The Divine Right

It's summer again and Stockholm roads are infested with enthusiastic cyclists.

Of course it's clean, green and healthy mode of transportation and I'm all for it; but that doesn't necessarily mean that bikers are beyond traffic rules though, does it?

As soon as people ride on their bikes I think they feel uplifted to a higher moral grounds and traffic rules are only for mere mortals!

It goes absolutely bizarre at the traffic lights; when it's green for pedestrians the cyclists go, when it's green for cars then also they go! Which means they can cross the junctions at their free will.

All road users are equal, but cyclists are more equal than the others!

Apparently zero carbon vehicles are entitled to a default right of the way over those abominable gas guzzling cars. If it's not written explicitly in the traffic rule book then obviously it's the book's fault!

Though this explains the sneers I get from the haughty cyclists every time  I try to inch forward my car obeying the signals, I get completely baffled when I almost get pushed to the ditches by them while walking!

The same people who unleash their wrath to the walkers for being too slow, ride on the main roads at 15 km per hour, totally oblivious to the trail of cars forced to crawl behind them.

And if they happen to ride one of those sleek, racing bikes, wearing full gears of the Olympic performers, then they'll ride on the main roads EVEN when the beautiful cycling tracks run just parallelly; to avoid the snail-pacing pedestrians.

Talk about grabbing the best of all worlds!

On one hand authorities in Sweden are pushing people more and more to use the bikes; free parking places at the station or community center are diminishing and are getting replaced by cycle stands.

And once again it's without much thought on practicality, demographic diversity and treacherous weather conditions. Everybody,of all age, physical ability...have to bike everywhere,to jobs, schools or fare grounds...in all weather,in rain, snow or gale.

One can only hope that the emission cut down achieved by this mass biking will be enough to offset other first world wasteful extravaganza like wrapping bananas in plastics, using ten paper napkins to eat a sausage or having the headlights always on... even during 22 hours of broad daylight!

It's probably just a matter of time before the fully geared bikers race on to the motorways to exercise their Divine Rights!

Let it go

When the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum to allow his people to have a say on the atrocious measures of austerity, I was truly mesmerized.

And I felt almost ecstatic when the Greek population gave an overwhelming OXI against all kinds of blackmailing and bullying from Brussels.

Thought Greece just gave the world a repeat course on democracy after 3000 years.

But how my ecstasy changed into agony in just one week! It beggars belief that, the defiant Mr. Tsipras would surrender so meekly just within days.

He first tried to broker a deal while remaining in Euro, which was fair enough. He thought the overwhelming mandate from his own people will give him an edge while negotiating.

But like many of us, he also couldn't fathom the utter worthlessness of his fellow Euro-zone leaders.

None of them has any leadership qualities or a strong popular base in their own countries. They're surviving on coalition trickery,talent voids in oppositions and political agnosticism of general public in their homelands.

The popularity and support of the masses like Mr. Tsipras got in that referendum, is something beyond their wildest dreams;They can't mobilize a mass even to save their lives.

They're just a bunch of mediocre bureaucrats, who at best can serve in the boardrooms of medium size companies. But true leaders of the people, with long term visions, they are absolutely not!

Moreover, they play in the hands of big banks and business houses who want to nip any sign of socialist movement at the bud.

Hence it's no wonder that Brussels played vindictive politics. They saved the Euro (for now) but broke the spirit of the Union.

When the European politicians got the Greek prime minister on their home turf of European parliament, they savaged him for his audacity of asking for a mandate from his own people.

Soon economics took a back seat, it became a "trust issue" or in other words, game of revenge and humiliation.

The debates reached such a low that Nigel Farage's speech seemed more sensible than most of them!

But shouldn't Mr. Tsipras have had a plan B? to leave the Euro?
What's so special about it anyway? When clearly it is failing for Greece?

True, most Greeks wanted to remain within Euro. But was it for no matter what? Event at the cost of their future, their sovereignty, their standard of life?

When the  Union itself has failed...when it proved to be nothing more than a club of bully boys...why still then this obsession with Euro?

Eurozone obviously professed Grexit synonymous to unimaginable abyss, but why would Syriza, of all people, have to buy into that?

Even when eminent economists like Paul Krugman or  Mark Weisbort argued along the opposite line and Argentina did make it happen in the past!

May be Tsipras together with his Syriza colleagues should have talked to people to ease out their fear of the uncertainty by presenting an alternative plan. It's already been proved that the Greeks trust them, even when the choice is difficult!

After all there is world beyond Euro. Very many countries not only exist but also thrive with growth far beyond Euro-zone.

It would be difficult, especially the initial months, but definitely a doable and viable solution, unlike the present joke of a deal!

Euro was probably worth fighting or negotiating for; but only up to a certain point.
Beyond which, like many other once precious things in life, you've to let it go and move on!

Not In X-Chromosome

Just read an article on how the inner "nesting" tendency is the biggest obstacle in women's true empowerment.

Written by a woman, known broadly as a feminist, surprisingly ranted on how women "happily" give up career to focus on family and kids. 

It lamented the fact that women PhD are actually "leaking pipe" of knowledge as a large number of them don't pursue their subjects after starting a family.

The author blamed this inner "femininity" for” the all-round failure of women in every sphere of life". 

Nothing could possibly be further from the truth.

