My term paper on ‘Old Man and the Sea’

Hi everyone. Since all my grades are up for these subjects, I would like to post them here. These were all last-minute, sped up, desperate attempts to actually something good enough to be a term paper. I don’t feel like this is my best work, but hopefully my final thesis will be the best out of the whole class, and the most insightful thesis that the university has ever seen.

I’m going to turn heads and get awards just for that thesis. And make my family proud.

Plus please give me suggestions, critic and improvements tips.

 

 

 

 

American Novel (Term Paper)

The Old Man and the Sea

 

Name: Maheen Ahmed

Major: English Literature

 

Without a win: Tracing Nihilistic undertones and denial of failure within the

The overtones of positive Existentialism in ‘The Old Man and the Sea’

 

 

Introduction

‘The Old Man and the Sea’, is what projected Hemingway as a literary and masculine legend. It is a tale about an otherwise pathetic and insignificant sailor who has been unable to catch any fish but is determined to oppose the forces of nature, fulfill his hunting ambitions therefore becoming almost a biblical allegory for the defiant, heroic, ideal man who is be held as an example for positivity and greatness. It is under the consideration of several critics as a Moby-Dick adaption of ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, because it lives up to the ideals of existentialism for fighting and opposing meaninglessness.

This research paper looks to question those ideas of the novel reinforcing these notions, and instead focuses on the inversion of these philosophical concepts, which is apparent in Nihilism.

 

 

Literature Review

 

Existentialism and further branches of its theories have been applied to ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, and on its own the novel is a reflection of the life philosophy that Earnest Hemingway held important for young men, and people of grand ambition. He wrote the novel during a time in his career when he had a likeness to the protagonist of the story, and in its inception became a literary hero. The story has mythical, historical, social and political and of course existential traits, and readers and researchers have been able to see and feel different aspects of the uplifting mentality that people can defeat nature.

The majority of the research done on the novel, regarding existentialism has been conducted to agree with Hemingway’s sentiments. In that they are able to relate with and assure all the notions of being the ‘Supreme Being’ who has strength, in without loss, and is able to defy human needs for greatness.

In ‘Man’s Interaction with Himself in The Old Man and the Sea with a view of Existentialism’, the researcher points out the narrative of how the old man is able to transcend his woes and his condition, by focusing of Sarte’s ideas of being, which insists that man is responsible for everything that is capable of happening to him.

In ‘Navigating the Absurd: Camus, Hemingway, and the Sea’ by Stephanie, the essay talks about the likeness between Sisyphus and Santiago, reinforcing and recognizing a lack of ‘Bad Faith’ in the novel, and insisting that there is no ill will within the protagonist and how the novel is a tale of confrontation and slaying the inner dragon.

To continue the string of existential analysis papers, is Dwight Eddins paper, ‘Of Rocks and Marlin’, he literates that the negation of Santiago’s efforts being destroyed and hurt, and his remaining dignified is makes him an ‘island of human dignity’.

Lastly a research paper titled ‘Existence of Human being as reflected in Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ novel – an existential approach’, there is a discussion about the three levels of existential places of human existence, namely, ‘aesthetical, ethical and religious’ and how one may find of pin point them within the themes and characters in the novel.

Thus to conclude that the majority of work has been done on the positive side of the existential crisis, and there was rarely a mention of Nihilism. Nihilism is a the belief that there is no point in anything and that life is meaningless, and the aim of this paper is to see and find an argument that the novel and narrative need not be as hopeful as it has always been seen and analyzed.

This paper will trace out points that don’t agree with the philosophy of the previous research papers, and will not imagine Santiago happy.

 

 

 

 

Discussion and Analysis

 

‘The Old Man and the Sea’, starts at the failure of a sailor, who in the progression of the novel seems to have undergone a personal development or at least as a man who has proven himself and his worth to the reader and to the one boy he wishes to bond with, which would have one believe that this is a positive and inspirational tale, of a man beyond limits and reality. But then is that realistically how greatness is measured with the context of the time, and is this mindless will to capture and destroy the natural world really an image of spiritual and emotional transcendence.

