Archive for September, 2009
Where is 3rd World Holocaust Museum?
The Hindu Holocaust Museum is a project pioneered by Francois Gautier who has written about it on several occasions since the last six years. However, “secular” Vijay Prashad wakes up only now. Given his ideological propensities, Vijay Prashad naturally feels:
* No Hindu Holocaust. Largescale massacre of Hindus is exaggerated
* Islam didn’t spread in India through violence
* Hindus (Kings) were equally if not more violent than Muslim conquerors
* Hindus and Muslims regarded each other as brothers
Pretty much what we can expect from his ilk. One thing to state misleading assertions in casual conversation and another to actually present it as truth.
In other parts of Asia and Europe, the conquered nations quickly opted for conversion to Islam rather than death. But in India, because of the staunch resistance of the 4000 year old Hindu faith, the Muslim conquests were for the Hindus a pure struggle between life and death. Entire cities were burnt down and their populations massacred. Each successive campaign brought hundreds of thousands of victims and similar numbers were deported as slaves. Every new invader made often literally his hill of Hindu skulls. Thus the conquest of Afghanistan in the year 1000, was followed by the annihilation of the entire Hindu population there; indeed, the region is still called Hindu Kush, ‘Hindu Slaughter’. The Bahmani sultans in central India, made it a rule to kill 100.000 Hindus a year. In 1399, Teimur killed 100.000 Hindus IN A SINGLE DAY, and many more on other occasions. Koenraad Elst quotes Professor K.S. Lal’s “Growth of Muslim population in India”, who writes that according to his calculations, the Hindu population decreased by EIGHTY MILLION between the year 1000 and 1525. Probably the BIGGEST HOLOCAUST IN ENTIRE WORLD HISTORY. Recorded or otherwise.
Staggering numbers and arguments these. But, it is important to stop a moment and have a look at other historical crimes against humanity which have been committed and continue to be committed. In modern history, the massacre by the Turks of 1.5 millions Armenians, the several millions of Russians by Stalin, or the 1 million Tibetans by the Chinese communists, or the thousands killed and millions displaced in the so called “war on terror” and “spreading democracy” stints by the UN, er, USA, UK and their European slaves. These are historical facts which have all been denied by their perpetrators… But deny is not the exact word. They have been NEGATED in a thousand ways: gross, clever, outrageous, subtle, so that in the end, the minds of people are so confused and muddled, that nobody knows anymore where the truth is. As evidence, people feel that Chernobyl was a bigger disaster than the dropping of the atomic bomb by the allied forces in Japanese civilian territories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is hard to understand if the spin doctors are really clever or if the people are really stupid. It boggles the mind. Sometimes, it is the numbers that are negated or passed under silence: the Spanish conquest of South America has been one of the bloodiest and most ruthless episodes in history. Elst estimates that out of the population of native Continental South America of 1492, which stood at 90 million, only 32 million survived; terrible figures indeed but who talks about them today? Ditto with the conquest of North America and the wiping out of the native Red Americans who now live like refugees under a reservation system as the native Aboriginals in Australia and native Zulus of South Africa. A reader of Chomsky will immediately find several instances of grotesque crimes in Haiti, Vietnam, Bangladesh and so on. And I have not even started on the British Raj of India and that of imperial European powers like Netherlands, Belgium, France etc. who have combinedly created horrors like slave trade, apartheid, blood diamonds, ethnic cleansing etc. and now protect themselves with advanced military technologies and iron-clad immigration rules. Germany was a softie by these standards. Irrespectively, the 3rd world comprises of those countries which have been raped and wasted by imperialism. Why does not anybody talk about the source of wealth of rich countries which was achieved by bloodbath? Is repatriation being discussed at all?
I am sure there must be literature but the answer asked by Koenraad (a Belgian), Francois (a French) and Sandeep (a looney) of “Where is the Hindu Holocaust Museum?”, is quite simple. It is the wrong question. We, and not they, should be asking, “Where is the 3rd World Holocaust Museum?”. A moment of silence.
