Watch this video carefully. Now I'm sure you'll be saying "Oh the poor kids" throughout the video, but do pause and think about what it means for the understanding of human nature. I'd appreciate if you could comment below on the video.

Enjoy

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Post-It Bullying

How much water you consume through the day?

MORNING:
2 Poo-Poo Flushes: 12 gallons
10 min in shower: 38 gallons
5 min Faucet use: 25 gallons
TOTAL MORNING USE: 75 gallons

BREAKFAST (to get it to your table):
1 cup coffee: 37 gallons
1 egg : 36 gallons
1 apple : 18 gallons
TOTAL : 91 gallons

LUNCH (to get it to your table):
1 bottle soda: 33 gallons
1 hamburger : 634 gallons
TOTAL : 667 gallons

DINNER (to get it to your table):
1 pound beef: 1500 gallons
1 glass wine: 31 gallons
2 bread slice:22 gallons
Dish washing: 20 gallons
TOTAL : 1573 gallons

MISCELLANEOUS:
Energy, faucets, flushes: 500 gallons

TOTAL WATER CONSUMED DURING DAY: 2906 (~3000 gallons)

AMOUNT THAT CAN BE SAVED USING BETTER ALTERNATIVES: At-least 2270 gallons

Please see the image below for details and sources




Source: http://www.good.is/post/transparency-how-much-water-do-you-use/

Some more Resources to aid your research:
1) Virtual Water
2) Water Footprint
3) Deja Poo: Converting Waste water to Non-potable water

All these links thanks to FlowingData

Obama was supposed to give a harmless talk on how school children should own up their responsibilities and start acting more maturely. According to a White House spokesman (according to CNN):
"The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate. This isn't a policy speech. It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school."

In other words, this is something Obama is deeply committed for and has spoken about that several times even during his election campaign. But the lunatic right wing has begun to oppose the speech even before it is read out. Why? Because they feel Obama will try to push his "socialist" agenda through children and try to indoctrinate them with this "communist" ideology. Several fringey parents are supposedly calling up their childrens' schools and asking them not to show the online address to the kids. And need I talk about Glenn Beck and Hannity jumping into this?

Anyways, this entire episode reminded me of George Bush's approach to educating the youth of America. Doesn't anyone still remember how remarkably hilarious it was? Well, here's a sampler...

Why Jaswant Singh fell:
1) He had served in the party for 30 long years. He was also the external minister in BJP's rule. His support base was big, he had made several contributions to the party and India during his time in the govt and he was well-liked and respected even outside his party. Poor Mr. Singh must have thought that he was an indispensable cog in the party, more so being an honest party worker. He thought he was an important part of BJP.

2) But the so-called "Next Generation" of the BJP had little regard for that (or maybe it was just Rajnath Singh with his desire to seem macho, or maybe some "invisible" forces acting in the party??).

3) Jaswant Singh antagonized too many people at one time. He antagonized Advani and Jaitley by putting forth his logic of "Parinam" and "Puraskar". No one uses Hindi terms now a days in logic. He also antagonized Sushma Swaraj by pointing out that she was more junior than her and still she got the Deputy Leader post in Lok Sabha. He antagonized the RSS and the hard-liners in BJP by his book on Jinnah.
In politics, this is a strict no-no. Antagonizing so many people in one shot? Maybe it works if you kill two birds in one shot. But if you are just going to hurt them, and the birds are in politics, you better watch out.

4) Singh thought he was saying the same thing that Advani said a couple of years back, so he could take shelter in that argument. But Advani was essential then, he was the PM-in-waiting, Jaswant Singh was clearly dispensible. MP from Darjeeling? Who cares a damn for that? With 116 MPs anyways, who cares if it becomes 115?

5) Suprise, Suprise! The same leaders who were antagonized by Jaswant Singh now form part of the very committee that decides the future direction of the party! Under the garb of ridding party of factionalism and bringing the crumbling party together after its Lok Sabha loss, they act on Jaswant Singh. And boy, do they show all the others who dare to disagree with the "High Command" !

What to watch out for now in the BJP:

1) Watch out for a more hypocrite BJP.

2) Watch how BJP becomes more Hindutva-oriented and tries to dangle some carrots of development now and then, without really doing it anywhere except Gujarat. Also watch out for some statements about "National movement against price rise" and "Nation-wide agitation against UPA's collusion with terrorists" and such garbage...

3) Watch out for the executions of the likes of Arun Shourie and maybe, Yashwant Sinha next (if he doesnt keep his bloody mouth shut!)

4) Watch out how several development-minded, educated youngsters feel discouraged and disillusioned by the acts of the party. If difference of opinion is not being tolerated in the name of maintaining party discipline, should all the workers be doing only what a dozen people in the High Command think?

5) Watch out for some farcical statements out of the "Chintan Baithak"

Maybe I am being too pessimistic. Polyticks is a rapidly changing game. Who knows, maybe Jaswant Singh may be re-inducted on the condition of being more passive? Maybe things will go in the right direction, with the new leaders showing some vision for the party in the future? Its possible, but given the recent happenings, it seems highly unlikely.

Another interesting observation is how devastated the party becomes after each defeat in the LS polls....crumbles further. On the other hand, since BJP came to be established in 1980, it lost several LS elections before finally coming to power in 1998. But everytime, after every loss, the party emerged stronger. What we see now is exactly the opposite.

I wonder what you - the readers - think are the reasons why this is happening. Hunger for power? Visionless leadership? Lack of tall leaders? Normal cycle of politics? Anything else? Please post a comment noting your view.

UPDATE:
Here's a nice cartoon by Shreyas Navare, a cartoonist at Hindustan Times on the Singh fiasco.

I wonder now...really ripped?

