COMICS

When we were children, we loved reading comics. There was a large variety, but for me there were a few categories - the War comics, the Classics Illustrated, the Western and comics such as Archie and Popeye. Also, every week we used to get the English comics such as Desperate Dan and Beano and some others. Many parents stopped their children from reading comics as they felt it was a waste of time . Fortunately for us our parents did not.

The War comics were about the Second World War and the villains were always the Germans and the Japanese. I still remember the few words from the war comics– Achtung when the Germans are out on a patrol or Schweinhund when the German soldiers would capture the Allied prisoners. And of course, the Japanese pilots with the headbands shouting Banzai as they dived their Zero aircraft on to an American battleship in a suicide mission. The illustrations showed the Germans and the British soldiers shooting and bayoneting each other with the Japanese using their swords to kill and cut off heads. At that time there was no political correctness. I can understand why this genre of comics are no longer available.

Perhaps that was when my baser instincts were first aroused. I should not be admitting this, but even to this day, while I do not like seeing violence in real life, I like nothing better than seeing movies with the swords and spears being thrust down the throats or passing through two bodies. I just saw the tv series Spartacus for the second time in about three to four years. The War movies or the Western movies where the bullets are shown in slow motion hitting the target and the explosion of blood or the historical movies with sword fights and arrows piercing the throats are shows which I like seeing repeatedly. The special effects nowadays are amazing. Perhaps I enjoy these because I know it does not happen in so in real life. 

The Classics Illustrated were pictorial illustrations of the classics such as Tom Sawyer and the Count of Monte Cristo or H G Wells the War of the Worlds. I used to find them fascinating. As I grew older, I  read some of them but for the others, the Illustrated Comics were the earlier version of Wikipedia where when discussing a classic, you don’t come across as being totally ignorant, since you know the summary.

The Westerns or the Archie or Superman comics introduced us to Americana or the brief biography of the founding fathers of America from the likes of George Washington to Benjamin Franklin to Buffalo Bill and Davy Crockett. This was later supplemented by reading the children’s version of the books from the American Library in Rangoon and in my teens reading Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour for the Westerns. Interestingly these were all available from the bookstores and the state library in Chandigarh. 

Nowadays when I look around it appears that while the Archie comics are still around, the ones which are the most popular are the action type of comics such as Superman or Batman or as those from the Marvel list such as Spiderman, Avengers, and Iron Man which are hot properties for movies. The other category of movies which are now increasingly popular the world over are the Manga comics from Japan.

Manga comics or graphic novels originate from Japan and cover a broad range of genres from action, adventure, comedy, historical, detective, among others. They are widely read in the US, Canada and France and East Asia. Surprisingly Manga erotica in violent form is read not just by the legions of salary man on the trains in Japan, but also by the women. "Men read these kinds of comic books, so why shouldn't women as well?" asked Yayoi Watanabe, a demurely dressed woman who draws the comics. "Women seem to be starting to say, 'Hey, we lust, too,' and 'We're also thinking of porn and promiscuity. (1)). This represents the contradictions in Japan. One the one hand you have grown up women in their uniforms and white gloves, talking in little girl voices ( such as in the lifts in the stores such as Takashimiya or Mitsukoshi) and on the other hand sitting in the subway and reading violent Manga novels. 

And then there are the underground comix ,which according to Wikipedia are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They depict content prohibited by the Comics Code Authority (apparently there is such an authority) such as explicit drug use, sexuality and violence. Very popular in the sixties and seventies but to a lesser extent now. Why bother with sex in comics when you can see the real thing on your internet.  The exception is Japan where you can have both. Japanese porn became widespread in the seventies with the emergence of the VHS video (see The Naked Director on Netflix).

While animation has been around since the late 1880’s, it was only in the 1940’s, (regarded as the Golden Age of American Animation according to Wikipedia), that cartoons took off. Like other memorabilia such as baseball cards, and first editions of books, comics are also becoming collectibles. The following three are the most expensive comics sold.

1, “Action Comics” #1, CGC 9.0 - $3,207,852

2. “Amazing Fantasy “#15, CGC 9.6 -$ 1,100,000

3. “Detective Comics “# 27 CGC 8.0 - $1,075,000 (2)

For me it is difficult to understand why any one would pay such huge amounts for them. You would argue that this an art form. But the artists were anonymous. Perhaps it’s the rarity value. If the original drawings made by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby of their original hero’s such as Thor, Iron Man and X Man were being auctioned off, I could understand, but a mass-produced copy. I am nor sure if the first editions of classics go for anywhere near these amounts. Perhaps I am just envious because I did not have a copy.  

 In the movies you had the cartoons which Walt Disney first started with Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and popularized with Mickey Mouse and numerous other characters. Since the 1970’s movies have included both animation and real actors together. The next major push was with the use of computers. Steve Job’s Pixar pushed it to the next level and created a number of animated best sellers starting with Toy Story. Nowadays in some movies at times it is difficult to differentiate with computer generated images with real live actors, like the Spartan based movie 300 based on the comic of the same name. Interestingly enough some of the Visual Special Effects, even for the Marvel originated movies such as Thor, or the Life of Pi or others are being done in India.

