Sunday, June 30, 2019
On money creation
A lost century in economics: Three theories of banking and the conclusive evidence by Richard Andreas Werner.
More about Richard Werner at Wikipedia.
More about Richard Werner at Wikipedia.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Dalai Lama worries about Europe
https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/dalai-lama-who-has-been-living-in-india-as-refugee-for-70-years-warns-europe-about-refugees-370123.html "The whole of Europe (will) eventually become Muslim country? Impossible. Or African country? Also impossible," he said, adding that it's better to "keep Europe for Europeans." he said. According to Emmanuel Todd “Germany (1.4), Japan (1.4), and South Korea (1.2) had reached rock-bottom values that prohibit the natural renewal of the population and require either the use of mass immigration or the acceptance of demographic decline.”
Abburi Chayadevi RIP
A recent interview with Putin
Interview with the Financial Times Lionel Barber A mixed bag. He objects to, correctly in my opinion, imposing western type democracies in countries Libya and at the same time does not want Europe to take many immigrants. He also ignores the western business interests in various third world countries which often cause refugee problems and talks blithely of ‘refugees and narcotics’. Healdo seems to ignore the demographic problems in countries like Germany, their low birth rates. Overall, he seems to be a conservative politician with some sympathy for Trump. It is possible that the link may disappear in which case there are many excerpts from the interview in The Moon of Alabama blog https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/06/russias-president-putin-explains-the-end-of-the-liberal-order.html#more
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
An old documentary on yoga
Yoga on horses, at sea & with dogs: India celebrates International Yoga Day in strange places from Russian Times on June 21, 2019.
This land is your land
From the first version:
“One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.
[This land was made for you and me.]”
From the Wikipedia article on the song This land is your land
Reminded of this after constant attacks on Dalits and Moslems in India.
“One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.
[This land was made for you and me.]”
From the Wikipedia article on the song This land is your land
Reminded of this after constant attacks on Dalits and Moslems in India.
climate and homelessness
For those that think homeless people migrate to warmer climates.... “Homeless people do tend to congregate in more urbanized states. But again, climate has nothing to do with propensity for homelessness.”
English cricket captain sounds like Trump
'They can do what they want' - Morgan won't do a Kohli if fans heckle Smith, Warner
Spectators pay a lot of money," Morgan said. "They can do what they want.“
Spectators pay a lot of money," Morgan said. "They can do what they want.“
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Will there be war?
Will he? Won't he? How Trump's impulses are driving his Iran policy
Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions
And Seth Abramson on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1141928933866311681?s=12
Suggest the likeliness of war. As Juan Cole says towards the end of his article:
“Again, this crisis is of Trump’s making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the US government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the US on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants.
Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions
And Seth Abramson on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1141928933866311681?s=12
Suggest the likeliness of war. As Juan Cole says towards the end of his article:
“Again, this crisis is of Trump’s making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the US government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the US on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants.
Unfortunately, Iran will provoke again, and next time the US warmongers may win the argument.”
Friday, June 21, 2019
A review of ‘Lineages of Modernity...’ By Emmanuel Todd
Review:Reversing into the future: welcome to the paleo world by Andy Martin. An excerpt:
"If economics is conscious behaviour, and education and religion are our subconscious, then it is still family relationships that form the deepest level of our unconscious life. Hence it is around individualism that the clash (or at least divergence) of civilisations will occur. Todd sets out a table in which different societies are compared in terms of their core values under various headings to do with attitudes towards equality, feminism, endogamy and authority. The “anthropological distance” between the Anglosphere and Denmark (hello, Danes!) is zero. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the combined distance from Saudi Arabia is 7.5. I think we can assume, in the aftermath of Khashoggi, that the Saudis don’t exactly prioritise press freedom. Todd offers an equation which explains 9/11: “Maximum incomprehension + intimate association = hatred.” On the other hand, we shouldn’t be so Russophobic. We are closer to Russia (1.5 distance) than Germany (2.5)."
"If economics is conscious behaviour, and education and religion are our subconscious, then it is still family relationships that form the deepest level of our unconscious life. Hence it is around individualism that the clash (or at least divergence) of civilisations will occur. Todd sets out a table in which different societies are compared in terms of their core values under various headings to do with attitudes towards equality, feminism, endogamy and authority. The “anthropological distance” between the Anglosphere and Denmark (hello, Danes!) is zero. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the combined distance from Saudi Arabia is 7.5. I think we can assume, in the aftermath of Khashoggi, that the Saudis don’t exactly prioritise press freedom. Todd offers an equation which explains 9/11: “Maximum incomprehension + intimate association = hatred.” On the other hand, we shouldn’t be so Russophobic. We are closer to Russia (1.5 distance) than Germany (2.5)."
UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares
UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares “Later, Fox was understood to have privately told at least one MP that he expected that the review process called for by the court would take about 10 weeks – and would not lead to any of the previous licensing decisions being overturned.
