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WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?
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Sunday, 6 May 2007
FOR NEWER INSIGHTFUL ANALYSES PLEASE VISIT MY NEW BLOG SITE
Mood:  irritatedNow Playing: FOR NEWER INSIGHTFUL ANALYSES PLEASE VISIT MY NEW BLOG SITE Topic: LATEST BLOG This is the last of the blogs in this section. For newer blogs please click here: http://changingindia.tripod.com
Posted by Anil Nair
at 10:25 AM
LANGUAGE PATRIOTISM
Mood:  incredulousNow Playing: CAN WE BAN INDIAN LANGUAGES? Topic: CONTEMPT FOR ENGLISH Last week I was at the Renaissance in Mumbai to meet a real estate source of mine (it is another matter that amongst all my industry sources real estate guys always meet me at hip five star hotel lobbies). During the meeting we called for pastries and tea. The pastries were out of this world, the icing on the cake was incredibly luscious. But when the steward brought the tea I realised that it was black. I have some inborn antipathy to anything dark on my plate or the cutlery. So I told the young man again that I want my tea to be with lots of milk. After a while the steward brought me some more black tea smelling heavily of mint. By now my suspicions had grown. Was the steward trying to tell me I am not invited to his ultra-swanky hotel?! I have heard of stories of people who don't 'look' prosperous being shown the door at Taj. So I sat up as he laid the tall glass with a lemon slice on the table. I only gave him a hard look and he blurted out in Marathi, ''kay pahije tumala?'' Only then it dawned on me that the steward did not know English. My friend looked less shocked than I did. He winked at me. We both then started chatting up with the young boy. The steward was a school drop-out and he had made it only up to the seventh standard. He stayed in the neighbourhood slums, knew little of Hindi and even lesser English, and tried aping the mannerism of his guests. That was the brief given by the hotel management. But as we discussed amongst ourselves, my friend who had himself employed many school drop-outs in his consultancy firm said seventh standard is not as bad as it gets. People should be able to speak in English with that kind of an education. He almost sounded like my father who often would compare the standard of education in his generation with mine. My son who is now in his third standard read Hindi and Marathi billboards with consumate ease. So even if the steward never had English as a medium of learning will he not have learnt at least the basics of a language as important as English? The recent reports in the press talked about how students in municipality schools in Mumbai are much better than their counterparts in other metros. I always knew that, as I know students passing out of CA exams in Kerala would talk like this: ''did you saw the movie?!'' Now this might offend our language patriots who call for Marathi-Mumbai, nammude-Keralam and Gujarati-asmita. But let it be said here loud and clear -- knowledge of English language is absolutely necessary in a knowledge economy. That is also the reason for China desperately try to emulate the English language education in India. How can a steward who is supposed to serve foreigner customers deal with them in Marathi? Or would the Marathi-for-Maharashtra, Gujarati-for-Gujarat and Malayalam-for-Kerala brigade violently insist on that. I have seen this language patriotism thriving in Maharashtra, Kerala and Gujarat more than anywhere else. Many times I have told my relations, and curtly at that, to keep their Malayalam fanaticism away from my son. I would rather that he learnt only English and gave all other Indian languages the contempt they deserve. I have also observed a strange kind of attitude of people from other states who come to stay in Mumbai. They would give their right arm to speak in Marathi, howsoever embarrassing it might get. When I was in college there was this bunch of Punjabi girls who would converse in the class in Marathi when their Maharashtrian friends were around. People who are less proficient in a language can be an unmitigated disaster. It is unbearable to listen to the valiant efforts of such pathetic people. Every morning in my usual 9.46 fast local I have to put up with this group of Punjabi-Gujarati elderly men who keep griping loudly over the cultural invasion of the West. I find that argument outdated, it belongs to the last century. Indians are the biggest hypocrites on this planet. If you listen to Ramdev, the yoga exponent who has made a living out of reality yogasana television, you will appreciate the depth we Indians can go to. He earlier made claims of curing cancer and AIDS with yoga. Yesterday, he claimed blood donations can lower cholesterol and BP. Looks like, very soon we would need only yoga to cure us of all debilitating diseases and handicaps. We will have to ban doctors. Today, our