We live in a time with high migration, including voluntary, labour, and forced migration. Also, many people travel for vacation and business, and we have new and easy communication and information technologies. The world has become smaller, as we call. People are more alike in taste and ways of living, but most people also want to keep their own culture, religion, traditions, and more. At the same time, when people migrate and live for long times or permanently abroad, such as when Pakistanis and others move from the Global South to Europe and elsewhere in the Global North, alone or with family and children, even becoming citizens in the new lands. They are expected to integrate, even assimilate, since multiculturalism is no longer seen as quite acceptable. We are different in some ways, but we are also alike in many ways, yes, more alike than different whether we come from the same land or from different lands and different backgrounds.
All set for general election in 3 National Assembly seats in Islamabad In today’s article, I shall reflect on these issues – on the same day as Pakistan holds its general elections. We may agree that people from different parties, fractions within the same party, or no party at all, can still agree on many things, probably most things. Besides, in a democracy, we are expected to formulate opinions, have own values, stand up for what we think. But it is also essential that debates are polite, within decent and fair rules, even if we disagree. Opinions held by few should not be overrun by the majorities, and minorities, too, must be respected whether we think they are right or not.
We can say that ‘we live under same roof’. Some would say that ‘we are in the same boat’, others would say that ‘we travel on the same sea, but in different boats’. How we would describe life’s journey is perhaps not all that important. What is important, though, is that we reflect on these issues, as we all do, about this life and the life hereafter. My intention with today’s article is to contribute to our reflections on these issues, not drawing conclusions or expecting that we agree in detail, yet, learning that we agree on the big, basic issues.
Body of young student found from seminary’s washroom We may live in the same country, but often under different conditions, with material and immaterial wealth and coming from different backgrounds. Some are rich while others are poor. Some are well educated while others have no or little formal education, perhaps not even skills in reading and writing. In Pakistan, most girls and boys accept that marriages are arranged, while in other countries that is not heard of. Everywhere, there are religious and social traditions, but it varies how strictly they must be followed. Some live in central but often overcrowded cities while others live in remote rural areas. Some experience floods and droughts. Some travel abroad or have children who get foreign degrees. Some go broad for temporary jobs, sending money home for family and relatives. And some emigrate to seek permanent opportunities in foreign lands, realising that it is hard work but also giving opportunities, if not for the parents, then for the next generation.
Pakistan-Russia Friendship Group head calls on FM I could go on listing differences, or dichotomies, as sociologists would call some of them, and wider differences, as anthropologists would like to describe. In spite of it all, many things are also the same. To be a human being, with its pleasures and worries, its good and bad experiences, hopes and despairs, doubts and certainties about faith and existential issues, sickness and health, and what will become of the loved ones when we are all gone, are issues that we all face – and indeed our daily life’s struggles.
Many years ago, I was asked to write an article in a magazine for youth about what it is to be a human being, yes, anywhere in the world, together with some deeply religious Catholic Christians. Well, if they had been Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists or Jews, it wouldn’t have been all that different. Some who contributed with their thoughts were Europeans, others Asians and Africans. I was that time working with development aid in Kenya, focusing on the nomadic pastoralists in a semi-desert area of Turkana near the Sudan. True, life and living there cannot be compared to modern living in Pakistan in our days and certainly not for the rich and wealthy in Europe. In addition, now two or three decades later, life has changed in many ways, inter alia, because of internet, mobile phones. Changes have come fast and they are many, even in remote areas, including in Turkana.
CEC says foolproof security arrangements ensured for polling Let me end my article today by again underlining that all human beings have basic commonality, and also that we cannot run away from the world and time we all are a part of, certainly not today with new and easy news and communication technologies. Every day, when we listen to the regular news channels on TV and radio, we get the latest big events from far and near, not everything, but many important issues. In addition, news and views are exchanged on social media, more or less accurately. We also have greater opportunity than before to choose what we want to hear, although we cannot close out things entirely.
In Pakistan, the Kashmir Solidarity Day was marked this week on 5 February. In Norway, the Sami National Day, the country’s indigenous people’s day, was marked on 6 February, making everyone more concerned about the minority’s equal rights and greatness. This year, the celebrations were more than usual since the day was also the inauguration of Bodø as the European Capital of Culture, located just north of the Arctic Circle where many of the Sami people traditionally lived, herding their reindeer animals or being engaged in fishing along with other Norwegians off the coast approaching the North Pole. On 10 February, the Chinese New Year begins, and everyone will be aware of that, indeed nowadays with Chine’s growing importance. Finally, all Pakistanis at home and abroad, and people of other nationalities, are aware of the country’s general elections today on 8 February. And since between a third and half of all people in the world will have general elections in 2024, we are part of the universal democratic practice of our time, realizing, too, that many issues and debates are similar in all countries, but also with differences. We all hope for better days ahead, at home and abroad, for ourselves and our fellow human beings – and we all want to contribute to that to the best of our ability.
Elections 2024: Citizens all set to exercise their right to vote in Multan
Atle Hetland
The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
