The Straight Dope: why is prostitution called the oldest profession?

Worlds’s oldest profession is a little over 100 years old.

Prostitution - A Smart Career Choice | Source - Internet; Category - T-Shirt Humour - Funny Prostitution

for the details I turned to Barry Popik, chairman of the Straight Dope philology department. He responded with a new post to his word-origins blog, at barrypopik.com. Based on this we construct the following account:

1. The originator of the notion of prostitution as the oldest profession was Rudyard Kipling. His 1888 short story “On the City Wall” begins: “Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world. … In the West, people say rude things of Lalun’s profession, and write lectures about it and distribute the lectures to young persons in order that Morality may be preserved.” Lalun is, of course, a hooker.

2. Kipling, as is the wont of authors, wasn’t offering a learned insight into the labor markets of antiquity but rather making a quip.

3. It was, however, a quip with legs. Previously the oldest profession was generally considered to be farming. For example, Popik notes, in 1883 the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald proclaimed, “In fact agriculture is the first and best as well as the oldest profession.” (via The Straight Dope: Is excess American body fat a potential energy resource? Plus: why is prostitution called the oldest profession?).

Going USA

Kipling’s biggest successes were his books on India.

Strangely, after Kipling emigrated to the US, he worked hard to completely erase his Indian Connection. He tried his hand at ‘white’ themes like Captains Courageous (1897). But, what became famous were his ‘Indian’ books like Kim and The Light That Failed (1890).

Probably, more a reflection on American society, than on Kipling.

Drop of tar

A few decades after Kipling went to America, came the story of Merle Oberon.

A part-Indian actress in Hollywood, Merle Oberon’s biggest struggle was to overcome the ‘drop of tar’ in her blood. Merle Oberon’s nephew, Micahel Korda, used her story to get a book commission, Queenie, that was also made into a movie. There is more in Michael Korda’s insipid novel, Queenie. Her great niece, Shelley Conn, is being cast by Spielberg – whose ET was ‘co-incidentally’ similar to a Satyajit Rai script.).

Wondering

Coming back to the world’s oldest profession. After giving all possible benefit of doubt to Kipling, still, it does not stop me from wondering.

Was Kipling’s ‘Lalun’ character from the world’s oldest profession, based on Kipling’s lack of respect for India.

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India was better off under British rule: Mohan Bhagwat – The Times of India

What can children do, which Mohan Bhagwat cannot do? Why is the head of India’s largest social organization (maybe even the world’s) feeling so helpless?

Anna and RSS | Cartoonist - R Prasad; source-nrisecularvoice.blogspot.com | Clik for larger image.

Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said,

“After Independence, the dominance of rich and powerful people in politics and rising inflation have worsened the country’s situation, which is worse than what it was during the British rule.”

Speaking at a function organized by Bhonsala Military School (BMS) to celebrate its platinum jubilee year in Nashik on Monday, Bhagwat said, “All political parties were in power some or the other time during the last 64 years since Independence, but the situation has not improved. Hence, citizens must introspect over what went wrong.”

Stating the importance of imparting education through the mother tongue, he said, “Today, there is an insistence on education in a foreign language (English), instead of education in the mother tongue. As a result, the importance of the foreign language has increased to a large extent in the country.” (via India was better off under British rule: Mohan Bhagwat – The Times of India).

Why the RSS chief feeling so helpless? What can those children do? | Cartoonist Surendra in The Hindu; image source & courtesy - churumuri.wordpress.com | Click for source image.

Defeatist rhetoric

Just what is the logic of making defeatist statements like this, Shri Bhagwat? Forget children, this cannot be said even to adults.

Unless … one has data.

Has concentration of wealth been increasing? There is some evidence to show an uptick in that trend in the last 20 years – compared to the earlier 20 years. Or to some other countries.

But a comparison of the Indian economy during the colonial period and now in terms of concentration of wealth has not been adequately researched or studied.

Simple test

Even without any econometric data, there is a simple way to test the quality of British administrators. If the British were indeed, such great administrators, why is Britain itself in such bad shape?

