Ten Issues - 14

1- How China reports the Arab world :- In a post made to his Chinese-language weblog on April 15, Ezzat Shahrour, chief correspondent for al-Jazeera Arabic in Beijing, voiced his frustration with Chinese state media reporting on the upheaval in the Arab world this year.

2- The rules of entrapment :- The noise against Tehelka after last week’s cover story was to be expected. Much more surprising was the confusion over the ethics of political baiting.

3- Haaretz prides itself on being the conscience of Israel. Does it have a future? :- by David Remnick

4- James Gosling joins Google, what can startups learn? :- Cultivating talent is not about hiring only those people who will work on assignments or wait on benches for projects that are in the sales pipeline. You also require people who are not in the thick of daily grind; those who can think up new paradigms and new ways to doing things without the pressure of how it will impact the company's next quarter's bottom-line.

5- Should you drop out to become an entrepreneur? Posted by Nikhil Kulkarni

6- What’s Left of the Left: Paul Krugman’s lonely crusade. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

7- Top 10 Reasons Ayn Rand was Dead Wrong By Geoffrey James

8- Ambedkar, the forgotten free-market economist in Perspective by B Chandrasekaran

9- P. R. Brahmananda Memorial Lecture by Stanley Fischer Governor, Bank of Israel :- Central Bank Lessons from the Global Crisis

10- Kaushik Basu has suggested a radical solution: Paying bribes should be legal [PDF] and opposition of Jean Drèze to this idea in The bribing game.

Quote of the Day : “When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions; that is the heart of science.” - Carl Sagan

State Torture

Few things reveal a nation better than what it censors. Human societies that allow the free expression of ideas do better than those that don’t allow new ideas. The evidence is all around for us to see and judge. The renaissance was the triumph of ideas over church power after a long struggle.

The ignorance and lethargy of the poor are the direct result of the whole economic, social and political domination. It is the failure of elites and policy makers that failed in creating inclusive growth.Hence, the violence emerge from the poor neighborhood or a specific region.

State can't arm people to fight insurgency, it will only lead to legalization of violence with state backing it. The order can't be maintained by violating spirit of law in the first place. Hence, they opt for torture technique to suppress the will of people.

The other strategy to deal with challenges to legitimacy of state is by promoting and reinforcing identity politics within a system of privileges where certain groups and individuals are favored over others. In a word: divide and rule. Best of all discrimination policies used by government !

In democracy, power goes to those who've got money or people. The weak and cynical power holder people are obsessed with their status in society. Abhu Gharib and Guantanmo are prime example of insanity and savagery of the people holding power.An enhanced interrogation techniques” probably have a flawed idea of whether this constitutes torture, because few have felt the pain these methods can cause.

Authoritarian regimes or Deep State are not known for creating space where alternative political leadership grows - for if they do so, they would cease to be authoritarian. The delusional and diseased symbiosis of a person with power.

In short term, the proclamation of reforms, positive changes and greater media freedom turned out to be nothing but empty promises. So there is no major change in the political, moral, psychological, social or economic position of the people. And the game goes on...

No economic system can over-ride the mandate to preserve our life and liberty.  Each country has to find is its own political cohesiveness to carry out very painful and ugly transitions. No country or state is exception of power tussle.There is always inevitable anger  in the people against such misuse of state power which can either spark like revolution or least possibility of reform from inside government.

The media also remain in the frenzy state. The very assumption behind security state is that civilians are expendable, that there is no need to build civilian institutions because they are permanently invaded and the whole world is their enemy. Yet, rarely are the political and economic system that sustain authoritarian groups in the position of power is questioned. That led only to revolution !

Creating Wealth

History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them. ---B. R. Ambedkar

1% has been hoovering up an ever greater share of the nation's wealth. Why ?

The “seeds of decay” lay in the “disparity between rich and poor” that is growing fast in the country until middle class redefine it's role. Which is much what Chomsky states : Modern "democratic" governments exist to protect their sponsors not their people.

Is it really true that media has become the agency of politicians and burglars ? News channel works as ferocious disinformation machine aimed at convincing people to vote against their financial interests. James, Dresden has quoted : When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.

There seems to be a disconnect between our professed love of democracy. There is no outrage or even movement to oppose a dictatorship at work place. Until things get so bad that people can do nothing but protest, and then those are called revolutions. Democracy? Freedom? What the hell are you talking about? You can't have either when you have fractional economics in a society run on debt!

People have to fight for the most basic things in the life. When intelligent people cheat the masses by complex arrangements and shady deals, the masses will move towards a propaganda and slogan politician.

Redistribution is a stupid way to reduce inequality. Robbing A to pay B makes inequality persist. The correct  way to reduce inequality is to create jobs that allow B to earn his income. Do easy consumer credit and a belief in social mobility have reduced the clamor for wealth redistribution ?

Currently, there is no visible alternative economic system that beats capitalism for delivering the most wealth, happiness and fulfillment to the most people. The mechanisms whereby power is thwarted from a centralized system and redistributed, is a necessary component of a fair and representative political system.

Globalization – essentially embracing the opening of all frontiers to the free movement of capital and merchandise, but not labour. The moral undesirability of state interference in any way, and the political incapacity of the states to interfere in business will led to the free market where big players will dominate the scene. The road to free market will fail this country. Capitalism has failed just as spectacularly as Communism. There is a genuine need for a real Third Way.

“Men are born entrepreneurs not job seekers. By seeking job he is giving chance to a system to make him poor.” ‎-Muhammad Yunus

Understanding Islamic Culture - 6

“Islam [is] a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.” - Samuel Huntington ; This quote comes to the truth several times by the most religious persons of Islam.

