Rubbish equality
There is something which has troubled me from the first time I lived with people in Asia - outside the relative safety zone of Europe. I cannot shake the feeling that the happiness I meet in many materially poor lives, is genuine and deep rooted, not a sort of ‘putting a good face on it’. Should I propose, here in the west, that the relief of poverty is not without complications, I am barracked. Certainly there is no defence for the level of poverty seen in the rubbish dumps of Mumbai, although the happiness I saw there, was often more than I see on the streets here. That is a most extreme example, the mass of the world’s poorer people live between litter pickers and us: between owning nothing and owning too much. We urgently need greater material equality and greater equality of happiness; we need both. When I was young people frequently whistled in public; I wonder if the grumpiness, often expressed as anger, that is around now, would be reduced if we whistled more and accumulated less.
equality - Inequality in India is blatant; an example is given in the Mosaic section of this site of an opulent wedding in Delhi under the heading: Poor Equality.
Litter picking, in the enormous rubbish dumps of Mumbai, sustains many lives, photographs from these vast dumps formed the first Picture Posting page back in 2015.
Taken with Velvia film on a Nikon FM2 in 1994. Focal length: 50mm.
Saturday 29th August 2026
...guide to this site