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Spatel Profile picture
Spatel
@Rjrasva
Every great thing perishes if its heirs are petty. - Oswald Spengler
2 subscribers
Jun 24 • 4 tweets • 3 min read

It is doubtful that it had much to do with Indian Buddhism as it extended to buffalos, was geography specific (stronger in southern China), was cited as a model in early 1800's on y a similar ban needs to be there in Korea by a Confucian like Tasan who
cited agricultural reasons as well as moral. Rather the East Asian beef taboo should be seen as a case of convergent evolution, not much to do with India or Buddhism. Malthus also argued against beef eating for similar reasons & in

cambridge.org/core/books/abs…
Image
Apr 23 • 9 tweets • 4 min read

Manchu larper (Li Shuo is most likely a peasant from Shandong whose ancestors migrated to Manchuria in late 19th cent) & "Aryan" larper both bringing hilarity. Schopenhauer on situation of animals in his day in Europe
& until early 20th cent Chinese had
Image a strong taboo against beef (including male buffaloes), especially in southern China. To quote Mao on this

This is because oxen helped the Chinese peasant plough & came to be seen as family. The 2 groups most strongly associated with beef in 19th cent Qing books.google.com/books?id=RW4YD…
Image
Mar 29, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read

Innumerate code monkeys r now petroleum geologists

What Hubbert predicted came true, US conventional oil production has been on a long downward slide since 1970's, this is y the Arab blackmail worked in 73 but not in 67
No1 claimed "oil is ending", oil will be there long after humans r gone because u can never extract all oil/gas/coal in the ground
Shale has been known of for decades but for it to be extracted u need higher prices which is what happened when oil hit 147$
Mar 27, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Observations on the Mussulmauns of India
Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits, and Religious Opinions
Volume 1
By B Mrs Mīr Ḣasan 'Alī · 1832
google.com/books/edition/…
Englishwoman who married a Mohammedan from Lucknow & lived in India from 1816-1828
Ludditism stops tech
Such attitudes not unique, there was a late 1700's Shogun who rejected some Dutch tech on similar grounds. Chinese of 19th cent also same where as enough Japanese intellectuals saw futility of Luddsm
Attached is Siebold who lived in Japan in early 1800's
Mar 14, 2023 • 8 tweets • 4 min read

JAPAN AND THE WORLD IN TOKUGAWA MAPS
by Karen Wigen

it might have surprised Perry to learn that the “hermit Empire” was awash with information about the rest of the world. In the decades before his arrival, Japanese cartographers had designed dozens of Image In fact, in 1810, a Japanese official made a map that was arguably the most comprehensive available at the time anywhere in the world... How can we account for this state of affairs? How did a relatively reclusive polity gather sufficient information about the world Image
Mar 11, 2023 • 14 tweets • 6 min read

Shogun & his officialdom knew & most intellectuals of significance knew, some commoners too
How could they not have known? Japanese sailed to Mexico in early 1600's itself en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasekura_…
Tokugawa era Japanese elite weren't braindead kangers
The observations of these visitors to Europe, Goa, New Spain,& Philippines would play a role in Shogunate's decision to extirpate Xtians & close Japan because those who went saw Japanese slaves being sold in Goa by Xtians, colonization of Philippines, New Spain helped along by padres
Feb 27, 2023 • 8 tweets • 4 min read

Reach for ur gun when any vishwaguru gives wisdom on "free markets" South Korea

Not only that, much of it was emulation of wartime Japan & Manchukuo (where Park served) & helped along by postwar Japan. To begin with, he went to World Bank & asked them for a loan to get into steel making which was denied as SK had no "comparative adv". At the time Japanese gov't compensated several countries for WW2 & their 35 yr rule of Korean peninsula (see attached)
donga.com/en/List/articl…
They proposed compensating any
Feb 27, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read

Mishima continued to have sympathy for the New Left and also defended the line of armed struggle... "If you all say one word, 'Emperor,' I will gladly join hands with you.
webronza.asahi.com/politics/artic…

From an article on late Suzuki Kunio, DeepL translation
Born into a family of priests in Fukuoka, Ashizu threw himself into the communist movement as a young man and was well versed in leftist thought.
Jan 9, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read

ERNEST LEUNG AUGUST 20, 2021
The School That Built Asia
palladiummag.com/2021/08/20/the… Image "We are young, and from the viewpoint of Japan, what we are doing must seem naive, but in fact we are acting in the spirit of the men of high purpose [shishi] of the Meiji restoration... we are deeply studying Meiji history"

- Park Chung-hee to Kishi Nobusuke in 1961 on a visit Image
Nov 10, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

Proposal is workable if rail had been prioritized 1st over roads which it was in Japan from Meiji era into mid 60's, only then expressways commenced & they have highest tolls in OECD. Rail was initially prioritized as it was fastest, later on for national
security reasons as Japan imports oil, environmental reasons, & rail is just way more efficient at moving people. In PRC expressways were put 1st, so despite extensive HSR network, passenger rail mode share is quiet poor vs Japan, even 2nd place Swiss only
Sep 28, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Common cope one sees from colonized or semi colonized countries is that they would have industrialized back then by citing Japan, unlikely
Others who weren't full fledged colonies tried but they all failed. Tanzimat reforms in Osman Turkey, self-strengthening in Qing went nowhere & Thailand didn't industrialize either. Joseon Korea had 42 yrs before Japan annexed it, didn't go anywhere either
Japan was the only 1 outside western Europe & its satellites because it had the right preconditions. An intellectual ecosystem looking outward instead of indulging
Sep 27, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read

