Wealth bequeath power for generations to come!

Fool Me Once (Miniseries, S01 E01-08; 2023)

The thing that piqued my interest is the apparent class difference that happens in the UK. It is common knowledge that European societies were separated based on their professions. Pretty soon, the professions were imprinted on their surnames. Weavers became Webbers and Webster, clerks to Clarke, shoemakers to Schumachers, scholars to Scully, tillers to Tyler, and the various Smiths and Taylors.

Specific surnames denoted aristocracy and privileged them to move around the royal family and stand a chance to pick a bone strewn by the monarch. Hanging around with the right crowd ensured prosperity and opportunities to venture out to exotic lands and further fatten the family coffers.

Talking about making an overseas trip and coming back rich, besides the Pirates of the Caribbean, we have, from the East, Robert Clive. Robert Clive owes much of his existence to India, and he had appropriated the word India into his name. Clive of India had amassed so much from political wrangling and military conniving. He started employment in the East India Company as an office clerk and, through his expert manoeuvring, overthrew one of the wealthiest rulers in India to bring home £25miilion in today's money. His status was raised to a Baron for his efforts in bringing in foreign exchange. His family was set for generations to come.

When the imperialist powers moved their mercantile prowess to the East, they tried to pigeonhole their subjects into similar divisions. They found this kind of 'divide and rule' helpful as it also created animosity amongst its subjects. The imperialists laughed all the way to their ship and their motherlands. Years later, from their lootings, they emerged as first-world nations, smelling of roses. Their subjects, even generations later, stay stinking as basket cases. They not only still had to look up to their former colonial masters but also be dependent on them for items of precise engineering.

That was what went through my mind when I viewed this miniseries. It is set in an obscenely colossal manor in the UK as the family comes to terms with the brutal murder of one of its sons. Things take a turn when a nannycam picks up the deceased on camera playing with his daughter.

Pandora's box opens many family secrets, under-table dealings, family dirty linen and shady family businesses involving Big Pharma and poor third-world nations.

Expect a Sivaji's 1964' Puthiya Paravai' kind of ending in this one!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A tinderbox waiting to be ignited, the world over!

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Based on David Grann's book (2017)
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

The narration is always the same. Again and again, history has repeatedly shown the same narration. The local population would live in harmony, in sync with their environment. The rambunctious mavericks from outside, with both eyes fixed on the wealth, would trickle in, peddle their snake oil elixirs and promise the moons and the stars. They would bulldoze their thinking into the local populace. The host would be cordial enough to accommodate the newcomers' wisdom, too. Once the shields are lowered, when the host treats the visitors as equals and gives them due recognition, they would zap. 

The bottom line is all about wealth, money and control. 

The Native Indians were nicely tugged into the New World, as 'discovered' by Europeans. The areas around Missouri and Kansas were occupied by a group that later became known as the Osage (Middle River) people. As the 13 original states of the USA expanded westwards, winning over the West, the Osage people were relocated to present-day Oklahoma. Even though their new land was hilly and barren, devoid of hunting grounds, they took it as they told themselves that at least they got the White men off their backs. 

Life works in mysterious tangents. Behind every prosperous find, there lies a catch. The discovery of black gold, aka petroleum, aka devil's excrement* is no different. 

Petroleum wells started welling up in their backyards, and their family coffers started bulging. The Osage proudly displayed their newfound wealth, buying the latest edition of the early 1920s post-WW1 prosperity automobiles, shopping the latest designs of luxurious Parisian outfits and basically living the life. Many were living the white men's lives, embracing the high life and the white men's religion. The Osage Elders realised the tide change would not last forever and decided that the deed of the Osage land would be collectively held as communal head rights. Leasing of land for oil earned them much royalty. It could not be sold to outsiders. 

Meanwhile, the US government decreed (Burke Act, 1906) that the Osage were not smart enough to manage their money. An act was passed to make them appoint a white guardian to manage their finances. This led to much exploitation. It became a legitimate means to cheat the Osage blind. The Osage had to obtain approval for their expenditure and were often over-billed through the roof by their guardians. Soon, there was a trend for white men to marry wealthy Osage women to manage their affairs. Pretty soon, a spade of deaths emerged amongst the Osage Indians in Oklahoma.

