Indian Secularism: Is There A Rationale For Defensiveness?

Does Indian society and polity need to defend itself against random barbs of sectarianism? Any quantitative measure would indicate that no grounds exist for such barbs. .

Twitter exchange between – swapan55- and @_sabanaqvi We have agreement … Screen shot on 2014-04-30 03-35-10 | Click on image to go actual tweet message

fter having to give away Pakistan and Bangladesh (now), which was about 20% of the Indian land-mass, India by rights could have decided to be a narrow, sectarian country.

End Games

Even before the Indian Partition, Indians in neighbouring countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, Burma) under British influence were expelled, excluded and made into second class citizens.

These were difficult political compromises made by Indian negotiators – to arrive at the outline of current political India. With a broken economy and no military back-up, negotiations with world’s pre-eminent military and economic power were never easy or straight-forward.

In any negotiations, British Raj usually started with an advantage.

Trading Losses

100-years before Independence, in 1840, Britain had already lost Afghanistan – which was a part of the Sikh Empire last ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and founded by Banda Bahadur.

Soon after Independence, Tibet was lost to China – while US made much noise and gave little support. Keeping Communist China with one foot outside the Soviet camp, to US was more important than Tibet or India.

After ceding Pakistan and losing traction in Burma, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet were major blows to India. These were major raw-materials sources for India and markets for Indian output. These countries were also important buffers from land-based military adventurers.

Polity Trends

After these kind of amputations, the modern India that was put together has a vast numbers of ‘minorities – with no singular elitist class. In Bharattantra, Brahmins and banias were excluded from political affairs and the State was excluded from academic and economic affairs.

In this kind of context, the Congress Party, painted as a ‘Hindu’ party, had to make special efforts to be seen as a national party. Above sectarian politics. After 70-years of seeing treatment in the West and in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh, the long-term fundamentals of Indian society should be plain.

Especially to Indian Muslims.

Worship vs Religion

Since, worship-practices in India have been so varied, to make that as a political point does not come easily to Indian polity or society. Unlike the West, where  secularism came about due to Napoleonic imposition to curtail excesses by the Church.

In Bharattantra, India’s traditional political philosophy, State intrusion into worship-practices or traditions is alien and unacceptable.

However, in most parts of the world, religion is usually a political weapon – controlled by One Book, One God, One Government, One Currency, One Morality, et al.

Hence, for and in India, wariness about making religion into a political issue is ever-present – which must be dealt with the contempt that it deserves.

Can there be any room for debate or discussion on this?

Can we?

Having granted Pakistan, midwifed Bangladesh, historical agreements are clear. Muslims from the Indian sub-continent, who wish to insert Islam into politics are free to do so.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Most Popular Christmas Present: Children Want Brothers, Sisters & A Dad

Across Desert Bloc societies, marriages and families are feature among the rich and powerful. The poor have to manage with one-night stands and casual encounters. The West may soon see single-mother homes in a majority.

Less things – and more ‘feelings’. | Cartoon on Dec 23 2012 by Marian Kamensky; source & courtesy – cagle.com

ollywood films have raised motherhood to a rarefied level – with no other competitive construct in competition.

Father Figure

My own evolving view is that father’s are probably as important – especially for children after 10 years of age. This thought was triggered in my mind many years ago, after a survey revealed that many hard-core criminals come from fatherless families. Presumably, this value of a father or a father figure to any growing child comes in making career decisions, professional choices – instead of getting disinterested, random ideas.

A few days ago, a survey of UK consumers at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City was revealing.

even Santa may struggle to make dreams come true for Britain’s children.

That’s because the nation’s childrens’ Christmas wish-lists contain a number of items not always readily available.

Father Christmas has therefore been put in a tricky position, as according to a survey of children’s wishlists the tenth most asked for present this year was for a dad, while top of the list was for a baby brother or sister.

The survey of 2,000 parents, conducted by Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City also revealed children aged three to 12 were hoping for expensive presents including a car, at number four, and a house, at number seven.But there was a couple of other gifts in the top ten which were more easily provided, including chocolates at number six and, bizarrely, a rock at number nine.

The UK’s mums may be a little upset to hear that while ‘Dad’ came in at number 10, ‘Mum’ only made it in as the 23rd most requested present on their little one’s lists.

via A ‘dad’ is the tenth most popular Christmas present for children, survey reveals | Mail Online.

The importance of this data may get diluted by specifics of UK.

