Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Need Changes to Public Reactions, Not Politicians

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Every single day we hear and read about the audacious behavior of the politicians; big and small and representing the center to the village levels.  Outside of scamming people and from projects their heavy handed behavior is on public display whenever they are given the remotest opportunity.  Politicians no longer reserve the verbal and sometimes physical bashing to their political rivals, but keep it handy for anyone that comes across to them.  It must be a private hell for someone in power to display normal social behavior; normal simply signifying respect for others.

Time and again, and as time goes by heavy handedness of public and elected officials is constantly on display.  The bad behavior is as good as an entitlement for these folks and they seldom have any qualms about raising the voice or hand to anyone who doesn’t toe the line to their dictatorial attitude.  As the communications and electronic and print coverage becomes a standard part of public life, the display of bad behavior has become common place.  It is perhaps that such behavior was always a part of the people in power, and now it is displayed because of the ready availability of coverage, albeit without the consent of the aggressors.

It has also become a common place to say and do things that are improper and then simply cover one’s self with a simple apology or claim innocence.  But these acts that are almost always claimed as ignorance after the fact are being caught on camera for the person to deny the atrocious behavior or actions.  Even when caught red handed there will be denials or slashing additional allegations about the opposition on making a big deal out of such atrocious behavior.  Some of these comments are so outrageous and beyond a common man’s comprehension, and probably doesn’t deserve coverage, but the news channels are also in the business of covering every word that is uttered by the senseless politicians and bureaucrats to fill their air space.  The fifteen minutes of fame is always there and is an element of sensation in the comments, rather than ignoring them.  Dead people, opponents, women and children and anyone that is not even in the radar is targeted on a whim and no amount of foul language in public is spared in calling each other names.  The unfortunate aspect of the coverage is it is 24/7/365 and everyone including children are subject to the nastiness.

Each time we see an episode of such callous behavior we keep wondering when will people in power learn to be respectful to the others and society.  But with the next incident which will be of greater disrespect we will wonder again if these guys will ever stop the abuse.  For some reason these sensational bad behavior continues to be a part and parcel of the normal politician’s life and it only keeps getting worse.  We have not yet sent anyone packing for bad behavior.  No one has been penalized or stripped of power for hurling abuses and bad behavior.  As long as the public will grin and bear these people they will continue to think it is their right to abuse others.

The public reactions must be displayed when electing the next set of politicians.  Their performance on delivering to what they commit to get elected is not the only criteria to elect them, but also their public behavior and respect for the community should be reflected in sending them to represent people.  In a country where every person thinks they are entitled to something or the other, it is difficult to make immediate and drastic changes to the psychology of the electorate and the elected officials.  But with the availability of information and the ability to vote, people should start to look at the elections as a medium to show the discretion in choosing common sense and common cause.  We can and should choose people’s representatives that best represent the best in human nature and humanity.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Tale of Two Democracies

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India and USA have had devastating events in the past couple of weeks.  The two largest democracies have faced events that make the overall society cringe and suffer the consequences of carnage inflicted on unsuspecting public, and without cause or concern for fellow humans.  The fact of life is tragedy is a part of it, and no matter where you live or whatever you might be doing; life has its own way of delivering sorrow to humans.  There is no way to avoid either good or bad as it is a fact of life, and how we deal with it is what makes humans a special living beings.

From the beginning of life to the time we pass away each living moment is filled with some surprise or the other, irrespective of the time and place we will be constantly presented with something new and often unexpected.  This doesn’t necessarily mean the unexpected has to be self inflected by oneself or by others.  The recent years we have been seeing more and more hurt being inflected on unsuspecting fellow beings, and often without cause or reason.

The way we react to fellow human tragedy is really the greatest human emotion.  When one of us suffers, we must be able to feel the pain of the fellow human being, and irrespective of the race, religion, color or where you are from, the suffering or pain of the fellow human being should touch your heart.  It should make you feel the pain inflicted from your heart although the physical pain cannot be felt.  Life itself provides us with the most precious aspect of ones being; life itself.  We must be able to share our joys and sorrows with fellow human beings to really be human.

The Boston marathon bombing and the aftermath in the USA, and the Bangalore bombing and also the inhuman attack on the little girl in India are examples of humans simply being inhuman in their actions.  There is absolutely no reason for these actions and whosoever is causing such massive and global pain are leaving permanent scars on the rest of the people who are either subjected to their actions, or even remotely able to sense the senseless actions of a few individuals who cause such great pain to the entire human race.