With computer games, merger of animation with real life and cartoon movies and of course political correctness, how long will comics be around, expect perhaps with Manga in Japan. In the meantime, I am adding the Illustrated Classics comics to my Amazon Wish List for my grandchildren.

Column from today's Guardian newspaper

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/27/marvel-cinematic-universe-films

 

(1)    '(https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/weekinreview/the-world-in-japan-brutal-comics-for-women.html

(2)    (https://www.cbr.com/the-10-most-expensive-comic-books-ever-sold/)

 

The Times They Are A-Changin

 

Come gather ‘round people, wherever you roam

………….

For the time, they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled

The battle outside ragin’

Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the time, they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land

And don’t criticise what you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging

Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand

For the times, they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan – Lyrics – The Times They Are A-Changin’

'(On July 7th,2007, I had written a blog “Race, Religion & Politics - Race .This is a continuation of this. )

Over the last few months, I have read and seen the following:

Book - Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Interesting book about the trials and tribulations of  African Americans and comparisons with the Dalits in India and the Jews during Hitler’s Third Reich.

Television show - The Loudest Voice - It is about Roger Ailes, the person who set up Fox News for Rupert Murdoch.

Movie - The Deacons of Defence - 2003. It is based on a 1964 true story about a group of African Americans who took up arms to challenge the anti-black police, judiciary and the Ku Klux Klan in a small town – Bogalusa, Louisiana and succeeded. 

CNN - Mobs laying siege to the Capitol in Washington on January 6^th.

Your obvious question is what is the link between them?

The start of racial abuse and discrimination started when the first slave ship arrived in Virginia about 400 years ago. A national culture was created where Americans perceived that the white population should be the dominant majority and the African slaves remain a minority - not deserving of equal rights and dignity. Now, the minorities in the USA are getting together and voting for a party which they feel will provide them equal opportunities.

The second concern among the right-wing conservatives is the rise and influence of the “leftist liberals”, particularly among the recent immigrants who are now becoming political and standing for election at the state and federal level. The conservatives fear that they would push for increased taxes and handouts to the poor thus disincentivizing them from seeking jobs. This in spite of the gap between the wealthy and the poor being at an all time high.(1)

 

It is perhaps worth going back into time, since America has a relatively short history. Their goal when they declared Independence was to be a Republic and have a democratic form of government which would be a model for the rest of the world.

The opening lines of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, read as follows:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

While the words were inspiring,14 out of the 21 signers of the document had at various times held slaves. Thomas Jefferson, the person who drafted the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, is believed to have continued holding slaves and had an African American slave as his mistress and who bore him children (2).

From the early days there was a tendency for America to be not just a White dominated country, but for some of the Founding Fathers it was to be a White Anglo Saxon Protestant nation. In the 1750’s Benjamin Franklin was concerned that “.... Pennsylvania, founded by the English, (would) become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.”

Similarly, “The Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion”. He was not alone. In spite of the lyrics in the musical Hamilton “Immigrants, we get the job done,” Hamilton, Jefferson and some of others felt the same way (3).  

The slave owning practice continued and in fact increased over the next century. While the North was industrializing, the South was increasing the land under cultivation and using slaves to carry out the hard labour. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, he tried to end slavery. The Southern States decided to break away from the Union, resulting in the Civil War which the North won. 

After the Civil War, the Congress passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitutions and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which granted full citizenship to the freed slaves,  including the right to vote.

Its Section 1 stated “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The first African American  member of the Senate, Hiram Rhode Revels was elected in 1870. However, the equal rights in the Southern States were short lived.

As a means of allowing the country to get back to normality, the federal troops were withdrawn from the South in 1877 and this allowed the Southern States to regain control of their state legislatures. This enabled them to pass laws which restricted the rights of the African American people, including the right to vote by imposing new requirements for poll taxes, literacy tests and strict residency and other requirements which were difficult to satisfy. In addition, they passed the Jim Crow laws which segregated transportation, public facilities and daily life. 

The US Supreme Court in 1896 supported these laws under the fig leaf of “separate but equal” judgement. In 1954 the Supreme Court reversed this but the discrimination continued. 

This led to extreme violence, including lynchings and race riots against the black population, mainly in the South. It also gave rise to the right-wing organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.

As a result of the violence and discrimination, the African Americans started moving out of the Southern States. The Great Migration happened in two waves – the first wave from 1916 to 1940 when about 1.6 million African Americans went from the rural South to Northern industrial cities, the second wave from 1940 to 1970, around 5 million African American  people moved to the North and West where they could exercise their right to vote. The percentage of African Americans living in rural areas declined from 47 percent to 16 percent between 1950 and 1990 (3).

It is interesting to note that Abraham Lincoln the President who tried to end slavery was from the Republican Party. The Southern States were primarily White, Democrat and in favour of slavery. The switch started in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programs offered economic relief to deal with the Depression. By the mid-60’s the majority of the African  American voters were voting for the Democrats.