That said, before you go about seeking revenge or getting apologetic, I should say is that it is too easy for peoples to be playing the victim card. We need to look more deeply into the causes behind the demise of civilizations and countries and cultures. What was it about their civilization that made them vulnerable to outsider conquests? The reasons can no longer be solely attributed to an external cause but have to be looked within as well. I cannot comment on other cultures, but I sure can try to answer the India/Hindu question. One important reason for the fall of the Hindu civilization is the complete Hindu ignorance of Abrahamic faiths, most notably, the “religion of messiah” (Jewism), the “religion of love” (Christianity) and “religion of peace” (Islam). Hindus tend to look at another belief systems through an Indic lens, and attribute to it with the same spiritual value and goodness as their own. This attitude is touted as a virtue by some; in matter of fact it is stupidity. Islam and Christianity are not Sikhism and Jainism. Theologically, their absolutist truth claims are unappeasable except by unquestioning acceptance. Politically, they are exclusivist, expansionist faiths that feign a willingness to coexist only when in adversity. Their real aim is world domination and destruction of other faiths. Hindus never understood this, and still do not understand it. In fact, much of the 3rd world is nice and we all know the adage on how the race ends, dont we? I think I can speak for every 3rd world country here that the happiest people in this matter must be the first world countries and the missionaries of religion. They must be thinking, what fools these 3rd worlders are, they must be telling themselves: We killed them by the millions, we wrested whole nations out of them, we engineer riots and financial crises against them, and they still defend us and put us on the pedestal. If you can’t see the continuing folly of your ways, you are what is called a 3rd world country.
Uncle Sam and Iran Mullah – Nukes Talk
Iran: Who the hell are you to dictate me? We have our own but wait, why?
Sam: Because I am supremo. I think you are building nuclear weapons
Iran: I most definitely am not. But what if I am? What are you gonna do about it?
Sam: I’ll beg, plead, bully, cajole, offer economic incentives and impose sanctions
Iran: Be my guest. I dont care. I have oil and gas and Allah
Sam: What good is all that if there no one is going to buy it? BTW, we have God
Iran: My Allah is going to beat the shit out of your God, the spirit and chicken son
Sam: So typical. Who won the Crusades? My God is more powerful
Iran: Yet it is the Zionists who have control of the holy land
Sam: Hmmm… that is interesting. The Jewish God is also on our side
Iran: This is getting a tad religious
Sam: You think? Let us get back to the topic
Iran: OK. You Yanks, French, Brits and Israelis have nukes. Why not poor me?
Sam: Because you are Iran. And I dont like it
Iran: I don’t get it. Please explain. A-B-C as easy as 1-2-3
Sam: Aww crap. This is futile
Iran: No it is not. We are getting somewhere
Sam: We should be bombing the heckuva out of you right now to the stone age
Iran: So, why are yapping about then?
Sam: We would not be having this conversation if you had nukes
Iran: Touche. We would NOT be having this conversation if I had nukes
Sam:(silence) Aha. So, you are building WMDs after all. Gotcha
Iran: Well, I dont know whether I am not piling them
Sam:(confused) You’re telling me you are not hoarding nuclear weapons?
Iran: It wouldn’t be inaccurate to assume that I couldn’t exactly not say
Sam:(bamboozled) So you admit to weaponize your missiles with nuke warheads?
Iran: On the contrary. I’m possibly more or less, not definitely rejecting the idea, that in no way, with any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably do or do not know where they shouldn’t probably be used. If that indeed wasn’t where they shouldn’t be. Even if they are where I knew they are could mean that I wouldn’t completely not know whether the missiles aren’t to be “nukenabled”. Got it? I combined the words ‘nukes’ and ‘enabled’ into a single word. I feel so German right now. Or not…
Sam:(frustrated) This is ridiculous. Stop it. Get outta here. F* you!
Iran: I will, thank you. With pleasure if I may add
Ukraine Stops Adoption by Queer Celebrity
There are few people in Britain who view this latest adoption craze among celebs as thoroughly vile. A craze is what it seems to be; to non-celebs, though — and watching the public antics of Angelina and Brad, Madonna and now Sir Elton, you wonder if they are engaged in a giant high-stakes game of Top Trumps: my two cut-price Vietnamese brats beat your Malawian piccaninny, but I’ll raise you one with a little mite with HIV from Kiev, etc.
