Dog Years by Gunter Grass : It makes one’s heart bleed for the pathos of the writer of this novel.

What a dogged reading. Looks if nothing is going to happen. None of the character talks with himself to bring out any kind of insight. There is a parasitic dependence on the things without to have any movement in the story. It at times is a dog thinking and reasoning like a man and the other way for a man. What is the point if it is as uncertain and as non-starter as it appears, if not a sudden quirk or a twist in the story occurs, which makes it worth to continue?
Before you reach the middle of the book Gunter Grass begins to overwhelm with the brilliant way he uncovers the distress and consequences of the war under Hitler in the country. An elderly school teacher, a neighbor of the narrator Harry, who taught literature and writing methods, often by leaving them alone, to his students, besides other subjects, disappears for his crime of failing to celebrate the birthday of Hitler. He was charged with eating the candies the school administration has allocated for his students.
The cousin of the Harry named Tulla, who he fingers at times beside the daughter of the disappeared school teacher, Jenny, to check the depth of their holes–as he puts it, speculates that the teacher has been taken to a place from where a heap of freshly collected human bones have been dumped in open in their town, which foul the air of it all the time and attract a large number of rats and crows. Tulla brings a human skull from there to prove her point.
Sex scenes, more often than not, by Gunter Grass, are not the tenderest and delicate type. They are vicious, crude and occur like an act of sabotage. Taking a reader by complete surprise, besides the characters performing it. Similar can be said about the writing style. It makes things obscure in the way they are described in a convoluted language which often is difficult to get hold of. By keeping the going on a scene surprises by its sudden arrival, for it is shocking not only for what it is but also for the lucid and forth-coming language in which it is described.
One hopes the original German language edition reads better than its translation. Also that, a better translated version comes soon in English, which also cares about readability as well. For the subject is the most deadly war one has known; written by someone who fought it as well. Little other literature is available on this subject otherwise–from the side which lost it.
Tulla takes Harry and Jenny to a leech infested area and makes them attach leeches to their bodies and feed them till they are fully fed on their blood and become easily detachable. Then she collects those leeches and cooks them in a tin pot till they become a thick paste, then she eats it and asks them to eat it as well. Tulla thinks this is how her brother, somewhere fighting in France, might survive the war. But he is killed soon. In their early teens, these three characters try strange things to deal with the effect the war has created in their lives.
When, after his disappearance, the school teacher’s daughter is taken away by a middle-aged dance master and a probable Nazi official, who wants to keep her as a mistress while she learns dance in Berlin, she comes to knock at the door of Harry’s to say her goodbye. Harry and his parents do not open the door. But She and Harry continue to write each other till a long time later.
A Poignant and heart-breaking scene is when Harry, now inducted finally into the army at the age of sixteen, comes to say goodbye to Tulla, who is pregnant now at the same age by a person she never discloses. She is now working as a bus conductor to support herself. She wanted Harry to make her pregnant but he always declined this possibility. She offers him bundles of ticket as a souvenir with which he plays-with his fingers, just like a child.
It makes Tulla laugh. How the war was sucking in and destroying the lives of young children fills one with a profound sadness. A while ago, a bomb drops at a place where Jenny was performing and both her toes were amputated to end her dancing career. But the war was to last another three years. Tulla asks Harry to pay the bus fare for the distance he traveled with his modest luggage, before he leaves to join his duty in a war turning increasingly bloody.
The third and the last part of the novel deals with post war years in the country. Grass deals with so many trends in a desultory manner in the beginning. He picks technology, economy, politics and much more randomly and in an arcane language, without making any point clearly.
But soon he picks the people trying to practice a conscious collective amnesia to forget the bad memories of the war. But then a glass comes to the market for children of ten years of age, a time since the war has ended, which makes them see the past of their parents clearly. They see all the murders and other crimes which their parents have committed but never discussed. It leads to an epidemic of psychiatric diseases in the children using those glasses and many of them commit suicide.
But, some how, behind the religion, liberalism and progress, the society tries to hide from its past. The author sarcastically deals with the hypocrisy of the society to collectively forget a criminal past. It shows how neatly and effectively the author is capable of dealing with the things he really feels are important before he goes absent-minded again and talks about so many generalities in a language which is difficult to decipher.
In a way he expiates alone for the scores of unacknowledged sins committed by the society he belongs to. There are not many writers courageous enough to take up such a thankless task, though many other countries have perpetrated no less horrendous crimes on mankind than the Nazi violence.
On the contrary, all the efforts in literature mostly have been to make that past obscure enough, so that any future inquiry is preempted. In it not only the writers from the side of the perpetrators, but also a few from the victims’ side, too have contributed.
It makes one’s heart bleed for the pathos of the writer of this novel.

