Cow attacks hit the headlines

From the BBC:

Ram Raj was drinking tea at his home in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on a chilly November evening last year when a stray cow attacked him.

Over the next few minutes, his young grandchildren screamed and watched in horror as the animal mauled him. The 55-year-old farmer died of severe injuries on the way to hospital. "It was a painful death and my mother-in-law has stopped having proper meals ever since," his daughter-in-law, Anita Kumari, said.

Such attacks have become common in India's most populous state, where a ban on cow slaughter has led to a huge rise in the cattle population. So much so that they have become an issue in the state's upcoming elections, which are set to begin on 10 February.

That's what you call unforeseen consequences on an epic scale. But hey, people use and abuse voters' religious beliefs to gain power, and damn the consequences.

Seems fair enough to me.

From the BBC:

Australian citizens returning home from India could face up to five years in jail and fines after the government made the journey temporarily illegal.

The health ministry said the ruling had been made "based on the proportion of people in quarantine who have acquired a Covid-19 infection in India". Earlier this week, Australia banned all flights from India.

...in an emergency situation, the government can make something a criminal offence overnight. At the height of the pandemic last year, the government beefed up its Biosecurity Act to give the health minister near unconditional powers bypassing parliament.

That's why citizens now trying to flee a danger zone can face jail for trying to come home. A legal challenge to this two-week ban will take time and be costly - public outrage and pressure may be the only effective remedy.

As at a year ago, when there was no real expectation of developing vaccines, any government had to choose some balance between the following strategies:

1. Continue as normal, accept that the number of deaths in the next year might double (your chance of dying if you catch covid-19 is approximately equal to the chance of you dying in the next 12 months anyway, and we can assume that within a year, most people would have caught it), ameliorate this as much as possible by temporarily increasing NHS capacity, and hope to achieve 'herd immunity' within a year or so.

2. Shut down the borders and/or have strict quarantine rules for arrivals, and wait for it to all blow over.

3. Impose a lockdown of whatever severity is needed to minimise transmissions and wait for it to all blow over.

If you shut down the borders, then hopefully the internal lockdowns wouldn't need so strict, but Australia ended up having to do both, which has so far superficially worked. Absent a vaccine, this would never have worked long term, it is merely a delaying tactic.

(The UK's response was pretty dumb. Having chickened out of strategy 1 - politically it is OK to do something dumb of every other government is being just as dumb - we left the borders largely open and had to impose correspondingly stricter lockdowns. In terms of deaths-per-million, strain on NHS and economic damage, this was a worse strategy than Australia.)

The Australian government has now decided to close its borders even more tightly, which is fair enough, this is for the benefit of their own citizens and their 'reward' for observing domestic lockdown measures and not going abroad. Flying abroad is tantamount to ignoring the domestic lockdown measures and as a quid pro quo, you can't come back in (to protect those who observed them).

So the bleating about "citizens now trying to flee a danger zone" falls on deaf ears with me, I'm afraid. They went to India voluntarily, so clearly didn't perceive it to be a "danger zone" and if there were no ban on coming back, I'm sure that just as many would be going there today.

Is this racist because it is largely Australian citizens of Indian heritage who are affected? I don't think so. Hopefully, the Australian government would have done the same if a 'white' country had the same high incidence of new variants and infections. (There again, knowing the Australian government, they might not have been quite so draconian with returnees from such a 'white' country).

"Indian Uber driver drugs & kills 14 family members, commits suicide"

From RT:

Indian man has wiped out his entire family, including seven children, before hanging himself. Police sources report that the assailant added a sedative to the meals, so the drugged victims would not wake up during the bloodshed.

Hasnin Anwar Warekar, 35, has brutally murdered 14 of his relatives in the Indian city of Thane, 20 miles from Mumbai, police report. The carnage is believed to have taken place overnight Sunday, when all the residents of a single-story house were asleep after a family party.

Actually he was an accountant, I just changed it to "Uber driver" to sex up the headline.

Those 1200 World Cup Construction Workers Deaths

A rather excellent piece on the Radio 4 website which demonstrates how to not only dig behind the statements (The ITUC were including all workers in Qatar, not just those on the World Cup) but also why it's worth looking at better rather than perfect (Indians in Qatar are less likely to die than Indians in India).

Link

That's neat that's neat that's neat that's neat...

From the BBC:

India's tiger population has grown rapidly with 2,226 tigers recorded in 2014, up from 1,706 in 2011...

There were a spate of tiger attacks in India last year, with at least 20 people killed.

Tigers are beautiful animals and so on, but all these complacent Westerners who constantly bang on about protecting tigers in some faraway country are just latter day imperialists if you ask me.

If I were Indian, I'd have them all shot and then start campaigning for wild boars and wolves to be reintroduced in all countries in Europe, especially in the UK, which has been most successful in wiping them out.

So if you live in the UK and oppose the badger cull, that's fine, but don't start telling people in other countries what to do.

