Rape Metrics: A Global Comparison

I am all for a ban on tinted windows in all vehicles, if any one can guarantee even a minor reduction in rape cases.

Assuming parity in definition, India on a population that is 400% larger has a rape incident ratio which are 24% of US. | Graphic source – hindustantimes.com; Hindustan Times e-Paper dated 2012-12-23 accessed at 17-29-59.

rotesters and activistas have semi-successfully projected the Delhi gang-rape case as representative of India, Indian society and Indian governance – as detailed in the previous post.

Fog & Noise

In the din of protests and clamour, on the Delhi gang-rape case, facts and data have become less than important.

There is wide availability of data in public domain – and across countries.

Cross country comparisons will quickly dispel claims that these protesters and activistas are making.

Indian rape metrics are skewed by the definition – where consenting teenage marriage is defined as rape. Per Capita rape cases across the world | Graphic – timesofindia.com on Dec 21, 2012, 02.47AM IST

The five major factors are: –

1. Definition
2. Incidence
3. Investigation
4. Prosecution
5. Conviction

Definition

Under a liberal-progressive overload, Indian laws that cover rape have been overwhelmed by illogical laws.

In the 70s and the 80s, under World Bank, IMF guidance, and the pressure from AID-India consortium of Western nations to curb population ‘explosion’, child marriage were ‘discouraged’.

To further stigmatize child marriage, sex between consenting female below 18, is now classified as rape.

If a girl below 18 has sex, in marriage or otherwise, in the eyes of Indian law, is rape.

Under-age marriages and attempts to marry have inflated rape statistics in India.

Similar inflation in rape statistics has occurred in Sweden for instance – with an accompanying reduction in conviction.

Break up of rape incidents across India | Graphic – thehindu.com in NEW DELHI, October 28, 2011

Incidence

The National Crime Records Bureau has estimated more than 90% of ‘rape’ cases involve neighbours, relatives, and known people.

Many of these cases are prima facie, cases of opportunistic withdrawal of consent.

Long-term marital relationships in India are forged under community and parental supervision and intervention.

In cases, parental and societal pressure is enough for a female to withdraw consent – opening doors to criminal registration and prosecution.

At times, the withdrawal of consent is also a means of gaining financial benefit.

Police, Police – Everywhere

With investigation is the question of prevention.

Empty demands have been made for better police patrolling, CCTV cameras, more supervision and vigilance. As can be seen, India has low or lower rape-incidents than most of the world.

Do these activistas want to turn India into a Police State? Into a society riven by gender conflict!

Do they want replace a concerned citizenry with a domineering police force? Instead of citizen vigilance, these activistas want us to believe that the police can do a better job.

Graphic courtesy – intoday.in

There are increasing demands for CCTV installations. The West and China are now practically surveillance societies – where, with facial recognition software, police officials will be able keep most of the people under surveillance.

Is that what these protesters and activistas want? Have all these CCTV cameras in the West stopped rape in those countries? Are rape incidents lesser in those surveillance societies?

As the data in the graphic shows, this is neither true – nor logical. If a few rapes are committed in moving vehicles, will we stop vehicles from moving? Or men from moving? Or women from moving around!

Demands for ban on tinted glass windows in Delhi is another demand. Delhi which faces searing heat for 5 months in a summer – needs tinted glasses. Do we want millions of Delhi commuters to steam in higher temperatures to gain psychological comfort?

Forget about elimination of rape – or even a major reduction.

I am all for a ban on tinted windows in all vehicles, if any one can guarantee even a minor reduction in rape cases.

Conviction levels in rape cases varies between 20% to 50% globally. Few exceptions apart. Rape convictions in India are at a higher ratio than general criminal convictions which are at 17%(TBC).. Defines as the number of convictions as a percentage of the total number of completed prosecutions that year. | Graphic & caption source – thehindu.com

Exaggerate! Overheat

This exaggeration in reaction can be seen in the recent media coverage of rape in Haryana.

