...could you take a look at Alexander Cockburn's piece on India <http://counterpunch.org/cockburn08062005.html>
...
Ulhas:
Most of it pertaining to the contemporary Indian economy is complete garbage.
<snip>
Indian reality is a vast, complex and contradictory reality and I don't claim to be an India expert. But Cockburn is frequently one-sided and his claims are exaggerations.
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Is it truly that useless?
Perhaps the problem is the singular emphasis he places on poverty related matters. The United State also manifests a "complex and contradictory reality" -- I could tour the country and, if careful, see only signs of growth, polish and prosperity.
I could also plan a trip that avoided the BMW set altogether and presented the anti-view.
The world of economic growth, glass office towers, waxed cars and fashionable clothes coexists with its opposite: stagnation, a decrepit built environment and despair.
If I write an article or essay, choosing to discuss only lovely, glittering, modern things, am I telling more of the truth than a story that focuses on problems?
Should he have been -- I hesitate to use the word -- 'balanced'? Perhaps spending time with Intel engineers and biomed researchers after visiting slums and distraught farmers?
To cut to the chase...
Cockburn aside, I wonder if any travelogue so structured, assuming accuracy, would have seemed satisfactory?
.d.
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