A global citizen’s thoughts

Featured image source – https://pixers.us/wall-murals/earth-globe-africa-europe-and-asia-60726403

I consider myself to be a global citizen. I was born in (and currently live in) United States of America. I am building a home here. But a part of me will always call India my home too. After all, I grew up there. I have family there. My dream is to eventually settle in the English countryside or a small town in eastern Europe. In today’s world of globalization, there are n number of possibilities which all seem achievable in some form or the other. But, keeping all the cultural and the natural beauty aside, there is one aspect of society that is increasingly making being a global citizen difficult. It is the political climate.

I have lived my whole life in two countries so far, two of the most significant countries in the global economy, United states, the current super power and India, one of the most significant countries with the recently upgraded status of a developed nation. It is my observation that these two countries have significant sway over the world’s politics with USA having a controlling stake. My thoughts in this article will represent my views on these two countries alone. These views are not meant to provide any color on what is right or what is wrong. These views aren’t meant to incite the true patriots of either nations. I, myself, feel a sense of pride in my own way, for both these countries and have ties to both but I cannot ignore what I see and what my brain processes from all the information I receive from around me. Once again, these are just my views and my musings which are not meant to attack anyone or even support anyone.

Lets start with India.

I have spent the better part of my life living, studying and working in India. The culture and atmosphere in India is that of competition. From an early age, children are taught to compete for the top spot wherever in their life they may be. If you don’t come first in everything you do, you are essentially a nobody. My own parents would give me an example – If you can’t be M.F. Hussain, there’s no point in being a painter. No one remembers who came second in a race. Everyone remembers only who came first. Normally, this kind of encouragement should inspire the will to do better but my brain was such that listening to these things, I would process it as – “Since I cant be M.F. Hussain, why even try?”. I spent pretty much all my life being mediocre. I was never at the top of my class with the exception of a couple of years in the middle where I had a renewed sense of love for Mathematics because of a couple of excellent teachers. But I was also never at the bottom, again with the exception of Hindi in Class 8 and 9! Anyway, because of never having that competitive spirit, I never bought into the fight for a good college seat for both my undergrad and grad school admissions entrance tests. I did just well enough to secure at least one seat for my undergrad and just well enough to secure another seat for Grad school. Due to the fact that there are way more students than there were seats available, competition is something you absolutely could not avoid, no matter how hard you tried. With the population of the country set to cross record status in the next two decades, this problem is going to get much worse.

Due to this deep sense of competition, even the workplace is not spared. Every day is a fight to prove yourself. Its just a way of life now. If you don’t get a promotion every two years, it means you are failing at your job. More importantly, in a lot of places, merit does not do the talking for you. You need to “one up” your peers to be able to get that coveted promotion. In order to get that “one up”, people can resort to all sorts of unpleasantness which can cause a tense atmosphere within the team. Through no fault of their own, this has modified people to behave in a manner that is constantly forced to think strategically and build relationships with one goal in mind – how to get that leg up? Every relationship at the work place becomes transactional. In most cases, people have no work life balance because they fear they will fall behind the next person who has sacrificed their work life balance. All of this to what end? You slog all your life to earn money, to make life for your family better but when do you actually get to see your family? Shouldn’t being there for your family mean more? By the time you feel like you have done enough, your health begins to give way because you have burnt yourself out and then you spend the rest of your life paying for hospital bills. Or, if you are lucky enough to not have health issues, you may have lost the time with your family. Your kids may have just left home to live their own lives. Its just your spouse and you. While that sounds romantic, it takes a long time to adjust to a life of quiet after you have essentially spent most of your life in the hustle and bustle of a crazy busy life.

Having spoken about the everyday life of an average Indian, another aspect that contributes to the mental stability of a person is the political climate of the country. Regular policies of the government also has an impact on the day to day lives of its citizens. It is quite common knowledge that corruption and bureaucracy are some of India’s biggest political problems. That can be felt much lower down the chain, in every day lives as well. Simple routine tasks can be impacted by the political climate, taxes being the most obvious issue. Rules and regulations and everyday practices set by the government also impact your way of life. An example of that is buying a house/apartment. Many builders or sellers ask whether it will be an all white or some black and some white transaction! Its just how it is now. While the present government tried to tackle the concept of black money by overhauling the whole currency system of the country, research shows that not only did it not solve the problem, it made the lives of everyday citizens much worse. The hassles, the panic and overall discomfort among citizens far outweighed any benefits the overhaul may have had. While I appreciate the effort, the result just shows that we just can’t change the system.

Another aspect of the political climate that bothers me the most today is the fading concept of secularism in the country. It was a concept that we held immense pride in, in the past. Today, religious and cultural intolerance is so rampant in the country that I am ashamed. While I am a proud Hindu myself, I have immense respect for all religions because the more I read, the more I realize that all religions teach humans pretty much the same things. Its the humans who interpret their own meanings from these and then cause unrest because of a difference of opinion. The most common misinterpretation that the whole world faces is the fact that all Muslims have terrorist connections. That is not true. If someone is from Pakistan, it doesn’t automatically make them our enemy. Just because there are political differences, it doesn’t mean all Muslims are enemies of all Hindus. We must remember, for all the Dawood Ibrahims and Osama Bin Ladens of the world, there are the Veerappans and Arun Gawlis of the world too. No one religion is completely pure and saintly. We must never judge a book by its cover.