We have to make new perception on Islam, hence accepting that all Islam is on a par with Al-Qaeda is grotesque and dead wrong. To understand why even falsely proclaimed perfect system of rules "Islam" is failed by its own followers ? . Religious fanatics are present in every society, it does not mean that they are a part of the culture. The extremism and level of violence permitted help us to view the norms of the civil society.

Islamic scholars only look Kuran and Hadith as a pious source and reference while ignoring evidences or voices outside this. The critical mind on the other hand undermines revealed truths and subjects the scriptures to exegesis and interpretation. To confuse the two is to shift religious questions from an intellectual to a judicial level. In the religious society, every objection or joke becomes a crime. And that is why Islamic civil society is considered as most backward in the eyes of others.

It is not the contempt FOR DEMOCRACY that is dangerous, it is what earns this contempt that is the problem. With silence of moderates, the popular opinion triggers towards extreme right or left leading to a catastrophic situation. Surely, passion shouldn’t prevail over reason, or prejudice over logic; nor should one’s credibility be flogged at the altar of patriotism. History over time becomes Interpretation, and then Mythology. Then it becomes sacred where facts are no longer relevant.

1- Political Models after the Arab Revolutions : Islam, Sharia, and Democracy ---  A new loosely organised movement is earning respect among the proponents of Islamic democracy. Distancing itself from militant Islamism, the movement regards itself as a "New Centre" and aims to combine the principles of good governance with the preservation of cultural authenticity. By Gudrun Krämer.

2- Interview with Ibn Warraq : In an interview with Dirk Schönlebe, the author and Islam critic Ibn Warraq explains his views on freedom of opinion and the definition of tolerance in Islam, and the role of multiculturalism in the Western world.

3- The Young and the Old: Radical Islam Takes Root in the Balkans by Risto Karajkov.

The most important challenge for humanity is understanding people, realizing that we are all similar, regardless of which country, race or religion we came from. I rest my case here.

Pakistan : A Failed Islamic Experiment - 2nd View

When you talk about Pakistan, as an Indian a question simply arrives:  What do you do with a problem like Pakistan?. There are 8 steps proposed by the author need to be taken at least from Indian perspective.

I. Cause economic pain to Defence forces / related entities:
II. Offer to pay this mercenary nation for better behaviour
III. Reach out to the suffering masses
IV. Denuclearize this rabid state
V. Increase focus on fissures within Pakistan
VI. Resolve Kashmir
VII. Threaten to break all diplomatic relations
VIII. Provide a face to India’s Pakistan initiative

For (super funny) history as read by most Pakistani citizens, the two news article summary is here. Concise history of Pakistan Part– I and Part– II ; I will analyze the situation in another perspective.

Ideas did not face organized opposition till monotheistic invaders arrived into India. Since Indian Dharmas were not much organized, the blood shed and violence conflict existed in less proportions. There was fight between Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism but to a less violent level. With the passing time, the institutions of organized religions like Islam and Christianity have removed discriminatory practices a little bit but are naturally more suppressive to the new ideas contrary to unorganized religions.

Today, while observing the alliance of secular parties to minority and right wing party to religious causes, we can easily say that it is purely based on the mutual benefit and leaves no space for a common man today. This seems scalable in the world with conservatives that are in majority that includes traditional rigid individuals and zero brain using, yet tolerant citizen.

Conservatives wants to maintain the ties and traditions of the past and ignoring the evil of increasing religiosity of a moderate society. And all the support of military dictators were such people who believed them to be secular from the 'face' value. Suddenly the world changes for them after 9/11 and every bearded face of Muslim becomes a terrorist for them. Then packed with new baggage of information and conspiracy theories, a jerk reaction of Islamophobia is developed by conservatives of west towards conservatives of Afghan-Pak. Brothers in war against communist become thirsty of blood of each other.

On confronting the conservatives with any long-term social or economic problem, and they have only one response: it would go away if only we insisted on our assumptions more aggressively. This denial of reality runs deep. The armchair theorists refuse to face - the need to take sides in an imperfect world. I preferred to take sides with liberals that are imperialistic in the nature than conservatives.

So how to tackle this religious minority ? And again our lab rat nation of Pakistan comes in the scene. Nadeem F Paracha puts a brilliant theory of Radical fatigue in Smokers’s Corner: Whenever an extreme finds itself cornered and desperate, it becomes even more extreme, almost to the point of being nihilistic. Consequently, such an extreme starts facing a paradox. The brighter it burns or the louder it crackles, the quicker it starts to consume itself, until it is no more.

Liberals have been most attacked, mostly by fellow religious leaders and mobs, for voicing their secular opinions or for presenting any other perspectives than state and Mullahs. And increasing religiosity of middle class Pakistani breeds an even more dangerous form of terrorist than the ignorant, brainwashed madrassa students who do not know any better. This middle class religious jehadi is materialistic in worldy sense yet deeply regressive in tolerance level. And all this happened while it was coveted in the hindsight of the liberal and freedom of speech by mainstream parties.

Failure of Pakistan is not utterly fault of Wahabi schools. Pakistanis seem to prefer Islamic or tribal legal codes, it is not because they love stoning women to death but because the modern institutions of the police and judiciary inherited from the British are shockingly corrupt, not to mention profoundly ill-suited to a poor country.

And, same phenomenon is happening in Hindutva brand of Hinduism. Remember that when all the minorities are finished, majority will find minorities amongst themselves to prey upon.Without the ability to think, education starts to resemble indoctrination. state-sanctioned propaganda. But, the trivial point comes when the whole opinion of majority shifts to the right. What then ?