VINDICA

Math and Gender

2011-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

New study suggests math skills are not correlated with genetic variations between male and females. It seems to be more correlated with the gender roles in society.

Echos of Churchill

2011-08-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Recent opinion about Anna Hazare's movement has been getting some curious reaction from the chattering classes in India (which are predominantly "liberal"). The linked article written by Arundhati Roy is a very typical example. Anna Hazare movement is dangerous because:
1. It subverts due process (which in this case is democracy).
2. It uses Hindu religious iconography (like Bharat Mata) and is hence communal.
3. It is a middle class movement with no participation from "real india".

This reminds me of the liberals in India who opposed Gandhi for pretty much the same reasons. Gandhi's method was considered to be unacceptably communal by none other than Jinnah, although his demands (like that of Anna) were never communal.

The British establishment refused to negotiate with the Churchill's "half naked fakir" because he was subverting due process and bypassing elected "Indian" assemblies that the British had setup to administer India.

Regarding poor people not participating, the assessment is murky at best. Aparently poor people have to earn a living and hence cannot be bothered by these protests. From stating this obvious fact to concluding that this proves the poor do not support this movement involves a logical gymnastic that is beyond my understanding.

Finally, the reaction, although it was unexpected, is easily understood in retrospect. The erudite classes, after all, are brought up in the same system as the ruling class.

Corporate Abuse

2011-07-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Did Cisco collude with the government officials to get a man who was litigating against them arrested on spurious charges?

Ars Technica makes a convincing case.

I wonder why this story has not gotten more play.

Greek Debt

2011-07-16T16:00:00.001-07:00

It was clear even after the first bailout that Greece would never be able to pay back all its debt. Now there is talk of a haircut, with either the European taxpayer or the bond holders eating some of the losses incurred from a Greek default.

Finland and German taxpayers are (understandably) reluctant to have their government effectively pay off Greek debt using their earnings. Finns want collateral (you know, the Parthenon) before giving any more money to the Greeks. However, there are a couple of points that these countries would do well to consider:
1. The more productive countries that adopted Euro (read Germany) made a killing exporting their products to less productive countries that adopted Euro. Greek debt financed by German Banks was used to buy German Engineering to build Greek Infrastructure (and pay lavish government salaries).
2. After WW-II, the Marshall Plan supported Germany financially in spite of all the ills that the Nazi state had caused the world. The Greeks (and the Irish and the Italians) by contrast, merely borrowed too much.

Europe should suck it up and pay for a new Marshall Plan in the interest of a united, peaceful Europe.

Now we know why we are in trouble

2011-07-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Atlas Shrugged Movie

2011-06-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hollywood makes a movie based on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and our author sees it as a sign of civilizational collapse.

Civilization is always a fragile accommodation at best, precariously poised between barbarism on one side and decadence on the other, and as a civilization dissolves it begins to oscillate between them, ever more spasmodically, until the final collapse comes. Call it morbid curiosity on my part, but I often wonder where the debris of our civilization will ultimately be heaped; and, if this film portends what I fear, now I may know the answer. Rand was definitely on the side of barbarism.

I really had to read the whole article twice to take in everything the author was saying. Like this one:

I suspect that charity really is the only way to avoid wasting one’s life in a desert of sterile egoism. She regarded Christian morality as a poison that had polluted the will of Western man with its ethos of parasitism and orgiastic self-oblation.

The condensed form of his letters and metaphors is very appealing and ultimately convincing. Not that I need much convincing anyways. I have made my journey from unsuspecting fan in my teens to virulent hater in late twenties to careless disregard for everything Ayn Rand in my thirties.

...what really puts both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead in a class of their own is how sublimely awful they are.... the chief reason that The Fountainhead is among the most hilariously bad films ever made is that it is so slavishly faithful to the novel and to Rand’s screenplay. The result is hypnotically ghastly. Dialogue that had been merely stilted on the page became almost surreal in its lousiness when spoken aloud.

Data Driven

2011-03-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

From the preface of Elements of Statistical Learning:

In God We Trust. Everyone else bring data!

It is attributed to Deming with the note that ironically, there is no "data" to support the fact that Deming said this.

THE GAP

2011-02-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

The Gap between rich and poor has been named the 8th wonder of the world

Third Battle of Panipat

2011-01-30T19:24:00.000-08:00

It is now 250 years since the Battle of Panipat when the Afghan's under Abdali defeated the Marathas. Both were so weakened by the battle that they were soon supplanted by the Sikhs and British respectively in the areas that they sought to sway.

Recent attempts have been made by Hindu activists to claim that the defeat was in fact a "strategic retreat".

Abdali entered the battle with several disadvantages.
1. His armaments were inferior, as the Marathas were equipped with the best of the era French cannons, while Abdali's army featured camel mounted light cannons.
2. Maratha power was on the ascendency and their sway over the areas in contention were actually better than Abdali's.

Abdali showed great military leadership in neutralizing both these disadvantages. He used his camel mounted artillary as a mobile firepower unit that overwhelmed and captured the Maratha cannons (it was after this that the battle turned).

More importantly, he called on the loyalty of fellow Muslim rulers to their religion to fight against the Maratha's whom he effectively labled as "Hindus".

A key ally acquired thus was Shuja-ud-Daula of Oudh. Shuja joined Abdali against the wishes of his mother in spite of the fact that the Maratha's had been traditional friends of his family and had supported him earlier (much against modern propaganda, Maratha's were no more "Hindus" than the Mughals were "Muslims", they both had cross religious alliances dictated by needs of the state). Shuja joined Abdali reluctantly and was mistreated by Abdali badly later. He lived to rue his decision to ally himself with Abdali.

The battle turned out badly for almost everyone who took part in it. Historical consensus is that there were 80000 dead on the Maratha side and about 35000 on Abdali's side. Abdali's casualties were a big factor in tempering his ambitions, it was not just the revolt of his troops.

In any effect claiming that it was a strategic retreat by the Maratha's is nonsense. Both the General and Crown Prince were killed in battle.

Two key lessons to take away from the battle are:
1. Do not over extend your self and become obsessed with one enemy when there are in fact several (both Abdali and Maratha's were guilty in this regard as they ignored respectively the ascendency of the Sikhs and the British).
2. Never get swayed by religious types who call on you to oppose someone purely based on religious affinity. Ignore the call, particularly if the person you are asked to go against has demonstrated friendship in the past.

Nazi Sympathizers in Britain

2011-01-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

An illuminating article by Christopher Hitchens about how both the abdicating King Edward and the new King George were and remained Nazi sympathizers well after the Czech sellout.

Hitchens cannot resist needling Churchill too. But Churchill's seems to have been found guilty mostly by association with King Edward, not because of any explicit Nazi sympathies. Here is however a funny line about how Churchill once called himself the lone warrior against the twin evils of Hitler and Gandhi!

Hitchens is obviously disgusted with the British Monarchy and end the article by with memorable flourish.

Almost the entire moral capital of this rather odd little German dynasty is invested in the post-fabricated myth of its participation in "Britain's finest hour." In fact, had it been up to them, the finest hour would never have taken place. So this is not a detail but a major desecration of the historical record—now apparently gliding unopposed toward a baptism by Oscar.

Obama Tax 'Compromise'

2010-12-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

So it comes down to this:
Republicans do not want any tax increases for the rich. Obama does not want tax increases for the middle class. The epiphany they seem to have reached during their negotiations is that their respective stances still leave out the poor.

The Obama compromise will raise taxes on the poor and provide tax relief for the so called middle class and rich.

Now the only thing that needs to be done is to make sure there is a sizable and growing population of poor to support the rich and the middle classes in the style they are accustomed to. Luckily for this country, both of the political parties are very good at making this a reality.

Paani Live

2010-10-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hilarious exploits of desperate TV reporters who were trying to make it seem like Floods were going to submerge Delhi any minute. When it did not happen, some of them dejectedly told the camera "There is no hope of floods!"

Adult Rated Fairy Tales

2010-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Parents who have read snow white to their kids 5 million times would love this article. It is about how the original versions of tales like Snow White and Cinderella are actually "R" rated.

- Cinderella's sisters cut off parts of their feet to try and get into the tiny glass shoes.
- Snow White's evil stepmother is made to attend her wedding, where she is forced to wear shoes made of hot iron and dance to her death!

I should remember to gently break the news to you know who once she grows up!

Peepli goes to the Oscars

2010-09-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

After years of entering whatever happened to be the bargain basement "mass" movie of the year, India has finally entered a really good movie Peepli Live for the Oscars.

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and was blown away. It is a tragi-comic movie that has a huge impact. Very realistic, fabulous and believable performance by all actors involved. The farce is taken a bit far sometimes (there is a scene where the news reporter is reporting on the character of the protagonist based on what we can see of his poop), but the movie is so good at so many levels that it can carry off even this scene.

If you have not watched it, it is highly recommended.

CWG

2010-09-22T21:59:00.001-07:00

The disaster that is India's preparation for the Commonwealth games keeps escalating in embarassment.

After creditably hosting the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982 under the inspired leadership of a rising Rajiv Gandhi, India might have expected to stage a memorable show with the CWG nearly three decades later. But the script has gone tragi-comically sour. At something like Rs. 30,000 crore of the taxpayers' money, the Games are the most expensive sports event hosted by India. It is certainly an extortionate price to pay in exchange for shame and disgrace.

It is not so surprising that the Government is worse at doing things today than it was 30 years ago. India's best governments were its first ones. Things have been on an accelerating downward path since. The saving grace is the goverment doing less and less. But what about areas where the government cannot be replaced? What about the Millitary, the Police, the Regulatory agencies and the Judiciary? Can a country possibly do an end run around these agencies and develop? It seems unlikely.

Commonwealth games and Patriotism

2010-08-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Mani Shankar Aiyer is unhappy. He thinks India should not be spending so much money on the Commonwealth games when it has so many poor people to take care of. Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the games, considers this unpatriotic (I am sure he was referring to the opposition to the games, not concern for the poor).

Instead of being unhappy, Aiyer should focus on the positives. It has been revealed that the games committee bought toilet paper for $80 a roll. The athletes can at least expect a great arse wiping. If you think that $80 is too much for a roll of toilet paper, then you should know that this is just a trick. They are trying to find the supplier who will actually cut corners and supply crappy (no pun intended) paper to make more money on a $80 roll. This supplier will be honored on national TV as the future of Indian business.

Stimulus and the iPad

2010-08-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

My company had a bumper quarter and is giving away an iPad to all employees. I finally understand how this whole stimulus business works.

The stimulus money basically makes its way into iPads given away to people who dont want them and who can afford them anyways. This in turn creates jobs (in China) reduces cost to the consumer. The next stimulus package can then buy even more iPads for even less money. We just have to keep iterating on this until we can get infinite iPads for no money, at which point, we are done, since all those iPads can be used as bricks for propping up the housing sector which caused the recession in the first place.

The Afghan Expert

2010-08-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have become a fan of P. J. O'Rourke, whose politics I would probably find objectionable, but whose columns I find hilarious and illuminating. I had linked earlier to his article about how newspapers can resurrect sales by writing orbituaries of living people who are as good as dead (like Harry Reid in his column!).

He now has a new column about Afghanistan and how he became an expert on the country in 72 hours flat. It contains some great gems like this one:

The more voluble mullah explained, “Since the time of Adam until now there are four books from God.” (Muslims, like Jews, divide the Pentateuch from the rest of the Old Testament.) “This is our constitution.”

It’s a little long, I suppose—even longer than the proposed EU constitution. But there are worse documents by which to live and govern—the proposed EU constitution for example.

The two sides of Churchill

2010-08-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

A review of a new book on the two sides of the Churchill. The dark side being the Imperialist Churchill with visceral hatred of colored people in general and Indians in particular "they are a beastly people with a beastly religion". And the bright side being the Leader Churchill who saw the Nazi threat way ahead of his contemporaries.

The review also touches on the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, where Churchill refused to do anything claiming that it was the fault of the Indians for "breeding like rabbits". Modern studies by respected economists, including Amartya Sen have shown how the famine was largely the result of British Incompetence.

Due in large part to the famine, it can be easily said that Churchill killed far more Indians than he did Nazis. A bust of Churchill was installed in the Oval office by Bush. I am glad Obama chose to return it to England. The British can rightfully cherish Churchill's memory for the good things he did for their country, but there is really no reason to foist that flawed memory on the world at large.

Hedonistic Adaptation

2010-08-09T10:47:00.001-07:00

A great article about wealth and happiness. It goes beyond the cliched "money does not make you happy" and makes a more interesting point. If money is not making you happy, then you are not spending it right!

The article argues that it is better to spend on leisure (vacation, sport, hiking) than on material things (couch, handbag, house). It explains the concept of Hedonistic Adaptation, where our brain is hard wired to moderate both the positive and negative emotions associated with a material change in our life. When we buy a new house, we are very happy, but our brain moderates that happiness over time. We need new house to be just as happy. In comparison, a vacation or a similar "memory making" exercise will become embellished and better in our minds than it actually was when we were doing it!

It is an interesting idea and one that I feel fits me well.

Beliefs over Facts

2010-07-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Everyone, and especially political partisans, has trouble changing their minds when confronted with facts that don't fit their beliefs.

In an ideal world, citizens would be able to maintain constant vigilance, monitoring both the information they receive and the way their brains are processing it. But keeping atop the news takes time and effort. And relentless self-questioning, as centuries of philosophers have shown, can be exhausting. Our brains are designed to create cognitive shortcuts — inference, intuition, and so forth — to avoid precisely that sort of discomfort while coping with the rush of information we receive on a daily basis. Without those shortcuts, few things would ever get done. Unfortunately, with them, we’re easily suckered by political falsehoods.

Note to self: Question yourself.

Stupid is the new cool

2010-06-25T18:53:00.001-07:00

So said a colleague at lunch and cleared up his own bafflement at why people follow others who proudly proclaim them dumbness.

A review of Sex and the City

2010-06-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love disruptive reviews. My favorite is Matt Taibi's review of Thomas Friedman's "World is Flat". The review of the new Sex and the City movie linked here runs close.

The fab four go to Abu Dhabi of all places and "stone sexism to death".

At sexism's funeral (which takes place in a mysterious, incense-shrouded chamber of international sisterhood), the women of Abu Dhabi remove their black robes and veils to reveal—this is not a joke—the same hideous, disposable, criminally expensive shreds of cloth and feathers that hang from Carrie et al.'s emaciated goblin shoulders. Muslim women: Under those craaaaaaay-zy robes, they're just as vapid and obsessed with physical beauty and meaningless material concerns as us! Feminism! Fuck yeah!

If this is what modern womanhood means, then just fucking veil me and sew up all my holes. Good night.

*smile*. Good day everyone.

An Essay about Ayn Rand

2010-06-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

A fantastic (and balanced) essay about Ayn Rand and here books. Unsparing in critizing her where deserved. Like this piece about her brag about "not faking reality in any manner".

Rand had periods of heavy use (of amphetamines) in the 1950s and '60s.... As anyone who has had the experience knows, a good way to get a really, really distorted sense of reality is to swallow a couple of Dexedrines. If you want to take them anyway, don't go around bragging that you never "fake reality in any manner."

... but the article also provides a credible and heartfelt explanation of why her novels are popular (and great)

...a heroic vision of a blue-collar worker doing his job... Critics often accuse Rand of portraying a few geniuses as the only people worth valuing. That's not what I took away from her. I saw her celebrating people who did their work well and condemning people who settled for less, in great endeavors or small; celebrating those who took responsibility for their lives, and condemning those who did not. That sounded right to me in 1960 and still sounds right in 2010.

Finally, a reason to like Ayn Rand without feeling the need to put her down just so you can give those silly "Objectivists" a bloody nose.

Loranism for the day

2010-05-28T13:28:00.001-07:00

Loranism for the day (About fly fishing):
It is easier to kill trout with a baseball bat than it is to fly fish it. One wouldn't think fooling a fish with such a small brain would be so difficult. You have to prepare the bait just so, so it resembles some food available in that particular stream. Then you have to dangle the bait just so, otherwise the damn thing wont bit.

And all the Republicans have to do is trot out Sarah Palin and they all vote. I don't get it!

Banks Make money every day

2010-05-13T13:32:00.001-07:00

The big banks (JP Morgan, BofA, GS) reported that they made a profit on every single trading day.

