[sustran] Re: Second Master Plan for Chennai. - request for comments

[Jonathan E. D. Richmond]

On my flight from Chennai to London today I found myself seated next to 
the vice-president for US operations of one of India's most significant 
companies. A perceptive and sophisticated individual, he provided me 
insight into many realities of Indian business, government, and social 
life. We talked about management and mismanagement -- where things work in 
India, where they fail. He did not mince his words in describing failings, 
and smiled when I told him about the response on this list to my 
truthtelling.

My views about the tragedy of cities of despair such as Chennai are 
unchanged: the place is mostly a dump, as I said, people urinate in the 
street making large areas stink, development is ugly and disorderly, and
the system of corruption that prevents changetaking place is alive and 
well. The poor sleep out on the streets, their children looking frail 
sprawled out on the pavements at night. What future can these children 
have without the promise of an adequate education or a government with the 
decency to care about them?

So I continue to believe that before a city can plan for itself, it must 
be able to keep its public toilets clean and other basic public services 
running, and it must try to remove at least some of the corruption which 
gets in the way of productive change. Leading Indians are quite convinced 
of this need, and Westerners connected with development must move from 
futile academic thinking to facing the harsh reality of dysfunctional 
organizations filled with dishonest people which are in need of basic 
reforms. So, be unhappy about being told the truth if you like -- but 
understand that hiding distasteful realities helps perpetuate them.

                                      --Jonathan


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Jonathan Richmond

1 (617) 395-4360

e-mail: richmond at alum.mit.edu
http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/