theatre of the absurd

There’s a lot of Community going around these days. Since we have one of the most secular parties leading this country, led by one of the most secular and open families, it is only obvious that they have managed to sprout this great sense of pride among all and sundry in their own communities.

When Pranab Mukherjee was made the President of India in case he had to contribute if by any chance the 2013 elections resulted in a hung Parliament, the Finance Ministry was expectantly given to a man who had been in it before, Mr. P. Chidambaram, who stamped his comeback into the Ministry of Finance with good news from the Supreme Court who quashed the case against him in the 2G case.

Now the ever-important Ministry of Home Affairs, earlier handled by some of the most notable Gandhi faithfuls, Shivraj Patil, was open. Sonia Gandhi chose another great Gandhi faithful, Sushil Kumar Shinde for the post. There are many things that should disgust any voting Indian who bothered watching his statements on being elected.

Shinde thanks the Queen Mother of making him the Home Minister because he is a Dalit. He says that the Gandhi family has done a lot for the Dalits in this country (which does not explain why 65 years hence there have been no noticeable improvements in the lives of Dalits). His performance as the Power Minister was pathetic according to whichever opinion piece you pick up and read today.

Let me just add an interjection here - the ‘downtrodden’ communities of this country must ask their leader tougher questions and open their eyes to the fact that they have been used and abused for throughout this country’s independence by unscrupulous politicians. The quotas have been abused by all and sundry and this Government seems hell bent on creating even further rift among communities by staunchly setting up the Muslims and the Dalits against the rest. The OBC’s, well, seem to have won their own battle by getting their own reservations in the system.

Coming back to Mr. Shinde, we know he has been a great server of the Gandhi family, and the Hindu reports that only two days ago, he waxed eloquent about how the CON party has never had a leader so great as Sonia Gandhi. Such disgusting flattery by the Union Home Minister of the world’s largest kleptocracy makes you wonder of the pride in the hearts of these men. More than that, the depth and brazenness of subservience that CONgressis demonstrate is sickening.

In an interview with Prabhu Chawla in a Hindi news channel, Sushilkumar Shinde proudly declared –

“I am Sonia’s Soldier”.  

“Our leader is so intelligent, talented and understanding; knows fully well what work has to be given to whom.” Unabashedly admitting to being a Gandhi sycophant, Shinde says he looks forward to serving under Rahul—someone he has seen in Rajiv Gandhi’s place even before the young Gandhi joined politics.

Of course, when one is elected to such a high office in a feudal-democratic set-up not for their ability but because of their loyalty, there are bound to be instances where they will not have any idea what is going on. Shinde’s already had a few on his resume.

And this is the person who is the Leader of the Lok Sabha apparently after the departure of Pranab da as he waits for further instructions.

But I am getting sidetracked. My point was to not talk about Sushil Kumar Shinde’s ability as a Home Minister, which besides is fairly obvious that he became for his loyalty to Sonia Gandhi, but I really wanted to talk more about the brazenness and ridiculousness with which the Government of India politicians have been making asinine statements and making the castes and communities the centrepiece of most their recent statements.

The Coal scam is yet another scam in the long list of CON achievements during their two tenures. Shriprakash Jaiswal, the present coal minister in Sonia’s team of merry men (and women), says that he is being targeted because of his community.

In his statement, Jaiswal states the very obvious modus operandi of the current government set-up, which I really hope that most Indians will be able to see through and remember when the elections come. The poor victim of caste discrimination said –

“The UPA government will not be affected by the allegations as it is headed by an honest prime minister (Manmohan Singh) who is also a renowned economist,” said Jaiswal.

Does it even make sense? Its really impressive to see the cronies in the government so confident of their abilities and power that they believe that any unintelligent comment should be enough to quell any queries from the general public and the media.  

Beni Prasad Verma, another Gandhi loyalist, said that it’s a good thing that prices are going up in the country, because that means the Indian farmer is getting more. If the citizens of this country spare some time from their television and try to find out about the economics of agriculture in our country, they will realize that it seems to be a punishment to be a farmer in this country now. Beni Prasad Verma has been a politician for a long time, and this comment shows that there are many politicians out there who, despite spending so much time as a politician, in power and in the opposition, still have no idea of the basic issues that afflict this country.

