sep 7th, 2007
not a surprise to readers of this blog. i have consistently said that kerala is the home of a cargo cult, dependent totally on migrant remittances.
yes, all those grand edifices in dubai are built on the blood, sweat and tears of migrant kerala laborers.
but it is also true that a number of families have climbed into the middle classes through their migrant children, and it's not just to the gulf; it was to singapore before that, and then of course there are the 1 million kerala christist nurses toiling away in every hospital on the planet. and some of the people who went to the gulf have become immensely rich through real estate/construction companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/world/asia/07migrate.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
the bloody 'kerala model' is absolute nonsense, even though the communists keep bleating about it! and that fellow sen is supposed to have got his nobel for the invention of the 'kerala model'. actually he got it because he was clever enough to marry a rothschild.
kerala's economy would collapse within about 10 minutes if the arabs starting sending people back.
also, you might find it hard to believe, land prices in kerala are at california levels. land in parts of trivandrum goes for rs. 10 crores an acre, ie. $2.5 million. cochin is even more expensive. is this a classic bubble? maybe.
4 comments:
i must say though that bill mckibben's article on kerala was absolutely awesome, although he is also blinded to some extent by the fiction of the kerala model. i read it about ten years ago and it's available on the web. the guy is a terrific writer.
also, this is not the first time that amartya has been shown to be a consummate ass. i simply loved the incident in which he stood up and pontificated about 'barefoot doctors' and the great medical care in china. some chinese guy in the audience stood up and said to his face that this was utter nonsense. sen's reaction was not recorded.
it's like that moron guha: it's people like this that are the JNU-stalinist 'intelligentsia' in india.
argumentative indian, my foot.
The Kerala Model is a result of the good work done by enlightened rulers from the early 1800s through the first half of the 20th century. And all the good work done in the first half of the 20th century is substantially due to that much unfairly maligned statesman C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar. It is interesting how a duffer and intellectual fraud like Amartya Sen prattles about eh Kerala Model without any concern for accuracy. How can the commies who have ruled in fits and starts since the early 60s corner all the credit for some lagging social indicators? Incidentally many princely states ruled by Hindu monarchs in the colonial times were substantially better off at independence than the British ruled areas. Be it Travancore, Mysore or Kolhapur or the many princely states of Rajasthan. That's a paper waiting to be written.
@ Christian
I think Rajeev's point was to show the vulnerabilities of a "remittance economy" (which Kerala is) as opposed to one where one achieves strength through innovation, technology adoption and low-cost production.
The gem dealers of Gujarat, the software industry - and yes even the garment industry in India with it's NIFT graduates are examples of innovation combined with low costs. It is in the self-interest of Antwerp's dealers and American companies to stick with them - by the way I don't know what you mean by "send back our software engineers" - the global delivery model works by having most of the work done in off-shore facilities - or maybe you were too busy pee-ing into the Arabian sea to notice
Except for highly dedicated Kerala nurses - the Arabs can replace cheap Indian labor with even cheaper one from demographically bulging Moslem states. Hence Kerala's remittance economy is more vulnerable than you think - (hen growing breasts etc.) The only reason this does not happen is that the Arabs are worried about the Jihadi tendencies that these people will bring with them (I guess Jihad is an item for export-promotion but import-pessimism!)
Lastly - I am all for a good healthy debate, but what is the fascination that you Christist's have with sea-pissing, hen-breasts and buffalo romancing? Goes well with the semitic desert philosophy I guess !!
"Bible truth"?? Huh? Now, what might that be? Something like the two skeletons of thomas or the miracles of that old hag teresa?
What biblical truth is christist alluding to? I've never heard of any such thing........
More on the topic, I'm least bothered about the success or failure of the "Kerala model". If the bubble bursts, the moplahs & christists can go to hell. If not, my best wishes to the "most educated" christists & moplahs in their menial jobs in the arab gulf.
It would be wonderful for the state of Kerala & India if all moplahs & christists can migrate en masse to Saudi Arabia. See, No more Madanis & Valson Thampus to deal with locally !
Therefore, I wholeheartedly support Edafatah Ahamed in his endeavour to secure residency/citizenship rights for these folks in arab countries.
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