oh India

Oh India..it was a sad end to the year with the attack on a young woman in Delhi seeming to hit the headlines world over.

Horrible, horrible, horrible

There is a part of my that wonders why it gets such attention? The world over bad things happen far too regularly...it is easy to pick up one and put a spot light on it and say- those people over there are bad, where they come from is a complete worry.

An attack similar, not quite as brutal, but the women still ended up dead happened in Melbourne when I was last in Oz...we the world over need to look at ourselves, how we raise our children, what we accept in others behaviour...you can only chnage things by working with those you can actually touch yourself...

You can do this personally with those around you, you can join groups of like minded people to work for positive change [this can be full on politics all across the board to planting trees, to making quilts for those in need, volunteering time in a shelter - suit the action to where your passion leads you to express it]

India became an independent country not so long ago, at that time a huge percentage of the population was starving and un-educated, this was at the end of nearly 1000 years of domination by various foreign powers, 1000 years of education in the truth of the fact that the only way a local inhabitant was going to get anything done was be currying favour and paying a bribe....a culture that was largely medieval in its structure and the distribution of power.

There is a lot of new thinking and ways that need to be diseminated into the culture...is it happening quickly or slowly? This country is a democracy [Pakisthan became Pakisthan at the same time and look at where they are at- poor things they did not grasp deomocracy in the same way....long story]

reading the steps taken in the holding of the first elections and the will to make them inclusive of the population is astounding...it is still going on today.

Corruption and laziness of government officials is mind blowing, mind blowing- it gets my blood boiling even writing that!] BUT slowly things are changing in really radical ways and the speed of change in India is phenominal. A population of 600 million+ under 25 year olds means that it will continue and grow at amazing speeds.

I choose to live here, the place drives me absolutely nuts and yet I can only admire the amazing people here, the good things that do happen, the courage of many to embrace change and the speed that change comes  here.

All those girls protesting in Delhi....most of their Mum's although from middle class families would have been lucky to leave the house to go to Uni, Grandma certainly would not have and there they are now out on the streets, ....yeh.

This was a story in an Australian newspaper...I wonder what their angle was in presenting it...but it is a story of such hope in adversity- that girl is a taste of our future- she is fighting back.

 Do you know the world over there are girls forced into the sex industry in the same way- stollen from their country and taken to London, Sydney, New York etc, etc...not just Delhi. Why don't we all do something about that? Bad enough it happens over there- you can yut tut and say well that country is backward...but any developed country of the world has it happening- why do we allow it in our own home?

 

OK off my soap box

Happy New Year

 This is my little corner of the world....I may not be as brave as some and out there helping rescue victoms of sexual assult/ sex trade....I don't have it in me I am afraid but we do what we can where we live.
We are carful in the way we treat people, we take great notice of where we do our shopping and how the people who made our stuff are paid [although Praveen has a liking for brand name sneakers for walking...should get himonito checking out the brands and their social record...bit of a private joke there]

 Our fondest best wishes for the New Year, may it bring great positive change....

 Centre is Madu our new lady being trained on the sewing machine...we are so excited by this....and she is going well- I hear lots of chatting and jokes from the machine room, she seems comfortable, she does come and sit separately with the 'ladies ' for tea and lunch but that is how it is here.

 A few of our Stitching Ladies popped in for tea- Om on the right is the person we are trying to get in for 'training' and so we can help her generate more income....her family are Rajput caste and they don't like their women outside the home.
Kishan [in the centre] joked and said they could only pop in because they told the family they shopping in Pushkar...still they came by, talked to Madu about learning machine work....we mentioned coming in for paid training.....little by little feeding in new ideas.

The women stitch the panels we make into quilts but don't often see then completed so we had to pull a few out and see what was what. I love the satisfaction the women have seeing there work finished off.