It is often said that travelling enhances one's ability to understand the world. This is what I grasped from one of my recent travel to Iraq. People from Pakistan mostly go their for pilgrimage purposes i.e. to visit some of the revered destinations of Islamic history and shrine of the famous muslim personalities. However, my visit to Iraq was different as compared to how other people go to these places. Being a student affiliated to politics, I not only visited these places, but I also managed to analyze about how Iraq is recovering itself from the disaster caused by the war of about more than three decades.
Patriotism, in Pakistan especially, is defined by the masses as respect for the flags or showing love to your armed forces. However, an underdeveloped country such as Iraq displays an astonishing way of patriotism.
Firstly, the Iraqis believe that no other country or force ought not to interfere in their political setup. They believe a sovereign political system will guarantee a safe and developed future for their country.
Secondly, they have this thirst of bringing about development in every aspect of their lives. Be it infrastructure, technological, economic, cultural or social. This vision helps them in developing their administrative capabilities. Although the administration in Iraq is pretty weak as compared to the neighboring nations of Turkey, Iran or Saudi Arabia, but they are motivated enough to bring about positive changes.
Thirdly, and this is the key point in this blog, Iraqis have realized the power of knowledge and education. I personally visited four cities. What I personally witnessed in Karbala, Najaf and Baghdad was that the book stores were overwhelmingly crowded. People belonging to different age groups showed keen interest in books. On the contrary, many parts of the world that also includes some developed states, may find it difficult to engage the youth in book reading.
This is how a weak and deprived nation has started to build its nation once again that was once torn apart by wars and hard times. This part of Iraq really inspired me and holds a deep message for least developed countries such as Pakistan, to learn from it and follow them in the footsteps.
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| Sunset captured near Hillah, a city in Iraq |
Patriotism, in Pakistan especially, is defined by the masses as respect for the flags or showing love to your armed forces. However, an underdeveloped country such as Iraq displays an astonishing way of patriotism.
Firstly, the Iraqis believe that no other country or force ought not to interfere in their political setup. They believe a sovereign political system will guarantee a safe and developed future for their country.
Secondly, they have this thirst of bringing about development in every aspect of their lives. Be it infrastructure, technological, economic, cultural or social. This vision helps them in developing their administrative capabilities. Although the administration in Iraq is pretty weak as compared to the neighboring nations of Turkey, Iran or Saudi Arabia, but they are motivated enough to bring about positive changes.
Thirdly, and this is the key point in this blog, Iraqis have realized the power of knowledge and education. I personally visited four cities. What I personally witnessed in Karbala, Najaf and Baghdad was that the book stores were overwhelmingly crowded. People belonging to different age groups showed keen interest in books. On the contrary, many parts of the world that also includes some developed states, may find it difficult to engage the youth in book reading.
Open bookstores in Iraq:
Iraqis believe that those who read do not steal and those who steal do not read. This motivates them, and they never close their book shops. In fact, they leave their book stalls open the whole time. This shows that a nation how poor, if start respecting knowledge will start to develop despite all the catastrophe that they have witnessed in the past many years. |
| An open book stall in a street in Najaf, Iraq |
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