Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone: Issue #143 - Rapes in India - an evaluation; Whither lives our Memory?
(Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash \ Each year, the best street artist from around the globe are invited to Upfest. Upfest is based in Bedminster, a suburb of Bristol. The local community allows the artist to paint on their houses, shops, pubs, buildings. The art stays there for twelve months before a new set of artists are invited to show their creative skills. This image of John Lennon was on the sidewall of Aldi’s car park.)
“Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and when he dies only the five senses that we know perish with him, and the other ninety-five remain alive.” ― Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
How does our memory work? Is it just our brain? In his book, “The Mind and the Brain”, Jeffrey Schwartz alludes to the concept of memory and the brain. And he, inspired by the Buddhist spiritual experiences, collaborates with a quantum physicist to come up with a new understanding of memory. He says the brain is just a vessel of the mind.
Now there have been cases that show how our organs may be carrying very vivid memories of things that happen to us. It’s not just the brain. We will look into that today.
We also want to do a statistical analysis of rape crimes in India versus the rest of the world. The liberal lobby is busy trying to use the Hathras incident as much as they can to paint everyone from Yogi Adityanath to Modi to India and the Hindus with black paint. That is their agenda.
Let us look at that as well today.
creating of another leader through the power of hardships
When one looks back at the time after Gujarat in 2002, you see how strongly Congress and the entire left cabal went after Narendra Modi. Which is remarkable. Because he was just another Chief Minister who was a nobody in BJP or even politics by that time. The more they went after him, the more one saw his real self. I still remember how early in those times, we all have denounced him given the media onslaught. But as one started researching on Teesta Setalvad and what had actually happened during those days, one found that the truth was something very different. (Check out articles here Source)
On Drishtikone, we share Annual Predictions for the subsequent year, every December. Not based on any astrological or clairvoyant ability but a simple understanding of socio-economic scenarios and their ramifications. We do it for India, the US, and Pakistan. (Source) They are not meant to show our clairvoyant or magical powers but a way to test our own understanding of things that happen in three countries we follow closely.
In the predictions for 2009, we wrote this. (Source)
We were off on the coalition bit, as Congress survived the scares. But other things seemed to come out right. From 2009 to 2011, these terror attacks were committed in India.
Jan 2009: Guwahati Bombings - 6 dead
April 2009: Assam bombing - 9 dead
February 2010: Pune bombing - 17 dead
February 2010: Silda camp Attack - 28 dead
April 2010: Dantewada Attack - 84 dead
May 2010 Dantewada bus bombing - 44 dead
May 2010: Jnaneswari Express derailment - 148 dead
December 2010: Varanasi bombings - 2 dead
July 2011: Mumbai Bombings - 26 dead
September 2011: Delhi bombings - 15 dead
And, we saw that Narendra Modi came with a remarkable majority in 2014.
It was quite uncanny that the entire Leftist/Congress cabal went after only Modi so early in his career! It is also remarkable that he not just fought back but has also almost annihilated the entire clique.
Now that group has identified Yogi Adityanath for attack. And Minhaz Merchant is correct in calling that out.
In January 2007, Yogi Adityanath and over a dozen other leaders of the Hindu Yuva Vahini were arrested while they were marching to bring up the issues with respect to the communal incidents. When Yogi Adityanath came to the Parliament after his arrest, he simply broke down.
That Yogi is long gone.
What we have now is one who takes the fight to the opponent’s camp.
As bad the decision to not allow the Hathras victim’s parents to get involved in the last rites of the victim may seem, it was an action taken to keep the vultures out, who had surely gathered in numbers. And, now, given the politicization of the Hathras incident, which may not even be a rape, although as tragic a case of the merciless killing of a young girl, the seemingly ‘heartless’ actions look the right one.
So, now just to take the culprits to the task - he has taken some really unprecedented steps, which are the right ones yet again.
Not only has he suspended the police officers there, he has also ordered the narco lie detector tests for both the parties. That will be a good thing.
Because his clarity is so uncanny and he is so fearless and without any encumberances, Yogi Adityanath can rule without fear or corruption. And, that is an existential crisis for those who have looked at India as a business opportunity and its population as a diamond mine to be looted.
Rape and India - How bad is the situation?
In the US a rape happens every 6.2 minutes (although it may actually be five times as high). By the time you are finished reading this newsletter, around 2 girls would have been raped in the US.
Those will be the reported cases.
Only 36% of the rapes are reported in the US.
In the UK, fear of reporting is even worse.
One in 10 women has been raped, and more than a third subjected to sexual assault, according to a major survey, which also highlights just how frightened women are of not being believed. More than 80 per cent of the 1,600 respondents said they did not report their assault to the police, while 29 per cent said they told nobody – not even a friend or family member – of their ordeal.
Clearly, reporting of rape and sexual assaults – even in the most developed of countries is far short of the real numbers! So lets not beat India up so badly on the reporting aspect, for there are not much to differentiate situation in even US and UK from India’s!
Rape is a global pandemic. In South Africa, 500,000 rapes are reported per year. In China, the figure is 31,833 while Egypt has 200,000 and UK has 85,000. In India, as per the National Crimes Records Bureau’s 2013 Annual Report, that figure was 24,923.
The total numbers do not do full justice to the prevalent and scourge of a crime in any society. One needs to look at the total population and also how much of law enforcement personnel are available to fight crime in the society. Between a police beat with many cops fully equipped with fast cars and the latest gadgets alongwith guns is a different level of law enforcement versus say a police beat with 5 hawaldars with bicycles and wooden lathis (rods) as weapons. Withdrawal of law enforcement during Katrina showed the world, what US can be reduced to without the police and their gadgets and guns.
