery, was abruptly closed to traffic. In Manhattan, entering Columbus Circle from 8^th Avenue, we found ourselves trapped for what seemed like forever in an impossibly gridlocked intersection that would not have looked out of place in the developing world. In Orlando, we were swindled by a taxi driver. In Charleston, South Carolina, we were accosted by a beggar. Other than that, we had a fabulous visit. But these unexpected episodes did leave an impression.

Psychological research has repeatedly shown that bad stuff creates a bigger mental impact than information that is positive or emotionally neutral. Bad stuff happens everywhere, as does good stuff. You just remember the bad stuff more. This property of adverse events is what makes negativity newsworthy and it sets the stage for cognitive biases, logical fallacies and false assumptions.

If we exclusively focus on negative reports to reach a judgment, we are engaging in mental laziness and, ultimately, a particularly virulent kind of discrimination. There are, for example, serious adversities in America that go well beyond my brief holiday experience — random gun violence that keeps taking scores of innocent lives, troubled cities that are flirting with bankruptcy, bitter political stalemate in the halls of government. Yet, America is also a place where life hums along, people dream big dreams and great things happen.

Pakistan is no different. It is a nation of 180 million that sleeps and wakes like any other place in the world, where the business of life goes on no matter what. Bad news coming out of Pakistan should define the country no more than bad news coming out of America is allowed to define America. Yes, disasters do strike, but many of us are getting by and we are thankful for it (or should be, if we are not).

There is no doubt that Pakistan is mired in troubles. We are dealing with a terrorist insurgency, a debilitating energy crisis and low levels of literacy and wealth — not to mention the geopolitical misfortune of being located in what is arguably the world’s toughest neighbourhood. Yet, it is not all bleak. Let us not forget that after more than six decades of trying to get it right, Pakistan has finally gone through its first-ever peaceful transition of democratic governments, undeniably a major step towards the evolution of an equitable society and an accountable political culture. It is helpful to keep in mind that for every item of bad or depressing news, there are several such promising and uplifting developments that go unacknowledged or under-acknowledged.

The human drive to search for better circumstances is innate and universal. If nothing else, this alone provides good reason to hope that the proportion of those who are not just getting by but getting ahead will continue to increase in Pakistan, as elsewhere around the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2013.

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