What Is Inflation And What Contributes To Its Rise, The Kerala Story, Gauri Lankesh And Dahaad
For a change we start with economics!
By now you have heard the word inflation at least a few times (if not gazillion times). And it is apparently rising as you might have again noticed people rumble under their breath. But what is this inflation and what contributes to its rise?
You see, a long long time ago, a time before the reign of great kings and queens, economies were incredibly local. Villages or human habitations as they were were self-sustaining. Meaning whatever people in a region needed for their consumption, was either cultivated around them or a nearby forest or river provided the same. And among themselves people exchanged goods. If you had something I desired and I had something you desired then we would strike out a bargain amongst ourselves. Easy peasy barter system what they called it. But then slowly things started to expand. You wanted something which your region or village did not produce. Or one who had what you needed did not require what you possessed which made the old world of exchanging goods complicated. And somewhere down the line, a cool guy came up with the concept of money. You now could exchange anything with one thing called money or currency. It hugely simplified the whole business of getting or selling items. NPR had a really nice podcast explaining this transition. Read their pitch and do listen.
When you look back at the history of money, you see long periods of time when everything is stable. Then there are these moments when everything just goes bananas and you see massive, dramatic changes in this really short period of time.
For example: John Law was a convicted murderer on the lam when he showed up in France in the early 1700s. In the space of just a few years, he created an entire modern economy — banks, paper money, a stock boom. (Also, he became one of the richest people in the world.)
The story of John Law tells us a lot about how finance still works — and also how it can blow up the world.
— The Murderer, The Boy King, And The Invention Of Modern Finance
Getting back to inflation, you might have noticed how a thing that cost x amount of money starts costing x plus some amount over the course of time. You could understand this effect as either a price of an item increasing by a certain percentage or, and this is an interesting bit, the value of the money you hold decreasing. As in, a hundred-dollar bill yesterday could get you x kilos of an item but today it fetches only x minus a certain amount. The same amount of money buys you less amount of goods as time passes by. And so inflation is a persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decrease in the purchasing power of money. The rate at which this increase occurs is expressed as a percentage over a period of time, usually a year. But what causes a rise in prices or inflation?
Economists say that inflation is just too much money chasing too few goods.
But something else can make inflation stick around.
If you think of the 1970s, the last time the U.S. had really high sustained inflation, a big concern was rising wages. Prices for goods and services were high. Workers expected prices to be even higher next year, so they asked for pay raises to keep up. But then companies had to raise their prices more. And then workers asked for raises again. This the so-called wage-price spiral.
So when prices started getting high again in 2021, economists and the U.S. Federal Reserve again worried that wage increases would become a big problem. But, it seems like the wage-price spiral hasn't happened. In fact wages, on average, have not kept up with inflation.
There are now concerns about a totally different kind of spiral: a profit-price spiral.
— What has been driving inflation? Economists' thinking may have changed
I would highly suggest you listen to the above podcast but for some reason if you cannot, here’s a short summary.
Some Economists now suggest that inflation is also caused by corporates’ greed to keep their huge profits intact despite any issues that might have propped up during production or consumption. So inflation then becomes a factor of wages of employees plus the profits a corporation pockets. For instance, we generally think the price of an item is arrived at by factoring in the cost of raw materials that might have gone into producing it and the wages of employees who would have worked to produce this item plus some profit/reward for the boss for deciding to produce such an item. But what if this boss now decides to reward himself with a significantly high share of the profit? Generally, the price of a product would then rise meaning the consumer who wants this product would have to dole out more money than he used to. His wages are not increasing but the hole in his pocket sure is. And this product could be anything from daily bread to milk to electronic items to clothes to just anything. And when prices of essential goods rise in this manner, you end up saving less and less. And all this spiralling transpires because of who?
Now Some Trivia
Exactly a year ago today (May 17), LIC was listed in the stock market. Its market capitalisation then stood at Rs 5.48 lakh crore. Today, this is down to Rs 3.59 lakh crore—a fall of a whopping 35%! There is only one reason for this steep fall—Modani. In the process, lakhs and lakhs of policyholders have taken a serious hit.
If you weren’t aware, LIC has heavily invested in Adani stocks which took a tremendous fall recently. We touched upon this matter in some detail previously.
