Immigrants: Na Idhar ke, Na uddhar ke

It`s funny. As a first generation Pakistani-American who has never really lived in Pakistan but has visited frequently, I often feel a strange kind of nostalgia for my parents` homeland. It`s almost as if the longing that my parents feel for Pakistan, along with their crystalized, idealized notions of life there, have been passed to me. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live in Pakistan. Would it be like going home, or leaving home?

Re: # 79
Hi Zainab,
You do have the right Batool. Good to see you here.. thanks so much for the kind comments.

Best,
Batool

Hi Batool,

(I hope I have the right Batool as in Maya`s sister in law). Well written. Hope to keep reading your work.

All the best

Zainab Dossa-Jabbar

Let me rephrase my comment:

Is anyone with a brain truly happy?

Re: # 64

``Is anyone truly and unquestionably happy where they are?``

True and unquestionable happiness exists only in utopia or nirvana - a non-existent land promised by Communists before they delivered hell.

Closer to earth, I feel, here in Canada I am in paradise on earth. It is as close as it gets. Religious, political and economic freedom; what more can one ask for?

Have you ever come across anyone thanking his government for letting him decide how many children he should have? Well, curbing family size is not unthnikable, it is the norm in China, repeat Communist China.

If Israel restricted Arab women to 1 child per family, world opinion would start jumping up and down like a wild pig. But where in Israel or the United States has any Muslim or Arab woman been stopped from a second pregnancy?

``You begin to love freedom a hell of a lot more once you have been denied it for a while?`` heard from a captive American.

Why don`t people like Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky quit the capitalist west and enjoy the freedoms of the Communist societies they are enamoured of?

``in comparison to the conditions imposed by US tyranny and violence, East Europe under Russian rule was practically a paradise.`` - Noam Chomsky

64 - Stukes.... great response..... neither will i.

59 Bat:

Not really angry...... anyway as i said earlier, if you are willing to work hard everything will fall in place. 4 years is less as it takes 2 years just to get used to the Canadian system/culture.

As far as Taxi wallas..... well then make more than an average coder/BA/Doc. I met this Pakistani guy who was earning 8-9 G`s a month. He could afford to go back every year. I know a friend who had two masters came here and did not want to work for $13 - 15 an hour (starting job). Went to Chicago drove a cab for two years... came back to Canada and bought a number of shops in a strip mall in Calgary.... has a dry cleaner shop, a pizza shop. He has been here for only 5 years and done quite well.

To all would be immigrants..... burn all your ships when you come here. Come with the frame of mind that you`ll do anything to make it here. (now i don`t mean the wrong things)

I just hope that you do find a good job and most importantly speak well about this place.

gb #73 Criticism by ordinary citizens of wrong things said or done by public officials makes a nation stronger, not weaker.

Re: # 69
Tahmed:
Dont let these `Pakistani-hating` articles faze you or shake your belief in Musharraf or in Pakistan.

Dear Ms. Ali
We can have the best of both worlds, all you have to do is get all your family and everyone you care about to come to Toronto. Then both your problems are solved. The other choice you have is to make Karachi like Toronto, have a system that works, where you call on people who are shallow and gossip, you can change the system because you have seen it work. As a matter of fact it is your duty and obligation.

Cheers, and have a good time fixing Karachi, I will be there in December to inspect your work.

Picture accompanying the article below.

The link to #69


click here

washington post article on pakistan today.



This article is written by a Pakistani woman living in NY. What she writes is clearly read by a much broader international audience than if she was living in Pakistan. Particularly important given the lack of democracy in Pakistan.

After reading this all I can do is quote McMillan who said “you’ve never had it so good “.

My father came to UK in the fifties, he could’nt hardly speak a word of English, he cooked his own food, lived in shared bedroom. He sent most of his wages back to his family in mirpur every month, with no telephone, only post every month.

Re: # 66
good point.
That is what I try to tell people on Chowk, but my posts are always shot down like Gahuri Missiles.

In Amreeka once I was invlved in an accident and taken to the cruiser, cop gave me coffee and bought me a egg/cheese crossaint from DD.

In India I also had an accident on my scooter, hundreds of people watched me in agony but nobody dared to touch me, finally one old man decided to call a Taxi and send me to hospital. Then the Thullay(cop) shows up and starting demanding money from me, even though it was not my fault.

Amreeka is a classless society by far and large and cares of its people, no wonder fundoo Atif or fundoo JG both are accomodated here in all equality.

delhiwala: I too have met people who lived in these enclaves (pakistani-americans as well as ``american-americans``). None of them seemed to think of these enclaves as paradise - it was a place to build up some savings and then get the hell out. On the other side of the picture, when i was in jeddah on a visit, a saudi boasted to me about how at 30 he was made boss to a large number of americans who were much older than him and with far more experience - and he seemed quite pleased with his life.

Your description of delhi reminds me of the expensive residential areas in islamabad - where the only people you see on foot are ``naukar chaaker``, except early morning and late evening when ``sahab logs`` come out for their daily constitutional. Thus, here too the sahabs (like the saudi fellow i mentioned above) are happy and the serfs are not.

Both societies (the saudi and the islamabad/delhi type) are dysfunctional. Much better in the US where even the boss gets called by his first name and where the gas station guy looks you in the eye as an equal.