MUSICAL CLASSICS

Pleasure in a classical performance can appeal to one who is familiar with the technical aspects of a production and to another for its emotional impact. Both Greenberg and Plotkin offer valuable insights to the relevance and reason for attending classical music performances in this ever-changing world.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Classical Music 101 (A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Classical Music.)

Author: Fred Plotkin

Narrated By: Fred Plotkin

Fred Plotkin (Author, speaker, consultant on food, opera, and Italian culture.)

This is an informative overview of classical music but would have been better if some of the music referred to had been included in an audio version of Plotkin’s book. It is an interesting contrast to Professor Greenberg’s “Great Courses” lectures about classical music. Both writers offer insight to a non-musician’s interest in classical music. Both address Western classical music. They offer sketches of major figures like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and others. Greenberg introduces more information about musical grammar to offer a vocabulary of understanding while Plotkin focuses on how to listen and how modern renditions of the classics can be different from their original performances. The added dimension offered by Plotkin is the emotive qualities of particular musical instruments in a musical production.

Plotkin’s book is a more intuitive introduction to classical music productions than Greenberg’s lectures.

Plotkin’s music review is about the sensual message that classical music offers listeners. Greenberg, though equally insightful, offers a technical explanation of a classical’ composers or performers production. It would have been helpful to hear the difference between an original classical production and a modern interpretation, but Plotkin chooses not to use that audio tool. Plotkin’s high praise for Beethoven’s ninth symphony would have been a welcome audio addition to his insightful book.

Greenberg’s lectures are historical and chronological while Plotkin’s story is more about musical interpretation by different instruments in classical music productions.

Music, Opera, and History

Plotkin delves into the change in performances based on newly invented music instruments and different interpretations by performers of classic pieces. A piano began as a harpsichord in the 1700s which plucked strings like those on a tightly drawn bow. This evolves into an escapement that has hammers striking taught strings evolving into today’s pianos. The range of sounds grows with the addition of foot pedals and framed strings evolve from wooden infrastructure to cast iron frames that allow tighter strings and richer sound. (See the review of “Chopin’s Piano“) The number of keys is standardized at 88 by the late 19th century. From these earlier changes, digital pianos are created in the late 1900s and soon hybrid pianos are made with both acoustic and digital features. Musical instrument evolution explains why Plotkin suggests listeners compare an original classical piece of music in a modern format. It may become emotively different from older recordings because of instrument focus in the music or change in the instrument of presentation. Plotkin notes there are experiential and interpretive differences in modern performances of the classics. Here is where an audio example would have been helpful.

Emanuel Ax (Classical Pianist)
Marilyn Horne (Opera Singer)

Plotkin notes that difference in musical performances go beyond changes in musical instruments. He notes interpretations of the classics change. He explains artists like Emanuel Ax and Marilyn Horne use tempo, and phrasings dynamics that offer different experiences to a listener. (Another example of why it would have been easier to understand if there was an audio example.) Plotkin endorses listening to recordings of musical productions because they offer clarity and access to a wider audience. However, Plotkin notes that a live performance offers more spontaneity and emotional immediacy than a recording.

It is feelings of a modern audience that excites Plotkin’s imagination

Plotkin makes the point that an historical original may or may not be the best that a composers’ creation offers to a modern audience. However, it is feelings of a modern audience that excites Plotkin’s imagination. In Plotkin’s opinion, a classics’ meaning is not to be cast in stone because times change, and yesterday’s history may not resonate with today’s events. What Plotkin is driving for is the cultivation of expert listeners who can appreciate yesterday’s classics because they resonate with today’s events, though composed in a different era, they offer new perspective to modern events.

One who has listened to both Greenberg’s lectures and Plotkin’s book recognize both want to reach an audience of non-specialists to nurture their interest in classical music.

Both believe classical music is an interpretive exercise based on an orchestra’s performance. They are peas in a pod when it comes to wanting to see emotional transformation in a person listening to a classic’s performance. Both Greenberg and Plotkin believe the classics are meant to be a sensual experience. Greenberg educates his audience on the structure and historical complexity of classical music. Plotkin focuses on classical musical instruments and performances that remain classics because of their emotive relevance to the present as well as the past.

Different points of view about classical music.

One presumes Greenberg’s and Plotkin’s two views of classical music may come into conflict in the changes from the original intent of great composers who have created what Greenberg may argue is a timeless masterpiece. Greenberg’s technical understanding of composition may seem more important than a transitory emotional response from a less knowledgeable audience. Here is where a detailed presentation of Beethoven’s ninth could have clarified the values of the classics noted in Plotkin’s excellent book. One wonders how a modern performance of Beethoven’s ninth might be different from an earlier version.

