Friday, June 04, 2021

Quick notes: Indigenous children | Future warfare...

  • Victims of Church in Canada: Some 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families during this period (1874-1996) and placed in state-run boarding schools. When attendance became mandatory in the 1920s, parents faced threat of prison if they failed to comply. The policy traumatized generations of Indigenous children, who were forced to abandon their native languages, speak English or French and convert to Christianity.

    Christian churches were essential in the founding and operation of the schools. The Roman Catholic Church in particular was responsible for operating up to 70% of residential schools. "It was our government's policy to 'get rid of the Indian' in the child. It was a breakdown of self, the breakdown of family, community and nation."


  • Low-Cost Turkish Drones Reshape Battlefields and Geopolitics: Smaller militaries around the world are deploying inexpensive missile-equipped drones against armored enemies, a new battlefield tactic that proved successful last year in regional conflicts, shifting the strategic balance around Turkey and Russia.

    Drones built in Turkey with affordable digital technology wrecked tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as air-defense systems, of Russian protégés in battles waged in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan. These drones point to future warfare being shaped as much by cheap but effective fighting vehicles as expensive ones with the most advanced technology.

    China, too, has become a leading war drone exporter to the Middle East and Africa. Iran-linked groups in Iraq and Yemen used drones to attack Saudi Arabia. At least 10 countries, from Nigeria to the United Arab Emirates, have used drones purchased from China to kill adversaries, defense analysts say.


  • How India subsidizes healthcare in UK and USA: A BBC report commented that there were 'fewer than 10 doctors per 10,000 people and in some states that figure is less than five'. The BBC chose not to mention that the UK's National Health Service has about 26,000 doctors of Indian origin who received their medical degrees in India.

    An article in the New Yorker magazine mentioned that 'India has nine doctors for every ten thousand people -- about half the global average, and only a third as many as the US'. There are about one million physicians of Indian origin in the US, most of whom received their medical education in India but there was no mention of that number. Significant numbers of nurses of Indian origin are also settled in the US and the UK


  • Pharmacy of the world: “The govt knew the companies’ production capacities and should have foreseen the need to ramp up manufacturing. Others did exactly this”.



  • Lancet Study - Pfizer Far Less Effective For Delta Variant: People fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are likely to have more than five times lower levels of neutralising antibodies against the Delta variant


  • Raag Jaijaivanti: Pt Venkatesh Kumar



  • Kerala Madrasa Teachers’ Welfare Fund: Why paying pension to madrasa teachers: Kerala HC asks state


  • US tariffs in response to digital taxes: The six countries subject to the tariffs, which are set at 25% on about $2 billion worth of goods, include India, Austria, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.


  • Great Green Wall: Chinese farmers planting trees to hold back the desert


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