Egypt

Let's face it. There's a ring of romanticism to any kind of revolt. We all like to see an uprising against a corrupt regime that's trying to suffocate people's "right".

This week, Egypt has been the poster boy of the world news for it's seemingly organic revolution against the 'oppressor' - President Husne Mubarak - who believe it or not, has been ruling Egypt for 30 long years. (Wait. Where have I heard this before? A single man/family ruling a country for decades and decades? Well, never mind)

I do not know much about the "why" part of the revolt in Egypt currently, and that really is bothering me. Frankly I am little disappointed with all the punditry and analysis overload around this subject. None of the premier news channels have really bothered to detail this 'minor' question of - WHY? All I know is that people of Egypt want Mubarak outa office. Fair enough. And I am with them on it. I still am hungry to know "why". And more importantly "why now".

What triggered this? And I am unable to get my arms around this question. Quite frankly it's bugging me.. and I am that kind of a person. I really like to understand the "details".. I can actually get a bit neurotic sometimes about information. I really really need a lot of it, before I can join any bandwagon of Mubarak bashing.

I also keep hearing on NPR et al, that the "youth" of the nation want change.Well of course. The youth somehow seem to be the flavor everywhere. They can do no wrong, can they? But still my question remains, "why do they need him out NOW?".

Is he too corrupt? Is he a womaniser? Has he not done enough reforms? Is he not handling economics well? Is his government dysfunctional? Is the problem that he is seen as an ally of the 'imperialist' USA and hence not very popular with middle eastern youth?

I have no clue. I don't know what their beef is.

In an era of 24X7 news where twitter and blog and Facebook and Google news, not to mention CNNs and NBCs of the world, are constantly in your face with information, I still have no idea why all of a sudden, we are seeing a revolt of this kind in Cleopatra country.

And in next few days, I'd really like to know. Till then my sincere sympathies with people out there.. (especially the ones who did not see this coming and are stranded)

Pak Face Off

Pakistan has banned Facebook and Youtube for its people. I am not sure how many people there use either of these applications, but lets say even if 5% of the people have internet access and use it, I'd take it as a big chunk. (SAARC nations and Population is never an issue)

Does Facebook care if Pakistan bans it? I don't know. I seriously hope, they don't. It's not worth it, because Facebook should be smart enough not to dignify Pak's actions by even entertaining their "protest".

I have strong views on Pakistan; some may say hawkish, and I give a rat's ass if anyone thinks I am unreasonable.

The issue with Pakistan is not Kashmir or poverty or education. These are all side effects; symptoms if you will. The very foundation of that country is an issue. A country that was built purely as a "reaction" to something; a negative one at that. A foundation based entirely on Religion and Ideology is a weak foundation and that kinda of foundation can only grow a failed state, as Pakistan has so graciously proved us all.

How do you deal with it? I don't think we can - directly. (I'll bring back a quote I put sometime back on this blog - "Some problems cannot be solved. You have to manage them")

Let's say for example, India does agree to give Kashmir to Pakistan; will that be enough to buy peace? Naha. If people think its that easy, they are just being naive. It's not about Kashmir. Kashmir is an excuse. If it's not Kashmir it will be Punjab, if not Punjab it will be "why-are-you-treating-Indian-Muslims-badly" chorus; we gona bomb more of your cities.

They will keep creating n-number of excuses to be a nuisance in the region.

I have no respect for Pakistan (as if it's not evident enough). It's for me an extremely bad excuse for a nation. It's not a nation. It's a land where enough people have been indoctrined to "serve Allah". Pakistan is actually an extended Madarsa.

Pakistan's Army's motto if translated from Urdu reads - "In service of Allah". Yes, no kidding. That's their official motto.

Do I feel bad about the "regular" people of that country? The "normal" people? The "like us" people?

