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Ranking Moms Is Just So Bad An Idea
Why is this British NGO so desperately putting down moms from Africa?
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No mother is any lesser than any other. To try and show superiority …| Cartoon by Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – May 10, 2013 via PoliticalCartoons.com
herever in the world it is, bringing up children is a job second to none.
Every mother and father, and societies that help them bring up a child deserve a lot of respect.
To see people scoring points likes this …
For Moms in Finland, every day is Mother’s Day. A new report from the non-profit Save the Children says that the Scandinavian nation is the best country on the globe for mothers to live.
Scandinavia is definitely a good place to be a Mom. Finland, which often places high on education and quality of life in other international lists, is followed by Sweden at no. 2 and Norway at no. 3. In fact, all but one of the top 10 countries where Moms are the safest are European, with Australia placing tenth.
The ten unsafest places for mothers are all located in Central Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo ranking worst. An estimated 98% of newborn and 99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries where basic health care services are scarce.
Check out the top 10 best and worst countries for mothers below, and see the full report here.
Best:
1) Finland
2) Sweden
3) Norway
4) Iceland
5) Netherlands
6) Denmark
7) Spain
8) Belgium
9) Germany
10) Australia
Worst:
167) Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
168) Chad
1
69) Nigeria
170) Gambia
171) Central African Republic
172) Niger
173) Mali
174) Sierra Leone
175) Somalia
176) DR Congo
Proof of the pudding
So, if these Western countries are so good for women and becoming mothers, how come women here don’t want to become mothers often enough?
Why are these top 10 countries having so few babies? Why are their populations shrinking?
Motherhood statements on Mother’s Day that don’t hold up?
Simple statements that these countries have lowest infant mortality, maternal mortality, etc would have been enough.
But if you try ramming in a truck through simple data like this, it looks awfully close to talking down to us in Third World?
And if you know, your own backyard needs fixing, why waste time in putting down other people? Like how children in Britain want a brother /sister more than any other gift for Christmas? Or how the State thinks that it has more rights in naming a child compared to the child’s parents?
If your social systems are so good, why try these kind of dubious tactics to score points over people in Africa, who are down right now.
Pointing fingers at others is …
Bad psychologically.
Bad in ethics.
Not to forget Bad Journalism
Related Articles
- DR Congo ‘worst place for mothers’ (bbc.co.uk)
- What makes a country a good place to be a mother? | Debate of the day (guardian.co.uk)
- World Mothers’ Index: UK Falls To 23rd Place (news.sky.com)
US Medical: Workings of Private Hospitals and Individual Customers
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Would all those in the fan club of Yummrika’s ‘systems’ like to take a look at the US medical system? .
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Around 20% of US residents do not have access to the US medical facilities on fair terms. This has been a long running racket in the US medical industry – and the US Government has made some ham-handed attempts at solving this problem. | Cartoon titled The Raft Of The Uninsured- By RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch – 11/21/2006 12:00:00 AM
he US Government recently passed laws ‘compelling’ hospitals to ‘reveal’ prices that they charge for uninsured individual customers – who are also not covered by employer medical insurance, or State Medicare, Medicaid system.
Yumm-Rika – The Promised Land
We recently also covered some tweets from some more knowledgeable people on how the US is the most consumer friendly.
But even in this backward country, India, private medical costs are easily and commonly available. And for those who can afford, there is vast network of private medical care. For those who cannot afford, there is the State-assisted medical hospital system, which provides, few questions asked medical services to any comer.
Uninsured & uncovered by Government Medicaid and Medicare | Image source & courtesy – turner.com
Cartels and Monopolies
One can quibble, one can cavil, one can whine and moan, but is there anything worse than a country-wide cartel of hospital systems that will not reveal heir costs to the consumers, upfront, openly and freely.
And this is the system that India trying to copy – and promote.
No wonder we have this new phenomenon that private insurers promise cashless medical insurance – and after the patient is admitted, after costs are approved, at the time of discharge, the hospital presents a bill to the patients, of costs that not approved by the insurer.
The Government bill, running into a reported 2700 pages has been challenged in the Supreme Court. The current administrations point of view is that some solution is better than the rampant abusive cartelization that is presently the norm | Cartoon titled Obamacare Bike By Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune – 3/27/2012 12:00:00 AM
Maya ahoy!
On with the story. American media is breathless with astonishment, when it took all the might of the world’s sole super-power, the US Government, to publish medical information on a Government website.
WASHINGTON — The actual cost of hospital care became a lot clearer for consumers on Wednesday when the Obama administration released the average prices charged by more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals for the 100 most common medical procedures.
The 2011 data, which shows wide cost variations at hospitals across the country – and in the same city or geographic area – raise questions about how treatment prices are determined and why the information has been so hard to get in the past.
Rates paid by private insurers and public health plans like Medicare and Medicaid are typically much lower.
The cost information is being released for the first time with the intent to “save consumers money by arming them with better information that can help them make better choices,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
“When consumers can easily compare the prices of goods and services, producers have strong incentives to keep those prices low,” Sebelius said.
Inpatient charges to treat heart failure in Denver hospitals, for instance, ranged from a low of $21,000 to a high cost of $46,000, while the same procedure ranged from $9,000 to $51,000 at hospitals in Jackson, Miss. Inpatient costs related to joint replacement ranged from $5,300 at a hospital in Ada, Okla., up to a high of $223,000 at a hospital in Monterey Park, Calif.
That kind of price disparity puzzled Jon Blum, director of the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. He said the cost variations could possibly reflect the health status of the patient, whether a hospital charges more because it trains future doctors, and even whether a hospital has higher capital costs that are passed on to patients.
