What can we do regarding the current crisis in Burma (Myanmar)

On the issue of the Burmese military reprisals, a couple of friends who are involved in a certain group with me, raise the question of what actions can be taken, other than press releases and candlelit vigils condemning the violence. As one of them writes, "time is running out".

It is pretty clear to all of us, I think, that expressions of outrage do not move the Junta in Burma

So there are only the following options:

1. An economic embargo - however, we know from past experience that such embargoes hit the poorest the hardest, and that regimes know very well how to insulate themselves from the effects of such embargoes.

2. Military intervention - distasteful as that is, it is an option. However, it is clear that, at present, both this and an economic embargo will be "vetoed" by China (so far, India has not shown itself to be an enthusiastic supporter of democratisation either!)

3. Economic sanctions against countries that implicitly and explicitly support the Junta in Burma - and that is China and India. Again, I remain hopeful, but I doubt that the international community will want to understand the logic of such a move, let alone marshall the moral courage and political will to do this.

4. Somehow persuade the Junta that it is in THEIR interest to open up - we have found this difficult to do in the case of, e.g. Iran and Korea. But it is not impossible, and even North Korea seems to be ready to shift...so perhaps we should exercise our joint creative intelligence and wisdom on the sorts of offers to the Junta that would entice them to change.

Barring that, I'm afraid I am pretty pessimistic that we on the outside can do anything much in practical terms.

The resolution of the issue is largely in the hands of the people of Burma. The question is whether their moral strength and capacity for sacrifice is greater than the Junta's devilish strength and capacity to inflict suffering. It was exactly the same question that faced the Protestant Reformers who wanted to free sixteenth century Europe from the military/ economic/ political hold of the Roman Catholic Church, as I have pointed out elsewhere.

However, we should certainly go on candlelit vigils and write letters of protest and so on, in order to keep up the pressure (such as it is) on the Junta.

Perhaps one practical step could be to publish a tally of the number of countries where protests are being mounted outside the Burmese, Chinese and Indian Embassies.... Sphere: Related Content

Why are Indian pharma firms cutting back on R&D?

I gather that Indian pharma companies budgets for R&D have never been particularly generous.

However, I gather that they are being cut even further. Many whole projects have been slashed in at least one of India's top pharma companies, and foreign visits are no longer
allowed at all.

In other companies, R&D has been separated like a pariah into a spin-off.

Insiders tel me that even more changes may come soon - and they may not be positive ones.

It would be useful to understand the reasoning behind this downgrading of R&D.

Do our firms really want to be involved only in generics and never become pioneers and brand-builders? Sphere: Related Content

Dalrymple's view of the Indian Mutiny (or First Indian War of Independence")

A friend writes to ask about William Dalrymple's view of the Indian Mutiny, according to which it was a war of religion, not a protest against the economic policies of the British.

My response:

This is not a new point of view - though it is doubtful if Muslims and Hindus drew a distinction between "religion" and "economics" in the manner that the West had begun to do some centuries earlier - almost certainly by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. And it was always clear to everyone that the British were making a huge amount of money out of India both commercially and as a result of sheer loot from "war booty" - but so had every conqueror - which was why it was not a particular talking-point

However, it was the fear of such "religious reaction" from Indians, on the part of the commercially-minded British East India Company, that was behind the ban on the entry of British missionaries (and even pastors to the British!) in India up to 1827 or so (when Evangelicals forced the Company to open the doors to missionaries....)

But William Carey and his friends (working from Dutch-controlled Serampore) had bypassed the British ban and begun the work which eventually modernised India (just as the Reformation modernised the West) and my view is that the Mutiny was not so much a war of Independece (the trendy Indian "nationalist" view) but the first violent reaction against modernisation in India - the BJP and RSS are the remaining last gaps of that reaction

that Mutiny demonstrated to the satisfaction of the the commercially-minded British that they had been right in their fear - that is why British policy in India was always highly circumspect in matters of religion and culture - in spite of the fact that Evangelicals came to dominate among the British in India till the 1890s certainly (and perhaps till as late as 1900s), so that the "mission" to civilise India proceeded but in a much more subtle way...(there were never very many foreign missionaries in India - if I recollect aright, the total never exceeded 6000 at any time during the Raj and, after Independence, the number of missionaries actually climbed slightly higher for about a decade; today, the number of missionaries is about 100 according to the latest reports)

however, the rise of Darwinism from about 1880 resulted in the decline of Evangelicals and the rise of a fashionable mocking of Evangelicals (e.g. in E. M. Forster's Passage to India)

With the decline of males in the British population as a result of WWI and (particularly) WWII, it was clear that the Empire was going to end - the only question was WHEN... and Gandhiji and the national movement drove the time-table possibly with too much haste (as Cornelia Sorabji always maintained and for which she became persona non grata with the national movement) Sphere: Related Content

How can you be too efficient?

Easy.

As the new divisional boss, demand "out of the box" or (in James Collins' language) "big hairy Big Hairy and Audacious Goal" (BHAG) efficiency and productivity improvements.

When your subordinates provide these BHAG gains, you will of course earn a massive bonus in your first year.

Now, repeat the procedure in the 2nd year.

And, if you have really deserved your bonuses, take careful note of the fact that this is the time to jump to another job.

Why?

Because if you don't, your CEO will certainly demand a similar or greater improvement in productivity in the 3rd year, and you won't be able to perform at all becaue there won't be any other real savings that can be made. So the system will seize up if you make additional cuts....

However, I must not forget to mention that you do have an alternative to moving jobs: cook the books...

That's probably how half the current "cooked books" problems have arisen in the past few years. Sphere: Related Content

Already much worse trhan carbon tax would be

One of the main arguments that is mentioned to me against imposing a carbon tax is that it would have a huge impact on tourism.

Well, here I am, sitting in the beautiful city of St Petersburg in the same clothes since yesterday, having arrived yesterday - but Swissair and SAS between them managed not to bring my luggage on the same flight.

Not only that, but I have wasted a huge amount of time trying to track down my luggage - most of the time, frustratingly, trying to get through to the Lost Lugagge Department's telephone number - which seems permanenty engaged.

BTW I am not sure why it is called the Lost Luggage Dept, as the airline knows precisely where my luggage is, and the only problem is that the airline did not put my luggage on any flight till now.

If I was the only person to whom it happened in the last week, I wd just put it down to bad luck or something.

But as it has affected at least 10 out of the 100 people in "my" group here.

Just as the "inner London tax" has reduced vehicular traffic into london by about 25pc, so its possible that a carbon tax would reduce air traffic to the sort of level that can actually be coped with by the existing systems of logistics in relation to baggage.

Certainly, from the viewpoint of anyone in a similar situation - with money and time and effort already spent, the frustration of dealing with systems that don't work, and the disappointment of expectations regarding an enjoyable holiday or potentially profitable business meeting - the existing lottery regarding the random distribution of the sytem's inefficiency is worse than any carbon tax. Sphere: Related Content

Why does Putin's country not work?

The usual explanations of why countries don't work range from poverty through lack of education to corruption.

None of these appear to be true for Russia.

The people are intelligent, higly educated, charning and hard working.

The country is relatively uncorrupt (whatever corruption exists takes place at high levels and does not appear to affect everyday life).

There are of course lots of poor people, but the country is rich - for example, it has spent a vast amount of money in renovatiing the city of St Petersburg. While not all other cities have been so renovated, I am sure that is not because there is lack of money.

So I don't know the answer to the question I have raised. I am just puzzled. Sphere: Related Content

Is it at all worth being a tourist in exotic locations now?

Perhaps it is just one thing after another:

we can all take one delayed flight or two... but a rather senior executive I know (travelling first class) to St Petersburg missed his connecting flight even though they landed bang on time!

Why did he miss his connecting flight? Because the doors of his airplane would not open!

They sat and sat and sat, till it was too late for him to catch the connecting flight....

And as there is only one flight a day to St. Petersburg, the result was a scramble to find a bed for an unscheduled night in a hotel.

The next morning, he found himself in a city which, had he intended to stop and planned for it, might have been quite nice but, as it was, he simply wasted some hours of his life away from his family with whom he had hoped to rendezvous and have a lovely time with the previous evening. Sphere: Related Content

The Vatican on the Road

The Vatican has always been on the side of the elites. That is why it opposed even by violence those who worked to reduce its absolute control of Europe before the Reformation.

I had thought that the Vatican might have learnt something in the 800 yers since people started struggling to reform the Roman Catholic Church, or at least in the 500 years since the actual Reformation, but it seems to have only learnt to become even more skilled at politics.

That comment is occasioned by coming across, recently, the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to distract attention from its numerous current problems by issuing a set of "Ten Commandments for the Road" - or "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road".

These "Commandments" are addressed only to ordinary people.

But are most of the real problems of life on the road created by ordinary pedestrians, cyclists, and motor vehicle drivers or rather by governments and by the transport businesses?

So if the Vatican were to issue "Commandments" for transport businesses or, even better, "Commandments" to governments, I am sure that would make them most popular. Sphere: Related Content

The world's most polluted places

For the main article, see: http://www.blacksmithinstitute.org/get10.php

The most polluted place in the world, according to Blacksmith Institute's just-published list of top 10 such sites, is Sumqayit in Azerbaijan. Then there is (surprise!) Chernobyl in Ukraine. However, each of these countries only has one of these "most polluted" sites. That also applies to Zambia, whose 2nd largest city, Kabwe, is the 4th most polluted; and Peru's La Oroya is one of the smallest communities on the list (population 35,000) and the 5th most heavily polluted place in the world "due to lead, copper and zinc mining by U.S.-based Doe Run mining company".

