Item — HN Reader

> Culture is real

Mawlynnong is barely 3,000 feet from Bangladesh, and the nearest town to it in Bangladesh (Jaflong - roughly 5 to 10 miles away) is much dirtier [0] despite also being inhabited by the same ethnic group (Khasi) as well.

The main difference is, Meghalaya has much stronger local government whereas it's much weaker in Sylhet.

Given that both Jaflong and Mawlynnong are inhabited by ethnic brethren of the same culture, the cultural argument clearly doesn't hold in comparison to the state capacity argument.

[0] - https://maps.app.goo.gl/knutXG7jePr4UhFm8

2 comments

I’m not attributing the difference to aspects of culture common to ethnic groups. I’m pointing out that the article itself attributes the benefit to acculturation:

> But in Mawlynnong, children are taught to tidy up from a young age, with many taking to the streets each morning before school to sweep the town of dead leaves and empty rubbish bins. Villagers see to the disposal of biodegradables and take pride in public landscaping.

Socializing children to have certain values and habits is exactly how you create culture.

But this particular instance isn't much related to that. In my school too, we did all that, and extending to beach cleanups. It's not like the same effect was there.

Besides, most garbage in most Indian cities/towns is not consumer litter in the first place. Side note: this is why 'guarded' areas such as metro stations are spotless.

You might have done the impossible and actually gotten rayiner to concede a point.

I’ll readily concede dirtyness can be beaten out of a culture. Indeed, elsewhere in this thread I posted the quote from Lee Kuan Yew describing how his was a problem that he solved in Singapore.