First of all, let me ask you a question, do you think that in a poor society, between people, is it more mutual help, or is it more groundless to frame? It is estimated that many people will say: don't look down on the poor, most of the poor are kind and friendly, only those rich people do evil and bully the weak, what does the old saying say? - For the rich is not benevolent.
Is this correct?
One of the books I bring to you today is said to be a book that Bill Gates sincerely recommended after reading it with tears, "Dungeons: Life, Death and Hope in the Slums of Mumbai", a highly acclaimed documentary work by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Catherine Boo, sweeping the National Book Award, MacArthur Genius Award and other 9 awards.
The author spent three years tracking down and investigating, telling the real picture of the survival of a poor society in documentary tones. And you must not think that the story told in the book, just because he was jealous that his neighbor was better off than himself, he planted a bribe for no reason and dragged a family who had a hard time living a stable life into prison. After reading this book, it may subvert your original understanding of the poor society, and may at least trigger your thinking - poverty is really not just about money.
Urbanization is a phenomenon we are familiar with, and India is no exception. Many rural Indians are no longer willing to stay in the village and live on an acre and a half of land, and in order to get rich, they are beginning to flock to the cities. One, is one of them.
On a certain day in a certain month of a certain year, Hussein's family of 11 moved into Mumbai and settled down. In comparison, they are considered to have better conditions in this slum. This is all thanks to his family's eldest son, who is willing to fight, work hard, and carry the family's life.
Abdul's father, who had been running a garbage business before, had been sick because he had been dealing with garbage for many years. In this way, the burden of supporting the family fell on the shoulders of the eldest son, Abdu. Abdul earns money outside, his mother takes care of the housework, under his mother's arrangement, Abdu is in charge of the garbage business, and his brother is responsible for reading, and she hopes that a son can change his fate by reading.
To tell the truth, Abdul's heart will be a little unbalanced, the same son, he is two years older, why should he work day and night, but his brother can go to school and take a completely different path?
From the age of 6, Abdul began to follow his father to collect garbage. Every day, they buy garbage from people who pick up the garbage and resell it to small garbage dumps a few kilometers away. Compared to pure garbage picking, their work is still a little more advanced. To do this, the most important thing is to have the ability to identify garbage, what kind of garbage is worth, how much is it worth, what kind of garbage can't be sold for a price, and so on. Abdul learned a lot of identification skills from his father. For example, chew with your mouth, judge the hardness of the plastic, smell it with your nose, and if the smell is fragrant, it is a high-quality plastic. Another example is to beat scrap iron with iron nails and see if what the scavengers send is pure.
In this way, Abdul became more and more comfortable with business, and the family's life became better and better. Eating enough was no longer a problem, and the walls of the home were changed from tin sheets to aluminum sheets, and later "upgraded" to waste bricks, and their home was the strongest of the entire row of shacks.
Watching the days get better and better, Abdul's mother came up with a new plan, saved a sum of money, and went to a place on the outskirts of Mumbai to buy a small piece of land and let the family leave the slum. This is also the common sentiment of people, after all, people go to a high place. However, who could have predicted that this little idea of improving life would trigger a series of unexpected tragedies.
For her mother, she was fed up with the garbage, smoke and sweat in the house, and she wanted to have a clean home.
After thinking about it again and again, I suggested to my husband that it was better to change it a little and renovate the house. So, the family happily opened up, big and small, moving things out with all hands and feet. However, I never expected that when they moved the big and small objects out of the house, and the people around them came to watch, some people were unbalanced in their hearts: Oh, their family was so rich, you see, thick wooden cabinets, beds, thick quilts, and fine spices!
Most of the neighbors who watched only saw that his family was richer than themselves, but some people did not stop at envy and jealousy. Renovating the house, it is inevitable to knock and beat, the neighbors will inevitably be noisy, this is not, the woman next door will scold and grin, and protest continuously every day.
In the face of the noise, the Hussein family is very unhappy. Over the years, they have helped her in all sorts of life trivia. Even the brick wall shared by the two families was built by hussein's family. This time, however, Fatima not only did not help, but was ungrateful and blatantly cursed. Angry, he rushed out the door and scolded her.
Fatima, a woman, actually ran to the police station to report to the police, saying that Hussein's family beat her. After hearing this, he was even more angry and immediately rushed to the police station to discuss the explanation. When the police listened, they understood in their hearts that it was just a small contradiction between the neighbors, and where was the matter. However, they were detained.
Why? For the police, this is a money-making opportunity to send it to the door. Among the two women, there is more money, and it is better to detain her so that her family can take the money.
