Two on graduate advantage

Experts have jobs. They have to understand those who don’t:” Lind’s book, “The New Class War,” argues that the best way to understand America today is through the lens of class conflict, which has been sharpened by the rise of an “overclass” that dominates the three spheres he mentions. In all three, leaders tend to be urban, college-educated professionals, often with a postgraduate degree. That makes them quite distinct from much of the rest of the country. Only 36 percent of Americans have a bachelor’s degree, and only 13 percent have a master’s or more. And yet, the top echelons everywhere are filled with this “credentialed overclass.””
Deaths of despair:Angus Deaton “And we saw very quickly that this was happening to both men and women, and, most importantly, that this decline was only happening to white people who didn’t have college degrees. Those of us with at least a bachelor’s degree, the educational elite, were somehow exempted from these horrors.” 

Michael Pollan on food supply chains in USA

“ The advantages of local food systems have never been more obvious, and their rapid growth during the past two decades has at least partly insulated many communities from the shocks to the broader food economy.

The pandemic is, willy-nilly, making the case for deindustrializing and decentralizing the American food system, breaking up the meat oligopoly, ensuring that food workers have sick pay and access to health care, and pursuing policies that would sacrifice some degree of efficiency in favor of much greater resilience. Somewhat less obviously, the pandemic is making the case not only for a different food system but for a radically different diet as well.” from The sickness of our food supply by Michael Pollan 

Taleb on Covid-19

The Pandemic Isn’t a Black Swan but a Portent of a More Fragile Global System
“ For Taleb, an antifragile country would encourage the distribution of power among smaller, more local, experimental, and self-sufficient entities—in short, build a system that could survive random stresses, rather than break under any particular one. (His word for this beneficial distribution is “fractal.”)

We should discourage the concentration of power in big corporations, “including a severe restriction of lobbying,” Taleb told me. “When one per cent of the people have fifty per cent of the income, that is a fat tail.” Companies shouldn’t be able to make money from monopoly power, “from rent-seeking”—using that power not to build something but to extract an ever-larger part of the surplus. There should be an expansion of the powers of state and even county governments, where there is “bottom-up” control and accountability. This could incubate new businesses and foster new education methods that emphasize “action learning and apprenticeship” over purely academic certification. He thinks that “we should have a national Entrepreneurship Day.””

Jimikki mammal by Laurel and Hardy

https://youtu.be/u-rwmzUWBPw superimposed on https://youtu.be/LAmb4dVJAmU
And also https://youtu.be/kMpB0qwHvyg

Journalism in the time of coronavirus

When a News Article Vanishes, We Have More Than Just a Pandemic to Worry About by Pritanka Pulla

Sarkar is only for the rich

Urban India didn't care about migrant workers till 26 March, only cares now because it's lost their services: P Sainath
Judith Butler on the Violence of Neglect Amid a Health Crisis
Sarkar is only for the rich 

Coronavirus lesson to india

Coronavirus has upturned the world – and forced us to revisit India’s economic history
“ Lady Corona is also lifting the cover off the ugliness we had hidden away. For example, in India, the dreadful exploitation of people who have been denied access to education, a living income, decent housing. Like in one of those science fiction horror stories, we chained them to oil the engines of production and exchange, and when Lady Corona walked in, we ran into our homes and cabins, leaving those who were oiling and running the engines of our economy, homeless and starving.

But that was not enough. When they decided to walk back to their families and homes to survive this deprivation, we sprayed them with disinfectant, stopped them and held them in cages. They were needed for our return to production and trade, they were the engines of the growth of our economy. After all, foreign capital came to India to reap the benefits of abundant, cheap and unorganised labour. 

Now governments and the firms want them back. We recently witnessed the viciousness of that desire when the chief minister of Karnataka banned outgoing trains for migrants. The audacity of that gesture reveals the terror the government felt over what would happen without vulnerable migrant labour. The entire edifice of our cities would collapse without them.“
See also Don’t blame Covid or financial package. Politics is holding India’s migrant workers hostage 

Facts about US labour market

Facts about labor markets ouch, when are rising wages bad edition

Via MR. “ Workers in the bottom quintile of the wage distribution experienced a 35 percent employment decline while those in the top quintile experienced only a 9 percent decline. ”

A documentary about Capital-21

Are we returning to “ “master and servant” laws in the United Kingdom that made it illegal for workers to quit.”
https://theintercept.com/2020/05/05/capital-21st-century-documentary-thomas-piketty/
Another review https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/capital-in-the-twenty-first-century-review-thomas-piketty-1234596239/

Cholera and coronavirus

Cholera and coronavirus: why we must not repeat the same mistakes “ Besides the basic moral argument for a system of public health and international cooperation that benefits all people, it is also in everyone’s interests, because as long as infections blight poor countries, they will continue to pose a threat to the west, too. The Nigerian global health scholar Obijiofor Aginam has written that “enormous sacrifices must then be made by the developed world to confront mutual vulnerability”. Coronavirus has reminded us, once again, of this mutual vulnerability.

To prevent further pandemics, Aginam calls for a “communitarian globalism”: a bottom-up approach, “based on ideals of fairness, justice, and equitable distribution of scarce but moderate global resources”. We have already seen glimpses of this kind of solidarity in the current crisis: from the communist government in Kerala giving food and shelter to migrant workers; to the Somalian doctors offering their help in crisis zones such as Italy; to Cuba allowing an infected British cruise ship to dock to receive timely medical care by its doctors.”

