Mel Gibson 'The Patriot' replied on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 08:10 AM
Dear 'patriotic' expatriates,
It is a fallacy if someone thinks that buying a plot back home is 1) an act of patriotism and 2) constitutes investing in your country. You know that you only do it for your own gains. You must also know that you are the key cause of land price distortions that make homes more expensive than a legitimate income/salary would allow for a pakistani living in his homeland. You earn in $$$ and buy in Rupees. The average sheedah earns in Rupees but must compete with your $$$. Not fair. No wonder he rips you off (not saying it's right, though).
Fallow land does not contribute to productivity of the nation. No goods are produced and no jobs created (other than supporting the most despised segment of society: 'dealers'). If most of the money that poured in to the country post 9/11 and even now went into productive assets or primary issues in the stock market, then you would see what a sustainable boom and expansion of economy is. Instead, we like to gamble on share trading (secondary market) or buying plots where we hope to get quick gains without putting in efforts and knowledge. Even those that work hard for each penny abroad hope for overnight gains in their own country. Our own country is not to work hard in, it is to live the good life! What we all seek are capital gains. Capital gains are those from selling those assets that have the ability to generate income themselves, and by definition, capital gains are not ordinary or recurring income. We must shift our focus to actually generating income from those assets i.e. milk the damn buffalo, don't take her to the market to get her price checked every 3 days.
The plot obsession is a national curse that benefits relatively few but consumes the majority of everyones resources. Every few years everyone is taken to the cleaners, and the dealers and market manipulaters are laughing all the way to their foreign bank accounts, while driving BMW 7 series that they earlier could only hope to rent for their wedding ceremony. Another curse is the obession with saving in gold. There is nothing more useless than gold. Absolutely nothing it can do except look shiny and pretty and dazzle people that are easily dazzled!
You may say that you are not aware of avenues to invest, so can only put in plots. You are absolutely correct, there are no passive forms of safe and attractive investment in Pakistan. If you have enough resources and courage, a real show of patriotism is to return to this jungle and do something that you learned or practiced abroad. I would not advise this personally as prospects are very dim for the country, for faults entirely of our own making.
However, if you insist you are a great lover of the country and you pine for it while you are abroad and keep talking about how great the food is, then bring real investment into the country. Pakistan doesn't need money (well not as much as you think). What it needs, what it is literally dying for is YOU and your INTEGRITY and your COMPETENCE and your HARD WORK. If you can bring those values you've learned abroad back and practice them, then it would be like a blood transfusion for a very sick patient.
If you can't do this, then don't try to give false assurances to yourself and the country about how great patriots you are. Patriots don't run away when the war is raging, they return to the ranks to fight the good fight.
Who am I? I am no patriot, just a pragmatist. I am just tired of the hypocrisy and pretenses that follow a pakistani no matter where he or she takes up residence in this wide world of ours. Good luck to your wherever you are. |