economy has perked up because of the developed countries' involvement in our economy. It is their culture we enjoy the most when we go malls, multiplexes and offices, use computers, wear clothes, have dates and sex, build homes, educate our children, use modern amenities and healthcare systems, travel, and do everything in life. The only part of our culture we follow today is going to Siddhivinayak temple every Tuesday or mosque as our personal preference. That too, we go to temples with girl friends along. If you notice, the queue in Siddhivinayak temple has an unusually high percentage of young college-going couples who have illegitimate sex everyday. I am not prudish, yet does Hinduism allow such dating and sex? Everytime I say this people would pounce on me with the examples of Kamasutra and Kajuraho caves, which is travesty of our culture. Hinduism is not about caves or sex manuals. Hinduism is only about unwritten conventions in our way of life. Those conventions were diligently followed everywhere, be it Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, anywhere. Did we have unbridled sex, before marriage and outside marriage? Was that kind licentious behaviour tolerated by the Hindu society for thousands of years till the British came here? As far as I see it even kissing, masturbation and anal sex have western origin. If our society was so sexually liberal the pictures of gods and goddesses at our ancestral homes which are centuries old should have been nude, in coital position, not fully-dressed in most asexual posture. Often when you look at such pictures you notice that Shiva, Ram, Laxman and the male gods appear only with angavastram. First time in my life I saw a nude picture of a Hindu goddess was by MF Hussain. Coming back to the language patriotism, I love the Tamil brahmins who make no bones of their love for English language. Their speech at home usually has liberal dose of English words. Way to go!
Posted by Anil Nair
at 10:16 AM
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY
Mood:  hungryNow Playing: INDIANS DO WELL OUTSIDE COUNTRY BECAUSE WE MESSED UP OUR SYSTEMS Topic: CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY Dear friends: This is brilliantly apt, though an old joke remixed. Sent to me by a PIO friend abroad. Even if you have read it earlier celebrate the misery of living in India. Read it again. Cheers! Anil Nair -------------- OLD VERSION... The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. MODERN VERSION... The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. NDTV, BBC, CNN-IBN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Ban Ki-Moon criticize Dr Manmohan Singh for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance!). Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'. Ban Ki-Moon invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly. MANY YEARS LATER... The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley. 100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation everywhere in India...
Posted by Anil Nair
at 6:40 PM
Saturday, 28 April 2007
Mumbai's IFC status
Mood: hungryNow Playing: State and Centre leading us up the garden path Topic: ATTITUDE PROBLEM The Percy Mistry committee report on turning Mumbai into an international financial hub makes very interesting reading as it gives recommendations which have some freshness. But the factors that could make Mumbai a city to reckon with in the global village go beyond issues like developing the derivatives markets. Mumbai has maintained its edge over other competing cities to be the financial capital of India, and that would remain so for a long time to come. The presence of the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India headquarters in Mumbai has ensured the city's lead position in financial matters. The Bombay Stock Exchange and the twin commodity exchanges in the city are more well-known to people in the hinterland than RBI and SEBI. But there are several lessons to be learnt from cities like London, New York and Singapore. These cities have been the hallmark of financial system management. But it has to be conceded that Mumbai's premier position amongst its peers in the country was only because of the state government's preferential treatment to keep its relevance intact. That position is all set to change now. Mumbai's infrastructure is crumbling and there seems to be little effort on the part of either the state government or the Centre to mitigate the situation. Look at the hare-brained idea of asking industry and industrial regions to fend for themselves for power. In any developed country the idea that all industrial units have to get their own power generation would have outraged the business community, but in India we are so desparate for solutions which have festered for so long that we are ready to take any direction from the government. There are so many industrial zones and parks, malls and departmental