Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
Hate
Hate: _ Figure above shows Klansman (member of the Ku Klux Klan) raises his left arm during a “white power” chant at a Ku Klux Klan rally in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, on December 16, 2000. _____ Section-1 Prologue: Human beings are biologically predisposed to divide humanity into ingroups and outgroups, and this comes with a great social cost – the capacity for hate. While we may view ourselves and our communities as benevolent and egalitarian, we often view outsiders as inhuman, unworthy, or alien, allowing us to victimize them in conscious and unconscious ways. Hate is among the most powerful of human emotions—it has caused great sorrow and suffering. All over the world, researchers are studying hate from disciplines like education, history, law, leadership, psychology, sociology and many others. After the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II, the expression “Never Again” became a familiar […]
MONEY
Money: _ ____ Section-1 Prologue: Somebody once asked the late bank robber named Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. He answered: “That’s where the money is.” Money is something we encounter in every facet of our daily lives. The first thing that springs to mind for most of us when we hear the word “money” is coins and banknotes. We talk about “making money” when we refer to our income. We say that we are “spending money” when we go shopping. For major purchases we sometimes have to “borrow money” by taking out a loan, either from someone we know or from a bank. It is no accident that the term “money” gets used in so many different ways: it is a reflection of the myriad functions that money performs in our economic lives. _ Money is one of the fundamental inventions of mankind. Economists say that the invention of […]
PRIVACY
Privacy: _____ _____ Section-1 Prologue: Many people consciously respect other people’s property yet sometimes fail to respect something even more important to a person which is his/her privacy. Every individual value his/her privacy. A private time with no one around gives you room to reflect on the most important issues in your life while private time with another helps to build close personal relationship with the one whom we choose to draw close to. To intrude in this is like stealing from someone or trespassing on the person’s domain. The right to privacy could refer to your right to be left alone or to your right not to share every detail with someone. The most common retort against privacy advocates — by those in favour of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures — is this line: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, […]
Are We Animals?
Are We Animals? _____ Man versus polar bear: _ Keeper Julius Latoya shares a tender moment with Kinna, a young orphaned African elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya. ______ ______ Section-1 Prologue: Many parents admonish their misbehaving children by saying “stop acting like animals” implying that children are acting in a primitive and thoughtless manner. When my students/patients misbehave, I occasionally tell them that they are behaving like animals. Of course, my critics in India would label my utterances as racist and dehumanizing akin to the Nazis’ persecution of Jews during the Holocaust and torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many patients hospitalized in some Covid-19 facilities in India complained that their condition was like “animals” at the facility. Most of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of […]
SCIENCE OF MUSIC
Science of Music: _____ “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” is a song sung by actress and singer Marilyn Monroe on May 19, 1962, for President John F. Kennedy at a celebration of his 45th birthday, 10 days before the actual date (May 29). The event marked one of Monroe’s final public appearances; she was found dead in August 1962 at the age of 36, and JFK was assassinated the following year. _____ Prologue: The fascinating thing about music is that technically- in a very literal way- it doesn’t exist. A painting, a sculpture or a photograph can physically exist, while music is just air hitting the eardrum in a slightly different way than it would randomly. Somehow that air- which has almost no substance whatsoever- when vibrated and when made to hit the eardrum in tiny subtle ways- can make people dance, love, cry, enjoy, move across country, go to war […]