Blaming women's “gross failure” in all sphere of life squarely on themselves is misogyny at its best.

Firstly, I doubt it's really a big failure; considering the fact that women only got any human rights worth speaking of, after the Second World War, they're not doing that badly in the fields of science, technology, politics or literature.

The fact that creativity didn't die within women during the millennia of patriarchal oppression just proves its fundamentality.

In a society most of the people are mediocre and they often find solace in little blisses of life...men and women alike...rather than mind numbing, physically draining hard work.

Only a handful of people driven by the passion for their work makes a remarkable scientist or poet. And I believe that fraction is same in both genders...if you discount effect of forceful oppression.

What she described...like women leaving their jobs midway...is a social problem. It can be handled socially with affordable child care, generous parental leave and more egalitarian division of domestic chores between men and women.

If we map the percentage of women giving up career in a given country against the socio-economic condition there, we’ll clearly see this.

If it were really in the X chromosome, as she apparently suggests...then this trend would have been universal everywhere.

But in Sweden and in other Scandinavian countries, we see the exact opposite; here the majority of women don't give up their career midway.

True most of them don't become Madam Curie or Agatha Christie, but then we don't see that many Heisenberg or Conan Doyle either!

As I said, it's the difference between genius and mediocre...not between men and women.

 Also, it's pretty naive to blame the women ONLY for their apparent affinity towards triviality and trinkets when the “boys’ toys” are a booming industry.

Some men spends as much time and energy on cars or x-box as some women do on curtains and cushions. Both are equally harmless but neither encourage career fulfilment or doing something for the greater mankind!

If this is what a feminist does to fellow women then who needs an MCP!

It's collaboration, not competetion

No ones knows who invented the wheel...but we always try not to re-invent it!

Somebody in ancient China was clever enough to invent the printing machine while another discovered the formula for gun powder. But they didn't file any patent for that!.

Some brilliant mathematician in India came up with the idea of using zero and built the foundation of mathematics; yet s/he fell short of protecting its intellectual rights!

Yet there are billion dollar law suits being fought all over the world over "a rounded cornered rectangle" or a tiny-winy change in the chemical composition of a life saving drug.

Sometimes these corporate houses win and sometime they lose. But what I abhor is the very idea of hogging and hiding the knowledge and related benefits.

It's not for the benefit of the inventors as these big companies often claim. If anything, it protects the interest of lawyers and shareholders in expensive suits, rather than the actual "inventors" who often work in their R-n-D labs for a modest salary.

Knowledge is for sharing, not for hiding. But today's immensely complicated patent laws and fierce corporate battles for minuscule "inventions" seem to differ.

How the world would look like if the real important theories and inventions were well hidden? If Ohms law and Lenze's law could be "patented" to be used by a privileged few? Or the method of Pasteurization, the penicillin, the semiconductor? I could go on for ever with this list....

Most actual scientists and inventors don't like or want such hedging of knowledge. Evidence is Wikipedia, Linux, Java and the numerous other open source projects!

With all their money and PR power, these big corporate houses have successfully created an atmosphere where the common people think that the intellectual property right is a fundamental right. It nurtures a culture of so-called healthy competition which would, according to many today,  enhance intellectual capabilities of human race.

Even if we discard the fact that these competitions are never healthy and are always heavily rigged in favor of big players in the field; this whole philosophy is wrong. It's collaboration, not competition which made today's human civilization the way we know it.

As the raspberry pie founder Eben Upton pointed out so rightly, we've become alienated from the technology in last 20 years. There are ever more users but so fewer innovators in technology.

And all these patent laws, legal complexities and ban on sharing and collaborating in the name of protecting the IP rights, deter the very spirit of innovation.

Instead, all the focus is on branding, packaging and doing mild tweaks to create another business channel selling to those ever increasing tech users.

This might very well suit the big corporate houses and their pet lawyers, but as the only intelligent species of this planet, we've a thing to worry!

Fair Play

It was such such an refreshing site to see Dilma Rousseff and Angela Merkel in the VIP box of World Cup final!

No, I'm not a fan of either of them. But at least they brought some balance to the otherwise hopelessly male dominant gala fest of power, money and muscle!

From players, to coaches, support stuffs, FIFA officials, even the vast majority of reporters and photographers....it was such an overwhelming male dominance to everything that were important!

It's not the World Cup Football for men...it is THE World Cup.
All women's sports of course always comes with the tag "for women".

If aliens had watched the clippings from the prize distribution arena, they would've thought us to be a species without sexual dichotomy! Other decorative elements such as those Emirates hostesses standing behind with plastic smiles fixed permanently into their lovely lips....could easily be mistaken as aesthetically designed robots.

Two other middle aged, bald, male politicians would have blended so well with the scene, if not for these two ladies! May be I'm too optimistic, but at least to me it symbolized an world where the power dynamics are changing...slowly, but surely!

You can no longer ignore the "weaker sex" even in high testosterone activities such as the world cup football final; where traditionally the "fairer sex" would only be used as show piece elements like those bubbly-bouncy cheer leaders.

Now suddenly you have two feisty ladies at the center...with the power and importance to actually distribute the mega prize! And they didn't even have to be any important man's daughter/wife/widow to be there; they earned it themselves through years of professional rigor.

Surely the world is changing! Just wait till Ms. Clinton joins the gang!

