GETTING THE ‘RIGHT’ BOOKS INTO CHILDREN’S HANDS

What kind of books do children need? And what do we do to enable such books to be selected and included in the school libraries being introduced under RTE across the country?

I. What kind of books do children need?

The five questions that must be answered in ‘yes’ in order to qualify them as being ‘right’ for children.

1. Is it child oriented?

· Does it see from the child’s point of view?

· Does it take as its core what will be interesting / fun / engaging for children?

· Does it see children as having some intelligence and experience of their own, or as empty pots to be ‘filled’ or as passive beings to be ‘moulded’?

· Is it preachy or does it help children come to their own understanding, their own conclusions?

2. Is it age appropriate?

· In terms of subject matter, use of fantasy/imagination, treatment of the subject, references made to the child’s life and way of seeing, understanding what is difficult for a child at this age (and making it easy), use of language / vocabulary / structure of narrative or presentation, modes of communication used (e.g. text to picture ratio), designing, fonts, etc.?

3. Is it true to the genre and its requirements?

· If it is a story does it have a real conflict driving the plot?

· Does a poem have the kind of word play and imagery that children can relate with as well as take forward?

· Does non-fiction use entry points that draw children in, and relate with children’s day-to-day experiences while helping them understand something that lies beyond their environment?

4. Can it be re-visited?

· Does it have the emotional appeal that draws children to go through it again and again?

· Can they find new things in it, whether in the visuals or in the text?

· Can they do things with it differently, over different times?

· Are there ‘openings’ in it that children can fill in differently at different times?

5. Does it take the child beyond what she can usually pick up in textbooks or regular TV shows?

· A book is a take-off point where the action continues in the child’s mind. It can be inexpensive, easy to carry around and use….

· And it should enable exploration, sharing, further imagination…

6. Finally, is the overall package localizable?

Children who are deprived of such books are deprived. Period.

In fact, the absence of such materials reflects the true poverty of India…Do our children, everyday, spend hours engaging with such material?

And what do we do so that this happens?

II. Getting the right books into children’s hands

All children will come across textbooks… we need to influence these, but that is another story…

Under the RTE, libraries are being established in each of the 13.5 lakh+ government schools. You already know how books get selected, and why the ‘wrong’ books are so prevalent ‘out there’.

What do we do?

Some suggestions:

1. Establish standards and disseminate them

· Agree on a reasonably clear set of criteria of what kind of books are desirable in our context. (The context bit is critical!)

· Convert this into the kind of language that a lay person can understand (accompanied by a set of objectively chosen exemplars to illustrate these if needed).

· Ensure that you actually develop and publish such material at an affordable price.

· Organize widespread dissemination of this set of criteria (or standards). In the media there are talk shows, columns, TV programmes on topics such as fashion (what your child should wear), the latest gadgets, preparing your children for admissions or examinations – but not on what your child should be reading. We are at fault, and we deserve what we face…

· Use the weekend supplements of newspapers to showcase good material, actually give exemplars.

· Have regular reviews brought out (like the film reviews that give ratings on a 5 star systems!) – while spelling out why something is rated well.

2. Develop and disseminate procurement guidelines

· Develop what you think should be model guidelines for procurement of good children’s books. Make the process of developing these guidelines itself a participatory and transparent one, involve government representatives.

· Once you have such guidelines available, ask the ministries / departments to consider using them, make them available in the internet, and in the hands of decision-makers who are required to use such guidelines.

· Identify good practices (related to large-scale book procurement) and disseminate them. Institute a system of objectively recognizing good governance with regard to procurement and use of books and libraries. Have a credible system of doing this (if our process is in doubt, once again, we would deserve what we get!).

3. Reach out to parents

· Take the parent and SMCs into confidence. Have a communication strategy wherein they learn about the importance of god books and also realize that it is their children’s right to get them under the RTE. A large-scale parental education programme is called for.

· This is one area where a large number of NGOs could also contribute.

4. Provide exposure where required

· Organize a buyers’ book fair specifically for state officials from across the country or at least make better use of the existing book fairs. Maybe you can convince NBT/MHRD to support the organization of a business / buyers’ fair’ of this kind.

May the best books be bought and reach children’s hands!

Indra Nooyi is not an idiot !

