Friday, January 26, 2018
Old age deserves respect
I remember a movie I saw in The United States called A man called horse which was about the
life of the native Americans and the harsh way they had to adjust to the severe
winter and the often scarce availability of food at times. It made them move
frequently their camp in search for food and water so they were experts in
setting up their tepee in a new location and also in dismantling the tepees
that was done exclusively by the women.
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Soulless development
Soulless development
Source: Google photo
Synopsis: The rampant development without considering the social nature of human beings is the subject of this blog that emphasizes the need for social interaction to reduce loneliness and apathy.
There was a time not too long ago when people lived in closer proximity to each other, shared the living space with others, knew their neighbors quite well if not intimately and led a vibrant social life. They met frequently, played cards or other games together or simply hung around to chat over a cup of tea or coffee.
They asked about each other’s welfare, knew their birthdays and invited them to their family affairs like birthdays, anniversaries or marriage. They attended each other’s funerals and contributed money if needed if the neighbor needed a bit of help in paying some bills.
They fished together in mountain streams smoking their pipes and exchanged news and gossips or new ideas to do things together. They came to help if your roof needed fixing after a storm or some such repairs. They brought with them some tools that you did not have to get the repair done.
Most of all they shared the same religious beliefs and went to the church or the mosque together. In short they were good neighbors who showed care and concern and developed a lifelong friendship.
Their children played together and went to the same school and often formed romantic bonds in high school that ended up in marriage thus binding the families together.
You saw the close knit communities in many parts of the world where women shared the same well for water and washing their clothes while exchanging news. Children played nearby where the old people kept an eye on them while sipping tea or smoking. This was the kind of community that has almost totally vanished from cities because of what I call the soulless development everywhere that has become the model of urban development.
It started with the advent of simple automobiles like Ford, Volkswagen beetle, 2 CV and tiny Fiats that made a drastic impact on how we live and where. Because people wanted mobility at a cost they could afford so they willingly moved into suburbs thus breaking up the model of integrated and connected communities.
Source :Google photo
This type of suburban development started in the United States that others imitated without considering the social cost of such development that has far reaching consequences as we will further discuss in this blog.
The automobile made it easier to live far from the city in neatly spaced houses and tree lined streets with modern houses with garage and lawn in front and the appearance of respectability because it promoted an upward mobility in terms of living standard.
Then came the multistoried apartment blocks that offered people a choice of living in close proximity packed like pigeons in their holes yet aloof to each other even if a thin wall separated them. One could hear the loud music next door or the family quarrels that often led to disputes, altercations and outright hostility because no one cared for anyone and no one felt that they lived in a community.
Source : Google photo of derelict mass housing for the poor
They built massive and quite ugly utilitarian tenement housing for the poor that are a blot to the aesthetics anywhere because the poor had to be housed cheaply somewhere but they forgot to put elevators in such monstrous buildings and with poor or no maintenance of the facilities. So the poor live in these derelict tenement housings where the window panes get broken and patched up with newspapers and where the garbage collects in staircases because it is not picked up regularly. The hallways and alleyways are filled with people smoking pot or something more serious because they are failures in their life.The crime festers in such housing complexes where people live in fear and desperation because it is so dismal and unhealthy.
Sadly this model of development has been picked up by other countries where they mimic the suburban development style of America and even build massive ugly tenements that I just mentioned.
For the rich and very rich, there are gated communities with 24 hour security guards at the gate who check who comes or goes out and monitor the security through cctv cameras mounted at strategic places. These exclusive housing estates are euphemistically called villages but there is nothing village like there. In such places crimes like murder are committed but no one comes to see if they need help.
The prevailing sentiment is not to be involved so they see nothing and hear nothing because they don’t want to be involved.
The apathy and mistrust is so extreme in such places that a neighbor calls the police because his next door neighbor was trying to unlock his door at night and could not find the proper key. The police comes, roughly pushes the man to the ground, hand cuffs him while the fellow protests saying that he owns the house and was trying to find the right keys to enter.
It is all because the neighbors do not know each other and call the police because they are so paranoid instead of coming and helping. One can be impressed by the massive houses and fancy cars parked in front until they know that it is such a soulless place where no one cares for anyone and call the police at the slightest so called infraction , where people live in their big houses as isolated as they can be and are lonely.
I have heard of horror stories of old people dead for days or weeks but no one checks on them until the stench of death reaches their sensitive nostrils and only then they call the police. There are millions of old people who live like this in complete isolation in their homes where the nearest neighbor never comes to say hello.
This sort of tragedy does not happen in villages in poorer countries where thankfully people still care for each other but the soulless urban development seems to be the model other countries follow.
Source : Google photo of Pyongyang
If you see the wide empty boulevards of Pyongyang in North Korea where almost no one walks in the streets, where the modern sterile emptiness is their hallmark of development, you will get the idea. There are very few cars on the road that high officials drive so poor people just walk.
I was shocked to see in Sophia the same thing. The wide straight boulevards were empty of vehicles and people and where box like ugly buildings lined the streets giving the impression of a ghost town at 7 pm where everything was neat and orderly but with no soul.
If you visit Washington, D.C. , you will notice the massive orderly buildings and wide roads ,the Mall and the Lincoln memorial at the end all very impressive and neatly laid out but the city empties at 5pm when almost everyone leaves for the suburban homes except the very poor who live in derelict homes in the inner city. All the shops are shuttered; streets almost empty and old homosexuals prowl the streets looking for companions. The few bars that remain open are scary places straight out of mafia movies with dark and foreboding interior and dimly lit places where a few sip their drinks morosely. I was told that the mafia people collect the jukebox money regularly in such places.
The Dupont Circle at night is a place where the drug addicts hang out and some play bongo drums but also bother anyone passing by for money. It is such a soulless city that it is pathetic.
The city planners are well educated people who know how to plan for a modern city that looks nice with parks, wide straight roads and monuments. They are meticulous in their plans so they limit the height of buildings and where the open spaces should be. They even forbid the buildings that do not conform to the approved architecture or even the color they use in painting. Everything must be picture perfect just like in North Korea. The only thing missing is the people who are supposed to make any city lively.
During my travel, I have visited many cities and their suburbs and have noted this streak of utilitarianism that was the hallmark of the Soviet Union. A building may be ugly but must be utilitarian. The FAO office in Rome is such an example but Rome is full of massive ugly buildings built during the Mussolini era that blot the landscape.
When I come back to Asia ,I notice that people still have some sense of the community and live close to each other and often know their neighbors in some places . But this interactive community spirit is deeply rooted in the culture of any country. Where they do not have the community spirit like here in the Philippines, the modern yet soul less housing development is the norm.
China has taken this sort of development a step further by rapidly building massive cities and Malls in a picture perfect manner where the streets are empty and the Malls are shuttered because there are no people living there. The same thing has happened in Spain where during the housing boom, the developers built massive housing complexes all very neat and modern but they remain empty.
I realize that people want to live in modern homes with electricity, water and ample living space. Who doesn’t? The problem as I see is the development of suburbia without considering how it affects the social life of people living there. If people live quite apart from each other then they tend to remain apart and aloof because the model is based on nuclear family where each person is on his own.
The ideal would have been the houses developed as a cluster around a common courtyard where children played together and where the neighbors sat to drink tea or smoke. This was the old model the Chinese have now discarded in favor of the western style housing development.
We humans are social animals and thrive on mixing with others socially. My father had his card games in the evening with his neighbors, my mom had her social club of ladies where they exchanged new sweater or crochet designs, my siblings had their own friends they hung out with and I too had my playmates to go to the park with every day.
We played monopoly and carom together. We played cricket together in the park and we splashed color on each other during the Holi festival. We went house to house where they all treated us with sweets and cookies because everyone knew everyone. That was the communal spirit I am writing about that is vanishing right before our eyes.
By and large this type of social activity has vanished in India so they too watch their color TV with 90 channels morosely while the kids play with their touch screen cell phones. This is the trend worldwide and it is quite disheartening because when people become unsocial due to the design of the suburban dwellings that are wide apart, the streets remain empty where few people pass by each other without saying hello.
I have seen this in the modern city of Canberra where I offered to help remove the weeds of a neighbor from his front lawn but he became alarmed. Perhaps he thought that I wanted money. Here too the same thing happens when I bring some plants from our garden to our neighbors who want to know if they have to pay and how much.
What happened to sharing? What happened to dropping by and enjoying a cup of tea or coffee together and ask how are you doing? I think that the modern development that the city planners are pursuing blindly following the American or the European model has some drawbacks because it is based on the automobile.
Now imagine if millions of people rush to get their own car then where they will park them? You already see this in Europe where the streets are narrow because they are old cities that were planned for horse carts and chariots and not modern automobiles so people park their cars on both side of the street making the narrow streets even narrower.
There are traffic jams in China now that can be a hundred kilometers in length, so bad is the situation there. The pollution caused by all the vehicles is another big issue that some countries have great difficulty is solving. Thousands of new cars hit the road in Delhi alone every month where the traffic problem is nightmarish already and where parking is at a premium.
I would like to see that the development does not come at the cost of living apart from each other because that has severe social consequences I have written about in my previous blogs. We have a lot to learn from the animal kingdom where they know the value of socializing.
