How Europe is Indebted to the Sikhs? by Bhupinder Singh Holland

Friday, July 29, 2011

This book is mainly about two things. The Battle of Ieper (Ypres Salient) in WWI and the celebration of Sikhs Martyrs of WWI in Ieper (Ypres) in November 2002.

It is an interesting piece of European History. There were an incredible number of nationalist in the Armies of Britain and France. More than 30 nationalists were represented in the Ypres Salient in the troops that fought there. The British and French had colonies and their armies reflected this fact.

The French army had Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Senegalesians and other West Africans. They also had troops from French Guyana and laborers from Indochina, the Ammanites.

In the British army, first there were the Dominion’s of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The British Indian army would have troops from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Nepal. Other parts of the British Empire sent troops and laborers. These places would include such places as Egypt, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and the Fiji Island. When you think of the Great War, you think about Europeans fighting, but this is simply not true.

The book gives whole chapters towards talking about the Sikhs. It talks about hair, beards and moustaches. It also talks a bit about the philosophy of the Sikhs.

I think that this book might be of great interest in Sikhs tracing their families (i.e. Genealogy). This book has chapters listing the Sikh dead of WWI in both Belgium and France.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Directly below is a picture of the book. A picture of this book is not available on Amazon.

Common Wealth by Jeffrey Sachs

Friday, June 03, 2011

Jeffrey Sachs has a web site at Columbia. For a partial review of this book, see Marginal Revolution and review by Tyler Cowen. Also, see this book in 79 slides at slideshare.net. And, to get a more complete book review, check out Guardian.

For a lecture by Jeffrey Sachs, see YouTube item under Authors@Google.

Jeffrey Sachs is a rich socialist. I guess he says some interesting things. He talks how well the Nordic socialist states are doing. He sort of thinks other states can copy, but I wonder. I think the main reason that socialism works in the Nordic state is lack of corruption. I think that this is cultural and I doubt if other states can do this. It is not just that the Nordic states have ethnic homogeneity. France has this too and it is far more corrupt.

I first time I really realized the difference between England and France as far as corruption goes was with the Profumo Affair. This happen in 1963, so it was a long time ago; but I was young and not conscience really about such things as corruption. In this affair, the UK Secretary of State for War had an affair with reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy. Being Canadian, I was horrified, as seemed the UK public. However, the French just seem to shrug their shoulders and say, “it happens”.

I also do not think that we humans do things until we are really forced to. In Canada, we still have the problem that the poor go to poor schools. It is just not the problem of money. It is the problem of having the will to change things.

I do not think he really has solutions for changing our world. The poor in lots of places are getting richer and living better probably not because of rich western socialists, but probably in spite of them. Well, at least he is thinking about things. I, in fact, have faith in mankind. I think that we will figure things out and with the poor getting richer, we will have a bright future.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

The Smart Swarm by Peter Miller

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

This is a really delightful and informative book. It is all about how insects and birds act in groups and how these groups get things done.

A single ant or bee isn't smart, but their colonies are. There is a study on Swarm Intelligence. See Wikipedia entry at Swarm Intelligence. What they are looking at is collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems. It is being applied to the development of robots. When applied to robots 'swarm intelligence' refers to the more general set of algorithms used to control robots. There is another good article on this at Carleton on this subject.

The monstrous Orcs in The Lord of the Rings coordinated their movements as a marauding army by following simple rules of interaction. These rules were developed by the study of a flock of starlings. If you saw this movie you would see how complex action was delivered from very simple rules. The rules were:

• Stay close to other Orcs
• Don't bump into other Orcs
• Head in the same direction as the Orc throng
• If you run into any humans - cut them in half with your sword"

The Father of Us All by Victor Davis Hanson

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The full title is The Father of Us All – War and History – Ancient and Modern. This book is a series of essays that Victor Hanson wrote on war. He has an entry in Wikipedia. There is a review of sorts on this book at PRODOS Film Study Group.

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Sanford University and a professor of classics emeritus at California State University, Fresno. His web site is at Victor Hanson.com and at VDH’s Private Papers.

He talks how the Greeks had rules for war, they had truces and they had plays on the insanity of war, but still they went on fighting with each other. Thucydides says that wars were fought for reasons of honour, self-interest, fear, anger and pride. Others have said we fight over ideas, perceptions, fear, honour and grievances. Today, we want to give different reasons for war. However, if we were really honest with ourselves I think we would come to the same conclusions that wars today are fought for the same sort of reasons.

There are a lot of people today that think that war has changed. It has appeared to change because we fight differently. However, there is no good evidence that people had changed at all. We like to think that we are more peace loving. We have lots of people pushing conflict resolution. But have we really changed? Are humans today really different?

