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“. . . AND GULLIVER RETURNS”

--In Search of Utopia—

BOOK 7

OUR VISIT TO INDUS

Searching for the Road from Poverty

by

Lemuel Gulliver XVI as told to Jacqueline Slow

Copyright 2009 by Lemuel Gulliver XVI

SMASHWORDS EDITION

ISBN 978-0-9823076-0-1

Dear friends—Obviously I wrote this series to be read from Book 1 to the end, but silly me! Readers often begin with what sounds interesting to them. This may leave them unaware of the characters, my friends and I. So let me introduce us. We were boyhood friends, as wild and as close as geese heading south for the winter. But our university educations split us philosophically like a drop of quicksilver hitting the floor. But like those balls of mercury, when brought together, they again become one.As have we.

Ray became a Catholic priest and moved far to the right of where our teenage liberalism had bound us. Ray calls himself a neo-conservative. We think he is a reactionary.

Lee slid to the left of our adolescent leanings, and somewhere along the line became an atheist. Lee is a lawyer.

Concannon, Con for short, retired from his very successful business. I guess his business experience moved him a bit to the right, to conservatism—a conservative just to the right of the middle.

Then there’s me. I think I’m pretty much a middle of the roader—except for my passion to save our planet by reducing our population before global warming, massive poverty and far-reaching famines decimate our humanity. Hope this introduction makes our discussions make a bit more sense.

By the way, as most of you know, we have put our photos before every bit of dialogue. This should make you more familiar with us. So the books read more like plays. Since most of you read the books in PDF or EPUB format it is no problem. But if you read them in RTF or TXT you will probably lose the photos. This will make the transitions of the conversations more difficult to follow. LG

Table of Contents

Arriving in Indus

It was not far from Singaling to Indus. Just a five hour flight on Singapore Airlines, still in the Southeast Asian part of the world--but what a universe of difference. From one of the three most advanced countries on the planet to a Third World nation just trying to get its overpopulated head above water. The globalized ocean was drowning this rural, impoverished, overpopulated land. Water is an apt analogy. You need water to live, but too much and you drown. Indus, like its neighbors Bangladesh and India were drowning in humanity. They educate one young mind and ten illiterate babies are born to take his place. For every step forward it was ten steps back.

Indus was welcoming the sweatshop jobs that China and Vietnam had earlier used to catapult them into the global economy. The money they earned helped to finance their fledgling education and health care, so they now had climbed another rung or two up the economic ladder. They now had some exports of food, clothes and toys, and soon they hoped be exporting information and microchips.

As we made our way up the ramp to the incoming visitors’ area, leading our luggage like Argentinean dog walkers, I spotted a dark little man holding a yellow sign under his chin. ‘Commander and Clan’. I knew we had a fellow with a sense of humor as our driver. His companion laid flower leis over our heads. I’m not sure what they are called here, but I’ll go with my Hawaiian vocabulary until I get my linguistic sea legs.

—“Gentlemen, I am Gopol Ghosh. I welcome you to our country.”

—“Mr. Ghosh, we are deeply honored that you would take time from you presidential duties to meet our clan.Please meet my friends, Father Ray, Con and Lee. You may be getting comments from any angle from these three. Ray we think of as a reactionary, Lee is a far-out liberal and Con is a retired businessman and a rather staunch conservative.”

—“The honor is mine gentlemen, I assure you. I will take you to your hotel now, then we can have dinner in about an hour and you can fire away your questions.”

Our drive, mainly on dirt roads, passed the makeshift slum houses--some with driftwood roofs, some with corrugated plastic and some with corrugated metal roofs. The monsoon season would soon visit with the vengeance of Shiva and the solid roofs would offer some protection from the sheets of water that the gods would dump from the sky to cool the 110 to 120 degree furnace that roasted and parched this ancient plain.

There were no sacred cows blocking our way. This country was too poor to support the Brahma bulls that wandered aimlessly in nearby India. So our driver didn’t need to cow-tow to the bulls as Indian chauffeurs must do. My earlier impression of Indian drivers was that they tried to avoid the cow but aimed at the pedestrians. Maybe it was their way of reducing the population, or perhaps it was merely spinning the wheel of karma just a bit faster.

President Ghosh, the newly elected leader of this human hell, was genuinely concerned. He pointed out the landmarks more with pity than with pride. His concern was obvious and deep. And we shared his concern. Our lives are so blessed, and these hungry human skeletons scavenge for scraps to allow their malnourished bodies to survive until sunset. The accident of one’s geographical birthplace and how the cards are dealt in the parent-poker lottery determine 99.9% of our fates. kismet, karma, luck, predestination—it isn’t fair. But then as my grand dad said, ‘things are never fair.’ Our American bodies are well fed, some of our minds are well read, we hold the spark of a realistic hope for our futures, the feeling that if we have a dream—we can make it a reality. But what hope is there for these illiterate adults, what hope for their children? Do they care as much as we do whether tomorrow dawns. And will the dawn come up like thunder, as Kipling penned of our Asian neighbor, or will it merely slither in like the ever-present cobras bringing fear, despair and maybe an early demise?

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such an energized epiphany that we are indeed brothers. So many of us hapless, hopeless, rootless--but so often the prisoners of our own decisions. So often jailed by our traditions. So often mired in the confinement of our helplessness. Do I have any hope of helping the helpless? Of feeding the starving? Of aiding the sick? It strikes me again that throwing dollars at the impoverished will give only a temporary respite. It may lengthen the life of an AIDS patient; give a year of schooling to some impoverished boys, and maybe a few girls; buy some mosquito nets to reduce the incidence of malaria; but will it make any difference in the reduction of poverty and illiteracy. Will it open the door to human happiness?