Stimulous far worse than recession

A recently published report has brought to light that the global debt is escalating faster than expected and has exceeded two hundred fifty trillion dollars earlier than it was predicted.
It was also mentioned in the report that the two biggest economies of the world account for sixty percent of the total borrowings recently which raced to a staggering 7.5 trillion dollars in the first six months of the current year.
It was not mentioned in this report by what percent it grew over the last year. It also does not mention which of the two biggest economies is more responsible for pushing the world to the abyss of a total collapse. It is important to note that while China has a growth higher than six percent, the USA too has a cool growth of three percent. It is a remarkable growth because the rest of the world is feeling either recession or, worse even, a stagflation. Communist China or the democratic USA: the economic success story is the same for both.
Recently, the Chinese middle class displayed its muscle by spending thirty billion dollars within twenty four hours in online shopping to celebrate the ‘Single’s day’. It can be assumed that the people behind it are young entrepreneurs or professional in their prime years. So it is unlikely that any time in the near future any one can put pressure on China through economic sanctions to make it more amiable to making changes in its polity. Actually reverse could be the case as it is almost similar to the leading economy of the world in size and is growing twice the rate.
It may be a reason that the leaders of former European powers make a bee-line to win favours from China, as recently, President Trump has not been very friendly to them and has placed trade barriers to reduce trade deficit of the USA with EU nations apart from arm-twisting them to cough up more money to foot the bill of NATO.
Besides many countries defined as Emerging economies are already having a debt more than two times their GDP and they are borrowing more to avoid sinking altogether.
Many economies in EU and Argentina and South Africa are incapable of keeping them afloat without a routine bail outs from either IMF or WB; or other agencies; or Germany directly. But for them every fresh economic stimulous has proved worse than the diseases which ail their economies, and they might never get revived for they have a strong culture of distributing social benefits way beyond their capacities.
Any efforts at reforms there have been stiffly resisted by their people. Moreover, these countries have always been advised by their donors like IMF and WB and now in no position to decline more advice from the same. So they no more are sovereign nations in strict terms.
In earlier days these countries were colonial powers, when the plunder of colonies sustained them. After the end of colonialism money-laundering kept them afloat. But now the global public opinion against it has dried it up significantly.
There are more countries which were colonies earlier but are steps away from falling in the similar situation and still have debt less than hundred percent of their GDP. They do not take many advice from the donors but have a colonial system which was not changed much after independence and preys on the people to create a native ruling class which is far more ruthless than the real colonials in exploiting its own people.
However, this can be reversed only if the two largest economies agree to diversify their trade. They account for almost half of the global trade presently and any disputes between them do not last long for it hurts both the sides. Besides their debt situation indicates that they are not in as good health as they claim.
For this situation is precarious for the leading two economies too, as finally it could reach a point of no return and bring down drastically the economy of the world which is barely growing at two percent.
K. C. Bhatt
PR 21 Nov. 2019.

Failing world

The last quarter, the US growth was flat reportedly. The Europe is in recession already. Reforms are on the hold. Bail outs of Banks is fashionable in Western democracies apart from the criticism of the low growth of China at 7%. Now the sanctions on Russia which will worsen the recession. Are people waiting for a war really, which they think might bail them out?
The world seems like failing. BBC conducted a programme the other day, where most of the Americans interviewed lamented that the USA is almost a lost case–mostly due to the current administration. Really? How can it fail under one President only? It has started to fail long back. Read ‘The Great Gatsby’. This book is more than a sad love story.
When you run out of ideas, you look the most poor. We had no writer of his class after him.

Mandela and Mugabe

Mugabe was opposite of Mandela. Mandela allowed the colonials to control the wealth and resources of the country, while the natives had their freedom. Also he made some humiliating compromises in TRC, which allowed the most heinous crimes of the apartheid regime go unacknowledged. For it he won the Nobel and other accolades. Mugabe did the opposite. He snatched the wealth and resources from the colonials and distributed them among natives. Recently, it became public that he gets only four thousand dollars a month as salary and has no account in a Swiss bank. He rightly said that he deserves the Nobel prize. The academic world can not ignore Mugabe for long. The way he survived the protracted economic sanctions will be a subject of research. Also, many former colonies should take a leaf out of his book. To learn how to become truly independent. Any University worth its name must hurry to honour him.

The post colonial history of Zimbabwe is unlike any other country. This unique experiment of doing away with colonial institutions and replacing them with indigenous should be studies closely. For it the Zimbabwean should be proud of their country and its leader. Having a dispassionate debate about this nation is almost impossible as the economic sanctions making life of the country arduous. Mugabe survived all it. So he is no common leader. As I said, in the times ahead it will become more obvious.

An IMF man

Of all the people, a former IMF official is now the governor of Reserve Bank of India. It sounds very intriguing that English media is trying to build an image for him. Kejariwal will find a lot of things to clean, if he gets into power.

Rich, poor and democracy

There are 700m poor for 70 Indian billionaires. So much for democracy and welfare economics of Amartya.

