WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-09

About-the world this week, 26 February to 4 March 2023: the struggle in Iran; migrants to Italy; getting to the Earth’s core; origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s Presidential Election; Trains in Greece; Israel and Palestine; India’s northeastern State Elections.

Everywhere

The struggle in Iran continues and this time the news is about 650 girls being deliberately poisoned. Though none have died, dozens have been admitted to hospital with respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. This and other chemical attacks on women, seems to a revenge for the role young women played in the recent protests against forced hijab, and against the Islamic Regime.

This Sunday, more than 80 migrants and refugees died when their boat capsized off the coast of Southern Italy. This included a one month old baby and twin toddlers. The vessel carrying about 200 people, broke apart while trying to land near Italy’s Crotone. On board the boat, which had set out from Turkey a few days earlier, were people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Obviously, these refugees were escaping the oppressive regimes or poor living conditions in their respective countries, seeking a better life elsewhere.

The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the Central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year alone-and we have just started- it estimates.

Italy is one of the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel on to richer northern European nations. But to do so, they must brave the world’s most dangerous migration route.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has urged the European Union to act to stop clandestine migrant boat journeys. Italy accused migrant rescue charities for encouraging migrants to make the dangerous sea journey to Italy, and sometimes work in partnership with traffickers.

There are also calls for more regular migration channels to Europe, and action by Governments in the region to address multiple causes pushing people to try the sea crossings. And often ending in disaster.

That’s a haemorrhage of human life in such troubled spots of the world.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, it is about 530 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school. Afghan women and girls continue to be denied education by the ruling Taliban in their tunnel-vision governance of the Country. And this is impairing and pushing back basic freedom for women in Afghanistan.

It’s about time Space research is given some space, to rest awhile. And for a change, Scientists have turned their eyes inward, to what lies beneath our feet.

We learnt in school that Planet Earth comprises four layers-moving from the outside to the inside: an outer rock crust, then a rocky mantle, an outer core made of molten-liquid magma, and a solid metallic inner core – about 2440 kilometres (km) wide.

Scientists have long wondered what really lies at the very centre of the Earth. And the latest research findings suggest that our planet has a distinct ball of iron – a 640 km ball of iron-nickel alloy -within its metallic core, which actually is a hidden layer, or an ‘innermost inner core’. This is according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.

The monumental finding suggests that the Earth has five major layers instead of four. And detecting the new layer, more than 1600 km beneath our feet, is significant. If offers new details scientists could use to help unlock some of the oldest mysteries about our planet and how it was formed, how it has evolved, and how it will continue doing so. It also enables better understanding of Earth’s magnetic field.

Now we know that we cannot simply dig through the Earth from one end to the other, without hitting an iron ball wall.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, there was a strong suspicion that it could have been caused by a laboratory accident in China’s Wuhan. We were then so engulfed in fighting the coronavirus that we paused that ‘origin button’ to find ways of managing the effects of the pandemic. Now we are almost done, and the proverbial skeletons are crawling out of the Chinese cupboard.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, Christopher Wray wasn’t wary at all when he acknowledged that the FBI believes the Covid-19 pandemic was likely the result of a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China. Of course China, on its part, infuriated by the accusation, simultaneously pointed fingers at the United States.

A John Hopkins Hospital Doctor has also said that it is no brainer that the coronavirus was from a lab. And the origins were never a secret? Maybe we may never really know?

In Nigeria the result of the Presidential Election was announced and Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner. The elections were controversial, with Opposition Parties decrying it as rigged.

Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressive Congress Party defeated Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, and Peter Obi, the popular Third Force candidate. This is one of Nigeria’s most fiercely contested Elections since returning to democratic rule in 1999.

Tinubu hails from the same party as outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and previously served as the Governor of Lagos State. Tinbu will serve as Nigeria’s 5th President.

On the wheels of the recent train derailing accident in the United States comes a head-on collision between two trains, near the city of Larissa, Tempi, Central Greece, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others. The two trains, a Passenger Train carrying more than 350 people and a Freight Train collided, both of which were travelling for several kilometres on the same track. At some point, the Passenger Train had changed tracks and switched to a cargo-track setting-up the head-on collision.

Greece has a poor track record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe. It has the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometres from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent.

Israel and Palestine are forever at each other’s throats in what seems to be a never-ending war in the over 100 years conflict. In recent times, especially since the start of this year, there has been an intensification of violence between the warring factions, with deaths mounting on both sides.

The current violence is mainly taking place in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – areas occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war, which began to escalate in March 2022.

In a period of days, Israel was rocked by a series of deadly Palestinian attacks and the Israeli military launched an open-ended operation in the West Bank in response, resulting in nightly raids into the occupied territories.

Israel says it has to continue its operations to weaken the militant groups and thwart attacks, while Palestinians say the attacks are a response to Israel’s actions and overwhelmingly more powerful military. There is also no political peace process, which could offer the prospect of a permanent solution, leaving decades-old grievances – the Palestinians’ want of a state and Israel’s want of security chief among them – festering.

Each side blames the other, but there are also longer-term underlying causes.

Palestinian attackers and those who support them say they are fighting Israel and the occupation and avenging Israeli assaults.

Some of the Palestine attacks have been carried out by ‘lone wolves’-individuals who were not acting on the orders of an organisation. Other attacks have been carried out by Palestinian militant groups, including the newly formed ‘Lions’ Den’, whose popularity on the Palestinian street has surged.

Israel’s ongoing operation in the West Bank, called ‘Break the Wave’, is targeting militant groups with arrest raids to stop them from launching attacks. The raids, however, are often taking place in densely populated refugee camps and other urban areas, where they meet resistance from gunmen and often turn bloody.

This week there was a flood of visits to India, by other countries, to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers Meet under the chairmanship of India. Russia and the US briefly met face-to-face in a you-dare, I-dare, cinematic fashion, the first since the Russia-Ukraine War. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Russia to reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty.

India’s efforts to bridge differences and produce a joint statement stumbled due to differences over the war. However, an ‘outcome document’ was produced.

In India news, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heading the Government at the Centre kept its winning streak in State elections that come its way – this time in northeastern India. Three States swooned to the BJP’s charms.

The State of Nagaland got its first-ever couple of woman MLA’s and the BJP kept its Government allying with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). The major alliance partner NDPP improved its performance this year by 7 seats, winning 25 of 60 seats seats. The BJP won 12 seats and the relationship continues.

The two women who created History are, NDPP’s Hekani Jakhalu from the Dimapur seat, who won by 1536 votes, and NDPP’s Salhoutuonuo from Western Angami constituency, who won by a razor-thin 7 votes.

In the Sate of Tripura, the BJP won a majority on its own – just crossed the half-way mark. In the State of Meghalaya it was a hung result and it tied-up with the National People’s Party (NPP) after winning 2 seats to the NPP’s 26 and hopes to form a Government with others joining in.

While the Congress Party of India was being trounced all over India and bleeding seats – except for a few solo ‘historic’ wins- its key Leader, trimmed his beard slipped into a suit-boot mode, and sporting a new look, visited his Alma Mater, Cambridge, in London, United Kingdom. He lectured students on the art of ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’ and about promoting ‘new thinking’ in democracy. He also bashed India with, ‘Indian Democracy is under attack’, which is not good for his and India’s health.

He peddled lies such as claiming he had the Pegasus malware in his phone and that he was told by ‘intelligence officers’ that his calls are being recorded. The fact is, no evidence of the Pegasus malware was found in a Supreme Court inquiry. He and many other politicians who claimed they were being snooped on and tried to raise a political controversy over it, never submitted their phones to the probe panel. Of the 29 phones that were submitted, only 5 were found to be infected with ‘some kind of malware’ and none of them was confirmed to be Pegasus.

An Ambassador ‘lies’ abroad for the welfare of his country. A scion of India’s Grand Old Party, lovingly called ‘Pappu’ in India, lies abroad to defame India. Some never learn.

Meanwhile, we are listening and thinking, for sure. Maybe, grow a new beard to trim later on?

More growing-up stories and uplifting ones coming in the weeks ahead. Vote for World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-08

About-the world this week, 19 February to 25 February 2023: The US in Ukraine; a melting Thwaite Glacier; a canal dry Venice; Israel’s Supreme Court; Trains and Tunnels; Canada’s Super Pigs; Two leaves, and a Bow & Arrow; and Japan’s roll with an iron Ball.

Everywhere

This week United States (US) President Joe Biden made a surprise dash to Ukraine to walk with President Zelensky on the streets of Kyiv, hear the air-raid alarms, deliver bear-hugs, show solidarity, and announce additional support and aid. That should be morale boosting for Ukraine. This is Biden’s first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago and it comes almost on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of 24th February. Biden said the US would stand with Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and praised the heroic fight-back. He then went on for a three-day visit to neighbouring Poland, where he declared that Russia will never be able to capture Ukraine.

Meanwhile, European Union (EU) foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss how to make sure Ukrainian forces are supplied with enough ammunition to keep the war going.

And in Russia, President Vladimir Putin made his state of the union address, where he recycled the same lines about his rationale for invading Ukraine; and he outlined no vision of how the so-called ‘special military operation’ he launched might end. But Putin did offer at least one headline, announcing that Russia is suspending its participation in the ‘New START’ (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), the US-Russia bilateral agreement on nuclear arms reduction. Putin repeated the same baseless claim that Russia had no choice but to use force against Ukraine. And he doubled down on blaming the West for the conflict. “I want to repeat: it was they who unleashed the war,” Putin said. “And we used and continue to use force to stop it.” Wow, what an inventive, foggy reason!

Doomsday could arrive sometime in the future and Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, also nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Glacier’, may drown many parts of the World on a probably irreversible path. Over the years, this unusually broad and vast Glacier, about the size of Great Britain, alone has contributed to 4% rise in global sea levels. Thwaites is melting rapidly and all the Oceans being connected, a full melt-down could result in a 1 to 3 metre rise in sea levels all across the World.

Presently a floating ice-shelf called the Thwaites Ice-Shelf braces and restrains the eastern portion of the Thwaites Glacier. In recent years, this ice sheet has been steadily disintegrating and Scientists predicated that it is likely to collapse within a decade from 2021. The Thwaites Glacier itself acts a natural dam for enormous ice lakes sitting behind it. They will slide down the mild slopes of continental Antarctica and into the sea once Thwaites collapses.

The Glacier is named after Fredrik T Thwaites, a glacial geologist and Professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What would be the effects? Think, major cities such as New York, Miami, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Tokyo would be inundated. And low-lying Island nations such as Maldives (Indian Ocean), Kiribati (Central Pacific Ocean) and Tuvalu (South Pacific) may be swallowed up.What can we do? Some have suggested building of underwater walls with robots, and others have suggested enormous cooling tunnels under the ice to cool the slightly warmer water beneath the Glacier, which chips away at the ice.

Whatever, the impacts of melting glaciers can always be mitigated depending on how we humans respond in the coming decades. And there is no reason to panic. Maybe we should never use the word ‘Doomsday Glacier’ as it gives the inaccurate impression of something inevitable?

