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- Svengali syzygy hegemon repugnant white nationalist, white supremacist
Definition of accoutre
accouteringplay \-ˈkü-tə-riŋ, -ˈkü-triŋ\
transitive verb
: to provide with equipment or furnishings : outfit
Examples of accoutre in a Sentence
hikers accoutred with walking sticks, water bottles, trail maps, and compasses
Origin and Etymology of accoutre
borrowed from French accoutrer, going back to Middle French acoutrer, acoustrer, going back to Old French acoutrer "to put in place, position," perhaps going back to Gallo-Romance *acconsūtūrāre "to sew together, mend," from a-, prefix forming transitive verbs (going back to Latin ad- ad-) + *consūtūra "sewing, seam" — more at couture ◆If the etymon behind accoutrer is *accō(n)sūtūrāre (>*accōs(ŭ)tūrāre?), the sense development is presumably from "sew together, mend" to "prepare, trim, adorn." The phonetic development is more difficult; the assumption is that the tonic form would be *acostur (1. singular) and the weak form nous acostrons, with the weak form being generalized throughout the paradigm. The longer form is evidenced in 13th-century racousturer, "to stitch up (a wound), mend (a garment)" (unless this verb is built independently on cousture). Such a development is possible, but it has been pointed out that verbs derived from nouns in -ūra tend to preserve the -ū-: amesurer, afaiturer, empasturer (though most such verbs clearly do not date back to earlier Gallo-Romance or Vulgar Latin). An alternative explanation sees accoutrer as a derivative of coutre, "coulter, blade (of a plow)," in which case the -s- in acoustrer would be hypercorrection ([s] in this position having disappeared by the 14th century); but the semantic development of such a verb is hardly transparent.
First Known Use: 1533See Words from the same year
Synonym Discussion of accoutre
Learn More about accoutre
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text: Juvap voiced Princess Lyndsay Born March 29 1994 (age 17) Retrieved from "http://princesslyndsayandtheclassicfairytales.wikia.com/wiki/Emma_Juvap?oldid=3951" Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you've made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Categories: Voice Actors Add category Cancel Save

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Infiniti Custom Homes, Inc.
River Bluffs
7974 Ella Terrace Drive, Rockford
Infiniti Custom Homes is proud to present 7974 Ella Terrace, an elegant craftsman style ranch. This award winning design/build team created this floor plan from the homeowners request to fulfill the needs of their lifestyle and...View this listing
Eagle Creek Homes LLC
Summerset Meadows
6548 Summerset Meadows Drive, Rockford
Eagle Creek Homes proudly presents their Summerset Meadows 2017 Parade Home. As you approach the award-winning Taylor home design; you realize the pleasant air of the modern farmhouse styling. This home plan has it all. A mud...View this listing
VanDussen Home Services LLC
Bostwick Lake
6824 Kitson Drive, Rockford
You will love this modern, 2 story home, 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bath home with, 2 decks, and a metal roof located on Bostwick Lake. The open floor plan provides views of the lake from every room in the home, it is the perfect...View this listing
Miles Builders LLC
7171 11 Mile Road NE, Rockford
This open plan ranch home, has all the room you need for a family and entertaining. It is modern in appearance, but has touches of rustic that gives it a unique character. The home is set on a nice private wooded lot just...View this listing
Sable Homes
Crowning Acres
11006 Crowning Acres Court, Rockford
Sable Homes is proud to present our Charlotte model nestled among trees on 2.83 acres. Breathtaking views from this 3500+ sq ft walk-out home on the Cul-de-sac! Home boasts 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and plenty of living space...View this listing
Muston Construction, Inc.
7665 Scott Valley Court, Rockford
If you like rustic design accents mixed with modern features, you will want to visit our Spring Parade Home. • 2-story high stone fireplace • Rustic decorative ceiling trusses • Reclaimed wood wall accents • Reclaimed barn door...View this listing
Eastbrook Homes
Wolven Ridge
3468 Wolven Ridge, Rockford
The Sebastian Over 3335 sq. ft of quality craftsmanship in the exclusive community of Wolven Ridge Wolven Ridge features larger, wooded home sites in Rockford schools Designer kitchen with large island, huge pantry and stainless...View this listing
56 West Homes & Design LLC
7450 Rainbow Lane, Rockford
56 West welcomes you to The Fresh Farmhouse, located in the Rockford area. This custom home offers so much for a young and busy family that is full of fun and life. This walkout home has many amazing amenities, with fully custom...View this listing
Berghuis Construction LLC
River Bluffs
7623 Luca Vista, Rockford
Overlooking a windy section of the Rogue River in a fly fisherman's paradise, is this contemporary modern home. Designed by Lucid Architects, it takes full advantage of the views atop the bluff. This home built by Berghuis...View this listing
Heartland Builders LLC
6629 Knockadoon, Rockford
Heartland Builders welcomes you to a beautiful classic ranch home designed for the empty nester featuring the quality, craftsmanship, and customization Heartland Builders is known for: • Bright sun room with paneled cathedral...View this listing
Engelsma Homes LLC
River Bluffs
7881 Ella Terrace Dr. NE, Rockford
Engelsma Homes invites you to experience the quality in craftsmanship and design that makes our brand of homes so unique. Just minutes from downtown Rockford, this beautiful ranch home is located on a spacious lot overlooking...View this listing
Scott LaMaire Custom Homes
6173 Gaelic Court, Rockford
Nestled perfectly in the peaceful pines lies another Scott LaMaire Custom Home, built with the finest materials and distinguished quality craftsmanship. •Stunning gourmet kitchen made for entertaining •Living and dining area...View this listing
J. Peterson Homes LLC
Bostwick Lake
6783 Sunset Cove, Rockford
J. Peterson Homes is pleased to present this gorgeous Visbeen designed Bostwick Lake home. Built on a quiet cove, this shingle style home will redefine the art of gracious lakefront living. The relaxed exterior of the home...View this listing
Heartland Builders LLC
River Bluffs
7941 Ella Terrace Dr., Rockford
Heartland Builders welcomes you to Ella Terrace. This spaciously stunning executive home features the quality, craftsmanship, and customization Heartland is known for: • Spacious great room featuring 12' ceiling, large windows,...View this listing
Engelsma Homes LLC
River Bluffs
7611 Luca Vista, Rockford
Engelsma Homes invites you to experience the quality in craftsmanship and design that is visible in all of our homes. This beautiful home is located on a wooded lot in the desirable community of River Bluffs, just minutes from...View this listing
Eastbrook Homes
Wolven Ridge
3421 Wolven Ridge Dr., Rockford
The Newport •Over 3400 sf of quality craftsmanship in the NEW exclusive community of Wolven Ridge. •Designer kitchen with large island, huge pantry and stainless steel exhaust hood. •Sunny family room with bank of windows...View this listing


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- published: 17 Jun 2009
- views: 12169706
"How Come" is a song by the American rap group D12. It was released in June 2004 as the second single from their second album D12 World. The song was certified Gold by the RIAA.
The song is about the tenuous relationship between the members of D12, for the most part Proof and Eminem.
The video depicts members of D12 fighting with Eminem in the Shady Records studio. It shows a detailed strain on the members relationships. They discuss how Eminem rose to stardom, and they can't get a deal. They envy Eminem, but he doesn't think there is anything to envy, the song ends, leaving people wondering, with the members dissatisfied. In the second verse of the song, Kon Artis talks about a time when he claims to have seen Eminem's girlfriend Kim cheating on him. The video ends with a clip of another song from D12 World, "Git Up". The beginning also shows a home video of Eminem rapping at an underground show with Proof and Bizarre.
^ This is an extended version of the song, containing Swifty McVay and Bizarre's verses, which were cut off the album version.
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known by the pseudonym Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.
Music video by D-12 performing How Come/Git Up. (C) 2004 Shady Records/Interscope Records
off the full circle album
Alicia Keys' official music video for 'How Come You Don't Call Me'. Click to listen to Alicia Keys on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/AKeysSpot?IQid=AliciaKHCY As featured on Songs In A Minor. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/AKeysSIAMiTunes?IQid=AliciaKHCY Google Play: http://smarturl.it/AKeysDCMplay?IQid=AliciaKHCY Amazon: http://smarturl.it/AKeysSIAMamz?IQid=AliciaKHCY More from Alicia Keys Girl On Fire: https://youtu.be/J91ti_MpdHA No One: https://youtu.be/rywUS-ohqeE If I Ain't Got You: https://youtu.be/Ju8Hr50Ckwk Follow Alicia Keys Website: http://www.aliciakeys.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliciakeys Tumblr: http://thekeysofalicia.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliciakeys Instagram: https://instagram.com/aliciakeys/ Subscribe to Al...
Babyface's official music video for 'How Come, How Long'. Click to listen to Babyface on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/BabyFSpotify?IQid=BabyFHCHL As featured on Babyface: A Collection of His Greatest Hits. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/BabyfaceGH?IQid=BabyFHCHL Google Play: http://smarturl.it/HCHLGPlay?IQid=BabyFHCHL Amazon: http://smarturl.it/Babyfaceamazon?IQid=BabyFHCHL More From Babyface Every Time I Close My Eyes: https://youtu.be/GbrSO81KhBY When Can I See You: https://youtu.be/Ee9SCW91urE Whip Appeal: https://youtu.be/fh5ejGUTGAo More great Classic RnB videos here: http://smarturl.it/ClassicRNB?IQid=BabyFHCHL Follow Babyface Website: http://www.babyfacemusic.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Babyface Twitter: https://twitter.com/kennyedmonds...
