Don’t they have anything else to do?

People in USA have a difficult time in understanding the concept of cricket matches where a ‘test’ match can go on for five days. They see images of a leisurely high society whiling away time by sitting around in country clubs watching the game, sipping beer or tea. Actually, there are millions of fervent cricket fans in poor countries like India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, who spend countless hours watching the game on T.V. I wonder how the offices there absorb this loss of productivity. (Imagine having a World Series Baseball, each game lasting five days, two or three times an year!) Even shops, restaurants, and movies must be affected. In light of this, I find the new proposal by Pakistan Cricket Board to increase the time of cricket matches to six days, quite short-sighted. They think that the world revolves around their silly cricket tests!

Trigger-happy police

I am disgusted at the trigger-happy behavior of police in this country. If they get into any situation that is mildly threatening, they are trained to shoot to kill. No questions asked. Yesterday, an obviously suicidal teenager was shot because he ‘appeared’ to have a gun. It did not matter that he was cornered, and was going to harm only himself. They just shot him down. Police never demonstrates patience or tact in such situations. Bam, bam, problem solved!

Dumb chess players!

Good chess players can anticipate two or three rounds of moves and countermoves when they play. Even a novice chess player will think about the next move by the opponent before making his move. I feel that the people who planned, and continue to manage, the Iraq war will make the dumbest of chess players. They show astonishing lack anticipation for even the most obvious reaction to their actions. First, they went ahead and deposed the dictator Saddam Hussein from power, without realizing that he was the glue which held the warring factions of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds together in peace. Once they got control of Iraq, they dismissed the Iraqi security forces claiming that they are all Baathists loyal to Saddam. They never thought that such an action will put the complete burden of the Iraqi security on the limited US forces, in addition to flooding the streets with armed and unemployed ex-military men. They encouraged an open general election in Iraq (to make it a beacon of democracy in Middle East!) without realizing that Shiites, who are 70% of the Iraqi population, will vote for their candidates, resulting in a government which will become an ally of the Shiite controlled Iran, the arch enemy of USA. Now a civil war is about to break out in Iraq with Sunnis (or ‘insurgents’) killing Shiites and anyone who wants to work for the new government. What is the next dumb move of USA, I wonder. (Even the option of a face saving ‘mission accomplished’ withdrawal is getting more and more difficult now!)

What is NSA, again?

The Rose Bowl is today, where USC Trojans will play Texas Longhorns to be the ‘Number 1’ college football team in 2005. There is a lot of excitement and hoopla about this event, with newspapers carrying special ‘Bowl Supplements’ almost every day. The statistics of star players like Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush are repeated over and over, backed up with careful analysis. The American public’s knowledge and interest about sports are truly amazing. I have no doubt that the sports section is the most widely read portion of newspapers in this country. Politics and current events are a different story. There, the preferences and opinions are formed based on first impressions and 15 second sound bytes. I still believe that George Bush won (?) the 2000 election mainly because he came across as a person you would like to have beer with, while the ‘wooden’ Al Gore was not that likable. Most did not care about the knowledge and experience of the person who is going to impact their lives for many years. Same with Iraq war. Many justified it on the premise that ‘we have to kick some ass to prevent terrorists from repeating a 9/11’. What a shame.

Go Trojans!