|
|
|
Need for a social change
Waiting for mummy WHEN will mummy come home? (July 6) was a really moving account of a lonely childhood. While reading it, I remembered an account of American family life, given by a class fellow of mine, who went to USA for higher studies. He once mentioned an American friend, who used to visit his parents once a year on fathers’ and mothers’ days, and never on any other time of the year. When my friend tried to remind him of his filial obligations towards his parents, this is what he got in reply: “When we were school children” said the young American, “we would come home from school in the afternoon, not to fall into the loving arms of a waiting mother but to an empty house with both parents away, at their respective jobs. We would help ourselves to food from the fridge, watch TV, work on school assignments and in general, do whatever we pleased.” “Come evening”, he continued, “my parents would finally return. After a perfunctory kiss, they would get busy dressing up for the late-night party that lay ahead. That done, they would be off again. We would again pass time somehow, playing with friends, watching TV, eating from the fridge and so on, till we were tired enough to go to sleep. Early next morning we would be off to school, with a hurried breakfast and another kiss. Another dreary day had begun!” He decisively concluded, “We therefore feel ourselves to be under no obligation to be any more nice to our parents than we are now.” Food for thought for some of us, who wish to rush headlong to embrace western life and values, in their entirety? WAJID NAEEMUDDIN Karachi The fresh start is not fresh enough ZAHEER Abbas has been my childhood hero and is one of the most stylish batsmen I have ever seen. However, of late, his articles have become less and less objective. In his latest article, The fresh start is not fresh enough (July 6), he downplays the recent performance of the Pakistani cricket team in England. He states that Pakistani team was not fresh enough and their 2-1 series loss was pathetic, because it was playing against a weaker English team. In his analysis, he does not mention the fact that the same weak English team, has just beaten South Africans (arguably the second best team in the world). In addition, he does not seem to acknowledge that the three top order Pakistani batsmen, have very little experience in international cricket. I want to request Zaheer Abbas to give our team and its management a chance. I wound also like to point out that in the last five years, Pakistani team has consistently lost to teams like Zimbabwe and New Zealand. By this standard, current Pakistani team’s performance is an improvement, as it has won in Sharjah and has held its own in Sri Lanka and England. RAZA SYED USA Gobbledygook SPRATCHCOCK? (June 29). What on earth does this mean? Ms Anjum Niaz is straying further and further every week, from the refined and civil confines of the Queen’s English. She is venturing into the domain peopled by Bush and his acolytes anxiously retreating, in order to keep in sine with the verbally challenged. Ms Niaz, come back to the language the benighted people of this country understand. ASAD SIDDIQI Lahore | ||
THIS letter is with reference to the article, In the name of culture (June 29). In this article, the writer has raised several issues and questions regarding culture, authority, civil service etc. I feel that all of these issues can be addressed by one factor, namely, Social Change. A social change is an element that expedites all other changes. Changes in one sector will lead to change in another sector. Pakistan is deadly in need a of positive change, because it will lead our society towards development. We have to change our extravagant life styles, attitudes and behaviours, in order to develop the society. Government can’t impose change. Change is always a gradual and step-by-step process, and it always comes from the individual level of society.|
|
|
|
