8 ms·

My OCD kicks in. Where does this odd thing come at the end of the article? "The older brother who accompanied Mr Brierley on the train ride was found dead on r

by mad44 15y ago

My OCD kicks in. Where does this odd thing come at the end of the article? "The older brother who accompanied Mr Brierley on the train ride was found dead on railway tracks." Earlier in the article, it was written that Saroo boarded the train after he got lost. No mention of older brother, which made me think he was alone.

mad44 15y ago
Also fuck poverty. I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon.
- bh42222 15y ago
  I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon. Most of the industrialized world can be said to have done that. Western Europe, Japan, probably Canada too. It is easy* and requires only low levels of corruption, good law and order, combined with mostly free markets. Wealth in terms of natural resources is NOT a requirement, Switzerland is resource wise very poor. (Unless you count scenic views of the Alps as a resource.) *When I say easy, I mean possible and requires only changes in human behavior - so super hard in fact.
  - joering2 15y ago
    +1 great comment, but I think you meant "Eastern Europe".
    - chollida1 15y ago
      since he included Canada and Japan, I'm assuming he meant Western Europe.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - DanI-S 15y ago
    I suspect it may also require the systematic exploitation of the remainder of the world through aggressive pursuit of unfair trade agreements and projection of military force abroad, but I may be wrong. Also: the help of a larger, richer friend overseas who is much less concerned with equality.
    - bh42222 15y ago
      It is true the OECD countries are currently bending the developing world over backwards. But this does not mean that the OECD needs that kind of advantage. We might not be as rich without it, but we would still be quite rich. Also there's very little military projection from the Scandinavian countries for example. And I am not sure how the overseas friend helps? If you look at median (not average) GDP per capita, the US is actually less wealthy than many European countries. Plus, in terms of trade with Europe, the US is as much a competitor and exporter as it is an importer. So I'd say Western European or Scandinavian style prosperity is definitely possible without UK style ex-colonialism, or US style inequality and military projectionism.
      - DanI-S 15y ago
        You make some good points. I figured that US involvement probably has a hand in ensuring us a steady supply of fairly low priced oil, but you're right that other factors may counteract this. Honestly, it seems so hard to imagine a 20th Century without US influence that it may not even be worth the effort.
        bh42222 15y ago
        Well the US military involvement does mean it gets some of the lowest priced oil. What's the price of a gallon of gasoline up to in Europe now, $9 or something? I think most of the time it is something like triple what the US pays. And yet that has not crippled the European economies when it comes to trade with the US. European cars are more gasoline efficient, and Europeans live closer together (although this may largely also be due to historic reason long predating the automobile). And I think the fear that oil might be radically more expensive for everyone, unless someone ensures it keeps flowing, is unfounded. If oil is valuable - people will look to sell it. Didn't certain groups in Iraq partly fund themselves by exporting oil in pickup trucks? That's what I mean. Even if an oil exporting area turns to complete and utter chaos, strong men will arise and they will look to get rich by selling oil. And how long could the oil exporting states maintain their quality of life without massive oil exports? I think you'd have to actively fight to prevent oil from trading rather than the other way around. But it is also true that Europe might look radically different if the US had not pushed for democracy in the west. That's what's really so depressing about the US and the rest of the world slowly sliding towards more and more authoritarianism. Who will be guiding beacon of freedom in the coming centuries? Switzerland is not big enough to strong arm anyone into being more democratic.
