Are Indians Behaving Like the US Republicans?

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There was a time, as recently as the early twenty-first century when ordinary Indians were scared to talk about the all-powerful politicians. We whispered our discontent to a few trusted friends behind the safety of our own walls. Those days, hopefully, are gone for good. We've really understood what Elie Weisel said. "Neutrality helps the oppressor and silence, the tormentor."

Today, we don't hesitate to use online media like facebook, twitter, email, blogs, etc to promote our favourite candidate for Prime Minister of India. To that extent our democracy is alive and well.

What Americans Say about Mega Stores

There is a lot of speculation about Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in India. The government has snuffed out the opposition through moves most of us don't really understand and opened its doors.

For India it isn't such a brand new concept as we already shop in mega malls. But each of those shops are independently owned. We are, to date, a country with variety. We don't yet have the same shops in every shopping mall. That has its pluses and minuses. The definite plus is that we know what to expect by way of quality. The definite minus - having the same shops in every mall is incredibly boring. Seen one mall and we've seen them all.

Another point - we don't quite know how to react to having everything - from edibles to a carpenter's tools sold by the same company. For that we have to turn to the seasoned American consumer.

This is what they've said about one mega store, Walmart.

• They cut hours all the time when I quit I was working 16.5 hours a week. It cost more in gas to drive there.
• Walmart has caused many independent and small chains to go out of business...yes, that can be considered progress. 
• However, the wages of these big-box stores are so low they are not what can be considered a "living wage"---also, most of the jobs offered by Wal-mart, etc, are very low to no skill types of jobs, with little to no opportunity for advancement. 
• Walmarts, etc. will open a store within just miles of another and then cut down the workforce to a bare-bones crew so one will stand in line longer. 
• Some facts this story left out is if you read the ingredients of nearly every food item on Wal-Mart shelves, soy is in there. I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart to eat healthy raw veggies and fruit from local farmers who do not use pesticides. Meat in stores are full of antibiotics and growth hormones which contribute to unhealthy sick families. Which in turn raises your health care bills. So by buying cheap mostly processed food and meat full of junk, you are spending more money for doctors and prescriptions. 
• You might drive 10 miles to Wal-Mart and only need a few things, but the store is so big you will spend 4 times as much time and buy more things than you need. You can buy everything cheaper on-line. 
• I never appreciated Wal-Mart with their predatory price-fixing purposes. 
• So many people I run into every day charge up credit cards on cheap Chinese made goods that are low-quality. 
• The fact that our politicians are financed by these corporations and can dupe and prejudice their way into office is beyond maddening and despicable, it's unpatriotic to say the least. 
• I purposefully go out of my way to find products I need, yet for me, must be U.S.A. sourced, otherwise I DO NOT touch it, especially clothing.

So now we have it from the horse's mouth. (The comments section has over 300 comments. These are just a few.)

Yet, if our government is wise they'll ensure there are clauses in place to ensure our farmers and other tradespeople not only improve the quality of their product (for which they need at least the basics like water, electricity and roads) but also have no middle men to deliver their product to the mega stores. 

Perhaps our farmers could form co-operatives to eliminate the middle men. It shouldn't be their hard work and someone else's massive cut from the fruits of their labour. 

It would reduce India's and Walmart's carbon footprint to buy local and sell local. The Americans in the US lost out because their labour isn't cheap. We don't have that "problem".

I wonder how it will all pan out. The Walmarts and their shareholders have a goldmine within their grasp. They will (and should) look out for their bottomline. 

If, what one of the Americans above said is true, that, 

The fact that our politicians are financed by these corporations and can dupe and prejudice their way into office is beyond maddening and despicable, it's unpatriotic to say the least.
politicians are all set to benefit unless we have a vigilant public. 

With the reaction of some to what the AAP's suggested, that there should be a referendum - I can safely conclude a huge number of people aren't interested in discussing the issue much less policing the government. Hope they at least understand and appreciate how much Arvind Kejriwal and their team have taken on. It isn't only the monolithic government with huge funds to do with as they please, it isn't just land grabs for personal gain in the name of the country, it isn't just the rape of a four year old girl, it isn't just crores of rupees worth of scams where money has gone into individual politician's pockets, nor is it just the pricing of goods or irrigation scams or the state of our roads or the garbage piled two storeys high that is dangerous for the health of our young, it is also the apathy, indifference and cynicism of some of our ordinary citizens.

But that is by the way. If - the biggest IF - the benefits of FDI trickle down to our farmers and other trades people it will be a win-win-win all around.