I wonder on what basis Bhagwat has planted this idea in the minds of school children at Nashik?

If Shri Bhagwat, the head of India’s largest social organization is feeling so defeated, he should shut down RSS. Why is he not activating his cadres to change this. If RSS can support Anna Hazare’s hare-brained ideas, why are they so lost here?

Is Mohan Bhagwat wanting the return of British rule?

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New Delhi NDM-1 superbug: Indian scientists nail British hoax

The NDM-1 saga plays out as expected. A British farce thinly veiled as science.

How resistant mutations areise | Image source & courtesy - missashleypants.com | Click for image.

In a short period of 80 years, disease causing organisms are developing resistance to most antibiotics | Cartoon source & courtesy - cspinet.org | Click for image.

The story so far

First was the clandestine removal of samples from New Delhi. Second was inadequate data on the origin.

India has hit out at the study, which it said was funded by pharma companies that make antibiotics to treat such cases.

While the Union health ministry issued a statement on Thursday which also takes offence to the naming of the bug after the national capital, the paper’s Chennai-based lead author Karthikeyan Kumarasamy dissociated himself from parts of the report.

“The study was funded by the European Union and two pharmaceutical companies, Wellcome Trust and Wyeth, which produce antibiotics for treatment of such cases. It also needs to be highlighted that several of the authors have declared conflict of interest in the publication,” the health ministry said.

Doctors have criticised the report, saying it appeared to be aimed at hitting at India’s booming medical tourism that was taking away business from the West.

Kumarasamy said he had not written many of the interpretations in the report; they were added later without his permission or knowledge. “I do not agree with the last paragraph which advises people to avoid elective surgeries in India. While I did the scientific work, correspondence author Timothy R Walsh of Cardiff University was assigned to edit the report,” Kumarasamy (said).

Walsh has been quoted in British media as advising people to “think long and hard” before making a decision to undergo treatment in Indian hospitals. Incidentally, the Lancet report comes close on the heels of International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery ranking India among the top five destinations for cosmetic surgery. Walsh was not reachable over the phone.

Kumarasamy said the report pained him. “It was too small a sample to extrapolate. My intention was to find out whether such multi-resistant bacteria existed in India. We see several such strains of multi-drug resistant bacteria across the world,” Kumarasamy added. (via India trashes ‘superbug’ report, says it’s doctored – The Times of India).

How modern 'medicine' works? | Cartoonist - John McPherson; source & courtesy - placeboweb.org | Click for larger image.

Then came reports of the same NDM-1 factor that was present in an Ontario patient who never travelled to Indiaor the Indian sub-continent.

Toleman said the bacteria was named ‘New Delhi-beta-lactamase’ first in an American journal called Antibiotic Agents and Chemotherapy in 2009 and the naming had nothing to do with Lancet.

“In fact our original paper was rejected by Lancet. Furthermore NDM-1 is the correct name and follows the naming of most genes of this type. Others are named SPM-1 for Sao Paulo metallo-b-lactamase, SIM for Seoul imipenemase in Korea, VIM for Veronna imipenemase in Italy, GIM for Germany imipenemase and DIM for Dutch imipenemas,” he said. (via India ‘supressing’ truth about presence of NDM-I, says Lancet – Indian Express).

These British scientists claimed that millions of Indians were infected – and the Indian government was suppressing facts – and Indian scientists.

International health journal Lancet has slammed the government for “suppressing” truth about the presence of a drug-resistant bacteria in Delhi’s public water system by “threatening” and “abusing” its own scientists.

It also dubbed as “unfortunate” the government’s denial of presence of such bacteria.

“Unfortunately the Indian government is in denial and actively suppresses the truth by threatening and abusing their own scientists,” the author said.

Asked about a senior health ministry official’s claim that the researchers transferred samples for the study illegally, Tony Kirby, the magazine’s press officer said, “We broke no Indian laws whatsoever.” (via India ‘supressing’ truth about NDM-I: Lancet – Economic Times).

A subsequent study at the PD Hinduja hospital found that the

drug-resistant superbug NDM-1 is not present in healthy population, rubbishing projections made by British scientists that millions of Indians may already be harbouring NDM-1.