No No. PepsiCo is not foolish enough to launch Doritos for women. For Gods sake, PepsiCo is one of the greatest consumer marketing companies on earth. Sure, even the finest companies can lay a goose egg once in a while. But not such an obvious bloomer like Doritos for women.

The brouhaha started with an interview Indra Nooyi, the Chairperson of Pepsico gave to Freakonomics. As reported in the New York Times –

Ms. Nooyi told the interviewer that women did not eat Doritos the same way men did.“They don’t like to crunch too loudly in public,” she said. “And they don’t lick their fingers generously, and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.”She was asked whether PepsiCo — which owns Frito-Lay, the manufacturer of Doritos — was planning “a male and female version of chips.”

Ms. Nooyi responded: “It’s not a male and female as much as, ‘Are there snacks for women that can be designed and packaged differently?’ And yes, we are looking at it, and we’re getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon. For women, low-crunch, the full taste profile, not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers, and how can you put it in a purse? Because women love to carry a snack in their purse.”

The Sun (of the notorious British tabloid fame) took this and reported that Doritos for women was being launched. Social media picked it up and hyped it with juicy headlines.

Feminists responded by lashing out and saying this simply reinforced gender stereotypes. Men lashed out saying this was PC going too far. Sending a tweet is easy – you don’t have to think and you can spew whatever banality you wish to without any consequence; just ask a certain old man occupying a seat of power. And then before you could say Doritos, a full blown controversy had erupted. The company had to issue a statement that No, they were not launching Doritos for women !

Indra Nooyi must be scratching her head in bewilderment. All she was outlining in her podcast was how Frito Lay really tried to understand consumers, tried to get insights and tailor products accordingly. Very likely they may have launched a variant that was less crunchy, if that’s what women preferred. But they wouldn’t do something as dumb as launching a “Doritos for women”.

Just goes to show how careful anybody has to be when making a public appearance. It seems altogether appealing not to appear in public at all – after all no human is infallible enough not to utter an inanity. It also shows how lots of people have nothing else to do but to respond to every nonsense and tweet some rubbish. A certain distinguished reader of mine is a prodigious tweeter. He may want to pause 🙂

The Top Ten Confusions in Education

Trying to improve the quality of education – be it in a school or a cluster or an entire system – can be full of \’land-mines\’ exploding unexpectedly, leaving you with confusion all around you. Here are the top ten \’confusion\’ land-mines:

It is only when I teach that children will learn, isn\’t it?
Don\’t we have to guide children and show them the way?
I\’m not biased, am I?
Can all children really learn?
We can\’t teach different children different things in the same classroom, can we?
If only the teachers started working, wouldn\’t all problems of school education be solved?
If I turned out OK, how can there be much wrong with the education system?
If children start thinking by themselves and \’constructing\’ their own knowledge, what is the role of (and the need for) the teacher?
If we don\’t discipline children and correct their \’errors\’, won\’t they turn out bad?
Isn\’t the curriculum the same as the textbook that has to be \’covered\’?
In-service teacher training workshops can transform teachers, isn\’t it?
Testing is the best and the only way to find out if children have learnt anything, isn\’t it?
If one\’s education doesn\’t help one get a job, what good is it?
Researchers and academics know best about classroom processes, don\’t they?

Actually the list is longer than ten – pick out your own top ten! (You can include ones that are not here)

Also, who\’s the one confused? You, or the others? And is there anything that can be done?

President of India Inaugurates Constitution Day Celebrations; Says Interpretation of the Constitution is a Work in Progress, and it will be up to the Youth of the Nation to Carry Forward the Task of Realizing its Ideals

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the Constitution Day celebrations, organised by the Supreme Court, to mark the 70^th anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution, today (November 26, 2019) in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the Constitution is the scripture of our nation that has to be read in a sensitive and delicate manner. The Constitution gave this onerous task to the judiciary. Keeping the role of the Supreme Court as final interpreter of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it, the judiciary assumes the role of its guardian. The authors of our Constitution took extra care in providing it the necessary powers and freedoms to function without any undue influence. Over these eventful seven decades, the judiciary has remained alive to the high responsibility placed on it.

The President noted that the Supreme Court has initiated several innovative measures to reach out to people. But for a large section of people, justice is still beyond reach.

