| « Previous | Home | Next » | 21st century? 02 September, 2006 |
 photo: david lindley built imposingly on a headland overlooking a large fishing village, the place of worship dominated the coastline for miles around. it was an impressive place so, as we had a bit of time to kill, we decided to take a wander and see what it and the village was like. obviously relatively new, clean and modern, it soared high above the surrounding area, and was certainly designed to impress it's congregation. there could though have been no greater contrast with the village that almost cowered at its feet: poor only went some way to describe it; a rag tag bunch of huts and overturned boats, no evident electricity or sewage system and litter piled up around. from these shacks children shyly eyed us with none of the pleased and inquisitive expressions we'd seen elsewhere. we had some sweets we'd picked up somewhere and as soon as we started to dole them out we were surrounded by these children; how we wished we'd had something more useful like pens or pencils - even just more sweets would have been something. it was a grim, depressing, place, a side of the nation that we'd not seen before: poor people just ripe for exploitation and domination by the priests of the glittering edifice that stood above their hovels. like some mediaeval church in europe, this place had been built to impress the locals with the glory of god, but i could not imagine what just and compassionate god would want such a rich structure in their name whilst the people lived in such abject poverty below. | |
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Posted by davidlindley Archived under: india |
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