But Blum added: “Those reasons don’t seem very apparent to us.”He said the charges “don’t seem to make sense to us from a consumer standpoint. There’s no relationship that we see to charges and the quality of care that’s being provided.”
Even though more than 40 states require or encourage hospitals to make their charges and payment rates public, the hospital association supports federal price transparency legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.
Burgess’ proposal would require state Medicaid plans to ensure that states would pass laws requiring hospitals to make their charges readily available to the public and to provide information about patients’ estimated out-of-pocket costs.
via Prices for hospital care vary widely, even within same city, data show | McClatchy.
And who are these uninsured, the uncovered. There is fairly narrow range that the total number of the uninsured and uncovered was between 48-52 million legal US citizens and 10-15 million US residents who have not be legalized. To this add the fact that this data pertains to years 2011-2012. Due the current economic climate this number probably is closer to 65 million US residents. That would be around 65 million US residents. In a population of some 330 million. 20% of the US population.
Not surprising that vested commercial interests who have been running an opaque medical system, are spending massive amounts of money in lobbying with their law-makers. This lobbing in USA, in India would be called bribes subvert a solution | Cartoon titled Obama Care By Arend Van Dam, source & courtesy – politicalcartoons.com on 3/26/2012 12:00:00 AM
And the Obama administration has passed a 2700-pages medical insurance law to cover these uninsured.
Three groups comprised the bulk of the uninsured in 2010, including foreign-born residents who are not U.S. citizens, young adults ages 19 to 25 and low-income families with an annual household income of less than $25,000.
The percentage of people who had health insurance through their employers fell to 55.3% in 2010 from 56.1% the year before, continuing a long, downward trend. In 2000, 64.1% of the population received health insurance through their employers.
The average health insurance premium for family coverage has more than doubled over the past decade to $13,770 a year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit which focuses on health care policy and issues.
With fewer Americans receiving health care coverage through their employers, government-funded programs like Medicare, Medicaid, military health care, the Children’s Health Care Program (CHIPS) and coverage offered by various states have had to pick up the slack.
In 2010, 31% of Americans relied on the government for health insurance, up from 24.2% in 1999.
Many of the new government beneficiaries are children, according to Gould. Still, Census reported that 9.8% of children under age 18 are uninsured despite the government programs targeting them like CHIPS and Medicaid, which is also open to their parents.
Adults without dependent children, however, are not eligible for Medicaid in most states under federal rules, said Rachel Garfield, a senior researcher on the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. It’s this group that accounts for a large portion of the increase in the uninsured.
Nearly one-in-four working-age adults are uninsured, said Gould. She said it won’t be until 2014, when Obama’s Affordable Care Act fully kicks in, that more people will be able to find affordable health care coverage.
Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, said the report is evidence that the Obama administration’s health care reform is already starting to work.
Citing a provision that went into effect last year that allows parents to keep their children on their health insurance policy until they are 26 years old, Sebelius noted that the percentage of young adults ages 18 to 24 who were insured increased to 72.8% in 2010 from 70.7% in 2009.
Number of people without health insurance in U.S. climbs – Sep. 13, 2011.
There are widespread expectations that the US Supreme Court may uphold a legal challenge to the latest Government proposal, on a rather simple count of a complexity. | Cartoon titled Death and Politics By Parker, Florida Today – 2/2/2011 12:00:00 AM
After a year of bitter and partisan wrangling, the Obama administration passed a law that will enable coverage of these uninsured /uncovered.
If it survives Supreme Court scrutiny, the landmark overhaul will expand coverage to about 30 million uninsured people, according to government figures. But an estimated 26 million Americans will remain without coverage — a population that’s roughly the size of Texas and includes illegal immigrants and those who can’t afford to pay out-of-pocket for health insurance.
The US Government itself recognizes a figure that varies around 50 million. This excludes US residents who have been living in the US for several years – and there is an ongoing debate on how to legalize these residents.
The percentage of people without health insurance in 2011 decreased from 2010. In 2011, the percentage was 15.7%, compared to 16.3% in 2010. During 2011, an estimated 48.61 million people were without insurance, a statistically significant decrease of 1.34 million from the estimated 49.95 million uninsured in 2010. (via Overview of the Uninsured in the United States: A Summary of the 2012 Current Population Survey Report.
Related Articles
- Hospital Prices Vary Dramatically – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
- High hospital bills go public, but will it help? (news.yahoo.com)
- New Report Shows Staggering Differences in the Cost of Medical Treatments (pbs.org)
- Hospital prices diverge wildly, U.S. data show (latimes.com)
- New hospital data shows giant swings in prices (vitals.nbcnews.com)
- Some hospitals charge vastly more for same care (cnsnews.com)
Is This The Intellectual Depth Of Aam Aadmi Party?
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Aam Aadmi Party founders like @VinitaDeshmukh and @ArvindKejriwal derive inspiration from US governance. What lessons, if any, from the USA?.
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Query to Vinita Deshmukh, brought no reply. Possibly, in her view, this message was axiomatic – what in Indian classical idiom will be called pratyaksh satya. | Tweet Text – My observation: Governance in USA revolves around Citizen Safety and Citizen Convenience. Just love it! | Twitter – VinitaDeshmukh- My observation- Governance … 2013-04-26 10-02-32 | Click to go to original message.
very remarkable thing in India is the effect English has on Indian minds.
For instance, Arvind Kejriwal‘s Party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has looked to the US for every inspiration. This inspiration-by-the-US ideas are not based on study of the US – but on the propaganda by US media.
Out Of Our Minds
For instance corruption.