stores in Mumbai. Some industrial areas are so small that power generation would be unviable. And would the small scale sector be able to bear the burden of such high cost of captive power generated in the industrial belt out of diesel generators? But the most pertinent question is that if industry has to fend for themselves what is the point in paying taxes. Very soon the summer heat would make water scarce in Mumbai. Will the government then ask industry to make arrangement for their own water supply? Will that kind of policy direction extend to roads and their upkeep, garbage disposal and sanitation? In the developed countries, which are the models for developing countries like India, there are several competing utility companies which offer rates and services to suit one's needs. Just as we in India have in the telecom sector. We have competing corporations in cell phone services, internet services, cooking gas, et al. It is obvious that major utilities services like power and water should also have such competing distribution networks so that the customer, be it retail buyer or industrial consumer, gets value for money -- in quality and quantity Mumbai's tragedy is that the political class is increasingly getting uninterested in its fall from grace. The political fact is that the number of Assembly or Parliamentary seats from the city is so minuscule that they don't prompt the political parties to perform miracles in the city. It is simply not worth their while. Shiv Sena is a Mumbai-centric political party and hence it is much better-placed to deliver on making Mumbai a world-class city. It was proved when it came to power. Nearly 27 flyovers were built in a record time to ease MumbaI's horrendous traffic snarls. But today the political insouciance is costing Mumbai its place in the sun. Yet on the other hand, Mumbai faces severe shortage of skilled manpower. Industry complains of its inability even to get ordinary accountants. Some of the five star hotels in Mumbai which used to pride over their service to customers today have to settle for illiterate staff as there are no educated youth who would take up the job. It is on these fronts that the governments, both in the state and at the Centre have failed miserably. Even as there are no new power projects even on the drawing board in spite of having a power crisis brewing in the last six years, there are no new schools or colleges in and around the city, technical or otherwise, to meet the huge demand from industry. With the boom in all sectors of industry it is becoming increasingly difficult to get quality personnel in regulatory organisations. SEBI has admittedly made various incentives to add to the high pay and perks to wean technical and financial personnel from industry. If these are the ground realities how will you convert Mumbai into an international financial hub? The best lesson that one learns from London, New York and Singapore is that these cities are wholesome in offering the financial world its services. They have in addition to all the markets and banks and financial institutions, a near-perfect infrastructure, a lifestyle that behooves the technical and young population, security and all the necessary linkages with the world through telecommunication and transport. So if the government wants to make that dream of converting Mumbai into an international financial hub come true then it has to think about issues more wide-ranging than curtailing the Reserve Bank of India's responsibilities. ------------------- Mumbai's date: The Pending List The Mumbai Urban Transport Project: was slated to be a Rs 4,000-crore job undertaken by Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in 2003. The plan was to broaden all arterial roads in the city and lay additional rail tracks to ease the crowded trains. The deadline is 2008, but the work is no where keeping with it. Storm Water Drainage Project is a Rs 1,800-crore project of the Mumbai municipal corporation to refurbish the drains and prevent flooding during rains. The deadline for this project is 2009. This project is behind schedule. The Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project was a Rs 2,600-crore project, again undertaken by the MMRDA in 2004. The deadline for this project is 2007. New flyovers and broadening of the highways will be taken up in this project but the delay has been inexorable. Mithi River Development Project has been widely covered by the media. The project cost is Rs 1,300 crore for cleaning up and streamlining the flow of Mithi river. This project might keep the deadline of 2011 if all goes well. But the problem of removing encroachers on the banks of the river will indoubtedly lead to delay. There are deeply entrenched political and vested interests in the project.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 7:35 PM
THE MUMBAI TAXI STORY
