Yes, that's what the headlines screamed.
Awesome.
But keep your shirt on and think about it for a second, will you? Why did that make headlines?
Because it shouldn't have. With the second largest population in the world, being ranked 12 is hardly an achievement. I'm sure wealthy Luxembourg isn't too concerned about being ranked 64 on that list.
Because little Luxembourg is ranked 4 on the Human Development Index. And India? 127. Of 181 nations.
So please excuse me if I don't seem too enthusiastic about patting my nation on the back each time it takes another sluggish little baby step.
I'll celebrate when the number of Indians living below the national poverty line is halved to about 150 million.
Yes, that's when I'll celebrate.
Pic: http://www.samgoeswalkies.com/
Data: World Bank, Wikipedia
47 comments:
Richness - A country's richness is directly accounted by its GOLD deposits and average exports, including the power of purchase.
India is a "developing" country and richness shall exist with no value. The existence of a broken bridge between Have and Have nots has made this country more evident on how richness is equally distrbuted.
For example: your project would have done great and that would have been an amazing value for the company, but did you get you hands on the bigger pie? - This is exactly what is going through this country.
Btw let me know if you are shifting job! - I believe you left a note identifying a similar situation in career / life.
Ari, yup. And TOI's love for sensationalism turned that statistic into a self-congratulatory headline grabber.
I'm not changing jobs, I'm contemplating switching careers entirely.
Any luck with your switch?
Amen.
Since that made headlines, our politicians can sink a little more into denial, if they havent drowned already.
Exactamundo. In other words, you said exactly what I would have said if I ever get around to saying such things. Or something like that anyways. Early sunday mornings are not a good time to be blog surfing methinks. I dunno. I think I'll get going now. Yeah.
oh and I said this on my blog already,
you dont have to ask! Im cool with it. :)
Ari, yup. And TOI's love for sensationalism turned that statistic into a self-congratulatory headline grabber.
It is tempting as it is to blame the media for this sort of thing -- I do, frequently -- but I suspect the blame lies at least as much with consumers. People want irrelevant, sensationalist, feel-good news, and news companies have no problem giving them that.
When I was in school, one of the little rituals that made up our morning assembly was The Reading Of The News (capitals and all). One of the faculty complained once that my news was too 'unhappy'. I was tempted to reread the news (excuse me, Reread The News), starting with the headline "13 people were not killed in an explosion in Srinagar yesterday".
I recently read a semi-relevant article on TV news; some of it is applicable to the media in general.
Ari:
1. WTF are you talking about?
2. Gold deposits? You make bullion sound like bird droppings.
3. "The existence of a broken bridge between Have and Have nots....". How about no bridge at all? Or there was a bridge, and you broke it, you vandal!?
4. Before you broke it, which side of the bridge were you - the Have side, or Have Not side?
5. I know you're not really a vandal, so why did break the bridge?
Raindrop:
I appreciate the post and the picture.
Talking about marketing and packaging however, here's a tip: post higher resolution pictures. No blocky, pixilated images. Think Bayerische Motoren Werke, not Yugo. Think me, not you.
There is this thing in statistics that if you are at it for long enough you can make anything look like anything else. Meaning, you will always end up finding a random result that doesn't make any sense.
Vogons I see. Finally, one girl who like s Douglas Adams...:)...
You'd be even more surprised if you looked at some more figures.
The poverty line in India is different from how it is described internationally (which is a dollar a day, right?). In India, the poverty line is defined as being able to afford 2200 calories of food a day.
Then, literacy. Around half of India is illiterate. In India, being literate is defined as being able to write your own name, NOTHING else.
Yeah, great India, progressive India, India shining!
*shrug*
I never get people like you. Just because some things are not as good as you want them to be doesn't mean that you shouldn't celebrate the things that are good.