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    > Wealth in terms of natural resources is NOT a requirement, Switzerland is resource wise very poor. Consider the "curse of oil." Abundant natural resources may make uplifting the wider society difficult. Compare the Middle East with Japan.
    - marshray 15y ago
      So that theory would imply that if we compare the Middle East with Japan before 1900 when oil became an important resource we should expect ... what?
- ars 15y ago
  > I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon. Define poverty. If you define it as having much less money than everyone else around you then it's impossible to ever get rid of it. Someone will always have less money. Someone will always have fewer skill and have the poorer jobs. However, if you define poverty as not having the basics, then we are well on the way to getting rid of it already. Another few doublings of our energy usage should do it. (Energy usage = resources available, which means everyone has those resources.)
  - capisce 15y ago
    There's something to be said for trying not necessarily to get rid of economic inequality completely, but at least significantly lower it: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html
- Jun8 15y ago
  I agree with your cry of anguish (esp. reading about the older brother and seeing the pained expression on his mum's face). Yet, this may be impossible because of our humanity, as Agent Smith puts it: "Have you ever stood and stared at it? Marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program, entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that as a species human beings define their reality through misery and suffering."
Peroni 15y ago
Mr Brierley, at the age of five, was begging at a train station in west India with his older brother. He got separated from his brother and subsequently got lost.
- mad44 15y ago
  I thought so too. But then why is it written that his older brother accompanied him on the train ride. Yes, I have OCD. "The older brother who accompanied Mr Brierley on the train ride was found dead on railway tracks."
  - mad44 15y ago
    Other writeup of the story has the same mistake. First "he is separated from his brother and boards a train", later "the brother was accompanying him on the train ride". http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-beggar-to-oz-businessman-he-returns-ho/912561/ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-beggar-to-oz-business...
    - cydonian_monk 15y ago
      Given the tendancy of Indian rail lines to be overloaded (and for beggars and hobos to hang on the outside of trains or on the roof/undercarriage), is it possible both are true? That he was seperated from his brother, but both somehow got on the same train and his brother 'fell off' somewhere along the way? Pure speculation, but it might put your OCD at ease.
      - mad44 15y ago
        Plausible.
  - cma 15y ago
    There were two train rides, one to go beg, and then one to head back home. The brother accompanied on the first.
    - 15y ago
bartonfink 15y ago
Third paragraph of the story: "Mr Brierley, at the age of five, was begging at a train station in west India with his older brother." Although the article does fail to mention him again until mentioning his death, which seems to warrant more explanation than "guy died on some railway tracks."
justjimmy 15y ago
Yeah, that sentence stuck out to me too. The way it's worded and positioned seems to make it very random and cold, when compared to the rest of the article.
- pbiggar 15y ago
  I think that comes from the "inverted pyramid" style of writing that journalists typically use. Most important stuff first, filler at the end.
  - chimeracoder 15y ago
    That's exactly what happened. Writers are taught to put the least important parts at the end, so that the editors know what to cut when trying to reach word count targets. When several standalone sentences are written (like here), editors are supposed to know that they can move that sentence to a more appropriate place, or cut out those that don't go well together. Think of it like a 'filler sentences' bank that the writer provides for the editor who will end up rewriting the end of the story. This here is just an example of very shoddy editing.
    - gcb 15y ago
      think it's less about the writting method and more about the priorization