Across Desert Bloc societies, marriages and families are feature among the rich and powerful. The poor have to manage with one-night stands and casual encounters. The West may soon see single-mother homes in a majority.

But, something to think about.

Single-mothers are raising nearly a quarter of America’s children.

Every story is different, but when you examine the figures, actual single parent statistics may surprise you. According to Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007, released by the U.S. Census Bureau in November, 2009, there are approximately 13.7 million single parents in the United States today, and those parents are responsible for raising 21.8 million children (approximately 26% of children under 21 in the U.S. today). (via Single Parent Statistics – Number of Kids With One Parent).

Without families, the few children that are born, will grow up in aging and shrinking societies. These societies will need to import labour – and that is what happened in Greece, Rome, and West for most of the last 500 years.

Labour was imported mostly as slaves – but lately, it is immi-grunts.

Related Articles

• A ‘dad’ is tenth most popular Christmas request… (telegraph.co.uk)
• Need for father tenth most wanted item on Christmas list (gulfnews.com)
• All I want for Christmas is a daddy: UK kids add a ‘father’ on wish list (rt.com)

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Governments get into dating game

Governments across the world are actively involved in our private lives – including whether we should have any, some or many children.

If you or family are burden, pollutants, do us a favor. Go, kill yourself. Cartoon by Steve Breen | Click for image.

Less, more and many

From Moscow to Montreal, Beijing to Berlin, America to Australia, the world is facing a serious population problem.

With the spread of Desert Bloc culture, marriages are becoming less frequent, unstable with shorter spans. Prostitution is booming.

The only people able to face this onslaught without succumbing, are the ‘uneducated’ Indians. They are the only people who rejected Western advice on family size, late marriages.

USA, parts of Europe manage by importing immi-grunts’. From India and Africa, the only regions largely unaffected by the Desert Bloc model.

Africans!! Why have children, at all? If you must, at least have Christian children! Cartoon by Danziger. Source & courtesy - liberty-news.com | Click for image.

Knife-edge

China, Japan are now paying the cost for using the Desert Bloc model on family planning.

The situation is so precarious that in Japan,

Regional governments are now offering programs for single men and women to meet, even helping them hone their relationship-development skills. To learn the nooks and crannies of these publicly sponsored mixers, The Nikkei paid a visit to the Aichi Prefecture city of Tokai, a Nagoya suburb with a population of about 100,000.

In 2010, the city officially pledged to help people find their future spouses. (via Governments get into dating game).

To overcome the inertia of the Indian Government, Western countries are pouring money into Indian NGOs – at the rate of US$2 billion each year.

This is more than the official aid that the whole of Africa gets – or what Egypt or even Pakistan gets.

If you believe in Climate Change, Population Explosion, Family Planning, Birth Control, my advice is ...

If you are believer

A few months ago, Carnegie group a long time supporter of population control dogma, commissioned a study to find evidence of how massacres and wars helped to preserve environment and ecology balance. The heroes of this study were Genghis Khan, Atilla, etc.

To such people I have a simple message.

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Related articles

• Desert Bloc Justice – Innocence Isn’t Enough (2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Church, Religion & Go-Gooders (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Hit me with your best shot (2ndlook.wordpress.com)

Sexual Abuse Of Minors – Netherlands Report

Under the guise of charity, are hundreds of thousands cases of sexual abuse. Is this a result from centuries of sexual repression in the Desert Bloc, instead of individual moral failure, as alleged.

Sexual repression by design in The Desert Bloc | Cartoonist - Mike Peters; source & courtesy - gal.darkervision.com | Click for source image.

Church in crisis

In the last 10 years, the Christian Church – across all factions, Catholic, Protestants and others have massed their evangelical agents for ‘conversions’ in the Indian faith ‘market’.

Interestingly this coincides with a crisis in the Church.

Sexual abuse of minors

A damaging investigation across most countries in the West has dripped horrific incidents and stats of sexual abuse of minors across the West. By the Church – and even ‘secular’ or ‘liberal’ charities. Appointed for investigations in Netherlands,

The commission estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 minors were sexually abused while in the care of Catholic institutions such as orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries, between 1945 and 1981, with offences ranging from the very mild to the serious, including rape.

Most of the cases involved mild to moderate abuse, such as touching, but it said that it estimated there were “several thousand” instances of rape.

