How to start your own nation
Firstly, profuse apologies for the blog not being updated on a daily basis. Internet access combined with mental peace has always been a necessity for these postings and I have none of the former and little of the latter these days.
Many of us have had but one dream since childhood, that is to have our own country. I know that I have. In my country no one will tell anybody what to do. But I must be honest. I have made little progress in this endeavor. People are not willing to go out of their way to help me establish my country.
However, I realize today how easy it is. All I have to do is write to George Bush saying that my country is willing to endorse his stand on Iraq, if he agrees to recognize it. Not only will I finally be President of something that matters, but also have the honor of joining the “coalition of the willing”.
Here are the 40 countries that support America in the matter of invading Iraq:
Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Iceland, Kuwait, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Portugal, Rwanda, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Uganda.
Even if you are not a small island or an ex- member of the Soviet Bloc, then do write in to the American President today for your very own country.
There is a blog that has caught my attention. It is being maintained and updated from Baghdad. Besides refreshing situation updates, he also has a very valid theory which explains why bombing Iraq more will cause it to become a religious extremist society - something it never was. Please read his blog here
Firstly, profuse apologies for the blog not being updated on a daily basis. Internet access combined with mental peace has always been a necessity for these postings and I have none of the former and little of the latter these days.
Many of us have had but one dream since childhood, that is to have our own country. I know that I have. In my country no one will tell anybody what to do. But I must be honest. I have made little progress in this endeavor. People are not willing to go out of their way to help me establish my country.
However, I realize today how easy it is. All I have to do is write to George Bush saying that my country is willing to endorse his stand on Iraq, if he agrees to recognize it. Not only will I finally be President of something that matters, but also have the honor of joining the “coalition of the willing”.
Here are the 40 countries that support America in the matter of invading Iraq:
Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Iceland, Kuwait, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Portugal, Rwanda, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Uganda.
Even if you are not a small island or an ex- member of the Soviet Bloc, then do write in to the American President today for your very own country.
There is a blog that has caught my attention. It is being maintained and updated from Baghdad. Besides refreshing situation updates, he also has a very valid theory which explains why bombing Iraq more will cause it to become a religious extremist society - something it never was. Please read his blog here
It is that time
Firstly a hearty thank you to Mr. Bush for having scheduled the war deadline to match with prime time (the war airs on all major news channels in approximately four hours). This way people will watch the ads during the war and maybe the much forgotten economy will prosper again. He has provided a lesson to the hosts of all major sporting events in scheduling, in addition to providing the rest of the world a lesson in good and evil.
What is “good”? “When we seek truth, what do we seek? Why do we seek it?
The definition and the reason both lead to the same thing. We seek something, in the essence of which we can foresee the preservation and maybe even multiplication of the human race. Does this war achieve that objective? Are we feeling safer in New York and the rest of the world?
If America had not attacked Saddam, what would have happened in the future? Would he certainly have used his “weapons of mass destruction” on the “coalition of the willing”? Maybe. Maybe not. We cannot say for sure, and this is argument for pacifism that has been used for centuries, gives us an extremely good reason not to go to war.
Mr. Bush is known to be a religious man who quotes from the Bible regularly. (“Either you are with us or against us,” was an ultimatum delivered in an entirely different set of circumstances many years ago). He seems to have read the parables of the Bible that deal with the wheat, chaff, and mustard seeds –in short anything dealing with the concepts of good and evil very thoroughly. It is a pity how he omitted to read with equal felicity the chapters on the sins that lie inherent in all judgment.
There are many reasons a many different levels as to why this war is wrong. It was an Apocalypse then and is an Apocalypse now. Barring some miracle, it is imminent and may have even started by the time we finish our commutes homeward bound. We can only hope that it will be short and painless like the 1989 overthrow of Manuel Noriega. In Panama, the conflict lasted for one night. It was swift and produced the desired results. It is pertinent to note that even in such a short conflict 300 civilians lost their lives.
If I were a precision bomb, I would live up to my name. If I was a journalist I would report not only civilian casualties, but also keep a close eye on the weapons of mass destruction that should turn up after the war – unless they do an Osama on us and disappear into the hands of “rogue elements”.
My art professor once told me that to understand any movement, one has to see who is paying for the art. I suspect it is no different in war too. As a journalist, I would monitor which companies (in addition to Mr. Cheney’s Halliburton which has won a huge contract for putting out the fires on oil wells after the war) are gaining the most in the post war scenario.
The moment of truth, which is so keenly sought, should after all live up to its name too.
