Sparsh

1- Smokers’ Corner: Real revolutions by Nadeem F. Paracha. 2- The Night Shastri Died And Other Stories by Kuldip Nayar. 3- Why Elites Fail by Christopher Hayes. 4- The real wealth of nations - The Economist 5- Children of the Taliban - PBS Frontline 6- The wedges between productivity and median compensation growth By Lawrence Mishel 7- 'A Perfect and Beautiful Machine': What Darwin's Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence by Daniel C. Dennett. 8- Why so many communist philosophers? by Santiago Zabala 9- Destroying the commons by Noam Chomsky. 10 - Theories of Oppression and Another Dialogue of Cultures by Ashis Nandy Perspectives Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend...

1- Banning middlemen from oil trade could drive down price of crude by 40% : These middlemen add little value and lots of cost as they bid up the price of oil in pursuit of financial gain. They are "pure" speculators - investors who buy and sell oil futures but never take physical possession of actual barrels of oil. 2- Daron Acemoglu on Inequality - The US, the UK and many other countries have become far less equal over the past 30 years. The MIT economics professor says it's important we understand how and why this happened, and what it means for our societies. He also review Five Books. 3- The Emperor Uncrowned - A complete reportage on the rise of Narendra Modi. 4- The new think tank by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha:- Dry intellectual pursuits such as neuroscience and auction theory are solving problems on the ground. We met four people whose models prove how. 5- December 1984 By Sathyu Sarangi : Many of the battles begun 25 years ago, in the aftermath of catast...

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity Richard Dreyfuss on Education George Carlin - Education and the Elite

Irrational behaviour happens due to social and emotional biases. People are very much less rational than is commonly thought and it may be attributed to obedience, conformity and peer pressure. Its often that North Indian come to Chennai and criticize every cultural and social norm. West European or American traveling to India and disdaining from poverty, chaos and dust. A religious and deeply conservative person being shocked by the open culture of Las Vegas. Why does all these three events happen? This happen because all want the whole world in their own image – this is their identity, to which all alterities must – they so wish – yield. Even they migrate to different culture, the idealism and self glorification of their ancestors comes with the baggage. These culturally uprooted persons in a economic stable society can afford to and became source of more intolerant ideologies. They supports back to the roots with a very closed realm of their identity and remain unaware of the dyn...

Bill Maher realistically criticise what is wrong with the U.S.A. ! The People Are Sick!" - Part 1 of 3 The People Are Sick!" - Part 2 of 3 The People Are Sick!" - Part 3 of 3

1- How America Can Rise Again : The simplest measure of whether a culture is dominant is whether outsiders want to be part of it Any great nation can be judged on two parameters : continued openness to immigration, and a continued concentration of universities that people around the world want to attend. 2- (Hi)Story, Truth and Nation : South Africa is facing the process of developing a new identity for itself and its people, and to deal with its past. Jyoti Mistry looks at the meaning of nations and the nation state in examining this process of creation of a national identity. Story-telling, history and memory play vital parts, particularly in South Africa, in building this "whole". In a story that has no end in sight, she looks at how a country is dealing with its past and stepping into its future. 3- A virtual counter-revolution : The internet has been a great unifier of people, companies and online networks. Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it. The future...

It's a great myth that democratic nations support democracy in other parts of the world. China and India are on the same page in the case of maintaining relationship with Burma's dictatorship government. Both of these developing nation will eevntually walk on the same path of USA i.e. supporting puppet dictators for its own development. There is no doubt on the rise of US economy after 2nd world war. Let's have close look on foreign policy of American government in last 60 years. Pakistan prominent newspaper, Dawn covered a pin pointing editorial on relationship of America and Dictators : Would Pakistan in the 21st century be wracked by militancy and terrorism if the US hadn’t supported Gen Zia and pumped millions into the Afghan ‘jihad’? The point here is that America has long been hand in glove with military dictators and varied despots, not just in Pakistan but across the globe. In Central and South America it has even engineered coups to oust democratically elected ...

" Remember", the instructor said to the class,"a 35 year old American's brain and IQ is the same as a 10 year old Indian's brain.... Americans are dumb, just accept it. " - pg 53, One Night in a Call Centre 1- New York taxis, of course, are known for their polyglot driver population - reflecting a country that welcomes immigrants. "Taxi cabs are both loved and hated by New Yorkers" says the NY.com website. Ditto America's sentiments towards immigrants. 2- Thank you for smoking , 9/11 Fahrenheit , Sicko , Fast food nation and Bowling for columbine are best documentaries about deep rooted problem of theirs. Blacklisting of writers with communist background in Hollywood had showed an ugly picture of America. Also, they hate the term communist and ignore the term socialist. They only know free market with unbounded flow of capital and restricted motion of labor force. 3- Outsourcing becomes one of the prime topics of the election. Obvious...

Half of people in America do not read news paper and remaining half does not vote;we hope they are same bunch of people or god help that mighty country. Stereotype truths that all blacks are prevailed in crime. While truth is almost 33% of black youths aged between 18 to 25 are involved in crime.They are either in prisons or roaming in society on parole. Yaa, it is true that now multi-ethnic races residing there are following the same American dream. Consumer culture is at peak in America than anywhere n the world. The sub-prime crisis in America surfaced when defaults were reported in payments for housing mortgages. The 5% population consumes 25% resources of the world. 90% of GDP is consumed in loans (Sources: Business India 5,October 2008). It is the real face of the capitalist economy of America which wants bail out package from the government now. Ancient Indian had described consumerism as tendency to " Rinam kritvaa ghritam pibet "/"Take a loan and drink the ghee...

American Consular Officer : "How do we know you'll come back to India?" Student : "Sir, my roots are here - my family, my property, my business... I want to study in America, but I will come back and put my education to good use." I read this conversation from someone'sblog and idea about state of indians living abroad struck me. Thousands of Indian students have given this earnest answer at their visa interview. A significant number never return to their motherland. You have to wonder - why bother to ask? Because the idea of America, to a large extent, is to attract the brightest and the best from around the world. NRI ideally stands for Non Resedential Indians. Practically NRI means- Non Returning Indian or Non Reliable Indian. When the race for food, clothing and shelter becomes over, then green card migrants try to find a identity for themselves. Next generation faces issues like choosing their sides between Indian family and American culture. Desi ...