From: mece21x@elroy.uh.edu (Yesudas, Michael)
Subject: Re: World Culture and Western Culture
Summary: ????
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
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Organization: University of Houston
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:36:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep30.030720.29922@massey.ac.nz>, K.Spagnolo@massey.ac.nz (Ken Spagnolo) writes...
> 
>>I did not wish to suggest taht Western powers were very often
>>motivated by benevolence, 
> 
>Are U kidding? From America (North and South) to Australia they
>wiped out races. This was a supreme act of 'benevolence'. They
>actually wanted to put a lot of races out of their misery. Most of
>the 'non-western' cultures are very greatful.
> 
>>Motivations were mixed.  Individual desire to make money,
>>ego and some benevolence.  
> 
>Just reiterating my thank U for leaving my country in the state of
>poverty it is in:)
> 
>>Even when there was benevolence,
>>part ot its motivation was a sense of superiority.  However,
>>the innovations were introduced and were useful, e.g. secular
>>universities, railroads and a British style judicial system -
>>even cricket.
> 
> 
>Now to give U a correct version of history. Not that crap propganda
>that your 'superior' culture has taught U.
> 
>1) Why did the British map India and build roads and bridges? The
>only reason was for profit. The British needed to map the country
>and build roads when they first entered India so that they could
>win all the battles and have many more colonies which they could
>live off. They were not in the least intersted in the natives. In
>the 200 odd years that they ruled India there were 8 famines. They
>did not help natives with their problems with feeding the people
>but were more intersted in making a profit. They built the railways
>for one and only one reason - trade and profit. 

I agree with you 100%.

> 
>Today, only 40 years after gaining freedom, India feeds a
>population of 850 million people. We have not had a major famine
>since independence. The West go on about how we have a lot of
>uneducated and many living below the poverty line - At least it is
>a country that seems to care about its people more than America
>(the richest country in the world) does.
> 
>2) The average life-span of the average Indian was 26 years when
>the British ruled India. This went up by 6 years only 5 years after
>attaining freedom. India raised the life expectancy of 350 million
>people by 6 years in a span of 5 years after we gave the British
>the boot. The life expectancy today is 63 years - Not as good as it
>should be but way higher than 26.

I think it is still below 50. Life expectancy never went up by 37
years in 45 years.

> 
>3) The British were basically a nation of drug dealers - For 200
>years they forced Indian farmers to grow opium and they then
>forcibly sold this opium to the Chinese.
> 
>Britain's economic greatness had less to do with the Industrial
>Revolution than with opium. The nation of drug pushers gained 1/7th
>of the total revenue for British India from the sale of drugs. The
>British made sure that the Chinese bought the drugs -The British
>even sent gunboats and their esteemed army to see that the drugs
>got across to China without interference from the Chinese
>government. 

It definitely not correct to say that the British made money only from
opium. And to say that they built up an empire out of opium would be
pushing imagination too far. They were a group of daring and brilliant
people, more than the Indians at that time. They ruled over them.
Maligning them does not change history.

> 
>Western arrogance/ignorance is as prevalent as ever. Most of the
>cultures that are living in poverty are a direct effect of Western
>influence (American natives-north and south, Africa- ravaged by
>'greedy' Europeans, India and China, Australian Aboriginal) From
>one end of the globe to the other. Countries that have been able to
>get back on their feet (the Tigers of the East) and compete with
>the West are making circles around 'Western cultures' and so called
>'Western technology' 
>>John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
> 
>>He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
> 
>A very modernistic thought. Its time U moved to the age we live in
>- the post modernistic one.
> 
>John Ainikkal
>'Aotearoa' - Land of the long white cloud
>-- 
>Ken Spagnolo - Ph: +64-6-350-5160
>Systems Programmer, Network Support, Usenet Admin, etc.
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|  Michael Yesudas         |  The control of the means of production   |
|  Mechanical Engineering  |  of wealth is the absolute control of     |
|  University of Houston   |  human life itself                        |
|  mece21x@jetson.uh.edu   |                    --   Hilaire Belloc    |
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Newsgroups: soc.history,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.iranian