Just one scandal in the US, is bigger than all corruption cases that have ‘allegedly’ happened in the last nearly 70 years of independent India. The nearly US$8 trillion of unaccounted /partially accounted hole in the expenditure by US Department of Defense. US$ 8 trillion is nearly all the money that India has spent on defense in the last 65 years.
Yet a founder of the AAP tweets on US governance. Not surprisingly, it based on ‘optics’ – not on any critical appreciation of the US.
For instance, let us look at the US Supreme Court.
Slavery vs Freedom
In March, 1857.
About 1 month before India went up in flames, against the British Raj, the Supreme Court of the USA (SCOTUS) covered itself in infamy. On March 6, 1857 the US Supreme Court, in a complex judgement, upheld slavery (Dred Scott v. Sanford). This judgement closed the door of US judiciary and stopped any slave from approaching US courts for justice.
In March 1857, while Indians were preparing to battle the British for freedom and independence, the SCOTUS was busy finding new ways to keep slaves – stooped, shackled and in chains.
It took another 100 years of protests, assassinations of leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, even a Civil War to change rampant discrimination in the US. But, above all, finally an acute shortage of factory labor and soldiers forced the US Government to withdraw its support to entrenched racism.
The SCOTUS just did not stop at slavery.
SCOTUS supported racism (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923)), segregation by Plessy v. Ferguson 1896.
This tradition has continued. Most recently, SCOTUS stopped a vote recount that would have declared Al Gore the President – but instead, George Bush became the US President for the second term. Books have been written, news journals regularly compile their ‘favorite’ lists of Worst 10 SCOTUS judgements.
Unlike the SCOTUS, the Indian SC has not allowed such unjust judgements to escape its portals. The Indian Supreme Court, in its’ short history has been a remarkable body in juridical operations.
But …
I could repeat big data here
- How the US imprisons more people than the next 10 biggest police States in the world.
- How 1 in 3 Black Americans are imprisoned
- How the US police are brutal force which tramples on US citizens’ rights, every minute, every day.
- How the US secret police is bigger than any police State ever in the history of mankind
- How the US prosecutes more than 1.4 crore people through its judicial system – which I have pointed out above is covered in tar.
If Arvind Kejriwal and Vinita Deshmukh of the Aam Aadmi Party will take a 2ndlook.
Having said all this, Arvind Kejriwal’s idea of a citizen police force for women safety is a step in the right direction. While the BJP, Communists were all clamoring for more police, more judges, more courts, more costs, Arvind Kejriwal differed.
We cannot have an expanding State. Do we want more and more brutal policemen.
Related Articles
- Who are you? asks the Indian SC (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- AAP proposes ‘citizen security force’ for women’s safety (vancouverdesi.com)
- Aam Aadmi Party to submit 6 lakh letters to Dikshit (thehindu.com)
- Aam Aadmi Party now a registered political party (thehindu.com)
- Civil society groups support Kejriwal’s campaign against “inflated” power bills (thehindu.com)
- Kejriwal’s indefinite fast fails to attract public (ibnlive.in.com)
- Condition of 5-year-old Indian girl who was raped improves as protests continue (theglobeandmail.com)
Elections In Pakistan: Why Arresting Pervez Musharraf Is A Mistake
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How does removing a candidate from the election fray promote democracy?
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Pakistan Electoral Alliances | Comic Wisdom – by Zahoor on December 3rd, 2012 – The Express Tribune
udicial vengeance is dish that is best served cold. It should never be served hot and steaming.
One Big Mistake
Pakistan‘s judiciary has made this, one fundamental mistake. Especially at a time, when restraint was needed. Remember, Pakistan is living up to the fact that for the first time an elected government has completed a full-term.
All the confusion in Pakistan is best captured by a confusing and ill-thought post in the WSJ.com. By my favorite journalist – Sadanand Dhume.
I especially favor him, because no other journalist of any globally or nationally relevant publication writes from a position of such ignorance and lack of understanding.
For one Dhume has not learnt that …
Well Begun Is Half Done
The post starts off with a contradiction.
How does removing a candidate from the election fray promote democracy?
The lesson from Indian democracy is that any one can stand for election. Dacoits, transgenders, actors, filmstars, mobsters – the full range of social strata.
Unlike most of the world’s democracies, especially in the West, that have just 2 parties.
It is only in India that the 2 main parties tend towards towards an arithmetic mean of 40%-60% of the parliamentary seats. The rest are controlled by various regional and fringe parties. Left, Right, Ruralist (Bharatiya Kisan Union), Urbanist (Shiv Sena)
This trend has become even more accentuated in the last 30 years. Remember that after 1980, no party has won an electoral majority on merit. Rajiv Gandhi’s 1984 electoral victory was clearly a sympathy vote.
This promotes a vibrant clash in ideologies, programs, values, actions. The resultant clamor leaves India’s English speaking urban chatteratti very dis-satisfied. Not to forget foreign observers.
India’s English speaking urban chatteratti would like to replicate 2-party system like the West.
Dhume asserts
Pervez Musharraf’s recent legal setbacks are Pakistan’s gain. Since Saturday, the country’s former military leader has found himself confined by police to a bedroom in his farmhouse on the outskirts of Islamabad. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.).
What is it that Parvez Musharraf is accused of?
Like how George Bush subverted the SCOTUS which stopped the recount of votes that would have declared Al Gore as the President – and not GWB, Jr. Every Pakistani politicians (and in all other parts of the world) have at some or the other subverted the judiciary.
Appointing pliable judges; cooperative judges who were elevated; ideological conformity, would all count as subversion. Has any politician in any country of the world not done this?
Going by this standard, no politician would be qualify to fight an election.
