Crabwalk - Kraft Durch Freude

Incomplete Work

The Face

See me with all the terrors on my roads,
The crusted shipwrecks rotting in my seas,
And the untroubled oval of my face
That alters idly with the moonlike modes
And is unfathomably framed to please
And deck the angular bone with passing grace.

I should have worn a terror-mask, should be
A sight to frighten hope and faith away.
Half charnel field, half battle and rutting ground.
Instead I am a smiling summer sea
That sleeps while underneath from bound to bound
The sun- and star-shaped killers gorge and play.

Edwin Muir



Hate Story1
Was Konny even capable of hate?Several times he denied hating the Jews. I am inclined to speak of Konny's matter-of-fact hate. Hate turned down low.An eternal flame. A hate devoid of passion, reproducing itself asexually.(page 210)

Wilhelm Gostloff, Gregor Strasser
David Frankfurter
Robert Ley

KdF and Wilhelm Gostloff

Aleksandr Marinesko

Hate Story2

Why does Konny supress the presence of navy in the ship? Desire for an unambiguous enemy?(p 109)

This is the scariest book that I have read because it was so bleak that I was having problem writing this. Then I gave it a second reading. Sounded bleaker than before, then suddenly as it happens in such cases, I am seeing this as a book of hope. I will write a detailed review and post it when it is ready.
The key is Konny's relationship with his father. Tulla's with Jenny.

This book is more about internet generation that is growing without emotional connect with life.  I want to write a true review . Somewhere Tommy from golden notebook will make an entry with Konny and Wolfgang.

6th Sept.

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I have been meaning to write a review of Gunter Grass' Crabwalk for a while. Here is Wiki on this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crabwalk

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Themata--

1.How the perception of the past affects the future is a theme of this novella. The narrator Paul Pokriefke was born as Tulla, Paul's mother was rescued from the sinking Kraft durch Freude ship Wilhelm Gustloff. From history - 

In 1936 Landesgruppenleiter Wilhelm Gustloff (born on 30th Jan 1895), a Nazi stationed in Davos, Switzerland,  was assassinated by the Jew David Frankfurter, hoping to inspire Jewish resistance against Nazis. In his trial, Frankfurter claimed that he shot because he was a Jew and he had no regrets.Gustloff's funeral was attended by the entire Nazi top brass. His wife had worked under Hitler. He was declared a Blutzeuge (martyr) to the Nazi cause and a Kraft Durch Freude cruise vessel was named after him. Thus anti Jewish feelings were stirred and nurtured. Couple of years later, the assassination of a  German diplomat by another Jew provided the pretext for pogrom against jews; Christallnacht marked the beginning of Final Solution. On 30th Jan.1945, Wilhelm Gustloff, then a refugee   carrier carrying over 10,000 people predominantly civilians fleeing advancing Red Army, but there were wounded soldiers also, was attacked by a Soviet submarine. Over 9,400 people perished, making it the biggest maritime disaster of all time,bigger than the sinking of Titanic. 

Tulla wants Paul to write about the sinking of the ship, which he resists as 'If I really have to settle my own historical accounts now, everything I messed up is going to be ascribed to the sinking of a ship'.But surfing the internet he comes comes across a website dealing with Wilhelm Gustloff and Wilhelm Gustloff . It is far right in tenor and Paul discovers that it is his son Konny who is behind the postings under the name Wilhelm. Online Wilhelm is countered by David (Wolfgang Stremplin assuming the role of David Frankfurter)

Konny or Konrad is named after Tulla's dead brother. She finds in him a receptive audience that she could not in her son. 


2. Another theme is the nature of evil. Tulla Pokriefke, who is same age as Grass and appears in Grass's Cat and Mouse and Dog Years as promiscuous evil temptress almost subhuman, is now a woman whose life is permanently marked by the sinking of Gustloff , the shock bleaching her hair overnight. Tulla speaks her mind even when she is politically incorrect as when she claims that the Kraft Durch Freude ship was truly classless and claims herself to be Stalin's last faithful follower. 




3. Internet


Paul, Tulla, Konny, Wolfgang, Stremplins

Nature of hatred as when Konny says in his trial " No, hate played no part in this,My thoughts were entirely practical"

Konny , "Tth classless liner Wilhelm Gustloff was and remains the living expression of nationalist socialism, a model to this day, and truly exemplary for all times to come!"

4. Inadequacy of trials in courts, how they evade the real issues.

5. The tragedy of Stremplins. It scares me.

6. Followers of Konny like Breivik-- We believe in you, we will wait for you, we will follow you.. even when Konny has moved on ..

7. I think it is letting emotions speak the language of morality??? Emotions should be acknowleged and allowed only as emotions??

8.  Fatherless, motherless

Tulla loses her parents in the ship .At 17 she is a mother and doesn't know who the father is. Paul has a mother, who is unable to nurse him (doesn't lactate because of the shock?)
Tulla has a parent figure? in Jenny, her schoolmate  and is seperated by division of Germany.

Jenny - through her Paul attempts to feel some fondness for Mother, unsuccessfully. also "I never did have a father, only interchangeable phantoms

Rain Rain

This year the monsoon has been disappointing. Some rain in the last couple of days. To smell the rain and to listen to some rain songs .


