No Globalization, No Obama

Ernesto Zedillo said in Forbes a few months ago that one of the things ailing America was our abjectly low savings. And Bill Gates has repeatedly reprimanded the American education system for failing to deliver adequate quality and quantity of skilled workers to the technology sector.

In a technology driven world where Google is more valuable than Ford and Googlers earn great benefits and pay while Ford workers have benefits stripped away education is a necessity for being and remaining relevantly employed. And recession after recession has shown that savings are necessary to avoid being broke.

So America has to get better education and pay off credit card debt - but neither is possible when Globalization is chopping America at the knees.

Most Americans may or may not realize that Globalization has benefited China and India and their citizens more than America and Americans. And most of all it has helped large investors who hold huge chunks of American business and economy therefore benefit them the most when the labor costs of their companies are lowered. Their financial interest is contrary to the financial interest of the American worker since by paying Americans fair wages they get lower profits.

Japanese auto workers and German industrial workers receive good salaries and benefits and any talk of stripping them of those would not be met with acceptance as it is in the US when talking about cutting costs at GM or Ford.

An average American doesn't benefit by globalization - the mantra that it makes shopping cheaper is meaningless because if Americans made better wages they could afford Made in America. There are legions propagating the benefits of globalization - Economists included, but they all fail to mention that their theories have not been tried and tested before. This is the first attempt and the first casualty is the American middle class and the American worker. Mostly it has meant cheaper goods of poor quality for Americans who have been made poorer because their high paying jobs were sent abroad. And mostly it has meant immense wealth for the already rich, and of course it means great prosperity for Indians and Chinese who’ve received this manna of jobs and orders from (a former) heaven.

Instead of paying top wages to get global quality we as a nation or Wall Street as the owner of this nation demands sacrifices from workers so companies can keep making a profit - or rather large shareholders keep getting richer. I am not a communist or a socialist, but an American smarting and chaffing at what I see as compromising national and patriotic interests for personal financial interests.

We need to rebuild America's manufacturing infrastructure, run more factories and buy more American made goods made in America by Americans.

One of the biggest boosts to the US economy would be to increase the H1-B visas for qualified workers, as they contribute directly to the US economy since they live and work here, instead of foreign workers of US companies overseas who take away jobs and don't add anything to America. So Republicans and Patriots should push for incentives that encourage US companies to "import" employees if none available locally rather than "export" jobs. Therefore a combination of incentives and penalties needs to be created to propel US companies to keep jobs within the USA. This maybe irksome to many but Mexican immigrants, including the undocumented – add mightily to the US economy, as compared to nothing added by the Chinese and Indian workers employed by US firms in those countries.

In addition a push to the US education system to work with Googles and Microsofts and Hospitals to create structured study and training programs which will make the US self sufficient in its need for technology and health care workers within the next 10 years should be a mandate of the lawmakers. Delivering programmers and nurses equal to the number of worker visas issued to foreign nurses and programmers should be a condition of funding for US Colleges and Universities.

So while America and Americans need all this Obama makes hollow and jejune promises of hope and unity without defining hope or unity. Nowhere does he mention a solid plan for addressing job losses, trade deficit, stabilizing the dollar and protecting Americans from OPEC and Oil Companies’ price gouging.

Like charlatans charm the innocent Democrats are wooing a nation in stress so we all need to expose Obama's promises and talk as hollow. He is abuzz with nothingness and when Americans with job experience and skills are losing jobs an inexperienced man with no track record of anything except charming Hollywood and the naïve and those who back Ross Perot and Ron Paul types wants to run America – which is dangerous for Americans.

Democrats let the attackers of USS Cole and our embassies get away, George Bush went after them. That’s the Republican way. Democrats missed the opportunity to capture world trade opportunities after the Wall fell – China and India grabbed them, because Democrats gave no great incentives to the US companies to trade abroad, Chinese and Indians did.

