On 10/14/07, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Saturday 13 Oct 2007 11:19 pm, Deepa Mohan wrote: > > But why > > does that make the bicycle a bad idea? > > It's the physical danger. I did not do mountaineering because I was too > scared. I do not do any cycling in Bangalore because mountaineering is > looking more attractive. > > I personally do not think well meaning individuals taking up bicycles is going > to change the appetite of Indians for cars. Those hungry Indians are going to > hurt me on my bicycle and are not going to make it easier for me to keep > breathing. > > By a quirk of fate I come from a family that has owned a car from long before > I was born - i.e 1920s. - which is unusual in India. The "wisdom" that makes > one understand that cars are a problem comes easily when one has "been there, > done that". Tens of milions of Indians who can now afford a car are asking > why they should be urged to give up cars when they have lived lives hearing > about how America is so advanced and how everyone has a car. Stopping or > discouraging car ownership goes beyond environmental sense and is like "dark > forces stopping or delaying development, happiness and efficiency" > > Teaching Indians the environmental lessons that have been learned by the act > of raping the environment in the West is not going to be easy - especially > when an aware Indian realises that as an individual his environmental > footprint is miniscule compared to all the countries he has been taught to > admire and emulate. The fact that his compatriots add up to a lot matters > little to him. He is not going to stand for being asked to suffer for > someone else's idiocy. And the oh-so concerned world is not going to stop > manufacturing cars is it? > > India is probably the only country in the world where people put up with a > situation in which your average car has a 1000 cc (or smaller) engine > capacity and the biggest petrol engines you can get rarely exceed 2500 cc. > The fact is that you can have people transport with engine capacities of less > than 1000 cc and India is sure to go further down that route. The average > Indian car will have an environmental footprint that is smaller than those in > other countries and this is going to make the average Indian car buyer, car > maker and planner very difficult to lecture to, short of economic measures > (sanctions) with their accompanying political overtones. > > > shiv
Very articulate Shiv. Much as I hate to do so...I agree with you. Deepa. > > > > > >
