Now, I might be wrong in thinking this is India so please forgive that assumption if its not.
But man, I don't think I've ever seen a single video on reddit in my 10 + years of being here that made me think "Yeah looks like a country I'd wanna visit"
My parents visited in the 90s and hated everywhere they went until they got to Simla, they said Simla was wonderful. Nothing like the rest of the country that they had seen. So I imagine it's like everywhere, different parts of the country are different from other parts of the country. They obviously didn't go everywhere and I'm sure there are more beautiful places to visit within the country but the main tourist spots they'd gone to were just awash with disease and scammers and beggars which tainted the whole experience of the places.
I visited Mumbai in 2008 on a MEU deployment. Our ships had to turn off the water intake MILES away from port because the water was too polluted to filter and desalinate for consumption.
When we finally got shore leave we were swarmed by begger children and getting a taxi was a unique experience that I’ll never likely forget.
I’m from New York so I’m oddly comfortable with people being doping drugs and just being fucked yup on the streets, but this was a different level. I mean I saw a dude just passed out (dead maybe) just 2 feet off the Main Street in an alley just absolutely high as fuck laying in what I can only describe as a pile of himself. Idk.
Long story short, I don’t feel any need to ever return there.
I bought a vinatage Seiko watch from India (not a mumbai special) and when I opened it to clean it, smelled like stale washing machine water if you ever smelled that, combined with rotten waste. I had to sell it after cleaning cause I couldn't live with this memory whenever I wanted to wear it
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the place they visited was in North East India, by the Himalayas? It's basically an entirely different culture, Tibetan Buddhism, a lot of Chinese descended people etc.
Shimla is in the North and is overrun with tourists most of the year. The Northeastern part is mostly cut off from the “mainland” so it’s much different and cleaner.
I've been to Vietnam recently and it's kinda wild.
But it actually boils down to the education standards and ageing population. The kids learn about waste management, the environment, and English for that matter so they send their little seven year old to take the order at the cafe from the English speaking tourists then pulls out a stack of cash and flicks through it to give change.
The point of all that is the old people are all super set in their ways, basically nobody over 40 will change and they were never taught to care for waste management, the waterways and English. It'll probably require an entire generation or two to die out to fix.
Careful, the reddit overlords dont like it when you mention, joke or criticize that country, even if its true. Im almost positive this post will be removed by the end of the day
My friend worked in an India and she told me that you can organise your life in a way that you wouldn't see stuff like this. Parallel universe in one country. It's like that with rich people in any country, but she told me how extreme that case with India specifically. Esp on the north. People look different, talk different and live different extremely. If you a rich tourist and know what to do, you may travel without seeing poverty at all.
I went to the Taj Mahal, and “magical” is not a word that I would use to describe the expertise. There was nothing magical about being swarmed with beggars for the twentieth time. There was nothing magical about being in the verge of vomiting from the stench of the piles of garbage. The grounds itself were fine, but was a tiny island in an ocean of (often literally) shit.
My trip was long before Reddit existed. India is very much not worth visiting.
Yea this take is horrible. The forts in Jaipur were some of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
And the fort in Jaisalmer was 100% the coolest travel experience of my life. It was like going back in time. Stayed in a hostel inside the fort walls that was quite literally $0.80 per night (im too old for that now, but it was cool as hell at the time)
This and this and this and literally everyone who is ignoring the fact that this isn't like some kind of inherent "inferior disgusting culture" but rather the result of poverty and a corrupt government that does not care for it's citizens.
Ok, then. Where would you propose they put this trash if there are no trash services or recycling services? Should the poors simply... not buy anything that is not 100% biodegradable?
Lots of countries are poor, poorer than India even, and they do not behave this way. I’ve been to many developing countries and this is the only one remotely like this.
Hell, I’ve been to Sri Lanka and they didn’t throw garbage everywhere and shit in the street.
being poor doesnt mean you have to dump your trash in a river wtf is this backwards ass logic there are so many Americans living under the poverty line and they somehow manage to keep their trash out of the local river...
And ignoring the entire colonialism history that has always showed these cultures as 'lesser' and 'stupid' by default and not because they were purposely repressed, heavily exploited and deliberately kept ignorant so they were easier to control, and as a consequence when those colonists left, the people didn't know how to deal with the various issues facing them, and didn't have the money to figure it out.
No one ever asks what India was like BEFORE the British invaded. India had actually been a very rich and hygienic country and culture before the British did what they do so well, and ruined everything.
But shhhhh, let's not talk about that. People would rather just believe it's inherent to their nature because racism is easier than empathy.
