Indiana Jones Stuff

James Prinsep was born into poverty in 1799 and yet through his own endeavours made some of the most exciting discoveries in deciphering ancient Indian script that echo an Indiana Jones tale. He spoke Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Greek, Latin and was able to decipher Brahmi and had a working familiarity with Pali. 

He was curious about the stupa, rocks and pillars that were everywhere in India often with inscriptions that no one could understand. They were written in two Indian scripts which had both become extinct around the 5th century CE. 

His curiosity had been shared, over four hundred years earlier, by a 14th century Sultan who had, been obsessed with a specific golden pillar. Firoz Shah (1351 –1388) who was Sultan of Delhi, wrote a poem celebrating the column of gold, that he had removed from its ancient site at Topra and taken by a massive 42-wheeled carriage and boat to his own fort in Delhi a distance of almost 90 miles. It was around 50 feet in height. “No bird, neither eagle, nor crane, can fly up to its top”, he stated and wondered who and how it was built. He marvelled at how the people who made it were able to paint it all over with gold. He was particularly curious about the ancient inscriptions that no one understood on the pillar. The ancients had mastered a technique to treat the sandstone surface to burnish and protect it creating shiny patina metal-like finish. 

It did not protect all of these pillars from invaders or the acts of violence and destruction that was all too common. Timor the Lame (1320s -1405), a Turco-Mongol conqueror subsequently ransacked the country and set fire to an ancient pillar by ordering every horseman in his army to carry two loads of firewood to the pillar. The pillar still stands beside the mosque but its lower section is so badly fire damaged that nothing remains of the inscriptions. Having slaughtered over 100,000 prisoners, who were slowing his march, Timor proceeded to attack Delhi. 

One of the few buildings to survive the sacking was Firoz Shah Kotla. Strangely, instead of destroying the structure, Timor approached this building and gave thanks to God and left full of admiration for the column of gold declaring that in all the countries he had travelled he never seen a monument comparable to it. 

Destruction of many of these ancient pillars and stupas throughout India had gone on for millennium, sometimes though invasion, sometimes neglect, sometimes through using material for other buildings. Many of the Stupas would have had at their base a relic (ashes/belongings) of the Buddha or bones of his early followers, and many dug down to find these treasures. 

At Prinsep’s request and expense, his colleague Cunningham erected a wooden ramp that gave him access to the top of the 143-foot-high structure called the Dharmik Stupa. In January 1835 he and his workmen sank a shaft down through the centre of the monument. Only when they dug down to a depth of 110 feet did the work become easier for here the stonework gave away to large flat bricks. The digging then went on until they reached the soil at the base of the structure without producing any result after 14 months of labour and substantial costs. 

Fortunately, while the dig had been happening, Cunningham became friendly with an old man who had been involved in previous digging of sites in the area. Cunningham learned that a second stupa as large as the one they’ve been working on had been completely destroyed in this earlier dig at Benares. However, it was rumoured that there was an underground chamber full of ancient stone statues that had been hastily covered over for fear of upsetting evil spirits. The old man was able to lead Cunningham to the exact spot and his workmen unearthed a catch of about 60 statues and base relieves all in an upright position all packed closely together in a small space of less than 10 ft square. Cunningham had time to arrange for 20 of these statues bearing their inscriptions to be transported down to Calcutta safely before finding himself posted as an aide-de-camp for the Governor general. 

When Cunningham was eventually able to return to the site, from his posting, he was horrified to discover the city magistrate Mr Davidson had ordered the remaining 40 statues and all 50 cartloads of carved stonework to be thrown into the river Barna to make a breakwater. This act of vandalism made a deep impression on Cunningham who became fixated in his calls for the protection of such ancient sites. 

James Prinsep had begun by researching ancient Indian scripts (especially Brāhmī and Kharoṣṭhī) on pillars, statues and other stonework in the early 1830s and he combined this with his extensive study of ancient coins in order to compare symbols. His major breakthrough took seven years of concentrated effort and in 1837, he successfully deciphered Brāhmī by comparing repeated symbols on Aśokan edicts and bilingual Indo-Greek coins. Prinsep was able at last to translate these mysterious writings, whose meaning had been lost for almost two millennia. 

Unfortunately, by 1840 James Prinsep was dead despite being only 41 years old. But in 1917 others following his lead even discovered the source of these ancient writings. They were aided by the discovery of 16 accounts of Alexander the Great’s soldiers as they travelled through India in the years 327 BC to 325 BC and by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims like Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing who journeyed to India (5th-12th centuries) to collect authentic scriptures and brought them back to China writing copious dairies of their experiences. 

