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India: Rich and the Poor
Perry Jackman
India
was unlike any of the
countries we have visited. India
was diverse and cultural, which was wonderful to see and experience.
However,
the poverty was unlike anything I have ever seen and was very
disturbing.
Driving
through the streets of New Delhi,
it was easy to find examples of globalization. There would be McDonalds
on
every street corner, big office
buildings, and traffic. Seeing this mad me
think that I was in an was in an American city. New Dehli was very westernized
and modern. However, I also saw things I would never find in America, slums.
Right across the street from the big shiny buildings and the McDonalds,
there
would be these small huts with blankets as roofs. The people living in
these
huts were malnourished and extremely poor. The smell coming from this
village
was unbearable. Everybody in this village was just trying to survive.
These
slum villages made you think you were in an undeveloped country. It was
very
confusing to see these people who are struggling to survive intergrated
with
people who have more than enough money to survive. There would be a
nice
apartment building right next to these villages. It was very odd to see
all the
castes living together in one area. Back home in Colorado, the wealthier
people and the poor
people live far away from each other. The wealthier people live in
suburbs that
are far from the cities. The poverty-stricken live in the city. So it
was very
interesting to watch a business man walking past a woman holding her
child
begging for money. I would never see that home.
In India
I noticed that everybody is in it for themselves. Indians would rather
help
themselves rather than someone who needs it more. If there is trash on
the
ground, people would not pick it up because it is not their trash. The
people
of India
are independent rather than a community. If the people of India
worked
together and helped each other out, they could help end of poverty.
In the article, Slums of Bombay,
I would have to agree with the author, Sudhin Thanawala that India will never become an economic
success story until it eliminates its many urban slums. The poverty was
so
prevalent in India,
that they need to make dramatic leaps to fix the problem. India can not
move on unless it helps everyone. They must eliminate poverty and work
on
housing and job availability for these people living in these slums. I
couldn’t
believe that India
could be so urbanized, but also be so underdeveloped. I hope they can
eliminate
the slum villages so they can move ahead and become a world power.
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