Breaking the Bubble

My Mom told me the other day that The Herald, Everett´s local newspaper, ran a news story about ¨female foeticide¨ or ¨infanticide¨, generally the killing of a female infant before or directly after birth because of its gender. While I was thrilled to know The Herald was running this story, as it rarely runs international stories of substance, it reminded me of how US-centric our mainstream US media is and how little they cover pressing world issues (outside the realm of US military engagements). Realize that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer runs on page 2 every day of its ¨A¨ section, something titled to the effect of ¨Around the World¨ that gives short summaries of 10 ¨world¨ stories from that day. Almost every day, five of these 10 are from the US.

You wonder why so many American college students are shocked at what they learn about the world when they study abroad for the first time? In my opinion, our media reinforces the nice bubble most of us live in and similarly, we don’t demand stories from them on these issues.

There are obviously countless pressing human rights issues around the world, but the following five issues: child soldiers, infanticide, human sex trafficking, child labor and ¨honor¨ killings, are pervasive on multiple continents and are rarely covered by the mainstream US media. I’ve included a link for you to learn more. Similarly, there are countless resources on the Internet.

- Child Soldiers -
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/childsoldiers-africanchild-eng

- Infanticide -
http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html

- Human Sex Trafficking -
http://www.asiapacificms.com/articles/japan_slave_trade/

- Child Labor -
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/18/news/india.php

- ¨Honor¨ Killings -
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0212_020212_honorkilling.html

The Celebrity of being White

This time I am reaching out to all of you who read this to get your opinion on something that happens fairly often here. Jose Luis and I are approached all the time in public places and asked to have our picture taken with other Indians. I don’t really understand this phenomenon. I mean I know I had my picture on the front page of the Local section in the Everett Herald once and have been contributing to this blog which I’m sure reaches people on all corner of the globe by now, but I still have a hard time believing they are the sources of my celebrity. As for Jose Luis, it’s obvious. He’s just plain good looking.

That said, I don’t completely understand why this is appealing to so many Indians and would like to hear your perspective on this. Many of you have traveled around the world yourself. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Why do Indians want their picture taken with foreigners, particularly foreigners who are definitely not from South Asia?

With some women right after I´d had my picture taken with their family

Jose Luis getting his picture taken with a nice young guy in front of India Gate

In front of India Gate with a couple of young ladies who had asked

Poverty in the City

One of the most sobering elements of living in India is seeing the drastic difference in living standards between people. I’ve offered some statistics in past entries to give you an idea of per-capita income vs. that in the USA and India’s Human Development Index rating, but now I would rather give you a few day-to-day examples of how I see the poverty play out in my daily life.

It is very common for poor families or individuals to wait at busy intersections and:
* Provide some form of entertainment (i.e. do somersaults with a partner, play an instrument while a child dances, etc.) and then ask for money
* Sell magazines, books, balloons, newspapers
* Simply motion with their cupped hand from their stomach to their mouth and ask for money

(Jose Luis and I at a wedding engagement last Sunday. These are the fortunate kids.)

Often times it is children who do the asking, as their parents sit in the median or the side of the road. As you can probably imagine, these children are far more effective in asking for money than their parents. All of these individuals are clearly very poor. Their skin and hair are very dirty. Their clothes are often rags and at times they are barefoot. They come right up to you, tap on your window, look you in the eye, sometimes tugging on your pant leg and ask for some help. Everyone approaches these requests differently. Some people role up their windows. Others look the other way. Some say ¨Sorry, I can’t help you.¨ A few give them some Rps.

It’s difficult to know when to help them out and when not to. Speaking for myself, I simply can’t help them every time they ask. Further, it is clearly a very short-term solution to a very complex problem and it is not always used by the families for the purposes one would hope. However, there´s no doubt these five or 10 rupees I can give them is more than they had a few moments before.

Three personal experiences to share -

#1: My second week in Gurgaon I was at a busy intersection in the back of a taxi when I suddenly had four, five, maybe six people, kids and adults, pleading directly outside my window for money. I felt incredibly sorry for these people. As I rolled down the window just a little bit to give one of them a 10 Rp. note hands from all of them shot through the open window. I suddenly had all of these hands grabbing wildly inside the car at this note in my hand. One of them took it and I was left with the looks on the faces of all those who came up empty handed.

(Four brothers - The oldest in the upper right is who invited us to the engagement.)

