God-fearing globalization
Invented in Japan by a Christian Baptist missionary in Japan and souped up by a Catholic Jesuit priest in China, rickshaws would now be banned as immoral in Calcutta, India by a communist politician who calls himself “Buddha” and wants to copy the successful image of the high tech capitalists in Bangalore.The only losers are the 18,000 aging, alcoholic, homeless rickshaw “wallas” who must pay the rig-owners much of the maybe $2.65, tops, they pull in each day and piece off the corrupt cops with part of the rest of what they earn as the only providers of transportation to the desperately sick and poor have of reaching a hospital in the “City of Joy.”
Der Spiegel
The Bengali Buddha and the Rickshaw
December 30, 2005
posted by Tom Nadeau at 9:15 AM
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