(Some of my very favorite ones--not all are rain songs but ...) Rain Songs    
All are hindi songs. I could not think of any tamil song to match the sweetness of these. But there is a malayalam song - sea song- which is very sweet- music director being Salil Choudhury  --Chemmeen song


From  Do Aankhen Baarah Haath, it feels as if the song will be difficult to sing- but it isn't
       
Lyrics  (It took me several sessions to get the wordings - if they are wrong please correct me )

ho umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata
ho umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata

kare kare badara ki chhayi chhayi re ghata jab sanan pavan ka laga re tir, badal ko chir nikala re neer nikla re neer jhar jhar jhar jhar ab dhar jhare, o dharati jal se mang bhare o umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata

 nanhee nanhee bundaniyo kee khanan khanan khan khanjaree bajatee aayi bajati aayi dekho bhayee
barkha dulhaniya - barkha dulhaniya chhuk chhuk chhuk chhuk sainya, aaja daru tohe galo bainya, aaja daru tohe galo bainya chup saiyan
mai toh nachu tere sang sang sainya, ho sainya, ho sainya ho ho ho
savan ka sandesa lekar nikalee apne ghar se jo koyi isake pyar ko tarse vahi navelee barse kare kare - kare kare badrava ki
jhanan jhanan jhan jhanjharee bajati aayi bajati aayi
dekho bhayee barkha dulhaniya barkha dulhaniya

ho umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata
kare kare badara ki chhayi chhayi re ghata
jab sanan pavan ka laga re tir, badal ko chir nikala re neer nikla re neer jhar jhar jhar jhar abb dhar jhare, o dharati jal se mang bhare o umad ghumad kar aayee re ghata

mithee mithee mast pavan ki sanan sanan san bansuree bajati aayi -bajati aayi-
dekho bhayee barakha dulhaniya, barakha dulhaniya
hari hari chunari saje kaliyon ka kangana baje
kaliyon ka kangana baje man baje
dekho barkha ke akhiyan laaje o laaje o laaje ha ha ha
dekh ke apni barkha rani ki mithi muskan re savan ke dulhe ki dekho chamak uthi hai shan re gori gori - gori gori-
bijuriya ki chamak chamak cham akhandee chamakati aayi chamkati aayi
dekho bhayee barakha dulhaniya, barkha dulhaniya

ho umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata
kare kare badra ki chhayi chhayi re ghata ha jab sanan pavan ka laga re tir, badal ko chir nikala re neer nikla re neer jhar jhar jhar jhar ab dhar jhare, o dharati jal se mang bhare o umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata

rang birangi jholi bharke bharan bharan bhandar re lutati aayi - lutati aayi-
dekho bhayi barakha dulhaniya, barakha dulhaniya dharati ne gathari kholi,bharo bharo apni jholi
bharo bharo apnee jholi anamoli bhaiya khelo khelo kushiyo kee holi ho holi ho holi dhan ye sawan dhan ye barkha dhan dhan hamari dharati sabke jivan ke yeh adhure sapne pure karati dekho dekho -dekho dekho-
ghar ghar hamare lahar lahar aanand ki leharati aayi - leharati aayi
dekho bhayi, barakha dulhaniya, barkha dulhaniya

ho umad ghumad kar aayi re ghata
kare kare badara ki chhayi chhayi re ghata ha jab sanan pavan ka laga re tir, badal ko chir nikala re neer nikla re neer jhar jhar jhar jhar ab dhar jhare, o dharati jal se mang bhare o umad ghumad kar aayire ghata

Emergency Tales

This was a joke that was circulating in Delhi after the emergency was lifted and general elections were scheduled--

Indira, Sanjay and Rajiv are flying in a helicopter over India. Indira asks Sanjay- If you had Rs.100, what will you do with it to draw voters to Congress?

Sanjay replies --I will drop it from the helicopter. The person who finds it will vote for me.

Indira advises -- I will convert it into 100 Re 1 notes and drop it. That way I will get 100 votes.

Rajiv interjects -- I will pocket the 100 rupee note and throw both of you out of the helicopter. The entire country will vote for me.

It was winter of January 1976. The Congress Plenary session at Komagata Maru Nagar had just got over. My father's cousin was a congress delegate. He paid us a visit after the session. Late at night politics was being discussed and I was mocking the slogan that was all over the place - Aapatkaal ek anushasan parva hai - when there was a knock on the window. It was a spy -he advised my father not to discuss so openly - Six months into emergency, already people were being spied on. Those who did not live in Delhi during emergency may not realize how tenuous was democracy then.

It was during 1975 or 1976. We were in school. Our school was one of about half a dozen in Pusa Road. Around 1pm a sea of parents laid seige to the schools as a rumour had spread that children were being sterilized. No social media, even penetration of telephone was low.

 

 

Solar Power

Also look at Nuclear Power


Efficiency of solar energy conversions.

http://www.stratosolar.com/uploads/5/6/7/1/5671050/high_temperature_solar_concentrators.pdf


On midday of Saturday May 26, 2012, solar energy provided over 40% of total electricity consumption in Germany, and 20% for the 24h-day. The federal government has set a target of 66 GW of installed solar PV capacity by 2030, to be reached with an annual increase of 2.5–3.5 GW. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany

http://www.gizmag.com/solar-orc-reverse-air-conditioner/23696/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6c1b0d89fb-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

An empty plastic bottle, litre of water, few spoons of bleach -- that's all that the students of IIT Powai needed to bring light to the homes of slum dwellers in Gowandi.

Inspired by Isang Litrong Liwanag's campaign carried out successfully by the My Shelter Foundation in the Philippines, students of the department of metallurgical engineering and material science decided to bring light to the dingy rooms of Mumbai slums. “We saw the simplicity of the solar bottle bulb and wondered why we couldn't implement it to lighten up slums in Mumbai,” explains the group that worked for over four months to bring the simple yet ingenious idea to life -- “litre of light”.

