India in Transition

One of the coolest things about visiting India right now (aside from the refreshingly temperate climate) is getting to see a country in the process of transitioning from the third world to the first world possibly faster than any country has ever done before. In Delhi the chaos of this transition is probably more obvious than anywhere else. A new public transit train line is being put in (which the locals are almost ridiculously excited about), roads are being built and a new western mall (which they are also very excited about) has just opened up. But at the same time the poverty of the huge lower class is still terrible (they are without the most basic human rights: education, food, shelter, medical care- more about this soon when I have learned more about it. I'm meeting with some NGOs tomorrow).

Anyway, the people that are not confined to debilitating poverty are kind of scrambling around trying to figure out how to reconcile the values and traditions of their ancient culture with their new modern lifestyles. For example, in some ways they are actually way ahead of us in the U.S. A new law was just passed providing same sex couples with the right to marry legally in the eyes of the government. And everyone is pretty much fine with that. There isn't really any controversy over it at all. My guess is that parents would be more pissed off to find out that their son or daughter had decided to have a "love marriage" (a term which sounds so scandalous when they say it) as opposed to an arranged marriage than that he or she would be marrying some one of the same gender. And if that person belonged to a different caste (social class) or (God forbid) was Pakistani the gender wouldn't matter at all. They would be too mad to even hear that part of the news. Its all culturally relative I guess.

In the meantime, while adjusting to thier progressing political, economic and social conditions, Indians also have to fight not to slide backward into the kind of mess that so many African nations are in. They are very proud of new laws in place that require total government transparency, which really important to preventing a corrupt regime from taking power and destroying the progress that has been made. And again, based on whats being uncovered about the last administration, they're way ahead of us.

But my favorite part about all this are the newspapers. As at least Adrienne, Ariana and Don will appreciate, the Indian journalists are fearless. Where U.S. news sources shy away from anything that might be controversial to their readers, stir up trouble from the government or corporations or just cost a lot of money to do the necessary investigations (I'm really just going to hope for my own sake that Ania isn't reading this and please note, that I completely exclude Law Week and State Bill Colorado from these accusations) Indian reporters don't seem to be afraid of any person or organization, don't really give a shit if a story might upset readers, and from what I can tell, are very into investigative journalism. I read an article today that openly debated with itself whether India should present itself as a poor country in need of assistance and breaks at the G8 Summit or if it should try to impress the more powerful countries by showing off its growing strength, development and independence. I think everyone in the house is laughing at me because I literally read the papers with my mouth hanging open. As if I wasn't already dealing with a reputation as the little American freak who can't handle spicy food.

Miss you all!

Caddie

Things I have learned about India:
Uh, see above.

Things I have yet to learn about India:
Why yogurt that sort of looks like very bad milk has to be part of every meal. I know that I'm no world class chef or anything, but since when does yogurt go with chicken anyway?