Warrier's Collage November 10, 2020: Books

Welcome to Warrier's Daily COLLAGE November 10, 2020 Tuesday Your daily share of inspiration, writings - by you, for you : Curated by MG Warrier Music https://youtu.be/XfzyKD02WkE (Bole Chudiyan, Bole Kangana...) (Link courtesy: Ramesh Warrier) Quote for the day: " I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.” – Nnedi Okorafor in The Book of Phoenix Dear Readers Most of the responses received during the last 3 days are about my book "Restoring Trust in Governance" published by Notion Press, Cheñnai on November 6, 2020. So, today, let's find out more about books in general. M G Warrier A Interaction 1) V Babusenan, Thiruvananthapuram On reward for writing books I feel obliged to thank my dear friend Ramasubramanian for his kind indirect words about me. At the same time, I was alarmed at the mention of the Gita, Koran, Bible and Thirukkural that brought to my mind the popular story of the confused widow who stood up in the church and declared:"Gentlemen, if these kind words were spoken about my departed husband, I must say that you have buried the wrong man." I am in complete agreement with my esteemed friend in one respect:I repeat that, but for the Pension Scheme, I would not have written a single book. I have several interesting anecdotes connected with my post-retirement writing career, one of which, I feel like sharing with my Collage comrades: My first book 'Bertrand Russell' was published in2002. One evening,a small-scale publisher-cum-book seller came to see me. He wanted a dozen copies of the book which I readily gave. Then he gave me a piece of valuable advice: "Don't oblige like this to all. This is a costly book. You will be cheated."I only smiled. Feeling that I was not sufficiently convinced, he must have made up his mind to teach me in the practical way. I haven't since heard from him." 2) Amit Singh Sisodiya, The Global ANALYST Extremely sorry for the late reply. It's really great news. Many congratulations to you, Sir. Would be happy to publish its review. Wish you all the best. Best regards, Amit (Many Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm yet to see the print copy. Sure, I'll need your support, including review. This time, it was a Solo effort. No other person was involved and so there were some periods of stress during the execution of the project. Warm Regards-Warrier) B Why people write books, and what remains to be read? https://self-publishingschool.com/why-write-a-book/ When are you writing your (next) book? 2) If you are yet to read these books: https://markmanson.net/7-books Please read about them. C Slavery in Prisons? Vathsala Jayaraman's article What a great country America is! The children of many of us are residing there with a fine job and enviable salary. Roads are clean and neat. No pollution. Almost all Indians have a dream of American life. But there is a new form of slavery developing in the United States for the past three decades. Human rights, political and social organizations are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation. President of the United States made a remarkable entry into the place to study first hand about what happens every day in this place. A prison population of approximately 2 million, mostly black and Hispanic are working for various industries almost at negligible daily wages. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes, unemployment insurance, vacations. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems. If they don’t like the pay and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports. What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners? The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors. Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offences. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness. The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences. At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S . corporate society. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s and Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. Profits are so good that now there is a new business of importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. This program was backed by investment from major corporations and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. After a law was signed in 1996 ending court supervision and decisions caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering “rent-a-cell” services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The prisoners would never be able to revolt against these profit-making corporations and the governments who collaborate to keep the prisoners for a longer duration for minor crimes unless there is a public awareness and the US citizens begin asking questions to the legislators about this disturbing trend. This is the best gift the US citizens could give to the prisoners. I am reminded of a Tamil saying" oyyaara kondaiyaam;thaazhampoovaam; ulle paarhththaal eerum penum puzhuththu neliyuthaam" ( Don't be carried away with outer embellishments. A stylish hairdress with beautiful flowers may be just to cover bugs and lice") Oh! What a country America is!! (This essay has no connection whatsoever with the recent elections) Vathsala Jayaraman (In India, there are more dimensions to the administration of justice. Like: https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-70-prisoners-in-india-are-undertrials/article32569643.ece -Collage) D Blogs and Links 1) Exit Trump, Enter Biden: Open https://openthemagazine.com/cover-story/joe-biden-the-day-of-the-quiet-american/ Collage covered Biden's election this month connecting speeches and articles. With this article Phase I concludes. 2) Poverty https://borgenproject.org/10-quotes-poverty/ 3) Restoring Trust in Institutional System: M G Warrier https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/restoring-trust-in-institutional-system-8588/ An old blog post. Picked up as we are discussing "Restoring Trust" E. Quotes about books! https://bookriot.com/45-best-aww-inspiring-quotes-books/