An Indian-American Visits Pakistan...

[khoji]

Re: An Indian-American Visits Pakistan…

@phoenixdesi

The first thing I saw outside the airport was… a giant McDonald’s restaurant surrounded by a large and well-manicured green lawn. An unexpected welcome from the golden arches on a sunny, hot day. Two uniformed bodyguards with rifles who were exceedingly friendly and welcoming climbed onto the pickup truck bed as we started on a 45-minute drive.** I was impressed by the massive, well-maintained parks and gardens surrounding the airport.** I was also impressed by the general cleanliness,** the orderliness of the traffic**, the quality of the roads, and the greenery. Coming from a city government background, I was surprised at how organized Karachi was throughout the ride. I also didn’t see many beggars the entire way. I had just spent significant amounts of time in two major Indian cities, Mumbai and Bangalore, as well as several second-tier cities like Mangalore, and none would compare favorably on maintenance and city planning, especially when it came to potholes and waste management. This was the first surprise;** I was expecting that piles of garbage** and dirt would line the roads and beggars would overflow onto the streets. Surely there is dirt and poverty in Karachi, but far less than I was expecting. Karachi was also less dense and crowded than India’s cities. My second pleasant surprise was to see numerous large development projects under way. I had read about Pakistan’s sluggish GDP growth and corruption in public works and foreign aid disbursement. This may be true, but construction was going on all over the place: new movie theaters, new malls, new skyscrapers, new roads, and entire new neighborhoods being built from scratch. In this regard it was similar to India and every other part of Asia I had seen recently: new development and rapid change continues apace, something we are seeing less of in the West.

At no time did I feel the least bit unsafe anywhere we went, and we definitely went through a mix of neighborhoods with varying profiles.

I think this guy is surprised so much because in his mind Pakistan was no different from Afghanistan. He said he didn’t expect McDonald’s in Karachi. What was he thinking? Was he going to Qandahar?
Then he was impressed by well-maintained parks around the airport area. Well, obviously they were well-maintained, because of their location. This gives an impression that this person is trying to say as many positive things as possible about Pakistan. Even if those things don’t make an iota of sense.

The most funny part I found is when he talks of the “orderliness” of Karachi traffic. I am wondering if he is talking about Karachi, Sindh?! Because traffic in the city is upside down. People go in wrong direction with impunity and without remorse. There is no sense of lanes (actually most roads don’t even have lanes marked). Minors ride bikes on roads as if they are in a circus. People honking horns for no obvious reason. I can go on like this the whole day.

Here are some other surprising comments from him:

• he didn’t see any beggars.
• he didn’t see piles of garbage (I think the hosts had him blindfolded)
• he didn’t feel unsafe (in probably three hours he spent travelling on a few roads). Good thing he didn’t meet any mobile-snatcher at some traffic light.

So I don’t know what city he went to. He certainly is not talking about Karachi.