Cultural Restrictions

Latest news from India: ‘The first women’s cricket series between Pakistan and India will begin in Lahore on Sept 28 with only families allowed to watch because of the cultural restrictions in the country. Unaccompanied male spectators will be barred from entering the venues for the four one-day matches.’ I am curious about this concern about unaccompanied males. Is the sight of women playing cricket so exciting that they may do something inappropriate in public? Or is there something else going on which require an equal balance of men and women in the audience (as it is with some clubs in USA)? I guess my imagination is going wild!

Please don’t tax your brain!

Some news stories defy logic and common sense. Here are two in the last few days.

The killing of ‘number two’ terrorist, Abu Izzam, in Iraq. How many number two terrorists are there? I guess the only problem is in capturing the ‘number ones’ like Osama Bin Laden and Zarqawi. We are doing fine with number two's (no pun intended!)

FEMA closes down a shelter in Houston because there were too many desperate people to service. Yeah. ‘Sorry, go somewhere else. We will go home early today.’

Time to take lessons from the student!

India is a country that admires USA. USA is India’s teacher or role model in many ways. Students in India want to come to USA for higher education. The Indian youth follows the American music and fashions with great devotion. However, the recent events have made me think that USA can take a few lessons from India. Here are the lessons I have in mind:
Supreme Court Appointments: In India, the Supreme Court nominees are not appointed by the political party in power to suit their ideology and political agenda. A person has to move up the ranks within the judicial system to become a Supreme Court Justice. The selection is done on a merit and seniority basis. There is no chance of an outsider without clear a judicial track record ever becoming a justice in the Indian Supreme Court. (There is no Clarence Thomas in India). Also, the appointment to Indian Supreme Court is not for life. A justice has to retire at age 65. There are no old and sick justices hanging on to power, as in USA. (We do not need examples here)
Elections: In India, a three person Election Commission Office (ECI) controls all the general elections. The members of this commission are selected very carefully assuring that they have no bias to any political party. The Chief Election Commissioner, who commands the same authority and prestige as the Chief Justice of India, strictly enforces fair practices in all Parliament and State elections. This is a sharp contrast to the elections in USA where the partisan politicians are in charge. (In year 2000, State Secretary Kathleen Harris, who was also the co-chair of Bush Campaign, managed Florida elections. The Ohio Secretary Kenneth Blackwell in year 2004 had the same patrician credentials). People in India believe that their votes count. Over 80% of the people vote there. In USA, an election with a turn out of near 50% is considered to be a great success. Few believe that their vote makes a difference.
Homeland Security: I feel that India has been way ahead of USA in understanding her vulnerabilities to terrorism, and managing them. The years of hostility with the neighbor nation Pakistan has a lot to do with it. Since early 1970’s, India has enforced strict security clearance procedures for airline passengers. In fact, since 1973 Indian Security was ready for the possibility of someone hijacking a plane and flying it into a tall building. In USA, the security has started catching up only recently (Remember the clueless National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice saying after 9/11, ‘ I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile' ) India has a superb intelligence network well entrenched in enemy countries. India’s sizable Muslim population actually helps the government against any foreign terrorist intrusion.
Disaster Recovery: Thanks to frequent natural calamities (and few train wrecks!), India is well prepared to handle any disaster. The 2004 Tsunami caused massive destruction and deaths in the coastal regions of southern India. India refused any foreign help, and took care of the whole thing without missing a beat. There was no looting, or corpses lying in the open for days.
Attention to the poor: The majority of people in India are poor, and they vote! So the political party in power has to give a lot of attention to improving their plight. And they do. The education and the health care systems in India are heavily subsidized to make them affordable. There are many quotas and regulations to assure that the ‘backward’ people also get a chance in education and job placement. The government there is expected to be big and capable of taking care of the poor. In USA, big government is considered bad and wasteful. The poor and the weak suffer as a result.

Yes, it is time for the teacher to learn from the student!

U.N. is USA's bitch!