Ok a large part of the population is illitrate, but that part is shrinking. In the period 1991-2001 the litracy rate rose by 13.75% [http://www.censusindia.net/results/provindia3.html}\]
The percentage of People living under the poverty line is decreasing. In 2001 it stood at 26% By some estimates it is, at present, at 21%
Some might talk about the stark disparities amongst the Rich & the Poor. By the Gini index, a measure of income inequality on a scale of zero to 100, For India it is 33, compared to 41 for the United States, 45 for China, and 59 for Brazil.
Everyone might not be feeling the warmth of the Indian Economy, but more people [both percentage wise as well as in absolute terms] are enjoying its fruits today then ever before
@differently challenged: The issue here isn't that we aren't happy that India is progressing but rather that in that progress people nowadays seem to tend to forget that a majority of our country is still starving, illiterate and struggling to survive.
Sure, even that segment of our society *is* moving up but it's coming from very low origins and their rate is humble enough that it would take decades before they are even at a 10th of what the rest of the 'developed' world is at.
If that is what the Gini index says, its full of shit. Go out into your friendly neighborhood village and see for yourself.
Dead right, punkster. Denial is our national coping mechanism.
Now we have two things to bolster our flagging national egos. Our superior culture AND our enormous wealth.
wishful, Sunday mornings are best spent in bed, drinking tea and doing the crossword/sudoku/mindsport puzzles. :)
nath, thanks. That was a great article. And I wonder why your teacher complained.
Was it because she believed children shouldn't be exposed to such 'unhappiness'?
Or do you believe that it's just part of a larger national denial? The kind that makes us forget. (Quoting your blog.)
me, point taken about the low res pic. Given your high standards, I'm sure you'll appreciate this: watch your spelling. Because I know you well enough to know that you can spell. Think ME, not you. :P
artful, I suppose there's some truth to that..
And yes, I love Doug Adams. :)
unforgiven, yup. It's hard not to be cynical about progress sometimes..
differently challenged, I've seen that list before. Did you notice that Rwanda is 16 on that list? I guess Gini's measure of social and economic equality doesn't factor in minor glitches like the Hutu-Tutsi genocide.
Ethiopia is 20 on that list. It's one of the poorest nations in the world, and is ranked 170 on the HDI.
You'll pardon me if I don't take Gini ratings too seriously.
I'm glad you're positive. I'm just a hardened old cynic, I guess. :)
unforgiven, well said!
12th richest nation? what difference does that make in anybody's life?
trust THEM to harp about something that makes not one iota of a difference
on another note - sheer vogon poetry! i love it! hidey-ho fellow doug adams fan!
mahima, you nailed that one.
Yup, Douglas Adams fans of the world unite! Btw, that's a gorgeous profile pic. :)
As a side note, don't take offense to this, but I don't think people who have left their country and are settled outside it, really still hold a right to be upset at how bad things are in the country.
Loosely falls under the 'bitch but not fix' category.
My opinion totally, your mileage may vary.
I don't take offense to that at all.
If I could fix things, I wouldn't feel the need to bitch. :)
You can. Anyone can.
Not entirely but if everyone decided to start, instead of waiting for something substantial to exist already, nothing would happen.
The idea is something like the silent monks problem.
Everyone assumes that everyone else will start doing something to help out. At worst, one's efforts may go wasted but at best, something substantial may come out of it.
What can one do? Sitting out there in some school in the US, well, not very much really. I guess one could donate to C.R.Y.?
In the last line, yes, sarcasm was intended.. *shrug*
unforgiven, believe me when I say that I've tried. I really have. That my efforts have always backfired is another matter altogether. :)
I'm too poor to donate any substantial amount of money to CRY. I wonder if you've heard about Asha? (www.ashanet.org)
I'm not affiliated with them (yet), but I know that many expat desis are..
Let me put it this way, giving money to ANY organisation is nothing but masterbating one's own concience.
To start, one needs to be in their own country. It starts with paying tax to the Indian Government and goes on from there.
Yes, I know, a lot of the tax money is siphoned off into politician's pockets but some does go into the development of India. Versus any money given to Uncle Sam.