A Solar Bottle Bulb is a clear water bottle filled with tap water and a little bleach, this bottle is then embedded into the roofs of houses, with part of the bottle outside, and part of it inside. “The water inside the bottle makes the light omni directional, mimicking an electric light bulb. The bleach keeps the water clear for years,” Jaydeep Soni, third year student and member of the team, said.A Bottle full of Light

How to pipe daylight into buildings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube

Don't know why the wiki above says sunlight direct went off market in 2009. They seem to be active
Sunlight Direct

Animus I

..... animus appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he is a helpful guide--C.G.Jung

I was 13 or 14 year old at that time.  I had just started reading the trio of  Koestler, Orwell  and Dostoevsky . To understand what follows, at that time I had morally given up communism but emotionally was still attached to the great Soviet myth. The following dream was the first in a series that ended about 20 years later.—

(I often have dreams where ‘I’ am not Saroja, but stripped of most of my identities, yet usually am a girl or a woman but not always – in this dream series ‘I’ is not Saroja, but still a female. These dreams have a strong mythical tinge) 

I am living in a house with my father.  A man in a red car pays a visit. Father is not at home. This man has ostentatiously come to visit my father, but I know he has come to meet me. He has strong Russian features. This Russian then presents me with a red frock.  I am very happy with the present, go and change into it, but the frock is too short, doesn’t fit and I am pulling it here and there trying to make it fit. This Russian doesn’t notice anything odd and I feel embarrassed and happy at the same time.

When I woke up, this character from my dream had walked into my real life. I had a ghostly presence standing behind me on the right. Right from the beginning, I knew that this Russian whom I called my guardian angel was a creation of my mind. To him I reported every experience of mine, we read every book together, and I was never lonely even for a moment over the next year or year and a half till this experience lasted. I recognized him in the voices that Joan of Arc heard. More disturbingly, I recognized him in O’Brien from 1984. He was a pillar of support, though he never spoke a word. He was ‘dumb’.

Without him I would have never found the strength to fight gender prejudices both at home and at school. Like most people, I accepted gender stereotyping. But I did not feel one iota a ‘woman’. Now, being of scientific bent of mind, I had read about XXY chromosome females. I thought I was one of those, i.e., it was easier for me to accept gender roles and place myself outside it than challenge it. It was with menarche that I had to revaluate everything. At school, boys were not a challenge intellectually, so physically I had to prove myself their equal by outperforming them. I discovered that I had a talent for long jump. Every day I used to practise before and after school hours. World record for long jump was 29 ft something for men. That was my target. My average jump was about 16ft and best was 18ft. I don’t know how all this would have ended had we girls once in an inspired burst of play not beaten the boys in a basket ball match. That was the last match that I ever played. After that I did not long jump either. Guess part of me was tired with all this competitiveness and pure physical existence.  Later in life, I have had running race against men on three occasions and won each time. Last time it  was against my nephews some five years back. Poor guys, their mothers and sisters were cheering for me. At home I reacted to pressures to be more feminine by choppling off my long hair and by dressing up dowdily. For years I was the great unspeakable in my family.

The departure of my guardian angel came with the following dream – I was plucking some flowers from a tree and suddenly a feeling of horror overwhelms me. I realize that my guardian angel was Death personified. He makes an appearance with an axe. In his presence I lose the fear of dying but have strong reservations against being killed by human hands. Then I realize that he is not human. I had accepted death and was calmly walking with him. Then we were walking past scenes from my past. My old school, my friends. I was looking at them dispassionately. disassociated from them. Then my bookshelf and out tumbled a small notebook that I used to have. I lazily flicked it open, and it opened on a page where I had written my excitement at understanding the meaning of a closed universe. Now we were at an open field where I was to die, but suddenly death lost all hold on me and I wanted to live and study. My guardian angel just faded away. When I woke up, the ghostly presence was gone. My life and its priorities became very clear to me. 

Then I came across this poem of Emily Dickinson, which summed it up so well (parts of it atleast)

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Later when I started reading Jung, I came across the concept of Animus and how he also is the angel of death. 

From Wiki on Julian Jaynes

Jaynes wrote that ancient humans before roughly 1200 BC were not reflectively meta-conscious and operated by means of automatic, nonconscious habit-schemas. Instead of having meta-consciousness, these humans were constituted by what Jaynes calls the "bicameral mind". For bicameral humans, when habit did not suffice to handle novel stimuli and stress rose at the moment of decision, neural activity in the "dominant" (left) hemisphere was modulated by auditory verbal hallucinations originating in the so-called "silent" (right) hemisphere (particularly the right temporal cortex), which were heard as the voice of a chieftain or god and immediately obeyed.

Jaynes wrote, "[For bicameral humans], volition came as a voice that was in the nature of a neurological command, in which the command and the action were not separated, in which to hear was to obey. Jaynes argued that the change from bicamerality to consciousness (linguistic meta-cognition) occurred over a period of centuries beginning around 1200 BC. The selection pressure for Jaynesian consciousness as a means for cognitive control is due, in part, to chaotic social disorganizations and the development of new methods of behavioral control such as writing.