I being look for a DVD version of this video so i found it
How come you always wind up changing your direction?
How come you always end up dancing through the room?
How come you always never wanna use protection?
How come you're floating like a helium balloon?
I can't keep up
You're moving too fast
I got to know
Is this gonna last?
Coz I can't tell whether you're up or you're down
This whole situation is spinning me round
Spinning me round
Spinning me round
How come you always end up changing your intentions?
How ocme you always wind up blowing hot and cold?
One minute honest then you're full of false pretension
Head in the clouds but still you're desperate to control, to control
I just don't know what to believe
You build me and then you bring me down on my knees
You say you want me
Then you're up and you're gone
I got to know just where you're coming from
Coming from, where you're coming from
I got to know before it's over
One way or the other
If you're stringing me along
I can't keep up
You're moving too fast
I got to know
Is this gonna last?
Coz I can't tell whether you're up or you're down
This whole situation is spinning me round
Spinning me round
Spinning me round
How come?
How come?


text:
According to mobile blogger Eldar Murtazin's tweet, Microsoft is inking a deal to purchase Nokia phone business for $19 billion. Murtazin has a reputation for being pretty plugged in to Nokia news
Tag Archives: acquisition
AT&T acquires T-Mobile for $39b
Via Mashable
In a stunning move, AT&T has acquired T-Mobile USA for a whopping $39 billion from Deutsche Telekom. The deal will deliver $19 billion in cash and $25 billion in stock to the German telecom giant. Along with acquiring approximately 8% of AT&T, Deutsche Telekom will also be gaining a seat on AT&T's board of directors.
Read the full article on Mashable
AT&T Buys Qualcomm's FLO TV Spectrum
According to a press release from XXX, AT&T has purchased Qualcomm's FLO TV spectrum for a $1.925 bn. The network is said to cover nearly 300MM nationwide with its 700 MHz block network. It's E block spectrum covers nearly 70MM customers alone in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco and will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in AT&T's future 4G mobile broadband rollout
Qualcomm announced it's closing of the FLO TV, the live TV service available on small handheld devices and through white labeled service on carriers like AT&T and once Verizon in October and is expected to close down the service entirely in March.
Related Articles
- AT&T buys Qualcomm's FLO TV spectrum for a cool $1.9b, promises 4G awesomeness (engadget.com)
- Qualcomm offers rebates on Flo TV hardware (electronista.com)


text:
Carbon Climate
Carbon Emissions and Other Campuses have the potential to either emit or reduce large amounts of carbon in the form of greenhouse gases from their many, large buildings. Many different opportunities exist to either develop renewal energy sources on or off site for a campus, use green space, green roofs and forest areas to mitigate these pollutants. By understanding where carbon emissions are coming from in the largest quantities (transportation, heating/cooling, etc.) it is possible to reduce these gases.
In the web series Expanding Financial Leadership: Facilities, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability there are now five 30-minute videos that will inform participants on how to expand their knowledge base to create a conceptual facilities framework that can impact their campuses for years to come. One in particular that addresses the world situation is from ASU leader and former BP Asia-Pacific presdient, Dr Gary Dirks
- Definitions and Strategies for Sustainability (October 2014)
- White Paper: Leading the Nation to a Safe and Secure Energy Future (June 2012)
Security and Sustainability Forum (SSF) Free webinar available regarding climate change
- Climate of Change features a series of videos showcasing the University of Washington's sustainability efforts in campus operations, research, teaching, and co-curricular programs
- Internatinal Panel on Climate Change - Expert Meeting on Communication (Feb 2016)
- International Panel on Climate Change - Physical Science Basis (2014)
- International Panel on Climate Change Issues New Findings (October 2, 2013)
- Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) has latest reports on Climate Change
- Clean Energy Group and Council Development Finance Agencies)
- Hampshire College and Second Nature Moving Forward: Advancing the Intentionally Designed Endowment
- Environmental Protection Agency: Green Power Partnership
- NACUBO Publication: The Business Case for Renewable Energy: A Guide of Colleges and Universities
- NACUBO Publication: Communities of Opportunity: Smart Growth Strategies for Colleges and Universities
- Intentionally Designed Endowment Primer-by Second Nature
Stay Current
Latest Headlines
- 1098-T: Box 1 Will Be Required for Tax Year 2018 Reporting
- 2017 NACUBO Awards Recipients
- Congress Makes Major Changes to Post-9/11 GI Bill
Join Us
Distance Learning
- ON-DEMAND: Results of the 2016 NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study
- ON-DEMAND: Update to Strategic Financial Analysis in Higher Education, 7th Edition: Corrections and Clarifications
- ON-DEMAND: NACUBO Live! 2017 Higher Education Accounting Forum
- ON-DEMAND: How to Budget for Technology That Aligns with Institutional Goals
- ON-DEMAND: What's Happening in Student Financial Services?


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168 Hours
First things first Thank you to those of you who let us know your responses to our weekly blogs. Mostly, you are letting us know that we are hitting our mark. Sometimes, you are helping us to see where we...Read More
First things first Thank you to those of you who let us know your responses to our weekly blogs. Mostly, you are letting us know that we are hitting our mark. Sometimes, you are helping us to see where we...Read More
Welcome to May! As we move on from our month of reducing, reusing and recycling, we are moving to a month devoted to clearing out the clutter; #TooMuchStuff. Our belief at Parenting Power is simple: You build a child from...Read More
Julie and Gail discuss their thoughts and attention to the intentions we have as parents to set up our kids for success. But are our intentions putting too much pressure on our kids to succeed? [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL0-Id9riW4[/embedyt]Read More
How much of our lives are lost to the phone? It's not uncommon to hear parents telling kids, "Hurry, hurry! There's no time to dawdle!" Many people feel that there just isn't enough time. A Global Web Index 2016 survey...Read More
What's it all about? Is there an Elf on your shelf? If there is, why do you have it? If your answer is - we love it, it's fun - I like hiding it and the kids love to find...Read More
For the month of December, we're asking: What's It All About? We know that our readers celebrate many different holidays this month. Our intention is to bring clarity to these holiday celebrations. We decided to start, by talking about Holiday...Read More
When we talk about teaching life skills, we have to talk about money. There is no question that our kids are learning about money at a very early age. They hear us discussing what we can and can't afford. They...Read More
This isn't the first time you've heard us talk about REAL LIFE and it won't be the last. It's what we do: focus on tools for Real Life Parenting. Today, we are talking about the real life family dinner. Not...Read More
Mother's Day brings with it thoughts of flowers and brunch, cards and artwork; wonderful ways to recognize moms and thank them for their efforts year-round. As mothers, we may feel elated at the treatment or wonder just how much will...Read More
Designers say that redecorating your child's study area will make things better. Stationary stores will tell you it is the fancy binders and the brand new, funky supplies that will make the difference. We're here to tell you what will...Read More
In her book, Mother-Daughter Wisdom, Christiane Northrup, M.D., devotes an entire chapter to the Anatomy of Self-esteem. She outlines seven areas of self-esteem. Let's explore Dr. Northrup's point of view of Self-esteem. Because this book is written about mothers and...Read More
While we can't actually see Self Esteem, it shows itself through the following symptoms: 1. Acceptance - Knowing that your weaknesses exist because you are normal and not because you are a loser. 2. Belonging - Knowing that you are...Read More
February means we have "money on the brain". Either the holiday credit cards still need to be paid off or RRSP contribution questions are floating around our heads with deadlines feeling like they are looming. Is there ever a time...Read More
New Year's resolutions are often made to be broken, but when it comes to parenting, we can resolve to make a fresh start any day of the year. Thankfully, our children are with us day after day and we have...Read More
The word "Bullying" is flying at us so often these days, it is almost as if it has a PR team behind it. Move out of the way Starbucks, MacDonalds and Walmart – Bullying is the new "place to be"....Read More
The following is a transcript of a Drugs/Alcohol Q and A session that we held on Facebook on May 7, 2012. Due to a change in format (Facebook to Word Document), discussion threads may seem disjointed. We hope that you...Read More
A client recently asked us: HOW do I teach my child that he is lippy when he talks to adults? It happens so often at home, that I've come to accept it - NOT GOOD! Now I notice he talks...Read More
In a National Post article (Nov 19), British Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks reminds us all that "Consumerism is the quickest way to unhappiness." http://www.nationalpost.com/news/culture+stemmed+from+Jobs+chief+rabbi/5736788/story.html Rabbi Sacks made the following points: We are living in the "i" generation – in fact he calls it...Read More
A client asked our opinion about the behaviour of some parents of kids on his child's sports team . His son was on a level 4 team last year and is on a level 1 team this year. He said he was quite...Read More
When determining your family's answer to this question, you will need to go back to the foundation – your own family values. Why does one apologize? When we feel remorseful for our behaviour, we find the courage to ask for...Read More


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Made to Order.
Order by 12 noon for 5 day delivery.
Sand and Water Play Centre
This heavy duty play centre comes complete with stand, tray and lid.
With enough room for six children to play, it features four activity plates and a perimeter roadway. Foldaway design for easy storage. Height adjustable to 50 or 71cm.