When international celebs these days wish to acquire the sort of finely crafted accessory which might fulfil their emotional and spiritual needs, they head not to Prada and Gucci, but to the local orphanage. Sir Elton and his missus, David Furnish, were touring a Ukrainian orphanage when they chanced upon little Lev. They fell in love and simply had to have him – come on, you know how it is. Sod off, said the Ukrainians, you’re old and queer
Ukrainians needed no recourse to the looney self-obsessed singer’s sexual preferences. They could have simply quoted one of his own lyrics back at him: Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, from one of the few songs he has written which may stand the test of time, “Rocket Man”. Wherever Elton John exists, it is certainly not here, and it is not in the Ukraine — it might as well be Mars, so fabulously alien is it to the rest of us, few as we are
Finally, someone had to put a stop to this madness. It is refreshing to see that in East Europe that veneer of Western civility has not yet been imposed. In the process, they might have very well stopped a small, yet, inconsiderate human rights tragedy parading before our very eyes. Well done Ukraine. Now go save Africa.
Google, reCaptcha and Crowd Computing
Two words are always presented. The trick is that reCaptcha already knows one of the words, but wants you to help solve the other word. If enough people solve that other word similarly, the system gains confidence and now knows what that word reads. The second word is a typically smudged one that even the most complicated systems cannot solve. Or, they are just crowdsourcing OCR tasks to millions of people. Hence, reCaptcha is a “crowd computer”. reCaptcha’s utility is to provide spam protection AND help turning scanned books into searchable digital text in open domain
Google clearly aims to apply reCaptcha for their books and newspaper digitization projects to help with the quality of their existing OCR (Optical Character Recognition). This now means you’ll also help Google’s efforts. reCaptcha mentions they’re serving 30 million Captchas daily and that generally, people spend roughly 10 seconds on a captcha – that’s quite some human computing power. Do the math. Assuming, a typical brains capacity is a few petaflops (on a focused task), this could very well be the beginning of the worlds most powerful and cleverest supercomputer!
Who’s to say that in the future, we’ll not be solving other captcha tasks? Telling humans and bots apart and several other puzzles are tough for today’s AIs, but easy for humans. For instance, a captcha may show you a collection of a dozen images and ask you to click on all images showing a cat. For most images Google knows whether it’s a cat or not, but for one image, Google only suspects that it’s a cat based on keywords found on the same page the pic was hosted on. If many people click that picture, Google may gain confidence that it’s indeed a cat (or conversely that it isn’t)
These are straightforward applications; even more power could be unleashed if any company figures out a possibility to break up bigger questions into easy humanly solvable chunks, which would – after being solved – be merged to form a deeper answer. Maybe at some point, people would be selling the computing cycles too. Not unlike how Amazon is selling cloud computing cycles. Else we’re slaves.
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Multiple Intelligences – Sunflower Analogy
I Support GMC Affordable Private Schools Initiative
One has to understand the problem (read the documents) of appalling state of schooling in India to understand what am talking about. So, I will take an analogy. Imagine this scenario. You are aware of a potholed stretch of road and complain about it. One day some outsiders come and start resolving this issue. What would you do? I would do as it says in the figure. Try to join them and try my best to spread the word. The former will take time but this is me doing the latter. Go support GMC.
Studies Show Feminism Benefits Men
In the early 1970s, breaking out of the domestic cocoon, leaving their mothers’ circumscribed lives behind, young women felt exhilarated and bold. But the more women have achieved, the more they seem aggrieved. Did the feminist revolution end up benefiting men more than women? According to the General Social Survey, which has tracked Americans’ mood since 1972, and five other major studies around the world, women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier. As Arianna Huffington points out in a blog post headlined The Sad, Shocking Truth About How Women Are Feeling: “It doesn’t matter what their marital status is, how much money they make, whether or not they have children, their ethnic background, or the country they live in. Women around the world are in a funk”. (The one exception is black women in America, who are a bit happier than they were in 1972, but still not as happy as black men which is another story)
When women stepped into male-dominated realms, they put more demands – and stress – on themselves. If they once judged themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens and dinner parties, now they judge themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens, dinner parties – and grad school, work, office deadlines and meshing a two-career marriage. Choice is inherently stressful. The more important things that are crowded into their lives, the less attention women are able to give to each thing. Add this to the fact that women are hormonally more complicated and biologically more vulnerable. Another daunting thing: America is more youth and looks obsessed than ever, with an array of expensive cosmetic procedures that allow women to be their own Frankenstein Barbies. There is a newfound abundance of choices, even if those choices end up making us unhappier. A paradox, indeed.
