The Economist

I have been reading back issues of the Economist. They do write about Manipur and the north east from time to time about eight or nine solid articles over the last few years. India it says has a remarkable ability to maintain long term low intensity civil wars without causing outrage or dissent in the majority general population.

What I had heard is the ruling classes of Manipur otherwise termed the Upper Middle Classes, these people must be embarrassed by the use of Caste titles, presumably because the rich wish to be considered Western approve of Government policy have made their money through it and don't really like my gel. One woman commented ah well she is only on hunger strike over the shooting of a so called boyfriend but kudos to her. Small college in the north west studying liberal arts where she gets to study with other rich kids and then return home to do occasional work for charity possibly in Goa, where she won't get hassled and can aslo enjoy the beach life. She had been rebutted by another suggesting she need not be suaded by hearsay and perhaps to get an education rather than a lifestyle choice in america (though that's more my summation of the undertext) he suggested her comments were a little callous.

And good news they have managed to reduce HIV from 6% to 1.6% over the last several years. The Government policy of subjugation the Economist believes will be successful it just takes a very long time and the Indian Government believe they have as much time as they want. HIV stats can be dropped by a mixture of preventative education which tends to mean use a condom stupid. And if you take anti-viral reducing the bad stuff in your blood (hey googol it if you like science) you tend not to infect others unless you contract another untreated STD. With antivirals one pill a day now HIV is a controllable disease more like Syphillis.

Apparently american protestant missionaries do get visas to practise in the North East, they have the hill tribes she is from the valley and they bring in millions of dollars each year. Perhaps those are the foreigners seen in the hills. Someone said oh we just stop journalists if you aren't a journalist you can get a permit to visit Manipur, and didn't even blush, though they like the title biggest democracy in the world. I am certain if China becomes democratic they will become totalitarian because all they want is the title biggest they don't really care at what.

They because I am not that kind of Indian.

And a lovely article on the Sangai dancing deer, now that is how to write magickorealist journalism. It mentions the reason the deer were thought extinct was the damming of the lake Loktak. It's waters used to rise and fall annually so the grassland which floats at high water used to sink to the earth reroot gain strength at low water and then rise again. It's called a homestatic balance, a life cycle, Disney understands it. So the Indian Government who advises these ok they are only deer the guy says in committee, they are deer who are you someone from the Disney corporation. If we build the dam we can produce umpteen gigowatts and loads of money. Ok the land will rot the deer will die, but we solve the energy crisis. The alternative is build loads of nuclear power stations but I know what you gonna say about that. So if the fluffy bunny objections have been dealt with.

The deer developed their dancing gait because they prance about on this soil that is stable-ish because of its annual rise and fall. They were thought extinct. When half a dozen were discovered on a small island in Loktak it was made a national park they are now at 100. But after the dam the land is rotting, and there are still continual powercuts, the energy is funnelled into the national grid to support the now 8.25% GDP annual growth. There was a plan once to shut down the dam for a month a year to allow the cycle to return, but now it's too late. Hey and it's like the story of the emerald forest but without the shamans claiming they can be invisible. There was a short piece on the local shamanesses. Marup something he called it. And so the article ended with yep you could put the deer in zoos and they would survive but then they wouldn't be Sangai, they wouldn't be wild.

Tell you what we could take some red deer from the new forest who know how to walk on solid ground would that sort the disney fluffy bunny crowd. I really don't understand how when you put all those clever people in a room together they end up doing incredibly stupid things but if you leave really stupid people to do their thing in the fields for centuries they don't seem to do much harm at all.