I think I watched my first "Blue Film" (porn) when I was in my late teens or early twenties. By that time things have changed. I changed, my village changed, there was electricity, paved roads, buses and taxis started plying, one by one hutments metamorphosed in to bigger houses, children grew up, got married, children with pink runny nose marks and barefeet either went to the University or worked hard in the farm after dropping out to be rich. Illiterate parents we looked down upon suddenly made their mark, farm hands played poker and made money to buy farms of the losers and continued to play poker to pay their labourers, others went in to nursing and migrated to West Asia, professionals began to emerge from our rustic village, my uncle became a finance minister and we as a family with higher bramnic ideals were left way behind.
Ghosts, lightning, elephants, tigers, leopards, flash floods, snake bites didn't kill me as they all got decimated in a scramble to make money to escape hunger, poverty, deprivation, insults, humiliation. And I reached the law school from a little known lower primary school (LP School) via the Upper Primary School (UP School) landing in a boarding school in the city learning English the hard way under the strict instruction of my second from eldest brother who himself migrated to the city after dropping out of college to pursue a life of business and home study. The rest of the villagers were wiser as they made more money biding their time and hiding their strength like China does now. For some time since 2001 I had the time to meditate on the activities of the charities for the humans and the animals alike. For me it was immoral for charities to hoard billions of pounds they collected from the public.
On Bloomberg I heard today that China is investing $35 billion to improve the railways in Africa so that the African minerals reach China faster without the infrastructure bottlenecks. Which western charity has done such a thing? The western charities had an opportunity to prod their governments to initiate such strong economic joint ventures in Africa but they squandered that opportunity. Now the charities are not in a position to match China's financial muscle. I believe what the roads and electricity did for my little village in Kerala could do the same for Africa. The western charities were clearly on an ego trip in vanity and patronisation. Now they are complaining about China's dominance in Africa. Even now it is not late as China's control of African resources should be regulated in an atmosphere economic checks and balances.
The charities could play a key economically productive role in Africa if they bother to change their mindset. The slums in India alone could be transformed through affordable housing schemes benefitting both the small and medium industries in the west in collaboration with their counterparts in the west. The Tata's are planning to sell affordable 1 and 2 bed flats for the low income families in India for £7000 and £10,000. How many such flats could be built in a win win economic partnership with £1 billion? The British Charity Industry hoards about £90 billion according to a statement by a UK minister on Bloomberg just a couple of weeks ago. It is always better to teach someone to fish than give him a fish as China is doing now.
No comments:
Post a Comment