I’ve been thinking about this for the last few days and thought I’d put my thoughts on paper/web. A few weeks ago, the cricket world cup was on, people were anticipating the biggest match of the tournament when India was about to play Pakistan. Of course, there isnt any India Pakistan game without some controversy. Many people talked about the close lbw decision that was overturned against Tendulkar. People posted videos from Youtube that showed how the decision video was doctored. As soon as I saw the videos, I thought to myself, what typical Pakistani thinking.
During my recent visit to Pakistan, there were many times that I had discussions with people about one conspiracy after the other. The fact that the three cricketers that were banned because of corruption and taking money for spot fixing, were in fact banned because the world knows that they were a big threat to win the world cup....people refused to believe that they were ACTUALLY corrupt.
Its very common in Pakistan, you can walk to anyone on the street and they will tell you that the IMF has a conspiracy against us and they want to control us by giving us loans, not the fact that the country will go bankrupt without them. They will tell you that the Americans and the western world want to take the nuclear weapons and ultimately destroy Pakistan by aiding the Taliban, not the fact that there are thousands of crazies wanting to blow stuff and killing people.
It’s interesting that when I was growing up, I was told these conspiracies all the time as well. Things like, Waqar Younis the best bowler in the world didn’t play in the 92 world cup because Imran Khan didn’t want him to, not because he had a serious back injury. That iodine was being added to all salt because the ‘powers that be’ want to control our population and want to use this to make men impotent! I can go on and on and new ones keep coming up even sitting so far away from home.
One of the most ludicrous ones I’ve heard is that the young generations of Pakistan shouldn’t play network games like Counter Strike, because the computers connect to servers in the Pentagon where the US military is monitoring war strategies. The Pakistani young people who play the game are so talented; the US military want to copy war strategies.
It all comes down to this. Pakistanis think they’re special. I know this is a sweeping statement and there will always be exceptions to this rule, but generally this is the case. We always think we know better and are on to the other person’s devious plots. We would rather sit and talk about how the other person has a vendetta against us than to take action and do something about our situation.
I’ve always wondered why this has been the case. I don’t experience this living in a western country and haven’t heard people talking about conspiracy theories in day to day conversations. You do have some from time to time but not like this.
I don’t expect it to go anywhere from the households and conversations of Pakistanis. Maybe, living in a western country the thinking changes? Although, I have seen examples of Pakistanis living overseas who have the exact same point of view.
I’m not quite sure about why this is the case but just something that frustrates me when talking to other people of Pakistani origin who have this thinking.
There...I’ve said it!