Its one thing when you have the figures and another thing when you have to make a convincing case out of it. After watching this video, if you get pumped up to eat local,here's a link to try out:
Eat Local Challenge which gives you the list of Farmers Markets in your area.

Enjoy the video

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

Channel 4 - Dispatches (June 2009) - Terror in Mumbai from Mskadu on Vimeo.

The Eye of the Sauron was supposed to be the most evil being on Middle Earth. Few could endure it. Those who could lost their minds and their will to live. We do not really have an exact equivalent of The Eye in the real world, but the media is the closest thing possible. Anything "The Media" lays its gaze upon finds itself in deep $#it. The power of The Media is infinite. It can change people's destinies,bring down governments and usher in revolutions that can change the course of mankind.

We have been witnessing that power, and the mockery made of it, for the past few months now.

It all started with the elections in Iran and the utter joke that was made of democracy in that country. The media,which was present in large numbers in Iran,was very enthusiastic in reporting the first few days of the retaliation. These few days - the seas of green it showed - were enough to trigger an international show of support for the Iranians. The animosity towards Iran soon turned into sympathy and people began to learn that Iranians are so much similar to those anywhere else in the world! #iranelection became the most popular hashtag on Twitter and the outpouring of tweets loaded with emotions and support for the Iranians seemed to have no end. People here in the US created multiple proxies which allowed the Iranians to blog and post pictures and videos even while the Iranian caliphate was vying for their blood.

Then arrived the news of Michael Jackson's death. The "Eye of Sauron" turned from Tehran to the Neverland Ranch. Stories about dying Nedas and beaten protestors took a backseat, and speculations of how Jackson may have been extra-drugged and reports of hordes of fans camping outside the Ranch enduring the absence of toilets became rife. In no time, the world forgot what was happening in Iran.

Ayatollah Khameini and Ahmedinejad must have probably looked at Jackson's death as a blessing. #iranelection had paved way to "Michael Jackson" as the trending topic. In Iran, the government got more violent and successfully clamped down on protestors, Ahmedinejad gave a public address patting himself on the back and thousands of arrested protesters continued to be tortured in the prisons. With the collapse of the moral and the infrastructural support from the western public, whatever remained of the online resistance came down rapidly.

Soon the media was onto something more interesting (or maybe not!). Sarah Palin! Her bummer of a resignation statement on the eve of the Independence Day was enough to get the speculators excited. Why is she doing it? 2012 presidential run? Lawsuits? Money problems? Moral issues? FBI investigations? Some of the speculators went berserk with wild theories.

Then the pundits had a field day in analysing Obama's visit to Russia. Why didnt the Russians praise Michelle's dress, as everyone does? Why werent the Russians wowed by Obama's charm, as everyone is? Why wasnt Obama able to draw huge crowds in Russia, as they turn up everywhere else he goes? One headline went to the extent of stating "Obama girls take Russia by storm" when the contents of the news spoke about how they looked around the Kremlin and how the younger one was excited about seeing Russia.

One might argue that the media has been dutifully reporting incidents like the Uyghur uprising in China, the protestors march in Iran, the killing of militants in Pakistan and so on. Yes it has, which is good, but the proportion is disproportionately low. As a proof, just scroll down all the way to the bottom of this page and take a look at the "Newsmap" on the right hand sidebar.

It needs to be noted that in these 2 months, the world has changed dramatically.
It is foolish to suggest that if Michael Jackson had not died, the Iranian resistance would have swelled into a revolution,displaced the Islamic rulers and changed the world order. It is also pointless to say that the media should not report these news. It just needs to be remembered though that we need to be sensitive to whats happening in the world, and know what constitutes real news.
Ultimately, the media churns out only the things that the consumers want. Once WE realise whats important and not let go of the focus, we can ALSO make the media not loose focus...And keep the "Eye of the Sauron" looking intently at what can potentially change the world.

A short, funny film about the thoughts of a growing boy about girls...absolutely fantastic and you should see this

-- The protests will grow. However, in absence of a clear direction, they will not have a defined strategy and organisation, making it easier for the government to crackdown on the protesters. However, this wont be fulfilled using the police and the Basij militia due to the sheer scale of the protests.
-- Government will try to clamp down by deploying the Revolutionary Guards. The interactions would get more violent.
-- The protesters will soon feel the need to have superior arms as compared to stones and kerosene they are using currently. Small groups of enthusiastic youngsters will try and make bombs and firearms.
-- Israel and US will try to supply arms and intelligence to some such groups. Israel, especially because it doesnt want a stable Iran. US has a lot of personnel in Iraq, wouldnt be difficult for them to slip a few Iraqis into Iran. Reports suggest Britain also has some hand in the protests.
-- The armed protesters will start targeting members of the so-called "Basij" militia, since they are the most easy targets. They are trying to do that even now, on a smaller scale.
-- The government clampdown will become more violent, and many Iranians will be killed.
-- There will be increasing international pressure on Iran to end the clampdown and have a rerun of the elections, this time with neutral observers.


This is where things get unpredictable. If Iran decides to hold re-elections Ahmedinijad would be very upset. This decision would also undermine the authority of Ayatollah Khomeini. The new government would be hostile to the Ayatollah. Given all these, it is unlikely that the elections will be held again.

If they are not held, several small militant groups will rise in Iran, making it unstable. The government crackdown on these militias will go on for a long time. However, international geopolitics will allow for some resistance groups to stay alive for a long time.

If you havent read the book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (which I have read 15 times, maybe more....and believe me, I am not counting!! ), you should. Its the most unimaginably imaginative and atrociously senseless book out there. Here are some gems from Douglas Adams books and around:

* He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.

* I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

* It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear.

* Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

* Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

* Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart.

* Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

* The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.

* There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened.

* You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

* Life is like a grapefruit. Well, it's sort of orangy-yellow and dimpled on the outside, wet and squidgy in the middle. It's got pips inside, too. Oh, and some people have a half a one for breakfast.

