These past few days have been marked by an absolute disinterest in me to write about anything, especially about the topics that I particularly relish in ranting about, such as politics, global affairs and economic relations. As much as I would like to separate my blog from my personal life, I suppose my personal life has been so emotionally taxing lately that I have to force myself to think about anything else, more so about my blog, and eventually my personal thoughts spill into my blog.

Its been raining incessantly in Mumbai for the past two days, and they being the weekend, i've been at home, unable to do much. Fortunately, I did make them worthwhile by visiting Haji Ali Dargah, Siddhivinayak Temple and attend a Bharatnatyam performance at NCPA Jamshed Babha Theatre. Being fully clothed and being wet is not a nice feeling most of the time, and that was the case for me this weekend.

When I am not writing and slaving through my days, I look around me and start taking mental notes of the things I plan to write in my next post, and then when the time to write comes, I forget most of the good points I had thought of in my head earlier. I believe a lot of writers solve this problem by always keeping some sort of a recorder handy so they can record their thoughts clearly. Some write them down, which I have tried too, but I end up jotting my thoughts down as bullet points, and when I look at them again, I am unable to expand them in the same way as I had thought of them earlier. I wish i'd take my writing more seriously.

There were two things I wanted to write about mainly, or rather, had identified as two issues I would write about in my next blog. Once was the fact that Moammar Gaddafi has run away from Libya because he's been run over by the Libyan rebels. Yes, his fight is finally over as Libyans take a look at the former dictator's spectacular wealth. The rebels are very much there, and I am very surprised by the inconspicuous absence of any central leadership among the rebels. Or is it just my lack of awareness? Yes, its just me and my ignorance, because there is a transition government in place in Libya which is holding parlays with Gaddafi's loyal team as he tries to negotiate for some transitional government with his family involved.

Ah yes, I was way too ignorant on this issue. The Libyan Interim National Council was formed in February/March 2011 to represent the unified face of the Libyan revolution against Moammar Gaddafi. This Council, readily recognized by the developed nations fighting under NATO and many others, is actually not looked at favourably by the African Union, who say that the next Libyan government should be representative of all people, including the supporters of Gaddafi. Things get mixed up more because the Arab League, of which Libya is a member as well, recognizes the Council. I sincerely hope that whatever in store for Libya does not become a puppet of the Americans and its allies, and we find out later that the big oil majors are moving into Libya to suck out the oil for themselves. That would be just sad.

The other issue is of Anna Hazare, who, has I just found out since I haven't been following the news at all lately, broke his fast on today, Sunday. A majority of the discussion among the armchair politicians has been the utter disarray that the CONgress party displayed over the past few weeks, most notably after the absence of Sonia Gandhi who is somewhere in the United States recuperating after a major surgery. Such a lack of leadership and coherence within the CONgress only proves what many believe already - its a hollow party only held together by the fraud Gandhi family.

Somebody raised a very relevant comment on a forum - this CONgress led government, and particularly the Gandhi family, has always believed that they do not need to explain themselves to the people and the country. That opacity and arrogance was severely shattered by Anna Hazare, and the way the people joined him, I do not doubt for one second that a lot of their anger was also directed at this government's attitude towards governance and the people.

The media has gone to town in support of Anna Hazare, of course, not without a few low blows against Hazare and also Ramdev and an effort to communalize the issue, but considering that the majority of the country's population seemed to be on the side of Hazare, the media thought it best to be on Mr. Hazare's side as well, notwithstanding the CONgress's extremely effective and powerful propaganda machinery, which enlists such media leaders as the Tabloid of India and NDTV. Amazingly, the media has picked up Anna supporters from all across the country, including a Sikkim farmer losing over 10 kilos after fasting in Hazare's support, people from Udupi, Assam, Manipur, Kashmir, Orissa, you name it, and the support was there!

Foreign news sources say its the rise of the Indian middle class as a political entity, and the BJP thinks so too. According to a journalist writing in Reuters, and sourced from The China Post, Taiwan, very basic explanations of whats been going on....

Hazare has tapped a groundswell of public anger against endemic corruption, uniting the country's bulging middle-class against a hapless political class and underlining voter anger at Singh and the ruling Congress party.

Tens of thousands of mostly urban and wired voters across India celebrated the achievement of an unprecedented movement that may usher in a new force in Indian politics and damage the ruling Congress party in crucial state elections next year.

While protests in India are not uncommon, the sight of many well-off young professionals using Twitter and Facebook taking to the streets of Asia's third-largest economy suggest an awakening of a previously politically-ambivalent middle-class.

Mukherjee announced parliament's support for Hazare's demands after over nine hours of fervent debate in both chambers of parliament that highlighted just how much the activist's campaign had rocked India's political establishment.

Deep-seated change has been underway for years in India as its once-statist economy globalises, bolstered by a widely used freedom of information act, aggressive private media and the election of state politicians who have rejected traditional caste-support bases to win on governance issues. After a botched arrest as part of a hardline approach to Hazare, a government U-turn saw ministers praise the activist, suggesting a leadership deficit in Congress without party head Sonia Gandhi, who is recovering after surgery for an undisclosed condition.

So the focus of a large part of the media has been on how this "revolution", though I don't believe that its been anything of that sort, is led by the more affluent, modern, tech savvy middle class. So with Sonia Gandhi missing and the rest of her party running around like a headless chicken and the Prime Minister still claiming innocence and Rahul Gandhi merely acting as an interjection here and there, a popular media exercise has been the critique of the Government (well, that has been on for a while now), but more so of the CONgress party.

Once influential magazine India Today does a cover on the party with the title "Gone With The Wind." The first point that was obvious to anybody watching the show was the flipflop by the Government. From terming Anna Hazare and his team as anti-national to terming them great patriots, politicians from the ruling party have called him everything. This article is a good read in the sense that its a very comprehensive look at the way ministers and other party leaders were acting as islands in their statements and actions. Rahul Gandhi, it says, has done his best to distance himself from his mother's government which is facing the flak.

The Congress had projected the trinity of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as its leadership in the general elections of 2009. That leadership was given an impressive mandate by the people of India, the best for the Congress in two decades. Two years on, all the goodwill and hope has disappeared only to be replaced by public anger at what is perceived as a Government without credibility. Yet, none of the three top leaders is speaking to the people of India, ceding the mainstream discourse almost completely to Team Anna.

The article makes a good point - the UPA rode to power projecting three strong leaders - Dr. Singh, Mrs. Gandhi, and Master Gandhi, and all three of them have been the quietest in facing the ire of the nation. The next few days will be important because this is when the euphoria of the actual fast itself should be replaced by the hard work of bringing together a worthy bill that all sides fought for. That work can't be done by the flag waving crowds across the country, but has to be done by learned men and women who will sit behind closed doors hammering out something not as toothless as the Government's earlier version and perhaps without some of the points included in the Jan Lokpal Bill. It will do our entire society more good if we take some time out and perform the intellectual activity of actually reading the bill or at least trying to find out what the bill actually is. While the middle class and the youth seem to have shown some sparks of political activism, no doubt, it'll do the country more good if they take it to the next level by being more politically aware and not simply retreating into their lives after this battle's won.

For all the gargantuan propaganda machinery and control over the media that the CONgress possesses, I am sure they must be wondering where they lost control of the situation with Mr. Hazare.

Like in every other situation, blaming the messenger is the surest way of derailing an accusation and guiding the spotlight away from the actual issue, so Mr. Sibal raised the questions of where Mr. Hazare and his team are getting the money to travel around the country and hold the various protests and other meetings. Then some other supporters came out and disclosed how Dr. Kiran Bedi's organization has been receiving crores of funds from somewhere, and similar accusations and insinuations keep coming in.

But then trust a politician to be the quickest to realize which direction the wind is blowing. For all their accusations upon Mr. Hazare, Mr. Kejriwal and others who they had arrested, once they realized the media (their beloved media so firmly under their control) was actually hinting that the people were swinging in Hazare's favour, they set him free at once with an unconditional permission that he was free to do whatever he liked.

I read a very interesting point made the other day - first the government invites the people to comment on the Lokpal Bill, Mr. Hazare's Civil Society takes the lead and in fact goes further, then the government squabbles with him for bringing those changes, and now as Mr. Hazare digs his feet in, the government's left in a position of reduced maneuvuering in about everything, now that they are the known bad guys around the country.

When I refer to Mr. Hazare, I want to make it clear that I include all the members of the team that he is a part of, including my friend Manu who has been working behind the scenes this whole time. A big section of the media hails him as the new Gandhi, much to the chagrin of the current generation decendent of Gandhi ji (not the fraud Gandhi's who rule the roost at the centre).

