Ecuador - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So we will be going to this country in couple of months. This promises to be great fun. We will be spending time in Galapagos and Quito and the Amazonia resort over 2 weeks. And we will be driving from Quito to the Amazonia resort. It's going to be quite a fun time. The country seems to have gone through some really torrid times indeed. You can see how the geography of the country has an impact on its politics and history. That's why a knowledge of geography is very important. Whist we shape the landscape, the landscape shapes is much more. I hope you two have fun. Keep your eyes open and observe. This is the first time you two are going to go to a Spanish speaking country in South America. Totally different culture, history, food everything. Fun times. 

I'm totally excited :)

Love

Baba

Ecuador - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador
(via Instapaper)

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For other uses, see Ecuador (disambiguation).

"Equador" redirects here. For the city in Brazil, see Equador, Rio Grande do Norte.

Not to be confused with Equator.

Ecuador (

ⁱ/ˈɛkwədɔr/ E-kwə-dawr), officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador [reˈpuβlika ðel ekwaˈðor], which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator") is a representative democratic republic in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland.

What is now Ecuador was home to a variety of indigenous groups that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the fifteenth century. The territory was colonized by Spain during the sixteenth century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia, from which it emerged as its own sovereign state in 1830. The legacy of both empires is reflected in Ecuador's ethnically diverse population, with most of its 15.2 million people being mestizos, followed by large minorities of European, Amerindian, and African descendants.

All: Everyone wants to be happy. Almost everyone is going about it wrong.

Kids 



Here's an interesting article on how people are responding to their desire to be happy. What it boils down to is that you cannot expect to be happy all the time, material possessions cannot give you happiness, problems do not come and go quickly, everything cannot be perfect, stability is happiness and what your parents say / do is equal to happiness. 

That made me think. I am generally a happy bunny as you would have noticed. Not least because of you two wonderful lovely kids. Even though I keep on saying that you are gadha and lirbire, that's teasing, you two are the biggest reasons for my happiness every day. I hug and kiss you simply because you are lovely, warm, nice, wonderful children. You are happy so that makes me happy. I make Mamma unhappy but that's because I dont listen to her, snore at night and act like a gadha as well :). 

But how do I stack up given the below? So i dont think i am happy when "something happens" and no, Im happy generally because of various factors. So that's at variance with the below. Material possessions cannot give me happiness is right, not really that much interested in material possessions - maybe other than books but they do get consumed and read and digested and and and. And no, problems dont come and go quickly - some problems i have handled all through my life, like my knee or Dadu's illness/health or the charity issues. And no, my life isnt stable, despite all the efforts of Mamma, workwise its always moving around and there is a heavy risk of insecurity / my job going, etc. etc. 

But the last point is important, kids. What makes me or Mamma happy is not what will fit you nor should it. You have to come up with your own reasons to be happy kids :). You can, of course, learn from us but never take our limitations for yourself, kids. Be happy :) dream big, fail, deal with problems, but be happy :) 

Love 

Baba 

  

