The Business of Killing

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Outside of eat, drink and be happy, we also like the business of killing.  I am no longer sure of the word happy applies to killing, as we seem to be surrounded with the business of killing.  Where ever you live in the world, from the streets of Chicago, to worn torn Middle East, Asia and Pacific, and Europe and Africa, Australia and everywhere we live we seem to be obsessed with the killing business.

Most of my weekly columns don’t require any research.  They are mostly reporting facts as is, or opinions based on observation.  For writing this column, I spent considerable time looking for information on when did the human beings start this business of killing each other?  The internet has millions (may be billions) of references to our evolution, and along with the evolution into current human form, we also have a history of creating and using weapons.  Weapons to kill, what else?

A lot of time was invested trying to trace the first human conflict and invention of weapons.  All this stuff goes back to hundreds of thousands of years, and whatever little we can find on history of weapons and killing relates directly to about 500,000 years and the evolution of neocortex took place at the speciation of archaic homo-sapiens.  While this sounds more scientific and something we don’t want to dig into any deeper, it simply means that human beings brain began to process complex social phenomenon such as language and religion.  It was a long time ago when human beings as we are today when the creation evolved with brain large enough to appreciate and learn multiple languages and understand that we all might not be the same.  There it started, this whole business of logical thinking and illogical thinking, which leads into the business of killing.

I am a Hindu by birth, and believe in god.  Everyone in my family I believe are all believers in god.  Hinduism is also traced with a fairly long history, that predates any other religion is believed to be a way of life.  Our preachers and historians, and our elders all state the same; Dharma and Karma.  Simply agreeing to the oldest religion as the one which believes in reincarnation, it leads to the belief of being good and doing good, and you are rewarded with another human life which is in Hind scriptures as the most intelligent form of life on earth.

Not deviating from the business of killing (the author is not an expert on religion or history or anything else, except being a Hindu in the USA), our epics are all ending with the killing business.  We adore the Ramayana and Mahabharata, but they are full of great virtue of the revered Hindu gods and goddesses, and names of men and women who look up to daily, and pray for their blessings.  The stories which we have been telling for thousands of years, and we continue to read them, write them and practice them.  We love this mythology of our religion, and we cherish the values of the scriptures with the ever changing world, we hold them close to our daily life and in birth, in life and in death; in all instances we believe that the great scriptures are things that we live and follow.

Actually all religions that we follow and all religions we practice and follow are of similar practice.  People are asked to do well and be good in every religion, and then the interpretation of the holy books of each religion that we would like to embrace is what leads us to do what we do.  The business of being good and doing well is widely publicized, preached and asked to be practiced.  But what we are embracing is using our brilliance to fight and kill.  Much of the business of killing now a days is based on religious beliefs and disputed boundaries.

Us humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and perhaps were at constant territorial conflict because of food or resources, and sometimes because of the opposite sex.  Only in the past two or three thousand years we have developed the fascination for killing in the name of geographic boundaries and religion.  In reality there are so many more of us on earth, and we continue to grow in population at alarming rates.  We are also developing ways to live longer and be more productive.  We are also finding ways to cut short our own life by the virtue of religion and geographic boundaries.  The business of killing seem to be blooming despite our ever expanding intelligence and comprehension.

Why are we in the business of killing? Only god knows.  Because outside of going to war for land grabbing, natural disasters are the only other reasons we use for mass killing is religion.  That’s the one thing only god can answer.  Every Holy Scripture preaches peace and coexistence, but those are the followers don’t want to practice it.  Why don’t we follow what we want to believe in?  There is no answer to this.

Better Leaders While in Opposition?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Indian politicians in the recent years have become more vocal while in the opposition.  The freedom of being in the opposition makes them bold and critical of every move made by the party in power.  Once in opposition the national and state and local leadership becomes very vocal and critical of every move made by the government in power.

A combination of available media outlets and the freedom of being in the opposition and also not having the responsibility of governing to the public, makes politicians experts on policy and governance.  Part of the aggression and analysis comes from the ability and time to analyze performance of the ruling party without the burden of governance.  Also a major part of the aggressive critique is because of the availability of information on every action of the government in power.

The available communications channels serve dual purpose; one – to get updated on everything possible instantly, two – react to whatever is being reported.  Adding to the instant availability of news and updates. The channels also broadcast commentary and opinion.  Most times the reporting is not objective, it is reactive and subjective to catch what is happening.  Many times someone is simply narrating what they see, as they see events happen.  This sometimes is not accurate, rather live narrative, and can be inaccurate.  But the viewer will latch on to any kind of negativity with which the information is being narrated.  This kind of reporting is often corrected as the details of the incident become clear.  Many times even after the corrections are aired to the reported events, the originally reported in accuracies will remain in the viewer’s mind, and most times the politicians are the group that latch on to the inaccuracies in reporting, and they certainly will spin them as facts, especially when the reports are about the opposing political parties.

This kind of opportunism is not limited to just the Indian politicians.  This is a common political phenomenon all across the world.  Politicians specially love to take reporting inaccuracies and twist them as facts, and add a bit of drama to the information and start story-telling to constantly use inaccuracies as facts.  Sometimes the debates on such inaccuracies take a life of their own and the inaccuracies start becoming facts, and be kept alive in the media until something else becomes a topic of discussion.