It also said that from the end of World War II until 2010, “several tens of thousands of minors were subjected to mild, serious and very serious forms of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the Roman Catholic Church”.

But it said sexual abuse was no more prevalent in Catholic institutions than in similar ones run by other groups.

“Sexual abuse of minors is widespread in Dutch society,” the commission said.

The findings appear to paint a picture of wider abuse in the Netherlands even than in Ireland, in a scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in Europe and the United States and forced Pope Benedict to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by priests.

The investigation was commissioned by the Conference of Bishops and the Dutch Religious Conference in 2010 after cases surfaced involving paedophile priests in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Wim Deetman, a Protestant former education minister and former mayor of The Hague who led the commission.  (via Catholic Church sexually abused tens of thousands children in Netherlands: Commission – The Times of India).

The problem may not be the priests - but the system of sexual repression that the Church fosters. | Cartoon by David Reddick; source & courtesy - aintnogod.com | Click for larger image.

Is charity an excuse

This pattern of charity that is a cover for sexual misbehaviour recently claimed a life.

Peter Roebuck, a cricket player-coach-writer recently jumped to his death from his 6th floor hotel room in South Africa. After receiving a suspended sentence in a British court for not-so deviant behaviour with his South African trainees, he emigrated to Australia.

Similarly, in India too, we have seen these various do-gooders use their ‘charity’ work to gain access to unwilling sexual partners.

Consider

Promoted by the Desert Bloc ‘system’ is

– Sexual repression in the masses

– An impossible marriage mechanism with a crazed alimony system

– Antagonistic and confrontational gender relations

– A flourishing prostitution industry

– A distorted religious system that promotes celibacy

Charity seems like a façade for gaining access to sexual partners in all these cases. The cause may be sexual repression and not dubious charity. Not surprisingly, under Desert Bloc maya, these cases continue to be projected as individual moral failures.

Instead of deviant behaviour, triggered by denial of human sexuality.

By Desert Bloc societies.

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Related articles

• Dutch Catholic sexual abuse revealed in report (guardian.co.uk)
• Thousands of children abused in Dutch churches over 65 years, inquiry says (cnn.com)
• Dutch Catholic ‘abuses’ exposed (bbc.co.uk)
• German charged for sexual abuse of Thai minors (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• German charged for sexual abuse of Thai minors (sfgate.com)
• 1 in 5 Dutch kids abused in Catholic institutions (cbc.ca)
• Thousands Abused in Church Institutions, Dutch Report Says (nytimes.com)
• ‘Tens of thousands’ of children victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of paedophile priests in the Netherlands since 1945 (dailymail.co.uk)

Among The Unbelievers

Tom-tomming truimphalist growth of Christianity in India, coupled with a huge increase in NGO funding from Christian West, a grim picture of a ‘Hindu’ India under siege is being painted.

The Church retains its hold over the masses by inducing guilt. | Cartoon By Rex F. May; Uploaded on February 02, 2011; source & courtesy - toonpool.com | Click for larger source image.

The Church In India

Missionary propaganda in the last few years has painted a picture of truimphalist growth of Christianity in India. Coupled with a huge increase in NGO funding from the Christian West, a grim picture of a ‘Hindu’ India under siege is being painted.

Kill in the Name Of Christ

The bigger problem with Christianity is not the worship of Christ – but murder, war, genocide in the name of Christ.

Or in modern times, murder, war, genocide by the Christian West in the name of progress, democracy, freedom, etc.

The State and the Church

There are studies that point this growth in Christian numbers and funding started at the behest of George W.Bush. Yet there is another reality.

The Devil in Priest's clothing | Cartoon By Constantin Ciosu - Romania; Source & Courtesy - toonpool.com; uploaded on July 06, 2008 | Click for larger source image.

Most of the Christian West has lost faith in the Church – and what the Church gains in India, it loses in the West. The Church also needs to tom-tom its success to keep the cash spigots open. Thus the ‘success’ of the Church leaves a lot open to questions.

Many questions.

And one concern

Since Judaism, Christianity and Islam share common Desert Bloc roots, it is also not surprising that the Evangelical Church also reflects concepts similar to the Darul Islam (Islamic lands), Darul Harb (Non-Islamic Lands at War with Islam), Darul Aman (Lands at Peace with Islam).

It is another matter that the worst wars in Islam were between Darul Islam or Darul Aman kingdoms.

A recent evangelical report extracted below highlights how ‘India’s Christians live among one billion Hindus.’ And why or what is the problem with that?