Vox - All

Everyone wants to be happy. Almost everyone is going about it wrong.  Jun 2nd 2015, 12:00, by Sherry Amatenstein As a therapist, the number-one goal I hear from my patients is: "I just want to be happy." I ask, "What would being happy mean to you?" The answers range from "Everything I wish for will happen" to "I will feel good all the time" to "I won't ever feel sad or disappointed." These patients are deeply misguided: believing that bliss is a permanent, attainable state is both unrealistic and emotionally dangerous. Awful things occur that we cannot control, and that will and should at least temporarily affect how we feel. My happiness-seeking patients are also, sadly, doomed to fail. It's a time-worn paradox: the more you obsess over whether you are happy or happy enough, the unhappier you are. As I've witnessed from years of counseling patients, contentment emerges as a byproduct of a good life, not from the pursuit of it being your life's purpose. Here are some of the most common myths my patients believe about happiness — and how I help my patients move past them. 1) They keep saying, "I'll be happy when..." When Philip (all patients' names are changed) began therapy, his heartfelt belief was it would be impossible to enjoy life until achieving X goal. After achieving X goal, there'd be a brief spike of joy before he sank back into gloom, anxiety, and self-doubt. So he'd set Y goal, hoping the elusive happiness he longed for would follow. More on mental health 9 things I wish people understood about anxiety Grief is powerful. Here are 6 lessons survivors learn from tragedy. The secrets of depression As we worked together, Philip came to realize his hypercritical father, an acclaimed heart surgeon, had drummed into his head that he wasn't worthy of being accepted and loved unless he did great things. Philip told me, "Growing up, getting a single or double in Little League wasn't enough. According to my dad I had to hit a home run to deserve to feel proud and happy." Philip was able to call his now-retired father and say that these impossible standards had left him unable to enjoy life. After this conversation, Philip told me, "Dad was mortified. He said he'd always been proud of me but he raised me the way his father raised him." Nowadays Philip is able to choose goals he wants rather than ones he desperately needs to reach. "Since how I feel about myself isn't dependent on whether or not I publish a novel or get a skydiving certificate, I can enjoy the ups and downs along the way."

Amartya Sen: The economic consequences of austerity

Kannu 

Here is a good speech made by Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winner. And what do I know about austerity, eh? Or economics? Not much at all. I also take his point about how the Allies went too far in punishing the Germans after WW1. Carthingnian levels of punishment. When the Romans ripped out the entire country, after killing as many as they could, they sold the rest of the carthignans into slavery, destroyed pretty much every vestige of the civilisation was wiped out. Not content with that, they literally sowed the fields with salt. Its the last piece which I absolutely admire from one point, sowing the fields with salt means that it will be impossible to grow anything there. There are many other examples. Think about what the mongol hordes did in the various parts of the middle East, they knew that their nomadic and horse borne soldiers were too few to control the teeming millions so they simply cleared them out, literally depopulated the middle east like in Iran and Iraq, this put paid to the development of the Islamic state for centuries. 

You can ask if Versailles was indeed that bad, the desire for revenge is strong but there is a big difference, that was war. And in wars, the losers are dammned. At this moment, we are very nice and polite to the losers, there are ceasefires and there are united nations peace keeping forces and and and, so in the early days, they had total war where the losers did lose out in a big way, but remember one other historical fact. But think about other cases where war happened, yes, war happened but the victors conquered their lands and also wanted to use that land and civilisation, that's why most wars ended up with the life going on pretty much as it was before the war with a small blip as the victors wanted it to, so this example is rubbish 

The other aspect that Amartya Sen missed out was this argument. Fine, you take on debt, but that debt has to be paid by somebody, right? And the key thing is that the repayment has to be made out of productivity gains. Now think about it, where is the productivity gains? Frankly, there have not been that much of productivity gains. And as I have mentioned before, if you bring on debt and use it to do day to day spend, then that's wasted spend. So the question is, at which point in time do you say, sod this, I am not going to take on more debt? Because I cannot pay for this. Think about it, what can Greece do? Say for argument's sake, we remove all debt today. Make it debt free. Ok? Then what? They will again pick up large amounts of debt and will it get productively employed? How? Where? I doubt it totally. So what you do is to stop taking on more and more debt when you know you cannot repay it. You have to draw the line, reduce spending. If you cannot do it right now, you cannot do it later, but you have to start now. Otherwise you are borrowing from your children and both YOU AND YOUR children will be poorer. 

Nobody likes to spend less, right? But this is the question, how do you do it? When you cannot raise the money / revenues, where do you get the revenues? People have to realise that Keynesian economics which expects investment in dire times to help prime the economy so that it will grow. But what Sen didnt answer, what do you do if the growth doesnt happen or the productivity does not happen? You end up with a giant amount of debt and worse even and end up with more problems. What can you do is to then reduce spend and try to make do with less, save money to reduce the debt and interest payments. You have to reduce spend. Adam Smith's equation, have good economic opportunities for the populace and revenues for the state to provide public services. What if there are no good economic opportunities? Where do they get the monies for the state? Its obviously not coming from the populace, so it comes from others (other countries, other companies, other people like other children in the future). So who pays for this borrowing when the populace isnt earning enough? Nobody is asking that question, the emperor has no clothes. 

