tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21150734529007655942024-03-06T05:28:10.691+13:00geveandeveryotherthing!!!every other thing 'added' to Geve, an impulsive choice for a blog title; my impulse to pen my thoughts, and share these with you, and a blog is the best place. I started by writing on travel in India, then on beautiful New Zealand; as I get my way around I want to share my views. The world is becoming a more difficult place to live in; though we have no other choice we do nothing to change things.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-44115077158090953692010-09-01T12:54:00.001+12:002010-09-19T20:41:47.881+12:00National Geographic Channel and the Bible?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; ">National Geography Channel and it's serial "Riddles of the Bible." Is this the Nat Geo Channel or a biblical evangelist channel? These TV channels, History Channel included, seem to believe this whole world is populated only by Christian believers, and none else; the rest of us do not matter. Our sensibilities are trampled on; and what is a channel, National Geographic, meant to spread knowledge of the Earth, broadcasting a biblical theme?<br /><br />In the episode I watched, Christians are said to believe Jesus as the returned Messiah will first lead all believers who are righteous to heaven, before the world and evil within is destroyed. Are we all non Christians consigned to an everlasting hell, condemned foster creatures of God?<br /><br />I think the Christians have every right to believe the articles of their faith, but should a secular channel, National Geographic air these views?</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; "><br />Couple of days back I watched "the Pagan Christ" on Discovery Channel. This serial traced the life of Jesus Christ, the main thrust of the serial is, the life of Jesus is "picked" from the Egyptian tale of Horus, the same virgin birth, the same visit by three wise men, and eventual crucification, rise from the dead and resurrection on the fourth day! A damning indictment of Christian beliefs!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-64233641777967023712010-06-25T19:19:00.003+12:002010-06-25T19:31:13.433+12:00The Gulf Oil Spill<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(17, 17, 17); line-height: 18px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;">The Gulf Oil Leak : just one more huge tragedy, the last, for now, in a long history of criminal negligence by business wealth generators, the ugly side of wealth creation; not just that it will take several generations to recover the eco-system there.<br /><br />Now mostly forgotten, but the far bigger human tragedy, caused by the unbridled motivation for profit, was the massive introduction, into local economies across the world, of factory produced goods, causing, in many regions, irreversible loss to local producers of goods, bringing poverty throughout many vulnerable societies.<br /><br />A classic example, when the British put up huge cotton garment factories, at the beginning of the 'Industrial Revolution,' in the 1850s, in Manchester and other parts of Britain, proudly boasting that mass produced clothes were far cheaper, they conveniently failed to bring notice of the tragedy caused to thousands of local dyers and weavers in India, who slipped into poverty, and began crowding cities for work at pitiful wages.<br /><br />Farmers in India were encouraged to switch from food crops to growing cotton; food stocks, for the millions in India, suddenly depleted, and severe famines, where thousands lost their lives, are now part of forgotten history.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-58581428112816242232010-05-01T00:56:00.021+12:002010-06-17T13:13:53.681+12:00India! Like a bird that slips from your hand! - 2.I would like you read the earlier post -"India! Like a bird that slips from your hand!"- first, before you get on to reading this one.<div><br /></div><div>I have been giving the impression I am forever critical of things here. You would think so, after you read the previous post, and I would be dishonest if I would not balance out on those views with this very pertinent, very creditable, very laudable role played by the Indian press, more particularly the television electronic media; comparable to the very best, anywhere in the world.</div><div><br /></div><div>I follow three Indian television news channels here, Times Now, CNN-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">IBN</span> and Headlines Today, telecasting in English, and very remarkable indeed, they serve as the voice of an India that values, not just a free and democratic set up, but in every news worthy instance, their views are expressed in full and factual, fearless, forthright, highly detailed exposure, and brook no <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">nonsense </span>!<br /><br />Frank and candid opinions are expressed on the events covered, the politicians and the powerful are not spared, but the news coverage is balanced and very analytical.<br /><br />Not just bad news, like Maoist attacks in the North-Eastern States, or a huge fire in an heritage building in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kolkatta</span>, but information and revelations that prove embarrassing to the government of the day, or puts a big <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">whig</span> in the dock; nothing is compromised, nothing is covered up or retracted, there is no question ever of buying these guys. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Ofcourse</span>, there is always the eye on the viewer ship ratings, whenever and at any time, when something more news worthy turns up, the old exposure is relegated to a back story and the new "Breaking News" is brought out on top.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take the story of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sania</span>, India's top tennis player. How the news on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Sania's</span> proposed marriage to the Pakistani cricket player, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Shoaib</span>, alleged to be married secretly to a girl from Hyderabad, is 'dumped' when, conveniently (from the TV channels' perspective, the opportunity to change news!), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Shoaib</span> divorces the lady from Hyderabad, a grand wedding between <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Sanai</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Shoaib</span> is shown on TV, and the channels move on to the far more 'newsworthy' exposure of the corruption and goings on in the Indian Premier League!</div><div><br /></div><div>The Indian Premier League, India's top cricket venture, a new and dynamic idea, of teams representing Indian regions or cities (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Mumbai</span> Indians, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings) see this <a href="http://www.ipl2010.org/teams">LINK </a>, and each team owned by franchisees, like India's top businessmen, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Ambanis</span>, or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Mallyas</span>, or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Wadias</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Bollywood</span> actress <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Priety</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Zinta</span>. </div><div><br /></div><div>Brainchild of an otherwise lesser known businessman, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Lalit</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Modi</span>, the idea took India and the cricket world by storm, and the teams include players from Australia, UK, New Zealand, each tournament a festive affair on the American Baseball style, with cheerleaders, and crowds given <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">fibrelights</span>, and a lot of hoopla and night games lit by those huge neon lights.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, thanks to some very investigative and nosy journalists, smelling something wrong when a minister in the Union Cabinet (the Federal Delhi ministers) was caught unawares defending his girlfriend's bid to get the franchisee for one of the teams, led from one thing to the other, with the minister tendering his resignation! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Lalit</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Modi</span>, visibly flustered, making contradictory statements and tactical moves, allegedly brings out more dirt-corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and money transferred into foreign accounts.</div><div><br /></div><div>The TV channels went after the whole thing as would similar media in western countries, even better, with "no stone unturned" and a full 24 by 7 coverage of the whole affair. </div><div><br /></div><div>Similarly, every piece of news that should appall people, would be given prime time- honor killings in remote and not so remote places in the country, no matter how embarrassing it would be for the local authorities there, expose clandestine manufacture of spurious medicines, expose some absurd religious rituals one of which involved lowering children into a 'sacred' well for getting the water's blessings! </div><div><br /></div><div>These media chaps have real guts, because powerful politicians can be expected to get back, but do not, because the awareness created by these exposes have made these politicos fear a public backlash! </div><div><br /></div><div> Presently, a very heated debate is ongoing, through opinions expressed through <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">SMS</span> messages and phone calls to these TV channels, and frank and heated debates on Prime Time, on the death sentence on the lone terrorist survivor, from the 10 terrorists who held <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Mumbai</span> on ransom by their ruthless attacks that killed some 166 people, in November 2008.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the Indian judicial system, a death sentence from the lower criminal, anti-terrorist court, has to be confirmed by the higher courts. This takes time, and the angry public, ably supported by the media, are expressing their frustrations that, in the event of an Indian VIP, or someone close to power, being abducted in a new terrorist attack, horse trading would become inevitable- release this terrorist, and get your VIP freed! The public outcry is natural, to get the death sentence carried out before delay and soft pedaling by the government might lead to the whole thing taking a new turn, in the event some horse trading is required!</div><div><br /></div><div>Right now the CNN_<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">IBN</span> channel is exposing foul deeds of huge and powerful foreign drug companies carrying out highly irresponsible and dangerous tests on human beings here, leading to untimely deaths or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">aweful</span> side effects.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Indian media, equal to or better than the best of it's kind in the world!</div><div><br /></div><div>Here some more on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Pune</span>, also tweeted on my twitter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">geven</span>46:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">-India Foreign media fooling all, ask government- give GDP growth of power, roads and water only, you'll get real embarrassing answers.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India- statistical figures will show people have moved out of poverty, nobody will tell you they still get water for one hour daily.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India-statistics show India GDP growth is 10%, nobody tells you the rich use inverter-alternate power,power mains get shut; the poor?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India-call a guy at 4 pm, </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">dont</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> be surprised if he turns up at 7pm! Call up a bank for some details, promised return call, keep waiting.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">-India;eye opener, on property websites here, lower prices quoted on websites to attract buyer, on actual enquiry prices are higher!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India-power shut down at 10 am. Will most probably be switched on at 6pm. Stewing in the </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">aweful</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> heat, wet with perspiration. Progress?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Whilst it's true India has far to go, fabulous wealth in grinding poverty, I don't understand why some people subject them to some form of ....................</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Every world brand has opened shop in India, a huge middle class, on ground level a mindless bureaucracy, disconnect attitudes, frustrating</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India- wedding at my neighbors, huge number of guests, Hindu custom of leaving shoes at the door, but shoes strewn across my door!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; font-size:25px;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Pune</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> India, new, phone for a cab,good; sorry,it stops short of a good system. No record of customer address, no GPS, pl repeat address.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">This is 'Wings-dial a cab' outfit. Very indifferent and unresponsive if there are no cabs available when you call; not even a courteous response on phone!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Please do not arrive at </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Mumbai</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> airport before your check in time-you will be asked to cool your heels in a smelly, badly </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">airconditioned</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> corner of the terminal building, that too after shelling out Rs 60 ($1.50)! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">India-if individuals n bureaucracy fail, ideas don't. India was one of the few places where people looking for home were welcome n thrived.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Now back in New Zealand, I am back to some blogging, some internet browsing. Sky TV has introduced "Travel Channel" and I find it very informative and very interesting. Fine serials, with some outstanding photography and well presented, on travel to Bangkok, to Cuba, to Sicily and a train journey through New Zealand's North island, green green and some superb track views and great model trains in Napier.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">One particular docu. "Rajasthan" apart from pulling at my sentiments, the India that allures the tourist, makes one wonder for the millionth time how this land of forts and magic and vibrant color, rich in heritage and outstanding culture, thrives alongside the urban India of today, where the very poor smile their way through the massive wealth that has so far bypassed them! </span></span></span></div><div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-84971288306424847662010-03-15T16:58:00.028+13:002010-06-25T12:20:43.107+12:00India! Like a bird that slips from your hand!<b>I am back. Back in my dusty overcrowded home town of Pune, the old British Cantonment chaps called it Poona.....you decide which sounds better.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Up to the early 1980s most of Cantonment Pune- (segregated parts of some Indian cities-from British Raj times-run by the military. It involved ensuring a very healthy environment for the garrisoned troops.)- that was given over to non military ownership/use, was populated by colonial houses, bungalows, open green parks and large leafy trees heavily shading roads and houses. Now, except in areas still used for garrisons, military outfits, the rest of Cantonment Pune has 'merged' with mainstream Pune, a cauldron of chaotic buildings, crazy traffic, dust and smog.<br /></b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I have no choice but to call it Pune, or else the postal guys will not deliver my mail, if I provide Poona as my city in address details!</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>But first things first. I flew in from my home Auckland on a Cathay Pacific flight with a stopover at Hong Kong and Bangkok.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Their Economy class seats are designed for a midget race, which, I am afraid we humans are likely to shrink to, a side effect of globalization and climate change?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Cathay Pacific- welcome drink, a menu is presented, with choice from three mains and liquor, then generous with fruit juices- on Auckland-Hong Kong sector; </span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">no welcome drink, no menu, on Hong Kong Mumbai sector-why? A very frugal meal of one mains, a fruit salad and a midget sized sealed mineral water cup........who are they fooling? I suppose I got caught in a booked flight, of passengers returning to Mumbai, on a special package and discount tour arrangement. My bad luck.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Mumbai Airport- Mumbai Airport, you go quickly thru Immigration, very impressive. Then, with just 2 luggage conveyor belts, all hell broke loose. </span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Some of those Airport Authority folks, with ID Cards hung around their collars, sat, where passengers should, and watched, we, the suffering suckers crowd around the two conveyor belts......there are no red colored floor signs that tell people to stay away from the moving belt........it's a free for all, with the tougher and pushy folk getting the better of the situation, pushing out the others, sometimes grabbing the wrong luggage which is then left on the floor, like unwanted orphans.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Pushing and shoving through the crowd, my wife (not me) managed to get our luggage, and we were then off to the Customs green belt, again a very quick thing, and out of the main airport building.</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">With my patience stretched out, I did not find it funny to see the driver of my rental standing almost last in a very long line of this species, holding a small card board placard with my name miss spelt as "Narielwaha.!"</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">It's just 4.30 a.m., the heat outside is overpowering,like stepping into an overheated oven; there is construction everywhere, their dark grey silhouettes standing out like silent sentinels of a dying city. The car tyres kick up clouds of dust because the roads need resurfacing, atleast a good wash with so much accumulated dust caking the surface. Good wash? Simply impossible, with severe water shortages across major urban centers.</span></b></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Media hype on India's economic boom not matched with my hands down experience of awful smog, pollution, traffic chaos, dilapidated buildings, power outages and unrelenting bureaucracy.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Ask for a local mobile and wireless internet service, even a TV connection, and you have to give copies of Passport and fill forms......then the ID verification takes around three to four days to come through; I got a couple of phone calls asking me for my name, age and birth date, then, four days later, the mobile, laptop and TV get connected!</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Before I left for India, I was told Pune region have almost no power outages, these are now a minimal and not bothersome.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">No sir, power is shut off, on thursdays, for the full day, on other days, at any time of the day, for short intervals.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Good to see flashy BMWs, Audis and the more commonly popular Mercedes, but pathetic to see them waddling through some of the worst roads on the planet, potholes, uneven surface,, roads with tyre markings in deep mud along the edges. And expensive cars rubbing shouders with greasy trucks, badly maintained public transport buses, swarms of three wheeler rickshaws, two wheelers, and old doddering bullocks pulling carts. Dodging through this maze are a mass of people, oblivious of the danger.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Funny, I have not found out yet why, but my Credit Cards from NZ don't work at the shopping mall- here, the display on the credit machine shows up "not accepting." Instead of some help, we get suspicious looks.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">I had looked over a few Indian property websites, magicbricks.com, and had noted the price tags of a few properties I thought I would look at. To my utter amazement, my inquiries, confirming these prices returned some bizarre responses, the prices quoted are incorrect, that these are higher. Why, I ask? Some property agents put it down to data input errors(?), and one honest guy told me the prices are so displayed to attract buyers, the actual prices are higher!</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">As a non resident I have to open a NRO account-"Non-Resident Ordinary account." Additionally, a bizarre stipulation rules I cannot open this type of account in the banks where I have my accounts; My bank is one of the private banks allowed the business of banking, by the Indian government, after they had finished with the earlier frenzy of nationalizing previous private banks. ....a very supportive lady there gives me all the customer care I need.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">The next best thing to do was to inquire with the ICICI Bank for this NRO Account. Knowing they will need a pretty long list of things to establish my identity as well as my non-resident status, I started calling up ICICI Bank for some start-up guidelines.......you can as well call up the devil, he would give you a better response.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Several calls over the last few days, I draw a complete blank ; I am given more telephone numbers each time, "I will now give you the right contact number, please phone him/her and your inquiries will be answered." The next call, the same rhetoric .......I now have some six phone numbers, the sixth number I have, I will dial on monday morning.......let's see what luck comes my way!