Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza was quoted in a national newspaper as saying on Wednesday 6th October that visual monitoring must resume immediately because it helps instill fear in criminals and brings down the rate of crime in the city. However, after the twin shrine attacks took place at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, he altered his statement and claimed that the CCTV cameras that were recently installed near the crime scene have nothing to do with this incident. One day before, he is insisting that the cameras be repaired, because it brings down the rate of crime in the city and the next, when the unfortunate incident occurs, he refuses to acknowledge that the absence of cameras had any part in it. How is that possible? Wouldnt surveillance and investigation of the criminals or the actual crime scene have been easier than it is now if the cameras had been there? But who bothers to admit any of this? Why we are so comfortable with passing the buck. Its just a long chain of people who want to save themselves, so they pass their guilt on to the next person without a full stop. Eventually, it has nothing to do with guilt anymore. The interesting part is that no conclusion has ever been drawn and will never be if it remains the same and all we can do is complain. Im only trying to draw the attention of the nation to our indifferent attitudes as a whole by referring to the above statement as only one example amongst many that we seem to ignore everyday, as we ourselves are engaged in it. Accept it or not we are in a state of denial and I may sound harsh but too much denial needs psychiatric consultation and the best therapy we can give ourselves is to take our own advice wrapped in our day-to-day complaining about how terrible things are here. Our own self-assessment, our acceptance of the harm we commit against humanity, animals and most importantly to our own country. We need to get up and clean the mess we have been making for years instead of hiding. Admit it, accept it and then fix it. Some valuable words we need to add to our vocabulary. ASMA HANIF, Karachi, October 18.