Initially printed as letter in Pakistan Today and Pak-Observer
Original post:-
Flipping through the newspaper a few days back, news that two Pakistani students just recently won the 1st round of ‘The Middle East and Africa Windows Phone 7 Challenge’ went like a surprise impulse through me. Pakistani students? Like seriously? Something at the back of my mind poked that if Ibrahim Shahid and Ali Moeen Nawazish can set world records of highest As in O and A level respectively then why not this?
I guess that I’m no exception to those people who have drowned themselves in cynicism and resigned the relationship to optimism. Always whining, complaining and making sure to do nothing. For us, success stories like this should ring bells of hope. Maybe, it’s too early to early to bid farwell to optmism.
Ok, we have our issues-rather a plethora of challenges. But with every odd we have those omens of hope that urge us to dream. On one hand we have the dismal state of women in our country, the mere thought of which evokes images of frailty and helplessness. Yet we have the phenomenal examples like that of Naseem Hameed who became the fastest woman sprinter of South Asia, Arfa Karim who become the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world and that of Pakistani women winning gold in Asian games. Of course a few milestones like this don’t mean that all is well but even with the given flaws in our system, if our people have the spark of striking at international level then this means that there is more potential to be explored. But can we do this without faith? No.
The statistics for us have not been very affirmative lately, agreed. But we are not empty handed after all. With a little effort we have managed to produce a blooming telecom industry ranking as fourth heaviest user country of SMS worldwide and largest in Asia Pacific region. For a third world country these figures are surely an achievement. If we can do this then is it impossible to do more? Why have we written off our fates in dark scripts already?
The above mentioned arguments don’t mean that we should turn a blind eye to our problems. However, the only possible way we can conquer our tribulations is by developing faith in our potentials and finding an antidote to our fatal pessimism. If a country like Japan can rise out of ashes and stun the whole world by becoming a vibrant economic power then why not us?
Caffeine Poisoning 
wow, I feel optimistic habiba! 🙂
thanks woman!
shutttttttttttttttt uppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp! :p
easy lady, it wasnt meant as an offense 🙂
Quite a positive one, I agree with your views here. Accepting your problems is a good thing but becoming a hopeless pessimist loony is the opposite.
And oh by the way the pictures are really good 🙂
@sobia, hahaha I believe this post has more of pics than the actual subject matter :p
lols no I like it this way, I do not enjoy reading the long ones
Just a bird’s eye view but a good one. Our system pulls us back, no doubt!
Keep it up Dear!
@sadia, true that, thanks for the feedback!
Good work Habiba! its rare to hear/ read such optimistic thoughts regarding Pakistan these days. it really pleased me to read ur post. i sometimes think about the sharp mind n intelligence power of our students. i’ve seen them inventing different ways of ‘cheating’ n ‘shortcuts’ etc. Also, Pakistani hackers amaze me a lot with their top hacking skills in the world LOL! But surely, there r some students who r earning us a very good name. we r proud of them, n proud of young writers like u who r striving to highlight them and sowing the seeds of optimism and hope 🙂
@N A, thank you so much! means a lot, im flattered 🙂
Brilliant article Habiba, I really loved reading it 🙂
Keep up the good work!
Bro
thanks bhai!
Hope! It is something of a rarity to see someone talk of it. You are so right, its way too early to let go of optimism.
true that :]
Well done – again!
thanks :]
There is a lot of great talent among Pakistani students. We have bright minds in our colleges and universities but no one to nurture these minds. The professors are not paid well. There are no research facilities. Good schools can only be afforded by rich kids who don’t give a shit about studies in the first place. There are no corporate headquarters being built in Pakistan because of security and the Government is unbelievably incompetent to fix it (well they don’t care and cannot see this far)
Faith alone is not going to solve it. We should learn from the people in Egypt and how they revolted against tyranny and injustice.
Optimism gives as a reason to hope that tomorrow is better than today. That life and situations can be positive , meaningful and all together happy. I love the fact that you encourage women to excel and they should. They are capable of anything that brings good to all. I grew up with 5 sisters, all of them contributes to the society as well as their families. Great post..
thanks 🙂
Thanks for the visit. I had to read this again. Sometimes life’s worries can bring your feelings down and when I read a post that breathes positivity , of hope, it helps in creating a brighter day. Keep inspiring. Have a great Summer.
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