As I Saw It : Points to Ponder

Points to Ponder                                                                                   03 Sept 2015

SO LONG As the Constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and-lest I forget- so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung. India will survive.

RAMCANDRA GUHA, historian in India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy

A SOCIETY whose dominant tone is snark is ultimately one that is politically disengaged. A culture that is mostly about pointing out how vile, venal, stupid an hypocritical political leaders are, and how ineffective if not downright harmful government is, is a culture in which people will conclude that there is no point in being politically involved, even with as slight a commitment as voting.

CHRYSTIA FREELAND, former journalist and current politician, in politics magazine

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

GEORGE ORWELL, author

THERE IS a super expensive new drug coming out. It reduces heart disease by 60 percent, cancer by 27 percent, Alzheimer’s by 50 percent, and arthritis by 47 percent. It’s now out best treatment for fatigue and low back pain. It cures a third of erectile dysfunction and cuts anxiety and depression by 48 percent. People even lose weight on this stuff…Okay, it’s not new or expensive or even a pill. It’s walking.

DR MIKE EVANS, associate professor family medicine and public health at the University of Toronto