Another great Sonia spokesperson, Kapil Sibal, blames the private sector of this country for the policy paralysis we have been seeing in this crony government for the past many years. 

As for good ol Rahul, he must be so thankful for surrounding him with so many well wishers and protectors. He doesn't even have to speak a word to the media or to the people of this country and yet here is a mass of politicians praying for him to lead them. 

So all in all we are definitely seeing a great theatre of the absurd being played out all across the country. Citizens are insecure and unhappy, governance at all levels is breaking down, national security seems to be in tatters, and we seem very close to stagflation even if all the Queen’s horses say we aren’t. At such a time what can I do other than pour all my anger and bitterness in my blog? I know I will vote in the upcoming elections, and it surely won’t be the CON party, because if Rahul Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister, I know the people of this country deserve it.

sickular hypocrisy

Pharma vs. the third world

Big Pharma’s greed and the Third World’s Need

I had written some time ago on the battle that is raging between Big Pharma and the generic drug makers of India, and other developing countries such as Brazil. Like most economic battles, this fight does not get as much coverage or mention in the mainstream media. I too have been guilty of not being able to spend much time on this, but on occasion do come across some good information.

Generic drugs from India and a few other developing countries are a boon to most of the third world that is incapable of paying the high price of drugs produced by Big Pharma. In this article written by a Professor Lofgren in a blog, pharmagossip, the Professor writes on this tussle between Big Pharma and the generic drug industry of India and Brazil.

I have always maintained that Intellectual Property Rights are a tool with which the western organizations have controlled the flow of technology and new ideas in the third world, and that is the case with the pharmaceutical industry as well.

Arguably, billions go into developing a new drug or vaccine, and after its intense animal testing and human testing (most likely third world guinea pigs) a drug or vaccine finally reaches the people. Needless to say, the billions have to be recuperated by the pharmaceutical company, which is usually a member of the Big Pharma block sitting in a developed country.

There are no two ways of looking at the fact that in the end, pharma is business, and for a company that has spent so much on developing a drug, the returns should be the maximum. So a third world patient, or even a middle class or poor first world patient, would be denting the high profitability of this pharma company by paying for a much cheaper generic version of the drug.

This is where IPR come in. The first world maintains that knowledge is property, and if anybody has to use it, it has to pay for it, and this includes information and products that can save the lives of millions, and have been saving the lives of millions. And when the developed world has the power of “globalization” behind it, can it be far behind from arm twisting the economies of the third world into accepting its yet another rule of doing business?

As the blog post I referenced above explains,

India is often called the pharmacy of the developing world, which is no great surprise as more than 50% of its $10bn annual generic medicine production is exported.

But the domestic drug industry behind India's role as global pharmacist stands to emerge rather poorly from the free trade agreement (FTA) that Europe is proposing for India. In late-stage negotiations over the terms of the long-awaited agreement, the EU is calling for intellectual property rights enforcement that goes well beyond India's obligations as a member of the World Trade Organisation and would make it all but impossible for generic drug manufacturers in the country to continue in their present structure. This could delay the introduction of cheaper medicines in India and elsewhere at a time when the global financial crisis has already put the squeeze on life-saving medicines across the world (last year the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria cancelled its 11th funding round due to the crisis).

Yet protests on the streets of Delhi against the unfair terms of the EU-India FTA have been little noticed in the west, where such agreements are increasingly being promoted as a route out of domestic crises.

In a recent editorial, however, the former EU high representative for foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, all but admits that a similar agreement that Europe is tying up with Peru and Colombia may be "denying their weaker citizens [human] rights in favour of the interests of business".

In India, such fears are perilously close to being realised, because the EU-India FTA negotiations are not the only way in which the health of Indian citizens is coming under attack from Europe. In an effort to boost falling profit margins in the west, and to prise open more profitable markets elsewhere, European pharmaceutical companies are also chipping away at India's judicial system.

