Learning to mind ones business

Bin Laden payback

It was common knowledge that Osama Bin Laden enjoyed a good reputation in Pakistan. People looked up to him as one who stood against the policies of the west, especially the US, even though the methods he used are easily questionable to everybody. He was a hero in Pakistan. And the all powerful military of Pakistan dared not touch him, fearing a backlash from the fanatics in the region, which could throw the already 'failed state' into a worse crisis which could destroy the country and most likely, the civil society of the country.
But the USA wanted their pound of flesh. At least to please the public and give the first black President of the country a chance to successfully run for a second term, after the economy did not become as rosy as he had promised during he election campaign.
And so, after confirming the presence of Osama with help from Dr. Shakil Afridi, the US made short work of Osama and his guards, not to mention disposing his body the way they sought was fit, and were celebrating as if the world had been saved from armageddon. Only they forgot about Dr. Afridi.
Not one person in Pakistan was happy about the covert operation by the US. and it is surprising that the most powerful country in the world thought its Asian 'ally' was incapable of expressing its anger.
Guess Pakistan were waiting for the US to let their guard down on Dr. Shakil, and when they did, they nabbed him and produced a sentence to their satisfaction without second thoughts.
It is clear that the US and Pakistan have no similar interests in any field whatsoever. USA continues to support the Pakistan military to prevent radicals from over taking the country, while Pakistan misuses that support for whatever pleases them. When US lawmakers want ed Osama dead or alive, Pakistan were never going to comply, and when Pakistan wanted Osama to live in peace, the USA saw no logic in it.So much for being 'allies in war on terror'.

Being fined for carrying out judgement in national interests

As mentioned above, Pakistan cherished the presence of a living, breathing Osama in their country, in contrast to USA, which wanted him dead. Its a very funny situation when we are told they are 'allies in the war on terror'. This has to be the biggest joke of the century!!!!!!!!
A technically correct decision by the USA would be to include Pakistan in the axis of evil- with Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea and just invade them with the pretext that Osama lived there. They did the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why not try it against Pakistan when they had the intel that he was in Abbotabad? Or where they afraid of the consequences of going against a more potent army with weapons in the present decade? They had conducted wars against countries who's arsenal had weapons most likely from the previous century. Guess that was the real reason for playing the cat and mouse game with Pakistan till they got confirmation of Osama's presence.
Anyway, there is no doubt that Dr Afridi went against hos country's interests while assisting the US in their hunt for Osama. There can be no doubt that he saw this day coming, when he would be behind bars in Pakistan. He definitely was waiting for the US to get him out of the country, but for once, Pakistan surprised US.
And the USA also expressed their displeasure at Pakistan's actions. the truth is they are not happy that what Dr. Afridi now captured, a number of US assets in Pakistan are at risk. And to ensure their safety they have to arm twist Pakistan. hence the 33 million dollar cut in Pakistan's aid, which is a joke, as it is a fraction of the 1 billion dollar annual aid by the US to Pakistan.

International Police

So once again we have USA play the International Police, a role it has been playing so religiously since the split of USSR left it as the single most superior military power in the world. At the same time, they are afraid of creating a situation in Pakistan where the military and so called democracy will be crushed by the wave of religious fanaticism, which has existed in the country since its inception. Hence the USA is caught between the devil and the deep sea. To use force or not to use force? How much force would be excessive in the case of Pakistan/ Can they afford to lose Pakistan? Is Pakistan that valuable? 

Conscience or self righteousness

The question for Pakistan now remains is whether they want this so called friendship with USA to get uglier or leave matters as they are and carry on. A majority of the educated, moderate class are happy that someone got rid of Osama. But unfortunately they do not form the majority of the population. The decision to punish Dr. Afridi shows that Pakistan treasures religious leaders who spread hatred and anger and shows scant respect for the educated class, who help the poor and want to see a better world for their family at least, if not for others. This decision puts Pakistan at cross roads. The country was born over 50 years ago under the pretext to give muslims a right to live, something they thought impossible in neighboring India. After all these years, the only thing they have succeeded in providing is a right for muslim fanaticism to spread to neighboring countries and make use the best use of violence to prove a point, rather than dialogue.

