Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Last updated on 11th Feb. 2019 Fascinating video about Steven Pruitt of Virginia who is a very big contributor (free contribution) to Wikipedia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhNczOuhxeg , around 6 mins, published by CBS This Morning on 26th Jan. 2019. Here's an article on him which mainly talks about this video: http://mentalfloss.com/article/572219/steven-pruitt-wikipedia-editor-writer . The article says that Pruitt has a day job (paid job, I guess) at the records and information governance department at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C. and Pruitt believes that his wikipedia work helped him get that job. The article states that over the past 13 years, he has made 3 million edits and authored 35,000 articles, about which the article says, "meaning that he has helped shape up to a third of all English-language content on Wikipedia". The video states that Wikipedia is one of the top 5 most visited websites in the world among Google, Youtub...

Last updated on 1st Feb 2019 Minor update on 1st Sep. 2021 This post follows up on my recent post: John Chambers of USA, Cisco chairman emeritus, formerly with Wang Labs., ex US India Business council chairman, is named for Padma Bhushan, third-highest civilian award of India, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2019/01/john-chambers-of-usa-ex-cisco-chairman.html , 28th Jan. 2019 First I think I need to explain my interest in John Chambers' association with Wang Laboratories, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories . It comes from how critical Wang Labs and its Wang VS computers were to the building block years of my software development career. After dropping out of my M.Sc. (Physics), I joined Datamatics Limited in SEEPZ, Bombay (Mumbai), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datamatics , as a trainee programmer in March 1984. I, and others in my batch, were taught COBOL programming and other stuff like System Analysis for 4 months or so. The pr...

From my recent Facebook posts: Bloomberg interview of Raghuram Rajan at Davos around a week ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI8y6Bg10Xc , 5 min 26 secs. Worth viewing as Rajan seems to know what he is talking about. He says that the biggest challenge for the world now, ten years after the global financial crisis (of 2007-08), is dealing with technological change and its manifestations. He talks of these manifestations resulting in differential growth within countries. As an example, he says that coastal areas of USA are doing very well (economically) but other parts are doing (somewhat) badly. [Ravi: I am sure there would be similar differential growth in India too.] He then says, "So what we are dealing with across the globe are the effects of technological change. And for that, we really need to come to grips with it. This is not business as usual. This is a new world. And it gets tougher as we go forward rather than easier." Regarding India, he says, "Beca...

Last updated on 11th Mar. 2019 Today I read an interview of John Chambers in The Hindu: Protectionism has never worked in the long run, says Cisco chair emeritus, https://www.thehindu.com/business/protectionism-has-never-worked-in-the-long-run/article26106009.ece , 27th Jan. 2019. It mentioned that Chambers has been recently named for the Padma Bhushan by the Govt. of India. John Chambers. Pic courtesy: http://busecon.wvu.edu/speaker_series/john_chambers.htm I am very happy to know that John Chambers has been honoured by the govt. of India in this fashion. I have seen some of his video interviews and talks, and read quite a few text interviews of his, like the above. I get the impression that he is a genuine friend of India, and seems to have significantly contributed to growth of USA India business ties. I have a soft corner for John Chambers as he was with Wang Labs., Lowell, Massauchusetts, USA, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories , during the stints I had w...

The big humanitarian struggles in Asia and Africa during the 20th century were freedom from oppressive and exploitative European colonization and in South Africa, freedom from white European oppression and domination over black African natives and brown Indians through Apartheid, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid . That Apartheid, essentially a ruthless form of white supremacy, existed in South Africa till the early 1990s, was an astonishing eyesore in the world, in my young adult days (from 1980). I was born in post-Independence India, one and a half decades after India attained freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. So for me and people of my generation, colonial India was history, including the vital aspect of history that allows us to better understand the present, but not something that impacted us directly in even the slightest way. In my entire life so far in India, the inequality and hierarchies were and are based on money and power among Indians with white Europe...

I was quite surprised to read this article in today's The Hindu: British firm sells Brexit survival kit to ‘prepare for the worst’, https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/british-firm-sells-brexit-survival-kit-to-prepare-for-the-worst/article26072484.ece , 23rd Jan. 2019 The firm claims to have sold hundreds of these kits! I should also say that I read somewhere that the British government has assured residents in Britain that there will be no shortage of food and other essential items when Brexit happens. Here's a BBC News report, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-leeds-46842937/hundreds-buying-brexit-box-amid-food-supply-fears , dated 14th Jan. 2019 stating, 'A government spokesperson said there was "no need" to stockpile any of the items in the box.' I was intrigued that Chicken Tikka, which is essentially a North Indian and Pakistani boneless chicken dish, was the first item mentioned in this Reuters article about Brexit survival kit, and re...

Fire in Babylon - documentary movie done in 2011 showing West Indies perspective of West Indies cricket team dominance over all other teams in the 1980s, https://www.hotstar.com/movies/fire-in-babylon/1000180223/watch , 1 hr. 23 mins It showcases mainly the positives of the Windies team and seems to be biased towards them. Nonetheless, it is a documentary worth watching for cricket fans who want to know about this awesome dominance that the 80s Windies team achieved, and how that fired up the people of the West Indies islands (Caribbean). It also gave the black communities in West Indies, England and some other places of the world, including then Apartheid South Africa, pride and self-confidence. I had not realized how big this impact of the West Indies cricket team dominance was, on black pride. I found the documentary movie to be very interesting. 