Once again, I'm not a Clinton supporter; yet the prospect of having an woman at helm of the most powerful nation makes me a little excited.

Some people believe that an world led by women will be a much better place to live in; as women, according to them, are more compassionate and nurturing. This I find almost as stupid as any other stereotypes like "men have aptitudes for technology and women for fine arts".

I don't believe that women leaders...as a generic category....will be any better than their male counterparts. You just can't attribute characteristics...good or bad...which will be true for all the members of any gender.

There will be good woman leaders and bad ones; possibly more bad than the good ones; just as we have had with male ones.

It'll not make the world any better;just a little fairer!

We the people

Who would have imagined that Vladimir Putin would look better at least in one single human rights issue, than the Nobel peace prize winner Brack Obama!

Yes we all know that Putin is no saint, has many skeletons in his cupboard and has his own axe to grind in this whole saga of asylum to Snowden.

Yet he deserves some respect as the only one having the guts to stand firm against the monumental intimidation from US.

Let's  have a stock of the reactions from world's big players around this issue:

The "conscience of the world", Scandinavian countries, chickened out citing technicalities.
France and Austria meekly succumbed to US dictates against global protocols.
Germany cried foul-play without having any impact on the issue whatsoever.
UK once again shamelessly wagged it's tail behind the almighty US.
....at least Putin's Russia had the courage to do ONE right thing.

That one good act doesn't negate hundreds of blatant civil rights breaches, but at the same time those blemishes can not tarnish this one heroic defiance.

After all someone had to support this courageous young man...and I welcome it even if it comes from Putin. With their medieval treatment to Bradly Manning, handing him over to US for a "fair trial" would have been totally inhuman.

We are all hugely indebted to Snowden, not just for exposing NSA's Prism; but also for tearing off the fake moral cloak that US and European countries pretend to wear.

It reinstates our faith in humanity. For every secret court they form and every lie they spin in NSA (and alike world wide), there would be a Manning or a Snowden...bearing a legacy of Daniel Ellsberg.

Their acts might be illegal but not unjust. And it certainly does not condone the bullying and witch hunt US had been engaged into ever since.

"when tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty".

It's neither the alienated lawmakers nor the big corporations who would decide the fate of 8 billion inhabitant of this planet.

At the end of the day democracy will triumph as "of the people, for the people, by the people".

A different yardstick

The Indian government finally got into action after the double whammy of a massive domestic protest together with a surmounting international pressure after the Delhi gang rape. However, it is still not convincing how much of it were triggered by the urge to "stop the bad press" as opposed to an honest intention to protect it's women!

Otherwise how do you interpret the trial of one of the accused in Juvenile court with a maximum possible sentence of three and a half years?

They are claiming it is the law of the land; well it is not. At least there can be exceptions to that law, such as for the terrorist activities. A special court upheld the life sentence of one of the accused from 1993 Mumbai blast who was minor at that time.

The sentenced terrorist Qureshi was deemed unfit to be tried under Juvenile Justice system as "It is clear that Qureshi from his conduct referred to above cannot by any stretch of imagination qualify as a child in need of care and protection as the acts committed by him are so grave and heinous warranting the maximum penalty but the designated court after considering all these factors awarded him lesser punishment when the co-accused who accompanied him to fisherman's colony and committed similar acts were awarded with maximum punishment for heinous acts committed by them along the co-accused."

I fail to understand which one of these arguments are inapplicable to the minor accused in the Delhi rape case. Is his crime not grave or heinous enough? Are his co-accused not likely to get maximum punishments?
Most importantly, which part of his conduct "by any stretch of imagination qualify as a child in need of care and protection"?

If terrorist acts are heinous so are such horrific gang rapes. And this "minor" accused was reportedly the most brutal.

So clearly the yardsticks are different when it comes to crime against women in India. Even when there is so much mass protests and international pressure is involved!

This is just the tip of the iceberg; this was not the first rape nor will be the last rape in India in any time soon. Everyday women are getting raped, molested or being subjected to domestic violence. The society just refuses to change!

From low level police constables to commissioner, from politicians to spiritual gurus, every one think the victim "must have instigated it to some degree" when it comes to rape; perhaps the only crime where the "fault" is seek in victim, rather than in accused.

Society won't change overnight. But government must treat the crime against women in the harshest possible way, if they are sincere about bringing the change. If it can pass a special law to counter terrorism, then it can do the same to clamp down rapes.

This particular incident terrified a lot more people than any terrorist group can ever dream of. Every Indian woman's fear to board a late night bus has intensified. A billion people are afraid of the safety of their female family members when they are out and about for regular business. Foreign tourists are afraid to visit the country. In immediate aftermath of the incident, the women employees were leaving the office before dark in Delhi. In some organisations they were even advised to do so by the authorities themselves.

A whole society is paralyzed by terror to function normally and even began to forget what normalcy is. Indian government must change their outlook. And the international community should keep their pressure on as it involves one-fourteenth human beings of this planet!

Packet Loss

Just came back from (yet another) project "postmortem" on what went wrong and  I can't think of anything more apt than the picture bellow:

(I had seen an earlier version a few years back...but seems it had improved over the time...surely from the contributions of some witty volunteers!)

