This guy is definitely one of the great maestros of Punjabi music....
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Monday, 18 January 2010
Our Jewish friends in Waziristan
Oh the irony of it all... :)
Can't help but want to be a fly on the wall in one of those heavily walled compounds in the Af-Pak tribal areas when Ibrahim realizes he's an Abraham...
From The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun
Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state.
Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immuno¬haematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other.
The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, according to Jewish history, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern day China, Burma, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ethiopia and even in the West.
But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strongest.
"Of all the groups, there is more convincing evidence about the Pathans than anybody else, but the Pathans are the ones who would reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony," said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites. Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments.
Weil cautioned, however, that this is not proof of any genetic connection. DNA might be able to determine which area of the world the Pashtuns originated from, but it is not at all certain that it could identify a specific genetic link to the Jewish people.
So far Shahnaz Ali has been cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction," she told the Times of India last year.
Some are more certain, among them Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Luck¬now University, himself a Pashtun from the Afridi tribe. His family trace their roots back to Pathans from the Khyber Agency of what is today north-west Pakistan, but he believes they stretch back further to the tribe of Ephraim.
"Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists," Aafreedi said.
The implications of any find are uncertain. Other groups that claim ¬Israelite descent, including those known as the Bnei Menashe in India and some in Ethiopia, have migrated to Israel. That is unlikely with the Pashtuns.
But Weil said the work was absorbing, well beyond questions of immigration. "I find a myth that has been so persistent for so long, for 2,000 years, really fascinating," she said.
Can't help but want to be a fly on the wall in one of those heavily walled compounds in the Af-Pak tribal areas when Ibrahim realizes he's an Abraham...
From The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun
Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.
Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state.
Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immuno¬haematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other.
The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, according to Jewish history, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern day China, Burma, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ethiopia and even in the West.
But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strongest.
"Of all the groups, there is more convincing evidence about the Pathans than anybody else, but the Pathans are the ones who would reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony," said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites. Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments.
Weil cautioned, however, that this is not proof of any genetic connection. DNA might be able to determine which area of the world the Pashtuns originated from, but it is not at all certain that it could identify a specific genetic link to the Jewish people.
So far Shahnaz Ali has been cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction," she told the Times of India last year.
Some are more certain, among them Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Luck¬now University, himself a Pashtun from the Afridi tribe. His family trace their roots back to Pathans from the Khyber Agency of what is today north-west Pakistan, but he believes they stretch back further to the tribe of Ephraim.
"Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists," Aafreedi said.
The implications of any find are uncertain. Other groups that claim ¬Israelite descent, including those known as the Bnei Menashe in India and some in Ethiopia, have migrated to Israel. That is unlikely with the Pashtuns.
But Weil said the work was absorbing, well beyond questions of immigration. "I find a myth that has been so persistent for so long, for 2,000 years, really fascinating," she said.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Two Words
"What if..."
Two words….one syllable each, 6 letters in total - yet combined together probably amounting to the most powerful powerful phrase in the English language, guaranteed to initiate some degree of introspective soul searching and omphalic contemplation. Each one of us will occasionally come across that fork in the road and make a considered choice as to which path in life to follow. Hindsight will ultimately prove to be the judge of such choices, and yet we will always come back to the 'What if' train of thought….how would things have turned out if I had chosen A instead of B or C instead of B ?
Even so, I still prefer the 'What if' analysis to the alternative variation of 'If only' which implies a degree of regret or hapless resignation to the former's implied positive affirmation of having at least made a choice with the best available information at the time.
Either way, enjoy the journey. We'll leave the destination part for another day…… :)
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Friday, 31 July 2009
Goodbye Mr Robson
Sometimes you define a certain time in your life by an event, an object, or a person. Today witnessed the passing of a great sporting legend, Bobby Robson, the former manager of the England football team and who won club trophies in four different countries from England, Holland, Portugal and Spain. My youth and university days of soccer tribalism followed the joys and pain of watching Bobby Robson take England to World Cups in Mexico 86 and the unforgettable Italia 90, as well the 88 Euro Championships. I found watching and listening to his interviews an intriguing mix of introspective Zen-like philosophy, realism and hardened determination.
So, yes, it with a certain sense of sadness that I am saying goodbye to Bobby Robson. Peace be with you.
From the NYT today:
LONDON — No matter where in the world you mention the name Bobby Robson, the response is the same: a man of soccer. A man who lived his 50 adult years for the game and through the game.
A man, above all else, whose passion never tired and was never defeated by culture, language or ultimately by the insidious impact of money on the sport.
Sir Bobby Robson died in the early hours of Friday in his native Durham, in northern England. He was 76, he fought five different cancers from 1991, and even last weekend, even in a wheelchair, he was on a soccer pitch in Newcastle.
Some of the great players, his players, formed a guard of honor as he was wheeled on. They thrilled him by reenacting the 1990 World Cup semifinal, which the England side he managed lost on penalty kicks to the West German team of Franz Beckenbauer.
Each of the players still able to kick a ball played last Saturday for as long as they were able. The match was to raise yet more money for Robson’s last great venture, his foundation for a cancer research center to trial new drugs on patients in his home city.
To that end, his life’s full circle had turned from playing the game as a coal miner’s son to managing world renowned players in England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Canada, Spain.
He was raised in a terraced coal miner’s cottage and left school at 15. Until soccer intervened, he was destined to follow his father down the local pit, as an electrician. “My father Philip,” he would say on introducing his parent to anybody he met. “A wonderful man, he only ever missed one shift in 51 years down the pit.” And Philip would settle into the background as people either fawned upon his son, or in his time as England team manager from 1982 to 1990, would seek to tear down his authority.
It was ever thus. From Fulham, the London club where Bobby Robson started as a professional player in 1950, to Ipswich, then Eindhoven, Lisbon, Porto, Barcelona and finally to take over Newcastle, the team his father loved, Robson was single minded, combative, dedicated.
“I saw Frank Sinatra sing when he was nearly 80,” Robson once said. “And I thought it was the best thing I witnessed in my life. It depends who you are and where you are.” His treatment of players is legion. He took the Brazilians Romario and Ronaldo when they were in their teens and far from their culture, in Eindhoven and Barcelona. He dealt with boys and men, with turbulent personalities and meek players.
Often he could barely pronounce, or remember, their names. He often mispronounced Josep Guardiola, now a successor of his as coach to Barcelona, as Gladioli.
But the guiding ethics of his life were hard work and love of the game.
I still have the original text he wrote for a speech at a coaches’ conference in 1977. He was then the team manager at Ipswich Town, a small club he raised to a bigger one in England.
His subject was “The period of Apprenticeship and selection of Professional Material.”
“What do I look for in a young player?” he wrote. “The same things that I look for in a player who might set me back more than one hundred thousand pounds in the transfer market.
“He must have pace, control, understanding and dash. He must be enthusiastic, brave, courageous and dedicated. He must have a certain amount of technique, although that can be added as he matures. If these raw materials are evident, you have something to work from and you have a good chance of producing a professional player.” The script then cautioned: “The qualities are developed during the apprenticeship years by sheer hard graft.” He was to spend the rest of his days nurturing boys from varying walks of life, and from different nationalities, though homesickness and alienation into developing the most precious thing they possess: talent.
I recall a day in Poland where his father had gone along to see an England game, and Bobby asked his guest to take the old man out of the hall, buy him a beer, make sure he does not see the bear baiting of the England manager by the English press.
I recall another day, when Robson was coach to a World XI chosen to play for a Unicef match against the then world champion Germany in Munich. Players arrived by the hour from the far corners of the world. He couldn’t pronounce or remember their names, but he knew their faces, and their talents.
Within one training session he had somehow gelled those disparate players into a team that played a coherent 4-4-2 formation. Each of them called him “Mister,” all played a charity match as if it were the World Cup final. And each of them to this day can remember that training session, that communication, that fun day.
Underlying it was the cause, and underlying Robson’s last cause, his cancer charity was what brought the German and English players of 1990 back to Robson’s boyhood stamping ground, Newcastle United. He had worked through his recurrent bouts of cancer — in the mouth, the lungs, the brain — with humor and fortitude and, his single most evident trait, sheer determination.
The million pounds raised by his charity in its first few months astounded him. It should not have.
People responded to the man he was, the enthusiasm he imparted. “Its difficult to compare achievements, and this is different to football,” he said of the cancer trust in February. “We are talking about saving lives, not winning matches.
“But this is up there with anything I have achieved in the game. Football makes a huge difference to people, but what the people here at this research center are doing is more important.
“Soccer is about beating your opponent, this is about beating death. I have met unforgettable people, and this has been a great year.”
So, yes, it with a certain sense of sadness that I am saying goodbye to Bobby Robson. Peace be with you.
From the NYT today:
LONDON — No matter where in the world you mention the name Bobby Robson, the response is the same: a man of soccer. A man who lived his 50 adult years for the game and through the game.
