The Third Slip - Issue 15: The G(i)ST of Everything This Week
Hey there. Happy second half of year! It’s that time when you decide to renew the resolutions you squandered by early February.
Let’s start with something nice: Germany legalized gay marriage. #win.
But every silver lining has a black cloud: Angela ‘progressive icon in the age of right wing loonyism’ Merkel voted against.
AT HOME
GST Another Tax In The Wall
Yup, GST happened. Here’s a TL;DR of how prices of various things will change. The response is mixed, and understandably so. While the purported goals are laudable, execution is still sketchy. For instance - A Mercedes is cheaper by 3 lakhs but sanitary pads will become more expensive (ideologically makes sense, the BJP doesn’t seem to care about blood flowing).
Bonus chuckle: It turns out you can’t spell “GST roll-out” without “Troll” in between. Modi’s official speech ended with Darth Vader’s theme music playing as he waved to the crowd. Intentional, accidental, or someone pulling a fast one (like Sachin’s six off Caddick)? You decide.
Mob Rules
If we’re up for renaming the country, Lynchistan should be a nominee. It’s moved from shockingly once-in-a-while to numbingly regular now. And it took international coverage for Modi to finally say something (he did so with all the sincerity of a 4-year-old saying he wouldn’t pick his nose again mother promise). The good news is ‘bhakt’ is now internationally understood, even in Spanish judicial circles.
Not in my name
The collective outrage against the senseless and spontaneous violence unleashed against some of India’s own citizens finally boiled over beyond Facebook posts and spilled on to the streets this week. The Not In My Name protests found support from many people from all communities but it left some intellectuals unimpressed because “Semantics”. If you are worried about oxford commas and the perfect phrasing to be used to express outrage while trolls on Twitter are laying waste to grammar and unleashing violence on the streets, it is highly likely that you are part of the problem.
There are those who argue that the protests may not be ideal politically and that it may have very little impact. But for now, we need to take solace from the fact that at least the common man is standing up and speaking against violence.
Orange meets orange
Oh yeah, that meeting and brohug happened beetwen Trump & Modi. But don’t wait with bated breath for anything to actually happen. Move on. (but he did praise Spicejet, which, surprisingly, is the best performing airline stock in the world!)
Orange also met the Orange (i.e stopped over in the Netherlands), and upon hearing that the Dutch national anthem is an acrostic made India proud by creating the best acronym to date - Dutch Indian Water Alliance for Leadership Initiative (DIWALI). Any anti-nationals who feel that this is cringe inducing, remember that this is a matter of patriotism and please Salute Tricolour Flag Unanimously.
Modi goes away for a few days, and China finds an excuse to muscle into Sikkim… Or specifically, the tri-junction with Bhutan. TL;DR: China is acting like that one annoying guy at the party who’s starting to invite his friends over.
Lodha lag gaye
Hey, remember all those awesome recommendations the Lodha Committee gave for reforming the BCCI? They have been implemented with the same enthusiasm as an optional formal dress code in an advertising agency’s creative department.
Solar, not so good
A lot has been made about India’s progress in renewable energy and while the executive summary PPT slide looks impressive, it’s not been thought-through (people working in coal are still being displaced) and the subsidies are not sustainable. Case in point: A large part of Germany’s energy is renewables-based but it’s substantially more expensive.
L’Orange Corner
Trumpcare is back in the news: A fair number of Republicans themselves hate it, and it’s guaranteed to deny coverage to millions who need it the most.
What started, seemingly, as a joke, has now become policy: People from certain countries are now banned from entering the US (unless they can prove a business/family relationship with someone in the states). Don’t worry, Trump - at this rate, not too many people will want to come by on their own anyway.
Meanwhile, Trump has his own diplomatic headaches: South Korea might not turn out to be as friendly as he’d hoped to tackle NK’s nuclear dreams. And Washington’s relationship with China is icy at best - and that temperature is going to get worse as China has been labeled the worst offenders of human trafficking.
Free markets rock: Trump gave a go-ahead to the controversial, long-stalled oil pipeline (all you need to know about that is environmentalists aren’t happy) but here’s the awesome bit - thanks to advances in renewables and low price of crude, nobody wants crude anymore. That’s right. This is the hydrocarbon equivalent of your company’s IT department taking so long to sanction a new OS that it’s got outdated by the time you had permission to buy it.
Remember that old saying about misogynistic people changing when given responsibility? Thankfully Trump doesn’t abide - here’s him saying a TV anchor’s bleeding badly from a face-lift.
And here’s a hilarious read about how Trump’s advisers actually treat him like a kid - no more TV and all.
WTF of the week - You cannot be serious!
Social media influencers mavens brand accelerators (now available on a LinkedIn profile near you) will tell you that the best way to get a topic trending is to court controversy. John McEnroe, while promoting his new book, really set the chalk flying this week by saying Serena is good and all but would probably rank around 700th if she played the men’s circuit. Everyone rightly laid into him.
Tech
Happy 10th anniversary to the iPhone. Both authors are Android loyalists, but… Boy did that thing that first sold on 29 June 2007 change… Everything.
Hey, look another ransomware attack (take backups. Please)
Don’t Be Evil (unless it gets you some serious revenue) has always been Google’s motto. This week, the EU fined Google $2.7 Billion for unfairly showcasing results from Google Shopping above other search results. Which is kind of like a placements committee representative nudging an HR saying “We have great students in this campus and you should consider all of them, but I can save you some time - these 4 friends of mine are excellent”. Google respectfully disagreed with the EU’s view, but this is a game changer.
Cardinal Sin
The Vatican has, of late, been in the news for mostly the right reasons thanks to Pope Francis’ largely progressive views compared to his predecessors. That in itself is an extremely low bar to aim for - akin to an establishment that serves libations in a dingy basement. But given the current political climate where quasi-dictators with sketchy human rights records run many important countries, it was a welcome change to have a pope schooling Trump on climate change. All that has changed, given that Cardinal George Pell, the third highest official in the Vatican has been charged with multiple sexual offences in his home country of Australia. The Vatican won’t pay Pell’s legal fees but they have been defensive on this issue which puts Pope Francis in quite a spot of bother.
LinkedOut
The name is bond, municipal bonds. Issued by Pune, in an effective way to raise money. Nice.
Is Hong Kong in trouble 20 years into Chinese rule?
Remember the Fyre Festival? Here’s the anatomy of a disaster
Serena Williams on her pregnancy, finding love, and more. Beautiful piece.
That’s it for this week. We are not doing this for money, only for validation. So do send us your thoughts, comments, love or hate on Twitter (Chuck, Tony), or you could also email us. Have a great week, see you next Sunday. Bye!