So you reduce spend, reduce public spending, tighten the belt, train your populace in better education and skills and slowly build back the economy so that it becomes productive again and has a public sector which is sustainable at their level of development and economic poweress. 

Anyway, have a think about it son, its an interesting argument and in this case, I think the general populace understands, you cannot spend more than you have.... 

Love 

Baba. 

Amartya Sen: The economic consequences of austerity 





The judgements of our financial and political leaders are breathtakingly narrow. Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen considers the alternatives. 


by Amartya Sen Published 4 June, 2015 - 16:33 


On 5 June 1919, John Maynard Keynes wrote to the prime minister of Britain, David Lloyd George, “I ought to let you know that on Saturday I am slipping away from this scene of nightmare. I can do no more good here.” Thus ended Keynes’s role as the official representative of the British Treasury at the Paris Peace Conference. It liberated Keynes from complicity in the Treaty of Versailles (to be signed later that month), which he detested. 

Why did Keynes dislike a treaty that ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers (surely a good thing)? 

The Tampon: A History

Quite an interesting topic son. And nothing to be embarrassed about. You'll face this if you haven't done already. From an economic perspective, think about the fact that improvement in handling menstruation for women can help them be more productive. Unlike in countries in India where they are locked up for the duration of their periods. Or they cannot work properly because of lack of tampons or pads or what have you. Truly ridiculous. 

You have to learn to be sensitive about this son. Women have interesting reactions to their periods and men interested in this. Heck there are apps out there which track a woman's periods so that men can manage their behaviour around them during this time. Some women have strong reactions mentally physically sexually or what have you. Some don't. It's a matter of delicacy. Their biochemical balance changes and one should learn about how and what and where. No rules son, you just have to be cognisant of this and be there for your girl. Hugs and cuddles help along with a thick skin. 

This story will help you understand a bit. 

Love

Baba

The Tampon: A History
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/history-of-the-tampon/394334/
(via Instapaper)

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SASIMOTO / Shutterstock / Kara Gordon / The Atlantic

On Aug. 18, 2011, a thread titled “I design tampons. AMA!” appeared on the news-conversation website Reddit. Hosted by a user named “karnim” who identified himself only as a college-aged male research-and-development intern at one of the “big three” tampon brands (Tampax, Kotex, and Playtex), the thread began with a polite invitation to “ask me anything” (AMA) and a disclaimer. “Much of my work is confidential, so I can't give details about my projects,” karnim wrote, but he could answer “overall” questions about tampons.

In the grander canon of AMA threads—online Q&A sessions hosted by Reddit users with compelling life stories or careers—karnim’s wasn’t the most glamorous or flashy. President Obama, for example, participated in an AMA in 2012. But karnim soon found himself avalanched with reader questions about tampon technology, ranging from the curious (“Why don't they just stop making the cardboard ones?”) to the wisecracking (“Can you make medicated tampons to make women stop actin’ fool when they get their menses?”) to the imploring (“Can you please make tampons with a black or flesh-coloured string? Please?” “How about one that you can leave in for 10 hours and not worry about it?”).

Ten hours later, karnim ended his IAmA, exhausted. “Sorry y'all, but it's been 10 hours, and the questions just keep coming. I need a break.”

