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Strongman Modi Crimean chill |
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The press in the
Punjab
China's rising
defence budget
Avoiding
logical fallacies
CINEMA:
NEW Releases
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Crimean chill Vladimir
Putin's lightning strikes and deft moves have delivered Crimea to him, even as the West has collectively made some ineffectual moves by imposing sanctions against certain officials. In his address to Russian Parliament, President Putin echoed the feelings of many of his compatriots when he said: "Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia." However, the manner in which he went about his objective has resulted in a sense of disquiet among many international observers. Putin is presiding over a resurgent country. Russia has become wealthy since the dark days of the collapse of the Soviet Union that left most of its erstwhile states in dire economic straits. Russia has been helped in no small measure by the rise in its petrochemical and gas production, which gives it about 60 per cent of its annual budget. Europe's dependence on the gas imported from Russia has had an impact on its response to the situation in Ukraine and Crimea. The US has not been able to act in an effective manner, and India and China have preferred not to interfere. President Putin may have achieved a military triumph in Crimea, but he has lost a battle in international diplomacy. The Russian response is far from a victory of order and legitimacy that it is projected as. Indeed, President Putin is finding it difficult to justify what smacks of Russian revanchism. Russia is a big economic power and as President Putin has shown, it has the ability to influence world events, be it in Syria or closer home. It must be careful and take pains to assure the world that it will act in accordance with international conventions, lest it be seen as a source of instability. It needs to rebuild bridges with Ukraine and the rest of the world, even as it seeks to legitimise its presence in Crimea.
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We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are. — Anais Nin
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The press in the Punjab THE Punjab administration report for 1912-13 which was published on Saturday devotes a page and a half for a review of the state of the newspaper press in the province. The total number of English, Anglo-Vernacular and Vernacular newspaper published during the year 1912 was 256, of which 11 were Hindi, 25 Gurmukhi, 173 Urdu and 45 English. The corresponding number for the preceding year was 248, but the average periodical circulation was 280,272 as compared with 287,641 in 1911. The principal centres of publication were Lahore, Amrtisar and Delhi and the capital was well ahead with 147, the other two cities claiming 32 and 31 respectively. The total number of declarations under sections 4 and 5, Act XXV of 1867 reported in 1912 was 118. Security, when taken, it appears, ranged from Rs. 500 to 2,000, but in many cases no security was demanded. After referring to the confiscation of the security of Rs. 2,000 deposited by the "Punjab Advocate," the report mentions that at the request of the Local Government warnings were issued to the publishers of two papers only "Arya Patrika" and the "Hindu."
Government and economic problems
THE Hon'ble Sir William Meyer, it will be recollected in his reply to the question put in the Imperial Legislative Council on the average income of the Indians, said that an enquiry would involve prolonged labour and that in the opinion of the Government it would not be likely to be useful. We note that Sir Reginald Craddock the other day said in reply to a question on the growth of pauperism in India something similar to it. The Government seems to think that no useful purpose will be served by exercising its mind over these admittedly difficult and complex problems. In reply to Mr. Rayaningar, about the increasing pauperism in India, the Hon'ble Home member said no statistics on the subject were available and the Government of India doubted whether any useful purpose would be served by an enquiry into its causes and means of checking it.