Good value and excellent quality


text:
Calling Edmonton, AB home, North of Here is an Americana/folk group made up of Luke Jansen (vocals, banjo, bass), Ian St. Arnaud (vocals, mandolin), and Will Holowaychuk (vocals, percussion). The band came together through a high school music class friendship that grew into a full-time project. There is both history and new life in North of Here's folk sound. Shaped by their grandparents' worn-out Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen records, they also cite contemporaries such as The Barr Brothers and The Milk Carton Kids as influences on their songwriting. Hidden behind the sunny disposition of acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin, are lyrics with weight and self-reflective depth.
In 2015, the group released their second EP, 'Make Hay While The Sun Shines,' a record that opened many new doors. Supporting prominent Canadian artists such as Aidan Knight, Craig Cardiff, and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, and appearing at the 2016 Canmore Folk Festival, North of Here have found their footing in the Western Canadian folk community. The band is currently working on their debut full-length album, due to be released in 2018.


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|This one is for my brother.
|Two idiots in the desert.
|I made a new friend in Vegas.
|See those people in the back? That's a wedding party, somebody just got married when we got there.
|A diner in Bunkerville.
|This one is for my brother.
|Two idiots in the desert.
|I made a new friend in Vegas.
|See those people in the back? That's a wedding party, somebody just got married when we got there.
|A diner in Bunkerville.
Ah, I love Vegas! Have always had lots of fun when I've visited, though have always been with my family, so it hasn't gotten too wild! Love your shots of the strip, but even more so your photos of the desert. The landscape is stunning! xo
you must be having the time of your life! enjoy!
You have an eye for this, ya know? GREAT pics, as always. I've never been to Vegas, nor do I really have a desire, but this is freakin' great. EFF that heat, though!
xo Ashley
wahou i hate to admit it but I am sooo jealous !ReplyDelete
I love Vegas! You can't get more artificial that that. Hope you had a great time :-)
Monica, www.pear-shaped-gal.com
I'd love to go to vegas! I'm happy to see that it looks like you are having a fab time!
Corinne x
LOVE this - and SO jealous! Lets hope you see the real Elvis ;-) #elvislives
♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.
Amazing photos and photography babes - soo jealous!!ReplyDelete
Wow. 126 degrees Fahrenheit? What an amazing photo you got of the mirage. It really does look like water on the road even though I know it wasn't really. OMG, I don't even drink any more and I'm seeing a pink elephant! I've heard they do quickie weddings in Las Vegas - I wonder if they do sobriety tests beforehand or quickie annulments if people who wake up married to somebody they don't remember? I hope you didn't lose much if any money there. It looks like a fun and interesting place to visit.ReplyDelete
I'm looking forward to get my boyfriend drunk and wake up the next day with the wedding ring on the finger. It will be an epic joke muahahha
but I think it will be too smart to fall into the trap ... I'll tell you in few months (and i will show my elvis and marilyn wedding pictures XD)
I'm still loving the straight roads!!! <3
SWEET YEESUS! 126 FAHRENHEIT. WTF THAT MUST BE LIKE 60 DEGREES! WHO LIVES LIKE THAT?????ReplyDelete


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Design project
Προϋπολογισμός $10-30 USD
I need a food label design for a jam label keeping in the same brand colors and logo of other [url removed, login to view] be completed in 12hrs, but with unlimited revisions that may go beyond 12hrs
50 freelancers κάνουν προσφορές με μέσο όρο $33 γι' αυτή τη δουλειά
Welcome to theDesignerz ( World #1 Graphic Design company on Freelancer ) If you are looking for some real quality graphics work and willing to pay fair price for that then you are reading the right proposal. We ar Περισσότερα
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Deziner313 is specialized in Graphic Designing, Web Designing and Development. https://www.freelancer.com/u/deziner313.html?page=portfolio&ref_project_id=10778528 • 100% original design concepts, unlimited revisi Περισσότερα
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text:
A One-Man Show
The New Dorp basketball coach, Tony Rafaniello, is still angry with McKee Tech.
Last week, Dommel Lenoir scored 76 points in McKee Tech's 118-82 loss to New Dorp.
''I have no problem with the kid,'' Rafaniello said. ''My problem is what motivated the coach to let him take every shot in the game. The integrity of basketball was compromised.''
Lenoir, a 5-foot-10-inch senior point guard, hit 22 of 67 field goals, nine 3-pointers and was 23 of 32 from the free-throw line on the way to scoring his 1,000th career point.
McKee's coach, Tom McNeese, said he did not understand the logic of Rafaniello's complaint. His figuring was that his team was losing the game and, on top of that, two of his starters were suspended.
''We were trying to win and get him his points,'' McNeese said. ''Basically, the other team couldn't stop him. He's a great basketball player.''Continue reading the main story
Rafaniello questioned McNeese's motivation, since McKee was losing by 30 points going into the fourth quarter. He contended that McNeese was trapping and fouling his backup players on each fourth-quarter possession to get Lenoir more scoring opportunities.
''The impression that I got was that they were not really trying to win the game,'' he said. ''They were just concerned with letting the kid take every shot.''
Lenoir, who will attend a junior college next season, took exception to Rafaniello's objections.
''He said that it wasn't a team effort,'' Lenoir said, ''but I don't know how he could say that. The team came together and said: 'Dommel, we're going to give you the ball. It's your game.' It wasn't like I went to them and asked them to give me the ball. I'm an all-around player. I give the ball up.''
P.S.A.L. Playoffs
The Public Schools Athletic League will announce the round of 16 A playoffs today. The round of 16 will resume on Feb. 26. Still alive are Boys & Girls, Cardozo, Campus Magnet, Curtis, Grady, Jamaica, Kennedy, Paul Robeson, Newtown, New Utrecht, Samuel Gompers, Martin Luther King, George Washington, Lafayette, Lincoln and Walton.
Seven of the eight teams that will compete in the B quarterfinal round, starting on March 2, have been determined. Telecommunication, Park West, Frederick Douglas, Seward Park, Long Island City, Columbus and Wadleigh are in.
Undefeated and Cautious
Newtown (21-0), the only undefeated team in Class A, has followed its seasonlong motto: don't let what happened to Hillcrest happen to us.
The Pioneers, ranked No. 10 by the New York State Sports Writers Association, are determined not to repeat the same playoff fate as Hillcrest's team, which was 21-0 when it lost to Far Rockaway in the first round last season. The Pioneers already bested Hillcrest's playoff production on Wednesday, when Newtown defeated Francis Lewis, 81-55.
''I think that's a very smart coaching idea to learn from us,'' said Hillcrest Coach Ken Kershon, whose team (10-12) was eliminated by Bryant, 66-60, on Tuesday. ''I hope they go all the way.''
Newtown is led by the seniors Rich Forrest (averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds a game), Chris Sandy (23 points, 7 assists and 5 steals), Eligio Molina (9 points, 16 rebounds) and Daren Finisterre (11 points, 7 assists and 5 steals).
''If we're going to make our move,'' said Newtown Coach Pat Torney, ''this is the team we have to do it with, because we're a senior-oriented team.''
Taking the Long Route
It's not often that a high school athlete decides to attend a prep school to further his education instead of qualifying for a Division I football scholarship.
J. W. Jordan, a product of Poly Prep in Brooklyn, decided to go that route. The 6-1, 275-pound offensive tackle opted to attend Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Mass., rather than accept a scholarship to Notre Dame. Jordan was a B student at Poly Prep with a 1,270 score on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
''I think that Notre Dame thought that it was a good opportunity for me to develop physically and get my grades up,'' Jordan said.
Jordan, who boasts an A average at Andover, has signed a letter of intent with the Fighting Irish.
''I wanted to go to Notre Dame from the beginning,'' he said. ''I'm really looking forward to starting their workout program on Monday and attending Notre Dame next season.'' GRANT GLICKSONContinue reading the main story


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An enzyme involved in mRNA degradation turns into a transcript stabilizer during stress, Yoon et al. report.
mRNA fates are determined by their association with regulatory proteins in ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) complexes. mRNPs can accumulate in large, cytosolic aggregates; P bodies, for example, contain translationally repressed mRNAs complexed with proteins that initiate mRNA destruction. One of these proteins is the enzyme Dcp2p, which removes the 5′ cap from mRNAs to spur their degradation. Yoon et al. found that budding yeast Dcp2p is phosphorylated during cell stress, when cells alter the fate of many of their mRNAs to aid their survival and recovery.
Dcp2p was phosphorylated by the stress-activated kinase Ste20p. Blocking this modification—either by mutating the phosphorylation site or deleting the kinase—prevented Dcp2p from accumulating in P bodies during stress and inhibited the formation of a second type of RNA–protein aggregate called stress granules. Yeast stress granules can depend on P bodies for their formation and contain repressed mRNAs that may be poised to re-begin translation. A Dcp2p mutant mimicking the phosphorylated form accumulated normally in P bodies and restored stress granules to yeast lacking Ste20p.
The phosphomimetic form of Dcp2p also stabilized a subset of yeast mRNAs, including a number of transcripts encoding ribosomal proteins. Senior author Roy Parker thinks that Dcp2p phosphorylation changes the fate of these transcripts by altering the decapping enzyme's interactions with other regulatory proteins, promoting the mRNAs' stable accumulation in stress granules instead of initiating their degradation. The mRNAs are thus poised to be translated once conditions improve, allowing the yeast to rapidly recover.
