Padma Shris to anti national elements!

Let's ask ourselves what we should do with idiots who have been given Padma Shri awards, who don't have even an iota of respect for the Constitution of India, much less for an Indian citizen who points out a blunder on a contentious, sensitive matter of national importance.

The following e mail and the lack of response it got should tell us what kind of shady, ill-informed, dangerous, incompetent nincompoops work for organizations like CNN IBN - and how the government confers awards upon them for staying that way!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BSK
Date: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Subject: Wrong mention of "National Language".
To: editor@ibnlive.com


Madam/Sir,

It is really disheartening to see a TV channel of your standing allowing such a poor standard of content editing in your telecast.

I was watching a program titled Y NOT just a short while ago on CNN-IBN, and the host made a singular reference to Hindi as the National Language in her conversation with some Mumbaikars who would like to see more Marathi being used in Maharashtra. I am even more amazed that this was not disputed on the spot! It seems that abject arrogance rules your roost and abject ignorance rules amongst the people who subscribe to your channel. Please listen to the lie you broadcast more than once.

http://www.flyerhigher.com/bsk777/YNOT/rashtrabhashalie.wav

In case you or your staff members have been ignorant, or hoodwinked into believing that India has a "National Language", you should really try and learn the facts - India doesn't have a National Language. Even if you have the opinion that it should, you should certainly not allow it to be mentioned like it is a fact. Even the most brazen embrace of mediocrity shouldn't allow for such blunders to go unchecked.

If your channel assumes the "right" to show such a dangerous level of disrespect towards India's Constitution, you really should be put out of action by a public interest litigation. This is indeed my opinion, but I'd like to know first hand from you, if you would choose to tell me, whether:

1. CNN-IBN has a vested interest in pushing Hindi to be christened a National Language.
2. That is the reason there has been no editorial outrage from your channel when people like Ram Vilas Paswan openly insult the Constitution by mentioning Hindi as the national language.
3. That is the reason you have made no attempt to bring to light the gravity of the linguistic imperialism that is being unleashed by the central government of India and Hindi supporters within its mechanism.
4. You are simply too incompetent to take up the depth of this issue and that the establishment of a "Hindi Diwas" means nothing of importance to you.
5. You simply don't care since advertising revenues can keep your enterprise in profit through mediocrity infested programming.

The debate has indeed shifted, if you notice, from whether we should have a unifying language or not, to whether some of us even understand the sanctity of the Constitution. You have, if you care, a goldmine of a topic to examine a lot of items that are important to India and Indians.

Where does CNN IBN collectively stand on the above?

I would much appreciate your response, and please don't hesitate to surprise me with the quality of the same.

Thank you,

BSK.

(The Padma Shri recipient is no less than the Editor in Chief of CNN IBN!
http://www.medianewsline.com/news/131/ARTICLE/2034/2008-01-27.html)

Ready For An UnCivil War?

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of coming across an Indian anomaly - a happy worker!  He is a parking attendant who works for a restaurant in Chennai.  He greeted every customer who parked his bike, helped him move out safely and comfortably when he came back, and did it all with a smile, with no unspoken agenda like earning a tip.  This chap was genuinely happy!  How can this be?  This is India, where we take no pleasure in our jobs, where we think of customers are interruptions to our business, and for some reason, have simply forgotten to be happy.

But then, this chap is from Nepal.  Oh, yes, he speaks Tamil, and it took him all of one year to learn, he told me in his own cheerful way - after all, this is his "success" story.  He is very happy to be away from Nepal, where life is tough, and not going anywhere with the Maoists in power.  He isn't alone, and I have met a big number of Nepali people of late, doing jobs at restaurants, in shops, and even the guy who sells momos at Citi Centre is of course, from Nepal.  It is perfectly legal for them to cross the border and take up jobs in our country, and here is why we should welcome them, without reservations - they have the immigrant values of hard work, no complaints, and gratitude for what is genuinely better than the life they have known.

Nepalese people aren't the most industrious in their own country, especially the menfolk.  But throw in genuine opportunity, and the mandated need for them to send money home every month, and put them in a place far away from home, and they rock and roll.  They are here, and they are fast replacing all the Indian faces that did those jobs not long ago.  I couldn't be happier.  But elsewhere, unhappiness is brewing, and a lot of chaos is just round the corner.

A lot of Indian youngsters, particularly rural youth, have migrated to cities, in search of that elusive better life.  With the Karunanidhi government providing rice at Re.1/kg, (which is promptly polished and sold at higher rates by a lot of people who get it), there is plenty of incentive to be lazy.  There are no native workers to cut sugarcane at Rs.200/day!  Who cares about agriculture these days?  There is no vote bank there.  A lot of government funds are earmarked for "free" schemes that are guaranteed to create a generation of laziness.  Even youth who migrate to cities do not want to do the slightly more demanding physical labour, many of them choosing to be, for instance, security guards in an air conditioned mall at Rs.100/day, of which he will be able to save nothing, rather than do some hard work to make double that.

Nepalese youngsters who come to India have no such reservations.  They jump right into whatever opportunity is thrown at them, and they work damn hard, for it is important for them to "keep" their jobs, and grow.  We have a whole new supply of "steady" workers, and our employers, particularly in the retail sector and service sectors like restaurants, should be very happy.  They are freaking delighted!  Our agriculturalists are thrilled to have labour from Orissa, UP, and Bihar.  This is a state of happiness for now, for many.