Next month, the supreme court of India will hear final arguments in a long-running case between Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis and the Indian government. Novartis is seeking extended intellectual property protection for a marginally modified anti-cancer drug, Glivec, for which the original patent has run out. This is a practice known as evergreening, seen by many as an unfair way for pharmaceutical companies to maintain artificially high drug prices in developing markets. That is certainly the view of the Indian government, which, in 2005, inserted a clause into its intellectual property law deliberately intended to prevent the practice.

[I am a layman, but I do know that when global rules of trade are made, they are made keeping the best interest of the developed world in mind. The rules of IPR, and patents were made and accepted by all. So after a patent runs out, it becomes common property and as in the case of drugs, companies can produce the drug without paying any royalties to the founder. Aspirin, for example, is one such drug that is manufactured around the world in multiple formats. But as the blogpost says, Big Pharma seeks extended IPR protection so prices remain high. As the post discusses, the developed world’s governments are staunchly standing with their Big Pharma brethren. ]

That is certainly the view of the Indian government, which, in 2005, inserted a clause into its intellectual property law deliberately intended to prevent the practice.

That clause has proven to be a literal lifesaver many times since, and it ensured that Novartis's original case was thrown out of court in 2006. But Novartis has filed new litigation in an attempt to breach India's legal defences. The final ruling is next month and there is every chance Novartis may succeed. If it does, other pharmaceutical companies will be able to impose higher prices on drugs in India too.

The Novartis case coincides with a third major assault on India's pharmaceutical industry: the final spear in a triple-pronged attack on its generic drug manufacturers by the west.

This involves the attempt by German pharmaceutical company Bayer to revoke the recent granting of a compulsory licence for an Indian firm, Natco Pharma. The licence was to produce a cheaper version of its anti-cancer drug Sorafenib. Bayer does not manufacture the drug in India, and imports in such small volumes that only a tiny fraction of potential patients could benefit. For its brand, Sorafenib, Bayer has charged Indian patients about $69,000 for a year of treatment, an unaffordable amount for most Indian households. Under the licence, Natco will sell the same medicine at 3% of this price, while paying a licence fee – and still make a profit.

It is not only Indian patients who stand to suffer from this triple-pronged attack. So, too, will charities such as Médecins Sans Frontières, which relies on Indian generic producers to supply 80% of the antiretrovirals it uses around the world.

In a recent item on Firstpost, it was reported that India may lose the war against Big Pharma, but is likely to open a new front in its fight, a fight, which I believe, should unite the entire third world and it shouldn’t be the battle of India or Brazil or any other developing country alone.

Earlier, taking on the so-called “Big Pharma” head on, India had given a compulsory licence to Natco Pharma to produce Bayer AG’s cancer drug Nexavar.

Compulsory licence allows a generic drug maker to manufacture and sell a copy of the innovator’s drug after paying a royalty.

Multi-national pharma companies had objected to this as they feared the move will set a bad precedent if other developing countries follow in the footsteps of India.

The government’s aim to give free medicines had also cut out the Big Pharma, as the scheme is likely to focus on the generics.

But while India is trying its level best to champion the cause of cheaper drugs, the developed economies are also tightening laws to squeeze low-cost copy-cat medicines.

A report in The Times of India says the multinational companies are lobbying hard with their respective governments to curb export of generics from India and Brazil.

“Not only has the US devised new treaties to challenge generic drugs being shipped from India, the EU has also upped the ante,” according to the report.

A Group of Ministers in the Government looking into the issue has suggested that the price of patented drugs be linked to a per capita income linked reference pricing mechanism.

From the link above,

The committee, headed by an official from the department of pharmaceuticals, has suggested fixing the price of patented drugs by comparing the price at which these drugs are procured by governments in the UK, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand. The committee has recommended that the retail price should be fixed by adjusting it to the per capita income of the country.

Tarceva, a Roche-patented lung cancer drug, costs Rs 1.21 lakh in Australia and France while it costs Rs 35,450 in India, says the report of the committee. But when adjusted for per capita income, which is significantly more in these countries compared with India, the price falls to Rs 10,309 and Rs 11,643, respectively, for both countries (see table).

For patented drugs that have similar alternatives in the market, the committee has said the price of these drugs should be fixed in such a manner that it should not lead to an overall increase in the treatment cost. If the global launch of the patented drug takes place in India, the retail price should be based on the cost of developing the drugs and other factors. At present, prices of patented drugs are unregulated.

