Politics makes strange bedfellows

Bill and Melinda Gates are set to honor mOdi, "who is being cited for building toilets for millions of rural Indians as part of his Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission)."

To the Gateses, it apparently does not matter that mOdi looms behind the killings in Gujarat; is mute about lynchings; has systematically stripped millions of Muslims of their citizenship; and most recently has transformed Kashmir into a highly militarized prison.

Ten years ago--yep, in 2009--I wrote that "I won't be surprised at all if Modi, or somebody like him, becomes the prime minister really soon."  It was not all that difficult to predict the turn that India was going to make. Except, I was overly optimistic--I thought his authoritarianism would be benign!

Since then, he and his party have been doing exactly what they said they would do in the socio-political arena.  The Indian electorate, as are voters anywhere, did not understand that no autocrat can dictate how the global economy should work, and slowly they are beginning to realize that their favored fascist has failed to deliver the economic goods.  And, basic political science says that when a power-hungry thug knows that the economy is failing or under-delivering, well, he will resort to political violence of various sorts, exactly along the lines of what has been happening.

Authoritarians also love showing their cojones to their loyal supporters. In the global lives that we lead, with a large Indian diaspora, it means that mOdi struts on stages outside India too.  Recall this from five years ago, when he was on Times Square?  It was all about self-aggrandizement.

Now, he is ready for another tour.  This time in Houston.  And he will be joined by our own symbol of self-aggrandizement--tRump!  I suppose mOdi doesn't care that care that tRump thinks mOdi is from a shithole, and tRump doesn't care that mOdi is from a country that he considers a shithole.  All the two of them care for is a eVa Peron-like "You must love me, you must love me | You must love me"

It is one hell of a combination, and full of contradictions.

“Part of what makes it complicated for Indian-Americans is that they don’t like Trump for the most part and yet they like Modi,” Karthick Ramakrishnan, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside and the director of AAPIData.com, a policy research and data firm that focused on Asians and Pacific Islanders, told Power Up. “They bristle against the kind of nationalism that Trump represents here in America, but then they still support Modi regardless of what he is doing in India. So, there is some ideological inconsistency there, but that is the kind of complicated world that we live in.” 

  Indian-Americans are not tRump voters:

It will be interesting to find out what percentage of the audience at this freak show also support tRump; my hypothesis is that it will be far greater than 28%, because of the anti-Muslim common denominator!

This is how the world's two largest democracies work now.  What shining examples!

More on that damn foreign aid

Remember this post on how the foreign aid that the US gives is sinking it deeper and deeper into the gazillion dollar debt?

Go ahead, take a minute to read that and come back.

You ready for me?

The United Kingdom’s largest-circulation Sunday newspaper recently launched a petition calling for an end to ring-fenced aid spending (worth 0.7% of national income). Prior to his election victory, US President Donald Trump railed against “sending foreign aid to countries that hate us,” reflecting a widespread belief that aid needs to be cut. The United States allocates less than 1% of the federal budget to aid, but the average American believes this figure to be thirty-one-times higher.

Yes, welcome to the brave new world of alternative facts and all-about-me-who-cares-about-the-rest.

The other day, in class, students were clearly appalled at the fact that a billion people in this world do not even have access to electricity.  Mere access.  Without access, there is no question of consumption of electricity.  Students were at a loss understanding why developed countries were not helping out.  I didn't tell them though at the miserly amount we give as foreign aid; why completely discourage those young students, right?

Ah yes, let those poor people eat cakes in the dark!

But,enough with the doom and gloom.  (Flynn resigning, and the FBI continuing to investigate him, has boosted my morale!)

Let us look at something positive then:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spends more each year on development aid than most rich governments do.

Re-read that sentence.  Go ahead.  And be impressed.

Against the backdrop of the pathological presidency of Trump's, which wants to reduce funding for organizations that educate girls and women about family planning, I want to highlight the following from the Gates Foundation:

For the first time in history, more than 300 million women in developing countries are using modern methods of contraception. It took decades to reach 200 million women. It has taken only another 13 years to reach 300 million—and the impact in saving lives is fantastic.

Why is this a big deal?

When women in developing countries space their births by at least three years, their babies are almost twice as likely to reach their first birthday. Over time, the ability of women to use contraceptives and space their pregnancies will become one of the largest contributors in cutting childhood deaths.

If only the asshole president and his asshole minions will listen to Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett!  There is a lot more to life than to be obsessed with fertilized eggs!

Contraceptives are also one of the greatest antipoverty innovations in history. When women are able to time and space their pregnancies, they are more likely to advance their education and earn an income—and they’re more likely to have healthy children.

Join me in yelling a yuge "fuck you" to trump and his minions, and an even bigly and yuger yell to say "thank you" to Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.