Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Very sad to know about this. Mumbai stampede: Today's tragedy was waiting to happen, say locals, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-stampede-todays-tragedy-was-waiting-to-happen-say-locals/articleshow/60885471.cms dated 29th Sept. 2017. The article reports that at least 22 people died in the stampede. A small extract from it: "Ever since new office buildings have come up in the area, the crowd has increased many times, but nothing has been done to improve the infrastructure at the station. Who is responsible for these deaths?" asked Tiwari, who lives nearby. "This was waiting to happen. Such things can happen on other (railway) footbridges too," he said. --- end extract --- Ravi: I have experienced some scary overcrowding situations on Mumbai local railway platforms, on the bridges usually, but at times even on the station platform itself, during my suburban train commuting days in Mumbai and outlying areas. I have not experienced ...

WATCH: England cricket star Ben Stokes goes berserk in brawl, https://au.sports.yahoo.com/cricket/a/37262291/ben-stokes-brawl-video-footage-of-england-cricket-star/ , 28th Sept. 2017 Ravi: That's not cricket! Aggro on the cricket field is OK but not such actions of physically beating up other guys. That must be condemned no matter how great his cricket skills may be. ---- Aggro that is not only OK but great, on the cricket field: Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh in Champions Trophy 2000, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_lseY6JoCk , first 4 to 5 minutes of 7 min 23 secs video.

Obama's Full Speech and Q&A with Bill and Melinda Gates, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWE8HUjYf8Q , 47 min. 48 secs, published on 20th Sept. 2017. Youtube video description: President Barack Obama's complete speech and Q&A with Bill and Melinda Gates at the 2017 Goalkeepers event in New York City. ---- Ravi: I have given below the transcript of some parts of Obama's speech (and some words of Melinda and Bill Gates). Former USA President Obama's words from around 3:30 in the video (edited from youtube transcript): We do face extraordinary challenges. You've heard of many of them in your discussions today. You know the nature of these challenges from your work. Growing economic inequality, changing climate, terrorism, mass migration, still too much extreme poverty, still too many girls who are denied an education, the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, and a politics that says it's not we but us and them. The politics that threatens to turn g...

Last updated on 29th Sept. 2017 In my adult lifetime (from 1980 onwards), I don't think I have ever heard such menacing language from leaders of countries who are essentially threatening each other with very destructive war, probably nuclear war, spoken from the United Nations General Assembly podium! Terrifying state of affairs! The article, 'They Won't Be Around Much Longer': Trump's Fresh Threat To North Korea, https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mentally-deranged-north-korea-foreign-minister-unleashes-tirade-against-trump-1754338 , details the North Korean foreign minister's words spoken from UNGA podium which is in response to USA President Trump's threat to "totally destroy" North Korea, uttered from the same UNGA podium a few days ago. A few small extracts from the article (not in the order in which it appears in the article): Ri Yong-ho told the General Assembly that Trump's vow to "totally destroy" his country if nec...

Article that appeared in The Hindu print edition on 22nd Sept. 2017, written by Chinese ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui: Turn the page to a new chapter, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/turn-the-page-to-a-new-chapter/article19729682.ece . The ambassador writes about the recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in China, which was their first meeting after the Doklam tension between China and India got defused. He was present in that meeting, and writes that "The outcomes were beyond expectations." He writes further, 'President Xi emphasised that we should be each other’s development opportunities rather than be threats to each other — “dragon and elephant should dance together”. PM Modi shared the same idea and believes that the political effects of “making one plus one eleven” can be achieved in China-India relations.' Ravi: It is very good news that this meeting between President Xi...

Human Population Through Time, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE , 6 min. 24 secs, published on 4th Nov. 2016 by American Museum of Natural History. Total views as of 23rd Sept. 2017 is nearly 5 million. "It took 200,000 years for our human population to reach 1 billion—and only 200 years to reach 7 billion. But growth has begun slowing, as women have fewer babies on average. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on Earth’s resources, even as we approach 11 billion?" Ravi: Utterly fascinating video! I don't know how accurate are the numbers and geographical areas and period associated with these numbers. But given that it comes from a famous USA institution, one would presume that they would be generally in the currently accepted range for such numbers. The growth in population in the 19th and 20th century (continuing on in the 21st century) is astounding. The two world wars don't seem to have made any significant im...

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe speaks in Ahmedabad, India at foundation stone laying ceremony of Japanese Bullet train technology project connecting Mumbai to Ahmedabad, about the project and on Japan-India relations in general. Abe speaks in Japanese with the translator translating it to Hindi (not English). So only Japanese or Hindi knowing persons will be able to follow Abe's speech. Ravi: I personally am all for closer ties between India and Japan, two giants of Asia. PM Abe mentioned that both India and Japan share democratic values, rule of law and preference for peaceful resolution of disputes. I think he got it right there. Perhaps Japan and India are the top two democracies of Asia in this 21st century which is seeing the re-emergence of Asia in the world (after a few centuries of Western dominance over Asia). As a lover and supporter of democracy, I think that Japan and India should protect, foster and promote democracy, rule of law and peaceful resolution of disputes in Asia ...

Last updated on 12th Sept. 2017 Short CNN article and video explaining why storm surge is the most dangerous part of Hurricane Irma for Florida, USA. It also has a short video which has a good explanation of it with illustrations. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/09/us/hurricane-irma-storm-surge-explained/index.html Ravi: I pray to God to protect residents of Florida, USA from Hurricane Irma. I also pray to God to give peace to the souls that lost their lives in the Caribbean islands and Cuba (and elsewhere if I missed out some places) due to Irma, and give strength and courage to their friends and relatives to bear the loss. All the best to the people of these places impacted (and that are expected to be impacted) by Hurricane Irma to rebuild their lives and get back to normalcy. ----- Gov. Rick Scott on how Florida is handling Hurricane Irma, https://youtu.be/VgUPNtfrXcA , published Sept. 10th 2017, 6 min. 17 secs. ------ https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience/vid...

Last updated on 18th Sept. 2020 18th Sept. 2020 Update: I had an inner urge to name-snip the names of some person(s) in this post and so have done so. This post got missed out in the name-snipping I did some months ago. Spies Like Us: A Conversation With John le Carré and Ben Macintyre, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/books/review/john-le-carre-ben-macintyre-british-spy-thrillers.html Ravi: In my twenties, I was a crazy fan of John le Carré's spy novels. George Smiley is an unforgettable character for me. So I thoroughly enjoyed the above interview of John le Carré and another writer. John le Carré (JLC) about his childhood (his father was a notorious conman): "The truth, in my childhood, didn’t really exist. That is to say, we shared the lies. To run the household with no money required a lot of serious lying to the local garage man, the local butcher, the local everybody." And more about his childhood background. I did not know about this background of his. N...

Over the past few days, using the Internet from a rural town in India (Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh), I have followed media and social media reports on the work done by USA local, state (Texas) and federal officials as well as ordinary people volunteering as first responders, in saving lives and rescuing people who were trapped in flooded homes or caught up in the floods outside. I have been very impressed by the work these people have done so far. The wiki page on Harvey, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey , lists the dead in USA as 38. Perhaps that number will rise as more deaths get reported. While it is very sad that tens of people died, I think that the first responders and the back end support staff as well as the top level administrators (local, state and federal levels) must be commended in having kept the death casualties in the tens (reported so far) and not in the higher hundreds or even thousands. We saw and read about so many rescues on boats, and even by hel...