Mood:  hug meNow Playing: To make Mumbai world-class we should be ready to pay more for services Topic: CAN WE BE SOPHISTICATED Recently the consumer guidance forum and some well-meaning organisations got into the act and filed a case against the tariff rates of taxis and rickshaws in Mumbai. Their argument was that ever since the fuel of taxis and rickshaws have changed mandatorily by law from petrol to gas the cost of operation has down by at least 30 per cent. Fantastic argument for a Big Fight on NDTV. But look at the reality. Today the taxis and rickshaws are a disgrace to the surging international financial hub called Mumbai. The taxis are in such a state of disrepair that you will find broken doors and window panes in almost every taxi in Mumbai. And also notice that the taxis with swanky car interiors are driven by drivers who have tampered the metre and rate cards that have rigged prices. There is a lesson here. Rather, there are lessons for all of us. First, we should as users of such public utilities stop griping about services if we are not ready to pay for it. My wager, to begin with is that, you can never get a taxi from Nariman Point to Taj hotel at Carnac Bunder during the evening rush hours. I have experienced this for last 15 years, and even today the situation is as bad as it gets. If you ever per chance manage to flag down a taxi passing Nariman Point and the driver agrees to take you to Taj hotel you can't help notice that the taxi is as good as to be decommissioned a long time ago, as Jeffrey Archer said about Mumbai taxis. Also, the driver must be the simpleton Bihari who have little ambition of making a good living. His clothes would be tattered, smelling of sweat, semen or garlic or all put together. I have yet to see a honest, polite and earnest taxi driver making a good living from his business. And if you have the habit of chatting up with drivers then you would realise that a good driver is a man of few words. If at all he talks, it would be a litany of hard times that he would reel out. The drivers who appear happy and contended with themselves are the ones whom you beware. Just ask my friend in Express Salil with whom I went to the passport office on a rain drenched day. We hailed a taxi from Nariman Point to Worli. The taxi driver was in his elements. He told us how stupid people were to go town in such heavy downpour. He was referring to the long line of taxis caught in a jam on the way south at the other side of the road divider. When we embarked at Worli Salil told me that he suspected the driver would take us up the garden path. He was not far wrong. He had charged about Rs 30 more than the usual fare. I don't know if I have told you about the taxi driver in Wadala who lives in abject poverty. He has an extraordinarily intelligent son who is the topper in school in ninth standard. But this taxi driver, who told me he is a brahmin, rues his caste origin for it could deny his son a rightful place in higher studies. He is poor enough to find the Rs 1.4 lakh tuition fees of special classes for tenth standard exorbitant. I have been to his house. You will by no measure think he is above the poverty line of earning Rs 30 everyday. The house was perched on a broken concrete slab above two crossing drainage gutters as wide as the house. Even as I entered the house I twitched my nose to the faint smell of Mahim creek, which carries all the shut that Mumbai can produce. The house was just a room partitioned by an asbestos sheet and held in place by rusting iron drums which were leaking water all over the room. The room was dark and dingy as there was only a small outlet for air, and no windows. There was a charpoy with torn, dirty sheets in one part of the room which also served as study for the kid. When I asked the kid about what he learnt in school he rattled off some poetry in perfect diction. I agreed to teach him English, his weakest link, free of cost. There was a closet kind of structure inside the room which served as both bath as well as sink. I did not dare to ask about the toilet. All this in a room which was 20X20 feet. If you still have not got the drift I should tell you it is foolhardy to start a fight against taxi and rickshaw drivers on their present fare structure. I firmly believe the minimum taxi fare should Rs 100 and then in multiples of that. Just as rickshaws should have a minimumfare of Rs 50 for a ride and then in multiples of that for every 3.2 km. Only then their lot will improve. And when I say this it is not for an altruist cause. Nor am I a god-forsaken socialist. There will be blue murder if anyone accused me of being a Socialist. My ulterior motive in this proposition is to get a fair deal for the consumer with world-class service that we can all be proud. If taxi driving is a well paying profession for people, there will be more educated people in it, and the service levels will naturally improve. Today you get bad service only because the drivers are illiterates, uncouth and