Thomas L. Friedman, "China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11"
Martin Peretz, "Why do not Muslims raise their voices against these at once planned and random killings all over the Islamic world?" This world went into hysteria some months ago when the Mossad took out the Hamas head of its own Murder Inc. But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse"
Steven R. Pearlstein - Since 2007, the manufacturing and construction sectors have each lost 2 million jobs, with finance, hospitality and retailing accounting for 2 million more .. For the past two decades we have allowed our industrial and technological base to deteriorate as talent and capital were grossly misallocated toward other sectors of the economy, even as other countries were able to attract the investment, the technology and the know-how to serve the U.S. and global markets
“Our community focused on education, not politics,” said R. Chandramogan, a Nadar entrepreneur who built India’s largest privately owned dairy company from scratch. “We knew that with education, we could accomplish anything.” Southern India has rocketed far ahead of much of the rest of the country on virtually every score — people here earn more money, are better educated, live longer lives and have fewer children
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Go Ohio!
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland of Democratic Party, banned outsourcing, arguing that this undermines economic development and has unacceptable business consequences for his state. "Outsourcing jobs does not reflect Ohio values," he said.
Indian IT companies, which derive almost 60% of their export revenues from the USA immediately cried, "foul". The Infosys Chief called the Ohio stance "protectionist".
Like US owes them 60% of their revenue! At the cost of our jobs! Why should we not protect our work-force? Why should we send monies abroad instead of keeping them within our own country?
Why should America support globalization is the question? They need us, we don't. They do the work for us which we taught them to do with the software we design and make, so go Ohio, and hope other States follow, soon.
Indian IT companies, which derive almost 60% of their export revenues from the USA immediately cried, "foul". The Infosys Chief called the Ohio stance "protectionist".
Like US owes them 60% of their revenue! At the cost of our jobs! Why should we not protect our work-force? Why should we send monies abroad instead of keeping them within our own country?
Why should America support globalization is the question? They need us, we don't. They do the work for us which we taught them to do with the software we design and make, so go Ohio, and hope other States follow, soon.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Land of Opportunity turning barren
Rex Nutting says in Marketwatch, "With millions of people twiddling their thumbs waiting for a job, the Land of Opportunity is in danger of becoming barren. Nearly three years into our economic wilderness, we still can't seem to find our way out. Fifteen million Americans are looking for work, and most of them know the job they once had is gone for good. Millions more are working, but need something better than part-time hours or a dead-end job .... "
But Rex pointedly misses or declines to mention the direct corelation between our trade deficit (and the resultant job exports), and American unemployement rate (and the consequent decline in the quality of life of lower middle class Americans which is also in direct proportion to the rise of the new lower middle class in India and China).
Unless we sell more than we buy we will be broke - so its time we go back to school for Adam Smith and Economics 101 because we've obviously forgotten the basics.
But Rex pointedly misses or declines to mention the direct corelation between our trade deficit (and the resultant job exports), and American unemployement rate (and the consequent decline in the quality of life of lower middle class Americans which is also in direct proportion to the rise of the new lower middle class in India and China).
Unless we sell more than we buy we will be broke - so its time we go back to school for Adam Smith and Economics 101 because we've obviously forgotten the basics.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
A case for stimulus
"OUR national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment" - Laura Tyson
Ms. Tyson's essay merits attention but doesn't address the American need fully. China and India are rich because they export product and import opportunity. We need to copy that economic model because ours is not working.
Ms. Tyson's essay merits attention but doesn't address the American need fully. China and India are rich because they export product and import opportunity. We need to copy that economic model because ours is not working.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Happy Independence Day India
Wishing India the best with wishes that it finds its idealist roots again, those of Gandhi and Nehru, of bringing progress to villages and not villagers into urban slums, of tolerance not destroying temples and mosques.
On the midnight of August 14, 1947 Nehru said:
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance"Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru
That India of freedom, aspirations, ideals Rabindranath Tagore best describes in India’s National Anthem:
On the midnight of August 14, 1947 Nehru said:
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance"Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru
That India of freedom, aspirations, ideals Rabindranath Tagore best describes in India’s National Anthem:
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Not enough - but a start
2 good pieces of news:
- lowering the tariff on raw materials for US manufacturers (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/12/c_13440711.htm)
- higher visa fees for Indian firms who fly in low paid workers rather than hire Americans(http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/08/indian_government_calls_h1b_vi.html)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Why is Manufacturing Essential for American Well-being
Noam Scheiber - The New Republic
Noam Scheiber's "Why we should cry for our shrinking Manufacturing Sector" should be required reading for Policy Makers and All Americans - as many if not most (Americans) do not realize the impact of globalization and loss of manufacturing jobs on everyday life in America.
