No trail to blaze

A young Chinese author’s interview published last week in the Toronto Star caught my attention, mainly because it echoed my own feelings; “I have always loved writing – it has been a way of making sense of my life,” she had commented. Zhang Lijia is a Chinese journalist and the recent author of an international bestseller, Socialism is great! The book is Zhang Lijia’s memoir of life in China of the 1980s and how she worked as a teenager in a factory producing missiles; endured the rigid authoritarianism of early communist rule of Mao and when the illusion of communism was spent, how she drove herself to study English and explore her intellectual independence. From supporting the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest to chronicling the changes in her own life, Zhang also details the historic shift in China which has now enabled it to become the world's fastest-growing economy.
But what was pertinent in her interview was her assessment of how idealism has evolved: “I loved the 1980s,” she says. “There was so much idealism…people were pushing the envelope, testing waters….but China doesn’t have that urgency anymore…there wont be another 1989..(because) the urban intellectuals, the urban elite are content. And without intellectuals, without students, no movement can really be called a movement…”
I think that succinctly sums it. We don’t have a unanimous movement. Our elite – despite all the drawing room talk of ‘must do something against Talibanization…’ are plush enough to be called content. Our students have either no clue what they want from the future or are content in living the street life. As for our intellectuals – who has the time to listen to them? We are so entrenched in a discordant world that we don’t have any idealism.
When the media community celebrated the International Press Freedom day on May 3 for the 16th year going, due acknowledgments again flowed out for their crusading comrades who were brutally silenced by fanatics of varying kinds in near and far flung corners of the globe. In Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan or Columbia, the stories recalled by different international press groups had similar ends where editors and reporters were shot dead, imprisoned, tortured or threatened with dire consequences to the family. Each were simply doing a job and following through on their mandate as journalists of integrity. But that is nothing new. There are sincere and scrupulous journalists in every country – maybe less than a handful in some countries but nevertheless still present. And not just present, but making their presence felt since times of early history and contributing in turning the tide of world events and in shaping geo-politics. Some become accidental heroes by stumbling on something huge like the Watergate scandal and some follow a heroic path in conflict zones like Palestine; Kashmir, Somalia or Iraq, pursuing truth and justice relentlessly to get gunned down in the process.
But like I said, these stories are nothing new. The cataclysmic events of the past and current centuries have seen many such heroes and heroines make a mark while trailblazing onwards to become a historic reference. In Pakistan too we have had many and since listing a few often throws the rest into default oblivion, I won’t name any. Somewhere however in the mire of extremism the ‘idealistic’ goal got changed and sadly now, there is no trail left to blaze! Because it’s not about bringing a change anymore. It is about being part of the popular tide of change.
Interestingly, on the opposite side of the spectrum in a first world country, there is a unique element of bringing about change even in the most mundane aspects of life. In Ontario Canada, the person who won the Journalist of the year title at the 55th annual Ontario Newspapers Awards on World Press Freedom day had written an ‘investigative’, 13-part series on farming, the environment and ethics of meat eating. He was awarded for his ‘insightful’ look into the life of a pig and how to raise it, watch it get slaughtered, eat it and then write about it. The judges’ comments on the story included, “he gives us reason to believe and hope that this type of journalism will survive against the current gloomy forecasts of the future of newspapers.” Unbelievable, isn’t it? No Third World country person can relate to that. It’s not that Canada does not have its fair share of crime and political bungling taking place to report in the press. But their priority is to furiously guard their national mandate which includes diversity and inclusiveness. Hence, crime will always take second place to a story that brings out the Canadian spirit.
In Pakistan, we desperately need a unifying spirit, a national cause on which there is no dissent. And such a cause is impossible to expect from the political set up where mistrust, avarice and antagonism is the manifesto. For a movement like the one Chinese author Zhang Lijia talks about the issue has to touch our inner human recesses and be beyond the reach of greed and malevolence.
At present there is only dissent for the sake of dissent – everyone must have a leaning and hence everyone must be in opposition of some ideology. And lo, we have an ideology-less nation!
We need a movement which rejects a unified evil – death, destruction, war. But in this climate of political bickering we are lacking one common enemy. Instead there are multiple enemies and friends of enemies and we get mislaid on the path to freedom itself. It doesn’t appear that anyone wants matters solved. People just want to be heard. And since the conflicting views are creating a high velocity din, the louder you shout the more you’ll be heard. Perhaps there should be a movement of observing silence for an hour everyday. Let’s be silent so that our plea of peace may be heard.

*************************