Why only farmers protest

Feb 2024 – India, France, Poland, Wales – farmers are protesting against the government. The reasons are various:

• Indian farmers demand purchase guarantee from government
• France- easing regulations for building reservoirs, crop disease.
• Polish farmers are against competetion from Ukrainian grains.
• Broader Europe – against green policies like diesel price hike, free trade with MERCOSUR (Latin American) farmers, compulsory afforestration, ban on pesticides/GMOs

^{Welsh farmers protesting 2024 seems clean aesthetic, vs. Indian farmers}

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But, why other professions do not protest.

• Farmers get free time in winters, unlike other professions who have work around the year
• Farmers have big machines, manures – convinient to block roads.
• Farmers are pampered lot, everyone is sympathetic to them. They can called “anna-data” in India, and are exempt from paying Income Taxes. In other countries:
  • [France is biggest agri producer in EU. Agri subsidies in 1980 accounted for 70% of the EU expenditure, in 2021 it accounted for 25%] e.g. intervention price is set. If the internal market price falls below the intervention level then the EU will buy up goods to raise the price to the intervention level. EU also has Common Agricultural Policy – direct subsidies based on area of farmland (thus “decoupling” from produce, means they are accepted in the “Blue box” category of subsidies in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture)
  • But, New Zealand is reputed to have the most open agricultural markets in the world. As the country is a large agricultural exporter, continued subsidies by other countries are a long-standing bone of contention,[20][21] with New Zealand being a founding member of the 20-member Cairns Group fighting to improve market access for exported agricultural goods.
  • In USA, Corn was the top crop for subsidy payments.

_{The true meaning of ‘misanthrope’ was prophesied by a broad type of people. They did not hate humans; they had contempt or just amusement for what humans did. His mistrust of human beings makes him see through their facades. Everyday misanthropes can see clearly the absurdities of herd behaviour. – Manu Joseph.}

I am a misanthrope for seeing such things.

Innovation is overrated

A joke goes like this. A student asked Einstein, “how did he become so smart”. Einstein said, “I did the reading”. Same goes for being fit or economic development. It is common knowledge, bread and butter.

How did Singapore or China became rich. They did the hard work, focussing on capitalism. Singapore hardly did any innovation. But, how many countries leaders are statesmen, who can selflessly uphold rule of law, rather than misusing law to enhance their power and pursue vendetta.

No AI-drones-Blockchain can help India, because we cannot do the basic.

I was surprised to learn that one of the benchmarks of innovation ie. Jet Engines, was not innovated by Soviets, but was copied from UK. Even today, only 3-4 countries can make them. China, despite its technological advancement, cannot.

Why Delhi/India has most polluted air: because India is poor compared to other countries. Hence, it cannot afford to shut down any economic activity (like construction) because people live from hand to mouth. Where as China can do it, without its people starving.

There is no technological innovation which can clean Delhi’s air. It is simply not a priority for the destitute masses, according to a 2019 ADR survey on governance issues and voting behaviour 2018.

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew said, …. “ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps … improve the standard of living for the majority of its people. But Lee took steps to ensure that the majority couldn’t impose its culture on the country’s minorities.

herded the satay and chicken-rice vendors cluttering the sidewalks into spacious food courts, cleaned up rivers, planted trees and zealously fined citizens, especially the superstitious who believed in ejecting the “evil spirits” lurking in one’s throat, who splattered Singapore’s roads with spit.

“Essentially, these laws are passed so that foreign tourists will come to Singapore,” he wrote in 1973 in The Great Railway Bazaar, “and, if the news get out that Singapore is clean and well disciplined, then Americans will want to set up factories and employ the non-striking Singaporeans.”

Lee Kwan Yew’s legacy is his method of ensuring that one generation won’t bankrupt future generations by selfishly living beyond its means. It’s a welfare state that works, and one he always said was available to any political leader with the courage to tell his people the truth about the limits of government’s power to pass out goodies.

Best of 2023

1. Book: Party Members [2016] – a dark comedy about power and greed in modern Communist China. The cynicism, dog-eat-dog lawless jungle of China resembles India of today. This is the funniest book I have read in a long time. My kind of humor unpolitically correct but needs some background knowledge about CCP to appreciate.

