Good Night and Good Luck

The Campaign Continues.....

2007-05-18T09:02:00.000-05:00

The blog moved, last spotted near

TVMTALKIES.com

Its just that this blog has moved. The fight against uptight, short sighted, narrow minded, nuerotic, pyschotic, pig headed, short haired, yellow bellied, tricky dicky, tight lipped, Condescending, Chauvinistic, Schizophrenic, Ego-centric, Paranoid hypocritics continues.

Good Night and Good Luck :)

Germania

2007-04-05T12:14:00.000-05:00

Here’s looking at you Germania,

Goethe,Leibnitz, Kant, Karl Marx, Nietzsche, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Fahrenheit, Röntgen, Hertz, Hegel and Hitler

Kant, Hegel, Marx and then Hitler - the “germ” is always there

For anyone out there crouched in their prison cell, who cannot hear the ocean, who thinks “secular” and “progressive” are cliched twentieth century words - Germany is one lesson from history on eternal vigilence. A secular progressive society where every human being has the right to live in the land they were born into, a right to “food, medicine, clean air, pure water, trees and grass, pleasant homes to live in, some hours of work, more hours of leisure” is not a destination, it is a journey - something the society needs to achieve at the end of every day. Any one who strives for it is not a utopian but a realist. Because the ‘germ’ will always be there and every sunrise is another day.

A place called hope

2007-04-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

'Saudi Arabia's peace plan for the Middle East was long considered stillborn by the West. Now the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is lauding it as "revolutionary."'

"Last week, the 22 government leaders of the Arab League renewed their commitment to the Beirut proposal. First, however, Abdullah, who has since become the king of Saudi Arabia, gave them a telling-off the likes of which has never been heard before at an Arab summit. He mentioned the bloodshed in occupied Iraq, the political deadlock in Lebanon, the "Arab meekness" in Sudan and the seemingly endless series of civil wars in Somalia. "The real blame should fall on us -- we the leaders of the Arab nations," he said." - Speigel story here

The hellfire in Iraq notwithstanding, a breakthrough in middle east seems possible. With Israel warming up to the Beirut peace plan put forth in 2002 by the then crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The realization of mistakes by both sides is important and maybe we could shed our cynicism for a moment, there could be peace and as some experts say,it could happen in the very short term.

And

Six months after the heart wrenching massacre, it is a new beginning for the students in Nickel Mines. Despite a tsunami in the Pacific, there are reasons enough this Monday morning to believe in a place called 'hope'.

Hail to the Chief !

2007-03-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

Nouri Al-Maliki, had just finished explaining to the visiting UN chief Ban Ki Moon about the progress being made in Iraq. (28 sec video)

I don't understand Al Jazeera's arab commentary, nor Dubya's Iraq policy.

Bollywoodland !

2007-03-23T14:35:00.000-05:00

"I have been offered this award before but did not accept it because the time I felt was not right. But today I'm going to be a mother-in-law all over again to a wonderful lovely girl who has great values , a great dignity and a lovely smile. I welcome you to the family, I love you. So I thought this would be the right time to accept this award.", Jaya Bhaduri said after accepting the "LifeTime Achievement Award" from Filmfare.

After watching the Bachchan family drama on Filmfare stage, I was not in a position to actively think on what was Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan's life time achievement for hindi cinema. I agree that Bollywood, considering its vast resources has achieved very less and all Jaya Bhaduris sitting with a 'Devil' can grab any award in our tinsel town. Watch this video at your own risk.

As far as I see it, this couple, standing there on stage for around ten minutes going on and on about how their son married , how their daughter got pregnant and why that is a lifetime achievement, with the whole of Hindi film industry sitting there and listening is a spectacle - that is exactly what makes the hindi films suck - inertia to get out of that bullshit pit. Every speech on the filmfare stage has to pay homage to the Bachchans or the Chopras or the Roshans. Everyone is addressed as uncle or aunty. Every movie is so full of bullshit. And Hrithik is the best actor for Dhoom2.

Can we get over it guys ? Your family values. Are we still not fed up of this family drama and Koffee couches. Is there a single award night in recent memory where the family hasn't tortured us. Isn't it time Bollywood borrows some professionalism from hollywood or outsource this bollywood farce to good film makers in Bengal, Chennai or Kerala. Bachchan once said Academy awards are not for us, our art is different. Yes sir ! your art is different and so full of bullshit, which is shoveled down the average movie goer's esophagus like "Eklavya"

Let us not live under the impression that these folks are the best we have, they are not. There have been genuine movies like this and this, which came out of the same bollywood. These families are the cancer of the hindi film industry and they make a mockery of cinema, perhaps the most important medium of our times - and thats a crime. There are a lot people who stand accused, but the main culprit could be six feet three with a baritone voice.

P.S : If you still haven't watched Black Friday, as Taran Adarsh put it, do yourselves a favour - go watch it.

P.P.S : Now that 'Lifetime' has been presented to Jaya and Rekha, how about checking out names like Nihalani and Benegal before giving it to Aishwarya.

Mother of all Nightmares

2007-03-17T19:14:00.000-05:00

"...I am sure, thousands like me will be shocked by the Nandigram incident. Please, please have some regard for those who feel that socialism is not terrorism, but humanism; and misrule by gun will not be the rule of the Left in State authority."

V.R.Krishna Iyer in his open letter to Prakash Karat.

Beat the squares with the tramp of rebels!
Higher, rangers of haughty heads!
We'll wash the world with a second deluge,
Now’s the hour whose coming it dreads.
Too slow, the wagon of years,
The oxen of days — too glum.
Our god is the god of speed,
Our heart — our battle drum.
Is there a gold diviner than ours
What wasp of a bullet us can sting?
Songs are our weapons, our power of powers,
Our gold — our voices — just hear us sing!

- Mayakovski,1917

When did the Communist government in Bengal forget to sing, when did the lover of Marquez and modernism start writing his whim around the echo of a bullet shot, why did the communist lose his vow of burning patience. Every excuse of governance from the Writer's Building notwithstanding, the bottom line is a democratically elected communist government opened fire on its own people, killing them. A left front government used the brute force of state machinery to repress its own people. This is unprecedented and shameful.This is not revolution through parliamentary democracy, this is not 'struggle and governance', this is the mother of all nightmares and this will haunt the leftist struggle in India for years to come. This is sad.

Buddha could argue citing the metaphor that Agricultural Bharat met eyeball to eyeball with Industrial India in Nandigram. He could argue that rapid industrialization is key to India's growth with the agricultural sector growing at one third the rate of industrial growth and that a failure in Nandigram and Singur will have national implications. But try explaining the Hindu growth rate to the farmer and the farm labourer who is wedded to his soil -its hard ; but then, thats why we need communists and them compassionate.

Buddha could argue citing the facts that the rule of law had to be brought back in Nandigram, that a chief executive has to make hard decisions, that the Trinamool, fringe left and Muslim groups in Nandigram and across Bengal are dangerous and he had to act, that the villagers in Nandigram are under siege by external elements. But why can't a democratic communist government with its roots in the hearts of Bengalis talk with its own people, convince its own people. If Trinamool and the Naxals are able to convince the villagers, why can't the Communist party do it. A progressive movement which is impotent to talk to its own stakeholders, be it due to the arrogance of power or reactionary influences on the people will be in due course of time be relegated to its rightful place in the waste paper basket of history unless it changes its course.

Buddha needs to understand that we live in an India where state violence in Bengal and Naxal violence in Chattisgarh are both called Red Terror. The removal of this Indian cataract will be a long and painful journey, in which songs will be more effective than bullets. Being the darling of capitalist enterprise might be hailed by the media which believes in gulping rather than savouring, but the leftist struggle in India draws its energy not from the news cycles but from the ground realities which are strangled by the news media. The Indian news media never asks what the Naxalites want, then the Naxalites are terrorists.

The Buddha government and the party in Bengal needs to go through a process of self-critical analysis on what went wrong. The decision to accept the peoples' verdict on Nandigram will be the first step towards that. The damage that has been done will take time to heal, but the 'astounding arrogance' of the CPIM will have to be cured now. There are a lot of difficult questions that will haunt CPIM for long, Buddha better have some answers or else the humility to ask for forgiveness. Millions of Hindutva sympathizers died exactly five years before in Gujarat, a lot of Indian communists died on March 14th in Bengal. The death toll is rising, maybe, Buddha should go.

Forrest Gump Confesses

2007-03-16T18:53:00.000-05:00

The Forrest Gump of Global Terror has confessed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the three hundred and twenty seven (courtesy : random number generator) people the US considers to be Al-Qaeda No 3. This Global terrorist was arrested in March 2003 in Pakistan and was placed in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The terrorist confessed on March 10th of 2007.

----------------------------------------------

You might have heard this one, but can't resist, this is my all time favourite. Once, way back in early 90's there was a competition for the best police force in the world. The top three finalists were the Russians, Israelis and Kerala police. The challenge was to go into the Muthodi forest and catch three "absconding" tigers.

The Russians took the first turn, and after a day returned with the tiger. Next the Israelis went into the forest and caught the tiger in half a day. Finally, Kerala police went in. Days passed without any news and after a week a search team was sent out to look for them.

The search team found the KP guys just half a mile into the forest. There was a Bear tied to one of the trees and a constable was standing next to it, punching the bear in the stomach. The bear was wailing "I'm not a tiger,I'm not a tiger". The Kerala police chief said " we caught the tiger in less than ten minutes, but this sonofabitch is not confessing".

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has confessed to personally beheading journalist Daniel Pearl, 1993 World Trade Center bombing,Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States,''Filka Island Operation'' in Kuwait, Bali bombings, Shoe-bomb plot for bombing trans-Atlantic flights, plotting to bomb Sears Towers and Empire State building, Plotting to assassinate all American Presidents including Jimmy Carter, Plotting to attack Straits of Hormuz, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Port of Singapore,Panama Canal, Heathrow Airport, Big Ben ,Canary WharfS,NATO headquarters in Brussels, Israel Embassies, US Embassies, plotting the Bojinka Operation to take down 12 American planes in Indonesia AND planning to Kill the Pope, Kill Musharraf and Kill Clinton.

Read full confession here (there are many that I left out after fainting)

Khalid is not just the Forrest Gump of terror, he is the James Bond of terror or rather the Rajnikanth of terror. Osama Bin Laden is reportedly fuming in his cave despite the Afghan winter. Reports say he feels betrayed and mugged in broad daylight. OBL is planning to confess and take responsibility for JFK assassination, Katrina Hurricane and Global Warming to regain his terror status.

Khalid in the meantime on a fast track to terror sainthood in Pakistan and the middle-east might claim responsibility for "plotting" in this mega case as well. That might be another feather in the cap for FBI and Kerala Police.

Women's Army and Jhansi Rani

2007-03-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

"My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women's army," they read. "I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina's country."

they read the Vagina Monologues aloud and then they were suspended

So sad. What about those men who were fired for using the "V" word at work.

and back in India on this Women's day,

'A study on all aspects related to women officers in the armed forces, including induction in combat roles was conducted under the aegis of the Chiefs of Staff Committee -,' Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. 'The study has recommended exclusion of women officers for the present in close combat roles where chances of physical contact with the enemy are high,' Antony added.

Neihal, says Women's right activists have "slammed the findings of the study as the height of male chauvinism"

What is with this male chauvinist (but armed) pigs, this is the height of discrimination, that too in the land of the great and "highly successful in battle" Jhansi Rani. And whats with this "Physical contact" , haven't these morons heard about this thingy called "Guns" which other armed forces in the rest of the world have successfully put into use. Don't tell me we settle disputes with Pakis by playing kabaddi and wrestling (extreme physical contact conditions) - Indian army had decommisioned those weapons after the Chinese routed us.