</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Perhaps some of these savvy folks have learnt to sniff out the very rich, so they can afford to ignore and bypass us middle middle level folks!</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Some of the news here is not good; the first thing that comes to mind, why is CNN and BBC ignoring this bad news. Four States in north-east India have been under domestic Maoist "attacks" since the past few days. Rail fish plates removed, Trains derailed, and a few traders at one place kidnapped-the train which was derailed is one with pricy tickets, and good thing no one was injured. </span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Today, Tuesday, 23rd, we, my wife and I, decided we go along for a long ride in a three wheeler rickshaw. </span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">The rickshaw engine is one more fraud foisted on Indian cities; when manufacturing companies, Indian and western-Piaggo etc, could not sell their huge stock of boat engines for fishing boats, these were cleverly converted to fit these rickshaws, to run them with a capacity to carry a load of 3 to 5 passengers. This type of rickshaws run all across India and Pakistan, and most of South East Asia.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Our driver was a gem of a person, and very capable at maneuvering the vehicle. And, he very quickly sized up that we were not accustomed to taking in the traffic smog, and took us through "lesser" roads with a few stray vehicles! Real great guy.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">At the end of my two + hours ride, my cough disappeared, my immunity system given a boost by breathing in the dust and smoke! </span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">Before I continue my writing down my experiences, and express my frustrations, I was prompted, right now, by TV coverage of women pilots in the Indian Airforce, smart, good looking with intelligence written all over their faces, prompted to visualize, inspite of poverty, pollution, slow indifferent attitudes in some ways, India has a shining future, if things go right. </span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 59, 18); line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 59, 18); line-height: 16px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> </span></div><div>I am sorry to come to a conclusion that somehow, most urban Indians seem to be disconnects, dysfunctional. An important deal, at least important to me, my good friend on this deal, oozing confidence and full of very sweet assurances, ended our meeting with an unconditional guarantee he would turn up on the next Sunday morning to close the sale. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sunday morning went and so did a couple of days. When I next came across the chap, by chance in an apartment lift, the guy coolly tells me to join him for a cup of tea. No mention of his failure to turn up!</div><div><br /></div><div>My very good neighbors, a couple with a very sweet eight year daughter, and living with the husband's mother and younger sister, made all the usual noises welcoming us and wishing us the best for our short stay in the country. Few days later, the wife turns up and announces she is an investor counselor and agent for some well known debt and market mutual funds. When, after we gave her a very polite and rather long tedious and patient hearing, we told her we were not interested, sorry, she left with this plastered grin on her face. </div><div><br /></div><div>A day or two later, we heard noises next door, and found the old lady, the mother, and sister, along with the young child, just back from school, sheepishly waiting outside their door. The key hole lever, of their house door, had dropped inside the metal case, so the key would not work and they were cooling their heels. We invited them in, asked them to make themselves at home, offered tea and snacks, whilst they got the "investor counselor" on phone to leave her office and come home with an handyman who is adept at setting right 'key' problems! </div><div><br /></div><div>To cut a rather long story short , this one had a happy ending, with the neighbor's door opened by the key specialist, and the whole neighbor family trooping out of our apartment. But no thanks, not even a decent thank you or word of appreciation. Now, when I chance to be at my door, entering or leaving my home, I get a good response from these neighbors, a rude thud as they bang their door on me. It will take me a few years to figure out where I went wrong!</div><div><br /></div><div>I finally got to open my bank account with a multi national bank, very flashy and arty interiors, and smart lady managers, oozing the usual "we love our customers" body language. I was assured I would receive my customer welcome pack in some four or five working days. On the fifth day , my inquiry got the rather abrupt and matter of fact response, on the phone, that there was some delay from their regional office. I got my Customer Welcome Pack, my debit card, cheque book, and some codes for operating the ATM and similar stuff, a full fortnight later. </div><div><br /></div><div>I went on a Monday to collect my CWP and got the usual warm welcoming smile and we love our customers attitude. This lady manager is a nice person, seemed genuine and friendly. But I could not figure out why she very nonchalantly told me she had received my CWP the last Friday, but somehow it slipped her mind to call me up on the same day!</div><div><br /></div><div>I've got this Net Connect Wireless Broadband Internet connection that you slip into the computer port and get to browse the internet. I had got mine for a month, when the thing began to go 'disconnect' and no amount of effort got it to work. The 'connect' window would not open and a message would appear 'no device found-device does not respond.'</div><div><br /></div><div>I called up the Help Line of the Service Provider, who asked me to try out a number of things, like shut down and restart the PC, remove and reinsert the wireless device with a few minutes of wait, reenter the password and user ID, finally shut down the PC for at least forty five minutes, there are some technical hitches they are sorting out.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nothing worked, not for the next few hours. Finally, on the Help Line advice to try out the wireless device on another PC, I requested my neighbor (not the one who bangs their door on me) to allow me to see if the device works on his computer. It did, to my utter dismay. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I called back the Help Line they now adviced I get my PC ports checked out for malfunction. </div><div><br /></div><div>That night, on a hunch and some intuition, I opened my PC's Control Panel, clicked on Internet Options, then opened internet connections and selected wireless connections available, and Viola, found my InterConnect window and clicked on 'connect' and got my internet back, working!</div><div><br /></div><div>I have not bothered to call up those Help Line chaps to tell them their 'connect' window does not function on my PC, never mind why. Or, waste my energies telling them they should have helped me through the other option of activating the connection through my PC's Control panel! </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">I find this ironic, India is slowly setting records for a high usage of mobile phones, every urban middle class, all of the rich farmers and middle class in small towns own a mobile phone. Besides, there are cost schemes where the service provider charges one paisa per second-that would work to 60 paisa per minute which is roughly equivalent to one US cent per minute! Sadly, almost all work where the government and nationalised (government controlled banks) banking is involved, there are no paperless systems.....endless visits and filling in endless forms is still the order of the day. Sorry, sir, you have to visit us and fill in required forms and submit them at the right counter, never mind the very long queques!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">I do not live in India, but its looming presence is always omnipresent. For my monthly miserly pension, I have to prove I am still 'alive'........still around every two years. If I were living here, in India, it would mean visiting my bankers, presenting myself, filling a wretched form, countersigned by a bank officer, which is then forwarded to the local pension office.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">The skull drudgery starts when you live abroad. Before the required mandatory two years expired, I sent a memo by my NZ bank, confirming I am alive and ticking. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">No sir, no foreign bank is recognized for this purpose, the application stands rejected. This kind of 'I am still alive' certificate should be countersigned by a government officer in the Indian embassy in the country you live in! Foreign institutions and foreign banks? Not recognized! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">The first time I visit my bank in Pune, for this purpose of proving I am alive, the concerned guy was on some sort of holiday..........come the next day, please.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">I go back a few days later and am asked to fill in one of those badly printed forms that no one will look at again.........and asked to trudge with this cheap paper to the Pension office to present myself there.....one of those dour pen pushing clerk looks you up and down, satisfies himself there is a human person in his blinkered view, stamps the paper several times, and tells you your banker will receive the pension credit in time! And all this after I managed to jump a long queue, feigning I am a tired senior citizen. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-28290610232219194752009-11-22T18:57:00.002+13:002010-06-14T23:16:22.874+12:00The full truth of the ancient wars between Greece and Persia<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;">History TV Channel documentary- Warriors-How the world is still fooled, and the full truth is veiled. On the Greek and Persian Wars and how it is claimed, this changed the course of Western Civilization,forever!<br /><br />Briefly, the Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus The Great, the Achaemenid, (Hakhamanish), in 500 B.C., and which at it's greatest extent stretched from the present territories of Europe's Macedonia/Romania, the regions around the mouth of the river Danube, and present day Eygpt and parts of Libya, all forming it's grand western borders. To the east, it's extent reached the Indus river, and the river Oxus north east of the Caspian and Aral seas in the far north east.<br /><br />One very brief mention, the Persians used paid labor to build their royal Capitals, and the kings were judged by their personal role in the Empire's politics and sentiments-this is well attested by historical chronicles that were finally brought to full literary fruition in the Shah Nameh that chronicled good kings from bad; not as now popularly alleged that the Persians were blind and dumb subjects of their kings.<br /><br />The great Greek historian, Herodotus, who was born in Ionia, a Persian province of Greek cities in western Turkey, grudgingly admits of "the Persian Law" that does not change and is equally applied to all subjects! The Bible calls this "the Persian Laws that changeth not."<br /><br />Greek society at that time was a full senatorial voting democracy, but for an elite class only; the rest were workers and slaves, with abundant male and female resources for any work you may wish to extract from them. Greek politics comprised of bickering and quarrelsome city states. The Spartans, particularly, were the bullies of the region. The Spartans' military society demanded all boys, from the age of seven, were given over to a mentor, a Spartan warrior, who, in his bid to cement the ties between soldier and learner, used the small boy as his concubine; any amount of historical Greek records will attest to this. They proudly proclaim the paedophilic relationship as part of military training!<br /><br />The Persian Achaemenid dynasty held their vast empire for around 220 years, upto 336 B.C., with its collapse at the hands of Alexander the Great, who, incidently, considered himself heir to Cyrus, made Babylon his capital, never returning to Macedonia, and is known to have adopted Persian court etiquettes and adorn himself with the Persian purple. He married three Persian royal ladies, one of whom bore him his son and heir, who never lived to take his father's throne. Alexander's Empire of Asia collapsed, literary, on his death bed, disintegrating into five kingdoms. The Persian Empire had lasted for over 200 years.<br /><br />Anyone familiar with the present politics of the great powers, the United States, have no doubts this great country is indeed a great power, although it got a thorough drubbing in Vietnam, and is not making much headway in Iraq.<br /><br />Clay tablets found in the Persian royal Capitals, Persepolis, Susa and Ekbatana describe the wars with Greece as a necessary military 'arm' of politics, to keep the city states warring with one another. The Persians were carrying on a diplomatic war with Greece, bribing their leaders with gold, which kept the Greek city-states disunited, for over 150 years, well after their victories over Persian forces in the 4th century B.C.<br /><br />Further, what is little known, and generally ignored, is that the western regions of present Turkey, known as Ionia, were a significantly large group of Greek cities under Persian rule; and keeping the mainland Greeks warring was as much in the interests of Persia, as keeping the communists in check was in US interest in the twentieth century!<br /><br />Now, coming to the contention that the Greek victories "saved" Western civilization, allow me to present the full truth, rather the other side of the truth.<br /><br />At the time of the Greco-Persian wars, in the 4th century B.C., the rest of Europe had no organised states other than the Greek city states on Mainland Greece, and we had Macedonia on it's northern borders. The rest of Europe comprised of warring rural pre-Germanic, pre-Slavic and Scythian village tribes, at most a huge mass of tribal and nomadic warring groups ruled by chieftains and petty kings. The earlier European civilizations in Greece and on the island of Crete, the Mycenaean, had long disappeared.<br /><br />So to contend, the Greco-Persian wars saved Western Civilization, none existed at that time in heartland Europe! The Greeks were in fact Dorians, who migrated to the Greek mainland from Asia, and the Greek language is Indo-European, the same as ancient Persian!<br /><br />To say that these wars saved the present day Western Civilization is to place everything about European civilization in some time warp.<br /><br />Right through the next great European civilization, the Roman Empire, it's eventual collapse at the hands of Germanic tribes, the spread of Christianity that supported the divine rights of kings, the later rise of the Carolingian and European kingdoms, from the time of Charlemagne and the German kings, right down to the absolute Russian and French kings, we have autocratic or near despotic monarchies for some 1700 years, ruling over Western Civilization!<br /><br />Everything was farthest away, in ideas, to the so called Greek democracy, which latter was, in any case, a senatorial voting right for an elite class to choose a leader from amongst themselves, whilst the rest, workers or slaves, slaved, or were done away in the gory gladiator battles, in Roman times!<br /><br />To equate present Western democratic institutions to a non-existent Western Civilization based on Greek ideals that stretched back to the days of Greece or Rome, is to take all the innumerable despotic kings and monarchies, through 1700 years, and throw them into oblivion, into the ignorant man's well!<br /><br />Of course, all these wild conjectures are possible by taking fullest advantage of the complete collapse of Persian civilization at the hands of the great spread of Islam, for the Zoroastrian Persian Empires fully disappeared off the face of history after the advent of Islam, that is the sad part. Pre-Islamic Persian civilization could boast of several ruling queens,and women as Generals and leaders. It was not for nothing that Alexander had fallen in love with the then Persian Orient, a fact kept well hidden from the popular image today.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-30525114500509251802009-09-13T20:23:00.001+12:002009-09-13T20:25:32.225+12:00Norman Borlaug dies-one of the world's greatest human being.The New York Times wrote :<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><p>Norman E. Borlaug, the plant scientist who did more than anyone else in the 20th century to teach the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.</p><div id="articleInline" class="inlineLeft" style="display: block; margin-top: 4px; margin-right: 15px !important; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; float: left; "><div id="inlineBox" style="width: 190px; "><div class="image" style="padding-bottom: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; "><div class="enlargeThis" style="display: block; text-align: right; margin-bottom: 2px; "><a href="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/13/obituaries/13borlaug01ready.html', '13borlaug01ready', 'width=386,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding-left: 15px; background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/enlarge_icon.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 0% 50%; ">Enlarge This Image</a></div><a href="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/13/obituaries/13borlaug01ready.html', '13borlaug01ready', 'width=386,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/13/obituaries/13borlaug.1901.jpg" width="190" height="262" alt="" border="0" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; " /></a><div class="credit" style="text-align: right; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; line-height: 11px; color: rgb(144, 144, 144); margin-bottom: 3px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Oscar Hidalgo/The New York Times</div><p class="caption" style="font-size: 11px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; ">Norman E. Borlaug accepted the Congressional Gold Medal in July 2007.</p></div><div class="story" style="margin-bottom: 8px; margin-top: 8px; padding-top: 15px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/global/borders/aColumnHorizontalBorder.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-position: 0% 0%; "><h5 style="color: black; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; "><a href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/greeninc/greeninc190b.gif" alt="green inc." style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: middle; margin-bottom: 8px; " /></a></h5><div class="callout" style="float: right; margin-left: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; "><a href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/greeninc/greeninc75.gif" alt="Green Inc." style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; text-decoration: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; margin-bottom: 8px; " /></a></div><p class="summary" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line.</p></div><div><a class="more" href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; display: block !important; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; ">Go to Blog »</a></div></div></div><a name="secondParagraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "></a><p>The cause was complications from cancer, said Kathleen Phillips, a spokeswoman for <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/texas_a_and_m_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Texas A and M University" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">Texas A&M University</a>, where Dr. Borlaug had served on the faculty since 1984.</p><p>Dr. Borlaug’s advances in plant breeding led to spectacular success in increasing food production in Latin America and Asia and brought him international acclaim. In 1970, <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/index.html" title="Main index page for Dr. Borlaug’s Nobel Peace Prize." style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize</a>.</p><p>He was widely described as the father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution, though decidedly reluctant to accept the title. “A miserable term,” he said, characteristically shrugging off any air of self-importance.</p><p>Yet his work had a far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of people in developing countries. His breeding of high-yielding crop varieties helped to avert mass famines that were widely predicted in the 1960s, altering the course of history. Largely because of his work, countries that had been food deficient, like Mexico and India, became self-sufficient in producing cereal grains.</p><p>“More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world,” the Nobel committee <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/press.html" title="Presentation speech for the 1970 Peace Prize." style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">said</a> in presenting him with the Peace Prize. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”</p><p>The day the award was announced, Dr. Borlaug, vigorous and slender at 56, was working in a wheat field outside Mexico City when his wife, Margaret, drove up to tell him the news. “Someone’s pulling your leg,” he replied, according to one of his biographers, <a href="http://www.manwhofedtheworld.com/home.htm" title="Synopsis of Leon Hesser’s biography." style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">Leon Hesser</a>. Assured that it was true, he kept on working, saying he would celebrate later.</p><p>The Green Revolution eventually came under attack from environmental and social critics who said it had created more difficulties than it had solved. Dr. Borlaug <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/borlaug/borlaug-lecture.pdf" title="Link to “The Green Revolution Revisited,“ a speech in Oslo in which Dr. Borlaug took stock, 30 years after his Nobel Prize." style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">responded</a> that the real problem was not his agricultural techniques, but the runaway population growth that had made them necessary.</p><p>“If the world population continues to increase at the same rate, we will destroy the species,” he declared.</p><p>Traveling to Norway, the land of his ancestors, to receive the award, he warned the Nobel audience that the struggle against hunger had not been won. “We may be at high tide now, but ebb tide could soon set in if we become complacent and relax our efforts,” he said. Twice more in his lifetime, in the 1970s and again in 2008, those words would prove prescient as food shortages and high prices caused global unrest.