North American model

 

Source Google photo of North American model of development

Synopsis: People say that the imitation is a form of flattery but when people imitate blindly the Western model of development at the cost of losing their own culture, their art and their social structure, they lose their heritage, their social cohesion and their humanity in the process. It is something that is very difficult to get back once lost. The blog looks at the pros and cons of such development.

 

I have been to many countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas and noticed that many developing countries are adopting the North American model to develop and grow their cities and their infrastructure.

My home country India is also doing the same in the name of development so we now see the glass and steel upended box like buildings everywhere that are imposing but lack the ability to bring people together to live in a society where people can have social interaction and get to know each other to form human bonds.

I understand that the high cost of land in big cities worldwide favors a monolithic tall structure that is perhaps efficient and allows the maximum use of space on an expensive piece of land, but it does not inspire anyone to be creative in designing a new building that would be based on how people living or working in it interact to each other socially.

These upended and quite ugly buildings are the symbol of the development just like the immense jungle of intertwined highways, expressways and roads that look like tangled spaghetti blotting the cities that divide people and communities in the name of efficiency and speedier movement of vehicles 24 hours a day but scary just the same. It represents the concrete jungle that keeps on growing like cancer but ignores the basic need of humanity of living together happily and in peace and harmony.

Such roads and buildings that are a symbol of the Western style of development have helped create a more individualistic and apathetic people who may live or work in such tall buildings but do not know their neighbors or the workmates because the sterile design does not create a warm living space where people are happy. It does not create a happy living community because it cuts off people from each other in the name of efficiency.

People in poor countries are greatly impressed by the steel and glass structure and assume that it represents modernity and progress but have no idea what it means in terms of human relationship so they abandon their cultural and humanistic values and start to follow blindly the Western culture and architecture that starts to assert itself on the spiritual health of a country in a bold and aggressive manner that changes people in a negative way.

I have watched several videos made by some people in the United States who show the decay of small towns and cities in almost all the States that show dilapidated and abandoned houses and other properties where people live in abject poverty and despair who are trying to survive on food aid some charitable organizations are providing. The abandoned neighborhoods, the overgrown weeds that fail to hide the rusty abandoned vehicles and household things strewn everywhere show how people are suffering and are leaving such dens of poverty and despair.

Source: Google photo of small towns in America that look forlorn and deserted.

The ramshackle structures that are put up by the fast-food companies, derelict shuttered stores, graffiti-stained walls and garbage piles tells you how the roads and highways have divided and destroyed what was once a thriving community of people who lived together in peace and harmony.

What will strike you is the sameness of these small towns no matter where you go that are featureless and downright ugly and forlorn. Crime and vandalism thrive in such towns where people live in fear and are suspicious of strangers who may be just passing through while getting gas or food.

You will see abandoned factories in the outskirt of such towns that have gone bankrupt that used to provide some jobs with poor wages. You will see enormous piles of abandoned farm machinery and vehicles of all sorts just dumped here and there overgrown with weeds.

You will see huge, abandoned school buildings because there are no more children to go there. You will see the broken playground see saws, swings etc. where once children played. (Read my blog called Small town dreamers here)

A great deal of this decay is directly related to the unemployment so people leave to go where they can find some jobs. It is even more difficult for the young people who have little or no education so they too leave to find jobs elsewhere. The agriculture used to employ a lot of these people but those jobs are now handled my machines in most parts except where they need farm workers to hand pick the produce, thus employing the itinerant Mexican or others who have no choice but to accept very low wages. Watch the movie Deer hunter that shows the plight of small towns in Virginia, but it could be any other town anywhere.

What brings me to write this blog is what the developing countries are imitating from the Western model that is tearing their people apart just like in the United States, but they do not see it coming.

They do not yet realize that these office towers built everywhere are just offices that big companies rent so it is just profitable business. Some are built as residential buildings where the rent may be high depending on the location but most of the downtown area becomes empty when people working there shut down their stores or offices and go back to their suburban homes that are also featureless, drab and uninviting places. This has created the commute culture due to the development of suburbs that may be 20 kms from the city.

One thing you will notice in any big city in the United States is that almost all the people who work there leave at the end of the day to return to their suburban homes, so the city center looks deserted. The stores and shops also close due to lack of customers or due to rules that they must shut down everything after a fixed hour.

If you are new and are out to walk to get some fresh air, you may be accosted by a heavily armed policeman who wants to know why you are loitering when you should be home and will scrutinize your ID thoroughly.

It is very different in Europe or Asia where the cities are vibrant with shops, restaurants and night clubs and people everywhere enjoying the evening shopping or eating or meeting with friends in a popular café. Some cities never really shut down. There are eateries everywhere and there are huge markets that sell everything you need or want at an affordable price so the cities really come alive in the evenings.

But the north American cities and towns are strictly regulated through numerous laws and edicts making them isolated and lifeless because everything is shut down at a specific time. All you will see are empty streets and monolithic tall buildings on both sides and an occasional street dog that looks lonely and is desperately looking for some food scraps.

You will also find some homosexuals wandering the empty streets to look for someone or anyone to talk to. They are sorry looking pathetic people who wander the empty streets of big or small cities as I found out in Washington, D.C. one day. The parks are the favorite hangouts of the poor drug addicts and prostitutes who are looking for some business so never go to any park in the evening anywhere if you value your safety.

Then there are dark streets where some red lights give out the impression that these are dangerous quarters run by criminals who also control the prostitution business. The drug dealers are seen peddling to the motorists or anyone who buys drugs from them. Often serious crimes happen there.

The sidewalks are often occupied by the homeless people who are seen scavenging for scraps to eat from the huge garbage bins. They sleep on the sidewalks because no one helps them find a decent shelter and something to eat. The homelessness is a very serious issue in North America that fails these poor jobless people who are forced to sleep on the sidewalks of the richest cities and beg for money or food.

So, I look at these glass and steel buildings as nothing but a lifeless structure that cancels out people from it but glows in dazzling lights all night to representing the so-called modernity. Other countries are now trying to imitate this type of modernity at the cost of dividing people and forcing poor people to sleep in their shadows wrapped often in rags and plastic sheets. The rich people take better care of their dogs than these poor people no one cares for.    

