TO live in Karachi, or really any city in the tumultuous world that is our reality, is an exercise in dodging misfortune.
asserted
that → live → misfortune
When one leaves the house, one braces for survival.
asserted
one → leave → survival
Traffic has to be navigated, angry or errant drivers avoided, beggars ask for money and there is filth on the street.
asserted
beggars → have → street
By the time one reaches the destination, one is in a state of high vigilance.
asserted
one → reach → vigilance
This means that most in the city live in a constant state of hypervigilance.
asserted
most → mean → hypervigilance
Some would say that wealth can insulate a person from this avalanche of potential misfortune.
asserted
wealth → say → misfortune
There is material evidence of this: the wealthy have drivers who take them places, their cars and homes are cool with air conditioning and electricity outages are eliminated with generators.
asserted
outages → be → generators
They see the best doctors and eat the best food.
asserted
They → see → food
If you belong to this class, the injustice that you see everywhere in a megacity is made distant.
asserted
you → belong → megacity
The maimed beggar, the dog being beaten, the woman wrapped in black trying to navigate a street full of men are things that exist in some different world.
asserted
that → maim → world
The car window, the tall gate, the armed guard — these, it is assumed, make the cruelties of the context irrelevant.
asserted
cruelties → assume → context
If they are considered, it is only in a calculation that assures you that your good fortune is deserved and those suffering must have earned it through some arithmetic of divine distribution.
asserted
those → consider → distribution
The truth is that life in an unjust society exacts a cost.
asserted
life → exact → cost
It does not matter how well you may take care of yourself; context matters.
uncertain
context → matter → yourself
In her extraordinary book Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, Dr Arline Geronimus has shown that the constant physical toll of coping with injustice can have deep physical and mental consequences.
asserted
toll → show → consequences
Naturally, the most disadvantaged suffer the worst consequences, but the effects of living amid inequality accrue on everyone in a society.
asserted
effects → suffer → society
Diseased societies produce diseased people.
asserted
societies → produce → people
In a world in which patriarchy reigns, women are always playing defence.
asserted
women → reign → defence
Marriage is a minefield where, if the demands of a husband or in laws are not met, every day can become a living hell.
asserted
day → meet → laws
A long list of dead women that I regularly write about in this column is evidence of this.
asserted
I → write → this
If a woman is unable to bear a child for instance, she may either face divorce or her husband taking a second wife.
uncertain
husband → bear → wife
If children do come, they can increase a woman’s dependence on her husband, making it harder to resist whatever strictures are imposed upon her.
asserted
strictures → come → her
The cost of all this is a constant state of vigilance, and Geronimus showed just how it can physically wear one down.
asserted
it → show → one
Repeated activation of the stress response can disrupt hormonal regulation, raise blood pressure and contribute to inflammation.
asserted
activation → disrupt → inflammation
In the long term, this increases vulnerability to chronic disease and early death.
asserted
this → increase → disease
Diseased societies produce diseased people.
asserted
societies → produce → people
A 2021 systematic study and meta-analysis found that 37 per cent of pregnant women experienced antenatal depression, while 30pc experienced postnatal depression.
asserted
30pc → find → depression
Intimate partner violence and poor relationships with spouses were among the reported risk factors.
asserted
violence → report → factors
These figures can be attributed to the fact that women do not feel confident about their own or their children’s futures because they live in a society where injustice is common.
asserted
injustice → attribute → society
The most interesting thing about research on men and women in unjust societies is that men suffer too.
asserted
men → suffer → societies
Research examining sexism in US states has linked patriarchal contexts to poorer health outcomes in both men and women.
asserted
Research → examine → men
People believe that individual actions, status or material wealth can allow them to evade the conditions they see others endure.
asserted
others → believe → conditions
All this suggests that individual choices and wealth are not the biggest determinants of health in a society.
uncertain
choices → suggest → society
Instead, it is the availability of collective justice and respect for life that affect health outcomes.
asserted
that → affect → outcomes
This should give all Pakistanis pause.
asserted
This → give → pause
The poor are treated horribly, and we see terrible crimes committed against the weak every day.
asserted
we → treat → weak
Women are regularly treated like chattel, children are routinely abused and caste and wealth determine the course of one’s life.
asserted
caste → treat → life
The worst curse is that we have learned to rationalise all of this, to absorb it as the way things are, the way things have been and the way things will always be.
asserted
things → learn → way
But being inured to injustice and quietly accepting of it is making us sick.
asserted
us → inure → it
Our tolerance of it creeps into our cells and our bones.
asserted
tolerance → creep → cells
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
