Sunday Reads

• Tipu Sultan: Noble or Savage? (Open Magazine) Hat tip: Mohan Ramiah.

• Return of a topless model. (BBC)

• Dark matter and the dinosaurs. (Brain Pickings)

Life In a Libyan Hell; Smart Indian Cricketers

Two reads to share.

One.

The Islamic State is the most brutal terrorist group the world has ever seen. Its tentacles are spread far and wide; it controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and has substantial presence in Libya. 

Der Spiegel, a respected German publication, has published a diary of a Libyan from the town of Derna, chronicling life under the dreaded rivals, Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terror networks.

Click here to read the short diary titled 'A Chronicle of Life in Libyan Purgatory'.

Two.

How Indian cricketers have turned into smart cricketers. The writing in the article is not great and is riddled with tautology. I have shared it only to sate the curiosity most of us have about the big money earned by Indian cricketers.

Sunday Reads

Return of the Sunday Reads.

• The rise and fall of Quaaludes. (BBC)

• The lost boys of Mogadishu. (AlJazeera)

• How leaders can remain optimistic during tough times. (Fortune)

• App to the mark. (New Indian Express)

Read The Explainer: Cash Reserve Ratio.

The Explainer: Zimbabwe Currency Crisis

Zimbabwe is in news, as usual, for all the wrong reasons. Zimbabweans will start exchanging 'quadrillions' of local dollars for a few US dollars next week as the country's government, led by President Robert Mugabe, discards its virtually worthless national currency. For example, bank accounts with balances of up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars will be paid U.S.$5 while those with balances above 175 quadrillion dollars will be paid at an exchange

Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist.

rate of U.S.$1 for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

I became interested in African countries, like Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa when I was around 13. A land's physical geography, history, people, culture, and polity have always fascinated me.

I share an Explainer on Zimbabwe's Currency Crisis.

What do we know about Zimbabwe's political system?

The history of Zimbabwe since its independence from Great Britain in 1980 runs parallel to the history of the presidency of Robert Mugabe, one of the world's longest serving heads of state.

Under Mugabe, Zimbabwe has turned into an international basket case. Polity-wise, Mugabe has, with an iron fist, turned the country's sham democratic system into a one-man rule. There is press censorship, political repression, and arbitrary detention of political rivals. In fact, several of Mugabe’s biggest political rivals have been arrested on trumped charges, like treason.

  

Why did the Zimbabwean economy collapse?
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) stopped issuing currency in 2009; the last time the RBZ printed a currency banknote—100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars—was also its biggest banknote. The purchasing value of the currency had plunged so much so that it was issued with expiry date. By the way, the 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars banknote was barely sufficient to buy ten decent meals. The RBZ has announced a new scheme to convert currency: a Zimbabwean would get one U.S. dollar in exchange for 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. 

Robert Mugabe has systematically, and, to the dismay of ordinary Zimbabweans, 'successfully' destroyed the country's economy. He pursued radical and arbitrary land reforms, which saw the transfer of land from white farmers to blacks. Like his other corrupt policies, the end beneficiaries here were not the poor Zimbabweans but Mugabe’s political supporters. (Come to think of it, politicians everywhere are the same.)

Let me add that while the white farmers had great interest in farming (it was their livelihood), the blacks who secured control of such land (from the whites) had little interest in farming; farming collapsed and the hitherto employed farm labourers (almost exclusively blacks) were rendered unemployed. No employment (meaning no income generation) and steep decrease in farm output (leading to high inflation) have piled untold misery on the hapless Zimbabweans.

To this add another economy misstep: until early 2009, the RBZ printed money to fund the high budget deficit, which caused hyperinflation. Today, Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate – about 500 trillion per cent! 

As hyperinflation began to eat into the purchasing value of the Zimbabwean dollar, the Robert Mugabe Government allowed the U.S. Dollar, South African Rand, and the Botswana Pula to be used as legal currency in Zimbabwe.

At the beginning of 2015, the Zimbabwean Government expanded its basket of acceptable currencies to include the Indian Rupee, Chinese Renmimbi, Australian Dollar, and the Japanese Yen.

Foreign investment has dried up. Unemployment is peaking. Power supply is almost non-existent. Infrastructure is crumbling. In short, Robert Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwe.

So, this is the story behind the currency crisis in Zimbabwe. 