Value of musical classics.

Both Greenberg and Plotkin offer equal enlightenment on the value of musical classics. Audiences will always have different understandings of classical performances. The goal of a great classical performance is to please its audience. Pleasure in a classical performance can appeal to one who is familiar with the technical aspects of a production and to another for its emotional impact. Both Greenberg and Plotkin offer valuable insights to the relevance and reason for attending classical music performances in this ever-changing world.

MARK TWAIN

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mark Twain 

Author: Ron Chernow

Narrated By: Jason Culp

Ron Chernow (Author, journalist, biographer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the American History Prize for his 2010 book “Washington: A Life”.

No stranger to historical biographies, Ron Chernow has written an interesting biography of the peripatetic humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, two weeks after Hailley’s Comet passed Earth in 1835, he died in 1910 when Hailey’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth in 1910. Chernow’s biography explains how Clemens became a steamboat pilot, frontier journalist, author, and American gadfly in his journey through 74 plus years of life.

Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain reminds one of Donald Trump without the power of the Presidency.

Clemens is noted as a stretcher of truth who told stories of his time that illustrated the contradictions of race, slavery, and morality that live through today. Twain is shown to express himself in humorist ways that challenged racial norms and societal conflicts which made some laugh, and others cringe with disgust or anger. Chernow argues Twain’s use of language shaped American literature. He gave American literature a unique voice that blended humor with criticism. Twain humanized the Black community and the iniquity of slavery, but Twain’s upbringing suggests he did not escape the false belief of innate Black’ inequality. Chernow painted a picture of Twain that showed how society was filled with the promise and pitfalls of Americans’ character.

Chernow shows how Clemens reinvents himself, not from formal education but from life experience.

At 21, Clemens begins training himself as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river, a highly praised, prized, and well-compensated position. Chernow suggests Clemens found his nom deplume, Mark Twain, based on the language of riverboat pilots. (“Mark Twain” is the 12 feet of depth needed for safe navigation of a riverboat.) As material transport changed after the steamboat era, Twain had to find a new career. He traveled to Nevada with the hope to become rich as a silver baron during the gold and silver rushes of the late 1850s. However, he never struck it rich, lost other people’s money, and turned to earlier work experience in newspapers when he lived in Missouri. He had learned the typesetting business and had written a few articles for the paper in his hometown. He settled in Carson City, Nevada, eventually becoming a journalist. On the one hand his stretching of the truth got him in trouble as a journalist but, on the other, it opened him to another career. His wit and way with words led to a role as lecturer and performer.

Chernow shows Twain changes jobs based on his innate abilities and external events.

The development of mass media, America’s Civil War, the industrialization of America, and the growth of a celebrity’ culture influence Twain’s life and made him a cultural symbol of America in the same way Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Chinua Achebe became symbols of their countries. Twain exemplified American life, its contradictions, its greed, and its biases that were blended into the personal tragedies and experiences of his own life. He turned his life experience into an art that reflected America’s growth as a nation. He became a writer and lecturer.

Chernow explains how Twain did not just read his lectures, i.e., he performs and acts their meaning to an audience.

Twain blends storytelling with satire and theater to entertain his audience. His reputation as a public speaker is made in California, but he becomes a global star. He performs in London, Berlin, and Bombay with what became cultural events about American humor and American foibles. His lectures are folksy with tinges of intellectualism that make him revered, respected, and laughed about by his audiences. Chernow believes he created an image of one who speaks truth to power about imperialism, religion, and human folly.

Chernow does not sugar coat truth about Twain.

Like all human beings, Twain had his blind spots. He was silent about lynching and its immorality, and he was trapped in his vision of racism by treating it as a troubling fact of American life despite his championing of civil rights. At best, he appears to be an agnostic when it comes to religion. There is criticism of Twain’s close relationship with teenage girls that he dismisses as a public concern by saying “It isn’t the public’s affair”. Twain is reckless with other people’s and his own money and investment. He exhibits behavior that suggests a gambler’s view about getting rich quickly. Twain could be vindictive, and melancholic because of his gloomy view of humanity. His family life suffers from his impulsivity and emotional distancing toward his wife and daughters. In one sense, Chernow makes Twain more human by noting he is like most of us except for his insightful sense of humor and talent for extemporaneous public speaking.