Meanwhile, in yonder Italy, the City of Venice would certainly do with lots of water. Its iconic canals are running dry, making it impossible for the city’s famous gondolas and water taxis to navigate the waterways.

This follows weeks of dry winter weather with the Alps having received less than normal snowfall. A combination of factors are to blame, including lack of rain and unusual low sea tides.

Imagine, Venice built on over 100 islands and crisscrossed by 177 canals, which was once at the risk of drowning, is now starving for water!

Israel has a problem. It’s about judicial reforms which aim to overhaul the country’s legal system. Its Supreme Court (SC) has remained supreme, may be too supreme and the Government brought in reforms to curb a ‘dictatorial streak’. The changes would limit the SC’s power to rule against the legislature and the executive, giving the Israeli Parliament – Knesset- the power to override the SC decisions with a simple majority of 61 votes out of the 120 seat Knesset. Another change proposes to do away with the SC’s authority to review the legality of Israel’s Basic Laws, which function as the country’s constitution.

Supporters agree with the changes. Opponents think it would threaten’s Israel’s democratic nature and may lead to majoritarian rule. People are out on the streets to protest the changes. Others say there is more than meets the eye, and the conflict is not about the role of judges; rather it is over different visions of Israel. May the best vision win?

We have often heard of stories of tunnels being made and to speed up the process -the digging erroneously begins are the two ends. And how they fail to connect due to a wrong alignment – and you either find a way to connect them, abandon them, or get two tunnels.

Now leaving the tunnel alone, there is a story in Spain of how new commuter trains were ordered that could not fit the non-standard tunnels in the northern regions of Spain’s Asturias and Cantabria. However, the mistake was spotted before the trains could be actually pushed into production.

Spain’s Rail Operator Renfe ordered the trains in 2020, but the following year the Manufacturer realised that the dimensions it had been given for the trains were inaccurate and ‘on a hunch’, stopped work.

The rail network in northern Spain was built in the 19th Century and has tunnels under the mountainous landscape that do not match standard modern tunnel dimensions.

The Government launched a joint investigation to find out how the error could have happened and fired a Renfe manager, and the head of track technology, over the blunder. The botched order cost nearly USD 275 million.

Looks like it’s the season of ambitious wide-bodied thinking failing to fit into our straight-jacket world.

Farmers in Canada wanted to breed large-bodied pigs that are far more resistant to cold so that they are able to survive and reproduce at temperatures that would have killed off other types of livestock. Hence, they came-up with and made a new hybrid species –The Canadian Super Pig-by mating domestic pigs and wild boars. Though they initially lived in captivity, a decline in the market for Pigs and Boars led to many of them being freed.

A group of these Super Pigs are now travelling down from Canada to the Northern US and pose a serious threat to native wildlife and humans alike, by spreading disease, and gobbling up crops. These Super Pigs are considered to be incredibly intelligent, learning as they eat and find their way around new places. The fear is that these pigs, swine, hogs, boars – whichever name you give them – these omnivores are poised to wreak havoc on the environment in both Canada and the United States.

In India, two State level political parties have been fighting over control of their parties after the death of their respective charismatic leaders and after a few years of ruling the State in their light and shine.

In the first, in the Western State of Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena founded by Bal Thackeray saw the majority of the party led by Eknath Shinde break away from the family-faction led by the son Uddhav Thackeray. And collaborate with the Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a Government, with Eknath Shinde becoming the Chief Minister. This week India’s Election Commission (EC) ruled that the faction led by Eknath Shinde is the real Shiv Sena and awarded it the Party Symbol – Bow & Arrow – and associated Offices. The decision was challenged in the the Supreme Court of India, but the Court sided with the EC’s decision. Later, the Election Commission awarded a ‘Cone Ice-cream’ Symbol to what was left of Uddhav’s party, which was anyway melting away into oblivion.

In the second, in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu, following the death of Supremo Jayalalithaa, two leaders Ottakarathevar Pannerselvam (OPS) and Edappadi Karuppa Gounder Palaniswami (EPS) teamed-up staying true to the ‘Two Leaves’ Symbol of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). And ruled as Deputy Chief Minister and Chief Minister respectively for a while, only to lose the last Assembly Elections to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). But the EPS led AIADMK gave a decent fight, and he went on to become the Opposition Leader. Then the bickering and fighting began and the dual-leadership model broke down, and it became awfully tough for the two leaves to stay on the same stem. Single Leadership seemed to be the best option to take on the ruling DMK and the growing-by-leaps-and-bounds BJP. After many a run to high and higher courts with, you-lose-some, I-win-some games, this week the SC ruled that bye-laws brought-in to make EPS the single leader are legal. This makes the way for EPS to be formally elected General Secretary and undisputed Leader of the AIADMK, graduating from being the ‘interim’ General Secretary.

Parties should choose symbols carefully: A bow cannot wait to dispatch an arrow. And two leaves on a stem cannot stem the growth of more leaves!

Oh Buoy!

This week Japan was rattled when a rusty metal sphere, about 1.5 metres wide, washed up on a beach in Hamamatsu. Could it be a Godzilla egg (the effect of watching too many movies), a Dragon Ball, something from outer space, a spy ball… a mooring buoy? This was in the background of the Chinese spy balloon saga, and a hostile North Korea pumping test missiles into the Sea of Japan.

The area was cordoned off and by the Police and even a bomb squad was sent to check out the object. Then it was X-rayed, declared safe and picked-up for disposal.

Turns out it was a hollow sphere, a steel mooring buoy, used to carry instruments or act as floating markers. The buoys can break free from their anchorage in the sea, either in a violent storm or from being pulled by a big fishing vessel. The objects can float in the ocean for decades, and can lose their markings and get rusty when they wash ashore.

Many Japanese were embarrassed that they could not recognise a buoy in a sea of thoughts.

More fighting, melting, wide-bodied stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay buoyed-up and afloat with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-07

About-the world this week, 12 February to 18 February 2023: new normal war and education; a chemical train derails; Cyclone Gabrielle acts tough; the First Minister of Scotland quits; a new illness; Super Bowl and pregnancies; and a famous, beautiful Hollywood Actress dies.

Everywhere

America is suddenly occupied with shooting down ‘Identified Flying Objects’ and also Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) strolling into its airspace, and ‘maybe’ calling them Aliens – it’s becoming a habit and a new trend.

The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fight-back by Ukraine in the War is growing normal. So is the fact that girls are shut-out of schools and colleges by the Taliban in Afghanistan: denied basic education only because of their gender, which is not done as policy in any other country on Earth-a war on Education. The World needs to do more to stop these two senseless wars.

The Earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, last week, bore stories of unbelievable grit of survival emerging from the ruins and the rubble; and, once life is extracted, washed-down, and fed food, displayed a beatific smile. Life lives and sustains in the worst of disasters. And goes on.

The contrast between killings in the Russian-Ukraine War – we need to count the dead – and saving lives in the Earthquake, is stunning. Life is precious. Why is the United Nations- strung-together by countries of the world-with the stated purpose of ‘preventing another (world) war, unable to do anything at all – in the War in Ukraine and in Education in Afghanistan? Thankfully its Health and Food programmes are success stories we can talk about in abundance. But the ‘Achilles heel’ is, failing to prevent war, or stop a war that has slipped through and started.

Staying with the United States, while it is fully focused on the sky, for the moment, the news of a deadly train derailment in Ohio State did not fire or climb much of the headlines.

Last week, a train carrying the chemical, vinyl chloride derailed and exploded near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. And a controlled burn of the toxic chemical had to be ignited to prevent a much more dangerous explosion. Thousands in East Palestine, a town of about 5000 people, were evacuated with a warning the controlled burn would create a phosgene and hydrogen chloride plume across the region. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing difficulties, and was used as a weapon in the First World War.

The Ohio derailment can be safely called a catastrophe. And it is a ‘wake-up call’ to the dangers of deadly train derailments. The next one could be cataclysmic. No one died in the accident, but the air is pregnant with danger.

‘Ineffective oversight and a largely self-monitoring industry that has cut the rail workforce to the bone in recent years as it puts record profits over safety’, is responsible for the wreck, said a Railroad Official.

About 4.5 million tons of toxic chemicals are shipped by rail each year and an average of 12,000 rail coaches carrying hazardous materials pass through cities and towns each day, according to the US Department of Transportation.

Going into another line of thinking, just 22 train tank coaches filled with LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) holds the same amount of energy as the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. An LNG fire is extremely difficult to contain, and shipping it by rail can be extremely dangerous. While we are astonished by the effect that the spillage of five coaches of vinyl chloride has had at the Pennsylvania-Ohio border it would be nothing compared to the effects of a similar derailment of LNG.

The US is definitely heading ‘someplace’. What, with it being ‘attacked’ from the Air- UFO’s and Aliens; on Land – chemical derailments, and people using easily-available guns to primarily shoot down school going children.

Meanwhile, this week, a gunman, Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, killed three Michigan State University students and left five others in critical condition. He had no known ties to the University and opened fire on two parts of campus. And was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. There have been 12 school shootings so far this year, and the shooting at Michigan State marks the first at a college or university this year.

Over the past year we have heard of mighty winds, heavy and incessant rains, blazing heat, and other devilish Weather conditions ‘not seen or experienced in a generation or in decades’. Well, it’s back this year.

Cyclone Gabrielle – the kind not seen in a generation in New Zealand – pummelled much of the country’s North Island causing the Government to declare a National Emergency – only the third in New Zealand’s history.

About a third of the country’s population of five million people live in the affected areas. Many people were displaced from their homes and some were forced to swim to safety after rivers burst their banks and entered their houses. Others climbed to rooftops from where they were rescued . About a quarter of a million people are without power. Falling trees have smashed houses, and landslides have carried others away and blocked roads. The storm’s damage has been most extensive in coastal communities on the far north and east coast of the North Island – with areas like Hawke’s Bay, Coromandel, and Northland among the worst hit.

Down Under neighbour Australia has often gone under water and now the ‘disease’ has spread to New Zealand.

The United Kingdom (UK) consists of the lands of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With England, Scotland, and Wales being referred to as Great Britain we have one title, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the Passport.

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each have their own government or executive led by a First Minister and a devolved unicameral legislature. England, the largest of the constituents of the United Kingdom has no devolved executive or legislature and is administered directly by the UK Parliament, which also reigns supreme over Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The First Minister of Scotland is Nicola Sturgeon, 52, who is also the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), a position she has held since 2014.

This week, in a shock announcement, Nicola Sturgeon ‘in a Jacinda Ardern moment’ called it quits as First Minister as well as Leader of the SNP, saying, “In my head and my heart, I know the time is now”.

This was a bombshell which send shockwaves through Scottish politics. Her Government was in a pivotal moment, in pursuit of SNP’s founding goal, of Scottish Independence in the light of the UK Government’s refusal to engage in plans for a referendum. And the UK Supreme Court has ruled against another referendum on Scottish freedom being held unilaterally, i.e., without the UK Government’s consent.