A man, above all else, whose passion never tired and was never defeated by culture, language or ultimately by the insidious impact of money on the sport.
Sir Bobby Robson died in the early hours of Friday in his native Durham, in northern England. He was 76, he fought five different cancers from 1991, and even last weekend, even in a wheelchair, he was on a soccer pitch in Newcastle.
Some of the great players, his players, formed a guard of honor as he was wheeled on. They thrilled him by reenacting the 1990 World Cup semifinal, which the England side he managed lost on penalty kicks to the West German team of Franz Beckenbauer.
Each of the players still able to kick a ball played last Saturday for as long as they were able. The match was to raise yet more money for Robson’s last great venture, his foundation for a cancer research center to trial new drugs on patients in his home city.
To that end, his life’s full circle had turned from playing the game as a coal miner’s son to managing world renowned players in England, the Netherlands, Portugal, Canada, Spain.
He was raised in a terraced coal miner’s cottage and left school at 15. Until soccer intervened, he was destined to follow his father down the local pit, as an electrician. “My father Philip,” he would say on introducing his parent to anybody he met. “A wonderful man, he only ever missed one shift in 51 years down the pit.” And Philip would settle into the background as people either fawned upon his son, or in his time as England team manager from 1982 to 1990, would seek to tear down his authority.
It was ever thus. From Fulham, the London club where Bobby Robson started as a professional player in 1950, to Ipswich, then Eindhoven, Lisbon, Porto, Barcelona and finally to take over Newcastle, the team his father loved, Robson was single minded, combative, dedicated.
“I saw Frank Sinatra sing when he was nearly 80,” Robson once said. “And I thought it was the best thing I witnessed in my life. It depends who you are and where you are.” His treatment of players is legion. He took the Brazilians Romario and Ronaldo when they were in their teens and far from their culture, in Eindhoven and Barcelona. He dealt with boys and men, with turbulent personalities and meek players.
Often he could barely pronounce, or remember, their names. He often mispronounced Josep Guardiola, now a successor of his as coach to Barcelona, as Gladioli.
But the guiding ethics of his life were hard work and love of the game.
I still have the original text he wrote for a speech at a coaches’ conference in 1977. He was then the team manager at Ipswich Town, a small club he raised to a bigger one in England.
His subject was “The period of Apprenticeship and selection of Professional Material.”
“What do I look for in a young player?” he wrote. “The same things that I look for in a player who might set me back more than one hundred thousand pounds in the transfer market.
“He must have pace, control, understanding and dash. He must be enthusiastic, brave, courageous and dedicated. He must have a certain amount of technique, although that can be added as he matures. If these raw materials are evident, you have something to work from and you have a good chance of producing a professional player.” The script then cautioned: “The qualities are developed during the apprenticeship years by sheer hard graft.” He was to spend the rest of his days nurturing boys from varying walks of life, and from different nationalities, though homesickness and alienation into developing the most precious thing they possess: talent.
I recall a day in Poland where his father had gone along to see an England game, and Bobby asked his guest to take the old man out of the hall, buy him a beer, make sure he does not see the bear baiting of the England manager by the English press.
I recall another day, when Robson was coach to a World XI chosen to play for a Unicef match against the then world champion Germany in Munich. Players arrived by the hour from the far corners of the world. He couldn’t pronounce or remember their names, but he knew their faces, and their talents.
Within one training session he had somehow gelled those disparate players into a team that played a coherent 4-4-2 formation. Each of them called him “Mister,” all played a charity match as if it were the World Cup final. And each of them to this day can remember that training session, that communication, that fun day.
Underlying it was the cause, and underlying Robson’s last cause, his cancer charity was what brought the German and English players of 1990 back to Robson’s boyhood stamping ground, Newcastle United. He had worked through his recurrent bouts of cancer — in the mouth, the lungs, the brain — with humor and fortitude and, his single most evident trait, sheer determination.
The million pounds raised by his charity in its first few months astounded him. It should not have.
People responded to the man he was, the enthusiasm he imparted. “Its difficult to compare achievements, and this is different to football,” he said of the cancer trust in February. “We are talking about saving lives, not winning matches.
“But this is up there with anything I have achieved in the game. Football makes a huge difference to people, but what the people here at this research center are doing is more important.
“Soccer is about beating your opponent, this is about beating death. I have met unforgettable people, and this has been a great year.”
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
In a German mood...
Never really considered myself a World Cinema fan, but given the recent lack of cinematic quality output from Hollywood, Bollywood or England, I decided to allow Germany to have an opportunity to shine on the big screen at home. First rented 'Downfall' - a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Hitler's last days living out an increasingly paranoid existence in a Berlin bunker , and then took out an option to try 'Goodbye Lenin' - a black comedy with a touching view of a son trying to reconcile her East German mother (who has just come out of a coma), to the fact that communism has fallen and the world has changed forever.
Verdict ? Excellent, deep and challenging - both of them.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
An accidental discovery: Carménère wine
I don't normally make oenological type blog entries, but I recently made an accidental discovery at my local wine store that is worthy of writing. Whilst searching for a decent New World wine which would also be bottled in a screw cap (thus dispensing with the need to use my ageing ye olde rusty corkscrew), I purchased a bottle of Chilean wine that was made with the Carménère grape variety. And my verdict ? Absolutely great taste full of character, spice and smooth tannins. It has gone straight to the top of Spherical Musing's nasha chart, usurping such perennial favourites like Bacardi, Baltika and Campari.
Found some interesting info on the web:
Carménère is an ancient variety, thought to have been one of the ancestors of several of the more common French varieties, and one of the original grapes of Bordeaux. It arrived in Chile during the 19th century in a shipment of Merlot vines, and growers inadvertently kept it alive for the next century and a half under the mistaken assumption that it was Merlot. Because the Carménère grapes were processed right alongside the Merlot, Chilean “Merlot” had a very distinctive taste unlike any other Merlot in the world.
Eventually, researchers decided to look into the reason behind this difference, leading to the identification of Carménère vines in the 1990s. Chile immediately latched on to its new discovery, and there are now many single varietal bottlings of Chilean Carménère on the market, as well as several Cabernet-Carménère blends.
Interestingly enough, the exact same thing happened with Carménère in Italy, except there it was confused with Cabernet Franc. In 1990, several vines at the Ca’del Bosco winery were identified as Carménère, not Cabernet; shortly afterwards, several producers in other Italian wine regions also discovered that they had been harbouring this vineyard stowaway.
While some esoteric wines can command ridiculous prices on account of their obscurity, Carménère’s low profile has kept its price down. A good bottle of Chilean Carménère usually goes for around $20 a bottle, often less.
Carménère tends to make deeply coloured wines; indeed, the name of the grape comes from the French word for crimson, carmin.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Scenes from Punjab
Better late than never....finally got a chance to post some of the 700+ shots I took on my recent trip to India.
^ ^ At a rest stop along the GT Road somewhere near Patiala.
^ ^ Waiting for a bus (I presume). They look uncharacteristically calm...prolly still half-asleep...LOL.
^ ^ My parents' place in Moga City.
^ ^ Millions of these Tata trucks on the road....the subject of many a Punjabi song.
^ ^ Punjab framed. :)
^ ^ Apna Punjab.
^ ^ LOL....I think I know how you're gonna drive. I think this was the most ridiculous thing I saw on my travels.
^ ^ Feeding time at the zoo ?
^ ^ The Golden Temple, Amritsar.
^ ^ ^ Oh the irony of it all.
^ ^ GT Road again. In Punjab, overtaking and double over-taking are a national sport.
^ ^ ^ Personal transportation has definitely progressed over the last 5 years.
^ ^ The evening commute.
^ ^
^ ^ ^ Punjab's Gold Reserves.. :)
^ ^ ^
^ ^ At a rest stop along the GT Road somewhere near Patiala.
^ ^ Waiting for a bus (I presume). They look uncharacteristically calm...prolly still half-asleep...LOL.
^ ^ My parents' place in Moga City.
^ ^ Millions of these Tata trucks on the road....the subject of many a Punjabi song.
^ ^ Punjab framed. :)
^ ^ Apna Punjab.
^ ^ LOL....I think I know how you're gonna drive. I think this was the most ridiculous thing I saw on my travels.
^ ^ Feeding time at the zoo ?
^ ^ The Golden Temple, Amritsar.
^ ^ ^ Oh the irony of it all.
^ ^ GT Road again. In Punjab, overtaking and double over-taking are a national sport.
^ ^ ^ Personal transportation has definitely progressed over the last 5 years.
^ ^ The evening commute.
^ ^
The dreaded shopping trip
^ ^ ^ Punjab's Gold Reserves.. :)
^ ^ ^
The latest shopping mall developments are on a par with the West.
^ ^ ^
Having a 'Mirinda' at Delhi Airport. It's definitely an acquired taste and not for everyone.
^ ^ ^
Departure Lounge at Delhi. Was not asked for a bribe once....how pleasant. :)
^ ^ ^
Having a 'Mirinda' at Delhi Airport. It's definitely an acquired taste and not for everyone.
