Move to Split Electoral Votes Proves Divisive (WSJ)

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Board Games | Shoba Narayan

It is a simple game involving five pebbles of medium size. We called it Anchangal (five stones), but it could well have been played with 10 or 11 stones. It took a little practice and there was scope for improvement. You started by throwing one pebble up in the air and picked up another pebble while it fell. Then you graduated to picking up two pebbles while one was in the air; then three and more. You could throw two pebbles up in the air and attempt to pick up an equal number. It took concentration and hand-eye coordination. It absorbed my friends and me for hours when we were children.

Most often, we played it on hot summer afternoons at my grandmother?s house when the adults slept. But the game, which required little more than a flat surface and five stones, could be played in railway compartments, waiting rooms and balconies. We spent a lot of time foraging for the right-sized pebbles and cowrie shells to add to the game?s toolkit.

An excellent website called?Traditionalgames.in?has a video clip showing how the game is played. Other websites devoted to traditional games conjecture that this simple game spread through the Silk Route to Turkey, Spain and Korea, where it is called Besh Dash, Payana and Gonggi, respectively. Having played it for years, I can attest that it does indeed improve eyesight, concentration and motor skills. In fact, I have restarted playing it now because it is?like doodling?a great stress buster and a harbinger of the elusive muse that only surfaces when you are distracted or in a Zen state of mind.

India is home to many of the world?s most ancient games, including Pachisi, which was exported to England, recreated into Ludo, and then returned to India to be played by many a child during the summer holidays. ?Nowadays, Indian children play Ludo completely oblivious to the fact that it is a monstrous decomposition of their own fantastic board game,? said Irving Finkel in?Time?magazine in 2008. Finkel, who works at The British Museum, is an authority on board games, including the Royal Game of Ur, widely considered to be the oldest board game in existence.

India?s contribution to board games is extensive, as documented by Finkel, R. Vasantha and V. Balambal, all of whom are experts on the topic. In speeches and reports, Vasantha describes some of the more interesting indoor games such as Mancala, Tigers and Goats, and Single Track. Balambal, who specializes in the indoor games of Tamil Nadu, is mentioned in Levingston?s Board Game Blog (http://boardgameblog.wordpress.com/) along with Nirbed Ray and Amitabha Ghosh, who have edited a hard-to-find book called?Sedentary Games of India, published by The Asiatic Society, Kolkata. Anyone interested in how board games were created, spread and played should read these blogs.

My favourite game used to be Snakes and Ladders, but now I find that it too is a monstrous translation of the original Indian version. In 1860, a Harvard dropout named Milton Bradley created a board game called The Checkered Game of Life or Life, as it was popularly called. In the game, the players simulated their travels through life with jobs, children, education and hurdles. The Game of Life was arguably America?s first parlour game, and certainly its most popular.

Bradley may have popularized the game but he borrowed its ideas from many an ancient culture, including India, where this checkerboard and the accompanying game were called by various names:jnana chaupar,?gyan chaupar, and?parama pada sopanam?(steps to the highest place). Originating around 1200, this game had squares called houses and four players whose movements were dictated by the throw of dice. It was thought to be excellent preparation for the victories and vicissitudes of life with all its glorious vagaries. Players took on personas, and if they were virtuous, they climbed the ladder. Fortunes changed with the throw of a dice, which brought along winds of change. If you were unlucky, you were swallowed by a snake and had to go down several steps. But don?t fear, was the underlying message: After every snake came a ladder; after falling down, you would go up.

The main thing was to maintain equanimity because the game had no clear winner. All that mattered was to reach the top of the board and everyone would. The original game didn?t have the ?winner-take-all? strategy that became part of its Western avatar. Rather, it was heavily imbued with the Hindu notion of?maya?or illusion that translated into ladders of success and snakes of failure, both of which were part of the game of life.

Traditional Indian games are being revived through companies such as Chennai-based Kreeda, Mysore-based Kreedaa Kaushalya and others. I became interested in ancient Indian board games after listening to Jill Lepore?s excellent lecture on ?The Meaning of Life?. Say, you are an elementary schoolteacher and you want to teach your students the meaning of life with all its ups and downs, what do you do? Perhaps you should play Snakes and Ladders with them, not the modern version but the original Indian version.

Shoba Narayan is looking to buy a Gyan Chaupar board. Write to her at thegoodlife@livemint.com

Source: http://shobanarayan.com/2013/01/25/board-games/

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Medical aid group: Thousands flee Congo fighting

GOMA, Congo (AP) ? Thousands of people are without access to medical care and their lives at risk after they fled fighting between the army and a local militia in southeastern Congo in recent days, Doctors Without Borders said Friday.

The exodus from villages and into the bush follows an army operation that started two weeks ago in Katanga province against loyalists of Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga, a local warlord who escaped in a mass prison break in 2011 while serving a conviction of crimes against humanity.

Doctors Without Borders said thousands of people can no longer access its medical facilities, most children in its nutrition programs have left, and a measles vaccination campaign has been suspended ? just as malaria cases spike with the onset of the rainy season.

The group said it wasn't clear how many people had fled, but a string of villages had emptied.

"The population is really afraid. The clashes have brought back a lot of terrible memories for these people. There have been rumors about troops' movement and people fled into the bush," said Anne Marie Loof, a worker with the international aid group who recently came back from a mission in the region.

Between 2003 and 2006, Gedeon's militia burned and pillaged countless villages, was behind hundreds of killings, and provoked the displacement of more than 150,000 people in the area ? since nicknamed the "Triangle of Death" by some locals.

