Industrialists vs. Feudals:The Pakistani blame game continues

Food shortages: An opportunity for the Feudals & Industrialists to create value added products and services for the hungry world

PAKISTAN VISION 2020

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/12/pakistan-vision-2020/

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/31/education-emergency-in-pakistan/

SHIPPING and SHIP BREAKING

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/25/revamping-pakistan-shipping-defense-saving-3-billion/

PAKISTAN AS FOOD GRANARY OF THE GULF (The Gulf countries import about $200 Billion of food items)

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/09/got-milk-pakistan-gulfs-food-granery/

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/07/200b-gcc-food-imports-pakistan-poised-to-grab-major-share/

UAE SETUP $5 BILLION IN FARMS IN PAKISTAN. SAUDIS WENT TO THAILAND AND SUDAN. We should pull the Saudis in

http://rupeenews.com/2008/05/07/pakistani-food-uae-investors-setup-agri-bank-to-help-farmers/

The blame game continues. Industrialists think it is fashionable to malign feudalism in Pakistan. Tall comparisons are made with India which are historically incorrect and need to be benchmarked to regional and social issues. Like the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka the Muslims of the Subcontinent did not engage in business.

They Muslims during the thousand years of Muslim rule were either courtiers or land owners. In India the Socialist Nehru abolished the land holdings in India, not because of some lofty Marxist or Gandhian motives, but rather this anti-Muslim crusade was led by Patel in an open device to destroy the Muslims culture, civilization, language, social structure and religion in India. Most of the land holdings in the major states like Hydrabad, Awadh, Junagarh, Manvadar were held by the Muslims. By destroying the land holdings of the Muslims the Islamic centers of excellence in Delhi, Lucknow, Agra and Hydrabad were raised to dust. With no opportunities in employment or education, the Muslims of India were reduced to the ghetto and slums of India.

If Feudalism is so bad, then one needs to learn from the Mozambique horrors which stemmed from the abolition of large land holdings. The result was a sharp decline in food production, mass starvation and general chaos. A little taste of this was evident in 2008–but that was because of a worldwide food shortage, severe shortage of water in the dams and a bungled bumper wheat crop which was targeted by smugglers and mismanaged by the interim government and made political hay out by the unelected leaders of the political parties. It was to the advantage of many hoarders to exacerbate the food crisis so that it would impact the elections–it did.

For the most part, Pakistani feudals for all their faults have kept a steady flow of food to our growing population and made it more or less self-sufficient wheat with huge exports in rice and cotton. This is the backbone of our economy. Honest feudal landlords can a huge asset for Pakistan. Large land holding can consolidate wasted land and create agri-business, as well horticultural commerce to the Middle East, Europe and the USA (canned vegetables to avoid them going bad, roses to the USA and Europe, instant rice for housewives and students across the planet).

The Gulf states import $200 billion of food from Europe. A well defined supply chain of land to the refregerator can save more than 50% of the vegetables and fruit that is wasted. The American robber barons grew out of an agrarian economy to build private railroads and created a agrculturebased industrial base with field cotton gins which fed the industrial revolution. Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of milk–however Denmark and Australia are known for their dairy. Huge sheep farms run on modern scientific lines can quadruple the milk production and create value added products like cheese, and ready to eat milk bars etc.

The Pakistani Industrialists have failed to capitalize on an export based economy as pioneered by Korea, Taiwan and China. The robber barons on Pakistan destroyed Pakistan’s ship breaking industry to monopolize their hold on steel and have been unable to form alliances with multi-nationals tolerate value added products in agriculture or cotton. The fashion houses of Paris and New York should becreating type of cloth and advising the textile industry on prints and fabric.

Japan and to some extent used the Feudal landlords to industrialize. The Meiji industrial revolution of 1843 in Nippon used the Samurais to build an industrial infrastructure that has survived two world wars, many recessions and has totally decimated the American steel, automobile, electronic manufacturing, consumer appliance industries. The Japanese using the packman food-chain have moved up from steel to spare-parts, to automobiles, to jets and are now looking at the “national aerospace plane with” a “Made in Japan” label.

The Indian industrialists simply implemented a failed policy of import substitution and did not participate in the world market for decades. Penury in neighboring India had a huge impact on our economy. The BJPgovernment was thrown out because it failed to look to the problems of rural India. The Indian IT field only impacts about 6 million Indians. The other billion eek out a living on the farm with low productivity. Pakistan has to encourage our feudals in doubling and tripling our productivity in food and cotton. No magic formulae will make Pakistan prosperous. Huge dams should redirect wasted waters of the Indus to Baluchistan and we must increase our arable area by developing the vast deserts of Pakistan.