Does anyone remember those rape cases, remember Jaffna of 87 ? Having women in the army*provided they have guns* will arguably reduce the chance of sexual abuse - well who knows. Now about winnability and compromising national security, when was the last time we fought a full fledged war - 1971 ? did we actually see the enemy in Kargil, let alone physical contact. So let these women be, give them whatever they want. Do whatever is needed to shut those feminists up. Oh those shrill voices.

According to me, all our Jhansi Ranis in short skirts must be given the freedom to go to hell in any frickin way they want. Say NO to discrimination in combat roles in Indian Armed Forces !!

Where the Nile flows...

2007-02-28T18:21:00.000-05:00

Abdel-Karim Nabil Suleiman, the Egyptian blogger from Alexandria was this week, sentenced to four years in prison for what he wrote in his blog. He was first arrested in 2005. A blogger and a law student in Al Azhar (world's second oldest operating University), Karim's blog was critical of the University which he termed "was promoting extreme ideas". Point to note is that he was a casual blogger who commented on issues around him occasionally. Karim's post accusing Muslims of savagery during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria in 2005 titled “The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw it" created an uproar in the Sunni fundamentalist circles.

Excerpt :
"It is worth mentioning that although some people may think that this Christian-owned liquor store was particularly targeted because the owner is selling the forbidden alcoholic beverages that is forbidden in Islam, but another liquor store in front of the Christian-owned store happens to be owned by a Moslem merchant, and none of the thugs dared to attack, as they did with the Christian-owned store. Now you can see the hateful sectarian actions."

Karim's criticism of Papa Bear Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president since 1981, "likening him to the dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt" is cited as yet another reason to jail him - as criticizing the President put "National Security at a higher risk".

Egypt, an Enemy of the Internet is a long way away from individual freedom. A country where the supreme religious leader, the Grand Mufti is in favour of reconstructive hymen surgery for women who lost their virginity before marriage cannot be expected to be a beacon for secular progressive forces; and its not.

The fate of Abdel-Karim Nabil Suleiman does not bother me, if it bothers you, you might find something here. What bothers me is the fact that Egypt is arguably the cradle of human civilization, man and his intelligence has constantly worked wonders by the banks of the Nile.
If what Egypt implies is that individual freedom and human progress are not directly proportional to the age of civilization, then they should be products of certain choices the society makes as a whole. We need to find those choices; We need to make those choices; We cannot afford to be Egypt.

As for Egypt, USA's Man Friday in the region, you can wait by the Nile , looking upstream till Uncle Sam sends you a wooden basket down the river with Nile's gift of democracy. This will take some time of course and Egypt being obedient to US is not helping things at all. If you are obedient, you don't get the democracy gift - see Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan. All the prodigal disobedient kids got democracy - see Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan. The whole point is obedience.

Good Night and Good Luck !

The Slow Drumbeat of Another war

2007-02-14T18:08:00.000-05:00

One can sense it, the slow drumbeat of another war. In the past two weeks the military-intelligence-government complex has been building up a new case against Iran. A confrontation with Iran seems inevitable when one looks at the way the story is being built-up in the media, especially the news deprived 24\7 network channels.

It could be a war or a swift and precise bombing of key installations in Iran. The truth being a full scale war with Iran will be unacceptable to the USA at a time when the extrapolated cost of the Iraq quagmire is touching a senseless 1 Trillion dollars and the fact being Iran is no Iraq.

The war in Iraq was a success in meeting the short term goals of the US,
1. Checkmating Iraq's firepower - Especially the Scud threat against Israel
2. Unseating the Saddam regime and a cleanup of the Baath-Sunni oligarchy

But in a war with Iran, what would be the short term goals,
1. Taking out Iran's nuclear capablity - this will not be easy, given the fact that Atomic installations in Iran are geographically wide-spread and high in count.
2. Unseating the regime - Iran is a functioning democracy and even in their wildest dreams, the US will not be thinking about this.
3. Containing Iran's reaction - will be tough. Iran could go on a rampage in the Persian Gulf and across the middle-east if it is hit. Iran has the firepower to accomplish that and the American forces in Iraq and rest of the middle-east will be sitting ducks despite any ramp up the US intends to and is perhaps currently doing in the Persian Gulf.

Going into a war with Iran has two critical reasons against it,
1. American public opinion - which a propaganda campaign over a period of time may perhaps be able to change
2. World opinion - which asks this Question, but which, if Iraq is any example the current establishment does not really care about

Despite this why would the US make this mistake perhaps in another year or two - the answer is, the conservative right which has placed George Bush and Dick Cheney in charge of the country will not let them go back home without doing something about Iran. There is not much of a choice here and the way things are piling up, it is surely going their way. It may not happen soon, but there is another 'solid' two years left in the Bush Presidency.

Before the bombing starts, lets take a minute off to see what Iran (which has not invaded a country in the past one hundred years) looks like. After the bombing we'll be left with rubble, like Afghanistan and Iraq, it is in the nature of bombs.

P.S : Per the state of the Union did you hear about yesterday's "Valentine's Day Massacre"

P.P.S : Take a look at the 2008 Budget Request (courtesy : RoseCoveredGlasses)

Road to the White House - Miami Caucuses

2007-02-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

With the Presidential race for 2008 getting heated up , Miami Caucuses yesterday decided on a bipartisan ticket for 2008. The Caucuses across Budweiser suggested a Republican as President and a Democrat as his VP. The Lincoln-Kennedy '08 ticket was announced by the Caucus leader Stephen Colbert with much fanfare outside Sunday's Superbowl venue. Within minutes CIA's closest base at Bay of Pigs with written authorization from Langley informed the Caucus that both Lincoln and Kennedy were killed and probably both were dead. The Caucus in a state of extreme shock, downed a gallon of Mojito and observed a moment of silence. The Caucus also decided that probably a bipartisan ticket might not be a good idea in a country that has opinions. The search for a new President is on.

How does this CV look like ?

Eric Seagal's book Love Story was closely based on him and his Harvard roomie Tomy Lee Jones.

Serves in Apple's board of Directors and advisor to Google's senior management.

Consistently opposed the war in Iraq and Abu Ghraib, stating the facts. He said "We would not have invaded a country that did not attack us. We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families. We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media. We would not be routinely torturing people."

He didn't say he "invented the internet" but played a major role in creating it. This is what Vinton Gray Cerf and Bob Kahn - the two founding fathers of Internet have to say about our candidate - " He was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development. No one person or even small group of persons exclusively "invented" the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge his contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time. "

He led the foreign policy initiatives during the Clinton years. Remember South Africa, Israel-Palestine, Bosnia - Yugoslavia.

He says Global Warming is not a myth and many of us are convinced. His latest Documentary on global warming has created a new found awareness on the issue. Its the third highest grossing documentary in US history, nominated for the 2007 Oscars. Point is he's been saying this since 1980s and got a copy of the Kyoto Protocol for record - though it didn't do much good.

Nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on Global Warming.

He served in Vietnam (unlike Bush and Clinton who dodged the draft)

Pioneered the National Performance Review - something every country can do with.

He was elected President of the United States in 2000. But that was the year the US Supreme court elected its own President, our hero - Dubya.

More written word on PBS and NYTimes

Its a long campaign ahead - fresh faces, old horses, promises, vested interests and hypocrisies. More on the 2008 race later. Btw, according to Conan O'Brien, President Bush visited the New York Stock Exchange. It was an awkward moment when President Bush asked, "When do I get to meet Dow Jones?. Then he went on to say the economy is doing pretty good and all the Indian techies smiled. He said Iraq situation is difficult. If Iraq is 'difficult', 'pretty good' for the economy is surely an understatement.

Good Night and Good Luck :-)

Lets Burn Mumbai !

2007-01-30T23:05:00.000-05:00

Ha Papa Bear has spoken. What a long wait it was oh Emperor of the Hindu hearts, papa we missed you so.

Thackeray who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, made an emotional appeal to the Marathis saying there was a conspiracy to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and it would not be "tolerated".

"The city will burn if it is taken away from Maharashtra," Thackeray said.

"Let them even try to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra and we will give them a fitting reply. One hundred and five martyrs, mostly mill workers, had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Maharashtra with Mumbai and we will not let it go to waste," he added.

Source : CNN-IBN

Asking Hindus to break linguistic barriers and unite, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray said his dream was to feel a "Hindustan of Hindus" that would bring "Islam in this country down to its knees".

Addressing a massive rally at Shiv Sena stronghold Shivaji Park, Thackeray said "it is my dream that we would create a Hindustan of the Hindus. Maharashtrians or Punjabis alone cannot fight against Islam. That is why, I appeal to all Hindus to break the linguistic wall around them and come together so that we can bring Islam in this country down to its knees."

Source : Indian Express

So Papa Bear, lets get to burning this Mumbai thingy down shoulder to shoulder with all those surviving mill workers *who the stingy-pig eating- Afzal loving- Sickle carrying commies allege you had sold out again and again to mill owners while you were the trade union Sarkar* . Lets drive all those Biharis, Gujjus, Madrasis and coconut selling Malayalis out of Brihanmumbai. Shall we use electoral rolls this time like Modi uncle did ?
Let me tell you that is not as comprehensive as the marwadis think, why cant this godforsaken non-marathis circumcise ? Neways, lets drive them out, one by one.

After that Papa Bear, we'll fight the Muslims. We'll throw them into Arabian sea, let them drown or swim to Mecca, Dubai or Madina. Christians we'll ship them back to Italy, along with Maino. HOLD ON !!!! Did you say break the linguistic wall and fight Islam ? What about the first plan then ? Here I'm confused Papa Bear, I wouldn't dare say you are aging. But I'm confused - its like the whole plan is lost in translation.

P.S : Don't worry Papa Bear, all opinion polls say we'll win Brihanmumbai. These morons will vote for us. If they don't we'll burn Mumbai.Either ways,next week they'll again squat near the Gateway and go gua gua gua about the spirit of Bombay.These morons.

The State of the Union

2007-01-28T17:25:00.000-05:00

Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the chuch; the Irish they have the homeland, jews their tradition; even the niggas, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?

Edward Wilson: The United States of America, and the rest of you are just visiting.

- Good Shepherd, 2006

Pfizer announced Monday that it will cut 10,000 jobs and close five plants, including three R&D sites and two factories, by the end of 2008. Pfizer reported that fourth-quarter sales were $12.6 billion, while net income surged 257 percent.

Source : CNN-Money

"Hey, hey, Uncle Sam,
we remember Vietnam.
They cheer you on when you attack,
when you come home they turn their back
Bush and Cheney talk war-talk,
but we know they’re chicken hawks.
Bring our troops back to our soil.
We say NO blood for oil.

Hey, hey Uncle Sam
We remember Vietnam
We don't want your I-raq war
Peace is what we're marchin' for
We don't want another war
Peace is what we're marchin' for"

- Vietnam Veterans, Peace March on Washington, Jan 27, 2006

CNN and NYTimes imply there is a gradual leftward shift in US politics (after the far right days of '01) . FOX says the new legislature is leftist with San Fransisco values. I listen. Its not my job to analyse news, I pay for Advanced Cable.

State of the Union

Tags from outside the speech, or as it seems to a couch news-freak, scavenger.

US is all about its foreign policy for the rest of the world, but foreign policy did not figure much in the agenda of the new Democratic Congress, the supposedly left leaning one. The much hyped tag First 100 hours wasn't such a waste - Ethics reform, An increase in the federal minimum wage for the first time in 10 years, Enactment of the 9-11 commission's recommendations, Expanded stem-cell research, Government negotiation of prices with prescription drug companies, Student loan interest rates cut in half and The elimination of billions in subsidies for big oil companies. Not bad for the first hundred hours - NYTimes calls it a qualified success. The United States has a mature democracy that comes home again and again after straying right or left. Which makes one feel, maybe the founding fathers got it right.