The chances of this happening in a fair game are astronomically small. Probably smaller than the chance of you getting struck by an astroid as you are reading this post.

So if you reading this and are still alive, it means the game is fixed. Prudence would seem to demand not playing the game. What am I missing?

Anand Retains World Championship crown

2010-05-12T08:12:00.001-07:00

Won in the last game against Topolov in a hard fought match.

The Gnostic

2010-01-30T16:40:00.000-08:00

God is in the air. Again. After Dawkin's God Delusion and Hitchen's God is not great left scorched earth (but no prisoners) in their wake, comes a more subtle book written by Rebecca Goldstein - 36 Arguments for the existence of God - A work of fiction, where the protagonist, an "atheist with a soul", contemplates the universe that has suddenly made him rich and famous after his public confession of atheism.

Arguments about God, and the ripostes thereof, have been an ongoing (and mostly mundane) phenomena for many centuries. Things got a bit more interesting during Enlightenment. Voltaire lies in his deathbed and a worried priest comes up to him and tells him that it is not too late. He can yet renounce satan. "Now is no time to make new enemies." says Voltaire. And dies.

Although things had turned interesting, it isn't until the twentieth century, and until both sides had fully heard out the other side, that the arguments became stylized. They now share the coiled spring in a lock-box quality of a koan.

A monk said to Master Sydney, "Stuff Exists. God caused it.." Sydney said, "If there was nothing, you would still be complaining!"

Master Sydney heard a monk thinking, "Real things are greater than imaginary ones. God is the greatest thing, and is hence real." The master asked, "Existence is such a lousy thing, how could God go and do it?"

We were at lunch rehashing old styles and inventing new ones, all for the same old arguments, when suddenly there came the first lateral thrust of the afternoon. "Everybody is an agnostic if they are rational." Said a friend of mine. This not being my understanding, some clarification was necessary. Agnostic (it was explained) is someone who does not know if God exists or not. Since there is no rational argument that has yet proved or disproved the existence of God, everyone is an Agnostic as long as they are rational.

If everyone is rational, then everyone can get past the God question. Buddha did - more than 2 millennia ago, refusing to answer the God question one way or another. I cannot but help wonder what's with all the chants and the incense and deification of Buddha today. One can imagine the committee talking at his funeral, deciding on the way forward. "This thing that he taught," someone must have said. "we know it works in Practice, but does it work in Theory?". So they applied theory, deified Buddha, and spouted forth, centuries later, the erstwhile majesty at Bamyan. Man created God in his own image, and found his (own?) deification quite natural.

My inner Buddha shivered that day. I am myself of the opinion that the key metric in the God question is not existence but relevance. For what am I, if not an agnostic, that wishes the God question unasked?

In my more fashionable days when I thought, for some unfathomable reason, that people knew and cared about my thoughts, I would hear myself say "God is not the problem, it is organized Religion that is the problem." I had polished a large body of thought into a shiny bullshit of a soundbite. I was (and remain) mostly confused. Yeats said the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. That feels like a self serving tranquilizer to me. If anything, I lack conviction with passionate intensity.

What to make of this confusion? Does not religion bestow clarity? In the city of Beziers, year 1209, the Pope's army was slaughtering all heretics in sight. Suddenly they were faced by a terrible dilemma. Many people they suspected of being heretics were claiming to be Christians. Records do not indicate who the commander was talking to. But he sure had clarity. "Kill them all," he said. "God will sort them out."

Clarity was definitely lost as I had my first tryst with the practical need for god. I was living my life in its unasked equilibrium, which I now know as not agnosticism, when everything changed on the unforgettable day when my daughter was born. She was coming 6 weeks early. I had no idea what would happen. I knew that probabilities were certainties in populations, but they meant nothing in individuals. In the face of this nothingness, this uncertainty, this abomination called helplessness, I prayed to the God of Probabilities to throw the dice in my favor.

The means of a population of random samples will always create a bell curve around the population mean. I have often asked myself since that day of my personal Genesis: How is God to maintain the pristine ring of the bell, given the pulls and pressures of a billion desperate prayers? God could be God so as to provide justice in every case while still managing to preserve the inviolable symmetry of the curve. Or he could throw a dice to decide how the dice falls.

The old lady told the young man that the earth sat on a tortoise. She was not unduly bothered when he asked what the tortoise sat on. "It is tortoises all the way down.", she answered nonchalantly. I know what she meant. For I believe our lives rest on a stack of spinning dice all the way down to the unpalatable truth.

Vijay Ramachandran

A review of "Twilight" books

2009-12-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

The review argues that Twilight is just a female mirror image of boy movies like Die Hard, and that the reason why there is so much vitriol aimed at it is because of its conspicuous lack of male following.

The author suggests contemporary culture equates lack of male following as equivalent to lack of "universality", while the same is not true for movies that lack female following. A subtle point, but very true from what I can tell.

Texas executed an innocent man

2009-09-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

This gut wrenching New Yorker story details the execution of Todd Willingham who was executed for starting a fire that killed his three children.

New investigations suggest that he should have been found innocent not only because of new evidence, but even by the evidence and standards that were available at that time.

Clearly the justice system cannot prevent innocents from being murdered by the state. Scalia's assertion that not a single such case exists is rotten bullshit. Death penalty must be banned and Texas has a historic opportunity to start the process by acknowledging officially that the system made an unpardonable error.

Jaswant's Jinnah

2009-08-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

One cannot help but think that both the emotional parties in the Jinnah debate (BJP and Pakistani establishment) have jumped the gun in judging the book.

BJP is distraught with thoughts of betrayal while Pakistan is elated at the vindication. However, the book may be more subtle than that. Consider Jaswant's interview in outlook magazine.

In the book, I question the two-nation theory. I am saying Jinnah is wrong to say Muslims had a separate homeland. I say look into the eyes of Muslims and see their pain. How have they benefited from Partition?

While Jaswant seems to be sympathizing with the difficult position of Indian Muslims in general and Jinnah in particular, he also seems to be rejecting the whole "ideology of Pakistan" business that seeks to portray Partition as necessary and inevitable. I wonder how the tone is going to change on the two sides of the border once everyone has had a chance to read the book!

I guess the more sensible elements on both sides will call for reconciliation. We already know where the BJP stands. They are incapable of changing their mind. Expect the radical elements in Pakistan to unload their weapons on the book soon. Theirs is the only voice remaining to be heard in this riveting drama.

Righteous Money

2009-08-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

People of Otjivero in Namibia lived in absolute poverty. Women prostituted themselves for food while men were either drunk or waited around doing nothing (70% unemployment).

42% of the children were malnourished. A new kind of aid agency came up with a different idea for development. Just give them money!

No discrimination between rich or poor. No bureacracy to determine eligibility. Anybody who wanted money was given 100 Namibian Dollars a month. Some time down the line, malnourishment is down to 10%. Unemployment and crime are plunging.

This is the perfect model for aid delivery in India. What more, it is populist too! Imagine a government promising 1000 rupees a month instead of stupid schemes like Rs. 2 rice that are ravaged by corruption and middlemen. Popular, more efficient and ultimately better.

Why does it work? Because the general consensus is that "Africa's poor need to be educated first before they can be given the right of self-determination, and that they should be given food vouchers and wells, but no responsibility."

And the general consensus is horribly wrong.

Revolutinary Road

2009-07-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

I watched the movie adaptation of Richard Yate's novel "Revolutionary Road". It kicked off a debate with Sandhya about suburban life and what it means to live and to merely exist.

For those of you who have not seen the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are a seemingly happy couple living the suburban dream in a nice house. Kate desperately wants to get out. She convinces her husband that they can use their savings to move to Europe. She wants to stop being a housewife and take up a job there. She wants him to stop working and figure out what he wants to do. However, an unexpected pregnancy causes doubts in Leonardo and consequent rage in Kate.

It is a nice concept, but I think it is a typical 50s story. I think the more appropriate theme for our times would have been the consummation of the European desire and subsequent disenchantment with it. However, Sandhya felt differently.

In any case, it was a considerable surprise for me to come across Richard Yates in an article about - alcoholic writers!

The revealing phrase to me is a quote from Yates after an AA meeting - “Is just functioning living at all?”. Stripped of his poetic minimalism, what he is asking is whether it is worth getting sober. His decision is that clearly it is not. Revolutionary Road was his first and last acclaimed novel. The article clearly suggests this had something to do with him "living" - i.e. drinking.

Revolutionary Road, in light of this revelation seems to me to be nothing but a defense of drinking and escaping into another world. It may be harsh, but I am simply unable to ascribe to this work the same importance that I did during my discussion with Sandhya. I cannot take it seriously any more. It would have been more credible coming from an author caught in the suburban life and writing at night - cold sober.

California Budget Saga - 2009

2009-07-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to agree that Prop 13 that limited property taxes in California is to blame for the crisis. There is however, a large majority that believes that the law requiring 2/3 majority for raising taxes was a good idea.

Now consider what has happened. Instead of raising taxes on cigarettes, the legislature was forced to cut spending in health care. This is inspite of the the fact that cigarette tax would naturally lower health care costs. Cutting health care would in fact RAISE healthcare costs since more people will drop through the cracks and start visiting ERs. The 33% minority that blocked the cigarette tax must be held accountable for this travesty.

Sashi Taroor Elected

2009-05-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

Sashi Taroor used to be a UN Technocrat and India's strong preference to take over the Secretary Generalship of that organization. He was also the insider and in all respects the ideal candidate for the job. However, his candidature was torpedoed by a US veto and heavy money fuelled diplomacy in favor of Ban Ki Mooon.

I remember thinking this was a travesty and a tragedy. However, the world's loss may well prove to be India's great gain. Mr. Taroor has just been elected to the Indian Parliament from Trivandrum. It would not be a great surprise if he is given a minor portfolio in the Government in spite of his first term status.

Elements of Style

2009-04-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

This article in Chronicle skewers the venerable book "Elements of Style" which millions (including yours truly) have assumed to be a concise, yet authoritative guide to style and grammar.

Japan Again

2009-02-28T22:57:00.000-08:00

Story1
On the latest flight out of SFO, the airline actually had an English language newspaper for a change, and I got to read a delightful story about Japanese politics.

For those who don't have the time to read the full story (I absolutely recommend it), here is the summary:
* The Japanese media does not print any big news story until the ruling party indicates the direction that it wants the story to take.
* This is why the story about the drunk Finance Minister at the Davo conference initially called it the result of fatigue. Later when party boss Mori indicated that Nakagawa (the Finance Minister) had been drunk, all hell broke loose and the newspapers were full of it, leading to his eventual resignation.
* Current Prime Minister Taro Aso's approval rating is single digit and the ruling party is worried they are going to lose.
* One strategy that the ruling party has used in the past has been to fill newspapers will manufactured controversies so as to prevent any meaningful discussion of issues or coverage of opposition figures.
* Such a strategy previously included Mori accusing previous Prime Minister Koizumi of serving him "hard, shriveled cheese", thus insulting him. The tabloids speculated that the cheese was in fact high quality mimolette.
* Mori is angry with the drunk Minister because his drunkenness has detracted the media from another round of invented controversies that he had lined up.

To put the sheer incredibleness of this story, lets put some American names in fictitious situations. How about Hillary drunk at a Middle Eastern summit? Or even better, a news story about Cheney.

Vice President Dick Cheney today called a press conference to allege that George Bush had insulted him by serving him Camel Meat. "It was very hard, unappetizing meat", claimed the Veep. The President's press office refused to comment, simply stating that attempts to reconcile with the Vice President were still ongoing.

However, it has been learnt from unoffical sources that the meat served to Cheney was in fact a new breed of Texan Longhorn, which Bush had personally purchased back in Crawford. There is intense speculation in the media that this is a fake controversy intented to divert attention from real issues and Bush's low approval ratings.

In today's other news, we are getting reports that the United States may have launched a full scale invasion of Canada.

We will keep you posted on the Camelgate controversy as the story develops.

Story2
At the Toshiba Oita factory, the Vendors are get to wear their own cleanroom suits.

My company's cleanroom suit must be the worst one ever invented. If you see a self consciously embarrassed figure slinking around the clean room, averting eye contact and walking in something that should be described as more a "gown" than a "suit", then you have just seen an employee of my company.

The silver lining is that if this whole semiconductor business does not pan out, the company has a bright future in Pakhtunwa's booming shuttlecock burqa market.

Stadium - An Unending Short Story in Many Parts

2009-02-07T21:46:00.000-08:00

Episode 1 - The Triumph of Renewal

In a hard hitting speech to the state senate today, State Governor Ron Stanford reiterated the need for urban renewal. "It is time to stop the decay or our inner cities before it is too late", said the Governor. He announced that he shall be putting together a high powered commission to look into proposals for urban development and renewal. - Crimson City Bee - 9th Feb 1984

"What you need is in fact a stadium for the Tsunamis", said Charles Munger. "Think about it, you have a place where people can come together, share in a common passion for our team while at the same time giving the economy a boost."

"Sounds great, Chuck", said the Governor. "Show me some more details and we can take a serious look at this"

"Sir", whispered the ever cynical Maynard. "We don't have the money to give Munger his stadium"

"That is why we have bond measures", said the Governor.

"Sir", said Maynard. "He is talking about a 100 million dollar commitment from us, and for what? Think about the number of teachers you can hire for that kind of money."

"It is not our job to perpetuate the government, Maynard", said the Governer in the avuncular tone he reserved for bright young Maynard. "You have a lot to learn."

Maynard did not comment further. He was confused about why spending 100 big ones belonging to the public was not a perpetuation of government. He was of course naive in thinking so. Hiring teachers does not win elections. Bringing home the Crimson City Tsunami on the other hand... well that was something else.

Big flashy stadium, big flashy uniforms, pretty cheerleaders and in the middle of it all the Governor himself, being praised to the sky by the owner, the manager, even the quarterback. Nothing like having your vision endorsed by the quarterback. It was a triumph. The next election would now be a formality. "It is now Morning in Crimson City", piped the Governor above the thunderous applause. Maynard looked up instinctively and noticed it was in fact dead of the night.

The city believed, and the governor believed and even Maynard believed that the stadium had been a success after all. However, it was not clear if they believed so for the same reasons.

A Hot Review of "Hot, Flat and Crowded"

2009-01-18T18:11:00.001-08:00

The best thing about a new book by Thomas Friedman is that it gets reviewed by Matt Taibi. New book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" is reviewed at: http://www.nypress.com/article-19271-flat-n-all-that.html

This one is another classic!

On Friedman's style:

"The first rule of holes is when you're in one, stop digging.When you're in three, bring a lot of shovels."

First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you're supposed to stop digging when you're in one hole, why should you dig more in three?

On Friedman's content:

"I laid out my napkin and drew a graph showing how there seemed to be a rough correlation between the price of oil, between 1975 and 2005, and the pace of freedom in oil-producing states during those same years."

Friedman plots exactly four points on the graph over the course of those 30 years. In 1989, as oil prices are falling, Friedman writes, "Berlin Wall Torn Down." In 1993, again as oil prices are low, he writes, "Nigeria Privatizes First Oil Field." 1997, oil prices still low, "Iran Calls for Dialogue of Civilizations." Then, finally, 2005, a year of high oil prices: "Iran calls for Israel's destruction."Take a look for yourself: I looked at this and thought: "Gosh, what a neat trick!" Then I sat down and drew up my own graph, called SIZE OF VALERIE BERTINELLI'S ASS, 1985-2008, vs. HAP- PINESS. It turns out that there is an almost exact correlation!
...
If you're going to draw a line that measures the level of "freedom" across the entire world and on that line plot just four randomly-selected points in time over the course of 30 years—and one of your top four "freedom points" in a 30-year period of human history is the privatization of a Nigerian oil field—well, what the fuck?

What the fuck indeed!

The final verdict?

There's so much shit flying around the book's atmosphere that you don't notice the only action is Friedman talking to himself.

Incentives to work

2009-01-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

John Kay is a columnist for FT and I have read a lot of original pieces from him. In this article he points out the silliness of corporate citizens claiming that all public sector work is "entitlement". He points out that public sector project created things like the computer and the green revolution without a need for financial incentive. He also points to the sense of entitlement exibited by corporate citizens who aparently need bonuses over and above their pay in order to do their jobs.