The archive of Twain’s letters is in the thousands which spans his entire adult life.

Chernow gathers much of his understanding of Twain from his personal letters rather than his books. He does note a number of Twain’s family members and friends are models for characters in his novels. However, Chernow’s focus is on Twain the man who appears morally inconsistent, a poor manager of other people’s money, and prone to anger when aggravated by other’s opinions. Whether this is fair or not, it describes many people today.

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

WEALTH

What is wrong about Housel’s investment recommendations is that his life experience sets a table that is not the same table as those who have much less to eat.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Psychology of Money (Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness)

Author: Morgan Housel

Narrated By: Chris Hill

Morgan Housel (Author, two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.)

“The Psychology of Money” is a plain-spoken examination of the value of wealth, how it is attained, retained or lost, and why its’ real value is independence. A superior perception of reality would certainly be ideal, but Housel implies no such thing exists, and that the presumption is too theoretical to be useful. Every human being becomes a product of their life experience. Unquestionably, all human beings have genetic inheritance, but Housel suggests personal life experience molds that genetic inheritance. All true, but it helps if your parents are upper middleclass and have a mindset for saving rather than spending their income.

Housel argues high intelligence is no guarantee of success in achieving wealth.

To achieve wealth, Housel argues one needs to be a consistent saver, a long-term thinker, an index fund investor in the stock market, and one who resists impulsive decisions to sell investments or use savings during financial instability. These guidelines are based on a wealth-seeker’s “margin of error” calculation of financial need during market weakness. One’s objective is to maintain one’s independence and freedom to live as they wish without risking that freedom by buying luxuries from short-term gains to only appear wealthier than others.

Cutting through the lessons that are listed by Housel’s suggestions is the ancient Greek recognition of the importance of “knowing thyself”.

Are you a crazy risk taker, do you think about the value of wealth, are you more interested in what others think of you than who you are to yourself, are you goal oriented or a “go along to get along” kind of person? These are clues to who you are and whether you should change to assure a life of freedom to live as you wish.

Janitor Ronald Read Leaves Behind $8,000,000 Fortune at his death

Housel gives the example of the janitor millionaire from Vermont who had no formal financial education. Ronald Read worked as a janitor and gas station attendant during his working life. He lived frugally while investing in blue-chip stocks that he held until his death. He amasses a fortune because of small savings and investments while never having high income but investing unneeded cash based on the way he chose to live. By being patient and disciplined over the course of his life, Read died in 2014 at the age of 92, donating $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, $1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library, and $2 million to his stepchildren, caregivers, and friends. Like Ben Franklin, Read lived a long life, accumulated great wealth while living the life he wanted. Just like Franklin, Read lived his life as he wanted and contributed his savings to eleemosynary institutions and people who were important to him during his lifetime.

Warren Buffett (The Oracle of Omaha.)

Warren Buffett is another example offered by Housel to explain that time and compounded returns on investment are key to one’s independence and success for living as one chooses. Buffet’s genius is not in just choosing the right stocks, but in staying with investments over the long term. Housel notes 96% of Buffett’s immense wealth came after his 65th birthday.

The discipline outlined by Housel is difficult for a young person to accept because of the tendency of human nature to impress others with their success.

When young, image is important for reasons ranging from attracting desirable partners to impressing others with one’s success by driving expensive cars, wearing elegant clothes, and living in luxurious homes. Many people believe image is as important as substance and fail to realize its folly when they are too old to do much about it. Freedom to live as we choose is a mixed blessing. Being disciplined about money and investment when one is young is an important lesson but hard to follow, particularly in a free society.

Piketty argues that the income gap widens after World War II.  He estimates 60% of 2010’s wealth is held by less than 1% of the population.

Housel comes from a family of savers who appear to have followed the path he recommends in his book. Though what he recommends makes sense, his starting point seems better than most middleclass or poor families in America. He chooses a very conservative investment strategy because of his life experience. He only invests in index funds and lives in a house without a mortgage. His story is not a typical American middleclass family story. What works for him is based on his personal life experience. What is wrong about Housel’s investment recommendations is that his life experience sets a table that is not the same table as those who have much less to eat. This is not to say Housel’s advice is wrong in recommending living within one’s means, investing for the long term, and letting wealth accumulate over time. It is good advice but where one starts in life makes a difference because your life experiences mold a large part of who you become and how you choose to save or spend your money.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE

Technology is a key to social need which has not been well served in the past or present and could become worse without pragmatic accommodation.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Daughters of the Baboo Grove (From Chian to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins)

Author: Barbara Demick

Narrated By: Joy Osmanski

Barbara Demick (Author, American journalist, former Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.)

