A lesson in politics, both national and international, is not exactly what one expects from a rather humble butcher and certainly not from a man standing in the ruin of his shop, hours after it was devastated by an avoidable landslide. The ramshackle shop, one of a line of such shops in a lane leading down into Murree's Lower Bazaar, was three quarters obliterated by a rain generated landslide of mud, rocks and garbage: the roof caved in, a machine, water storage facilities and the next days beef were destroyed in the process but, after shovelling filth out of the remaining area, it was business as usual which includes (see Give and Take, June 21, 2010), allowing poor people to help themselves to certain cuts of meat on the bone. The butcher is a relatively poor man himself and, despite being faced with costs he cannot afford, the fate of others is still very much on his mind. Wading through a cauldron of emotions, he dismisses the mess behind him, a mess which wouldn't be there if the Cantonment Board was performing its duties as it should, then, having decided to ignore his own plight, takes an unexpected tack. "Look at the situation in Afghanistan," he says, "in Iraq. In Kashmir. Imagine what will happen if America does attack Iran, if it sends troops here. Look at our own situation over the past few years. Militants, suicide bombers, loadshedding, water shortages, price hike, the earthquake and now massive flooding. People are suffering all around us and most of this is because of American interference. The earthquake and flooding are different but our government, under American influence, does nothing and, right now, when people like the President should be here helping, he goes off to France and London enjoying himself. Other politicians do nothing except look for votes and make money. Same goes for so many other people who see disasters as a way of making more cash. The entire situation is wrong. The people here, most of them, are just out for themselves which is how the country and everything in it has gone bad. God is punishing us all for being irresponsible." Now there is nothing unusual about the butchers' point of view, a view held by many other people too, but, what is notable is how he correlates all the separate components to form a coherent reason for his own predicament while determinedly getting on with the job in hand...survival for himself and those around him. The millions of people fighting to survive in Pakistan are certainly not without their own views and expectations, some of these being realistic, others not so but, unless it is polling time, they are, to those fortunate enough to live above the breadline, largely invisible unless something needs doing when they zoom in to personal orbit for the duration: Drivers of public transport, guards, maids, dhobis, sweepers, malis, day labourers of all descriptions being viewed as the bottom of the heap with personal drivers, shopkeepers, tailors, etc, a few steps up the ladder with their collective opinions often completely ignored. Such people are, however, the backbone of the country as, without them, everything would grind to a halt. The 'faceless masses' are only faceless until there is cause for interaction yet, even then, their hopes, aspirations and opinions are generally viewed as being of no importance, of no relevance in the 'modern' world. The hard fact of the matter is though; these people are human beings too and have the same rights as those lucky enough to have had the benefit of a reasonable level of education, to have found decent jobs and the prospect of further 'improvement'. These 'faceless masses' also outnumber all other segments of society and bring to mind the appalling conditions in both pre-revolutionary France and Russia and even, closer to home, pre-revolutionary Iran, in which three countries the 'peasants', quite rightly, revolted. There are distinct parallels between those roads to revolutions and the current situation in Pakistan: Landless peasants losing all they posses or being held in thrall by rich landowners, lack of access to medical care, lack of access to a decent standard of education, a breakdown of law and order, disintegration of infrastructure as a whole, the ability to look at food for sale but not have the money to buy it, the increasing segregation of rich and poor etc. The ingredients for revolution are all present, present right now and yet the socio-economic divide widens daily and, unless something is done to bridge this gap, something on a large-scale and honestly meaningful to improve the lot of the poor, the poor will, one of these days, find both the courage and a leader and a revolution will be born. The writer is a Murree-based freelance columnist.