David Grann did his own research to write about the 20 Osage people murdered probably because of their ties to oil. The newly formed precursor to the FBI, the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), was assigned to investigate. The local rancher, politician and philanthropist was charged with murder. This book shows the ugly side of the self-proclaimed defender of the Truth, one who introduced culture to the Natives and a Christian to stoop so low as to wilfully bully, cheat and kill the people who invited them to their homes. The local white leader, who was seen as a do-gooder and a philanthropist with his nephew, had masterminded the killing of many Osage people. The nephew had even married an Osage lady but had conspired in her death and, probably, her sisters and mother, too. 

This episode is just an example of the numerous atrocities that white Americans have inflicted upon their brethren. In 1897, 300-400 unarmed immigrant miners at the Lattimer Mines, who marched peacefully for better wages and better living conditions, were gunned down by the Deputies. The Deputies would not acted like that if the miners were English-speaking Anglo-Saxons. 

Around the time of the Osage murders, in another part of Oklahoma, which was dubbed as one of the wealthiest black communities in the USA, colloquially known as 'Black Wall Street', the worst racial massacre in US history took place. A 19-year-old black man was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white woman. Rumours spread that whites were going to lynch the accused. The blacks gathered around the jail to protect the accused. In that tense situation, a gunshot went off, and mayhem ensued.

There had been many Native American-related movies from Hollywood before. 'The Last Mohican' and 'Dances of Wolves' are some shining examples. Unlike the earlier films that stand guilty of having been 'whitewashed' to suit the narrative of the day, this movie tells the story from the Osage's point of view. The 3.5-hour-long film is worth the indulgence. 

*Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, a Venezuelan diplomat and one of the two founders of OPEC was the first to use this phrase in 1975: "I call petroleum the devil's excrement. It brings trouble. Look at this locura (madness in Spanish), waste, corruption, consumption, and our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for years. We are all drowning in devil's excrement!"

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

A re-look at history?

Asia Reborn

(A Continent Rises from the Ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism)

Author: Prasenjit K Basu

The 21st century, especially the second half, is considered an Asian century. Still, no single nation is said to have successfully challenged the Pax Americana of the late 20th and early 21st century. A continent ravaged by events from the 18th through the 20th century, Asia is making a comeback.

As they say, time is cyclical. From the Common Era (C.E.) to the 1600s, when Europe and the Middle East were pretty much in the dark ages, more than half of the world's GDP came from India and China. Both these countries were the world's superpowers and ruled the greatest oceans. Suddenly, there were either domesticated or decided to close their doors. The European and Arabic powers, who all these while were running around like headless chickens, morphed into a force to be reckoned with. They ushered in mercantilism, slavery and colonialism. They embraced Industrial Revolution while the rest of the world was napping.

In the prophetic words of Ibn Khaldun, history is a cyclical process in which sovereign powers come into existence, get stronger, lose their strengths and are conquered by other sovereign powers over time. More precisely, every community is uncivilised initially and tries to acquire power through its inborn fighting and kinsmanship. The generation after that, after living in the cushy life of their conquest, slowly loses their killer instinct and becomes 'civilised'. The subsequent generations will be like the occupants their ancestors had conquered, cultured but weak and without prowess. Barring exceptions, he estimated that a dynasty would last about 120 years. The Ottoman Empire is said to be an exception. It lasted 624 years. The reason for its longevity is the realisation of this edict, the necessary motivation infused by extraordinary leaders, solid traditions and morals, and wise decisions. Even then, the mighty Caliph soon became the sick man of Europe and crumpled on its weight.

As the Europeans ventured out on their voyages to the East, they quickly usurped all the wealth available along the way they went. Kingdoms after kingdom tumbled with their shenanigans and their meddling in local politics. Close to 200 years, it was the rule of the European race over the colonised Asiatic lands.

