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As I try to unwrap myself from this cocooned life, I
wonder what it is like outside my self-centered life.
Why?
This single question, if answered and understood, will provide the solutions to
all the doubts I have about life. Its not amusing to hear people wondering,”
Why do we live?” Most of us wonder about this. Just wonder and not think
about it.
I have so far lived a life of contentment, I had no worries that pulled me out
of my senses, as life for me was just another roller coaster ride, ‘come what
may, will work on it then’. But all things changed, it has to change, one’s
perception about the way the world around works, how fellow beings live, or
struggle to live.
May 2004, I had to move to Bangalore, the silicon valley of India, and changed
my perceptions about life. I emerged out of my cocoon and saw life beyond what
I lived, and I wondered. I saw other people for the first time, and I thought
for myself that I am lucky for not living the life of these less “Entitled”1
people. But this was a place where people are still cocooned, the rich refuse
to get out of the cocoon and the children of the lesser gods resign themselves
to it and let themselves to be dictated by the rules of modern economics,
Economics which bases its arguments only on the value of its money and exchange
rates and where human needs, hunger, equality, privilege to live, free thought
and expression and participative democracy takes the back seat.
On a busy Bangalore
Street... Finding Livelihood
We have liberated countries from dictatorship, we have liberated this world
from diseases, but we have not liberated this world from ourselves. There are
about 1.2 billion people who continue to live below the poverty line on less
than $1 a day; more than 2.4 billion people are without basic sanitation; about
100 million are homeless; about 1 billion adults are illiterate; nearly 100
million children live or work on the street.2 When are we going to
liberate them?
 When
He should have been going to school...
The solution lies in proactive thinking and to unshackle the old school of
thought in the approach to economics and think of if as the basis for social
up-liftment and for the creation of a welfare state. For this we need to
broadly classify the our approach and thoughts on the following basis:
- Ethics in Economics
- Need for Military, Defence and Arms
- Healthcare
- Economic and ploitics
- Socio-Economic problems viz- Religion, Gender bias, Racism, Child labour
- Problems of third world countries and developing countries
- Environmental impact
1.
Amartya
Sen-
People die of hunger and starvation not so much because of unavailability of
food in the region but because of their "entitlement" failures, their
lack of ability to acquire food.
2.
Human
Development Report - 2000
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