Kalay George Ka Pakistan

[Code_Red]

Re: Kalay George Ka Pakistan

As very much relivent links i would like to post here …

Few weeks ago I read, George Fulton himself wrote an aricle in an english daily praising the hospitality he got in Pakistan …

Read and feel good …http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2005-daily/14-04-2005/oped/o2.htm

After a day or two the newspaper got that letter from a reader about his (George Fulton)’ article …

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2005-daily/21-04-2005/oped/newspost.htm

You must be kidding

Reference George Fulton’s article ‘The hospitable nation’ (April 14), while Pakistanis are basically a hospitable people, we are very obsequious towards foreigners with white skins (the “Gora Sahab”). This may be because the Aryans who conquered us, and the British who ruled over us for over 200 years, were white, and are basically role models for the majority of the native people of the South Asian Subcontinent.

To check the real hospitality of the Pakistani (or Indian) nation towards foreigners, I suggest you come in the guise of a person from an African or Oriental descent. Then you will really know how hospitable we are.

I would like to quote the case of two Kenyan military officers, who were hooted and booed at while walking through the streets of Rawalpindi. I have seen Africans being treated the same way in Islamabad. The Kenyan officers said that they had been treated better in the UK, where the people are genuinely “white,” than by the brown people of Pakistan.

It’s sad, but that’s the way it is.

Khalid Hyder

Islamabad

Like it or not this is the reality…

And in reply to that letter they got another

‘You must be kidding’

This is with reference to the letter “You must be kidding” (April 21). The uncivilised treatment given to the Kenyan military officers in Rawalpindi is indeed condemnable. But I think it’s high time we, as a nation, shattered the shackles of mental slavery that seems to forever colour our perceptions.

Being commented upon or booed does not depend on the colour of someone’s skin. In this society, any woman walking on the street is vulnerable to the same treatment. Whistling, pushing and shoving are common in a crowded market. Nobody is concerned about anyone’s skin colour.

Since the esteemed writer is not a female, he is lucky to walk through the market without being subjected to this preferential treatment. What George Fulton received from the brown people of Pakistan was overwhelming, genuine warmth, not by virtue of his being a “gora,” but simply because he endeared himself to the public with his down-to-earth attitude and charming personality. He seems to understand, with amazing insight, the complexities of the life of the common man in this part of the world. That is something our own leaders have failed to grasp, maybe because the world looks very different from inside an air-conditioned drawing room or a bullet-proof limousine.

Even though belonging to such a different cultural and religious background, Mr. Fulton managed to take us beyond the concept of “white” and “brown” skins. He successfully conveyed even to the sceptics that, at the end of the day, we’re all just human beings with good points and flaws, dreams and disappointments and hopes for tomorrow.

Well done, George!

Tahera Sajid

Hyderabad

Decide on your own

[system]

Re: Kalay George Ka Pakistan

Code_Red,

Good one....human being are a complex set of creatures, when you think they are useles they can bounce back and surprise you. Iam sure Pakistan has both sets of ppl, those with blinkered visions and racists mindsets and those who are genuinly true in spirit and form. Sadly though, society has more than once shown its preference for the gori chamree (skin), may it be in selecting a bhao (bride) or wanting a gora (whitish) child. Such sentiments have no class or ethnic distinctions, it is all pervasive in some cases more while in some less.

I agree with the second writers commenst that it was also George Fultons pleasent and down to earth personality which really impressed all pakistanis and endeared him to all of us. But, reality is if he was not white no matter how hard he tried if he had one, only one experience something like the Kenyans, then things could have been very different. And, Pakistan would not have mobbed a Kalla George with afection and hospitality simply because he was Mr Nice Guy..

[Sara516]

Re: Kalay George Ka Pakistan

I refuse to believe that a society that hawks "tall, fair, slim" matrimonial ads and Fair and Lovely skincream is really as opened minded and "good" as you ppl say..