Pointing the issue of making justice accessible to all, the President said that one way out of the high cost is the provision of free legal aid. Remembering, veteran lawyer Ashoke Sen, he said that in the multiple roles Shri Sen played in the field over a long career, his sole objective was the pursuit of justice, for one and all. He expressed hope that more and more law professionals will take inspiration from the example of Shri Sen and distribute freely the fruits of their knowledge among the needy. He said that the task of making justice more accessible to all has to be a collective effort of all the stakeholders in the bench and the bar.

The President said that the question of access is not limited to the cost factor alone. Language too has been a barrier for many, for a long time. He was happy to note that the Supreme Court has started making its judgments available in nine regional languages. He said that another hurdle in the way of justice is the delay and the resulting backlog. Clearing this bottleneck requires detailed deliberations and systemic efforts. Information and communication technology can bring about amazing results in this domain. He was happy to note that beginnings have been made to take help of technological innovations.

The President said that we should strive to spread the awareness about the making of the Constitution, its provisions and its fundamental principle of equality. We need to especially narrate to the young generation the grand vision of our founding fathers. After all, we stand as a mere link between two generations in the continuing saga of this nation. Interpretation of the Constitution is a work in progress, and it will be up to the youth of the nation to carry forward the task of realizing its ideals.

*****

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

Our hearts go out to the sufferings of people in Japan. The pictures of the tsunami rushing in and engulfing everything in sight, wreaking havoc – will stay with us. Our sympathies and support should – and will – be available to help our fellow human beings in whatever way we can.

Our horror – and the desire to do something – would obviously be even more if we saw something similar happening all around us. And in a way something similar is happening all around us, only it is not as dramatic as a physical tsunami, making it a little difficult to be noticed by most people. It is what I would call the tsunami of poor quality of education that is hitting a million schools and tens of millions of children, its impact likely to be visible over the years rather than right now, instantly, in front of our eyes.

The Tsunami Around Us

No this is not alarmist, but an effort to put across a real picture and the urgency with which it needs to be recognized and acted upon. Every day, in hundreds of thousands of locations across the country, children make their way to the school. Around a quarter of them may find their teacher not there. This number alone is staggering, ranging as it would between one and two million teachers. MILLION! And if each teacher has 30 children in his class, you can estimate the number but not really conceive how enormous it is. And it is huge not just in terms of numbers, but for each child who loses a day of learning, and does so for many days every month, it is incalculable.

Had the facilities or the teachers not been available we could have cried over our fate in terms of being an underdeveloped country. But having the infrastructure (over 98% children have a school within a kilometre, and most buildings are not bad) and teachers actually in place (though the number of vacancies is still very large) – it is horrifying to watch or at least it should be, for there doesn\’t seem to be a sense of horror, or as much of it as would shake the country into action.

However the story doesn\’t end there. It is when \’teaching\’ takes place that the impact on children is often at its greatest. Decades ago, the Yashpal Committee\’s report on The Burden of the School Bag had detailed the \’burden of incomprehension\’ a majority of children bear. And it is difficult to see if things have changed dramatically, despite changed curricula, textbooks, the use of TLM, evolving assessment patterns, new training programmes… The number of children attending school – and their diversity – too has grown in leaps and bounds, while the approach to handling their needs has remained fairly static. Hence, survey after survey shows that – despite a degree of improvement – we continue to be far from the levels of learning desired (and possible).

But it is when it comes to the process that the greatest deadening effect takes place. Rote memorization, \’explanation\’ ina language not necessarily understood by children, a disregard for the needs of children who are too poor to be able to attend regularly, (an often active) discrimination in the classroom, are the lot of a majority of our children. If you doubt this, all you have to do is visit any 10 government schools in different locations, especially those away from \’headquarters\’.

This is not to say that all government schools are bad and that the \’bad\’ is restricted to government schools. It is to point out that even if only a third of schools are like the ones described above (and the number is surely more than that), it adds up to literally hundreds of thousands of schools and tens of millions of children – a slow tsunami of poor quality education that is surely wreaking havoc on the potential of our children, our country.

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Second, realize that you are the right person to do something about it. Anyone is, everyone is. Every small action counts. Even if you smile at a child, say an encouraging word to a teacher, raise this issue with friends, relatives and colleagues, you are doing something.