Since coming to the US in mid 80's I've personally experienced and observed a steady decline of income across mature industries. Each closed factory means not only displaced workers but also factory owners, who cannot or have not been able to make a transition from making towels and nuts to building a Google. I am not sure if there is an agency counting numbers like me who once were American middle class and now struggle to find jobs, but I know there are many treading bleak spaces, which will remain bleak unless we start making more things locally for our own consumption and ALSO sell in world markets because selling Boeing is not enough to offset the American trade imbalance.
Trade imbalance is a threat because in our case it equals shrinking employment base.
Wine, cheese, fashion, iPod, iPhone, small batch Bourbon prove that there is a whole lot of American enterprise and creativity creating products that China and India cannot make based on knowledge and cultural factors, therefor the key to is to develop small manufacturing across sectors to repair and rebuild the American Dream.
The proof that manufacturing and economic growth thus prosperity are related is India reporting 7.9% growth in its economy for 2009; and China going gangbusters, in these hard times - both large, diversified manufacturing nations.
Since coming to the US in mid 80's I've personally experienced and observed a steady decline of income across mature industries. Each closed factory means not only displaced workers but also factory owners, who cannot or have not been able to make a transition from making towels and nuts to building a Google. I am not sure if there is an agency counting numbers like me who once were American middle class and now struggle to find jobs, but I know there are many treading bleak spaces, which will remain bleak unless we start making more things locally for our own consumption and ALSO sell in world markets because selling Boeing is not enough to offset the American trade imbalance.
Trade imbalance is a threat because in our case it equals shrinking employment base.
Wine, cheese, fashion, iPod, iPhone, small batch Bourbon prove that there is a whole lot of American enterprise and creativity creating products that China and India cannot make based on knowledge and cultural factors, therefor the key to is to develop small manufacturing across sectors to repair and rebuild the American Dream.
The proof that manufacturing and economic growth thus prosperity are related is India reporting 7.9% growth in its economy for 2009; and China going gangbusters, in these hard times - both large, diversified manufacturing nations.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The New Indian "Rape the Taxpayer" Law
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Its-official-now-Ministers-relatives-and-companions-can-avail-free-air-travel/articleshow/5365929.cms#write
It's official now - India officially will rape taxpayers.
Both Houses of Indian Parliament passed a bill without discussion entitling Ministers to take along for free "any number of companions or relatives" by air - flying with the Minister, or flying by themselves.
Fly kith and kin for free, wherever, whenever is on top of free mansions, chauffeur driven cars, security detail, tax free "allowances" - the ruling party a reminder of feudal India, and like those oppressor rulers these elected men and women too flouting decency and accountability in a nation where running water is a fantasy for millions and children beg for food
This bill passed by Ministers for Ministers allows Ministers to fly by commercial airlines any number of their friends and family and bill the national exchequer, is a reminder that despite proclamations of being modern, changing, India is still that space where ruling forces shove their diktats down masses' throats, who swallow meekly.
It's official now - India officially will rape taxpayers.
Both Houses of Indian Parliament passed a bill without discussion entitling Ministers to take along for free "any number of companions or relatives" by air - flying with the Minister, or flying by themselves.
Fly kith and kin for free, wherever, whenever is on top of free mansions, chauffeur driven cars, security detail, tax free "allowances" - the ruling party a reminder of feudal India, and like those oppressor rulers these elected men and women too flouting decency and accountability in a nation where running water is a fantasy for millions and children beg for food
This bill passed by Ministers for Ministers allows Ministers to fly by commercial airlines any number of their friends and family and bill the national exchequer, is a reminder that despite proclamations of being modern, changing, India is still that space where ruling forces shove their diktats down masses' throats, who swallow meekly.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
What's wrong with America
If you ask me the biggest wrong with America after Wall Street greed is the archaic, bureaucratic and expensive education system that has continuously failed to live up to the demands of new American economy led by technology and healthcare companies.
India on the other hand has hundreds of schools offering current Computer/ IT courses at prices Indians can afford, churning tens of thousands of qualified Indians every month. So US companies have to shop or set-up shop abroad for skilled staff since there aren't enough qualified Americans with up-to-date knowledge application skills, hence the large number of foreigners in Redmond - obviously foreign education systems are good enough for trend setting companies.
