Radical Activism and the Great Reset - Covid conspiracy

I think I get the Great Reset/Covid conspiracy thing now. 

The Left-wing and Centrist ('normal') narrative is that the Great Reset, the official name of the June 2020 meeting of the World Economic Forum, is a response to the pandemic where various measures to implement recovery were discussed. 

Along comes 'radical activism'. The Far-Right and even some Extreme-Left narrative is that Covid-19 is a bioweapon CREATED to deliberately CAUSE the need for The Great Reset. 

Sounds like the old "which came first, the chicken or the egg" paradox… so what exactly is this Great Reset? It's supposed to be about reshaping the world, with catchphrases like 'stakeholder economy', 'green growth', the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution', 'computerised mechanisation and manufacturing' and many more, involving 5G telecommunications, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3-D printing and lots of other space age technologies. 

The altruistic concept is to create a fairer world economy that uses sustainable development to recover from the pandemic. The Alt-Right ideology doesn't believe any of this and says it is all about population control, wealth redistribution and the New World Order taking away our liberties and making us slaves. Coming from that is the anti-vax stance, lockdown protests and general non-compliance with laws brought in by governments to counter the spread of the pandemic. 

So are the Far-Right helping or making things worse? Hmmm.. 

It is very feasible that this novel covid-19, the 7th strain of coronavirus known so far, is entirely natural in origin (the first 4 cause the common cold and are thousands of years old; the other two are 21st century 'mutations' MERS and SARS). A third theory is that it was deliberately leaked from a Wuhan lab so the Chinese could take over the world by destroying the economies of all the other nations. That one is far, far scarier than the Far-Right conspiracy. 

In the past we have successfully used vaccines to deal with diseases like polio and measles and to eradicate smallpox. The problem with covid-19 is that vaccines aren't so effective against airborne viruses that infect the respiratory tract. These viral infections are much harder to control, like the way influenza mutates so constantly that each season, flu vaccine effectiveness varies anywhere from 10% to 60%!

In any case, by far the smartest thing anyone can do is to strengthen our front line of defence - our immune system - and in the famous words of Benjamin Franklin, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". 

Satyam Setty

Fb post #1

Two different Satya brand Nag Champas? Yep. The declining availability the basic ingredient, a resin called HALMADDI from the Ailanthus triphysa tree, is the most logical explanation for the change over the years, apart from seasonal variation (as happens with any natural ingredient). Up until the 1990's, extracting the resin killed many of the trees because of uncontrolled and crude techniques, eventually leading to a Government ban, pushing up the price. In 2011 this ban was lifted under restricted licences and supply increased soon after to try to keep up with demand. Unfortunately it still isn't enough and a thriving blackmarket exists for the illegally extracted resin. This explains the lowering of quality of nag champa incense as halmaddi becomes more expensive and is used in lesser amounts to make the sticks. 

It is hard to independently substantiate the claims made in the reddit article. Some of this info may be incorrect, I'm just learning about it now on the net. There is much confusion and in typical Indian style there is a shifty air of secrecy about it all. 

After the father died (K. N. Satyam Setty, who founded the Srinivas Sugandhalaya company in 1964 that makes nag champa incense and soap) the two sons went to court and split up the company in 2014 (it was those 2014 batches that ran out a while later as supply was interrupted). Apparently the court ruled that they could continue to use the same brand name for their separate companies... Under their father, one brother handled the administrative business side from Mumbai while the other ran the factory in Bangalore.

Rumour has it that the Bangalore company still hand-rolls the original recipe whereas the Mumbai counterparts are sometimes machine-rolled, the recipe allegedly being altered to allow manufacture on machines. There are also slightly different logos - the new one looks more like a red and blue C joined together (Mumbai brand) instead of the usual two S's (Bangalore brand). The one I bought the other week (the Mumbai variety) has "traditionally hand rolled in India" printed on the box and the back no longer reads "2014 series", being made after the court ruling allowing the brothers to trade using similar trademarked names. 