Sunday Reads

• Triple differencing bikes in India. (Marginal Revolution)

• The U.S. has space experts worried about an extra-terrestrial land grab. (Quartz)

• Stop mollycoddling separatists. (New IE)

• The surgeons of Mogadishu. (AlJazeera)

Sunday Reads - Modi's trips + Don't expect Math to make sense

• The advantages of losing memory. (BBC)

• Don't expect Math to make sense. (NYT)

• The great escape that changed Africa's future. (Guardian)

• Modi's trips and China's islands. (Diplomat)

Book Excerpt: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness is a deeply philosophical novel about the complexities that layer human nature. Joseph Conrad explores the prejudices, especially of the racial kind, of the Whites/Europeans that 'coloured' their attitude and behaviour toward the Blacks/Africans throughout the age of colonization of the Dark Continent.

Though a short novel (109 pages in this edition), Heart of Darkness raises profound and disturbing questions about colonialism, imperialism and a false sense of racial superiority.

Title: Heart of Darkness 

Author: Joseph Conrad
Publisher: UBSPD
Pages featured here: 18-20

First read: 1997
Note: All copyrights/trademarks belong to the owners of the publication/author(s). It is not my intention to profit from their work. In fact, I just wish that the readers of this blog are encouraged to buy/read the works represented here.

Things You Should Know - Episode XVI

• The name ‘Accenture’ comes from ‘accent on the future’. Prior to 2001, the company was called Andersen Consulting.

• Scarlet Collar Worker is a term often used to refer to people who work in the pornography industry, especially women entrepreneurs in the field of internet pornography.

• Launched in October 1992, Zee TV was India’s first Hindi satellite channel. The channel is owned by Essel Group, owned by Subhash Chandra.

Dr Guy Scott

• Dr Guy Lindsay Scott (born 1 June 1944) is the Acting President of Zambia. He served as Vice President of Zambia from 2011 to 2014, and became acting president on the death of Michael Sata on 28 October 2014. He is the first white African head of state since South Africa’s F. W. de Klerk in 1994.

• It is interesting to know that in 1958 that Bank of America (BofA) launched its BankAmericard credit card programme, which later became Visa. The history of Bank of America dates back to 1904, when Amadeo Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco. The Bank of Italy served the needs of many immigrants settling in the United States at that time, a service denied to them by the existing American banks who were typically discriminatory and often denied service to all but the wealthiest. In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell’Italia Meridionale, the latter established in 1918.  In 1928, Giannini merged his bank with Bank of America, Los Angeles, and consolidated it with his other bank holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country. He renamed the Bank of Italy on November 3, 1930, calling it Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association.

Sunday Reads - Old India + Freezing people to death

• Lesson from Old India: When an economy just doesn't get better. (NYT)
• Myths about the Islamic State: Crazy, irrational, afraid of female soldiers. (Vox)
• I freeze people to cheat death. (BBC Future)
• The Hedge Fund and the Despot. (BusinessWeek)

Sunday Reads - India-China Friendship is a Lie + The Curse of Organised Religion

• India-China friendship is a lie. (Foreign Affairs; registration required)
• Organised religion is more a curse than a blessing - Video interview with Wole Soyinka. (AlJazeera)
• Looking for Imrana - The petition that led to the recent Supreme Court ruling on the validity of fatwas primarily cited her case. (Indian Express)
• Neuroeconomists confirm Warren Buffett's wisdom. (CalTech)

Sunday Reads - Why you hate work + Modi's Lesson

• India's long, dark and dangerous walk to the toilet. (BBC)

• Why you hate work. (NYT)

• How terrorism threatens African elephants. (New Yorker)

• Modi's lesson to new BJP MPs. (India Today)

Sunday Reads - 10 Algorithms + Happiness & Disability

• A point of view: Happiness and disability. (BBC Magazine)
• The real 10 algorithms that dominate our world. (Medium)
• Stop asking if Piketty was right or wrong; not everyone will ever agree anyway. (Quartz)
• Death by balcony in Egypt. (AlJazeera)

From the archive: Read The Explainer: Cash Reserve Ratio

Mid-Week Reads - Opposing Modi4PM & How Votes are Counted

• War across the river. (AlJazeera) This is one of the most brilliant accounts of the violence in the Central African Republic. 
• Opposing Modi4PM: Are Left intellectuals against democracy? (FirstPost)
• Europe's economic iron curtain. (Bloomberg)

How votes are counted, from ET epaper.