Since then Americans have had to deal with 9/11 and the economic meltdown. Sub prime mortgage debacle is related to the general economic conditions in the USA which have been getting increasingly dismal due to globalization related job losses and business/ factory closures.

John may not have all the answers but knows more than Obama.

25 or so years ago a man called Ronald Reagan revolutionized America and the world. Now Americans need to allow a man called John McCain to lead America with his experience and integrity - both tested and tried instead of handing over our destiny to a man of zero experience and no history of ethics, integrity, loyalty or courage.

Making Love in 100 Years of Solitude

Spring is in the air, everyone is kissing and flirting with everyone. Flowers stun bees with their colors and scent to get stung with a shot of pollen. Butterflies flit about. Clouds shed their heavy grays to wear puffy whites so they can dance lightly with the winds on scrubbed skies. Colors riot, birds are crazy, because it's time to make love. And what better book than 100 Years of Solitude to serenade you love with, and to use as a love making guide:

“Come here,” he said. Rebeca obeyed. She stopped beside the hammock in an icy sweat, feeling knots forming in her intestines, while José Arcadio stroked her ankles with the tips of his fingers, then her calves, then her thighs, murmuring: “Oh, little sister, little sister.” She had to make a supernatural effort not to die when a startlingly regulated cyclonic power lifted her up by the waist and despoiled her of her intimacy with three clashes of its claws and quartered her like a little bird. She managed to thank God for having been born before she lost herself in the inconceivable pleasure of that unbearable pain, splashing in the steaming marsh of the hammock which absorbed the explosion of blood like a blotter.

So they rented a house across from the cemetery and established themselves there with no other furniture but José Arcadio’s hammock. On their wedding night a scorpion that had got into her slipper bit Rebeca on the foot. Her tongue went to sleep, but that did not stop them from spending a scandalous honeymoon. The neighbors were startled by the cries that woke up the whole district as many as eight times in a single night and three times during siesta, and they prayed that such wild passion would not disturb the peace of the dead.

Here's to waking up the dead around and within because it's spring. And its in that hammock where we thrash and cling where we are one but also two because the pleasure is in you and me being you and me with each other waking up the dead.

Black

Black's been my color for years - perhaps 14. I wore black everyday. So all my shirts and sweaters are black. With exception of snake skin boots, all shoes and boots are black.

But since meeting Nidhi color has become interesting. Not sure why, but black seems too - well - black.

In Los Angeles black was dress up or dress down, work or leisure, black was always in. So jeans, a black t-shirt and boots was good enough to go to the Hat or the Bel Air Hotel - latter would require a jacket which could be taken off immediately once seated.

So this old signature look is boring me which means its time to create a new signature. I've tried a pink pique knit shirt - my t-shirts are all crew neck as collared t-shirts were so "Microsoft", so I don't like the collar. I also acquired an orange dress shirt with dark stripes - sounds gaudy but isn't which looks great with a couple of my sport coats, and then there are 3 white shirts - with snap fasteners and all - which shock me when I wear them because since leaving my corporate job I hadn't worn white or light blue/ French blue shirts, leaving corporate colors behind. The white makes me look shockingly different - its so visible and bright. My first reaction is change into a black shirt!

Seattle is not the best dressed city in the world. Not that L.A is, but L.A is designer jeans and mixing couture with casual. So its not dressy like London. But Seattle is khakis, polo shirts, hiking boots and parkas - no shape, no cut, just grungy comfort - so even after 3 years I don't look like a Seattlite - because irrespective of how boring black t-shirt, good fit jeans, boots and a leather jacket is (which Seattle weather destroys) I'd rather be boring than dress like a Seattlite. So that means I'm one of the few guys out with a black velvet jacket with peaked lapels or a camel hair coat with faded jeans - not that it gets me anything more than a good table and great service, but that is because I say please - in fact this one time after a Pooja Nidhi in her heavy sari and (she makes me wear) me in my kurta pyjama went to this very white place, thinking we'd raise eye brows. The bar tender said, Howdy folks, what're you drinking".

