November 19, 2017 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Gilles Vergnaud Begins Working for French Government
The French government asked Gilles Vergnaud
to establish its first national molecular biology lab.
Vergnaud gladly accepted the offer and not
only went to establish the lab but even and continued to work there on human
genetics.
But when 1990s intelligence reports to come
in that Saddam Hussein was developing biological weapons, in 1997 orders came
from the defense ministry to shift to forensic microbiology.
You would recall that it was in August 02,
1990 that Iraq invaded Kuwait followed by Operation Desert Storm on January 17,
1991 when for the first time war came to our drawing rooms and we watched it as
if some kind of video game was being played out.
I remember those days very vividly as all
these events were unfolding in the volatile Middle East as I was finishing my
class 12 exams and preparing for entrance exams that I never could clear with
success.
Those were the years when it for the first
time dawned upon me the impact that overpopulation has on each and every
individual and perhaps it scarred my psyche for life.
I use the word “scarred” in a positive sense
because all around me I see so much struggle and suffering that it bewilders my
mind how human apes so gleefully reproduce and bring sentient life on to this
planet.
At my constant refrain of overpopulation,
Mon ami often raises a valid question to me: Would I wish that I was never
born?
Well, I have two things to say to Mon Ami
now that I have so much time to delve on this question.
Firstly, it is not a very fair question to
ask to a biological organism once it has been given that chance to be so.
The response most likely to the raised
query would be in the negative by almost any living being capable of
understanding and answering that line of inquiry.
That been said still leaves the question unanswered
from my side.
A couple of years ago I came across a
philosopher and his work.
The man was David Benatar of Cape Hope,
South Africa and his book was “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming
into Existence”.
He is possibly the only person I know who
is perhaps a vocal proponent of antinatalism than me.
Starting from the most basic and widely
acceptable premise that pain is unacceptable/undesirable, he logically builds
up argument that existing is not only painful but harmful, most of all to the
individual itself.
So you see mon ami, to answer that question
very directly I would say unequivocally: I indeed wished I was never born.
But once born, perhaps the only thing that becomes
obligatory is not to perpetuate that wrong once again.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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