The turning point came around with Commodore Matthew Perry's legendary stop of his battalion at Kyodo port in 1868. The Japanese woke up to the fact that the world had wised up while they practised a closed-door policy. The Meiji Restoration was an effort to sponge all knowledge from the maestros and improve their own capability. Their efforts proved fruitful when the Japanese defeated their arch-enemy in the north, the Russians, in 1905.

Industrialisation required raw materials, coal, steel and petroleum. Their neighbouring lands, like Manchuria, Sakhalin Islands, and other parts, were run over for this purpose. When the Western powers decided to place a trade embargo on Japan, they had to source their raw material beyond their comfort zone. The Japanese monarch, conforming to the increasing nationalistic wave, decided to follow in the footsteps of the Western imperialist power. That was the Eastern Front of World War 2.

WW2 was an eye-opener to the sleeping giants of Asia. Each was embroiled in its own struggle with the Western colonial yoke. India was caught deep in self-rule efforts. China was trapped in failed dynastic rule and internal squabbles. Smaller nations were manipulated to serve their seemingly caring masters.

Asians, for the first time, saw an Eastern power stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Western and oust them. The manner in which the Brit scooted off at the news of the Japanese invasion left a bad aftertaste amongst their subjects in Malaya. Their new masters, they realised, were worse off than their predecessors, igniting the question of self-rule in the hearts of many South East Asian nations.

The Japanese did one right thing, though. They left a nidus on all the lands upon which the newly independent countries prospered later. The Japanese set up many industries to keep up with the needs of the Japanese Military Industrial Complex and the pressures of WW2. The Japanese model of financing and running industries were emulated in Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria. In fact, after the war, Koreans working in Manchuria returned home to develop their own homegrown businesses.

History suggests that all the colonial masters left their colonies bare. Amongst the various colonial masters, the British are said to be the gentlest of the lot. The Belgians, Spanish, Portuguese, Germans and French were notorious for inflicting brutal scars upon their subjects. Even though the British are known to have left their conquests with functioning governmental machinery, infrastructure and contended society, of late, they are mostly praised for their diplomatic behaviour and geopolitical manipulations. A sample of their calculated meddling was in China. In the name of wanting with the reluctant Chinese, and ended up turning the whole nation into opium addicts. For their effort, the British were gifted with a lease on Hong Kong and areas around it for 100 years. 

This voluminous book is an excellent go-to book to help join the dots to all the history topics we learned during our school days. History was taught to us as if events on the world stage happened in isolation. With age, we realise that every event is linked to each other. The underlying basic themes are geopolitical control, economic dominance and painting a positive narrative of the oppressors. Living true to the age-old adage, money does make the world go round.

The author, P Basu, is an economist by day and a history buff by night. His two decades of nerdy research into the history of Asia helped connect the dots between each and every colonial power's move from unproductive to the rice shores of natives who ushered them in with reverence. In return, the colonialists usurped their happiness, overstayed their welcome and made a slave out of their hosts. They destroyed the natives' civilisation and philosophical wisdom to propagate foreign materialistic self-centred ideology. A new world economic module that emphasised capitalistic mercantilism over humanism prevailed worldwide.

In the epilogue of the book, Basu explains how the Japanese invasion of Asia helped Asians to re-discover themselves to emerge as a force to be reckoned with. The Japanese business module of financing, learning from the Masters and encouraging tertiary education amongst its citizens has shown positive results in Korea and Taiwan. Even though Malaysians, under the premiership of Dr Mahathir Mohammad, were 'Looking East' towards the Japanese, they failed miserably. Starting on a better footing than South Koreans, they fared poorly. They emphasised racist policies and never shed their rent-seeking attitudes. The strive to excel through sheer hard work was never on their plates.

(P.S. The book is strife with many trivia that would excite many a nerd. With the weakening of the Qing dynasty, the wreckage of the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, China was carved up by many European powers. They controlled many geo-strategic areas and ports. The Germans acquired a German base port in Shandong District. German settlers started a brewery in the Tsingtao area to quench the thirst of many weary Europeans in China. This, of course, is now the famous Tsingtao Beer from China.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Write t

Heads you win, tails I lose?

