Day: December 12, 2019

Wooing HQ2 ? Yuk !

If you are an American, here’s a a nice issue to distract you from your fixation about you know who and direct your attention to a different issue you can get all worked up about.
Witness each city falling over each other and doing the most stupid of things to land HQ2. Tucson Arizona, where one of the readers of this blog lives ,  uprooted a 21ft cactus and tried to deliver it to HQ1. The mayor of Kansas City actually bought one thousand items from the company in HQ1 and wrote a review of each one of them. Mayors of cities are looking silly in videos that they have made asking Alexa where HQ2 is going to come up and Alexa answering of course, the city they are mayors of. Shall I go on ?
If you are wondering what all this hullaballoo is  about, this is all to do with attracting Amazon’s second head office. Amazon is based in Seattle (this is HQ1). They want to create a HQ2 somewhere else. And why are cities willing to stand in a line and kiss Bezos’ ass (cue the nod to the awful American version of the Queen’s English !). Because he is promising to invest $5 bn and create 50,000 jobs. How did they come to this magic figure of investment ? Because he says the average salary of the jobs created would be $100,000. 
The antics of Tucson and Kansas City are harmless on their own. HQ2 won’t come there anyway. The real danger is the big cities offering tax breaks to Amazon. Without a doubt this will happen.
This is a terrible idea. Cities and states that do sweetheart deals to tempt businesses into moving are doing an appalling act of profligacy.  This is worse than a bribe.  Think about it – this is a perfect way of taking money from the poor (remember indirect taxes are not progressive and a fair amount of the state revenues in the US come from indirect taxes) and giving it to somebody who does not deserve or need the money. One city does this , and the next city will do the same for another company.  And before you say Bingo, everybody has been given a dole.
The right way to attract companies is to do the boring things – create infrastructure, make a talent pool available by vigorous education and training, attract outsiders by making it a great place to come and live, have a favourable business atmosphere in the form of ease of doing business and reasonable tax rates.  That is when companies will come and stay on. That’s why New York in Finance and the West Coast Cities in technology are what they are.  Not because they gave tax breaks.
If you are an American, you should vigorously protest against your city doing a sweetheart deal with Amazon.  
For Indians, who can look at all this with an amused smile; we have of course been long guilty of doing such deals with companies. But I want you to get agitated in a different angle. The capital of the IT industry in the country did all the right things 30 years back – great place to live in, pleasant weather, abundance of talent, a cosmopolitan place for people to come, etc etc. It did not give a tax break. And yet every IT company worth it’s salt came.
And then this city let it all go to seed and become the appalling wreck of a city that it is today.  This is the best way to drive every company out. No member of the Homo Sapiens species will ever come to this place again. Instead the entire population has mutated into Pithecanthropus Erectus, which being extinct, is delighted to be able to come back into existence even if condemned to living in a hellhole ! How does this blogger know of such a mutation ? Because he has mutated himself !

Did you brush your ideas today?

A few minutes spent watching TV or flipping through a magazine would convince anyone that looking good is one of the most important objectives in society! Ads for creams of all kinds, face washes, shampoos, razors, jewelery, clothes — all evidence that we are firmly in the the midst of a \’lookist\’ age. If you don\’t \’look\’ it, you aren\’t it!

But as we groom our bodies, it might be a good idea to groom our minds as well! Failure to do this seems to have brought about (or perpetuated) the many difficulties we find ourselves in. For instance, as our education system (with around 5.7 million teachers and close to three hundred thousand education officials) rumbles on, and we strive to bring about a major improvement, this is one barrier that keeps springing up again and again. Our thinking tools have become either so dull or limited that at every stage of the transition presents huge challenges:
  • How can each stakeholder envisage the improvement desired in their own way (i.e., have their own vision)?
  • How can all involved begin to understand / conceptualize the massive shift involved?
  • Since improvement is helped by planned rather than a random set of actions, how to help each person plan better – which implies the ability to identify what is desired, what the gaps are, conjuring up a repertoire of \’solutions\’, weighing the different options to identify the ones that fit the situation best, and knowing the difference between sequencing and prioritizing!
And we haven\’t even come to the actual implementation yet… which involves actions such as teaching, mentoring, communicating, supervising, organizing and managing, monitoring, counselling, developing, recording and analyzing, assessing and evaluating — all tasks that require a range of thinking skills. It comes almost as a shock to realize that different actions require different ways of thinking. That before you start thinking on something you need to ask yourself – which would the best way to think here? Much like a surgeon choosing the right tool at each stage of a complex operation. In fact, that is what our situation is tending to be – of a surgeon armed with only a kitchen knife and hence limited in terms of what she can do! In fact, if you don\’t \’think\’ it, you aren\’t it!