The tag Speaker Nancy Pelosi implies just one thing - the Bush Presidency is over. There is no point in discussing Bush anymore, he'll be a lame duck keeping that chair in the Oval office warm till that cold January morning of 2009.With the rout the Republicans faced last November in both the House and the Senate and the overwhelming public opinion disapproving of his performance, you don't need a Karl Rove to figure out that Bush's only option is to buy time and then get out.

President Hillary Clinton or so it seems (blogger relies completely on Las Vegas bookies for future prediction; more on the '08 race later) will inherit Iraq for sure. But the tag Adm William J Fallon could be a trojan. The appointment of this Navy patriarch to head the Central Command (including the hotbeds Afghanistan, Iraq and Horn of Africa) has been ridiculed, as operations and combat in the region is overwhelmingly army. But this could be part of another broad move for more involvement in the Persian Gulf (Iran - the obvious target) and Somalia (which was bombed last week). The war has to go on somewhere.

Iran -an armed intervention by the US in Iran seems unlikely, but that prediction is based completely on the mood of the nation, opinion of experts and the stand of the legislators - three things Bush really don't care about. Will Israel unilaterally make a move against Iran, which threatens its existence quite vocally. Quite possible, but in that case, conflict in the middle-east will reach a level never seen before with a total realignment of forces stretching from Beirut to Kashmir.

Israel - Palestine ; Condi Rice will not accomplish anything in the mid-east even if the Bush Administration changes its "Dont give a damn about Palestine" stand. Because Israel and Palestine have their weakest leaders in history now - Ehud Olmert (with the least popularity ratings of any Israeli leader) and Abbas who is more concerned about his life. Other than that, there will be an overall lack of support for any bold political moves in the middle-east or Iran or North Korea, with Japan and France going into elections,Tony Blair retiring and US public opinion hovering around Iraq and nothing else.

In the few minutes they have between news and opinions on the War, the media rages on immigration and Racism in the US. Paula Zahn *She's got the most genuine look and the most pretty face in Prime-time news* follows the Duke rape case and the LA gang wars hinging on the racist side of this nation. But no one crying over immigration seems to mention the fact that this country is 80% white and it will remain so. It is more like Hindu fundamentalists in India crying over the higher growth rate of the Muslim population - while being completely unaware of the actual figures. And in the US, no one crying over race seems to mention or want to change the fact that cities like Detroit and Michigan and almost all major retirement destinations in Florida are 70-80% segregated in terms of housing. Which means , if you are a white kid, chances are that you wouldn't see a black kid anywhere near your house. And this is the America of 2007.

Back to politics, the Bush presidency will die out into insignificance in the days to come, as T S Elliot put it, 'not with a bang, but with a whimper', while USA will survive, bringing glory and disrepute to the human kind with their huge complex of myths, values, recipes, slogans, figures, and rites - the height of which one will see this coming Tuesday in Miami when the Bears meets the Colts for the crowning glory. Because USA is not just a melting pot, its a Super Bowl.

Good Night and Good Luck !

American Women

2007-01-17T01:52:00.000-05:00

“A gentleman asked me to marry him and I said no,” she recalled. “I told him, ‘I’m just beginning to fly again, I’m just beginning to be me. Don’t take that away.’ ”

Elissa B. Terris, 59, of Marietta, Ga., divorced in 2005 after being married for 34 years and raising a daughter, who is now an adult.

NYTimes story citing Census Bureau figures looks like a close follow up to the Time story on Women in affluent Western Europe.

Read the full story here :

51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse

Excerpts :

"For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one"

"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom"

“The benefits were completely unforeseen for me,” Ms. Fidler said, “the free time, the amount of time I get to spend with friends, the time I have alone, which I value tremendously, the flexibility in terms of work, travel and cultural events.”

Blogger's : Indian media is all praise for Abhishek Bachan who inspite of all odds decided to save Aishwarya Rai though she is a Manglik. For all my readers from Madagascar, Abhishek and Aishwarya are stars and Manglik is something about planets - if that is of any help.

Western Europe and now the US , do we see any light in Asia . I've maintained throughout, its this simple and see - it works !

Two Videos, Saddam and YOU

2006-12-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Here are two videos of Saddam Hussein's execution. The first one is the official video released by the Iraqi government, the tame one beamed across the mid-east and US after the hanging through late Dec 29 and Dec 30.

Saddam Execution Video1 :

The Second one came out on an Arab website and Google videos on Dec 30th. It looks like an amateur mobile-phone video. I came across this video after CNN aired a clipping of it late yesterday night, Dec 30th. The video is shocking, relatively speaking.

Saddam Execution Video2 :

If one watches the second video closely, it is not "mute" like the first one. It shows the nasty and loud name-calling and taunting that happened seconds before the erstwhile dictator was finally killed. It is a loud scene , its disturbing and moreover this will be the "actual" Saddam Hanging video for years to come.

The scene :

Saddam carried a Quran and was invoking Allah throughout his last few minutes, so was his executioners. I'm not an expert in the art of execution, but we expect executioners to be neutral, professional and to be of comfort to the person being killed. Mind you, this was not a political execution but a legal one. Maybe, its a Green Mile or Shadowkill hangover, but this execution was nasty and will surely have long term implications.

You can hear the executioners shouting "Muqtada, Muqtada" and Saddam sarcastically replying "Muqtaaadaaa". What does this mean ? If this video reaches Iraqi and Arab television networks, which it surely will, the fall-out will be devastating. This video implies that Saddam was not killed by a secular legal system but by a Shia dominion. Saddam asks his executioners "Is this how you show you are brave?" and "Is this how Arabs behave". The impact this video will have in Saudi, Pakistani and other Sunni countries will be seen in coming years, because Saddam, however despicable and cruel he was, was a hero of the Arab world. And this video shows the forces that killed him in his last few moments.
Sudarshan Raghavan writes in Washington Post - Hussein's last minutes and the Camera Phone witness in NYTimes. Both mainstream media articles and the highest read ones as of now, both inspired by a Google Video shot by an unknown amateur.

Tommorrow Begins Today

Despite the hoopla over an unelected US President lying in state at Washington, covered minute by minute by the US television networks, this video has set "Web 2.0" on fire. By yesterday night it was the most viewed post in the Wordpress world. If CNN, FOX and CBS has pushed the execution to down below in "News value", the Bloggers, "Youtubes" and "MySpaces" have made a different editorial call. It surely seems the latter is winning, like they did throughout this pathbreaking year.

This video for instance raises the question of professionalism and quality, the same questions we ask about Wicki, blogs and flickrs. But history when it gets recorded from now on will not be able to ignore this new amateur revolution. Saddam's execution was in the lines of Bhutto's and Nagy's but the difference here is the sheer quantity of footage and information that has come out, which will be available for history and you, when he is judged.

The yearly TIME magazine ritual of choosing a "Person of the Year" never made much sense to me. But this time, they surely made a great choice. Rather, the choice was inevitable after the huge impact blogs and Youtubes had on the Iraq debate, Racial issues, Police and Armed forces brutality, Environmental issues and more than anything the decisive House Elections in November '06. As TIME editors put it,

"Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. "

As John Edwards, joins the fray of Presidential hopefuls for 2008, his campaign quote is metaphorical of the days to come "Tommorrow Begins Today".

2006 was not just another year, it was a beginning of great things to come. And YOU will make that happen.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Our India is a Sufi

2006-12-21T00:23:00.000-05:00

The Journalist and the Prostitute

"What is you name ?"
The Indian journalist covering the Bangladesh war asked the prostitute
"Selma"
"Tell me the truth, what is your real name"
"Gauri"
"Then why did you lie"
"Aren't you a Hindu , I assumed a Muslim name to give you the turn on of invasion"

- O V Vijayan's Gurusagaram

The Poison of Inheritance

It is the printing technology of the West that made us so fond of maps. In schools they made us work overtime to clearly draw the boundaries of India, they punished us for every little curve we missed and while lying to us about Kashmir. But they never told us the difference between the human beings on either side of the line, they just told us the others are our enemies as if it was obvious . Maybe thats what their parents taught them, which becomes our inheritance.

The poison of inheritance runs through each one of us and we, after our day long struggle with our tiny big insecurities, go home to the comfort of those inheritances - of being an upper caste or lower caste Hindu, a Muslim ,a Sikh, a Christian, a Bengali, a Tamilian and a thousand other things. We have deep running prejudices against each other, the Hindus think the Muslims are invaders and terror mongers and the Christians are out there to convert them, the Muslim thinks the Hindus are out there to kill them, the North Indian thinks South India is some other country, Andhraites who can't stand the tamilians and the tamilians who think everyone else want to steal their water and their classical language, Biharis are called illegal aliens in the mountains and in Assam; Nagaland and Manipur does not believe in India and the rest of India does not believe these places exist.

We are prejudiced to the core with our deep rooted inheritances and one fine day they pull one billion of us together and say we are a republic. The deep divisions and conflicts within us that defeats us every single day go by the pet name of "Unity in diversity" ; our teachers force us to write essays on that till our hands pain and our brain fatigues.

We build walls around certain colonial demarcations and live smug faced within those walls entrenched in one thousand riots stretching from Kashmir to Vadodara, from Kaveri to Singur and from Narmada to Garo-Khasi. If we do all this in the name of security and in the name of development, why dont we build walls around Assam,Kashmir,Gujarat,Manipur,Punjab and then around each state,district and finally around each human being who lives here. We call ourselves a republic, one billion people suspicious of each other within artificial boundaries with tickets to a tryst with destiny. Is there a more horrible sight in the world than a republic with borders ? Yes there is, a republic with borders with people in it with no clue why they are there.

Holy left-overs of a colonial past

What makes us build walls with Pakistan and Bangladesh? That same thing makes us suspicious of one another, the same thing makes us build nuclear bombs and the same thing makes the Indian state a miserable failure. At the root of the problem lies the acceptance of the "majority's culture" as the mainstream and the treatment of the minority's culture as an aberration. The hidden grudge against the aberration will wait for a chance and once sparks start flying, the powder house of pent up emotions explode - like Gujarat , like the Anti-Sikh riots of Delhi '84 and more than anything the Partition of India.

We followed the post 1857 colonial idea of division by defining the Indian culture as Hindu culture - which was not true. Then in our textbooks and history books we defined the Manusmrithi and Arthashastra which belonged to a microscopic minority as our mainstream culture - which was not true. Then we placed vegetarianism and cow worship as core ideas of Hindu worship which was not true. Well we did make the British leave,but we inherited their colonial droppings.

The republic's boundary is nothing but a tool of exploitation. The map-bound spirit of extreme nationalism helps nobody but the capitalist bourgeois who actually controls every sphere of this nation. Nationalism is a right-wing rallying point in India, issue after issue, atleast after Nehru. The border-defined-republic is the worst case of usurping land and nature, the height of state sponsored hypocrisy. The "developmental" future of the republic and its dependency on the bourgeois and foreign funds has been so ingrained in our psyche by the border-defined-republic that we are ready to sacrifice lives and livelihood for the republic's "future".Each of us feel the "turn on" of invasion when troops are rallied in our northern borders, and some of us at the height of our xenophobic orgasm cry "nuke the bastards,just nuke them !"The national boundary and the wars over it makes us more intolerant, and at times it makes us ask the Indian Muslim to go back to Pakistan,where he didn't come from.

Its in vogue to criticize Gandhi, but the fact remains that he was one of the few people who understood the importance of a multi-cultural secularist India, who understood what India really stood for in the world and the importance of worshipping Ishwar and Allah together. There was this other person who claimed to have discovered India but ended up discovering a throne for his daughter and grandson.

Our India is a Sufi

Every nation has a destiny, the republic is just another oppressive roadblock in the nations path. If the undying urge for individual freedom is the corner stone of western civilization, for India it is our spirituality. Our spirituality which time and again has refused to inherit lies,inherit hypocrisy and inherit tyranny. It is the denial of inheritance that Krishna talked about in Gita, that is exactly what Buddha did , Kabir and Nanak practiced and Gandhi died for. The partitioned India is our inheritance and it is upon us to deny it or build walls to protect our patriarchal fortune. If India is a mother we should find her.

