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So let’s put the 2 & 2 together.

1: Positive Things in Pakistan: Anything that can be built upon is positive.

2: The Leapfrogging Principle: Bypassing the traditional (and longer, costlier, rougher) road to development and growth by using a newer/ indigenous/ cleverer/ cheaper way – a fresher mindset.

Mix the two, and add to “Tourism” – and what do you get? A fresher, cleverer outlook at tourism that can see the great potential of what can be done – right now.

Usually, the word “tourism” has been equated with cozy, luxury hotels, a Caribbean fantasy shot, lots of shopping in glitzy malls, and – clean roads, prosperous hosts, and lots of good English. Of great concern is the leisure-seeking tourist who wants “peace of mind” and will complain of bad hotels.

Pakistan isn’t getting there anytime soon – so the best approach is: Forget it! NO amount of image-building is going to create or bring that kind of tourism to Pakistan.

Let’s put the positive mind at work: let’s consider the very useful idea… TRAVEL. As different from the glitzy tourism.

Travel evokes a different image: tough challenges, cultural encounters, losing in translation, long roads, bargaining, discovery, unplanned destinations, and unpredictable photos. Closely related is adventure. It’s one of the world’s most ancient traditions, and a kind of “tourism” we can do right now, as we are.

In recent years, curious forms of alternative tourism (travel) have emerged:

- Grief Tourism, Disaster Tourism and other forms of “Dark Tourism” – mad as they seem, they are forms of learning and investigation for the tourist. Some dark tourists are historians, or later generations of people who suffered the tragedies.

- Voluntourism Where tourists engage in preplanned volunteer activities in their host locations. The voluntourists pay for these activities, and (mostly) arrange their own sponsorships.

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 THE “POOR WE!” MINDSET

Developing nations have an embedded belief that “if only they were like developed nations” would they be, well, developed. The keyword here is “resources.” As in, “We don’t have enough resources to do ______. So, we cannot.”

A more sophisticated phrasing of this concern is, “We don’t have the infrastructure in place.” No infrastructure, no go.

An article that I read long ago, titled “Geography is Destiny,” had a very interesting idea. It said that nations that were completely destroyed in World War 2 – Germany and Japan – in fact found themselves in a better position to develop, as compared to, say, The Continent. Why? Because everything they had was destroyed, so when they built again, they built with later and more agile systems – not to mention cheaper technology. It’s like losing your phone and buying the latest model with added features that help you work faster.

Better still, how about you’re buying your first cellphone in 2007? Were you around when then first mini-tower sized cellphones were launched in the 1990’s? Remember the crazy bills? 

LEAPFROGGING TO THE “PLENTY WE!” WORLD

THAT is leapfrogging. You arrive late, but get the best seat. You don’t have the weight of what is technically called the “legacy system” on your shoulders. You are free to choose, in the times of the open source. Beautiful!

With technology evolving by the day, and getting cheaper at the same time, late-comers have the advantage of being able to use cheaper, and micro-sized systems for a fragmented market. Size-does-matter. WorldChanging lists tens of examples of the success of leapfrogging – indeed it’s hailed as a principle for development of “Global South”- or Southeast, in Pakistan’s case.

LEAPFROGGING IN PAKISTAN 

As it is, Pakistan has got going a pilot project on solar energy. Award-winning tele-medicine solutionsare making up for lack of health-care network distribution. The Internet has paved the way for Pakistani techpreneurs to go head-to-head with global market. 

Whatever the definition of development is, and whether it includes the cost of “externalities” (which I define as “cost to humanity”) – development today is a result of mindsets. In my consultations to those stuck on “I can’t! issues”, I ask, “What can you?” and “How can you?”

The mantra is, there is an alternative way. We just have to find what it is.

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CNN’s review of the problems of “Brand Pakistan” comes shortly after the Newsweek’s unpleasant award to Pakistan (“Most Dangerous Place…”). After India’s successful Incredible India campaign, minds have thought harder about how to project the prositive image of Pakistan?

These are actually five progressive questions:

0. What does “positive” mean? Q-Zero is philosophical. Generally, positive is “anything that lends hope.” Some think it means “strictly happy” – to the point of including “falsely cheerful.” My definition is that positive is something that can be built upon. Right now, it can be half-built, even broken. But it’s positive if something can be made out of it with effort. Simple!

1. What is positive in Pakistan? This requires an active identification and location of subjects. When Pakistanis look around with the latter definition, we will find more positives than we could see under the previous definitions. Let’s try a few examples:

Tourism is a positive area; there are so many unexplored territories in Pakistan that it’s a great place for travelers fatigued by crowded popular destinations. Agriculture is a positive area; there is such great demand for food and efficient delivery that a variety of businesses (seed banks, farmer training, storage, trucking, grocery delivery service) can be built out of it! (Then we march into the direction of building that thing, while creating a positive aura about it!)

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