Phew! Thank God or more specifically, the Y Chromosome that I am a man for we can age in an attractive way while women are expected to replicate their 20s into their 60s. Greater prosperity has made men happier. And they are also relieved of bearing sole responsibility for their family finances. Men also tend to fare better romantically as time wears on. There are more widows than widowers, and men have an easier time getting younger mates. Who knew that being casual and unattached actually helps? It is so happy to be simple and more so, vice-versa.
Government to Media – Do Not Overplay Incidents
…Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told journalists that media reports were painting an inaccurate picture of conditions along India-China border and scotch swirling rumours…
…Home Ministry has decided to file an FIR against the two reporters of The Times of India who filed a story…
…National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan urged the media to be restrained. General Kapoor appealed not to “overplay” issues that can promote enmity…
Fever Time – Water Supply Woes
Hypocrisy on Austerity Drive
There is no reason as to why in a country, which has one of the highest number of people living below the poverty line, one of the largest number of people in the world who suffer from malnourishment and has probably one of the largest number of people in the world who suffer perennially from the miseries created by floods and droughts, the representatives of those people should have king-size lifestyles at taxpayers’ expense. Not just citizens, at this point of time when every business entity is suffering on account of the economic slowdown – and yet when one witnesses that the representatives of such a nation continue to indulge – then it is nothing short of blasphemy.
Corrupt(ing) Anti-Corruption Bureau
For the former, I recommend witnessing a dialogue between the protagonist and the anti-hero in the movie “Resurrecting the Champ“. Erik (played by Josh Hartnett) asks for ID from the Champ (played by Samuel Jackson) like a license – with name and photo. Champ asks how does the guy taking the photograph know who I am? Because I told him so. Getting where am getting at?
Shut-up with 9/11, Already
In common with most people, I loathe adverts and the people who make them, and there are no adverts more vile than those which are not for products but for charitable or political ends. On these occasions the advertisers add self-righteousness and suffocating political correctness to their more familiar faults of stupidity, condescension, pretension and a cringeworthy faux-daring. Both of the adverts I’ve referred to were attempting to make political or perhaps social points. The first was commissioned by the Brazilian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (although the organisation has subsequently disowned it) and showed scores of jet airliners poised to strike the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The message they intended was, of course, that if you think 9/11 was a disaster, just think how many people are going to be killed through environmental catastrophe, not to mention those polar bears. The subtext was just as clear, though, and not very different: didn’t we all make a bit too much of a fuss about 9/11? After all, it was only a few thousand people killed – if they’d been Somalians or Iraqis there wouldn’t have been all this bother. It’s because they were affluent, spoiled, right-wing Yankees, who are not used to being attacked in their own country. Well, f*** them.
Story of My Siemens S25 Mobile Phone
More than the loss of the device which was substantial when compared to my salary in 2003 and its buying price, I was very pissed that I lost the numbers and messages. It had IR and came with a software suite but I was just too lazy to take backups. Ah, youth. That feeling of invincibility until we get served.
Recession, Prices, Drought etc. on 3rd World
Ever heard of the expression, “flogging a dead horse“? Well, that is the case here. When people are living below the poverty line, it does not matter if the line is pushed higher or lower. When people dont have jobs to begin with, it does not matter if jobs are lost. When people dont have the purchasing power to buy anything, it does not matter if prices increase. When people dont have shelter, it does not matter if it is flood or drought conditions. When people live in the gutter that is the case with 2/3rd+ of the world, it does not matter if it is a recession or some other fancy thing that people who make bonuses for failure are guilty of creating. Nothing that happens seems to affect these overpopulated masses. They are just immune to any hit. Life goes on. Life drags on. They survive. It is not a testament to the strength of human spirit but a salute to the human body. As the character says, pile on the misery as long as it is not death. The gutter goes deep into the abyss. Far deeper than anyone can fathom dawg. Bring it on!
Recovery Greenshoots – Drag Rain Clouds
Pathetic State of ICT@Schools – DC Subhani
Getting Attention to Research Posters
Y S Rajsekhar Reddy – Sakshi Obituary
This was published in the newsdaily, “Sakshi” run by his son, Jagan somebody who is being groomed to be the next CM. Be scared but back to the topic, interesting things here. YSR is depicted as the ‘rain man’ even after his death and recent drought, lest the public forget that it was he who precipitated the South-West monsoon in 2004. The schemes of “Rajiv Arogyasri” and “Indiramma Houses”, even if the India monarch family royale, had not donated a dime to deserve the use of their names in the schemes are subtly hinted at. The focus on a controversial dam project called “Polavaram” and thereby free hydel power to “Anna Daatha” (farmer) is fairly obvious. It is the vote bank in AP and indeed, most, if not all, India. All in all, very clever PR which they say, is more certain than death and taxes but we all know something dont we? The populace memory is short. We as species suffer from a serious bout of chronic selective amnesia. I’d give a week max to move on.