(The corporate types) explained that in addition to the considerable salaries senior managers receive, large financial incentives were needed to persuade them to perform the duties that were attached to their jobs. In contrast, people who worked in the public sector mostly did so because they were too lazy or ineffective to get jobs in large corporations. They professed surprise that teachers did not relay these opinions to their charges. I understood why, and was relieved they did not.

The complacent sense of personal entitlement these corporate politicians expressed was deeply unattractive: as unattractive as the similar sense of personal entitlement displayed by the lazy teacher who knows he will not be fired. I do not think children should be taught that greed is the most powerful human motivation, because it is not, and if children are taught that greed is the most powerful business motivation we should be pleased, not disappointed, when business does not attract them.

Well said!

Japan Log

2008-12-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Chennai
On the way to the airport in Chennai, my call taxi fell into a pothole and broke its shocks. The journey to the airport completed in an auto.

Tokyo, Narita International Airport
Tokyo, To=Eastern, Kyo=Capital. All my connections were late and I missed the last flight to Oita. The airline staff are extraordinarily courteous and almost uncomfortably apologetic as they make arrangements for the night's stay.

Tokyo, Haneda Domestic Airport
I wake up in the morning and look at my ticket. It says "NH812". I don't know which airline NH is, so I head to the first counter. The person behind it signs 14, then walks up from behind the counter, and walks me all the way to counter 14. Turns out I needed to go to All Nippon Airlines, and his counter (and he) represented a different airline. I don't know why, but I was embarrassed. I had not asked him to walk me, that was his choice. Yet, I was embarrassed.

Oita, Kyushu Island, Japan
Oita, finally! I get dropped off at the train station. The hotel is the tallest building in the small town and is not difficult to find from anywhere in it. I walk a few block to it. The pavement is wide enough to accommodate a car. It has special tiles laid down the middle for blind people to follow. There is even a separate lane for bicycles on the pavement, and people actually seem to use it.

Field Office, Oita, Japan
We have a translator assigned to us. He is our guide, translator as well as driver. He is meticulous in attending meetings, even if everyone speaks English. He picks up the technical details of our project from these in order be able to more effectively translate.

Toshiba, Oita
I go into the Toshiba factory. Cannot walk and talk on the cell phone. Cannot eat or drink anywhere inside factory compound. Need to neatly put away our bag (zipped) after we put on the clean room suits for entering the controlled environment in the manufacturing floor. Yoshi (our translator) is reminded to tell the gringos to put away their shoes neatly. He rolls his eyes.

More Toshiba
Yoshi had left the umbrella in the slots provided for them on either side of the door. When we came out, we notice that someone had emptied the umbrellas from one side so that all of them could be bunched up neatly at the corner of one of the two sides. The whole business leaves me speechless.

Even More Toshiba
The breakroom in the factory has 8 different bins for recycle. The bottled drinks have labels that tear off. The label, bottle and cap all go in different bins.

Yufuin, Japan
We went to Yufuin, a local tourist place. Spent a nice day walking around the mountain town. Ate the famous Udon noodles made and served the traditional way. On our return we did not have time to buy the train ticket. Upon exiting at our destination, they just asked us where we got on and issued the appropriate ticket.

Sexuality
Driving around with Yoshi, Kim asks why Japanese women speak in a high pitched voice. Yoshi is a bit stumped. Kim asks if it is because it makes women seem younger. Yoshi answers an uncertain yes. Kim concludes that it makes them sound too young. "I don't know why all women do that. Is that because Japanese men are...", she leaves the rest unsaid. I later notice that the Discovery Channel guide to Japan has a story about high pitched voice cultivated by Japanese women. I ask Kim if that is where she got the idea from. She confirms. It is all very impregnable, and Yoshi does not have anything to say. I dont know where Discovery channel got its story, but I did not notice what they and Kim apparently did.

The Emperor System
Japan has been in a 20 year recession. Its stock market is at a 26 year low. To put that in context, if the same thing had happened in the US, then DOW would be selling at 1000 now. Yoshi is convinced that the recession will end if only Japan got rid of the "Emperor System". I tell him that Japan's problems weigh trillions of dollar, while the "Emperor System" probably costs only millions. He is not convinced. I ask him if his feeling is shared by many. He says that he is not sure because "crazies will attack me if I say these things in public". Politics is the same everywhere.

I ask a table of 3 Japanese guys what the name of the Emperor was. None of them did. They all knew the Empress' name (Michiko). The Emperor's name is aparently "The Emperor".

Food
Strange as it is, today is the first time I have eaten French cuisine. Probably because this time the company is picking up the tab. The portions are small, the courses are many and there is meticulous attention to detail in every course and between courses. Sorbet is served after the appetizer to change the taste in the mouth in preparation for the main course. The good stuff is in the little things. The Japanese live by that. Apparently, so do the French.

Aoki-san took us to the local specialty. A squid restaurant. We were served fresh squid. Unfortunately, it was too fresh. It was still moving. I think I will draw my line at Sashimi. We were taken by the owner to the big tank that had the squids swimming around. Thankfully, the tour was after dinner. It would have been unsettling to be introduced to my dinner before the meal.

Culture
I went and watched the Oita Symphony Orchestra today. The hall was full and the crowd was dressed more informally than in San Francisco. They were deeply appreciative and the performance was breathtaking. As Rachmininov's music filled the hall, I was suddenly reminded of Isha and was overwhelmed with sadness about being so far away from her. Love.

A sumo wrestling championship is going on in Fukuoka and it is all over TV. The top dozen or so wrestlers are all non-Japanese.

The night life enjoys a vigorous life. Things come alive at 10:00 and then disappear again before daylight. The same signs promising "angelic girls" at night have Santa smiling at you in the morning. There are "talking" places where men go to talk to women. I assumed that it just a euphemism. Turns out that is all they do in these places. It sets you back 30 dollars an hour. I am probably priced out of the Japanese sex industry.

Kyushu in general is famous for its hot springs. We went to the big Kahuna, Beppu and went to a commercial hot spring there. They had all kinds of baths, stone pool, sand bath, showers, outdoor, and even a water fall. There were something like 500 naked men running around the place. I somehow missed the part where it was supposed to be relaxing. A week later, we went to a small natural hot spring near Mount Aso. It was surrounded by small trees and a garden, the sky above was cloudy and it was drizzling. It was quiet. It was wonderful.

There you go again
It is Yoshi's last day as translator. He apologies for not doing a better job, and tells us he is going to try harder the next time. If I were Reagan, I would have said "There you go again", not to Yoshi, but to Japan.

Japanese
Arigatou gozaimasu - Thank you very much
Doi tashi maste (Dont touch my mustache, said our translator helpfully) - You are welcome
Onsen - Hot spring
Sushi - Fish (mostly raw) with vinegar rice
Sashimi - Sushi without the rice
Tempura - Breaded and fried fish and veggies
Yakutori - Chicken on skillets

Japanese English
Grand-theater - Guranshiato (same thing pronounced differently)
Mussorgsky - Musurugusuki (even nouns are not immune to adaptation)

Courtesy at ANA Oasis Hotel, Oita Japan
Thank you for triggering the sensor on the automatic door for me, so I do not have to stand in front of it and trigger it myself. Thank you for taking my umbrella so I dont have to walk two feet to put it away myself. Thank you for handing me a pen so I dont have to move my hand too much to pick it up for the signature. Thank you for all the bows while you are doing all this. Thanking for running ahead of me to press the button for the elevator. Oh, now you are making a formal bow as the lift door closes in front of me. Stop it! Now you are just being nasty!

Smoking
There is extraordinary orderliness about the places as well as the people here. And yet, they smoke everywhere. Walkways not lined with shops end up being littered with cigarette butts. Restaurants are smoke filled holes. "Japan is full of contradictions", concludes KZ, a veteran of Japan visits.

Society
Two kids start fighting on the train. More precisely, one kid is kicking the other kid, who in turn shows no sign of responding. It is pretty vicious too. Everyone has their eyes averted, and nobody seems to notice what is happening in plain sight. KZ looks at the kids and says to us "Lets break it up", and moves towards them. This triggers a Japanese gentleman to get up and go pull them apart. Yet, nobody else looks. Nobody else moves.

Street Music
I sense something odd about the street music. We have walked the entire length of the road and the music has not changed, either in content or in volume. I wonder what is happening. It is only when I make a conscious effort to notice that I realize it is not coming from the shops but from speakers buried at the side of the road, part of public service. They are playing Bach.

Back Home
I checked in early at Oita, and they put me on an earlier flight so I dont have to wait. I checked in early at Tokyo, and got upgraded to Business class. Executive Lounge and all. No idea why. Could they be making up for some lapse? Maybe they had caused me some inconvenience that I did not notice.

Higher Taxes = Economic Growth?

2008-12-05T07:36:00.001-08:00

This article argues that higher taxes lead to more sustainable economic expansion, while lower taxes lead to boom and bust in short order.

Permanent Majority

2008-11-30T04:31:00.000-08:00

Only four years ago, there was talk of Republicans forming a permanent majority. Now there is talk of them being the minority for the next generation. Apparently, a generation is about 4 years long.

Behavioral Economics

2008-11-22T05:43:00.000-08:00

A wonderful article on the Edge. Like most articles there, it is difficult to explain concisely, but the author basically starts from different premises when compared to traditional Economists.

The author contends that traditional Economic theory considers humans to be infinitely wise and with no self control problems. However, real humans are driven my emotions as well as logic, and have serious issues with self control.

In order to take this into consideration and use it for welfare of the society, the author advocates "Libertarian Paternalism". The Libertarian part involves making sure freedom of choice always exists. The Paternalism part involves nudging individuals towards behavior that is helpful to society.

A great (and extremely funny) example of "nudging" people to do the right thing by changing a small thing in the environment is an example of a German Airport urinal, where they have a fake fly baked into the urinal. They notice that people aim at the fly and hence don't spill, thus reducing cleaning costs!

High Water Mark

2008-11-10T03:09:00.000-08:00

At the end of the 2004 US presidential elections, it was clear the Bush had won the popular vote. However, there was still a chance that an extended recount in Ohio could pull in the election for Kerry.

At Vindica, I had spoken that it was unfair for Kerry to call for a recount given how much the Democrats had moralized about Bush winning the election without a popular vote in 2000. Commenting the Kerry should concede the election, I also mentioned that the talk of a permanent majority for the Republicans was clearly not borne out by the nuances that the election results threw up. It was clear that the party had lost the middle ground and the long term prognosis for its base was not good.

Based on these assumptions, I commented that 2004 may represent the "high water mark" of the Reagan style Republicanism. I was tempted to call victory in 2006, but refrained because I felt the tide had not turned completely.

However, now with the decisive victory of Barack Obama, that day has finally arrived. The question now is whether this election represents the high point for the Democratic party? Considering the size of their victory, it is possible that this is indeed the peak. However, Obama is the wild card. The depressing Economic outlook, far from causing difficulties, provides Obama with the ideal vehicle to become a truly great President. If he succeeds, the Democrats are going to be around the government for a while yet. If he fails, the fault will not be placed on his head alone, and the Democratic party will begin a gentle decline.

Katie Couric Interviews Palin and Biden

2008-10-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

This one with both Palin and Biden, a preview to the presidential debate:

COURIC (to Palin): Why, in your view, is Roe v Wade a bad decision?
PALIN: I think it should be a states issue not a federal government–mandated–mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I’m in that sense a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas. Now foundationally, also, though, it’s no secret that I’m pro life that I believe in a culture of life is very important for this country. Personally that’s what I would like to see further embraced by America.
VJ: Great answer. She equates "foundational" with "personal". Thus suggesting that her personal beliefs on this matter rest on a solid foundation, presumably religion. Whether you think this is credible or not is purely your point of view. Trying to contradict Sarah would imply trying to debunk the thinking that religion is the foundation of morality. In a country that is 80% religious, this is a sure shot to failure. If he is smart, Biden would just agree with her and move on. (ps: Biden is probably not that smart).
COURIC (to Palin): Do you think there’s an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?
PALIN: I do. Yeah, I do.
COURIC: the cornerstone of Roe v Wade
VJ: Roe Vs. Wade was justified by the supreme court on the basis of Right to Privacy. Couric is trying to figure out how Palin could say Roe Vs. Wade was a bad decision and at the same time defend Right to Privacy. Palin is either blissfully unaware of what is being asked of her, or the transcript of the interview does not convey her thoughts fully. Body language could possibly indicate that Palin feels Right to Privacy and restriction of Abortion rights are not mutually exclusive. But such a suggestion is not apparent from the transcript.
PALIN: I do. And I believe that –individual states can handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in in an issue like that.
VJ: Not clear from the answer if Palin understands Couric's question. It is hard to imagine Right to Privacy as being a states issue. It is like saying Freedom of Speech is a states issue and that Texas can pass a law stating Democrats are allowed to communicate only in sign language. Conceptually does not make sense, however, there is a finite chance Palin may have a different concept in mind.
COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?
PALIN: Well, let’s see. There’s –of course –in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings, that’s never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are–those issues, again, like Roe v Wade where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know–going through the history of America, there would be others but–
COURIC: Can you think of any?
VJ: When Katie first started as an Anchor I was not a big fan. However, she shows great instinct here in probing the candidate who is trying to cover up the issue.
PALIN: Well, I could think of–of any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a Vice President, if I’m so privileged to serve, wouldn’t be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.
VJ: She does not know of any other supreme court judgment. The answer is, in the immortal words of Lindsey Lohan, "word vomit".
COURIC: Thomas Jefferson wrote about the First Amendment, building a wall of separation between church and state. Why do you think that’s (so) important?
PALIN: His intention in expressing that was so that government did not mandate a religion on people. And Thomas Jefferson also said never underestimate the wisdom of the people. And the wisdom of the people I think in–in this issue is that people have the right and the ability and desire to express their own religious views–be it a very personal level, which is why I choose to express my faith in a more public forum. And the wisdom of the people, thankfully, engrained in the foundation of our country is so extremely important. And Thomas Jefferson wanted to protect that.
VJ: What she is saying is clearer when expressed discretely:
Thomas Jefferson did not want government to mandate religion on people.

Thomas Jefferson also said never underestimate wisdom of people (so forget about what he said about state and religion)

I (Sarah Palin) follow Thomas Jefferson's maxim and never underestimate the people (again, dont think about what he said about State and Religion ).

"People" clearly want expression of faith in public forum.

Individuals who are opposed to such expressions are clearly democrats and atheists, who can hardly be classified as "People"

Since I follow the wisdom of the "People" (who are predominantly Republicans), I choose to express my faith in public.

Inasmuch as I want to protect the wisdom of the "People", you should clearly see me as a legitimate inheritor of Thomas Jefferson's legacy.

BIDEN: The best way to look at it is look the every state where the wall’s not built. Look at every country in the world where religion is able to impact the governance. Almost every one of those countries are in real turmoil. Look, the founders were pretty smart. They had gone through — you know– several hundred years of wars. Religious wars. And they were in the midst of religious wars in Europe. The best way to do this is to keep the government out of religion. They took religion out of government. But they didn’t mean religion couldn’t be in a public place. In the public square.
VJ: Biden is loquacious and too smart by half. We cannot trust people like him. I mean, come on! he is the kind of guy who uses words like loquacious!
Prediction: Palin will be called winner of the debate because she did not slobber during the grilling. If anything other than this happens, then McCains' campaign is over.

The Financial Crisis

2008-09-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

In the past few weeks, the two giant GSEs (Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae) have been nationalized. Of the five biggest Investment Banks in the US (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns), three have ceased to exist. Congress has been stunned into inactivity as Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader admits the Congress has done nothing because nobody knows what to do.

The "doing something" part is in the court of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on bailouts, billions "injected" into the global financial system. Financial institutions have been nationalized. Insurance companies have been taken over. Now there is talk of a "permanent solution" to the credit problems through setting up of a Government Institution to act to buy up bad mortgages from financial institutions so that they can clean up their balance sheets and survive. It is expected that 400-800 billion dollars of taxpayer money will be committed to this task. A word about the backgrounds of the two players would help illuminate the overwhelming nature of their response to the crisis. Bernanke is an academic and his specialization is the Great Depression of 1929. He has some firm ideas about how a different government response could have prevented that depression. Hank Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, mentioned above in the list of illustrious Investment banks. Their backgrounds seem to weigh heavily on what these gentlemen see in the evolving situation. Bernanke sees a Great Depression unfolding, while Paulson sees the end of the world as Investment Banks fail (not a surprise since not long ago, Investment Banking was his world). Both believe in a show of force to stub out problems before they spread. Bernanke reduced Fed interest rates by 1.25% in a single week. Paulson demanded a "bazooka" from the Congress, presumably for shooting a cockroach. Unfortunately things have not worked out as they had hoped, which is why there is now talk of a "bailout to end all bailouts".