How John Adams and Thomas Paine Clashed Over Economic Equality

Kannu
Hope your populism essay went well? I was reminded of our discussion yesterday when I read this article on how john Adams and Thomas Paine went head to head. Reminds me a bit of how Gladstone and Disraeli went ding dong. 
But you can see the populism perspectives here in this article. The chancellor of the British exchequer today, who incidentally read history at oxford, plans to resurrect a body last seen during Disraelis time to retire the government debt. 
Fascinating to see how political ideas and economic ideas dovetail. I'm always reminded of the old quote, if you want a new idea, read an old book. 
My search for a university goes on. Oxford is out. Cambridge doesn't allow part time PhDs. Brunel is considering my application. LSE, SOAS and UCL applications are pending. Let's see what happens. I even contacted Kings. I think the problem is that I'm crossing too many subject areas, legal, history, religious law and two geographies. Maybe I have to rethink this through if I don't get admission. 
Anyway. Have a lovely weekend kannu. I'm going for a gay parade this weekend, a 10 km hike. Also lecturing at the King's college here twice on Friday and Sunday night. And there's an MBS lecture on Monday. Keeping myself busy. I'm missing you all and you gadha haven't told me what you wanted from Singapore! 
Love
Baba
  

How John Adams and Thomas Paine Clashed Over Economic Equality
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hogeland/how-john-adams-and-thomas_b_841563.html
(via Instapaper)

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Here’s John Adams on Thomas Paine’s famous 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense”: “What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass.” Then comes Paine on Adams: “John was not born for immortality.”

Paine and Adams may have been alone among the founders for having literary styles adequate to their mutual disregard. “The spissitude [sic!] of the black liquor which is spread in such quantities by this writer,” Adams wrote of Paine, “prevents its daubing.” Paine: “Some people talk of impeaching John Adams, but I am for softer measures. I would keep him to make fun of.”

They went on and on.

The Paine-Adams antipathy wasn’t just personal. Its sources lay in the founding generation’s deep political divisions over economic equality. Those who don’t know there was a founding political division over economic equality can thank the many historians — including even some biographers of finance-savvy founders like Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris — who feel more comfortable with philosophies of government, issues in constitutional law, and (if they get into economics at all) the legacies of Robert Walpole, Jacques Necker, and David Hume than with day-to-day American economic realities, and with the full range of 18th-century thinking from elite to working-class, on monetary and finance policy.

Things John Adams hated about “Common Sense” are revealing. One was the pamphlet’s widespread reputation as the tipping point for America’s declaration of independence from England. Adams thought that was nonsense. The only novel thing in “Common Sense,” Adams believed — and he meant it in a bad way — wasn’t what he cast as its belated, derivative call for American independence. It was what he blasted as Paine’s “democratical” plan for a new kind of American government, which flew in the face of the balanced republicanism that Adams loved. That part of the pamphlet was its only important part to John Adams, but it is often ignored or glossed over in favor of celebrating what Adams thought the pamphlet never did: persuade Americans to support independence.

23 Emotions people feel, but can’t explain

1. Sonder: The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.
2. Opia: The ambiguous intensity of Looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.
3. Monachopsis: The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place.
4. Énouement: The bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.
5. Vellichor: The strange wistfulness of used bookshops.
6. Rubatosis: The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.
7. Kenopsia: The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.
8. Mauerbauertraurigkeit: The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like.
9. Jouska: A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.
10. Chrysalism: The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.
11. Vemödalen: The frustration of photographic something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist.
12. Anecdoche: A conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening
13. Ellipsism: A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.
14. Kuebiko: A state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence.
15. Lachesism: The desire to be struck by disaster – to survive a plane crash, or to lose everything in a fire.
16. Exulansis: The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.
17. Adronitis: Frustration with how long it takes to get to know someone.
18. Rückkehrunruhe: The feeling of returning home after an immersive trip only to find it fading rapidly from your awareness.
19. Nodus Tollens: The realization that the plot of your life doesn’t make sense to you anymore.
20. Onism: The frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time.
21. Liberosis: The desire to care less about things.
22. Altschmerz: Weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had – the same boring flaws and anxieties that you’ve been gnawing on for years.
23. Occhiolism: The awareness of the smallness of your perspective.

