Endangered Species act for Ways of Life
I've been reading Blog From Bolivia because it provides a pretty good analysis of politics in Bolivia, although obviously skewed towards the politics of Evo. Sometimes I agree with the writer but I just finished reading an essay that pissed me off:
I know that it would suck to travel to Bolivia and not see peasants in a rural village, but the world wasn't built for American tourists.
Families leave the countryside for the city, for lack of schools and work. Bolivians leave the cities to seek their fortunes abroad. Families get left in the dust. Economics at work. If Bolivia loses its rural life, as it may well in the next generation if nothing is done, it wonÂt just be Bolivia that will be the loser, it will be all of us. Maybe we need an Endangered Species act for Ways of Life.I admit that I used to think like this. I used to get pissed off that we screwing with people's way of life. But I know now that I was wrong. I realize that people who live in the country live a quaint life but they should be able to do what they want. Country life is hard work. Yes, working in the city is hard too, but we shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking that peasant life is a paradise. If people are moving to the city then they are doing it for a reason. Obviously they think that their lives will be better in the city.
I know that it would suck to travel to Bolivia and not see peasants in a rural village, but the world wasn't built for American tourists.
1 Comments:
hey i didn't read the post you refer to. I do agree with you that the movement from rural to city life happens because individuals are making rational economic decisions.
At the same time, the connotations associated with the word rural (backward, obsolete) show that policies are sometimes crafted specifically to 'lift people' out of rural life.
For example, in India, the education system often teaches skills that are completely useless in all but urban environments, with the result that most kids drop out of school at an early age.
Keeping them in school to learn natural sciences, health and hygiene, problem solving skills, and maybe even some vocational skills is probably much benefitial than giving them a convential education and high school degree (if they make it that far) that will only be of any use to them in the city - and that too to get a pretty low-end job.
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