The Republic of India has just put up with the latest of a series of violent affronts to its peace and propriety. It appears th at reports of the incident tended to be from members of the elite upper/middle classes, upset with threats to their elite way of life; less was said about the poor who perished.
Discussing with a friend, the nature of press and broadcast coverage of the Bombay invasion, and further background matters in India, I was told the following ....
.... the wealhy middle classes in India do often have both personal home guards - at least one of whom will accompany any member of the family venturing out, even if it's only to buy milk; have whole armouries of weapons within the home. Indeed, I visited the homes of such people and a favourite was to have what seemed like modern wood panelling wihin the home. Only they would know where the spring releases were for certain panels which opened to reveal sub-machine guns, rifles, grenades, pistols, semi-automatics and ammunition galore. They all had cameras all over the place feeding images on to a centralised computer system, so in the event there was any attack upon the house they could tune in to any section of the house and grounds. Many of the homes employed not only two or three guards at the gatehouse 23-hrs a day but also one to specifically guard the roof by night (the latter mostly in urban areas where they deemed people might come across from neighbouring buildings). How or why should those people be crying out for protection from the government? Perhaps their arms are unregistered so they cry out in the hope of gaining a legitimacy for their weaponry?
.....
to which I commented:
good heavens!
is there any track record indicating how many times such provisions have come in useful?
whom do they fear? dacoits? tax inspectors?
in how many countries does this kind of thing go on?
where are the blessed places where it is not (yet) necessary?
IF UK keeps its nose clean, then it may be that this continues as one of the "hidden" reasons why rich non-UKers want to bring their money here ...
(occasionally)
we don't really offer much else in terms of manufacturing xmas toys, mid-range electronics, usefully carbon neutral ways of delivering energy or motion ....
...but although London is in many ways a terrible mess, one can still buy a nice old fashioned copy of Wind in the Willows (printed in Singapore or somewhere far away) and newer legends (something post-Potter) spring up to add to them ...
... there is also an "industry" of recycling UK soap opera sets - one can now occupy someone called Norah Batty's house (not a real person, but a TV character) in Yorkshire
Another 'export' we could offer (no charge) is that of a spare Prince; would Prince Harry see fit to stand for Monarch of Australia? Elective monarchy was the system in early (pun not intended) Saxon England, and in mediaval Poland (lots of websites to look at...) - the Doggies of Venice were (sort of) elected monarchs as is the Pope - it's not a bad system (and looking at the monsters who occupy "popularly elected" ? presidential positions - Mugabe anyone? Bush? - it could hardly be worse...)
could Australia take to a 'refreshed' monarchy? - I wouldn't be surprised ...
... the idea needs to be positively reported (little chance, since the corps of journalists seem to t hink that viewing the world is much the same as ruling it, and resent glamorous interlopers ...)
...might it do well for India to find a "super-Rajah"?
(where, is a problem we could disentangle ...just give me the nod and I
will provide suggestions)
Pakistan would prefer a Caliph I've no doubt - which would stand in the way of a re-union of the subcontinent ...from the Bhutto dynasty?
er - North Korea seems to have a de facto monarchy - lets not drag in that example ...let alone the American tendencies to consider repeating Bushes, Kennedys, ...
... I wonder what the results might be of an international poll exploring degree of respect for Heads of State in - a range of a few score countries ...
Gallup does these things ....any other agencies? might one find a way of doing it on the internet? publishing results would make quite a good article or doc programme ..
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