President Ghosh opened our conversation.

--“Let me give you some background on Indus. We are intimately connected to India, but we are looked upon as a poor country cousin, a bungling bumpkin that held our parent down for centuries before we were cut loose. We were an anchor holding back the mother ship, India. So left to our own devices we are stumbling along moving from a Fourth World country, if there is such a thing, into the Third World and soon into the Second World.”

—“Sounds like you have world of work to do!”

—“Well, Ray, maybe not a whole world of work, but at least a hemisphere! But if China can do it and the upper class Indians can do it, there is hope for us. Let’s look at India for a minute. Their 800 million poor are like our whole country. Let us look at India for a moment. Seeing their problems can give you a glimpse of ours, but ours are worse.

“India has more arable land that any country but yours, but it can barely feed itself. Small farmers can’t afford tractors. They must rely on cattle to pull their plows. If they run out of human and cow manure they must buy expensive fertilizers. In the Punjab, water availability is a major concern for wheat farming. The water tables in some parts of the country are dropping several feet per year, even though we still have heavy monsoons.

“The Green Revolution of a few years ago has turned brown. Mouths are multiplying faster than rice can rise or wheat can grow. But while the poor are famished, the newly middle class multitudes demand an increase in quality and quantity. The fattened wallets demand more variety and their ready cash sidetracks the food train. Only

with adequate rainfall and smaller families can the small farmers feed themselves and maybe have something left over to sell. But with inflation in the double digits, there is less buying power and if they do earn some rupees their consumer options are limited.

“In India family farming has reduced as people have moved to the cities. It has shrunk in size and quantity, and a few years ago mounting debt began to drive some farmers to suicide. Now many find it more profitable to sell their land to developers of industrial buildings. And those who continue to farm often switch to the fruits and vegetables that the more prosperous Indians now demand. But with few refrigerated trucks and freight cars, their more valuable produce may not make it to the market. In India it costs six times more to get food to market than to produce it. The inefficient food transportation system eats up much of the profit of the farmer’s toil and he is lucky to get 20 cents of each consumer’s dollar. This is much less than most farmers worldwide receive.

“The Green Revolution introduced high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat, expanded the use of irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers, and transformed the northwestern plains into India’s breadbasket. Between 1968 and 1998, the production of cereals in India more than doubled. But since the 1980s the government has not helped to improve the irrigation possibilities.

“River-fed irrigation systems were not built in the quantity needed to water the fields growing the high yield wheat and rice. This meant that wells had to be drilled and electric pumps installed. This has led to a 100 foot drop in the water table over the last three decades. The poor water management by the government has resulted in 40% of India’s farms having no irrigation facilities.

“Lower rainfall during the recent monsoon seasons cut drinking water supplies and significantly reduced the harvest of food and cotton crops. Since 60% of India’s population are farmers, a poor harvest can be devastating to the economy which is already reeling under a 12% annual inflation rate and skyrocketing food and oil prices.”

—“The lack of fresh water is one of my two major concerns for the planet’s population. This often goes hand in hand with proper sanitation. These affect more than a third of the world's population.(1)”

—“It’s more than just a lack of water, isn’t it?”

—“There are so many water borne diseases. Some are carried by fecal material to the mouths of the unsuspecting. There are viruses, like those causing hepatitis, and there are bacteria and harmful protozoa. Then there are organic and inorganic substances that may build up in water pipes and find their way to the mouths and other mucus membranes. Legionnaire’s disease is an example. Some toxins are inhaled. Some are absorbed by or penetrate the skin.

“Then there are diseases that result from a lack of soap and water, like trachoma, that

has caused six million to go blind. Even pneumonia and diarrhea are increased because of a lack of effective hand washing. Then there are diseases caused by small animals and larvae that live in water. Shistosomiasis, caused by a fresh water snail, affects 160 million people. That’s the disease that wiped out Napoleon’s army in Egypt. Then insects, like mosquitoes and tsetse flies, that breed in water give us malaria, yellow fever and other scourges. Global warming is increasing these and is moving the territories of these pests northward.

“Another problem occurs when other toxins enter the water supply. Pesticides, lead from pipes, mercury, arsenic from ground water. You remember that Bangladesh had millions of people exposed to ground water arsenic at 100 times the maximum proposed by the World Health Organization. Tens of thousands died. Many more developed skin lesions. And this isn’t just limited to Bangladesh. China, India, Mexico and parts of South America have the potential problem.(2) Nearly all of these problems have affected us at one time or another.

We can trace water purification ideas back 6000 years. So filtering or boiling water is not a novel technique.(3) Hippocrates developed a filter to make water healthier to drink. Chlorination has been used for over 150 years, still one-sixth of the world’s population are without clean water and over 40% don’t have adequate sanitation.”

“Many people in the world have access to only a total of a gallon of water a day. Americans use three gallons just to flush a toilet. Add in drinking and cooking water, showers or baths, watering flowers and lawns, and the water used per person for agricultural and industrial uses and you have a huge discrepancy between the First and Third Worlds in water usage.”

—“You understand, Father Ray. We have water but it is not clean. Cholera is a recurring problem. We don’t have sanitation plants but over half of our household waste is recycled. Feces and urine are used as fertilizer for hydroponic farms. Reclaimed water, when we can process it, is used for drinking, cooking and agriculture.