The two democracies and its people were equally shocked and dejected in hearing the horrible events and for sure they were looking for reasons why such inhuman acts are inflicted on them.  Each and every human being must have been touched by the unnecessary acts of violence on unsuspecting fellow beings.  But the way the leaders reacted to the aftermath is worlds apart from each other.

One nation’s leaders stood together in their unanimous support of the leadership and the law enforcement agencies and extend them unequivocal support of the one nation and one stand position.  The other nation uses the unfortunate events as political ploys and trying to make political statements of the events and trying to place the blame on the current elected party.  Both are democracies and such vast difference in handling national issues and crisis.  The leaders of both countries have similar issues and similar audiences, but their handling of the situation is so different from each other, it is simply so far from comprehension.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Dead Men Can’t Defend

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The politics of backstabbing and bickering is a global phenomenon.  There is no place on earth people will not to great lengths to discredit someone who they might be opposing politically.  The extent at which they will go to malign the opponents is unimaginable in terms of language, posturing and making up stories that are far from the truth.  Every nation on earth which holds elections will go through the slinging of mud during the election time and typically make-up after the elections and at least until the next election.

Western democracies typically have an election cycle where the mudslinging is limited to and debates and politicking is typically limited to the election cycle and the parties and candidates to go on to doing their governing or licking wounds if they lost, until the next election.  Typically the winner and loser are cordial after the elections and don’t try to impress on the electorate about their candidature after the election.  In many instances the winning candidates try to recruit the person who lost to them to work on diplomatic initiatives which yield great results in helping the administrations agendas.

India seems to be an exception in treating political opponents with dignity.  There seems to first and foremost 100% of the time dedicated to simply bashing the opponents and forgetting the public’s interest.  No one seems to be above the bickering; from the national leaders to the state leaders to the local leaders, all of them constantly going at each other.  People in power and people who are not in power do nothing except keep barking at each other.  There is no time spent on public’s agenda in the assembly or in public or private life; only abuses being thrown at each other.

Each assembly cycle is becoming a bigger circus than the last one.  Fist cuffs, abuses and hurling projectiles have become a common scene in the public forum, without decorum or decency to the public office.  It is hard to imagine what the people will do to continue to elect the same bunch of politicians again and again; while looking at them with mouths wide open at their behavior.

Even the dead leaders are constantly subjected to harsh criticism and rude language constantly by the same politicians who were elected by the person who they constantly castigate today.  The people elect leaders for a definite period to manage their public affairs and represent interests of the public for general good.  We really have been electing uneducated, uncivilized, impolite and directionless individuals to represent the common man.  The parties that choose these individuals and present them as leaders have a lot to be desired from, and really have no hope of making a democracy work for the good of the people.

There is no last incident that gives India or its states an instance of a plan that has been announced and followed-up to completion.  The country only thrives on digging dirt on even its dead leaders to find fault with administration of the yester year, rather than presenting their plan now and implementing the plans that are needed now.  Not a single leader will present their agenda for the common good of the people; education, infrastructure, water, agriculture or any useful needs.
 
We probably have taken the democracy too far by allowing the elected officials to simply use the time to abuse others, rather than work on the public policy.  It is difficult to imagine what the country will do if we continue to keep abusing others including the dead leaders.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Indian Dreams

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

In the 1970’s and in 1980’s the term “Lakpathi” or “Lakshadhikari” was what the guys wanted to become, simply meaning that they would like to somehow earn 100,000 rupees and that was it.  The value of money was not measured in real terms, but a simple amount of money was constantly used to show the society’s tendency to accept a certain amount of money as the necessary resource to live a life of comfort.  That term was absolutely a measure of financial success of a person in all of India, not just in rural areas.  Many movies were made with the concept of a man with Rs. 100,000 rupees and many books written on the same, and definitely every person who was capable of thinking wanted to become a “Lakshadhikari”.

Coming out of school and just beginning to look at real life, I would be lying if I said I did not want to be one along with all my friends, and live the life of comfort and luxury in the early eighties.  By studying hard and completing education and getting a professional degree, along with good habits and great family was enough to start to think of building a future full of promise and happiness.  Every youngster dreamed of the same stuff, and I am sure each one of us felt that life is as simple as just do follow your heart and things will work out.  None of my close friends relocated to countries outside of India, and have made great strides with their respective careers and families in India, and whenever I think of them it gives great comfort to think of them in the most endearing terms of childhood friends, and whenever I get to speak to them it still take me back a quarter of a century and the days of dreaming about a life without discomfort, and a life full of happiness.

