I expected Turkey to get less European as one went further
east, but it didn’t, at least sartorially. Everyone seemed to wear dark suits –
in fact the poorer you were, the more layers ……you had on. The peasants all
wore caps, which they might have borrowed from their counterparts in England
after Kemal Ataturk banned the fez. Turkey seemed European in other ways too.
Extremes of poverty and wealth were less apparent. ………and yet there was
something Asian about the simple hospitality and friendliness of the people.
And ……..the food was familiar, and cheap ……..
…..Nairobi ….. The Sikhs were known as “Singa, Singa” by the
Africans and were the most integrated of the Indian communities. A Sikh would
work shoulder to shoulder with the Africans, driving his first truck himself
with his African cleaner, and hiring a driver only when he acquired a second
truck. It made for a very different relationship than with shopkeepers and
creditors. ……..Among the Asians in East Africa, the Ismailis in particular had
tried to identify with their newly independent governments…..
The Philippines is one of the most laid-back, friendly, and
unbureaucratic countries in the world.
……I come back not just for the mountains, beaches and islands (7000 of
them) but for the people. The Philippines never seems to be able to catch up
with its south-east Asian neighbours, Manila’s grime and antediluvian jeepneys
and army of the underemployed persist, but so does the charm. ……My taxi driver
……wants to know whether I am here for “five-six”, the local term for
moneylending, a profession that has been taken over by “Bumbais”. Bumbai is the
local term for Indians, as the early Indian immigrants, mostly Sindhis, came
from Bombay. …….It was a common sight not so many years ago to see Sikh
moneylenders (the profession is now a near monopoly of the Sikhs) doing their
rounds on motorcycles with bags of cash hanging from their shoulders,
redistributing as loans what they had just collected. Many of them were recent
arrivals, yet to master Tagalog, and often on dodgy visas, but they still
managed to collect and disburse unsecured loans with absolutely no recourse if
a borrower refused to pay. Clearly they were perceived to be providing a
valuable service. The second generation moved on to bigger and better things,
like Ramon Bagatsing (as in Bhagat Singh), the mayor of Manila when Marcos was
president……
…….Americans ….took over from the Spanish……As the cliché has
it, the Filipinos lived in a convent for 350 years before living in Hollywood
for 50 years. Both sets of influences grafted onto traditional Malay culture
along with a large Chinese minority, scattered tribal groups, and a Muslim
population in the south, make for a fascinating mix. Even Sanskritic influences
have left a mark. The national flower is Sampagita, as in Champak.
……….Filipino warmth and good cheer are all the more
remarkable given the fact that Filipinos have much to be unhappy about…..
……The Filipinos never really saw a successful land reform of
the kind implemented by the Americans in Japan after the war, and later in
Korea and Taiwan ……Crony capitalism survived the war intact and was developed
later as an art form by President Marcos…..rural distress increased steadily,
with the population growing rapidly………Overseas employment provided one of the
few safety valves. Millions of Filipinos started leaving the country to work as
maids, nurses, entertainers, seamen, and construction workers. It is their
remittances that fill the malls, although the BPO industry and tourism are also
becoming important, and the economy is at last diversifying.
Thus, the daily hardships and adversity faced by millions of
Filipinos in the provinces and urban slums are essentially man-made, despite
the fact that nature on its part has been munificent, having granted the
Philippines abundant rainfall, fertile soil, lush (albeit retreating) forest,
and a coastal zone that would have been teeming with fish but for overfishing.
On the other hand, it has to be said that few countries are as prone to natural
disasters as the Philippines. Typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tidal
waves, shipwrecks, droughts – you name it, they have it.
Frequent battles with nature explain the well-known
resilience of the Filipino, and the national philosophy of “bahala na”, loosely
translated as “this too shall pass”.
Filipino good humour, calm, and style were crucial in
bringing an end to the Marcos dictatorship without a drop of blood being spilt
in the famous People Power revolution of 1986.