^ ^ ^
Departure Lounge at Delhi. Was not asked for a bribe once....how pleasant. :)
Friday, 20 February 2009
Flying high with Singh is King
It's quite a psychedelic experience watching 'Singh is King' at 39,000 feet - the lack of oxgen and cabin pressure must really play havoc with one's perceptions of reality - but this was the case as I flew on British Airways from London to Delhi a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the in-flight entertainment system was on the blink and the usual 30+ choice of movies was reduced to watching either Singh is King or some inane documentary about flower arranging. Given my failure to bring aboard any alternative reading material, I was forced to watch this film about 2 - 3 times and I'm sure the soundtrack has deeply embedded itself in my DNA by now...LOL. However, I guess I wasn't alone.....it was a weird experience returning from the washroom towards my seat and seeing rows of white sahibs in their seats watching 'Singh is King'... :) In their case, I hope they can distinguish between reality and bakwaas....we are not all like that you know... :)I wouldn't necessarily go as far as the Guardian newspaper did in asking the question: "What happens when a mentally subnormal Sikh peasant becomes the don of the Australian mafia ?". Yes, Happy Singh (played by Akshay Kumar) definitely displays some retarded tendencies....but 'mentally subnormal' may be taking it too far....LOL. (ps. somebody should really tell the Bollywood studios how to spell 'King').
However, I fully concur with the rest of The Guardian's observations:
The plot has more holes than a typical Indian highway, and even a seasoned artisan like Om Puri is made to look wholly incompetent as he plays Happy's grouchy kinsman, Rangeela, grappling with a script that seems to have been written by a five-year-old who's been drinking way too many bhang lassis. At one point, British Airways mistakenly lands Happy in Egypt rather than Oz, where he cavorts amid the dunes with the deliciously lithe and coffee-coloured Katrina Kaif, playing his love-interest, Sonia. One of the most gorgeous but breathtakingly untalented women on earth, watching this former London-based model is like staring at a black hole – a thing of unspeakable beauty and infinite emptiness. There's even a cameo by Snoop Dogg who, in the title tune, the first ever Bollywood-Compton crossover record, raps the historic lines: "Watch me zoom by, make it boom by. Word-up to all the ladies hanging out in Mumbai".
Monday, 26 January 2009
Time to get political....
I recently tested my political attitude on the website Political Compass, and here are the results. According to this I should be sipping Havana Club rum and playing cards with Castro and Chavez. :)
I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised considering I spent my formative years reading Marx and Lenin, and that one of my favourite sayings is "walk softly with a big stick"..LOL.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Western hypocrisy over Georgia
As I tried to make sense over recent events in Georgia, I was struck by a sense that things didn't quite add up as presented by the West's media outlets. Trying to achieve a high moral ground sounds a little hollow after the brutal invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq by US forces and ill-disciplined private mercenaries.
Lesson to Georgia (and it's puppet master) - if you're going to punch a bear on the nose - please consider your next step also.
From The Guardian:
The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered". George Bush denounced Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" and threatening "a democratic government". Such an action, he insisted, "is unacceptable in the 21st century".
Could these by any chance be the leaders of the same governments that in 2003 invaded and occupied - along with Georgia, as luck would have it - the sovereign state of Iraq on a false pretext at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives? Or even the two governments that blocked a ceasefire in the summer of 2006 as Israel pulverised Lebanon's infrastructure and killed more than a thousand civilians in retaliation for the capture or killing of five soldiers?
You'd be hard put to recall after all the fury over Russian aggression that it was actually Georgia that began the war last Thursday with an all-out attack on South Ossetia to "restore constitutional order" - in other words, rule over an area it has never controlled since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nor, amid the outrage at Russian bombardments, have there been much more than the briefest references to the atrocities committed by Georgian forces against citizens it claims as its own in South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Several hundred civilians were killed there by Georgian troops last week, along with Russian soldiers operating under a 1990s peace agreement: "I saw a Georgian soldier throw a grenade into a basement full of women and children," one Tskhinvali resident, Saramat Tskhovredov, told reporters on Tuesday.
Might it be because Georgia is what Jim Murphy, Britain's minister for Europe, called a "small beautiful democracy". Well it's certainly small and beautiful, but both the current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and his predecessor came to power in western-backed coups, the most recent prettified as a "Rose revolution". Saakashvili was then initially rubber-stamped into office with 96% of the vote before establishing what the International Crisis Group recently described as an "increasingly authoritarian" government, violently cracking down on opposition dissent and independent media last November. "Democratic" simply seems to mean "pro-western" in these cases.
The long-running dispute over South Ossetia - as well as Abkhazia, the other contested region of Georgia - is the inevitable consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union. As in the case of Yugoslavia, minorities who were happy enough to live on either side of an internal boundary that made little difference to their lives feel quite differently when they find themselves on the wrong side of an international state border.
Such problems would be hard enough to settle through negotiation in any circumstances. But add in the tireless US promotion of Georgia as a pro-western, anti-Russian forward base in the region, its efforts to bring Georgia into Nato, the routing of a key Caspian oil pipeline through its territory aimed at weakening Russia's control of energy supplies, and the US-sponsored recognition of the independence of Kosovo - whose status Russia had explicitly linked to that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - and conflict was only a matter of time.
The CIA has in fact been closely involved in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. But under the Bush administration, Georgia has become a fully fledged US satellite. Georgia's forces are armed and trained by the US and Israel. It has the third-largest military contingent in Iraq - hence the US need to airlift 800 of them back to fight the Russians at the weekend. Saakashvili's links with the neoconservatives in Washington are particularly close: the lobbying firm headed by US Republican candidate John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has been paid nearly $900,000 by the Georgian government since 2004.
But underlying the conflict of the past week has also been the Bush administration's wider, explicit determination to enforce US global hegemony and prevent any regional challenge, particularly from a resurgent Russia. That aim was first spelled out when Cheney was defence secretary under Bush's father, but its full impact has only been felt as Russia has begun to recover from the disintegration of the 1990s.
Over the past decade, Nato's relentless eastward expansion has brought the western military alliance hard up against Russia's borders and deep into former Soviet territory. American military bases have spread across eastern Europe and central Asia, as the US has helped install one anti-Russian client government after another through a series of colour-coded revolutions. Now the Bush administration is preparing to site a missile defence system in eastern Europe transparently targeted at Russia.
By any sensible reckoning, this is not a story of Russian aggression, but of US imperial expansion and ever tighter encirclement of Russia by a potentially hostile power. That a stronger Russia has now used the South Ossetian imbroglio to put a check on that expansion should hardly come as a surprise. What is harder to work out is why Saakashvili launched last week's attack and whether he was given any encouragement by his friends in Washington.
If so, it has spectacularly backfired, at savage human cost. And despite Bush's attempts to talk tough yesterday, the war has also exposed the limits of US power in the region. As long as Georgia proper's independence is respected - best protected by opting for neutrality - that should be no bad thing. Unipolar domination of the world has squeezed the space for genuine self-determination and the return of some counterweight has to be welcome. But the process of adjustment also brings huge dangers. If Georgia had been a member of Nato, this week's conflict would have risked a far sharper escalation. That would be even more obvious in the case of Ukraine - which yesterday gave a warning of the potential for future confrontation when its pro-western president threatened to restrict the movement of Russian ships in and out of their Crimean base in Sevastopol. As great power conflict returns, South Ossetia is likely to be only a taste of things to come.
Lesson to Georgia (and it's puppet master) - if you're going to punch a bear on the nose - please consider your next step also.
From The Guardian:
The outcome of six grim days of bloodshed in the Caucasus has triggered an outpouring of the most nauseating hypocrisy from western politicians and their captive media. As talking heads thundered against Russian imperialism and brutal disproportionality, US vice-president Dick Cheney, faithfully echoed by Gordon Brown and David Miliband, declared that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered". George Bush denounced Russia for having "invaded a sovereign neighbouring state" and threatening "a democratic government". Such an action, he insisted, "is unacceptable in the 21st century".
Could these by any chance be the leaders of the same governments that in 2003 invaded and occupied - along with Georgia, as luck would have it - the sovereign state of Iraq on a false pretext at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives? Or even the two governments that blocked a ceasefire in the summer of 2006 as Israel pulverised Lebanon's infrastructure and killed more than a thousand civilians in retaliation for the capture or killing of five soldiers?
You'd be hard put to recall after all the fury over Russian aggression that it was actually Georgia that began the war last Thursday with an all-out attack on South Ossetia to "restore constitutional order" - in other words, rule over an area it has never controlled since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nor, amid the outrage at Russian bombardments, have there been much more than the briefest references to the atrocities committed by Georgian forces against citizens it claims as its own in South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali. Several hundred civilians were killed there by Georgian troops last week, along with Russian soldiers operating under a 1990s peace agreement: "I saw a Georgian soldier throw a grenade into a basement full of women and children," one Tskhinvali resident, Saramat Tskhovredov, told reporters on Tuesday.
