by Vinoth Ramachandra | Mar 1, 2012 | Opinion
The streets of Colombo in Sri Lanka have witnessed angry crowds protesting at the soaring fuel costs, which have further crippled an economy already weakened by years of corruption and political mismanagement. Small countries like Sri Lanka are affected...
by Vinoth Ramachandra | Feb 14, 2012 | Opinion
I once had an argument with an American atheist Jew, who insisted that being a Jew was a matter of ethnicity and had nothing to do with “religion.” Later, I found that I had on my side Jonathan Sacks, perhaps the most articulate and winsome spokesperson...
by Vinoth Ramachandra | Jan 26, 2012 | Opinion
Last February, the IBM supercomputer, Watson, won an exhibition game of the TV show “Jeopardy!” against two of its best contestants. This was a significant advance on Deep Blue, another IBM supercomputer, which had defeated the six-time world chess...
by Vinoth Ramachandra | Jan 17, 2012 | Opinion
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was notorious among his contemporaries for his cynical view of human nature. Hobbes held that we always act out of self-interest. Once, a friend observed him giving money to a beggar and asked Hobbes if what he had...
by Vinoth Ramachandra | Jan 6, 2012 | Opinion
I return to Ha-Joon Chang’s debunking “23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism.” In one of his chapters, Chang argues that people in poor countries are generally more entrepreneurial than those in rich countries. Most citizens of rich...