If you followed the list above with any care, you should have wondered: whatever happened to the 3rd position? Well, that place belongs to Russia's Dzerzinsk — a center of Cold War chemical manufacturing. The city's 300,000 residents have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world: 45 years (that's 15 to 20 years less than the Russian average - and about half the life expectancy of a European or US citizen).

So why did I pull Russia out of the proper rank order? Because Russia has the distinction of having TWO of the ten most polluted places in the world, the other place being Norilsk, a city above the Arctic Circlem which takes the 7th prize in the Blacksmith Institute's list. Norilsk apparently contains the world's largest metal smelting complex and, therefore, some of the world's worst smog. Apparently, there is no living piece of grass or shrub within 30 kilometers of the city, and contamination by heavy metals has been found as far away as 60 kilometers.

My conclusion is that Russia tops this list, if one considers countries rather mere places.

The country that takes second place in the Blacksmith Institute list of top ten is China, which also has two cities that make the list. Linfen — a city in the heart of China's coal region in Shanxi Province - takes sixth position, and its three million inhabitants not only choke on dust but also find their drink laced with arsenic that leaches from the coal. And the air is so heavily polluted that it is difficult to see. Then China has Tianying in 9th place — a city of 160,000 that is the center of Chinese lead production, which the Chinese government acknowledges as one of the eight most polluted places in the country: lead concentrations in the air and soil are between 8.5 and 10 times (and local crops 24 times!) above China's national health standards.

The country that takes third place in these unfortunate stakes is India, which also has two cities on the Blacksmith Institute list. At 8th place in the list is Sukinda (population 2.6 million, Jajpur District, Orissa), which is home to some ten chromite mines (including one of the world's largest) — stainless steel is at least 10% chromium. The waters of the valley contain massive amounts of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium compounds because of the 30 million tons of waste rock lining the Brahmani River. Then, at 10th place in the Blacksmith Institute list of most polluted places is Vapi (population approximately 80,000; Valsad District, southern Gujarat) which has some 1,500 small-scale manufacturers (70% of which are involved in petrochemicals, pesticides, dyes, paints, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals). Though Vapi's Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) is the largest of its kind in Asia, and treats the pollutants of these units before the effluent is released into the Daman Ganga River, the resulting muck has nowhere to go.

Overall, the 10 sites in seven countries affect more than 12 million people

However, as you and I know, such lists sometimes provide too narrow a picture. So if one takes not the top ten on the list but the whole of Blacksmith Institute's "Dirty Thirty", then one finds
that Argentina, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Peru and Philippines each have one place.

India has two additional places in the "Dirty Thirty" (Mahad Industrial Estate, and Ranipet).

China and Russia have four additional places each.

But one important point to keep in mind when considering such a list is the criteria which were used to compile it. Apart from the discretionary element that always goes into the making of such a list, the criteria for the Blacksmith Institute list are:

A1: Severity of toxins
A2: Amount or scale of pollutant
(These two factors are taken as multiplicative)

B1: Evidence of Human Exposure (via single and/ or multiple pathways)
B2: Reliable Evidence of Health Impact
(These two factors are taken as additive)

C1: Number of People Potentially Affected
C2: Level of exposure
(Factors C1 and C2 are taken as multiplicative)

C3: Number of children particularly at risk
(This factor is taken as additive to C1xC2)

If one uses the cruder measure of simply the number of people who live in these "most polluted places" , the figures work out as follows: Ecuador 30K, Peru 75K, Dominican Republic 85K, Kenya 100K, Philippines 250K, Zambia 255K, Azerbaijan 275K, Kazakhstan 300K, Bangladesh 500K, Russia 4.2 million, Argentina 4.5 million, Ukraine 5.5 million, and Mexico 15 million. Kyrgistan is a special case since the list's compilers did not have sufficient evidence on the basis of which they could make up their minds whether the affected numbers were only 23K or several millions. China and India each accommodate about 6.5 million people in their polluted locations - that is, after Mexico (which is the undoubted champion by this measure), China and India tie for 2nd place in terms of the number of their people in "most polluted"locations . Sphere: Related Content

The terrible threat of foreign missionaries in India

According to the 2006 US Report on Religious Freedom, there was the incredible figure of approximately one hundred registered foreign Christian missionaries (Catholic and Protestant) in the country!

That means that, for only 12.5 million Indians, there is one whole missionary! Which is of course far too much!

In fact, my sophisticated computer model, which was installed by me as soon as such computer models came into existence, has been entirely devoted for the last decades to the sole purpose of calculating the overload of missionaries in India - and it has very precisely calculated this morning that, when the number of existing missionaries is compared to the number of missionaries we should have in India, we have approximately one hundred too many.

And we must not overlook the dangerous fact that most of these missionaries are over the age of seventy. As we all know, normal human beings grow weaker and more helpless as they grow older. On the other hand, missionaries, as they are not normal human beings, grow stronger and more wily every day.

No wonder then that my sophisticated computer model informs me that these gray-haired old people are a dangerous menace in every way (social, cultural and religious) to India's ancient civilisation - which has successfully held over 70% of the population under our control for some thousands of years. In fact, my computer model informs me that we will no longer be able to continue to hold the vast majority of our people in subjection if this terrible band of 100 is allowed to continue its nefarious activities, which consist of offering not only medical and agricultural help but even education to outcastes (who are now called "Dalits", specially by missionaries and other anti-national and anti-Hindu forces).

I demand that the Government of India, in the next session of Parliament, states:

1. how many civil servants, how many members of the police forces, and how many members of the intelligence services are wholly devoted to the cause of monitoring and countering the activities of this band of one hundred undesirable people;

2. whether the Government regards this number of employees as sufficient for the purpose of keeping an eye on this hyper-active and over-clever band of 100; and

3. what plans the Government has to expand the number of civil servants, uniformed policemen and policewomen, and members of the secret services and intelligence services, so that the threat posed by these 100 old people can be contained and neutralised.

Whatever the view of the Government, it is totally obvious to me that the present (and indeed any realistic foreseeable future) combined weight of the Indian Army, Air Force, Navy, Police Forces, Secret Services, Intelligence Services and (most of all) the civil services, is totally inadequate for the purpose.

Every true Indian must immediately make all possible efforts to identify and locate, and then beat up, sexually violate, strangle, stab, burn or (preferably) eat alive each of these one hundred missionaries.

Only then will our glorious civilisation have the chance of emerging from the present kaliyuga, where even Dalits are being given a chance to be our equals.

Jai Bharat! Jai RSS! Jai Bajrang Dal!

Let us hasten the day when Dalits can once again have thumbs cut off if they acquire any practical skill, when molten lead can once again be poured into their ears if they hear anything even half-intelligent, and when their eyes can be gouged out if they so much as catch sight of a book, pamphlet, computer screen, television, telephone dial, street hoarding or matchbox advertisement. Sphere: Related Content

New publication from the Netherlands on India (with implications for all emerging markets)

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has recently released a report titled "India 2050: scenarios for an uncertain future".

What will be of interest to the average reader is the report's discussion of several scenarios for India (and the options for improving prospects for India), with implications for the realism of current projections regarding where India is headed as a country.

For example, the publication argues that while it is certainly *possible* that India's population could be over 1.5 billion by 2050, and that this population momentum *could* continue to drive economic growth, these are ONLY possible if there are sufficient investments in health care and education NOW (as far as I know, such investments are not going to be made right now, and so most of the predictions for India will prove to have been over-optimistic).

Further factors indicating that most predictions for India are over-optimistic are that suchpredictions do not take ecological and socio-economic constraints into account: "only rigorous government policy initiatives striving for sustainable management of India's resources (land, water, energy) and appropriate investments in education and health can lead to a real increase in well-being for a large part of the population", argues the report.

This is the first fully-rounded examination of Indian (and developing country) prospects that I have seen, and I am convinced that Goldman Sachs' (and others') BRIC-type predictions will be proved false as the prediction deadlines draw near - at least for Brazil, India and China. Russia is a bit of an exception to my downbeat assessment of country prospects but only because of its huge oil and gas supplies - which will become even more important as West Asia descends further into chaos.

However, so far as India is concerned, I note that 12 Indian companies have made it to the (just released) third annual ‘Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List’, followed by 10 from Taiwan and only seven from China. Taiwan's 10 will be secure, in my view, but China's 10 will not be secure - for various reasons. The Indian companies include four IT outsourcing companies, for example Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), whose revenues jumped 45 per cent in the last twelve months and whose market capitalisation has doubled since listing three years ago (it has now crossed USD27 billion). Tata earns nearly all of its revenues overseas and so will continue to be a good investment long term, even if its market cap declines sharply from time to time in the wake of the volatility which is, for example, hitting the markets as a result of the current global credit crunch.

The other Indian companies on the Forbes Asia 'Fabulous 50' list are: Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Wipro (the last of which, in my view, continues to be severely undervalued).

Interestingly, Grasim, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance, are deeply involved with infrastructure development in India (though of course, as with all conglomerates, not only to infrastructure). One needs to take a somewhat more cautious view of companies which are more exposed to the vagaries of inward investment: their revenues and earnings may well be secure but the value of their shares will depend on the volatility of the global market.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel are growing by reaching out to the country's rural customers - and their prospects will be linked to commodity prices. Commodity-focused companies in general, worldwide, are even more exposed to the vagaries of the global market.

