Threads are out. You can use processes, or async/events, or both processes and async/events, but definitely not threads. Threads are out.
-Royan Tomyko
So, let’s imagine how [the September 11th attacks] could have been worse for example. Suppose that on September 11, Al-Qaeda had bombed the White House and killed the President, instituted a murderous, brutal regime which killed maybe 50,000 to 100,000 people and tortured about 700,000, set up a major international terrorist center in Washington, which was overthrowing governments all over the world, and installing brutal vicious neo-Nazi dictatorships, assassinating people. Suppose he called in a bunch of economists, let’s call them the ‘Kandahar Boys’ to run the American economy, who within a couple of years had driven the economy into one of the worst collapses of its history. Suppose this had happened. That would have been worse than 9/11, right?
But it did happen. And it happened on 9/11. That happened on September 11, 1973 in Chile. The only thing you have to change is this per capita equivalence, which is the right way to look at it. Well, did that change the world? Yeah, it did but not from our point of view, in fact, who even knows about it? Incidentally, just to finish, because we [the U.S.] were responsible for that one.
-Noam Chomsky
Hindutva really means, as understood by its advocates, conformity to the idea that India has primarily been a Hindu rashtra. It is not a religious philosophy or a social reform movement. It is a political philosophy based on cultural chauvinism, which insists that the non-Hindus of India accept their place as ‘minorities’, whose safety and security will depend on their ability to earn the ‘goodwill of the majority’. It is not an ideology asking the Hindus to become doctrinaire Hindus; rather it asks the Indian Muslims and Christians not to become doctrinaire Muslims and Christians.
At the heart of the Hindutva ideology is the idea that the good of a majority should also be seen as the good for any minority, and that any assertion of minority rights is essentially a threat and a challenge to the political authority of the majority. Such minorities, therefore, are seen by the Hindutva advocates as anti-national and anti-social. Besides, any attempt by a minority to swell their numbers is seen by the Hindutva votaries as aggression. Hence, conversion to Christianity or a Hindu girl’s marriage to a Muslim or a Christian are seen as undesirable and provocative acts.
There is a major difference, however, between the Islamic fundamentalists in Iran or the erstwhile Afghanistan and the proponents of Hindutva. The Islamic fundamentalists are not concerned with nationality and numbers. They want all Muslims to follow the tenets of Islam as ‘faithfully’ as the fundamentalists insist. The Hindutva ideology is primarily bound to the idea of rashtra and it revolves round the idea of a politically powerful majority. Islamic fundamentalism is theocractic militancy. Hindutva is nationalistic puritanism. The former creates internal repression to stop liberalisation of Islam; the latter creates threats to the surrounding communities and faiths so that those communities and faiths do not assert their own identities. But, despite these differences, both these ideologies share a profound distrust of cultural diversity.
The advocates of Hindutva dream that some day India will become a Hindu rashtra. The tribals who are not Hindus, therefore, need not have much enthusiasm for Hindutva. How is it then that in the riots of March 2002, the tribals fell upon the Muslims with such brutality? The events of March 2002 may indicate that the tribals indeed decided to join the Hindus of Gujarat in avenging the Godhra killings. But before coming to that conclusion it is necessary to remember that the tribals do not show much awareness of the medieval history of India.
-Ganesh Devy
On a global level and with constant value, military expenses have doubled in the last 10 years as if there were no danger at all of any crisis. At this moment, it is the most prosperous industry on the planet. By 2008, approximately $1.5 trillion were invested in defence budgets. The U.S. spends 42 per cent of world expenses in this area — $607
billion — not including war expenses, while the number of people who go hungry in the world has reached the figure of 1 billion.
— Fidel Castro Ruz
It is a no-win for the state[read left front]. If its forces do not arrive, the state will cede territory to Maoists. Or, there will be a bloody battle. Simple folk will die. Others will be made fearful, resentful, angry. And Maoists will leverage this negative energy
-Sudeep Chakravarti