</p><p>His <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/nobel_prizes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Nobel Prizes." style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">Nobel Prize</a> was the culmination of a storied life in agriculture that began when he was a boy growing up on a farm in Iowa, wondering why plants grew better in some places than others. His was also an unlikely career path, one that began in earnest near the end of World War II, when Dr. Borlaug walked away from a promising job at <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/du_pont_de_nemours_and_company_e_i/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More information about DuPont Company" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">DuPont</a>, the chemical company, to take a position in Mexico trying to help farmers improve their crops.</p><p>The job was part of an assault on hunger in Mexico that was devised in Manhattan, at the offices of the Rockefeller Foundation, with political support in Washington. But it was not a career choice calculated to lead to fame or honor.</p><p>Indeed, on first seeing the situation in Mexico for himself, Dr. Borlaug reacted with near despair. Mexican soils were depleted, the crops were ravaged by disease, yields were low and the farmers could not feed themselves, much less improve their lot by selling surplus.</p><p>“These places I’ve seen have clubbed my mind — they are so poor and depressing,” he wrote to his wife after his first extended sojourn in the country. “I don’t know what we can do to help these people, but we’ve got to do something.”</p><p>The next few years were ones of toil and privation as Dr. Borlaug and his colleagues, with scant funds or equipment, set to work improving yields in tropical crop varieties.</p><p>He spent countless hours hunched over in the blazing Mexican sun as he manipulated tiny wheat blossoms to cross different strains. To speed the work, he set up winter and summer operations in far-flung parts of Mexico, logging thousands of miles over poor roads. He battled illness, forded rivers in flood, dodged mudslides and sometimes slept in tents.</p><p>He was by then a trained scientist holding a doctoral degree in plant diseases. But as he sought to coax better performance from the wheats of Mexico, he relied on a farm boy’s instinctive feel for the plants and the soil in which they grew.</p><p>“When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together,” he told another biographer, Lennard Bickel. “They sound like the pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet, whispering music that once you hear, you never forget.”</p><p>Norman Ernest Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914, in his grandfather’s farmhouse near the tiny settlement of Saude, in northeastern Iowa. Growing up in a stalwart community of Norwegian immigrants, he trudged across snow-covered fields to a one-room country school, coming home almost every day to the aroma of bread baking in his mother’s oven</p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-71570371444547291772009-08-14T00:19:00.006+12:002009-08-22T23:20:43.935+12:00US Health Care Reforms!From an outsider's view: More than the ongoing recession, these flared tempers and debates over health care seem to have taken the Americans, at those Town Hall meetings, by storm, with loud and rancous shoutings and protests.<div><br /></div><div>Can't things be kept simple? </div><div><br /></div><div>Obama and his government must go by the thumbrule- give the best possible health care that covers the widest majority, with pockets hurting kept at a minimum.</div><div>Give people a wide ranging choice of insurance plans, again that hurt the purse at the minimum; make sure the Insurance companies are never allowed to try their old tricks.</div><div><br /></div><div>In some countries, medical treatment is free or subsidised to the vulnerable, and quite heavy on the very rich.............they can pay, instead of stashing away in expensive homes, cars, travel and other luxuries. I don't mean they be bleeded unfairly, but come on, if you cut out the rhetoric of leftist leanings and all similar lingo, you will find they have enough to spare to pay, more than the guy who can't figure out where to get his shoes repaired.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tax reliefs for donations made to medical centers will help, and a good degree of government support to institutions who respond with free treatment, will get many, who cannot otherwise afford the steep costs, into good hospitals. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is not socialism, it's plain humanism!</div><div><br /></div><div>And to an outsider like myself, it seems this debate has split the Americans, with one body of opinion simply sceptical and up in arms, because they won't go with the proposals put up by the other. </div><div><br /></div><div>Seems the US is in a lot of pulling and pushing, with both sides, Democrats and Republicans and the public that follows one or the other, in no mood to listen to one another...........a hell of a waste of time, when solutions are needed -and things could get worse. </div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-31337526196653836362009-06-23T19:43:00.005+12:002009-06-28T22:13:52.535+12:00NEDA-THE GIRL WHO WILL NEVER DIE!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hyd5FOXrYadaPEK6HkpV9P_gf3hNL667ZYKKaz20HfbcAaObtlUuRGcw53rKYEdplEgnCGvZlkfs2eZbPBiq06idjn1hfwz1ZNdUYhvb7XBL6sceaXswKfhrne3bQAQkl1v4pBzA3NW6/s1600-h/NEDA+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7hyd5FOXrYadaPEK6HkpV9P_gf3hNL667ZYKKaz20HfbcAaObtlUuRGcw53rKYEdplEgnCGvZlkfs2eZbPBiq06idjn1hfwz1ZNdUYhvb7XBL6sceaXswKfhrne3bQAQkl1v4pBzA3NW6/s400/NEDA+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352319338113294210" border="0" /></a><br /> Neda Soltani, you live on, we are dead.<br /><br /><br />Neda, the petite girl who died from a sniper's bullet during the Iran protests, stands for all we have to get back in life- beauty, pure spirit, innocence; child like and faultless, a brave courageous human being.<br /><br />Neda, you have not died; you live now, and we have to learn to come alive!!!<br /><br />She will ever be the symbol of a free Iran!!!<br /><br /> ***********************************************<br /><br />26 06 09 And one of the greatest entertainer of the last century, who was all set to woo the world again in the twenty-first, 50 shows over the next few months, Michael Jackson, will not live to do this; the hands of death, a cardiac arrest last night, robbed this world of one of the finest human being.<br /><br />Let his faults die with him, because this was a gentle person, sad and lonely, who never hurt a fly, the whole world is in his debt for something he gave us all, something difficult to define in a few words.<br /><br />And it is painful and bewildering to see the adulation and grief for Michael, it would have been encouraging if Michael had received support, emotional and more, when his huge debt was made known to the world or when he was caught up in that sordid accusations of paedophile behaviour-the point is not whether these were true or otherwise, but the extent of grief and loss felt now could have been shown him as support and anger for him. But the world is fickle and all the grief and tears will fade away with time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-11711933686585630792009-04-20T21:04:00.005+12:002009-04-22T22:36:11.169+12:00World Recession. What's happening?World recession, a few questions.<br /><br />What about all those jobs sent to China? Are these still there?<br /><br />In New Zealand 30% of employers are still expected to cut jobs. In Australia some 30,000 jobs are lost daily.<br /><br />President Obama is going to spend more than all the spendthrifts in the world since the 1850s. Thats a long shot by any reckoning.........if the returns don't start coming in, the USA will be in more trouble and will pull down the rest of the world with it.<br /><br />He starts with 3 trillion dollars. Now everyone knows when things start moving they somehow end up costing more, so are we talking of 4 trillion dollars by the end of 2010?<br /><br />that's the wealth of a 100 Warren Buffets!!!<br /><br />And what transpired at the 20G Summit in UK? Can something this serious be resolved with several handshakes and a one day discussion where the world would get another 1 trillion dollars.<br /><br />CNN and others are just not starting to report on new job creation..........has this started? I mean Obama has planned, for example, to start work on renewable energies infrastructure........has this begun? How many have got jobs by this start up? I have seen no media reports giving any good news of this kind.<br /><br />World dependance on oil must reduce, replaced by use of bio fuels..........the infrastructure development for this will get a lot of jobs to people. Has this huge work begun? and in which places and how big is each project.<br /><br />Why are CNN, V of A, ABC, NBC and others not reporting on this?<br /><br />The foolish accent is still on the Wall Street ................stocks go up today or go down ........Wall Street has lost relevance.......and enough coverage of Madoff...............people want to hear about jobs, business must pick up again, new jobs demands............<br /><br />this recession will only reverse when new jobs begin to get people's attention, listed in wanted columns ...................Obama please get moving.<br /><br />Cap on prices of oil and a few other commodities, steel, coal, iron ore, aliminium, for a period of one year, might bring prices down of related end products and make things affordable. This would trigger demand of sorts and give some impetus to economies across the world.<br /><br />Fast track development of broadband internet, especially in places where it has not reached and where it should prove supportive to accelerate business and transport.<br /><br />Safe drinking water! cleaner environment-mean reduced costs on health, more roads (and more bridges); EVERYONE TALKS OF CHEAPER CARS RUN ON CHEAPER AFFORDABLE FUEL, SAME FOR TRUCKS..........AND SHIPS-low costs in manufacturing new trucks and building new ships, more fuel efficient means cheaper transport costs mean more goods reaching more places, generating jobs.<br /><br />Spend on research, low cost cars, trucks and ships, cheaper but equally efficient machines and equipment, cheaper but better building materials so affordable homes.............one thing will lead to another, momentum set at different levels, in different places across the world, accelerate development in under developed countries, invent tools and methodology where enterprenership reaches the village levels. <br /><br />Agriculture.........boost expenditure on research for agriculture-low cost high yield crops will reduce cost of food, more efficient and fast transport of food products will again generate jobs and reach affordable food products across the world.<br /><br />Control currency fluctuations, a level playing field in the currency markets will stabilise currencies and slow down price fluctuations of other products.<br /><br />Throw out, atleast suspend or slow down all speculative activities in markets in every country with large economies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-50956466139454624462009-02-17T20:22:00.020+13:002009-03-26T21:34:15.632+13:00Recession? Not in some places, no way.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZZnDwRb8tSvWP0imKoUbr4oH2uOHMCSiLq5u6EO_A9baubP4C7_tK_j-EV7sI5qjpXRulKej_Un8KHDCcLNMs37qNSM6KHItT76JJbXdjWe4BDRwy2X2ZCxmMMIO-H-ddKzCt3Ognuds/s1600-h/jennifer-lopez-golden-globes-2009-01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZZnDwRb8tSvWP0imKoUbr4oH2uOHMCSiLq5u6EO_A9baubP4C7_tK_j-EV7sI5qjpXRulKej_Un8KHDCcLNMs37qNSM6KHItT76JJbXdjWe4BDRwy2X2ZCxmMMIO-H-ddKzCt3Ognuds/s400/jennifer-lopez-golden-globes-2009-01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304039726618601826" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLiANfwwJoxQ5nthgmPqkUCltiWeiOjvkcdW-EvSIhdnEntw6oH73dSl_ootsl8BBmYpt0NH_DnHrFIYhteZ_tklmY1WbNgAQ517hHIrhVgCbsbsjaUM5NbSQ5Razh6_hHWuaEm-CAEx8/s1600-h/Golden+Globes+2009+-+Eva+Mendes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLiANfwwJoxQ5nthgmPqkUCltiWeiOjvkcdW-EvSIhdnEntw6oH73dSl_ootsl8BBmYpt0NH_DnHrFIYhteZ_tklmY1WbNgAQ517hHIrhVgCbsbsjaUM5NbSQ5Razh6_hHWuaEm-CAEx8/s400/Golden+Globes+2009+-+Eva+Mendes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304039077161242002" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qQRfF_hYsMS8PKzQv_ZW_i8rZd7xaN4qC1z-E9zs8jz5nysPVKBgRv0le-4IHT6RfbAixa57l_wPfYpiyQ6sdA9YyfEw2ORQNpqoHb-7n-b5g0Qnh77DmBzOZChWzxjj65Vp2JxCUXhi/s1600-h/Golden+Globes+2009+-+Heidi+Klum.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7qQRfF_hYsMS8PKzQv_ZW_i8rZd7xaN4qC1z-E9zs8jz5nysPVKBgRv0le-4IHT6RfbAixa57l_wPfYpiyQ6sdA9YyfEw2ORQNpqoHb-7n-b5g0Qnh77DmBzOZChWzxjj65Vp2JxCUXhi/s400/Golden+Globes+2009+-+Heidi+Klum.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304038864512783330" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftt5uHhBLFw3QRyJ3xbpFO1gqiRWjDol8R20M_M_Q4c4zeIixXVKZwMdtByytCILSNkleLvq7Hxpe5HLBFt08bV8hmarnz1nXWW_UkqZRP1eqPEsdsZnngrpOLvz1KHDWr6OaEoQYOBd8/s1600-h/2009-Audi-Q7-V12-TDI.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftt5uHhBLFw3QRyJ3xbpFO1gqiRWjDol8R20M_M_Q4c4zeIixXVKZwMdtByytCILSNkleLvq7Hxpe5HLBFt08bV8hmarnz1nXWW_UkqZRP1eqPEsdsZnngrpOLvz1KHDWr6OaEoQYOBd8/s400/2009-Audi-Q7-V12-TDI.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304038714586802578" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Z2BrTZuZd3fkQbe8MjfHN3A_AIll4r90VJanu0A8qk6vZBoAFWG0GG5mSPq9Blsx7WVbIvyROJPziB7tkPM159l-_pVKNbcTO_eY2LXSTMyEY67uEqJlz4NsqepbjtQM_-lESXhaqOhw/s1600-h/2009_mercedes_benz_slk_press_image_8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Z2BrTZuZd3fkQbe8MjfHN3A_AIll4r90VJanu0A8qk6vZBoAFWG0GG5mSPq9Blsx7WVbIvyROJPziB7tkPM159l-_pVKNbcTO_eY2LXSTMyEY67uEqJlz4NsqepbjtQM_-lESXhaqOhw/s400/2009_mercedes_benz_slk_press_image_8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304038590992810354" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiHlkwCSqUs4AeuLmKwvepOzAcUzPeag7Mgm5YIlZgk154Z38cjVe5R3Vg8Ns8ow1sn0KG7IgCyjC_CfD7Wdo955RC5AOMyIy3jqDNrwsLDe_HEwdZzo6srHPoz_JVqcQJiHgRZJwqu_Z/s1600-h/america+cup+regatta.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 287px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKiHlkwCSqUs4AeuLmKwvepOzAcUzPeag7Mgm5YIlZgk154Z38cjVe5R3Vg8Ns8ow1sn0KG7IgCyjC_CfD7Wdo955RC5AOMyIy3jqDNrwsLDe_HEwdZzo6srHPoz_JVqcQJiHgRZJwqu_Z/s400/america+cup+regatta.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304038299560356482" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i38G3wirgapfqZMQwGD-M24qH8I57odQnu7CufXcSvwZnFz07_lgs_DnMMrU5djHMxvGkNSD-8huvfmRzLT6L3tzVIayis2ekCpjd83yW9rTIUvMkeHjgDwziKeCjvThN2bRy_UxMPg0/s1600-h/motor+yatchs+alysia.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 317px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9i38G3wirgapfqZMQwGD-M24qH8I57odQnu7CufXcSvwZnFz07_lgs_DnMMrU5djHMxvGkNSD-8huvfmRzLT6L3tzVIayis2ekCpjd83yW9rTIUvMkeHjgDwziKeCjvThN2bRy_UxMPg0/s400/motor+yatchs+alysia.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304038122446568882" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">There is so much depressive news these days, job losses, more job losses, closures and shut downs, frauds, and bank collapses, bailouts, and jobs taken overseas, seems an endless list. The media, never behind in these issues, brings us the sad news 24 by 7.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">How in God's name did all this happen of a sudden; what were those high paid CEOs, always up there in the "air" in their jets, doing? No one has the answers, not even President Obama.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">But something rankles, something does not seem right.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Do you watch the Red Carpet on 'E' channel; that sassy flashy coverage of flashy people, film stars, celebrities, more handsome people and lovely ladies; everyone wears fashion by the best names in fashion, no one says these are hired for the occasion, certainly not the very beautiful female stars. Expensive jewelleries and accessories, more expensive stage decors, and probably pricy food bought with very pricy tickets.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Of course Slumdog Millionaire wins most awards, a sign of the times, that poverty is an issue, but the award functions are filled with the rich rich rich!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Now, have you noticed another strange thing? Have you heard of any major hotel chain closing shop?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Have you heard of less attendance at casinos in Las Vegas, or less room occupancy at hotels in Las Vegas? I mean bad enough to shut down some of those great hotels.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Giant auto brands are shutting down for now, but look for those new cars on the roads, do you see only old used cars? ..........the Audis, Mercs, Toyotas, stretch limousines are very much there, and I mean some current models. And no one hears of pricey cars brands -Ferari, Lamborghini, Audi, Merc, Bentley closing down for now!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">The jet set are still flying around, some of them in their private jets, people are still paying a fortune for tickets for the pricey open tournament's tennis, golf; pricey clubs are not shutting down!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">the America Cup is still going to take off.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">It sure is a poor man's recession! The poor poor rich are just suffering it out.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">BEFORE YOU ARE SHOWN THE DOOR, (YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE INVOLVED IN COMPANY/BUSINESS JOB CUTS,) ASK YOU BE SHOWN THE BOOK LOSS AND CASH LOSS;</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">A BOOK LOSS CAN BE BROUGHT AROUND BY SHOWING HIGH DEPRECIATION AND PROVISIONS THAT AMOUNT TO BOOK ENTRIES ONLY............A BOOK LOSS NEED NOT MEAN THERE IS NO CASH IN THE COMPANY'S BANK ACCOUNTS...........ASK TO SEE THE CASH IN THE TILL AND BANK BALANCES IN ALL THE BANK ACCOUNTS THE COMPANY HOLDS.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-50585050547957703202009-01-30T11:38:00.011+13:002009-01-31T07:43:21.772+13:00President Obama, Davos, here is an economy stimulus.I have been thinking over this one economic stimulant package that just might prove right for turning around the economy.<br />Mr President, delegates at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Davos</span>, please read the following:<br /><br />Here is a bailout plan for job losses that reinstates jobs in existing companies, not the new jobs the US President wants to create with new sources of energy, more infrastructure, etc:<br /><br />The government should list those existing companies critical to the economy and which have cut jobs in the past one year.<br /><br />Get information from these companies on the number of job cuts in the past one year,<br />and the related costs saved in salaries, and direct/indirect costs related to manufacturing, overheads, other costs that the company would have incurred at levels before the job cuts.<br />Figures of sales, profits before tax and profits after tax could be useful.<br /><br />Here is a sample:<br /> Company : Giant Steels<br /> <br /> Job cuts in the past year: 10,000<br /> Critical jobs necessary <br /> to reach previous years' levels of manufacturing, sales, marketing : 8500 jobs.<br /> <br /> Current salary bill of 8500 jobs if<br /> reinstated : US $ 170,000,000 (8500 jobs by $20,000 average pay per person)<br /> Total of other expenses to run company<br /> at previous year levels: US $ 425,000,000(at salary bill of $170 million-being 40% of total exps.)<br /> margin for contingencies US$ 25,000,000<br /> Total bail out funds needed US$620,000,000<br /> for this one company.<br /><br />The government or it's accredited bank or financial agent should advance $ 620,000,000 to<br />Giant Steels on the provision that all 8500 employees are taken back.<br /><br />The sum advanced is on a low interest of say 3.50% after an interest free period of 6 months.<br /><br />Repayment of loans can start after a 24 months free no repayments period.<br />The company must ensure it reaches optimum levels of production within 3 months of the advance made.<br /><br />If this is practical, the employees should give an assurance their income would be spent on all necessities and critical products, and no expenditures that could be considered excessive-extravagant-profligate-lavish...........say a two year moratorium on travel costs in excess of 10% of salary. Perhaps some tax benefits can be claimed as incentive, for spending within specified guidelines/perimeters, for one year.<br /><br />Tax cuts for purchases of critical items, cars, TV sets, refrigerator, house, and other products selected by the government, the cuts, one time tax cut again for a one year period.<br /><br />Let's assume this would reinstate 2 million jobs, this works to 2 million jobs with an average annual salaries bill of: 2,000,000 jobs by $ 25,000= $ 50,000,000,000 ($50 billion) available in the economy for people to spend, (wisely!) and a good sum it is. <br /><br />2 million jobs at the rate of an average of 20000 jobs per company means the government is covering some 100 critically important companies in a bailout package, for reviving the economy.<br /><br />If these 100 companies need an average of 20,000 employees per company, i.e. 2 million employees@ $25000 =<br />$ 50,000,000,000 as the total salary bill<br />+ total costs of $ 1,70,000,000,000 over 100 companies =$1, 70,000,000,000<br />($50 billion as 30% of total costs, the total costs work to $1,70,000,000,000-$1.70 trillion.)<br /> Total bailout package over 100 existing cos./businesses: $1.70 trillion.<br /><br />Two million employees reinstated have $25,000 each in their hands, the domino effect is irreversible!<br /><br />Where should the $1.70 trillion come from?<br />40% from borrowings.........................................$ 68 billion<br />30% for company taxes .....................................$ 51 billion<br />30% from individual personal taxes .................$ 51 billion<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />With 2 million people back to their jobs, and $ 50 billion in their hands, this purchasing power would be felt within 12 months, buying necessities, consumables, paying their fuel and electric bills, and some spare money left for replacing cars with new fuel efficient ones, a new set of white goods, this generating demand and reviving more companies and businesses. And the chain-reaction/multiple effect can be 10 times, which works to generating $ 5 trillion on a guess.