East & West

Sorry Mr. Friedman, the world ain’t flat. In fact, the world appears to be even more topsy-turvy than ever before. I read an article in the Economic Times this morning of how a group of women in Sweden was protesting its inability to swim topless in pools. The logic is if men can do so why not women?

Fair enough. And I don't see most men protesting that logic. I think even the pundits, mullahs, and priests won’t object as long as they can keep womenfolk in their respective areas of control behind veils.

The point I am trying to make is the vast difference in issues faced by people living in the underdeveloped/developing world and those in the developed world.

Back home, water, housing, clothing, corruption are issues that haunt people. In the developed world, it’s all about been there done that and being able to return to basics: we roamed nude before we became intelligent, didn’t we?

For us, a train compartment supposed to hold 72 but carrying 400 is a problem. For the West, having to stand in crowded compartments (nothing compared to our locals) is trauma.

Back home, indiscriminate smoking and spitting in public is irksome; in the West, not being able to smoke in public is. As for spitting, they hold competitions to determine who can spit the farthest. The winner even gets to take home a trophy and a cash prize.

For us eating out is a luxury, though that’s changing. For the West, it’s the way of life. We struggle to regulate our own. They fight to regulate the world. Caring for the aged is a given for our people; they have old age homes. Though most here in today’s time curse their luck for being saddled with the aged, they use that as a virtue to point fingers at the West. The West has no such doubts; when cattle grow old, leave them out to graze is their philosophy.

Yes, the world is indeed flat when one talks about money. East or West money does make the world go round. Other than that, it’s all about barely existing versus existing with plenty.

Sorry, Mr. Friedman, I beg to differ. The world certainly ain’t flat.

(Thomas Friedman is the celebrated NewYork Times journalist who wrote the book, The world Is Flat.)