Democracy II

One of the dictionary meanings of democracy is government by the people; exercised either directly or through elected representatives. If we take the literal meaning of the definition then we end up with only visible portion of democracy. That is, voters electing their representative and by exercising their vote of consent they take direct part in the governance. But governance of law, international relations, trade, defense, social structure etc. actually encompasses the true meaning of democracy. Unfortunately, the representation of common man in all these sectors is virtually non-existent. Once we elect a representative, the nation goes in their hand and for next few years at least, general populace is left in lurch.

The feeling of lack of say in the crucial matter, perhaps, actual lack of representation mocks the very system by dissociating the populace from the democracy. They feel alienated enough and whenever the political leadership makes a mistake, general populace refuse to owe the responsibility. German society refuses to accept that, directly or indirectly, they were responsible for genocide. American society fails to understand that they are the one who elected Nixon in spite of his ambiguous stand on Vietnam War. Do I need to mention re-election of George W. Bush here?

Western countries on their quest of plundering the world forcefully sowed an alien form of democracy in rest of the world. The promised anodyne effect of democracy is nowhere in sight and the result had been nothing short of a disaster. Cursory glance on once conquered world and the banality of the democracy stands naked. Except few functioning democracies like India, Japan, South Korea, and South Africa, the race to keep pace with western nation had resulted at best a failed state and at worst catastrophe. Borrowed concept, borrowed institution, borrowed attitude, borrowed mentality never works, and if it had worked some where then exception proves the rule.

I am not lamenting democracy for sake of lamenting. But, what happened to most of the world in 1940’s is happening again, in Iraq. Without considering the sentiment and mentality of the society, western nations are thrusting their form of democracy on Iraq. The result of it will be seen after 10-20 years or more. I am sure it won’t be great.

Reiterating my stand; I am not against democracy and I see democracy as the only legitimate way of governing society. At the same time, if the democracy does not reflect the mentality of the society then it is more often than not, bound to fail. And, rather than changing the whole society, we need to overhaul the system. I don’t mean any revolution because revolutions are futile efforts leading nowhere. Rather concrete steps tailor made for the society and by the society.

Oil Chaos

I was supposed to write a follow up blog on Democracy. I am writing that on that subject but increase in oil prices needed prompt attention right now. The oil prices touched $66/barrel and from Wal-mart to consumers, everybody is feeling the pinch. There was an article, very informative, about oil prices in New York Times. But I felt like the article failed to touch the core issue. Other reason cited for recent spurt in oil prices is, increase in oil demand in India and China. Somehow Iraq war is never considered as a remote possibility for oil price rise. But that is a political issue and I do not intend to discuss it here.

Most of the columns about oil revolve around the oil consumption by automobiles and for house heating and cooling. In fact, 2/3 of oil consumption can be attributed these two factors. But apart from these obvious reasons, if we look around then almost our (American) lifestyle depends on oil. And, I am not sure how much of our lifestyle we are ready to forgo in order to reduce consumption. Scary part is all the countries are trying to follow American lifestyle and our mother earth does not have that many resources to quench our thirst. If all the people on the earth lead American lifestyle then we will need forty earths. Coming back to oil, right from what we eat to what we wear, oil is integral part of production. Plastic, essential part of current lifestyle needs lot of oil. Even beef production needs considerable oil. Houses we build, clothes we wear, everything depends on oil. With globalization spawning its tentacles, trading among the nations solely depends on the oil. In short, we need oil more than the air we breathe. Makes sense, right! That is why we continue to pollute our air.

Even if we take out automobile out of our life, oil remains integral part of our lifestyle. And, scarcity of oil in future will hit our civilization (western civilization) like a bullet and consequences will be chaos.

According to USGS (US Geology dept.) within next 20 years more than 50% of oil supply will flow from Middle-East. That means clout of evil Saudis and their brethren will increase exponentially. And, at that time we will realize that what we had today was adolescent age of Islamic terrorism. Do we need any more explanation for Iraq war?

Democracy

Human quest for adequately working, non-frictional society with the government or leaders or perhaps kings, who always think betterment of the society, can be described at best as an illusion. But, this does not mean we should not embark on this rocky road to perfection. In our times the mantra for successful society is democracy. Ironically the leitmotif of democracy had killed more than it claims to liberate.

