Viswanathan K's Thoughts

I read of this Italian town called Monfalcone that banned (surprise, surprise) cricket! Why? And who even plays cricket in Italy? Therein lies a tale. In the 1990’s, the town had a need for labourers to build ships. The locals (and most Europeans) weren’t interested, and so the role went to Bangladeshis, most of whom were Muslims. Thus, a third of the town are foreigners. “In Monfalcone, Italians in Western clothes mingle with Bangladeshis wearing shalwar kameez and hijabs. There are Bangladeshi restaurants and halal shops .”   The culture difference, the Islamic angle, the rise of the right wing in Italy… cricket was the last straw in this town. Outsiders, not integrated, and now insisting on playing their “national sport” – it was just too much for this town. ~~   It reminded me of Shruti Rajagopalan’s post on an unrelated topic – the young population of India and its global ramifications. “Globally, one in five people below 25 is from India. 47% of Indians, about 65

So much is our addiction for Wi-fi that Alex Balk isn’t exaggerating too much when he writes : “The other day, I overheard someone say, ‘If trees gave off Wi-Fi they’d be everywhere. Too bad they only give off oxygen.’” Perhaps that’s what they should have decided in Paris during the climate change discussions: plant a tree and get free Wi-fi! Talking of Wi-fi reminded me of certain Russian cemeteries that will be offering free Wi-fi starting 2016. Wait a minute, wouldn’t you be mourning at the cemetery, not in a mood to post selfies? Ah, but these aren’t just any cemeteries: they host (is that the right word?) famous people’s graves. Like Boris Yeltsin. So the reasoning goes : “Since these particular cemeteries are steeped in history, they're now treated much "like open-air museums." Moscow's city-run funeral service spokesperson Lilya Lvovskaya told AFP that a lot of people "come and find themselves standing in front of a grave and want to know more

Imagine being a resident on the Greek island of Lesbos. 20,000 Syrian refugees land up on your island and now 1 in 5 people on the island is a refugee. You feel so threatened that you even stopping sending your kids to school. Or imagine being in Hungary: immigrants chant Islamic slogans and shout “f*** you” slogans at the police. Or maybe you are worrying about the security threats: two refugees were arrested in an unspecified European country on suspicion of being ISIS members . But hey, let’s focus only on the immigrants and refugees’ perspective; not the impact and dangers they pose to the people whose countries they land up in. At least, that’s the stance of liberals world over. When a stretched Czech police force started writing numbers on the arms of immigrants after detaining them, the Nazi comparisons started. The same comparison was done when Hungary was glad to see the backs of immigrants leaving in trains, this time the comparison was to the Nazi cattle cars. Do

Illegal immigration into Europe continues to make the headlines. Boats full of immigrants capsized. An abandoned van on the Austrian-Hungarian border found with bodies of 71 would-be immigrants. Chaos and riot police at railway stations in Austria and Hungary. The UN estimates that smuggling people into the EU is now a $3 billion a year business . Why exactly is Europe so open to immigrants? Let’s go down in time. After World War II, there was a severe shortage of skilled labourers; hence, laws were enacted throughout Europe to make movement easy for Western European citizens. Next, non-Western immigrant workers were needed and welcomed for the dull and dangerous jobs. But when the economy slowed during the oil crisis of 1973, Europe discovered that the immigrants had settled in: they refused to go back! In the 1970’s, the European Court of Justice expanded the ease of movement to not just workers, but also any Western citizen . Even then, some feared that this would just le