In a few years, there will be a widespread recognition of the hardworking, sincere, and happy migrant worker.  The local population of youth won't have the attitudes, the experience, or the skills of the migrants.  Slowly, but quietly and surely, migrants will take over all the jobs in every sector.  When Karunanidhi runs out his hare-brained ideas of giving things free, or when the treasury runs out of funds, the latter of which is likely to occur first, it won't be all that profitable to be jobless or doing dumb jobs for small money.  No education, no experience, no reputation of doing hard labour, no specialized skills, and no smile - NO job!

This is when the unrest will creep in.  The "feeling" that bloody immigrants have taken over all our jobs will just about set in, when this issue will get politicized.  It can get ugly on the street, especially when politically backed for violence and unrest to be unleashed.  We, the consumers, who pay the retail sector handsomely, won't be amused.  We just want our service, and we will get it.

But now, we will have to contend with a whole section of our society that has been marginalized by their own stupidity and laziness, but carrying with them the notion that they have been duped, not by the politicians who gave them free food, but by immigrants who stole their jobs!  The easiest thing to indoctrinate and instigate to violence is a group of people who feel they are deserving and capable, but have been denied their manifest destinies!  Keeping them good company will be our already corrupt law enforcement agencies.  Rich, ripe ground for nurturing anti-social elements like thugs, terrorists, bandits, dacoits, and a host of vermin that will by no means look hungry or haggard or jungle tough, but will be riding bikes, getting drunk, using drugs, and carrying weapons ready to attack any sign of other people's well being.

Rich people will be targeted.  Not the Ambanis or the Tatas, mind you, but the genuine entrepreneurs who have all grown to have two car families through the success of their honest efforts, helped along in some cases by the immigrant labour class.  The local niggers versus the immigrants!  Why does this have such a familiar ring to it.  Look at the black neighbourhoods in the USA.  They breed mostly thugs, drug dealers, pimps, and a host of useless, unemployed, lazy, fat, complaining whiners who won't take any job, and live on welfare.  These are the lot we're fast breeding in India, particularly in "free" states like Tamilnadu.

Poor Nepali people have nowhere to go in their own country, with dwindling incomes, and lousy encouragement for true enterprise.  The Maoists have always been complaining - as is the habit with all ideologists who don't have a clue how to run a functional country.  Enterprise always dies under repression.  Maoism is communism, and communism is repression - this is the end of Nepal as a free society and as a country with any hope to progress.  Their biggest draw, Everest tourism, is bound to take a beating, when the Chinese complete their electric rope bridge project to the peak.  And who bears the brunt of all this change?  India!  Right now, it is thanks to having a lot of jobs vacant that we can absorb Nepalese people quite easily.  Two years back, we had 2.6 crore Nepali people in India, as opposed to the entire population of Nepal being 2.5 crores!  Now, that number is going to swell.

When the showdown starts, most of our Indian niggers will not realize that it is perfectly legal for any Nepali citizen to come to India and settle down, find a job, or start a business.  It is the same reciprocation we Indians have in Nepal.  A completely open border!  But none of us will want to go there, except on holiday, or to start a business with money already in the pocket.  This is already the case.  Instead of going to the root of the problem, our politicians will insist that we come up with new laws that prevent Nepalese people from coming to India and working!  It would be very easy then, not to notice how none of the jobs the Nepalese people started doing were in high demand among the locals.

This is exactly like the whining that goes on in the USA.  Every year, thousands of migrant workers rescue the apple crop, the restaurant industry and a host of other industries.  They're just there in numbers to do the actual work, while the locals find it below their dignity to work hard in tough conditions.  Apple picking isn't by any means hard, but it is not as easy as sitting in an air-conditioned office hitting a keyboard, sharing stupid jokes with co-nonworkers.

India will have a well defined, out in the open class war, very soon.  We're adding 40 million to the middle class each year, but we're also losing 13 million from the bottom, going into the poor class.  The 40 million may be better off, but the 13 million are going to be much worse than they have ever known.  The problem is that we have unwittingly prepared a whole generation of our people on this "opportunity" hype, which people automatically assume means "easy money".  There is no easy money, and the hard money is being made by immigrants, not the local bums.

With extremists like Kishenji heading our own Maoist movements, we can expect not the Nepali immigrants but the local newly bred thugs to join up, happy to be part of anything that is anti-government.  The armed forces are already mad that they are not being treated right by the politics of Delhi, not even putting them on pay parity with civil services.  We're already seeing examples of ex-army personnel helping the cause of violence by supporting the Maoists and Naxalites and other fringe groups.  This will only get worse.  We will have an armed uprising, and total sectarian violence.  More questions than answers, and our media won't be able to help that cause either, since they're also breeding on their own incompetence.

In our cities, we now have a young generation, that has money to get cellphones and motorbikes - usually working in call centres and such light labour pigeon holes.  One doesn't need an education for any of these jobs, just some speaking skills, some presentation, and some willingness to show up will suffice.  This whole generation of kids isn't much fit for doing anything other than simple routine jobs.  Jobs that can easily migrate to the Philippines, or even Bangladesh.  An easy money, dumb business is always easy to copy, and a 5% advantage in another country will mean some management genius in the USA gets to keep his job and bonus!  So, we won't have much of a point building an army of call centre workers, when our country needs people to harvest grain.

The various state governments have the hardest task on hand - use our current healthy economic situation to make people more competitive, hard edged, and India vastly more productive.  Truth is, nobody knows how.  This is a time for merrymaking, to drink deeper from the illusion that we're a great nation headed towards our destiny - the greatest nation in the world.  Only Kishenji thinks his bunch of lunatics will be ruling it by 2050.  I wonder how he will convince a whole generation of bums to do some hard work!

