Tag: Australia

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-16

About: the world this week, 14 April 2024 to 20 April 2024: Israel & Iran; knives out in Australia; UAE goes underwater; India begins voting; and keeping a Princess & Future Queen safe.

Everywhere

Israel – Iran

In an insane move and probably a serious miscalculation, Iran attacked Israel launching over 300 drones and missiles into Israel. But, in an unbelievable military defence operation almost 99% of them were knocked-out by the combined might of the United States (US), United Kingdom(UK), and Israel. Actually, it was a multinational coalition consisting of, among others-a huge surprise-Jordon and Saudi Arabia!

Obviously, Iran’s action is a follow-through on its vow to avenge Israel’s attack on a ‘building next to it Consulate in Damascus, Syria’, which had resulted in the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander and his deputy.

Iran’s strike began with over 100 ground-to-ground missiles being fired from Iran into Israel. Simultaneously, drones and ballistic missiles were fired from its partners-in-crime, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Tens of Israel fighter jets were immediately scrambled, which included F15, F16, and F35 planes. The Israeli planes flew deep into the airspace of the Middle East and began hunting the missiles and drones, detonating them one after the other. In parallel, fighter jets from the US and UK, along with other countries also took off from various Bases, and began to ‘hunt down’ the missiles. Whatever survived the fighter jet attacks and managed to reach Israeli airspace were immediately taken out by Israel’s Air defence systems including the Iron Dome, Hetz (Arrow) 2, Hetz 3, and more.

Israel and its allies mostly shot down all the missiles and drones and there were no deaths, but Israel says it must retaliate to preserve the credibility of its deterrents. Iran says it views the matter as closed but will retaliate again if Israel does.

What Israel will do next is yet to be seen, but the Iranian regime was humiliated that night, and to top that off, they are now waiting in fear to see how badly Israel punishes them.

Then late in the week, Israel carried out a surprise attack deep inside Iran’s territory, hitting an Iranian military base at Isfahan. The base is used by combat aircraft and military transport planes, likely with air defence systems – which seems to have been ‘defanged’ by the surgical strike. It is also close to a major Iranian nuclear facility for uranium enrichment. This strike was symbolic, sending a message that Israel is capable of targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities or anywhere in Iranian soil.

Israel had a point to make and it made it. What next?

Australia: Knives Out

Last Saturday in Australia, a knife-wielding man went on a stabbing rampage at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs, before a woman police inspector shot him dead after he turned and raised a knife.

The attacker identified as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, was known to police in the neighbouring state of Queensland. Cauchi, wearing shorts and an Australian national rugby league jersey, ran through the Westfield Mall with a knife. He fatally stabbed six people and injured at least 12 before he was killed by Inspector Amy Scott who ran into the shopping centre by herself, confronted the terrorist and killed him. Incredible heroism on display.

The man first stabbed a mother and her baby. The mother Ash Good, 38, died from her injuries while her baby who was also stabbed has undergone surgery and is in serious condition. The knife rampage lasted 15 minutes.

It was revealed that police knew the attacker and was and on their radar. He had mental health issues in the past and there is no indication ideology was a motive in the attack.

Quick on the heels of the knife attack on Monday another stabbing incident took place at a Sydney church, which Police have declared as religiously motivated and a terrorist act. A 16-year-old boy attacked a Bishop, a priest and churchgoers during mass at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, which was being streamed online.

Four people suffered ‘non-life-threatening’ injuries. The attacker was also hurt. Police arrested the boy after the stabbing at the Church that injured Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, 53, and a priest. Both are expected to survive.

The video online showed the Bishop being repeatedly stabbed in the head and upper body during the service. He sustained lacerations to his head after being lunged at. And underwent surgery. A 39-year-old man also sustained cuts and a shoulder injury while attempting to intervene.

Ordained by the Assyrian Orthodox Church in 2011, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel is seen as a popular and a controversial figure. His sermons have received millions of views on social media. But the Bishop has had a turbulent relationship with the Assyrian Church, reportedly being suspended for disobeying canons and forming a breakaway church. In 2021, Mar Mari Emmanuel became a vocal opponent of Covid-19 restrictions, describing lockdowns in Australia as slavery and arguing that vaccines were futile.

The teenage boy arrested after the stabbing attack inside the Sydney church was placed on a good behaviour bond after facing Court for a knife crime just three months ago. Police know the identity of the 16-year-old boy, but have chosen not to publish his name. The boy was charged with a range of offences, including possessing a knife, in November last year after an incident at a Sydney train station involving other teenage boys. The boy was found in possession of a flick knife and charged with being armed with a weapon with intent to commit an indictable offence, stalking and/or intimidation and recklessly destroy or damage property. He was on bail until his last court appearance in January, where his case was ‘proven’ but dismissed with a good behaviour bond.

Police said the suspect’s comments pointed to a religious motive for the attack.

“We’ll allege there’s a degree of premeditation on the basis that this person has travelled to that location, which is not near his residential address, he has travelled with a knife and subsequently the Bishop and the priest have been stabbed,” Police said. “They’re lucky to be alive”.

Dubai: Desert Storm

How many times we have heard this often repeated line – almost a cliche-‘The whole year’s rain came down in a single day’. The rain, tired of conquering the seas, the costal areas, and fertile hills and valleys turned its sights on the Desert and United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Dubai, and Oman ‘came under its wing’.

This week the UAE was drowned in unprecedented rains brought by a storm that brewed over the desert, the heaviest experienced by the country in the 75 years. It brought much of Dubai to a standstill and caused significant damage. The storm hit neighbouring Oman on Sunday and then pounded the UAE on Tuesday, with 20 reported dead in Oman and one in the UAE.

While some roadways in hard-hit communities remain flooded, delivery services across Dubai, whose residents are used to ordering everything at the click of a mouse, slowly began returning to the streets.

Rains are rare in the UAE and elsewhere on the Arabian Peninsula, which is typically known for its dry desert climate. Summer air temperatures can soar above 50 degrees Celsius. Following Tuesday’s rains, questions were raised whether cloud seeding-a process of manipulating clouds to increase rainfall- that the UAE frequently conducts, could have caused the heavy rain. A UAE government agency that oversees cloud seeding denied conducting any such operations before the storm. But climate experts blame global warming for such extreme weather events.

Researchers anticipate that climate change will lead to heightened temperatures, increased humidity and a greater risk of flooding in parts of the Gulf region. Countries like the UAE where there is a lack of drainage infrastructure to cope with heavy rains can suffer the most.