RECOGNIZING THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS

”Years ago when I was at Cambridge my economics professor said that the World Bank reported that poverty was down by half from 1981 to 2001, from 40% making under a dollar a day in 1981 to 21% making a dollar a day in 2001. But the world population had increased from 4.3 billion to 6 billion in that time and the inflation rate for the world had increased by over 100% so the total number earning under a dollar a day in 1981 was the same as in 2001, about 800 million, but their purchasing power had been reduced. When researchers, like the World Bank, tell us that a percentage change has occurred in poverty, we must look at the total numbers. It’s that old bugaboo of ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’!

“Population growth cancels out economic gains unless the economy leaps forward like it did in China. The gross domestic product in developing countries rose by 30% during those 20 years. But like I said, the inflation rate went up 100%. That’s about 1 1/2% per year, actually it is quite a bit less when you think of compounded yearly increases. But when you look at East Asia the gross domestic product had an annual growth rate of 6.4% and the people living in poverty dropped from 58 to 16%. This was the Chinese economic miracle. In this part of the world 400 million people were no longer in extreme poverty, earning less than a dollar a day. But outside of China there was an increase of 300 million in poverty.

“In South Asia a 5.5% average growth rate in the GDP was accompanied by rapid population growth so the number of extremely poor people only dropped from 41 to 31%.

“In Sub-Saharan Africa the per-capita GDP dropped by 13%. With their rapid population growth, 50 million more people entered the area of abject poverty. The new total was 314 million, more than the entire U.S. population—and about 50% of the entire Sub-Saharan population.

“Global income inequality is greater now than it has been in modern times. The richest one percent of the population have as much money as the bottom 60%,and the top 25% have 75% of the money.. So most of the world’s people are poor.

“We can glean some of these trends from the predictions of Thomas Malthus in his essays on the principles of population from 1798 to 1826. He predicted that population would increase faster than food and that as population increased laborers would be less in demand so would be paid less. The gap between rich and poor would therefore increase.

“It is clear to those of us in government that excess population is the anchor to any economy that wants to grow. Then there is the conundrum of poor uneducated people. The democratic ideal and the socialistic goal is to equalize opportunities and benefits. This means reducing the income gap between rich and poor. From a pragmatic viewpoint, more poor but eager workers should contribute to a labor intensive economic situation where a country benefits from the richer countries outsourcing to them. But as the economy develops and prospers fewer unskilled workers are needed. They become superfluous as machines and robots do their work and as the development of advanced technologies become the source of globalized riches. But the fact is that every country has more uneducated and unskilled people than they can possibly use, even at the beginning of an economic evolution. This means that a recession in the West is a depression here in the East.

“I have heard it said that the poor will always be with us. What a pity because they will just become poorer and poorer as their lack of education, skill or effort will always keep them on the mat. I hear the voices of the equalitarians bemoaning the plight of the poor, but I don’t see too many of their wallets opening to buy Park Avenue apartments or lobster dinners for the billions of slum dwellers. It reminds me that talk is cheap and charity is expensive, but reality rules. So in my country we have to educate our people, young and old. It is our only hope for grabbing a share of the world’s riches.”

COMPARISON WITH INDIA AND BANGLADESH

—“Mr Ghosh, you are a neighbor to India on the sub-continent. You share their major religion. But your economic status is far behind India’s. How do you see yourself in terms of comparing and contrasting with India?”

--”That is a huge question. Do you have about twenty years to hear my answer? You know that today, in 2025, India has become the third largest economy in the world. It is ahead of Russia and Brazil and has just passed Japan. It has been growing at almost 6% a year when most other countries are growing at about 3% annually. The infrastructure of power production, highways and railroads, once provided exclusively by the public sector is increasingly being funded by private money. Private capital has been streaming into India as its potential unfolds. And the democratic government and economic freedom make India a safer bet for the security of private assets, but also for profit. When you compare the autocratic governmental takeovers of foreign owned assets in Russia, Southern Africa and northern South America, India is very safe. We plan to follow India’s lead once we can get our non-farm economy growing and our education programs functioning fully.

“Now let me look at a few aspects of our similarities and differences. India’s long history, particularly with its caste system, has resulted in a number of high class wealthy people and a far greater number of uneducated and impoverished people. A third of the world’s poorest people live in India. The average number of years of education is about 4 for boys and 2 for girls, but has been increasing. Its literacy level is 75% for men and 50% for women. Ours is less than half that. How can we get the best minds into the flow of technology, how can we produce a population that can earn enough to be consumers?

In India their 800 million poor are being swallowed by the skyrocketing inflation rates while the rich Indians buy more companies and run with the rich of the globalized world. But we have no rich, we are merely drowning victims in the sub-continent’s ocean of pathetic poor.

“India has been working at increasing its electronic technology so that it became a leader in the world. A problem was that so many Indians with superior educations opted to leave for more comfortable countries with higher paying jobs.While China was used as a source for cheap labor, India’s advantages were a nearly universal use of English by the educated classes and its more advanced technical education. Its democracy, while cumbersome, was more efficient than was Mao’s state planned socialism.

“The high caste people were capable of high levels of education. With Gandhi’s theoretical elimination of the castes, there was more possibility for education for more people. Of course the Sikhs had advocated equality since their early years. And their superior cultural and educational status helped India considerably. But in Indus we are Sikh-poor you might say. We are a long way from the Punjab and we don’t have the commerce, the military or the education to attract them. But we are trying to entice more Sikhs to immigrate here.

