“Ye Bik gayi hai gormint. Gormint mei ab kuch nai hai”.
If you’ve been active on social media in the last week, you have probably come across the video of a middle aged woman, who while giving an interview to a news reporter is seen abusing the Government of Pakistan and saying cuss words at lightning speed- so much so, that it would put Roadies and Bigg Boss contestants to shame.
At the garments shop
Bhaiya ye wali tshirt mai L size hoga?
Nahi sir. Ye bik gayi hai garment.— Md Anas (@Jamaalghota) January 12, 2017
In what can be called the first viral moment of 2017, the video did rounds on social media. People laughed as aunty dropped every swear word that is known to mankind in a short duration of 11 seconds.
In no time, social media users started making memes on the video and circulating them. Some went as far as making an EDM remix of the video where the beat drops each time aunty drops a cuss word.
While people continued sharing memes and poking fun at aunty’s cursing rampage, no one really considered the reasons behind her being this abusive. As more people put on their headphones and watched the video on repeat, the number of likes and shares went up. While we laugh at the video and memes, it’s important that we know the story behind them.
For one, the video is a deleted clip and wasn’t aired on Pakistani television because it isn’t TV friendly (to say the least). The interviewer is a reporter from the news channel Waqt News and is interviewing the civilians about the Pakistani government and it’s deeds of corruption.
Pakistani government is known for being corrupt. In 2014, Pakistan scored 126 out of 174 on the Corruption Perceptions Index published by the Transparency International, it’s previous score being 127 out of 175 in 2013. As the civilians struggle to make ends meet, the corrupt government officials fail to provide basic amenities to the people of Pakistan, despite the taxes.
A Karachi based Quora user gave a horrifying account on a thread of what it’s like to live in Pakistan. The conditions are miserable to say the least, as there is no clean drinking water or power supply:
“There is no power infrastructure in the city that can keep up with the demands of it’s consumers, so the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation resorts to power ‘load-shedding’, or scheduled brownouts for anywhere between six to ten hours a day. So much so that it is common for almost every household in the city to either have a UPS installed along with a small power generator for at least a fan and two three lights to remain operational. Water supply is minimal, and if it comes through, its dirty, undrinkable, and untreated. Local roads are a mess with potholes and open sewer caps and non existent sidewalks and stagnant rainwater or overflowing sewage pipes. Traffic is in gridlock 14 hours of the day. A 1.5 km commute can take upwards of 25 mins depending on where and when you are driving”.
To put things simply, people of Pakistan are suffering at the hands of a corrupt government. They pay heavy taxes and get no facilities in return. The government promises and fails to deliver everytime. Add to it the increase in crime rate and the unreliability of the police and the law and order system, the living conditions are now taking a turn for the worse.
“Mostly everyone I know, my wife included, has been a victim of some form of mugging or kidnapping. It definitely isn’t a safe city. And you constantly have to be wary of people following you home, or making sure the car windows are rolled up and the doors locked, not waiting too long at a red light at night if there’s no traffic etc. These things become second nature to you. They don’t bother you as much. You just learn to not read the news and ignore it”.
The people of Pakistan have become habitual to such living conditions. They are expected to ‘ignore’ it and make peace with it. So, as we troll and ridicule aunty for her emotional (and abusive) outburst, it’s important to understand where all the anger and frustration comes from.
In all probability, the woman who is seen cursing uncontrollably in the video is not the only one who has had it with the Pakistani government. She is not the only one who has suffered because of the deeds of corrupt Pakistani officials. She is the one has refused to suffer in silence.
Her outburst is funny and all of us are guilty of laughing at it. But the reason behind her outburst, is sad and pathetic. Pakistan’s poverty index reveals that 4 out of every 10 Pakistanis are poor. According to the World Bank’s Poverty Head Count Analysis for 2014, if income per adult in Pakistan is taken as $1.25 per day, then 21.04pc of the population lives below the poverty line.
The government has failed to do justice to its people. Each time the elections happen, people get their hopes up of the new governement to do justice to people. Sadly, there’s one corrupt regime after another, each trying to outdo the previous ones in terms of looting the honest civilians.
So while we laugh at the memes and the remix videos, it’s important to know the story behind them. There’s a reason a dignified woman in her 40’s would let loose and hurl cheap and crass abuses at the government. The abusive aunt maybe funny to look at, but the living conditions of the Pakistani citizens are far from funny.
A Pakistani woman prepares food as her child plays on the ground outside their shanty on International Day for Eradication of Poverty at a slum in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Pakistan is facing high poverty rate, with a majority of people living below the poverty line. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