Might it be because Georgia is what Jim Murphy, Britain's minister for Europe, called a "small beautiful democracy". Well it's certainly small and beautiful, but both the current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and his predecessor came to power in western-backed coups, the most recent prettified as a "Rose revolution". Saakashvili was then initially rubber-stamped into office with 96% of the vote before establishing what the International Crisis Group recently described as an "increasingly authoritarian" government, violently cracking down on opposition dissent and independent media last November. "Democratic" simply seems to mean "pro-western" in these cases.
The long-running dispute over South Ossetia - as well as Abkhazia, the other contested region of Georgia - is the inevitable consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union. As in the case of Yugoslavia, minorities who were happy enough to live on either side of an internal boundary that made little difference to their lives feel quite differently when they find themselves on the wrong side of an international state border.
Such problems would be hard enough to settle through negotiation in any circumstances. But add in the tireless US promotion of Georgia as a pro-western, anti-Russian forward base in the region, its efforts to bring Georgia into Nato, the routing of a key Caspian oil pipeline through its territory aimed at weakening Russia's control of energy supplies, and the US-sponsored recognition of the independence of Kosovo - whose status Russia had explicitly linked to that of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - and conflict was only a matter of time.
The CIA has in fact been closely involved in Georgia since the Soviet collapse. But under the Bush administration, Georgia has become a fully fledged US satellite. Georgia's forces are armed and trained by the US and Israel. It has the third-largest military contingent in Iraq - hence the US need to airlift 800 of them back to fight the Russians at the weekend. Saakashvili's links with the neoconservatives in Washington are particularly close: the lobbying firm headed by US Republican candidate John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, has been paid nearly $900,000 by the Georgian government since 2004.
But underlying the conflict of the past week has also been the Bush administration's wider, explicit determination to enforce US global hegemony and prevent any regional challenge, particularly from a resurgent Russia. That aim was first spelled out when Cheney was defence secretary under Bush's father, but its full impact has only been felt as Russia has begun to recover from the disintegration of the 1990s.
Over the past decade, Nato's relentless eastward expansion has brought the western military alliance hard up against Russia's borders and deep into former Soviet territory. American military bases have spread across eastern Europe and central Asia, as the US has helped install one anti-Russian client government after another through a series of colour-coded revolutions. Now the Bush administration is preparing to site a missile defence system in eastern Europe transparently targeted at Russia.
By any sensible reckoning, this is not a story of Russian aggression, but of US imperial expansion and ever tighter encirclement of Russia by a potentially hostile power. That a stronger Russia has now used the South Ossetian imbroglio to put a check on that expansion should hardly come as a surprise. What is harder to work out is why Saakashvili launched last week's attack and whether he was given any encouragement by his friends in Washington.
If so, it has spectacularly backfired, at savage human cost. And despite Bush's attempts to talk tough yesterday, the war has also exposed the limits of US power in the region. As long as Georgia proper's independence is respected - best protected by opting for neutrality - that should be no bad thing. Unipolar domination of the world has squeezed the space for genuine self-determination and the return of some counterweight has to be welcome. But the process of adjustment also brings huge dangers. If Georgia had been a member of Nato, this week's conflict would have risked a far sharper escalation. That would be even more obvious in the case of Ukraine - which yesterday gave a warning of the potential for future confrontation when its pro-western president threatened to restrict the movement of Russian ships in and out of their Crimean base in Sevastopol. As great power conflict returns, South Ossetia is likely to be only a taste of things to come.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Zimbabwe - 4 legs good, 2 legs bad
The parallels between Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and the current state of mis-rule and despotism in Zimbabwe are becoming more and more apparent each day.
Mugabe's corruption of the ideals of the war of Liberation is breathtaking to say the least. 28 years later, the former breadbasket of Africa has been brought to economic and social ruin. Just like Orwell's fictional head pig, Napoleon, all despotic decisions by Mugabe and his cronies are justified in the name of the revolution.
I say it's time to get out the pitchfork and start making the pig squeal.....
Mugabe's corruption of the ideals of the war of Liberation is breathtaking to say the least. 28 years later, the former breadbasket of Africa has been brought to economic and social ruin. Just like Orwell's fictional head pig, Napoleon, all despotic decisions by Mugabe and his cronies are justified in the name of the revolution.
I say it's time to get out the pitchfork and start making the pig squeal.....
Friday, 8 February 2008
Spinning wheels
Yesterday I felt like a stranded German Panzer tank commander on the Russian Eastern front during the Second World War. The cruel Russian winter was one of key factors in halting the march of the Third Reich. Roll on another 65 years and in another part of the world, and lo and behold another marvel of German engineering is stopped by the elements. To be fair to the V-Dub, we had a huge dump of snow (our third snowstorm in less than a week) and I hadn't shovelled the driveway before attempting to make a quick getaway. It took several attempts at pushing and shovelling before I was back on the road again......
Friday, 1 February 2008
Staying Dry
Today represents the completion of a whole month since I last drank alcohol and I feel great ! To the men-of-god sadhu/hermit types who live in a forest it might not sound like a big deal, but the last time I can recall being this dry was back in the early 90s. Rather than setting a New Year Resolution, I've decided to set different challenges for each month of the year....but things that money can't buy...so January was Prohibition month...lol. :)
The experiment was good while it lasted and I proved to myself that I could do it, but tonight I party.....and here's a glass to that. :) Stay tuned for next month's challenge, but in the meantime I'm ready to party like these dudes..... :))))
The experiment was good while it lasted and I proved to myself that I could do it, but tonight I party.....and here's a glass to that. :) Stay tuned for next month's challenge, but in the meantime I'm ready to party like these dudes..... :))))
Sunday, 6 January 2008
In the year 3025
Ontario recently effected a ruling which made it illegal to put an expiry date limit on Gift Cards. The systems analyst inside of me wondered about how store IT departments would make the relevant software programming changes. Would they set the expiry date to 00/00/0000 or spaces ? Would their applications accept zero values or spaces in the Date_Expiry data field ?
Well, the answer is clear in the case of Sears. In my hands I have a receipt for a Sears Gift Card, and the expiry date has been set to 1st January 3025. Yep...3025. Wonder what I or you will be doing then ? :)
But seriously folks, what will the world look like in the year 3025 ? How many wars will have occurred by then and what scale ? What will the climate be like, as well as the economy and technology ? How will our moral values have changed ? Questions, questions, all....because of an ordinary gift card purchase......
Friday, 28 December 2007
Word of the day is.....Implosion
"Implosion is a process in which objects are destroyed by collapsing in on themselves. The opposite of explosion, implosion concentrates matter and energy. An example of implosion is a submarine being crushed from the outside by the hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water".
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto must rank as one of the worst days in Pakistan's short history to date. The country is reminding me more and more of Yugoslavia, and we all know what happened there.
It seems that the vision of Jinnah’s democratic nation-state will remain an unattainable utopian one. The experiment has failed.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto must rank as one of the worst days in Pakistan's short history to date. The country is reminding me more and more of Yugoslavia, and we all know what happened there.
It seems that the vision of Jinnah’s democratic nation-state will remain an unattainable utopian one. The experiment has failed.
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Southall Sikh Temple
Images from my recent trip to England, which included a visit to the Southall Gurdwara. I was in total awe of the re-design and architecture, which was built to replace the previous temple on the same site.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Meeting dynamics
I just stepped out of a meeting at the office today and I noticed how people put others down......it goes something like this....
If you ever want to put someone down and and categorize them as an uncouth peasant, just choose one of the following statements:
[After 20 minutes of detailed discussions]........
Person A says: "I think we need to step back and look at the big picture" (The implication here is that everybody has their nose so close to the detail they cannot see significant trends)
Person B retorts: "I agree somewhat, but we need to step back even further and understand the wider context"
Person C joins the fray (not wishing to be outdone): "Actually we need to get back to the core basics and go back to the beginning"
Finally, Person D chimes in with their own unique twist: "We need to approach from the bottom up, as top down approaches are now redundant".
If you ever want to put someone down and and categorize them as an uncouth peasant, just choose one of the following statements:
[After 20 minutes of detailed discussions]........
Person A says: "I think we need to step back and look at the big picture" (The implication here is that everybody has their nose so close to the detail they cannot see significant trends)
Person B retorts: "I agree somewhat, but we need to step back even further and understand the wider context"
Person C joins the fray (not wishing to be outdone): "Actually we need to get back to the core basics and go back to the beginning"
Finally, Person D chimes in with their own unique twist: "We need to approach from the bottom up, as top down approaches are now redundant".
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
The Joy of Car Pooling
Who does it here ? I have currently been car pooling with 2 other visible minority chaps and this is our 4th month of car pooling - and we each drive every third week in rotation.
Pros:
1) One's driving expenses (petrol and mileage) go significantly down.
2) You get to know the other person(s) very well.