A giant garbage bin would be opened so that financial institutions can dump their risky mortgages. The taxpayer will then be asked (nope forced) to eat. To repeat a phrase that has suddenly gained notoriety in the recent past, is this putting lipstick on a pig? That is, can the financial institutions really be saved by this "Bailout to end all bailouts". And more importantly, would the benefits of such a bailout outweigh the increasingly preposterous cost?

Firstly, a word on the crisis itself. Is this a just a course correction in how world finance works, or is this a more fundamental shift in financial paradigm? In other words, is this a "short cycle" event that will reverse itself in a few years, or is it a "great cycle" event that will take a generation or more to reverse? One widely recognized characteristic of the last generation was a worrying increase in indebtedness. As incomes increase, it becomes feasible for households to borrow more. This is a natural organic growth in debt. However, the ratio of income to debt would be expected to stay more or less stable over time. However, this has not been the case. Household debt as a percent of income has steadily increased over the last 30 years. The last eight have even seen an quickening in the pace of such activity.

Popular imagination places the source of this debt on the doorsteps of the out of control shopper swiping credit cards for the Guccis and Armanis when it is not necessary. However, there is plenty of evidence to suggest this is not the case. Average credit card debt in the US household is about $8000. At least a part of this is revolving credit (i.e. its on the credit card for convenience, not because your bank account is empty). However, the average mortgage debt is $70,000. This clearly takes the lions share of the debt obligations. By some measures, family incomes have stopped growing since the early 70s and lifestyle has been maintained chiefly though borrowing.

In the movie "Maxed Out", a professor at Harvard who looked into the indebtedness of Americans recalls asking credit card company executives as to what is the end game? How are these debt obligations ever going to be paid back? She remembers getting nothing but blank stares. Credit card companies also purposefully offer cards to people who are at high risk of default, since default as well as non payment of principle adds to the fees that reap profits. The sub-prime lending was nothing but a transplantation of this phenomenon to the mortgage world. The credit card industry just happened to recognize earlier the goldmine that lived among the poor and the desperate.

While a lot of Financial jargon like CDOs, or Mortgage Securitization have been blamed for the current crisis, the real problems seem to be much simpler. People cannot endlessly pay more than they earn, and at some point they will stop paying. The credit card industry, as usual was agile in recognizing this issue. The pushed through congress an appalling bankruptcy "reform" bill that made it practically impossible for anyone to file for bankruptcy. Their argument seems to that people may not be able to pay more than they earn, but we sure are going to try to make them pay! This may however, be a case of flogging a dead horse. You cannot make it run, no matter what the severity of the beating. People who are unable to pay will not pay irrespective of the harassment. It only leads to mental health issues and suicide.

As the repayments of debt started stuttering, business models based on lending against shaky assets valuations started breaking down. The investment banks with heavy exposure to such risk came under strain. The stock market started falling, led by financials and other businesses that depended on large debt to finance their operation. The government responded with all the impressive force under its control. Ideological arguments started to be waged. Should the government intervene? The governing orthodoxy of the last 8 years has been that the markets always work, and that what was necessary was deregulation. When people pushed into bankruptcy because of unexpected medical expenses (this is the most common cause of bankruptcy) asked for help, they were asked to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Iraq war veterans were told the same even when they did not have boots, or even legs. However, when financial institutions started collapsing, there was "no choice" but to bail them out. The mass media lapped it up like flies licking vomit.

What are the ethics of a bailout? The government cannot create wealth. It can only redistribute income and pick winners and losers. The winners in this case are the bond holders in the companies that are being bailed out. The decision makers who took unacceptable risks are also being rewarded with protection from consequences of their actions. The stock holders are the losers. People who save money are also losers. Their bank interest no longer keeps pace with increasing inflation. The general public at large (both savers and adventurists) can be winners or losers depending on how the bailout pans out.

Sometimes bailouts work out well. Korean government bought stocks in order to stabilize its markets during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 90s. They were able to sell them at handsome profits once the crisis abated. At other times, bailouts are disastrous. The Nixon administration expanded money supply by breaking the gold standard in the 70s. Printing unlimited amounts of money led to the debt binge whose effects are being sorted out only now, almost 40 years later. Greenspan's bailout in response to the Tech bubble also comes to mind. Most bailouts fail. However given that this is an election year, expecting the government to do nothing is wishful thinking. Prudence demands proceeding with the assumption that bailouts will continue.

Assuming that a bailout can indeed be "done right", then how should it happen? I think the any answer should look honestly at the root cause of the problem itself. The problem is clearly debt levels. When home prices gallop ahead of household income it is not "growth" but inflation. When 66% of the households are themselves home owners, increasing prices become a ponzi scheme supported by ever diminishing base of non-homeowners with ability to buy. The government should get out of the business of promoting home ownership for everyone. Now that the mortgage market is largely nationalized, the government should instead promote responsible home ownership. Lending standards should be tightened slowly so as to prevent people who cannot afford homes from buying one. This would lead to sustainable growth in home prices.

Increasing government debt for the bailouts would increase debt repayment obligations which in turn cramps the ability of the government to invest in its citizens by the way of education and training. Households have had to choose between credit card bills and college, sometimes postponing or abandoning college plans. Now, the government would have to do the same. This would have devastating long term effects since wealth is mostly created by upgrading human capital. Given that households have to pay higher taxes in future, the only way to reduce household obligations is by reducing credit card debt. Usury laws must be passed immedietly to limit credit card interests and fines. Regulation should also govern how much credit is offered to families. Bankruptcy laws must be reversed to make it possible for people to wipe out their credit card debt and make a fresh start. The credit card business is part of the same financial industry and while it may be argued that some financial institutions have to be bailed out for the sake of stability, the credit card business is definitely not one of them. Remember, the government cannot create wealth, but it can pick winners and losers. By necessity, the losers in this case have to be at least partly the American public. But the future of this country's economy is at stake if all of the losses are dumped on the public's head. The load that is being carried on that head is not this country's present, but its future.

McCain and Honor

2008-09-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Obama called the McCain/Palin team's makeover as lipstick on a pig. McCain claims Obama called Palin a pig.

McCain ad claims Obama supports sex education in kindergarten! When Obama questioned McCain campaign's honor because of such an obvious distortion of truth, McCain responds with indignation about his honor being questioned!

It is silly season, and the Republicans are doing a great job of making this an election about pigs and pitbulls. It would seem preposterous that cynicism can win. However, Joe Klein of Time Magazine claims to have spent a whole career watching cynicism triumph over truth. So who is to say it wont succeed once more.

It would be a sad day for America though.

Sarah Palin

2008-09-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

John McCain introduced the undercooked and under investigated Sarah Palin. Since the surprise announcement, the press has uncovered surprises of their own.

- Sarah is pro-life, and opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest.
- She supports teaching creationism in schools.
- Her husband was a registered member of an Alaska Secessionist group as late as 2004.
- Her 17 year old unwed daughter is pregnant
- She thinks Iraq was is a holy war
- She carried her 5th child to term even though he had downs syndrome

It is scary to imagine a US President with such views. But wait! Reagan was pretty similar (evangelical, problem with kids, thought Israel was in the midst of a holy war), and he is now hailed as the great communicator!

Maybe Sarah is the next great American President. God Help America.

Housing Bailout

2008-07-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

A monstrous housing bill has been passed by the House, bailing out mortgage companies and irresponsible borrowers (and incidentally, a few deserving individuals in lieu of collateral benefit). This summary by NPR is essential read.

The main provision seeks to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Here is how it is claimed to work:
- Homeowner originally bought the house for 300K in Las Vegas in 2006
- House value has plummeted to 200K in 2008
- Lender agrees to lower mortgage to 90% of current value (i.e. 180K). Write off 120K.
- Homeowner eligble for lower rate FHA loan for the 180K.
- FHA pays off Lender 180K. Takes the loan onto its books.
- Home prices stabilize because homeowner can afford low interest 180K, avoiding foreclosure.
- Taxpayer does not incur any cost since the homeowner is going to pay back 180K on the taxpayers book with interest.

As always, you cannot get something for nothing. The something comes from the bankers who need to write off 120K. Why would they do that? The argument is the following:
- Lender refuses to write off 120K.
- Home goes into foreclosure. Current value of home is 200K.
- Prices continue to fall, bank still has the house on its books, but the value of the home is now only 150K.
- Bank would have been better off by taking the 180K on offer from Uncle Sam.

Here comes the first snag in the happy happy, joy joy story.
- If the lender expected the prices to stabilize around 180K or higher, he/she would refuse to lower the mortgage, thus precipitating the foreclosure regardless.
- If the lender expected the prices to plummet, he would get rid of the mortgage, but the taxpayer would be on the hook for an asset whose value of plummeting.

So either the homeowner loses or the taxpayer loses. Guess who is not on the losing side irrespective of what happens?

Finally, there is no reason to suspect that everyone is going to play as envisioned in the congressional fairy tale. So here is how I see it actually playing out:
- Homeowner originally bought the house for 300K in Las Vegas in 2006
- House value has plummeted to 200K in 2008
- Bank and/or owner gets a spurious appraisal showing value of the home as 290K
- A sea of murky appraisals shows up as another run up in asset prices, marking a significant false bottom. Politicians and Realtors hail success. Get reelected.
- Bank agrees to lower mortgage to 90% of 290K, i.e about 260K.
- Bank pockets 260K (depending on how long the home owner has been paying mortgage, they may actually make a profit, instead of the 40% loss they rightfully deserve).
- Homeowner gets a new FHA loan for 260K.
- After a year, home price is still 200K. Homeowner finally gets the math, walks away from the home.
- Taxpayer is saddled with a 260K debt backed by a deteriorating asset.
- Panic sets is ("If even the government cannot save us, then who can!"). Asset prices start going down again.

Good Job Congress.

Bottom line, housing will not bottom until data shows that congressional intervention has failed. Congressional action has converted a potential collapse of financial institutions into a potential collapse of the long term vitality of this nation. In trying to prop up property prices, it has put a wrench in to the engines that power long term asset appreciation.

Communists and a Cow Belt Politician

2008-06-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

With the communists making a grand stand on the Nuclear Deal, threatening to pull the rug from under the Congress Govt if it goes ahead, key allies are rallying around the beleaguered government. Manmohan Singh has told Sonia Gandhi that he would rather resign than bow down to the communists. The DMK and RJD have expressed support for the Government's stand. The communists tried to talk them out of it. But Lalu made his stand clear.

“I am hopeful the deal will come through and if not, it will be unfortunate for the country,” Lalu Prasad, who had earlier wanted to take the communists on board to take the deal ahead, has said. Sitaram Yechury had met Lalu to gather support for the Left’s stand, but Lalu is clear: “Governments come and go. Nuclear power is a requirement and assets must be created for our next generation.”

"Assets must be created for our next generation." Wow! what a great line. I am fast becoming a Lalu fan ever since he became the Railway Minister.

Greed is the enemy of wealth

2008-03-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

A fantastic column that lays out the effects of compound interest in stark and simple manner. It makes a compelling case that investor and investee companies interests need to be better aligned. And it has also convinced me to stay away from all "managed" mutual funds. I think I will stick with my index funds.

It uses the example of Warren Buffet, who has returned 20% on invested capital over his long investing career. He has accumulated 62 billion dollars. It asks a simple question. How much would he have accumulated if he had paid the standard 2% fee to a manager of a mutual fund? The answer is 5 Billion. The manager would have made 57 Billion!

The effect of compounding at 14 per cent, rather than at 20 per cent, is to reduce the accumulated pot by over 90 per cent.... The Sage of Omaha has made more money than anyone else without charging management fees. In the long run, the trust of investors and of investee companies may be the most valuable asset of all. And greed may be the enemy of wealth.

One for the ages

2008-03-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

This is one for the ages. Obama's preacher, Jeremiah Wright was shown on video saying God Damn America for its treatment of blacks. His sermons were relentlessly shown on TV day after day and Obama was asked repeatedly to denounce Wright. Then he gave this speech. If everyone expected a defensive crouch, it did not happen. Instead he gave this speech that will go into history books. He denounced Mr. Wright's words, but not the man himself.

1. My wife has the blood of both slaves and slave owners.
2. Racism is so ingrained in people of a different generation.
3. The current generation has made a lot of progress.
4. Much remains to be done.
5. Black people's concerns about racism are not just in their minds. They are real.
6. So too are the concerns of white people. They should not be automatically labelled racist because of those concerns.
7. Affirmative action is a failure.
8. Blacks should embrace personal responsibility.
9. Society should provide equal opportunities for people of all races.

There were many cynics who had ideas about Obama being "just the right amount of black", half white as he is. It would have been so easy to simply disown Mr. Wright. He would have probably sailed through the storm, and the black voters would have forgiven him, rationalizing that he did what he had to do. But whith this speech, he boldly stated that he is a black man running for president, and is proud of it. America should be proud also. What a great president he would make!

Irrational Exuberance

2007-10-02T16:57:00.000-07:00

A subversive review of Alan Greenspan's new book looks at the rise and rise of the man.

Much of the creative critisism is reserved for the end of the scathing review.

In the Washington that Greenspan inhabits, some kinds of evasiveness are preferable to others; it helps if you're criticizing out-of-favor Republican greasebags and an unpopular Republican president. And you can see why he would want, at all costs, to preserve his standing. There's something endearing in the evident pleasure he takes from the high life he leads. He refers insouciantly to "the glitter of the White House," the welcome sanctuary of its tennis court, the convenience of the presidential box at the Kennedy Center. At certain points in his book he just flips open his social calendar and lets his ghostwriter jot down the names: "I did build up a wonderful circle of friends: . . . Henry and Nancy Kissinger, Oscar and Annette de la Renta, Felix and Liz Rohatyn, Brooke Astor (I knew her as a kid of seventy-five), Joe and Estée Lauder. . . . "Plus Barbara Walters.

More surprisingly, it turns out that much of what Greenspan has to say, when he sets evasiveness aside, is banal, on the subject of policy as well as people. Richard Nixon, he says, was paranoid and profane; Ronald Reagan liked to tell stories; Gerald Ford was normal.

More Mattel

2007-09-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Read more about Mattel in this story about how Helicopter Ben's huge half percent rate cut is likely to bring America to its knees.

Ever picture China and Dubai as two buzzards, preparing to fight over America's corpse? Me neither.

In a completely unrelated development, Mattel apologized to China for having tainted toys from China. In related news, in a trailer somewhere, a bruised young boy apologized for getting in the way of his father's fist.

*smile*

Chinese Product Recalls

2007-09-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

After a bunch of product recalls related to items made in China, the Chinese government has reacted in its usual brutal manner. Many government officials responsible for quality have been executed. It has also been announced that many managers of factories where these products originated have "committed suicide".

And now, they made the Mattel EVP (Mattel is the company that imported all those lead paint infested toys) apologize in public in China in a carefully choreographed public event.

?Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys."

He (Mattel EVP) added that Mattel now believed it had recalled more products than was justified and that items which may have met US safety standards had been taken off the shelves.

Mr Li said this admission was "unacceptable", adding that "you cannot recall 10,000 products just because one is sub-standard".

"I really hope that Mattel can learn lessons and gain experience from these incidents."

I guess it is Mattels fault that they did not explicitly specify and later verify that poison was not to be added to the toys that children play with.

Wow! Really, who needs to be learning lessons here! This is beyond ridiculous and just shows how anachronistic an autocratic communist dictatorial system has become in the modern world.

Alexandria Quartet

2007-07-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

An author looks back at his emotions when reading the Alexandria Quartet for the first time in the 60s and how those opinions have changed.

(At the time) I barely noticed that half the characters were novelists or artistic illusionists of some kind, that their preoccupations toggled between the pleasures of the senses and the meaning of life, and that they never paused to earn a living, change a diaper, or wait for the bus.

Evolution and Scandinavian Blonds

2007-07-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

An extremely interesting article that seeks to provide an evolutionary explanation for everything from preference for Big Breasts and presence of Suicide Bombers.

