The culture of contracts

In institutions like NASA most jobs are given on contracts. Its funny that if you want to work for NASA you need to be a citizen but you could work for a contractor if you are not one. Most scientists at NASA thinks that they save as much money as possible but the contractors who do most of the real work are surely doing it for profit. A culture of contracts cultivates because no one wants to take real responsibility. NASA can save only if they cut down on contracts. There are plenty of reasons why NASA must make their projects more self sufficient. The main being that NASA can provide opportunities to develop real manufacturing talent.

More on manufacturing

Once people understand that an economy thrives on manufacturing the next step is to have higher respect for manufacturers. The whole idea of manufacturing cheaply makes the environment very unfriendly and everyone is on edge. On the other hand if universities and schools were paying attention to manufacturing and encouraging manufacturing professions, manufacturing can be quite fun. Nothing makes a person happier than being to able to cut metal and build a car or something.

Open debates

Obama is right about bringing the public in to a discussion about health care that concerns people so much. Lets see the debate on TV. Decision makers seldom maintain decorum and that might be why TV is not so welcome. No one wants to provide fodder to paparazzi about a senator losing temper over some non trivial issue here and there. Paparazzi thrives on such mishaps but the government loses credibility in the world. America cannot really afford that. But there are health care debates and everyone understands that. Lets have education care debate too.

Tata's land grab

The Tata group should not go around demanding acres of land from state governments for their projects. Dislocating people from their lands and homes is wrong. The Tata group must work around available space. There is no requirement that the company has to exist in a huge plot of land. They can exist at smaller plots of lands separated by reasonable distances. For their slight inconvenience they bring about great inconvenience to scores of innocent people. A Tata project like Tsunami threatens to dislocate people and bring goonda misery. It is time that the Tata group take a good look at their behavior.

Helping Haiti

Americans are doing a good job in Haiti and doing the country proud. We need to see Americans in more such role. In the long term everyone realizes that doing the right thing is more fun that playing negative roles. With great power comes great responsibility and its good to see Americans in responsible role playing again after a decade.

Tony Blair's arguments

Tony Blair claims that the world is better off without Saddam but the question is whether Britain would have fought this war without the argument of WMDs? I might say yes because you had to be a perfect fool to believe that the Iraq war happened because of WMDs. The WMD argument is the moral justification grown ups have to provide questioning children and sounds nice like Santa Claus.

The broader question is are politicians allowed to lie when leading a nation in to war? Some wars are for economic reasons and politicians are always subject to provide an alibi. A nation can always prevent a war proposed by a politician, but when they did not care to do that, and something does not work, they use the politicians as scapegoats. All politicians must realize this that when things do not work they are the ones to face the blame and hence needs to be very careful with decisions. That anyways is what leading means, you lead a whole nation with your decisions. But whenever a leader is wrong the nation was wrong too.

Tony Blair says that Sept 11 made him intolerant to regimes that built WMDs. But it looks like more countries are now keen on WMDs than ever in recent history post Iraq war. Everything he says gets the world more and more in to trouble.

The economics of manufacturing

Manufacturing thrives on cheap labor. For whatever reason people of a certain region works very hard for little. Britain was doing great in manufacturing and Charles Dickens has done a great job of describing that era in his books. America was leading in manufacturing during an era when many immigrants came to these shores willing to work hard for a living. Times changed and so did labor laws and soon enough manufacturing is profitable no more. China is now able to lead the manufacturing industry and this translates as that there are either many poor people or exploited people in China. Its manufacturing that makes a country rich and powerful but unfortunately the poor people never taste the fruits of their labor. The vicious cycle of the manufacturing industry never changes no matter which land it thrives at a certain point of time.

Pay freezes and roughing it up

Politicians from time to time show solidarity by roughing it up. They travel second class, dress down, take pay cuts and what not. And we all are supposed to appreciate this gesture of good will or something. Oh yes, they did suffer so for a day. They suffered for a day what we do every day and hence it is an insulting attitude to the lives regular people live. But most of the time we watch these leaders jet setting and living the high life with tax money. Nothing wrong with that but sham gestures are quite insulting to the brain. Gestures would be more fun if random people get a chance to travel air force one or live like the president for a day. Now that would be spending tax money by the people for the people with a gesture that can be truly appreciated for a change.