Cons
1) You get to know the other person(s) very well....
2) The other pooler's car may not be in a road worthy state (eg bald tires, bad brakes, weird noises, no auto breakdown policy coverage)...
3) One guy talks non-stop about their homeland which in my opinion should be re-named 'Absurdistan'.....
4) You get to hear some animated conversations at 130 kph (esp where one of them is a vegan Hindu 'Om Shanti Om' type and the other is a pro-Hizbollah jihadist carnivore)....
Pros:
1) One's driving expenses (petrol and mileage) go significantly down.
2) You get to know the other person(s) very well.
Cons
1) You get to know the other person(s) very well....
2) The other pooler's car may not be in a road worthy state (eg bald tires, bad brakes, weird noises, no auto breakdown policy coverage)...
3) One guy talks non-stop about their homeland which in my opinion should be re-named 'Absurdistan'.....
4) You get to hear some animated conversations at 130 kph (esp where one of them is a vegan Hindu 'Om Shanti Om' type and the other is a pro-Hizbollah jihadist carnivore)....
Sunday, 18 November 2007
V-dub in der haus !
I've always wanted a German Shepherd dog, but knew I'd never get the chance to fully exercise it, so as a compromise meet 'Amadeus' - the latest turbo charged addition to the family.
Eight months ago I ditched my mind numbingly boring Toyota SUV for a Made-in-the-Fatherland VW Passat. This is my first ever German car, and if cars are supposed to be an extension of one's personality, I have been practising adopting a more serious Teutonic demeanor and smiling less, drinking more Blue Nun, and trying to score some very lucky goals on the soccer pitch...LOL.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand - 'Amadeus' is fast, very fast. This is the first car that actually makes me grin like a Cheshire Cat just by flooring the pedal. The turbo engine makes light work of accelerating during my daily commutes on the autobahn and feels rock steady. My only regret is not getting the manual transmission, but that said, the 6 speed automatic with the Drive, Sport and semi-manual Tiptronic mode is very responsive with zero turbo lag. For me, the big difference between this and other Japanese vehicles I've driven is how solid and well built it feels. The power steering feels heavier but that's not a bad thing compared to the feather light steering-with-one-finger feel of Japanese autos.
I just love taking the 'dog' out for it's daily exercise.... :))
Eight months ago I ditched my mind numbingly boring Toyota SUV for a Made-in-the-Fatherland VW Passat. This is my first ever German car, and if cars are supposed to be an extension of one's personality, I have been practising adopting a more serious Teutonic demeanor and smiling less, drinking more Blue Nun, and trying to score some very lucky goals on the soccer pitch...LOL.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand - 'Amadeus' is fast, very fast. This is the first car that actually makes me grin like a Cheshire Cat just by flooring the pedal. The turbo engine makes light work of accelerating during my daily commutes on the autobahn and feels rock steady. My only regret is not getting the manual transmission, but that said, the 6 speed automatic with the Drive, Sport and semi-manual Tiptronic mode is very responsive with zero turbo lag. For me, the big difference between this and other Japanese vehicles I've driven is how solid and well built it feels. The power steering feels heavier but that's not a bad thing compared to the feather light steering-with-one-finger feel of Japanese autos.
I just love taking the 'dog' out for it's daily exercise.... :))
Saturday, 17 November 2007
My return from exile
After a long hiatus I'm finally back in the land of blog ! Call it work, age, the superficial distractions of Facebook, I don't really have any tangible excuses....
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Wine and Crime
It's not just music that can soothe the savage beast.....LOL.
July 14, 2007
Associated Press
WASHINGTON–Police here are baffled by an attempted robbery that began with a handgun put to the head of a 14-year-old girl and ended in a group hug.
A group of friends was finishing dinner when a hooded man slid through an open gate.
"Give me your money or I'll start shooting," he demanded.
"We were just finishing dinner," Cristina Rowan told the man. "Why don't you have a glass of wine with us."
The intruder had a sip of their Château Malescot St-Exupéry and said, "Damn, that's good wine.'' He took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese, apologized and put the gun in his sweatpants.
"I think I may have come to the wrong house," he said. "Can I get a hug?''
Rowan stood up and wrapped her arms around him and the other guests followed.
The man walked away with the crystal wine glass in his hand. No one was hurt.
July 14, 2007
Associated Press
WASHINGTON–Police here are baffled by an attempted robbery that began with a handgun put to the head of a 14-year-old girl and ended in a group hug.
A group of friends was finishing dinner when a hooded man slid through an open gate.
"Give me your money or I'll start shooting," he demanded.
"We were just finishing dinner," Cristina Rowan told the man. "Why don't you have a glass of wine with us."
The intruder had a sip of their Château Malescot St-Exupéry and said, "Damn, that's good wine.'' He took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese, apologized and put the gun in his sweatpants.
"I think I may have come to the wrong house," he said. "Can I get a hug?''
Rowan stood up and wrapped her arms around him and the other guests followed.
The man walked away with the crystal wine glass in his hand. No one was hurt.
Thursday, 14 June 2007
"He was a good man......"
Why is it that we only say great things about people after they have died and not during their lifetime ? Why do we have that anguished sense of regret of having missed the opportunity to express real appreciation of another person's company, their contribution and general presence ?
If we spent a fraction of the time and effort used to create an eloquent eulogy praising another (deceased) human being, to instead say that to their face - isn't that sufficient reward just to see their smiling reaction to those words of praise ?
Some things I will never quite fathom.
If we spent a fraction of the time and effort used to create an eloquent eulogy praising another (deceased) human being, to instead say that to their face - isn't that sufficient reward just to see their smiling reaction to those words of praise ?
Some things I will never quite fathom.
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Gated Communities
Having read a few articles about gated residential communities in South Africa (mainly inhabited by affluent minority whites), complete with 24 hour armed patrols, in-built panic alarms in each house and steel bars on external windows etc, I wondering how much would each of us ever consider living in a fortress style gated community ?
What does the existence of a gated community say about the society you live in and about you ? Is it symbolic of a dysfunctional society whose social-moral framework has broken down between the haves and the have-nots ? Does having a gated community give legitimacy to the existence of structural social and economic inequalities ? Or is having a siege like mentality the only viable sane response to a situation where law and order has broken down and violent crime is endemic ?
What does the existence of a gated community say about the society you live in and about you ? Is it symbolic of a dysfunctional society whose social-moral framework has broken down between the haves and the have-nots ? Does having a gated community give legitimacy to the existence of structural social and economic inequalities ? Or is having a siege like mentality the only viable sane response to a situation where law and order has broken down and violent crime is endemic ?
Sunday, 27 May 2007
Status Anxiety
Do you suffer from it ?
It with a sense of morbid curiosity when I come across individuals whose sense of social self-worth is primarily defined by their material objects and lifestyle, which they evidently use to project their self-worth amongst their "not-so-lucky" peers. What is even more interesting is when it becomes a two-horse race between two individuals or families and turns into a material version of the Cold War M.A.D doctrine, except the weapons at stake are apparently limitless lines of credit and an array of purchase finance options to pursue the 'poor boy made good' dream..... It's not really a case of keeping up with the Joneses or Singhs, it's about exceeding whatever they have and really rubbing their faces in it....
'Status Anxiety' is the title of Alain de Botton's book.
Here is an extract from his website:
http://www.alaindebotton.com/status.htm
This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety.
Alain de Botton, bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy and The Art of Travel, asks - with lucidity and charm - where worries about our status come from and what if anything we can do to surmount them. With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, he examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends), before revealing ingenious ways in which people have learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. We learn about sandal-less philosophers and topless bohemians, about the benefits of putting skulls on our sideboards and of looking at ruins.
The result is a book that isn't just highly entertaining and thought-provoking, but also genuinely wise and helpful too.
And here's part of a review from the Globe and Mail:
To underscore that point, he includes a strange photograph. It's a picture of the 1902 Heinz Company Convention in Chicago. For this reviewer, that photograph, more than anything else in the book, was chillingly instructive. Looking at the faces of these ketchup and pickle salesmen, then at the date, then back at the faces, you realize that every one of them, to a man, is dead. And so is everything they fretted about at four in the morning: Who's the boss's pet, who got passed over for promotion, who got the job on an uncle's coat-tails -- all gone, poof. De Botton writes, "In the presence of a skeleton, the repressive aspects of others' opinions have a habit of shedding their power to intimidate."
It with a sense of morbid curiosity when I come across individuals whose sense of social self-worth is primarily defined by their material objects and lifestyle, which they evidently use to project their self-worth amongst their "not-so-lucky" peers. What is even more interesting is when it becomes a two-horse race between two individuals or families and turns into a material version of the Cold War M.A.D doctrine, except the weapons at stake are apparently limitless lines of credit and an array of purchase finance options to pursue the 'poor boy made good' dream..... It's not really a case of keeping up with the Joneses or Singhs, it's about exceeding whatever they have and really rubbing their faces in it....