Attempting to tar traditional khap panchayats, the media ran a villification campaign on rape in Haryana – whereas there were other states in India with higher occurrence – and lower conviction ratios.

Many of these protests have been organized by NGOs – many funded by sources that are suspect.

Why did the US pay attention to one rape in New Delhi.

Related Articles

2ndkook posts on Delhi gang-rape case

• Delhi Gang Rape: Saudi Justice Needed? (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• Delhi Gang Rape: A Mirror To Our Society? (2ndlook.wordpress.com)

• Delhi Gang Rape Agitation Survey Indian Hypocrisy (ramanan50.wordpress.com)
• A Brutal Gang-Rape In Delhi Has Prompted Historic Protests Over India’s Horrible Record On Sexual Assault (businessinsider.com)
• Indian PM calls for calm after gang rape sparks violent protests – Reuters (reuters.com)
• Indian police close roads to prevent rape protests (cbc.ca)
• India moves to curb anti-rape protests (independent.co.uk)
• Gang rape of Indian woman sparks mass protests (telegraph.co.uk)
• You: Photos: Protests over rape (edition.cnn.com)

---

India’s cricket debacle – The real story

India’s disastrous tours to England and Australia have left fans, players and the administration wondering. What is the real story? 2ndlook to the rescue …

Mahendra Dhoni has lost hair - and greyed in a matter of a few years. The stress has taken its toll. Has he lost the plot? | Image courtesy - firstpost.com | Click for source image.

The poor Indian cricket fan

The inexplicable collapse of the India’s cricket team on the English and the Australian tours has evoked usual ‘explanations’ and standard ‘solutions’.

Losing 4 test matches in England and the first 3 test matches in Australia for a world champion team needs more than usual ‘explanations’ and standard ‘solutions’.

The answer is staring in the face – but strangely, no one is talking of that. Before coming to the answer let us look at current debate.

Duncan Fletcher is the problem

Many commentators include Duncan Fletcher in the problem area – and credit Gary Kirsten, the previous coach with all the successes. Logically, if Gary Kirsten was so good, South Africa, his new team would not give the standard performance that they did against Sri Lanka.

In fact, Sri Lanka won their first ever test in South Africa – after Gary Kirsten became the South African coach.

Similarly, there is no evidence that Duncan Fletcher has done anything that can explain this non-performance.

The poor Indian cricket fan is bewildered by this turn in performance. | Cartoon by Ajit Ninan. Source and courtesy - ksurendran.wordpress.com | Click for larger image.

Senior players must be axed

Knives are out for two of the three senior players in the team, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Their stupendous performance till the 2011 world cup was the talk of town – and it believed that they would go on for ever.

Critics also forget that the selectors did drop a senior like Harbhajan – who was usually a ‘performer’ against the Australians.

This seniors-must-be-axed theory also does not explain the non-performance by younger players.

Indians hash their trips abroad

Indian cricket team does not have a good record of wins in overseas locations.

This is usually related to the fact that pitches and playing conditions are different – and unless adequate warm-up games are played, players have difficulties in adjusting to the new playing conditions. Weather, food, and social life play are a part in this.

This argument has some merit. Gary Kirsten did take an unusual step of sending Rahul Dravid and (and VVS Laxman), if the I remember correctly, early to South Africa for acclimatization.

Kris Srikanth must work on the principle of two peaks in 18 months | Cartoon by Ajit Ninan; source and courtesy - timescontent.com | Click for larger source image.

Dhoni is not the captain that he was

There is also a small section of thinking that puts Dhoni in the problem basket.

Apart from nit-picking, there is little evidence that Dhoni has handled the team and resources badly. Putting up more than 350 runs only once in the last 7 overseas tests is evidence of a performance problem.

And not a captaincy problem.

Catch-all theories

There is also the general ‘BCCI is the root of all evil’ theory – which is neither here nor there.

Then there are those who do a mix-and-match of the above three parameters. Plus there are others who think that since cricketers are over-paid glamor boys, having made their money, they finally don’t care.