You'll really have to appreciate the baby-like innocence and naivity of some people:

from day one you start cutting corners everywhere...in budget, competence, time and definitely on quality...where you don't cut corners, but just leave (some of) the corners; whistle blowers are sick and tired of blowing their risk-sirens loud and clear to everyone's deaf ear.

Yet you headfastly go ahead to deliver the half (or quarter or even less) cooked things to the customers without caring a thing about the underlying technology. And then you're utterly surprised to see the resulting mess and innocently asked why!

But Cynisim apart, it's just amazing how much information is lost in transmission. As any  text book will tell you...performance will significatly be improved if you can reduce the number of hops.

May be getting rid of those Project Managers could be a good start!

Scarred

I met J- in a summer school in Denmark. She is doing her masters in physics in a university in Finland. When I casually asked her what brought her there, little did I expect the answer: it's the women-friendly soceity in Finland which prompted her to chose the place!

Now this is rather unusual. I have heard people opting to go for a post graduation abroad for brand names (Harvard, Yale or OxBridge), better research facilities and labs, chance to meet the frontiers of the field, to see the world and know different cultures. Even the potential for money or lucretive employment in future play important roles in such decisions. There could also be some personal reasons like family or boy/girl frieneds.

But a move steered by feminism? No, I've not heared it before. Esspecially when she had many other popular options like US or UK. She has done her bachelor's from IIT Delhi  and any institute in the world would be happy to have her as their master's student.

So I probed a little and what I discovered left me decidedly blue.

During her entire stay of 4 years in the Delhi IIT (or perhaps years before that when she was growing up in Chandigarh) she was discriminated against because of her gender. India is a secular country where the constinution vows to treat people equally irrespective of their race, religion or gender. Yet an elite institute like Delhi IIT imposed a rule that every girl returning back to the university campus after 10 pm would have to sign a logbook detailing why they " had to" go out. Obviously no such rule for boys returning back any time of the day!

Such arbitrary rules....just for the sake of the girls' "safety".....were all over the place and I can't blame anyone feeling suffocated in that atmosphere.

There  was even an incident of rape, not very far from the girls' hostel. The victim was not a student, but that is hardly comforting.

Everytime such a thing occurs, authorities come up with some more " rules" to ensure girls' safety, which essentially means some further restrictions on their basic liberty.

Probably this is not unusual in a country where the police chiefs and minsters publicly say that it is upto the women to prevent the rape and molestation; they should not go out in a provocative attire!

Of course there is no statistics showing girls in bikinies get molested more than those in sari!  Then since when the bigots care for facts!

So at the end of her final year, when she had to chose prospective places for further study, J- googled for the country with best records in feminism. Finland came first and she applied there!

Actual criminal cases can be statisticised, but what about numerous such incidents where young, active and intelligent girls are scarred for life? J- fled to Finland, not everybody can or is willing to take such drastic steps; but they live a life of continuous fear that something might happen to them if they are late at work or spend a couple of hours extra at a friend's place.

It is the competent and capable young Indians like J- who propelled the colonially destroyed country to the front row of global importance within 60 years of independence; and it'll be utterly stupid to lose potentially half of them due to mediaval mindsets of a vocal minority in the Indian soceity.

But most importantly, it's a question of civil liberties and basic rights of half a billion people which no one can ignore.

Bad Loser

Losing crown is a horrible experience and there is barely anybody who can take it gracefully...be it a person or a country.

The reigning supremo of the present world, is just going through this, and Boy, the process is long and painful! So no wonder the reactions are so pathetic at times; like US coach's reaction to the spectacular gold wining performance from the Chinese prodigy Ye Shiwen at the London Olympics.

The girl was probably still in the pool, when he proclaimed she was on illegal drugs to achieve this fantastic feat! What happened to sportsmanship, admiration for excellence or celebration for the Human achievements no matter where they come from? Aren't these the values Olympics is based on?

Using performance enhancing illegal drugs in big sporting events like Olympics is well known. US athletes are no less guilty of resorting to doping than Chinese or anybody else for that matter. That is why there is so many well organised tests which each athlete in the games has to undergo.

So what made John Leonard to jump into such a big accusation without waiting for the dope test results? Has jealousy and failure has taken over all decency and commonsense?

When it is Ian Thorpe or Michael Phelps then it is awesome achievements by mankind, but when it's Ye Shiwen, it is doping without proof! If this is not racism then tell me what is!

Flo-Jo's 100m record has been left untouched for decades even in today's highly competitive athletics. So by Leonard's "unbelievable-and-hence-doped" argument should that be discarded as well? Or would he bring "Americans-can't-cheat" logic (!) then?

And where does it end by the way? As the IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist said so rightly that the sports will be in danger if  surprise performances automatically provoke suspicion.

I am no fan of China and I would probably dislike the next superpower as much, if not more, than the present one, given China's appauling records on human rights and freedom of speech.

But what this self proclaimed messiah of liberty...the great US...is doing is just ridiculous. And their bad sportsmanship extends every sphere...from sporting arena to global economic summits;

US is just being a bad loser!

Spicy Science

So Higgs boson has been found (well 'almost'; as The Guardian put it so elegantly...."it's a definite may be!").  Congratulations, in which scientific journal is the result published? Oops no where...not even submitted yet!