'Status Anxiety' is the title of Alain de Botton's book.
Here is an extract from his website:
http://www.alaindebotton.com/status.htm
This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety.
Alain de Botton, bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy and The Art of Travel, asks - with lucidity and charm - where worries about our status come from and what if anything we can do to surmount them. With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, he examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends), before revealing ingenious ways in which people have learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. We learn about sandal-less philosophers and topless bohemians, about the benefits of putting skulls on our sideboards and of looking at ruins.
The result is a book that isn't just highly entertaining and thought-provoking, but also genuinely wise and helpful too.
And here's part of a review from the Globe and Mail:
To underscore that point, he includes a strange photograph. It's a picture of the 1902 Heinz Company Convention in Chicago. For this reviewer, that photograph, more than anything else in the book, was chillingly instructive. Looking at the faces of these ketchup and pickle salesmen, then at the date, then back at the faces, you realize that every one of them, to a man, is dead. And so is everything they fretted about at four in the morning: Who's the boss's pet, who got passed over for promotion, who got the job on an uncle's coat-tails -- all gone, poof. De Botton writes, "In the presence of a skeleton, the repressive aspects of others' opinions have a habit of shedding their power to intimidate."
Saturday, 26 May 2007
Life Strategy 101: Pareto`s 80-20 rule
Hmm...according to this theory it pays to be imbalanced.
Extract:
This counter-intuitive but remarkably simple principle was originated by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who studied the distribution of wealth in a variety of countries around 1900 and discovered that about 80% of the wealth was owned by 20% of the people.
- In recent times this principle has been expanded and applied to many other areas, think of these (approximates): 80% of the crime is committed by 20% of the criminals, 20% of the clothes in a wardrobe are worn 80% of the time, 20% of customers bring 80% of profits, 80% of the credit received for a job stems from 20% of the effort put in.
- The poignant conclusion of this is that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80, the problem of course is identifying the small number of causes.
- The real stinger is that this means 20% of results absorb 80% of one's resources or efforts
- If this was the situation and nothing can be done this is would depressing indeed, however once identified and observed Pareto's law can be used to gain significant advantage.
- Identify and then focus on developing this key area of any activity, and you will likely see a magnification in the results/credit/profits of that activity.
- It can be applied to almost any situation - focus on the 20% that matters and it will seem as though you have almost an unfair advantage - it seems to be good to be imbalanced.
Extract:
This counter-intuitive but remarkably simple principle was originated by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who studied the distribution of wealth in a variety of countries around 1900 and discovered that about 80% of the wealth was owned by 20% of the people.
- In recent times this principle has been expanded and applied to many other areas, think of these (approximates): 80% of the crime is committed by 20% of the criminals, 20% of the clothes in a wardrobe are worn 80% of the time, 20% of customers bring 80% of profits, 80% of the credit received for a job stems from 20% of the effort put in.
- The poignant conclusion of this is that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80, the problem of course is identifying the small number of causes.
- The real stinger is that this means 20% of results absorb 80% of one's resources or efforts
- If this was the situation and nothing can be done this is would depressing indeed, however once identified and observed Pareto's law can be used to gain significant advantage.
- Identify and then focus on developing this key area of any activity, and you will likely see a magnification in the results/credit/profits of that activity.
- It can be applied to almost any situation - focus on the 20% that matters and it will seem as though you have almost an unfair advantage - it seems to be good to be imbalanced.
Monday, 19 March 2007
The Village People
No - this post is not about that iconic 70s band that represented all that was flowery, camp and gay......this post is about my extended relatives from the pind (village ) who now call Canada home. When I first came over about 7 years ago, the tribe probably regarded me as something of a cultural novelty......the England wala who preferred to converse in Angrezi, white collar occupation (or at least didn't drive a truck), who preferred soccer to kabbadi, possessed a filled bookcase and preferred sipping wine then the usual macho ritual of getting semicomatose from swigging the hard amber stuff. I'm afraid my attempts at Jatt-ness must have been sorely lacking in the eyes of my fellow chest beating Punjabi babbar sheres...
In moving to Canada, I suppose I've experienced a more rustic Jatt version of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' and I've noticed some distinct cultural differences between desis here in Canada and those in England. In England immigration from the sub-continent has been virtually shut down for the last 30 years, resulting I suppose in a more homogenous urban outlook amongst the desi community which has been there since the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Contrastingly, most desis I have come across in my circle have been here for barely 10 years, direct from a rural Punjabi village and via the family class immigration category. Culture and language are two biggest differences I've noticed.....there is a constant western/rural desi cultural faultline which means east and west never quite fuse together. The gurdwaras here (in Ontario) are a lot more hard-core pro-Khalistani than the ones in England, and it seems that bright red lipstick in still in vogue with the chunni and salwaar kameez brigade who go weekend shopping for wholewheat atta and mangoes.
Still, it ain't all bad though....even though my ribs are continually sore from the countless number of bear hugs I've received over the years - it is a testament to the genuine affection I've received from my tribe who ask for nothing and yet are willing to give. In fact it reminds me of a passage in Partap Sharma's 'Days of The Turban' novel:
"The bus will take you there. Now. But before it was wild. Desolate. The backyard of Punjab. Here, in my village, the men carry guns and anger easily between their quotidian farming chores.
These are the men of the far North born out of the forerunners and morass of all civilizations that attacked India through the Himalayan passes. These are the men born out of and into the war.
They carry their bloodshed lightly between jokes and daily lawful living. They are men and women of the earth, as basic as that - as quick to yield harvests of kindness and goodness, as quick to dry up and turn sullen and destroy. These are my people".
ps. and for those of you who did a Google search for Village People (the musical version) and came across my sociological rantings, here is consolation prize for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jmfix-st9U
In moving to Canada, I suppose I've experienced a more rustic Jatt version of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' and I've noticed some distinct cultural differences between desis here in Canada and those in England. In England immigration from the sub-continent has been virtually shut down for the last 30 years, resulting I suppose in a more homogenous urban outlook amongst the desi community which has been there since the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Contrastingly, most desis I have come across in my circle have been here for barely 10 years, direct from a rural Punjabi village and via the family class immigration category. Culture and language are two biggest differences I've noticed.....there is a constant western/rural desi cultural faultline which means east and west never quite fuse together. The gurdwaras here (in Ontario) are a lot more hard-core pro-Khalistani than the ones in England, and it seems that bright red lipstick in still in vogue with the chunni and salwaar kameez brigade who go weekend shopping for wholewheat atta and mangoes.
Still, it ain't all bad though....even though my ribs are continually sore from the countless number of bear hugs I've received over the years - it is a testament to the genuine affection I've received from my tribe who ask for nothing and yet are willing to give. In fact it reminds me of a passage in Partap Sharma's 'Days of The Turban' novel:
"The bus will take you there. Now. But before it was wild. Desolate. The backyard of Punjab. Here, in my village, the men carry guns and anger easily between their quotidian farming chores.
These are the men of the far North born out of the forerunners and morass of all civilizations that attacked India through the Himalayan passes. These are the men born out of and into the war.
They carry their bloodshed lightly between jokes and daily lawful living. They are men and women of the earth, as basic as that - as quick to yield harvests of kindness and goodness, as quick to dry up and turn sullen and destroy. These are my people".
ps. and for those of you who did a Google search for Village People (the musical version) and came across my sociological rantings, here is consolation prize for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jmfix-st9U
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Review: Partition - the movie
I recently had, for want of a better word the misfortune to watch 'Partition'. In fact after watching this, I want the 2 hours of my life back that I spent watching it.
Yep - big thumbs down.....the film moved at a glacial pace, and made several cultural sell-out compromises for the white sahibs who will go and watch it......I mean how many sardars in 1947 Punjab publicly french-kissed the way they did in the middle of a field ?? (In fact I thought at one point his false beard was gonna get pulled away by her teeth). Mistry had a permanently pained constipated expression on his face throughout the movie, and his adopted gori begum looked so waif-like that never in a thousand years could she be mistaken for a real Punjabi woman....
Worst of all, the movie suffers by comparison to 'Gadar' on which it is based. Okay, the Bollywood version may have had the usual over-the-top scenes, but if I had to choose between an effeminate mumbling meandering Mistry and a volcanic Sunny Deol at full charge, then I think the latter wins hands down.
2/10.
Yep - big thumbs down.....the film moved at a glacial pace, and made several cultural sell-out compromises for the white sahibs who will go and watch it......I mean how many sardars in 1947 Punjab publicly french-kissed the way they did in the middle of a field ?? (In fact I thought at one point his false beard was gonna get pulled away by her teeth). Mistry had a permanently pained constipated expression on his face throughout the movie, and his adopted gori begum looked so waif-like that never in a thousand years could she be mistaken for a real Punjabi woman....
Worst of all, the movie suffers by comparison to 'Gadar' on which it is based. Okay, the Bollywood version may have had the usual over-the-top scenes, but if I had to choose between an effeminate mumbling meandering Mistry and a volcanic Sunny Deol at full charge, then I think the latter wins hands down.
