catch up with the rest of the world.
But there is hope for change and some investment by the government and business making for new opportunity. But change where things have been etched in the old stones takes time....cultural time...generational time and economic time as the wheels just start to grind faster to give Kolkata some new dream and forward motion.
Unfortunately some of the holes people are in may be too deep to climb out....any time soon. The new investments seem to be more focused outside the inner city closer to the airport where the holes are shallower.
Mean time my experiences of witnessing so many people living on the streets in abject poverty where 40 cents a day is the average income for the bottom dwellers. The government claims there's 77,000 homeless....they did not define home or less. It feels like that density has more mass.
This woman lives under a piece of wood. She found a blanket and was stowing it there
--------
There's not much hope for them. Utpal is a few steps up - his income buys food and pays bills.- he has big hopes for his now 4 year old daughter - who is already attending school. And if the wheels turn faster...and don't stop she will have a better chance.
There is a lot of increasingly ubiquitous old run down character mixed in with pure ugly.
The deteriorating buildings are everywhere. There's trash and blight and waste strewn about in vacant patches inside and outside of buildings. Walking while looking down on many side streets is advisable to avoid stepping in the human waste that was dropped by those with no where else to go....
and all the dogs snoozing instead of chasing all the rats scurrying about. But then looking down prevents seeing and maybe bumping into the guys relieving themselves on a tree or building corner or stepping out of the public restroom....
I thought this was isolated behavior ... but it happened a lot and I mostly walked a couple mile perimeter of my hotel, the destination part of the city.
The beggars, physically marred, carrying babies, old and worn, broken and sad hang out in the upscale areas because as Willie Sutton knew. That's where the money is.
When I walked down the streets where folks slept, cooked their meals, bathed in the water outlets, hung out and lived in their less than meager trappings - no one begged. Not even near the banks of the Hooligy (Ganges) river where so many congregate to clean in the dirty river. It was odd. Sticking out like a big white sore thumb, I was not approached. But I was every few feet on Park St. and at times it took a block or more to shake the person tugging at my sleeve and mumbling some non english plea.
I felt bad for not giving. Other than not having less than a 100 rupee bill or charge cards I felt like there was no excuse for me not to help people who live like this. But they do and it's not being fixed.
On a side note... in New Delhi the police are looking into DNA testing the begging women carting babies. There is a cute baby market where you can pick up a baby for show to boost the begging process. Babies often look different than the "moms" so the test will determine gene match - it may not stop begging but it may stem the cute baby market -
But really, it sounds like ripoff American public policy approaches to solving real problems - who is emulating who here....
So... like I said - no fixes in sight.
It was well worth the trip...crusty oysters off set a bit by the pearls and definitely a memorable experience ... of which I only touched on in these vapor trails...dull musings from around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment