"Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was one of the few men in history to fight simultaneously on moral, religious, political, social, economic, and cultural fronts. During his time as a lawyer in South Africa he developed his strategy of non-violence: the idea of opposing unjust laws by non-violent protest. He led the Indian National Congress party in three major campaigns against British rule, each culminating in his arrest.
In Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction, Bhikhu Parekh outlines both Gandhi's major philosophical insights and the limitations of his thought. Written with extensive access to Gandhi's writings, Parekh looks at Gandhi's cosmocentric anthropology, his spiritual view of politics, and his theories of oppression, non-violent action, and active citizenship. He also considers how the success of Gandhi's principles were limited by his lack of coherent theories of evil, and of state and power. Gandhi's view of man as ascetic allows no room for expressions of the cultural, artistic, or intellectual. Furthermore, he was so hostile to modern civilization that he was unable to appreciate its complex dialectic or offer a meaningful narrative. Nevertheless, Gandhi's life and thought had an enormous impact on the Indian nation, and he continues to be widely revered—known before and after his assassination as Mahatma, the Great Soul."
"The Japanese have two kinds of ghosts in their folklore—the spirits of the dead, and the spirits of the living. This classic of Japanese literature invites you to take your choice if you dare.
In Ghostly Japan collects twelve ghostly stories from Lafcadio Hearn, deathless images of ghosts and goblins, touches of folklore and superstition, salted with traditions of the nation. While some of these stories contain nightmare imagery worthy of a midnight creature feature, others are not ghostly or ghastly at all. 'Bits of Poetry' offers an engaging study on verse, and 'Japanese Buddhist Proverbs' explains the meaning of several aphorisms based on Japanese cultural references.
Whether you're looking to spot the demons that walk among us, or simply to enjoy the prose of a legendary craftsman, In Ghostly Japan affords countless delights. Stories include:
● 'Fragment' about a young pilgrim who encounters a mountain of skulls
● 'Ingwa-banashi' about a dying wife who bequeaths a rival a sinister legacy
● 'A Passional Karma' about a spectral beauty who returns for her handsome samurai lover"
"We are told that in the very beginning, 'Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo not yet divided.' This reminds us of other cosmogony stories. The In and Yo, corresponding to the Chinese Yang and Yin, were the male and female principles. It was more convenient for the old Japanese writers to imagine them coming into creation not very remote from their manner of birth. In Polynesian mythology, we find pretty much the same conception, where Rangi and Papa represented Heaven and Earth, and further parallels may be found in Egyptian and other cosmogony stories. We find the male and female principles taking a prominent, and after all, very rational, place in nearly all. We are told in the Nihongi that these male and female principles 'formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs.' Eventually, this egg was quickened into life, and the purer and clearer part was drawn out and formed Heaven, while the heavier element settled down and became Earth, which was 'compared to the floating of a fish sporting on the surface of the water.' A mysterious form resembling a reed-shoot suddenly appeared between Heaven and Earth, and as suddenly became transformed into a God called Kuni-Toko-Tachi, ('Land-eternal-stand-of-august-thing'). We may pass over the other divine births until we come to the important deities known as Izanagi and Izanami ('Male-who-invites' and 'Female-who-invites'). About these beings has been woven an entrancing myth."
"The story of early Asian immigration to the United States is also one about race legislation and discrimination at a time when global populations were moving with more frequency and merging ahead of their ability to practically assimilate. The greatest involuntary migration in history took place as some 12.5 million black African crossed the Atlantic as slaves.[1] In the New World, the advent of abolition created a knock-on labor crisis that was filled in many instances by contract or indentured labor from India and China while at the same time opportunist migration was taking place from the old cultures of Asia and Europe to the New World and the emerging European colonies.
The first Asian immigrant group to make landfall in North America, besides those that crossed the land bridge many thousands of years ago, were the Chinese. The first documented presence of Chinese in the United States were those that landed in the ship Pallas on August 9, 1785 in the port of Baltimore. The ship was owned and operated by Captain John O’Donnell who sailed her regularly between the East Coast and various ports in China, and this, his last voyage, left his crew stranded in the United States. Three among them were Chinese and thirty-three were lascars whose home ports were scattered across South Asia. O’Donnell married and settled on an estate on the outskirts of Baltimore that he named Canton in fond memory of a lifetime of mercantile engagement with the coast of China. A record exists of a petition to Congress submitted by the three Chinese for funds to return home although not of any monies paid. The fate of the three Chinese and thirty-three lascars is unknown."
"A clear-eyed view of the conflict in Afghanistan and its century-deep roots.
The war in Afghanistan has consumed vast amounts of blood and treasure, causing the Western powers to seek an exit without achieving victory. Seemingly never-ending, the conflict has become synonymous with a number of issues—global jihad, rampant tribalism, and the narcotics trade—but even though they are cited as the causes of the conflict, they are in fact symptoms.
Rather than beginning after 9/11 or with the Soviet 'invasion' in 1979, the current conflict in Afghanistan began with the social reforms imposed by Amanullah Amir in 1919. Western powers have failed to recognize that legitimate grievances are driving the local population to turn to insurgency in Afghanistan. The issues they are willing to fight for have deep roots, forming a hundred-year-long social conflict over questions of secularism, modernity, and centralized power.
The first step toward achieving a 'solution' to the Afghanistan 'problem' is to have a clear-eyed view of what is really driving it."
"The Chinese government has more control over more wealth than any other government in world history. With the Communist Party controlling the 'commanding heights' of the world's second-largest economy, China appears ideally structured to pursue economic statecraft, using economic resources to advance its foreign policy goals. Yet as this book shows, domestic complications frequently constrain Chinese leaders. They have responded with a distinctive approach to economic statecraft: orchestration.