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


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Charge and sync your smartphone and other devices with this sleek, handy cable that folds and fits on your keychain. KeyJuice gives you charge and sync capability in one compact, portable unit. No need to carry extra cables.
The product has a micro usb on one end and mini usb on other. There was a misunderstanding of the wording as I understood that an external item can be hooked on along with the charger when syncing both eg OTG and charger. I have an external keyboard that I want to use and simultaneously also keep the android smartphone mobile charged. I had thought that this product is capable of that (had a female micro usb connection). It therefore does not meet my present requirement. If you can provide a female micro usb connector in place of mini usb connection, I am willing to buy such piece.


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On academics and their open letters : neo-imperialism from afar
A group of sixty odd academics in various UK institutions have decided to join the Indian electoral fray by posting an open letter to the "left" leaning Independent under the headline:
Letters: The idea of Modi in power fills us with dread
"As the people of India vote to elect their next government, we are deeply concerned at the implications of a Narendra Modi-led BJP government for democracy, pluralism and human rights in India."
Concern is always nice. Concern about democracy, pluralism, and human rights are particularly nice to hear about. But when these concerns are raised by voice which are only selectively concerned, that troubles us. These academics are not concerned about continued Saudi rule and its impact on the middle East's prospects for democracy, pluralism and human rights. They are completely silent about Palestinian ruling junta (that is what it is – because each one of them come solidly from military outfits, and once-dubbed-terrorist groups), or for China, or for Pakistan, or Afghanistan. But more of this at the end.
"Narendra Modi is embedded in the Hindu Nationalist movement, namely the RSS and other Sangh Parivar groups, with their history of inciting violence against minorities. Some of these groups stand accused in recent terrorist attacks against civilians."
The slyness of academic evasiveness starts to reveal itself now. It is the same method by which so-called professional historians create new impressions of truth by weaving propositions into a narrative and creating a new narrative where propositions become blended into certainties. Note the smooth blending of "some" "stand accused". At one smooth stroke, these academics of high integrity have made an "accusation" appear as "convicted", and "some" is used to taint the "whole".
By their logic, the Congress parivar (family) is embedded in a politics which has had very dubious roles, and sometimes outright bias in defacto protecting Muslim violence from Nehru's time at power during the Partition, with selective targeting of alleged Hindu violence. Usually the Congress hides behind the legalistic excuse – again first used by Nehru to allow the Islamic violence in Noakhali, Bengal to continue while he personally and immediately intervened in Bihar where Muslims were at the receiving end – that when the Congress sees the victims as non-Muslim, non-Christians, it mumbles about law and order being a state prerogative. Whereas, when Muslims appear to be the target, Congress sees it as a union/federal/central issue. This was the cover under which Congress did not intervene in the genocide of Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir in the late 80's because in this case it was the Muslims who were the perpetrators. The helplessness of the Hindu surviving refugees, was perhaps the root cause of the revival of the Hindutva" movement these academics so lambast – because many Hindus in the wider arena of India began to realize the selective bias of the Indian state under the Nehrus and the Congress in favour of whitewashing and allowing Islamist violence to thrive, especially if such violence was directed against Hindus.
The Congress is therefore imbedded in a movement, that has always protected Islamism and Islamist pretensions, and have at various times carried elements in its governments who are connected to or stand accused of rioting and communal hatred which amount to acts of terrorism.
"We recall the extreme violence by the Hindu Right in Gujarat in 2002 which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. This violence occurred under Modi's rule, and senior government and police officials have provided testimony of his alleged role in encouraging or permitting it to occur."
Recalling is a good thing, but if what happened before under a regime historically is proof of repeating the same then the Congress should be even more in the dock – for the Partition riots happened under the government of Jawaharlal Nehru, and ant-Sikh pogroms happened under Rajiv-Gandhi/Congress, and all the riots that happened before the BJP came first to power, with such spectacular ones as in Bhagalpur, were also under various Congress governments.
The academics think that by adding the word "extreme" to "violence" they can make a special case against Modi -as they perhaps feel, and rightly so, that "violence" has been the norm for anti-Hindu attacks by Islamists or Christianists too. Maybe for them those "other" violence are genuine expressions of grievances,
"Some of his close aides have been convicted for their involvement, and legal proceedings are ongoing in the Gujarat High Court which may result in Modi being indicted for his role. He has never apologised for hate speech or contemptuous comments about various groups – including Muslims, Christians, women and Dalits. His closest aide has been censured recently by India's Election Commission for hate speech used in this election campaign.
"There is widespread agreement about the authoritarian nature of Modi's rule in Gujarat, further evidenced by the recent sidelining of other senior figures within the BJP. This style of governance can only weaken Indian democracy. "
Different groups of people agree among themselves about different things. Concepts like "authoritarian" are so abstract, and inconcretizable, that tons of academic papers have tried to make academic careers out of hair-splitting over the very definition of "authoritarian". Many communists are still dewy eyed over Stalin or Mao, and have "widespread agreement" among themselves over their most fortunate appearance on earth. Same goes for Hitler. Jews have "widespread agreement" in spite of a portion of Jewish origin academics hosted by various UK universities to the contrary – that existence of Israel is perfectly justified even at the cost of Palestinians. There is widespread agreement among large swathes of Muslims about the necessity and justifiability of historical violent genocidic jihad, and significant groups have "widespread agreement" among themselves about the benevolence of sex-slavery of the non-Muslim as part of jihad.
Typically when groups do not want to spell out the membership of the group, or are unsure about their numerical strength in proportion to the wider population – they turn to vagueness, or unpinnable conjectures -so that they can never be called out for lying or pretending, and claiming "widespread agreement" is one way of doing that.
The "widespread agreement" is among this tiny coterie of Indian origin academics – probably groomed and selected in the early days of their studenthood and careers by previous generations and peer groups of British interest serving academics, like the Marxist academics who desperately denied any role of triangular Atlantic slave trade in the kickstart of the British industrial revolution.
The curious bit is about somehow Modi being guilty of sidelining "senior" party members as proof of exceptional authoritarianism. All the Nehru-family members have sidelined senior party members to come to power. Does it not make them even more authoritarian already?
"Additionally, the Modi-BJP model of economic growth involves close linking of government with big business, generous transfer of public resources to the wealthy and powerful, and measures harmful to the poor."
This is actually hilarious. For this is what actually has been happening since Margaret Thatcher in Britain, happened too even under Tony Blair, and has accelerated under Cameron. Do they want to say that all that has led UK down the drain? Or do they have not the courage to spell out those pearls of wisdom to the masters of their souls? It happens at even grander scale in China, where party-apparatchiks and their minions or progeny ruling over millions in their regional satrapys hog investments from a financial sector which is still centrally and nationally owned as well as managed. No, these academic's can only open their mouth against the "Hindu" India, and the BJP and Narendra Modi. They have not open lettered even on the very entertaining case of Ukraine, where "right wing nationalists" have been on the rampage with alleged support of big biz and oligarchs who grew into tycoons with diversion of state investments. Naturally – since doing so is not in the current interests of the British ruling interests.
"A Modi victory would likely mean greater moral policing, especially of women, increased censorship and vigilantism, and more tensions with India's neighbours."
These academics never protested Muslim censorship, moral policing of women, vigilanteism in Indian Kerala, or Uttar Pradesh, or Bihar, or West Bengal, or Assam, or Christians doing exactly the same in Nagaland and Mizoram, and attempting to do the same in Manipur. They cannot mention anything about those other communities or religions or states, because they cannot afford to show these other ones in the same or worse light than the "Hindus" – then they lose the affection of the system.
Overall, then what does it show about such concerted concerns from such groups?
Let us go back to the very beginning again of their open letter. They are claiming that democracy, pluralism, human rights in a one specific distant nation, is going to be trumped if one man and his party or political alliance gets elected in a plural democracy which as yet respects human rights. One can see why they have been allowed to succeed as academics, because they can pretend an intellect which can be used to legitimize the complete lack of any logical capacity on issues that are of interest to a post-imperialist neo-imperialist state.
The west-European political dogma of the political class has now run into a fatal dilemma. They either have to accept that democracy and pluralism can be used, to subvert, overturn, or cover anti-democracy and non-pluralism – which makes themselves open to analysis as tow whether they had been doing and continue to do so themselves.
Or they have to find escape clauses that can be used selectively to target nations and regimes that they see as obstacles in the way of their agenda of global domination, within their dogma that still allows some mantle of legitimacy for their own systems.
The method being tried out in general for a couple of decades, is trying to enforce a so-called consensus or "widespread agreement", on very vague and often duplicitous or contradictory criteria to judge if the "consensus" value system is being subverted or not. The west-European dogma thinks it has found an escape clause that can cover their selective neo-imperialist agenda – claim that a certain vague outline of democracy, pluralism and human rights exists – whose identification and verification lies solely in their own hands, which then justifies imperialist intervention in other nations, to overturn regimes, assassinate significant individuals, or economically and militarily destroy the fundamentals of that nation.