Since its discovery in 2009, NDM-1 cases have been reported from several countries across the world but all of them are from among hospital-acquired infections. The naming of the bug after New Delhi had also become controversial.

The new Indian finding assumes importance in view of fears that bacteria resistant to the most powerful antibiotics are no more restricted to patients in hospitals but may have also spread to healthy people in the community.

The study has been carried out by the same Mumbai group which first reported the presence of NDM-1 among hospital patients in 2010. For six months in 2011, scientists at the PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre looked for the presence of NDM-1 in stool samples of healthy individuals who had enrolled for routine health screening. NDM- 1 was not found in any of the 1,000 samples tested.

Though antibiotic resistance – measured in the form of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs) presence – has gone up compared to 2004, NDM-1 has not spread in general population, the study said.

ESBLs are enzymes that can be produced by bacteria making them resistant to antibiotics.

“Though the absence of NDM-1 is reassuring, it should not detract us from the need to implement strict infection- control measures and antimicrobial stewardship for resistant organisms,” observed Dr Camilla Rodrigues while reporting the findings in the latest issue of the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.After finding the presence of NDM-1 in hospital samples, British scientists had reported the presence of the superbug in water samples collected from drains in Delhi. This led them to conclude the superbug had spread to the environment as well. (via Indian scientists nail New Delhi superbug lie : North News – India Today).

Why am I not surprised?

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Multan’s 2000-year Sun Temple

Multan was home to a 2000 year old Sun Temple, which seems to now live only in some forgotten corner of dusty books. One intrepid soul in Pakistan …

Narasimha Kills Hiranyakshipu | Image source & courtesy - thefridaytimes.com | Click for source image.

I found Pound weaving arcane elements like “sun worshipping” from Vedic mythology into his Cantos. But I didn’t yet know that he had summarised the golden saga of our glorious heritage in a couple of lines. Then I heard his poetic voice reciting this:

A thousand years before T’ang,
gothic arch out of India,
from Multan 700 li,
torchlight, at Multan, offer perfume,
Son of Herakles, Napat son of Waters,
Panch, that is Phoenician, Tyanu

Now earlier readings of Pound’s poetry had informed me that the “Son of Herakles, Napat son of Waters, Panch” were all versions of Assias – a famous ancient Aryan Vedic fire priest. But what was this “torchlight, at Multan”?

A quick look at the extant multi-volume literary reference works only revealed the following: ‘Multan is a place of worship mentioned in Waddell’s Indo-European Seals, which quotes a Buddhist pilgrim on “a temple dedicated to the Sun, very magnificent and profusely decorated,” which is also a ‘house of mercy’.”

I immediately decided to travel to Multan to find whatever it was that had been envisioned by our poet.

But days of wandering in the dusty and sultry town could offer no glimpse of anything close to “a temple dedicated to the Sun, very magnificent and profusely decorated”.

That was when a native student of Multan who was studying in my hometown gave me Ibn-e Haneef’s postal address, and suggested that I write him a letter. (via Welcome to The Friday Times – The holi temple by Sohaib Arshad – Pakistan’s First Independent Weekly Paper:www.thefridaytimes.com).

After nearly 2,000 years, Multan's Sun-Temple goes under - after its destruction in the 1990s | Image source & courtesy - thefridaytimes.com | Click for larger source image.

Each time a door closes, another window opens

For every Hafiz Saeed, there is also a Sohaib Arshad.

A mind with thirst, in a parched land. Searching for answers. In a history, clouded in dirt, grime, dust of hate, greed, war – and peace.

Interesting story. Of the flame and the keeper of the flame.

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Anything on Ancient Observatories?

Is there a common thread between these?

https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/168668078203351040

@KVSarmaJ Modhera, Unao, Konark, Goalpura all have Sun temples; all are close to Tropic of Cancer. Any links on this? How is this important?

— St. PT Barnum (@StPTBarnum) February 12, 2012

https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/168712032315650048

@KVSarmaJ How far is Egypt's Karnak from Tropic of Cancer? Yes … obviously not a coincidence.

