A Red Stain on our Cultural Integrity

A Red Stain on our Cultural Integrity

It seems as if the time has come for the Pakistani youth to be reminded of the simple yet appropriate pleasure offered by the water balloon. It just so happens that weve found a rather unorthodox substitute in the form of the tomato. But we cant take all the credit for this, or any credit for that matter, as the idea has been copied from Spains annual tomato fight festival, La Tomatina. For a country such as Spain with its own traditions and culture, not to mention a far superior economic situation than ours, we might let such frivolities slide. However, when I came to know that the same festival was going to be simulated in Lahore this Saturday as La Tomatina Lahore, I felt that this has to be where we as a society draw a line on how much we are willing to try and imitate cultures other than our own. The fact of the matter is, that in a country such as ours that is mired in poverty, we have to realize that we have to prioritize. When 60% of the population is living below the poverty line, we simply cant afford such whims as deriving entertainment from pelting each other with a food commodity. If this event actually does take place, it would not just be the wastage of a valuable food resource, but the very fact that tomatoes are currently among the priciest of goods in your average sabzi mandi would be a slap in the face of any underprivileged onlooker. You would be telling him/her that you have the power of not just affording but also wasting an item that costs more than half of his daily wage. Although we have today become immune to the feelings and suffering of the poor, we would only have to take one look out of our air conditioned cars to realize that this is not the place to be wasting resources, let alone one as essential as food. There are people who spend their days working hard for their mere survival under the blistering sun, homeless families desperate to find nourishment and children alienated of their right to an education for having to work for their families subsistence. In this scenario, there is just no room for a rambunctious crowd of elite class youth spending a 1000 rupees for six hours in which they will mindlessly pelt each other with tomatoes, apathetic towards the multitude of their own countrymen who will be spending that night on an empty stomach. An event that is taking place on such a large scale, attracting the attention of more than 2700 people on Facebook, would warrant an extremely large consignment of tomatoes. I had a small conversation with Khaqan Shahnawaz, a freshman at UCL who is one of the organizers of the event, in which he assured me that tomatoes will be given in excess and at no point during the event will there be any lack of tomatoes. At the end of the day we simply have to ask ourselves whether there is such a huge dearth of entertainment that we can justify such extravagance, and justify the extent to which we are imitating foreign cultures rather than promoting our own. Although it was culturally unwarranted, but the case was different when a simulation of Halloween took place in Lahore last year. A Halloween party would not have raised the direct questions in the mind of the poor that will be raised if an event like La Tomatina Lahore is allowed to take place. The thoughts and emotions that such an event will trigger in the general populace will be enough to widen the disparity that already exists in our society between the elite and the less privileged. Such disparity is detrimental to national unity. Growing up as part of the current generation has forced me to realize that if we dont act fast, we as a nation will lose our cultural identity. Our English medium education conveyor belt is producing a brand
new line of Pakistanis who are inept at reading the national language fluently. National spirit peaks exclusively on national holidays, only to fade away for the remainder of the year; and after completely negating our culture we strive to emulate completely foreign cultures. This latest example of la Tomatina, takes this issue to an entirely new level, one which implies a further broadening of the gaps in our society while simultaneously undermining our cultural integrity.

Uploaded by

Uploaded by

A Red Stain on our Cultural Integrity

You might also like