A thirst for knowledge
- Thread starter Leslie
- Start date
A.B.Normal
New Member
BeardofPants
New Member
LMAO, shove THAT up yer duffer, Charlie. 
tank girl
New Member
All very well. My question is, firstly if he is so poor and living in such horrible conditions how come he a) goes to school b) can read c) has access to the internet and d) has generous relatives...e) is not working in child labour C) is not begging in the streets D) is not malnourished e) is not being exploited for sex f) not already dead g) etc you get the idea.
This story is ridiculous. By our standards perhaps, this boy lives amidst hardship and won the competition, as this story would wish to present it; "against all odds”. the classic "rags to riches story" that has been thrashed to death especially in relation to those living in third world countries is obviously again, in play here. However, it conveniently fails to acknowledge the fact that the things we take for granted are only available to the privileged few in India anyway, a select minority. This boy was obviously from a privileged family.... When you start to think about the things which are not mentioned, the actual situation is really brought into a much clearer, an un-sensational perspective.
...did I see excruciating poverty in that photograph? - No. All I got was a generalised description of the poverty and hardship of his neighbourhood/state and the vague reference to his parents being unemployed... (For all we know, they may be of a caste that owned slaves and therefore had no need to work!) so what? by standards and opportunities available to children his age and relative living standards I'm guessing he is one of the comparatively very few lucky kids with access to the resources that allow him to be able to achieve such a thing -in the fact that he has food, access to education, a roof over his head, clothes on his back, and doesn't need to work as a child-labourer (India has the highest child labour rate in the world due to poverty)
Furthermore, the fact that he is MALE also means that his success is hardly against all odds, by any means.
I just don't think the article is impressive or soundly justified; it just uses an old formula to make you think that it is. In fact, this formula is actually quite distressing
BECAUSE it lulls you into thinking that because this one kid achieves in a place that is acknowledged as a third-world hell-hole, then it is a story with a happy ending, that kids here can and do make it. It just doesn't say that the fact that this boy made it, was that he was born as a male into a family that could afford to send him to school, that could feed him and get him access to the internet, that could buy him books, and probably was of one of the Castes not doomed to a lifetime of slavery- (yes, there is a defined caste system still existing in much of India)
Think of the girl babies that are sold into child prostitution because they are of no use to their families. Think of the kids that are bonded into slave labour and spend their days working in disgusting and unsafe conditions for next to nothing in wages.... If you think that that THIS boy is underprivileged and beating the odds, think again.
(I'm sure he is a very bright little boy, and all credit to him. I just feel that the other side of the story is left sorely out of the limelight for the sake of the story. If he won the same competition in a southern state of the U.S the media wouldn't have blinked an eyelid).
BECAUSE there are millions of children suffering and enduring each day in desperate conditions (which this article fails to mention) whose daily thirst for survival deserves attention far, far more than he…
I spew at the idea that we are supposed to 'feel' that this story is a sensation, I just think of all the millions that this article ignores in its sensationalising of a boy living in relative privilege. I could go on and poke at all the stupid things that this article includes (like the "shocking" internet connection or the fact they are living in a quote: "ancestoral home", and that his parents both mother and father are computer engineers....but aghI would take all day
)
related links:
unicef
bbc article: india:child labour
child labour: commodity trade
This story is ridiculous. By our standards perhaps, this boy lives amidst hardship and won the competition, as this story would wish to present it; "against all odds”. the classic "rags to riches story" that has been thrashed to death especially in relation to those living in third world countries is obviously again, in play here. However, it conveniently fails to acknowledge the fact that the things we take for granted are only available to the privileged few in India anyway, a select minority. This boy was obviously from a privileged family.... When you start to think about the things which are not mentioned, the actual situation is really brought into a much clearer, an un-sensational perspective.
...did I see excruciating poverty in that photograph? - No. All I got was a generalised description of the poverty and hardship of his neighbourhood/state and the vague reference to his parents being unemployed... (For all we know, they may be of a caste that owned slaves and therefore had no need to work!) so what? by standards and opportunities available to children his age and relative living standards I'm guessing he is one of the comparatively very few lucky kids with access to the resources that allow him to be able to achieve such a thing -in the fact that he has food, access to education, a roof over his head, clothes on his back, and doesn't need to work as a child-labourer (India has the highest child labour rate in the world due to poverty)
Furthermore, the fact that he is MALE also means that his success is hardly against all odds, by any means.
I just don't think the article is impressive or soundly justified; it just uses an old formula to make you think that it is. In fact, this formula is actually quite distressing
BECAUSE it lulls you into thinking that because this one kid achieves in a place that is acknowledged as a third-world hell-hole, then it is a story with a happy ending, that kids here can and do make it. It just doesn't say that the fact that this boy made it, was that he was born as a male into a family that could afford to send him to school, that could feed him and get him access to the internet, that could buy him books, and probably was of one of the Castes not doomed to a lifetime of slavery- (yes, there is a defined caste system still existing in much of India)
Think of the girl babies that are sold into child prostitution because they are of no use to their families. Think of the kids that are bonded into slave labour and spend their days working in disgusting and unsafe conditions for next to nothing in wages.... If you think that that THIS boy is underprivileged and beating the odds, think again.
(I'm sure he is a very bright little boy, and all credit to him. I just feel that the other side of the story is left sorely out of the limelight for the sake of the story. If he won the same competition in a southern state of the U.S the media wouldn't have blinked an eyelid).
BECAUSE there are millions of children suffering and enduring each day in desperate conditions (which this article fails to mention) whose daily thirst for survival deserves attention far, far more than he…
I spew at the idea that we are supposed to 'feel' that this story is a sensation, I just think of all the millions that this article ignores in its sensationalising of a boy living in relative privilege. I could go on and poke at all the stupid things that this article includes (like the "shocking" internet connection or the fact they are living in a quote: "ancestoral home", and that his parents both mother and father are computer engineers....but aghI would take all day
)related links:
unicef
bbc article: india:child labour
child labour: commodity trade
Inkara1
Well-Known Member
So does this mean that in six years, he'll come to the US, take computer science at a California State University campus, get a job with HP for half as much pay as anyone else would get, and jump for joy at the whole situation because even that heavy discount makes him a relative billionaire in his homeland?
tank girl
New Member
Ahahahah
no I'm not condoning spoiled-western-fastfoodjunkie-internetaddict-hollywoodblockbuster-watching whining-complaining-wanting-screaming-annoying-child abuse. Seriously.
no, really....
really.
Just don't.
...
okay, sure go ahead
just don't tell you-know-who that you had she-who-knows-it-alls permission...
no I'm not condoning spoiled-western-fastfoodjunkie-internetaddict-hollywoodblockbuster-watching whining-complaining-wanting-screaming-annoying-child abuse. Seriously.
no, really....
really.
Just don't.
...
okay, sure go ahead just don't tell you-know-who that you had she-who-knows-it-alls permission...
tank girl
New Member
hmmmmmmmm...well, in that case, I'm sure I could give him a good seeing-too, one way or another... 
*pulls out acme mastermind brainwashing kit ed. 217*
...he won't know what hit him....agh!,
what am I thinking, my own brother's 17. might have to pass on that one. huh.
(ah what the hell, I prefer older men anyhow
)
tank girl
New Member
tank girl said:
agh!,
might have to pass on that one. huh.
(ah what the hell, I prefer older men anyhow
is there a law against smiley abuse? heh