Jogan 1950

With subtitles, uploaded by Tammydan. If it does not work try the link below the picture.

https://youtu.be/SyA8_Vi5M-8

Not much to say in

these unprecedented times. The following article by Dani Rodriguez sounds plausible to me.

“Why the coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to change the world, for better or worse”

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3078766/why-coronavirus-pandemic-unlikely-change-world-better-or-worse

In a similar vein https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/18/history-fairer-society-coronavirus-workers-black-death-spanish-flu? 

India lockdown

Modi Orders 3-Week Total Lockdown for All 1.3 Billion Indians : With four hours’ notice, India’s prime minister announced that no one could leave home for 21 days — the most severe step taken anywhere in the war against the coronavirus.

Comparison with the great plague

The strange and startling similarities between the Great Plague and COVID-19 

Some articles about the current unprecedented times

The real pandemic danger is social collapse by Brando Milanovic
How the pandemic will end by Ed Yong
Interview with an expert Dr. Bruce Aylward

The Chinese Doctor who beat the Plague

The Chinese Doctor who beat the Plague

Cuba’s contribution to fighting Covid-19

Cuba’s contribution to fighting Cvid-29 

Seasonal effects on viruses and more

Why do dozens of diseases wax and wane with the seasons—and will COVID-19? 

On the Spanish Flu

The virus that killed 18 million Indians 

Mike Davis on the coronavirus

Mike Davis on COVID-19: The monster is finally at the door
See also  The extraordinary decision facing Italian doctors https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas
Viral Coronavirus 'Advisory' Is Not From UNICF https://www.boomlive.in/health/viral-coronavirus-advisory-is-not-from-unicef-7171 

A recent mathematics paper

Comparing decompositions of Poincaré Dulaity pairs One of my better papers, I think.it has massive contributions from collaborators and took about three years to complete. It is based on an earlier paper Canonical decompositions of Poincare Duality pairs which was a revised version of a 2007 manuscript. It is being revised again. Nice to work leisurely in retirement( I retired in 2005).

Mid Day Meals

Gujarat Headmaster Grows Organic Food For Students For 17 Years, Ensures 100% Attendance! 

CAA-NPR-NRC

What Is CAA, NPR, NRC? What Is Its Impact On Indian Citizens?  Confusing but may be one can try to see how they tried to implement these in Assam.
There is another article in India Today says:
“ Now, let's see the connection that troubles those skeptical of the government's move.It takes us to 2004, when another Citizenship Amendment Act had been passed - the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2003 - when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was in power. In the amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955, a Section 14A had been inserted. Section 14A relates to issue of national identity cards.

According to Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, "the Central Government may compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card to him."

The same Section 14A of the Citizenship Act says, "The Central Government may maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens and for that purpose establish a National Registration Authority."”

“ Refer to Section 14A of the Citizenship Act again. This Section 14A provides the legal basis for NPR preparation and links it with Census and NRC.

It says that the Registrar General India shall act as the National Registration Authority and also as the Registrar General of Citizen Registration. The catch here is that the Registrar General functions as the Census Commissioner of India.

This means if the government wants, at any point of time, the data collected for the NPR may be legally used for NRC.”

Freeman Dyson passed away

Obituary in NYTimes.
Some videos of his contributions to physics and the last one about Fermi indicates a humble person but he was always quite independent while admiring others.

https://youtu.be/i3RcN5UGwgI Linking the ideas of Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga

https://youtu.be/pToteaNcIdk Richard Feynman and his work

https://youtu.be/hV41QEKiMlM fermi’s rejection of our work.
And one more on Richard Feynman ‘Meeting Feynman with .....’

M.S.Raghunanthan on Modi dispensation

https://youtu.be/vOkpT44y1_U

An old virus in Delhi

Mosque set on fire as violent protests continue across New Delhi 

Old news

1966 anti-cow slaughter agitation “ M. N. Srinivas commented that the episode solidly convinced him that the Hindus of North India had not evolved into modern people” but I have seen similar attitudes in South India too.
Tradition in modern India by J.Heesterman from 1963.

About the new Coronavirus Covid-19

You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus from The Atlantic, a fairly comprehensive article.
Symptomless cases raise coronavirus control fears from SciDev.net

Sangeeta Sudha

English translations of Carnatic lyrics

100 most spoken languages in the world

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/

An article on the brain

Take your brain for a walk

Vikram Chandra on Panini

Pāṇini: Catching the Ocean in a Cow’s Hoofprint Long read and worth several reads.

Emmy Noether

A short and comprehensive article on her influence.
Our introduction to modern mathematics was through Van der Waerden’s book ‘Modern Algebra’ which stayed that it was in part based on lectures by Emil Artin and army Noether. Do her name was familiar from the beginning. Here he describes the sources of his boo in which her father’s name is also mentioned. I remember when Emil Artin died in 1962, Fr. Racine probably had no one to share his grief. He came to my room in Loyola College hostel to tell me of the sad news. Now Facebook has changed that I think. We can share our emotion with distant people. On the sources of my book Modern Algebra 