* I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer

* Arthur: 'It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to my mother.' Ford : 'Why, what did she say?' Arthur: 'I don't know, I never listened.

* Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules

* Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds

* The mere thought hadn't even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.

* “We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!”

* “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

* “It is known that there are an infinte number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely products of a deranged imagination.”

* "The problem with designing something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of a complete fool. "

* "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

* "The universe is a lot more complicated than you might think even if you start from a position of thinking that its pretty damn complicated to begin with."

* "This tastes almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea."

* "So long...and thanks for all the fish!"

According to Telegraph:
Propaganda films obtained by The Sunday Telegraph in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, show boys of 14 or 15 recording farewell messages before climbing into vehicles filled with explosives.
...

One film which Pakistanis have been watching with horrified fascination shows a boy of about 15, named in the video as Arshad Ali from Swat, who attacked a polling station after the Taliban banned voting last year.

Sitting with an AK-47 cradled in his lap and fiddling with prayer beads, he stares into the camera. Speaking calmly, he said that the people of Swat were living in evil times and that sacrifice was called for.

"Some hypocrites say that we are doing this for money - or because of brainwashing - but we are told by Allah to target these pagans," he said, in a reference to government claims that the families of suicide bombers were paid after the attacks.

He said: "I invite my fellows to sacrifice themselves".

The moving story about the tactics used by Taliban can be found by clicking this.

The Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) swept the 2009 elections in India. Dreams and ambitions of some people who expected to be power-players and kingmakers were ruthlessly crushed in this Congress wave, while others received votes for their good developmental records. The pattern evident from the election results is that people want good governance, and I am not making this cliched statement for no reason. Here are examples to support my argument:

1) Gujarat
Narendra Modi of the BJP is wildly popular in Gujarat due to various developmental projects he has initiated. In the past eight years, he has brought a lot of jobs and investment into Gujarat, at the same time, providing the state with a reasonably high degree of shield from terrorist attacks. BJP won 15 of the 26 seats, one more than what it had won last time. Modi had also swept the assembly elections a couple of years ago, and remains poised to do so the next time around, one reason also being absence of any strong opposition leader in Gujarat.

2) Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan of the BJP has also initiated several developmental projects in the state. Although devoid of industrial investments and economic prosperity, the CM has popular schemes targeted towards women and the girl child. The state also has initiatives geared towards water and electric supply, procuring farmers produces and health of the population. Although not as flamboyant as Narendra Modi, he is well respected and is popular in a state largely consisting of rural areas. And as he rightly realises, the next elections are going to be about "development"

3) Andhra Pradesh
YSR Reddy of the Congress, the CM of Andhra Pradesh has reached out to the rural areas. While his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP put Hyderabad on the world stage as a popular BPO destination, Reddy has paid more attention to the non-urban areas, from where most of the vote comes. As a result, the Congress not only won a comfortable number of Parliamentary seats from the state, but also swept the assembly elections held concurrent to the national elections.

4) Uttar Pradesh
Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ruled Uttar Pradesh as a queen, and she desperately hoped and truly believed to be the kingmaker, even being the Queen of India herself. But her politics of caste and corruption, alongwith the rise of the Gandhi scion, put a huge dent in her Prime Ministerial ambitions. After the elections, in which she won just 21 seats while hoping for more than 40, she fired hundreds of people appointed by her in state-run agencies and transferred several IPS and IAS officers. Just today, she warned the remaining and the newly appointed officials that if they dont work on her developmental schemes, they'd have to face action. She also said:

"I will verify from the state intelligence department about this and if any irregularity is found, action will be taken against the officers first and accountability of ministers concerned will also be fixed"

It was heartening to see the state which has been a hotbed of communalism, casteism and corruption vote for developmental issues for a change. The wake-up call from Uttar Pradesh for the politicians has been the most impactful call in a long time. Hope this trend stays on.

5) Bihar
Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD ruled Bihar from 1990 to 2004 in a tenure marked with scandals, rise of powerful mafia politicians and extremely dirty politics. In 2004, The Economist said:

"Bihar [had] become a byword for the worst of India, of widespread and inescapable poverty, of corrupt politicians indistinguishable from mafia-dons they patronise, caste-ridden social order that has retained the worst feudal cruelties"

The World Bank believed that

"The issues faced by the state was "enormous" because of "persistent poverty, complex social stratification, unsatisfactory infrastructure and weak governance"

Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal, accompanied by the BJP, came to power in 2005, and since then the political landscape has drastically changed. The CM launched a big crackdown on corruption and paid an emphasis on education and development. His initiatives were rewarded by the voters who came out in mass numbers to vote for the NDA, which secured 32 of the 40 seats from Bihar. Again, this example suggests that people are now becoming more confident in rejecting the criminal parties of yesterday

6) Orissa
One of the most downtrodden, poverty-stricken states of the country, largely tribal in nature. Severly neglected by the previous administration of the past 50 years for their own greed and self-interest. Naveen Patnaik, the CM of Orissa won 14 of the 21 seats this time around in national elections and 103 of the 147 assembly seats, finally retaining power in the state. He, like the CMs mentioned above, has also paid good attention to developmental projects in the state.

7) Chattisgarh
Raman Singh, the BJP CM from Chattisgarh, is also hailed as a development icon. He has had a mixed success in dealing with the Naxalite movement, which affects his state the most in the Red Belt. His most popular scheme was rice at Rs. 3/kg for downtrodden people, and he largely was successful in implementing it. However, still a lot needs to be done in this central state to develop it further.

All of these examples suggest quite convincingly that given a chance and the proof that their vote would not go in vain, Indian voters would vote for the better candidate and the better party. The Indian voter in this election has made full use of this very rare chance. Dr. Manmohan Singh's government, on the other hand, has also reciprocated by appointing trusted, respected and reliable ministers in the cabinet. All of these ministers have been asked to provide a report at the end of 100 days of the administration and a quarterly review. Rahul Gandhi also has been talking a lot more about good governance lately.

