← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Happy Hacker
Thread ID: 10667 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-10-22
2003-10-22 18:42 | User Profile
Calcutta India has an estimated 70,000 rickshaws. But, the mayor wants to get rid of them. He says "A man pulling another is not the symbol of a civilized society" and is "inhumane." But, don't riskshaws provide jobs? So does prostitution, "and no one in this city would dream of legalizing that." [URL=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/south/10/21/kolkata.rickshaw/index.html]link[/URL]
No wonder India is so backwards. They think they can create civilization by banning honest jobs. Why don't they ban a man from cleaning another man's toilet, or shining another man's shoes, or serving another man food. How less arbitrary is banning a man from pulling a man?
What kind of idiot compares honest, even if menial, work with prostitution? And, as the mayor seems somewhat interested in doing this in the name of compassion for the drivers, how does making them unemployed help them? Thay can already choose that now if they don't like driving. How will 70,000 additional unemployed help the city's civilized image?
They're not only uncivilized, they're stupid too.
BTW, the CNN article seems to suggest that rickshaw drivers make an unusually small amount of money, as if there is an additional level of exploitation. I don't have the slighest doubt that rickshaw drivers make at least as much money as a thousand other menial occupations in Calcutta. And, for sure, I'd prefer to pull a rickshaw than clean Hindi toilets for $1 per day (or whatever meaningless dollar figure they make).
2003-10-24 15:16 | User Profile
i suppose the calcutta mayor who is a former communist got this idea when he visited china recently.in beijing and shanghai which the chinese communists wanted to project as model cities,beggers and even ordinary people from interior china are not permitted to enter the cities .
there is a debate going in india whether to legalise prostitution or not.personally i support the legalisation of prostitution.but it will take a long time.