Ten Issues - 9

1- India's Telecom Scam: How Can a Corrupt System Be Cleaned? : The telecom scam that recently forced the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja defrauded the country to the tune of nearly US$40 billion. Since telecom is an industry that links backward and forward to several others, the total economic cost could well be hundreds of billions of dollars. This scandal shows that corruption has deep roots in Indian society, but informed voters and the democratic process can help eradicate it, argues Rajesh Jain, managing director of Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions, in this opinion piece.

2- Audre Lorde’s quote “anger is loaded with information” ; When you are at the wrong end of the unjust societies, many truths that are clear to you come out loaded with information. Read complete 6 page essay on Uses of Anger. Thanks to Anu.

3-The narcissism of the neurotic by P Sainath : The Commonwealth Games were no showcase, but a mirror of India 2010. If they presented anything, it was this — Indian crony, casino capitalism at its most vigorous.

4- This is not a panel discussion : Meet four Adivasi intellectuals whose lives have changed the politics and conversations about indigenous people, says G VISHNU

5-The Burden Of Knowing By Charles Hugh Smith: Knowing what lies ahead is a great emotional burden. The knowledge that the present is unsustainable is, for many of us, a great emotional burden. It troubles our sleep, our minds, and our basic emotional well-being. Knowledge, like memory, cannot be erased at will, and thus it runs in the background of our lives, unseen by others but deeply troubling to the knower.

6- Religious Excuse of barbarity by Johann Hari: If you are engaged in an act of cruelty, there is an easy, effective way to silence your critics and snatch some space to carry on. Tell us all that your religion requires you to do it, and you are "offended" by any critical response. Erect an electric wire fence around your nastiest actions and call it "respect".

7- Microfinance is under attack. Even the normally reticent pink newspapers have now begun to bring out the inherent flaws in the microfinance model.Check some facts here- MFIs: Profiteering from poverty and Five myths about microfinance.

8- When girls fear school by Kalpana Sharma: The reasons for the high drop-out rate of girls are simple: Fear of corporal punishment, sexual abuse and the lack of basic amenities like toilets in schools.

9- Valerie Plame, YES! Wikileaks, NO! : It is the American people who should be outraged that its government has transformed a nation with a reputation for freedom, justice, tolerance and respect for human rights into a backwater that revels in its criminality, cover-ups, injustices and hypocrisies.

So savor the Wikileaks documents while you can, because soon they'll be gone. And for the government criminals of the world, and for those who protect them, it will again be business as usual.

10- Meet Dr. Dani: One of the unsung heroes of our public service institutions : . Yet, there are people such as Dani in many of the small hospitals in the country, whose toils go unheard, and whose stories go unsaid.

Thought of the Day :
Julian Assange writes in his blog: “True belief is when a voice booms ‘the prisoner shall now rise’ and no one else in the room stands”.

Complex System

Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn't feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points.



I agree with the talk as understanding big terms as 'development' and 'sustainablity' is like dealing with the complex system. I have myself reached this conclusion with the help of fluid dynamics. That might sound like an unconventional explanation for the readers. When you create any index or threshold level, it is like checking turbulence and laminar in the flow of fluid. Turbulence is flow characterized by recirculation, eddies, and apparent randomness. Flow in which turbulence is not exhibited is called laminar. And therefore many conditions should be included before making any empirical formula.

This talk helps in understanding interconnectivity of the subjects and diversity needed in the education. Monitoring, managing, and coordinating the information collection and cataloging of activities of a process result in huge amount of data and interconnected sub - process. The broad spectrum can only be understand in the simpler way by going from basics to complex looking phase and returning with the simpler explanation. Now, the level of dependence of process on various parameters can be well defined and analysed.

This we often do in the Mathematics. From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity's most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.



The fear of people to deal with complexity and maths hinders the establishing process to reach the estimative conclusion. Nature does not work in the mysterious way. The mystery element is little complex yet transparent for observation for everyone. We need for computing and less repetition !

Example: Key observations from the ICKM conference this year (October, 2010 ) by Nimmy,

Quote of the Day: Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein

The Bigger Picture

We need role models who can bravely give voice to what people had been wishing- but not daring to say for many a year. My intention Is not so much to ‘assess' the society and civilization in few words, but to understand what the our traditions might mean concretely to its protagonists. If you don’t know the why, you can forget about figuring out the how.

A true questioning spirit is usually introspective in nature, not accusatory. Verified doubt is scientific and it lays the foundation for merit-based trust. The advantage of a questioning spirit is that it is the opposite of an inquisition. Huge majority of society have internalized the myth that the authority is capable — and willing — to solve to problem of poverty. This is one of the greatest binding assumptions that imprisons the development. To become free from this notion is hard because it is in the interest of those in authority and few in power to perpetuate these false beliefs. People, an individual changes the world for better, not the other way round.

Bigger Picture By Sharmista Chaudhury: Inclusive growth is the new buzzword in B-School curricula.

"Bad Management Theories are destroying good management practices". by Sumantra Ghosal.

Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment by Sushil Yadav

India should accept climate change flow obligations, ask for superfund: Jagdish Bhagwati

The Management Myth : Most of management theory is inane, writes our correspondent, the founder of a consulting firm. If you want to succeed in business, don’t get an M.B.A. Study philosophy instead

RISC — Rural Infrastructure & Services Commons : RISC proposes the establishment of rural hubs with established infrastructure and fee-based user services that would be sustained by patronage from many surrounding villages, accessible by bicycle. Each hub would provide economic opportunities for India's rural population and the potential to seed a larger urban center.

The Logic Behind RISC and RISC at XIMB

Special Parliament Session to Debate Poverty (Must Read Article)

It is useful to remember Finagle’s Law, a corollary to Murphy’s Law. It says that when a job is fouled up by someone, anything they do to make it better only makes things worse. The government is the last agency to figure out what went wrong and why. And in the end, when they try to fix the problem, even if well-intentioned, they just make it a great deal worse. (Via Atanu dey)