That's strange. Really, really starnge. A press conference of this magnitude, coverage in main stream media comparable to that of World Cup Football, and no published results in accepted scentific journal yet? It must have been cross verified by some other very reputed groups then?

Well not actually....as none has the required setup !

And this "discovery" (four sigma or whatever) doesn't even point to some hetherto unknown theory or phenomena; nor does it explain any of the gaps in understanding so far. It doesn't complete the unified field theory or explains quantum gravity.

To do any such thing, tons of more data will have to be gathered and analyzed. So why jump the gun then?

I really feel sorry for the big scentists who has to "publicise" such almost true results even before they have got enough time to analyse it in a truely scetific way, as a marketing startegy! After all large hedron colliders don't come cheap and getting such gigantic funding for fundamental research at the time of economic doom and gloom isn't easy.

How can they forget their copetitors across the Atlantic in the Atom Smasher, who had to close the shop. Or the NASA space missions...even though it is in completely different teritory the one thing that is uncannily similar is the need for an astronomical budget.

Hence it seems the scientists resort to the marketting gimmicks . Perhaps they learned it in hard way that equations and experimental details don't sell as much as "God Particle", no matter how prepostorous it may sound!

I can't help remembering that episode of the Big Bang Theory where Leonard was persuaded by Sheldon et all to sleep with a rich, old widow to secure funding for their institute.

Or may be this comparison is a bit unfair on Leonard....at least he didn't compromise his science, merely his sexuality!
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Summer Slumber

It's simply unbelievable...roads in Stockholm are suddenly deserted. The stretch from my office in Kista to home where the traffic normally crawls during rush hours now goes past in a jiffy.

Weekend shopping has also has gone through a phase change; not only I can park my car at the nearest row, but I can chose between, say, a sunny or an under-the-shed spot! The isles in the super markets are empty...no collision of trollies, no queue at the fresh fish counter. And I can now almost walk past the payment counter.

 No, there hasn’t been a great calamity or natural disaster or outbreak of epidemic; just the Swedes have deserted Stockholm in folks as the vacation season started.

 Right after the "Midsommer dag" (the summer solstice on 23rd. June) virtually everybody in Sweden goes on holiday...for five or six consecutive weeks!


This is more than any such thing I've seen or heard anywhere else. And don't forget I've worked for an year in France, whose August vacation is mocked a lot on the other side of the Channel. Even that 4 weeks French vacation is dwarfed by its 6 weeks long Swedish counterpart. In all fairness, even French tend to stagger it partially between the colleagues.

 But here in Sweden, no staggering of holidays or splitting it to spread across different times of the year. Everyone will take the whole of it starting at the same time. As the lovely summer in Sweden lasts for about 6 weeks (or less!) no one wants to miss a single day of it.

 This is of course not all...on top of these six summer weeks, there are generous allowances for sick leave or parental leave, if you have young kids. And if you can produce a new progeny, you can say good bye to your office for nearly a year and a half!

I'm not at all in favour of American way of no paid holiday...where the workers are exploited for the benefit of company owners. And I do believe that holidays make the workforce happy and recharged who in turn become more productive.

Still what baffles me about the Swedish way is how do they sustain it? Firstly how can a country function when everybody is on holiday for 6 good weeks? And secondly, how is it viable economically?

Of course certain emergency services have to be kept open even in summer. This is done by a lot of temporary workers (mostly foreign). This is more expensive and often less effective: Last year I had to visit the GP surgery during summer. The doctor who checked me up was a temporary one and had told me that I'll see a different one during my prescribed return visit an week after....as he would move to a different hospital in 3 days! Not the best of medical care, is it?

But the Swedes seem not to mind such minor inconveniences and insists that taking all these weeks together is important, to unwind properly!

 It seems to be working pretty well for them (though not sure how!); so I'm just trying to make the best out of it. After all driving in traffic free roads or finishing weekly shopping in 15 minutes is blissful.

Working in an empty office feels spooky and I do miss the fika with my colleagues. But then I can update my blog more regularly during this rather quiet period.

 So the balance sheet is positive I guess! Or maybe, with passing time I'm becoming one of them.... not in height perhaps, but in spirit, nevertheless!

Begining of the end?

Are the welfare states on the verge of collapse? No matter how I might dislike it, present signs increasingly point towards that.

The concept of sharing and caring, which emerged from the runis of world war II, when people understood the importance of a collaborative soceity in a hard way, seems to be easily forgotten within just sixty years.

The hurricane of biggest world war flattened many barriers quickly:  The strong class barriers and elitism were swept away. It even eroded the centuries old gender discrimination to a large degree and propelled the feminism to a new height. The scarcity of working age men opened the hetherto closed doors to women whose competence dispelled age old myths about "gender-suitable" jobs.

But all these are coming back in a new look. We are seeing a new generation of nouveau riche "celebs" whose socio-emotional gossips in page 3 attracts many more readers than the actual news. The feminism has also taken a back step in the recent years whith the increasing number of stay at home mums; espsecially where the affoardable child care is not available.

In the recent years the welfare states were under big pressure due to increasing demand of the growing population and stagnating economy of the developed nations. The recent economic downturn seemed to work like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Yet if we look carefully, it seems to be more like a shift in attitude rather than a solely economic one. The neo-elite rich, who once again are controlling the money and power in the society care about nothing but themselves.