The ‘Nothingness’ and ‘Meaninglessness’ of the character’s pathetic and hopeless existence is in his state in the novel, which is that of a low-class laborer, more a commodity to a consumerist society. He is described as poor, unlucky, old, alone, on welfare, unable to move on, and is fixated on a younger sailor who he himself fears to bring down with his bad luck. So the overall tone and mode around his is not of anything fulfilling on any level, he is without dignity, love and security all of which would suggest that he has very little to believe in and live for. So this grand heroic journey does not spring from self-determinism but from having nothing to live for or having something to ground him to the land, and put his life and health on the line. It would also explain his stubborn fixation with Manolin, whom he sees him own youth in, and is mentally obsessed with because he is one of the few people who actually cares for him, and he fears losing him. Therefore Santiago does not have any clear compass to self-worth but is doing his antics as an act of desperation and need.

 

“No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

 

To compare Santiago with Jake from ‘The Sun Also Rises’, and with Hemingway himself, we notice an obsession and compulsion towards exerting manliness and an attraction towards stereotypically, manly ideals and a battle between different personas of men, and they Santiago would come under the category of the strong man who is not easy to control or defeat. But then why is this theme so consistent and one-sided. It can be argued that the reason all these male-centric characters are like this is because in face of some failures, they are trying to heavily compensate for something by acting out and using physical strength, instead of something material or societal to boost their egos. Santiago goes on this hunt because the people have provided him with a complex about not being able to catch fish. This can be related with how Jake has no issue with the woman he loves being with other younger men because he realizes that he lacks the ability to fully commit to a romantic relationship with her, and to the expense of his feelings and health he makes her wishes come true. So for both men their activity is derived out of insecurities and not some ideal of being a strong human, as Albert Camus would have the Greek heroes, who defied the gods. This realization steals the essence or impact of all the positive and idealistic thoughts of the sad sailor, it adds a bitter almost delusional taste to his thought like,

 

Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with that there is”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

 

Santiago can also be seen as someone who is in ‘denial’ of a lot of painful things, and depleting situations that he is in. The character is ashamed and bothered that he has been taken care of and have to take food from others just to survive. This hunt for the Marlin, therefore is a mid-life crisis and he trying to prove something to the world and to society at the expense of nature and not for the greater good of mankind, like Sisyphus who took the torture head on and also Prometheus. Santiago is in ‘denial’ of the fact that he must take care of himself, and that perhaps there is nothing wrong with being taken care of , he fears being powerless and out-of-control so controlling nature is symbolic of going against nature and aging itself. He is unable to accept this reality, so his mind and actions defend his psyche by bringing him to a near death situation, just to protect him from realizing that he has lost his youth, which would leave him to active pessimism. But he still has those dreams of the ‘Lions’, ‘White beaches’ and ‘Africa’, all of which he saw in his youth.

 

One major factor of Humanism and Existentialism is ‘Self-Actualization’ and being self –aware of one’s weakness and wanting to ‘Be’ and be better. But Santiago does not really change throughout the novel, his character does change or grow as much as the surroundings or the boy when he sees his hurt hands, and beyond that one must consider that Santiago is a senior citizen and as the saying goes, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, so there is little possibility for change, development or having a positive view which is free of the horror and visualization of a Nihilistic ideals and reality.

Even in the way he views the natural world, he is continuously ‘projecting’ his internal hopes and calamities on to the animals, water and solar bodies. The natural world is not inspiring change, developmental or decency in him it is instead fueling his ‘passive nihilism’.

 

“It is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

 

Further on his need to destroy things and kill things like a noble savage, is reminiscent of what Nietzsche believed of the meaningless soul. To him, the building up of a lack of morality makes men more destructive and feel a need  to capture or work without any consequences, but it is this destruction of all things that allows there a space for new life and change and innovative creation. So his killing of the fish is what sparks the climax and end of the personal guilt, he is released of his fire, but that does not mean that he has found himself or undergone anything spiritual, his duality is centered in animatistic and survival. And such environments for not ideal  for bringing something better to the table, Santiago would after killing the fish would be left with a feeling of the same nothingness, only now he will need to hunt more to feel that drive and high again.

 

Where most critics and theoretical papers see his battle and unwillingness to lose as authenticity and adversity, but based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Santiago is not in a position to work or act outside of paranoia and hunger and fear. His deprivation does not allow him to think or act well or in his senses. His being pulled into the sea by the strong fish is just a display of how powerless he is nature and the natural, but his insecurities and nihilistic existence is what compels him to hold on. Had he been living life to a certain standard he would not have anything to prove, and if had something to live for and something to channel his energy towards this destructive behavior would be unheard of, as happy, fulfilled people do not feel the need to move or change.