There is no India without Pakistan and Bangladesh and Nepal and Sri Lanka. Our destinies and our myths are so entwined. We would, I hope one day define what India really means and discover her in all her glory and her all encompassing Sanathana dharma. We can deny Gandhi and Mohammed, Nanak and Kabir, Krishna and Buddha, but we shouldn't overlook the underlying love in their messages which runs through this nation. Our philosophy doesn't differentiate between plants and animals, then where do we find boundaries in it.

Our Indus is a river which carries the holiness of the Hindu's penance from the Himalaya's along with the sacred chants of the Buddhist Lamas, courses its way through the fertile land of the holy Gurdwaras to enter Islam's promised land of Pakistan and finally flows into the sea of the Arabs. Our India is a Sufi.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Note : Its always a very confusing experience to understand India and I can see my view of it changing every minute I wrote this post. I might be contradicting myself at times but that I believe is the fun of the whole exercise.

I found this touching piece by Alakananda, another collateral damage of building borders.

The Great Indian Wall

2006-12-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

Hush baby..hush ! We are about to finish the wall, did anybody know ?..hell no ! The British miserably failed to accomplish this in 1905-11 and they called themselves the most powerful empire on earth. The Americans fretting over that 700 mile fence with Mexico could learn a lesson or two from the great Indian empire of the 21st century. India is just about to complete a 4,100 km (2500 mile) iron fence across the fifth longest land border on earth, across its border with one of its poorest neighbours, Bangladesh. And nobody knew.

International Border	Post or Pillar Number	Area (km)
West Bengal (India)-Bangladesh	0001 to 1001	2217.70
Assam (India)-Bangladesh	1001 to 1067	0262.00
Meghalaya (India)-Bangladesh	1067 to 1338	0443.00
Tripura (India)-Bangladesh	1338 to 1397(North) & 1397 to 2250 (South)	0856.00
Mizoram (India)-Bangladesh	2301 to 2358	0318.00
Total		4096.70

Estimated cost of the fence and border roads is $1 billion (estimate) and the benefits ?

The reasons could be,

1. The very large number of Bangladeshi immigrants are changing the demographics of Indian border states like West Bengal and Assam. In Assam, Bangladeshi immigration is a very contentious issue that often determines many political futures, like the Mexican illegal immigration in the US. The illegal immigrants put added pressure on the already scarce resources of the Indian border states thereby coming in direct conflict with the local population.

2. Terrorism - The insurgent groups in India's north-east, often use Bangladesh as a safe haven and launch pad though Bangladesh does not support them in any way.

3. The secular state of Bangladesh is in turmoil with powerful fundamentalist groups working towards the creation of an Islamic state. This could put at risk the Hindu population of Bangladesh (16% of the total population) and could trigger an exodus of 1970-71 proportions.
This will hurt India bad and India would want to avoid this at any cost.

4. Some 160 odd Boundary disputes with Bangladesh relating to the implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement of 1974.

Why the wall will fall,

1. Elementary - The population pressure and severe poverty in Bangladesh will cause this fence to fail. The 2.6 meter iron fence will not prevent the Bangladeshi - the poorest of poor in the world - from crossing over into India in search of work and a living. The Bangladeshi has only two choices, starvation or migration and in between there is a 2.6 meter fence.

2. Culture and language - families are split across the border like the wall of Berlin. Bangladesh is 98% bengali and the culture is very much Indian. When Yunus got the Nobel, almost every Indian felt like it was another Nobel for India. That explains it.

3. India and Bangladesh are friendly countries except for a few occasional, random incidents of
conflict between the border troops which both governments maintain they have not authorized. There is no military need for a wall.

4. Walls and fences can be easily broken and cut through - this is an inherent property of walls.

5. Floods - there are numerous incidents every year when flood victims are rescued to the other side of the border. There are reported incidents where around 2000 Indians were rescued and kept in Bangladeshi shelters. The wall has a very high chance to fail when the flood comes again.

Despite this, why did we build a wall and shun our neighbour ?

The answer could be India's desire to "define" its fuzzy borders. This could be the real intention behind this wall. The Indian establishment has been on a overdrive in recent years to settle the territorial disputes. With China recognizing Sikkim, understanding with Pakistan on Siachen and Kashmir kept aside for the 22nd century, India very well knows that the North-East is where borderlines will now be redrawn in the sub-continent. The wall could serve this purpose, if you read between the lines.

The mammoth fence is no long-term solution to the problem of Bangladesh. It just adds to prevailing confusion and the wall is sure to fail. An 'innovative' idea is to adorn this wall with mural paintings on both sides and attract some serious tourism like China does, which could help Bangladeshi and Indian economy, at least the world would open its eyes to the beauty of India's North-east.

Its time we learn from the mistakes of others and history, its time we recognize the futility of building walls.

Good Night and Good Luck !

sources : Economist , CIA factbook

Martin Luther King Jr - "I have a dream"

2006-12-02T21:06:00.001-05:00

I haven't seen anything more powerful before, full video - Youtube, 17 minutes

Martin Luther King Jr - "I have a dream"

Full text of the speech

Excerpts :

"And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

"This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

Isn't it time the Dalits of India have a Martin Luther king of their own, atleast a dream of their own ?

Iran and USA - why cant they talk ?

2006-11-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

"One of President Bush’s daughters had her purse stolen while she was in Argentina. The big problem was his plan for Iraq was in the purse. Looks like we have to start all over." - Jay Leno

President Bush is in Europe. Today he visited the country of Estonia. He thanked them for sending troops to Iraq. His exact words were, "Those two guys are doing a good job.” - Conan Obrien

Jokes apart, the mood in the USA is one of despair, the civil war in Iraq has turned out to be the nations worst ever nightmare with comparisons to Vietnam and no easy way out. The news channels are flooded with casuality reports from Iraq and a mounting death toll of american soldiers. Lebanon is headed for another stint of instability, Jordan suspects an imminent Islamic outrage and to top it all Jerusalem is still burning - maybe Saudi is safe, but how safe. The writing on the wall is crystal clear - middle east has exploded and there is no way out. Hope is no more a strategy and despair is not a method. This is where Iran becomes very important.

Iran on its on will not destabilize the Persian gulf region. Iran is the only country that fought the Taliban militarily before 9/11. It has high stakes in the future of Iraq, Afghanistan and stability in the persian gulf as the country heavily depends on the crude oil trade in the region. USA as such has no leverage in the Shia world and normal relations with Iran will help reining in the Shia militias in Iraq and averting an impending apocalypse. It will also help in bringing normalcy in Lebanon where Hezbollah is answerable only to Iran. Syria will automatically fall in line. Now if we look at the map, the mid-east picture could change. Then why cant these guys talk ?

The differences and mistrust between USA and Iran are because of several reasons,

from USA's perspective it could be,

1. The Hostage crisis and its fallout in the American psyche
2. Iran's support for Hezbollah and Shia militias
3. Iran's overt statements and actions against Israel
4. Iran's aspiration for a state-controlled-capitalist economy defended by a nuclear arsenal
5. Overall threat perception in the media and intelligentsia

from Iran's side ,

1. Mossadegh's overthrow and Shah's installation
2. US's overt support of Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war
3. US's attempts to destabilize the Islamic republic
4. US's support of oppressive regimes in Saudi and Iraq
5. Palestine and the "Zionist" Israel supported by the US
6. Axis of Evil statements by the US after 9/11
7. US has virtually surrounded Iran - they are in the gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan and Armenia.Its quite obvious they want the bomb.

At the same time,

1. USA has destroyed Iran's enemy No 2 and 3, Saddam and the Taliban.
2. Al-qaeda is a threat to both countries, US and Shiite Iran
3. Iran and US want peace in the persian gulf
4. US investments in Iran could reduce its dependency on oil money
5. Iran's leverage in the region could possibly offset an instability in the Saud kingdom

The world we live in depends a lot on middle-east as you see in the picture. Iran,USA and the world at large stand to gain from direct talks between the two countries and normalcy in relationships. Iran will have to accept the state of Israel and end its diatribe against the Jewish state which is not helping anybody. USA will have to urgently workout a road-map for a Palestine state. The situation in Israel occupied territories of Palestine is very ugly and getting worse by the day. This one single issue is the primary political cause of terrorism in the region and the world's only super-power should show the spine to address it. Clinton did it, Bush messed up.

The point in starting a conversation is that a channel would be open between the two countries, there wouldn't be drastic steps from either side if talks are on, mutual mistrust will be cleared to a some extend and maybe Israel will start behaving. Iran will not risk ending a dialogue with the USA by making stupid statements like 'Death to America' or 'Nuke the Zionists'. This will pacify the tensions in middle-east to a large extend. Converse is the word on the street.

There have been media reports that the Bush administration may militarily target Iran's nuclear installations. That would be a bad move. Maybe Bush wants to use the WMDs he found in Iraq. Then again if Saddam had WMDs, Bush senior should be having the receipts, right ?

Iranian President's open letter to the American people was published today morning. The letter as usual has been trashed by the media here. But the american public has this unique habit of making their voices heard, like they did on Nov 7th when the Republican's were routed in both house and senate. Hope they will give peace a chance.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Why is the Indian Muslim missing ?

2006-11-12T01:29:00.000-05:00

The word on the street is "shock". If not the street, atleast in the power corridors of Delhi and the state capitals of India after the Sachar committee findings on the state of Muslims in India. The Rajinder Sachar panel appointed last year by the prime minister to report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community has done a selective release of its findings. The PMO believes the findings are 'explosive'. The full report is scheduled to come out on Nov 30th.

"Across 12 states with an average Muslim population of 15.4 percent, only 6.4 percent of government employees are Muslim"

"In 15 states where Muslims average 17 percent of the population, they are 8 percent of the lower judiciary, which decides eight out of every 10 cases in the country."

"But prison is one place where Muslims' proportional representation is higher than their population percentage.
In eight states where they average 14.82 percent of the population, they account for 23.4 percent of prison inmates."

"Although Muslims in jails were not part of the Sachar Committee’s terms of reference, prison is the only place where they have been found to be over-represented"

Read Sivam Vij's excellent take on the issue in Tehelka

Is this a surprise ? Often it is the BJP and RSS that is blamed for the condition of muslims in India. But what about UP with an 18% muslim population and with a messiah called Mulayam Singh. Bihar - with Lalu Yadav, the JP secularist who jumps in front of raths to stop the rightwing-Hindu-juggernaut. What about West Bengal where the marxists are in power for the past thrity years. Then why is the Indian Muslim missing ?

It is education,stupid !

The gross under-representation of muslims in graduate and post-graduate enrollment , almost in lines of SCs and STs , shows that muslims fare below the OBCs who have quota reservations . The pathetic educational levels of Muslims in the 20-30 age groups is an indicator to why the Indian Muslim is missing from the corridors of power, from the civil services, from the judiciary and from land ownership. The Army, Navy and Air Force has given data , but had advised the panel against publishing it.

Equally alarming is the post 2002 "ghettoisation" of Muslims in Gujarat which is affecting the eduction of a lot of muslim children in the state. Creation of "muslim-free-zones" in the state will not help us in finding the missing muslim and bring him into the national mainstream.

What should be done now ?

Overturn the constitution and start reservation based on religion ?
Spend 15% of the budget for minority upliftment as suggested by the CPIM ?

Well lets wait out the full report.

Antony,Defense Minister

2006-10-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

A K Antony, kerala's perennial Mr Clean is India's Defense Minister. Kerala has had its own share of men in the national cabinet - but its a different feeling when one of the state's most respected leaders has the responsibility thrust upon him by the sheer strength of his character. It is a different feeling from when Kannoth Karu became the Industries minister back in '95. It defenitely is.