Third, if you are willing to be more proactive or are already active, please do look at the urgency of the situation. Children cannot wait for us to learn or get our act together slowly. We need to quickly:

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

If you are a planner / policy-maker / decision- maker, please start by not dismissing what you have just read here. It is real, and it is happening – and it\’s on a gargantuan scale. On any given day, the number of children who are in school and not learning is more than the population of many countries – and it is a shame. What kind of performance standards can you set in place? What kind of outcomes can you insist on? How can you prepare the institutions and the system to deliver this, monitor them effectively and enable an ongoing improvement? Once again, the many entries in this blog would be helpful – and you could always share issues you would like others to provide suggestions / inputs on.

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

The Tsunami Around Us

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

The Tsunami Around Us

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

The Tsunami Around Us

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

The Tsunami Around Us

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

The Tsunami We Don\’t Always See

The Tsunami Around Us

Dealing With It

So after all this panic, what do we do?

As in any disaster, stay calm! First recognize that there is a problem and accept that something must be done about it.

Establish the minimum conditions that must obtain. These are well laid out in the RTE (Right to Education) and its rules. Raise this issue wherever you can, and directly with the school or education authorities.
Encourage and support the community and the school management committees (SMCs) drawn from among the community to become more active. You can help in setting them up, in record keeping, in setting the agenda, in follow up, in helping ensure that teachers take them seriously and that they in turn don\’t take an adversarial position vis-à-vis teachers. You can use your position to ensure that the educational agenda is not hijacked by the money-making or power-gaining agenda.

If you are a Head Teacher, supervisor, CRC-BRC / district level teacher educator or officer:

Model the kind of behaviour you want from teachers
Share practical steps they can take in their classes, especially in terms of activity-based teaching (see the many entries in this blog for support)
Encourage teachers to be innovative, support them. If they ask questions, don\’t be dismissive (pass on the questions here if you can answer them!)

As surely as Japan will recover from the huge earthquake and the devastating tsunami, we can deal with this too. But first we have to see it as an emergency and address it. With all our might.

A review of David Horowitz’ “Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left”

What has happened to the left? Why are they so comfortable with a picture of America as the evil force in today’s world when religious fanatics, motivated by Islam, are viciously killing peaceful civilized people in the West and establishing oppressive theocratic states in the East? Why do some on the far left have an instinctive kinship with the jihadists that fight against our country and our allies? Why is there such an instinctual hatred for America on the left that only grows year after year? These are the questions that David Horowitz addresses in his latest book: “Unholy Alliance”. ³

Immediately after the 9/11 atrocity – with the World Trade Center smoldering and America still in shock – the far left “launched a campaign to protest, in advance, any military response.” ⁴ Echoing enemy propaganda, the left insinuated that we brought it on ourselves. They saw this not as an aggressive attack but a retaliatory act whose “root causes” were understandable. Susan Sontag, Barbara Kinsolver, Kate Pollitt, and Eric Foner – the usual suspects – wasted no time launching a parallel front here at home. They denigrated our patriotism, scoffed at our moral righteousness, called our country the true terrorist, condemned our future actions as heinous war crimes, and blamed Bush for starting a Holy War. Teach-ins, demonstrations, and other forms of mobilization, as virulent of the 60s, propounded the party line that the threat was not our theocratic fanatical Islamo-fascist enemy but the government of the United States. And this was before the battle of Iraq.

Under the banner of “United We Stand” both sides of the isle supported the battle of Afghanistan. Of the various options, the President chose Iraq as the next battle in the war due to a number of factors. In actuality, the policy of regime change originated in the previous administration. Indeed, in Clinton’s Operation Desert Fox, “the United States and Britain flew 650 bombing sorties and fired 415 cruise missiles into Iraq, a greater quantity than during the entire Gulf War.” ⁵ Thus, there was “a reasonable expectation” for continued “broad and unified support.” ⁶ Horowitz documents the growth of the “anti-war” movement leading up to the invasion of Iraq, chronicling the transformation of the Democratic Party into a rallying point for the opposition. Once again the odious nature of Saddam’s fascist regime made little difference to the left. The concern and wrath was directed toward that which was, oddly enough, considered a significantly greater problem and threat: America. Colombia professor, Nicholas De Genova expressed outright what others only implied: “U.S. patriotism is inseparable from imperial warfare and white supremacy. … The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military.” ⁷ He called for “a million Mogadishus.” ⁸