Dubai, a city in the desert proud of its modern gloss, faced the towering task of clearing its water-clogged roads and drying out flooded homes. Dubai International Airport, a major travel hub, struggled to clear a backlog of flights and many roads were still flooded in the aftermath of Tuesday’s deluge.

Inking India’s Finger

This week, Friday 19th April, marked the beginning of the biggest Festival of Democracy the world has seen. The first phase, of the seven-phase polls, decides 102 seats in 21 Indian States for India’s 543 member Lower House of Parliament, the Lok Sabha. And after meandering through the rest of April and May concludes on 1st June 2024.

An average of 60% of voters in various States got their finger inked with indelible ink – to mark that they have voted. The aggregate voter turnout till 9pm was 62.37 % with the highest percentage in Tripura at 80.17%. In the previous Elections in 2019 the aggregate was 69.43% in the first Phase.

The process was by and large peaceful, except for incidents in the State of Tamil Nadu, and others, that names have been left out of the Voters List despite having a valid Voter Identification. The Election Commission of India needs to get its tails-up to resolve this problem. Violence was reported in some parts of West Bengal and Manipur and the voter turnout fell from the figure in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

Tough being a Princess and a Future Queen

The Netherlands, a country of 18 million people, has low rates of violent crime – a safe country. Its royal family are sometimes called ‘the bicycle monarchy’ for their informal approach to royal duties. But there is a problem. Princess Amalia, 20, the future Queen of the Netherlands, has been living outside her country for the past year over security concerns. Amalia is the eldest daughter of the Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his Argentine-born wife Queen Maxima and will one day ascend the throne as the country’s next monarch.

However, the young Princess has been forced to leave the Netherlands due to kidnapping threats. This is based on intelligence reports indicating Amalia was mentioned in communications by organised crime groups, sparking fears she could be a target of attacks. Amalia has been living in Madrid, Spain for the past year but recently relocated to the palace after new measures were taken to ensure her safety. She made a rare appearance at a state banquet at the royal palace in Amsterdam with her parents in honour of the Spanish royal family.

In September 2022, the Princess began studying at the University of Amsterdam and briefly lived on campus with other students as she pursued a bachelor’s degree in politics, psychology, law and economics. However, soon afterwards the royal family said she had been forced to leave her student housing, citing similar concerns for her safety, and she moved back into the palace and became a virtual recluse. “She can’t live in Amsterdam, and she can’t really go outside (the palace),” Queen Maxima told journalists at the time. The Netherlands needs a Princess Shield.

More Princess stories coming in the weeks ahead. Build your Palace with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-22

About: the world this week, 29 May to 4 June 2022, music is strained, a celebrity defamation hearing, a plane crash, ruthless fighting, and a Manhattan seaweed.

Everywhere

We Rapped: Moose Wala

This Sunday, 28 years old Moose Wala an Indian singer, rapper, actor, and politician primarily associated with Punjabi music and cinema was shot dead by unidentified attackers while driving near his village in Punjab State. A Canada-based person, Goldy Brar said to belong to the Lawrence Bishnoi Gang, took responsibility for the killing, in a Facebook account. Reasons unknown. The Police are investigating.

Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu was born in Moosa Village, Mansa District, Punjab. He studied Electrical Engineering in Ludhiana and after graduation moved to Canada, in 2016. Sidhu began listening to hip-hop music from the Class 6, and learnt music from Ustad Harvinder Bittu in Ludhiana, before starting to rap. He was heavily influenced by American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, considered one of the most influential rappers of all-time, with more than 75 million records worldwide to his name.

Sidhu started his career writing music for Ninja (Amit Bhalla-Indian playback singer) and then got his singing career going with a duet song titled ‘G Wagon’.

One year after moving to Canada, Sidhu released his first track, ‘So High’, under the name Moose Wala-a tribute to his village-and gained wide attention.

In 2018, he released his debut Album PBX 1, which peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart. Following the Album’s success, he started releasing his songs independently. His 2019 single ’47’ was ranked on the UK Singles Chart. In 2020, Moose Wala was named by The Guardian among 50 ‘up and coming artists’. Ten of his songs have peaked on UK Asian Chart with two of them topping. His song ‘Bambiha Bole’ was among the top five on Global You Tube music chart. In 2021, he released Moosetape, tracks from which charted globally including Canadian Hot 100, UK Asian, and New Zealand Hot charts. I’m breathless, that’s an awesome Chart line-up!

Since then, he has released three albums and more than 60 singles. At one time-the story goes-he was churning out a song a week. And became a household name in Punjab and among Sikhs living abroad. In a career spanning just four years, the rapper had become one of the most ubiquitous faces of Punjab’s fertile hip-hop scene. His voice blares from DJ turntables at Delhi’s flamboyant parties, rickety stereos at tea stalls in rural India and every possible radio channel in Punjab. His very distinctive rapping style enthralled and captured the nuances of life in Punjab.

Drawing heavily from the genre of gangster rap, his music was a jumble of gritty opulence showing-off guns and fancy sports cars, as he tried to make sense of life around him. His songs offered unvarnished commentary on the dark underbelly of the rural heartland, where drugs, crime, and corruption often make headlines.

Rap music is a genre that often has lyrical expressions of revenge. And Moose Wala was no exception to this trend. Jealousy of his rivals was also an overarching theme in his music, which was best captured in the smash hit, Jatt da Mukabla: ‘Don’t flutter so high, you birds, for if I want, I can buy the sky.’

Moose Wala had his brushes with the Law. In May 2020, he was booked for firing an AK-47 rifle at a shooting range during the Covid19 Lockdown. He also had a police case against him for seemingly promoting violence and gun culture through his song, ‘Sanju’. Though never convicted, he was accused of trying to normalise violence.

In politics, Moose Wala was a member of India’s Grand Old Party, The Indian National Congress, and unsuccessfully contested in the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections, from Mansa.

Unbelievable that Moose Wala had bewitched so many people in such a short period. Wonder who (all) got jealous?

We Sang: KK

This week, Indian Music suffered another hit. Singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, aged 53 years, popularly known as ‘KK’ died of a cardiac arrest hours after performing in a concert at Nazrul Mancha for Gurudas College’s Fest in Kolkatta, after which he fell ill and returned to his hotel. When his condition deteriorated, he was rushed to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead on arrival.

KK sang hundreds of songs during his career which began in the 1990s with advertisement jingles. He made his film debut with an A R Rahman soundtrack called ‘Kallooori Salai’ (College Road) in the Tamil movie, Kadhal Desam.

In 1999, he launched his debut album titled ‘Pal’. The songs ‘Pal’ and ‘Yaaron’ from the album became very popular and are commonly used in school farewells.

