A Dust Over India

My take on it: in the US, the climate makes it possible to rise far above the subsistence level, but only with some effort and/or ingenuity. Motivated people have historically been rewarded with better lives, and that truth has influenced our entire culture.

In equatorial island countries, it's too easy. What, you think you can spend your whole life relaxing on the beach sipping coconut milk? Well... OK, I guess you can do that.

In Russia, it's too hard. If most of your energy and focus is spent just surviving the winter, there won't be enough mojo left to move your society forward.

Problems with this climate-centric outlook: African equatorial countries with good, human-friendly climate but problematic cultures, and Nordic countries whose weather rivals Siberia's and whose cultural and technological progress is often compared favorably to that of the US.

We live in a bubble. Trying to change our world with startups is quite different than trying to change the conditions 1 billion people live in.

The spectrum of good and bad in first world societies isn't as side as third world country. It's maybe why the good isn't good enough in our lives. Anything we experience in a foreign land as being shockingly bad, or good, can show how out of touch we are with humanity, and our own humanity.

This begs a deeper issue. Everyone likes looking outward, trying to understand the world, not themselves. We don't like righting with how little we actually know, or, more importantly do.

This article in many ways mirrors my experience of India. It's real. Sorry the education from TV makes it a bit shocking. That's what happens when we take someone's word on how good things are in another part of the world. There's a reason people want to leave and get out. Are Americans and Canadians desperate to leave?

This 0-star India is the majority's India. Not the 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 star India we can buy and hide in while visiting pretending to take in the foreign eat pray love exoticness of it all. They say you can tell the true state of a country by the numbers + health of their poorest. Similar experiences exist in other countries too. The money at the top does not find it's way down. The rich build themselves skyscrapers to live in so they don't have to deal with anything beyond their 4 walls. When the majority is not enjoying the advanced civilization, is it advanced, or civilized?

These are two good questions and ones worth not shying away from. They only provide us with more understanding of ourselves, and with dots connected, more determination to go make your startup fly. If we can't buy our self-worth and esteem from commodities, brands, and experiences, how can we judge anyone who's in such a harsh place of life not to improve their own life? Herein lies the quagmire of duality.

India suffers. From the shadow of it's dark past of brutal oppression of the masses by Indians themselves -- the masses were forbidden from education, learning trades, defending themselves from invaders and left to a life of subservience and suffering. This has carried through far too many generations, over 600 years. Still I hope is humanity can find some way to correct itself by the harshness of the original 1% in India.

If you go there, or anywhere, find your one corner of someone else's universe to make a dent in, whether it's a school for orphaned girls in India, or helping a homeless person in our own towns that everyone else sees as invisible and shower animals with more care. The hunger in someone's eyes is no different than mine when I have to drop what I'm doing and find some food.

When we give up on humanity towards others, we give up on our own too a little, and feed the monster ourselves. The moment we dare to take a minute to make strangers into real people, we become more human.