12.2 Cochin, Kerala

• I can't help but think that the tried and tested "the jewish quarter" might have been a better choice, but there you are. The signs above are from the historic quarter of Cochin, Kerala.
• A working elephant in India cost 5-10 lakhs, or roughly $10-20,000. This is about the same price as an entry-level car.
• Gasoline in India costs roughly $4 a gallon. This is about the same price as in the UK, but much more than in the US. Refreshingly, some trucks have painted signs on their rear reading: “Save Gasoline; Save India.”
• The community of Keralans living in America numbers roughly half a million. Three quarters are Christian, compared to only a thirds of Keralans in India.
  
• The more muted the sari, the more likely the women is to have means. The more vibrant, the more likely to be from a lower class background.
• I am going to Dubai in a few weeks. This is what my friend Will Davies had to say about it in an e-mail exchange; a quote too good not to share:
  
  "Dubai is far and away the worst place in the world, so well worth a visit. Vegas without the sin; Milton Keynes with less history; Saudi Arabia with less charm; Barclays Bank with less concern for the poor. The place exists for shopping, golf, property speculation and tax avoidance. An ideal day for a Dubai resident involves playing golf in the shopping mall that they are subletting to their accountant.”
  
• This article by Mike Davis on Dubai is really worth a read. He takes the best quote from someone I’ve never heard, Baruch Knei-Paz, describing a theory of Trotsky’s:
  
  In appending new forms the backward society takes not their beginnings, nor the stages of their evolution, but the finished product itself. In fact it goes even further; it copies not the product as it exists in its countries of origin but its ‘ideal type’, and it is able to do so for the very reason that it is in a position to append instead of going through the process of development. This explains why the new forms, in a backward society, appear more perfected than in an advanced society where they are approximations only to the ‘ideal’ for having been arrived at piecemeal and with the framework of historical possibilities.
  
• By 2010 7 of the 10 largest malls in the world will be in China. However, both the two largest will be in Dubai. [ibid]
• John Edwards likes to say that China will soon become the largest English speaking country in the world. Can this really be true?
• Hinduism has a refreshingly practical bent. According to its theology cows are the only animals in heaven. This is because the Gods need milk.
• My new favourite Hindu god: Ganesha. He has the head of an elephant. He is very charming, and people like him here very much. Shrines and pictures of him always include a mouse. Said mouse is his trusty steed; to be mounted when when he needs to, er, pack his trunk and travel. [See here for some pics of him.]