 

“My big fish must be somewhere.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

 

It is also significant to the idea of Nihilism that even with all his work and effort, by the end the sharks are able to destroy and eat away the Marlin, and this time he is unable to defy nature or be a grand human-being, and maybe this inability to change reality is what leads these absurdist heroes to be so strong in the face of defeat, is it enough for them that they tried? Or is this just their way of dealing with the loss and defeat, Santiago wanted that fish, he wanted and needed the big fish, so his eventual loss, might again just be ‘denial’ working to protect his feelings where his body and existence is broken.

 

To provide a counter argument one may agree with every previous paper on the matter and see the base level analysis of how determined and self-reliant Santiago is, he does give his all and his thoughts provide an air of magical realism which is kind of the masculine energy most male heroes are loved for, and it almost inspires the readers to actually want him to win, even if he fails in his own mind. Besides this protagonist and narrative is riddled with biblical references and allegories, so philosophy and science is secondary, as he is like a Christ like figure who wins in his defeat, and it was the journey and not the goal that strengthens him and his character. His pessimism is not as great or powerful an image as the blood on his hands, and that the boy is able to recognize his sacrifice, leaving the story as actually hopeful and inspiring.

 

Conclusion

To conclude it is just a point a perspective and actual analysis to be able to recognize the nihilistic discourse within the text, but that does not cancel or overturn the previous Existential research about the story. But to be able to see the story and character and struggle in its entirety is what will help further the research and understanding of a work of literature that embodies the human struggle either ethical or insane.

 

 

References:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/69741-the-old-man-and-the-sea?page=3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea

http://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/574263bf71952.pdf

https://stanfordfreedomproject.com/multi-media-essays-on-freedom/navigating-the-absurd-camus-hemingway-and-the-sea/

https://www.iep.utm.edu/nihilism/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236749230_Of_Rocks_and_Marlin_The_Existentialist_Agon_in_Camus’s_The_Myth_of_Sisyphus_and_Hemingway’s_The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea

https://academyofideas.com/2012/11/active-and-passive-nihilism/

http://eprints.ums.ac.id/50601/14/PUBLICATION%20ARTICLE.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/goswamigayatri/existentialism-in-the-old-man-and-the-sea-40214880

 

 

 

Watch “BJ Saqid ( Author) Interview” on YouTube

So as I was walking around with my friend Mina, so sort of came across a book launch for a book about Imran Khan.

BJ Saqid was the author, and he seemed like a very nice man, and he was polite enough to answer all of our questions regarding his book and his beliefs about the subject.

He also mentioned that he will be working on more publications, and we can’t wait to see them.

Please follow my YouTube channel.

I’ll be posting there more often.

“Calcium” from the “Nothing Happened” collection

Hi everyone.

I hope everyone is doing fine and is reading well, this is the first story from a collection idea I had in my head for a while. I am personally very happy with the concept and after I finish the set here, I might have them published through Daastan.

Wish me luck.

Hamza was ready for college, and he had everything that he needed to be ready.He  awake before everyone, had all his equipment packed tight in the back of the car, sitting and waiting in the front seat of the car with his head lightly leaned back ,his eyes closed.

Slow as the morning he was in, he always took the time to feel the stillness around, and realize that in order to get things going he had to do something.

Slowly opening his eyes, he held up his wrist to his face and sighed gently, he had to move quick. Without moving much, he placed his palm on the horn, and left it there. The sound caught the attention of the two German shepherds in the front yard  tied to a tree. It also caught the attention of everyone inside the house, since the noise of the horn brought the feeling of a quickness in his atmosphere. He sensed the change, and without uttering a sound did a countdown.

” One…Two…Three” he counted with a small smile.

“Don’t leave me behind! ” a girl ran clumsily out of the large doors of the house, carrying too many shopping bags and with her short hair dripping wet.

” Hurry” Hamza took pressure of the horn as she with a sudden step sat in the back of the car ” Or I might just leave you for good”.

She sighed catching her breath ” You always say that, but you never do”

” What a tragedy” he drove back into the road with focused eyes ” What a shame”.