He was arrested in 2006 and convicted of crimes against humanity in a landmark trial for Congolese justice three years later.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/medical-aid-group-thousands-flee-congo-fighting-165858656.html

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Taxes: Why do the super-rich crib so much? | Firstpost

Being rich is good. Being rich is no offence. But being rich without putting in any effort raises moral questions. Because riches ultimately translate into better advantages, better opportunities and better access to community resources for its holder. These make the equation between the person who works hard for it and the one who does not unequal. These queer what should be a level playing field in the economic sphere.

The concept of legacy, from this perspective, has unfairness built into it. This applies to politics as well as economy. The family-centric political parties in India leave the heirs of the leaders with a unique advantage. They ease into the leadership positions without competition from within. However, in case of politics the legacy issue is far more intricate than meets the eye. In case of the economy, it?s rather straightforward. It?s akin to someone winning a lottery.

Tax talk. Andrew Midddleton/Flickr

While no one can grudge the rights of a man to win a lottery or holding on to the money, it is only fair that a small amount of the money earned by stroke of luck be claimed by the state for redistribution among the less lucky ones. Governments do that and there?s hardly any opposition. Taxation, aimed at redistribution of wealth, has a moral purpose too. Morality is precisely the reason why inherited wealth must be taxed too. That?s what makes the opposition to the inheritance tax proposed by economists untenable.

?I believe in stable tax rates. However, I must concede that there is an argument, underline the word argument, that when the economy requires, when the government requires more resources and the very rich should willingly pay a little more,?? said Finance Minister P Chidambaram today. It was almost a plea to the super-rich to contribute a bit more to the country, if not by way of inheritance tax, by way of something else.

Not long ago, he had dropped the inheritance tax idea softly, triggering a debate on it. ??Have we paid little attention to accumulation of wealth in few hands? I am still hesitant to talk about inter-generational equity and therefore inheritance tax. I think these are the questions we should debate,? he had said, addressing a National Institute for Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) function.

The reaction to it was sharp from the super-rich and there were hints of blackmail too. Industry captains tried to forestall any such move by cautioning the government that such a move would discourage entrepreneurship and businessmen would be forced to move their wealth to tax havens abroad. They claimed the move would dent the confidence of the investor community in India besides encouraging generation of black money.

The reaction was similar when the the government tried to introduce GAAR (General Anti Avoidance Rules) with a view to increasing tax collections and curtail circulation of black money in the economy. The GAAR norms introduced by the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee targeted at the foreign investors and companies routing money through tax havens like Mauritius and evading taxes. Industry captains were livid at the proposal. The argument followed the usual theme: investors would get scared away, and there would harassment of investors by tax authorities. The opposition forced Finance Minister P Chidambaram to push implementation of GAAR to 2016.

Interestingly, inheritance tax is not about the entire business class. It is about a miniscule section comprising the super-rich. Why wouldn?t this section pay a bit more? And, why would investment in the country be treated as a tool of blackmail whenever the government proposes to tax the rich? Coming back to the morality question, while others are working hard to make their millions, why should one section be allowed feed off the success of their parents and have an unequal advantage?

The process of growth in the last two decades has led to levels of inequality in the country that is unacceptable. There disparity in wealth between the rich and the others has just gone bigger. It has grave social consequences. The government has to be mindful of that. It cannot be seen as the partner of the rich in wealth accumulation. To appear more even-handed, Finance Minister Chidambaram must go ahead with the inheritance tax.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/economy/taxes-why-do-the-super-rich-crib-so-much-601266.html

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Zuckerberg To Fundraise For Gov. Christie, Republican Who Criticized His Own Party

Facebook founder and business celebrity Mark Zuckerberg will be hosting a high-profile fundraiser at his Palo Alto home for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a.k.a "The Boss." The two allegedly became political BFF's after appearing on Oprah together with Newark Mayor, Cory Booker, who received an extraordinary $100M donation from Zuckerberg to improve the city's schools. The fundraiser is especially notable since Christie has gone on some some epic rants against his own party, meaning that the fundraiser is not a clear win for the Republican establishment as a whole, which historically hasn't gotten much financial love from Silicon Valley.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V7zabvyol7w/

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Coordinated Health opening women's center - Lehigh Valley Health ...

January 24, 2013

Posted by Tim Darragh at 10:15:36 AM on January 24, 2013

The Lehigh Valley's newest health care facility specifically for women is hosting an open house this evening.

Coordinated Health, the integrated hospital network, is welcoming the public to visit its new Women?s Health facility at 1405 Cedar Crest Blvd., Suite 201, South Whitehall Township, this evening from 6-8 p.m. The center is just north of the Route 22 interchange at Cedar Crest.

Gynecologists Bruce Viechnicki, Gayllyn Faust Rakos, and Deborah Villeneuve will provide a full range of care throughout the spectrum of a woman?s life, from adolescent gynecology through menopausal management and geriatric medicine, Coordinated Health said in a news release.

Cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon Gregg Guilfoyle also will be on staff, it said. He will offer several same-day procedures such as Botox, Juvederm, and VASER Shape in addition to traditional cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures for both men and women, it said. He also will work closely with Coordinated Health?s breast care team to perform breast reconstruction.

?We are very excited about our new women?s health facility and the convenience we can now offer the community by having gynecology and plastic, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery all under one roof,? said Director of Medical Physician Services Heidi Signore.

Visitors this evening can receive free osteoporosis and cancer screenings and enter for a chance to win more than $1,000 in free cosmetic services.

For more information on gynecology or cosmetic, plastic and reconstructive surgery, visit www.coordinatedhealth.com or call Coordinated Health?s Solution Center at (877) 247-8080.

Current Comments

So this full service facility will help murder more innocent lives at the behest of social convenience. 55 million and counting.

Who said the German Holocaust was bad...it was only 6 or so million.

Posted By: Moses | Jan 24, 2013 7:54:15 PM

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Source: http://blogs.mcall.com/health/2013/01/coordinated-health-opening-womens-center.html

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