I have recently come across this new phenomenon of our pakistani breed claiming themselves to be from Italy ? Have you come across any such Shakoor Burtalucci ?
It seems to be common among guys as well as girls. My cousin was telling about this Soccer match Italy playing against France. And had these Pakistani kids wearing ITALIAN flag T-shirt and had their faces painted with that too!
Ofcourse thats not the only one country we seem to be infatuated with, some are trying to be Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or any other hispanic nation. Not to forget some of our braided fellas who are acting like black people.
I have come to a point where what these people want to portray themselves to be doesnt make much difference. Its their choice. But a ‘Naureen Bokhari’ telling me she would give up anything to be Italian makes me a little sad.
How about our own culture and language of the land of pure?
Do you see people like that or notice this trend ?
ghoncho i hear ya…
person name as shezy turns out to be sheraz
**changing name… is one of the main issue..
but ghoncho i must say i have seen more religious people here than pakistan… girls and guys in my uni would get up from the classroom and run to the library or the prayer room to pray Mashallah… i guess u find all kinda people everywhere…
but u know what one should be proud of what they are instead of saying " i wish i was …"i just go like…low lives move on
people supporting italian team could be just because they are fan of Italian football..err soccer fer yew yanks...
but there is a strange trend that u mentioned, i ran into a fairly fobby character in London who told me he was half Italian..and did not know 2 words in italian.
But what is the root cause of this? why would someone be trying to be something they are noy. Do they feel that Pakistanis have destroyed their rep so much that it is in their best interst to be anything but Pakistani? How would one deal with that.. if lets say u grew up abroad and the actions of your countrymen are portraying you in a negative light, what do u do? hopefulyy one is mature enough to embrace their identity and show by their actions that when it comoes to any group not all 5 fingers are alike.
The parallels to this could be found to this day among iranians in the west, they always refer themselves as persians and not iranians. Its fun to bust their chops and say "well umust have time travelled because no country named persia has existed for quite some time" or//" jeez u dont seem old enough to be from persia"
Heck folks just tell everyone u are from atlantis..problem solved.
The need to 'fit in' the crowd at any cost, regardless of what extreme measures one takes in order to accomplish just that has become a common trend. We had a character at our campus claiming she was 23% French, 53% Brazilian and the rest Pakistani. And ironically couldn't speak or learn to speak either French or Spanish, both of them being on the criteria of foreign languages in this state one should take in order to graduate. Then there was another who one who went by anything but the real name and was famous at campus for changing names so often that the administration and faculty had a hard time keeping up with them all. They had to pronounce the real name along with all of the person's aliases on the PA system everytime some official wanted to see this particular individual. Now what's up with that.
I think it's all in lack of confidence to just be one's self and accept and like yourself for who you are. If one wants to change something about them then it should be their inner self. Make it a better and stronger person. And that's what matters the most. We first form habits and then habits form us.
Out of curiousity .... I was branded as Italian by few people & I looked at myself in the mirror for nearly half an hour to confirm my identity .... no I am not ... my wife is half Italian.
I remember I know a FOB from Karachi now living in London who never wanted to be known as Pakistani & always introduced himself as half Pakistani & half Spanish .... dilemma to prove himself that his roots are mixed.
Second case was a FOB (born in Pakistan) friend his father was italian but he never lived with his father after the age of 4 so couldn't speak Italian at all neither did he look italian but he was half italian .... so it also depends.
Well, it doesn't matter to me if someone tries to be something else that he/she is not because it doesn't hurt me ... so I wont care.
[This message has been edited by Najim (edited April 09, 2001).]
MF, yeah Brazilians do speak Portugese, but it not being available as one of the foreign languages, Spanish was the closest. However, the irony was that she couldn't even grasp it, nor Spanish, Ipican or any of the other South American Languages. You would think that someone who claimed to be 53% Brazilian would be able to say at least hello in Portugese if not more.
[This message has been edited by Rarediamonds & Gold (edited April 09, 2001).]
Well if they have been born and bred in Italy, Spain wherever, then they have every right to call them selves Italian or Spanish
If someone asks me where I am from, my automatic response will be England, due to the fact that I have been born and bred here, and consider myself more British than Pakistani.
My brother supports England in Football..though he doesnt go to the extreme of painting his face..fortunately....but if there was an international Pakistani football team of the same calibre, you can bet your bottom dollar he`d be supporting them.
If you are talking about Pakistanis who lie about there actual heritage then thats another story.
Maybe it makes them feel more exciting about themselves....or think that others will be impressed by their mixed ancestry.
Come on, they`ve gotta be pretty insecure if they have to lie about their roots.
I am in full support of people referring to their place of birth as their country. If you are born in Uk, call yourself a Brit, I do. It does not have to compete with your religious or cultural identity at all.
The question is about people who lie about their heritage i.e. half italian, half french etc etc. And that is kinda lame.
I really think that there is something definitley wrong with people who do this, as I said before, they feel insecure, or maybe just too damn sad.
This could due to bad occurrences with fellow pakistanis, relatives even.
Very interesting.
Not to go off the topic, but I know many mixed race people, mostly half english and half afro-carribean - they all prefer being recognised as afro carribean, and not white.
And Fraudz I did address the question at the end of my last post.
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Originally posted by ZZ: it may be just a prank. just for fun pretending to be somebody else.
[/quote]
Oh No, I missed this thread as I didn't realize what would be inside. I have seen people actually changing their surname to some foreign name. First time, I saw someone doing this I thought he was joking but when I saw his full name with some funny name at the end I was shocked. He got embarrassed but he said that and made stories but he definitely said he is not the only one and most youngsters do it in Birmingham.