Habitat for Humanity
London Olympic has shown in no uncertain terms that China’s progress is not only confined to its rising economy, the nation has made giant stride in sport, too. Barring the scandal involving its badminton team throwing matches, Team China’s performance is incredible.
Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause… says Mahatma Gandhi.
Even as investigators are working to determine Wade Page’s motive for the August 5 shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, what is cause for serious concern is that a great deal of intolerance and hatred for a specific race is growing at an alarming rate in the US.
I have been reading articles over the past week following India’s biggest power failure on July 30 and 31. Some 600 million people were left without power after parts of the country’s massive electricity grid collapsed. Most analyses have attributed this large-scale grid failure to mismatch in power need and availability. Some hinted that the situation had been made worse this year by a drier monsoon season, which prompted northern states’ farmers to run pumps and draw more power than usual. Some analysts say India has poor energy infrastructure etc. Maybe it’ll take months to find out the root cause of failure.
Ninety Singaporean students have been offered scholarships which were aimed at drawing young talents to various sectors of the economy. Called the Singapore-Industry scholarship, 90 awards have been given as part of the government’s plan to build a strong core of talent in the private sector. As many as 27 private sector companies and statutory board partnered with the government.
Prof Liu Jian, a senior professor at the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), is a strong votary of Sino-Indian ties. He has translated Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s Argumentative Indian into Chinese. He says India and China have century-old ties and he feels the two countries are capable of playing a key role to ensure global peace. The professor took time off his frightfully busy schedule and answered the following questions. His understanding is critical at a time when two Asian neighbors are poised to enter a significant phase in international politics, as the South China Sea becomes a sea of contention and the Asean group finds it hard to reach a consensus.
Few know that there’s a daily in Sanskrit language and that too has been coming out over the past 41 years from Mysore in south India. At a time when a language, whose use declined in political and literary circuits since 12th or the 13th century, bringing out an edition in Sanskrit deserves thunderous applause.
My trip to Beijing in April is memorable not only because it was my first encounter with the mighty mainland and the country’s mind-boggling progress, but also because I had the taste of a Chinese scholar’s humanism. During my two week’s stay, I had the opportunity to meet two great scholars: Prof Liu Jian and Prof Dong Youchen.
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