Let’s not kid ourselves.
Given a chance — a visa, a job offer, a lottery ticket — millions from the so-called developing worldwould pack their bags and head straight for America. Or Canada. Or Australia. Or Germany. Anywhere but home.
But why?
Is it because:
• The weather is good?
• The air is cleaner?
• The food tastes better?
• The roads are smoother?
• The politicians are (marginally) less corrupt?
• The people are honest, or at least pretend well?
• The police don’t ask for chai-pani?
• Hard work leads to something more than a heart attack?
• The hospitals don’t ask for a deposit before saving your life?
• The culture respects the individual, not just the community, caste, or clan?
• Or is it simply because life feels livable?
Let’s be honest — it’s all of that.
But here’s the kicker:
Apply the same logic to your homeland.
Why is it not desirable?
Why doesn’t your own land offer the same basic decency?
Why must you dream of escape rather than reform?
The Harsh Truth?
Because your system was never built to uplift you.
It was built to control you.
And when colonialism ended, the baton of exploitation was passed on — not to patriots, but to polished versions of the same masters.
• Your roads are bad not because you can’t build.
They’re bad because no one powerful needs them.
• Your schools are broken not for lack of ideas,
but because education breeds rebellion.
• Your hospitals bleed you dry because suffering is profitable.
• Your politicians thrive because you vote with your emotion, not your intellect.
Why America?
Not because it’s perfect — far from it.
But because, even in its hypocrisy, it has:
• Functional systems.
• Transparent paperwork.
• A belief (however flawed) in individual agency.
• The ability to say “This isn’t working” and make someone answerable.
Your country?
You file a complaint, and it becomes your problem.
The Real Shame
It’s not that people want to leave.
It’s that they have to.
You blame the brain drain.
You curse the West.
You romanticize returning to your roots — on long weekends.
But what did you do to make your home better?
Did you hold your leaders accountable?
Did you reject corruption even when it benefited you?
Did you reward honesty over jugaad?
Or did you just adjust — like generations before you?
You Can’t Fix What You Worship
Until you stop seeing America as the promised land,
and start seeing your country as worth fixing,
this craving will continue.
You don’t envy America.
You envy what your own country refuses to become.
And that, right there,
is your unfinished revolution.