Observations...The Extended Edition
I hope that my last post implied that I am enjoying my time in India, because there are many, many beautiful things about this country. However. This entry will be about the things that are making me, finally...after 4 and half months...truly start to miss Canada.
Obseverations 4 through 4,329: The Bad Stuff
Animals
We have been here for over 3 weeks, and I am absolutely heart-sick over the miserable condition of the animals here.
Cows: It's true that cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, and it's true that a cow can literally be lieing in the middle of a highway causing massive delays and drivers WILL NOT hit it NO MATTER WHAT. And the punishment for deliberately killing a cow is the same as for killing a man. But. The hundreds and hundreds of cows that we have seen here eat no grass, no hay, nothing natural. Rather they eat garbage. Out of plastic bags. On many occasions they swallow the bags which collect in their intestinal tract, killing them slowly and painfully.
Dogs: they are all starving, mangy, miserable creatures. And there are thousands of them. The bitches are always either pregnant or with a litter of pups because there is no service to neuter the males. The dogs also eat garbage because no one feeds them or seems to notice their miserable condition.
Donkeys: are made to carry loads of bricks and concrete that I am sure a truck would have a hard time carrying and thier eyes look so sad. It is heartbreaking.
Horses: are skinny, with ribs sticking through the skin and no shoes even though they are made to pull carts on asphalt roads.
Elephants: are also made to walk on stone or asphalt even though their feet are not designed for such ground. They are made to entertain or carry stupid tourists who cannot be bothered to walk 50 feet from the ticket window of a palace or fort to the entrance; stupid tourists who simply don't notice that the poor elephant is being poked in the back of the head with a sharp metal spike to make it keep walking.
I could keep going with the monkeys, and the pigs (they are the only fat animals here, but that's because they can actually digest vast amounts of the garbage that is, also, their only food source), and the dancing bears and the camels, but it's just too damn depressing.
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!
How can people be so dumb?!?!?!
When I have my animal sanctuary all my animals will be happy and not hungry and not made to do ANYTHING for stupid tourists.
Illness and Pollution
I got some kind of bug a week or so ago that made me horribly and violently ill for about 48 hours, and moderately sick for another 72 hours. I think I nearly became addicted to Immodium during this time, which is a scary prospect indeed.... I got over the stomach bug, but now I am developing a cold, which I am sure is not due to an actual cold bug, but rather due to the truly insane levels of pollution in this country.
Other things:
Women here are treated like dirt; the stories are too varied and too horrible to elaborate on here, but, yeah, I would hate to be an Indian woman! Indians don't much like them either; one of the girls in our group, a very nice Aussie by name of Claire, told us about how she saw an ad for an abortion clinic that read: 'Spend a little money now, and save a big dowry payment later'....
Apparently there is a garbage collection system here, but only in large towns and only if you pay a bribe to the garbage collectors to get them to do thier job, so everyone just tosses thier litter onto the street and it it filthy and dirty and horrible. Apparently, hospitals here have to made a budget decision every year as to whether they pay the garbage bribe, or spend that money on actual hospital supplies.
The beggars are filthy and pushy and annoying. The touts don't see 'tourist' when they see a white person; they see a dollar sign and they will tell you anything to get you to open your wallet.
And all this occurs in a country that has enough money to fund, develop and maintain a nuclear arsenal big enough to destroy the world 3 times over.
So, what I miss about Canada is the follwing: I miss being in a country where animals are beloved pets rather than miserable, abused, helpless creatures. I miss being in a country where it is not acceptable to treat women like dirt. I miss being in a country that doesn't literally make me sick with it's pollution and garbage. I miss being in a country where I can walk past a shop and not be hassled almost to the point of violence by the salespeople.
And....of course... I miss Tim Horton's.
So much (sigh).
But....And here's a big but.
This morning we saw the Taj Mahal, and it was beautiful.
Truly, truly beautiful. Words cannot describe it and it really does live up to all the hype and all the flattery. So, I will take the food poisoning, and the heartbreak over the animals, and the sickening feeling in my stomach I get when I breathe in a whiff of the rotting garbage. And I will say that, overall, I am glad that I am here.