Anti- NATO protests

 The common man finally put together a show of strength against the top decision making countries of the world to voice their unhappiness.
The protestors obviously want NATO to be a thing of the past and want the leaders of the respected countries to concentrate on something more constructive than deciding which country to target after current military operations are over.
It is no surprise that Nicolas Sarkozy, France's former president lost the elections due to prioritizing his friendship with America and NATO over the the present conditions in France.
If the other leaders will take a hint, they can still be around after elections in their respective countries.
Else they'll have to warm the opposition bench rather than represent their countries at NATO and G8 the next  time round. 
Anti- NATO protests

 Peaceful protests

False charges against protesters

And the protests go on 

A bit busy, but

Sorry guys.
Will be busy for a couple of weeks.
So wont be able to share my thoughts on current events.
But there are some mind boggling things going on around the world and it will be good for you to know what is wrong and what has to be done to set things right.

You just cant buy happiness

Selling the country to stay in power

The price for justice

When a cartoon drawn 60 yrs ago made headlines for the wrong reasons

The Hindu : States / Other States : Cartoon row: Scholar’s office ransacked

It is not a new problem.
Its been present since time immemorial.
When is freedom of speech abused?
Some people take great liberties with it.
Others dont allow any other point of view except their own.
A number of times, the line is never drawn, so no one knows if he has crossed limits and hurt others sentiments.

So what do you say to people who react violently to a cartoon published 60 years ago?
Hooliganism?
In India, as well in other countries where a democracy exists, no issue is spared. As they say, an opportunity should be grabbed with both hands.
After this episode, I guess it is safe to say that people can behave however they like, giving the reason that their sentiments have been hurt, and they can cause a mess in the public and they will not be brought to the book

THIS is the Indian mentality. It is OK to behave violently and get away with it, giving the excuse that your sentiments have been hurt, even though nothing close to that has happened.

In the article, the grandson of the Father of the Indian Constitution says that Dr. Ambedkar would not have opposed the cartoon. Then what is the meaning of getting angry at something that was created 60 years when the persons who were targeted didnt see the need to react to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is absolute non sense. The cartoon became an issue in Parliament.Why? Somebody felt it 'hurt his sentiments'. This is the way India is. The largest democracy in the world, where any issue of any age can be taken up and the people in power will force the common man to watch the ugly circus.
Below is the cartoon.

The issue is in front of you.
What's your reaction?

Censorship

Censorship issues in land of the free

A lot of times, the west are proud of their freedom and so called 'freedom of speech'.
They call the countries of the Middle East, Africa and Asia backward and have zero tolerance and have no freedom of expression and no free speech.
They say they have the best censorship in the world and they are very tolerant.
The above link is an example of how tolerant they are when they are confronted by a group of people who do the work better than them.

A good start

In the first month of my blog, viewership has just touched the 50 mark.

I believe this is a good beginning, garnering such an audience without any mass publicity.
I will be taking a break, a pretty long one.
When I come back I will be more active and post more articles that will have an effect on the way our views of the world are shaped and methods of making the world a safer place to live in.

Till then happy blogging.

An army which has no right to attack

I was unaware that a country has mentioned in its constitution that its army does not have the right to be on the offensive, to attack countries and the army cannot be used to settle international disputes.

The question that arises now is which country has adopted such tight regulations for its army. Definitely not the US, who are happy to send their boys to war so the weapon manufacturers can have a continuous supply, as long as the wars make sure that there is demand.And the US has made sure that has happened. For the last decade at least, the US has made sure that there is no dearth in the demand of weapons and this has kept their sponsors happy.

