KARACHI: The ‘Wow Grape’ meme is set to be auctioned on September 30 as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) on the digital art marketplace, Foundation, the meme owner said on Friday, pledging to donate her share of proceeds to the survivors of deadly floods in Pakistan.
The meme features a student during an activity at the Pakistan International School Jeddah (PISJ), Saudi Arabia in 2010, vowing to support the Pakistani army, to which Sehar Kamran, a former Pakistani parliamentarian who was then the school’s principal, replies “strong army,” “wow” and what sounded like “grape” instead of great. The meme went viral on digital platforms worldwide in 2020.
Kamran says she has decided to auction the meme as an NFT in the wake of widespread devastation caused by monsoon rains and floods in Pakistan and donate the proceeds for the rehabilitation of flood survivors in the southern Sindh province. The deadly floods have so far killed 1,265 people across the country and affected more than 33 million, according to official data.
“I decided to go for the auction. I will contribute exactly what will be my share [after cutting the expenses to promote the auction and execute it] to this cause, to rehabilitate the people,” Kamran told Arab News on Friday.
“A few months back, some people approached me to auction it and use it for charity, but there was no clarity at that time. Now I have absolute clarity because I see something, a cause, in front of me. I see devastation in front of me. I belong to Sindh and the magnitude of the destruction caused by the floods is so high so we have to take care of our areas.”
The main issue is of rehabilitation and by the time they auction the meme, relief activity would be complete and rehabilitation would be starting, she said.
Snippets from the viral ‘Wow Grape’ video had taken the Internet by storm in 2020 and become a popular template for the creation of memes that flooded social media.
“It was a place where I was encouraging students to speak and I tried to come to their level to create that kind of environment,” Kamran told Arab News.
“It was an internal activity and I was speaking in the accent they were speaking. When the meme went viral, it was initially disturbing but later I realized it was nothing negative.”
The meme had started a TikTok trend as videos created with ‘Wow Grape’ had more than 63 million combined views on the video-sharing platform. In fact, various celebrities and influencers from around the world had recreated the iconic meme on Twitter and Instagram.
“Initially, when the meme started popping up, the person who encouraged me a lot was Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari (daughter of former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari). She gave me this courage and said, ‘There is nothing to be shy about; teachers do talk to students in the same tone’,” Kamran recalled. “My students also stood with me.”
The world needs to change now, Kamran said, adding digital assets are a reality. NFT is a technology that is now accepted worldwide and it will emerge in Pakistan as well, she added.
“The auction will create an awareness around the significance of NFTs which is a plus,” said Kamran, who also served as a member of the upper house of Pakistan parliament, the Senate, from 2012 till 2018.
An NFT is a crypto asset that represents an intangible digital item such as an image or video. NFT owners are recorded on the blockchain, meaning that NFTs can be traded as stand-ins for the digital assets they represent.
“NFTs are this new way of the Internet wherein you not only write or consume content, but you also own some of it. NFTs are solving the problem around theft of intellectual property,” Zain Naqvi, co-founder of content and storytelling platform Alter, told Arab News.
Alter helps creators and brands from emerging economies connect with collectors and fans around the world through the power of Web3 technology, which supports new iteration of the world wide web and incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies and token-based economics.
Alter last year helped sell on Foundation one of the biggest memes to come out of South Asia, called ‘Friendship Ended.’
“Memes have a specific cultural value when it comes to the Internet because they are really native to the Internet. I think it’s a great step overall if more memes from Pakistan, or South Asia in general, or other emerging economies are up for sale because it helps the creators,” Naqvi told Arab News.
“We don’t have a lot of policies in place. Web3 primarily, 70-80 percent is dependent on cryptocurrencies or blockchains of some kind but speaking of its legalization, there is still a gray area when it comes to Pakistan. We can look at nations such as the Middle East. The UAE is doing some amazing initiatives when it comes to owning of digital assets.”
The ‘Wow Grape’ NFT auction will be conducted with the consent of Kamran in collaboration with Sweden and Pakistan-based software house, Maqssoft.
“A large portion of global wealth now lies with cryptocurrency owners. We wanted to leverage our technical expertise in the field and connections with international NFT investors to tap into this segment and play our role in raising funds for rehabilitation efforts,” Maqssoft co-founder Muhammad Abubakar Mourige told Arab News on Friday.
“We also hope to motivate other people that even with limited resources, you can come up with out-of-the-box solutions and use technology to do good in society.”