The fact is that every uprising, protest or revolution needs a face, and Anna Hazare now happens to be that face. Now it can be that that face is just a face to show, or a face that actually leads as well, and in many ways, Mr. Hazare is both of these, because I know that a leading fighter in this camp has been Arvind Kejriwal who has all the experience and capabilities to be the brain behind the planning and strategy. In addition, Dr. Kiran Bedi's experience in dealing with politicians and with the population is a huge asset. Swami Agnivesh has also been an instrumental figure in the campaign, though his image isn't as visible as the others. But my point is that the people need a rallying point, and Mr. Hazare has become that point because of his age, his Gandhian dressing and the fact that he belongs to rural India. So more power to him and those that question his actions or the fact that he shouldn't be blown up into such a big deal, the fact is that there needs to be a face, and he is one because I feel that our society in general, I included, are very weak to rise on our own, hence our tolerence for injustice.

Of course, the big question that even the government has raised is how is the Civil Society a representative of the entire population, and who made it such. Again, I would raise my point that those who are most vocal are heard, and fortunately, there was some group of individuals who were loud enough to be heard, and the good news is that now Civil Society has a huge support from the common populace behind it.

While I am writing about the Lokpal Bill, I, perhaps like many others who have written about it, have not read it, and do not know the differences between the bill the government proposes to pass and the one that is being pushed by team Hazare. I have been reading conflicting reports on who supports what, because the BJP too is apparently not in favour of the bill that is being pushed by Civil Society but a few days later, Varun Gandhi says he will introduce the Civil Society's version of the bill in the Parliament.

Of course, every party (other than the CONgress that is) wants to cash in on the Anna Hazare phenomenon by supporting it with big words and even some action. Perhaps to the naked eye is a good thing that Anna Hazare and his team have not really accepted support from any political party, and this is good strategic thinking because even though they could have gladly accepted the BJP's support, the CONgress would have at once pounced on this opportunity and painted it as a far Right anti-secular conspiracy, similar to how they discredited Baba Ramdev. Not that the CONgressi's haven't done so already. Ah, and the foreign hand card!

From what I gather from the news around, the good news is that the media is still paying attention and that the people are still supporting the movement, and the CONgress is still looking at how to get back on the driving seat again. One possible way forward for the Government is to get one of India's most corrupt politicians to solve the crisis. It'll be a great way to go for the party, I must say, because its time Sharad Pawar was questioned for his greed too. After being shown the door from the Parliamentary Committee on corruption, when he tried to show that he had quit on his own, he has been keeping a low profile in this whole episode.

Perhaps this country is waiting for the Sonia and Rahul to come in and sooth the frail nerves of this country and everything will be right again. Yes, I think the stage is being set for that.

Banana Republic

India is supposed to be a big and powerful country, with a strong government and political and diplomatic relations that reach into every corner of the world. There are numerous countries that look up to India in terms of aid, guidance and support, and there are numerous groups and organizations that India is a part of where it makes it voice heard.

So when the government of this same country squabbles with a group of seemingly harmless men and women, a minuscule entity when compared to the collective might of the government of India, it shows that this same government is incapable of behaving like the government of a nation that is supposed to be big and increasingly powerful, and that the politicians who form a part of this government demonstrate a very petty, selfish and short-term behaviour that shows that this big country is increasingly functioning like a banana republic.

Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Swami Agnivesh, Baba Ramdev and many others are doing what they have to, and no doubt they seem to have attained a critical mass of support behind them that is openly questioning the motives and action of this sad sad government, but to watch the Government of India, that mighty Government of India, led by the CONgress party to fret, shout, parlay, browbeat this group of people, threaten them with consequences, dig out laws to disallow them to assemble and then arrest them for breaking those laws shows that the CONgress party and its government seem to be losing control of this great game.

Either that or the CONgress's plan is running so perfectly that everybody is fooled into believing that the CONgress party is cornered when in fact they are pulling the strings of this entire operation.

