Politics won't fix it

By : Alutha Jamancar

 

Politics won't fix what ails our world. Politics is designed to move various existing solutions in and out of favor.

 

The reality of the world as we have known it, has lost its "stickiness," its cohesiveness. It is expiring. We can't patch it up, fix it up, make it better, or swing the clock back to an earlier era.

 

It is not the case that one political party or the other has gone mad and is to blame. Everyone – despite evidence to the contrary – did not suddenly take 'stupid' pills in the course of the last 5 years. The tribal agreements, paths, emotional & psychic watering holes that sustained us, have disintegrated before our very eyes. There is shock, disorientation, & a reflexive clawing at tattered remnants of culture, of safety, of familiarity. As we cling to those remnants & point at the 'other,' the remnants continue to disintegrate.

 

We are alone. Nobody did this to us. It happens. The model of the world, our world, is expiring. A model – this kind of model – is a collection of myths, of stories, we repeat to one another endlessly. Some of us agreed with the myths, some rebelled against the myths. All of us defined ourselves by them. And those stories, those myths, are losing their cohesiveness. They have aged, and are rotting. They will need to be replaced.

 

We do the replacing naturally. We moved from nomads to city-builders. We moved from tribal groups to elaborate empires. We moved slave- & property-owners to free-thinkers. We moved from empire to dark ages, from renaissance to industrialized workforces, from colonies to self-governing nations. The movement is never automatically from dark to light. We have had many dark periods in our long shared histories. Each transition between "world models" or continuums was disruptive by definition, and tumultuous at best. Cherished identities & roles disappeared, livelihoods vanished, new roles – and new rules – appeared, often times seemingly at random. Power, control, and authority shifted, splintered, and re-formed.

 

This is what lies ahead. And politics won't *fix* it. At the rate of disintegration, it won't even forestall it anymore.

 

There are immediate stop-gap measures that can be taken – get food to a town in Somalia where 3000 children are starving. Fight for rights of workers to have safe workplaces. Work to create easier access to the internet for distressed populations. And if addressing any of these short-term problems are what you feel called to do – great. But creating a new continuum – a new model of reality – is the overriding priority going forward. Otherwise that 3000 turns to 3,000,000, struggling workers turn to rioters, and distressed populations become managed by gunships. That is the future that beckons, if we fail to create a more compelling continuum. If you aren't working on that new continuum, you had better be supporting someone who is – and who is effective.

 

So stop looking to political leaders for solutions, and stop bickering with whomever you disagree with. Neither will help you face … or create … the future.

* * *

 

Our personal identities are wrapped up in the stories we persuade the world to tell about us — to "agree with," essentially. Lack of privacy … means we lose control of our narratives, our own mythos. Even today, people are struggling with sharing formerly privately-held political views … on the internet. They are often … finding themselves forced to defend or abandon … previously closely identified ideas and stands. Who they are … who they associate with … who they tolerate / admonish / admire … is now undergoing a rapid kind of axe-grinding.

We are forced … in the gaudy lights on the internet … to be more starkly defined, less nebulous. One scandal, one 'perceived' black mark … and you are discarded and scorned by one of the many zeitgeist mobs roaming the digistratus.

The richness, complexity, multilayeredness … of Jung's Self … is being flattened. We are — using the ongoing erosion of privacy — reducing ourselves to Ones or Zeroes.

Pretty much every historical figure admired today … was also a scoundrel in certain circles. An unrepentant mess.

We are trading our mess for plastic & vinyl, and are the worse for it.

Quotes about ancient Indian contributions

"Without the study of Samskrit one cannot become a true Indian and a true learned man."
    -- Mahatma Gandhi

"If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her finest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Samskrit language and literature and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will the basic genius of India continue. If our race forgot the Buddha, the Upanishads and the great epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata), India would cease to be India ."
    -- Jawaharlal Nehru

"Samskrit language, as has been universally recognized by those competent to form a judgment, is one of the most magnificent, the most perfect, the most prominent and wonderfully sufficient literary instrument developed by the human mind."
    -- Sri Aurobindo