As the land mass in America expanded to more states, there was a large influx of European immigrants. Initially, the Germans, Italians and Irish all went through the phase of being discriminated against, but once they assimilated, they all began to develop the characteristics and behaviour of what Isabel Wilkerson calls “the dominant caste “and they also discriminated and mistreated the African Americans.

To build the rail roads across America there had been an influx of cheap Chinese labour. Also, in the early 1900’s a group of Sikhs landed in Northern California. To prevent America becoming a multicultural nation, the government controlled the racial mix through the immigration laws restricting the flow of new immigrants from different parts of the world, and in some cases even restricting the ability of immigrants to bring their families. The group of Sikh immigrants who settled in Northern California married Mexicans and established the first Sikh community around Stockton. They tried legal means to obtain citizenship.

Following the attempt by two Japanese Americans Takao Ozawa and Takauji Yamashita, a Sikh named Bhagat Singh Thind petitioned the Supreme Court. He had served in the US Army and fought in World War I. He was granted citizenship twice and which was rescinded both times. His argument to the Supreme Court was unique.

Thind argued that he was Caucasian, Aryan in fact, descended from the same stock as Europeans, given that it was widely held that Aryans migrated south to India and formed that country’s upper caste. It could be said he had a more rightful claim to being Caucasian than the people judging him. After all, the Caucasus Mountains were next to Iran and closer to neighbouring India than western Europe .His appeal was declined but he was ultimately granted citizenship in 1935.(4)

In the early 1900’s the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to outnumber those from the Northern and Western Europe and in 1921 and 1924, caps were set for total annual immigration and quotas imposed for the Northern and Western Europe countries. In the forties and the fifties, America started to relax the immigration laws and the racial mix began to change.

Starting 1943, and later in 1952 a limited number of Chinese and Asian were allowed to immigrate. In 1965, laws were changed to allow reunification and skilled immigrants were allowed in. Later in 1986 and 1990, the Immigration Reform and Control Act focused on allowing refugees from Indochina, Nicaragua and Haiti and other war-torn countries (5).

The change in immigration laws led to the increase in population and to the United States becoming a more multicultural society. The U.S. population in 1900 was 76 million. In 1950, it rose to 152 million; by 2000 it had reached 282 million and 331 million in 2020. By 2050, it is expected to reach between 422-458 million, depending on immigration. The percentage share of the white population has been dropping since 1950. From 59.7% in 2020, it is expected to drop below 50% in 2045 to 44% in 2060.  The Hispanics will be the second largest group followed by the African Americans and Asians. 

The Jim Crow laws lasted until 1965. It was the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-sixties, led by Martin Luther King Jr, who inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, protested non-violently, and which ultimately led to President Lyndon Baines Johnson passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965. These acts outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, national origin and subsequently sexual orientation and gender identity. They also did away with unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial  segregation in schools, public accommodations, and employment discrimination. In 1964 after signing the Civil Rights Bill President Johnson predicted that the Democrats would lose the South for the generation for supporting the African - Americans. For over half a century no Democrat running for Presidency ever won a majority of the white votes” (4). 

 

 

The passing of the Bills caused some concern that the non-whites combined with the liberal left from the East and West coasts were going to take over the country. The fear was that after almost four centuries, the skin-based colour dominance would be coming to an end as the racial mix became more diversified. 

This fear was not limited to just the rich and middle class. Even the poor and working-class whites were concerned, perhaps even more so, because the feeling of entitlement based purely on their skin colour was gradually being taken away. Roger Ailes was the first to recognise the impact it would have on American society as the ethnically distributed population began to change America. 

Roger Ailes worked as a political consultant to Richard Nixon, Ronald Regan and George H.W. Bush and others including Mitch McConnell, Quayle and others. Apparently, he also helped Donald Trump, including writing his speeches. After working for CNBC, he convinced Rupert Murdoch to help him launch Fox News in 1996.

According to an article dated May 2011 in the Rolling Stone Magazine, Roger Ailes’s viewers market “…. are old, with a median age of 65. The audience is also almost exclusively white – only 1.38 percent of viewers are African-American. “Roger understands audiences,” says Rollins, the former Reagan consultant. “He knew how to target, which is what Fox News is all about.” The typical viewer of Hannity, to take the starkest example, is a pro-business (86 percent), Christian conservative (78 percent), Tea Party-backer (75 percent), with no college degree (66 percent), who is over age 50 (65 percent), supports the NRA (73 percent), doesn’t back gay rights (78 percent) and thinks government “does too much” (84 percent). “He’s got a niche audience and he’s programmed to it beautifully,” says a former News Corp. colleague. “He feeds them exactly what they want to hear. This understanding of the demographics helped make Fox News the most viewed channel and a cash cow in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire”. (6)

The interesting thing about the Trump fan base is that there is also a small percentage of coloured persons (including Asian) who voted for him. Their rationale perhaps - the tax cuts which he was promising.   