So I guess its the please which matters more because my attitude is more important than my clothes, right? Yeah right! Not here, nor in LA and not in London because clothes are as important - people even here recognize when sari or kurta pyjama is dressy - if not more because they put me in an equal position in the world where clothes matter. Shallow it may seem but if I am in a shallow world I can't be trailing because I don't dress to win. So I have to spend well and if you ask me Diesel still is a good thing compared to 7 for All Mankind - fits better, denim isn't that light.

(this is a soliloquy, so nothing more than a personal ramble on a night when my mind rambles. no advice intended, no judgment implied because if you'd rather be naked or not I'd be as pleased with it as you'd be :-)

Its not about marriage

What do I know except being married and being in love with my wife?

Not much - not saying that I know a lot about them - so don't much about them and not much about else. So starting from a point of ignorance I will dwell on something else that I don't know much about blithely, except I'm not too blithe, and am feeling a need for protein.

Have you ever felt the need for protein? You body saying, "Gimme some meat, lots of it". My body does say that, especially after a carb heavy meal - like which I had not too long ago - bagel, slice of banana bread and Soy White Chocolate Mocha. Body wants things like protein, sex, sleep. Let's forgo sex since those of you who know know that I am in a brahmacharya state, celibate as a num, so lets proceed to protein. Seekh Kabab (not shish since I am Punjabi and we call it seekh - for the metal skewer it's made on), Biryani and maybe Chicken Korma. Except there's nowhere to find all that - ugly looking, bad tasting mutations are sold in Indian restaurants, but I will refrain from talking about them today as today is not my day to fire tirades, all I can say is "they are bad - not like in badd like good or anything, genuine bad like in poor in all categories).

So I guess it shan't be protein - unless I do a KFC run and go for a 12 piece original with a side of coleslaw? But want something teaming with cardamom, ginger and other flavors and tastes. So maybe it's not protein, and it's definitely no sex, so I guess the body will have to settle for sleep.

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

hey Raj Thackeray

Raj!

Did you know that India is supposed to be shining and all?

Have you read about it? Maybe you haven't and maybe you have and disagree with it - violently - because all this anger and violence against North Indians (or any people) is contrary to the shining principle. I think shining means more than making money from foreign companies. It also means some emancipation, tolerance and getting over regional and linguistic divides.

Besides Mumbai can't be and remain a great city just being a Maratha city - like NYC or London can't be mono-community cities - so you have to decide whether you're for successful, progressive, shining Mumbai thus Shining India or turn the lights off - no break the lights - on it.

Frankly it's a bit embarrassing for India - all this news about your spirited self expression - but you don't give a fuck do you - not suggesting that you do - because that would be contrary to India's national interest which maybe contrary to your self interest - so that makes sense.

Pip pip - and remember if you do this right maybe someone will make a video game about you which will have violence galore - twisting off the head of a North Indian kid, ripping a Sikhs guts - you'd enjoy that, no?

Marriage is a sacred bond

Adultery is a sin.

It destroys family, because family is rooted to and grows from trust.

If the marriage stops delivering emotionally or physically then its time to end the marriage, but to fuck someone else with excuses is pure simple CHEATING.

Fidelity or divorce are the only two honest options. Anything else is covering for one’s deceiving nature.

Marriage is a sacred bond based on fidelity. Human values like fidelity and honesty do not get outdated. It’s a choice to remain married or not, but bringing another person into a marriage is cheating. Fling isn’t anything more than fucking is maybe an American point of view where flings aren’t acceptable behavior and not really considered sexy or brilliant.

If the marriage is unfullfilling one can exit it, but to keep the marriage for material gains while having a lover is using the spouse. Most people marry and remain married - at least in the US - to remain faithful, and cheating creates the same social revulsion whether its Bill Clinton or a common man.