The defense minister, National Security Adviser, Foreign Secretary of India, Space agency Chairman , India's candidate for the UN secretary bid , Primeminister's secretary, President's secretary and a home-rule government at centre - the line up in Delhi looks pretty impressive for a state notorious for its indifference to Delhi and highly under represented in the nation's capital. Is kerala becoming less introvert ?

Comparing Mr Antony to Krishna Menon would be doing injustice to both of them. The frames of reference have changed - Indian defense is on the right track of modernisation and in the process of redefining our strategic goals in the sub-continent and the Indian ocean region. A laissez-faire approach with respect to the defense policy makers will be more beneficial here. Calling A K Antony inexperienced makes no sense here - the only experience that would help a defense minister will be experience as a defense minister ; that argument will lead us to Catch 22 then.

Where A K Antony and his zero tolerance to corruption will - I hope - come into play is in the already notorious defense deals of India. 890,000 million rupees annual budget allocation is sure to attract a lot of Ottavio Quattrochi's and Barak missile sellers. Sonia Gandhi would be remembering that early winter Diwali in Delhi when there were no crackers because Bofors had provided enough. The choice of Antony as the defense minister would be a right step towards some clean-up.

Tailpiece : If the battered Congress party plans to fight another election in Kerala, they badly need to reunite the warring factions - especially the DIC (K) faction which has a considerable
influence in South Kerala and Malabar (cause there are a lot of people still wanting to make kannoth karu the Kerala CM) . The only figure who could rise about the partisan squabbles while leading the party is 'Saint' Antony and the Maino high-command realizes it pretty well. His new role is a pointer towards the future of the congress party in kerala.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Has India lost Gujarat ?

2006-10-28T13:18:00.000-05:00

When this reporter, with his longish beard, walked into an elite government colony in Ahmedabad to meet a senior official, three children suddenly got off their bicycles.
One screamed aloud, “Terrorist!” Why?
“Because you are a Mussalman,” he responded. So?
“All Muslims are terrorists. My father is a judge. He will call you terrorist in court.” Really?
“Yes. Now get out of here. This is a Hindu area!”
Sauyajya is 12 years old and has not met a single Muslim in his life. No one knows how many Sauyajyas are in the making in Gujarat. - Prashant Jha, columnist

ICYAI the full, disturbing essay is here,

Nothing short of a massive social movement is required to cleanse the state of Gujarat.

The Blanket of freedom

2006-10-23T17:38:00.000-05:00

Nineteen-year old Mahammad Maqbool Dar was taken away by troops from his home near Charar-e-Sharief on Friday, his mother Hanifa Begum said. A day later, the boy, a daily wage labourer, was brought dead to a hospital sparking two days of protests in Charar-e-Sharief as anger continues in other parts of Kashmir.The government, concerned at a possible backlash ordered a magisterial enquiry and asked the army to take action against the guilty.

Earlier this month in Anantnag two civilians were killed by the army. No punishment for the army, which said, it was mistaken identity.

In September in Kupwara a girl and her uncle were killed - again no punishment, but a colonel in-charge of operations there was removed for inefficient command.

In February, four boys playing cricket in Handwara were killed by the army. A judicial inquiry has just begun.

Source : NDTV , Oct 23 2006

A team of doctors who performed autopsy of Maqbool at Charari Sharif Hospital on Saturday told Greater Kashmir that “he died due to cardiac arrest caused by extensive torture and multiple burns. His private parts had been damaged.”

Source : Greater Kashmir

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

Col Jessep , A Few Good Men

Terrorists intruded into the house of Sohan Lal Braroo and shot him dead during the night. They gang raped his wife Bimla and young daughter Archana. Archana succumbed during the gang rape itself and Bimla who was shot after being raped, died in hospital.

Naisarak, Srinagar - March '92

Early Monday, Hindu villagers were herded into the home of the village chief where gunmen started firing indiscriminately, according to S.P. Vaid, inspector-general of police in Jammu.35 civilians have lost their lives. Source : CNN

Doda,Srinagar - May 2006

Near two decades of violence, death and atrocities in Kashmir. Isn't it time that the insurgents realize they are fighting for a cause lost somewhere in the cacophony of interests in the valley, and what happened to the Indian PrimeMinister Manmohan's promise on zero-tolerance towards human rights violations in Kashmir. Its not that we are undermining a struggle gone terribly ugly or disrespecting the brave men of India who defend our freedom, but

Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I'm entitled.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth.
Col. Jessep: You can't handle the truth.

A Few Good Men - the movie

Dead man Walking - Afzal Guru

2006-10-18T23:25:00.000-05:00

If the collective conscience of a nation becomes satisfied when one of us gets hanged without a chance to defend himself , it speaks a lot about ourselves.

Afzal Guru

Will Afzal Guru be hanged today ? He should be - says the great Indian middle class and its drum beater the Indian media. The mercy petition filed by his family - though he has not asked for mercy - is now in the hands of the President of India pending reference from the home ministry.

So are we ready to kill Afzal Guru for the December 13 2001 attack on the Parliament of India. Are we ready to ready to put the last nail in the coffin of popular resistance in Kashmir and terrorism in India. Yes we are as the euphoria clearly suggests.

The Supreme Court verdict says “The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”

The question is who is the offender here ? Who perpeterated the crime - who did it ? Who investigated it ? Did this person whom the holy republic of India is about to collectively murder for the sheer xenophobic patriotic orgasm of it get a chance to defend himself.

Afzal Guru was not part of the attack - he surely was a sympathiser to the Kashmir cause, was aware of the attack and as the prosecution put it - did indirect favours to the terrorists. Is this reason enough for hanging him till death ?

Afzal Guru continues to maintain that he is being framed in this case - but all criminals say so - but the question is who investigated the case ? Oh our Delhi Police - they are renowned for their integrity and honesty and was recommended for the prestigious Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo award for Justice. Then it must be correct and moreover not a single soul will come on the streets of Rajpath with lighted candles seeking justice for Afzal Guru.

And here is the best part - Afzal Guru was not given a chance to defend himself ! The Indian nation is about to hang a helpless person until he dies without giving him a chance to defend himself. We are not China,not Pakistan but we are very close to it.

There are clear indications that the Kashmir Valley will erupt in flames if Afzal is killed, fresh violence and insurgency could be the outcome. But do we - the great Indian middle class really care ? No we dont care about Kashmir, violence in Kashmir - state sponsored and otherwise has ceased to produce those necessary bowel movements for us these days, we skip that part of the newspaper in the morning. Kashmir resides in our collective amnesia. India has its largest military presence in J and K and we are safe - we can discuss about Iraq and North Korea and Bush while the valley of Gods burns its heart out in this conspiracy of nations.

On a selfish note, what do we gain ?

Will killing Afzal Guru stop the freedom movement in Kashmir ? No, but it will be a lesson to all those people out there on how tough we are. Like the British did in 1931, they hanged one Bhagat Singh from Punjab for attacking their assembly house and we Indians got so terrified that we stuck our tails in the cute space between our legs and ran home. We never asked for independence after that.

Do we need to confer martydom on Afzal Guru and make him a hero for certain causes we dont identify with ?

If the President of India decides to pardon Afzal Guru - what impact will it have on the Kashmiris. Will it be a graceful decision, a beautiful decision - its all yours to gauge. I think so.

Now if the Indian nation wants his blood despite all this ,what does it speak about us as a nation. If the collective conscience of a nation becomes satisfied when one of us gets hanged without a chance to defend himself , it speaks a lot about ourselves.

The founding fathers of our nation did not envision us to stand for wealth or power or religion. They envisioned a nation on this earth that stands for Truth. As the lion-head correctly reads - "Satyameva Jayathe" . Let us be well aware on which side of truth we are.

Saint and a Communist

2006-10-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

the bigger picture

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food,
they call me a communist.

Dom Helder Camara

Will Kannur explode again ?

2006-10-15T00:52:00.000-05:00

I'm not a soothsayer nor am I sitting on top of Kerala's state intelligence to say this. Its just a few news reports across the last few weeks and some conversations here and there. There have been reports of a gradual build up of ammunition and bomb making in the north malabar district of Kannur. There are reported incidents of accidental explosions and some real steel bomb testing being done. Anyone who follows Kerala's immediate political history will know the color of Kannur and the history of violence in the district.

Most of us in Kerala would remember the december 1999 and december 2000 incidents in Kannur which had a total death toll of around fifty and caused near stand-still in the state. I fear another build up this time as the 'martyr's month' approaches. It might be a wild guess of sorts but it needs to be read in the overall climate created by the release of the 'Marad riots' report last week. The hindu fundamentalist sangh could turn this to their advantage by inciting fresh violence in malabar as the Marad report squarely blames the NDF and elements within the Muslim league for the killings. We need to be careful ,very careful.

The clashes between the RSS and the communists had subsided after both parties agreed on a ceasefire and after the leadership of both parties realized the unacceptability of damages. The RSS must realize that they have nothing to gain politically from these violent acts - in the last elections BJP polled a pathetic 0.5% of the total votes in Kannur. The clout they have among the Bharatiya Masdoor Sangh could be put to better use than building bombs.

The CPIM should realize that retaliatory attacks from its side will not improve the situation any further. Moreover the wounds of Nadapuram and the muslim fundamentalist elements waiting there could use Kannur as a new ploy. As the governing party, I hope CPIM will show more maturity in case something bad happens. Kannur is the citadel of Communism in Kerala and let it not be a wound in our psyche. Revolution comes through disciplined, peaceful party building, and not through tit-for-tat acts of violence.

Peace prevails in Kannur today only because of the maturity of our political leadership - both CPIM and the BJP. Some credit also goes to A K Antony's police policy that reined in the IUML and NDF elements in Malabar. Let peace prevail but let us be aware of the ides of December. Let us be very aware.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Poor man's Banker

2006-10-13T09:30:00.000-05:00

Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Peace Prize 2006

The connection between poverty and peace.The connection between womens empowerment and peace. The connection between mutual trust, accountability, participation, creativity - the four pillars of the Grameen Bank and peace. Long overdue but still one of the best Nobels ever. Because credit is a human right. Because every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life.

The Inheritance of loss

2006-10-11T13:34:00.000-05:00

"In India you get up in the morning and there are ten people there to greet you and to discuss how you slept. Or you can call up someone and tell them how you're feeling and what you dreamt about."

"You miss out on knowing one culture profoundly and deeply and this does mean you're an outsider to some degree in both places. You are leaving and you're constantly on the plane - and your perspective does change. Every time I go back, things have changed and I haven't seen the process."

"When I wake up in India I'm always so aware of the birds, and all the morning sounds. Over here, you wake up to total silence. Silence and emptiness. In India the air is full of the sounds of life. Here I feel I have to create it - you have to put on your music in the morning to get the feeling of something going on around you. In India - it's all there for you: your identity is there for you, your life is there for you, your community is there for you. Over here, everything is what you do yourself. It's a lot of pressure, I suppose!"

"I hope I'll go back to writing, because I think the way I live, travelling in between places, writing really was my home"

- Kiran Desai , Man Booker 2006

Bowling for Columbine

2006-10-04T23:37:00.000-05:00

Naomi Rose Ebersol was 'a seven year old angel', she went to school this monday morning and was taken hostage by Charles Carl Roberts,a 32 year old milk tank driver turned gunman. When they found her after an hour, she had twenty bullets in her body. Maybe one could imagine what she went through - twenty bullets in the fragile frame of a seven year old ,what would she have gone through - she only knows; and she is not here anymore to trouble us with that knowledge. Yet the american lawmakers are still very sure that they love their guns more than their kids ,they cling on to the 2nd amendment while the kids dodge or take bullets at school. School shootings have become USA's morning cup of tea - every other day this country wakes up to another school massacre.

