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Archive for May, 2010

Indian Idol

Last couple of months the news headlines has been showing the naxal attacks in the eastern parts of India. This news feature has been regular but without much notice taken by most Indians. The Naxals have been attacking government administrators, Policemen, CRPF jawans and civilians. This morning when I saw the news of Maoists’ blasting the train tracks and causing the derailment of the train which resulted in loss of innocent lives and hundreds of injured passengers. I was shaken to see the site on the news channel; the naxals have gone one step further in butchering the lives of innocent civilians. Although the railway Minister & the West Bengal Police chief had different versions of stories to tell about the cause of blast. However, the state Chief Minister has displayed relatively a calm gesture and assured the citizens of some firm action. We have been seeing & hearing the firmness of action against the naxals, even from the Home Minister & Prime Minister of India in last few months, but less to the delight of the civilian life and more friendly towards the agenda of Naxals.

Today the nation is busy watching “Indian Idol, Bidaai, Dance India Dance, Boggie Woggie and other soap operas on television and the breaking news just passes off their channel browsing. I don’t even hear people speak about such incidents now days, offfcourse they do speak about “Three Idiots and how Rakesh Roshan should have directed Kites to make it a hit”. When I discuss these issues with some people in our community and the ineffectiveness of government to curb the naxalite menace, they call me cynical or say “Hey buddy don’t bother about it the army will deal with it”.

I sit in my garden having tea late in the afternoon because we have power failure for almost 10-12 hours a day. Perhaps I shouldn’t call it power failure; in India they call it as “Load Shedding”. Whatever, load shedding or power cut or electricity failure, my dad who suffers from cancer has a tough time this summer because our inverter back up batteries won’t run the one fan & one tube light more than few hours? I don’t know what must be happening to older people, new born, children studying and extremely sick people who don’t have inverter battery back up to support the power failures. Guess what? Our town is just 15kms away from the financial capital of India (Mumbai), if this is this case here then I don’t know about the rest of the villages in India. People are mum about this issue and they have even stopped complaining about the power failure issue. They have probably started to live with it, possibly that’s how we were living few hundred years ago, where was electricity. Indeed India was not even that hot and humid those days. The cities of India have been rated as one of the most polluted cities in the world; I am still not talking about the crowd. There is not even single Indian city which is not the world’s most polluted list. The civic authorities in such cities regularly call for strike for less salary and better working conditions. The workers are always ending on a winning note against the government and get their demands fulfilled. Maybe some people don’t know but even the sweeper in Mumbai Municipal Corporation gets higher pay than the Computer Engineer working for a private company, plus the sweeper works less or hardly works get full perks, benefits and retirement pensions.

That’s why now days I tell the youngsters that after the completion of education they should only opt for government jobs as that would ensure their security and get after retirement tensions eased.

I visited the Department of Agriculture to renew my family business chemical license. I did see many desks & chairs in the office of DOA but very people at their desks. With great difficulty one staff there agreed to speak to me and give me some information about the clerk I had to meet to renew the license. I thought probably I am an Alien, that’s why the staff is speaking to me that way. I had to wait for hour and half before the desired clerk approached his desk. He was already showing signs of frustration on his face, as if he was suffering from constipation. He called the office boy (Peon) in a sentence which started with a bad word and ended with much more worse bad word. I guess he wanted to order tea. I went towards the desk of that clerk and asked him if his name was Mr. Y, he didn’t reply, and then I decided that I must sit in the chair opposite to his desk. I sat down, the clerk raised his head towards me a gave me a dirty look and then he started to run through his papers on his desk. He was talking to himself, “When this work load will get over” I wish if he ever started that work on his desk, so I don’t think that was ever supposed to get over. Then he asked me why am I here, I responded that I wanted to renew the chemical business license. He took the file from my hand without asking me. It was ok with me, that atleast he took that file. He turned some pages in that file and was nodding his head. He said that it can’t be don’t, the file is incomplete. Isn’t it funny that a running business file is incomplete for license renewal, which has already been earlier renewed thrice? I said “What can be done sir”, in mean time the office boy returned with the tea for that clerk. The clerk looked at the office boy and was discussing about my file. The office boy asked me to come with him; I did walk with the office boy some distance in the corridors of that building. He said if I paid about Rs. 15000 then all the paper work would be done today and the license will get renewed. But in replied “That’s not fair I am already having the license and its just renewal”. He replied “Ok forget it you will never have your license renewed”. I apologized to him and agreed to pay him. Finally we bargained for Rs. 4000 and I got my license renewed the same day. This is not surprising as this is the scenario at all government offices in India. No work can be done without overwhelming and bribing your way through these bureaucrats. However, the scene was not that bad few decades ago but now it’s just a working mechanism which the citizens of India have got used too. I wonder if this is what exactly our freedom fighters had dreamed of India becoming a red tape nation after independence.