I would like to see that people wake up and go back to their roots when riding a bicycle was pleasant and people did not worry about car payment, garage and fighting the immense traffic congestion caused by all the cars.
Now in some cities they are introducing the bicycle sharing schemes to reduce the number of cars but will it work? I do not know.
Do we still value social interaction or do we want to become another Pyongyang? The choice is ours to make.
Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links :
tumblr posts
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
Anil's biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Source: Google photo
Synopsis: The rampant development without considering the social nature of human beings is the subject of this blog that emphasizes the need for social interaction to reduce loneliness and apathy.
There was a time not too long ago when people lived in closer proximity to each other, shared the living space with others, knew their neighbors quite well if not intimately and led a vibrant social life. They met frequently, played cards or other games together or simply hung around to chat over a cup of tea or coffee.
They asked about each other’s welfare, knew their birthdays and invited them to their family affairs like birthdays, anniversaries or marriage. They attended each other’s funerals and contributed money if needed if the neighbor needed a bit of help in paying some bills.
They fished together in mountain streams smoking their pipes and exchanged news and gossips or new ideas to do things together. They came to help if your roof needed fixing after a storm or some such repairs. They brought with them some tools that you did not have to get the repair done.
Most of all they shared the same religious beliefs and went to the church or the mosque together. In short they were good neighbors who showed care and concern and developed a lifelong friendship.
Their children played together and went to the same school and often formed romantic bonds in high school that ended up in marriage thus binding the families together.
You saw the close knit communities in many parts of the world where women shared the same well for water and washing their clothes while exchanging news. Children played nearby where the old people kept an eye on them while sipping tea or smoking. This was the kind of community that has almost totally vanished from cities because of what I call the soulless development everywhere that has become the model of urban development.
It started with the advent of simple automobiles like Ford, Volkswagen beetle, 2 CV and tiny Fiats that made a drastic impact on how we live and where. Because people wanted mobility at a cost they could afford so they willingly moved into suburbs thus breaking up the model of integrated and connected communities.
Source :Google photo
This type of suburban development started in the United States that others imitated without considering the social cost of such development that has far reaching consequences as we will further discuss in this blog.
The automobile made it easier to live far from the city in neatly spaced houses and tree lined streets with modern houses with garage and lawn in front and the appearance of respectability because it promoted an upward mobility in terms of living standard.
Then came the multistoried apartment blocks that offered people a choice of living in close proximity packed like pigeons in their holes yet aloof to each other even if a thin wall separated them. One could hear the loud music next door or the family quarrels that often led to disputes, altercations and outright hostility because no one cared for anyone and no one felt that they lived in a community.
Source : Google photo of derelict mass housing for the poor
They built massive and quite ugly utilitarian tenement housing for the poor that are a blot to the aesthetics anywhere because the poor had to be housed cheaply somewhere but they forgot to put elevators in such monstrous buildings and with poor or no maintenance of the facilities. So the poor live in these derelict tenement housings where the window panes get broken and patched up with newspapers and where the garbage collects in staircases because it is not picked up regularly. The hallways and alleyways are filled with people smoking pot or something more serious because they are failures in their life.The crime festers in such housing complexes where people live in fear and desperation because it is so dismal and unhealthy.
Sadly this model of development has been picked up by other countries where they mimic the suburban development style of America and even build massive ugly tenements that I just mentioned.
For the rich and very rich, there are gated communities with 24 hour security guards at the gate who check who comes or goes out and monitor the security through cctv cameras mounted at strategic places. These exclusive housing estates are euphemistically called villages but there is nothing village like there. In such places crimes like murder are committed but no one comes to see if they need help.
The prevailing sentiment is not to be involved so they see nothing and hear nothing because they don’t want to be involved.
The apathy and mistrust is so extreme in such places that a neighbor calls the police because his next door neighbor was trying to unlock his door at night and could not find the proper key. The police comes, roughly pushes the man to the ground, hand cuffs him while the fellow protests saying that he owns the house and was trying to find the right keys to enter.
It is all because the neighbors do not know each other and call the police because they are so paranoid instead of coming and helping. One can be impressed by the massive houses and fancy cars parked in front until they know that it is such a soulless place where no one cares for anyone and call the police at the slightest so called infraction , where people live in their big houses as isolated as they can be and are lonely.
I have heard of horror stories of old people dead for days or weeks but no one checks on them until the stench of death reaches their sensitive nostrils and only then they call the police. There are millions of old people who live like this in complete isolation in their homes where the nearest neighbor never comes to say hello.
This sort of tragedy does not happen in villages in poorer countries where thankfully people still care for each other but the soulless urban development seems to be the model other countries follow.
Source : Google photo of Pyongyang
If you see the wide empty boulevards of Pyongyang in North Korea where almost no one walks in the streets, where the modern sterile emptiness is their hallmark of development, you will get the idea. There are very few cars on the road that high officials drive so poor people just walk.
I was shocked to see in Sophia the same thing. The wide straight boulevards were empty of vehicles and people and where box like ugly buildings lined the streets giving the impression of a ghost town at 7 pm where everything was neat and orderly but with no soul.
If you visit Washington, D.C. , you will notice the massive orderly buildings and wide roads ,the Mall and the Lincoln memorial at the end all very impressive and neatly laid out but the city empties at 5pm when almost everyone leaves for the suburban homes except the very poor who live in derelict homes in the inner city. All the shops are shuttered; streets almost empty and old homosexuals prowl the streets looking for companions. The few bars that remain open are scary places straight out of mafia movies with dark and foreboding interior and dimly lit places where a few sip their drinks morosely. I was told that the mafia people collect the jukebox money regularly in such places.
The Dupont Circle at night is a place where the drug addicts hang out and some play bongo drums but also bother anyone passing by for money. It is such a soulless city that it is pathetic.
The city planners are well educated people who know how to plan for a modern city that looks nice with parks, wide straight roads and monuments. They are meticulous in their plans so they limit the height of buildings and where the open spaces should be. They even forbid the buildings that do not conform to the approved architecture or even the color they use in painting. Everything must be picture perfect just like in North Korea. The only thing missing is the people who are supposed to make any city lively.
During my travel, I have visited many cities and their suburbs and have noted this streak of utilitarianism that was the hallmark of the Soviet Union. A building may be ugly but must be utilitarian. The FAO office in Rome is such an example but Rome is full of massive ugly buildings built during the Mussolini era that blot the landscape.
When I come back to Asia ,I notice that people still have some sense of the community and live close to each other and often know their neighbors in some places . But this interactive community spirit is deeply rooted in the culture of any country. Where they do not have the community spirit like here in the Philippines, the modern yet soul less housing development is the norm.
China has taken this sort of development a step further by rapidly building massive cities and Malls in a picture perfect manner where the streets are empty and the Malls are shuttered because there are no people living there. The same thing has happened in Spain where during the housing boom, the developers built massive housing complexes all very neat and modern but they remain empty.
I realize that people want to live in modern homes with electricity, water and ample living space. Who doesn’t? The problem as I see is the development of suburbia without considering how it affects the social life of people living there. If people live quite apart from each other then they tend to remain apart and aloof because the model is based on nuclear family where each person is on his own.
The ideal would have been the houses developed as a cluster around a common courtyard where children played together and where the neighbors sat to drink tea or smoke. This was the old model the Chinese have now discarded in favor of the western style housing development.
We humans are social animals and thrive on mixing with others socially. My father had his card games in the evening with his neighbors, my mom had her social club of ladies where they exchanged new sweater or crochet designs, my siblings had their own friends they hung out with and I too had my playmates to go to the park with every day.
We played monopoly and carom together. We played cricket together in the park and we splashed color on each other during the Holi festival. We went house to house where they all treated us with sweets and cookies because everyone knew everyone. That was the communal spirit I am writing about that is vanishing right before our eyes.
By and large this type of social activity has vanished in India so they too watch their color TV with 90 channels morosely while the kids play with their touch screen cell phones. This is the trend worldwide and it is quite disheartening because when people become unsocial due to the design of the suburban dwellings that are wide apart, the streets remain empty where few people pass by each other without saying hello.
I have seen this in the modern city of Canberra where I offered to help remove the weeds of a neighbor from his front lawn but he became alarmed. Perhaps he thought that I wanted money. Here too the same thing happens when I bring some plants from our garden to our neighbors who want to know if they have to pay and how much.
What happened to sharing? What happened to dropping by and enjoying a cup of tea or coffee together and ask how are you doing? I think that the modern development that the city planners are pursuing blindly following the American or the European model has some drawbacks because it is based on the automobile.
Now imagine if millions of people rush to get their own car then where they will park them? You already see this in Europe where the streets are narrow because they are old cities that were planned for horse carts and chariots and not modern automobiles so people park their cars on both side of the street making the narrow streets even narrower.
There are traffic jams in China now that can be a hundred kilometers in length, so bad is the situation there. The pollution caused by all the vehicles is another big issue that some countries have great difficulty is solving. Thousands of new cars hit the road in Delhi alone every month where the traffic problem is nightmarish already and where parking is at a premium.