The middle class entrepreneur in India is seeing some success these days, but there is no protection for the money we may make, in the wake of armed gangs running loose like they already are in Telangana, West Bengal, parts of UP and West Bengal - all the states that Kishenji wants for himself and his harebrained ideas.  We will have to put our money offshore, and prepare for the time when we leave a potentially godforsaken country for good, or carry guns to protect ourselves. 

Violent thugs on the roads, attacking us at will is not a long, far fetched nightmare scenario.  It is the ONLY thing that happens when things rot as much as India has allowed right now.  The opportunity to make the fast buck is upon us.  Usually, nothing matters when this is lubricated by lax enforcement of the law, a corrupt state level judiciary, and the politics of numbers.  Our country is all about looting as much as possible, as soon as possible.  Consequences, there are NONE to worry about.

Maybe India isn't worth worrying about.  Let's ask the Nepalese people what they think.  Maybe that will tell us what is worth preserving.  It certainly can't be our patented apathy and laziness.

BSK.

2/3rds mad, 1/3rd dumb.

India! We've done it!

Finally, a place amongst the greatest nations of the world!

After a long, long, struggle, we've given our women something to genuinely cheer about. Thirty three percent reservation in the Lok Sabha. From now on, lives of women will never be the same again. What women, what kind of women, though?

Let's see how we're going to fill this thirty three percent and elevate our women who have been left out so far. Let's choose an idol - how about Mayawati? After all, she and idols go together, so how can she be ignored? In fact, she's gone on record asking, "What's wrong if I install my own statues?", http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100315/818/tnl-what-s-wrong-if-i-install-my-own-sta.html - , and really thinks it is necessary for history makers such as herself to be prominently preserved as idols for posterity. I hope there will be a carving below her statue of her exact words today, so that posterity can kick her in the posterior if it chooses to.

If Mayawati can think of herself as a history maker, just because she is pushing state funds to build statues of herself and the other figures in her limited knowledge of India and the world, surely, that is a heck of a lot of motivation for our young women to enter politics and emulate her noble deeds? Let them choose. For now, let's focus on the kind of representation that this thirty three percent will bring in, with the fervent hope that this doesn't mean 33% of idiots like Mayawati.

Our women who come to the forefront in politics seem more smitten by the power bug than the men they are hoping to equal. Look at Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK supremo. The word "supremo" hardly sounds democratic, does it? We're not at all talking about leadership or administrative abilities. Who was the last Indian woman we heard of that was all about astute leadership and no shows of unquestioned power? Indira Gandhi negated all the good she did with that declaration of Emergency, one of India's darkest periods. And even she came with pedigree. We simply have megalomaniacs on the loose when it comes to political women. Still...

The most "womanly" parliament India has had less than 10% of women in its fold. And none of them rose from the ranks, so to speak. It takes pedigree, like exemplified by MP Kanimozhi, whose only claim to any kind of fame is being the daughter of Karunanidhi. In other words, we've now opened the door to the exact opposite of what we should stand for - gender equality. We're basically saying, "As long as you're a woman, you can show up and be a parliamentarian". So, while 33% is not "equal" to 67%, I wonder what the argument is all about. Clearly this is not about numbers or equality. It is about disturbing a status quo that is wrong in the first place. If India has roughly 50% women in its population, why should the representation of women be any less than that? Why is nobody talking about this?

Because we don't want to get to the core of any issue. Let's not expect our women to rise up and be better than the men have proved so far. Let's completely forget that in the Hindu pantheon, Gods are not greater than Goddesses, and that the Supreme Sakthi - the primal source of all energy - worshipped as Kali, Amman, and several other names, the one who created the Holy Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is female. Let's continue to keep our women "aspiring to be equal" to the men they are already perhaps superior to!

The woman of substance in India is not sitting on a pile of cash, throwing tantrums and exercising her political will upon the nation in order to be preserved for posterity through idol worship. She is busy making ends meet, bringing up children, working two jobs, managing her household rather heroically, takes a genuine interest in the well being of her husband and children, and their futures, and still has time for friends and family. She is a super achiever in this country's madness, and she is not a politician. She is the quintessential Indian woman, who has the fight and the heart to do her job rather excellently, and she is not interested in politics, because it is not like her at all. The women in Indian politics are hardly representative of the Indian woman.

Now, there will be a scramble for filling up the 33%, but none of our parties have anywhere near the numbers needed for filling up these shining new reserved seats. So, what's going to happen? More dumbasses will have to be fielded, purely because they are women! We already have enough dumb netas in our country, but they have been around for so long, without any retirement age, and they have well near made it impossible for anybody young to come to any position of prominence in any party, even with pedigree, so what are the chances of somebody without pedigree showing up to the PM for instance? Almost nil. Now, we have this reservation for women that looks great on paper, but how the heck is it going to improve the quality of women's lives in our country when our women do not care for politics at any level at this percentage anyway?

Since it is already impossible for anybody young to enter and do something significant in our politics, it is not at all feasible for us to imagine any new, young, female candidate entering any fray. Up until now! But, this is the theory of it. In practicality, our dumb netas will wake up from their slumber, and field their already spoilt dumber sisters, daughters, grandmothers, concubines, and slaves, knowing fully well that within their party, they, the menfolk, will continue to wield the whip, no matter what percentage! Merely filling a seat in parliament will not turn any of our dumb women into parliamentarians. It hasn't managed to do that even to seasoned old farts who have showed up there for years!