The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), the lobby body of multinationals, said the cross-country per capita income-linked proposal is fundamentally flawed and has sought further discussions with the government.

But, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, the representative body of big Indian drugmakers, has supported the reference-based system. IPA said the government should select the developed countries because in these countries, governments foot the healthcare bill and are, therefore, able to negotiate prices better.

There was a news in The Live Mint that the profit outlook of most pharma majors in the developing markets may not be as high as they told their investors, thus adding to the desperation to see that the generic drug makers of the third world are quickly brought under control, even if that means putting medicine out of the reach of millions of poor.

Yes, third world governments will always be taken to be the weaker side when the big corporations of the developed world flex their muscles while being strongly backed by their governments. It is something I am hoping to see change in the coming years, for in today’s globe, its only about making money, and only about economic dominance, and it will do well for most nations fighting it to come together and respond, for the well being of their own people and nation states.

15th August, 2012

Happy Independence Day to India.

I certainly get a feeling that we are living in dark times. India is under assault from all directions, and from within and without. The Government of India has stopped working for the country but only works for its own benefits, the social fabric of this country is weakening, and every section of the society in every corner of the country is living in economic insecurities. These are bad and uncertain times, and I sincerely wish we can pull ourselves together. This country is crying for good leadership right now, and that seems nowhere in sight. I hope our society can wisen up and realize that we only get the government that we deserve.

My wishes to the armed forces and the paramilitary of this great nation. My respect and wishes to the police forces, who have the most thankless job in the country. The politicians abuse them, they are not protected by strong legislation, and are always prevented from doing the right thing.

The bow of INS Delhi. Clicked by me.

The Government of India

caste minister

Now that Pranab Mukherjee has been made the President of India, after an awful mockery of that office during the time of Pratibha Patil, a reshuffle in the cabinet of the Government of India was expected.

P Chidambaram was made the finance minister of India for the third time, and Sushil Kumar Shinde was made the Home Minister. Sushil Kumar Shinde said that he was a dalit and he should be considered for the post because he was a Dalit. When he was made the Home Minister, thanked Sonia Gandhi and the puppet Prime Minister for making him the Home Minister, and thanked the Gandhi family for always caring for the Dalits and minorities.

“"I am in politics for the last 40 years. People from the Dalit community do not generally get the charge of the Home Ministry. But for the first time, Rajiv Gandhi had given a Dalit (Buta Singh) the charge of Home Ministry, and now for the second time, it is under Sonia Gandhi's leadership, that Dr. Manmohan Singh has given me this post," said Shinde.”

It disgusted me to read this. These are the swines that this country manages to vote, and relishes. This is the Government of India we are talking about, but given the brazenness and utter lack of care with which it is being run, it feels like a small family run business.

Like a true politician who has achieved nothing for the country in their tenure as a parasite, Mr. Shinde promises to deliver like he always has. What he has delivered is something voters do not ask. In fact, most voters do not ask generally what politicians have done.

"The Gandhi family has always taken care of the welfare of backward castes. Dalits can also take bigger responsibility. The home ministry is a critical ministry. I have performed in the past and I will again prove through my work as the home minister," Shinde said.

There is a very good cartoon in today’s Mumbai Mirror from Morparia demonstrating exactly what has been going on in this country for the past many years. As I have mentioned, the Government of India is currently a closed loop that is very tightly controlled by the ever elusive and mysterious Sonia Gandhi and her eternal baby Rahul Gandhi, who at 42 is still groomed for something big by his mother. (I guess its okay, Prince Charles has remained a Prince for decades now).

This dearth of talent is definitely not a compulsion as many believe, it is a very deliberate way of running the government where a select few who are loyal and obedient are given the power to do anything.

Both Shinde and Chidambaram come with a lot of baggage, bogged down by allegations of involvement in scams that have grounded UPA 2 for over a year. For Chidambaram, the finance ministry has been a coveted assignment and he had been looking forward to coming home for the last three and a half years. With the economy tanking, the Congress argues that this can hardly be seen as a reward.