Every system known to man had its fault. Some systems were successful at some point and utterly failure at other time. Some like communism had inherent weakness since its inception and caused untold misery. Then in such scenario what makes democracy an only viable option in current situation? Or is it what we would like to believe? I am sure no staunch democracy activist guarantee the perfection but the given the history of the world since the end of colonism creates a conundrum about democracy that almost makes it impossible to question the shortcomings of democracy.

The failure of the world to respond to hundreds of genocides around the world is a great example how democracy is manipulated around the globe. Counter argument to this statement would be that the democracy is not bad but the people who govern are bad. But at least one will have to agree that democracy presents all the tools necessary to manipulate peoples mind set. Forget about the genocide in rest of the world, the real folly here is this system manipulates itself. It creates thick fog in front of itself and then fantasizes about its beauty in the mirror.

United State of America, current torch-bearer of democracy had so many issues of itself and with current form of democracy, it seems impossible that they will ever be solved. Everything is vote oriented. Technically peoples’ opinion should set the mandate and in fact they do. But the real hitch is, public opinion is manipulated by the system itself, i.e. by the elected body itself.

The democracy supposedly did wonders to the western world. The freedom of speech, masthead of the democracy gave voice to the millions of working class people. The riches of technology, innovation, literature, art etc of western world are usually attributed to the western world’s quest for democracy. But in reality, wealth of western world can equally be attributed to its barbaric and bloody colonial past. They systematically plundered the whole world and massacred millions under the guise of ‘educating’ people. Before leaving the captured land they forcefully sowed an alien form of democracy in the conquered land. Obviously barring few exception, the democracy has been disaster to most of the world and back tracked the development of the world further.

I am not saying democracy is completely corrupt system. I am not communist either. In fact, I hate communism to my bones. I am not a great fan of socialism. But still I am questioning the form of democracy that most of the third world nations around the world are trying to follow and most of the western nations are trying to impose on them. Hopefully there will be more discussion on this topic in main stream press and among the people.

Friendship Day and Me

Today is friendship day and I don’t intend to write eulogizing this day. Well! That is not a good way to start the column but I will do so in order to illustrate my acute syndrome towards these celebrations of ‘days’. I abhor these days because I somehow see this as sign of we continue to be slaves to western ideas and thoughts. I know I am touching a very sensitive subject and perhaps, opening Pandora’s Box of modernism and tradionalism. But I will persist in efforts of logically and rationally questioning the social ‘norms’.

I strongly believe that there is absolutely rubbish to celebrate these days. There is not only one Valentines Day but whole family of it. Mothers’ day, fathers’ Day, Sisters’ Day, Brothers’ Day, Friendship Day and all the B.S. I am sick of this blatant abuse of social insecurity and lack of thinking by capitalistic model. These companies like Hallmark, Archie’s, 1-800-Flowers etc constantly feeds that if we do not celebrate these days then we do not love our friends and family. And even though majority of the people know that these days are advertised by these gifts and greeting cards companies just to increase their sale, most people insist of celebrating the days because if they don’t then they are virtually outcaste from the modern, peace-loving, parent and friends loving society. Instead of encompassing everyone in love, these ‘days’ actually excludes more people. Why do I need a particular day to show my love to my parents and friends? I love them everyday and why do I need to make public spectacle of my love towards them? And, if the situation is so bad that I can tell my parents that I love you only on a particular day then Mothers’ Day and Father’s day won’t bridge the gap between me and my parents. There is no modernism here and if there is anything here then it is pure dumbness of us.

The things get nasty in India. It’s a taboo to question anything that is western. If you tried to stick to traditions or tried to improve them according to current time then you are right-wing Hindu nationalist, a communalist, and anti-western, anti-American, anti-progressive person. India has nothing to do with St. Valentine and Indian culture accords highest status to mother and father, even above god. But, young generation, (yes, my generation!) particularly in metropolitan cities go wild on Valentines Day. I am not saying they should be stopped forcefully because that won’t fit in democratic institution. And, I am not particularly against going wild either. Its just the reason behind these wild parties bothers me.

And to mention the fact, St. Valentines Day has nothing to do with St. Valentines either. (So, I am not anti-Christian either!) It is long tradition in Christianity to steal the holidays of old, non-Christian traditions, known as ‘pagan’ traditions. Thus, in Ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses.