Shooting yourself in the leg

Google pulling out of China because Chinese can have freedom of expression on the internet is nonsense. More power to Yahoo and Bing and Baidu the biggest winner of them all. China is a huge consumer of internet. What prompted Google to play freedom fighter is unknown but even if they did want to help they need to stay. You cannot run from the battlefield and leave the fight to competitors.

Overpriced

Education and Health care are two overpriced services in America. If Insurance companies are the reason for the sky rocketing of health care prices, education loans may be the reason for fee hikes time and again. The third party in education systems are not obvious like insurance companies. Whenever there is an unreasonable jump in price from production to sales there is always the presence of middle men.

Socialists

When socialists come to power there is no hope for poor people because socialism thrives on poverty. Socialists destroy more than construct and feel nothing about wasting good money. Wherever socialists are in power jobs are few and poverty thrives. But some good for nothing politicians live the good life because of support of poor people.

Women and mothers of America

I wonder why the wives of American politicians stand by their husbands in scandals. Perhaps that gives them a victory over the other woman. In a twisted way its revenge. Make life hell for the man from then on. But seriously marriage as an institution needs rethinking so that grown ups can live with more dignity.

Minorities

In Nigeria christians are attacked mostly because they are a minority. Some may say that there is no point or advantage of being among the minority especially since changing one's religion is quite easy. Change the picture and a group of people who are in the majority in one place is among the minorities in another. So if you have formed a habit of attacking minorities simply because they are so, how will you argue when your time comes? Its best to keep the big picture in mind all the time so that everyone learns how to behave.

Technology transfer

Drones are more important than nuclear weapons in war. Nuclear weapons would have been great if people did not want to continue to live on this earth. America's supply of drones to some countries will not only tilt balance of power in some regions but also will come back to haunt the US in the future.

Marriage and Edwards

After seeing Edward a presidential candidate in the news for all the wrong reasons time and again I feel it is time people simply stopped getting married. That will be the biggest help to women's right issues. Everyone works and no one is asked to sacrifice etc. It is all so disgusting. Yuck!

My thoughts on Mexico

I visited Mexico and I realize that what Palestine is to Israel, Mexico is to US, that is, cheap labor. Though US does not bomb Mexico from time to time like Israel does to Palestine, Mexico never got out of the US shadow. The economy in Mexico is broken and their only hope is their strong family values. It is their family bonds that see them through a rough economy and keeps them quite happy. Perhaps that is exactly what keeps Palestinians going too.

India and Afghanistan

India and Afghanistan were neighbors forever whereas Pakistan is newly formed with migrants. Indians and afghans view each other favorably. The Pathans of India are much liked and all the top heroes of Bollywood are Khans and hence have Afghan origins in some distant past. It is sad that Afghanistan is in such turmoil now. Hopefully peace returns to this land so that more Amir Khans and ShahRukh Khans can come from there.

Why Bill Gates need to twitter

So I heard that Bill Gates is twittering and got curious about what he has to say. Most of the times we get edited version of opinions and this would be straight from the Horse's mouth. But to my dismay I found a few other Bill Gates on Twitter already. Yes, even Bill Gates' identity is not safe. In this era to protect your good name you are forced to develop a web presence. Else your identity gets contaminated. The first thing people do is Google you up and you cringe at the thought of mistaken identities. Thus its time that Bill Gates twitters.

Reading in to Massachusetts Elections

One election down and people are writing off Obama. Elections are tricky things. President Obama must take big risks and go by his heart in decisions and not look at opinion polls or at the elections down the road in 3 years. Just because everyone is looking at it. If people could truly win elections by looking at opinion polls then a lot of people will be winning right now. "Make changes when in office" like "make hay when the sun shines" should be the motto for politicians. Because you never know what tomorrow will bring but today you have a chance to make history.