Do note that my assessments have had no input from, and are totally unrelated to, my employer's view of India, of developing markets, or of the companies mentioned - I emphasise that these are simply *my* views. Sphere: Related Content

"Stupidocracy"

David Aikman's concern about the "stupidification" of the USA's bureaucracy (http://www.ttf.org/index/journal/detail/stupidocracy-at-work) may be supplemented by my experience yesterday.

I should explain that I have a European passport, and that all holders of European passports can visit the USA for up to six weeks without a US visa.

Yesterday, on seeking to check in for my flight to leave the USA and return to Switzerland, I was asked by the lady at Check In (apparently according to TSA regulations) to produce "evidence of onward flight or residence".

I do not normally carry my Swiss Residence Permit with me since the Swiss authorities have it on computer at every port.

In any case, I thought somewhat strange the request that I provide proof of "onward travel or residence", and enquired what would happen if I could not provide such proof. The lady said that I would be denied boarding. I said that this would be tantamount to the airline becoming complicit (if not directly to blame) in my violating US visa requlations and that I could then sue them for that!

However, the lady asked if I really had nothing that could establish Swiss residence.

I recollected that I had with me my Swiss driving licence and produced that. Having inspected it, the lady concerned said that she was unauthorised to consider this as adequate evidence of my Swiss residence and that, in the USA, non-residents often obtain driving licences (I would be surprised if this is so, since my son's experience in the USA so far shows that you can pass a driving test in the USA without residence there, but you cannot even apply for a driving lincence without official residence in the USA).

However, I pointed out to the lady that, if it WAS possible for non-residents to obtain US driving licences even though they were not resident in the USA, this was a problem for the USA, and that she and the Airline/ TSA ought to be aware that it was certainly not possible for non-residents to obtain a Driving Licence in Switzerland.

As you can imagine, this produced an impasse, since she had her orders and they did not include anything about Swiss Driving Licences.

So I suggested she invite her eupervisor's attention to the case. This she kindly did.

The supervisor was an equally or possibly more intelligent person and, in any case, appeared to respond to logic, as I explained the situation to her, emphasising that I was on the RETURN leg of my journey and that I was, after all, seeking to leave the USA, not to enter it.

However, the supervisor too was not AUTHORISED to approve exceptions to the system that is in place, and had to ring New York in order to get their OK before she could allow me to check in.

Dear Mr Aikman, here is my conclusion: sometimes it is not only individuals who are stupid. Entire systems can also be stupid - and stupidifying.

The entire TSA system in the US is in urgent need of review, and the US will continue to lose an enormous amount of goodwill as long as the current "stupid and stupidifying system" is in place. Sphere: Related Content

Alternatives to the Elite as well as to the Counterculture

It appears to me that there are 3 main alternatives to the right-leaning elite and the left-leaning counterculture.

A piece I wrote some months ago, evaluating these three alternatives, has finally been published, at: http://www.ttf.org/index/journal/detail/beyond-right-and-left-in-social-progress Sphere: Related Content

Fun At Work

For an international but not huge e-mail based discussion group on a crucial range of subjects, I invited a well known senior executive from an international company to contribute regarding a particular matter.

I received the following response from him: "Dear Prabhu, we have become so "damned client-focused", that we do not have the time for the fun part of our business... So I would rather refrain from contributing".

A revealing comment on our times...

But can this executive (or can any of us?) last long in a job if the major part of our lives (working hours!) becomes devoid of fun? Sphere: Related Content

Response to "Gideon's Tongue"

In response to my post titled "Gideon's Tongue", Simon Morgan from South Africa writes:

"Hello,

I recently stumbled across the story of Gideon's 300 and couldn’t stop pondering on the image of lapping water like a dog. So I started doing some research and also found your blog entry.

Very interesting are the writings of Epictetus in his Manual on Stoic philosophy. Here the Greek thinker (ca. 55–ca. 135) writes:

“When you are adapted frugally according to the body,
do not embellish on this at all,
do not, if you drink water,
on every occasion say that you drink water.
and if you ever intend to train for endurance,
do it for yourself and not for the ones outside;
do not embrace statues;
but when very thirsty draw in cold water
and spit it out and say nothing.”

It is interesting that he associates the character of a person with a matter such as drinking water. Hence another possible interpretation of the Gideon story is that the 300 were indeed the most courageous men of the army as they were not primarily driven by their biological needs. After all it is extremely difficult lapping water from your hands.

God Bless

Simon"

Very interesting, Simon, I would certainly not have thought of that on my own - though I don't understand Epictetus' line about "embracing statues".

I wonder if similar thinking about training and discipline has occured in other countries or historical periods? Of course, part of the reason why soldiers train as hard as they do, is so that they can learn to more or less ignore the impulses being provided by the body, and operate relatively independent of their body's demands. But that is a general matter. I'm wondering about training in relation to water and thirst.

I recollect that, on the cross, Jesus tasted the vinegar that was offered to him but would not drink it.... I have always wondered why he did not do so. The usual explanation that I have obtained is that Jesus did not want to take the help of a "drug". Well, that could be true. But your post above makes me see Jesus' action too in a new light. Sphere: Related Content

Is there really a talent shortage?

In the latest issue (24 August 2007) of the Executive News Service produced by Egon Zehnder International, the top story reads: Leadership: how to build an executive brand

The second story is: Talent management: generation gap forces firms to develop leadership skills at all levels

While, I am naturally happy about development and training programmes, the story does demonstrate the myopic view of most exectives in most firms.

My view is that there is plenty of talent around - and the main problem is that recruitment policies are solidly biased against experienced people in their Fifties, let along people in their Sixties, Seventies and Eighties (many of whom are perfectly able and willing to work).

Rather strange, really, considering that there are, among customers - at least in the developed world - fewer younger people and more older people! Sphere: Related Content

Doing Business with India

The first edition of this book completely passed me by!

The second edition has overviews of "India at a Glance", as well as on its politics and economics, before it explores issues relating to labour, skills and training; real estate; Special Economic Zones; Analyzing the Indian market; Distribution; the vexed question of Partner Selection; Finance, Tax, Accounting, Law, and Business Culture. The book also has sector reports on pharma and energy - though disappointingly not on infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, the massive entertainment and knowledge industries and so on. But rather than complain about that, I am glad that we have reports on at least two important sectors - because it is so difficult to get facts and figures in India (as in all developing countries!).

Published by Global Market Briefings and warmly recommended. Though expensive at £99, it is available for a discounted price of £65 from http://www.winningcommunications.com/

I should make it clear that *I* do not get any commission from sales of the book or any of the other activities of Winning Communications. Sphere: Related Content

Why does the Government of India DISCOURAGE philanthropy by Non-Resident Indians?

Here is an interesting fact:

a particular non-resident Indian (NRI) who I know has published a book abroad as well as in India. From the royalties of his book in other countries, the NRI wishes to benefit, so let us keep that in a separate box.

From the earnings of his book in India, he was minded to give it all to an NGO. Imagine his surprise on discovering that if donations are given to a properly registered charity (that is under section 80G of the Income-tax Act), only 50% of the amount donated can be deducted from the income for tax purposes. However, the maximum amount of donation that will qualify for deduction is limited to 10% of the total income.

In other words, if his book earns Rs. 100,000 and he donates all of that to Indian charities, he is still liable to pay tax on Rs. 90,000!

On the other hand, if he takes ALL of his money out of India and uses it for his own benefit, then the Government gets only 5% of the Rs. 100,000 as tax (or whatever remains of that amount after suitable expenses are deducted, because of the double-taxation treaty.

This is an incentive, not only to avoid giving to charity in India, but even to take the money entirely out of the country!

What kind of lunacy is this! Sphere: Related Content

The RSS and Bajrang Dal have now attacked a medical doctor

In what is a spreading incidence of violence across the country, the RSS's hoodlums have now physically attacked Dr Raju, the Chief Surgeon of a Hospital in Kachhwa, Uttar Pradesh, Central India.

Up till now, as far as I know, the RSS confined its attacks to harmless preachers, nuns and other such people.

There is one case where a "real worker", a school principal, was beaten up in Madhya Pradesh.

Now, as far as I know, for the first time, a medical doctor has been beaten up (earlier today, according to a news flash).

Warmest congratulations to the RSS and the Bajrang Dal: perhaps they will now be encouraged to also start beating up normal farmers, shopkeepers, office workers, drivers, lab technicians, IT workers, heads of businesses, advertisers, ordinary housewives, and so on.

And, eventually, when it finally dawns on the exceedingly acute intelligence of the RSS and Bajrang Dal, that its terror tactics do not work on any and all of these, the RSS and Bajrang Dal will then no doubt rise to the ultimate masochistic height of beating each other too. Sphere: Related Content

Any Indian writings on technology? Or any writer on the history of technology in India?

I am working on collection of writings on technology and the good life.

However, I am finding it difficult to find any significant reflections by Indians on the origins, nature or effects of technology.

Equally difficult is finding anything significant on the history of technology in India.

Any suggestions? For those readers who know me personally, directly to me, please. Others can respond via my Blogsite of course. Sphere: Related Content

Baggage problems when flying?