I would like to see that the development does not come at the cost of living apart from each other because that has severe social consequences I have written about in my previous blogs. We have a lot to learn from the animal kingdom where they know the value of socializing.
I would like to see that people wake up and go back to their roots when riding a bicycle was pleasant and people did not worry about car payment, garage and fighting the immense traffic congestion caused by all the cars.
Now in some cities they are introducing the bicycle sharing schemes to reduce the number of cars but will it work? I do not know.
Do we still value social interaction or do we want to become another Pyongyang? The choice is ours to make.
Note : My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links :
tumblr posts
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
Anil's biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Saturday, January 20, 2018
A morbid fascination
A morbid fascination:
Source : google photo
Synopsis: We are all fascinated by blood and gore and see it in the media everyday that has severe social consequences. This blog throws some critical light on his subject and makes people think of the effect of all the violence in the media on our personal lives.
We humans have a morbid fascination about blood and gore that has led to showing of extreme violence and bloodletting on television and in movies. I have seen this whenever there is an accident and someone is seriously injured bleeding to death while people gather around not to help but to gawk at the poor fellow who is in desperate need of help. Some even take photos with the cell phones although for what purpose I am not sure.
This is the dark side of the human nature that is often overlooked but it is quite pervasive in our society that shows this fascination to violence as long as it does not affect them personally.
I have also seen blood and gore in Vietnam during the war where I often came across mutilated bodies of VietCongs even outside my home but it gave me shivers and haunted me for days. I could never get used to it but the old ladies going to the market early in the morning with the baskets in hand chatted as if it was not a big deal and stopped to look at the bodies with fascination.
I can never really understand this fascination people have but I have seen it everywhere. What is worse is that the children are exposed to such things so early in their life and wonder how they can get used to it and what effect it has on them.
I saw the slaughter of goats at the temple during the Kali pooja celebration once a year where the blood ran into the gutters and was watched by the crowd including children but thankfully such practices have stopped. In Nepal the mass slaughter of animals during some Hindu festival had also come under intense criticism from the animal rights people and has been outlawed. But in many other countries this practice of cruelty to animals continues unabated because it is a part of their tribal culture or tradition.
You will be shocked to see the ocean run red with the mass slaughter of dolphins in Japan where they eat the meat although Japan is a civilized society with a long and rich cultural heritage.
In other countries like Spain and Mexico, the bloodletting of handsome bulls is a spectator’s sport although that too has come under pressure to stop and I hope that they will stop someday.
The movies and television:
The movie and the TV industry has not shied away from the fascination people have for violence and produce films like Kill Bill , GodFather and so many others that show extreme violence in graphic details that everyone watches. The ratings that are flashed on screen saying that it is not suitable for children etc. has no effect because children watch them at home when parents are away.
Not to be outdone, the animated movie makers do the same and inundate the TV with their violent depiction of scenes so a three year old watching such movies picks up a loaded gun that his father left at home carelessly, points it at his 2 year old sister and pulls the trigger saying bang bang just like in the movies.
He does not know what it means to kill someone but looks at her gasping for breath while bleeding to death because he does not know what death is. He is simply mimicking what he sees on TV all the time.
Now you can see the video game parlors sprouting all over the country where children and some adults keep feeding the machines with coins and play the violent video games that allows them to shoot, kill or knock out with punches someone on screen over and over again until the screen says Game over Insert coins.
This fascination with violent video games does not hurt anyone as they claim but I wonder if it does not desensitize a child to violence and leave a long lasting impression on him as he grows up and perhaps end up into a life of crime that may include such violence. It is easy to see how violent movies or video games can help blur the boundaries between the real and unreal in the mind of a gullible person who may grow up to be apathetic to others and their sufferings. He may not become a criminal but may be inured to violence as he watches someone bleeding to death and does nothing to help.
It starts with the cruelty to animals like keeping them in cages, torturing them and mistreating them in numerous ways and later practice the same on his wife or children. The domestic violence has its root in the dark side of the human nature that comes to the surface under certain circumstances.
I have seen unbelievable cruelty in Africa where poachers kill a beautiful elephant out of greed for the tusks while leaving the baby elephant that stays with his dead mother, crying and nudging it to feed him. It breaks my heart to see such cruelty that is shown in the National Geographic or Animal planet TV programs daily. How in the name of greed people commit such horrific crimes and not feel an iota of remorse seeing the baby crying for his mother?
How the Japanese can kill the whales and dolphins without guilt and call it their tradition even though the whole world condemns them? I have seen them selling whale meat in their supermarkets in Tokyo where you can wait while they fry the meat for you to take home.
There was a time in India where the slaughter of all animals was banned because the country was Buddhist and followed the teachings of Buddha. The Jains still follow the practice of non-violence and can be seen wearing face masks so that they do not kill even a tiny insect by breathing. You can see them feeding the ants early in the morning. But the rest of the world is not like them and continues the slaughter of wildlife and domestic animals.
Now there are alternatives to animal protein like soybean but most people can’t live without animal protein. They do not care how these animals are raised, treated and killed as long as they do not see it and just buy the packaged meat in their supermarkets.
Now some countries are banning the practice of putting live lobsters and crabs into the hot water vats but just go to the Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco to see how they do it in front of you. You will lose your appetite.
So I come back to the topic of human fascination with the violence and blood that has blighted the humanity since the time unknown and continues today. Now it has touched many sports that I call Blood sports ( read my blog on it called The blood sport) that is even worse because people go to see these blood sports for fun.
There is a TV program where the crocodile and alligator hunters compete with each other trying to kill these animals for the skin and constantly talk of the money they are losing by not catching any alligator. It is the money that motivates these people who will do anything to kill as many crocs as they can so that they can make more money. It is the same motivation for the Africans who kill the elephants and Rhinos and poachers in India killing the beautiful and gorgeous Bengal tigers.
There is the specter of violence in nature. You will see the carnivorous animals killing their prey for food they need. You will see the hawks killing other birds for the same reason. Some say that the killing of the weak animals for food helps the evolution process where the stronger genes are passed on to improve the species in the long run.
But we as humans are different from the animals because we have alternatives that lions and tigers do not have yet we insist on getting our food from the animals. What is the justification for killing the whales and dolphins when there are other alternatives to protein in Japan? There are no answers other than tradition. Can anyone continue a harmful practice in the name of tradition today?
I applaud the Green Peace people who chase off the whaling ships in the ocean to protect the animals but are often short of funds and face constant dangers from the ships.
I applaud the animal rights NGOs that protect and raise orphan animals and release them to the wilderness later. They have put pressure on China to stop the milking of bile from the captive bears that is very painful and inhumane but who listens? They have tried to save hundreds of bears in India from the cruelty they suffer in the hands of nomads and have opened orphanages where such bears are treated kindly.
But who treats a child who grows up seeing and watching violence daily on TV and in the movies? Who tells them that violent video games they play can make them inured to such violence in real life? Who can put pressure on the TV and movie industry to stop making such violent movies who do it for money and do not care of its impact on the society as such?
People who are not influenced by any religion and its dictates can promote violence if it brings them money just like the poachers. This I don’t care attitude to violence often spills into their private home life as well ( read my blog on Domestic violence).
I remember the time when the Quakers in the US protested the war in Vietnam on religious grounds and refused to serve in the army but they were vilified by others. They took the offer of alternative services like volunteering in the development work somewhere but others could not get deferment and were sent to die in Vietnam. This practice still continues in endless wars going on somewhere.
My topic is the influence of violence through the media on our daily life so I must stick to this topic and discuss how we can protect ourselves from this pernicious effect and teach our children that violence in any shape or form is not good and should be avoided although going vegetarian completely can be very challenging to anyone used to eating meat, fish and poultry.
I have no issues with people eating meat. My issue is with the violence shown in the media daily that make us less humane or at best indifferent to the sufferings of other humans and animals through apathy. It is like living in a very noisy place where you learn to ignore the noise until you go to a very quiet place. Only then you realize how much you hate the noise.
It is when you live among the peaceful people who love all animals, you begin to appreciate the absence of violence in their own life and the humane way they treat all life.
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
My biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
Source : google photo
Synopsis: We are all fascinated by blood and gore and see it in the media everyday that has severe social consequences. This blog throws some critical light on his subject and makes people think of the effect of all the violence in the media on our personal lives.
We humans have a morbid fascination about blood and gore that has led to showing of extreme violence and bloodletting on television and in movies. I have seen this whenever there is an accident and someone is seriously injured bleeding to death while people gather around not to help but to gawk at the poor fellow who is in desperate need of help. Some even take photos with the cell phones although for what purpose I am not sure.
This is the dark side of the human nature that is often overlooked but it is quite pervasive in our society that shows this fascination to violence as long as it does not affect them personally.
I have also seen blood and gore in Vietnam during the war where I often came across mutilated bodies of VietCongs even outside my home but it gave me shivers and haunted me for days. I could never get used to it but the old ladies going to the market early in the morning with the baskets in hand chatted as if it was not a big deal and stopped to look at the bodies with fascination.
I can never really understand this fascination people have but I have seen it everywhere. What is worse is that the children are exposed to such things so early in their life and wonder how they can get used to it and what effect it has on them.