Watching Kapil Sibal talk to the press about Anna Hazare and accusing him and his team of all sorts of tricks and treacheries with that Government of India logo behind him was the first time I realized how petty this whole show had become, when this man, supposedly representing the Government of India, is attacking a 74 year old man and his group like a perfect tabloid story. While it is tragicomic to watch this 'fight' between what increasingly seems to me the Government of India versus the people of India, its amusing to watch all these CONgress netas come on television with all sorts of statements and reasons about what is going on. Surely there must be something brewing which the CONgress has no control over when the Prime Minister of India when addressing this country from the Red Fort on the 65th Independence Day spends so much time talking about corruption and how people like Hazare should use the legal and democratic processes to have their grievances heard! On another note, nobody seems to take the PM seriously anymore. Shammi Kapoor died (may he rest in peace) and a tabloid Hindi news channel said that upon his death, a number of notable personalities such as Manmohan Singh and Amitabh Bachchan expressed their grievance! A notable personality? Ha ha, I would think the office of the Prime Minister of India would be much much more than that, but then we're fast turning into a banana republic as I said.

One CONgress spokesman said that what Gandhi (the real Gandhi, not the frauds today) did was against the colonial occupiers when he got the masses behind him in civil disobedience and the movement of non-violence. To do the same today against a "democratically" elected government of the people is wrong and should be punished. It really amuses me at how the word 'democracy' is used so efficiently by politicians to justify their actions and shenanigans. It is exactly like how everything in China is for and by the people, such as the People's Republic of China itself, even when its people can't think for themselves anymore.

Anna Hazare, Mr. Kejriwal and the rest were barred by the Government of India to protest, and the Delhi Police, obviously under the directions of the Government of India, said they couldn't have more than 5,000 people at the protest even if they were allowed to have it. Last week, there was a big political rally in New Delhi by the Youth CONgress, where over a lakh "young" CONgressi's attended. Anna Hazare and his team went to J.P Park in New Delhi to fast in quite a symbolic way, considering it was J.P Narayan who had unseated Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India.

Of course, killing the messenger is a very effective way of killing any dissent, as the CONgress abley demonstrated against Baba Ramdev and Balkishan ji. By attacking the background of Ramdev, the CONgress basically killed the point he raised, that the Government needs to be more open on what its doing about bringing the black money from abroad home, and basically being more open on who owns most of it. I suppose it would be a very educated guess on any body's part that most of the black money outside India can only belong to people who are in a position to earn it and stash it, and this would include the big businessmen of India hiding their untaxed wealth, and of course the politicians who run this country and have their paws wherever money is involved. I think it was in the era of Rajiv Gandhi that this shift started when politicians started keeping huge chunks of money for themselves, as opposed to keeping it for the party.

So if somebody says that Sonia Gandhi's family in Italy is a billionaire family now, you know that it is not because they hit upon a billion dollar business idea. But the CONgress says that nobody has a right to question it because they are capable of digging the dirt on anybody who raises a voice. Of course, the Nehru family is only one of the many, many beneficiaries of Government policies over the decades, so I think if skeletons indeed tumbled out of the cupboard, they'd be so many that they'd drown us all. And of course, coming back to this pesky issue of corruption, the Prime Minister, yes, he's still around, promises us the strictest action against graft! Ha ha ha, this truly is turning into a banana republic where ridiculousness rules the roost. Its like a mad world that Asterix had to face as one of his twelve tasks - a world where nobody is answerable, the answers remain hidden and if you go seeking for answers, you will run in a loop forever.

I really don't want to say anything about what I expect to happen in the next few days because I, like the rest of us, have absolutely no idea of what is brewing in the backgrounds and the parlays between all the stakeholders involved. I do hope though, that there is some semblance of law and order, and more importantly, a sense of justice, instilled in the psyche of this country again.

North Atlantic medley

There is no central theme to what I am going to write and what I want to write today about whats going on the economies of the United States and the European Union, except this: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Now that the Standard & Poor's Company has downgraded the sovereign ratings of its home nation, the United States, to AA+ from the best possible rating of AAA, I can't help but ask this question - who guards against the guardians? Considering that these same rating agencies recklessly awarded the highest ratings to a lot of junk securities that hurt the global economy in 2008, I, as a novice in international economics and politics, want to ask how does one company (or a cabal of similar companies), have so much power in affecting the financial markets of so many sovereign nations around the world, based simply on their opinion?

