My friend from Lithuania has had various panic attacks for the past week. Her degree is coming to an end, she has to write her final paper, she will be leaving her boyfriend to start life away from here, and she is unsure as to what she will be able to do with herself next year. On top of this, she has decided she hasn't 'used' her time in India properly.
The situation in India for an awful lot of people is not wonderful. You only need to look out of my window and notice the half-dead donkey carrying bricks over to a woman in her torn up saree with her semi-naked child scrabbling around the building site in the dirt in the 38 degree heat to see that. And she is possibly one of the lucky few - she has a job. Her child is alive. There is a donkey carrying bricks rather than her doing it herself. She is earning money. She has clothing. Her child is with her.
My friend has decided that she should have used her time in India to do NGO and charitable work. She feels that she has wasted her time by not trying to engage in some social uplift program to help some of the less fortunate people in Delhi. She thinks that it would all have been of far more use to have gone and volunteered in an orphanage entertaining the kids or teaching English. She says she feels guilty about coming here and not doing something like that. Guilty about studying, living as she does, in the environment she does...guilty about not having 'done something' with her time. Her anxiety over this has made us feel it too. Why didn't we DO something?
I have an issue with this attitude. She didn't come here to work as part of an NGO or mission. She came here to complete her degree in Indology. She came here to study Hindi, Sanskrit and Sociology. She came here to be a student.
Whenever my friend talks of her home in Lithuania it isn't ever very positive. She describes the situation as fairly dire for her countrymen and women, especially in the terms of earning money or getting a job. She completely supports their leaving to go to the UK or America or wherever else to get a job, as there is just nothing at home for them. As far as we can tell from her description, Lithuania is also ugly, boring and devoid of any attractive prospect whatsoever. Even the housing is terrible. But my friend doesn't seem to see this bad situation in the same way as she sees the situation in India. India is somewhere she feels she should make a difference because she 'can'. But Lithuania, despite all the problems with her home, can be happily abandoned because she feels she can do nothing. She doesn't want to work for any social uplift organisations in Lithuania. She wants to leave as fast as possible. She doesn't even want to try and work there. She says she will go an waitress in the UK (with a full undergraduate degree mind) rather than try to work in her chosen field in Lithuania.
The poverty of India has had an affect on her, yet she doesn't seem to acknowledge that there is poverty in Lithuania that also demands the attention of compassionate people such as herself. Also, she is a student. She came here to study, not to work as part of a NGO.
There just seems no sense in her feeling guilty because she does occupy a position of privilege over a lot of people by the virtue of her purposes here. By going and volunteering at some charity teaching a class full of kids English in the back water of Delhi, she might impart some knowledge of English to these kids. She might brighten their day. And don't get me wrong, I think this is important. But I can't help thinking that it would also be taking the position away from an Indian girl who could have done it. That it is teaching English, when maybe they should be taught Hindi. That in all reality, it will probably result in these children being able to say 'Hello! Ten rupee!' with better enunciation rather than anything else. Because at the end of the day, her individual effort, though admirable, means next to nothing in the grand scheme of things, as she would be leaving any way, and the men in government would be left unchanged. The information on the situation for a lot of people would be the same, the legislation on their situation the same, the reality of the situation the same. She would have joined the ranks of all those well-meaning people who felt they could 'do' something for a third world group, who actually furthered the cause of cultural imperialism, took jobs away from the indigenous labourers who really need the jobs, and left the rest powerless by not imparting the knowledge of how to teach and carry on the services they provided for three months. Of course those three months or whatever will have been better than the three months without them, but once these do-gooders leave with their sense of self-satisfaction nice and full, the people they 'helped' will be once more helpless.
To make a lasting difference there needs to be legislation, the support of people in a position of power, the teaching of teachers with a particular focus on the needs of their particular location, the creation of jobs, indigenous social uplift organisations, more awareness of how the privileged in society can make the lives easier and provide more opportunities for the poor and the oppressed. There doesn't need to be just a vaccination campaign, there needs to be doctor training and a local medical centre that is open all year, built by the local labourers, using local materials. There shouldn't just be an English language class, there should be a school with local teachers, once more built by local labourers using local materials. If local materials aren't possible then they should be subsidized by the government. If those who would teach don't have the ability, then they can be taught by those who do so that they can return empowered, not enthralled.
She is compassionate, a sympathetic and aware young woman who is not blind to the world's evils and inequalities. She could make a difference if she were to finish her degree and become a sociologist who worked to disseminate information on these issues to the rest of the world, to the people in power. To make others aware to that they who do have such powers may use them to actually change the situation. Why is this a thing to be guilty of? To have an ambition for yourself? To know that in your own reality, your priority is to get your dissertation handed in and that might mean you can't go to an orphanage for a couple of afternoons to entertain the kids? That dissertation, that degree will place her in a position of power - she might actually be able to change the lives of the children she mourns, not just entertain them for a few afternoons and leave their true location in society unchanged.
And maybe I am cynical and a horrible person. It sounds like I completely disregard the effort of individuals in this sort of thing. I don't. I admire them. But there is no sense in not wanting something for yourself. For your happiness. Because it might empower you to REALLY make a difference.
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