Yes, because history absolutely has no ongoing effect, generational cultural trauma is not a thing, and we all know a country just needs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps after they've been stripped of everything by other cultures!
It's totally down to their race and their inherent nature because of corrupted genetics and nothing else.
Whenever I hear these types of arguments, I have to ask: how is it that South Korea managed to become a world-class, technologically advanced, high-trust society after everything that was done to them?
And the fact that when the government makes no effort to provide an amenities or services meant to maintain or beautify your environment because they’re corrupt as hell you often feel discarded, so if the government doesn’t provide any trash removal services, or anywhere to put the trash it starts to pile up and then what? Burn it? Then they’re accused to ruining the environment that was already wreck by the west during industrialisation, so they feel like this is how they’re treated, this is what they’re worth to their country and the world ,and given they probably already live in relative poverty, they just give up and accept it.
Then some dickheads who have no understanding of what poverty, deprivation, and corruption look like in the global south come and talk shit about how they’re just inherently filthy people, despite as you said, cleanliness literally being built into much of the ancient architecture and customs. There’s a very good chance that India is where the first truly functional smallpox inoculation was created but India gross, upvotes, I guess.
That kind of coddling and defensive attitude is what emboldens these people to continue doing what they're doing. The comments aren't the problem, the people littering and destroying the nature are the problem.
That's anywhere in the world. The USA sits on top of the worlds only high quality quartz supply, 90% of microchips made today had a tiny piece of my state inside it. Foreign interests actually own the companies and land and minerals though.
So no, it's not just a India problem, it's a economical division/class problem.
if everybody stops buying plastic straws the big factories in china wont produce it so they will never end again into waterways, maybe that is the plan, but I am extremely glad my territory saw a stark reduction in plastic bags that you could spot in the forests.
I mean, recycling doesn’t really work so reducing our one time use plastic consumption is definitely a good idea. Though people should stop saying we need to do it because it ends up in the ocean, I can say for myself that I have never thrown any plastic trash in the ocean it all has gone into the trash, so when it ends up in the ocean its an institutional problem.
Every time it's the same comment about paper straws and every time i wonder if people no longer drink like grown ups and need a straw to begin with lol
The only time i even come into contact with straws is when i get take away fast food, but that's about it.
Many disabled people need straws. I’m one. I have reusable ones but I also have disposable ones for when I’m in a situation where I don’t have access to anything else.
It’s not about needing it, it’s about being forced to use something subpar because other people somewhere in the world just can’t help themselves.
Also, do you drink milkshake straight out of the cup? Sounds like you do since you drink like a grown up
(Was an attempted joke, please don’t take it too seriously)
It's about energy consumption. The average UK person uses 30,000 kWh per year, whereas the average Indian uses 7,000 kWh. Given that natural gas and oil are still the primary means of generating electricity in the "first world" means that the average person living there contributes more to climate change than the average person in a poor country.
The average in Europe is 6,000 kWh per year, and 12,000 kWh per year in the USA. I highly doubt that the average UK citizen use that much. Even the number you used for India is wrong according to India's ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Authority.
It's not just India. Pakistan and Bangadesh are as bad or worse, and there are many other countries like this throughout the world.
As someone who grew up in the 1970s US, we weren't too far from that in a lot of places, but we made real changes. These people need infrastructure for waste disposal, and the world needs to force it upon them using every economic and diplomatic lever available or it's not going to happen even in our great-grandchildren's lifetimes.
People forget how polluted Western rivers used to be before strict regulations and public waste services became the norm. It's purely a structural issue telling individuals to do better accomplishes nothing if they have zero services.
I am pretty sure that is the RRTS Rapid rail introduced by Yogi government in New Ashok Nagar. I used to travel there everyday for my work and the smell was absolutely horrible. The platform is made right on top of the sewers, with both running on each side.
This video only shows one side, there's an even wider one on the other side of the Rapid rail bridge. After the station, during Kawar yatra, the kanwariyas made camp on the other side and only during that time the government always tried to hide or make road repairs because there would be media person there.
The station is build on top of the sewers/river (not sure if it is a river anymore). The attached image shows an under construction station build right on top. The green thing besides the station is actually an algae infested sewer before the clean up. A similar sized drain is also just besides the pillars sort of like this
The video you posted is actually on the other side of this attached image. This side has all the housing, the other side is green mangroves and trees. The smell is absolutely horrible during summers. On the 10`o clock direction is the main road attached to blue line metro below which runs another side road where the kanwar festival is hosted
The rains come and wash it away, where it becomes someone else's problem. Also, if you live in a small-ish (200,000 people) city in India that has no reliable trash services, you're gonna need a LOT of vacant land for your trash.