2/10.
Friday, 9 March 2007
Which is the real rogue state ?
An excellent article from The Guardian:
Noam Chomsky
Friday March 9, 2007
The Guardian
In the energy-rich Middle East, only two countries have failed to subordinate themselves to Washington's basic demands: Iran and Syria. Accordingly both are enemies, Iran by far the more important. As was the norm during the cold war, resort to violence is regularly justified as a reaction to the malign influence of the main enemy, often on the flimsiest of pretexts.
Unsurprisingly, as Bush sends more troops to Iraq, tales surface of Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Iraq - a country otherwise free from any foreign interference - on the tacit assumption that Washington rules the world.
In the cold war-like mentality in Washington, Tehran is portrayed as the pinnacle in the so-called Shia crescent that stretches from Iran to Hizbullah in Lebanon, through Shia southern Iraq and Syria. And again unsurprisingly, the "surge" in Iraq and escalation of threats and accusations against Iran is accompanied by grudging willingness to attend a conference of regional powers, with the agenda limited to Iraq.
Presumably this minimal gesture toward diplomacy is intended to allay the growing fears and anger elicited by Washington's heightened aggressiveness. These concerns are given new substance in a detailed study of "the Iraq effect" by terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, revealing that the Iraq war "has increased terrorism sevenfold worldwide". An "Iran effect" could be even more severe.
For the US, the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in the "crescent" challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington's worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the US.
Such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid based in China. Iran could be a lynchpin. If the Bush planners bring that about, they will have seriously undermined the US position of power in the world.
To Washington, Tehran's principal offence has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. In retribution, Washington turned to support Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran, which left hundreds of thousands dead. Then came murderous sanctions and, under Bush, rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts.
Last July, Israel invaded Lebanon, the fifth invasion since 1978. As before, US support was a critical factor, the pretexts quickly collapse on inspection, and the consequences for the people of Lebanon are severe. Among the reasons for the US-Israel invasion is that Hizbullah's rockets could be a deterrent to a US-Israeli attack on Iran. Despite the sabre-rattling it is, I suspect, unlikely that the Bush administration will attack Iran. Public opinion in the US and around the world is overwhelmingly opposed. It appears that the US military and intelligence community is also opposed. Iran cannot defend itself against US attack, but it can respond in other ways, among them by inciting even more havoc in Iraq. Some issue warnings that are far more grave, among them the British military historian Corelli Barnett, who writes that "an attack on Iran would effectively launch world war three".
Then again, a predator becomes even more dangerous, and less predictable, when wounded. In desperation to salvage something, the administration might risk even greater disasters. The Bush administration has created an unimaginable catastrophe in Iraq. It has been unable to establish a reliable client state within, and cannot withdraw without facing the possible loss of control of the Middle East's energy resources.
Meanwhile Washington may be seeking to destabilise Iran from within. The ethnic mix in Iran is complex; much of the population isn't Persian. There are secessionist tendencies and it is likely that Washington is trying to stir them up - in Khuzestan on the Gulf, for example, where Iran's oil is concentrated, a region that is largely Arab, not Persian.
Threat escalation also serves to pressure others to join US efforts to strangle Iran economically, with predictable success in Europe. Another predictable consequence, presumably intended, is to induce the Iranian leadership to be as repressive as possible, fomenting disorder while undermining reformers.
It is also necessary to demonise the leadership. In the west, any wild statement by President Ahmadinejad is circulated in headlines, dubiously translated. But Ahmadinejad has no control over foreign policy, which is in the hands of his superior, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US media tend to ignore Khamenei's statements, especially if they are conciliatory. It's widely reported when Ahmadinejad says Israel shouldn't exist - but there is silence when Khamenei says that Iran supports the Arab League position on Israel-Palestine, calling for normalisation of relations with Israel if it accepts the international consensus of a two-state settlement.
The US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message was that the US attacks at will, as long as the target is defenceless. Now Iran is ringed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to US support.
In 2003, Iran offered negotiations on all outstanding issues, including nuclear policies and Israel-Palestine relations. Washington's response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer. The following year, the EU and Iran reached an agreement that Iran would suspend enriching uranium; in return the EU would provide "firm guarantees on security issues" - code for US-Israeli threats to bomb Iran.
Apparently under US pressure, Europe did not live up to the bargain. Iran then resumed uranium enrichment. A genuine interest in preventing the development of nuclear weapons in Iran would lead Washington to implement the EU bargain, agree to meaningful negotiations and join with others to move toward integrating Iran into the international economic system.
Noam Chomsky
Friday March 9, 2007
The Guardian
In the energy-rich Middle East, only two countries have failed to subordinate themselves to Washington's basic demands: Iran and Syria. Accordingly both are enemies, Iran by far the more important. As was the norm during the cold war, resort to violence is regularly justified as a reaction to the malign influence of the main enemy, often on the flimsiest of pretexts.
Unsurprisingly, as Bush sends more troops to Iraq, tales surface of Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Iraq - a country otherwise free from any foreign interference - on the tacit assumption that Washington rules the world.
In the cold war-like mentality in Washington, Tehran is portrayed as the pinnacle in the so-called Shia crescent that stretches from Iran to Hizbullah in Lebanon, through Shia southern Iraq and Syria. And again unsurprisingly, the "surge" in Iraq and escalation of threats and accusations against Iran is accompanied by grudging willingness to attend a conference of regional powers, with the agenda limited to Iraq.
Presumably this minimal gesture toward diplomacy is intended to allay the growing fears and anger elicited by Washington's heightened aggressiveness. These concerns are given new substance in a detailed study of "the Iraq effect" by terrorism experts Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, revealing that the Iraq war "has increased terrorism sevenfold worldwide". An "Iran effect" could be even more severe.
For the US, the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in the "crescent" challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington's worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the US.
Such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid based in China. Iran could be a lynchpin. If the Bush planners bring that about, they will have seriously undermined the US position of power in the world.
To Washington, Tehran's principal offence has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. In retribution, Washington turned to support Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran, which left hundreds of thousands dead. Then came murderous sanctions and, under Bush, rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts.
Last July, Israel invaded Lebanon, the fifth invasion since 1978. As before, US support was a critical factor, the pretexts quickly collapse on inspection, and the consequences for the people of Lebanon are severe. Among the reasons for the US-Israel invasion is that Hizbullah's rockets could be a deterrent to a US-Israeli attack on Iran. Despite the sabre-rattling it is, I suspect, unlikely that the Bush administration will attack Iran. Public opinion in the US and around the world is overwhelmingly opposed. It appears that the US military and intelligence community is also opposed. Iran cannot defend itself against US attack, but it can respond in other ways, among them by inciting even more havoc in Iraq. Some issue warnings that are far more grave, among them the British military historian Corelli Barnett, who writes that "an attack on Iran would effectively launch world war three".
Then again, a predator becomes even more dangerous, and less predictable, when wounded. In desperation to salvage something, the administration might risk even greater disasters. The Bush administration has created an unimaginable catastrophe in Iraq. It has been unable to establish a reliable client state within, and cannot withdraw without facing the possible loss of control of the Middle East's energy resources.
Meanwhile Washington may be seeking to destabilise Iran from within. The ethnic mix in Iran is complex; much of the population isn't Persian. There are secessionist tendencies and it is likely that Washington is trying to stir them up - in Khuzestan on the Gulf, for example, where Iran's oil is concentrated, a region that is largely Arab, not Persian.
Threat escalation also serves to pressure others to join US efforts to strangle Iran economically, with predictable success in Europe. Another predictable consequence, presumably intended, is to induce the Iranian leadership to be as repressive as possible, fomenting disorder while undermining reformers.
It is also necessary to demonise the leadership. In the west, any wild statement by President Ahmadinejad is circulated in headlines, dubiously translated. But Ahmadinejad has no control over foreign policy, which is in the hands of his superior, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US media tend to ignore Khamenei's statements, especially if they are conciliatory. It's widely reported when Ahmadinejad says Israel shouldn't exist - but there is silence when Khamenei says that Iran supports the Arab League position on Israel-Palestine, calling for normalisation of relations with Israel if it accepts the international consensus of a two-state settlement.
The US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message was that the US attacks at will, as long as the target is defenceless. Now Iran is ringed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to US support.
In 2003, Iran offered negotiations on all outstanding issues, including nuclear policies and Israel-Palestine relations. Washington's response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer. The following year, the EU and Iran reached an agreement that Iran would suspend enriching uranium; in return the EU would provide "firm guarantees on security issues" - code for US-Israeli threats to bomb Iran.
Apparently under US pressure, Europe did not live up to the bargain. Iran then resumed uranium enrichment. A genuine interest in preventing the development of nuclear weapons in Iran would lead Washington to implement the EU bargain, agree to meaningful negotiations and join with others to move toward integrating Iran into the international economic system.
