Most of us have now been acquainted with the happenings of the “Cannoli Incident” as it has become known around social media. For any of you that decided to stay off of social media since the middle of this month, or are only aware of what happened through the multitude of memes that made the rounds on social media, here is a description of the initial incident, the events that followed, and what that entails for all of us.
To most businesses, going viral can be seen as a godsend. A miracle that would mean that their establishment’s name would get a large amount of recognition and PR boost, increasing the foot-traffic and eventually, the profits. Fame is something that all restaurant owners dream of above all when it comes to their establishment. However, in this case, the millions of views and organic shares of the video was nothing short of a nightmare.
But why was this the case? For that, we will have to look at the contents of the video itself.
The video starts off with a woman sitting at a table addressing the audience.
It is evident from the way she speaks and is dressed that she is well educated and belongs to the elite class. Her way of speaking is one that shows that every hint of her local accent has been pummeled out of existence, being replaced with a Quasi-British, Quasi-American accent that is the sole sign of someone trying their best to be what she is not.
She announces that she was bored and then introduces herself and another woman (similar in description to herself) as the owners of Cannoli, a high class eating establishment in Islamabad. She then introduces the manager of the restaurant, and by this point, all hints of respect have dropped from her voice. It is very clear that she looks down on the obviously blue-collar individual who works for her. Both the ladies then proceed to ask the manager how many English classes he has taken, and then asks the man to demonstrate his abilities (not really understanding that taking classes does not make one a native speaker and that it is tougher to learn a language when you converse in multiple languages already). The man, obviously nervous, responds in broken English and is immediately mocked with laughter. The second lady then proceeds to inform the audience that the man is well paid, and his English lessons were also paid for, making fun of his continued inability to speak a language that he never really has to use in the first place.
The video caused a massive uproar in the online community, with users taking the time to mock the owners for ridiculing the man that works for them. Many people talked about boycotting the restaurant, insulting and ridiculing the owners of Cannoli. They expressed sympathy for the Manager, hoping that he leaves the restaurant. Shahbaz Taseer (Son of Salman Taseer) ended up offering him a job as well, citing that people should respect people that worked for them.
Ali Gul Pir, musician, and comedian, took to Twitter to talk about the situation:
“We were bored so we decided to ridicule our employee who can’t speak English as we do with our fake accents #GoraComplex #NewSlaves”
Multiple online comedians made skits parodying the incident, whilst many used this opportunity to mock the class of citizens that take pride in not knowing Urdu (our national language, to make things clear) and speaking solely in English.
Multiple other eateries took to social media to capitalize on this incident, with many establishments making posts expressing pride in their employees and in their roots, emphasizing the pride they had in speaking Urdu and other local languages and conducting their hiring procedures in those languages.
The backlash has now reached hilarious proportions, as some witty netizens have organized an Urdu Mushaira for the last few days.
People are encouraged to gather outside Cannoli and recite Urdu poetry, much to the chagrin of the owners. In response, the owners made a statement, which too was delectably picked apart by the multitude of users who saw through the owners’ attempt to portray the matter as gap shap (banter).
Obviously, ridiculing an employee, a person that works for you, and them standing at attention and taking it, is just banter.
It seems that the owners forgot about the gap part of the phrase and went straight to the insults. Much like they would so like to forget the fact that they have brown skin, and that their accents are not really theirs, to begin with.
Obviously, because that is the language of the colonizer, and how much we do love to mimic those that enslaved us. Why act like the formerly enslaved when you can act as the former master and pretend that you are above everyone else around you? Despite the fact that they look like you?
Sadly, this Gora Complex is not limited only to the elite class and tone-deaf restaurant owners. It permeates across social classes and lends itself to multiple other scenarios. For example, middle-class children are told by their parents to converse in english, as to appear more “educated” and “higher class”. Let us not forget that it was the same people that made it a point to ridicule Umer Akmal for his broken English during interviews.
Considering that for many of us it not only means the language, but also the accents that can betray us as being from where we are from. And so, to appear even more upper-class, your “R”s need to disappear and your consonants have to be said like people from Britain or the US would say them. Resulting in the same cringe-worthy accents that, along with Cannoli, are the only thing that those two individuals own. It appears having a restaurant and an accent are such a load that owning a sense of dignity and respect along with them becomes too much of a burden.
This also extends to the multitude of villages and the towns close by as well. Urdu is the language of the city, where-as most of the rural population only speaks in their native languages of Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, or the other multitude of languages that get spoken in our land (unlike the US or the UK where English is the only “native” language).
The situation there is similar if you are to work in the city, learn Urdu or English and make sure to erase your accent unless you want to be labeled as an unparh jahil (an oxymoron in itself) and have to face insulting phrases like kiss gaon se aye ho? (which village are you from. Yes, even that is an insult in our postcolonial lingo).
Shaming the rich is not enough, we also need to look at our own behavior towards those we perceive as lower-class as well. Unless we do that, the Martyrdom of the Cannoli aunties will be all for naught.
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