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A tale of two Tatas

sanddy

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A tale of two Tatas – The Express Tribune By Arif Rafiq

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Nestled in the green valleys of
Waziristan are ‘factories’ that build
small, innovative bombs that are used
to kill civilians, power brokers and
security personnel in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
In Miran Shah, Mir Ali and Makeen, one will find what is probably
the world’s greatest concentration of terrorist organisations — incubators
for the world’s next great ****** start- ups.

In the Gujarat city of Chharoti,
2,000 miles southeast, is a factory building the world’s smallest car, the Tata Nano, a no-frills entry vehicle for the developing world’s new entrants
to the middle class. These factories
exist in the same subcontinent and
their people share historical and civil
ties.

But these two areas, these two
Tatas — the Taliban-Administered Tribal Areas and the Tata-driven India
Inc — might as well exist in two
separate worlds. Perception is reality and so for all
intents and purposes, these two sub-
communities are a part of two different
worlds: the former being part of what
geo-strategist Thomas Barnett calls “the non-integrating gap” (places that resist global interconnectedness and
do not assimilate to the system’s
norms) and “the new functioning
core” (places that have joined the old
core in economic interconnectedness
and play by the system’s rules).

By Waziristan, I am referring not to the
native civilian population but to the
nexus of local and non-local militants.
It is completely unfair to use Waziristan
to represent Pakistan as a whole but
that is the way the world sees it.

Moreover, militant-occupied Waziristan
is pulling Pakistan away from the
global functioning core. This
distancing is amplified by both a
hyper-nationalism in urban areas that
focuses on grievance at the cost of responsibility — on how Pakistan has
been wronged by the world, instead
of how it can make the world right —
and an obscurant conservatism that
has closed the Pakistani mind.

In the same vein, India Inc.’s
achievements mask the dark reality
that confronts the country’s majority.
Left behind by corrupt governance
and growing social inequity is India
Stink, the India that many conveniently choose to ignore.
It is the
India where 65 per cent of the population lacks access to improved
sanitation (compared with 52 per cent in Pakistan), the India where 50 per
cent of the population practises open
defecation (double the rate of
Pakistan) and the India that is tied
with Pakistan for the lowest life
expectancy in South Asia (excluding Afghanistan).
India’s strengths should not be
allowed to mask its weaknesses. The reverse is also true.

It would be a mistake for Pakistanis to dismiss India’s ambitious and accomplished
business and intellectual elite. They are brand ambassadors for their country.
They now have a seat at the
expanding global club of rule-making.
And though it’s not quite a front-row
seat, at least, they’ve got admission. Pakistani elites don’t fare quite well in
comparison. They are given temporary
admission because they are seen as
courageous outliers in a country gone mad.

At home, they tend to be viewed
with great suspicion. They’re generally dismissed as traitors who are part of
an anti-Pakistan conspiracy.

Something as simple as photos of
them in Davos or Washington can
serve as the smoking gun. But it is
these individuals who can help fight the perception, the unfortunate andinaccurate contrast of incredible India
and pathetic Pakistan and India the
integrator and Pakistan the pariah.

Pakistan needs to develop an elite
body that can speak the global
language, partake in elite
conversation and yet, have organic
connections to their country. There is a global governance system to be shaped.

Power dynamics are shifting.
Ongoing and emerging challenges
need to be confronted. Pakistanis
must generate voices that can shape
the debate on the evolution of
collective security, conflict intervention, sustainable development
and a host of other issues.

Those who join the super-elite, as Chrystia Freeland describes, tend to become trapped in a self-contained
bubble. But the danger of producing
rootless cosmopolitans without
attachment to the homeland should be
no reason for self-isolation; rather, it
should provide motivation to pioneer in making exceptions to the rule.

Published in
The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2012.
 
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The Express Tribune is a joke and famous for publishing fake wiki leaks about Indian Army then apologizing for it. :rolleyes:
 
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How can Arif Rafiq compare TATAs with Taliban????Is this news a joke or i see a hidden self-flagellation.
 
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Reasonable article with a good idea. Not what I was expecting.

How can Arif Rafiq compare TATAs with Taliban????Is this news a joke or i see a hidden self-flagellation.

Have you even read the article?


The Express Tribune is a joke and famous for publishing fake wiki leaks about Indian Army then apologizing for it. :rolleyes:

Pray tell me what you found incorrect or contrary to the facts in this article.
 
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Suggest you check the formatting before clicking on the " post new thread' button.
 
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Nice article. India has a long way to go,but the progress we've made so far has been congratulated world wide. Thats not exactly the case with pakistan,though it is to be noted that we do better than them.
 
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Interesting article. It has just about everything. From open defecation to international business and peace.
 
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