Why do UK-France have a UN veto and not India?

un-3414137_1280India is the most populous country in the world. Recently Forbes released a list of the most powerful military powers of 2023 and in it India came fourth. It’s the fifth largest economy in the world.

Population rank: 1
Military rank: 4
Economic rank: 5

So a simple question, why is it not one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council?

The US is way ahead.
Population rank: 3
Military rank: 1
Economic rank: 1

China comes second.
Population rank: 2
Military rank: 3
Economic rank: 2.

India would probably come third with this kind of ratings system.

Russia.
Population rank: 9
Military rank: 2
Economic rank: 11.

UK.
Population rank: 21
Military rank: 5
Economic rank: 6

France.
Population rank: 23
Military rank: 9
Economic rank: 7

A simple question: What are the UK and France doing in the Top 5 of the UN nations? Why aren’t they being kicked out?

Bottomline
Either these should be the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council:
America, China, Russia, EU and India.
Or this Top 5 concept should be done away altogether.

The Foxification of Planet Earth

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5tOVY1bzQVpeqtDfivpXIw

Podcast summary…

breaking-news-7613046_1280Most of the media of the world is Left leaning or Marxist in nature. It supports Leftist ideologies, causes, people and parties. All diverse and differing non-Marxist is clubbed together and called the Right and in intellectual opinion is an exception and is usually lost in the crowd. Or it just carves out a niche in some corner and is happy.

In America, like many other countries, most of the national newspapers, news channels, newspapers, radio stations have traditionally been Leftists. It was in such a setting that Fox News was launched in 1996. How would Fox News get itself heard in a crowd and with all the odds against it? Well, it would shout the loudest. It would take an extreme stand. It would never accept that it was wrong and double-down. And it would tell non-Fox News audiences to go to hell. Well maybe they didn’t exactly say that in the launch strategy, but that’s what they ended up doing anyway.

At that time such a thing was difficult to imagine because no matter how high the bias of a media organisation and what their target audience was, they in those days would at least pay lip service to their opponents and pretend that they heard them as well.

I guess a lot of analysts would have said Fox would sink without a trace. But it didn’t and started gaining great traction and became a brand name. A “shouting” Bill O’Reilly on prime time became a staple. Now it may have ended here and Fox would become just another successful media house.

Fox ended up becoming the most demonised media house and was presented as an outcast and an anathema. But a curious thing started happening. Despite calling it the devil and shunning it, all the media houses started aping Fox News. I first started watching TV news with BBC and ITV in London in 1978 as a child and I have witnessed the Foxification of the entire media industry in the last couple of decades.

Today almost every media house shouts the loudest, takes an extreme stand, never accepts that it is wrong and double-downs. And it also tells their opponents to go to hell. Think over it. Every media channel is like that. In fact come to India and every host aspires to be a Bill O’Reilly and shouts and insults all the guests that he calls on his own show. Right wing media has also risen.

If it ended with the media, then itself would be something. It spread to other forms of media. Look at the way Disney and the spectacularly successful MCU has turned out. They have curiously decided to cater to a minority of audiences. They take an extreme stand and if they fail, then they double down and abuse those who don’t like their movies as being racists and misogynistic.

The bug even got to corporations. Now even these have decided that they will only cater to their target audiences in an aggressive way and the rest of humanity can go to hell. On failure they too double down and blame those who don’t buy their products.

The entire political discourse has become like that. You carve out a niche political world for yourself, shout, never admit you are wrong, double down and call your opponents the choicest abusive words. That’s how political parties have become. In the past they used to find common ground. Not anymore. They have all been Foxified.

Think of political discourse in the last century. Then came Bill O’Reilly thundering on his media pulpit. Now think of a few decades back Trump doing the same on the political pulpit. You could say it has been a natural evolution. Everyone hates Fox, Bill O’Reilly and Trump. But the truth is that everyone wants to be like them. You can argue that there may be many reasons for the current state of affairs, but at least I personally saw the change right after Fox News was launched.

Fox News was Fox News. Media became Fox Media. Corporations became Fox Corporations. Political parties became Fox parties. Global discourse went the Fox way. The Social Media era only made this more potent and polarised.

Hate it or love it, Fox has become the most influential brand in the world.

Fun facts abut the Climate Change agenda #COP26

earth-hour-4776711_1280(What they generally don’t tell you)

  • COP26 or the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference at Glasgow has been called our “Last best hope” or last chance or some such term by many. If you remember, COP1 (1995) was also called something like that too and come to think of it, also COP2 and COP3 and COP4 and COP5 and…

  • The largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world is China while Russia is the No. 2 gas producer. Both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are not attending COP26 at Glasgow.

