A friend of a friend just moved to India. She sold all her worldly possessions and moved without ever having visited the place she was going to. Depending upon one’s perspective (is the glass half full or half empty?) this bold move into the unknown was either very gutsy or very stupid.
It is fascinating to read her e-mail. She has a much clearer focus now regarding what we in the developed world have, and what much of the world wants desperately.
Chemically and biologically safe running water. That
runs 24 hours per day. Even as nearby as our neighbor country Mexico, this is not always assured. Safe running water to drink, cook with, and bathe with is essential. Two thousand years ago the Romans invested a great deal of energy in order to bring running water into their towns. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1431/660429015_da9948a313_o.jpg
The Romans also had an extensive system of sewers. Even in London just a few hundred years ago there
was raw sewage in the streets and the drinking water was contaminated with sewage. The royalty drank bottled water from stoneware containers filled at special religious springs. Naturally there were terrible health consequences to the majority of the people who had to drink biologically contaminated water. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1352/660428071_4c5c7eab7e_o.jpg
Electricity that operates 24 hours per day. When the power goes off for an extended period of time in the summer one realizes the importance of our electrical power grid. Being able to read after the sun goes down without having to light a fire hazard lamp is very beneficial to society. If the power were to go off for a few days during the winter would your furnace operate?
When one looks into the area of communication one sees massive differences between the developed countries and the rest of the world. Telephones, cell phones, the internet, television, etc. This radical improvement in communication permits all sorts of coordination that is not possible when one is using the mail, runners, or the pony express. In many cases you see cellular telephone networks developing in places where safe running water is not even yet available.
When one is stopped in a traffic jam on the highway, one does not appreciate what a tremendous advancement this infrastructure is. But when one visits a really poor country where even a dirt road that a jeep can travel over may be seen as quite a luxury one sees how useful these paved highways are.
I won’t go into health care because almost 50 million people in the United States of America don’t have access to the health care system. Have cancer but no insurance? Tough luck jerk, just die. As one would expect, infant mortality in America is much worse than those countries where there is universal health care.
Having a roof over your head seems elemental to us here in America, but one doesn’t have to travel far to see people living in shacks built from cardboard.