"Samskrit has moulded the minds of our people to the extent to which they themselves are not conscious. Samskrit literature is national in one sense, but its purpose has been universal. That was why it commanded the attention of people who were not followers of a particular culture."
    -- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

"The language of Samskrit is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more exquisitely refined than either. Human life would not be sufficient to make oneself acquainted with any considerable part of Hindu literature."
    -- Sir William Jones

"Samskrit was at one time the only language of the world. It is more perfect and copious than Greek and Latin."
    -- Prof. Bopp

"Samskrit is the origin of modern languages of Europe."
    -- Mr. Bubois

"Samskrit is the unsurpassed zenith in the whole development of languages yet known to us."
    -- Wilhelm von Humboldt

"The intellectual debt of Europe to Samskrit literature has been undeniably great. It may perhaps become greater still in the years that are to come. We (Europeans) are still behind making even our alphabet a perfect one."
    -- Prof. Macdonell

"Samskrit is the greatest language of the world."
    -- Max Muller

"India was the motherland of our race and Samskrit the mother of Europe’s languages…Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all."
    -- Will Durant

"If Samskrit would be divorced from the everyday life of the masses of this country, a light would be gone from the life of the people and the distinctive features of Hindu culture which have won for it an honoured place in world-thought would soon be affected to great disadvantage and loss both of India and of the world."
    -- Sir Mirza Ismail  

"We are deeply indebted to the Indians. They have shown us how to measure and count. If we had not known their invention of zero and the facility it affords in counting we would not have been able to make any new invention at all".
    -- Albert Einstein

"However grateful we may be to Hindus who had discovered the decimal calculations, this is definitely not adequate for what they deserve. Such a method did not flash even to the intelligence of the greatest mathematicians of the west like Archimedes, Aparonious and many great men of Greece".
    -- Laplace

"Contacting all types of people and studying the names in the languages indicating the numbers, I have not come across anybody counting beyond 1000. Even the Arabs have stopped there.... But Hindus have gone much further and named numbers of eighteen digits also".
    -- Al Beruni

"Pythogorus theorem is found in Shulabasutra as Brahmagupta's theorem, two centuries before Pythogorus".
    -- Dr. Fiebout

"What was called in Surya siddhanta as Trikonamiti a type of mathematical calculation, was well developed in India before the Greeks had known about it. Besides, the theorems there were not known in Europe even two centuries ago".
    -- Elphinstone

"I have many evidences to say that before 1695 when Gottfried Leibniz, a German philosopher, found the binomial method of counting, India had achieved remarkable progress in this field".
    -- B. N. Newton

"Land of religions, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of tradition. The land that men with intellectual bent desire to see, and having seen once even by a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of the rest of the globe combined."
    -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries."
    -- Julius Robert Oppenheimer

"Indian philosophers' subtleties make most of the great European philosophers look like schoolboys."
    -- T. S. Eliot

"The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural real way of life. We westerners veil ourselves with unnatural masks. On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creator's hand."
    -- George Bernard Shaw

"There is space in its philosophy for everyone which is one reason why India is a home to every single religion in the world."
    -- H. G. Wells

"Wherever we direct our attention to Hindu literature the notion of infinity presents itself."
    -- Sir William Jones

"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was as if an empire spoke to us nothing small or unworthy but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."
    -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the history of the world the Vedas fill a gap which no literary work in any other language could fill. I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his intellectual development, a study of the Vedic literature is indeed indispensable."
    -- Professor F. Max Muller

"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life; and it will be the solace of my death. They are the product of the highest wisdom."
    -- Arthur Schopenhauer

"I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganga --- astronomy astrology metempsychosis etc., ... It is very important to note that some 2 500 years ago at the least, Pythagoras went from Samos to the Ganga (Ganges) to learn geometry. But he would certainly not have undertaken such a strange journey had the reputation of the Brahmins' science not been long established in Europe."
    -- Francois Marie Voltaire

"India has created a special momentum in world history as a country to be searched for knowledge."
    -- Friedrich Hegel

"It strikes everyone in the beginning to form an acquaintance with the treasures of Indian literature, that land so rich in intellectual products and those of the profoundest order of thought . ."
    -- Friedrich Hegel

