Ennui

Child Feeling Bored.
Get the entire article here.

My Reply

5 decades of protecting the Tatas, Ambani's and Mallyas have increased inequality tremendously in this country. The people who had capital grew richer faster, while the state of the middle and lower classes improved marginally. While competition between Tata and Ambani, might have driven down prices (in telecom etc) we need more competition. Foreign employers would be a big egalitarian boost to India: the middle and lower class can get rich without making the established rich richer.

Mr Raghavan argues the case for Indian capital, as if Indian capital is shared equally by all it's citizens. The stark truth is, only the rich can afford to be entrepreneurs in today's 'liberalized' Indian economy. To really improve the state of the lower and middle classes, we need competition in labor markets. Only higher demand for labor can increase the wage-rate - that our-own Indian entrepreneurs have suppressed for decades.

We need foreign employers, foreign capital, foreign businesses - the more the better. No doubt, the competition in product markets will drive down prices and improve product standards, but the competition in labor markets would truly uplift the classes, and give a big boost of equality to India.

It is easy to see why the business elite argue for protection from foreign capital. It would overwhelm them. Whereas if the masses knew, how the government hinders foreign employers from providing them with more and better-paying jobs; while they spend days in the sun looking for one, they’d be seriously rattled.

The rhetoric of protection is just rhetoric: all they are really protecting is the system of inequality in India. The elites, who are served by the present system of inequality, don’t want it go – not only does it guarantee them low labour costs but also protection from competition. They also know a wealth differential has benefits in India – and these benefits are not only financial. They’d do everything to preserve the status quo.

Above is my reply to Raghavan's rant:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/28guest2.htm?q=tp&file=.htm

Procrastination?

My Chemistry book lies on my desk, 5 inches to the right from my laptop. It has been there since this morning when I pledged I'd get down to studying it. It's 8:52 PM in the night now, and I haven't touched the tome yet.

I keep telling myself, after this cigarette, after breakfast, after lunch; then I forget and lose myself to aimless TV watching, surfing the Internet for "news", surfing for viral videos, listening to music on my laptop (of which I am sick by now). Anything but getting down to studying.

Here's the deal: I don't believe I am procrastinating. I believe, I am thinking. Of other things. Such as the nature of man, the human condition, the nature of the masses, how vocabulary-systems create meaning etc. And these thoughts are worthwhile. Or at least one could argue they are.

I'll leave you (those who have read this far and haven't shot their brains out) with a small nugget of wisdom. Something this day of wasteful, reflective thinking yielded to me-

There are two kinds of people on earth. Those who reach their conception of reality through someone else's description of reality. And those who describe reality for themselves.

And the 2nd type aggresively builds their vocabulary, so that they can talk about anything. They agressively read Marx, Foucault, Mencken -anyone- and all they look for are words - and the meaning the words attempt to convey. They do not hope to find wisdom. They hope to find vocabulary.

Be the 2nd type.

Here is what Steve Jobs had to say on the Issue:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be
trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most
important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow
already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs.

Semester Begins in Five...

The Spring Semester begins in 5 days. It's back to college, books, and chemistry. I enjoyed blogging these 13 days, and now that I have my blog setup, I'll drop in a line now and then.

I'll keep updating the Quotes Box with more quotes; quotes are something I collect anyways, so that'll be up. Expect to see more pro-Liberty quotes, and more insights from our friends Calvin and Hobbes, Kyle, Stan, Catman, Holden Caulfield, Mark Twain, Art Garfunkel, ...anybody really.

Anyway, if you have a funny quote send it in - we accept funny, insightful, reflective, fraudulent, confusing - we love them all. We don't discriminate.

The Quotes Project

So I spent a lot of time on this Quotes thing on the right...but it's working for now and will have more quotes later. I got the idea from the Center for Civil Society, here. They have a small bar that hammers out catchy aphorisms that stick. It's pretty neat except they don't have too many quotes in there.

I'll add some more quotes and it'll have more than just government taking away people's liberty. Not that it isn't important. It is.

Feel free to whack the box for your site. I'm working on the instructions..., it'll be up once I figure some out.

Life

Lyrics from a Simon and Garfunkel Song:

Through the corridors of sleep
Past the shadows
dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion.
I don't know what
is real,
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my
illusion.

So I'll continue to continue..
to pretend My life will
never end,
And flowers never bend..
With the rainfall.

