9:11 AM
@M.A.R. What's the current status on internet censorship? I might have asked that question before, and maybe you replied, so excuse me if I don't remember.
@CowperKettle I don't find Rushdie very readable in general, but I have a bit of a soft spot for that novel. Possibly because I was born on 15th August, and the protagonist went to my school, which also happened to be Rushdie's school. But it's kind of a weird novel.
Not least because it casts Indira Gandhi as a villain. While I'm no admirer of Mrs. Gandhi, India has seen far worse, and probably will in the future too.
Rushdie had a bit of a penchant for insulting random people. Sometimes that didn't work out for him.
@CowperKettle Though I wouldn't call it boring, exactly.
@Cerberus First, it think you underestimate how poor allocation of money is in India. They can't find money for keep the roads paved and you think they could build dykes for the ocean? Second, how about maintenance costs? Third, you seem to be assuming the ocean is relatively shallow near the shore. I don't have any idea how much of the world's shorelines that is true of. Does anyone?
To be clear, I don't think India is necessarily as poor as people say it is, though it is poor. But it's run very badly. Very corruptly, very inefficiently, and with a ton of criminal activity. The govts have always been had, and the current one is worse.
I think the rich countries of Western Europe are relatively well places to handle this kind of thing. For one thing, they're relatively small, their populations are well-educated and technogically savvy, they're well organized, and probably do better resource allocation.
Plus the Netherlands have centuries of experience on how to handle dykes. You can't learn that sort of thing overnight, with the best will in the world.
As others have mentioned, the existence of the monsoons in South-East Asia, and the Indian subcontinent in particular would also be a complicating factor for India, Bangladesh, and neigbouring countries.
What difference it would make, I don't know. I don't even really know what a dyke is.
@Robusto 1350 miles? That's just the coastline of Florida?
Has anyone read "The Kraken Wakes"? It's an interstellar invasion story about some creatures that arrive and establish themselves in the deeps. And then melt the icecaps and stuff. Causing the oceans to rise.
One of the scenes is of London flooding. They try to hold back the Atlantic with walls. Dykes, I suppose. But can't.
Having read through some of the subsequent discussion, I see that @Cerberus is inclined to go down swinging.
I think the main takeaway is that humans suck at resource allocation. Including making sure that income and wealth disparities aren't so extreme as to render societies dysfunctional.
@Cerberus I don't think you quite understand how countries like Bangladesh work. Have you ever visited or lived in a poor country? India, Bangladesh, China, Central America, Mexico, even? Africa?
The main feature is chaos. I've described India to people as not s much a country as a swirling vortex of chaos. While facetious, there is some truth in that image.
@Cerberus There is this thing called the National Debt. And deficits are at unparalleled highs, already.