Solutions for this non-performance also flow from the above definitions. These solutions range from getting younger players, planning for more trips abroad, prepare fast pitches in India, change the captain, et al.

Since non-performance is the issue, performance management is what we will need to look at.

BCCI has not seen two years in the future and accounted for 'peaking' of the cricket team. | Cartoon source & courtesy - timescontent.com | Click for source image.

Indian Cricket calendar

The Indian cricket team has played 6 significant tournaments in calendar year 2011 – South Africa, World Cup, IPL, England, West Indies – and now in Australia.

Five of these six tournaments (against South Africa, World Cup, IPL, England and Australia) were with world class teams and players – except against a sapped and depleted West Indies team. In between these tournaments, they have had a break of 1-2 weeks.

A usual factory worker, gets nearly 100 days off in a year in a predictable manner. Compared to that Indian team players have got 60 days of break in a 365 days. Rest of the time, they have been in a multi-week contests.

Achieving peak performance

In tennis, 3 of the four Grand Slam events in tennis are clumped together in 120 days of May-September of each year. As a result,

A number of high-achievement players have failed to achieve the Career Grand Slam. Björn Borg never won the US Open or the Australian Open. John McEnroe never won the Australian Open or the French Open. Ken Rosewall, Guillermo Vilas, Ivan Lendl, Monica Seles, Mats Wilander, and Justine Henin failed to win Wimbledon. Pete Sampras, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Martina Hingis, and Lindsay Davenport failed to win the French Open. Evonne Goolagong Cawley never won the US Open, and Helen Wills Moody and Althea Gibson never won the Australian Open. (via Grand Slam (tennis) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; accessed on 15th January, 2011 @14:30 IST).

After years of lack of Grand Slam winners, in 1982 the International Tennis Federation (ITF) relaxed the definition of Grand Slam winner. From winning all 4 tournaments in a calendar year, to consecutive winner, which may spread over a period of two calendar years.

Even after the easier definition, no male tennis players has made the grade of a grand slam in a non-calendar yea. Rod Laver remains the most recent male grand-slam winner in 1969 – more than 40 years ago.

Looking at this picture of over-played cricketers, Indian fans can take heart … and some hope.

Now let us look at what sports performance management theory says.

Performance management theory

Over the last 50 years, sports has worked on the principle that sportsmen must prepare for a peak in a year.

Keep in mind that you can have many “peaks” during the year and during the season, but most elite athletes aim for one primary event or goal, and plan the rest of the training season around that. Recreational athletes can easily have multiple peaks of a lesser degree. This is common if you race many different “fun runs” during the summer. If you are on a recreational league or team you probably have a built-in season, and your training is planned so you continually improve and peak during play-offs or a final event. (via Race Day Preparation – How to Peak for Races and Events).

Sports trainers refer to this system of training as ‘periodization.’

Periodization is an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period.

Training should be organized and planned in advance of a competition or performance. It should consider the athlete’s potential, his/her performance in tests or competition, and calendar of competition.

The annual plan is important in that it directs and guides athletic training over a year. It is based on the concept of periodization and the principles of training.

Preparatory Phase

This phase consists of the general preparation and specific preparation. Usually the general preparation is the longer of the two phases.

Competitive Phase

This phase may contain a few main competitions each containing a pre-competitive and a main competition. Within the main competition, an uploading phase and a special preparatory phase may be included.

Transition Phase

This phase is used to facilitate psychological rest, relaxation and biological regeneration as well as to maintain an acceptable level of general physical preparation. This phase lasts between 3 – 4 weeks (maybe longer) but should not exceed 5 weeks under normal conditions. (via Sports periodization – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.).

---

Related articles

• I am the main culprit: Dhoni (thehindu.com)
• Pitch party uproar (theage.com.au)
• Contractor, Engineer call for fresh faces in team (thehindu.com)
• Just not cricket: WACA wicket roughed up (3news.co.nz)
• A plan to chalk out what needs to be done is imperative (thehindu.com)
• South African coaches providing different dimensions (thehindu.com)
• Future of Indian cricket bleak: Warner (cricketnext.in.com)

WWII Propaganda: 70 years later

Ceaseless propaganda – the one weapon that the Desert Bloc never tires of using. 70 years after the start of WWII, the propaganda continues.