Well after so many years away from India and now I am back, all I do is trying to fit myself in the system. For the first few days when I returned here, I was complaining about the traffic, bad roads, no street lights, no proper water supply, no law and order, pollution, etc etc….now I stopped complaining, just trying to push my way as if I am getting into a Mumbai local train.

What I had seen India as a teenager was much better than how its now. Today its criminalization of India. Although many Indians living here would disagree with me as they have been totally absorbed into the corrupt system and the influence of politics. In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, “including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder”. At state level, things are often worse. In Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2002, candidates with criminal records won the majority of seats. Gone are those days when people would patriotically support the political parties which had national agendas, this was when the parties were less as compared to today. I observed the local civic polls here in our district that there are many parties or perhaps many larger parties have broken down into smaller ones. The party workers who participate during the election campaigns are not really interested in the agenda of the political party, although there are few hardcore criminal elements within the party supporting the cause. Otherwise the party has to pay the supporters/workers on daily basis in order to do the campaigning. There was a period few decades ago when gangsters were to be feared but now the time has evolved gangsters have interlinked with politics. In the modern day India the citizens are scared of politicians, because this breed is more dreadful then the gangsters of past. Animosity with the politician could end up a person and also his entire family.

I am not sure if the current India can be termed as Democracy but I will rather call it “Idiocracy”. That’s what has become of people within India today, intelligent people are full of doubts and idiots are damn sure about themselves. What the nation needs today a total revolution, something which will only replace the present government mechanism with much more liberal and leaders who are educated and not criminals. The leaders who will lead the nation just like the big conglomerate company is lead by a CEO or COO. Everyone in serving in the government administration has to be qualified i.e. Graduate, IPS, IIT,IAS etc so why not the politicians. They are currently the only lot who are tarnishing and destroying the society of India. A surge in such attitude of politics will only cause total mess in future for a great nation like India. What we need today is not some singing or dancing Indian Idol but a real Indian Idol who will lead the nation into an era which the world will only follow as example.

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Why do most hate Jews?

Hatred can be explained in many ways, but I often come across some people who hate Jews. Whenever I go on explaining them about Judaism, Israel and Zion, it just ends in an unconvincing rational argument. When I look into the history of Israel and why they had been persecuted in last 2000 years the details are quite fascinating. I realize that most people, who hate Jews, don’t know why they do. Some might go to an extent of forwarding me some articles from Islamic websites or videos from YouTube, which shows atrocities of Israelis on Palestinians’.

Since my early days as Bible reading kid I was always having a soft corner for Israel and its people. The curiosity for Israel & Jews grew stronger as a teenager and I ventured into in-depth study about that land and its people. Searching for facts, discussing with Scholars, interviewing Rabbi’s and getting into a practical pursuit of the land. When I study about them I don’t find any reason to hate them. Off course I always see that I don’t get influenced by some breaking news, media and false propaganda about Israel. However, a study is incomplete without getting the information from the oppositions and the haters too, but when I balance the real cause and explanation I still that the state of Israel has a right to survive and exist. Many would still continue to disagree with me, by some of their biased and unrealistic explanations.  

