Mihir Bose's Blog, page 8

Japan and the curious road to Asian freedom

Asian Lite How we remember history matters because it defines our present. Learn the past to understand why we are where we are at present. How important this is has been shown by the astonishing rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement is driven by the desire of black people to reclaim their […]

Can the West ever understand Putin?

Asianlite Vladimir Putin has always known how to outfox the west. Let me begin with a story. It is Zurich, 2 December 2010. England, Russia, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are bidding for the 2018 football World Cup. For the 2022 World Cup Qatar, Australia, Japan, South Korea and America are bidding. All the great […]

British sport must examine its racist past

Financial Times In nearly half a century of reporting sport in the British media, I have never known sports administrators — notoriously resistant to change — to move so swiftly on any subject as they have on race in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Both Premier League footballers and English cricketers have taken […]

What Shall We Do With The Red Dragon?

Asian Lite “Let China sleep”, said Napoleon famously, “when she wakes she will shake the world.” How world leaders must be hoping that China had gone on sleeping. That China should pose such a problem is not a surprise. It is the western reaction to it that is a surprise. It shows both naivety in […]

Test of a nation – letter to The Times

Letter to The Times   Sir, Today’s first Test between England and the West Indies shows how cricket can bring people together. There is no West Indian nation, as attempts to form a federation failed in the 1950s. The team is made up of players from different islands that are very distinct countries. In the […]

Time To Tackle History To Tame Race Problem

Asian Lite Black lives Matter has blown open the subject of race in a fashion that nobody could have imagined. That it took the death of an African American in the sort of white police brutality which is not uncommon in America shows what was bubbling beneath the surface not just in America but the […]

What can India do about China?

Asian Lite I have always thought that all this talk of the 21st century being the century of Asia, with the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, forming a partnership that would take over from America and the western world as just the sort of easy-to-write tabloid headline that bore no […]

What shall we do with Churchill and Gandhi?

Asian Lite  One generation wanting to tear down the statues of another generation is not new. This has been going since the mankind began erecting statues. The Romans were masters at this and other nations have also indulged in it. However, the #Black Lives Matter campaign, which led to the defacing of Churchill’s state in […]

#BlackLivesMatter What can we do about Racism?

Asian Lite Racism like taxes and death will always be with us. I know this is a very depressing thought.  However, we can and must make sure that racism does not so disfigure lives that people feel they have no chance to have anything like a normal life let alone prosper, and no choice except […]

Letter to The Times : advice to Boris Johnson on how to say ‘sorry’

Letter to The Times Sir, The reason the prime minister has failed to admit the mistakes the government has made (“Straighten Up”, leading article, Jun 5) is because he clearly does not understand that the word that defines Britishness is “sorry”. The British are unique among nations to be ready to admit their mistakes and […]