At least this Nazi was correct about Churchill. The caption: “I am the friend of all the small countries!” Winston Churchill removes his mask. A standard Nazi propaganda argument was that England used smaller nations, tossing them aside when they were no longer useful. Source and courtesy : bytwerk.com). Click for larger image.

Trade wars are, perhaps, the most serious threats to the global economic order. Because of that, they are also the least likely. So, while the current rumblings in Beijing and Washington may lead to increased frictions, even economically ignorant politicians will not do anything drastic.

Both Germany and Japan tried in the 1930s to limit unemployment and political vulnerability by maximising domestic production and restricting imports. But, since World War II, economic activity has increasingly crossed political borders. (via Mutually assured destruction).

Is this plain ignorance?

Given that Reuters is a British news agency, the propaganda motive can never be discounted. The author forgets that Germany, home of the automobile (inventors of petrol and diesel engines, and the motor car itself), Italy and Japan were significantly industrialized countries before WWII. These countries were shut out of colonial markets with high tariff barriers by Britain and France.

In India

Even after crippling tariffs, industry from Germany, Italy and Japan was able to stand up to British and French products. For instance during the Great Depression, the British Raj imposed a towering 75% duty on Japanese mill cloth to India – which was becoming highly popular. In turn the Japanese stopped buying cotton from India. British mills made a killing by then buying Indian cotton at throwaway prices.

What of the Lees-Mody Pact?

While the Churchill Norman extraction of gold continued to bleed the Indian peasant, such trade barriers further damaged the Indian economy. Edward Hadas surely knows this.

Why this propaganda – 70 years after the start of WWII?

Related articles

• The Atlantic’s WWII Photo Series (paul.kedrosky.com)
• Starving India to India Starring (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Faction Fueds of Desert Bloc – Should India Get Involved? (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• How Did Adolf Hitler Utilize Propaganda as a Tool to Further His Means, and What Different Factors Allowed It to be So Widely Effective? (socyberty.com)
• Who was worse Hitler or Churchill (wiki.answers.com)

Missionaries of ‘Progress’

NGOs have replaced the Church. Instead of Jesus, Western missionaries now peddle ‘progress’, ‘democracy,’ ‘freedom’.

Western wars and missionaries now wage war for 'democracy', 'progress', 'freedom' - instead of Jesus. (Cartoon source and courtesy - polyp.org.uk). Click for larger image.

No comment

Parag Tope, a regular reader and critic, of 2ndlook, starts writing in Quicktakes.

His first post

ICA and Paul Polak…

met someone here in san fran who wanted me to come to an ICA meeting which hosted Prashant Bhushan on saturday…

…looks like ICA and some precursors to ICA (including guys like Polak) have been the NGOs/liberal missionaries who want to bring “progress” to India…

…when Ramdev announced his bharat swabhman movement last year – hazare and his “backers” joined in… they made important proclamations on nov 4, 2010… as soon as ram dev announced his june date for ramlila in jab/feb 2011, hazare moved out and announced his own fast in april…

---

Related articles

• Behind Anna Hazare … (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• Hazare camp opposes Ramdev’s idea of armed wing (thehindu.com)
• Hazare opposes Ramdev’s idea of armed wing (hindu.com)
• Mood upbeat at venue of Hazare’s fast (thehindu.com)
• Missionaries of ‘Progress’ (quicktake.wordpress.com)

American Journalist Cleared of Libel Against Indian PM

A global scam much bigger than 2G. Only old 2ndlookers have read about this.

George Bush (satire - http://goo.gl/cpPBK ) had promised that Morarjee Desai would be on Mount Rushmore.

In his 1983 book, ”The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House,” Mr. Hersh wrote that Mr. Desai, India’s Prime Minister from 1977 to 1979, received $20,000 a year from the C.I.A. during the Johnson and Nixon administrations in exchange for information on Indian foreign policy and domestic politics. Mr. Hersh based his claim on information supplied by six confidential sources. (via U.S. Journalist Cleared of Libel Charge by Indian – New York Times).