Indian Elections

2007-05-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

In the recent elections in the North East, one election official dejectedly told the media how the politicians undermine the people's faith in democracy for 5 years and the Election Commission does its best to restore it, if only for the one day on which polling happens.

This detailed and interesting article by Mr. Gopalaswami, Chief Election Commissioner of India about the recent election in UP is inspiring in that it restored my faith in the ability of our Government organisations to do their job exceptionally well.

Since bogus voting can be largely prevented only if the identity of the voters is correctly established, a massive attempt was made to issue Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC). Between December 2006 and the second week of April, 2007, a total of 2.69 crore EPICs were issued covering 22% of the electorate throughout the state, raising the coverage to an average of 80% in the state. As many as 85% voters who turned up to vote produced the EPIC as identity while the rest produced other identity documents like the ration card, driving licence, NREGS job cards, student IDs etc.

In order to prevent misuse of ration cards, student identity cards etc. a strict warning was issued to those who were empowered to issue these cards. It is common knowledge that the ration card is more often than not kept with the ration shop owner (quota-dar in local parlance) rather than with the householder in whose name the card is issued. Since the quota-dar can part with the cards to some local toughie who can either use this as identity for bogus voters or simply hoard it to prevent the genuine voters from voting for lack of an identity card, warning was given to all quota-dars to distribute the cards to the actual beneficiaries and after giving a grace period of 24 hours, the ration shops were raided to ensure that everybody complied with the direction.

The CEC ends his piece with a call for introspection about the need for so much security even in this day and age.

As the curtain is being drawn on the UP 2007 elections, while the overwhelming feeling I have is one of satisfaction about the free, fair and peaceful poll, it is not unmixed with a tinge of sadness that even 57 years after we became a republic and 55 years after we had the first general election in independent India, a free and fair poll has meant massive deployment of central security forces. To my mind, this calls for a deep retrospection on the part of the political parties, the civil society groups, the Election Commission and other stakeholders to think of urgent corrective steps so that in the none-too-distant future we can see a day when a free and fair election can be held with no policemen around and with citizen volunteers managing the polling stations.

We need more parts of the government doing their job at least properly, if not exceptionally well like the Election Commission. Kudos and thanks to these competent officials.

Hitchens on God

2007-05-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

A funny and relaxed Christopher Hitchens talks about his new book "God Is Not Great" and how it differs from other books on Atheism that have come out in recent months.

What’s your favorite Bible story?
“Casting the first stone” is a lovely story, even though we’ve found out how much it wasn’t in the Bible to begin with. And the first of the miracles. Jesus changes water into wine. You can’t object to that.

If the Jews had not made the crucial mistake of rejecting Hellenism and philosophy and submitting themselves, or being reconquered, by the Maccabean ultra-Orthodox, everything would have been better and we’d never have had to endure Christianity and Islam.

A historical perspective of India

2007-04-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from what promises to be a brilliant book by Ramachandran Guha.

The great 19th-century poet Ghalib thought that God was indeed on the side of India. All around him there was conflict and privation, but doomsday had not yet come. "Why does not the Last Trumpet sound?", asked Ghalib of a sage in the holy city of Benares. "Who holds the reins of the Final Catastrophe?" he continued. This was the answer he got:

The hoary old man of lucent ken
Pointed towards Kashi and gently smiled.
'The Architect,' he said, 'is fond of this edifice
Because of which there is colour in life; He
Would not like it to perish and fall.'

Narayana Murthy and the National Anthem

2007-04-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Narayana Murthy has landed in the soup for saying at a Infosys funtion that singing the National Anthem would "embarass employees who were of foreign origin".

Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha MLA Vatal Nagaraj even went on to termed Mr Murthy a 'traitor' during a discussion on the issue in Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday.

Raising the issue, Kannada Chaluvali leader Vatal Nagaraj demanded that an inquiry be held and Murthy "arrested" for "insulting" the National Anthem. "Murthy is anti-Kannada and anti-national," he alleged.

Madhuswamy (JDU) said "nothing can be more insulting" than what Murthy had said and done and asked the Government to withdraw the facilities granted to Infosys. "Infosys has grown because of Bangalore," he said.

So, firstly, how do we measure patriotism? If it means contribution to the well being of India and its citizens, then obviously Mr. Nagaraj is in solid ground and leagues ahead Murthy. After all, he has a long and distinguished record of getting fellow citizens to stand up to indians of Foreign Origin (like Tamils). He as demonstrated an unparalled ability to promote understanding among people of diverse ethnicities through use of violence. On the other hand, Mr. Murthy has been noted for known anti national activities like going to foreign cities like Chennai and Bombay to recruit subersive IITians to work for his company.

Secondly, Mr. Madhuswamy is absolutely right in pointing out that the spectacular growth of IT industry in India is in full measure due to the hard work and foresight of our beloved Netas. The Murthys of the world are vultures who just happened to come by at the right time to profit from the politician's hard work. Murthy and his ilk must be condemned in strongest terms and thrown out of Karnataka. The state is better off if Infosys takes its leader and his 30,000 jobs elsewhere. If it is just a question of money, our Netas can surely help us out. Many of them have generously given to charitable causes like politisisation of ethnic loyalties and to developmental causes like real estate for relatives using money borrowed from state coffers.

A review of 300

2007-03-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

The movie started with a voice-over and I took that to be a bad sign. Voice overs are usually signs lazy storytelling, tying up disjointed plot elements with narration? As it turned out, there was no story telling at all. This movie is nothing more than a collection of pretty pictures. When someone, someday tells the story of how an over dependence on technology killed the soul of movies, 300 would be used as the case study.

So Many Questions

2007-02-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a collection of three articles, that have no connection with each other other than having been written on the same day.
Gold
Till the early 1970's, the US Dollar was backed by Gold. That is, the Government guaranteed that they would give you a certain amount of Gold in exchange for your dollar bill any time you asked for it. If the Government wanted to print money, they had to buy and store more gold. An echo of this much loved system survives in the use of the phrase "Gold Standard", for that was exactly what it was called. Nixon broke the US dollar from the Gold Standard, in order to be able to print more money more quickly to finance an expanding war and shrinking economy. Printing more money neither won the war, nor did it fix the economy. However, it did lay down the template for future abuse of governmental power.

Harry D. Schultz, a popular investment consultant has this to say about Gold.

...but in my view we should fight for a pure gold standard, the old-fashioned form, because it worked! And not just for fiscal reasons! It forced nations to limit their debt, spending and socialist schemes, which meant sound behavioural habits were formed around those limitations, and those habits rubbed off on everyone. People were more honest, moral, decent, kind, because the system was honest and moral. Cause and effect. Today we have cause and effect of the opposite standard: no limits on what governments can do, control, dictate; no limit on government debt, welfare or socialist schemes. There is no governor on the government.

I believe that the value of gold runs deeper than that. The world has seen the devastation caused by wars of adventure started by Governments. The World War started by the Germans, the Afghan war started by the Soviets and the Iraq war started by the Americans all have one thing not in common - ideology, and one thing in common - they were not waged in self-defense. It is hard to imagine an average Soviet citizen in a suburb outside Moscow getting worked up about Afghanistan. Given this, how does it become possible for such governments to wage these wars?

I believe that there are two fundamental enablers for bad governmental behavior. The first is Taxes. Voters care most about local issues, while most taxes are charged by the Federal government. The priorities of the national government, which are by quite literally farther removed from the priorities of the people, are hence better funded. All that money has to be put to some use! Adventures based on flimsy premises suddenly become possible.

The second enabler is debt. A deviation from the Gold Standard has given governments a virtual blank check to print as much money as they want. No war or confrontation, no matter how unimportant for the defense of the realm, needs to go underfunded anymore.

A return to prudent financial practices will force the Government to live within its means. However, that also means that the Government will have less money to help people during hard times. But wars are much nastier a business than emaciation of social services. Its easier to tackle one problem at a time, so the bigger one first. Besides, there seems to be something wrong in the picture where the Government is helping people using money it does not have...

What are we doing here?
John Stuart Mills was an eloquent advocate of a philosophy called Utilitarianism. He contended that the primary purpose of a being was to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. For obvious reasons, this came as a rude shock to many, since it did not even consider any form of "higher purpose" as relevant. Objections raised to the theory included one that gave an example of a pig. A swine is happy and contented as long as it can fuck and feed when it wants. Does that mean that it is having a better life than humans?

Mills rounded up the Utilitarian argument brilliantly in his classic article on Utilitarianism by pointing out that the argument about the swine degrades humans by presupposing that they are capable of no greater pleasures than those enjoyed by the swine. Things like intellectual pursuit, fashions, music and appreciation for the arts and letters may be irrelevant to a pig, but a human would be loath to give these up in exchange for limiting him/herself to the pleasures of a pig.

Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs.

So now that we have different "levels" of pleasures, how can we tell which one is higher than the other? Mills gives a simple test:

Of two pleasures, if there be one to which all or almost all who have experience of both give a decided preference, irrespective of any feeling of moral obligation to prefer it, that is the more desirable pleasure.

One fascinating fall out of this line of argument is that not all people would enjoy the same pleasures. A fool may not be able to enjoy the pleasures of intellectual pursuit, but the smart person can still enjoy the pleasures of carousing. In Mills' own words:

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.

Another fall out is the conclusion that a being capable of experiencing higher pleasures will necessarily have the the capacity to feel more acute pains as well. The sensitive may yet inherit the world, what with their higher pleasures. And pains...

Enlightenment
Over the last month, three quite independent streams on investigations converged into one perfect storm.

It all started out while reading reviews of Richard Dawkins' new book "God Delusion", in which Dawkins marshals argument to the effect that religion is one of the biggest man made sources of suffering in the world. He advocates not just personal renunciation of religion but active confrontation of the religious beliefs of others as well. Although I have no great love for organized religion or its advocates, from a cross section of reviews I concluded that this book was probably a bit too extremist for my taste.

I then came across naturalist David Attenborough's brilliant series "Life of Mammals", whose last episode explores the monkeys of Sri Lanka. I dare any Indian to watch this episode, compare the monkey's behavior to Hindu caste system and tell me from the bottom of their heart that we are not descended from monkeys! The Sri Lankan monkeys divide themselves into strict hereditary caste lines. Higher caste females are forbidden to mate with lower castes (although they make every effort to surreptitiously do so). The warrior caste even has a "king" who enforces control over his harem by having his "warriors" beat up any male from "lower caste" who "looks funnily" at the ladies. In a later program I also learned that Monkeys have many of the basic cognitive abilities that we ourselves use as the basis of our intelligence. Monkeys don't use these abilities to their full potential because they do not need to. We are all children of Monkeys and the apologists for caste system in India don't seem to have out evolved their origins.

Finally, I heard a podcast that read out Immanuel Kant's essay on Enlightenment.

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is the motto of enlightenment.

Although Kant is very careful when talking about what Enlightenment means for Religion, it is very clear that it will act as a powerful force against misuse of religion. Organized religion galvanizes a lot of people behind it and there is always the danger that their efforts shall be channeled towards unworthy causes by the shepherds. If the sheep dare to question, then the shepherd cannot run away with too much power.
Kant is very positive about the prospects for Enlightenment to spread, but he warns that it can be brought to live only slowly, after a long period of freedom.

But that the public should enlighten itself is more likely; indeed, if it is only allowed freedom, enlightenment is almost inevitable. For even among the entrenched guardians of the great masses a few will always think for themselves, a few who, after having themselves thrown off the yoke of immaturity, will spread the spirit of a rational appreciation...

Hurrying Enlightenment may, however, end up in a disaster.

a public can only attain enlightenment slowly. Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.

I thought about all of these ideas in the context of contemporary India. It effectively put a pause on my intense desire to see radical advancement of liberal free markets and Enlightenment in India. Gandhi's words about "preparing ourselves" acquires new meaning in this light. It is going to take a very long time for Enlightenment to fully flower in India. However, as long as freedom continues to reign supreme, India will be able to find its way. Trying to short circuit the process by casting aspersions on democracy and public power of litigation will only lead to some as yet unfathomable monstrosities getting its grip on the nation's reigns. As with the Monkey's cognitive abilities, we have it in us to believe in our own reason, and to stop being guided through life by gurus, superstitions, passions and prejudices. It will simply take a very long period of freedom for the spark to go off and light up these abilities.

For the first time, I feel I will not see a Great India in my lifetime. An India where religion is private as well as practical, caste is destroyed, and freedom is infinite. For if we allow each other to do anything we want, then it means we trust each other to exercise that freedom responsibly. That will be the day when we finally become one people. As goes India, so goes the world. It is going to take a very long time, but so be it. It is better that way.

American Iraq

2007-01-31T10:30:00.000-08:00

A cutting and insightful essay on the current conflict in Iraq that looks at it from the point of view of a Sunni-Shia fight.

The Shia, too, may have to come to a time of reckoning. Their old tormentor was sent to the gallows, and a kinsman of theirs did the deed with the seal of the state. From the poor Shia slums of Baghdad, young avengers answered the Sunni campaign of terror with brutal terror of their own. The old notion--once dear to the Sunnis, and to the Shia a nagging source of fear and shame--that the Sunnis of Iraq were a martial race while the Shia were marked for lamentations and political quiescence has been broken for good.

Scientific basis of Morality

2007-01-28T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have felt that one of the reasons organized religions have their vast appeal is because they present a monopolistic vision of morality that is sadly emaciated in secular thought. I have always thought why there is no scientific research on the underpinning of morality? While there are professional Ethicists, it seemed like there was not much scientific funding for their activities. After all, Ethics is taught as a Philosophical, not as a Scientific subject in schools. However, new research in Neuro science and consiousness may finally be changing that. It can finally fight back against "out of body" and "near death" experiences that are held as "proof" of an afterlife.

And when the physiological activity of the brain ceases, as far as anyone can tell the person's consciousness goes out of existence. Attempts to contact the souls of the dead (a pursuit of serious scientists a century ago) turned up only cheap magic tricks, and near death experiences are not the eyewitness reports of a soul parting company from the body but symptoms of oxygen starvation in the eyes and brain. In September, a team of Swiss neuroscientists reported that they could turn out-of-body experiences on and off by stimulating the part of the brain in which vision and bodily sensations converge.

It is my hope that in the not too distant future, Morality and Ethics will become legitimate subjects for scientific enquiry. Such a development will not undermine the good things about religion, but will minimize the mischief that it can cause.

Fundamentalism in America

2007-01-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

A very long and detailed article by Jeff Sharlet includes many first hand references.

The old theories have failed. The new Christ, fifty years ago no more than a corollary to American power, twenty-five years ago at its vanguard, is now at the very center. His followers are not anxiously awaiting his return at the Rapture; he’s here right now. They’re not envious of the middle class; they are the middle class. They’re not looking for a hero to lead them; they’re building biblical households, every man endowed with “headship” over his own family. They don’t silence sex; they promise sacred sex to those who couple properly—orgasms more intense for young Christians who wait than those experienced by secular lovers.

Sex Scandals on either side of the Pond

2007-01-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

A hilarious piece that bemoans the boringness of sex scandals among American political class compared to those of their cousins in London.

From Bill Clinton seeking body warmth in Lewinsky's pillowy embrace to Foley batting his eyelashes online, ... the high-profile Washington sex scandal is marked by desperate lunging, not lusty abandon.

The piece ends with a pillorying of the American prudishness:

It's just that a dreadful piety has taken hold in American life, predicated on the notion that no one misbehaves out of choice or inclination or a simple warm itch, but because they were driven to it by drink, drugs, or childhood dysfunction

and finally thanks those Fundamentalist preachers who are keeping American hypocrisy alive!

Well, at least we can go to bed happy and content in the knowledge that somewhere out there are Fundamentalist preachers up to no filthy good. They, bless them, are keeping the sacred flame of American hypocrisy brightly lit.

RSS and the Dalits

2007-01-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

Not much of a surprise that the RSS is against discrimination against the Dalits. The indiscriminate vilification of the organization smooths over the subtle point that the RSS believes in Hindus as a unitary community. Because of this reason, it has consistently opposed such things as the Aryan invasion theory, untouchability and other forms of brutality that the Dalits are subjected to.

The RSS has castigated what it repeatedly calls the “so-called uppers castes” for their discriminatory ways saying they are in fact of the “lowest levels” for doing so.