From the time Obama began contemplating his candidacy, Fox News went all-out to convince its white viewers that he was a Marxist, a Muslim, a African American nationalist, a 1960s type radical and strongly pushed the “birther” conspiracy theory - insisting that President Obama was not born in the United States.

While everyone thought Obama got elected because he was biracial, spent most of his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii, had Asian roommates, studied in Ivy League schools was an “acceptable African American , “the reality was that the majority of the whites did not vote for him. “Only an estimated 43 percent of the whites voted for him - close to two third did not vote for him in 2008 and even less 38 percent voted for him in 2012. 

President Obama’s two election successes also proved to the African Americans the power of their votes. This was the trigger point for some of the right-wing organisations and brought out the passive Republicans to vote for Donald Trump. His campaign team also did their best to try and disenfranchise the African American  voters and with the support of right-wing news media such as Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and others, together with the use of social media, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2018.

They tried to employ the same tactics in 2020. In subtle and not so subtle ways, the African Americans continued to be discriminated against. They tried to take away their right to vote by various means, including redrawing the districts or the proof of identity required to vote. 

Biden’s victory was in no small measure due to the support from the African American community, starting from his primary victory in South Carolina. Stacy Abrams ten-year effort was instrumental in swinging Georgia to turn blue and helped the Democrats win the two Senate seats which gave them a 50-50 split in the Senate. Like the Deacons of Defence, the African Americans together with the Asians and some Hispanics were better organised and came out in large numbers to vote. In addition to Joe Biden, they helped Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour, get elected as the Vice President, in spite of President Trump and his team’s various attempts to claim that the results were fraudulent. 

When all attempts to overturn the results of the election failed, a large number of the Republicans again attempted to do what the opposition party did in the 1890's. At that time a group of Whites and African Americans  called Fusionists - whose objective was to seek free education, debt relief and equal rights for the African Americans, won every state-wide office in 1896, including the governorship in North Carolina.

 In 1898 during state wide elections, a group of white Supremacists called the Red Shirts rode into Wilmington and started intimidating the voters. A Democratic leader named Alfred Moore Waddell gave a speech urging insurrection, demanding that white men stop the (African Americans)  from voting and to shoot them if they refuse. They then forced the resignation of the government and appointed their own Mayor. Within two years new segregation laws were passed and the (African American)  population were stripped of their right to vote. The number of African American voters dropped from 125,000 in 1896 to about 6000 in 1902 (7).  

Is this the beginning of the end of the single ethnic dominated society? With the changing racial mix over the next three to four decades, my personal view is that the minorities (African Americans, Hispanics, Asians) will all get better organised and you will see a bigger mix of different colours in both houses.

The first Asian to be elected to the US House of Representatives was a Sikh, Dalip Singh Saund from 1959 to 1963. This year there are 109 non-white members in the Congress and 9 in the Senate. The change is also being felt in the business circles as well, as you see more companies being led by Asian and African American senior management. Also, the share of the multiracial group will grow as America finally becomes the melting pot.

It will be interesting to see how the two political parties react to the change? Will the Republicans move more to the centre? The Democrats more to the left to accommodate the newly elected immigrant politicians who are pushing to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor? Will the Republicans split with groups such as the Lincoln Project group forming their own party? Will the gap between the rich and the poor continue to grow as it has been over the last three decades? Will this result in more social unrest? The issue then moves from race to economic issues.

Multicultural America will once again be a model for the world. You will also see the European countries following America as their share of the non-whites increases and the minorities get better organised. The UK and Canada are perhaps slightly ahead with the South Asians already sharing the stage with the whites. The twenty first century will the century when the world truly becomes global. The exception will be Asia.

India is already the United States of India, but it appears now to want to change to a religion-based majority dominated country. China and Japan the other two large economies are probably the only two countries which are racially pure and are reluctant to open the doors to other races.  With the aging population, it will be interesting to see how these countries cope and whether they will change in any way. Will they be able to maintain their economic growth?

In the medium- and long-term globally, race will be less of an issue. Will it be religion where many of the recent immigrants, particularly in Europe are Muslims? Will this create tension among the different religions?  Time will tell.

As Bob Dylan said during the 60’s …. The Times They Are A-Changin’. They certainly are but at a much faster pace.

1. Source: US Census Bureau and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. – Pew Research Centre

2.https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery-1269536

3. https://qz.com/904933/a-history-of-american-anti-immigrant-bias-starting-with-benjamin-franklins-hatred-of-the-germans

4.Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

5.America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences: Volume I (2001)

6.The Rolling Stone: May 25,2011: How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factor

7. BBC.com - Stacey Abrams: The woman behind Biden's biggest surprise - 10th, November 2020 

8. “How U.S. immigration laws and rules have changed through history by D’Vera Cohn - Pew Research Centre

 

The Digital Graveyard

I just read an article in BBC.com that Facebook has almost 30 million users who have died and whose Facebook accounts still continue. With the increased offerings of free Cloud based services this is going to be a major problem in the future.