CIA ‘bought’ Indian politicians

For years together, Morarji Desai was charged with being in CIA pay – even before Seymour Hersh’s book. Indian newspapers, Parliament, everyone discussed this. Seymour Hersh, an American investigator claimed that Morarjee Desai was in CIA pay.

When Seymour Hersh ‘revealed’ this in his book, Morarji Desai sued – filed a case in US courts and subsequently died. Henry Kissinger, appearing at Morarji Desai’s request, made a bald defence of Morarjee Desai.

But, importantly, why would the US recruit Morarji Desai – and then leak that information? This information could not have become public knowledge without information leak by the US.

Chains of Gold

Morarji was a threat to the US-administered global financial system, based on Bretton Woods Agreement.

The promise of the Bretton Woods system was stability. The dollar would be backed by gold. Under Bretton Woods system, anyone could (except Indians and Americans) buy an ounce of gold from the USA for US$35 – managed by the the London Pool system. USA promised the world that they will redeem the US dollar for gold – at a rate of US$35. Only US had enough gold to make that promise. More than 20,000 tons.

Soon, the USA was bleeding gold.

The Indian Factor

In the 1960s, most of the world was buying gold at an artificially low price of US$35. If Indians joined the gold-buying spree, the dollar would have collapsed decades ago. The success of Bretton Woods-I depended on blockading Indians from buying gold – which was effectively done by Morarji Desai. World’s largest buyers of gold, Indian buying would have emptied US Treasury in a few years.

Without Indian ‘help’ within 20 years, the Bretton Woods promise was broken. Redemptions of dollar for gold to individuals was stopped in 1968 (March15th). The Bretton Woods system worked for 20 years because Indians were not allowed to buy gold.

Hand In Glove

India’s finance minster during that crucial period, Morarji Desai, (on CIA payroll during Lyndon Johnson’s Presidency 1963-1968), presented a record 10 budgets, between February 1958, up to 1967. His adamant attitude on gold cost the government popularity and electoral losses – and the Indian economy and Indians much more. His break with Indira Gandhi began when the Finance portfolio was taken away from him.

True or untrue Hersh’s claim maybe, but Morarji Desai’s ban on gold imports allowed the sham of Bretton Woods to continue for 20 years. Was it a co-incidence that many of the RBI functionaries later got (and even now) plum postings at LSE (IG Patel) and BN Aadarkar (IMF)?

More was to follow …

Nixon Chop

On August 15th, 1971, the world got the Nixon Chop – where even Governments could not redeem dollar holdings. The dollar was put on float. In little time, dollar value depreciated from US$35 per ounce of gold to US$800 in 1980.

Over the next 20 years, through various clandestine methods (check out the Edmond Safra and the Yamashita stories links), gold prices were managed and brought down from US$800 (1980) to US$225 per ounce – but still 80% reduction in value of dollar value. Foreign reserves of poor countries got eroded. It was a gigantic fraud on the world – especially the poor, developing countries.

This was also done as a part of economic war against the Soviet Union – which was bankrupted due to low-gold prices during the 1990-2000 period.

Indians Not Allowed

From practically, 1939, (the start of WW2) gold imports into India were controlled or banned. This British legacy was continued by Indian Government and RBI. Many Gold control laws were enacted which stopped all legal gold imports into India.

With this, gold imports went underground.

Gold (illegal) imports (called smuggling) gave rise to biggest criminals that India has seen. Karim Lala, Haji Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Yusuf Patel, Tiger Memmon, Chota Rajan, and of course, Dawood Ibrahim – a biological son of a police constable Sheikh Ibrahim Kaskar, was spawned by Morarjee Desai’s laws.

These laws corrupted four generations of Indians Government and politicians. It made gold in India very expensive – and the Indian buyer remained in poverty longer.