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China's rising defence budget
China
has announced that it plans to increase its military budget for 2014 to almost $132 billion, a 12.2 per cent rise over last year. This was expected as Beijing has made no bones about its desire to emerge as a dominant military power in the Asia-Pacific. It has been systematically working towards that goal, increasing its military budget consistently for the past several years with a special focus on the navy, allowing it to project power across the region. “We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernise them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age,” Prime Minister Li Keqiang said at the opening session of the National People's Congress, which will formally approve policy already made by Communist Party leaders. China's military spending is the second largest in the world, behind that of only the USA. The rate of growth in spending is greater than that of recent years. Though last year, China's defence budget increased by 10.7 per cent over the previous year, this year's rate of growth is higher than recent years. This exorbitant increase in China's military budget over the past several years has sparked concerns among the major powers and China's neighbours. As a growing economic power, China is concentrating on the accretion of military might to secure and enhance its own strategic interests. China, which has the largest standing army in the world at 2.3 million-strong, continues to make the most dramatic improvements in its nuclear force among the five nuclear powers. Improvements in its conventional military capabilities are even more impressive. What has caused concern in Asia and beyond is the opacity of China's military build-up. A consensus has emerged that Beijing's real military spending is at least double the announced figure. The official figures of the Chinese government do not include the cost of new weapons purchases, research or other big-ticket items for China's highly secretive military. The real figures are thought to be much higher. According to some estimates, China will be spending close to $148 billion on defence as opposed to the officially announced figure of $132 billion. From Washington to Tokyo, from Brussels to Canberra, calls have been rising for China to be more forthcoming about its intentions behind the dramatic military spending pace and the scope of its military capabilities. Beijing has tried to be more transparent about its defence spending. To try to assuage concerns worldwide about its rapidly growing military capabilities, the Chinese government has released "white papers" on defence for several years now. China has started asserting its military profile more than ever. Chinese vessels have tackled Somali pirates in the Middle East, the first time Chinese vessels had operated outside Asia. Beijing is also considering sending combat troops abroad in support of the UN peacekeeping efforts. The Chinese military has deployed to sea an aircraft carrier it refitted after being purchased from Ukraine, the Liaoning, and has also tested a stealth fighter. Chinese military officers are openly talking of building the world's strongest military and displacing the US as global hegemony — by means of war if necessary, as one senior officer has suggested. This kind of talk might be premature at the moment as the US military remains far more advanced than China's, which does not yet possess the capability to project power far from Chinese shores. Still, China's neighbours should worry, especially as the US starts to look increasingly inward. Divisions within China about the future course of nation's foreign policy are more stark than ever. It is now being suggested that much like young Japanese officers in the 1930s, young Chinese military officers are increasingly taking charge of strategy with the result that rapid military growth is shaping the nation's broader foreign policy objectives. Civil-military relations in China are under stress, with the PLA asserting its pride more forcefully than even before and demanding respect from other countries. “A country needs respect, and a military also needs respect,” wrote a major-general last year in the PLA's newspaper. Not surprisingly, China has been more aggressive in asserting its interests not only vis-a-vis India but also vis-a-vis the USA, the European Union, Japan and Southeast Asian states. Hawks are gaining ground in the Chinese military as the PLA becomes a powerful force in the country with its budget growing to $200 billion. There is a sense that China can now prevail in conflicts with its regional adversaries. Some voices have openly called for wars. A Air Force Colonel, Dai Xu, has argued that in light of China's disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea, a short, decisive war, like the 1962 border clash with India, would deliver long-term peace. This would be possible as Washington would not risk war with China over these territorial spats according to this assessment. The increasing assertion by the Chinese military and changing balance of power in the nation's civil-military relations should be a real cause of concern for China's neighbours. The pace of Chinese military modernisation has already taken the world by surprise and it is clear that the process is going much faster than many had anticipated. At a time when Indian's own defence modernisation programme is faltering, China's military transformation should be taken seriously by Indian defence planners. China's military assertiveness vis-à-vis Japan and other Southeast Asian nations is a function of its growing confidence in its military capabilities. Indian defence establishment, in contrast, is reduced to begging from its civilian masters for adequate provisions. This has not gone unnoticed around the world and particularly in Beijing and will likely have grave consequences for India's ability to defend its interests. — The writer teaches at King’s College, London.
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Avoiding logical fallacies Expression and experience are usually interdependent. While writing we often grapple with words to build an argument and our efforts result in crystallising abstract and semi-baked ideas. But sometimes seemingly well-crafted works come across as wounded writing. It may be due to logical fallacies or errors in thinking, which rob them of credibility. How faulty reasoning leads to faulty writing is demonstrated below: 1. Indians are spiritual-minded people. The sentence makes a statement by concluding that something in their DNA makes Indians spiritually inclined. The statement suffers from flawed reasoning, which impacts the language. An illustration of Genetic Fallacy, here, the character of a culture is shown to have an inherent relationship with a specific attitude. We often encounter such overreactions about people where individual differences are ignored and people are grouped in terms of biases or prejudices. The sentence also exhibits how stereotypes are formed. 2. All women like to watch soap operas on TV and all men like to follow political debates. This is a sweeping statement made in haste. The writer seems to have some evidence to form the impression but the conclusion he draws is an exaggeration, an instance of poor reasoning, as he has included "all women" and "all men" without sufficient evidence in support of the claim. Sentences like "Women with traditional upbringing make better wives and mothers" and "Everyone must walk 10,000 steps a day to stay physically fit" are all instances of Hasty Generalisation. 3. Just six months into marriage, and already Naina has brought in such luck to the family … health, profits, promotions! Two unconnected events have been connected, one made responsible for the other. It is a case of mistaken cause and effect; an example of Unfounded Inference. From the Latin "post hoc, ergo propter hoc", it means "after this, therefore because of this". But beliefs like the one above are not confined to superstitious thinking alone. In the day-to-day life, we do get to read statements with defective logic like "Whenever Tina and I go shopping, it starts raining". 4. Children are bound to get spoilt with exposure to the Internet.
