Youth apprise governor of the issues of Gojal – Hunza
Lahore, March 30: Today a delegation of Lahore based youth of Gojal met the first female governor Gilgit-Baltistan, Dr Shama Khalid. The youth of Gojal congratulated her on becoming the first female governor of the area and expressed the hope that she will help calamity hit people of Gojal valley and Hunza. The governor said that she is worried about the plight of people of Gojal and that she will make her best effort to increase pace of the excavation work.
She further said that the government is very sincerely working for resolution of the issues being faced by people of the region. Dr Shama said that she has already visited the affected area and will go again when she is back to Gilgit.
The delegation of youth of Gojal comprised of Sher Ali, Nisar Ahmed, Adil, Sarfaraz, Abid and others.
Change is the only constant and so is true of identities as well. Living in a world of ideological flux identities are like vapors to be diffused into the thin air. The new world as we know today is a cauldron where identities melt to find new expression. The parts (local cultural identities) interact profusely yet with no set patterns to form a new whole which is by no means equal to its parts. However because of the inner strains of temporal and spatial (derived from time and space) and universalizing agents of globalization new local identities are also emerging which are different from our conventional understanding of traditional identities.
When disaster hit the upper Hunza we invoked our conventional mindset to associate disaster with our traditional identity and hence we localized the disaster and owned it. The debate today is more of owing disaster than finding remedies and some of us were quick to reduce it to Gojal disaster….fair enough in geographical terms but the underlying thinking patterns are less geographical in nature and more it is a way of reasserting an identity that is being withered away by forces which we do not have control over. What an irony!
This may be not be a right time to enter into a cultural debate but the awaiting disaster because of the clash between cultural fanaticism and delocalizing forces may lead our society towards even a bigger disaster. We have to come out of our nostalgic affiliations as there is nothing pure or impure in accepting the new realties and reshaping our collective selves into a fresh world of ideas rather than enslaving our thinking souls to the skeletons of the past. The phenomenon of self aggrandizement is misfortunate indeed and this self proclaimed cultural piety has engulfed not only Hunza but most of Gilgit-Baltistan…….we seem to be un-evolved tribal bands forced into modernity..-thinkingly, unconvincingly and unwillingly. There is a war between our tribal instincts and the specter of modernity not because the modernity is a vicious process but more because we are trying to hold back the advancing of history …….which is doomed to be a failure. We must be critical of modernity but alas! We are facially modern and intellectually tribal and hence we are unable to negotiate with the ever changing nature of history. Our generations will not forgive us if we engage in a lilupitian politics …a politics of petty matters in the garb of nostalgically defined and static identities.
Have we ever thought of cumulative adverse impact of development process which also reshaped our cultural sense during the last three to four decades? Construction of KKH that fed dynamite into our rocks which in geological times were not developed enough to sustain the burden of explosive material. Construction of water channels by AKRSP without environmental impact assessment added salt to injuries which also reduced development to the shenanigans of modern engineering….human, biological and social environments remain the least prioritized areas. We should question these factors of man- made disaster which could easily be controlled. Rather than engaging in a debate of cultural piety and stagnant identity we should ponder upon the broad-based issues that plunged the area into destruction and Heavens forbid if we do not address these issues today we will no more be there to lament our lost glories. Let us pledge to change ourselves and let us be the beacon of light for our coming generations.
A hammering assessement! bravo!!!bravo!!!
When you say that “we are faciallly modern and intellectually tribal”, I reaally appreciate your analysis.
I also sense your notion of getting “freedom from religion” as well but the ground facts are much complicated and that could be (socially and identically) drastic if we cross that point now??? these are the ideas some 100 years ahead of us at this moment??. So please, let the society learn from its own experiences—since we have no control over it—rather than imposing upon it. But at the same time we need to caution the society and feed back with the new futuristic ideas (even if it seems mad and abnormal) which have no space at the current pace.
Bodak chaghai hane magar time nosh yaraan.
An anotomical assessement of the socio-politicio-economical behaviour of our present day society. bravo!!!bravo!!!
When you say that “we are faciallly modern and intellectually tribal”, I reaally appreciate your analysis.
I also sense (among other factors) your notion of getting “freedom from religion” as well but the ground facts are much complicated and that could be (socially and identically) devastating if we cross that point now??? these are the ideas some 100 years ahead of us from now but again reversible in a asense that change always has its impact from the history–it revolves and evolves. So please, let the society learn from its own experiences—since we have no control over it—rather than imposing upon it. But at the same time we need to caution the society and feed back with the new futuristic ideas (even if it seems mad and abnormal) which have no space at the current pace.
Bodak chaghai hane magar time nosh yaraan.