Suited politicians are no better

A talk about politics always leaves you with a bad taste in the mouth. For years, I have been exposed to the Indian scenario and I have had enough. There is a new scam every year and then there is the typical Indian mentality to forgive and forget.

By the time I moved to the Great Southern Land, I had seen politicians and parties from around the world. And then, I began to realize that politicians are no different.

The ones in the UK, USA and Australia are all well-read lawyers or graduates from one of the best institutions. They are all suit-clad and dapper. That's one major difference from how it is in India where there is no importance to education and presentation.

At the end of the day, even education didn't turn these guys in developed nations into better individuals. The smear-my-face campaign is on full swing.

Someone here dug up a story about Julia G's employer from god knows when. Apparently she didn't perform well or whatever and there was some stuff about she creating a trust on her boyfriend's name. The Opposition started talking about this for days connecting that to present day political decisions. It was so ridiculous.

The next target was the Opposition. News got out that Tony A was quite a rough guy in school. It seems he punched a wall just next to a girl's face. Again an attempt on his character. He got on press saying that he didn't remember anything of that sort. Days later, he comes back and says such an incident never happened. Every one in the parliament had to talk about this for a week.

I was like - you guys are so lame and low. Don't you have better things to do than run such smear campaigns. Whoever they are - politicians, media, publicists, lobbyists, jobless people etc. How are you any different from the parties in Tamil Nadu that shout dirty stuff against each other or the national parties like BJP and Congress. You guys here give more polished nonsense whereas your counterparts in India are a little more rustic and ruthless.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone in the Republican Party finds out that Barack Obama didn't pay the bill or tip the waiter on his first date with Michelle.

Support for Srilankan Tamils

For quite some time, a number of groups in this side of the country have started raising their voices for the Srilankan Tamils.

I really don't know why. Srilankan Tamils may be connected to the Indian Tamils or the Dravidians through history. But that's like so many hundred years before. Those guys decided to move to a different country for a living. They are of a different nationality. Why do these political outfits here cause trouble for us citizens?

The other day, last week. There was a human chain staged by the DMK. Rain was already causing enough havoc all over the city and these guys added more fuel to the fire. There was complete chaos in major parts of the city. People were stranded at most places. It took at least 4 hours for the traffic to clear and find some breathing space. And on the next day, there was no news about the situation. Most newspapers were celebrating the success of the human chain. WTF.

Today, I hear that there is a trade closure. Most shops, rather all shops are closed today for supporting the cause of Tamils. But what the hell again? Why should these people disturb public life? Like actor Vikram says in the movie Saamy, all these political outfits should go to Marina Beach or Island grounds and do whatever they want.

What a waste of resources? When will these fellow learn to think objectively? Beans is selling for 80 rupees a kilo and most vegetables are above the Rs.30 mark. Not too far before we hit a crisis and someone here is worried about a bunch of Tamils. I can agree to this agitation if the Indian Army was involved in the firing of Tamils. Instead of supporting, we should be more careful about these people entering our land and causing trouble for us. There are so many hundred thousand Bangladeshis inside our country who are illegal immigrants. We have enough trouble from our neighboring countries. And we also have so many outfits within the country who keep bombing cities day in and day out. And here in Tamil Nadu, we have a bunch of stupid fellows who are busy supporting rather than safeguarding.

If the Tamils don't have food, then send them food supplies or whatever you can to support them. Why trouble me to support them?

Ramadass attacks CII’s Chennai version 3.0

So, today, our ever-revolting friend Ramadass has opened his mouth again. Read that here

I have observed this for some time now. For anything that is aimed at development or industrialization, our man is the first person to protest.

This time its against Chennai 3.0 - the CII conference.

When some people are dreaming of making Chennai like one of the top cities in the world, this guy is speaking of driving away the middle class and the poor sections.

The last time I took a walk around Parrys Corner in Madras, I was thinking to myself - "Wow, Madras would be such a beautiful place if Parrys Corner was converted to look like Manhattan or Nariman Point. With high rise buildings on that side of the city, it will be a whole new transformation"

Obviously, when cities grow and become important for business, people will have to move out to the suburbs. We still cant have the same auto rickshaw guys loitering around and creating a traffic menace. Things have to get organized at least some day. To this day, when we speak of having visionaries and thought leaders amongst us, we have some thoughtless leaders like this one.

