Anatomy of Rape

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

Anatomy of Rape 

 According to psychologists, rape is caused by some psychological illness within the offender. That they are either emotionally disturbed or have personality defects, that  they have problems that impair them in relationships when under stress through sexual violence. There is also the view that rape is caused by sexual addiction. But by and large  psychological illness theory has limited value and is the cause of rape only in rare pathological cases.

Sociologists, however, believe that rapists are relatively normal people and do not have psychological problems. They view rape in a couple of different ways. Some believe that rape is due to an expression of gender inequality while some sociologists believe that rape is attributed to permissiveness, sexually, within society. Feminists tend to view rape as an expression of gender inequality, of male dominance over woman and is used to intimidate women to keep them in their place.Some believe that  both sociological explanations of sexual permissiveness and gender inequality provide the best explanation .

.Sociobiologists( Thornhill,Palmer) maintain that rape evolved under some circumstances as a genetically advantageous behavioral adaptation. It has long been noted that behavior resembling rape in humans is widespread in other animals. In Orangutans, a close human relative, half of all matings are of the nature of "rape". It is inferred then that rape in humans is homologous to such animal behaviour. Rape is viewed as a natural, biological phenomenon that is a product of the human evolutionary history.. But it is to be stressed that by categorizing a behavior as "natural" and "biological" we do not in any way mean to imply that the behavior is justified or even inevitable. Like natural calamities, floods,epidemics, it is undesirable.

There may be several different types of rapists or rape strategies. One is rape by disadvantaged men who cannot get sex otherwise. Another is "specialized rapists" who are more sexually aroused from rape than from consensual sex. A third type is opportunistic rapists who switches between forced and consensual sex depending on circumstances. A fourth type is psychopathic rapists. A fifth type is partner rape due to "sperm competition "when the male suspects or knows that the female has had sex with another male. There are varying degrees of empirical support for the existence of each of these types.

Basically, rape is related to sexual desire and if you recognize that, to argue that provocative dress by women will not affect the  risk of rape is fallacious. Scientists cite  research finding that at least one-third of males "admit they would rape under specific conditions" and that other surveys find that many men state having coercive sexual fantasies. They, "propose that rape is a conditional strategy that may potentially be deployed by any man.  Similarly, greater societal freedom amounting to permissiveness wii be fertile ground to produce rapists. An imporant factor in incidence of rape is its cost-gain ratio. In cases of high status men and low status women, the repercussive cost of rape ( fear of legal or familial reprisal) is less, favouring an increase. Other such contexts are riots, war, or anarchist situations. In individuals subjected to extreme sexual repression, thought of sexual gratification may outweigh thoughts of cost.

But the fact remains that even in the study mentioned above, two-third of men will not consider rape in specific conditions. What is that factor that prevents majority of people refraining from rape? Apart from their greater sensibility  to likely costs, it is their higher order of social and cultural mileu that reinforces antipathy to violence, and the inherent goodness in man.

It then becomes abundently clear that the most effective short term measure to combat the menace of rape is to enhanse to the maximum possible or prudent level the cost to be paid by the rapist in terms of punishment and social stigma which should be so severe as to serve as an effective deterrant.The long term measure is to drastically reduce the social permissiveness wherever found and raise the moral and cultural standards of the people by concerted compaigns and awareness programs to instill empathy and rspect for womanhood. It is imminently important that the society no longer proceed to the culmination of a medeaval patriarchal order which in its most sadomasochistic form reduces the women to nothing but an object of pleasure.

The Current Tale of FDI in Multi Brand Retail

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup




 The discussion in Parliament on Foreign Direct Investment in Multi-brand Retail Trade and the subsequent vote on it to approve its introduction in the country, became a tell-tale display of the moral bankruptcy of our major political parties. It has, if any thing, laid bare their crass insincerity and hypocrisy. The Congress had opposed the measure when in opposition and Vajpayee govt tried to bring in FDI in Retail, the now PM Manmohan Sing then writing against it and leading a hue and cry in parliament. Since that the tables turned with the change of seats. It is opposition for opposition, it seems. Now you have also seen the spectacle of Akali Dal initially welcoming the bill and then voting against it - the current M-M play in reverse.

