what is it with people ???!!!!!
got this in the mail, from two different people. i'm sure most indians have got this or some variation of it.
-------------------------------
I couldn't' stop making this comparison... ...
inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours ofkatrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans...entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in neworleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans...48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..
oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN
----------------------------
ok, now deep breath.
read that last line again. proud to be indian????? PROUD???? WHAT EXACTLY SHOULD WE BE PROUD OF???? that more people died in the usa than in india? oh wow! yippee-hoo! lets just pile up the bodies on a scale. ha! your side is heavier, so you lose. suckers!!!! now will you please step down from your lofty position and let india take over? oh, and lets forget about the poverty and illiteracy and female infanticide.
ok, lets get one thing straight. the us response was pathetic. new orleans was a disaster that could have been prevented, and many people in the government need to be held responsible for this HUGE fiasco.
BUT, the response in bombay wasnt really stellar either. oh, and im pretty sure the number of dead is much more than 37. last i heard it was over 800. so we really shouldnt be compatring our failures with theirs and quibbling about which was a BIGGER failure. thats just the pettiest thing EVER.
and before all you indians reading this start getting all swollen up with pride, just remember the the monumental failures of the past when india has just rolled over during a natural calamity. we're still miles away from having any kind of reliable disaster warning system. and for a country which is so dependant on the weather gods, thats just suicidal.
and finally, for the person who wrote this. i hope youre feeling proud. now you can get back to surfing the net for porn videos or whatever else you do in your spare time, while hundreds of people die in bombay from car accidents, shootouts and other non-natural causes. because we dont really care about that, since we are so great.
what id like to know is who starts these damn forwards anyway???
-------------------------------
I couldn't' stop making this comparison... ...
inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours ofkatrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans...entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in neworleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans...48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty
status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..
oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN
----------------------------
ok, now deep breath.
read that last line again. proud to be indian????? PROUD???? WHAT EXACTLY SHOULD WE BE PROUD OF???? that more people died in the usa than in india? oh wow! yippee-hoo! lets just pile up the bodies on a scale. ha! your side is heavier, so you lose. suckers!!!! now will you please step down from your lofty position and let india take over? oh, and lets forget about the poverty and illiteracy and female infanticide.
ok, lets get one thing straight. the us response was pathetic. new orleans was a disaster that could have been prevented, and many people in the government need to be held responsible for this HUGE fiasco.
BUT, the response in bombay wasnt really stellar either. oh, and im pretty sure the number of dead is much more than 37. last i heard it was over 800. so we really shouldnt be compatring our failures with theirs and quibbling about which was a BIGGER failure. thats just the pettiest thing EVER.
and before all you indians reading this start getting all swollen up with pride, just remember the the monumental failures of the past when india has just rolled over during a natural calamity. we're still miles away from having any kind of reliable disaster warning system. and for a country which is so dependant on the weather gods, thats just suicidal.
and finally, for the person who wrote this. i hope youre feeling proud. now you can get back to surfing the net for porn videos or whatever else you do in your spare time, while hundreds of people die in bombay from car accidents, shootouts and other non-natural causes. because we dont really care about that, since we are so great.
what id like to know is who starts these damn forwards anyway???
posted by Vishnupriya @ 10:10 PM
7 Comments:
At 12:42 AM,
J. Alfred Prufrock said…
I agree with your basic premise. On the other hand, even the delayed awakening in Bombay was better than the total incompetence in New Orleans.
Over where I work, we're not too good at planning for disaster. Say what? OK, we're not too good at planning to combat disaster; some people would claim that all our planning is directed towards disaster.
But we do pretty good at blowing the whistle and actually repairing the damage. Trust me on this one, I've been inside the beast.
J.A.P.
At 11:26 AM,
thalassa_mikra said…
The same kind of person who once sent a post about the greatness of the global Indian and how 40 per cent of Microsoft staff were Indian. What?!?! That, of course, is not in such bad taste as this.
But why blame the chain email folks, even the Indian media has been going to town with this whole Bombay-New Orleans comparison. Never mind that the disaster in New Orleans was of a much bigger scale, that a massive evacuation operation had to be accomplished, and large swathes of the city were absolutely unreachable. Skewer Bush and cronies for incompetence by all means, but stop using the tragedy to feel smugly superior.
And of course, what I resent the most is the insinuation that somehow the extent of the disaster can be blamed on the lack of resourcefulness of the largely Black population of New Orleans, as opposed to the oh so clever Bombaywallahs.
At 4:04 AM,
Anonymous said…
not specific to this post only......but your blog...generally is interesting
cheers
At 1:24 PM,
Vishnupriya said…
hey thalassa. yeah i got one of those "global indian" ones too. in fact, i get them a lot, and each time the percentage is different. and dont even talk about the indian media. the times is such a rag i wouldnt even use it for kitchen towels. but jap is right about one thing, india is much better prepared for dealing with these situations just cos they happen so often.
and rizwan, thanks :))
At 8:38 PM,
Free_as_Falcon said…
Well i would say the purpose of these is not to feel superior . Its about pointing out that a country which bullies everyone and which thinks it is the epitome of democracy and goodness also is the same as any developing country in times of tragedy.
I agree that this is the not time to point fingers but a super power which has looters roaming all around is anyday worse than India.
At 1:13 PM,
Vishnupriya said…
you know, cynical count, you start by saying this isnt about feeling superior, and then you go and do EXACTLY that. the rest of your comment is so terribly smug, that i really dont need to say anything.
At 11:16 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yes Vishnupriya and your comment about the person who wrote this email and then promptly went back to watching porn videos was quite relevant to the content of the mail itself. I mean seriously for someone who gets inflamed so easily at things being written out of context and then exxaggerated some, you certainly dont bother practicing what you preach.
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