Sunday 29 November 2020

Our Privilege Blinds

 

A big car wirh rolled up windows splashed dirry water on me and other cyclists and pedestrians and proceeded unabated.
Arrogance ? Ignorance? Both are equally deadly.
If I was used to travelling in a large chauffer driven car would I also do that ? Possibly.
Privilege creates that alienation. And loss of understanding.

Comments

  • "If I was used to travelling in a large chauffer driven car would I also do that ? Possibly". - not necessarily. I dont think you would . And i am sure many in my friend circle who wouldnt do that. And there are people who dont lose touch with their roots. so better not to paint everyone with the same brush 
    • Ramanan Jagannathan
       in that big car with rolled up windows I would not be able to see the lowly pedestrian or cyclist or lady sitting on the footpath selling flowers.
      Let alone be considerate towards them.
      That is the nature of privilege. 
    • Aparna Krishnan No. you can see all of them. otherwise, he/she would have run into them. It is just that the driver chose not to care about splashing water on them, which is bad. And I am just against generalizing your observation. 
    • Ramanan Jagannathan
       privilege distances. And reduces understanding.
      In many many ways. 🙏🏼



Do we the rich in a country of semi starved people accept that we are theives ?? 

Comments

  • And cheats too
    • Yes, and very lever cheats ! We have made all the laws such that all our acts of cheating are legal ! 
    • yes, 'law abiding' you see 
    • From what little I have gathered , the ways of evading taxes , billing , commisions and kickbacks, under billing , bribery is all about how smart one is . 
    • oh, even 'breaking laws' is a source of pride ? oh well. 
  • No. Not all poor are beggars similarly not all rich are theives or cheats. Like all generalisations we tend to make - fair is beautiful, men are better leaders, women who drink are asking for it etc - i find such generalisations offensive. 
    • ' Accumulation is theft'. 
    • 'There is enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed'. 
    • To stock up for tomorrows when there is hunger today is theft - in every ethical and moral sense. Yes, we have framed laws that make it legal. Aparna Krishnan
    • Truth does not depend on anyone's feeling offended, or otherwise. It is final. 
    • Malini Parmar, if we don't pay minimum wages we are theiving cheats . Exploitative , inhuman Criminals 
    • And pray tell me who is creating employment? I come from a poor background but IT gave me an ability to earn a dignified livelihood, travel the world and is still paying my bills 4 years after i stopped working to work on garbage. I wouldn't call Narayan murthy or premji or TCS folks thief! They are the ones who created 5 day weeks, raised salaries much beyond minimum wages. you are asking for communism where everyone is paid equally which never happened. 
    • Malini Parmar
       , a small minority . I run a business and I know my fellow industrialists inside our Aparna Krishnan
    • 1. It is a finite world, and we have overdrawn (ref : climate change) 2. The pie can only be cut in different ways. We need to reduce. Drastically 3. Without that essential and very drastic reduction in our consumption, all charity and all social work … 
      See More 
    • Truth is simple. Not simplistic. 
    • I know no theory. I am not deeply read. I only know the ground reality. There is deep poverty, and there are excesses. Each feeds into the other. All of us who have saved for tomorrows are indicted. 
    • What are we distributing here after sucking the land/people dry? For example, Tirupur was a thriving farming area before readymade clothe, dyeing units came up. Now the river noyyal is dead, people have cancer and farming is gone forever in tthe river banks. Meanwhile we get to see luxury cars, immigrant workers and soaring crime rate. And the way the rich, who exploited this area, are giving giving back is by creating a corporate ngo called jeeva nadhi ( how ironic) to save the river they killed in the first place just to recycle their CSR funds. 
    • Malini Parmar
       If they are so clean, why a lawsuit was filed against them for cheating on taxes in US? Why is CTS is having internal audit about bribing for SEZ land in Chennai? They have cheated their own employees often 
    • Prakash Thangavel
       Even if they were 'technically' clean, these modern science and technologies are designed to savage the earth. Yes, there are some branches of modern S&T to clean up the ravages of the other braches and they also make a nice living - calling it Green Technology. 
    • The root problem is of modern science and modern technology which only serves to deplete the earth. And a modern Development that rests on these. I rest my case. 
    • Most tech innovations are for military use, mostly for destruction and only spin offs are used for civilian use. How can they be truly beneficial in the long run? 
    • Or for mining or for damming rivers ... 
  • I wonder if intense negativity towards anyone will result in any desired outcomes, Aparna? can we not seek to find the goodness that inherently lies within all of us, reason with that rather than point fingers and lay blame and generalise? On the other hand, maybe this is an approach too? Aparna Krishnan
    • I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible … except by getting off his back. - Tolstoy 
    • I do not think Tolstoy was 'intensely negative' ! It is the one (shameful) truth we need to face - and only from there may answers emerge. 
  • I have little i need from anyone personally, and yet there are some truths I have faced - painful truths. I table these for whoever may wish to hear the, If no one hears them also it is fine by me. 
  • Also 
    Aarti Madhusudan
    , I also seek the goodness that is in each heart. The goodness that has the strength to see the truth, and draw from that on ways to address the wrongs around us. Yes the truth is bitter - because we are the oppressors, even as we 'do good'. Ref : Tolstoy




Some of the handicraft and organic bazaars have such elite, english speaking crowds, that the ordinary bazaars with women selling plastic dolls and jasmine flowers on the crowded footpaths feel far more organic and real.

In the clinic one gentleman, while paying with a 2000/- rupee note told me that there are inconviniences, but yet he is all for demonetization. Immediately, as if on cue, I started giving his details of how it affected people away from his club.
... and i slowly realized that not a word was entering his head. One cannot talk to those whose hearts are closed. Sadly that includes the well off Indians, apart from that sometimes they make some noises of concern. Sadly, thede are those who stride the corridors of policy making.




I was telling my daughter about a thread on a rightwing wall. Fervent discussions on how to send their children to the greener paustures across the seas. Which stage to relocate the children. For best educational and living opportunities.
And how my question there on the fact of serving the country, one's primary duty to the poor of this landm stayed unheard and ununderstood.
"Drop them ma, they are a minority. Let them go. They dont count.
Many are there who have chosen to serve.
The real majority are those in every village working and serving others."
Shes right. The upper class elite dont count.

2 Comments

  • Alwar Narayanan
    But "The upper class elite" decides the fate of all others. Today these thugs are going to remove all speed breakers because imported cars are getting damaged. Across all roads, across India and expose the population to grave dangers of speed driving. This is already happening.
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    • 3y
  • Aparna Krishnan
    Yes, thats the catch. The only answer is Power to the People.

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