Lets go through some  few points that I have found interesting about Israel, its relationship with west, its relationship with USA, Holocaust, Jewish hatred and everything that I could cover in a precise writing mode :-

“It requires faith,” says Wistrich, in an interview on his return from a whirlwind book tour across the United States. “Our presence in the land of Israel is providential, and cannot be explained by purely rational arguments. Whether we live up to that depends on us.”

http://www.whyisrael.org/2010/05/22/the-longest-hatred/

 

 

(What is Anti-Semitism? anti-Semitism is not an opinion, but rather a crime of passion; and, in the final analysis, the anti-Semite wants, consciously or unconsciously, to kill the Jew. ) This has been going on for almost 2500 years and the anti-Semitic mind is always for a reason to think that a Jew should be killed or to kill if given a chance. There has hardly been any direct cause of revenge, it’s just a state of obsession. I wonder what kind of aggression, atrocity, and persecution the anti-Semitic faced in order to have such mental state to kill a Jew. Many have never focused on religion influence on Anti-Semitism. Before WW2 there was a huge influx of Anti-Semitism among the Christians, but after that and especially since 1948 there has been a shift towards Muslims. Only recently the prevalent Anti-Semitic feelings in US & Europe have revived again. Making Israel almost isolated in its fight against survival.

US – Israel relations at its brink

US is the strongest allies of Israel in the western world, but last few months we are witnessing a collapse in their relations. All thanks to President Obama and the liberals in the US politics.

  1. Israel during the Bush and Clinton Administrations – had landing rights in Turkey, and USA bases in the Middle East and more recently under George Bush, in Iraq. This was in case they were attacked by Iran or any other Arab country. Obama has withdrawn those landing rights. Israel now has nowhere to refuel in the Middle East.
    2. Netanyahu was instructed to come to the white house for a meeting. He was brought in through a servant’s entrance – the only head of state ever in US history to be given that disgraceful treatment. He was not offered even a cup of tea – but was lectured to by Obama who told him that he is not permitted to attack Iran and that he has to withdraw all forces from the West bank and may not build any more settlements ( neighborhoods’) in East Jerusalem.
    3. Israel found out that there were four terrorists meeting in Dubai. As they have done for the past 62 years, they informed the US of that and said that these terrorists had to be dealt with. Obama said under no circumstances. Israel decided to go ahead. They killed the one terrorist who showed up. However the CIA was sent there to film the entire event by Obama – and then a concerted PR campaign was waged by the White house to discredit Israel and what they did – this kind of action has taken place with US support for the past 62 years since they presumed to have common enemies.
    4. Obama has refused to oppose Syria’s re arming of Hezbollah and Hamas – Israel now sits in imminent danger from the amounts of missiles that can be sent into her territory.
    5. Israel will never tell the US again of its plans – since they cannot trust US.
    6. Israel intends to attack Iran – there are over 30 installations of which 4 have underground bunkers that contain nuclear weapons. Israel cannot wait any longer. The US is no longer supporting Israel’s self defense.
    7. When Lance Lambert gave the White House a full file on the 9.11 attack – his warnings and proof were laughed at.
    8. Now Lance Lambert believes that the next attacks in the USA will be mass transportation – subways and malls – especially the largest malls where the most people can be killed – and that Vegas and wherever there are conventions of employees will be a huge target. USA is not prepared and are naïve in their lack thereof.
    9. Once Israel attacks Iran, every Jew and Jewish institution will be at risk – temples, religious schools etc.
    10. It is not fiction. It is fact.
    What can be done?
    It is essential that everyone who doesn’t know yet, now understands that the protection and survival of Israel is not on Obama’s list – and he is now taking ACTUAL steps to move all protections away – no more landing rights, negotiating with Iran and Syria, making nice to the Arab World in the face of allies of long-standing and he is no friend of the Jewish people and Israel.