The Greeks felt that some wars were good and some were bad. For example, the Persian wars were good because the Greeks were fighting for their freedom. The Peloponnesian war was bad because Greeks were fighting Greeks. Today we tend to think that all wars are bad, but is this right?

There is an hour video on YouTube called Conversations with History. This is an interview with See Victor Hanson. There is also a video with Victor Hanson talking about this book. See Book TV for a short version. For a long version at Book TV.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

The Rise and Fall of Communism by Archie Brown

Sunday, March 27, 2011

The way communism was to work was people received what they needed and contributed what they could. Problem with this is that it does not work. Why would you work when you saw that others did not, but got the same things as you did? I remember one Russian worker at the fall of communism say, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us”. See an entry on Wikipedia on Russian Jokes.

Our North American Indians practiced such a policy of people contributing what they can and getting back what they need. However, these were small groups of people and they deeply depended on each other to survive. If not everyone contributed then the group would not survive. They also need to take care of members of the group so the group would survive.

Brown starts off with philosophical beginnings of the communist creed and traces communism to its down fall. I think that it fell because not everyone wants the same thing. That seemed to be the philosophy of communism that everyone got the same things. Of course, this is not what really happened; the leaders and the elite lived much better than the masses. A lot of people wanted to escape. This seemed to be the reason for the downfall of communism.

There were lots of good reasons people had to try and improve the lot of the common man. Karl Marx said a lot of interesting things. I think in the west that we ignore a lot of the stuff he said to our philosophical detriment. He was thinking of a better future of the lot of the common man. He was wrong in how to better the lot of the common man, but that does not take away the fact that he said interesting things and was a great thinker. There is a biography on Karl Max on Wikipedia. There is another great article on him at The History Guide under Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History.

For a good book review, see The Telegraph. You can see part of a lecture by Archie Brown about this book on Book TV and another short interview at YouTube. There is a lot of interesting videos on YouTube about the fall of communism. See YouTube. This is about the Fall of Communism – 1991 giving news as it happens. There are 6 parts to this newscast. Also, there is a YouTube documentary on the Soviet loss of control over Eastern Europe. See YouTube. There is also a documentary on the Ceausescu execution in 1989 on YouTube.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, with Sharon Lechter

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

The full title of this book is Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the rich teach their kids about money – that the poor and middle class do not. Also, Sharon L. Lechter was involved in writing this book.

This is the second time I have read this book. It is quite interesting. Although, I have not bought and sold real estate to make money, I have spent time building up the assets side of my balance sheet. The other thing I like about this book is when he talks about a house being a liability not an asset. I do believe this. There are good reasons to buy a house, but buying it and considering it an asset is not a good idea. Houses costs lots of money and are a cash drain.

I have not always paid myself first as this book suggests (and other people do to). Live has it ups and downs and this is not always possible. During my working life, I worked for a company that was bought out (and I lost my job) and company that went bankrupt (and I lost my job). I have also worked for companies that downsized and most of the time I was ok, but it was touch and go for a while. I also had my husband die and leave me with a small child to look after. At the worst of times, I may not have saved money, but I always did my best to live within my means.

The other thing I liked about this book was Robert talking about risk. He says you do not avoid it, what you do is manage it. I was never terrified of losing money in an investment. I did that, but I was always somewhat cautious and never lost a lot on one investment.

Another thing I like about Robert’s book is that he says you should work to learn, not work for money. Money can only motivate you so far. In my working life, I took on new jobs because I thought I would learn from the experience and I did. I never regretted this. Although, I must admit that sometimes it was scary to take on a job that had not previously existed, there were benefits. The main benefit being is that you can write you own job description.

There is an interview, in 5 parts, of Robert Kiyosaki interviewed by Philippe Matthews. See Interview Part 1 , Interview Part 2 and Interview Part 3 . Once you start with the first interview on youtube, the others should show in the right side bar.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

The Next Decade by George Friedman

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

This is an absolutely fascinating book. I know a lot about history and I think that this helps to understand some of the issues this author brings up.

If you want to get a good idea of what the future world might look like, this is a very good place to begin to look at the issues. However, this book is very much written from an American viewpoint. It is also written from an old British idea of the best sort of world for the British Empire is a world were the countries in each area have a balance of power. Of course, the way George Friedman writes is that this is the best idea also for the American Empire. That is it is best that the countries in each area have a balance of power.

Let’s face it, China will rise and be a force to be reckon with in the future, I by no means feel that America is doomed in any way. China (and India) produced a large part of the world’s GDP until quite recently. It is not surprising that both these countries would rise up again. However, I think that what the Americans have going for them is the ability to change and innovate.

For a good review of this book, see SFGate. There is another excellent review at Word Press. Also, see an interview on YouTube.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

Why The West Rules - For Now by Ian Morris

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The full name of the book is Why The West Rules - For Now, The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future. If you want a great book that clearly explains social development of the West and the East. This is the book to get. As a study of the past, it is absolutely great. However, when Ian Morris tries to look into the future, his writing falls completely apart as he does such a poor job of it.