If Chidambaram has this 2G baggage, then Shinde carries the burden of the high profile Adarsh Housing scam. This is a bigger problem for the UPA since he is tipped to take over as the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha. The job, previously held by Mukherjee, needs a lot of coordination with the Opposition parties to build consensus.

The Congress that has been stung by widespread criticism that Shinde has been rewarded with home portfolio on the day when the country suffered its worst power breakdown has retaliated by claiming that it is no reward. “This is a responsibility and not a reward,” said party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury.

As pointed out in a Hindu editorial, the fact that the Ministry of Power continues to function without a permanent minister shows the mental and physical lethargy (which again I believe is by design) they have demonstrated in the last few years.

Moving onto other esteemed personalities in this Sonia Circus, Mr. Raul Vinci/Raul Maino/Rahul Gandhi says he is ready to play a bigger part in the Government and in the Congress party!! You know, any other time this would scare me and worry that the Queen Mother will do anything to establish her son to power, but given that he had led the campaigns of the CONgress party in two states, including Ulta Pradesh, and despite the fraud Gandhi family campaigning as if their lives depended on it, came up short, and way short. Of course, the CONgress minions and old faithful at once rubbished any media comments that the defeats had anything to do with the Royal Prince. Despite the lack of maturity and awareness among the voting masses, and disinterest among the middle class, perhaps Sonia Gandhi will find it tough to establish Rahul as the PM given that this is not a monarchy after all.

However, I believe the CONgress faithful, and would love to see the Gandhi’s actually get out of their secret compartments and if they want to rule this country, not rule it in secret, and lead from the front. That may be asking too much, and more importantly, they probably have other plans already.  

musings after a holiday

I’m sitting down to write anything after such a long time that I can feel a certain excitement and nervousness in my thoughts. It’s surely been a while.

I was home the entire last week, and got to see after a long time what are the popular television shows that occupy most of the Hindi speaking households in the North. There are some very well produced shows, while most are just run of the mill sensationalist and hyper-melodramatic family serials.

Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate seems to be doing very well, and while many are very quick to label him an opportunist and that he is merely repeating the same problems that everybody knows that India is facing, it is really refreshing to see such an eminent personality bring them into the national limelight. If it takes Aamir’s superstardom to get the average television viewing Indian to face the grim realities of our society, he has all my support.

Indians love patting themselves on the back, and our collective insecurities and touchiness are stuff of legend. When an eminent non-Indian personality criticizes our country or our society or any of our mannerisms, we become extremely offended and our English media goes to town drumming up its sensationalism. At the other side, when a famous non-Indian (preferably Caucasian) personality or celebrity praises India or Indians, it becomes national headlines. Our love for a white man’s praise is amazing, and so is our hurt when we aren’t liked.

The reason I state this is because when we like patting ourselves on our backs, we tend to pretend most of our problems do not exist. In fact, even when they do, they tend to become great media sensationalist stories. For example, thousands of bore wells are dug across India without permission and they greatly deplete that region’s underground water reserves, but bore well stories only surface when a child gets stuck in them, and after a while, is either rescued or dies.

Last week at home I realized that everybody is hooked into television for good or for bad. Horoscopes are very popular on vernacular television, and every Hindi ‘news’ channel has their in-house Pandit ji or shastri ji or Guru ji with the day’s forecasts, and solutions to various problems in life.

Looking at television, I have always wondered how in the world does an average Indian have so much appetite for politics and news. There are dozens of news channels in every language, and while many of them have become infotainment channels, most are still content to simply report every big and small political and human interest story as if it is the most sensational event in humanity to have taken place at that moment.

The parlays for the election of the President, the Vice President, and many other office bearers have been successfully turned into political potboilers by all those involved. For the media, nothing pleases them more than to see conspiracy theories and politicians going at each other on each and every decision that needs to be taken in the country.

