People often start a new year with resolutions, and what the earth needs is a resolution from everyone to aid the environment. For example, eating less beef or no meat at all. Numerous studies have shown that vegetarians live longer so we do a favor to earth and ourselves.
A steady stream of evidence continues to warn us of the future. The latest on sea-level rise in the Indian Ocean confirms an acceleration in the past two centuries, although ebb and rise over two millennia correlate with a cooling and warming earth. The source of the evidence are fossil coral micro-atolls in the Maldives. The latter have already lost some land to the sea.
Further north in India, Narendra Modi disgraced himself exposing the Fascist behind a mask. The new Citizenship Amendment Act offering amnesty to refugees specifically excludes Muslims betraying his origins in the Rashtriya Swayamsovak Sangh (RSS) the well-spring of the parliamentary Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Its notion of Hindu superiority is as absurd as the rest of its ideology in the face of India's history in the millennia prior to independence. The RSS was outlawed by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's founding prime minister as extremist. It was also a former RSS member who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi for being too soft on Muslims.
If Mohammad Ali Jinnah has been proven right for wanting a separate homeland for India's Muslims, then Mr. Nehru must be turning over in his grave watching his dream of a socialist, multi-religious, multicultural state being shattered. While his own party's Manmohan Singh put a dagger in the heart of socialism, the BJP has finished off the rest. Rest in peace the Gandhian (and Nehruvian) dream.
On the other side of the border, we have a former playboy who discovered religion, and a following through it plus a repeated call to root out corruption and punish the corrupt. Former leader Nawaz Sharif was duly arrested but mysteriously allowed bail and an exit visa. He has left the country as has his former rival Asif Zardari ... and
Meanwhile the playboy appears to be a total incompetent and worse. The pressure being put on the press centers on targeting the other businesses of the TV station and newspaper owners. It is said to be the worst ever. His constant drumbeat of corruption and a corrupt country has driven away investment, which a contemptuous disregard for the judiciary, civil servants and legislation has not contributed to a successful legislative agenda or smooth running of the country.
An emphasis on the external signals of his religiosity has him starting his speeches with verses from the Quran. Photographs now show him often with prayer beads in his hands. When the founder of the country was famously known for being partial to a usual drink of whisky in the evening, he was clearly not particularly preoccupied with religious practice, In his first speech [para 7], he emphasized the harm caused by religious divisiveness. Mr. Jinnah, too, must be turning over in his grave.
In the UK, however, members of Parliament of Indian subcontinent origin continue to increase with fifteen from Pakistan alone. Sajid Javid, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasury Secretary), and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, are descended from Pakistani and Indian immigrants for example. In such circumstances, would it be very wrong to invite Britain back to sort out the mess that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have become? After all, it would be brethren ruling brethren ... and then, too, eliminating the risk of nuclear war will be an added bonus.
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