In order to find out in whose interests any self-proclaimed group of experts, academics, humanitarians, activists actually are acting for – we just need to check out what they remain silent on in contrast to what they choose to pick on. These open-letter academics do not criticize Hamas or Palestinian authority parts for their Jew-cleansing hate campaigns, torture, rape, murder, or that by the so-called freedom-fighters in Syria, or those in Kosovo and Croatia against Serbs in the 90's, or the Bahraini state, or the Saudis, or Pakistan, or China, or western Ukraine, or Turkey, or Egypt, or even in their own backyard where the state ruthlessly cracks down with full state violence on peaceful protesters against economic destruction of the commoner.
Just compare their stances on these "other" stuff – and you can identify whom they work for, in whose interests.
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How Islam came to India and why now it needs to go from India -14 : removal of capital from the Indian economy under Islam
[authors note : posting on the theme that started the blog, after a long time. This item in the original series was drafted a couple of years go. But I realized that this portion may take up several blog-size posts, rather than one. Workload is heavy so – this sequence might come hence irregularly, but I am serious about taking up laying out the economic consequence of Islamic dominance on India. So please be patient.]
Removal of capital from the Indian economy by Muslims took place directly under three major forms (1) repeated invasions amounting or not amounting to permanent acquisition of territory with specific removal of capital in kind in the form of looted bullion and other valuables, as well as removal of human capital in the form of skilled and unskilled labour, and the basic reproductive unit for human labour, women, all as enslaved and exported commodity out of India, (2) extraction of capital by settled Muslim elite from the Indian economy for hoarding, and funding luxuries originating outside of India meant for pure consumption with no reinvestment or economic input into the local market (3) subsidizing religious activities primarily benefiting foreign Muslim countries and economies (4) Islam's essential economic understanding amounting to only the desert-economy of Arabia and a complete failure to understand more sophisticated economies as reflected in the Muslim's disastrous state interventions in the Indian market – also removed capital by impeding creation of value and growth and ultimately consumption and destroying already accumulated capital.
The indirect removal of capital was mainly under five forms (1) ruining and utterly destituting the basic producers of the economy, and extracting almost all surplus for personal consumption thereby preventing reinvestment and ultimately reducing total capital (2) continued and vastly increasing expenditure on military hardware and "software" such as horses imported from outside of India (3) destroying the non-Muslim intellectual classes and pre-Islamic centres of education that had promoted a wide variety of research into science and technology and substituting this by theological seminaries run by fundamentalist Muslim clergy usually imported from Islamic heartland in the middle east and whose qualifications usually did not rise beyond a strict Wahabi or Salafi interpretation of the Islamic religious texts learned by rote (4) institutionalization of endemic corruption and system losses that increased the cost of capital, and thereby its ultimate devaluation (5) Sadistic and violent Islamic military religious policy aimed at subjugation of the non-Muslim populations ultimately forcing productive social units off the land and the economy into forests or rugged badlands from where they either carried out military struggles [raising the cost of administration and expending capital on maintaining ever-increasing armed forces on the part of the Islamic administration] or engage in low-surplus marginal productions and economies.
removal of material capital through repeated invasions
Accurate estimates of capital removed by Islamic invaders are very difficult to arrive at, mainly because of lack "undisputed records" of "looting" and amounts. Most surviving records of looting and shipping of loot back to the respective power centres of the raiding armies, are naturally, from side of the raiding armies themselves or from subsequent chroniclers who draw upon or claim to draw upon earlier, relevant, and contemporary Islamic sources. As in the case all over the world, although historians try to shout a lot about absence of records of "trauma" on the part of the victims, who are not necessarily known to be illiterate, there is a persistent pattern of lack of such records, and we consistently find such records only from the "winners". Logically thinking, such a situation is most natural to expect – a "traumatized" society is most unlikely to find time and resources to devote to keeping records "reliable" enough for modern professional historians with their highly selective and opportunistic use of logic in favour of hidden or sometimes not so hidden political agenda or political/academic patronage from interested regimes. Such a society is more likely to be obsessed about survival.
If we use modern, more closely observed from various sources, "history" of invasions by hostile regimes into an area, especially invasions that are also associated strongly with a particular hegemonistic ideology – we see certain persistent patterns – (1) specifically targeting the intellectuals [and try and eliminate them physically altogether] of the invaded society (2) destroy or suppress circulation of records, books, and other archival material of the invaded society (3) disrupt communication by actively discouraging native languages and imposing the languages preferred by the invaders (4) removal of capital resources from the invaded society (5) almost always a systematic programme of ethnic cleansing through genocide, a state sponsored regime of rape or enforced prostitution of the women of the invaded society – [which for very obvious physical reasons, targets more the women of the elite of the invaded society, and a section more likely to be a second line of repository of cultural heritage, or knowledge] thereby achieving two invader objectives in one stroke – removal of reproductive resources from the invaded society and increasing reproductive resources of the invader. This is what happened under the Nazis, and under units of the Red Army as retribution for the activities of the Nazis when they overran Germany in the final phases of WWII, under the Imperial Japanese army in South East Asia, Korea and China [there are indications that Bose's INA had come to an agreement with the Japanese Army command that such activities will not be carried out in their joint march towards the Indian border, and a recent interview on the Delhi based news channel NDTV reported eye-witness accounts from a Naga dignitary of the period – that in spite of what the British administration had tried to say, the Japanese occupation forces never "used" Naga women the way the British officers were habitually prone to do], and then by US army units stationed in Japan after the capitulation of the latter, with similar patterns repeated in the wars between the African nations and regional-ethnic conflicts, in the persistent accusations [disputed hotly by historians] of such practices by the Pakistani army in its various operations in the subcontinent, [the British army's record in India during the Raj appear to be increasingly coming under the cloud in this regard].
If we extend the modern experience to the "historical" period, we can see, that it is consistent with records of the Roman empire, or the Persian, Parthian, Egyptian, Chinese, empires. Historians appear to have no problems in accepting the claims of the Spanish or the Portuguese about the Latin Americas, even though hardly anything survives that can hold up to historian's claimed level of reliability from the side of the "victims". Similarly, hardly anything survives of records of trauma of the various Italian groups subjugated by the Romans, not all of whom were illiterates (e.g. Etruscans), or of the various Germanic and Celtic tribes of Europe, but historians appear to have no problems with the Roman records of claims of ethnic cleansing, torture, destruction, looting or organized rape and enslavement. There are hardly any historian voices trying to say that the records of repression on the Jews as claimed in Roman texts by Roman authors were propaganda, since nothing much exists from contemporary Jewish sources [ the most famous one, that by Josephus, can also become suspect as he was being patronized by the Romans at the time of his wrtings – and he is not very sympathetic to the Jewish cause either]. Historians even quote figures of dead, slaughtered, raped, straight from the Roman texts.
The only exception in this general pattern of historians' acceptance of records of repression by an invading regime is that applied to Islamic armies into the Indian subcontinent, where all their records of repression are demanded to be treated as false and propaganda for glorification.
We will start with trying to get an idea of the amounts involved in the loot by the Islamic armies removed from India.
Muhammad bin Qasim [C.E 711-713 – the first Islamic record of a relatively successful invasion] Besides the treasure collected from the various forts of the Sindhi King, worship rights of Hindus were allowed only in exchange of pilgrim tax, jiziyah and other similar cesses. The campaign expenses came to 60 thousand silver dirhams and Hajjaj paid to the Caliph 120 thousand dirhams. In Muhammad bin Qasim's administration of the conquered territories the principal sources of revenue were the jiziyah and the land-tax. The Chachnama speaks of other taxes levied upon the cultivators such as the baj and ushari. The collection of jiziyah was considered a political as well as a religious duty, and was always exacted "with vigour and punctuality, and frequently with insult". The native population had to feed every Muslim traveller for three days and nights and had to submit to many other humiliations which are mentioned by Muslim historians.
Multan (Punjab) "…He then crossed the Biyas, and went towards Multan… Muhammad destroyed the water-course; upon which the inhabitants, oppressed with thirst, surrendered at discretion. He massacred the men capable of bearing arms, but the children were taken captive, as well as the ministers of the temple, to the number of six thousand. The Muslamans found there much gold in a chamber ten cubits long by eight broad, and there was an aperture above, through which the gold was poured into the chamber…" (Futuhul-Buldan of Ahmad bin Yahya bin Jabir, aka al-Biladuri).
Multan (Punjab) "Then all the great and principal inhabitants of the city assembled together, and silver to the weight of sixty thousand dirams was distributed and every horseman got a share of four hundred dirams weight. After this, Muhammad Qasim said that some plan should be devised for realizing the money to be sent to the Khalifa. He was pondering over this, when suddenly a Brahman came and said, 'Heathenism is now at an end, the temples are thrown down, the world has received the light of Islam, and mosques are built instead of idol temples. I have heard from the elders of Multan that in ancient times there was a chief in this city whose name was Jibawin, and who was a descendant of the Rai of Kashmir. He was a Brahman and a monk, he strictly followed his religion, and always occupied his time in worshipping idols. When his treasures exceeded all limits and computation, he made a reservoir on the eastern side of Multan, which was hundred yards square. In the middle of it he built a temple fifty yards square, and he made a chamber in which he concealed forty copper jars each of which was filled with African gold dust. A treasure of three hundred and thirty mans of gold was buried there. Over it there is an idol made of red gold, and trees are planted round the reservoir.' It is related by historians, on the authority of 'Ali bin Muhammad who had heard it from Abu Muhammad Hindui that Muhammad Qasim arose and with his counsellors, guards and attendants, went to the temple. He saw there an idol made of gold, and its two eye were bright red rubies……Muhammad Qasim ordered the idol to be taken up. Two hundred and thirty mans of gold were obtained, and forty jars filled with gold dust… This gold and the image were brought to treasury together with the gems and pearls and treasures which were obtained from the plunder of Multan." (Chachnama)
Yaqub bin Laith (CE 870-871) was a highway robber who succeeded in seizing Khurasan from the Tahirid governors of the Abbasid Caliphate and founded the short-lived Saffarid dynasty.