So much for the modernity, we are celebrating the day that was a holiday for barbaric Romans at least 2000 years ago.

Iraqi 'Insurgency'

There is constant reporting about increased sophistication of Iraqi ‘insurgents’ in recent month or so. But somehow I find these articles, misinterpreting and misrepresent the situation. It would be outlandish to say that reporters are doing that purposefully, as these reports are getting published in prestigious news publications.

Iraqi army was a working and well maintained institution before Iraq war. They fought continuously with Iran for eight years and they were first class fighting unit in Middle-east before 1991 war. It is often portrayed that Iraqi army ran for covers when faced with U.S. army in 1991, but in the hindsight they did sensible thing. Then, they were not facing only U.S. army but almost whole world was against them and fighting would have been foolish. Plus, apparently they knew that U.S. army would change the regime, so they did the best thing under such circumstances.

Coming back to the reports about the increasing sophistication of Iraqi ‘insurgents’, we should understand that Americans are not fighting some dumb Afghanis in Afghanistan. They are facing an army with complete knowledge of weaponry and bomb making techniques. Not only that, these fighters got away with most of the weapons and equipments needed for bomb making. These people are intelligent enough to understand the strategies of U.S. troops and then attack at weak points. There is seems to a systematic effort to kill the Iraqis who are working for U.S. administration and of course, to kill U.S. soldiers.

It would be audacious to prophesize about the result of current fighting between Iraqis and U.S. U.S. troops has enormous resources and extremely advanced technology at their disposal but at the same time Iraqis have advantage of home ground and swelling local support. They are not getting sophisticated, they already are. All they are doing is to match tit for tat to U.S. efforts to quill them. The fight is on and it is going to be bloody.

I H A R ( I hate Aishwarya Rai)

dang ! I am sick of Aishwarya Rai. No, I don't find her hot or anything like that. She is a decent looking girl who can not act and who always carry a fake expression of gracefulness. In some of the so called intense scenes of the movie, I feel like elongating, vibrating or do something like that with her face so that she will have some expression on it. She looks arrogant and at the same time a little dumb. She is not even sensual. (Wise people know what I mean by Sensual!)

I am sick of see her photographs everywhere and I was embarrassed to watch her babbling on David Letterman show. She, in no way, represents India or Indian womanhood. She looks like a plastic doll to me, beautiful but lifeless.

Oh yes! She can't act. I think I wrote that before! Hmm....ohh right! She can't dance either.

Shwaas and Oscars

Shwaas is a fantastic film. It shows interaction between, a child, who is about to loose is eye-sight due to rare cancer and his grandfather. Shwas was nominated by Indian panorama for Oscars, but the movie failed to get nomination for best foreign movie segment. Does that mean that Shwas was not worth even a nomination? No, because there are lots of factors involved for a movie to get nominations. It is imperative that most of the jurors to see the movie and to make them to do so, lot of money and good contacts among the Hollywood lobbyist are necessary. Obviously, Shwas people lacked these resources.

But apart from these obvious obstacles, the greatest challenge Shwaas faced was lack of understanding among the jurors about the cultural background of the movie. The subtlety of that movie were impossible for a foreign juror, who probably never been to India and had a standard ‘mystic’ notion of India, to understand. For example, Parsha’s (film’s main character) grandfather is shown carrying an umbrella all the time. The mundane chore of carrying an umbrella speaks volumes about the character. It shows the age of the character, his nature and his social background. All these points were subtle even for Indian people and it would too much to expect a foreign juror to understand this fine act that director and script writer captures effectively.

The cultural divide that Shwaas faced is more or less common for all the India movies that were nominated by Indian panorama to Oscar committee. And, as Hollywood is not ready to include the biggest film industry in the world in its fold, Indian movie goers, instead of feeling cheated, increasingly see Oscar as an ultimate standard for the movie. It may be a good standard for Hollywood movies but it is certainly not a good way to measure Indian movies. For directors like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Guru Dutt, Ram Gopal Varma or Ashutosh Gowarikar, not getting recognition at Oscars reflects the lack of understanding and talent on Oscars part, rather than lack of capacity as our own people perceive.