Insurance claims for lost baggage almost doubled in the first half of this year, according to figures published today. The UK travel insurance company InsureandGo apparentlyreceived 2,094 claims between January and June, 85 per cent up on the number for the first six months of last year.

This is despite the number of passengers increasing only 1.4 per cent.

Well, that raises some questions, doesn't it. Why would a 1.4% rise in traffic trigger an 85% rise in the number of lost bags.

Could it have something to do with systematic underinvestment in baggage handling systems over several years? Sphere: Related Content

Facebook's technical problems

I see that Facebook, the social networking website, is scheduled to announce that it has broken into the UK’s top 20 most popular online destinations for the first time this week.

In the wake of its popularity, I have for some weeks now, been getting an invitation or two each day to accept them as my Contacts on Facebook.

Regretfully, due to a problem on the site that I reported some time ago, I can't actually accept any of these folk as Contacts, no matter how often I click the "Confirm" button.

So, till Facebook sorts out this problem, it will remain pretty unpopular with me! Sphere: Related Content

At the Wolfsberg Think Tank on "Leadership and Ethics" which I organised a few weeks ago, Dr Kim Tan, the Founder & Chairman of the British company, SpringHill Management Ltd., provided an inspiring presentation on the subject, "The Role of Ethical Business Leaders in Reducing Poverty".

What made the presentation inspiring was not all the theoretical points made, but rather the moving story of how he became involved in job creation combined with nature conservation on a mass scale (Addo Elephant National Park is the third largest national park in South Africa). The slides of his presentation are at:
http://www.wolfsberg.com/documents/Kim_Tan.pdf

Kuzuko Lodge is set to open soon. What a wonderful place to which to retreat for a luxury holiday - and in a malaria-free region!
http://www.legacyhotels.co.za/content.aspx?h=24 Sphere: Related Content

One of history's worst mass murderers is still the most honoured man in China

People become like their gods, goes an old Greek saying. We might modernise it as: "People become at least a little like their heroes".

So why is a man who was directly responsible for the deaths of some 70 million people, still the most honoured man in China?

I mean Mao, of course.

Probably the most exhaustive possible book on the man is titled Mao: the Unknown Story (just published by Vintage Books). Authors Jung Chang and Jon Halliday have, between them, produced nearly a thousand pages, based on ten years of research, including interviews with close associates of Mao as well as a massive number of other people who interacted at various levels and in various ways with him and his regime.

So we are not going to get a more authoritative look at the man in the near future anyway, and possibly not ever.

The book, like the man, is hard to engage with, and yet impossible to put down. You have unending documentation of his determination to grab and keep power, of the corruption that resulted, of Mao's unfeeling cruelties, and of his enormous ego. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that more than 70 million people were "eliminated" directly because of Mao's rule.

How could Indian Prime Minister Nehru and those around him have possibly got this man so totally wrong as to have considered him a "brother" of India? Days after being garlanded and feted in India, Mao ordered the attack on India which resulted in carnage of the Sino-Indian war (a huge amount of Indian territory is to this day held by China - and the current power-brokers in Inda are content to let all that slide in the interests of making money today). But those are sore matters. Let's not go there (as Americans say). Or not any further.

The point is that this power-crazed beast is, in spite of China's much-vaunted opening to the world, still the most honoured man in the country, with photographs everywhere and ritual homage still being done to his memory.

How can China ever expect to join the community of civilised nations as long as this man is not denounced by its elite? How can ordinary Chinese hope to have any chance of genuine freedom and dignity as long as this man is virtually deified in their country? Sphere: Related Content

The scandal of the commercial takeover of our intellectual life: the case of academic publishing

Is our intellectual life really being taken over slowly by commercial interests? I am met with incredulity when I make such a statement - at a party, for instance.

But consider the following incidents:

1. I am sitting at my computer looking for a particular quote to which I want to refer in an article that I am writing. On Googling it, I find it pretty quickly. However, I want to check the exact wording since it is some years since I read the particular piece, and my memory is not perfect :-)

So I attempt to access the piece via the hyperlink. It takes me to the site belonging to the publisher which demands a fee of $32.11 to give me access to it. That is quite a sum of money, for which I could easily buy a whole book, or even two. Exactly how many pages of material am I going to be able to buy for $32.11? In my case, ten pages - of which the particular piece in which I am interested runs for two pages (it happens to be a book review). In this case, I am not even given the option of being able to buy the two pages - I have to buy the whole book review section. As the material seems to be available from several sites, all of which lead to the publisher's page, I can only deduce that the publisher has deals with all these websites, so that the spoils are divided between the website that leads to the publisher's page and the actual publisher. Does the publisher really need to have such deals with these various websites? Is it not enough for the material to be listed on the publisher's website alone? Then, perhaps without the commission to the other websites, the material might be available to readers at a more reasonable price?

2. Here is a more egregious example. A friend who is an full professor at Oxford (let's call him Dr L) wrote an article a year or two ago and, perhaps because of the force of old established habit over the years, and certainly without any particular process of thought about it, signed away his copyright in the article to the journal publisher concerned - as one is increasingly required to do before articles and book reviews can be published. Another person (let's call him Dr S), a mutual friend, with whom I was breakfasting this morning, tells me that he wanted to translate Dr L's article into German so that it could be published in a collection of essays that he is editing for publication in Germany by a small academic publisher who will certainly not require the copyright but only the permission to publish a German translation of the original piece. Both Dr L and Dr S anticipated no problem from the Journal publisher, and permission was duly requested by Dr L in the usual formal way. But the permission has officially been denied by the publisher who (of course, now that it owns the copyright) does not need to give any grounds for denying permission.

Till a few years ago, it was customary for publishers to ask for only "first publication rights". Then this switched to the grant of copyright, though it was either written down or understood that this was merely a convenience for the publisher, and that no reasonable request for republication of the essay or article (for example in a book) would be withheld.

The whole situation has now changed, and publishers don't just want to make a reasonable profit on actually publishing articles, they want to extract the maximum profit from having acquired the intellectual property.

What rankles is that Dr L was not paid anything by the journal publisher for the original article and that the German translation and publication would be on a non-profit basis!

Conclusion: The sooner professors and others in academia stop collaborating with such commercial exploitation of their intellectual property the better.

How could they do so?

Simple.

Stop publishing in these print journals controlled by commercial interests, and set up peer-reviewed journals on the internet with full and free public acess. After all the salaries of our university academics are paid by citizens!

Alternatively, professors and other intellectuals should ask for royalties for the sale of their articles, in the same way as book publisher offer royalties on the sale of books.

After all, the intellectual property is created by the professor or intellectual. Those who risk their capital in publishing academic journals certainly deserve to make a reasonable profit. But why should the professor or intellectual get nothing if the ordinary member of the public has to pay to get hold of the intellectual property produced by the professor or intellectual? Sphere: Related Content

Mr Deichmann, the world shoe merchant

I had not heard of Deichmann when I started working in Switzerland, but soon there was no escaping his name. Specially as the Deichmann shoe empire grew and grew, and as his philanthropic activities grew in India, and then in Africa and Israel, and so on.

As a result, I came to admire the man greatly, even though I have never met him. Apparently, there was a biography of Deichmann published last year in German, but I was unaware of it, because I read German only when I have to, and certainly do not keep up with publishing in Germany.

The above is one set of facts which you need to know. Now put those aside, while we turn our attention to another set of facts which you need to know, before I bring everything together towards the end of this short posting.

Andreas Malessa is a radio and TV journalist and author. He came to our home to interview my twins, Suresh and Jyoti, about their novel Conspiracy of Calaspia, and their forthcoming new novel. Regretfully, I was not able to be there for the occasion. So Mr Malessa kindly left a "small present" for me. It turned out to be the English translation of Deichmann's biography, written by Hanna Schott and Andreas Malessa!

This was the first time that I became aware even of the German book, let alone the English one.

So now we come to synthesis of the two sets of facts above: I have finished reading the book very quickly. It is (somewhat unattractively for the English reader) titled Why are you rich, Mr Deichmann? and published by R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal, Germany.

The translation is perfectly comprehensible, but there are what may be called various "Germanisms" in the text, which give it a curious flavour. The book(all too briefly) covers the family's antecedents, Heinz-Horst Deichmann's experiences during the Second World War, how a medical doctor came to be one of the world's top shoe businessman, and his philanthropic and business activities. There is a brief section on the children, now that Heinz-Horst Deichmann's son Heinrich Deichmann has taken over the running of the business. And finally there is tribute by the old family friend Johannes Rau, then President of Germany, to Mr Heinz-Horst Deichmann.

The story is told very simply, almost sparsely. A few sentences cover the millions invested in philanthropy and, equally important, the months of time every year. The acquisition of imporant companies is covered in a sentence, sometimes less. So this is a rather understated story, whose full magnitude hits you only on reflection. A powerful story of an extremely rich man who enjoys life but lives modestly so that he can help humanity. Sphere: Related Content

The "N" Factor

The "N" stands for "networking" which of course existed long before the word came into existence - as is always the case. Even in the world of ideas and concepts, the idea or concept always pre-exists the creation of the word to describe it (at least in the world of ideas and concepts).

Well, there are probably thousands of books on networking, but I must confess that I have never read any of them, thinking them a waste of time, as I grew up in India where the art of networking has been taken, if not to its highest level, then to something pretty close to it.