                                               

Mumbai Violence

The Hindu
Two killed in Mumbai
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3757117.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3755537.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article3772324.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article3758393.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3772309.ece?homepage=true

Indian Express
Sunday 12th Aug.
antiassam-riot-two-dead-52-hurt-as-protest-turns-violent
I saw crowd tossing cop in the air
flareup cops look at big conspiracy
police probing if violence was a big conspiracy
13th Aug
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/attack-was-planned-say-injured-constables/987548/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/both-victims-died-of-bullet-injuries/987549/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/23-rioters-sent-to-police-custody-till-aug-19/987505/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mumbai-group-got-nod-to-hold-peaceful-protest-of-1-000/987507/
14th Aug
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/uphold-the-law/987898/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/assam-politicians-orchestrated-mumbai-violence-investigators/987830/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mumbai-violence-web-provocative-content-including-gujarat-riot-had-60-lakh-hits/988048/
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pune-attacks-against-northeast-students-too-provoked-by-assam-video-say-police/988047
15 Aug
http://cdn.indianexpress.com/news/what-went-wrong/988587/

TOI
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Two-killed-as-protest-over-Assam-riots-turns-violent-in-Mumbai/articleshow/15449582.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Inflammatory-SMSs-pictures-behind-rioting/articleshow/15469062.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Mumbai-violence-Police-to-examine-riot-footage-captured-by-BMC-cameras/articleshow/15503586.cms

http://www.thehoot.org/web/Why-do-they-hate-us-/6167-1-1-22-true.html
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_deploying-female-cops-to-control-mob-invites-criticism_1728136


While the right to protest is a democratic right, the duty and responsibility of peaceful protest must lie with not just the authorities but responsibility must also be taken by organizers. (Justice Srikrishna in his report on the 1992-1993 violence, had, relying on the earlier recommendations of the Justice DP Madon Commission report that were never implemented, recommended that  deposits need to be obtained from organizers of protests to ensure that damages for any losses could be recovered from this deposit). We suggest that the Mumbai police immediately apply this recommendation.Press Release of CJP

If I remember right, they insisted on this deposit from IAC last December.Here it is

The IAC has to pay the MMRDA Rs 7.78 lakh for using the 20,000 square foot ground at Bandra-Kurla Complex and the 10,000 square feet parking area, and a refundable security deposit of Rs 5.29 lakh. IndianExpress

Of course this deposit cannot cover the damages as in the present case or it would have to be set so high that it effectively rules out any demonstration whatsoever. But the charging of deposit will underline the fact that organizers are responsible for the law and order.

Another version
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/130812-mumbai-It-was-a-case-of-misidentification.htm
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/110812-Azad-Maidan-protest-turns-violent.htm
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/120812-Mob-rages-in-Azad-Maidan.htm
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/130812-mumbai-Angry-Bangladeshi-immigrants-were-provoked-by-leader.htm
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2012/aug/140812-Mumbais-most-wanted.htm

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Patnaik added, "Non-violence is a weapon of the brave."

Known as a no-nonsense man, Patnaik said he was the deputy commissioner of police, zone 7 (Bandra), during the 1992 riots and had seen the repercussions of a protest going out of hand.

"On Saturday, I took a risk and went on stage. Even I was pelted with stones, but I appealed to the seniors in the crowd and reminded them of 1992," he said, adding that had there been an all-out assault by the police, the matters would have further escalated.

Patnaik claimed that before firing at the crowd, the police, as per rule, used tear gas, then hit them with lathis and also fired with rubber bullets.

When questioned about him shouting at Ravindra Shisve, deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, Patnaik said, "I am the head of the family and I can shout at my boys to train them. It was not personal."http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/I-didn-t-want-a-repeat-of-1992-riots/Article1-913313.aspx

Crowd psychology
Herd behavior

2011 UK riots


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-riots-mindless-rioting-highlights-146714
http://croydon.greenparty.org.uk/news/what-we-are-seeing-here-is-mindless-vandalism.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/12/vox-pop-riots
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/19/riots-psychology-crowds
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/

Observations by Edward Glaeser
1. Riots are more common in democracies.
2. The sheer size of crowd can be a 'tipping point': More the people involved, less seems the risk of getting arrested.
3."Most strangely, riots can follow an event that creates a combination of anger and the shared perception that others will be rioting."
4...there has never been much of a link between unrest and either inequality or poverty. In fact, the riots of the 1960s were actually slightly more common in cities that had more government spending. Riots were significantly less common in the South, where the Jim Crow laws were making their long overdue exit. This isn’t to say that many people involved in riots don’t have valid grievances, but plenty of people have serious grievances and don’t riot.
5...the outbreaks typically end only when there is enough law enforcement to ensure that such behavior leads to arrests.....Trying to stop a riot with too small a force can often lead to more, not less, bloodshed, because as the riot continues, vigilantes step in and beleaguered policemen can resort to brutality... Light penalties widely applied and serious penalties applied to a few can both deter unlawful behavior. .. But in the case of riots, it is awfully hard to actually prove wrongdoing and extremely important to clear the streets. Arresting widely and temporarily can be far more effective.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/how-riots-start-and-how-they-can-be-stopped-edward-glaeser.html

Twitter/Blackberrys in London Riots
http://world.time.com/2011/08/07/london-riots-a-blast-from-the-past-or-a-glimpse-of-the-future/#ixzz1USSkcYD1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14452097

Handling riots in Gujarat --

At the same time, it is evident that many police officers and officials in the Executive Magistracy managed even under those circumstances to implement the codified administrative wisdom detailed in government regulations, and were thus effective in containing the violence and keeping the human casualties and damage to property on as low a scale as possible.

From the 26 police districts and 4 Commissionerates in Gujarat, in 11 districts there was no death due to riots, and the casualties were negligible (less than the toll in the previous communal violence in these places); namely in Amrel, Narmada, Ahwa-Dang, Jamnagar, Navasari, Porbandar Surat Rural, Valsad, Surendranagar, Rajkot Rural and Kutch- Bhuj.