Elite US Colleges are too busy chasing Nobel Prizes arguably transcending the mundane for pursuit of knowledge, but still elitist and pompous since they do not let their knowledge flow freely to lift the masses out of this hellish morass of misery which US is because US doesn't know anymore how to compete and these colleges don't teach US how to compete.
While the non elite colleges are busy trying to become elite forgetting that the basic reason for education is to equip and prepare students to succeed.
Most at risk are American kids because they are not being adequately prepared to compete with their foreign born and educated counterparts for basic technology jobs that pay $30-100 per hour middle-class wages.
American Colleges are directly responsible for the failure of the nation to produce the required programmers and nurses and the decline in American middle class. Bellevue College, WA charges $3,400 + the cost of electives for a Project Manager Certificate course. An Indian can learn that same course for a quarter of that cost.
Education is too expensive in America and traditionally out of reach for average American. High School was good enough in good old days, BUT NOT ANYMORE. American colleges have no sense of sensible spending. Their campuses are ostentatious, they overpay their staff, and despite huge endowments give little to welfare of America, yet lose billions on Wall Street. American Education System seems to be an extension of the Wall Street - greedy and unconcerned about the average American.
Like everything else Education too has to be globally price competitive or more and more Americans will be left behind.
The President should do something directly to help America by helping Americans acquire new world skills. He should subsidize continuing, technical, vocational education.
Following suit Bellevue College should make knowledge affordable so the unemployed in the State feel they have hope rather than hopelessly wait to be stampeded by foreign educated foreigners.
India on the other hand has hundreds of schools offering current Computer/ IT courses at prices Indians can afford, churning tens of thousands of qualified Indians every month. So US companies have to shop or set-up shop abroad for skilled staff since there aren't enough qualified Americans with up-to-date knowledge application skills, hence the large number of foreigners in Redmond - obviously foreign education systems are good enough for trend setting companies.
Elite US Colleges are too busy chasing Nobel Prizes arguably transcending the mundane for pursuit of knowledge, but still elitist and pompous since they do not let their knowledge flow freely to lift the masses out of this hellish morass of misery which US is because US doesn't know anymore how to compete and these colleges don't teach US how to compete.
While the non elite colleges are busy trying to become elite forgetting that the basic reason for education is to equip and prepare students to succeed.
Most at risk are American kids because they are not being adequately prepared to compete with their foreign born and educated counterparts for basic technology jobs that pay $30-100 per hour middle-class wages.
American Colleges are directly responsible for the failure of the nation to produce the required programmers and nurses and the decline in American middle class. Bellevue College, WA charges $3,400 + the cost of electives for a Project Manager Certificate course. An Indian can learn that same course for a quarter of that cost.
Education is too expensive in America and traditionally out of reach for average American. High School was good enough in good old days, BUT NOT ANYMORE. American colleges have no sense of sensible spending. Their campuses are ostentatious, they overpay their staff, and despite huge endowments give little to welfare of America, yet lose billions on Wall Street. American Education System seems to be an extension of the Wall Street - greedy and unconcerned about the average American.
Like everything else Education too has to be globally price competitive or more and more Americans will be left behind.
The President should do something directly to help America by helping Americans acquire new world skills. He should subsidize continuing, technical, vocational education.
Following suit Bellevue College should make knowledge affordable so the unemployed in the State feel they have hope rather than hopelessly wait to be stampeded by foreign educated foreigners.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati
Courtesy: http://sarvashiva.wordpress.com - http://twitter.com/SarvaShiva
ऊँ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः । सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद् दुःखभाग्भवेत ।।
Arya Samaj is one of SarvaShiva’s guiding lights; it’s 10 principles one of the foundations of our belief system, and its founder Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati one of our Gurus.
Swami Ji battled the 1000 year old, corrupt, brutal Hindu clergy for the common Hindu who was denied access to Vedas and worship based on caste and gender. He preached Vedas in Hindi so masses could understand what was deliberately held obscure, in Sanskrit, by the Brahmins who had the monopoly of that language, thus on Word of God.
Swami Ji, along with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, was perhaps the greatest friend Hindu women have ever had. He fought Sati and Devadasi traditions. He championed womens right for education and to pray alongside men.