I am extremely proud of the fact that my roots are in India. Our history, our gazillion languages, foods, clothes, traditions, music, dances and so much more make it seem like we have entered a new world even if we have just crossed a state border. Even now, when I talk about this diversity with people in America, some have complimented me about how passionately I speak of India. No other country can boast of such variety and such a rich heritage. We should be proud of the differences and make that our strength. That’s what the world should see when they see India, not the hate crimes or politics or even poverty. The world media also plays a hand in this. Slumdog Millionaire isn’t India. Jai Ho isn’t the best song AR Rehman ever composed. It is on the Indian people to publicize the right things about the country. I agree that people are trying. There are so many cultural clubs/festivals all around the world where they promote the right things about India but it is not as rampant as the negatives. It should fall on the Indian media to fix this image. Also, Indian news channels need to bring in some decorum. The constant yelling and talking over each other doesn’t help.

The last issue I want to address is brain drain, something that I am sort of guilty of myself. Traditionally, brain drain is the concept of losing talented people when they leave the country for another country with better opportunities. While I am certainly no talent which could have benefited India in a definitive manner, I too left the country because I couldn’t stand the culture of competition. I cannot live my life in a rat race. And as I mentioned before, I am ashamed of losing our secular identity. India is losing top talent every year because of a lack of opportunities. The bar for the best candidates keeps rising where getting even 100% scores in entrance tests doesn’t guarantee students a seat in their choice of colleges anymore. More and more students are leaving the country right after class 10 to pursue undergrad courses in US. India doesn’t stand a chance at this rate. The rate at which it is losing talent is much higher than the rate at which people are returning post earning their degrees or even getting a good amount of work experience. The people who choose to stay back with a sense of pride for their country, are relegated to the culture I just outlined above. To be fair, there are the Tatas and Ambanis who are trying to build more opportunities and bring the socio-economic status of India to the forefront but even they can only do so much. India has produced some of the top minds in the world today but all we can do now is boast about achievements of Indians abroad. I do not see their success as India’s triumph. It shows me that it could have been India’s triumph if these notable people had achieved these through their hard work using India’s resources. Amartya Sen, Raghuram Rajan, Indra Nooyi, Kalpana Chawla, the list is endless. They became who they are not in India. How can India boast about their accomplishments? What hand did India have in their success? Some may have had their schooling in India but the bulk of their success was achieved by using resources outside the country. That is not something to be proud of.

Now, lets move to the USA.

While I have only been in this self proclaimed great nation for only about 6 years, I have observed a lot. I will be the first to say I have a lot to learn. But here I will share my initial thoughts. Again, usually, I do not share my thoughts for fear of situations of being judged or offending anyone which I have always actively avoided. So once again, I start with the disclaimer that these are just my thoughts. I may need fact checking and I am not in anyway claiming to be a know it all.

Just being here for the past 6 years has shown me why people are flocking to USA the way they are. The quality of life is indeed better here. While we are forced to be much more independent, this sense of being independent makes you respect people more. For example, a farmer here gets way more respect in society than a farmer in India. That’s just one example. There are many other professions which get the respect they deserve here. Life doesn’t feel like a rat race here but I must add, that depends on the industry you are in. I am sure Consultants and people in the IT Service industry would disagree with me in a heartbeat. But overall, work life balance is something I learnt about, after I came here. Work is important to everyone but not more important than family and personal well being. Mental well being for example, is a big deal here whereas in India, its still considered inconsequential. People actively make time for hobbies, even if it is something as simple as building something small in their backyard for their kids or a simple landscaping/gardening job. They may also just prefer to go for a walk or jog in the nearby park. In India, people don’t have time for a walk in the park. Actually, I take that back. The health conscious people can almost always be found jogging with earphones on before heading to work. Anyway, my point is, people here make the time to watch the world go by, something that is unheard of in India. As a result of this culture, there are a lot more entrepreneurs in USA. Because of a personal fulfillment and balance within themselves, they are a lot more willing to take risks and be their own bosses. This in turn adds to their ability to be able to balance work and family. Its amazing how America has achieved this way of life. I am quite jealous! I understand why they say this is a great nation!

But, is it really?