Why Some People are Sceptical about the AAP

It is official. It’s the Aam Aadmi Party – the AAP. Why would it be good for the nation? 

First, the party hopes to address corruption. And second, they intend that there will be no muzzling of the aam aadmi. They have a proven track record. They’ve invited honest feedback while others have tried to muzzle the opinions of the common citizens of India. Ordinary people have gone to jail for daring to criticise political parties and their leaders. Rule by fear.

Still, there are some people who are wary of giving the AAP a chance. They want change with all their hearts. They hate the corruption they face daily. They know what it has done to the nation. 

But these are some of the things that stop them. There’s the fear of the unknown. They don’t wish to take a chance with a new party. They’d rather settle for whatever is known. At least it has constancy – they know how to handle the corruption and they know they have to pay up – whatever the price – if they want daal roti or anything legitimate done for themselves. Who knows what might be brought into the equation through unknowns? 

• It doesn’t matter that the known parties are trying to muzzle the ordinary citizens and sending them to jail for voicing their opinions. 
• It doesn’t matter that thanks to corruption in individual members of existing parties many Indians have remained mired in poverty with a complete lack of health, education, shelter, food, clothing and employment. 
• There have been scams to make land grabs legitimate. This has resulted in suicide and depression. 
• The corruption perception index puts India at 3.1 out of 10
• the air we breathe, the soil we grow our produce in or let our cattle graze in and our drinking water makes ours an environmentally poor country to grow up in. 

We would rather take all that than take a chance with a new party.

We are meek and submissive as our current politicians want us to be. How was it possible to put those ordinary individuals in jail? We could all see that state machinery was used - for example, the police. Who had the power to call on that state machinery to do their bidding? Do we have to be scared of passing our opinions? Or is it something we are used to anyway so where's the problem?

And last, but not least, there’s apathy. “It is hot, I am busy, I hate politics, we'll always have corruption in politics or how will just one vote – mine – make such a difference” are all excuses we use to remain apathetic.

My hope is that come election time each and every Indian will know and appreciate not only Arvind but all the AAP party members of which there are 300 right now. 

Here are some of the things I appreciate in Arvind - the AAP leader. He has an elephantine memory. Politicians have tried everything in their power to bring him down but he’s always come back with facts and figures to confound their efforts. They’ve made accusations that he is self serving; that he wants to enter politics for himself; that he’s simply using the platform of corruption for his personal ambitions. His response has been to let them know he's only joined politics to fight the system from within. He, Anna and so many Indians tried letting politicians (of all parties) know how much the aam aadmi hated their corrupt ways. This was without wanting to join politics but through peaceful protests. The response from politicians was to pretend they were agreed to bringing in a law to punish corrupt politicians. Their version of that law, as we all know, was to once again put themselves in charge of the investigations against themselves.

I’d like to close this post by talking about Anna and Arvind. They are two sides of the same coin. Arvind’s move of forming a political party has Anna’s blessings. Anna has promised to campaign for Arvind’s party members as long as they are not corrupt.  The 2 As make the most perfect foil for each other. Both have the good of their country at heart. Anna likes working with his hands. Who isn’t impressed with the way he’s turned his village from abject poverty into prosperity. Not for him the complexities of the letter of the law and debates. Those are in the capable hands of someone with a memory for facts and figures - the articulate Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party.

Note: The Aam Aadmi Party website has pages under the title “Agenda” that explain exactly what they are planning to tackle and how. Watch this video to find out what you can do to join the party, what pamphlets you can distribute etc.

The Language of Crusaders

The year 2014 is a crucial one for India. It is election year. Whoever wins, whatever the outcome, I feel I'd like to air one grouse. 

Corruption is high on the agenda. Reams have been written about, spoken about and discussed by everyone. The discussions continue unabated. It is wonderful that the common Indian citizen has started speaking out boldly. There was a time, as recently as the nineties, when only a very few used to speak out. The rest of us used to rail and rant, but within the confines and safety of our four walls. And then, four or five courageous individuals told us exactly what loopholes the politicians were using in the law to get away with siphoning off crores of rupees and for gagging the whistle blowers.

I understand the ordinary person is disgusted with the looting of the Indian treasury. Just to give one example, they’ve seen individuals start in politics with modest homes to their names and within a couple of years, move to palatial houses.

I understand the anger.

So many of us have come together to fight this common enemy. We are from disparate backgrounds and we’ve come together because we want the same outcome – the eradication of this blatant looting.

What is my grouse? It is about the discussions at the "India Against Corruption's (IAC's) fb and other sites. 