We have witnessed the shameful double crossing of the common man by the S.P. and B.S.P, of vehemently opposing the FDI in Retail publicly for the consumption of what they take as  gullible voters, and then selling their souls if they have any, by ushering in the dubious reform, through the perfidy of voting in favor of the measure in Parliament. Who are responsible for  making  the bill get past the Parliament and become legal and thus opening the way for its introduction in the country?  The very same two parties who opposed it tooth nail by mouth and then twisted themselves to put their foot in their mouths by voting for it.

Independent India has never seen this level of deception and duplicity on the part of political parties. Now who can believe in what they say  and where they stand on any issue vitally affecting the progress of this country? Does the Congress believe that it has come out stronger now by buying these two parties and securing a majority in both houses of Parliament and also having ensured its survival till the next general elections? My guess is that the Congress will soon find out that the cost is too high and ominous for the introduction of the rightful reform process in this country. Once these parties have extracted their pound of flesh, the Congress will find that it is their way or highway as far as further governess is concerned. And the Congress  will have only itself to blame then.



The Congress govt. now could claim political victory of sorts which in reality may be rather empty and a moral defeat. Moral defeat in that the sense of both houses of Parliament was strongly and dominantly against the bill. Additionally, and predictably, the ground scenes when it is going to be implemented could indeed be quite muddlesome with significant cold shouldering, bra hua, and even litigation galore.

Israel's Roguish Response

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna

 

 Less than 24 hours after the vote on Palestinian status was held at the UN, a caviling Israel in an angry response announced the augmentation of its settlement plans in the strategically sensitive area of occupied land near east Jerusalem. Israel authorized 3,000 additional housing units a day after the UN voted to upgrade Palestinian status. About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

  In a separate development the petulant Israeli government also said that it would be stopping a $100m (£62m) transfer of tax revenues that it collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The ostensible pretext given out for this stand was that  the Palestinians had not settled a $200m debt to an Israeli electricity firm.

 Israel's knee-jerk reaction has aroused widespread indignation. The move was seen as one that would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution. In a strong admonishment of Israel, UN head Ban Ki-moon warned Israel that the settlement plans would deal "an almost fatal blow' to peace hopes. He pointed out that  Palestinians in East Jerusalem could be completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank. The UK government lost no time in summoning Israeli envoy to express its concern and told him that Israel should expect a "strong reaction" if it went ahead with its plans. Agence France-Presse quoted an Israeli embassy spokesman in Paris as saying that the ambassador there had also been summoned over the issue. The US said earlier, the expansion plan was counter-productive and would make it harder to resume peace talks, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was extremely by prospects of large-scale construction. Mahmoud Abbas returning from UN told a flag waving crowd that Palestinians have a land now and called for an end to settlement building and a return to peace talks.

However, Israel's reaction to rest of the world's condemnation was characteristically defiant. It held out that Palestinian campaign was in gross violation of earlier agreement with Israel and that it will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel's strategic interests.

Israel's intransigence and such defiance of international opinion will only serve to further isolate that nation. It is obvious that it's continued occupation of the West Bank and its untenable developmental efforts there cut at the very roots of settlement chances of the long simmering dispute, and peace hopes in the region.  Such development will prevent the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state. It destroys the two-state solution, (establishing) East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and practically ends the peace process and any opportunity to talk about negotiations in the future.

Israel should realize that the time has come to rethink its hawkish attitude which it could no longer afford to maintain and that sooner it has to play a constructive role in securing its own security not through aggressive postures but by sagacious cooperation with world opinion.