At Charles III Coronation @ London

BBC is in the limelight again. All for the wrong reasons.

When the Bersih movement was on a roll in the streets of Kuala Lumpur and painting the town yellow, BBC was on a rampage screening the sea of yellow flood hourly, painting the idea that the whole country is in tatters. In reality, the following day, it was business as usual for Malaysians.

When interest parties protested against the cut in Indian farmer subsidies in Delhi, BBC again had a field day. They were lamenting that the Indian public was prevented from expressing their democratic rights. Even though India's internal politics did not affect the British or the rest of the world one tiny bit, it took itself as the vanguard of the oppressed and the champion of the downtrodden. It did not matter that the protestors were not farmers but middlemen who tended to lose from the Government's move.

Bersih Protest @ Kuala Lumpur

But now, despite all the austerity measures taken in the UK to combat recession following Brexit and Covid, the British Exchequer thought it made perfect economic sense to spend between £50 and £100 million of taxpayers' money to finance the coronation of their next monarch, King Charles III. Buckingham Place says that the events' festivities and tourism would finance themselves.

Many beg to differ. With the hashtag #NotMyKing, many express discontentments through peaceful demonstrations. We are told they had earlier informed the Metropolitan Police of their intentions. Still, the Police arrested them anyway as a threat to public peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.

Nowhere their rights as citizens of a democracy to express themselves come out, surprisingly.
In the meantime, leaders of their former colonies shamelessly feted the monarch, who is no Prince Charming by any figment of imagination, whose ancestors brutally looted the colonies' national treasures and turned the native into subservient slaves.

Delhi Farmers' Protest

The world has moved on from a feudal system. Even the substitute for an authoritarian rule is found to be deficient, and we are still on the journey in pursuit of an ideological way to rule over humankind. Many empty promises had come their way and made equally quick exits.

 
To imagine that a King is ordained by God Himself with special powers by birth to rule legitimately over a piece of land is laughable. Even God is losing his shine in this increasingly Godless world. So, to accept a King as God's representative on God does not make sense. But we smirk when told that the Egyptian pharaohs were the mediators between the gods and men. Spot any difference?

Points to ponder. @RajivMessage (twitter)
The coronation of King Charles III is:
- a ritual (as distinct from something 'rational'),
- filled with idolatry,
- symbol of supremacy,
- birth-based privilege,
- built on centuries of loot/oppression of 100s of millions worldwide.
Yet, the millions of royal fans in the West have the hypocrisy to accuse my culture of having irrationality, idolatry, birth-based hierarchy, human rights violations, etc.
I respect their right to celebrate their tradition. But they ought to get off their high horses and respect others' traditions. And Wokeists sucking up to the limelight. Money & prestige can buy a lot. (And former colonies are sucking up to their slave owners under the Commonwealth. Err, the wealth is is not common. It is theirs!)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Guess who's for dinner?

I used to think that only isolated primitive tribal people practised cannibalism. Long before there was such a thing as headhunters, the employment agency, the indigenous people of Sarawak, were the original headhunters. They were fabled to kill their enemies, shrunk their skulls and wore them as ornaments. Even in modern times, consuming the human brain was a delicacy amongst the tribes in Papua New Guinea. We learnt about Kuru, the first human prion-linked disease, way before the world heard of Cruetzfelt-Jakob disease (CJD) or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, Mad Cow Disease). Kuru was transmitted when attendees of tribal funerals would consume the brain of the recently departed in their honour.

I was made to believe that only primitive ‘uncivilised’ natives only had such practices. The colonial masters were quick to label anyone who had built the courage to oppose their rule as cannibal as they did to Thugees in India and Mao Mao people in Kenya.