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Who will listen? </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-53363903820439533552009-01-27T22:28:00.005+13:002009-01-29T17:08:06.758+13:00President Barack Obama- you are doing great!An open letter to the 44Th President of these United States of America, Mr Barack Obama.<br /><br />Dear Sir,<br /><br />My congratulations for assuming the Office of President. Sir, you make us very proud.<br /><br />You have shown America and the entire world that attaining this great office signals change of so many things; it demonstrates how no disabilities of race, colour, background, can stand in the way of achieving a goal that seemed so insurmountable. It proves America was ready for change.<br /><br />You are the horse that came from behind and won the race!<br /><br />And from day one of your presidency, you are meaning to do business of state, no waste of time, no mincing words, no groping for words..............and a brave frank admission that things take time, with wrong starts, and decisions that are realised, late in the day, as the wrong ones, and these would be dropped without fuss, and other paths would be explored!<br /><br />I think you are a very brave man; wish more leaders like you would lead other countries. Whatever happens, please discard all trappings and baggage politicians carry. You will make many enemies, but history will judge you for your changes and the foresight and courage it takes to make changes.<br /><br />I like your decision to move away from dependency on oil from other countries; this single decision will be watched and reacted upon by vested interests.........please be very careful. It has been proved time and again that vested interests can manipulate things and cause harm with placing obstructions in the path of good plans and actions.<br /><br />And, replacing oil with alternate energies will go many miles in reduction of pollution and climate change, hopefully your example will be followed by other leaders, and other countries.<br />The time is now when the possibilities of an end to human civilization is very much a reality, and we have to act fast and try and convince the world to follow.<br />Nothing threatens us humans as much as this peril to our planet, not wars, not economic recession, not terrorism, but a rapid climate change that may cause the whole planet to be unlivable.<br /><br />We are not infatuated college boys, condemning feeble and disliked kids to one corner, big bullies who threaten the rest if they fraternise with the unlucky ones. You have to keep all your lines of communication open, ask your friends to talk to those nations who might be looking for a chance to normalise things with America.<br /><br />And there is this possibility, humans hate violence, it disrupts a day spent well; so it's possible people will turn on their compatriots and tell them enough is enough, stop this violence, you are not just killing your targets, you are killing our fathers and husbands, our brothers and friends.<br /><br />Please do your best to get change in the attitude the West has developed, of us and them, seeing things as black and white; all Middle-Easterners are clubbed into one basket, all are assumed to belong to one set of ideas..........nothing is further from the truth........ (I am, for example, from another region of the world, an Indian, a non-Muslim, but look a little a Middle-Easterner, and the grim looks and stares I get, from some people, make me sick!!!)<br /><br />Equally, a platform of dialogue should be put into action that tells certain peoples that their ideas don't fit into a fast changing modern world, in their pursuance of certain ideas they are being left behind. Their <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">stubbornness</span> has caused ignorance, poverty and deprivation in their midst.<br /><br />Sir, please make sure at the end of your two terms-I am sure you are sure to get re-elected- you leave changes that are difficult to discard, impossible to revert back to old ways!<br /><br />God bless you, God bless America and God bless all of us who travel on this beautiful planet!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-43042614688461815762009-01-21T17:33:00.013+13:002009-01-22T23:15:40.303+13:00Barack H. Obama, 44th President of the United States of America!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRUfp91pJIq7dB8FvpRs8MleEg9pYoLjWjz2c0dKmwJ68o-cTmx0IzzHsnrIaEKTkn86L4-ws-QMvPqUF1c2FNGDYsnVS8euEnH6Qj82c03S60kXoDGqHaY8h_4BLysAGhfHCzqvFMspx/s1600-h/barack+and+michelle+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRUfp91pJIq7dB8FvpRs8MleEg9pYoLjWjz2c0dKmwJ68o-cTmx0IzzHsnrIaEKTkn86L4-ws-QMvPqUF1c2FNGDYsnVS8euEnH6Qj82c03S60kXoDGqHaY8h_4BLysAGhfHCzqvFMspx/s320/barack+and+michelle+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293994170519643906" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2iNRzoN3oK1suWo8rJlsjgpiZ5-grQvCKA4u9Hw6v2qDgO0MG-zj1g0EXiSM4T1y_2sefFJMBtAbf2e5e_lHCcFujs81S39icT-_MVn7CG5xQ4gT26hZmLM8w45iGFXvtFKNYki8FfkL/s1600-h/barack+and+michelle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2iNRzoN3oK1suWo8rJlsjgpiZ5-grQvCKA4u9Hw6v2qDgO0MG-zj1g0EXiSM4T1y_2sefFJMBtAbf2e5e_lHCcFujs81S39icT-_MVn7CG5xQ4gT26hZmLM8w45iGFXvtFKNYki8FfkL/s320/barack+and+michelle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293994172418859298" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpy8pOEMOBWuwA0Fr1gEVhC4LTOpA3bwwAYRWt19mCf6fNNYz7SslhA5VRCQrtK5z-IBDsmsypKqyMJWNaNxZ7NoonoT1O6hXc_AgL4cZ0PvjrXsLuaqRG-STdl-0faluBaQJwNxKhAZ5d/s1600-h/webtrail5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpy8pOEMOBWuwA0Fr1gEVhC4LTOpA3bwwAYRWt19mCf6fNNYz7SslhA5VRCQrtK5z-IBDsmsypKqyMJWNaNxZ7NoonoT1O6hXc_AgL4cZ0PvjrXsLuaqRG-STdl-0faluBaQJwNxKhAZ5d/s320/webtrail5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293993825747230082" border="0" /></a>Pictures: the most beautiful couple in love in the world; scenes from the parade.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtpmXdXUB0gFANrcbrYzgVxFrZVN6EPXq3gc9OQt4NfPOURCsMU5dodIrpnsqeCeX1OUqnuZlOsR9UrAilYUOBejt8UMUg6lUR3NuK6um-bI-TFDkcelAhGmA_uUSAuOoh7EdByB15FC_/s1600-h/250px-Inaugural_parade_2005.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirtpmXdXUB0gFANrcbrYzgVxFrZVN6EPXq3gc9OQt4NfPOURCsMU5dodIrpnsqeCeX1OUqnuZlOsR9UrAilYUOBejt8UMUg6lUR3NuK6um-bI-TFDkcelAhGmA_uUSAuOoh7EdByB15FC_/s320/250px-Inaugural_parade_2005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293993573546507090" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcmTWuoYdmP_YWsAHY7dNbK1G_4A1k_GVMxfAnWecR2eys0TukqtVTqP75qOnR9gEnOOUKFC3dYswn278H3uF_e6mTwcfQQ9nZU9tUk2pGvISIClZhPp5QafkFGe46flNux7tHdyxW9x5/s1600-h/Parade.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcmTWuoYdmP_YWsAHY7dNbK1G_4A1k_GVMxfAnWecR2eys0TukqtVTqP75qOnR9gEnOOUKFC3dYswn278H3uF_e6mTwcfQQ9nZU9tUk2pGvISIClZhPp5QafkFGe46flNux7tHdyxW9x5/s320/Parade.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293993373651413586" border="0" /></a><br />The great day, Tuesday 20<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> Jan. has come, and gone !-its now 5.45 p. m. here, in NZ, and I watched live coverage of the events from 5.30 a. m. to around 3.00 p. m., again NZ time. Whew....... magnificent, awesome, moving-and tiring ! An historic day for all the world, not just for America.<br /><br />At 5.30 a. m. , the first glimmer of dawn here, I got myself out of bed, a quick cold cocoa, and went switched on CNN to see the first images of President-Elect Obama and President Bush enter the Capitol building along with a host of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">dignitaries</span>, Nancy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Pelosi</span>, senators, military officers in their resplendent uniforms; rather surprised to see Vice President Dick Cheney wheeled in, we were told later he suffered from a severe back problem. Senator Edward Kennedy, that bravest of the brave, dignified and stately, walked across the domed Central Hall, a dark blue soft felt hat thrust down closely to his ears; he looked great, which he is!<br /><br />When TV cameras panned across the huge lawns, and beyond, the huge crowd of two million is the most staggering sight; I watched the coverage alternately on CNN, Fox News and BBC.<br /><br />As he walked behind a group of Senators led by Nancy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Pelosi</span>, Barack Obama appeared subdued, a tight smile and somehow tense look, his eyes <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">focused</span> in front, a slight nod, sometimes, to people he passed.<br /><br />I am stunned, the set of images will never leave me...........it was all at once like a full coloured kaleidoscope with images within images..............I just don't know what to continue writing, so much impressed me, so much was huge, awesome, stunning.............I think, I figure I will continue writing on the basis of those images that float across my mind............like Bush returning <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Obama's</span> greeting and hug, after the inaugural speech, with a sincere closer hug, his right arm over <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Obama's</span> left shoulder!<br /><br />Or the quiet hush that fell over the huge crowd when the Rev Rick Warren, a portly bearded pastor, rose to say<a href="http://video.aol.com/video-detail/obama-inauguration-opening-prayer-pastor-rick-warren/3389540322/?icid=VIDURVNWS03"> "let us pray..........."</a> and one could not help notice the non-believers continued looking up whilst the believers, Obama, Bush, Michelle, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Biden</span> and most others bowed their heads, eyes closed in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">concentration</span>, some evangelical pious holding up their arms, palms turned to heaven in supplication!<br /><br />Or the quiet hush again when Isaac <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Perlman</span> and Yo Yo Ma along with that mellow flautist, Anthony <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Mcgill</span>, and pianist, <a href="http://www.gabrielamontero.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gabriel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Montero</span> </span></a><a href="http://www.gabrielamontero.com/"> </a>played a composition by Williams especially composed for the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">occasion</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">of course</span> the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">sonoric</span> and timbered voice of Aretha Franklin.<br /><br />It now seems the Chief Justice <a href="http://www.huliq.com/1/76580/barack-obama-retakes-oath-office-unusual-move">mucked up on the oath,</a> its sequence that is, and Obama took the oath of office again today, Wednesday, taking no chances on a sensitive issue with no precedence, except <a href="http://volokh.com/posts/1232571735.shtml">two earlier Presidents </a>retaking the oath for the same reasons. The Los Angeles Times points out "The Constitution stipulates the new chief executive takes office at noon on Jan. 20. And, in fact, as we pointed out yesterday, Obama actually became the 44<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">th</span> president while he was sitting down listening to classical music."..............that for a good laugh!<br /><br />And Obama proved once again he is a skillful orator....and he says things shooting them straight<br />from his shoulders.................he has put his hand out in friendship to all peoples and nations who want to live and coexist in peace, even those nations who would unclench their fists and change their world view (he did not say this, but it amounts to the same-change their world view.)<br />And he did not play on words but very clearly told those who espouse violence and the senseless use of slaughter, that America will defeat them. He warned nations who suppress dissenters that history will judge them......."you are on the wrong side of history."<br /><br />China blanked the above remark, about dissent, and also on bringing down of communism and fascism, interrupting the live coverage with images of a news anchor making some out of context remarks.<br /><br />And Obama reminded the whole world, "of the man refused entry into a restaurant, whose son stands before you to take the highest oath in the land."<br /><br />His first day in office, shows this is a man of his word, a man of action- salary freeze for his staff; no lobbying in his office-no <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">swing door</span> for lobbyists; an independent body to decide what should be withheld from the public; close <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Gautanamo</span> Bay in a year; bring back troops from Iraq in 16 months............and phone calls to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Eygptian</span> President <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Hosni</span>, Israel's PM <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Olmert</span>, Palestine Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian king <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Abdalla</span>.<br /><br />Finding time in all this to greet the first public visitors to the White House and a warm "go on, explore for yourself.........." The White House is the People's House!<br /><br />The British do things right when it comes to ceremonial parades and all things related to their royalty, I think the Americans do it right as well, except things are bigger, more informal, more smiles and waving of the hands, more walking across to shake hands, bonhomie......................................<br />(God! Its just not possible to write this blog right now; on a hunch I switched on CNN and Fox, and look at this, Obama already taking some crucial decisions on the first day in office. He makes several telephone calls, to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Eygptian</span> President, to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Ehud</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Olmert</span>, to the Jordanian king, to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Mahmoud</span> Abbas........this man is going to be everywhere.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Obama's</span> first day: salary freeze of his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">WH</span> staff.<br /> no lobbyists can have a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">swingdoor</span> entry to the White House! Super!<br /> get out of Iraq in 16 months!<br /> an independent authority will decide what documents/disclosures can<br /> be withheld from the public!<br /> etc etc.<br />Michelle and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Barack's</span> close loving relationship and body language already found refreshing and new...........very inspiring!<br />China's instant black out of Obama inaugural speech references to communism and dissent!<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Sarkozy</span> of France raring to go <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">along with</span> Obama. Both men of action!)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-65358513863431877702009-01-20T13:02:00.005+13:002009-01-21T17:31:14.029+13:00Barack Obama's big day tomorrow!Its <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Obama's</span> big day tomorrow, not just his, not just for Americans, its a big day for all the world! And not because he is the first African American President, lets all put that behind us, but its a new beginning, time for a new person at the job, to make things better, at least try and make things work better. There are too many problems, wars and disease, poverty and deprivation, unchecked environmental damages, radical terrorism, injustices and disregard for others sovereign rights, social problems, recessions and slowdowns etc.<br /><br />For the past hundred years now, what happens in the United States has some bearing, some effect, on the rest of the world, and the American President is the man in charge, at least seen to be in charge, to a watching world. (seen to be in charge ? yes and no, there is behind, or around, each President, that supportive group of politicians and bureaucrats, other powerful men, military chiefs, economists and intellectuals, fund raisers and campaigners, who advise him, influence him, place facts-and 'non-facts'- before him, caution and forewarn....."Mr President do this this way.")<br /><br />America began to matter to the whole world when its economic growth, its military power, cultural influences, its centers of learning, its scientific breakthroughs, and more, became known, in one way or another, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">accross</span> the world.<br /><br />America has been called a melting pot; more correctly, to millions of people <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">accross</span> the world, America became the hope for a better life, especially to people who had a bad deal in their countries, or people who felt their talents would be put to better use in a better environment.<br /><br />Thanks to an oppressive Nazi Germany, for example, that the best scientists from there migrated to America; thanks to an oppressive ghetto confinement, in Europe, on Jews and other peoples, that the very talented from them chose to go to America........................ironically, it were religious differences that brought minorities from across the world, starting with the Pilgrim Fathers..............more ironically, it was the need/or excuse for cheap labour that brought millions of Africans (mostly against their wishes) to the new continent; their descendants have enriched America and the world with their music, their talent, their humour and bonhomie.<br /><br />Unfortunately, prejudices of all kinds also came across from the Old World, but those Americans who have used these to their advantage, have had to contend with outstanding individuals who opposed them, the founding fathers of America (who defied the most powerful empire on Earth at that time,) and framers of the Constitution, (this is the single most valuable landmark promise the Americans made to themselves,) brave Presidents with a great vision like Abraham Lincoln, and men determined to give justice to people, like Martin Luther King, and people who joined him.<br /><br />America has been a bastion of freedom, with its brave troops that brought the defeat of Nazism, and with big men like Ronald Reagan who brought down the Russian Communist Empire, and the determined front now put up against radical terrorism.<br /><br />But America has also a flawed foreign policy that has sent thousands of their brave young men to their deaths, that has alienated many peoples across the world by their short-sighted policies in certain regions of the world. America has its fair share of small men, who for short term advantages, for oil or for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">petro</span>-dollars, or for some one-sided old ideals, has supported some some of the wrong people.<br /><br />With the same short-sightedness, American leaders of Industry, for a quick buck, have "transferred" their businesses to other lands, lent money with prudence thrown out the window, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">ponzi</span> deals with others' money..................ordinary (and not so ordinary) people have lost all theirs all by overspending, greed, little knowledge of the markets, and lack of ordinary common sense caution.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Barack Obama inherits all that tomorrow; its the only day he can afford to enjoy, literary, with those historical landmark speeches, parades, concerts and balls; the business of state and the many many headaches begin immediately. Americans and people from every part of the world will participate in all that happens tomorrow; then watch, most with hope, some with good wishes, others with some caution, still others with some degree of prejudice, even some with hate, what President Obama achieves.<br /><br />He sure can envy the proverbial man with no shirt on his back!<br /><br />Its not fair on him, to expect miracles, to expect-quick-immediate-or good results for most things...........he has begun to caution people. So much will depend on the complex set of circumstances, the complex set of economic and political parameters, how things work out, not just in America, but in countries across the world.<br /><br />Good luck Mr Obama, God bless you, and the world, and all of us! <br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-24791527503061196302009-01-16T22:52:00.004+13:002009-01-17T00:33:53.647+13:00Bush, Osama bin Laden, Israel and Palestine, 16/01/2009.If <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/15/bush.farewell/index.html">CNN </a>did show the full farewell speech by Pres. Bush, I did not find the time to watch that; I did watch snippets shown on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, and what impressed me, Bush making one of his "this makes sense" statement, that said "if I had the chance to do some things again, I would do these differently." Coming from Bush (!!) that sounded pretty modest, maybe his speech writer's farewell statement.<br /><br />Bush appeared a little down, spoke in a somewhat subdued voice, and for a change, looked people-his listeners- in the eye, not with that "I told you so" look, he usually shows, but an effort to look at them with a somehow relective mood; he seems to comprehend he is now President for a few days. CNN too noted that relective mood.<br /><br />Come on, lets give George Bush some credit due..........not every person down the road becomes the President of the United States, this is by any yardstick, any benchmark, an achievement of the highest highest level, just 43 have achieved, and Obama will be the 44th!<br /><br />Power to the people, yes, but power in good limited measure............we common common folk have got far more of our share of media attention, and have made full use, rather misuse of this..........writing off Bush as "no one will miss him." Look folks, its not plain simple walking down the street, telling our mates at the bar, "support our town football team at the games tomorrow." It takes some things far more to win presidential elections and be a President(!).............and if I recollect correctly, during the final days of the primaries for Bush's second term election, the media called it the most exciting election in US history.<br /><br />And a President, or any world leader, in most cases, is as good as the team around him. Most of the "behind the doors" decisions are a team effort, or joint failure, but the President has to put up a public image that holds him responsible for all failures, and, "he was a good President" polls showings, if his team did more good.