I'd want to hope that this state lasts and India gets a long period of good governance, governance that can raise the quality of living of almost one-sixth of the world's population staying within the Indian borders. But I am also quite sure that 2013 is going to be a very different battlefield. If someone thought that Indian politics is moving towards being bipolar, they are being short-sighted. Evolution is pretty fast in politics, one must know.

More thoughts about that coming soon....

The elections in India just concluded and the results bet all expectations. Polling pundits had predicted a severely fractured mandate with the leading parties - The Congress Party led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) getting almost equal number of seats. The exit polls had predicted that the Third Front and Fourth Front, comprising of self-serving regional parties, would have a greater sway in forming the next government and would be king-makers. But the electorate made the poll pundits bite the dirt once again, as in 2004.

The UPA gave a very strong performance with 262 seats, just 10 short of a majority of 272 needed to form the government. The Third Front - dominated by the Left wing and communist parties - and the Fourth Front - of regional parties in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were relegated to insignificant numbers. The NDA, on the other hand, could not accomplish its mission of unseating the UPA in this elections.

The BJP is now in an introspection mode. It should realise that it had no chances of forming the government in the first place. BJP rode to power in 1997 and 1998 due to the Vajpayee wave. The whole BJP machinery was synchronised and moving in one direction. BJP had a vision for India. There were tall leaders in the party - Vajpayee, Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj. Their leaders were honest and clean and educated. The urban population identified with these leaders and voted largely in favor of the BJP.

In 1998, BJP had good relations with the RSS. While the slick urban leaders galvanised the urban voters, the identification of RSS with BJP consolidated its rural vote. Then was also the honeymoon period of the Hindutva movement, which struck a deep chord in certain sections of the Hindu community who came out in numbers to campaign for the BJP.

1998 was also the birth year of coalition politics. The various regional parties part of the NDA were getting their first taste of national politics. It was probably easier then, than now, to get those parties together in a coalition. In the past ten years, politics has evolved and so have the political agendas. The parties have learnt how to bargain and get an unfair share of power.

Moreover, the Congress did not have a leader then. Sonia Gandhi had just entered politics and grabbed the helms of the Congress Party ruined by Sitaram Kesari. She did not know how to speak Hindi and it was easy to convince voters that she was an outsider. The Congress Party had only Sonia Gandhi to project as the Prime Ministerial candidate. In the past ten years, things have changed. Sonia Gandhi is considered more of an Indian than some of the Indian born people themselves. She is well respected and is admired within the Indian public. BJP's victory ten years ago was because Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the only tall leader in national politics then. BJP didnt have that luxury in 2009.

BJP also faltered on several issues in this poll campaign. They couldnt make enough alliances. They projected L.K. Advani as the leader, who despite being an intelligent and worthy politician, had the age factor against him. The BJP also failed in acting like a united party. Its machinery was in shambles and there were internal squabbles. Its campaign was lacklustre and it failed to raise the quality of the debate. BJP was not driving the debate; infact there was no debate at all in this elections.
It failed to guage the impact of several regional parties and the influence of the Congress at the grassroots level. BJP also failed to stem the vote loss from previously saffron states like Rajasthan and states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The party will need to focus on these states for 2013.

In short, 2009 was a completely different battleground than 1998. And so will be 2013. Next time, the number of allies are going to decrease. BJP may have to go on its own, and it is better to assume that while planning for 2013. BJP needs a coherant strategy for 2013 which shouldnt be based solely on giving tickets to the right candidates. The party needs to go in an entire new direction. Here are some ways the party might think of evolving now:

1) Abandon the Babri Masjid issue. It has lost all relevance now. Do not talk about it at all.
2) Form a shadow cabinet and wherever required, start a logical debate on policy issues. Make the people realise that BJP stands for policy and it can provide better policies than the Congress.
3) Do not raise arguments for argument's sake. Support the government wherever required and be vocal about it. Let the people know that BJP stands for good governance and better politics. People seem to have realised that the Indian Opposition Parties oppose for the sake of opposition. This does not fit into what we hold ideal in our day-to-day lives. This contrast makes the opposition parties look even more detestable. Support good policies and attack the wrong policies with civility. Indian politics will also gain a new direction that way.
5) Make the CMs of the BJP-ruled states push the development plank like never before. Modi is prefered as a leader in Gujarat because of his development initiatives. Make all the other Chief Ministers revolutionise their own states.
6) Use new means of technology to reach a wider audience. Do it right from Day 1 and not 3 months before the elections. Do not try to just reach the Indian audience but the audience aborad as well.
7) Find new means to attract sections of the Indian public. Organise events targeted towards vote banks. Attract Muslims, media persons, highly skilled graduates, scientists and professionals, farmers and daily wage workers into the party fold. Only then would the organisation be strengthened.
8) Find an acceptable leader. In an article written in 2004, I had predicted Sushma Swaraj as the leader after Lal Krishna Advani. That is now coming true. Sushma Swaraj is best suited for this role, given the deeply polarising nature of Narendra Modi.

Politics need not be dirty and vile and wily. A party can only achieve power NOT JUST if it is worthy of doing so, but if it successfully convinces the public that it is indeed worthy. In the coming days, the BJP needs to work towards attaining this goal.