“As you know India will be the most populated country in five to ten years with 1.4 billion people. And even today, in 2025, it has more workers in the 20 to 24 age range than does China, 116 million in India versus 94 million in China. Until recently it had a superior education for its upper classes, but China now seems to be winning the diploma derby. But India’s long history with English as a primary language has made its graduates in medicine, information technology and mathematics more valuable in our globalized world. There is no question that having a commanding presence on the internet has worked to its advantage. Few countries have been able to match its 5 to 12% annual economic growth.

“Well-trained Indians have worked as service specialists in a global IT network for decades and are rated at least as effective as the American and European hardware and software developers. The per capita income has increased more than ten times in the last ten years, but the number is deceptive because most Indians are rural and still live in poverty, at a dollar or two a day. But the top end of the monetary mountain has its share of billionaires and highly paid professionals. It would be higher if more highly educated Indians would stay home, but living in England and the U.S. usually brings a much higher standard of living. Of course the strong family ties keep many in their home country. As humans we must often make the choice between economic security and emotional security, between the accumulation of riches and the comfort of family.

“Being a rural country, with 95% of our people working their farms and rice paddies, our farmers’ income levels are in the $1 to $4 a day area. We recognize that education is the key to our escape from poverty and to a share of the global wealth. While India’s gross national product is growing ours is stagnant.

“Much of India’s income is generated by other countries outsourcing to them. Because so many speak English they are used by airlines and hotels for worldwide reservations services. Because of their electronic skills, many foreign companies use Indian companies to solve the ever-occurring gremlins that invade our computers or software. Indian lawyers, who are schooled in English and American common law, are used to do a large amount of English and American legal work. They generally charge less than 10% of the fees in the West. With the advanced medical knowledge of the Indian medical community they do a great deal of research in medicine and in the pharmaceutical fields. They also manufacture a large amount of the world’s pharmaceuticals. Indian doctors efficiently read x-rays and CT scans from the West that are sent by email, Even surgical operations for Westerners are done 50 to 80% cheaper than in the West. And they are done in five star hospitals. We can’t do any of this. When our youth are university educated they generally leave. But in India, because of the low cost of living and the strong family traditions, many young people stay—even though they could earn much more elsewhere.

“India’s progress is not universal. There is great progress for its educated citizens and almost no progress in the nearly million villages where about eight hundred million people reside. With 100,000 millionaires, one Indian in 10,000 is a millionaire, compared to one in 40 in your country. We have only five in Indus. So we have a long way to go. Right now we are just trying to establish a manufacturing base and an education infrastructure. We are working hard to get the low level manufacturing outsourced jobs that China and Vietnam once got. Globalization is giving us a chance to get a piece of the economic pie.

“Right now it is just a crumb or two from a stale crust, but eventually we expect to be able to nibble at the apples and berries in the pie filling. We have just signed a contract with Scottish shrimp companies to hand peel their shrimp at fifty cents an hour. It is cheaper for them to fly the shrimp here, let us peel them by hand, then fly them back, than it is to have the shrimp machine peeled in Scotland by $11 an hour workers. 120 Scottish workers lost their jobs, but over 2000 of our people now have jobs that pay well for our economy.

“Outsourcing labor to us gives us employment. Asking for the same pay rates or amenities as would be given in the developed country would boomerang the jobs back to the developed countries. For us ‘sweatshop’ labor is a giant step up, the first step to economic achievement. Your ‘do-gooders’ in the West aren’t doing us any favors when you pressure your companies to equalize our situation with yours. Our comforts will come. Without the outsourcing we would have few jobs. We poor people see the jobs as opportunities, not as slavery. A hundred years ago England and the U.S. were where we are today. Seventy years ago it was Japan, sixty years ago Korea, forty years ago China, thirty years ago Vietnam and Thailand—now it is our turn.

“Globalization has caused loses a large number of low paying jobs in the West, but it gives us, in the impoverished world, ten to twenty times as many jobs--jobs that are well paid for us. Of course the billionaire capitalists reap most of the profit. But we are better off. And eventually we will be the capitalists.

“It was obvious that the overpopulation and poverty of India and Indus are tugging us backward at the same time that Indian business and science are leaping into the future. 60% of all Indians are below the age of 35, and 60% of our people are under 28. This means that without strong population control the population will explode even more.

“A small dent in India’s population is occurring as 16,000 people a day contract HIV. This helps to blunt the 75,000 daily births but it is only a small finger in the dike holding back the human inundation that is inevitable. Yes commander.”

—“My father always enjoyed the Indians more than any other group. They were so friendly and accommodating. I remember him telling me about the work ethic he found in Indians at home and abroad. Indians in business have always had a strong work ethic. In Singapore, the UK, Africa, and the U.S., Indians are prepared to work seven day weeks and long hours.”

—“My people work very hard in our fields. But it has been my experience that poor people will work very hard when given the chance. I remember being in California some years ago and seeing the Mexican bra ceros working in the fields. Nobody works harder. Your countrymen also have the reputation of working hard.”

—“But there’s a big difference between pushing a plow seven days a week and managing a restaurant seven days a week, or setting up a business. Some jobs are pure drudgery, others are interesting, even enjoyable. But speaking of unenjoyable work, I understand that in India there are a number of people, even children, doing slave labor. Is that also true here?”

—“If it exists I’m not aware of it. But India has more opportunities for cottage industries than we have. Rug making, hand made textiles, and a number of other jobs are available for low income workers. Then it is not uncommon for the better off people to hire household servants—a bearer or butler, a cook, a dobie or washing person, and maybe a chauffeur.”