Now we will see how the traditional living, the architecture and the communal living style that is still found in many countries in Africa and Asia is slowly giving way to the soulless development found in Western countries that they imitate.

The educated Africans snigger at their own traditional architecture so they prefer the Western style because they were taught that the white people are more modern and live in modern houses.  

In the process they ignore their rich culture and architecture because they do not appreciate it. Africans think that the monolithic steel and glass, but soulless structure represent the modernity.

I have lived in many African countries like Mali, Burundi and Sudan where I was deeply impressed by their handicraft and beautiful jewelries. In Mali, I designed my own house in a village far from the town where the villagers built for me a 5 room house with laterite base and mudbricks with a novelty they had never seen before.

They built round huts of impressive size in a semi-circular fashion that were all interconnected making it one big house with cross ventilation and perfectly conical roof of golden colored grass. The idea of interconnecting round huts was a new idea to them, but they took pride in building such a house for me that was cool inside and free from mosquitoes and other insects. They beat the dirt floor with mallet to make it compact and hard and coated it with cow dung to give it a dust free clean floor.

They coated the outer walls with shea butter they extracted from shea nuts to give the walls protection from rain. It made the round huts look beautiful with a sheen of the coating. The house was so appreciated by the villagers that they kept coming to see it from distant village for months. I just took the concept of traditional African mud houses to a new level when I asked them to join them. They did it perfectly because they could understand a diagram on a piece of paper with exact dimensions.

Source: Am African village mosque in Mali

In Bourkina Faso the villagers build a new house for a neighbor free of charge with the collective effort of the entire villagers. Women brought water from a long distance to make mud bricks. Even children participated. Men built the walls, and the women beat the floor with wooden mallets to make it hard while singing traditional songs. They collected grass from their forest and helped make the perfectly conical roof or rectangular roof.

Source : Google photo of African village mud house

Once the house was finished, they coated it with shea butter and later made beautiful paintings on the walls using natural dies. You will not see this type of houses built anywhere with the community effort but only in African villages. The same Africans who go to live in cities build ugly mud houses or concrete houses that are too hot and uncomfortable, there being no community spirit in cities.

Source: Google photo of an African village mud houses

In the State of Rajasthan, India, you can see beautiful mud houses that are neat, clean and decorated with paintings on the walls. There too the community spirit brings people together to build a house for a villager, but the cities are a different matter just like in Africa.

Source: Google photo of mud house in Rajasthan India that are made beautiful with paintings.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Mes blogs en français.

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

 

Loot of India

Source: Google photo of the battle of Plassey of 1757 in Bengal

Synopsis: The Europeans were the pioneer colonialists who took over a large number of countries like India that was very rich in resources they could loot with impunity to enrich their own countries. So, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Holland and Spain all became the colonial powers in Africa, India and many other countries in Latin America and North America like the United States and Canada. Among them the British created the largest empire where the sun never set that made their economy strong with their loot. The blog looks at how the British with a handful of administrators and a small army of military officers were able to defeat the large armies of kings and sultans in India using deception and cunning to take over the country they ruled for over 200 years.

After writing about Africa in a blog called Rise of Africa, I had to write about the loot of India by the British who redefined the word loot and gave it new meaning in the annals of history of colonialism in Asia, Africa and other continents. The sheer amount of wealth looted from India by the British was extraordinary during some two hundred years of rule but in today's terms it was no less than an unbelievable sum of 40 trillion of dollars that will boggle your mind. Most people do not even know how many zeros are needed in one trillion let alone imagine how big an amount it was.

So, by going back into the history book, I come across a name that stands out among others that played a vital role in the British expansion of its territory in India. It was no other than the infamous name of Robert Clive. He has been well documented in the history books but very few people know about his childhood in England and how he grew up to be the adult and what role he played in a faraway country called India. 

Source: Google photo of Robert Clive in Getty images.

Clive was born in a poor family where he developed the truant personality very early in order to survive poverty, so he started by demanding the rich people to pay him some protection money. When they refused and scolded him, he threw stones at their glass windows surreptitiously that cost them more money in repair than what Clive had demanded of them. Maybe he was the teacher from whom the modern-day politicians learned something except that Clive only wanted a few shillings but the modern-day politicians demand millions through blackmail and outright thuggery.

When he came of age, he started to think of what next to do with his life because he had run out of windows to throw stones at and thought his talent could be better used elsewhere so the idea of going to India seemed like a good one therefore, he applied. The British army in those days was in dire need of daring young men to spread their occupation of India so they hired him because Clive was a perfect fit for the job although no one had any inkling of what Clive could achieve in India.

They did not have to wait long. When they appointed Robert Clive as the quarter master of the British commissary in South India, he found his golden opportunity to shine in his nefarious ways that his seniors found very interesting. He started to save money of the army by providing cheaper and poor-quality rice for the soldiers who were natives of India. He had no qualms about giving poor quality ration to the natives who did not rate high from his point of view, so he continued to seek new ways to save money for his boss. He provided poor quality uniforms, cheap shoes that fell apart easily and in many other ways. 

Needless to say, that he kept a good part of the money he saved for himself that his superiors did not know about. They thought of him as a promising young man who had saved lot of money for the army. Soon they realized that Clive was a cunning man who was a natural when it came to military matters. He advised his commanders on how to speed up the occupation of India and suggested military support to a rival king who had problems with his neighbor, but this support came with a high price tag. In those days India was ruled by numerous kings who lived in a perpetual state of war with the neighboring kingdoms.

Clive's cunning was in determining who had the greater chance of winning if given some military aid so that he could extract the reward afterwards. The victorious king then gave the British several hundreds of villages from where they could extract taxes and do whatever they wanted to do with it. It was a brilliant idea that pushed Clive into the higher echelon of the ranks, so he benefitted enormously while hiding his stash he had accumulated as a commissary chief.