I used to. But not any more. I think they are as much to blame for being passive observers. They have been sitting on the fence for so long that now its meaningless. The power is long gone. Many of the middle class people (the "like us" people) were actually cheer leading from the same fence, when general Zia was running riot, converting Pakistan into a theocratic state and playing footsie with the US. During the late 70s Pak would rub our noses of the ground, since India was still a struggling socialist nation. (We din't have Pepsi/Coke that they had. They assumed that was sign of "progress". It was actually crumbs thrown by uncle Sam to use their land against Soviet mission in Afghan)

Much water has flown through Jhelum since then. And probably the state Pak is in, blood is the single biggest pollutant of Jhelum.

Will it implode under its own 8th century ideology's weight? I don't know. It has already once in a way, when it was split in 1971. So who knows....?

I say Pakistan should ban internet itself. Why stop at facebook/youtube etc. Isn't internet against their holy laws?

Durun Dongar Sazre

There's a saying in Marathi - "Durun Dongar Sazre"... Which means, a mountain seems green and beautiful from afar, but it's something else when you are near it.

The equivalent English saying is - "The grass is always green on the other side".

Why am I on such an idiom ride? That is because this particular news item caught my attention recently when I was searching for something else. (Actually this one too)

There are some damning statistics in there. It says last few years, UK has seen massive exodus of it's own people. Britons, that is. In this great revolving door called UK, immigrants (specially from India,Pak, B'desh, Sri Lanka..the usual suspects) outnumber the natives by a ratio of 2:1.

Surveys recently have uncovered huge numbers of Britons who, given a free choice, would get out of the country. Separate polls by ICM and YouGov found that more than half would like to leave - the YouGov poll found that 55 per cent had "seriously considered settling in another country".

Makes me wonder why the Brits are in such a hurry to leave that nation? Free health care, Free education... Free lunches..!! Shouldn't it be the other way round? The Australians and Americans (where most Brits are running towards) be running to Queen's great nation?

There may be multiple factors to this, and I am no socio-scientist to figure that out, but there's something that we all know. The UK has been ruled by the Labor party for almost two decades now. To be fair, they have been very popular, and continue to be re-elected every 5 years, keeping the conservatives (Tories as they are called there) off the aisles of power corridor for a very long time.

The last famous Tory was a 'someone' called Margarette Thatcher.. (yeh her). A towering political figure of UK, who ruled with an iron hand, but was also responsible for an economic turn around like never before. Thatcher and Reagan probably worked around the same time frame on either side of Atlantic. Both shrewd conservatives who became universally famous for different reasons, but their popularity at home was never in doubt. (Even the opponents conceded that)

But after that point (meaning, after end of Reagan ism and Thatcher ism) both countries took different paths. USA continued to follow loyally, the most common pattern of Democracy - swinging the power of pendulum between the Left and the Right. But UK din't. It continued bringing back Left, again and again completely demonizing and sidelining the Tories with a powerful pop culture ambush.

As an obnoxious centrist (and proud of it) I have my curious case of two countries right where I want. I see a country ruled for 20 years by the same party, with all it's 'easy' labor laws and free lunches (no wonder it returns to power again and again) now looking at the flip side of one party rule staring right at it's face.

If a nation looses it's banks, it's manufacturing industry, it's housing market etc, it can still hope to recover. There's a possibility of comeback. But once it starts loosing it's Middle Class, that's it.

And UK is currently being hit by the great flight of the Middle Class. Because for all practical purposes, it's the Middle class that drives the real economy. And once you start loosing that resourceful talent, you got trouble baby.

They say, for a child to develop a well rounded personality, it needs the nurturing of a loving mother and a toughness of a disciplined father. Both are essential for all round growth.

A nation too needs both forms of reinforcements. A fair social order and helpful hand of government for the weak, but also a tough fiscal discipline with incentive and merit based labour force to drive it.

French guyz realized it last year. The poster child of liberal Europe brought in a conservative Sarkozy to power. There's a good chance England will follow suit in next elections. Else, the emigration would continue at a scale, that won't help it sustain it's economy.

I am of an opinion that for a good health of a nation, the door of power should be revolving between two principle poles. If the door gets stuck with one pole, it's usually a sign of sickness. And that kinda sickness is usually diagnosed when it's too late to recover.


