The Loots of the World on exhibition

The Treasures of the World from the British Museum is now on display at the National Museum. A collection of 239 pieces or rare and ancient objects of art and lifestyle of civilizations from around the world will be on show till 29 May 16. Some of the pieces are 800.000 years old. Many of the artefacts are from Europe, Middle East, Africa and even South East Asia. The many attractions include mummies from Egypt.

The collection must be worth a fortune today. The British are great collectors and must have paid handsomely for them I am sure. Some may question if they are the loots of the British Empire, taken from the colonies when Great Britain ruled the world. If so, the cost of collecting these historical artefacts must be quite economical, like got it for a song. Some may wander, if these are the loots, would the British Museum return them to their rightful owners or when would they be returned.

The fact that the British Museum are exhibiting them openly means that these objects must not be loots but acquired legally or bought legally. The British Museum would not be so arrogant nor have the audacity to exhibit them if they were not acquired through proper means.  Singapore’s Asian Civilisation Museum recently returned a piece of their collection to India when they discovered that it was a loot or a stolen piece. Many countries have started to return the loots that they stole from their former colonies or loots they took by forced or by deception or by theft. There is now a new morality, to return stolen objects of art or loot to their rightful owners. The biggest piece of such object is the continent of North American that the indigenous people are demanding for its return and the matter has been raised at the United Nation.

When would all the loots be returned by the thieves of the past, by the ex colonialists?

San Bernardino – It’s all coming back home now

The American govt was in a state of denial on the killings in San Bernardino by a heavily armed man and a woman in combat uniform. Not sure if it was anything else but a terrorist attack. The assault rifles, handguns, bombs, fake bombs, explosive devices and the name, Syed Rizwan Farook  and Tashfeen Malik did not ring any bell. Could be just two disgruntled employees. Ok believe whatever you like, it is anything but terrorism. Happy?

Obama was quoted to have said this by CBS News, ‘The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world…’ So, what is it? Finally they had to admit that it was nothing else but a terrorist attack, something they brought it upon themselves.

It is all coming back now. The wars the Americans are conducting in the Middle East, the killings of Arabs and Muslims for whatever reasons the Americans in Washington and the Pentagon think fit and reasonable, are coming back to American soil now and will only get more frequent and worse. You can kill some people some of the time. But you cannot kill all the people all the time. They will get wiser and will come back after you, in your homeland, in your home town, in your streets.

The war has arrived in home ground, like it or not. The protagonists will use the cheapest way to inflict as much damage to the Americans as they could.  Incidents like what happened in San Bernardino will be a morale booster to the Arabs and Muslims who have had enough of American bombings, killings and terrorizing their countries.  The man and woman, called them terrorists if that makes the Americans feel better, will be seen as warriors, as martyrs. This terrorist act will be seen as a heroic act against the invaders in their countries.

This is new warfare, asymmetrical warfare, no war zone, no boundaries, no front line, no battle field. It can happen anywhere, right in the heart of New York or Washington or any town or city in the USA.  This will be the new normal as long as the Americans think it is convenient and normal to conduct wars in other people’s countries and to kill people with no qualms or conscience or remorse. It’s ok, they can’t get back at us! Sure they can and they would.

It is like winter, let is snow, let it snow. The Americans must know that they cannot go around starting wars and killing people and think that it is safe to do so, that they can go home and be safe in America, sleep well as if nothing happens. And the next morning go to Walmart to do some marketing and tuck in the beef steak in the pub when the sun goes down. The war is still going on in the Middle East and the Arabs are still being bombed and killed every morning, every night. The GIs could switch on and switch of like going to a movie for some excitement.

Japan’s remilitarisation – A gamble the Americans going to regret

In its obsession to contain the rise of China as the next superpower in Asia, the Americans are pulling out all stops to block and contain China. It has reached a point that it has to use its last trump card, a militarized Japan. The memory of Pearl Harbour is forgotten or swept under the carpet. A militant Japan is a safer bet that a mammoth China that is bigger than the USA in many ways. Is this a sound premise?

