NGO's farcical "Social Activism"

At the onset let me clarify that I am all for those NGO who do credible work, and I know there are many out there. But then these sincere NGO seems to have attracted lot of attraction and now we are seeing a whole NGO industry out there wanting to grab its piece of share. Recently one NGO (probably GreenPeace) came to our office (obviously they wanted our money). I could see that the representatives they had were probably college or school students who were in need of some quick bucks. Unfortunately one of school going kind guy stopped me and tried to explain me what does NGO does. I could see how improper his prep talk was as he hardly had any facts right. Then he proudly said "Sir we did not allowed French ship Clemenaceau to reach India as it had high level of some toxic substance". I said "well it was not "some" but asbestos, Moreover the ship journey got derailed due to Egypt's intervention and not India's". Then I asked him "did you ever talked to the poor laborers at Alang(Gujrat) who were actually going to dismantle the ship and earn their bread. He candidly said "No sir we didn't". Well I was not shocked as I know the people who are really going to be affected are hardly taken into consideration when the more enlightened breed of NGOs talk in their favour in New Delhi while staying in Five Star hotels. Then I drew a parallel of it with my own life. Few days back I was trying to get a cycle rickshaw to reach my home. Then I saw few rickshaws standing near by. I chose the one which had the oldest driver. While on the rickshaw I said I would have never sat on this rickshaw few days back (before this GreenPeace incident had taken place), but now after this GreenPeace incident I will surely sit here. I must say I did not used to sit on rickshaws having old drivers respecting their age and health. Then I said to myself "hang on, what are you doing? aren't you doing the same thing which the GreenPeace guys did. You yourself decided what is good for the old rickshaw guy and never bothered to consider that he is plying rickshaw to earn money and to get two meals for his family. In my misplaced beinignity I was depriving him and his family that bread. In a way my ridiculous social empathy was actually a curse on these people. Then on I decided that people who want to earn money with all the legal means by their side needs to be supported, and I threw my preposterous social inclinations in a cold basket.

Arjun Singh and the Quota Conundrum

Well it seems that age got better of Arjun Singh and he has become insane (not that he had any sense anyway). Not that he wants to be another VP Singh but he must have been feeling sidelined on getting a trivial ministry and his falling support in the high command. On his last birth day Sonia Gandhi virtually advised him to leave politics and go hiding when she said that "X" years is too long a time in politics and people achieve whatever they want to do till then.
That probably rang alarms in Arjun's head. His feet in the coffin he just tried to become a cynosure by doing something which will irritate his party member and if he does not become famous he will at least become infamous. I doubt any one in the Congress would have liked this Quota juggernaut the way it has shaped. Students across the country are facing merciless policemen and their lathis. It seems that Mr Arjun Singh himself might not have thought that things will go such a long and disgusting way. He just wanted some quick publicity and a reckoning at the dead end of his career so that when he dies there is someone to remember him.
But now the coins have fallen on the wrong place. His head is on the burner and these protests have taken a Frankenstein form which will be very difficult to contain.

India mirroring the USA ??

The recent gruesome killing of Indian engineer Suryanarayana by the Taliban throws a malicious light on peripherals which have never been discussed. More and more I am seeing India having the same strenuous relations with her neighbour like the USA has across the world. The Indo US nuclear deal was a nail in the incubating coffin as the Islamist world derogated India from a "neutral" to a USA inclined country.

Well this does not mean that we pursue our foreign polices keeping in mind these mindless Islamist states but then we cannot deny that the Iran stubbornness has somewhere a link towards the Indo US nuclear deal. Agreed that India has a better nuclear track record unlike countries like Pakistan but then just because Iran has a hardliner at the helm does not mean they are maniacs. For the US it was a US puppy till the Shah was ruling and as soon as Ayotollah Khomenei came the country suddenly became anti US !! The flawed policies of USA towards many of these countries like Iran Iraq Palestine etc. have made the world an unsafe place. The whole world is paying dear for the ridiculous US foreign policies.

These are the people who made Taliban who is now out to destroy its master. These are the people who tried to bully around the whole Latin America and now we see a definite anti US Governments in almost all the major countries. Similarly the Indian subcontinent is heading towards the anti India direction. We have strained relation with Pakistan, Bangladesh Srilanka and Nepal. We are accused of hegemony by these nations. Our wish wash reactions on Nepal monarchy have alienated us further from the common people there.

Self Censoring... Are you kidding !!!

Well that was the first reaction I had when I heard a so called intellectual whose credentials were nothing more than that he was a celebrity. As has already been said years ago "Free lunch is yet to be invented" same goes for self censorship.

People simply try to push the boundary of the ecosystem they are in. When the system revolts back then they come to know that they have crossed the boundaries or else they continue in their disgusting manner. Then there was one more "intellectual" who said "let us rate the Indian Hindi Movies and let the people decide what to see and what to avoid". That made me laugh my hats off. It was so much similar to one of the Scott Adams Dilbert strip. In the strip Dilbert tells Dogbert that he feels guilty about working for a company which makes doughnuts which have thousands of calories. Dogbert says that you do not force anyone to eat it, you simply make them irresistible.