—“My friend knew of a case in Calcutta where an 8 year old girl worked all day until nearly midnight cleaning and doing other jobs. She got a floor to sleep on, some food and $2.25 a month.”

—“Child slavery exists even when there are laws against it. Parents are eager to get their children into employment because it is one less mouth to feed at home and it is hoped that the child will have a better life. But selling young girls or boys into the sex trade is particularly brutal. Calcutta, Mumbai, and every major city and minor town provides a home for the sex traders.

“Cruelty to children is a universal in every land and every social class. Religious, and non-religious, rich and poor, educated and ignorant—all succumb too often to mistreating their children. Poor or non-existent health care, child marriages, lack of effective education, backbreaking work, all fall on the powerless—our future citizens who will soon manage our world.

“Babies born in hospitals, in our country as in the developing world, are up to 20 times more likely to contract an infection than those in industrialized countries. Poor hygiene in maternity wards is usually to blame. Most of the infections contracted don’t respond to antibiotics. Deaths of new-borns account for over one-third of all child mortality across the world. Infections during pregnancy, and after birth, kill over a million and a half babies every year, mainly in southern Africa and in this part of the world.You would not believe the atrocious conditions in most of our ramshackled hospitals, for children and adults.

“The effects of social deprivation in India and Pakistan make it difficult for either country to compete fully in the global economy. India, likes to compare itself to China as an important emerging market, but China's great economic advances have been built on a solid work force that is better educated and healthier than India's. Their reduced population has allowed them to divert money that would have gone to primary education for the 400 million children who were not born because of their one-child policy. That money could then be used to improve the education of those children who were born.

It allowed them to increase money for higher education, for health care, and for strengthening the country’s infrastructure. India had its educated middle class, but it was

only about 25% of the population. Nearly half of the population was becoming literate, but the babies came faster than books could be printed. On the other hand, China was educating nearly all of its children. It was opening top level universities. And their economic success funded all this. But countries on our sub-continent lagged. Feudal uneducated populations can deliver only so much to the international economy.”

—“What do we do in our private economies when our checkbooks don’t balance? We either take a second job to earn more, or we cut expenses. Our middle class people have reduced their fertility rate. Why? They want more money to live the kind of lives they want and they want more education for the children that they do have. Usually both spouses work so income goes up.”

—“Con, you remember Tim Russert, one of America’s top newsmen? His dad worked two jobs for many years so that Tim and his sisters could get university educations. And Con, didn’t your dad teach day school and night school then work weekends lifeguarding at the beach and build his own house so that you and your sister could have better lives and get your college educations.”

—“I remember that, Lee? Ya, he worked his tail off. What an inspiration. But back to you Mr. Ghosh.”

—“OK. So our problems are worse than India’s. I just wanted to give you the picture of where we are in this part of the world, with India and China starting to work their way upwards, with Pakistan surviving on foreign aid and some industry, and with us as the Hindu Bangladesh.

“In India with over a billion people, only a quarter of them have enough money to be consumers. This is to about the same number of consumers as there are in the U.S., but the Indian disposable income is not yet as great. With that many people you are bound to have a large number of highly intelligent people. Many of these have studied hard and have been admitted to some of the finest technological schools in the world. I was in Bangalore not too long ago. It is a bustling city with huge numbers of graduate engineers and high tech people. It is an example of what India has done. And while many of these electronic experts leave India for the West, many stay as the major computer and telecommunications companies have set up shop in India to make use of this monolith of brain power.”

--“I was there many years ago. Balmy Bangalore, reminded me of Hawaii without the surf. Of course it is impossible to find surf in the hills many miles from the ocean. It is certainly a place I could live! I was there helping to train the strength training coaches for their Olympic sports. With a 50 meter pool, an eighteen hole golf course and outstanding sports facilities, I didn’t want to leave.”

—“Commander, it sounds like you may know it better than I do! But on with our story. The primary concern for India in the 1990s was to invest in electrical power. Without this major factor of infrastructure not much could happen. But India’s major economic advances recently have been because of a superior engineering education for those who qualified. This along with the long tradition of English as a major language brought India leadership in many sales areas and support areas. So their education is now emphasizing engineering and salesmanship.

“But with the current economic success many think that the great traditions of our sub-continent need to be continued, so philosophy, religion and the arts are given a strong emphasis in our educational system. I fully concur. We do not live by circuit boards alone! We found that more students were studying Sanskrit in doctoral programs in the USA than in India. We have to be human, not merely robotic producers of wealth. We have to ask ‘why’ as they have done in America. Memorizing is essential as a starting point but it can place severe restrictions on free thinking. If we are to free our thinking and give our imaginations free rein we must learn these skills in school. Memorization does not beget freedom of thought. You can’t keep your horse stabled all the time then just let it out to run the Kentucky Derby or the Grand National.

“To be prepared to meet the challenges of today’s world we must not only narrow our focus to know the intricacies of our universe to the smallest detail, but we must be able to see as much of the whole as possible. We need the sciences to inform us and enlarge our understanding of things great and small, but science is not the only achievement of the human mind. As Nietzsche pointed out, we have achieved in many truly human areas like philosophy, religion, literature, music, the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture and, of course, war. I want to leave the cruelty of war in the past while we live in a future comforted by the humanities. But that is a dream for the future. Just now our job is to survive in our globalized technological dog-eat-dog world.”

