Daily Times

Amid humility, with the utmost respect and honestly speaking, when a society is bewitched by evils, blindfolded with ills and bamboozled by confusion, there is a ray of hope when a few positive thinkers and doers care by the vision and share with a heart for bewildered leaders and their trackless followers.

Here, men at the helm of affairs, men of letters and man in the street are under such magical spells of looming mistrust, incomprehensible fears, blind ego, cut-throat competition and materialistic lusts that strikes and uproots their will and ability to distinguish between right and wrong in life at large.

Hope against hope is the stark reality whether the negativity-stricken, massive and overwhelming blind critics, doomsayers and prophets of despair can even understand, think and feel for a moment their caring and sharing by a handful of positive thinkers and doers.

For example, most confusing for the public and most touching for helping ones is a type of accessible and acceptable covid vaccine available when, where and how? More puzzling is the question of a booster dose of the same vaccine taken before in two doses or a different vaccine used as a booster.

Despite lofty ideals and rosy claims in educational, business and media excellence, a lack of communication skills continues to rip the social fabric apart.

It is for leadership to manage covid: remove public dreads, build public confidence, coordinate and interact with national and international agencies and organizations on information, treatment and rehabilitation of covid patients with grace, dignity and honour.

BUT of real and utmost importance is how people understand and prioritise precautions for the pandemic in its fatal forms. There is a pressing need for sanitizing, wearing masks, physical distancing, hygienic conditions, affordable immunizing diet, pandemic safe and secured livelihood.

Similarly vital is to stay happy and healthy during the horrors of Covid, even when quarantined. It is physical distancing, not social distancing. Interact, enjoy and share happiness with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours and the world on the internet, mobile, radio, television, telephone, cable, social media.

Yet another example is how such nagging die-hard tendencies as dullness, laziness, immobilization and procrastination are rampant in society. Minds are shocked and bodies are rocked when the usefulness of self-help is ignored and uselessness of joblessness prevail.

Such regretful and unfortunate circumstances truly and dreadfully dampen the developmental perspective and all spiritual, social, educational, commercial and technological progress comes to a standstill amid vociferous alarms of sheer helplessness.

Let it not be the end of the story with trend-setters evading or avoiding the seIf-help litmus test. Imagine silver lining over the national horizon if social, educational, political and entrepreneurial leaders come out of their shell, think out-of-the-box and uphold the cause of self-help with vim, vigour and vitality.

The sky is the limit towards enlightenment for our leadership and statesmanship through belief in self-help in all walks of life and fields of development. Here self-help becomes a game-changer and the turning point in pursuit of life and work’s excellence for cherished reward.

It is humbly submitted “to err is human” even with the “gurus” of brands and brand-makers! In question here is mostly a rampant crisis of communication referring to students, faculty, researchers, professionals and mass media so erroneously addressed by brand names in communication without naming but sharing respectfully for rectification.

The reality check of academic, professional and corporate nature and for social, print and electronic media shows an alarming lack of concentration span in verbal and written communication. Despite lofty ideals and rosy claims in educational, business and media excellence, a lack of communication skills continues to rip the social fabric apart at personal, professional and political levels. Lack of concentration span and lack of communication skills are two glaring question marks. Ability to mutually tolerate and accommodate adds magnanimously to the survival kit for a sinking society.

The writer is the HoD and Senior Faculty of Public Affairs, at IoBM, Karachi. He can be contacted at parvez @iobm,edu,pk