The Half-Life of Facts : How Knowledge Changes

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna

  
The Half-Life of Facts : How Knowledge Changes
       Scientometrics: The Science of Science

  In early Astronomy there were nine planets in the solar system. None were known to exist outside it. Since then, astronomers have spotted over 800 planets around other stars  and demoted Pluto to a mere "dwarf planet". Even a cursory glance at other fields of science reveals similar patterns.
    Samuel Arbesman, a mathematician at Harvard, calls this "The Half-life of Facts", He explains that this churn of knowledge is like radioactive decay: you cannot predict which individual fact is going to succumb to it, but you can know how long it takes for half the facts in a discipline to become obsolete. Such quantitative analysis of science has become known as scientometrics.
    Put simply, scientometrics is the science of science. It grew out of bibliometrics, the science of books and research papers. In bibliometrics the unit of measurement is a research paper. Librarians were some of the first people to do this They had to grapple with the question what to carry on their shelves. They had to calculate which fields get overturned really rapidly, in other words, which papers and books people were unlikely to care about in the future.
    But bibliometrics is only one sub field of scientometrics. There are all kinds of ways that you can quantify science: you can measure the number of discoveries that are occurring within a particular field, the number of elements in the periodic table, etc. Broadly, scientometrics is about quantifying and understanding how science occurs. That includes both the social aspects of science and the relationship between science and technology. It is about how the facts of the world—the stuff we know—grow in number, and how they change.
   In saying that a fact has a half-life, one is trying to illustrate how knowledge changes and this is best done by making an analogy to radioactivity. When you have a big chunk of uranium, you can graph out the decay; you can say it takes 4.47 billion years for half of the atoms in a chunk of uranium to break down. You aren't going to know which half, but you know the overall rate of the decay. And the same thing is true for science, and for knowledge in general. For example, in the area of medical science dealing with hepatitis and cirrhosis, two liver diseases, researchers actually measured how long it takes for half of the knowledge in these fields to be overturned. What they found is that there is a nice, smooth rate of decay; you can predict: that every 45 years, half of this particular sort of knowledge gets outdated.
    What scientific fields decay the slowest—or the fastest—and what drives that difference?Well it depends.  Medicine still has a very short half-life; in fact it is one of the areas where knowledge changes the fastest. One of the slowest is mathematics, because when you prove something in mathematics it is pretty much a settled matter unless someone finds an error in one of your proofs. Social sciences have a much faster rate of decay than the physical sciences,
    The whole concept calls attention to the human habit of becoming accustomed to whatever state of affairs is true when a situation is initially examined. By showing how knowledge about the world shifts systematically, you seem to be suggesting a renewed vigilance against growing complacency about knowledge of the world.
    It  shows people how knowledge changes. But at the same time It wants to say, now that you know how knowledge changes, you have to be on guard, so you are not shocked when your children coming home to tell you that dinosaurs have feathers.


Source

Israel-Arab Conflict

Arab Countries

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna


Israel-Arab Conflict

Jews are one of the people who originally inhabited the historical Semitic speaking region of Canaan, the area roughly corresponding to Levant, ie present -day Israel, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan and Syria.  Israel became a nation for the first time in about 1300 BCE. King David established the city of Jerusalem as the capital of the whole Land of Israel. . With their conquest of other people in the area in 1272 BCE., the Jews had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuos presence there for the past 3,300 years.

Then about 2000 years ago Romans conquered Jerusalem. Jews were expelled and dispersed to diaspora in Babylon. After the Romans, Jerusalem was ruled by the Christian and Muslim crusaders, followed by Turkish Muslim Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1917, and thereafter by the British till 1948.. Throughout this time, for centuries, Jews prayed for their return from the diaspora to their lost homeland.

During the first half of the 20th century there were major waves of immigration of Jews back to Israel from the Arab countries and from Europe. The formation of a land for the Jews became a major international issue. The area called Palestine included the territories of present day Israel and Jordan. Under Lausanne agreement of 1923 Turkey transferred all claims to Palestine to mandatory power Britain. In 1922 Britain allocated nearly 80% of Palestine to Transjordan. In 1947 UN partitioned this remaining land into two states, a second Arab state, Palestine, and Israel. Thus In 1948 Jews reestablished their sovereignty over their ancient homeland with the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

It was only after the Jews re-inhabited their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria, that the myth of a Palestinian nation was created and marketed worldwide. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs indistinguishable from Arabs throughout the Middle East. The Palestinian National Charter adopted by the PLO states this fact in the first article. .