Mistakes in mathematics

I probably did a Stallings. I spent the whole of last night ‘proving’ some thing which bothered me off and on for forty years. When the mind is calmer, mistakes will emerge but not in the current state. As Stallings said in  ‘How not to prove the Poincaré conjecture’ some excitement and blindness takes over: “I was unable to find flaws in my ‘proof’ for quite a while, even though the error is very obvious. It was a psychological problem, a blindness, an excitement, an inhibition of reasoning by an underlying fear of being wrong. Techniques leading to the abandonment of such inhibitions should be cultivated by every honest mathematician.” May be the body needs rest too. In any case I got some training from Stallings writing his Tata Notes which I wrote in 1967 adding many mistakes of mine to his. He describes the genesis of those Noted towards the end here in Remambering John Stallings
“Early in my career, when I was starting to teach at Princeton, I got to give some seminar talks on my work on PL manifolds, involving the Engulfing Theorem and high-dimensional Poincaré Conjecture. I did not do a good job of this; there were many details, such as general position, which I did not really know how to do; the typical proof was just by hand-waving. I do recall “great” topologists in the audience, such as Milnor. And I think I called it off eventually, finally getting the proofs of some details in my Tata notes of 1967 or so.”

A bit about Indian educational system

Gautam Menon from three years ago. For some reason I could not share the post. So, I copied and pasted. I saw while I was wondering why many in India including strong leftists who recommend Naxalism for others try to send their children and grand children abroad at considerable expense. This may explain part of the background. Here is the old post:

Some of you may remember my difficulties with the 'summer student' I wrote about a few weeks ago. The one who couldn't plot a graph, not even of y = x. I wish I could report that the situation had miraculously improved. Alas, after almost daily meetings in which we've tried to make some progress on these matters as well as marginally more advanced material, I continue to be mystified as to how she could have qualified for *any* degree in physics in the first place.

The situation is coming to a head now that her term here is drawing to an end and she must write a project report for her university. Apparently, the rule is that the report must be not less than 40 pages in length!  It doesn't matter what is in the report, really, provided it is of the appropriate length.

I honestly don't see what I could have done differently. If we were not going over really elementary material that she should have know from school, even, I might have ensured that she did something that might have qualified to be put into a report. Right now, the report can only be an undigested mishmash of copied material from a few chapters of a book that I suggested she read. I am sure that she will achieve a high grade for doing precisely that, just as I'm sure my signature will be required at some place in the report, to sign off on the statement that she did something while she was here.

I'm deeply embarrassed by this charade but, as I said, I don't see anything that I could have done differently. Should I refuse to sign the report? But what good would that do? If the whole system is so messed up that it puts out students who go through bachelors and masters degrees in science without gaining the slightest idea of what science is, gives them high marks and ranks in university exams, even gives them a completely inflated estimate of their own abilities, it seems unfair to penalize a particular student for what is a far more deep-rooted and systemic problem. Perhaps I could write to the head of the department who replied to me following my specific question in this regard, that this was a good student, interested in pursuing research and that she was being specifically recommended? Would I be able to get my point across? What good would it do?  Should I at least suggest that asking a student to prepare a 40-page report for a 6 week project is a silly thing to do, that even a 5 or 10 page report on something new that was learnt would be sufficient, if sincerely done?

(At least the student has learnt to plot simple functions which, all said and done, is a tentative first step towards something, although I'm not sure what.)

You are all welcome to weigh in - any advice is welcome.

Peter Scott is visiting

I have been busy completing some mathematics work with Peter Scott who is in Melbourne for  a month. One paper which was first out in 2007 is nearing completion now with new material added during the last year. It is about 125 pages long on JSJ decomposition of Poincaré Duality pairs and deals with many loose ends that have bothered us. The second with the same theme ( Lawrence Reeves is also involved) is shorter and compares various such decomposition. These complete some of our long standing concerns. Then there is one more long paper which is essentially complete and has to be tidied up. These may not interest others but it is a satisfactory conclusion of problems that engaged us for a long time.

Seeing rain for the first time

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/01/16/aussie-toddlers-overwhelmed-by-seeing-rain-for-the-first-time/#.XiOrcC_ZWf0
'She was in shock': Mum captures daughter's excitement at seeing rain for the first time 

Possibility of contagious diseases through microbiome

Cancer And Heart Disease Could Be Contagious Through Our Microbiomes, Scientists Argue

From a book on Buddha

‘The Buddha was a very wise man, but a man’ 

Vivekananda on inclusiveness

I read a lot on nonsense by Vivekananda. But this indicates different things. And then there is his enduring legacy Ramakrishna Mission which has monks of various religions. One of the monks is an old friend Mahan Maharaj. He liked this.
‘Our watchword will be acceptance and inclusion’: Nine memos from Vivekananda to Hindutva warriors 

A poem by Alisetty Prabhakara about his wife

‘‘కలగా పులగంగా కలసిపోయిన రోజుల్లో

ఇంచుమించు ఒకే కంచంలో

ఇంద్రధనస్సుల్ని తుంచుకుని తిన్న రోజుల్లో

మా గుండెల్లో సమస్యలు మండని రోజుల్లో

సిగరెట్‌ పీకలాంటి నన్ను

సిగలో తరుముకొని

గాజు కుప్పెల్లాంటి నా కళ్ళలోనే

ఆశల అగరొత్తులు వెలిగించుకుందే తప్ప

తులతూగే ఐశ్వర్యమో

తులం బంగారమో కావాలని

ఏనాడూ ప్రాధేయ పడలేదు''
More about him here https://te.wikipedia.org/wiki/అలిశెట్టి_ప్రభాకర్

A recent comment by Pramathanath Sastry

Pramathanath Sastry comments in a post of Balasubramanian Anantharaman on his Facebook wall.