Then the reality of today is very different from a generation before and its aspirations and dreams.  Children seem to grow into adults without the focus and direction that needs to come from educational institutes and parents with a stable environment.  We have a major scam or a tirade of negative verbiage every day, and these days we seem to even dig dirt on dead people and start to blame them for the ills of the society.  The television, print media and the internet only have negative aspects of what is being done by the politicians in power; which is pretty much to retain power and never worry about the common good of the population.

There is no consensus about managing the resources the nation has, and there is no agenda driven by the needs of the people.  If there are pockets of leadership that wants to drive the people’s agenda, it never gets heard, except when the person is dead and then all of a sudden his plan become the news of the day.  No one seems to care about the young folks and their need to get quality education and training to prosper in a country which has great competition for even the smallest work to be done.  For a generation of bickering and back stabbing politics, the country’s young people can’t dream of even simple things, except to look forward to the next crisis that is almost all the time expected.  How will they plan and achieve their life’s ambitions without the support of the systems from their infancy?

When you really look at the disarray in handling of the simple people issues by the elected leaders, and their focus on continued emphasis on what was done wrong by someone in the opposition, there can never be emphasis on what is needed now and for the future.  There is no denying in the fact that if a mistake was done it needs to be corrected, and if someone willingly did something wrong they need to be punished.  The time just cannot be spent in just digging dirt and abuses, rather in planning and execution to the country’s enormous requirements.

To allow the young people to dream, and think of the future is what will drive the focus and force of the nation.  If the elected officials have no time to do people’s work then they should never be elected.  The democracy always allows for a choice, and the choice should be the right future for the country.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Leadership Vacuum

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India has no shortage of talented people; both women and men have excelled not only in India but all over the world.  They control large corporation, major political offices and intellectual leadership.  Corporation to universities continue to look for Indians to provide leadership and brilliance to the global enterprises, and we rightfully are catering to just about every aspect of the global economics.  Indians are in the forefront of meeting every global opportunity that is availed to them, and most cases successfully so.

We have more than a billon of us calling ourselves Indian; sometimes with a tag of something as American Indians, of British Indians, or whatever tag we wish to adopt to, to fit the local conditions.  Sometimes it is also exaggerated hyphen to simply describe the immigrant status of the country we have adopted.  For a fact even fourth or fifth generation Indians use the tag line just to be one of us, although for generations they are as foreign as any other foreigner is to an Indian in India.  NRI or whatever name is given to be politically correct is really not a true representation of the group of people who have gone on to find work and a new home, but in India everyone has a tag line even when they just move to the next district.

In any case for a country with such vast population and a huge diversity in thinking and education, we must have a way of finding good leaders.  In a democratically elected government; for example as the USA, it is even difficult to predict who could be the next president.  The electorate is quite smart to pick who they think is going to do the most towards the causes of common people, and elect that person and the elected president gets only two terms to be in the highest office, and cannot run for reelection after 2 terms as president.  The system does two things; allows for a fair and unbiased election to the highest office and imposes a term limit to the person who gets elected to the highest office in the nation.  As much as a president wants to do more or continue to be in the office for longer than two terms, the constitution prohibits the person from doing so.

India for sure has the ability to produce fantastic leaders who can take the country forward in economic development and regional harmony.  Nothing is stopping us from prospering in the world, both internally and internationally.  The stagnation of the same old politics and principals, and same old dialogue of being a developing nation is tiring and has become unproductive and repetitive.  From being a third world nation to a developing nation took more than 65 years of independence, but it is probably the most overused expression by idiot politicians who want to continue to justify their incompetence in managing the country.
 
As a country India continues to struggle with incompetence with its leaders and scams and stealing which is continued unabated.  Despite the horrendous mismanagement of the country and its resources we keep looking at the same people to come into or come back into power.  It is high time to look for forward thinking and serious men and women who will plan and deliver economic and political reforms and stability to a nation that has great resources but cannot meet its basic demands.

Cinema and its Magic

Vasu Reddy from Chicago vasureddy@aol.com   While in my college days in India, there was no internet, not much television except single chan...