In a rare moment of weakness-laziness with zero options on the entertainment side being the causation - broke my resolve and switched to the news channels on the idiot box. I am unhappy to report that nothing has changed; the usual suspects still continue to harp loudly about non-issues and nothing much else. Whilst I loathe making predictions, here is another: the days of multiple news channels will soon, thankfully, be over.
And this has nothing to do with the freedom of press, or absence thereof; which by the way is in any case an illusion. There can be no honest unbiased journalism; the construct ab initio is inherently contrary to human nature. We humans are an extremely biased lot; and courtesy Google search, armed with limited knowledge which nonetheless fosters delusions of mental supremacy, our biases have become worse and stronger.
No, the reason for this prediction is the utter disconnect between what is news according to the news barons and the problems being faced by the masses in the real world. The French Queen that we all love to quote in this part of the world, probably more than the French even, probably never mentioned cake. But are we not in our callousness also ignoring the big picture and eating cake?
To be honest, the big reason I stopped watching news channels and following news in general was because of the realization that beyond false excitement, I would miss or lose nothing. And I am once again painfully made aware that I was not very wrong.
To be honest, whilst the Attorney General's resigning was big news on the media, and piqued my curiosity, but still not sufficiently enough to even want to read his resignation, which was making the rounds on Whatsapp, or even make any effort to know why. Nonetheless, my best wishes for him in his future endeavours.
As regards the endeavours to take to task corrupt politicians, the major news that these channels are selling nowadays, a friend's comment sums it up; that news makes my skin crawl; and no, he is not a politician, he is just fed up. His point was, yes the corrupt should be made to pay, and the money has to be definitely recovered, and undoubtedly this will be a long drawn process and not the walk in the park the incumbents were expecting - but has corruption stopped, has it been eliminated?
He makes a good point, if you have not stopped the leakage, what is then the point?
The rest of the breaking news doing the rounds on the news channels nowadays is mostly Greek for the masses - who will start understanding the economy as soon as it starts raining pieces of eight. For the economists, everybody else is a layman because they and their subject study a world which exists in a realm where everything else can be kept constant and proof of concept is not required. For those of you, who have had a brush with the subject, the supply demand curve is a lie and comparative advantage is a joke.
Albeit, on the other hand, it will be rather amusing to see the premier institutions of Pakistan trying to make sense out of interest rates, now that the matter is sub judice. The plan for next week is to dabble about interest and inflation, all else being constant, but then again that is a topic on which even economists have failed to reach a consensus- as to how interest rates impact their fictional world- so what chance do us laymen have!
How many of us know what exactly is GDP or CAD? For my money those discussing GDP on the idiot box are clueless about how it is guesstimated, what are its components and most critically, if the previous government clocked a GDP of 5.8%, then why are we in a mess? Mostly because, as I have said multiple times before, GDP is an impostor!
How many amongst the masses even know what FATF stands for? Notwithstanding all the great efforts by the team striving to get Pakistan out of the grey list, innocent questions at coffee table discussions were rather curious. How did Trinidad and Tobago get out of the grey list, and are we worse than Afghanistan? But much worse, and rather ominous, is the recent comment on Pakistan on the FATF website.
So if that is interest on the above issues at my level, why would the majority belonging to the lower middle or poor classes, desperately struggling to make ends meet and failing miserably, care two hoots about FATF, GDP, CAD or the AGP.
It is mind boggling, and extremely depressing, how a minimum wage earner in recent times tries to support his family of six persons.
You may not agree with all the hierarchies of Maslow's Pyramid, but undoubtedly he is on the money with the bottom of the pyramid. Those struggling with physiological needs - air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing and reproduction - hardly have time to worry about anything else much less freedom of press. Back in the 80s, there was a slogan - roti, kapra aur makan - embarrassingly for us as a nation, decades later the slogan still seems the best option for political parties vying for electoral success.
I tried to access data on average earnings of Pakistanis at different levels of society, but once again was reminded how efficient the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics truly is - at the speed at which they collect and compile data, by the time they get done, it probably becomes irrelevant. I sometimes wonder, how does the State take decision without current accurate relevant data?!
Nonetheless, the view that more and more Pakistanis are joining the ranks of those struggling but failing to make ends meet, is probably correct; the bottom of the pyramid grows larger.
How far the tipping point can be?
But let's lie back on the sofa with a hot cup of java and indulge in some spicy breaking news and ignore the boiling pot, after all there is not much we can do about those struggling to survive at the bottom of the Pyramid!
(The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad. Email: [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are personal. The views are not necessarily those of the newspaper)
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