Their greed, incompetence and selfishness brought the banking sector to the brink. But the biggest irony is these very people were put in charge to draft the rescue plan where they protected their interest unashamedly while preaching austerity measures for the rest of the soceity.

Wheather it is Obama's incapacity to put stimulous to the economy, or EU's bailout packange to Greece with some absurd conditions of austerity or Cameron's latest rhetoric on benefit cuts....it's the different facets of the same agenda: save the interest of the rich at the expense of common public.

It's fine to destory the best public health care system in the world (NHS) or to terminate the housing benefits for unemployed youth or to cut the child care allowance for struggling families. But you can't take a farthing away from the hefty bonuses of the bank bosses.

As Gandhi once said:"There is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for anybody's greed"!

Wave, particle....and 24th. floor

"Where is M-"? asked a visibly puzzled T-, rushing into my office. I had to say I had no idea and even though we share the same office I do not actually track his minute by minute whereabouts.

"Well, his skype status says he is in office and this is his office isn't it"? grumbled T-. "Last time I checked it was, indeed", said I.

"Well, he must be in quantum mechanical world then", T- seemed to be rather satisfied with his apt, geeky sarcasm. "He can actually be present beside his pool at home and in his office at the same time"!

While the two of us were sharing a good laugh at M-'s (and possibly Heisenberg's) expense, the man in demand returned.

"Hey M-, which state are you in right now? wave or particle?" I asked ( How could I let this opportune moment go!).


 "Since we couldn't explain your iCloud status with you enjoying the lovely spring afternoon by your poolside garden in any classical way, we resorted to quantum mechanics", came T- to rescue.

Well, you know what, it was M-'s turn to be geeky this time (let's face it, he is perhaps the smartest among the lot, anyway!),
"you're missing a third state my dear colleagues, it's the 24th. floor, where I was in a meeting", smirked the Swede!

While all three of us cherished a hearty laugh I couldn't help thinking about the virtual-real multi dimensional existance of Modern Times.
                                                       
We are always connecetd but never reachable; our status is  for the whole world to view yet we're unsure about our next moves;we've thousands of buddies to chat with and none to talk to....
                              
The list could go on longer, but my mood (or my emicon?) has already changed from LOL to grumpy!

There are already thousands of physically dead users in facebook, some of them being posthomously exploited by internet fraudsters while the others' virtual immortality just hurt their near and dear ones.

It's multiple-schezophrenic soceity.

Feminist Utopia? Not quite.

Sweden is a country with great gender equality. Nearly half of it's members of parliament are women (without any quota). Swedish men are perhaps the best in world when it comes to taking their fair share of household chores and child care. The salary gaps between genders (even though it exists) is among the lowest in the world. Perhaps still short of ideal world, but definitely the best in this world.

Or so it would seem. But then wouldn't you expect nearly same representation from both sexes in almost all fields, including science and technology? I'm leaving out construction works or similar manual labour jobs for now...firstly because men do have more muscle power than women in general and secondly because I have very limited experience of that domain.

But as the intellectual ability is same in both sexes, how does it then explain the representation of roughly 21% women in technical jobs in IT sector? Which is, not surprisingly, the same as that of female student percentage in engineering departments.

Is it really then the stereotype difference between a male brain and a female one? That the one is tuned for science and the other for humanities? Well, complete absurd as it is, it is in fact is the main factor; not because it is true, but because the society to a large extent still believes it to be true.

Even in egalitarian Sweden, there are distinctly different girls' toys and boys' toys. In day care centers little girls dress up like princess and boys as warriors. Often boys and girls play in different groups in the pre-schools.This society determined  gender stereotypes continue in schools and to universities where girls are expected to enroll in certain departments and boys in others.

Progressive Swedish doesn't say those "girly tastes" are bad, but still maintain that two sexes are "suited" for different things. So women continue to overwhelmingly outnumber men in HR or accounts departments where as men dominate in techie jobs. And since none is considered better or worse than the other, there is no conscious effort or need from any quarter to change it.

Not a true feminist Utopia, is it?

Versailles never ends

Two hundred years after the French revolution, in the Land of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", a statue modeled on French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy is to be erected in Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, part funded by tax payers' money.

To add insult to the injury, Bruni-Sarkozy, who probably never have done a single day's of honest work for a living supposed to represent "plumassière" – a female worker from one of the area's former feather factories.

This brilliant idea to spend more than €40,000 of public money in this statue came from the local Mayor from Sarkozy's ruling right-of-center (?) party.

Was Marie Antoinette more out of touch from the general public when she suggested them to eat cakes, if they don't have breads? At least she wasn't elected by the same public!

I am no fan of French Socialist party; but have to agree with William Geib that "It's sad for the women who were employed in this job. Carla Bruni must have seen more ostrich features on the catwalks than in a factory."

Truly, revolution is not an one time event, you have to keep doing it.  200 years is a long time to gather the scum again!

Seems the Versailles never ends.....!!!

Outsourcing Insight

Barak Obama is pitching hard to stop, or at least halt, the massive outsourcing by US companies to other countries (to India, mainly). It was always there in his political agenda and with tough November Senate elections in sight, he has sharpened his attack on outsurcing in an attempt to woo the recession trodden Americans.

Without even considering the typical American hipocrasy of banning outsourcing while trumpetting for the free market economy, let us first analyze how this is proposed to be achieved.