So I'm not in my own country. So sue me.
Uncle Sam takes care of my education and living expenses.
So go ahead and call me a defector/deserter. I don't really care.
Uncle Sam took care of my education and living expenses too. Heck, Uncle Sam paid for my 'vette, every single toy I had, plus a pretty damn luxurious stay in the country. It really doesn't mean much in terms of where I would live and work :)
I don't believe that one really can do that much for India if they are abroad. More than money, we need our people. We need our intelligensia back here, making their lives here, thinking about how to and doing things to make things better.
As I said, this is a pretty personal thing, to each his own. I don't think lesser of anyone who makes the choice to leave. Plenty of people that I respect and care for are settled there for many varied reasons. They are still friends and we get along just fine. I just get a bit confused when one of them decides to look in from out there and talk about how badly things are going here. I have seen a lot of bitching by expat Indians (thankfully, not that much from my friends) and it always, unfortunately, irks me.
Am I right in it irking me? Don't know, don't care. It's an opinion and I usually don't shirk from expressing mine, even if it isn't always particularly pleasant to hear.
It's hard to communicate that even though something that you are doing, in my eyes is irritating, that does not mean I think of you as a horrible person. It does come across as that though, I know, which is why I do include the token "don't take offense to this" :)
Your mileage, as I see, does vary.
I don't believe I need to be a part of any system I choose to criticise. Be it the US or terrorism or poverty in India.
Anyway, you'll notice that I was mostly bitching about TOI's headline.
As far as I'm concerned, you could be from the Falkland Islands and tell me what you think about India, and it wouldn't matter. I'd take your opinion as seriously as I would if you were from namma Bengaluru.
Because you know my thoughts on opinions. Yours or mine. :)
namma bengaluru.. ahh, it all makes sense now :)
Don't ask, just thinking out loud.
So there are two points here to be considered,
.) If one is not part of the system, then they'd better be VERY knowlegeable about it to really make any meaningful comment
.) One who has been part of the system and has now left it for greener pastures, has less of a right to bitch about it than someone who was never part of the system. I can't substantiate this statement, since it is well, *ahem* an opinion :P
This conversation is going to go on for ever and ever and ever (yes, something like the song) so I'm going to put an end to it and bow out.
Out of curiousity, how long has it been since you left?
Less than a year. :)
Planning on staying?
No clue, but I'd like to live in some little island in the tropics. :)
I had to delete that, I like my anonymity..
I figured. Didn't know you were that worried about it, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it in the first place.
The question (second part of the comment? or did you panic and deleted the comment right after the first line? :P) still stands though..
Now imagine if GK were to come in here and read that. Yup, I DID panic. :)
Raindrop: Was it because she believed children shouldn't be exposed to such 'unhappiness'?
Or do you believe that it's just part of a larger national denial? The kind that makes us forget. (Quoting your blog.)
The latter, I'm afraid. The kids were all in their teens -- old enough that they didn't need to be protected from the morning news.
As for the 'larger national denial', I'm not sure I'd call it that. True, Indians do seem to be quite skilled at ignoring things they dislike (both a blessing and a curse), but we aren't the only ones who seem to demand feel-good news.
I'm too poor to donate any substantial amount of money to CRY. I wonder if you've heard about Asha? (www.ashanet.org)
You might want to look at this, though I doubt there's much truth to it.
unforgiven: Let me put it this way, giving money to ANY organisation is nothing but masterbating one's own concience.
Isn't that true for any good deed? Selfish altruism and all that.
"Isn't that true for any good deed? Selfish altruism and all that."
That is correct. Though other forms of selfish altruism does end up providing some tangible benifit to the person that you are doing something for. Giving money to CRY (and apparently AID and ASHA) has it ends up serving a rather contrary purpose.
You help someone, you feel good about it, fair trade. You pretend to help someone, you feel good about it, delusional.
Of course, some would say, ignorance is bliss. I don't particularly agree with those people and I am sure, they don't often agree with themselves either.