In 5 districts, and in the Commissionerates of Surat and Rajkot there were between 2 and 5 deaths only due to violence. The 5 districts are Bharuch (two deaths due to violence), Junagadh (two), Patan (four), Vadodara Rural (four) and Bhavnagar (two). The Commissionerate of Rajkot city had 4 deaths due to violence.

The position of Surat City is quite unique. The second populous city in Gujarat, reported only seven deaths due to violence though in previous communal disturbances, particularly in the 1992 post-Babri Masjid demolition violence, hundreds of citizens were killed. The commendable performance of Surat City Commissioner (VK Gupta, IPS 1977 batch) and his team is in contrast to 326 killings in Ahmedabad city and thirty two (32) in Vadodara city in mass violence.

It is relevant to note that unlike in areas of major genocidal violent incidents (Naroda Patia and Gulbarg society in Ahmedabad City, Sardarpura in Mehsana district, Kidiad in Sabrakhanta district, Ode village in Anand district, Best Bakery in Vadodara City) where large numbers of Muslims were killed in police firing, in Surat City only 7 people died in riots, while 10 Hindus and 1 Muslim offenders were injured in police action.gujarat-genocide-the-state-law-and-subversion-r-b-sreekumar

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Added on 23rd Oct 2012

Jyoti Punwani - Licence to hit and run

Oracle, Conscience, Responsibility

I am going to post extracts  and shall try to understand or link them - I have been trying this for the last 18 years when a series of unpleasant teaching dreams hinted at a connection. I was robbed of my innocence without being granted any compensating wisdom. Am no wiser, but the question has again arisen - How responsible are we for the actions of people around us. How responsible is Cook for Page's action? I mean morally. Misty Page

There are a lot of people without conscience, or rather they project their conscience on other people. People without a centre -- Somewhat like Smerdyakov and Ivan. Ivan knows that he is responsible for Smerdyakov's action. Jung-People develop a neurosis for want of a conscience.

First an extract from Jung about being an oracle
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From C.G.Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections
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It was at the wedding of a friend of my wife's; the bride and her family were all entirely unknown to me. During the meal I was sitting opposite a middle-aged gentleman with a long, handsome beard, who had been introduced to me as a barrister. We were having an animated conversation about criminal psychology. In order to answer a particular question of his, I made up a story to illustrate it, embellishing it with all sorts of details. While I was telling my story, I noticed that a quite different expression came over the man's face, and a silence fell on the table. Very much abashed, I stopped speaking. Thank heavens we were already at the dessert, so I soon stood up and went into the lounge of the hotel. There I withdrew into a corner, lit a cigar, and tried to think over the situation. At this moment one of the other guests who had been sitting at my table came over and asked reproachfully,
 "How did you ever come to commit such a frightful indiscretion?" 
"Indiscretion?" 
"Why yes, that story you told." 
"But I made it all up!" 
To my amazement and horror it turned out that I had told the story of the man opposite me, exactly and in all its details. I also discovered, at this moment, that I could no longer remember a single word of the story--even to this day I have been unable to recall it.
...................................................................................................
1. Did this barrister guy lack a 'conscience' which Jung becomes for him?
2. Origin of torture/confession - can get anything out of an oracle ?
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Jung again - Strong minds oppressing weak - 
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An American colleague sent me a patient. The accompanying diagnosis read "alcoholic neurasthenia." The prognosis called him "incurable." My colleague had therefore taken the precaution of advising the patient to see also a certain neurological authority in Berlin, for he expected that my attempt at therapy would lead to nothing. The patient came for consultation, and after I had talked a little with him I saw that the man had an ordinary neurosis, of whose psychic origins he had no inkling. I made an association test and discovered that he was suffering from the effects of a formidable mother complex. He came from a rich and respected family, had a likeable wife and no cares-- externally speaking. Only he drank too much. The drinking was a desperate attempt to narcotize himself, to forget his oppressive situation. Naturally, it did not help. His mother was the owner of a large company, and the unusually talented son occupied a leading post in the firm. He really should long since have escaped from his oppressive subordination to his mother, but he could not summon up the resolution to throw up his excellent position. Thus he remained chained to his mother, who
had installed him in the business. Whenever he was with her, or had to submit to her interference with his work, he would start drinking in order to stupefy or discharge his emotions. A part of him did not really want to leave the comfortably warm nest, and against his own instincts he was allowing himself to be seduced by wealth and comfort. After brief treatment he stopped drinking, and considered himself cured. But I told him, "I do not guarantee that you will not relapse into the same state if you return to your former situation" He did not believe me, and returned home to America in fine fettle. As soon as he was back under his mother's influence, the drinking began again. Thereupon I was called by her to a consultation during her stay in Switzerland. She was an intelligent woman, but was a real "power devil." I saw what the son had to contend with, and realized that he did not have the strength to resist. Physically, too, he was rather delicate and no match for his mother. I therefore decided upon an act of force majeure. Behind his back I gave his mother a medical certificate to the effect that her son's alcoholism rendered him incapable of fulfilling the requirements of his job. I recommended his discharge. This advice was followed--and the son, of course, was furious with me. Here I had done something which normally would be considered unethical for a medical man. But I knew that for the patient's sake I had had to take this step. His further development? Separated from his mother, his own personality was able to unfold. He made a brilliant career--in spite of, or rather just because of the strong horse pill I had given him. His wife was grateful to me, for her husband had not only overcome his alcoholism, but had also struck out on his own individual path with the greatest success. Nevertheless, for years I had a guilty conscience about this patient because I had made out that certificate behind his back, though I was certain that only such an act could free him. And indeed, once his liberation was accomplished, the neurosis disappeared.
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From The Golden Notebook
A SHORT NOVEL Two people together, in any kind of relationship-mother, son; father, daughter; lovers; it doesn't matter. One of them acutely neurotic. The neurotic hands on his or her state to the other, who takes it over, leaving the sick one well, the well one sick. I remember Mother Sugar telling me a story about a patient. A young man had come to see her convinced he was in desperate psychological trouble. She could find nothing wrong with him. She asked him to send along his father to her. One by one all the family, five of them, arrived in her consulting room. She found them all normal. Then the mother came. She, apparently 'normal,' was in fact extremely neurotic, but maintaining her balance by passing it on to her family, particularly to the youngest son. Eventually Mother Sugar treated the mother, though there was terrible trouble getting her to come for treatment. And the young man who had come in the first place found the pressure lifting off him. I remember her saying: Yes, often it's the most 'normal' member of a family or a group who is really sick, but simply because they have strong personalities, they survive, because other, weaker personalities, express their illness for them.
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It was during the mid 80s and I had not yet started reading Doris Lessing. I was caring for a young woman (though older than me), who was schizophrenic. While discussing schizophrenia with friends, some one raised the question whether it was hereditary or genetic in origin. Then a  friend volunteered info - she knew of a case of identical twins where one was normal and the other was schizophrenic.  Then I had a flash of illumination(?), something as if I had always known and blurted out - "Why, separate the twins, the ill one will improve and normal one will suffer". This friend was surprised and said that something like that actually happened! Now schizophrenia is again one of the most abused/over used terms meaning virtually anything. 

