Youre never a day away from a headline. In Pakistan, youre never more than a few hours away from 'Breaking News that really does deserve that description. Nato attacks.suspension of the supply line.re-evaluation of the US-Pakistan relationship.Memogatethe resignation of Pakistans Ambassador to the US.whispers in the night of a military coup.the illness of the Head of State.rumours of the resignation of said Head of State.the Opposition stoking these rumours.the government trying to put out the fire.new kids on the block, Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto, step into the limelight.and last but not least, Miss Veena Jees titillating photo shoot, its 'morphing, denial, confirmation, rebuttal, etc etc and so on. We really arent short of material, genuinely good stuff, the kind to make your hair stand on end every night during the 9pm bulletin. And not that you shouldnt know all of this either, Pakistans appetite for politics and news is huge - insatiable, in fact. We have relinquished all other forms of entertainment for being too unsafe, too risqu or too rarely available, in favour of punch-outs on late-night talk shows and Bollywood soundtracks played over freeze-frame-and-repeat visuals of politicians. Even without our already considerable interest in these subjects, they are worthy enough on their own of attention. However, these very same, terribly important news items are what are keeping us pleasantly distracted from the very basic problems we face, which we have yet to identify and accept as problems. Its much more fun to gather around the television and flip channels purposefully in search of the most dire version of the news you can find, than to be told in a calm, indoor voice that nothing is going to happen. Memogate will die down, there appears to be no demand or supply evident for a military coup, Zardari will return to the Presidents House, the Nato supply routes will be reopened eventually, there is no reason to suggest that the Senate elections will not take place, Mr Gilani will probably be the first Prime Minister to see a 5th consecutive budget delivered by his government in Parliament and, if all continues in the same trajectory as presently, we will have general elections sometime at the end of 2012 and elect another hung Parliament, with a few seats for Mr Imran Khan thrown into the mix. There.Now that weve dealt with the latest fashion in rumour and conjecture and the Billboard top 10 headlines, we can talk about the classics. Specifically, education and the economy, because these problems arent going anywhere. Ministries are for ministers and politicians hopeful of becoming ministers. The economy and education are what affect us. The next generation of warfare is not going to be military. Our battles will now be fought in competitive markets. Pakistans economy is not equipped to and will not survive such a race. With an abundance of unskilled workers and no future prospects of jobs for the thousands of bright-eyed, hopeful new graduates our universities are churning out every year, if there is a grand plan for turning Pakistan into one of the most promising in Asia, I cant see it. We are a country host to a huge population of people just starting, expectant of a better quality of life, hopeful that they will be able to provide their children more comforts than they themselves had. At the moment anyone who realises that this hope exists in abundance, ought to be squirming in discomfort at the following thought: How exactly do we intend to fulfil it? Are you and I asking these questions often enough? Do any of our political parties have answers? Caught in the daily debate about the merits and demerits of civilian governments and military dictatorships, it is the truly 'everyday problems that we have become blind to. The future of Pakistan does not lie solely in the hands of one government or another. It lies in you and me asking questions, again and again, until the answers start to satisfy. We dont have a new crop of politicians right around the corner, there is no Messiah. Its the same broken down system we keep coming back to. So lets do our bit to make it work. Email: rnizami@nawaiwaqt.com.pk