It is heartening that they did not feel any compulsion to mince words.

Information Overload

2007-01-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

An intriguing article about the collapse of Enron. The commonly held perception is that Enron executives hid information about the financial state of the company. However, it is argued here is that everything that was needed to correctly diagnose the state of the corporation was in public documents revealed by the company.

Analysts were unable to get to the truth because there was just too much documentation out there.

all Enron proves is that in an age of increasing financial complexity the “disclosure paradigm”—the idea that the more a company tells us about its business, the better off we are—has become an anachronism.

So what is the answer? The article looks back at World War II and at individuals who analyzed Nazi propaganda as a way of figuring out what the Nazi leadership was really thinking. It argues that there is a dispenser and a consumer for information. Both have to be sufficiently sophisticated in order for the information exchange to be successful.

as Enron’s business practices grew more com-plicated, it was Wall Street’s responsibility to keep pace

In other words, Wall Street analysts as much as Enron executives, are equally responsible for Enron's troubles not being spotted for so long. They need to develop more sophisticated methods to spot trouble.

Dissidence in Iran

2006-11-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

An insightful and sometime exhaustive look at dissidence in Iran. Many parallels are drawn with the Czech dissident movement and India's own independence movement.

The anti-Shah revolution was not hijacked by the clerics, he said, just as the Bolshevik revolution was not stolen by Stalin, as Trotsky had claimed. “We began revolution, in order to create a paradise, but we created hell.” An unjust regime can be changed only by civil disobedience, nonviolently, he holds. Invasion cannot export or impose democracy either.

The basic thrust of the article is the claim that the fight in this world is not between civilizations, but between open secular societies and religious worlds. This fight happens, according to the author, in all societies including the western ones.

To Joy

2006-11-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Ninth:

The young Beethoven burst into his dad's workplace and demanded half the pay to feed his siblings. Daddy was welcome to drink away the rest. He did not know then, but this was to be the story of his life. Triumph over the disadvantages of life, through determination and a sheer force of personality. A mother who died when he was young. A drunk father. An upbringing in provincial Bonn [10], away from the nerve center that was Vienna. And deafness. Creeping, terrifying, isolating, lonely deafness.

It is said that music moves the soul. Sometimes, it also grabs it by both hands, shakes it up like a rag doll and take it for a wild ride. [1]

Beethoven's Ninth symphony is officially called The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. It is also sometimes referred to as "Choral", because of its use of the human voice on par with instruments in the fourth movement [2]. However, it is most often referred to simply as "The Ninth". Composers who followed Beethoven in the 19th Century shriveled and died in his monumental shadow, unable to break or surpass his musical monuments. It would take until the 20th Century for classical music to break free and move on. The Ninth Symphony played a decisive role in cementing this tower of achievement.

That number nine is a magic number with composers; ever since Beethoven it has come to mean the crowning final output of a symphonic composer. Beethoven's ninth, as you must know, is the huge symphonic monument of his whole lifetime--his last symphony. And since then, it's become almost a tradition for a composer to crown his life with his ninth symphony.[3]

There are many Ninth Symphonies, but till date, only one qualifies as "The Ninth". The Ninth has been used as the National Anthem of the East and West German athletes when they participated in various competitions as a united team. Same with the unified team of the former USSR after it broke up. It's fourth movement is used as the official anthem of the European Union [4]. Various snippets from the piece have been featured in countless movies, quite notably in Stanley Kubrik's "A Clockwork Orange", where the protagonist suffers from a Beethoven obsession. It was used by the German Nazis, the Soviet Communists, the democratic Chinese students in Tiananmen Square and now the liberal EU. A more complete political consensus is hard to imagine.

What is it about The Ninth that we find so alluring? Is it something powerful about the music itself? Would it still appeal to us if it had been composed by a nameless pauper whose story were lost to history? Or does its appeal stem from the story of Beethoven himself? Is it simply a musical representation of a biography?

Beethoven's story is often called one of triumph over obstacles. However, it is also one of an arrogant genius. The arrogance of the music appeals as much as its triumphalism. It is said that Mozart is the worlds Greatest Ever Composer during times of peace while Beethoven gets that title in times of war. I wonder if wars are but a manifestation of drums that beat deep within us. I wonder if Beethoven's music is window into that part of the soul, at once illuminating and frightening.

Eroica

In deepest humility I dedicate herewith to Your Majesty a musical offering, the noblest part of which derives from Your Majesty's own august hand. ...

So begins the letter of dedication that Bach sent along with his music to king Frederick. Bach was a genius of a scale unseen since while Frederick is a historical non-entity. Yet, Bach had to indulge in sycophancy and relentless self deprecation in front of contemporary royalty, currying favor and climbing the greasy pole.

Times change, but not as much as they should. Beethoven did not have to do everything Bach did to climb the greasy pole. It is doubtful he would have even if he did. Musicians were becoming the rock stars, while the star of kings was fast sinking into the miasma of the post Revolutionary Europe. However, like most musicians in Vienna, Beethoven's livelihood depended on royal patronage, specifically in the personage of Prince Lichnowsky. As such, we was expected to "compete" with other musicians advanced by other princes. The prize stud was expected to earn its keep by winning.

Daniel Steibelt challenged him with an intricate Piano piece. Beethoven contemptuously snatched the scores, placed it upside down and poked a few keys on the piano from the opening notes of Steibelts piece. He then tossed away the score and improved on the theme extemporaneously, destroying Steibelt's fledgling career. Beethoven was a piano master. However his victory rested on arrogance as much as on virtuosity. Within a few years, his hearing would go into a steep decline, putting a jarring end to his piano playing days. By the time of The Ninth, all that was left was arrogance.

Unlike Bach, Beethoven considered prostrated familiarity with aristocratic boots to be an abomination of his talent. When he saw a few princes walking towards him in a park, he held tightly onto his friend Goethe's hand walked straight into the royal crowd. Goethe lost his nerve and let go, stepping aside and bowing as the princes passed by. However, Beethoven did not miss a step, simply tipping his hat as he walked in the center of the path, forcing the princes to part and clear his way.

It is no wonder he loved Napoleon, leader of the Revolution for the common man. He decided to dedicate his Third Symphony to the French Revolutionary. Ironically, he chose those same four notes of Steibelts that he had contemptuously poked on the piano as the main theme of the symphony. This piece was well on its way to becoming known as the Napoleon Symphony, when something happened that shattered Beethoven's belief. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France. Beethoven flew into a rage, calling Napoleon a rascal. He marched into the music hall in Vienna where the official copy of the Third Symphony was kept and scratched furiously at the line that called it the Napoleon Symphony. His rage and violence are still plainly visible today on that page. He decided to proclaim Napolean dead, writing on the page "Heroic Symphony - Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man." This symphony has been known since that day as Eroica (Heroic) Symphony. The arrogance, political ideas and rage that crystallized at the end this time would all become inputs to the composition of The Ninth years later.

An Ode To Joy
Friedrich Schiller wrote a poem that he called An die Freude in 1785 [5]. By all accounts it was a smash it in Revolutionary France, as evidenced by Schiller being given honorary French Citizenship later in his life. Beethoven had wanted to set this poem to music as early as 1792. His chance came when he started working on the Ninth Symphony in 1818.

It had been six years since Beethoven had composed his last symphony. Most critics had decided that he had reached his peak in 1814, and that he was past his prime and in terminal decline. Beethoven spent most of this time fighting law suits over the custody of his brother's son [11]. His hearing problems had also progressively worsened over the years. He could hear barely anything when he started composing the Ninth. He could hear nothing at all when it finally premiered. The Choral part of the symphony advanced painstakingly over the years, undergoing many revisions in the process. It was all finally ready in 1823. The one change he made to Schiller's poem is illuminating. The original poem had a line that said "Beggars become princes' brothers". Beethoven changed it to "All people become brothers". It is not hard to believe that Beethoven did not even want to acknowledge a prince.

However, where to perform this opus? Vienna had long been home to Beethoven. However, there was a problem.

Musical taste in Vienna had changed during the first decades of the 19th century; the public were chiefly interested in light Italian opera (especially Rossini) and easygoing chamber music and songs, to suite the prevalent bourgeois tastes. [6]

Beethoven does not seem to have liked Rossini much, telling his friend once that "Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on his ass". Rossini for his part visited Beethoven in 1822 and was very public about how appalled he was about the unkempt nature of the place.

Beethoven was a rock star and Vienna had gone boy band on him. Fears of irrelevance, rejection and failure plagued him. However his well wishers, who were still numerous prevailed upon him to stay with Vienna for the premiere. However, the nervous Beethoven created an "alternative" pure instrumental ending for the 4th movement, just in case the audience were unable to stomach his revolutionary use of the human voice.

The Premiere
The Ninth Symphony was premiered on Friday, May 7, 1824 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna to a packed audience. From the first movement that starts with barely audible notes only to surprise the audience with unexpectedly loud entrance of the percussions and violins, to the end of the fourth movement when the chorus finally fades away, this symphony is an absolute delight. It is almost impossible to write about the music itself, because so much of it is tied to the emotional response it raises in the individual. For that reason, the musical experience of this piece is also likely to be very different [7].

The performers had been under-prepared and had only two full rehearsals. This was woefully inadequate for a revolutionary and complex symphony like The Ninth. By all accounts the premiere performance of The Ninth symphony would not make it to the list of great performances. However, in spite of the poor execution, the audience grasped the fact that they were in the midst of history being made. A revolution in music that was unleashed by Beethoven's earlier symphonies was finally reaching gale force that would sweep everything else away.

Since Beethoven could not hear anything, he could not conduct. The dress rehearsals had been chaotic because of the performers trying to follow Beethoven. During the actual performance, there was a different conductor and Beethoven was on stage acting out the role of the conductor. The singers and musicians had been instructed to ignore Beethoven. The music finished. The audience roared in applause. The tone deaf Beethoven was several measures off and was still conducting furiously. The music was not dead in his mind. Finally, one of the singers walked up and turned him around to face the applauding audience.

Beethoven turned around to face the silence. The roar of the audience was happening in a different world, one he did not share. He stared at them in incomprehension, wondering what was happening.

His turning around, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everybody that he had not done so before [because he could not hear what was going on,] acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed [8]

And then they started throwing their hats in the air to convey their appreciation. And then they gave him another ovation. And then a standing ovation. And then another. And then another. And then another. And then the police marched in [9]. Beethoven started crying, deeply moved. And then...

References:

[1] An advertisement on KDFC San Francisco radio station about a program about Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. "Shake it like a rag doll", is indeed a memorable metaphor.
[2] The use of the human voice on par with instruments was Beethoven's own innovation. Even he considered it to be a radical departure and thought about having an alternate ending for the fourth movement, just in case the audience was too appalled to be able to digest the Choral version. We should be grateful to the audience at the Ninth Symphony's Vienna premiere that this did not happen.
[3] The source for this information about the importance of the Ninth, is an article written by Leonard Bernstein at the website http://www.leonardbernstein.com/studio/element2.asp?id=399.
[4] Wikipedia at website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven) contains this and much other information about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
[5] "An die Freude" translates to "To Joy" in English. However, most translations seem to prefer calling it "An Ode To Joy". Leonard Bernstein performed the Ninth Symphony in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall, and the world Freude (Joy) was substituted by Freiheit (Freedom). This is one of the most celebrated recordings of the Ninth Symphony.
[6] Source: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven.html
[7] Beethoven's Ninth is best listened to actively. That is, do not hear it as background music. Do not try to do something else while letting this music "wash over you". Listen to it actively by concentrating on every note that is happening on the foreground and background of the music. Two well regarded recordings of the symphony are by Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein.
[8] Source: Beethoven's biography by Georg Grove
[9] The police broke up the crowd because it was customary for the Emperor to receive three standing ovations upon his entry to a ball room. That a mere commoner like Beethoven should receive more was considered to be an affront to royalty.
[10] Bonn was later to attain some prominence as the capital of West Germany during the cold war when Germany was partitioned into East and West. However, during Beethoven's time, it seems to have been no more than a minor provincial town.
[11] Beethoven did not have kids of his own and did not approve of his brother's choice of bride. After his brother's death, he fought lawsuits with his sister in law to get sole custody of his nephew. By all accounts he thoroughly messed up the kid psychologically.

India's Policy Options in Sri Lanka

2006-11-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

The tenuous peace in Sri Lanka that has held for the last few years has broken down and a full fledged civil war is again underway.

India is once again under pressure from all sides to come out of its shell and put behind its hands off policy. While this may or may not happen, the question does arise as to what India's policy should be in case it does decide to play a more active role in Sri Lanka.

It is my opinion that India's policy should be work towards a single, consistent goal - that of preventing the emergence of an independent Tamil state on the island, or popular support thereof for a similar idea. The emergence of such a homeland will lead to strategic irritants for India in the long term.

In consonance with such a goal, it makes complete sense for India to call for and actively support the destruction of the LTTE. Prabakaran has made it clear by his actions in the recent past that nothing but a completely independent homeland with him as the permanent dictator would be acceptable to him.

A more subtle point is that India should also make it clear to Sri Lanka in no uncertain terms that a policy against LTTE does not include open season on the Tamil minorities. Recently the Sri Lankan army has not be very careful about avoiding civilian casualties. As the LTTE is able to inflict more and more damage on the Army, the Sri Lankan Army seems to be lashing out blindly upon the Tamil civilians, dozens of whom have lost their lives in recent weeks.

India being silent about these deaths only encourages Tamil sessionnist tendencies in Sri Lanka, something that goes against India's strategic goals. It also runs the risk of turning a blind eye to genuine sympathy that Sri Lankan Tamils (as opposed to the LTTE) enjoy in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India.

This battle may be cast by the Indian Government as "India vs Warmongers" or as "India vs Tamils". There is not much doubt as to which policy will pay our country greater dividends in the long term.

Life, Religion, Parenting and Politics

2006-11-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Lifelong conservative John Derbyshire talks about this loss of faith, and the lessons of his life, as seen 61 years into it.

Quote for the day

2006-10-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

- Former New York Senator Danial Patrick Moynihan

300 men (mostly)

2006-10-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

There is a movie comming soon to a theater near you named 300. For those who liked Lord of The Rings, Sin City, V for Vendetta and other movies with innovative screen imagery, this movie is going to be the golden grail. From what I have seen, it is going to be breathtaking.

There is a commemorative stone in Thermopylae in Greece that reads "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie". The event it commemorates is the battle of Thermopylae where a mere 300 Greek soldiers fighting under Leonidas (who was one of the Spartan Kings. Sparta, strangely and almost uniquely in history was a kindom that had two Kings). Most western historians have latched on to this battle as the defining moment in the history of western civilization, when Greece and western civilization itself stood on the precipice, facing a massive Persian army under Xerxes. What glory of glories, it is saved by the individual valour of 300 men fighting for freedom and laws!

