Ahmed Khan Achakzai
Respected Readers,
The meaning of carpetbagger is the one who comes carrying a carpet bag, this word today seems to us an abuse, an accusation, a taunt, but history tells us that this word started from a bag and then became the identity of a whole system. In America the Civil War ended in 1865, then the South was completely destroyed, houses were burnt, fields were ruined, businesses were finished, families were scattered, and people became strangers on their own land. In this desolation many people from the North came towards the South, they had no big suitcase, they used to bring all their belongings in a bag made of cheap carpet, this bag was called a carpet bag. The Southern people started calling them jokingly carpetbaggers, in the beginning it was a joke, then it became sarcasm, then it became hatred, and then it became history. The question is why did these people come to the South, were all of them alike, were all of them looters, no, history tells us that there were three types of them and these same three types are still present in our society today. The first type was of the good carpetbaggers, some were really good people, they came to build schools, they came to free the slaves and teach them, they came to build hospitals, they came to repair the railway, they left their home, their comfort, their job and came to settle a destroyed area, their aim was service, their aim was humanity, history still remembers them in good words. The second type was of the opportunist carpetbaggers, some people came only to earn money, they bought cheap lands, they took jobs in the government, they deceived the poor Southern people and grabbed their lands, they could not see the tears of the poor, they had only to fill their own coffers, they made misery a market and humanity a commodity. The third type was of the political ones, some people came to do politics, they took the votes of the freed slaves and themselves became governor, mayor, they had no concern with the sorrows of the South, they wanted only the chair, they wanted only power, they made the vote a ladder and the people a staircase. The Southern people hated the second and third type very much, therefore this word became an abuse, therefore even today when we call someone a carpetbagger, the same opportunist and politician comes to our mind, the same looter comes, the same deceiver comes. Now the question is what is its relation with the Great Depression, the Great Depression was from 1929 to 1939, at that time everyone in America became poor, factories closed, banks drowned, farmers became landless, labourers were hungry, and the whole country drowned in a great misery. At that time also people started using the old word carpetbagger again, but now its meaning had changed, now carpetbagger was called the one who comes from outside and takes advantage of our misery, that is, the merchant of misery. For example, when the lands of the farmers were being auctioned, rich people from the city used to come and buy cheap lands, people used to say these carpetbaggers have come, when banks were snatching the houses of the poor, outside lawyers and traders used to come and buy those houses, when labourers were hungry, outside contractors used to come and make them work for very little money, all these were carpetbaggers, because they had not come to help in misery, they had come to buy misery. For whom is this word used nowadays, even today this word is used in politics, as in Pakistan also they say, he came from outside at the time of election to take votes from here, he is a carpetbagger, meaning the one who has no relation with this area, has come only to take advantage. Today in Pakistan also the same four forms are seen, the political carpetbagger who comes before the election and disappears after it, the donation carpetbagger who distributes ration in front of the camera in flood and earthquake and disappears, the crossroads carpetbagger who brings children from outside and makes them beg, and the media carpetbagger who earns money by making a fight video viral. The identity of all of them is the same, their roots are not in this soil, their pain is not of this people, they come only in misery, they do not come in happiness, while leaving they do not leave a school, hospital, road, they leave only empty pockets. Remember in one line that originally carpetbagger was the Northerner going to the South carrying a carpet bag, in the Great Depression carpetbagger was the outsider who took advantage of the misery of the poor, and nowadays carpetbagger is the opportunist, politician or trader who comes from outside and takes advantage. Therefore we should learn a lesson from history, we should differentiate between a good guest and a carpetbagger, a good guest is the one who comes and settles, a carpetbagger is the one who comes and destroys, a good leader is the one who stays even after the vote, a carpetbagger is the one who runs away after the vote, a good helper is the one who delivers the donation to the poor, a carpetbagger is the one who puts the donation in his own pocket. The people should recognize their real people, recognize the deserving of their own neighborhood, vote for the sincere youth of their own neighborhood, the media should unmask them, and the government should make a strict law against them, because until we recognize and reject the carpetbaggers, our ecosystem will not be fixed, our trust will not be restored, and our nation will not move forward.