A Dogmatic Statement, it is not unusual to find similar reasoning in religious and political texts. If statements such as "The king can do no wrong" are common, as common are statements like "My parents are always right". A Dogmatic Statement has an authoritative air about it and is presented as an absolute truth, beyond challenge and change. It is difficult to rationalise with people who hold dogmas. Logical fallacies do find place in political discourse where the main objective is to persuade the reader, and in other writings as well where the writer is capturing realities, as they exist. But they are best avoided in essays where we are projecting our own ideas. Sensitivity to fallacies refines writing.
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CINEMA: NEW Releases Nonika Singh
Film Ragini MMS 2
Statutory
warning: If horror isn't
your genre read no further. And to cap it all if you are a prude, stir
clear of anything to do with this adult star Sunny Leone starrer Ragini
MMS 2. For prior to the screening of the film its director Bushan
Patel in many an interview has dubbed it a horrex film. As the film
opens as a film within a film the intentions are announced loud and
clear once again. Now if you are comfortable with the concoction of
sex with horror, let's begin the task of judging it by the genre the
director has boastfully proclaimed it falls into. By sex of course he
meant Leone in varying stages of undressing and a smattering of the
four letter forbidden word. Add to it a bunch of perverts lusting
after Sunny. She, by the way, figures as Sunny the actor of blue films
now the heroine of a horror (oops horrex) film and you have the sex
quotient ready to titillate you. Will you be? We reserve judgment
for there is no accounting men's tastes. For women of a certain kind,
there is a lip-lock between Sandhya Mridul and Sunny, quite harmless
though. Sure Sunny looks hot, lascivious and curvaceous at least to
begin with. And the director has exploited each frame to focus on her
assets. Of course, lest we forget the film isn't about Sunny's obvious
in your face USP alone. Horror is its key ingredient, rather is the
department in which the director scores better. Indeed, like many
spooky films, it scares more when the ghosts remain invisible or seem
like an apparition. Actually but for the anticlimax, the film has
enough share of chills and thrills to send a shiver run down your
spine. Before you quiz kahani kya hai….well without acting as
a dampener, here is a sneak glimpse. A shady director (Pravin Dabas
looking every bit creepy) announces the making of a horrex film on a
real life story of a woman gone mad after her MMS with her boyfriend
became viral. As he decides to shoot his film in the same haunted
bungalow where the MMS was made, you can well imagine what will
follow suit. Ghosts, women possessed, the usual killings and gore! To
be fair, the director doesn't go all hog on the gore meter. Instead he
tampers horror sequences with considerable restraint. There is humour
too to break the spell of heightened moments of horror. In soap queen
Ekta Kapoor's film there has to be a seasoning of television actors.
And here they are, Karan Mehra for instance taking digs on TV ishtyle
of acting. For extra effect there is Divya Dutta, a neuro specialist
who is interested in eerie cases. Actually she is there to unravel the
mystery for you the viewer. Of course, there is a certain mystique to
her persona that she brings alive with just that furtive look Sandhya
Mridul too gets her part of a starlet wanting to climb up (pun
intended) right. Her fright is genuinely believable. Is the film? Are
you kidding… horror, yes horrex ones too are not about realism or
logic or rationale or even adding it all up right. It's mainly about
fear factor, a count on which the film succeeds by and large. If you
are not the uppity moral chee chee types, the chills and some cheap
thrills too will keep you glued if Sunny doesn't that is. Final
verdict this certainly isn't the best horror film but not worst
either.
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On a delightful note Film Muppets Most Wanted The plot takes you to Russia, not hackneyed Hollywood version but a brand new apolitical one with the Gulag prisoners performing "Cabaret" like dances under the supervision of cute officer Nadya (Tina Fey), who is also a great fan of the Muppet Kermit. Of course, it begins where the original film ends with a line saying "everybody knows sequels are not as good" and carefully goes to prove the opposite. And it succeeds splendidly because of a wit-strewn script by James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller and Bobin's excellent handing of the narrative. The variety of characters are well fleshed out and the narrative given the right pauses to sink into the viewer's psyche. Add to this Christophe Beck's tuneful lyrics aided and abetted by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett and you have it all — the perfect package.