In Orchestration, James Reilly examines the ideas and institutions at the heart of China's approach to economic statecraft, and assesses Beijing's orchestration in four cases: Myanmar, North Korea, Western Europe, and Central/Eastern Europe. China's unique experience as a planned economy, and then a developmental state, all under a single Leninist party, left Chinese leaders with unchallenged authority over their economy. However, despite successfully mobilizing companies, banks, and local officials to rapidly expand trade and investment abroad, Chinese leaders largely failed to influence key policy decisions overseas. For countries around the world, economic engagement with China thus yields more benefits with fewer costs than generally assumed."
"The Korean War is often labeled “the forgotten war,” and though it has received renewed attention in recent years, it still pales compared to others in recent history, like the Vietnam War or even the more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s mostly overlooked is that the Korean War was one of the most intense conflicts the United States fought, and the soldiers who served in it were arguably in greater peril than in any other war over the last 75 years. While the Truman administration and the Chiefs of Staff had a clear plan for the conflict, seemingly everything went horribly wrong once China entered the conflict, and despite the United Nations coalition forces' technological and logistical superiority, they found themselves on the defensive.
The Battle of Chosin Reservoir was a dramatic example of a battle plan gone awry. General Douglas MacArthur had conceived of a triumphant march to the Yalu River, ending the war and uniting Korea. The UN troops, led by the United States, had turned the fight around with the amphibious landing in Inchon, which took place in September 1950.[1] The North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tried to contain the Pusan Perimeter invasion, but they broke through, and before long the coalition troops were headed deep into North Korean territory. Some units had reached the Yalu River, which marks the frontier between North Korea and China. At this point, the mission’s goal was to eliminate the NKPA and reunite Korea under a pro-Western regime, but the forces under MacArthur’s command found themselves surrounded and beleaguered in sub-zero temperatures."
"Of all the many unexplained phenomena, experiences, and objects in the world, the ones that hold a great deal of fascination for most people are known as 'ancient anomalies.'
These are ancient objects by scientific measure but in form or construction that appear to be relatively modern. They are impossible fossils, out-of-time technology, anachronistic artifacts, or even ancient ruins. In other words, if our history of the world is correct, they just should not exist.
Furthermore, there are many examples - many more than geologists, archaeologists, and other scientists care to admit.
Why are they so fascinating? Many reasons.
There are some critical timelines to remember before we start.
11,500 BC is the beginning of the most recent descending Satya Yuga.
11,100 BC is the end of the 400-year transition period (sandhi) from ascending Satya Yuga. 7,100 BC is the beginning of the 400-year transition period (sandhi) to descending Treta Yuga, and 6,700 BC is the end of the most recent descending Satya Yuga."
"ملحمة الانعتاق من الفؤاد والجسد
إنها رواية حب مستحيل فرق القدر بين المحبين، ولكنه لم يفرق بين الأفئدة.
فتاة منحت قلبها وجسدها لحبيب، إلّا أنها نبذته وثارت لكبريائها عندما أدركت أنه ليس لها وحدها.
وعلى الجانب الآخر توصف الكاتبة كفاح الشعب الكوري في مواجهة الاستعمار الياباني.
رواية لن تستطيع الهروب منها
استمع الآن إلى رواية 'باتشينكو' للكاتبة مين جي لي
فقط وحصريًا على تطبيق 'كتاب صوتي'"
"The concept of dualism is well illustrated by the Chinese pantheon. Whether as the result of the co-operation of the yin and the yang or of the final dissolution of P’an Ku, human beings came into existence. To the primitive mind the body and its shadow, an object and its reflection in water, real life and dream life, sensibility and insensibility (as in fainting, etc.), suggest the idea of another life parallel with this life and of the doings of the ‘other self’ in it. This ‘other self,’ this spirit, which leaves the body for longer or shorter intervals in dreams, swoons, death, may return or be brought back, and the body revive. Spirits which do not return or are not brought back may cause mischief, either alone, or by entry into another human or animal body or even an inanimate object and should therefore be propitiated. Hence worship and deification."
"ശിലായുഗകാലം മുതല് ക്രിസ്തുവര്ഷം 1500 വരെയുള്ള കേരളത്തിന്റെ സമഗ്രമായ സാമൂഹിക-സാംസ്കാരിക-രാഷ്ട്രീയ-സാമ്പത്തിക ചരിത്രം. പ്രാക് ചരിത്രം, ആദ്യകാല കുടിയേറ്റക്കാര്, ചേരന്മാരുടെ വരവ്, പാണ്ഡ്യന്മാരുടെ സമുദ്രാധിപത്യം,ബ്രാഹ്മണ കുടിയേറ്റവും ബ്രാഹ്മണമേധാവിത്വവും, പെരുമാള്വാഴ്ചയ്ക്കിടയായ സാഹചര്യം, ചോളമേധാവിത്വം, സാമൂതിരി യുഗം തുടങ്ങിയ വിഷയങ്ങള്ക്കു പുറമേ യഹൂദ ക്രിസ്ത്യന് മുസ്ലിം കുടിയേറ്റങ്ങള്, ജാതികളുടെ ഉല്പത്തി, ജീവിതരീതികള്, ആചാരങ്ങള്, മതങ്ങള് തുടങ്ങിയ കാര്യങ്ങളും നവീനമായ കാഴ്ചപ്പാടോടെ അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ചരിത്രരേഖ."
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