Nicola Sturgeon departs after facing mounting pressure over her tactics for independence and over transgender rights, though she said she was under no pressure whatsoever over these issues.

Sturgeon became First Minister in the aftermath of the September 2014 referendum, which saw Scots reject breaking away from the rest of the United Kingdom by more than 10 percentage points. However she has been doggedly pushing for another vote, especially in the background of Scotland voting against Brexit in 2016. She has overseen unprecedented electoral success for the SNP as she kept the ‘scent of Scottish Independence’ alive. “I firmly believe that my successor, whoever he or she may be, will lead Scotland to independence and I’ll be there cheering him or her on every single step of the way,” she said.

In less than a month, two prominent world leaders-New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, and Nicola Sturgeon -have resigned from political office. The similarity in the reasons both leaders have cited will find resonance in much of the world, especially among women in public life. Both have cited exhaustion, the need to step away from constant scrutiny and have a private life. They have also hinted at how dehumanising being a woman in public life can be. Lessons for the world!

Marburg

An illness, which has killed more than nine people in Equatorial Guinea has been identified as Marburg, a highly infectious and deadly Ebola-like virus for which there’s no vaccine, officials announced this Monday.

The outbreak was first detected last Tuesday, affecting people who went to a funeral ceremony in Kie-Ntem province, which borders Cameroon and Gabon. It prompted a local lockdown and restrictions along the border with Cameroon. One of the eight samples which were examined has since tested positive for Marburg virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. The other results are not yet known. Samples were negative for Ebola, Lassa, Dengue and Yellow Fever.

So far, Equatorial Guinea has reported 25 suspected cases, including 9 deaths. Their symptoms include nose bleeds, fever, fatigue, joint pain and blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea.

The Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes hemorrhagic fever and has a case fatality ratio of up to 88%. It’s in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola. Human-to-human transmission is possible through direct contact with bodily fluids, surfaces and materials.

There are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat this virus.

Please Yourself

Super Bowl

In American Football, the Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season, since 1966.

The Super Bowl is played on the second Sunday in February of the year and is among the world’s most-watched single sporting event and frequently commands the largest audience among all American broadcasts during the year.

This year’s Super Bowl, the 57th, was played on 12th February at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Kansas City Chiefs won their second Super Bowl in four seasons, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35.

One of the most eagerly awaited events is the half-time of the Super Bowl when Superstar musicians treat the spectators to a spectacular performance. Remember, the 37th Super Bowl made famous by ‘Janetgate’, when Singer Janet Jackson’s breast—adorned with a nipple shield—was exposed by Actor-Singer Justin Timberlake to the viewing public for approximately half a second. The shield made us wonder whether Janet came prepared with a ‘shield’ expecting the ‘Justin’ attack? It went on to create a voluminous discourse over indecency in broadcasting.

This year, singer Rihanna performed live about a dozen of her hits, without controversy, at half-time. It was an epic music show featuring gravity-defying sets – mainly seven LED illuminated platforms that were hung up to 60 feet above the field. Some said it was the most technically advanced show ever, at the Super Bowl.

And once the music died down, Rihanna made an announcement of a second pregnancy with Rapper A$AP Rocky (he has a dollar in his name).

Not to be left behind, the already mother of three, Actress Blake Lively followed suit announcing ‘one more’ with husband Actor Ryan Reynolds.

I read about a couple in Poland who had seven kids and decided to go for one more, but were blessed with quintuplets – that’s a dozen in total! Suddenly it looks like it’s raining babies all over Plant Earth. The human population is surely exploding and may become the next Climate Change problem, will it? And we have a grown-up child activist leading an effort, from the front!

US actress Raquel Welch – a breath-taking natural beauty – who, some say, paved the way for modern-day action heroines in Hollywood films, died at the age of 82, after a brief illness.

Welch became an international sex symbol in the 1960s, widely remembered for playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C. She also won a Golden Globe for her role in 1974’s The Three Musketeers. In a career spanning over five decades, Welch appeared in more than 30 movies and 50 television shows.

In the year 1979, Raquel Welch posed for Playboy, but she never did a fully nude shoot. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner later said, “Raquel Welch, one of the last of the classic sex symbols, came from the era when you could be considered the sexiest woman in the world without taking your clothes off. She declined to do complete nudity, and I yielded gracefully. The pictures prove her point”.

Welch married her high school sweetheart, James Welch with whom she had two children, Damon Welch, and Latanne Tahnee Welch (who is an actress). James and Raquel Welch divorced in 1964: she retained James’ last name, Welch, until her death.

She married producer Patrick Curtis in 1967, and divorced him in 1972. In 1980, she married producer Andre Weinfeld, divorcing him in 1990. Welch wed Richard Palmer, owner of Mulberry Street Pizzeria (over 30 years in the business of making Pizzas; claims to be the World’s most famous Pizzeria) in 1999 but then separated in 2003. After this, Welch did not remarry.

She was my ‘Dream Woman’ in the High School and College days. RIP Raquel Welch.

More stories pregnant with life and meaning coming up in the weeks ahead. Deliver your best with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-06

About-the world this week, 5 February to 11 February 2023: a devastating earthquake; a balloon in the sky; an ex-Dictator dies; and the sound of the Grammys.

Everywhere

Turkey is Shaken

Long before it struck, the birds seemed to know it would come, behaving strangely as only nature can trigger, to announce an impending disaster in its own mysterious and unique way.

In the early hours of this Monday an Earthquake measuring 7.8 magnitude (moment magnitude scale) hit Turkey and Syria causing deadly devastation. More than 20,000 people have died, close to 80,000 injured and tens of thousands rendered homeless. While that’s the count at this time, an earthquake expert estimates that 180,000 people or more may be trapped under the rubble, nearly all of them dead!

A video of a multi-storey building on a busy Turkey street showed it crumble like a pack of cards leaving behind nothing but dust and rubble. In another, a photograph, a man could be seen holding on to ‘only the hand’ of his 15 year daughter crushed to death under the rubble – it was heart-wrenching.

The main earthquake was followed by about 60 aftershocks and another quake measuring 7.5 and yet another at 5.9. The epicentre is estimated to be 23 kilometres (km) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep Province, at a depth of 24.1 km.

Monday’s earthquake is the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939, when a similar one killed 30,000 people. Earthquakes of this magnitude are rare, with fewer than five occurring each year on average, anywhere in the world. Seven quakes with magnitude 7 or greater have struck Turkey in the past 25 years. Why Turkey?

Turkey lies in one of the World’s most active earthquake zones, being at the intersection of three tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust: the Anatolian, Arabian, and the African plates. Arabia is moving northwards into Europe, causing the Anatolian plate -which Turkey sits on-to be pushed out westwards. The movement of the tectonic plates builds up pressure on fault zones at their boundaries. And a sudden release of this pressure causes earthquakes. Monday’s earthquake is likely to have happened on one of the major fault lines that marks the boundaries between the Anatolian and Arabian plates: either the East Anatolian fault or the Dead Sea Transform fault. These are both ‘strike-slip faults’ -meaning they accommodate some motion of plates moving past each other – without creating much of a fuss.

Modern seismologists use the ‘moment magnitude scale’, which represents the amount of energy released by an earthquake. The Richter scale-that we often hear-is outdated and is sometimes wrongly quoted. This moment magnitude scale is non-linear: each step-up represents 32 times more energy released. A magnitude 7.8 actually releases around 6,000 times more energy than the more moderate magnitude 5 earthquakes, that usually happen in the region.

The World has quickly rushed aid to Turkey and Syria and I hope they climb out of this disaster at the best possible pace.

China’s Balloon Eyes

William Wordsworth would have been excited to see a Chinese Balloon ‘wander lonely as a cloud, floating on high over vales and hills’ when all at once it looked down the United States (US) of America, beside the lake, up above the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

The balloon, about 60 metres tall, with a solar panel array, started its journey from over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and wandered through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings in Montana, US, last Wednesday. Montana is home to some of the US’s nuclear missile silos.

The United States believes that the balloon, seen above sensitive areas, was in fact a high-altitude surveillance device. But China said it was a Weather Balloon mainly used for meteorological purposes and regretted the unintended entry of the balloon into US airspace and that it had been blown off-course by unexpected winds. That’s a brilliant filling of air in the balloon!

Initially, the US decided not to shoot down the balloon because of the danger posed by falling debris, and the limited use of any intelligence the device could gather.

To add perspective: a surveillance balloon usually flies in the sky range between 24 and 36 km, Fighter Aircraft at 20 km, and Commercial Airlines at 12 km.

When the balloon was near the Carolinas above the Atlantic Ocean, the mighty US finally woke up and dispatched its revolutionary Fighter Jet F-22 Raptor to fire a single AIM-9X Sidewinder heat-seeking missile to take down the balloon- while another F-22 watched the proceedings. The accuracy was pin-point and China cried fowl on the ‘excessive reaction’. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken’s upcoming diplomatic visit to China bursted with the balloon. Last heard America was fishing for the remnants to determine what it could have done, or not done.

China – US relations now enter a ‘cold stage’ to complement the freezing weather in many parts of America.

Pakistan’s ex-Dictator

Pakistan’s ex-Dictator General Pervez Musharraf died in exile in Dubai at the age of 79 after a prolonged illness. He was know to be a smooth-operator mixing State Terrorism with Politics and tried to get the better of India over its Jammu & Kashmir State, and failed. He is known as the architect of the Kargil War, fought between May and July 1999, which saw India hand out a humiliating defeat to Pakistan when Nawaz Sharif was Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan and Pervez Musharraf was the Chief of Army.

Kargil is one of the two districts of India’s Union Territory of Ladakh and is the second largest town in Ladakh, about 200 km from Srinagar.

Pakistan Troops had infiltrated into India crossing the Line Of Control (LOC) in Kargil, Kashmir, and the Kargil War saw them driven out by a resolute and clinical India. Infamously, Musharraf did not bother to recover or accept the bodies of Pakistani soldiers killed in the fighting, and it was left to India to do the job of giving them a decent burial!

This was at a time when India’s then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, with the intent of improving bilateral ties and resolving the Kashmir problem, undertook a path-breaking Bus Journey to Lahore, for talks and engagement with Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif blamed the Kargil infiltration and misadventure on Musharraf and a few of his cronies: only four Pakistani Army Generals, including Musharraf, knew of the plan and he claimed that he himself was kept in the dark. Musharraf, however, asserted that Sharif had been briefed on the Kargil operation 15 days ahead of Vajpayee’s famous bus-ride to Lahore. Took India for a ride?

Later, with calls of a court-martial against General Musharraf growing louder, he staged a bloodless coup ousting PM Nawaz Sharif and went on to establish military rule in Pakistan, as President between June 2001 and August 2008.

Musharraf resigned in 2008 to avoid impeachment and emigrated to London in a self-imposed exile and thereafter to UAE’s Dubai.