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Completely racy Film Need for Speed 3D Talk
about speed and this is the latest vehicle for it and when one refers to its hero Tobey, who is known to fly with wings, it rightly imbues the theme and mood of Need for Speed. Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul) owns as garage which repairs high speed cars. His buddies are Benny (Scott Mersud) Joe Peck (Ramon Rodriguez) and Little Pete (Harrison Gilbertson) but it is Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) in a classy Ford Mustang who wants to buy one of Tobey's cars only to be outbided by a sexy British blonde Julia Maddon (Imjogen Poots). These mechanics spend their time street racing reminding one of the early 1950s sport called 'chicken' and even though that sport doesn't figure in this film, it is inspired by Hollywood icon James Dean as most of their hair-styles (near-puffs) resemble his. Revving engines vrooming along at break-neck speed is the order of the day and never before seen on the screen. Monarch (Michael Keaton), the commentator is a racing aficionado who loves the smell of racing cars, spews venom and epithets in good measure. To give the story more meat Dino's love interest also figures in it but it is Aaron Paul from the popular TV serial Breaking Bad who steals the show ably supported by Imogen Poots whose facial expressions speak louder than words apart from reminding one of Julie Christie in her prime. Dominic Cooper is adequate but Michael Keaton rounds of the cast with a delightful cameo.
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Burden on your senses Film Gang of Ghosts
Aanik Dutta's surprise 2012 Bengali box-office winner Bhooter Bhabishyat appears to be the obvious inspiration for Satish Kaushik's comic entertainer. This film which uses the supernatural to fashion a fairly entertaining byplay of events leading to a clash between residential ghosts and avaricious humans, though not exactly taxing, doesn't achieve much by way of entertainment. To add a little bit of complexity to the light-weight enterprise, we see a film crew, with an adman turned feature director (Parambrata Chatterjee) rekeying around the place, having discussions with a mysterious wannabe writer Raju (Sharman Joshi) who appears to have a winning story. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Satish Kaushik's storyline. It's inconsistent and goes completely haywire during it's representation of the other world. Ghosts appear and disappear at will, turn human and back again without much explanation, spring about the mansion and away from it (on a beach) without any clarification on the outer perimeters of this formulaic fantasy. Item dances, rock numbers, cheap production design and haphazardly designed costumes help make speed jumps between periods. The writing is plebian. The spoofing is poorly engineered. The referencing is even worse-off. The penchant to score a political point is also quite distending. There's actually nothing funny going on here other than a bunch of has-been actors getting another chance at a new lease.
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TV movies
7:30AM star movies
STAR MOVIES 7:30AM The Hot Chick 10:00AM Die Hard 4.0 1:00PM A Good Day to Die Hard 3:00PM Hollow Man 5:00PM Ice Age: Continental Drift ZEE CINEMA 8:39AM Chandramukhi 11:32AM Mohra 2:40PM Hote Hote Pyaar Ho Gaya 5:38PM Dum 9:00PM Dhamaal MOVIES NOW 9:45AM The Mask 11:45AM The Final Destination 1:30PM 300 3:40PM Tai Chi Hero 5:40PM Crisis 6:40PM Unknown ZEE STUDIO 7:00AM Guthy Renker 10:30AM Waist Deep 12:30PM Guthy Renker 1:00PM The Midnight Meat Train 2:45PM Definitely, Maybe 4:50PM Red Dog MOVIES OK 8:25AM Anari No. 1 11:25AM Mr. & Mrs. Khiladi 1:35PM Bagawat Ek Jung 8:00PM Golimaar 10:45PM Diljale SONY PIX 8:59AM The Tuxedo 11:09AM Iron Man 1:45PM Total Recall 4:13PM Mean Girls 6:14PM The Amazing Spider-Man 9:00PM Colombiana 11:08PM Angels & Demons
Sunday March 23
Yaariyan is a coming-of-age romance adventure film directed by Divya Khosla Kumar, starring Himansh Kohli and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles. It marks the debut of the director as well as the lead star cast. STAR GOLD
12:00PM Yaariyan
2:55PM Suhaag
5:40PM Coolie No. 1
8:00PM Veer
11:25PM Sapoot
ZEE CINEMA
11:07AM Gadar: Ek Prem Katha
2:31PM Loafer
5:30PM Shahenshah
9:00PM Big Brother
MOVIES OK
2:50PM Deewar: Man of Power
5:05PM Nagin
8:00PM The Great Veera
10:40PM Ajnabee
ZEE ACTION
7:00AM Khauf ki Raat
10:30AM Ladenge Marte Dam Tak
1:30PM Insaaf
5:30PM Military Raaj
8:30PM Insaniyat Ke Devta
ZEE CLASSIC
11:50AM Shaheed
INDIA TALKIES
ZEE STUDIO
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"IF people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them." — George Orwell
Even
Saturday March 22
12:00pm STAR GOLD