Synopsis:
If
you live like a frog in a well, you will have a very limited view of the world.
Most poor people who live in small towns in isolation from the rest develop it
called the frog in the well syndrome that limits their ability to understand
the greater world and how to come out of their limited view and their poverty.
They blame others for their predicament but do not take the steps that can
improve their life. Their limited view of the world makes them depend more on
their belief system that tends to breed fundamentalism in them. The blog looks
at the reasons for the poverty and the ways out of it.
Do you know what the proverbial frog does in the well? He waits endlessly for some food that might fall into the well accidentally. He does not know that he would have a much better chance of catching his dinner if he was not in the well but he cannot escape his prison because the well-being deep prevents his escape. Then one day a snake comes to the well and eats him but he too stays in the well waiting for his next meal.
This is a metaphor for some people who live in their own
well and have a very limited view of the world. They are not in their well by
choice but because they live in a small community that is isolated from the
rest of the world due to the geography, poor road connections and the fact that
they are born in poor communities where they are destined to spend their entire
life just like their parents or grandparents. They have little or no education
and find low paying jobs that do not require a lot of education.
This is the story of a lot of mining towns or towns with lumber
mills where they are the sole employers if they are lucky. Others in such small
towns depend on work in the farms that pay little and require hard physical
work.
These small towns and villages create the well in the
frog syndrome due to the lack of opportunities and their isolation from the
rest of the country. They also breed rabid fundamentalism in their religious
views because the church plays a great role in their mundane and humdrum life
where the pastor drills into them the merits of their religion from their childhood.
They learn to dislike people who are not like them, who
are educated and live the middleclass life with comfort, cars and decent houses
so a class divide is created between the poor and the middle class who are
called the elites by the poor. We see that poorer the community greater is the
feeling of us vs them that fuels this unwarranted mentality.
They are not interested in the outside world and often
what happens outside their community. They are not curious about the world and
they care less because most will never travel outside their well to see the
world and experience the beauty of it because they simply cannot afford. Their
priority is food , shelter and survival on very low income so they have no
reserve of funds in case of an emergency that can happen to anyone , anytime so
they live from day to day and in fear of the crop failures or the job layoffs because
the lone employer can’t survive the competition in the modern world.
Women find jobs in diners as waitresses or as grocery
clerks while others find some jobs in hair saloons or similar shops. Others
stay home and raise children. (I have written a blog called Small towns and dreamers that you may
like to read in this context here)
This divide between the uneducated and the educated class
exists in all countries although the ratio of poor to the middle class varies
from country to country that depends on its geography, level of education and
the employment opportunities. We find that a geographically small country like
Switzerland has a high level of education that is offered free by the state and
a high standard of living because there are plenty of job opportunities with
good salary that allows everyone to live a comfortable life. This is easier to
do in small countries but more difficult in big countries.
But a vast country like the United States of America or Russia
where people living in small rural communities feel very isolated from each
other due to their geography and limited employment opportunities creating the
frog in the well syndrome that I explained earlier.
A friend of mine once told me that people in his small
town in Texas were not interested in his worldwide travels and experience
because they had never been outside the well to see the world and experience
what my friend had experienced so they had nothing in common anymore. They
played bingo, went to the bowling alley or just drank beer while watching some
soap operas on TV. Women talked about their hair color or nails while gossiping
with other women of similar taste or worried about who will bake the next
pumpkin pie for the pastor next week.
I had a similar experience when I went home during my
trips to India. I came from a city of over 600000 people living there but the
frog in the well mentality was omnipresent. They were not interested in my
color slides of various countries or in my experiences in Africa, Vietnam or
the United States or what I did for a living because they lived in the world of
their own where their world view was indeed very limited.
India is now a technologically advanced country where
almost everyone is connected through cable TV via satellite and where everyone
keeps a cellphone or two in the pocket. It is a country where practically all
the government services are now available online and where massive
infrastructure development nationwide is bringing the cities and towns together
,where the rural areas have been electrified and good roads link most of the
villages but the frog in the well syndrome persists .
People living in any part of India have very good rail,
road and air connection and any one can call anyone in India or abroad easily
because of massive investment in fiber optic cables nationwide for
communication so people are not as isolated as they were some 50 years ago.
But the reason this frog in the well mentality persists because
most people are only interested in what is their priority which is food,
shelter, clothes and other sundry things just like in those small towns of
Texas. Numerous languages, customs and religions also create division among
people so people tend to stick together like birds of the same feathers. This
makes them less interested in knowing what happens in different parts of the
country because they feel that it does not affect them in any way.
Now in a country where everyone speaks the same language,
same everything then there should be more connection between different
communities and a better understanding of each other but the opposite happens
where the poor resent the middle class they call the elites and show this
resentment politically as well by voting for someone who takes advantage of
this resentment.
The middle class people in any country do not resent the
poor citizens but the poor do because they feel that it is not their fault that
they are poor so why they should not prosper? They do not care to know that
most middle class people came from poverty but by their effort to get education
and skills for the job market, they raised their standard of living. Some of
the successful middleclass people were poor only a generation ago so you will
find a son or a daughter with college degree while the parents have not
finished high school.
It is because such parents gave their children the opportunity to get the education they needed to succeed in their life. They valued education and supported their children somehow in spite of their limited resources. They did not have TV, refs, air conditioners or cars but they always paid for the tuition of their children up to the University level.
This meant
that they sacrificed their own comforts so that the next generation could climb
into the middle class. This help from the parents has contributed to the
phenomenal growth in the middle class population in India and has been
instrumental in reducing the overall poverty in the country. We also see this
trend in China where they have drastically reduced the poverty level through
education and training to get numerous jobs offered by the government as well
as the private sector.
In democratic countries we now see a trend that gives
more opportunities to boys and girls equally when it comes to education and job
placement. This is a change from the previous generation when women got married
at a certain age and stayed at home to raise children. This is still true to a
great extent among the poor and the very poor people in many societies but it
is also true that the education is now available to everyone up to high school
level in many poor countries.
In other countries the governments provide free education
up to the college level to anyone who qualifies thus making them more
employable in the private sector that needs skilled and educated people.
As the economy of a country develops and grows, more and
more people start joining the middle class to live a higher standard of living
than their parents but the divide between the middle class and the poor is not
going to vanish any time soon because it takes time, resources and a strong
mentality to lift the self out of poverty through education and skills.
The frog in the well cannot come out of its well unless
given some help. This help comes in the form of massive investment by the government
in primary and secondary education, vocational training facilities etc. so that
the younger generation has a better chance to get out of poverty. Without such
help, poor people stay where they are generation after generation breeding ill
feelings for their predicaments and blaming them on the middle class. Or they
can sacrifice and somehow send their sons and daughters to college like our
parents did.
This help is like the bucket that someone lowers into the
well to draw water when a smart frog jumps into it and comes out. What it means
is that not everyone grabs an opportunity when it happens to come their way. One
must have the attitude and determination that he will not accept the status quo
so will try hard to get out of poverty. Only then he will be able to come into
the wonderful and beautiful world that awaits him but it will not come easily.
He has to make many sacrifices before the success comes for him or the next
generation.
Only then he will learn to be of open mind and learn so
many new things that are waiting to be learned. A frog that escapes his well
will never go back into it given half a chance.
The question is - Do you have what it takes to climb out
of your well and see the big world? If you do then you have taken your first
step to make your life better. I wish you all the success.
Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.
La biografía de anil en español.
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