interesting comparison of West and East

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I found this brilliant post by Suresh really funny and at the same time some serious food for thought!

More people have heart attacks on Sunday in the West than on any other day

The West is sun-oriented â€” too much activity. People are driving themselves mad with their activity. Too much speed â€” everything has to be done immediately, no patience â€” no waiting. They have forgotten how to be passive, How to be patient, how to wait for things. They have lost all capacity to be inactive. They don’t know how to go on a holiday. Even if they go on a holiday they are more active than ever. More people have heart attacks on Sunday in the West than on any other day, because it is a holiday.

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The East has become too passive, too fatalistic: ‘Nothing has to be done. Simply wait, God will do it.’ This is another kind of foolishness and stupidity. The East is poor, lazy, lousy, and people are not worried by anything. The misery all around, the poverty, the beggars, the illness â€” nobody is worried. Everything is accepted. ‘What can you do? It is God’s will. We have to accept. We have just to wait. When things get too much, God will come. What else can we do?’

Not sure if there any readers still around on this site esp after many factors like this site’s downtime, Sanjay’s downtime 😉 and also the other frequently visited Muktha page migrating to muktha balaga… but for any who happen to be around: would be good to hear your own opinions/experiences…! 🙂

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4 responses to “interesting comparison of West and East”

February 3, 2007

Leonid Mamchenkov

Well, it’s not all black and white, of course. There areas with more contrast, and there are areas in the middle of the grayscale.

Last summer I travelled to Russia. Moscow is like a busy beehive. It never sleeps. 24×7 movement. If something slows down, it’s either stops and is eaten by the crowds, or kicked in the butt and accelerated. Not my style of life.

Other cities that I’ve been to, are a bit slower, but they seem to be heading in the same direction.

Cyprus is a slow place. It’s in the atmosphere, people, culture. “Sega-sega” is one of the most frequently heard phrases around here. Translated from Greek it means something like “slowly-slowly” or “take it slowly” or “slow down” or “relax, fellow”. If you are promised something tomorrow, you’d be lucky to get it in two weeks, with the reason for the delay being “eh” and a puzzled look. 🙂

I’ve heard that most of the Mediterranean is like this or very similar. I’ve seen a slightly different flavour of this in Egypt. And yet another different flavour – in Malta. People say that Greeks are the same. And Italians from the South Italy. Also Spanish people are said to have this calmness and slowlyness. I don’t know as I haven’t been to those places yet, but I don’t have any reason not to believe either.

Bigger cities are faster moving though. Again, from what I’ve heard. 🙂

Reply
February 6, 2007

Suresh Panje

06 Feb 07
Indeed, on the pretext of West is Best, consumerism has overtaken conventional life-style all over the world.
For instance,the so-called star rating of hotels (hospitality industry, imagine being good {hospitality} is an industry)as per the norms of the west is an ideal example. On this context I don’t say that Indian life style and certain habits like spitting paan or making a mess round every other corner in the neghbourhood is good. Why don’t we derive our own norms of decent ethical life-style? I am neither a BJP supporter or an RSS admirer. As for political parties and all that, what I love are cocktail parties and not these khadi-clad hypocrites!
Sorry I have drifted from the main topic (perhaps an after-effect of one too many at one of the cocktails), the fact is that today everything is instant. Instant coffee, instant babies (I mean test tube kids) and all that.
In a nutshell, all of us have become slaves losing one’s own identity.
And at times we have to move with the tide. However, need we drown with the tide in case the current is strong?
With regards
Sincerely
Suresh Panje

** Comments are welcome be they bitter or otherwise…

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February 11, 2007

Kirti Pandey

Hello folks.
Life is really not black and white. There are all types of people. The West has its good, the East has its too. Though the West is prospewrous in terms of materials, there is some good to the eastern laid-back attiutude. It keeps people together and stress free. But in an everchanging world, with unwelcome variants like terrorism, capitalsim and selfishness taking over, civilisations are in turmoil and one often wonders where we shall go.

Actually the western ‘have it all’ attitude also harms the world, its consumerist approach has ended up leaving mother Earth as a provider to be poached and sadly eastern China is also on the bandwagon.

To keep the world green and running longer, we need a mix of both, so we achieve development with responsibility. But, sadly this is not yet a subject in the schools, is it???
Kirti Pandey

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February 13, 2007

msanjay

haha leonid Cyprus reminds me of Goa …pretty much similar, and almost the whole place has a siesta (nap) in the afternoons! 🙂 I too concur with the observation that the “West” metaphor applies more to bigger cities.

Hey suresh there’s an interesting post which talks about simplicity in complexity: Nipun’s Geneva Address.

That’s an extremely valid point Kirti, so easy to miss it. Its really hard to find the right point of balance and protecting the environment. Large corporations talk about recycling and so on but people still liberally misuse massive amounts of paper and plastic and do everything else to abuse our precious Earth. Hope you get time to browse through the ecological posts here.

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