Helping hand

The sight of homeless people in winter is quite chilly. There are shelters that the homeless can go to in the US but many prefer the cold of the streets. The homeless who have cars are lucky. Instead of sweeping homeless people under a rug as unsightly, I suggest giving them a helping hand. Shelters are crowded and perhaps feel like jails. May be a small space like a mobile car will make all the difference. In this huge and still quite rich nation it is sad that people sleep on cold streets especially old people.

Giving up option

Marriages that involve a woman making adjustments to her career goals from the start must be avoided at all cost. Sania Mirza plans to give up tennis because she will marry a man no one heard of. To be such a sports personality is not easy and to give it up for marriage is not the ideal young women in India or the world must follow. Women should not be expected to give up their hard earned careers because some man wants to marry them. The very idea is disgusting to me and such men should be shunned by all women on earth. As long as everyone is accomplishing to their god given potential, whether it be a man or woman, married or unmarried, everyone is happy. Someone might say Sania is giving up tennis on her own without any duress but then she must not use marriage as an excuse. It sounds moronic when men say I will give up a career because I am getting married and it is no different when a woman says it too.

Haiti

Its sad that the earthquake did so much damage in Haiti. Looks like the Haiti engineers did a lousy job with construction. The natural calamity was made worse with poor construction.

The volunteers

Time and again we hear the army deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are volunteers then why is a single mom charged if she cannot make it the call of duty? More respect for the soldier is in order.

The obesity trend

In the news there is always this talk about how obesity is growing in the US compared to say 50 years ago but to my amazement the models and actors who represent the standards in society look a lot skinnier today than they did 50 years ago. Fifteen years ago someone who is considered healthy today would be checking with doctors to see if something is wrong because they are so skinny. Health is too important to be taken for a ride by the media folks. All good food is today unhealthy. I will say that it is not unhealthy but unfashionable. It is not only the body but also the mind that get nourished by food because the mind games really are all about chemicals. It is time to study this going skinny trend seriously and study health effects. Thousands of years of how to eat studies are thrown out by current fashion trends. Eating carrots make you a bunny whereas eating fish can make you a bear. There is more to eating than the eye can see.

The only way

The only way to get the economy back on track is to make sure that the right people have jobs. Moving money around is not going to help as long as the same people are in control. Stimulus happens because of stimulating people. Sometimes you see politicians debate for getting votes and you see that they see nothing. Rewarding the morons who are responsible for economic downfall with more money to create stimulus is a joke. And the politicians are jokers whose jokes are getting stale. Accountability and asking some tough questions is what will save the day. I wonder how many people are tired of conversations that are sound bites and not meant to convey any messages that make sense. Somethings I would look at if I was among the powers that be would be:

1. How many companies that would create jobs are killed by unfair competition? The giants out there allow very little competition to survive unless they function in hiding or are servile.

2. Are companies that are doing good work rewarded appropriately? Rewards have a way of rotating among morons.

3. What happens to hard working people in establishments? Why did they get fired? Was there a way a company could get some help before they fire people?

And so on ....

It is not lack of money that has taken the stimulus out of the economy but the lack of opportunity.

The movie Avatar

The movie Avatar is thought provoking. There is a difference between imperialism and migration. Migration is good and enriches the land mostly whereas imperialism destroys the very fabric of the land. The spiritual tree representing the balance of life was brilliant. Native people understand a land to its very roots and with them thrive native plants and animals. Imperialism destroy not only the people but also the flora and fauna because they have no understanding of it. Imperialists begin to learn from scratch what natives know for thousands of years and have much catching up to do. In that process they may destroy some delicate balances which may destroy the very earth. Earth really is a small percentage of land in a huge ocean. Its best to be willing to pay for what you want instead of trying to grab it at gun point.

