Daily Diary (DD) - Day 39 of 2019

2201hrs:

Finance after all!

In 13 years and almost 10 months I've never given this subject as much thought as I should have. Except in 2014 possibly, when the concept of a public fund for self-determination was conceived. It was a continuation of evolution - of a particular strand of thought - from 2009. When it became increasingly clear that I couldn't sustain the public interest work that I was doing, by utilising resources from my near and dear.

I had to reach out to all primary stakeholders in the conflict. Yet I had to restrict my outreach to those citizens that lived in AJK or its diaspora. For practical purposes, I could not extend it to GB, Jammu, the Valley or Ladakh.

Your priority has to be the region or jurisdiction where you operate and where the public can hold you accountable for your conduct.

The (voluntary) public finance statistics accrued for AJK give fascinating insight into the psyche, approach and thinking of our people. Generosity does exist and I wouldn't have been able to sustain this work to date, if it didn't.

Roughly two-thirds of people (c. 66%) contribute in finance or kind amongst those approached in AJK. Conversely, less than 5% of the AJK diaspora approached has contributed anything at all. 

In summary, I will have to spend the next few months devoting a lot more attention to this aspect of our existence. Pakistan takes at least twelve 0 digits (2 trillion PK rupees worth) away from here every year. The average thinking person would understand that you need at least six 0 digits (a million PK rupees worth) to counter that Pakistani narrative, which suffocates our thinking and thus prevents us from struggling practically for justice, on the scale required.