HONY bids adieu but leaves one final gift for Pakistan

Stanton says the world will never be able to work together to solve common problems if we’re afraid of each other

Brandon Stanton, the man behind the popular photography blog Humans of New York, has captured the hearts and minds of Pakistanis over the past few weeks. On Wednesday, he left the country with one final word on Pakistan and the key issue we face as humans in a global community.  

A few days after the photographer's haunting images of Pakistanis trapped in bonded labour triggered an outpouring of donations to help end the practice, Stanton summed up his final thoughts on Pakistan in an eloquent post on how the country, like many others, is a victim of negative publicity.

Stanton, aware of the violence and extremism in Pakistan said the media unfortunately only shows one side of the country -- the negative one.

Read: HONY raises $1.3 million to help end bonded labour in Pakistan

The photographer writes, "Imagine that every time you have a lapse in judgment, it gets printed in newspapers around the world: every time you lose patience with your children, every time you scream at someone in traffic, every time you drink too much and do something you regret. Each time you slip up, everyone hears about it. The world is never notified about the 99.99% of the time that you are a completely normal, productive, law-abiding citizen. The world only learns about you when things go wrong. Now imagine what the world would think of you."

Stanton endeavored to show the positive side of Pakistan and his posts about the ordinary people of Pakistan has touched hearts not only in Pakistan but all over the world. And, if the comments on his posts are to believed, he has successfully changed many people's mind about Pakistan. Lets just say that Pakistanis owe him a debt of gratitude.



Read: HONY's portrait of abuse victim from Lahore prompts heartwarming response

The response to HONY's posts was overwhelming:

https://twitter.com/alixmomin/status/633816763566792704

We've seen it happen with the NYC posts but a #HONY Pakistan post mobilizes help for a suffering woman in #Lahore https://t.co/suqG8k5oNA

— Khizra (@KhizM) August 14, 2015

https://twitter.com/IamDiijah/status/630103669522997249

HONY in Pakistan has made such a great amount of awareness on issues that we, and not even those living in Pakistan were aware of.

— ⁸ ²⁴ (@96suleman) August 19, 2015

HONY Pakistan is probably the best HONY series thus far. It really made me realize how many wonderful people there are in the world

— S (@whysosiriuss) August 19, 2015

https://twitter.com/anthonypermal/status/633572490472722433