Fix the US Congress Movement

This is what Professor Lawrence Lessig of United States wrote about US Supreme Court decision to strike down limits on political expenditures by corporations:

Quote:

.........Even before last week's decision, the vast majority of Americans did not believe that their government is, as our Framers intended, "dependent upon the People." The vast majority believes that the government is dependent upon money -- that money buys results in Congress.

This is corruption. And this corruption makes it harder for both Reagan Republicans and Progressive Democrats to achieve the substantive ends that they seek. Under conservative administrations in the last 30 years, Reagan Republicans have not seen the government shrink or the tax code simplified -- because Congress has no interest in smaller government or simpler taxes, as both would make it harder to raise campaign funds. And for the past year, despite the election of Barack Obama with a super-majority Democratic Congress, Progressive Democrats have watched with disgust as every substantive reform of this administration has been stymied by special interests expert in preserving the status quo.

Our single common purpose must be to end this corruption. No side in this debate has the right to demand rules that benefit them against the other. But all sides need to recognize that this corruption is destroying American democracy. We need a system that the people trust -- that gives the people a reason to participate, and convinces them that their participation is rewarded by the substantive policies that they have pursued.......


Unquote

Here is a video about how the polity is getting subservient to interest groups. The polity is no more subservient to the Will of the People

Akbar and Birbal on BT Brinjal

Act I
Scene I

The setting is the lawns of Monsanto Mohan Akbar's residence.

(The play opens with MM Akbar and Ramesh Birbal taking a stroll on the lawns.)


Monsanto Mohan Akbar: Today I met the chief of a company. The suprisingly thing was that the company had the same name as mine.

Ramesh Birbal: And what is the name of the company sir?

MM AKbar: C'mon dude, that's Monsanto. What a great company, I say!

R Birbal: Oh Monsanto! That indeed is a great company sir!

MM Akbar: They grow BT brinjal*, the tastiest brinjal in the whole world.

R Birbal: That's a cute name sir! BT Brinjal! Now, why did I not think of a similar name for the Coppenhagen summit? BT Summit or Bio Trashing Summit!

MM Akbar: Keep your focus Birbal. I am talking about BT Brinjal and not Coppenhagen Summit. That is dead and gone.

R Birbal: But BT Brinjal will remain, forever and ever. Like the plastic bags. Long live BT Brinjal!

MM Akbar: I have to hurry Birbal! I have to give a presentation to madam on how to get the prices of foodgrains down! She is hopping mad owing to the price rise. And Mr Charade Power isn't making things easy either.

R Birbal: You work too hard sir. Anyway best of luck, sir! Next time I will bring along BT Brinjal Bharta for you to taste!

(to himself) Now doesn't that rhyme: BT Brinjal Bharta*! I am really original!

(Exit MM Akbar and R Birbal)

Scene II
The lawns of MM Akbar's residence. A few days later.

(Enter MM Akbar and R Birbal)

R Birbal: Sir, I have brought BTBB for you. Here is, BT Brinjal Bharta.

MM Akbar: (looking annoyed) Now keep that bharta to yourself Birbal! That youngster of madam made such a case against BT Brinjal. He said farmers will die of starvation if we introduce this accursed BT Brinjal. He said we have 2400 varieties of indigenous brinjals Why would we need BT brinjal? He has a point there. Monsanto or not, BT Brinjal is no good.

R Birbal: Yes Sir! BT Brinjal is no good. Down with BT Brinjal! Let's kick out BT Brinjal!

MM Akbar: What Birbal, only a few days earlier you were singing paeans about BT Brinjal. Now you seem to do a complete volte face. How can you be so capricious?

R Birbal: Sir! You gave me a ministerial berth, not BT Brinjal. If you say BT Brinjal is Baigun*, so be it. I am going to throw this BT Brinjal Bharta at the bottom of the Indian Ocean lest it contaminates our indigenous brinjals.

MM Akbar: Yes do that. And make sure there are no traces of it left in that container of yours.

(Exit MM Akbar and R Birbal)


Note 1: Eggplant
Note 2: An Indian culinary preparation made from eggplant.
Note 3: Another name for eggplant. 'Baigun' in most Indian languages also means 'without any benefit or value'. Used in the second sense tongue in cheek here.

The TRP Media

We, the ordinary people, cannot match the power of some of the media, its barons - the emerging fat cats - but thanks to the Internet we can at least write our blogs about our angst to our countrymen and women. Let's write in our blogs how cynically some of the media is getting its TRPs by denigrating and demolishing the great Indian Army through half truths and rhetoric. How cynically this section of the media is getting its TRP on the graves and funeral pyres of our soldiers.