The premise that the design of the constitution is such that terrible things were inevitable. Constitutions are always imperfect documents. And it is applied on the ground via interpretations. I don’t even know where to begin regarding your statement. Suggests because we are not a confederation it is all unnatural and hence this pox upon us. (Wake up and smell the coffee; every codification, every constitution, is in the end unnatural.) That certain high culture stuff like Bheeshma in Yudha Parva not being in the document or Ain-e-akbari not being in the document is the reason for the horrors visited upon us. Cynical me knows that the US constitution was interpreted in very different ways at different times without any amendments to the constitution. And that no document can cover the edges of the self perception of a nation (Manipur). In the end it is us who are the problem. Our bigotry. The churning. The centripetal forces towards the centre and the centrifugal forces (Kashmir, Manipur), no document could have taken care of them. Good people could have. A generous liberal people could have. Those are independent of the various constitutions which are possible from a broadly liberal menu. Sedition is not in the constitution. Article 372 which says that any existing law in the IPC would continue to be in force until modified, is why sedition is in the law books. The IPC could have easily been modified without amending the constitution. I am not defending the constitution. I just find this belief that it, not society, is the root cause just a bunch of nonsense. It could have been interpreted a million ways. But judges, ministers, policeman, are from our society and that whole thingamajig has a certain direction today. It is us. Rather than seeing a mismatch between the society and the constitution, I see actually a movement towards a match with the views of the dominant, something all judicial and political systems manage. The brief liberal court of the US (30 years at best in 245 years) was an anomaly.

An old article by Khushwant Singh

Came across this superb piece says Dipankar Khasnabish:

On Feb 15, 1970 Khushwant Singh wrote under the headline
'Why I am an Indian'.

I did not have any choice; I was born one. If the good Lord had consulted me on the subject I might have chosen a country more affluent, less crowded, less censorious in matters of food and drink, unconcerned with personal equations and free of religious bigotry.

Am I proud of being an India? I can't really answer this one. I can scarcely take credit for the achievements of my forefathers. And I have little reason to be proud of what we are doing today. On balance, I would say, 'No, I am not proud of being an Indian.'

'Why don't you get out and settle in some other country?' Once again, I have very little choice. All the countries I might like to live in have restricted quotas for emigrants; most of them are white and have prejudice against coloured people. In any case I feel more relaxed and at home in India. I dislike many things in my country--mostly the government. I know the government is never the same as the country, but it never stops trying to appear in that garb. This is where I belong, and this is where I intend to live and die. Of course, I like going abroad. Living is easier, wine and food are better, women are more forthcoming--it's more fun. However, I soon get tired of all those things and want to get back to my dung-heap and be among my loud-mouthed, sweaty, smelly countrymen. I am like my kinsmen in Africa and England and elsewhere. My head tells me it's better to live abroad, my belly tells me it is more fulfilling to be in 'phoren' but my heart tells me 'get back to Ind'. Each time I return home and drive through the stench of bare-bottomed defecators that line the road from Santa Crux airport to the city I ask myself:

"'Breathes there a man with soul so dead
who never to himself hath said
this is my own land, my native land?"

I can scarcely breathe, but I yell, 'Yeah, this is my native land. I don't like it, but I love it!'

Are you an Indian first and a Punjabi or Sikh second? Or is it the other round? I don't like the way those questions are framed. I am all three at the same time. If I was denied my Punjabiness or my community tradition, I would refuse to call myself Indian. I am Indian, Punjabi and Sikh. And even so I have a patriotic kinship one who says I am 'Indian, Hindu and Haryanvi' or 'I am Indian, Moplah Muslim and Malayali' or 'I am Indian, Christian and Assamese'. I want to retain my religious and linguistic identity without in any way making them exclusive.

I am convinced that in our guaranteed diversity is our strength as a nation. As soon as you try to obliterate regional languages in favour of one 'national' language or religion, in the name of some one Indian credo, you will destroy the unity of the country. Twice was our Indianness challenged: in 1962 by the Chinese; in 1965 by the Pakistanis. Then, despite our many differences of language, religion and faith, we rose as one to defend our country. In the ultimate analysis, it is the consciousness of the frontiers that makes a nation. We have proved that we are one nation.

What then this talk about Indianising people who are already Indian? And has anyone any right to arrogate to himself the right to decide who is and who is not a good Indian?

(Khushwant Singh's Editor's Page, Edited by Rahul Singh, IBH)

Night rider

Night rider: 21 years sleeping on a London bus

More on anti-CAA protests

Anti-CAA protests: A reiteration of people power over political muscle by Ankur Bhardwaj
Some earlier articles from the middleDecember 2019:
Scars of CAB protests will further burn bridges between northeast and rest of India Suhas Palshikar
The morning after CAB: It will be a mistake to rely just on Supreme Court by Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Arjun Appadurai on the current situation in India

Three Observations From India's Past to Contextualise the Present Struggle Seems to be a perceptive article but I am not sure whether he gets the whole picture and whether it is a guide to what is coming. To me an earlier article What Women from a Slum Near AMU Can Teach CAA-NRC Protesters  is more perceptive.
Check also Mukul Kesavan article posted earlier An evil hour. A quote “ According to him [Suhas
Alshikar] the problem with liberals is that they expected abstract ideas to win political victories whereas the truth was that in real life “[d]emocratic struggles for high principles do not happen in a vacuum.” The only way that liberals can prevail against the BJP’s clear-headed majoritarianism is if their “... principles [were] married  to lived realities and actual group anxieties.”“

Top risks of 2020

Eurasiagroup’s top risks of 2020 with Modification at 5

Georgi Abratov’s prescient warning

“ In 1987, Georgi Arbatov, a senior adviser to the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, had warned: “We are going to do a terrible thing to you – we are going to deprive you of an enemy.”” from Freedom without constraints: how the US squandered its cold war victory by Andrew Bacevich.