The Thuggees were the local dwellers who were doing nothing more than defending their jungles against the colonisers who were keen to appropriate the forests to mine the minerals allegedly found there. To justify their usurping these lands, the colonists labelled them professional robbers and murderers. Just because the locals prayed to a ferocious-looking Kaali, Thurga, with weapons, protruding tongue while stepping on asuras, they were labelled as cannibals. The British ended up stealing the land and appropriating the words ‘jungle’, which the locals called a forest. ‘Thugs’ made it into English to refer to a violent, lawless person.

In mid-century Kenya, the British colonists, in their expertise to bring nations to their knees via their divide-and-rule tactics, started spreading lies about a group of aggrieved British Kenyan soldiers who became freedom fighters. They were Mau Mau warriors. Their reputation became so bad that mothers used to scare their crying kids that the Mau Mau people would snatch them and eat them if they did not quieten down and sleep.

The implication of all these is that cannibalism is the limit of human cruelty. Once one eats up a fellow human, he has crossed the point of no return.

Surprise, surprise.

The practice of consumption of human flesh is not alien to Europe. It peaked in the 17th century when it was a rage to consume human meat. There was even a lucrative black market to source Egyptian mummies. It was believed that the medicinal composition of the mummies and the mystic aura surrounding the carcasses gave them special powers. It was fashionable as late as the late 18th century among the elite society to hold private 'mummy-feasting' parties. Then there was a symbolism of the Eucharist representing Jesus' human body, consumed during Holy Communion as if justifying man ingesting another.

Then there is the legacy of Dracula and the pseudo-medical elixir of vitality, including human blood. Even to date, like a cat, humans eat the placentas of their offspring directly or in concoctions.

Guess what (or who) is for dinner? And I wonder who is coming for dinner tonight or who is for dinner tonight?

Are these thugs?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

An externally-introduced or intrinsic problem?

CASTE IS NOT HINDU

'Caste is a Construct of the Colonial Invaders'

Authors: Guruji Sundara Raj Anatha, Aykshya Simrhen Raj, Pardip Kumar Kukreja.

If anything life has taught us, it is this. People are narcissistic and egoistic. People try to understand everything but are unwilling to accept that things are way more complicated than an average man can comprehend. We are all guilty of cognitive dissonance and suffer from the Duning-Kruger effect, overestimating our competence.

People always try to dominate each other and clamour for the joy and privileges of being in power and a leader. Those in the higher rung of the hierarchy are pretty comfortably perched high up, looking down at the mere mortals. Those stranded at the lower perch of the food chain are gaslighted to be convinced that they are there because of their own doing. Their leaders want to maintain the status quo to ensure their position and conserve their high status.

A house cat, quite comfortable not needing to hunt for its daily meal, will want to maintain its amount of pampering. No one in the correct state of mind, enjoying the fruits of affirmative action, will want to, surrender his privileges willingly.

With this background knowledge, one has to critically look at this book, 'Caste is Not Hindu'.

Before the 16th century, India/Bharat was a self-sustaining subcontinent. Its social architecture created a steady state where science prospered, societal order was maintained, and its cultural influences went beyond its shores. Monetary support for mega-projects was handled by trade guilds within the public domain.

Unbeknownst to India, the rest of the world, from the land of barbarians, was awakening from their deep slumbers. Their idea of civilisation was not mutual respect but mercantilism and exploitative colonisation. India mesmerised them with its mysticism, immense wealth and welcoming nature. India soon fell prey to their maverick Machiavellian tactics. The colonisers masterminded a devious plan to justify their takeover of the nation.

The contemporary world of Hindu scholars suggests that European conquerors extrapolated their society's 'Sistema de Casta' division to India. The Europeans had earlier subdivided their own people to put royalty, clergymen and aristocrats at the top of the pecking order. The rest of the people, the craftsman and labourers, were the low-ranking serfs. The conquerors felt they needed to understand the social structures of the natives. It was too complicated for these simpletons.