Last minor update on 11th Feb. 2019 Read this detailed report and saw all the video clips in it: The Jayme Closs case: A chilling tale of murder, kidnapping and escape in rural America, https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/jayme-closs-case-moment-by-moment/index.html , 20th Jan. 2019 India has its share of horrendous crimes, including some terrifying cases of rape and murder, e.g. 2012 Delhi gang rape: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Delhi_gang_rape . That shook the whole country (India). I was utterly horrified by the monstrosity of the crime. But now this Jayme Closs case in the USA has badly shaken me. The kidnapper and killer Jake Patterson, reported to be around 21 years old, had a house (of his parents, I guess), a car, seems to have had some level of education and demonstrated intelligence in the planning and execution of his chilling and evil crime. What beats me and terrifies me, is that the guy saw the 13 year old girl once - yes, just once - and decided that sh...

Last updated on 23rd Jan. 2019 Ordeaaaar! John Bercow,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bercow , is the Speaker of the British House of Commons tasked with maintaining order while the House transacts its business. Brexit has got a lot of MPs worked up and so John Bercow has had to play class monitor kind of role quite often, it seems. The Guardian has put together a humourous montage of clips related to this role of John Bercow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY7EIZl4raY , 1 min. 44 secs --------------------------------- Terrific introduction speech to then US President Obama in 2011 by then (and current) speaker of British Parliament John Bercow, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj9kG7zKx_o , 4 min. 31 secs.

British PM Theresa May wins confidence vote with ***all*** votes from her Conservative Party MPs and 9 votes from ally DUP. The vote count was 306 for the no-confidence motion and 325 against it. After winning the vote, May said that she would "continue to work to deliver on the solemn promise we made to the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union". Hmm. Very unusual situation. After losing the vote on her Brexit deal by a huge margin of 230 votes (202 for and 432 against), the very next day she confirms that she and her govt. have the confidence of the house by a margin of 9 votes! I think this is a good thing. A general election at this time would have meant more uncertainty. PM May said, "I stand ready to work with any member of this house to deliver on Brexit and ensure that this house retains the confidence of the British people". Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said, "Before there can be any ...

https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/458448701355906/ dated 16th Jan. 2019, 1 min. 12 secs. I shared the above video with this comment (slightly edited) on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2392702820946281 ) If something like this happens in a company anywhere in India, the concerned manager would, in all probability, be arrested by the police. And I think that workers' unions and political parties (many political parties are affiliated to some workers' unions) would have made such a hue and cry that the company bosses would have had to publicly apologize and promise never to allow such humiliation of workers/staff to ever happen again! I thank God that workers' and employee unions in India are a powerful force today (and have been a powerful force throughout my adult lifetime which is from 1980 when I became 18 by which time I had started observing and noting some of these things in Mumbai and surrounding areas where I lived and studied, and ...

Please note that I have a PUBLICLY POLITICALLY NEUTRAL role in these social media posts that I put up related to Indian political leaders which may include leaders in government currently and those not in government. I am an Indian citizen and resident of India. I do vote in Indian elections but I keep who I vote for as a private matter. I should also say that I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy in India. I made this comment on the shared post below of Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party which is the main opposition party in India now: Thank you very much for sharing this experience, sir. I think what the Afghan visitors said is the plain and brutal truth. And Afghanistan is not too far away from India! Democracy, IMHO, is one of the great benefits we got from European colonization in India despite that colonization resulting in terrible economic exploitation of India. As an early 1960s born Indian, I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open suppor...

"[UK] Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal has been rejected by 230 votes - the largest defeat for a sitting government in history.", https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46885828 Ravi: Shocking! There was talk prior to the vote that if the margin of defeat was around or less than 60 or 70, it would give UK PM May a chance to modify the deal and present it back to Parliament. This is two hundred and thirty votes! 432 voted against the deal and 202 voted for the deal in the House of Commons! Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for a no-confidence vote but he is expected to lose that, if such a no-confidence vote motion is accepted. [If a no-confidence vote is held and won that will mean a new general election.] Feel really sad about this state of affairs in UK now. Hope and pray that UK members of Parliament and PM somehow get their act together and get out of this terrible deadlock situation. ========================================== 1 hr + video c...

Last updated on 16th Jan. 2019 From a recent FB post of mine,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2392296144320282 : UK people and politicians seem to be so divided over (how to) Brexit. It is very sad to see. Hopefully, they will decide quickly and move on. Today I saw a few recent news videos of USA mainstream media channels (I include Fox News in that even though some of my FB friends may disagree with that categorization; I do it based on impact it seems to have on USA politics and the current USA President). [I have omitted sentences that I had initially put up telling what these videos were saying, as it is pretty controversial stuff.] I am publicly neutral in USA (and UK) politics. So I am not taking sides here and saying one side is right and the other is wrong. I am just rather freaked-out that USA democratic politics has reached this horribly divisive level. As a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy, I hope and pray that this deep...

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). FB post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2400068523543044 , 26th Jan. 2019 I don't know enough to comment on the "from China" part but drug addiction (Fentanyl in this case), is such a curse. The world should be freed from this horrifying curse. [Shared video link:  https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/722944421433852/ ] In response to a comment on the post, I (Ravi) wrote: Thanks for your view. But the opioid addiction problem in USA and other narcotic drugs addition in parts of India (especially Punjab) is horrifying, and a major, major social problem. The lives of the people who get addicted get wasted and their family and friends become utterly miserable seeing that. I think it is one of the worst things that can happen not only to a person but also to that person's family and friends. Whether fentanyl and other opioids and narcotics are ...