On September 13 Kimveer Gill in Dawson College, on September 27 Duane Morrisson in Platte Canyon high school, September 29 Eric Hainstock in Weston High school and October 2nd Carl Roberts in Amish school,Pennsylvania - still parents wake up their kids in those wee morning hours to catch that yellow school bus, what do they lean on ?

The Amish school massacre has taken five lives till today -Apart from Naomi, the others who died were Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, Marian Fisher, 13, Mary Liz Miller, eight, and her seven- year-old sister Lena . Five other girls are hospitalized with critical wounds. The Amish school was a single room school run by the Amish community, with twenty six students. Roberts had entered the school this monday morning with plans to eventually commit suicide.

"He had come armed for a long stay with two guns, sexual lubricant and a makeshift torture rack — a plank of wood with ten eye hooks to secure the children.". He secured the ten girls and asked the boys to leave. As police surrounded the school , he shot all the girls and finally turned the gun on himself without getting unto his full,sick intentions.

Another school shooting and all that gen X grief ?

Well, the real story began after the shooting.

Today, two days after the school shooting and the deaths, one particular thing that surprises me is the forgiveness of the rustic Amish community. Not a single person from that small community appeared angry despite their grief - they are unwilling to accept that the killer who took those innocent lives was evil. Many of them were on the networks saying they forgive the killer, especially moving was the account of Naomi's grand-dad at the side of her body - with her wounds clearly visible - talking about the importance of forgiving the man.

Today they had a small prayer meeting where a slain child's mother prayed with the killer's mother - maybe they talked to god about those small things only mothers talk about. The clippings on the networks were heart rendering as a small village prepares to bury their little ones. They have forgiven the man who did it all and his family is receiving the forgiveness. It is easier to forgive than to receive it with all the humility and grace - and Carl Robert's mother is doing exactly the same.

Maybe those 'little angels' didnt die in vain, maybe we'll make of it some human sense or maybe its just my imagination that says five little kids are singing the sermon on the mount , somewhere in some distant meadow in Pennsylvania - make of it, what you will.

Good Night and Good Luck !

In the line of fire

2006-09-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

Pakistan's self appointed Head of state and erstwhile coup leader Pervez Musharraf has released his autobiography 'In the Line of Fire'.Key excerpts from the book has been published by BBC, Khaleej Times,NDTV,Pakistani Dawn,Jang and Guardian. I feel a few things he has said might be funny - like toppling a democratically elected government or mowing down rebels in Baluch and NWFP.

Mush : "the initial signs of sincerity and flexibility that I sensed in Manmohan Singh seem to be withering away. I think the Indian 'establishment' - the bureaucrats, the diplomats and intelligence agencies and perhaps even the military has had the better of him"

OHYEAH Mr Mush, India has a long history of military bureaucracy getting the better of the elected democratic government. 33 out of 48 years of the Republic,it was India which was under military rule. Nice that you reminded.

Mush : says, India obtained its Nuclear centrifuge and some of its missile technology from Pakistan through A Q Khan's dudes in Dubai.

Yes Mr Mush,personally I remember Indians returning home from Dubai carrying little neutron devices in VIP suitcases.

You know what, the authour of Indian bomb programme and Pakistan bomb programme reside in New Delhi,the capital of India. The first one resides in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the second one is a India Today reporter who on an overdose of ecstasy, wrote you guys had a nuclear bomb ( someone in Pakistan read the article and then you guys started claiming you had THE bomb )

Bottomline is YOU DONT HAVE THE BOMB (You want one ? We'll drop one over Karachi)

Mush : On why he had to align with US on 9/11 "America was sure to react violently, like a wounded bear. If the perpetrator turned out to be al-Qaida, then that wounded bear would come charging straight towards us. Powell was quite candid: You are either with us or against us"

The whole world thought Al Qaeda was a myth - like your Nuclear Bomb

"The mullahs would certainly oppose joining the US. There would be an adverse reaction too in the NWFP. Sindh, Karachi and Balochistan would be lukewarm. The Punjabis would understand me."

You are the leader of ?
Have you heard of Rushdie's novel "Shame" - have you atleast heard that word.

"In what was to be the most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage added, if we chose the terrorists then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age."

Where do you suppose you are now ?
They cheated you man,these Americans - do you think they landed on moon ?

Mush : On the Agra summit failure "There is the man and there is the moment. When man and moment meet history us made. Vajpayee failed to grasp the moment and lost his moment in history"

No Mr Mush,the moment was not Agra it was Amristar - when that old man boarded a bus to Lahore. It was Mrs Gandhi and the moment was Shimla. It was Nehru and the moment was Kashmir.

Dear Mush,

In India -

We dont mind a Ibrahim,Dawood smuggling gold from Dubai - at times we adore his tapori style but he'll pay for the two fifty seven dead in Bombay '93.

We dont mind a Prabhakaran,Velupillai playing a tiger or a lion for his brothers - at times we sympathize with his cause but he'll pay for our youthful leader's life he took in May '91

We dont mind a Musharaff, Pervez writing an autobiography - at times we make it a best-seller but he'll pay for the five hundred and twenty two young men dead in Kargil '99

So make merry - now you have a best seller

this time its for you

Good Night and Good Luck !

The Commandments of Fascism

2006-09-01T17:52:00.000-05:00

George Bush has coined the new term 'Islamo Fasicm'. The new rhetoric is going around with the punch line that if you do not support the War in Iraq ,if you do not support the invasion of Lebanon and if you do not support the bombing plans for Iran - you are a supporter of Fasicm . The rhetoric is very similar to the "either you are with us or against us" doctrine advocated by the Republican administration immediately after the '01 invasion of Afghanistan.

Comparisons are being made wherever possible to the War against Fasicm in WWII - repeated over and over in press conferences, policy statements,University addresses and the right-wing 'fox' media. It might appear attractive to a world blinded by the fear of Islamic terrorism and its global derivatives but on a closer look there are a few very subtle differences between Europe in 1940s and Iraq in 2005.

1. Germany,Japan and Italy were countries trying to take over the world and had invaded other nations making a war inevitable. Iran and Iraq had no plans to take over the world ; They never declared war on USA ; Iran never invaded another country.

2. Allied forces in WWII had more than two thirds of humanity behind it . "Alliance of the willing" in Iraq has a coalation strength less than the fingers on one hand .

3. America's participation in WWII was approved and supported by almost every American, latest polls put support to war in Iraq or plans to invade Iran at less than thiry percent.

4. America's sacrifices in WWII made the world a safer place,its invasion of Iraq has made the free world a lot lot more vulnerable.

Wickipedia defenition of Fascism says - Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism.

And look who's Fascist going by that - The 14 Commandments of Fascism

Dear Mr.Bush , movie-makers in hollywood invoke Hitler and the Nazi party to sell holocaust movies -thats for a living , but should the most powerful man on the planet start imitating
Joseph Goebbels for a living .

Hollywoodland

2006-08-25T17:05:00.000-05:00

"Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures ... and not enough actors." - Walter Winchell

Motion picture is arguably the greatest art form human race has laid its hands upon and Hollywood is one place we look out for the best movies in the world. Hollywood is another place where honesty comes after its major export - vanity ; And this has in no small way led the industry from one crisis to after another in time - this very lack of candour.

Last few months have been a welcome break from this. Hollywood has started addressing the issue of stars who raise their price and demands to astronomical proportions. The recent firing of Tom Cruise by Paramount , Disney's take on Shyamalan's 'genius' and the indie offshoots are all signs of a change. Sure,its risky business but no mission impossible. Star power has an impact ,but when it starts bleeding studios to death and taking the fan population for granted as suggested in this smoking guns report its time for changing direction of the cruise .

Its true that tinsel world sells vanity or vanity sells in hollywood, but a reality check would make the industry a better place.

A Secular Rethink

2006-08-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

A picture

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again - Maya Angelou

A video

A few years back we faced our worst fears as a nation , today we are again a smug faced crowd hiding behind globalised cliches like Islamic terrorism and a global war on terror . This twenty minute video is a gentle reminder to wake up from our collective amnesia and realize the hell we were in and where we could return to.

The Making of a Muslim Terrorist (20 mins , worth it)

It is important for every nation to remember . Because races subjected to long term forgetfulness dont get a second chance on this earth.

An old essay

A Catholic nun from erstwhile Yugoslavia was cremated by an Indian man of cloth, in an Indian state known for its volatile Hindu population with full state honors accorded by a Communist government. As my clipping correctly reads, this can happen only in India and nowhere else in the world.

Checking client and peer queries on blue Monday mornings, thousands of miles away from Calcutta, my Inbox has Husseins ,Ramaswamies, Habiburs, Kennedies, Yudins, Lees, Romanowskies and the omnipresent Patels, Iyers and Nairs. Replying matter of fact to them without hurting their cultural sentiments or invading the personal zones do not add to my pains on the super highway where we build bridges for a living, because - I’ve maneuvered through flea infested fish markets with an Afghan foreignness at every corner, high decibel noises from Hindu temples and from atop minarets, born again recruiters hunting for new lambs to spread the great news, highly educated neighbours who have gleeful visions of blowing up temples, destroying mosques and yes, invading Pakistan across the Thar desert. Because, I’ve tasted the spicy Indian curry, Period.

Before we embark on the future of Indian secularism or how Indian secularism should be for what future has in it for India let us brush up our basics, it is a cliché, but the truth element in it rather overshadows its repetitiveness – India was, is and will be secular in its thought, philosophy and way of life. The one principal reason for this is the underlying thread of our existence that has been in the genome of every new idea born in this stretch from Garo-Khasi to the Rann of Kutch and from the Hindukush to Indian Ocean in the past four millennia – the continuing or Sanatana Dharma.

The Pancha Bhoota or nature worshippers who framed the early Vedas had this magnificent vision to build a multi-generational enterprise of thought rather than a one that gave great quarter to quarter results, fresh converts revenue or one that went around with tag lines to kill competition. Collaboration was the key word and the vision was simple; whichever way you perceive the truth, whatever names one call it, it is all the same – one truth. So when Vishnu and other Trimurtis came along they were welcomed with open arms, and then came Indra and his hordes of Devas, even God like people from blockbuster poems of the time entered the pantheon. Buddha, Christ, Mahavir, Mohammed, all the Babas, Gurus, everyone, everyone was invited. By the 2001 census this number reached thirty-four crores - around a third of the country’s population.

India is a philosophic country, it is our birthright to be outright philosophical and as mentioned above - our thought process gives a thumbs-up for that. The problem is with our social framework, which is rigid, in its apparent and hidden forms. The conflicts we have in India between people who worship any of the above thirty-four crore gods is due to the inherent flab accumulated in the Indian social framework through the years of invasion, persecution, mutually exclusive consolidation and in modern India, cowardly, shortsighted vote-bank politics and legislation. As we try to untie these knots in the Indian gnarl, the greatest advantage we have on our side will be the all-encompassing nature of our very basic mentation.

Indian secularism today is more or less about appeasement of interests rather than keeping the state, its manifestations and its actions away from any religious order. When eighty percentage of the population is Hindu, it is quite natural that the greater fight will be to keep the Hindu fundamentalist ideas from percolating into the national psyche and policymaking. This has happened even in the United States which is surely our best bet of what secularism should be, where currency issued by the government carries the “In God We Trust” tag and Southern states airports and bus-stations have welcome boards saying “Jesus Is the Only way” and the war cry of Air force recruits “Rock Sir”- referring to Peter’s Church.

Back to the Indian picture, let us accept the very fact that a lot more needs to be changed, a lot of baggage dumped and a lot of churning needs to be done to bring the Indian society anywhere near what the worlds strongest democracy is today. Why don’t we have a Uniform Civil Code? Why do we need to have different rules for different communities? The founders of our Constitution agreed to personal laws to give various communities time to evolve so that the particular community's social practice comes close to the law of the land. Is it not high time we call a time out? Or do we need to wait for another fifty years of riots and discrimination.