primitive in their behaviour. They don't understand customer service because they are not from that strata of society which can comprehend global trends. People who are rich enough to travel in a taxi should hail one to go to work or pleasure. That is the way taxi services are in Singapore, New York and London. Taxi drivers there don't live in poverty. They are so well-behaved. And most importantly, the passengers don't ask the taxi driver "where do you want to go?" as it happens in India, or rather only in India. And here I presuppose that all other modes of transport are efficient, comfortable and clean. There is no class differentiation as in Indian trains especially in suburban [local] trains. By that I am trying to tell you that that the people in developed countries consider taxi a luxury, and for good reasons. They want public transport to be efficient and comfortable. The new buses in London are swanky in comparison to Mumbai's BEST buses. And the driver does not bark at customers [as he is also the conductor] just he drives so well. I never once saw a vehicle pushing others around like in Mumbai. Arrogant behaviour is looked down upon and might even attract police action. It is not fashionable as in Mumbai. Finally, I rest my case staying the Kerala model. Though I have critizised all aspects of life in that state the one thing I admire in Kerala is the public transport system. There is no regularised metering or rate cards in any part of the state including the capital. Be that as it may, the public transport is efficient and comfortable. A bus ride from Trishur to Palakkad is covered in about an hour's time by bus. That is a distance of 56 kms! The buses are frequent, run late into the night and you will never get stranded in any part of the state. The bus conductors are relatively better behaved than their BEST counterparts. Though in the marketplace you will find arrogant, insolent behaviour as commonplace as in Mumbai. But the taxi system is what beholds me. The drivers might over-charge if you compare the rates with Mumbai. The negotiated deals might cost you double of what you would have paid for the same ride in Mumbai but what you appreciate is the upkeep of the vehicles. The cars are well-maintained, fabulously done up, comfortable and very good to ride on. Even more than that what impressed me most is that these taxi drivers own bunglows like most of is Keralites, they most often come better dressed than their customers, what with silk dhoti and speckless white shirt and wearing sandalwood smear on their forehead. How I wish our taxi drivers in Mumbai had the same get-up and behaviour. I would even love to have them as my neighbour. My son's best friend in school used to be a rickshaw driver's son. But just after two years into schooling his father found the convent school fees too high for his earnings from rickshaw. He does not tamper his rickshaw metre nor have fudged rate card.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 7:22 PM
Sunday, 22 April 2007
WHEN MODERNISM QUESTIONS TRADITION
Mood:  happyNow Playing: Why non-Hindus should not be allowed to enter temples Topic: REJECT HINDUISM? Today an old friend of mine in Bollywood send me a message asking me why Hindus in God's own country are so fanatic about not opening temples to people from other religions. Well, I would say they are not far wrong in being steadfast in their demand. To understand the issue we should first understand Hinduism. Hinduism is not expansionist like other popular religions. The most notable amongst such religions are Christianity and Islam. Both started off with the idea of expanding its cult, and made no bones of the fact that the sword was the best way to increase the count. There is no such prophet in Hinduism. Although Christianity has toned down a lot because that religion thrives in the western world where people are exceedingly mature and sophisticated, Islam still unambiguously and proudly goes by the sword. Both religions propagate the idea that their own god is the only true god while the rest are fake. The holy trinity is all about that. Of Islam, one has to read Arun Shourie's books to realise how crude, cruel and intolerable is Islam. His books are also demonstrative of the Christian missionaries and their conspiracies. To understand why Hinduism is not inclusive, one has to understand the genesis of this religion. Hinduism belongs to an era which is at best estimated and at worst, relegated. No one yet knows the exact time period when Hinduism was born. By all estimates, it was not born at one instance when someone sat down to write the holy edicts. It was in all probability evolved by several thousands of generations of extremely intelligent upper caste people who had an incredible insight into rights and wrongs -- not just morals but even about what is sustainable and what is healthy, with no science or technology to aid them. As Gandhiji once said it is