The opposition parties also have an advantage of the lection loss.  They all of a sudden have the time to reflect and react and repeatedly point to any deviation to election promises and manifesto of the party in power.  The opposition can be vocal in critique and knit pick on even at the programs that are in public interest.  It is great to be in the opposition as the public doesn’t hold you accountable.  You can make it a full time job to simply be a critic of the administration, and get the eye balls and attention.  The opposition also has a long sabbatical from governing, so that they can pretty much do and say anything that they choose to until the next election cycle.  Not being in power enables voice rehearsals, reviewing government actions, become active on networks as a political and social analyst and critic, all this while enjoying the freedom of not being accountable to public.

Nature’s Fury

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The massive earth quakes, the tsunamis, the heavy and unseasonal rains, the long droughts, the extreme cold, the extreme heat, and all what we call the unnatural events we term as natural disasters have always been a part of earth’s existence.  Our evolution into who we are today clearly chronicles the metamorphosis of humans and the mother earth herself.

We know that one massive land mass broke into today’s continents, which still constantly are moving and creating new boundaries.  The volcanoes and the earthquakes create and destroy the land and surroundings, and reshape the geography quite often.  In the billions of years of its existence, the earth has always evolved into something new and reinvented the conditions that fostered life in many forms.  Until the evolution of human beings in their current form who started to inhabit the land, the habitation of earth was in concert with mother-nature and its sustainability.  The living beings simply survived in the environment of their time and caused little disruption to the eco system.  The fury of nature and the cosmic connection simply determined the existence and survival of the living beings.

Only in the last hundred years or so the humans have either used up or abused much of the earth’s resources at such a rapid pace, much of these earth’s resources that took billions of years to create.  In fact not just on the land mass, we have already abused the oceans.  We dig, we drill, we bore, we cut, we clear, we kill, we pollute and we find very which way we can to destroy the very place we live.  We have only had motorized vehicles for a little over a hundred years, and we might be getting close to using us the oil reserves on earth in a couple of generations.  We are not only using up the reserves, but are also polluting and burning a lot of these reserves either being careless or using it as a weapon against one another.  It won’t be too long before we exhaust the oil reserves and start abusing some other natural resource in thirst for our energy needs.  Simply put in a very short span of life on earth, man is single handedly using up all the natural resources that the good earth took to create its inception.  The ingenious human mind has so far only been smart enough to use the resources, but still has yet to work on sustainability.

The biggest burden is also that the humans keep multiplying at an alarming rate.  We also keep making self-made rifts with color, religion, culture, language and whatever reason that can be found.  We keep abusing everything around us; be it human, living and all the natural resources.  We have eliminated more than 90% of the forests and vegetation, but seldom think of the consequences on the eco system.  We have continue to alter the earth at an alarming rate, and we create waste and trash everywhere.  All this while having no regard for the environment and its fragile eco system.  We really don’t appreciate the beauty and prosperity of our surrounding nature and the good earth.  It shows our utter disregard for the earth.  In just about a hundred years we have used and destroyed just about every available natural resource and dramatically altered the edifice of the good earth.

We complain about the dramatic changes to the dramatic changes to the environment and the extreme changes to the conditions with seasons.  In fact we have destroyed the natural protection that fostered the regular seasons, but fail to realize that we have caused the calamities that are effecting the earth.

While the human consumption and behavior influences the seasonal changes on earth, the earth itself has the ability to self-correct the disasters.  The real problem is at the speed humans are contributing to the drastic changes to the environment, the earth really doesn’t have the time to regenerate.  It is impossible to correct such accelerated abuse of natural resources.  Whenever there is natural correction to the abused environment, we always find ways to accelerate some other means to destroy the environment.  Then we start using the term nature’s fury.  We are smart enough to know that there is no unlimited of anything (including our own life span), and the resources we need take a long time to be created.  Unless and until our intelligence is directed at preservation and upkeep of our nature and our surroundings, and we develop the much needed respect for the mother earth, we will continue to deplete and destroy the precious resources that can never be recreated.  We can only complain about the nature’s fury.

Trivial Pursuit

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Normal citizen of India is looking at the Modi government for actions on many of the poll promises that put him in the PM chair just about a year ago.  There is no magic to politics, and Modi and his BJP colleagues are no different than other master politicians in speech verses performance.  The election promises of a political party that is in the opposition are typically targeted at the weaknesses of the incumbent government, and the electorate already has the five year history (or in some cases more than one term) to make opinions on the ruling party, and also listen and make opinions to vote for the opposition.

Along with majority of Indians both in India and the NRI community, yours truly also strongly advocated opinions (and continue to express positive opinions) for Modi lead government for India.  There are may be a dozen major factors along with many more tangible and intangible reasons for voting for a change at the central government in India in 2014.  Modi and his team and their agenda that sets out the future of India, for both the very rich and the common man and in between the middle class.  The rhetoric, the speeches, the words of wisdom, the challenges for the new government, the wide reach of the media and internet, the many reasons of the nation’s needs and in my opinion the corruption at every level of government; all factors that needed to be changed and Modi hit one every one of the failing of the previous government, and we the people were listening to him and his party.  We really needed change at the top, and also change in the policy and administration of the country.  It did not matter who was listening, but just about everyone wanted to have the government do something to curb the corruption and start focusing on the common man agenda.

