Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Last modified on 1st June 2016 Steven Spielberg: " ... this is why it’s so important to listen to your internal whisper. It’s the same one that compelled Abraham Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the correct moral choices. In your defining moments, do not let your morals be swayed by convenience or expediency. Sticking to your character requires a lot of courage. And to be courageous, you’re going to need a lot of support." For more of his Harvard Commencement 2016 speech, read below: Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Speech | Harvard Commencement 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYtoDunfu00 , dated May 26th 2016, 20 min 09 secs. Transcript of above speech is available at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276561 . I have given below, selected excerpts from the above speech transcript (slightly edited to fix typo kind of error(s)): Now in a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one ...

Today (May 27th 2016), USA President Obama made a historic visit to the Hiroshima peace memorial as the first USA president to visit the memorial to that horrific atom-bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945 [See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki ]. Note that it is close to 71 years since the atom-bombing event. However, it must also be noted that Nazi Germany had surrendered to the Allies on May 8th 1945 and that the Japanese were warned about destruction if they did not surrender. From the above-mentioned wiki page, "Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese response to this ultimatum was to ignore it." Another point to be noted is that the first act of aggression between Japan and USA in World War II, was the devastating surp...

This is a concise account of criminal and civil defamation law in India from an honest whistleblower's perspective, and as I have understood it (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer) . It is presumed that the whistleblower exposes truth or what he/she considers to be the truth. In other words, the whistleblower does not write/say deliberate falsehood. Defamation cases can be filed both as a criminal case as well as a civil case in Indian courts of law (even for the same offence). But the legal procedure and legal view of them are different. Criminal Defamation 1) Criminal defamation is covered by section 499 and section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The offence has maximum punishment of simple imprisonment of up to 2 years with/without a fine. The fine is paid to the government, I believe, and is not a compensation to the complainant. 2) Complainant has to first prove in a court of law that he/she was defamed. 3) If the complainant is able to convince the court that...

Last updated on 26th May 2016 A few links and info. related to civil defamation law in India are given below. 1) Allahabad High Court, Rajindra Kishore Sahi vs Durga Sahi on 13 May, 1966, Equivalent citations: AIR 1967 All 476,  https://indiankanoon.org/doc/199292/ Extracts from the above: The question whether the doctrine of absolute privilege should be applied to statements made in judicial proceedings in India was answered in a Full Bench of five judges of this court in Chunni Lal v. Narsingh Das, 16 All. L.J. 360 : (AIR 1918 All. 69 F.B.). In this case it was observed that as there is no statute in India dealing with civil liability for defamation the rule to apply is that of justice, equity, and good conscience. ... The Courts held that as there was no statute in India dealing with civil defamation, the rules of equity, justice, and good conscience must be applied and these rules meant those of the English Law if found applicable to Indian society and circumstance...

A Facebook video titled, "The Most Honest Three Minutes in Television History" (about USA), https://www.facebook.com/NextNextNow/videos/787369534732372/ , has over 36 million views even though it seems to have been put up only on May 2nd 2016. This video seems to be from an HBO TV show of 2012. The video is also available on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGa57az2VqY . The Facebook video was also shared by a Facebook friend here: https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/793477930788693 , I made the following comments (slightly edited): Well, it is an HBO show clip. So it is not a scholar/knowledgeable guy giving a real extempore speech. Here's a dissenting view, http://joemiller.us/2012/07/why-the-most-honest-3-minutes-on-tv-ever-is-a-lie-video/ . I don't think the above video is a good assessment. The stats quoted in the video above may be right but I think it is selective with the selection intended to shock TV audiences, and don't t...

Above image courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/narendramodi/photos/a.10150164299700165.421791.177526890164/10157037223890165/ From http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=3 , Left hand side menu entry titled "Apple CEO Tim Cook calls on PM (21-May 2016)" The CEO of Apple Inc., Mr. Tim Cook, called on the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today. Congratulating the Prime Minister on the recent election results, Mr. Cook talked about his visit to India, and said he had been received with great warmth. He spoke about his visit to different parts of the country, and his meetings with people including youth, business leaders, and film actors. In particular, he mentioned his visit to the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, and watching a cricket match. The Prime Minister, appreciating Mr. Cook, said that in India, ‘seeing is believing’ and added that these experiences would definitely steer Mr. Cook’s business decisions. Mr. Cook shared Apple Inc.’s future plans ...