Balkh and Kabul (Afghanistan) "He first took Bamian, which he probably reached by way of Herat, and then marched on Balkh where he ruined (the temple) Naushad. On his way back from Balkh he attacked Kabul…
"Starting from Panjhir, the place he is known to have visited, he must have passed through the capital city of the Hindu Sahis to rob the sacred temple – the reputed place of coronation of the Sahi rulers-of its sculptural wealth…The exact details of the spoil collected from the Kabul valley are lacking. The Tarikh -i-Sistan records 50 idols of gold and silver and Masudi mentions elephants. The wonder excited in Baghdad by elephants and pagan idols forwarded to the Caliph by Yaqub also speaks for their high value. The best of our authorities put the date of this event in 257 (870-71). Tabari is more precise and says that the idols sent by Ya'qûb reached Baghdad in Rabi al-Akhar, 257 (Feb.-March, 871). Thus the date of the actual invasion may be placed at the end of CE 870." (Tarikh-i-Tabari)
Mahmud of Ghazni [first quarter of C.E. 1000] Mahmud extracted 2,50,000 dinars as ransom from Jayapal (1001-02 C.E.). Jayapal's necklace worth 2,00,000 gold dinars was appropriated by Mahmud, and twice that value extracted from the necklaces of his imprisoned or executed relatives. All the wealth of Bhera which was "as wealthy as imagination can conceive", was captured in (1004-05 C.E.). In 1005-06 the people of Multan were forced to pay an indemnity of the value of 20,000,000 silver dirhams. When Nawasa Shah, who had reconverted to Hinduism, was deposed (1007-08), the Sultan confiscated his wealth amounting to 400,000 dirhams. Mahmud seized coins of the value of 70,000,000 Hindu Shahiya dirhams, from the fort of Bhimnagar in Kangra, and gold and silver ingots weighing some hundred maunds, jewellery and precious stones. There was also a collapsible house of silver, thirty yards in length and fifteen yards in breadth, and a canopy (mandapika) supported by two golden and two silver poles. This vast treasure could not be shifted immediately, and Mahmud left two of his "most confidential" chamberlains, Altuntash and Asightin, to arrange for its gradual removal to Ghazni. In subsequent expeditions (1015-20) Punjab and the adjoining areas were sucked dry. Over and above the looting by Mahmud, there was additional looting by his soldiers. From Baran Mahmud obtained, 1,000,000 dirhams, from Mahaban a large booty, from Mathura five idols which when melted [Should we apply the Thaparite algorithm of dividing by 10 or 100?] alone yielded 98,300 misqals (about 390 kg) of gold, and two hundred silver idols. Kanauj, Munj, Asni, Sharva and some other places yielded another 3,000,000 dirhams. Somnath yielded 20,000,000 dinars. [Utbi, the Secretary to Sultan Mahmud, reports this and if he exaggerated then as this was a contemporary record, the Caliphate would come to know of this and would be able to calculate that Mahmud had not sent full share of the Caliph. This is a part usually not much mentioned by the Thaparite School and generically dismissed as part of boasting].
Archaeologically there is a significant absence of Indian coins or artefacts made of precious metal from this entire period in the Punjab and Sind area. [The Thaparite school of Indian history typically remains silent on this or jokes that this could be a possible pointer that the stories of these Hindu kingdoms with fabulous riches are simply stories and fantasies and they probably never existed. In this sense nothing contemporary specifically archaeologically associated with the early founders of Islam including its Prophet has been found in Arabia. [Sunni Wahabis dispute the authenticity of the Ottoman collections in this regard]. However the Thaparite school will never dare raise a similar joke in the Arabian context. This also helps the Thaparite school in trying to prove that "Hinduism" did not exist in general before the pre-Islamic period. However it is a general principle of the Thaparite School to accept archaeology only if it supports the Schools hypotheses and it very angrily reacts and disparages archaeology if it dares to differ from its diktats] The flow of bullion outside India stabilized Ghaznavid currency and debased the Indian. The gold content of millenial north Indian coins reduced from 120 to 60 grams with a similar reduction in the weight and content of the silver coin. This in turn reduced credit of Indian merchants in the international market.
India had always been an exporter against bullion and had accumulated bullion from domestic sources as well mines of Tibet and Central Asia. Mahmud collected in loot and tribute valuable articles of trade like indigo, fine muslins, embroidered silk, and cotton stuffs, and items and raw ingots of famous Indian steel, lavishly praised by Utbi, Hasan Nizami, Alberuni and others. [this is the source of the famous Damascus steel coveted by both by Europe and the Muslim world. One valuable commodity taken from India was indigo. From Baihaqi, who writes the correct Indian word "nil" for the dye, it appears that 20,000 mans (about 500 maunds) of indigo was taken to Ghazna every year. According to Baihaqi, Sultan Masud once sent 25,000 mans (about 600 maunds) of indigo to the Caliph at Baghdad, for "the Sultans often reserved part of this (valuable commodity) for their own usage, and often sent it as part of presents for the Caliph or for other rulers".
Mahmud also started the later consistent Islamic traditions of looting wealth and women whenever the Islamic heartlands of middle East or central Asia became "impoverished" as a result of intensive and destructive Islamic looting. Utbi writes "It happened, that 20,000 men from Mawaraun nahr and its neighbourhood, who were with the Sultan (Mahmud), were anxious to be employed on some holy expedition in which they might obtain martyrdom. The Sultan determined to march with them to Kanauj". This is the tradition of Ghazis, (the Arabic root means one who has gone for a Ghazwa, literally a tribal raid typically mentioned in the context of looting wealth, animals, and women) as imposed on India. Even after the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, Muhammad Ghori declared jihad in "Hind" (1205 C.E.- 13 years after the second battle of Tarain, decisively destroying his strongest Hindu opponent Prithviraj), "in order to repair the fortunes of his servants and armies; for within the last few years, Khurasan, on account of the disasters it had sustained, yielded neither men nor money. When he arrived in Hind, God gave him such a victory that his treasures were replenished, and his armies renewed".
Nagarkot Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) "…He now attacked the fort of Bhim, where was a temple of the Hindus. He was victorious, and obtained much wealth, including about a hundred idols of gold and silver. One of the golden images, which weighed a million mishkals, the Sultan appropriated to the decoration of the Mosque of Ghazni, so that the ornaments of the doors were of gold instead of iron." (Tarikh-i-Guzida : of Hamdullah bin Abu Bakr bin Hamd bin Nasr Mustaufi of Kazwin)
[to be continued]
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Is it time for the West to plan for dissolving Pakistan?
How many nations of our times are based purely on a religion and recognized by other nations as independent nations? Only two – the Vatican City and Pakistan. Ironically they share in common some traits. Both have helped in the unravelling of the USSR but not of Communism – for it still survives behind the People's Republic of China and is working towards global dominance. Both have been courted by the USA in its Cold War struggles. Neither has disappointed. Both exert influence on the global politics disproportionate to their actual size, economy, military capabilities, and the capacity to contribute in any meaningful way towards a modern, knowledge based, technological and information society. Both manage to do so by manipulating their historical images as projections into the future.
But there the similarities end. The Vatican's leadership has made amends to its historical victims, and has shown its flexibility and readiness to change with the times. It has steadfastly refused to underwrite radicalism of the theological variety [the severe castigation of the Liberation Theology for example]. This may change in the future. But the leadership of the Vatican have proved themselves consummate statesmen in the concessions and compromises that they have made while never abandoning the fundamental objective of total global ideological domination. This is an objective that would have been a crime if not from the "one and only true message" for any other "religion" in the times when the Church ruled supreme. But now in the days of "total religious tolerance", there is nothing wrong in having a declared agenda of "harvesting all souls". In fact, legal and state coercive machinery can be used to guarantee protection of any proselytizer – even someone swearing by texts that recommend putting the unrepentant unbeliever to the sword.
Where Pakistan differs is not in its protection of organizations claiming the right to practice "Dawa" or spreading of the Islamist beliefs – but in its total lack of statesmanship. Unlike the Vatican, the Pakistani leadership never apologizes to the victims of its Islamists, never acknowledges that it has nurtured Jihadis in its madrassahs, never concedes to modernization in education and social practices, never really allows any land reforms or dismantling of feudal exploitation in its backyard.
Pakistan is basically an anachronism, a nation whose only foundational claim for identity is a religion – in a historical period where the world is leaving behind, exclusive and historical claim based religions. Moreover, that religion is not even unique to the country – it is shared by a host of other nations, some of whom have louder and more well established claims of being the centre for that religion. So Pakistan is based on a type of ideology increasingly irrelevant globally as national foundation, and moreover on an ideology based identity shared with other "nations" – and therefore has no real claims of distinction from other nations. It cannot look at history and culture, for in spite of the best sadistic efforts of generations of "mullahs" – elements of pre-Islamic cultures lie firmly interwoven in the national fabric, and those elements are shared by its imagined nemesis – India. In fact the pre-Islamic cultural element proved so strong that a part of it broke away in reaction in 1971 as Bangladesh.
