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Pakistan Picaresque
A surreal encounter in an Islamabad office reveals in an instant why billions of dollars spent on aid to Pakistan have made so little difference in the lives of the country’s poor.
For our meeting with the director of the Pakistan Nursing Council, we arrived punctually at a small two-room office tucked away in a corner of the National Institute of Health’s campus in Islamabad. In the center of one room was a table covered with a flowered plastic tablecloth, as if awaiting a picnic. Resting on it were a pencil holder, some writing materials, and a telephone. On one side of the table was a rather ornate chair, and on the wall behind it was a framed photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the man credited with creating Pakistan, in his signature oval cap and a severe black sherwani, a formal knee-length coat. Four rickety chairs, a bit dusty, lined the other side of the table. In the adjoining room were more rickety chairs and another table, on which an elaborate tea service was arranged. A small man wearing stained clothes sat on a stool by the door, and mumbled something as he rubbed sleep deposits from his eyes.
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Samia Altaf, a public-health physician who has worked in the United States and Pakistan, is the 2007–08 Pakistan Scholar at the Wilson Center. She is currently at work on a book about aid effectiveness in the health sector in Pakistan.
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way represent the views or opinions of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This section is moderated by Wilson Quarterly staff.
A progressive framework
A fascinated article, which broadly highlights the roots leading to the mentality issue that persist in pakistan, regardless of the sector in questions. At some level, all sectors are plague by this mentality virus stemming from the colonial years. However the real question is, whether to purely criticize it from a radical view, or to move towards a second best mentality framework- second best institution rather than a radical shift to a first best system, which is not and will not be a easy transition and does not seem to be plausible the near future- as it is cultural issue! On the other hand, packaging aid from training to payment of workers seems like a progressive strategy to break this mindset, which for instance can be taken as the example of the radio 'fm' industry in pakistan. 89's got paid very well- which somehow automatically provides respect to the profession and a break away from the stereotype and influx of the elite!
Posted by: Ali Sohail | 1/17/08
Pakistan Picresque
Views expresed by author are 100% corect but condition is still worse. It is all because of corruption & third rated political leadership.
Posted by: Shafi Muhammad | 3/27/08
Looting the SAP
I happened to be in Pakistan in 1996 when the first SAP was in place. It was being looted on a grand scale. Somewhere around that time, Watoo was the CM in Punjab and SAP money was one of the resources used to buy his loyalty. The program officers got some landcruisers and other nice vehicles out of it. Poor patients, unfortunately, got absolutely nothing. Only the primary education assistance was looted more mercilessly. Health and education were recognized as two non-essential departments, but for some strange reason, various White men(and women) and japanese people kept coming to hand out money under those heads...I dont know how much things have changed since then. In the last 5 years, the SAP and education assistance must have been needed to buy off Sindhi turncoats, various Nazims, Sirdars in Waziristan and God knows who else. And then, we have the professional core in the secretariat and their colleagues in the civil administration...and Musharraf added a layer of incompetent and greedy intelligence agents to the mix. Who says aid is wasted...so many people depend on it.
Posted by: omar | 4/2/08
Whose poverty alleviation?
This is a brilliant piece of satire. As a former World Bank consultant I can say that the writer has analysed the problem and the process of aid spot on and done it with subtle irony. Just one twist to the tale--several 'experts' at these mulitlateral aid agencies are now brown-skinned (fellow Asians) and poverty alleviation takes on a new meaning--it is their own poverty that generous tax free salaries alleviate.
Posted by: South Asian | 4/3/08
Listen and learn
This article expresses so eloquently the challenges of seeking to apply solutions to problems in cultures other than one's own. It shows the need to listen attentively to, and learn to navigate the mindset, value systems, aspirations and complications of other cultures while seeking to be of service to them.
Posted by: Javier Morales | 6/4/08
NURSES
DEAR MADAM. WE NEED TO IMPROVE THE TRAINING AND PRACTICAL KNOWLEGE OF OUR NURSING STUDENTS AND NOT JUST TO MAKE THEM ATTACH DRIPS. BESIDES WE MUST PROTECT THEM FROM FALLING A PREY TO SEXUAL HARRASMENT. WE ALSO TEACH THEM TO BE HONOURABLE AND NOT INVOLVE IN BOYS
Posted by: UZMA KHAN | 6/16/08
...
The article does not sound like on the health care or nursing systems, rather a satire of the way things function (or not) in Pakistan. One of the less mentioned enigma of the picture Pakistan is that the most responsible folks like the author herself look at it as someone else's portrait and find fun in describing its pains. The root cause of a lot of things happening in countries like Pakistan are in what the USA Secretary of State Ms. Rice admitted being the American support for suppressing democratic forces in that part of the world, for the last 60 years! People are project as doing strange things in the name of culture or religion. As for Pakistan, there is no better evidence agianst this projection than the fact that in the only two free elections people have handed heavy defeats to religious parties, and that Jinnah himself was anything but religious. I also agree to one comment that sexual harrasment is among the leading causes of considering nursing as a less honorable profession, but the reason is simply lack of protection provided to women by governments and not cultural. Take that protection away in any society and you will see streets and shops and schools bereft of women except where their families can protect them. That is largely the case in Pakistan.
Posted by: A | 12/6/08