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Understanding Value differences of the developed worldBy: Procyon MukherjeeZurichRecently my sixteen year old had a tryst with the values in an Indian setting while shewas doing a project on Community Development in Kolkata. Some of the valuedifferences that she observed when she compared the same values with the developedworld where she now lives stunned me and therefore this account.Her story starts with the incident of a security guard who had been deputed by one of myfriends to escort my daughter to one of the villages (clearly an act of overdoing thingsthat I could not quite comprehend) and this particular security guard reported for duty atmy house in Kolkata (with a large gun at his shoulder and bullets on his side) with a hugesalute to my mother and said, ‘Maiji, jo hokum ap kijiye meye ap ke liye hajir’, whichmeans, ‘Dear Mother, whatever you demand that I do for you, you may ask me to dothat’, which is almost the same words that great Hanuman, in the epic Ramayana used tosay to Sita. My mother however retorted back, ‘Baba, amar kajer lok to aj neyi, tumi babadu jora dab ektu kete debe’ which means, ‘Son, my domestic help is not available today,could you break two pairs of coconuts for me?’ The huge guard knelt down to break coconuts and then joined in the drinking of that (including the eating of the shell inside);it must have been quite a sight for my daughter!A security guard reporting for duty for escorting any daughter would never utter suchwords in any part of the developed world and nor would the grandmothers ask for suchfavors as mentioned above. The world is really different in many corners. Her secondexample is even more thought provoking. During her stay my daughter’s hair drierstopped working and there was a need for an electrician to come to the house to repair it.This electrician who happens to live close by took care of the problem and at the endasked what else he could do to my mother, to which my mother asked him, ‘Baba, couldyou buy some medicines for me from the nearest store, my domestic help is missingtoday?’The electrician happily complied, and he did everything just for free.I remembered my experience with the Swiss Electrician in Zurich (or should I sayinexperience?) when the first electric bulb stopped functioning when I tried to turn thebulb too much to one side and the wire snapped inside. Not knowing how to fix thiswithout any wire or soldering iron or tape, I sought the help of the ‘Relocation Agency’in Zurich and phoned them up. The agency came back after a few minutes ‘fixing’ theappointment with an Electrician in Zurich who would come over to the house. I chancedto ask her what the ‘expected’ fees would look like and she chirped it could be in theregion of Swiss Francs 150, since the person had to drive all the way from Oerlikon andwas anyway quite busy and was not quite used to such errands. I took the opportunity tocancel the appointment.
 
 My second encounter with the plumber was a bit more memorable, the wash-room cisternstopped functioning and we had to call the plumber through the Relocation Agency againand this time he did come at the appointed hour and fixed the problem in a minute. I lateron got the invoice for Swiss Francs 130 for the services rendered.I was glad that he did not ask me whether he could do anything more.It is just not about cost of living and the price one has to pay in the developed world, it ismore about values and how they differ. There is nothing as good or bad, in theseexamples, it is just that the examples talk about two different value systems in place.Not everything is about money where poverty is more rampant and earnings aremoderate, services could be given for free, as relationships are valued more than thereturn to be sought from services rendered; where development had taken men todifferent levels of cost of living, there is little chance that services could be renderedbeyond the principles of economics.In fact many things in the developed world are constrained by the principles of economics, like supply and demand or the theories of surplus value; human relationshipsare confined by their boundaries and stretching beyond these boundaries, no matter howmuch one would desire, would be difficult. But I was particularly interested in theexamples of behavior of people under identical conditions and how these behaviorsdiffered as the values did.My mother in law has an endemic problem with her bone structure and continues tosuffer. She has a perennial problem when she tries to walk and would be able to do thatwith a lot of difficulty. My wife was almost always at her side escorting her throughouther walks in the various cities that she visited. She held her hand and walked at her paceand this was perhaps the only reason why my mother-in-law could walk such longdistances in all the cities, which she would never be able to dream of doing in Kolkata.I frequently see old women in trains and trams with walkers and sticks in Europe and Ihave almost never seen any one including their spouses helping them when they struggleto walk. I think the difference lies in values. In these parts of the developed world, peoplevalue independence and being proud to be able to stand on one’s own feet without anyhelp. In our part of the world we value dependence and we value getting care and helpfrom others, and specially our own children.But why would such behaviors be so different? There is nothing wrong in any of thesebehaviors, but the impact of these behaviors on the character of a nation is deeper.Imagine what happens when a child turns sixteen in these parts of the world. Shebecomes independent to do things and considers herself a grown up. The world aroundher celebrates this growing up; in fact there are two other celebrations that had alreadytaken place in the past, the graduation ceremonies at the school when she moved into themiddle school and the next one when she moved into the high school. I think in the
 
Indian context, there is nothing ceremonious about this event, because no father would behappy thinking that the daughter is now independent at the age of sixteen and wouldleave her to pursue things on her own and stop supporting her. In some of the extremeexamples in the developed world I have seen children doing menial work to be able topursue studies or even do things that they love. They value independence and theylovingly start supporting themselves instead of ‘depending’ on their parents ( I saw therichest kid in our locality serving in the departmental store throughout the summer).I think this value has got to do with economics as well. Where demand is constrained,and we have excess supply of labor, there is a need to constrain supply of labor. That isnot the case in the developed world, where labor is in short supply as hordes of peoplemove from lower income levels to higher income levels and this value addition attractsnew labor needs at the bottom of the pile. If this progression continues, there would bethe constant need to supply labor at the bottom of the pile. This menial labor force if Imay call it, is temporary, as more skill, knowledge and expertise is garnered the upwardmovement is propelled. The rest of the system actually supports this activity for its owngood. The values of independence are actually created by this economic necessity, not theother way round.But the developed world had gone far and may be a bit too far on this; not caring forparents is something that goes beyond needs of economics. The Western world had gonefar on marital values as well, but that is itself a complex subject matter, which cannot beso easily explained. But I would like to touch upon the concept of family in thedeveloped world and how it differs in the other part.In the past I have had the privilege of mixing with families of colleagues in my earlier jobs in India. The transparent environment made it possible for people to know aboutfamilies, just not through parties but even more as the families informally met as well.But I found it queer that such free mixing with families is not in the culture of the West,in fact knowing about what happens to kids or parents of colleagues is not a commonthing. I came to know later that family is more a private thing and openness that onewould expect as in the Indian world, is something not so desirable here.Taking this forward one would find the preponderance of individual boundaries that theWestern world puts to island itself and the relative importance that an individual spacecarries more than the collective space. The difference between the individual andcollective space is what differentiates the two cultures, no wonder it creates a differencein creativity as well.Let me now move to another set of values that differ and this is more meaningful in thecontext of business. In the developed world leisure is valued, while hard work is in thedeveloping world. Here again I see that when productivity rises there is always the lessneed for men for any work and more the need for people who normally do hard work reduces. This helps to create more leisure hours for all categories of men and this hadbeen turned into a positive business proposition in Europe as more people enjoy leisureand holidays the service economy is helped to prosper through this.
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