New breed of Beggars

Yesterday I went through the Mall area & it was a sight. I wish I could get the sort of pictures I wanted but unfortunately that did not happen. As they say a picture is better than a thousand words. However, I’ll try to create a picture with the help of words.

The recruitment process of the Taliban is now common knowledge; they feed on the vacuum that is created by the government’s lack of presence. By providing the basic essentials to the desperate people they have been able to root their ground. One of the quite repeated stories which revolved around the ever famous Osama-bin-Laden was that his picture was a constant sight in the camps which were providing food & other goods to the people of Afghanistan.

A similar sight was in view but in reversed order as far as the purpose is concerned. We get to see the dog fight on our televisions among all these champions of democracy however their camps were all set up in a line with no space in-between. Each camp including PPPP, PML-N were over-flowing with their respective flags, you even had multiple Tahir-ul-Qadris staring at you & one of these camps had arranged a sound system & one of their members was making the most useless statements to attract people to donate.

My Problem?

Why are THEY collecting from the common man.

The other day on Duniya channel a representative of the government was complaining that the out-pouring of the people is peanuts as compared to what was witnessed during the October 2005’s earthquake in the northern areas of Pakistan. Do they even have the right to make this complain? 

• A)    People learned their lesson as donating via the government bodies is never used for the intended purposes. Reason that now even banks call their customers before the Zakat collection is due asking them to draw their money. During the earthquake had the then government only coordinated the funds of the people with honesty that would have been enough as people working in those areas said “logon ko log paal gaye hain”. And here only the faces change not the system or ideas.
• B)    They lied about each & everything. To cover up their failures they kept the slogan of “All is well & under control” when the reality was the complete opposite as they were never bothered to listen to the concerned people who were predicting this all the time. They are incapable of handling a situation had it been of a lesser scale even if they are born twice.

The level of frustration can be judged by yesterday’s event. In any normal (though now lines between normal & abnormal are blurring quite rapidly) circumstances it would have been embarrassing that in a foreign land the head of the state was thrown a shoe at even if the person who did is was a desi. However, this was not the case we were overjoyed & if this didn’t relayed the message to the people claiming that we have the full support of the people lets not accept that they have any plans to get over their slumber.

Here is the link (http://decentsms.com/zardari.html) of the game that was up in such a short time. My personal favorite is the level 3 & you get to play all the three levels no matter what score you have at the previous level; sounds familiar huh? Whoever designed it, did put in some solid thinking.

Coming back to the issue of the collecting spots & my problem with them. Yesterday the amount that Zardari announced to contribute to the Prime Minister’s fund & the funds that two of his children have opened is peanuts as compared to what his financial status is & same goes for the Nawaz  Shariff. As mentioned earlier we know where this one is going. People who are genuinely working for the victims did not put up collection camps with their banners & pictures putting up a show of civilized beggary, whose main purpose is to get as much media coverage as possible. They contacted people they knew & the amount & things they were able to collect was amazing, showing just the only string of hope we are left with; the people always rise up & unite at the hour of the need no matter where they are living over the globe. The government has not been able to provide the required security to such bodies whose people have left their jobs & business to a halt & do what the tax-payer’s money pay the people they have sent to the offices for; so now they have to take along a couple of people who act as the security personal.

So while our democratic parties did find the recruiting system of the extremist copy worthy they missed the essential part; the reason of success behind the camps of the extremist is that they give to the people not the vice versa.