Until the last few years you just had to buy a new computer with a larger hard drive or a external hard drive to store your files. But with the introduction of the cloud all that has started changing.

While I am not a techie and am perhaps sticking my neck out, but I would venture and say that Sabeer Bhatia the guy who started Hotmail ( which was bought over by Microsoft) was probably the first free  cloud service provider. Prior to that all your emails were provided by your internet service provider. You saved them on your had drive or paid extra for additional storage. Then along came Mr. Bhatia and started offering Hotmail for free with a limited amount for free storage.

Now Google, MSN and a number of all allow you to store thousands of emails and in addition they offer you separate drives with a fair sized storage capacity.

The free cloud services have tremendous amount of advantages. To give you a few examples

- if you are travelling and are concerned that you might loose your passport  and travel documents, you can store them in your cloud account ( Google drive).
- sharing large  files and photographs
- your medical records . If you have a medical history and you travel rather than carrying a voluminous file it can be stored on your drive.
- your  academic records.

The list goes on . However there are dangers that someone might hack into the drive and steal your identity but assuming that you have the confidence in your password and are willing to take the risk it makes life easier.

However we all have a tendency to have to use different passwords and in some cases ( like me ) even multiple cloud storage accounts.

The Facebook news made me think what happens when you forget some password of an account which your use rarely and you dont remember the security question or have not given any back up email address or your family dont know your passwords ?All the information stored on your cloud will be inaccessible.

What do you ? You can of course do one of the following;
- give your spouse and your children the list of accounts and the passwords ( or leave it in your locker).
- have a back up on an external drive which you keep at home and your family is aware of it. But that still leaves all your files floating in the netherworld or when the service providers implement a policy that after a few years all inactive accounts will be automatically deleted.

Of course the services providers should  do about something about resolving this problem because of the growing size of it.While some of the cloud providers such as Google link it to your email address which ask for a back up email address but the problem is that tends to be another email which you control. What they need to do is like the banks have a nominee and when the account is not actively used for a certain period ( say three to five years) a email automatically goes out to the both the account holder and the nominee informing that the account is inactive and if not accessed will be deleted within the next six months. The nominee should also be given the right of access . 

Also what happens when a service provider such are Amazon or Microsoft or Google goes bankrupt ( unthinkable but look where IBM was and where it is now ) and some of the blue chips of yesterday such as GM which actually went bankrupt. Again the regulators should have the service providers ring fence this service and as in the case of the financial institutions have a living will so that the users are not left high and dry.

Of course some of you who are more tech savvy might have better suggestions. I certainly would like to hear from you.

"When Breath Becomes Air "

"When Breath Becomes Air "  is the title of a book by  Paul Kalanithi. It is one of the most touching books I have read. Its about a brilliant young neurosurgeon /neuroscientist who at the age of thirty six ,  in the last year of his residency finds out that he has lung cancer. It is a relatively short book since the author could not complete it . The epilogue was written by his wife Lucy.

Kalanithi was an American of Indian parentage. After a brilliant academic career at Stanford majoring in English and Biology he went to Cambridge and then decided to become a doctor . His Father and Brother are both doctors. After graduating in medicine from Yale he went to Stanford for his residency for specialization as a neurosurgeon.

To read about his battle with cancer, first despair, then hope and then acceptance and trying to make the most of his time and  the decision with his wife to have a child is most heart breaking.

The Epilogue itself almost brings to you to tears.

Needless to say the book has received rave reviews from almost every literary source you can imagine.
I would urge you all to read the book. 

O Country, My Country

In October this year we completed ten years of our return to India. Before this I had lived in India only for seven years. My wife and I had long agreed that when I stopped working we would move back to India. We did not consider any other option such as staying on in Hong Kong.  Now after a decade, we feel that our life in India has become like the volatile stock market  bouncing between hope and despair.

When we came back , India was shining. The BJP had just been voted out and Sonia Gandhi magnanimously handed over the job to Manmohan Singh. We were delighted. After all he had set in motion the liberalization of  the economy. As a renowned economist and a honest individual he would not only take the economy to great heights but set an example of a honest, clean government. He was the Prime Minister for two terms but unfortunately instead of scaling great heights, during his second terms he took us to the pits of corruption. While he was universally acknowledged to be personally honest, the same could not be said about the other members of his cabinet. Towards the end , there was a new scam everyday and corruption was rampant. What was depressing was that the amounts were not small. Each of them were in hundreds and thousands of crores and ran across the spectrum of the economy - from telecoms to coal mines, from agriculture to education, from  health care to social welfare. It was never ending. Persons involved ranged from politicians to police to businessmen to top government investigators.All the members of the coalition were involved one way or the other. Manmohan Singh put his hands up and said it was the compulsions of the coalition implying that he was held hostage by his partners. When the Prime Minister says that what can the common man expect ? So not surprisingly at  election time the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat.