The politician themselves, well, we know love their limelight. It’s actually very sad to see how much Indian politics has degenerated into something crude, unprofessional, and very unbecoming of a country that doesn’t stop boasting about its largest democracy. I am beginning to realize that when it comes to our democracy and political systems, I think all our lives we are fed with superlatives, such as our human demographics, our voting systems, our election structures, but I doubt if a vast majority of Indians have ever looked objectively at our political system and ever tried to understand it. Children have a subject called civics, clubbed with history for the most part, that is supposed to teach them about our political structures, our rights and responsibilities, our constitution, our national bird and animal etc, but I do not think we have any understanding of our political system. For example, India’s stance on foreign trade, GM foods, IPR, international relations etc, are things that are best left to a select few in the Government, and most Indians aren’t even aware of what they mean. In fact, for the most part, being a part of democracy, many times what the politicians think the people want goes completely against what the country needs.

Indian diplomacy is one area where I feel there is a glaring and dangerous gap between what is right for the country versus what the masses think is right. For one, the political class of India has a deep seated belief that Indian Muslims sympathise with other Muslims even if they are tyrants and enemies. I really believe this is not true, but there are many instances where the Government of India puts the safety and security of this country at grave risk only because it believes that it is appeasing the sensibilities of Indian Muslims.

However, for the national media, I think national security has become a game, and given the fireworks that the average Indian gets to see on television, I really doubt they even fathom the gravity of putting our national security at risk. We are used to being killed by terrorists, but if the enemies or traitors of this country manage to wipe out not hundreds but thousands in one go, then what’ll happen? The politicians will begin operation blame game and operation clean up, and the media will pull each other down like crabs in trying to grab the juiciest morsels while shouting itself hoarse, and the common man will discuss it with family and friends and express anger and then wish for God to step in.

Yes, God, that was the other big debate that went on in my head constantly as I saw more and more depressing stories of human trauma and injustice. I’ll leave that for another post.

thoughts while traveling

I'm sitting on the coast of Gujarat, surrounded by two of the largest oil refineries in India. Working with fellow environment lovers is always a pleasure because I get to discuss so many things that I love to talk about, and rant about, and hear other people rant about and agree with them. Sitting with my colleagues, we discussed the great growth that Gujarat has witnessed, and of course, any talk about Gujarat today is incomplete without Narendra Modi.

Before I move onto other things, I think a lot of my conversations on politics with a lot of people involve some very similar undercurrents, or so I feel. Nobody is denying that under Modi, the state of Gujarat has emerged as a poster child of a successful (which itself is relative) third world capitalist state. Yes everybody mentioned Godhra and says that that will forever haunt his legacy and always stand in his way at the national stage. So I am beginning to realize that a lot of people perhaps feel guilty in acknowledging the fact that a leader that functions and behaves like Narendra Modi could be the very task master that this country needs at the helm. So if everybody can see Gujarat run so successfully under Modi, what is stopping other Chief Ministers to adapt some of Modi's concepts? I suppose adapting good governance practices is just not a national habit, so I will leave it at that. 

Coming back to talking environment, I once again, as much as I try not to, rant against the global trade imbalances and the economic bullying that the third world has had to face from the developed west, and now increasingly China. In the end, I realized, that no matter how much the world seems unfair and how much we seem to be at a disadvantage or no matter how much we have lost or not done well, it has always been in our hands. I personally feel it is more so in the past one decade. Till 2008, the world grew at an amazing pace. The banks were doing well, industries were doing well, and the belief was that the world was becoming more affluent. India of course was part of the growth story and everybody was gung ho about the great way the RBI ran the economy, how the UPeeA government was run by such learned and experienced economists and technocrats and how the government was determined to take the Indian growth story to the real Bharat. 

Unfortunately, now the consensus is forming that India grew because the world was growing, and we are beginning to finally open our eyes to the fact that our policies are way way behind and very outdated. The politicians in power at the center have used up the India growth story to completely squander the advantage in trying to establish Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister. For a poor country, we are a very generous democracy. We tax a tiny minority to subsidize a vast majority, and we try to make up for our lack of balls in expanding direct taxes by increasing our indirect taxes. Why don't the media and economists and sensible people raise this issue? Why don't they show how unfair indirect taxes are? A poor man pays the same amount of tax as the richest person on the same commodity that he or she buys from the market. 

Have we hit the bottom of the barrel yet? I asked my friends. Both were of the consensus that we haven't. Its good in many ways, in my opinion. I told them that I am really keen that the ambitious, and supposedly over 300 million strong, middle class of India get out of that hubris that the money train is running full speed and that they too are very, very affected by the bad economic and social policies of an ever-conniving government. 