  • Coal plants are being replaced by natural gas plants to placate the climate lobby. Both are fossil fuels.

  • Electric cars rely on electricity for their energy. Two-thirds of global electricity is powered by fossil fuels.

  • Rising CO2 levels are actually great news for plants and they have powered the recent agricultural revolution.

  • Fossil fuels power the transportation industry, road making, the agricultural industry, the chemical industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the plastics industry which in turn powers every industry on Earth. There is no such thing as the fossil fuel industry. We are a Fossil Fuel Civilization.

  • One of the interpretations of Chaos Theory is: The flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. It is impossible to predict both the weather and the climate with great accuracy.

  • Global Cooling caught the fancy of the world towards the end of the 1970s before Global Warming was decided upon. Since then the terms Climate Change, Climate Extinction, Climate Emergency are being experimented with.

How many self-made women country heads have been there?

womens-march-2001566_1280I am not counting Dynasties. If first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a son, that person would have become PM too. I am also counting the executive head and not the ceremonial one. Like the President of India is a ceremonial head. So how many “self-made” and non-dynastic women have been elected as heads of states of the world’s largest populations?

1. China = NONE (Empress Dowager Cixi who died in 1908, was the closest to controlling China)

2. India = NONE (Indira Gandhi was a dynast)

3. America = NONE (Kamla Harris could become President if Joe Biden retires on health grounds, but that would be an elevation and not a proper election)

4. Indonesia = NONE (Megawati Sukarnoputri was a dynast)

5. Pakistan = NONE (Benazir Bhutto was a dynast)

6. Brazil = Dilma Rousseff (Highest debut on this list, but interestingly she was impeached)

7. Nigeria = NONE

8. Bangladesh = NONE (Both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina were dynasts)

9. Russia = NONE

10. Mexico = NONE

11.Japan = NONE

12. Ethiopia = NONE

13. Philippines = Corazon Aquino (Her husband was a Senator-Governor, so she did not inherit the post of President from him. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was a dynast.)

14. Egypt = NONE

15. Vietnam = NONE

16. DR Congo = NONE

17. Iran = NONE

18. Turkey = NONE

19. Germany = Angela Merkel (Probably the most powerful in this list considering she ruled for 15+ years)

20. France = NONE (Strange, considering the fact that Europe has had so many women leaders)

If you look at the largest economies, then UK is the best performing with Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.

But overall we really have a very long way to go.

A for, B for, C for…

in the Covid Era…

virus-5209059_1280A for Asymptomatic

B for Blursday

C for Covid

D for Distancing

E for Epidemic

F for Flattening the curve

G for Generation Covid

H for Herd immunity

I for Isolation

J for Jumping the vaccine line

K for Key workers

L for Lockdown

M for Mask

N for New Normal

O for Oxygen

P for Pandemic

Q for Quarantine

R for Remote learning

S for Sanitizer

T for Transmission

U for Unprecedented

V for Variant

W for WFH

X for Xi Jinping

Y for Year 1, 2, 3…

Z for Zoom

When Jeff Bezos became a Neelpati!

diamond-1186139_960_720Growing up in India in the 1980s, Lakhpati was such a big thing (Rs 100,000).

After the Liberalization of 1991, that became common and Crorepati became a thing (Rs 100 lakhs).

Today so many flats (forget bungalows) in every major city are worth a crore each. The Indian middle class is swarming with Crorepatis.

One term that never caught on was Arabpati (Rs 100 crores).

There are so many Arabpatis in India too.

How about Kharabpati? (Rs 100 Arabs or Rs 10,000 crores).

In the current rate of exchange, that’s roughly US$1.33 billion.

So now the terms US$ Billionaire and INR Kharabpati are almost comparable and we could well start using the latter.

India has roughly 100+ Kharabpatis.

Did you know that 100 Kharabs = 1 Neel?

So if someone is worth Rs 10 lakh crore, then he would be a Neelpati.

Is there anyone who is a Neelpati and worth that much?

Going by the above calculations, US$133 billion is enough to be a Neelpati. India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani is heading towards half a Neel.

If it’s anyone who’s already there then it has to be Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world who is worth (depending on the day you are looking) in excess of US$180 billion.

So a Neelpati is worth a 100 Kharabpatis or 10,000 crorepatis, or 1 million Lakhpatis!

How times have changed!