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You guys are trying to tell me the west IS a super happy paradise?
Right... and how many third world adolescant suicides, female anorexia/bullemic victims are there.
I shared a house with a Sri Lankan visitor for a couple of weeks, and I'm living with two Indonesians now. I have Malay, Taiwanese and Mongol students.
The Sri Lankan said and I quote:
"We don't understand the mental problems of women in the west. The have so much that we want, yet starve themselves."
My issue was not that the third world have it good, but it's quite possible that in many ways they have it better.
My mother grew up in Tanzania, East Africa. My whole family, Uncles etc. speak glowingly of their time in Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire. They backed up the sentiments of the show.
Does slaving away for that new T.V. flashy automobile, small apartment above smog choked traffic with grey skies while watching/reading constant messages in the media that you are behind financially, behind romantically, uglylier than a supermodel, not advanced enough in your career, really make you happier than someone in the third world?
As I said, I personally know some, and it entirely depends on ones personal outlook. There is good and bad in every life, in every nation. We tend to normalise the dangers and hardships around us - better the devil you know than the one you don't.
In no way does that mean that we shouldn't fight for better conditions in the third world.
Neither should we pity them.
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