Yes, we feel a natural affinity towards members of our group. We want the identical same thing. 

Yes, we now have two plans of action to move forward where previously we had one. Some of us believe we can make politicians accountable with dharnas, anshans, fasts and protest marches while others believe we've tried that route and by itself, it hasn't worked. It needs another dimension as well where the common educated and respected Indians (retired chief justices, social activists and others) introduce those accountability laws themselves - from within – by becoming politicians; that the politicians of today will never, of their own accord, allow a law that demands accountability from the corrupt to be passed. Under such a law they would be the first to be punished.

Yes, I understand there are staunch supporters of each of the two current major parties (ruling and opposition) who join in the discussions online so that they don't pass up the opportunity to bad mouth each other or to bad mouth the IAC in the hope of getting a rise out of IAC supporters.

And yes, many of these bad mouthers are staunch supporters of IAC too.

Anyone can understand people having heated discussions.  I am not squeamish about people showing their loyalty, prejudice, preferences or anger. But the stream of filth that continues to plague these discussions, words like "bhos*i " and more used to attack individuals... this has got to stop. 

The more decent individuals either ignore such comments or appeal to the offenders to stop. Neither of these two strategies seems to be working. The filth continues unabated.

Such people do a lot of harm to their own case. And if they are on the IAC forum, that’s who they harm. Their disgusting language is met with a dignified silence from the corrupt politicians they foul mouth. As a result, the corrupt come out smelling of roses - their wrong doings get sidelined.

And tomorrow, if anything goes wrong, these foul mouthers are the very individuals who will be difficult to contain. They blow their tops during discussions – what chance that anyone can contain them in any other situation? Why wait that long - wily and seasoned politicians who don't want the IAC to get into politics on the platform of corruption (too popular with the hoi polloi and too dangerous for them?) are always on the look out to stir up trouble. And a volatile few play right into their hands.

Things are looking good for IAC. People admire them for their courage and for explaining exactly where and how corruption has taken place. Here are Arvind Kejriwal's tapes (in Hindi) explaining what each of fifteen politicians has done. I think they are worth a visit.

Let's not rock the boat. Lets nip the bad mouthing right now. I wish I knew how. Suggestions welcome. 
 

Why (We Feel We Should) Post Regularly on Our Blog

What I mean is, why has that golden nugget been dinned into my head and probably yours? I’ve regurgitated the wisdom, passed it on and encouraged it to go viral. But on thinking about it, I feel I mightn’t have given it enough thought. And then again, who am I to refute it when

• every search engine guru says that in order to make our presence felt in blogosphere we should write a post at least once a week if not more? 
• blogging networks promote the same wisdom? They reckon the busier their network, the more Google will promote it. They believe it is in their interest that there should be non-stop activity through their blogger members

• writing posts, 
•  conversing with other bloggers and 
•  entering competitions

They try everything in their power to promote activity so that their network shows up on the first page of Google’s search engine. They are the owners of a blogging platform and individual bloggers are their industrious bees.

With a zillion bloggers on the internet, that's a zillion posts a week competing for attention. What a glut. A zillion posts on every topic under the sun – some repeated over and over. And over. To test this theory, I searched Google for the following phrase – why post regularly on your blog – and guess what? There were about 67,700,000 results in 0.16 seconds. Most had written on why we should and how we should and a few on why we shouldn’t.

I've thought long and hard about this and come to the conclusion that I enjoy having a presence on the net but if that involves even a hint of frenzied, desperate action, I don’t enjoy it. Writing a post week after week means searching for a worthy topic to discuss week after week. Why? Not because I want to but because I believe Google and others want me to. Some will reward me with a rank and others, with my blog showing up in search engines on the first page. What will that get me? Very gratifying attention. For a nanosecond (as someone I've quoted later in this post, has pointed out).

So I’ve done my bit by churning out a post with the right keywords and tweaked for SEO to please Google (and others). Now I can sit back on my laurels and reap the rewards. Gosh no! I’ve got to comment on posts to please them too. If commenting on someone’s post is only so that they comment on mine, if I desperately want Google to know I am a busy bee with forward, backward and sideways links to my credit, is it a compliment to the post I’ve just read and commented on? Not really. I posted the comment to curry favour with Google. I hasten to declare I am not sitting in judgement but if that is the case, I have two questions -

Who, therefore, controls my actions on the net? And who am I trying to establish a worthwhile relationship with?