Obviously, once everybody realized even the big ol USofA is not above scrutiny, all fell back on the rhetorical question asked around the world - these same people gave a AAA ratings to all those junk bonds 3 years ago right? However, at the same time, one can probably look at these agencies as just the messenger. The fact that the US and the European economies are hurting was known to all, and perhaps this rating downgrade, though it shouldn't really affect the US in the near term because there really is no other alternative to US gilts even after the downgrade, will probably bring a sense of urgency to their process of clearing up the mess, and hopefully get on some very fundamental and real reconstruction of their economies.

On a sidenote, Indian media firms can't get enough of the fact that a person of Indian origin, Deven Sharma, is the President of Standard & Poor's. But its just an aberration because most Indian readers who read the Tabloid of India or biased Congress mouthpieces like NDTV really don't care about the actual story to read into every nitty gritty of how the global economies work and the sideshows make up for juicier stories.

I suppose the 'slugfest' between governments and ratings agencies will get bigger now, considering they have dared to downgrade the global cop, with many smaller nations, developed and developing, joining in with the "that's what i've been saying!" pitch. At the same time, I really can't understand what economic mindset does the American government work in at all when their constitution actually states that the US debt will not be questioned!

Coming back to whats going on, Joseph Stiglitz continues to rip apart the western capitalist system, writing that the leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are still making huge economic blunders.

A busted bubble led to a massive Keynesian stimulus that averted a much deeper recession but that also fueled substantial budget deficits. The response—massive spending cuts—ensures that unacceptably high levels of unemployment (a vast waste of resources and an oversupply of suffering) will continue, possibly for years.

The resulting austerity will hinder Europe's growth and thus that of its most distressed economies. After all, nothing would help Greece more than robust growth in its trading partners. And low growth will hurt tax revenues, undermining the proclaimed goal of fiscal consolidation.

The European Central Bank's vehement opposition to what is essential to all capitalist economies—the restructuring of failed or insolvent entities' debt—is evidence of the continuing fragility of the Western banking system.

The ECB argued that taxpayers should pick up the entire tab for Greece's bad sovereign debt, for fear that any private-sector involvement would trigger a "credit event," which would force large payouts on credit-default swaps, possibly fueling further financial turmoil. But if that is a real fear for the ECB—if it is not merely acting on behalf of private lenders—surely it should have demanded that the banks have more capital.

And matters are little better on the other side of the Atlantic. There, the extreme right threatened to shut down the U.S. government, confirming what game theory suggests: When those who are irrationally committed to destruction if they don't get their way confront rational individuals, the former prevail.

As a result, President Barack Obama acquiesced in an unbalanced debt-reduction strategy, with no tax increases—not even for the millionaires who have done so well during the last two decades, and not even by eliminating tax giveaways to oil companies, which undermine economic efficiency and contribute to environmental degradation.

This point on prolonged high unemployment rates in these affected developed nations has been raised many times, and considering that their new aim is austerity and budget cuts, the dole to be shared with the unemployed in these nations will substantially reduce. Added to that is this adjustment to reduce excess capacities and consumption.

It is true that to stem the falling heart rates of these developed economies, a big booster is needed in the form of economic stimulus, but that has been tried before, and that only resulted in all these nations balooning their government debt. So I suppose more money can be thrown, but where will this money come from? There was talks of the US printing more money, so that will have its own consequences such as devaluing of that currency and a host of currencies around the world, and not to mention the trillions of dollars in their treasuries.

Coming back to the ratings game, I heard a good comment about what the ratings mean. That person said that these ratings are a symptom, and not a problem. Should the US and the rest of the world get too busy in providing a befitting reply to these ratings agencies, they will have lost sight of the fact that the developed economies, used to living on debt and gratuitous consumption, do need genuine reforms. Perhaps some people are smacking their lips that the US is not AAA anymore, but then what else? Absolutely nothing. The way the global economy is now entwined into the American economy, unfortunately, we will continue to share the repercussions of its mess.

Of course, as I wrote before, one big reason many people may be smiling with a bit of evil is how the mighty seem to have fallen after lecturing the world on how their economies should be run. Ha ha, as one European said, now not much difference between the "old Europe" and the US!

Back in India, the RBI has been doing its bit to increase rates in an economy where inflation is purely due to supply side constraints, but I am sure they must have put some good thought in believing that higher interest rates will somehow make vegetables and grains cheaper for the poor family which has never taken a loan in their combined lives but barely gets by.

