"Ukraine had its orange revolution, Georgia had its tulip revolution. And now democratic India is having its white revolution. Historians will look back at 11/26, the day the Mumbai attacks started, as a turning point for the political awakening of India's growing, 200-million-strong middle class"—Prashant Agrawal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122867595766686077.html ((The Wall Street Journal--12/10/08). This article is about Indian middle class’s first-time fight against ineffectual leadership
The article that captured my imagination more was the one written by Navtaj Dhillon (Mr. Dhillon is a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Wolfensohn Center).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122843741466881409.html (The Wall Street Journal--12/08/08). Dhillon argues how "the privileged class has had a hand in sustaining ineffectual leadership. In national and state elections, voter turnout in urban centers has been declining as middle-income voters distance themselves from the electoral process. As former Indian diplomat Pavan Varma argues in his book 'The Great Indian Middle Class,' for decades economically advanced Indians have been preoccupied with material gain. Whether it was the subversion of democracy under Indira Gandhi, or acquiescence to communal riots and corruption, the middle class is accustomed to overlooking the fault lines in Indian society."
I wrote a piece along these lines about a dozen years ago (I told you I was ahead of my timeJ:))
Here is another quote (The New York Times--12/6/08) that made me chuckle: "Two of the four main targets were luxury hotels frequented by the city’s wealthy elite: the Taj, facing the Gateway of India, and the twin Oberoi and Trident hotels, a few miles west on Nariman Point. They were the elite’s watering holes and business dinner destinations. And to lose them, said Alex Kuruvilla, who runs the Condé Nast publications in India, is like losing a limb.
"It’s like what I imagine an amputee would feel," he said. "It’s so much part of our lives."
My reaction to these sentiments uttered by this media titan was "how typical!’ The powerful who live in La La land, feel like an amputee only when their luxurious way of life is threatened and not when the man on the street has nothing on his back and nothing in his belly, and at times with a few limbs missing, too.
It’s amazing how, perhaps being the birthplace of democracy, in Greece the killing of one single 15-year-old boy by the police, has turned the country upside down, and in India, self-introspection seems to come about only when things affect one directly.
When I go to church on Sunday’s to sing in the choir I also end up listening to the sermons delivered by the pastor there. Then when I talk to my Jewish friends, they tell me how their religion advocates "repairing things when they are broken." My Hindu friends are quick to point out how the Bhagavad Gita is the "greatest book" ever written. When I ask, what exactly does the Gita tell us? With much pride in her voice, one says, "Fight for what you believe in," though her take was not delivered so succinctly.
Good advice, indeed, but the only problem is until a situation happens in our own backyard, we seem to remain silent. This, perhaps, is not an unusual human trait. To my question, "What does Hinduism teach us?" another friend, a former I.A.S. Officer, in an unguarded moment, accompanied by vigorous hand gestures, utters, "Take care of things within your four walls and throw the garbage right outside."
Much needs to be sorted out in India. Till this is done, things are not going to improve greatly for the new amputees either.
Ciao!
Ro.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Work, Money, Status, Worldy Goodies
The economic news highlighting the deafening sound of firings all over America, much dialog over the subject of work, unemployment leading to dire consequences to some major life style changes for some, etc., is going on all over, but more so in the media. This morning, a Q&A on NPR on unemployment benefits, who qualifies, etc. made me think about this topic, not that this is the first time I've thought about it.
My first exposure to working people was to members of my own family and circle of family friends. Most of them worked for the Government, led a middle class life. Their housing was taken care of by the government and so was their medical needs. Most of those who worked were men. The few women who worked were a handful of highly ambitious ones occupying high posts, others who had no choice but to work to support themselves, and yet others who were mostly doctors, and educators. As for myself, I thought that most likely I too might end up in the government, my only motivation being, wanting to amount to something in life. In other words, I didn't think I needed anything major like a job to navigate through life and if at all I worked it'd be to look good in others' eyes: that magical state of being called status. To have status, the job too must have status.
Enter the element of surprise in life, I ended up in the U.S. Not as a wife like in most cases where immigrants are concerned, but as a dependent daughter of a government official. A master’s degree led to a two-year job stint at a college. It felt good to make money, though I didn’t have much use for this money, as Dad was still providing for me. Again, the need for status motivated me to take up an opportunity that came my way to get a doctorate from a name-brand college. Boston University had a nice ring to its name.