Photo essay on women left behind

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/world/africa/migrants-women-work.html
Left Behind by Migrant Husbands, Women Break the Rules and Go to Work 

Reconciling capitalism and socialism

Sort of political economy in a single lesson by Seth Ackerman The Red and Black “ What is needed is a structure that allows autonomous firms to produce and trade goods for the market, aiming to generate a surplus of output over input — while keeping those firms public and preventing their surplus from being appropriated by a narrow class of capitalists. Under this type of system, workers can assume any degree of control they like over the management of their firms, and any “profits” can be socialized— that is, they can truly function as a signal, rather than as a motive force. But the precondition of such a system is the socialization of the means of production — structured in a way that preserves the existence of a capital market. How can all this be done?
......
The lesson here is that the transformation to a different system does not have to be catastrophic. Of course, the situation I’m describing would be a revolutionary one — but it wouldn’t have to involve the total collapse of the old society and the Promethean conjuring of something entirely unrecognizable in its place.“
Can this sort of thing be accomplished without bureaucracy by some sort of block chain mechanism?
The Light on the Hill: A Reply to Seth Ackerman by John Quiggin. Some more can be found google search.

An overview of Saudi-Iran conflict

In four parts A Tale of Oil and Fire: The Saudi-Iran Conflict from Brown Pundits.

Perepa Joshi remembering his father.

Prepa Puran Chandra Joshi was a classmate and friend since 1964. I found these videos uploaded by his son in a meeting remembering Perela Mrityanjayudu.

https://youtu.be/01h9EgyfofE

https://youtu.be/IAxXvCvHUIQ

A report about the current protests in India about CAA

More from the grass roots level What Women from a Slum Near AMU Can Teach CAA-NRC Protesters. It seems different from the posts by academics. Possibly this kind of development has better chances of surviving and thriving.

The death of Osama Bin Laden

It an old story but I missed it The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Seymour M. Hersh

Bushfires in Australia

Why firefighters are so worried about the inferno to come Mostly about Victoria.

From NSW Amid the ruins of the NSW bushfires, this pharmacist is keeping his doors open

From Victoria Thanks dhal: Sikh group to the rescue with hundreds of free curries
And from somewhere https://i.redd.it/85wma5kdmj841.jpg

An opinion piece on Suleimani assassination

The Suleimani assassination goes against Trump’s policy – but not his character “ That he will get away with this, despite all the bien pensantwails and warnings, just as he got away with the Jerusalem embassy move. That while an expert such as Sanam Vakil of Chatham House might say that “this time the gloves will be off”, and that Iran will no longer hide behind the plausible deniability offered by proxies but will “strike back and strike back directly”, there is nothing to fear because Tehran will be smart enough to know its own limits, restrained by the certainty that the US could answer any attempt at retaliation with devastating force.”

Finland ends homelessness

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need

Tyler Cowen with Abhijit Banerjee

My conversation with Abhijit Banerjee. A little part:
“COWEN: How well do you think economists understand economic growth more generally?

BANERJEE: I think they don’t understand it. This is the point we make in the book. I think we understand some very basic insights, one being the one that my colleague, Bob Solow, made very clear, which is that growth has a tendency to run out, that once you used up your best talent and your best capital and your best locations, there’s going to be less and less so. And I think that’s probably the only thing which has been pretty consistently borne out: that fast growth slows down. China’s slowing now.

And there’s nothing tragic about it. It’s a normal way of things. I think that the question is more — the thing that we don’t understand is what makes that happen sooner or later, more or less, et cetera. Brazil grew for 20 years, extremely fast, between 1960 and 1980, and then essentially stopped for 20 years. Why do those kinds of things happen? That we don’t understand. I think we’re lousy at predicting growth in general.”

Tyler Cowen on Modi

Tyler Cowen in a recent post What to think of Modi these days:
 “Nonetheless I find most of the extant commentary on Modi fairly misleading and/or naive.

As this outsider sees it, India’s secular democracy was never liberal.  It had certain de facto liberal elements, but largely out of low levels of state capacity, necessitating a kind of tolerance but of course also leading to a very sub-par infrastructure.  Furthermore, it has been commonly described by political scientists as a “democracy without accountability.”  National voting has so much to do with religion, caste, and other particularistic principles that Indian democracy never enforced superior practical performance as it should have.”

“Low dishonest decade”

https://poets.org/poem/september-1-1939

Changers

Meet the Intellectual Founder of Brazil’s Far Right An interview with Olavo de Carvalho. There seem to be similar figures in India starting with ‘Veer ‘ Savarkar.

Ramachandra Guha on bilingualism in India

One of the best articles in my opinion of the current problems in India is one by Mukul Kesavan called ‘An evil hour’, posted earlier. Trying to find more about him, I saw this article by Ramachandra Guha from 2010. It starts with Mukul Kesavan but is about bilingualism in India. Things have changed a bit since then with some states turning to English education. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BILINGUAL INTELLECTUAL 

An opinion piece on Hindutva

A Hindu critique of Hinditva “Yet, a careful look at India’s culture and society would indicate that religion is all-pervasive: it can be seen in beliefs, rituals as well as in the dangerous stereotypes we nurture about others. Hence, the mere act of debunking religion will not help.”

