India
Articles about India, a country with a rich history that many people know far less about than they think they do.
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2019-03-25 |
India is a fun country, with some deep internal strife and colorful history. Basically, being that it was very tribal, classist, and diverse (geographically, and culturally), it had the divisions that comes with that diversity and competition.
One thing I've noticed is that while their culture values family, community and consensus -- based on ancient tribalism. This makes for a great culture with tons of festivals, get-togethers, and families are generally tight. People that belong to any tribe (whether school, sports club, etc) hold those ties strongly. The ones that expatriate to America are especially willing to belong to their new tribes, and when you're inside their circle are wonderful and warm -- but can be less so for those who are outsiders and threats.
The downside is that while Indian culture makes many Indians great friends to have... when their tribalism and consensus translates to government, it creates friction. Government demanding consensus and conformity tends towards bureaucracy, hegemony, nepotism/corruption, and committees. (And a parliamentary government doesn't help moderate that).
So the biggest things that helped India was that they were once a British Colony, and learned British bureacracy, governance, language, and gained in infrastrucutre, it (and their culture) also contributed to holding them back. Their parliamentary socialism has lead them to put up protectionist barriers, and their bureaucracy makes it harder to succeed there, compared to when they leave. Which becomes obvious by Indians that came to America, and greatly out-perform the average American AND average Indian in India. Some of that is selection bias. But it proves that the talent and motivation was there (and has been for thousands of years), and the biggest reason there wasn't more success in India, was that their systems/culture/government was in the way. Many had caterpillars had to leave to become the butterflies that they always were.
Here's a few articles on India:
- Buddhism - The philosophy originated in India, but traveled to China, Japan and influenced much of the Orient. Many cultures have a mythology that goes along with the tales of their ancients, and Buddha is no exception. There is a lot of mythology associated with his life. But in common is how a human learned peace, self-discovery and enlightenment through meditation.
- Cobra Effect - The disastrous outcome in Colonial India. There were too many poisonous snakes, so the Brits offered a bounty on them. So people started breeding them for bounty. The government cancelled the bounty, and the cobras were set free: increasing the total population.
- Global Massacres/Bombay bombings (1993) - 🇮🇳 Mumbai (Bombay), India: in strict gun-controlled India, 12 bombs were set off, killing 257 people, done by a local mob boss (of D-company) in retaliation for riots that had killed 900 muslims (and injured 2,000), 5 years earlier. Initial reports had higher numbers, but that was due to bombings in Calcutta (that killed 60 and injured hundreds more), but was later found to be unrelated.
- Global Massacres/Delhi bombings (2005) - 🇮🇳 Delhi, India: in strict gun-controlled India, 3 bombs went off over 30 minutes, killing 62 people and injuring 210, it was believed to be an Al-Quds Day attack ("Kill an infidel for Allah"), initiated by Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini, as a protest against Israel and United States (really just Westernization) and in support Palestine Muslims.
- Global Massacres/Jaipur Bombings (2008) - 🇮🇳 Jaipur, India: in strict gun-controlled India, 9 bike bombs in 7 locations were timed to funnel people towards bigger kill zones. It was claimed as an anti-Hindu attack, but might have been Bangladeshi nationals, and the government responded by kicking out 50,000 Bangladeshi migrants.
- Global Massacres/Mandwi massacre - 🇮🇳 Mandwi (Tripuru), India: in strict gun-controlled India, local tribal Tripuri insurgents decided to wipe out and drive out the minority Bengalis. While some fled, ≈400 had their heads crushed, limbs severed, women had their stomachs slit open, children were spiked through.
- Global Massacres/Mumbai Train Bombings - 🇮🇳 Mumbai, India: in strict gun-controlled India, 7 pressure-cooker bombs went off over 11 minutes and killed 209 people (700+ injured). There was also an unrelated grenade attack that killed 8 in Srinagar on the same day, but those are a semi-regular occurrence
- Global Massacres/Mumbai attacks (2008) - 🇮🇳 Mumbai, India: in strict gun-controlled India, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists committed 12 shootings and bombings over 4 days, killing over 175 people. Police had missed warnings, it took 10 hours to get commandos to the scene. This after they had decades to plan and train from the prior attacks.
- Global Massacres/Mumbai car bombings (2003) - 🇮🇳 Mumbai (Bombay), India: in strict gun-controlled India, twin car bombs went off at lunchtime in Jewelry District and Tourist attraction, killing 52 and injuring 300. The three Pakistani's believed responsible were captured and put to death. They did it to avenge anti-Muslim riots.
- Global Massacres/Rafiganj train wreck - 🇮🇳 Rafiganj (Bihar), India: in strict gun-controlled India, Maoists sabotaged and derailed a train on a bridge over the Dhave River. If the 1,000 passengers, 130-200 died, 150+ were injured. There's dispute over whether it was sabotage and supporting plates had come off in the crash, been stolen for scrap or it was a terrorist attack.
- H-1B - There's a program called the H-1B visa. It’s a complete fraud, that I support. Sorta. But in a perfect world, we'd fix it much better.
- India/Mass Murders - In strict gun-controlled India, they still us AK-47's and other illegal guns, but worse, they're more likely to use bombs and coordinated attacks, or even sabotage (train derailments). That and slow Police response times (due to infrastructure and traffic problems) results in much higher death rates than in many other countries.
- Jungle Book (2016) - I wasn't that interested in seeing the new live-action Disney Jungle Book: the original books being creepy and dark, with singing. But it was all the rage in India (and I work with India a lot), so I checked Rotten Tomatoes and it was a high 95/92% approval, and I figured, I might as well see it, for social value. It was over-rated, but not bad.
- Milton Friedman goes to China - There’s a famous economics fable of Milton Friedman going to China (or India), and discovers them using men with shovels instead of earth moverrs to make a canal. When asked, they say it's to create jobs. Milton suggest using spoons instead. The point of the allegory is to show that less productivity is economic waste, and that politicians don't get economics.
- Tesla/India obstructing automakers - India's response to Tesla is a great lesson in leftist economics (or anti-economics). They think they're winning by failing to compare the seen benefits to the unseen costs. (The latter being the point of economics). They put up barriers to sales/innovation (protectionism), and it only protects them from the growth and opportunities they would have had.
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