His biggest hits and most popular Hindi songs include, Tadap Tadap from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Dola Re Dola from Devdas (2002), the Tamil song, Apadi Podu, from Ghilli (2004), Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai from Woh Lamhe …(2006), Aankhon Mein Teri from Om Shanti Om (2007), Khuda Jane from Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), Piya Aaye Na from Aashiqui 2 (2013), Mat Aazma Re from Murder 3 (2013), India Wale from Happy New Year (2014), Tu Jo Mila from Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015).

KK’s other famous songs were, ‘Annanoda Pattu’ (elder brother’s song) in superstar Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi. And by far, his most popular song in Tamil is Uyirin Uyire in the movie Kaakha Kaakha.

The romance of his songs had strings tied to his real life too. KK fell in love when he was in Class 10 and decided he would marry the girl who stole his heart: he proposed to Jyothy Krishna and eventually married her in 1999 when he was on a firm footing in his career. When asked, wasn’t it too early in life to propose, a confident KK said, “It is not about too early, when you feel something here (gesturing towards his heart), just say it.”

KK is survived by his wife, Jyothy Krishna, and his two children, Nakul Krishna Kunnath and Tamara Kunnath.

Wordsworth floods through that inward eye: ‘The music is my heart I bore long after it was no more’.

We Crashed

This Sunday, a Tara Air plane, with 22 people onboard crashed in Nepal. The plane was on a 20 minute flight when it lost contact with air traffic control, five minutes before it was due to land. The plane, made by the Canadian Aircraft firm, de Havilland, had departed from the tourist town of Pokhara early on Sunday, bound for Jomsom a popular pilgrimage site, and never made it.

Four Indians, two Germans and sixteen Nepali passengers were on board the plane. Search teams first located the crash site, one day after the crash. The remains of all 22 people onboard have been found since, after being awfully frustrated by bad weather and the treacherous mountainous terrain.

The four Indian nationals were identified as a family of two divorced parents and their two children, who were travelling together on a family vacation. They hailed from the city of Thane in Maharashtra State. Post-divorce, the family had been spending 10 days together, as per the court order, during which time they go for holidays, every year. Little did they know this would be their last.

“We are sitting on the plane. We will call you when we reach there”. Those were the last words of one of the parents.

Nepal has had a record fraught with aviation accidents, partly due to its finicky weather changes and airstrips located in hard-to-access rocky terrains. Insufficient training and shoddy maintenance have also plagued its air safety record, prompting the European Union (EU) to ban the flights of all Nepalese airlines in its airspace.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla flight carrying 71 people from Dhaka in Bangladesh caught fire as it landed in Kathmandu, killing 51 people.

More recently, three people died in a plane crash in April 2019 when the aircraft veered off the runway and hit a stationary helicopter at Lukla Airport – considered one of the most tricky runways to navigate due to its strong winds and high altitude of 2845 metres.

Nepal has a mountain of work to do, to ensure flight safety. Here’s hoping this is the last such disaster.

We Stopped at Amber, and Heard

In a blockbuster case that was running live on United States (US) Television for the past six weeks, Jurors in the US state of Virginia found that Actor Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean sequels) and Actress Amber Heard (Rum Diary, Pineapple Express) both defamed each other in public statements following their divorce.

Depp actually won his defamation trial against Heard, and Heard lost most of her countersuit, in a stunning finish to the celebrity trial that has riveted America.

Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation because of an Op-Ed she published in The Washington Post in 2018. In the Op-Ed, headlined, “I spoke up against sexual violence-and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change,” Heard never mentions Depp, but she refers to herself as ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse.’ Depp said the article sullied his reputation, and thwarted his career.

Depp, 58, won all three of the claims he had made and was awarded USD 10.4 million in damages. Heard, 36, who had counter-sued for USD 100 million won only one of her three claims against Depp and was awarded USD 2 million.

In its verdict, the seven-member panel said Heard had defamed her ex-husband with false statements about their relationship. They also said the statements were made with actual malice, i.e., with reckless disregard or negligence.

Last heard, Amber Heard was ‘disappointed beyond words’ and ‘heartbroken’ by the verdict.

Depp has been nominated for three Oscars and been named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, twice. And Heard was not much heard of during the time Depp was at the peak of his popularity.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard got engaged in 2014 and married in 2015. Then, in 2016, Heard filed for divorce. Do marriages ever run green in Hollywood? It’s amber or red!

We are Still Fighting Russia

This Friday marks the 100th day of war in Ukraine, and Russia is closing-in on the city of Severodonetsk. Russia now occupies almost of Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk. And in total, about 20% of Ukraine. The Donbas region is almost entirely destroyed and the destruction in Ukraine defies comprehension. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin is banking on the world’s indifference to see him through this horrific disaster he created in the first place. And maybe is looking for an opportunity to declare some kind of a victory?

We are Australia

One keeps finding the weirdest things in Australia: be it animal or plant life – on land or under the sea.

The largest known plant on Earth, a seagrass (ribbon weed) roughly three times the size of Manhattan (about 59 sq.km) has been discovered off the coast of Australia.

Scientists have determined that a large underwater meadow in Western Australia is in fact one plant, believed to have spread from a single seed over at least 4500 years. The seagrass covers 200 square kilometres in Shark Bay, about 800 kilometres north of Perth.

The seagrass was discovered to be growing at the rate of 35 centimetres per year. Remarkable for its hardiness having grown in locations across the Bay with widely varying conditions.

More grown stories will be measured in the weeks to come. Rap and sing with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-10

About: the world this week, 6 March to 12 March 2022, war grows, Ganga flows, Covid19 again, rains floods, elections and elections, tree driving, and a pig heart.

Everywhere

Ukraine: Fighting Back

“I am prepared to die for my country, for what I love,” said a Ukrainian in perfect English. “Putin doesn’t understand we don’t want his authority-his world. All of us here know what we want-the right to live our lives, the right to choose who leads us. That’s our right, not Moscow’s.” That sums up the steely, courageous mood against all odds, which has invaded Ukrainian minds.

It’s over two weeks since the Russian invasion and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is holding-on with his people in the capital Kyiv amidst the mad, relentless attack on his country. He has been on a continuous talking spree to world leaders explaining the situation, and trying to enlist their understanding and support. His speech to the United Kingdom’s (UK) House of Commons received a standing ovation. “We will fight until the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” he said. Brave words, which will go down to the wire.

The city of Kyiv has been transformed into a fortress and from the looks of it, the people are determined to defend the city to the last man standing. Almost 40,000 volunteers joined the Territorial Defense Forces in the first two days after the invasion began. In Kyiv alone, 18000 people picked up weapons when authorities called for volunteers and reservists to do so.