I saw the slaughter of goats at the temple during the Kali pooja celebration once a year where the blood ran into the gutters and was watched by the crowd including children but thankfully such practices have stopped. In Nepal the mass slaughter of animals during some Hindu festival had also come under intense criticism from the animal rights people and has been outlawed. But in many other countries this practice of cruelty to animals continues unabated because it is a part of their tribal culture or tradition.
You will be shocked to see the ocean run red with the mass slaughter of dolphins in Japan where they eat the meat although Japan is a civilized society with a long and rich cultural heritage.
In other countries like Spain and Mexico, the bloodletting of handsome bulls is a spectator’s sport although that too has come under pressure to stop and I hope that they will stop someday.
The movies and television:
The movie and the TV industry has not shied away from the fascination people have for violence and produce films like Kill Bill , GodFather and so many others that show extreme violence in graphic details that everyone watches. The ratings that are flashed on screen saying that it is not suitable for children etc. has no effect because children watch them at home when parents are away.
Not to be outdone, the animated movie makers do the same and inundate the TV with their violent depiction of scenes so a three year old watching such movies picks up a loaded gun that his father left at home carelessly, points it at his 2 year old sister and pulls the trigger saying bang bang just like in the movies.
He does not know what it means to kill someone but looks at her gasping for breath while bleeding to death because he does not know what death is. He is simply mimicking what he sees on TV all the time.
Now you can see the video game parlors sprouting all over the country where children and some adults keep feeding the machines with coins and play the violent video games that allows them to shoot, kill or knock out with punches someone on screen over and over again until the screen says Game over Insert coins.
This fascination with violent video games does not hurt anyone as they claim but I wonder if it does not desensitize a child to violence and leave a long lasting impression on him as he grows up and perhaps end up into a life of crime that may include such violence. It is easy to see how violent movies or video games can help blur the boundaries between the real and unreal in the mind of a gullible person who may grow up to be apathetic to others and their sufferings. He may not become a criminal but may be inured to violence as he watches someone bleeding to death and does nothing to help.
It starts with the cruelty to animals like keeping them in cages, torturing them and mistreating them in numerous ways and later practice the same on his wife or children. The domestic violence has its root in the dark side of the human nature that comes to the surface under certain circumstances.
I have seen unbelievable cruelty in Africa where poachers kill a beautiful elephant out of greed for the tusks while leaving the baby elephant that stays with his dead mother, crying and nudging it to feed him. It breaks my heart to see such cruelty that is shown in the National Geographic or Animal planet TV programs daily. How in the name of greed people commit such horrific crimes and not feel an iota of remorse seeing the baby crying for his mother?
How the Japanese can kill the whales and dolphins without guilt and call it their tradition even though the whole world condemns them? I have seen them selling whale meat in their supermarkets in Tokyo where you can wait while they fry the meat for you to take home.
There was a time in India where the slaughter of all animals was banned because the country was Buddhist and followed the teachings of Buddha. The Jains still follow the practice of non-violence and can be seen wearing face masks so that they do not kill even a tiny insect by breathing. You can see them feeding the ants early in the morning. But the rest of the world is not like them and continues the slaughter of wildlife and domestic animals.
Now there are alternatives to animal protein like soybean but most people can’t live without animal protein. They do not care how these animals are raised, treated and killed as long as they do not see it and just buy the packaged meat in their supermarkets.
Now some countries are banning the practice of putting live lobsters and crabs into the hot water vats but just go to the Fisherman’s wharf in San Francisco to see how they do it in front of you. You will lose your appetite.
So I come back to the topic of human fascination with the violence and blood that has blighted the humanity since the time unknown and continues today. Now it has touched many sports that I call Blood sports ( read my blog on it called The blood sport) that is even worse because people go to see these blood sports for fun.
There is a TV program where the crocodile and alligator hunters compete with each other trying to kill these animals for the skin and constantly talk of the money they are losing by not catching any alligator. It is the money that motivates these people who will do anything to kill as many crocs as they can so that they can make more money. It is the same motivation for the Africans who kill the elephants and Rhinos and poachers in India killing the beautiful and gorgeous Bengal tigers.
There is the specter of violence in nature. You will see the carnivorous animals killing their prey for food they need. You will see the hawks killing other birds for the same reason. Some say that the killing of the weak animals for food helps the evolution process where the stronger genes are passed on to improve the species in the long run.
But we as humans are different from the animals because we have alternatives that lions and tigers do not have yet we insist on getting our food from the animals. What is the justification for killing the whales and dolphins when there are other alternatives to protein in Japan? There are no answers other than tradition. Can anyone continue a harmful practice in the name of tradition today?
I applaud the Green Peace people who chase off the whaling ships in the ocean to protect the animals but are often short of funds and face constant dangers from the ships.
I applaud the animal rights NGOs that protect and raise orphan animals and release them to the wilderness later. They have put pressure on China to stop the milking of bile from the captive bears that is very painful and inhumane but who listens? They have tried to save hundreds of bears in India from the cruelty they suffer in the hands of nomads and have opened orphanages where such bears are treated kindly.
But who treats a child who grows up seeing and watching violence daily on TV and in the movies? Who tells them that violent video games they play can make them inured to such violence in real life? Who can put pressure on the TV and movie industry to stop making such violent movies who do it for money and do not care of its impact on the society as such?
People who are not influenced by any religion and its dictates can promote violence if it brings them money just like the poachers. This I don’t care attitude to violence often spills into their private home life as well ( read my blog on Domestic violence).
I remember the time when the Quakers in the US protested the war in Vietnam on religious grounds and refused to serve in the army but they were vilified by others. They took the offer of alternative services like volunteering in the development work somewhere but others could not get deferment and were sent to die in Vietnam. This practice still continues in endless wars going on somewhere.
My topic is the influence of violence through the media on our daily life so I must stick to this topic and discuss how we can protect ourselves from this pernicious effect and teach our children that violence in any shape or form is not good and should be avoided although going vegetarian completely can be very challenging to anyone used to eating meat, fish and poultry.
I have no issues with people eating meat. My issue is with the violence shown in the media daily that make us less humane or at best indifferent to the sufferings of other humans and animals through apathy. It is like living in a very noisy place where you learn to ignore the noise until you go to a very quiet place. Only then you realize how much you hate the noise.
It is when you live among the peaceful people who love all animals, you begin to appreciate the absence of violence in their own life and the humane way they treat all life.
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
My biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
The effect of mass tourism
The effect of mass tourism
Source : Google photo
Synopsis: The global effect of mass tourism cannot be overlooked in its negative impact on the local culture and traditions .This blog studies its impact in the social structure , degradation of moral values and the economy of the countries affected and the backlash the mass tourism suffers in some parts of the world.
These days you can see the tourism within the country and outside grow remarkably giving rise to the notion of mass tourism. There are group tours that are organized by the tourism department in many countries and there are tours offered by the airlines specially the budget airlines that have led to the growth in tourism in a phenomenal way.
The newspapers are full of advertisements that offer a 3 day package tour to many parts of the world that include air fare, hotel and transport and often some help in procuring the travel documents and visas. You can only wonder what anyone can see in 3 days in a country like China or India that has so much to offer and can keep you busy for months but the average tourist does not care.
He gets off the plane, rushes into a bus and furiously clicks his camera pointing at anything and everything to watch later, hops onto the waiting bus to take him to the next attraction. There is tremendous time pressure to see everything the tour offers within the time provided so the tour guide keeps this pressure on the group by saying that you must be back in exactly half an hour or you will risk of being left behind.
That scares people in a foreign country so they rush and return to their buses panting with exertion and not really enjoying the Taj Mahal or the terra cotta army in China. To make people observe the time provided, the guides will accompany the group with a bull horn in hand so that no one wanders away alone getting lost or mugged by unscrupulous people who are out to make hay while the tourism sun shines.
To make the matter worse, the tour buses are clearly marked with huge signs like TOURIST that attracts all the rabble who want to make quick money so a cup of tea that normally sells for only 5 Rupees now sells for 50. The vendors grin while pocketing the loot and say that the tourists are rich and they are foreigners so they are easy to cheat.
There is another scam the locals are very good at. I saw it in India where the guide will bring you to particular shops where you may buy a few touristy things and where the guide quietly collects his commission from the shop owner. The owners are no fools because they include the commission they have to pay in the price they charge but the tourist either does not know or care.If the shop owner refuses to pay commission to the guide and charges a lower price to his customer then the next time the guide will not bring the tourists there and boycott.
If you go to Agra which is a favorite tourist city, you will be assailed by the rickshaw drivers waiting at the railway station and will offer to bring you to the sites like Taj Mahal etc. at a very cheap price but will stop at numerous shops whether you like it or not and collect commission if you buy something there. The shop owners are Shylocks who want their pound of flesh and will not let you go away easily without buying anything. The same thing happens in other countries. Only the degree of exploitation varies.
In Bangkok the tuk tuk drivers will offer you their service for less than a dollar for half a day but will always bring you to the jewelry shops just in case you buy something there because the government pays for their gasoline if they bring you to the shops.
The other scam the tour operators advertise is to say that the tour will last 3 nights and 4 days to make it sound of a longer period than it really is although people are not so easily fooled.