Detained, Fatima went home smugly, and the Hussein family, out of anger, especially, shouted at him, "You lied and said my wife beat you, then I will beat you now!" In this way, the contradictions intensified, and after a big fight, Fatima secretly said that he had to destroy the Hussein family. She decided to direct herself and put on a self-immolation.
In this way, things have become bigger, what was originally just an ordinary civil dispute has now risen to a criminal case, and the Hussein family seems to be in big trouble.
In response, the police released Abdu's mother, Jeronisa, and arrested him and his father, Karam.
The Hussein family, who also wanted to calm things down, told Fatima that as long as Fatima was willing to settle privately, she was willing to take all the medical expenses and give a compensation.
For Fatima, this was good enough, so she also calculated that she was not with Hussein furniture. At this time, the police came to stir up trouble. As mentioned earlier, the local corruption is serious, and in order to further blackmail, the police specially sent a publicist to talk to Fatima, and after several inducements, Fatima changed her mind, saying that her self-immolation was the result of the Hussein family's instigation.
Originally, the Hussein family believed in the judiciary. They think that as long as they don't commit a crime, the police will certainly not be able to embarrass them. However, as time passed, they slowly discovered that this was not the case, and that the process of dealing with the police cost money everywhere, even if they wanted to see the complaint of the case, they had to pay Rs 5,000. To put it bluntly, only people who have no money to bribe the police will appear in court for trial.
In order to bail out her husband and son, she went around asking for money. Because she didn't have enough money to pay the balance, she lost the land she bought; to raise money, she also sold the second half of the slum. To make matters worse, when news of Abdou's arrest reached his fiancée's home, his fiancée's father immediately canceled the marriage contract. Not only that, but Abdul's younger brother Musi was no longer able to continue his studies.
In this incident, one person has to be mentioned, the slum lord Asa. The title of slum lord is not given by the government, but by slum people.
When Jeronissa, a Muslim, was detained by the police, Asa was the first to arrive at the scene. However, she is not a warm-hearted person, and she does so for another purpose: on the one hand, she wants to defend her position in the slums and not let the opportunity to help others fall into the hands of competitors; on the other hand, she, like the police, wants to take the opportunity to ask For bribes from Jeronissa.
When it was abetting that it was abetting that many people had come to testify against perjury in the case of Abdou's father and sister. Why? Each has its own purpose.
For example, Fatima's best friend. This man's family is also engaged in the garbage business, and all along, the Hussein family has long been resentful. There was no reason for her to testify, because the two families did not live in the same alley, and she could not figure out what had happened, but so what, in court, she was killed by the Hussein family when she bit Fatima to death.
The second person to commit perjury was the hospital, and the relevant personnel also lied. When Fatima was admitted to the hospital, the burn area of her whole body was 35%, but in order to avoid responsibility, the hospital said that her burn area exceeded 95%, and it was basically impossible to save her life.
The third to perjury was Fatima's husband. Originally, he did not have much deep feelings for his wife, Fatima this woman not only cheated with others, but also drowned her weak daughter, but once Fatima died, the weak old man felt that there would be no chance to get along with his wife in the future, and the children would no longer have a mother. Look next door and talk and laugh with your children. He was sad, jealous, resentful, and he felt that if it was hussein's family who ruined his future. Although he was not present at the time of Fátima's accident, in court he tried to describe to the judge the scene of the Hussein family's argument with Fatima.
In court, Hussein's family was physically and mentally devastated, and various testimonies were against them. But in the end, the judge decided that this was just an ordinary dispute, and there was no strong enough evidence to prove that Fatima was instigated to commit suicide. Eventually, Abdul's father and sister were acquitted.
The storm finally passed, and the Hussein family finally crossed the abyss with difficulty and returned to a peaceful life.
But after the toss of the self-immolation incident, the family's efforts were all in vain, and everything was pulled back to the original point. Vasser's land had been sold to others, and their deposit could not be returned.
In Abdu's words, in Anawadi, "wealth comes not from what people do or how well they do, but from how many accidents and disasters they avoid".
After going through innocent imprisonment and returning to poverty, Abdu saw through it, saying: "This is also a life, even if people who live like dogs have a certain life." ”
So, for the Hussein family, where is the future?
Although Abdul was born poor and dropped out of school because of poverty, he almost got out of the slum by struggling a little by hard work. However, the unwarranted malice of the poor neighbor alone has triggered a series of innocent disasters, property is not guaranteed, and they face prison.
If struggle is the only way to change an individual's birth, then what does it take to change the poverty of a group? Otherwise, people living in the "dungeon" are all hopeless dead loops.
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Edited | Liangshan
Typography | Liangshan
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