Look at what it takes to enter politics in India today - for ANY candidate: Money, lots. Education, none. Noise making ability, plenty. Connections, as many as possible. Ability to corrupt and be corrupt, very necessary. Knowledge of issues, none needed. Ability to politicise, plenty. Need an example? Ah, just a minute.

>>> Courtesy, Times of India - As Mayawati was in the midst of her address at the rally to celebrate BSP's 25th anniversary here, the bees made a sudden appearance and made a hive on the stage below which she stood. The bees did not go unnoticed by the BSP supremo who pointed to them above her head and smelt a political conspiracy. Her party said the appearance of the bees was a conspiracy. The UP government also pointed to some "mischief" and quickly ordered an inquiry, apparently stung by the sudden appearance of the bees at Rama Bai Ambedkar maidan, the rally venue.<<<

What we have done is improve the "image" of the citadel, by promising more queens for the harem up there, not "better" women, or better governance or better anything. We have given the existing political parties more leverage to muck up the mix some more, in the name of "reservations". From this perspective, thank God the number is 33 not 50. It will take some very capable people to handle 33% of India's madness, and for some reason, we think this job will be better served by female dumbasses replacing the male dumbasses we have now. God bless us, atleast 33% of us!

BSK.

Sour grapes, an old fart, and who gives a hoot?

The things some people will do to get some attention, unbelievable.

For some reason some of our country's people are having regrets over MF Hussain seeking refuge in Qatar.  The country itself is looking rather sheepish after what is now widely viewed as its less than remarkable treatment of one of its artists.  Our media is clueless as always, and is simply parroting the upper middle class wannabe world citizen viewpoint that is rarely wrong in essence but never useful in application or viable in context.

Forget the corruption, the filth, the terribly maintained public services, the noise, the pollution, the unremovable stench of urine and excreta, dirty rivers, disease, poverty, terrible road manners, a legal system that takes years to prosecute the clearest violators of the law, religious fanatics, an apathetic public to all issues that affect us on a daily basis, and the sheer exhaustion of life in India - but let us worry about how much "freedom" a lousy artist should be getting?  People, what the fuck is wrong with us?

In what way is MF Hussain any more valuable to India than the millions who have left it over the years for so many reasons? Fighting all the other wrongs may not be so much fun for for a whole lot of people, and they will all leave this country just like they have for many, many years, just to live a "decent" life in some foreign country.  They are the doctors, engineers, nurses, teachers, and a lot of highly qualified inherently hard working people who will put in their sincere effort in any job they are given.  We lose them a dime to the dozen, and we don't give a fuck.

The Indian Institute of Technology may produce the occasional murderer and rapist, but for most part it produces fairly brilliant engineers, who all study and get their degrees, and mostly go abroad and never come back, well after the Indian taxpayer paid for every rupee of his education at this exalted institution.  We don't reap any benefits out of this, except for the prestige of India being able to produce such minds.  We don't give a fuck.

So, let's take a look at someone like Hussain.  He is an artist or that is what he calls himself.  Whatever he has produced has created no measurable value to the country, and in some cases has indeed created a lot of nuisance.  Fine, we are a democratic country and we have budgeted all our efforts for a fair percentage of nuisance.  So, we put up with that.  He creates ruckus through his art.  Fine, artists are free to do whatever they want just like anybody else who has a "freedom of expression" under the Constitution.  We never persecuted him, as a nation.  There were people who came up with negative reactions to his work performed under his "freedom of expression", but why can't their reactions be their freedom of expression too?

A true artist doesn't do anything just to get reactions.  Hussain has a track record of creating work that clearly attracts reactions and controversies, and at 95 years of age, if he doesn't understand that, he is a moron and clearly not an artist.  If he wrongly estimated what reactions he would get from Hindus by offending them with nudes of goddesses they hold in reverence, that is his fault, and simply a price he has to pay for stupidity.  End of story.

Now, what is all this fuss about us having to be embarrassed by Hussain migrating to Qatar?  Purely out of curiosity, I'd like to see what kind of a reaction people of Qatar will have if he drew Allah nude for their benefit.  How about a dick hanging from a wall and all muslims bowing to it?  He won't choose to express himself thus, because the Islamic faith has rather direct ways of letting people know of their displeasure.  There are enough fatwas and killings to make a clear line even clearer.  Not even a hare brain like Hussain will mistake that line to be a dotted one.

Truth is, MF Hussain is no Sachin Tendulkar.  His achievements aren't measurably superior within all the work coming out of an  international peer group.  We respect Sachin without reservations because he stands tall on an absolute scale.  True, artists do not have such a scale, and that is fine the way it is, but MF Hussain is a mediocre pretender to a throne of any sort of excellence, relative or absolute.  He has been clever rather than brilliant, and most of us can see through it, much like a great deal in modern art.  He has needed the controversies to stay in the news, and that alone is enough reason for us to not accord that sort of national hero respect.

If he needs to sit in another country and wail, that is precisely the end result of many years of pretending to be something he is not.  All the crap he talks about his love for India, well, who cares?  There are a lot many of us who love this country but hate things about it.

I for one, simply hate the fact that some asshole is trying to hump me each time I stand in any queue, at the bank, at the theatres, or simply to get a railway ticket.  What is so hard for Indians to understand - that it is completely rude and dirty to try and shove one's pelvis on the person in front of us in a line?  There's no point to this either - nobody is going to give up his/her hard fought position in a line just because he or she got humped.  But we do it, nevertheless.  It is the sheer habit of being Indian.  This alone is enough reason for me to want to leave this country and hopefully never come back!