<br /><br />Obama will be as good as the collective actions of his team...........more good chaps with more good things done, and Obama will ride the wave!<br /><br />That is exactly why Obama is putting brakes on what people should expect of him, like he now warns the economic turnaround will not be an easy thing and it will take time! <br />And Obama will most probably come out the winner...........he says he wants to reach accross, he wants bipolar politics, will take Republicans along, and "if you have a better idea how things should be done, I will go along with that" a remark he made a few days back.<br />His choice of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and some others, makes for more sense than McCain's choice of Sarah Palin! And Obama's "Change" call something new.<br /><br />And there is Osama bin Laden, with his latest video, or audio?, no "Change" there, his call for Jihad reminds us we are never going to make it fully to a peaceful modern world...............just look at the multiple checks we all have to go through at the airports, good for us, but a constriction of our free movement..........look at the cameras that look down at us in every street in London, and that computerised memory check of our faces............and how we tend to lump/view all "muslim faces", whether actually Muslim or not, with caution and suspicion!<br /><br />I cant understand why the Americans support the Saudis, where the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism">Wahhabi movement</a>, a very orthodox Islamic movement brought the Saudis to power in the first place. The most striking statement in the wikipedia link is the remark on Jihad, that the Wahhabi intepretation of Jihad precluded that the decision to wage Jihad lies with the ruler, not the individual believer. A very thin line here, Osama Laden declares Jihad as an individual believer!<br /><br />And talking of Jihad, Israel claims it is at war with Hamas, but it now seems the world must sit up and realise it's as important to see where the war, any war, is fielded.....in this case the whole of Gaza is under fire, the whole of Gaza! How can that be called a war on Hamas?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-34449163033288285352009-01-13T20:16:00.005+13:002009-01-16T22:52:36.618+13:00Bush's last press meet ?Why the question mark. Just in case this isn't the last press meet. I caught a few snippets on my NZ TV One evening news bulletin-the 6 p. m. news on Tuesday, 13Th Jan. 2009<br /><br />Good enough reason for me to blog my thoughts on the Bush presidency. The common common man's attempt to summarise at random.<br /><br />Is Bush the only, son of the father, also a President ? I don't know, but if this is the only father and son to have achieved this, the most powerful office in the world, then its time the US lawmakers pass a bill in 2009 that legislates, no two members of the same family can qualify to be nominated for running for this office. It will discourage, sorry disallow, whole families, in the future, running for presidency............we don't want present ladder climbers like m/s Hillary and not so distant ones like some junior Kennedy, or a junior Nixon, from running for the Pres' office!! Its undemocratic (!) because it reduces the chances of a common common person like Joe from trying his luck!<br /><br />When Bush won the second time, the world was told it's the middle evangelical America that gave him the winning vote. Where are they this time?<br /><br />I recollect there was some serious recounting done in Florida, vote cards were held up to more light for scrutiny of the punch marks, and with some luck Bush got past his rival to get elected the second time.<br /><br />Historians will muse this single event as the turning point for the US, not as bad as the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, but certainly not far behind.<br /><br />(this 9/11 is a benchmark a little off the right mark ..........should be 9/11/2001. By the tenth generation, kids are going to ask their father which year 9/11 took place in, and it will look pretty bad if they draw a blank as far as the year it happened in............"son, I think it happened in 2001, maybe 2002..........I'll check my Google Search, just give me a minute......."<br /><br />I don't want to go along, all the way, with the poor rating Bush is getting..........the latest poll result shows 80% of people are not going to miss him.<br /><br />Rather, lets concede Bush inherited some problems and more, some ways of looking at the world, not just from his predecessors, but from American foreign policy benchmarks. "If Saddam Hussien is a bad guy, and he was a bad guy no doubt, then he is bound to have a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Lets find them!"<br /><br />How naive Americans are can be gauged from this, the stockpile of weapons. Now that none were found, American Intelligence Services are held responsible and Bush ruefully admits his fault..............look my dear Americans in general and Mr Bush , what is the guarantee the whole, or part of some of this, is not buried in the vast expanse of dessert that stretches for endless mile after mile in the Middle East; and desserts don't allow border posts in most of the very inhospitable sections, so it would be easy to bury the whole mess in some stretch of dessert that is part of Syria or Kurdistan sector of Iraq or even the Iranian side of the border, (God forbid), and <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">buried not with any aim to dig it out for use in the future, but buried to get rid of all evidence and make the Americans look foolish and make Bush run for cover............besides, the intention was to lose this stockpile forever because, nothing buried in the dessert can ever be recovered, what with the massive shifts of sand that go on in any sand dessert! Never underestimate the ancient and wily<br />Orientals!<br /><br />No Bin Laden, for the same reasons........the Middle East and Central Asia are huge huge expanse of dessert, inhospitable country, rugged mountains, paths and routes that are only known to the locals, like the Bushmen of the Kahalari desserts. What is the guarantee he is not in the vast desserts and steppes of Central Asia?<br /><br />And, in that part of the world, very ancient, very much a world of hospitality to their own, and others, I wont be surprised if Bin Laden, recognised or not, is, firstly, a welcome guest in the "tent" he seeks hospitality in, an old tradition in the Middle East.<br /><br />And, how should Bush have predicted that getting rid of Saddam, giving Iraqis their freedom, would unleash this terrible war of terrorism where the poor Iraqis face daily acts of terror. Good ole Bush calculated the war would end with entering Baghdad..........how on earth can he or anybody else have predicted this very complicated turn of events.<br /><br />Actually, I will always find it hard to figure out Bush's real intentions to topple Saddam, but a good thing nevertheless, the worst of his kind, the Americans have done the Middle East a good turn getting rid of this ruthless inhuman and diabolical dictator.<br /><br />So why is Bush so unpopular............lets first put this away, that people, with far more media focus than ever before, are, at the end of the day, people.........with the "lets do what the rest of us are doing"- impulsive, and handicapped with the lack of full information on any event taking place in the world.........blame the media for this.<br /><br />I feel Bush leaves more unpopular, not because of his handling of the Iraq war or Katrina, or the economy, he has to take his share of blame for these, but MORE BECAUSE HE HAD THIS HABIT OF TALKING AT PEOPLE, NOT TALKING TO THEM, never seen to use sincere body language that might have shown him as a person trying to cope with a hard job, rather always cocky, self opinionated, over confident and at more times "I am right, i can't be wrong."<br /><br />I hope Obama does not fall in this .....this(?).....this cesspool........."power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> </span><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br /> <br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-78545106981959333582009-01-10T15:02:00.007+13:002009-01-20T17:15:01.572+13:00Israel and Palestine, and the world today.These links with a respected website "If Americans knew" is a must read not just for Americans but all the world ..........the website belongs to a research and information dissemination Institute with US tax exemption under US tax laws -section 501(3) C............<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><a href="http://www.ifamericansknew.org/about_us/whoweare.html">seelink</a></span><br /><br />statistics in <a href="http://www.ifamericansknew.org/index.html">above link </a><br /><br />history in the <a href="http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/">above link</a><br /><br /><br /><br />The UN Security Council meeting yesterday, 9Th January, 2009, live on CNN and major TV channels accross the world, with representatives from member countries, seen chatting, before a resolution on the Gaza crisis was put to the vote, in small groups like in an evening party at the Hilton (except for the absence of drinks and food trays), most definitely relaxed friendly and informal. CNN panned their cameras more on Ban ki Moon, the UN boss, the Arab League Sec.-Gen Amr Moussa, then the Arab delegate from the Libyan Jhamariya, and the small but agile and alert lady Ambassador from Israel.<br /><br />What always strikes me as the obvious is the body language these suited and savvy delegates seem to convey...........we are all pals, with the handshaking or a pat on the shoulder, or whispering close into a delegate's ear, smiles and friendly waves (hand waves), the problems the world faces are far from here...........let's finish the business on hand, then go to the "Hilton" next door for a............... .<br /><br />I missed the voting, but watched the US Secretary-of-State Rice explaining the US stand, abstaining from the vote. As always, she makes that very effective use of her eyes, darting them from one side of the round table to the other, her fingers crossed and elbows resting on the table.<br />And the usual sight of some delegates clutching their translation-hearing device intently taking in the translation.<br /><br />But it all amounts to nothing! Israel continues its 24 hour bombing of targets in Gaza and Hamas continues to fire rockets into southern Israel, that's today the 10Th January (Pacific time) with little over ten days to the Obama inaugural!!! <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/">CNN</a><br /><br />Five small bombs go off in Lahore, Pakistan................and this piece of news is just short of being hilarious...........Joe Biden, the Vice President elect, is in Pakistan, shown being decorated by a honours medal from the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.............the hilarious part, the CNN anchor hints, Hillary Clinton gritting her teeth..........because foreign affairs is her job!!! "Is someone stepping on someones toes?"<br /><br />Job losses in the USA are now a staggering 6,300,000 the highest since the last six decades(!) and Barack Obama, in a press meet to introduce his new Intelligence team, has to talk on the urgency to change the situation with the usual rhetoric "there is no time to waste................."<br /><br />The inauguration on the 20Th of January, starting at 12 noon Washington time, looks to be a real treat............the great cellist Yo Yo Ma is shown (on TV) practising on his cello, the great violinist Isaac Pearlman on his Strad(?), and some parts of the wooden fencing opposite the Capitol building coming up................don't look different from the previous wooden fencing for previous Inaugurations!!!<br /><br />And Nancy Pelosi, the US Capitol Hill boss, with her usual wide plastered smile tells CNN's Situation Room anchor, Wolf Blitzer, the US House, though hugely Democrat, is not going to be Obama's rubber stamp!<br />And the outgoing US Vice Prez, Dick Cheney, tells Wolf, he is a confirmed Republican voter, (as if that's new), voted for McCain, but remarks he is as awed as any one else at the "remarkable achievement" Barack Obama's election as the first African Americam president!<br /><br />And somebody pays a million dollars to the Somali pirates for the release of a Saudi Arabian super tanker...............good fodder for more pirating!!<br /><br />And some good solid stodgy banks in Europe, including Paribas, have lost millions invested with Madoff schemes..........where are all the professionals, Harvard graduates, Sorbonne and Paris passed out.............all fakes???<br /><br />And London takes the credit of the first baby born fully protected, genetically, from cancer................more debates, more noise, yes and No's.<br /><br />And a huge anti Israel protest rally in Eygpt, with women screaming through their covered faces, and anti riot police, in helmets shields and black uniforms, struggling to keep the protesters, children included, from getting more "turbulent!!!"<br /><br />Thick black smoke still rises from Gaza city, both sides, Hamas and Israel, have rejected the cease fire call from the Security Council............over 800 dead in Gaza, and Hamas fires more than 30 rockets into southern Israel- no dead there, at least, thank God.<br /><br />Three generations of a Palestine refugee family, grandfather, father and son, are shown watching TV-the Gaza bombings, in their home in Baghdad, the old man opens his palm with a handful of earth from his homeland, he treasures this and the son predicts they will surely return to Palestine some day!<br /><br />There has been a nasty earthquake in Costa Rica, God help them!<br /><br />And Obama is the new Spiderman!<br /><br />And some of Europe, with one of the worst cold spell in a 100 years, -30 in Budapest, shivering for the lack of gas from Russia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-71736154895174410472009-01-05T12:25:00.008+13:002009-01-09T00:33:05.651+13:00Israel and Hamas. Israel's ground offensive in Gaza.Israel has extended its actions in Gaza by sending in ground troops; this is getting very complicated, more catastrophic, more deaths and injured, civilians, women and children.<br />(see this <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8449">link</a> !!!)<br />This, to all of us outside of the region, this (what we all write/ or say) are just words, the TV images, more graphic, but still images, the real real awful tragedy is on the ground; only the suffering know what its like; but, but, when you try and comprehend suffering, the loss of those you love, than clearly civilian Israelis, target of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span> rockets, suffer equally, ............the death of a child, in Gaza, or in a remote town in Israel, is cause of immeasurable grief, an irreplaceable loss, to the shocked and bereaved parents. The loss of use of your hands or legs, getting blinded, the pain and suffering, to individuals, cannot be different.............so this is a tragedy for all who suffer, where ever.<br /><br />There is this one difference. An injured Israeli gets the best medical attention; Israelis live in an environment, though not normal, certainly not lacking for food water electricity medical facilities etc; the Gaza residents have none of this.<br /><br />Clearly, the Israeli reaction, of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span> shooting rockets into civilian Israeli targets is sadly out of all proportion, more deaths and casualties; but the horror of this all, the pain and helpless tragic "face it, no other choice/God, why us..........." feelings have no borders.<br /><br />Israel is clever, very clever; its stand "we are trying our best to target only <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span>, we have nothing against the Palestinians; our aim is to inflict losses on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span> and are doing our best to avoid civilian targets, we have nothing against Palestinians" is no solution, we are going to have a some awesome <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">repercussions</span></span>.<br /><br />Clearly, the Israelis are clever; <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span>, who go on shooting rockets on Israel are, by contrast, ironically, as clever..........they don't need to give an explanation because the world is on their side!!!<br /><br />Israel is no fool, its stand "we will stop our offensive when <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span> stops firing rockets into Israel" is, they must know, a lot of nonsense...........Israel knows this is a short term excuse for hitting back, they know <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Hamas</span></span></span></span></span>/Al <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Qaeda</span></span></span></span></span>/Fatah/Iranian radicals will get back at them, and moderate Muslims across the world will get more bitter and more disillusioned, and the otherwise non-radical Muslim youth and others, will join the ranks of radical Muslims.<br /><br />And we all know this is not a problem that might remain confined to that region............"justice," or more appropriately, the radical Muslim view of jihad, the righteous' call from God to destroy all evil, will have repercussions ac cross the world.<br /><br />So what is the solution? Israel must hasten the process of giving full genuine sovereignty to Palestine; stop this war, everybody who think <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Gaza</span> deserved this will definitely agree its enough. On the part of the Palestinians in particular, and the Muslim countries of the region in general, accept Israel is a reality, its not going to go away; work to normalize relations, no violence, no hostility, with Israel reciprocating in full measure.<br /><br />Both sides must understand the immeasurable advantages of peace between them............no fooling one another, only a genuine push to achieve peace and normality; both sides must select good leaders with clear sensible perceptions, and tell the war mongers who are now their leaders to go fish.<br /><br />Good leadership all <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">ac cross</span></span> the world.............watch <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Sarkozy</span></span></span>, the French president, he seems to go anywhere, without waste of words and waste of time, where he thinks he can change a situation.<br /><br />The world must give up absurd and outdated notions of "clash of civilizations" and "western world" and "radical peoples" .................we live on a planet that is very sick and have nowhere to go..............it's time to do things <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">that bring</span> us <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">together</span>.<br /><br />As hard as this seems to many of us, we must try and understand the Muslim world view............even the most moderate Muslim views the world as a place that is moving away from God........we, on our part, must strive very hard to make him understand we respect his views and his world............and urge him to look in his word of God, the Koran, messages that ask him to live in peace..............to acknowledge that any means that use force on others, are outdated and have no relevance in a modern world.<br /><br />On our part we must guarantee him his world.<br /><br />We must urge Muslims to come out and make it known they consider violent means unacceptable and are ashamed these means are used by some of their compatriots. Equally, the world must recognise their right to live dignified lives free of any form of interference, their rights to decide their own course their sovereign and democratic <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">privilege</span>. <br /><br />Israel must treat Palestine as an equal sovereign partner in the region, support the Palestinian economy to grow, give Palestinians more opportunities to work accross borders, stop land encroachments, and no blockades. Palestinians must show themselves as cooperating partners in the region, and stop any incursions in Israel for any form of violence or terrorism acts.<br /><br />IT IS SIMPLISTIC SOLUTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.............TO BEGIN WITH GET THE WORLD GOOD HONEST LEADERS.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-34620022303192625992008-12-30T09:53:00.007+13:002008-12-30T21:04:59.286+13:00Israel pounds Gaza, calls this an "all out war" with HamasIsrael's fierce and relentless air strikes on the Gaza Strip, with a grim determination to punish Hamas and stop the barrage of rockets launched at Israeli civilian targets, has been called by Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister, an all out war on Hamas.<br /><br />The effective and deadly use of bombing targets after using drones for identifying these, causing loss of some 350 lives, and the injured numbering in their thousands, makes the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, very much immoral and wrong, look like marbles flung at an adversary.<br /><br /><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/29/gaza.israel.strikes/index.html">CNN </a>reports Ehud Barak calling this strike an all out war. This statement in fact highlights the Israeli action an illegal war within the framework of United Nations' resolutions on war.<br /><br />Understandably, at first sight, this action appears as a retaliation for rockets launched into Israel; but the scale and ferocity of the reaction seems unjust, cruel and ghastly.<br /><br />Hamas look like a bunch of fools, small Davids, who should not have angered Goliath, so you get what you asked for.<br /><br />World media, that always looks for sensational news, their eye on their advertising income etc. did not bother to give proper coverage to the rocket attacks by Hamas, with no information on extent of damage and loss of life............so nobody outside of that region know what was the actual scale of attacks, and the resultant loss of Israeli lives and damage to property.<br /><br />By contrast, the Israeli action is getting 24 by 7 coverage and Israel appears the bad guy.<br /><br />Actually its time the world wakes up and calls the whole region a lawless rogue bunch of states, with their endless tit for tat, now going on for over 50 years.<br /><br />In a war with ceaseless confrontation such as this Palestinian Israeli conflict, nobody is, as the saying goes, the winner, and, on all sides, its the innocent, the common folk, women, children who suffer.<br /><br />The world must understand, every player in this situation, especially the US, are just fooling all of us, making out the impression they are good guys with good intentions of bringing peace in this region.