“Your capitol city reminds me much more of old Calcutta than modern Mumbai. Do you have the same problems in trying to clean it up? I remember in the old days every morning watching the trucks pick up the hundreds or thousands of bodies that had died on the streets the night before.”

—“I guess in your travels that you didn’t hear that Kolkata is the new name for Calcutta. You are correct in saying that it was once one of the hellholes of the earth. The “black hole of Calcutta” was its most hideous memory and the animal sacrifices to the goddess Kali reminded us of the Thuggi who in earlier days had captured humans to be sacrificed to her. As you know our word “thug” comes from those religious marauders of yesteryear.”

—“My father told me about one pitiful beggar that he used to encounter near the Hugli River. Without air conditioning all the autos kept their windows down. The leprous arm of Ashok would be thrust into every stopped vehicle, expecting some rupees to be dropped into the rusty pail that hung from his fingerless wrist. He was the most pitiful and needy of the paupers who worked the busy intersections.

“In earlier days after being met by their Indian hosts and after being appropriately garlanded with the fragrant blossoms that visitors prized, they would make their way down the potholed roadway, past the garbage dump with its crown of vultures and into the dankest city in the world where the wares of Bengal were openly sold. Tiger claws. Cobra skin belts, Indian silks, spices, saris and all sorts of aphrodisiacs and exotic trinkets.”

—“Some of that still exists, but as India has entered the 21st century it has pulled Kolkata into the 20th. In fact parts of Kolkata are entering the 1970s. Their new airport, and the four lane road that passes where the old city dump had been, makes you realize that you were not in hell.”

—“But that 105 degree temperature made me wonder! I know that Kolkata is working its way out of what James Thomson called ‘the city of dreadful nights’.

—“Yes, he wrote ‘The City is of Night; perchance of Death, But certainly of Night.’Then Kipling used the phrase in writing about another former Indian city, Lahore.

.“But no longer do you see the trucks picking up the 3000 bodies that had died on the streets the night before. The tin roofed wooden shacks that lined the main roads are disappearing. The city now produces more electrical power than it needs—some of it coming from burning the nearly 5 million pounds of garbage it produces daily. Private business now helps to build the city and the inhabitants work to keep it clean. The sacred cattle, the bane of transportation, are being rounded up and fenced in.

“Jyoti Basu, the Communist executive of the city told the inhabitants, that ‘The society cannot survive without discipline.’ While I am not a Communist I believe in this concept strongly. I might, however, express it a bit differently. I would say that ‘a society

cannot progress without discipline.’ Toynbee’s observation that societies die from within should be taken to heart by you Americans, and many of your Western partners. If you expect to survive, you must keep the masses of citizens progressing—in education and in their work ethics. Our problem in Indus is not only to survive, but to progress. Your problem in the West is to survive through progress.

“But back to my ramblings, so while Kolkata is cleaning up its act, India’s capitol city, New Delhi, is drowning under the dual oceans of humanity and air pollution. 500,000 people a year immigrate to the city and breathe the excrements of the oil fueled products of modern technology. It is said that ten thousand people a year die from the fumes.

“Indian children are often sold to people to work away from home. 50,000 children working in New Delhi, usually as slave labor. In Indus we have some such workers, but not nearly as many as in India. We don’t have the industry that could accommodate such labor.

ECONOMY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS

“We have a gigantic problem with solving the real problems of the world and of our society pragmatically, then we are forced to disrupt the myths and religious traditions that have given stability to our society for centuries. We need the stability of our myths or we will degenerate into an anarchic society as you Americans often have. As long ago as 1831 when De Tocqueville came to your country, he saw it somewhat as an anarchy even then.

“As you know, caste has been our karma for millennia. Despite the efforts of Mahatma Gandhi to legally eliminate it, it exists in our society. It is stronger here than in our mother country. Caste is very strong in the rural areas where it is often the only thing that some people have to show their superiority. It is a remnant of the cultural cloak that has clouded our tradition. It is sanctified by our religion and it is the proof of karma. At election time we often hear the slogan ‘cast your vote but vote your caste.’ I want very much to follow Gandhi’s banner, but you know how it is with mythology and tradition.

“Look at your American insistence on the right to bear arms, in spite of all the killings your citizens endure. And that tradition is only a few hundred years old. But traditions can be changed. Just look at your Constitutional requirement for a separation of church and state, then look as how many political candidates have to continually call on God to bless everybody. And look at the laws being passed to foster religion with your tax money. In fifty years you have developed a national religious tradition that I’m sure has Jefferson turning over in his grave.

“India is ahead of us in the economic realm as well as in health care and in reducing their fertility rate. Their social successes will result in a graying population, just as in the more developed countries. It is projected that in thirty years less than 20% of their population will be under 15. The county’s median age will have increased from 21 ten years ago to 38 in thirty more years. And by 2050 15% of the population will be over 65.

“The world is growing gray fast. In 2050 there will be 2 billion people over 60 in the world. There will be more people over the age of 60 than under 15. The elderly population is expanding at a rate of two percent a year; nowhere is the trend more pronounced than in the developed countries, where increasing life expectancy and decreasing fertility rates will elevate the median age from 40 to 50 in the next several decades.

“So age discrimination, which has been the worst type of discrimination, must cease. We must use the older people in our economic systems. Retirement, if we are to have it, needs to be adjusted. If the Japanese life expectancy is 82 maybe they should not retire until 80, instead of 60, as they do today. But in Swaziland, with a life expectancy of 32, if they were able to retire it might be at age 31 and 9 months.