India’s church has grown and is getting larger. It now comprises over 70 million members, according to Operation World. That makes it the eighth largest Christian population in the world, just behind the Philippines and Nigeria, bigger than Germany and Ethiopia, and twice the size of the United Kingdom. Unlike believers in those countries, however, India’s Christians live among one billion Hindus.

Operation World counts 2,223 unreached people groups in India, over five times as many as there are in China, the next most unreached nation.

Across the vast nation, a visitor hears of unprecedented numbers of people turning to Christ. Operation Mobilization, one of India’s largest missionary groups, has grown to include 3,000 congregations in India, up from 300 in less than a decade.

A hospital-based ministry in north India has seen 8,000 baptisms over the past five years after a decade of only a handful. Operation World‘s detailed statistics show that the Indian church is growing at a rate three times that of India’s Hindu population.

The 2001 Indian census placed Christians at just over 2 percent of India’s population. But currently, Operation World puts the figure near 6 percent and notes that “Christian researchers in India indicate much higher results, even up to 9 percent.”

No one can be certain of such trends in this vast and complicated country. Religion statistics are poor, and enthusiastic reports from mission organizations may reflect only local conditions.

Todd Johnson, director of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity, says he has opted for more conservative estimates than Operation World‘s. The center’s Atlas of Global Christianity estimates 58 million Indian Christians, not 70 million. Most of the difference lies in Operation World‘s “unaffiliated” category. The unaffiliated may be part of independent fellowships, or be “insider” Hindu or Muslim followers of Christ. (via India’s Grassroots Revival | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction).

India’s belief in the benign West, if it is not a tragedy, is definitely a comedy,

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Retail FDI – The Real Dangers

With hands tied behind their backs, Indian retail is being asked to ‘compete’ with Big Retail. Like Subhiksha, Big Retail will fail – unless funded by RBI or US Fed.

Can an Indian bania fight against Ben Bernanke's printing press; churning out paper-dollars 24x7, for US corporations to buy the world. | Cartoonist - Clay Jones. Published 01/26/11 by the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star (fredericksburg.com); source and courtesy - civilwar.org | Click for larger image.

Dominated by banias, small shopkeepers are notorious for cheating customers through adulteration and fiddled weighing scales. They are also notorious for evading sales tax and income tax. That’s why the bania is widely despised (although it is wrong to tarnish all with the same brush).

Yet we have the astonishing spectacle of several political parties and state governments supporting the crorepati bania against foreign retailers, whose alleged crime is that they will lower prices so drastically as to wipe out small shopkeepers. If indeed, foreign retailers will reduce prices dramatically–a highly exaggerated hope-this would be a fabulous blessing for the aam admi, struggling with inflation. So, politicians who oppose foreign retailers are promoting the aam bania against the aam aadmi. This is all phrased in socialist rhetoric, but amounts to backing rich traders against poor consumers. (via Swaminomics : SA Aiyar’s blog-The Times Of India).

Have no data – but will caricature

What data does Swaminathan A. Aiyer (SAA) have when he says ‘small shopkeepers are notorious for cheating customers’?

Swaminathan A. Aiyer (SAA) is actually attempting a simple colonial-socialistic demonization of the Indian entrepreneur. All but forgotten, SAA is trying to revive this propaganda image. The corner banias are usually more ethical than Big Corporations – especially looking at new, post-liberalized companies in media, power, finance, food, electronics, mining, .

Moreover, it is always easier to shift my business from an unethical bania than from the few monopolistic unethical companies in the new-era oligarchy.

Small business has disappeared from the economic landscape of the G20 countries - except India. How can the 'small' guy be allowed to survive? | Cartoonist - Terry Wise; source and courtesy - cartoonstock.com | Click for source image.

Hoax Claims

The other claim that modern retail makes is lower prices for consumers.

But, all major existing retailers in India have not been able to lower prices to the consumers in any manner, whatsoever.

Why assume foreign companies can do it?

Foreign retail has not benefitted the consumer or the farmer in the West.

Why assume that this miracle will happen in India?

One thing that unites both the proponents of foreign investment in multi-brand retailing and their disparate opponents is the conviction that foreign capital will introduce a spectacular degree of efficiency in a largely chaotic sector. It is recognized, and has been recognized since the NDA was first excited by the idea, that bulk buying and a streamlined distribution channel will help lessen the huge ‘farm to fork’ differential. That a transformation of retail into a part of the modern, organized sector will have a multiplier effect is also not seriously disputed. (via Right & Wrong : Swapan Dasgupta’s blog-The Times Of India).