She almost laughed, but said instead looking outside the window, squeezing her hair ” There is no shame. There is no decency”.

Hamza, her brother, stopped at the red light while no other cars were at the crossing,

” There is no problem”.

---

 Hamza, rubbed a blue tissue over forehead, and felt the hot wetness of his sweat hit his fingers. Summer was having her moment, and it would be worse in class, with 30 other boys, stuffed in a room, calculating.

But he wasn’t in the class room yet, he was  in the college ground, waiting for the others to show up. They had to train early, before anyone else, like all sports kids would. The boy was no stranger to being awake, and he was no stranger to being alone, and being still in that moment, taking in the momentum. The wind picked up as stood there at the center, and it blew the blue tissue right out of hand and onto the pale green grass.

He followed its movement until it hit a pair of white shoes. Looking up from there, he smiled ” Aren’t we early?”

” No” his friend and class-fellow walked towards him ” I’d say we missed the whole thing. Maybe we should go to class instead”.

” Really Haider? “

“No” Hiader insisted like a taunt almost ” Throw education”.

” Still mad about losing yesterday?” Hamza tried not to match his tone. Which only made Haider laugh out more.

” A win is a win – even if it’s a loss”

” That’s right” Hamza replied with no truth, only formality.

---

The boy lowered his head into the sink, he pulled the tap and let the cool water hit the back of his head. His classes had just ended, and he played well, and was time to go home where he could have a proper bath.

The water felt nice against his face, as it dripped down from his hair and into the sink. Oddly enough the heat got to him today, he never had to worry about anything before.Today his breath came uneasy and his legs felt heavy, something he felt for a while, but ignored.

He was his best, when he was on the field, and was his worst, when doing nothing. Football was what he almost what he lived for, it was a part of life for the past twelve years, and as far-fetched  as it felt to him, he wanted the game to be his goal in life. He wanted the world’s stage, all those eyes to be on him, but only during his glory, only during those long moments when he cared for nothing and moved like a snake.

He was driven, and ambitious to have it all, and everyone knew it only when he let the desire come through. The talent that he built with hours and hours under the golden sun , perfecting his vision. Balancing his movements and controlling his speed and senses in a way, the normal boys, even the ones who played well could not do. A force of nature almost which the very few can embody, and he embodied it well, and everyone saw it at once when it was there. It was there today, as he kicked the ball through all the other boys, as their faces faded from his vision, and the sounds around him went deaf to the blood in him, and he running hard, felt as  if time did not .

Then why, with all these advantages, today, had the sun almost sting his eyes? Was he…

” Still not home?” Bilal opened the door of the washroom, with a football under his arm.

” Does it look like I am?” Hamza turned the tap, and looked up at his wet face in the mirror . He felt better with the water falling down his spine and chest.

Bilal shook his head ” You’re the first to come and the last to leave”

” Is that a bad thing? “

“Hmm” Bilal walked away, and his friend followed ” What do you have planned outside of football for your future? “

“There’s always the family business” Hamza answered ” The milk business”

” Yeah. That’s good money. It’s nice to know that some of us are secure for the future”

The boys stopped and nodded good-bye to each other, and Hamza drove the hour-long journey back home.

---

Milk. Milk is where the family fortune came from and lived on, on the backs and bellies or thousands of desi and a couple of foreign cows. And it wasn’t just milk that they had to sell to the country, but everything that came with milk, like cream, paneer, ghee and butter. The only thing left was ice cream, and that would soon join the production list, which made his sister excited for free ice cream, even if it wasn’t from her favorite kind- she’d still eat it.

Such a grand substance to harvest it was – Milk, the noor of God. The first thing we have after honey in this world. The very fuel to our blood, and one of the many rivers of heaven.

Hamza spent many hours at the factories, and quickly got to  know how to run a company. He could do it right now if he wanted to, join his father and take it for himself. Sports does that to people, they feel like they can go after anything, because they know how to invest time and energy towards that goal.

But in all sincerity, all he wanted was to be play football, and win.

---

“Beta” his father up from the couch and hugged him, ” I’ve been waiting for you all day. Why did you take this much time?”

” I have a late class on Thursday. You know that” He moved back and called out to the maid to get him some water.