The Indians had a complex societal structure system. They had varnas and jatis. Varnas referred to an individual's innate aptitude - whether he was scholarly, one who exhibits and utilises his physical attributes, good with business skills or a doer, i.e. a worker. This is not determined by one's birth, and he does not have to stick to his family's profession. Hindu scriptures are abundant with tales of scholars from tribal groups and learned men from princely families. Vyasa, the author of Ramayana, was born to a fisherwoman, Satyavati. Siddartha Gautama, a prince, became a preacher. King Ravana was a Brahmin, even though he mastered martial arts, as well as art, music and culture. Of course, we all know of Ambedkar, a Dalit who masterminded the Indian Constitution after securing multiple degrees from premier universities in the UK and the USA. How do you classify a man born Brahmin (as per the British set caste system) who gets an MBA (scholar), and works as a CEO (a businessman) in a conglomerate that sells leather shoes, e.g. Bally? Traditionally in the British Raj, a casteless person works with carcasses and leather.

Even within a family, one can notice that children of the same parents have different interests. Some can be studious, athletic or boisterous, while others will do what they are told.

Book launch by
H.E. High Comm of India to Malaysia.

Jatis refer to a professional group. This guild of craftsmen, smiths and merchants identified themselves together for the betterment of their professions. It was a way to explore their little nuances in improving their trade. For example, there was a group called Parrayars, who specialised in playing the war drums. With modern warfare, their work became redundant. They became drum players at funerals.

Looking at such a complex societal admixture that was self-sustaining puzzled the visitors. They tried to make sense of the whole setup. Their first attempt at this was the 1872 Indian National Census. It became a social engineering tool highlighting caste, religion, profession and age. No matter how hard the British system tried to make sense of the arrangement, they became more confused and created more castes and sub-castes.

Many professionals of ancient India were out of work during British Raj. In other words, they became casteless. The British created a new caste called 'the untouchables'.

Another strategy is their plan to 'divide and rule' is the creation of enemies within the society. At the same time, the British had to justify their positions as conquerors. The Aryan Migration Theory just covered the grounds so fittingly.

A highly cultured band of fair-skinned erudite steppes men from Central Asia allegedly infiltrated the land beyond the Sindhu River, bringing Hinduism to send locals south. They also brought in the Sanskrit language and all the rituals associated with Hinduism.

Down south, a schism developed between the priestly caste and the ordinary people. The priests were viewed as invaders trying to control the locals. That, combined with politics, was a sure way to create unrest. It worked just well for the feranghis (foreigners). Feuding brothers are easier to control.

Akin to the fair skin foreigners bringing in culture and wisdom to Bharat, the British portray themselves as God-sent saviours to educate and civilise Indians from 'ignorance' and 'illiteracy' by the European-Christian standards.

The extensive kurukkal system of India that served the nation for ages was dismantled as they were deemed archaic. English was introduced as the medium of instruction, as suggested by MacCaulay's Indian Education Memorandum. The real reason for this move is for the colonised to view their own culture as inferior to that of Europeans. And the European languages were linked to Sanskrit, the foreign language that was brought into India.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Besides controlling its economy, the other ulterior motive was to proselytise the whole nation to Christianity. They also viewed it as their service to mankind. After all, the Papal Law decreed by the Vatican states that to convert non-believers is a divine duty.

One can argue that this should not be an issue anymore; after all, the colonists left India 75 years ago. As an independent nation, they should be able to decide their own fate. Not quite. 

200 years of subjugation and indoctrination by Europeans, many Indians who received the short of the stick from their masters are still reeling from a lack of confidence, an inferiority complex, with a tinge of Stockholm Syndrome and a constant seeking of validation from the West for existence. On top of that, there exists a group of locally bred phenotypically Indians who quickly shoot down anything Indian. Like the local soldiers during the 1857 First Independence War who did all the dirty jobs for the British, these sepoys view India and Hinduism as a lost cause.

The 200 years of 'divide and rule' of India must indeed have had a long-lasting effect on the psyche of all Indians, leaving many frustrated individuals who were at receiving end of the harsh, divisive effects of casteism. Perhaps, they benefitted from English education and foreign countries after being driven out of their own country. The need to defend the culture of their ancestors made no sense at all. On the contrary, they have every reason to shoot down some discriminatory practices they were subjected to. There is no love lost.

