Trailing End of the Middle Class at Shaadi Online

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#1 by Urstruly

I don`t think Pakistan has entirely failed to build an efficient and healthy society.

The Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, Agha Khan Rural Support Programme, Orangi Pilot Project, Edhi Foundation, etc are just a few examples of how talented, determined and capable we Pakistanis are. These projects have been a spectacular success and have been made possible largely with indigeneous resources.

Unfortunately most of these success stories are in the private sector. The record of public sector enterprises and government projects is sorry indeed. Corruption, red tape and politics plays a major role in these projects.

And since government is still the largest provider of basic services (e.g. electricity, retail banking, transportation, telephones, etc) in Pakistan... the middle class is affected by these inefficiencies.

WAPDA, PTCL, Railways, CBR, UBL and PIA are like behemoths that pay very little attention to customer service. Perhaps these enterprises should outsource some of their public-oriented services to private sector.

#4

kewlfi, compared to the middle east maybe we are more egalitarian. Dont know too much about Europe, but we are nowhere close to America.

One example I like to give is that I used to run (and coach) large groups of people (ranging from early 20`s to mostly in their 30`s and 40`s) here in the US. After a few months as I got to know people better I realized that people I ran with ranged from millionaires to ``white collar`` workers to housewives to people who were waiting tables for a living to down and out on their luck veterans. I cant imagine such a diverse group (class, gender, race, nationality) of people taking part in ANY social activity in India. In my opinion Indian`s so much more class-concious as a society.

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Hi,

that was one of the smartest articles I read in a long time. I am one of those middle class Indian women who went corporate, and have lived in Europe and the Middle east. And yes I met those elegant Pakistani men and women you talk of, who were always very nice, but I wondered the same thing. More interestingly the entire Arab corporate world in the middle East are dominated by foreign educated or educated in American Univ people. Many of these reported to me over the years and I often wondered how come you never so people from older universities like Cairo Univ e.g. And also that my parents could not afford to send me to AUC had they been Egyptian. And yet Egypt`s social make up is very like India`s. BUt my point is not to be self congratulatory about my country. Its just that fellow Indians do not sem to realise what there is to be proud of. One of my proudest moments as an Indian was in ALgeria. Where some head honchos of local MNCs over dinner suddenly talked about how much they admired the fact that India was a democracy. And I was so embarrassed because the Gujarat riots were full swing at the time. But over the years in many Arab and SE Asian countries older and even young people have told me that they admire our democracy. And I think they are serious. Waht makes me sad is that fellow Indians do not realise that its our democracy and social mobility is what makes us special and yes, despite our infereiority complex, even admired. Compared even to Europe ours is a more mobile society and I kid you not.

And what do fellow Indians harp on about. How great it is that we have a bomb. How India needs a military dictatorship. How we are smarter than everyone else. Its amazing the number of my fellow Indians who talk of how democracy and secularism are the key problems of India. Its only after I left India that I realised how vibrant and important our democracy is. And the fact is we are not polite we are belligerant and pushy. But this too comes from believing we can do better if we really try. I know, I digress, but the idea of a secular, democratic India needs to be celebrated more by Indians, and also protected. Not just to be rude to our neighbours, but for ourselves. You know what I mean?

We can give the cradit of this achievement to our present government and the channel who is working for it.

It`s cradit goes to present government

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A curious thing was how lately i had been thinking about the same class issues ... maybe our Clocks that were set in Topi had something to do with it :) . Talking of the ``small world``, you were right on the money. I hope you carry on writing.

peace.

I do not understand that when a society cannot build a healthy and efficient community in real world then how can it buid an efficient community in the cyber-world - it is simply not possible. Just take a look around you at this community called Chowk. With some scarce and miniscule exceptions (me included), it just reflects the pathetic and sorry state of our real life existence as a society. What could have been the the cauldron of ideas and interaction is a sorry goop of our inherent ugliness. There are no shortcuts in life.