However, since a couple of my friends, Adrie Reinders and Marion Freijsen, have not only written a book but even presented it to me, I had little option but to at least browse through it.

I must say that, as soon as one seeks to do so, this little book draws you into it. Not only is it "unputdownable", it is full of practical tips that any novice will do well to have in her/ his bag.

The best thing about the book is that it distinguishes between genuine networking, which consists of establishing a relationship, and what might be called merely increasing the number of visiting cards in your Rolodex or the number of addresses in your Excel.

However, even relationships (or networks) need to be managed! Reinders and Freijsen have created very helpful charts and tables. A systematic approach to networking is different from a merely intuitive approach to it - not that intuition is at all bad guide to relationships and to networking, but intuittion does need to be supplemented with systems.

They look at the role of events in enhancing networks, at sports and other interests. They examine the question of whether networks are transferrable (or can be passed on from one to another). They present various considerations in relation to charities, to e-networking tools, social networking tools, collaboration tools, networking in politics, the impact of culture on networking, et. al..

Higly recommended.

Adrie Reinders and Marion Freijsen, The N Factor, WBusinessBooks, California, USA, hardback, pp 148, $19.95

(see http://www.wbusinessbooks.com/) Sphere: Related Content

A minor debate on family origins

On my website, under Family History, I assert that the family: "used to reside at 30 Beharipur, Bareilly. From that, we guess that the family originally comes from Bihar, which was once much richer than what became known as the Upper Provinces under British rule (or Uttar Pradesh now)".

One of my relatives, visiting me recently, questions this. So, before anything else, I should amend the entry to read NOT "we guess" BUT "I guess".

Now the grounds for his questioning turns out to be "Beharipur" COULD also mean that the area of the town is dedicated to one of our gods.

My feeling is that there is some contemporary prejudice against Bihar on the part of my relative, as this is now one of the poorest and most lawless parts of the country!

However, to the grounds of his question: IF the area really was dedicated to this god, then there should certainly be a pretty old and massive temple in the middle of the area. As far as I know, though there is of course the usual plethora of temples in "our" area, there is NO "Behari Mandir" or equivalent.

I regard that as a pretty conclusive riposte - though, as always, I am open to fresh light on the subject. Sphere: Related Content

Bruce Katlin running a marathon to raise funds for Satya Niketan School in India

In one of my postings yesterday, I mentioned Bruce Katlin & his wife Terry Graziano, who are training to run a marathon to raise funds for Satya Niketan School.

Well, I have just received an email from him saying that it is the Portland Marathon that they will run on October 7. Here is the bulk of his message:

"My friends Rebecca and Chandra Kant Shourie have dedicated their lives, (their lives have been threatened just for teaching English to these children!) to providing the only English education at the school that they started, The Satya Niketan School (Home of Truth) to the poorest children who are considered the "lower caste". Some of these children can not afford the $4.95 monthly fee to attend classes.

"The conditions in the Nagod region are difficult and we are asking for your contributions so that the school can purchase a much needed generator to power the school's lights and sole computer. We need to raise $3000 by October 7th. Please contribute whatever you can afford via ITAG:
http://www.itagonline.org/index.php?id=2

To learn more about the Shouries, the school and what Terry and I are doing to raise money through our marathon, please visit our website at:
http://web.mac.com/brucekatlin/

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best Regards,
Bruce

Bruce Katlin
President
Katlin Consulting
+ 1 646 265 5009
http://www.blogger.com/www.katlinconsulting.com
bruce@katlinconsulting.com Sphere: Related Content

So the mini-subs are real

Readers with long memories may recollect stories of Russian mini-subs being sighted in the Norwegian fjords, and even tearing through fishermen's nets when (accidentally) snagged in them.

Ever since the 90s, I have asked various people whatever happened to the mini-subs since they have stayed out the news. But no one seemed to know.

Now, however, we do know. The mini-subs are not the figment of the Norwegian imagination. Nor are the mini-subs merely rusting somewhere. See the story "Russian subs dive to the Arctic Ocean Floor" (they mean mini-subs): http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,497774,00.html Sphere: Related Content

Indian resources on philanthropy

I am trying to put together a collection of readings from Indian traditions or sources on the subject of philanthropy.

Any suggestions are welcome - whether from ancient books and writers, or from more modern secular, Muslim, Indian Christian, Sikh, Jain, Indian Buddhist and other sources, agnostic, humanist, and so on.

You can send suggestions either to my e-mail directly (if you have it) or simply respond to this Blog in the usual way.

Many thanks! Sphere: Related Content

Education in India and the work of Chandra Kant and Rebecca Shourie

Readers who know me personally will be aware of my admiration for the work of Chandra Kant Shourie and his wife Rebecca, who founded Satya Niketan School in Nagod, Madhya Pradesh, Central India over 20 years ago).

Bruce Katlin, of Katlin Consulting in New York, is training to run a marathon to raise money for the school, and it will be wonderful if readers feel able to support his effort. As he points out, the school needs the equivalent of $3000 in order to buy a new electricity generator as their rather aged one is fading, and they need electricity in this extreme hot weather. The school started in the living room of the Shouries and has now expanded to 400 children. You can support a child's education there for about $5 a month!

Here is a brief and understated history of the school and of what it has achieved:


History of Satya Niketan
(Satya Niketan means the Home of Truth)

The year 2006 was the 21st year of Satya Niketan High School. What began as a small kinder garden class of 20 children, sitting on the floor on mats, and around an old dining table, in the our living room, (Rebecca and Chandra Kant Shourie) with both of us joyfully pouring out our love upon the children; has today grown to a full fledged High School, with 400 students. It is the only high school in the area providing quality education to the children of the Nagod District. The education is in English Medium so that the children get a chance to go forward in the world, equipped to address the challenges of higher education in the different fields which are opening up in our developing country.

Some of the satisfying fruits of our labours have been working with children from very poor homes, for whom it would never have been possible. Satya Niketan has graduated students who are working as Engineers, IT professionals, doctors and in many other fields, earning enough to lift their families out of the vicious cycle of poverty! Equally important, Satya Niketan has become an interface, a point of dialogue with the established society, in terms of challenging long held superstitions and beliefs which have been detrimental to the development of our society and nation. A point of challenge and change, as any educational institution, by its very definition ought to be.

To understand and appreciate the journey of Satya Niketan, it would be helpful and beneficial to understand the reasons and motivations that brought a couple like us to a backward and remote place like Nagod, and be motivated enough to give the best 25 years of our lives to the building of this school. Rebecca Shourie holds a MA (Hons) in English Literature, Delhi University, and BSc Nursing, Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur College of Nursing, Delhi, and Chandra Kant Shourie – holds a BE (Hons) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science.

A deep spiritual experience led us to commit our lives to serving our country. We are highly qualified and have had a number of top order career options lined up before us but instead of pursuing personal careers, we have opted to dedicate our lives to serve others. We feel strongly that the doctor is needed where there are sick people. So, we embarked upon a path which led us to the poorest and undeveloped parts of our country. As we cast ourselves upon this path, a series of events led us to the place called Nagod in the District of Satna, in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Nagod, is a small town, with a population of about 25,000 to 30,000 and serves as the centre – (administrative, market, social and political) for about 600 villages which surround it, each with an average population of about 1,500 to 2,000 people. Nagod has an old fort, which is still inhabited by the royalty of Nagod State (a small kingdom established in the thirteenth century, by Parihar Rajputs ), with the royalty of Nagod still enjoying power in free India. The oldest living Prince of Nagod is currently the Home Minister of State in the present Bharatiya Janata Party Government of Madhya Pradesh.

During the rule of the Parihars, the society was organized according to the Feudal lines - Landlords being given a number of villages as their fiefdoms, in return for their loyalty and allegiance to the king. Independence here has not made much of a difference in the daily routine of life – the difference it has made has been that now these Kings and Landlords have to fight elections (or rather put up credible facades of elections ) in order to maintain their fiefdoms and their influence over their constituencies instead of being born into privilege. This feudal system which is present in a unique form is in the northern part of India, and it is incorporated into the all pervasive caste system, which is still maintained in all its former glory and rigidity in these parts.

Our advent into this land exposed us to this society in a very dramatic way. Among other things, one of the things that we felt very deeply about was the lack of education in this area. There was hardly any education worth its name. In the early 1980’s if you happened to take a walk around the town, or around the villages, you would come across groups of young children between the ages of 8 to 15 sitting around, playing cards and gambling. Often these sessions would erupt into violence. We personally witnessed many such incidents.

We also found that the whole education scene was negatively commercialized leading to a complete breakdown of the system in this land. There are centres of examination where for a certain amount of money mass copying is organized. In the government schools, (which make up the majority of the schools) there is no teaching and during the exams, children are allowed to copy. This continues up-to the college level. As a result you have students with a first class Masters degree in English Literature and they cannot write a single sentence in proper English!

Along with these factors and the need expressed by some of the prominent people in the locality made us seriously think of using our education to promote a higher level of quality education amongst the children of this area. So, in 1985 we got a small group of children between the ages of 3 and 6 – around 20 of them, and started a small class in our living room. We had no money, no resources, we started with just - (can you believe it?) just 10 paise and a torn Rs.2 note in our pocket!

