Re: Politics/humanitarianism in the tsunami relief effort

I myself have no problems as long as people help even if its for their own
selfish motivation, as we often do, when we send checques, hoping to get
that 80GG or whatever tax reduction/rebate, to help others get back on their
feet-if we were saints then man we wouldnt probably be even thinking of such
things, we would probably be sitting peacefully in the himalayas, at peace
with ourselves and the world around be dammed (pardon if this is read as a
bad word-its meant exactly what is meant) . however, with regard to the RSS
or any other religio-politicla party, the good work often has an ulterior
motive. A friend of mine (herself being a Hindu from this pround land of
Maharashtra) who had gone to volunteer during the Bhuj earthquake came back
disgusted-reason being that these very same "good hearted "individuals were
building homes for the homeless-were doing it based on caste lines! So only
the upper caste families were getting their homes redone whereas the lower
caste and the "minority" community were sidelined! So hence one wonders
about such selfless acts and is wary of such organizations going in. Once
upon a time in the distant past the RSS were a very disciplined and
Nationalistic goup which had done selfless service-but like most
organizations these days, have gone downhill and become very parochial, if i
can use that word.

Yes of course since i have been born on the wrong side of the religious
divide can't do anything abt it nor do i want to as all religious have their
good and bad side and i can stand here and call the POPE a stupid foolish
man who has no empathy or any divine justice within himself- many would love
to tear me apart-however, in the end we are but flesh, bones and blood.

>From: Amit Phansalkar
>Reply-To: India-Unleashed@googlegroups.com
>To: India-Unleashed@googlegroups.com
>Subject: Re: Politics/humanitarianism in the tsunami relief effort
>Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 06:23:53 +0000
>
>
>Welcome SSM. You deserve a cookie for this :D. Next time you come to
>pune, u'll get a Kayani cookie Jar, in fact.
>
>Onto a serious note, i read the blog from India Uncut (and I swear, I
>didn't get the title of this list from here! I got it from Gurcharan
>Das's book India Unbound, which I think should have been India
>Unleashed, but that's a topic of another posting), and here are my
>thoughts:
>
> > To those who are worried that DYFI or the RSS might extract political
>gain from their work, I have only one thing to say: if you oppose them in
>the political arena, nothing stops you from going out to the villages
>yourself and working as hard as they do to neutralise the goodwill that you
>are so scared they're getting. That kind of competition, in doing good,
>would surely be healthy. But complaining about people who are saving lives
>and helping survivors rebuild lives is just plain wrong.
>
>Exactly! I think the problem today is politics at the national level
>is so far ditached from the grass-route work, as it is. I wouldn't
>want the scenario turned into a dilemma for quassi-political setups --
>damned if I do, dammed if I don't. Expecting a selfless service is
>pretty much utopian -- and counterproductive. Yes, one can question
>motives, and brand the work as "political" in nature, but of course
>they deserve the political gains out of it! It's lot better than they
>getting their political capital through meaningless rhetoric (and I'm
>nost just talking about RSS).
>
>And SSM, lol@the-flame-shield. I say, we need more flames here...
>
>-Amit.
>
>On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:33:48 -0800, SSM wrote:
> >
> >
> > Interesting couple of articles ...
> >
> > one from today's edition of Christian Science Monitor talking about
> > JVP, the Sri Lankan marxist group in the forefront of relief efforts in
> > that country (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0114/p01s03-wosc.html)
> >
> > and then, an older yet interesting post in Amit Varma's India Uncut
> > blog, on separating politics from social work
> >
>(http://indiauncut-tsunami.blogspot.com/2005/01/despatches-26-separating-politics-from.html)
> >
> > On one level, it seems cynical to leverage a tragedy to maximize the
> > "eye-balls" those organizations might want for themselves. And perhaps
> > even more cynical to connect the dots thus.
> >
> > But, on the other hand, I tend to agree with Amit Varma. If, at the end
> > of the day, these organizations are helping to plug the holes that
> > inevitably exist in govt-led relief efforts in 3rd world countries,
> > bully for them. And if they do get those "eye-balls" as a result of
> > their hard work, so be it - they fully deserve it.
> >
> > Flame-shield-on (my first post here), but I have a feeling the
> > flame-shield is totally unnecessary in a community like this one :)
> >
> >
>
>
>--
>Insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world.

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