Historically China has never been a threat to the Americans or Europe in any way. It was the Americans and the Europeans that invaded, ransacked and looted China to the point of turning China into a semi colony. And during the Second World War China was a closed ally of the American led allies fighting Japan. Since China’s recovery as a normal nation and pursuing economic growth, it has worked closely and interdependently with the Americans for mutual benefits. The Americans helped to train and educate hundreds of thousands of Chinese engineers and scholars that would think more like the Americans in many ways, and they have returned to rebuild a modern China. They could only have good feelings of America from the education and living in America. In many ways, China is turning into a mirror image of the USA.

What was the history of Japan with the USA? Japan was forced to open up by the Americans. They learnt fast. Industrialized, militarized and challenge the West for world domination. They dealt a devastating blow to the American naval power when they attacked Pearl Harbour. They fought the Americans viciously in for supremacy in the Pacific Oceans. The Japanese were only tamed by the two Atom Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And they were rightly bottled up not to make mischief again by the Americans in a Pacifist Constitution and with many military bases in Japan presumably to protect Japan against a China and Korea threat. The real intent, to control Japan and to prevent a repeat of history.

Now the Americans are releasing this monster from the bottle to be used against China. The Americans believed the Japanese are the tame tiger they could control and use as they pleased. The Japanese obliged, bowed and bowed, yes boss, we will do your bidding, we will fight China.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his right wing ministers are now in charge and playing up Japanese militarism and nationalism. Japan would be the same Japan before the defeat by the Americans in WW2. Japan would rearm and be as powerful and glorious as before. The Americans are very happy with Abe’s anti China policy and his gungho style, to take on China militarily and forcefully.

In this madness, the Americans are fully behind Abe to abolish the Pacifist Constitution so that Japan can engage in wars all over again.  What is the real intent and objective of Abe? According to Naoko Kumada, a research fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Abe’s real intent and ambition are reflected in his book, Towards A New Country. In the book Abe explained the meaning of ‘The use of the right to collective self defence’…ie  for Japan to ‘become an equal of the US, rather than a subordinate’. And in the case of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, ‘there is no room for negotiation…only physical force is needed’. That is the real Abe, a strong believer of the use of military force.

The creeping changes to the pacifist Constitution and remilitarization of Japan is pushing Japan to a state it was before the Second World War. The role of the Emperor as the head of state has been resurrected, backed by the Army and with the Prime Minister as the Commander in chief. Japan is returning to its pre war stature and organization.

What would this hold for the Americans? Would the Japan of Abe return to his grandfather’s stance, to hold wild ambition to conquer the world, to turn against the Americans once again? Would there be a repeat of Pearl Harbour? Would the Americans be moved out of the military bases in Japan? With the rising tide of nationalism, the calling to rule the world, with the painful memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bombing of Tokyo, would the Japanese forget and forgive the Americans for these attacks on Japan?

Would the Americans awoke one morning to see Japanese planes all over America just like in 1941?

Singapore to blame for Chennai flood

Chennai is hit by the worst flood in a century. Thousands are injured and the death toll hit 269 and rising. Millions of people have been cut off from basic services. The army has been put on a war footing. According to Agencies report, ‘Chennai has become a small island. This is unprecedented,’ said Home Minister Rajnath Singh. A Madrash University professor said, ‘It is shocking to see how (Chennai) has collapsed in the last 48 hours.’ ‘Experts said haphazard construction, faulty drainage and build up of rubbish contributed to the flooding.’

According to a CNA news reporter in Chennai, the problem is man made. They forgot to work on the drainage system with all the construction and economic activities in Chennai. And Modi is blaming on climate change.