So, here is an interesting table statistics from the Top 15 countries’ rape numbers per 100,000 population and police personnel per 100,000 population – compared to India. It is quite enlightening.
India has the least police personnel per 100,000 population and roughly 6% the rapes per 100,000 compared to the US or Belgium.
Beyond all rhetoric, self-beating memes, and religious overtones of reporting on rapes; the objective reality is that India is ranked 75th – just above Canada and Hong Kong - in the total rape statistics!
That is the objective reality.
And, for those who think lack of reporting happens only in India, they need to get some basic education on how things work elsewhere.
After all, even many of the sexual assaults by the current US President went unreported until recently! Ditto for sexual assaults by Harvey Weinstein – whose victims happened to be the most powerful – and empowered – women in the world!
That said, one rape is too many. Subjecting women to sexual assault is dastardly and inhuman. It is borne out as much from the sexual lust as from the fetish for power over another human being. Masculinity probably has this curse of violence around it. In this study, it was said clearly.
“Being male has been identified as a risk factor for violent criminal behavior in several studies, as have exposure to tobacco smoke before birth, having antisocial parents, and belonging to a poor family.”
Men have violence intertwined in their make up. And, the society and traditional mores of different cultures don’t help either.
But given objective facts, are Indian men really that much more sexually violent than men around the globe – specifically with far less levels of law enforcement?
The answer is a clear NO! Then why the stereotyping and shaming of an entire nation?
but beyond statistics, a human being is violated
Beyond the studies and the statistics, there is a person. A person whose very being is assaulted and violated. That experience of sheer violence is something that the statistics can never speak to. They de-humanize the whole crime in many ways.
But so do lies and hyperbole.
Actually far more!
For, it takes us away from the real issues involved. And instead paints the whole scenario in a color that is ideologically inspired. Often by those who have no stakes in the social good in India but a lot to gain by usurping power via propaganda.
So, while we work on realistic solutions as a society, we cannot ding everyone and his brother because we have access to a media that is pliant and purchasable! Let us look at things dispassionately and work on the solutions.
Here is a quick visual of the rape statistics by country. (Source)
And, here is the rape statistics by states in India for 2019.
So let us judge for ourselves about India being such a dangerously rapist state, as the liberals would like the world to believe.
the Chinese celebrate Trump’s COVID news
US President, Donald Trump has been diagnosed with COVID-19. And, sadly, the Chinese media and public is gung-ho about the news. And celebrating! It is almost as if they are part of the whole campaign themselves.
And businesses are giving discount because of the news.
That’s called chutzpah. First let out a virus and then celebrate when the leader of a country which you have looted for so long catches that virus.
If he comes back, which we are predicting, then the chances of things improving for China seem rather remote.
nota bene
Indian billionaires buy UK Retail chain: Zuber Issa and Mohsin Issa, sons of an immigrant from Gujarat who arrived to work in the textile industry, on Friday announced the acquisition of retail giant Asda (valued at £6.8 billion) currently owned by Walmart of the US. Based in Blackburn, Zuber Issa, 48, and Mohsin Issa, 49, began small, working on a petrol station in Greater Manchester in 2001, and went on to build a chain of thousands of petrol stations in Europe and the United States as part of their company, EG Group. (Source)
US-India Defense deal: The US has announced a major boost to India amid the ongoing tensions with China in eastern Ladakh. The United States has announced the supply of spare parts of the Indian Air Force's giant cargo aircraft C-130J Super Hercules. The two countries have entered into a $90-million deal. The US Defence Security Agency said the deal will further strengthen India-US strategic relations. This will advance political stability, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. According to the deal, the US will repair the C-130J Super Hercules to India. They will also have spare part supplies and ground support. India has also ordered an AN/ALR-56M advanced radar warning system, 10 lightweight night vision binoculars, 10 night vision glasses, GPS, and electronic warfare to the US. (Source)
Pakistani Jihadis in Armenia: In a big development, Armenia has said that it "can't exclude the possibility" of Pakistani fighters on the ground fight along with "mercenaries operating in Azerbaijan". Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Avet Adonts speaking to Zee News from Yerevan said, "It won't be a surprise for us", recalling how in the 1990s Pakistani nationals were present when war broke in Nagorno Karabakh. He also slammed Turkey for sending Jihadis to Azerbaijan and said that "this imposed or instigated war" has been "well planned jointly with Turkey". (Source)
One nation, One Subscription: The Indian government is pushing a bold proposal that would make scholarly literature accessible for free to everyone in the country. The government wants to negotiate with the world’s biggest scientific publishers to set up nationwide subscriptions, rather than many agreements with individual institutions that only scholars can use, say researchers consulting for the government. The proposal is expected to be part of the government’s latest science, technology and innovation policy, which is being developed by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and the Department of Science and Technology. A draft is likely to be released in the coming weeks and will need to be approved by the cabinet, which is likely to happen before the year’s end. (Source)
memory and consciousness - where is the memory stored?
What is memory? What is pain? And what is consciousness?
Is brain the only organ which has memory? Or is memory distributed in every organ and part of the body? There have been enough cases where the organ transplant recipients have developed the traits of the organ donors.
Something that seems really crazy given the medical science’s understanding of memory until now.
But this phenomenon and quality of memory has been known to the Yogis since time immemorial. Memory is far greater than in just the brain.
Listen to this very insightful discussion between Sadhguru and two of the foremost experts from Harvard Medical School. One a anaesthiologist and the other a neuro-surgeon.
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