Daily Times

Come blow your horn;

Super Stars and lowly born;

Restructure your loss dreams;

Rebuild what was shattered;

Please see that it mattered;

Take care of protective walls;

Don’t let them crumble and fall;

Drift and default make and mar;

Barriers and road blocks are our self-created;

Problems and issues crop up. As we stop our search, fail to establish linkages in the complex whole, know not what and which factors are inter-related,

Beautiful ideas let us Muse,

We love the chirping birds,

Why do horses neigh and dogs bark? We don’t know. When a lion Roars we find ourselves in a jungle. Face to with reality of life, but still don’t learn how to organize ourselves to live in peace with self and things around. Challenges we confront on the cross-road keep growing, It is a jungle where we are trapped.

Reviving the spirit of freedom is essential in addition to improving the style of leadership. Losing hope, people have given up and are not willing to toil for the country. They, like their leaders, wish for the short cuts to success, and want everything the easy way. A wish and pray that our leadership realizes that they need to be the role model for newer generations to ignite the spirit of hard work to achieve success for themselves and for their country. Reliving the spirit of the freedom movement, despite all the hardships, everyone must work hard and keep hopes high to transform the country into a strong and vibrant economy that thrives among the world nations. Remember, civilization stated with the idea of serving others, leading them to safety. We need to build a society based on this model of helping others, respecting self and others.

Botswana, China and the U.S, just like the glorious revolution in England, the French Resolution and the Meiji restoration in japan, are Vivid illustrations that history is not destiny

Political and economic leadership everywhere need to ponder on how a political revolution in 1688 changed institutions in England and led to industrial revolution. In context of barriers to development it is imperative to know why the politically powerful in many nations opposed the industrial revolution. It is vital to understand how European colonialism had impoverished large parts of the world. It would be an interesting study how some parts of the world took different path to prosperity from that of Britain. And how institutions that encourage prosperity create positive feedback loops that prevent the efforts by elites to undermine them. And in the vicious circle how institutions that create poverty generate negative feedback loops and endure. Ultimately research studies indicate all that goes wrong is because of the institutions and institutions only. And that how a few countries changed their economic trajectory by changing their institution, for example.

By the nineteenth century, the Tswana states had developed a core set of political institution. These involved both an unusual degree, by sub-Sahara African Standards, of political centralization and collective decision making procedures that can even be viewed as a nascent, primitive from of pluralism. Just as the magna carta enabled the participation of barons into the decision making process and put restrictions on the actions of the English monarchs, the political institutions of the Tswana in particular the Kgotla also encouraged political participation and constrained chiefs. The south African anthropologist Isaac Schapiro describes how the Kgotla worked as democratic and open rule based on merit, achievement and fair play, without fear. Anthropologist John Comaroff’s study shows that the Tswana States had Clear rules interpreted to remove bad rulers and allow talented candidates to become chief. How did Botswana break the mold? By quietly developing inclusive economic and political institutions after independence. The new structures there were not meant to expunge the indigenous institutions but to build on them.

Botswana, China and the U.S, just like the glorious revolution in England, the French Resolution and the Meiji restoration in japan, are Vivid illustrations that history is not destiny, despite the vicious circle, extractive institution can be replaced by. Inclusive ones. But it is neither automatic nor easy. It is necessary for a nation to search for complex factors and forces that push for reforms and changes. History unfolds in a contingent way.

It is important to take stock of population and the environment, to focus on improving the level and standard of living of the people. There are stratifications and inequalities; groups and organizations, social interaction and structures that make all the difference in looking at problems and issues of policy and governance and social control, education, health and medicine, economy and work, family, religion, community development and problems of urbanization. Relations between the colonial nation and colonized people are similar to those between the dominant capitalist class and the proletariat, as described by Karl Marx. While the divide between industrial and developing nations is sharp, sociologists recognize continuum of nations, from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor.

Think, what happens to society when corporations grow richer than countries and spill arcos international borders. Modernization is the need of the time. it is important to end the global disconnect. And make meaningful effort to increase mobility in developing nations. This is essential for improving level and standard of living. It is sad to note that human rights violations continue to threaten lives of minorities, women and children. Right self-determination and freedom is denied even today. Brutalities, extremism and terrorism have not completely ended. Human rights need to be identified and abuses of those rights corrected in countries throughout the world.

Drawing on conflict perspective, world systems analysis views the global economic system as one divided between nations that control wealth and those from which capital is taken. According to dependency theory. Even as developing countries make economic advances, they remain weak and subservient to core nations and corporations in an increasing integrated global economy.

Days of senate elections indicate that back-channel dealing is what defines Pakistan’s politics. Principles and morality take a back seat in contests for the parliament. Need for introspection is urgent. Clean up is essential. What are wrongs and what and who caused it. Federal and provincial assemblies must take initiative for the sake of truth and transparency.

The writer is former Director, National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) Government of Pakistan, a public policy expert, political analyst and an established author