P.S. :- On the note of Dr. Pandey, I'd be inclined to believe it more than not. There are so many examples of such people. People who want to follow the path of righteousness but eventually realize their own shortcoming of strength in their character. They still are used to the adoration and respect they got initially out of it, so they pretend to continue, ending up becoming tools of malicious people, who see this shortcoming in the Dr. Pandey's of this world and use them for their own purpose.
You are right, we as a race, have a dislike for unpleasant things. That combined with a desperate need for assurance that there are people out there doing the right thing, so we can actually just give them $100 and feel good about ourselves. People like Dr. Pandey (assuming even a tenth of the things written on that article are true) thrive on our laziness and fooling our concience, doing the will of their horrific masters, while keeping up "their" shell of delusion.
Come to think of it, the world is pretty damn fucked up, isn't it?
The ironies life has to offer us eh?
unforgiven: Though other forms of selfish altruism does end up providing some tangible benifit to the person that you are doing something for. Giving money to CRY (and apparently AID and ASHA) has it ends up serving a rather contrary purpose.
You help someone, you feel good about it, fair trade. You pretend to help someone, you feel good about it, delusional.
True, many so-called charity organisations do have dubious motives, but I expect that there are a few* that do pass the contributions on to the people they were meant for. Whether this is helpful or harmful in the long run is a question I'll leave to the economists, but it certainly does provide some tangible benefit in the short term.
(*I haven't yet seen accusations levelled against Oxfam, for one.)
Ok, no surprises there. India is the 12 th richest country, yes of course. What when all the rich suburbs need a slum in the same area for their workers to work off cheap for them. Kinda balances it out.
But looking at the amount of money flowing into India and the growing middle class, this is expected. And yes, I will be very much happy when the newspapers rejoice on the news that no farmer suicides in the last one year. Don't see that happening..
1) Indian media fakes orgasms
2) Indians experience great pleasure
3) ???
4) Profit!
@nath: So I'd actually argue that 'charitable' organisations by themselves are still a cop out. If one wants the satisfaction of having helped someone out, I'd say that they should do something with their own hands. See, my Mom's a ground level politician, so I've been to many of the poorest parts of Uttar Pradesh with her. The one thing I noticed was that the people there, more than money, in fact much more than money, were lacking will. They were resigned to their fate in life and had this notion drilled through their head that this is what they are born for and nothing can ever change it. You could give them money/food/supplies/whatever and they'd use it but never really think about how their lives could actually be different.
It's something along the lines of "teach a man to fish..". In this case teaching them how to fish doesn't involve getting them an education to be a tailor or an auto driver (Chinmayi has made an interesting post about this, http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=21817972&postID=115478770117563816&isPopup=true). It involves helping them learn to read, learn to push themselves, learn to be something. Of course, at times they will be in situations that all this is a distant second to hunger, so when going there to eradicate their hunger, meet them, talk to them about not just giving them their one meal but helping them understand how they can themselves never need another to give them that one meal.
Yes, it's being a bit of an idealist but even if one can do that in some small way, that person has truly "helped" someone and not just assauged his or her own concience.
I am venturing completely into the realm of 'opinion' here so as usual, your mileage may vary :)
unforgiven: I am venturing completely into the realm of 'opinion' here so as usual, your mileage may vary :)
And, sure enough, it does.
For the most part, your points are valid -- those are some of the excuses I give myself when I don't give people money. I've written about pseudobeggars in the past -- people who could go about moving ahead, but instead choose to sit on the sidewalk and ask for money. Some of the stories they make up can be quite amusing. In a grocery store in Seattle, an suburban-looking teenager once came in asking for money to buy orange juice for her sick friend -- who, she claimed, suffered from some rare disease that required her to drink orange juice to survive.
But I digress. Yes, blindly donating money can be counterproductive, but there are organisations that put it to good use (disaster relief, medical research and so on). To extend the fishing analogy, there are people who know quite well how to fish, but simply can't afford a boat.
i agree...think these statistics are a bunh of crap!