With their hands tied behind their backs, Indian retail is being asked to 'compete' with big retail. Like Subhiksha, Big Retail will fail - unless funded by RBI or US Fed. | Cartoonist - Clay Jones. Published by the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star (fredericksburg.com); source and courtesy - civilwar.org | Click for source image.

Foreign more problematic

Many commentators talk of how Indian business is afraid of competition. And wants protection.

The real story is that US corporations with access to endless dollars from the US Fed can easily kill Indian retailers.

And that is a real fear and a real problem.

Bad Idea

Giant Retail will wipe out 50 million entrepreneurs and convert them to obedient employees.

This basic change from an entrepreneurial India to employee-India is the dream that the Desert Bloc has – and with the help of our Desert Bloc polity, will attempt. The change from entrepreneur-to-employee is something that will help in the creation of Big Business and the Big State.

As it has happened in the West.

Worst Idea

As consumers we may get a few years of lower prices – financed by RBI /US Fed, but finally we will pay the price. We, the Indian farmers and the Indian consumers.

Make no mistake about that.

Who will guard the guards?

India must work on more freedom, less governance model of polity – unlike Desert Bloc systems that need more laws, more powers that limit freedom.

Anna Hazare has an empty agenda. Zero ideology. (Cartoon by Ajit Ninan; source and courtesy - timescontent.com). Click for source image.

Santosh Hegde ran protection money cartel as Karnataka Lokayukta, claims IPS officer

A senior police officer who was part of the Karnataka Lokayukta during Justice N. Santosh Hegde’s tenure has alleged that the watchdog was steeped in corruption.

In an interview to a Kannada daily, IPS officer Madhukar Shetty said: “The officers have formed a cartel to extract protection money from a particular department in return for a free run.” Shetty, who was the SP in the Lokayukta’s police wing during Hegde’s tenure, is now in the US on study leave for two years. (via http://indiatoday.intoday.in | Santosh Hegde ran protection money cartel as Karnataka Lokayukta, claims IPS officer).

Seduced by the glamour of 'progress', media attention, moral 'superiority', the anti-corruption crusade is an empty jihad. (Cartoon by Ajit Ninan; Posted On Friday, April 29, 2011; source and courtesy - mumbaimirror.com). Click for source image.

Even if this is untrue

Even if these accusations are not true, this brings an important question to fore: Is more governance an answer to a corrupt system?  So you put a Lokayukta on top of all the politicians – how do you ensure that he/she is not corrupt? In fact – as the IPS officer alleges, the Lokayutka was running his own “protection money racket.”

Pay me or else I will report you!

What India needs

Both Anuraag’s model of भारत-तंत्र Bharat-tantra or the Indic Triad of Freedom, presented in Operation Red Lotus, view Indic polity that makes freedom not governance as the basis for a political system.  The question of who will guard the guards was answered by devolution of power, not concentration of power.

As long as India continues to embrace Desert Bloc models of top-down hierarchical systems of polity, questions such as “who will guard the guards” remain relevant.

Empty ideas

The proposed लोकपाल or a national Ombudsman will aggregate this power even further!

Will Anna Hazare look within India for answers or continue to be seduced by western models with Indian names?

Will Anna Hazare listen?

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Pakistan – An alienating identity

What has gone wrong? A question that many Pakistanis ask. And a few honest answers filter through.

Three nuclear powers – cheek by jowl.| The Equalizer cartoon by David Horsey; published – May 28, 2002 in Seattlepi.com / SL | Click for image.

Fault Lines

Pakistan may have silently accepted that the premise of Pakistan’s nationhood was wrong.

Apart from a few ‘desperate’ bonzos, Pakistanis feel bad at the plight of their nation. The destructive rhetoric of Us vs Them, symbolic of the Desert Bloc, dries up in the hot sands of genocide, poverty, crime.

Unlike भारत-तंत्र Bharat-tantra.

This extract below, from a Pakistani newspaper, asks some tough questions.

First, we alienated ourselves from Hindu community because we were Muslims, and then we kept on alienating millions of our own (the Eastern wing, followed by the peripheral groups including the Baloch, Seraiki, Sindhi and the religious minorities) in trying to prove that we were Muslims.