***


Post Script : A few years back, one of my college friends who had just returned from UK after a long stint there, told me something that struck me.. "Baring London, the rest of the UK is poorer than Maharashtra. You go 100 kms in any direction from London, and you'll see the real England".

Oh! The High Moral Ground

The United States fears recent weapons purchases by Venezuela could fuel an arms race in South America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also said his nation will purchase an anti-aircraft weapons system with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers).

The khujli king Chavez, is up and poking yet again. But what basis does US have for complaining? It's like the cat calling the kettle black, no?

The arms race in Sub-Continent is a US baby. And US profits most from it. Now to think that other countries (however notorious their intentions are) cannot do the same is simply lame.

All the "help" provided by the US to Pakistan is currently being directed towards India. What about that Madam Secretary?

The Genie is out..

Some quick notes on Iran..

- For what it's worth, the post election situation has broken all stereo type about Iran society.

- It is striking to see, young men and (more importantly) women on streets openly defying a brutal regime

- Unless Iran does a Tienanmen Square, it's hard to see how they can put the genie back in the bottle

- Even if it was assumed that CNN and it's ilk are streaming only one side of the story (as it suits them), the fact that even some %age of population is out on streets still means a seismic shift in middle-east universe.

- This may not be a game changer , in the same sense as, say, a Berlin Wall or implosion of East Block, yet in many ways, it is a precursor of the trajectory the region is likely to take..

- If it's Iran now, it may be Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon next.

- Like India, 60% of Iran is "young". The message is clear. And it says loudly and clearly; "Talk Economics and Opportunity".

- Technology is name of the game. This could be the first Twitter Revolution of our times

- And finally, watching the "Neda" video was heart breaking. Hope she becomes the rallying cry of young Iran and her sacrifice augurs something fruitful..

Thanks But No Thanks

Brent Stephens of Wall Street Journal has this to say about Pakistan..

What is Pakistan? Even now, nearly 62 years after its founding, the best answer is "not India":

Well, Mr Stephens and WSJ, thanks for your "kind acknowledgment", but we really don't want to know it from you that Pakistan is *not* India. It never was and can never be.
The very basis of that country's foundation was one word - Hate! All these years, they have used all their energy in hating and hating us more.

It's just bad karma, neh?

P.S update : 42% Pakis feel, India did 26/11. Another good example of no proof being ever enough for people who have already convinced themselves of an alternative view.

Dancing with the Wolves

Omar Hassan Al-bashir and China have a deal. China needs tons and tons of oil to fuel it's economy and Bashir needs tons and tons of money to fuel his genocide pogrom. Both need each other. And both have done a good job being together so far. China is getting it's regular fuel supply from Sudan and Bashir, well let's just say, he has easily topped Idi Amin.

Kristoff of New York Times argues today that..

We also must call on China to stop training the military pilots used by Mr. Bashir to strafe villages, and to stop supplying weapons and spare parts to Sudan as long as Mr. Bashir is in office.

Ya, good luck trying that. The Chinese could care less. They have a billion plus people to feed. For them Sudan makes business sense. 300,000+ Africans dropping dead like pins or not.

Meanwhile Bashir is busy celebrating and dancing on streets of Khartoum.

Last heard, George Clooney had contacted Dan Boyle in UK. He sees a good script in the making.

'Aadaa Paadaa'

U know how school kids can be so weird about Farting and stuff. Like they'll blame each other and giggle and make a huge deal about it.

So I had this friend in school who would rip a few and he would quickly point finger at the next unsuspecting kid; before any one could figure out that he has royally polluted their breathing space. It was the classic blame game defense mechanism.

Looks like ISI is acting like that obnoxious little school kid. They are blaming India for the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan Cricket Team.

I'd say the only way to resolve this conundrum now is to use the time proved - Aadaa Paadaa;

Too bad!

An EconomicTimes article on immigration says ....

[...]large parts of the general public are more than aware that a skewed welfare system, a generation of soft living, a screwed up education system, and a lack of available skills[...]

Sounds uncannily familiar? No, it's not uncle Sam we are talking here. It's their partner in all crimes, the Great Britain that's being referred.