It could be a country of the EU. Post World War 2 they have had no military engagements except for the Yugoslav war, Britain's love for Falkland islands leading a short term war and Russia's wars with neighbors/ former republics Chechenya and Georgia. Definitely not Africa, where peace is a crime and slaughter, ethnic cleansing and multiple crimes against humanity are the norm, except for the Mediterranean countries and South Africa. In Asia the middle East, thanks to Iran's rhetorics against Israel and Israel always banking on big daddy USA, (not to mention the emotional blackmail they do by referring to them as survivors of the holocaust, while all they do is insult the memory of those who perished in it), and the Arab uprising and Syria committing mass murders, none of these countries would know how to use an army in times of peace. India, which only uses army in peace time no matter how much its neighbors violate their boundaries and no matter how many times their neighbors stab them in the back, does qualify as the country which could have adopted the afore mentioned policy. Except that it unleashes its army on people of Kashmir and North East states while it in reality it should have the guts to face China and Pakistan.

Japan's peaceful army

Japan, on e of the Axis powers which committed mass atrocities against the Chinese and other neighboring countries during the Second World War before being forced to surrender under the threat of the atom bomb, is the country which forbids its army for war. The army is used for peace time civilian rehabilitation purposes and this could not have been more visible that after the earthquake last year, when you had soldiers all over the devastated areas trying to bring a sense of order in time of chaos. After the Second World War, till date, Japan has not participated in any form of military aggression and the laws formed make sure that it cant happen. They must be commended on their turnaround on use of military, from being as devastating as in Pearl Harbor, to as constructive as after earth quake and rehabilitation.

We pray that other countries have the courage, guts and most importantly BALLS to follow Japan's example and try to make better and peaceful use of military and try to make the world a safer place to live, than like The Americans, Europeans and people of Middle East and Africa, who cant seem to think of other uses of military except for slaughter of civilians.

India's injustice on its women

India's unwanted girls

The above link is to an article by the BBC which analyzes the problems women in rural parts of the country face in India. It also tries to zero in on the cause and tries to find a solution.

But the fact is the odds are against women in India, the world's largest democracy.

And where in many parts, mothers prefer having a male child, forgetting that once they too were in dire circumstances when they were young. They just choose not to remember it.

This goes on to show how dominant the male is in the Indian society. That a woman in her young age had to face injustice, does not speak against the wrongdoing of others, but rather supports them, when she has the power to prevent crimes against innocents. This clearly shows that in India, maybe only rural India, the woman still has to do a lot to be considered equal to men or to get her right to live with dignity at least.

Price of a life

What is the price of a life? What does it mean to replace somebody? What does it mean to put a price tag on ones, our your head?
Is money ultimately everything in life? Compensation in a lot of cases, is done in cash. Be it road traffic accidents, where the victim holds the offender guilty of committing a crime and responsible for covering his expenses and replacing the income he cannot earn after the accident due to the disability incurred as a result of the accident. In most cases of road traffic accidents, the employer of the victim compensates the victim. In aircraft crashes, the airline compensates for the accident victims. It might have been the pilot's fault, a crew member may not have performed a routine check properly, a machine part may have malfunctioned at the last minute, the plane could have been forced to fly to keep the schedule and necessary repairs ignored,or worst of all, unexpected bad weather putting all efforts of a safe flight in jeopardy.

In any case, the compensation for aircraft crashes come from the airlines, in the form of money. So we come to the original question, what is the price of a life? Or rather, should a price be put on life in the first place.

In the ancient and medieval times, when a murder occurred by accident or by purpose, the death of the guilty was mandatory to say that justice has been done. Over due course of time, this practice was renounced as barbaric and hence a different form of justice had to take its place. Life sentences were introduced. 15 years, 20 years, jail for life. Death sentences exist even today but are almost not applied these days. A number of masterminds of terrorist attacks either languish in jails or roam freely in havens of terror. But the death penalty for them is hardly applied. A good example is the Pakistani  boy caught by the Indians during the 26/11 attacks. In spite of all the evidence, the law took its course, the murderer gets 5 star treatment and after the announcement of the verdict, the murderer appeals the verdict, making a mockery of the system. But what about all those people killed on that fateful day? What compensation was given to them? Did they ask for any? Did the government take troubles to address the problem and make the quality of life better for those people?