…..the famed Filipino tolerance has its downside, such as
permissiveness, corruption, and impunity, the brunt of which is borne by the
poor. Characteristically though, it is the foreign observers who complain more
about this, not Filipinos.
The Philippines is a country of great natural beauty …..With
its 7000 islands, the Philippines has some of the most stunning seascapes in
the world.
Today, Ethiopia lacks a coast, having lost it to Eritrea in
1991, after one of the most remarkable liberation struggles in modern times.
These ups and downs are but the latest blips in the history of a country which
produced Lucy, one of our common hominid ancestors, was well known to the
Greeks (Ethipia means “land of the burnt faces”), was the second country after
Armenia to embrace Christianity, and whose rulers are said to have descended
from the union of Solomon and Sheba…….
My friends father was the educational adviser to the
Emperor, and he used to recruit hundreds of teachers and professors from India.
One meets people everywhere in Ethiopia who fondly remember their Indian
teachers. Their successors are still there, carrying on the good work. ……..the famous gelada baboons …eating grass
(yes, they are the only primates that do)….
…Asmara [Eritrea]
is still the most beautiful, cleanest, and safest capital in Africa (with hilly
Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, a not so close second).
……..Hadramawt (“place of death”) ……..The Hadramis are known
for their restlessness, and contribute a large part of the Yemeni diaspora,
which extended to places like Java, by way of India, centuries ago.
Nothing distinguishes the convivial and easy-going nature of
Yemenis from their dour northern neighbours, the Saudis, more than their
passion for qat, on which many of them spend a quarter to a third of their
income, not to mention the whole of every afternoon …….Qat is a leaf which has
to be tucked away into the cheeks in wads the size of tennis balls, before it
produces an indefinable feeling of contentment called “kaif”. It is not
harmful, but clearly addictive.
……….a man across the room started telling jokes about
Indians (which are quite common across the middle-east)….
…Argentina is unique in that it is perhaps the only country
that has moved from being a developed country to a developing country.
The Chinese have far fewer hang-ups about human excreta than
we do. Until recently farmers would build toilets near the entrance to their
compounds, welcoming anyone passing by on the village lane to use them –
farmhands had no choice, as a “captive” source of manure, they were expected to
use their employer’s facilities.
Lhasa was not the most sanitary of places….
…..Yunnan in the Southwest, which sits north of Burma, Laos
and Vietnam. If I could go to just one province in China, I would choose
Yunnan, not only for its ethnic and cultural diversity, but also for its
scenery, ranging from the jungles and rice terraces of the hot and humid South,
to the high grasslands and snowcapped peaks of the frozen Northwest, an extension
of the Tibetan plateau. Half of China’s fifty odd non-Han minorities live here,
and have left behind several historic towns. Yunnan is home to the upper
reaches of the Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, and Yangzi rivers. Last but not the
least, with direct flights from Kolkata, it is the easiest part of mainland
China to get to from India….
Having destroyed much of their cultural heritage, the
Chinese are now making a huge effort to save and showcase what is left. City
walls are no longer being pulled down for the construction of ring roads, but
are being rebuilt, complete with ramparts, watchtowers……..
……..Dunhuang ……the site of the Mogao caves, one of the
greatest repositories of Buddhist art in the world.
One sees sweepers and cleaners everywhere in China, in
buildings, on the streets, in the trains, and they are generally better
equipped, better dressed and more successful than their Indian counterparts.
One of the things the Chinese know about India is that it is plagued with
garbage.
Chinese rail and road maps …Unlike India, however, the
Chinese do have very good maps, and are not paranoic about people using them.
…train ride to Kashgar ….The Chinese are at their most
relaxed on these marathon journeys……I noticed the carriage attendants
unfailingly locked the toilets (mostly desi
style, and marginally cleaner than ours) whenever the train slowed down,
keeping the stations much cleaner. I wondered whether the biggest difference
between our countries was that in China nearly everyone does their job.
Chinese bus stations are very modern, with electronic
displays ……
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