Now, I can hear the distant screams - "So why don't you leave?".  I'll leave when I damn well please, thank you.  And until then, I will turn around and ask every asshole who tries to hump me if he has any sexual leanings towards me, embarrass the crap out of that pig, and enjoy it each time it happens.  That's just me.

For an entire nation to be embarrassed, there should be a reason big enough for us to be concerned.  We're not a nation of excellence seekers to be worried about the slightest insult to our attitude towards someone's "freedom of expression".  We're hardly a progressive, liberal society that stands as an example to the world.  We're a dogmatic, backward, indisciplined, filthy, selfish country that has no clue how to behave as a nation.  In this context, we should be happy we have one less shenanigan to deal with.

MF Hussain is a great product of India, fit for us in every way.  India is one big con job.  MF Hussain fits perfectly within this.  India is one confused mess of amoral, shady, pretentious, incompetent, and mediocre foolishness.  MF Hussain fits perfectly with this.  We deserve each other thoroughly.  But let us not think we have lost something precious by this prick leaving our country.  If the media didn't report it, we'd not even know he was away.  We shouldn't give a shit about this fool, because there are other things truly worth giving a shit about, that affect us a whole lot more than this crook does.

All the above said, at some level, those of us who want to truly respect everything in our Constitution, respect those of us who live for our highest aspirations, and refuse to be guided by our lowest fears, shouldn't make life hard for anyone to live here.  That said, MF Hussain is hardly a dead jawan's widowed wife who has to bribe the Panchayat Head to get her survival pension every month.  He's hardly the politically persecuted death row inmate who defended his cause through violence, with or without wisdom.  He's hardly important.  But none of that matters.

India doesn't stand for anything excellent. One way of ensuring we can improve the average quality of anything in this country could be by getting rid of rubbish.  There won't be much left if we throw out all our rubbish, but we won't lose anything by doing that.  MF Hussain is that sort of rubbish.  Let's send a message through the diplomatic mission in Qatar that we are happy to permanently export this paragon of art, liberty, freedom and expression to their welcoming bosom.  Oh, yes, we're still curious about that Allah nude he is thinking about creating.

- BSK

A disrespect for excellence.

Abhinav Bindra, India's only indiviudal Olympic Gold Medal winner in
history, wants to quit his sport, because he cannot take on the
"system" and is frustrated with it. Why wouldn't he be? His name has
been left out of the list for the Commonwealth Games! The reason
behind this - The "System" wanted him to attend "regular trials" which
form the basis for selection. They won't let him train like he wants
to, but instead want him to attend "regular trials".

Apparently, Bindra has been training abroad for months, and yet, he
came back from Germany to attend one such "regular trial" in December
but it was postponed at the last moment. He then wrote to the NRAI
(the apex clown body that has the power to hinder winners like Abhinav
Bindra), and the Sports Ministry asking that he be allowed to prepare
in a manner similar to his run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Till yesterday, he'd got no response.

A case of norms and bureaucracy versus a professional attitude.
Collectively, we're not good at displaying either, but when the latter
shows up, we are somehow capable of throwing the former in its path.

In another incident, unconnected but symptomatic of our very Indian
attitudes towards excellence, West Bengal Sports Minister Kanti
Ganguly and PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami violated FIFA protocol when
they touched the World Cup Trophy just after Germany's 1990 World Cup
winning captain Lothar Matthaeus unveiled the original 18-carat gold
trophy to begin the world-wide tour. The honour of touching the cup
is reserved only for people who have won it, and for heads of state.
These clowns will never be world champions, and hopefully will never
become our head of state either. How can they be ignorant of the
simplest of protocols - respect the FIFA World Cup. It is not for
unfit people to touch and fawn. One of the idiots even tried to lift
it! I wonder if he would have stolen it if there had been a power
outage and the lights had gone out.

What we have in India is a systemic disrespect for excellence. We
love to trash champions and make them "equal" to us, make them
submissive to meaningless protocols and rules that really shouldn't be
there at all in the first place. How else would P T Usha be refused
accommodation at a national sports meet? End of the day, the system
has not only failed to deliver - it stands directly in the way of the
simplest things getting done.

Look at the fiasco with our hockey team. They had to threaten to pull
out of a world championship before their pleas were heard. It was
about getting paid "properly". The cricket team is the only bunch
that are above most of this haggard nagging, only because they have
too much money. It is very cool that they have decided to gift one
crore rupees to the hockey team, but they shouldn't have to.

Abhinav Bindra is a proven champion. Not of some arbid district in
Uttarakhand, not of India, but of the world. He should know a thing
or two about preparing for a major championship like the Commonwealth
Games. He has already delivered. He should focus on his goals rather
than attend some local trials in order to inspire other shooters. For
heavens sake, if his Olympic Gold cannot inspire other shooters, how
can his mere participation in trials do it!?

Champions versus bureaucrats! It has been happening for a long, long,
time, but now it is coming out into the open. Our bureaucrats are by
no stretch of the imagination, champion material. So, what better way
to cut the champions down to size than by showing the power of their
ability to prevent our champions from reaching their goals? It is the
only way dumb and lazy bureaucrats who have never aimed for anything
excellent all their lives can show their power over true champions,
and they are!

Abhinav Bindra has never given undue respect to our "system" because
he didn't come from it. He came up despite the sytem's every attempt
to slow him down. This is no secret. He doesn't make too many
patriotic statements because he is frustrated by the country. He is a
consummate professional instead. What is so hard to understand about
that? Why can't we respect that?

Speaking of protocol, which we seem so eager to throw in the face of
our champions - These ass clowns in WB touching the FIFA World Cup
really have no clue what the meaning behind the FIFA protocol is.
Now, FIFA could take action against the All India Football Federation
and make it very embarrassing. All the efforts of our football
players undone by the PWD Minister of West Bengal! Why does this fool
even have to be anywhere near the World Cup? But how embarrassing can
it be for a country that has hardly ever found itself within the first
100 in football rankings? Probably not much. Life goes on. The same
bunch of idiots left Saina Nehwal's name out of the official list of
participants in the Badminton championships in China. Poor kid lost
out.

This is exactly how not to nurture champions. We seem to think the
"system" needs to do more to produce champions. Sure it does, but it
isn't good enough to do that yet. Right now, our champions are all
finding ways to do it on their own. So, why should the system get in
the way or even get some credit for just being there? Just because
there is an office building somewhere, two ass clowns getting paid to
switch on the air conditioning and warming the seats?

Most Indians have no clue what it takes to be the best in the world -
in anything. Some of us do, and one of the best realizations we have
come to, and Abhinav Bindra has come to exemplify that, is that our
country as a whole is a trash can when it comes to making things work
efficiently. We are corrupt, lazy, focussed on the wrong things,
unwilling to work hard, and glaringly, unwilling to learn. We show
respect for all the stuff that doesn't count for anything in a
champion's pursuit.

With all the mediocrity that India stands for, I'd be embarrassed to
say I am an Indian if I won something of merit and had to unwittingly
represent our country, especially right here in India. Look at the
number of fiascos we have on at the moment. Not an ounce of integrity
in most cases. The message we need to send out should be clear - stay
the fuck out of the way, bloody government punkasses, and we'll bring
home all the gold medals we really aim for. Oh, yeah, we wouldn't let
you touch anything we won, either.

BSK.

The Ministry of External Fiascos.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article77168.ece

External Affairs Minister Mr. S.M. Krishna has expressed "shock" over
Indian students in Australia enrolling in courses like Hair Styling
and Facials.

>>>Talking to journalists here, he said: "One can understand students going there [Australia] at the university level, at the IIT level or at the level of some other institution of excellence. When I went there, I was shocked to see so many students in courses they don't need to go to Australia for — such as learning hair styling or doing facials.

"In India, such courses are available in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and
Chennai. So parents should be more discriminating in choosing
educational institutions for their children to pursue higher studies,"
he advised shortly after a meeting with Australian High Commissioner
Peter Varghese.

"The courses to which our students have been going are certainly not
very encouraging. So I would suggest [to] the Indian parents to be
discreet. They better get informed themselves about the courses."

Analysts here said the Minister hit the nail on the head.&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;

What nail, whose head? Did we send S. M. Krishna to Australia to find
out why our students are being beaten, stabbed and killed or to find
out what they're studying?

Who are these morons calling themselves "analysts" and what the hell
have they been analyzing?

The MEA seems to be suggesting that students studying Engineering in
an "institution of excellence" would be less of a target of racial
attacks. If that isn't absurd enough, why the heck at all is THIS
ministry making a value judgment on what courses are "encouraging"?
Krishna isn't the minister of education, he is the bloody Minister of
External Affairs. What business of his is it to make a comment on
WHAT our students in Australia study?

This is a judgemental, patronizing, conservative upper class Indian
advising his children on what to do with their lives! For heavens
sake, you slowpoke, it is YOUR job to be concerned about the safety of
our people abroad. It is NOT your job to tell them what to study,
what job to get, what car to buy, and how to spend the rest of their
lives. Mind your business, and stop being so patronizing.

Once the nation has issued a passport to an Indian citizen, that
person is free to travel anywhere in the world, and the government of
India should accord that person the respect of protection and
assistance through its missions abroad. Period. If there are
questions to be asked about motive for travel, that is the business of
the receiving country, and its missions in our country - namely, the
visa process. We should tolerate no official value judgement based on
why a person wants to travel to a certain part of the world, and most
definitely not on what one of our students wants to study abroad.

For those of us who don't quite understand where this really absurd
comment from Krishna really comes from, here is the low down. We have
massive class differences in our country. The intellectual upper
class is always going to stare down the less intellectual lower class.
There are no equals in any section of our society, and this is
something we have never come to grips with, particularly post
independence.

A whole section of our population wants to move up the value chain,
but not all of us can realistically aspire to be engineers, doctors or
lawyers, or any of the other professions that the intellectual upper
class has traditionally dominated in numbers. Now, we have an economy
that does indeed need personal trainers, hair stylists, chefs,
hospitality workers, aged care specialists, and thousands of other
professionals, but we are far from recognizing any of them as
"professionals", leave alone treating them as such. Regardless, these
people also need to be as qualified as possible in their professions,
and an education or work stint in a foreign country is always a huge
plus, no matter what part of the world you are in.