As this was happening there emerged two stars on the horizon both non-members of  Delhi's Lutyens Club.  One was a seasoned but slightly controversial politicians whose pitch was not necessarily to vote for a BJP government, but  for Modi sarkar. The whole campaign was centered  around as strong "can do"type leader. The other was a "Jolhe Wala" IIT ex-bureaucrat,NGO activist Arvind Kejriwal.

Modi is the first Chief Minister to become  the Prime Minister. He has a track record of building up Gujarat, listening to investors, visiting China, Japan and other countries to see what they were doing right and what could be implemented here. The black mark against him were the riots in Gujarat where hundreds of Muslims were killed. However the courts absolved him. After his elections, he hit the ground running and flying, jetting from one country to another.Unfortunately  two of his ambitious plans, the modification of the Land Bill and the passing of the GST bill have run into a road block .The BJP while they have the majority in the Lok Sabha lacks it in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress party  "did onto BJP what BJP had done to them "when they were in power. BJP as the main opposition party  had blocked the passing of the bills during the previous government. The problem which Modi seems to be having is controlling the fringe elements in his own party. Almost every day someone utters some communal or controversial remark or comment which the media picks up and runs it twenty four seven. Opposition parties lead by the Congress quickly pick these up and use these as a stick to beat up on BJP.  It is ironical that Congress party members who  were responsible for the well planned killing of the Sikhs following Mrs. Gandhi's death are now trying to walk the moral high ground.

Similarly the other, Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Admi Party after a false start made history by winning almost 97 percent of the Delhi State Assemble seats. Because of the way Delhi is governed the Lt.Governer controls most of the power with Aam Admi having  limited ability to implement many of the promises they had made during the campaign. Taking a leaf from Modi's political playbook Aam Admi has been running campaign advertisements extolling the Arvind Kejriwal government.Arvind Kejriwal the activist has morphed into  Arvind Kejriwal the politician who is trying to build a party around himself. 

What does this all mean for the common man ? Its pretty much business as usual. Corruption is still prevalent. Crime  especially against women and increasingly against minors continues. We are seeing no signs of Swatch Bharat. Garbage continues to be piled high. The traffic situation is getting worse.Delhi has been labelled as the most polluted city country in the world.

What does one do ? At the next election who do we vote for ? Of course one always has the option of the none of the above, but that does not help. There are some die hards (and to some extent so am I ) who  believe in TINATOM ( There is no alternative to Modi). Look at the other option and with your hand on your hearts ask your self whether you would really want to see any of  the opposition leaders as the Prime Minister ?

Apart from the bigger picture what bothers me is the issues we face on a day to day basis and what we see in our interactions.These are just a handful.

1. Over  the last  ten years I have been repeatedly been ripped off . It is now reaching a stage where I feel that out of every ten people about eight or nine people are dishonest or when ever they deal with you get the feeling that they are thinking "what is in it for me or how do I take advantage of you". Perhaps I am the sucker. I am reminded of the old Greek story about  Diogenes the Cynic who walked around Athens during the day with a lamp in his hand " looking for a honest man ".

2. In my dealings with the younger people ( not all )  I am amazed at how they have no qualms in taking oaths on their parents or if married on their children to convince you that they being truthful and then find out that you have fallen for it yet again. The sad part of this as I found out  is that their parents participate in their deception, hence it is no wonder that the children see nothing wrong with it. And here I am talking about kids who graduated  from some of the prestigious institutions in the country.

3. While the world's perception still continues of India being a poor country seeing the amount of money being spent on property including palatial houses and luxury goods, you are amazed. When we first came back , like all NRI's we felt that we were much better off than the average citizen in Delhi ( among the middle class ) and then were hit by the sticker shock ( of property , of clothes and increasingly for services ). There are a incredible number of people whose net worth is easily way above the equivalent of a hundred million dollars.

4. Initially upon my return whenever I sought an appointment I thought once I fixed a date and time I could just show up. Boy was I wrong. The person concerned was never there . There was always some reason. This was not confined to bureaucrats. Even professionals, handy men or electricians or the local patwaris , it is  always "acha muhe yaad kara dena ji" . In today's day and age with almost everyone now having a smart  telephone.  The onus is on you - I am a important person. If you want to meet me keep reminding me.

5. In my life whenever I am asked a favor , if I can do it I go ahead and do it without any one having to remind me a second time. In India that is a starting point. On an average you would have to follow up with the person (friend or relative is immaterial) at least three times before anything gets done or you just give up in disgust.

6. Everywhere you go there is dirt or garbage. In the  area where the " farm houses" worth the equivalent of millions of dollars,  the roads are pot holed , drains overflow and stink , but once you drive in you find fancy houses and manicured lawns maintained by an army of servants. If there is a empty lot next door it becomes the dumping ground for your daily garbage. There is no sense of social responsibility.

7. Delhi is now regarded as the most polluted city in the world and while a lot is being said, very little is actually being done.The Courts keep passing judgements as to what should be done, but no one seems to care.

8. The traffic situation in Delhi/Gurgaon  is going from bad to worse. What normally takes 30 minutes  on a public holiday takes sixty to ninety minutes or longer. Gridlocks are common because we cannot resist the temptation of going on the wrong side (because the right side is blocked) and so the entire traffic is at a standstill.

