George Floyd racial riots USA and learning for Pakistan

racial riots

These are my cultural learning from the recent George Floyd black racial riots in the USA and the predominantly white Western world, to benefit the glorious nation of Islamic Pakistan.

What are the Human Rights?

First, let me go over what Human rights are as per the UN:

  1. The right to life and liberty
  2. The right to freedom from slavery and torture
  3. Freedom of opinion and expression
  4. The right to work and have an education

Pakistan and Human Rights

You honestly tell me can a Pakistani from the vulnerable economic sections of the population, let alone non-Muslims aspire to have any of these? And the vulnerable are at least 150 million people without landholdings.

These values are the very basic ones needed for a society to merely sustain itself. Where does it leave the Pakistani society? Absolutely rock bottom!

I haven’t even gone to the higher function requirements of conscience, aspiration, self-actualization, standing up for your rights, sexual freedom, women’s emancipation, and evolving society further.

So, there you have it, 220 million people living around the Indus River without the basic tenets of a sustainable lifestyle.

No wonder, Pakistani society goes from one upheaval to another.

We love to blame the USA and India for funding terror groups inside Pakistan, but what we miss out on in this whole gambit is that they find marginalized people here to exploit very easily and that is our own doing.

Now, let me swing back to the Black racial riots in the Western countries, starting from the USA.

When did racial riots take place in the USA’s history?

Racial riots in Tulsa, Detroit, and Chicago, USA mostly happened around the decades the black Americans won the right to vote in the 1960s. Riots also happened in:

  • 1919
  • 1960s (1968)
  • 1990s
  • 2020

George Floyd racial riots in USA in 2020

The dehumanization of the black race, a legacy of Colonialism, has not been reversed.

This Fredrick incident involving George Floyd is a watershed moment for Western civilization and their democratic style of government.

They knew very well that their countries, even being superpowers, could not sustain their progress without inclusive governance. That means all religions, castes, colors, and creeds have to have stakes in their rise.

They introduced voting rights for everyone, but not a fast track to uplift the broken social order of the lowest strata.

Concessions to their black population only came at times the white supremacy was being threatened from outside or within and they needed blacks by their side. Without fail, every time blacks rioted in the streets.

Even rioting in the USA, history shows, happened right after WW1, WW2, and the Korean War, the depression of the 90s, and now after the stagnation of the COVID lockdown.

Every time Western governments dished out stop-gap measures to integrate their former slaves into their grand society but never made it easier for them to acquire property, the basic requirement to break out of poverty.

China managed to draw 400 million out of poverty because they built so many high rises and gave away every daily wage worker on minimum wage the keys.

Conclusion

Therefore, these racial riots or protests are a consequence of the predominantly white West’s obsession with keeping their ascendancy in the high table over all other races.

The world hasn’t forgotten the ethnic cleansing of natives, genocide, unjust wars, economic blockades, and destabilization carried out by the West in other peace-loving countries, just for a quick buck.

Dream of Western liberty

The Western liberty dream is over in people’s eyes.

I guess it is in some ways Karma for them, but it is sad to see a mighty civilization, a beacon of light for the world to aspire for, going down with a whimper.

At least the Roman Empire kept churning out great leaders, like Constantine, even after Julius Caesar grabbed power unconstitutionally for himself and expedited their downfall.

What are Western countries producing? George W Bush, Donald Trump, and Boris Johnson?

It is a sad sight to see indeed.

Anyways, the downward slide of the USA was inevitable since the introduction of Nuclear Weapons into large swaths of territory from which Western Influence had to recede.

They only expedited it by not investing enough in their people and the result is for everyone to see.

Lessons for Pakistan from George Floyd’s racial riots in the West

This is my list of things I feel Pakistan need to learn from these George Floyd racial riots and Western Governments’ slide:-

  1. The Western countries and now India, just like they did to their vulnerable races, are deliberately following a discriminatory policy of dehumanizing Muslims all around the world. This helps in exterminating and controlling Muslims.
  2. Without a rule of law that guarantees equal rights to non-Muslims, poor, handicapped, queers, women, colored folks, lower castes, and the uneducated, Pakistan will never go beyond this sustenance level, ever!
  3. Freedom of speech and opinion is a God-gifted right, not the state’s prerogative. Stop killing the messengers of bad news, they are the ultimate patriots. Would you rather have the pied piper leading the nation to ruin or one rat speaking up?
  4. Despite the insufferable greed and racial clique mentality, Western nations still have a lot to give, especially in work ethics, technology, institutional building, and justice, as long we do not become their satrap.
  5. Genuine innovation and productivity will come from spending on education and health, irrespective of race or color.
  6. A nation with an inclusive population and institutions that guarantee the delivery of services is wealthy, not one that has vast amounts of natural resources.
  7. Greed, racism, and discrimination in society are cancer that will bring down the grandest of facades.
  8. If Pakistan does not carry out a radical shift in how it nurtures its society, the world will treat this country like a barbarian country, with no respect.
  9. If the Pakistani elite needs the inspiration to move their behind, then they need to know that Islam talks of racial equality, a social contract, and a welfare state, not oligarchy or a dictatorship. Islam was a revolution against tyranny, an oppressive economic system that marginalized the weaker segments of society like the peasants, women, and colored slaves. Is Pakistan ensuring Islamic ideals are being followed? Do we qualify to even write the Islamic Republic in our Constitution?
  10. Do not make life miserable for the downtrodden and marginalized in this wretched country, and then it already is.
  11. Fascists like Mr. Modi and Trump only serve one elite group of people and subsequently destroy countries. Do not encourage one-man rule, it would be the death knell for Pakistan.
  12. Hegemony is a waste of resources. We need to look inward now before it’s too late!
  13. Great nations are built on talented migrants of all races and colors. When the pasture of a particular society becomes attractive, the best livestock comes to graze.
  14. The free market is not trickling down to the poorest and marginalized, so the strong have to be forced to let go of power.
  15. Injustice to people never goes unpunished, eventually. There is a God.
  16. IMF, World Bank, IFIs, G-8, and WEF are extractive institutions, that are regularly protested against and are meant to maintain the ascendancy of the rich and powerful, who are mostly white. They would never fund projects that make countries independent. Beware!

If there is anything the racial riots in the USA and the Western world have taught us, it’s this; The powerful and the wealthy in any country will never let the weaker segments of society rise out of their misery, even at the cost of the country itself, unless a political party with a genuine leader, pulls them out of the quagmire. Leaders like that are mostly prophets.

So is there any prophet coming again?

Also see, the USA-Pakistan Relationship

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