We had very good response from our first batch of students. Unfortunately this caused resentments in another quarter. The only other educational institution of some repute, which was being run in this town was Saraswati Shishu Mandir – an RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) a fundamentalist Hindu organization. They began to feel threatened and launched a defamatory campaign against us seeking to undermine the confidence of the people in our efforts. The two prominent accusations they used against us were one; that these people have no roots here, they can go away anytime, and then what will your children do? The other of course, was the communal card: that these people are Christians and they will make your children into Christians and spoil your religion.

This propaganda continued unabated for 10 – 12 years! The result was that in the higher classes we had very few students. However, we had made a commitment to the students who had come and their parents had put their trust in us. And, we made a commitment that even if we had only one student in our class we would still keep our part of the commitment. And we were put to the test. One year there was only one student in our tenth class!

Another cause of major opposition came from the high Caste people, especially the Brahmins (the priests) and the Ruling class and the Merchants. Their major problem was that we did not distinguish between the students on the basis of their castes. In fact, we encouraged the children from the poorer sections of society (in 95% of the cases poor meant lower Castes or untouchables), to get the benefit of education. We felt that was one thing which would enable them to break through the vicious cycle of poverty and its effects. This became a major factor with some of the high Caste people strenuously objecting to the fact their children were being forced to associate with people of low birth and that was having a detrimental effect on the upbringing of the child. Some of them went to the extent of taking their children away from our school for this very reason.

Finances have been and continue to be a very big challenge. The area here is very poor and the people do not have high paying capabilities – especially the people who really need the benefit of education. So we have had to keep our fees very low, so that it is affordable. Today we are charging a fee of Rs. 200 per month, (approximately, $4.94) and for a large number of people they are unable able to pay. Today, 25% of the students are either studying on a concession or we are giving them free education. The weather here can also be a challenge. During the rainy season we have many floods and we lose power and that is why we need a new generator to power the school.

Apart from the above problems, the other major challenge was to get qualified teachers. This proved to be the biggest problem. However, in miraculous ways during our worst times, help came from unexpected quarters – at different times we had volunteers from New Zealand, Australia, England, Holland and the United States, who came and stayed with us for periods ranging from 3 weeks to 2 years, and helped teaching in the school. Over the years the only sustainable solution that we managed to develop was to train some local people and teach them to teach. This was the only solution which would work long term. So, now we have a staff of about 20 people including the teachers, office staff and the staff running the vehicles.

Struggling with all these handicaps, 10 students from our first batch of students who started with us in 1985, appeared for their High School examination in the year 1905-06! That was a milestone. This year, our 12th batch of High School students will appear for their examination. It has been very encouraging that the students who have passed on from our school have done very well in their careers. Some have become engineers, some IT professionals, and some are working to become doctors! And a few have volunteered to come back and help us in the school for some time. That is very encouraging indeed.

So, over the years, as we have persevered. Today we today have the strength of 400 children studying from Kindergarten to class 10 - what we call High School. We still have shortage of space and staff, so the school runs in two shifts: morning shift for the Juniors and the afternoon shift for the Seniors.

We believe that we have made a significant impact in the local surrounding through the running of Satya Niketan High School and interacting with the children and their parents in this area. Over the past three years we have seen the school grow in terms of the number of children and the confidence, which the local people are now having in the school.

The two major arguments of the people committed to opposing us and wanting us to close down are: that we will leave and their children will be left in the lurch, and that we will convert their children to Christianity. Over the past 21 years both these accusations have fallen to the ground. We have not left in spite of great adversity and we have only tried to make the children better human beings.

We hope that we will be able to continue to serve the children of this land and the work that we have built up will be carried forward by the children who have caught the vision with which this work was begun.

Rebecca and Chandra Kant Shourie Sphere: Related Content

How much do people need to be paid to leave the Hindu fold?

According to Hinutva argument, I regret to say, they do not need to be paid very much at all.

As Mr. Vidya Bhushan Rawat put it in his article, " Equity of Faith in Secular India ?":
"For Hindutva, everybody who is dissatisfied with their faith has been paid a handsome amount of money to convert. Unfortunately, that is where the problem lies, as most of the converts are still much below the poverty line. If conversion had fetched good money and good life in monetary terms, I am sure the Brahmins, Banias and other upper caste Hindus would have been the first to grab the opportunity".

In fact, people who turn away from Hindu oppression are "rewarded" with social ostracism, discriminated against for employment, and are even beaten, raped or murdered. And yet people continue to leave the Hindu/ Brahminist fold in their thousands!

Many millions more would do so if only they dared. But, as Hindutva raises the stakes and makes it clear to what lengths it is prepared to go to preserve brahmindom, the people are becoming more and more willing to face the goons of the RSS and its allies.

So Hindutva needs to face the fact that its time in history is past. India has become irrevocably a secular state. The majority of Indians (composed, whether one likes it or not, of Dalits and OBCs) are much more likely to remain Hindus if they see a sensible Hindu community rather than the sort of power-crazed, proto-Nazi Hindutva groups that have been on view for the last few years.

The greatest enemy of the Hindus today are the Hindutva groups, just as the greatest enemies of Islam are the fundamentilist Al Qaeda and their ilk. Sphere: Related Content

Announcing an International Essay Competition (Fantasy Literature)

Do indulge a parent:

Sought After Media LLC (USA) has announced, in co-operation with Starbloom Ltd. (Ireland) and Nivedit Good Books Ltd (India), an international essay competition, based on the internationally acclaimed novel, Conspiracy of Calaspia, by my teenaged twins.

Entrants must have been born on or after January 1, 1982.

There are no other qualifications.

Essays can be up to 1,000 words.

Creativity and originality are the criteria on the basis of which an international panel of eminent judges will adjudge the top ten entries - totally independent of the writers, the publisher, the organisers and their families or employees. The panel of International Judges will be announced soon.

The ten winning essayists will be taken from their respective international airport for a 10-day literary tour of the UK, with the opportunity to have a partial-scholarship for the triennial Summer Institute of the C. S. Lewis Foundation from July 27-August 9, (a week each in Oxford and Cambridge).

There are one hundred runner-up prizes.

Recognising that the prize will tend to favour youngsters from privileged homes, the organisers have arranged for specific prizes for young people from Dalit ("outcaste"), inner-city, and other such backgrounds.

Information on the twins, the novel, the critical and popular acclaim are at: http://www.twins.guptara.net/

Information on the novel itself is at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy of Calaspia

Full details of the competition are at: http://www.calaspia-competition.com/


For your general information: the Italian-language translation of Conspiracy of Calaspia is on contract to be published next Spring from the largest Italian-language publisher, Mondadori, and the German-language and translation is due to be published by one of the oldest German-language publishers, Rowohlt, also next Spring Rowohlt has also selected Conspiracy of Calaspia as its lead novel for young adults for their 100th anniversary next year.

In fact, Mondadori and Rowohlt have signed up for the first THREE novels from the twins (I am not sure that I would have enough confidence in ANY 18-year olds to pay them solid money in anticipation of their producing work good enough to publish!). The twins are due to deliver the 2nd novel to them by the end of September this year and July 2008 respectively.

Conspiracy of Calaspia rose to number 2 on the overall Indian best-seller list (behind Kiran Desai's Booker Prize Winning novel!), and was therefore THE India best-seller for the fantasy section... Sphere: Related Content

When and where has the public trusted governments

Journalist Li Daton's article "Beijing baozi and public trust" in the latest issue of Open Democracy (http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/beijing_baozi#100) provides plenty of material for thought.

He writes:
"... in matters of public safety, public confidence in the government has been seriously eroded. People would rather believe rumours spread by their family and friends than announcements by the government. They have good reason. During the Sars epidemic, the government denied there was a problem; when the Songhua river disaster led to water supplies being cut off in the city of Harbin, the government claimed it was "fixing water pipes". Indeed, even officials from the state council information office admitted on 13 July 2007 that local governments "cover up 90% of negative news stories" and leave uncovered "less than 10%". In such a climate, it is hard for the public to entrust the government with its safety. This real and widespread public feeling is becoming a source of opposition to the government. But if the sentiment continues to build, it is not just the government that will be damaged: public safety too will be threatened - for safety cannot be built on rumours. It is self-evident that the key to solving the problem is political reform. A government that is not accountable to the public, not controlled by its vote, not forced by a free press to tell the truth, will inevitably find itself in a crisis of governance. In the end, both those in power and the public pay a heavy price."

Well, all I can say is that I hope political reform will come to Communist China but that is up to the elites in China.

The question that Li Daton's comments raises for me is: have governments always or never had public trust? Clearly neither. 100% is a difficult if not impossible to achieve in either direction, but 80% should be possible, or at least 60%. And yet as one surveys history and geography, it is astonishing how rarely people have trusted their government. There is a direct relationship between the behaviour of the rulers/elits and the degree to which the people trust them. Though there were individual kings or specific elites who acted on widely-agreed public service ideals, such individuals/ groups were few and far between.

The first systematic attempts to create systems and structures for clean and trustworthy government were attempted by the Hebrew people under the inspiration of their prophets - in other words, as far as I can discover, the Hebrews were the first people to go beyond general exhortation (such as is found in Buddhist, Hindu and other teaching around the world) and actually put into practice structural means of limiting the power of the king or elites and of holding them accountable.

However, that progress in human history went on the back burner, so to speak, as the Hebrew kingdoms disappeared after David and Solomon.

It was not till the 12th century rediscovery of the Hebrew principles in Europe, which led eventually to the Magisterial Reformations of Calvin and Cromwell, Zwingli and Hus and Luther and the rest, that these principles were put into effect again. Then of course, under the influence of the Radical Reformation, these Hebrew principles were put even more systematically into effect in the states that united to form the USA.