easy to damn Hinduism in today's terms, from today's modern way of life, but it is difficult to find fault if you put it perspective. Hinduism does not belong to this age but it was an impeccable way of life in the past centuries and millennia. Everything about Hinduism, its caste system, treatment of women, culture, dance, music, et al fell perfectly in place. Hinduism was also prevalent during a time when there were no other religions. And most importantly, there was no marauding religion that would force Hindus to other faiths of a better god. That is the reason for Hinduism's insipid reaction to the Christian missionaries and Islamic jihad. Hinduism simply does not know how to combat conversion. Yet again, one should understand that Hinduism was more a stringent way of life with no place for gods. Have you by any chance read about any gods in the vedas other that Indradev? If you go through various edicts of Hinduism, be it Ayurveda, music, rituals at home and in society, you will realise the main aim was to bring discipline in people so that the society is manageable. It may not look fair in today's western way of life. But it was most close to nature and the best system in the prevailing circumstances. I always wondered why the environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts never rooted for Hinduism. It even made gods out plants and animals. Hinduism is the only religion in the world which gives space to a non-believer. You don't have to believe in god or regularly visit temples to be a Hindu, or read the scriptures. If you are born a Hindu you remain a Hindu. If the vedas don't mention gods it is obvious that gods in Hinduism came much later, only to bring some kind of societal discipline. If people don't follow rituals which bring that discipline you wil invite the wrath of various gods. That's how it is. Now tell me, if Hinduism is such, where is the place for people from other religions coming into the Hindu fold?! Just as a postscript I should add that the case of Yesudas is being brought into this only to gain some brownie points. Look at what Yesudas has said about Hinduism. He is probably the biggest proponent of Carnatic music today. He has made it very clear right in the beginning of his career that to be a Carnatic singer you need to be Hindu. Because music is taught in temples in south India. You have to bow before the lord, bow before your guru and sing peaens to Hindu gods in Carnatic music. God and Hindu rituals are part of the Carnatic music. Will a follower of Christianity who is told every Sunday that the holy trinity is beyond debate learn Carnatic music? Or will a Muslim who reads five times a day the indisputable fact that all kafirs have to be brought under the sword or be converted, which incidentally includes circumcision, be able to bow before Sarsawati. Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan, India's best ever shehnai player spent all his life in Varanasi amongst the temples, though he was never allowed to enter them. He admittedly sat outside, touched the stone carvings and murals and got inspiration for his music. Cavil was not in his making. He prayed and sang praises of Saraswati all his life. But Yesudas and Khan were both not born Hindu and hence cannot enter a temple. Just as lower caste people were kept out of Brahminical temples. Temples of lower castes and Dalit Hindus abound the rural landscape. So the point is that even an apostate Hindu, a non-believer can enter temples because he is born Hindu but people who are not born Hindu are barred. Now it is up to us to decide if we want to demolish that edict also, just as we have done with thousands of other Hindu holy edicts. Amen.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 10:41 AM
THE WILD WEST CULTURE
Mood:  happyNow Playing: Why nothing can change gun laws in the US Topic: FREELY AVAILABLE WEAPONS When Cho Seuin-Hui, the 24-old Virginia Tech student went on a rampage killing 32 students the old debate on gun control has emerged with renewed vigour. But the debate is more outside of the US than among Americans. Almost all world leaders who send their condolence message spoke of the need for more stringent gun control law. The Australian prime minister was shooting straight from the hip when he questioned the free gun laws. Let us look at both sides of the debate. The fact that Cho was of unsound mind has now become clear. He was treated at the campus climic for mental illness. There are a few things which stand out here. First, the gun used by Cho was legal. It was neither stolen or bought from black market. Second, so much about Cho's mental condition has come out now, to the finest detail of how one professor, after reading his plays which were full of profane, violent ideas, sought to give him counselling. The professor in one of the reports even took a security guy for the sittings. When she was suspicious of Cho turning violent during the