<br /><br />A real close look will show every side of this game are looking to get the best for themselves, the United States and other western powers' efforts to bring peace, but that "this is a very complex issue and will take a long time to bring to a close," a clear ploy to keep the fat bellies of oil rich countries, on one hand, in somnolence slumber, and an eye on the rich pockets of the rich Jews in their home countries, for their political coffer fill ups.<br /><br />Why should the issue take long to arrive at a settlement? All it takes is to bring both sides to the negotiating table and a no holds barred warning to both sides ...............make a permanent peace, do not needle each other or else the UN and cooperating countries will place a huge, huge, effective peace keeping force in the region, and all errants on both sides, both sides, will be "punished" by economic sanctions and other effective boycotts.<br /><br />Both sides need to be stopped in their tracks with "threats," of sanctions and boycotts, clipping their wings, so to speak.........why can't Israel be warned to always behave with restraint, or face a boycott from the world body of nations............both sides sternly warned to stop all forms of violence, no land encroachments, no rocket attacks, no military or terrorists incursions.<br /><br />In fact, the kind of reaction from the world body of nations, here and in other areas of conflict, in Africa and elsewhere, is the same, hypocritical cosmetic set of shoutings and empty threats............at the end of the day every nation with fewer problems shut themselves in their homes, say a good night and to hell with the rest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-86861799210117035632008-12-17T10:45:00.015+13:002008-12-20T19:35:48.519+13:00Bernard Madoff and the $ 50 Billion blowout!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXw7IAYhrkFaflvWs4wuiY_Mvg8fuGLzpKqEefmgqqfnsEEFHZdcVh9hk3DO4I5PzMYvuMSa_8L8nN5ufULHbBlxfKIC2arN_2hnyGfWqc9ZFHR5obwCin5JRzRWwXYaKKShZkcQ8GHplN/s1600-h/Bernard+Madoff.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXw7IAYhrkFaflvWs4wuiY_Mvg8fuGLzpKqEefmgqqfnsEEFHZdcVh9hk3DO4I5PzMYvuMSa_8L8nN5ufULHbBlxfKIC2arN_2hnyGfWqc9ZFHR5obwCin5JRzRWwXYaKKShZkcQ8GHplN/s320/Bernard+Madoff.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280568119788372754" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHlNCM2uv_-4Mzq6HAvX6rCxVWKco-BlrvoyAN6kLIDxZWtzqnqEiJOb5eQTqIHDGjRMqf_DIHzRPMCpAsOppZH3g06PLslg3BLVPKKrOxDepENgwVPXZ0t_dOLZ90yf6ohANCXGgqbxWi/s1600-h/steven_spielberg.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHlNCM2uv_-4Mzq6HAvX6rCxVWKco-BlrvoyAN6kLIDxZWtzqnqEiJOb5eQTqIHDGjRMqf_DIHzRPMCpAsOppZH3g06PLslg3BLVPKKrOxDepENgwVPXZ0t_dOLZ90yf6ohANCXGgqbxWi/s320/steven_spielberg.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280568945756719618" border="0" /></a>Pictures: Bernard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Madoff</span></span>, Steven Spielberg and Alan Greenspan; and......the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">HSBC</span></span> bank towers in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hong</span></span> Kong (with Standard Chartered bank in the background); and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">HSBC</span></span> Bank futuristic building in Brazil; Royal Bank of Scotland UK; all emptied out?<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6463587&page=1">Big news,</a> <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/12/15/madoff.arrest.exposure/index.html">bad news,</a> on media "front pages" also feature the "who's who" who we know, and the "who's <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQC4r_nSDBMEa6ehXqiEtu73pfJRO3avMJ7s3JoIQkSAL5KosA1-WnkJejiHGL4q_Wbnhx8AyH2TJZ4gAQw8s7gN5RMMsruRhuI-BY8zTzFshpp4b7VqdFB9adsbqCGKdyJneCHZqEhVbo/s1600-h/Greenspan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQC4r_nSDBMEa6ehXqiEtu73pfJRO3avMJ7s3JoIQkSAL5KosA1-WnkJejiHGL4q_Wbnhx8AyH2TJZ4gAQw8s7gN5RMMsruRhuI-BY8zTzFshpp4b7VqdFB9adsbqCGKdyJneCHZqEhVbo/s320/Greenspan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280570154588622994" border="0" /></a>who" we don't. Frankly, I am not one for big Wall Street <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5mPa0sX8_9jfAEUGnBTe_BrrHEA1m2bP1vzs5fHfpdx8pP1IGO2WTMxuPtcGh3nRwlGfIIQvZjhkSWgAwiEbafGvwO06kdC14URD2xSs7TQvEcskQ8qmWnKvrPQpYcbv3qZSuRyFDdFs/s1600-h/HSBC-Bank-HongKong.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5mPa0sX8_9jfAEUGnBTe_BrrHEA1m2bP1vzs5fHfpdx8pP1IGO2WTMxuPtcGh3nRwlGfIIQvZjhkSWgAwiEbafGvwO06kdC14URD2xSs7TQvEcskQ8qmWnKvrPQpYcbv3qZSuRyFDdFs/s320/HSBC-Bank-HongKong.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280574367567179538" border="0" /></a>investment; one thing, the omnipresent (not any more) American dollar costs a hell of a lot, and it's big game for big fish.<br /><br />So never heard of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme">Bernard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Madoff</span></span>, </a>the guy who has come out last week with his<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">ponzi</span></span> scheme</a> bust, has lost $ 50 billion to people and institutions, and charities(!!!); we common folks know the great director Steven Spielberg of 2001 A Space Odyssey fame, and iconic banks- <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">HSBC</span></span>, The Royal Bank of Scotland, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">BNP</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Paribas</span></span> of France, and people we guys down under have vaguely heard of, Fred <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Wilpon</span></span>, owner of the New York <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Mets</span></span> baseball team. And who <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">doesn't</span> know Alan Greenspan, at one time, after President George Bush, the most visible face on TV- did he push up interest rates too high that partly led to all this?- the economic recession in the US.<br /><br />Now, whilst we were just wondering how a huge amount of US $ 35 billion was being held like a carrot's stick, like a suspended toy over a baby's cradle, over those giant car auto <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G9J9D6pmDaZXqMn6pFdpd_fYT4Z7nKUvzmsfBh035vANOQ6TnX1wbcbSRcVpN_8D4t5mMoSm_pYIxf0qSTMCtwqXbo2OydqbdzWmcT7qpqgj0UV2yPREThK1yXAgmjQcVFRPmSnTRDUn/s1600-h/14_hsbc_bank.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8G9J9D6pmDaZXqMn6pFdpd_fYT4Z7nKUvzmsfBh035vANOQ6TnX1wbcbSRcVpN_8D4t5mMoSm_pYIxf0qSTMCtwqXbo2OydqbdzWmcT7qpqgj0UV2yPREThK1yXAgmjQcVFRPmSnTRDUn/s320/14_hsbc_bank.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280575134871498882" border="0" /></a>makers GM, Ford and Chrysler, here, we have an individual who swindles some 50 billion dollars from big <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-IcKLPP6OVQ5y2uuFv2CDQLIBmeBiM7vDBMQentL19KZXOX9jKwbexT0apjfJtzcT3RDVGNoU9aOLQ_TLh_j4OWECA0_BP73t2yq0djIdGskAvqsiSJ-hQC9p-f2zkLQ1wLybVowWFGB4/s1600-h/RBS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-IcKLPP6OVQ5y2uuFv2CDQLIBmeBiM7vDBMQentL19KZXOX9jKwbexT0apjfJtzcT3RDVGNoU9aOLQ_TLh_j4OWECA0_BP73t2yq0djIdGskAvqsiSJ-hQC9p-f2zkLQ1wLybVowWFGB4/s320/RBS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280577043246517634" border="0" /></a>names and small investors, like a retired couple who had placed all of their one million dollars savings with him!<br /><br />I would not just blame an individual who can manage this, but the system.........the world's free economy is full of holes, riddled with so many contradictions, so much confusion, conman ship, pirating, money sharks, loan sharks, plastic money................<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">why, those enemies of the free world, won't they laugh all the way to the bank........oops, sorry, laugh all the way to their automatics muzzles!<br /><br />Just look at this, China, with its brand of free market communism, has gone ahead.......at least it seems like that, I am doubtful if some huge loophole or heist in their money market would not become known to us. So it seems it was right, all along, to have some sort of controlled economy.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Lehman Brothers, Citibank, Merill Lynch, Bank of America, Ford, GM, Chrysler, GE Capital..................what's this, these are certainly not bad companies. </span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Recently, I asked a young friend, a Certified Chartered Accountant, working for a reputed audit company, an international firm, I asked him if they continue to look at Reserve Funds in a client's Balance Sheet, during the audit overview, represented by strong assets and cash surpluses ............he blinked, and said no!<br /><br /><br />Cavalier and arrogant attitudes that present day young managers and regulators flaunt, especially in the western world, has got us all into this mess.<br /><br />In my time, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">up to</span></span> the 1970s/80s, a bank manager, for example, diligently scrutinised all papers and documents put up for a house or car loan, with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">pre</span></span> conditions set by the bank owners and government regulators...........a certified salary statement as well as tax paid proof, valuation of the house by an approved valuer had to be topped with proof of municipal council completion certificate of the home, the property title is verified, a letter from the employer certifying the applicant's permanent status in the employer's company...............<br /><br />Now, with finance companies competing for getting people to take loans, expecting to stash in on interest revenues, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">frantically</span></span> chasing people and putting sops for attracting more to go for loans, unmindful of risks, has done exactly that- risks ignored during evaluation of a person's capability of paying back a loan became risks that stare them in the face...........the domino effect of this, and more, has brought down the proverbial house built on cards!<br /><br />Joe takes a house loan, he can hardly afford, from a finance company.....Joe's loan is fore closed, the finance company can't pay back its loans from the bank.........the bank faces credit crunch so Joe's employer has to pay higher rates for loans, Joe's assembly line product costs more......... business declines, Joe loses his job......he can't pay bills ......his super market, electricity and telephones, gas companies all start to feel the crunch.........recession sets in............Joe's investments are with just one big investment company which was doing a ponzi............no home, no money........ <br /><br />I want to keep adding to this post...........THE FOLLOWING TRENDS VERY DISTURBING:<br /><br />Greed, unbridled greed, led to throwing common sense and caution out of the window. Add to this the very sad inclination of "main street" investors' blind trust in Wall Street.<br /><br />What else can explain why retired people, small time investors, people who run charities, even the super rich, putting all their savings and/or surplus cash with one investor, and doing that without gathering prior information on where their money is being invested.<br /><br />Before signing away their hard earned, or otherwise, savings and surpluses with an investment company, does it take a lot to see where the money is being invested......something like $ 10 million in auto industries, $ 10 million in shipping, $10 million in software companies,etc etc etc., and this financial info release certified by a Certified Accountant, with dated updates to the last financial quarter.<br /><br />Besides, I am perplexed of people putting their investments with just one investor/investment company.<br />It would be wiser placing anywhere between 25% to 35% of your money safely in the best bank with a proven record, of several years, of safe 100% <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">guarantee</span> of immediate withdrawals, (see the bank's financial statements to be sure a goodly amount is in reserves as cash and/or solid assets......consult a friend or professional consultant,)-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">ofcourse</span> in the present circumstances this is, ironically, risky as well.........25% or more invested in gold, and the rest with investment companies where a great deal of your money is likely to face unforeseen risks of trading..............here too, place your money with more than one company..........opt for companies that invest in a wide range of businesses. Ofcourse, all this after Joe gets some money in his hands again. <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-76843394093400666102008-12-15T20:25:00.009+13:002008-12-17T10:22:06.294+13:00Shoes thrown at President Bush. The President gets a shoeful.<span style="font-weight: bold;">Shoes thrown at President Bush</span><br /><br />Nothing like this, absolutely nothing like this, whilst we are getting somewhat "accustomed" (and that is sad, real sad) to expect surprises and unpleasant or sad tragic or horrific moving frames on TV...........this absolutely takes the cake. Its not tragic or horrific, its something by itself!<br /><br />Everyone, everyone who saw that unbelievable sight on CNN (<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/14/bush.iraq/index.html">link to this news)</a> will sure take those images to their .................. . I mean who would expect this? Please let things don't get any worse.<br /><br />I can't make up my mind whether those shoes flung by a lowly simple simple journalist were aimed at George Bush or at the President of the United States of America!<br /><br />The world's most powerful man, his finger on that button, the....the world's biggest mover and shaker, yes, the world's most powerful man has a pair of shoes flung at him!<br /><br />Not one, two shoes through the air, travelling a considerable distance, the second a trifle later than the first, this second shoe flung before people in the room could recover from the first...........whew!<br /><br />This is the ultimate ..............someone or something is telling us anything is possible, this is it.........no one, absolutely no one is above anything.................anyone down the street can plain well treat anyone anyway...or so they will try.<br /><br />That was this morning. This evening I watched a DVD movie, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425061/">Get Smart </a>(the 2008 remake by Peter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Segal</span>-is he related to George <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Segal</span>....... not 1965 movie by Mel Brooks.) Very slick, very funny, but no shade near the movie I watched on Saturday, the very hilarious and very very funny <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0951216/">Mad Money</a> ............the director Callie <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Khourie</span> is genius and Diane Keaton, Queen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Latifah</span>, Katie Holmes a superb trio with Ted <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Danson</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Daine's</span> bewildered hubby...........a must watch! A movie, sadly, closer to reality.<br /><br />Back to Get Smart; this comedy, a satire on movies of the James Bond genre, but still not without a great deal of irony...........with the latest loss of 30,000 jobs at Bank of America, loss of some 5,30,000 jobs this November in the US, its not funny any more............to watch a movie so far far removed from reality.<br /><br />I mean, come on, a movie is a movie, a hour and half of entertainment..........but now seems a little hard to take............the futuristic slick hidden headquaters of a US Intelligence wing.........the high high profile.............no other country has these..........gadgets and screens............so unreal..........pathetic. With the sad and unfortunate state America is getting into, with predictions, not by present day Nostradamuses, but some respected economists of possible<br /><a href="http://www.rense.com/general78/riots.htm">food riots</a>..<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/kampmark05082008.html">more on food riots</a> ...........will the Hollywood folks please get real?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-6440992373353520862008-12-10T20:48:00.021+13:002008-12-15T15:33:48.277+13:00New Zealand! Pomp Ceremony and Politics.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHNenyCnFXCwTaiRbtT7rDc42lsJnzDm5QQ3BK6yl3tCCBbEwD38dfmJpFntUsSCYowlN71gqDYlLVt_ChFvvbeVfIkBbkmy1nnb2CFt5IdppbOv8VfnBQ5IKlFLHroF5BDD-G9bQ2R70/s1600-h/3+judges+opening+NZ+parl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHNenyCnFXCwTaiRbtT7rDc42lsJnzDm5QQ3BK6yl3tCCBbEwD38dfmJpFntUsSCYowlN71gqDYlLVt_ChFvvbeVfIkBbkmy1nnb2CFt5IdppbOv8VfnBQ5IKlFLHroF5BDD-G9bQ2R70/s400/3+judges+opening+NZ+parl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278089744839630146" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGAmyfbeE8_daYRVj6MzhDJM7Orj6ecSCLKe5Y2Ix8jbzkcwHtizUnFrcZ0yrNbRDc497FbsIWC_exJPbT5Xlni6qZ4q4kb4a5FKxYKX4G30PB1GzvotkmHW_y9vCjeJouxElMBihO3tK/s1600-h/f46b90867cb9cb9c9a66.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 99px; height: 147px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGAmyfbeE8_daYRVj6MzhDJM7Orj6ecSCLKe5Y2Ix8jbzkcwHtizUnFrcZ0yrNbRDc497FbsIWC_exJPbT5Xlni6qZ4q4kb4a5FKxYKX4G30PB1GzvotkmHW_y9vCjeJouxElMBihO3tK/s320/f46b90867cb9cb9c9a66.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278810058143692002" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2sg4yqjYNS9UZlvjHF1B4_Yp2QgnHrLv1uCianyyoVKSZdFF2Az-56LaaQE_SfiB-syLgjIPqI-2O11JipKaXCvDgjAOwEtzUDVZki-jTU-MBLqjkC4mtGRAudgKZXbMxRj04RHXKsJUF/s1600-h/state+opening+of+parliament2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2sg4yqjYNS9UZlvjHF1B4_Yp2QgnHrLv1uCianyyoVKSZdFF2Az-56LaaQE_SfiB-syLgjIPqI-2O11JipKaXCvDgjAOwEtzUDVZki-jTU-MBLqjkC4mtGRAudgKZXbMxRj04RHXKsJUF/s400/state+opening+of+parliament2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278385811504819186" border="0" /></a>Pictures: the Chief Justice, flanked by two judges declares <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYre4M-fKQgEn-l2UcqKav448gKnsdUUEY-tGBj6_cc4mLe1P-ZZodg_nsuDHw7ZcrcDHV9VCFWFq9idGj-XK6AdwZLSIjRpmrRB4FNrD_HsLuzGJU-2p6T-xMOsZV_lZAqB6bHNEkPBZp/s1600-h/state+opening+of+parliament.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYre4M-fKQgEn-l2UcqKav448gKnsdUUEY-tGBj6_cc4mLe1P-ZZodg_nsuDHw7ZcrcDHV9VCFWFq9idGj-XK6AdwZLSIjRpmrRB4FNrD_HsLuzGJU-2p6T-xMOsZV_lZAqB6bHNEkPBZp/s320/state+opening+of+parliament.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279368503983356610" border="0" /></a>Parliament open; the new Speaker the Hon. Dr Lockwood Smith; Governor General Anand Satyanand inspects a Guard of Honour; the GG escorted by dignitaries into Parliament House; Black Rod, the GG's representative summons MPs who sit behind the closed doors waiting for the GG invitation/summons!<br /><br />This 8<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> and 9<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">th</span> of December were historical days in New Zealand, the <a href="http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/c/c/2/00NZPHomeNews051220081-Opening-of-Parliament-ceremonies-on-8-and-9.htm">State Opening </a>of New Zealand Parliament, in Wellington...............Parliament TV channel showing viewers live events surrounding this political, historical and cultural event; the channel has gone live since the morning of Monday and is even now (evening of the 10<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">th</span>) telecasting a heated debate on a <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3T5b9H2GKl_zuFnyoKT-tmUSlgI4l8j4jKUI96HIR0tGmQeNkS7lEmO9zI3m4G6b1nFKRgFZckG8tQ1FQ3fVgRVh8sT1xn6MmdbcfeNxhzKdY0PUwD76d7_-k5Tb6oCfqfIpqsxRYmwc/s1600-h/Black+rod.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3T5b9H2GKl_zuFnyoKT-tmUSlgI4l8j4jKUI96HIR0tGmQeNkS7lEmO9zI3m4G6b1nFKRgFZckG8tQ1FQ3fVgRVh8sT1xn6MmdbcfeNxhzKdY0PUwD76d7_-k5Tb6oCfqfIpqsxRYmwc/s400/Black+rod.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5278381953117590674" border="0" /></a>Finance Bill that the new National Party government is rushing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">thru</span>, on the basis of a promise to the electorate that electoral promises will be fulfilled in the first 100 days in office!<br /><br />I have sat glued to the channel since the morning of the 8<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">th</span>. What I have seen is not "pomp and circumstances" as seen for the State Opening of the British Parliament, but a series of events and ceremonies far more subdued but not any less in dignity and decorum; small is beautiful, it sure is!<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0812/S00068.htm">State Opening </a>starts like this: taking a page from the hoary traditions of the British Crown, the Governor General <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Anand</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Satyanand</span> (of Fiji Indian origin, distinguished lawyer and before this appointment the NZ Ombudsman, a position of legal watchman) sends Commissioners, the NZ Chief Justice with two senior judges, to declare open this 49<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">th</span> Parliament. The Governor General, representing Queen Elisabeth II, will only enter parliament after the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">MPs</span> are sworn in; so the declaration opening Parliament is done on his behalf by Commissioners<br />(His majesty's Commissioners) , senior judges led by the Chief Justice.<br /><br />The British Monarch has, since the past three centuries, entered the British Parliament only to deliver a speech, from the throne, outlining government policy of the day, the speech prepared by his Prime Minister, and this after Parliament is declared open earlier by his representatives.<br /><br />What does it look like here in New Zealand? "Small," simple and dignified, as the Chief Justice<br /><a href="http://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/about/judges/current-chief">Dame <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Sian</span> Elias </a>walks down, yes walks down, with two <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">seniormost</span> judges, all in regal flowing red robes and white judicial wigs on their heads, their walking across to Parliament House, not in the least diminished by the lack of horse and carriage, or a limousine!! Very stately and dignified.