It was specifically due to the implementation of these Hebrew ideas that Europe and the USA arose from being some of the poorest areas of the world, to becoming some of the richest parts of the world.

Today, it is these Hebrew principles that are being universalised as globalisation marches on, leading to a conflict between the traditional exploitative ways of kings and elites in most of the world through history, and the new Hebrew-style expectations around the world. That is why traditional societies have to choose between their traditional ways of doing things and "modern" (i.e. ancient Hebrew) principles of governance and transparency and confession and reparation and repentance and so on.

It is not only China that has to choose but most of the rest of the world as well. That is one of the unseen and unrecognised drivers of world conflict today. Sphere: Related Content

Gideon's Tongue

The story of Gideon, found in the Biblical book of Judges chapter 7 is quite extraordinary. I don't mean the bit about his 300 men beating an army many times their size, "no more to be counted than the sand on the seashore".

Rather I mean the bit about the selection procedure for Gideon's band of 300. You know the story, Gideon marches 10,000 men to a spring and orders them to drink the water. Some of them kneel down to drink, while 300 "lap with their hands to their mouths...like a dog". These are the ones who are chosen.

Now I don't know when was the last time you had to drink from a spring. Kneeling down and putting your mouth directly to the water (which is what the majority of Gideon's lot apparently did) is not my idea of fun. In other words, I too would have bunched my fingers and my palm and scooped the water up to my mouth. But then I would have half-sucked and half-poured the water into my mouth.

In fact, I have tried to lap like a dog to check out the Gideon story, and I can tell you that you can't get much water into your system by that method.

So I can only surmise that the construction of the tongues of the humans of that time must have been rather like a dog's - and therefore rather different from mine (I can't speak for the rest of humanity on this point, as I am not a regular examiner of tongues and of their "lapping capability").

In any case, I regret that I would not have been of much use to Gideon. Sphere: Related Content

Dumbing down: the FT?

I am not sure how current the phrase "dumbing down" is outside the UK. But this British expression refers to the lowering of standards, specifically intellectual and linguistic ones.

Dumbing down is no doubt sometimes deliberate, but is usually the accidental by-product of structural changes, ownership, incentive systems, and so on.

This phenomenon started with British TV, which used to tower head and shoulders above TV in the rest of the world. BBC TV resisted valiantly for some years. Then standards at BBC Radio started crumbling and finally even atthe BBC World Service (Radio) - even though the latter channel continues to be the best in the world, its standards have certainly fallen from its heyday in the Sixties. Commercial interests continue to hammer and chip at this at the whole of the BBC.

In a sort of parallel movement, standards started falling at British newspapers. The great newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian (whatever one might have thought of their politics) slowly succumbed. The Independent has provided some challenge to that trend. However, I don't keep up with any of them, now that I have lived outside the UK for some 12 years.

But I do keep up with the FT, whose standards also started declining some years ago. I recollect writing to the Editor of the FT when I first noticed this trend, asking what the colour of someone's clothes had to do with the content of the particular front-page story, and whether such frivolity could be expected to continue.

No answer of course.

Now things have come to such a sorry pass that we find the following headline in today's edition (on the Net): "Pessimism manifests itself very effectively to produce the status of monetary liquidity, the driving force for a return to growth". This is not English. Rather, it is some kind of gibberish.

BTW, FT.com has also gone increasingly for advertisements on its site, presumably in order to make money. In principle, I have no objection to advertisements. They can be informative. They can even be entertaining. However, in their search for returns, the chiefs at FT.com have now started letting in advertising with kinetic content. This slows the site so much that reading FT.com is becoming a substantial waste of time. Sphere: Related Content

Should governments fund religious institutions?

I see that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded an end to the Indian government's funding of madarsas (institutions where Muslim children are taught their religious basics - but institutions where religious extremism, it is alleged, is also sometimes inculcated).

The Indian government has become gradually less non-transparent over the years, but there is still a lot of non-transparency left.

It will certainly be very helpful to Indian voters to see the extent to which the Indian government subsidises not only Muslim religious institutions (which are the 2nd most numerous in the country) but also Hindu religious institutions (which are the most numerous). Also of course, the smaller or "minority" religious institutions run, in order of size, by Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and others (as applicable).

Indian voters can then decide whether to continue, or to discontinue, subsidies to religious institutions.

Naturally, such a question applies not only to India. Similar questions can be asked in other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and other Muslim countries, or Sri Lanka and other Buddhist countries, and so on.

In the United States, a helpful distinction is drawn between (a) religious institutions themselves (such as churches) which are primarily for worship and religious instruction, and (b) the services provided by religious groups to society as a whole regardless of religious commitment or orientation - such as schools, universities, soup kitchens and so on which serve everyone.

The government does not fund the former, but is happy to support financially the latter in certain specified ways.

Naturally, there are vigorous debates and even court cases about where exactly to draw the line between (a) and (b), but the distinction is a good one to draw in principle.

Even more naturally, in a democratic country with a dominant religion (e.g. the USA with Christianity), there is no reason why the citizens of that country should not decide to fund the religious institutions (i.e. category (a)). But it is a mark of the political maturity of the USA that its citizens do not do so and choose only to fund categry (b).

Other countries, such as India, would do well to follow that distinction - even though I predict that it will be harder to maintain the distinction between (a) and (b) in countries such as India where corruption is widespread, and specifically where religious corruption is endemic. Sphere: Related Content

My response to Ross Mahoney's post on Professorships of War

Ross Mahoney wrote: "You can not make such a comparison between war and Hitler. That is to misunderstand the whole purpose of these Profersorship. We have for too long ignored the subject of war in academia. It has been vilified as the realm of the military and in doing this academic history has ignored the most important aspect of human history, war. To understand this is to try and grasp human nature itself. Is this not a cause worth understanding then I am not sure there is much else to bother with. War encompases all aspects of human history, therefore, it is right that these chairs are established to further our understanding. "

My response is:

1. Clearly all comparisons are by their very nature improper. That is, all comparisons are made for particular purposes. My purpose was to illustrate that focusing on a particular subject, by the very act of so focusing, enhances the status of that subject. I do not see that Mr Mahoney disagrees with me on this point.

2. However, Mr Mahoney asserts that the PURPOSE of having "professorships of war" is to "try and grasp human nature". This is a most interesting point, and were this to be so, I would expect the Professorship concerned to be titled something like "Professorship of Human Nature" with some suitable sub-title indicating that how this Professorship of Human Nature differed from (for example) psychological and sociological Professorships was that this one focused on examining war for this purpose.

3. In what I have read of the work of such Professors, I have not found a particular emphasis on understanding human nature. In all likelihood, this is simply my lack of suitable guides in the field, and I will be grateful to Mr Mahoney for drawing my attention to suitable works that do focus on this area.

4. It is a moot point whether "war encompasses all aspects of human history" or vice versa.

5. I have some experience of academia, in various capacities, since 1965. I am unaware of any ignoring or vilification of the subject of war or the military in academia. Again, this probably reveals the extent of my ignorance or unawareness, and I will be glad to have my attention drawn to any evidence of this. Studies of war have had a place in academia at least as long as acedemics has existed.

The list of writing on the subject is historically and geographically extensive, and would not have survived without at least minimal patronage from the elite (including the academic elite) - The Jewish Bible, the Koran, Kautilya, Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Frontinus, Gaius Julius Caesar, Renatus, and even Machiavelli (not The Prince but The Seven Books on the Art of War), de Saxe, Frederick the Great, Bonaparte, von Clausewitz, Jomini, Mahan, von Moltke, and so on, down to Mao, Che Guevara, Vo Nguyen Giap, and Schwarzkofp, Weinberger, Powell and so on, down to the present. Sphere: Related Content

_ivan's response to my post "Training, Coaching, Mentoring":

Ivan's comment was as follows:

"You base your final distinction partly on your definition of the word "coach". But this definition is largely an ethymological one. Ergo, you hinder the development of the language on historical grounds.I would do the same, but I find people countering me saying that the language has evolved, and that "coaching" and "mentoring" mean the same now. Are there any official guidelines that specify whether the meaning of words are that of their origines or that of the majority?"

As someone who accepts neither Darwin's theory of evolution at the macro level (I do accept it on the micro level), nor the idea that all "progress" is good, I naturally resist attempts to foist new words and new meanings simply because they are new. Old words and meanings are sometimes more accurate and therefore more serviceable than new ones.

The whole point of my piece was to argue that there is a sensible distinction to be made between the content suggested by the word "coach" and the content suggested by the word "mentor", and that it is therefore right for us to make that distinction.

However, to answer your specific question: No, there are no "official guidelines" - because there is no official body concerned.

Moreover, in these matters, where official bodies exist (e.g. the Academy in France), they have seemed to fight a losing battle - linguistic ignorance and misuse swell like the sea, without regard for linguists and Academies.