counselling sessions she would mention a dead professor's name, which was the signal to the security to close in and rescue her. In the US, it is a catch-22 situation for universities when they have to remove students who have mental illness, as it could lead to a string of legal suits. But to say that Virginia Tech did not take cognisance of the mental state of Cho is begging the question. It is not easy to predict the state of mind even in extreme cases. The IIT student who committed suicide in its Mumbai campus was a cheerful child. He wrote and submitted a movie review for the college magazine two hours before he hung himself. But gun control is a touchy subject in the US. The unrestricted availability of guns in the US is a popular legislation. The folklore is that his tough regulatory stand cost Al Gore votes in Florida and many other places in the neck-and-neck presidential race in 2000. Americans cheered Sen. John Kerry in Ohio state when he wore his neatly pressed camouflage hunting outfit during his campaign. But it will be interesting to note that between 1994 and 2004 the crime rate amongst children under 17 years of age has plummetted by over 65 per cent. Just as mass murder [of over five people] has also gone drastically down. Incidentally, the latest mass killing took place in the home state of the National Rifle Association which unabashedly supports lax gun laws. It is also an open secret that the gun lobby in the US sponsors so many candidates in the Congress that both the Republicans as well as the Democrats are beholden to the gun manufacturers. Last year the Virginia General Assembly even had a Bill introduced to allow concealed weapons in campuses. The police and the university vehemently opposed it though, which resulted in its failure to get through. Americans ardently believe in the 'castle doctrine'. Which means that homeowners can shoot intruders if they suspect that they are being attacked. Sixteen states in the US have adopted this doctrine as law and eight others are considering it. So popular is the unrestricted use of weapons. As one television reported: the change in the law to restrict guns will depend on fact that people have had enough with mass killing. Well, now it does not look like.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 10:32 AM
SNAKE BITES AND INTERNAL SECURITY TOP OF THE MIND
Mood:  flirtyNow Playing: Kerala is a study in Leftist hype-management Topic: KERALA & LEFTISM Instances of people dying of snake-bites are so common in Kerala that people seldom now feel any anguish or helplessness. That is quite surprising because the state has 100 per cent literacy. Literacy should ostensibly mean awareness and empowerment. Equally bad is the internal security scene that people have given up all hope of getting an effective police force. And we are not referring to Marad here. The police is not even being considered a deterrant to crime in Kerala. These are the two top-of-the-mind issues, this reporter found, for farmers in Kerala, even more than prices of farm produce, unemployment and poverty. It is sad to see young boys in villages forming vigilante groups to ward off armed robbers in night-long stake out. They are also the ones working in the fields and in industries like brick kilns who come back home to take turns in shifts for keeping law and order. The police is not even in the picture. Local newspapers are full of crime reports -- most daring attempts on life and limb, akin to the killing fields in Bihar. The modus operandi, as the police would put it, involves armed men breaking open bunglows in desolate places, even when the occupants, mostly senior citizens, are still at home. The tragedy is not the crime as much as the ineffective police patrol to control such criminals who get away with impunity. "The investigations have mostly ended outrageously low on conviction. The criminals are at large, emboldened by the fact that police is a non-entity", Madhavan Chandran, a resident of Muvattipuzha said. On the second issue, every village in Kerala today has about one case of snake-bite victim dying every month, according to local populace. Though the state government or village panchayats do not keep any record of such fatalities. What should really get people's goat is the the fact that Kerala has an acclaimed public healthcare system, that even Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen calls a role-model for other states to follow. These primary health centres, which are known as Prathmika Chikilsa Kendram, don't have even the rudimentary medical facilities to attend to an emergency -- no oxygen, no ambulance, no para-medical teams in the event of snake-bites and farm related accidents, or a even a doctor who is available 24 hours a day. Snake anti-venom is available only in hospitals in major towns like Tiruvananthapuram and Kochi. People in towns like Palakkad have to rush snake-bite victims to neighbouring