Arms trade campaigners say that Paveway, Brimstone and Storm Shadow bombs of the type used by the Saudi air force in Yemen are covered by separate “open licences”, which have not been suspended by Fox, and are only under review. “The bombs will continue,” one source added.”
An Incredibly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes
An Incredibly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes “The map above is probably the most detailed map of Medieval Trade Routes in Europe, Asia and Africa in the 11th and 12th centuries you can find online. It includes major and minor locations, major and minor routes, sea routes, canals and roads.”
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
A passage from Emmanuel Todd’s recent book
A passage from’.https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Lineages_of_Modernity.html?id=AdKcDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y..’ by Emmanuel Todd:
“Despite high and comparable educational levels, their birth rate indicators diverge in proportions that imply different destinies. By 2015 (again), the United States, with 1.9 children per woman, the United Kingdom (1.9), Australia (1.9), Sweden (1.9), France (2.0) and Russia (1.8)were not too far from the threshold of 2.1, which essentially makes the replacement of one generation by the next possible. On the other hand, Germany (1.4), Japan (1.4), and South Korea (1.2) had reached rock-bottom values that prohibit the natural renewal of the population and require either the use of mass immigration or the acceptance of demographic decline. We will see how these differences are easily explained by the subterranean persistence of distinct family values, those that concern the status of women in particular”
Todd’s family systems is described in the second of the articles listed here by Brian Micklethwait
“Despite high and comparable educational levels, their birth rate indicators diverge in proportions that imply different destinies. By 2015 (again), the United States, with 1.9 children per woman, the United Kingdom (1.9), Australia (1.9), Sweden (1.9), France (2.0) and Russia (1.8)were not too far from the threshold of 2.1, which essentially makes the replacement of one generation by the next possible. On the other hand, Germany (1.4), Japan (1.4), and South Korea (1.2) had reached rock-bottom values that prohibit the natural renewal of the population and require either the use of mass immigration or the acceptance of demographic decline. We will see how these differences are easily explained by the subterranean persistence of distinct family values, those that concern the status of women in particular”
Todd’s family systems is described in the second of the articles listed here by Brian Micklethwait
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
A small success
A small success. I visited Heal Paradise a few times and once invited Aruna Tella to visit the place. Recently, she tried to send two children of one of the persons in Swadhar Greh to Heal Paradise since the lady is destitute and lame and has no resources to look after them. Though the institute was started with the idea of serving India (there are also artificial limb section and one for the deaf), some bureaucrat decided that these institutes should serve only the districts where they were located. Aruna contacted the organisers and told them that it is privately funded autonomous institute and cannot be dictated by bureaucrats and they offered to take up the fight. Meanwhile she phoned one of the bureaucrats concerned and told him how unjust his attitude was and also contacted some local child welfare organisers and requested them to protest. All this happened in a few hours and now the children are offered schooling there. Except for the initial medical check ups, the schooling with all the residential facilities will be free. I am very pleased that I have been supporting Aruna impressed by her altruism and courage and what all I did in the episode is suppling a few phone numbers. Even from abroad, it seems possible to help the poor in India a little if one knows some good local organisers like Aruna Tella and Rahul Banerjee.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Heal Paradise
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy
The untold story of Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy with glimpses of Abdul Salam along the way
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Janaki Ammal
A glorious yellow bloom in honour of botanist E.K. Janaki Ammal in passing, the article says “Records of her life available publicly note that caste and gender discrimination forced her move to the U.K. where she joined the John Innes Institute, Norwich, as a cytologist. ”
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company
officials to have Indian wives.
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.
Saturday, June 08, 2019
Friday, June 07, 2019
Some articles on Indian languages from Mint
Konkani: a language in crisis “Konkani became the first Asian language ever printed, in the first volume published by the first press set up in the continent, in Goa in 1556. Later, the first modern grammar book of any Indian language was Arte da Lingoa Canarim, published in 1640 by pioneering English Jesuit Thomas Stephens. By the middle of the 17th century, there was a substantial body of Konkani literature in print, described by Fordham University’s late polymathic linguist and scholar Jose Pereira as “a great achievement...far in advance of any modern Indian tongue".”
How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi
“Your Tamil pain
How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi
“Your Tamil pain
In neighbouring Assam, it was Kamrup—meaning Lower Assam and North Bengal, not the Ahom territories of Upper Assam—where the early stalwarts of Assamese culture did their life’s work. Assam from ancient times was known as Kamarupa till the end of Koch rule in the 17th century, according to the renowned Assamese linguist Upendranath Goswami.”
Thursday, June 06, 2019
Monday, June 03, 2019
Charles Correa
India: from a Philosophy of Ages, Architecture for Today by Charles Correa
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal photos
AD Classics: Bharat Bhavan / Charles Correa
His other projects are mentioned in the Wikipedia article Here.
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal photos
AD Classics: Bharat Bhavan / Charles Correa
His other projects are mentioned in the Wikipedia article Here.
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Amherstia nobilis
Amherstia nobilis new to me. Apparently it can be seen in several campuses in Mumbai but I missed it during my long stay there.
https://youtu.be/GFfsPvGOGPY
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