As my journey through life continued, I moved to New York, worked in the city, and finally found a lot of use for all that money I made. Work was challenging and good, but somehow, it felt like, I was working basically because money was a good thing to have. Somehow, work did not define my self-worth, though nor my happiness. Happiness came more from being recognized for my special qualities rather than for what I had accomplished. So developing my personality became a more appealing occupation. A job didn’t necessarily provide opportunities for this. In fact, it came in the way sometime. In fact, I began to see money as a source of financial security but not necessarily a source of contentment or self-growth.
So, now in the face of massive unemployment all around, with so much talk about work everywhere, and also observing folks who in the name of work have sacrificed some of life’s higher joys, I’m beginning to ask if everybody really needs to work in the more recent sense of the concept or could some folks not really obsess over this kind of work? Could we afford to turn the clock back to a time when only those who wanted to work or had to work worked and the rest kept themselves busy doing what they enjoyed most on their own terms? To more genteel times?
Those who know better however could ask, who the hell were the ones who could afford such a genteel life style? Only the privileged. Then again, how long could the privileged stay privileged?
Uncertainty being the name of the game, I guess one should take just one day at a time, try to enjoy what every moment has to offer even while searching for meaningful work that also pays well.
Ciao!
Ro
My first exposure to working people was to members of my own family and circle of family friends. Most of them worked for the Government, led a middle class life. Their housing was taken care of by the government and so was their medical needs. Most of those who worked were men. The few women who worked were a handful of highly ambitious ones occupying high posts, others who had no choice but to work to support themselves, and yet others who were mostly doctors, and educators. As for myself, I thought that most likely I too might end up in the government, my only motivation being, wanting to amount to something in life. In other words, I didn't think I needed anything major like a job to navigate through life and if at all I worked it'd be to look good in others' eyes: that magical state of being called status. To have status, the job too must have status.
Enter the element of surprise in life, I ended up in the U.S. Not as a wife like in most cases where immigrants are concerned, but as a dependent daughter of a government official. A master’s degree led to a two-year job stint at a college. It felt good to make money, though I didn’t have much use for this money, as Dad was still providing for me. Again, the need for status motivated me to take up an opportunity that came my way to get a doctorate from a name-brand college. Boston University had a nice ring to its name.
As my journey through life continued, I moved to New York, worked in the city, and finally found a lot of use for all that money I made. Work was challenging and good, but somehow, it felt like, I was working basically because money was a good thing to have. Somehow, work did not define my self-worth, though nor my happiness. Happiness came more from being recognized for my special qualities rather than for what I had accomplished. So developing my personality became a more appealing occupation. A job didn’t necessarily provide opportunities for this. In fact, it came in the way sometime. In fact, I began to see money as a source of financial security but not necessarily a source of contentment or self-growth.
So, now in the face of massive unemployment all around, with so much talk about work everywhere, and also observing folks who in the name of work have sacrificed some of life’s higher joys, I’m beginning to ask if everybody really needs to work in the more recent sense of the concept or could some folks not really obsess over this kind of work? Could we afford to turn the clock back to a time when only those who wanted to work or had to work worked and the rest kept themselves busy doing what they enjoyed most on their own terms? To more genteel times?
Those who know better however could ask, who the hell were the ones who could afford such a genteel life style? Only the privileged. Then again, how long could the privileged stay privileged?
Uncertainty being the name of the game, I guess one should take just one day at a time, try to enjoy what every moment has to offer even while searching for meaningful work that also pays well.
Ciao!
Ro
Friday, December 5, 2008
A stitch in time . . .
I'm not really a nit picker, but I do believe in checking and re-checking. I do believe in a stitch in time saving nine. Indeed, prevention is better than cure. It's better to secure the barnyard door before the animals take off . . .. Yada, yada, yada. So when I read that "in February, police arrested an LeT terrorist organization-linked Indian named Faim Ansari after an attack on a police station and he was carrying road maps of Mumbai, highlighting several important landmarks of south Mumbai that became the target of last week's terrorist attack" I felt outraged.
Couldn't the police who arrested Ansari and put him behind bars in February found out why he was carrying those marked maps? Amazing how simple but timely questions can avoid so many later disasters. Why aren't people who are paid to ask questions and find answers don't even ask the right questions. Occasionally, when they do, it's too late.
What's so difficult about understanding that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Now the authorities admit there were security lapses. Duh!
It's true that it's not easy to protect every single individual in a wide open democracy like India, but this is no excuse to leave the people vulnerable en masse. Looks like much more damage could have occurred. It was a stroke of luck that the explosives left behind at the station did not explode. They were of course discovered only after a whole week had passed since the attack.
Someone who had experienced the 9/11 WTC decimation in 2001 as well as the Mumbai Massacre declared that the fear factor in the latter one was decidedly more nerve racking than the one, two, three, finished feeling experienced on 9/11. Again, however, one thing that does stand out in both cases is, the terrorists had outsmarted us.
Officials don't want to acknowledge that each time the terrorists succeed at what they set out to do that it's a victory for them. Again, going back to my complaint in another post about not accepting reality for what it is, if we continue hoodwink ourselves into believing all kinds of untruths, eventually, truth will catch up with us.
Master Charles Cannon, the founder of Synchronicity Foundation whose fellow spiritualist Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, died during the attack, claims that we are not victims of the terrorists but victors. Of course, I don't understand this logic. Maybe, my brain doesn't work at that high a level!
Another religious person interviewed on TV when questioned about where God's sympathies lay in all this said that God was not with the terrorists but with those who miraculously survived. This kind of scores a few points for God though it doesn't score any points for the officials who let the people of Mumbai down. Well, these officials aren't godly enough, I guess.
I pray and hope terrorism too along with all other scourges gets eradicated soon. Let's all do our bit.
Ciao!
Ro.
Couldn't the police who arrested Ansari and put him behind bars in February found out why he was carrying those marked maps? Amazing how simple but timely questions can avoid so many later disasters. Why aren't people who are paid to ask questions and find answers don't even ask the right questions. Occasionally, when they do, it's too late.
What's so difficult about understanding that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Now the authorities admit there were security lapses. Duh!
It's true that it's not easy to protect every single individual in a wide open democracy like India, but this is no excuse to leave the people vulnerable en masse. Looks like much more damage could have occurred. It was a stroke of luck that the explosives left behind at the station did not explode. They were of course discovered only after a whole week had passed since the attack.
Someone who had experienced the 9/11 WTC decimation in 2001 as well as the Mumbai Massacre declared that the fear factor in the latter one was decidedly more nerve racking than the one, two, three, finished feeling experienced on 9/11. Again, however, one thing that does stand out in both cases is, the terrorists had outsmarted us.
Officials don't want to acknowledge that each time the terrorists succeed at what they set out to do that it's a victory for them. Again, going back to my complaint in another post about not accepting reality for what it is, if we continue hoodwink ourselves into believing all kinds of untruths, eventually, truth will catch up with us.
Master Charles Cannon, the founder of Synchronicity Foundation whose fellow spiritualist Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, died during the attack, claims that we are not victims of the terrorists but victors. Of course, I don't understand this logic. Maybe, my brain doesn't work at that high a level!
Another religious person interviewed on TV when questioned about where God's sympathies lay in all this said that God was not with the terrorists but with those who miraculously survived. This kind of scores a few points for God though it doesn't score any points for the officials who let the people of Mumbai down. Well, these officials aren't godly enough, I guess.
I pray and hope terrorism too along with all other scourges gets eradicated soon. Let's all do our bit.
Ciao!
Ro.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Post Mortem of Mumbai Massacre
It was amazing how almost non-stop CNN covered the attacks in Mumbai. It wasn't too much of a surprise that BBC did. BBC also didn't ignore another important story unfolding in Thailand for a while now--the occupation of the airport by anti-government protesters who a few days later were joined by pro-government protesters in a sea of redcoats(pro) and black outfits (anti). On the radio front NPR did a fairly thorough job. Fox-TV did, too. Of course, the mighty ABC stuck with its scheduled special, the Obama interview with the diva Barbara Walters. My original plan was to watch this, but as a protest I didn't.
The American TV media were more focused on the American and other Western lives caught in the terrorism drama. They decidedly concluded that the terrorists exclusively targeted the Westerners. It was not very nice that they overlooked giving equal importance to the scores of Indians who had been killed. BBC gave due recognition to them. NPR interviewed the man on the street as well as celebrities like the navel-gazing, best selling author and columnist Shobha Dey.
The man on the street shared my view about the kind of biased coverage by the American TV media. He felt offended by this. Ultimately, it turned out the terrorists were not particularly looking for Westerners, most of whom actually survived and thank God for this. They were focused on high profile targets and ensuring the Western governments' and the Western media's attention by having enough Westerners in the mix, most of whom of course stay at these high-end hotels. Of the nearly 200 people killed, 19 were foreigners (six Americans and not sure how many other Westerners).
