The world is a small place

Courtesy of AIESEC i strongly believed in what is called the Global Village and that the world is a small place. Yesterday that belief just got stronger.

My introduction to Colombia goes back to about 6 years, fairly soon after i joined AIESEC in Hyderabad and received an enthusiastic trainee in yellow blue and red. He danced salsa which I at that time thought an odd way to dance and no one else could do it or knew much about it. He stayed at my house in India for about a month and there was a lot about Colombia that we spoke about. Much of which I forgot as I could not understand or perceive it- all this was before i started traveling anywhere. That was Andres Morales, the Colombian trainee.

After that I did have a thorough introduction to Colombia, courtesy of my flat mate in France, Najibe- my mom away from home- a Colombian. She told me a lot about Colombia, at least enough for me to be here right now. She and her family was kind enough to accommodate me with them, and cautiously immerse me into Colombia, while I parallelly dive into it.

On with the ‘world is a small place’. Yesterday after work, Jean and I decided to grab a bite and on the way back to the Transmilenio, I hear someone call my name from around the street. It is definitely out of the ordinary to hear your name being called in a new place. I expected it to be an AIESECer. Andres Morales was the chap who first introduced me to Colombia, and after six years of no contact, recognises me in Bogota at dusk as we walk down the street.

I tried getting his contact when i left for Colombia, but after checking with AIESEC Hyderabad and with AIESEC Colombia, and some online search, i gave up. I now have his contact and will be meeting up with him over dinner to see what we have been up to in the last 6 years.

It is always smaller than I think it is.

He said it.

I have had many thoughts about India and about how we started being a Socialistic, Secular, Democratic Republic, a champion of the NAM are moving away from this philosophy and thinking it is the right direction. The article attached is an Editorial from The Hindu, one of India's finest newspapers, The Hindu, Pg-10, Nov 20, 2006.

The article is written by a British Indian, Bikhu Parekh (yes, a Gujju), highly enthusiastic about India and its direction- which comes out quite well in this article.

There are two aspects that interested me about this article, other than the quality of its content; Firstly the direction being taken with examples clearly demonstrating that and the conclusion of Indian civilization in its present sense, and; Secondly the direction we all ought to be taking, not just India but the world as such, and we (Indians) have the required attitude and the cultural background to initiate this change.

P.S: Ignore the Cartoon.

Who´s responsibility is Social Responsibility?

I have been in Colombia for about 6 weeks now, and almost all of it in Bogotá. So all I know about Colombia is what I know about Bogotá. By no means Bogotá is just another city. I could comfortably say that it is one of the most cosmopolitan city in South America and could stand competition on this front from most big cities around the world. You can get almost anything in this city, from Hinduism Groups at National University (I was zapped about this- Apparently they do yoga at 7 am and are vegetarian) to Louis Vitton at the Atlantis, from the Transmilenio to that tall Colpatria Building. Sadly you also get 2 Million and counting internally displaced and poor people, that’s over a quarter of this cities population.

What makes displacement worse is the lack of opportunity to make it in a new place. And what makes being poor difficult is the cost of basic necessities. There are a few solutions to helping these people, only thing is that it is not easy to implement. Let me put forward a few and maybe whoever is reading could propose more.

• Provide skills training to the displaced and poor people: Presently SENA and some NGOs provide skills training in areas as wide as bread making and food processing to machine operating. However the limited resources can allow for only a limited number of people have access to these facilities due to the limited resources- how surprising.
• Provide Micro-Credit to the displaced and poor people: 2 days ago Banco Agrario gave out 1000 loans to displaced and poor people in Bogotá. Normally micro credit does not work too well without skills development and basic training in managing a small business, which in this case was provided by SENA. I hope these 1000 lucky one will make it in this city and in the short or medium term help others. But 1000 as compared to 2,000,000 doesn’t look good. 1000 at a time would take how long, its easy math. Again lack of resources and in this case the Govt. directed the bank to forward these loans.
• Free Education for these individuals: Most of those who receive the displaced status can send their children under 18 to school for free. It will take a long time for these kids to start earning, and that too without a university degree will be very little. Teaching adults to read and write will help them but what will they earn with that? You can read and write, can you earn much just based on that aspect?
• Now your turn to give some ideas.

A lot of individuals I discussed this matter with seem to ask what is the Govt. doing about this. We if the Govt. is to get into Social welfare, then brace yourself for socialism, in fact a lot of universities seem to be ready for it, one visit to Universidad Distral would make you agree with me.

Governments are too bureaucratic and streamlined to handle social development, there by making it highly inefficient and uneconomical. Especially in the case of high inequality (Colombia has high income inequality at Gini coefficient of 0.58). To bring 22 Million people out of poverty, imagine how many people the Govt needs to hire to do anything about it.

It is the individual, all the individuals, who can make a difference. “Bogotá Sin Indiferencia”, “Jóvenes Sin Indiferencia”, that is what it is about.

So the question is, what did you do today to make this city and country, a better place tomorrow?

The Title

The title is ripped off Gandhi's autobiography called " My Experiments with truth". Since i feel that truth is a questionable word, reality is a substitute that works for me. If fact the reason i want to travel and look at cultures and places is to see and understand (not know) the reality myself.

So hear goes...