There are reasons to celebrate Pakistan

There are still reasons, if only a few, to smile about.

There’s no doubt that living in Pakistan one has to deal with perpetual bad news. Turn the television on, open the newspaper or just take a look around and you will see the problems that surround us.

To avoid having to deal with the depression and stress caused by the situation we live in, a number of people I know have taken to not tuning into any news channels or ever opening a newspaper. A friend told me the other day that watching the news is ‘not allowed’ in her house and newspapers aren’t delivered anymore.

Who can blame her? At one point or another, a lot of us have probably been tempted to do the same. However, I feel there are still reasons, if only a few, to smile about – the media just has to look for them.

A piece in Tuesday’s (January 18) edition of The Express Tribune spoke about a website aiming to spread “awesome, amazing and inspirational news coming out of Pakistan”. Upon visiting the website I was surprised to actually read good news.
The most recent example is Arfa Karim from Faisalabad becoming the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Anand Yang, director of the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies said the situation illustrates “another side” of Pakistan and “That’s another reason to celebrate someone like her.”
In other good news, Ismail Mohammed, who grew up in Pakistan and now lives in Canada, suggested sponsoring the annual Christmas Eve supper at the Old Brewery Mission in Montreal. He and his fellow members at the South Shore mosque contributed $2,000 and served Christmas Eve supper to more than 300 people.
Pakistani scholar Dr Hina Siddiqui won an award at the 11th Eurasia conference on Chemical Studies 2010 held in Jordan. And a photo editing software developed by Pakistani technology firm Five Rivers became the best selling paid-for application for the BlackBerry.
Four pieces of amazing news published in less than 30 days prove that there is still good news out there. All we need to do is take lead from this website and spread some good news. Pakistan needs it.
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/4010/there-are-reasons-to-celebrate-pakistan/