The countries that depend on tourism as a source of major revenue try to make it easier for the tourist to get a short duration visa upon arrival often for free because they are eager for your tourist dollars. There are millions of people who are employed in the tourism industry worldwide and suffer if for some reasons the tourists stop coming.
The advent of budget airlines has fueled the mass tourism in a way that was not possible a few years ago when tourism was so expensive but more enjoyable. I remember the time when a round the world Pan Am economy class ticket valid for one year was sold for about 1200 US dollars but the passenger had the choice of spending the entire year travelling and stopping at all the places where Pan Am landed but that was in 1960s and the Pan Am has gone out of business.
Now such a fare around the world will cost a lot more so most people join the 3 day 4 night deals with their digital cameras in hand. Never mind the rush and the palpitations.
The camera toting tourists attract scalpers like fleas to a street dog in Tijuana who take full advantage of the situation because they know that these foreigners will not come back so they cheat them. The locals are smarter and will fight back and bargain like crazy.
But the bargaining is a skill that is a learned experience. If the seller asks for 50 US dollars when the price is far less then just offer 20 and start walking away. They will catch up with you soon and offer 30 which can be whittled down to 25 if you do not show much interest. People from industrialized countries are in general very poor bargainers because back home everything has a fixed priced on them. It is really no wonder that the scalpers crowd around the Americans and Japanese more than others.
The effect of mass tourism on locals:
Source : Google photo
This is a topic less discussed but felt just the same everywhere. I have seen the tourists showing a careless attitude toward the locals when they strip naked to swim in the rivers or other places where the locals are modest. A lack of understanding of the local culture or their indifference toward it has the negative effect on the locals who are shocked.
In many religious places, the priests insist on dress code that all must observe and deny entry to anyone who does not wear proper clothes. In some countries like Thailand, they will offer you pants to wear where shorts or miniskirts are not allowed in some shrines of religious importance.
In some places you can get into trouble if you ignore the No photography signs so a guide is needed to tell the group about such regulations. Often the rules are made to protect the business interests of the locals who want to sell you their expensive slides or photos.
But there are many pernicious effects of mass tourism on the locals. Soon young girls start to wear skimpy clothes because that is what they see on foreign tourists but it goes against the culture so you can imagine the clashes with the older and stricter generation that does not approve.
I remember a case when a teenage concert singer gave a show that was very popular with the young people but very unpopular with the old people who disapproved her skimpy clothes and her sexual gyrations on stage that made them show their anger by throwing tomatoes and even stones so the concert was canceled.
While it is true that the mass tourism brings in the dollars and employs a lot of locals in the industry, it does bring in the unwanted influence of ignorant tourist behaviors on the tradition and culture in a very negative way.
When we were in Naini Tal which is a hill resort town in the northern mountains of India, we were asked to vacate our room by the hotel manager because a tour group was arriving. He said that his income depended upon such tour groups and not on individuals like us because it was the tourist season.
Their dining facility was closed to guests and reserved only for the tour groups that travelled on package tours including meals. I saw this phenomenon in many places in India.
You have perhaps heard of the extortion by the camel drivers near the Pyramids in Egypt who will very eagerly get you up on a camel but then will demand a big amount before he will order the camel to let you down. Now try to imagine yourself stranded on a 10 foot high camel who only obeys his master and not you in the 40 degree heat. Suddenly the pyramids will lose their attractions.
The foreign tourists help raise the price of everything so it becomes harder for the locals to enjoy tourism at a normal rate that they can afford. In some countries as large as India, you are considered a tourist if you are from Deep South or some other parts of India therefore subject to exploitation by the locals. When south Indian tourists visit Allahabad as pilgrims, the boats men charge them exorbitant rates to bring them to the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna river. It is also the open season for the fake priests called pandas there.
Once my brother had to intervene and stop this abuse of southerners by the boats men but they retorted by saying that it was their chance to rip off the ignorant pilgrims who did not speak the language so they were fair game.
Our daughter was also fleeced this way at Haridwar by the so called Hindu priests who offered her prayers etc. at a ridiculous price because the word tourist was written all over her speaking only English and therefore fair game. I forgot to warn her of these scalpers. There anyone wearing saffron robe is called priest so one has to be very wary of them and avoid.
Another common scam is to tell you that such and such monument or site is closed for the day if the taxi man or the rickshaw driver does not want to go there for his own reasons.
The effect of mass tourism today has a deadening effect on the sensibilities of the locals as well as the tourists which does not bode well for the country as a whole. Some part of the culture is assailed and it leaves its mark in a way that can be unpleasant. It also promotes greed and dishonesty among the people who try to take advantage of the tourists to make money and make a killing even if it goes against their culture of hospitality and fairness. It is true that the group tour participants are somewhat protected by their guides as we were in South India from unscrupulous people, some people still get taken advantage of.
I think tourism is great and anyone who can afford should go and visit other places because there are so many beautiful places to see and experience that can be life changing in knowledge and perspective about any country but it should not come at a price of leaving a bad impression on the locals because you were fleeced or you showed insensitivity to their culture by bathing nude.
As more and more people travel these days, the world as we know keeps on shrinking so the challenge is to maintain the balance between the enjoyments that sight-seeing brings and the problems that it creates in the mad rush to make money from the tourists thus ignoring their traditions and values.
If the mass tourism breeds the unscrupulous like flies then you can imagine its effect on the values and traditions of a country that degenerates slowly but steadily and one day may be lost.
It is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you take advantage of a tourist, he may not come the next time or may tell others about his experiences in the social media.
People are attracted to a country not only because of its Taj Mahals but also because they have heard that people are so beautiful, their traditions are so great and their values are so great and they are so hospitable.
It is hard to imagine how impressed you will be by the Taj Mahal if you are taken advantage of by the bad people everywhere. No one likes to be abused this way.
The best way to see and enjoy a country is not to be under time pressure and a part of these 3 days 4 night tours that only increases your heart beat rate and empties your pocket but to take it easy and go on your own.
I am not suggesting that you carry a bundle of weed ( translation- Marijuana for those who are not familiar with the colloquial term)with you to help you along and pierce your nose, ears and other parts imitating the locals but taking it easy is perhaps the best way. Some will go the whole hog and wear local clothes and tattoos but it does not fool anyone.
I know because I have done so myself going alone and did not regret it. So if you want really to enjoy visiting other countries, do so at your own pace on your own terms and sit and meditate at the shrine of Swami Vivekananda in Kanya Kumari where you will forget all your worries at least for a while.
Source : Google photo of the shrine of Vivekananda in Kanya Kumari ,India
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
tumblr posts
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
Anil's biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
Source : Google photo
Synopsis: The global effect of mass tourism cannot be overlooked in its negative impact on the local culture and traditions .This blog studies its impact in the social structure , degradation of moral values and the economy of the countries affected and the backlash the mass tourism suffers in some parts of the world.
These days you can see the tourism within the country and outside grow remarkably giving rise to the notion of mass tourism. There are group tours that are organized by the tourism department in many countries and there are tours offered by the airlines specially the budget airlines that have led to the growth in tourism in a phenomenal way.
The newspapers are full of advertisements that offer a 3 day package tour to many parts of the world that include air fare, hotel and transport and often some help in procuring the travel documents and visas. You can only wonder what anyone can see in 3 days in a country like China or India that has so much to offer and can keep you busy for months but the average tourist does not care.
He gets off the plane, rushes into a bus and furiously clicks his camera pointing at anything and everything to watch later, hops onto the waiting bus to take him to the next attraction. There is tremendous time pressure to see everything the tour offers within the time provided so the tour guide keeps this pressure on the group by saying that you must be back in exactly half an hour or you will risk of being left behind.
That scares people in a foreign country so they rush and return to their buses panting with exertion and not really enjoying the Taj Mahal or the terra cotta army in China. To make people observe the time provided, the guides will accompany the group with a bull horn in hand so that no one wanders away alone getting lost or mugged by unscrupulous people who are out to make hay while the tourism sun shines.
To make the matter worse, the tour buses are clearly marked with huge signs like TOURIST that attracts all the rabble who want to make quick money so a cup of tea that normally sells for only 5 Rupees now sells for 50. The vendors grin while pocketing the loot and say that the tourists are rich and they are foreigners so they are easy to cheat.
There is another scam the locals are very good at. I saw it in India where the guide will bring you to particular shops where you may buy a few touristy things and where the guide quietly collects his commission from the shop owner. The owners are no fools because they include the commission they have to pay in the price they charge but the tourist either does not know or care.If the shop owner refuses to pay commission to the guide and charges a lower price to his customer then the next time the guide will not bring the tourists there and boycott.
If you go to Agra which is a favorite tourist city, you will be assailed by the rickshaw drivers waiting at the railway station and will offer to bring you to the sites like Taj Mahal etc. at a very cheap price but will stop at numerous shops whether you like it or not and collect commission if you buy something there. The shop owners are Shylocks who want their pound of flesh and will not let you go away easily without buying anything. The same thing happens in other countries. Only the degree of exploitation varies.
In Bangkok the tuk tuk drivers will offer you their service for less than a dollar for half a day but will always bring you to the jewelry shops just in case you buy something there because the government pays for their gasoline if they bring you to the shops.