Then I started spinning out a story-I have the draft which is about 10 pages long and was written in a couple of hours- based on two sisters Chhaya and Maya (Maya being the name of a childhood friend) - set in Delhi of 1983 with AP politics in the background and Rajiv Gandhi slowly taking the hues of Sanjay. The story was not difficult to write, based on real life, involving two myna fledglings which had fallen out of their nest that we sisters were taking care of . But I wanted to get the background right, that was the real story, I even went to Centre for Education and Documentation at Sulaiman Chambers- They had paper clippings- Somehow it was not satisfactory. Someone suggested that I go to TOI. But I was very timid then and time has always been in short supply. And I also learnt something about writing process - even when you write entire chunks from your own real life, it can stand for something very very different. I used to be shocked that Thomas Mann could take episode from his life involving his sister who committed suicide for being an artistic failure into his novel Doctor Faustus.   Then I read Doris Lessing. 

Nuclear Power

Nuclear Energy

A Case for Breeder Reactors in India

Kalpakkam

India and Fast Breeder reactors


There may be another reason for the DAE’s attraction to breeder reactors.
This stems from the source of DAE’s institutional clout: its unique ability to
offer both electricity for development and nuclear weapons for security. This
came out quite clearly during the course of negotiations over the U.S.-India nuclear
deal, where in an ostensibly civilian agreement, much of the DAE’s efforts
were aimed at optimising its ability to make fissile material for the nuclear arsenal
within various constraints, especially the shortage of uranium



Nuclear fusion - False starts- recent successes
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20075206-54/a-reality-check-on-nuclear-fusion-at-mit/

http://why.knovel.com/all-engineering-news/1544-new-theory-could-spur-advances-in-nuclear-fusion-research.html

Prof. Rajaraman - http://www.fissilematerials.org/
R. Rajaraman (IPFM Co-Chair, India) is Emeritus Professor of theoretical physics in the School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science and Vice President of the Indian National Science Academy. He has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University (with Hans Bethe, 1963). He has been contributing articles to India's nuclear-weapon debate since 1970 and has been a regular summer visitor with Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security since 2000. He has written on the dangers of accidental nuclear war and the limitations of civil defense. In recent years his focus has been on capping South Asia's nuclear arsenals.
India   Pakistan

And most interesting of all - surpise ! - Russia

Where is Iran? Here!

Defusing the Nuclear Powder Keg

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/nonrenewable/nuke.php
Breeder reactors
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/30/fast-breeder-reactors-nuclear-waste-nightmare

http://fissilematerials.org/blog/2012/08/unprecedented_security_br.html

In the morning of July 28, 2012 three activists from the "Transform Now Plowshares" group gained access to the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) building, which is part of the Y-12 Complex in Oak Ridge. The activistswere able to penetrate the facility's security perimeter and spray-paint a message on the exterior of the HEUMF building. There are conflicting accounts of how much time the activists were able to spend inside of the security perimeter before being arrested by the security guards and whether the intrusion was properly detected by the Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Assessment System (PIDAS).

On August 1, 2012, the contractor that operates the Y-12 facility, B&W, ordered a security stand-down, during which ""all special nuclear materials will be moved to vault-type facilities on site, all nuclear operations will be halted, and contractor security personnel will undergo training and refresher instruction." The stand-down is expected to last about a week.

HEUMF is a new facility that was open in January 2010.