"The Greeks loved so much Indian philosophy that Demetrios Galianos had even translated the Bhagavad-Gita. There is absolutely not a shadow of a doubt that the Greeks knew all about Indian philosophy."
    -- Roger-Pol Droit

"There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit" adding that "India is not only at the origin of everything, she is superior in everything intellectually religiously or politically, and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison."
    -- Frederich von Schlegel

"The Veda was the most precious gift for which the West had ever been indebted to the East."
    -- Voltaire

"The vastest knowledge of today cannot transcend the buddhi of the Rishis in ancient India; and science in its most advanced stage now is closer to Vedanta than ever before."
    -- Alfred North Whitehead

"To the Indian Rishis the divine play was the evolution of the cosmos through countless aeons. There is an infinite number of creations in an infinite universe. The Rishis gave the name kalpa to the unimaginable span of time between the beginning and the end of creation."
    -- Dr. Fritjof Capra

"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."
    -- Herman Hesse

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny."
    -- Henry David Thoreau

"India - the land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for a perfect life but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship, all are known to the seers who founded the Veda."
    -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"The Vedas and the Upanishads are India's proudest and most ancient possessions. They are the world's oldest intellectual legacies. They are the only composition in the universe invested with Divine origin and almost Divine sanctity. They are said to emanate from God and are held to be the means for attaining God. Their beginnings are not known. They have been heirlooms of the Hindus from generation to generation from time immemorial."
    -- Hans Torwesten German

"The Vedic literature opens to us a chapter in what has been called the education of the human race to which we can find no parallel anywhere else."
    -- Professor F. Max Muller
  

"The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a single minute from the tables of Cassine and Meyer (used in the 19th century). "The Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest and that from which the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and even the Jews, derived from the Hindus their knowledge."
    -- Jean-Sylvain Bailly

"The motion of the stars calculated by the Hindus before some 4500 years vary not even a single minute from the tables of Cassine and Meyer (used in the 19th century). "The Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest and that from which the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and even the Jews, derived from the Hindus their knowledge."
    -- Jean-Sylvain Bailly

"Hinduism the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religions."
    -- Aldous Huxley

"How entirely does the Upanishad breathe throughout the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is every one who by a diligent study of its Persian Latin has become familiar with that incomparable book stirred by that spirit to the very depth of his Soul!"
    -- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws; moreover the former is never made a condition for the knowledge they teach but there are always scrupulously careful to take into consideration the possibility that by reason both the agnostic and atheist may attain truth in their own way. Such tolerance may be surprising to religious believers in the West, but it is an integral part of Vedantic belief."
    -- Romain Rolland

"The Gita the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue."
    -- Julius Robert Oppenheimer

"Hinduism is synonymous with humanism. That is its essence and its great liberating quality."
    -- H. G. Wells

"India has left a deeper mark upon the history the philosophy and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe."
    -- Lord Curzon (Viceroy of British India 1899 - 1905)

"It was only my first meeting with the Indian philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless."
    -- William Butler Yeats

"It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by ten symbols, each receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value, a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions, and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."
    -- Pierre Simon de Laplace


"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."
    --  Carl Sagan "Hinduism the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religions."
    -- Aldous Huxley

"How entirely does the Upanishad breathe throughout the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is every one who by a diligent study of its Persian Latin has become familiar with that incomparable book stirred by that spirit to the very depth of his Soul!"
    -- Arthur Schopenhauer

"Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws; moreover the former is never made a condition for the knowledge they teach but there are always scrupulously careful to take into consideration the possibility that by reason both the agnostic and atheist may attain truth in their own way. Such tolerance may be surprising to religious believers in the West, but it is an integral part of Vedantic belief."
    -- Romain Rolland

"The Gita the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue."
    -- Julius Robert Oppenheimer

"Hinduism is synonymous with humanism. That is its essence and its great liberating quality."
    -- H. G. Wells

"India has left a deeper mark upon the history the philosophy and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe."
    -- Lord Curzon (Viceroy of British India 1899 - 1905)

"It was only my first meeting with the Indian philosophy that confirmed my vague speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless."
    -- William Butler Yeats

"It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by ten symbols, each receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value, a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions, and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity."
    -- Pierre Simon de Laplace


"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."
    --  Carl Sagan   

Emperor's New Cloths

 (Copied from other source, just writing it here to keep myself a copy as a reminder, my mother once told me this story when I was a kid.)

