Barackface

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Berea College Died For Me During Five Minutes With Virgil Burnside

English: This is the Official Berea College Logo. It is used in the article on Berea college, so that users can instantly identify that they have come to the correct article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I attended a high school in Kathmandu that was not designed for people like me. We Madhesis are almost 40% of Nepal, but not even 1% of the Nepal Army, less than 5% of the Nepal Police, of the Nepal bureaucracy. Had not the British given the southern plains to Nepal in two parcels in 1816 and 1860, we would have been part of India today, and since 1947. Bhutan does not have southern plains.

Budhanilkantha School is the national school of Nepal, and the ethnic composition of its student population was and is like the ethnic composition of the Nepal Army. The Terai faces internal colonization and that fact is reflected in all state machineries of the Nepali state.

We are the Indian origin people in Nepal. I am half Indian by birth. It is a sorry state a population as big, right next to the regional power India would be in some kind of a political blind spot.

I went through hell and high water to get to college in America. And I had a very happy freshman year. I got myself elected student body president within six months of landing as an international student in the Bible Belt Deep South. A few weeks into office, Berea College died for me during five minutes with Virgil Burnside.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Europe, Japan And Immigration

Relative proportions of immigrants from Northwestern Europe (red) and Southern and Eastern Europe (blue) in the decades before and after the immigration restriction legislation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think one big reason Japan has been in the doldrums for decades now, and why Europe continues to be in a funk is that both are kind of hostile to immigration. And so you end up with skewed demographics, and you hurt the economy.

For its entire history, immigration has been America's number one strength. The president's recent positive step aside, Washington DC's hostility towards immigrants is a resolve to take America down the Japanese/European path.

Friday, December 05, 2014

Mulayam: Bad Choice

English: Nitish Kumar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Janata parties coming together is a good thing for Indian democracy. But Nitish might have lost some ground in the process.

When Nitish was running up and down the street urging the BJP to not pick Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, for a moment I thought maybe he himself harbors prime ministerial ambitions. But no, Nitish was rooting for LK Advani!

Advani would have been a sorry choice. I think Advani at the BJP helm would have created room for a Third Front government.

And now Nitish is behind another octogenarian, Mulayam. Mulayam is no development man. At least Laloo had a stellar stint as Railways Minister. Mulayam has none of that. He was a Mandal man who played the caste cards to his advantage. But those tricks don't work no more. Modi khud backward hai.

Nitish is the only development man in the Janata Parivar, and his not leading the unified party tells me Modi will stay PM for 15 years. He is the BJP's Nehru.

This is like Yahoo and Bing coming together to take over Google. Google's search market share increased in the aftermath. Right now my bet is the BJP is on its way to forming the state government in Uttar Pradesh. So much for Mulayam leading the unified Janata party.

Bado ka aadar karo, lekin itna mat karo ki democracy tabah ho jaye.