Vad gör Ylle i Mumbai?

These are the new questions to be answered by us on our blogs. This time the questions come from Ron Pompei,

Will India be able to learn from the missteps of the west regarding ecology, energy and education?

Will they recognize earlier in their economic and social development that material resources are finit yet human resources (such as creativity, innovation and expression) are infinite?

Will India achieve a true global conicousness that recognizes the unique contribution of all cultures?

And here comes my answer:

No. I simply can’t answer these questions without getting a tiny bit, no not just a tiny bit, agitated about how they are phrased. Will India be able to learn from the missteps of the west? My counter offer; Did India just crawl out from underneath a rock?

Though India may still be one of the developing countries, they have not been completely isolated from insight in the development of the western countries over the last few hundred years. India is not just now starting to build a community, and they are not taking their development from scratch. They have a long history of building their own community and culture aswell as dealing with western countries barging in. Remember the country were under British government uptil 1947. Don’t believe for a second that India has not had time to make the same missteps as we have in the west.

That said, I refer to my answer to the first of these blog-questions, the one from Alan Webber. On that question I did a lot of thinking about Indias position to make a difference in the world and their ability to do things differently from how others have done them before.

Now, after spending two more months in this city trying to figure out its strange logic, discovering its unexpected upsides and learning that the really interesting people are to be found in the oddest places, I still can’t say I have an answer to my own questions. But I can certainly say my hopes for Indias future is growing by the day.

As I said the most interesting people of Mumbai are really to be found where you least expect it. So far the college professor was a real stiff, while the eighty-year-old ex-Shell-employee who spends his golden years taking passport photos in the alley behind the supermarket has been worth more than one revisit.

The lecturer who was to talk about globalization from an artists point of view was another big disappointment, but the random girl I talked to on the boat from Elphanta Island one day had some really uplifting thoughts about the future of Mumbai. Also I’ve heard stories of highly interesting bankers and other inspiring Indians who classmates of mine has run into by accident all over town.

Obviously the future of India is not to be found where we westerners first tried to look. It is not the same type of people who try to make a change here as it is at home. We simply are not in Kansas anymore, as Dorothy would say, and therefore we can not compare Indias journey to join the developed countries to the road we ourselves once took to get there.

Sureley India will not make the same mistakes regarding energy and ecology. They have already made them. Will they recognize earlier in their economic and social development that material resources are finit yet human are infinite? Again, India is not and has not in a long time been isolated from the developement of the world, and did not just crawl out from underneath a rock.

Will India achieve a true global conicousness then?

In this answer I have to go philosophical so prepare for a few words of wisdom and feel free to quote me.

When global conciousness becomes true India will not be able to stand on the outside, for conciousness is not global until we all truly see that we are in this together.