I apologize ahead for the somewhat crude title and remarks in this blog entry. But it is the only way to describe my thoughts when I saw President Bush participating in the U.N. Security Council session today. (‘This is a first!’ the T.V. reporter gushed). Here is the person who treated U.N. with utter contempt, showing some respect. To me it looked similar to a pimp being nice to his ‘bitch’ once in a while! Why?
Both and USA and U.N. are dependent on each other, with USA treating the U.N. with total disrespect. Everyone knows that Bush brushed aside the pleas of the U.N. Inspectors to complete their search for WMD in Iraq before he invaded that country. But only few realize that U.N. did a valuable service to USA by disarming and weakening Iraq before the war, with its trade embargos and weapons inspections. Taking over Iraq was a cinch as a result. After toppling Saddam Hussein, Bush wanted someone neutral to give credibility to the elections in Iraq. So there was U.N. in Iraq, organizing and supervising the elections. Bush showed his gratitude and respect to U.N. by nominating a vehement critic, John Bolton, as U.N. Ambassador (Bolton once wanted the top eight floors of the U.N. building demolished, as it would not make any difference to the world!). Despite of all this, like a prostitute who cannot leave her pimp, U.N. cannot function without USA. It will become a meaningless institution if the most powerful nation of the world is not a member. And U.N. is the brainchild of USA, which also happens to be it’s the biggest financial contributor.
By the way, the newly appointed John Bolton has now demanded about 750 changes to a revision of U.N. charter, which was nearing approval by all other members. Yes, bitches are frequently beaten to keep them in line – and U.N. is a bitch!

Comments on U.S. Open Tennis

The U.S. Open Tennis has been a welcome diversion for me from the horrors of hurricane Katrina. There was full coverage of it on TV every day (Thank you, channel USA!). It was fun watching.

Thumbs Up:
Women's Singles: Altogether, women's matches were more interesting than the men's with long rallies and interesting personalities who expressed their emotions more openly. The graceful and pretty European players (Sharapova, Dementieva, Clijsters et al) provided a nice contrast to the gutsy and tough American players (Williams Sisters, Davenport). All played excellent matches.
Sareena Williams who used her first TV interview to express concern for the Katrina victims, and pledge $100 for every ace she serves for the rest of the year. She did this before FEMA and Red Cross reached Louisiana!
India's Sania Mizra who created a buzz with her play and personality. She has the potential to be in the top 15 of women's tennis. Hope that she keeps her focus on Tennis despite of all the attention and praise. (The trouncing she got from Sharapova should be a wake-up call!)
Andre Agassi who has reached the semi-finals despite of being the oldest player in the draw. His post match comments after the thrilling five setter with James Blake, was a text book example of humility and sportsmanship.

Thumbs Down:
Injury time-outs used as a tactic to disrupt the momentum of the opponent. The most blatant example of it was by Mary Pierce in her semi-final match against Elena Dementeiva. After getting soundly beaten in the first set, she disrupted the match with a 12-minute time-out for treatment for sprains on her back and leg. Afterwards she played with no sign of injury, and beat the distracted Dementeiva . Hope that the USTA will stop this misuse of a rule made with good intentions.
No longer a gentleman's game: Saw only few instances of sportsmanship, and respect for the opponent. In one men's singles match, the players almost came to blows. A lot of players asked for injury time-outs for no obvious reason. In mixed doubles, men served with all their might at the opposing woman player. I guess money changes the complexion of any sport.

Being at the right place at the right time

Woody Allen once said that ‘Seventy percent of success in life is showing up!’. I think being at the right time at the right place is a part of that 'showing up'. A good example of it is the current Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. After graduating from the prestigious Harvard Law School, Roberts did the expected things – worked as a clerk to a Justice, and worked for Regan and Bush Sr. administrations. He argued a number of cases before the Supreme Court, gaining experience while managing to keep out of controversy with the excuse that his opinions are client’s point of view, not his. It was no surprise that he got selected by President Bush to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice, Sandra O’Connor. He was almost a shoe-in for confirmation. Then something unusual happened. Just before the confirmation proceedings were to start, Chief Justice Rehnquist passed away. President Bush now had to nominate a candidate for that position also, and it will take some time for the candidate to be confirmed. So, why not nominate John Roberts for the post of Chief Justice also? It is a matter of some paperwork, and the confirmation can proceed as planned. As for the vacancy of Sandra O’Connor, Justice O’Connor has agreed to remain in the court until a replacement is found. This means that the Supreme Court can convene shortly without any open seats. Everything works out wonderfully! Thus John Robert's nomination for Associate Justice got elevated to Chief Justice's post. He was at the right place at the right time. Wonder how chief justice hopefuls Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas, feel now ;)
I fear that John Roberts is an ultra conservative in sheep’s clothing. Hope that he will not be as damaging to the country as Chief Justice Rehnquist who swung the 2000 election to George Bush’s favor. God save United States of America!

