SPAM

Receiving the same spams day in and day out is too annoying. Besides, they are dangerous and the intent is either to swindle you out of your money, get you to divulge your bank account passwords or to inject a virus. Of the three, the first two are driven by greed and the last one is pure malice. I simply cannot understand either helping oneself to what belongs to others or the desire to destroy someone else's computer.

I enjoy one-off spams. My preview window tells me whether I want to click on it and delve deeper or not. It is the regular ones that sour me off. I delete at least forty emails daily, twenty of which tell me from Prince Abuya, Miss Nancy Mbuko or some such person or major companies like Coca-Cola and BMW that I have won more than what our Indian ministers have pocketed for the Commonwealth games and the 2G Scam combined.

What disturbed my partner today was that our email addresses are being used to SEND out jobs available. He's promised to tighten our security, firewall or something techie like that - not my realm. Over to you boss!



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Christchurch Earthquake - How Best People can help

Yesterday, the Mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker spoke of the sensible things people can do to help themselves and to help their neighbours and others. He spoke on TV 3. He said the earthquake had left everyone shaken, including himself. But he spoke at length of what was being organised by the city, the medical staff, medical volunteers, of the search and rescue efforts. It had, I think, a calming effect. He said people should,
• Preserve water at all costs as the earthquake had destroyed much of the water system.
• Similarly, the sewage system. He advised not to use up water in flushing loos. Residents of Christchurch could perhaps dig a hole in their gardens.
• He wanted people to keep away from the centre of the city where there was a lot of damage and where emergency vehicles wanted free access to the roads.
• Check on neighbours
• He suggested text messages on mobiles were better than calling – easier on the heavily burdened systems; that Telecom had made public phones available free of charge during certain times so people could phone their loved ones and let them know how they were.
• The medic volunteers were treating people in many outside centres around the city and at the hospital – part of which was also destroyed
• The first necessity was search and rescue. What exactly was happening on the day and what would happen the next day. Many countries had volunteered experts in that field like the USA, Japan and Australia.
• For outsiders, the newspapers today have suggested DONATIONS are the best way to help. Where and how we can donate is very well explained here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708187
• Here’s another interview today with Bob Parker, as sensible as the first one: http://www.3news.co.nz/Christchurch-quake---Bob-Parker-interview/tabid/309/articleID/199409/Default.aspx

So don't forget. If you want to help - please donate.



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Manmohan's interview with TV News Editors

Everyone in India seems to be talking of Manmohan Singh's interview with major Indian TV news channels plus international ones like Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN . From all comments on various blogs I gathered that many ordinary folk seem to be disappointed with what he had to say. I watched it online and quite frankly, was impressed.

Remembering he is in a coalition government and is therefore beholden to other parties, I think he is a wonderfully stabling influence. His economic policies since Narasimha Rao's days (under whom he was finance minister), have helped more Indians prosper than any other person’s. His background, and therefore his strength, is finance.

Where corruption is concerned, I agree that he is weak, making excuses for not taking people in power to task, sometimes, even rewarding them with promotions. Every TV editor asked him what he was doing re corruption of some person in power or the other and his answers never said he'd be able to recover the lost revenues or make that person accountable by asking him or her to resign. To know someone is corrupt and not insisting on making that person accountable makes Manmohan as guilty as if he committed the crime himself. His answers were, to my mind, a bit helpless except when he declared that after the budget session (not now, but sometime in the future) there would be a reshuffle of his entire cabinet.

But here’s the problem – Manmohan’s policy on corruption might be weak but everyone is agreed he isn’t corrupt himself. His economic policies since Narasimha Rao's days have helped more Indians prosper than any other person’s. So many Indian politicians have been accused of corruption by the media; so many use strong arm tactics to subdue Indians who question them; who are communal by nature - which means they aren’t concerned about the well being of all Indians except the ones who belong to their own community; and too many whose economic policies have never been as strong as Manmohan’s.

Summing up,

So many comments I’ve read indicate that the Indian public isn’t impressed with Rahul Gandhi – the PM in waiting!

Secular Indians definitely don't want a communal minded party (only our community and damn the others) to come to power.

