Nigeria and the Taj Mahal syndrome

The people of the First Century thought the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were sights to behold. Greek poet, Antipater of Sidon, wrote, in admiration of these feats of human genius, “I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon along which chariots may race, and on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus, I have seen the Hanging Gardens and the Colossus of the Helios, the great man-made mountains of the lofty Pyramids and the gigantic tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the sacred house of Artemis that towers to the clouds, the others were placed in the shade, for the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.” He somehow excluded the Lighthouse of Alexandria. When all, but the Great Pyramids of Giza vanished, as structures may do, the world compiled another Seven Wonders: Taj Mahal in India, Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the Colosseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China and the Machu Pichu castle in Peru. History records how grief-stricken Maharajah Shah Jahan built the 561 feet high monument Taj Mahal, a white marble mausoleum, atop the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, his dead consort. But history didn’t say how well he took care of his people; just as people applaud those who built Dubai’s Bhurja Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, but fail to recognise the soup kitchens that daily feed tramps who beg for a ‘quarter’ by the subway at New York’s Times Square. That is the way of the world. If you consider soft indices, such as feeding, health care delivery, education, infant mortality, maternal mortality, availability of water, material indices, like housing, transport and clothing; and sensual indices, like sports, entertainment, music, leisure and travels, as very important to the man on the street, you may not care too much for a Taj Mahal. In yet another bus ride, talk gravitated to the tendency of governments of developing nations of diverting resources for the welfare of the people, to building meaningless projects that require huge funds to erect and maintain. You must have seen those newspaper advertorials showcasing monuments built as a proof of performance by some state governments. Some of the discussants argued that most of these physical structures are built for impoverished citizens, who have neither inclination, nor strength, nor interest, to use them. But others insisted that they are necessary. They argued, for example, that flyovers help commuters to avoid grinding traffic-hold ups. Someone sarcastically remarked that if you were hungry before you took a ride on a flyover, you would resume the hunger as soon as you touched down on the other side. Everyone sighed as the import of the point sank in. After the thrill, then comes reality. That is the Taj Mahal Syndrome. continued