Why would I say Singapore is to be blamed for the flood inn Chennai? The answer, most of the flood and irrigation/drainage experts are now in Singapore, working in Singapore. That’s why Singapore has no flood but Chennai got flood. We have taken all their experts as foreign talents here.

It is time Singapore returns India the favour, send the Indian experts working here to India and do something for India. They can come back to their well paying jobs here when they have helped India and Chennai with their irrigation/drainage and flood problems.  The flood problem in Singapore is already solved. No longer a once in 50 years problem. Now with the contribution of the Indian experts it may be once in 100 years or never again.

Let’s do something for Chennai first. Hold your fire on building 100 smart cities. Take care of the flood and drainage problems first.

Two bad wishes of the West that backfired

The world is not so inter related and interconnected that it is working more like a complete system with inter joining and connected parts that when one part moves or fails to move, other parts will be affected and the whole system could wind down and become dysfunctional. The first bad wish and designed by the Americans with the full support of its allies is to keep the Middle East on fire, in a constant state of warfare. This would keep the Arabs and the Muslims tied down in a counter productive pursuit that is only self destructing. All the countries and people in the region would be bogged down, trapped in war economies that become dysfunctional, instead of peace and stability, instead of building a thriving economy, instead of educating their children in schools, their people in employment, these normal daily activities are now in a flux. 

On the other hand, other than imprisoning these countries and people and condemning them to daily hardship and stagnation, death and injuries, in perpetuity, the western world are profiting from their destruction and miseries.  They keep encouraging them to fight, to kill each other, agitate them to go after one another, pulling regimes down and changing new and equally ineffective ones, and selling them weapons of war and the badly needed food and medicine and essentials of life. It is so pathetic to see these countries being manipulated to self destruct and lost in the quagmire without knowing what is happening and who is behind their tragedy.

The only good thing about this bad wish is that the disease will spread to the originator of this crime against the people of the region. It’s all coming back now. The flood of refugees have begun and Europe is the first recipient of the exodus. And Europe will pay a heavy price for bringing about or being accomplice to the war torn region. The refugees are coming for their compensation for destroying their homes and countries. When they crippled Europe, the Americans would no longer have the European allies to answer their becks and calls and to do their dirty work, killing people all over the world.  The Americans and the West must pay for the sin against the people and countries in the Middle East. The pain and suffering cannot be isolated and will spread across to Europe and North America. It is happening now in the streets of America, with people being gunned down by terrorists. The latter called themselves freedom fighters.

And the Americans are demanding the BRICS countries to do more to help the refugees. Why should they when the Americans and the West are the instigators and provocateurs of this crime against humanity in the name of freedom and democracy? What you sow you shall reap. The BRICS countries shall watch as the retribution of evil deeds seeks justice when justice needs to be done.

The second evil wish of the West, the collapse of China and the Chinese economy. They failed to see how inter related and inter connected is China to the western world and the rest of the world. When the factory of the world stops producing or winds down its production, the upstream and down stream industries and countries will be equally affected. Australia is the first to feel the pinch when China cuts down its import of raw material from Australia. Whole industries will close down and people go jobless. The cheap products would trickle into the consumer nations and prices will soar. China’s Yuan will depreciate, and there will be lesser demand for T Bills. China may start to sell the T Bills to convert to cash. The Americans would need to print more fiat currencies to buy back their debt. There will be less high spending Chinese tourists to share their wealth in tourism related industries and countries. In other words, all things will wind down accordingly.

Who will benefit from this bad wish? Or who will be the ultimate losers? There are many western corporations and manufacturers in China producing goods and services for the Chinese and the rest of the world. Apple would have to find new and cheaper sources of production to make their IPhones. Maybe not necessary as the demand would be down as well. The falling demand will sweep across all industries and countries.

If this bad wish comes true, no one will be left untouched. The richer nations of the West are likely to be affected more as they are the producers and the big consumers of goods and services.

Do not wish other’s ill or beggar thy neighbours. The whole world is now one economy. Have a better Christmas wish.