state Tamil Nadu for emergency treatment, which essentially would raise casualty figures because of time lost in transit. The tragedy is that the state governments, now and in the past, have never made any attempts to put in place an emergency and trauma care system to tackle snake-bite cases on priority in spite of alarmingly high incidence of casualties. Leave alone priority, there is not even a policy frame-work for such an important safety issue for farmers. The medicine stock at the primary health centres does not include any trauma care drugs, rather no medical personnel even to attend to accidents. One doctor from Pathannamthitta derisively referred to the health centres as distribution centres for condoms and paracetimol. That is not any further from reality. If that be so, should one expect any treatment for snake-bites, which would require a highly motivated staff and doctors with paraphernalia. The medicine stocks would have to include refrigerated anti-venom, and a medical team which is efficiently quick in responding to exigencies. Most importantly, the medical teams have be on call 24-hours as snake-bite cases occur in the night as much as in the fields during the day. But Kerala villagers have a lot more than just cavil the primary healthcare centres. Their misery gets worse by the fact that there are no hospitals of the Appollo or AIIMS stature. If there are, they are few and far between. The government's priorities are muddled, especially the ruling Left Front government, which is obsessed with caste-driven, minority-Mahdani politics. In the end, education does not necessarily mean empowerment.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 10:15 AM
Saturday, 21 April 2007
DO WE DESERVE BETTER CUSTOMER CARE?
Mood:  energeticNow Playing: Next time you get crushed in Mumbai train, thank yourself for it Topic: PRIVATISATION MESS I am endlessly surprised by Indians. All through my life I have hated Pandit Nehru for his political philosophy as much as his leanings towards the British. His political leanings still leave me cold as it is the foremost reason for India's deprivity as much as the cause of almost all problems, from terrorism to poverty. But it is his leanings towards the Brits that I am now beholden to. I will explain why Pandit Nehru, or rather his philosophy was so hypocritical. Often when I travel by crowded trains I am witness to the most ugly brawls. Sometimes it even ends in fisticuffs. Lot of four-letter words flying around. All leading to unnecessary stress. I am not suggesting that we should be calm and peaceful. Rather it is our peace and quietitude that has exacerbated our problems to points of no return. But why do we have this irrepressible urge to find soft targets? We all know for sure that crowded trains are caused by mismanagement. Lately, with just very little efforts Laloo Yadav has been able to turn the railways into a profit-making PSU. So think what a hard-nosed private company like Reliance or Kumaramangalam Birla would do to railways if it were privatised. Better still, give each zone to a couple of private companies, like in telecom sector, or like in the UK and see what competition will do to our railway system. And being the undisputed leader in IT we could be having the best railway network in the world, every which way you look -- swanky carriages, timely service, safety, speed and comfort! But no, we would have none of that. We voted out Arun Shourie's party from power because he transparently privatised PSUs. I have even heard my stock market-savvy Christian friends vociferously maintaining that Arun Shourie's policies will only bring misery. And I suspect it is secularism talking there. Modi would meet the same fate. If Laloo had done all that my secular friends would have cheered. And there in lies our immaturity and lack of sophistication. But never mind the secularists, they don't matter in the number game of Indian democracy. It is the common people who have to travel in 19th century coaches who should know better than to oppose Shourie. I have seen people nudging railway personnel to snap up their act at the ticket counter. Why doesn't the everyday train traveller realise that the solution allthis misery is privatisation. And in today's world of supply less than demand in human resources the people who get laid off by privatisation would anyway get better jobs. But that is begging the question. In all the cases of privatisation of PSUs the number have only trebled, leave apart lay-offs.
Posted by Anil Nair
at 7:43 PM
FOR ALL THE OLDER INSIGHTFUL ANALYSIS CLICK HERE
Mood:  downNow Playing: FOR ALL THE OLDER INSIGHTFUL ANALYSIS CLICK HERE Topic: FOR ALL THE OLDER BLOGS For all my older blogs on the Indian economy, politics and social issues, please click here: http://changingindia.tripod.com and https://changingindia.tripod.com/1
Posted by Anil Nair
at 7:28 PM
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