A translation of Hans Christian Andersen's "Keiserens nye Klæder" by Jean Hersholt.

Many years ago there was an Emperor so exceedingly fond of new clothes that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared nothing about reviewing his soldiers, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, "The King's in council," here they always said. "The Emperor's in his dressing room."

In the great city where he lived, life was always gay. Every day many strangers came to town, and among them one day came two swindlers. They let it be known they were weavers, and they said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.

"Those would be just the clothes for me," thought the Emperor. "If I wore them I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts. And I could tell the wise men from the fools. Yes, I certainly must get some of the stuff woven for me right away." He paid the two swindlers a large sum of money to start work at once.

They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and the purest old thread which they demanded went into their traveling bags, while they worked the empty looms far into the night.

"I'd like to know how those weavers are getting on with the cloth," the Emperor thought, but he felt slightly uncomfortable when he remembered that those who were unfit for their position would not be able to see the fabric. It couldn't have been that he doubted himself, yet he thought he'd rather send someone else to see how things were going. The whole town knew about the cloth's peculiar power, and all were impatient to find out how stupid their neighbors were.

"I'll send my honest old minister to the weavers," the Emperor decided. "He'll be the best one to tell me how the material looks, for he's a sensible man and no one does his duty better."

So the honest old minister went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at their empty looms.

"Heaven help me," he thought as his eyes flew wide open, "I can't see anything at all". But he did not say so.

Both the swindlers begged him to be so kind as to come near to approve the excellent pattern, the beautiful colors. They pointed to the empty looms, and the poor old minister stared as hard as he dared. He couldn't see anything, because there was nothing to see. "Heaven have mercy," he thought. "Can it be that I'm a fool? I'd have never guessed it, and not a soul must know. Am I unfit to be the minister? It would never do to let on that I can't see the cloth."

"Don't hesitate to tell us what you think of it," said one of the weavers.

"Oh, it's beautiful -it's enchanting." The old minister peered through his spectacles. "Such a pattern, what colors!" I'll be sure to tell the Emperor how delighted I am with it."

"We're pleased to hear that," the swindlers said. They proceeded to name all the colors and to explain the intricate pattern. The old minister paid the closest attention, so that he could tell it all to the Emperor. And so he did.

The swindlers at once asked for more money, more silk and gold thread, to get on with the weaving. But it all went into their pockets. Not a thread went into the looms, though they worked at their weaving as hard as ever.

The Emperor presently sent another trustworthy official to see how the work progressed and how soon it would be ready. The same thing happened to him that had happened to the minister. He looked and he looked, but as there was nothing to see in the looms he couldn't see anything.

"Isn't it a beautiful piece of goods?" the swindlers asked him, as they displayed and described their imaginary pattern.

"I know I'm not stupid," the man thought, "so it must be that I'm unworthy of my good office. That's strange. I mustn't let anyone find it out, though." So he praised the material he did not see. He declared he was delighted with the beautiful colors and the exquisite pattern. To the Emperor he said, "It held me spellbound."

All the town was talking of this splendid cloth, and the Emperor wanted to see it for himself while it was still in the looms. Attended by a band of chosen men, among whom were his two old trusted officials-the ones who had been to the weavers-he set out to see the two swindlers. He found them weaving with might and main, but without a thread in their looms.

"Magnificent," said the two officials already duped. "Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!" They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff.

"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I can't see anything. This is terrible!

Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! - Oh! It's very pretty," he said. "It has my highest approval." And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn't see anything.

His whole retinue stared and stared. One saw no more than another, but they all joined the Emperor in exclaiming, "Oh! It's very pretty," and they advised him to wear clothes made of this wonderful cloth especially for the great procession he was soon to lead. "Magnificent! Excellent! Unsurpassed!" were bandied from mouth to mouth, and everyone did his best to seem well pleased. The Emperor gave each of the swindlers a cross to wear in his buttonhole, and the title of "Sir Weaver."