#2: A few weeks back, I was waiting outside the grocery store with my friend Leonor, waiting for my roommate Ashok was inside. A girl who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old approached us both asking for money. Leonor promptly went inside and bought a baguette for her. The young girl quickly took it over to her Mom who was nearby. Ashok came out from the store and we started to walk off when the Mom and kids approached us again. The Mom said that her kids prefer chocolate.

#3: Finally, a couple weeks ago, it was about 10 p.m. and I was trying to hail an auto rickshaw on a busy intersection near an underpass. I realized quickly that while this was probably the best place to find an auto rickshaw, it was also an area dense with cars waiting at stop lights, and a prime spot to be approached by poor individuals. I suddenly had five kids all around me asking for money. All kids with no parents whom I could see close by. They were tugging on my pant legs and touching my shoes. They surrounded me. There wasn’t one above 12 years old. I was just astonished at the unfairness in the world. Why were they given this life? Why was I blessed with my life? I played t-ball when I was there age and went to school every day. They’re being forced to beg on a street corner.

These are just a few examples of how this plays out on a daily basis. There are so many issues to consider in this conversation on poverty and I will try to offer my perspective on some of them in the months to come.

Why Move Overseas?

There are three main themes of living overseas that make it so exciting and I must say, addicting to a certain degree, for me (and I imagine most others). These will be recurrent themes as I chronicle my time over here and hopefully offer you some insight.

(On the roof of our apartment building)

1) The challenge of living in a different culture without the safety net of friends, family and a way of life I know so well.
2) The adventure of experiencing things completely unique to a certain part of the world – seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling things I might never be able to in the NW.
3) The amazing people whose context for life is most often times radically different than mine.

(My friend Leonor from Bilbao, Spain [top], my roommate, Jose Luis, from San Sebastian, Spain [middle] and my other roommate Ashok, from Kerala, India - this is the highest point in Delhi)

Last week, I had a day that profoundly struck a chord of this third theme and reminded me exactly why I wanted to live overseas again. During the afternoon before a meeting in Delhi, a man named Popu offered to shine my shoes. I often feel awkward about accepting services like this, but I said okay. He originally offered to do it for 8 Rps., less than $.20 (I ended up paying him 25 Rps.), and you can see in the eyes of people like Popu that they sure have no shame doing their job. He’s making a living. As I was sitting next to him on the ground (he offered me his sandals while he shined my shoes) I learned he had been shining shoes on this corner for 15 years and supporting his wife, two sons and daughter.

(Our flat is on the second floor of the brick building behind this sweet five-story spiral staircase)

Then on my way home, I passed a little stand that was selling mattresses and pillows. I happened to need a pillow so I inquired inside. Beneath the tin room sat three men. The man in the middle, Abdullah, asked me where I was from (a common question) and I replied, ¨the United States.¨ Turns out Abdullah, a Sunni Muslim, left Baghdad, Iraq just 11 days ago and moved to Delhi to escape the war. Politely, but emphatically, he reminded me that nearly all Iraqis are ¨peace-loving people¨ and that they didn’t want this war. I told him that many Americans also don´t want this war and are upset that their government is supporting it. Obviously, Abdullah has seen a side of this war most of us can probably never imagine from what we read and watch on TV.

(Carla de Madrid, Spain, Pablo de Valencia, Spain y Josh de Everett, USA)

Finally, later in the evening, I was walking the maze of side streets and narrow pathways of our neighborhood, Safdarjung Enclave, where countless little shops, vegetable carts, barbershops and tailors reside. I stepped inside one to buy bread and butter and met Monesh, or ¨Roger¨ as he goes by when he works at Delhi Call Center (DCC). Monesh is a friend of the store owner and was just hanging out. He told me, in great English with a slight accent, that currently he was working the UK shift where he works from about 4 p.m. – 2 a.m. to coincide with UK day and evening hours. Working at a call center in India is an incredibly sought after job for its high pay (15-25K Rps./month) and good job benefits. For example, last year Infosys (India´s Microsoft) received 1.4 million job applications of which they hired 2%. I coincidentally ran into him again the other day and now he is on the Australia shift: 4 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Littering

To rightfully honor my time at Luxury Homestays (my guest house), I need to introduce the people I lived with for the past month. The main staff is comprised of five men, (RK Sharma [far left], Sangram [right of me], Rudra, Dilip [far right] and Harish). They always call me “sir” and have really taken me in. They have no relation to each other. They simply all work at the guest house for a man named AK Mishra.


