By Daniela Beg

KARACHI: In Germany, where I lived most of my life, Pakistan is almost not visible. No books. No music. No travel offers. Maybe a German film about the Kashmir conflict, a report about madrassas in Pakistan, a warning to travel in an insecure country. On the contrary, India is promoting itself very successfully: “Fly India!”, lovely photo books about India and Buddhism and lots more and no warnings.

We can look for the reasons for this lack of Pakistani promotion – it might be helpful, maybe not. Facts are: Pakistan has a peaceful religion, lovely landscapes, including the Karachi beaches. Also the bazaars are inviting, food is marvelous in smell and taste – on the streets as in restaurants. The people of Pakistan are very warm, calm, understanding and caring. Music is touching with and without language understanding, Pop music as well as the classical and Sufi music. So why does Pakistan not do anything for a better reputation in the world?

Whilst the planning of my visit to my second home country – I am a Lahori and Mughal daughter, with German mother and socialization – I have been facing a pool of questions and difficulties.

The question of safe and secure accommodation in Pakistan was raised as well as the non-availability of guided tours through the cultural heritage of this country. “Can I walk alone on the streets as a woman?” - “Can I take my notebook safely with me?” were questions that were answered from Pakistani side – formal as well as informal – differently as follows:



n What do you want in Pakistan? There are no lovely beaches. There is no way you can see the culture - better go to India!

* Oh, you know, you can go there, but have someone at your side, that looks better.

* Be careful on the streets, robbery takes place everywhere. No one is safe these days.

* You know, Westerners are not really wanted in this country.

* You should not rely on the government!

* Never rely on anybody! You cannot trust anyone!

Summarizing my experience during the last 17 days, I can say honestly that all these warnings were not coming true.

Beginning with the invitation and support of Mr. Fawad Hasan Fawad, Commercial Councellor in Frankfurt, who asked under laughter: “What do you think of Pakistan??? For sure you can visit, stay safely and take your notebook. No one will bother you!”

Continuing with the warm and caring as well as respectful introduction to this society by friends of a friend, who are really doing a lot, to show me the sunny side on the one hand, including the nice places to be at, friendly family events, cultural insight as to the Hindu Gymkhana, recently converted to National Academy of Performing Arts, as well as the strong and upright citizens of Tharparkar, the desert district with their surprisingly high capacity of surviving and choosing the life and the colors of life in an intensity, no “civilized” Pakistani or German would believe, as long he or she hasn’t seen and felt with their own heart.

Not forgetting on the other hand, that only Pakistan’s upper 20 percent of the population earns more than two dollars a day, so that it is true and important to keep in mind and awareness, that the other 80 percent, who cannot afford to buy and read these newspapers, as well as they cannot afford to eat proper and balanced food, are living in Pakistan struggling every day for existence. And they manage to survive. And they do it with courage and patience, in the strong belief in Allah, the Almighty.

Yes, it is true that I feel in a way the distrust of Pakistani people at first sight. And that not only towards me as a white skinned person – I do not know, why the white genes were dominant in my case, mostly the darker ones are stronger – also in between society it seems to be widespread to judge the other person from appearance, behavior, dressing, formality usage and other classifying issues.

And for sure, role expectancies do tell every member of society straightforward what he has to do and she should never be doing. That takes the matter of trusting quite far out of the communication field. Maybe in this tradition of keeping up the tradition there lays the issue to explain the hesitations to move? I do not know, I have just expressed some feelings.

Another issue as regards the understanding of my paternal home country lies, with high probability, in the history of this country till the youngest political necessities of adjusting to a newly polarized world system. As it is clear to everyone, Pakistan carries a really heavy burden and position in the world power struggles. Without wanting to go deeper into this matter, I want to express my appreciation of the government that faces all these difficulties and challenges in a surprisingly cool-minded and cooperative manner. From my point of view this makes a respectful world communication more probable and may be for the first time possible.

Talking about the idea of proudly promoting Pakistan in Germany, with Karachiites, the idea seems quite interesting at first sight. But after giving it a second thought, people do not believe that this could be possible. “If you do this promotion for the country successfully, we will talk about it again!” One said. “Who should pay for this?” “Pakistan with its double standards will not be interested in supporting this idea!” Listening carefully to the hesitation, my inner voice and belief do not come to the same conclusion.

So I am going for the proof: Is it true that Pakistan wants to keep up its bad reputation in the rest of the world? Does it remains to be seen as a country that does not welcome ‘strangers’, that does not accept non-Muslims, that is fundamentalist and dangerous? Does it really not see the necessity of spending some money on promoting Pakistan abroad?

Imagine the big challenge and the opportunity for improving its picture abroad. Why can Pakistan not send a truly representative cultural delegation and performers for the celebration of 58th anniversary to Berlin or Cologne? Why not promote itself proudly? I am really not willing to believe this as a last word.



The writer, born in 1967 in Hamburg, Germany, is learning Urdu, trying to bridge the cultures in terms of music, food, understanding of different ways of living, transporting cultural heritage in Germany, planning an event on August 13/14, 2005, in Berlin or Cologne, as well as a cultural center in Cologne with the possibility of hosting guests from Pakistan.