Wednesday, June 07, 2006

negativity gone wild!!!

we as a nation are highly negative, cynical and in most cases emotional.in many cases its justified cos over the past 50 odd years this nations masses have been trampled upon brutally...by civil and military governments alike..by feudals,industrialists and shopkeepers.the poor have been taken for granted and a ride by the so called elite of this country.now 50 years of abuse and neglect cant be reversed overnight.it'll take decades before that can happen..unfortunatly the circumstances are such that no one can wait for that long.there are many who subscribe to the notion that the gap between the rich and the poor has widened.poverty has increased.i will not get into that.i will also try not getting into the ideological/philosophical debate for the moment as well.what can be done to eradicate poverty.jobs and education.providing opportunities for employment as well as providing some semblance of eductaion to enable the poor the means to acquiring skills.there are many job opportunities in this country that are going unfilled because of lack of skilled labor..just ask anyone in the textile industry.we need textile colleges and universities.another area is skilled labor involved in masonry etc.this labor is in high demand cos of the construction(boom) spurt/bubble whatever u want to call it..their wages have shot up while their numbers have gone down.basically supply of electricians,carpenters,painters is not keeping up with demand.third the PSDP progam of the government is akin to Roosevelt's new deal.public spending providing jobs not in factories and industry but in building infrastructure.dams/highways/canals/gas pipelines/grid stations etc.for the first time in Pakistan's history the government has fiscal space to spend on meaningful infrastructure projects that will not only provide much needed employment to the poor but also enable industry to expand and become much more competitive.however theres a catch..the moneys there.the projects are there...but is there the capacity to actually spend and spend efficiently..that sadly is a big questionmark.political patronage and bureacratic inefficiencies will hinder that.but if the government can manage to even spend upto 75%of the rs.435billion that'll be tremendous and a very good start.PSDP if the current government structure remains is estimated to go up by at least 20%every year.that means over the next 6 years the government will spend RS4.23 trillion or at currnet exchange rates $70billion.all this money hopefully will be spent on development infrastructure.if most of this money is spent the face of this country will be changed for the better.since inflation has reared its ugly head very soon into our economic growth it'll behoove the government to ensure the money spent doesnt add to the inflationary pressure.
as for the private sector if energy as well as road infratructure is improved their costs of doing business should come down thus hastening the rate of their growth and expansion.eveything is linked but it will take time.people talk about musharraf having had 7 yrs and not achieving much and tht to an extent is a justifiable criticism, however it is only in the last couple of years that we have managed to create some fiscal space.im hopeful but there are still many hurdles to overcome.however despite the inflation,poverty etc water has started going into the glass drop by drop.lets hope the drops becomes bigger and heavier

2 Comments:

Blogger Ahmad said...

Hum ne maana ke taghaful na karo ge lekin,
Khaak ho jaein ge tum ko khabar hone tak
(Ghalib Chacha)

As you pointed out people are getting frustrated and as a consequence your appeals to reason are falling on deaf ears. What they are essentially being told is this "Wait for the glass to get filled to the brim, then some of it will spill over and you can help yourself to that...but till then just wait patiently". Pretty unfair, dont you think?

12:30 AM  
Blogger Jerry shah said...

hehe..yaar thts one way to look at it though i dont see it that way..unfortunatly theres no shortcut to mass and shared prosperity....but ure perspective is noted..thx for ure comment

6:08 AM  

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