The Rest Are Not Rising After All

Brazil, Russia, India, China. The so-called BRICs.

“Over 50 percent of them(Americans), according to a Gallup poll conducted this year, said they think that China is already the world’s “leading” economy, even though the U.S. economy is still more than twice as large…

The notion of wide-ranging convergence between the developing and the developed worlds is a myth…

Of the roughly 180 countries in the world tracked by the International Monetary Fund, only 35 are developed.  The markets of the rest are emerging – and most of them have been emerging for many decades and will continue to do so for many more…

There were a few pockets of countries that did catch up with the West, but they were limited to oil states in the Gulf, the nations of southern Europe after World War II, and the economic “tigers” of East Asia…

It was only after 2000 that the emerging markets as a whole started to catch up; nevertheless as of 2011, the difference in per capita incomes between the rich and developing nations was back to where it was in the 1950s…

Other than being the largest economies in their respective regions, the big four emerging markets never had much in common.  They generate growth in different and often competing ways – Brazil and Russia for example are major energy producers that benefit from high energy prices , whereas India, as a major energy consumer, suffers from them.  Except in highly unusual circumstances…they are unlikely to grow in unison…

Russia’s economy and stock market have been…dominated by an oil-rich class of billionaires whose assets equal 20 percent of GDP, by far the largest share held by the super-rich in any major economy…

…looks back to say the seventeenth century, when China and India accounted for perhaps half of global GDP…

China’s population is simply too big and aging too quickly for its economy to continue growing as rapidly as it has.  With over 50 percent of its people now living in cities, China is nearing what economists call “‘the Lewis turning point'” the point at which a country’s surplus labor from rural areas has been largely exhausted…

One casualty will be the notion that China’s success demonstrates the superiority of authoritarian, state-run capitalism…

Although the world can expect more breakout nations to emerge from the bottom income tier, at the top and the middle, the new global economic order will probably look more like the old one than most observers predict.  The rest may continue to rise ,but they will rise more slowly and unevenly than many experts are anticipating.  And precious few will ever reach the income levels of the developed world.”

Foreign Affairs, November/December 2012 Broken BRICs: Why the Rest Stopped Rising, Ruchir Sharma

India Scores In Space

“The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is a state-owned entity rare in the country for meaning business and actually delivering. Last week, the agency marked its 100th mission by successfully deploying into orbit a French Earth observation satellite and a Japanese micro-satellite, using its workhorse single-entry Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

“As ISRO’s 100th space mission, today’s launch is a milestone in our nation’s space capabilities,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who watched the launch live at ISRO’s space center at Sriharikota, north of Chennai.”

Pre-Politically Correct History: Traditional Hindu Marriage vs. Western ‘Romantic’ Marriage

“The child was hardly born when the parents began to think of its marriage. For marriage, in the Hindusystem, was compulsory; an unmarried man was an outcast, without social status or consideration, and prolonged virginity was a disgrace. Nor was marriage to be left to the whim of individual choice or romantic love; it was a vital concern of society and the race, and could not safely be entrusted to the myopia of passion of the accidents of proximity; it must be arranged by the parents before the fever of sex should have time to precipitate a union doomed, in the Hindu view, to disillusionment and bitterness…

Should marriage be arranged to coincide with sexual maturity, or should it be postponed, as in America, until the male arrives at economic maturity? The first solution apparently weakens the national physique, unduly accelerates the growth of population, and sacrifices the woman almost completely to reproduction; the second solution leaves the problems of unnatural delay, sexual frustration, prostitution, and venereal disease. The Hindus chose child marriage as the lesser evil and tried to mitigate its dangers by establishing, between the marriage and its consummation, a period in which the bride should remain with her parents until the coming of puberty. The institution was old…it had been rooted in the desire to prevent intercaste marriage through casual sexual attraction…”

Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 1935

Pre-Politically Correct History: Eugenics and Hindu Caste

“The caste system had the eugenic value of keeping the presumably finer strains from dilution and disappearance through indiscriminate mixture; it established certain habits of diet and cleanliness as a rule of honor which all might observe and emulate; it gaver order to the chaotic inequalities and differences of men, and spared the soul the modern fever of climbing and gain; it gave order to every life by prescribing for each man a dharma, or code of conduct for his caste; it gave order to every trade and profession, elevated every occupation into a vocation not lightly to be changed, and, by making every industry a caste, provided its member with a means of united action against exploitation and tyranny. It offered an escape from the plutocracy or the military dictatorship which are apparently the only alternatives to aristocracy; it gave to a country shorn of political stability by a hundred invasions and revolutions a social, moral and cultural order and continuity rivaled only by the Chinese.”

Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, 1935

Despite all the flaws and cruelty we’ve seen come from the Hindu caste system there’s something to be said for making sure people spend more time getting things done rather than putting all their energy into competing for status.
Also, compared to the constant uncertainty of existence in our own society there is something to be said for being born into a trade union that has real leverage.

Though we must be mindful of the sort of strife that is typical in Indian society, surely there are important lessons to learn from them as well. Lessons that can put the barbarous excesses of our own system in perspective.

Finally, results matter. Hindu society has proven far more stable for far longer than our own.

Another Excerpt on Hindu Caste and Eugenics from 1927

Two Types of Cinnamon – You’ve Probably Just Seen One of Them

The rock hard ‘cinnamon’ sticks and powder version of it you find at the store are actually more properly said to be products of the cassia tree.
The main sources are typically in Southeast Asia.

The original cinnamon mostly comes from Sri Lanka and South India.
You can immediately tell the difference because its texture is papery and you can break it apart with your finger nails.
You can easily chew on it like candy and get a sweet rather than a fiery cinnamon flavor.

Left: ‘true cinnamon’
Right: Cassia

There is an easy way to get ‘true cinnamon’ in the States. Just go to the Mexican food section and get the cinnamon sticks there, it’s almost always the Sri Lankan stuff.

Even the cassia that’s available in most supermarkets is harvested young and thus of pretty low quality. The good cinnamon bark comes from older trees and you can gauge quality by its thickness.

Here’s some of the grade of cassia that I’m able to get from Chinese herbal shops in the states:

When making my own tinctures, I’ve used both species of cinnamon together. ‘True’ for the delicate and sweet, cassia for its fire.
Because it’s dense and woody, I find vodka doesn’t quite cut it. Everclear makes for a much better extract.

LINK

Portugal + India = Vindaloo

Ever seen vindaloo curries on menu at Indian restaurants?
The word derives from the Portuguese ‘vindalho.’

A vindaloo curry is just one example of an Iberian-Indian fusion cuisine that arose in the former Portuguese colony of Goa.

A favorite cooking ingredient, cashews, were brought by the Portuguese from another colony: Brazil.

The cashew fruits: used to make the local wine.

LINK

Martial Races in British India

The British actively sought out the ethnic groups in India and surrounds that they deemed best suited as soldiers and designated these peoples “Martial Races.”
They then recruited heavily from these groups for the British colonial army.