Charges of high treason were brought upon Musharraf for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in Pakistan. And he was declared an ‘absconder’ in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case by virtue of moving to Dubai. In 2019, Musharraf, in absentia, was sentenced to death for the treason charges but the death sentence was later annulled by the Lahore High Court. It is debatable whether the General left Pakistan for better or the worse. Whatever, Pakistan finds itself in a ‘general’ mess today.

Please Yourself

The Grammys

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards 2023 took place in the Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, United States, this week. This Sunday night was a history-making show, filled with dynamic performances from iconic music artists. And the sound of music could be heard in all parts of the world.

English singer, songwriter, and actor, Harry Styles, who once swiftly dated singer Taylor Swift, picked up the coveted Album of the Year for ‘Harry’s House’. Others in the run were Abba’s ‘Voyage’, Adele’s ’30’, Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’, Cold Play’s ‘Music of the Spheres’, Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’, Brandi Carlile’s ‘In These Silent Days’, Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppes’, Lizzo’s ‘Special’, and Mary J Blige’s ‘Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe)’.

The Best New Artist Grammy went to 23 years old, jazz singer, American, Samara Joy who also lingered on to win best jazz vocal album for her album ‘Linger Awhile’. Joy was an outlier in this category and the win was considered an upset and a jaw-dropping moment when last year’s winner Olivia Rodrigo announced her successor.

The Record of the Year went to American Singer and Rapper, Lizzo for ‘About Damn Time’. She dedicated the award win to Prince, explaining, “when we lost Prince I decided to dedicate my life to making positive music”. The song has a theme of allowing us to take a moment and celebrate our survival, and celebrate how far we have come.

Song of the Year and Best American Roots Song went to 73 years old American Blues Singer and Guitarist Bonnie Raitt’s, ‘Just Like That’. And it ‘went easy’ on Adele who won Best Solo Performance for ‘Easy on Me’; and almost ‘broke the soul’ of Beyonce who danced back with Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for Renaissance.

Though it wasn’t all too well, Taylor Swift easily carried away the Grammy for best Music Video for ‘All Too Well: The Short Film’.

American Actor, Viola Davis, 57, won a Grammy for Best Audiobook – her audiobook recording of her memoir, ‘Finding Me’. With this she achieved EGOT Status joining an elite group of 18 artists. Known as US Entertainment’s Grand Slam, the acronym EGOT stands for the recipient of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award. She joined the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Legend, John Gielgud, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jennifer Hudson.

‘Finding Me’ is about racist bullying that Viola endured while growing up in Rhode Island. And her journey from being an admired actor stuck in small roles to being cast as the lead in ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ – the Television Show that made her name.

Beyonce became the most decorated artist in Grammy history picking up a record breaking 32nd trophy. From her self-titled visual album in 2013, and the confessional masterpiece that was 2016’s Lemonade to last year’s Disco Fantasia Renaissance she has change the way pop music is written, produced, released, presented, and promoted. Beyonce is surely deserving.

Indian musician Annette Philip rocked the Grammy Red Carpet with a Kanjivaram silk sari and bindi. And completed her look with a golden choker set. Annette Philip founded the massive Berkeley Indian Ensemble’s first album, titled ‘Shuruaat’, which was nominated under the Best Global Music Album Category.

India’s Bengaluru based Music composer, and environmentalist Ricky Kej won his third Grammy along with the iconic ‘Police’ Drummer, rock-legend Steward Copeland for ‘Divine Tides’ in the Best Immersive Audio Album category. That was a divine collaboration between one of India’s best and the World’s.

Divine Tides featuring Artists from around the world is a tribute to the magnificence of our natural world. Contains nine songs and eight music videos from the exquisite beauty if the Indian Himalayas to the cold Forests of Spain and is about co-existence.

Previously Ricky Kej had won Best New Age Album for ‘Winds of Samara’ in 2015, and again Best New Age Album for Divine Tides in 2022. He is the only Indian to win three Grammys.

Ricky Kej schooled in Bengaluru’s Bishop Cotton School before studying at Oxford Dental College to become a ‘non-practicing’ Dental Surgeon. His Dad is a General Physician, Dr Gyan Kej, working in the US. His Grandfather from Mom Pammi Kej’s side is Janaki Das, Olympic Cyclist and Freedom Fighter. His wife Varsha Gowda, who he married in 2014, manages his music activities including public relations. His life and journey as a musician is taught in the 7th grade in India as part of ICSE syllabus English Text books. He is a Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

Kej is credited with over 3500 placements for radio and TV jingles. He composed the music for the 2011 Cricket World Cup Opening Ceremony. Wonder why we never heard much of him, or did we?

While the Gramophones were changing hands during the presentation ceremony actor-filmmaker Ben Affleck looked miserable and like a fish out of water. Cameras repeatedly caught Affleck, known for his grimace and his penchant for looking morose while smoking cigarettes, glumly sitting next to his beautiful wife Jennifer Lopez during the show. Many Grammy watchers noted how Affleck seemingly wanted to be anywhere but the Crypto.com Arena. Others gave him a thumbs-up for being stoic in the face of the music buzz around him. Meanwhile, we kept our eyes on Jennifer. Could Ben Affleck have been disappointed that Jennifer did not wear that iconic green tropical-print silk chiffon Versace dress with a ‘never-ending’ plunging neckline that travelled beyond her bellybutton – of Grammys 2000 fame?

‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’, remember that classic song? This week, legendary music composer and song-writer Burt Bacharach died aged 94, of natural causes. He was the brain behind ‘raindrops’ and dozens of hits throughout his over 70 years career. And ‘I Say a Little Prayer’. His songs will live forever.

More singing stories and raindrop songs coming up in the weeks ahead. Plunge into World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-05

About-the world this week, 29 January to 4 February 2023: a documentary and a research report create heat and dust in India; America’s police brutality is tiring; Iran continues acting tough; India’s Amrit Kaal Budget; and the Australian Open Tennis closes.

Everywhere

Over the past week India was boiling and it continued into this week with two hot items causing lots of steam release. One, a BBC Documentary on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conducting its own ‘un-Sherlock Holmes’ like investigation into the 2002 Godhra riots in India’s Gujarat when Modi was the Chief Minister of the State, and without credible evidence, blaming him as directly responsible and tacitly supportive of the assault on muslims.

The riots started when Hindu pilgrims returning by train from the Ram Janmaboomi Site in Ayodhya were attacked by a Muslim mob who set ablaze their coach at Godhra Station, resulting in 59 Hindus-including 27 women ad 10 children-being burnt alive. This triggered a spontaneous outbreak of retaliatory violence resulting in one of the worst communal clashes in post-independence India.

The BBC Documentary was based on ‘false truths walking on water’ and does not stand the test of India’s Supreme Court, which set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly investigate allegations on Narendra Modi – at a time when the now ruling Party was in the opposition. The SIT gave Modi and 64 others a clean chit. A challenge to the verdict was also thrown out by the Supreme Court in July 2022, as ‘devoid of merit, and which intent was to keep the pot billing for ulterior design’. Well, the BBC is doing just that and has no business in casting aspersions and trying to be smarter than the highest Court of our Land, that too when deep investigations have been done into the matter.

Two, The Hindenburg Report by short-seller Hindenburg Research, which in a two year investigation claimed that India’s Adani Group led by the World’s third richest person Gautam Adani was involved in massive and brazen stock manipulation and an accounting fraud scheme. The report questioned how the Adani Group uses entities in offshore tax havens such as Mauritius and Caribbean Islands and said key Adani companies had substantial debt, which put the entire group in precarious financial footing. The cause a melt down in Adani stocks causing unbelievable chaos in the financial markets.

Short-selling or shorting is a trading strategy where an Investor or Trader buys a stock or security and sells it on the open market planning to buy it back for less money. Short Sellers bet on and profit from a drop in a stock’s price. Traders usually short stock by selling shares they have borrowed -they don’t buy them- from others through brokerages. When the prices of the shares fall to expected levels the Trader would purchase the shares at the lower price and return them to the owner, booking a profit in the process. However, if the price of the share appreciates instead of falling the Trader will be forced to buy shares at higher prices to return to the owner, thereby booking a loss.

Last year in May 2022, a Judge in New York said that investors in a sports betting company called Draft Kings Inc., cannot rely on short seller reports to prove fraud. Short Sellers are not unbiased narrators, the Judge said, in a ruling in a securities fraud class action against Draft Kings. When they publish damning revelations about publicly traded companies, it’s usually because they are hoping to drive down the Company’s share price so they can cover their bets. The Judge dismissed action against Draft Kings, concluding that shareholders’ case was fatally flawed because it relied almost entirely on assertions from a 2019 Hindenburg Research report that pushed Draft Kings’ share price down about 4.2%. I guess we can figure out what’s happening in the Adani case?

Later in the week, a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO) following its Initial Public Offer (IPO)-selling of securities to the public in the primary market- by the Adani Group, which was fully subscribed, was called-off by Adani and the money is to be returned to investors. The reason cited was volatility in the market and the Adani Board strongly felt that it would not be morally correct to proceed with the FPO. Under the circumstances, a bold thing to do!

It is a signature-tune in America, if not guns shooting down people, it is Police high-handedness and abuse of the law, killing one at a time. And this time it’s black and black.

Tyre Nicholas, a 29 years old Afro-American motorist, was pulled over by a Team of Afro-American Police Officers, on 7 January at a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee State, for what police said was reckless driving. While attempting to flee on foot, Nicholas was struck with a taser, kicked, punched, pepper-sprayed, brutally hit with a baton, and left reeling under the assault. It took more than 20 minutes for him to receive medical attention. Three days later, Tyre Nicholas died in hospital. A video of the incident shows Nicholas, at one point shouting, “Mom, Mom, Mom.” His mother’s home was only about 73 metres away. The five officers involved have been fired and charged with second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and other crimes.

US President Biden spoke to Nicholas’ mother and committed to supporting legislation to help prevent police abuse. He said he was “outraged and deeply pained.” Protestors gathered in cities like New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Memphis to protest the brutality.

The protests in Iran against wearing the headscarf and ruthless implementation of the Islamic Dress Code for women rages on, but in quiet defiance. This follows the deadly crackdown that led to thousands of arrests and at least four executions. Many women are boldly venturing out in public without the mandated headscarf and small groups of demonstrators are still gathering to make noises that can be heard. Now, we learn that an Iranian couple, Astiyazh Haghighi and Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, in their 20s, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for dancing in the street. The couple have a large social media following, and were arrested in November last year, after posting a video dancing in front of Tehran’s Azadi Tower. Haghighi was not wearing a headscarf, a move which appeared to show solidarity with the headscarf protesters. Now, the Iranian regime has convicted the pair of corruption, prostitution, and national security charges. That’s brutal.

India’s Budget – an Amrit Kaal

The Annual ritual of presenting the Budget for India happened on 1st February and the Government termed it an ‘Amrit Kaal’ Budget giving a big push for capital expenditure in building infrastructure, fiscal consolidation, and unleashing personal income tax-reforms for the ‘much ignored’ salaried, middle class.

