Gift of gall or permanent lapse of reason?
On September 14th 2009, 19 women were killed in a stampede in Karachi. New York Times reported that the stampede occurred when a local trader was distributing food – flour, lentils and other goods – in the southern part of the city. Hundreds of women and children had gathered in the narrow lanes, and according to the witnesses; the women tumbled over one another trying to enter a building in an attempt to collect the food first. 25 people were reportedly injured in the incident.
The event was sad and a lot has been said and written about the incident. A couple of the people who have discussed this tragic incident on tv are Aamir Liaquat Hussian and good ol' Junaid Jamshed in a program which was aired on the eve of the aforementioned horrific incident.
While Aamir Liaquat was busy reading out from what can only be called excerpts from Urdu thesaurus and acting all humble and modest in response to the words of praises from his female fan brigade, Junaid Jamshed came up with a very interesting theory about class differences, hunger, stampede, self respect and religion.
According to Maulana Junaid Jamshed, it is ok if rich Muslims do not follow the religion, but if poor Muslims let go of the sacred religious teachings, the whole society would collapse. He repeatedly made references to "Ghareeb ka Imaan" (poor people's faith) and "Ameer ka Imaan" (rich people's faith) as if your class is responsible for your levels of faith and piety. He further went on and said that when poor people embrace the true values of Islam, they are endowed with the gift of self respect, restrain and integrity. His theory was that even if people are poor and hungry, their self respect – endowed only through strict adherence to Islam – will not allow them to go beg for food and consequently, they will be saved from such incidents and death by stampede. Around minute 16.20 in the video, Junaid Jamshed further said that if poor people just practice restraint and stay hungry for three days, Allah will provide food for them for one whole year. This is from a man who probably never had to stay hungry in his life and charges Rs. 2000 for a shalwar (loose Pakistani trousers) that actually costs Rs 200 in his clothing store? He even had the cheek to ask if staying hungry for three days and then waiting for manna from heavens for one whole year (I have absolutely no idea how he arrived at the exact time range of 3 days of hunger and one year warranty of food supply from heavens) is an easier option or getting in line for free food and risking death by stampede?
Mr Jamshed has four children, if they are hungry and crying for food, would he rather stay cooped up in his house telling his children to stay hungry so that Allah will send manna from heaven or will he run all over the place to feed his children? A man who was paid a cool 2 million rupees for half an hour's work (he shot a tv commercial for Lays Chips also known as Lays chips fatwa) will probably never know what hunger is and how devastating it can be? Self respect, privacy and integrity are things that only rich and well off people can afford, the rest are busy making out a living for themselves and their children.
I am astounded at the cheek of the man. Not only did he blame the victims for begging for flour, he was annoyed at the beggars who knock on his car windows for alms and blamed them for making the likes of him more indifferent to their plight by constantly banging on their air conditioned car windows. I would never condone beggary but one must also take into consideration the recession, loss of jobs for so many people and government's apathy towards employment generation schemes for its populace. According to the World Food Program, 24 per cent of the population of Pakistan is under noursihed and 38 per cent of Pakistani children under the age of five are under weight. It calls the state of hunger in Pakistan, "alarming." Imagine, if everyone takes the advice of Junaid Jamshed to heart and and sit on their ass and do nothing and wait for the manna, how will the situation of hunger exacerbate in the country.
What is a bigger tragedy that none of the live callers to the program were intelligent enough to point out what a fraud people like JJ and Ammir Liaquat are. Everyone sang their praises to death and one of the callers even called Junaid jamshed an angel (I am not sure angels would be as big a sartorial disaster as Junaid Jamshed was in his burgady red kurta).
PS: Its a very long video, if you are short of time, just catch the bit from 11th minute to18th minute in the video.
A toddler sleeping on a bicycle in Kunming, China while his parents work at a near-by street market 
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tomaradze What to some may seem like a disgusting place that one hastens to pass is a suitable sleeping place for others. Drainage pipes, train stations, garbage bins, house entrances and really any little ledge not claimed by anyone else are turned into makeshift beds by millions of homeless children every night.
UNICEF distinguishes three types of street children: street living children, street working children and children from street families.
1) Street living children are those who ran away from home and live alone on the streets.
2) Street working children are those who spend most of their time on the streets, fending for themselves but who return home on a regular basis.
3) Children from street families live on the street with their families.
Street children in Manila sleeping in drainage pipes:
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hobotraveler Homeless street children, i.e. those without any contact with their families who live, work and sleep on the street, are at the highest risk as they share don't share a familial bond with anyone and have no one to take care of them. Murder, abuse and inhumane treatment are unfortunately what await most of them.
This picture of a homeless boy was taken at the Kota central train station in Jakarta during the morning rush hour. Hundreds of people went about their business while the boy sheltered himself from the rain and caught a few winks.
Paradoxically, despite most of these children eating, sleeping, working and living so publicly, they are the most invisible of all citizens. This is because in most cases, they are no citizens at all. Not registering a child's
birth is denying it its basic right – that to become a citizen and to take advantage of basic care.
A country's low levels of birth registrations are directly linked to poverty, malnutrition and higher mortality rates. Of all children born in 2006 alone, 51 million did not have their birth registered. In one in three developing countries, birth registration rates are less than 50 per cent.
Children whose birth is not registered do not appear in official statistics and are not acknowledged as members of the society they live in: they do not exist. Without a registered identity, children cannot avail themselves of healthcare and other basic services that are crucial for their childhood development and future. Education is as much closed to them as most schools require at minimum a birth certificate before granting a child admission.
Four sleeping boys squeezed into a house entrance in Guatemala:
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mekong According to UNICEF's
State of the World's Children 2006 report, another reason for this invisibility is that children without parental care like street children, orphans and children in detention who grow up without family or parents are not treated like children at all. Deprived of a childhood, they take on adult roles – as workers, prostitutes, combatants – way before their time and again become invisible as
children.
This boy in Dili, East Timor may almost be an adult but probably never had a childhood:
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Neil Liddle Of the almost two billion children living in the developing world, an estimated 143 million have suffered the loss of at least one
parent – that's 1 in every 13. Maternal and neonatal health is closely linked to this, with having a child remaining one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide. According to UNICEF's
State of the World's Children 2009 report, a shocking 1,500 women die while giving birth every day.
A homeless woman and child begging in Budapest:
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Mathew Hunt There is a health divide though in terms of
pregnancy risk depending on where a woman lives. The report found the following differences: "A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in
Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000."
Street family shelter in Africa:
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ecmafrica Children sleeping on school benches in an orphanage in Tanzania:
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transitionsabroad It would be easy to point fingers only at the developing world but though basic needs may be met better in the developed world, homelessness is on the rise and so is child poverty. As the chart below shows, child poverty has risen in almost all OECD countries – except Norway, Canada, UK and USA – in the decade from the late 1990s to early 2000s (light blue bar) as compared to the previous decade (dark blue bar).
Figure 2.4 "Child Poverty in OECD Countries" taken from State of the World's Children 2006:
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Unicef Child poverty has more than doubled in Belgium,
Germany and Austria and has increased significantly in Luxembourg and Poland. Interestingly, the US and Mexican child poverty rates were on par in the late 1980s to early 1990s at 24.3% and 24.7%, respectively. Whereas the US rate has decreased slightly to 21.9%, it is now 27.7% in Mexico. Currently, 1.5 million American children don't have a home and live on the streets – that's 1 in 50. A long road lies ahead for most countries.
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