The ones whose blogs I really enjoy, I subscribe to. Whether they write once a month or once every three months, I’d come to know and happily head on over to at least read and often, to comment. But do I remember what they wrote about in previous posts? Very rarely. But I remember one thing for sure - that particular blogger writes something that consistently resonates with me.

Does Google remember their posts? Yes. It will throw up their post if it has value and is tweaked for keywords and search terms again and again. That is why it is so important for them to, first and foremost, write quality content. And that takes time, effort and their full engagement – heart and mind. If they must churn out a post every week, how do they keep that integrity intact?

Ah, I hear you say - at least it reminds Google of my existence. But, I counter, it makes inroads into your time. There’s so much to do and if you spend all your time blogging and reading other blogs, responding to comments on yours and leaving comments on theirs, you end up feeling spent, exhausted and caught up in a mindless, meaningless spiral.

It somehow reminds me of my generation hell bent on acquiring an academic degree. We might end up in a job that makes absolutely no use of our degree but a degree we must have.

As someone said here, People are flooded with information. There is noise everywhere. Long gone are the days where you need to be in front of people every single day. Posting regularly might get you high up on Google’s rankings for a few days but the positions will be short lived. 

Is it really worth the time and effort? That is for each blogger to decide. (I know there are some who are paid to advertise goods or services on their blogs. It isn’t them I’m talking to at all.)

Of late I have seen a few really worthwhile bloggers hang up their blogging shoes. Between jumping off and spinning on there is the option of slowing down.

Also, I have to ask - do they leave a vacuum? That depends on the content of each of their posts and what it meant to us (not to anyone else). We, humans, will definitely miss some of them. As for Google, the world of blogging goes on - a merry-go-round that makes you feel dizzy. There’s more and more .... and more churned out hourly. And Google is busy crawling them all.

I continue to write as I enjoy writing, especially when something disturbs me or when my creativity decides to come out of hiding. I continue to long for kindred souls who feel the same as I do in my posts and I love it when they respond. But I write only if I have something of my own to say; something I feel an urgent need to share. Then the writing is done in minutes. This excludes the edits and re re re re edits till I feel satisfied I’ve said my piece and conveyed exactly what I want to. That, for me, takes a while. As for commenting on other blogs, in my case it is random and disorganised. But, to my logical mind (if I even have one), reading and responding to one or two posts a day is time reasonably and well spent.

Even if we slow down there will still be enough on the net to keep us informed. It will simply be less dross, less repeats and more golden nuggets, unique and compelling. Wonder if you can ever change your formulas to recognise that, Google. After all, you lack the one important quality – that of being human and understanding humans. Whether you do or whether you don’t, this human isn’t planning on posting once a week and is willing to take the consequences. I have enough deadlines to contend with without adding yet another.

I’d like to dedicate this post to “India Against Corruption”. They’ve started a fast at Jantar Mantar this week asking for a probe against corrupt individuals who’ve siphoned off a huge chunk of the Indian tax payer funds for themselves. 

The connection between their fast and this post is only this. The corrupt individuals are ministers in power and 

There seems to be a clamp down on the media so that this monumental effort by India Against Corruption goes unreported and unnoticed by most Indians. 

There are huge crowds at Jantar Mantar supporting IAC. Here’s a link – http://www.granslive.com/public/showEvent?eventId=6cc031b0-0608-47c4-921a-d5ae35f9fd2e - see the event live for yourselves. 

If nothing, it helps us understand what is involved in staging protests, how hard it is and how willing IAC and its members are to give of their time and effort so that fifteen ministers who have been accused of siphoning off huge sums by our country are held accountable. This protest is to ensure they are probed by an independent panel and not by their own cronies or by organisations they themselves head. In between the live protest, you can see Arvind Kejriwal explaining what exactly they’ve been accused of, who is sitting on the panel that is supposed to probe their crimes and what IAC is demanding should happen so that the probe and its findings are swift (not delayed with one weak excuse after another) and fair. 

One thing everyone acknowledges is that IAC and its members are doing this for their country rather than for themselves.

Please feel free to share the links or dedicate your next post to bringing attention to this fast (in spite of the stifled Indian media) if you believe these fifteen ministers (http://news.indiaagainstcorruption.org/iac_new/index.php/fast-against-corruption) should be probed as IAC says they should be. The probes are for hundreds of crores of rupees where
1 crore = Rs.10,000,000 or approximately USD 209,000 – an amount most of us won’t see as individual bank balances in our lifetimes.

Here’s a facebook link - https://www.facebook.com/FinalWarAgainstCorruption - “Like” it if you want to show support.



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