‘Amrit Kaal’ is a term pulled out from Vedic Astrology and refers to an auspicious period when the portals of great pleasure open for humans and other living beings.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman is easily the most consequential Finance Minister India has ever had. She has done a commendable job by navigating the economy through a tough pandemic and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, and nurturing it as a lone bright spot when the world braces for a recession.

Indian Industrialist Harsh Goenka (I follow him on Twitter) Chairman of RPG Enterprises best summed it up as, “M’bap’pe of a budget, not ‘Messi’ at all. A budget that puts India on the path to become the world champion- all set to score goals on infra development, consumption and inclusion. A big boost for domestic manufacturing, job creation and ease of doing business”. Glad he brought-in Mbappe: he is a top scorer, is young, and can kick us into the future – will lots of ‘goals’.

He did not stop with that, but when further, roped-in an Indian movie scorching the world screens, and said, “we at RPG love this budget because it’s RRR once again: Railways; Renewables; and Reforms. A ‘Naatu Naatu’ budget for the whole country putting us on track to conquer the golden globe”-alluding to the Indian film RRR winning a Golden Globe Award for best original song of ’Naatu Naatu’.

We can dance to that!

Sports

Australian Open

Last Saturday, Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, the 5th seed, came from a set down to beat Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the 22nd seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the Australian Open women’s singles event at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. This is Sabalenaka’s maiden singles Grand Slam. The reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina seemed to be in control after winning the first set, but was completely outplayed in the second set by Sabalenka, who then fought her way to claim the decider, despite squandering three championship points.

In the Men’s finals played this Sunday, as widely expected, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic coolly beat Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 to win his 10th Australian Open title and level with Spain’s Rafael Nadal on 22 Grand Slams. That was a pretty straight win. The others behind in Grand Slam Title wins, but retired, are Roger Federer with 20 and Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slams. That leaves two ‘fit’ horses in the race to the next Slam level: Djokovic and Nadal.

Cricket

India has a knack of throwing up great cricketers and this week a precious find could well be 23 year old Shubman Gill, from Punjab State, who smashed the highest-ever score by an Indian in T20 Cricket. He hit 126, not-out, off 63 deliveries in his maiden hundred in a T20 match against New Zealand. Shubam Gill beat the previous record held by Virat Kohli who did a 122 of 61 balls against Afghanistan in September 2022.

More smashing stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Plan your budget after reading World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-04

About-the world this week, 22 January to 28 January 2023: Tanks for Ukraine; the year of the rabbit; shooting in America, a new Prime Minister for New Zealand; India’s mobile phone Operating System, and Republic Day; Australian Open Tennis; and the Oscar nominations.

Everywhere

Tanks for Ukraine

After weeks of squabbling, Germany has finally taken some responsibility to help Ukraine win the war against the bullying invasion of Russia.

This week, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, confirmed that Germany will indeed send 14 Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine and give permission for other countries to send theirs too. It follows weeks of international pressure from Ukraine and its allies to approve export of German-made tanks. Poland, for example, has been pressurising Germany to send the Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine. If they wouldn’t do that, at least authorise other NATO Allies to send them, while hinting that should Germany fail to give its consent, Poland would go ahead anyway, offering to send 14 of its own Leopards. Adding-up, in another part of the world, United States (US) President Joe Biden also announced plans to send 31 Abram Tanks to Ukraine.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky believes his country needs at least 300 battle tanks to be able to defeat Russia. But, why so much focus on tanks?

Tanks represent the most powerful direct offensive weapon provided to Ukraine so far, a heavily armed and armoured system designed to meet Russia head-on, instead of firing from a distance-taking the fight to the heart of the enemy. If used smartly with necessary training, they could allow Ukraine to retake territory against Russian forces that have had time to dig-in defensive positions. It remains to be seen if the Tanks would be a real game-changer!

Meanwhile, Russia is warning that any deliveries of US tanks would be a blatant provocation and vows to ‘burn all tanks in Ukraine’. Look who’s talking about blatant provocation? Russia is always looking for a reason to keep the fire burning!

Chippy

New Zealand was quick to fill its tank following the stunning but graceful resignation of Prime Minister (PM)Jacinda Ardern, who declared that her tank was empty. Chris Hipkins, 44, was unanimously elected as the Leader of the Labour Party and was sworn-in as Prime Minister this Wednesday.

Chris Hipkins was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 2008 and was appointed minister for Covid19 in November 2020. He was often seen on national Television talking to the people and steering the country during the pandemic. Prior to elevation to PM, he was minister for police, education, and public service.

Chris Hipkins is known as ‘Chippy’- a nickname derived from his initials, but which may have stuck thanks to an upbeat, slightly school-boyish demeanour. Hipkins has a reputation in Parliament for a sense of humour, fast quips, and a self-deprecating streak.

Hipkins married partner Jade Marie in 2020 and has two children from the relationship. The couple divorced in 2022, deciding to go their separate ways, but stay friends to bring up their 6 years old son and 4 years old daughter.

How long Hipkins will be in office is uncertain as New Zealand holds a general election in October this year. He will have less than nine months before contesting a tough election, with opinion polls indicating his party is trailing its Conservative Opposition.

The Year of The Rabbit

The year of the Rabbit is upon us. And we need all the carrots we can find. The Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is a celebration of the arrival of spring and the beginning of a new year on 22 January 2023. It is the most important holiday in China, and widely celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, and countries with a significant overseas Chinese population.

The rabbit is the fourth in the twelve-year periodic sequence of animals that appear in the Chinese Zodiac related to the Chinese Calendar. Last year it was the year of the Tiger, and the next year it would be the year of the Dragon-that’s more like China!

According to the Chinese Zodiac, first comes the Rat, then the Ox, the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and in the end, the Pig.

America’s Shooting Rounds

Last Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Monterey Park, about 16 kilometres from Los Angeles, US, for a Lunar New Year festival. Late that night, a gunman opened fire in the Star Ballroom Dance Studio Hall, killing 10 people and injuring 10 others.

About 30 minutes later, the Shooter attempted another attack in the neighbouring city of Alhambra, before he was disarmed. He entered the studio, but two people managed to wrestle the weapon off him-a semi-automatic assault pistol with an extended magazine-and he escaped.

Police have identified the gunman as Huu Can Tran, 72, who was later found dead in a white van. He had a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was declared dead at the scene. The motive behind the shooting is not yet known.

Barely 48 hours after the mass shooting in Monterey Park yet another shot to the headlines, this time with 7 killed in the Half Moon Bay area of California. The suspected shooter, Chunli Zhao, 66, was arrested by Police, two hours after the incident, in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Office. The weapon used was found in his car. He legally owned the semi-automatic gun and the incident appears to be a workplace violence case.

Will America ever get off its Wild West Shooting?

BharOS

The Operation Systems (OS) of the mobiles and smart-phones we own mostly run on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Now India has come out with an indigenous OS, called BharOS, developed by JandKops (J and K Operations Private Limited) incubated by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras’ Pravartak Technologies Foundation.

This week BharOS was successfully tested by India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. This is a great leap forward in India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey of becoming self-reliant in manufacturing.

The new, indigenously developed, mobile OS aims to reduce over-dependence on foreign OS in smartphones and enhance the security and privacy of users. It comes with no default apps and therefore gives users the option ‘to not use’ an unfamiliar app. It provides more control over permissions and data that Apps seek from smartphone users. The new OS will provide access to trusted Apps via organisation-specific Private App Store Services (PASS), which is a list of curated Apps that meet security and privacy standards.

BharOS also provides ‘Native Over The Air’ (NOTA) updates to ensure enhanced security of the devices. NOTA updates are automatically downloaded and installed on the device, without the need for the user to manually initiate the process. This ensures that the device is always running on the latest version of the operating system, which includes the latest security patches and bug fixes.

Initial reviews say that BharOS is less of an alternative, more of a fork version: when a developer takes a copy source code from one software package and starts independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software.

India’s Republic Day

India celebrated its 74th Republic Day on 26th January with the usual gusto, colour, and spectacular display of made-in-India weapons, on the revamped and renamed Kartavaya (meaning duty) Path – the 2km stretch from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan- in India’s capital, New Delhi.

PM Narendra Modi donned a multicolour Rajasthani turban symbolising the diverse culture of India. Last year it was an Uttarakhand Cap embellished with a Brahmakamal (a sacred flower)inspired brooch.

Being invited as the Chief Guest at Republic Day celebrations is the highest honour India accords another country in terms of protocol, and this year the Chief Guest was Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

In many firsts, the British-era 25-pounder guns were replaced with the indigenous 105mm Indian Field Guns for the 21-Gun Salute. Another was the Rajasthan Frontier of Border Security (BSF) preparing the world’s first camel mounted women’s squad with more than 20 women officers taking part in the contingent.

The Government also released its annual list of Padma Awards. The Padma Vibhushan-second highest civilian award-was awarded to noted Architect B V Doshi (posthumous), tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Indian-American mathematician Srinivasa Varadhan, Oral Rehydration Solution pioneer Dilip Mahalanabis (posthumous), along with two others.

Industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group, scientist Deepak Dhar and philanthropist Sudha Murthy (wife of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy) were awarded the Padma Bhushan. Also joining them was Kannada Writer SL Bhyrappa, Artist Singer Vani Jayaram, and Linguistics Scholar Kapil Kapoor.

91 People were awarded the Padma Sri, which included Investor Rakesh Jhunjhwala, Actress Raveena Tandon, and music director M M Keeravaani who composed the music for Oscar nominated ‘Naatu Nattu’ Telugu song.

Many unsung heroes from across India were also honoured including a 102 year old artist from West Bengal, a snake-catcher duo from Tamil Nadu and a 98 yearly organic farmer from Sikkim. The expert snake-catchers, Vadivel Gopal & Masi Sadaiyan are Irula Tribals from Tamil Nadu. Their expertise and traditional knowledge of snake-catching has ‘found teeth’ in many countries.

The Awards itself will be given in a glittering function in March this year, when all the awardees parade themselves – and we get to see them, if we havent already. I hope the snake-catchers don’t turn up with a snake coiled-up around themselves!

Sports

The Australian Open (AO) is being served in Australia and Novak Djokovic is in scintillating form playing arguably the best tennis of his career. He brushed aside world No. 6, Russia’s Andrey Rublev in straight sets to reach the semifinals. And stayed perfect in the semifinals, beating America’s Tommy Paul, again in straight sets, to make a record-extending 10th men’s final. In the process he sailed past Andre Agassi’s record of 26 wins. The 35 years old Djokovic is one match away from a record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam victory.

The Women’s Singles Finals coming up this Saturday is Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina versus Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, which will bring the countries they represent into the spotlight.

This AO was also the swan song of one of India’s greatest women players, Sania Mirza, who partnering with Rohan Bopanna in the mixed-doubles reached the finals only to lose to Brazil’s Lusia Stefani and Rafel Matos. Sania is retiring from Professional Tennis after this match and marches into the sunset…with her young son looking on-he shared a hug with mom, on Court.