In his India, a slave nation for 800 years, realizing that, Vidya (education and knowledge) was the most powerful and necessary tool to propel India out of dogma and poverty, Swami Ji became a Messiah for literacy for the masses, and Arya Samaj the largest provider of formal curriculum based education at village level in Northern India, therefore Arya Samaj and Swami Ji are one of the pillars of modern India’s success as an intellect driven nation.
There is evidence of greater prosperity and social emancipation in the regions where Arya Samaj was practiced, evidently because Arya Samaj encouraged common people to learn, participate, fight ignorance by questioning the clergy, be free, be independent human beings, which they were denied for almost 800 years. Satyarth Prakash is Swami Ji’s treatise on Veda’s and Conduct of Living.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a Brave Warrior in a nation of cowards, and the synthesis of his teachings is:
- God is the efficient cause of all true knowledge and all that is known through knowledge.
- God is existent, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning-less, unequalled, the support of all, the master of all, omnipresent, immanent, un-aging, immortal, fearless, eternal and holy, and the maker of all. He alone is worthy of being worshiped.
- The Vedas are the scriptures of all true knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to read them, teach them, recite them and to hear them being read.
- One should always be ready to accept truth and to renounce untruth.
- All acts should be performed in accordance with Dharma that is, after deliberating what is right and wrong.
- The prime object of the Arya Samaj is to do good to the world, that is, to promote physical, spiritual and social good of everyone.
- Our conduct towards all should be guided by love, righteousness and justice.
- We should dispel Avidya (ignorance) and promote Vidya (knowledge).
- No one should be content with promoting his/her good only; on the contrary, one should look for his/her good in promoting the good of all.
- One should regard oneself under restriction to follow the rules of society calculated to promote the well being of all, while in following the rules of individual welfare all should be free.
SarvaShiva believes that being Hindu may not be easy because of the numerous interpretations of the numerous Books, but the 10 precepts of Arya Samaj simplify Hindu conduct and direct one to one relationship with God.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Lessons for BJP
Seattle, after 188 days of miserable weather, is sunny and warm and I've been immersed in Indian elections on Indian Channels. Being a US citizen, and having been away for a very long time, my interest in India may sound academic or voyeuristic, but its neither. It's affection, it's love. So even if I am not voting I am wishing India well, and my allegiance isn't with a political party or ideology it's with India and the Indian.
And my first impression of BJP on TV was dull, dreary, pedantic, morose, unshaven, unpleasant guys, and then morbid, fear mongers after watching the "bhai ho" advertisements.
So the first lesson for BJP: smile, shave and be pleasant
- Don't sound pompous - talking like normal people do is okay - no need to sound like Hindi scholars
- Connect with the masses at grassroots level
- Don't try to scare people into voting for you
- Define yourself - what does a Hindu party mean -
- does it mean a minority hating group of guys who will spend national resources on Hindu festivals? If that's the case you're not my guys because I do not wish to hate or kill people carrying last names different than my kin, nor do I want you in my private prayer religious space - so if you are that then you are deranged deluded fools because no one in the connected Google MTv world will vote in a Hindu version of Bin-Laden.
- however if you are an organization that will abolish reservation that bars Hindu's from equal access to opportunity, will introduce Uniform Civil Code so that the law is of the land not religion and allow Indians to buy land in Kashmir then I would like to wave your flag because then you are making India an equal playing field for the Hindus
- what does a lower caste, marginal farmer, share cropper Hindu mean to a Hindu Party - for almost a 1000 years of recorded history Hindus have been oppressed by Hindu kings, landlords, money lenders, religious heads, denied dignity and denied knowledge, our culprits being the chief practitioners of our faith. So while we ponder the Muslim atrocities - all real and all documented - we need our own moral rectitude, so what does a poor, lower caste Hindu mean to the BJP?
Dalits found their voice in Samajwadi Party and then Bahujan Samaj Party because BJP abdicated all responsibility towards the marginalized rural poor Hindus, while carrying the reputation of being a party of urban traders and small businessmen. So in a country where many people live in villages that disconnect between the Hindu party and the poor Hindu resonates loudly.
If there were 1 single act of redemption and reinvention for BJP then that single act has to be service to the masses at the village level.
Breaking the Masjid was symbolic of pent up anger of a 1000 years but hunger and human needs are not symbolic. People need hope, health, food, education, water, peace and instead of developing an agenda to deliver those you are still stuck in blame games and fear mongering.
So to summarize:
- Be positive
- Be pleasant
- Be clear about your identity and aspirations
- Be nice - after millenniums of atrocities Hindus need to be nice to other Hindus and help erase dogmas like Swami Dayanand did.