As the results for India's elections wait to be tallied and released on May 16th, one reporter from TIME noted,
"As impressive as the scale of of India's exercise in democracy may be, so is it notable for its almost complete lack of debate over real issues."
Rightly so. This has been primarily because of the extensive domination of the dozens of regional parties in the Indian politics. There are almost 2-3 regional parties in every state, other than the main BJP and Congress. The national elections have been trivialized to hundreds of local elections, with really no substantive issues in the picture. A vast majority of the voters will have voted either because:

1) They were offered money or non-vegetarian food by the local candidate OR
2) They liked the candidate or the party, not bothering to read their manifestos and question their stand on various issues OR
3) They were frustrated with one or more candidate from the other party OR
4) Their village leader/caste leader/community leader TOLD them to go and vote for a particular candidate OR
5) They were forced to vote by a particular candidate at gunpoint

Very few, and that includes very few urban voters, did actually take time to sit and think about who would be a better party at the center. And that is exactly why we are seeing all this mess in Indian politics right now. Nobody cares.

The influence of the regional parties has grown beyond acceptable limits. A nation is like the human body. There is the brain, which is the government, which directs the nation in a particular direction. All other body-parts are needed to OBEY the orders of the brain. In this case, all other organs are tremendously influencing the functioning of the brain and that gives rise to serious disorders, as we are seeing in the Indian polity right now.

In the last 4 years, the Left parties (Communist Party of India etc) won around 60 seats, and were quite influential in implementing their ideology in the functioning of the government. All the progress initiated by the BJP-led government in privatization, deregulation, free markets etc was halted and in some cases, reversed. Small parties like the Samajwadi Party with its 30-odd MPs was capable of bringing down the government (they didnt, but were capable, and they threatened). Coalition politics has acted as a super-barrier in the progress of the nation as a whole.

In the 2014 elections (if not earlier), we may see a rising influence of Mayawati's BSP, Laloo Yadav's RJD, Mulayam's SP and Sharad Pawar's NCP. Unless, something is done about it. Lets hope Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi can manage to pull of the nationalisation of Indian politics

I came across this innovative social program in India being implemented around Mumbai and Pune in the field of education.

India is a country with over a billion people. However, in terms of the Human Development Index, it ranks a measly 132nd. One major factor behind such a low rank is the literacy rate - which stands at 61%. Several Indians have made it big in the world - Sunil Mittal, Vinod Khosla, Indra Nooyi to name a few. All of them and several millions more, however, were fortunate enough to not have to worry about their early education. People like me went to schools, colleges, earned our degrees and arrived at this stage in our life. All this while, we took the facility of education for granted.

However, a huge number of families across India cannot afford basic educational necessities like books and instruments. Estimates suggest that almost 80% of the Indian population lives on a daily pay of $1.50 or less. Although the Government of India has subsidized education for the lower income groups, there is still a lot of scope for improvement, and several NGOs are thus working in the field of education in India.

Sewa Sahayog, an affiliate of the Sewa International group, is an NGO working for the education of children of the low income groups through several year-round activities. In one such program, Sewa Sahayog is distributing school kits worth Rs. 200 ($5) to several needy children. The school kit comprises of basic necessities like notebooks, a bag and writing and geometry instruments. More information about the program can be found in the poster attached and their websites:
1) http://www.schoolkit.in/
2) http://www.sewausa.org/
You can get a list of last year's beneficiaries here:
http://www.schoolkit.in/beneficiaries

Donors are invited to give atleast $5 towards this program and bring smiles on the faces of the under-privileged children in India. Every $5 donated goes towards purchase of a school kit, and one can donate in multiples of $5.

Donations can be made online here. Donations are through Google Checkout and PayPal and are secure.
http://www.sewausa.org/contribute-sewa-usa

Note:
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I have always liked the roles played by Zoeey Deschanel. Here's one I'm eagerly looking forward to.

500 days of Summer

The crisis in Nepal is getting worse. Reports today morning said that the Nepali Maoist PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, had resigned. This was after his government's decision to fire the current Army chief Gen Rukmangad Katawal was rejected by the President Ram Baran Yadav.

There have been conflicts between the army chief, who under the rule of King Gyanendra two years earlier, had waged a war against the Maoists, before they laid down their arms and decided to enter the mainstream politics. After the Maoists came to power in 2008, they sacked several generals whom they felt were anti-Maoists. They also started recruitment of the Maoists into the army. All this was frustrating the army, which was resisting all these moves by the Maoist government. In the past few months, Gen Katawal had started reinstatement of some of the generals sacked by the Maoist government, and had continued recruitment for the Army despite orders against it by the government. The Army even pulled out of the National Games where they had to participate alongside the Maoists. It was also reported that the Army was planning a "soft coup" to overthrow the government. All this was irking Prachanda even more. He wanted to replace Katawal with the Maoist friendly Kul Bahadur Khadka. Similarly, he wanted the members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) who held officer-ranks in PLA to be integrated and have appropriate ranks in the Nepalese Army. This manipulation of the Army was being resisted by the Army chief

The Army chief had retained his position despite the above due to aggressive public lobbying by India, and also some by the United States. Gen. Katawal is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) and he is seen as pro-India. India had concerns that the rise of communism in Nepal, its northern neighbour, may lead to an increased influence of China in the region as well as provide safe havens for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to operate. The integration of the 19,000 strong PLA Army into the Nepalese Army would have accelerated the process of the rise of communism. India and the US did not want that. Prachanda was resisting this lobbying effort very hard. The sacking of the army chief was being seen as a very big failure for Indian diplomacy.

But reports today say that the Prime Minister has resigned. Experts were worried about the rise of dictatorship in Nepal, but that has seemingly not happened. The Maoists have said that they will continue a peaceful struggle against the President and come to power again this time with a good majority. Not surprisingly, they have also blamed India for the debacle. If the Maoists come to power now, which they will soon, the dynamics between the two countries would change drastically. Nepal would move more closer to China and Myanmar. China has been propping up the Maoist struggle for a long time, not just because of the ideological equivalence, but also Nepal's proximity to India and Tibet. China's success in Tibet and South Asia depends to some extent on it securing Nepal for itself.