The British at this time were interested in expanding their territory in the state of Bengal where a Moslem king called Shiraj ud Daulah ruled. He had a massive army that was well equipped to fight any war, so the British chose Clive as their emissary to spearhead this campaign to win the entire Bengal, but Clive knew that it was an uphill task to face the army of Shiraj who was formidable. They wanted to take revenge for the deaths of numerous British soldiers who were arrested by the order of Shiraz and pushed into a jail cell in the Fort Williams in Kolkata where they died of suffocation. Clive took with him a small army that did not stand a chance against the King of Bengal, so he chose to win the battle by deception. He paid in gold the two generals of the king so that at the critical moment, they will withdraw from the battlefield leaving Shiraj ud Daulah alone and helpless.

Please read my blog Who was Siraj ud Daulah? in this context.

This is exactly what happened. The two traitors of the king left the battlefield of Plassey with the troops while Shiraj stood alone helplessly with some loyal troops, so he lost the war and fled the battle ground but the British chased and killed him. The two traitors were also killed later by them and probably recovered the bags of gold Clive had given them as bribe knowing how cunning Clive was. But that is not important. Besides no one likes the traitors even today. What was important was the fact the victory in Plassey in 1757 gave the British the golden opportunity to become the ruler of a vast province called Bengal. They developed Kolkata and named it their capital from where they ruled the entire country.

Systematic loot of India

Clive was given his reward after the battle of Plassey, and he employed the same strategy in winning numerous other provinces that helped the British rapidly expand their territory that brought in huge amount of taxes and other riches. I will not go into how they collected their taxes using brutal methods but believe me when I say they were brutal. Blackmail of kings and generals with fake promises and gold that Clive was a master of was their tactic. They believed that anything was fair in war and love, but they were more interested in war. They had no love for India except making thousands of native women pregnant and create a new breed called Anglo Indians but chose cruelty as the method to rule over a vast country called India.

They suppressed the local textile industries by making it very difficult for the cotton farmers to raise decent crops and get a decent price and by raising taxes, so it broke the supply chain that supported the hand loom textile industry that suffered while the first-class cotton was shipped to England to make their textile industry grow. They made the clothes for the Indians in England and sent to India at a price of their choice to make huge profit.

The British did the same for many other industries that had made India rich in the past so that England could prosper. There was a time when India had a share of 25% of the world trade that had made it very wealthy. Indian textile, minerals, cotton, manufactured goods and spices etc. were in great demand abroad that fetched a high price, but it dwindled after the British colonized the country. Actually, it went down to mere 2% so the British were successful in making millions of people very poor and jobless whose trades were decimated. 

They manipulated the supply of rice in Bengal that led to a severe shortage and deaths of millions of people through starvation while Churchill redirected the ships loaded with rice from other countries to England and said that the Indians breed like rabbits so let them starve.

My family survived the famine because my father worked for the British as an accountant so was given ration, but others were not so fortunate. My mom watched helplessly the people dying in the streets of Kolkata.

The British still brag that they brought the railways and built ports in India, but they did so because they could move the minerals and cotton to England easily through their ports. It was not done for the Indians who were treated as second class citizens who were not allowed to mix with the British. They even put up signboards saying Dogs and Indians are not allowed in their clubs or gymkhanas. 

Thus, they meaning the British set up the infrastructure to speed up the transport and delivery to England minerals and agricultural products while suppressing the local agriculture and industries. It is hard to believe that a country rich in soil and water where hard working farmers raised millions of hectares of food crops suffered famine due to the hoarding of rice by the British. They sent the rice to England instead that was suffering from a food shortage during the 2nd World War. Loss of millions of lives in Bengal meant nothing to them.

When I was a child, I knew that even a simple bicycle was imported from England and my father's cigarette came from London. The Indian women wore saris made in England while the Indian textile industry was systematically downgraded. A glorious and rich country called India was reduced to extreme poverty in just two hundred years by a foreign country that sucked its blood to rejuvenate their island nation thousands of miles away. That was a loot at a mind-boggling scale that their paid historians tried to omit from their history books and still say that the British brought railways to India.

But the loot of India was done not only by the British because there were many others who did the same as the hordes of looters from Afghanistan and other countries who attacked India again and again to loot and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who had resisted their forced conversion to Islam. They literally drenched the soil of India with the blood of Hindus who were peace loving people and looted their temples in Somnath 17 times and carried the loot away to Afghanistan on long caravans of camels.

I will not get into the struggle for freedom that started in 1857 and culminated in independence in 1947 when Netaji Bose and his Indian National Army chased the British out because it is well documented in numerous books so I will stick to the loot part of this history.

The British forced the rice farmers to plant indigo because it brought them huge revenue so the farmers secretly planted rice to get food. The indigo plant looked like rice plant, so the British were initially fooled but they found out later anyway and punished the farmers with heavy fines, taxes and beatings. They developed numerous ways to exploit the poor farmers. They also banned the traditional schools run by the temples called gurukul where anyone could get free education and replaced them with the British run educational institutions like St. Joseph college, St. Anthony school, Boy's and Girl's high school, Loreto, Presidency college etc. throughout the country to teach British curriculum in English.

Their idea was to educate a large number of natives to make them aware of the glory of England as the most civilized country, their history of excellence in science and other subjects. The British missionaries were given this task in which they were quite successful.

They promoted the education in England they touted as the best in the world so the rich and not so rich Indians sent their children to get the British education that would make them qualified to get good jobs in India and make them beholden to the British for it. British did not have enough administrators of their own, so they trained Indians to do the job. They hired my father as an accountant because he was bright.

During the long period when the British were building and spreading their empire in India using brutal military force, they collected tax from the defeated kings and sultans in gold and silver coins that they shipped to England. My Ma said to me that she saw pure gold guinea in those days minted in England as well as silver coins. I have seen silver coins of one Rupee when I was a child with the image of King George V on it. The rich people hoarded massive amount of silver coins knowing very well that one day its value will increase a thousand-fold. Most of the gold left India in ships laden with spices, silk, jewelries, fine muslin, pashmina shawls, fine mahogany furniture etc. to be sold to the rich people in England who then filled up their estate mansions with it.

