A time of ‘permacrisis’….Ghazi Salahuddin
These days of the year arouse mixed feelings. On the one hand, you are inclined to take stock of what has happened during the year that is ending. And this is likely to leave you thoughtful and sad. On the other hand, the New Year that is about to begin portends hope and excitement.
But these are not normal times in Pakistan. Things are so bad that I find many people not even willing to spare much time for, say, the political theatre that is being staged in Lahore. This wilful denial is apparently a natural response to something that you cant do anything about.
The pity of it is that, whether people feel involved or not, they have to bear the burden of an impending national disaster. Meanwhile, also, this is a time of great distractions. We have our own manifestations of this season of festivities and social gatherings. There are numerous weddings, conferences and functions. Winter vacations allow families to travel and expatriates come home to spend their overpriced foreign currency.
Until last Sunday, when a truly scintillating final was played between Argentina and France, the Fifa World Cup in Doha provided ample entertainment and many of its dramatic moments excited the feelings of the common people. History was made with an Arab and Muslim majority state putting up this global spectacle in such a grand manner. Spectator sport in the modern world has its own social and political uses.
Incidentally, England playing test cricket in Pakistan was a gift for us in the context of our possibilities in spectator sport. But the outcome of the series synchronized with the national mood when, on Tuesday, we lost the third test in the three-match series, suffering what is termed as a whitewash.
Anyhow this last week of December, of the year 2022, has its own tally of very depressing memories. Today is Christmas, the merriest festival in the Christian world, though we have our own remembrance of the birth anniversary of the founder of the nation. But on December 27, two days from today, we observe the anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto another unbearably painful day of infamy in our history.
I have only alluded to the political crisis, though it dominates the media. The talk show anchors and panelists are endlessly wasting their breath in chewing the political cud. In this feverish pursuit of only one aspect of the national emergency, not enough attention is being paid to the more crucial economic challenges, flood relief activities and the rising threat of TTP militancy.
Certainly the most significant event of this week was the military operation conducted on Tuesday to secure the CTD compound in Bannu. As many as 25 militants were killed and three security officials were martyred. What had happened is rather intriguing.
It was stated by the military spokesperson that 33 terrorists were under investigation on December 18 when one of them snatched a weapon from a CTD officer and got his allies freed. That is how the terrorists took hold of the weapons from the armoury. They took hostages, demanding safe passage. What does this episode say about the prevailing state of affairs?
Pakistan, thus, is passing through a very tough time. But the world as such is not in an enviable situation, regardless of how it is in a celebratory mode and how the stage is set for ringing in the New Year. China is facing the onslaught of the pandemic after the failure of its zero tolerance policy. The war in Ukraine is continuing.
For some weeks now, there have been reflections on and assessments of the performance of various sectors during 2022. One such exercise is the choice of a Word of the Year by various dictionaries that explains the spirit of the times. I will refer to only three of them to illustrate how new realities demand new expressions.
Let me begin with the Collins Dictionarys permacrisis. Collins describes permacrisis (noun) as an extended period of instability and insecurity. This Word of the Year 2022 reflects the ongoing crises the UK and the world have faced and continue to face. These include political instability, ongoing wars, including the devastation in Ukraine, climate change and Pakistan has suffered its impact in an exceptional manner and the deflation of cost of living.
Now, this somewhat confusing word: goblin mode. It is Oxfords Word of the Year 2022. Oxford terms goblin mode as a slang term. According to it, the word often describes a type of behaviour that is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations. The word first appeared on Twitter in 2009 and went viral on social media in February 2022.
More interesting is Merriam-Websters Word of the Year: Gaslighting. This word was first used in mid-20th century to refer to a kind of deception. The dictionary defines this use as psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception or reality . However, time has made the meaning of gaslighting quite simpler and it is now understood as the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage.
The point here is that times are changing and so are our lives. In a digital world, new words and expressions are gaining currency to deal with situations that may have had no precedence. But the human condition is eternal and it is immortalized in the classics.
I say this because we do not just have a Word of the Year every year, we also have a poem of the century that speaks for us at this time. T S Eliots The Waste Land was published exactly one hundred years ago, in 1922 and its centennial was celebrated in 2022. It was created in the shadow of a world war and a global pandemic. With its devastating vision of modern civilization, it is very relevant today.
The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com
Courtesy The News