Since there was a lot of burning of old scrolls and writings in India these outsiders, Greek solders and Chinese pilgrims, allowed valuable information to be preserved that would have otherwise been lost. This revealed that many inscriptions were proclamations of Emperor Aśoka (3rd century BCE), and shed light on the teachings of Buddha (6th or 5th century BCE). Ashoka (c. 304–232 BCE) was the third ruler of the Mauryan Empire in India, and is now remembered as one of the most significant emperors in South Asian, and indeed world history. He was a grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, the empire’s founder but had to kill around 99 relatives in order to inherit the throne. This, mass slaughtering of relatives, was a depressingly common technique in those days when power was transferred from one ruler to the next. 

Around 261 BCE Ashoka invaded Kalinga (in present-day Odisha, a state located in Eastern India). The Kalinga War was an extremely brutal and one of the largest and deadliest battles in Indian history. Nearly a quarter of million lives were lost and despite winning Ashoka was deeply affected by the loss of so many lives. Shortly after, he adopted Buddhist ethical principles and published ethical policies in rock and pillar inscriptions across his empire. 

He promoted public works that included hospitals, wells, shade trees and rest houses. He supported Buddhist communities and encouraged the spread of ‘righteous conduct’ beyond India (including missions to Sri Lanka). Emperor Ashoka built a massive number of stupas (84,000) to house Buddha's relics, alongside numerous pillars and rocks inscribed with these edicts in order to raise the standard of behaviour of the populace. 

So what did these writings, that had been so widely spread throughout Ashoka’s kingdom and so painstakingly translated by James Prinsep, say? Ashoka’s pillars and rock inscriptions were not attempting to display His wealth or power. They were made to convey a clear consistent message to all who saw them. 

They can be summarised as: 

Compassion for all living beings 

Non-violence — particularly restraint in animal slaughter 

Moral self-examination —subjects should reflect on their own conduct regularly 

Good governance — officials should report truthfully, dutifully 

Religious tolerance — each sect should honour the other 

Welfare — medical aid, trees and wells planted on roads 

There is something horrific that such noble words would have been erased, burnt, buried and destroyed so ruthlessly down through the many centuries by so many different races and religions. But also, something mystical that determined researchers dug deep within themselves and in ancient manuscripts far and wide to find the answers to who, why, when and what those inscriptions meant. Sometimes by looking back at history we discover essential truths that humanity has had to relearn over the millennium again and again. Perhaps there is some comfort in that?

Where and Why are people dying?

The news should faithfully reflect what is happening in the world. Understandably, it is vital that the public is kept informed of issues facing humanity so that appropriate decisions and actions can be taken. In the recent film “Look up” the storyline involves physicists who are horrified to discover that an astronaut will hit the Earth in five months causing an extinction-level event. However, their attempt to get this vital news out to the general public, when political leaders did not respond, was met by the media with a mixture of ridicule, distraction and mockery. The preferred news feature covered was the on/off romance of a famous young female music star. The movie felt tongue in cheek at times but its statement on political power and the role of media highlighted a growing disconnect between what news we consume and the actual important issues facing us as individuals, communities, or as a global community. 

This disengagement has very real consequences to us all.  Especially when facing global pandemics or global warming or water shortages, pollution, economic collapse, famines or wars.  A report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) concluded that there was overwhelming evidence that the “health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.” 

In fact, it is clear that we are not just putting the security of our own lives in jeopardy as already 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.  It is not too late to act but there is little evidence that the seriousness of the situation has got through either to the general public or our leaders.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released repeated reports that are also frankly frightening from scientists but these have resulted in a minimal response from a distracted, disunited world community.  Why when information is available on the problems facing humanity does the media somehow fail to get across what is important?  Over a century and a half ago the importance of news and the requirements of those who convey the news was spelled out succinctly,

“In this day the mysteries of this earth are unfolded and visible before the eyes, and the pages of swiftly appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world; they display the doings and actions of the different nations; they both illustrate them and cause them to be heard. Newspapers are as a mirror which is endowed with hearing, sight and speech; they are a wonderful phenomenon and a great matter. But it behoveth the writers thereof to be sanctified from the prejudice of egotism and desire and to be adorned with the ornament of equity and justice; they must inquire into matters as much as possible, in order that they may be informed of the real facts, and commit the same to writing.”

Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í World Faith, p. 171

It seems clear that invested interests, egos and other agendas have meant that real facts often remain hidden and prevent equity and justice being implemented.  A population that is distracted is also easily manipulated. Take a look at the front page of almost any newspaper, media outlet and be amazed how much of the news is of no worth at all.  Celebrities, scandals, character assassination have become our daily diet alongside tales of murderers, criminals and thieves.  It is not just that real news is so rarely reported it is more that our tastes have become so skewed to the perverse we are not really that interested in anything else.  

So what is real news, worthy of attention?  Well, if people are dying somewhere in the world then surely, we need to hear about that in case something can be done to stop it.  My first investigation turned to available data online for the year 2021 showing how many people died in each country.  However, this is not an accurate comparison as if you have a huge population then it is be expected you would have a larger death toll.  In order to make a proper investigation, you need to calculate the number of deaths per one thousand people per year.  Thankfully someone has already done it.  Here is the link.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/death-rate-by-country

I have to confess the top ten countries surprised me, here they are for 2021

1. Bulgaria (15.433)

2. Ukraine (15.192)

3. Latvia (14.669)

4. Lesotho (14.144)

5. Lithuania (13.737)

6. Serbia (13.194)

7. Croatia (13.17)

8. Romania (13.099)

9. Georgia (12.816)

10. Russia (12.785)

If you read further down the reasons for such high death rates in each country is outlined and makes for depressing reading. It consists of low vaccination rates, poor health systems, alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS, smoking (e.g. 25% of the population of Croatia smoke), cardiovascular disease, cancer, suicide, road accidents, homicide etc. It also surprised me that Lesotho is the only African country in the top ten countries with high death rates.  Stunning to find out that life expectancy at birth in Lesotho is 56 years for females and 52 years for males.  In Hongkong, the life expectancy is 84.7 for females and 81.8 years for males. This means males in Hongkong will live on average almost 30 years longer than a male in Lesotho! 

What do these facts tell us? Well, it certainly reminds us that equity and justice are not being experienced by a lot of nations.  Another useful resource to look at to see where we are globally is the link below.  Check out how many cigarettes are being smoked worldwide and how much money is being earned from illegal drugs the figures blow one’s mind devastating that there are at present over 785 million of us without access to safe drinking water.

https://www.worldometers.info/

Finally, genocide is often what jumps to mind when you think of deaths worldwide and there is a useful link that monitors genocide worldwide putting areas into either genocide watch, genocide warning or genocide emergency categories depending on how serious the situation is.

https://www.genocidewatch.com/countries-at-risk

This is important because sometimes there are signals of approaching trouble.  In Rwanda in 1994 between 500,000 to 800,000 people were slaughtered in over less than four months (7th April – 5th July) and half a million women were raped. In hindsight it was discovered that from January 1993 to March 1994, a total of 500,000 machetes were imported into Rwanda, statistically one for every three adult Hutus in the country. 

There are studies that allow us to monitor violence worldwide and see where mass killing is happening https://earlywarningproject.ushmm.org/map for 2020/2021.  The early signs seem to have consistent features and these include among other elements,

• Instability: One of the strongest signs of the potential for genocide is large-scale instability (armed conflict, a coup, revolution, or uprising). In these environments, leaders and citizens may be more willing to consider violence to protect themselves and what they value.  

• Ideology: Genocide often happens when leaders believe that some people in the country are inferior or dangerous because of their race, religion, or national or ethnic origin. 

• Discrimination and violence against groups: Where genocide occurs, there usually have been earlier acts of discrimination, persecution, and violence against people who belong to a certain group. 

Make no mistake the people living in the areas highlighted on this map are experiencing very real danger.  If we were experiencing this we would probably try to flee for safety. It is not surprising then that 26.4 million people around the world live as refugees.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has just given a New Year’s Address and in light of all that has been mentioned above, I wanted to start this year with his words not least because the world’s media will probably not be sharing it widely.

“The world welcomes 2022 with our hopes for the future being tested.

By deepening poverty and worsening inequality.

By an unequal distribution of COVID vaccines.

By climate commitments that fall short. 

And by ongoing conflict, division, and misinformation.

These are not just policy tests.

These are moral and real-life tests.

And they are tests that humanity can pass — if we commit to making 2022 a year of recovery for everyone.

Recovery from the pandemic — with a bold plan to vaccinate every person, everywhere.   

Recovery for our economies — with wealthier countries supporting the developing world with financing, investment and debt relief.

Recovery from mistrust and division — with a new emphasis on science, facts and reason.