Two popular US ambassadors to India,

John Kenneth Galbraith reviews a book of Chester Bowles Promises to keep . Chester Bowles book Promises to keep : My earns in public life 1941-1969

An encouraging post on Facebook

Saw this on Facebook from a young man in India. Reminded me of my younger days. I did not have a job but a huge dowry offer because the girl was tall.
“5:00 PM: If you are not interested in this project you can leave! (Boss)

5:03 PM: Hands out resignation. 🙂🙂🙂

I have come this far, on basis of my skill. I never got in to comfort zone. And most importantly money never mattered to me as long as I am learning something new.

I would be happy making 10000Rs a month provided I will have the opportunity to learn something new on regular basis.

Now I am getting paid some 3,00,000 inr a month and I had to sacrifice something I love, my Passion. So I said to myself well screw it I am out of here.

An Impulsive decision

So now after coming home, while celebrating my bravery with a Pizza. I realised what I have done is totally right! Quitting a well paying Job, going back to make peanuts might sound like a bad idea. But money isn’t everything. Money is just something I need to survive I calculated everything and came up with 60,000 inr a month If I have to move back.

But at this very moment I am the happiest person in this world, Its like shawshank Redemption. Getting out of prison through a tunnel full of shit and tunnelling through shit is absolutely worth It.”

Don’t be a Sucker

The full video https://youtu.be/sAu41SpYtl4
An article on the video incorporating some later research:
This 1943 anti-Nazi film keeps going viral. It may be less effective than it seems.

Distrust of elites

i have been accused of this. It seems to becoming common in large parts of the world. Elites seem to have benefited from globalisation and in spite of sprouting eqality and fraternity, they seem to look after their own interests. An article Mukul Kesavan on the ongoing citizenship controversy in India An evil hour mentions some of it: “...the problem with liberals is that they expected abstract ideas to win political victories whereas the truth was that in real life “[d]emocratic struggles for high principles do not happen in a vacuum.” The only way that liberals can prevail against the BJP’s clear-headed majoritarianism is if their “... principles [were] married to lived realities and actual group anxieties.””
Another piece How liberalism became ‘the god that failed’ in eastern Europe by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes from their book The light that failed.

Three mafias

Meaning and Mayhem from NYReview of books.”’Ndrangheta rites also invoke ancient nature-related symbols, such as the moon and stars, as well as national heroes, such as patriots or generals who helped Italy achieve independence and whom the members consider their precursors: “In the name of Garibaldi, Mazzini, and La Marmora, with words of humility I create the Holy Society.” The ’Ndrangheta has appropriated religious rituals, mythological symbols, patriots, and even saints, much as it has taken possession of certain words, completely changing their meaning—honor, family, mamma—and in so doing has created around itself an aura of mystery and wonder that makes it attractive in the eyes of new initiates, especially the youngest. Symbols and codes serve to create a sense of belonging and to hand down an identity so powerful that its members are even willing to die for ”

Selling Keynesianism

Selling Keynesianism Very readable but it may be ignoring the limits of growth.

On the Brahmin left

The ‘Brahmin left’ vs the ‘Merchant right’: A comment on Thomas Piketty’s new book Seems to make sense. We have seen the shift to aBJP in India and the left occupying plum jobs in India and abroad and preaching rebellion in India.

Symbols

Meaning and mayhem from NYReview of books on Mafia organisations.”The ’Ndrangheta has appropriated religious rituals, mythological symbols, patriots, and even saints, much as it has taken possession of certain words, completely changing their meaning—honor, family, mamma—and in so doing has created around itself an aura of mystery and wonder that makes it attractive in the eyes of new initiates, especially the youngest. Symbols and codes serve to create a sense of belonging and to hand down an identity so powerful that its members are even willing to die for the organization.”

Shailendra

A recent article Shailendra — the Leftist poet and Dalit genius whose lyrics define beauty of simplicity despite what the article says, it was known that he was a Dalit. “Babu Jagjivan Ram, on his birthday, on August 30, 1966, said he was the most popular ‘Harijan’ poet of India after Sant Ravi Das.” From https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/entertainment/shailendra-poet-of-the-masses-not-given-his-due-in-hindi-literature

Another quote from Bronkhorst book on Brahmins

“Brahmins, in their self-understanding, owed their special status to the fact that they knew and preserved the Veda, which includes numerous mantras that are supposed to be effective if correctly pronounced in the right circumstances. Their particular concern with the correct pronunciation of those mantras is responsible for their interest in phonetics, and for the composition of treatises dealing with this topic, either in general or focused on specific Vedic texts. The effectiveness of those mantras, furthermore, showed that these mantras, and the language of these mantras, had a close affinity with reality. Sanskrit and reality were, in their opinion, closely connected, and this is a theme that comes up again and again in Brahmanical thought.
This fundamental conviction found expression in a single encompassing vision, in which both the Sanskrit language and the Veda had their place. In this vision, Sanskrit was eternal, i.e., without beginning in time; other lan- guages were at best corruptions of the only language that really existed, viz. Sanskrit. The Veda, too, was without beginning in time, and therefore without author. It needed no author, because the Veda was the pure expression of the Sanskrit language.Studying Sanskrit and studying the Veda were therefore two sides of the same coin. This issue will be taken up in the present section.” 
And more from Bronkhorst “An innovation introduced by the new Brahmanism is the belief that the Sanskrit language—i.e., its words and sounds—are eternal, and therefore without beginning and end. Patañjali the grammarian did so, but he was not the first. Already Kātyāyana held that belief, as is clear from vārttikas such as P. 1.1.56 vt. 12: anupapannaṃ sthānyādeśatvaṃ nityatvāt. There is, on the other hand, no indication that Pāṇini had accepted it. Nor had Yāska, who uses the word nitya a few times in his Nirukta, but never in the sense ‘eternal’.216 Assuming, for simplicity’s sake, that all Brahmins adopted this new conviction of the eternality of words more or less simultaneously, and considering that Yāska is almost certainly more recent than Pāṇini,this would have happened at some time between Yāska and Kātyāyana.”