See also http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/

http://fissilematerials.org/library/gfmr11.pdf


Thorium Reserves in India

Thorium ---> U-233http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-233

As far as Jaitapur is concerned - A.Gopalakrishnan - http://www.sify.com/finance/european-pressurised-reactors-costlier-less-efficient-expert-news-default-kmdwuhgagdf.html

http://princeton.academia.edu/MVRamana/Papers/264400/The_Future_of_Nuclear_Power_in_India

People’s Tribunal on the Safety, Viability and Cost Efficiency of Nuclear Energy

India’s Atomic Energy Programme: Claims and Reality


electron mass = 0.0005446623 u
proton mass = 1.00727638 u 
neutron mass = 1.0086649156 u

mass of U-235 =235.043 929 918
mass of U-238 =238.02891 ± 0.00003 u
mass of He-4 =4.002602 ± 0.000002 u
mass of Th-232=232.03806 ± 0.00002 u
Conventional reactor fissile U-235 +slow  n --> products + 2 or 3 n
                         biproduct       U -238 +fast n -->Np-239 -->Pu-239

Breeder reactor Th- 232 + n ----> U-233 
                                   

Mob

Something really weird happened tonight. I was in the bus and the bus was only half occupied. I took out my newspaper and was spreading it out and suddenly the driver applied hard brake, there was confusion and everyone started getting down hurriedly. It seems a man was hit by the bus. The conductor rushed out and suddenly few people from outside entered the bus menacingly moved towards the driver. By now most passengers had got down and I was shoving the newspaper into my bag and was close to the driver. Someone started to hit the driver and I instinctively shielded him. One part of my brain was coolly taking notes and here are the observations.
Initially this crowd asked me to hand the driver over to them. 'usko hamare paas de deejiye madam, usne ek aadmi ko maar dala hai'. I was telling them to rush the guy to hospital. They said the conductor had already accompanied the 'body'.
The driver was standing against the railing separating the drivers seat from the rest of the bus and I was covering him with my body and many blows landed on him and some on me too.
Then some people begged me with folded hands. 'Madam aap usko kyun bacha rahi hain? hamare havale kar deejiye.' Generally people hesitate to touch a woman. The driver was whimpering - 'please mat jaayiye'
Then it became really dirty. First they were pulling away my hands which were clenched to the rails. Then someone started pinching and pawing. I wanted to kick that bastard, but held back because I realized that the moment I lifted my foot, they would get the idea that instead of pulling me away, it would be much easier to lift me away. I did not know how much longer I could hold but I did not want to see someone lynched in front of my eyes
Then some people broke the windows of the bus. Suddenly I could visualize someone setting the bus on fire.
About ten minutes after the accident, then suddenly the mob started running away as a police jeep arrived. There were four policemen. They took my statement. They asked me if the bus was being driven rashly- I hadn't noticed anything, I was reading newspaper. I showed my ID, gave my address and phone number, the driver broke down and finally I came away.
My left shoulder is numb.

Justice Alam

Justice Soni addressed a letter ( and not a PIL which would have made him more accountable to justify his charges) to the Chief Justice of India (who ignored the letter); Here is the text of the complaint
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/101201442?access_key=key-29i70au7u3kc82uopxax


The speech of Justice Alam is here

The Idea of Secularism and the Supreme Court of India

Justice Soni's petition to Chief Justice against Justice Alam raises the following points.

>> He defied his oath of office in delivering The Gandhi Foundation 2009 Annual lecture on "The Idea of Secularism and Supreme Couurt of India" at London.

The oath goes "...that i will duly and faithfully and to the best of my ability, knowledge and judgement perform the duties of my office without fear or favour, affection or ill will and that I will uphold the constitution and its laws". How his speech violates his oath is beyond comprehension.

>> The assertion by Justice Alam that the case of a minority organization Islamic Academy of Education was referred to a larger bench so that the Court may not be bound by any of its earlier judgements and at the end of the judgement "minority rights appears to be considerably restricted and ultimately Islamic Academy was relegated to back and a non minority private college came to the fore" is a direct allegation against the integrity of the Apex Court in general and the Chief Justice of India in particular. 

Justice Alam outlines his speech in the following words "I will try to cover, very broadly three areas; one concerning community based rights or minority rights and how in recent years the Court has tended to give priority to individual rights and freedoms over community based rights; two how the Court has perceived secularism and how in some of its later decisions it has tended to take a mono-culturist rather than a pluralist view of secularism and third, how the Court has tried to regulate the State's intervention in religious affairs and in the process has itself assumed a highly interventionist role."

By community based rights he means the rights as guaranteed under Article 30 of the constitution (Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions) and by individual rights he means the ones guaranteed under Article 25 of constitution (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion)

He then gives an example of a Muslim boy who was expelled from a Christian minority school for keeping a beard. His expulsion was upheld by a bench of the Supreme Court but later another bench of the SC overruled the expulsion of the student.

"This single case seems to exemplify the difficulties faced by the Court in dealing with two competing constitutional rights. ..the first Bench obviously gave precedence to the group right guaranteed by the Constitution to a religious minority, in this case the Christian management of the school. The second Bench, on the other hand, deemed fit, in the context of the case, to uphold the right of the individual, the Muslim boy. This deep dilemma seems to run through the decisions of the Supreme Court on the issue of cultural and educational rights guaranteed by the constitution to religious minorities."

Justice Alam draws attention to Kesavananda Bharati case where the Supreme Court has held that the Constitution has certain fundamental features which are beyond the amending power of legislature even and held that Secularism was one such feature.