A smug Dhume continues
He faces charges ranging from complicity in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007 to wrongful dismissal of judges in the waning days of his unpopular rule, which stretched from 1999 to 2008. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
Being practical, since Musharraf was not going to win the election anyway, why not arrest him and throw the rule book at him? A sarcastic Dhume intones
Meanwhile, his quixotic hope of once again leading Pakistan was dashed after courts rejected his attempt to run for parliament. Pundits don’t expect Mr. Musharraf’s political party to claim a single seat in elections scheduled for May 11. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
Have You Thunk Of This?
Is it a crime, for any hack with any US publication to dream of winning the Pulitzer? How is it a crime for Musharraf to dream of winning the election?
Misplaced or otherwise?
Dhume has ‘thunk’ about this. And he determines that
A two-week house arrest is far from the welcome Mr. Musharraf expected on his return to Pakistan last month after more than four years of self-exile. In a stream of tweets and Facebook posts, the former commando had painted a picture of a grateful nation waiting to sweep him back to power with a popular mandate. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
The only delusions that exceed Musharraf’s are those of Western media outlets, who have written anything on Pakistan. All those well-trained, untrained, first-rate, third-grade journalists who have come, few have made sense of Pakistan.
Musharraf is not alone. Dhume repeats.
In addition to serving as a case study in political delusion. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
More than Islam, the problem with elections in the Islamic world is the US of A.
Countless cases of US agencies, NGOs, diplomats have indicted, identified responsible for subverting election processes. Starting with the murder of Mossadegh in Iran to the latest cases where US NGO bureaucrats were arrested in Egypt.
A memory-challenged Dhume pronounces
Should next month’s polls go off as planned, Pakistan will join Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia as countries that have defied those who doubt Islam’s compatibility with democracy. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
Does the US select mentally retarded people as generals, bureaucrats or Presidents. After 50 years of propping military dictators in Pakistan, Dhume thinks it is a lesson that US polity is yet to learn?
For the U.S., the general’s arrest should underscore a central lesson of the Musharraf era, that backing military leadership in Islamabad never pays off. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
After stopping Musharaff from electioneering, after fixing the ballot by engineering cases, the Pakistani establishment gets support from Dhume.
Only when Pakistan’s politicians grow confident that they won’t be jailed, exiled or executed for crossing the military will they be able to decisively reorient their country. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
Musharraf is an ex-general – and now a civilian politician. He deserves the same freedom that other politicians have, to contest elections.
House arrest for a once grandstanding general is one large step in this direction. (via Sadanand Dhume: At Home With Pervez Musharraf – WSJ.com.)
And in case, he wins the election, vox-populi, vox dei.(Voice of people is voice of Gods). In case, he loses the election, proceed with the prosecution of the case.
Judiciary Finding Its Feet
Judicial vengeance against Musharraf must wait. Just when Pakistan seemed to making this election work, they have gone ahead and shot themselves in their foot.
Pakistan’s judiciary and establishment must honor the promise of freedom that they gave Musharraf.
Any democracy that does not allow full freedom to contestants, is no democracy.
What is to stop other officials and rivals, tomorrow, from engineering cases against important (or otherwise) candidates.
Dhume seems to be clueless on how democracies are sustained. Instead of teaching, he should sit at the feet of some Indian Election Commission official.
And learn.
Related Articles
- Humiliation of Pervez Musharraf deepens as he is arrested and taken to court (independent.co.uk)
- Pakistani police defuse bomb near Pervez Musharraf house (guardian.co.uk)
- Musharraf does not trust bench hearing treason case: counsel (dawn.com)
- Musharraf’s arrest can jeopardize May elections, analysts fear (nation.com.pk)
- Pakistan’s Musharraf Appears Before Anti-Terrorism Court (voanews.com)
- Musharraf to appeal against arrest order (nation.com.pk)
- Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf arrested (ndtv.com)
Hollywood Games In China
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Just like Shashi Tharoor was well-grounded in the West, son @ishaantharoor is learning how to push Western interests..
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Po, the Panda confronts Shen the despotic ruler of Gongmen city.
efore we get to the main story, let us have the basics out of the way.
Back To Basics
What is India’s national bird? Peacock.
Where does the panda come from? China.
Which country was the world’s largest producer of gunpowder elements till 100 years ago? India.
How did India take advantage of its gunpowder production to wage war, conquer nations, enslave people and loot? The British did that.
What about India’s export of steel in medieval and colonial eras? India’s Wootz steel to global markets.
For how long has India ruled over China, Tibet, Iran in the last 2000 years? Nil.
America’s Story For China
In May-June 2011, Hollywood released a much anticipated sequel to a successful film. The original film had grossed more than US$25 million in China alone. The sequel was expected to do much more – and finally grossed nearly a US$100 million (official figure – US$91.5 million) in China. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, (an American from Korea) the sequel was named the most successful film made by a woman.
In ancient China
Here is the storyline.
Despotic Peacock Prince Shen, of the benign Peacock clan returns from exile, usurps the throne. Despotic Peacock Prince Shen expands armament production, disrupting military balance based on hand-to-hand combat.
Despotic Peacock Prince Shen plans to turn fireworks into war materiel, manufacturing cannons. Despotic Peacock Prince Shen would like to make his Gongmen city kingdom into an imperial force, threatening Valley Of Peace, home of Po, the Panda. Despotic Peacock Prince Shen soon after usurping the kingdom, captured all the metal and made it into large cannons and guns.
The film – Kung Fu Panda-II.
One of the Top 3 films in China for 2011 – grossing nearly a US$100 million in China. Made by Spielberg’s Dreamworks, released by Hollywood, let us see what this film is actually telling us.
This film shows the Peacock prince (India), as a historical oppressor. Prince Shen, misusing the Chinese ‘invention’ of fireworks-gunpowder for war, using metal and gunpowder for oppression of China. Po, the Chinese Panda battles and defeats the Peacock Prince (India).