Words

There is nothing wrong with African American dialect. It is all the rage in hip hop. Negro is a forbidden word only in America but all that is history and best it remains history. Slavery is not a black thing and only became so after European acquired guns. There were slaves of all colors and people do not go back in time and get offended by it. Come to think of it Romans would feed people to lions, the French would hold public executions with women in the audience (yuck!), Indians had caste system, and slavery was rampant in Egypt. All that was really gross and it was not about skin color. People get exploited but its a good thing to come out of such situations. What we want to remember is the strength that lead us out of darkness more than the darkness that sorround us at a given point of time.

It does not matter whether Obama has a particular kind of dialect or not. I would say he does speak a little like an African American and that is a good thing. Ever since Obama is president some people are always trying to create some kind of silly controversies. The race card will turn up again and again. But he remains quite popular. Most of America cares little about race and marriages happen across race and cultures without anyone batting an eyelid. But there are a few who carefully bring about the topic in a twisted way hoping to gain mileage among the white population. But it mostly backfires.

Harry Reid should not resign about issues like he said - she said stuff. There are more urgent issues that America faces today that Republicans never seem to notice.

Two sides of the same coin

Israel and Palestine are two sides of the same coin in that they are puppets of external powers. I wonder what make puppets become so verbose. Its best that the two sides come to their senses.

Indians in Australia

The attacks on Indians in Australia is very tricky. The fact that Indians are doing so well at work and academics at home and abroad is creating envy and anxiety. For some reason India is in the hate list of many groups and not necessarily racist groups alone. To solve this mystery of attacks, Indians need to look at which hate lists they figure in Australia and other places. Its really a small world.

Tharoor's troubles

The Congress party in India is good in a lot of ways but this worship of the Nehru family is a sham. Of course the Nehru family is respectful and much liked but the problem today is that a politician gains mileage by showing respect. Every respectful Congress politician has to visit the Nehru family graves to stay in power and perhaps very few people like Tharoor may see it as unnecessary. Tharoor is in trouble for being sensible for there is nothing more dangerous than the voice of reason. The common man is too busy to think about all the things that happen to him but the voice of reason awakens him. Tharoor is closely watched for his opinions but my guess is that Tharoor whether he stays in the party or not will bring big changes. If overt servility to a dynasty was what we all wanted the world would still have kings.

Coming to senses

I do not see what problem Malaysians Muslims have with Malaysian Christians calling their god Allah. The entire debate serves no purpose but people and property are attacked. Malaysians come across as crazy to me.

Health care

There is a problem with health care in America. I will narrate an incident. A man came to a clinic with a hand fracture on a weekend and the receptionist tells him that if he came on Monday he will have his fees covered by the insurance. Else he has to pay. He thinks for a minute and say I can survive with pain killers and come back on Monday and he leaves. For me this was a shocking scene. Firstly it does not cost that much to bandage a fracture (we learn this at high school as part of first aid) and secondly a fracture is treated as an emergency (we learned that again in high school). But the hospital did not think so. The patient could not afford the price of bandaging a fracture and did not expect his fracture to be treated as an emergency. He went home and America is supposed to be an advanced country. Health care is not about paper pushing there is a human element involved and the word care is mostly forgotten.

Everyone must recognize that the human element must return to health care, in fact I would say, in every job. People are not documents. But health care reform should involve more support from republicans. Something is wrong in the senate too. Perhaps the human element is missing again. Both sides must reach out a little better.

Bollywood today

I must say Bollywood movies today are really entertaining. Gone are the days when fun was limited to running around trees, hanging above drums of acid or boiling oil or from cliff tops. Bollywood movies have become a lot more creative these days. Some people miss weepy old Bollywood songs, cannot say I do. I wonder why the formula films decided to have those hanging people and chasing tree in the first place. The older generation do not look like people who cared for such things in particular. Movies reflect society not so much in terms of documentation but in terms of taste. And what must we say of the taste of people of yesteryears?

Journey

A Journey is always more than the destination. If destinations were all that mattered then the journey of life would be mean birth and death. People tend to forget this when they travel. In other words forget to stop and smell the flowers.