As much as I hate to break this to the Brits, but, having too many facilities without having to pay for it have there own consequences. Too bad, you dug yourself into one hole...

In case you missed the big news gulping all those beers sitting on your snobbish little asses (and taking 3 months paid leaves), your big brother on the west of the Atlantic is currently dealing with his own screw ups. So good luck trying to get off that nanny state.

Hung!

So Israeli elections threw another Hung result today. This btw, is 5th Election in 10 years for Israeli parliament; that means, the election system over there has now stabilized into Chaos. A chaotic mix of popular opinion that is. With none really able to run first-past-the-post.

Not very dissimilar to what's happening in India. We have not had a single party majority since 1991. Actually if you look at it, since 1984! Coz for all practical purposes Narsimha Rao's 1992 government was a minority one too. And were it not for some suit cases making rounds of Delhi's corridors, it would have collapsed. So it's been around 20 years that we have had a single party rule.

I am not saying it's a bad thing. A coalition may be better option if the stake holders are responsible. One of the biggest problems with mixed election results is that too many buttons get pushed by the "kingmakers". For example there's a good chance that Mayawati would be our next PM; and not because of popular votes but because she has enough MPs to become the king maker.

It is being said that though Tzipi and Bibi won the same number of seats in Israel, the real winner is Liberman, head of the ultra-nationalist party Yisrael Beitenu. He would be calling the shots. Precisely my point.

Looks like both these nations need to think hard for coming up with a better system of electing.

20 million and counting

According to a Chinese official an estimated 20 million (!!) jobs have been lost in China over past few months. 20 million is a massive figure even by Chinese standards.

Now I generally don't feel sorry for Chinese people (this open prejudice of mine stems from a certain things that I have known/read over the period of time.., ), but I do feel sad for those folks. Because those who have lost jobs do not belong to the powerful politburo of China and / or their foot soldiers. The complete totalitarianism of China can be suffocating for people without the right "connections". And this is applicable not only for China. You can ask some one from West Bengal (or may be get a glimpse in Venezuela). Totalitarian regimes have a way about them. You just have to suck it up to them if you want to move up the food chain.

For all it's ills, I think I am lucky to have been born and brought up in India. And even though I do have very strong reservations about the Congress party and the Monarchy that came along as a package, I still need to take a moment to appreciate the fact that they have helped keep democracy alive in India. With all it's imperfections, corruption and rag-tag mess, it still is better as far as I can tell.

I mean imagine a Slumdog Millionaire, being made in China! Would the dreaded Army/Police (of the Tienanmen Square fame) allow such an open display of Human Rights abuse and so called minority victimization? I wonder if Dan Boyle could even have put his foot in there? A country that wouldn't allow youtube videos and blogs,...nah.. I am thinking it wouldn't have taken the Boyle guy lying down. For all we know, they may have literally boiled him.

You know what, if i don't have a job, that's only so much depressing. Not having job, and not having an option to express freely or "create" freely can really mess up my equilibrium big time. I mean if i don't have a job, I at least want a place to freely express my frustration. If you bottle up that option of mine, I think, there's a good chance I will throw up. And not in a good way.

Anyways, to each his own as they say.

Singularly Brilliant

The word brilliant cannot even begin to do justice to this.. "President Bush, because he was so easily demonized, made being a free-rider on American power easy for everyone — and Americans paid the price. Obama will not make it so easy."

Friedman, the dude... doesn't stop at that, does he?

"If you want Obama to succeed, though, don’t just show us the love, show us the money. Show us the troops. Show us the diplomatic effort. Show us the economic partnership. Show us something more than a fresh smile. Because freedom is not free and your excuse for doing less than you could is leaving town in January." {clap,clap,clap...}

I wish he would have added one more line - "Just coz Obama is President, Angels are not going to rule this world". I know he wants to say this but holding it back. He seems to have said this in as many words or more...

Financial Bloodbath

We din't see it coming. Or may be we did, but we were in denial. What a shocker this was? But was it? Lehman Brothers, one of the biggest investment bankers of our times collapsed yesterday. And how?

