Filthy India Photos, Chinese Netizen Reactions

India is the dirtiest country I have ever been to. I have heard people say that Pakistan, which is to the west and Bangladesh, to the east, are worse, but that is probably beyond the limits of my imagination.

In two months in India, I went from south to north, visiting some tourist towns that I had read about. I also went by train and bus to countless towns and open fields that weren’t so famous, and everywhere there were people had something in common — dirty, messy and stank.

CNN-IBN has running a campaign against it for the past couple of years. The scale of wastage is truly disgusting considering the mass poverty prevalent in the country.

See:

Haryana: Left to rot, 22,000 quintals of wheat declared unfit for human consumption

Grains left to rot in Punjab, officials say situation worse this year

The factors behind juveniles committing heinous crimes such as rape are partly biological and partly psycho-social. Earlier, children used to attain puberty at the age of 14 or 16. Now, it has come down to 10 years, she says. 

A lot of hormonal changes happen in a child’s body at that age and if such children drop out of schools, they fall into the high-risk category, says Madhu. “They huddle together on the streets and fall into bad company,” she says. “Such children would have faced abuse at home, might have a single parent or a broken family with a history of substance abuse. It is natural that they show more aggression.” ..

Vidya Reddy of Tulir, a centre that works for preventing child sexual abuse, says: “The way statistics on crime is collated, compiled and analysed in this country is a joke. If more cases of sexual violence are reported, it shows that awareness level is high and people have confidence in the police.” But conviction rates are low in India because even consensual sex between juveniles who fall in love and elope are registered as rape cases. In such cases, victims turn hostile in court, she says. 

Part of the reason for decreasing age at puberty is better nutrition I would imagine. I doubt that is a reason for increasing rapes.

R. Jagannathan, editor in chief, web and publishing, Netowrk18 argued in a Firstpost.com column earlier this year that buying gold for the household is like opening a tiny Swiss bank account…His argument is that the rich have avenues to hedge their currency and political risk (industry takes its investment abroad, high net worth individuals buy assets abroad), but the households do not have the capacity or the money to do that. Their defence against a falling rupee, inflation and very grim political uncertainty is to move their money abroad by importing the one thing they understand that the world also understands as a store of value—gold.

The Indian fascination towards gold is well-known. Keynes has critiqued it as well. (h/t Tyler Cowen) There are festivals with religious sanction where Indians binge on gold. And the ritual of the Finance Mininster pleading with citizens to hold back on buying gold has become stale and tiresome as of now. Maybe his effort should be put into improving the economy so that people become confident enough to invest in it rather than desperately trying to prevent loss of value as they are now?

regards

While all of them were fretting about being burnt or how their tans would look (some hairs go blond, some faces go pink) I was very happily (& easily) able to soak up the scorching sun’s rays.

I should have used sun factor (all people should regardless of colour or complexion) but it felt so good to be able to stride through the broad sunlight uplands without any care or concern. We coloreds of the world (the vast & growing majority btw) be proud to be brown, black & yellow if only because we can tan so well (use sun screen though wherever you are).

To repeat, there is much to disagree (which is fine) but dont make it personal.

regards

ZackNote: To echo what Sid has just written. Let’s try to make BP above the personal attacks & abuse in general. I’ve always encouraged an open forum format but let’s also keep it constructive & meaningful; it’s not about trolling the comments board but also gaining from the experience (which is why I’ve always encouraged commentators to transition to authors, vox populi vox dei peeps).

Otherwise I’m happy to report that Sid is a lucky token for BP; it’s the first time in a month that we’ve topped 300 views, no idea why but I’m declare today Sid (& ND) Appreciation Day.

Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed has given a ‘fatwa’ that militant activities within Pakistan cannot be considered a part of ‘jihad’ and asked terrorists to desist from carrying out attacks in the country.
“Militant activities in Pakistan do not fall in the category of jihad. I appeal to all jihadi organizations not to carry out attacks inside Pakistan as it is not jihad (holy war). America and India are taking benefit from their activities,” Saeed alleged in a statement. He said: “Our strength is in unity and not in infighting among us. However, Muslims will have to continue jihad to maintain their freedom”.

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Police said the arrested man was local, believed to be of Somali origin. He was attending the mosque for the first time. Dr Arshad Mahmood, who was at the mosque, told the BBC: “A man started stabbing one of the guys who was just sitting right next to him. I don’t know what exactly was the reason but he just started stabbing him. “We went to save him. He had multiple injuries, three or four wounds. Then the policeman came and was also attacked and stabbed.”

Mohammed Shafiq, the leader of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organisation, said: “I have spoken to someone who lives a few doors down from the mosque and they described hearing an argument inside the mosque. “It escalated into violence and a police officer has been stabbed. People, anti-Muslim extremists, are going to try to take advantage of this – it’s very serious that a police officer has been stabbed during duty.”

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The thing that interested me were the names. Javed and Honey (Irani) had children Farhan (Urdu name means pleasant) and Zoya (Urdu name means caring). Farhan and Adhuna have children named Shakya and Akira (Japanese name means knowledgeable, also film background).

How about Shakya? Shakayamuni is of course the Buddha but then again this is a girl. Regardless we have culturally middle-eastern (CME) people choosing a CSA name (and a CEA name for the other daughter). Food for thought.

Shakya background (ref. Wiki): Shakya is a Suryavanshi Kshatriya dynasty of Hindu religion in India.The Genealogy of Shakyas is found in Book IV of Vishnu Purana, the Shrimad Bhagavatam and the Brahma Purana.

King Shakya was one of the last decendants of Ikshvaku dynasty, commonly known as Suryavansha. Rama was one of the earlier decendants of Ikshvaku. Chapter 1 of Vishnupurana mentions that Brahma created Daksha out of his thumb. Daksha had a daughter Aditi, who was mother of Sun. From the Sun was born Manu. Since the Sun-god was Manu’s father, his lineage came to be known as the Suryavansha. Manu had many sons…Ten sons survived, one of whom was Ikshvaku.

Shakyas considered themselves as the purest race. To protect their race they married only within their community. So when Prasenjit king of Kosala asked to marry a Shakyan princess, they gave him a slave girl instead. Son of Prasenjit and the slave girl was Virudhaka. When Virudhaka came to know about this he was ashamed and wanted to take revenge. He attacked the Shakya empire, Kapilvastu. Shakyans were killed in masses. Some fled from Kaplivastu to a place named Pipphalvana and adopted a fake title “Maurya” probably because of the large number of peacocks in that area who were considered sacred…..As the history goes, Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the ruling Nanda Dynasty and establised the Maurya Empire.

regards