After each salvo of innuendo and insinuation, this shrill media has this sly refrain: "Mind you, we are proud of the Army but....." And then they go on to say, "....the people are asking, why blah, blah, blah......," it is not the people but this section of self serving media which is insinuating.

A section of media is saying that the Army Chief was soft on a particular General. Does its anchors sitting in air conditioned rooms and mouthing Queen's English even begin to understand what it is to be tough? Speaking good English is not enough to be tough. These paragons of virtues will have to walk over hot and bloody minefields, chest bullets to understand what it is to be tough; they will have to walk their shrill talk to understand what toughness is. The Chief was not transported to the chief's chair by some fast forward time machine. He went there through the trenches, through the minefields and through wars to reach there.

Whatever our internal squabbles and contradictions we cannot let the Army down. Let's blog, let's tweet, let's Facebook, let's Orkut and nail this ingrate section of media's blatant lie. I urge our people not to go with that section of media that is encouraging kangaroo media courts. This will only fuel their TRP ratings. These kangaroo courts pronounce a person guilty even before the trial has started. If the person is acquitted by the courts of this country will these media-courts recompense the innocent person for the harm already done? Or will it be another collateral damage that could not be avoided at the altar of TRP?

The World is Flattened but is the World Flat?

The appalling tragedy that has hit Haiti has not found reverberation here in India. The media coverage is pathetic. Most of the print and electronic media is pushing it in as an afterthought. The national cricket final is the most important news on earth. For God’s sake!
What good are all those submarine cables that snake along the ocean floor if the pain of the Haitians does not pour out from this end of the cable? Is Friedmanian flat world only about opportunity and not about sensitivity? It is time to wake up to the real flat world. It is time that the tremors of the Pacific are felt in the Indian Ocean.
What can we do? The Government has enough expertise to handle the aftermath of a quake. Let us rush our disaster experts to Haiti without any delay. Let us follow that with airloads and shiploads of aid that the Haitians want. Let the Prime Minister ask for donations into the Prime Minister’s relief fund for the Haitian temblor. I have no doubt that the citizens and the Companies will pull out all stops to fill the relief coffers.
Let us do something, not just promise.
An earthquake has flattened the Haitians’ world and it is up to us to make sure that we respond as in a flat world.

Some unresolved questions from NDA

Question1: Is the Drill Square, square?
Question2: Why are biscuits with morning tea called dog biscuits? (some dogs have reportedly taken offence to this nomenclature)
Question3: Self service is a perfectly legit phrase, then why did NDA put Service before Self? Doesn't "Service Self" smack of self indulgence?

Get ready to face the revenge!

A very strange thing happened today. I haven’t seen such an aggressive cow in my life. Is the effect of climate change working on cows too? Don’t know. But this one really went over the top.
Someone from down below shouted, “Your scooter has fallen down. Just see if everything is alright.” I rushed down to see what the matter was. I had parked my scooter outside the house. I found my scooter lying on the ground, the rear wheel still spinning on its axis. This meant that the scooter had just fallen down. I looked up and down the street. Nothing. Not a soul; no one who could have overturned my vehicle wittingly or unwittingly. I was beginning to suspect that probably the scooter was parked on uneven ground and had toppled on its own.
Then I saw this cow. A pretty well fed cow it was. It had raised its forelegs over a motorcycle that was parked about 30 yards ahead of where I was standing. It my astonishment, it had raised its legs well over the parked motorcycle. And then it caught the motorcycle with its forelegs in a grasp that could well be the envy of a wrestler and pushed it down to earth. It was instantly clear to me who had overturned my scooter.
But why would a cow overturn two wheelers standing on the roadside? And how! Normally, one thinks of a bovine to be a creature that during afternoons staidly regurgitates its breakfast and fans away the flies with its tail; never the one to get excited. So what came over it? Why did it become aggressive? Was it out to take revenge against humanity because it was the cause of global warming? Was it out to protest the reporting in the press about cattle being a major cause for global warming? Or was it showing its anger at me and my neighbors for using up the sidewalk as a parking place?
I really don’t know. All I can say is that I haven’t seen a more aggressive and athletic cow in my life. Maybe global warming is changing things forever. Get ready to face the revenge of the animals.

I went off the edge

I was living on the Internet,
On the very edge.
I tweeted at the stroke of the hour,
I Facebooked 30 minutes past the hour,
I Myspaced and linkedIn,
I did Orkut and I blogged.

Then one day I went off the edge.

All the neural networks collapsed,
Darkness all over,
It was as if a thick fog had settled down
On the Delhi airport on a wintry morning.
The info tunnel highway became a black anaconda.
But slowly I could make out some shapes in that darkness.
Some silhouettes started morphing into real people.
That is Mr Satish, the charming man who lives next door.
That is Mr Naresh who catches the 9 o’ clock train.
That is …
Oh my God !
That is my world!