Before the procession the swindlers sat up all night and burned more than six candles, to show how busy they were finishing the Emperor's new clothes. They pretended to take the cloth off the loom. They made cuts in the air with huge scissors. And at last they said, "Now the Emperor's new clothes are ready for him."

Then the Emperor himself came with his noblest noblemen, and the swindlers each raised an arm as if they were holding something. They said, "These are the trousers, here's the coat, and this is the mantle," naming each garment. "All of them are as light as a spider web. One would almost think he had nothing on, but that's what makes them so fine."

"Exactly," all the noblemen agreed, though they could see nothing, for there was nothing to see.

"If Your Imperial Majesty will condescend to take your clothes off," said the swindlers, "we will help you on with your new ones here in front of the long mirror."

The Emperor undressed, and the swindlers pretended to put his new clothes on him, one garment after another. They took him around the waist and seemed to be fastening something - that was his train-as the Emperor turned round and round before the looking glass.

"How well Your Majesty's new clothes look. Aren't they becoming!" He heard on all sides, "That pattern, so perfect! Those colors, so suitable! It is a magnificent outfit."

Then the minister of public processions announced: "Your Majesty's canopy is waiting outside."

"Well, I'm supposed to be ready," the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. "It is a remarkable fit, isn't it?" He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest.

The noblemen who were to carry his train stooped low and reached for the floor as if they were picking up his mantle. Then they pretended to lift and hold it high. They didn't dare admit they had nothing to hold.

So off went the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, "Oh, how fine are the Emperor's new clothes! Don't they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!" Nobody would confess that he couldn't see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.

"But he hasn't got anything on," a little child said.

"Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?" said its father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, "He hasn't anything on. A child says he hasn't anything on."

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last.

The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at all.

Mikhail Gromov on Education

"Look at the number of people like Abel who were born two hundred years ago. Now there are no more Abels. On the other hand, the number of educated people has grown tremendously. It means that they have not been educated properly because where are those people like Abel? It means that they have been destroyed. The education destroys these potential geniuses—we do not have them! This means that education does not serve this particular function. The crucial point is that you have to treat everybody in a different way. That is not happening today. We don’t have more great people now than we had one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred
years ago, starting from the Renaissance, in spite of a much larger population. This is probably due to education....

...The question of education is not obvious. There are some experiments on animals that indicate that the way you teach an animal is not the way you think it happens. The learning mechanism of the brain is very different from how we think it works: like in physics, there are hidden mechanisms. We superimpose our view from everyday experience, which may be completely distorted. Because of that, we can distort the potentially exceptional abilities of some children. There are two opposite goals education is supposed to achieve: firstly, to teach people to conform to the society they live in; on the other hand, to give them freedom to develop in the best possible way. These are opposite purposes, and they are always in collision with each other. This creates the result that some people get suppressed in the process of adapting them to society. You cannot avoid this kind of collision of goals, but we have to find a balance between the two, and that
is not easy, on all levels of education.

There are very interesting experiments performed with chimpanzee and bonobo apes and under which conditions they learn, or even how you teach a parrot to talk. How do you do that? The major factor is that it should not see the teacher. You put a mirror between you and the parrot and then you speak behind the mirror. The parrot then sees a bird—it talks to a bird. But if it sees you, it will learn very badly. That is not an obvious thing. The very presence of a teacher, an authority, moves students in a particular direction and not at all the direction the teacher wants them to move. With all this accumulated evidence, you cannot make any simple decision. If you say “do this and this,” you are wrong for sure. Solutions are not obvious; they can only come after analyzing deeply what is actually known and by studying the possibilities. I think the answers will be unexpected. What children can learn and what they cannot learn, we don’t know because we don’t know how to conduct experiments to be ethical and instructive at the same time. It is a very nontrivial issue, which has not been studied much."

To Save or to Spend?

Interesting article written by an Indian Economist.

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billion.. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports.Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India.Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billion in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities.Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US - It’s The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US!

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India. We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India.

Why the world is after the US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. Thatthe US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The result:The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money.

It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillion, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC's coming down to India, seeing the consumer spending.

'Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.'