The Plot Thickens
This imagery was probably the reason why this film evoked protests and boycott in China. Since Hollywood has such low traction in India, this film has not provoked any reactions in India. Or possibly since most Indians swallow Western propaganda hook-line-and-sinker, having an image of a benign West, drilled into their thinking.
Who’s funding Steven Spielberg’s movies? When it seemed that Dreamworks would fold!
Anil Ambani.
Who’s funding Anil Ambani’s power plants in India. China. Will someone in Dreamworks pay for this gross insult? Wonder if Anil Ambani has been briefed about this ‘game’ by Spielberg?
Remember Spielberg’s story on how he lifted the Satyajit Ray script for ET. Some readers have traced Spielberg’s antipathy to India, as depicted in Temple of Doom, to being ‘caught’ out in this ‘inspiration’.
Maya’s Apprentince
Many among India’s leadership have links to Western citadels of maya. Many leaders today ensure that their children are well-grounded in Western culture, education, industry, media academia. These apprentices will then try and take over papa’s fiefdom.
These ‘prince-lings’ are being well-educated by Western ‘specialist’ in maya. Propaganda.
No wonder, even before the bombed street is released, clean in Boston, Ishaan Tharoor is outlining how America can blame Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran Korea, China, Syria – everyone, except US.
Or as can be seen by the tutoring being given to Ishaan Tharoor by a Western academic.
Is this not how the West wants to keep India & China apart, glowering at each other.
Beijing officials are increasingly worried about India’s ambitions. If you look at the writings of Chinese experts, they refer to Indian military posturing in the Indian Ocean and also to military partnerships India is developing with several countries in Southeast Asia and East Africa. In the public realm, Chinese Netizens’ views of India are very negative. You get the sense the Chinese never seemed to expect India to climb up to the ranks of the great powers. Now, as India attempts to make that leap, the Chinese are very worried of its impact on China’s primacy in Asia.
It wouldn’t first be open war. China and India are building up their interests in conflict-prone and unstable states on their borders like Nepal and Burma — important sources of natural resources. If something goes wrong in these countries — if the politics implode — you could see the emergence of proxy wars in Asia. Distrust between India and China will grow and so too security concerns in a number of arenas. It’s an important scenario that strategic planners in both Beijing and Delhi are looking at.
At the same time, India won’t let itself be drowned in America’s orbit. It’s important for India to have its strategic independence. It has a very long and historically close relationship with Russia, which in turn is close to China. So it’s a little more complicated. I don’t think the Americans have thought very strategically about all of this.
via China-India Competition: Is a Military Clash Inevitable? – TIME.
Related Articles
- The Curtain Rises on a Farce in China (theepochtimes.com)
- Spielberg gifts his coffee table book to Big B (vancouverdesi.com)
- Spielberg mingles with Bollywood stars in India (cnsnews.com)
- Spielberg to produce ‘Kashmir film’ (bbc.co.uk)
- India, China trying to resolve ‘incursion’ issue (thehindu.com)
- Want to remake an American movie with Indian director: Steven Spielberg (movies.ndtv.com)
- In Mumbai, Steven Spielberg Talks Kashmir Project, MLK Film, ‘Tintin’ & Bond: Report (deadline.com)
Adoration Of The West: Cannot Stop, Cannot Rest, Cannot End
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Yet no Indian leader gets the kind of respect that foreign leaders get in India..
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argaret Thatcher’s death unleashed a wave of grief.
Guess what? In India.
In the last 70 years, the Anglo-Saxon Bloc has gone downhill. From a position of absolute world power to being challenged by China – and now even India.
Yet no Indian leader gets the kind of respect that foreign leaders get in India.
Does it stop here?
Look at this twitter exchange here.
simplistic reading of the tweet can be taken to mean, ‘FBI is the gold standard. And since FBI is taking time, NIA can also take time.’
Going by Praveen Swamy’s general tenor, it is not far-fetched to see what Praveen Swami implies. But for Indian chatterati, twitterati, FBookeratti, bloggeratti, hero worship of the West cannot stop, cannot rest, cannot end.
The last word.
Related Articles
- Lessons From Record Decrease in Japan’s Population (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- Inquiring Minds Would Like To Know: Y U Worry I Ask (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- India’s Solution To Drug Costs: Ignore Patents And Control Prices – Except For Home Grown Drugs (forbes.com)
Who are you? asks the Indian SC
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Who is it that the Indian elittes are closing the doors on? The ‘person on the road’.
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n a space of one week (Apr. 3-Apr-8, 2013) three events, proved one thing. Unconnected, well-covered by the media (specially in Mumbai), these three events had one thing in common.
Power corrupts.
And that is why in Bharattantra, power was dispersed, centralization was frowned upon, society was classified into the chatar varnashrama.
Slavery vs Freedom
In March, 1857.
About 1 month before India went up in flames, against the British Raj, the Supreme Court of the USA (SCOTUS) covered itself in infamy. On March 6, 1857 the US Supreme Court upheld slavery (Dred Scott v. Sanford).
In March 1857, while Indians were preparing to battle the British for freedom and independence, the SCOTUS was busy finding new ways to keep slaves – stooped, shackled and in chains.
In a complex judgement (Dred Scott v. Sanford), on March 6th, 1857, SCOTUS stopped any slave from approaching US courts for justice.
It took another 100 years of protests, assassinations of leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, even a Civil War to change rampant discrimination in the US. But, above all, finally an acute shortage of factory labor and soldiers forced the US Government to withdraw its support to entrenched racism.
The SCOTUS just did not stop at slavery.
