The wannabe culture in the East where Eastern youth try to adopt the western style.

1st Person: Yo, yo, yo man what the f--ks up? Ya missed a hell of a freakin’ hot party last night!
2nd Person: Oh yeah? Wat the f--k are ya takin about dude?
1st Person: Gosh man! The place was crawlin with guys n gals’ n jamming with music...
2nd Person: Oh, and I thought I’d missed some oath takin’!!! Don’t be such a fag man; parties happen all the time.
In case you are speculating between whom this fascinating yakking took place, let me assure you that it wasn’t Peter or James form UK, nor was it Jeanie and Sue of the USA; rather was Ahmad (also known as: Al) from Multan and Seema (aka: Sam) from Karachi. I’m sure you know them, baggy jeans hanging on the hips, extra large Hilfigure T-shirts, a dopey cigarette in one hand and a definite misplaced accent. The names might not strike a chord but doesn’t the description sound familiar? The guys at the mall? Those girls’ down the block? Maybe the kids’ next door? God forbid the youngsters at home? Or maybe... you???
Excuse the candor but so many people tend fall under this category of ‘wannabes’ that they don’t take it in it until somebody smacks the pie full in their faces. Their accents are asserted to be genuine though they haven’t been abroad for the life of them, the cloths that are three sizes larger makes them look cool, doing dope is the in thing and the mobile is the trademark that says, ‘I aint a nobody!’ For them everything and anything even remotely associated to the west is the greatest.
Like a child is fascinated with a new toy, each fresh experience by the youth seems extraordinary because the young minds are impressionable and easily take fancy. Exposure through the media seems to have played havoc in the balance between the eastern and the western culture. For the young and the illiterate, the west seems like a blissful dream, Milton’s paradise lost. Statistics show that the most watched TV program is Baywatch and action thriller movies are always in demand. Sudden exposure combined with illiteracy have baffled the masses who are now more engrossed in pornography and violence then the plot development or dialogues. Very rarely do western movies now illustrate their elite class and their mannerism, rather the mafia or the uncouth lower/middle class have replaced them. Movies like My Fair Lady and Roman holiday have been substituted by Striptease, M*A*S*H likes have swapped places with programs like Lucy. The young see power as portrayed in the Godfather, glamour as in The Bold and the Beautiful; easy life and sex as in Friends and what is actually a fragment of a writer’s imagination becomes the western reality for them. This made-up image and the boorish side of the west are what the youth of the east have adopted and embody.
The influence is so strong that everything is graded in comparison to western standards that seem to symbolize success. It has been forgotten that it is the east that has been richer in culture. The spiritual aspect of life, music, art, philosophy etc have originated from the east and were adopted by the west. Now that they are a rage there, they are trendier in the east too. I’m by no means saying that western outfits should not be worn and their life styles shunned away, but this that we should have our own individuality and standards. Body piercing that was cast away in the east, as a crude custom is for the most part fashionable once again because all the Hollywood idols flaunt them. Henna designs that were an eastern ritual only for special occasions were seen in a new light after Madonna’s video of Frozen. Eastern designs in cloths are back with flair because the latest western collection has eastern finesse. Even family values that are cherished in the east are now influencing the west that are protesting against old homes claiming that the grandparents place is with their grandchildren and their parents.
Let alone the outlook, even the language has become outrageously vulgar. Accents are neither American nor British and no origin what so ever can be traced, but this that the ‘R’s’ are rolled, the ‘A’s” stretched and the ‘S’s’ slurred. Every greeting starts with a ‘Yo Man!” and every sentence is accompanied with the F word. Wearing jeans and trousers that hang below the waist, caterpillar joggers with untied laces, rumpled up designer T-shirts, deliberate wind-blown hair do not look dignified unless you are imitating their pizza delivery boy. It’s hysterically ironic that our privileged class is imitating the lower western class is such an exaggerated manner the even the west would be flabbergasted!
What’s worst is that while being so hyped up and fervent in catching up with the western standards, the people here seem to have forgotten that we have religious obligation and restrictions. Religion plays a dynamic role in the eastern lifestyle and culture and while being caught up in a race amongst themselves as to prove who is more western, all cares have been tossed to the winds. Getting drunk at parties, experiencing highs through drugs, premarital sex, uncalled for risks, loose morals etc don’t signify that you are independent or the liberated class.
The Sukbbir concert in Islamabad was a reprehensible experience and example, a fashion pageant for the majority of the girls and a place to pick up dates from for the guys. It was disgraceful to see the scandalous behavior and gate crash by the guys and even more the way girls were promiscuously flaunting their bodies through filmy cloths. And it isn’t just the concert but this sight will greet you at every party and gathering in which the elite or the lower classes are caught up.
The fact that we dwell in a global community where interaction is a norm, should in no way cause friction because of cultural set-ups and traditional values as the human mind is the same, only the imprints are different. I believe that the east and the west can merge successfully only if the uniqueness of both sides is sustained and appreciated. The east and the west are only different, not superior or inferior. If the eastern youth don’t realize and go on liberating themselves, we shall head for disaster. Why? Because it is the feeling of belonging that is the source of pride. Lets put it this way our eastern wannabes pretend and pose before their locals that they are not like them, they live in the east and pose as western. Yet if they are brought face to face with a foreigner, suddenly their egos will deflate, caution will replace frenzied overconfidence and the set foreign accents will turn placid. The bottom line is that they claim that they are not eastern yet they are not from the west so are they hanging in the middle of nowhere? Are our youth becoming mutants in our own land? Being alienated from the east and treated as outcastes by the west? It seems beyond their frames of mind that our root and heritage are eastern and we can’t be westernized no matter how liberated and broadminded we become or pose to be.
And just incase you are thick-skinned, allow me to tell you a joke...ah yes, a joke.
Beeves: Say Butthead, let me tell you a joke.
Butthead: Y-y-yeah?
Beeves: There was once a boy called Fahad Stinker Smelly who was very very embarrassed by his name.
Beeves: S-s-so?
Butthead: One morning at roll call the teacher called out “Fahd Stinker Smelly?” And there was no response. So the teacher said, “Fahad I can see you there, why aren’t you answering to your name?
Beeves: A-a-a-and?
Butthead: So Fahd was like, “Because I’ve changed it Miss!”
And the teacher asked, “What to?”
Smiling Fahad answered, “ Bruce Stinker Smelly, Miss!”
Beeves and Butthead: Hahahahahhooooohahahahhoooyukhyyuck
Yuckhohohohoohhahahahha!!!