Sunday Reads - Why politicians consult soothsayers

• The truth of El Mozote. (Mark Danner) This is a really long yet highly moving and informative piece.

• The story-teller of Marrakech. (BBC)

• Why so many Indian politicians seek the advice of mystics and soothsayers. (Project Syndicate)

• India's pro-rapist lobby. (Hindu) Do not forget to read the comments. 

Monday Reads - Wolf Hunters of Wall Street

• The Wolf Hunters of Wall Street. (NYT Magazine)

• You can't kill polio with a needle anymore. You need a gun. (FP)

• All you needed to know about the Sun Pharma-Ranbaxy deal. (FirstBiz)

• Rwanda genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter

Sunday Reads - Resume of a Top Executive & a Jihadi meets an Atheist

• The U.S.$750 million man. (FP)
• Could Iran and India be Afghanistan's Plan B? (Diplomat)
• The resume that makes for a top executive. (WaPo)
• An atheist meets a terrorist recruiter. (BBC)

Monday Reads - India's Missing Women & AAP's Double Face?

In their insightful piece on India's missing women, Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi lament that, "even though fair elections are held at regular intervals for State Assemblies and Parliament, they do not reflect the true consent of the people because a large number of women are missing from the electorate".

The readers of this blog know that I do not trust the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). A few days back, Somanth Bharti, law minister in the Delhi government, led a mob to raid the home of some Ugandan women, accusing them of being indulging in drug trafficking. Was it morality or the lure of realty that prompted 'moral police' to accuse the Ugandans of drug trafficking? Frontline has an interesting article. 

The Harrowing Experience of Alex Owumi in Libya

Muammar Gaddafi was killed in 2011. For a man who ruled Libya with an iron fist for nearly 42 years, the end was rather an ignominious one. From wallowing in his luxury tent to spending his last moments in a drain pipe, Gaddafi's life and death epitomised the adage that 'those who live by the sword die by the sword'.

Gaddafi was the uncontrolled master of everything he surveyed. He never occupied any post, yet styled himself 'The Leader'. He was a megalomaniac, one who loved unbridled power but with no accountability. A paranoid, he did not trust his own shadow.

Fear and repression were his twin weapons, especially against his own countrymen. A past-master at suppressing dissent, he crushed all opposition and brooked no criticism. 

Read my complete piece on the rise and fall of Muammar Gaddafi here.

Early today, I read a BBC article, narrated in first person by a young American basketball player about his harrowing experience in Libya. 

Here's an excerpt. 

When US basketball player Alex Owumi signed a contract to play for a team in Benghazi, Libya, he had no idea that his employer was the the most feared man in the country. Nor did he guess the country was about to descend into war.
...

When the hunger pains got really bad, I started eating cockroaches and worms that I picked out of the flowerpots on my windowsill. I'd seen Bear Grylls survival shows on TV and seemed to recall that it was better to eat them alive, that they kept their nutrients that way. They were wriggly and salty, but I was so hungry it was like eating a steak.

I started seeing myself, versions of myself at different ages. Three-year-old Alex, eight-year-old Alex, at 12 years, 15 years, 20 years and the current, 26-year-old version. The younger ones were on one side, and the older versions on the other. I was able to touch them and I talked to them every day. (End of excerpt)

I strongly urge you to read the harrowing story of Alex Owumi.

Sunday Reads Late Edition - Cryptocurrencies & MG in China

• Why Mahatma Gandhi is becoming popular in China. (BBC)

• Bangui's inferno. (FP)

• Why Russians feel adrift in a post-Soviet world. (WaPo)

• The rise of cryptocurrencies. (AlJazeera)

Geography as History

Geography is one of my most favourite subjects. I have always believed that all history, of mankind and of everything around us, is the result of geography. If you had attended any of my classes, then you would have often heard me say that, "geography is the greatest determinant of history". 

Yesterday, I stumbled onto a remarkable piece in The Times of India, which related the story of how geography has rarely withstood the test of history. I think the reverse is a greater truth. 

Here's an excerpt:

From 1900 to 2011, the world atlas was redrawn several times, giving birth to 154 of the total 196 modern states (193 UN members and three non members). On average, every year since 1900 has witnessed the birth of more than one new nation. Roughly 68% of the world's inhibited area got its national identity during this period. Also, 83% of the world's population lives in geographical countries which didn't exist before 1900.

Go, read the complete piece.