Islamabad 90210: The Kids Are Alright
This looks great, I have to admit. While it doesn’t show all of Pakistan, obviously, it does show the thin sliver of the elite in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It’s a part of the country that’s most accessible to Westerners, as the kids speak English, are often educated in the West and share a lot of cultural assumptions.
This is not the entirety of Pakistan, however, and it will raise a number of hackles among Pakistanis who resent the portrayal of a Westernized subculture as somehow indicative of their country. Pakistanis are proud and prickly over national sovereignty, and anything that presents them as less than authentically Pakistani (whatever that may be) is sure to come under fire. This film is going to draw a lot of criticism.
And while it’s impossible to judge from a short trailer, perhaps a bit of criticism is OK. Pakistanis need to have a dialogue about what they want their country to be: a state for Muslims or an Islamic state. If it’s the former, then kids like those portrayed in “Slackistan” will be just as much a part of it as the madrassa students who want a religious-based education. (Which, I should add, doesn’t make them a threat. It just makes them religious.) If it chooses a different path, the Westernized elite of Islamabad—usually the best and the brightest of the country—will continue their exodus and Pakistan will fall further and further behind in the world.
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I’m glad you shared this, but a film about bored rich slackers isn’t any more interesting about Pakistan than the U.S. Every nation has this slice of wealth; I’d be interested only in knowing what, if anything — other than fleeing to the West — the wealthy are trying to do to effect political or economic change in Pakistan.
What relationship, if any, does this wealthy elite have to the poverty and fundamentalism of the insurgents?
Well, that’s the interesting bit. A group of these “bored rich” kids this summer set up a conference for Swat school girls to try to help them prepare for returning after the Army reopened the schools.
http://www.shajareilm.org/
Is it a trend? I don’t know, but Shaj-e-Ilm is a step in the right direction in a growing sense of social responsibility from some of these kids.
In response to another comment. See in context »well the elite shown in this movie represents 10% of the country but the people who CNN and bbc show daily as the true representation of the country are actually less then 2% of the country….
In response to another comment. See in context »the actual 88% population of the country is never shown in movies or the news!!!!!
we are against the modern extremists as well as these terrorists!!!