Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

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. ========================================== More light is coming now on the violence in Delhi few days back, indulged in during farmers' protest. It is very sad that so many police constables and officers got injured (police were under instructions not to open fire). Such violence should not be tolerated in democratic India. Those who resorted to this violence against the police must face the full force of the law so that they will not think of repeating these actions in future. Republic Day raid was pre-meditated, planned well in advance, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/republic-day-raid-was-pre-meditated-planned-well-in-advance-101611822032282.html, 28th J...

I saw most of the 20th Jan. 2021 inauguration function of US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris on ABC News live stream video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIOizAIqZtc , around 12 hours. It is around 4 hours into the video that the inauguration function proper starts with Senator Amy Klobuchar addressing the assembled dignitaries and others. While then President Donald Trump was absent, then Vice-President Mike Pence was present along with other leaders of the Republican party including then Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. That was good to see. It was also good to see former US presidents from both Democratic and Republican parties - Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barrack Obama - being present and having cordial interactions with each other and other dignitaries. From the 20th Jan. inauguration function only perspective, it came across as an orderly transition of power from the Donald Trump administration to the Joe Biden administration even if Donald Trump ...

Good to see US Capitol being very well protected now by US armed forces (National Guard). Any armed militia in USA will not stand any chance of repeating what was done in the mob invasion and riot in US Capitol on Jan. 6th, slightly more than a week back. I think whether it is USA or India, ultimately it is the armed forces of the nation that protect democratic institutions like US Congress or Indian Parliament from terrorist threats whether they are external or internal. Therefore lovers of democracy should be ever grateful (and I am ever grateful) to national military forces that protect democratic institutions like US armed forces in case of USA, and Indian armed forces in case of India. Military Trucks Block Roads To U.S. Capitol In Stepped Up Security Measures Ahead Of Inauguration, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MQWgBla8_s , 3 min. 51 secs., published by NBC News on 14th Jan. 2021.

An NPR article on the matter: Joint Chiefs Remind U.S. Forces That They Defend The Constitution, https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/12/956170188/joint-chiefs-remind-u-s-forces-that-they-defend-the-constitution , 12th Jan. 2021. An extract from above article: The letter was addressed to the joint force, which is made up of about 1.3 million active-duty service members and more than 811,000 National Guardsmen and reservists — all of whom swore an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." --- end extract from NPR article --- The one-page letter itself from US armed forces joint chiefs: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20449003/jcs-message-to-the-joint-force-jan-12-21.pdf . Some extracts from the above letter: "The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitution...

Last updated on 13th Jan. 2021 Initial reports by mainstream US media of the mob invasion of US Capitol portrayed the mob actions as vandalism and desecration. Some of these reports are linked to in my previous post: Good to see US Congress back at work to formally confirm Joe Biden's election as President, after sad desecration of US Capitol by mob, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2021/01/good-to-see-us-congress-back-to-work-to.html .  Later reports, however, portrayed a very scary scenario showing violent confrontation between some of the mob and Capitol police. Very sadly, one police officer died reportedly due to violent assault on him by one or more persons from the mob. One or more of the videos listed below shows a horrific video clip of a police officer being crushed between the mob, a riot shield and a door, with the police officer screaming for help. One video report mentions that some persons in the mob had weapons (guns, one presumes)! There are reports that some in...

US President Trump accepts that a new (presidential) administration will take over on 20th Jan., commits to an orderly transition of power, and condemns violence in Capitol, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG4rBlac-UE , 2 min. 41 secs, 7th Jan. 2021 published by FOX Carolina News. President Trump should have condemned the invasion into the Capitol by what seems to be his supporters, as soon as it happened. He did not. This condemnation has come after many hours and well after the Capitol was back under control of law enforcement. Due to this inordinate delay on part of President Trump to condemn the mob invasion of the Capitol, naturally, one wonders whether President Trump was supportive of the invasion of the Capitol while it was going on! One further wonders whether he wanted to see whether this mob invasion would intimidate Congress into NOT certifying the election of Senator Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris as president and vice-president. However, it is good to see that eventu...

The video below has pics and a video clip of the mob of protestors who seem to be pro-Trump, showing how the mob confronted the Capitol police, forced their way into the Capitol building and desecrated some areas there, including the Senate chamber and office of House (of Representatives) Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It also shows a very telling pic of what the video says is the U.S. House of Representatives chamber, with its door barricaded from inside and with security officers behind the barricade having pistols drawn pointing to the door, ready to shoot anybody who attempts to try to come inside. My God! This is not from a movie but real stuff that happened. Pro-Trump protesters storm US Capitol, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2npCYNnV18 , 8 min. 52 secs. published by ABC News on 6th Jan. 2021. It is very sad that President Trump did not condemn this storming of the U.S. Capitol by what seems to be his supporters. Another video report about the mob actions: Chaos in Washington as Trump ...

Draft version: 5th Jan. 2021 Minor update on 1st Sep. 2021 As a former Indian software industry guy (from 1984 to 2002), I was very happy to see https://itihaasa.com/listing/timeline having video interviews of top people of Information Technology / Computer Science field of India over the decades giving their views about history of Indian I.T. They have also shared some interesting articles and other artifacts (e.g. brochure). Congratulations to itihaasa.com for this great work! They are doing a wonderful service to record some aspects of Indian I.T. history over the decades from the viewpoints of its leaders. In this post I have shared some of the video and other artifact links from the above timeline webpage that I found to be of interest. Note that my interest is limited to mainly the exposure I had in Indian software industry, and some historical background to that. I plan to update this page with more information about the links that I have given below. [10th March 2021 update: A...