Swahili Dinaz

Submitted by Mohammed Saeed Akhtar (United States), Sep 30, 2005 at 16:45

Your comments are indeed worth a read and infact I am in unison with some of your arguments. I am not trying a tit-for-tat discussion as I agree with you on many facts--

- Pakistanis and Indians make great personal friends
- Pakistanis and Indians eat exactly the same food
- Pakistanis and Indians wear exactly the same clothes
- Pakistanis and Indians comprehend all languages spoken in the region
- Pakistanis and Indians share exactly the same values-- ie a joint family system with father as head of nucleus
- Pakistanis and Indians listen to same music, watch same movies
- Infact Pakistanis and Indians have the same nasty habits as well.. i.e. a general sense of cynicism about everything in life.

Believe me, I think if we pakistanis and indians were not 'cynical', we would be in a better state. This is our biggest problem that we dont trust 'anyone', let alone each other. We have a pessimist view of an aspects of life. We look at the glass half empty. I mean this is a true true fact.

Why have we gotten into this negative state? tell me please. Do you think you can simply classify all pakistanis as haters or I can simply classify all Indians as haters? No

There are good and bad people in every society. Yes I say it with conviction that main problem with pakistan is a lack of understanding of various cultures of the world. I agree with your one point, which is extremely solid and robust, that Pakistan has isolated itself in many ways. That is our biggest problem. We have become a closet society interested in economics, education, and so on, but not in arts, culture, international affairs, etc etc. This is our single biggest fault and in my opinion the biggest blunder was committed by Zia-Ul-Haq who converted Pakistani society into its current form. Now that is a different story altogether.. what happened in the 80s, the influence of tribal afghan culture was the worst thing that could ever happen to the northern part of Pakistan.

Another point is that Pakistan is a very weak-minded society. People are scared of India, a big powerful, robust country. Pakistan is very small and always the military has scared people off that India will do this, do that (ofcourse that is a political thing in pakistan).

I admire Indians for so many ways the most being Indians have a big country, unlike the small Pakistan. You are confident people who dont need to be scared of anyone around you. With such a big country, diverse population, you are in a very unique and wonderful position.

Finally Kashmir, personally I dont give a darn at kashmir.. India can have it all. It wont make any difference to both countries. I know many Pakistanis who think exactly like me. Although its a political dispute, not a religious dispute. I do hope that both countries just accept the current line of control as boundaries and get it over with.

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