So as much as I am critical of the way the global economy has been run by the nations facing the crisis today, I am scared at the repercussions India will face as it forces itself down on the very same path. The economic austerity and firm state oversight on the economy should stand even stronger today, but unfortunately, just when they are needed the most, the UPeeA government led by the very very selfish and self-serving people in the CONgress party, seems bent on totally toeing the neo-liberal line that the US had so far been espousing to the rest of the world.

As for Europe and the US, well, till they start making genuine changes to their lifestyle based around gratuitous consumption of resources, they will realize that it will impossible for the rest of the world and mother nature to fund it anymore. As a cousin said, if things have to go down, if institutions have to be sacrificed, let them go. Everybody knew that the socializing of private debt (the massive debts taken on by the governments), and the added fiscal stimulus would eventually return with a vengeance, and apparently, they have returned way sooner than everybody anticipated.

Crime against women - Round up

I was really angry this morning (its about a girl), and after I got to work and was reading up on all the online news headlines, I came across a news item which made me even angrier. Somewhere in Madurai, a father-in-law burnt his daughter-in-law alive because he was not in favour of his son marrying her. So one day when the son was out, the swine father-in-law snuck in, beat her up with an iron rod and set fire to her. Her little child was burnt too and is battling for her life in a hospital.

Now when this happens, what punishment can this man, nay, virus, be given but that which completely wipes him out from the face of this planet? Can such people be shown any mercy? Unfortunately, the history of humankind is replete with millions of such in'human' acts, most of which go unreported. Crime against the weaker sections of society, especially such gruesome crimes which involve grievous physical harm happen every day, unfortunately, is the universal truth of human society. Earlier it was war, now you can add exploitation to it.

History is replete with great examples of the gravest injustices and crimes committed against women and children, and for all our modernity today, they continue unabated, whether it be human trafficking in India and rest of the world, rape of women in war-torn African regions, or stoning of women for being women in sick societies such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and some Arab and Islamic nations. I was just telling somebody this the other day, and I will write it here though I know I am probably repeating myself - a society that can't take care of its women and children has no right to progress, and will not progress. Sick, perverted people are everywhere, but as a modern society, if we can protect a vast majority of our women and children and also the aged, I think we will have done acceptably well for ourselves.

But it is far from the truth because while such news will be reported regularly because it will be impossible to restrain every father, mother, brother, sister, in-law or uncle or aunt or whatever from turning into an animal, what is most appalling in this country is the absolute lack of fear of the consequences, and that is where our society absolutely fails in its ability to create any repercussions - social or economic or criminal - for such acts committed daily in every corner of the country.  In fact, in the same newspaper, another news was about a raid on a drug rehabilitation center that ran outside the city of Bangalore in a farm, but the state of the inmates there was worse than the animals that were kept there once. The inmates were humiliated and lived in appalling conditions, and without the presence of any doctors, counsellors or any other trained help at the site. In fact, this is the not the first time I have come across news of exploitation at rehabilitation and other centers such as orphanages, destitute centers and centers for women. I have heard of harrowing stories of children and women being sexually exploited at such such centers by politicians and policemen and I can never erase what I heard that day from my mind.  

Browsing through the online news, I realized that today's tabloid media thrives on such news. These "human interest" stories are what keep the general, slowly dumbing down population interested. Other news items reported illustrating our barbarian society's attitude include 2 youth in Lucknow setting fire to a girl who resisted their rape attempt (if the girl is dalit, the crime becomes heinous, but otherwise it'll probably go unreported by the Indian media), a man help for raping his step-daughter and two youth in Nagpur found guilty of raping and killing a 4 year old girl.

Lets bring in all the robots, all the fast cars and jet planes, all the television sets with HD, but a human being's mentality will not change ever.

Syrian connection

My buddy and his girl were down here for the weekend, taking a detour actually in their week long stay in India. Instead of staying in and around Delhi all the time, they planned a few days in Mumbai so we could hang out, and it was great fun to have them over.