Here also in the rating system we are not "forcing" anyone to see our movies but by giving them XXX rating we are making them irresistible. One more thing in one of the Dilbert strip was when Dogbert says human beings are fun searching parasites and will do any thing for it. Whether that is in their favour or not, does not really matter to them. On the same line people will go to watch this XXX rated movies knowing that it might not be too well for their moral health. But people making these kinds of movies have mastered the art of "Human being is attracted towards forbidden". So once you XXX rate them you are essentially making them forbidden and hence more attractive for the buyers. Its simple voyeuristic economy and a shame.

Moreover the logic of "let the people decide" is a frivolous one. If people were so intelligent and honest we would not see so many crimes taking place. People would know what to do and what not to do. So we would not have any legal laws then. Let the rapist decide whether raping is correct or not. Gosh!! gimme a break will you.

One more issue is "who decides what is wrong and what is right in media". Now by this logic no limits can be put on anything. Anyone can happily say I am making a porn movie, who decides its right or wrong. In ancient time it was the king and his court which used to decide. Similarly in modern world someone needs to take initiative to decide what is wrong and what is right, inside a legal system. The problem is when moral decline creeps into the system we silently acquiesce to it and want "someone" to take matter in his hand. People appreciated what is shown in the movie Rang De Basanti. That the youth take control in their own hands for justice. Now again who decides whether they did right or wrong. Going by the public opinion they seem to have done right but as per law they were criminals. Similarly when Shiv Sena tries to protest the celebration of Valentines Day all the jhola chaap journalist who are pseudo apologists of "freedom of expression" jump the bandwagon saying who decides whether celebrating Valentines Day is right or wrong. I am not endorsing what Shiv Sena does what I am trying to explain is that "who decides" does not always work. Someone has to take the initiative and wrath of the public opinion. Remember if all objections to something are addressed that thing can never be implemented.

Indian eGovernance initiatives

The recent letter send by the National Knowledge Commission to the Prime Minister Dr. Singh, says that India should go the Open Source Software way to effectively implement the eGovernance initiatives. It is very clear that the panel wanted to minimize the cost of implementation and also wanted to have an open standard so that the proprietary software are kept at bay. Though the intentions are correct but it seems that this might not be the best of an idea to implement at this time. Why I am saying this is because Open Source Softwares have various problems in support issues. The education level and the technical comfort of the normal Indian is not unknown to anyone. In these circumstances the ideal solution would be to have solutions from some vendors who then can be held accountable for their systems. But at the same time there is a big problem in this approach also. Which is that once the Government staff bents towards eGovernance then in near future when we would definitely like to go for Open Office Documents it would be very tough to migrate whole systems towards it. Not only the training costs but also the transition costs for the SW would be prohibitively high. The recent Massachusetts incident in which Microsoft Office 12 OpenXML format was rejected by the panel and they went for Open Document Format and PDF gives a clear indication of where the world is heading. Moreover the Open Document Format being based on the OpenOffice.org's XML formats makes the work easier. The Government records needs to be maintained for several decades. The tax transaction records, land dealings and many other critical documents needs to be stored for very long time. By the time they are required in near future the reading application would have gone so many changes that it would be impossible to read it. But then it is also not guaranteed that even if we use Open Office Document format the versions in future would be backward compatible with an application which is 50 years old. It seems that we are getting into the mess of reinventing the wheel and that too for a shorter period. Here is where the pioneering words of legendary Adobe Chairman Dr. John Warnock come into picture that you can never replace the physical paper. The digital paper should try to be a subordinate of the master paper and should not pursuit a quixotic dream of replacing it. We need to reduce our dependence on physical paper but we should be aware that physical paper might exist till the world lasts.

Hamas in Palestine

The advent of Hamas in Palestine might not necessarily mean the victory of terrorism. It might actually mean the fundamental belief which the Palestinians have with respect to Israel. Hamas in its charter clearly states that its ultimate agenda is to get Jerusalem back from Israel which is rebuked as a land encroacher whose existence should be wiped out from their land. It is very shocking for the USA to see that its prescribed panacea of all ills "The Democracy" has led to formation of those Governments which are totally against its hegemony. USA is fast loosing ground in its own backyard where the countries in South America like Venezuela, Bolivia, and Chile are all up against its might. Also the Iran Government which came after election is bitterly anti US. Similarly in Palestine the democracy has brought Hamas whose hatred for the USA is not unknown from anybody. The incumbent US presidents might be working for some short term gains for their country but they are putting up a blind eye towards the alienation which their country is facing from the rest of the world. Their thinking that their prowess would yield other countries has boomeranged on them and their relations have been strained with almost all the nations. It is a serious time for the USA which they can ill afford to overlook. Their status as an economic center for world is already dwindling due to emergence of powers like India and China. Adding to it the military fiasco this country creates every now and then does not augur well for them. Moreover the rigid stance of non-cooperation which USA has taken towards Hamas will only alienate it from the Middle East. It is really ironical to see that USA bombs another country in the guise of "War on Terror" and want to establish democracy there. And then when another country gets a democratically elected Government then they say we will not recognize them!
Al Qaeda has seized the initiative and now its top leaders do not talk to USA Government, they talk to the American people and try to incite their emotions by saying that the Government is responsible for killing of their sons and brothers. We should not expect any respite in the anti US sentiments as long as George Bush is in power who cannot see anything beyond his oil. So let us hope that some sane leader would lead them in the new decade and they would come out with policies which are unbiased towards any country and unprejudiced against anyone.