What can one do to begin overcoming this situation? A few suggestions to start with:

  • Make a list of all the key actions you perform
  • Identify the thinking skills or ways of thinking required (e.g. do you have to be more \’out of the box\’ and creative, or do you have to maintain a rigorous commitment to the given information and derive a logically valid inference).
  • Practice these skills
  • When undertaking new action, please choose the appropriate thinking tool you need to use
  • Finally, don\’t forget to brush your ideas! That is, do reflect on the ideas we use in the daily course of our work – have they become stale? or dusty or outdated? do we need to discard them and move on to different ideas?

So even as we become willing participants in the \’lookist\’ age, here\’s hoping that more and more of us will also  create our own \’thinkist\’ age!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Anna\’s is NOT a movement for change

Let\’s imagine for a moment that corruption vanishes – no one takes bribes any more. Which of the following do you think would now happen as a result?

  • Dalits will not face discrimination anywhere; people will stop believing in caste and elections will be around issues, not social groups. Unborn girls will not be killed, dowry will go, sexual harassment will vanish, the notion of \’minority\’ will not need to be discussed, equality and equity will be established.
  • People will start working harder, with greater commitment, be much more innovative, and therefore the economy will shoot up. Private enterprise will no more be required to shore up government efforts.
  • We will stop exploiting environmental resources in a dangerous manner, all power and energy related problems will be solved, petrol will become cheaper, our sources of water will not be polluted any more and global warming will come to a halt (at least in India).
  • All children will start attending school and learning well; teachers will transform into good teachers, all government schools will become great schools, and India\’s learning standards will be among the highest in the world. In sports too we will emerge as a world power.
  • Inflation will not affect us any more, the price of food and other essentials will come down, no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.
  • Health and nutrition levels will go up greatly, diseases of the poor (water-borne ones or those caused by malnutrition, for instance) will be vanquished.
  • Poor governance will vanish – in the absence of bribes, officials will become competent, start taking good decisions, stop representing power groups, start listening to people and actually working for their betterment.

I hope you were able to tick off quite a few!


Oscar Wild said: \’Stupidity is the only sin.\’ And in that sense, Anna&Co are great sinners. Unfortunately, those who continue to believe they\’re helping destroy the roots of our problems and bringing about real change – are even more so.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

When nation is first, country takes big decision: PM

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi delivered keynote address in Republic Summit here today. Theme of this year’s summit is “India’s Moment Nation First”.

Speaking on the occasion PM said that From Nation wants to know India has transformed to Nation First. He also said that things which were not solved for decades have been solved now. This happened due to two reasons – 130 Crore people’s thinking that India’s Moment and Nation First.

On the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, PM said that India eliminated big reason behind terrorism. He added that Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir was a temporary provision in the Constitution but due to “some families”, it was considered as permanent.

He emphasized that when nation is first, country takes big decision. And when country accepts that decision nation moves forward. He also said that people went to the Supreme Court so that Aadhaar could not get legal recognition. These people put all their strength to malign Aadhaar. But Aadhaar helped a lot in revealing their truth. It has saved about Rs 1.5 lakh crores from falling into the wrong hands. He added that every year, almost the same amount was falling into the wrong hands and there was no one to stop it. We did the work to stop this huge leakage of the system, because India is first for us.

Prime Minister said that GST could never have been implemented in the country earlier. Today, 99 percent of the things related to ordinary citizens are being taxed on an average of half as compared to before. There was a time when refrigerators – mixers, juicers, vacuum cleaners, geysers, mobile phones, washing machines, watches, all taxed more than 31 percent. Today, tax on all these things has been reduced to about 10 to 12 percent.

On regularization of illegal colonies in Delhi, he said that for decades, there was a lot of uncertainty in the lives of millions of families. People used to buy houses here with their hard-earned money, but they could not completely own them. These problems remained always. Our government has decided to end it and now more than 50 lakh Delhiites have got the certainty/hope/confidence of their home and a better life. Certainly it will benefit our middle class and help in getting their dream home, he added.

Prime Minister emphasized that the speed and Scale that is being worked on in India today is unprecedented. Toilet facilities to be provided to nearly 60 crore Indians in 60 months. These types of plans and programs can be planned and executed only when Nation is first.

He added that when you get out of selfishness, make everyone’s support – everyone’s development and everyone’s trust the basis of policy and politics. This thinking has left us behind in the race for development, learning how to work with new approaches on 112 aspirational districts of the country.