I am resigned to this movie igniting yet more jingoistic chest thumping without any desire on anybody's part to look into the deeper issues involved and think about the reality of the event. Here are some thoughts for your consideration:
1. There were 300 spartans in the fight. However, each Spartan soldier was accompanied by 2 or more "batmen", slaves who were expected to fight and die with their master. It was still a small number compared to the Persian army, however I am pointing it out to indicate that the official Greek histories of Monsieur Herodotus were maybe a liiitttle bit biased.
2. What more, official Geek history does not even count the slaves. Ironically, Spartan slaves were all Greek also (Helots). The first thing the Spartans did after establishing their kingdom was to go conquer a neighbouring Greek state and turn all of its citizens into slaves. Every single one of them. This system was preserved by the Spartans for centuries after the battle of Thermopylae battle that is depicted in the movie. So if the Spartans were fighting for Freedom, it was not any kind of Freedom recognizable in the modern era. In reality, they were in a kill or be killed kind of a fight, and were completely indistinguishable in this regard from any other people of that time.
3. Aristotle would later bristle at the thought of these slaves, but only because they happened to be Greeks. Everyone else was aparently fair game! Historians often mention that events of the ancient past must not be judged by the standards of modern morality. By the same logic, it stands to reason that abstract ideas over which the ancients fought should not be transplanted into modern terminology like laws and freedom in order to give a false impression of continuity.
4. It is not unusual for a relatively small force to be able to hold up a large army when the small force is defending a narrow pass. Xerxes finally managed to get past the pass by flanking the Spartan formation after many attempts at a frontal charge were annihilated. An American soldier once saw a column of British soldiers marching up a German held hill as if they were on a parade ground. They were mowed down my German machine guns. The American said it was the bravest thing he had ever seen, as also the dumbest. Xerxes was exceptionally arrogant and incompetent in that fight (on his way into Greece, Xerxes and his army could not cross a river because it was flooding. He ordered the river to be given 50 lashes told to subside! History does not record if the river obeyed). Greek valour played its due part of course, but it alone would not have managed to do much damage to Xerxes had he decided to out flank the defences to begin with.
5. The Greeks were a professional army with heavy armour. The Persians were mostly conscripts with light armour that could not withstand a hoplite column.
6. The 300 Spartans were supported by troops from many other Greek cities and the total army was about 5 to 7 thousand. This whole idea of 300 Spartan fighting a 500,000 strong Persian army to stand still is bullshit. A better estimate would be that about 5-7 thousand Greeks stood against about 50-70 thousand Persians. This is still an overwhelming numerical disparity, however it was offset in some measure by superiority of armour and the advantages of terrain and a prepared defensive position.
7. The connection between the flame of enlightenment in Greece and that rise of Europe after the dark ages is tenuous at best. It must be remembered that Greek knowledge came to Europe from the same lands that the Persians once ruled (Arabia). So maybe the Persians would have become the preservers of Greek achievement even if the Greeks had lost.
8. Finally, a more subtle point. Everyone has heard of Marathon, and everyone celebrates Thermopylae. However, Marathon was a relatively minor battle and Thermopylae did not stop the Persians. The decisive battle was fought at sea, in the straight of Salamis. The Persian Navy was decimated, leaving their land army stranded without any means to resupply. They had to withdraw. But whoever heard of Salamis? For most people it sounds like a fish. The Greek traditionalists always considered the "sailor rabble" to be a despicable kind. Unworthy of protecting the Greeks. In this world view, the "real men" were supposed to be aristocratic land owners who fought land battles in hoplite columns, like at Marathon. The larger battle of ideas may have been between conservative Sparta against the enlightened Athens, but there was clearly a subtext to that story. There were differing strains of thought within Athenian society, with many prominent thinkers including Plato showing marked affinity to the Spartan system. Athens may have won the battle of ideas in history, but within that battle, the battle for mind space seems to have been won by the conservatives. Nobody knowns Salamis. Everybody knows Marathon. Wonder why?

On the flip side:
1. The personal courage of Leonidas and his men cannot be questioned. They marched into certain death and never thought of removing themselves from the path of harm. Their sacrifice may not have ignited the glory of wester civilization like some historians seem to conclude with clear over reach, however it certainly bought many days extra time for the Greeks to prepare themselves.
2. The events of that battle firmly consolidated Spartan supremacy in the minds of the Greek conglomoration of states. In that regard it did change the course of history as it played an important role in the rise of Spartan hegemony.
3. In the flow of history, Theromopylae was definitely a milestone, just as Marathon was. It proved the decisive superiority of Greek armour, if not their war making capability. It provided important lessons to the Greeks when centuries later a young man named Alexander confronted larger numbers of Persians and drove a dagger straight into their heart.

Irrespective of the pros and cons, I hope to enjoy the movie for purely artistic purposes. Watch the trailer in the producation blog and you will agree with me!

Tata Steel and Third World Companies

2006-10-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

The news it the article is less interesting than the general sweep of what it is posited to represent - the theory that third world companies are more efficient because of the necessity of having to battle government regulations and low income in their home countries and are hence on very good footing to compete in the globalized world.

...experts say they are strengthened by the twin imperatives of having to compete with old-guard multinationals and overcome the exigencies of commerce in the developing world, with its low incomes and high business costs

Govindarajan, an Indian-born business professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire has the following to say:

The very genesis of Indian multinationals has to be around business-model innovation. The reason that business-model innovation will come from India is that India is a very different laboratory

Voltaire

2006-10-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

Voltaire quoted in a TIME magazine story.

Even if I don't agree with what you say, I'm ready to fight to my death so you can say it.

A survey of recent literature on Atheism

2006-09-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

A few recent books, including one by Richard Dawkins are reviewed.

A funny review of The World is Flat

2006-09-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

I had linked to this book review a long time ago when the book initially came out. Over time, I have realized this piece is a true classic. I am linking to this again. Hats off to the reviewer (Matt Taibbi), this is the funniest review I have ever read! Some examples:

(Friedman writes) I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins.

Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.

Here is another quote:

It's not for nothing that Thomas Friedman is called "the most important columnist in America today." That it's Friedman's own colleague at the New York Times (Walter Russell Mead) calling him this, on the back of Friedman's own book, is immaterial. Friedman is an important American. He is the perfect symbol of our culture of emboldened stupidity.

Another master stroke, questioning the use of "flat" to describe a more interconnected world:

The significance of Columbus's discovery was that on a round earth, humanity is more interconnected than on a flat one. On a round earth, the two most distant points are closer together than they are on a flat earth. But Friedman is going to spend the next 470 pages turning the "flat world" into a metaphor for global interconnectedness.

My God! this is funny:

This is the intellectual version of Far Out Space Nuts, when NASA repairman Bob Denver sets a whole sitcom in motion by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" in a space capsule. And once he hits that button, the rocket takes off.

The Beautiful Mountain

2006-08-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

"Viji, are you awake", asked Chetan.
I opened my eyes, and looked up into the cloudless, brilliant sky. A sky unlike anything visible from habitation. The city lights are bright and intoxicating, but the greatest beauty of the world may yet belong to its subtleties.
Chetan and I, the "before" photo. This was after Madhura's sharp comment to tuck my tummy. In my defense, the camera adds 5 pounds and so does the backpack!
There, all tucked away! Trailhead. 6600 feet.
On the hike up to the high camp, I had let out a silent prayer to the weather Gods, asking for a clear sky on my summit day. The rain Gods were smiling on me. But the wind Gods were not. A chill wind was blowing across the face of the mountain, freezing everything in its path. For the millionth time that night, I wished I had carried a heavier tent, rather than the light weight bivy sack. Even with three layers of clothing on me, all I could manage was a couple of hours of fitful sleep, drifting in and out of a tired twilight. For a moment, I wanted to just crawl up and ignore Chetan's voice. However there was a heat glowing in me that was brighter than the cold. I was burning up with summit fever.
"Yeah, dude", I answered.
"You want to just leave now?", he asked. Sleep is over rated, I tell myself. I am ready.
"Yeah, lets go", I said, and started fumbling around for my headlamp. It was 3:05 AM, 6th Aug 2006.

What are the indignities one will endure to reach a summit? I wore the same shirt for three days under my fleece. When I got back, the inner clothing was a regular salt factory, literally dripping with sweat. I had not washed my face or brushed my teeth, not because a toothbrush is heavy but because any water we wanted had to be laboriously melted from snow using precious fuel. Everything I carried, including my face was covered in dust and volcanic ash from the mountain. The ranger who hiked up to our high camp (1) suggested helpfully that he had extra "pack out bags", which meant that if you want to crap, you better crap in a bag and take your "stuff" back with you. Chilling out at Horse Camp. 7900 feet.
However you may describe hiking and mountaineering, sexy is not a word that is ever going to fit. There are very many things that dictate against climbing higher. Against this array of irrefutable reasons, there stands a single emotion that drives men and women up and ahead. It is called summit fever. It is a positive energy that can drive one to achieve heights that are otherwise unthinkable. It also has a dark side, driving us to reach out beyond our abilities and get trapped high on the mountain, at the mercy of the weather it creates for itself (2). Eighty percent of all mountaineering fatalities happen during descent (3). I did not want to become the statistic. However, I did not yet know if I would play by the rules if push came to a shove. I had struggled too hard for this chance. To walk away from it would be a test of character tougher than any I have faced before. I simply hoped not to have to make that decision. The clear sky boded well. The high wind did not.
Madhura and I, on the way to Helen Lake. She is wearing the heavy high end mountaineering boots. The model she and Chetan are wearing are like a Hummer and can be used on Everest if they get there! I preferred a light weight Ferrari. Italian hand made moutaineering shoes that are just about good for Summer.

It all started two months back. We had climbed half dome in Yosemite National Park with a group of friends. This was a hill that had defeated me two years ago. I was back to finish what I had started. This time, I was two years away from my last cigarette, and twenty pounds away from my peak bulk. The signs were good, and I reached the top in comfortable, though unspectacular time. However, I did have that vital spare energy at the top of the dome. I bypassed the traffic jam at the cables towards the end, and traversed rapidly on the outside of the two cables, imitating what the stronger hikers, including Chetan, were doing in front of me. He noticed and came up to me. "You are ready for Shasta", he said. "The next time I go, you should make time to come with us". Of course, this was the same Chetan who walked with me on my previous, unsuccessful trip to half dome and mentioned calmly that "it was all psychological", when I felt like my lungs were about to explode. He thought I was ready. I was very far from sure. At that point, Half Dome was the most strenuous hike I had done. It started at 4000 feet and tops out at 8800 feet. Shasta on the other hand, runs from 6600 feet to 14000 feet. A big chunk of the climbing being above the 11000 feet ceiling where thin air and altitude related sickness and fatigue become a big factor. Forget about them being in the same league, they were not even the same game.
The infamous cables at half dome. It looks scarier than it actually is. When there are lot of people on them, there is a traffic jam. Some of the climbers bypass the jam by moving on the outside of the cables. It is faster, but riskier.
A week after the successful climb of half dome, we were at Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states of the US. This is one of the most popular amateur hikes in the US. There are two very good trails leading up to the summit. In late summer time, all it takes is fitness and will. No mountaineering involved. The plan was to get to the high camp at 12,000 feet on the first day. We struggled our way to the Outpost camp at 10,600 feet. Chetan was the sweeper (5) and probably had a good idea of how the slower hikers were doing. He suggested that we should just crash at the Outpost camp. However, doing so would have seriously jeopardized out summit attempt. Madhura and I talked everyone out of this idea and convinced them that we would all be able to reach the high camp. "There is plenty of time. Just take it slow.". A few of us started ahead with the idea of getting to the trail camp quickly and setting up the tents for the others. The trail from the Outpost to the High camp however turned out to be a brutal affair. To make matters worse, Chetan was reporting to us on the radio that many of those behind us were starting to get altitude sickness as we crossed 11,000 feet. Finally, Chetan called from midway between the two camps and informed us that there was no way anyone could go any further. He was camping where he stood. Those of us who were higher on the mountain started debating if we should go down or up. Going down would make summitting the next day difficult. Going up would need supplies which we did not have much of. While the debate was going on, Madhura seemed to make up her mind and started walking down resolutely. Everyone followed shortly after.

In 1996, an Indian expedition belonging to the Indo-Tibetian Border Police climbed Everest from the Tibetian side. They were caught high on the slopes of the mountain when a full fledged storm hit. The three man summit team had lost one of its members and two others were close to death when a pair of Japanese climbers reached them on their way to the summit. The climbers passed the injured Indians without a word and headed for the summit. No help, words, food or oxygen was exchanged. "We were too tired to help.", one of the climbers explained later. "Above 8000 meters is not a place where people can afford morality." This episode is fairly typical of mountaineering where "there is nothing I can do" is a common explanation for climbing over the dead and dying to reach the summit. Ethicists argue that this explanation is valid only if the choice is between saving someone and leaving them to die alone. They point out that there is a third alternative, one of compassion, where the climber stays with the dying person and comforts them till they pass away. Doing this of course, puts the summit attempt in an inconvenient jeopardy.

Walking back down to where Chetan and others had camped, one question kept plaguing me. Why had I kept pushing myself and others, when it was clear that we all needed a break? When we got back to where Chetan had camped, a plan was hatched to start at 3:00 in the morning instead of 5:00 to try for the summit. I made my decision and told Madhura that I will not be waking up. The summit should be less important than certain other things. I had imagined that making this decision on my first big climb would make it easier on the climbs to follow. That was not the case. On Shasta, the fever hit again with full fury, now bolstered by the failure at Whitney.

Helen Lake on Shasta stands at 10,400 feet and is not a lake at all. I did not see any lake. Just a sea of sloping, rising snow. It was going to be just Chetan and me climbing to the summit. Madhura had decided to stay back at the high camp, nursing her old skiing injury. She has climbed this one more than once before. The Ranger had mentioned that the average climb from Helen Lake took 6 hours. He suggested we should turn back no later than 1:00. Knowing I was the weak link, I estimated it was going to take me 8 hours. If we leave at 4:00, then I would reach the summit at 12:00, with 1 hour buffer before the turn around time, I reasoned. As it happened, we were up by 3:00. I started fumbling around the camp, getting my gear on.The Helen Lake camp ground. The 'lake' is behind us. Red Banks is the most distant feature visible at the end of the slope.

After having done a certain amount of hiking, one begins to wonder what's next. The Avalanche Gulch route of Shasta presents a nice stepping stone from hiking to moutaineering. It is not so technical as to be inaccessible or dangerous to rookies. On the other hand, its height and massive icy slopes present a formidable challenge. The main difference from a normal hike was the equipment. We had to cart a small wagon load to our high camp before making the assault on the summit. Most hikes require little more than water and tennis shoes. Even ankle high hiking boots seem like a market driven overkill after a while. George Mallory (of "because it is there" fame), considered crampons and bottled oxygen to be cheating when he made the first assault on Everest. By his fifth expedition to his obsession, he had started considering both of these to be essential if there was to be any chance at all for climbing Everest. It took a couple of decades for the first ascent of Everest, even with these devices. It took a few more decades from there on to make the first ascent without oxygen. I don't think anyone is ever going to climb that mountain without crampons. It is just not possible. But then, that's what they said about oxygen too. When the first climb of Everest happened without oxygen, Tensing Norgay and several other eminent Sherpas sent out a note to the Nepali government demanding an investigation claiming that Messner and Habeler had cheated. A distraught Messner then went over to the Chinese side of Everest and climbed it again without oxygen and this time without even Sherpa support to prove his point. Now, no professional mountaineer would be taken seriously if he does not climb without oxygen.

Moutaineering Boots, check. Crampons, check (6). Ice Axe, check (7). Gaitors, check. Helmet, check. Headlamp, check. Backpack, check. Hiking pole, Hmmm.... My fifty dollar hiking pole was designed by someone who had obviously not been on a mountain. It needed my fingers to press on very fine buttons in order to collapse it. Problem was, each time I got my hands out of my gloves, they froze and became useless. With my gloves on, i was too clumsy to press anything fine. I finally gave up and informed Chetan that I was going to brave the slope without an pole. I was going to climb, no matter what. And I wanted to leave right away. The clock was ticking. Chetan suggested that was not a good idea, and gave me one of his poles. The 20 dollar WalMart pole could be adjusted without taking gloves off. It worked wonderfully. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Finally we were ready. I looked up with certain trepidation at the head lights of those who started before us, already high on the slope. "How in the hell am I going to climb this thing?", I thought. The previous night, I had ventured out of my tent to take a leak. A small dugout in the snow that acted as the camp toilet was no more than 10 yards from my tent. I fell about four times reaching it. When I finally got there, I could not unzip my fly with my gloves on. When I did take my gloves off and unzipped, my hands froze and so did my manhood. I could barely squeeze anything off. I could only laugh at my predicament, as I slunk off back to my tent, falling two more times along the way and crawled into my sleeping bag to start pretending I did not need to pee.

With the nightly escapade still fresh in my mind, I kept asking Chetan how to self arrest on the slope if I started sliding. "Hammer the claw of your ice axe into the snow, and then put your weight on it.", he said. I kept persisting with more questioning, until he finally said there was only one important safety tip I needed to know. "Don't fall", he said, and walked out into the cold, thin air.

