Perspective

"It's really sad," said Humair of the state of affairs in Karachi: of the lifestyles of people living here earning measly salaries and wages, of the roads so broken and littered with filth and the shops so rundown and ill maintained. Last time we were here was hardly 6-7 months ago, back in February when we visited from the States and I don't recall feeling so dismal about life here. But this time somehow it seems to rub in more. It hit us quite unexpectedly, since this time were actually quite relieved to get away from Cairo and come home to Pakistan. Moreover, one would have thought that we would have found Karachi pitiable coming from the States considering we had a much cleaner and more organised culture to compare it to, ... and yet, oddly enough, we never really did. So why this sudden sting.. this sudden realization on this trip? It doesn't make sense.

Cairo is more like Karachi... more like a third world city, boiling over with more cars than it's roads can handle, more buildings per square inch than should be legal and more dust and grime than... well... just a lot of dust and grime. The contrast between Karachi and Cairo is less stark and yet it seems to accentuate the difficulties in lifestyle here more than ever. It's a phenomenon that I've been trying to comprehend, and now that Humair has left for Cairo and I'm here in his parents' house with plenty of time on my own, I thought, sifting through dusty closets that haven't been opened in 10 years (at least) searching for space for stuff that came out of our 20 ft container, somewhere I might be able to find some logic to explain this.

Don't get me wrong, we don't think Karachi, or Pakistan for that matter is a sad place to be. But people who live here do experience a difficult lifestyle. The work hours are much longer and wages much lesser, the cost of living is rising seemingly with every breath, the traffic is horrendous, roads have huge craters, and trash is everywhere. This is a third world country after all so what do you expect? Coming from the States, we seemed to think that Karachi had otherwise done quite well for itself and all of this was part of being a member of the third world.

But then we went to Cairo... also a third world country and living in Cairo took it's own getting used to, despite still receiving an expat salary and expat benefits. There is no doubt that life for local Egyptians is very hard. The cost of living has been driven sky high by the influx of expats in recent years and although the country must make beaucoup from all the tourism attracted by those five thousand year old Pyramids and mummies, there's no sign of that money anywhere. Perhaps the only thing better about Egypt compared to even the US is that the cost of petrol remains pretty low. But there's nothing more to rave about. Shopping wise, Karachi and Lahore seem to offer more than all of Cairo, unless you want to pay US prices for egyptian made items. So then why, after living in Cairo, does Karachi make us so sad? Perhaps because Cairo, as crowded as its roads are, as small and old as it's airport is considering the amount of air traffic that goes through it and God knows the air is filled with more dirt and dust than the air here in Karachi, life doesn't seem as dismal for the locals. The roads somehow manage to remain clean, and rarely do you come across a ditch in the road. Even people in the really really low income bracket can own a home of their own, albiet one that may be a hole in the wall with barely any plumbing and could fall over within the next five years, but everyone can afford a roof over their head. Here at home, we see relatives who work twelve hours a day, six... sometimes seven days a week, and still barely make enough to make ends meet. They can't even dream of having their own place just yet. They're lucky if they can pay their share of household bills in the home they share with their parents and possibly other married siblings.

Perhaps because we were expecting Karachi to be the same as if not better than Cairo, did the differences become more apparent. Things are definitely getting better and perhaps have gotten better since our last visit. It was just odd the way it struck us coming from a third world country and it didn't when we came from the first world.