TK
Obseverations 4 through 4,329: The Bad Stuff
Animals
We have been here for over 3 weeks, and I am absolutely heart-sick over the miserable condition of the animals here.
Cows: It's true that cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, and it's true that a cow can literally be lieing in the middle of a highway causing massive delays and drivers WILL NOT hit it NO MATTER WHAT. And the punishment for deliberately killing a cow is the same as for killing a man. But. The hundreds and hundreds of cows that we have seen here eat no grass, no hay, nothing natural. Rather they eat garbage. Out of plastic bags. On many occasions they swallow the bags which collect in their intestinal tract, killing them slowly and painfully.
Dogs: they are all starving, mangy, miserable creatures. And there are thousands of them. The bitches are always either pregnant or with a litter of pups because there is no service to neuter the males. The dogs also eat garbage because no one feeds them or seems to notice their miserable condition.
Donkeys: are made to carry loads of bricks and concrete that I am sure a truck would have a hard time carrying and thier eyes look so sad. It is heartbreaking.
Horses: are skinny, with ribs sticking through the skin and no shoes even though they are made to pull carts on asphalt roads.
Elephants: are also made to walk on stone or asphalt even though their feet are not designed for such ground. They are made to entertain or carry stupid tourists who cannot be bothered to walk 50 feet from the ticket window of a palace or fort to the entrance; stupid tourists who simply don't notice that the poor elephant is being poked in the back of the head with a sharp metal spike to make it keep walking.
I could keep going with the monkeys, and the pigs (they are the only fat animals here, but that's because they can actually digest vast amounts of the garbage that is, also, their only food source), and the dancing bears and the camels, but it's just too damn depressing.
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!
How can people be so dumb?!?!?!
When I have my animal sanctuary all my animals will be happy and not hungry and not made to do ANYTHING for stupid tourists.
Illness and Pollution
I got some kind of bug a week or so ago that made me horribly and violently ill for about 48 hours, and moderately sick for another 72 hours. I think I nearly became addicted to Immodium during this time, which is a scary prospect indeed.... I got over the stomach bug, but now I am developing a cold, which I am sure is not due to an actual cold bug, but rather due to the truly insane levels of pollution in this country.
Other things:
Women here are treated like dirt; the stories are too varied and too horrible to elaborate on here, but, yeah, I would hate to be an Indian woman! Indians don't much like them either; one of the girls in our group, a very nice Aussie by name of Claire, told us about how she saw an ad for an abortion clinic that read: 'Spend a little money now, and save a big dowry payment later'....
Apparently there is a garbage collection system here, but only in large towns and only if you pay a bribe to the garbage collectors to get them to do thier job, so everyone just tosses thier litter onto the street and it it filthy and dirty and horrible. Apparently, hospitals here have to made a budget decision every year as to whether they pay the garbage bribe, or spend that money on actual hospital supplies.
The beggars are filthy and pushy and annoying. The touts don't see 'tourist' when they see a white person; they see a dollar sign and they will tell you anything to get you to open your wallet.
And all this occurs in a country that has enough money to fund, develop and maintain a nuclear arsenal big enough to destroy the world 3 times over.
So, what I miss about Canada is the follwing: I miss being in a country where animals are beloved pets rather than miserable, abused, helpless creatures. I miss being in a country where it is not acceptable to treat women like dirt. I miss being in a country that doesn't literally make me sick with it's pollution and garbage. I miss being in a country where I can walk past a shop and not be hassled almost to the point of violence by the salespeople.
And....of course... I miss Tim Horton's.
So much (sigh).
But....And here's a big but.
This morning we saw the Taj Mahal, and it was beautiful.
Truly, truly beautiful. Words cannot describe it and it really does live up to all the hype and all the flattery. So, I will take the food poisoning, and the heartbreak over the animals, and the sickening feeling in my stomach I get when I breathe in a whiff of the rotting garbage. And I will say that, overall, I am glad that I am here.
TK
posted by TK at 3:02 AM
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