Papillon:
Thank you for your reply. Your mention about mid-western origin, brings me memories of my vacation with my family to your part of the country. I visited all the states in the union except Alaska.. What a great country. What a great people. You ask any average Indian as to where he would like to live. There are only two places in the world. One is India and the other is USA. That is the kind of affinity we have for America. It is not the money, the modern amenities etc, but the good people who will give us a chance to prove our potential and let us to put our roots down. It is a compliment to America, that our progeny have adopted American ways and did not cling to a ghettoized mentality without losing their heritage. They are in the main stream. That speaks volumes & glories to America. We will not forget that.
Coming to your post:
A westerner, however broad-minded, and egalitarian in his mind set, sometimes can't see beyond the veil of dust, heat , smell , paucity of toilets and modern conveniences, and come to a conclusion that India is one big shit house. A westerner can't understand in a million years a juxtaposition of fabulous wealth and grinding poverty, nuclear dome and tin-roof ironworks, a nuclear physicist and an illiterate cousin, educated elite and shanty people , surgical-suite-clean hotel rooms and filthy shanty towns , airliners and bullock carts, jet-plane manufacturing plants and tinker toy shed, a philanthropist and a thief etc. I can go on and on .
This kind of juxtaposition exists in every country. I am not going to enumerate those examples in other countries in the interest of decent ambivalence.
India lacks good health care system and housing . If a nation has very limited resources, allocation becomes difficult . Should we choose housing and health care system over defense against domestic and foreign enemies? Naturally, it goes without saying that defense is going to get a greater share of the resources. When a nation can't defend itself against enemies foreign and domestic, all the toilets and health care systems will not save the nation. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech republic are coming under NATO and US nuclear umbrella, because US and imminent entrants know that toilet seats will not save them from Russia, even though these new entrants don't share a common border with Russia. But India shares a common border with China and Pakistan, with whom India had fought wars not long ago. Do you think that India should have deterrent nuclear capability against China with its Tibetan missiles and Pakistan with its Ghouri missiles? If you don't think so, would US provide a nuclear umbrella to India? Since US is not going to provide a nuclear umbrella either to Pakistan or India, India should protect herself and her 1 billion people. What is the difference between the new entrants to NATO and India with its 1 billion people? I leave it to you and readers to figure it out. Why is it that India should put toilets first in every home, before they get protection from Chinese Tibetan missiles? Remember that the most sophisticated good Englishman was defecating not in the toilet but out in the open fields when the Germans were raining bombs on London, because the toilets took a toll from the bombs. Toilet seats were no match for the raining bombs. But I must add that war is hell, no matter who the victim is.
India was an exploited country over thousands and thousands of years and you want toilet seat for every Indian. India has been free only for 50 years and you want a nation built to western standards in such a short time. There is no use comparing Korea and India. India has one billion people. Each and every problem is that much magnified.
You have not put your thoughts through a rigorous examination. It is in the interest of other world nations that India does not have toilet for every family. Think of other day to day needs. The limited resources on earth will be depleted in no time, if ,overnight, India becomes equal in every way to US. Then you will be the first one to drop a bomb and wipe out Indians, since he is the largest consumer of limited resources and opened a big hole in the ozone layer. Think about it. India's poverty is America's boon in a generic sense.
Composite mind of Brahmins and Dalits: Read: additive, complementary, supportive, corroborative wisdom and knowledge
JPR
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