Monday, September 29, 2008
1 - 15 centuries before Vasco da Gama, West knew of sea route to India
While most educated people today know about the overland medieval Silk Route linking China with Italy, few are aware of the ancient Incense Route that connected India with Rome.
Shipping along the Incense Route was the most important carrier of world trade in classical times. From the Mediterranean Sea the route extended overland across Palestine, where cities and caravanserai lined it. And then, on reaching the Suez, it embarked on ships that hugged the coast of Arabia to reach India.
This trade was so important and so expensive having to be paid for in gold that Roman elders decried it. The situation was similar to the U.S. today in that imports far exceeded exports. Rome was being bankrupted in the pursuits of trinkets - said the wise heads - to the benefit of the Kushanas, the Cholas, the Pandyans and the Cheras of India.
Many of us must have read - without being able to identify the city of Ophir - the much quoted poem' Cargoes' by a former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, John Masefield.
To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Shipping along the Incense Route was the most important carrier of world trade in classical times. From the Mediterranean Sea the route extended overland across Palestine, where cities and caravanserai lined it. And then, on reaching the Suez, it embarked on ships that hugged the coast of Arabia to reach India.
This trade was so important and so expensive having to be paid for in gold that Roman elders decried it. The situation was similar to the U.S. today in that imports far exceeded exports. Rome was being bankrupted in the pursuits of trinkets - said the wise heads - to the benefit of the Kushanas, the Cholas, the Pandyans and the Cheras of India.
Many of us must have read - without being able to identify the city of Ophir - the much quoted poem' Cargoes' by a former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, John Masefield.
To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: ancient, China, Incense Route, india, Italy, Mediterranean Sea, Palestine, Rome, route, Saudi Arabia, Silk Route linking, Vasco da Gama
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
World academic leader in its time, Nalanda offers model for new global university
Which university was mankind's earliest? Two universities vie for that distinction. No, not Oxford or Cambridge.
Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
The university of Bologna in Italy is regarded as the first university in the West.
The earliest date for the beginning of teaching at Oxford is 30 years after the Norman Conquest - 1096.
Cambridge started much later, and between the two universities a strong rivalry has existed for centuries. Cambridge will observe its 800th anniversary in 2009.
But it is the Takshasila and Nalanda universities of Vedic and Classical India that tie for the honor of being humanity's first university.
In an article entitled, ‘Really Old School,‘ Jeffrey E. Garten, Op-Ed contributor, wrote in The New York Times of December 9, 2006: "Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, and surviving until 1197, Nalanda was one of the first great universities in recorded history.
To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
The university of Bologna in Italy is regarded as the first university in the West.
The earliest date for the beginning of teaching at Oxford is 30 years after the Norman Conquest - 1096.
Cambridge started much later, and between the two universities a strong rivalry has existed for centuries. Cambridge will observe its 800th anniversary in 2009.
But it is the Takshasila and Nalanda universities of Vedic and Classical India that tie for the honor of being humanity's first university.
In an article entitled, ‘Really Old School,‘ Jeffrey E. Garten, Op-Ed contributor, wrote in The New York Times of December 9, 2006: "Founded in 427 in northeastern India, not far from what is today the southern border of Nepal, and surviving until 1197, Nalanda was one of the first great universities in recorded history.
To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: Italy, Nalanda, Nalanda universities of Vedic and Classical India, Nepal, Oxford University, survivial, university of Bologna
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Group of Eight wants broad United Nations deal to halve emissions
T he G8 rich countries said on July 8 they want to work with the nearly 200 states involved in U.N. climate change talks to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The final climate communique agreed by the Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050, but gave no numerical targets.
The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on U.N.-led talks to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and papers over differences inside the G8 itself. The U.N. talks are set to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The careful wording of the statement -always the most contentious part of summit negotiations -- was also unlikely to satisfy those seeking much more specific targets.
Last year, the G8 club of rich nations -Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States -- agreed merely to "seriously consider" a goal of halving global emissions by mid-century.
The European Union and Japan have been pressing for this year's summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted clear interim targets as well.
But U.S. President George W. Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well.
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
The final climate communique agreed by the Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050, but gave no numerical targets.
The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on U.N.-led talks to create a new framework for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and papers over differences inside the G8 itself. The U.N. talks are set to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The careful wording of the statement -always the most contentious part of summit negotiations -- was also unlikely to satisfy those seeking much more specific targets.
Last year, the G8 club of rich nations -Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States -- agreed merely to "seriously consider" a goal of halving global emissions by mid-century.
The European Union and Japan have been pressing for this year's summit to go beyond that, and Brussels wanted clear interim targets as well.
But U.S. President George W. Bush has insisted that Washington cannot agree to binding targets unless big polluters such as China and India rein in their emissions as well.
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: Canada, emissions, France, G8, Germany, greenhouse gas, india, Italy, Japan, President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UN deal, United Nation, United states
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