A couple of weeks  ago my wife and I almost got assaulted because  a idiot Sardar insisted that we reverse our car to allow him to come forward. We were locked in because there were a row of cars behind us.

9. What can I say about the television media ? The Fox channel was perhaps the role model and our channels built on it ( like we did on the British bureaucracy) . There are a couple of channels where the presenters feel that by screaming their utterances they get more eye balls. Like little puppies they do not let go a piece of news which they find salacious. They run it on a loop twenty four seven. Many times we read or see on BBC that there has been a train crash with 30 people killed or flash floods in Assam where twenty five villages have been washed away, but our  channels will focus on local politician shoes being laced up by senior bureaucrats or police officials  as that is more news worthy.

However balancing the above there are positive things happening as well.

1. There has been a tremendous amount of development. The average man on the street appears to be much better off , much better dressed and most likely carrying a mobile telephone if not a smart phone.

2. While it is not available all day the the electricity supply  is much better off.

3. Slowly but gradually the government department including land registry are all being digitized . Increasingly government related payments can now be made online.

4. Perhaps because of the lack of interference by the government, the technology sector is booming.

5. While still a long way from creating the right environment for all youths to gain employment, graduates are no longer just looking for jobs with multinationals. Their entrepreneurial genes are taking over and an increasingly large number from the top schools are now opting for start up's or setting up their ventures.New ideas and markets are being discovered With help now becoming increasingly difficult to get, now start ups are stepping into the space to provide these services.

6. Huge amount of wealth is being created legally by new ventures and start ups by young people.

I could go on and on but I think it gives you the birds eye view. Being the eternal optimist I still view the glass as being half full ( or that it can be refilled)  and am hopeful that by the time my grandchildren grow up India will have entered the ranks of developed countries and most of the problems mentioned above will have disappeared.We just need to have a tall jug to keep refilling the glass of hope. 


 

What the government should do about black money ?

During the last national elections , the BJP as part of its election campaign promised to bring back to the country , black money lodged overseas. It passed very stringent laws and penalties for people who do not declare their overseas holdings. Expectations were that billions of dollars would flow back. Unfortunately upon expiry of the deadline only about INR 7000 crores was declared. It was a good attempt even if it was with limited success.

While the overseas holdings makes good press, the larger amount of black money is within the country. In Delhi go to the Lajpat Nagar, Chandi Chowk, Chawri Bazar or the mandi's all transactions are cash based. Not all , but a large number of lawyers ,accountants,doctors  and other professionals prefer cash payments for their services. In addition all payments for greasing the wheels whether in the government, public or private sector are in cash. This is the same in every single city in the country.

However its not that the money is hidden under the mattress or buried in chests. A large portion  goes into real estate investments and  into conspicuous consumption such as jewellery, designer clothes or bags or overseas trips so it does circulate back into the economy. It is just that the government misses out in collecting taxes on this undeclared income.

Part of the problem is that the avenues are limited. Yes you can invest in real estate. . However there is no pportunity for investments in the capital markets particularly debt . I have attempted to buy corporate bonds but without success as the minimum trading lots runs into crores.

In my opinion the government should declare an amnesty with no penalty. However the holder should be required to invest the amount declared into government bonds. Fifty percent of the funds  should be required to be invested in government bonds with a maturity of five years, bearing interest at one percent below the prevailing savings rate. Another twenty five percent should be should have a maturity of seven years at the prevailing savings rate. The remaining funds should go into ten year bonds at a savings rate plus one percent. The scheme does not end there as this will no be incentive for the black money holder to declare his/her holdings as the funds will be locked up for a long period.

The government should then make some of the public sector and private sector banks to make a market with a restriction that the spread ( between buying and selling should not exceed one eight or one quarter) and that the trading lots should be in amounts of one lac.

The black money holder can then sell the bonds at a discount ( which would require him to take a loss ) but then it allows him to re-enter the funds into the legitimate economy. The government obtains a substantial amount of funds at below market rates and at the same time create liquidity in the debt market at the retail level. In my opinion a win-win situation for all.

The Ubiquitous Mobile Phone

There have been numerous articles about how  technology has changed and is continuing to change the world. I think it is the internet which has brought about the changes  by putting  in place the infrastructure  and setting in motion the disruption of many industries and lifestyles . It has totally changed the publishing,  retail , travel and the sex industry .It has also transformed  the entire information technology industry through software as a service and now the cloud based services.We are now entering phase two with the drop in prices of the smart  mobile phones and the supporting services including the use of apps. On a individual basis, I do not think anything has the changed our lives as much as the mobile phone - both for  good and bad.

I remember when  the first Motorola mobile phone was introduced to Hong Kong . It was sold for about Forty Thousand Hong Kong  Dollars.The traders in the bank  were among the first to acquire them and it was the senior guys in the dealing room who used to strut around with them. I remember going to lunch with my bosses and they would line up these brick sized contraptions reaching a height of almost fifteen inches including the antenna and weighing a a few pounds. It was a  status  symbol.

