THINGS ARE GETTING HOTTER

24 July 2023 "I am in Doha and getting roasted everyday. Temp was 46C yesterday with govt warning that it could go up to 55C and requesting citizens to avoid exposure to sun between 10 am and 3 pm, avoid keeping gas cylinders outside, avoid gas filling during day time, avoid filling gas full tank etc. First time I see these warnings.Back home in Kochi it is raining non stop with temp in the 20s."Yes, climate change is another catastrophe...

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EX COLONIALIST, STILL SUPREMACIST

23 July 2023I'd suggest we stop mixing up   The West with mixed up as The World.Many Westerners are what's called Western-centric, navel gazers, if you will allow me to draw your attention to something the ego easily misses.More and more - and thanks to the effects generated by The West on the long-suffering  Global South (what after decolonisation in the 60s may be 70s was called   The Third World), we live increasingly in a    The West v. The Rest world, it's called    Multi-polar and...

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WHO SAYS PUTIN IS A DICTATOR?

23 July 2023https://youtu.be/u0A2Wxgc...

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN AND CHINESE CULTURES

23 July 2023What are the major differences between Chinese and Western cultures?Having lived in Thailand for about 10 years now and in Europe for longer and the Middle East too, I think I’m well qualified to compare Chinese and Western cultures.The biggest difference I discovered between the two, at a fundamental level, is their priorities. Chinese culture tends to prioritise the result or the end, whereas Western society prioritises the process or the means.China is Outcome-Driven To put it very bluntly, China cares more about money than...

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THIS UTTERLY FOOLISH ADVENTURE IN FOREIGN POLICY

23 July 2023 I am waiting for the book to come out, not on the military or political history of the war, but on the role played by our media in keeping us in the dark for so long, the propaganda war of Western gov.ts against their own peoples, the Why? and the How?. Could Noam Chomsky write a farewell jubilatory apocryphal "Manufacture of Consent 2.0"?You can only fool people for so long. Now, newspapers in the West are starting to publish...

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THE WEST V. THE REST

22 July 2923 perestroikapĕr″ĭ-stroi′kənounThe restructuring of the Soviet economy and bureaucracy that began in the mid 1980s.A program of political and economic reform carried out in the Soviet Union in the 1980s under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev.An economic policy adopted in the former Soviet Union; intended to increase automation and labor efficiency but it led eventually to the end of central planning in the Russian economy.What...

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VALUE INVESTING WITH ASWATH DAMODARAN

21 July 2023 Someone value investors listen to Aswath Damodaran.A good interview:https://youtu.be/mlEiGnCLL80His blog:https://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/?m=1About him, if you are still interested!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12021594649672906...

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WHERE IN THE WAR ARE WE HEADING

17 July 2023 Defeat, chaos and submissionORIGINSAmerica provoked this war through Nato expansion, colour revolutions, refusal of dialogue and its openly-declared intent to weaken Russia (before pivoting to China incidentally!) and more specifically the invitation to Ukraine in 2008 to join Nato. America has contained and cornered Russia to a point where Russia feels its security and very existence is so compromised it must respond. Russia...

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BALI CULTURE

16 July 2023The lady first on the left is my landlady. She looks younger than she is, a lot younger, maybe it's the yoga, she is very busy but always hugely relaxed and friendly. ✓ Naben (a Balinese cremation ceremony).  This was remembering my landlady's grandfather, back in her village. Again, many cremated at the same time, they pool their money to reduce costs. Different colours for the different...

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A REALISTIC START TO THE END GAME IN UKRAINE

16 July 2023 Let us recall the issues that prevent a peaceful resolutuon. There are two: territory - both sides cannot have Crime; neutrality - Ukrain wants what it thinks is the security of Nato membership, Russia insists on neutrality.The regimes in Kiev and Washington won't accept peace until Russia is defeated, which it never will be, on pain of nuclear war. If Ukraine were ever to join Nato with its regime, it would rag Russia some...

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TWO SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE

14 July 2023 END GAMESLooking back on this war or special military operation, as the Russians like to call it, there are a couple of points that stand out as really quite surprising.Although a government's first priority is the security of its land and its people, this cannot be taken at the expense of its neighbours, instead "balance of power" arrangements normally prevail. Russia saw the threat by NATO to move into Ukraine, rightly or...

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