“And with more and more people settling in cities, and growing old there, municipalities around the planet are facing unprecedented challenges in providing accessible transportation, affordable health care and appropriate housing for their older citizens.”

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF AN EXPANDING ECONOMY

—“There is more than aging that we have to deal with. Expanding economies usually bring expanding desires. Bigger houses, more and bigger cars, more food, more energy. India is producing $2500 cars, so more people can afford them. And they don’t run on air. Gasoline and electricity production create more pollution.I hear that 600 drivers’ licenses are issued every day in Beijing. And every new member of a society’s middle class is propelled by greed to get a bigger piece of the ‘good life’ pie.”

--“True Con. We see your riches and most of us want to pursue them. Getting a better karma usually takes a back seat to getting a better car. Having a television and a flushable toilet is enough Nirvana for most people. Salvation can wait until the salary is excessive!

POLITICS OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

“We Third World countries are seldom taken seriously by you big guys. Maybe it’s because we have everything from fledgling democracies and absolute monarchies to warring militias or one party rule—there are a bunch of hungry mouths crying for food while a number of power-mad men are filling their purses. Are we all equal, with equal needs and desires, or is it the survival of the fittest, or the cruelest?

“Look at the warring factions in Darfur and Congo. Look at us, honestly trying to make our citizens’ lives better. Look at Swaziland. I visited there two years ago. It ranks 106 of 172 countries economically, but its king is worth $200 million. His 13 wives live in luxury. $30 million a year of the national budget is used for the king and his whims. One of the highest HIV rates in the world has halved their life expectancy to 30 years. A third of the children have lost a parent. But as the king has said, he is the king and the poor have always been with us.”

—“But some say he isn’t as bad as his father who had at least 70 wives and threw out the British Constitution he inherited. So his son, King Mswati III, lives a pretty good life, but then that is what he deserves, after all, as he said, he was given to the people by God. His god-like mercy was shown when he signed a new constitution that guaranteed individual liberties while continuing an absolute monarchy. That is sort of like giving the people a gigantic chocolate cake, but not allowing them to eat it.

“The people agree that the government is bad but the king is good. Corruption cripples the treasury, draining about $75 million a year. A judge was appointed to try to stop the graft, but if a suspect says that the king told him to do something, you can’t ask the king because he is immune to inquiries. So it is with absolute monarchy!”

--“I understand why so many are unconcerned with Swaziland. But countries like Indus are really trying. I understand your reticence to give some countries money when much of it will find its way to a numbered Swiss bank account. Why should you try to combat malaria when HIV attacks those who survive the mosquitoes. Why befriend insurgent ‘A’ when insurgent ‘B’ may win the guerrilla war. Why support the Christian side when the Muslim fighters may have the more ethical position. Why not just keep the money near home where you know it will be used effectively. Advanced countries are getting tired of sending aid that doesn’t reach the needy. They are right to be skeptical. But here we are—needy, honest, truly democratic, peaceful, eager to work—and only a few philanthropists to help.

“It is the old idea that it is better to teach person to fish rather than giving him a fish. A few years ago your government gave $800 million in food to Ethiopia and $350 million for AIDS treatment and only $7 million for economic development. It was easier for farmers to stop plowing and eat at the free food trough. In fact more than seven million Ethiopians relied on the free food. Then a major program gave them jobs and soon they were earning their keep. But then the famine and rising food prices put most of them back on the dole. Famines keep happening—Biafra in the 60s, Bangladesh in the 70s, Ethiopia in the 80s.And now there are even more hungry people, but less aid is being given for food. With 4% of the world’s population, East Africa gets 20% of the food aid, and Africa as a whole, with 7% of the world’s population gets over a third of the total food aid. We have been lucky because of our soil and monsoons, we have been able to get by with very little food aid, but I see our needs increasing and I don’t see any food bearing ships the horizon.

POLITICS OF POPULATION IN A DEMOCRACY

“If I may, I would like to say a few things off the record. I will approach our situation as a statesman might. But I am a politician. If what I am telling you in private got to the electorate, I would undoubtedly be removed from office. That happened to Indira Gandhi in 1977 after she advocated limiting Indian families to two children, then she started voluntary, then forced sterilizations, as many as seven million a year. It was first meant to sterilize men who already had two children, but it escalated beyond reason to many single men. The backlash sent Indira from office for a term and set back any idea of family planning as a necessary program. It took some time before she was able to overcome that political faux pas. We politicians learned our lessons—do what is necessary to win and carry out the programs that the people want. Pushing for what they need, like a reduced population, can be political suicide. So instead of curing the root cause of our poverty by reducing the number of babies born, we must try to work with the existing social reality and try to move the economy in a positive direction using our massive hard working population we can work more cheaply than the other developing countries. China has become much more realistic over the issue of population control. India rejected it 50 years ago but the realities have begun to settle in. Sixty years ago the average Indian woman gave birth to six children. By ten years ago it was halved to three children per woman. But sixty years ago the average lifespan was 45, today it is 65.

“The age old problems of demography versus democracy, starvation versus survival, poverty versus plenty—are forcing even the most uninformed citizens to see the light.

“As a functioning democracy the government of India has grabbed the reins. Slowly, since the 1994 United Nations conference in Cairo, India, with other countries, has worked to improve and expand the contraceptive choices. It is no longer just sterilization. Condoms, pills, IUDs and other methods are becoming available. Fertility education and family planning are now available.

“But the tether of tradition is not as easily cut in a democracy as it is with a totalitarian edict or the fearful force that a dictator can muster to carry out his laws. The artistic dreams of the pharaohs, the governmental plans of the Caesars, the economic emergence of modern China are each the result of effective planning and strong centralized power.

