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Original poster

Has anyone seen what's going on on India?

212 replies

twinkletits99 · 01/04/2020 15:42

I've just seen some of the footage and am reduced to tears. People bring beaten in the streets. Migrants being forced to bathe in disinfectant spray. People breaking down because they fear they are going to starve to death before coronavirus has a chance to take them. I'm quarter Indian and whilst I have no real connection to India other than that, I couldn't help but feel utterly hopeless for them.

OP posts:
CherryPavlova · 01/04/2020 21:37

Tragically worse is to come. It will be one of the most devastating emergencies that the poorest nations have had to face. India has not got the infrastructure to cope with the scale of illness that will descend.
Truly, truly tragic as it unfolds. Poor people are powerless.

mrsBtheparker · 01/04/2020 21:38

Isn't India the nation with the largest inequalities on earth?

Certainly our experience when we've been there. On a tour our guide was proud of his caste status as a Rajput, at the end of the three weeks he said that he didn't know the driver's name, even though they were always on the same tour, and seemed annoyed that we would expect him to know it. he was of a much lower caste.

SharkasticBitch · 01/04/2020 21:42

Bloody hell @BovaryX - did @fleatrainerextraordinaire steal your birthday cake or something?

SharkasticBitch · 01/04/2020 21:45

It's never a good idea to take your eye of the ball with this stuff.

Totally agree with this. I have a lot of time for our police force which has flaws but is mostly brilliant. It doesn't mean they should be able to act, unchecked. It is important that they are answerable to the public, through the government.

Recoverandthrive · 01/04/2020 21:46

LookBackInIngres-care to explain who are?

SchadenfreudePersonified · 01/04/2020 21:47

speaking up over the small is what keeps the big at bay

SilentTights · 01/04/2020 21:51

*You know what I find very tiresome? The penchant for hyperbole

...

Denouncing the police for 'asking people what they are doing?*

You don't see the contradiction there? No one has denounced the police for that. That's hyperbole.

tttigress · 01/04/2020 21:53

I would like to know what the number of cases is in India, the official figure is 1,998. But I fear it is much much hire.

One point though, if you think this behaviour is unique to the Corona virus situation, it isn't.

I have an Indian friend who regularly posts videos of student protests in India, the videos feature the police just absolutely indiscriminately attacking with think bamboo canes peaceful protestors.

MintyMabel · 01/04/2020 21:54

And yet here, just yesterday, someone declared a poor person in the U.K. had just a hard time as a poor person in India, there was no inherent privilege to living in the U.K.

FleaTrainerExtraordinaire · 01/04/2020 21:57

To be fair @MintyMabel it can sometimes be difficult to know how hard poverty in India is if all you've seen is UK poverty.

Everyone that would visit me there would be shocked when actually confronted with it and the various ways it made life harder than they could imagine.

FleaTrainerExtraordinaire · 01/04/2020 21:58

is if all you've seen is UK poverty

And most people in the UK haven't really even seen that.

BovaryX · 01/04/2020 22:03

And yet here, just yesterday, someone declared a poor person in the U.K. had just a hard time as a poor person in India, there was no inherent privilege to living in the U.K

That's because the concept of relative poverty dominates the West. Access to Free healthcare? Free education? Much of the planet doesn't have access to clean drinking water.

BeetrootRocks · 01/04/2020 22:04

Does there need to be a competition between who has it worse?

An abuse victim out of the care system and sleeping rough in the UK is in a pretty grim situation. What does it benefit to say oh they're lucky really compared to X?

I am also not sure that India has the biggest differential between rich and poor in the world.

BovaryX · 01/04/2020 22:07

You don't see the contradiction there?

Er, did you read the quote? Describing the police asking someone what they're doing as a transgression? It is but to laugh....

BeetrootRocks · 01/04/2020 22:08

Google tells me SA and China are ahead of India in terms of wealth inequality.

Why do people post stuff without a cursory check?

BeetrootRocks · 01/04/2020 22:09

USA is 9.
UK 13.

SilentTights · 01/04/2020 22:09

Er, did you read the quote? Describing the police asking someone what they're doing as a transgression? It is but to laugh....

I did but am wondering now if you did. Despite having it explained over and over you are still insisting someone said something that they did not. I wonder why you're not accepting the explanation?

Bobbbbbyre · 01/04/2020 22:09

Very sad

BeetrootRocks · 01/04/2020 22:10

Police approaching people and questioning them when they are not obviously or suspected of breaking any laws is certainly a bad thing.

Remember stop and search.

FleaTrainerExtraordinaire · 01/04/2020 22:11

Describing the police asking someone what they're doing as a transgression? It is but to laugh....

Oh I bloody give up. I have explained until I am blue in the face that I did not say or mean that.

You carry on insisting YOUR interpretation of MY words is the correct one if it'll make you feel better.

mumoffluffs · 01/04/2020 22:13

@BeetrootRocks I'm not fully aware of how bad the poor are treated in SA and China, but I must say from what I know and my family have experienced/talked about, Indians and their caste system, general lack of regard for the people on the streets, forced mutilations of children/adults is horrific.

I don't know if the levels of corruption are to the same extent in SA / China and treatment of the poor?

BovaryX · 01/04/2020 22:18

Beetrock
A global pandemic exposes the difference between liberal democracies and totalitarian regimes in their response. It also highlights the repression and poverty which dominates much of the planet. There is a curious insularity which defines much of the political discourse in the West. A lack of perspective. A lack of proportionality. The kind of paradigm where identity politics dictates the narrative. And this global crisis highlights that. If you can't see that? So be it.

BeetrootRocks · 01/04/2020 22:19

It was the statement that India has to worst wealth inequality in the world.

I wondered if that was true and googled, it doesn't.

Sticking to facts is a good thing rather than guessing.

For sure the shit will hit the fan in India and other parts of the world as well. They are stuck. Do nothing, loads of people die. Do something, loads of people die for other reasons. No work, no money. People from cities trying to get home, if they are infected that's just spreading it faster. I don't think there's a good answer there is there. It's going to be horrendous.

My point was just, do a basic fact check before saying stuff that is easily checked.

BovaryX · 01/04/2020 22:28

Remember stop and search

What do you think of London's skyrocketing murder rate? Do you think the police should not be able to stop and search people? How many kids need to die on the capital's streets?

Recoverandthrive · 01/04/2020 22:29

BeetrootRocks fully agree.

Seems to be some sweeping and actually quite offensive comments on this thread against india such as emeraldshamrock. Yes there are issues in India but to make comments like its a disgusting place, how bloody dare you.

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