Even though it didn't stop raining the entire time they were here, I was still very keen to take them to the Elephanta caves, as much for the ferry ride as for the caves. On the ferry ride towards Elephanta island and the caves, we met a gentleman who happened to be a professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC, United States. Realizing that he had some things in common with us, he chatted with us about the places to visit and things to do in Mumbai in one day. I helped him the best I could, considering my own knowledge of Mumbai is too elementary in my own opinion, but eventually our conversation moved onto global issues. I think it started with a comment on how differently China and India are going about this whole development scenario, with China being able to boast of shiny new infrastructure, but as we both agreed, with a totally dumbed down citizenary. A thought that had just struck me as I talked to him was that the Chinese people could not talk about the issues any person in a free society could talk about not because freedom of speech was clamped upon, but they simply couldn't.

As we talked about the politics in the United States and politics in India, we realized that the Chinese people simply don't know how to talk about politics because they've never done it for the past many decades because at least in my opinion, and even if it sounds sinister, they have for decades been systematically made to think of the state as the ultimate (just like North Korea) and the party as the only truth. Basically a society is created where doubting the party, which is only working towards making China a great nation, is doubting China, and doubting China is next to treason!

Eventually he mentioned he is originally from Syria (I had guessed Isreal) and I started talking to him about the current affairs in the Middle East region. The talk shifted to the Middle East when we talked about how China supported all the bad regimes in the world to prop itself up in that country, including a host of little states in Asia such as the Pakistan military, the Burmese Junta, and now even Bangladesh. He said that the most unfortunate part is that the world's oldest democracy has been doing it in Syria for all this while, constantly propping up the regime of Basher al-Assad, which continues to fight against its people.

The reason I wanted to write about this episode and more about whats going on in Syria is because this morning, one of the first headlines that came on was that the Syrian Army had massacred 100 anti-government civilians in the city of Hama that Assad's forces were trying to reclaim from the protestors. Various news sources put this figure between 80 to 140.

"Unlike" in Egypt, where the Army did not support Mobarak and instead chose to remain neutral and did not attack the civilians, the forces in Syria have been used brutally and extensively to fight against the Syrian people. The same was seen in Bahrain as well. The only difference between Egypt and Syria in this matter is that the Syrian Army is firmly under the command and control of Basher al-Assad.

Like others before him in Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere, the Assad family has been trying to make parlays with the protestors, allowing more democratic activities such as forming political parties that will compete with Assad's Baath party, but when the country is baying for their dictator to step down, such "reforms" look like a handful of sand trying to put out a bushfire. According to the news item from The New York Times....

Mr. Assad’s arrival in power in 2000 was met with broad popular expectations of reform. He carried out some steps to overhaul the economy, but retained at least the framework of the authoritarian state built by his father, who had ruled Syria for three decades. There was another burst of optimism in 2005, when intellectuals and activists tried, unsuccessfully, to organize in Damascus and elsewhere.

Rights activists said that at least 1,600 people have been killed since the demonstrations started and that hundreds of protesters are in jail, most without being charged.

Mr. Assad’s other steps, described by the government as concessions since the uprising began, included issuing several pardons, lifting the decades-old emergency rule and granting thousands of Kurds, a minority group, Syrian nationality.

What did the Syrians want from Assad? They wanted reforms, change and personal freedom, and it seems to me that like most dictators, he thought he could simply crush the grumbling population with force. But then, as we all repeat that cliche, "power corrupts...". No dictator would want to give up any power, unless absolutely forced to do so. Of course, we know from history that most of the times, when dictators are forced to give up power, they are basically made to give up everything. Unless of course they are supposed by the United States or other powers in Europe and elsewhere.

Very predictably, Assad also raises the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism, that the people who want to topple his regime are fundamentalists, obviously directed at the US and the rest of the white world. So when his offerings of peace do not work, Assad falls back to the shock and awe tactic that his father used a long time ago on the same city. Its quite a co-incidence that Libya has a city too that has historically been against the country's dictator and Gaddafi has been trying to run that place down.

Coming back to the Professor, I told him that considering its been so many months and these fires are still raging in the region, perhaps the movement for more freedom and some demo'crazy has gained some critical mass. While the Europeans are not allowing Gaddafi to bomb his own people any more, Assad still has no international intervention, at least on the ground, with governments and the United Nations only still condemning the actions of the dictator.

I do hope a clearer picture emerges in the Middle East, and these regions do get to witness greater political and personal power in the hands of the people, and hopefully, hopefully, without any of these enforcers of democracy butting in and setting up a puppet democratic government there. In the long term, well, i'll see what happens in the ME as the oil starts to run out.