Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Here's the video of the entire event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3_IhRR6s0U . President Trump's speech starts around 2 hrs. 30 mins into the video. https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-namaste-trump-rally-modi-ahmedabad-india-february-24-2020 has the transcript of USA President Trump's speech. Given below are selected large extracts from it (I have edited it slightly to avoid political bias; Note that I am publicly political neutral; I have retained one or two groups of references to PM Modi rising from tea-seller to PM, and being elected as PM, as I think that is something that can inspire all Indians irrespective of political party): [USA President Donald Trump:] Namaste! Namaste. And hello to India. This is such a great honor. Let me begin by expressing my profound gratitude to an exceptional leader, a great champion of India, a man who works night and day for his country, and a man I am proud to call my true friend: Prime Minister Modi. The F...

Last updated on 25th Feb. 2020 From around 2:18:30 secs in video below which is about US President Trump's visit to Ahmedabad, India on 24th Feb. 2020, we have Indian PM Narendra Modi speaking, followed by USA President Donald Trump (President Trump's speech starts around 2 hrs. 30 mins into the video). After that PM Modi speaks again thanking President Trump. It gets over around 3:09:00 when PM Modi, President Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump move off stage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3_IhRR6s0U (Doordarshan live stream video) President Trump said wonderful things about India, Indians and USA-India relations. I liked that very much and thoroughly enjoyed it. I will check around later for a transcript of President Trump's speech and share it here if I find it. [25th Feb. 2020 update: You may want to see my later post: Selected extracts from transcript of US President Trump's speech in Ahmedabad, India on 24th Feb. 2020 which has very warm words about...

I think this tragedy in a Wuhan family that seems to be well-to-do, starkly shows how a new and dangerous virus can devastate any family even in a modern city if there is an epidemic. Chinese film director Chang Kai and family die from coronavirus, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/18/coronavirus-kills-chinese-film-director-family-wuhan-covid-19 , 18th Feb. 2020. I am putting up such posts as I strongly believe that it is in knowing the danger of this new Coronavirus that it can be beaten with lesser casualties than in not bothering much about it. In this context, I think Cambodian leaders displayed dangerous nonchalance in not following appropriate safety protocols when they welcomed the cruise ship Westerdam (which had been refused entry by a few countries) with no quarantine requirement. Eventually, one person from the Westerdam cruise ship tested positive. Hopefully, that is only one such case and that person has not infected others before she tested positive (and pre...

I debated with myself quite a bit about whether I should put up this post. I decided to go ahead with putting up this post. Why? Well, besides the medical doctor and martyr Li Wenliang, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Wenliang , who first shared the info. about a possible new and dangerous virus to friends privately but who shared it publicly, two Chinese social media whistle blowers - Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin - have done a great service to the world at large by informing the world about the severity of the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus 2019) epidemic in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. This has led the rest of the world to get a better idea of the crisis there and to try to prevent or reduce its spread in other countries. Note that India is a neighbouring country to China, and that Kerala state of India had 3 cases of COVID-19 (2 of which have recovered and 1 is under treatment) among students of Kerala who were studying in Wuhan. I have done some whistle-blowing in the past and know...

Enjoyed watching 1959 Western movie, Rio Bravo, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4bchx8 , 2 hrs. 15 mins. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Bravo_(film) : Rio Bravo is a 1959 American Western film produced and directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. Written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on the short story "Rio Bravo" by B. H. McCampbell, the film is about the sheriff of the town of Rio Bravo, Texas, who arrests the brother of a powerful local rancher to help his drunken deputy/friend. With the help of a "cripple" and a young gunfighter, they hold off the rancher's gang. Rio Bravo was filmed on location at Old Tucson Studios outside Tucson, Arizona, in Technicolor. In 2014, Rio Bravo was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[3] ...

Fascinating detailed and long account (details guys like me lap it up but it may be too long for some readers) of how the public health authorities in the South Indian state of Kerala, which had hundreds of its students studying in China (72 from Wuhan), got prepared, and eventually handled the, so far limited (3 cases), of COVID-19 that its citizens returning from China to Kerala, had contracted. They used the experience they had gained in tackling the Nipah virus outbreak in 2018 to good effect. This article appeared in the print edition of The Hindu yesterday (15th Feb. 2020). Fighting a virus, yet again: How controlling the Nipah outbreak helped Kerala to take on COVID-19, https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/fighting-a-virus-yet-again-how-controlling-the-nipah-outbreak-helped-kerala-to-take-on-covid-19/article30825430.ece . The reaction of the father of the boy who was the second case that tested positive in Kerala is dramatically eye-catching. The family heard the news a...

Last updated on 31st March 2020 Given below are contents of most of my posts in Feb. 2020 on the new Coronavirus 2019 nCoV2019 which is now labelled as COVID-19 by WHO. I plan to update this post with later FB posts in Feb. 2020 on this matter. Some posts have been put up as as separate posts by itself. Their contents are not included in this post. I have tried to provide links of all such posts at the bottom of this post. To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ========================================== Reuters map and chart showing animated video of spread of COVID-19 across the world. Now it does not reflect recovered cases. E.g. Officially all 3 cases in India have recovered and so India, officially, is COVID-19 free now. But the map shows India as affected. I don't know why all the mainstre...

Once Upon a Time in the West - Famous Western genre movie made in 1968 which has been listed as one of the top Western genre movies by Guardian (in 2013) and TIME. It also has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_the_West . Henry Ford and Charles Bronson are the main stars. The female lead is played by Claudia Cardinale. The movie: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2c770m , 2 hrs. 38 mins. Its script: https://www.scripts.com/script.php?id=once_upon_a_time_in_the_west_15225 . I enjoyed the movie. ... In response to comments on my Facebook post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2747311775485382 , having above content, I wrote (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I think the movie is a reflection of the reality of human settlements where law and order are not strong. Note t...

Last updated on 31st March 2020 Note that most of the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus 2019) related FB post contents of mine are put up here: My Feb. 2020 FB posts on new Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19),  https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2020/02/my-feb-2020-fb-posts-on-new-coronavirus.html . When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ========================================== Excellent dental service from Dr. Krishna Suman of Prasanthi Dental Clinic in Puttaparthi Thought this may be useful to some Puttaparthi based readers and so am sharing it. Please note that there is no commercial benefit for me from this post. Further, I am only reporting my positive experience. Others' experience could be ...