Before we get to a movie matter and get ourselves in some dirt, let me recommend a feel-good and beautifully made movie with Tom Hanks - A Man Called Otto.
It’s available on Netflix. The trailer doesn’t show the brilliance of the movie. Can I at least then ask you to play the first five minutes of the movie? It starts with a clever scene!
Now to the slimy matter.
The Kerala Story is Different from The Kashmir Files
A Muslim friend of mine saw Kerala Story on the first weekend of its release and posted his views on his Instagram. I was surprised he went and saw the movie to begin with. Of the limited conversations we have had, he appeared to me as sensible and one who followed the news to at least know what the movie was about and also know about the mega distortion of facts. Instead, he didn’t just see the movie but also praised it and encouraged his followers to go and see it too. He praised it on the grounds that the story was real and that the larger weight of it was against ISIS and indoctrination. While I haven’t personally seen the movie but at this point, the movie being against ISIS and how it is a story about the indoctrination of youth into joining the terror outfit, is often repeated by those who want others to go watch the movie. And I don’t think anyone disagrees with the issue that ISIS is an evil entity and anyone joining this organization is a threat to everyone. And any movie made in this regard would be helpful in fighting its indoctrination. Since no one is denying these facts or no one is coming out in support of ISIS, to repeat these facts that everyone agrees with already but also to carefully not address those that a large chunk disagrees with is a cleverly orchestrated yet cunning dishonesty.
In its teaser, released in November, an actress had claimed that her character was one among 32,000 women from the state who had joined Islamic terror groups.
But after criticism and legal challenges, the makers updated the film's description on YouTube to the "compilation of the true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala".
— BBCPlus, more people from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamilnadu have joined ISIS than Kerala, how fair then is it to name it after a state where this clearly isn’t a major problem. If makers really wanted to name it after an Indian state for some reason than clearly Uttar Pradesh fitted the bill compared to Kerala because more people from UP had joined ISIS than Kerala.
Try to think of it. Would you be okay if a movie was made that said Hindus had murdered 30000 thousand fellow Hindus because they spoke out against black magic and bad practices in the Hindu faith? You would say such a movie was targeting Hindus and spreading lies, right? The argument that movies are works of fiction and every story writer should have the liberty to tell their story wouldn’t cut it for you. Correct? But like Kerala Story, Hindus have indeed killed people for this. Murders of Gauri Lankesh, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi happed only recently than those ISIS events. Would you go watch a movie that claimed 30000 RSS men were caught spying for Pakistan and passing national secrets to ISI? All hell would break loose if anyone made such a movie, right? But only last month another RSS man was arrested for exactly such a crime. And this is not the first time people from RSS have been caught in these cases. Forget these exaggerations. Would you support a movie that showed the king of the Hindu gods being venerated despite molesting a wife of a rishi? Absolutely not. But why? Lord Indra who even today remains the king of gods molested Lady Ahilya. His kingship was not stripped for the act. Why should I run into myths; Muzaffar Nagar Baki Hai based on the Muzaffar Nagar riots, Firaaq based on the Gujarat pogrom, what are these? These are movies based on real events and steeped in facts but they were banned. I’m not talking about the BBC documentary because apparently, The Kerala Story is valid since it was passed by the censor board. The movies I mentioned were also passed by the censor board. And still banned by the state because the majority community objected to them. And these are the same people who objected to the saffron bikini in Pathaan but they are not opposing Kerala Story despite a character bad-mouthing the Hindu religion and gods in the movie. Why? Because those abuses are uttered by a Muslim character wearing a hijab. I saw some using this clip to attack Muslims when the makers of the movie, writers, director and producer are all Hindus. These abuses of the Hindu faith then first originated in a brain of a Hindu. This vile language and abuse is not a product of a Muslim mind but a Hindu mind. And these Hindus then decided to parrot this abuse from a mouth of Muslim characters. Why? Why did they find the need to abuse the Hindu faith? This abuse is not based on any real events. It is imaginative and this vile imagination was born inside a Hindu brain.
