The other day a friend asked me, “I have often heard about India being a third-world country. What exactly is the third world?” It struck me that most of us are ignorant about what that exactly means. I said to my friend that “third world” was an euphemism for “desperately poor extremely underdeveloped starving nations utterly misgoverned by unimaginably corrupt kleptocrats.”[1] And, I added, as a consequence, the third world is a world of human-created misery.
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Wikileaks Will Make The World A Safer Place
Jonathan Swift, author of the English classic Gulliver’s Travels (1726), had pithily observed that “when a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.” I would be going over the top to pass Julian Assange on that genius test but seeing the army of powerful people and institutions arrayed against him, I am getting more convinced that Wikileaks has changed the world in ways that are only dimly understood today. I am careful to distinguish between the man and the institution since confusing the two can lead to the unfortunate mistake of shooting the messenger for delivering an unpalatable message.
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Raghuveer Mukkamalla on Jeopardy!
This is exciting. Jeopardy is a favorite quiz show. Long-time reader of this blog, Raghuveer, will be on Jeopardy Dec 29th. Mark your calendars! (The last time I was in Washington DC in September, I met Raghuveer and his family.)
Does your brain work differently?
Apparently according to this test, my brain works quite like that of the vast majority of humans. Take this quick test to check your thought pattern. Do tell what happened in a comment but please don’t spoil the test for others by revealing your answer. Just say whether you are with the majority or not. It would be interesting to see how the numbers stack up. Thanks much. (Caution: Don’t read the comments if you want to do the test and not prejudice yourself.)
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Avinash Dixit: Indian Economist Par Excellence
It’s funny how India produces world-class economists but is an impoverished third-world country with an economy that languishes at the bottom of the barrel. Not ha-ha funny but ironically funny. Still, as Indians we can hold up our heads with pride that in our tribe we have economists such as Bhagwati, Srinivasan, Dasgupta, Bardhan, Basu — and of course Dixit.
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Comments Don’t Disappear
Sometimes they are held for moderation. Patience is called for. Else one will have to put up with the embarrassment of multiple comments.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta Hauls MMS & SG Over the Coals for a Well-deserved Roasting
We pretty much know how despicable Dr Manmohan Singh is. I struggle inexpertly to express my contempt for him on these pages. The contempt I feel for him arises from the certain knowledge that much of what the hundreds of millions of poor & middle-class Indians suffer (and will continue to suffer) can be laid at his door.
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Open Thread: Does Language Really Matter?
Seeing people unable to express themselves coherently is distressing to me. It is cute to see a very small child struggling with language but in adults incoherence is disturbing. Some people’s inability to spell and punctuate properly makes me wonder whether they are inherently stupid or whether their schooling was inadequate.
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The DD Blue Turban Government Promotes Islamic Terrorism
That’s my conclusion. YMMV. Ashok Malik wrote a piece in Hindustan Times, “Modi Operandi.” While the title is too clever by half, you should check it out. An excerpt below the fold.
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Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
Hans Rosling is a favorite academic/activist of mine. He is delightful to watch because of his infectious enthusiasm for his subject — that the world is getting better. Here’s a brief video that presents the evidence for that proposition. (Thanks JP for the link.) Enjoy.
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Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 