Flip side

Since the amount was so small, just US$20,000, it may well be that Morarji was never bought. But by spreading this rumour, the US kept Morarji on leash. Important, considering the US stakes involved.

And Morarji Desai was a obstinate and recalcitrant man.

Related articles

• Starving India to India Starring (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Gold Standard: Forty Years Gone – And Good Riddance (blogs.wsj.com)

Dhume Baba Advises India

60 years after Israel was formed they are still dependent on American aid. After 3000 years, Jews are on the verge of extinction. Dhume-Baba advises India to hitch the Indian star to the Israeli failed State.

WSJ: Sadanand Dhume: #India Fumbles on #Palestine http://t.co/NeKYeVJd via @WSJ @aeionline #Israel

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) October 13, 2011

Is #India Fumbling its #Israel Policy? http://t.co/sfTjiPoF @mrubin1971 weighs in with recommendations for #US policy. @Commentary

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) October 13, 2011

@shashj Given confluence of interests and values, India should be more pro-Israel than France or Britain. Needs to end NAM grandstanding.

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) October 14, 2011

Dhume-Baba’s piercing gaze

After 60 years of its existence, Israel still depends on US aid and US veto. And still at war in the Middle East. Some nation to be allied with, eh, Dhume Baba!

India on the other hand, has become a part of G20 nation, has hesitantly and in small amounts, started giving aid to nations like Afghanistan, some countries in Africa and in Asia, too. It is the 4th largest economy in the world – and is tied to no one’s apron strings. Fighting no one’s dirty wars.

Nearly.

After all this song-and-dance, Dhume points out something that 2ndlook covered 4 years ago. Why most Israeli youth wing their way to India?

Trust

Is there any one in the world who trusts Israel?

Not Europe. Asia – no one quite. Africa – does not care much for Israel. India is a different story. After 40 years of refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), in mutual interest, decided to make an exception for India – and waive all their conditionalities for India.

Reputation

What is Israel’s reputation?

A nation that has used every dirty trick in the book – and many tricks that are not in the book, to evict the rightful Palestinian landowners, and settle Jews instead. Israel has tried on ‘best-efforts-basis’ to execute a slow-genocide program of the Palestinians – something that the Jews have themselves suffered.

After 3000 years, the Jewish social model has ensured, that they border on extinction. With 0.25% of world population, i.e. less than 1.5 crore Jews left, in a world of more than 600 crore people, they have made enemies of their neighbours around their country.

Is extinction the Jewish future?

India on the other hand adds 25 million every few months. What can India gain from Israel – except moral opprobrium?

And Dhume-Baba’s blessings, I presume.

After Nazi gas chambers, one would expect Israelis to have become more humane. Instead it seems to have brutalized them. (Cartoon by Latuff - 2007; courtesy and source - normanfinkelstein.com). Click for larger image.

Related articles

• Twitter / @dhume01: On Inept Indian Politicians (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• Sadanand Dhume: India Fumbles on Palestine (online.wsj.com)
• Sadanand Dhume: The Morality of Drone Warfare (online.wsj.com)

Twitter / @dhume01: Aakash tablet fiasco

Creating false agendas is a full time activity in the West. Sadanand Dhume uses his coconut brain to full effect.

Aakash tablet fiasco & flawed Indian governance: gimmickry over substance, too much faith in government, belief in silver bullets. #India

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) October 15, 2011

Usual suspects

Sadanand Dhume comes out with his regular din.

India Government has got it wrong.

Akash should be gold-plated, have diamond edges and emerald buttons. All this at US$40. Poor students in India must not get any help from the Government. Let the market take care. Usual rants. Imbalanced and lacking depth.

Sure, the Indian Government gets a lot a lot of things wrong – like every other over-active State in the world does. But his silly criticism shines.

Especially, when he proposes the alternatives. China, Indonesia as nations that India can learn from. China, Indonesia – Semi-dictatorships, where the public-sector-oligarchy is going from strong-to-worse. Hardly, any examples to hold up.

But then can anything get through Dhume’s coconut shell, that he calls brains.