NYtimes thinks, today it would be AIG. The biggest Insurance company. AIG has already been downgraded by Moody to it's lowest ever.

Has excessive Greed finally caught on Capitalism? Should we now move to more government regulations as Obama and his campaign managers have already started suggesting? I don't know. But it makes sense to keep a balance for sure. (If I was Obama, btw, I would be very happy with timing of this news. Palinmania, was clearly shifting the sand under him since last two weeks. This Wall Street Bloodbath, should surely help him provide effective argument against Republican capitalism. Let's see how that cow is milked now)

Coming back to my earlier question though- is "evil" Capitalism finally finding it's nemesis? Has uncalibrated greed, made free market Capitalism a failed philosophy?

Before I write obituaries on Capitalism, let me put it this way - if Capitalism as a system is bad, should I move towards Socialism and may be it's more aggressive brother Communism? Meaning, if I loose all my money currently stocked in Fidelity,Chase etc( who knows they may collapse too), should I move to Venezuela ( a socialist dictator's nation) or to China (a Commie Giant) ?

I am thinking NO for now. You know why? Coz, Capitalism as a system has flaws.And when I chose to be a part of it, I knew it (or should have known it) had. No one was putting a gun on me to be a part of this "flawed" system. And what we are seeing today is, one of it's design flaws getting exposed. Now I have a choice. To become an eternal skeptic, like Michael Moore and Bill Maher, and whine about how bad capitalism is and how we are all doomed for ever, while sipping on a nice beer in an Air conditioned room watching the latest Hollywood movie or NFL game on my Plasma, or think hard. A little hard. Does capitalism system with all it's flaws, has a chance to bounce back?

Or more importantly, does a combination of Capitalism and Democracy have a chance to bounce back from this massive setback? Does the US ogre have the capacity to dust off it's butt and bounce back and walk again? Does the checks and balances mechanism work?

I would like to take a brief vacation from cynicism and I would go for later theory - believing that it *does* have a capacity to rebound, like it it did post Enron or post 2001 bubble burst. I mean, I would certainly like to believe that China with it's water tight control over all banks and hard wired regulations is certainly "safer" than the greedy un regulated banks of USA. Or for that matter since Chavez of Venezeula has nationalized everything in sight in his small hapless nation, we should all move to that great socialist "paradise". But I am thinking no. Crisis, keep coming. What's important is, do we as a people, as a system have that ability to re calibrate, recode, regroup to bounce back. Does the system we are in allows us enough leverage to correct it's flaws?

If the answer is yes, I feel it's a rational argument to stick back. Take a deep breath, take a few steps back and re-code the broken piece, rather than just pulverize the whole system itself and say we are Doomed. Leave that job to Bill Maher or as Greeks would say to Cassandra.

I am no blind supporter of USA or Capitalism per se. I don't pretend they are flawless. I am very well aware of their flaws. And, I, as a responsible semi-citizen am equally accountable for it's problems as I myself have made a choice to be a part of this "flawed" system. Nobody forced me to. (Like nobody forced lower middle class people who could not afford to buy mansions at sub prime rates. They were "incentive-ized" alright, but they got themselves into the black hole, like some people going to Las Vegas casinos do)

My problem is I am equally aware of the "other" or alternative systems around the world that are currently looking at me and my professional home (the USA) with a sarcastic - SEE-I-TOLD-YOU-SO look. And I am telling them in my mind, nah.. sorry, enjoy your sarcastic laugh for all you want to.. you are still wishing down in your heart somewhere.. "I should have been there.."

*******

P.S : I am currently reading an excellent book called - "The Geography of Bliss". And this book is what I was looking for since a while. Written by Eric Weiner, of National Public Radio. The book is making a lot of sense to me. More on it later.

Women burried alive

5 Women were buried alive in Pakistan because they wanted to choose their own husbands


"A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of parliament this week to spare him their outrage."