Speaking of Kashmir Files, the charge against that movie was how it carefully omitted one side and perpetuated a dangerous bias against a community when ground realities were different. But the entire storyline was indeed based in Kashmir and whatever facts, contended or otherwise, were also the facts concerning Kashmir. And so at its minimum, there was not any disagreement regarding its name. It was distorted and heavily biased and one could without doubt say was a piece of propaganda but it was nonetheless the story of Kashmir. On the other hand, Kerala Story is not the story of Kerala. Above arguments in favour of watching the movie nowhere mention the point that Kerala is sitting on a timebomb as the movie claims. Makers of the movie have conceded in court now that not 33000 as they claimed but only three women from Kerala joined ISIS (in reality it was at least 6 and of whom only one was a Hindu woman and unlike as shown in the movie she never wanted to come back or show regret of joining or changed her mind about ISIS). I could go on but Dhruv Rathi has done an excellent job of explaining these inconsistencies and deliberate errors along with the larger malice or aim of these movie makers. I request you watch this explainer even if you know the movie is a bunch of lies for Dhruv also explains and points out the larger sinister design of these things.
Some More Trivia
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and his actress-wife Pallavi Joshi, who made the movie 'The Kashmir Files', have jointly bought a premium residential apartment in Versova locality of Mumbai’s Andheri suburb for Rs 17.92 crores. For the unversed, 'The Kashmir Files' was a huge success at the box office. The movie, which was made with a budget of Rs 15-20 crore, recorded a worldwide collection of over Rs 340 crore. - TOI
Blood Money is Money gained at the expense/suffering of others.
Have you seen Schindler’s List? It’s a movie based on the nazi holocaust. Like Kashmir files, it is based on the tragedies of other people. (Sorry for the crime of comparing Kashmir Files with Schindler’s List). Unlike the Agnihotri couple, Steven Spielberg who made Schindler’s List did not accept any of the earnings he made from the film.
Instead, Spielberg gave away the money to strengthen the Jewish community and to further commitments to Holocaust education. He planned to donate his money before he worked on Schindler’s List.
“As I said to Sid Sheinberg, my mentor, I could not accept any money from ‘Schindler’s List’ — if it even made any money. It was blood money, and needed to be put back into the Jewish community,” Spielberg explained during an interview.
Spielberg mentions that he is glad to have made Schindler’s List, and he hopes people in the future will learn from the movie. He directed the film to share a story and promote tolerance rather than make money.
Did You Know?
Whales can absorb and store carbon dioxide. And well, school definitely taught us that CO2 isn’t the friendliest of gases for our planet. It warms the atmosphere and leads to a gradual rise in global temperature. So while we’re busy talking about renewable energy and planting more trees, we ignore one crucial element in this picture — the role of whales and other wildlife in combating climate change.
You see, whale poop is rich in nutrients like iron, phosphorus and nitrogen. And these are exactly the kind of nutrients that phytoplankton such as ocean algae need to spur growth. Now guess who produces more than half of the world’s oxygen? Phytoplankton, of course! And they’re not just great at producing all this O2, they’re also quite brilliant at absorbing CO2. Yup, it’s equivalent to having 4 Amazon rainforests for this very reason.
So if you draw out the equation, it tells you that if we have more whales, we’ll have more phytoplankton, and ergo, we can remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It’s called the ‘whale pump’.
Remember Gauri Lankesh?
She was shot dead outside her home in Bangalore by Hindutva terrorists. Police investigation now points out that these were the same people who had previously killed rationalists Narendra Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Pansare. Incidentally, Gauri in her last public address said,
“We had UR Ananthamurthy, Kalburgi, my own father P Lankesh, Purna Chandra Tejaswi, all these people. They were all trenchant critics of Jawaharlal Nehru, of Indira Gandhi, of Rajiv Gandhi. But none of them were ever physically attacked, let alone [receiving] death threats.”
But the brainwashing or propaganda mills had begun their work long ago against her. A new video of Gauri Lankesh’s speech that her assassins used to whip up hate has now surfaced.