Socially, the picture is even more twisted, but still interesting.
Being an average Indian, without a snooty degree in engineering or
medicine, so to say, one is always more likely to be looked down upon,
if one is not very rich. For most of the others, the only way to
compete with the pseudo brainiacs, the only way to gain respect and
claim some lost ground is to get an education abroad, make some money,
maybe even live or settle down abroad, and live "respectably". See
how close so many of our youngsters think they are to this "glorious"
foreign job by working in call centres with stupid accents and
terrible growth prospects? Working for whitey, sounding like him,
getting paid lousy brownskin wages. We're totally ready for this, but
nobody sees that as being demeaning, since we're going to be a
superfreakingpower by being whitey's maidservant without once entering
his manor! A whole other discussion this would be, indeed.

Yes, this is the whole scenario of indentured labour revisiting us
from the 1830s, when we exported thousands of socially low class
people to British plantations around the world under the biggest con
pulled on our people by the East India Company, many of whose agents
were very much Indian but working for the British. But for many of
these indentured labourers, it was still a better choice to go to some
unknown land, than staying in India under oppressive landlords. The
indentured labourers reached their plantations to find that they were
just slaves replacing black slaves, just after slavery was officially
abolished from British colonies, and soon after landing on the shores
of countries like British Guyana, they realized their promise of a
"better" life was a mirage, but it was still a better choice for them
than to return to India to the shame and ridicule that waited for them
here. Imagine the fun we would have poked at them had they returned.
The only thing worse than being Indian is being an Indian who tried
something and failed.

What has changed today? The agents are Indian, working for Australian
institutions! We are here to export not just the IITians and the
doctors, but also the hair stylists and the nurses and the sports
therapists to be! Now, by suggesting that some of these lines of
study are not as "encouraging" as his esteemed upper class head has
decided, SM Krishna has thrown light on the class division mentality
to our people abroad as well. In fact, he has effectively disowned a
huge section of our students abroad. "Aiyaiyo, I thought I was coming
here to the rescue of our engineers and prestigious students. I
didn't know you were all studying to be Hair Stylists!". What a
message!

It is no secret that upper class Indians abroad aspire to lead lives
very much designed by the white man, and the lower class Indians
continue to hang on to their very "Indian" identity. Now, it is
official! Our own Minister of External Affairs has said, "I'm so
sorry, white people, these students are all pariahs of our society,
and they're definitely not very "encouraging" to us". How brilliant!
In one fell swoop, the Minister of External Affairs has pretty much
said everything the racists who hate Indians already wanted to hear,
playing into the stereotypes of stinky, dirty, low lives. We DISOWNED
our people. And if that is not treason on the part of the Minister of
External Affairs, what is?

Let's not hide behind the diplomatic cloud that Delhi pulls upon
itself at every bloody convenience. S. M. Krishna has absolutely
failed in his duty towards his country with this one blunder. But the
opposition will not be smart enough to sieze this opportunity, for
they are also part of this class warfare and they are, if anything,
even more strongly ready to cater to the upper class in mind and
wealth. NOBODY cares about the lower class of any kind in India.
Ergo, the lower class must run abroad for a better life. Period.

Here is the other side of the coin - what kind of a life do we
actually get to lead in India? Forget the money, forget the job. If
I go to Australia to learn how to be a Hair Stylist, I can also get to
see a lovely country, drive on some beautiful roads, enjoy an outing
or ten on a clean beach, jump into a river without worry of getting
poisoned, get a driver's licence without bribing anyone, buy a car,
enjoy a beer while watching cricket match, fall in love with someone
from a different country and culture, have an affair, and not be
stressed or judged for doing any of this. To a lot many of us, these
things are much more important than being safe right here in India
amidst this chaotic nonsense of everyday "Indian" life.

For far too long have we in India been denied the ability to trust the
simplest human every day experiences - some clean air, some peace and
quiet, reliable water and electricity supply, having some privacy, not
being persecuted for having an opinion, and being able to connect with
other human beings without stress, expectations, or suspicion. Let's
face the truth - India is a very stressful place to live in. Many of
us have adapted to these conditions, but let's not take away from the
most fundamental truth about life in India - it is a bloody compromise
in EVERY way possible. NOTHING in India is the best in the world, and
even the best in India costs too much for most of us to afford. As
soon as we solve one problem, which takes ages in itself, we have ten
others, usually exacerbated by dogma, cancerous stupidity and backed
by the power of a clueless majority.

Going to another country, particularly developed countries like the
USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany or even Singapore
or HongKong, definitely has its benefits. The ordinary amongst us can
truly aspire to emigrate to any of these countries and live a life
fundamentally better than we can have in India. THAT Mr. Krishna, is
the reason many of us choose to leave, and that's the reason many of
us won't come back. For doing any of this, one doesn't have to have
an IIT degree.

Even if I work as an ordinary policeman in any self respecting
country, I can trust that my "bulletproof" jacket is indeed capable of
stopping a bullet. Not in India. If I call the police to report my
neighbour's loud behaviour, I wouldn't have to bribe the Inspector to
make the complaint official. Not in India. I can take a walk at 2
AM, just to experience the calm of a Chicago night, but get verbally
abused by ill behaved, impolite, outright abrasive beat policemen in
Bangalore for doing exactly that. India is always just one step away
from anarchy, and this factor alone is enough to discourage many from
staying here.

Shouldn't Mr. Krishna spend some time educating himself on the
realities that people face that enable them to make the choices they
make when they choose to leave India? What kind of an inefficient,
insulated, out of touch clown do you have to be to be "shocked" by
something as simple as finding Indian students studying to be Hair
Stylists in Australia? What's the big deal?

