S.A.R

“There are many exciting things you could do that are illegal or not allowed by regulation,” Page said. “And that’s good, we don’t want to change the world. But maybe we can set aside a part of the world.”
— Larry Page at Google I/O

Newsflash – Pharmaceutical companies have been doing this for decades in Africa and Asia, Larry. Its called field testing on illiterate human subjects. There is a large part of the world that is already ‘set aside’.

Funnily enough there’s a movie coming out about what happens when you take this thinking to its logical extreme. — ‘Elysium’

Where the planet is ‘set aside’ for the poor to have things tested on, and the rich live separately, with all the good stuff.

The future is Unconditional basic Income, whether we can imagine it or not. Technological automation is going to leave fewer people with jobs and skills, and money is going to have to change its meaning, and work will have to change its purpose.

We can get there kicking and screaming, or prepare for it. These studies are invaluable data points on how behavior changes with access to free money, and helps move the economy and keep activity going….which after all, is the whole point of the economy.

“They told us the men would use the money to get drunk, and the women to buy jewellery and saris,” said Dewala. “But it’s a middle-class prejudice  — The study showed that a regular income allows people to act responsibly.”

An experiment in paying villagers in one of India’s poorest states an unconditional basic income has been successful enough to change the government’s thinking. The village of Panthbadodiya lies 30km south of Indore, in Madhya Pradesh.
The Unconditional Basic Income Study –
Le Monde diplomatique – English edition

I saw these two stories and found it very interesting reading them both one after another.

A Punjabi Show Draws New Canadian Ice-Hockey Fans – NYTimes.com

“I wore hockey shirts,” Singh said, “because then I didn’t have to answer, ‘What is that thing on your head?’ ”

(From the video: “Chak de phatte goooaaalll Joffrey Lupul! Torrronto Maple Putayyy!”)

For every Sikh religious figure on the walls of the Singh home, there is an equivalent picture of (Canadian Ice-Hockey legend) Wayne Gretzky nearby.

 

In Rural Georgia, Black and White Students organise Integrated High-School Prom for the first time – NYTimes.com
(Proms are not official school events, it seems)

But locally, the separate proms have defenders. White residents said members of the two races had different tastes in music and dancing, and different traditions: the junior class plans the white prom, and the senior class plans the black prom.They do not reflect racism, he said, but simply different traditions and tastes.

When he was a senior in high school, in the 1970s, he said, there were separate proms for those who liked rock music and country music.

The question that occurs to me is that when its about changing a culture, adopting a culture, and also preserving a culture – how can one draw the line to separate the three?

All three happen simultaneously, and some people focus only on part of it.
Adapting your culture means expanding it to include.
Adopting a culture means expanding your own to include.
Preserving a culture also means including more to keep it relevant, which is coming a full circle and also Adapting it.

Attempts at self-preservation without inclusion and adaptation = extinction, isolation, or war. It explains a lot.

Savita Halappanavar’s widower condemns ‘barbaric and inhuman care’, and says ‘she was just left there to die’

I cant help but think that if she had been Irish, instead of a foreigner, the jury wouldn’t have labelled it a ‘Misadventure’ – a term that sounds clinically casual – it would have been called  ‘Malpractice’ or ‘Negligent Homicide’.

The nurse said a life-saving abortion wasn’t possible for her since ‘this is a catholic country’. The doctors obviously agreed. She wasn’t Catholic or even Irish.

So they let her die, while waiting to see if the baby was ‘acceptably’ dead first inside her.

As Indians we’re not in a great position to criticize medical care in other countries – our own hospitals have much lacking, and i’m sure there’s plenty that happens which isn’t even reported, But that’s not the point.

Its holding people to the same standard they espouse – and the application of which becomes easily loose with loopholes, when it shows themselves in a bad light.