Friday, June 10, 2016

An excuse titled globalization

“By the 90s, prisons had become America’s dominant mental-health institutions. The situation is particularly extreme in Florida, which spends less money per capita on mental health than any state except Idaho. Meanwhile, between 1996 and 2014, the number of Florida prisoners with mental disabilities grew by 150%.”

This is something i read recently on The New Yorker, before sharing it on a WhatsApp group i’m part of. It’s nobly called Spamkhors Inc. We spam there with utmost dedication. Not your usual good-morning messages with a flower bouquet in the image. More like random stuff with the potential to enlighten/entertain/educate the group members against their wish. Of late, i’ve started sharing stuff that is generic to the USA. Things like how more than 50% of the world population today are susceptible to heart diseases thanks to only one cause: stress. Or for that matter, how addictions are leading to cancer at a rate faster than ever before. In other words, lifestyle has become an unavoidable symptom and most of these research studies are conducted by American institutes and pertain primarily to the West. Nobody there gives a rat’s tail about how Asian and African countries fit in the equation. Having said that, the reason i keep sharing stuff that are American in nature is because we—believe it or not—agree or disagree—are a part of American Civilization. They call it globalization but that's an insufficient term. Whatever is happening in the USA is going to happen in other countries. And India happens to be amongst the firsts to ape the West (read: the USA). Of course at a delayed rate as we are not THAT quick yet. But the patterns are obvious, sociologically speaking. As a nation, we stopped looking for solutions from within. Got a problem? See what "they" did and copy.

I once watched a YouTube video, a clip from a Pakistani show where a gentleman was making a point on how the Ummah hasn't done anything significant in over half a millennium. He was, undoubtedly, referring to the Golden Age of Science when the Muslim world came up with astonishing discoveries and inventions. (Algebra, Alchemy, etc.) In that clip, this man surmised how Pakistanis should be ashamed that they live in a world where they haven't contributed anything significant to the society. ("Not even the rubber on a car windshield wiper...") I firmly believe that slap applies to India as well; especially the urban side of it. What exactly have we accomplished so original in nature that the flow turned from East to West? Let me think about it and never get back to you.

1 comment:

Parmesh Rudrra said...

You have come a long way.