Pakistan, on a Silver Platter....

The other day I was teaching my brand management students a chapter on cultural marketing when suddenly the image of a Chinese clad in a traditional duppata, serving a local delicacy popped in my head. I had questions..I wanted answers and that was when I asked my youth what they make out of this change in our marketing dynamics.

I am a big fan of the finger licking good masalas that Shan makes..no doubt they are the best in the business...however, this time Shan left a bad after taste in my mouth when I saw their latest advert depicting us Pakistanis welcoming our neighbors with arms wide open. Yes, we are very hospitable at heart. Yes, we love food. Yes,we make one feel at home...but we should make sure that our Home..stays Ours....and we remain the Hosts...hospitable, yet wise.

CPEC has brought forward a wide array of drawing room discussions in my country. While my students believe this to be the way forward, their naive minds are blinded by the superficial success that is being portrayed to them by our media. These Chinese are the prodigy of the great Mao TseTung, the visionary and strategist that turned China into a world power,will any one in their sane mind believe such a nation to be accepting the values and culture of a country like Pakistan??...Honestly speaking I don’t see this kind of respect for the duppata and the local food even by my own country men, let alone a world power being keen to adopt my ways of life!!?

We, Pakistanis have always been a nation open to influence, we will see the west and try to adopt their ways by throwing bridal showers and bachelor parties, we will see our neighbours to the east and start dancing to Sadi gali on Rung parties...we have seldom taken pride in our own ways, we have always adopted and yet again we are on the verge of adopting another culture. The process of cultural adoption and not adaptation has already started off, I get messages everyday informing me to learn Mandarin as it is way forward!!...Ironically enough I now feel the plight of my Bangladeshi brothers who were told to learn Urdu and let go of their mother tongue.The changes are hovering over heads, its just a matter of time when they will come on to the surface and then no more will we be “awwingg” when we see such sweet marketing gimmicks...we will be perplexed and yet it will be too late to do anything.

The East India company came and ruled us for almost a hundred years...this CPEC is a new East India company in the making. I am all in for economic prosperity, but prosperity at the cost of forgoing my land and my rights isn’t what I am in the favor of. I’ll welcome the Chinese any day, but on my conditions and not theirs...

--Sadaf Taimoor