Philosophy: The fuzzy subjective
Today afternoon I was listening to the story of two kids being kidnapped, and the associated stories about other missing kids.
I grew up in the city of Mumbai, India. Mumbai, although being the most modern Indian city at that time, still had the slums, open garbage cans, and smelly sewers. The image of the US which my generation saw on TV or in photos sent over was of a "spic and span" country, with shiny high-rises and neat rows of houses in the country side. The only time we saw something contrary was the movies, but movies are part-fiction/part-reality anyway. US seemed a country with near perfect living conditions.
Living in the US for more than 2 years had left me a bit disillusioned regarding my notions. I heard about crime on TV, I tripped over a Starbucks coffee left at the pavement, and on radio I heard about homeless people getting affected by the un-seasonally cold winters. All this sounded familiar, so what was I missing?
Its numbers, which are conspicuous by their absence. Although I don't have the statistics on this, but I think if one pulled them they will show that # of pounds of garbage per square mile, # of incidents of crime per day, and the # of homeless people per person is more in India than US. Where subjective views can create a fuzzy equality, the statistics can clearly setup aside reality from vague notions.
-MG
p.s. Just trying to make a point about objectivity. I know India has changed a lot, and continues to change as I type.
I grew up in the city of Mumbai, India. Mumbai, although being the most modern Indian city at that time, still had the slums, open garbage cans, and smelly sewers. The image of the US which my generation saw on TV or in photos sent over was of a "spic and span" country, with shiny high-rises and neat rows of houses in the country side. The only time we saw something contrary was the movies, but movies are part-fiction/part-reality anyway. US seemed a country with near perfect living conditions.
Living in the US for more than 2 years had left me a bit disillusioned regarding my notions. I heard about crime on TV, I tripped over a Starbucks coffee left at the pavement, and on radio I heard about homeless people getting affected by the un-seasonally cold winters. All this sounded familiar, so what was I missing?
Its numbers, which are conspicuous by their absence. Although I don't have the statistics on this, but I think if one pulled them they will show that # of pounds of garbage per square mile, # of incidents of crime per day, and the # of homeless people per person is more in India than US. Where subjective views can create a fuzzy equality, the statistics can clearly setup aside reality from vague notions.
-MG
p.s. Just trying to make a point about objectivity. I know India has changed a lot, and continues to change as I type.
posted by Mohit Gupta at 8:00 PM
1 Comments:
I would slightly modify the way the stats are computed and compared. IMO everything should be a %age of the population/population density and the square miles the country spans over. Of course you can keep on refining the context like no. of years of independence etc but that departs from your point.
Post a Comment
<< Home