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!

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.

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.

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".

Pseudoscience

In the last couple of months, a number of articles have been published in both electronic and print media, regarding the  statictics of cyclists' death in London last year.

No, they were not blaming the London traffic, the Bendy buses or the reckless drivers; Instead they were pointing out to the fact that out of 13 cyclists died in road accidents last year, 10 were women. The articles expressed their surprise to this "disproportionately high" percentage of women cyclists involved in the fatal accidents and some also tried to find out the possible reasons behind it.

Comments poured in from the readers with hundereds of different explanations. While some took no time to dismiss women and their ability to ride cycle and promptly extended their verdict to general uselessness of women, others were very patronising; poor women,the weak and less clever things; it is not fair to compare them with the strong, bold, clever, agile men. This is only to be expected.

One clever comment even went on to explain it from the genetic evolution (his own version, of course); As men had to hunt (and women apparently stayed peacefully in comfy caves, looking after the children, preparing meals and watching cave-soaps in prehistoric telly, perhaps), they are genetically more evolved to scan the surrounding better than women. And this fantastic skill helps them to watch out for the big lorries while cycling in narrow London roads; but women get easily perished under those big wheels due to their lack of "surroundings scanning gene".

 What a beautiful piece of armchair science without any need for proper understanding of the subject or the experimental data! If born in ancient Greece, this man could give stiff competition to Aristotle, who proclaimed women have fewer teeth than men, without bothering to count.

It is truly amazing how so many people just overlooked the sample size. The first thing that should strike anybody is the fact that you can not have a statistics with just 13 data points.The accuracy of any statistical probability depends largely on the sample size; the more data points you have the more accurate is your result.The error in statistical probability is approximately √n, where n is the sample size.

No one would have objected, if 50% of the accidents were involving women, which is 6.5 in this case. But for a sample size of 13, the error is about 3.61. Add this two together (6.5+3.6) and you get 10.1, the number factoring in the error bar. Still a tad more than the actual number of women died. So much for the "disproportionately high" number of women involved in fatal crash.

This is the precise reason why the actual statisticians do not operate with a sample size of 13 while dealing with a population size of London. The error bar here is comparable to the sample size and no one can infer anything from this; no one other than an ignorant, sexist, bigot, hell bent on believing in the male superiority.

The kind of coverage this story got in major mainstream news papers (Guardian, BBC, to name a few) only shows the deep rooted gender bias in the society; You just need to scratch the surface and the eternal male ego will be inflated eclipsing all reasons and facts.

What makes this even more appalling is the use of pseudoscience to make this chauvinistic claim look convincing.Some articles went as far as proclaiming that women cyclists in London are at "considerably greater risk". All based on their sample size of 13 and yet they have not been charged for rumor spreading and scare mongering.

I tossed a coin 3 times  the other day and I got tail in each occasion. Do I see another sensational heading?
 "Always get tail in a toss in Stockholm". Which might open a floodgate of pseudoscientific speculations... proximity to north pole, magnetic effect of earth, effects of aurora borealis & solar wind,long hours of day light, metallic composition of Swedish Krona.....the possibilities are endless.

Linguistic Faux Pas

It is almost three months now that I am living in Stockholm. Though I do not pretend to know Swedish, I have stumbled upon a few Swedish words which frankly have rendered me speechless.

I did not have to dig hard to look for these words; if you stay in Sweden for a few days, you would definitely encounter them.

I am not a prude by any standard, but the frequent appearance of the words like "Bra", "Sex" or "Slut" in the Swedish subtitels of prime time news or in Disney channel in television gave me a lot of shudder  initially till I got their actual meanings in Swedish.

How can some words have so different meanings in two languages as similar as Swedish and English, is something a linguist can answer. However, here is a small list of mine which will potentially save you from the socio-linguistic faux pas in case you ever visit Sweden.

Swedish                      English                  
Slut                              End
Fart                             Speed
Bra                              Good
Sex                              Six
Puss                             Kiss
Fan                              Fuck
Kiss                              Pee
Fack                            Trade
Bad                              Bath
Glass                            Ice cream

To Fly or Not to Fly

After a week of near closure of all European air space for last 5 days, planes have started flying again in the European sky. It still not normal service, but they will get there soon.

And what made this transition from near total closure to near full opening of air space ? Did the volcano in Iceland suddenly ceased all its recent activities and went back snoozing again? Or did the ash went flying into some other direction due o a change in wind and weather? Or did they confirm that the volcanic ash would not damage the plane engine?

The answer is none of these. It has been opened because the airlines were making huge losses. They estimated it to be close to $1 billion already. And apparently the passenger safety is of much less value (how much exactly in US dollars, according the airline bosses?).

It is the general problem in today's world; everything is a business decision. Anything that does not appear on the balance sheet of big companies is just not important.

True, the prolonged air space closure poses big problem world wide and has to be addressed. And the air space should be opened immediately if it is safe to fly. But only if it IS safe to fly, and not just because some companies are loosing some (or may be a few million) money.