Modi was a successful CM, and administrator and also a man who is quite simple and reaches out to everyone.  His reach is enormous to everyone with ability to communicate, and in today’s connected society he is a superstar.  At times he is like a teenager who is constantly updating his profile on the internet pages, and much of it personal and meaningless for public policy.  He shares his private moments with his travels and other head of state, and most of them are filled with his personal anecdotes and his personal comments on where and with whom he is with.  Modi is the leader of the largest democracy on earth, and his reaching out to anyone on earth is unobstructed.  His personal equation with everyone he meets is quite warm and receptive.  It doesn’t matter which country he is in or who he is meeting with, the man is a charmer.  His travels and interactions globally has certainly put India and its leadership as a positive discussion across the world.  We finally have Indian PM that is a welcome visitor into the global audience, and he certainly is smart and savvy to embrace people, politics and culture of everywhere he is.  He is our own political superstar.

In a year at the helm of the country, Modi is well travelled and well engaged man of action.  His agenda is enormous and his public persona continues to expand globally as a man of substance and pro-development.

To review a year at the helm of India is quite trivial.  It is difficult to really look at the election manifesto and 12 months in power.  The election manifesto is typically a list of corrections to the failures of the incumbent government and adding a few spicy issues that are of importance to the nation at the time of elections.

The massive change in the perception on India and Indians across the world after Modi took over as PM is the curtailing corruption.  It is a universally known fact that Modi and his team have been quite vocal in curtailing the corruption, and in the last year there is no significant or major scam that is highlighted as associated to Modi government.  Personally, this is a major plus for Modi and his government.  The telecom, coal, public sector privatization, defense and any other areas where the government has taken major initiatives and auctions, there is no whiff of scams.  This is an election promise that Modi made, and if the current trend continues it is the most significant achievement of this government.  This is probably the most important contribution to the nation’s well-being and managing it resources.

Moving from a state capital to the nation’s capital, especially with the vast diversity of India and its needs. Modi definitely has some more learning to do on what his government says and what it does.  The reality of running a massive nation is much different than running a state, and we can see the management issues that have become common to Modi government.

To begin with a year is over in governance, and it is time to implement what is constantly being publicized as government agenda.  Also, for each project make public what was said and what is being done.  Outside of curbing corruption, there are a lot of initiative that the government must respond to, and put out the progress on each of them.  For sure the promise of returning black money to all Indians is simply impossible as India alone can’t force the global banking system to do something they have never done before, and also estimating the amount of money that is really stashed abroad is the most unimaginative poll statement any politician can make.  People are way too smart to realize that there are things the government can do and there are things that are impossible.  People would appreciate if the government fixes the laws going forward and curb the hoarding of unreported money, rather than trying to figure out imaginary numbers that were promised before the elections.

The government should stop announcing impossible expectations, and start publishing the report card on the already under process initiatives.  Take the next four years to better manage the country’s resources and continue to eliminate graft and cronyism.  By simply diverting the national resources to national building, people will respond to the next elections.  No matter how well you speak or how well you tell a story, the audience is limited to one sitting.  You will have to deliver to the expectations for people to continue to listen to your story.  In Modi’s case and his BJP government, the emphasis should be to continue to eliminate graft (100% graft free) and start publishing the progress of its many initiatives.  No matter what the progress the public will want to know where the government is in doing things that are of importance to the nation, and the public also is fully aware of the reality of life much more than what politicians give credit to.  Modi is always online and it will take his government very little effort to update the nation on everything they have said they will do in the last year.  Just keep us updated and we will judge the actions.  It’s simple to understand and appreciate facts, rather than play trivial pursuit with government’s actions.

Where Are The Billions?

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

It has been a year since elected BJP government with an absolute majority, and made Narendra Modi the prime minister of India.  The year has seen India and its public relations on an upswing, and Modi ass a leader with great public persona.  Modi himself has always been a media and publicity savvy and he connects quite easily and well with global leaders and common man with ease.  His personal equation with global leaders he has met is displayed with extraordinary ease to the tune of friendship.  It is quite a site to see leaders of the world display such camaraderie with each other as if they have been friends for a long time.  It is great to see Modi connect with the rest of the global leaders with such ease and simplicity, and it is quite extraordinary that all the global leaders develop such personal equation with a man who just shot into the international leadership such a short time ago.  It’s all good for the Indian psychology to have its leader treated in such a welcoming way by the global leaders.  The Indian diaspora across the world continues to give Modi a rock star welcome and there has never been such a spectacle of public display of support for Modi wherever he visited.  The endearing thing about Modi is his interest in local culture and traditions and people, and his constant pitching to the audience almost bordering a great salesman.  He continues to travel and receive the adulation from leaders and public from around the world, and also he continues to reach out the every person he comes in touch with.

In his year-long travels and visits Modi has raised pledges for tens of billions of dollars in commitments from just about every nation he has visited.  These are pledges by governments to make investments into India.  There are untold amounts of commitments by companies and NRI population to invest in India.  The entire world has looked at Modi and his government with great expectations for good governance and improving the economic and living conditions for all Indians.  The initiatives taken by the Modi government on clean India, river cleanup, make in India, sanitation and toilets, girl child support, infrastructure, smart cities and many other programs announced along with good governance, with focus on investment opportunities; all of which are good and very much needed development programs for India.

The fact is that the Indian population and the global audience continue to give positive response to Modi and his continued pitch for supporting India.  For the past year most of my weekly columns have covered Modi and his government and governance.  The issues that are focal point of Modi and his policy initiatives are well in line with what is needed by India.

With the end to the first year of office approaching, people want to grade Modi and his government.  To a large degree it is difficult to measure the success of the government in what they have accomplished.  Many initiatives Modi has announced are straight out of his party’s election manifesto.  They are programs that sound great and have great general acceptance.  But after a year in power, the country is looking for these programs to be executed, rather than constant barrage of promotions.  Modi continues to travel and sign agreements for billion and billions, but what has happened to the billions already committed in the past year?  What has happened to these massive commitments made to India?  Where is this money, and when will it be invested and what is the status of these projects and plans?