This is a brief and fascinating historical glimpse of a government policy gone awry. Like America’s mistaken policies on immigration, Barbara Demick’s story of China’s one-child policy traces the effects of government overreach. Demick tells the story of a rural Chinese family who births twin sisters during the time of China’s unjust enforcement of their one-child policy. One sister is abducted by Chinese government officials, and is adopted by a family in Texas. The ethics of an inhumane Chinese government policy and the perfidy of free enterprise are exposed in Demick’s true story of two children’s lives.

The territorial size of China in respect to continental America.

China’s one-child policy leads to a Chinese criminal enterprise to capitalize on kidnapping and selling children born to families that could not afford the fines for having more children than the law allows. Undoubtedly, most children born were cherished by their parents, but the hardship of life and human greed leads to unconscionable human trafficking. Kidnapping became a part of a legal and criminal enterprise in China. Government policy allowed bureaucrats and scofflaws to confiscate children from their parents and effectively deliver or sell children to orphanages or people wanting to adopt a child. Demick recounts stories of grieving parents and grandparents that cannot get their children back once they have been taken.

Child trafficking, broken families, loss of personal identity, human shame, and the immoral implication of other countries interest in adopting children are unintended consequences of a poorly thought out and implemented government policy.

Demick becomes interested in this story because of a message she receives from a stepbrother of an adopted Chinese sister that has a twin that lives in China. Because of Demick’s long experience in visiting and reporting on China, she had a network of people she could call. Using adoption records, Demick is able to find the Texas stepsister who had been kidnapped when she was 22 months old. She was trafficked to an orphanage in the Hunan Province of China. Years later, through messaging apps, the twins communicated with each other and shared their photographs. They eventually meet in China in 2019.

One is hesitant to argue a government policy is a unique act of China when every government makes policy decisions that have unintended consequences.

America’s policy decisions on immigration are a present-day fiasco that is as wrong as the one-child policy in China’s history. The one-child policy is eventually rejected by the Chinese’ government but Demick’s book shows how bad government policy has consequences that live on even when they are changed by future governments. America’s policy on immigration will be eventually reversed but its damage will live on.

Getting back to the story, Demick is instrumental in having the mother of Esther (aka E) and the twins meet in China.

One is hesitant to argue a government policy is a unique act of China when every government makes policy decisions that have unintended consequences. The twins are initially reticent but warm to each other in a way that bridges the cultural and language divide between the sisters. The two mothers see their respective roles in their daughter’s lives. E and her identical twin, Shuangjie, are reserved when they meet because of the cultural distance that was created by E’s adoption.

E. appears more confident than Shuangjie who is more reserved and less assured.

However, Demick suggests they seem to mirror each other in subsequent meetings. One feels a mix of emotions listening to this audiobook version of “Daughter’s of the Bamboo Grove”. They have grown up in different environments but seem to have been raised in similar economic circumstances, though the two economies are vastly different in income per household, the two appear to be raised in similar economic classes.

Every person who reads/listens to “Daughter’s of the Bamboo Grove” can view the story from different perspectives.

There is the perspective of identical twins raised in different families, cultures, and histories. How are identical twins different when they are raised by different parents and in different cultures? Another perspective is that Xi and Trump have had dramatic effects on the societies their policies have created. The Twin’s meeting in 2019 is one year after my wife and I had visited China. Xi had become President after his predecessor began opening China’s economic opportunities. Two incidents on the trip when Xi had become President come to mind. The first is the feeling one has of being monitored everywhere and the internet restrictions when used to ask questions. The second was an incident in a crowded Chinese market when I was approached by a beefy citizen who raised his arms and seemed to be angrily talking to me in Chinese which I sadly did not understand. The distinct impression is that I was not welcome. This was a singular incident that did not repeat in our 21-day tour, but it seemed like an expression of hostility toward America.

This listener/reader thinks of the unintended consequences of Trump’s treatment of alleged illegal immigrants.

Trump’s immigration policy is similar to China’s earlier mistake with the one-child policy. America’s, China’s, and Japan’s economies are highly dependent on youth which is diminished in two fundamental ways. One is by public policy that restricts birth, and the other is immigration. Freedom of choice is a foundational belief in democracy while considered a threat in autocracy. In America today, it seems there is little difference between America, Japan, or China in regard to government policy that threatens the future. All have an aging population that can only be aided by younger generations. Even though manufacturing may become less labor intensive, public need in the service industry will grow. Technology is a key to social need which has not been well served in the past or present and could become worse without pragmatic accommodation.

