A state, like a human being, must constantly face new challenges. Nations everywhere confront floods, earthquakes, famines, tsunamis, epidemics, and political, social, or economic shocks. What defines their future is not the calamities themselves but how they prepare for and respond to them.
Progressive states craft laws, build robust institutions, embrace scientific advancements, and establish social safety nets to mitigate suffering. In contrast, regressive states rely on excuses, hollow promises, ineffective policies, and religious rhetoric to mask their failures.
Japan lies on one of the world’s most perilous seismic zones. Yet, over the past century, it has transformed vulnerability into resilience. The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake (7.9 magnitude) claimed over 105,000 lives, while the 2011 Tōhoku disaster (9.0 magnitude) and tsunami resulted in nearly 18,500 deaths. More recent quakes show a remarkable shift: the 2016 Kumamoto tremors (7.0 magnitude) caused 277 deaths, and the 2024 Noto Peninsula quake (7.6 magnitude) resulted in 55 fatalities. Despite increasing seismic intensity, stronger building codes, early-warning systems, and widespread citizen preparedness have significantly reduced loss of life.
Following the devastation of World War II, Japan rebuilt not through religious rhetoric but through effective governance, meticulous planning, and scientific innovation. By 2024, it stood as the world’s third-largest economy, with services accounting for roughly 71% of GDP and manufacturing driving global leadership in robotics and automobiles. This underscores that governance, strategic management, and science are the true pillars of survival and nation-building.
China’s modern history, by contrast, began with a “century of humiliation” marked by foreign invasions, imperialist domination, devastating famines, and widespread illiteracy. In the early 20th century, literacy rates languished below 20%, life expectancy was a mere 32–35 years, and famines claimed millions. The Maoist era’s Great Leap Forward triggered famines that killed 30 to 45 million, while the Cultural Revolution disrupted education and governance. Yet, post-1978 reforms sparked one of history’s most remarkable transformations. GDP growth averaged over 9% annually for three decades, lifting nearly 800 million people out of poverty. Literacy rates soared, life expectancy nearly doubled, and infrastructure, education, and industry modernized at an unprecedented pace.
This transformation culminated in September 2025, when China celebrated Victory Day with its largest-ever military parade in Beijing. Attended by leaders from 26 countries—including Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif—the event featured 12,000 troops and showcased advanced weaponry like hypersonic missiles, underwater drones, and AI-powered tanks, symbolizing China’s ascent to global power. From famine and ignorance to influence and military might, China’s journey highlights the power of management, science, and state-building. Its leaders did not attribute floods or famines to divine punishment; they reformed institutions, invested in human capital, and built resilient infrastructure.
Conversely, in Pakistan, every calamity becomes a pretext for the ruling elite to conceal their incompetence. Rather than accountability, citizens are told that floods, epidemics, and poverty are “Allah’s punishment” for their sins. The 2022 floods killed over 1,700, affected 33 million, and caused $30 billion in losses. The 2025 monsoon season has already claimed over 900 lives and displaced nearly 900,000 in Punjab alone. Major cities—Lahore, Gujrat, Sialkot, Multan—were inundated not by divine wrath but due to clogged drains, encroached rivers, and approximately 5,000 illegal housing societies obstructing natural waterways. With forest cover at a mere 4–5%, Pakistan remains defenseless against flash floods and landslides.
Yet, instead of implementing reforms, many leaders and clerics offer blame. Some religious scholars interpret floods, cloudbursts, and glacial outbursts as divine retribution for sins like adultery, drinking, dishonesty, or corruption. Prominent clerics have linked immorality at tourist resorts to these disasters, suggesting nature itself rebels against such behavior. Similar claims were made during the 2010 and 2011 floods, framing calamities as divine punishment.
These narratives serve a darker purpose: they shield the ruling elite from accountability, diverting blame onto vulnerable citizens already suffering from poverty and ignorance, drowning alongside their children, livestock, and crops. Instead of confronting those responsible for mismanagement and illegal encroachments, the burden of guilt is placed on the victims.
Pakistan’s health sector mirrors this failure. While most of the world eradicated polio, Pakistan continues to report cases, hampered by corruption and resistance fueled by religiously cloaked misinformation. Millions lack access to clean water or sanitation. Twenty-two million children remain out of school, even as elites amass wealth through subsidies, tax exemptions, and land allotments. Poverty afflicts over 42% of the population—yet sermons blame the poor for their plight.
This pattern is deliberate, a hallmark of Pakistan’s elite governance. Religion has been weaponized repeatedly for political gains. The elite’s contradictions are stark. Yet religion need not be a tool of oppression. The Iranian thinker Ali Shariati envisioned it as liberation for the mostazafin—the oppressed. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) declared: “Every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you will be asked about his flock. The leader is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects.” In Islam, rulers are accountable for justice and stewardship, not for deflecting blame.
Disasters do not always reflect divine will; they test governance. Japan and China transformed tragedy into progress through planning, science, and accountability. Pakistan’s true disaster is not floods or epidemics but a system that refuses to learn—where sermons replace service, and excuses supplant reform. Until rulers are held accountable, Pakistan will continue to drown—not in water, but in the failures of its elite.