The other scam the tour operators advertise is to say that the tour will last 3 nights and 4 days to make it sound of a longer period than it really is although people are not so easily fooled.
The countries that depend on tourism as a source of major revenue try to make it easier for the tourist to get a short duration visa upon arrival often for free because they are eager for your tourist dollars. There are millions of people who are employed in the tourism industry worldwide and suffer if for some reasons the tourists stop coming.
The advent of budget airlines has fueled the mass tourism in a way that was not possible a few years ago when tourism was so expensive but more enjoyable. I remember the time when a round the world Pan Am economy class ticket valid for one year was sold for about 1200 US dollars but the passenger had the choice of spending the entire year travelling and stopping at all the places where Pan Am landed but that was in 1960s and the Pan Am has gone out of business.
Now such a fare around the world will cost a lot more so most people join the 3 day 4 night deals with their digital cameras in hand. Never mind the rush and the palpitations.
The camera toting tourists attract scalpers like fleas to a street dog in Tijuana who take full advantage of the situation because they know that these foreigners will not come back so they cheat them. The locals are smarter and will fight back and bargain like crazy.
But the bargaining is a skill that is a learned experience. If the seller asks for 50 US dollars when the price is far less then just offer 20 and start walking away. They will catch up with you soon and offer 30 which can be whittled down to 25 if you do not show much interest. People from industrialized countries are in general very poor bargainers because back home everything has a fixed priced on them. It is really no wonder that the scalpers crowd around the Americans and Japanese more than others.
The effect of mass tourism on locals:
Source : Google photo
This is a topic less discussed but felt just the same everywhere. I have seen the tourists showing a careless attitude toward the locals when they strip naked to swim in the rivers or other places where the locals are modest. A lack of understanding of the local culture or their indifference toward it has the negative effect on the locals who are shocked.
In many religious places, the priests insist on dress code that all must observe and deny entry to anyone who does not wear proper clothes. In some countries like Thailand, they will offer you pants to wear where shorts or miniskirts are not allowed in some shrines of religious importance.
In some places you can get into trouble if you ignore the No photography signs so a guide is needed to tell the group about such regulations. Often the rules are made to protect the business interests of the locals who want to sell you their expensive slides or photos.
But there are many pernicious effects of mass tourism on the locals. Soon young girls start to wear skimpy clothes because that is what they see on foreign tourists but it goes against the culture so you can imagine the clashes with the older and stricter generation that does not approve.
I remember a case when a teenage concert singer gave a show that was very popular with the young people but very unpopular with the old people who disapproved her skimpy clothes and her sexual gyrations on stage that made them show their anger by throwing tomatoes and even stones so the concert was canceled.
While it is true that the mass tourism brings in the dollars and employs a lot of locals in the industry, it does bring in the unwanted influence of ignorant tourist behaviors on the tradition and culture in a very negative way.
When we were in Naini Tal which is a hill resort town in the northern mountains of India, we were asked to vacate our room by the hotel manager because a tour group was arriving. He said that his income depended upon such tour groups and not on individuals like us because it was the tourist season.
Their dining facility was closed to guests and reserved only for the tour groups that travelled on package tours including meals. I saw this phenomenon in many places in India.
You have perhaps heard of the extortion by the camel drivers near the Pyramids in Egypt who will very eagerly get you up on a camel but then will demand a big amount before he will order the camel to let you down. Now try to imagine yourself stranded on a 10 foot high camel who only obeys his master and not you in the 40 degree heat. Suddenly the pyramids will lose their attractions.
The foreign tourists help raise the price of everything so it becomes harder for the locals to enjoy tourism at a normal rate that they can afford. In some countries as large as India, you are considered a tourist if you are from Deep South or some other parts of India therefore subject to exploitation by the locals. When south Indian tourists visit Allahabad as pilgrims, the boats men charge them exorbitant rates to bring them to the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna river. It is also the open season for the fake priests called pandas there.
Once my brother had to intervene and stop this abuse of southerners by the boats men but they retorted by saying that it was their chance to rip off the ignorant pilgrims who did not speak the language so they were fair game.
Our daughter was also fleeced this way at Haridwar by the so called Hindu priests who offered her prayers etc. at a ridiculous price because the word tourist was written all over her speaking only English and therefore fair game. I forgot to warn her of these scalpers. There anyone wearing saffron robe is called priest so one has to be very wary of them and avoid.
Another common scam is to tell you that such and such monument or site is closed for the day if the taxi man or the rickshaw driver does not want to go there for his own reasons.
The effect of mass tourism today has a deadening effect on the sensibilities of the locals as well as the tourists which does not bode well for the country as a whole. Some part of the culture is assailed and it leaves its mark in a way that can be unpleasant. It also promotes greed and dishonesty among the people who try to take advantage of the tourists to make money and make a killing even if it goes against their culture of hospitality and fairness. It is true that the group tour participants are somewhat protected by their guides as we were in South India from unscrupulous people, some people still get taken advantage of.
I think tourism is great and anyone who can afford should go and visit other places because there are so many beautiful places to see and experience that can be life changing in knowledge and perspective about any country but it should not come at a price of leaving a bad impression on the locals because you were fleeced or you showed insensitivity to their culture by bathing nude.
As more and more people travel these days, the world as we know keeps on shrinking so the challenge is to maintain the balance between the enjoyments that sight-seeing brings and the problems that it creates in the mad rush to make money from the tourists thus ignoring their traditions and values.
If the mass tourism breeds the unscrupulous like flies then you can imagine its effect on the values and traditions of a country that degenerates slowly but steadily and one day may be lost.
It is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you take advantage of a tourist, he may not come the next time or may tell others about his experiences in the social media.
People are attracted to a country not only because of its Taj Mahals but also because they have heard that people are so beautiful, their traditions are so great and their values are so great and they are so hospitable.
It is hard to imagine how impressed you will be by the Taj Mahal if you are taken advantage of by the bad people everywhere. No one likes to be abused this way.
The best way to see and enjoy a country is not to be under time pressure and a part of these 3 days 4 night tours that only increases your heart beat rate and empties your pocket but to take it easy and go on your own.
I am not suggesting that you carry a bundle of weed ( translation- Marijuana for those who are not familiar with the colloquial term)with you to help you along and pierce your nose, ears and other parts imitating the locals but taking it easy is perhaps the best way. Some will go the whole hog and wear local clothes and tattoos but it does not fool anyone.
I know because I have done so myself going alone and did not regret it. So if you want really to enjoy visiting other countries, do so at your own pace on your own terms and sit and meditate at the shrine of Swami Vivekananda in Kanya Kumari where you will forget all your worries at least for a while.
Source : Google photo of the shrine of Vivekananda in Kanya Kumari ,India
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
tumblr posts
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
Anil's biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
What is greed?
The following blog as it appeared in the blog site of Mr. Jose Luis Ramos Saavedra of the Canary Islands in Spain is very relevant here to the subject of greed so I will re blog it here and write my comments at the bottom.
What is greed ?
This is how a greedy brain works .What most characterizes the greedy is self-interest, selfishness that can never be satisfied. It has been said that greed is like salt water, because the more you drink the more you thirst.
Felix Millet, the main defendant of the Palau case, at the exit of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, where he was informed of the sentence of 9 years and 8 months in prison. (JOAN SÁNCHEZ EL PAÍS)
Upon hearing the news that the wealthy Catalan businessman Fèlix Maria Millet i Tusell charged his consorts half of the expenses of his daughter's wedding when in reality he who paid the total of the spent (81,156 euros) was the Orfeó Català Foundation i Palau de la Música in Barcelona, of which Millet himself is the director and founder, I did not resist the temptation to consider that greed is a mental illness, that is, a disease of the brain.
How else? I got to wondering. It is not easy to understand the feeling that shelters greed, get into the skin of the greedy. Why do people who are already very rich want or have wanted more and more? Why do they continue to accumulate wealth if they already have everything they need to live well? Are they sick?
The etymological origin of greed is cuspiditas, a Latin word. It has been defined as an excessive desire for riches, as a voracious and vehement desire for some good things, not just money or riches. What most characterizes the greedy is self-interest, selfishness that can never be satisfied. It has been said that greed is like salt water, because the more you drink the more thirsty. For the greedy enough is never enough.
Greed and greed are not the same thing. While greed is the desire to possess riches or other goods with the intention of treasuring them for oneself far beyond what is required to satisfy basic needs and personal well-being, greed is limited to an excessive desire for riches without the need of want to treasure them. The miser accumulates, is stingy, spends as little as possible and almost never shares.
The greedy can enjoy his wealth, he spends it and can even share it. Let him do so, if he pleases, friend of a greedy one, but never of a miser. Playing the lottery, gambling in a casino or investing in a stock market, even when dealing with small savers, does not stop being a behavior that, apart from addictive, harbors a plus of greed, since it is not usually done out of necessity.
A study by the University of Gent in Belgium has shown that greed occurs more often in men than in women, in the financial world or in management positions and, generally, in people who are not very religious. No biological reason that we know allows us to affirm that women are less greedy than men, but that the majority of those accused and condemned for corruption in many countries are men could make it understood. The explanation for this difference is cultural, since in most countries men tend to take the lead in business or political or administrative positions susceptible to corruption.
