By Zuneida Mustafa
WITH new Covid cases in Pakistan having fallen to below 1,000 per day, some semblance of normality seems to be returning. But the normality appears to be a bit surreal because of the masks and the required social distancing. These are not always observed.
Continue reading Living with CovidBy Zubeida Mustafa
THE world could not have been more unequal in contemporary history than what it is today. It has always been unequal but the present trend set in when the Cold War ended with the fall of the USSR giving neoliberal forces a free rein. With the countervailing force of the socialist bloc withdrawn and respectability granted to elitism and the exercise of unabashed corporate power, inequality became rampant. Not that inequities did not exist before. But today, inequality and its discontents are unparalleled.
Continue reading Unequal and illBy Zubeida Mustafa
THE contradiction is intriguing. It is a story of a woman of royal lineage who passed away recently and will be remembered fondly for her services to the poor. Her work should be seen in the context of ‘social security’. That is what made ‘Rajkumari’ Kaniz Sakina Wajid Khan (1920-2021) exceptional.
It was not charity she was doling out, as social work is often considered to imply today, but a service she saw herself providing to the indigent. It additionally had the underpinnings of old-time values.
Continue reading Serving societyBy Zubeida Mustafa
ASER sheds light on how the Covid-19 pandemic and the intermittent lockdowns have impacted severely on education in Pakistan. It confirms what the Federal Ministry of Education had conceded last year. The crisis has “magnified the risks and vulnerabilities of an already weak education system”.
Continue reading What a fallBy Zubeida Mustafa
HOW many of Pakistan’s 225 million like to habitually connect with nature? Unsurprisingly, not many. Most of the urban population lives in man-made subhuman conditions while those in the villages lead a brutish life of want imposed on them by feudal leaders. Not being educated, people are unaware of their own rights, let alone the significance of the environment.
Continue reading Love of nature