In this musing, I discuss my essay Predation Wearing the Mask of Civilization, which builds on Institutions Cannot Be Transplanted, and examine the CYG/CAML arbitrage opportunity in the mining sector.

My essay, Institutions Cannot Be Transplanted, examines why Western institutions cannot simply be imported into societies that lack the moral and cultural substrate that gave rise to them. I also discuss the EUR/CRML arbitrage and an options-based way to improve the economics.

Why does Western modernity fail in the Third World? Advanced tech grafted onto pre-modern minds creates fragile “second-hand modernity.”

Western observers misread the Third World because they assume corruption is an exception rather than a rational adaptation to incentives, power, and weak moral consciousness.

Why societies change slowly, and why institutional reform fails when deeper moral habits remain unchanged.

On India’s hollow democracy, declining leadership, and selected arbitrage opportunities discussed in recent conversations.

On mob violence, the abuse of power, and the erosion of institutional restraint in India.

A reflection on China as I have seen it over 16 years of travel, and why the Western caricature of the country misses much of its lived reality.

Corruption in India is not an anomaly—it is embedded in the country’s social fabric, incentives, and moral psychology.