"Standard Life could quit India"

From the BBC:

Standard Life is putting in place contingency plans to relocate its call centres back to the UK if Indian people vote for independence and if material uncertainties about money and regulation are not sorted to its satisfaction.

In its annual report, published on Thursday, the chairman of the Edinburgh-based pensions and savings firm, Gerry Grimstone, says India has been a great base for outsourcing some of the company's administrative functions but that, "if anything were to threaten this, we will take whatever action we consider necessary - including transferring parts of our operations out of India again - in order to ensure continuity and to protect the interests of our stakeholders".

According to Standard Life's chief executive, David Nish, the company - which has had call centres and IT functions in India for 19 years - has "started work to establish additional registered companies to operate outside India, into which we could transfer parts of our operations if necessary".

"This is a precautionary measure to ensure continuity of our businesses' competitive position and to protect the interests of our stakeholders."

Standard Life is the first business with a significant Indian presence to warn that maintaining it may be untenable in the event of a vote for independence.

"What? India has been independent since 1947? Why did nobody tell me? Oh God! Do they still use sterling at least?"

I can think of one possible answer to that..

The BBC asks: Why are India's tigers killing humans?

There are about 1,700 tigers left in the wild in India. In the past five weeks, 17 people in four states have been killed by tigers. Jay Mazoomdaar investigates the reasons behind the current spate of killings…

One possible answer, which the article doesn't mention, is that thanks to do-gooding Westerners, with their fund raising and preservation nonsense, have ensured that there are more tigers (fewer being shot etc).

It makes you ashamed to be a Westerner, it really does. If there were still wild boars and bears on the loose in the British Isles, killing our livestock and dozens of people each year, would we thank the Indians if they put in an all out effort to stop us wiping them out?

Methinks not.

"George Osborne issues 'reform or decline' warning to UK"

From the BBC:

The United Kingdom is falling behind many other European countries, India and China and must reform if it wants to halt the decline, George Osborne has warned.

In a speech the chancellor pointed to the country's spending on welfare-for-the-wealthy and its "competitiveness problem".

"We can't go on like this," he said at a conference organised by two UK-sceptic groups.

It followed the Conservative leadership rejecting a call from 95 of its MPs to allow Parliament to block interest subsidies to banks and the ripping up of planning laws for the benefit of large land-bankers.

Labour said David Cameron's "weakness" regarding his party was preventing reform, while the UK Independence Party said the prime minister had repeatedly "caved in" to horrible young people who wanted more affordable housing.

Earlier this week Home Secretary Theresa May confirmed that the United Kingdom's banking and landowner subsidies would continue to be paid out of taxes levied on all its citizens and other businesses and the Conservative backbench MPs' plan was unworkable.

"There are more people living in this circle than outside it"

The Daily Mail published a load of fascinating maps this week.

My favourite was this one:

Included in the article is another map showing the average age at which people say (whether they are telling the truth or not) they first have sex; the average age is far higher in exactly that very populous region. Cause, effect, who knows?

Musing #2, the Philippines typhoon was a tragedy and 10,000 people died. Using the figures from here, about 6,000 babies are born every day in the Philippines.

Musing #3, a far worse natural town planning disaster was the Boxing Day tsunami which killed/drowned about 200,000 people in Indonesia. According to the UN, about 12,000 babies are born every day in Indonesia, which means that the population would have replenished itself within two or three weeks.

"India launches British taxpayers' money to Mars"

From the BBC:

India has successfully launched £1 billion of British taxpayer's money towards the Red Planet - with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to use UK funding to reach Mars.

The Mars Orbiter Mission took off at 09:08 GMT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the country's east coast.

The head of India's space agency told the BBC the mission would demonstrate the technological capability to spend aid payments from Great Britain on reaching Mars orbit and to carry out experiments to test the limits of the former colonial master's patience.

The spacecraft is set to burn UK taxpayers' money for 300 days, reaching Mars orbit in 2014.

Citizen's income in practice

From Le Monde Diplomatique, via Moneyweek, we get a report of a practical demonstration of the benefits of a basic, un-means-tested income for everyone:

A new pilot study at Panthbadodiya could significantly change living conditions for the poor, and India’s approach to fighting poverty. The village is taking part in the Madhya Pradesh Unconditional Cash Transfer Initiative, a project run by the Self Employed Women’s Association (Sewa; a trade union that has defended the rights of women with low incomes in India for 40 years), with subsidies from Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) India.

The research director, Sarath Dewala, explained: “The experiment involves giving individuals a small sum of money, at regular intervals, as a supplement to all other forms of income, and observing what happens to their families if this sum is given unconditionally.”

There were no conditions regarding wages, employment, caste, gender or age, and the recipients could use the money as they saw fit. Besides social security benefits, adults received 200 rupees ($3.65) a month, and mothers were given 100 rupees for each child. Four of the villages had had help from Sewa for some years, with the organisation of support groups, savings cooperatives, bank loans, training in financial management and support during visits to local officials. Twelve non-participant villages served as controls for comparative study.