But before you follow this Neo Economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend !!!

It is very simple to be happy, but very difficult to be simple.

Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh Lyrics - 3 Idiots

Behti hawa sa tha woh
Udti patang sa tha woh Kahan gaya usse dhoondo
Behti hawa sa tha woh
Udti patang sa tha woh
Kahan gaya usse dhoondo
Hum ko to raahein thi chalati
Woh khud apni raah banata
Girta sambhalta masti mein chalta tha woh
Hum ko kal ki fikar sataati
Woh bus aaj ka jashn manata
Har lamhe ko khul ke jeeta tha woh
Kahan se aaya tha woh
Choo ke humare dil ko
Kahan gaya usse dhoondo
Sulagti dhoop mein chaaon ke jaisa
Raigistaan mein gaaon ke jaisa
Mann ke ghav pe marham jaisa tha woh
Hum sehme se rehte kooein mein
Woh nadiya mein gotey lagata
Ulti dhara cheer ke tairta tha woh
Baadal awara tha woh
Yaar humara tha woh
Kahan gaya usse dhoondo
Hum ko to raahein thi chalati
Woh khud apni raah banata
Girta sambhalta masti mein chalta tha woh
Hum ko kal ki fikar sataati
Woh bus aaj ka jashn manaata Har lamhe ko khul ke jeeta tha woh
Kahan se aaya tha woh
Choo ke humare dil ko
Kahan gaya usse dhoondo

Himmat Karne Walon ki haar nahi hoti

Himmat Karne Walon ki haar nahi hoti

laharon se dar kar naiya paar nahi hoti!

nanhi chinti jab daana le kar chalti hai

chadhati diwaron par sau baar fisal ti hai

man ka vishwas ragon me saahas bharata hai

chadh kar girna, gir kar chadhana na akharata hai

aakhir usaki mehanat bekar nahi hoti

koshish karane walon ki haa nahi hoti

dubkiyan sindhu me gotakhor lagaate hai

jaa jaa kar khaali haath laut aata hai

milate na sahaj hi moti paani me

baghata duna ulhas hansi hairani me

mutthi uski khali har baar nahi hoti

himmat karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti

asafalata ek chunaiti hai, swikar karo

kya kami rah gayi, dekho aur sudhar karo

jab tak na safal ho, neend chain se tyago tum 

sangharsh karo maidan chodo mat bhaago tum

kuch kiye bina hi jay jaykaar nahi hoti

himmat karne waalon ki haar nahi hoti

Why Socialism fails??

An economics teacher at a local school made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Gillard/Brown socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. 

The teacher then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the Gillard/Brown plan". All grades will 

be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. 

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. 

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. 

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. 

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the teacher told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, and gives to those who do nothing, no-one will try

Or want to succeed. 

It could NOT be any simpler than that. 

Remember, there IS a test coming up.--->> The next election.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You can not legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Can you think of a reason for not sharing this? Neither could I.

Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara

jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara (2)


sada shakti sarsaane wala
prem sudha barsaane wala
viro ko harshaane wala
matrbhumi ka tan-man sara (2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara


swatantrta ke bhishan ran me
lakh kar josh badhe kshan kshan me
kaanpe shatru dekh ke man me 
mit jaye bhay sankat sara(2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara (3)


is jhande ke niche nirbhay
lekar aaja yaha avichal nishchaya..
bolo bharat mata ki jay
swatantrta he dhyey hamara (2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara


Aaoo pyare veeron aaoo,
desh-dharm par bali bali jao
Ek saath sab milkar gaao,
pyara Bharat desh hamara; (2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara (2)


is ki shan na jane paye
chahe jan bhale hi jaye
vishw vijay kar ke dikhalaye
tab howe pran purn hamara (2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara




Sadaa shakti sarsaane vala,
prem sudha barsaane vala
Veeron ko harshaane vala,
matribhoomi ka tan-man sara; (2)


jhanda uncha rahe hamara
vijayi vishw tiranga pyara (3)

Face Problems don't run away from them

One morning in Sarnath, after visiting the temple of Mother Durga,Swami Vivekananda was passing through a place, where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. Here, he was surrounded by a troop of large monkeys. They were not willing to allow him to passâ ¦and there was no other way. As he tried to walk past them, they howled and shrieked and clutched at his feet. As they pressed closer, he began to run; but the faster he ran, the bolder the monkeys got and they attempted to bite at him. When it seemed impossible for him to escape, he heard an old sannyasi calling out to him: "Face the brutes!"  The words brought him to his senses. He stopped running and turned majestically to boldly face the irate monkeys. As soon as he did that, they fell back and fled! With reverence and gratitude he gave the traditional greeting to the sannyasi, who smilingly responded with the same, and walked away.

