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Virginia Hoyt asked this question about Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity:
My question is actually one the author herself asked in the Author's Note; on page 248, she queries "After all, there are more poor people than rich people in the world's Mumbais. ... Why don't more of our unequal societies implode?"
Celia Barry As the author says, the very poor turn against each other believing that their neighbors are taking away from the small part of the pie that everyone …moreAs the author says, the very poor turn against each other believing that their neighbors are taking away from the small part of the pie that everyone is trying to get a piece of.

In my mind this means that as long as there is some hope, people will continue to invest in their current strategy. From our distance, we see people fighting over crumbs but from the slums, they can't imagine or begin to see how substantially large the pie is and how they can reasonably participate in having more pie.

If the people in the slums decide to band together, it has to be because there is no other strategy forward. And if they band together, how will they survive while they fight on? I think it comes down to food and clean water - how will they eat and drink while they protest and given the situation in India, so well described by Boo, it's hard to imagine being able to overcome the deeply entrenched system of theft by government workers on every level. Too many have a stake in the current system, no matter how cruel.

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Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo
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