In Part Two of the book, Horowitz does what he alone can do best: he paints a well-balanced portrait of the American left’s political endurance amidst its intellectual disintegration. Its ideals scattered by the harsh reality of failure after failure, its dream of “social justice” is now only a vague sentiment. With no concrete political philosophy, system, or program, the dream becomes a dim apparition fading into a future that recedes beyond sight.⁹ The only thing real that binds the left is its nihilist hatred.¹⁰ It’s all that is left. Todd Gitlin explains the transformation of the anti-war movement of the 60s. “It inflamed our hearts. You can hate your country in such a way that the hatred becomes fundamental. A hatred so clear and intense came to feel like a cleansing flame. By the late 60s, this is what became of much of the New Left.” ¹¹

This nihilism is the remnants of irrational religious-like utopianism created in defiance of reality.¹² Subsequent rationalizations, by exaggeration of our historical faults compared to the unknowable utopian dream, enable the lie of America being guilty of genocide,¹³ sustaining an unusually horrendous slave industry, being an imperialist leader, and being responsible for nearly every ill that befell mankind.¹⁴ To some, like Chomsky and Blum, America is worse than or even responsible for Nazi Germany! ¹⁵ Obviously, these charges are not the result of an empirical study. They stem from fundamental metaphysical assumptions that precede any consideration of the evidence and, in their world-view, make all explanation possible. “Three assumptions underlie the arguments of the anti-American cult. (1) America can do no right; (2) even the rights America appears to do are wrong; (3) these wrongs are monstrous.” ¹⁶ In the end, it boils down to a simplistic formula: we’re powerful, they are pathetic; it must all be our fault.

Horowitz sums up the exceptional position of America: “A crucial element in the worldview of American radicals is the belief in American omnipotence – the ability of America’s leaders to control the circumstances of their international policies without regard to the interests of allies or the threats of adversary powers or the constraints imposed by domestic political forces. Radicals never see America as reacting to a threat …” ¹⁷ He continues to back that up with example after example of how the left, like today’s Muslims, blames the world’s problems on American action or inaction.¹⁸ He could have easily written a book on this topic alone. If he did he might have exposed the hypocrisy of the left, which implies that the prevalence of dictatorships in impoverished countries worldwide is the result of a handful of American covert operatives, but at the same time, it is apparently “hubris” to imagine that a 200,000 man intervention in Iraq can bring substantial change. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t – it’s all somehow our fault!

The left has long embodied an asymmetric determinism. It comes in many guises. For example, an individual’s behavior is said to be determined by society but apparently not to the extent that they can’t initiate action to change society by becoming part of the collective will – as exemplified by the left or other designated “authentic” group. In the current context one of the most common myths holds that the powerless are subject to economic and structural forces beyond their control thus absolving them of any actions – all actions are reactions – as if they lack any volitional capacity. The successful, however, are automatically to blame for the state of the universe, regardless of their actions, so long as there are inequities. This structural analysis holds that ideas are secondary to status; indeed, ideas are the result of structure rather than its cause. Thus, for the left, ideas are an epiphenomenon – a superstructure – with little causal relevance. Religion in particular, quoting Marx, “is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the oppressed.” ¹⁹ Thus, Islam is not taken too seriously; the Islamic Revival is our fault.

Part Three is a brief introduction to the malady infecting contemporary Islamic mass-movements. After reviewing the influence of 20th century totalitarianism on Islamist and Baathist movements,²⁰ Horowitz describes the common mindset shared by leftists and the jihadists, at present.²¹ Much of the Islamist hate comes from reading and regurgitating self-loathing Western critics. And the critics are delighted to find “confirmation” from the “spontaneous” response against American “imperialism.” Paul Berman reports on the left’s embrace of Islamist violence in his book “Terror and Liberalism” At a Socialist Scholars Conference, “an Egyptian novelist defend[ed] a young Palestinian woman who had just committed suicide and murder – and having heard the defense, the crowd broke into applause.” ²² As usual, the “root cause” of the rise of Islamism is seen not as the power of belief – this is dismissed by the left as a by-product – but as the result of material factors controlled by the powerful: American and Israel. Thus, leftists and jihadists are, deep-down, soul-mates united by a common hatred.

