The man he killed - Thomas Hardy

I am watching "Civil War" - Documentary by Ken Burns. The battle scenes are really sad to watch and the causality figures in those battles are stunning. You get the true meaning of the term "Cannon Fodder" by listening to the battle descriptions. The most poignant moment for me was the reference to Thomas Hardy's poem: The man he killed, which describes the meaninglessness of war and how people rationalize the business of fighting wars:

"Had he and I but metBy some old ancient inn,We should have sat us down to wetRight many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,And staring face to face,I shot at him as he at me,And killed him in his place.[5]

"I shot him dead because—Because he was my foe,Just so: my foe of course he was;That's clear enough; although

"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,Off-hand like—just as I—Was out of work—had sold his traps—No other reason why.

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!You shoot a fellow downYou'd treat, if met where any bar is,Or help to half-a-crown."

By the way many of the Civil War battle descriptions also reminded me of the Pink Floyd Song:

Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows
It's not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
And the general sat
And the lines on the map
Moved from side to side

Story about the largest mall in the world located in China

What a Bizarre story! If this is how China achieves the huge growth rates, this is also how its bubble will burst.

Here is another evidence:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/2009/04/chinas_olympic_venues_now.html

Yet another one is here:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/02/high-speed_rail_china

However, this article says it is the strategy of China to keep building.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/weekinreview/07wines.html

>>"Here in the nation that is too big to fail, as long as the bad loans don’t overwhelm the good, the waste is tolerable. That, to me, is the essence of the Chinese strategy,Just keep the machine going fast enough.”>>

I am not really convinced this is going to work.

This is the same argument that we heard during the dot com bubble, the housing bubble and the other bubbles of the Bush years!

Emancipation of Serfs in Russia

Since I have been watching the Civil War documentary from Ken Burns, this article caught my attention.

At St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 3, 1861, Alexander II of Russia emancipated the serfs. His justification to his nobles : “If we don’t give the peasants freedom from above, they will take it from below.” He abolished serfdom by imperial fiat.