At the time of the Partition of India 70 years ago this year, there were more than 500 Princely States. These were states nominally ruled by Indian Princes but ultimately under the control of the British colonial powers. Many of these princes - male and female members of the Royal Family - had kingdoms dating back to the 8th and 9th Centuries. But after the British curbed their powers, was their role largely ceremonial or did they have a deeper impact on the Indian people? And how did these Princes survive after Partition? Joining Rajan Datar is the writer and historian William Dalrymple, the director of the King's College London India institute Sunil Khilnani, and the Indian social scientist Nikita Sud from Oxford University.
13 August 2017
Haaretz: 'The King Is Not God, He Is Sometimes Wrong': Six Years Late, the Arab Spring Rattles Morocco
Similar to Tunisia and Egypt, where the spark of revolution exploded because of the deaths of two young people, Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia and Khaled Mohamed Saeed in Egypt, Morocco, which avoided a revolution, is now seething. Since October, when parliamentary elections were held, Morocco has not been quiet. [...]
Social networks, as usual, were the first to get the political struggle going. Demonstrations spread to other cities, and in this usually calm country the military arrested hundreds of protesters. Meanwhile, journalists were prohibited from covering the events, and any reporters who attended the protests were arrested and sometimes beaten. Last month, as the protests grew stronger, someone was seriously injured during a protest and died this week. [...]
The residents of the Rif, most of whom are Berbers, have seen major improvements in their cultural rights during the king’s rule, but they’re still discriminated against economically, and the king’s speech was a disappointment for them. Not only were the inspectors responsible for Fikri’s death sentenced to prison terms of only a few months, the development promises were left empty. The government allotted 650 million euros to the region, but after the king ordered a look into why the funds had not been used, the people realized that the severe bureaucratic corruption they knew so well was still plaguing them. [...]
In any case, the government is now divided into two factions: one that supports a suppression of the uprising, the other in favor of dialogue with the demonstrators, who have increased their demands and want to negotiate directly with the king, not with the new prime minister, Saadeddine Othmani. [...]
The shock waves hitting Morocco worry not only the king, but also other Middle Eastern countries – and especially those that have skirted the Arab Spring like the Gulf states. Six years ago, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar all financed Mohammed in a bid to prevent the revolutions from spreading to Morocco. The king then instituted constitutional reforms including a reduction of his powers; he also lifted his authority to dissolve parliament and gave more power to the government.
America Magazine: When the K.K.K. came to town, Catholics prayed. Now what?
The K.K.K.’s visit to my city is the latest in a series of reactions to the efforts by the City of Charlottesville to critically examine its history of racism and slavery and the legacy of memorials in its public spaces. In April, the City Council in Charlottesville voted (3-2) to remove a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee and unanimously agreed to change the name of Lee Park to Emancipation Park. Jackson Park in Charlottesville (named after Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general) was renamed Justice Park. Though greeted with applause among many sectors of the community, retaliation against the city’s efforts has also been swift and fierce. Since then, Charlottesville has become a flashpoint for a variety of contentious national debates: how cities will deal with their tormented racial legacies; the appropriateness of Confederate symbols in public; questions of identity, the safety of minority communities, free speech and public protest. [...]
On July 8, about 50 members of the Loyal White Knights, a newer chapter of the Ku Klux Klan based in Pelham, N.C., held a rally in Justice Park. Their rally was met by an estimated 1,000-person counterprotest with representation from Black Lives Matter, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Solidarity CVille and the Charlottesville Clergy Collective. The Klan members carried Confederate flags and signs with anti-Semitic messages and engaged in a collective Nazi-style salute during the 45-minute rally. The chilling ritual concluded when they were escorted away by heavily armed police officers. A member of their group reported that they would retreat to private land for a cookout and a cross burning. [...]
On July 6, I received an email invitation from a local parish: “HOLY HOUR FOR PEACE AND THE END OF HATRED AND RACISM.” We would pray the rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in anticipation of the K.K.K.’s rally. Frankly, I was surprised to receive an invitation of this nature from this particular parish. Like many Catholic parishes in the United States, this one almost never discusses race or racism in explicit terms, even as the body count of unarmed black men and women killed at the hands of police officers continues to climb. I quickly rearranged my schedule to be present with others for this prayer. [...]
Still, I wonder why I have never heard racism denounced in such clarion terms from a parish before. Will I hear it denounced so clearly again? Does the Catholic Church in the United States have the courage to stand up to racism before the K.K.K. comes to town? Or after the K.K.K. leaves town? Will our parishes stand in solidarity with those involved in nonviolent direct action in response to racial hatred?
Politico: Angela Merkel keeps her cool in campaign kickoff
But anybody expecting a rousing entry into the ring will be disappointed. Buoyed by consistently strong polling, Merkel’s pitch to voters is simple: Things are going quite well, and I will make sure it stays that way. [...]
“Through gradual steps, sound decisions, sometimes difficult decisions … we have created a framework in which people can once again seize opportunities,” Merkel said, referring to the decline in unemployment since its peak near the beginning of her first term in the mid-2000s. She also reiterated her party’s pledge to reach full employment by 2025, which would entail reducing unemployment by roughly 2.5 percentage points.