<br /><br />So this regal trio walks up the red carpeted steps of the stately building and, led by an Usher, walks past a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maori">Maori </a>welcome greeting, very colourful, and enters the Debating Chamber of the House of Representatives, where the elected, but not yet sworn ed in, members await to hear the Order from the Governor General.<br /><br />The Chief Justice, a bespectacled, somewhat frail and small lady with quiet dignity and poise, reads out the Order, and sits, along with her two judicial colleagues, at a table below the vacant Speaker's Chair whilst the Clerk of the House, also a woman, in black robe, (look at this: some time back the Prime Minister Helen Clark, the previous Governor General, Dame Cartwright, Chief Justice Dame <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Sian</span> Elias....... women led NZ !!) ...........I was saying the Clerk of the House also reads out communiques and orders.........................and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">thats</span> it; with the equal quiet dignity and poise, the Chief Justice and the two Justices walk out of the Chamber!<br /><br />With this formal opening of Parliament, its time to swear in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">MPs</span>; again a subdued but very interesting sight as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">MPs</span> take the Oath of Office with the Clerk of the House officiating; the Oath to "Queen Elisabeth II, her heirs and successors," some swearing their oath on the Bible or other holy books, their oath ending with the phrase "so help me God"- and the secularists or atheists ending the oath with the words "according to Law." I think a couple of Maori members took the oath, in the Maori language, by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi">Treaty of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Waitangi</span></a> added in by them before the oath to the Queen! A good sample of Kiwi democracy!<br /><br />Members are, Christians of various denominations, mainly Anglican and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Pebysterian</span>, some Muslims and Hindus, even Sikh(!!), and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">ofcourse</span> the agnostics and non-believers; and from diverse ethnic backgrounds, Kiwi European, Maori, Samoan and other Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Korean, Indians, Bangladeshi..............thus representing peoples settled here from all over the world. I love this!<br /><br />Dr Lockwood Smith, an MP of many years, of a rather deceptively frail but proud bearing, his eyes always alert, with a look that seems to scrutinise everything without looking rude, a huge smile on his face and arching eyebrows, an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">altogether</span> compelling personality, is, next, unanimously elected Speaker of the House; he walks up to the Speakers rostrum, stands just below his chair, seemingly reluctant to occupy this, delivers a short speech and then slowly ascends the steps to the Speaker's Chair!<br /><br />The next day, 9<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">th</span> December, the formal State Opening of Parliament, and delivery of a speech "from the throne" outlining government policies, by the Governor General <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Anand</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Satyanand</span>, follow British traditions. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">GG</span> arrives in a state limousine, is first greeted by a Maori cultural group, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Mana</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Whenua</span> with a traditional Maori welcome dance. A Maori welcome greeting, known as<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Haka</span> </a>, an ancient tribal dance.<br /><br />A <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">tri</span>-Services Guard of Honor follows when the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">GG</span> seemed very solemn and cheerful by turns; then, with an escort led by Black Rod (see picture above-Black Rod -knocks door of the Debating Chamber) the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">GG</span>, accompanied by his wife Susan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Satyanand</span>, enters the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Uppper</span> House"-the Legislative Assembly Chamber (this is now only used for delivering the government sppech "from the throne" by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Governor General</span>, otherwise New Zealand has no Upper House)- and is ceremoniously seated on the throne........... this signifying the GG is the Queen's representative.<br /><br />From traditions drawn from the British Parliament, the GG then directs Black Rod to summon the MPs................Black Rod then walks across to the Debating Chamber where <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">the MPs</span> sit awaiting the Governor <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">General's</span> request to attend on him in the "Upper House"; this "summons" is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">ceremoniously</span> delivered by Black Rod who first knocks (see picture) on the closed doors of the House, demands entry, which is given reluctantly, the chamber doors are opened slowly and a further blockage of the aisle by a rod across it. Black Rod addresses the Speaker and Members that His Excellency invites them to the Upper Chamber...........the Speaker and MPs then slowly walk across to the Upper House..........all this signifying their independence from the Crown!<br /><br />The Governor General and his wife, Susan, seated on gold trimmed thrones flanked by the Prime Minister John Keys and Leader of the opposition Phil Geoff, with a number of Judges and Chiefs from the Armed Services seated behind on both sides. <br />The speech prepared by the PM, with its main thrust on reviving the flagging NZ economy, delivered .................the GG is escorted out of the Parliament building, a short version of the British anthem by the services band ............and, as the TV commentator puts it............the GG and his wife now proceed to Governor's House for lunch!!<br /><br />But far more moving, to watch and hear new first time MPs deliver their maiden speeches.........they are some extraordinary persons with many great stories and outstanding achievements, stirring tales of families who have worked very hard, parents giving their all, migrants working very hard in a new homeland, school and college in the day and working at nights, members who return from foreign countries after some outstanding work in jobs or business.............one MP declaring the colour of skin should not determine who is a New Zealander.........very stirring....... and a great confidence to see New Zealand has very outstanding people in Parliament!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-75822212955569744532008-12-04T11:38:00.030+13:002008-12-07T22:10:05.723+13:00New Zealand! New Home!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlipKgXB3UX3TDL1k6HGfHT2dtUenRDKNwYXiZGK5_pTApPrgS_HVTwDLcbu067HZUJ3JGrqxhMUEZ5zVQKn1-YoT1hGyKqi5jLQkFJYxy2FKsVGsyjhznpHUH4cIoe4LsfKEfZP9a7wU/s1600-h/auckland-city+of+sails.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlipKgXB3UX3TDL1k6HGfHT2dtUenRDKNwYXiZGK5_pTApPrgS_HVTwDLcbu067HZUJ3JGrqxhMUEZ5zVQKn1-YoT1hGyKqi5jLQkFJYxy2FKsVGsyjhznpHUH4cIoe4LsfKEfZP9a7wU/s400/auckland-city+of+sails.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276900664274437282" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpodE1i9c3ecFbYR-lprrkz2pUn8vHZm5arpGnMQ_7mO0yA8fB9ThAb9IwGAsQ8P-ug1TGEaNDvrCMiii7t_ky1nAsUV5-LwfeqcDcO-bRwDsy2pEdJuX4Y5yghcp2CnhhVfWZfzr7tQ6x/s1600-h/Auckland+airport.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpodE1i9c3ecFbYR-lprrkz2pUn8vHZm5arpGnMQ_7mO0yA8fB9ThAb9IwGAsQ8P-ug1TGEaNDvrCMiii7t_ky1nAsUV5-LwfeqcDcO-bRwDsy2pEdJuX4Y5yghcp2CnhhVfWZfzr7tQ6x/s400/Auckland+airport.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276901421454528466" border="0" /></a>Pictures: Auckland with Sky Tower and yatchs; Auckland Airport; St. Helliers Bay with Mount Rangitoto in the distance; typical NZ home; St. Lukes Shopping Mall; view from Sky Tower; vineyard outside Auckland; gannets nesting on a wind cut rock at Muruwai beach.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVEIC0L7u4pz6NrfnV4-N7U5qYiMnlbp67MwaunOiAmdIIolU5wGn_VqygVkgtTArEmhSwFXYiRHYEd8UWXAOAiiat74dqHBqdFfKXxV3lK-SUzviYDTrr-1NUueQvYR-SYZUIJ3e6sPn/s1600-h/auckland-city+of+sails.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 1px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVEIC0L7u4pz6NrfnV4-N7U5qYiMnlbp67MwaunOiAmdIIolU5wGn_VqygVkgtTArEmhSwFXYiRHYEd8UWXAOAiiat74dqHBqdFfKXxV3lK-SUzviYDTrr-1NUueQvYR-SYZUIJ3e6sPn/s320/auckland-city+of+sails.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276900355193214866" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.newzealand.com/">New Zealand!!!</a> New! yes, the "new" proves right everywhere, hardly any structures, for example, office blocks or residential stand-alone or town houses, needing fresh coat of paint; neat green lawns, sidewalks with green patches, green rolling country side, some of this within city limits! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4RHat1X6aIM7q0lyA44GtBWNp2kbPjkw-57RXtjAkvt36mJPTwQThGw9f_Y8f6KaGJm-yqZ0HjefcTigjRcNq3TZal7GZGDocGdAzjZITxWhyGuiTVl4Z2sHXSTNtHJXYsl0lHhvwcMQ8/s1600-h/St+Helliers+Auckland.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4RHat1X6aIM7q0lyA44GtBWNp2kbPjkw-57RXtjAkvt36mJPTwQThGw9f_Y8f6KaGJm-yqZ0HjefcTigjRcNq3TZal7GZGDocGdAzjZITxWhyGuiTVl4Z2sHXSTNtHJXYsl0lHhvwcMQ8/s400/St+Helliers+Auckland.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276957987587754386" border="0" /></a>(Funnily, within <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVAMBSH-2QetcaVACfyB9sbraCyIkKfQQMrFuwnUggweVdkd1_v3BJ7IyQC1vu7LZ_sgVMMNSPpo0J6Y8GZDPO9p-pVspW8eBiXxf3vVAJuzmHSWSfZ0d8NzVGxLsramlqiEJU7XaeiZ6/s1600-h/Northland_house.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVAMBSH-2QetcaVACfyB9sbraCyIkKfQQMrFuwnUggweVdkd1_v3BJ7IyQC1vu7LZ_sgVMMNSPpo0J6Y8GZDPO9p-pVspW8eBiXxf3vVAJuzmHSWSfZ0d8NzVGxLsramlqiEJU7XaeiZ6/s400/Northland_house.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276902340731250962" border="0" /></a>Auckland roads are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVo4TuZjaDEOEi7SgkUsZTPxTLl0sucdhURHbE5UyUzHkE4b7UQO1DqqL-6mdaZ54lzVQ5KMGIyIwHYoS9WQMlalN6EfKqXidON8IwjNo_8V1wJyRZSWlf4z0WTShU2TfqkC3gDeRLIXE/s1600-h/St+Lukes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVo4TuZjaDEOEi7SgkUsZTPxTLl0sucdhURHbE5UyUzHkE4b7UQO1DqqL-6mdaZ54lzVQ5KMGIyIwHYoS9WQMlalN6EfKqXidON8IwjNo_8V1wJyRZSWlf4z0WTShU2TfqkC3gDeRLIXE/s400/St+Lukes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276954140222212146" border="0" /></a>topped with good finish surface, country roads, by contrast, in many stretches, have a rough surface, not damaged surface mind you; this is to hold wet tyres from slipping, in snow, or rain.......lots of the latter in regions throughout NZ., t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6kHKeoLSPmj_8ToqmFGtR0RcYfgR-6lqHSjyj7QU5bs-t-ILIqio2Fd5NKkutQHCH21ckiFCWeI4OJbTgrXRwAiidl4T9OkHjf6WR98RnBM4uhKWZjhSAI0JobXnOUa2PcfeHKrM20xAM/s1600-h/our+TV+tower+view+001.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6kHKeoLSPmj_8ToqmFGtR0RcYfgR-6lqHSjyj7QU5bs-t-ILIqio2Fd5NKkutQHCH21ckiFCWeI4OJbTgrXRwAiidl4T9OkHjf6WR98RnBM4uhKWZjhSAI0JobXnOUa2PcfeHKrM20xAM/s400/our+TV+tower+view+001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276903654231672098" border="0" /></a>hroughout the year.)<br /><br />I have a joke, all my own.......I come from God's own country (India) to God's new country, God's beautiful country! <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand">New Zealand.</a> Kiwis, New <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Zealander's</span> name for themselves, prefer to keep a respectable distance from God, they prefer being real good guys themselves!<br /><br />I always intend to nudge my visitors to NZ, after picking them from our lovely <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Airport">Auckland Airport, </a>to look out the window .............every bit of the route, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manukau_harbor"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Manukau</span> harbour</a> (where the airport locates south of Auckland,) the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hillsborough</span> and Blockhouse Bay roads to my New Lynn suburb, mostly picture postcards.<br /><br />And I would tell them, wait, this is nothing, wait till we drive down the North-Western motorway to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Muruwai</span> beach, or the other way to West Harbour, rolling green country around <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Whenupai</span> airport, picturesque <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRxPFWLMOl7PN3-HmNHjXGCg7Dp5cTj-RJSNAeeCdgFj7CrkOHfe19NMmvX3gZjsZS9mkaOrFwGIFOnFwaKxtL_O7ngSldYa9S79qpxf5Nvjm7jfQQpQpavz7gVKlVK2LUgoeELx2G2rF/s1600-h/vineyard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRxPFWLMOl7PN3-HmNHjXGCg7Dp5cTj-RJSNAeeCdgFj7CrkOHfe19NMmvX3gZjsZS9mkaOrFwGIFOnFwaKxtL_O7ngSldYa9S79qpxf5Nvjm7jfQQpQpavz7gVKlVK2LUgoeELx2G2rF/s400/vineyard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276957090542032338" border="0" /></a>houses, blue waters (all these <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">withen</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEVUQ1Z3Jg4-q_wu8VlnhJE1SskKcY60W0ZWZZjLZJb3jG3xapfVmpC-XM6_0vi-cwOwEex2vXxUxaIAB3r43KBgXP5uRSnPIeHSeH2pmoKV5imG_6fcEAphfaMcc4GdzwWX4wdIlINxn/s1600-h/052.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEVUQ1Z3Jg4-q_wu8VlnhJE1SskKcY60W0ZWZZjLZJb3jG3xapfVmpC-XM6_0vi-cwOwEex2vXxUxaIAB3r43KBgXP5uRSnPIeHSeH2pmoKV5imG_6fcEAphfaMcc4GdzwWX4wdIlINxn/s400/052.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276904570013938818" border="0" /></a>Auckland!!!); further up, vineyards, more green, horses grazing, English cows and sheep dotting the hill sides..............these hills, green, with some topped with clusters of trees, look suspiciously small until you look at the scattered cows and sheep, all small dots on those green slopes, and you realise the hills are not small, but slope gently..........rolling countryside.<br /><br />If you intend visiting New Zealand looking for magnificent buildings, than it's better you visit London or Paris or Prague etc etc; of course, the City, with its Sky Tower and stately modern high rises around, make for good viewing, especially from across the harbour, from the shores of Davenport. And, of late, it now appears, some guys in the building business, especially residential blocks facing the city port, are bent on making money, the city views from anywhere are getting to look a trifle cluttered! And if you choose to rent an apartment in the City, you are most probably getting small poky rooms; in New Zealand you are far better off living in houses that come with their own green patch.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland">Auckland,</a> City of Sails (includes the Councils of Auckland City, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Manukau</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Waitakere</span>, North Shore, Rodney and Franklin) would very easily be somewhere on top the world's cities in the race for a good place to live in; the City (the Central Business District), the outlying office and residential areas like Mt Eden, Point Chevalier, Western Springs and every suburb are clean and spic, green patches, well laid roads, well marked- (more roads needed for more traffic in peak rush hours as everywhere else,) shopping malls and ample parking, no rubbish anywhere (barring a few places where residents with a scant respect for civic values leave some rubbish outside their homes, but these areas are very few.)<br /><br />And Auckland is cosmopolitan, now some 43% of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Aucklanders</span> are non-European origin, indigenous Maoris, Pacific Islanders, Asians, Indians and Fijians of Indian origin, Africans, Middle <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Easterns</span>, peoples from many Muslim countries, etc. There are no jostling crowds, no rubbing shoulders in crowded places, for a city that spreads out some 60 kilometers in every direction, Auckland has a modest population of 1.4 million. And everywhere, mostly everywhere, looking out from a moving car, are a series of lovely picture frames.<br /><br />Most shopping malls are spic, with gleaming floors, well presented shops, some with cinemas, Village Cinemas, at the top level, groceries-Food Town, Pack and Save, Countdown, and plenty of food courts (with choice of European and Kiwi, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indian, Iranian and Turkish cuisine).........malls seem to be favorite places to window shop, sit with a coffee and pastries, very cheerful places......an afternoon at the food court, those old tottering folks, probably on dole (family assistance in NZ.) whiling away sipping coffee or gorging on pastries and pies.......mind you, these same oldies, 70/75 and above, will drive away in their car, some new and flashy breeds!<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Aucklanders</span>, though not some of the best dressed, would easily rate high for their style, heads held high, a quick <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">spright</span> in their walk, women very pretty with fine figure, many <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">blondes</span>; and somehow in the midst of this, some Kiwis choose to go around bare foot and shabby...........<br /><br />and if you come from a country where people stare, or at least show some curiosity, Kiwis by sharp contrast will never meet the eye..........in crowded malls, everyone will pass by everyone without looking you in the eye, never.....you will never be looked at; somehow a straight ahead look, not rude, not indifferent, just plain everyone minds their own business..............so if you are looking for a smile or want to be looked at, you better go some other place( meaning country.) Rather, exception to this are morning joggers/strollers............ all say good mornings! I like that.<br /><br />These same Kiwis, yes these same Kiwis, if they happen to sit by your side, and this sometimes encountered whilst sitting opposite Food Town- (I hate going inside, and sit opposite the cashier counters)- a bored fellow, first looking askance at you to judge if you are the communicative type, with time on your hands, will give you his full life story, very warm and friendly.<br /><br />Besides, for Kiwis and other New <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Zealanders</span>, when it comes to communicating with one another, things are quite different; a telephone call to confirm an event like the estimated time your courier will arrive to pick your parcel, is a friendly, polite, cheerful and honest piece of information-if he or she knows you, its all on first name basis-cheery and "its a fine day out there isn't it?" ............if your tradesman gives you the time he would do your work, and something keeps him, he will phone and apologise for the delay; a hospital nurse will talk cheerfully and make your day with light banter; your physiotherapist or doctor, call center lady, your regular scheduled time bus driver will strike up a light conversation at the slightest chance. (Hi mate, how are you this morning.)<br /><br />You must meet a tourist bus driver in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Islands">Bay of Islands</a>......on a full day tour of North Island he will not stop his light banter, sprinkled with jokes..........passing a cemetery, he said, I have booked my plot here before the land prices go up! I asked him how he could keep up this continuous one sided, but entertaining, conversation, and he said "mate, if I don't, I will fall asleep on the wheel!"<br /><br />But the same people (not those you have met/or with the usual formal/informal introductions,) the same people will not meet the eye, no way, no sir, whilst passing you in the mall, in the car park, at the post office or gas station queues.<br /><br />When you decide to get accustomed to this, you get an unexpected jolt, you find yourself getting a cheerful smile....................Kiwis are sure moody people!<br /><br />And the Council chaps treat you with VIP status...........I have had to contact them sometimes and sure made to feel I get my taxes worth...........if the street lights are out, just phone the Council.........they will have these fixed within a day, sometimes two.....and you will get a call later: "are your street lights working today, everything fine?"<br />I had one incident where a neighbour's dog, on leash with the owner, got irritable and charged at me; I was lucky because the owner pulled at the leash or I would have had my face torn out. The incident unnerved me, but some friends <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">adviced</span> I contact Dog Control...........I did that and was amazed at the repartee I established with them........several calls were returned from Dog Control, updating me how the dog's family was being counselled so the dog would not be a nuisance in the future!!<br /><br />There is also some degree of slide downhill.........one rule, dogs should be accompanied by owner and on leash-only after 7 p. m. your dog can be roamed free-.............these rules are sadly ignored..................there have been several incidents in the last two years of dog attacks, some by the Rottweiler breed.......and these are quite something.<br /><br />There are an increasing number of young, good for nothing, punks, who drive crazy through the nights, their car engines roaring away and loud rock music. The police plan to use <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">ariel</span> surveillance for spotting these chaps and for other road violations, like speeding. More instances of house invasion and burglaries, hold ups at groceries/dairies, purse snatching..............and one of the worst irritants, painting and disfiguring walls, fences, house exteriors...........stores are banned from selling small paint spray canisters, but this has not worked.<br /><br />New Zealand traffic is one of the best well mannered courteous driving anywhere in the world; migrants and tourists can drive on an international or their home country driving licence for one year. After this, a written test on road rules and a no nonsense practical driving test will get you a NZ licence. Warrant of Fitness, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">WOF</span>, has to be renewed every six months, and a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">WOF</span> licensee is likely to ask you to spruce up your car.