Now let me tell you what happened to Robert Clive when he finally went back home with his pockets full of gold and silver. He bought a huge mansion somewhere and acres of land around it to live his life in comfort provided by his numerous servants. He wanted desperately to move into the ranks of Lords and Ladies of England, but he was not accepted by the high nose people who thought of Clive as a low life person who did not belong to their upper class. So, his money and mansion could not get him the place in the aristocracy although he was given the title of Lord by the government. On top of that he was summoned to an enquiry into how he became so rich in India. This enquiry caused him so much trouble that he became very depressed and one day took his life.

The irony was that after his death, it became known that Robert Clive was not found to be guilty of anything illegal and was going to be sent to America where they needed him as the next Governor General. 

All the foreigners be they British, French, Portuguese and even Dutch had only loot on their mind, but the Islamic invaders were the most destructive and cruel who not only looted the country, but they also imposed their religion on the hapless population using brutal force. This plague they brought to India still persists while the British have practically disappeared from the country except leaving behind numerous cemeteries full of epitaphs and broken stone graves that nature has taken over in a pitiful way. Their numerous marble statuaries all over the country have been removed and dumped unceremoniously somewhere out of sight. Their names have been removed from all the roads and boulevards and their bicycles and cigarettes are nowhere to be found.

India is a very different country now from what the British knew in those days although the impression persists that India, they left behind is still poor and backward because they cannot rule better than the British. It is reflected in their very biased reports on India in BBC that cannot accept that India is the 4th largest economy in the world and soon to be the third largest while England is in decline. India has now left England far behind in the economic development and military power. 

India was occupied and looted over the centuries, but the British could not suppress the indomitable spirit of India. Indians never forgot how to rebuild their country that is once again on its way to be called the golden bird. The British called India their jewel in the crown but still ignore the fact that the jewel in their crown is Kohinoor that they stole from India.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Mes blogs en français.

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

Rise of Africa

 

Source: Google photo of a baobab tree in Africa

Synopsis: A time comes when all tyrants and looters fall and start to fade away when people get the courage to say no to them. This is what is happening now in Africa. It is a start to a brighter future for all Africans that will uplift the poor and downtrodden who have long aspired to get rid of their oppressors so that they are free to decide their own future. The Oppressors will fight back so the Africans should be ready to make many sacrifices before they can achieve their goal. The blog looks at the leadership in Burkina Faso who has dared to take the bold step to develop his country with its resources.

I always had a soft spot in my heart for Africa, but this soft spot developed over the years after I had spent nearly 9 years of my professional life in various countries like Mali, Algeria, Burundi and Sudan where I had the privilege of observing Africans closely to learn about their culture, their values and their resilience.

The more I learned about the Africans, more I was convinced that someday the continent as a whole will rise and take its rightful place among the nations of the world as a vibrant and dynamic economy that will lift its various countries out of poverty and bondage to the so-called developed nations that exploit its enormous natural wealth while leaving the Africans poor and downtrodden.

If you read the pages of history, you will learn how the European countries like England, France, Belgium, Germany, Netherland and Italy colonized various parts of Africa where they ruthlessly exploited the minerals and other resources like diamond, copper, silver, uranium and its beautiful ebony of its forests to enrich their countries while leaving the Africans only scraps.

They decimated the large herds of elephants just to get the ivory to make billiard balls and killed the wildlife for the pelts to make coats for their women. The list of their crimes is a long one and more are added to it even today. Under their colonial rule, they treated the Africans as slaves to work in their mines, their coffee plantations and their other labor-intensive industries so that they could live in luxury in homes built by the poor Africans. They became rich at the expense of the Africans.

Once a reporter went to the Ivory Coast to interview the cocoa farmers and was shocked to see them in rags and living in poverty. He gave them some Swiss chocolate that they ate for the first time and told them that it is made from the cocoa they produced and were paid a pittance, but the Swiss company made enormous profit from the sale of the chocolate worldwide. This story is repeated a hundred times all over Africa. The European countries bought uranium from Niger at 1 Euro per pound while they sold it for 200 Euro to those who needed it to run their nuclear power plants.

When this was not enough, the Belgians brought in their anthropologists to study the difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Burundi who then measured the nose and the lips using cardboard cut outs and declared that the Tutsis were a superior tribe than the Hutus who had flatter and wider nose and thicker lips. This poison destroyed whatever good relations these two tribes had in the past that led to the genocide at a scale that shocked me to say the least but the arrogant Belgians never apologized for making such mischief.

I have seen this arrogance of the Europeans in Mali, Kenya, Burundi Burkina Faso and Rwanda who treated the Africans as low life being who were not worth anything and who were incapable of running their countries without their help. One Canadian asked the help of a Malian to find a place where he had to have a meeting, so this gentle Malian brought us to the place but was kept waiting until the Canadian finished his meeting. I was very annoyed at such treatment of an African, so I brought him home and apologized to him for the rude behavior of the white man.

The same thing happened in Rwanda where an American kept a driver waiting until he finished his long meeting keeping the poor driver hungry who needed to go to a toilet. I rescued him and brought him to a restaurant and fed him to his surprise and delight. But these are not the isolated cases. It happened all the time in many countries where the Europeans and the North Americans treated the locals badly.

The same fellow went to a village in Mali where he started asking the villagers what their problems were and what they needed to overcome them. It raised the hopes of the poor villagers who did not know that the Canadian fellow was just making baseless conversations without an iota of intention to solve their problems. I was shocked at his calumny and said so to him, but he just shrugged it off.

Once I was in Niamey, the capital of Niger where two Europeans wanted a meeting with the director of an agricultural program so asked me to interpret for them because they could not speak French. It turned out that these toubabou meaning white foreigners wanted to impose their strict terms on the use of funds in the project and insisted that only their candidate would handle the money showing that they did not trust the locals. The director flatly refused so the meeting ended but I noticed how the director challenged the notion that only the foreigners could run their project and decide whom to trust. So, I thought that the time has come for the Africans to stand up to these outsiders and show them the door. It was a positive change that was sure to come.

I have seen the extreme poverty in Mali, Burundi and Burkina Faso where poor people wore tattered clothes and their children with flies on their face and malnourished bodies stretched their thin arms to beg for whatever the Toubabou could give them. All foreigners are called Toubabou meaning white foreigners, but I was ashamed that it included me.