Obama said he is trying to change a tax rule whereby the companies outsourcing their jobs will loose the tax break which will be given to the companies creating jobs within America.

Come on, can someone as talented as Mr. Obama seriously think, that companies outsource their jobs ONLY to get some tax cuts? The money that these companies save in salaries and capital expenditures for the outsourced posts far outweighs the tax break gains.

And what about the talent pool? Though the outsourcing originally started with cheap labour in mind, now it has moved much beyond that. IT Jobs are outsourced to India because of the vast pool of educated and experienced professionals. That is why big American giants like Motorola, IBM or GE are opening more and more R&D center in Bangalore. They're not just investing in cheaply laboured support or call center.

Experienced Indian brain is no longer cheap; Some multinational biggies pay to some of its prized engineers in Banglore more than what it pays to their engineers in similar positions in Europe. They do crib about it, but can not help investing more in R&D centers in India as it cannot ignore the vast talent pool and the work quality.

Cutting the tax breaks for the outsourcing companies will just be a political gimmick which may even work with ignorant American voters; but the actual remedy is much more complex and time consuming.

If Obama is really serious in tackling the issue then America should invest in serious education. Scrapping the teaching of Creationism can be a good start! And this would be a long term project without much hope for immediate effect on the ballot boxes.

The outsourcing companies will even find ways to get arround this tax break rule. For example, they can form subsidiaries in other countries. That'll not amount to outsourcing and hence the rule will not be applicable to them. I'm sure qualified tax lawyers can find many more elegant solutions!

Anybody with the knowledge of the industry knows it. That is why neither the American companies nor their Indian suppliers are worried much.  All they have to do is come up with some new arrangements and tax consultants will walk happy to their banks.

Indian share market is running all time high, profit of the IT companies are increasing and they're hiring more than ever. No one is unduly perturbed.

In capitalism, if anything is good for the companies (capitalists) and bad for the masses then that will prevail. Profit is the almighty here which American people, in general, claim to support wholeheartedly.

Outsourcing is here to stay, not because it is bad for America, not because it is good for India, simply because it is the way the capitalism works.

Yes ! It's back again !

I couldn't believe my eyes; is this real, or am I just hallucinating? After almost a decade long absence, is it really back? Will I be able to satisfy such a basic need of life now in a way I want? Will I be finally able to get rid of all those discomfort, shame and dissatisfaction caused by its absence?

I had to check. So I went closer, checked the inside information, touched it, felt it, spread it to full and did a mental measurement. Yes. it is true; the High Rise Jeans is back in shops again!!

Now if you are a fashion front runner (very unlikely, considering that you're reading my blog, which is not quite to the taste of a fashion diva or a style guru) then you'll probably say that it has already been back to fashion some months back. May be; but being someone who throws the newspaper fashion pages straight to recycle bin and who is not a shopaholic, I could be excused for not noticing them on the very first day.

And it does not really matter when it came back, as long as it is indeed back. Now those days of spending futile hours to find a decent pair of trousers which sits on your waist and doesn't hang dangerously from your groin area, will finally be over. Now I can bent down to pick up dropped articles without the fear of exposing my private parts for public display. Once again I'll be able to stand up from any seats without needing to pull up those treacherous low rise pants. And most importantly, I would be spared of those hideous sights of flab protruding out of the scanty limits of low-risers worn by millions of men and women with a figure less than perfect.

"real people" in low rise jeans

Keira Knightley in low rise jeans

It's really amazing how something as impractical as low rise jeans dominated all over the world for so many years! It may look very sleek and seductive on size zero models and I've no problem them wearing it on ramps. But millions with real figure had to wear them in real world, in real crowded trains and buses, in real rain and snow; why did not anybody thought of keeping some normal staffs in their store? They could be a savior of common people (with real figures) in addition of making gazillions.

But no one seemed to understand that there was a market for normal waist pants and to my horror they went into oblivion. All over the world  I searched for them, from shops in India and Sri Lanka to upmarket shopping areas in Paris, London, Brussels, Copenhagen and Stockholm; but in vain. Thanks to globalization, the world seemed to blindly follow the dictates of fashion houses and retail chains and the commonsense took a back seat. 

low rise "adaptation"

The ease with which people accepted such discomfort and humiliation and even paid for it, tempts me to think that people won't complain about anything as long as it is advertised widely with the help of sexy models.

This strange phenomenon even caused a specific evolutionary adaptation in humans; a whole new generation evolved who mastered the seemingly impossible task of walking in jeans that come only upto their thighs without letting it fall down completely.

Thankfully these are the things of past now. Once again I'll be able to wear a bottom garment which fits my well endowed body!

Basking in the bliss, I bought 3 pairs of normal rise jeans.

A plague on ALL your houses

The Swedish general election was held yesterday. The result is out now. And for the first time in history a far-right, racist party called Swedish Democrats entered into the parliament.

They have own 20 odd seats in the house of 349 seats; but that's enough to influence the formation of government as both the rulling Alliance (with 172 seats) and the opposition Red-Green coalition (with 157 seats) fall short of securing absolute majority.

The good thing is both Alliance and Red-Green prefer supporting each other than taking support from ultra racist Swedish Democrats. Even a minority government can be formed with issue based support from other parties (something which I suggested could have worked in Britain). This kind of minority government is not unprecedented in Sweden.