It was easy for him to talk to his rather old father, who was short and had bright red cheeks. Hamza thought that made him the ideal person to own a dairy products franchise, but he also thought of his father unfit for the business world.

“You’ve been exercising , have some milk instead. It’s best for you”   his cheerful and pink-cheeked father insisted and then yelled out to the maid.

And so she brought both in a tray ” You do not have to yell for me If I am in the other room” She said annoyed.

“Where’s Maa?” Hamza asked taking the tray , drinking the water in one gulp.

“In the other room. And you should sit down when you drink water”

Hamza shook his head, and walked up into his room, ” No use repenting over swallowed water” he grinned, ” Let her know I’m home”.

---

He woke at midnight, when the whole city was sleeping, and the house along with it. He saw the cream glass of milk sitting untouched on his right, on the tip of the side table as if it was about to fall.

He couldn’t drink it anymore. Getting up from his bed still in his uniforms and shoes, he picked the glass up and walked towards the bathroom. He flicked the white light on in his largely blue bathroom and tipped the milk over and watched it flow down into the sink.

As soon as the glass was empty, he opened the tap and washed the traces of the milk away, even if the smell stayed there.

” No use crying over flushed milk either” Hamza said to himself as he turned the lights out.

---

Most of our time is spent talking about politics, work, money and finally dreams. Hamza could not think about any other thing in the world that was worth mentioning at social gatherings and he felt best at ease on the field with his friends.

They discussed the political state of Pakistan and about how much better it would be if the common man knew how to stand up for himself. They talked about education and corruption in all areas of the world, and not to mention the oppression that plagued certain parts of the world. If nothing else we were not one of them. At some point they  thought about creating a secret society that worked to protect the working class from imperialism.

All of this was discussed in between practice and games, with Hamza listening as he flexed and worked his body down to the bone, up to the muscle and till his blood  was ready to boil. Leaving him out of breath and sleepy, so as Haider and Bilal worried about the elections, Hamza was out cold on the park, under the summer sun.

But with all the love he had for his friends, family and country, he couldn’t help but feel he didn’t know what he felt about anything beyond them.

Which is common of a boy , that does not see past what they want to see.Leaving so much out there a mystery.

---

Hamza came down from his room after a long bath, rubbing a towel on his head . His sister and mother were just leaving to go shopping for the new born in the family.

” Hamza” his mother placed a hand on his forehead ” Stay home, and try not to play today. You’ve been over working. Watch some TV instead.”

” No one won anything by watching television Mama ” He sat down on the couch and held the remote.

” That’s a good son”

” Bye Bhai” his sister yelled.

” Bye Amna” He yelled back.

---

He switched the news on, even If he liked them the least . You rarely heard any good news anymore,and you’d end feeling sick to your stomach. Mostly poor people with nothing to save them, that, or some disaster that came out of no where. The media had to make it worse by adding dramatic music, as if it was some movie.

The news is not a movie.

” Ayesha Mumtaz” he heard the host say. She was the new hero of our time, a woman who did her job.

She went around exposing all the diseased fake food people were eating in five-star restaurants. She shut everything down, even if the public would still spend a fortune for their early death.

He liked her,but then he suddenly took more attention to the screen. But it was bittersweet, he was glad someone cared about food , but sick that the situation was this bad to begin with.

They were investigating the production of fake milk.

Fake milk made from enzymes, glucose and surf , mixed and bleached to look the real thing. All being made in a dirty abandoned factory where no one would want their food to come from.

Hamza felt his stomach go stiff, and his head struck with a hollow pain. He stood straight up baffled and outraged, knowing that hundreds of people were probably poisoned with this. Then it made him wonder why would someone do such a thing, did it never come across their minds that they could kill people.

How were these people smart enough to use detergent to make milk, but not enough to see that it was poison. And what about shame?

The city was sick on dead donkeys and surf. With chemical extract coke and rotten vegetables and silicone filled chickens.

“What a waste of intelligence! ” he held his face ” Why is this happening? “

---

When his family came back, Hamza went straight to his father and told him what he saw on the news. No matter how much his father assured him nothing like that happened in their own factories, the boy wanted some kind of  record confirmation.

He wanted to go there and see for himself. He had to be there, to be sure, and only then would his mind be clean of what he say, but no one could take him seriously .