 

Today, people from Western countries often have not even the vaguest idea of the Jews’ link to this land. They tend to believe the kind of things that were given some credence even by President Obama in his Cairo speech, where he suggested that it was only the history of persecution, and particularly the Holocaust, that provided the source of Israel’s justification. But anyone really familiar with Judaism and the history of the Jews would know that the tripod that makes up the core of the Jewish people — Judaism, the land of Israel and the laws of the Torah — cannot be disconnected. This is why anti-Zionists, and often anti-Semites, try so hard to separate them. A distorted information about the facts doesn’t make the truth diminish, maybe for the ears for some naïve people. But someone with clear understanding about the history of Israel cannot deny the truth.

The Sympathetic Arab westerners basically say that the Zionist movement and the people who came to settle in the Land of Israel are all alien invaders. This is an outright lie, of course, but it’s one that is widely believed by people today who have no interest in history and no respect for truth. It’s astonishing how often one reads complete dismissals of the historical connection of the Jews with Palestine. The Palestinians even deny that there was a First or a Second Temple. And they go even further in falsifying history, by claiming, for instance, that the Arabs of Palestine are descendants of the Canaanites, and therefore preceded the children of Israel in the conquest of Canaan as described in the Bible. Obviously, there’s no shred of evidence for any link whatsoever between the Canaanites and the Arabs of Palestine.

The Jews were driven out of their land by the Romans; many tribes went to settle down in Middle east and most in Europe. The Jews were never welcomed in Europe or Middle east peacefully as compared to the invasions of the Islamic fighters over Europe, Africa, Middle East & Asia. No one speaks about the atrocities met by the Islamic fighters who plundered one city after another in the name of the religion. Still there is no hatred for them as compared to hatred meted upon the Jews. In Europe the Jews were subjected only to the ghettos, it was only in the ghettos that they could find a living. Whenever the European kings & Queens or at the instructions of the Vatican the persecution of the Jews was fast tracked. Their killings were never justified but always given a name of hatred or they were killed in the name of religion. Many Christians those days were driven against the Jews by the Church, and the reason “ It was Jews who killed Lord Jesus”, come on please can somebody tell me is this the basis of Christianity. Even Lord Jesus would never allow such a horrendous crime in the name of faith. During the early 17th Century Jews started to expand almost all over Europe because they were always migrating population under the fear of continuous persecution. This was the time when the Jews flourished in trade, medicine, science, technology and even some of them gaining good positions in societies, politics & governments.

Have the Jews invaded nations in past 2000 years, or have they spread bloodshed, or what on earth have they done to the world to be hated so much. Maybe its the success of most of the Jews which makes the other people jealous and thus resulting hatred.

 

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We are all pretty much educated and rational, so I don’t want to add any words of fanaticism on this topic. Somehow the long history of bitter Polish-Russian relations and history of betrayal & murder. Makes me really question the current scenario in Poland. Since WW2 till 1989 the entire Polish population has been fed with pro-Soviet government supported lies, why I shouldn’t wonder that this incident of Smolensk air crash is a similar lie. This is the beginning of Communist strategy of deception & disinformation. I was sure by the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 that soon Poland will be under threat. However, the signing of the missile defense shield treaty between Poland & USA had put a pause on Russian intentions. George W Bush was a hard nut to crack for the Russian, but the coming of Obama saw the Polish-American missile defense shield breaking off. This gave a push to the Russians to continue their act against Poland. With Obama getting elected and Poland loosing its American support, President Lech Kaczynski had a surge in opposition from within and soon he was not the favorite. Now an equally strong and pro-Russian party wants to defy the odds of Kaczynski’s, conspiracy theory is not the order of the day. But the entire Polish top brass gone, the country is open to the new leadership. Although Lech Kaczynski was good for Poland in terms of economic reforms and maintained adequate GDP growth. The indecisiveness and lack of getting the nation together was the only demerit for him. There was no clear distinctive ideology for the new breed of Polish citizens. The former Presidents since 1989 were not very strong on international diplomacy and many wrong decisions taken, like taking part in Iraq war, going against the top order of EU and much more.