What Morris calls the West is the Middle East and Europe. What he calls the East is China. The West started to develop around 12,000 BCE, but then it was interrupted by the Younger Drayas. This is because the world got very cold. The theory is that the North American current got shut down because of an influx of fresh water came from the Great Lakes Area of Canada into what is now the St. Lawrence River. The theory states that this water had been held back by ice that suddenly broke. After 10,000 BCE, the West started to develop again.

Why did development start in the West? The main reason is that cereals come from wild grasses. And, there are 56 possible wild grasses, of which 32 grew in the wild in S.W. Asia and the Mediterranean basin. (Cereals are things like wheat, corn, barley, rice, sorghum etc.) Looking at the rest of the world, East Asia had 6, Central America 5, Africa, south of the Sahara 4, North America 2 and Western Europe 2 of these grasses.

The next item is the number of animals that could be domesticated. There are 14 animals that man has domesticated. Of these animals, 7 came from the Middle East and some of these are the most common ones of sheep, goat, cow and pig. East Asia had 5, South America had 1 and North America, Australia, and Africa had none.

So, the West got started in developing around 10,000 BCE and China around 8,000 BCE. The West had the lead until the Roman Empire fell around 550 CE. Then China lead in social development until around 1750 when it was over taken by North Western Europe. (Although I know, some people think that China started to decline before 1750 and because of this North Western Europe was ahead before this time.)

There other interesting thing is social development in the West. Except for the Roman Empire time, the most socially developed area was the Middle East until around 1400. It is around 1400 that the Europe started to develop ahead of the Middle East. By 1900, social development was advancing not only in North West Europe, but also on the North East coast of North America. By the year 2000, America had pulled ahead of the rest of the world.

If you want to know what is meant by social development, this book will explain it in detail. He gives his web site where he explains social development even further. See Ian Morris. See the biography of Ian Morris. See an interview video with Ian Morris. For a book review, see McClelland site.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

On God by Norman Mailer

Monday, February 28, 2011

In my youth, I read books by Mailer, but I have not read anything by him recently, until I came across this one. He has been criticized for not having a complete philosophy, but I would have to tell you, neither do I. This is the only “God: book I have read. The others do not appeal to me. I have flipped through others, but I must say, I like Norman Mailer. I like reading people who have interesting things to say. I like people who get you thinking about things.

I am not a religious person and I do not go to church or pray on a regular basis. But, who has not prayed when troubles are piling upon them? I am not an atheist; I do not think I am agnostic. However, beyond that, it gets pretty unclear. What I do know is that I have relatives in the US Bible belt and they are very nice people. They are also more tolerant of other people ideas and believes that either Christopher Higgins or Richard Dawkins.

Norman Mailer is always interesting to read. So, if you want to read a book on God that it interesting and thought provoking, this would be a good choice.

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

The Alps by Andrew Beattie

Saturday, February 26, 2011

I was looking for a history of Switzerland and found this book. My mother’s family was English and there are an incredible number of books on English history and on England. My father’s family is Swiss and books on Switzerland, I find, are few and far between.

This book is divided into four sections of Landscape, History, Imagination, Visitors. The thing that struck me about this book was the Visitors section. Mostly the “visitors” were British and most were from the 19th and 20th century. The British visitors certainly thought very little of the Swiss. They mostly loved to go to Switzerland because the fine scenery and part of the “scenery” was the Swiss who were looked upon as rubes or country bumpkins.

This book talks a bit about history. However, it is the History of the Alps, rather than just about Switzerland that I wanted. However, what I was particularly looking for was the development of Switzerland as a democratic nation. I figured that democracy must be bred into me with an English mother and a Swiss father. I do know how democracy got going in England, but this book is silent on what I would have thought to be a very important subject.

I do know that my family left Switzerland in the late 1800’s because financial difficulties and want to start a new life in Canada. They were also part of a small protestant group called Evangelical Association. Although, I must admit that some members of the family, especially, a son from my Grand grandfather’s first wife said they were Lutheran.

It is interesting that when Beattie has a very short section on actual history, he spends time on talking about William Tell. You might remember the main part of the story when Tell shoots an apple off the head of his son. The whole point to this section to tell us why it is all a fiction and this episode never happened.

All the sites that talk about this book give the same blurb. “The Alps are Europe's highest mountain range: their broad arc stretches right across the center of the continent, encompassing a wide range of traditions and cultures. Andrew Beattie explores the turbulent past and vibrant present of this landscape, where early pioneers of tourism, mountaineering, and scientific research, along with the enduring legacies of historical regimes from the Romans to the Nazis, have all left their mark.”

If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.