About three weeks ago, I was taking a taxi into Delhi and was sharing it with RK Sharma who was going to see his brother that day. Mr. Sharma is incredibly kind and gentle soul who shared a number of memorable conversations with me on a variety of “life topics”. Well, on this taxi trip to Delhi he mentioned that he had heard that in the United States if you throw something out the window (here he imitates tossing something out the open window with his fingers) you get fined. Now remember, in Delhi and especially in Gurgaon, there is garbage everywhere – on the streets, in the fields, on the ground in the markets. It’s incredibly difficult to find a garbage can (which is probably one the main reason culprits), so the idea of it being illegal to throw something on the ground is quite outrageous.

At this point, I did the math in my head and told him that the fine is around 4,000 Rps (a little less than $90) at which point the taxi driver and him burst out laughing uncontrollably. This was not “ha ha” laughter. This was laughter that accompanies the amazing, the ridiculous, the “I-can’t-believe-I-just-heard/saw-that”. You see, most Indians make less than 2,700 Rps./month, roughly $60. The annual per capita income in India is $720. In the United States, it is $42,000. (Source: International Monetary Fund, 2005)

Adios Mr. Sharma…

Quiz question #1: Do you know the country with the highest per capita income in the world, by far?

Homework: Learn about the Human Development Index, which is part of the United Nations Development Program´s annual Human Development Report. Many see this formula as a much more complete look at the quality of life amongst people in countries around the world. (i.e. The country with the highest per capita income is ranked 12th in the Human Development Index).

http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indices/default.cfm

The Routine

A couple weeks without the Internet, but I'm back up and wired. I'm learning patience though. Now that I have the Internet, of course my power cord to my laptop needs to be replaced.

I have received some inquiries into what my daily life is like over here in India and while it is easy to begin to think, “Well, it’s not that exciting”, I do realize that by living in a developing country, one’s daily routine is naturally going to be a little different than back in America.

Like a cow challenging your route to the market.

So from January 3-29^th, as many of you know, I stayed at a guest house in Gurgaon, one of Delhi’s major suburbs. I work from roughly 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. every day. While at the guest house, I arose at about 7:30 a.m. and hoped that I had 1) hot water in the shower, and 2) water pressure. There is a switch to warm the water, but it didn’t always work and my guest house’s water tank was out of water occasionally so the pressure wasn’t always there either. The guest house then called a taxi to pick me up and take me to work, which cost around $5. Depending on traffic it usually took 15-25 minutes to get to work.

At CII, I work in a corner with four desks. I lucked out and have one of the desks next to the window and we’re on the non-sun side of the building, which I think will be nice once it starts to heat up. Lunch is a little different here than back at home. Lunch is at a specific time, 1-1:30 p.m., and there is a cafeteria where everyone eats together. Lunch is available for 30 Rps. (appx. 70 cents) and for that you receive a full tray of an assortment of foods (it’s always vegetarian and usually includes rice, some type of paneer [sauce you put on top of rice, there are many types], a side of a cooked veggie dish, raita [a cold, sweet “liquidy” dish], salad [no lettuce, just cut up veggies] and a dessert [I like them, not every one does, different consistencies, very sweet]). During the day, there is always tea and coffee available. There are hired staff that do everything from collect tea and coffee cups, photocopy for you, and collect the garbages. There is a lot of bureaucracy that I’m learning to work through. Some of it drives me crazy (“We’ve always done it this way”) and some of it is just me adjusting to an organization with 800 employees from one that had eight.

If I was heading back to the guest house at the end of the day, they would call a cab to pick me up from work. If I was going to Delhi after work or during the day, CII’s Gurgaon office has vans that drive to their two Delhi offices five times a day and I could catch a ride with one of them.

My guest house provided food when I wanted to pay for it and it was very good. As for laundry, I did it in my room, either washing the clothes in the sink or shower with me and hanging them to dry. There are also local people who will iron your clothes (although they always come back folded in a plastic bag for transport). I have had lots of time to read; something I knew would be the case and excited me about my trip. I finished The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I’m now on to The Castle by Franz Kafka, the Czech novelist who wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and just finished The Shade of Swords by M. J. Akbar, which gives an incredibly thorough history of Islam and examines its relationship with Christianity over the past 1300+ years. If you’ve ever thought, “Why does this conflict persist? Why can't they make peace?”, this book provides some insight into why that is so incredibly difficult and complicated.

Outside of that, and I’m sure you are all waiting impatiently to hear about Indian cable TV, well it almost always has some American movie, TV show, or cricket match on to pass the time :)