Do your thing.
Update: I forgot I had an open thread in queue. So that’s why it’s redundant. At least you have two places to bicker over Hindu/Muslim-India/Pakistan-Cow dung/Camel Urine
Do your thing.
Update: I forgot I had an open thread in queue. So that’s why it’s redundant. At least you have two places to bicker over Hindu/Muslim-India/Pakistan-Cow dung/Camel Urine
Lol anyone here watch Tiger King on lockdown?
Apparently one of the big time Tiger breeders (conventional blonde American dude) started off under an Indian Hindu Guru on a ranch with exotic animals.
He now runs a cult that serve him to run a similar ranch that functions as a mix of a breeding and zoo type of operation.
He named himself Bhagwan. He also has several “girlfriends” whom he brainwashed from a young age. He makes then work 90 hours a week on his operation and they take turns sleeping with him. They are all mandated to be vegetarian and have Sankrit Dharmic names like Moksha that took place of their regular names when they became “enlightened.”
One whose name was changed to Bala and coerced to function in this capacity and even got breast implants just to get time off (she didn’t come up with the idea, the appointments were just made).
Whole thing is very weird but has a Brown tinge. Cult leaders fascinate me. They always pick vulnerable teenagers.
One
I watched one episode and plan to watch rest of it this weekend. I saw trump was saying, “Do you want me to pardon him?” in a joking manner when a news reporter brought up Joe Exotic’s name in a conference. lol 🙂
Keep watching. The only thing more bizarre than the coronavirus.
#bhagwandidnothingwrong
Study in Germany’s covid19 hotspot (Gangelt, Heinsberg) shows 0.37% as fatality rate and 15% population having achieved immunity. They believe they are past the first peak. Whether the results are representative for larger units like state or country is questionable according to researchers themselves.
According to same study dosage of virus has significance influence on outcomes. Therefore social gatherings result in quick spread. Surface transmission (through currency, door handles, etc) is not found to be of significant risk. Even in patient’s houses they could find genetic material of virus on surfaces but could not make them grow(?) back in lab from the material taken from surface.
They were appreciative of the lock down steps taken early in spread to avoid overburdening of medical facilitates.
Study in Germany’s covid19 hotspot (Gangelt, Heinsberg) shows 0.37% as fatality rate and 15% population having achieved immunity. They believe they are past the first peak. Whether the results are representative for larger units like state or country is questionable according to researchers themselves.
According to same study dosage of virus has significance influence on outcomes. Therefore social gatherings result in quick spread. Surface transmission (through currency, door handles, etc) is not found to be of significant risk. Even in patient’s houses they could find genetic material of virus on surfaces but could not make them grow(?) back in lab from the material taken from surface.
They were appreciative of the lock down steps taken early in spread to avoid overburdening of medical facilitates.
Can anyone enlighten me on what the Indian government (or governments’) plan is for the near future? No solid information seems to be forthcoming, and I am dreading another sermon from Modi one of these days exhorting us to keep trusting him and sacrifice more without letting us know what his govt is thinking and doing.
Before our lockdown, we had a very small number of reported cases and deaths. Throughout the lockdown, we have seen something like an exponential rise (though still small when normalized by our huge population). So does this mean the lockdown was successful or wasn’t it? Now I’m hearing it’s going to be extended another 2 weeks. But no one in charge seems willing to tell us what’s the criteria they are basing these decisions on and what criteria allows for an easing?
Add to this the nature of our lockdown is bizarre. I’m told that regular medical faciities have been shut down across the land, with exceptions only made for emergency cases in hospitals, all in preparation for a hypothetical flood of corona cases. This is in places that have seen ZERO COVID cases. My parents living in a distant city are in dire need of medical care (for non-corona related stuff) but they are having trouble getting to see a doctor.
And then our police have put roadblocks wherever they want to: we are not allowed to go for walks, let alone runs (even if we maintain distance from others). We are not allowed to go for drives in our personal vehicles. People in apartment complexes guilt trip each other for the sin of stepping outside their cooped up apartments. Is the situation this crazy in other parts of the world too?