One of the most interesting and intriguing plans was to build 100 smart cities.  Not a single one has started in becoming a smart city at the end of the year.

The list of what happened is quite long.  There is no doubt that Modi’s good governance is in full swing and we have yet to hear of another scam in India.  Modi himself is hard working and definitely influences others to follow suit.  Modi certainly logs in long hours and his staff and ministers are getting used to working long hours.  But what has happened to the billions pledged into India and who is tracking them and their progress into the economy?

Modi is constantly updating his personal anecdotes on social media, and he is quite good in making statements on what he started.  It might be best for him to also track the progress of each of these things he announces.  He has the time to update the world on what he is doing and who he is meeting and how much pledges that he is getting, but a track on what is happening to these pledges and projects on a regular basis will help appreciate what is that we have really achieved?  It is really time for this government to stop the campaign mode and start the implementation mode.  It’s very simple to measure.  Publish every project, commitments made, who made them, what has been done to those commitments and what has been executed that was initially publicized.  Simple steps with; who, what, when, where and why? On every project that the government has announced.  Modi and his government should make it a practice to update the nation on progress of all these commitments, along with his selfies and personal anecdotes.  The nation deserves better and the government also deserves to do better.

Victim’s Rights

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Last week’s court proceedings in Mumbai about a Hit and run case from 2002, was major headlines all across the news and web channels.  Salman Khan, who has been accused of driving drunk and killing one and injuring others was in court, finally, and the hearings, judgement, bail and the ensuing drama surrounding the proceedings makes one wonder about the victim’s rights in a high profile case.

One of the survivor of the accident says “We don’t want to see Salman going to jail.  We bear no ill will towards him.  Our family has been hurt and destroyed because of this accident and we only want help with moving forward with our life”.  It was on 28^th of September 2002 when this happened and many years have passed by and much has happened to the lives of those involved.  Salman continues to be a superstar and the pavement dwellers have lost a life and lively hood.  After so many years of coverage and hoopla the case finally got to court on May of 2015, and the arguments focused on if Salman was driving the car?

There is still no resolution on what will happen next despite the court hearings, judgement, bail and further opinion of a superior court on Salman’s sentence to a five year prison term, and granting him bail until further hearings.  The judicial system is definitely very slow in dealing with the case load they have.  Every case they have on the docket takes many years to simply come to hearing and much longer to final judgement.  Often the parties to the case, both sides of the argument are fuzzy about what really happened and the story changes many times in the time that is lost before things are argued on court.  The recollection of things that transpired gets changed and often difficult to assimilate as the time goes by.  When a celebrity is involved, the whole world would already have an opinion on what happened (as if they were there).  The press, social media and general public would have already have made up their mind on the accident and many times during the course of time would have changed their opinion on what they believe as facts (as if they were there in person), and changed their mind on the same many times.

What will not change is the life of the victims and the accused.  Whatever the cause of the accident; the difference is with the life of accused and the victims.  Someone died or got hurt, be it with negligence or accidental, whatever the cause it does cause damage.  The damage to property and the human suffering itself is immediate.  For someone to wait for decades to have closure and receive any compensation for the loss is more painful and damaging than the accident itself.

Most of the high profile accidents get a lot of publicity just because of the celebrity status of the individual involved.  What happens to the victims after the initial hoopla? What happens to the accused?  How does both the parties deal with the prolonged legal process?  The uncertainty is not just with the Indian legal system, but with just about every legal system in the world.  Even if the right facts come out after the prolonged wait and then the legal proceedings, who will actually get justice?

Does the victim who has lost life or suffered injuries and can no longer support his/her family get any justice by simply jailing the accused?  Is the system simply prolonging the suffering for the victim and uncertainty for the accused?  Why isn’t the government mandating the insurance to protect all the parties involved?  There are so many more loopholes to the process than just a prolonged and uncertain legal process.  The fact that both the parties to the case continue to suffer; one with human suffering and other with uncertainty.

Everyone involved and every system that is involved really needs wholesale changes in the process of handling the accidents; be it involuntary or voluntary.  Victims of prolonged delays in handling the case, and not having the insurance to help cover the accidents and health related issues should be dealt with, with at most care.  People who buy vehicles and pay for registering them must also be forced to pay for insurance to cover the damages and health related issues that follow the accidents. While we want to have a developed transportation system, we must also enforce the insurance that covers any loss of property or loss of life.  If we don’t then the entire population becomes victims of the system that simply doesn’t know how best to handle the vehicular accidents.

Nature’s Fury or God’s Way?

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The natural disasters have become common and loss of life is in thousands due to the disasters striking close to populated areas.  Sea shores or mountains or plains or any habitable place on earth have become susceptible to what we call natural disasters.  The human losses have become bigger and bigger, as the natural disasters have also become bigger and bigger.  Hurricanes, Tsunamis, earth quakes and every imaginable weather conditions n extremes keep striking heavily populated areas of earth and also causing both property and human losses in large scales.  Billions lost in property damages and thousands killed in the process of losing everything in the way of the massive disasters.

The occurrence of a natural disaster is not a new phenomenon to the earth.  These things have been happening since the beginning of time and long before mankind has been in current form.  The recorded events of the natural disasters have happed on a much larger scale than those we are experiencing today, and we have enough evidence of drastic changes to the ecology of earth and wiping out massive life forms because of these natural calamities.

