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Re: [OM] IMGS: The Rock Collectors

Subject: Re: [OM] IMGS: The Rock Collectors
From: Tina Manley <tmanley@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2019 18:05:20 -0400
Thanks, Moose.  I think Mark Twain was right when he said  “Travel is fatal
to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need
it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and
things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth
all one's lifetime.”

Tina




On Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 5:46 PM Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 3/15/2019 1:37 PM, Tina Manley wrote:
> > PESO:
> >
> > We visited a place in Jaflong, Bangladesh, where workers had seasonal
> jobs
> > moving rocks from the river bed during the dry season.  I got some
> > criticism when I first posted a couple of these while still in
> Bangladesh.
> > There were comments that I was taking advantage of people who were, in
> > effect, working as slaves;
>
> Why these in particular? "Unloading the Ship", "Dredging With Buckets" and
> others show essentially the same thing, the
> working of a culture and economy based on manual labor.
>
> Whether one finds changing such situations desirable or not (I make no
> judgement here), the enormous changes necessary
> to accomplish it and those that come as consequence have vast social and
> cultural effects.
>
> "Proud Family", with the seven children highlights only one of the many
> things that have to change if a "modern",
> Western style economy is desired. It doesn't, of course, resulting in
> hordes of displaced persons living in grinding
> poverty in the ramshackle slums of capital/large cities as the manual
> labor jobs of the countryside vanish.
>
> As an erstwhile grad in Econ from Berkeley (about 1,000 yrs. ago), who
> studied the economics of "underdevelopment" in
> Asia and the Americas, I could natter on endlessly. Suffice it to say that
> "taking advantage of people who were, in
> effect, working as slaves" is ludicrously simplistic.
>
> > however, that was not the impression I got while
> > I was there at all.  The people seemed happy to have jobs and were joking
> > and laughing as they worked.  Men, women, and children all worked
> together
> > very cooperatively.  They were very friendly and nobody objected to my
> > photographing them as they worked.  When they put their baskets and rocks
> > down, they posed for photos and wanted to see them on the camera.  All in
> > all, it was a very positive experience
>
> Lived experience and experience beheld from another planet are vastly
> different. We saw something similar in Bhutan.
> Road crews rebuilding the national highway and other roads were all Indian
> nationals, working for Indian companies. They
> lived in huts made by hand from the rusty, tarry barrels the road bitumen
> comes in. Their situation looks appalling to
> our eyes.
>
> Yet, apparently, this living situation is a great deal better than it was
> where they are from. The dwellings are made
> from better materials, more durable, rainproof and in uncrowded rows. They
> are living in verdant, largely unspoiled
> forest, with clean air and abundant clean (at least by their standards)
> water running all around them. Watching them
> washing and brushing their teeth in a roadside waterfall, they are
> apparently very happy.
>
> Hard, often unpleasant work, sure. But it's work, and the pay is good.
> They will go home after their 6 mo. contract
> better off than when they left.
>
> So many things look different, depending on where one stands.
>
> Ranting Philosopher Moose
>
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
> --
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>

-- 
Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com
http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley
<http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html>
*https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/649596.html
<https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/649596.html>*
-- 
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