Literature can bring an end to extremism

"Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Monday that we have distanced ourselves from literature and art which has resulted in the predicament of our society and recent wave of extremism.

Kaira lamented that in the past dialogue used to be weapon in our society, but now weapons have taken the place of dialogue in our society and there was urgent need to fight this mindset and literacy figures can play a crucial role in winning this war against terrorism.

Kaira said that as a nation we have tried to find political and administrative solution of the problems being faced by us but real solution lies in revival of arts and literature in the society.

Our society has stopped giving respect to poets and writers which they deserve and as a result of this attitude our approach has become stagnant and retrospective.

He said that no single person can bring a revolution. Literary personalities and politicians all play their role in revolutionizing the society."

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There's something somewhere

My neighbor’s kid, a 12 year old who sometimes shovels my snow in the winter, went to a summer camp. His parents, devout Christians, insisted that he must go to a Christian camp, down in the US. He really didn’t want to go. He was raving when he came back. It was the greatest thing ever, chiefly because all kids spent much of their time learning to use different firearms…

It reminds me of a story I read recently on the road:

There are things going on, things that shouldn’t be. […] It’s blossoming everywhere and in every country. […] Youth is what you might call the spearhead of it all. But that’s not really what’s so worrying. They – whoever they are – work through youth. Youth in every country. Youth urged on. Youth chanting slogans, slogans that sound exciting, though they don’t always know what they mean. So easy to start a revolution. That’s natural to youth. All youth has always rebelled. You rebel, you want the world to be different from what it is. But you’re blind too. There are bandages over the eyes of youth. They can’t see where things are taking them. What’s in front of them? And who it is behind them, urging them on? […] They’re not only fancies. That’s what people said about Hitler. Hitler and the Hitler Youth. But it was a long careful preparation. It was a fifth column being planted in different countries all ready for the supermen. The supermen where to be the flower of the German nation. Somebody else is perhaps believing something like that now. There’s something somewhere, and it’s running on the same lines.
Agatha Christie, Passenger to Frankfurt.