“What makes you think all this packaged foreign food is poisoned to? ” Amna stated with an innocent face. She just didn’t see what the big deal was with her brother this time.

“How can you be so clam about this? This could seriously damage the health of millions” Hamza shot back.

“It’s not new Hamza”

This was such a sudden change.

He did not sleep that night and whenever he closed his eyes he saw visions of sickness and of blood in his milk. His dream was full of red apples and as he touched them, they would crumble into sand.

He grew pale and weak that night.

---

The  sun burned  hard the next day , and Hamza was sweating in the field with the others.

The sky was a bright canvas of white and heat was bad enough that you they saw vapor all around them, but strangely Hamza  felt as if none of that mattered.The boy needed a distraction and he needed to train.

Bilal and Haider were right there,playing against him, all of them glistening in the sweat, dust and heat of the bull of summer. They fought each other for what seemed to be a battered up ball, something almost broken by fearless feet and unforgiving legs against the dirt and sand of the field.

Hamza had been playing like he always did, he was unaware of the strain on his body, and what suffering he brought onto himself, he ignored. He was ignoring now as he ran towards the goal keeper, flying through the flames, until suddenly time hit him again.

Inches away from winning he hit the ground and fell face front into the snow and down the hole.

“Hamza!” both of his friends yelled.

---

“Hamza?” a new voice called out, ” Are you awake yet”

He opened his eyes slowly to see a man with glasses in a white jacket, looking down at him.

” What happened?”

“You fainted” the doctor sat down ” Right out of no where”

“Am I sick ?”

“You have a calcium deficiency” the doctor looked through some papers and wrote something down in terrible writing.

“What?” Hamza snapped up, “That cant happen.I own milk factories, I am not the kind of people who should have deficiencies. I have everything”

The doctor said nothing

“It’s impossible” Hamza laid  back and covered his eyes with his arm ” It’s not fair”

” You can have all the milk in the world, but it won’t help unless you actually drink it”

“It’s impossible” Hamza thought to himself ” What a waste of resources”.

Hayat Achakzai- The New face of Ufone, and his Importance.

Hi everyone. Hope all you have been having a good this new year, which has been a politically dipped in hot controversy.

Okay. Now to the point.

Earlier this week I wasted at a cozy little event, which was hosted by Ufone. They invited a few bloggers from Lahore to have an exclusive look at their new TVC, which is a marketing shift from their usual funny,poetic,satirical and well waited ads. I personally and almost everyone I know love the originality and well worded shade of the Ufone ads.

They have always been the big deal, because they look good, the spend money where they have to, they allow the comic genius of the actors to pop out and the dialogues, which immediately become widespread and iconic.

Like that “Teri Meharbani” and of course ” Thank you , same to you”. The latter being a jab our favourite actress Meera.

So Ufone isn’t just a phone company that provides communication services but it also fuels a good amount of our daily chats and pop culture, and here they are turning themselves in a new direction. They want to with class shift from light-hearted comedy to something more inspirational, uplifting, serious and wonderful.

 

And in all honesty they did not disappoint me, or the other bloggers present at the event. We watched the ad like ten times without getting tired of it.

Their brand new brand ambassador is an amazing boxer, who has won several matches and presented Pakistan all over the world, and he is from Quetta originally, is married with children and has a job at present. He also says that he would like to continue  to compete and has his hopes up for one in Iran.

 

And to me I think he is a gentle person, which is wonderful to see in sportsman, and he was humble and… I don’t know how to say it. I would describe him as a person who does more and speaks less and does what wants to without with all his dedication and potential . I am not an expert when it comes to sports, but I do believe that stories like these are able to pull through the different fabrics of life and inspire people, to follow their dreams. It shows them that, this person did it, he comes from the people as I do, and despite everything that was in his way, he pulled through and got his dream. He worked hard, gave love and time to his passion and got what he wanted and claimed his blessing .

And this is something we need to see more on tv, which is why I love their ad. It shows him in his own culture, so he comes of as comfortable and it involves his job, home,kids and clips of him practicing also, so overall, it was well-directed. But it also pays due credit to the hard work Mr Achakzai puts into boxing. Mind you most of our athletes get through their professional careers not getting any air time or sponsorship when the media, big businesses and the government . They excel by spending their own money , and of course people who love what they do, don’t care for validation from other people, but that does not mean the people should not support them. These sports-persons and teams deserve the people support,love and backing both in our country and out of our country.

