What Vijay Violet Is About.

The central thread is about making the lives of the underprivileged better across the world. The problems are many and the solutions are nontrivial and require collective rethinking. The rethinking demands we shed a priori assumptions of good and bad, and possible and not possible.

Understanding how to make Black lives better in America can help us understand how to make the lives of underprivileged here and everywhere better. Understanding what progress has been made elsewhere to uplift people can help us understand how to make Black lives better here. Shifting our thinking is difficult, individually and collectively, but try we must because only that can precipitate actions toward a better world.

There are historical parallels between Blacks in America and the untouchables in India. Racism is central, but it is not all about racism. There are recent parallels between the police treatment of Black protesters in America and Nigeria. There are parallels between what holds back most Blacks of America and most whites of Appalachia from accruing wealth. There are parallels between immediate prejudices against Black and transgendered people.

The writings in 2020 on understanding and making the lives of the underprivileged better (here, here, and here) have been interspersed with writings on unavoidable 2020 events — the pandemic (here and here) and the Presidential election (here and here), and avoidable detours of personal stories (here and here). Perhaps you like one of them and will pass it on to a friend or relation. Better yet, you will contemplate the relevance of a topic in your own local context and use it to start a conversation.

While some Vijay Violet writings in 2020 have come from contributions from you, the hope is more of that will happen in the next year as together we share our stories and thoughts to make it a better world.

I conclude with a note of thanks to a friend of many years who has bothered to read each and every one of these writings so they are polished before they are published! Thanks to many of you who read and comment regularly. I know your time is precious and you have much demand for your attention.

Happy New Year!

To a special friend

I promise to write about His Highness in 2021.