The plan is no plan. Just like our old non alignment policy (which was of course a policy)
indians have generally given a long leash to modi so far, but it seems their patience is running thin now.
modi is a prisioner of his own image. his supporters have hyped his strong decisive leader image so much that now he feels the urge to act in bombastic fashion obsessive-compulsively. i thought he would be wiser after the demonetization fiasco, but i have been proved wrong.
before he imposed the nationwide lockdown, india had the good fortune of least affected major country from this dreaded virus. the need of the hour was to lockdown just the select towns and neighborhoods where the first cases were reported. for major metropolis like mumbai the lockdown of just a few suburbs would have sufficed. instead he used the proverbial sledgehammer to kill a fly.
but this is just the beginning of serious problems lying ahead. since everybody’s patience is running thin in the suffocating lockdown, he will be forced to open up the country soon. however the virus is only getting started now in india. so the virus will explode exponentially once the lockdown is lifted, and nobody will have the stamina to bear another lockdown.
classic example of emptying your muskets before the enemy is within range.
My secondary government school class teacher got fired a few days ago for writing a joke against BJP media cell on FB. He is a pro BJP, upper caste, moderate/informed/sane school teacher from UP. Has been around/close-to state level BJP leaders for quite some time. His post was not incendiary either. Just honest fun at BJP IT cell people on diya lighting drama. Read his hilarious suspension letter from UP-basic education department, man these Sanghis are ass-clowns, I can’t wait to see them lathi charged when they are out of government. Modi might not loose elections any time soon but he is loosing good-will in his baniya-OBC voter-base very quickly.
I think u underestimate the “hold” he has over the masses.
What i see is the more lockdown drags on, more he can portray “war-leader” image.
What if in an alternative scenario that the left started to follow Modi and the Right started to movie away and create a new party ?
The right cannot make a new party because its soft and weak. The right in India is the RSS, and RSS is Modi. Without Modi/RSS the right in India is a bunch of Libertarian Podcasters and Opinion column writers.
The Left for all its faults in India does still win some states and seats, has controls over the English media and Education institutes (notwithstanding how they got there) . I am not sure y would left ever support Modi though.
Man this was meant to be an alternate reality situation , a joke I mean.
Although superficially comparing infrastructure projects is not always a good thing but here is what I have been reading about Dhaka metro going way over budget:
https://tbsnews.net/bangladesh/infrastructure/metro-rail-six-times-cost
Maybe gives us some talking points on mismanagement (corruption? or inexperience) in Bangladesh. Additional information: L&T (in collaboration with some Japanese company) has been awarded $500 million contract for work on Dhaka metro. Very good to hear that (in my opinion world-class) Indian Engineering firms are finally getting some good responsibilities outside India. Hopefully when China-Pakistan romance is over, some Indian firm gets to work on Karachi Circular Railways. Not going to happen but if Pakistan railways is partially privatised and opened to Indians, some firms, like IRCTC/ICF, might turn them around.
Also of interest, metro in J&K:
https://www.urbantransportnews.com/state-approves-elevated-light-metro-rail-system-in-jammu-and-srinagar/
Not sure if it is needed in Jammu but Srinagar most definitely needs it. With such remarkable speed/efficiency shown in other metro projects I hope it will not take forever like the Kashmir railway. Maybe with better urban infrastructure and planning Srinagar might shed its C-grade town-like ‘feel’. It used to feel so kitschy, noisy and unplanned (like all Indian cities) and didn’t sync well with its beautiful setting. Fingers crossed, hopefully they will come up with business/commercial/housing districts while preserving the scenic bits.
Any thoughts on the somewhat recent phenomenon of Indian Muslims in Gulf countries doxxing / reporting to the police Indian Hindus in Gulf countries who post comments critical of Islam or Muslims on social media?
When u live by the sword , you die by the sword
case of Tamally Maak
Just saw a post on Omar Ali’s twitter feed. The critique of the islam in that tweet was more of a anti Muslim/Jihadi bigotry it seems , not all Muslims are like that. There’s something about Indian Muslims that stops them from reforming( My dad says its because of the Maulanas fault because they themselves didn’t want the people to get reformed. My dad works in Nuh district which is near Mewat district, highly populated Muslim majority area , most of the houses have 10 children,women don’t vote : when voting a single person votes for all the subordinates i.e his wife,daughter/s etc. and kind of a gunda raj among the youths. This isn’t different from communities like jaats, gujjars who are similar in the sense that they wan’t power and youths in these communities have the same gunda raj mentality roaming around in bikes with gujjar on the nameplate ,gangs beating up on the streets etc)
Back to the comment. They probably can use/abuse their power to stop Hindus posting whatever about Islam because blasphemy is a real thing and can get you in jail/deported.