This week, two-time Olympic gold medalist and American Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin secured her 83rd World Cup win to break fellow American Lindsey Vonn’s record, in the 57th International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup. With this World Cup victory Shiffrin is only three wins behind the 86 wins of overall record holder- in both men’s and women’s skiing-held by Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark.

Please Yourself

The end of last week was abuzz with news about the second man to ever step foot on the Moon, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin getting married for the fourth time. Remember in 1969 he followed crew-mate ‘first man on the Moon’ Neil Armstrong who was on the moon’s surface for two hours and 32 minutes and Aldrin spent about 15 minutes less than that. Aldrin is one of four people alive to have walked on the moon.

Said Aldrin, “On my 93rd birthday and the day I will also be honoured by Living Legends of Aviation I am pleased to announce that my longtime love Dr. Anca Faur & I have tied the knot. We were joined in holy matrimony in a small private ceremony in Los Angeles & are as excited as eloping teenagers.”

Dr Faur, 63, who has a PhD in chemical engineering, is the Executive Vice President of Aldrin’s company, Buzz Aldrin Ventures. Aldrin posted two photos of himself in a tuxedo and Faur in a long-sleeved glittering dress. Honey, there is still honey in the Moon.

The Oscars are Coming

This Week the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced. ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ leads the year’s Academy Awards, with 11 nominations. Other best picture nominees include Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water and The Banshees of Inisherin.

The best actor nominees include Cate Blanchett, Brendan Fraser, Britain’s Andrea Riseborough, and Bill Nighy.

The song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the hit Telugu-language film RRR has won a best original song Oscar nomination. It’s the first Indian feature film to be nominated for anything other than best international film at the Academy Awards. The song has been a favourite at award ceremonies and has already won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award. It will be up against heavyweights Lady Gaga and Rihanna, whose songs are nominated in the same Oscars category.

The last time an Indian won an Oscar for a film’s music was in 2009, when composer A R Rahman won best original song and best original score for the song ‘Jai Ho’ from the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, directed by Britain’s Danny Boyle.

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on 12th March.

More catching stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Stay coiled with World Inthavaaram. And win Awards.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-03

About-the world this week, 15 January to 21 January 2023, a world of ‘Tanks’: Military Tanks Wanted; an Aircraft tanks; and empty tank in New Zealand; Tanks to fill in Davos; India’s unfilled Census Tank; and a Tennis player runs on a full tank at the Australian Open.

Everywhere

Ukraine: Tanks Wanted

The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine bleeds on and now a hero that could secure a victory for Ukraine seems to be Tanks. Many countries supporting Ukraine have already sent or committed to sending Tanks to Ukraine to defend itself from the Russian onslaught. The pressure is also on Germany to send its Leopard-2 make tanks, which can make a significant difference on the battle-ground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to destroy the independent existence of a neighbouring country with war crimes, genocidal actions, and relentless targeting of the civilian population, is the closest we have come since 1945 to what Adolf Hitler did in World War-II. And Germany has a unique historical responsibility to help defend a free and sovereign Ukraine. For the rest of the world, Russia should be defeated to deter future aggression by rouge-minded countries, say China, around hot-spot places such as Taiwan; or North Korea, which dances a lot on the border with South Korea.

Meanwhile, there is daily and continuing tragedy in the Russian-Ukraine War. This week, a helicopter crash killed Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy, Yevhen Yenin, other senior officials, and several children. No area seems untouched by the unbelievable situation in Ukraine.

Nepal Plane Crash: An Aircraft Tanks

Over the years commercial plane accidents have crashed to low levels, and the odd crash does makes high news.

This Sunday, Nepal’s Yeti Airlines’ Flight 691 – a twin-engine ATR 72 Aircraft – flying from Kathmandu with 72 people on board, crashed before arrival at Pokhara, which International Airport was inaugurated on 1 January 2023. All passengers have died. And this is Nepal’s worst air disaster in three decades. The plane came down in a gorge of the Seti River, near the tourist town of Pokhara: the plane rolled sharply as it approached the runway and then hit the ground, just over a kilometre from the airport. The cause of the crash is yet to be determined.

The passenger manifest consisted of 53 Nepalese, 5 Indians, 4 Russians and 2 Koreans, and 1 each from the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, and France.

Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of the ill-fated flight lost her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, in a plane crash 16 years earlier. Coincidentally, he had also been co-piloting a Yeti Airlines flight-and it was his death that spurred Anju to pursue a career in aviation. Dipak was in the cockpit of a Twin Otter Prop plane, which was carrying rice and food to the western town of Nepal’s Jumla when it came down and burst into flames in June 2006, killing all nine people on board. Four years later, Anju climbed on the path to becoming a pilot, overcoming many obstacles, to train in the United States. Once qualified, she joined Yeti Airlines. A trailblazer, Anju was one of just six women employed by the airline as pilots, and had flown close to 6400 hours. “She was a brave woman”, said an Official.

New Zealand: An Empty Tank

New Zealand’s Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern, 42, has had enough and is calling it quits. This week, Ardern announced she will resign as PM next month, saying, “I no longer have enough in the tank”, to lead. She choked as she detailed how six challenging years in the job had taken a toll. She had taken time to consider her future, over the summer break, hoping to find what she needed to carry on, but unfortunately she could not, and hence the decision.

Ardern will step down as Labour Party leader around 7th February. Meanwhile, there will be a vote in the coming days to determine her replacement. And New Zealand goes to the polls- a General Election-on 14 October 2023.

Ardern, at 37, became the youngest female head of government in the world when she was elected PM in 2017. And a year later, she became the second elected world leader to ever give birth while in office. She superbly steered New Zealand through the initial part of the Covid19 pandemic (though she could not make a success of it later on) and its ensuing recession, the Christchurch mosque shootings, and the White Island volcanic eruption. Ardern also led her Labour Party to a landslide election victory in 2020. But, in recent months, her domestic popularity has declined, according to opinion polls. She made missteps in the later stages of the Covid19 pandemic, could not get the economy back on track, and was unable to reduce inequalities in New Zealand. Lawless also ‘became common’ and has not been brought under ‘safe control’.

According to the media, Jacinda Ardern was subject to unprecedented hatred and constant abuse during her time in power, which could have inadvertently taken a toll on her and driven her to make the big announcement… and sleep well after a long time!

Some people have that intuition to move on after a job in done – on their calling. Maybe Jacinda Arden discovered that, and now needs to fill her tank with other kinds of fuel.

Money Matters: Tanks to Fill

The Switzerland based international, non-governmental, lobbying, World Economic Forum (WEF) is holding its 53rd Annual Meeting at the mountain resort of Davos in the Eastern Alps region of Switzerland, between 16 and 20 January 2023.

The meeting brings together some top decision-makers from government, business, and civil society to address global issues and priorities for the year ahead.

This includes about 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities, and journalists.

This year’s theme is, ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’. On the agenda is climate change, The Russia-Ukraine War, food security, energy, and of course, the global economy, which will be discussed across 500 sessions.

Says the WEF, “The world today is at a critical inflection point. The twin triggers of the Covid19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war have rattled an already brittle global system. Economic growth in the world’s largest economies is stalling, while navigating headwinds from rising food and energy prices. For the first time since the 1970s, the world is facing a precarious disequilibrium with growth and inflation moving in opposite directions. Unless systemic and interconnected risks are addressed, the promise of a ‘decade of action; may become a decade of uncertainty and fragility”.

The wisdom is oozing out on the slopes of the Alps, and I hope we get a cool, nice little ’To-Do List’ as an outcome of the ‘Davos Brain-work’.

India’s Measures a Delay: Unfilled Census Tank

In the year 1881, more than 250 million people in India answered a list of questions put to them by hundreds of enumerators, and were counted in British India’s first synchronised census. For the next 130 years, after independence and through wars and other crises, India kept its date with the census. Once a decade, hundreds of thousands of enumerators visited every household in the country to gather information about people’s jobs, families, economic conditions, migration status and socio-cultural characteristics, among other parameters. It’s used to make decisions on everything from allocating Central Government funds to State Governments, and building schools, to drawing constituency boundaries for elections. And India had mastered the craft of taking a census – teaching it to other nations, as well.

“The census is not simply a count of the number of people in a country. It provides invaluable data needed to make decisions at a micro level,” says a development economist who has worked extensively on poverty and inequality.

The exercise generates a trove of crucial empirical data for administrators, policymakers, economists, demographers and anyone interested in knowing where the world’s second-most populous country (set to overtake China this year) is headed. Say, what will it mean when Indians outnumber Chinese.

But for the first time, India’s decennial census, the seventh – which was set to be held in 2021 – has been delayed, primarily due to he Covid19 pandemic, with no clarity on when it will be held. Experts say they are worried about the consequences, which range from people being excluded from welfare schemes to unbalanced resource allocation.

The Government had planned to conduct a population survey to update the National Population Register (NPR) along with the census. Opposition and regional parties have been demanding that the Government should also conduct a ‘Caste Census’ to revisit the ‘caste based quota’ in the country. The State of Bihar has also ordered a caste census in its State.

The Government is chewing on all these issues and looking at the angles. And there is no alternative to a credible national survey such as at the Census. Now, with the General Elections coming-up in mid 2024, the census can probably take place only in late 2024. And would be the first task of the new Government to get cracking on.

Australian Open: A Tank Always Full

The Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Tournament has opened in Australia and this time Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is back. The 21-time Grand Slam winner began his campaign in style defeating Spain’s Carballes Baena in straight sets.

Defending Champion, Spain’s Rafael Nadal lost to America’s Mackenzie McDonald after sustaining an injury. And so did British Wonder Woman, Emma Raducanu to 18 years old American Coco Gauff. Gauff defeated Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (4) to go to the third round, in a slow-burning match that saw the intensity and quality rise in the dying seconds.

England’s Andy Murray, a multiple-time runner-up at the Australian Open, played a final-like-match in his first round stunning Italy’s Matteo Berrettini -the 2022 Australian Open semifinalist- as he rolled back the years to reach the second round. Murray needed to display magic to overcome 13th seed Berrettini. He did just that, in 4 hours and 49 minutes, winning the first two sets before going down in the next two and saving a match point in the decider. He won the match by 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7), and 7-6 (10-6).

Murray has regularly defied the odds since coming back from the hip surgery in 2019, which he thought would end his career. But then, he must not have realised that there was more in store for him. Two days later, Murray did it again with a comeback that ranks as simply extraordinary, even by his standards. He produced another scarcely believable display to fight back from two sets down to beat Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis in yet another epic match. In one of the longest in tennis history, Murray won 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5 on a night of gruelling physical and mental endurance. The second-round match started at 22:20hrs and lasted 5 hours 45 minutes.

That’s back-to back mighty tough matches. Murray’s Tank is always full, hope it does not get drained to the bottom. He was not allowed to use the toilet during the match, despite making a request – maybe that kept the pressure.

Fight your battles with Tanks, play your game well, keep your tank filled, always. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-02

About-the world this week, 8 January to 14 January 2023: revolt in the Americas; a sinking Town in India; the UK tries Space; Ozone is back; and Film & TV awards that make you shake a leg and watch your tongue.

