This has now happened a couple of time so i think i need to mention it: i am sitting in my relatively decrepit digs in India. It does not matter whether it is a 4 star hotel or a settled home or any other place--the poor construction, dust and grime seems to make everything decrepit very quickly. I just had a fight with some insects and won the battle (but not the war, for sure). I go back to my connected notebook and link with multiple client sites in the US. As the cliche goes, it is just as if i was right there in NY, NJ, Arizona or other places.
I call a colleague and surprise, surprise: i am working, 10,000 miles away but they are down, 100 yards from the data center! They sit in fancy offices, temperature-controlled and picture perfect . . . but their network is down and no work gets done.
India is growing very quickly in terms of having a robust technological infrastructure even while the physical infrastructure decays. The US and Europe have great roads and buildings (from past decades of investment) but their technological setup is either too unreliable or too expensive or both.
What does this mean? Developed nations need to invest more in their technology and education, possibly with assistance from Indian talent. Developing nations like India have to strengthen their laws and improve their quality of construction--with American help. This cross-pollination of skills and exchange of knowledge will allow all countries to progress in the coming years.
So i wrong earlier--connecting from India is NOT like being right there. If i were right there, my network would be a NOT-work. However, i would also be warm and comfortable, not worrying about why the heater is too cold or the refrigerator is too hot.
Interesting--what do we say about South Korea? It is the most networked country in the world and also has a very good standard of living! :)
ReplyDeleteMikyong Hee
I think one of the reasons constuction appears to deteriorate is that things never get 100% finished and there is always that little bit of undone work. In time this makes a project look degraded. Why is this? Does the builder get paid and not bother to finish or are standards of when something is complete simply different?
ReplyDeleteI notice is that residents/owners don't value paint, especially on the outside of buildings, as much as people do in the West. There, residents like a place to look good on the outside whereas here, it isn't so important. Perhaps that's just a cultural difference of what makes people happy. In the interiors, I notice residents don't paint as often as Americans. I don't think it is because of cost but rather something that people enjoy in the West more than here. Maybe Westerners are more restless. Or maybe they feel affected more by the outer environment and are temperamentally inclined to change it whereas Indians feel less impulse to change outer things and simply accommodate themselves to the situation.
Interesting comment, JH :)
ReplyDeleteI think the issue may be simpler--it is just that day to day life for basic things takes so much more time to fix and so much less time to degrade again . .. whether it is roads or paint or even finding the right right resources. Then again, the reason why efficient resources are hard to find is possibly the disparity. A painter has so little education and gets paid so little that they don't often have their own transportation, so they have to be picked up and dropped off, which is difficult in these roads.
Keep in mind the sacle of the problem and the time it needs - the rpocess strats with each one of us - not others or the government - if we keep our house clean adn then expand the circle - starting perhaps with a foot or two each month around our building - and if every private building did that, millions of sq ft would get improved each year.
ReplyDeletePrivate citizens need to take the lead here - govt will follow - not the other way around - same goes for every field -educational Institutions, village uplifts, hygiene and sanitation - you name it. What did you do today to help or did you just ask your servant to sweep it for the dirt to return tomorrow? Why not cement it or start building more permanenet good quality finished surfaces for waking if not for cycling?