Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

This post has the contents and some comments from a Facebook post of mine (slightly edited), https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1652891444927426 . Interesting article, "However it ends, Trump’s surge is historic": https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/08/20/donald-trump-makes-his-moment-american-history/Qo3VHnoAqBFpfks72Am9oN/story.html , dated Aug. 21st 2015 The article refers to Huey Long (died 1935). His wikipedia page is very interesting (populist leader but dictatorial with a "Share the Wealth" message): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long . ---- end Facebook post content--- Some comments of the Facebook post are given below: Ravi S. Iyer wrote: [Name-snipped]: The article linked to is not an article supportive of Trump, IMHO, but an article that comments on, and tries to analyze, the reality of Trump continuing to be Republican party nominee front-runner for many weeks (one to two months, I guess), to the surprise of most peopl...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xtp1/t31.0-8/11896565_974733159245981_3119679405802973166_o.jpg [Also on Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/LoksattaLive/photos/a.326857957366841.94691.301804346538869/974733159245981/?type=1&theater ] The above linked pic is the one of the two main suburban Railway network termini of Mumbai (Bombay) which is a vital lifeline for office goers and visitors to South Mumbai's business HQ area as well as Mumbai port and Maharashtra state govt. HQ (Mantralaya). I have been through it countless times in my student days followed by working days in Mumbai, and have fond memories of it. ---- A friend later on passed on the following pic of same Mumbai CST taken in Jan. 2015 showing the bustle of people: [Note the pic below may not show up (or be *very* slow to show up) for some users. Here are alternative locations for the same pic.: On Facebook  ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1650838438466060&set=a.16...

I saw an interesting short video, Is America the greatest country ?, billed as The Most Honest Three Minutes In Televion History :)), on this Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10207564867618598 . I have given below a slightly edited version of the comments I made (my comments only) on this FB page. Post World War II, Europe including Britain (with its fading empire then) was in a bad shape. USA became the top country for almost half a century after WWII. But over time, not only did Europe catch up but so did some Asian countries like Japan & China. Now the emerging economies from all over the world: Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, Asia ..., are competing hard with the materially developed countries. .... I think the world has not only become a very interconnected globe but countries are tending to become more equal. Sure there are wide gaps materially even today among various countries in the world, but I am saying that they these gaps are ...

Here's an interesting article, "The Big, Bold Idea at the Heart of Hillary Clinton’s Plan to Make College Cheaper", http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/08/10/hillary_clinton_debt_free_college_plan_the_democrats_have_one_big_bold_idea.html , dated Aug. 10th 2015. Ravi: A sensationalist type single sentence from it that, to be frank, I quite enjoyed: "To discourage schools from loading students with too much debt, for instance, she would fine institutions whose graduates can't pay back their loans, a currently bipartisan idea known as "skin-in-the-game" that would make much of the higher-ed world howl in protest. " [Ravi: Most of Indian higher-ed world is a real mess with rampant inefficiency, fraud and corruption. Sure, there are great elite institutions but they make up for a small fraction of the total higher-ed institutions in India. The masses typically get a raw deal. For more you may want to view my blog posts (year old or older) o...