In 2016, Amol Kale, a member of the Hindu fundamentalist group Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, forwarded a video of a woman speaking at a public forum in Mangaluru to other members of the group. The woman, in a cream kurta with maroon motifs on it, was Gauri Lankesh, a fiery journalist from Karnataka. In the video, Gauri is seen questioning the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, a fundamentalist group, over an attack. "The Hindu Jagarana Vedike claims to have done this to protect Hindu culture and Hindu dharma. I ask them, what is your Hindu dharma? Who fostered Hindu religion?” she asked. "This is a religion without a father or mother. There is no good scripture in this. Until the British came here and named it, there was no name for it. Is this even a religion?" she said to cheers from the listening audience.
Gauri Lankesh made this speech in August 2012, over five years before she was gunned down outside her residence in Bengaluru. Investigators in the journalist’s murder case now say this was a crucial part of the plot to kill her — the murderers and their conspirators had convinced themselves that this speech was the reason they wanted to kill Gauri.
The video it appears was doctored or clipped from its context.
In her speech, Gauri’s criticism of Hinduism stems from her belief that women are institutionally discriminated against under Hinduism. "It is a system where a few are venerated and the rest are considered inferior. The women in particular are considered second class… We don’t need this religion. We have the Constitution and that is our religion," she said in the speech.
According to one of the investigators, who asked to remain anonymous, the police found the video of this speech on the cell phone of one of the conspirators. It showed a five-minute clip of a half-hour speech by Gauri Lankesh. The makers of the video put an overlay at the beginning of the video which read: Why I hate secularism in India.
According to the chargesheet filed by the investigating police, Amol Kale, the alleged mastermind of the murder, used this video to mobilise his co-conspirators, including the man who eventually shot Gauri — Parashuram Waghmore. As reported by TNM earlier, Amol showed this video clip to the secret group he had put together to ‘save Hindu dharma’, more than a year before Gauri was killed. He told the group that she must be killed for her anti-Hindu views. “If she is allowed to talk like this, she will cause bad opinions to be formed about Hinduism in society,” Amol had said as per the chargesheet in the case.
Investigating officers say that the video appeared to have influenced the killers’ decision to target Gauri, many of whom were also involved in the murders of three other prominent thinkers — Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and MM Kalburgi.
This is corroborated by the contents of a diary recovered from the home of Amol Kale. The diary contained two lists, ostensibly of people the conspirators wanted dead. Gauri’s name was second on one of the lists which had the names of prominent personalities including the rationalist KS Bhagwan, playwright Girish Karnad, poet Chandrashekar Patil or Champa, and priest Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swamiji of the Nidumamidi math, all of whom were outspoken in their criticism of Hindutva.
But it was Gauri Lankesh who was targeted for murder before the others on the list, and the group was planning to target rationalist KS Bhagwan in 2018, when the investigating police arrested them.
Lots of seriousness and gore? Well, I have a perfect video for unwinding. Kejriwal narrates a story of a king in the Delhi assembly!
That’s all for this one.
There’s a lot of heat everywhere. Do remember to drink water frequently and keep yourself hydrated, also remain in the shade as much as possible and avoid the sun during noon time.
Oh, don’t miss Dahaad
Dahaad, on Prime Video, isn’t telling the Rajasthan story. It’s telling the India story, where real and complex crimes against women jostle for attention with false alarms and politically-motivated fearmongering. Created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, the series walks a razor’s edge between depicting the plight of its victims and damning the right of consenting adults to do as they please. There is an obvious villain—a serial killer who lures unsuspecting women online—yet the makers constantly point to a society that enables the exploitation of young girls in the name of ‘protecting’ them.
Dahaad is based on a real story, not from Rajasthan but from Karnataka. The following note about the real incident has spoilers so refrain from reading if you are yet to watch the show.
In the autumn of 2009, a school teacher Mohan Kumar was arrested from a small village on the outskirts of Mangaluru. Dressed in plain formal clothes, the modest-looking man would teach physical education to primary classes in South Karnataka. He was a family man living a middle-class life with no reason for anyone to suspect.
When the gruesome murders of 20 women were uncovered and linked to each other, the police tracked down the serial killer and found it to be the unlikely Mohan Kumar. Shortly after, the story of the serial killer spread and he came to be known as ‘Cyanide Mohan’, for he would elope with women in their mid-20s or early 30s and give them contraceptive pills laced with cyanide and ask them to take it in a public toilet before they went ahead to marry. A few hours later, their dead bodies would be recovered from the public toilets.