My life began changing when the Blackberry  arrived. At Citibank my job required me to frequently  travel across Asia and I had to lug around a heavy lap top. Reaching the hotel I then spend the next hour or so   responding to emails. With the Blackberry  I finished with the responses by the time I reached the hotel. With the decline in prices of the phone and the user services the mobile phone has become an indispensable item. Even though I am now retired I  feel naked without it. Short of the bathroom I carry the damn thing around with me almost everywhere. My wife asks me why -" in case the children call ".

However I am not the only one - increasingly I notice that the phones have become an extension of the house maid's ears and mouth during their waking hours. When we go for our walks regardless of the time we see our fellow walkers chatting away. I constantly wonder what is it that they have to say  that they can continue talking non-stop for hours ?

With the coming of the 3G and being able to access the internet on the go it has definitely increased the use of the mobile phone. I remember taking to the CFO of a Hong Kong based company which was about to introduce 3 G services on their network in the United Kingdom. He mentioned that based on a survey they had done, they expected the maximum usage would come from users for gambling and watching pornography.However I am sure that the mobile phone is being used in ways which he could not have imagined .

When the phones started coming out with a camera, my initial reaction was that it was  a dumb idea. Now that it has been around for more than ten years I have to confess that I was wrong.  It is a handy tool and convenient for shopping or trying to remember a particular flower or tree or some setting, not to mention taking photographs. Taking selfies appears to be very popular with politicians including President Obama and Prime Minister Modi. It is also very handy in using as evidence and identifying the perpetrator.In India almost every day the television shows clips of "stings" showing the mis-deeds of  politicians and policemen or bureaucrats.  Unfortunately it can also be misused. A few years ago a Delhi teenager took a photograph of his girlfriend while having sex and circulating it to his friends.It went viral and ruined the young girl's life. 

Over the last few years with the introduction of the app based services we are now entering the second phase of industry disruption. The Uber app has turned the city based taxi services on its head. It enables the taxi owner to make a lot more money. It enables the user  to get a taxi when needed.
According to a friend in Germany where these services are legal,  there is a Uber copy cat for call
girls. In India some online shopping sites have blocked desk top based orders and now accept only
 mobile based orders. Appears to be a bit extreme but perhaps they know  something which I do not.

With the  mobile phone the future is now here through the use of apps such Skype, Face Time and Whatsapp. It  has become a boon for the self employed whether it is the plumber or the electrician or the part time cleaning lady. With the help of applications  such as Whatsapp, they are able to send out marketing pitches or communicate free of cost  or talk to their friends and relatives in their villages and overseas. It has certainly reduced our long distance calling bills . The added bonus is that you can see them as well . Now the phone is replacing the desktop.You see young people looking at their tablet sized phone in the elevators and on the Metro sending out email or even working spread sheets. As has been said often enough your average mobile phone now has the same amount of computing power which was used to send Neil Armstrong to the moon.

The financial industry certainly on the retail banking side is seeing a lot of development in terms of online payments. Vodafone was one of the first to start mobile transfers through their MPesa services in East Africa. In Kenya where it all started  individuals use it to buy a single banana from a street vendor.

The mobile phone started out big then started to shrink and now has been gradually increasing again. However with the 3 G and now 4 G your phone is not just a communication device. It is your computer, your entertainment center ( audio and video ) , your credit card, your camera, your digital diary, your novel, your prayer book, your health monitor and the list goes on. Previously when you were traveling you had to carry these items separately. Now its just one device which fits into your pocket - almost.

The next item in my mind which is due for extinction is likely  to be the credit card. With biometric
identification now becoming more reliable there is no need to carry around a card with a magnetic strip or a chip and having to remember a personal identification number.

What has been holding back the development is the slow service. 3G  and now 4G is supposed to be faster but the problem is the service providers never deliver the speed which they promise. Apparently Korea is the most advanced and its internet allows you to download entire movies within seconds. IBM has just developed a processor  chip which is going to be four times faster than the fastest chip presently available.

Not sure whether this is suitable for mobile phones, but I am sure that it will be a matter of time before you will see a mobile version which will give you even greater computing power in your hands. The question is what will you do with it ? Will it be like the video player you used to have? We all were quick to buy the advanced versions which came loaded with features allowing  you  to record a year in advance, it tracked what programs you liked and then automatically recorded similar programs, but most of us used only three or four  features - play,record, fast forward or rewind.

 This time around  the mobile phone designers have been smart in a number of ways. Google, Firefox and now being followed by others started offering their operating systems for free. You do not have to pay royalties which reduced the costs. Secondly their architecture welcomes the use of apps by third parties which allows the users  to play games, make free video and audio calls, check the weather, check your map for directions,send you notices whether your son's flight is arriving on time and so on. The beauty of it all is that even for non-technological savvy persons like myself I can use a lot of these apps. However  with all the features and the thousand of apps which are available I wonder if the mobile phone is going the video player way to be replaced by another device ?