- Be modern - recruit educated, rational, young people into your cadres lest you become obsolete because of being obstinately obtusely irrelevant.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Congratulations Rahul Gandhi
The courage to go alone in UP, the 100,000 kilometers of campaigning, the "mitti kha loonga" speech, the ballsy brainy admission that the Congress Party needs to connect with India at grassroots level and is an organization needing a face lift are hallmarks of a leader - and instead of retaliating with vitriol to the oppositions' vituperative you gave your campaign a positive upbeat image making your opponents look dreary, scary, grumpy, pedantic, petty, hate mongers.
Congratulations Mr. Gandhi for a very classy campaign.
Congratulations Mr. Gandhi for a very classy campaign.
Monday, May 11, 2009
66% Indian
66% of Indian population is under 35 – www.youthportal.gov.in/statistics/demographicdetails.htm
So why is that not reflected in the candidates contesting current elections? I mean why isn’t the ideology or the idealism of youth – hope, change, ambition, courage and things like that – reflected in the current crop of contenders who still carry dynastic lineages, criminal records, hate filled communally divisive ideas, negligible track records of holding down a job, and some of who are about dead?
If Indian youth pretending being Harold Robbin’s Americans on Page 3, or pretending being the MTv ghetto American, or that unique mix of English speaking-kurta/ jeans wearing doing nothing talking a lot Indian becomes worthwhile by doing something about India, and that might entail risk to comfort, health and maybe life, but then heroes are those who take risks, not flaunt their nothingness on page 3, then this 66% would be something to be proud of, to repose faith in as leaders leading India out of scary bad times sometime in this century.
Guru Infomercials
Somethings defy commonsense - India's obsession with Gurus is one of those. Superstition in this day and age being the other.
Bombay Stock Exchange listed Aastha Broadcasting Network (AABR.BO) calls itself "India's No. 1 socio-spiritual-cultural television channel". I found yesterday that it charges 5,000 Pounds (they do not bill in dollars) per month for the 30 minute time slot.
So these cats in saffron and white robes and saris with their beatific smiles and gobbledygook doctrine pay to be on TV, which is fantastic for Aastha since other TV networks have to pay for content instead of being paid to broadcast content.
Aastha wagered that Indians are Guru obsessed and launched a channel selling airtime to Gurus wanting to get into Indian heads. And that it gets away with 5,000 Pounds per month per Guru shows it's right.
But why would Indians spend their leisure hours of life watching those who pay to speak on television? Those men and women would obviously want to recoup their investment by fleecing viewers for money.
These Gurus are TV hawkers. And how credible are Infomercials anyway? Infomercials from juicers to home gyms aren't taken seriously, so how can meditation and salvation sellers on TV be taken seriously?
India, was starting your day with the daily horoscope on TV and the local Newspaper not enough that the day has to end with Guru Infomercials?
Is 2009 not the year that you would shed your ignorant Guru worshipping, astrologer believing ways? If not, then when? Or will you forever be the ignorant race of the self proclaimed wise?
Bombay Stock Exchange listed Aastha Broadcasting Network (AABR.BO) calls itself "India's No. 1 socio-spiritual-cultural television channel". I found yesterday that it charges 5,000 Pounds (they do not bill in dollars) per month for the 30 minute time slot.
So these cats in saffron and white robes and saris with their beatific smiles and gobbledygook doctrine pay to be on TV, which is fantastic for Aastha since other TV networks have to pay for content instead of being paid to broadcast content.
Aastha wagered that Indians are Guru obsessed and launched a channel selling airtime to Gurus wanting to get into Indian heads. And that it gets away with 5,000 Pounds per month per Guru shows it's right.
But why would Indians spend their leisure hours of life watching those who pay to speak on television? Those men and women would obviously want to recoup their investment by fleecing viewers for money.
These Gurus are TV hawkers. And how credible are Infomercials anyway? Infomercials from juicers to home gyms aren't taken seriously, so how can meditation and salvation sellers on TV be taken seriously?
India, was starting your day with the daily horoscope on TV and the local Newspaper not enough that the day has to end with Guru Infomercials?
Is 2009 not the year that you would shed your ignorant Guru worshipping, astrologer believing ways? If not, then when? Or will you forever be the ignorant race of the self proclaimed wise?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Indian Elections
Its human being mortified. Its human feeling frustrated. Its frustratingly mortifying being Indian if it means sharing some social, intellectual, value system DNA with badly spoken, bad intentioned men and women campaigning for another stab at power of stabbing India and Indians in the face.