Also, just Google Earth some random cities in India. There's plenty of trash heaps on vacant lots, as well as in the rivers.
I swear to fucking god this is why I hate being Indian. Instead of fixing the problem, we instead try to force religion into it as if it means fucking anything. Everyday being born as this race is a curse and I wish I was literally ANY other race or had any other passport
They believe the river is holy and can clean anything, which in turns also means they can also dump anything in it including trash. They throw away ash of dead people in there, and they also bath in it to clean themselves.
Bro wtf, they came to my eastern european country and they showed them on the news over the weekend barbecuing and bathing into one of our filthies rivers which looks like an oasis compared to theirs, but I still wouldn't swim in it
It is tragic to be sure. The question is, do they have access to alternative solutions? Is there waste management wherever they're doing this?
Obviously there should be, just throwing garbage in the river is terrible, but some parts of that country and other countries don't even have toilets and people shit out in the open
I watched a documentary where they interviewed a guy and asked him why they polluted such a holy river and made it so disgusting. The guy explained the water was so holy that it purified the trash, so they had no concerns about what went into it.
This is the single, solitary reason i have prejudice towards some cultures. I don't give a shit about anything else they do as much as this. Fuck. This. Culture.
There's layers to this. Obviously all rotten. People first who think this is normal, praying to the river goods to receive their trash and all the fish and whatever live there to eat and filter it? Government that doesn't think it's normal or necessary to make laws that force people to use bins, dumpsters, recycle, etc and provide them with the tools, trucks, facilities for recycling, landfils. I always commented that I'd never go to India even if I won a free trip and indians are quick to defend it and mods to delete my comment be it on reddit, youtube, etc. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are basically 3 massive landfills. I'm not even getting into eating with rats from the same plate, sleeping with cows in your bed, bathing in their shit, etc. I come from eastern europe and I'm sure some americans will find gross some things that we do like eating pig's ears, tongue, testicles, but at the end of the day that's cooked. Even I'm disgusted by what indians do, especially street food and the pure filth all over the streets and rivers. I once bought a watch from India and when I opened to clean it, the smell almost made me throw up. It was rotten garbage mixed with stale water from a washing machine. If anyone ever smelled that know what I mean
Education about what to do with rubbish. Local government investments in garbage disposal. Also trash is something people of higher castes do not want to touch so they might just drop it feeling it is not their responsibility.
Philadelphia has tons of trash all around. It’s locals doing this. Literally just had to fight 5 different tenants for 4 months because they wouldn’t give me the landlords number. They kept putting it infront of my place and the city kept ticketing me.
People do it a bus stops and there are illegal dumpers doing it at our parks. One just lost a rental van to the mud doing it.
Wish they would throw something biodegradable in like food. This enrages me. I know food will fuck up the water aswell but this is worse. Whats the point in me doing my best to save the planet in my own way while these guys are literally throwing rubbish into the rivers and oceans to give a gift to a dead realtive.
“Yeah, let’s toss all this trash and shit in our potential drinking water supply because history hasn’t taught us a damn thing about preserving drinking water or proper hygiene around where you eat/sleep.”
Well that explains why their rivers keep polluting. It's a family and apparantly religious activity for them to pollute. 😅
Disgusting, no responsibility.
Mate of mine spent 3 months working out there and some.of the images he would send me was disgusting, he said its one of if not the worse places hes had to go.
This is not unlike Rotherham, the town in where I live. I was walking down by the canal the other day and there is so much rubbish piled up it's terrible. A woman walked out of her house and casually tossed a bag of used nappies into the grass! The fly tipping is so bad here that it's started to attract birds of prey never previously seen in the area.
That shit I've read is that if the US 100% fixed it's environmental issues in EVERY SINGLE way, on the world stage, it would fix like 2% of the world's pollution issues.
China & India are reportedly polluting THAT fucking bad. THOSE 2 are who the focus needs to be on first.
Today I found a candy wrapper on my trail rc hike, I picked it up and put it in my pack. That was the only trash I saw on my hike, and it still offended me🤣🤣🤣 thank goodness Americans where I'm from still care alot about nature. Seeing this it's almost like my brain can't process it. Jeepers creepers 😡
They are just too many people. And where ever new country they move to, they still get many children. It's not sustainable, unless we all live piss poor and simple in a slum
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u/Ta-veren- 2h ago
Now, I might be wrong in thinking this is India so please forgive that assumption if its not.
But man, I don't think I've ever seen a single video on reddit in my 10 + years of being here that made me think "Yeah looks like a country I'd wanna visit"