Squid Game Pakistan

I am sure many of those reading this article have seen or heard about the popular Netflix show Squid Game. Countless memes and videos have been posted about it and there is no doubt that the South Koreans can create fantastic entertainment.

I watched the show right around when I came across the sad news that a migrant boat capsized drowning 73 people, out of which 63 were Pakistani citizens trying to flee Pakistan. In the show, Korean citizens, who face great odds against their survival, mainly financial difficulties, joblessness and a burdening debt, sign up to play these innocent kids' games. Except in this version of the innocent games played at some remote island, losing the game means losing life. While kids played those games for their own entertainment, these citizens played them for the entertainment of some rich and sick minded people. Just as people watch true crime shows where show producers turn profit by entertaining viewers off of the circumstances of someone's death, this human hunting did the same except in a bizarre fashion that humanity doesn't endorse.

The odds are stacked against the poor citizens and they are more likely than not to face death but they still signed up to fight against the forces determined to kill them because there are not many life prospects for them on the outside anyway. I am actually talking about the Pakistani citizens who had to sign up to take the dangerous journey in order to escape the poverty, hunger and hopelessness that have started to define their lives. Hopelessness has consumed the minds of the Pakistani youth, which constitute quite an overwhelming percentage of the Pakistani population. They are brimming with hope, but of leaving the land. Anyone capable of doing some elementary critical thinking would realise that this is bad news for the country. Citizens make a nation, not foreign remittances.

I remember reading about such sad incidents where migrants would drown after the boat carrying them capsized but in those news stories, the migrants mostly used to be from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and many poor African nations. Now, when a boat capsizes and migrants die, an overwhelming number of those on board are young Pakistanis fleeing their motherland so as to find better opportunities in other countries.

The sad nuance is that in the popular show, it is the wretched of that society that had failed in their lives due to their own mistakes and bad judgement calls, who become willing players in those life and death games they play. These Pakistani citizens who play life and death games in order to flee have ended up as failures in Pakistani society not because of the choices they made but because of the choice they didn't make. They were born and raised in a system of nepotism, corruption, favouritism and absence of merit where the system made the choice for them; and that choice was for them to fail so that only a few could succeed. This is classic capitalism. For a few to prosper, the many have to fail. Karl Marx would flinch at the sight of Pakistan today. Every time Maryam Nawaz and her uncle open their filthy mouths, they make claims that prosperity has come. Actually, it is them who have prospered, while the majority is hungry and restless. Now, you know what they mean when they say Pakistan is prospering.

I remember the movie Zinda Bhaag. In that, the young men who had failed at exiting Pakistan and ended up right back in their little village, were the ones facing enormous critique and ridicule from their peers. Two citizens survived this sad incident I mentioned. Don't be surprised when they also drown in a future capsizing. The fear of failure and the critique of being a failure are stronger than the fear of drowning. They will keep trying to flee. There is nothing for them here.