Spastic press - excited like Indian press is - talking loud and fast, but not pressing politicians to abdicate vituperative of divide and hate platforms and no political party promising stemming violence, minimizing illiteracy, bringing clean water and safety to the poor makes me not ashamed to say I don't feel proud being Indian.
Spastic press - excited like Indian press is - talking loud and fast, but not pressing politicians to abdicate vituperative of divide and hate platforms and no political party promising stemming violence, minimizing illiteracy, bringing clean water and safety to the poor makes me not ashamed to say I don't feel proud being Indian.
Child murdered
Shanno was always in danger.
If her gender was detected pre-birth she might have been aborted. If she survived the beating that killed her she would've endured recurring groping in city buses and other forms of sexual harassment in public places. And then would come the possible danger of being burnt alive or if lucky getting away with just being derided for lack of dowry.
Shanno Khan was murdered by her teacher for failing to memorize and recite the English alphabet. In her school classroom her head was banged on the desk and then she was made to stand in the blazing Delhi summer sun for 2 hours by her teacher.
She was 11 years old:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=CinemaSectionPage&id=2ebdc9eb-06fc-43f5-8275-12ce124612a3&Headline=Girl+dies+after+punishment+in+school
Shiela Dikshit - the elected head of Delhi - came on TV, solemn faced and spouting philosophic, moral questions like, "..did she deserve to be treated like this.." instead of uni vocally banning corporeal punishment in schools. Mrs. Dikshit has been elected for her 3rd term, credited with building roads and overpasses, while murder, rape and molestations go on unhampered in her City-State - not that roads and overpasses are not important, but human dignity and life are more important, which somehow don't factor on any Indian election manifesto.
Since this isn't the first child killed in India and since this isn't the first time that the Politicians have failed to rally around the cause of banning corporeal punishment in schools; and making violence against children (at least in schools) punishable by dismissal and mandatory jail terms we Indians can either decide to abort girls before they are born so that our baby girls do not risk the Shanno fate, or we can bash heads of the politicians against their desks and then make them stand in Delhi summer sun, or we can take a moment of silence for Shanno and then boot out the callous lawmakers and start a new India in which human life and decency are measures of Shining India.
If her gender was detected pre-birth she might have been aborted. If she survived the beating that killed her she would've endured recurring groping in city buses and other forms of sexual harassment in public places. And then would come the possible danger of being burnt alive or if lucky getting away with just being derided for lack of dowry.
Shanno Khan was murdered by her teacher for failing to memorize and recite the English alphabet. In her school classroom her head was banged on the desk and then she was made to stand in the blazing Delhi summer sun for 2 hours by her teacher.
She was 11 years old:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=CinemaSectionPage&id=2ebdc9eb-06fc-43f5-8275-12ce124612a3&Headline=Girl+dies+after+punishment+in+school
Shiela Dikshit - the elected head of Delhi - came on TV, solemn faced and spouting philosophic, moral questions like, "..did she deserve to be treated like this.." instead of uni vocally banning corporeal punishment in schools. Mrs. Dikshit has been elected for her 3rd term, credited with building roads and overpasses, while murder, rape and molestations go on unhampered in her City-State - not that roads and overpasses are not important, but human dignity and life are more important, which somehow don't factor on any Indian election manifesto.
Since this isn't the first child killed in India and since this isn't the first time that the Politicians have failed to rally around the cause of banning corporeal punishment in schools; and making violence against children (at least in schools) punishable by dismissal and mandatory jail terms we Indians can either decide to abort girls before they are born so that our baby girls do not risk the Shanno fate, or we can bash heads of the politicians against their desks and then make them stand in Delhi summer sun, or we can take a moment of silence for Shanno and then boot out the callous lawmakers and start a new India in which human life and decency are measures of Shining India.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Mumbai Attacks
So it's happened again.
About 67 days after Mohan Chand Sharma of Delhi Police died of terrorist bullets, now Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Hemant Karkare are dead of terrorist bullets - all Super Cops with a stellar record of service and bravery; all dead fighting for country led by a Prime Minister and a State led by a Chief Minister with a record of weak waffling when dealing with terror, crime or crisis.
My deepest condolences to the families of the Officers who gave their lives for the country which perhaps doesn't deserve such ultimate acts of love and sacrifice because as heroes die the majority watches with apathy concerned more with Sensex than law and order and national unity and pride.