Price of Cronyism

From my point of view, the person who stands out to be totally incompetent in the Katrina disaster is Michael Brown, the head of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Services). The FEMA, as it name implies, was specially created for managing national disasters like nuclear attack, earthquakes, and hurricanes. In New Orleans, despite of a three-day warning, FEMA was invisible for two days after the hurricane struck. The reason? It was difficult to access the submerged city! Brown embarrassed himself on national TV by admitting that he did not know that there were thousands in New Orleans Convention Center (while it was broadcast over TV for everyone to see). He blamed the poor people in New Orleans for staying behind, despite of the evacuation requests. (Why could't they drive off to their summerhouses for a few days?). Wonder how this toupeed character got this important government job? His resume shows that he is a former Colorado lawyer who worked for some Arab Horse Show organization for ten years and got fired. Despite of his unimpressive background, his college friend Joe Allbaugh (who is close to President Bush) hired Brown to FEMA. Until now, Brown was having an easy time as the head of FEMA. In 2004, he was busy making sure that the people of Florida are pleased with the Government response to the hurricanes, and wasted some money by helping the wrong people! No harm was done, as it was an election year. Now it is a different story. His lack of experience in disaster planning and execution, has possibly caused thousands of lives in New Orleans.
Of course, all Presidents reward their supporters when they are in office. Usually it is done in the form of Ambassadorships to unheard of places like 'Linkhenstan' -- not as head of national disaster management!

The Incompetence Continues

I am shocked and outraged by the lawlessness and chaos in New Orleans. The rampant lootings, shootings and rapes going on there remind me of what happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. There, the US Military dismissed the Iraqi police without realizing that they themselves do not have the manpower to enforce any type of law and order in the country. People behave badly when there is no one to enforce decent norms of human behavior. Obviously nobody in the Federal and State Government has learned this lesson from Iraq. What were they thinking when they let in over 25,000 in the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate number of police or other forms of law enforcement? Does the fact that most of the National Guards of Louisiana are in Iraq fighting, got anything to do with this? What about the budget cuts of New Orleans Engineering Corps , which made them helpless to do anything about the vulnerability of the levees in New Orleans? (Of course, the budget cuts were necessary to fund the Iraq war, and the tax cuts). Hope that someone asks for answers to these questions. (I doubt the gutless Democrats or the American Press will be the ones to do it!)

Remembering New Orleans

The images of hurricane Katrina aftermath being shown on TV are shocking. I fear that the disaster is in proportion to a mini-Tsunami, with thousands dead (despite of the present ‘official’ death toll of 120+). This is the first time we in America are seeing the aftermath of a massive flood. Until now, on TV we got an occasional glimpse of the people on rooftops in places like Bangladesh during monsoon rains. Never had to think much about it. Now the 24 hour live coverage of the recovery operations makes it too real and painful. I am especially saddened at the plight of the city of New Orleans. I had an opportunity to visit that city last year. Normally, I find all the cities in USA more or less the same with some big buildings, large malls, and popular franchises like McDonalds, Blockbusters etc. But New Orleans was a nice surprise. Many buildings there had a distinct French architecture, reminding you of Paris. Instead of malls, there were some huge Flea Markets to shop. Restaurants had unique and tasty food preparations (Cajon style cooking). There were numerous nightclubs with good music and wonderful cocktails (one of them ironically named ‘Hurricane’). The city was not affluent or modern, but had a pleasant rustic look about it. The people were overall cheery and nice. Of course, my perspective is that of a tourist isolated from the daily struggles of the sizable poor people there, mostly Blacks. I would rate New Orleans as one of the best four cities in USA to visit (New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. are my other favorites). I pray that the people New Orleans get adequate help from the government, and that the city be restored without losing its old charm.
(I am sort of disappointed at the tepid reaction from the rest of the world to this disaster. Did not hear any offer of help, except for some prayers. Is this like the play continuing while the school bully writhes in pain on ground with a sprained ankle?)