PM said that it was the spirit of Nation First that opened more than 37 crore bank accounts to connect the poor with the banking system. It was this thinking of Nation First that started the water life mission. In the coming time, about Rs.3.5 lakh crore will be spent on this mission, so that people in remote areas of the country can get clean drinking water, water can reach every house.

Prime Minister added that with the intention of increasing their income, the country has set a target of making the country’s economy $ 5 trillion. He said that he believed that working with the spirit of Nation First, we will get the proper result of every decision and the country will achieve every goal. He hoped that in this spirit, there will be a detailed discussion on the new possibilities, new opportunities of new India.

***

Has Anyone Asked Teachers This Yet?

Over the last two decades, as the number of teachers has grown, so too has a certain attitude towards them. This comes up in different ways in the various interactions we have – during school visits, meetings at cluster or block level, workshops and training programmes for different groups of personnel, and informal interaction at all levels. Somehow, the discussion ends up at the teacher\’s door. And the following statement springs forth: \’Teacher is at the heart of the matter sir; only when teacher improves can anything improve.\’
This is then followed by a long list of what teachers are not good at, including examples such as (this is a mild list!):
  • Teachers don\’t practice Quality Teaching
  • Are not able to \’go according to the level of children\’
  • Don\’t make use of psychology (I assume this means something called \’child psychology\’)
  • Application is missing – teachers are not linking concepts to practical life.
  • They show a lack of Social Awareness
  • Don\’t go for innovative activities
  • Don\’t do voluntary service
  • Don’t give examples while teaching
  • Don\’t pin accountability for the task given (i.e. don\’t take responsibility themselves)
  • Fail to develop or revive the interest to teach
  • Are not flexible to change their mentality
  • Don\’t give individual attention to children
  • Are not patient
  • Don’t make use of case study
  • Don\’t take a friendly approach
  • Are poor listeners
  • Have no tolerance
  • Are partial
  • Reluctant
  • Lazy
  • Lack in adaptation, and don\’t update their knowledge
  • Are in a hurry to get the product rather than being bothered about the process
  • Expect more with little effort!

Believe it or not, this is an actual list produced by participants in a workshop (which also included teachers!) and is also typical of most parts of the country.
But when asked to name any strengths that teachers have, what you usually get are blank stares or a scrawny, reluctant list of maybe four points, such as:
  • Covers syllabus in time
  • Preparing children for getting marks.
  • Good in lecturing (encouraging rote learning)
  • Conducting special coaching for those falling behind

As you can see, no shortage of left-handed compliments here!
Typically, when asked if they\’ve actually asked teachers what they\’re good at, or what they feel they\’re not good at, the people who make the above statements tend to draw a blank! However, when teachers themselves are asked what they\’re not good at, their statements include points such as these:
  • In trying to address the average student, I\’m unable to take care of those who are falling behind
  • I find it difficult to make the subject interesting for some students
  • If parents can\’t help children with their homework, I find it difficult to help the child in class

Clearly, there\’s a perception mismatch between teachers and those tasked with appointing, deploying, orienting, developing, mentoring and monitoring teachers. It might be a little too much to ask, but the following seem clearly required;
  • There\’s a need to listen to teachers before coming to the kind of conclusions we have come to
  • In order to go beyond impressions, systematic observation and research are required
  • How about finding out the strengths teachers have and how to build on them
  • Finally, what is the system doing to make some of its own dire predictions about teachers become true?

Time, it seems, to make a course correction here.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Academia’s latest fashion: postmodern irrationalism.