The UN partition plan of 1947 was rejected by all the Arab countries. Arab leadership in Israel and in the countries surrounding Israel, planned a Jihad, holy war, against Israel and encouraged the Arabs to leave Israel promising their return after they purge the land of Jews. The great majority of Arabs left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.  Then the  Arab nations initiated four wars against Israel: 1948 War of Independence, 1956 Sinai War, 1967 Six Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War.  Israel defended itself each time and won. After each war Israeli army withdrew from most of the areas it captured. This is unprecedented in World history.

The number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries is estimated to be a million. This number is greater than the number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948, estimated as 343,000. Today, the majority of the people in Israel are the descendants of Jews from Arab countries. The great majority of Arabs in greater Palestine and Israel share the same culture, language and religion. The Arabs in the area began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel

Arab refugee problem was created by the seven Arab countries that attacked Israel in 1948. Arab refugees were intentionally not integrated into the Arab lands.. Theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has not been absorbed into their own peoples' lands.  Arab nations still maintain generations of the descendants of the refugees in so called "refugee camps" under squalid conditions with the hope that someday they will dislodge the Jews in Israel.  Since 1948, after three generations the descendants of the Arab refugees are still called "refugees" and are supported by UN "refugee" funds! With the highest birth rate in Arab countries this population has now grown to about four million. In negotiations, Arab leadership requests the "right of return" of this mass of millions into the tiny land of Israel. The settlement of millions of Arabs in Israel would immediately eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. This is the real aim of the Arab countries, to achieve by supposedly "peaceful" means what they could not achieve by unceasing violence in whole scale wars and daily terrorism. The responsibility for keeping the Arab population who are descendants of the Arab refugees, rests only on the shoulders of the Arab countries that created the problem by attacking Israel in 1948.. The Arab states do not want to solve the refugee problem. They want to keep it as open sore, as an affront to the United Nations and as a weapon against Israel. Arab leaders don't give a damn whether the refugees live or die

The Arab nations are represented by 21 separate countries. The combined territories of Arab countries is 650 fold greater than Israel (see map above comparing size of Israel versus those of Arab countries). Their population is 50 fold greater than Israel. The average per capita GDP in Arab countries is $3,700 versus $18,000 for Israel. This despite the fact that many Arab countries have world's richest oil resources.

It is said that If the Arabs (Muslims) put down their weapons today there would be no more violence, and if the Israelis put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishnav


Why Are Indians So Entrepreneurial In The U.S.?
    Indians are defying gravity and starting more companies there. Why are entrepreneurs from the subcontinent such overachievers?
    One reason is that Indian entrepreneurs have a very strong support network in the U.S They built organizations and created a U.S. ecosystem of successful Indian entrepreneurs - and, crucially, angel funders - to accelerate newcomers.
    Another factor is the societal value placed on entrepreneurial endeavor. Indian kids think it’s cool to start companies
    Indians benefit from their heritage, which suits them better than many other immigrants to making it in America. They speak English. They come from a democratic society. More than that, they have a serious independent streak. Just like here, Indians are free to speak out against the government In that respect particlarly, culturally, Americans and Indians are similar and that gives Indians a big advantage when they come to America because they fit right in.
    Compare that to the Chinese experience,
    In China you’re terrified of authority, you dare not speak out against the government because you’ll be taken away the next day. There is a culture shock from that perspective - people who come from authoritative regimes are afraid of defying authority. But to be an entrepreneur you need to defy authority, you need to break all the rules, you need to take a risk.

