The shanties in the foreground came up to house the migrant labourours who built the hospital, and are now working on an equally swanky apartment complex coming up right behind it.
Every aspect of their lives is conducted in full glare of the public - they cook in public, eat in public, wash their clothes in public, even bathe in public.And yet, they are almost invisible to the million or so people who use the road everyday.
The city would not exist without the migrant labourours who live just above starvation levels and take on the jobs that the residents of the city would not perform. And yet we refuse to acknowledge our debt to them, and close them out from our schools, hospitals and other public services.
And yet, they haven't forgotten how to smile.
7 comments:
Thank you for this post, Natasha. It is very poignant. What can I do?
It is sad that we as a world, not just any one country, can overlook any of its people.
Wonderful pictures to prove a point. It makes me so sad when I see it here also.
ann
You make a profound point about their publicly-lived lives and simultaneous invisibility.
These look similar to pictures of Haiti (my son was there in February). There is so much need - but the rich continue to get richer and the poor continue to get poorer.
Ann
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These are really stirring photos, Rayna. Thanks so much for sharing them...I think I'll go count my blessings now...
Elizabeth
@ Jan - I wish there were something anyone could do, but there isn't. And if you get down to the basics, the people do earn enough to eat in the city, and if they are lucky an NGO will pick the kids up and give them an education, so in one generation they can move out of poverty.
@ Mason - it is, isn't it. And think of the waste - there may be Einsteins and Picassos there.
@ Ann - it is the inequities that really gets to me. Somehow it doesn't seem fair that some have so many while their neighbours have so little.
@ Debra - to me that is perhaps the worst part - that nobody even sees them. When the Slumdog Millionaire was released, people actually said poverty of that kind did not exist - dead right, it doesn't. What exists is much worse.
@ Ann - I think most developing nations are similar. What I find amazing is how little crime we have despite this. And thanks for dropping by.
@ Elizabeth - I do that everyday. There is so much for us to be thankful for.
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