From Anis Kidwai to Johannes Bronkhorst

The quote earlier from Kidwai and a comment on Facebook led me to the book  How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas by Johannes Bronkhorst
Here are some preliminary comments from the book, as sort of unintended consequences of introspection.  “As a matter of fact, much if not most of Brahmanical literature from this period [Alexander to Guptas] is directed at Brahmins and deals with exclusively Brahmanical concerns. It appears, indeed, that Brahmins of that time made major efforts to create a separate identity for themselves, an identity they could maintain in circumstances where they could not count on a tradition of respect....These ideas about society can be looked upon as natural extensions of the ideas Brahmins had developed about themselves: Brahmanical standards of purity became applicable in society at large; Brahmanical ritual practices came to accompany the lives of many non-Brahmins; Brahmanical ideas of the Brahmins’ posi- tion in society were extended so as to provide a template for society at large; Brahmanical claims to royal protection turned into manuals of statecraft; etc.
...Brahmanism, then, should be thought of as a homogeneous vision of Brahmins and their position in the world, and primarily the result of the self- centered preoccupation of Brahmins during a difficult period in which their traditional position in the world was under threat. This self-centered preoccu- pation became the basis of features that in due time transformed an important part of the world. But those successful features cannot be understood without an understanding of the self-centered preoccupation from which they arose. This means that Brahmanism has to be looked upon as a whole that cannot be grasped by cherrypicking and excluding aspects of our choosing.”
In my reading, I am also keeping in mind Emmanuel Todd’s work on family systems and The Language of the Gods in the World of Men Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India by Sheldon Pollock

Another quote from ‘In Freedom’s Shade’ by Anis Kidwai

“Chaudhary Ridaulvi gloated: ‘It’s all there in an article I wrote—the brahmin has always been dominant in India. Buddhism prospered but Brahminism ensured its ultimate obliteration. Islam shone only briefly, soon losing its identity to be coloured in the same hues as Brahminism. Christianity too bowed before Brahminism in the shape of the Theosophical Society, which acknowledges brahmin supremacy. Brahminism is hegemonic by nature. However much Gandhi may struggle, and all of you rant and rave, India will never be free of the Brahminical order.’”
A book with a similar theme https://www.amazon.com/How-Brahmins-Won-Alexander-Handbook/dp/9004315195 byJohannes Bronkhorst

Conservatism and Boris Johnson

“I wonder whether Boris Johnson and his squalid associates are Conservatives at all. The Conservativism I understand is about public duty, generosity, the instinct to conserve what is good in our society; the importance of the rule of law and of institutions; suspicion of leaps in the dark. I am thinking of the Conservatism of Burke, Lord Salisbury, Oakeshott.“ from Boris Johnson wants to destroy the Britain I love. I cannot vote Conservative by Peter Osborne.

Centre to state funding in India

The general scheme is described here How do states get revenue from centre? But often there are arguments about unfair allotments. Even when the money is delivered, there seem to be delays in the distribution and sometimes the money is blocked: Andhra Pradesh Funds Blocked Over Not Filing Necessary Paperwork: Report “Non-submission of UCs could be mainly because of two reasons. Either the central funds were not fully utilised in time or used for other purposes. Given the severe financial crunch faced by the state, 'adjustment' of funds is not uncommon," a senior official in the finance department said.
The above mentioned adjustment seems to be that the state diverted these funds to one location (during Naidu’s time on the advice of his son Lokesh) from which they release in manner that they consider appropriate. The current state government has not changed the procedure yet. This means that the recipients have to go through two bureaucratic agencies with delays and possible bribes at both places. With the change of government at the state level, the centre seems to be releasing more funds https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/with-jagan-at-helm-centre-extends-over-rs-4-000-crore-to-andhra-pradesh/story-gt0rRG60LNxDyknR9ZAkXJ.html
From a case that I followed, a women’s welfare Organization has not received funds for two and half years. Funds were blocked in April this year since they were not spent in time. By the time they were released, Lokesh came up with the above scheme and now they have to be released again from a central bureaucracy in the state. And the funds may be frozen again if they are not spent by next March. Meanwhile the Organization borrows at the rate of 2-3 percent for month.
Why do the welfare organisations still do such work? My guess is that some of them do out of genuine concern for others. Some skimp on expenses and try to make profits.

