Blog 2

Akash Kapur’s writing on the poor industrialized area known as Kerala offered an interesting insight into a socially advancing area,, despite being economically challenged. While most people’s perceptions of poor, industrialized areas are that of poor people who are disease ridden and have no education and no future, the city of Kerala continues to defy those odds. Despite living off little more than a dollar a day, their life expectancies are nearly the same as the people in the United States, who are much more economically advanced and have access to some of the finest healthcare in the world. In fact, their life expectancy is even better than that of the rest of their Indian counterparts. Amazingly, they were also taught how to read and become literate through the help of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. What the city of Kerala showed is that you do not have to have an economically strong country in order to promote social progress. While having the financial means does greatly help promote social progress, it can still be done through a variety of other ways. People have lived and sometimes even thrived through hundreds of years despite being technologically advanced. Just 20 years ago the internet was more of a dream concept instead of a reality and people got along just fine. While now if the internet were to be taken away for even a few hours, people would swear that the sky is falling and that they couldn’t survive without it. While technological advances are great and most are good for the advancement of people, it is easy to see that many people are simply too reliant on technology. It’s as if they forgot or rather, have never known, how to survive off of the basics. Instead they rely entirely too much on technology. What Kerala shows is that even though they didn’t have money or much technology, they have survived and are beating the odds. They are not only outliving many developed countries, they are also becoming educated. In many underdeveloped and industrialized countries, education is often just put aside. It is seen as more of a pipe dream than a reality. Books are instead replaced with shovels and other simple labor. However Kerala is showing just how being educated can lead to a whole new mindset and promote overall social progress. Kapur’s writing on Kerala, while dated, should be looked at by all as a modern example of not needing technology in order to thrive and become educated.