Why should we allow Muslim men to marry four times, thereby letting poor Muslim women to rot and at the same time giving enough venom to Togadias and Ritambaras to hit out at the Indian Muslims and the Indian state. Many modern Muslim nations do not have this practice and by no chance they are a species near extinction. Mohammed had his own correct reasons to propound this based on the historical reality at his time. Times have changed, we better.

Is there any justification to the ban on cow slaughter other than appeasement of the Brahmanical Hindu community, what about hens, lambs and yes, fishes – being the first avatar of Vishnu and small Muslim foetuses and children slaughtered by the banks of Sabarmati.We need a ban on these also. Hindu piety has surely not ensured bovines a good life in India.

Tax exemption to Hindu undivided families is another funny legislation; the question being where is the Hindu undivided family. If the government had taken the rightful stand in Shah Bano, Hindu appeasement with Shilanyas wouldn’t have been needed, there wouldn’t have been any wind to sail the “Rath” from Somnath, there wouldn’t have been riots all the way, consolidation of militant Hindus wouldn’t have occurred, the Masjid would have stayed, Bombay blasts would have been avoided, Godhra wouldn’t have happened and every time we sing the national anthem our voices wouldn’t break or weaken between Sindh and Maratha.

Do we have any justification for subsidizing Haj.In that case we need to subsidize Catholics every time they want to go to Italy or Israel? This practice should stop once and for all. The havoc that Hindu festivals cause in localities around the country is inexplicable. Especially in crowded cities like Bombay and Calcutta. The blaring noises that come out of loudspeakers from wee hours of the morning to very late at night has nothing to do with devotion .The commercial element in it is naked and transparent too. The clogging of bottlenecks in arterial roads in cities by religious processions like Rath yatras during Navratri and Chadurdhi and for the Friday Namaz has less to do with religion and more an overt show of strength to the common man on what their bunch is capable of.

The rigid social framework will not mutate into a form that is good for the nation in course of time, rather the leniency we show towards these Hindus, Muslims and other groups will be exploited as what is happening now and the differential provisions become traits they identify themselves to. External pressure and path breaking legislations is the way, the legislature and the executive need to go hand in hand without cowardice to shake up the idle social matrix. Resistance will be there from bigots like Imam Bukharis and Singhals, personal law boards and the right wing Hindu groups. But there is no resistance that the Indian establishment cannot stand. Even if the considerations are political, they may loose the support of the hardliners but in turn the moderates in all these fundamentalist groups will be strengthened and there is the wishes and support of one sixth of the human race.

Start off with the Uniform civil code, hit them hard and without discrimination towards any particular group – rather hit everyone and let that be the order of the day. We can afford it. I’m not suggesting something new, this has happened many times before when the Hindu society was reformed and path-breaking laws were put in place.

Religion has always been a part of the Indian political discourse; even the Mahatma had used it several times. But when such discourse is filled with poison aimed at other communities and may in short or long term damage the texture of Indian polity, it should be checked. Even if a vicious speech by Balasaheb or Uma Bharti does not lead to riots, still it should be treated and brought to book with the same seriousness as is done in the United States, France and many other western democracies. There should be a check on these people and their activities and they need to be confronted at every chance possible till they get tired of the persecution from the government backed secular militia. This may sound like an extreme choice given the Indian reality. But even in India lessons can be learnt from the way Communist parties treat these religious fascists- both Muslim and Hindu, in Kerala and the climate of harmony resulting out of it. Surely there will be a dent in the vote bank but as Peter Drucker put it “A Cost for the future”.

We have the issues of extremist and at times terrorist Muslim forces in the country, but no threat is as big as the Hindu extremist forces that have spread into every nook and corner of our public space. The other groups can be contained by legislations and executive actions like in case of Sikh extremism in late eighties. But the Hindutva brigade will have to be treated differently. They have to be checked at every walk of life starting from education, media, literature, arts, business, food, clothing, and history. The list will be long.

The extremist forces will be there in Indian polity till religion exists amongst us. It will manifest itself in different political parties like Congress, BJP, Sena and the like. The secular forces will also be there to fight the bad guys. It’s the age-old struggle between good and bad for the basic right to live as equals in this land, the great unending struggle for dharma to win – the game of Mahabharata.

There are no hereditary claims to Indian secularism; it is an everyday struggle where parties may be on either side any given day. And whenever this secular democracy is toppled from her balance, the Indian people have a unique habit of going directly to the polling booth and setting the republic straight. Two summers before was just another instance. We are capable of doing that again by our-selves, to both the extremists and the pseudo-secularists. Perhaps, this is what we celebrate and call Independence.

Happy Birthday India.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Mid-East Explodes

2006-07-16T15:24:00.000-05:00

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country" - David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel(1949-1963)

"We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem" - Yasser Arafat

There would not be another place in the world about which so much has been written,explained and hoped for.Conflicts of apocalyptical proportions and overtones have swept across this region throughout the last one and a half millenia,be it the Arab-Persian conflicts or the Crusades for Jerusalem or the Sunni-Shia rivalries or the conflict we all have grown up with - the Israel-Palestine deadlock.

They fight and kill in the name of old rivalries and from every killing, a new rivalry is born.

A vicious circle.What is it with this land ? Centuries of exploitation for the abundant resources of the region ? The tribal underpinnings of their religion ? or a direct message to God that time is ripe for kingdom come !

Israel finds herself surrounded by nations and mass movements that deny its right to exist and would love to wipe it off the map.Its a very sad state of affairs . Imagine being an Israelite in Jerusalem.When Iraq was invaded by the Allies during the first Gulf war,Iraq hit Israel - which deliberately didnt take part in the war,with Scud missiles . If the US attacks Iran and if Iran has a nuclear weapon,its anybody's guess whos going to get nuked . Israel has been attacked by all nations surrounding it,every child born in those nations grow up in an environment thirsty for Israels blood.Israel cannot afford to be weak.

They withdrew from Gaza,parts of WestBank and were ready to negotiate on parts of Jerusalem,Sharon had driven out his own people to give the land back to the Arabs.But that move was arguably treated as a sign of weakness.Israel was attacked again and as I said Israel cannot afford to look ridiculous.Now we see her rage,as her well oiled war machine pounds the mid-east.Israel has changed the game,it has raised the price of attacking it,Beirut is paying.

Do we remember the random gunfire by Israel a couple of weeks back on a Palestinian beach,do we remember the helpless girl child crying out her heart in the beach sand while all her family lies there dead.If Arab world found that worthy of revenge,would they be asking for a little too much.

Wherever conflicts happen in the world,muslims get killed.Be it Kashmir , Karachi , Bali , Bosnia , Chechnya , Kabul , Baghdad , Gaza or Beirut.Can you name anyother place where unabated killings happen.Their resources are held hostage by global hawks and western corporations,consider the anglo-american military presence across middle east,even in countries with prevailing peace like Saudi and Bahrain . What should the Arab-muslim think about this,what can they do,what can they imagine as a way out of this .

At the end of this barren imagination,they become a suicide bomber . What goes inside the mind of a fidayeen ? will it be cluttered visions of a promised heaven which would any given day be a better bargain than the living hell they are in or will it be the heart wrenching cry of a eight year old girl?

One day,I hope,mothers and fathers and sisters and wifes from Iran and Israel,Iraq and Syria,Palestine and Lebanon will sit together and count their losses.Finally they would realise that they all have lost.Lost sons,husbands,livelihood and future.They would realise that at the end of each war they had only a handful of ash left,that they cant distinguish the blood on the mutilated corpses as Israeli or Sunni or Shia.Then they would cry,every one of them,it would be the swan-song of the senseless killings,brutality and exodus of thousands of years . At the end of it,the whole world will hear a loud silence from Mecca and Persia and Nazreth and Galile and Damascus and Jerusalem.That will be serenity,there would be peace.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Of Human migration

2006-05-18T16:01:00.000-05:00

We are all immigrants,some of us geographically,many of us socially in times of upward or descending mobility and a few of us find ourselves in wastelands or newfoundlands after the flood waters of the exodus recede. I remember the poignant scene in the middle of Vasthuhara set in the swelling backdrop of a Calcutta drizzle where Neena Gupta's character says 'everyone of us is a refugee,a migrant'.

Immigration is the biggest debate in the USA these days,I would not call it the biggest issue.The country is divided right through the middle on this debate.Every poll coming in the media and the internet suggest a divided country with a slight edge for those who support legalization of illegal immigrants.This is where we need to celebrate this great nation.Imagine an opinion poll in India about legalization of Bangladeshis in Bengal,ninety nine percent of the smug faced,pseudo nationalistic middle class netizens would opine against it,the rest one percent would obviously have messed up while voting.That is where the spirit of USA comes into play,they really meant it when they put the lady with the torch in the river off Lower-Manhattan.This nation was built by immigrants who shoved their sweat,blood and brains into this cauldron of civilzations and the two and a half centuries old nation still craves for more.The lady still says -Give me your tired... your poor

The new debate on immigration has been triggered by the inflow of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the Southwestern states like Arizona and California.The larger issue remains on what needs to be done about the twelve million odd non-legal immigrants already in the USA.A very harsh law "HR-4437" passed by the Congress also known as Sensenbrenner bill made Illegal Immigrants into felons the same category as murders or rapists, and would incarcerate people who would give aid to Illegals.This piece of law has triggered nationwide protests of mammoth proportions from pro-migrant and liberal groups ,something unseen after the anti-Vietnam movement in the late sixties.

In this world divided between excess and need,immigration is inevitable.These immigrants bring in the much needed human capital into the USA,a country with a dwindling population in many states.They do the kind of jobs that white and black USA never do.I have never seen a white American sweeping the streets,tarring the road or waiting counters in swap shops,it is always the immigrant who takes care of this.The mexican never does it because it was his childhood ambition to sweep the streets of US cities of all the litter but it is the abject poverty,unemployment and the biggest motivator of all - hunger .When their children cry for nourishment in the impoverished streets of Chihuahua and la Paz,at the height of unemployment and poverty when the yellow obscurity of hunger sets in across their eyes,national boundaries may disappear,they may slip into the land of oppurtunities across the deadly desert.

Everybody wants the mexican to work for them,in their farms,stables,roads,schools,gas stations as jobs are aplenty and at their all time high in the booming economy.The open border works more or less based on the supply -demand way.These migrant workers sustain many industries in the USA.On May the 1st when they quit work for a day on 'the day without the immigrant',many industries especially food and meat processing came to a virtual standstill.The impact was felt across the states,the immigrant is not here to steal food,he feeds you.
There is surely an underlying thread of racism against the immigrant.The Ultra-right america which wants the government to deport the migrants and seal the border does not seem have issues with an open border with Canada.A brown immigrant from south is treated differently from a white caucasian from the north or a black jamaican from the east.There is the fear factor around the growing immigrant population which is clearly changing the demographics of continental USA.

The Human side of the issue should not be missed here.Do you deport a person who has stayed in the US for decades,paid his taxes,obeyed the laws of the land citing nuances of immigration procedures.Do you separate him from his family because the law is blind.Do you uproot people in flesh and blood,crush there livelihoods and break their lives because your legislations are unchangeable.Will you throw a child out of school citing issues of national security.
These immigrants are not terrorists or gansters,they are here for a living,let them live,they are a necessity,America needs them.

**********************************

USA is a mature and strong democracy.The law of the land is above any other consideration as these laws are framed after a lot of genuine deliberations.Illegal immigration is an issue that weakens the credibility of law enforcement in the US.Even if the law does not make much human sense,it needs to be followed and enforced.Every American has reason to be pissed off when the sea of protestors wave Mexican flags and sing the US national anthem in spanish.Some radical groups have even demanded that California be made part of Mexico.Imagine protestors in Mumbai waving Bangladeshi or Nepali flags.These claims do not make sense and do not help when lawmakers try to find a middle path on this issue.This will only strengthen the hawks who plan to torpedo any workable legislation on the issue.