Those who couldn’t join the forces are helping in other ways: making Molotov cocktails, sewing camouflage nets for barricades, distributing food, hot drinks and cigarettes to those standing guard. They are raising money for the military, building more road blocks, and even painting over traffic signs in an attempt to confuse the invaders.

Over the week, Russia bombed a Hospital in the city of Mariupol that injured 17 people, including children, women, and doctors. Three died, among them one child, a girl. Civilians are being increasingly targeted and this is a huge cause of worry, as is the precision of Russian weaponry becoming suspect.

India successfully evacuated nearly all its citizens and students in Ukraine. Many would not budge without their pet cats and dogs, which also earned space in the Operation Ganga flights. One man, an Orthopaedic Doctor chose to be different. He had a pet panther and a jaguar and refused to leave without them. Last heard he was hunting for food to feed them. Another who was shot, during the Russian shelling, was rescued and taken home in an Indian Airforce Plane.

While we talk about Ukraine, think about Afghanistan and Myanmar where its people invaded their country causing endless internal strife. And Taiwan living in constant fear of a Chinese invasion. Another rogue nation North Korea is busy firing missiles into the Ocean, what if they turn and attack South Korea? The possibilities for war is limitless. In Taliban’sAfghanistan it’s Day 175 since girls have been banned from returning to secondary school: teenage girls remain stuck at home, waiting for the Taliban to decide the future of their education. And they are busy lecturing Russia and Ukraine to talk it over and take things cool. Wow!

This week, the US further turned the screws on Russia by banning all imports of Russian Oil, Gas, and Energy. US based companies such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, temporarily closed their stores in Russia to show their solidarity with Ukraine. And in return, Russia threatened to seize all these abandoned assets. Well, that’s another front opening in this war!

I often wonder what did the Ukrainian people do to deserve this: homes destroyed, lives shattered, and tens of thousands crossing the Borders into Poland, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia as refugees.

A third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia was unproductive. And they are still talking. Ukrainian President Zelensky indicated he might not want to join NATO after all-as they are cold towards them. He might also give up in some eastern provinces which Russia recognised as Independent. These maybe the building blocks for further negotiations.

South Korea’s New Unfavourable President

This week, South Korea chose the opposition conservative People Power Party’s candidate, Yoon Suk-Yeol, as the country’s next President following a tightly contested Presidential Election, the closest in its history-with the final count separated by less than 1%. He takes over from the outgoing President Moon Jae-In, who held three summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Koreas.

Yoon, a political novice, scraped out a victory over the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-Myung, based on promises to tackle class inequality. Both presidential candidates were considered widely unpopular throughout the campaign. And voters appeared so disenchanted by the frontrunners that local media dubbed the vote as ‘election of the unfavourables’. However, polling day saw a high turn out, with 77% of eligible voters casting their vote. Yoon Suk-Yeol’s victory over his rival Lee Jae-Myung is far from decisive. The razor-thin margin being a sign of just how bitterly divided politics in the world’s tenth largest economy has become.

Except is authoritarian regimes, where we may never know until the very end, most democracies are deeply divided over many factors, with new fault lines and fissures discovered all the time.

New Zealand and The Virus

New Zealand defences against the first two waves of the Covid19 pandemic was the sturdiest, the toughest, and the tightest. Only a few viruses slipped through, which were caught at the borders and mercilessly thrashed. When the world was baffled on how New Zealand did it, the mutated virus -the Omicron fellow- heard, and taking law into its hands invaded New Zealand like never before. Daily infections climbing into Space-as high as over 20,000- which is the highest ever in the country since the pandemic began. However, deaths were insignificant with over 90% of the weakest population vaccinated against the virus. Vaccination works.

The cases are beginning to dip and I’m sure New Zealand would be wiser at the end.

The virus is indeed a great leveller. You cannot take it for granted.

Australia’s Emergency

New Zealand’s big island neighbour had a different kind of problem: unending rain, growing floods; it’s becoming harder to live in Australia. Over the past week, severe rain along the country’s eastern coast has caused some of the worst flooding in Australian history and inundated swaths of two of its largest cities, Sydney and Brisbane. The provinces of New South Wales and Queensland have been pummelled by heavy downpours that have caused floods, and Sydney was hit by widespread flash-flooding.

The situation forced Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison to declared a national emergency this week. It was the first time that a national emergency-a legislative power created after the deadly wildfires in early 2020-had been declared.

Experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change and a ‘La Nina’ weather phenomenon. A La Nina develops when strong winds blow the warm surface waters of the Pacific away from South America and towards Indonesia. In their place, colder waters come up to the surface. In Australia, a La Nina increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones, and cooler daytime temperatures.

Whoever coined the term ‘Down Under’ probably knew what was coming!

India’s Five State Elections

Finally the last of the five States, Uttar Pradesh, that went to the polls to elect its new Legislative Assembly finished voting in the final phase on 7 March 2022. And once the voting was over that evening, Exit Pollsters started shouting out their kind of voting, and the prediction was that India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will win in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Manipur, and maybe Goa. While Punjab will go to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) presently governing the Union territory of Delhi.

The counting of votes was on 10 March 2022 and the results were generally on predicted lines. The BJP smashed many ceilings in winning 273 (with its allies, 255 on its own) out of 403 seats in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where it was the incumbent governing party. The election strategy of pushing for a ‘double-engine’ (Centre and State ruled by one Party) growth seems to have worked, and it fired on all cylinders. The Grand Old Party of India, The Indian National Congress (INC) was decimated in the State winning a miserly 2 seats. Overall, it was mauled at the hustings in other States and left licking its wounds. It had bungled and messed-up big time in Punjab and ‘reaped a bare minimum support’ from the voters.

The BJP went on to record remarkable victories in all other states except Punjab where the AAP, which has the broom as its symbol swept-off every other party including the BJP with a magical, massive, first ever win – 92 out of 117. In Uttarkhand the BJP won 47 out of 70; in Manipur it won 32 out of 60; and in Goa it won 20 out of 40.

The BJP shattered a battery of records in Uttar Pradesh with its present Chief Minister(CM)Yogi Adityanath, nearing 50, becoming a tall leader in his own right. He is the first CM to retain power in 37 years; the first CM to complete a full tenure and be re-elected; the fifth CM to win a second consecutive term; first BJP CM to return to power; first MLA to become CM in 15 years and the first CM to break the Noida Jinx. According to legend, whichever CM visits the city of Noida during his tenure either loses the next election or does not complete his tenure. Many past CM’s used to deliberately avoid this city and those who dared, succumbed to the fate of the Noida Jinx.

The State of Punjab saw an incredible performance by the AAP which won a landslide of 92 seats of a total of 117. There is also a story there.

Maybe this is the year of the Comedy Actors getting their timing right, fighting it out in the world of Politics and leading the charge afterwards. Punjab’s Bhagwant Singh Mann who is the Chief Minister-elect is a comic poet, writer of political satire and competed in the popular Indian TV show, ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ in 2008. He is currently a Member of Parliament for the AAP and was chosen to lead the Punjab Elections based on a public poll in which 93% wanted him to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. That’s almost an Indian Zelensky!

One ‘handed-down’ lesson from the elections is, ‘never take the voter for granted’.

India’s Tree Scooter

India is the world’s biggest producer of areca nut, with an output of 1.2 million tonnes in the year 2020-21. Much of this is produced in the southern coastal states of Karnataka and Kerala.

The areca nut is the seed of the areca palm and is commonly referred to as betel nut. It is known to be a major ‘cancer causing nut’; as with chewing tobacco, its use is discouraged by preventive efforts. Consumption by hundreds of millions of people worldwide is described as a much neglected global public health emergency.

On the brighter and taller side, 50 years old Ganapathi Bhat farms areca nut in the coastal town of Mangaluru in India’s Karnataka State. He faced a problem: regularly scaling palm trees as tall as between 60 and 70 feet to inspect and harvest his crop. Too old to climb, and unable to find cheap labour, Bhat took it upon himself to invent a device that would make climbing areca nut trees easier.

Starting in 2014, Bhat spent around INR 4 million on research and development. After four years of climbing work, he and his engineer partner came-up with a working prototype of a ‘Tree Scooter’. It consists of a small motor; a rudimentary seat, which straps a person to the seat and to the handlebars in a kind of tree-embrace; a set of climbing wheels, foot-bars; and the handle bar of a scooter with hand-controlled accelerator and brakes, which is revved to swiftly move up and down the tree and brake to a stop where required.

Bhat has sold more than 300 of the ‘tree scooters’, which cost about INR 62,000 each.

Last seen he was effortlessly zipping up and down trees grabbing the fruits of his labour!

Pig Heart

In the United States, 57 years old David Bennett had terminal heart-disease, was confined to a bed, and was given no chance of survival – certain sudden death.

However, in a ground-breaking experiment, Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre, were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out a heart-transplant from a genetically-modified pig. Bennet thus became the first person in the World to receive such a heart, and would otherwise have died sooner.

He underwent the surgery on 7th January, and in the weeks afterwards he spent time with his family, watched the Super Bowl, and spoke about wanting to get home to his dog, Lucky.

But his luck ran out, and his condition began to deteriorate over the past week. And he died this week on 8 March. Bennett knew the risks attached to the surgery, acknowledging, before the procedure, it was ‘a shot in the dark’.

More light stories to dispel darkness coming up in the weeks ahead. Climb with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-09

About: the world this week, 27 February to 5 March 2022, war, a country fights for its life, Operation Ganga, Justices, and floods.

Everywhere

Russian Aggression

This week was almost surreal with a full-fledged war developing right in front of our eyes and we being powerless, in the face of numerous odds, to do anything to stop the fighting; despite all the right noises we made at the start. And we, Homo Sapiens, thought we had advanced far enough to call weapons of killing and destruction, that we had cleverly invented, just that. And not use them at all.

The war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine galloped across new frontiers driven by an irrational President of Russia. Sirens howling, guns firing, tanks rolling, missiles flying, and people fleeing to basements of buildings for cover or to the borders, from the ever-growing hot-spots. Unbelievable that this happening in our time when we thought the World’s superpowers would behave with utmost sacred responsibility.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is fast acquiring a pariah status for his dangerous act of invading Ukraine and the unholy, brutal devastation unleashed in the process. If he had hoped for a quick victory it evaporated in the face of fierce resistance by Ukrainian soldiers and its armies of citizen volunteers.

Let’s face it. Russia is attacking-without the slightest needle of a physical provocation-a sovereign, independent, fledgling country, Ukraine, on a perceived, imagined threat to itself, despite it having one of the world’s most advanced and sophisticated security apparatus. In the aftermath of its break-up from the Soviet Union, Ukraine had given-up its nuclear arsenal to Russia with a guarantee that its sovereignty and borders will be respected. Its people freely and overwhelmingly chose to align with the West-the market of the European Union, for their betterment – it’s their choice, and rightfully so. And they were taking the first baby steps in joining the defensive North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) – for their own safety against the bewildering next-door giant. The Russian President decided that he did not like a neighbour freely doing all of this-sleeping with the enemy of his mind-hence the invasion. The goal seems to be to overthrow the democratically elected Government and perhaps install a puppet regime that would dance only to its tunes on strings pulled from Moscow.

Death defying circumstances such as these often throw up a hero, and a young Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, 44, is turning out to be exactly that. He refused to be cowed-down by the might of Russia and lay down arms; and in what I call a ‘Winston Churchill moment’, broadcasted to the Russian people on the ills of war, appealing to their belonging as people from the same land, and a call to reign-in their wild President. And to his own people he inspired and motivated them to come out and fight this together, shoulder to shoulder. Blood, sweat, and tears.

When offered an escape from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, by the United States, Zelenskyy was awfully quick to reject it saying. “I need ammunition, not a ride.” It showed selfless leadership and a kind of ‘Hollywood courage’. Zelensky has suddenly emerged as a convincing war-time leader alongside the greats of Winston Churchill and George Washington. He has rallied the nation with his addresses and video selfies and given voice to Ukrainian anger and defiance of Russian aggression.

Going back to his origins, Zelensky’s entry into politics is a case of life imitating art; reel turning into real. Initially, he performed on Ukraine’s version of the American dance competition, television series ‘Dancing with the Stars’, which in turn is the US version of the UK series, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The show pairs celebrities with professional dancers. And from 2015 to 2018, he played a history teacher frustrated with corruption who accidentally becomes President of Ukraine on a popular TV show called ‘Servant of the People.’ Zelensky then parlayed his success into politics, running for office in 2019 on the back of a political party named after his show, ‘Servant of the People’. He went on to win with 73% of the vote, promising to fight corruption and bring peace in the faction-riddled east of the country.

Zelensky is the son of Jewish parents. He married his school-mate Olena Kiyasko in 2003 and the couple have a daughter, Aleksandra, and son Kyryli . Wife Zelenska studied architecture at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Kryvyi Rih National University.

Ukrainians have been fending off the Russian army for over a week. But attacks have intensified on cities throughout the country: in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and the capital, Kyiv. Now, Russian forces have made key advances on Kherson-a strategic Black Sea port in southern Ukraine. And suddenly Russia is seen to be attacking on all fronts.

Meanwhile, the toll on civilians is mounting with an estimated 2,000 civilians dead as more than 1 million fleeing the country as refugees.

The US, UK, and other Western countries came to Ukraine’s aid by imposing economic sanctions to cripple Russia. The measures imposed are so potent that they have triggered chaos in Russia’s Trillion Dollar economy and prompted Vladimir Putin, to issue nuclear threats by putting the country’s nuclear forces on watch. The instant impoverishment of a big economy is unprecedented and will cause alarm around the world. The West’s priority appears to be, to win the economic confrontation with Russia.

Germany has long soft-peddled policies targeting Russia, but its chancellor, Olaf Scholz, made a moving and extraordinary change, committing an additional USD 100 billion to defense-spending immediately, shipping weapons to Ukraine, and ending the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was constructed to bring gas from Russia to Germany.

Switzerland, which steadfastly held a neutral position over so many decades decided to give up its neutrality and joined the sanctions bandwagon, sanctioning Russia and closing its airspace to Russian aircraft. These are never-before decisions – waking up other kinds of ‘unknown’ powerful sleeping giants.

Civil activism is the lifeblood of free societies, and Ukrainians have been excelling, including the sunflower lady, who cursed Russian soldiers; civilians lining up to collect arms and make Molotov cocktails, or change out street signs to confuse the invaders; and breweries retooling to produce weaponry. These stories will live and be told to build a new nation.

The United Nations is struggling to tame the Russian rogue, but Russia’s veto power renders any effective action from emerging, beyond some kind of a strong-worded condemnation. India abstained from voting due to its own compulsions. I wish it had voted along with the majority of nations, condemning Russia’s unwarranted aggression. India is a great civilisation and has always stood by dharma. I hope it shows more backbone in the days to come.

Now, the build-up on the other side. Russia friendly Belarus announced it was revoking its non-nuclear status after a referendum, allowing Russian weapons to be placed in Belarus. The move provoked rare protests in the country. What’s even more alarming is that Belarus may be preparing to send its soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion.

There was a fire near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant- the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant responsible for about 20% of Ukraine’s power generation- following ‘unacceptable’ Russian shelling in the vicinity. And there is an imminent danger lurking in such places. For e.g., if something were to happen to this nuclear power station, the impact could be ’ten times larger’ than the Chernobyl disaster. With missiles shattering buildings and killing civilians in Kharkiv, Mariupol and Kyiv, and Russia continued to warn of further escalation, there is little reason for hope for an immediate reduction in hostilities.

Where do we go from here? How do we stop the war in the event there is no clear victory on either side and the fighting drags on?

Russia and Ukraine have met on the border of Belarus to hold two rounds of negotiations, but nothing concrete has emerged, as yet. Still, the two sides are talking. Sooner or later, if a deal is to be reached, concessions will need to come from both sides.

Ukraine will certainly not undergo any ‘denazification’ by ousting its own democratically-elected government led by President Zelensky who happens to be Jewish. He is the strongest person to negotiate with at this stage.

On the Ukrainian side, Zelensky may need to promise Ukraine will not join NATO. This is at the core of Putin’s illogical reasoning for the invasion, and he is unlikely to back down from this demand. Russia will press for demilitarization in Ukraine, and it will be a non-starter for the Ukrainians. But they might well be willing to think about it once peace is clearly established: maybe accept limitations on the amount and types of weapons they can maintain, and also agree not to have foreign forces based in Ukraine. Of course, hedges should be built-in if there is an external threat to Ukraine.

Crimea appears destined to remain under Russia’s control, and Luhansk and Donetsk may likely be granted significant autonomy within the Ukrainian system.

Ukraine will expect commensurate concessions from Russia. Paramount among them will be a complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The withdrawal will need to be accompanied by a drastic reduction of Russian forces away from Ukraine’s borders, including eastern Ukraine, Belarus and the Black Sea. Ukraine cannot be expected to rebuild and return to peacetime life with the Russian mill-stone around its neck.

There is talk of imposing a No-Fly Zone over Ukraine, which experts say, should not be done. A no-fly zone is airspace where certain aircraft are not allowed to enter. In the context of conflicts and wars, it is typically used to stop banned aircraft from entering airspace to launch attacks, transport troops and weapons, and conduct surveillance. But then, you need someone to enforce it, which may trigger its own problems. It is best US and NATO avoid stationing their forces in Ukraine; the intent being to avoid pushing a nuclear superpower into a corner when it has no other option than to use it.

The concessions that come with negotiations are often painful when they are a climb-down from the original hard stances. But they are infinitely preferable to an indefinite continuation of battle, and even when conflicts are driven by irrational acts, the logic of diplomacy can take hold. The World prays that is the case here. Meanwhile two countries are being destroyed and one of them can stop it.

Operation Ganga

India has near about 20,000 of its nationals, including students studying in Ukraine, and this week India scrambled its forces to get them out safely, naming the mission as ‘Operation Ganga’. Besides evacuation, another goal was to provide humanitarian assistance to Indians who had crossed over to the neighbouring countries of Ukraine: Romania, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia.

Operation Ganga is being planned and executed by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Indian Armed Forces. Airlines that were roped in are Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Air India Express. Four Union ministers were flown to the neighbouring countries to expedite the evacuation.

The first flight happened on 26 February and over 10,300 Indians have been brought back to India, in 48 flights in a massive exercise. Most had crossed the borders into neighbouring countries. However, one Indian student lost his life in the city of Kharkiv due to Russian shelling, when he went to buy groceries during the curfew relaxation period. Along with him, ten others died in various attacks by Russia. Another was reportedly shot and is recovering in hospital.

Supreme Court Justice

US President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise by nominating the first Afro-American woman Justice to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson a 51 years old former public defender turned federal appellate judge. She’s been a leading contender to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer (who she clerked for). Now, the Harvard-trained judge hopes to head to the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson may be confirmed as soon as April this year.

The US Constitution states that Justices ‘shall hold their Offices during good behaviour.’ This means they can serve for life– their terms only ending if they resign, pass away or if they are impeached and convicted by Congress.

The President nominates someone for a vacancy on the Court and the Senate votes to confirm the nominee, which requires a simple majority. In this way, both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the federal government have a voice in the composition of the Supreme Court.

Australia Down Underwater

Australia is experiencing its worst floods in decades. Intense rain and record-breaking floods have hit eastern Australia.

A river in the northern New South Wales town of Lismore broke its banks and rose to a level of near about 14.40m, which quickly earned it a place between the ‘once in 500 years to 1000 years flood event’. And in Queensland, the Brisbane River flooded, causing extensive damage.

Nothing better explains the speed and severity of the flooding than the sight of some people with their cars, and a few horses being caught on a bridge over the Richmond River on Woodburn, outside Lismore in northern New South Wales when rising floodwaters cut them at both ends leaving them stranded in the middle, overnight. They could be rescued only in the morning, when the lights came on. Such was the suddenness of the water rise.

This is becoming a recurring event in Australia. Either it’s fire, water, or spiders and rodents giving them one hell of a time.

I’m not leaving Australia, not yet: the last news, I spin this week is the unexpected passing of legendary Australian Cricketer, Spin-bowler Shane Warne at the age of 52, due to a cardiac arrest. His spin was so good that even God did not know it was coming! RIP Shane Warne: you did teach India how to spin better.

More fire and water stories spinning-up in the weeks ahead. Live with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-13

About: The story of how we stayed afloat this week, in our World, and how we got beneath the surface of a lot many things.

Everywhere

Wisdom

A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life, and a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do.” ― Osho

Down Under Water

Last year, in January, Australia was bush-whacked by the largest bushfires on record and the country became smoking hot. This followed a prolonged period of drought: of course we can blame the effects of climate change as ‘arsonist-in-chief’.

Now, this year, Australia is experiencing a once-in-a-century deluge and one of the worst floods in 50 years, as torrential rain relentlessly lashed Eastern Australia. Parts of New South Wales have seen almost one metre of rain flooding hundreds of homes and severing roads: the Town of Windsor being one of the worst affected.

Rains have been inundating places since last Thursday, but then a major Dam-the Warragamba Dam-overflowed adding to the already swollen rivers and causing flash-flooding in many parts. This has forced people to evacuate, sometimes at midnight, as the waters stealthily entered their homes under the cover of darkness. About 18,000 people have been evacuated and another 15,000 are expected to join and swell these ranks. Luckily, not many lives have been lost.

People living in these places say they have never seen anything like this. And the Australian Government has declared a national disaster in many of the affected areas.

Meanwhile, the record-breaking rains have spawned another problem: a mass animal exodus to higher ground, with spiders in particular surging into people’s homes and lands. Close behind are snakes, with a resident remarking, ‘the trees are full of snakes’, trying to coil on to something dry.

The happenings in Australia must be closely watched as these bewildering natural calamities will surely have lots of hidden messages and lessons to learn with an entire gamut of living species affected in one way or the other.

America’s Guns

Quick on the heels of last week’s shootings in Atlanta, another shooting massacre happened at ‘King Soopers’ a Colorado Supermarket in the University City of Boulder. A shooter gunned down at least one person with a semi-automatic rifle in the parking lot before entering the Main Building through an entrance earmarked for handicapped people, and then going on a shooting spree inside the store.

The shooting left 10 people-aged between 20 and 65-dead, including a store manager and a police officer.

A ‘person of interest-a suspect-of Arvada, near Denver, has been arrested, and it appears that he was operating alone. Motives are unknown at this stage.

The shooting incident fires the question, ‘why isn’t America still ambivalent on Gun Control?’ Yes, its Constitution allows it as a right and maybe this was necessary in the Wild West Days. But not any longer as of the original intent. America is advanced enough to deal with any problem, without having to draw that gun from its holster!

The only way to honour the victims of these senseless massacres is action. Let’s do it – wake up America.

Myanmar Killings

There is not the slightest sign of any abatement in the Army and Security Forces crack-down against protestors in Myanmar where daily protests have been ongoing in towns and cities across the country, ever since the military seized control, in a Coup, on 1st February.

Myanmar’s security forces shot dead a 7 years old girl in the city of Mandalay on Tuesday, the youngest victim yet in the military’s bloody crackdown on civilian opposition. The young girl named Khin Myo Chit was shot and killed in her home during a military raid, while sitting in her father’s lap after security forces kicked down the door to the family’s home. Soldiers asked the father if everyone in the family was present in the house. When the father said yes, they accused him of lying and shot at him, missing and hitting the girl instead.

During the week, the military released about 600 people imprisoned for protesting the coup, hoping to cool temperatures. However, protestors tried a new tactic called a ‘Silence Strike’-The Loudest Scream-calling on people to stay at home and Businesses to close for the day.

I wonder why the United Nations is unable to show any muscle or teeth? Maybe we should better define its role in a fast evolving World punctuated with violence. Shouldn’t they get nations together, on the same page, to shoot down the actions of the Myanmar Junta?

Fires in Bangladesh

In other news linked to Myanmar, the already tormented Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh saw their settlements engulfed by a deadly fire that ripped through a Rohingya Refugee Camp in the Coxs Bazaar area. At least 15 people died and over 400 remain missing. It was massive and devastating.

The Camp roughly houses about 1 million people living in cramped and squalid conditions, the vast majority of who fled Myanmar in the year 2017 amid a military led crackdown on the Rohingya.

Some 40,000 huts and shelters in the camp burned down. And the barbed wire fencing around the Camp trapped many people causing many casualties.

Bangladesh, on its part had been pushing refugees to relocate to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, until such time they can return to Myanmar, as the camp had become overcrowded.

The reasons for the fire outbreak is unclear at this stage.

The Rohingya Refugees is a humanitarian crisis and this is another reason why the United Nations and the rest of the World have to step-in and push for solutions to ending the misery of millions of people in these camps.

Iceland Volcano

Last week I talked about the over 50,000 ‘Earth shakes’ over a period of three weeks, in Iceland and how it ‘tested positive’ for a Volcano pregnancy. This week it delivered: the Fagradalsfjall volcano woke up after almost 700 years and is putting on a mesmerising ‘lava show’. Volcanic eruptions are not often referred to as ‘cute,’ but some people are saying that about Fagradalsfjall. They are calling it a Disneyland eruption. Time, someone starts issuing rock-solid tickets for the show.

The volcano has stirred a stream of visitors and some of them have been clever to use the heat of the lava to cook hot-dogs, buns and eggs. The taste must have been epic and volcanic!

Doomsday Plans, Lunar Ark

Man has been studying the Moon intensely and tired of seeing the surface, has decided to look beneath the surface of things. Literally, Scientists have uncovered a network of around 200 lava tubes-100 meters in diameter, beneath the surface of the Moon, which formed when streams of lava melted through soft rock to form underground tunnels, billions of years ago. So, what about them?

Scientists have proposed a Lunar Ark, dubbed a ‘modern global insurance policy’ for species from Earth, cryogenically preserved and hidden in these underground tunnels and caves. The Ark will hold millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth’s species to provide a genetic backup for the planet in the event of a doomsday scenario-a total annihilation of the Earth. These tubes could provide the perfect shelter for the precious cargo, protecting it from solar radiation, surface temperature changes and micrometeorites.

Powered by solar panels, the underground Lunar Ark would be accessed by elevator shafts, which would lead to a facility storing cryogenic preservation modules.

Scientists believe that about 250 rocket launches would be required to transport about 50 samples from each of the about 6.7 million species to the moon.

The move to stock-up such a bunker is still a long way off.

A Traffic Jam in the Sea

A gigantic Japanese owned container ship, 400 meters (m) length and 59m wide, weighting 224,000 tons, fully-loaded with containers, called the MV Ever Given- painted Evergreen across- ran aground at the southern end of the Suez Canal on 23rd March wedging itself across the width of the canal blocking movement of ships in both directions.

The cargo ship was knocked off-course by strong winds and a sandstorm that caused low visibility and poor navigation resulting in the now ‘stuck situation’.

Authorities attempted to re-float the vessel but were not successful. Dislodging the vessel could take days, even weeks. A first step would be to remove fuel oil and ballast water from the ship, try to move it at high tide. If that doesn’t work, staff will have to remove containers and try to dig or flush away the sand banks in which the ship is now lodged. Imagine dredging over 20,000 cubic meters of sand to get to the bottom of things.

Meanwhile ships are piled-up at both ends and could cause severe disruptions of oil, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, clothing, auto-parts and essential commodities to countries depending on them. The famous Shipping Journal, Lloyd’s List, estimates that goods worth $9.6 billion pass through the canal every day. Lloyd’s says about $5.1 billion of that traffic is westbound and $4.5 billion is eastbound.

The Suez Canal-since 1869-is a sea-level waterway running north-south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas. And is controlled and operated by Egypt. The canal provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes. The canal extends 193 km between Port Said in the north and Suez in the south. The original canal did not permit two-way traffic, and ships would stop in a passing bay to allow the passage of ships in the other direction. But now it allows movement in both directions.

This is a real lock-jam for World trade, bottlenecked in a canal. Time to start digging the sea, to stay afloat. Maybe Install better traffic signals?

COVID-19 Shots

Tracking the biggest vaccination campaign in history, more than 518 million shots have been given across 140 countries at a rate of about 13 million doses per day.

India has administered near about 56 million vaccine doses till date. It may have managed to give a vaccine dose only to 3.4% of the overall population, but about 22% of the elderly-over 60 years-population have already received a dose.

The coronavirus has been quietly working on ways and means to penetrate the great immunity defence systems of India. Over the past week, Indian Scientists have uncovered over 771 variants of the coronavirus including a unique double mutant coronavirus variant with a combination of mutations not seen anywhere in the world. These are based on samples taken from the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and New Delhi.

What does mutation and variant mean in the context of the coronavirus?

Most of us know that viruses cannot replicate and spread on their own. They need a host, whose cells they hijack-turning it into a virus Factory-to replicate. And when they replicate, often they are unable to make a perfect duplicate of themselves-their genetic material- meaning this is an error-ridden process resulting in their offspring not being exact copies of the original ‘Mom virus’. These errors are called mutations, and viruses with these mutations are called variants.

Viruses mutate has a habit and there is nothing extraordinary about it, except when these mutations become what Experts call a ‘Variant Of Concern’ (VOC). Till date, all over the World, only three variants have been declared as VOC: a Variant found in the UK, B1.1.7, a Variant found in South Africa, B.1.351, and Variant found in Brazil, P.1 lineage. It remains to be seen if the Variant found in India reaches the VOC level.

Meanwhile, coronavirus infection cases are sprinting in India, over 60,000 yesterday highest since last October, in what is being called a second wave. But Authorities are fully prepared. The Government has declared that anybody above 45 years of age can get a Vaccine jab from 1st April onwards – a much needed directive.

With five States going to polls on 6th April and election campaigning by various parties, in the heat & dust of India’s Cities, Towns, Villages seeing large crowds, India is in the cusp of an intense phase. I hope this passes without incident, with basic coronavirus-infection-prevention-rules being adhered to, religiously.

A Kind Of Spark

Over the last weekend I read Elle McNicoll’s book, ‘A Kind of Spark’ and found myself caught in the spell of a charming, bewitching story. I allowed the words, in the about 187 pages, ‘wash over me’.

It’s about an eleven years old autistic girl, Addie, who conquers her world and builds a monument to it; all the while staying different, going to the same school as everyone, and making and breaking friends. She strengthens every-day bonds with the family of an understanding Mom & Dad, a super-supportive autistic sister, Keedie – her fighting twin Nina, who after initial differences learns to sink them and integrate with Addie.

Keedie, is always behind her like a rock and tells Addie, ‘Other people’s minds are small. Your mind is enormous. You don’t want to be like them’.

Thanks to a spark from a school lesson, Addie is ignited and overwhelmed by the Witch Trials that happened in her hometown centuries ago. She is convinced that people in that period in time never fully understood how certain people experience the world differently (as she was in today’s world), and lazily or conveniently branded them as witches. This, for simply being able to see things that others could not. Clairvoyance! Witches in those days were wrongly found guilty and executed, often burnt at the stake.

Addie takes it upon herself that past wrongs must be corrected and in what better manner than building a Memorial to ‘honour’ them. The story is, among other things, how she ultimately, in a never-say die attitude, convinces her Small Town to build that memorial despite outright rejections at the start.

Addie is a regular at the School Library, reading a ton of books, guided by an understanding Librarian. She finds Sharks more interesting than dull Dolphins, and I quote her in the novel, ‘Sharks can sense the electricity of life itself. It’s their superpower. But someone made a horror film about them, and now millions of them are killed each year. Like the Witches for no reason’.

She says at the end of a speech at the Village Meeting – in a final attempt to convince them, ‘I like myself the way I am. A lot’. That speech broke my heart. Applying it ‘differently’, I can confidently agree with the much said line, ‘everyone of us is an original of which there is no copy, in this world’.

This is a must-read for parents, teachers, and doctors handling differently-abled children. And it’s awfully inspirational. Opinions on perceived wrong-doings can always change-often for the better-when we learn more, ask the right questions, and understand, especially people’s needs. We just need to open ourselves and embrace the different!

On my own spark, I decided I like witches… and sharks.

More pages with witchy, shark teaser stories coming up in the weeks ahead: build your own memorials.