Related articles

• Campaigns in Maya (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Does India’s budget tablet computer work? (bbc.co.uk)
• Sadanand Dhume: India’s Phony Tea Party (online.wsj.com)
• $38 Aakash Android tablet launches in India (venturebeat.com)
• Sadanand Dhume: India Needs a Tea Party (online.wsj.com)

Creating false agenda's has become a full time job in the West. (Cartoon courtesy: polyp.org.uk). Click for larger source image.

Barbarians at the gates

Ancient Rome or modern America – the rich get education and the poor die in wars.

Ancient Rome was exactly the same. Modern education too, 'teaches' the selected few how to retain control of the system. (Image source and courtesy - http://anticap.wordpress.com). Click for larger image.

Barbaric Rome

Was Rome a civilization? Ever?

With nearly a million slaves in the city of Rome itself, with wars, butchery, massacres (in Gaul, Carthage et al), on what basis could Rome be called a civilization? When people are civil to each other, the society can be termed as a civilization. One imagines that education will stop us from accepting propaganda as history.

Is ‘education’ the answer?

Take this extract below, for instance. Written by a well-known talking head on TV, a pollster, a political analyst, writes about JPC confrontation between the Congress and the BJP

Exactly 1,600 years ago, on August 24, 410, the barbarians (the Visigoths) were at the gates of Rome. They sacked and pillaged a prosperous but decadent Rome. Thousands of Romans fled to the countryside, leaving the “Urbi” devastated. Thirty-five years later, the Vandals also sacked Rome. Though Rome survived for some more time, the sacking in 410 marked the beginning of its disintegration.

The other day, Ratan Tata used the word “banana republic” that outraged us. We already have crony capitalism and loads of corruption and now parliamentary vandalism. The barbarians are at our gates too. Our foot is already on the slippery banana skin. Ek dhakka aur do, and we’ll get there. (via Dorab R Sopariwala: Barbarians at the gates).

Strange – to think, accept and call the Romans as civilized. The largest slave-owning empire of the ancient world deserved destruction. In my book, Alaric The Goth, was far more civilized than the Romans. Possibly, Alaric’s Goths attacked Rome to end its slave capturing ways.

Squash the bug

Let us assume that the imagery of a civilized Rome destroyed by a barbarian Goths is right.

Still the analogy of civilized Congress versus a barbarian BJP is completely inept. Neither is the Congress superior nor is the BJP any less civilized than the Congress. If at all, the fight by the Opposition to demand accountability through the JPC route, is commendable. After all, the issue at stake, is arguably, India’s biggest scam.

Fooling enough people, most of the time, by using lotsa money! Is that the trick? (Image credits embedded). Click for larger image.

All the people … all the time

Dorab, between you and Ratan Tata, you share a common trait. You believe that the desi noise, smells, heat and dust of Indian democracy is below you.

Remember that JRD is buried in France. India was not good enough for the dead body of this Bharat Ratna.

Tatas have made a long-standing claim that they are superior to other Indian businesses. A claim, supported only by assertions and repetitions. Without empirical data or evidence.

In fact, surveys show that Indian companies have higher reputation in home markets than most other corporations across the world. Going by anecdotal evidence, Tatas cannot be superior than others. Just like BJP cannot be much different from Congress.

Flawed comparisons, all round. Romans and Goths, Congress and BJP, Tatas and Others.

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.

Related articles

• Spiritual Brotherhood of US and Iran (behind2ndlook.wordpress.com)
• Pakistan warns US on Kabul charge (bbc.co.uk)
• Pakistan threatens to break up with America (rt.com)
• NATO Invites Pakistan to Meeting, With an Eye Toward Afghanistan (nytimes.com)
• Pakistani suggests NATO supplies should resume (anoopdubey.wordpress.com)
• Signs Of Thaw In Icy US-Pakistan Relations (news.sky.com)

Understanding London Riots

This cartoon captures the attitude of the rioters and the tone of the authorities. (Cartoon by Martin Sutovec, SME, Slovakia; source and courtesy - cagle.com). Click for larger image.

