Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Thinking about India

As with many other things, Mark Twain puts it best. Amazing how accurate the description is today even though 115 years have elapsed since the publication of the book


“This is indeed India; the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a thousand nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations—the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”


—Mark Twain, Following the Equator, 1897

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Attempted Military Coup in Bangladesh

Another year and another coup attempt in Bangladesh. Absolutely shocking news:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=35229

I was also surprised to see the extent of the Army's business enterprises! Surely, given their large government subsidies, they shouldn't be allowed to have profitable businesses as well?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10801268