In India its only the rich who seem to be getting wealthier and the poor getting poorer...its not something we need to celebrate!
@nath: Yes, those who can't afford the boat, for example the Tsunami victims being the case in point, giving money does help. It is "overall charity" organisations that I have an issue with.
Nothing beats going there and helping though. I have a good friend who is studying to be an architect. She, along with a bunch of other people, actually went to one of the Tsunami struck areas and helped rebuild the place. That I believe is usually a lot more satisfying.
Again, that is almost moving to pure selfishness, since there are ways to do a greater good which may give less personal 'warm feeling in your heart' but then, there is no true altruism, is there?
The picture speaks for itself...neednt say more about what is the reality!
End of Next week, I'll know if I'll jump into the bigger ocean.
Jumping Career too. Damn the world is filled with similar patterns of life.
Where are you from? - Btw before you leap into any ramifications - that is not a pick up line!! Definitely not mine.
If you ever become a Bond girl, I'll starr you in my comic strip. ;)
Hey raindrop,
Excellent post!
This report shows how our wealth doesn't translate into changes in living conditions for a majority of our people. Our human development index (or HDI) is way below say, Cuba.
I remember Chidambaram's rather disgusting press statement about how the Sensex was doing ok in the wake of the Mumbai blasts last month.
As Amartya Sen says in this interview in the Independence Day commemorative issue of Outlook, "I look at some of the things I wrote in the media in the 1950s and early 1960s—grumbling about illiteracy, lack of basic health facilities etc...they still remain relevant. I would have loved to have become a purveyor of obsolete problems, but alas these problems are not obsolete even now."
Also followed the comment thread: I am wondering if one's motivations need be so binding. I imagine that would placing an unnecessary premium on the act. If the issue is that some charitable organisations are dubious, then the concern would be effectivity, and not motivation.
@ differently challenged: Please read this report.
Relevant extract: The 55th round survey (1999 - 2000) results created a serious controversy with respect to reference period. The NSSO has been collecting consumer expenditure data on the basis of a uniform 30-day recall period since 1950s... The changed reference period increased the expenditure estimates and reduced poverty figures in one stroke. Such drastic reduction in poverty raised a big uproar. The 1999-2000 figures of headcount poverty ratio could not be accepted especially in view of the annual survey results and in view of the trends shown by other variables closely related to poverty. The experts (pro and anti globalization) argued about the rigour of monthly and weekly recall period and ultimately agreed on one point. The 1999-2000 poverty estimates were not comparable with 1993-94 estimates. Hence, no inference could be drawn regarding impact of reform on poverty.
Thanks, everyone, for stopping by and commenting. :)
ari, I'd LOVE to star in your comic strip. Do we have to wait until I'm a Bond girl though?
angry fix, thank you!
It's painfully obvious to see why anyone (differently challenged, in particular) would be tempted to quote the Gini index. Our Gini coefficient would lead us to believe we're doing reasonably well. But since it's a measure of social and economic equality, isn't Rwanda's ranking on that list a huge blow to its credibility? Or is genocide the ultimate equalizer? We might as well look at world cricket rankings and try to draw from it inferences on poverty.
Amartya Sen, now he's someone I have enormous respect for.
While Chidambaram's comments were definitely insensitive, couldn't it be argued that he was just trying to prevent a stock market crash?
raindrop,
Of course, I appeciate that fact.
But this whole orientation toward the Sensex annoys me. (It's not even entirely representative of the impact on small investors. I mean tell me how many small investors trade in shares that are part of the Sensex.)
My disgust is entirely to do with the fact that he was indirectly prioritising a small (and rich) minority over what can only be described as a disaster.
Something inherently indecent and disgusting about that.
angry fix,
I agree with you there. We're not the most sensitive nation in the world, clearly. I don't think people really even expect that sort of sensitivity from our government. In fact, people expect precisely nothing. We're a bunch of fatalists.
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