This is very bad news for India, for whom Nepal has been a very friendly country till now. The Army chief was due to retire anyways in three months. India's strategy in Nepal may have been beneficial in the short term, but it runs the risk of isolating the people of Nepal, who wouldnt want a foreign country meddling in their internal affairs.

India now faces four unstable neighbors - Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It remains to be seen that in this rapidly changing world of geo-politics, what will happen next in the region...!

Further Readings:
1) South block screwed up big Times of India
2) China support spurs power grab by Maoists in Nepal UPI Asia

Everyone seems to be hailing Pakistan as the existential threat to world peace. They say that the large Muslim population, low literacy rate and the threat of Taliban make it even more likely to be the cause of the doom than any other nation on earth. The primary cause of this scare is Pakistan's nuclear status. The worst-case scenario - The Taliban gains control of nuclear weapons and launches the missiles on US or Afghanistan or India - is presented. But in reality, that is not going to happen. We can rest assured that the missiles will not fall into the wrong hands. Why, you ask. Well, read on...

Its simply because the world will never let anyone press the "Red Button" in Pakistan. Notice that although Taliban is just a hundred kilometres from Islamabad, hardly anyone is talking seriously about the safety of its nuclear arsenal. That does not mean no one is taking it seriously. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, said last week that he was "reasonably comfortable that the nuclear weapons are secure". Somehow Pakistan has managed to convince not only the United States and the European countries, but also its arch-enemy India, that its nuclear arsenal is safe. Campaigning during the 2009 election season, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "We have been assured that their nuclear assets are in safe hands and I do not want to disbelieve that assurance". India is a country which will be the first target of any nuclear missile let out from Pakistani ground. If India can be so confident, I think something must have been done right.

The debate about securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons started way back in the last century, after Pakistan conducted its first nuclear tests in 1998. Since then, a lot of water has flown under the bridge, and Pakistan has established several layers of control over its nuclear weaponry. Even back then, Pakistan was believed to maintain a strong control over its nuclear weapons. Pakistan has generally been effective at maintaining the secrecy and the containment of its fissile material, except for the 2001 A.Q.Khan incident. The incident, where A.Q.Khan distributed sensitive information to rogue countries, highlighted the need for international cooperation in securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

In one such paper on the subject, for the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in October 2001, David Albright made the case that aid to Pakistan must be conditional on it safeguarding its nuclear weapons and proposed several measures in case things go wrong, one of which included the US or China seizing control of the nuclear facilities in case a regime hostile to the United States assumes power by a coup.

History shows that the presence of Musharraf at the helm for all the years since 2001 helped in averting that possibility. In the past 8 years, Musharraf instituted a National Command Authority (NCA) for the command-and-control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. The missiles were distributed over the whole of Pakistan (see adjoining figure. Source: WMDInsights). Permissive Action Links (PALs) which prevent unauthorized access to the "Red Button" were fixed onto the missiles. Alongwith that, the warheads, the rest of the missile and the delivery vehicles were also kept segregated to prevent terrorists from getting a complete missile on a platter. Some reports suggest that the Pakistani system of safeguarding the missiles is as good as any in the world, even the United States.

On paper, Pakistan has also instituted several measures to prevent leakage of fissile material or information to terrorists. It has signed several accords and has instituted several checks to ensure reliability of personnel manning the nuclear complexes. But the extent to which these checks are actually reliable is questionable, given the history of corruption in Pakistani governmental machinery and the growing rise of Islamic radicalism in the country.

TIME reported recently that Washington was more concerned about radicalised Pakistani youths gaining access to the nuclear material than about Al-Qaeda taking control of those. Such radicalized youth are finding their way into the Pakistani Army, which is considered by regional experts as the most stable and the least corrupt institution in Pakistan, and other security establishments. The demography of the Pakistani Army has changed over the years, with more Pashtun, Sindhi and Baluchi youths getting inducted to fight the war at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Experts fear that this may lead to factionalism in the army, thus endangering the nuclear weapons. At the same time, according to one Bush administration official, the efforts to systemically penetrate the army to gain control of the nuclear weapons have reached a high after Musharraf's resignation. The weak government of Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad remains to be tested in this regard.

The United States had supposedly drawn up plans to take control of the nuclear installations. According to this report in The Guardian and here, Pentagon had prepared contingency plans to whisk away any weapons at imminent risk to safe places in conjunction with Pakistani military and the intelligence. But due to Musharraf at the helm till now, that contingency plan has not been needed. With Musharraf gone and the Taliban gaining power, coupled with a weak civilian government and the rising corruption in the Pakistani system, observers are worried that the government may lose control over parts of its territory, giving the terrorists access to nuclear weapons.

But again, these are all worst-case scenarios. With current Pakistani safeguards, continuous European and US insistence on securing the nuclear material and the benefit of having a still-responsive Pakistani Army may keep the terrorists from getting a hold of the nuclear weapons - atleast for now.

References and further readings:
1) Does Pakistan's Taliban surge raise a nuclear threat? Time, USA
2) Securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons complex ISIS, USA
3) Nuclear security in Pakistan after Musharraf WMDInsights, USA
4) Building confidence in Pakistan's nuclear security Armscontrol.org

This from The Atlantic, a very intelligent journal targeted to, as they call it, "thought leaders".



Creatively funny

Recent events in Pakistan have shaken up the international community. The Obama administration, which had been promoting its idea of building up Pakistan by throwing $15 billion at it over the next few years, was rudely awakened by the Pakistan government's deal with Taliban allowing them virtual control over the Swat valley. The blows kept on coming, with suicide attacks in different parts of Pakistan, some of them blatantly on the security forces of the country. The culmination of all of these was the news that the Taliban had started occupying and claiming regions of the Buner district, only a hundred kilometres from Islamabad.

