IT doesn’t take much time to understand an alien culture or a society that one hasn’t had the experience to interact with. This can easily happen if one is visiting a country whose customs and traditions are quite dissimilar to the traveller’s own native land.
In Pakistan, people are seldom two-faced and are pretty open when it comes to expressing their views regarding certain issues. Pakistanis can talk about anything, anytime without harbouring the fear of being criticized or humiliated.
But in the United States, one cannot talk openly on subjects like politics or even express an opinion against the government without being criticized. Many people would think that Pakistanis are not literate enough to speak English. That’s not true, most Pakistanis speak and understand at least a little bit of the English language and can read it too. And almost every Pakistani can speak Urdu. But not many westerners are aware of this fact.
The State Department of the United States is always ready to advise people not to visit countries like Pakistan because of the fear of terrorism or some such problems, but the fact of the matter is that the country is quite safe to visit. A friend of mine once said: “It is up to us to project a positive picture of our land.”
According to the West-inspired people, Pakistan is not a safe country because it is not modern enough or technologically advanced as some nations of the West. Of course, there are many things that cannot be considered safe here, but they are pretty different in nature. One unsafe thing is the drinking water. It is not very hygienic or clean. Most of the time the water is found to be dirty and smelly. Most people in Pakistan do not have access to clean water. This is one reason why people in Pakistan have to boil the water before drinking.
Another problem that the country is facing is its terrible traffic situation. Many, if not all, Pakistanis drive very recklessly. They drive at a high speed and seldom tend to slow down. They do not seem to obey traffic laws.
A ride on an auto-rickshaw can be quite an interesting experience for a foreigner. It is a cheap ride that has a lot of funny aspects. Moving at a speed of more than 30kms per hour, and zipping along the corners, the ride can often lead to accidents and crashes.
The public transport system is probably one of its kind. In Pakistan, most of the buses do not stop when one needs to get off or even to hop on to it. In order to get on the bus a person has to flail his arms or whistle to the bus conductor to let the driver know he wants to get in. Once on it, the passenger has to tell the conductor where he is supposed to go. When he reaches the destination he must hit the door hard, only then the bus will come to a stop. He must actually go with the flow of the bus and run along with it to get off safely.
There are many other problems within Pakistan that the westerners are not used to, such as power cuts, beggary, the overflowing gutters, gun shots heard in the dead of night, and the presence of eunuchs at famous roundabouts.
Then there is the strange kind of mentality of store keepers and shop owners. Most of these people are out there to cheat customers or even lie about prices. If a westerner wants to buy something from a shop, the price will be a really high one, to say the least. One has to haggle over the price. For something that may cost Rs 6,000, one can bargain as much as they want to reach a final price, or can simply leave the place.
The condition at hospitals is also nothing to write home about. Once when I was at a local hospital for treatment of a mosquito bite, the doctors wanted to give me medicines which I did not need. They prescribed pain-killers, two types of anti-allergy medications, as well as make me take a blood test and an X-ray. All of these I did not need. They would’ve cost a bit of money.
So, the problems that Pakistan is faced with are multifarious and need to be resolved by the authorities concerned.