SCOTUS supported racism (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923)), segregation by Plessy v. Ferguson 1896. Books have been written, news journals regularly compile their ‘favorite’ lists of Worst 10 SCOTUS judgements.
Unlike the SCOTUS, the Indian SC has not allowed such unjust judgements to escape its portals. The Indian Supreme Court, in its’ short history has been a remarkable body in juridical operations.
But …
“Who are you?” the Chief Justice (Altamas Kabir) asked Swamy, who said he had moved the contempt application. “I am asking you, who are you?” the judge responded. “I am sorry you are not an advocate. You have no right to appear. You have no right to argue. What will happen if any person on the road comes and says I want to argue. You might have done it earlier, but we will not allow you.”
In a nation where “Do you know who I am?” is the ultimate assertion of power, that’s pretty much the mother of all insults. But Kabir wasn’t finished downgrading Swamy. He went on to order him out of the front row, which is “meant for lawyers, not for litigants. You have no right to sit there”.
via Supreme Court smacks down Swamy: “Who are you?” | Firstpost.
Subramaniam Swamy is a powerful politician – and at times he has been brave also. In any dispute between two powerful people, it is best that small people like us keep our distance. But, when Justice Kabir starts on ‘person on the road’ then I am angry.
Outraged.
Furious.
Corruption Is Not Only Bribes
Justice Kabir is not bigger than the ‘person the road.’ No one in this country is. The Biggest Man in this country is the ‘person on the road.’
Many a time corruption is also arrogance, Your Honour.
Of power over the lives of other people. Of being ‘above’ other people. This is probably a deeper form of corruption.
Less condemned, mostly not even recognized.
Image source & courtesy – afternoondc.in on Friday, February 22, 2013
More Power Corrupts Even More
Second, was the Ajit Pawar urination disaster.
Under increasing pressure, Maharashtra‘s Deputy Chief Minister cracked.
Ajit Pawar was addressing a public meeting in Indapur tehsil in Pune district on Saturday. Referring to Deshmukh’s ongoing hunger strike, he said, “He is on fast for the last 55 days. If there is no water in the dam, how can we release it? Should we urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not possible.”
via Ajit Pawar’s statement blackened face of democracy: Farmer – Mumbai – DNA.
From February 5th, 2013, between 50-400 farmers were on protest at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. With increasing industrialization, Maharashtra Government had been prioritizing water for industrial use – depriving vast areas of water for drinking and agricultural purposes.
After days of protests, the government dragged its feet on earlier agreement to release some water for drinking purposes only – and not for agriculture.
With juicy footage looped for the next 24 hours across national television, Ajit Pawar ended up wallowing in his own filth.
MNS activists protest against Ajit Pawar’s recent remarks on drought. | PTI Photo
An apparently remorseful Ajit Pawar decide to go on a 1-day fast in atonement of his callous statement.
The State High Court went further and issued directions to the State Government to release water within 24 hours.
For old hands at the Chief Minister’s beat, this was not unprecedented. In a similar situation, Maharashtra’s earlier Chief Minister, Babasaheb Bhosale had made a similar remark.
Small consolation.
Unlike Babasaheb Bhosale, who got away with his arrogance intact, Ajit Pawar had to eat crow.
Kotak Presidium | Image source & courtesy – epaper.timesofindia.com
Three Strikes – You Are Out
Do you visit exclusive showrooms and restaurants?
More sensitive British traders in India labelled their premises as ‘exclusive’.
Who do you think they excluded?
Insensitive British officers went beyond exclusive, and displayed boards that read ‘Indians not allowed’ at various social and business premises.
This third element in the narrative is probably seen by most as harmless – which is why it is so dangerous.
It was a big advertisement by a prominent bank owned by a prominent banker, released in major newspapers like Economic Times, the Mint, etc.
Described as a meeting behind ‘closed doors’, covered by mass-media, it made me ask myself, one question.
The Supreme Court, these gatherings of financial muscle-men, who are these elitists shutting the doors on? Who are they urinating on?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.
They are shutting the door on us. Pissing on us.
On us, the ‘person on the road.’
Related Articles
- Maharashtra: Ajit Pawar apologises for his ‘urine’ remark (ibnlive.in.com)
- Victory for Solapur farmer: court directs Maharashtra government to release … – NDTV (ndtv.com)
- Ajit Pawar pokes fun at drought-hit people, apologises (vancouverdesi.com)
- Opposition jeers at Ajit Pawar’s ‘penance’ (thehindu.com)
- America: Labor Economy & Imports (quicktake.wordpress.com)
- SCOTUS to hear arguments Tues.re Indian child adoption case (californiaschildren.typepad.com)
- NY State CCW Law May Face SCOTUS Review (youviewed.com)
- Dred Scott decision still resonates today (constitutioncenter.org)
- SCOTUS: The Court and Catastrophe (conservativeread.com)
- Remembering Dred Scott, the decision that enraged Lincoln (news.yahoo.com)
America’s Secret Police: Who’s in control of CIA? Anyone here …
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Can the CIA simply tell the American Secretary of State, that their position and authority is irrelevant – if it clashes with CIA-operations..
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Over the last 40 years, the mantle of Spook King has passed on from Hoover’s FBI to Director-CIA | Cartoonist Christopher Weyant in 2007 on CIA
f the ISI Chief in Pakistan were to assert his authority over the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, no one will be either shocked or surprised.
Take A Walk …
If the Israeli Mossad were to push their point of view over Israel’s Foreign Minister, it would not raise too many eyebrows.
Can the MI6 in Britain question the authority of the British Foreign Minister? Media reports make it seem unlikely.
