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Preeti on the Web |
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Providing Food for Thought |
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Jolted Out of Complacency |
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Each visit to India is a jolt awakening me from complacency. Each visit widens my frame of reference and reminds me of how myopically I had been viewing the world. |
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From a global perspective, Americans live in paradise |
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January 18, 2006 |
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To Contact Preeti: preetiontheweb at yahoo dot com |
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Please note that all text on this webpage is copyrighted ©. Please do not quote or paraphrase without using proper citations. |
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Note: This op-ed column appeared in The Chronicle Jan. 18, 2006. I’m tired of having no money,” a classmate of mine complained last week. I normally would have felt a pang of sympathy for this fellow college student.
But this time, I didn’t.
Instead, I couldn’t help but feel a bit irked by this student’s narrow perspective. I had just returned from a two-week trip to India.
I always feel this way after returning from India, my parents’ country of origin. My visits there have indelibly shaped my worldview by compelling me to appreciate the privileges I enjoy as a U.S. citizen. Here, refrigerated orange juice and Ziploc bags are mundane; there they are luxuries.
Here, I live sheltered from extreme poverty, contaminated water and a heavily patriarchal social structure. There, I see toddlers sleeping on the medians of overcrowded streets, skinny men working too hard for too little and talented young adults who can only dream of fulfilling their true potentials.
Thus, each visit to India is a jolt awakening me from complacency. Each visit widens my frame of reference and reminds me of how myopically I had been viewing the world.
In the United States, I see so many college students calling themselves “poor” and complaining about being short on money. Yet, they have cable television, laptops, iPods and name-brand apparel. They can afford to go out on the weekends and drink until they’re inebriated. Even if it’s all financed with student loans and charge cards, they are fortunate to have access to credit in a way that most other people of the world do not.
As an American, I’ve had my definition of poverty challenged when visiting India. A few years ago while there I was riding through a remote village. The children standing by the roadside were barefoot and unkempt. They lived in thatched huts with no electricity or running water. Their parents were probably illiterate. By American standards, they were hopelessly poor.
Nevertheless, these adequately nourished children of peasant farmers were happy and playful; they cheerfully waved to my family and me as we passed through their village. They had food, housing that was satisfactory by the community’s standards and families that loved them. “Are they truly poor?” I asked myself.
Just what constitutes poverty? Here in the United States, the people we consider poor have far more materially than most who are considered middle class in developing countries and those who were middle class in this country a hundred years ago. For example, public housing projects here have a constant 24-hour supply of electricity and running water (including hot water). I can’t say the same for middle-class homes in India or homes a century ago in the United States. Clearly, the “poor” in American are not poor when looked at from a global or historical perspective.
In trying to determine just what constitutes poverty, I find myself trying to avoid two dangerous outcomes. First, I don’t want to become indifferent to the suffering of poor people in the United States, though their plight is less extreme than what I’ve witnessed in India. Secondly, I don’t want to overly romanticize bucolic village life. Rural farmers may be happy in their day-to-day lives, but that doesn’t mean that we should ignore high infant mortality rates and fatal infectious diseases. I suppose, ultimately, each society should define poverty on its own terms. Naturally then, the threshold between being poor and not being poor will vary from society to society.
Given these thoughts on poverty, I often wonder to myself, “Where do I fit in? What’s my role in this world?”
Because of my life experiences, I have never been able to relegate the problems of poverty and social injustice to the far recesses of my mind. I cannot turn my back to the serious challenges that confront our world. I am an empowered individual living in a country with vast resources, and I stand in the position of being able to improve others’ lives. Consequently, I have not only a desire, but also a responsibility to take action.
That’s a large part of the reason why I’m here at Duke, getting a master’s degree in public policy.
From a global perspective, we are living in paradise. Let’s not forget that. |