The loss of property and loss of human life these days has a correlation to the habitation by human beings rather than the disasters striking at any greater frequency than they were for centuries.  We have simply grown in huge numbers into billions of us on earth, and have ignored that the earth keeps reinventing itself and is a living and breathing planet on the whole. The fire, the wind the water and the land itself are fluid and active mechanisms that work together to keep our earth along with the living beings in the way we are.  God way is nature way, and we should all know it by now that we can never change the nature way of behavior.

While we grieve our fellow citizens of the world when the natural disasters strike, we don’t learn from the last disaster.  We continue to build in the way of attracting calamities and abuse the nature that we are supposed to take care of and worship.  We simply don’t care to look at what has happened before and what might happen in the future.  The history, the science, the learning and the experience of human life which is well recorded today, has never thought to take steps to avoid the nature’s fury.  We are certain that we will die, and we are also certain that we cannot control nature’s way of behavior.  We are certain of nature striking with uncontrollable force, and we don’t have any way to protect ourselves from running away from natural disasters, yet we still build and occupy the earth right where disasters are most likely to hit.  For centuries of certain natural happening we simply think that it will not happen to where we are, and we pay a great price in both life and property by not learning from the history that is so well documented.

Mother Nature has been the same since the inception of earth and long before life in its current form.  We have grown in unimaginable multiple and we abuse the nature in unimaginable fashion.  All most all the natural disasters can be tracked and traced but we continue to live in nature’s way.  With the science and technology where it is today the earth and natures behavior is 100% predictable, but we don’t heed to our own learning, and we simply believe that it won’t happen to us, but to someone else.  When nature strikes it is news but the warnings and the experience that we have are always forgotten or they are relegated to the news or google.

If we believe in god and mother-nature they have always been consistent.  They are predictable and always have been acting with great force and predictable natural changes.  We humans are also been consistent by thinking that nothing will happen to us and we keep putting ourselves in the way of nature and predictable earth movements.  God has his own way and we humans have our own way, except there are so many more of us and so much more of civilization in harm’s way that we measure in dollars and lives; which increasing get bigger and bigger with each passing year and with each passing natural disaster.  Weather we believe in god or not, nature and its way has always been what it is, and it is us humans who are always putting ourselves in harm’s way.

Netaji’s Files

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy From Chicago

He has been reported to be in a plane crash and perished in 1945.  He might have decided to be under wraps since 1945 and wanted to live in peace and quiet and far from the politics of the world.  We really don’t know what happened to him.  Before he disappeared Netaji Subash Chandra Bose has left behind a legacy that is good for many life times to come.  With each passing year, his legacy gets bigger and bigger and more enigmatic.  India continues to be intrigued and continued to be interested about Netaji and what really happened to him.

The way the successive Indian governments have handled his files, which are under lock and key only adds more to the intrigue to Netaji’s life after his disappearance.  In 2015, with INC under a very minor opposition as a political party, and the new government of BJP, which came into power with the platform of reforms and openness; still hold Netaji’s files a secret, and still is holding them under lock and key.  The much over blown nonsense is constantly used as a reason; sensitive information is in the files and it can hurt international relations.

It’s the biggest “crock of shit” to say that a country of more than a billion wants to make public the files on its independence heroes after more than 70 some years, and the government in 2015 keeps using the term “hurting international relations” as an excuse to keep Netaji’s files a secret.  Indians must be living in a country run by biggest bunch of idiots or the files must have information on India’s most important people who did some really stupid stuff.  Indians have always wanted to know the truth to be told, however bitter it might be.  India today night be the only country using the nonsense excuse of “hurting international relations” as a reason to keep whatever files that exist in its possession on Netaji.

One possibility is that there are really no files of importance that exist, or these files might be simply some of the personal communications between leaders at that time expressing opinions or asking each other favors.  Whatever this information is, if it exists, was between people of an era where history has already recorded their deeds and experiences, and all most all of these folks are no longer with us.  Not only the people who are no longer with us, and many of the governments have also under gone major changes across the world.  We no longer live in a world of secrecy, although our mindset might not be any more open than it was in1945.  The only difference might be we can no longer hide anything in the world.

On almost daily basis we read about Netaji’s files, his policies and politics and many new tidbits on what he did and how he did.  Lately some published article stated that he wanted India to be under dictatorship for a couple of decades.  It is clearly illogical to think that any of India’s independence fighters would want to liberate the country and then turn the country to a dictator.  In 1945 the world had a lot of experience with dictators, and for sure Netaji would know the consequences of a dictatorial regime.  While something new is constantly appearing in print, it is hard to support any suppositions on what was being thought of in the time when India was under the British rule.  From whatever information and documentation that is already in public domain, outside of personal recollection of people who were a part of the era, rest of the new information is simply supposition unless it has documentation to authenticate the information.    

The only documents that are under lock and key of the Indian government and may be with the British government (if they really exist) are the only documents that might shed light on the so called national interest (whatever that might be) and tell us what might be the information that has been kept so secret about Netaji.

Whatever these files are, if they exist, the government should simply scan them and make them public.  Netaji or whosoever is in the files and whatever information that has been kept under wraps for so many years, will simply be news for a day and people will move on with their lives.  The truth is never going to hurt Netaji’s legacy or anyone else.