— St. PT Barnum (@StPTBarnum) February 12, 2012

@KVSarmaJ Any attached observatory, astronomer …

— St. PT Barnum (@StPTBarnum) February 12, 2012

https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/170048006706573313
https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/170048726621097984
https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/170049829244911616
https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/170051784709124096
https://twitter.com/#!/KVSarmaJ/status/170052557228609536

@KVSarmaJ sez need ToC's position when temples were built StPTBarnum feels the diff. wud be too small @digirak @internet_hindus

— St. PT Barnum (@StPTBarnum) February 16, 2012

In modern Afghanistan-Uzbekistan region, at Ai Khanoum  – meaning ‘Moon Lady’ in Uzbek, was a remarkable archaeological find. This site was handled by King Zahir Shah, and excavated by Daniel Schlumberger, Director of a French archaeological team in Afghanistan. An extensive settlement, was excavated and quite a few gold and silver artefacts were recovered.

Another interesting find were two sundials, calibrated and indexed to the Indian city of Ujjain and to the city of Syene in Egypt .

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EU to use drones for policing farmers

West manages a food surplus after spending close to US$ 100 billion in subsidies to their farmers. Can Western farmers compete with India and Africa without subsidies?

Why will the rich and powerful give up this easy money? | Cartoonist - Nick Anderson; on 2005-02-08; source & courtesy - cartoonistgroup.com | Click for larger source image.

European skies are to become home to new drones. The remote–controlled unmanned aircraft are set to police Europe’s farmlands for possible cheating and law violation. The decision has sparked grave privacy concerns.

­Each year the European Union spends almost half of its budget on its Common Agricultural Policy. Europe’s farms and agricultural lands cost taxpayers billions of euros in subsidies.

Cases of fraudulent subsidy claims are many. But as the cheating gets more inventive, the agricultural inspectors get more technologically advanced.

EU regulators have in the past used satellites to keep an eye on those claiming subsidies. These provided aerial images of farmlands, which were searched for signs of possible subsidy cheating or breaches of environmental rules.

But satellite images proved a failure in unfavorable weather conditions and mountainous terrain. One case was even dropped in court due to insufficient satellite evidence.

In their quest for more reliable instruments, EU inspectors chose unmanned aerial vehicles.

Used mostly for combat missions and surveillance, the drones will now serve agricultural policing aims.

Reports suggest that France and Italy are already trying them out for this purpose. (via EU farm-policing drone plan sparks anger — RT).

Champions of ‘Free Trade’

This brings two issues to the fore.

Why do Western farmers need close to US$100 billion (EU subsidy-US$75 billion & US subsidy-US$25 billion) in subsidy to compete with African and Indian farmers? Remember shortages in Europe after WWII? Is that the future of the West?

Can there be ‘free trade’ with US$100 billion in subsidy?

Leaders of the ‘Free World’

Between Europe and USA, there are more CCTVs, data recording (telephone, internet, conversations, et al) than what any secret or any other type of police ever had. The West has the largest prison population in the history of mankind.

More than 2 million in US alone – and another half a million in EU. More than Russia (0.85 million) and China (15.5) combined.

The one big difference between China and Russia on one hand and the West on the other is paperwork. The West produces enormous paperwork, procedure, laws, lawyers, to convince so many people to keep so many people in prison. Unlike China and Russia – who are not yet so skilled at this kind of show.

Now the ‘Free’ World will spy on its own farmers.

Some freedom, this.

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What does BAFTA celebrate?

Wonder what BAFTA celebrates? Is there a British film industry? http://t.co/fSQzPP7D This is like India 'honoring' NRIs Nobel prizes winners

— St. PT Barnum (@StPTBarnum) February 13, 2012

Probably the difference between non resident British and non-resident Indians!

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Bollywood in Peruvian Andes

How Bollywood’s idiom, deeply rooted in India’s culture, takes root in different parts of the world.

Hot gusher

Like molten lava, flowing in underground channels, bursting in unexpected places, Bollywood fires people’s imaginations in the most unlikely places.