In Burundi the poverty was widespread. The Hutus, who are mainly the farmers, wore tattered clothes and their kids looked malnourished because they could not afford milk or meat. The Tutsis who felt superior to the Hutus thanks to the Belgian anthropologists, only made the matter worse until it exploded in Rwanda where the Hutus who were in majority rose up to take revenge on the Tutsis and slaughtered them en masse just before I arrived in Burundi. It was the same in Burundi where the Tutsis took revenge on the hapless Hutus there.

A Spanish nun whom I had known in Mali wrote to me that she was now working in Rwanda so I asked her to leave Rwanda immediately because I could sense that something very bad was about to happen. I could feel the tension there between the Hutus and Tutsis and decided not to work in Rwanda although I was offered a job and went instead to work in Burundi. But it was the same situation there that led to massive bloodshed in these two countries while UN just watched it passively and took no measures to stop the genocide.

Please read my biography .Chapter twelve : The blood soaked hills of Burundi -1988 to 1990 to learn more.

But the first country in Africa where I worked was Algeria that had gained its independence from France only some 10 years ago in 1971 at a great loss of over a million people in their long fight. Today Algeria is a shining example of what freedom from oppression has brought to Algeria in terms of development of the country.

I lived in Sikasso in Mali that was close to Burkina Faso so I used to go to Bobo Dioulasso or even their capital Ouagadougou but the roads were just dirt roads that were blocked when it rained because it was difficult to drive on very muddy road. The villagers lived in isolation in huts made of mud with thatch roof which was just like in Mali but they worked hard to raise corn and sorghum for their sustenance while the Fulani tended their animals like cows, goat and sheep

Please read my biography on Mali in Chapter eight The abject poverty of Mali to learn more.

But I did not know at that time how rich Mali and Burkina Faso were because they had gold deposits and other valuable minerals that the French and Canadian companies exploited and left very little to the country where the miners remained poor and malnourished. It was the same for the poor farmers who worked very hard to grow cotton that the cotton mills run by the French declared of poor quality so gave them a lower price and deducted the cost of seed and fertilizer from it leaving very little to the farmers. It was then transported to France to enrich their economy and its textile industry. I was shocked because the cotton produced in Mali and Burkina Faso was the very best.

This was the pattern throughout Africa where foreign companies got the resources out of Africa to enrich their countries while leaving Africans in poverty

The Belgians were probably the cruelest of the colonialists in Congo where the poor Africans dug out the copper from the deep mines working under appalling conditions that led to a revolt causing widespread violence and loss of lives in Katanga province in the sixties.

You have heard of the history of exploitation in South Africa where the De Beers company controlled all the diamond mines where miners were made to work like animals paying them pittance while the foreigners took the diamonds to other countries to sell and get super rich. The South Africans remained poor while watching the foreigners looting their diamonds and gold helplessly. When they protested, they were beaten mercilessly or killed.

One African king of the Matabele tribe who was very fond of diamonds, sent his people to work in the mines and steal some diamonds for him now and then. So, one day a miner found a huge diamond that he somehow brought out in spite of very tough security checks only to smash it completely before he was caught. He took the stance that if he could not have it, no one will. The diamond was worth millions of dollars when cut and polished.

James Michener wrote a novel on South Africa where he mentioned about the king who was very fond of pasting raw diamonds on his body. He also wrote about the Dutch settlers called the Voortrekkers who later created the apartheid system to prevent the Africans to improve themselves. They were racists to boot and ruled over them with iron fist. It took the sacrifice of patriots like Mandela, Sisulu and Biko to dismantle the apartheid. The so-called Mahatma Gandhi who lived in South Africa also was racist and made many nasty comments about the Africans like they were lazy and subhumans of bad habits.

It is hard to believe that the Bank of England financed the slave traders for the ships they needed to supply the slaves to America. Needless to say, that the bank and the slave traders got enormously rich, but it was not the only bank to do so. Other banks in Europe did the same because to them it was just a good business, so it continued until a missionary like Dr. Livingstone started to raise the issue in England to stop this shameful slave trade. Finally, the trade was abolished but not before several millions of Africans were captured and traded like commodity.

The loot and exploitation of Africa started long ago when the Romans captured slaves to build their infrastructure and used them as gladiators to amuse the Romans in coliseums in their empire. It got worse when Quran told the Moslems that slavery was permitted so the Arab slave traders saw it as an opportunity to make a lot of money. They captured the Africans from the hinterland using extreme violence and brought them out to Zanzibar from where they were sold to the Europeans and others who wanted them. Arab slave traders did not feel any guilt because their Quran permitted it. When the captured Africans resisted, they were given the choice of becoming a Moslem or a slave so the forced conversion to spread Islam in Africa started. Those who still resisted were killed.

Often the African kings or the chief of a tribe colluded with the slave traders to get them from a rival tribe with whom they had enmity. In Mali as late as 1970, there were slaves but finally it ended after a lot of protest. I know that even today slavery is practiced in Mauritania and among the Sahara Bedouins like the Tuaregs who have now become full time terrorists creating havoc in the Sahel.

This gave the French an opportunity to enter the Sahel countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and set up its military bases in the guise of protecting them from the insurgents and the Moslem Tuareg raiders but failed to curb them. Their military helped France to keep these countries in their power so that they could control the economy and loot their gold and other resources to enrich France. I have many good friends in France, but I doubt they are told how their government treats the Africans and exploits their resources.

You will not be surprised to learn how the IMF and the World Bank give loans to poor African countries under the strictest terms in the name of development that push them in debt traps they find very difficult to get out of so they keep borrowing more money. The Western countries use these institutions to keep African countries in perpetual state of poverty so that they can advance their evil exploitation of its natural wealth.

When the American mafia was kicked out of Cuba after the revolution, the American government put severe trade sanction to isolate Cuba and bring it to its knees. This sanction has not been lifted but Cuba is still alive and making progress. Soon it may join BRICS that will expand their trade dramatically. The Americans use the same tactics in Africa. Any African country that tries to defy the Western countries, they threaten them with sanctions and try to assassinate their leaders using fake narratives.