Talk about addressing parents, this guy is a bad joke. Are parents of
Indian kids so ignorant that they would send their children abroad
without even checking on the courses? They KNOW exactly what they are
trying to do - give their children a shot at a life better than they
have had in this country. Their children aren't competing against
Hair Stylists from India. They are competing with out of touch upper
class patronizing powerful people like Mr. Krishna, and their
insulated children with cushy jobs and comfortable homes, social and
financial security, and other "privileges", and they are not likely to
come back to India and look stupid applying for an Indian job with a
Hair Styling degree! They don't CARE about India, because India
doesn't care about them. Get it?

Mr. Krishna, it is not even your job to tell people what country they
should choose to go to, on what pretext. No matter who goes where, it
is YOUR job to take care of them through whatever diplomatic channels
are open to you. That's why your ministry is called Ministry of
External AFFAIRS! It is true, even though it may be unfair - even if
you're not fit for your job it is still your responsibility. It is
NOT your responsibility or indeed any of your business to tell them
what to study and what jobs to look for.

No hair stylist from India has turned terrorist, but an IITian with an
"encouraging" education is in jail for threatening the President of
another country. One child from a lineage of indentured labourers has
even gone on to become the President of a country. His name is Cheddi
Jagan. Please, Mr. Krishna, stop embarrassing us and try to be a
professional. Educate yourself. You won't get beaten or stabbed
while trying to get a job qualification.

- An Indian citizen.

The Lies of the Year!

As Indians, we were subjected to a lot of lies in 2009. From outrageous claims like kids using a certain soap attending school 40% more than those who didn't, to news channels claiming they had "exclusive" rights to national disaster stories, we had our share of craziness unleashed upon us. Not very different from other years, and no less deserving this time, but here is a list of lies so goddamn spectacular and large scale, they were not just presented as truth, they are still being gobbled up as such.

5. India is going to be a superpower!

Yeah right. 29th position in competitiveness, based on economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. Before you start thinking this isn't so bad, consider we are according to the World Bank, at the 122nd place for "Ease of doing business". Even worse, we're slipping. Just in case you'd like to bury your head in supersand and ignore these facts as mere numbers, we have 41% of the world's poor people, our public health system is a joke, and corruption puts us at 88th place in the world. In other words, there are 87 countries that are less corrupt than us, (not that our ranking will suffer much if the order was reversed!). 42% of our children suffer malnutrition, and rape is our fastest growing crime. Most definitely, we need someone with superpowers to save us, but we're by no means going anywhere near becoming a superpower anytime soon! It's a great lie given the facts stacked against it, but for sheer staying power, 5th place on this list!

4. Hindi is India's "National Language".

No matter how much we fight this untruth, there are enough people to propagate it. The print media was a bit careful about it this year, but channels like CNN IBN actually sent out reporters with cameras and microphones on programmes like Y Not, to proactively promote this absolute lie, calling Hindi our "national language", when the simplest of editorial ethics could have nipped this in the bud. Some of our politicians went far enough to trumpet this lie on the floor of the Parliament, and nobody went to jail for this blatant contempt of the Constitution. Example: http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20091109/816/tnl-i-am-proud-of-abu-azmi-for-taking-oa.html Even though you have to be really stupid to believe this one, a lot of people actually subscribe to it, particularly Hindi speakers, so how can we deny them 4th place?

3. People in our government are on an Austerity Drive!

Sure! Just look at how many cars follow a minister to the railway station, never mind the airport, and never mind how many millionaires our political system creates while they all work for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. Austerity my left foot toe, could we have a little more efficiency? This joke was so bad, it even wore itself out of mention in the media in less than a month. What a lie to unleash upon even the stupidest amongst us! And now, a New Year Gift for the nation - Parliament approves free air travel for any number of ministers' relatives - http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20091222/814/tnl-parliament-nod-for-free-air-travel-t.html. The lie itself wasn't all that great, but for silliness, it gets some ridiculously valuable points to stand 3rd here.

2. We are here to show our support for the victims of this horrible terrorist attack!

No shit! What are you willing to do? Offer yourself to terrorists in exchange for some of the hostages? A lot of our monkeys aped people all over the world in propagating this wicked lie and repeating it, particularly after the Mumbai attacks. Some of our celebrities, even rascals who bought guns from the underworld and have gone on trial for terrorist and anti disruptive act crimes, promptly pulled sad faces on TV and parroted this lie. Sure you're showing solidarity with the victims of terror, you bastards. Light a candle or shed a tear if you want to feel good for yourself, but please spare us the lie about showing solidarity with people who're getting killed by terrorists. How sick to lie to dead people, instead of saying to their souls, truthfully, "Tough luck my friends, but thank God that wasn't me stuck there!". Do we have to insult them after we let them die? Enough already with the biggest bullshit of the last two decades, now firmly in fashion in India.

1. Barack Obama becomes the USA's first black president.

Hello? Barack Obama isn't black any more than he is white. His father is black, from Kenya, and his mother Caucasian. He is a person of mixed racial ancestry. The real question to ask is - if he was elected President of Kenya, would he have been considered Independent Kenya's first white president? There is a limit to spread a lie, but how could the media of the USA not take up such a great opportunity? Their whole viewpoint was more like a reaction to the thought - "Wonder when the next nigger would come along for us to celebrate and exorcise our demons of being called a racist country!" A man who looked a little black was good enough for them, and the Indian media was quick enough to endorse him as a full black man, like we give a shit about black people in the first place!

This lie is #1 for the sheer scale of nonsense and the amount of gloss and floss that comes into play each time it is unleashed and for the audacity with which the whole world has gobbled this black horse-shit!

Happy New Year!