Among the ruins of Machu Pichu, in the remote fastness of the Andes, there is an unlikely love affair blossoming between Hindi films and Spanish-speaking locals. Cuzco, the ancient  capital city of the Incas, today comes alive to the sounds of Bollywood.

People have become Krishna-bhakts– and Indian trinkets are bought at huge prices.

Any Indian is Shahru or Kareena in Cusco or Machu Pichu | Image source and courtesy - backpackingninja.com | Click for source image.

In Andean peaks and valleys

Unlike, usual Bollywood markets, there are no NRIs, or any historical connection between these mountain remotes in Peru and India.

An American academic traveling in the Amazon villages, reports.

visiting a small rural community in a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon, and suddenly heard the strains of a Bollywood film song wafting out into the street from a transistor radio in someone’s home. Villagers assured me they loved these songs! I was in the village working on a project to strengthen community-based environmental conservation initiatives. As an anthropologist born in India but working in Peru for the Field Museum in Chicago, I get a lot of questions from people I meet here. South Americans are just as fascinated with India as many other people around the world. Most of the Peruvians I meet—whether professionals or small rural farmers have encountered India through Bollywood. Movies (accessed through pirated and legitimate DVD markets) are highly popular, as are dance videos and film songs played ubiquitously on radio stations. Indeed, the attraction to Bollywood goes back a long way. Colleagues in their forties and fifties talk of the affectionate memories they have of watching “Haathi Mere Saathi” and other classic films when they were young.

So, even though the South Asian populations in most of South America are small and scattered, aspects of Indian culture permeate the continent. Of course, some readers might roll their eyes at the thought of Indian culture seen through the fractured lens of Bollywood, but my anecdotal and totally non-scientific assessment is that India has a better image here than the United States. (via Bollywood in Peru | NetIP North America Blog).

Cuzco – Under ‘Indian’ rule again?

An Australian, Glen Short, while shooting a short film, Aussies in the Andes, discovered that Bollywood rules. Associated with Bollywood, having done some bit roles, Glen Short was no stranger to Bollywood.

As this story spread, it was no surprise, when it was announced that

Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Guzaarish is expected to open in cinemas in Peru and France.

The romance drama had its India, UK and US theatrical release in November 2010, reports The Times of India.

Amrita Pandey, Senior Vice President of International Distribution and Syndication at UTV Motion Pictures, stated: “Latin America as a new market is a focus for us.

“The Indian population is limited in Peru, which makes it even more significant an achievement to have managed a release for the film there.”

Bollywood actor-turned-director Glen Short recently unveiled the documentaryThe King of Cusco about the popularity of Shah Rukh Khan and Bollywood cinema in the Peruvian city.

The production house is also currently in talks with a European distributor to have the project released in France. (via Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Guzaarish’ to release in Peru, France – Bollywood News – Digital Spy).

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Zanzibar: Where women come to buy sex

Zanzibar: A favorite tourist destination with European women for one reason. Sexual services by eager African men for money.

Fake fancy Maasai, Stonetown, Tanzania | Image source and courtesy - travelpod.com | Click or source image.

Less known

Commercial sex provided by women is well understood and covered by media.

Much less discussed and known is commercial sex bought by women.

Probably the global capital of this industry are the beaches of Zanzibar – an autonomous region of Tanzania.

European women

tourists come here, “have fun” the week or two weeks they’re here by exploiting young men or women eager to earn some money. Perhaps I should be more explicit about the nature of the exploitation tourists bring here. The disturbing fact is that many tourists come here and rent “guides” who are nothing more than sex workers. Most of the sex workers, believe it or not, are young men, who have no good education or job prospect. And it is the women from Europe (mostly) who come here to have fun with these young, hungry men. If pedophile men from Europe and North America go to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam to have sex with children, women from Europe and North America come here to Zanzibar to do the same (although technically consensual) thing. You know that shy woman (perhaps her name is Cheryl) sitting in the next cubical workstation who seems to avoid humanity is not so shy when she takes her vacation in Zanzibar.(via Zanzibar: Paradise in Peril (Take that CNN!) « The East African Philosopher).

