Episode XII - Life in the Third World
Ah yes the third world. It is almost something out of the twilight zone. Or rather out of Bizarro’s Bizarro world, you know from Superman, but with out the super powers and with out Superman. You may be asking yourself “what am I talking about?” And don’t worry that you were talking to yourself in asking your self that question; I do it all the time so I won’t think anything of it.
What I am saying is that it appears that things are generally done in an unusual and unconventional manner in the third world. Meaning that - they use systems that just don’t make no sense at all……
I am not sure about other parts of the world, but in the US and specifically, the traffic police are not responsible for designing the flow of traffic. The police are usually there to enforce the laws and protect the general public. In other words or word, they police. Here in Bangalore I realized to my chagrin that the traffic police are in charge of such endeavors. God help this place. No wonder. By the way in California we have transportation engineers that do the traffic planning and guess what? They can’t go out and arrest anyone….Damn the logic!
Well, sarcasm aside the election process is even more fascinating. I asked someone how the Chief Minister is elected. I first off explained that in California we directly elect a governor through a popular vote. The governor is the equivalent of the Chief Minister in the state of Karnataka. Here however the Members of the Legislative Assembly, MLA’s, here select a CM. The concept I am trying to convey is that there is no check and balance between the legislative branch of government and the executive branch or there may not be any distinction between the two roles. That means how the ministers are selected has nothing to do with the people. How f’n scary is that? What a haven for corruption. You can pretty much scratch all my other posts on this blog in reference to voting….
I was also told that we can’t have direct voting cause of the high illiteracy. And that the people can’t be depended to chose the right people. I was at this point dumbfounded. Now if you recall the literacy percentage in India is in 50% range. This figure is at the bottom of most of the third world nations. Even if you look at only the urban areas it is only barely competing with other third world nations. Now India with the 10th largest economy in the world, this includes the first and second worlds too in case you were wondering, it probably needs to spend some of that money. Another excuse I hear is that there are too many people. All I have to say is China. And their written language is far more difficult than any Indian language or even English. I know as I was learning Kanji, which is the Japanese adoption of the Chinese character set. There are thousands of these Chinese characters… Another thing is why solve the entire equation at once. Start in the major cities. After all this is done change the election system.
Well that’s life in a third world country!
What I am saying is that it appears that things are generally done in an unusual and unconventional manner in the third world. Meaning that - they use systems that just don’t make no sense at all……
I am not sure about other parts of the world, but in the US and specifically, the traffic police are not responsible for designing the flow of traffic. The police are usually there to enforce the laws and protect the general public. In other words or word, they police. Here in Bangalore I realized to my chagrin that the traffic police are in charge of such endeavors. God help this place. No wonder. By the way in California we have transportation engineers that do the traffic planning and guess what? They can’t go out and arrest anyone….Damn the logic!
Well, sarcasm aside the election process is even more fascinating. I asked someone how the Chief Minister is elected. I first off explained that in California we directly elect a governor through a popular vote. The governor is the equivalent of the Chief Minister in the state of Karnataka. Here however the Members of the Legislative Assembly, MLA’s, here select a CM. The concept I am trying to convey is that there is no check and balance between the legislative branch of government and the executive branch or there may not be any distinction between the two roles. That means how the ministers are selected has nothing to do with the people. How f’n scary is that? What a haven for corruption. You can pretty much scratch all my other posts on this blog in reference to voting….
I was also told that we can’t have direct voting cause of the high illiteracy. And that the people can’t be depended to chose the right people. I was at this point dumbfounded. Now if you recall the literacy percentage in India is in 50% range. This figure is at the bottom of most of the third world nations. Even if you look at only the urban areas it is only barely competing with other third world nations. Now India with the 10th largest economy in the world, this includes the first and second worlds too in case you were wondering, it probably needs to spend some of that money. Another excuse I hear is that there are too many people. All I have to say is China. And their written language is far more difficult than any Indian language or even English. I know as I was learning Kanji, which is the Japanese adoption of the Chinese character set. There are thousands of these Chinese characters… Another thing is why solve the entire equation at once. Start in the major cities. After all this is done change the election system.
Well that’s life in a third world country!
posted by .dxr at 12:31 AM
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