Perhaps slow growth is the new normal. Infrastructure bottlenecks, red tape, an unresponsive political system, caste and regional divisions, these have been around since we gained independence, and show no signs of abating. In fact, they have only grown worse because now they are mixed with expectations, ambitions, and unnecessary hubris. A foreign business leader or a western politician praises us and we smile from ear to ear with our chest sticking out like a robin. I am really hoping some of this hubris is crushed and we are really forced to re look at the way things are done in this country. 

Looking at the big picture, this world is becoming an increasingly difficult place to survive and succeed. In my opinion, the inability of most of the world to govern itself, manage its resources and tame its consumption is leading to a planet which will simply just stop responding. In a way we will bring ourselves to a state where there might simply be nothing left to exploit. I do like to think on something like, how long can say, the global steel industry consume thousands of tonnes of iron ore and produce thousands of tonne of steel into producing cars and bridges and cities and what not. If we are consuming our forests at a rate faster than we can regrow them, surely a time will come when it will catch up, right? Oil for example. Just how much is there? Just how much can we continue refining and consuming? 

I don't know, and I really don't want to think either. We live in very interesting times. It will be very interesting to see where the world is heading now. Modern civilization has demonstrated that we cannot see eye to eye on absolutely any issue, and as we realize that the world is increasingly becoming an unresponsive place, both literally and figuratively, both in body and spirit. For somebody like me, a weeping philosopher,  it's going to get even tougher being a modern citizen of the world, and of India, I can tell you that!

venting

There’s been too much going on in my professional line lately, hence, perhaps, my lack of desire to write anything. In addition, I am rather tired these days of ranting about the government and the economy because there is just too much bad news all around.

Amidst the doom and gloom, there’s a thought in my head that it’s a good thing that India is getting this wake up call, because it seemed to me that in the past one decade, things have been getting out of hand very very quickly. The rules and regulations of this country have simply been unable to keep up with the unbridled ambition of the common public who have tasted blood with money.

At the same time, one could argue, and certainly I see it this way as well sometimes, that the fact that the CONgress managed to bring this apparently roaring tiger, or racing elephant, or whatever phrase that the international media kept for India, to its knees within a span of 4-5 years speaks volumes of the hollowness of its claims that we are a structured and well managed economy. This was the bogey raised in 2008 when India managed to buck the initial onslaught of global economic uncertainty by falling back on things like a strongly managed monetary economy and strong domestic consumption.

Today, it is for all to see that our economy is functioning as a banana republic. The only way to do business in India now is to camp at the doorsteps of ministers for months as they loot the country behind closed doors. Sonia Gandhi as always will keep quiet and Manmohan Singh will sing of his clean character.

I am beginning to realize that is very easy to take Indian democratic voters for a ride. The urban educated usually do not vote, and the urban and rural poor who do vote, well, they remain urban and rural poor. It’s a big vicious circle I say.

Shitty people have been made in charge of this country and one of them, Sonia Gandhi, is now getting her minions ready for the polls in 2014. Most unfortunately, democratic populations around the world have very short memories and should the economies show any signs of improvement, the UPeeA Governmint, will use all the media resources it has to take all the credit and go to town about its successes. The BJP, well, will probably still be trying to figure out what its stance should be in the entire scheme of things. 

Coming back to the good that that this whole Indian economic mismanagement seems to be bringing out is that its making the rest of the world and our economic engines sit up and realize that hey, maybe we aren’t that resilient as we thought. Like I said, our policies are decades behind times. This country is calling for more structure, a better life, and more democratic responsibility. Yes, as much as I believe in personal freedom, I am calling for more government oversight now.

Indian society seems to be a gone case for me. It chases money, its two-faced and hypocritical, and refuses to stand up to injustice. Perhaps we are a feudal nation still, because we loved to be ruled by the unjust and inept. I am simply very very depressed at how this society is simply unable to unite over anything right. The society is messed up, the economy is messed up, and I really don’t know where we will be in the next few years. The media is playing its part well of not standing up for real issues and playing in the hands of political parties. I’m just a really really unhappy and angry Indian right now.