So over this past week and weekend, I read a lot about the situation in
I know I sound lost and confused, but isn’t that the state of each one of us when we look at the situation in our respective countries (both where we belong to, and where we have immigrated to)? I know many of us would only like to look at things positively and be optimistic, but would it harm us to stop sometime and think about the broader, bigger issues we face as a citizen rather than our day-to-day personal problems? I know I am asking too many questions, and I for one definitely do not have all the answers, but I would be interested to know what others think about this.
Over this past weekend, my wife and I decide to rent some movies. We watched Swades, Children of men and then Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Children of men is quite frankly a disturbing movie, which to my understanding has a shaky, over the top, futuristic story, but the context of the story or the core of the issue is something that we can definitely relate to given our current situation. The movie shows
Don't we also have bigger issues to look into, for instance with our environment like global warming, fuel problems, etc, which have been getting worse than before and will have bigger repercussions if ignored? But are we doing anything immediately about it? Many governments and politicians complain that we are not investing much into these issues. So let me get this straight, in US, every year we do have massive amounts of money to be spent on events like parades (New Years day, Thanksgiving day, Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s day, etc), on Sports (NBA, NFL, PGA, US Open, etc), on game shows with huge prize money (Power of 10, Deal or No Deal, etc), political fund raisers, and many other things but we are not able to invest money to save our planet? Is this right? Is there any justification on such spending? Can’t we for one year save all this money and instead invest it to improve our environment, which affects all of us? I know this sounds child-dish, but think about it. This is the money that is really not being put to proper use, as it is being targeted and spent on a selective segment or audience to make them happy by watching it, and reward the players for their hard work in the sport (this is still valid, but a year shouldn’t hurt). Would you rather that a few years down the line, the government out of sheer frustration and non-availability of funds start charging everyone “Global Warming Tax” for improving the environment because we would have lost control by then? Things like these are not uncommon. Has anyone heard about traffic “Congestion Tax”?
Coming back to the movies, the other movie I watched was Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Apart from being a good comedy film the movie is also thought provoking as is Swades. But they both have their separate points. The target audience for both the movies are the same...the common Indian citizen, and so are some of the problems like our failing government systems, our disinterest in improving the system because we have given up hope of its improvement, and our being satisfied as a by-stander rather than being actively involved. Why is it, that even after 60 years of independence, we Indians are still talking about issues like water, electricity, and failing government systems in our country? Why is it that while on one hand, we talk about becoming a global power, on the other hand we ignore our villages that don't even have the basic necessities and our main metropolitan cities also face similar issues. Do we realize that the capital of our country
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