How to explain the inexorable rise of India?
The legacy of the British Empire - leaving behind infrastructure, a trained civil service, and a democratic political culture?
The history of the ancient civilisations of the subcontinent and a deep, intricate, social and cultural pool of knowledge?
A cultural tendency toward hard work and entrepreneurial endeavour?
Enlightened recent governance opening-up the country to global markets?
Well, yes of course any fool can come up with these perfectly plausible reasons for the meteoric increase in the economic fortunes of our cousins from the subcontinent.
But my Indian correspondent (I have spies everywhere) points me in a different direction:
Booze. Hooch. Falling-down juice. Grog. Call it whatever you want.
That’s right – it turns out the most of the Indian population is constantly Brahms (that’s rhyming slang…Brahms and Liszt…I’m sure you can work it out).
Here is a story in the International Herald Tribune detailing the changing drinking habits of India but it also reveals this true secret of their success.
A lesson to all here – especially the Islamic world and the Chinese – the only true road to enlightenment is at the bottom of that bottle of hefty Cabernet Sauvignon or that pint of best bitter.
The exception that proves the rule is of course Australia. Spotting a sober Australian is a rare occurrence, but they still remain an utterly inconsequential, deeply unpleasant nation.
Ps. any other slang terms for booze are welcome…
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3 comments:
Mr. Templeton belongs to the same distinguished league of contrarians as Christopher Hitchens and Lou Dobbs, but please do not expect him to be nice to America.
My last comment was meant to be a response to the first piece from Mr. Templeton. Regrets.
With respect to this posting, I fully agree with the juice thesis.
The Great Leap Forward (listen Mao) with a bottle of Tsingtao.
Good for people to know.
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