For those unfamiliar with the standard faire of anti-Americanism on the far left, Horowitz reviews their treacherous attempts to undermine our response to the jihadist movement and allied regimes – covered in part Four and Five of his book. Here he is on solid ground as one of our foremost critics of this cultural swamp. If you are unfamiliar with this shabby corner of contemporary politics, you can find no better guide than Mr. Horowitz. The influence of the extreme left on the whole of the Democratic Party and mainstream media is achieved not by the doctrinal conversion of sizeable number of the honest and sincere loyal opposition; but the influence has gripped our friends on the left more than they had realized – and realized by the average citizen.

Horowitz masterfully shows how far left ideas captured the Democratic Presidential campaign of 2004. What was bipartisan support for our war against terror, turned into a fierce opposition that viciously vilified a wartime President. On a day to day basis we heard that the war is immoral and unnecessary, that it is based on a lie, and actually caused by ulterior mercenary motives. This constant pounding over and over again is the kind of propaganda one would expect of an enemy intent on demoralizing our fighting men and women. Horowitz documents the events exactly as they unfolded as a fitting climax to the book and a record for future generations.

David Horowitz achieves what may at first seem impossible; he shows how the modern American left and the medieval Islamic revivalists are natural allies. Two sides of the same coin of nihilism, a synthesis of superficial opposites, and united by a common hatred, they move in parallel, attacking and chipping away at the greatest achievement millenniums in the making: Western Civilization. Our Islamic enemy could find no greater ally than the American left.

Buy American and Hire American

When this blogger started blogging in 2009, his very first post was titled \”What is American goods, anyway ? \” Eight years later, when returning back from a two year hiatus in blogging, the same theme resurfaces as the second innings of blogging is started.

The trigger for this post is of course Trump\’s executive order titled the same as this post, which he signed with much fanfare three days ago. The order , of course, is pure bombast and is only meant to show that the President is doing \”something\”. It simply orders the Secretary of Commerce to tell the world what the hell this means in 60 days and orders sundry other Ramamrithams to specify how it will be implemented in 150 days. I was not aware that you need an Executive Order to tell people to do their jobs, but apparently in the world of alternative reality, that is required.

Precious little, other than nuisance value, will come of it. For you see, in today\’s globalised world of supply chains it is almost impossible to determine what is \”American\” as my first ever post argued. If \”value added\” is the yardstick for measuring national origin, then your iPhones are as American as mom and apple pie even though they are entirely manufactured outside the US. If the physical act of manufacturing (read final assembly) is the yardstick, then the iPhone is Chinese while BMW is American. If the entire supply chain has to be in the US, most products will simply disappear off the shelves as some of the raw materials and components are simply not available in the US and have to be imported.

The Executive Order gives some clues to the warped thinking – apparently they would like that \”for iron and steel products, all manufacturing processes, from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, occurred in the United States .\” US iron and steel has been on decline for decades. Only an idiot will set up steel capacity in the US – after all the next President can sign another Executive Order to the opposite. Not a single new job will be created. What will only happen if this pig headed policy is even half tried is that the existing US steel plants will jack up their prices. The American consumer shall pay.

The problem of disappearing jobs is a real and serious one, but there are no easy fixes. It cannot be tackled by trumpeting economic nationalism. It certainly cannot be solved by sitting on the toilet seat and tweeting whatever comes to your mind.

By the way, the GOP was meant to stand for free markets and trade. It would have been appropriate if a President Sanders were to try something like this. But a Republican President ?

Indra Nooyi is not an idiot !

The brouhaha started with an interview Indra Nooyi, the Chairperson of Pepsico gave to Freakonomics. As reported in the New York Times –

The Sun (of the notorious British tabloid fame) took this and reported that Doritos for women was being launched. Social media picked it up and hyped it with juicy headlines.

Feminists responded by lashing out and saying this simply reinforced gender stereotypes. Men lashed out saying this was PC going too far. Sending a tweet is easy – you don\’t have to think and you can spew whatever banality you wish to without any consequence; just ask a certain old man occupying a seat of power. And then before you could say Doritos, a full blown controversy had erupted. The company had to issue a statement that No, they were not launching Doritos for women !

Indra Nooyi must be scratching her head in bewilderment. All she was outlining in her podcast was how Frito Lay really tried to understand consumers, tried to get insights and tailor products accordingly. Very likely they may have launched a variant that was less crunchy, if that\’s what women preferred. But they wouldn\’t do something as dumb as launching a \”Doritos for women\”.

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