[Reader-list] Happy Sunday :) Library and Garbage bins

[anupam chakravartty]

Here's a little library's story.

http://www.soundofdrowning.com/lib.html

regards anupam


On 5/10/09, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Jeebesh (and all)
>
> While the heat in this list could have been tackled by means of more
> personal chats and more respect of both sides' views from the other
> sides, here I wish to express my views on the first issue you have
> raised.
>
> Any issue, be it water, roads, health, education, or even a public
> library, can be addressed. However, there are umpteen points regarding
> as to why it is not an issue. And they are numerous in our system of
> democracy (or as in Gulaal they say, it's just autocracy in the name
> of democracy).
>
> The first issue here is about the way our democratic system works. It
> is a system which is half full and half empty, meaning that it is 50%
> democratic and 50% not, if one were to quote Ramachandra Guha from his
> book 'India After Gandhi'. And it certainly is. We do have a system
> which has elections and the transition of power after elections is
> also smooth. However, that's it. Our system begins and ends with
> elections. After that, nobody cares. We never look at things beyond
> elections. Any criticism of a government takes place only with the
> point of view of elections.
>
> What this means is that only those issues which are important from the
> election point of view, would be addressed. But the question arises,
> as to then which issues are important, if they are there at all? Here,
> our media and the grassroots are totally at crossroads. The media
> feels the PM or the CM at the state level are more important issues
> than say water supply, health or education. On the other hand, the
> candidates realize that is not necessarily the case, and they
> concentrate on the kind of developmental works undertaken and some or
> the other sops being given.
>
> And what are these developmental works actually? The issues of
> livelihood. The issues of roti, kapda and makan. And if one may add to
> it, in a certain way they are related to bijli, sadak aur paani. These
> are the issues which are uppermost in the minds of the people. One
> must understand that with the kind of society we are, a caste and
> religion-biased society, where Brahmins wouldn't eat with Muslims or
> Dalits, where now even the OBC's live separately from them and where
> inter-caste marriages are even now abhorred, at least in rural areas,
> the kind of politicians who would emerge would also concentrate only
> on giving doles to their supporters or caste/religion members as cash
> or some kind of incentive.
>
> With the competition between people of different castes and religions
> for such govt. doles and rewards like jobs, rather than them fighting
> together for a common cause (long back this happened under Gandhi's
> movements), and with the kind of society we are (where people revel in
> having contacts with the powerful and the rich rather than following
> rules), all want a common minimum level of existence, from where
> education is excluded.
>
> Also, no political party has been imaginative enough to put health and
> education as basic issues in their campaigns and trying to corner the
> incumbent governments either during elections or during other times
> through mass based movements. Neither have non-political organizations
> played a successful role in this part during such times to ensure that
> such issues are addressed, which does not mean that they haven't
> tried; it simply means they haven't tried enough or the results are
> not enough.
>
> People in general also have little patience to understand the
> complexity of issues. That is why we have experts to understand them.
> But one must remember that things should also be made palatable to the
> electorate to back you. In this case, Manmohan Singh is a huge
> failure, precisely because he has never contested an election himself.
> And Advani may have an advantage here mainly because he has won a Lok
> Sabha election before this at least, so he could understand possibly
> how to make an issue and its solution palatable to the public. (This
> is a possibility, not necessarily the actuality).
>
> The second issue we have forgotten is in our society who is doing
> what. The poor don't have the power to actually undertake movements on
> their own and fight a battle which can yield results. I don't mean to
> say that the poor can't undertake movements. The poor in many states
> may have actually done so, but one must remember that in today's
> times, when our politicians are image-conscious, things which are not
> popular are not going to make much headway. Therefore, one must
> realize that unless such things are popular or in the mainstream
> media, it is very difficult to get the point across.
>
> Moreover, the poor are more concerned with their livelihoods, which is
> the most important issue for them. Things like library are non-issues
> from their point of view.
>
> The rich on the other hand do have the power, so also the middle
> class. The media is also on this side. However, we have tended to
> concentrate more on issues which are not going to help the poor at
> all. Forget that, we have not even concentrated on issues which can
> help the society at large. Even in the voting campaigns, people are
> being encouraged to vote. But the moot point remains this: if all the
> candidates are corrupt, what is the point of voting, even if for the
> least corrupt candidate? After all, corruption be it of Re. 1 or lakhs
> can and should not be tolerated. If terrorism is not tolerated, how
> come corruption is tolerated?
>
> Similarly, Hindutva seems also to be an issue going by some great
> Rediff articles and views expressed on them. Malls and removal of
> slums are issues, even though people don't try to understand at all
> the situational changes which can take place by having malls at
> certain places, or even the problems in slums and how they can be
> corrected without removing them. And of course, we have some other
> nonsense things to talk about.
>
> Conclusion:
>
> The library is a public good, and ultimately the library will benefit
> the public. The problem is that the rich don't want to fight for it as
> they think it's useless to involve themselves in such fights which are
> unprofitable (or non-money yielding). The poor don't fight for it as
> they have more important issues to look at. The media doesn't take it
> up as it's not a 'TRP-giving' news to be looked at, or it is too
> serious. And our politicians being image-conscious, believe that
> these are not the things which will fetch them votes.
>
> So the library is a non-starter in our cities.
>
> And so, we don't have spaces in public to debate with on a personal
> level by and large.
>
> Regards
>
> Rakesh
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