Sometimes it feels like some media outlets monger paranoia. This is even worse than peddling fear. Too focused on the ratings game, sometimes integrity gets sacrificed even if unintentionally. Their slant was ironic given the fact the attacks occurred on Indian soil and the carnage at the train station involved only Indian travelers. Foreigners after all are a rarity at train stations. I didn't monitor every single station, so I cant' really comment on the others.
All in all, it sounded like the Mumbai tragedy could have been avoided. There was enough advance warning communicated to the powers that be.
Though Pakistani government sanction might have been missing, in the past Pakistan had had no qualms about being a tacit partner in terrorist actvities against India. On TV, during an interview, President Zardari pleaded to the Indian Government not to "punish" Pakistan for the attacks. If the U.S. were in India's shoes, it would have, much as it discourages India from doing this. What comes out of the investigation and what action India takes would be interesting to watch. But the fundamentals need to be addressed. If terrorism is allowed to grow any further, untold miseries are in store for the world.
President-elect Obama seems like an awfully capable man, so one has to hope that under his leadership with cooperation from all the other players, the U.S. might would be able to eradicate terrorism once and for all. Tall order but certainly doable if the will is there.
The Pakistani High Commissioner to U.K. during an interview on November 26 claimed that the terrorists were dark-skinned so they must be south Indians and most likely Tamil Tigers. This was one of the most ludicrous claims of any kind I had heard.
This morning BBC did a full hour of post mortem analysis. P. Swami, a Security Analyst and Anand Mahindra MD, Mahindra and Mahindra made some very good points and of course P. Chidambaram is a lion and now he is the Home Minster. Hopefully, he'll do all the needful and terrorism will never take place again in India.
Ciao!
Ro.
The American TV media were more focused on the American and other Western lives caught in the terrorism drama. They decidedly concluded that the terrorists exclusively targeted the Westerners. It was not very nice that they overlooked giving equal importance to the scores of Indians who had been killed. BBC gave due recognition to them. NPR interviewed the man on the street as well as celebrities like the navel-gazing, best selling author and columnist Shobha Dey.
The man on the street shared my view about the kind of biased coverage by the American TV media. He felt offended by this. Ultimately, it turned out the terrorists were not particularly looking for Westerners, most of whom actually survived and thank God for this. They were focused on high profile targets and ensuring the Western governments' and the Western media's attention by having enough Westerners in the mix, most of whom of course stay at these high-end hotels. Of the nearly 200 people killed, 19 were foreigners (six Americans and not sure how many other Westerners).
Sometimes it feels like some media outlets monger paranoia. This is even worse than peddling fear. Too focused on the ratings game, sometimes integrity gets sacrificed even if unintentionally. Their slant was ironic given the fact the attacks occurred on Indian soil and the carnage at the train station involved only Indian travelers. Foreigners after all are a rarity at train stations. I didn't monitor every single station, so I cant' really comment on the others.
All in all, it sounded like the Mumbai tragedy could have been avoided. There was enough advance warning communicated to the powers that be.
Though Pakistani government sanction might have been missing, in the past Pakistan had had no qualms about being a tacit partner in terrorist actvities against India. On TV, during an interview, President Zardari pleaded to the Indian Government not to "punish" Pakistan for the attacks. If the U.S. were in India's shoes, it would have, much as it discourages India from doing this. What comes out of the investigation and what action India takes would be interesting to watch. But the fundamentals need to be addressed. If terrorism is allowed to grow any further, untold miseries are in store for the world.
President-elect Obama seems like an awfully capable man, so one has to hope that under his leadership with cooperation from all the other players, the U.S. might would be able to eradicate terrorism once and for all. Tall order but certainly doable if the will is there.
The Pakistani High Commissioner to U.K. during an interview on November 26 claimed that the terrorists were dark-skinned so they must be south Indians and most likely Tamil Tigers. This was one of the most ludicrous claims of any kind I had heard.
This morning BBC did a full hour of post mortem analysis. P. Swami, a Security Analyst and Anand Mahindra MD, Mahindra and Mahindra made some very good points and of course P. Chidambaram is a lion and now he is the Home Minster. Hopefully, he'll do all the needful and terrorism will never take place again in India.
Ciao!
Ro.
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