But surprisingly, we have had to see several of our athletes come out and put the government,corporations, and society on blast for nothing treating them with the same respect as   our national Cricket team. And I don’t blame them for that, these non cricket associated athletes do everything on their own dime, at many times get no pay and they win, which I can’t really say about our cricket team.  And that is just a financial and record fact if you compare our male cricket team and compare it with our female cricket team, and the hockey team, and the special cricket team and our Mr universe winner. The numbers and situations do not lie, we have our cricket team on a pedestal and the others in a gutter, and it’s not we have the other in the gutter at the expense of the cricket team, I am not blaming them. What I mean is that we can have all of them on a pay roll and feature them on tv.

Because let’s be honest, stars may be born out of talent and hard work, but stardom requires good marketing, and the best way to reach people is through the radio and television. Which is obvious , but lets face, the people are not going to find out our hidden gems unless we bring them out on a popular platform. Sports people essentially require this because they don’t have a lot of time to give around.

The reason sponsors don’t go after sports people is because they want already famous people or not famous people at all. But our main picks are actors and actresses and some celebrities who break through the mold. But the thing with actors is that are already on tv, and depend on constant engagement and appearances and sometimes scandals to remain in the public eye, so ads are complimentary to their exposure. But the thing is, if you are truly a huge corporation, you are already famous on your own, you are brand on your own, you are able to uplift someone talented from another industry. Which will only make you look better.

Besides athletes are the perfect role models for our society. They work hard, show consistency, aspire for their best, they are good time management and have a healthy out look at life. Which we need more visibility for in these, obesity, unhealthy living and heart disease infested times. Trust me desi people you need to exercise more.

This ad, I feel it also is a good clap back to those people  who think that Pakistanis do nothing, or that nothing happens in our country. Things do happen, and there are talented people everywhere, a great person can come from anywhere. They just have not been given enough attention and credit.

But hopefully with this initiative, things might change, and we will see more on talented people get the rep they deserve and the people will get the role models and heroes they deserve.

Here is a link to their new commercial , Im sure you’ll like it .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAHP1btE0vk

And here are also a few clips I made of the event, which also has an interview by him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFFFUUxPHIU ( Interview)

And here is a little video where I open up the gift box.

 

Still in the River: On Lena Dunham, Odell Beckham Jr And the Public Lynching of Black Men

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great holiday session so far. And this article is actually really old , like mid september, and I wrote this after I discovered the vlogging or commentary section on youtube. I thought they were amazing and this article came out of what I learned from them.

 

People live in bubbles. They occupy imaginary space and live by rules, boundaries, cultures and realities that we are born into and stay in them , almost never noticing that different frame works exist around us not even outside our nationalities . It normal for people to generally look out for things that are relevant only to them based on self-interest,  but sometimes by an odd act of revelation a whole new world opens up , and the world is not the same when you look back.

Something of the same nature happened to me when last week, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about Lena Dunham.

Dunham is a media personality who wrote and directed an American tv show Girls, which airs on HBO, wrote a controversial memoir and talks a lot about feminism.

I had heard her name before but I never really knew who she was and I won’t be watching her show either. The video basically discussed an interview Dunham gave to friend and fellow tv personality Schumer, where she talked about attending the Met Gala where she was seated next  to Odell Beckham  Jr. The outrageous thing about the whole thing was how this woman invented a whole conversation in her own mind about what this young athlete was thinking about her , and she never even talked to him.

The following is what she stated in her interview.

“It was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards,” she said. “He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused.”

“The vibe was very much like, ‘Do I want to f**k it? Is it wearing a … yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone.’ It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bow tie. I was like, ‘This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes.’”

This interview soon blew up on mainstream media and strangely people were actually supporting her until the African-American community and Twitter came to the rescue and schooled her about how is not good behavior. And this may seem bad enough from just face value, as someone who is not American , or who does not keeps up with entertainment news,  because you do not use names like this to embarrass someone, especially if you are public figure . Second is not this notion of wanting to be objectified sexually something that modern feminists are fighting to change or destroy, because the major goal for feminism in our time is to fight sexism. Plus from what I read she was wearing a tuxedo, which I suppose is a new way of stating that I am more than the dress I am wearing, but still none of this is an excuse for throwing a man under the bus like this. It does nothing but expose someone’s true colors.