POWER DISTRIBUTION

Unequal opportunity and inequality of race, ethnicity, and the sexes are societies’ problem. This foolish story is a waste of reader/listener’s time because it fails to address the reality of social inequality with a solution that can make a difference.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Power (A Novel)

Author: Naomi Alderman

Narrated By: Adjoa Andoh

Naomi Alderman (Author, British writer, novelist, producer for TV and movies.)

This is a marginally interesting novel about gender inequality. Naomi Alderman begins her story with two male thugs who murder the heroine’s mother and leave a daughter for dead. The young daughter defends her mother with a deadly electrical power that has laid dormant in her life but becomes energized by a force of will. The daughter attacks the overpowering thugs but is unable to save her mother. Alderman’s idea is to reverse the traditional roles of men and women by giving women a power greater than the physical strength advantages of men. This latent power is alleged to have been repressed and is miraculously discovered and cultivated in this young girl by her mother.

Inequality of opportunity.
Gener inequality.

The reason I find Alderman’s story tiresome is because she creates the same problem for women that exists in this largely patriarchal world. Great men like great women that wield inordinate power over others are almost always bad because as Lord Acton noted “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

The influence of raw power is diminished by social change, not by leaders’ gender, or the risk of superior weapons of mass destruction.

Raw power is not a gender problem. WMD as a raw power in the hands of a male or female leader are a societal problem. Unequal opportunity and inequality of race, ethnicity, and the sexes are societies’ problems. This foolish story is a waste of reader/listener’s time because it fails to address the reality of social inequality with a solution that can make a difference.

ISRAEL

Many soldiers and victims of war are teenagers, coping with life and death on a daily basis. They wonder, what is the point? We who sit on the sidelines because of age, agnosticism, or an unfettered life read or write about war as though it is just a story.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Beaufort (A Novel)

Author: Ron Leshem

Narrated By: Dick Hill

Ron Leshem (Author, born in 1976, recieved Sapir Prize, a top literary award in Israel, his book, Beaufort, is turned into a movie and is nominated for an Academy Award.)

Ron Leshem’s book “Beaufort” helps one understand why the idea of Gaza becoming a Palestinian state is anathema to a majority of Israeli citizens. Beaufort is located in southern Lebanon, on the border of Israel. In the 1970s Beaufort was used by the PLO as a base for operations against Israel. In 1982 Israeli forces capture Beaufort and it became an operating base for defense of Israel until their withdrawal in 2000. Lesham served in the intelligence corps during the time of the fight for control of Beaufort. He was not directly involved in the fighting but had an intimate understanding of the conflict. What “Beaufort” makes clear to Americans who are ignorant of what it is like to live in a country surrounded by militant minorities who wish to obliterate Israel.

Israel has a right to its existence on Israeli lands based on its ancient occupation of the land in 1200 BCE.

The proof of early occupation of Israel by Jews is in an inscription on a 1209 BCE Egyptian’ Merneptah Stele, a black granite slab. Though they were a tribal community, they had a form of governance that pre-dates nation-state development. Though one may argue Palestinians had lived in the lands of Israel since the 7th century, they were late comers to the land. The Palestinians were a nomadic Arab population that came nearly 600 years after settlement by the Israelites. The point made by the story of “Beaufort” shows why no rational human being would want another hostile haven for antisemitic opposition to Israel as a legally recognized nation-state.

“Beaufort” shows the human and psychological toll of an unjustified “forever war” conducted by two militant factions in Arab nations surrounding Israel.

Hamas and Hezbollah are two militant Islamist organizations deeply committed to destroying Israel and creating an Islamic state in the territory known as Isreal and Gaza. In 1947, a UN partition plan between Palestine and Israel was proposed but Arab leaders rejected it, while Israel accepted it. One can consider the history of the lands’ longer occupation by Jews of the holy land and Palestinians and wonder why partition was rejected by the Arabs.

So much blood has been spent, and distrust is so great that the possibility of peace seems remote.

