Servants in India: Cheap household labour is no longer in abundant supply

India, like Britain and America until a century ago, has an established culture of live-in servants. Professional urban families often have a “maid”, usually a young migrant woman, who does everything from dusting to child care. (...) Yet the culture may be changing. In Chennai, a commercial city in southern India, Bangalore, the country’s IT hub, and Goa, a coastal tourism hotspot, families also say it has become harder over the past five years to find live-in staff. Demand is rising as more women go out to work and fewer live in claustrophobic joint families where in-laws act as nannies. Yet supply is falling (...) Economic liberalisation in the past two decades has created a wider range of low-skilled urban jobs. Malls need shop assistants. Offices need errand boys. In rural areas a job-creation scheme for poor households is keeping potential migrants at home. Meanwhile, middle-aged servants have invested in their children’s schooling so that their offspring do not follow in their footsteps. Servants, in turn, are more able than before to demand decent working conditions.(...) Poor treatment is another deterrent. Even progressive families have an unwritten rule that servants should not sit on the same furniture or use the same crockery as their employers. Servants are vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse. Now India’s government is trying to boost servants’ rights.

 Reat the full story @ The Economist

Combattere l'islamofobia a colpi di reality show?

Un reality show per raccontare le vite quotidiane di 5 famiglie di musulmani americani di Dearborn, nel Michigan, città che ospita la più grande moschea degli Stati Uniti.

Si chiama All-American Muslim, ed è trasmesso dal canale TLC. A sentire i resoconti (The Guardian: "The Reality of the ‘All-American Muslim’ Reality TV Show"), sembra trattarsi di uno show tanto eterogeneo da lasciare scontenti tutti: tanto gli islamofobi che vedono nello show un modo per sdoganare l'islam, quanto coloro che ricordano come la realtà di quelle famiglie sia specifica e non rappresentativa.

D'altra parte, ci troviamo di fronte ad un reality show: forma che ha indubbi pregi (l'immediatezza, la naturalezza, l'immedesimazione, la leggerezza), ma anche arci-noti difetti (la stereotipizzazione, la banalizzazione, l'implicita selezione - dal Tutto che costutuisce la realtà, come tale irrappresentabile - di temi e scene accessibili ed interessanti per il pubblico di riferimento).

The five families on “All-American Muslim” should not be asked to represent all Muslims, Arabs or Americans. Does Jersey Shore represent all Italians? The best way to view “All-American Muslim” is simply a show about five families doing their best to be themselves. They’re just people, who happen to identify as Muslim, Arab and American. Their story isn’t the wild-eyed, paranoid fantasy that is colored by the hate-filled minds of the Islamophobia network. It isn’t the terrorist stereotype familiar to most American audiences thanks to mainstream Hollywood depictions and sensationalised news headlines. And it won’t be the story of this nation’s 3-4 million American Muslims (population estimates vary from 1.3 to 7 million), who will hopefully find more avenues to tell their unique narratives through mainstream outlets. In the meantime, we should exhale and simply let this reality TV show succeed or fail on the merits of its ability to entertain, instead of obsessing about how “realistic” its depiction of Islam and Muslims is. That’s a reality show whose authenticity cannot be denied.

Nell'immagine, gli Amens