The more I dig, the more I read, the more I see around me, the more I realize that there are way more issues than there are opportunities. The race of Caucasian humans has developed a sense of entitlement which has been ingrained through generations. It was rampant in the past as seen by the era of slavery. Injustice and intolerance were at its cruelest form then. Africa faced Apartheid and India and many other countries (including USA) faced the British colonialism, all of which bring to light the horrors of entitlement. USA fought well and finally abolished slavery and started to become a truly great nation by following a practice of equality and kindness. But it looks like intolerance and inequality had just subsided. It was never completely eradicated. Just like a tree, if you cut it to the ground but forget the roots, the tree will grow back, sometimes much stronger than it was before. You need to weed them out completely if you never want them to grow back. That was never done. Today the intolerance has grown to such levels that the very people who you should trust to protect you are the people you distrust the most. The government and the police department, people who are meant to keep us safe and keep us protected, are the ones we fear the most now. The recent George Floyd case and the countless similar cases before that show just how fragile the psyche of Americans is. Personally, I have had unpleasant experiences with both African Americans and Caucasian Americans so in my eyes, both parties are to blame equally! Having been through what they have, how can some African Americans have the sense of entitlement that they do? The bias and racism in America is just like the situation between Hindus and Muslims in India. Just because someone’s skin color is black or brown, doesn’t automatically mean they are dangerous and packing weapons or dealing with terrorists. How is it that this is still such a big issue? The protests all over the country show that there is a significant size of population within the country that absolutely won’t tolerate racism. But despite repeated attempts, nothing ever changes. Thousands of lives are lost either due to racism or gun violence, there are nation wide protests and then we elect a head of state like President Donald Trump. How is it that issues that seem common sense enough to me to have just one conclusion, end up being interpreted in 20 different ways and ultimately end up lost in a black hole? This constant war between the left, the right and the moderates in terms of individual ideologies is just tiring. How is America any different from all the other countries then? What is the basis for the claim that they are above all and actually a super power? If the government can’t even make its own citizens feel safe in their own skin, how can any country claim to be great?

Another potentially bigger issue in my mind is the whole issue of immigrants. The current political climate is very heated about immigration. People seem to forget that pretty much every one in this country is originally an immigrant. Everyone’s ancestry is somewhere back in Europe. Its the sole basis of businesses like ancestry.com and 23andme.com! I have watched how countless people take these tests and then proudly declare that they are x% Italian or y% German or z% English! These sites don’t exist in India! How could they? Everyone’s ancestry would either be Aryan or Dravidian! That’s it. No x% this and y% this and z% something else! The only group that can proudly say that they are true Americans are the groups that no one ever sees in their regular life, the Native Americans! They have been relegated to such a terrible state in the country that they have lost their freedom and their land. They have been forced to retire to smaller reservations in relatively quieter places in remote parts of the country so that they can lead a peaceful life. We have essentially made them refugees in their own country. That is not something to be proud of. That doesn’t make America great.

Additionally, there are multiple businesses that traditionally Americans have not touched or rather have reserved for immigrants only so that they can focus on other (better) opportunities. This has happened for so many generations that now, if a Hispanic nanny doesn’t show up for a week, a traditional American household is paralyzed. If the Indian or Bangladeshi immigrant at the 7-Eleven doesn’t open shop, you wont get your milk and eggs for breakfast! I wonder how America would do if every immigrant in the country halted their work for one week. As long as immigrants stick to the picture that Americans have painted for the kind of jobs that they should do, there is no problem. As soon as they start to enter corporate America, all hell breaks loose! Yes, I agree that means Americans are losing job opportunities. But I would argue that’s the side effect of promoting merit rather than following shady practices of favoritism or nepotism. Isn’t that what makes America great in the first place? There has been this age old perception that Asians in general are better at Science and Maths than Americans. But Americans fought that perception hard and now there are way more computer science programs at schools and colleges than there were ever before. Students here run head to head with students from Asian countries in school and now hold top jobs at technology firms like Google, Microsoft and Apple dispelling those myths that only Asians can do technology well. But that once again proves my point that merit plays a big role here. Why then do people harp on job losses for Americans because of immigrants? On the flip side, to be fair to Americans, some immigrants also feel that having an american passport opens doors in USA. While I can’t deny that, they forget that once the door opens, you still have to fight hard to prove that you are as good or better than the rest of the passport holders eyeing for those same opportunities. The opportunities aren’t endless. No one side gets the better deal without merit. I am merely pointing out that intolerance is a phenomenon on both sides. Its not just Americans, but even immigrants need to respect the struggles of Americans. This goes back to my original point of equality.

The conclusion :-

No one race or culture should have a sense of entitlement in today’s world. In my mind, every man and woman on this planet is working to achieve a purpose – whether it is family, or personal goals or even professional ambitions. Everyone is trying to get to a point in life where they can be happy. Depending on where you are from, your background, your environment, the path you take to get to wherever you want to go, may be different. We need to respect everyone’s paths, everyone’s choices. The political climate of a country should aide its citizens to get to where they want to go, not complicate their lives or add such obstacles that citizens lose their lives trying to live by those rules. The negativity around today’s world is spreading at an alarming rate and intolerance is becoming the norm rather than the exception. We need to fix this quick. In an ideal world, the political climate should guide the mind of a citizen and the cultural and environmental background of a citizen should guide their heart. If this was the rule to abide by, there would be no injustice, no intolerance, no disharmony. Imagine what a wonderful place the world would be. Who knows, maybe we wouldn’t even have Covid-19! Ok, maybe I stretched it a bit too far, but one cant stop dreaming!!!