The
mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all
it's my reflection...
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction.

So I'll continue to continue..
to pretend My life will never end,
And flowers never bend..
With the rainfall.

It's no matter if you're born..
To play the king or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn ’tween joy and sorrow,
So my fantasy..
Becomes reality,
And I must be what I must be
and face tomorrow.

So I'll continue to continue..
to pretend My life will never end,
And flowers never bend..
With the rainfall.

The Reserve Bank of India

Am stunned by the opaqueness of the vocabulary, and jargon, used by our Central Bank, in describing our monetary policies. Check it out: http://www.rbi.co.in under Monetary and Macroeconomic Developments.

The terms used to describe the "Real" Economy are understandable even if the figures don't seem to hold. But they really lay the jargon thick when it comes to describing the Monetary and Fiscal situation.

Yawn... Gotta go to sleep.

Pyar Kiya To Nibhana

Hilarious!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4807397690444864476&q=comedy

The Two Thought Rule

Have been watching some C-Span (the US public TV servive dedicated to covering politics and other issues of public importance) and some of their shows that have viewer call-ins. And the hosts obviously don't let the callers rant on about their political beliefs, but they also enforce what I call the one-thought rule. The one thought rule is that callers are allowed to express one thought or one question which the interviewee (some public figure) then responds to. Usually a good way to proctor viewer call ins, in my opinion; seems to work.

Likewise I propose a two-thought rule for each blog-post. That is, each blogger should limit himself/herself to two thoughts in each post - not only does this make for easier reading but the author is also challenged to condense his argument into pithy sentences. Obviously, one could argue, this format is arbitrary and restrictive and more regulatory of freedom; sure, but it would make for a better blogosphere experience on the whole.

Making Money with Bhojpuri Cinema

There's no biz like show-biz. Raking in the moolah with showbiz UP-Bihar isstyle -

Here is what BBC has to say:

Bollywood is having to take a backseat as the hitherto little-known regional Bhojpuri film industry steals the show in India. The industry, catering to 200m people who speak the Bhojpuri language - a dialect of Hindi - and live in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, is raking in cash like never before.

Made on a modest budget of $65,000, Sasura Bada Paisawela took in over $3m at the box office. Daroga Babu (I love you) mopped up nearly $900,000 on a similar budget. Many Bhojpuri movies take about 10 times their costs. With a success rate of almost 100% it is not surprising that Bhojpuri cinema is wooing Bollywood players like never before. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan, presently recovering from surgery, and star actress of yesteryear, Hema Malini, have signed up for a Bhojpuri film together.

The four-decade-old Bhojpuri industry is attracting foreign talent too. Ukrainian model Tanya has already played a Russian girl in love with a Bihari boy in Firangi Dulhania (Foreign Bride). Now 24-year-old Cambridge-educated British actress Jessica Bath has signed for two Bhojpuri films. "Most Bhojpuri films are made on small budget of usually $50,000 to $60,000 and usually gross 10 times their costs at the box office, which is much higher than any Bollywood hit," Bollywood trade analyst Taran Adarsh says.

The full BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4512812.stm

The top-grossing movie titles, that define the genre:

Sasuda Bada Paisawala
Daroga Babu I Love You
Dulhan Banwa Chudail (bride turns witch)
Ma Biwi Aur Sali (mother, wife, and sister-in-law)
Mat Bhulaiye Mai Baap Ke (Don't forget your parents)

The Great Bong covers Bhojpuri cinema: http://greatbong.blogspot.com/2005/12/bhojpuri-bituwas.html

American Involvement in Somalia

Just saw a documentary on the American involvement in Somalia, in 1993; the subject of a Hollywood movie Black Hawk Down. It is amazing to see how arrogant Americans were in deciding to remove the local leader Aidid who they decided was no good for Somalia. This piece is about American arrogance by the way. And how American arrogance took a blow at the hands of a small African nation.

So America decides to pick up Aidid from his headquarters in Mogadishu, and they send in 4 Black Hawk helicopters, and around 10 of armored vehicles, around 90 Rangers and Delta men. Now the US Rangers are seriously tough men - military elite in America - genetically tall, buffed, tough men. If earth was fighting aliens in hand to hand combat - these men would be sent. Seriously intimidating in their physical presence- they clearly know it, and are full of it. And they, in their own words, describe themselves as 'Supermen' - physically unchallengable. They are so arrogant, , so proud of themselves and their elite group of "brothers", so sure of their patriotism and moral superiority, you could not find a better set of killing machines on the wide earth.