“Yang Wei was born into mediocrity. It wasn’t his fault. Very few of us are born into greatness and even fewer of us inherit it, but Yang Wei had the entire mah-jongg table stacked against him. Genetically, he was the product of thousands of years of uneducated peasant stock; the heavens were filled with the watchful eyes of his inglorious ancestors who had passed countless dynasties unquestioningly shovelling dung from behind herds of more valuable water buffalo. Culturally, he was the result of a moribund educational system, a society short on innovation and creative thinking, and a family with no vision beyond their next chance at a free banquet. A citizen of a country of over a billion people; Yang Wei was just that: not one in a billion, but one of a billion.

Excerpt From
Party Members
Arthur Meursault

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2. Film: Tumbbaad [2018] on PrimeVideo

It’s a dark thriller based on Indian mythology, using the metaphor of greed instead of stale horror tropes. There are no songs, no noise of romantic sub-plots. Just direct story and aesthetics from first shot. If there is one movie which can compete with western movies it is Tumbaad. Hard to believe such a perfect movie is from India.

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3. TV series: The Shield [2002-2008] on PrimeVideo

This was on my watchlist since long and I was happy to see it finally being available in India. The show is about an occassionally corrupt but always effective cop Vic Mackey. He doesn’t follow rules, because he trusts his judgement to know what’s right and wrong. For Vic, loyalty to family and friends is the ideology.

Vic: You hear about Gilroy?
Shane: What, is he back in town?
Vic: Yeah. Spilling his guts at the morgue. Drank himself to death. They’re gonna bury him tomorrow, you should be there.
Shane: I wanted the guy dead.
Vic: Well, you got your wish. It’s about his wife and kids now.
Shane: Are you forgetting he threatened your family? He hung you out to IAD?
Vic: Money and pussy make man do evil shit. But before all that, he was a friend.

The Shield S4E2 – Grave

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follow up of Best of 2021

Where we stand

Around the period of 2014-15 I used to read the montly magazine Economist cover to cover. I was surprised to learn that the foreign visits of Indian leaders were not even mentioned. So many agreements were signed about trade and security which were glowingly covered in our TV news and newspaper. To consumers of Indian media, they were made to sound significant. But, if we look at actual outcomes, is there any change in ground reality.

Every September, India and Pakistan exchanged words at UNGA in New York, and Indian diplomats gave a “befitting reply.”

The U.N. is the accepted forum for the expression of international hatred. – Sir Humphrey Appleby

In early 2000s, similar was the status of Indian cricket. There was a feeling of injustice with umpire Bucknor giving Sachin out. Just like the poor Pakistanis feel today, other cricketing countries can ignore Pak and not tour there.

Every Indian political leader should have this income list on his phone and office.

Average Chinese person is now richer than avg Russian.
GDP per capita U$D (IMF 2021), pre Ukraine war figures:
China 11.8k
Russia 11.6k
Brazil 7k
RSA 5.4k
India 2.2k
Vietnam, Philp = 3.6k
Ukraine, SL = 3.8k
Indonesia 4.2
Iran 8k
Mexico,Turk,Arg= 9.2k
Greece 19.6k  (poorer European country)
Egypt 3.8k 
Syria, Palestine 3k

Rank 140 in per capita income, Rank 130 in Human Development Index.

Why India is not poor:

• Indians are not entrepreneurial like Western countries. False, because there is very less formal employment. We see a lot of vendors, shopkeepers.
• Indians are not skilled, False. Because even an bus driver in India is more skilled, but earns less.
• Indian students are not good. False. 
• Indian families and social life is much more stable and non-voilent.

Hence, the weakest link is the Indian government. 

If India were to disappear tomorrow, will the world miss anything, any field in which we are pioneers. This was true 2000 years ago (Buddhism religion) or 1000 years ago (Ellora Caves) or 500 years ago (Taj Mahal). Today, we are not the world’s teacher (Viswaguru) in anything.

Tech Panopticon

Panopticon definition– a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed. Without the prisoners ever being sure if they are being observed.