sex tourism that I’ve seen in the island is a strange phenomenon of the overall tourism trend in the island. First, most people don’t call it sex tourism because the predominant tourists who engage in the exchange of sex for benefit (whether money, food or other gifts, or a combination) are women. If the majority of the people that were doing this were men then you would have already seen the outrage in the press and government crackdown. Second, since these tourists “rent” beach boys (again, it is very hard for men to get away with this as easily as the women) as a local guide, the sex part isn’t obvious but is an acknowledged fact. Thirdly, the majority of these men are outsiders i.e. from the mainland, being with a beach boy and using a beach boy is not a big deal anymore. It is just something that happens and has that feel of “if it is not my brother, son, uncle, etc doing then it is not my problem” attitude. (via Zanzibar: Paradise in Peril (Take that CNN!) « The East African Philosopher).

A Fake Masai Warrior targets 'weak' European women on Zanzibar's beaches | Image by Lotte Vermeij; courtesy - radionetherlands.nl | Click for source image.

Lovelorn and ‘money-lorn’

Women from West Europe, especially from Italy, Netherlands support Zanzibar’s thriving commercial sex industry.

Young African men, sometimes just children, are the main suppliers of sex. Locally known as mzungu women, it comes from the Swahili word for “white people”, derived from Mzungu kati meaning “wandering around in circles, going nowhere.”

Urban legends?

Masai tribesmen have acquired a reputation with mzungu women for their ‘performance’. Young boys, wishing to snare mzungu women in Zanzibar, cultivate Masai get-ups.

Especially, after story of ‘The White Masai’.

Corinne Hofmann, a Swiss tourist in 1986, then 26 years, dumped her boyfriend, and married Lketinga, a Masai, who danced for tourists. In 1998, her book, ‘The White Masai‘ was published in 1998, and achieved commercial success. Translated into more than 15 languages, ‘The White Masai‘ was made into a film, Die Weisse Massai (The White Massai) in 2004.

Still from the film, The White Masai | Image source& courtesy - powerofculture.nl | Click for source image.

Understandably, ‘usage’ in these cases is a two-way street.

Corrinne Hofmann earned millions from this ‘adventure’. Her Masai husband got some money – from his ‘generous’ wife.

But, if you believe Western media, it is the clever African men, who ‘exploit’ these weak European women.

Business as usual

Travel agencies around Africa, not very discreetly, promote this kind of tourism.

Western media, specifically English, has maintained a stoic silence, mostly – with a patronizing advice sometimes.

As can be expected, drugs are a part of the local scene.

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Half-time in India

A leading publisher drips with admiration for American propaganda – and urges Indians to copy it.

If this is half-time, when is game-over for Amerrica? Strange thought, atleast in ancient India. | Cartoonist Dana Summers in The Orlando Sentinel on Feb 9, 2012 | Click for larger image.

A Clint Eastwood ad that cleverly mixes a corporate pitch with a celebration of American pride has become a rage. It was first shown on TV earlier this week during the Super Bowl. It has garnered over five million hits on YouTube in the last three days.

Eastwood walks down a gloomy tunnel in Dirty Harry style, and speaks of the economic distress in Detroit. “People are out of work and they’re hurting,” he says in that gravelly voice. He ends on a note of hope: “This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again, and when we do, the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah, it’s half-time in America, and our second half is about to begin.”

Pundits in the US are debating whether the ad is a plug for the Obama bailouts of American car companies in 2008. In our winter of corporate bailouts, will viewers of the new IPL season be treated to “It’s half-time in India”? (via Quick Edit | Half-time in India – Home – livemint.com).

Shallow minds

The problem with Indian media. With our choice of English as the language of governance …

With the colonized minds of Indian elites.

Mint, (a joint-venture between Hindustan Times and Wall Street Journal) want IPL to copy SuperBowl. And to limit our aspirations to copying American ads. And once someone makes a ‘copy’ of this ads, the very same edit will turn around castigate our ‘creative’ producers for being copycats.

Anybody at Mint read the stuff that they write …

PS:

I thought Hamara Bajaj did a better job than this – some 20 years ago.

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