Many of those days could read & write Urdu & not all were of this sort, many Arya Samajis write their polemics & books in Urdu to reach other side, Lala Lajpat Rai knew Urdu. Arya Samaj even brought back some learned Maulanas who would then take part in public debates with Maulanas & since they knew Koran by heart along with Arabic, Farsi, Urdu they wouldn't be looking like idiots in the debate
That period from 1890s to perhaps the mid 1920s was an era of real revival in all fields from literature to arts
Sep 27, 2022 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

Contrast this with attitude of vishwagurus illustrated by the Prabhas-Patan mosque inscription of 1264, side by side an Arab trader set up Skt & Arabic inscriptions, in Skt nice things r said, in Arabic he prays for fall of kaffirs & kingdom to Mohammedans He could have only done that if he was confident none of locals in Gujarat would bother to find out what the Arabic said. There were multiple other inscriptions at other places in similar vein
By then Gujarat already had 7 Mohammedan invasions & Somnath mandir destroyed in 1026
Sep 26, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
The Many Meanings of Iconoclasm: Warrior and Christian Temple-Shrine Destruction in Late Sixteenth Century Japan
18 Nov 2020
brill.com/view/journals/…

Some useless fluff in the article but some good primary source material is cited too

Plainly speaking they destroyed the shrines & temples because they were infected by a counter religion with Mosaic distinction (see Jan Assmann)

Of course even today they manage to portray themselves as victims (e. g. Scorcese's Silence) while in fact they were in raptures when they did these little
Sep 25, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read

1) Many merchants were often way wealthier than Samurai, by end of Edo era latter were often indebted to former if they were low ranking Samurai
2) Oiran (licensed courtesans) nightsoil was also more expensive just as wealthy Samurai, Daimyo, & merchants
Yes for fertilizer, urine was also used, with urine they made gunpowder
Don't know about Ming but Edo era Japanese seem to have figured out treatment before use so as to minimize parasite threat. It survived till 1980's in parts of Japan
Also had side
Sep 25, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read

Part of his audience is relatively well off "i am spiritual not religious, what's need for rituals when u have good heart etc" crowd that pay him to affirm their delusions. That advice is sure shot way to lose ur progeny (if they have any) to Abrahamisms
After all Xtian missionaries themselves record that the Japanese r hardest in world to hoodwink into Xtianity because when they try to scare them with hell, a typical reply is that they would rather be in eternal hell with ancestors than in Xtian heaven
Sep 25, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read

Reading Badayuni in entirety will not leave much doubt that Akbar apostatized & intended to curb Mohammedanism, Badayuni anyway wrote in secret & didn't intend for his records to become public, so unlike court records prone to flattery he gives full vent
to his heartburn as a devout Mohammedan. Later Jahangir tried to destroy all the copies of Badayuni's work to cover up his dad's apostasy. He also destroyed ibadat khanah which Akbar built to mark his study of religion. Moreover Badayuni's work is
Sep 24, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Chinese man prevented from visiting Indian family
28 August 2019
bbc.com/news/world-asi…

He should have changed his name to Mohammed Qi or Solomon Qi, then he would have received his visa real quick from gov't I suspect

This guy's case reminded me of the ethnic china-s who who settled in subcontinent during Brit era. During 1962 war they were put in internment camps by chacha Nehru though they had nothing at all to do with PRC's invasion. This the libs skip over

Same chacha used to piss his pants when it came to Mohammedans who partitioned country
Sep 22, 2022 • 13 tweets • 4 min read

Without census like today we only have estimates, in 1826 Bishop Heber estimated Mohammedans were 16% of then undivided India, Thornton's Gazetteer of 1854 also gave 16%, in 1901 census they came in at 22%

In Chinese case also we can only give estimates but a 10% fig is already quiet big as China never had full fledged Mohammedan rule, just localized 1s like the Mongol Ananda who was a Bauddha with a Korean Bauddha wife to begin with, however the more of the mullahs at court he heard the more zealous of a Mohammedan he became &
Sep 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read

can have best roads& best drivers but due to speed at which u r going & distractions (which even best drivers r prone to) u will have serious accidents. Trains travel on fixed path, so dont have this issue
# 1 way to reduce traffic deaths is reduce driving As explained here

Note that even with road design far better than every other country's the Netherlands still had 617 deaths in 2020 (almost all involve motor vehicles, very rare with cyclists) & Dutch had to regulate their tradition of dropping off kids
Sep 3, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read

That was pre modernism, same crap in UK now (subject to overheating even there). Quinlan Terry, Leon Krier, & Prince Charles, late Roger Scruton r exceptions. Read:

"Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism" by James Curl
However under Tory's Scruton was appointed as unpaid chair of the British government's Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission before he passed away, more than what can be said of what BJP is capable of