He refers to  Re.Kerala Education Bill which came to SC under Presidential reference." In dealing with the Presidential Reference the Supreme Court gave a very expansive interpretation of the right under Article 30. It held that the right under Article 30 was not restricted only to institutions set up for conservation and promotion of culture, language or religion. A religious minority could establish and administer an educational institution of any kind depending upon its “choice”. In exercise of the right guaranteed under Article 30 a minority community was free to set up a primary school as well as an institution of higher education teaching Arts, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences or even professional courses"."There was at least one dissenting voice (of T. L. Venkatarama Aiyar, J.). He took the view that Article 30 was primarily intended to protect educational institutions established for the conservation and promotion of the culture, language or religion of a minority group. Aiyar J. held that Article 30 created a purely negative obligation on the State and prevented it from interfering with minorities living their own cultural life as regards religion or language. Aiyer J. observed: “Now, to compel the State to recognise those institutions would conflict with the fundamental concept on which the Constitution is framed that the State should be secular in character.” "

"The two views directly opposing each other and both relying upon the principles of secularism that were manifested in Re. Kerala Education Bill appear to run through the decisions of the Supreme Court on all aspects of secularism."

Then Justice Alam refers to a recent interview given by Professor Amartya Sen who stated that in 1991-92 the Indian State was over-extended in certain areas and under-extended in some areas like education and healthcare. The vacant space in the two areas was filled up by private investors. A large number of private colleges, teaching professional and job oriented courses came up in different parts of the country. Admission in these colleges were taken without much regard to merits and mostly on payment of large amounts as donation /capitation fee. This development, on the one hand, had caused much distortion in the system of higher/professional education in the country and on the other hand there was growing pressure from the private investors in the area of education to gain legitimacy.

The question arose whether Education could be treated as any other occupation Then the Supreme Court  prohibited capitation fee by any name whatsoever and devised a scheme for admission into private professional colleges in terms of which the private management could fill up only fifty percent of the seats and the remaining fifty percent would go to students recommended by the state government purely on the basis of merit. A question then arose how the two quotas, one fixed in St. Stephen’s College and the other in Unni Krishnan would work out in the case of minority institutions.

It was in this context that reference to the Islamic Academy arose. Let me quote from Justice Alam - "A minority organization, called Islamic Academy of Education brought the issue to the Supreme Court and its case was referred to the larger bench. Here a number of non-minority private colleges also joined the issue who were mainly interested in getting the Unni Krishnan scheme of admission undone. Ultimately Islamic Academy was relegated to the back and Pai, a non minority private college, came to the fore."

"Pai was heard by a bench of eleven judges so that the Court may not be bound by any of its earlier judgments. In Pai it was for the first time the question of minority rights was not considered independently and it got mixed up with cases of non minority private colleges."

Justice Alam does criticize the decision. But then over next three years two more benches looked into the case to clear doubts and anamolies arising out of this judgement.

"It also needs to be pointed out that the three decisions indeed brought about a basic shift in the Court's position in regard to the right of the religious minority to establish educational institutions but the greater and equally significant shift was towards privatisation of education"

We have not yet heard the last word on this with recent SC ruling on RTE. But now it has gone beyond minority rights.

From Justice Soni's petition against Justice Alam

>>Mr.Justice Alam feels that money spent on Hajj subsidies is nothing as compared to millions spent on Hindu fairs etc..
>>Mr.Justice Alam's sarcastic assertion "Amidst all this a majority of Indians honestly believe that they live in a secular country" expresses his wilful belief that India is not a secular country.

Now Justice Alam says "For every Muslim going for Haj, the Government of India spends, from the tax-payers money, a substantial amount as air fare subsidy". He also mentions the crores that are spent in Kumbh Melas and other fairs. In his words (I fail to detect any sarcasm )-
"Amidst all this a majority of Indians honestly believe that they live in a secular country. And they feel quite comfortable in the thought."
"From the random illustrations presented before you it is not very difficult to see the position of religion and the nature of secularism under the constitutional scheme in India. As regards religion, the Constitution of India provided for a model that was already lived by, almost to perfection, by one of the greatest Indians of all times. For, who could be more deeply religious and at the same time more secular than Mohandas Gandhi? The Indian Constitution, unlike the First Amendment of the United States Constitution does not have any provision proscribing the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion. It recognizes religion as a source of law. With a view to protect minority rights, it confers affirmative social and cultural rights on religious groups. It guarantees the freedom of religion but enables the State to regulate religious practices on certain limited grounds."
"Thus under the Indian Constitution secularism involves a plural establishment of religion with the State maintaining a principled distance or, as some call it, equidistance from all religions. The Court is called upon, in a variety of ways, to oversee and regulate the principled distance that the State ought to keep from religious establishments and the nature of State intervention permissible in religious affairs."

As far as Justice Alam's criticisms of Manohar Joshi case( setting aside disqualification by Bombay High Court of candidates elected on basis of 'hindutva' and SC's rulings on saffronization in Aruna Roy case or observations on Shah Bano case are concerned, they reflect the secular view point. As new cases come up Supreme court will have the opportunity to set right many things.

As far as charges levelled against Justice Alam for favouring Teesta Setelvad, Javed Akhtar,etc. less said the better.

Koodankulam and LHC

I got a phonecall today from my 11 year old niece Oviya from Tuticorin. Will an accident in Koodankulam affect them? That reminded me of another call that I got about 4 years back from another niece Tharangni, then 12 years old about the end of world because of LHC. We had a fruitful chat about blackholes and their evaporation. I was able to allay her fears.
Has science become so specialized that a Chemist cannot understand what is standard physics and goes to court over LHC? Have physicists become arrogant?

But what did I tell Oviya? I kept on talking about solar panels. They are going to get it installed in their home.     A quiet revolution is happening in TN aided by power cuts. But I had evaded the issues that she had raised. Now again there are concerns about who foots the bill in case of accident..