The conflict revealed by “Beaufort” is a message to the world about life in Israel. Warfare is a fact of life for those who choose to live in Israel. Soldiers become disillusioned about why they are at the frontlines of an irreconcilable conflict. Kill or be killed becomes the mantra of their lives at the front. Unquestionably, it does have something to do with ideology or religion. How many soldiers and victims of war are teenagers, coping with life and death on a daily basis? Some must wonder, what is the point? We who sit on the sidelines because of age, agnosticism, or an unfettered life read or write about war as though it is just a story. It is not a story to Israelites or Palestinians. It is living life when surrounded by others who want to kill you.

GENERIC DRUGS

Katherine Eban believes generic drugs are important for global health because of affordability and accessibility. One wonders if anyone who reads or listens to “Bottle of Lies” will take generic drugs if they can afford the original FDA approved product.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Bottle of Lies (The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom)

Author: Katherine Eban

Narrated By: Katherine Eban

Katherine Eban (Author, American Rhodes scholar with a MPhil from University of Oxford.)

“Bottle of Lies” is a history of duplicity and dishonesty in the generic drug industry. It is a damning dissection of the lure of money at the expense of human life. On the one hand, affordability, healthcare savings, global health, and the value of regulation are made clear in “Bottle of Lies”. On the other, Katherine Eban shows how the lure of capitalism and greed creates an incentive to evade regulation and kill innocent people seeking drug treatment for their illnesses.

Katherine Eban reveals the history of an India drug company named Ranbaxy that was founded by two brothers, Ranbir Singh and Gurbax Singh.

In 1937, these two entrepreneurs recognized the economic opportunity of creating a drug manufacturing operation with lower labor costs in India to capture the market in drugs nearing their patent expiration dates. They were focused more on organizational cost cutting and the money that could be made than the efficacy of the drugs they could produce. The company was sold in 1952 to their cousin Bhai Mohan Singh. This cousin transformed Ranbaxy to a pharmaceutical giant, but his experience was in construction and finance, not pharmaceuticals. However, his son Parvinder Singh joined the company in 1967 and was a graduate from Washington State University and the University of Michigan with a master’s degree and PhD in pharmacy.

Parvinder Singh (1944-1999, became the leader of Ranbaxy in 1967.)

Eban argues Parvinder Singh looked at his father’s business as a scientist with a pharmaceutical understanding and a desire to produce lower cost drugs for the world for more than a source of wealth. Parvinder appeared to value quality, transparency, drug efficacy, and long-term credibility for Ranbaxy. Parvinder recruited talent who believed in lowering costs and maintaining the efficacy of drugs the company manufactured. However, Parvinder dies in 1999 and the executives who took over the company focused on maximizing profit rather than the efficacy of the drugs being produced. Parvinder’s leadership is succeeded by Brian Tempest who expands the company by navigating the regulatory restrictions on generic drug manufacture. Tempest tries to balance profitability with global health efficacy of generic drugs. Parvinder’s son, Malvinder Singh eventually becomes the CEO of the company. He returned control to the Singh family. The corporate culture changed to what its original founders created, i.e., a drug producer driven by profit. Malvinder was not a scientist.

Malvinder Singh (Born in 1973, Grandson of Bhai Mohan Singh and son of Dr. Parvinder Singh.)

Under Malvinder, Eban shows the company turns from science to economic strategy to increase revenues of Ranbaxy. Internal checks on the efficacy and testing of their drugs is eroded. Criticism from regulators and whistleblowers are either ignored or sidelined by company management. Peter Baker Tucker’s role in exposing Ranbaxy is detailed in Eban’s history. With the help of Dinesh Thakur, an employee of Ranbaxy, Tucker bravely exposed the company’s fraud. (Thakur received $48 million compensation as a whistleblower award.) Tucker is an FDA investigator who reviewed Ranbaxy’s internal documents that revealed their fabricated data about their drug manufacturing process.

Peter Baker Tucker (aka Peter Baker, former FDA investigator.)

Ranbaxy is sold to a Japanese company called Daiichi Sankyo in 2008. Eban explains that Malvinder concealed critical information about FDA investigations and data fraud in the company’s sale. Malvinder and his brother, Shivinder Singh, are arrested in 2019 and remain in custody in 2021, facing multiple fraud accusations.

Sun Pharma acquires the remnants of the Ranbaxy-Sankyo’ sale.

Though Eban does not focus on what happens after the sale to the Japanese company, it is sold at a loss to Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Singh family’s ownership is sued by Sankyo for hiding regulatory issues of the company. Daiichi received a $500 million settlement but effectively lost money on their investment. Eban, in “Bottle of Lies” offers a nuanced indictment of generic drug manufacturer and sale.