An answer that Pakistanis are asking – and one day will get. (Cartoon by Don Wright; source and courtesy – thuklak.wordpress.com). Click for larger image.

How ‘Pakistani’ would the relatives of Habib Jalib,those martyred at Ali Hajweri shrine and the Ahmedi worship places be feeling, or for that matter the IDPs from Swat, the separatists from Balochistan, and the millions of peasants and wage labourers, who despite their right to vote our incapable of bringing material improvements in their lives, is anybody’s guess. (via An alienating identity – The Express Tribune Blog).

And Tripwires

And the answer to these questions.

On an India-Pakistan Forum, the idea of भारत-तंत्र Bharat-tantra has started getting discussed – and outlined.

भारत-तंत्र Bharat-tantra is India’s classical political ideology, that worked on four freedoms –

• धर्म (dharma – justice)
• अर्थ (arth – wealth and means)
• काम (kaam – human desires)
• मोक्ष (moksha – liberty)

and guaranteed three rights –

• ज़र (jar – gold)
• जन (jan – human ties)
• जमीन (jameen – property)

For all. And Bharattantra may be the way forward for India and Pakistan to work together, in the view of some forum members.

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War On Terror – Desert Bloc Style

One 9/11 Tally: $3.3 Trillion By Shan Carter and Amanda Cox; Published: Sep. 8, 2011 | Click for larger image. | Short URL for Source - http://goo.gl/YmjzV

Bush, CIA, FBI did not have to convince anyone of the need for war, killing, death and destruction. Frenzied activity by people and media to convince each other did the job.

Convince each other

A reading or search on the internet, about Saddam Hussein’s killings and genocide, reveals feverish discussions. At one internet forum after another forum, participants were quoting a non-existent report to convince each other.

Based on cyber-fluff. Circular references. At the centre of which, is a cyber vacuüm.

शून्य. Nul. Zéro. Null. μηδέν. ゼロ. нул. Cero.零. Darkness. Nothing. Zilch.

Saddam’s war with Iran, at the behest and encouragement of the West, was painted as ‘human-rights’ violations. Death of soldiers in any war, cannot be equated to civilian casualties. Soldiers are going to war, armed to the teeth, with eyes wide open, knowing fully well, that it is a case of kill or get killed.

The alphabet soup behind this

Bush, CIA, FBI did not have to convince anyone. Frenzied activity by people to convince each other of the need for war, killing, death and destruction did the job.

Wonder who created these viral and circular links, (now dead, but live at some time) on the web, without any source or existence. Which of the American agencies – CIA FBI, NSA, DEA, DOE, Bureau of ATF, DIA, NRO, NIMA, CTC. NPC. INR. DOE Intel., Army Intelligence et al?

But let us assume that vox americanum populi, vox dei (Voice of the American people is the voice of god), and accept the figure of less than 600,000 deaths under Saddam Hussein.

Ten years later

After the bombing of twin towers, on September 11, 2001, there has been much official sentiment and sanctity.

How much of that is real and balanced?

Note the racial undertones to the comments? (Cartoon by Ted Rall; dated 2011-09-16; Source and courtesy - rall.com). Click for larger images.

Slice of life

Three images capture an ‘objective’ and factual way of looking at the last ten years.

One was an ‘infographic’ presentation by New York Times (fig.1), that has been doing the rounds on the internet.

The slick presentation using an attractive and thin graphic, calculated the US$ trillions that these wars are costing. As though, it was American money, to start with.

Iraqi money and Iraqi oil was being used to kill Iraqi civilians – and then an accounting done on that money, as though it was American money. The Nordhaus report, used by the nytimes.com, says,

Iraq’s oil resources could satisfy current U.S. oil imports for almost a century.

Real people

Two Western estimates, of deaths in Iraq, (extrapolations from Lancet/John Hopkins estimate), and the statistical report by ORB (Operations Research Business) used a statistical sampling method.

A figure of one million Iraqi and Afghan civilian casualties has been arrived at by this estimation method. An estimation method commonly used and usually accepted.

Documented and cross verified reports by the Iraq Body Count, count more than a 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. To all those believe that only the Body Count report is good enough, I wonder why they don’t use the same standard for figures about deaths due to Saddam’s atrocities.

Whatever number one may chose, it is important to use the same standard. Saddam, it seems was a lesser evil.

Saddam killed far fewer Iraqis than the Americans have.