Now, international reaction has been limited to asking Pakistan to rein in Taliban and take all the necessary military action against it. Till now, Pakistan has just been making peace deals and effectively ceding territory to Taliban, without undertaking any military confrontation. Analysts believe that the Pakistani Army is unwilling to do so because they dont know how to fight this guerilla warfare. In all their period of existence, they have been trained to fight a conventional war against India. Fighting a counter-insurgency is not their cup of tea.

Another possible reason could be the army doesnt want to fight its own people. The Pakistani Army gets about 30% of its soldiers from the Pashtun tribal areas. Almost all of its Frontier Guards come from these areas. These soldiers may be unwilling to pick arms against their own people. Third possible reason is that the Army doesnt see this as a war IT needs to fight. The army has become wary due to almost a decade of fighting a war that it never wanted to fight in the first place. This, to them, was and is an "American war". This, coupled with the high anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and the whole of the Muslim world, makes it enormously difficult for the Army to lauch a full fledged operation against the Taliban.

So there are reports that the Taliban may be retreating from the Buner district. This happened after another rounds of dialog between General Ashfaque Kiyani and Sufi Muhammad, the cleric from the Swat Valley. No war, no force used here, just talks. I really do not think this peace is real or is going to last for long.

Buner is part of the Malakand province, which is a very hilly region. The region has a terrain very similar to the Swat valley, and is ideal for fighting a guerilla war, which the Taliban has become an expert in. Now, Taliban vociferously claims that it wants to make the whole of Pakistan a Sharia state, but thats not realistically possible. The might of the Pakistani army is no match for Taliban, more so in the flat plains of Punjab. Hence, it can never cross over beyond Buner, lest the Pakistani army might launch a full fledged attack as a final act of desperation. The logical thing for Taliban to do is fortify its own territory, a territory it is familiar with, where it is comfortable fighting. And the entire territory of the Malakand region perfectly fits those criteria.

It is highly unlikely that Taliban will actually leave Buner. And even if it did, it needs to be realised that Buner is just one of the district in the region. Several other districts bordering the Swat district have reported Taliban presence. It is going to extremely difficult, almost impossible, to get rid of the Taliban in these districts in the near future. While signing the Swat peace deal, the Pakistani government virtually handed over the region to Taliban on a platter. The only solution now is to strengthen the frontiers of whatever remains and ensure the violence doesnt spread to the south, to cities like Peshawar.

It also makes sense in this case to rethink the aid given by the US Government to Pakistan. A majority of this aid was supposed to go the strengthen the infrastructure of the border regions, more specifically the FATA and the NWFP. Since the NWFP is controlled by Taliban and since Pakistani government has no control over the region, it is senseless to waste all that taxpayer money on that region.

Taliban is like a cancer, or a virus, if you will. A cancer is much more manageable when it is contained and benign. The moment it becomes metastatic, it becomes nearly impossible to control. Taliban has now not only spread in the NWFP, but it also has presence in major Pakistani cities and the ability to conduct bomb blasts there. It is slowly morphing into a metastatic cancer. It is very necessary here to contain Taliban as quickly as possible by establishing a Line-of-Control between NWFP and the rest of Pakistan, and here is where the argument of Partition of Pakistan again comes in.

Further readings:
1) Fareed Zakaria: Spiraling chaos possible in Pakistan CNN, USA
2) The alarming rise of Pakistani Taliban Rediff, India
3) How to clear this mess The News, Pakistan

Update:
See the ongoing discussion on this article at Reddit

Glenn Beck, like his big daddy Limbaugh, recently wished that Obama should fail. Here are his own words:

So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research, and then some, fundamentally changing – remember, those great progressive doctors are the ones who brought us Eugenics. It was the progressive movement and it science. Let’s put science truly in her place. If evolution is right, why don’t we just help out evolution? That was the idea. And sane people agreed with it!

And it was from America. Progressive movement in America. Eugenics. In case you don’t know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. …. The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening. So I guess I have to put my name on yes, I hope Barack Obama fails. But I just want his policies to fail; I want America to wake up.

Then he had this to say (with a lot of histrionics and drama which involved pouring kerosene on his guest)


Finally, he suggests that the Republican states should think about seceding from the United States!



But wait!! This from DailyKos

Travel back in time a mere 18 months and listen to Glenn Beck’s outrage at Democrats who weren’t supportive of President Bush:



Transcript:

And here’s another part of this poll. Most people say they have said a prayer for the troops, 87%. Oh, well, that’s big. 87% say they have said a prayer for the troops. Another 77% say they have prayed that the war would end in Iraq. A much smaller majority, 54% of Americans, say they have prayed for the President. I don’t — I don’t understand this. Republicans, 74%, say they are twice as likely as Democrats at 37% to have included the President in their prayers. First of all, we should all be down on our knees in praying for the troops. We should all be down praying for an end to this war. We should all be down on our knees every day praying for the President and praying for members of congress. My family prays for the President and members of congress, our leaders in all parties, our leaders all around the world. My family prays for President Tom. How do you not pray for everyone? How do you not pray for your enemies? How do you not understand that we all need guidance from God? What has happened to our country?

What a loser!

Analysts throughout the western world have repeatedly asserted that the first step in winning the war in Afghanistan is to have a stable Pakistan. To achieve this goal, an unbelievable amount of money is being thrown at Pakistan. A recent Pakistan Donors' Conference, comprising of more than 20 countries and convened by Japan and the World Bank in Tokyo, committed $5 billion in aid to Pakistan. Similarly, the United States is considering a bill that would provide Pakistan with $1.5 billion in direct aid every year for the next five years. Consider the fact that Pakistan, since 2001, has received over $10 billion in direct aid and military reimbursements from the United States, a significant proportion of which has been used by Pakistan for building up its defenses and posts against India.