**********************************

Illegal Immigration - an honest opinion on this will not come from both these warring sides,each have their own vested interests.Who knows the most about illegal immigration - check out this guy in the photo.To cut a long story short,centuries back he welcomed the illegal immigrant ,they in turn took his land,his forest,his women,his Gods,his rivers.They built ugly urban landscapes in the heart of his habitat,they pushed him into tiny tracts of wasteland and made him an outlaw,they raped his women and killed his children.Now he exists in the cold ramparts of elite museums,take a thirty five dollar day pass and we can find from him - the dialectics of human migration.

Good Night and Goodluck !

It is May 11th in Kerala

2006-05-11T01:25:00.000-05:00

A Red wave has swept across Kerala,the left front has swept back to power in the state with an emphatic record breaking victory.As counting of votes reach the last lap,the writing on the wall is clear and is very red in colour.

Across the state stalwarts of the outgoing government are facing defeat.Muslim league is facing defeat in all its bastions,fallen include its general secretary P.K.Kunhalikutty.The three top leaders of league Kunhalikutty,Muneer and Basheer have been defeated at home.Eleven time winner Gauriamma has been defeated,Balkrishna pillai,Murali and around fifteen ministers have lost,M V Raghavan and T M Jacob have been defeated.It is as if Keralites have chased and defeated the bad apples.In the southern districts Congress party has been wiped out,forts have fallen across the cochin belt and in Malabar,muslim league is facing its worst nightmare - malappuram the league fort has turned red.

The final seats will be available later in the day and the new Chief Minister will be decided.It is a great day for the progressive,secular forces in the state,adding to the euphoria is the left front's seventh consecutive victory in West Bengal with another record majority.It appears the Kerala voter has swayed leftward and democracy has come home after a short break.

It is a night to celebrate democracy.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Hillary

2006-04-22T22:59:00.000-05:00

When this lady, Hillary speaks,you feel like listening.It is not like the rhetorical diatribe that Mrs.Gandhi comes out with everytime she makes a serious speech.Last week Mrs.Gandhi spoke about the office of profit debacle,her point was that many in the Ganges heartland doesnt like her and all that debate in both houses of parliament was because these MPs hate her.It seems these same MPs hated Indira and Rajiv as well,its all personal.She didnt make sense,she cant expect us to sob and cry and call her back everytime she plays this all sacrificing 'bahu' persona.Its true that we like her,but she shouldnt be exploiting our fondness for her every time elections happen in some state.

Hillary Clinton,she was giving this fourty minute long -at times rambling speech in Brown University,C-SPAN was airing it.You like her for the wide variety of things she speak about,at times she opens a whole new perspective on a topic.She's got clarity,strength and a sense of urgency.The political part of the speech was pure rhetoric and mostly around the blunders of the 'Mission Accomplished' administration.That part comes easy I suppose because everytime she said 'our President' the crowd laughed their hearts out for no understandable reason.The second part of the lecture was fresh, and nicely done too.She spoke about,

Office Decoration

When she started practicing law,there was this unique office decoration protocol.If you are a guy, you fill your office with family photos and kids stuff so that people think you are a devoted person with family values.You are from the fairer side,anything that reminds you of family is out of bounds in office,because that would be a sign of a distracted professional.Hillary according to her, camouflaged office space with family signatures.

Descriminations and prejudices of this kind are widespread even today in conservative streams like law as well as sunrise streams like information technology.I know of this Business capablity command center where women work on monitoring the health of systems but in the connected high visibility crisis management group its an unwritten rule that only men should be on the team.This often if not always has a debilitating impact on the women members of the team,they find that few floors are out of reach no matter how hard they climb.The reason cited for the above was women get married,relocate,brain drain,odd hours,pregnancy - except for the last rest is common for both sexes and as for the last I think organisations should be mature enough to understand that women get pregnant.Such an exclusion affects the team in such a way that these women employees stop competing, rather contributing,they dont give a darn if the system goes to hell 'cause they are not the system anymore.Rest is what we see around us.

Washing machine and Dryer

Hillary's mother didnt have a dryer thereby spending her entire afternoon doing the laundry.Nowadays new technology and small families create a lot of productive free time which was spend earlier on these mundane chores.Women should put it to better use,they should dare to compete.

I thought about India,we had excluded women from nation building for a very long strech of time,on top of it we excluded dalits from our thought process,we had divided the rest into four ambiguous groups and again restricted any free flow of ideas.What a waste of human capital and we continue to do that as much as we can.Now I have to contradict myself,women work from dawn to dusk and after that, in some two hundred million households in India,they raise the next generation,feed the future India with food,ideas and values - I think this could be nation building - though it never shows up on the national product,never gets recognized anywhere in developmental economics.

Many of these women are denied a say in household decision making as they dont have any measurable produce.It would be fun if they stop all their work for a week,just to measure the kind of impact it causes.

Almost half our women cant read or write,not that literacy is so important,but the world around us is changing,economics is changing,we cant be a peasant country anymore,hands to mouth existence of Indian villages will have to undergo radical changes,economic output per household will need to increase in the indian countryside as the market dynamics set in,indian villages will have to consume more if this nation needs to go any futher from here and for this incomes will need to increase and it cant be done without value adding extensively to our products.This where education becomes a basic need from now on for the Indian woman.

A clear shift from 'welfare' of women to 'well-being' of women and womens' 'agency' is needed in our policy orchestrations.Respect and regard for womens wellbeing,is enhanced a lot when she has a economic and social role outside the household.Empirical data says so,one respected feminist economist wrote.

How does one manage office and home ?

She said 'everyone of us is a pioneer' and went on to say some bad jokes.
That was one great answer.

The first genocide of 21st century

Is happening in Darfur,she said.Women and children are the worst hit.Killings,abductions,gang rapes and more evidently mutilation of body parts to leave a stigmata of a lifetime are occuring at mind numbing rates.The west needs to intervene.

The west had apologized for Rwanda,Sudan seems to be the mother of all Rwandas.I tend to believe that if Hillary was the Commander in chief of the world instead of Bush,she would have send her troops to Sudan instead of Iraq.War and abject poverty in the dark continent undermines all the glory human kind has acheived in this world.

Hotel Rwanda said 'nobody cares about afrikans,they are not human,they are not even niggers' - I agree,if one hundred thousand people get killed somewhere in godforsaken cantsaythename place in Africa,its just a number for us.If it happens in Europe,it will be World war IV.

Constant Gardener said women never went to war anywhere - we can think about this.

Hillary showed that she can make people think and still be a politician and I believe she should run for the President of the United States.Not that she should win,but that will be one hell of a campaign to watch.

Back home,dear Mrs Gandhi is fighting another election.Nobody asked her to resign,nobody asked her to contest again,we'll spend a lot of our money to bring her back into parliament where she will be doing absolutely nothing and we'll wait for her to cry and resign and leave and contest again when some Samajvadi party MP snorts.Not that we have an issue with that,the Gandhi family has sacrificed so much for us,we continue to love them and Mrs Gandhi is so adorable a person,but I really believe madam could put her time to some better use - like make some nice pizza or something like that.Maino,think about it.

Goodnight and Goodluck !

On May 11th in Kerala

2006-04-16T02:40:00.000-05:00

Elias John (Aniyara,Surya Tv),May 2001 :

"Inspite of all the criticism this programme has aired against the Nayanar government,we feel sad today.Because Kerala is losing yet another left front government.Because our past experiences tells us not to expect anything in the next five years"

five years since,its seems malayalam telivision's Ed Murrow was in a prophetic mood that day.

A change is inevitable in gods own country.Because we've had enough of dysfunctional governance.Because we've had enough of aya ram gaya ram squabbles.Because we've had enough of ice cream parlour rapists.Because we've mortaged most of the state.Because all our exam papers leak.Because we dont need muslim league and its casanova kuttis.Because we've become a land of mafias.Because the father,son and the holy spirit suck.Because the chief executive is a convenor of corruption.Because Devils own land is a tagline in the making.
Not to forget we have one of the highest consumption of liquor,highest suicide rate and high unemployment as well.

In his book,Development as Freedom,Sen compares US,China and Kerala.I read again,its US,China and Kerala.It was a pleasant surprise.This was not the first time the Kerala model was being touted as a road map for all the developing world,time and again the green strip has been on the radar of global think tanks.

Kerala is a land where social development has gone hand in hand with economic and political development,rather it has overtook the two.Its Human development index compares with North America and Europe in many parameters.Areas like medical care,education,social harmony,rural infrastructure and political vigilance have reached a point where developmental economists sit up and take note.

Because Kerala has the least mortality of infants.Because kerala has the highest sex ratio - which means if you are a girl child,you dont get killed down here.Because kerala has one of the worlds highest life expectancies.Because kerala is one urban stretch of four hundred miles.Because ink pads dont sell in kerala - they use pens instead.Because kerala is one place where extinction of lion tailed monkey or the ghat deer can bring down cabinets.Because the ubiquitous tea shops discuss 'mandari' disease in coconuts and lula of brazil with the same concern.Because people on an average read three newspapers down here.

If one looks at Kerala's political history - the state is 50 years old,the left front has been in power for around fifteen years.(excluding the right wing left front party).The congress lead governments ruled the rest of the years.Now if you look at path breaking reforms that made all the above possible,it was more or less during those fifteen years.Be it the land reforms,educational reforms and wage reforms brought about in 1957 by the EMS government (the first democratically elected left front government in the world).The coalation politics dharma of the sixties - another first in India.The literacy campaign of the eighties - another first in India.The peoples plan of the nineties - ditto.

The last term of the left front saw the Peoples plan campaign,stretching four long years.The idea was to eliminate centralised power and centralised planning.How could a beurocrat or a minister sitting somewhere in a capital city know what is good for a far away village,whether they need a bridge or a school or an internet kiosk.All across the state people met in schools,everyweek and made their list of developmental demands,based on ground realities and burning needs of the time.Village roads and bridges were built in places not even on the surveyor of India maps.Power percolated to lowest levels of society.Development and its benefits were not anymore confined to the urban shopping centres,goverment offices and kitchen coteries of the men in power.Every village and every town in kerala felt energized,it was probably the greatest leap forward in the history of development in Kerala.

It surely increased the overall debt of the state manifold and drew a lot of crticism from world bank and the Asian bank.Today after five years when one looks back at the days of Peoples Plan (the brain child of late EMS Namboodiridpad)we realise the good it has done to the state,it was an astute marxist's understanding of kerala's developmental needs in a economy which was getting liberalised from all the sides,it was a theoritician's insightful comparison of Kerala's present state with meiji era Japan and pre-reform China.

The new left front government which I believe will take oath in May,will have to lead Kerala from a support led success story to a growth meditated success.As a close adulator of kerala model and its politics,I am excited at what will be in store for the state this time around.I am optimistic about change because these guys been there before,they've delivered before.On May 11 th Kerala will have its tyrst with destiny and 'hope' may be retuned to us after a long wait of five years.

Good Night and Good Luck !

Good Night and Good Luck !

2006-04-16T02:39:00.000-05:00

Ed Murrow said,
"We must not confuse dissent from disloyalty.We will not walk in fear, one of another, we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. If we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, we will remember we are not descendant from fearful men. Not from men who dared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom where ever it still exists in the world. But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.Cassus was right, the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Good night, and Good luck."

News programmes,talk shows,radio addresses,telecasts of speeches and our late night conversations often end with a "Good night" and a hapless smile.The ideas,the rhetoric,the understanding goes to sleep with us and in the morning you are alone,the bird would have flown.As I watched the celluloid version of the Friendly and Murrow telecasts in CBS during the McArthy years,the way they ended the show stood out - "Good luck" is a freindly reminder to think and muse and be uncomfortable.

Good Night and Good Luck !