Dear Frederick, An excellent post indeed. Any post that makes me rethink my own premise is a good one in my books. You are probably right when you say I am looking at the glass half empty (although you are wrong, when you say I've decided to "vote with my feet", if anything I've cast the "vote with my foot" firmly in India's favour).
If I had never had the opportunity to live in the US, I would have perhaps seen the glass as doing the best it can and I know by saying so, I am going to sound like a USphile. I just made that word up. When I was very young, a nice Brit Teacher who had spent but a mere 3 months in India, returned to Dubai to tell us that "India was ripe for communism". I went home very dismayed and worried. I needn't have worried. India proved her and everyone wrong. I have no doubts whatsoever that India will continue to grow as a democracy, the seeds of freedom are firmly planted in our consciousness. But we have a long way to go. When I look at the people around me in the US, I am astounded by their homogeneity. Everyone dresses alike, they speak alike, they eat alike, they probably all sleep in the same position too. This is why their democracy thrives. Because they've managed to cut out everything individual and replace it with the collective. Even their neurosis. :) India is a society of such dichotomy. The religious within the secular, the rich melded with the poor, the illiterate in dialogue with the academic. How does one reconcile such disparity of thought, economic sustenance and culture? How does one do it, without sacrificing India's unique individuality and within a relatively short period of time? Who knows? Certainly not a femme de menage writing from the boondocks of America :)) Elisabeth ------------------------------ --- "Frederick \"FN\" Noronha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You're seeing the glass as half-empty, Elisabeth. > And, as someone who > decided to 'vote with your feet', I think that's > only natural. > > Imagine a country which emerges from colonialism and > survives five > decades without a military coup, has still huge > problems of poverty > and illiteracy but manages to give a substantial > section of its > population a fairly human existance. One that has > been able to build > manpower (and womanpower, you included) that is able > to take on the > world and perform well wherever they be. That too, > with all the odds > against it! > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