The consequences of greed
Greed, being in the origin of colonialism and slavery has been one of the worst evils that humanity has suffered. In addition to relating to immoral behavior, it is the cause of wars, corruption, betrayals and crimes, swindles, robberies, murders and lies. The greedy almost always benefits at the expense of the rest of the population. Greed has been especially related to financial debts, as the impatience to get profits makes many bankers negligent and risky and the lack of investment containment may have created economic bubbles such as the one that gave rise to the Great Depression of 1929 in the United States.
Bubbles that occur when prices rise above the real value of things and when greed leads to the promotion of speculative activities related to the development of new technologies, such as burbuja.com, generated by the introduction of the Internet.
Why do people who are already very rich want or have wanted more and more? Why do they continue to accumulate wealth if they already have everything they need to live well? Are they sick?
The greed was behind the use of the well-known Black cards and abuses such as that of the directors of the financial institution Catalonia Caixa, which authorized salary increases for their executives when the entity had already claimed extraordinary aid to the State for the bankruptcy situation in which it was. Similar is also the greed of shareholders and entrepreneurs who do not repair in maintaining factories or industries that deteriorate the environment with their discharges and the generation of toxic waste.
And it's not just a matter of modern times, as the story explains
Juan Eslava Galán, the Duke of Lerma, valid for King Felipe III moved the court from Madrid to Valladolid very possibly with the intention of giving a real estate pitch, because he had previously bought land and houses at a lower price than he then sold to officials and courtiers who were forced to move to the new capital. At six years the court returned to Madrid. The soil, more than the building itself, has been and is often the object of human greed.
But it would be unfair not to mention that greed has also been considered and even hailed as an engine of growth and development, because it can promote the economy by motivating to people to create new products and develop new industries, which in turn generates wealth, employment and well-being. The greedy, therefore, do not seem to deceive themselves always when they see their greed as something good.
The collateral consequences are another thing, because the greedy ones are often detested in their environment and socially rejected. In the long run they may lose out, although in their eventual criticism the average citizen usually appeals with disgust to the benefit still withheld or already enjoyed by the greedy ones (Take away the dance!) When they are legally punished for having committed infractions or illegalities. What people want is that the one who has stolen returns the money.
The brain of the greedy
Some experiments in neuroscience have shown that the more greedy a person is, the less capacity the prefrontal cortex of his brain, which is involved in reasoning, has to diminish the gratification of earning more money by inhibiting the activity of ventral striatum neurons, involved in that gratification. The brain of the greedy could then function differently from the people who are not.
Other studies have suggested that because greedy people tend to bet high to maximize their gains, they may suffer from a mental disturbance that cancels their ability to perceive risk or to see the needs of others.
The American researcher Mark Goldstein and other colleagues have suggested that the greed, impulsiveness and loss of vision of the future that gave rise to the financial crisis that, similar to that of 1929, took place in the United States between 2007 and 2010, well reflected in the excellent film Margin call, could have been caused, at least in part, by the low levels of cerebral cholesterol of many workers of the North American financial world, habitual consumers of statins, some drugs that diminish the levels of cholesterol in blood.
The reason is that cholesterol is necessary to regulate cerebral serotonin, a substance that stabilizes mental functions. The inertia to accumulate resources counteracts the feeling of uncertainty about what may happen to one in the future, so greed could have evolved in our ancestral ancestors as a form of adaptation when the environment is poor in resources.
If you have a lot you worry less about the future than if you have little. A feeling, in short, of an ant more than a cicada. This approach makes some scientists believe that the different degrees of greed of the people could derive from it from the different perceptions and expectations of the people about the insecurities of the future. That would also explain why, in uncertain environments such as the economy, some people seem more willing than others to behave acquisitively, to invest.
The danger is especially in ordinary people, particularly in the middle classes, who can be victims of greed by risking to invest their hard-earned and limited savings in games, lotteries or financial assets, by wanting to multiply them quickly and with much less effort of the It was hard for them to get them.
A study from the University of Ghent in Belgium has shown that greed occurs more often in men than in women, in the financial world or in managerial positions and, generally, in people who are not very religious. public of the greedy, especially when their behavior reaches illegality, is one of the best remedies, because shame can help at least sensible people are restrained. As in so many other cases, the great remedy is slow, because it is in Education.
A good education system should have planned to teach young people the consequences of greed, showing how it has served to corrode and dynamite individuals, companies and societies, and always counter posing to the best values of citizenship and a just society and solidaria.Ignacio Morgado Bernal is director of the Institute of Neurosciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, author of "Corrosive Emotions: How to face envy, greed, guilt and shame, hatred and vanity" (Barcelona, Ariel)
My comments
The topic of greed is an interesting one so I will just make a short comment on it in this re blogged article above by Mr. Saavedra because greed is found everywhere and at all times. I think it is a part of our human nature to be greedy although not everybody succumbs to greed. The greed as displayed by people has severe consequences in terms of mental health and the well-being of an individual in any society.
In the animal kingdom, one can see the lion eating first the kill even if he does not kill the prey himself because he is a dominant animal so he asserts his dominance this way and not because he is greedy. He eats only when he is hungry and quits when he is satiated. He does not kill for fun so one can see a lion resting under the shade of trees while watching the antelopes graze nearby with total indifference.
This is not so with humans. Their brain works differently from the lions so he is prone to excesses due to his greed for money, for material things and even food when he is not hungry. I think it is an acquired habit from childhood when the child absorbs the values of those around him while growing up.
It reminds me of a story of excessive greed that led to the downfall of a prominent Roman citizen in ancient times. There was this fellow in Rome who had a few fire fighting engines that people in desperate need sought the help of because their houses were on fire. The fellow then came to negotiate how much money he could extract before he ordered even a drop of water to put the fire out.
People who were desperate to put the fire out and save their houses had no choice but to agree on the terms proposed by the greedy man but he was reviled for it none the less.Then came a time when this man was transferred to a distance province by the Roman authorities as a punishment for his greed but his reputation has reached all corners of the empire so one day people caught him in his act of extortion , bound him and poured liquid gold down his throat to quench his thirst for gold. It is a true story.
The greed of usurers at the temple led Jesus to denounce them and destroy their books that recorded the names and amount people had unfortunately borrowed from them but they were very powerful people who were a part of the Sanhedrin that ultimately caused the crucifixion of Jesus in the hands of the Roman authorities.
But people today ignore the teachings of Jesus and run pawn shops in every street corner here charging usurious rates for the paltry sum people borrow from them and often find themselves unable to repay the loan. This is the manifestation of pure greed of usurers.
The Prophet Mohammed explicitly banned the usury and forbade people to accept interest on the loans they make so by and large the Islamic Banks do not pay interest on the money Moslems keep with them but the banks have no qualms about charging usurious rate on loans made to others who are not Moslems.
The unabated greed in some people leads them to gambling that can lead to addiction which is a disease that is very difficult to cure ( read my blog on this subject called Gambling is an addiction like no other). The question to ask here is why some people are greedy and why it is never enough even when they have plenty of money to want more through any means including stealing. The dictators and politicians accumulate illegal wealth which they can never enjoy and flee when they are over thrown by the angry people or end up in jail when they cannot account for how they got their wealth.
The case of Rumanian dictator Ceausescu is worth mention here. He built a palace of more than a thousand rooms with gold bathtubs and crystal chandelliers in a very poor country where people did not have enough to eat . He and his wife were summarily executed by the crowd when they caught up with them. There are many such examples.
But I have seen common people also who show their greed for food when they are not hungry and greed for money when they know that it is illegally obtained so this vice spares no one except those who are morally strong and take immense pride in their honesty and integrity of character.( Read my blog on Is honesty outdated?)
aumolc
January 2018
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
My biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
What is greed ?
This is how a greedy brain works .What most characterizes the greedy is self-interest, selfishness that can never be satisfied. It has been said that greed is like salt water, because the more you drink the more you thirst.
Felix Millet, the main defendant of the Palau case, at the exit of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, where he was informed of the sentence of 9 years and 8 months in prison. (JOAN SÁNCHEZ EL PAÍS)
Upon hearing the news that the wealthy Catalan businessman Fèlix Maria Millet i Tusell charged his consorts half of the expenses of his daughter's wedding when in reality he who paid the total of the spent (81,156 euros) was the Orfeó Català Foundation i Palau de la Música in Barcelona, of which Millet himself is the director and founder, I did not resist the temptation to consider that greed is a mental illness, that is, a disease of the brain.
How else? I got to wondering. It is not easy to understand the feeling that shelters greed, get into the skin of the greedy. Why do people who are already very rich want or have wanted more and more? Why do they continue to accumulate wealth if they already have everything they need to live well? Are they sick?
The etymological origin of greed is cuspiditas, a Latin word. It has been defined as an excessive desire for riches, as a voracious and vehement desire for some good things, not just money or riches. What most characterizes the greedy is self-interest, selfishness that can never be satisfied. It has been said that greed is like salt water, because the more you drink the more thirsty. For the greedy enough is never enough.