Everywhere

North America’s United States

The last week spoke loudly about the chaos in voting for a new House Speaker in the United States (US) of America. Just when the week’s mouth was closing, Republican, Kevin McCarthy of California finally won enough votes to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. Not since 1860, when it took 44 ballots to elect New Jersey’s William Pennington as a compromise candidate, has it taken 15 ballots to elect a Speaker. The spectacle of the Republican Party having the numbers, yet unable to get its folk to stick together, while the Opposition Democrats stayed solid behind House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries raised ridicule across the country…and the World.

South America’s Brazil

The American Continent seems to go crazy and shake its seat of Government in January-the beginning of the year. Two years ago it was the North America’s US, which people erupted and stormed its Government in Capitol Hill; this year it is South America’s Brazil, which did a similar stunt. Ever since the Covid19 pandemic everything seems to be spreading everywhere!

Early this January Lula da Silva was inaugurated a President of Brazil in a stiffly fought, run-off leading election contest with former President Jair Bolsonaro.

After weeks of simmering tensions Pro-Bolsanoro protestors, claiming that the Election was a fraud and the results manipulated, stormed Brazil’s Congress in the the Capital City. Brazil was left reeling after hundreds of Bolsonaro’s supporters created a rumpus in the seats of power in the capital, trashing offices, and drawing condemnation from the government and the international community.

The attack bore similarities to the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC, when supporters of ex-US President Donald Trump-a close ally of Bolsonaro-stormed Congress in an effort to prevent the certification of his election defeat.

The Head of Brazil’s Electoral Court had rejected Bolsonaro’s petition to annul ballots, calling the outgoing President’s allegation that some voting machines had malfunctioned ‘ludicrous and illicit’ and ‘ostensibly conspiratorial toward the democratic rule of law.’ And Brazil’s Ministry of Defence found no evidence of fraud or inconsistency in the electoral process, in a report published in November, last year.

Bolsonaro nonetheless refused to explicitly concede defeat, while also insisting he would comply with Brazil’s Constitution during the handover of power to Lula. Ultimately, he fled the country on the eve of Lula’s inauguration, and has been staying in US’s Florida, since then. Searching for a Trump Card?

India’s Joshimath

Joshimath, also known as Jyotirmath, is a Town with a population of 20,000 people, in Chamoli District in India’s state of Uttarakhand. Located at a height of 1875 metres, it is a gateway to several Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions, trekking trails, and pilgrim centres.

Joshimath itself was born in precarious geological circumstances. The town, located in a tremor-prone zone, on the middle slope of a hill, along a running ridge, was built on the debris of a landslide triggered by an earthquake more than a century ago.

During the February 2021 Floods in Uttarakhand and its aftermath the area was severely affected. Structures around the Town developed cracks and people had to be evacuated. And it is now confirmed that Joshimath is indeed sinking.

Cracks have developed in more than 670 of some 4500 buildings-including a local temple and a ropeway-in an area which is 350 metres wide. There are cracks on the pavements and streets. Two hotels are now leaning on each other-for support. Water has been gushing out of farms for reasons that are not entirely clear. Some 80 families have been shifted from their homes to schools, hotels and home-stays in the town. Disaster response teams have been put in service with helicopters on standby for airlifting evacuees.

Land can begin to sink for various reasons. These include the movement of the Earth’s crust-thin outer shell of rock-or due to an earthquake that can cause a shift in elevation. A sinkhole – a depression or hole in the ground caused by the collapse of the surface layer – can occur when water flowing underground erodes rocks beneath the surface.

But land also sinks due to human activity like over-extraction of groundwater and drainage of aquifers-which geologists believe may have led to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, sinking faster than any other city in the world. More than 80% of land subsidence across the world is caused due to excessive extraction of groundwater, according to the US Geological Survey.

Human activity seems to be primarily responsible for Joshimath’s woes. Over decades, a lot of water has been pumped out from beneath the ground for farming, making the sand and stone fragile. With the soil dipping, the town has been slowly sinking. “The situation is alarming,” says a geologist.

As early as 1976, a government study warned that Joshimath was sinking, and recommended a ban on heavy construction work in the area. It pointed out that a lack of adequate drainage facilities was leading to landslides. “Joshimath is not suitable for a township,” the study cautioned. But the warning was not heeded. Over the decades, the place exploded into a busy gateway for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists. The pilgrims were bound for the Hindu temple town of Badrinath, some 45km away. Tourists trek, climb and ski in the region. Hotels, lodging houses and eateries have proliferated.

An Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite image showed that Joshimath sank by 5.4cm in 12 days between December 2022 and January 2023. And between April 2022 and November 2022, saw a slow subsidence of 9cm. Get that sinking feeling? And we always get advance warnings, which we fail to read!

United Kingdom’s Space

In a first such foray the United Kingdom (UK) scrambled to get into Space and what does it do? No time for launch-pad Rocket take-offs, instead convert an old 747 Jumbo Jet, name it Cosmic Girl, shake it up to carry a carry a rocket – called Launcher One- underneath its left wing which in turn carries as its payload Satellites to be launched in to orbit. And who does it? That’s easy, British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, through his American Company, Virgin Orbit.

The mission using the repurposed Aeroplane was to release the Launcher One rocket, at an altitude of approximately 10,700 meters, over the Atlantic to take nine satellites high above the Earth, and the first stage engine ignited, to start the climb towards space.

Cosmic Girl took-off from a ‘Spaceport’ in Cornwall, UK, and flew high to launch Launcher One – the imbalance in one wing being used to get off in the opposite direction as the rocket fires and goes into space. But the first UK rocket taking satellites into space suffered an ‘anomaly’ -spelling an end to the mission. Virgin Orbit is evaluating the information and waiting to find out more about what happened to the rocket and the unsuccessful mission. Meanwhile, Cosmic Girl returned to Spaceport Cornwall – landing on the runway. Tomorrow is another day!

Earth’s Atmosphere

In rare good news for the planet, that too in the New Year, Earth’s ozone layer appears to be on track to recover completely within decades, as ozone-depleting chemicals are phased out across the world. This is according to a new United Nations (UN) backed Assessment.

We know that the ozone layer of the atmosphere protects Planet Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays-by kicking them back into space. But since the late 1980s, scientists have sounded the alarm about formation of a hole in Earth’s armour, caused by ozone-depleting substances including chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs) often found in refrigerators, aerosols, and solvents.

International cooperation helped stem the damage. The use of CFCs has decreased 99% since the Montreal Protocol came into force in 1989, which began the phase-out of those and other ozone-harming chemicals, said the Assessment.

If global policies stay their course, the ozone layer is expected to heal and recover to 1980 levels by 2040 for most of the world, the Assessment found. For polar areas, the timeframe for recovery is longer: 2045 over the Arctic and 2066 over the Antarctic. Oh Earth, heal thyself?

Please Yourself

Golden Globe’s Naatu Naatu

The Golden Globe Awards are given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for excellence in both American and international Film and Television (TV). The HFPA was founded in 1943 by Los Angeles-based foreign journalists seeking to develop a better organised process of gathering and distributing cinema news to non-US markets. It has about 105 members who vote to select the winners. One of the HFPA’s major goal was to establish a ceremony similar to the Academy Awards to recognise and honour achievements in the world of Film & TV.

The 1st Golden Globe Awards ceremony were held in January 1944 rewarding the previous year’s Film & TV shows. The eligibility period corresponds to the calendar year-from 1st January through 31st December. The annual awards presentation ceremony normally happens in January.

This year, the 80th edition of the Golden Globe Awards was held on 10th January at The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, California. To begin with, the Red Carpet also ‘displayed the best of golden globes’.

‘The Fabelmans’ and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ won top prizes on the Big Screen, while ‘Abbot Elementary’ and ‘The White Lotus’ struck graduate yellow gold on the Small Screen.

Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ was adjudged the Best Motion Picture and also won the best Director for the superb movie-maker & Director, Spielberg, outflying Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, and rising above James Cameroon’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’.

The Fabelmans is a coming-of-age semi-autobiographical story loosely based on Steven Spielberg’s own adolescence and first years as a filmmaker. It explores how the power of films can help see the truth about a dysfunctional family and those around.

The Banshees of Inisherin is a dark tragic comedy set in a remote island off the west cost of Ireland. It is about two lifelong friends who find themselves in an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both. ‘Banshee’ in Irish folklore means a female spirit who heralds the death of a family member usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. ‘Inisherin’ is a fictional village in Ireland made-up on the Inis More and Achill Islands. The film combats war from a distance by focussing on a village that was not directly involved.

Austin Butler won Best Actor for being Elvis Presley in ‘Elvis’ and Cate Blanchett, Best Actress for the way she conducted herself in ‘Tar’. The Best Actress in a musical or comedy went to Michelle Yeoh for playing 60 year old Chinese immigrant Evelyn Wang-owner of a failing laundromat in America- in the Sci-fi comedy ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’. Best Actor in a musical or comedy went to Colin Farrell for being a friendly, drinking buddy, and then ignored in ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.

Best Drama TV Series went to ‘House of Dragon’, with ‘The Crown’, ‘Better Call Saul’, ‘Ozak’, and ‘Severance’ coming within striking distance of crowing glory, but severed –better call the HFPA?

The Best Foreign Language film went to ‘Argentina 1985’ with India’s sensational high-octane ‘RRR’, ‘Decision to Leave’, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and ‘Close’ getting close. The Best Original Score award went to ‘Babylon’.

Indian Director S S Rajamouli’s RRR won the Golden Globe for best original song for ‘Naatu Naatu’ – a Telugu track composed by veteran Indian music director M M Keeravaani and sung by Kala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj. The joke doing the rounds on social media, about the Russian-Ukraine War, is that the West has chosen ‘Nato Nato’ to dance with!

Other nominees for best original song were Taylor Swift’s ‘Carolina-Where The Crawdads Sing’, Ciao Papa-Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’, ‘Hold My Hand’ from Top Gun: Maverick, a collaboration between Lady Gaga, BloodPop and Benjamin Rice, and ‘Lift Me Up’ from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Goransson.

Best Musical or Comedy Series went to ‘Abbott Elementary’. Actor Kevin Costner won Best Actor in a Drama or TV Series for ‘Yellowstone’. The Best TV Motion Picture was won by ‘The White Lotus’ (HBO Max).

This time the Awards were marked by outstanding Acceptance Speeches like the one where Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Coolidge gave a wonderfully rambling, hilarious, profanity laden speech including’, “I don’t work out! I can’t hold it that long”. And Michelle Yeoh asked Producers to “shut up” for trying to cut her speech short when she gave ‘everything everywhere all at once’ to describe her rise as a Hollywood Actress. And she can pack a terrific punch-mind it (remember, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The biggest applause was reserved for comedian, writer, and singer Eddie Murphy who was this year’s Cecil B DeMille Award winner. He cracked everyone up with this: “I want to let you know that there is a definitive blueprint that you can follow to achieve success, prosperity, longevity, and peace of mind”. Eddie Murphy then added, “It is a blueprint and I have followed it my whole career. It is very simple, just do these three things: pay your taxes, mind your business, and keep Will Smith’s wife’s name out of your f—-ing mouth!” leaving the audience in splits. His decades of unbeatable comedy and incredible performances deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated.

