Filthy pics from India...

Originally posted by keldas
What is perhaps more surprising is that there is not a bigger epidemic of cholera in the area.

I know they say a little bit of hurt won't harm you but this seems to be a bit over the top.

If people have been living like this for hundreds of years, then it may be down to natural selection.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that many people in South Asia had greater immunity to waterborne diseases such as cholera.

Originally posted by lnr42
reply to post by ladyinwaiting

 

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting

I can't imagine a state in the U.S./Canada, or the U.K. living like this, without being descended on by federal dollars, and other missionaries, educators, and garden variety of do-gooders.

These are their own people, and they have a responsibility to help them out of this filth.

You sure?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Apart from cultural differences not much in it IMO.

lol. Touche' ! The difference of course being, what you see in Detroit now is mostly an absence of people, and extremely high criminality effecting many who are left, not what we perceive are hygiene and disease issues.

But I see your point. Not exactly covered up in "do-gooders", are they? However, many of the problems seem to be the jurisdiction of law enforcement, as we watch a city die.

And all this time I was scared to touch mississippi river water.

I just got back from India on January 2nd....I spent two weeks there and I have to say that I will never take our clean air, food, and water for granted again. While over there, my daughter and I visited the north and then down to Mumbai. While in the north I saw extreme poverty, and yes, a lot of garbage, rubble, beggars, and yes, people going to the bathroom out in the open on sidewalks and streets. One had to be very aware of where you were walking! There was also a tremendous amount of air pollution. One place we visited over 70% of the town did not have a toilet, but they did have a cell phone and a motorbike.
The city of Mumbai was very much a city and we saw far less of what we saw in the northern part of India.
The people overall worked very hard for what we would consider pennies. I saw the women moulding the cow patties to burn as fuel to cook dinner. It was sad to see such poverty and filth, and my daughter and I wondered why each city or the government of India did not seem to do much about the garbage and poverty. But, having said that, it is a different country with different beliefs and ways of doing things.
Would I go back to India, no.

Christ, that was like rubbernecking at a bad car crash.

I just don't know about this ole world sometimes

I hear they use soap thats not hazardous to the eco system. as to not "taint" the Ganges. so considerate.

gO gREEN!

reply to post by ladyinwaiting

1. Cows are holy in Hinduism, not Buddhism. Nepalese Buddhists actually sacrifice cows and goats.
2. In India Hindu is prevalent and then Islam and then Christianity, Buddhism is not very popular
3. Body.... has great value in Buddhism, it is considered a most sacred temple.
4. Traditional toilet practice by Islam is to use a rock, not hands. Indian tradition doesn't originate from Islam.

--

As for Osho's meditation resort, well Osho dismissed many Hindu traditions as obsolete and idiotic, his philosophies were western style, a complete contradiction of caste system and tenets of Hindu religion. His motto is to better live whole life rich than one day poor.... who wouldn't agree right?

As for the pics I definitely agree that just dumping corpses on your sacred river from which you drink and bathe can't be a good thing. If you piss on a tree it will grow faster but if a hundred people piss on it it will die in horrible agony .

reply to post by Vitchilo


We probably import some of those crapped on crops too!

How the hell does a civilization with such repulsive hygiene grow to over a (pinky at corner of mouth) billion people? Why aren't they dying in droves due to the living conditions? An even better question is how does someone like this get my job!!

This is actually extremely concerning.

It's not just India either, this type of reality is spread throughout the entire globe.

Part of it is the natives fault, they don't look for better ways to do things.
Part of it is the governments fault, they hold the people back and restrict them from doing things better.
Part of it is the corporations, they drain the wealth of any area they touch and make it hard for anyone to get themselves out of the pile o crap they are in.
The list goes on.

The most frighting aspect of all of this is the pollution and the extremely bizarre deformities and diseases that are appearing in higher frequencies.

Squalor is the result of having a high population without the infrastructure to handle it's needs properly.

I wish people over here in the West would realize how lucky we are to not have to live in these places.
Also, we can learn many lessons for the mistakes that led to this predicament.

However, I have a terrible feeling that much of this was culminated purposely in order to harm these societies.

This reminds me of a book I just read, called The Big Necessity by R. George.

This has to do with world sewage issues and it was quite an eye opener. India was discussed at length.

Here is a link describing the book, (scroll down for synopsis and reviews) it was quite an interesting read -

The Big Necessity, Amazon

I am going to agree with some of the other posters in this thread somewhat. The pictures of the dead bodies (animal and human ) seem to me to be put in the article for shock value.Yes, bathing in water with dead flesh a few meters away is unsanitary and deadly. But, what is the body after death than simple organic matter and not a reflection of the soul? Where they are really, to me, does not matter and if putting their bodies in a river or cremating them helps their families, then by all means do it.

However, the pictures of feces and dung and bathroom habits is disturbing in a purely disease orientated way. To me, it shows oppressive growth of a human populace with basic necessities failing to catch up. So, we have people living in close quarters, with bad toilet habits... I would be interested to see disease information for the sprawling cities caught inbetween their village roots and big city populations.

It makes me grateful that just by my geographical location I live like royalty, even though I really don't compared to those that truly do. I took a couple courses in college on the history of India and it fascinated and horrified me at the same time. Slum Dog Millionares was really an eyeopener for me and I think how blessed I am that I am here and not there.

Their immune systems are so strong because of this!

Us Americans are no match!

Time to go take a plethora of vitamins... Eh maybe I'll just fly to the Ganges instead.

And I thought that parts of Africa was F'd up! I seriously hope that those filfthy pics are really just a small
area of India! I've always wanted visit India, but these pics blow my mind!

These photos are from Varanasi, it is where all Hindus wish to be cremated and given back to the mother ganga. i have stood where most are burnt, and i saw upwards of 50 bodies while i was there. You must understand that anybody visiting here should take into account the nature of the city, it can be grim, and it is not a place to take lightly.

i love India, and im going back in a month, sure there's a lot of pollution/rubbish, but there is also magnificent beauty all around you. To focus on the negative would be to miss one of the wondrous treasures on earth, believe me.

ps Ive also drunk chai made from this water...

would people like to see some of the beauty? i have many photos.

Those pictures are graphic and nasty. But I think someone should study the immune systems of the poor people of India. Maybe they are evolved or something. How do they manage to thrive in these conditions? They must have evolved under such unsanitary conditions so that it does not bother them. Maybe some advances in medicine can be made by studying their immune systems. I mean, yes, there are a lot of rotting corpses. Some people are clearly dying, but there are just more people being born. I see plenty of old people in those pictures. They manage to grow very old just the same, surrounded by garbage, feces, rotting corpses and who knows what else.

ya, not on my list of places to visit.

here is another worry.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by sir_slide


some beautiful places there, no doubt!

very colorful and frikin strange! lol!

as to the chai, as long as it's boiled it won't be deadly.

i love the monkys. i watch their show all the time.

Originally posted by matrix12
and some americans think they have it bad , lol

Very true. I was just talking with a friend today about just that... I was saying that sure, we have our complaints about how things are in this country... but all things considered... We have it pretty damn well in the US. Things could always be a lot worse... and if anyone disagrees... I invite them to go spend some time in places like the OP has shown...