Some time ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video by an American YouTuber in which he claimed that while in Pakistan, he found it extremely difficult to pay for the stuff that he was buying from the local vendors. Even at the time of watching that video for the first time, I found his claim nigh on impossible to believe. There are at least a couple of reasons for finding his claim unbelievable.
During my mid-to-late teens, which would be in the early 90s, we were living in a city called Jhelum, and that’s where I met a few boys whose families had returned from the UK. I stayed in touch with them even after leaving the city for good in 1996, and during one of the exchanges with them after leaving the city, I got to hear from one of them that as soon as Pakistani vendors become aware of the fact that they have a foreign accent and must be from abroad, they raise their prices, and they start charging extra for their services or goods. I didn’t have any reasons not to believe them back then, and taking into account that most street vendors in Pakistan do not run hugely profitable stalls and shops, I believe that the tales of their deceitful behavior narrated by my school friends seem quite plausible.
The second reason for finding his accounts of the so-called hospitality inaccurate is the general sentiment of a poorly educated, average Pakistani towards the Americans in particular and white people in general. Although I wouldn’t go as far as saying that an average, poorly literate Pakistani harbors deep-seated animosity towards Americans or other white people, what I can say is that these people consider Americans and other white people complicit in the oppression of Palestinian and Kashmiri people. Taking into account their prevailing sentiment towards American and white people, I simply cannot accept that they would be willing to hand out stuff to these white foreigners for free.
Based on whatsoever I have seen in his video, the only conclusion I can draw is that as soon as Pakistani vendors become aware of the fact that they are being recorded, they ditch their usual practice of fleecing the tourists and instead start offering goods for free. If these travelers have not seen such behavior anywhere else, then what I can conclude is that Pakistani vendors excel at hypocrisy and painting a false picture of their hospitality. My advice to any foreigners planning to visit Pakistan would be to watch these videos with extreme skepticism and not to expect any freebies while you’re touring Pakistan, unless, of course, you are capturing your exchanges with these vendors on camera. Apparently, the presence of a camera can do wonders for the visitors’ bottom lines in Pakistan.
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