The Swedish Democrats will however will leave no leaf unturned in pursuing their way to the government. And with the very recent memory of fierce electoral battle between the two main coalitions and the prospect of getting into a-pain-in-the-neck of a situation of running a minority government, who knows what will happen eventually!

I can only hope (that's the disadvantage of being an Atheist, I can't pray, just hope....) that they do not succeed in their sinister attempt to hold government into ransom with their small but crucial number of 20 seats.

It seems only yesterday that I was considering myself lucky escaping a Tory Britain to come to Sweden, the epitome of civil liberties and race-gender equalities. So imagine my dismay, barely 4 months later, at the prospect of being governed by neo-Nazis. Talk about being thrown from frying pan to fire!

The puzzling thing is how did they manage to get so many votes! Their success was mainly in southern Sweden, in Skåne, Malmo, parts of Stockholm. And yet these are the places with educated, urban population. Xenophobia aparently run much lower among peasants and fishermen in the north than that among the savy corporate executives in the south.

I do not really understand how, of all places in Earth, Sweden can afford to be anti-immigration; this is a vast country with barely 9 million people, 1.5 million of which are immigrants. They just do not have enough people to run this country.

This sub-arctic place is not an obvious choice with immigrants either. Most of them come from war trodden places like Iraq or Afghanistan and they do not really have a choice. And a handful come attracted to this free and fair society which will be destroyed fast thanks to rise of parties like Swedish Democrats. The generous benefit system which the Swedes are so much proud of, will dwindle fast if the contribution from the immigrants stops. They can have this cold, dark place all to themselves then and can start re-sharpening their skills as Viking pirates for survival.

What upsets me most is that far right xenophobic parties are getting ground all over Europe; from Switzerland, Austria, France, Netherlands and Germany to now in Sweden. Recent economic downturn just added to the problem. "Those foreign immigrants have taken our jobs" is a very popular line with people suffering from deep economic recession.

Growing Islamic terrorism is another big contributing factor; somehow people feel being hostile towards Muslims and in general to all foreigners would help reducing Islamic fundamentalism. In reality though it is quite counter-productive; it allianates Muslims even further and to quote Mr. Obama, works as a "recruitment bonanza for Al-Queda".

I cannot think of any place in the earth now where intolerance, insensitivity and warmongering is not rising alarmingly. Where to take the refuge now? It is a plague on ALL your houses.

Crime and Punishment

After 26 years of painful wait, the final verdict has been delivered this year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case. And what was the verdict? Only 8 convicted for a maximum of 2 years in jail, for which they were granted bail immediately. And this is for the gross negligence and greed which caused thousands on deaths, tens of thousands of injuries and birth defects. Till date, children are born in Bhopal with birth defects which can very well be attributed to the leak of leathal mythyle isocyanate gas in that cursed night of 1984.

This is a case of Justice delayed AND Justice denied.

Poinsionous mythyle isocyanate gas leaked at midnight from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal and killed thousands in their sleep. But they were perhaps the fortunate ones; thousands of others suffred months, even years of sickness; were paralysed to various extents, lost eyesights, developed cancers and waited for a slow, painful death.

While their losses were incompensateable, at least they could still have some consolence if the people responsible were brought to justice. But after long and tedious judicial process which lasted for over 25 years involving numerous trials, wittnesses and cross examinations, they were finally told that no one was practically responsible for their peril.

Their own government simply cheated them. Indian government took the case from victims' hands and claimed to represent the case in their behalf. And then went for an out of court settlement with the Union Carbide and agreed for a peanuts amount of settlement money ($470 million). With this money, Union Carbide (and their present taker Dow Jones) washed their hands off the whole episode; they were free of all criminal and civil liabilities regarding this case.

The central government investigating agency did not furnish the required proofs; the Indian government did not excersise its extradiation treaty with America to bring Union Carbide chairman to Inida to face the trial. And America did not bother to try him in its own judicial system either; who cares, if a few thousands poor Indians die thousands of miles away? That's no reason to bother an wealthy American businessman!

Of course it is a different matter if the disaster happens in American soil affecting American people. Just look what happened when the oil leaked from BP well in gulf of Mexico. BP top bosses were grilled in Senate, made to set aside a compensation pot of 2 billion dollars and had to spend billions more to seal the leak. This was the penalty for causing 11 deaths and putting a few thousands out of business for one season, endangering wild lives and making the American coast dirty.


Yes, the environmental impact of the BP oil leak is enormous, but so it was for the Bhopal gas leak. If the formar is worst environmental disaster for America then the later is that for the whole world.

I'm not advocating for the less severe penalty for BP; they deserve every bit of it and should be punished even more,if possible, for their negligence. American government did a very good job dealing with the situation....making sure that the leak is stopped as soon as possible and that everybody concerned gets compensated.

Bhopal tragedy survivors are not so lucky; their own government betrayed them and the all powerful America, including their Nobel peace prize winner president, could not care less. They are simply not interetsed in brining one of their welthy citizens to trial to provide justice to a bunch of poor, black people in another continent.

The two incidents just show that the value of human life is not same for everybody. The punishments for these two similar crimes are anything but similar or compareable. This could be against the basic rule of justice; but then life is anything but "just".