Social media and tech has made us unfree. Atleast in leadership roles, no independent minded person can get appointed or nominated. Government/board of a company scrutinises views of executives/ judges and senior bureacrats on social media. Whether they are singing happy birthday and praising the dominant ideology. If they show signs of critical mind, they will not be selected. As a result, degenracy has set in and slowly leadership of any institute will not show any creativity or independence. In pre-digital era there was atleast a chance of someone with thinking brain or spine, can get selected by mistake.

Further, this will change the nature of man, when people will become subconsciously compliant and subservient. We already see decline in creativity in media and films.

I was reading an article about a chinese spy based in China, communicating through gmail. Just by using that email id, US government easily accessed his whole personal life and family from Apple using iCloud, Photos app, etc.

Michel Foucault who gave the concept of also Panopticon, also writes why modern legal punishement has become impersonal, where the monarch cannot be blamed, like in earlier days of public hangings. Today democracies are as centralised as monarchies, but the punishments are hidden through layers of bureacracy. So, that the leader cannot be blamed for injustices, even though these inflictions are due to his action/inaction.

Nothing else matters

What is the greatest global challenge in past 80 years ie. the end of WW2 and Indian independence. Environment, ideology, religion, socialism, gender are distractions. The most important thing that matters is whether the country is rich and developed. Then its people regardless of ideology will be comfortable. A minority gender, minority ethinicity, political minoirity – poor citizen in rich country like USA, is doing better and is safer than average person in poor country.

But, it is rare for a country to go “from third world to first”. 75-80 years is a huge time and countries which have not developed are not on the way to be developed either. Either you have it or you don’t. Most of the countries have remained poor, with few sparks of high growth but no consistency.

Let’s see which non-Western countries today have made the jump. World average US Dollar income is 12k, 64 countries are above it. List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita: 2023 March data – i.e. non Western countries, which were backward in WW2.

Qatar – 50k (oil economy, tiny population)

Singapore – 60k (truly developed, with self-governance)

50k – Israel (Jews from Europe and the former Soviet Union and their descendants born in Israel, including Ashkenazi Jews, constitute approximately 50% of Jewish Israelis.) So, in my controversial view, they are fundamentally European, even German in their education and work culture. And Germans are the most advanced ethnicity amongst the already successful westerners. Best of the best.

Hong Kong  – 50k (developed under British rule)

UAE, Brunei, Kuwait – 40k (oil economy, tiny population)

Japan, Taiwan, South Korea – 35k. . Japan was as developed as Western countries before WW2. Taiwan developed much during Japanese rule pre WW2. During the Japanese period school attendance for Taiwanese children increased from 3.8% in 1904 to 71.3% in 1943. South Korea developed indigenously post WW2, although compared to Singapore, it had much more support from USA and inspiration from Japan.

Oman, Iran, Saudi – 25k (oil economy, tiny population)

Seychelles – 20k – highest in Africa, but population is only 1 lakh.

Total countries = (Asia 48 countries, Africa 54, 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12 in Oceania)

To conclude, apart from oil economies, among the 140 countries of Asia, Africa, South America – only Singapore and South Korea have developed. Rest can never be winners, if they started as losers.

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“Nothing Else Matters” is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica.

Favorite female characters

Dominique Francon in The Fountainhead, fiction book by Ayn Rand

Dominique is protagonist Howard Roark’s lover. Dominique appreciates art and culture. She believes in excellence of man, but she’s also a pessimist because the majority populace are mediocre.

Hence, she predicts what today is happening in democratic states. Whether is USA or UK or India, society seems to be in decline, giving in to vices, and these democratic short-termism is deciding the course of politics. In India we are currently offended by religion, actors, books, but not from bad economy and voilation of individual’s dignity. In USA, smartest leaders in tech and business, pay heed to bizarre identity politics and environmental goals. It is not that they are not aware of what’s the truth, but it is counter-productive to resist such policies in democractic climate.

Dominique, is hence a pessimist about any greater goal being pursued and gives up on the world. She even undermines the briliant Roark, married his obsequious rival Keating, because she wants to fit in the mediocre world. But later she joins in Roark’s struggles as she gets convinced that idealistic goals can be achieved. So, she thinks critically and is able to change her views independently.

unrelated picture of Dominique McElligott

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Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with The Wind by author Margaret Mitchell.