Punjab, Kashmir and now this - the apathy is the same general apathy of it's them, not me or mine or what can I do? The press was as divisive then as it is now - gleefully reporting death and murder without taking a moral stand, the intelligentsia as removed from reality as it is now - citing socio-economic factors as reasons over cocktails and affairs without lending a single tangible helping hand to the displaced victims of terrorists, and the average Indian as self absorbed with money and more money like he/ she is today without a concern for the nation, society, right, ethics and all things that make people human beings.
Now its out of rural areas. This time its not the hoi-polloi killed in Mumbai train blasts of couple years ago. Now its in the playing grounds of the rich, so maybe its a bit more scary and a lot more real for the rich, but for the average guy its the same - India being attacked with impunity while the Prime Minister whimpers and the Opposition which had bent over backwards to those hijackers when it was in power talks tough.
It's wasting heroism to die for a country soft on terrorism where nothing changes except number of dead heroes increases while for its leaders and citizenry India as a nation takes a secondary position to self interest; and its wasting heroism on a country when:
To repay the debt to the heroes and to be really India Shining India needs to: get Dawood, hang Salem, tap every Madrassa and militant organizations' offices, get foreign Intelligence experts as RAW etc. have failed, train Indian police and para military forces to become experts in combating terrorism, stop all trade and commerce and cricket matches with Pakistan until proven that that nation is not behind attacks on India. AND Indian Press and Politicians UNIVOCALLY need to condemn terrorism and suppot execution of enemies of the State despite ideology platforms, otherwise they talk while heroes perish and its time they shut up and walked the patriotic talk where India comes first. Otherwise India is just a weak, 3rd world nation gotten lucky with its luck about to run out as luck and cowards rarely coexist for long.
Thank you Officers Sharma, Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare - may your families live long and be proud that you had the courage in the land of the weak and may your name live long in the land of the living dead.
About 67 days after Mohan Chand Sharma of Delhi Police died of terrorist bullets, now Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Hemant Karkare are dead of terrorist bullets - all Super Cops with a stellar record of service and bravery; all dead fighting for country led by a Prime Minister and a State led by a Chief Minister with a record of weak waffling when dealing with terror, crime or crisis.
My deepest condolences to the families of the Officers who gave their lives for the country which perhaps doesn't deserve such ultimate acts of love and sacrifice because as heroes die the majority watches with apathy concerned more with Sensex than law and order and national unity and pride.
Punjab, Kashmir and now this - the apathy is the same general apathy of it's them, not me or mine or what can I do? The press was as divisive then as it is now - gleefully reporting death and murder without taking a moral stand, the intelligentsia as removed from reality as it is now - citing socio-economic factors as reasons over cocktails and affairs without lending a single tangible helping hand to the displaced victims of terrorists, and the average Indian as self absorbed with money and more money like he/ she is today without a concern for the nation, society, right, ethics and all things that make people human beings.
Now its out of rural areas. This time its not the hoi-polloi killed in Mumbai train blasts of couple years ago. Now its in the playing grounds of the rich, so maybe its a bit more scary and a lot more real for the rich, but for the average guy its the same - India being attacked with impunity while the Prime Minister whimpers and the Opposition which had bent over backwards to those hijackers when it was in power talks tough.
It's wasting heroism to die for a country soft on terrorism where nothing changes except number of dead heroes increases while for its leaders and citizenry India as a nation takes a secondary position to self interest; and its wasting heroism on a country when:
- Abu Salem - the master mind for the previous Bombay blasts - receives preferential treatment in a Mumbai jail
- Dawood Ibrahim is still a free man - for the record a known Muslim criminal who has funded attacks against India and the man behind Abu Salem, and known as India's arch enemy, lives in Pakistan and despite their numerous meetings the Weak Sikh has never asked Geroge Bush to help get Dawood extradited to India
- India doesn't do enough to protect it's citizens - AFTER HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS ON ISRAEL AND IN THE POST 9/11 WORLD FIGHTING TERRORISM IS A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP, ALLIANCE, COMMITMENT AND THAT INDIA HAS NOT SOUGHT HELP FROM ISRAEL AND USA PROACTIVELY MAKES IT SOFT ON TERROR, BECAUSE IT IS UNDER EQUIPPED IN TERMS OF SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT AND MODERN COMBAT TECHNOLOGY AND PRACTICES - attacks on the Parliament and trains shows its soft underbelly repeatedly, and also its unwillingness to fight terror with deadly force.