So now Pakistan finds itself in a terrible dilemma. To strengthen and give uniqueness to its national foundation, it has to become more Islamic than "others". Becoming more Islamic means more and more unquestioning obedience to a strict and literal interpretation of the core texts. That in turns means more Jihad with violent means which accelerates the competition between the ruling feudal elite, the army, the mullahs, the commons, the militants – to become "purer" than the others. That means an almost perpetual state of national Jihad. Purer Islam can only be maintained by preventing modernization – in education, productivity, technology and above all the questing mindset. Which means Pakistan will become more and more dependent on largesse from interested external sources and be a drain on the global economy as the sources would spread the cost around.
So the West and the global community should perhaps start thinking of dissolving the entity called Pakistan. Here are the brief reasons :
(1) Dissolving Pakistan saves the West (and therefore the world economy )a huge amount of money and resources needed to keep the state afloat, and a total drain, because none of that capital goes into productive capacities.
(2) Even though the Chinese are now playing second fiddle to the West, it is uncannily similar to the Ribbentrop-Molotov handshake where both sides appear to be buying time. Eventually, Russia and China could come together with Iran (or whatever is left of it even if a so-called revolutionary liberalization and democratization takes place there under non-theologians) to which the CAR will lean. As long as Pakistan remains an independent entity, it can play the prostitute and threaten to kiss the higher bidder or the one more willing to pay. That is both a security risk and a potential disaster, if everything given to Pakistan lands up in Russian, Iranian or Chinese hands and the West's presence is virtually terminated in the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. Dissolving Pakistan takes away this worry.
(3) Dissolving Pakistan and putting up new independent states actually creates new multiple centres where Jihad can be protected and nurtured. One Pakistan becomes many and the western problem multiplies. One of the best bets is to allow India to absorb the populations and the territories. India is a growing economy which can absorb the costs. It has the capability and the will to manage multicultural groups and religious animosities. Culturally Indians of the western part of the country will be closer to the Pakistanis across the border [Punjab for example shares the language across the border in spite of the state sponsorship of Urdu] compared to any other external ethnicity or country. Moreover the costs of developing infrastructure and the economy or carrying out necessary social reforms will be borne on Indian shoulders and not on the west.
(4) As the price for non-intervention in the absorption, the West could extract concessions from India that it will have assured access and facilities to reach the CAR through channels and routes maintained and developed through Pakistani territories connecting the Karakorum Highway and other CAR approach routes.
(5) The Taliban lose their foster home, and are buffered off from the crucial supply routes of Karakorums and the Arabian Sea. The so-called Kashmir problem vanishes as the Pakistani military and ISI mechanism to foment terrorists inside India vanishes. So one of the greatest excuses for maintaining Jihad from the Pakistani side vanishes.
India, because of linguistic and unique cultural history, will remain firmly in western and specifically the Anglo-Saxon or Atlanticist orbit for generations to come. There are sufficient fissures in the Indian ruling class for the west to exploit and protect western interests.
It is worth a try – at least the largest source for generating terror of the Jihadi and allied kind (through international crime and other non-religious or ethnic militancy) will be effectively liquidated. At one stroke West no longer has to face Islamist terror, pay for upkeep of Jihad, and instead can profit from a growing economy which bears all the costs!Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )
Change of regime in the USA : strategic implication for the Indian subcontinent
Obama's takeover could actually be a dampener for all those hoping to see more positive action in favour of India. His primary concern will be restoration of the US economy. US strategic interests in Asia will therefore be intimately tied in with strategies for growth of the US economy. In spite of rhetoric, economic calculations will impose restrictions on where and how far Obama will go. It seems most unlikely that Obama will increase overseas military commitments and war or surgical strikes against Iran is most unlikely unless Iran deliberates provokes US into a position where it will be embarrassed internationally if it does not retaliate. Obama will try to hold the "line" rather than expand or contract. His main tactic will be to retain the bluster to outshine Bush in foreign affairs but basically do nothing. He will try to achieve more with bluffs and diplomatic pressure and nerve wars rather than do anything that escalates military commitments. He will be under pressure to be seen not to retreat compared to Bush's legacy, which will be a dampener for those within and outside US who hope that Obama will reverse many of the aggressive Bush moves.
For the subcontinent, Obama's main strategic steps will be to reassure and to a certain extent increase cooperation with India mainly in the economic arena. Obama will also see to it that Indian regimes are not penalized at the elections by not taking aggressive retaliatory measures against Pakistan. Obama's tactic will be to increase public visibility of military collaboration with India, and a declared programme of strengthening defence capabilities of India, and maybe even some kind of enhanced NATO type guarantee of alliance/protection in case of third party aggression. Similarly Obama will see to it that any Pakistani regime is not penalized by the people, by holding off India from POK. If India can bargain here properly, it can wrangle out an agreement to station troops on the eastern border of Afghanistan as part of a strategy of anti-terror and disruption of Taleban supply lines to the POK.
The key here again will be to stabilize rather than expand. This is here where Obama and US policy will begin to unravel. The situation in the Afghan+Pakistan front needs expansion and dynamic rather than stabilization. Stabilization of control would mean the beginning of loss of initiative on NATO part and the turning point of the campaign. The reason static war would be disastrous for the US, is because of the peculiar ground situation. So far the anti-US forces have been fighting Chinese Red army style mobile warfare. Such war style can only be matched by continuous positional movement and encirclement of mobile warriors. As soon as this movement is lost, the mobile warriors gain advantage. For now, in an unfamiliar and unaccustomed territory, positional static NATO can be picked off at ease by its opponents.
Obama's concentration on economic affairs out of necessity, is likely to lead to less stress on foreign affairs that are seen to be expensive and without direct long term benefits. This in turn is likely to lead to less clarity on strategic military objectives, and a corresponding confusion in the military command over operations. It will not be as if Obama himself will be directly responsible, but his preoccupation with internal affairs and priority to world economic manipulation will lead to a neglect of military expansion and therefore adoption of stop-gap stabilization tactics. Obama will try to get India onboard for the US economic recovery programme, and formulate joint policies to counter China. Strategically, this can benefit the entire Indian subcontinent, especially those economies in a position technologically and educationally to benefit from such US-India relationship – especially India, Bangladesh and SriLanka. But this will also be a great opportunity for India to push through in strategic initiatives of its own about the central Asian republics. India can shrewdly play around to force US acceptance of Indian military presence, if India offers to provide substantial military and economic help directly to the Afghan government. Most diplomatic pressures are only effective when the other party realizes that the pressurizing party will go ahead and do something anyway – and that it is better to join in before it is too late to appear to be a reliable "friend".
US current needs coincides with India's on the economic front, primarily against Chinese capture of world markets, and I think there will be no problems in the evolution of collaboration here. But overall this economic movement will subtly and in a very complex way, leave its mark on the military/political strategic scenario, whereby the US and the NATO will ultimately retreat from the Afghan front. This is both a danger as well as an opportunity for India, if it has the correct leadership.Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )
Obama or McCain – to be or not to be that is the question
Americans are going to vote for one or the other of the two contenders for the President's chair at the White House, but who is going to be chosen by the United States? And how much is that choice going to be influenced by the desires and tantrums of the "significant others" in the international frienemy partnerships of the US?
As in any formal democracy, apparently or officially it is the common voter who chooses the winner in the US elections, although there are perhaps much simpler electoral mechanisms available as alternatives. But how are the choices of voters in their turn "chosen"? The common voter is always working under imperfect and incomplete and sometimes deliberately misleading information. The common voter is also guided by his or her personal history and learned responses to situations or decision problems. It can be shown through a simple game theoretic model, that in a two-party situation, both party's positions or policies tend to converge to the average or median voters preferences'. In a broad sense this has been happening to the Obama-McCain campaigns too – they have little difference in their vagueness and the few points of clarity in claimed future economic policy – supposed to be a crucial factor in the current elections.
It is surprising that there is little speculation about the international perspectives and significance of the timeline of the so-called "financial crisis" in the US. Crucially the "crisis" began to accelerate in the very election year, when there is a perception in many international quarters that an actual change of party in power could have significant political ramifications for US foreign policy and and its effects on international alliances both in competition and partnerships with the US. As many in the banking and financial industries have tried to point out and not without some justification that the crisis was more a crisis of confidence than a real one. Although I disagreed with this view from the economic viewpoint in my previous posts, as I have tried to point out repeatedly that there was a trade in "fictitious commodities" not backed up by real production, and the only thing that kept it going was the expectation of the general inbuilt trend of the world economy to grow over time, and current "fictitious trade" being balanced against future production. Such a scenario will always be vulnerable to manipulation of "confidence".