The idea of giving money to the poor without asking for anything in return startled some. “They told us the men would use the money to get drunk, and the women to buy jewellery and saris,” said Dewala. “But it’s a middle-class prejudice that the poor don’t know how to use money sensibly. The study showed that a regular income allows people to act responsibly. They know their priorities.

Studies at the beginning, mid-point and end of the project confirmed that, in villages receiving payments, people spent more on eggs, meat and fish, and on healthcare. Children’s school marks improved in 68% of families, and the time they spent at school nearly tripled. Saving also tripled, and twice as many people were able to start a new business.

Well, that's one prejudice disproved. Now we have to get over the "Giving money to the undeserving" one.

Training Camp

Spotted by Chuckles at blameitonthevoices:

Excellent choice of words

From the BBC:

This video is designed to market a vaginal "rejuvenation and tightening" product, which was launched this month in India.

The makers of 18 Again, the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Ultratech, say it is the first of its kind in India (similar creams are already available in other parts of the world such as the USA), and fills a gap in the market.

Every cloud, silver lining etc.

From The Metro:

India's power crisis deepened today after three major grids in the north of the country failed, leaving 600million people without electricity in what is thought to be the world's biggest blackout...

However, hundreds of millions of people may still be unaffected by the power collapse, with last year's Indian census revealing one-third of households do not have the electricity to power a light bulb.

Britain hits its third world aid targets...

... which appear to be somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

Health Scare Story Du Jour

There's a good one in today's Metro:

The 358-year-old Taj Mahal will collapse in less than five years unless the Indian government acts to prevent a growing environmental catastrophe, campaigners have warned.

The historic mausoleum’s foundations are rotting because they have dried out, a group of historians, environmentalists and politicians claimed. The tomb, one of the architectural wonders of the world, is built on a foundation of mahogany posts sunk into wells fed by the Yamuna river. But the river, in Agra, northern India, is running dry as a result of pollution, industry and deforestation – meaning the foundations have become brittle and are disintegrating...

Can this be true or are they 'talking rot'? I always thought that damp was bad for timber, so while it's bad for soil itself to become wetter (or drier), becoming either softer (or shrinking), both of which are bad for buildings, does their argument make sense? And if it does make sense, 'wood' it not be enough just to pump a bit of water into the wells?

UPDATE: Panic over: Experts deny Taj Mahal 'collapse' claims

"India's holy cows turn violent"

Spotted by JuliaM in The Telegraph:

India's holy cows are turning out to be vengeful deities, according to new figures showing the number of bovine attacks is on the increase.

New figures show seventeen cases of attacks on people in the first half of this year – more than the total number of bites since 2004. Animal rights groups blamed a sharp increase in the number of people bitten by cows and buffaloes in the capital New Delhi on a surge in building projects which have blocked their traditional grazing routes and left the creatures bewildered and panicked.

Campaigners said many of the cows and buffaloes wandering Delhi's roads are owned and neglected by illegal dairies who are concerned only about their milk production. Vasanti Kumar, of Stray Relief and Animal Welfare (STRAW) said the situation had been created by the failure of local officials to keep cattle off the streets, and by a reverential public which feeds them...

I had assumed that the violence of European cattle may be down to them wanting to get their revenge on us for slaughtering millions of them year and turning them into steaks, which is fair enough, so what excuse do the Indian cattle use? They get worshipped like, er, gods. Is their excuse radical NIMBYism?

Heck knows what the story behind this is

The War On Humans/Animals* Daily Update

* Delete according to whether you are animal or human.

From the BBC:

Two wild elephants have gone on a rampage in southern India, killing at least one person, officials say. The elephants left a trail of destruction in a suburb of the city of Mysore, in the state of Karnataka.

Officials say the animals walked into the city from a nearby forest, leaving residents running for their lives. Officials say that one elephant barged into a women's college compound and wandered the grounds, while the other wreaked havoc in a residential area.

Spotter's Badge: Ross

From The Register:

An Adelaide-based entrepreneur has hit upon a novel method of fighting global warming: he intends to exterminate Australia's vast population of feral camels by means of gunfire from helicopters and jeeps, so preventing the beasts from unleashing a deadly planet-wrecking miasma of greenhouse gas from their rumbling guts.

The idea is that the War On Dromedaries would be paid for – and indeed, turn a profit – by selling government carbon credits issued on the basis that a dead camel cannot be emitting methane by means of belch or trouser cough. Methane is a vastly more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, so the elimination of even quite small sources of it can equate to a substantial carbon-emissions reduction.

According to the FT, a camel's annual farts contribute as much to global warming as one ton of CO2, for comparison, a car doing 12,427 miles a year emits about four tons of C02, and "All “removals” will be humane, the company says, with shooting done by “animal welfare trained and accredited marksmen”."

Spotter's Badge: View From The Solent

Indian curry chef joke

He slipped in the kitchen and knocked himself unconscious. He's still in a deep kurma.