by mad44 15y ago

mad44 15y ago

Also fuck poverty. I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon.

bh42222 15y ago
I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon. Most of the industrialized world can be said to have done that. Western Europe, Japan, probably Canada too. It is easy* and requires only low levels of corruption, good law and order, combined with mostly free markets. Wealth in terms of natural resources is NOT a requirement, Switzerland is resource wise very poor. (Unless you count scenic views of the Alps as a resource.) *When I say easy, I mean possible and requires only changes in human behavior - so super hard in fact.
- joering2 15y ago
  +1 great comment, but I think you meant "Eastern Europe".
  - chollida1 15y ago
    since he included Canada and Japan, I'm assuming he meant Western Europe.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- DanI-S 15y ago
  I suspect it may also require the systematic exploitation of the remainder of the world through aggressive pursuit of unfair trade agreements and projection of military force abroad, but I may be wrong. Also: the help of a larger, richer friend overseas who is much less concerned with equality.
  - bh42222 15y ago
    It is true the OECD countries are currently bending the developing world over backwards. But this does not mean that the OECD needs that kind of advantage. We might not be as rich without it, but we would still be quite rich. Also there's very little military projection from the Scandinavian countries for example. And I am not sure how the overseas friend helps? If you look at median (not average) GDP per capita, the US is actually less wealthy than many European countries. Plus, in terms of trade with Europe, the US is as much a competitor and exporter as it is an importer. So I'd say Western European or Scandinavian style prosperity is definitely possible without UK style ex-colonialism, or US style inequality and military projectionism.
    - DanI-S 15y ago
      You make some good points. I figured that US involvement probably has a hand in ensuring us a steady supply of fairly low priced oil, but you're right that other factors may counteract this. Honestly, it seems so hard to imagine a 20th Century without US influence that it may not even be worth the effort.
      - bh42222 15y ago
        Well the US military involvement does mean it gets some of the lowest priced oil. What's the price of a gallon of gasoline up to in Europe now, $9 or something? I think most of the time it is something like triple what the US pays. And yet that has not crippled the European economies when it comes to trade with the US. European cars are more gasoline efficient, and Europeans live closer together (although this may largely also be due to historic reason long predating the automobile). And I think the fear that oil might be radically more expensive for everyone, unless someone ensures it keeps flowing, is unfounded. If oil is valuable - people will look to sell it. Didn't certain groups in Iraq partly fund themselves by exporting oil in pickup trucks? That's what I mean. Even if an oil exporting area turns to complete and utter chaos, strong men will arise and they will look to get rich by selling oil. And how long could the oil exporting states maintain their quality of life without massive oil exports? I think you'd have to actively fight to prevent oil from trading rather than the other way around. But it is also true that Europe might look radically different if the US had not pushed for democracy in the west. That's what's really so depressing about the US and the rest of the world slowly sliding towards more and more authoritarianism. Who will be guiding beacon of freedom in the coming centuries? Switzerland is not big enough to strong arm anyone into being more democratic.
- cpeterso 15y ago
  > Wealth in terms of natural resources is NOT a requirement, Switzerland is resource wise very poor. Consider the "curse of oil." Abundant natural resources may make uplifting the wider society difficult. Compare the Middle East with Japan.
  - marshray 15y ago
    So that theory would imply that if we compare the Middle East with Japan before 1900 when oil became an important resource we should expect ... what?
ars 15y ago
> I hope we can wipe poverty off the earth soon. Define poverty. If you define it as having much less money than everyone else around you then it's impossible to ever get rid of it. Someone will always have less money. Someone will always have fewer skill and have the poorer jobs. However, if you define poverty as not having the basics, then we are well on the way to getting rid of it already. Another few doublings of our energy usage should do it. (Energy usage = resources available, which means everyone has those resources.)
- capisce 15y ago
  There's something to be said for trying not necessarily to get rid of economic inequality completely, but at least significantly lower it: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson.html
Jun8 15y ago
I agree with your cry of anguish (esp. reading about the older brother and seeing the pained expression on his mum's face). Yet, this may be impossible because of our humanity, as Agent Smith puts it: "Have you ever stood and stared at it? Marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program, entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that as a species human beings define their reality through misery and suffering."

Peroni 15y ago

Mr Brierley, at the age of five, was begging at a train station in west India with his older brother. He got separated from his brother and subsequently got lost.

mad44 15y ago
I thought so too. But then why is it written that his older brother accompanied him on the train ride. Yes, I have OCD. "The older brother who accompanied Mr Brierley on the train ride was found dead on railway tracks."
- mad44 15y ago
  Other writeup of the story has the same mistake. First "he is separated from his brother and boards a train", later "the brother was accompanying him on the train ride". http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-beggar-to-oz-businessman-he-returns-ho/912561/ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-beggar-to-oz-business...
  - cydonian_monk 15y ago
    Given the tendancy of Indian rail lines to be overloaded (and for beggars and hobos to hang on the outside of trains or on the roof/undercarriage), is it possible both are true? That he was seperated from his brother, but both somehow got on the same train and his brother 'fell off' somewhere along the way? Pure speculation, but it might put your OCD at ease.
    - mad44 15y ago
      Plausible.
- cma 15y ago
  There were two train rides, one to go beg, and then one to head back home. The brother accompanied on the first.
  - 15y ago

bartonfink 15y ago

Third paragraph of the story: "Mr Brierley, at the age of five, was begging at a train station in west India with his older brother." Although the article does fail to mention him again until mentioning his death, which seems to warrant more explanation than "guy died on some railway tracks."

justjimmy 15y ago

Yeah, that sentence stuck out to me too. The way it's worded and positioned seems to make it very random and cold, when compared to the rest of the article.

pbiggar 15y ago
I think that comes from the "inverted pyramid" style of writing that journalists typically use. Most important stuff first, filler at the end.
- chimeracoder 15y ago
  That's exactly what happened. Writers are taught to put the least important parts at the end, so that the editors know what to cut when trying to reach word count targets. When several standalone sentences are written (like here), editors are supposed to know that they can move that sentence to a more appropriate place, or cut out those that don't go well together. Think of it like a 'filler sentences' bank that the writer provides for the editor who will end up rewriting the end of the story. This here is just an example of very shoddy editing.
  - gcb 15y ago
    think it's less about the writting method and more about the priorization