Remember Col. Gaddafi? He was a leader who stood up for the Africans and tried to stop this exploitation of them by the Western countries. He brought tremendous development to his countrymen and made the Libyan currency gold based to be traded in most countries in Africa but the Western countries including France and the NATO countries could not accept it so invaded Libya to kill Gaddafi. They destroyed a rich and developed country so that they could continue to loot its resources. They left behind a ruined country still in chaos.

France has now tried to assassinate Col. Traore in Burkina Faso some 19 times because he has ordered the French to leave his country and stop the stealing of its gold. Niger has done the same thing and now Mali has joined them to become free of the Western domination of their economy and stop the loot. Recently Mali ordered the Canadian gold mining company to leave Mali and confiscated 4 tons of gold from them. Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana and many other nations are now encouraged to protect their country and its resources from the depredations of the multinational corporations that are active in many fields to serve their masters.

If you look at what has happened in Burkina Faso since a bold and pragmatic leader like Traore emerged who is not afraid of France or any other country has certainly showed many African nations that they need to wake up from this long slumber of servitude of the Western interests and use all their energy to bring their countrymen and women out of poverty by developing their infrastructure that creates jobs for them. Traore has paid off his national debt of several billions of dollars that surprised the World Bank and IMF. Now Chad has also declared to do the same.

He has promised that the wealth of Burkina Faso will stay in his country to help uplift the living standard of all his citizens by giving them job opportunities, building 50000 new and modern houses in his brand-new Renaissance city under construction. A most modern hospital has been built where the poor will get free treatment. The farmers are given tractors to plow their fields and use modern agricultural methods to increase their productivity. Traore has built modern food processing factory to stop the waste of farm produce and increase the farm income. Brand new buses are making life easier for the people to travel anywhere in their country at a cheap price.

The Burkina gold is now processed in their own processing plants and numerous such projects that are reshaping the future of Burkina Faso. The new highways, railways to join it to Ghana, new airport, new schools and facilities to bring education to everyone. They will then be trained to work in various government or private enterprises. This is a sea change in Burkina Faso that is well on its way to emerge as a developing country using its own resources that is a first time in the continent that other countries can now follow and make Africa no longer a land of the poor but a land of development and bright future for everyone.

One Indian girl in her teens travels all over Africa alone and makes vlogs to upload to the U tube. She describes each country she visits very accurately and has noticed that the poorer the country, more the thievery, domestic violence and social chaos. This is nothing new. I know that young and not so young people aspire to have a better life in any country but they are desperate because their government fails them to create jobs for them, so they take to thievery, small crime and drug addiction.

When she was in Malawi, she noticed it and sent videos from there. In South Africa, the young people who are jobless become social deviants. Young girls get into prostitution in order to earn some money to feed their family. Others sell illegal alcohol and drugs so it is for them a survival strategy. It was the same what I saw in Burkina Faso 40 years ago.

But now a new day has arrived with a brighter future because one young man called Traore has dared to stand up to the Western colonialists and showed them the door at a great risk to his life, but Africa needs strong leaders like him. I have a feeling that the Africans are now fully awake and are joining hands to make their continent to reach its full potential in the future. Surely, they have to make some sacrifices and work hard to achieve what most Africans thought impossible in the past.

The Western economies that got rich by looting Africa are on a decline because they are losing their ground in a fertile continent that was their source of income and slaves since a long time. But the Africans have stood up to say that they are no one's slaves anymore and are perfectly capable of developing their own countries using their own resources.

I wish them all the success and believe that they will succeed because I know that the Africans are very hard-working people who will bring back their glory days of Kush kings who ruled their empire that once ruled from Meroe to Egypt. Remember that we are all descendants of Lucy in Ethiopia no matter where we live in the world. So, we should all help Africa in our own ways to develop and become the shining continent that it deserves to be.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Mes blogs en français.

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

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Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

How to be self-confident

 

Source: Google photo of Amira Willighagen

Synopsis: A life of struggle to overcome the difficulties someone faces can make him strong and more determined to succeed. This is a cruel process for some people who do not give up easily and continue until they achieve their goal. This process requires self-confidence more than anything else. The blog gives some examples of people who have succeeded in spite of difficulties.

A child named Amira won my heart the moment she appeared on a stage to sing but I was not the only one. She won the heart of millions of her adoring fans all over the world. It was very evident that the child had amazing voice and an incredible stage presence at her tender age when most children hide behind the skirts of their mother.

So, I started to think that a child does not become super confident by herself because behind her stand her parents who recognize her talent early on and gave her all the support she needed. A child grows and develops her personality with the help of her parents first and her teachers in her class. They support her and encourage her to develop her singing abilities by enrolling her in voice lessons and compete at first in local competition and later when she really starts to bloom, they encourage her to compete in regional and later national competitions.

This process of developing self-confidence is a long process where the parents play the most crucial role. Amira has loving parents who supported her in numerous ways so that one day she could reach her full potential. She did not fail them. I could see her confidence the way she stood in front of a huge crowd with her charm, her poise and her beaming face that impressed everyone watching her live on TV everywhere. The moment she started singing, the audience broke out in great applause and the judges stood up visibly shaken at her talent.

People wondered aloud if this child was so talented at this age, what she will become when she is a teenager. They did not have to wait long. Amira has now become famous and appears in many musical events worldwide. I wrote a blog on her earlier called " Nurturing talent" that you can read in this context where I have a video of Amira singing O Mio babbino caro with a famous singer.

Children who are supported by their parents can develop strong and charming personality, so they become self-confident knowing that their parents and teachers stand solidly behind them. The child then starts to prepare himself for any competition be it a singing, dancing or sports. The medals and accolades encourage the child, so his confidence grows but the confidence alone does not win medals and recognition. It requires training and lessons from a professional singer or sportsman.

In another blog, I wrote the story of two girls in Punjab who were brutally trained by their father who taught them how to be a wrestler. He woke them up at 4 am every morning to start running and wrestling to develop their muscles but the girls at first cried and hated the bland food they had to eat but one day they wrestled their father to the ground. They won many matches with boys and went on to become national champions later. Watch the movie Dangal in U tube. It was based on a real story.

