Posted on 03/08/2007 4:03:42 PM PST by voletti
"Yeah, Wall St. and Goldman Sachs are never wrong are they?"
Right or wrong only time will tell but their assesment is more qualified them mine. I am more conservative in my estimates. India and China are now where America was at the begining of the last century. And this time its not just Japan alone (as in the 70s) but the rise of Asia including India, China, Japan and South East Asia combined.
India has a stronger concept of the individual than China. Check out the lives of the Buddha, Gandhi, etc. etc.
Phenomenal, given Sweden's tiny population.
But Kamprad actually ranks 4th in the world, at $28 Billion, behind the USA's Bill Gates ($50 Billion) and Warren Buffet ($40 Billion), and even slightly behind Mexico's Carlos Slim Helú of Telmex Company ($30 Billion).
Of course, all these gentlemen are midgets compared to the Titan, John D. Rockefeller -- who was worth approximately 2% of the total Gross Domestic Product of the United States at his peak. IOW, something on the order of $250 Billion dollars in today's money.
Take a look at the one who is ranked fifth rank on that list ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal
Again and again you confirm my notion that a lot of people with Indian roots simply refuse to accept reality as it is.
Simply put, their inferiority complex in the domains of cultural achievements, science, art and technology has led to a chauvinist obsession with the idea that India is the "mother" of all religions/civilizations/sciences/blablabla.
India did indeed develop a sort of civilization long before people did in the north of Europe, that's true, but it never really got off to a start.
It's easy to put forth wild theories about Indian mathematicians inventing this or that mathematical concept, but the lack of any substantial OUTCOME of these - presumtive - groundbreaking discoveries/innovations prooves that India never has been as dynamic as 19th century Britain or Renaissance Italy.
Concerning your stern belief in the importance and magnitude of ancient Indian mathematicians, It would be interesting to hear you comment on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Indian_mathematics
The same thing with linguistics. Some genius comes along and claim that "Navigare" comes directly from a Sanskrit word and uncritically, you swallow the bait.
Just because there are evident ties between Latin and Sanskrit doesen't mean that Latin is a "product" of Sanskrit or that Roman culture owed it existence to Indian culture like you seem to believe. Sooner, Sanskrit and Latin both are offsprings from a common source which we presently can not track.
While intelligent scholars and scientists work on a daily basis with these issues in universities and elsewhere, people like you have deliberately chosen to put faith in the theoretical Sackgasse and intellectual cul-de-sac consisting in the populist scam theory that India simply is "the mother" of all civilizations.
If India is that superior, why for instance has the European (mainly Greek) art of sculpture influenced Indian sculpture so much more than the other way around?
This is just one single example.
We could look at architecture and ask what India has done for the develpoment of say, the cupola. Is there any chhatris that can compete with the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore by Brunelleschi?
But of course he too went to India...
It isn't difficult to see why these, loose, unfounded, revisionist speculations are so popular among people of Indian descent and hinduphile New Age weirdos of the West.
It's all about inferiority complex and uncritical preparedness to go along with any putative authority that tells you what you wish to hear about "Mother India".
A patriotic sentiment is a natural and often benign approach to many issues. Blind cultural chauvinism on the other hand leads to mental constipation and hinders intellectual development on an individual as well as cultural level.
The widespread awareness of this truth is what separates the members of a high culture from a wannabe high culture.
This discussion in realtion to the article about Indian Mathematics is revealing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Indian_mathematics
The advocates of these theory haven't got much evidence.
It's all chauvinist speculations and interpretations.
Being Scandinavian I could easily CLAIM that the Vikings invented the compass before the Chinese. There are evidence,
Oops.
Seems I was in a hurry posting my comment.
Never mind the last part of the above reply beginning with the words:
"This discussion in realtion to the article.."
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