When does human life begin? At conception? Perhaps the majority of lawmakers from Oklahoma, USA, think that human life begins at conception and so should be protected right from that stage in the womb, by law. They have sent up a bill to criminally punish doctors doing abortion (except in the case where the mother's life is in danger) to the state governor to sign into law! ‘A target on Roe v. Wade ’: Oklahoma bill making it a felony to perform abortions waits for governor’s decision, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/05/19/oklahoma-legislature-passes-bill-making-it-a-felony-to-perform-abortions/ , dated May 20th 2016. -------------------------------------------------- An update: Oklahoma governor vetoes bill that would make it a felony to perform abortions, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/05/20/oklahoma-governor-vetoes-bill-that-would-make-it-a-felony-to-perform-abortions/ , dated May 20th 2016 A one sentence extract from it: O...

We are in India for the next thousand years, says Apple boss Tim Cook, http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/exclusive-interview-with-apple-ceo-tim-cook/article8621739.ece , dated May 19th 2016 Tim Cook: "But India shouldn’t try to be like anyone but itself, because India is fantastic. I think the multi-cultural nature of it, the warmth of its people… this is an advantage that is probably not well understood to the exterior world." Tim Cook goes on to say that he has no doubt that from a GDP point of view, new records will be set by India, and that he can feel that it will happen as all the ingredients are there (in India). Tim Cook also disagrees with the interviewer's question which said that Steve Jobs found India "intense and disturbing" when he came to India as a teen and that he then never looked back (at India). Tim Cook says that Steve Jobs conversations with him about India were very different from what the interviewer's question stated....

Given below are the contents of a recent Facebook post of mine, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1742604939289409 . Does anybody know of a criminal defamation case in the last two or three decades in India where a person was found guilty of criminal defamation? A worrying aspect of criminal defamation law in India for writers including bloggers and Facebook "posters and commenters" is that truth alone is not an absolute defense against criminal defamation. The content also has to be for the public good! Now that's what is conveyed by the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (relevant sections date from British colonial era) and the Criminal Procedure Code (relevant sections seem to have been modified/created a few years after Indian independence in 1947). [For more on it, please see my blog post, Indian Supreme Court rejects petition arguing criminal defamation law as unconstitutional; Defamation law in India, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.in/201...

Saw the photo linked below in a newspaper yesterday (May 16th 2016). I think Arthur Cotton must be the most revered British figure in Andhra Pradesh state of independent India today. I do not recall such reverence to any British figure in Maharashtra being reported by Bombay/Mumbai based newspapers when I was living in Bombay. Here's a photograph of Andhra Pradesh irrigation minister garlanding the statue of Arthur Cotton day-before-yesterday, May 15th 2016 (I presume), http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/politics/160516/we-will-take-legal-action-against-telangana-projects-uma-maheswara-rao.html . Here's a related article from The Hindu, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/museum-for-cotton-soon-says-minister/article8605090.ece . The article quotes the Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh state, Shri N. Chinna Rajappa, as saying, "Even today, people here are honouring Cotton like God". It states that Shri Chinna Rajappa said that the people of E...

Last updated on 26th May 2016 Today's (14th May 2016) The Hindu newspaper covered in quite some detail, the judgement of the Indian Supreme Court on a petition that argued that current criminal defamation law in the Indian Penal Code (dating to British rule days) does not fit in with some articles of the Indian constitution (composed and adopted after Indian independence), and so should be scrapped, as the other existing civil defamation mechanism was enough and appropriate to handle defamation cases. The Supreme court rejected the petition and upheld that criminal defamation law does not go against the constitution. So criminal defamation continues to be law in India along with civil defamation. I got very drawn to this topic as defamation is one of the big possibility-concerns that I had to, and continue to have to, deal with in my social media posts having whistle-blowing revelations and critical opinions of mine which have named certain people. While I was not aware of mu...