India’s Heroes

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

India has a lot of men and women who gave their entire life and sometimes life until their death to the cause of India’s independence.  Hundreds of thousands sacrificed their entire life to get the British out of Hindustan.  While Gandhi and Nehru represented India globally along with a few others who became the political mainstream of India post its independence.  The list of freedom fighters who gave their life fighting the oppression and occupation is so long and so distinguished that if is disrespectful to all of us and to their memory not to think of every one of them.  There is no better cause they fought for and no way to repay their contributions except we think well of them.  We pay our respect just remembering them.

Bhagat Singh, even today brings pride to all Indian hearts.  Sardar Patel the Iron Man even today remembered for his deft politics and policies.  Alluri Sita Rama Raju is still remembered for his fearlessness in facing the occupying forces.  Netaji continues to be a legend with his deeds to all Indians.  The list of each of our heroes is endless as the occupation was long suffering for a vast and greater India.

A fairly large volume of publishing are available from many renowned writers on our heroes and heroines of the modern India.  Many of our freedom fighters before and after 1947 wrote personal memoirs and some even went on to write a great deal about their life and times.  All these are great reminders for generations of people who followed the great souls and their sacrifice leading to the independence that we enjoy today.  These works remind us of the great sacrifices and will always be fresh in our minds of their service and sacrifice.

Many of our independence fighters wrote their own memories, biographies and a great many books imparting their wisdom to the rest of the world.  Also a great deal has been written and continued to be written about these martyrs.  We continue to write about them; eulogizing, analyzing, recreating, explaining and taking a look at their life and times again and again.  There is continued appreciation for the independence moment and the participants of the movement, and the stories of great sacrifice and great courage and conviction keep being told.  The time it was is continued to be told to the generations that have followed the nation after the independence.

For the citizens who are enjoying the independence (the largest functioning democracy in the world) today the stories of our heroes will always be alluring, intriguing and fascinating.  While we live in the age of instant news, TV, radio, internet and instant messaging; we take it for granted that we will know and find out about all that is happening around us and around the world.  We are literally force fed the information from around the world; the good, the bad and a lot of ugly stuff.  We probably forget almost all of it as quickly as we hear it.  We have access to information from across the globe on a 24/7/365 basis.  There is absolutely nothing secret anymore.  Someone is watching, recording and almost instantly publishing the information for everyone to see and read.  Most times it’s fleeting but it’s out there for everyone to see.

The generations of freedom fighters did not enjoy the instant reach we have today with communications.  Often they had to write and send messages, and in many instances hand written or typed that were sent to each other.  Some of them have survived the many years after the fact show us that the effort they put into communicate and transmit simple information.  For us to look at these messages today and imagine the thought process of each of these documents is to read into their mind of our heroes.  We probably are seeing only a fraction of these messages and correspondence that survived the ravages of war and time, and the time since their actual being.

To think of the revolution today, that was played out by the heroes of 1900’s would be unimaginable.  Today even a very simple message can be sent out to billions of people in an instant.  The responses are almost as instant.  We live in a different time and different place than in the 1900’s.  We let our hero’s life and times be as is and only try to reflect on their courage and sacrifice that lead us to where we are today.  They lived in a different time.  They endured occupation and hardships which we can only imagine.  Whatever they had to do, whatever action they had to take, whatever sacrifices they made, whatever actions they had to take; all of them were instrumental in August 15, 1947.  All of them are heroes; young and old, with or without names and where ever they were.  Jai Hind.

Mandating Balanced Spending

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

The governments must adopt balanced budgets as a part of electoral and governing process.  All democratic governments must make constitutional amendments to adopt balanced budgets and also eliminate the debt that is being carried on their books.

Countries, states, municipalities, cities and everyone that represents an electorate must be mandated to adopt balanced and debt free budget.

The United States despite its vast resources and great wealth has had very few presidents that delivered balanced budgets or surplus revenues since its formation.  Just about every president since George Washington has added to the budgets deficit of the nation, and the current president has not helped much to deflate the budgets.  As we elect a new president and the government adopts a new budget, the deficits are growing in trillions (only the super intelligent or super computers can keep track of zeros in trillions) and there is no end to borrowing and increasing the debt ceiling and the trillions keep multiplying on a regular basis.  The cost of servicing the borrowed money is the largest line item on the liabilities chart of the national budget.

Our homes, our cars, any possessions we acquire on debt and can’t make payments on time get repossessed by the lending institutions.  As individuals and businesses when we can’t repay the debt and interest, and especially when we can’t pay the tax man we get taken to task.  Just about every average citizen has once or more fallen into the debt trap.  Many face bankruptcy and debt and tax burden beyond their capabilities to just make ends meet, and pay for the consequences of living beyond their means.  What we can’t afford to pay for can’t be ours.

But we individuals elect governments and allow the governments to spend without discretion.  We allow the governments to rake-up as much debt as possible and add to the future burden for us and for generations to come.  Why should there be any difference in the ability to spend for an elected government that we don’t have as individuals?  We elect the government, but we allow them to blow the budgets year after year, that too at every level of government that represent us; the common man.

There is certainly complexity to running a government that has both macro and micro economic factors that gets into the mix that a family, individual or a business doesn’t have to worry about.  But the governments typically pander with promises that cost money outside of what resources it has to the voters to get elected again and again.  As we all know the leaders constantly pandering to vote banks by making promises beyond what the budgets can afford, and each successive elected government widens the deficits.  We can certainly learn from history that politics of pandering make commitments that create budget shortfalls.  Countries such as the USA also pander to other nations in the name of protecting the national interests.  This protection of nation interests create huge and unplanned expenditures resulting in military or aid spending, and these costs decimate any kind of planned spending.