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Advice fatigue syndrome
Do you ever get that sense of déjà vu when the same person(s) periodically ask for your advice on something time and time again ? And when you give that advice (providing part mixture of guarded encouragement and part reality check), they still go bunny hopping away full of false hope and you know it’s gonna end in tears for the umpteenth time ?
Do you:
a) Forgive and forget and keep up the late night radio talk-in persona and listen to their latest crisis ?
b) Keep repeating the ‘I’m here for you’ routine and keep up the charade of being an unquestioning sycophant
c) Or just screw it and tell them as it really is and point out their A-Z of character deficiencies and flaws ?
Do you:
a) Forgive and forget and keep up the late night radio talk-in persona and listen to their latest crisis ?
b) Keep repeating the ‘I’m here for you’ routine and keep up the charade of being an unquestioning sycophant
c) Or just screw it and tell them as it really is and point out their A-Z of character deficiencies and flaws ?
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Pitfalls of car buying research
Okay right now I'm looking to replace my current vehicle and one of the biggest frustrations when researching for a car on the internet is that amid all the car review sites, discussion forums etc, is that I have to apply a great big King Kong sized discount factor to North American opinions about what is acceptable or unacceptable in a vehicle. The easiest analogy I can think of right now are men who choose their partners based solely on bra size and degree of blondness......LOL.
Okay I admit, I came from a high fuel cost country where a 2.0 litre engine was considered big or at least satisfactory for 99.9999% of all A to B driving needs. The upside was an emphasis on style and practicality as well as a fun to drive factor. Given all that, I have to decipher if a car would meet my needs based on the meandering ramblings of American car journalists who write in their reviews that certain models are:
1) Not powerful enough for North American tastes (less than 3.5 litres is considered puny)
2) No V8 option available
3) Not big enough (seats are too narrow for the typical American waistline)
4) Styling failed a focus group (at some McDonalds drive thru in creationist theory loving Kansas)
5) Interior is too sophisticated (presumably for the NASCAR fan base)
6) Horror of horrors - it's a hatchback (second only in crime to supporting Osama)
7) Ride is too hard (we like to float)
8) Have to shift the manual transmission (like DUH.....)
9) Cup-holders not wide enough (supersize me baby !)
10) Not enough chrome
It is little wonder that the Big 3 North American auto makers are in dire straits, when practicality and styling take a back seat and lip service is paid to both Kyoto and the status of non-renewable fossil fuels. In the meantime, the search for an intelligent, interesting, humorous and talented partner rather than a 42DD air-head continues............
Okay I admit, I came from a high fuel cost country where a 2.0 litre engine was considered big or at least satisfactory for 99.9999% of all A to B driving needs. The upside was an emphasis on style and practicality as well as a fun to drive factor. Given all that, I have to decipher if a car would meet my needs based on the meandering ramblings of American car journalists who write in their reviews that certain models are:
1) Not powerful enough for North American tastes (less than 3.5 litres is considered puny)
2) No V8 option available
3) Not big enough (seats are too narrow for the typical American waistline)
4) Styling failed a focus group (at some McDonalds drive thru in creationist theory loving Kansas)
5) Interior is too sophisticated (presumably for the NASCAR fan base)
6) Horror of horrors - it's a hatchback (second only in crime to supporting Osama)
7) Ride is too hard (we like to float)
8) Have to shift the manual transmission (like DUH.....)
9) Cup-holders not wide enough (supersize me baby !)
10) Not enough chrome
It is little wonder that the Big 3 North American auto makers are in dire straits, when practicality and styling take a back seat and lip service is paid to both Kyoto and the status of non-renewable fossil fuels. In the meantime, the search for an intelligent, interesting, humorous and talented partner rather than a 42DD air-head continues............
Friday, 2 February 2007
Indo-Canadians & their love of big houses
I was somewhat bemused to read the following article....
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=d3b84f97-81ad-4098-84da-5b0e390ff5f6&k=87735
SURREY - New Indo-Canadian residents of north Surrey vowed to continue their battle for bigger homes after city council voted Monday for the second time in five weeks in favour of smaller house sizes in the area.
Kamaljit Singh Thind said he will go back to the St. Helen's Park neighbourhood to try to get more support for zoning that would favour his position.
Thind, who bought in the neighbourhood last April because of a new Khalsa School being built nearby, said he was disappointed that council had twice voted to reduce the maximum house size.And he said he is sure the issue is being motivated by racism, despite strong denials by councillors, the mayor and long-time area residents.
"We will continue our fight. I have made an opposition party over there," Thind said late Monday, surrounded by dozens of disappointed supporters.
Thind has registered a new group called the St. Helen's Park Neighbourhood Ratepayers' Association, to take on the long-established South Westminster Ratepayers' Association that lobbied for almost three years for smaller house sizes in the historic neighbourhood.
After the South Westminster group's success at council last month, many Indo-Canadians led by Thind said they felt the restrictions were racist since it was their community that wanted larger homes.
About 150 people attended a public hearing Monday night at which Councillor Judy Higginbotham tried to put through a motion to reconsider the issue.Higginbotham said she felt the other motion had gone through too quickly and without the chance for the minority to have its say. But South Westminster association president Grant Rice told The Vancouver Sun that the group had gone through a meticulous process over three years to place the 3,250-square-foot limit on house size.
Rice said he was disappointed the contentious issue was coming up just a month after the original council vote.Thind said his realtor told him nothing of the fact there was a plan to change regulations in the neighbourhood by cutting back house sizes by 300 square feet.
Paul Brar, who lives nearby, said some people have been unfairly describing Indo-Canadian homes as "monster houses."
"Is it fair to say we live in monster houses? We are not monsters," Brar said.
He said Indo-Canadian developers are responsible for cleaning up some of Surrey's worst neighbourhoods."There are many people who resent the success of our hard-working people," he said.With more and more real estate for sale in the vicinity of the new Khalsa School on Old Yale Road, the issue is likely to continue to spark controversy.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=d3b84f97-81ad-4098-84da-5b0e390ff5f6&k=87735
SURREY - New Indo-Canadian residents of north Surrey vowed to continue their battle for bigger homes after city council voted Monday for the second time in five weeks in favour of smaller house sizes in the area.
Kamaljit Singh Thind said he will go back to the St. Helen's Park neighbourhood to try to get more support for zoning that would favour his position.
Thind, who bought in the neighbourhood last April because of a new Khalsa School being built nearby, said he was disappointed that council had twice voted to reduce the maximum house size.And he said he is sure the issue is being motivated by racism, despite strong denials by councillors, the mayor and long-time area residents.
"We will continue our fight. I have made an opposition party over there," Thind said late Monday, surrounded by dozens of disappointed supporters.
Thind has registered a new group called the St. Helen's Park Neighbourhood Ratepayers' Association, to take on the long-established South Westminster Ratepayers' Association that lobbied for almost three years for smaller house sizes in the historic neighbourhood.
After the South Westminster group's success at council last month, many Indo-Canadians led by Thind said they felt the restrictions were racist since it was their community that wanted larger homes.
About 150 people attended a public hearing Monday night at which Councillor Judy Higginbotham tried to put through a motion to reconsider the issue.Higginbotham said she felt the other motion had gone through too quickly and without the chance for the minority to have its say. But South Westminster association president Grant Rice told The Vancouver Sun that the group had gone through a meticulous process over three years to place the 3,250-square-foot limit on house size.
Rice said he was disappointed the contentious issue was coming up just a month after the original council vote.Thind said his realtor told him nothing of the fact there was a plan to change regulations in the neighbourhood by cutting back house sizes by 300 square feet.
Paul Brar, who lives nearby, said some people have been unfairly describing Indo-Canadian homes as "monster houses."
"Is it fair to say we live in monster houses? We are not monsters," Brar said.
He said Indo-Canadian developers are responsible for cleaning up some of Surrey's worst neighbourhoods."There are many people who resent the success of our hard-working people," he said.With more and more real estate for sale in the vicinity of the new Khalsa School on Old Yale Road, the issue is likely to continue to spark controversy.
Monday, 15 January 2007
Review: Children of Men
Watched the futuristic nightmare thriller 'Children of Men' last night. Definitely a visual feast for the eyes, set in a dystopian future Britain which appears to be on the brink of social and economic implosion. It is a society devoid of collective moral values, exacerbated by the fact that the human race is on it's last legs as no child has been born anywhere in the last 18 years. Women have become mysteriously infertile across the world, and whether it is due to pollution, chemical contaminants in food, genetic experimentation etc, no one is quite sure. Into this world comes a woman who has inexplicably become pregnant and the rest of the film focuses on various attempts to protect her from harm.
More than the actual storyline, are the apocalyptic scenes which I found most compelling. London in the year 2027 has become another grimy Beirut with terrorist attacks almost daily, and the government has set up a series of Guantanamo style camps for illegal refugee immigrants. The general populace looks haggard and fear is everywhere, and various violent cults have sprouted in spritual response to the awaited end of the human world.
Great film. 8/10.
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