Re: Will India win a medal this Olympics ?

["Manish Gupta" <ml_gupta@hotmail.com>]

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>This discussion about the olympics reminds me of an article in "The Hindu"
>on
>the day of the anniversary of the Quit India Movement.  A group of women
>had
>gathered (the place I don't recall) protesting multinational corporations,
>mainly large farming industries that are not only responsible for dwindling
>the local farming industry and destroying family farms pushing many farmers
>into poverty, but are also responsible for unequal acquisition of
>fertilizers
>and water resources. (Ironically, around the small article were large
>advertisements for Heinz ketchup, Lee Jeans, Domino's pizza, and a weight
>loss center.)

How does this scenario apply here? I am talking about a new Industry, which
is going to create new jobs, let me ask you how it is going to land people
jobless?


>The proponent of institutionalizing American Sporting industry in India
>must
>make it known the costs of such initiatives.

What is your problem, if somebody invests some money in this unexplored
area, it is not coming out of public coffers, and moreover it is probably
going to do more good to public, which I'll try to demonstrate later in this
reply.

>In a land of 700 million people
>without access to safe drinking water, how does this proponent ask for
>Indians to spend metric tons of water on daily maintainance of American
>quality sporting fields?  Furthermore, where is the place to build sports
>stadiums in already overcrowded cities?  Oh, maybe we will do what we have
>done with our highway expansion programs.  Displace dalits and build it on
>top of sacred burial grounds of Scheduled Tribe lands (which were once
>given
>to them and promised non-industrialization).

By going through this argument we should stop doing everything (like why
India should have nuclear weapons when we can't provide water to out
population, why we need such an expensive and unaudited space program, how
about other defense programs, higher education anyone...). If you see
pragmatically towards our water problem, it is more of mismanagement and
lack of money than lack of natural resource. How many villages have you seen
sitting right on the bank of river without water? I've seen some and that's
the reason I am writing this. And go to the small cities and townships where
some Industry is located, you'll hardly see any water problem, I strongly
urge you to go and see Jamshedpur in Bihar (what a wonderfull public utility
administration system, and can you imagine it is located in Bihar), so going
through the same line if sport complex (fictitious) needs lots of water, who
knows they might come up with proper arrangements with local water
authorities which in turn would benefit everybody.

Now coming to displacing Dalits (I don't know why only these people'd be
displaced why not non Dalits?). The person/company who needs to go for this
project is not going to get this land free, rather s/he is going to buy the
land from the people who are living there (do you problem with that?), and
moreover looking at  the current India this project needs to be done outside
the city, where anybody could see how much land is totally wasted.


>He further states there shall
>be no govt. involvement for it will be a hurdle to this "progress".
>Thinking
>the answers to ending the corruption in our govt. is to have no govt. at
>all... no even your gods of the west will agree that further
>democratization
>is the answer to corruption not laissez-faire.

I think you totally misunderstood this point, I never even tried to imply
that no Govt. is the solution, at the same time what is this more
democratization of India? Try reading first few pages of constitution of
India, after which I probably won't have to explain it is us who are failing
the Constitution than the Constitution failing us.

>Furthermore, where is the dire need for this?  Not winning medals in
>Olympics
>is not a valid cause for proposals such as this.  The people in India, up
>to
>my knowledge, are not crying for alternative forms of entertainment,
>especially sports.

This is how you feel it, you may be in the majority, however I don't agree
with this situation.

>
>The American sporting industry is nothing more than a form of business, run
>through marketing principles of consumerism.

So what is wrong with that....

>The athletes are highly paid,
>not by their teams but through corporate sponsorships.

I beg to differ on this, the atheletes are highly paid by there teams. You
can verify this.

>To adapt such a
>society would require India to make drastic cultural adjustments.  For
>instance eating pizza instead of puri, and dressing in denim jeans instead
>of
>kurthas.  For the corporate sponspors will force on India, American
>cultural
>commodities of Nike Shoes and CalvinKlein Jeans.  Are we ready to surrender
>our culture?  Are we ready to accept the costs to human life, culture and
>democracy, for these are requisite means for achieving an America in the
>Indian sub-continent?

Now this is once again beyond my comprehension, this remind me of friend of
mine nerrating her experiences in Calcutta buses, while travelling dressed
up in saree she was asked by a middle aged person while offering his sit
"Bosho Maa" in bengali, while after few days when she was travelling wearing
Jeans, she was asked the similar question in English.

My question is why can't puri go with sport, and why can't you go to see a
match wearing Kurtha (I sure do). Moreover what is wrong with Pizza? it is
perfectly edible product.

Well... our democracy is definitely not that fragile that it is going to go
away with advertisement of Nike Shoes, Calvin Klein Jeans. And the same goes
with our culture too.

The point is when you see anything western you see only bad in it, you don't
see the advances west has made in the public administration etc. and I don't
see anything wrong in borrowing these technique from them instead of
reinventing the wheels.

>
>Why do we have to succeed in terms set by the white man?  Why do we have to
>emulate everything American?

Now I do not understand why you have to draw a line between Dalit and non
Dalit in India, and Black and White for rest of the world.

>Where have the Gandhians gone?

Now you are giving Gandhi a bad name, I read couple of his books (including
"My experintation with truth"), he was never against sports in any form in
that book. Gandhi was a pragmatic and modern person much ahead of his time.
People who call themself Gandhian and oppose these kind of development are
no Gandhian, rather they are biggest hypocrats.

>When will we
>realize globalization means assimilation into a culture of rugged
>individualism, selfishness, unhappiness, lack of family values, all in the
>name of economic progress?  When will we realize that the western standards
>of world power are suicidal?  Do we really belong to such a backward,
>uncivilized culture, that we don't find it worthy of having westerners
>emulate us for a change?

This is a sweeping statement, I've heard this kind of rhetoric a lot without
any strong proof.

>Why doesn't the rest of the world learn kabadi, eat
>roti for breakfast, and hum the tunes of Ravi Shankar?  Maybe then we shall
>think about listening to American music?

First, I never implied that we play American Sports in India, however if
people decide to play and watch these games, why do you have problem with
that (isn't that against the norms of democracy).

Rest of the world will surely learn kabadi, if we in India have kabadi being
played at the professional level, which in turn would pay kabadi players
decently, plus it will generate enough interest in people to go and watch
those games. (once again wouldn't that be great to have a match between
professional teams playing kabadi and being watched by millions of people
either in person or TV, and generating enough euphoria).

Moreover I am sick of this attack on "western culture" thing, without even
realising what a mess we are in (I think we try to hide our failures by
doing  this), unless and until we keep our house in order we should not even
try to attack other culture.

>
>peace
>
>Naveen
>


Regards

Manish
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