 

What the government failed was to build the confidence of Polish people, making them independent, creating for them good employment opportunities, infrastructure and attracting international investments. The government didn’t optimize the resources and thus creating red-tapism, corruption.

If Poland has to continue and grow as a powerful country, they need to come out of the Soviet shadow, throw the Russian ghost out of the closet and concentrate on internal reformation rather than international politics. Secure itself as strong business nation, use its resources, trade & commerce are the only means by which the nation can withstand the current economic turmoil. Poland needs to create a platform for international investments and parallel enhance its tourism trade, still untapped by the rest of the world. The method of business is the best way that a country can become a sustainable economy. By which employment opportunities increase proper health care & infrastructure. Any international disputes only retard the countries growth and keep the nations busy in it. Business mind politics today is the best method for a country to convert foes into friends. Make the invested countries depended upon Poland, so that they don’t look at Poland with imperialistic goals or political issues.  The best example can me taken from the GCC countries in Middle East, despite being Islamic countries they have been able to keep Iran, Russia, China, Korea, USA, UK , India, Pakistan & others deeply interested in business in GCC. The result GCC countries have made their own population 100 times richer then what they were before 30 years. These countries are not embroiled in political disputes, as their agenda is only business & diplomacy. Country like UAE which doesn’t have much oil strives purely on trade, commerce & tourism. UAE in desert has the best infrastructure in the world, which has become a large tourist attraction.

 

I feel Poland has to change their perspective on reforms, politics and have a broader view on economic growth. Poland has the ability to become strong economic nation in Europe, and then they could head for the world scene. But the government has to first change their thinking cap so that the rest of the population starts following the same path. It’s not the difficult path but the most secured way a nation can transform in this century. We don’t live in 17th or 18th century, today no nation wants to entire war because the repercussions are felt by both the oppressor and victim nation.

I am not sure on the agenda of the new elected government will be in Poland , but I hope they get this message and create an economically friendly Poland for all Americans, British, French, Russian, Chinese, Indians, etc…

People from the developing nations and rest of the world should say “ I want to go to Poland to earn money and make a good future”, that’s what the most of the people did in last thirty years “Lets go to Gulf countries to make future”….Poland can do it if they change their agenda. I know I started this article on a political note and ending it on business conclusion, but now days Poland is become a 2nd most hot topic around the world and everyone is creating a hype about Poland’s political instability and thus misleading the Polish people and making them more emotional and hostile towards its neighbors’. Now it’s not a time to resent and sleep in the past memories, but if Poland needs to teach a lesson to its rivals they need to do it in such a way that the response has to be economical might.

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The Smolensk plane crash tragedy in which the top brass of Poland’s politics died has raised serious theories, about who is to be blamed for it.

Media, conspiracy theorists and bloggers are first to jump the story telling band wagon. What requires here is not just an ability to quickly relay a story, just to create hype or to sell publication. Someone should have in-depth political, historical knowledge and physical presence in Poland. So let’s forget about someone just writing an article from one corner of the world, or by researching the internet & news.

There are many theories arising from speculations in & around the Poland’s political scene and Poland-Russia relationship of last several decades. However, a person without in-depth knowledge and studies of both is just trying to cover the article for attention or TRP. Before we go to the detailed report on research, speculations and assumptions about this tragedy, let’s look at what led this tragic event in a nutshell.

THEORY 01 – Russian behind the crash, as the whole polish delegation in the plane is enemy number one for the Russian, who are trying to blame today’s Russia for Katyn massacre and push for a compensation & apology.

THEORY 02 – United States to be blamed, as they are from time to time creating a regional conflicts for Russia with her neighbors’, to weaken her & to stop Russian might in EU.