- India's lack of knowledge and commitment to deal with terrorism with world class ability, agility and capability means that the Police fight sophisticatedly trained and totally mind washed freaks without adequate infrastructural and tactical support so as a Cop you walk into the line of fire alone without your country or department giving you a trained team of Psychologists there to engage the terrorists in talks - in Mumbai why were Imams and Mullahs, and Psychologists not involved early on?
- The combat armor provided to Police Officers seems of inferior quality otherwise how would bullets penetrate a bullet proof vest - do experts agree that Indian police is armed with the right protective wear?
- Why die for a country where despite their failures to safeguard life and property both Manmohan Singh and Vilas Rao Deshmukh get to keep their jobs
To repay the debt to the heroes and to be really India Shining India needs to: get Dawood, hang Salem, tap every Madrassa and militant organizations' offices, get foreign Intelligence experts as RAW etc. have failed, train Indian police and para military forces to become experts in combating terrorism, stop all trade and commerce and cricket matches with Pakistan until proven that that nation is not behind attacks on India. AND Indian Press and Politicians UNIVOCALLY need to condemn terrorism and suppot execution of enemies of the State despite ideology platforms, otherwise they talk while heroes perish and its time they shut up and walked the patriotic talk where India comes first. Otherwise India is just a weak, 3rd world nation gotten lucky with its luck about to run out as luck and cowards rarely coexist for long.
Thank you Officers Sharma, Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare - may your families live long and be proud that you had the courage in the land of the weak and may your name live long in the land of the living dead.
Monday, February 4, 2008
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?
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?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Can Indian Economy sustain 9% growth
Comment on: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Finance/Indias_economy_strong_enough_to_weather_global_crisis_PM/rssarticleshow/2731427.cms
Dr. Manmohan's Singh's assurance that Indian economy can continue to grow at 9% (his status as an architect of modern Indian economy is unimpeachable) unaffected by the inevitable slow down of US economy doesn't seem realistic as the only other economy that has maintained that growth is China and that growth is based on that country's status as a major exporter to global markets, holding a net trade surplus with its trading partners.
India doesn't have the global market share that China does so it is vulnerable to (the drop in) BPO earnings, and its foreign exchange earnings are propelling infrastructure growth and consumer spending, so to ignore that is to live in a make believe world.
If the US economy slows down, and the dollar falls to the Rs. 32 range, Indian economy will slow down.
Dr. Manmohan's Singh's assurance that Indian economy can continue to grow at 9% (his status as an architect of modern Indian economy is unimpeachable) unaffected by the inevitable slow down of US economy doesn't seem realistic as the only other economy that has maintained that growth is China and that growth is based on that country's status as a major exporter to global markets, holding a net trade surplus with its trading partners.
India doesn't have the global market share that China does so it is vulnerable to (the drop in) BPO earnings, and its foreign exchange earnings are propelling infrastructure growth and consumer spending, so to ignore that is to live in a make believe world.
If the US economy slows down, and the dollar falls to the Rs. 32 range, Indian economy will slow down.
For Indian Women's Sake
This is serious, really is.
There's no excuse, no reason to treat women as shabbily as women are treated in India - like there's no reason to rape or drive drunk over sleeping people.
We'd like to start a petition drive of sorts online demanding that tougher laws are enacted which will punish offenses against women, speedily. The key is to hit legislators, repeatedly - not beat them up - with demands that they push for laws that punish molesters and rapists and make eve teasing a zero tolerance offense.
Some of you write like magic, many of you know many people. Would you consider joining us to create a petition forum that will scare or motivate Indian lawmakers?
If a million voices demanded respect for women in unison it will create a change. Will you join us to be that harbinger of change, and make this social platform into a platform for social change?
There's no excuse, no reason to treat women as shabbily as women are treated in India - like there's no reason to rape or drive drunk over sleeping people.
We'd like to start a petition drive of sorts online demanding that tougher laws are enacted which will punish offenses against women, speedily. The key is to hit legislators, repeatedly - not beat them up - with demands that they push for laws that punish molesters and rapists and make eve teasing a zero tolerance offense.
Some of you write like magic, many of you know many people. Would you consider joining us to create a petition forum that will scare or motivate Indian lawmakers?
If a million voices demanded respect for women in unison it will create a change. Will you join us to be that harbinger of change, and make this social platform into a platform for social change?
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