I feel Manmohan is
     . honest, astute and has sound economic policies. Those are the sum of his leadership skills.
     . He is weak on corruption
     . I'm really not sure what he plans to do about terrorism, inflation and the environment.
     . He blames the Congress coalition partners for compromises he has to make and for having to overlook corruption.
     . The public is wary. Nobody believes him.

What can we do to change the situation? Do we solely depend on our news reporters or can we, the public, do something? And if so, what, that would be effective?

Can we keep showing Manmohan that we are not going to let up our pressure on corrupt individuals in politics till he is forced to take action and not just mouth platitudes – that it is the public he is more accountable to rather than his coalition partners and his party members?

Do we have any other options besides waiting for a candidate who will open up the economy like Manmohan has, is perhaps stronger than him when dealing with corruption in his own party or in the coalition, and last, but not least, someone who deals strongly with terrorists and the environment?

Yes we do. We can protest in unity; make our presence felt. The key word is UNITY. It shouldn't be that as soon as there are threats to someone's life, property and loved ones, the rest of us quietly move away. It takes time to build such unity. How? We need a well thought out action plan.

ORGANISE, THEN MOBILISE

The link to the interview with Manmohan was provided by Patrick French in his blog (blog link: http://www.theindiasite.com/looking-people-in-the-eye-manmohan-singhs-press-conference/)

This is the link to MANMOHAN'S ENTIRE INTERVIEW:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/pm-manmohan-singh-s-q-a-with-editors/191098

The Mumbai I Knew

The Mumbai I grew up in had one icon worth mentioning - the Irani cafes. They were unpretentious and clean. They welcomed people from all walks of life, any community and all stratas of society. The service was good and the food was cheap. They served the best Brun Pao or crusty bread roll with white butter and chai.

I remember, when I was a flight attendent, we stopped off at one in our uniforms at around 5:00 am on our way back from a tiring flight. Fifteen minutes of unwinding with a brun pao, chai and an especially nice band of colleagues literally washed away our tiredness. In those days even the van drivers who took us back home from the airport were game and had the time in-between drop-offs and pick-ups to stop off at the cafe for a chai and a brun-maska. I wonder if those days can ever be repeated today. Sigh!

I loved these Irani joints and have discovered two websites that give a good description of them. Geobeats is one of the best websites I've discovered about the Mumbai I grew up in. It pretty much covers all my favourite joints - Irani and others - in the Bombay (now Mumbai) I grew up in. http://www.geobeats.com/videoclips/india/mumbai/britannia-restaurant

But for a detailed description, pictures and history of the Irani joints and the Iranis who ran them, I've recently discovered an article by K.E.Eduljee which I've added (in Sept 2011) to this post.

The link: http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/irani/cafe.htm#iranicaf

To end, on a personal note, much to my regret, we couldn't stay in Mumbai for long during our last visit. We were anxious to be with someone who was almost on her deathbed and cut short our stay in Mumbai. (Happily, she is recovered, at least for now.) I do believe the kids enjoyed Pune, Jaipur and family very much. I am keen to show them the Mumbai I grew up in and knew intimately - perhaps next time.



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We Do Big Things - Barack Obama

Has anyone told you before, Obama speaks well? He proved it yet again on 26Jan2011 when he addressed both houses and the American people in a televised speech. Much of it was about what the Democrats were planning etc.

But two statements struck a chord with me. When he said nobody would want to be in any other nation, I thought he was quite mistaken – had to reject that notion. Ask the citizens of any other nation, is what came to mind.

But when he said “We do big things” I had to agree whole heartedly. They do. They have. And I like and admire them for that.

Still, today, there are other great economies to admire. Also, we have so many challenges of our own to occupy us. The people below the poverty line, the environment, corruption, bribery etc. Re the environment, whilst I hope our government has the will to address this issue, there is so much we, the ordinary people can do. Simple things like plant and nurture one tree, convert our organic garbage to a reusable resource like compost (it is easy, check it out here: http://nevermindyaar.com/reduce-reuse-recycle-ii/), cut down on our use of electricity, appliances, our cars and UNITE in action against corruption. After all, whose voice is stronger - a billion lone individuals or a billion strong force?