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Presidential Race

By all accounts the Obama vs McCain race is amongst the most interesting political races of last few decades. McCain today picked up Governor of Alaska - Palin, for his choice of Veep. After Democratic nominee, Barak Obama, gave a stirring speech last night, one of his best I have heard, it was McCain camp's time for hogging some spotlight and remove some wind out of Obama's storm.

By announcing a female conservative women as his VP nominee, McCain has to some extent taken out the thunder out of Obamania. But will this be enough?

This race is interesting because to an extent both candidates are not run-of-the-mill nominees. This race is "colorful" (no pun intended). McCain has gone against his party's line of thinking a few times and Obama seems to at times talk pragmatic politics over partisan one. Both candidates do not come off as hard core ideologues to me, but what do I know?

Obama looks to have the momentum, energy and lead at this time. But this could be deceptive. There may be a build up of groundswell for McCain in rural America, which will show up in polls only later in the race. Who knows? One cardinal rule of Election analysis is to "never under-estimate the force" (As Sunny Deol once said)

If Obama wins this race ultimately though, it would be a historic moment for America and even for the world as we know. A pre-dominantly white country electing a semi-Black man, to it's most powerful post, will be monumental and infinitely appealing. USA will once again lead by action and not mere words. To that effect Obama's win can go a long way in lifting the sagging image of USA around the world.

But is that what it is all about? Image? What even if USA's image improves, as we think, it will? Will it be enough to counter the growing domestic issues , some real , some perceived. The important question the US voter needs to ask to herself or himself is who will make a better president?

As a non-citizen and an outsider, I am more interested in how the America of today will tackle this question? I have limited stake in who becomes the president. In a lot of ways it does not affect me one way or the other. My interest is more out of curiosity to see how this functional democracy responds to a significant moment in it's history.

I don't really buy into the Democrats blame game of "more of the same" if McCain comes to power. I think his term, if it happens, will be qualitatively different from Bush's. I also do not buy Republicans argument that Obama will be a disaster on foreign policy and his perceived lack of experience will be bad. Both these arguments don't stick as far as I am concerned. Both candidates, at least on paper have a potential to bring some freshness to the governing. And that is what I am interested in. Will Americans trust with their country's faith with a Harvard educated, suave, and eloquent speaker or will they hand it over to a veteran of a war. What America decides can have a rippling effect outside it's shores.

The race is too close to call currently and I think, it will unfold in coming weeks, what approach is taken by each side. I have a feeling that negative campaigns won't fly with general public. If a candidate focuses on other sides negatives and keeps harping about it, he won't make any substantial gains. John Kerry's democrats did that mistake. They kept on attacking Bush so hard and on so many occasions, they lost the focus on what alternative were they offering to the people. People want to know, what is that, that you bring to the table. They already know so and so is bad. So don't keep reminding them that.

McCain and Obama both should learn from the badly executed campaign of Kerry. Criticize your opponent but don't make "attacking other side" as your campaign's base theme. Tell clearly what you are offering instead.

If I was a campaign manger I would create a 70-30 model. 30% negative attack, 70% positive alternative. The 30% of attack is important because, you don't allow the other side to run over you in politics and keep it guessing where the next one is coming from. The 70% +ve is for the people, who want to listen to the solution you are offering and not bothered about how bad other candidate is.
You can only hope and not ensure winning election by default. Meaning- "the other guy is so bad, you should elect me to keep him from coming to power. So elect me by default." This does not work, even if you hope. And hope is not strategy. It is an abstract emotion.

Edurance unlimited

Even as the Beijing 2008 Olympics came to an end, there's no doubt in my mind that it meant many things for many people around the world.

For people who keenly follow geo-politics, it was no less than a Chinese "statement" announcing it's grand arrival on world stage with a bang. No where was that statement more underlined than at the opening ceremony of these Olympics. There was an unmistakable machismo associated with that sensational exhibitionism and show of grandiose on Day 1.
2000 young Chinese men shouting out their lungs and beating drums marked the ARRIVAL of China on world stage, like never before.