In case of loss of life, the best thing to do is to accept the bitter truth of injustice done and move one, because clearly, no compensation is enough to replace the life of a loved one. Compensating with money is no different from buying an animal at a department store or meat from market. It just reduces life to a commodity. Andrew Gilchrist, the Australian cricketer likened to his auctioning during his participation in The cash rich Indian Premier League to a cow being put at an auction. That is what money does to life. In many parts of the developing world, farmers unable to pay loans commit suicide. This becomes news and the media blames the government, giving the opposition some leverage against party in power. The government announces compensation in cash for its inability to prevent a farmer's death, announcing large sums of money to the surviving members of the family. The opposition makes a mockery saying this will lead to many to commit suicide as it is a short cut to getting rich.

No matter what intentions, what reasons, what the excuses, end result is that money cannot compensate for loss of life. It devalues life and reduces it to paper.

Price of life in Afghan war

This message is for the American and European soldiers killing civilians in battle, calling it collateral and believing the compensation in the form of cash should keep the rhetoric against the presence of their armies in foreign lands low.

Hope they get the message that value of life is not money. It is what right you have done in the time one had to utilise. Life is a race. But it is not a race against time. It is not a race of good versus evil. It is about doing the right things and avoiding and preventing the wrong things. And the winner is not the one who has done the maximum number of good deeds and prevented the maximum number of bad deeds.It is about doing the right things till the last second in life.

International Women's Day

Ever heard of Men's day?

I know you haven't. And no one has?
Do you know why? Of course you do.
This is proof enough that the people who celebrate Women's Day believe that women are not as capable as men when it comes to taking responsibility and women are inferior to men.
If that were not the case, then why should be there an International Women's Day.
This exposes the hypocrites,the women who celebrate this day do so with so much joy and gutso. The next day, its back to business as usual.

If they really want equality, they would not be quiet with just having a day in the year to celebrate. They would make sure women in all working sectors, economic backgrounds across all cultures, religions and countries would have the same respect as men and would not be looked over by men.

The colonial mindset is still present

Italy accuses India of illegitimate case

An example of what I had mentioned in my previous post.
Recently in India 2 Italian officers shot dead Indian fishermen, who the Italian officers thought were pirates. Unfortunately the officers were caught by the Indian Coast Guard and now they stand trial in the shooting case. The Italian government (also read as western or European) object to the trial of their officers, calling the trial illegitimate.

Just because the trial is held in India, a third world country, it is not illegitimate.

This statement and attitude of the Italian government shows that the mindset of colonial superiority is still present, even though Italy were on the wrong side at the end of the Second World War.

Injustice during colonial rule

A lot of injustices have been committed against people who are militarily backward. They have been overpowered, their culture denounced as uncivilized and resembling the living of animals, their resources looted, one local played against the other in name of family, religion, caste and creed, instilled a divide and rule policy which so many countries have adopted till today even after gaining freedom and they have been treated as slaves, in their own lands. History is witness to the above mentioned series of events. And the irony is that it has been repeated a number of times. Only in the last century, after the end of the Second World War, were the original inhabitants of the land given their due rights, respect and freedom from foreign slavery. But even today, they are labeled as third world countries. Is it fair? Their only fault is they did not have the military power to overcome the foreign armies. After studying their history and culture, historians are in agreement that majority of these countries were ahead of their conquerors at one point of time in history. The inhabitants of Africa and Asia, who were colonized by the Europeans, had a fledging civilization with a well structured society, economy and a government to run it all. Just because it was alien to the Europeans it doesn’t mean it was primitive. While civilization started in these continents, the most advanced people in Europe were the Vikings, who were nothing more than Barbarians known for looting and plundering. And after enslaving the continents of Asia and Africa, their inhabitants are inferior to the Europeans? Doesn’t make sense does it. 

The same applies for the aborigines of Australia and Native Americans of North and South America. Their whole civilization was wiped out due to military might of the invading European forces, the American government labeled their practices, ways of living, praying and names as inhuman. The choice given to them was the bullet or live life the American way. They had to give up their language, religion, culture and identity to what they thought was being accepted into society.