Watching all the commotion of TV coverage of suicides and funerals but knowing a little better about the atrocities committed and corruption reign of YSR, all I can say is that death was once considered the great equalizer. These days, it is the best way to reconstruct a damaged reputation. Lionizing the dead isn’t just a cottage industry; it’s universal. The sins of the living are washed away in death, leaving behind a pristine corpse free of taint. The sullen are said to have been cheerful, the mute are labeled as gregarious, and the misanthropes are reported as bastions of charity and goodwill. Death indeed clears all debts.
USA is Friend of Islam
Dont get me wrong. It is good that Obama is reaching out to the desert people, but unless he does the following, they will see it all as hypocrisy of third rate…
Encashing Gandhi – Ruhe, Melancholia and Fetishes
Even Gandhians have been parasitic on the earnings from Gandhi as property. For all these years, Gandhi’s writings were copyrighted material, but as the copyright expires, it is up to us to be bold and Gandhian and declare Gandhi as a commons. It is time to invite the world to the celebration of Gandhi and stop treating the expiry of copyright as the great deficit. Once Gandhi becomes part of the world commons, we can start reinventing him again. I think the best words in this context were said by Fidel Castro. The youthful Castro once said, who would dream of a copyright of Quixote or Shakespeare. Who could dare think of patenting jazz? Unfortunately, such an obscenity is becoming an everyday event. World legacies are being transformed into property to be sold through the tourist trade or they become part of kitsch in the world of brands and souvenirs. Yet Gandhians keep silent as Ruhe appropriates their pictures. Is it “melancholia” or a frozen sadness, where a group is unable to mourn, but is caught in the immobility of a memory that neither redeems, liberates or invents. It is a lazy fetishism that reprimands others but refuses to do anything new. Memory is not just recollection. It is remembrance. It is a reinvention of an event and community and involves both individual biography and collective consciousness. One reinvents the social through acts of retelling. Gandhi is legacy, monument, history, memory. The sadness begins when he is treated as property. What gives Peter Ruhe the right to own and charge for photographs of Gandhi? My Answer: He is parasitic. He is foreigner. He is clever.
Festival and New Year Wishes – Relation Respirators
It was yet another festival in India the other week and I was yet again bombarded by “Happy X” kind of messages from family, colleagues, friends and sundry over email, SMS and phone which throws me off. Why do I have to be reminded that I should be happy on some day and horrors, celebrate it with gaudy new clothes, excess food and wasteful booze promoting crass consumer capitalist agenda? People who know me well should know that I dont believe in this shit but we will come back to that in a bit. People who dont know me all that well are tricky ones. Come on. How do you handle these messages? Think of two choices:1) Ignore them at the risk of seeming rude
2) Reply lamely “Thanks and same to you”
No big prizes for guessing which one I go along with. Then there are some who call you. I mean, how do you respond to that? You definitely cannot ignore them. They are in your face, er, ear. As bad as this, if not more so, are facing people who sent you wishes messages (which you ignored) and awkardly getting asked/reminded if you got the email/SMS. In either case, I choose to weasel out and go “Oh uh, I, I, didn’t know you wished seriously. Were you really? Thanks” but what I really want to say is that it is none of your business of how I should spend some day chosen at random and conditioned with from early age. Let me be sad, cynical and scroogy. Humbug!
As for family and friends and their messages, it just seems to me that festivals serve some strange function. Here you have people who really dont have anything to talk and have not been doing so for quite a while (no news is good news) and the festival and the wishes messages it prompts is like this relationship respirator keeping these marginal and peripheral relationships alive. Why do we do this? Because we get to be nostalgic of how we had it good on this occassion in the past. People need this fix and strangely crave for this. It is very important for human beings to feel part of a community. But mostly, it is about path of least resistance and type in a few words every once in a while. Festivals provide that easy context.
[edit: 20100103] The thoughts apply to New Year madness too I guess. So, I had to change title and did a little dilly-dally re-formatting with an ode to Scrooge in place
Thoughtcrafts Sriks6711 
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