So these men were sent to pick up Aidid. Everything was going according to plan, when a Black hawk helicopter manning the operation was shot down. Four army rangers fell into occupied territory. To recover these 4 Rangers, America sent in 90 more rangers - with disastrous consequences. 30 American Rangers died killing over a thousand Somalians (by a conservative estimate) and captured only a few of Aidid's generals. Aidid captured one US Ranger.

So now Somalia releases video footage of this one US Ranger in captivity - Michael Durant - to CNN. So Clinton, immediately, in a show of force, lines up the entire bay of Mogadishu with the US Navy and the Army, ready to level Mogadishu to the ground. It was an awesome display of power and an awesome sight covered by an international press. The world waited with bated breath to see the first demonstation of the military might of the now, lone superpower. Fresh out of the cold war, Somalia would be America's first example to the rest of the world. It would be a cruel sight - and the world was ready to take in every gory detail. The pop-corn was ready, the movie would soon begin.

Clinton knew this - and and he knew Aidid did too. And his message to Aidid was terse: 'Michael Durant, or else.' Aidid dropped Durant like a hot potato and Clinton orders his entire fleet back. The GI Joes are obviously angered: they want to go back out and flatten the entire country down - angry at being pulled back; they have developed a furious hatred for the Somalis by this time. They know, if they go back out, they can kill Somalis like mosquitoes, and make them accept complete and humiliating defeat, but they cannot. They retreat in anger, their egos smouldering with belittling spite for the Somalis who have ostensibly defeated them. They retreat as they watch Somali's celebrate their 'victory' over America.

Should the private sector have quotas?

Should there be reservations for backward classes ? What the public has to say.
http://in.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/03msg.htm

Supreme Court says no reservation for Muslims:
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/04sc1.htm?q=np&file=.htm

Read the above bulletin boards. It is amazing to see such vituperative hatred on the part of the public against the government - who want to ruin the country for vote maximization - that is the common sentiment at least. It is a democratic goverment after all -what did you expect? Unfortunately the populist policies of the government has gone too far and the middle-class is lashing back.

The UPA government doesn't mind setting the country behind just-a-little-bit if the political gains from it could be huge. Unfortunately, the government didn't anticipate this reaction from the new India - a large percent of whom are employed by the private sector. Promising reservations is no longer an easy way to garner votes bitches - this is not the India of 1945.

The Need for Labor Market Reform

In an insightful piece at Rediff, Crisil (chief economist) points out how the UPA government tends to trust direct redistribution schemes over market-based solutions, in attempts to solve India's labor problems. He argues that while political compulsions may necessitate direct schemes, such as The Rural Employment Guarantee and reservations for minorities, more needs to be done to actually solve India's labor problems. India, according to Crisil, direly needs a Human-Capital strategy that should be able to equip the youth with skills that are needed in India's marketplace. Supply should meet demand to avoid mismatches of skill or numbers.
See the entire article here:
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/02guest.htm

India Accelerating

The New York Times covers stories connected to the Golden Quadrilateral, India's version of the American Inter-State. This story ties into a larger story of India's accelerating growth.

The link is to an condensed interactive feature; the original articles made the front page of The New York Times, over 4 editions.

India and Pak exchange lists of nuclear installations.

Are We Kidding Ourselves?

Check out this article on Rediff:
India and Pak exchange lists of nuclear installations.
http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/01nlist.htm?q=tp&file=.htm
You've got to be kidding me. Apparently it is a tradition: every January 1st since 1988, India and Pakistan have been sharing a list of their nuclear installations. How Sweet. And the best part of the treaty? Both countries agreed not to attack each others nuclear facilities. Awesome.

I guess then the people, on both side, would have to get blew up. Because their governments are not going to attack each other's nuclear facilities. The genius of this treaty eludes me.

I guess a far more honorable treaty would be: in the event of a war we make a solemn promise to first blow up each others' nuclear installations. And, btw, also not target the civilians in the cities. But this agreement has nothing to say about the civilian population, just the desert where we have our stockpile of nukes.

Awesome!

Check out the timelime of Pak hypocrisy around the nuclear-issue for the last 30 years, from the Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/chron.htm