Blog site of iVarta.com » Entries tagged with "Politics"
Modern Science and Understanding Life
The following topics are discussed in the last of four articles. Introduction God Particle and South Asian Scientists Science and theologians Science and Quality of Life Outlook for Future Modern Science References and notes: Star (*) followed by a bracketed number (#1, etc) identifies applicable specific reference and notes. Introduction First article – “Terrorism and Cultural Wars”* (#1) - of this four parts serie discussed how social and cultural upbringings can explain terrorism. The second article – “Religion, Politics and Arts”* – presented aspects of religion used for political exploitation and comments on arts to history. For understanding life scientific knowledge of the universe is essential. The third article presented Pre-17th Century Sciences* For improvements in quality of life, the third article described reliance of modern men on expanding use of energy or power. The another article titled, “Tides of Ideas”* … Read entire article »
Filed under: India, Islam, NRI, Vedic Knowledge
Pre-17th Century Sciences and Understanding Life
First article – “Terrorism and Cultural Wars”* – of this four parts series discussed how social and cultural upbringings can explain terrorism. The second article – and “Religion, Politics and Arts”* – presented aspects of religion used for political exploitation and arts. For understanding life scientific knowledge of the universe is essential. The following topics are discussed in this third article. Introduction Energy Ancient Vedic Science Pre-17th century Science Science References and notes: Star (*) followed by a bracketed number (#1, etc) identifies applicable specific reference and notes. Introduction Comparative religion, arts and science are tools for understanding life. An objective of four part series is to illustrate the central place of science in life. The relevance of science is to improve knowledge of material world for humanity. Another two part series – Tides of Ideas* (#3) and the Golden … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christianity, India, Islam, Politics, Vedic Knowledge
Terrorism, Cultural Wars and Understanding Life
This is first of a four parts series on Understanding Life The following topics are covered: Introduction Cultural Wars References and notes Star (*) followed by a bracketed number (#1, etc) identifies applicable specific reference and notes. Introduction Comparative religion, arts and science are tools for understanding life. Terrorism is examined from social and cultural angles. Some references and introductions to contribution of ancient Vedic people and scientists of Indian origin are identified in the second article of this series. The third and fourth articles of the series introduce accomplishments of the pre-17th century sciences and modern science, respectively. Identifying relevance of science in improving knowledge for humanity through religions, arts and science is a comprehensive subject; this series is an introduction to it. Domestic terrorism* (#1) is being blamed on two recent (August 2012) crimes by hate mongers in the US. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christianity, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, World
Tides of Ideas
Note: The article is follow up to “Golden age of Muslims by Saeed Mirza” 0716 2012. Following topics are discussed: Inclusivist Progressives vs Exclusivist Orthodoxy Historical background and Tides of Ideas Proselytizers and Loss of Scholarship Cultural Wars Modern Science and Humanity Hope and Future References and notes Inclusivist Progressives vs Exclusivist Retrogressive Orthodoxy Successes and failures run in cycles depending on the maturity of political, social, cultural and economic institutions. The inclusivity accelerates human progress and retrogressive orthodoxy divides people and inhibits scholarship. The Muslim golden age was followed for 600+ years by a retrogressive political ideology by establishments of Muslim orthodoxy. Muslim dictators helped by orthodoxy of Arab tribal customs adopted discriminatory policies against women and non-Islamic followers to deny human rights, equal opportunities and equal justice in occupied lands. In such environment of exclusivity free flow of … Read entire article »
Corruption and Social Order in South Asia
The media often presents a variety of views from seasoned journalists, bloggers, and aam admi (common man) discussions on corruption in South Asia; the tone and substance of the discussions generally have left me more confused than enlightened. We understand that corruption is not unique to South Asia; it is all across globe but at different levels. In the WASP* (#1) culture dominated nations the social order has moved on from that developed by ‘the old boy’s network’ of elites representing the traditional upper crust of society. The new elite meritocracy took over about a couple of decades after the WWII (1970 onwards). The subject was discussed by David Brooks* (#2). Brooks had based his arguments after reviewing a book by Christopher Hayes* (#3). Both author’s arguments reflected the US and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Corruption, Economy, India
Non-state Actors, Miskeen, Education, Economy and Chalta Hain
Pakistan is like an imperfectly crafted cubic zirconia diamond. It is the nation born (1947) based on religion. On global stage in last four decades it has evolved as an epicenter of too many things vile including terrorism. Its additional imperfections include a complex political reality. Politically it is managed as fiefdom of the army, the DPC (Defense of Pakistan Coalition) and elected but weak politicians. DPC is a coalition of many non-state actors cultivated by the army. Want-to-be Arabs and non-Arabs are characterized as Miskeen (poor). Given poorly educated population incapable of generating above average to high economic growth rates and preoccupation with a regional power status using non-state actors the national economy is on a slippery slope and poverty is on increase. Wide spread public cynicism is at … Read entire article »
Filed under: America, Economy, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, World
Lessons for all from Election 2012
“The one-eyed mollusc on the ocean floor and I have the same knowledge of the universe.” – Aldous Huxley (This could only be a rough approximation of what the great scientist had said of his knowledge of the universe as it is quoted from memory and may not be an exact reproduction.) If Huxley had the humility to confess the limitations of his knowledge of the universe, our psephologists and television presenters should be humbled by hubris – at least in hindsight – for getting half of it wrong in their predictions of Election 2012. After all the number crunching, panel discussions and marathon debates, for most of them it was a story of hits and misses. TheCongress (Indian National Congress) did not surge as predicted and the BJP was not relegated to the … Read entire article »
Special Ops Military Strategies
A star (*) after a sentence means references and notes should be consulted for additional info on the subject. The blog covers following topics. Introduction Contractors for and Goals of the US and Pakistan Armies Co-dependencies of Pakistan and the US Women Scorned The US Special Ops and the Obama Plans Concluding Remarks References and notes Introduction The blog focuses on special ops military strategies of two nations in last 50 years. A primal instinct is to dominate and for ambitious rulers and nations to dominate the world. A goal of warfare is to achieve dominance over enemy at minimum possible costs. The US special ops forces in the Af-Pak war (2008 to present) use highly skilled soldiers to conduct low cost high tech warfare to hunt down and decapitate leadership of the al Qaeda and its co-linked … Read entire article »
The US: A decade after 2001
A star (*) indicates more information is available in the references and notes. President Obama in his latest State of the Union Address reported to the US Congress that after nine years of war the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraqis completed and in more than two decades Osama bin Laden (OBL) is not around to threaten the US security. President has in three years resolved major issues related to theUS security except that associated with the Af-Pak area terrorist Taliban and intransigent warlords of Pakistan. President has asked theUS and NATO generals to set up by 2014 a 350,000 strong Afghan army capable of neutralizing threats to its sovereignty from its neighbors. The US is committed to providing necessary military and economic aid to the Afghanistan to defend and sustain … Read entire article »
Promotion of Indian culture and ‘minority appeasing’ Secularism
Every country’s primary education revolves around its history, languages, philosophies, art, culture and sciences. Ancient greece is characterised by greek philosophies and sciences, egypt with pyramids and the science behind it etc. It is only natural for any school of a country to be teaching the ancient language of that country along with the philosophies. Would it sound logical to a rational mind if, in his own family, someone else’s lineage and history is given more importance and taught to him than his own? Would it be hypocritical if his own history is given much more importance to him than someone else’s? Similar is the case with India. Today, if one vouches for the promotion of Indian culture, sciences or dharma (righteousness, ethics and duty) as expounded by Veda, Gita and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christianity, Hinduism, India, Islam, Media, Politics, Vedic Knowledge
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