 |
| Breakfast at the Rambagh Palace |
Today was the last day of the Jaipur Literary Festival. We
have been to dozens of panels. I write this blog to remember what we did, they
all tend to blend together, this way we can relive what we experienced and try
to put it into some sort of perspective. I have tried to document the
referenced books. All of the sessions will be available on the internet for
free. Some I will want to watch again, others are ones I missed, and will want
to see for the first time.
The First Session of the day for me was ominously called:
The Fall of the Rome and the End of Civilization. The obvious analogy would be
is the American Empire going to fall, as Rome did. In short yes, all empires
fall. We can only hope it is after we are gone. The book's author, Bryan Ward-Perkins suggested that the Roman economy
became so diversified and specialized, that when there was a relatively small
disruption the entire economy failed. He is illustrated this pottery. Discarded
pottery does not deteriorate like organic matter. By analyzing the found shards
of pottery the scientist could understand the ancient economy. It was a
fascinating lecture.
The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization - Bryan Ward-Perkins
I arrived early for the Travel Session and heard the last 5 minutes of the session entitled: The Girl with Seven Names. It is about a defector from North Koriea. Hyeonseo Lee was
just concluding talking about the book. The audience rose to their feet in
appreciation for what she has gone through. I knew I had just missed one of the
highlights of the Jaipur Literary Festival. I have ordered the book and look
forward to reading it. I also look forward to watching the video of the session
when it is posted on the web. The few minutes I heard her talking were amazing,
as she stated how she can’t trust anyone, for fear they are agents of North
Korea.
The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeonseo Lee
We next attended the Travel Session. This session is
repeated every year and I always attend it. They gather different travel
writers who read short excerpts from their books. You get a wide variety of
stories. My favorite this year, was by Simon Winchester. He read from his book:
Krakatoa: “The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883”. I read this book years
ago. When the volcanic island of Krakatoa exploded, it produced the loudest sound ever
heard on earth. The island simply blew up and disappeared. The book is
fascinating. In the section he read, he had returned to Indonesia years after
writing the book and experienced the growth of the island. It now was over 500
feet tall as the volcano re-asserted itself. It is bound to blow again. It was
a beautiful piece of writing.
Krakatoa:
The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 – Simon Winchester
On a previous visit to India we visited the Sufi Shrine at
Ajmer. This is a highly important shrine to the Sufi sect of Islam. Cathy and
I have visited many Shrines and Temples and Mosques in India. They are
everywhere. This shrine is the most important one in Sufism. For us, it was a bust. We didn’t
enjoy the experience at all. They had a session on the shrine and a book launch
of a new book on the Sufi Saint and Shrine.
The next session was on Sikunder Burns. It is late at night,
and I am tired so I will simply borrow from Amazon the description of this new
biography Burns. The author told us the story of the development of this book.
We have read many books on the folly of war with Afganistan (they have never
been conquered yet nations keep trying. It is the best proof that history keeps
repeating itself. In Afghanistan ask: Alexander the Great, Russia, Great
Britain, United States how they did, they all failed to concquer this land.
Here is what Amazon says about this man and book: This is an astonishing true
tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents,
assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most
accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great
Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes
to the Raj. There are many lessons for the present day in this tale of the
folly of invading Afghanistan and Anglo-Russian tensions in the Caucasus.
Murray’s meticulous study has unearthed original manuscripts from Montrose to
Mumbai to put together a detailed study of how British secret agents operated
in India. The story of Burnes’ life has a cast of extraordinary figures,
including Queen Victoria, King William IV, Earl Grey, Benjamin Disraeli, Lola
Montez, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Among the unexpected discoveries are
that Alexander and his brother James invented the myths about the Knights
Templars and Scottish Freemasons which are the foundation of the Da Vinci
Code; and that the most famous nineteenth-century
scholar of Afghanistan was a double agent for Russia.
Sikunder
Burns – Craig Murray
The next session was on the Snowden Files. Luke Harding,
the book's author, a Guardian reporter, told the story of Edward
Snowden and how he and the Guardian received the information from Snowden. He
is totally sympathetic to Snowden. He feels Snowden did all of us a favor by
exposing how the US and Great Britain government are basically listening to ALL
of our communication. Snowden, unfortunately for him, is caught up in the
Donald Trump love affair with Putin. Snowden is currently residing in Russia
and recently received a two year extension of his Russian Visa. The chances are
that in some sort of grand deal between Trump and Putin, one of the things that
Putin will offer to Trump is to return Snowden to the US for trial. He is a
pawn in this game. If he is returned to the US he will be convicted and
sentenced to a long term. He doesn’t deserve it. It is a shame Obama couldn’t
bring himself to pardon
Snowden. I feel so strongly about the work of The Guardian Newspaper that I have subscribed to the digital version.
Snowden. I feel so strongly about the work of The Guardian Newspaper that I have subscribed to the digital version.
No comments:
Post a Comment