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.