Most children are shy at first to speak in public because they do not have the language fluency and the ability to organize the topic in their mind, so they do not like to compete in extemporaneous speaking contests. They get easily embarrassed in front of a large audience that can sense the difficulties the child is trying to cope with, so they start hooting to the point when the child runs away and hides behind his parents. It can be a traumatic experience for a child who has not developed any self confidence that can have a longer effect on his personality later. Such kids become indecisive, meek and shy so they do not like to compete in anything. They become classic procrastinators that does not bring them any rewards in life.

But once you have overcome your fears of facing an audience, you will be unstoppable in your life because you have gained your confidence that will stay with you in anything you want to do. People will notice it at your interview for the entrance to a good college or a job interview later. In your job, your seniors will notice you and promote you because they know that you are self-confident, reliable and ahead of others in intelligence and diligence. But the self-confidence alone does not cut it. You have to be properly trained and be knowledgeable before you compete in anything.

So how do you gain self-confidence? It starts at home where you develop the language fluency. If the parents speak good English, the child also learns to speak good English and hones his ability by watching English programs on TV or listening to English songs that he tries to understand the meaning of. An inquisitive child asks his parents the meaning of certain words so his vocabulary increases rapidly to the point when he or she can speak fluently and with good grammar. It also requires the parents to be literate. The parents who are not educated can hardly be a model to the child so he learns only what he can from his parents.

If the parents are illiterate or have little education, they can hardly teach their child how to develop a strong personality with self-confidence and good language skills so a good learning environment at home is a necessity that a child can benefit from and grow accordingly.

However, it does not mean that a child cannot become a successful person later in life even if he comes from a poor family that cannot provide him the help and support, he needs to develop his learning skills. There are numerous examples of such kids who grew up in very poor families but later became very successful. Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was such a person who studied under streetlight because his parents could not afford a kerosene lamp. Dr. Abdul Kalam also came from a very poor family, so he too studied under streetlamp but later became a famous rocket scientist and the President of India. Mr. Modi is another example who now leads India as the prime minister.

What is required that a child needs is the moral support from his parents but only the moral support is never enough. He needs books and some additional help in subjects he is weak. Tutors or elder siblings can help to some extent. Now some parents provide computer that the child learns from and develops his typing skills early on. A computer does open up the world of knowledge for the kid that can make a kid very educated in any subject or topic.

If the parents cannot provide such tools at home, then there are public libraries where they also provide computers. A classmate who has a computer at home can share it with the kid. Now you do not have to buy a book because you can find it in a PC.

I always bought books from the senior students in my high school who sold it to me for pennies. I also bought books from the bookstores that sold old books at 1/3rd the price. This way I saved money.

In college, I overcame my hesitancy in public speaking because our teachers encouraged me to be vocal in the classroom, so I always answered the questions raised or solved a problem on the blackboard that the teachers appreciated. Other students kept mum and sat in the back bench. So, the teachers play a role in the development of your personality. They enter your name in various competitions and train you to be a public speaker. That way you lose your shyness and may someday become a Narendra Modi or Dr. Abdul Kalam.

Kids who come from rich families tend to be over spoiled with expensive toys at first and later with I- phones and other gadgets before even asking for it so they become spoiled brats and insensitive to others in schools. They learn to brag about money and their privileged life but become back benchers in classrooms and seek the company of other spoiled brats. Girls compare their expensive clothes with the poor but brilliant girl in the front row and show jealousy but are not smart enough to excel in life later on. The poor girl becomes a doctor or a scientist and becomes a successful person.

Some children who grow up in poverty develop a stiff backbone and a desire to overcome their poverty through hard studies with diligence. One boy who came from a very poor rural family in India wanted to become an IPS officer when he grew up so one day, he took a bus to go to Delhi where he could join a coaching class. In the bus he sat next to a woman and fell asleep only to wake up later to find his suitcase stolen by the woman so penniless, he asked for some food in a restaurant and pay for it by washing dishes. A gentle soul gave him the money and the bus fare to go to Delhi where he was helped by another kind soul who supported him in his coaching class.

To make his story short, he went through extreme hardship and earned a little money by working in a wheat grinding mill whole day and studied whole night. He hardly ever slept but kept on trying to pass the qualifying exams and failed twice. On his third and the last try, he passed the exam that was super tough so he was called for the final exam that was a viva in front of a committee that decides who will pass or fail. His clever and bold answers to their questions won their heart so they declared him successful and sent him to the Police Academy where they will train him to be a senior police officer.

As an IPS officer, he went back to his village but found that his grandmother had died who had given him all the money she had saved to fulfill his dreams that was stolen in the bus, but his mother and father shed tears of joy at his success through hard work and diligence. Very few people succeed in passing the exams to become the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer but those succeed are given the top jobs by the government.

I believe that every child needs the support of his parents, teachers and others so that he can reach his or her full potential. Amira is lucky that she has loving parents who have given their complete support because they can. But those who do not receive the support they need, also have the chance of succeeding if they are determined no matter how much the hardship they suffer in the process.

The self-confidence comes from the determination a child has who is never deterred by his failures but learns from it and still continues like the boy in the story above who became an IPS officer.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Mes blogs en français.

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.

In the name of fashion

 

                        Source: Google photo of woman in so-called fashionable clothes

Synopsis : The fashion especially Western fashion keeps changing from time to time that spreads worldwide so we see young and old people blindly following the trend whether it is good or bad. Mostly the bad fashion as shown in the blog below has an attraction among the young people who follow it just to show that they can wear anything they want. Thankfully decent attires still persist in many country where women are proud of their clothes because it makes them look glamorous and beautiful.

I have always wondered why many Western women wear revealing clothes to expose their breasts but now it seems that they are eager to show off their lower parts as well. The photo above shows a woman who has sliced off her pants and considers it as fashionable. Others wear jeans so tight that cuts into their crotch that others think quite fashionable.

I think the stripped jeans in the 1960s were the hallmark of the Hippies who were protesting the war in Vietnam and elsewhere to they ripped off their shirts and pants to show their solidarity with the poor and downtrodden. Later this mode of clothing took off as a fashion statement in many countries, so the clothing industry took notice and jumped in to make money. Now they offer jeans of all sizes and colors that are ripped to make you look poor. Others offer razor blades to rip them as you like.