Eban believes generic drugs are important for global health because of affordability and accessibility.

Quality and drug efficacy must be insured through international regulation. Eban endorses unannounced inspections, routine testing of the drugs, and strict legal enforcement against poor manufacturing systems. Without transparency and oversight of all drug manufacturing, human lives are put at risk.

This is quite an expose, but it ends with criticism of inspections of China’s drug manufacturing capabilities.

The inspections of foreign companies that manufacture generic drugs, like those she refers to in her book, are conducted by similar inspectors who do not know the culture or language of the countries in which generic drugs are being produced. The FDA was paying their inspector in India $40,000 per year at the time of Ranbaxy’s investigation. It is by instinct, not interrogation, that malfeasance is detected. Too much is missed when one cannot talk to and clearly understand employees of manufacturing companies.

It seems America has two choices: one is to increase the salaries of FDA inspectors and require that they know the language of the countries in which they are working and two, set up a system of random reverse engineering of generic drugs allowed in the United States. This not to suggest all other FDA regulations would not be enforced when a generic drug is proposed but that site reviews would be more professionally conducted. One wonders if anyone who reads or listens to “Bottle of Lies” will take generic drugs if they can afford the original FDA approved product.

GRUSOME MYSTERY

“Fox” is a mystery that some may be interested in completing but the subject is too horrifying for this reader/listener. Oates is obviously a successful author, but it is returned to the library without completion.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Fox (A Novel)

Author: Joyce Carol Oates

Narrated By: Max Meyers & 9 more

Joyce Carol Oates (Author, American novelist, essayist, 1969 winner of a National Book Award.)

Not as a revelation but a truth of life, children come from families that are raised by married, divorced, unmarried and sometimes neglectful, self-absorbed parents. Children grow up to be something like their parents but uniquely themselves. Oates writes “Fox” to reflect on the variety of childhood experiences and development with a look at a teacher named Fox whom the author insinuates is a pedophile. Mr. Fox is found at the bottom of a ravine in his crashed car. His body is decomposing with vultures circling his remains. The decomposing body is seen by a young boy, with an older brother, who had come to the site because he had seen the circling vultures.

Oates’ mystery unfolds as a plain clothes policeman contacts the school administration to ask about Mr. Fox which implies his death is not an accident. “Fox” is a mystery that some may be interested in completing but the subject is too horrifying for this reader/listener. Oates is obviously a successful author, but it is returned to the library without completion.

UNJUST CAPITULATION

Both Trump and Putin are wrong in trying to return America and Russia to their past. What one presumes from Nye’s lectures is that a threat of millions of lives being lost from nuclear war will actually result in a gorilla war in territory unjustly ceded to Russia by Ukraine.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Must History Repeat the Great Conflicts of This Century? 

Lecturer: Joseph S. Nye Jr.

By:  The Great Courses

Joseph Nye Jr. (1937-2025, Distinguished Service Professor Political Scientist at Harvard Kennedy University.)

In listening to Joseph Nye Jr.’s history of “…Great Conflicts…”, one thinks about similarities between leadership of Russia and America today. Both Trump and Putin believe in strong executive leadership and appear to have a political base that allows Putin to exercise dictatorial power and Trump to bypass traditional bureaucratic limitations on government power. Both Putin and Trump believe in their countries moral and economic superiority and are trying to return their nations to the twentieth century. As leaders of their countries, they have influenced media support of their ambitions through influence and the creation of conspiracy-driven narratives.

Joseph Nye’s lectures suggest history is only a guide to the future, not a prediction.

Nye explains circumstances of the present are never exactly the same as the past. Every war of the past is based on complex causes that are never precisely the same. The world wars and the cold war developed as a result of specific government’ diplomatic, operational, and international circumstances. Nye explains why two world wars were about balance of power that changed with WWI and were refined by WWII. The German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires collapsed after WWI. With the defeat of Hitler, Nye infers WWII is a failed effort to reestablish the German empire.

Listening to Nye’s view of history, makes one think of Putin’s and Trump’s maneuvering in the 21st century. Both leaders are trying to recreate a balance of power with America strengthening its position and Russia reestablishing its role among the top three powers. What gives weight to that view is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s wait and see attitude, and Trump’s foolish antagonism toward its traditional western allies in the belief that it strengthens America. Trump seems ignorant of history by failing to recognize America’s power is hugely benefited by its close relationship with Great Britain and North America. To antagonize England, Canada, and Mexico with tariffs and the NATO alliance with complaints about unequal financial support reduces America’s power and influence.