At present the only place to find the original American culture is in museums, while in Australia the condition is slightly better with the head of State recently apologizing for all those years of mistreatment. It is our duty to remind ourselves and people that all are equal and just because one has military might, it does not give them the right to mistreat people who are at a military disadvantage. Instead a responsibility is put on the shoulders of those with military might to use it wisely rather than to accomplish personal, selfish aims. The same holds good for the scenario in today’s world too.

The lives of women from different worlds

Lives in different worlds

The above link is to an article about an American woman's view of life in Asia, and the difficulties women of both the countries face.

injustice to the mother

Consider the following. A mother takes care of the child for 9 months before it is born. During these 9 months, she has to modify her eating habits, bear the physical changes that take place due to increase in size of the uterus as the pregnancy progresses and take care care of herself if she develops high blood pressure, high blood sugars,excessive bleeding, bouts of unconsciousness and even seizures during the pregnancy. For those of you who think pregnancy cannot be associated with the above medical problems, consult your local doctor. If  the mother gets an infection during the pregnancy, it can effect the child and lead to malformation of body parts. And after all care has been taken a male child is delivered( the above complications can take place with a female fetus as well). That is followed by a couple of years of breastfeeding ( ideally 6 months, but practices vary all over the world), which is responsible for nourishing the child, providing immunity and helping the child grow properly. Only for the male child to grow up one day and say that he is superior to the female sex.
Wow. If the mother knew this was going to happen, she would have aborted the pregnancy, 100%. She takes the trouble of making sure the child comes out to this world without problems putting her life on the line and once her job is done, she has to undergo the torture of hearing her child say that her child of the opposite sex is superior than her!!!!
Take some time and think about the situation. the man dosent have any idea what the woman goes through pregnancy. And it is this ignorance which gives him the fake sense of superiority over women.

The first injustices

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly where man went wrong and tried to practice activities that would benefit a few at the expense of others, rather than try to do things for the benefit of others.

Religion pinpoints the first injustice as Able being killed by Cain. And some religious schools of thought blame Eve for enticing Adam to eat the fruit, putting the blame of eating the fruit on Eve and absolving Adam of any wrongdoing, while both were warned from eating the fruit. In the case of eating the fruit, the blame shifts on Eve to prove the superiority of men over women.

This example is used often to say that women are not fit to be head of the house, lead people, take the right decisions and is not strong headed in tough situations. However the right way to look at the event is that both were equally responsible for their respective fall from heaven to Earth and neither is responsible for the other. That is, one should be able to make the right decision irrespective of what pressures they are faced with and the inability to do so does not lead the blame to be shifted to a supposed inferior character. That is if Eve was responsible for enticing Adam to eat the fruit after both were beseeched by Satan, then Adam was equally guilty of falling for her persuasion. Only if one accepts this, then one can treat men and women as equals. Is it any secret that no woman has ever been the President of the United States of America?

welcome all

Hello.
This blog is meant for people who wan to raise their voice against injustice against innocent people all around the world.It can be injustice in many forms.The powerful denying rights of the poor. The rich political leaders making away with the common man's money. Laws by the governments which force many people to be jobless. Policies which force people out of jobs and a means of livelihood and favor the multinational corporations and those in power. Political powers favoring one group against the others. Systems wherein the rich and powerful are above the law while those without any political strength are the ones who are blamed. This blog is intended to share such information which takes place all around the world. In every country activities similar to the ones mentioned above take place in one way or the other. The aim is to make people aware that the problems are the same all around the world. Its only expressed in a different manner. Racial discrimination occurs too often in America and Europe while in Africa and Asia, its about caste. However, the aim is not to highlight the negative points of various governments and organisations and to berate them. The aim is to find out the real motive behind such activities. And to spread the message that it can all end one day. Because the one reason why they are successful is because they dont have an opposition which is different from them to challenge them. Even in politics, or any organization for that matter, once a person gets elected to office he just follows what his predecessor was doing, favoring a different group, making more money and denying rights to certain people. By starting this blog, I hope to convince a lot of people out there that if we are to put and end to this system which has spread world wide, we will have to unite and go against every single policy of theirs which is a form of injustice.Hence, united we stand, divided we fall.We are one