How Pakistanis View US Government And US Public?

This is highly interesting topic. Everybody is aware that the US and Pakistani relations are witnessing bad patch and both governments are at loggerheads over how to deal with the situation that seems to be getting out of control. At the same time, the US officials and US embassy in Pakistan; both are grappling with ideas how to win the hearts and minds of the Pakistan public so that they could understand the public mood and get their jobs done easily.
For this, the USAID has also launched several campaigns to let the public know that the US government and officials are doing their best to help them out during these times of economic downturn. However, what is missing in these campaigns is that they are merely telling and not listening. They are telling that they are doing this and that and not asking them why they are hostile to the United States and the Americans. How can this be changed and how the public-to-public contact be formed that sometime could force governments to shake hands.
Let us first see what the common Americans think about Pakistan and its people. Most of Americans think that Pakistanis are Muslim extremists, helpers and supporters of the world’s top terrorist Usama Bin Ladin and backers of his outfit Al-Qa’ida. They think that they are poor, impoverished and the needy that are always on the lookout to get money by hook or by crook. Most of them think that they are living in the Stone Age, having no sense of education, civilized values, moral laws and international commitments.
However, the ground reality is quite opposite. Same is held in Pakistan. Most of the Pakistanis think that the Americans have no moral values, no respect for familiar relations and no sense of living. They are living in commercialized world where materialism rules the roost. The Americans are bloodthirsty people running after Muslims and orchestrating Muslim massacre and genocide everywhere in the world. The proofs they present are the state of the Muslims in Kashmir, Bosnia, Palestine, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria. Even several educated Pakistani see the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and even in Pakistan as a part of a wide crusade Bush once referred to shortly after 9/11.
This hell of difference in the opinion of the common Pakistanis and Americans has several reasons. The major reasons are the government policies of both the countries and the media that speak the language the respective government feed it with. Had media been sensible enough, it would have painted the clear picture of the both the social systems and life of the public so that the people from both the countries could have clearly seen that all are human beings. The next and other important reason is that the present day US is run by multinationals and Pakistan by landlords. Both are a part of a superstructure, as referred by Karl Marx. Both don’t let any other public know the other side of the coin so that their own factional interests should not be marred.

I think both the governments and officials should sit together and the let the people meet and see each other. The media should shed off its bias against each other, that is often shaped by the respective government. It should present a clear picture and clear opinion of the one society about the other. This public-to-public contact will lead to normalization of ties and help resolution of issues if there is any. Another great part that the US officials are to play, is to compensate the ordinary Pakistanis for the losses they suffered in the war on terror. It will help a great deal in making the people think about the US friendship and generosity.

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