But beyond just the basic story of a women picking on someone , many years younger than her, who I repeat did not say a word to her ; what I stumbled on to was the truth of white feminism and a lesson in the exploitation of Black minorities in the States .

I used to think feminism included all women and I think by nature we tend to over look the flaws of what we stand for and not really go that deep into the matter. I am not saying Feminism is wrong, but I am saying is that it different for women from different backgrounds, and they often exclude women who do not fill the bill out of their narratives, besides just because someone follows a cause we believe in it does not mean that is all they are and that they do not have a dark side which you may not have noticed before because they were never crossed your mind.

White Feminism seems to be this new breed of complaining about things that only include a small amount of women, because whatever all these movie stars seem to be struggling for does not involve women of color from their own country. They speak up about popular topics that put them in the spotlight while other issues never go by them, which  is not really wrong in any way , but this whole thing is filled with racism, entitlement , white privilege and the idea that being rude and obnoxious is okay if you’re a woman.

This was a hard pill to swallow for me because American media always comes of as freedom, justice ,love , equality etc etc , so why would this not be addressed earlier, but then I realized this is exactly how they treat us , Muslim countries. I should never have been surprised because it was always there in front of my eyes – I just never saw it.

The Racism issue came forward again when I learned that her show does not feature any Black or Brown , in New York , of all places. Which is one of the most diverse places in the world and she responded to this by saying that Black people did not exist in her world. Minorities and immigrants are common sight and hard-working citizens in America but they still can’t even be in the background of a tv show. Friends is also a very popular series which people have pointed out for not having enough diversity but the main thing is that in this alternate reality of white consciousness  the rest of the world and its problems and issues do not exist . It’s not just Lena it’s a whole system which includes the media, education, news and general thoughts.

So it’s surprising that Odell Beckham Jr suddenly come into existence, and he made a mistake by  doing that. It’s odd how generally these leading feminist figures talk about men not being entitled to a girls time or love, just because they want it, which I agree with , but then this system works the other way to. He did not owe Lena anything , he didn’t even say anything to her that can seen as offensive , he was minding his own business , not annoying or objectifying Lena and checking his own, not to mention he had a date that evening.

If by any chance he did flirt with Lena, it would have turned into him being some sort of sex offender who has no respect for women, and who knows, It’s not that hard to imagine seeing how much this situation blew the internet up. This woman felt entitled to a strangers time and attention and she already has a boyfriend. And even if she felt attracted towards him, I still find it silly how she had to put him on blast like that, insisting that all he could think about was sleeping with her , and thinking that she was a marshmallow a baby and dog . She looks like a regular girl and regular girls don’t like puppy dog soft candies.

This is where things get terrifying because this whole thing falls on a terrible face of history, the lynching of Black men. Slaves that were brought into America and slavery were given nothing and forced to do everything for their masters and even after slavery was abolished they were treated just the same . Apparently they were still being owned by the people who practically molested their culture and treated like animals. Lynching was a common act of violence which was pulled under the rug but one case that shook America was the lynching of Emmet Till.

Emmet Till was a fourteen year old boy, visiting his uncle and cousins in Mississippi where one day he made the terrible mistake of whistling at white women at a store. In a few days her husband and brother-in-law of that woman, Roy and J.W Milam , kidnapped Emmet , mutilated him , shot him and through him into the river, where his body was found in the river. All this because he may have flirted with white women, a teenager killed by two adult men  who till their deaths saw nothing wrong with what they did.

This is why the people are outraged. Black men in this society are either sexual objects or dangerous thugs who cannot be trusted no matter what the story or situation while white people are innocent, honest and incapable of lying. It’s a system that has done nothing but cover up injustice. These people felt like they could do whatever they wanted and did and never realized what they had done to a boy a family and an entire country.

Police brutality is still alive but this has been a year that for a lot of people , at least in the entertainment world , the veil has been lifted , first back in July when Taylor Swift got caught for lying and character assassination and this month with Lena Dunham . Maybe the masses will wake and learn to see through these patterns of oppression and perhaps the greatest irony within all of the this that the lady involved in the Emmet Till case is now Carolyn Donham .