Argentina, circa 2001. The economy was in freefall and thousands of people living in rough neighborhoods stormed foreign-owned superstores. They came out pushing shopping carts overflowing with the goods they could no longer afford—clothes, electronics, meat. The government called a “state of siege” to restore order; the people didn’t like that and overthrew the government.

Why is London burning. (Cartoon by Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria; source and courtesy - cagle.com). Click for larger image.

Argentina’s mass looting was called El Saqueo—the sacking. That was politically significant because it was the very same word used to describe what that country’s elites had done by selling off the country’s national assets in flagrantly corrupt privatization deals, hiding their money offshore, then passing on the bill to the people with a brutal austerity package. Argentines understood that the saqueo of the shopping centers would not have happened without the bigger saqueo of the country, and that the real gangsters were the ones in charge.

But England is not Latin America, and its riots are not political, or so we keep hearing. They are just about lawless kids taking advantage of a situation to take what isn’t theirs. And British society, Cameron tells us, abhors that kind of behavior.

Easy to dismiss the 'progressive-liberal' clap trap. But is there a grain of truth in this narrative. (Cartoon by Rob Rogers, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania; source and courtesy cagle.com). Click for larger image.

This is said in all seriousness. As if the massive bank bailouts never happened, followed by the defiant record bonuses. Followed by the emergency G-8 and G-20 meetings, when the leaders decided, collectively, not to do anything to punish the bankers for any of this, nor to do anything serious to prevent a similar crisis from happening again. Instead they would all go home to their respective countries and force sacrifices on the most vulnerable. They would do this by firing public sector workers, scapegoating teachers, closing libraries, upping tuitions, rolling back union contracts, creating rush privatizations of public assets and decreasing pensions—mix the cocktail for where you live. And who is on television lecturing about the need to give up these “entitlements”? The bankers and hedge-fund managers, of course.

This is the global Saqueo, a time of great taking. Fueled by a pathological sense of entitlement, this looting has all been done with the lights left on, as if there was nothing at all to hide. There are some nagging fears, however. In early July, the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll, reported that 94 percent of millionaires were afraid of “violence in the streets.” This, it turns out, was a reasonable fear.

Martin Rowson on David Cameron's big broken society; on the government's response to the riots and looting across England which saw over 1,000 people arrested | guardian.co.uk | Saturday 13 August 2011 00.01 BST | Click for larger image.

Of course London’s riots weren’t a political protest. But the people committing nighttime robbery sure as hell know that their elites have been committing daytime robbery. Saqueos are contagious. (via Shock Doctrine in Practice: The Connection Between Nighttime Robbery In the Streets and Daytime Robbery By Elites | | AlterNet).

It is always difficult to understand mob mentality. Especially, if you are Mumbai – and riots are being reported from London, by advertising driven media, and commentary written by State-approved academics. The first piece of sense about the London Riots was this piece by Naomi Klein.

The London Riots also reminded me of the Godhra Riots, when well-to-do people drove up to shops on CG Road in Ahmedabad to drive away with goodies from shops that had been forced open. Earlier riots, for instance in Hyderabad, between 1980-1988, saw shops set on fire, but not looted. I wonder if there are any parallels in behaviour between Godhra and London riots.

Bursting prison populations are definitely a part of the problem. But is the progressive-liberal education the answer? Or is it about basic literacy skills. (Cartoonist Nick Hayes on education and riots sentencing - While teenagers receive their A-level results, the prison population in England and Wales reaches a record level | The Guardian | Friday 19 August 2011) Click for larger image.

But I have a nagging feeling that this is not the complete picture.

So, for sometime, this topic will stay on the Quicktake list – till such time that we can get a hook to complete this picture.

Related articles

• Looting with the lights on | Naomi Klein (guardian.co.uk)
• Surveillance Business – For, From and Fie on the Free World (quicktake.wordpress.com)
• London riots rupture the ruling class (theglobeandmail.com)
• Investigating the Root Of The U.K. Riots (npr.org)