And has this money been useful even, for Pakistan? A 2008 study by AmericanProgress.org gave the following results
These figures show that since 2001, the flow of funds to Pakistan has not made it any stronger, but only weaker, soon to fall into a state of anarchy. Only 1% of the total funds allocated for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been used for development. This is exactly the area which has now been taken over by Taliban, and where girls schools have been torched and the Sharia law implemented. Even across mainland Pakistan, the literacy and employment rates are abyssmal further encouraging the young Pakistanis to take up the route of terrorism.

Some might argue that all of what is happening today is the result of utterly failed policies of the Bush administration, which is true. But is throwing more money at Pakistan the only solution? To be fair enough, the Obama administration IS INDEED attaching a lot of strings to the money being provided to Pakistan (Read the provisions of the PEACE Act here). But once the money does reach Pakistan, whom are you going to hold accountable? Pakistan has already expressed its severe reservations and unhappiness over the strings attached to the federal aid (Read this article in Daily Times).

Even with all the money spent, it is very unlikely that at the end of Obama's first term, or even the second, Pakistan would emerge stronger than it is now, especially given the nature of the geopolitics in the region. The all-pervasive corruption in the system would disallow the money to reach the projects they were intended for. There is a very strong anti-American sentiment in the Muslim population of Pakistan, which is unlikely to quell due to the money being thrown in. This sentiment would further be fuelled by whoever is in the Opposition, assuming Pakistan remains a democracy. Without assuming an anti-American stance the Opposition would never be able to get to power. Coupled with all of this comes the India-centric polity of Pakistan, and the India-phobia of its military and intelligence establishment. It is highly unlikely given these circumstances that money and greater oversight over the distribution of the money would alone help the region get out of this mess.

The only solution to this problem lies in the partition of Pakistan into three provinces - NWFP (which has already become an autonomous region under the Taliban), Balochistan (whose people have been waging a seccesionist battle against Pakistan for decades now) and Punjab. More on that in the next post...

More readings:
1) Sen Carl Levine questions Pakistan Aid Plan
2) Pakistan: Militants make aid work risky
3) Pakistan warns Kerry against aid conditions
4) Coming to grips with an expanding extremist threat in Pakistan

On April 20th, 2009 India launched a spy satellite-RISAT- aimed at boosting the surveillance capabilities of the army, especially at the borders. The purchase of the Israeli-made satellite was put on a fast-track after the November 26 Mumbai attacks, which claimed more than 180 lives and left the security establishment completely bewildered. The incident saw the long-impending replacement of India's Home Minister and the subsequent re-organisation of India's security apparatus. The procurement of this Israeli satellite was a shot in the arm for India's intelligence services which, in recent years, has come to rely heavily on TECHINT methods.

The launch of RISAT will provide a much-needed boost to the security of India. The country has witnessed hundreds of terrorism-related incidents in the past few years. Terrorist organisations like the ULFA, NSCN, the Naxalite movement have spawned and are actively working in several parts of India. The all-weather surveillance capabilities of RISAT would help in getting crucial information about such groups too, apart from keeping a watch on the India-Pakistan border. The launch has placed India in a group of select nations -US, Canada, Germany and Japan - with spy satellite capabilities.

Reports show that despite the Indian elections looming large, the pace of activity at the Home Ministry and the Defense Ministry have not slowed down. India also plans to buy the Phalcone Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) from the Israelis (image alongside), with whom defense ties have been becoming stronger since the BJP-led NDA government came to power in 2001. In just the last year, after the Nov 26 attacks, India has signed a deal to buy short-range surface to air missiles and aerostat radars for its Navy. India is also in talks with United States , Israel and Russia for raising an effective Anti-Ballistic Missile shield, the threat of which from Pakistan is a looming possibility. This apart from the almost $10 billion it wants to spend procuring 126 combat aircrafts for its ageing Air Force fleet.

Analysts point out that the focus of India's defense establishment has shifted rapidly from China to Pakistan, after the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks. Long pending defense purchases like the ones above are being expedited, and coordination between India's multitude of security agencies is being made a top priority. The policy focus on Pakistan has become even more pronounced since Taliban assumed control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, and subsequent rise in violence across Pakistani mainland. Indian administrators realise that the situation may well spiral out of control leading to the fall of Pakistan as early as the end of 2009, if nothing is done to curb that. This policy change comes well ahead of the elections - dubbed by BBC as "the greatest exercise of the democratic will anywhere and at any time in human history" - and in good time. With four more phases of electioneering and voting to go, it remains to be decided whether the people of India will give this administration a chance to extend this policy for the next four years.

More readings:
India's new arms have Pakistan in focus
India launches Israeli-made satellite for eyes in the sky

I moved to WordPress for some time and came back again to Blogger. This is a new beginning for me. I have written on several topics till date, and those interested are invited to take a look at the archives. From now on, however, I intend to write more substantial stuff...opinions and views on specific issues. I intend to write about the following topics, henceforth:
1) Politics and International Affairs
I am a news-junkie. I feel passionately about several events, and find myself establishing links between events that seem disconnected. Through this blog, I intend to propagate some of my ideas, opinions and views on international affairs.

2) Science and Technology
That is what I am training in. The scientific approach of enquiry is an amazing way to get to the truth. And the successes of this approach are being seen almost everyday. The Internet, the sequence of the human genome, spaceflights, medicines etc. are products of this exact approach. I have some darn good views on science and where it should be heading. Hope the readers are turned on by those too.

3) Educational Issues
I am deeply committed to education, especially in developing countries like India. Such countries have huge populations but lack of access to education and proper facilities stymies the growth of these nations. I intend to publish some of my views and ideas on those issues on this blog.

So this is the general outline of how my blog will look from now on. This is sort of a vision statement. I hope you readers find this blog interesting and worthwhile to read.