Also in human nature is looking for unlimited social benefits and the government to provide them.  Along with schools, roads, medicine, power and resource management and protecting the nation and its global interests, we certainly want the best of everything in life, and typically don’t want to pay for it.  The states, cities, counties and local governments also would like to have the best of everything, all including pandering to the vote banks in their electorate.  With every election cycle the pandering to the electorate busts the budgets.  To satisfy the vote banks the governments borrow more and bust the promise of keeping the costs in check.  We don’t mind large cities going bankrupt, and some politicians might even fancy the thought of bankruptcy as appealing as it eliminates the liabilities, so the government can start again and start creating another massive hole in someone’s pocket.  While it might be a prudent for an individual or a business to reevaluate the balance sheets for survival, governments doing the same decimates the lives of its citizens and workers, including their retirements.

We have a history of mismanagement, electoral pandering, vote bank politics, ignorance and above everything wasting and mismanagement with public coffers.  We also witness the drama of public officials displaying little regard for managing public funds.  We, the people constantly watch this drama play out every time we look at our local, state and central governments trying to borrow more and more.  At the end of the day it is us, the people who will ultimately pay for the whole charade.

Just imagine; if the cost of interest is no longer a line item on the budgets.  That money can go towards taking care of us now, and saving for the future.  Just imagine the cost of money as interest verses interest earnings on savings.

Its time now and has been for a while to balance the budgets.  It is time to save for us now and for the future.  It is time to mandate balanced budgets and right to govern for future prosperity.  It is time to mandate for constitutional amendment for a balanced budget.

Civil Disobedience

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy from Chicago

Our own Mahatma in the early 1900 thru India’s independence in 1947 and until his death in the hands of another Indian, and Dr. King in the middle of the last century until his death in the hands of another American and Nelson Mandela for the better part of the last century and then becoming the president of South Africa after the apartheid regime; all along with many other leaders practiced civil disobedience to make a point against the human atrocities or human failings.  When they marched against a social issue or agitated peacefully against atrocities of others on their fellow beings, they really were not elected leaders or politicians.  These great souls were leaders without office or elections, they were leaders of humanity simply looking for equality and justice to their fellow beings.  Each of them and many others along with them, and before and even after them who practice non-violence and civil disobedience were making a statement about the indifference of one community to the other while living and coexisting in the same space.  Their message and life was simple that treat all human beings equally.

All the great men we talk about and read about, and constantly refer to are souls of great determination and human strength that simply allowed them to be extremely patient in communicating their message; we are all equal and let us be treated equally.  There are many millions of interpretations to their life and work, but in essence their message of peace and coexistence was quite firm and quite direct.  Every other example they set to the rest of us was peace and equality to everyone.

Their life and times were in different political and geopolitical environment, and faced vastly different environmental and public challenges.  They did not have the www or 24/7/365 media covering their messages.  They were the messengers reaching out to one person at a time and practicing what they were preaching.  Everyone else who came in touch simply absorbed their words and their message and simply followed them to achieve their life’s ambitions; peace and equality.

The world also witnessed and witnesses a lot of agitations against just about everything, and just about every way.  We humans have a way of expression for any against everything.  On everything about half of us like and about half of us dislike and a few of us have no opinion.  It is not a democratic process but we humans simply like and dislike everything.  So, on just about everything about half of us don’t like while the rest of the half like.  Agreements and dissent are a standard and staple part of life.  As such when we take the public opinion they are typically divided on like and dislike of any word, product, process, place, man, woman and child or anything else on earth.  We simply don’t agree on everything; 100% of human agreeing on something is not possible.

As with today’s constant barrage of TV, radio and internet updates there is evidence of a great market and great global audience but most of us have already made up our minds on what we like or dislike, and little swaying will be done by anything negative or positive presented to us.  There is no question that we public continuing to want positive and progressive changes to life and society.  This hasn’t changed since the beginning of life; we want to be better and do better.   We don’t have to be too smart to want to do better, it’s simply the fact of everyone’s life to do better.  We want our elected politicians to make efforts to meet the demands of electorate, we public don’t hesitate the send the politicians home very quickly if they don’t perform.

We have moved away from leaders of humanity to politics of performance.  No amount of negative advertisements or comments will do any good to sway the public opinion if there is no performance.  The days when leaders too to civil disobedience to put forth the demands of the public have long since gone and the days for leaders to perform to the needs are here.

Balanced Budgets

vasureddy@aol.com
Vasu Reddy From Chicago

The most important and most offered advice to humans is to be wise in spending and save for the future.  Future refers to retirement and taking care of the needs of the children and family.  As long as life has been recorded, the opinion offered to save for the future exists.

Some societies religiously practice savings and foster the environment for savings, and families continue the practice to plan for future.  Some do exactly the opposite by simply spending whatever is available to them, cash, credit and whatever other form of resources that are available to them, and then spend rest of their life trying to make payments.

The philosophy of planned expenditure, saving for the future and spending within the constraints of available resources are all that are inseparable teachings to all of us. This refers to individuals and families and organizations and companies and governments and nations.  Looking at the world very few (you can count with fingers) nations have balanced budgets and excess budget savings.  As is true with individuals and families who have savings in excess of their needs.  It’s true that large corporations and small companies that are cash positive and sometime cash rich, but they are supposed to be profitable for their shareholders, and that the primary intent of the business.

But the governments of the world; countries and states typically are run with deficits, and each year these are added to the cost of managing.  In some cases the largest cost line in budgets are paying for the cost of borrowing; namely interest on borrowed money already spent.  In case of the United States and my state of Illinois the interest cost is so large, the people who will look at the future will have to simply worry about two things;  themselves first and the nation & state next.  How will they ever satisfy the cost of already borrowed money, and what will happen to me?