Act well, crack jokes through the year 2023. Win a golden globe, celebrate and share it on World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-01

About: World Inthavaaram is news that made the week. ‘Inthavaaram’, in Tamil, means ‘this week’. I began in week 41 of the year 2020 and have been writing and publishing every week with a unique calligraphy doodle -in my own hand -to match the stories. I collect news from all over the world and present it in a fresh, light-hearted manner.

This week is about a never-ending war, lingering Covid19, a path-breaking medical invention, politics of economics, bidding bye to a Pope and a legendary football player.

Everywhere

New cold winds are blowing in January of the brand New Year. The sun itself has become awfully shy and wears a blazer to keep itself warm, I guess. But dear Earth is getting warmer by the degree. In the United Kingdom (UK), for example, last year 2022, was the warmest year on record. The average annual temperature was more than 10 degrees Centigrade for the first time. Is this a hot sign of things to come?

Kick-starting the New Year, the diaries, calendars, and resolutions are singing all over the world. I started a new Bullet Journal-doing it fo the past four years. In every month I allocate a page titled ‘World’ to record the ‘news temperatures and flare-up’s’ of the year. Some events keep hugging the pages, hogging the headlines seemingly forever.

Ukraine is fighting back like hell in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. This week a Ukrainian missile strike killed 89 Russian troops – the actual death toll is still being assessed: we may never know. The attack was one of the deadliest by Ukrainian forces since the war began last year. It involved four rockets fired from United States-made launchers targeting barracks in the Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region. And it is a massive blow to Russia’s ill thought-out, meaningless invasion of Ukraine. Russia surely finds itself at a stage where it does not know how to exit honourably.Late in the week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ceasefire for 36 hours on 6th and 7th January along the entire line of contact between the armies in Ukraine. This is to allow Russian Orthodox Christians to attend Christmas services, considering the appeal of Patriarch Kirill, Bishop and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Perhaps, he should appeal and pray for the war to stop?

Covid 19 has a stranglehold on China and is tearing through the country, with most of its people never exposed to the coronavirus and the elderly not fully vaccinated. While the coronavirus Omicron variant causes mild symptoms in most people, a large number of Chinese are still vulnerable to severe illness. The country’s weak health-care system is already under huge pressure.

The always tight-lipped and walled China says only 13 people have died from Covid19 so far in December. The real toll is undoubtedly much higher. China only counts as Covid19 deaths those who die from respiratory failure or pneumonia. But the virus often causes death by damaging other organs-other kinds of failure. China’s crematoriums are busy: it is estimated that over 5,000 people are probably dying of Covid19 every day; the burial queues are getting longer. And a model predicts that in a worst-case scenario 1.5 million Chinese will die from the virus in the coming months. The World Health Organization (WHO) has demanded that more information be shared with the World. And has accused China of ‘under-representing’ the severity of its Covid outbreak and criticised its ‘narrow’ definition of what constitutes a Covid death But, is China listening?

Base Editing: A Path-breaking Invention

First, a quick basic lesson in the science of Genetics.

Bases are nitrogen containing biological compounds which store information and is the language of life. We must have learnt in school that the four types of Base – Adenine (A), Cytosine (C), Guanine (G), and Thymine (T)-are the building blocks of our genetic code-the DNA (DeoxyriboNucleic Acid). Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body. In RNA (RiboNucleic Acid), the base Uracil (U) takes the place of T.

The incurable cancer of a teenage girl, Alyssa from Leicester, UK, has been cleared from her body in the first use of a revolutionary new type of technology medicine, called ‘Base Editing’.

Alyssa was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May last year. T-cells are the body’s guardian angels-seeking out and destroying devilish disease threats – but for Alyssa they had become the danger and were growing out of control. Her cancer was aggressive. Chemotherapy, and then a bone-marrow transplant, were unable to rid it from her body.

All other treatments for Alyssa’s leukaemia having failed, doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, Bloomsbury, London Borough of Camden, UK, used ‘base editing’, which was invented only six years ago-to perform a feat of biological engineering to build her a new living drug. Six months later, the cancer is undetectable, but Alyssa is still being monitored in case it makes a comeback. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago and has been made possible by incredible advances in Genetics.

Base Editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions. The large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing Alyssa’s cancerous T-cells. They started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and went about modifying (editing) them.

The first base edit disabled the T-cells targeting mechanism, so they would not assault Alyssa’s body; the second removed a chemical marking, called CD7, which is on all T-cells; the third edit was an invisibility cloak that prevented the cells being killed by a chemotherapy drug; the final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in her body – including the cancerous ones. That’s why this marking has to be removed from the therapy – otherwise it would just destroy itself. Looks so easy!

If the therapy works, Alyssa’s immune system-including T-cells-will be rebuilt with the second bone-marrow transplant. She is the first patient to be treated with this technology. This kind of genetic manipulation is a very fast-moving area of science with enormous potential across a range of diseases. What a start in the New Year!

America Fails to Elect a Speaker: Speechless

Meanwhile, in the United States (US) of America, for the first time in a century, the House of Representatives, one person did not receive the necessary 218 votes on the first ballot to become Speaker of the House. Speaker hopeful, Kevin McCarthy secured 203 votes, leaving the top job up for grabs as Republicans took control of the Chamber. Hard right lawmakers followed through on their threats to oppose him as Speaker. By the end of the week Kevin McCarthy lost a historic eleventh vote over three days. And still no US House Speaker. Democracy is a work in progress!

A Pope Dies

Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI the first Pope to resign in 600 years, died on 31st December, aged 95. He had resigned in February 2013 citing a ‘lack of strength of mind and body’ due to his advanced age. Speaking in Latin he had said: “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

Pope Benedict’s handling of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church and opposition to usage of condoms in areas of high HIV transmission, despite their effectiveness in preventing the spread of HIV, led to substantial criticism in the public domain.

Amazon Sheds Fat-Letters

This week, e-commerce technology giant Amazon announced that it is shedding about 18,000, A to Z roles as it goes on a drive to cut costs. The job cuts amount to around 6% of the company’s roughly 3,00,000 strong corporate workforce. Amazon is the latest technology firm to unveil major layoffs as the cost of living crisis sees customers cut back on spending. Amazon said it had to announce the layoffs sooner than they wanted to, as the information had leaked out.

India’s Demonetisation is OK

Most of us may faintly recall that dour day of 8 November 2016 when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appeared on National Television to announce that all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes, of the Mahatma Gandhi Series, will no longer carry legal tender.

He said the action would curtail the shadow economy, increase cashless transactions and reduce the use of illicit and counterfeit cash that funds illegal activities and terrorism. The Govt also announced the issuance of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes. Oh, I loved those new green 500, pink 2000, which first emerged, followed by the orange 200 and blue 100 notes, later on.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulated that demonetised notes should be deposited with the Bank over a period of 50 days until 30 December 2016. In the final tally, the RBI said that approximately 99.3% of demonetised currency was deposited- returned to the Government coffers.

The announcement of the demonetisation decision sparked massive confusion and chaos for several weeks as people scrambled for the new currency notes, forming snaky queues before Banks and ATM kiosks, for days. Some people even died waiting to have their money exchanged. The move was severely criticised by those opposed to the Government, as poorly planned and unfair, sparking protests.

India has previously demonetised bank notes in 1946 and 1978 with the objective of curbing counterfeit money and black money.

This week the Supreme Court of India upheld the demonetisation decision with a 4:1 majority. A five-judge Constitution bench dismissed a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise. It said that the decision, being the Executive’s economic policy, cannot be reversed. And that Centre’s decision-making process cannot be flawed as there was consultation between RBI and the Government. It is not relevant whether the objectives were achieved or not.

The ruling comes as yet another badge to pin on the chest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had been subjected to tremendous outrage on the demonetisation drive by the Opposition Parties. And the BJP is shining the light and ringing the bell on the awesome changes, especially the significant rise in digital payments, brought about by demonetisation.

A Dragging Horror in New Delhi

India’s capital Delhi has a knack of getting into gruesome acts, every year, at stunning regularity.

This year on New Year’s Eve a young 20 year old woman, Anjali Singh along with her friend, Nidhi drives a few streets away from her home to a Hotel for an event management. On the return, after midnight, she and a her friend after some kind of an altercation mount the scooter to ride Home. On the way they are hit by a car with Nidhi on the pillion ‘safely’ falling off and Anjali getting trapped under the car along with the scooter. And being dragged for about 10km and mauled to death in a horrific manner, with body parts split-up. It appears that someone in the car knew Anjali was stuck as the car went forward and backwards with Anjali screaming before dragging her in an unmindful manner. It appears the five people inside the car were drunk and with loud music running, they did not hear anything! Heart-wrenching. Police weren’t around despite being called to the scene and the city being under a New Year Security blanket. Nidhi, who could have shouted her guts out, scooted from the scene – fled, fearing ‘everything’ and stayed silent without telling anyone anything for almost two days. Further, Nidhi said Anjali was in an ‘inebriated’ state while the post-mortem report she was not under the influence of Alcohol. As the stories spin, investigations have begun to find out what exactly happened. Unbelievable that a friend could do this to a friend. It is a combined failure of the Police System in particular and the community at large?

Everybody needs to do their part, and unfortunately not one person did theirs, that day.

Goodbye Pele

Football King, Pele passed away last week, and this week his funeral was held in the city of Santos, Brazil. His coffin was kept in the Urbano Caldeira -Vila Belmiro- stadium, home of Pele’s former club Santos, for mourners to pass through for one final look at one of history’s most magnificent athletes, before entombment.

Pele’s coffin was then driven to the mausoleum that he had bought 19 years ago inside the Memorial Ecumenical Cemetery, a high-rise building that holds the Guinness world record as the tallest cemetery in the world. The Santos soccer club estimated that 230,000 mourners had been through the stadium. And huge crowds turned out to accompany the procession.

The procession had started at the Stadium and his coffin was carried through the streets of Santos, including the street where Pele’s 100 year old mother lives.

Hundreds of thousands of people waited for hours under a burning sun on Monday to file past Pele’s coffin. “This is no sacrifice,” said one who traveled three hours to the Stadium and had to be at work in five hours, yet had another few hours before he would be through the line. “He gave us so much joy that it’s a pleasure to be here.”

Pele being a footballer like no other, his final resting place is exceptional too: a large replica stadium complete with artificial turf inside the world’s tallest vertical cemetery.

Some of Brazil’s best-known footballers have faced a furious backlash as fans questioned why they had failed to attend ceremonies bidding farewell to Pele. And only a handful of Brazil’s World Cup winners made the trip to pay homage. “Pele is a citizen of the world, at the same level as Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi, but Brazilians don’t know how to recognise that,” lamented a former player.

Pele married three times, fathering seven children. He leaves behind his present wife, Marcia Aoki.

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