I first noticed a change when the incense I was buying had a perfectly round wooden stick instead of the split bamboo one with square edges - no doubt to enable machine rolling. I was told by the shop assistant that this was to help stamp out slave labour.. their website claims to not use child labour nor animal fats.  

The original Bangalore (or Bengaluru) stick had square edges and was hand-rolled, supposedly to the original recipe. It has the logo on the right. You can also tell the hand-rolled item by its irregular shape with flat patches and lumps. 

To make things even more confusing the Mumbai company (inferior? machine made) lists a slightly different Bengaluru address for the factory! This story COULD BE TOTAL BULL.. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Incense/comments/5i8td4/identifying_fake_satya_sai_baba_nag_champa/

It's repeated here with slight variations

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SATYA-SAI-BABA-NAG-CHAMPA-INCENSE-STICKS-Bulk-Pack-12-x-15g/150778725750?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

..but that doesn't mean it's true. I don't believe everything I see in the internet ha ha

This explains better the changes in the good ol' blue box nag champa incense. They reckon they stopped using halmaddi in 1999. I DO remember how the old incense used to go soggy, testament to halmaddi's hygroscopic nature!

https://olfactoryrescueservice.wordpress.com/category/incense/by-company/india/shrinivas-sugandhalaya/

Fb post #2

More on the Setty brothers saga. [update] I am starting to think neither brand is "fake" and it's just sibling rivalry. Both the soap and incense available in Australia come from Mumbai. The original incense made with halmaddi decades ago would have come from Bangalore. Both brands are inferior nowadays. I have the top one, with a noticeable difference in perfume compared to a couple of years ago.  

Top: elder brother Nagraj runs his company from Mumbai as "Shrinivas Sugandhalaya LLP". Note the Bengaluru (Bangalore) address as "Factory: No. 21 & 22, 8th Cross, Magadi Road" etc. This is the company that machine rolls some of their sticks.

Below: an earlier packet before the split, with the original, simpler "Shrinivas Sugandhalaya" registered name. Later, the younger brother K. S. Balakrishna Setty who kept wholly in Bangalore, began trading as "Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP" and still hand-rolls all their incense. Note the original address as 1/9, 8th Cross, Magadi Road, etc. 

The boxes use different coloured seals, have different Free Call numbers, small variations in print, and both carry a warning to avoid imitations!

[update] so there are at least 3 versions...

"Shrinivas Sugandhalaya" the old company before the split

"Shrinivas Sugandhalaya (BNG) LLP" - Bangalore, still in the old factory - Balakrishna Setty (younger bro) 

"Shrinivas Sugandhalaya LLP" - Mumbai, using a different Bangalore factory address - Nagraj Setty (older bro)

It appears that the younger brother at (BNG) LLP is behind the internet campaign against "fake Satya Nag Champa", accusing the older one at LLP of possibly changing the recipe to facilitate machine rolling in the new factory up the road. LLP have branched out into dozens of scents now - patchouli, sandalwood, you name it, all in modern fancy packaging. It may be that Nagraj simply wanted to move with the times and Balakrishna refused, sticking to the old methods. That is my opinion on why they split, looking at what they've done since. The new Mumbai branch is heavily into the export trade and has become very westernised. That's what I see in Rohani's, the local Indian Imports shop in Dromana.

Fb post #3

The Nag Champa soap made by Srinivas Sugandhalaya has gone plastic, ditching the old wax paper wrapper, adding to the world's plastic problem. 

Also the scent and colour is different - a pale grey instead of creamy white.

This is from the older brother's new factory since the father who started the company died. Though both brothers use the same brand name, the modern mechanised one, recognisable by only "LLC" at the end of the brand name, uses changed recipes and is not the same as the original - "(BNG) LLP". 

This goes for the incense as well. The younger brother Balakrishna Setty is still in the old factory using the old methods, hand-rolling, etc but it's the older Nagraj whose mechanised stuff is being exported/imported more. 

I have switched to Caitanya brand hand-rolled Nag Champa incense made in Vrindavan the traditional way. I wish I could do that with the soap as well!