In many ways, people in the west are no different. Most people just carry on carrying on because taking on larger social causes requires too much personal and political capital when the key concern is paying rent/mortgage, making car payments and affording healthcare etc.
True, very true. But there is still social mobility, there is still some sense of equity, that is sadly lacking in Pakistan. Most Pakistanis follow the same old loop again and again. Take my local Karyana walla, him and his family have been running that shop for the past 45 years, Father, Son, Grandson.
I am very good friends with the family and one day asked the son, why don't you send your son to school, you know if he does Metic exam I can help him get a job in some local office. To which he simply replied "we are simple people, why trouble ourselves with the land of Babus..."
This thought process is what ultimately plagues Pakistanis, and you know sir, we suffer for Messiah complex, be it Kaptaan or Sher or Bhutto or Wardi. We have an issue of seeking messiahs.
Reminds me of the time I was training the rescue team in Mansehra and we asked the local DC office to help us find female volunteers we can train as well, there was a lot of paindu pushback from the local community "women are meant to be in the home, they will go to these courses and learn bad values, etc etc".
We spent a lot of time engaging with the local community, and explained that women would be taught separately they would be taught by female instructors and the turn over gear can be worn over their existing shalwar kameez, and ultimately when there is a disaster, it doesn't differentiate between genders, nature is the great equalizer.
Point is there were women in that batch of trainees, who told our female colleagues, this training you have given us, it has broadened our minds so much, all of the women didn't even know that when someone suffers burns to the skin you are not to apply fat to the burn as it can cause further harm to the skin and tissue, one woman actually told my colleague "we have always been taught by our elders, if someone burns their hand put some ghee on it".
Don't take this old man's words as gospel... Listen to the women themselves and how our training empowered them:
To change Pakistan you need to change mindsets, this requires time and is a grass-roots activity, it is not a top down exercise. And what better way than to teach women who are the care givers, the mothers and the teachers of a home, a village a "community" and communities build nations.