Scarlett is the most humane protaganist ever created. Flawed and stubborn like a child. Wanting what she does not get and ungrateful for what she has. She is selfish in her romantic pursuits. She is from a conservative landowning family in American South. Hence, she is spoiled, is expected to be demure and be dependent on male family members. But when adversity strikes in the form of civil war, she takes the leadership role, providing for her family. Hence, her innate hardiness makes her both a narcissistic lover and a resolute business-woman. She saves her family’s property but loses the person she loves.

The story is written almsot 90 years old ago, yet I am unable to think of any more complex character ever created. The British actress who portrays her in the 1930 movie, Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India.

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Phyllis Dietrichson in 1944 movie Double Indemnity, portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck

Phyllis Dietrichson is the antagonist in the movie, who manipulates insurance salesman Walter Neff to murder her husband. She presents herself as a helpless wife. But in reality is the schemer, using her beauty to get what she wants – the femme fatale.

Walter calls Phyllis as “baby”

The movie influenced Matty Walker character in Body Heat 1981 movie. Which is an even more seductive, manipulative and clever character.

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Elektra King portrayed by Sophie Marceau in The World is Not Enough. 

My favourite Bond girl. In pre-Daniel Craig James Bond movies, there was less melodrama, more thrill and sexist puns. But, the Bond girls’ characters were shallow side-kicks or helpless love interest. Except Elektra King, who is a visionary, complex and main character in the movie. She is also a petite pale French brunette, but looks better than Eva Green, Melanie Laurent etc.

“You would miss me”

That’s the amazing thing about women. World considers them helpless victims. First Elektra is portrayed as being in danger from her kidnappers, and James Bond is sent to save her. Even after seeing her evil deeds, Bond wrongly assumes Elektra is under Stockholm Syndrome, and that’s why she supports her kidnappers plans. But, Elektra is the one pulling the strings. She is manipulating both her kidnapper and Bond, using them as pawns to get what she wants, knowing that she is loved and won’t be harmed by anyone. I have seen women like that, who seem they need to be rescued but it’s better you save your heart from them.

_{On a side note, the instagram algorithm is creepy to the extent that it will suggest similar looking models to follow based on models you liked before. It knows your type more than you do.}

Modern AIDS ribbon

Politics is now all pervasive. Every educated person has an opinion on politics, also because he needs to vote and hence should be informed. So, in modern world, more than our conduct, our public opinions matter.

A woman who is an online bully is lionised because she holds the gender beliefs in vogue. Where as a person who is kind, soft spoken, tips workers, does his/her job will be demonised if he doesn’t hold the right opinions. Theoritical signalling and posturing is more important than content of the character and consequences of our actions.

_{as per a small Twitter poll, partner’s political beliefs about a distant issue matter more than his/her morality.}

In the TV show Seinfeld, Kramer shows up to walk to support the cause: AIDS awareness.

VOLUNTEER: You’re checked in. Here’s your AIDS ribbon.
KRAMER: Ah, no thanks.
VOLUNTEER: You don’t want to wear an AIDS ribbon?
KRAMER: No, no.
VOLUNTEER: But you have to wear an AIDS ribbon.
KRAMER: I have to?
VOLUNTEER: Yes.
KRAMER: Yeah, see, that’s why I don’t want to.

WALKER 1: Hey, where’s your ribbon?
KRAMER: I don’t wear one.
WALKER 2: You don’t wear the ribbon? Aren’t you against AIDS?
KRAMER: Yeah, I’m against AIDS. I’m walking, aren’t I? I just don’t wear the ribbon.

– He gets criticised and beaten up, when he declines to wear an AIDS ribbon.

Similarly, during covid pandemic, governments forced healthy citizens to wear masks and isolate, rather than letting them choose.

There is no place for nuance. Anyone who is not a zealot for the cause is seen as dispensable, who should be publicly shamed, especially in modern online world. And the person who bullies and shames others gets social recognition and retweets.