White House Trophy Room? (Cartoon by Herbjorn Skogstad | Published May 2011 | Source and courtesy - cagle.com) | Click for a larger image.

Does it matter

Of the nearly 1 million undocumented and estimated Iraqis dead or the documented 100,000 Iraqis dead, the number does not matter. Both the numbers, are huge numbers.

Not that this is the first time. After killing 20 lakh Vietnamese, the American Empire (and its respectable mouth-piece, Time magazine) only counts its own 60,000 killed. In Iraq, after 10 lakh dead Iraqis, the US Empire counts, its’ own less than 5,000 dead.

It is this part of the behaviour that is most revealing. Is self absorption an imperial trait?

Imperial Traits

The British Empire till well after its death, continued (s) to remain self-absorbed. As though other people did not exist, do not matter. Twentieth century, British writing about India, had deteriorated to pure drivel. Best epitomised by Chirol – Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol (28 May 1852 – 22 October 1929).

In case of Pax America, in an earlier Cold-War era, this self-absorption was marked by books like The Ugly American – which sold 5 million copies, in a nation of some fifty million households. Since, the writing of The Ugly American, the self-absorption has only deepened.

This self-absorption screams through these three images linked to this post.

Image no.1 – About my money. It was Iraqi oil and Iraqi money, by the way. A message to David Leonhardt, the Washington Bureau Chief of nytimes.com, evoked no response.

Image no.2 – Talks about my social position. If every month, hundreds of people, are blowing themselves up, there has gotta be a bigger problem, than your social position. Stop looking at Muslims. Look at yourself.

Image no.3 – About my trophies.

Do more words and more bombs, make the War on Islam, OK?

What to do

Possibly, all this killing and war is my problem, in my mind. Who is to blame, if I was brought up, believing,

ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत्।

तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा: मा गृध: कस्यस्विद्धनम्।।

(God resides in all; All this here, is permeated by Brahman [The Supreme Soul], whatever there is in this world. Enjoy things by renunciation. Do not covet others’ wealth. – Ishopanishad; Shloka 1; note alternate translation comment below.).

How I wish, I could erase this shloka from my head!

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The Leader Of The Free World …

After putting two million people in jail and behind bars, I would imagine, The US of A, would have had enough. Apparently not.

Will one more make a difference? (Cartoon by Steve Greenberg; courtesy - cartoonstock.com). Click for source image.

There is something to this

The Leader of The Free World, The USA, has the largest prison population in the world.

Just why do so many people need to be in prison?

Just why does this Land of the Free have so much crime?

Why is the Leader of The Free World also the global capital of drug addicts?

Why does have the highest per-capita of prostitutes in the world?

With two million people in jail, the largest prison population in the world, law authorities would be reluctant to add more prisoners. The US of A would have had enough, one would think.

(Cartoon courtesy - http://www.bvblackspin.com; other credits embedded). Click for larger image.

After spending 10 months in custody for a drug conviction rapper T.I headed straight back to jail, last night. The 30-year-old star was taken back into federal custody after he was transported in a luxury tour bus.

Cameras were recording the rapper as he was traveling to southern state as part of a documentary he is filming for VH1, which will chronicle his comeback from his prison time. According to authorities, inmates still under custody in low or medium security are allowed to travel in transport without an escort from prison to halfway houses, but they must specify what type of vehicle they will be using.

According to reports, T.I. did not disclose the exact nature of his method of transport, mentioning to officials he was traveling in a van instead of a party bus.

Meanwhile, the rapper’s wife Tameka ‘Tiny’ Cottle,  has been left furious about the situation, and told that police officials knew about her husband’s mode of transport and even posed for pictures with the rapper in front of the bus.

She said that they: ‘Walked him over, took pics and told him good luck in life.’. She believes that they should have said something before he left the Arkansas prison. ‘This is a bunch of bulls**t … they should have said something before he got on the bus … T.I. would have politely gotten into a van,’ she said. (via Rapper T.I. heads back to prison just one day after his release… following a trip to a halfway house on a luxury tour bus | Mail Online).

Image courtesy - http://www.freedomsphoenix.com

Did Rapper TI have to go back to jail for taking a ‘bus’ instead of a ‘van’? There is more to this.

Much more.

Related articles

• The Same Day as His Prison Release, T.I. Put Back Into Federal Custody (newsfeed.time.com)
• T.I. back in prison after luxury-bus ride to halfway house (latimesblogs.latimes.com)