It's time to consider what will be the psychological impact on the population as a result of the loss of all their assets or whatever little that they had. When they get back to their houses what will be their first reaction. No one really understands the subjective reality of these rural farmers and as a result they are more or less left to fend for themselves. Better not to touch them. Now the situation might well have changed.
Pakistan Agricultural Research Council did try and do this, but that was from an economic view and not from a personality angle. Subjective attitudes and values are different for different areas of Pakistan. If the Balochi is different, thank God, that is so and if the Pathan is different, then that is as it should be.
Studying individuals are more informative and more so than any thing that is done at an aggregate. A major effort is required at what are their current psychological standing and their future aspects of understanding of them. How do they see themselves in the future?
Is there any possibility of enriching their lives? None at the moment because the battle for them is to somehow survive. The expansion of life that comes with enrichment is something that is not available to the middle class families in the urban areas so how could this be available to the poor in the rural areas. What constitutes enrichment in the rural areas, any way? A decent meal or something that is eaten with bread and this may be water of questionable quality or lassi or any liquid that will wet the bread and allow it to go through their gullet.
A survey of the households in Sindh indicates astonishingly difficult situation: the family size is any thing between 13 to 18 children per nucleus family. How does one cope with the bare minimum for such a family? So what does it take to be a complete human being? What are the physical assets that are required and above all how do you work the mental assets. How has China done it? They were extremely lucky on two counts.
First they were isolated from the West. Is that a good thing? Yes, it is. Why is it a good thing because the manner of development is self-induced? The ability to work is a strikingly individual function and no country can be interested in another country's development no matter how philanthropic one might get. Pakistan has been the member of these Western alliances since 1951 or so and we find that we are getting from bad to worse. The development of a country to a nation is impossible if the outside nations with vested interests are involved. The friends and the basis of friendship are always different.
Can you see the difference in the language of the urban elite and the urban non-elites and those from the rural areas. The symbolism and the manner of speech are so different. They indicate a difference in not only material conditions, but also in terms of mental development and mental attention and the focus on life. It is almost as if the rural areas have become demented and are no longer interested in life. How do these people have a valuing process, the range of human emotions, and the ways humans seek and attain meaning in life?
What we now require is a humanistic action and not some based on ordinary regulation. One has, therefore, to see the relevance of these humanistic actions. If some one had an asset, fine, then he can be helped along for the sake of putting the farmer's land to productive capacity, but what about those that have no assets and were living as tenants or partial tenants in the rural areas. They have to be retrained, retooled and retried to do things and have to be made positive members of a society.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary decisions and actions. The routine part of life is over and done with. The most difficult part is the inability of the implementers to have this done on the basis of equity. A major failing of this country based on the psychology of 'more is better' even if the thing is not required. The powerful are responsible for this kind of action and activity. Policies that even out greed are not in position. These are not Socratic thought or Descartes in actions, just ordinary actions put in place by the ordinary humans like you and me. Convert an iconoclastic idea to action? It is energising and dangerous. Live a tight rope. Why not?
The problem is that everything that is science and science-based is used in the service of a distorted narrowed humourless de-sanctified worldview that puts the poor on the back burner to be sniffed at as an added burden to the people of the country. When one talks to the glorified, one is told not to be emotional or you are only being philosophical. What is required now is a flood of emotions in humility, reverence and mastery, wonder and awe at the way the Almighty teaches us the relationship with nature.
If we are humanistic people, then the controlling of human nature is to be flatly rejected. The planners and the economists do not accept this as a way of doing and being with mathematical wonders. Is being less predictable dangerous for Pakistan? I do not think so? It is after all the desire of everyone to be able to be independent. What is required is a degree of predictability so that the ideals of a society are met and that the independence of one does not jeopardise the living of others. That is all. Humans then are more than mere objects. The methods employed by Einstein or any of the physical sciences is of no relevance to the humanistic psychology. Psychology does not mean dealing with the disturbed and the psychologically disturbed individual.
What I have been trying to convey is that the health of an individual is dependent on the thinking positively of what is and where he wants to go. Why work with partial aspects. The humans by virtue of their ability cannot be in any watertight compartment and, therefore, thinking that the ordinary principles would apply to the farmers and the landless in Pakistan is even more far-fetched than it is in any other country. During times of stress, the best in humans usually comes out. It is in times of affluence that the worst in us is noted.
Is the psychology of Pakistani nation now dependent on the elites or on the ordinary people? The tradition of working for the few is hard to break and, therefore, the importance of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. After the floods the basic need is to be addressed for the majority of the people would be in need of meeting their basic food and nutrition needs. That is not where it ends for the needs take on a new meaning because of the extraordinary circumstances. That food has to be made sequential to shelter is not in order and the two policies have to go together. That these two basic requirements have to be supplemented by other issues like health and drinking water and the ability to ward off weird thoughts. Yes weird thoughts are also part of the make-up of the people that have suffered.
The question is what if? The what if question loom large on the faces and in the psyche of the individuals? The safety needs that are required to be addressed, are even more difficult to address as the shelterless cannot at all times take care of the security of the family members. When the circumstances become that insecure than the danger is that the victim becomes the perpetrator of the same crimes.
For the moment that is enough for my work is cut out. I have no means of fixing this liability to persuasion and must do it alone as best as I can. Can one talk to the stones? I had heard of stone heads that did not listen to reason but what about sheer stones-dead to the sensitivities of the poor in Pakistan.
I will still give you Pakistan for this is my world and I cannot give up because there are some who do not understand and one can be grateful that there are some that will back you all the way. My toast is my country it is all that I have. Am I emotionally involved? Yes I am. Pakistan's rural population rules - OK.