The British revolution

The British ambassador says Nepal is receiving $100m dollars from Britain every year as donation. It goes mostly to employ mainly the British people here. The Nepalese coffer is full of money extorted through taxes. Which did not disappear in the vortex of corruption because the stake holders called politicians keep on bickering on how to share it.
In Britain hunger deaths are being reported now. By the logic of Amartya Sen, there is no democracy in England. It is time to shake it up all. Britain today is mainly the destination of laundered money, unlike Germany, which is a genuine industrial power. If Scotland breaks up, it will give a new twist to situation. So used to making and unmaking nations elsewhere, Britain seems ready for a revolution finally, which will make it a modern nation.

Surrender

Give up the ambition of changing the world.
It is practical thing to do, to survive it.
there are many stereotypes you can choose from,
in order to fit in. It can be a way to
make peace with you.
Else it is a long pain,
of creative honesty troubling you fore ever.

The hunt

The hunt is on to find an enemy, when the things appear getting worst enough and beyond salvation. Several rounds of bail-outs seem to have failed to give the stimulus, as promised by the experts and politicians. So what is wrong with the world? Why is it slipping from the grip?
We are the innocent people having our share of privations in life. But still there are people who do not wish us well. They even may organize and try to finish us. The only defense would be for us to consolidate the league we have made and find the real enemy. It was not a dictator like in Iraq, we have seen.
But there must be some one else, who is responsible for our plight. There are other dictators ruling nations beyond our influence or under the influence of our rivals. It is time to target them. We can not wait for ever to find one. The world can not be stopped before it becomes democratic.

The great Gatsby

Trying to read ‘The great Gatsby’, after selecting it as paperback amongst several versions of its movies, I thought so, if the word great was fitting in the title. It was difficult to find the book. And I felt if it was written for a movie by a man who wrote advertising slogans in the beginning of his career. Every scene appears fast like a movie and dialogue are very dramatic. The prosperity of America almost ugly then. Uglier were the Britons trying to have a share of it. Very little passing hints at the WWI the writer had recently fought. Or did he? But you are trapped by your situation and are bound to write about it.
The brisk few lines about a Jew, who finds Mr. Gatsby gentleman enough to introduce to his mother and sister, succinctly describe the matters. As did the presence of flat-footed or short-sighted young men, who could not join the army during war, only around, for the girls; and the husband of Nick’s cousin, who is threatened that other races are overwhelming the superior, white race, and the need to reverse this trend. The America between the two wars sounds a strange place indeed, from this book.
Before long one starts to think about the driver, who was dismissed for an hour or so by Daisy, on finding his cousin Nick, the narrator of the story, waiting for her for the tea, to which she was invited. Mr. Gatsby pretends to drops in and stays long, to meet his lover of earlier times. Nick leaves them alone for half an hour, while he comes out of his apartment and has a long look at the house of Mr. Gatsby nextdoor.
Then they go to that house, which is as big and glamorous as a palace. Mr. Gatsby brings to tears Daisy, throwing in front of her and Nick his shirts in various colors, imported from England, making a heap. It was her confession of the revived love. And then they wake a sleeping artist to play the piano for them, while it rained with thunder and Mr. Gatsby dropped the curtains of his house to light it as in night. Probably the driver will return, though Nick has left to leave the old lovers alone, listening to the embarrassed artist. The circumstance and scenes pass as if in a daze. Things look nebulous. One could forget the driver, alternately, or that he was away longer than he was sent for, in a free country.
The language is as glamorous as the people and life it describes. But it is nearly impossible to read more than a few pages at a time, as the prosperity of oil described is greasy and sticks the pages of this book. This author is made of a different sensibility, than, (?), say Hammingway, and never wears his Amaricanhood on his sleeves, to scrutinize it only. But does he?

Before long the short novella deteriorated into a love triangle, with the two men trying to win the love of Daisy. It was an unpleasant surprise of a celebrated book. The saving grace was the wisdom of Nick, who had earlier discovered the wickedness in the character of his cousin Daisy, who manipulates the men around her by falling for the richer. But her husband Tom is creating a scene, by claiming to have loved her only, and not his mistress. In spite of the temptation of going for the far more richer man, Mr. Gatsby, his earlier but poorer lover, who had earned his riches through shadowy bushiness after the war, as Tom has discovered, she is unsure of herself, as usual.

On his thirtieth birthday it occurs to Nick: ‘So we drove on towards death through the cooling twilight.’ There are none of the tragedies described belong to him, apart from the fact that he is poorer than his friends and relations and by choice not in a serious relationship. He is a clever man who is able to see through the people and their emotions with clarity, at times avoiding alcohols while everyone else is drinking, to do so. But to express such a despondent emotion on his birthday privately, there is no motive described in the story. So it neither shocks or wins sympathy of a reader.

A successful book becomes a trend which dogs the literary culture for decades later.