So it is the call for flight engineers, pilots, meteorologists and scientists with the knowledge of volcanic ash properties. But somehow they have been left out in the process. Once again, the decisions have been taken by the Mighty Managers, instead.

There have been talks of some "test flights" being flown by a few airlines. But which route did these test flights follow? in what altitude? For how long did they fly? No one knows the answers to these questions. In short it is not clear if these tests are actually of any value. Neither the testing criteria nor the findings have been assessed by the experts.

Every effort should be made to open the airspace, but only after assessing the situation in a proper, scientific way. Passenger safety should be of paramount importance, no matter how many gazillion dollar are being lost by the airlines.

Call me old fashioned, but I think even a single human life is worth much more than that.

The Missionary Zeal

Whatever you say against the atheists, you must admit that they do not hound you in every possible space and time with a missionary zeal to covert you or save you.

True, from Bertrand Russell to Richard Dawkins, atheists have tried to defend their case in numerous books and debates (which I think is a waste of their talent as atheism should come naturally to every adult with average intellect and basic education); but at least you can choose not to read or listen to them. Atheists do not ring your doorbell uninvited on Sunday mornings and attempts to make you a member of their club in spite of your clear lack of interest in it.

But the believers do not give you any option.

I realised this once more yesterday morning near the Karlberg tunnelbana station. I was on my way to Bus no. 72 through morning rush when I saw a couple of ladies distributing some Swedish leaflets, which I thought to be the adverts of some new hair cutting salon or fashion boutique or upcoming restaurants, i.e., the usual staff. As I went past them they asked me to take one. I smiled and politely said this will be of no use as I do not know Swedish. They seemed to be profoundly apologetic at this and said unfortunately they do not have anything in English. I thought that’s that.

But a few minutes later, as I was waiting at the bus stop, one of them came running with a leaflet in her hand; “here is an English one” she said panting. As I started mumbling something like  “oh, you shouldn’t have to do this..”, my eyes fell on the English heading; True Path to Heaven.

For God’s sake, not again! Shouted my inner self where my outer self still managed to retain at least 15% of my charming smile (it is so difficult to actually shout back when the opposition is divinely polite and smiling).

I had been regularly hounded in London by people with a bible and few copies of printed material in hand and a divine desire to save me. And somehow it never goes into their peanut sized, thoroughly washed brain that I am not actually interested in being saved. So they came again and again, with an iron determination to spoil my Sunday mornings, my evening walks, my shopping trips. The problem is I am generally a polite person and cannot say “**** off” to a very polite and smiling person just because they are galactically stupid. I accepted them as just another London nuisance like weekend engineering works in tubes and absurd speed humps on roads.

But I thought myself to be safe now , so far north up here in Stockholm. I presumed that the people in Scandinavia are in general not so frightfully devout. Besides, the whole country was buried under meters of snow till recently. And I thought the Gods in this region are Thor and Odin, who may throw a  hammer at you if displeased, but at least do not let loose a battalion of preachers, blabbering complete gibberish, on poor unsuspecting souls like me.

But clearly I was wrong; the true missionary zeal of saving some soul from the burning hell and helping them to secure a birth in heaven knows no geographical boundary. It might have been a little dormant in -25 degrees, but has sprouted again along with the crocus as soon as the spring came.

A Moment of Truth

If you ask a Dutch today about their past colonies, he will become visibly uneasy and tell you that was a horrible thing and that they are truly ashamed of it today. Ask French the same question, they will shrug in a typical French way and will change the subject; but will admit that was a bad thing do after all.

But ask the same question to the English, they will tell you that the British Colonies did a lot of good to the natives. They will also tell you how they helped to bring their colonies to modern era and setup the big railway network. The British colonialists took great pain, the “white man’s burden”, to set up those colonies mainly for the benefit of those countries. Such a huge altruistic effort! And hence unlike other European colonial masters, the British are proud of their Emperor, the British Raj.

They get really annoyed, if you remind them that India was on of the wealthiest and most sought after country before British occupation and after 200 years of British rule it was one of the poorest; that India is emerging again as a major economic power after being free from the British rule; that their utter exploitation of natural resources to fuel Britain’s industrial revolution caused hunger and famines in the colonies while the British economy prospered.

And they get really hurt if you tell them that the Indian railway was founded by British to ease the transfer of the troops (which comes handy to suppress any freedom movement) across different parts of the vast country. They are also blissfully unaware of the fact that the railways were instrumental in getting Indian raw materials transported fast to factories in England, leaving the Indians to starve.

The British nowadays are so much vocal about the holocaust. At least the present day Germans are unreservedly ashamed and sorry for the Nazi regime. But the present day British do not even acknowledge the genocides that took place during their 200 year rule in India.

Unlike what the lot of British people think today, there is nothing like a good colony. All colonies are bad by their very nature. Like other European colonies, colonies of former British Empire are also the victims of exploitation, oppression, murder, rape and genocide. The only decent thing to do for the modern British is to humbly acknowledge the mistakes of the past, just like other European nations.

There is nothing to be proud of the British Raj.