For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals.
Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination; we learned to talk.
The Division Bell, Pink Floyd

Words can be used to inspire people to reach for the stars or oppress them till their will to rise is broken. If ever we needed proof to strengthen our belief in the power of words, we had only to hear the words of President elect Barack Obama today. Whether he proves himself to be a transformational figure in his nation’s future and the future of World politics remains to be seen, but it is undeniable that he is perhaps one of the most powerful orators to have ever been seen on the World stage.

Our own nation is in great need of inspirational figures that can restore the will of the people and give back the desire to build the nation that was envisaged by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Will such a figure be inspired from the recently emerging class of informed and vociferous individuals who are beginning to speak their minds online? Only time will tell.

Keep on yelling!

Yesterday the yellO Cab (our pick and drop van for the yellO Team) was rammed from behind by a car. The car in question was driven by an employee of the car’s owner who arrived on the scene with a host of police vehicles in a car which had a license plate starting with the letters “SP”. Shortly after the incident, as I was not present on the scene, the yellO cab driver had filled me in on what had occurred over the phone and I found myself speaking to the owner of the car who introduced himself with the title “Dr.” Taken slight back that I was on the phone with someone who may turn out to deal with the situation in a level headed manner, I proceeded to ask him his appraisal of the situation. He agreed that the fault had been his driver’s and he accepted full responsibility. Once I had picked myself up off the floor, shocked and dazed by the sudden and unexpected outburst of honesty, the Dr. proceed to burst my bubble by saying quite emphatically that despite the admission, he would not pay for fixing the damage to the yellO Cab and spelled out three very important points in such a considered tone, that to someone who was not paying attention to the content of these points, they would have sounded entirely valid. The three points on which he based his assertion were as follows:

1. The Dr. considered himself a decent man and would not have demanded money had he been the aggrieved party;
2. The Dr’s car was uninsured hence he would not be able to claim insurance;
3. He believed that the accident had been caused by brake failure hence he could not be expected to pay as mechanical failure was to blame.

Forgetting the sickening convenience of point 1, let’s paraphrase the logic of points 2 and 3 which would read as follows: “As the car is uninsured and has faulty brakes, the owner of the car cannot be held responsible for paying any damages to the aggrieved”. Would it be fair to ask why a car owned by someone who drives around in “SP” plates is uninsured and for heaven’s sake, why does it have faulty brakes? Suppose this uninsured faulty car had mowed down an unsuspecting pedestrian? Would anyone be answerable in such an eventuality? I presented this logic to the Dr. whose answer really floored me. In a completely calm tone he replied “You are speaking as though you are in London and not in Karachi.”

The warped logic I was faced with was just too much to take in. I was close to flying off the handle but better sense prevailed and I calmly suggested something which I thought could be acceptable to the mind of an official drunk on power. I suggested that I could sort things out with my insurance company but we would like to have his car’s paperwork so we could present some proof of this accident to our insurance company. Of course, the Dr. with his SP plates and influence was unwilling to hand over anything.

The incident is a good example of how the abuse of power feeds into the lawlessness in our land. When those who have been given authority find themselves having to accept responsibility for a mistake, rather than stepping up and setting an example by giving the full rights due to the aggrieved party, some officials in Pakistan will choose to deny all responsibility, just because they can get away with it. Until those in authority are willing to abide by the law they have been entrusted to uphold, there can be no expectation for the common man to abide by the law either. The unfortunate law abiding citizen of our city has been the loser in this fine mess for far too long and for the foreseeable future he will continue to suffer, but hopefully not silently anymore.