Vasco Da Gama's Description of his landing in India

While I was in Manchester son, after finishing my lecture at the uni, I was walking back to the hotel when I spotted a second hand book seller on the pavement. And of course I had to stop and browse. Besides other books, I got two books. One was on Goan food and its history and second was on Portuguese history including what the Portuguese did in Asia and India. 

The Treaty of Tordesillas which was signed between Spain and Portugal way back in 1494 divided up the free world, the Spanish got the west of Cape Verde and the Portuguese got the east. And that blasted treaty signed so many years and centuries back is still causing problems because for example Argentina used that sodding treaty to claim the Malvinas or Falklands Islands. And that Falklands war was documented by professor sir Lawrence freedman, my PhD supervisor. How's that for a link? 

The Sykes Picot treaty dividing up the carcass of the Ottoman Empire was just signed a century or so back. If the The Treaty of Tordesillas is any guidance, the bloody Middle East will be in turmoil for another 3-4 centuries. 

Anyway, the Portuguese were admired for their ship building and navigation prowess. For a minor economy to rule over such a large empire was amazing. But the brutality was also extraordinary. Never before had anybody seen such brutality in the Indian Ocean before and believe you me, there have been some despots. See what religious fervour does to you? 

But this document is fascinating. The riches of India meets the greed and religious fanatics of Europe. But they left behind some exciting architecture in Goa and some excellent food. I'm looking to make some of those dishes. 

Love

Baba

Vasco Da Gama's Description of his landing in India
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/DaGamInd.html
(via Instapaper)

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[Vasco Da Gama, "Round Africa to India, in The Library of Original Sources, O. J. Thatcher, ed., vol. 5 (Milwaukee, WI: University Research Extension Co., 1901), pp. 27-29]

Calecut.

[arrival.] That night (May 20) we anchored two leagues from the city of Calecut, and we did so because our pilot mistook Capua, a town at that place, for Calecut. Still further there is another town called Pandarani. We anchored about a league and a half from the shore. After we were at anchor, four boats (abrades) approached us from the land, who asked of what nation we were. We told them, arid they then pointed out Calecut to us.

On the following day (May 2I) these same boats came again alongside, when the captain-major sent one of the convicts to Calecut, and those with whom he went took him to two Moors from Tunis, who could speak Castilian and Genoese. The first greeting that he received was in these words: "May the Devil take thee! What brought you hither?" They asked what he sought so far away from home, and he told them that we came in search of Christians and of spices. They said: "Why does not the King of Castile, the King of France, or the Signoria of Venice send thither?" He said that the King of Portugal would not consent to their doing so, and they said he did the right thing. After this conversation they took him to their lodgings and gave him wheaten bread and honey. When he had eaten he returned to the ships, accompanied by one of the Moors, who was no sooner on board, than he said these words: "A lucky venture, a lucky venture ! Plenty of rubies, plenty of emeralds ! You owe great thanks to God, for having brought you to a country holding such riches !" We were greatly astonished to hear his talk, for we never expected to hear our language spoken so far away from Portugal.

Clever Girl: A 10-year-old’s advice for surviving Jurassic World

Choti 

I read this article and loved it. Its a review of Jurassic Park the movie. I remembered that you were scared of some movies which we watched at home and thought of sending this to you so that you can perhaps use these tricks. I remember the first movie which scared me. It was called as The Deep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(1977_film)) and it was relating to an underwater treasure hunt and all that. I remember Dadu and Didu taking me to see the movie in a theater when I was about your age. I was scared, i tell you, and i went out to pee so many times just so that i can avoid watching the scary parts like the shark attacks. And that night, i was so scared that I crept into bed with Dadu and Didu and slept curled up tightly with Dadu. So its fine being scared, Choti, we are there to give you big hugs. Also as I said, you can use some of the techniques given below so that you arent scared the next time we watch a scary movie, yes? 

Love 

Baba. 