Can the head of RAW question the policy and authority of India’s Home Minister or Foreign Minister? Such a situation has never been examined or discussed in public, by the media or polity.
But, the CIA can simply tell the American Secretary of State, that their position and authority is irrelevant – if it clashes with CIA-operations.This is what has been reported by the American newspaper, New York Times.
The perils of this approach were laid bare on March 17, 2011, the day after Davis was released from prison and spirited out of the country. C.I.A. drones attacked a tribal council meeting in the village of Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, killing dozens of men. Ambassador Munter and some at the Pentagon thought the timing of the strike was disastrous, and some American officials suspected that the massive strike was the C.I.A. venting its anger about the Davis episode. More important, however, many American officials believed that the strike was botched, and that dozens of people died who shouldn’t have.
Other American officials came to the C.I.A.’s defense, saying that the tribal gathering was in fact a meeting of senior militants and therefore a legitimate target. But the drone strike unleashed a furious response in Pakistan, and street protests in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar forced the temporary closure of American consulates in those cities.
Munter said he believed that the C.I.A. was being reckless and that his position as ambassador was becoming untenable. His relationship with the C.I.A. station chief in Islamabad, already strained because of their disagreements over the handling of the Davis case, deteriorated even further when Munter demanded that the C.I.A. give him the chance to call off specific missile strikes. During one screaming match between the two men, Munter tried to make sure the station chief knew who was in charge, only to be reminded of who really held the power in Pakistan.
“You’re not the ambassador!” Munter shouted.
“You’re right, and I don’t want to be the ambassador,” the station chief replied.
This turf battle spread to Washington, and a month after Bin Laden was killed, President Obama’s top advisers were arguing in a National Security Council meeting over who really was in charge in Pakistan. At the June 2011 meeting, Munter, who participated via secure video link, began making his case that he should have veto power over specific drone strikes.
Panetta cut Munter off, telling him that the C.I.A. had the authority to do what it wanted in Pakistan. It didn’t need to get the ambassador’s approval for anything.
“I don’t work for you,” Panetta told Munter, according to several people at the meeting.
But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Munter’s defense. She turned to Panetta and told him that he was wrong to assume he could steamroll the ambassador and launch strikes against his approval.
“No, Hillary,” Panetta said, “it’s you who are flat wrong.”
There was a stunned silence, and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon tried to regain control of the meeting. In the weeks that followed, Donilon brokered a compromise of sorts: Munter would be allowed to object to specific drone strikes, but the C.I.A. could still press its case to the White House and get approval for strikes even over the ambassador’s objections. Obama’s C.I.A. had, in essence, won yet again.
via How Raymond Davis Helped Turn Pakistan Against the United States – NYTimes.com.
How serious is this?
After reading this excerpt, the question that came to my mind was – How important is the US Secretary of State?
Well …
With the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General, the US Secretary of State are regarded as the four most important members of the US cabinet, headed by the POTUS.
But this history is not surprising.
Looking back …
J Edgar Hoover was probably the most powerful man of 20th century, who no one knew. Founder-Director of FBI, from May 10, 1924, till his death on May 2, 1972, Edgar Hoover ‘persuaded’ twelve US President’s to let him continue as FBI Director.
With a file on everyone, from John Lennon to JFK, Edgar answered to one.
During Hoover’s reign over FBI, the world was regularly fed with sleaze-and-scam about the CIA.
We now have a CIA that ‘approves’ criticism by the media on the US-President. Globally respected newspapers like the nytimes.com submit their stories to CIA for pre-clearance from CIA.
Coming Back To Pakistan
More people are killed due to gun-related violence in the US than in Pakistan.
Christian fidayeen killers roam schools, theaters, shopping malls, killing other Christians – just like in Pakistan.
People in US are proposing that US schools should become Christian madarsas – similar to Taliban proposals in Pakistan.
There have been cases in Pakistan and USA, where differences in political opinion were settled using guns – instead of ideas and words.
Thick wall of currency apart, what is the difference between US and Pakistan?
Related Articles
- How a CIA spy fomented Pak. anger towards America (thehindu.com)
- How A U.S. Citizen Came To Be In America’s Cross Hairs (nytimes.com)
- Exclusive: No More Drones for CIA (thedailybeast.com)
- The New Generation of Hypocrisy on Iran (counterpunch.org)
- C.I.A. Secrets Could Surface in Swiss Nuclear Case (anoncentral.tumblr.com)
- The CIA Goes To Hollywood: How America’s Spy Agency Infiltrated the Big Screen (and Our Minds) by Tom Hayden (zcommunications.org)
- Obama Faces Bipartisan Heat Over Drones Amid Big-Brother Concern (bloomberg.com)
- Rand Paul, Brennan and the Rule of Law (commentarymagazine.com)
- Drones are coming home to skies near you: feel safer? | Kade Crockford (guardian.co.uk)
Wikileaks: Why Pranab was Replaced by Saint Anthony
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Power politics is an expensive activity – and I have no clue where in the world we have got that this notion that fund raising in politics is corruption?.
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Congress has not won an election on merit after 1980. Rajiv Gandhi’s victory in 1984 was a sympathy vote after his mother’s assasination. | Ajit Ninan cartoon in ToI, Ahmedabad on 10th September 2011
2006 October 26, 13:07 (Thursday)
Classified By: PolCouns Ted Osius for reasons 1.4 (B,D) 1. (U)
In an October 23 cabinet reshuffle, President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam named Former Chief Minister of Kerala A.K. Antony Minister of Defense.
Our sources tell us that Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi and PM Singh needed to get Pranab Mukherjee out of his post as Minister of Defense because he was not sufficiently zealous in raising funds for the party. Mukherjee finally accepted the move after receiving reassurances that he would remain in charge of the many Ministerial Committees that help him maintain his domestic power base. The shift of Mukherjee to External Affairs left open the post of Minister of Defense, which A.K. Antony accepted.
