Social lending (Prosper, Asheesh Advani and Virgin Money, Zopa) is one more dimension to power to the people - brought about by the internet. The more I think about it, the more it seems to be that it is finally the possession (exclusive, mostly) of knowledge that is the real power - or at least it is what gives the politicians, the financial markets (commercial bank, investment banks, hegde funds, private equity - everybody who makes more money than the sorry investor who puts his money in the bank and earns a paltry return) and the retail industry their power.
All the three above are essentially brokers; brokers of information. They are not really a part of the division of labour chain; they are facilitators. And while facilitating, they take your money (oh yeah make no mistake, the banks are more unthrustworthy than even your politican with his false promises and the retail guy who charges you that hefty premium). None of them are a skill industry; take their monopoly on knowledge away and you can take them away.
Which is what is happening. Ebay Amazon Yahoo etc took on the retail industry. Betfair took on the bookmakers. Then electronic trading took on the brokers from the financial industry. Now social lending on the commercial banks.
There will be more to come. We will take on the equity analysts - they are easy meat; an open online analysis and ranking platform of companies can obliterate those. Better electronic trading, with more tools to the users, (and maybe using the power of distributed computing) can take out the marketmakers, even the hedge funds. When social lending becomes commercial lending, the commercial banks will start fading. A consolidation of political views on the internet can take on the politicians.
It shall be a fairer world. Information, knowledge and thus power to the people.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Taxi 9211
The music of this movie has set me thinking. The music is super fuckingly amazing of course. But what got me thinking was not that - it was that the music is a super blend - has amazing guitar, beats, indian instruments, the melody so typical of hindi romantic songs, the drums/beats so to typical of modern (yes i'm prehistoric) trance/club etc. It has blended them all and come out very good. (Rock fans would appreciate the good guitar in places though they - and me - want more of that).
(Hardcore musicians will forgive my amateurish criticim. I played the guitar a wee lil bit long long ago but I really do not know much about music. My taste is music is all "acquired"; acquired from friends.)
And it strikes me that this "blend" thing is so typical of Indian culture - look at the ahoms and the mughals - they came in, they conquered, and became Indian. Indians can both accept and they can copy; they accepted the mughals and the ahoms, imbibed/copied part of their culture and made it their own. And they copy and make it better. Like they are doing with music now.
(Hardcore musicians will forgive my amateurish criticim. I played the guitar a wee lil bit long long ago but I really do not know much about music. My taste is music is all "acquired"; acquired from friends.)
And it strikes me that this "blend" thing is so typical of Indian culture - look at the ahoms and the mughals - they came in, they conquered, and became Indian. Indians can both accept and they can copy; they accepted the mughals and the ahoms, imbibed/copied part of their culture and made it their own. And they copy and make it better. Like they are doing with music now.
Would the US have attacked a white christian Iraq? (for the oil maybe?)
(Also, would they have attacked North Korea by now if North Korea was Muslim?)
Thank god (the Hindu gods of course:p) the Tamils are not Muslims. Or else, the world (the west predominantly, but the east is now following suit) would just have branded the LTTE as "islamist jihadists". Like they do with the ones in Chechnya. And with the ones who did the blasts in Karachi recently. And with the ones in Palestine. And probably now the ones in Kashmir too.
(If the Assamese had a Muslim majority, the ULFA would be branded as just another example of jihad too.)
(I will not insult the reader's intelligence by explaining why those movements are not any jihad).
I am tired, of all this Islamophobia (OK I am not sure if there is a term like that; if there isn't, there soon will be). I knew the Hindus were like that and I always rebelled against it; now here in the Netherlands, those Islamophobic Hindus from India look like angels. And I am amazed, at the jokes highly qualified and intelligent people here make about Muslims and jihad, at their reaction when someone says he is from Pakistan (I wonder how they would react if someone said he is from Afghanistan), at their general perception of Muslims.