Firstly a hearty thank you to Mr. Bush for having scheduled the war deadline to match with prime time (the war airs on all major news channels in approximately four hours). This way people will watch the ads during the war and maybe the much forgotten economy will prosper again. He has provided a lesson to the hosts of all major sporting events in scheduling, in addition to providing the rest of the world a lesson in good and evil.
What is “good”? “When we seek truth, what do we seek? Why do we seek it?
The definition and the reason both lead to the same thing. We seek something, in the essence of which we can foresee the preservation and maybe even multiplication of the human race. Does this war achieve that objective? Are we feeling safer in New York and the rest of the world?
If America had not attacked Saddam, what would have happened in the future? Would he certainly have used his “weapons of mass destruction” on the “coalition of the willing”? Maybe. Maybe not. We cannot say for sure, and this is argument for pacifism that has been used for centuries, gives us an extremely good reason not to go to war.
Mr. Bush is known to be a religious man who quotes from the Bible regularly. (“Either you are with us or against us,” was an ultimatum delivered in an entirely different set of circumstances many years ago). He seems to have read the parables of the Bible that deal with the wheat, chaff, and mustard seeds –in short anything dealing with the concepts of good and evil very thoroughly. It is a pity how he omitted to read with equal felicity the chapters on the sins that lie inherent in all judgment.
There are many reasons a many different levels as to why this war is wrong. It was an Apocalypse then and is an Apocalypse now. Barring some miracle, it is imminent and may have even started by the time we finish our commutes homeward bound. We can only hope that it will be short and painless like the 1989 overthrow of Manuel Noriega. In Panama, the conflict lasted for one night. It was swift and produced the desired results. It is pertinent to note that even in such a short conflict 300 civilians lost their lives.
If I were a precision bomb, I would live up to my name. If I was a journalist I would report not only civilian casualties, but also keep a close eye on the weapons of mass destruction that should turn up after the war – unless they do an Osama on us and disappear into the hands of “rogue elements”.
My art professor once told me that to understand any movement, one has to see who is paying for the art. I suspect it is no different in war too. As a journalist, I would monitor which companies (in addition to Mr. Cheney’s Halliburton which has won a huge contract for putting out the fires on oil wells after the war) are gaining the most in the post war scenario.
The moment of truth, which is so keenly sought, should after all live up to its name too.
Just to question, cc: Kim Jong Il
It is that time of the week. Please gather around for symbolic story telling time.
A person purchased the most expensive Walkman ever. It was as blue as the purest summer sky and the sound quality was second to none. This person stopped attending concerts, because the music sounded so much better on his Walkman.
One day the left earphone stopped working. He could hear only part of the sound, the part that was meant for the right speaker/earphone. This was not very fun. He discarded the earphones and purchased a new pair. He began hearing songs in their entirety again. Needless to say, he was very happy. After some time, the left earphone stopped working again. Since this was a better earphone, he could hear the entire spectrum of sound notes on the right speaker in mono mode.
He found it strange that the same thing in different levels happened to the two pairs of earphones. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it had something to do with the Walkman.
Probably not. But there was no harm in questioning the quality of the Walkman and being more aware of it.
It is that time of the week. Please gather around for symbolic story telling time.
A person purchased the most expensive Walkman ever. It was as blue as the purest summer sky and the sound quality was second to none. This person stopped attending concerts, because the music sounded so much better on his Walkman.
One day the left earphone stopped working. He could hear only part of the sound, the part that was meant for the right speaker/earphone. This was not very fun. He discarded the earphones and purchased a new pair. He began hearing songs in their entirety again. Needless to say, he was very happy. After some time, the left earphone stopped working again. Since this was a better earphone, he could hear the entire spectrum of sound notes on the right speaker in mono mode.
He found it strange that the same thing in different levels happened to the two pairs of earphones. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it had something to do with the Walkman.
Probably not. But there was no harm in questioning the quality of the Walkman and being more aware of it.
Harlem
This blog has not been receiving updates on account of my shifting residences. I moved to Harlem over the weekend.
125th Street eulogized in so many songs is supposedly in the throes of change. You cannot throw a stone without hitting an outlet of some major corporation. On this street, where the non-resident once feared to tread, big companies such as Starbucks and H&M are peddling their wares. A huge two-sided (faced) billboard by Nissan celebrates the black experience. This is all very good. To the people that are in Harlem to catch a show at the Apollo or just to add that dash of excitement, the spectacle allows them to rush to their homes in the Upper East Side or the West Village and tell friends, family and colleagues about how very soon there will be no ghettos in America.