<br /><br />I was saying traffic manners are some of the best in the world; everyone, almost everyone, barring a few exceptions, follow traffic rules and road rage is almost non <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">exist ant</span>. Preference/give way to traffic on the right, stopping at stop signs and at zebra crossings, allowing traffic from an inner road to join the main stream, overtaking/passing only in permitted stretches of the road, signalling before changing lanes, no honking, headlights never on full, and lights "on" during rain spells, waving out and thanking fellow motorists for any <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">reasons</span> etc etc. After the chaotic driving in India, driving in Auckland is a cheese!<br /><br />Rarely, quite rarely, the quiet pattern of traffic is thrown out when a couple of police cars have to chase an offender.<br />No policemen at traffic crossroads, but they do park with some degree of stealth with speed cameras..........some roads have an electronic meter that displays the speed of your passing car.<br /><br />More in the next post.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-17509767383583298202008-12-01T10:09:00.024+13:002008-12-12T18:30:29.595+13:00Mumbai Under Siege-the Taj Palace Hotel Legacy.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sh1fP2_BWP2TgBBHOMP_RPCGA1bVHf6jc2ZlpOq4uinRdf8XDYh9JepW9IDNERIUpF9UondcXZFDF_PE25MDfqvuD4kr75N3mGpuXedkU8G7N4eX0j-Gg4tnCtW1GUmJMjiMugMuHyz2/s1600-h/Images-01-tata+family.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 344px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6sh1fP2_BWP2TgBBHOMP_RPCGA1bVHf6jc2ZlpOq4uinRdf8XDYh9JepW9IDNERIUpF9UondcXZFDF_PE25MDfqvuD4kr75N3mGpuXedkU8G7N4eX0j-Gg4tnCtW1GUmJMjiMugMuHyz2/s400/Images-01-tata+family.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274575568324300098" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaOzMxy2ys4nmaSWtUHBO-MM6XkeCXAR63KTgF09E62836opZrJ38DL7IWKHvexhnroFWQXVG4t2oTAqk0aG1ho62cF7dtIImP7mZZAJP6ketWwp_-OquZrOPa1KlZiHPUYxVLNGk8sVw/s1600-h/Images-03-JRD+and+Family.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 310px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimaOzMxy2ys4nmaSWtUHBO-MM6XkeCXAR63KTgF09E62836opZrJ38DL7IWKHvexhnroFWQXVG4t2oTAqk0aG1ho62cF7dtIImP7mZZAJP6ketWwp_-OquZrOPa1KlZiHPUYxVLNGk8sVw/s400/Images-03-JRD+and+Family.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274576080132740754" border="0" /></a>Pictures: Jamsetji Tata, bearded patriarch in the center with his family (around 1900);<br />R D Tata (Jamsetji's cousin) center, and father of JRD, (JRD Tata, founder of Air India) pictured as as a child;<br />room in Tata Esplanade House, the Tata home for several decades;<br />Tata Steel;<br />Tata Hydro -Electric, power generation for Mumbai;<br />Tata Institute of Sciences;<br />JRD Tata, (fourth from the right) piloting first air mail from Karachi to Bombay-precursor to AirIndia (Air India later nationalised-and standards down!!!);<br />image of Guggenheim Award medal to JRD for Outstanding Achievement; he was also awarded Bharat Ratna (gem of India) India's highest civilian award!<br /><br />(all pictures courtesy Tatacentralarchives.com - I wish to bring the Tata legacy to wider attention through Blogger.---what the Taj legacy means, one of the world's great legacy.)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This is not ironic that the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai takes people around the world to ask why the Taj Palace Hotel an institution Indians are very proud to call an icon of their city.<br /><br />Far more than its immense stately presence, the Taj Palace Hotel is one of the flagship symbols of the otherwise globally little known Tata family, with Jamsetji Tata and his descendants making huge contributi<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1AHfJpvdxVM3KuVBcBq6MsGFR3egSqCZn5yoPdJ8Qwg39kUjWJcDL-ZEsRF2auruU9CN48Q6rZ469CVkn9xeUSPw7NEWpXqw06zsd5iuiZ0qYD1eHXn0GUVfM6D0KA0PZrjvlDOQLzXV/s1600-h/Images-02-esplanade+house.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 333px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1AHfJpvdxVM3KuVBcBq6MsGFR3egSqCZn5yoPdJ8Qwg39kUjWJcDL-ZEsRF2auruU9CN48Q6rZ469CVkn9xeUSPw7NEWpXqw06zsd5iuiZ0qYD1eHXn0GUVfM6D0KA0PZrjvlDOQLzXV/s400/Images-02-esplanade+house.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274576439698739522" border="0" /></a>on to modern India.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tatacentralarchives.com/history/four_partners/four_partners.htm">Jamsetji Tata </a>comes from an illustrious line of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroashtrianism">Zoroastrian</a> priests of Navsari, his distant ancestor first High Priest of Navsari, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meherji_Rana">Dastur Meherji </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meherji_Rana">Rana, </a>so impressed the Great Mogul emperor Akbar, made this great king incorporate tenets of Zoroastrianism in his syncretic faith <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din_i_Ilahi">Din I Illahi.</a> <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">The significance here is that at the time of Akbar, the Zoroastrian Parsi immigrants from Iran</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">numbered roughly not more than 50,000 and to draw the attention of the great Akbar </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkPzZ3wNiCHaPIbq-4BpnDYmhOOmxnIEFMoF5E0V23uzE32iPmWKqXaj7stQyg7xrc7FuvpgZL2SHahBj14Xx6hgN0FziBlu9ZX2ADAJJBx4xyxuL6tACt-uGLoGyj04ydhko7nbqXtHu/s1600-h/Images-07-TISCO.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 247px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfkPzZ3wNiCHaPIbq-4BpnDYmhOOmxnIEFMoF5E0V23uzE32iPmWKqXaj7stQyg7xrc7FuvpgZL2SHahBj14Xx6hgN0FziBlu9ZX2ADAJJBx4xyxuL6tACt-uGLoGyj04ydhko7nbqXtHu/s400/Images-07-TISCO.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274576651187349106" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">far away in Delhi (Navsari is on the Gujrat coast some 600 miles south) speaks how even then Zoroastrian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis">Parsis </a>had begun to make their presence.<br /><br />Very very briefly, (I prefer the images here will better illustrate this Taj legacy) Jamsetji, born in Navsari in 1839, preferred (like his father Nasserwanji) to try his hand in business than his priestly calling, has by 1874, at the age of 35, floated a textile mill, then went on a highly ambitious plan with such driving force and vision, and although he died in 1904, his goals to modernise India were and are pursued by his </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">descendants even today :<br /></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">in his lifetime he laid the foundations of an industrial India, and after he passed away, his sons Sir Dorab Tata and Sir Ratan Tata, his cousin R.D. Tata, the latter's son JRD Tata, Naval Tata, now Naval's son Ratan Tata who pr</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrauUf6euYGw-LsuvJOqHo1Wk3ujDbHzSVgsxmtjkyU14yz7M3iAQTSBbqTMlDNCnL72J2eqsuD3EWia4vSnVK5_H5i8pNpM_oYwKiJmz2JodZ8KpZwy7ZJ8URrezk_ZfC-QOBmYVXPGvE/s1600-h/Images-08-tata+power.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrauUf6euYGw-LsuvJOqHo1Wk3ujDbHzSVgsxmtjkyU14yz7M3iAQTSBbqTMlDNCnL72J2eqsuD3EWia4vSnVK5_H5i8pNpM_oYwKiJmz2JodZ8KpZwy7ZJ8URrezk_ZfC-QOBmYVXPGvE/s400/Images-08-tata+power.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274577098377316450" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">esently heads the <a href="http://www.tata.com/default.aspx">Tata Group,</a> went on to establish an industrial empire -steel, hydro-electric power, locomotives and cars, airlines (Air India), chemicals, now computer software (TCS), branded wear, department stores, and more, to rival this, Institutes for scientific research, scholarships for higher studies abroad, and rural upliftment schemes in India, hospitals, housing; the Tatas were the first, in the world, to introduce an 8 hour shift!<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbv_pV8NSJlnsv8LFqKh9goWX6D1tsq5wbBHAKR_uPmCS6xwl3CDQOssh_ga2IHsmvCusx1xVVhha8MJsj8lLorhUpJvQj7JoRx_LJUzuW7bqrPQadpA5klOqHxma96l7oQCtftGAASUap/s1600-h/Images-10-INDIAN+INSTITUTE+OF+SCIENCE.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbv_pV8NSJlnsv8LFqKh9goWX6D1tsq5wbBHAKR_uPmCS6xwl3CDQOssh_ga2IHsmvCusx1xVVhha8MJsj8lLorhUpJvQj7JoRx_LJUzuW7bqrPQadpA5klOqHxma96l7oQCtftGAASUap/s400/Images-10-INDIAN+INSTITUTE+OF+SCIENCE.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274577762210849314" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">This is what the Taj Palace Hotel stands for..................AND THE TATA </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYoRJ0nFvUgUhWgGuCI5RAtgySoEeYOoNF1Ury9Lu5smGSTtxRJlbkvX6L51368EDDGfMOfECNeaiqSHWv5yrnS4rcxGhkzrnOVHh5wvYYn7ky-QdbtMnBT4ecLKE6dhWTbcpdzbs1FopD/s1600-h/Images-12-JRDT-+1932+flight.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYoRJ0nFvUgUhWgGuCI5RAtgySoEeYOoNF1Ury9Lu5smGSTtxRJlbkvX6L51368EDDGfMOfECNeaiqSHWv5yrnS4rcxGhkzrnOVHh5wvYYn7ky-QdbtMnBT4ecLKE6dhWTbcpdzbs1FopD/s400/Images-12-JRDT-+1932+flight.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274578155434500322" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">SHARE OF OWNERSHIP OF THE TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS IS HELD</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCOLcHsm3jOqnOeZGQYVQRjXak7gXAtOWdewEsFW3AeO41p2FPw_RhZ5FNRLdS7NyKxC3sL8tCpapwXu49azi06mYdE4IkQQWC5jRIHd5-QcN3k_djxvaMq00udtPCp_ixYRvU2RbUjWt/s1600-h/memorabilia-02-GUGGENHEIM+JRD+Tata.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCOLcHsm3jOqnOeZGQYVQRjXak7gXAtOWdewEsFW3AeO41p2FPw_RhZ5FNRLdS7NyKxC3sL8tCpapwXu49azi06mYdE4IkQQWC5jRIHd5-QcN3k_djxvaMq00udtPCp_ixYRvU2RbUjWt/s320/memorabilia-02-GUGGENHEIM+JRD+Tata.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274579266088133522" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> FULLY BY THE TATA GROUP OF TRUSTS FOR CHARITIES AND SCHOLARSHIPS.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2115073452900765594.post-21090647208794584732008-11-27T12:41:00.020+13:002008-11-30T07:44:47.915+13:00MUMBAI UNDER SIEGE!!! Mujaheedin strike the commercial capital of India!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcLOCqwqeq1x2myT4q0ZLLo7CHn6j6NUAaAMkk2Y763H3gfcR9AIXvy3LksJwwELSWkkVb0kfHwzoByd6PTxmt4JTpyH7cH3fbdUc4-jbbXkSHauCcu5stCG1U5CllIbIdWbtBnjiu69g/s1600-h/CST+terminus.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilcLOCqwqeq1x2myT4q0ZLLo7CHn6j6NUAaAMkk2Y763H3gfcR9AIXvy3LksJwwELSWkkVb0kfHwzoByd6PTxmt4JTpyH7cH3fbdUc4-jbbXkSHauCcu5stCG1U5CllIbIdWbtBnjiu69g/s400/CST+terminus.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273257883813156802" border="0" /></a>Over 100 dead, over 300 injured!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxT2l_-a0-T8dhpZKMKxt4iutlze7mawep1wuFNkMUeUmf0k7YDk1L5f1SAenDPnhoz5luYdaPRHtHjjf1TBAvg-fnk43-dlaJMbNqA6wE46CqEc5czPRQA9CiDffu9sqipYORdjLtfw3O/s1600-h/taj-mahal-palace-and+gateway.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxT2l_-a0-T8dhpZKMKxt4iutlze7mawep1wuFNkMUeUmf0k7YDk1L5f1SAenDPnhoz5luYdaPRHtHjjf1TBAvg-fnk43-dlaJMbNqA6wE46CqEc5czPRQA9CiDffu9sqipYORdjLtfw3O/s400/taj-mahal-palace-and+gateway.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273257052631763026" border="0" /></a>Pictures:the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CST_Railway_Station,_Mumbai,_india"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">CSRT</span> railway terminus, </a>an UNESCO heritage site-several commuters were indiscriminately sprayed with bullets and injured/killed-(?) inside;<br />the magnificent <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Taj</span> Palace Hotel and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Taj</span> Towers with the Gateway of India in good times; an old picture of the Taj rear side-(IT IS NOT A SQUARE/BLOCK STRUCTURE AS PROJECTED BY THE MEDIA); the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Taj</span> today, victim of terrorism.<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Update: Saturday, 29/11/2008<br />160 dead .............Indian authorities are probably upto their old game, they are known to submit official figures like dead and injured numbers close to the real numbers much later.<br /><br />And this is proving closer to home to so many of us..........my son's yoga teacher in Pune has lost her son, killed by these aweful terrorists; he was a manager at the Taj Palace Hotel. A very close friend of mine here in NZ </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1ETlnZkXJoCCzWY0XNxw9IoDl8EZyDTPS51LdA7EwG9u-GBb6jpY1R4fd0GsAkASbe8XFTKOiivv1rm4VQ1wuB0iS1OSIUH6d6ltpzpwGaB_rrDFgw9PtIomQ_DiQgrVYi53K5gpzd7x/s1600-h/Taj+rear+side.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 371px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1ETlnZkXJoCCzWY0XNxw9IoDl8EZyDTPS51LdA7EwG9u-GBb6jpY1R4fd0GsAkASbe8XFTKOiivv1rm4VQ1wuB0iS1OSIUH6d6ltpzpwGaB_rrDFgw9PtIomQ_DiQgrVYi53K5gpzd7x/s400/Taj+rear+side.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274021487032700018" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">reports his nephew with family and friends have holed up in a hotel close to the Trident Oberoi, they were having dinner there when this happened.<br />But I like what that great doctor and philosopher, Dr Deepak Chopra, said on CNN yesterday: this is ultimately a message to Washington; this is two sided, the same petro dollars go through Saudi to Pakistan and then to these terror groups; the muslims make up 25% of the world's population and the fastest growing group..........don't do things that would make a moderate become radical..............make sure they are won over, that would lead to an end to terrorism. <br /><br /></span><br />Below:Wednesday and Thursday, the 26<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">th</span>. and the 27<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">th</span>. of November 2008.<br /><br /><br />This is, this far, the worst terrorist attack on India; notwithstanding the large number of previous terrorist attacks, some very recent, in New Delhi and Assam, this one takes a new turn; several large very well known iconic places <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">targetted</span>, with the terrorists implanting themselves for a prolonged siege, providing a shield for themselves by taking hostages, AK rifles and grenades, not rudimentary or text book bombs, and probably confusing intelligence services and the world at large by "presenting" themselves as a little known outfit, the Deccan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Mujaheedin</span>." THIS IS NOT A GUERRILLA OPERATION BUT A <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">FRONTLINE</span> WAR!<br /><br /><br />India's premier railway station, built in 1888, and now placed on the UNESCO list of heritage structures, two of the best hotels, one a heritage hotel that had opened for business in 1903, cinemas, suburban locations........this is a very well planned and coordinated attack, and worst, has also target ted foreigners............as I write this, rather rewrite/rephrase this, a hostage crisis still remains unresolved at the two hotels and some other places.<br /><br /><br />I am stunned and grieved; nothing absolutely nothing compares to this.........I would rate it the worst attack since 9/11, and certain ways of looking at it, its worst.<br /><br />To people familiar with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Mumbai</span>/Bombay, and I am "born and bred <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Bombayite</span>," the extent and scale <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4o6gE1jd6dcVBRMA4Zj4uOE3-jE9whyphenhyphen6gKPbM75GGtKRCqwf3OdCi-aDr5vYgdcrDSEh7QnVl5xieXO-sxCNSiX3IPedeCfTK19q_5VHKUcTowamqDtQG8rA4l-nhTFHHbUUF9Oq7HdIi/s1600-h/the+taj+now.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4o6gE1jd6dcVBRMA4Zj4uOE3-jE9whyphenhyphen6gKPbM75GGtKRCqwf3OdCi-aDr5vYgdcrDSEh7QnVl5xieXO-sxCNSiX3IPedeCfTK19q_5VHKUcTowamqDtQG8rA4l-nhTFHHbUUF9Oq7HdIi/s400/the+taj+now.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273258570214048018" border="0" /></a>of operation can be modestly described as awesome, my guess, some hundred terrorists involved.<br /><br />The scale of the attack, in terms of the area covered, some of the busiest locations in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Mumbai</span>, 24 by 7, is unprecedented; I should know, I have lived 57 years there and in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Pune</span>. And this made far worse by the taking of hostages, including foreigners, from several locations...........this is new, terrorism taking a new turn in the way it intends to operate in this region.<br /><br />Two hotels, the <a href="http://www.tajhotels.com/Palace/The%20Taj%20Mahal%20Palace%20%26%20Tower,MUMBAI/default.htm"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Taj</span> Palace Hotel</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberoi_Trident"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Oberoi</span> Trident, </a>two of the best in India, India's busiest railway terminus, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">CSRT</span>, which is officially an UNESCO World Heritage site, the classical Metro Cinema, at one time the pride project, in Asia, of MGM studios; and horror of horrors, a medium sized hospital, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Cama</span> hospital which, as far as I know, from the time I lived in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Mumbai</span>, specialised in maternity care!!!<br /><br />At a very personal level, I am particularly shocked at seeing the well loved <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Taj</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Mahal</span> Palace Hotel(<a href="http://www.tajhotels.com/Palace/The%20Taj%20Mahal%20Palace%20%26%20Tower,MUMBAI/popup.htm">see here its history) </a>on fire...............this heritage hotel built, in 1903, by a great son of India, recognised there as the "father of Indian Industry," <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamsetji_Nusserwanji_Tata"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Jamsetji</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Tata</span>,</a> and a great icon for myself, as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Jamsetji</span> was a great <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Parsi</span> </a>and a visionary who did not live to see his dream of an economically independent India, (steel, textiles, electric power generation, scientific research initiated during his lifetime..........the present<a href="http://www.tata.com/"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Tata</span> group</a> covers a huge range of economic interests rivalled only by a huge amount of <a href="http://www.tata.com/ourcommitment/articles/inside.aspx?artid=cZrbJBDWkRQ=">scholarships</a> and <a href="http://www.srtt.org/info.html">charities </a>by them .................his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">descendents</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">JRD</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Tata</span>, founded Air India, and now <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Ratan</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Tata</span>, equally a visionary of sorts, has conceptualised, and put on the production line, the world's cheapest car, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Nano</span>, priced at somewhere around US$ 3500.00!!!)<br /><br />The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Taj</span> Hotel is to hotels, what the Buckingham Palace or Versailles is, compared to some of those new glitzy palaces of the oil rich <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Sheikhs</span>!!! .........it "houses" some, now rare wood work, intricate stone work and marble lattice work, rare furniture and rare paintings, and a feel of heritage in its architecture...............and as I could guess, from pictures on CNN and BBC, its right wing, the Radio Club end, is on fire.<br /><br />Memories of great times at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Taj</span>, dining at the pricey <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Rendevouz</span> restaurant (I think I have done that just twice, very unaffordable,) or coffee at the Coffee Shop on the first floor, with a superb view of the harbour, or munching on some of the best cakes and savouries from La <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Pattisserie</span>; and a more "emotional" connection, my father was posted there at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">CitiBank</span> branch for a few years from his 35 year career at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Citi</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.world66.com/asia/southasia/india/maharashtra/mumbai/nightlife/leopoldcafe">The Leopold Cafe,</a> on the main <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Colaba</span> Causeway road, behind the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Taj</span>, a family run restaurant by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrian">Zoroastrian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrians_in_Iran">Iranian emigres, </a>renovated and styled to attract dinners from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Taj</span> and other hotels, also came under attack...........this single piece of evidence points to the fact that these terrorists did their homework.........my guess Leopold is, even to the present day, a 100 table affair, but has attracted foreigners who frequent here for modestly priced food and beer........not otherwise a target deserving the attention of terrorists, but the knowledge that foreigners dine here the deciding factor to target this joint.<br /><br />I live in NZ, and would not be right to use my blog to cover live these horrible events taking place in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Mumbai</span>; that coverage should rightly be left to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">bloggers</span> and others living in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Mumbai</span>.......<br /><br />The Indian authorities will now have to come up with more dynamic and effective intelligence gathering, with more active liaison and cooperation with and support from international intelligence agencies, more alert to terrorist warnings and messages, and a more efficient security check up at all sensitive locations....................breast beating, loud protests and promises to do better in the future, these wont work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2