The other side of the world. Why does anyone care about sustainability?
Sachs, A.
World Watch 11(3): 31-38
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0896-0615 PMID: 12293665 Document Number: 274010
This essay contains the reflections of a North American on his first trip to India. As the author was squeezed into the second-class compartment of a train, he discovered that India seems to operate under a different logic than he had been trained to adopt. He was dismayed by the fact that some fellow travelers were apparently used to the severely overcrowded conditions, and then he realized that these travelers held an entirely different perspective about what constituted "overcrowding." The overcrowding made him think that the world is too small; the cultural differences made him think it is too big. In Bombay, amidst a teeming population vortex, he experienced the unbelievable coincidence of having his travel companion's father accidentally find them among the crowd. This coincidence gave the traveler an ecological sense of coherence and attachment to the global community and to India. On another train ride, the traveler noticed that the passengers left their food scraps under their seats or tossed them out of the windows. His travel companion explained that the scraps were left deliberately for the children who sweep the train and that scavengers would take care of the rest. This made the traveler understand that, while it does need a better sanitation system, India does not need a Western-style system. A trip to Kerala revealed that a long tradition of cultural diversity allowed the state to achieve unprecedented social and environmental successes. The traveler concluded from his experiences that his desire for solidarity in India may reflect the fundamental task of the environmental movement.