Fair Warning - the below is a controversial piece.
But this is my blog.
It is my opinion.
India - 1.3 Billion people (which is 1,300,000,000) crammed in a land mass about fourth that of the United States. With over 25 spoken languages and hundreds of dialects, it is a melting pot of various religious beliefs and cultural variations assembled under a parliamentary system which is a holdover from the British days including an elected Prime Minister.
For context the US has only 340 Million people. The US is the largest economy in the world and is also a democratically elected government. It operates in a federal system where the elected President is the commander in chief of the armed forces but the 50 states that comprise the union are essentially their own republics and set their own laws.
Now some other eye openers. The United Nations conducts surveys of many kinds and one of the 2016 effort was compiled and labeled 'Human Development Report'. The report lists over 200 countries on this planet in terms of access to opportunity, qualify of life, safety and health etc.
The best place for living if you will based on these myriad criteria was Norway, which at about 4% the size of the United States has a king and an elected governing body. In one of the coldest latitudes the modern occupants are descendants of the fiercely violent Vikings that went south plundering and pillaging and laying claim to territories all across Europe.
The US is ranked 10th and India 131st behind Honduras. Hondu who? A little dot in central America it is a war ravaged region that is becoming another ex-pat hangout since it is cheaper to live there and the dollar goes much further -if you don't expire before your cash that is. Also for context Cuba was ranked 68 and Iran 69.
As history goes the United States are over 260 years old (not all of them but as a concept) while India achieved freedom only 70 years ago from the same (British) thugs that had control over the US. That said the relatively new found Indian freedom is beset by major issues. While America enjoys a relatively quiet isolation with a non existent Canadian populace to its north and a modestly irritating Mexican influence in the south (that tends to find economic opportunity in supplying drugs to a high demand region north of them), India has to battle insane neighbors and seriously demented locals all over the country.
From being labeled the rape capital of the country, Delhi its official capital is barely able to provide a voice of competence. Full of a regime of morally corrupt people in office along with large swaths of people trying to subsist on cents a day, it is a classic disaster in the making. While the richest person on the planet, a Mr. Bill Gates, appears on television making ambitious statements like 'India has a fantastic opportunity under the leadership of Mr. Modi' I wonder if he is more talk and less science. Seems unlikely but I am a skeptic.
India probably has the most open defecation than any other country on this planet - period. Apparently there is a movement that the current PM kicked off to install toilets in the entire country at a rapid pace (not sure what that means) that can be tracked on a dashboard online. I think the national abdominal movement runs (pun) counter to any such belated attempt.
None of the infrastructure in India is ever going to be adequate to handle the sheer pressure of its (growing) humanity so I strongly think that it is a mathematical and physical impossibility to rectify the slow and sure death of this ancient civilization, the likes of which produced great astronomers and philosophers and most recently the leaders of Silicon Valley. And therein is the catch - the people that ultimately are a who's who are no longer part of India. Optimists might argue that the foreign philanthropy and business acumen in fact is going to lift all boats but my math suggest that the Indian boat has too many holes in it to be lifted at all. Perhaps it is a raft of hastily assembled rotting reeds and not a boat after all?
PS: One redeeming quality is the staggering (and enjoyable) variety of food products you can find if you are brave to travel its length and attempt to explore the flavors and textures. There is in my humble opinion no other single country that offers this diversity of culinary experiences and most of them for a very affordable coin (of course viewed from the perspective of a person that can afford to do the said traveling and exploring).
But this is my blog.
It is my opinion.
India - 1.3 Billion people (which is 1,300,000,000) crammed in a land mass about fourth that of the United States. With over 25 spoken languages and hundreds of dialects, it is a melting pot of various religious beliefs and cultural variations assembled under a parliamentary system which is a holdover from the British days including an elected Prime Minister.
For context the US has only 340 Million people. The US is the largest economy in the world and is also a democratically elected government. It operates in a federal system where the elected President is the commander in chief of the armed forces but the 50 states that comprise the union are essentially their own republics and set their own laws.
Now some other eye openers. The United Nations conducts surveys of many kinds and one of the 2016 effort was compiled and labeled 'Human Development Report'. The report lists over 200 countries on this planet in terms of access to opportunity, qualify of life, safety and health etc.
The best place for living if you will based on these myriad criteria was Norway, which at about 4% the size of the United States has a king and an elected governing body. In one of the coldest latitudes the modern occupants are descendants of the fiercely violent Vikings that went south plundering and pillaging and laying claim to territories all across Europe.
The US is ranked 10th and India 131st behind Honduras. Hondu who? A little dot in central America it is a war ravaged region that is becoming another ex-pat hangout since it is cheaper to live there and the dollar goes much further -if you don't expire before your cash that is. Also for context Cuba was ranked 68 and Iran 69.
As history goes the United States are over 260 years old (not all of them but as a concept) while India achieved freedom only 70 years ago from the same (British) thugs that had control over the US. That said the relatively new found Indian freedom is beset by major issues. While America enjoys a relatively quiet isolation with a non existent Canadian populace to its north and a modestly irritating Mexican influence in the south (that tends to find economic opportunity in supplying drugs to a high demand region north of them), India has to battle insane neighbors and seriously demented locals all over the country.
From being labeled the rape capital of the country, Delhi its official capital is barely able to provide a voice of competence. Full of a regime of morally corrupt people in office along with large swaths of people trying to subsist on cents a day, it is a classic disaster in the making. While the richest person on the planet, a Mr. Bill Gates, appears on television making ambitious statements like 'India has a fantastic opportunity under the leadership of Mr. Modi' I wonder if he is more talk and less science. Seems unlikely but I am a skeptic.
India probably has the most open defecation than any other country on this planet - period. Apparently there is a movement that the current PM kicked off to install toilets in the entire country at a rapid pace (not sure what that means) that can be tracked on a dashboard online. I think the national abdominal movement runs (pun) counter to any such belated attempt.
None of the infrastructure in India is ever going to be adequate to handle the sheer pressure of its (growing) humanity so I strongly think that it is a mathematical and physical impossibility to rectify the slow and sure death of this ancient civilization, the likes of which produced great astronomers and philosophers and most recently the leaders of Silicon Valley. And therein is the catch - the people that ultimately are a who's who are no longer part of India. Optimists might argue that the foreign philanthropy and business acumen in fact is going to lift all boats but my math suggest that the Indian boat has too many holes in it to be lifted at all. Perhaps it is a raft of hastily assembled rotting reeds and not a boat after all?
PS: One redeeming quality is the staggering (and enjoyable) variety of food products you can find if you are brave to travel its length and attempt to explore the flavors and textures. There is in my humble opinion no other single country that offers this diversity of culinary experiences and most of them for a very affordable coin (of course viewed from the perspective of a person that can afford to do the said traveling and exploring).
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