It was never in doubt that China was going to use these Olympic games as a showpiece event. And China spent a whopping 43 billion USD to do what they finally did. (The London Olympics budget is 1/3rd of this even 4 years from now). Just shows how much these games meant for the 1.3 billion people of China. The People's Republic did not let it's people down. Brand China came out as the ultimate winner of these games.

If the opening and closing show was spectacular, the Medal tally of Team China was nothing less than a miracle. 51 golds, 21 silver and 28 bronze medals, a whooping 100 overall medals left little doubt in the sporting world, who was the next ogre. China finished in style.
It picked up about half it's golds only from 3 events - Gymnastics, Diving and Weight Lifting. Tells you of their incredible strike rate. It was a well planned effort. They focussed on events that would have highest returns.


If China's medal tally was story 1, story 2 would have to be Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. If the Jamaican thunder bolt, made a mess of all records in athletics, Michael Phelps made a mockery of all previous swimming records. When Phelps left Beijing, he had broken 7 world records out of the potentially 8 he could have. Usain Bolt on the other hand was part of 3 record breaking efforts. These two are super humans. Phelps with 8 golds had more than 20% of total US gold medals.

Great Britain put a neat overall performance and came close 4th only behind Russia in medal tally. Coming ahead of teams like Germany and France would be specially sweet for the Brits.

Another story for me was the silver medal win by Afghanistan. Rohullah Nikpai's of this war torn country won it's country's first ever medal in Taekwondo . Truly a great hero.

I had a lump in my throat when Abhinav Bindra stood on the podium and India's national anthem was played. But Vijendra and Sushil Kumar's win were no less sweet for 1 billion Indians.

In the end, Olympics is about breaking new barriers of human endurance. Both mental and physical. How long, how high, how deep can you push the human envelope. At what point, would it break? If 9.69 seconds in 100 meters is not good enough, what is? Are we going to see some one break that record soon? May be Bolt himself.

Just as Bolt completed his 100 meters race, a thought struck in my mind. What if half of the humanity became half as fit as Bolt - wouldn't we solve the world energy crisis :) ? Think.

I would also like to mention that one of the reasons I got hooked to this years Olympics is a well packaged presentation by NBC. The other day I read a report in Hindustan Times, about how India's Doordarshan had messed up it's Olympics telecast big time. A cousin, in India, I spoke to told me the same. He said no one was really following Olympics there.
Luckily NBC is pretty professional and if I was from Chinese government, I would send across special thanks to NBC for being agents of these games promotion for the North American audience. Not only did NBC focus on sports, it took us to various facets of Chines culture. It was truly fascinating.

I am going to the Gym now. Hope this Olympic fever does not fade out soon. I will be resting my bums on the couch a little less.

(Naa) Pak Hand

NYTimes reports - Pak hand in Indian Embassy attack in Kabul

Aah!, now thats news?

Radovan Karadzic

Then and Now


"The former Bosnian Serb leader lived under an assumed name for years and worked as a doctor of alternative medicine. He wore thick glasses and grew a bushy beard and long hair, which he wore in a plaited topknot, to hide a well-known face."

Exactly

Friedman makes a very appropriate point in his last column.

Quite frankly I am a little tired of America bashing now. The world at large, I feel, needs to look at itself and in the mirror before conveniently blaming everything on the "evil big brother". Apparently most of these 'hate america' folks go to sleep every night thinking they have done with their quota of America bashing for the day; and now angels will come and rule the world. And they are all around the world. I specifically remember a group of young,cool, hip French dudes at a cafe in Paris who were interviewed by Friedman for his "Flat World" documentary on Discovery Channel. Those guys were spewing venom on USA as Friedman did not even bother to reason with them.

I am in the midst of writing a post about my views about America. But for now, it is my considered opinion that USA is not all about oil, bombing, invading etc. There's another side which is never passionately discussed as much as the so called "evil" side.

Quote of the day

“If you sleep on the floor you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”

This quote i picked up from the master's article. The big boss of contemporary writing - Mr.Thomas Friedman.

This guys' amazing or what!

How about - "While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java."

And this one's the best - "Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs."

Topping it up with - "Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable"

Brilliant is the word i guess.