My Big Fat Pakistani Mansion - BBC documentary

[Gabbar Singh]

An interesting piece from the BBC about non resident Pakistanis and their houses 'back home'. Some really nice, and at times a bit sad, personal stories shared.

In the last few decades hundreds of mansions have sprung up in villages throughout Pakistan's Punjab. We follow three local men who decided to migrate to Oslo where they have worked, got married, and had children – for a better life. But all three have realised their dream on building a mansion on what they consider their real home, and with time, have built mansions to show how far they have come in their lives – but with every mansion built comes heartache.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jv68w

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[nextover666666]

I saw this with my whole family, it was a really touching documentary. My dad came to Canada in 1977 and thankfully we have a good life, this documentary has so many different messages, i enjoyed it a lot

 

[ElRaja]

i didn't see the whole doc, but i wish instead of building houses that lie empty these guys would invest the money in the local economy, it would strengthen they're links to the country and the people and help countless others as well.

They may be old but they clearly have the work ethic and tenacity to do it if they got out of a village and travelled half way across the continent for a job.

 

[desirous of desire]

Why should we keep their shoes in museum when,living in a country where a human is judged more for his hard work, social services and manners than wealth,they could not not learn anything and decided to build these mansions.
In a poor country like Pakistan, the symbol of status is wealth and they are doing nothing to change It.They can build schools or provide the local people with livelihood with their hard earned Money. It is not their obligation to help their village but then why would you feel bad about not being respected as such in Pakistan.We will respect people like Dr Ruth Pfau (her house is being converted into a museum to showcase her personal possessions) and major Geoffrey Langlands.

 

[TQ89]

Story of lot of expatriates in middle east

 

[good guy]

The abandoned mansions of Pakistan

In the last few decades hundreds of mansions have sprung up in villages throughout Pakistan's Punjab. We follow three local men who decided to migrate to Oslo where they have worked, got married, and had children – for a better life. But all three have realised their dream on building a mansion on what they consider their real home, and with time, have built mansions to show how far they have come in their lives – but with every mansion built comes heartache

 

[good guy]

what a waste of resources

 

[IAJ]

Some very familiar faces in that video, at lest the first 15 minutes I watched.

 

[Pakistanian]

It's amazing how these guys worked hard and went from being peasants to landowners, this is what makes the Old rich in Pakistan insecure.

 

[Salma_T]

It was very sad watching it especially when they are living in cramped conditions in Norway yet spent $300,000 plus on a home in Pakistan that will not be used. This is a big problem in the mirpuri community where they build these mansions in the village and end up paying people to live in them. If they want something buy it in the cities so atleast you can get rental income. There is an area in Azad Kashmir called the waleyti belt (British belt) where you have empty homes and they are probably living in cramped conditions in the UK.

 

[Pakistanian]

It was very sad watching it especially when they are living in cramped conditions in Norway yet spent $300,000 plus on a home in Pakistan that will not be used. This is a big problem in the mirpuri community where they build these mansions in the village and end up paying people to live in them. If they want something buy it in the cities so atleast you can get rental income. There is an area in Azad Kashmir called the waleyti belt (British belt) where you have empty homes and they are probably living in cramped conditions in the UK.

But isn't real estate cheaper in the rural areas? I'm pretty sure you'd have to spend 2 x $300,000 to build a similar house in the bigger cities.

 

[Salma_T]

It is the land that would be the cost and many have ancestral or buy cheap land. In the big metro pretty sure you can buy a decent place for $300k US

 

[LongHorn]

This has happened with Desi expats in the Gulf as well but in different ways

As a Gulf visa is always temporary, almost every expat believes he must have house/land in his home country as a backup when his job goes

Some build large homes either as a status symbol or to accommodate extended family. The blue collar or lower income workers benefit the most as they are sure to go back to their kids.

The ones who lose out are the ones who either end up migrating to the West, or the ones whose kids refuse to go back. In such cases you see the elderly expat as in the article, living all alone in a large house with his kids in foreign lands

 

[Gotham Cronie]

Good documentary. It's amazing how that small town got so connected with Norway.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

It was very sad watching it especially when they are living in cramped conditions in Norway yet spent $300,000 plus on a home in Pakistan that will not be used. This is a big problem in the mirpuri community where they build these mansions in the village and end up paying people to live in them. If they want something buy it in the cities so atleast you can get rental income. There is an area in Azad Kashmir called the waleyti belt (British belt) where you have empty homes and they are probably living in cramped conditions in the UK.

There is an important point buried in that post which is relevant to a lot of Brexit supporting Brits and their counterparts across Europe as well. We have this idea of an idyllic village lifestyle sold to us in Britain, but we forget that it is the big city metropolises that drive the nation's economy. They in turn are regenerated and worked by a large immigrant community. An idyllic village lifestyle can still be lived without a doubt, but not without the machinery of the big cities doing the heavy lifting, at least if we want to live to first world standards.