The Wheel of Public Dress

Posted by Gopal Unnikrishna

     Modernism is taking a savage toll of many graceful customs. There was this scene in the TV The Italian-born leader of India’s Congress Party had decorously pulled the sari end over her head right up to the front. The bare head of the Assamese/Bengali girl glistened in the picture Time was when no respectable woman anywhere was ever seen uncovered. For Hindus, it was the sari or dupatta. Muslim women had the burqa or hijab
    European women wore hats, which were de rigueur in church. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is probably the hat’s last champion, never being seen without one herself, and ordaining that no hatless female should be admitted into Westminster Abbey when her grandson, Prince William, was married The late Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur merely pulled the sari over her head and sailed in. Muslim men were as particular about headgear as Muslim women and the last nizam of Hyderabad muttered disapprovingly about the uncovered heads of the Hindu maharajas at Lord Mountbatten’s dinner for the princes.
    .
    Sari language can be as expressive as any flamenco dancer’s fan.Drawing the sari over the head as the band struck up the national anthem. is a simple gesture conveying grace, dignity and respect. Tony Blair’s wife Cherie sported a sari when canvassing ethnic Indian voters. Chester Bowles’ wife wore nothing else, hoping to impress her Indian friends when her husband was US ambassador in Delhi, but embarrassed them instead because she wore it so badly.
  
    But the wheel is turning — or has it turned full circle already? — in the Islamic ummah where more and more women, including Turks, are returning to the hijab. The effect is contagious  Though British women have abandoned the hat, one sees more and more hijabs in the streets of English cities, especially in the Midlands and the North. Even sari-draped Bangladeshi women in Singapore and Malaysia wear the hijab
    Perhaps as Muslims, they feel they ought to flaunt a recognisably Muslim garment. Politics has always shimmered in a sari’s folds and when Pakistan was created, Fatima Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam’s sister, declared the garment unpatriotic.
   
    But native Indian women prefer other attire. If it’s not the salwar-kameez ensemble, it’s Western dress. The sari for them is becoming more and more like Japan’s kimono and China’s cheongsam — exotic attire for high days and holidays. We must be thankful that ethnic foreigners keep it alive.



   
    Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/return-veil-471

The Changing Demographic Trends in Kerala

Posted by Gopal

That profound demographic transformation is  taking place, indeed, all over the world was the emerging message in an international seminar on “Emerging Fertility Patterns in India: Causes and Implications” organized recently by the Center for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram, This demographic transition, is marked by low fertility and mortality rates.More than half the world’s population is now living in countries or regions where birth rates are “at or below the level needed to ensure the replacement of generations” (or 2.1 children per woman, a number known as the “replacement rate of fertility”, which denotes a stable population)

Nearly one-third of India is witnessing a trend of below replacement level of fertility today. In Kerala significant changes in the age structure include a decrease in school age population, decrease in proportion of the labor force in about two decades from 2001, decline in young working age population, a doubling of older working age population in two decades ending in 2021 and more unemployment among the older age groups than among the youth in the foreseeable future  Studies on the ageing scenario in Kerala estimate that the size of the population in the age group of 60 years and above in the State is expected to increase from 33 lakh in 2001 to 57 lakh in 2021 and to 120 lakh in 2061. By 2061, the proportion of the elderly would constitute 40 per cent of Kerala’s total population. Of this, 6.7 per cent would be in the age group 60-69 years; 23.8 per cent in the age group 70-79 years; and 9.1 per cent in the age group of 80 years and above.

What this means is a steep rise in the the cost of “dependency burden” of Kerala households in the future. The aged dependency ratio (the number of persons above 60 years of age per 100 persons in the working age group of 15 to 59 years) is to increase from 17 to 76 during the period from 2001 to 2061. Finance Minister K.M. Mani might have had this in mind when he told the Assembly in reply to a debate on the Appropriation Bill in mid-July that an “explosive situation” has ensued in the State with the number of government pensioners exceeding that of serving employees, making the current pension system “unsustainable. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had added: “The State government pays salary to 5.34 lakh in-service employees and pension to 5.50 lakh retired employees. On an average, an employee continues in government service for 25 to 30 years, and a pensioner draws retirement benefits for an equal number of 25 to 30 years.

 The recent decision by the Kerala Govt. to introduce Participatory Pension Scheme  for its future employees with effect from April next is to be seen in this context.

 Source: CDS.