Antony’s opponents question his ability to thrive in this high level, high profile position. His reputation for integrity is expected to slow down pending deals, as Antony learns the ropes and carefully examines all contracts, including pending arms deals with the U.S. Antony will bring much needed probity to defense acquisitions just before a large number of big deals are about to be considered. However, Antony faces a tough challenge since he will be functioning under the shadow of Mukherjee and under pressure from the heads of the army, navy, and air force, all of whom want to replace dated equipment. Managing these personalities will be a challenge for Antony.
o, does this mean that Saint Anthony has been more cooperative with Sonia-Singh in fund raising?
Such a silly message. It starts with Pranab not raising enough for the Congress. Was Anthony selected to replace Pranab to further increase difficulty of fund-raising?
Why would a ‘corrupt’ Pranab be less cooperative or Saint Anthony be less committed to fund raising? These are just silly stories, built over time, based more on style of fund-raising rather than corrupt or not corrupt.
Power politics is an expensive activity – and I have no clue where in the world we have got that this notion that fund raising in politics is corruption?
At least by Indian varnashrama dharma, rulers (kshatriyas) were in charge of large treasuries – which had to be emptied periodically with yagnas like Raysuya, Ashwamedha, etc.
These modern political affectations do nothing but raise discontent!
Related Articles
- Italian chopper deal: UPA factsheet draws Pranab into the row (ibnlive.in.com)
- VVIP chopper scam: greedy people are working around the world, says Antony (ndtv.com)
- VVIP chopper deal: ‘No mercy for guilty’, says Defence Minister AK Antony (ndtv.com)
- Why President Pranab Mukherjee rejects mercy pleas? [In Pictures] (humourriots.wordpress.com)
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Can The Agriculture System Of The Developed West Feed the World?
Western farmers get more subsidy than the GDP of 125 countries in the world.
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Used food tins with overwhelming propaganda branding stacked near the town of Dadaab, Kenya, on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. | Image source – AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam; courtesy – theatlantic.com
ooking at butter mountains, lakes of wine and milk, in Europe and US after the starvation and famine in Africa, it can be easy to jump to wrong conclusions.
Just 60 years ago, Europe was dependent on food imports – and was on limited rations.
Food aid is frequently a market seeding program to create markets for Western food multinationals. A Somali refugee with a high-energy biscuit at the Ifo refugee camp on July 24, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. | Image source – Oli Scarff/Getty Images; courtesy – theatlantic.com
Today the story is different.
The price of a ton of skimmed-milk powder, which in the summer of 2007 was above €3,000, had fallen roughly in half. In Germany it is currently around €1,400.
Farmers had been hit by a slump in demand for commodities caused by the global financial slowdown, and by the strength of the euro.
“We export a lot to Russia in terms of butter, cheese to the United States and milk powder to Africa and Asia, and all these are hit by the strength of the euro”.
Though the EU managed to dispense with its butter stocks in 2007, grain mountains and wine lakes still exist.
The latest figures show that 717,810 tons of cereals is piling up, along with 41,422 tons of sugar and 2.3 million hectoliters of wine, according to the European Commission.
Graphic source & courtesy – economist.com on Jul 1st 2010
Currently, there is belief that food shortages in the West were an exception – maybe even an aberration.
This confidence and belief has grown to the extent that the West seriously asks itself.
“But can we feed the world this way?”
following World War II, with the onset of the “Green Revolution,” feeding the world became a national mantra. It was a ubiquitous “good” that handily justified the discovery that the petrochemicals used in warfare could find postwar applications if dumped on our food supply.
However, 75 or 100 years ago, such a question would never have entered into our dialogue. To ask a local farmer or homesteader how his or her production methods were going to feed the world would have been absurd. The local producer’s job was to support the family, the community, and his or her bioregion–not the world.
“Feeding the world” was the background tune playing in the bank, on the car radio of the seed salesman, in the office of the accountant as farmers were counseled to “get big or get out,” to expand their production and change their growing practices to participate in a global food supply, rather than a regional one.
Can the local, sustainable food movement in the United States feed the world? Hell, no. Nor can the industrial agricultural paradigm. No one can feed the world. One country cannot do it, nor can any specific model of production.
Thus, I leave you with one question: What can you do today that will enable the world to feed itself?
via The Downside of Expecting America’s Agriculture System to Feed the World | Alternet.
As Europe & US play out a charade of negotiations, it is Africa and Asia which is suffering from food shortages. | Cartoon by Peter Nicholson; on July 5, 2005; source & courtesy – nicholsoncartoons.com
Truthfully?
Forget about the world. Forget about pollution, environment, green-planet, ecology, rain forests et al.
Think of yourself.
Between the US and the EU, the agricultural system gets close to US$100 billion dollars. Western farmers get more subsidy than the GDP of 125 countries in the world.
Western governments subsidize their farmers by a sum greater than the GDP of countries like Morocco, Oman, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Kenya, Libya, Tanzania among many others.
The West can afford this subsidy regime for now. One more crisis like the ongoing Great Recession – and these subsidies will have to go. When agricultural subsidies to Western farmers go, food from dinner tables across the West will also vanish. As subsidies decline, Western consumers may see food shortages and nearly 50% increase in food prices.
Go.
Worry about that.
Related Articles
- Can We Feed the World? (project-syndicate.org)
- Food MythBusters – Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world? (globalelite.tv)
- Inspiring the agriculture students of the future (abc.net.au)
Levels of total farm income and total subsidy over the years in the US
Intrigued? Interested!
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