Be Bold.. Be Strong.. Be Heroes..

I got inspiration from this and had a similar experience

I used to stay in hostel during my engineering n daily morning used to go to a near by shiva temple which was in the middle of a farm land full of trees.

One day I went to the temple.. stayed there for a while n then 2 girls came to the temple.

I was meditating, after pooja they sat at one end, after a while they left n came back within few minutes.I thought boys must be there waiting to tease them that is why they didnt go. I came out, took a turn at the end & saw that there were around more than 20 monkeys sitting in the middle of the small road. Initially I thought to go back n wait for sometime as the monkeys might attack, but a thought occurred to me, I remembered Swami Vivekananda’s story.

I decided to see what happens.I knew its risky bcoz these were wild monkeys. Although all of them were sitting beside the road, the moment I took first step, one monkey almost came very close to mehowling and shrieking near my feet, then rest all monkeys sat in the middle of the road, facing towards me as if they are threatened and they are about to attack.

I saw into its eyes n took another step ( convincing myself that I believe Swami Vivekananda n nothing will happen to me) they all cleared the road, My friends from hostel terrace were watching this, when I went back to hostel, they were saying I wanted to become hero infront of girls and that is why I did that. I said no, n told them the real intention n inspiration was Swami Vivekananda’s Story.

Android based blogger app

I am posting first time from android based app..

DID YOU KNOW?

1 MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'.

2. POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

3. BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

4. FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

5. DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped..

6. NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S..

7. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.

8. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's business.

9. QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest..

10. TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.

11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle (GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.

12. Coca-Cola was originally green.

13. The most common name in the world is Mohammed..

14. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

15. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.

17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

18. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

19. It is impossible to lick your elbow.

20.. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

21. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

22. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

23. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
>> Spades - King David
>> Clubs - Alexander the Great,
>> Hearts - Charlemagne
>> Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

24. Horse Statue in a Park…
>> If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
>> If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle
>> If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

25. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. - All invented by women.

26. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

27. A snail can sleep for three years.

28. All polar bears are left handed.

29. Butterflies taste with their feet.

30. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

31. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

32. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

33. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

34. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

35. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

36. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

37. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

38. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

39. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

40. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

41. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matchbox.

42. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Chasing Your Dreams

Like Andy Murray some people are chasing big dreams most of which are going to be unachievable. Remaining loyal to your principles, honest & transparent to your friends & family & putting the best effort & sacrifice every day to move closer towards the dream will gain you the admiration & respect of the people around you. If you are chasing the big dream, chances are that, like Andy Murray, you might end up in tears from time to time. However, as long as you remain honest to your values & principles, you will move on to your next challenge enjoying a bigger support & reputation than you ever had before.

Windows Executable Walkthrough

Today while going through hacker news came across a wonderful link about Windows Executable Walkthrough so decided to post it here so that you guys can have a look at it.

Let me know what you think of this walk through.

C# Function to get Geo Coding Using Google Maps Geocoding API

 using  Newtonsoft.Json;

    public class GeoLocation
    {
        public decimal Lat { get; set; }
 
        public decimal Lng { get; set; }
    }
 
    public class GeoGeometry
    {
        public GeoLocation Location { get; set; }
    }
 
    public class GeoResult
    {
        public GeoGeometry Geometry { get; set; }
    }
 
    public class GeoResponse
    {
        public string Status { get; set; }
 
        public GeoResult[] Results { get; set; }
    }

private Dictionary<string, string> getLatLong(string address)
    {
  Dictionary<string, string> diclatlong = new Dictionary<string, string>();
  string url = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=" 

