An Introduction to Buffaloes

[River Buffaloes]

NO NO NO! That is NOT a foolish mistake. We live an equal distance between 3 towns-9 miles. It's not like we are on the butt-end of nowhere, but the only internet service is satellite, same with TV. Internet is $80 per month and so is TV. Both go off in bad weather. So when the news on TV interrupts the program to warn everyone of approaching tornadoes, just before it gets to our area, the satellite goes off and no TV. Do we run? Get in the car and leave? Hide in a small windowless room? That would be a closet and we would probably get beat to death by all the stuff in the closet.

Some people even put up their own towers for internet service. We had several companies come out and test, but the trees here are too tall and block the signal.

When we moved, we sat out here with nothing but cell service, that is bad too. So spotty satellite service with lousy reception sure looked good to me! Our cell reception is so bad that we sometimes have to go stand out in the road to have a conversation.

I can't believe the price of your internet! And not to mention that it actually WORKS! WOW!

It does actually works, there are so many stuff going online here.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Ok, so each religion has its own laws? Religions here can have all the beliefs they want, but laws belong to the State or Federal law. there are not different laws for Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, men, women or anybody. Law is the same for everybody. That said, poor people go to jail because they cannot afford a lawyer, middle class people-it's a toss up, wealthy people usually stay out of jail because they can afford the best lawyers. Equal does not always mean equal.

Honestly, I think every country's laws are disfunctional. Some are better than others, some are worse and some are so bad, that-DON'T GO THERE!

Criminal law is same for all, Civil Law is different for each religion. Like penalty for a theft, a murder or robbery is same, but laws for inheritance, marriage, divorce, adoption is personal are different for every religion.

 

[Baymule]

I forgot to mention the Nilgai. They are considered agricultural pests in India, but you cannot shoot them. We have to petition the authorities and they conduct a count and only if they conclude that the problem is serious they send hunters to shoot a certain amount of Nilgai.

They are not domesticable animals. We have domesticated Chickens, Zebu cattle, Buffaloes even Gaur. If they were suitable for domestication I am sure they would have been already domesticated.

India has been doing what India does for thousands of years. Yep, if Nilgai were able to be domesticated, they would have been.

Chickens originated from India, look at them now. In every country, hundreds if not thousands of breeds, with many breeds having several colors. Peafowl also come from India. There is a zoo in Lufkin, Tx that has a free ranging population of India Blue peafowl. It's fun to go there.

 

[Baymule]

Criminal law is same for all, Civil Law is different for each religion. Like penalty for a theft, a murder or robbery is same, but laws for inheritance, marriage, divorce, adoption is personal are different for every religion.

That's an awful lot for the courts to keep up with. LOL LOL

 

[River Buffaloes]

That's an awful lot for the courts to keep up with. LOL LOL

Iver Jennings remarked after reading the constitution that India will be a heaven for lawyers. Courts are really crowded and there's always backlogs.

In India you cannot register as atheist. You have to register in one of the recognised religions. A person is assigned the religion and caste of his/her father (not mother). If you are atheist, you are free to believe what you believe, but you will have to register to a religion. If you convert as an adult, you will have to proclaim the conversion in a newspaper and then the district official will grant you a certificate and then you will be registered to your new religion.

Religious conversion is also a ground for divorce, suppose your spouse converted after marriage then you can divorce her. If your spouse lied to you about his/her religion and you found out about his true religion later on, you can get an annulment.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Another interesting stuff. Indipendence of India was not as clear cut as people may think. It was not like every British person left India after independence. Many British people, specially the older folks stayed and continued serving in the administration. Some of them stayed because they liked it here, but most of them stayed because they cannot afford maintaining the lifestyle they were used to back in England. They could not afford to keep cook, maid, valet, chauffeurs etc in UK. So they stayed.

 

[Baymule]

That just goes to show you that the people of India held no grudges against the people of Britain, they just wanted to govern themselves. It makes sense that people would stay rather than go back to England, India had become home.

 

[River Buffaloes]

I watched the video!! that looked like fun! I would totally wade out in a muddy pond to ride a buffalo! The buffalo are very friendly and love people.
I looked up their web site.

Home | The Buff Stuff Store Buffalo Farm | Ontario Water Buffalo Company | Stirling

Buffalo Farm | Ontario Water Buffalo Company | Ontario

www.ontariowaterbuffalo.ca

So I read what they have to say about the Water Buffaloes and it's generally pretty accurate and short. I am not so sure about the dog comparison. Buffaloes are not like dogs or cats, dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, buffaloes look eye to eye. They consider us one of themselves, they take us as equals. They will come when you call them they will come running, grunting all the way as if they are saying "here I am coming, dear", but suppose you tell them to get out of the pond you might get the reply "naah, I guess I would like to swim some more".

 

[Bruce]

I forgot to mention the Nilgai.

They look like they could decimate a crop pretty quickly.

In India you cannot register as atheist. You have to register in one of the recognised religions.

Fortunately we are not required to declare a religious affiliation and there are dozens of them though many are "branches" of the same one. We also are not required to declare a political affiliation though (at least here in Vermont) when you vote in a primary you have to tell them which party's ballot you want. You can't vote for a Republican for one office and a Democrat for another.

Everyone gets the same ballot for the general election. There are an amazing 21 pairs of President/Vice President to choose from. Including "parties" I've never heard of like "Boiling Frog", "Bread and Roses", "American Solidarity", "Grumpy Old Patriots", "Approval Voting".

 

[River Buffaloes]

They look like they could decimate a crop pretty quickly.


Fortunately we are not required to declare a religious affiliation and there are dozens of them though many are "branches" of the same one. We also are not required to declare a political affiliation though (at least here in Vermont) when you vote in a primary you have to tell them which party's ballot you want. You can't vote for a Republican for one office and a Democrat for another.

Everyone gets the same ballot for the general election. There are an amazing 21 pairs of President/Vice President to choose from. Including "parties" I've never heard of like "Boiling Frog", "Bread and Roses", "American Solidarity", "Grumpy Old Patriots", "Approval Voting".

We need to declare our religion in the census, but any institute who gets funds from the government cannot discriminate against any religion. Anyone who employs less than 50 individuals may choose employees or cater their services according to caste, religion, language, ethnicity or gender, but then they are no longer eligible for any government help if such a situation arises, exception to this rule are '' non profit cultural institutes".

For example there's an organisation who works to protect the Jewish heritage of India. Now India is home to a very minute Jewish population, mostly consisting of older folks. This wasn't the case before 1950's, Jews were settling in India since the days Ceaser Augustus. After the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Empire the trade between India and Rome flourished and a small number of Jews started settling in India. First wave of Large scale Jewish immigration came after Jews were expelled from Palestine by the Romans in 60 AD. Second wave came after Jews were getting expelled from Western European Kingdoms. However after the creation of Israel most of the Jewish population of India made Aliyah. So There's more than two thousand years old history of Jewish Heritage in India. So Indian Jewish Community Center, even though it serves a particular community is eligible for government aid.

We are not required to declare political affiliation either. Indian politics is stupid crazy.