The US and UK led western coalition's heavy dependence on middle-eastern oil profit investment back into their economies is a fundamental vulnerability of not only their economies but also their political systems. China is sympathetic to the Islamic cause, which it sees as a tool that can be effectively used to prevent western dominance of Asia, and which it then hopes to lap up for itself in the future when it increases its economic and military power sufficiently. China has already begun tasting the fruits of its own Islamic and ethnic separatist medicine it applied with glee on the Indian subcontinent, in its own backward of the Muslim tribal belts in North Western China. But the severe ideological blindness which the remnants of "Sinified" Marxism still imposes on the Party-state structure will continue to propel its leadership towards an imperialist program covered under either genuine self-delusion or deliberate propaganda that it is after all the propagation of a "better philosophy of living". In this sense China is falling into the same delusional trap that the pre-WWII imperialist Japan fell into – declaring that in conquering and administering Asia it was liberating it from "pernicious" Gai-Jins. China's trade gap with the US has continued soaring in its favour, and a huge part of this trade gap is reinvested into the US financial markets. The combined effect of Middle eastern oil capital and Chinese trade surplus capital is at most studied in its economic context only, if at all recgonized. But what is being crucially left out is the political consequence of capital from these two sources.
Having faced the Bush administration's eight years of onslaught on the middle east, and its utilization of the fanaticism of an increasingly Jihadist Islam to re-penetrate into the Islamic world after the devastating bunglings in the 50's to the 70's (the paranoid obsession to eliminate "communism" leading to supporting and establishing fundamentalist Islamic regimes as an antidote, in Iraq, and Iran, with complete misunderstanding of the core tenets of Islam and seduced by the deceptive propaganda of these forces as to the real objectives of Islam), the Islamic world now dominated by two main state establishments of the Saudis and Iran, are likely to do everything to see to it that Bush policies are reversed. To a certain extent Bush's agressive intervention against Islamic forces who ultimately draw their inspriration from the orthodoxy of Sunni Wahabi Arabian Islam, is actually damaging for the Saudi royal establishment which patronizes at least officially by "default" but actually by various indirect state sponshorships the Wahabi Islamic propaganda aimed at eradicating non-Muslim cultures. This fear would be sympathetically echoed by China, and the two could actually coordinate to ensure that Bush's policies are discontinued. In political terms this could translate into a destabilization of the vulnerable economic infrastructure of the USA.
Sections of the American middle class can hope to have reversal of government policy in favour of job generation if Obama comes to power. Given the basic capitalist strutcure, even Obama will have little power to redsitribute capital among the middle class. There are two ways forward – one is to go back to the 1933 FDR policy of Keynesian public spending to generate jobs from infrastructure development. But we have to remember that at the time of FDR, there was still a lot of "infrastructure" to be developed in the USA, and to a certain extent similar public spending on building or other development has relatively less significant scope. The other way forward is going to the microcredit route, and giving access to capital specifically to those people who would be considered too risky by standard or classical banking model. Such a way forward will be severely opposed by big business, and we have to remember that big business is represented equally in the leadership of both sides. There is also the crucial question of consistent neglect of devloping the capabilities of the American population in terms of increasing competitiveness, with an alarming rate of declining educational achievement compared to levels and skills in the growing or emerging economies. Without such capability development, and given the lack of small-scale industrial or agrarian opportunities in the US system, even microcredit will have a difficult time launching.
The democrats in general represent popular dreams and hopes but as with leftist tendencies anywhere, ultimately become more authoritarian, and conservative that the "Right". Eric Hoffer, the Californian longshoreman, once observed along the lines that it is "best" and the "worst" of any society that really takes it forward. The weak knee of democracy is the bane of mediocrity, which makes it more stable, but also wary of individual ability, and historically a societal transition almost always takes place under authoritarian leadership – the so-called Gramscian dictatorship that is sufficiently detached from partisan affiliations to impose drastic beneficial changes.
To a great extent the success of the US system was its copying and modernization of the concept of the Roman dictator (not emperor or the Imperator – a title typically won out of voluntary adulation by soldiers on the field, and other similar practises – like corona graminae), and to a great extent the troubles of the US echo uncannily the problems of the Roman Republic. The significant frienemies of the USA want a change, but will such a change be beneficial to the USA in the long run? The Roman mob, maintained by grain imported from African and Egyptian colonies and distributed freely by the Roman elite, ensured that the populist Caesarian cause prevailed. The Roman elite in its bid to monopolize newly captured land and slave labour, had kept the Plebeians from having access to "productive capital" of the time (the dynamic used by Caesar's uncle Marius to recruit soldiers and settle them in conquered lands) and made them dependent on largesse. But this Caesarian cause ultimately gave the Julian dynasty which with the exception of its practical founder Octavian, foisted on Rome and its empire the horrors of Caligula or Nero, and started the long ultimate process of decline. Spectacular populist dictators were almost always bad for the health of the Roman republic.
So the question, a populist dictator of the Caesarian type or a more stable, less flamboyant and duller dictator with lesser capacity to do damage – which one is going to be chosen by the United States and not necessarily by American voters? To be or not to be….that is the question!Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )
Finance looks grim – but capital is there, growth can be, only foresight and will is not there
Who is hit the worst in a liquidity crisis? Not those who never had really any access to capital – the vast majority in any system who are deemed to be too "risky" by the dispensers of capital, the banks and the financial institutions. Not the big corporates, who hold sufficient capital stock or have sufficient power over policy-makers to "bail" them out with more "funds" filched from the public through the compulsory extraction process of taxation. It is the small producer, manufacturer, and the employees of such small production processes, who suffer the most, together with those employees at the bottom income segment of larger concerns who have little or no negotiating powers with their "fett Katz" bosses.
If it is the Government which needs to use public money, then where should this money go? This money should go the people who never really had access to capital. This should go to the small manufacturers and producers, either to established businesses or to promote new entrepreneurs. This money should go to form new community development and self-sufficient urbanization programs with built in agrarian, small-scale industries, and power generation components.
We can use this great opportunity to build a new way of living. At the moment we live in a world of super specialization, not only in industrial production or professions, but also in our lifestyles. Conditions of business, commerce and economic production processes ensure that professions define completely and entirely what the lifestyle, source of income, and culture of a person or his/her immediate network would be. Contrary to popular academic sociological representations of a "networked" society, all our societies, are deeply divided – with closed "networks", giving rise to class and deeply resented social fractures. Such closing off of "subnetworks" also means inefficiency in terms of the economy and productive forces or development, since opportunities and stimulating exposures to alternatives are not available to increasingly large portions of the society, and the society overall loses out on "brains" and "innovations".
On the other hand, socio-economic groups can monopolize items or entities of broad demand in the society. Thus in many economies, agrarian producers are completely "disjoint" from industrial producers, and financial services are disjoint from both, all these interact only through the "market" or pure process of exchange, and each can try to exploit the others. This is a different kind of "monopoly" – a social kind, where these self-closed networks ensure that the corresponding economic basis of their negotiating power remains within the network, and that "outsiders" do not have access to it. This means "departure" from "free market" conditions in the social situation, and is bound to be "inefficient" in the social sense.
What I visualize may appear to be a fantasy for many, but it is possible to go along this way. I visualize a world where human settlements are both agrarian and industrial with living conditions driven by "urban" concepts – the agrarian-industrial city. Each such settlement recycles its waste, produces most if not all of its energy, contains the entire spectrum of habitats from managed forests, water bodies, farms and industries. Crucially the residences should never be far from farms, as well as industries, and that both "farmers" and "industrial workers" share the same living locations. This increases energy efficiency, by cutting down on transport and storage requirements, and increases financial efficiency as system loss due to the intermediaries who live off on the pure process of circulation or movement of commodities. There are obvious health benefits too. Ideally, people from both sectors should have some direct participation in the other sector, for example it would be crucial for industrial workers to have access to farming jobs on a part time basis, or small plots of land on their own to cultivate. Similarly "farmers" should have access to small scale industrial jobs, or access to trade-sheds to carry out small-scale industrial or processing works. Hands on experience on economic processes of vital importance but not of personal specialization, provides two important buffers – (1) increased negotiating power with these "other" sectors in the larger economy (2) a fall back option to produce the bare essentials if the larger economy fails to provide it.
All these can be done within well-experimented frameworks of small-credit, or "micro-credit", and cooperatives. Financially it makes sense, as the capital is spread around in "many baskets" rather than one small "basket" which has shown time and again to lead us into "crises" like the present one. Especially in conditions when huge capital accumulation has taken place, and therefore comes under the effects of the "law of diminishing returns", spreading this capital around in micro-credit raises the overall capital appreciation rate (rates in micro-credit are astronomically higher than in conventional "lend only to those who already have" practises of banks). This will also produce a much broader base for economic growth and distribution of "prosperity".
I am limited here in how far of "academic exposition" of my vision in economic terms I can give. Formal models will involve meso-economic processes, and interactions both at the macro as well as the micro. However, the broad sense of what I am implying and its consequences can be worked out by readers on their own, based on their own personal understandings and experiences, without going through mathematical models. Political will to carry out and implement such a program is lacking, as even in "full fledged democracies", the political "power" elite form semi-closed "subnetworks", from which the general electorate are forced to choose what appear to them to be the best instantaneous "choice". These subnetworks of necessity develop economic "contacts" and mutually enforceable ties with the corporate world – sometimes out of the sheer necessity of dealing with the corporates as the dominant force of the national economy. The corporate sector will desperately and ruthlessly try to hog the share of public funds, and it is the task of the "electorate" to see to it that they do not get it without at least some compromise to allow a portion to be released into programs of the sort I have described above. In the end even the corporates will benefit from the overall deepening and broadening of the "market" arising out of such redistribution of capital.Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )