10 Public Intellectuals

The Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll was conducted in November 2005 and June 2008 by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (US) on the basis of responding readers’ ballot.

Noam Chomsky : American linguist, philosopher,  libertarian socialist

Umberto Eco : Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic

Richard Dawkins : English  evolutionary biologist  author Atheist

Václav Havel :  Czech playwright, essayist, former dissident and politician.

Christopher Hitchens : British author, journalist, and literary critic

Paul Krugman :  American economist, liberal columnist, and author (Nobel)

Jürgen Habermas : German philosopher and sociologist

Amartya Sen : economist,  Professor (Nobel)

Jared Diamond : merican scientist and nonfiction author Atheist

Salman Rushdie : British Indian novelist and essayist

Fethullah Gulen : Turkish preacher

Muhammad Yunus : Bangladeshi banker and economist (Nobel)

Yusuf al-Qaradawi : Egyptian scholar and preacher

Orhan Pamuk : Turkish novelist (Nobel)

Aitzaz Ahsan : Pakistani Advocate

Amr Khaled :  Egyptian activist and preacher

Abdolkarim Soroush :  Iranian thinker, philosopher, reformer

Tariq Ramadan : Swiss Muslim academic

Mahmood Mamdani : Uganda) is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropology

Shirin Ebadi :  Iranian lawyer, human rights activist

A weird analyses on the results for  Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll conducted by Prospect Magazine (UK) and Foreign Policy (US). Do you see any difference as I did?

People who voted think religious preachers are more impotent intellectuals to this world than atheists. The same crowd was mentally aright  in 2005 . Also , now there are more intellectuals in south Asia and gulf compared to west.

Looks like whole poll has intention of appeasement.

2005 list :

1. Noam Chomsky : American philosopher, libertarian socialist
2. Umberto Eco : Italian critic, philosopher
3. Richard Dawkins : English biologist , author, atheist
4. Václav Havel :  Czech playwright, essayist, politician.
5. Christopher Hitchens : British author, journalist, and atheist
6. Paul Krugman :  American economist, liberal columnist, and author (Nobel)
7. Jürgen Habermas : German philosopher and sociologist
8. Amartya Sen : Indian economist,  Professor (Nobel)
9. Jared Diamond : American scientist , author Atheist
10. Salman Rushdie : British Indian novelist,  Atheist

2008 list

1. Fethullah Gulen : Turkish preacher
2. Muhammad Yunus : Bangladeshi banker and economist
3. Yusuf al-Qaradawi : Egyptian scholar and preacher
4. Orhan Pamuk : Turkish novelist
5. Aitzaz Ahsan : Pakistani Advocate
6. Amr Khaled :  Egyptian activist and preacher
7. Abdolkarim Soroush :  Iranian thinker, philosopher, reformer
8. Tariq Ramadan : Swiss religous academic
9. Mahmood Mamdani : Ugandan Professor Government
10. Shirin Ebadi :  Iranian lawyer, human rights activist

Maharashtra Police, they are second to only the Scotland Yard of Britain

This is what you might have heard, or may be variant of it “This Maharashtra Police, I tell you, they are second to only the Scotland Yard of Britain – Big B“. I have heard the same about Hyderabad police , even Vijaykant (Captain) quotes in a movie that Tamilnadu police is second only to Scotland Yard.

Its a lie , it’s a bigger lie than “Salman Khan” can act !!. In fact, there are three lies in one statement.

• Scotland Yard is not a police force. Its an address of a (one of a )London City police force headquarters. Metropolitan police headquarters is at Scotland Yard , Westminster London with some post code.
• There is no citation that Met police is number one in world. Even if it there (citation needed) , on what basis ? what are the qualities analysed ?
• There is no reason that, one of Indian police force is second to that. Its just way to convince people with the information crowd is not going to verify , forever.

“Second only” song for those people who may go to google and try to verify if they were told it is “the best”. i.e. If you say “we are the best” could get “get lost…!” from some people. To convince these set of people try saying “we are not best , but we are right behind the best..” and the reaction would be “possible ..hm!!”.

There are so many other facts convinced with these kind of lies, for example :

• “India produces maximum wind power in whole world and Tamilnadu accounts for 80% of it”. This gem was by a key note speaker in a Electrical Engg. conference. He had authority on this topic since he was in Electricity Board.
• “It is scientifically proven that animal does not feel any pain if it is butchered as Halal and Kosher (religious way)”. I am not going to believe this till a dead bird or a goat explains me this logic. If you need proof , just go to PETA site and watch some videos on religious butchering, you will see everything yourself.

Its easy, you can always use words like ’scientifically’ and ‘technically’ to prove anything. See , I will create one theory right away : “Its is scientifically proven that “ginger-garlic paste” used in tikka masala has medicinal value and is a natural cure for Anthrax.

Pseudo-secular silence

Here is one of the reasons “why you shouldn’t trust Indian media”:

The news was simple to understand “Taslima Nasrin heckled by God’s own warriors in one of the God’s own check post Hyderabad”. Just another event God wanted them to do.

I read all the news items in Google taking a cue from barberindian , for the same.

“Local politics behind attack on Taslima” – Hindustan Times
“Taslima Nasreen attacked in Hyderabad” – NDTV
“Taslima heckled in Hyderabad” – Economic Times
“Taslima heckled in Hyderabad” – The Statesman
“Taslima Nasreen, Poet, Attacked in India: Men Attack Her; Other …” – The Moderate Voice
“Assault on Taslima Nasreen” – Central Chronicle
“Taslima Attacked In Hyderabad, Journalists Protest” – Newspost
“Taslima Nasreen attacked in Hyderabad” – Zee news
“Andhra MLAs, 20 MIM activists manhandle Taslima Nasreen” – Daily news

and our own Desicritics:

“Taslima Nasreen Attacked by MLAs in Hyderabad” – Desicritics

If you want news items from international media

“Muslim Protesters Attack Bangladeshi Author in India” – Voice of America
“Muslim group in India threatens to behead Bangladeshi author” – EarthTimes

See any difference ?

on munnabhai

As expected there is already a campaign against sentence  (read Indian judicial system) on Sanjay Dutt. Campaign is purely based on all sentiments a normal movie lover can possess – Philosophy, religion, faith, sympathy, pity (read emotional blackmails)
For LOLing

And anyway who are we to punish some one for his mistakes … Just like Jesus Christ once said “Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone”

I have heard he breaks down and starts crying many a times when he cant see some one’s pain/suffering …

Here is one more opinion by Soli Sorabjee which looks more logical.

What nonsense .. bollywood should actually be boycotting this chap if they had any little feeling for the victims of the 1993 mumbai blasts. But given the fact that how these so called heroes of bollywood wag their tail in front of daewood’s shows, the way jokers like johny lever mimick Indian national anthem to please daewood, what else can we expect from them? – Sense vs Sensation

All for fun

PETA, PETA .. where are you ?

• More than 40,000 bulls are slaughtered in rings in Spain each year, according to The New York Times.

• Before a bullfight, people will hit the bull on the head with bags of sand – for a long time and violently – to deprive the bull of his senses, according to The Washington Post.

• Former bullfighters admit that bulls are intentionally debilitated with beatings to the kidneys and heavy weights hung around their necks for weeks before the fight, according to The Animals’ Voice.

My Daddy Stoongest!!

When was the last time you exclaimed “Oh my god” in public ? and which god was it ? You don’t now ?? well , you better know it. Some one might sit on your neck and prove your exclaim is very offensive to him. Also it would be politically and theologically incorrect and big time violation of his rule he has read.

Here is a guys who went on proving the same stuff all over again. To mention some:

1. God came and told me “I am god. If any other gods come and claim that they are also gods, its wrong. please note down there is no god other than me”. Now there if there are any , that is a violation.

2. God said that he doesn’t have a face , if any other gods claim to have face thats again violation, since my god said so.

so on , you ll find many such logical reasoning in this video.

Another Typo in Wikipedia’s Logo Fractures the Kannada too

I know Devanagari but I never noticed this typo., never until I dug this story. Its a zig saw puzzle , with “wi” written all over its block with different languages Wikipedia supporting in their own script. NYTimes said “this time, however, they are not examples of vandalism at the user-created site but typographical errors in Wikipedia’s own logo.”. They noticed Sanskrit “wi” in Devanagari script. Someone else complained its Japaneses Katakana script is wrong too.

Some Errors Defy Fixes: A Typo in Wikipedia’s Logo Fractures the Sanskrit

The symbolism is not exactly ideal. Those on the lookout for errors at Wikipedia have flagged a few more — this time, however, they are not examples of vandalism at the user-created site but typographical errors in Wikipedia’s own logo.

read more | digg story

Well well well , its Kannada script is wrong too. They have written some similar “wi” symbol (yet strange ) in kannada. In Sanskrit logo symbol reads “rwa” (as in Nirwana ), but in Kannada it does not make sence at all.

I dont have much of complaint, when they screwed Kannada’s mother Sanskrit itself- Kannada is what big deal.

All for BoSs

When the movie ‘Pirates of Caribbean’ came to theatre here(I am a hardcore fab of Jonny Depp), I bought tickets, watched that crap, ate pop-corn and came back. I am also planning to watch Sreck 3. If I like it, I’ll applaud and write a blog entry. If not walk out in the middle of the movie and drive back home.
Watch a movie, laugh/cry, watch again/quit in middle then forget about it, that’s all… Life is to enjoy…so simple … I thought, So far.
Now, let me introduce some of Rajni’s fans, to whom watching movies is not as simple as it to me (buy tickets, eat popcorn etc). They cry, they laugh, they go hysteric, they get new hair cut, they get tattooed … pierced etc, etc.

Have a look at couple of extreme worshipers of Shivaji

I live in Chennai and life seems so different from last one week. Having Rajani movies in your town is not all that simple. This phenomenon is observed on such a large scale, the entire state seems mesmerized.

Instant fame

Google trend is a wonderful time pass tool. You can track all controversies, kisses, racist statements, wardrobe malfunctions etc. Trend provides timeline (for six to seven years) of searches and volume of information pumped into internet.

Sitayana – Sita’s Epic

The story Ramayana* is his entire life journey starting from his innocent youth, his mastery over skills in winning Sita, his role as dutiful and obedient son to adhere to his father’s words while aware of the flagitious intensions of his step mother. He gives up all the worldly richness and sets away to spend 14 years in jungle. Sita being his wife accompanies him followed by Laxman, Ram’s younger brother.

They spend quite an adventurous and romantic** life in the forest. Sita finds her world in her husband Ram and experiences an unspelled love for him. Everything works fine when one day, Sita gets abducted by Ravana while Ram is away to fulfill one of her impossible wishes. Ram does everything possible to get back his love. He gathers a huge army, builds a bridge across an ocean, does all that he could. Finally, he succeeds to kill Ravana and gets her back. With this they complete 14 years of stay in jungle and they return to their kingdom after which they should have lived happily ever after.

But the story takes turmoil instead, Ram’s story ends here and Sita’s story begins. This happens when a subject of Ram’s kingdom whispers “how could Ram trust Sita, who been with Ravana for so long”. Ram wants a test now, Agni-Pareeksha – A test to check purity of a woman, by entering into fire. Exactly this part of the story becomes hard to digest. This is where so many questions arise and is left unanswered.

• Did it serve right for a person like Ram ‘the so called God’ to come down to such a cruel act?
• Is he setting example for all men or rather his followers to commit such an act?
• Or is he doing right by following well set example from his predecessors?
• Ram must have done justice to his kingdom? But why not to his wife? Had he really loved her he wouldn’t have banished her at such a crucial moment.