“If you are truly convinced that there is some solution to all human problems, that one can conceive an ideal society which men can reach if only they do what is necessary to attain it, then you and your followers must believe that no price can be too high to pay in order to open the gates of such a paradise. Only the stupid and malevolent will resist once certain simple truths are put to them. Those who resist must be persuaded; if they cannot be persuaded, laws must be passed to restrain them; if that does not work, then coercion, if need be violence, will inevitably have to be used—if necessary, terror, slaughter.”
― Isaiah Berlin

Chip on the shoulders

Definition: to have an angry or unpleasant attitude or way of behaving caused by a belief that one has been treated unfairly in the past

We often romantizise the underdogs, people who rise from humble backgrounds. But, such people may carry a victim mindset, that the world has treated them badly. They want to get back to the world, settle scores with people who they assume are more privileged than they were. Hence, they consider their vindictiveness as justified and act accordingly.

Underdogs are insecure of their position, they see every person as threat to their seat. A grassroot leader might be offended over petty things like his subordinate not greeting him, because the subordinate belongs to the same class as him. A grassroot leader will be sceptic of intellectual advisors – Hard work is more powerful than Harvard – because if education is a valuable parameter, he is devalued as he lacks education. People who think independently will appear as a threat to his precarious position of power.

“If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”– Jordan Peterson.

A successful man will have less chances of being jealous. A wealthy man has less reasons to be petty. “When people are confronted with a choice between hating themselves for their stagnation or hating others for their progress, they seldom hate themselves” – Thomas Sowell.

The sign of maturity is to be happy seeing others do well, allowing or encouraging others to do well. Rather than saying you had it hard, so others should also have a hard life. Unfortunately, we often hear from seniors or elders say that, “we lived without air-conditioners, rode bicylcles, made less money – so you should also shouldn’t live well.” In a poor country like India, everyone is from a humble background. Anyone who has achieved anything in any field, has had to work hard, be pioneers.

In 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had famously coined the phrase ‘Harvard versus hard work’ when dismissing the forecasts of well-known economists like Amartya Sen about the impact of demonetisation. Hindustan Times asked Dr Manmohan Singh if he identified with Prime Minister Modi when it came to coming from modest backgrounds. If Narendra Modi once sold tea to make ends meet, Dr Singh is from a migrant family from Pakistan and walked miles to school every day.
However, the former PM rejected this by saying, “One must not wear his humbleness as a tool for self-aggrandisement. Progress of the country and policies of the successive governments in last 70 years have played a definite role in creation of opportunities and empowerment. They played a role in making me what I am today, and they played their part in Mr. Modi’s life too. As I said earlier,there is a long list of men and women from humble backgrounds who reached the highest offices in India.”
Listing the names of a number of leaders such as Dr Ambedkar, Homi Bhabha, Dr Hargobind Khurana and Dr APJ Kalam, all known for their scholarly abilities, he said, “They did not brag about their hardships or their humble backgrounds. Despite being subjected to high degree of poverty and social discrimination.”

Napoleon complex – A short height or physcially weak person, may try to compensate for his weakness by acting overly-aggresively.

Victim mindset is the reasons behind most group atrocities. Communists were settling score and delivering justice during which they killed millions in China and Cambodia. Same victim mindset motivates mobs to kill minorities.

The first time I heard the phrase was from the following letter to the editor.

I am deeply disappointed and shocked to read your editorial on the Devyani Khobragade case (‘Our VIP abroad’, IE, December 18). It can only be because you carry a chip on your shoulder about the Indian Foreign Service, which would also explain your pathetically naive views about diplomatic privileges and immunities. It also makes me think that those who have been saying for long that your paper should be more appropriately called “American Express” are absolutely right! — Rajiv Sikri (Delhi), It’s a chip
The Indian Express: Thu Dec 19 2013.

Best of 2021

After much procrastination, I have finally started making my annual best films/tv show list.

This is the films I saw in 2021, not the films released in 2021.

1. The Jinx: a true crime story about alleged murders by billionaire heir Robert Durst of New York. Although I am not conviced how video interview confessions can be used to convict him without damning proof.
2. Wild Things: a fun thriller with unending twists.
3. Westworld: This is the most beautiful TV series. And this is one of the main reasons TV series should be created. Visionary film-makers may not get enough time to display their vision in 3 hour films – the sub-plots which may not be relevant to main story. But, Westworld has hour long episodes about sub-plots which are aesthetically a delight.