The national stupor

The national stupor

I have been an avid reader of Mr. Cowasjee's weekly column since many years,and I know he is well known for being blunt and brutally honest in his opinions about the state of affairs in our nation and about Pakistan's politicians, but this is probably the first time he has written against a leader so openly.While Mr. Cowasjee's excessively harsh and sardonic remarks about the president sound quite valid to me(as well as to many other Pakistanis),I am concerned about his personal safety,which might come into danger if his article is reported by any pro-government person as damaging to the government's image(we have a law for that too,now,in order to ensure no harm is done to the current leaders even verbally). Mr Cowasjee has the courage to say what many citizens of Pakistan would like to say publicly but are afraid of voicing their opinions out of fear of being punished by the authorities for it(and this happens in a so-called 'democratic' nation,imagine).Mr Cowasjee has correctly pointed out that the predicament of a large number of the flood affectees is one of the major concerns that the government should be addressing right now but has conveniently ignored it. As Mr Cowasjee has stated,it has been reported that atleast 6 million out of the 20 million flood affectees are still waiting to be rehabilitated. Since the government seems to be in no mood of entertaining the flood affectees' woes,I think its our job as responsible citizens to do whatever is in our capacity to rehabilitate them .We should collaborate with NGOs who are involved in flood relief work,or should organize as groups and do the work independently.Mr Cowasjee's cries for action will remain unheard unless we actually wake up from our stupor and jolt into action.