Sandy victims and the difference
NEW Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a blunt critic of the president and a key Romney ally, produced a glowing character reference for Obama. The praise from Christie, who is mentioned as the possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate should Romney lose, represented the kind of publicity that a campaign, for all the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on it, simply cannot buy (Oct 31).
While storm Sandy is still pounding and causing destruction, all Americans are talking about rebuilding. The media is not calling their people the affected ones. Instead they are being called survivors.
If we think for a while we will realise that there is a difference between the mentality of an affected person and a survivor.
Surviving Americans are not complaining against their civic authorities and their government.
A news video clip showed people stranded on their rooftops smiling and waving at media teams. There is a positive sense all around. The people who have lost their loved ones, their businesses, their properties and their total belongings, you still don’t see them crying.
A colleague of mine commented that ‘goras’ do not cry and this is so very true.
We all saw how Pakistanis cried, wept and wailed after the earthquake and the floods. While they have learned to control their emotions, we have not done anything in this direction.
By controlling their emotions they use their brains better like naming their devastated people as survivors while we call them affected people. Survivors fight out against odds and rise while in our case we are not willing to stand up without external support.
We, the fortunate and the educated ones, have to learn to control our emotions. When we do so, we will not only become a positive bunch of people but we will also be able to help the less fortunate and the uneducated come to terms with such calamities and minor irritants alike.
S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA
Karachi
Nayyar, Your comments are relevant and we see the difference in emotional behaviour under ‘so to appear’ similar situations. However, don’t forget if you are under similar situation where if not everything, most of your belongings are ‘insured’, you would feel happy and smiling as well… Plus the government is not going to leave them on streets, that is the confidence which is not built on promises but through actions visible through the window towards history… like Katrina…
How much aid is Pakistan Sending to USA. We should reciprocate for the tremendous aid and support we got from them after the earthquake and floods.
Don’t know what this person is talking about.complaining is a human behavior, not limited to brown folk. Obviously has not watched the news lately
A great article to show the attitude and thinking of a nation. Nation-building is not done overnight it has to be nurtured overtime. In Pakistan, where 70% of our labor force is uneducated and dependent on the daily wages it is too much to ask. Only and only education can change that and the same people tooled to bring change in their thinking could become asset for the nation.
While studying the subconscious origins of language one cannot possibly ignore the influence of geology.
InshAllah Allah will give Hidaytah to our folks.