                + Server.UrlEncode( address) + "&sensor=false";
        WebResponse response = null;
        try
        {
         HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
         request.Method = "GET";
         response = request.GetResponse();
         if (response != null)
         {
           string str = null;
           using (Stream stream = response.GetResponseStream())
           {
            using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(stream))
            {
             str = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
            }
           }
            GeoResponse geoResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GeoResponse>(str);
            if (geoResponse.Status == "OK")
            {
             int count = geoResponse.Results.Length;
             for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
             {
        diclatlong.Add("Lat", geoResponse.Results[i].Geometry.Location.Lat.ToString());
        diclatlong.Add("Lng", geoResponse.Results[i].Geometry.Location.Lng.ToString());
             }
            }
            else
             {
              diclatlong.Add("Lat", "");
              diclatlong.Add("Lng", "");
             }
            }
        }
        catch
        { throw new Exception ("JSON response failed."); }
        finally
        {
            if (response != null)
                {
                response.Close ();
                response = null;
                }
        }
        return diclatlong;
    }

I have used JSon.NET Library

Calculate Age Function

private int CalculateAge(int year, int month, int day)
        {
            int age = 0;
            age = DateTime.Now.Year - year;
            if (DateTime.Now.Month < month)
                age--;
            if (DateTime.Now.Month == month)
            {
                if (DateTime.Now.Day < day)
                    age--;
            }
            return age;
        }

HTML Email Template Outlook

 Problem : You want to create a HTML template (Such as HTML formatted Email template to circulate within the organization, mentioning the latest Updates etc) in Outlook 2010


Solution : 
1. Create Your HTML design
2. Copy the HTML & the images to this folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Stationery
3. Give a proper name to your HTML file so that in templates you can easily identify it
4. Open Outlook 2010, Go to  File > Options > Mail > Click on Stationery and Fonts
5. Click on Theme button under Personal Stationery Tab
6. Choose your theme from the left list Click Ok & close all Windows. Now when you create a new email you can see your theme loaded.


Let me know if you need any more details :)

Raavan Film Behene de mujhe Song De Lyrics

Arrey aankh se boondh gira koi, chingari ka tukda jala koi
Umeed ko aag laga zara, sehra ki pyaas buja zara
Umeed ko aag laga zara, sehra ki pyaas buja zara
Gan itna baras ke galne lagun main paani ke upar tarne lagun
Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Ohooo.. behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Behenede ghangor ghata, behene de paani ki tara
Sagar mein ja girna hai, behene de nadiyan ki tara


Sharrt lagi hai marr jaane ki, jeena hai to pyaar mein
Deha kahin bhi ho mera, jaan rakhi hai yaar mein
Beh ja, beh ja, hai sagar ka kehna
Beh ja, beh ja, hai nadiya ko behena
Patte se tapakti boondh ki awaaz sunayi di thi
Nadiya mein tapak kar gum ho jayo


Beh gayo beh gayo, jo reh gayo reh gayo
Beh gayo beh gayo, jo reh gayo reh gayo
Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Ohooo behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Behene de ghangor ghata, behene de paani ki tara
Sagar mein ja girna hai, behene de nadiyan ki tara


Mera pal pal ang ang bar diya, tune jaan pe junoon sa kar diya
Mera hai kya jo main haar doon, jaan teri hai tujhpe vaar doon
Doob gaye jo suna hai saare tere dere aate hain
Dil ke chulu mein bechaare dubkiyan ghote khaate hain


Beh ja, beh ja, chal tod kinare ko
Beh ja, beh ja, dhar le majdhare ko
Chingari udha ke raakh se ik boondh gira ke aankh se
Chalne ke ishaara kar gaya, kar gaya, kar gaya
Sab bhar gaya, bhar gaya
Kar gaya kar gaya, sab bhar gaya bhar gaya


Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Ohooo behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Behene de ghangor ghata, behene de paani ki tara
Sagar mein ja girna hai, behene de nadiyan ki tara


Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Ohhoo behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de
Behene de ghangor ghata, behene de paani ki tara
Sagar mein ja girna hai, behene de nadiyan ki tara