Retrospective: Elephant vs. Dragon in a Developing World Free-for-All

I decided there was enough temporal distance between me and the subcontinent to post a little retrospective in light of what I’m seeing in China. Also it gives me the opportunity to blow the electronic dust off some photos to post. To kick things off, I hereby curse so many newspapers in the media back home for using the phrase “developing countries such as India and China” (I found 40,000 instances of the phrase in the English-language web on Google) . The phrase isn’t inaccurate, but the proximity of the two names in the sentence makes me imagine that the countries are in similar states of development. This is very very far from the reality that I got to sample.

I’ll talk about what I’ve observed about development and my thoughts comparing the two countries - I’ll leave it to others to debate whether and how development should take place in any country. Let me post a caveat before going further – in India I saw large cities, tiny towns, and the more easily reached of non-agrarian villages situated along my journey’s path. In China however, I’ve only seen its two most important metropolises, its favorite domestic vacation destination city, and what suburbia I could make out over the course of a two hour train ride, all in the months preceding the Olympics. Leading up to the Games, the government has made it its utmost priority to look good in front of the world, and, stoked or not with nationalism by the powers that be, the public imagination is completely consumed by this international spectacle. I frequently hear the phrase, “Will it be ready?” referring to the tying up and spit-polishing of construction in Beijing and environs. In other words, I’m seeing China firmly stomp its best foot forward, without sight of the rest of the beast.

To the photos. The first picture showing an oxcart with an om symbol, is probably the clearest one I have to illustrate the chaos and ramshackle feel of an Indian market street in just one shot. It’s from Bombay. Calcutta’s streets were actually much more chaotic with bootstrap commerce and myriad transportation means, but alas, no photos, since it was always so dark while I was in the middle of it. The one shown suffices to give an idea.

The second shot is a street in central Calcutta. The road’s been torn up to be repaved. When it’s finished with paving, it will probably look like those sections that weren’t torn up, and overall won’t be up to a good standard. Old bricks are used for filler. Neighborhood locals, as likely children as adults, do the work.

The third shot is from Kerala, still my favorite state (you think I'm excluding American states, don't you ;) ). Depending on your standards, these people aren’t poor. They are working to enable their livelihood, and they have no need or desire to ask you for money. But they probably can't afford quality goods and services.

The last (and unfortunately blurry) Indian shot is from along the beach in Chennai. Most Tamil girls in the city also wear saris everywhere.

To the China shots next.

First: Here go the Shanghai skyscrapers, taken from the Pearl Tower.

Second: This is a Shanghai street bordered by a mix of local Shanghainese, domestic tourists, and some international tourists.

Third: This is an Audi parked outside of Beihai park next to the Beijing's Forbidden City. It’s license plate has four “8”s on it which is why I took the photo. Mandarin for 8 is ‘ba’, rhyming with 'fa', one word for money. Therefore 8 is lucky, making phone numbers, addresses, and yes, license plates with 8 in them desirable and expensive. The souped up Audi probably ran upwards of $60,000 USD. For it’s lucky number 8’s, one local put the license plate cost at $125,000 USD. Unlike my Keralan friend on the canal banks, the owner of this vehicle did not present him/herself to be pictured. He or she could probably afford quality goods and services.

Last: A deliberately preserved Beijing hutong neighborhood. A really typical hutong should come off as a little bit slummy, but some, especially in central Beijing, perpetuate centuries-old historical traditions especially in architecture, and are themselves tourist attractions.

(I wonder if in future decades some of the bigger slums in India will be preserved and become tourist attractions like in Beijing. Dharavi slum in Bombay already hosts off-beat tours (development tourism). Except that the streets there still stink of human waste, and it’s really not intended as a tourist attraction that some people have as their chosen occupation to beat burlap bags containing scraped-off paint chips into a powder so they can be recycled into paint).

I’ll let the photos provide the study in contrasts for the most part. Let me speak to the potential for editorial bias. Far afield of major cities, and especially outside eastern China, I probably could take photos better resembling the first Indian shot suggesting street chaos, the third shot representing otherwise solvent people who lead a simpler lifestyle, and the last Indian shot representing the perpetuation of tradition irrespective of inconveniences incurred. But taking the reverse approach I promise there are no huge skyscrapers in Bombay, Chennai, or Kolkata. Newly-fabled Bangalore has only two real *highrises* in this IT powerhouse’s downtown, and no metro. (I challenge readers to do an image search for skyscraper plus any of these cities and see what comes up).

Referring to the third photo from each country, I freely admit deliberate, gross and profane editorial bias in juxtaposing the two. I really wanted the contrast.

I also promise that most cities in India will not soon have streets as clean or orderly as those of its neighbor’s to the East. Check out the third, fairly mundane China shot. The hordes of people packed on either side of the street, by Bombay standards, should have long since crowded onto the asphalt to make a traffic-pedestrian curry masala. Moreover the cars stay in their lanes, a practice which avoids gridlock and accidents.

This comparison is as much an indictment of government practice as it is of collective will. India teems with universally cursed yet universally tolerated corruption that the public actively participates in to accomplish much of their mundane legal needs (bribes for stamps on important documents, bribes for paying property tax). When streets are torn up to be repaved, it’s a local politician serving a powerfully large albeit poor constituency, who facilitated the construction contract at their behest. The same street could have been similarly torn up less than two years prior. Also, enforcement of quaint concepts such as traffic laws is a joke, certainly nothing that a palm padded with rupee notes couldn't handle.

The norms of daily life in the bigger cities cause anything that’s publicly owned or publicly shared to quickly become either a waste receptacle or a sitting duck for decay. By contrast, the insides of homes and businesses are strikingly well cared for. Therefore, all this isn't to say I didn't enjoy my time there, actually, I loved most of the conscious hours I spent there for the sense of discovery they afforded. And Kerala . . . ah

PS Need to remind especially to new folks to the blog, this is an *anonymous* blog, so please consider comments accordingly.