Yet again Hollywood decided it didn’t need my opinion of a major motion picture, so they screened it after my press deadline. But the man can’t hold me down! Instead of reviewing Jurassic World, the newest entry in the famous dino franchise, I decided to interview a 10-year-old girl about dinosaurs. 



http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-24871-clever_girl.html 

ALEX FALCONE 

Illustration by Allison Kerek 
Alex: Hi, Una. Do you remember me? We met when your dad and I were on a radio show together. You and I ate doughnuts backstage. 

Una: Ummm. 

Alex: There was a dog there. 

Una: Oh yeah! I don’t remember you, but I know there were people there. 

Alex: That’s OK. I’m forgettable. Anyway, your dad said you’re excited about the new Jurassic Park movie? 

Una: Yeah! I’ve seen the previews for the other ones, and they weren’t as good quality because they were made a long time ago. I’m really excited about the scene where the sea-dinosaur totally owns that shark. That looks aaawesome. 

Alex: So does it seem scary at all? 

Una: Ummm…I guess. 

Alex: Which part? 

The Contradictions of Ballerinas

Choti

Another article on ballet and ballerinas. 

I love seeing you dance. It's ethereal and you look like a wisp of wind. Beautiful and planned and drifting to a rhythm that only you can hear. 

And no question of your strength choti. You're a very strong girl. I see your discipline and systematic way of dealing with everything. I'm very impressed by that. 

Love

Baba


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Blogtrottr" <busybee@blogtrottr.com>
Date: 2 January 2017 at 3:32:59 pm GMT
To: madcapmagician@yahoo.com
Subject: JSTOR Daily: The Contradictions of Ballerinas

JSTOR Daily where news meets its scholarly match

The Contradictions of Ballerinas Jan 2nd 2017, 13:02, by Erin Blakemore Are ballerinas strong or fragile, gritty or ethereal? A look at the soaring, strong dance of a Misty Copeland or another prima ballerina brings all of those tensions into soaring, toe-shoed focus. And when dance historian Jennifer Fisher faced her own feelings about a tutu, she came to realize that ballerinas are a study in complex contradictions. When Fisher gave a tutu to her three-year-old goddaughter, she had to confront her mother's fear that the garment would seduce her into the dark side of dance. The dangers of ballet—from physical injury to exploitation, eating disorders and more—are all too well known, but after her conversation with her friend, Fisher realized that it was worth investigating how society interprets the ballerina. As ballet and society evolve, perhaps new interpretations of ballerinas can emerge. Ballerinas have long made feminists both uneasy and excited, embodying fulfillment and the shackles of feminine performance. Fisher acknowledges the gender imbalances within dance; while the field is dominated by women, it is still largely directed and choreographed by men. On the other hand, cultural theorists have found strength within ballets themselves—stories of agency and independence that are enacted by women, for women. Fisher then discussed ballet with ten women who, though their ages, races, and socioeconomic status varied, had "a strong relationship to ballet." For these women, everything from pointe shoes to the princess-like roles ballerinas play on stage were deeply evocative. Though some of the women viewed ballerinas as part of a system that has largely negative effects on women, others found empowerment in their dance. For most observers, there's a tendency to want to see ballerinas in either/or terms. Their "strength is either masked or evident," Fisher writes. "…she is either frilly or powerful…she is either in charge or swooning in someone's arms." But as ballet and society evolve, suggests Fisher, perhaps new interpretations of ballerinas that acknowledge both their agency and their anguish can emerge. Fisher's goddaughter didn't get seduced by her tutu—rather, she tried out dance but eventually quit it during her teen years. "She stayed with it…until she won her pointe shoes and found out what it was like to consider satin and tulle as tools—voluptuously deceptive but rewarding tools that she masterfully learned to use." Copeland said it best, declaring that her body's "strength and grace enabled [her] to pursue her passions." Perhaps it's that very tension between strength and sublimity that still makes dance so compelling. As ballet evolves and dancers like Misty Copeland change our conception of what a ballerina can be, perhaps that arsenal of tools/tulles will grow and change even further. The post The Contradictions of Ballerinas appeared first on JSTOR Daily.

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