What is quite revealing in the day to day affairs is that individual states, and even city governments can press for balancing the budgets and how the people who live in these localities can both contribute and benefit from the balanced budgets.  In a recent visit to Pittsburgh we shopped a little, and there was no sales tax on clothes.  If you live around the Chicago area it is close to 10% of the purchase for the same.  There are probably other ways people get taxed in various states, but even a small drive from county to county will make a huge difference in how we get taxed.

In democratic societies, small countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong have somewhat flat tax rates for individuals and corporations and thus inviting investment into these countries.  There are a number of small countries where the tax code is simple with a flat rate or no tax, but the consumers will pay for one rate for consumption.  There is probably not one single plan that is custom designed for all countries that will eliminate the taxation issues, but there has to be a plan for everyone on earnings and spending and somewhere in there saving a little for future.

To ensure that we have a future, balancing the budgets and saving a little every day is essential.  The governments that are formed through elections cater to voter banks and make allowances beyond the available resources.  Also, there is abuse of power and money when large budgets are being handled, and a whole lot of waste that goes into big government.

While the public decries the spending cuts, they also should be forced to look at the cost of unplanned and unbudgeted spending.  One can’t simply say that you take care of me now and I am not worried about what will happen to tomorrow.  The decades long abuse of politics into budgeting and catering to voters has driven the states and countries to live off debt, and it’s time to buckle up and start cutting the fat and start saving for the future.

Mandating the balanced budgets might be politically suicidal for candidates, but elected governments can enforce these.  Once the public sees the benefit of balanced budgets and no interest payments they will appreciate the value of spending money on things that matter rather than pay interest.  Encourage more savings that will help foster a better plan for tomorrow.  Simplify the tax code that will be easy to apply and follow.  Move towards consumption and spending taxes rather than a very large tax code that no one appreciates or understands.

The governments can make sure that 100% of all spending is accounted for on all goods and services at the point of delivery and eliminate the loopholes in tax avoidance.  There are so many simple ways to improve the prospects of money management by simple changes to the behavior of the consumers, and mandating the balanced budgets.  The discussion on tactics to enforce 100% transparency and balanced budgets will be difficult to voter banks, but will be beneficial to the overall health of the population for generations to come.

Smart Cities

Vasu Reddy From Chicago
vasureddy@aol.com

Isolating a particular geographic location as smart is imaginary.  We have planned cities across the world, typically built around an industry or business.  Many of these cities or townships built are planned to suit the requirements of the particular location, and housing, schools, hospitals, roads and parks and sanitation, water management and shopping and all appropriate transportation and recreational facilities to meet the needs of the new population are all planned and developed, and can be called planned cities.  These exist all across India (for a matter of fact around the globe) and are simply referred to as colonies. They are quite well managed and well laid out to meet the needs of the population of the colony and the working adults, home makers and the children, and the people who work for the families including maintenance and support staff, and the vendors and shopkeepers all of them preserve the colonies intended and isolated cleanliness and organized way of life.

The organized and planned mapping of the small cities is not a new concept, and even a mid-sized city like Chandigarh, despite the population growth still retains the charm of a planned community.  The interesting aspect of planned communities also bring the planned families.  The children of the planned communities typically have good educational facilities through high school which help prepare children for college and planned educational future, and also typically help them learn multiple languages.  The colonies also bring together a multitude of people from all parts of the country, sometimes from different parts of the world, helping them to work with each other, live with each other and also appreciate the different cultures, languages, habits and life style, and more over help the families to appreciate their differences and live well together.  More than just work and life, the multi lingual and multi background of parents help children more than the adults in growing up appreciating the diversity of fellow men and women.  The planned communities, might have started with helping to keep the working men and women together and provide for their wellbeing, really help develop the next generation of children growing into adulthood with a sense of larger community and understanding of diversity of the people.

The new Indian government building smart cities is not a new concept.  Talk of building a 100% new smart cities of revamping the existing cities into smart cities is more political than an economic solution.  We really build smart cities with business and industry as the basis for new development.  You can take government, information technology, telecommunications, mining and shipping, tourism, education, airport, farming and warehousing, and any other business or industry and build the infrastructure that supports that particular enterprise and build the towns and cities that are fostered with employment and opportunity for the residents.  India despite its population and the last two decades of growth still can build smart cities quickly and intelligently to provide for its current and future population.

Indians are conscious of their nature and surroundings.  The new plastics and paper culture is really foreign to the nation where stainless steel plates and glasses are a standard in the kitchens, and limited waste created by the food or other habits of majority of Indians.  The latest fast food industry of paper and plastic can be easily avoided by simply following the basics of the last generations.  Saving the environment, using solar power, public transportation, building sanitation facilities, farming with care, above all respect for nature and preserving for the future are all well engrained in the Indian life and teachings and simply reinforcing them along with building sustainable living areas will make the country to continue to be more livable for generations to come.

 

Smart cities will simply require smart living and smart approaches to life by all citizens.  While it may not be immediately possible to make everyone comfortable with every aspect of life, taking steps to develop the infrastructure, continuously educate the population on sanitation and cleanliness, and providing for opportunity to work and live where they are, will make it a very smart country.  It is a great initiative to build smart cities, but it will be a greater initiative to build smart minds and smart lives along with smart cities.  We really need to strive for a smart country for all.