My coworker brought up something quite interesting, which I found to be true... We noticed that the 'poor' people here are not subservient. There seems to be a certain amount of dignity - no matter how poor or rich, there's more equality and respect. I don't think that exists in India. In India, the servants, drivers, waiters, etc. seem to think they're inferior and hence bow their head down and live. There's a very 'master and servant' culture in India...We hire people for the elevators to push the floor we want to go to, we have waiters keeping an eye on our plates so they can serve us more food as our plates get empty, etc. This is not the case here. There's no 'lift-man', waiters don't constantly fill up our plates, etc.
Also - there's more of a civic sense here. This place is not really.polluted. You don't really find trash on the road or on the beaches. Not to say that Dar es Salaam this developed city... it's not. You definitely know you're in an underdeveloped country - and one that is far more underdeveloped than even India. But, some there just seems to be a greater respect for one's surrounding (which includes other people).
I'm quite curious as to what it is in our culture that makes us so 'uncaring' where as the Tanzanian's not.
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The subservient culture you are referring to might also be different in different parts of the country. Take the classic example of Delhi and Mumbai. Where in Delhi it is expected that your servant / watchman / waiter is your property so to say in Mumbai you would have a hard time bossing around your help like that.
with changing times and more educated people getting into the workforce there is a greater sense of respect for one's work and also respect for other people (Hence a change from both sides albeit it shall be a slow process)
So an interesting study would be to see how this changes as you travel to other parts of Tanzania.
Enjoy! and keep us posted!
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