“Some Indian states have mandated a maximum of two children for some politicians and some states are extending the mandate to civil servants. Among the plans that have been proposed are: denying education for a third child, and pay raises for civil servants who opt for sterilization after one or two children. Politicians are being asked to set examples by limiting their offspring to two.

“While some argue against the proposals, few argue against the objective. Some detractors point to the developed countries where fertility rates have dropped because of higher education, more work opportunities for women, more equality for women, and improved health care. Allowing more democracy from the village to the national government has increased affirmative action for women and for lower caste men and women. But barring the parents of three or more children from the republican process of town councils and the parliament creates a question for the democratization of the governing process.

“When people sued to be allowed to have more children and still be on the governing councils, the Supreme Court of India ruled that reducing population was a matter of national urgency and did not impinge on the citizens’ fundamental rights and individual liberties. The court said that ‘Complacency in controlling population in the name of democracy is too heavy a price to pay.’ So the country with 18% of the world’s population and two and a half percent of its land, and with a population long recognized as being excessive and expanding out of control, now has judges who realize that the massive population was hindering economic progress.

“The legally effected two child norm for India’s politicians may increase the number of abortions of female fetuses, since sons are so prized. But some Indians still prefer having more children even if it means losing their leadership jobs. But they grumble that, ‘If I can lead, I should be on the town council no matter how many children I have.’”

“That’s the classic self-centered versus society-centered dichotomy. Let me do whatever I want while I tell society what is best for it. Mr. Ghosh, we spent many hours looking at this problem with Dr. Wang in Kino. This ‘primacy of self versus the greater good of one’s society’ is a universal dilemma.”

—“True Lee. We feel that we must start with education. As Hindus we are sending family planning technicians to every village once a month. They educate the men and women. They counsel the teenagers. They give out free contraceptives and make appointments for medical sterilizations and abortions. Their education objectives include information on avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, care of newborns, nutrition and the world problem with overpopulation. Along with this they try to change the sociological mores that give the parents and in-laws a strong say in how many children a couple should have. Our television programming continually shows the joys and advantages of the one or two child family.

“We also have to develop in people the idea that girls are just as valuable as boys. But just as large families are traditional, so are male progeny prized. Not long ago I talked to a woman with seven children. She told me that her four boys were at school, but I saw that her three daughters were at home. I asked her ‘why.’ She said that if she sent the daughters to school there would be no one to clean the house and take care of the goats.

“So you can see the anchors holding my people in poverty. It is no wonder that we were ranked 159th on the UN’s Human Development Index of 178 countries. India was 128th and Pakistan 139th.But we were ahead of most of the sub-Saharan countries. We are certainly trying! We realize, with the philosopher Schiller that if we are over-cautious

we won’t accomplish much. And as my Italian friend often says ‘By asking for the impossible we obtain the best possible.’

“Since we seceded from our mother country because it moved too slowly towards economic progress for the poor, I have worked to get our country moving toward the modern world. I know it will take a few generations even if we do everything right. I certainly want to avoid the excesses of sterilizations that India attempted. They only set the movement backward. We must work to reduce population and increase education and do both so that the people support these goals. How would you go about it gentlemen?”

—“Well, going back to what Wanda Wang said in Kino, people are most interested in themselves in the present and in the foreseeable future. Then Chuck Chan emphasized our nearly universal drive for power and our nearly universal need to be loved.”

—“He also was pretty strong on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. So you must have the needs of food, drink and shelter satisfied.”

—“Lee, I’m surprised that you forgot to put sex in there too! It is right down there with Maslow’s food and drink needs, and it is so often intertwined with the power drive. Then you have that necessary esteem need, where for many insecure people the pump of pride is primed by the increased progeny. What else can a married couple brag about if they do not yet have the pride of ownership of a television. Let’s face it, you can get your esteem from owning an idiot box, a motor bike or a bevy of rug rats.”

—“You are certainly correct in seeing the psychological stumbling blocks to national progress. I wouldn’t be surprised if your reduced fertility rates in the West are tied as much to the esteem related factors like home ownership and travel as they are to the commonly mentioned factors of contraceptive availability and women’s working rights.

“As you might imagine, we have discussed the methods of changing people’s behavior with Dr. Singh. He has been quite helpful to us. I am certain that you will gain a great deal of insight when you carry on your discussions to him later.

“The lord knows that we in this part of the world have a long history of recognizing the problems, we just have not followed our rhetoric with results. You probably have heard that as far back as 1947 Mohammad Ali Jinnah had urged Pakistan's assembly to ‘wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people and especially of the masses and the poor.’ A few days later Jawaharlal Nehru, in his noteworthy midnight address to India's constitutional assembly, called for ‘the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.’ I don’t know if it was poor leadership or if the people were not really ready to make the sacrifices necessary to move out of poverty. They were shooting themselves in the foot with every baby-bullet that enlarged their impoverished families.

“Armament spending dwarfed both education and health-care spending. Both India and Pakistan worked to become self-sufficient in food. They both worked to establish industry. But their mutual distrust and their mutual fears pushed mutual nuclear development and the mutual amassing of armies.”

—“And I guess we could say that their countries suffered the mutual maladies of retarded development, although both had growing economies. And for a long time Pakistan’s grew faster than India’s. But India did invest in education for some and now has a huge store of very well trained engineers and doctors. The problem, as you said, seems to be that not enough of them stay in India.”

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