Today, nuclear war is a different circumstance upon which every government leader recognizes as a fundamental change in the principle of “might makes right”.

One sees that Trump’s hostile confrontation with Zelenskyy on television is an expression of America’s leadership fear of nuclear war. Putin threatens nuclear retaliation, but threats are not actions. Putin continues his conventional war against Ukraine and Trump pressures Putin to end the conflict with limited support of weapons for Ukraine and implied willingness to agree to Putin’s demands for annexation of some part of Ukranian territory.

Nye’s lectures do not say history repeats, but he warns it can have similar results without careful analysis and strategic foresight by government leaders.

However, Trump and his advisors appear ignorant of the lessons of history noted by Professor Nye. America and Russia think they have a choice in how the war in Ukraine can be brought to an end that will bring peace. The truth is that peace is only a Hobson’s choice where there is only one option. Trump sees the possibility of millions being killed from a nuclear war. Putin sees the possibility of gaining territory from Ukraine with potential loss of rule as President of Russia. Zelenskyy and Putin have the illusion of choice while the international community and America will likely make the decision.

WWI
WWII

Both Trump and Putin are wrong in trying to return America and Russia to their past. What one presumes from Nye’s lectures is that a threat of millions of lives being lost from nuclear war will actually result in a gorilla war in territory unjustly ceded to Russia by Ukraine. Russia will lose more than it gains just as it did in Afghanistan.

FICTION’S VALUE

How many thoughts run through one’s mind as they listen or read Hurwitz’s imaginative story? Maybe a movie will be made that simplifies and dumbs down its plot. The point is that fiction begins, regardless of the media in which it is represented, from a writer’s mind who creates a story.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Out of the Dark (An Orphan X Novel–Book 4)

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Narrated By: Scott Brick

Gregg Hurwitz (Author, American crime novelist, comic book writer.)

In the media lately, there has been the observation that novels are losing their grip on the reading public. A number of recent studies, like that done by the National Endowments for the Arts, show a drop in adult readers of fiction in 2012 from 45.2% of adults to 37.6% in 2022. Possibly more troubling is the 13-year-olds drop from 27% to 14% in a similar time frame. Some suggest it is because of cognitive fatigue and a cultural shift to visual or audio entertainment. There is undoubtedly some truth in that belief.

Empathy, thought, and human insight generated by audiobooks, films, and serialized television generate the same thrill and human understanding as written fictional stories.

However, even though the format has changed, an author’s creation is the source of an idea whether it is converted to a film or audiobook. One can draw as much, if not more, knowledge of the world and human experience from visual and audio input as from reading a book. Books of fiction can be equally impactful from a screen that is viewed or an audiobook that is heard through EarPods.

Fiction begins on the written page whether it becomes a movie or a bestselling audiobook.

Of course, audio/visual actors can elicit different interpretations to an audience of what has been written by its originator but that is true of any person’s perception of what a writer meant in the creation of his/her story. So what? If the visual or auditory results are insightful then the media representation of a book of fiction has value. The point is the impetus of media presentation came from a written document by a writer. Of course, in today’s world, that writer may have his idea enhanced by A.I. but the idea still came from human thought.

Hurwitz’s novel is complicated with many story lines and characters.

Hurwitz’s novel resonates with a view of today’s world. America has a President that was nearly assassinated in his first term of office. This President uses lies in ways that make one wonder about his views and the direction of America. It makes one think about the assassin Hurwitz creates and whether a foolish young man on a roof could become an agent of the government to murder perceived enemies of the state by someone who is out of control. Of course, a majority of voters chose today’s President so maybe lying should not be a criterion for judgement of one’s value as a leader of a democracy.

“Out of the Dark” is a fictional novel that captures a listener’s imagination in a well narrated audiobook.

The story is of an incredibly intelligent, tech savvy, American assassin that chooses to turn his skill to murdering an American President. The President is characterized as a brilliant politician serving his last term of office. A woman secret service officer is interviewed by the President to be the person in charge to protect him from the rogue assassin that has been used by the President to assassinate alleged foreign enemies. Assassination is a crime against humanity. There seems no justification for one nation state to have assassination as a tool of governance. Would assassination of Hitler have erased antisemitism or WWII?

How many thoughts run through one’s mind as they listen or read Hurwitz’s imaginative story? Maybe a movie will be made that simplifies and dumbs down its plot. The point is that fiction begins, regardless of the media in which it is represented, from a writer’s mind who creates a story.