Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Unsustainability of Charity (3)


A friend wrote, “I also wonder why sustainability suddenly becomes relevant only in this respect? Almost nothing we do -- the houses we build and live in, the roads we lay, the gadgets we buy, the internet, the cars.... none of these comes from a sustainable model! Yes, understanding and engaging with the larger systemic issues is needed but our life is premised on charity too -- I know the room I sleep in was built by the back-breaking work of migrant workers unsustainably carrying loads of bricks on their heads, earning a pittance and eating pazhedu for lunch. I am the beneficiary of this charity on their part."

We are the ones living on charity - the blood and sweat of others. We pay the labourer a fraction of our normal earnings, which barely keeps body and soul together. The little bit more we give we name 'charity'.

Another friend wrote, “ Yes for long I keep saying the farmers are subsidising the govt and us not the other way.."

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