Recovery from conflicts — with a renewed spirit of dialogue, compromise and reconciliation.

And recovery for our planet — with climate commitments that match the scale and urgency of the crisis.

Moments of great difficulty are also moments of great opportunity.

To come together in solidarity.

To unite behind solutions that can benefit all people.”

Could one honest politician have the courage to say it anyway?

Is it ever so, the wealthy are greeted with open arms? Those who have money to spend are waved ashore.  A boost to the economy, the ring of cash registers heralds their entrance. The poor get no such welcome mat. They pile onto overloaded boats fleeing the intolerable to find the possible. They fill refugee camps around their country's borders. These are not rich enough to woo their suitor countries. They quite clearly are not wanted. They must scurry through dark places. Whatever savings they gather is used to bribe the smugglers. It is big business this trade. People used to earn lots of money capturing Africans and transporting them to be sold abroad into slavery. Now, there is a new currency in human flesh.  Money is to be earned transporting those who cannot bear to live in their homes to countries that do not want them, by those who make a livelihood from the spreading chaos. 

The deaths are a stain on Europe. It's red tide of shame. But compared to the loss of life and danger these refugees face at home, the journey is worth the risk. Does Europe bite its fingers in hatred that the victims don't die or suffer quietly in their own backyard’s? Don't these people see by fleeing to southern Europe they embarrass the developed world. We have become accustomed to the deaths, murders and atrocities of the third world but not in our own borders. However, Bosnia showed Europe could once more stomach the killing of large numbers.  Rwanda proved that even killings approaching a million caused handwringing but no action at the UN. The truth is less palatable than we imagine. The reality is hidden behind feel good charity endeavours. Our shame is not that we don't know what is happening. It is because we don't want to know.  

The system is sustainable because our focus is on our own misery and fears. Terrorism, viruses,  Ebola, bird flu, the weak economy, threatening wars. The distracted developed world is like a selfish adolescent who is concerned only with how things affect them. This mindset has no room for global awareness. No matter what environmental considerations, wildlife extinctions, global warming, pollution of our land, sea and air. Never mind human loss of life the show must go on. Unfortunately, we are reaching the tipping point on all fronts. Beyond which, many fear, there is no recovery. 

Some solutions are obvious. This flawed view that we can continue to abuse and over use the earth's resources to fuel a growing economy at whatever cost. It beggars belief that are our leaders could be so disengaged from reality. They, of course, are singing from the hymmn sheet, that the developed world insists on hearing, business as usual! Everything is limited.  The amount of gold, gas and oil is finite. Natural resources such as water, fish and crops are not only limited but fragile. We would do well to give our leaders a reality check. We cannot grow ourselves out of the present problems. The growth they proclaim as future progress will be at a cost the world cannot sustain. Politicians are obliged to tell us what we want to hear, either business as usual or business better than normal. They fear divergence from this popular script. 

Could somewhere, some leader have the courage to say the unpalatable.  Okay, they will never be re-elected. The truth will have to be their swan song. But, could one honest politician of any nation or background have the courage to say it anyway.

my take on smoking - a gentle approach to encourage stopping

Trying to get across that smoking is bad for you to my middle school class - may have gone over the top slightly let me know what you think!

Have a look at a healthy lung and a smokers lung - sometimes images speak louder than words.

But what is in these cigarettes? Lets look at an experiment to find out.  It is slightly long so do feel free to fast forward to get the main point of it!  But hopefully those final few images will stay in your head!

Enough of the petty details worldwide how many people are actually being effected?

Somehow figures don't get across the loss of life do they?  We almost need more time to digest the information and set it in context.  After all, people die everyday from a range of causes.  So let's put it all to music and take some time out to digest the facts right now.

Enough said!

Millenium Goals - the good news

Just over ten years ago the world’s leaders established goals and targets to free humanity from extreme poverty, hunger and disease.  The Millennium declaration set global priorities and allowed the world to focus their efforts.  I tend to be a cynic and am generally a half glass empty rather than a half glass full type but credit where credit is due – progress has been made, even in this financially taxing time.

Another example of what we can do when we work together is how the world tackled Smallpox.  Existing since 10,000 BC this disease was a real killer - estimates vary but proably 500 million people paid with their lives.  So when the world decided to eradicate this disease from the face of the earth it was no small task it set itself.   But it was united, a rare thing indeed for the human race, and in 1979 it succeeded in wiping this dreadful scourge out.  Speaks volumes about what this world can achieve when it sets its mind to it and acts as one!