alexist

"The bitter fact about Indian growth, and what makes it qualitatively different from that in Japan, China, Thailand or Malaysia, is that the overwhelming majority obtains no benefit from it."

(From Independent article about the hidden side of Indian growth).

China in the same breath as Japan?! Are they joking? Someone's bought the Chinese government propoganda. Growth seems to be somewhat better distributed in China than India (thanks to the emphasis on exploiting the cheap labour pool) but beyond the eastern coast there are vast numbers of Chinese who are watching the miracle pass them by. And the environmental catastrophes being wrought are as bad or worse as India.

The difference, of course, is that for all its corruption and inefficiency, India is a democracy and it's a lot harder to hide what goes on. The Chinese government still stage-manages everyone into seeing shiny new buildings and factories--and not the rural peasants working 12 hours a day on slave wages to make all those nice products for us Westerners. Or the villages they've had to leave behind.

I stopped in Borders after the cinema. And I kept thinking "I could buy that, and that, and that..."

And the stupid thing is, I have plenty of books. I have plenty of unread books. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to buy more. If it weren't for money, I'd buy a near-infinite number of books.

*hangs head in shame*

(PS. I didn't buy any books. I did buy the new Macworld, though.)