If only they had walked a block more towards the North (or even the South for that matter). If only they had seen the hundreds of small businesses that are closing down on 125th Street that are being replaced by large outlets (and who is say as to how long these will last). All the money has been pumped in an artificial manner on 125th street. Like a clown without a sense of humor, it is an impressive, startling and ultimately disappointing spectacle. The poor black people are not benefiting in any significant manner from this retail blitz.
What is “poor” and who are the poor black people? Poverty has much more to do with that ‘a lack of money.’ Consider the facts. The average black person in America has a much lower life expectancy than a person in China or the state of Kerala in India, even though the average black person here earns much greater amounts of money than his third world Asian counterpart. The black person in America also has safety nets in the form of social security and unemployment, a great advantage in times of crisis.
Why then do they have lower life expectancies? In his book Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen argues that the blacks in America have little access to fundamental opportunities and rights such as health care, education and the like. Thus there is little room for development, not to mention any plausible, motivational incentives.
Even in areas with a high composition of high-income blacks (such as Baldwin in Los Angeles) you will find banks and businesses staying away, as new opportunity research is often conducted on the basis of race and not income.
This is unfortunate because this poverty is unnecessary. The only reason for the grim condition in which so many blacks live their lives must be that elected representatives don’t care. For it is not very difficult to improve matters and set them right. Local city governments need to take on the responsibility of making real changes to the quality of life in ghetto America. Dirty streets have to be cleaned up. As is the New York subway, the frequency of cleaning must be one cycle greater than the frequency at which the streets get dirty.
Businesses (even City hall) need to operate in the local neighborhoods. These businesses need to employ the local black folk of that community. If a woman is ill, she must have access to reliable health care. Children must have access to schools. This is beyond creating numbers for impressive sounding annual reports. This has to be done with strong local involvement.
And in the meantime, if anyone wants to buy, visually appealing and not very high quality clothes, they can always drive down to Soho once the stock of their neighborhood store has been exhausted. And they can do it at least as often than any person from China or Kerala.
This blog has not been receiving updates on account of my shifting residences. I moved to Harlem over the weekend.
125th Street eulogized in so many songs is supposedly in the throes of change. You cannot throw a stone without hitting an outlet of some major corporation. On this street, where the non-resident once feared to tread, big companies such as Starbucks and H&M are peddling their wares. A huge two-sided (faced) billboard by Nissan celebrates the black experience. This is all very good. To the people that are in Harlem to catch a show at the Apollo or just to add that dash of excitement, the spectacle allows them to rush to their homes in the Upper East Side or the West Village and tell friends, family and colleagues about how very soon there will be no ghettos in America.
If only they had walked a block more towards the North (or even the South for that matter). If only they had seen the hundreds of small businesses that are closing down on 125th Street that are being replaced by large outlets (and who is say as to how long these will last). All the money has been pumped in an artificial manner on 125th street. Like a clown without a sense of humor, it is an impressive, startling and ultimately disappointing spectacle. The poor black people are not benefiting in any significant manner from this retail blitz.
What is “poor” and who are the poor black people? Poverty has much more to do with that ‘a lack of money.’ Consider the facts. The average black person in America has a much lower life expectancy than a person in China or the state of Kerala in India, even though the average black person here earns much greater amounts of money than his third world Asian counterpart. The black person in America also has safety nets in the form of social security and unemployment, a great advantage in times of crisis.
Why then do they have lower life expectancies? In his book Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen argues that the blacks in America have little access to fundamental opportunities and rights such as health care, education and the like. Thus there is little room for development, not to mention any plausible, motivational incentives.
Even in areas with a high composition of high-income blacks (such as Baldwin in Los Angeles) you will find banks and businesses staying away, as new opportunity research is often conducted on the basis of race and not income.
This is unfortunate because this poverty is unnecessary. The only reason for the grim condition in which so many blacks live their lives must be that elected representatives don’t care. For it is not very difficult to improve matters and set them right. Local city governments need to take on the responsibility of making real changes to the quality of life in ghetto America. Dirty streets have to be cleaned up. As is the New York subway, the frequency of cleaning must be one cycle greater than the frequency at which the streets get dirty.
Businesses (even City hall) need to operate in the local neighborhoods. These businesses need to employ the local black folk of that community. If a woman is ill, she must have access to reliable health care. Children must have access to schools. This is beyond creating numbers for impressive sounding annual reports. This has to be done with strong local involvement.
And in the meantime, if anyone wants to buy, visually appealing and not very high quality clothes, they can always drive down to Soho once the stock of their neighborhood store has been exhausted. And they can do it at least as often than any person from China or Kerala.
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