Greed and greed are not the same thing. While greed is the desire to possess riches or other goods with the intention of treasuring them for oneself far beyond what is required to satisfy basic needs and personal well-being, greed is limited to an excessive desire for riches without the need of want to treasure them. The miser accumulates, is stingy, spends as little as possible and almost never shares.
The greedy can enjoy his wealth, he spends it and can even share it. Let him do so, if he pleases, friend of a greedy one, but never of a miser. Playing the lottery, gambling in a casino or investing in a stock market, even when dealing with small savers, does not stop being a behavior that, apart from addictive, harbors a plus of greed, since it is not usually done out of necessity.
A study by the University of Gent in Belgium has shown that greed occurs more often in men than in women, in the financial world or in management positions and, generally, in people who are not very religious. No biological reason that we know allows us to affirm that women are less greedy than men, but that the majority of those accused and condemned for corruption in many countries are men could make it understood. The explanation for this difference is cultural, since in most countries men tend to take the lead in business or political or administrative positions susceptible to corruption.
The consequences of greed
Greed, being in the origin of colonialism and slavery has been one of the worst evils that humanity has suffered. In addition to relating to immoral behavior, it is the cause of wars, corruption, betrayals and crimes, swindles, robberies, murders and lies. The greedy almost always benefits at the expense of the rest of the population. Greed has been especially related to financial debts, as the impatience to get profits makes many bankers negligent and risky and the lack of investment containment may have created economic bubbles such as the one that gave rise to the Great Depression of 1929 in the United States.
Bubbles that occur when prices rise above the real value of things and when greed leads to the promotion of speculative activities related to the development of new technologies, such as burbuja.com, generated by the introduction of the Internet.
Why do people who are already very rich want or have wanted more and more? Why do they continue to accumulate wealth if they already have everything they need to live well? Are they sick?
The greed was behind the use of the well-known Black cards and abuses such as that of the directors of the financial institution Catalonia Caixa, which authorized salary increases for their executives when the entity had already claimed extraordinary aid to the State for the bankruptcy situation in which it was. Similar is also the greed of shareholders and entrepreneurs who do not repair in maintaining factories or industries that deteriorate the environment with their discharges and the generation of toxic waste.
And it's not just a matter of modern times, as the story explains
Juan Eslava Galán, the Duke of Lerma, valid for King Felipe III moved the court from Madrid to Valladolid very possibly with the intention of giving a real estate pitch, because he had previously bought land and houses at a lower price than he then sold to officials and courtiers who were forced to move to the new capital. At six years the court returned to Madrid. The soil, more than the building itself, has been and is often the object of human greed.
But it would be unfair not to mention that greed has also been considered and even hailed as an engine of growth and development, because it can promote the economy by motivating to people to create new products and develop new industries, which in turn generates wealth, employment and well-being. The greedy, therefore, do not seem to deceive themselves always when they see their greed as something good.
The collateral consequences are another thing, because the greedy ones are often detested in their environment and socially rejected. In the long run they may lose out, although in their eventual criticism the average citizen usually appeals with disgust to the benefit still withheld or already enjoyed by the greedy ones (Take away the dance!) When they are legally punished for having committed infractions or illegalities. What people want is that the one who has stolen returns the money.
The brain of the greedy
Some experiments in neuroscience have shown that the more greedy a person is, the less capacity the prefrontal cortex of his brain, which is involved in reasoning, has to diminish the gratification of earning more money by inhibiting the activity of ventral striatum neurons, involved in that gratification. The brain of the greedy could then function differently from the people who are not.
Other studies have suggested that because greedy people tend to bet high to maximize their gains, they may suffer from a mental disturbance that cancels their ability to perceive risk or to see the needs of others.
The American researcher Mark Goldstein and other colleagues have suggested that the greed, impulsiveness and loss of vision of the future that gave rise to the financial crisis that, similar to that of 1929, took place in the United States between 2007 and 2010, well reflected in the excellent film Margin call, could have been caused, at least in part, by the low levels of cerebral cholesterol of many workers of the North American financial world, habitual consumers of statins, some drugs that diminish the levels of cholesterol in blood.
The reason is that cholesterol is necessary to regulate cerebral serotonin, a substance that stabilizes mental functions. The inertia to accumulate resources counteracts the feeling of uncertainty about what may happen to one in the future, so greed could have evolved in our ancestral ancestors as a form of adaptation when the environment is poor in resources.
If you have a lot you worry less about the future than if you have little. A feeling, in short, of an ant more than a cicada. This approach makes some scientists believe that the different degrees of greed of the people could derive from it from the different perceptions and expectations of the people about the insecurities of the future. That would also explain why, in uncertain environments such as the economy, some people seem more willing than others to behave acquisitively, to invest.
The danger is especially in ordinary people, particularly in the middle classes, who can be victims of greed by risking to invest their hard-earned and limited savings in games, lotteries or financial assets, by wanting to multiply them quickly and with much less effort of the It was hard for them to get them.
A study from the University of Ghent in Belgium has shown that greed occurs more often in men than in women, in the financial world or in managerial positions and, generally, in people who are not very religious. public of the greedy, especially when their behavior reaches illegality, is one of the best remedies, because shame can help at least sensible people are restrained. As in so many other cases, the great remedy is slow, because it is in Education.
A good education system should have planned to teach young people the consequences of greed, showing how it has served to corrode and dynamite individuals, companies and societies, and always counter posing to the best values of citizenship and a just society and solidaria.Ignacio Morgado Bernal is director of the Institute of Neurosciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, author of "Corrosive Emotions: How to face envy, greed, guilt and shame, hatred and vanity" (Barcelona, Ariel)
My comments
The topic of greed is an interesting one so I will just make a short comment on it in this re blogged article above by Mr. Saavedra because greed is found everywhere and at all times. I think it is a part of our human nature to be greedy although not everybody succumbs to greed. The greed as displayed by people has severe consequences in terms of mental health and the well-being of an individual in any society.
In the animal kingdom, one can see the lion eating first the kill even if he does not kill the prey himself because he is a dominant animal so he asserts his dominance this way and not because he is greedy. He eats only when he is hungry and quits when he is satiated. He does not kill for fun so one can see a lion resting under the shade of trees while watching the antelopes graze nearby with total indifference.
This is not so with humans. Their brain works differently from the lions so he is prone to excesses due to his greed for money, for material things and even food when he is not hungry. I think it is an acquired habit from childhood when the child absorbs the values of those around him while growing up.
It reminds me of a story of excessive greed that led to the downfall of a prominent Roman citizen in ancient times. There was this fellow in Rome who had a few fire fighting engines that people in desperate need sought the help of because their houses were on fire. The fellow then came to negotiate how much money he could extract before he ordered even a drop of water to put the fire out.
People who were desperate to put the fire out and save their houses had no choice but to agree on the terms proposed by the greedy man but he was reviled for it none the less.Then came a time when this man was transferred to a distance province by the Roman authorities as a punishment for his greed but his reputation has reached all corners of the empire so one day people caught him in his act of extortion , bound him and poured liquid gold down his throat to quench his thirst for gold. It is a true story.
The greed of usurers at the temple led Jesus to denounce them and destroy their books that recorded the names and amount people had unfortunately borrowed from them but they were very powerful people who were a part of the Sanhedrin that ultimately caused the crucifixion of Jesus in the hands of the Roman authorities.
But people today ignore the teachings of Jesus and run pawn shops in every street corner here charging usurious rates for the paltry sum people borrow from them and often find themselves unable to repay the loan. This is the manifestation of pure greed of usurers.
The Prophet Mohammed explicitly banned the usury and forbade people to accept interest on the loans they make so by and large the Islamic Banks do not pay interest on the money Moslems keep with them but the banks have no qualms about charging usurious rate on loans made to others who are not Moslems.
The unabated greed in some people leads them to gambling that can lead to addiction which is a disease that is very difficult to cure ( read my blog on this subject called Gambling is an addiction like no other). The question to ask here is why some people are greedy and why it is never enough even when they have plenty of money to want more through any means including stealing. The dictators and politicians accumulate illegal wealth which they can never enjoy and flee when they are over thrown by the angry people or end up in jail when they cannot account for how they got their wealth.
The case of Rumanian dictator Ceausescu is worth mention here. He built a palace of more than a thousand rooms with gold bathtubs and crystal chandelliers in a very poor country where people did not have enough to eat . He and his wife were summarily executed by the crowd when they caught up with them. There are many such examples.
But I have seen common people also who show their greed for food when they are not hungry and greed for money when they know that it is illegally obtained so this vice spares no one except those who are morally strong and take immense pride in their honesty and integrity of character.( Read my blog on Is honesty outdated?)
aumolc
January 2018
Note : My blogs and biography in the following languages are given below in the link.
Blogs in French
Blogs in Spanish
Blogs in German
Blogs in Japanese
My biography in Japanese
Anil's biography in French.
Anil's biography in English.
Anil's biography in Spanish.
Anil's biography in German
Note : Many readers have told me that the Internet Explorer (IE) browser seems to be not compatible with wordpress.com so they have difficulties in viewing my blogs properly. I suggest that you download Opera mini or Firefox or Google chrome browsers to your devices to get fast browsing experience. Opera mini and Firefox browsers are free to download and are superfast. Hope this solves the problem.
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