Creativity and upward mobility in Pakistani society

The first season of “Silicon Valley”, the comedy series about dotcom start-ups, has recently concluded. It claims to be the “Entourage” of the geek world. Among many characters central to the story is one Dinesh Chughtai from Pakistan. Unnoticed by many, the representation of Pakistanis in American movies and series is steadily improving. But the story of this series revolves around a group of nerds who come up with a breakthrough in data compression and go on to become millionaires. It is becoming exceedingly easy for bright minds with new ideas and relevant skills to be rich in this world. That is if you are talking about the world outside Pakistan.

It is not as if Pakistan doesn’t have potential. It does. What is lacking is an environment to hone that talent. Let us suppose you are struck with a unique and brilliant idea; where will you take it? If it involves building some kind of prototype, where will you find necessary materials? How will you finance it? And if you miraculously find answers to all these questions, is there any assurance that somebody within your country will be interested in buying it? Finally, how sure are you that after your first breakthrough, you will not be kidnapped for ransom? This is the tragedy of the creative process in our dear republic. On the other side, in the absence of talent-hunting and idea development processes, the state’s thirst is such that a minister of the time doesn’t mind his name being associated with scams like the water-kit.

Let’s face it: our businesses are inertia ridden, our institutions are least interested in innovation and for its own reasons, our political class not ready to let creativity take over. A case in point is the Prime Minister Youth Programme. Of course, it is sad that political point scoring has eclipsed the brilliance of the initiative. But what is more tragic is the list of pre-feasibilities that are made available on SMEDA’s website. Perhaps, the most cutting edge entries on the list are for an animation production facility and medical transcription. An organisation like SMEDA, whose sole purpose is to develop small and medium enterprises, could surely come up with a few innovative ideas.

Let’s also take a look at the quality of courses being taught at our universities. Let’s talk about humanities rather than science and technology for a change. You realise that people can even be rich in the outside world by writing a novel. So is any literature department teaching us creative writing? Not to my knowledge. Instead, our literature programmes teach us to write critiques of poems by Tennyson and Browning. If that sells, fair enough. But in a country where we lack decent publications to showcase new writers, pray, where will you publish such work? Then there is the problem of proper interface. There is a booming television drama industry. Usually the literary and talent agencies take your work to the prospective buyer and help you obtain the best price possible. Do we have any such agency of note? Writing and selling your work is no less daunting a task than the 12 labours of Hercules.

The absence of such agencies is felt in the television news industry too. In financial matters, I have always been a lousy negotiator. A person like me would willingly give up a proportion of my earnings to professional help meant to pitch my ideas and get the best bargain. In the absence of a well-thought-out network of similar services, what follows by default is an unmitigated disaster. The fact is that the nature of the economy is changing all over the world and Pakistan cannot remain unaffected. Sadly, our intellectual lethargy as a state and society is delaying the prospect of a major breakthrough.

This might have something to do with our inertia-ridden movement between classes. In rural areas where the landed aristocracy has blocked upward mobility of the common man, many became robbers. In tribal areas when the youth couldn’t displace the tribal elders, they chose to join militant groups to change the status quo. In urban centres they try to associate with new political parties to do the same. Society has to realise this inertia has already cost it dearly and its time to mend its ways.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th,  2014.

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