The Hindus themselves find it difficult to untangle themselves from this colonial legacy. If casteism is not Hindu, would it not be easy to go back to basics and put it back in order. Not so easy. People who have benefitted from reservations and affirmative action will not surrender what they deem is theirs so quickly. The politicians whose raison d'être is to grasp popularity and ensure that they continue to win elections will be comfortable continuing the Britishers' 'divide and rule' policy via caste separation. Even closet converts also benefit from reservation seats.

Perhaps India should learn from their other Asiatic cousins like China, Japan and South Korea. When Commodore Matthew C Perry arrived at Edo Bay in 1853, the Japanese, who had chosen to be under seclusion, were mesmerised by the appearance of Perry's armada. They thought the mythical ancient dragon had actually descended. They realised that the world had morphed in leaps and bounds while they were napping. The Japanese caught up with the rest of the world by 'copying and pasting' western technology. Their turning point was the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, where they surprised the modern world by defeating the Russians. The rest, as they say, is history - World War 2, the rape of Nanking and Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army.

Commodore Perry arriving in Japan

After being squeezed and torn apart from all sides between China, Japan and Russia for generations, the Koreans found relief after the Korean War. The South Koreans were happy being a vassal state of the USA but prospered because they were apt to adapt.

When Nixon landed in Beijing in 1972, after much water went under the bridge, the Americans thought they could play realpolitik again as they did in the post-WW2 era. The Chinese cleverly used the opportunity to watch, learn and absorb all the knowledge at their disposal and gave, and are still giving the American a good run for their money.

Wonder what happened to the wisdom of Panchatantra and Chanakya's political treatise, Arthashathra, that India introduced to the world way before the Machiavellian tactics that Europe so boasted about. Centuries of civilisation squashed by firepower.

https://notionpress.com/read/caste-is-not-hindu

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Queen is dead, long live the King!

©Elanour Tomlinson

We are often advised to say only the nice things about the recently departed. Somehow, all the ill feelings and the wrong paths crossed are temporarily swept under the proverbial carpet. Everyone, including the ones who tend to benefit from the deceased's passing, is expected to carry a sombre outward appearance - wear a sad face, dress down and avoid merriment. 

After the so-called mourning period, it will be pretty much no-holds-barred, I guess. 

But now, even before the dead are laid to rest, the wokies are already at it. I am referring to the recent demise of one of the longest reigning monarchs of the once most enormous Empire of the world, where the sun never set. True, she inherited a bounty of loot from the world over. At one time, pirates scaling the Atlantic high seas were free to pilfer gold from Spanish vessels legitimately under the auspices of the British Crown as long as they paid their dues to the monarch.

True, they went out with their imperial stance with a chip on their shoulders and a stiff upper lip to match. And plunder wealth from civilisations that had found peace with their place in the sun, create mayhem to liberate the oppressed and destroy other cultures with their new economic model.

This turn of events is inevitable. Every nation wants to improve life for itself. The designated / king does that for his subject at the expense of a gamut of benefits for himself and those under his umbrage who held his torch. This way of conquest was thought to trickle down the food chain and continues to date.

There were plundering imperialists, and there were cruel plundering imperialists. Some maimed their subjects without caring about their future. In a way, the British made some humane decisions to ease their administration but ended up causing their Empire's own destruction along with other compelling factors. They laid down plans for proper administrative machinery, invested in education for natives to help (and look down on their own cultures) and created an extensive web of transportation networks. 

If not for the English, this blog would not be in English or an incomprehensible language that could hardly pass for English. We were lucky that English became the lingua franca of the world, the modern language of communication. Left to our politicians to steer us to the future, we would still be a fumbling fishing village ruled by despots, not that they are not preventing this from happening. An unthinking obedient herd of the population led by their leash to the slaughter is their idea of utopia. If we had been savaged by colonists, we would have been brutalised by our own kind. As the Tamil saying goes, "Whether Rama or Raavan rule, it doesn't matter to me, I don't give a damn!"

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.