dharmach

Just because the word 'happy' is relatively young in the English/European language, a conclusion can not be made for the whole Humankind.

Not being too rich or too poor allows engineers to become identity conscious, and being engineers they have enough analytical mind (plus time) to think & plan ways to attack the 'enemies of their religion & culture'. Remember that for bright kids in immigrant families and in developing countries, career in engineering is an easier path for upward mobility.

I read that Endurance book on Shackleton's failure before you were even born.

So many Antarctica expeditions were carried out by various countries but when you read English language dominated internet, you get the impression that only Anglo world had explorers. Shackleton tried and failed to reach south pole but there are more books and articles on his failed expedition than the guy who actually succeeded―Norwegian Amundsen.

People can't verify all the info they come across and start trusting some sources as reliable. Many Indians used to trust facts/opinions from Western media as reliable and neutral but after the arrival of social media, lot of prejudices and fake news from the same sources are exposed so the trust deficit makes almost all the opinions questionable. There is also a section driven by ideology or biases due to past history.

Chomsky is against state and corporates but media can also be co-opted by foreign entities and ideologies.

>>Murdering someone without trial because you don't like their political speech- why, I think there's a word for that.

Claiming without proof that Indian government carried out killing is called what?

>>While Hindus described this state as basically "everything", buddha and later many prominent buddhists described it as "nothingness" which appears as inconsistent with each other

Similar are thoughtless (awareness) and mindfulness. Both may appear contradictory on the first glance but are same thing. These concepts are not easy to describe so often they are expressed multiple ways.

> People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad

The West has resources and well-oiled propaganda machinery in place to control the dissent that's why they don't need to use violence as openly as not-so-rich countries. When their monopoly is threatened, they act equally ruthlessly.

Modi is scared of BBC otherwise he should have banned BBC like RT.com in the West.

Truth is truth and there are so many truths in the world so which truth one decides to explore and when―that is an interesting truth as well.

>>Almost more than 2/3rd of Indian voters didn't vote for modi yet his party is doing very well.

Do you understand what is first-past-the-post voting system?

It's not about countries with 5% Muslim population and I am not talking about minor ghettos in European urban areas. Look at non-Islamic countries with 20%-25% or more Muslim population. Look at how India got partitioned based on religion and how Hindu population in Pakistan (+ Bangladesh) shrunk while Muslim population flourished in India. Look at how Muslim majority area in India like Kashmir wants to separate (and they don't want Hindus there).

It is not about plain fertility rate but tipping of demographic balance between communities by various means. It can create pockets of Muslim majority in countries where they are minority and then "right to self-determination" means partitions.

If this was true (or the only factor), the demographic trends in India would match the ones from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

>>Now, when things are getting hard, having weak democratic institutions, no political awareness and corporate medling is going to hit hard.

Many living in democracies will find this true for their country.

Social media are global sovereign entities and above the governments of individual nations so they do not need to comply with the local laws.

On the flip side, all with nuanced, grey opinions will be left with no motivation to act and the fanatic, opinionated people will act.

In a war if the leader has to select an army of thinkers & intellectuals versus that of fanatics & fundamentalists, which one will he choose?

>>Just my humble opinions, most human beings have remarkably similar values across different culture, we all want paradoxically to belong to the herd and also distinguish ourselves from the herd.

We want to be normal but not common.

Does it mean the roles of husband and wife, which were specialized before, are generalized now due to unstable marriages?

Both ends will have extremes. Too much calculations, too much expectations, keep hunting for better deals even after marriage, no willingness to compromise, having all eggs in spouse relationship basket and expecting her/him to play all roles, selfishness for own happiness but disregard for children's life, trivial reasons leading to breakup..

Plus culture where freedom, independence and success are more valued than institute of marriage, interdependence and family life.

Amnesty international and other Western NGOs are moral sticks of rich countries to browbeat erstwhile colonies for not maintaining high living standards post exploitation.

This is more of a USA problem where people working under H1B visa are somehow dependent to their employer/manager and vulnerable to exploitation/discrimination (if the employer/manager happens to be a casteist Indian). In Canada (for example), I can flaunt my low caste without such fear.

Everywhere else communism and Islam are friends so why in China they are enemies?

>>The World’s Greatest Singers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kupamanduka

I think India opted to err on the side of caution. Now where is required or possible, the lockdown can be eased. Opposite strategy would have been far worse.

>>the lockdown is going to significantly affect the poorer communities worse at the expense of richer folks.

In such situations that is always the case. If there is a lockdown, poor will suffer financially. If no lockdown, poor will be exposed to the infection more than others since they have to be out working.

Treating unequally suffering refugees as equal is discriminatory.

India shouldn't discriminate her citizens based on religion that is understandable but to expect that she must also treat Muslim and non-Muslim citizens of Islamic countries as equally suffering refugees would be a discrimination.

The parents should be brought under law for child abuse by indoctrinating such young children in religious politics.