Dow Bhopal Tragedy

I bumped into an article in Business week and I was surprised to note what's happening.

In 1984, Bhopal gas tragedy happened. Union Carbide was completely responsible for everything that happened and they were liable to make any clean up that's required. They paid some money to the victims and then everything was left as it is. Neither the government nor Union Carbide did anything more to address the environmental impact that the leak had created.

Dow Chemical bought whatever was left of the Union Carbide plant. They bought the company shares.

And now, a bunch of people are holding their hands, shouting at Dow Chemical to spend millions of dollars to clean the water table.

The law ministry is also sending wrong signals and supporting this stupid idea.

I seriously don't understand. Why are these people blaming Dow? Just because an international company decided to buy a rundown plant, can you just blame them for whatever happened before?

On top of this, some students at the IITs are objecting to an institutional tie-up with Dow Chemical. That's stupidity to the highest level. Don't these students ever think at all? This is what happens when respected institutions are influenced by reservation policies, the Ministry and a bunch of uneducated politicians.

There is also an NGO that is fighting against Dow Chemical. The Chemicals Ministry has told - "the polluter should pay". What a statement. Damn it! Everyone knows that the polluter was Union Carbide and they were supposed to do the clean up. All these people kept quiet, got bribes once in a while, and now when a renowned firm entered the country, they have decided to put the blame on it. Maybe, someone gave them an idea that if we blame an international firm, they will immediately do what's required to prevent any damage to their brand value at the world market.

Do any of these parties understand that its the responsibility of the government and Union Carbide officials to solve this problem?

If we told that going forward, Dow has to be responsible for whatever happens, then its okay. Why do we have to pass our own inefficiencies to someone who is quiet?

Entertainment

This is the worst level to which Tamil Nadu politics could get to. Even GOOGLE NEWS classifies this piece of news as Entertainment rather than anything related to serious politics or government. This problem of opposition accusing the ruling party has become such a repetitive and idiotic act that even a harmless and unbiased search engine company's software decided to play sport.

Check the photograph on the right and the first news item.

Sethusamudram

I generally dont spend time on all these political affairs hitting the stands. But this one caught my attention. For once, I felt that Dr.MK was trying to make some economic sense (dont know what political gains he has out of this).

This project, that aims to reduce the distance travelled by the ships, has seen so many governments that perhaps no other project in India has seen. The first proposal for this project was produced in 1860. As I was doing my research on this project, I noticed one issue that read "This project cannot be completed in 3 yrs and it will take atleast 30 yrs". Even if the government had dredged one kilometer every year, considering the way in which things move here, we would have completed this project much before independence. Ok, you can always blame it on the British. Maybe it was because of them that it got delayed. But after that? Well, I guess most of the people involved in economic development then, were so confused that they thought - we dont even know what to do in land, why go to the sea?

Coming back to present situation. You know that if people want to just stop something, then they can blow it just totally out of proportion. So a bunch of environmentalists came in and complained about protection of corals and species.

Then came the stalwarts with their evidence of Rama's bridge to Lanka being present there. Especially the BJP Leaders, who generally do not have any logic in what they propose to say about Hinduism. The bridge dates back around 3500 yrs. According to the Vedic system, Ramayana happened about 880,148 years ago. And it was the Treta Yuga. After every Yuga, the world is created, destroyed and re-created. Ok, lets not confuse ourselves with mythology and carbon dating. by preserving that portion of the sea, what are we going to get. Not even one person can take a photograph with the bridge in the background. nor can they go to that point and tell their friends, can you see below - thats the bridge lord rama built.

Shouldnt we be more focused on economic benefits at this point? If someone tells that the projected profits or savings from this project is not correct or the amount of traffic is not going to increase because of this, then its quite acceptable. thats the direction in which we have to think. someone tells that the pre-tax IRR of the project is 2.6%. Thats the exact point to note. And then we keep wasting time on doing some processions and meetings, taking up the time of the public, media etc. And blame each other!