Recently a woman was showing off her transparent blouse that she was no doubt promoting for a clothing company and suggesting to viewers that her blouse becomes more transparent when wet and showed how to make her look naked.

Source: Google photo of woman in near transparent clothes

Source: Google photo of so-called fashion above.

This blog is about female fashion that varies from country to country and from one culture to another that basically defines their personal choice and their identity. What is considered improper clothes in one culture may be quite acceptable in another so there are no standard guidelines to follow that are uniform in nature all over the world.

If you take the Africa as a whole, you will find women in numerous and colorful dresses to adorn themselves while in some tribes, they go bare breasted but always cover their private parts with mocha which can be a piece of fabric or leather or even made of grass or natural fibers. Their private parts remain private at least publicly. I have seen this in Haiti where women are seen bathing naked in public but do not remove their panties. They still remember their ancestors' African roots.

In other tribes who live in complete isolation in the Amazon forests, in New Guinee forests or in Nicobar or many Pacific islands, women prefer to go completely nude or wear a grass skirt to cover their private parts like in some African tribes. But they do wear colorful jewelries made from seeds or cauri shells and they do adorn their face with colorful paint prepared from what nature provides them in their surroundings. In their own way they consider themselves quite fashionable. In their community, nudity is never an issue because it is a function of the weather that at times may be hot and oppressive.

They are quite comfortable in their nudity because of hot and oppressive climate. Clothes or no clothes are usually a function of climate where people live. So, we see that in cold countries, people wear lot of thick clothing to protect themselves from the harsh climate while in Tropical climates with high humidity and warm weather, people prefer to remain nude or seminude while always covering their private parts to protect them.

Source: Google photo of Eskimo women in colorful and fashionable clothes that protect them from the cold and harsh weather.

Source: Google photo of tribal African woman in colorful and very fashionable bead necklaces but remains bare breasted.

Now let us take a look at what is considered fashionable in some countries of Asia like India where women wear very colorful and exquisitely woven fabric called Saree that they wrap around their body.

Source: Google photo of an Indian woman in a very colorful saree that completely covers her body in a very graceful manner.

Indian saree is a traditional dress that comes in numerous colors and designs or prints that women wear every day or on special occasions like marriage or on social events. They can be cheap or very expensive depending upon the material, embroidery or print but they are always 6 yards in length that covers the body in many stylish ways. It looks so graceful on women that many women in Europe and north America have started to wear it.

Some women in some African countries also wear saree but a shorter version of plain color or rainbow colors. In general, the African women like to wear very colorful gowns or blouse and a wrap around their legs. In some villages, they may be bare breasted but always cover their legs. I have lived in many countries in Africa but have never seen them wear ripped jeans or ripped shorts like the photos above.

In North African countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, women wear very modest plain colored clothes and cover their head due to their Islamic faith. In Algeria, women wear a shiny white or cream colored Shawl to cover their head and the upper body. Only the Berber women who live in various countries of North Africa wear colorful skirts and blouse and some even wear miniskirts but do not wear veil. I have made some PowerPoints on the African jewelries so I will not repeat myself here. You can look up those PowerPoints here.

                                         Source : Google photo of a woman in hijab

In Islam, they have strict dress codes for women who must cover their entire body with a hijab or a tent like black gown leaving only two peepholes for the eyes in some countries while in other Islamic countries like Iran and Türkiye, women wear long colorful gowns but always cover their head with a scarf. One young woman in Iran was killed by the moral police for not covering her head that led to massive demonstrations on the streets against such draconian rules.

In many European countries, you will see women who tend to wear revealing clothes and go about nude in public places like beaches or sauna in the name of fashion. In their culture such displays are tolerated so some women wear very revealing clothes.

Now I will bring your attention to the consequence of women wearing revealing clothes or ripped jeans or shorts in public in countries where it goes against their culture so you will find people reacting in a very negative way and may make abusive comments. A Peace Corps female volunteer who wore tight shorts in India was pinched by people on her massive butt to show their disapproval. They object to such fashion of foreigners who contradict the Indian culture so openly. I wrote a blog called A pernicious influence that you may like to read in this context.

It should not surprise anyone that women in traditional cultures are subject to many dress codes for them to abide in public. Those who do not like to abide by the dress codes in public are reprimanded by their parents and relatives so you will find most Indian women wear saree or salwar kurta with a long scarf to cover their chest. In Rajasthan and other states, women wear very colorful long skirts and a blouse while in other states, the dress may be different but never revealing. Tribal women love to adorn themselves with intricate silver jewelries.

The female fashion is a matter of taste. Those who have good taste in fashion, they wear clothes that make them look good and fashionable. The women in France take great pride in wearing fashionable clothes and shoes in big cities but the rural women also like to dress up on occasions during festivals and other important events like marriage.

Those who look slovenly on purpose do so to make a statement. They say that no one should tell them what to wear so some dare to appear in public in only body paint while people avert their eyes. Their intentional nudity is meant to make a statement that they can do whatever takes their fancy even if it is shocking to some people.

In most countries, the females dress according to their culture, their traditions and their social norms dictated by their faith while in other countries, females may act independently because they are not under control of their parents or anyone.

I have made some wonderful power points on fashion, jewelries, art and handicraft that you may like to see here and share with your friends. Just click on the links below.

Wonderful caves of Ellora and Ajanta

Wonderful power points Part one

Wonderful power points Part two

Wonderful power points Part three

Wonderful power points Part four

Wonderful power points Part five

Wonderful power points- Part six

Wonderful power points- Part seven

Wonderful power points- Part eight

Wonderful power points- part nine

Wonderful power points- part ten

These power points will open up the world of what is beautiful and show you in dazzling photos their content.

Note: My blogs are also available in French, Spanish, German and Japanese languages at the following links as well as my biography. My blogs can be shared by anyone anytime in any social media.

Mis blogs en espagnol

Mes blogs en français.

Blogs von Anil in Deutsch

Blogs in Japanese

My blogs at Wix site

tumblr posts    

Blogger.com

Medium.com

Anil’s biography in English.