Life is about hard choices, not sneaking around choices

I’m not basing my ethics on soap opera, but real life people - educated, well to do - in the US who marry only when they decide it’s time to settle into a monogamous, committed relationship. And once that choice is made then there is no room for flings because marrying implies end to flings, beginning of permanence.

Since 1986 I’ve been part of the very affluent, very progressive social set in California and Washington and in all those years I’ve not met any who condone cheating or known anyone personally who has cheated on their spouse. Similarly my wife is from an elite part of South Bombay society yet she holds marriage as being sacred in which there’s no room for a 3rd party - and when that happens marriage should end because without honesty, trust there’s no marriage.

I come from a family that has for long worked for women’s emancipation and equality, so this is not about suppressing women. It’s about keeping marriage unsullied by adultery - like it should be unsullied by violence or abuse. Its a beautiful thing needing to be kept beautiful, so an amicable split or an honest walk out are the strong, honest choices. A cheating husband is a bad husband and a dishonest man, and in 21 years in the US I’ve never personally known a man or a woman who has a lover while being married, so I am using that as a socio-moral standard. (Can’t say the same about India where most uncles and aunties at the Gymkhana were doing one another)

Swingers exist - but aren’t the norm. Flings happen, but they break homes, because they violate trust.

Its hard being honest, but its important being honest. Because in the end the most a man can give his wife is total, absolute trust that she knows will be steadfast even when during their lows. And that is what makes marriage sacred - total faith and trust, always.

God, Love, Truth, all require courage and strength, and all are essential (steps) to becoming a human being living up to best human potential. I wish to become a man that my parents, my wife and my staff can be proud of, so fluid morality is not my option.

And being as imperfect I am I’ve set certain thresholds I will not cross - stealing, cheating, violence are a few of them.

I don’t want to be preachy, I don’t want to be puritanical I just want at my age to be a man my wife trusts implicitly, therefore the stand. I’ve been through the party circle in US and Europe and throughout a long history of trysts craved for someone I would belong to totally. I don’t need freedom to wander, I need the freedom that comes with bondage of love. Marriage is the hardest work - but nothing spectacular is easy.

Maybe because the US has seen the break of family for so long that now we cherish family, though I can’t understand the Indian Page 3 glamor associated with married people having affairs - there’s nothing cool about having a fling outside marriage. Julia Roberts doesn’t, nor does Angelina Jolie and neither does the pre-school teacher cheat on her husband, and Nicholas Cage, Mitt Romney and the software consultant are all faithful to the woman whose ring they wear.

Because I love passionately I can’t imagine a loveless marriage? Because marriage isn’t and shouldn’t be a convenience - this is where love makes us transcend the ordinary - where judgments collapse, acceptance rules and family begins.

I can’t describe how I cherish home and family - a 100 women can’t, couldn’t give me what my wife does - dignity, solidity, and the road map to being a better man.

A solid marriage is the basis of a solid society - ask children from broken homes.

What does it take to be happy

Loads of things, but it also takes being satisfied with what one has.

Today was a happy day for me.

Last night was -7, and by this morning the snow had piled deep around, and high on top of my car. There was no way to get out. I had to cancel my meetings, and was stuck in the house.

Its a temporary house. On the water with fantastic views of the bay and the mountains. And today it was also a house with no food, except for some almonds, raisins, Diet Coke and orange juice. The cheese that was there was mouldy, and the microwave would not work, so there was no scope of a quick cup of Earl Gray.

Since I was in Seattle over the weekend, and went straight to Vancouver from there I didn't have the time to go grocery shopping, so it was what it was.

The day went by fast, and beautifully. I ate drank what was there plus drank of the view and total silence broken by the sound of the waves and the rustle of the wind. Felt God like a tight hug, and found that I could be happy even when stranded in the snow, hungry.

Now if this were a routine it would be drudgery, but being stranded in life is only a part of life, so during those days being happy makes life enjoyable - because this day and bad days shall pass too - but how they're handled will have a lot to do with who I am and how I handle life. Ultimately it comes to making lemonade or crying over life's lemons.