Arjun Appadurai on current India

A Syndrome of Aspirational Hatred Is Pervading India

Anis Kidwai from partition days

is translated. I just acquired a copy. An excerpt here Did Sardar Patel order the eviction of Muslims from Delhi villages? it seems that he did. A quote:
“Kidwai, along with two activists, visited ziledar Trikha Ram who said he had no animus against Jaitpur’s Muslims as they belonged to his caste and gotra (clan). Kidwai records Ram telling her: “When the government announced that no Muslim was to live in India, we told our Muslim brothers, ‘Now that it has been decided that only Hindus can live in India, why don’t you all become Hindus, so we don’t lose each other.’” Unwilling to convert, Jaitpur’s Muslims trooped out to Humayun’s Tomb after being given a teary farewell on the village outskirts.

When told the government had not made any announcement that India was for Hindus alone, Ram said he was willing to get them back. However, Ehsan turned down the offer. Kidwai notes, “Whether deriving from mistaken beliefs or a lack of trust or the possibility of a forced conversion, he (Ehsan) refused to return.””

Habib’s presidential address at Indian historical congress 1947

The present and the past, our approach to history recalled recently by Ramachandra Guha History against sectarianism

Dalit women

The Spectre Haunting Hindutva: An Assertive Dalit Woman

Schools and children

BIOLOGYEDUCATION Mismatch Between Our Biologically Evolved Educative Instincts and Culturally Evolved Schools

Not all mosquitoes are bad

The secret world of mosquitoes reveals their larger role in our environment

“Mosquitoes have many functions in the ecosystem that are overlooked. Indiscriminate mass elimination of mosquitoes would impact everything from pollination to biomass transfer to food webs.

There are about 3,500 mosquito species, many of which want nothing to do with biting humans or any other animal. Even in species that bite, it is only the females that do so and just to develop their eggs.“

Mobility in America

The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom

One of the greatest goals

https://youtu.be/o8wGN5uDaVg I used watch his games on TV during 1968-69. Genius.
Compare the more recent greats https://youtu.be/TmcezBlz2KM

Mother tongue

As a child, Lily Iervasi remembers her grandmother speaking Motu, one of more than 800 distinct indigenous languages that make up Papua New Guinea’s rich linguistic tapestry (possibly a promotional article from ANU) “Lily’s grandmother hailed from Hanuabada, a small town outside Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. She met Lily’s white Australian grandfather there post-WW2, and they married, eventually returning to Australia to raise their family. They agreed that their children would only speak English; assimilation was the cultural fashion at the time, Lily says. “They wanted their children to fit in.”

Her grandmother learned to assimilate too. A quick learner, she picked up English from her children and wide social network.

A few years ago, she was diagnosed with dementia. As the end neared, she started losing her adopted language. English words and phrases slipped through the cracks of memory. Eventually, all she was left with was her original tongue, Motu.”

Mukul Kesvan writes about his father’s death (posted before)in Do anglophones paddle in the shallows? “But the middle-of-the-night question—what language do you scream in when you’re tumbled from your bed at 2am by an earthquake—remains. In the last week of my father’s life, his mind abandoned his hospital bed present, and ranged back to his childhood. He called to his mother, who had died when he was a boy, and spoke to his grandfather, who had raised him. For all the languages he had learnt over a very long life, and despite his own acknowledgment of the primacy of English, he died in Tamil.”

Rapes in different contexts

Hawke urged daughter to keep rape allegations secret: report

Father Killed In Jail & Aunt Dead In Mishap, Is Unnao Rape Victim Paying Price For Accusing BJP MLA?

Problems with growth

Forget 'developing' poor countries, it's time to 'de-develop' rich countries 

Fascinating discussion on Brexit and other things

https://youtu.be/xdtssXITXuE

Removing paan stains

Mumbai Girls’ Brilliant Way to Remove Paan Stains Could Save Railways Crores Every Year

Speaking to The Better India, Nishtha said, “For the competition, we had genetically modified a microorganism, bacteria to be precise so that it produces specific enzymes which could degrade or remove the pan stains. But as the release of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in the environment is not safe and has various government regulations and keeping in mind the suggestions given from industries we decided to move it to an ‘enzyme based application system’ which will remove these stains in an effective way.”

One Brexit fear

One of Brits' Biggest Brexit Fears Is That They'll Have to—Oof—Eat American Food I would go further. Keynes in 1933 Via Gautam Menon. As Keynes said in 1933:
“Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and, above all, let finance be primarily national.
For these strong reasons, therefore, I am inclined to the belief that a greater measure of national self-sufficiency and economic isolation among countries may tend to serve the cause of peace, rather than otherwise." I would go further and go for local self sufficiency even with in countries as much as possible. That may one way to counteract the tyranny of the state including one’s own.

From the review of a book on pandemics

How pandemics shape social evolution “As Snowden discusses, by restricting the land available to people of colour, apartheid accelerated the growth of a migrant labour system that divided black families. It also encouraged new forms of social and sexual behaviour. Both developments, in turn, hastened the spread of AIDS once it arrived. Young men growing up away from their families, for instance, often developed standards of masculinity that promoted sexual conquest and violence; South Africa now has one of the highest rates of rape in the world (K. Naidoo S. Afr. Med. J. 103, 210–211; 2013). ” This seems to have parallels in some Indian sexual violence cases.

On violence against women

Some links via Pramathanath Sastry.
Are men more violent than women?
Socialization Isn’t Responsible for Greater Male Violence
Some links about societies where women have more say:
International Women's Day: What are matriarchies, and where are they now?
What does a society run by women look like?
These links were found in the discussions about the rape, murder and burning of Priyanka Reddy near Hyderabad. Depressingly similar to Nirbhaya case.