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.
Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts
Monday, April 20, 2009
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Hindu Irony or Hypocrisy
In a land of paradoxes none are more paradoxical than Hindus and Hindu politics.
Narendra Modi is fighting an election in Gujarat as a BJP candidate and as a Hindu stalwart, a fighter for Hindu interests.
A bit farther down in Punjab the same party BJP is a coalition partner in a government that has silently allowed a portrait of Bhindranwale, a Hindu killer and enemy of India killed in an operation conducted by the Indian Army to be placed in a Sikh holy shrine along with the portraits of other Sikh martyrs and saints.
What is BJP's stand and position? In Gujarat it is Hindu's friend, but in Punjab it's not?
Narendra Modi is fighting an election in Gujarat as a BJP candidate and as a Hindu stalwart, a fighter for Hindu interests.
A bit farther down in Punjab the same party BJP is a coalition partner in a government that has silently allowed a portrait of Bhindranwale, a Hindu killer and enemy of India killed in an operation conducted by the Indian Army to be placed in a Sikh holy shrine along with the portraits of other Sikh martyrs and saints.
What is BJP's stand and position? In Gujarat it is Hindu's friend, but in Punjab it's not?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Is India Killing the Internet
India has never really needed enemies from without as Indians historically have done well to maim and hurt India from within since the times when Rajputs invited Muslim invaders, Traitors sided with the British, Modern Politicians created vote banks by inciting violent rifts between Hindus and Muslims, and of course those who have befriended and shielded Muslim terrorists and perpetrators of Bombay blasts and attacks on Hindu temples.
Now we need to add the names of the Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee - that is proposing these asinine, draconian changes to Section 79 of the IT Act 2000 - to enemies of India and enemies of good sense and current Indian prosperity.
Censorship, government controls and stifling regulations are contrary to India's financial interests and its image as a respected Global Technology Partner.
We need to educate these MPs that India's economic boom is not some divine "धन वर्षा", it is based on unique events of the last decade. The Internet boom led to building of massive under-sea fiber optic cable networks by US telecommunication companies which connected India with the rest of the world. Then when the Internet bubble burst the US technology companies laid off many Indian engineers who returned home and these fiber optic networks became under utilized. Then the burst era technology companies looking to lower their operating costs contacted these Indian engineers in India who could receive and deliver, at wages lower than the US, IT jobs via these fiber optic networks. So India benefited from the Internet bubble and burst era, massively and deservedly, because that New India has raised the standards of quality, communication and delivery.
The benefits are evident in the roaring Sensex and the massive Shopping Malls and Consumer Spending. India’s current economic might is based on its current status as a net gain/ trade surplus nation sitting on growing piles of foreign earnings. The standard of living has improved tremendously because the wages have gone up to $15 per hour for skilled programmers and developers and even the Call Center employees make better wages than what they hoped for in other industries.
Socially that’s significant too because low unemployment means lower crime and corruption – remember films depicting the Hero’s inability to find a नौकरी whilst his mother was dying. That India is India of the past.
To maintain its economic momentum India needs Internet and a technology driven economy and society, period. India only has 50 million Internet connections, so it has to grow a lot more in order to get and deliver more jobs and when the Internet grows so will amounts of information available on the Net. But that is also a gain as more Indians will have access to more information and greater knowledge. Some will seek porn, but overall the country will benefit by being connected versus not.
This Parliamentary Standing Committee needs to know what Modern India is, does and needs. If they all can’t it’s time they’re fired.
India, is young, 59% is from 15 to 59, so it needs to be led by the young, who know what change is, how to deal with it, how to manage it and how to do that well.
The generation gap, technology gap, cultural gap, value gap, comprehension gap between the ruling elite – that bands together communists to hang on to power and to perpetuate dynasties – and the working India of tight schedules, confirmed deliveries, new technologies, hard and smart working habits and global competition is so large that there will be political and social rifts between the Modern and the Irrelevant. That would translate into social strife, and holding India back from its rightful place at the top of the World Economic Order.
Remember Japan? Wealth is not permanent, so India need a sustainable plan with technology as the backbone of it all.
Therefore for the best of India’s today and tomorrow fire the politicians supporting this Internet killing bill and get Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Azim Premji caliber executives from business and civil services to run the country.
We could, to honor tradition, put these fired politicians on donkeys and parade them out of town but then can an ass ride an ass?
Now we need to add the names of the Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee - that is proposing these asinine, draconian changes to Section 79 of the IT Act 2000 - to enemies of India and enemies of good sense and current Indian prosperity.
Censorship, government controls and stifling regulations are contrary to India's financial interests and its image as a respected Global Technology Partner.
We need to educate these MPs that India's economic boom is not some divine "धन वर्षा", it is based on unique events of the last decade. The Internet boom led to building of massive under-sea fiber optic cable networks by US telecommunication companies which connected India with the rest of the world. Then when the Internet bubble burst the US technology companies laid off many Indian engineers who returned home and these fiber optic networks became under utilized. Then the burst era technology companies looking to lower their operating costs contacted these Indian engineers in India who could receive and deliver, at wages lower than the US, IT jobs via these fiber optic networks. So India benefited from the Internet bubble and burst era, massively and deservedly, because that New India has raised the standards of quality, communication and delivery.
The benefits are evident in the roaring Sensex and the massive Shopping Malls and Consumer Spending. India’s current economic might is based on its current status as a net gain/ trade surplus nation sitting on growing piles of foreign earnings. The standard of living has improved tremendously because the wages have gone up to $15 per hour for skilled programmers and developers and even the Call Center employees make better wages than what they hoped for in other industries.
Socially that’s significant too because low unemployment means lower crime and corruption – remember films depicting the Hero’s inability to find a नौकरी whilst his mother was dying. That India is India of the past.
To maintain its economic momentum India needs Internet and a technology driven economy and society, period. India only has 50 million Internet connections, so it has to grow a lot more in order to get and deliver more jobs and when the Internet grows so will amounts of information available on the Net. But that is also a gain as more Indians will have access to more information and greater knowledge. Some will seek porn, but overall the country will benefit by being connected versus not.
This Parliamentary Standing Committee needs to know what Modern India is, does and needs. If they all can’t it’s time they’re fired.
India, is young, 59% is from 15 to 59, so it needs to be led by the young, who know what change is, how to deal with it, how to manage it and how to do that well.
The generation gap, technology gap, cultural gap, value gap, comprehension gap between the ruling elite – that bands together communists to hang on to power and to perpetuate dynasties – and the working India of tight schedules, confirmed deliveries, new technologies, hard and smart working habits and global competition is so large that there will be political and social rifts between the Modern and the Irrelevant. That would translate into social strife, and holding India back from its rightful place at the top of the World Economic Order.
Remember Japan? Wealth is not permanent, so India need a sustainable plan with technology as the backbone of it all.
Therefore for the best of India’s today and tomorrow fire the politicians supporting this Internet killing bill and get Narayana Murthy, Ratan Tata, Azim Premji caliber executives from business and civil services to run the country.
We could, to honor tradition, put these fired politicians on donkeys and parade them out of town but then can an ass ride an ass?
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