I am generalizing, of course; forgive me. But it is there, that seed of Islamophobia, more than a seed really. Much more. (OK not quite a tree yet, but a plant maybe?:p)
And it frightens me, this intolerance that I see here (and which has manifested in US's attack on Iraq - oh yes, do you think the US would have attacked them if there were white and christian? ok maybe, for the oil). I don't see these people having to interact with a lot of Muslims; there just ain't as many Muslims here as say in India. And that definitely is the problem; and a problem the media and the governments are exacerbating by raving about jihad all the time.
I don't see an Islamic jihad. I rather see the beginnings of a anti-Islamic jihad, led mostly and fiercely by the west.
Thank god (the Hindu gods of course:p) the Tamils are not Muslims. Or else, the world (the west predominantly, but the east is now following suit) would just have branded the LTTE as "islamist jihadists". Like they do with the ones in Chechnya. And with the ones who did the blasts in Karachi recently. And with the ones in Palestine. And probably now the ones in Kashmir too.
(If the Assamese had a Muslim majority, the ULFA would be branded as just another example of jihad too.)
(I will not insult the reader's intelligence by explaining why those movements are not any jihad).
I am tired, of all this Islamophobia (OK I am not sure if there is a term like that; if there isn't, there soon will be). I knew the Hindus were like that and I always rebelled against it; now here in the Netherlands, those Islamophobic Hindus from India look like angels. And I am amazed, at the jokes highly qualified and intelligent people here make about Muslims and jihad, at their reaction when someone says he is from Pakistan (I wonder how they would react if someone said he is from Afghanistan), at their general perception of Muslims.
I am generalizing, of course; forgive me. But it is there, that seed of Islamophobia, more than a seed really. Much more. (OK not quite a tree yet, but a plant maybe?:p)
And it frightens me, this intolerance that I see here (and which has manifested in US's attack on Iraq - oh yes, do you think the US would have attacked them if there were white and christian? ok maybe, for the oil). I don't see these people having to interact with a lot of Muslims; there just ain't as many Muslims here as say in India. And that definitely is the problem; and a problem the media and the governments are exacerbating by raving about jihad all the time.
I don't see an Islamic jihad. I rather see the beginnings of a anti-Islamic jihad, led mostly and fiercely by the west.
Update on Listening to the (Western) Twentieth Century
I had emailed the guy my view. His response gives hope that the title is indeed apt (while the summary apparently is not).
Response below:
Chandan,
The summary is a bit deceptive. In the final chapter of my book I talk
at length about Toru Takemitsu, Tan Dun, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Kayhan
Kalhor, and other non-Western composers. I suspect that in the current
century the story of classical music will be increasingly non-Western
in orientation.
All best,
Alex Ross
Response below:
Chandan,
The summary is a bit deceptive. In the final chapter of my book I talk
at length about Toru Takemitsu, Tan Dun, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Kayhan
Kalhor, and other non-Western composers. I suspect that in the current
century the story of classical music will be increasingly non-Western
in orientation.
All best,
Alex Ross
Listening to the (Western) Twentieth Century
The Economist ran a review (http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10015908&fsrc=nwlptwfree) on this book called "The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century". The author is Alex Ross who has been the music critic of The New Yorker since 1996.
I read the economist review. And I read the summary at the author's blog (http://www.therestisnoise.com/).The summary goes like "...The narrative goes from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties, from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies...".
Get the picture? See the problem?
For those who didn't, Isn't there also something called Indian classical music (yes, they have actually played a bit of that in the twentieth-century too)? There's probably Chinese classical music and Japanese etc but I don't know about that. All I'm saying is, Mr Alex, please be correct and call you book "Listening to the Western Twentieth Century".
I read the economist review. And I read the summary at the author's blog (http://www.therestisnoise.com/).The summary goes like "...The narrative goes from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties, from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies...".
Get the picture? See the problem?
For those who didn't, Isn't there also something called Indian classical music (yes, they have actually played a bit of that in the twentieth-century too)? There's probably Chinese classical music and Japanese etc but I don't know about that. All I'm saying is, Mr Alex, please be correct and call you book "Listening to the Western Twentieth Century".
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