Avinash Meetoo: Blog

While reading Dan Cederholm’s blog, I found this small gem:

Like anyone who used to blog with frequency pre-2005, I’d like to post here more often — not just to fill up bits and bytes, but to write again. Remember when blogs were more casual and conversational? Before a post’s purpose was to grab search engine clicks or to promise “99 Answers to Your Problem That We’re Telling You You’re Having”. Yeah. I’d like to get back to that here.

Then again, history teaches us that it probably won’t happen.

I guess this is why I blog less now.

Incidentally, I have been listening to a lot of Electroclash (aka Electro IV aka New wave III aka Synthpop II) during those past months. Fischerspooner is excellent. It’s healthy noise…

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written by avinash

I am just discovering that Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people.”

What can I add?

Barack Obama has really changed the way non-Americans (like me) now perceive Americans following the damage done by George Bush when he started a war without being allowed to do so by the United Nations. Thanks to Obama, we now know that Americans are not egoistic and fanatical but can also show signs of intelligence and understanding.

I like that America now sees things in various shades of grey instead of that utterly stupid “Either you’re with us, or against us” stance they had before.

The world is complex. People are complex. And no one is 100% good and 100% bad. The thing is, we have to live together. And I think Obama understands this.

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written by avinash

While browsing today, I came up across this Gallup survey done in February on the importance of religion in different countries all over the world:

The countries where people give a lot of importance to religion are: Egypt, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Senegal, Djibouti, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Notice that most of them are countries where a lot of people are poor (and some people are extremely rich.)

Countries where people generally do not give a lot of importance to religion are: Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong, Japan, France, Mongolia, Belarus.

Apart from Mongolia (?!?), these countries can be separated into two groups:

• ex-USSR countries like Estonia, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan and Belarus where religion was suppressed by the state and
• countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hong Kong, Japan and France.

Now, I don’t want to jump to conclusions but it seems to me that  Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hong Kong, Japan and France are countries which are rich, fairly democratic and which have a good (and, for some of them, excellent) education system. Does this imply that educated people tend to give less importance to religion? And, more interestingly, does this mean that atheists (those without a belief in any God) generally have a high level of education? Yes, it would seem.

And what about Mauritius? People give a lot of importance to religion in our country (especially if they need to be elected and/or they have problems.) And the Minister of Education said our education system has failed to deliver. Is there a correlation between the two?

By the way, I’m an atheist.

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written by avinash