Nevertheless, at least some of us should be thinking about these things and encouraging the right use of words. Without linguistic and grammatical discipline in general (or at least agreement between two parties in dialogue), communication becomes impossible. Sphere: Related Content

Pierre Schlomo Presley's comment on my post "On Corporate Sustainabilty Reports and the Guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative":

Pierre Schlomo Presley wrote:

"I imagine the simple answer has to be that it doesn't affect their short-term stock price. Economics has failed us in the sense that we rely heavily on a system of attributing value that seems unable to, in a nod to Rumsfeld, price "known unknowns", much less "unknown unknowns" into the costs of doing business. Will it take a tragedy on the scale of the Stein report to give us some "knowns" that will incite us to focus on the long-term?" Sphere: Related Content

Response by Anh Khoi Do, to my post "Iran Nuclear Intentions Revealed":

Apologies to Mr Anh Khoi Do!

I had somehow overlooked his response to my above-named post. Here is his comment:

"The West might also fear Iran, because it has reached the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Even though the Iranian president affirms that this program is solely meant for pacific purposes, let it be said that Iran doesn't recognize Israel as a country. Furthermore, by being able to produce nuclear weapons, Iran, one of the countries that sponsor the Hezbollah, might also provide the Hezbollah with this kind of weapons. " Sphere: Related Content

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel

Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,496003,00.html

I was kicked out of India during the days of the Emergency for, among other reasons, publishing (in the University newsmagazine I was resonsible for at the time) Solzhenitsyns' Nobel Prize Winning Speech, "One Word of Freedom".

So I have always had a sort of highly personal interest in Solzhenitsyn's work.

This interview with him is the most recent that is available, and reveals his latest thinking.

Though I think he is fundamentally (but understandably) mistaken about the concept of Russia about the Orthodox Church, about Putin, and many other topics, there is no doubt of his honesty, his commitment to truth, his moral courage, and his literary achievement (which is also an achievement in terms of historical and political discourse). Sphere: Related Content

Professors of the History of War, Of Nazism, of Hitler...

There has been an ancient interest in War Studies (under one rubric or another).

However, I find that at least THREE universities now have a "Professor of the History of War" (Boston University in the USA, Oxford University in the UK, and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands).

I have mixed feelings about this development.

On the one hand, in theory, it should be possible to study all kinds of subjects, even the worst kinds of evil.

On the other hand, the very act of studying anything enhances its status.

Especially if a Professorship is involved at an eminent university.

To illustrate: if we had a Professorship of Hitler Studies, would that not rather inflate the eminence of Hitler?

I know that such a Professorship exists in a certain novel, not sure if one or more of these exists in fact.

I do know that there are Professors of Nazi Studies (and cognate matters), and I am extremely uneasy about those too.

Professors of German Studies (or some such) are fine, even if they focus on Nazi Germany or on Hitler, because that puts the evil in a historical and geographical context, without raising the evil to eminence on its own.

Similarly, while we need to study War, I should have thought it better always to put war in the context of politics and international relations and so on, rather than focusing on war on its own and thus giving it needless and inapporpriate importance .

Conclusion: abolish Professorships relating to War and rename the relevant Professorships. Sphere: Related Content

Priestly sex abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church

So the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has paid for $660 million to some 500 people who claimed to have been sexually abused.

Regretfully, this is often the way with big corporations, and with states however big or small (and, the Roman Church, which claims to be divine, is an interesting mixture of corporation and bureaucracy).

Organisations will usually do anything and everything to find scapegoats while hindering public scrutiny of the organisation.

What of secular virtues such as transparency? Accountability?

What of "religious" virtues such as confession and repentance?

What of organisational common sense - analysis of what is wrong with the organisation that it has produced such massive allegation of wrong-doing in so many countries, so that what is systemically wrong can be remedied?

Don't ask.

Because if you did, you might have to examine some curious pagan ideas (celibacy, an elite priesthood, an infallible CEO) which have been ensconced in this Church for centuries. Sphere: Related Content

Executions in China

A couple of days ago the Wall Street Journal reported that, following the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu the former head of China's food and drug safety agency, there has been a lot of discussion about the number of executions in China.

Even though "execution numbers are murky", it says that apparently China carries out more executions than the rest of the world combined.

However, in a gnomic final aside, it says that "there is evidence that China's rate of executions, which is high, is dropping". It would be interesting to know what the evidence is and, if the overall picture is "murky", how anyone can conclude anything at all from whatever evidence exists.

But there is something in the human mind that yearns to make sense of everything around us, because of which we tend to believe whatever we hope or fear might be the case.

It would be much better to call on the Chinese government to make all the facts available - then we would have at least something like a proper factual basis for coming to some unarguable conclusions. Sphere: Related Content

4.4 billion people moved by airports in 2006

That's the news from the Geneva-based Airports Council International (ACI), which has 1,640 airports operated by its members from 178 countries. Presumably at least a few airports are not members, so the number must be larger in fact....

But even if we take the figure provided by the ACI, it means that, on average last year, something like one out of every two people in the world took a flight somewhere.

I don't know if you have noticed, but the era of cheap air travel seems to be coming to an end. The airlines are trying their hardest to keep it cheap, but they do have to make money. And even when they offer a particular flight for nearly zero cost to the customer, fuel surcharges alone are higher now than the complete flight used to be not long ago.

My guess is that most people are still flying (1) because they feel they have to - e.g. on business;(2) because they have relatives that they feel they *must* visit - e.g. at a wedding or the birth of a child or a funeral; and (3) because they are not yet used to the idea of flying being too expensive - e.g. for holidays.

As the price of flights, but even more important now the *inconvenience* of flying because of flight delays and security measures, comes to rest in people's consciousness, more and more people are expressing a distaste with the idea of flying - though that does not seem to have dented the willingness of these folk to travel (I think that applies to me too, except in the case of holidays, when I have started to avoid travelling if at all possible).

Might we expect that, sooner rather than later, the love of flying (and the love of motor cars, which is associated) will drop dramatically?

Logically, one should think so. Yet there is a prophecy in the Bible that as the world speeds towards its end, travel will only increase and increase. Is it the case that people will refuse to adapt? Or that newer forms of travel will become possible technologically, due to which travel will become even cheaper, more hassle free and (extremely important) environmentally friendly?

I don't know. But I wouldn't bet against any prophecy in the Bible. It seems to have been proved too right over too many hundreds of years to tangle with it.

So I wait to see how this conundrum is resolved, between on the one hand the Biblical prediction that world travel will increase and increase, and on the other hand the reality of flights becoming more and more expensive, frustrating and (at least in the awareness of an increasing number of people) environmentally unacceptable. Sphere: Related Content

The Case of Shambo, the Temple Bull in Wales

The facts of this case are sufficiently in the public realm for me to not have to retail them in this Blog.

But I thought I ought to make public the fact that I have today written to the relevant Minister in the Welsh Government as follows:

"Dear Minister

I understand that your Government has decided to appeal against the judgment provided by His Honour Judge Hickinbottom on 16 July 2007.

His Honour's judement notes that Swami Suryananda's interpretation of Hindu beliefs maintains that "there is a spark of divinity in all animals". However, it seems to have failed his notice that "all animals", in the Indian tradition, includes not only include cows and bullocks, dogs and cats, and so on, but also bacteria and bacillii.

Given the grounds on which the judgment is provided (the protection of the rights of these sorts Hindus in Britain), it would be improper to destroy not only bulls and cows who might be suffering from dangerous diseases, but also bacteria and bacillii themselves, whether of tuberclosis or of any other variety.

In other words, it becomes entirely impossible to fight infectious diseases.

This idiotic interpretation of Hindu belief is rejected by most thinking Hindus today, whether in Britain, in India, or in other countries.

I therefore wish to express my support to your Government for appealing against this Judgment. " Sphere: Related Content

Christian gullibility?

Most christians are probably as gullible as the rest of the population.

From yesterday, some well-meaning friends started drawing my attention to various posts to the effect that "A report in Sunday Express magazine quotes a British Secret Service,MI6, report that some 200 million Christians in 60 countries aroundthe world are at risk of suffering persecution."

However, I cannot find the original report anywhere! So is this a hoax?

I started searching for the original report because:
- "MI6" is journalistic misnomer for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, the correct abbreviation for which is "SIS"
- the role of SIS is to provide the British Government with a global covert capability to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom. What is happening to Christians around the world is no concern to the government of the UK (except incidentally), and is therefore no concern of the SIS. The SIS operates world-wide to collect secret foreign intelligence in support of the British Government's policies and objectives, which do *not* include the promotion or protection of christianity - Britain is in fact a secular state with atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims in top positions in government, industry and society.. As far as I know, the sorts of subjects on which the SIS focuses are: regional instability, terrorism, weapons proliferation and illegal narcotics.

However, there is no particular reason to doubt the scale of the problem. The figure of "200 million Christians in 60 countries around the world at risk of suffering persecution" may well be accurate.

The curious thing is that people are always at risk of being legally or illegally persecuted or suffering ostracism or calumny or mockery for becoming christians. Yet they continue to become christians in such large numbers. Shoorely shomething rong hir?

As a follower of Jesus I regret the continuing massive confusion caused by the propoganda machines of the various christian churches between becoming christians on the one hand (an external and ritual-oriented matter) and the internal matter of following Jesus the Lord with the consequences that has in one's life and relationships. Sphere: Related Content

The terrible things that British missionaries did in India during the days of the Raj

A friend draws my attention to the following site, which consists of (very) short stories taken from the published memoirs of a man who used to be a missionary in India.

One's worst suspicions are confirmed by the on-line book, QUITTING INDIA Short Stories from the British Raj: http://www.brow.on.ca/Books/QuittingIndia/QuittingIntro.htm Sphere: Related Content