On 20 Jul 2001, at 13:46, Frog2 wrote:
You are right of course, about the superiority of India. I recognize India's greatness in the cause of world water conservation as well, particularly the sacrifices Indians have made in the area of personal hygiene by showering only once every 15 days- all for the cause of world thirst! As such I am moved- near tears- to support your efforts.
Hey, by the way, did you know that the British call bathrooms "the loo" ? I think Lulu's of the world need to unite and stop this kind of intentional slander! I know you Indians, who can't stand the colonialist scum who tried to build some kind of modern infrastructure in your country at their own expense and spoiled the natural state of the population in the process, will want to do anything you can to stick it to the Brits. How can we let this stand?
While I can't help but agree with the idea that the people of India are being a touch sensitive in that the President has named his cat India, probably at the suggestion of one of his children who thought the name implied something exotic, I find your opinions somewhat racist and a statement of your limited knowledge of history. Do you know that the people of Northern India are defined as Arayans? They are Caucasians with dark skin. India today is considered a Hindu country but yet most of what you associate of India relates to the Moghuls who were Muslims. Like the good Muslims of today's Afghanistan the Muslims of India's yesteryear destroyed most of the Hindu monuments because of the images represented. An exception is the pornagraphic monuments of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh which is in the middle of a desert and the Moghuls never found them. The destruction of Hindu monuments was so complete in India that if you want historial examples you must look to Shwedagon temple in Rangoon Burma or Prambanan on the island of Java in Indonesia. For contemporary examples Singapore and Malaysia have some very good examples built by more current expatriates. My favorite was the Shwedagon temple plus other examples in Burma with the comptemporary examples in Malaysia and Singapore being very interesting. Much more interesting than any Christian church or any of the great cathedrals of Eurpore. When the British first arrived in India they were nothing more than a bunch of imperialistic thugs with superior weapons technology who manipulated and bullied their way into a dominant position. India had a civilization and the British influence was probably more of a downgrade than an upgrade which the writers of history have done their best to mask. Your references to the water conservation traits of Indian society don't jive with my experience of their country. I stayed in the same accommendations as the locals and some sort of private shower type facilities were available everywhere. While there is definitely a shortage of public toilet facilities which makes it seem relatively uncivilized by western standards I didn't find it a lot different than the pissing booths in Amsterdam. At least in India I could always duck behind a banana tree and it was better than the pissing wall in the Philippines. As to body odour I always northern climates where people bathed less often were more offensive than the tropics where people tended to bath daily, or more often, as part of the cooling down routine. I guess you were attempting to take some sort of cheap shot but your comments don't jive with reality. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/