rant on India v. America
The addition of a few eyesores - Whoops - shopping malls and fast food joints to the already chaotic Indian cityscape and taking pictures of a few more people does NOT mean that India has completely caved to the pressures of American-style capitalism. India votes against the US nearly 75% of the time in the UN, as it should have lately if I have anything to say about it. You were 100% right to comment on the fact that India survived centuries of one of the most brutal colonizations this world has seen and the fact that it is still on its feet should be a testament to Indian resilience and dynamism. Obviously, Indians were resourceful and creative enough to find ways NOT to cave to British pressure on some fronts (religion and food: thank god) if not others (driving on the left) WHILE watching nearly all of their wealth "mysteriously" disappear into Queen Victoria's pasty white asshole.
That said, you can bet pretty hard on India to become an economic superpower, but I must stress that they will continue to do everything the Indian way, which, despite appearances and disparaging Western-centered remarks to the contrary, WORKS! HOW ELSE could a country of more than one billion people (with about a third of China's land, I should mention) have preserved the democracy that Winston Churchill predicted wouldn't last through the fifties? There is corruption everywhere in the world, and of course India has had its share of assassinations, but HELLO, so have we! (I am kind of hoping for one right....now. Huh!)
Truth is, all of the great things that you can say about the US, you can say about India. It's got a breathtaking and varied landscape, a free press, a creative and computer-literate population, blah blah blah... what's MORE, India DOES NOT have an obesity problem, is not invading other sovereign countries for corporate profiteering and sheer greed, is a strategic point between the oil-rich Middle East and the East Asian powerhouses (what's our strategic point? Hawaii?)
On the cultural front, most of the population is MULTILINGUAL (ask your average American what that shit's about), not only due to colonization but the fact that the 'world's largest democracy' is actually a continent unto itself with fourteen languages on its currency. The fact that the twenty-nine states have held together as long as they have should be a testament to their strength. The majority of Indians eat wholesome, flavourful and nutritious food. So what if it isn't fancy. The poorest people I saw in India at least had some sort of bread or rice and lentils. That's a complete protein! Can the same be said for the latest dish on offer at KFC? What is so wrong with the US that the cheapest food is loaded with calories and the poorest Americans are the ones with the obesity problem?
With the possible exception of more gay and women's rights here (the way things are going, even those might disappear), India is set!!! I just hope that it continues to ignore the US and Europe and uses its supposed power for good. Contrary to the US and most of Western Europe, however, India has been treated like nothing but shit for centuries. She knows how it feels to get reamed and I don't think she'd want to inflict that on anyone else. We hope.
That said, you can bet pretty hard on India to become an economic superpower, but I must stress that they will continue to do everything the Indian way, which, despite appearances and disparaging Western-centered remarks to the contrary, WORKS! HOW ELSE could a country of more than one billion people (with about a third of China's land, I should mention) have preserved the democracy that Winston Churchill predicted wouldn't last through the fifties? There is corruption everywhere in the world, and of course India has had its share of assassinations, but HELLO, so have we! (I am kind of hoping for one right....now. Huh!)
Truth is, all of the great things that you can say about the US, you can say about India. It's got a breathtaking and varied landscape, a free press, a creative and computer-literate population, blah blah blah... what's MORE, India DOES NOT have an obesity problem, is not invading other sovereign countries for corporate profiteering and sheer greed, is a strategic point between the oil-rich Middle East and the East Asian powerhouses (what's our strategic point? Hawaii?)
On the cultural front, most of the population is MULTILINGUAL (ask your average American what that shit's about), not only due to colonization but the fact that the 'world's largest democracy' is actually a continent unto itself with fourteen languages on its currency. The fact that the twenty-nine states have held together as long as they have should be a testament to their strength. The majority of Indians eat wholesome, flavourful and nutritious food. So what if it isn't fancy. The poorest people I saw in India at least had some sort of bread or rice and lentils. That's a complete protein! Can the same be said for the latest dish on offer at KFC? What is so wrong with the US that the cheapest food is loaded with calories and the poorest Americans are the ones with the obesity problem?
With the possible exception of more gay and women's rights here (the way things are going, even those might disappear), India is set!!! I just hope that it continues to ignore the US and Europe and uses its supposed power for good. Contrary to the US and most of Western Europe, however, India has been treated like nothing but shit for centuries. She knows how it feels to get reamed and I don't think she'd want to inflict that on anyone else. We hope.