Hooliganism -National Pride

Come the 14th of August and National Pride is at its peak but so is Hooliganism on the streets as hordes of wild youth clad in jeans 'n t-shirts with national flags wrapped over their heads take over the Independence Day celebrations in a totally absurd fashion. Crackers blow up on the roads and one might even land inside your car if you are not careful. Motorbikes without silencers turn the streets into a circus, sadly though all of this portrays a war zone rather a celebration.

Only a few years back there used to be nothing like this except for a night out with the family to enjoy the lit-up city and fireworks display. Ever since the fireworks were termed a waste of money, there has been no other alternative for the over-zealous youth but to take to the streets and create fuss to much dismay of families looking for a reason to celebrate.

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55 years on since our Independence yet we still have no idea what we are heading for; what we have achieved and what the future holds for us. This sense of hollowness alone would worry a pondering soul yet we carry on celebrating all these years that we have wasted till today. We never think what we have achieved in these 55 years, 'cause if we do, then we could see there is not much to celebrate over. Our achievements fall way behind our failures, the biggest achievement would have been to survive together which alas we could not do even. What was bestowed upon us half a century ago by our fore-fathers, we could not hold on to till today, yet we celebrate just for the sake of celebrating.

The youth of this country, as bewildered as any other part of our society throws crackers and fire bombs on Independence Day, perhaps reminding us of the horrors they face in their daily lives, with unemployment souring sky high and ever increasing educated yet jobless people on the streets, this could only be the beginning of a bigger unrest and hooliganism culture on the rise if things dont improve now. This could well be a warning to our society to mend itself before things get out of hand for all of us.

The Government like its predecessors makes numerous promises of better days and booming economy to go with the euphoric mood of the nation but once its over, no promises are ever fulfilled and its the same story on the next independence day. What successive governments fail to implement is the economic reform that is badly needed to get the country going, until that is done the society can never uplift itself and neither can it with hold the tide of degradation that already hovers above our heads.

Shiza Masood

The writer is a 16 year old student from Islamabad.