stanley

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.

Last post got long

We've been struggling to get our basic needs covered, we have no water, our daughter got her hair mutilated by her grandpa, we had to flee to a hotel 2 times during last month because he's been a danger for us, i lost my healthcare and im still in the paperwork to get it back and a couple days ago our trans daughter started peeing blood, is in pain and has shown signs of infection.

She already got checked by a Dr but he recommended an urologist very urgently. She already underwent surgery last year, there is a chance it was badly done or a new issue.

So, can we get help for her? Her birthday will be soon

We need $125 for the appointment with a trans friendly urologist, then we will have a diagnosis.

We were able to pay rent and fill our water tank, we hope the shortage ends and we don't have to get bottled water daily. We'll keep you posted.

I've been offering spanish conversation classes online, just taking time off until I can make sure my father-in-law won't sabotage those with his shouting.

A friend and mutual is offering commissions to help us if you're interested.

Also check our throne, we have some urgent lists of needs for our chronic pain/illnesses if someone can help us with that too.

$85/$800

Paypal Kofi Wishlist

Finally got the prescriptions scanned, forgot the 3rd one with the labs but this should be better than nothing, we debated a lot on how much information should be censored so i hope you understand we covered all we thought could put our daughter in danger.

We could agree on sharing the uncensored one through dm´s but only to trusted mutuals so they can corroborate its legit, we need to get her the surgery as urgently as possible cause the pain from the balanitis is hindering her ability to go to the bathroom or even just exist.

of course they are in spanish tho, we voted against translating them for accuracy´s sake.

The total cost of surgery through the only trans friendly clinic we could find goes over $52,000 pesos, which is over $3,100 usd, not even taking into account if she needs to stay overnight under their care.

She wouldn't have to go through another surgery if the previous dr had identified the symptoms better, we cant put her through another transphobic clinic, she was miserable and shouldn´t have gone through all that.

If it helps at all it's going to be her birthday on July 14, it would be great if she didn't have to be in pain and going to the bathroom meant a crying session and a constant infection.

We also had hoped the phones would have arrived by now but we got an email saying there was a problem but we hope to get a positive reply by july 11th, we´ll keep you posted.

so yeah, we need so much help not even considering that grandpa is still a danger, we will need food by saturday and i hurt myself handwashing the clothes we needed most urgently.

help please

$230/$3,500

me and @stanleycaris 's ocs in look outside.... look at them now and throw tomatos at them IMMEDIATELY