"LEISURE" By Wm. Henry Davies.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Iran

The only realistic demand the UN (or lets say the so called developed nations in the UN) can demand from Iran is not to use nuclear weapons against them without cause or attack Israel and sign some kind of treaty. Iran is a sovereign nation with no corrupt dictator in power. Iran has a unique democracy with religious leaders in control. It is not the ideal because it is less flexible than a government that disconnects from religion. Religion is rigid but at the same time every government in the world borrows ideology from religion. So Iran is currently quite fine and it will be very difficult to impose the will of the western world on Iran. It looks like the western world is waging an unnecessary cold war with the rest of the world. Though many other nations are not opposing western nations openly that is exactly how they must feel.

What is in a name?

If you thought names did not matter think again. Apart from cultural, national, racial, religious affiliations and the prejudices that come with it, names now have a new twist of importance. In these times the slogan is "If you have no web presence, you do not exist". If you have a common name you are competing with many others to be noticed on the web or lets say Google. So the race will begin among parents to name their children with a name as unique as possible. Soon names will sound like passwords:
Hello123dog#1fetch, xym12985df, etc.

Health care bill

Congratulations are in order to President Obama and his team for getting the health care bill passed in the senate. Goes to show that the new government has a new way of functioning. Hopefully all other issues will be solved like this too. Somehow faith is getting restored in the government's ability to deliver again.

Marriage in modern times

It amuses me that gays want to marry when traditional marriages (man-woman marriages) are becoming increasingly unpopular. The institution of marriage might have been created so that children feel secure. The death do us apart motto has long been substituted with till divorce kicks in which meant financial burden and so marriage itself has been kicked off as a concept or happens with prenups. I wonder what makes gays want to marry. Perhaps it is because they do not have many quarreling couples as examples for a deterrent.

Ironic

Mamta banerjee is offering railway jobs to farmers in return for their land. Was Tata not doing the same? If Mamta chased away Tata from Calcutta why is she grabbing land from farmers? Please let farmers be. It is best if farmers realize that there is no job that can be better than being a farmer. Its an honored profession. Also Indian soil really can grow heera moti like Manoj Kumar movie songs claim. Instead of easing up red tape so that farmers can do their bit Mamta Banerjee and her likes eliminate their profession all together. And she gets voted to power too. Its ironic.

Government

People in general self govern. It is a myth that Washington makes the big decisions. Of course wars murder a lot of people and one has to pay taxes. Apart from such direct decisions most governing bodies are ornamental or at the most detrimental. Think about it how many robbers are actually caught by the police and if caught very rarely is the money recovered. Or for that matter crimes like murder seldom get caught. So people usually take care of their homes and personal belongings and family knowing that if they lose something nothing really can help them. Its like the lock on a door that keeps most robbers away. A lock is not much and can be easily broken with a stone but its says "Private, keep off" and brings something decent about the robber to the surface and makes him/her obey. So musicians blaming the loss of freedom in society to governments or corporations makes no sense. Face the music honestly that the society itself has become less intelligent and choose what they get. The only security people can really bank on is the decency of other people. It is the good in us that is essential to our survival.

Indians getting killed in Australia

It is time to seriously look at who is behind the murders of Indian youth in Australia. Clearly the dumb Australian police are not capable to unravel this crime. The Indian Embassy must look in to it.

Testy faith

Some people are offended when concepts of their faith are put to test by a sarcastic or disrespectful comment. But faith is tested and survives such comments only if it is strong enough. In other words fundamentalists are weak in faith and hence stronger in reaction when their beliefs challenged. Whereas people who are strong in their faith are immune to sarcasm or disrespect.

Bailing out Rathore

Bail for Rathore is just two lakhs. It is too less considering the misery he put Ruchika's family through. Rathore has insulted the police department by abusing his powers to harass Ruchika's family. Such things should not be tolerated in today's democratic world. Remember Rathore's pay check comes from taxes that likes of Ruchika's family pays.

Happy New Year

A New year refreshes the old world. We look forward to what 2010 will bring. The last decade ended leaving us worried about the environment, energy, war, human relationships, finance, etc. This decade we must all work towards eliminating these worries. A lot more respect for each other and the world we live in is what will save the day.