Deception has had its proponents in the past. In the “Republic,” Plato made an exception for a “noble lie” in the service of the collective good. Machiavelli left out the “noble” part. However, these moments are footnotes in history. Truth was power, it was believed, or for those less sanguine, duty. Today, however, there is a complete and unabashed acceptance of lies, deception, and irrationality, and without any fear to one’s reputation. Columnists, politicians, academics – all regurgitate the party line without embarrassment or fear to their careers. Just the opposite, Moore has demonstrated you can make millions and stay in the spotlight by popularizing the New Lie. It’s the latest in leftist fashion, and it’s hot off the academic runway.
To the average American it still seems incredible that intellectuals and writers could be doing what we think they are doing: embracing lies on principle. How can they justify this? This is a story that unfolds behind the walls of academia, slowly simmering for some time, and finally reaching a boil in a self-consciously anti-rational creed that’s sweeping our colleges and universities: Postmodernism. This snake-oil unleashes the inhibitions that limit deception and underwrites the policy of the lie. Stephen R. C. Hicks2 has written a scathing expose called “Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.” To appreciate the story we have to step back a few centuries and see how this descent has unfolded.
It was during the 18th century Enlightenment that reason reaches the pinnacle of respect in modern times. Flush with confidence that reason could make sense of reality and mediate human contentions, men of the Enlightenment embrace reason as the key to knowledge and human well being. There is a profound sense of optimism and confidence that the power of reason can conquer ignorance, superstition, bigotry, strife and suffering. The founding of America is suffused with the spirit of the Enlightenment. England’s benign neglect allows the colonialists to order their affairs guided by the philosophical spirit of the times and when that tolerance wanes we confidently create a new nation.
On the European Continent, the Enlightenment spirit, exemplified by Diderot, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, would soon be eclipsed by the most influential of all: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. By attacking key planks of the liberal paradigm, he effectively launches the Counter-Enlightenment. Rousseau disparages civilization as a corrupting influence, charges that rational progress undermines morality, and damns private property as socially destructive. Reason and progress, in his view, brings inequities, oppression, insensitivity, superficiality, and degeneration. Science, he declares, is “vain curiosity” harmful to society. Rousseau’s collectivism – submission to the general will, by force if necessary – is an inspiration to the Jacobin fraction of the French Revolution. 3
The Enlightenment’s nominal defenders often did more damage than its detractors. In one way or another both Rationalists and Empiricists took the primary object of awareness as mental in nature. This made reality inferential and empirical knowledge problematic. Since the purpose of knowledge is to grasp objective reality, the philosophers’ flawed formulations of reason’s ability to achieve certainty in this matter lead to the skepticism. Kant, however, saw this analysis as an opportunity. The mind, according to Kant is what gives the properties and regularities we previously associated with the object-in-itself. Thus, it is consciousness itself that contributes the important properties of our experience. As Hicks writes, “Kant’s significance in the history of philosophy is that he absorbed the lessons of the rationalists and empiricists and, agreeing with the central assumptions of both sides, transformed radically the terms of the relationship between reason and reality.” 4
The assault on reason accelerates through out the 19th century. Hegel explicitly embraces contradictions and identifies consciousness with object. Kierkegaard learns “to relinquish his understanding and his thinking, and to keep his soul fixed upon the absurd.” 5 In the 20th century, Heidegger finds that “[t]he entire Western tradition of philosophy – whether Platonic, Aristotelian, Lockean, or Cartesian – based as it is on the law of non-contradiction and the subject/object distinction, is the enemy to be overcome.” 6 Postmodernists will even surpass Heidegger and abandon metaphysics and truth all together.
The Anglo-American analytical tradition never seriously challenges the Kantian turn. Instead we see the reduction of reason to the merely formal, conventional, tautological, or nominal. The emaciation of rationalism to an internal tool of mental housekeeping underscores the divorce of reason from reality and removes it as a tool of scientific truth. Ayer announces that “the principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else.” 7 “By the 1950s, these conclusions were commonplace. Language and logic were seen as conventional, internal systems – and not as objective, reality-based tools of consciousness.” 8 “Consequently, by the 1960s, the pro-objectivity, pro-science spirit had collapsed in the Anglo-American tradition.” 9 Rorty concludes “’[t]he nature of truth’ is an unprofitable topic.” 10
The combined effect of the direct assault on reason by continental irrationalists and the trivialization of reason by nominal proponents of the analytical tradition set the stage for the overt and belligerent anti-realist, subjectivist, and nihilistic postmodern movement. But why have these academic foundational issues become so important to the modern left? It is here that Hicks provides a powerful and compelling narrative.

