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Pakistan: Bedre end sit rygte, men ...
Vi hører ofte Pakistan anført som eksempel på et land, hvor alt er gået galt; en islamisk politistat, hvor terroristerne er ved at tage over, et land fuld af fanatiske, religiøse knaldhatte ... osv.
Og det er da også rigtigt, at det er et land, der kæmper med store problemer, især hvis man sammenligner det med f.eks. Danmark eller Holland.
Billedet er dog mere nuanceret end som så, som William Dalrymple anfører i The Guardian.
Ludfattigt, uordentligt, tilbagestående og med et rent islamisk mediebillede uden skyggen af ytringsfrihed?
First-time visitors to Pakistan are almost always surprised by the country's visible prosperity. There is far less poverty on show in Pakistan than in India, fewer beggars, and much less desperation. In many ways the infrastructure of Pakistan is much more advanced: there are better roads and airports, and more reliable electricity. Middle-class Pakistani houses are often bigger and better appointed than their equivalents in India.I virkeligheden er Pakistan et land, hvor det religiøse og det sekulære er i voldsom brydning, og der har været store demonstrationer netop for en sekulær retsstat og imod religiøs ensretning.
Moreover, the Pakistani economy is undergoing a construction and consumer boom similar to India's, with growth rates of 7%, and what is currently the fastest-rising stock market in Asia. You can see the effects everywhere: in new shopping centres and restaurant complexes, in the hoardings for the latest laptops and iPods, in the cranes and building sites, in the endless stores selling mobile phones: in 2003 the country had fewer than three million cellphone users; today there are almost 50 million.
Mohsin Hamid, author of the Booker long-listed novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, wrote about this change after a recent visit: having lived abroad as a banker in New York and London, he returned home to find the country unrecognisable. He was particularly struck by "the incredible new world of media that had sprung up, a world of music videos, fashion programmes, independent news networks, cross-dressing talkshow hosts, religious debates, and stock-market analysis".
Når det er sagt, kæmper landet stadig med store problemer, der meget vel kunne ende med at koste det selve dets eksistens: Regeringen står uden kontrol over de nordvestlige provinser, landets demokratiske traditioner undergraves af den dårlige fordeling af rigdommen, hvorfor man er derfor prisgivet lommediktatorer som Musharraf og truet af mere yderligtgående grupper, undervisningssystemet ligger i ruiner. Alt dette er meget alvorlige problemer, som repræsenterer en ualmindeligt stor udfordring for de kommende års pakistanske regeringer.
Men derfor fortjener billedet nu alligevel at nuanceres, som Dalrymple skriver:
Not just television, but private radio stations and newspapers have flourished in Pakistan over the past few years. The result is an unprecedented openness. Young people are speaking and dressing differently. Views both critical and supportive of the government are voiced with breathtaking frankness in an atmosphere remarkably lacking in censorship. Public space, the common area for culture and expression that had been so circumscribed in my childhood, has now been vastly expanded.Også i Pakistan er der altså grøde i tingene - også Pakistan er, hvilket man kan forekomme at glemme i både borgerlige og liberale mediers ensidige "Pakistan = failure & terrorism"-dækning, overvejende befolket af tænkende og følende mennesker.
Link til Dalrymples artikel.