Gentrification of Pakistani Sub-Cultures
How do we forgive those who refuse to see, who choose to live in their bubble at the cost of gaslighting all those outside it. By dismissing the pain of millions to have a guilt free aesthetically pleasing,instagram feed. A sanitized presentation of our subcultures, dhabas without swarms of flies and punjabi music, without the old chaiwala with dirty hands and stories etched into his face, without the broken worn out benches with one leg shorter than the rest. The women folk of thar, kalash, baloachistan and punjab objectified, fetishized, dehumanized. Raggedy kids with beautiful eyes running bare foot knocking at your car window. Street vendors half starved, torn clothes, smiling eyes roasting your challi. Malangs shooting heroin under bridges wearing colorful jewelry and flashy outfits. All make for cute cultural posts. The azaan which you find so peaceful drowns out the cries of the little boys molested raped and killed. And makes you say Pakistan is wonderful and safe for the poor and women and the people are hospitable and don’t let you pay for anything without making you give a thought for their misery and oppression. Romanticising their wretchedness makes you an ideal ambassador for Pakistan’s tourism. Gets you paid sponsorships from big brands exploiting the same people ensuring the same wretchedness, now paying for the glorification of it all. I throw up in pain and disgust and wonder how you dont see it at all. There is the gora tourist looking for an energy shot of spirtuality before he heads back and then there are those of us supposed protectors, rebels no diffrent. Getting fancy PHDs on punjabi folk art and mujra music and cassette culture. Seeking validation, distinction and recognition. Pushing out the actual people and taking over, more superiror, knowledagble, let me make a fancy dhaba show you how to do it right, let me tell you about the punjabi struggle and music in english so academic you need to look up every word. Let me sell the 20rs films poster for 200 pounds. Let me tell you about decolonisation and the subaltern, studying at the same colonial institutions and paying for it with family money that came from fascillitating the coloniser or scholarships created by billionaires and let me take pride in that and tell you im better than you and at the same time sit in a sitting with you and be the expert on criticising that same billionaire and the system that oppresses you. Let me have the honors and acclaims of being a protector and expert as I destroy the very same cultures in my own special educated way.