In defence of TPP – the loss of jobs

The opposition from labour unions in the US ( and labour activists everywhere in the world) to the TPP is that it will lead to the loss manufacturing jobs (read in the US) and therefore it is anti labour. I have some sympathy for the view of the labour unions in the US, but absolutely no sympathy for the \”global labour activists\”.
In every change of  the status quo, including opening up of trade, there will be winners and losers. When international trade is made more easy, by whatever means, the risk of American manufacturing jobs being lost is real. Labour intensive activity will migrate from higher cost locations to lower cost locations – that\’s an indisputable fact of economics. Therefore there has to be some sympathy for the US unions\’ opposition to every trade deal with a foreign country.
The balance sheet of wins and losses for the US looks like this. Jobs will be lost, especially in manufacturing. US consumers win in terms of lower costs of products. If international trade were to be substantially reduced, inflation will soar in the US. Prices of all goods will rise to levels which will put them out of reach of many people making it hard for even the poor in the US to enjoy the quality of life they currently have. Increased economic activity leads to rise in taxes for the US government – don\’t believe all that spin about evil corporations hiding their money overseas ; this is a point I am happy to debate separately. The increased economic activity does create more jobs, but not enough to compensate for the loss of jobs and in any case it is mismatched in terms of skill levels. So the only constituency that has some case for objecting to the TPP ( and every trade deal) is the US labour unions.
The group that deserves utter contempt are the international \”labour activists\” who are protesting against the TPP.  As we have seen, jobs will be lost in the US, but they will migrate to lower cost, and poorer countries . These are the societies that desperately need economic betterment through jobs.  Secondly, by lowering the cost of labour, there is a defence against machines taking over these jobs. That is why iPhones are still assembled by hand in China and clothes stitched by hand in Bangladesh. In sum total, there are more jobs created and preserved in the world than it would have been if manufacturing were to be done in high costs countries. You would have thought this is in net good for the world.
It is also an indisputable fact that labour is exploited in poor countries.The US, to its credit, through various trade agreements and via the TPP, is trying to minimise this. In particular, US negotiators want TPP members to implement and enforce the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of the ILO. This includes the freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, a ban on forced or compulsory labor, the abolition of child labor, and a ban on discrimination in employment. The US also wants countries not to exempt their special economic zones from the labour laws of the rest of their country. These are all sticking points in the negotiations, but this is what the US has been strongly negotiating for.  If there were no TPP, it would be laissez faire for labour exploitation in each country. The TPP at least attempts to get some common protection for labour in every country. And the \”international activists\” are opposing this.
So yes, international trade will hurt US jobs. It has been doing so for many decades. But if you see it from a global perspective, the world would be a better place with the TPP, than without it. Having said that, I have sympathy for, and would not argue against the opposition of the US trade unions.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Wooing HQ2 ? Yuk !

If you are an American, here\’s a a nice issue to distract you from your fixation about you know who and direct your attention to a different issue you can get all worked up about.
Witness each city falling over each other and doing the most stupid of things to land HQ2. Tucson Arizona, where one of the readers of this blog lives ,  uprooted a 21ft cactus and tried to deliver it to HQ1. The mayor of Kansas City actually bought one thousand items from the company in HQ1 and wrote a review of each one of them. Mayors of cities are looking silly in videos that they have made asking Alexa where HQ2 is going to come up and Alexa answering of course, the city they are mayors of. Shall I go on ?
If you are wondering what all this hullaballoo is  about, this is all to do with attracting Amazon\’s second head office. Amazon is based in Seattle (this is HQ1). They want to create a HQ2 somewhere else. And why are cities willing to stand in a line and kiss Bezos\’ ass (cue the nod to the awful American version of the Queen\’s English !). Because he is promising to invest $5 bn and create 50,000 jobs. How did they come to this magic figure of investment ? Because he says the average salary of the jobs created would be $100,000. 
The antics of Tucson and Kansas City are harmless on their own. HQ2 won\’t come there anyway. The real danger is the big cities offering tax breaks to Amazon. Without a doubt this will happen.
This is a terrible idea. Cities and states that do sweetheart deals to tempt businesses into moving are doing an appalling act of profligacy.  This is worse than a bribe.  Think about it – this is a perfect way of taking money from the poor (remember indirect taxes are not progressive and a fair amount of the state revenues in the US come from indirect taxes) and giving it to somebody who does not deserve or need the money. One city does this , and the next city will do the same for another company.  And before you say Bingo, everybody has been given a dole.
The right way to attract companies is to do the boring things – create infrastructure, make a talent pool available by vigorous education and training, attract outsiders by making it a great place to come and live, have a favourable business atmosphere in the form of ease of doing business and reasonable tax rates.  That is when companies will come and stay on. That\’s why New York in Finance and the West Coast Cities in technology are what they are.  Not because they gave tax breaks.
If you are an American, you should vigorously protest against your city doing a sweetheart deal with Amazon.  
For Indians, who can look at all this with an amused smile; we have of course been long guilty of doing such deals with companies. But I want you to get agitated in a different angle. The capital of the IT industry in the country did all the right things 30 years back – great place to live in, pleasant weather, abundance of talent, a cosmopolitan place for people to come, etc etc. It did not give a tax break. And yet every IT company worth it\’s salt came.
And then this city let it all go to seed and become the appalling wreck of a city that it is today.  This is the best way to drive every company out. No member of the Homo Sapiens species will ever come to this place again. Instead the entire population has mutated into Pithecanthropus Erectus, which being extinct, is delighted to be able to come back into existence even if condemned to living in a hellhole ! How does this blogger know of such a mutation ? Because he has mutated himself !
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1