THEORY 03 – Russia and the USA to blame, as their signature few days ago was a part of a bigger agreement to include cancelling the missile defense system and get rid of anyone who is pushing for it and putting the superpowers at a collision course, also to mention the polish president wanted a compensation from the USA, if they had to withdraw from the missile plans, and leave Poland only with troubles with the Russians.

THEORY 04 – The unlikely truth – NO ONE TO BLAME!!!

___________XXXX_________

Many consider that the air crash was merely due to human error as the pilot declined the instructions given by the ATC, that not to land due to bad weather conditions. Some even went on to say that it was a serious mistake by the Polish President to order the pilot to land the aircraft; a similar forced landing was done few months back in Mongolia by the same President. Alarmingly some eye witnesses say that there was no fog at all and the weather conditions weren’t bad. Contradictions like these raise more doubts about this tragedy.

But why didn’t Poland buy a brand new aircraft from Germany or France, I am sure the Polish government can afford it and not risk lives of their President with a 20-year-old problematic flight. Didn’t the engineers pass this aircraft and approve for flying, yes., so why does media go on to term this as a “dodgy aircraft”, did they get proof from the black box? Or has it been declared at the crash site that this was a dodgy aircraft??

If we consider what happened was just due to malfunction and human error, then the whole argument ends and it just concludes as an accident. Perhaps, with the Russians the Polish have always had their one eye full of doubt. Russia has been systematically killing its own people who revolt against the government, even opposing politicians, businessmen, journalists, writers & reformists are killed till date in Russia…in an accident. Case close….you see it’s very easy with the Russian government to do that. So why can’t the same strategy be not been used to arrange the Smolensk air crash. Stalin’s government was able to hide the Katyn massacre for many decades and blame it on Germans; if the site was not located then no one would have come to know about the Katyn massacre. Today Russia doesn’t have any opposition and also there is no international investigation on the incident. More over Mr. Putin himself is heading the investigation, why aren’t the Poles invited in joint investigation, if this was just an accident. This just shows that it’s not only an accident but there is a larger conspiracy or truth involved.

The Polish President and the entire top officials dead in the crash were anti-Russian; wiping them off in one incident just makes the way for Russia clearer once again in Poland. The resources and strategic placement of Poland in central Europe makes it very important in terms of Political & geographical. Having a pro-Russian government in Poland makes Russia stronger in Europe, although Russia doesn’t require adding something to their military might but having a nation like Poland under their belt adds to the decisions making strength in Europe. Last few months President Lech Kaczynski has been even opposing the EU dictatorship for the benefit of entire Europe, I guess he was already on a suicidal path. This is not the first time that Poland’s patriots have been killed in an accident whenever they tried to react against the Russians, every time earlier a top anti-Russian official dying in an accident has led to several understandings thereof.

When Georgia invaded Russia on 8/8/2008 many of the weapons used to kill Russians had been delivered by Poland. After the Georgian surprise invasion and attack against Russia the Russian president Medvedev said that the Russian authorities “know” who dispatched arms and why to Tbilisi in advance of the conflict and who has been sending arms there since in order to rebuilt Georgia’s military establishment.” We will not forget [such actions] and will naturally consider [them] in the course of our practical policy,” the Russian president said, underscoring that he “would like that everyone keep this in mind.” The Russian government has accused Warsaw of “illegal arms” sales to Georgia. Ever since Lech Kaczynski has been on Russian radar, this doesn’t rule out a probable long-term plan in process that one day will act against Kaczynski and one can’t rule out a possible support from the Polish officials also who opposed Kaczynski’s policies. Now since the top brass all dead, it doesn’t matter if it’s a conspiracy or accident, it clearly benefits Russia.

Russia is going slowly and swiftly first with Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and now Poland. It’s very evident that Putin is trying to get back the fallen pieces of the old Soviet Union together. Although Poland has become of the best growing economies in last five years, what it lacks is the best political leadership which makes proper decisions and acts on its own without getting influenced by West or East. A stupid leadership is likely to thrust bad luck upon a nation and Polish people have to realize this, wake up and not let their nation fall again for the fourth time in history.

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