Also i want to say that more you go to rural areas more the muslims are hinduised as you move away from the rural areas into Delhi more muslims become Arabised.
” Unity in Diversity ” was kind of a motto of India.
Now it seems like ” No Unity in Diversity” .
THESE ARE CONFLICTING TIMES.
this is not new. there were some indians who had complained to to the police about a small scale ganesha immersion in the creek. this was almost 20 years back.
some pakistanis had complained to the ruler against the unislamic turn in the way of life. they were asked to shut up.
Why do people with non upper caste/ libertarian background etc tend to start reading quran ?
Is it because they themselves don’t have any Hindu scriptures at home or their family apart from cultural values and historical epics don’t know much about the philosophy or other puranic stories. Kushal mehra said the most hindus doesn’t know about the vedanta, advaita, cravaka etc schools. Is it true because of the authority of religious texts by one community only (i.e brahmins ) or people are just not very much into reading whatever( illiteracy i mean).
Was just having a conversation with my brother and he said that prophetic religions are kind of religions that are true and hinduism isn’t considered as religion.
Can someone tell me of Hinduism can be considered religion or not?
Another question is that why was abrahamic religions so successful? Because of their simplicity or because it was spread through persecution after the elite conversion in Iran , Greece etc .
Core orthodox brahminism has been demonised in left media i would say?
I have a question for Razib if he is reading this: Is the Papuan and Polynesian yDNA K2b1 of a local Papuan origin or does it come from the Ami type Austronesian source?
So far I am under the impression that the O in Polynesians are the only paternal lineage that they inherit from Austronesians.
On this Orthodox Good (in Serbian – Big) Friday, just passing by to see how pundits are fighting Bill’s virus. Hope, pundits’ and their family’s headcount hasn’t change.
Probably, all pundits, when turned their comp today, found a picture of Stonehenge, Wiltshire County. The County got name from ancient Serbian tribe WIltsa. The main town in the shire is Salisbury. Its old name was Serbarium. The meaning of Druids (originally in Serbian – drevids) is “tree-ids”, because they had ceremonies under the trees. Google says – “The writer Dio Chrysostom, who lived about 1,900 years ago, compared druids to the Magi and the Brahmans of India.” The seasoned pundits already know where this connection is coming from.
Well, 2020 years ago, Jesus was crucified. In 313, Roman-Serbian emperor Constantine legalised Christianity in his hometown, Nis, the second largest town in Serbia. Seasoned pundits remember that Aryans started their first voyage 2300 years before him from this city. Is mum, Jelena, visited the holly land and touched the cross where Jesus was crucified. This day is celebrated in the whole Christian world as – The Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
It is worth mentioning briefly (maybe more comprehensively soon) couple things from recently referred book by RK – The Final Pagan Generation. I could write a whole new book to comment this one, but just few things that can be interesting to pundits…
It starts with a description of skirmishes between early Christians and (pagan) followers of the god Serapis in the city of Serapeum (Alexandria). Wiki descriptions of both Ser-words are jokes (maybe some explanations during the next visit). What about emperors during this generation? It was a Constantine Serbian-Roman dynasty and probably all mentioned emperors were of Serbian origin – Valentinian, Valens, Jovian (Belgrade born), Julian, Gratian. The book does not say anything about this aspect but even Wiki provides satisfactory information. There is also an indicative map in the book (can be seen freely on Internet) which may (or may not) be discussed soon.
Wish to all pundits who celebrate Orthodox Easter good health and Happy Easter (Vaistinu Voskrese!)
PS. Emperor Diocletian was also a Serb who originated in Diocletia (mostly today’s Montenegro). He prosecuted Christians and confiscated their properties. In Serbian Orthodox Church still have memories of this ‘goddamn emperor’. He retired and started doing gardening. Because of troubles in the Empire, he was invited to come back on the throne, but he rejected and remained cultivating his cabbage. After him, it was established a tetrarchy with two co-emperors – Constantine and Licinius, both Serbs. They co-authored the Edict of Milan but, later on, got in the conflict and war where Licinius died. The medieval Serbian dynasty, when Serbia was the strongest kingdom in Europe, originated from him.