Merkel also pledged to embrace technological innovation while protecting those most vulnerable in an increasingly automated and digitized economy. She rejected accusations, levied by her Social Democratic challenger Martin Schulz, that her government was not using overflowing state coffers to sufficiently invest in infrastructure and education.
The latest polling puts Merkel’s conservatives at 40 percent, 16 points ahead of Schulz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior government partner during two of Merkel’s three terms as chancellor, including over the past four years. Over the next six weeks, the campaign will take her to 50 German cities — from Passau on the southern border with Austria to the northern seaside town of Cuxhaven, before she finishes off in Munich two days before the September 24 election.
The Conversation: What happens in the womb affects our health as adults, but girls and boys respond differently
A recent Finnish study examined how maternal smoking affected children’s mental health at ages 25 to 27. It found adult men whose mothers smoked during pregnancy had worse problem-solving skills and vocabulary than men not exposed to maternal smoking. But no negative effects were seen in the female children of mothers who smoked. [...]
Many other studies show how different sexes may respond differently to adverse exposures during pregnancy. These studies are difficult to explore in humans due to the number and range of adverse exposures one accumulates after birth. So they only offer associations between the two events, rather than evidence one caused the other. [...]
Sex differences in response to adverse exposures during pregnancy may be mediated by the placenta. The placenta connects the developing fetus to the mother’s uterus, ensuring the baby receives the nutrients it needs. It also takes care of waste, gases and hormone production. The placenta actually has the same DNA sequence as the baby, not the mother. [...]
A possible reason for these sex differences may hark back to our evolutionary past when relatively few males survived to adulthood and reproduced. Those who did tended to be the biggest and strongest and most able to compete to pass on their genes to the next generation. Females, on the other hand, were more likely to survive to adulthood because that level of competition wasn’t there, and the vast majority would reproduce.
Al Jazeera: Libya mired in 'culture of impunity'
Ahmed el-Gasir: The culture of impunity prevalent in Libya is a result of the inability of judicial and law enforcement authorities to function in the country. Perpetrators of grave violations, such as extrajudicial killings and torture, document their crimes, videos and photos, and broadcast them without fearing accountability.
Since Gaddafi's regime ended, apart from the trials of ex-regime members and associates, there were no trials carried out for any of the serious crimes committed by any party.
The inability and failure of these authorities to operate is mainly caused by the spread of weapons, the presence of hundreds of militias and political chaos in Libya, with several entities claiming "legitimacy". [...]
Gasir: "Operation Dignity" has adversely affected the social fabric of Libyan society. The tactics employed by Gaddafi in 2011 created certain divisions between towns or tribes, but they do not compare to what Haftar has done.
Hate speech and incitement of violence divided not only towns or tribes, but also neighbourhoods and even families. The level of violence and disregard to the sanctity of human life and value of human dignity is unprecedented in Libyan society.
CityLab: Green Roofs Are Saving Birds and Hatching Bird-Watchers
However, when ecology and engineering unite, city roofs can become bird-roosting and bird-watching havens. Take New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. New York City Audubon once ranked this I. M. Pei-designed fusion of glass and steel among the top three bird-killing buildings in the area. But since its 2009 renovation by FXFOWLE Architects, retrofitted low-reflectivity glass has reduced collisions by 90 percent. The new windows feature dot patterns visible to birds from the air, and a 6.75-acre green roof tops off the overhaul, ensuring that it not only kills fewer passing birds, but also feeds and shelters growing numbers.
“Having a building with a green roof on it, you're creating another layer where birds can interact with grass,” says Susan Elbin, director of conservation and science at NYC Audubon. The organization collaborated with Fordham University in 2014 to study wildlife at the Javits Center, counting 11 bird species utilizing the roof, including herring gulls that had started a colony, a first occurrence in New York. The following year, researchers found 17 bird species on the roof. [...]
“One of the things that I teach and preach is for people to get on roofs all over the world,” Lindo says. “It's my life's mission to engage with people who may not have thought of birds and wildlife before.”
IFLScience: Chimps Could Beat A Human Child At Rock-Paper-Scissors
A team of Japanese and Chinese scientists has shown chimpanzees are capable of learning the rules of the game rock-paper-scissors, meaning they can grasp circular relationships and recognize extended patterns. The chimps weren’t simply just throwing random hand signals back at their opponent, either. By the end of their training, they were playing at the same level of skill as a 4-year-old human. [...]
The chimpanzees sat in a booth with a touchscreen and were shown two hand signals on the screen. Their task was to guess which hand signal was stronger based on the rules of the game. If they were correct, they would be rewarded with a piece of apple and a chime sound. If wrong, only a buzzer would sound.
After an average of 307 teaching sessions, five of the seven chimpanzees were able to guess the correct option over 90 percent of the time, although two of the chimps couldn't quite get the hang of it. While all the rules stayed the same (scissors beats paper, rock beats scissor, paper beats rock), they were taught to indicate the different symbols using hand positions different to the human game. [...]
The research team also taught the game to 38 preschool children, ranging in ages three to six, to compare the learning process of chimpanzees with that of humans. The kids learned the game within just five sessions, considerably faster than the chimps. However, while the older children could master the game fairly easily, the 4-year-old kids were about as good at performing the task as the chimps.
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