Crunch. Crunch. The crampon bit into the hard snow, which had luckily frozen in the cold night. Lose slushy snow makes climbing difficult. Chetan struck a winding path, zig zagging on the slope so as to make the angle manageable. We hardly exchanged a word, I was concentrating on every step, making absolutely sure I don't fall. When in doubt, I kicked in deep steps before putting weight on my feet. Even with the measured pace and zig zag route that Chetan was setting, I had to repeatedly yell "Rest!" to make him stop. The rest was no rest at all. We could not very well sit and stretch on the wet glassy slope! The stops mostly consisted of driving the ice axe into the snow to secure myself and leaning on the hiking pole to catch my breadth. This was hard work. The wisdom of the helmet now dawned on me. The snow was several feet deep, and yet there were stones lying on top of them. The only way they could have gotten there is if they had fallen there sometime recently. The flip side of all this was that some of these stones were the size of Volkswagens. I tried not to think of my valiant helmet fighting against one of them goliaths!
On the way to Red Banks. The slope was already steep, however I had no idea what awaited me beyond Red Banks. Maybe if I had, I would not have sweated this part of the hike so much. From this point on, Chetan took most of the photos, since I did not think myself capable of carrying one ounce of weight more than I was carrying.
I could see the headlamps of those who had started ahead of us. And slowly, dawn started creeping up on us. Red Banks, so named for the large red sand and gravel, was visible at the end of the slope and was our immediate target. I put my head down and hiked with determination for a full hour. When I looked up, the end seemed even further than it had before! It was visible all the time, and it looked so near. I could almost imagine myself sprinting to it, get it over with. However, that was impossible. As we traveled higher and higher onto the slope, I gained in confidence. I figured that micro stepping straight up worked better for me than the wider steps on the zig zag route that Chetan preferred. I finally left his foot steps to strike my own path. And finally, inch by agonizing inch, we pushed closer to Red Banks (12800 feet).

Now there were about two dozen climbers scattered all over the slope, ahead and behind us. "Rocks!", came the shout from above. Everyone shouted "Rocks!", whether they saw it or not. The Ascent came to a complete stand still as those higher up anxiously looked down on those below, hoping nothing happened. "Is everyone OK?", came the next shout from above. This experience, which should have unnerved me, instead filled me with confidence. It was clear that safety was paramount here. The strongest climbers would go down first to help in an emergency. Nobody budged until everyone was sure everyone else was OK. Next stop Red Banks.

Chetan had started a small nose bleed, possibly because of the elevation or the icy wind blowing across the slope. However, it should be OK now, I thought, as we took the final steps into the bright red colored sand and gravel that marked the end of the snow face of Shasta. I did not expect what came next. While the large snow fields of the slope was finished, there was a narrow chute of compacted snow leading up and away, like a frozen stream with unclimbable loose graven on either of its banks. Impossibly, it was much, much steeper than the snow we had just traveled. In places we had to sink our ice axe into the snow and pull ourselves up, since it was too steep to rely on legs alone. To make matters worse, we were now in thin air. Fatigue hit me in full force. Till this point, I had managed to keep pace with Chetan, but now the difference in conditioning, strength and stamina started to tell. It was clear to me that Chetan was climbing conservatively. Conserving his strength and preserving it for the final push. Even then, he started to steadily outpace me. It was impossible to keep pace with him. I was finding it difficult even to keep him within sight. I don't know if it was hypoxia, or fatigue or a combination of both, but the inner voice in me started to show up around this time. The voice is that of a drill sergeant. "Take another ten steps, you weakling! Then you can slink and pant like a dog for all I care!", said the voice.The chute on top of Red Banks, on the way to Misery Hill. Easily the toughest part of the climb for me. I was exhausted after every five or so steps. Chetan climbed very strongly through this entire section.

Reinhold Messner, the greatest mountaineer of our generation, and the first person to climb Everest without oxygen believes he has met Yetis on the hills. Others on K2 and Everest recount vivid memories of imaginary companions. Frank Smythe, writing about his 1933 attempt to climb Everest says the following. "This presence was strong and friendly. In his company, I could not feel lonely, neither could I come to any harm. It was always there to sustain me on my solitary climb up the snow covered slabs. Now as I halted and extracted some mint cake from my pocket, it was so near and so strong that instinctively I divided the cake into two halves and turned around with one half in my hand to offer it to my companion."

The hypoxia induced hallucinations of the truly high mountains are of course, stronger and vastly different from those of a relatively minor bump that we call Shasta. However, I had been curious to encounter my inner voice, to find out what it looked like and what it would say. It is rather jarring to confront him and find out that it is an asshole, and that he mostly says nasty things. I wish he had been someone a little nicer! Whatever it was, it cannot be denied that this separation of personality in the face of seemingly intractable obstacles is a good thing, and helps get one through difficult phases of the climb. Towards the end of the ice vein, my body was already adjusting to the altitude. I was learning to go a lot slower to conserve energy, and the body in turn was adapting to the thin air. By the time the last ice patch was behind us (8), I knew I was going to make it to the top.

The next step was Misery Hill, so called because most people think this is the summit, only to reach there and find out the true summit of Shasta behind it, and still some distance away. The crampons where off now, and after almost four hours of plodding through snow with crampons it was a relief to be on gravel and rocks again. I started plodding slowly towards the top, paying due deference to the altitude induced physical limitations. At around the same elevation, Mt. Whitney looks like a moonscape. A world of rock and ice of indescribable ugliness, looking like a scene straight out or Tolkien's Mordor. It is a world both forbidding and malevolent, screaming at you to back off and go home. Shasta however, is the beautiful mountain. Its year around snow cover presents an invitation that is intoxicating. At the top of Misery Hill, with the summit looking near enough, Chetan and I started having the first meaningful conversations of the entire climb. We talked about this and that, important and un-important stuff. I have no doubt that the bonds developed on the mountains will always be special and long lasting. In the simple adversity of a hill, the clutter and adornments that mask our true personalities are shed away and we stand in stark relief, exposing what we really are.
We had made good time and the sun had barely shown up by the time we got to the base of Misery Hill (in the background). However, using the break to apply sun screen right away so I don't have to fumble for the stuff later. One more aspect of Misery Hill that makes it miserable is that the summit of the hill is not what you see from this angle. There is more of the hill beyond eyesight. It seem to never end.

We resumed our climb after the conversation break and reached the top 5:45 hours after we started. The Ranger had said the average climb from Helen Lake was 4-6 hours. I cannot describe in word how happy I was to finally be among the elite league of "average" climbers! The reactions of the summiters was as varied as the faces of Shasta. Some people were retching their guts out because of altitude sickness. They reached the top with a raging headaches, driven forward by nothing more than the strength of their will (9). Others reached the top to crack open a beer can, proclaiming non-chalantly that Shasta "is overrated". I was merely relieved to have reached the top with some spare energy. I wanted a safe climb down and it looked like I had enough left in my cylinders to concentrate properly on the way down. Chetan emitted a snore. The first one was loud enough to startle the small group at the summit. He then proceeded into an even gear as he started a power nap.
Summit! 14162 feet. The final decision on whether one summits or not is with the mountain itself. I don't mean to sound spiritual, but I thank the mountain for letting me stand on her. Chetan fell asleep soon after this picture was taken. I started shivering badly.

"Mountains have taught me what I can truly achieve and Shasta has been the best teacher yet." That was the small piece of philosophy I left behind on the summit log book. After burning itself for hours to produce energy for the climb, the body could not take inactivity even for a short while. After just half hour or so on the summit, I was starting to shiver uncontrollably, even though the sun was shining brightly and I was well sheltered from the wind. We had to keep moving. Chetan woke up soon enough and we started descending. Comming down is always hard. There is no summit fever to push you along. While going up, you feel as if downhill would be a breeze. However, it never is. It just seems never ending. Shasta was no exception. However, there was one bright spot. The snow banks that took us 4 hours to climb were glissaded down in 4 minutes. Never having skiied of done anything that resembled the speed and rush of this experience made it especially memorable for me.
This photo was taken after we got back to Helen Lake after glissading down the snow bank in the background of the picture. It is a popular mis perception that reaching the summit of a big mountain releases this huge surge of energy and joy. It never works that way. Usually one is so tired that there is barely an acknowledgement of the achievement. The thought of walking all the way back still dominates. However, Glissading down the massive snow banks of Shasta is something that I am unlikely to forget anytime soon.
When we got down to Helen Lake, the honorary Sherpa of this trip, Madhura D, had already packed most of our stuff away. We finished up and left. As we were walking out of the trail, a couple out for a quite evening stroll at the trail head saw us with our heavy back packs and asked me how long we had "gone in". "Oh, two days," I said, "Today was our summit day." There was initially incomprehension, then a quick glance towards the peak that looked impossibly distant from where we stood and finally amazement. "You mean you went all the way to the top! And you were there today!". I was too tired to say anything beyond "Yes", but I was beaming with pride. After all, I was in the other set of shoes not long ago.

A couple of days after the climb, circumstances had forced me to sleep really late and wake up for a early morning meeting. As my alarm started beeping, visions of the cubicle farm and the day ahead clouded me and I wondered if I would doze off at the morning meeting. "Sleep is over rated", I then thought. "With this sleep, I can climb a mountain! I am ready. Bring it on!".

THE END.

(1) I have noticed that "high camp" is used in mountaineering literature to indicate the highest camp site before the actual summit. Truly tall peaks impose multiple camps at increasing elevations as a matter of necessity. However, on Shasta, the multiple camps exist only as a matter of convenience. The high camp can be reached after a good day's hike. The other camps are needed only if you start late.
(2) Big Mountains, including those the size of Shasta distort the geography of the region and create local weather patterns on themselves that are divorced from the larger weather condition of the area as a whole. There may be a thunderstorm on Shasta in the middle of the day while Shasta city at the base of the mountain endures a dry hot day.
(3) Source: Touching the Void.
(4) Contemporary mountaineering literature has fully embraced the idea that the successful climb must include a safe descent. Full accolades are paid to individuals who have the wisdom to turn back from within spitting distance of the summit, either because they were too late, or because they judged themselves too tired to risk it. A very good example of this is in Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", where Goran Kropp, a Swedish man who bicycled all the way from Stockholm to Nepal before attempting the Everest summit comes across in brilliant light for his decision to turn back within 300 vertical feet of the summit, judging himself too weak to make the summit and climb back safely. On the other hand, Yasuko Namba, an amateur, clearly comes across in bad light for pushing herself far beyond her abilities. She is the first Japanese woman to have climbed Everest. However, she was one of the eight people killed in the disastrous descent that followed.
(5) The strongest hiker usually becomes the sweeper, walking behind the slowest hiker and making sure everyone was OK.
(6) Crampons are steel spikes that are worn under specialized mountaineering boots to gain traction on hard icy slopes.
(7) The Ice Axe is the single most essential mechanical gear used in snow and ice climbing. If you start sliding down a icy slope, the only way to stop yourself is by sinking the axe into the surface and putting all your weight on it. The Ice Axe was also necessary for glissading down the slopes while comming down. It controls speed.
(8) Shasta had snow in the middle portion in August 2006. There almost no snow below Helen Lake and above Misery Hill. I think the snow melts away from the top because Shasta is an active volcano and is still hot at the top (last eruption was about 200 years ago). This explanation of the absence of snow at the top is just my theory. I am not sure if this is accurate.
(9) Altitude sickness is a really funny thing and happens to different people at different altitudes. Some people start feeling it as early as 9000 feet. I have gone up 14000 feet without having encountered it yet. Only one thing is certain. It cannot be confused with strength, stamina or endurance. Strong climbers get it just as easily as not so strong ones.

Some Books of Interest:
- Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is a well researched book on the 1996 disaster on Everest.
- Maurice Herzog's Annapurna is supposed to be one of the greatest mountaineering books ever written. I have not been able to get my hands on a copy. Friends of mine who are reading this know what they need to do in order to assure themselves of my eternal love!
- Laurence Leamer's Ascent is a book with more of a philosophical incline. It is based on the life of the legendary american mountaineer Willi Unsoeld. Interestingly, Krakauer played with Unsoeld's kids when he was young.
- "Touching the Void" and "Everest IMAX, by David Breashears" are two unforgettable documentaries on mountaineering. Brashears filmed his movie in the same season that the events of Krakauer's book happened.

Jaswant Talk

2006-07-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

This excerpt it taken from a review of Jaswant Singh's new book, A Call To Honour. The review was publised in Asian Age.

This is Mr. Singh responding to Madeline Albright's comment that "India and Pakistan should climb out of the hole they have dug themselves into."

I must point out that civilisationally, we in India do not dig holes to bury ourselves in, no, not even metaphorically speaking. Therefore this observation exemplifies yet another fundamental lack of comprehension about the Indian stand and about addressing Indian sensitivities.

Sandy's Company

2006-07-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

Sandy started her own company. More info can be found at her website at www.UncoverU.com.

Mukesh's Plan

2006-07-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

A very detailed story in Newsweek about Mukesh Ambani's plan to expand into Retail and Agriculture. While the rest of the country has been obsessed with IT, this plan aims to make money in a decidedly Old Economy way. It is a tantalizing vision that has the power to spread India's growth to its villages, where most of the country still lives.

One astonishing tit-bit:

Soon after the (Jamnagar) plant came online in 2000, India not only stopped importing refined oil products, it started exporting enough to more than pay for its crude-oil imports, becoming a net energy exporter for the first time.

Another quote for the day

2006-07-09T01:23:00.000-07:00

This one is from Scot Adams' book, God's Debris. Thanks to Soggy for pointing me to this absolute treasure. Best of all, it is a free ebook. Google it and get your copy.

I was no longer surprised to find unlocked doors in the city. Maybe at some subconscious level we don’t believe we need protection from our own species.

I am also informed that Scot Adams is famous for creating the Dilbert cartoon strip.

Quote of the Day

2006-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

From Wilbur Smith's "Elephant Song" about aid to Africa.

Foreign Aid usually means poor people in rich countries helping rich people in poor countries bolster their swiss bank accounts.

A Tamil's Tale

2006-07-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

A Bangalorean at a party I was at recently mentioned in jest that Tamils cleaned the public toilets in that city. I am a fan of such incendiary remarks myself, using them to stir things up at a party. However, I did not have enough beers in me to launch on a fight below the belt. Perhaps because of this, I responded with a tame "Kannadigas in Madras are like anyone else", and left it at that.

Jest aside, it is a curious anomaly of Tamil Nadu that it does not have any strong reaction to the presence of outsiders at all. There are multiple instances where Bangaloreans have lamented to me about the decline of Kannada culture in the city. The rare few would venture into dumping the blame on the Konga Blakie Tamils from the south. One could point out that it takes an especially retarded monkey to heap such abuses on a people. However, I have learnt not to bother. Irony is not the bigot's strong suite. They don't know it when they are thus insulted.

Chennai too, has a large and fast growing Telugu minority. In size, it is probably larger than the Tamil population in Bangalore. However, I have never heard anyone break a sweat about this. This city is stiflingly conservative, shockingly poor and mind numbingly hot, but it cannot be accused of being uncomfortable in its skin. This tolerance is however, a curious anomaly. It would be ridiculous to say Tamils are any more (or less) tolerant than other ethnicities in India. The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and the now emaciated anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu are proofs of this. Bangalore too, presents a different and equally curious anomaly. Karnataka is one of the most diverse states in India. I am not talking just about the Tamil and North Indian minorities in Bangalore. Even outside of Bangalore, Karnataka is home to numerous linguistic and religious minorities, like the Tulus, Konkanis, Baris, Malayalies, Sanketis, Tamils, Telugus and others. A history of dealing with such diversity is probably what made the wondrous cosmopolitanism of Bangalore possible. However, it has still not managed to silence the Konga Brigade.

I have not had the pleasure of visiting a public toilet in Bangalore and hence cannot vouch for the veracity of the claim about the Tamil cleaners. However, I have been to the restrooms in the Singapore airport and it is manned by Tamils. I have never noticed a janitor in any airport in the western world, but in Singapore and Malaysia, there seem to be droves of them hanging around, flushing your toilet two seconds after you have done the same yourself. As with Sri Lanka and many South East Asian countries, there are three or four distinct groups of Tamils in Sri Lanka and South East Asia.

Starting with 985 AD, an extra-ordinary power exploded out of Tamil Nadu. Two generations of Chola kings, Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola followed a policy of unrelenting expansionism, that took their empire all the way up to Bengal in the North, and to Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra and Malaya in the south. Tamils followed where their kings did. Setting up colonies in these countries. Today, this group is usually well integrated into their new country and have only marginal ties to Tamil Nadu. They are also extraordinarily successful when their genius is allowed to flower, rising up to high ranks of the government in Singapore, Mauritius and even Sri Lanka. Many a Sri Lankan Tamil I have met have been at pains to explain to me that they are the "old Tamils" who don't support the LTTE, unlike the "plantation Tamils" who do.

That brings up the "plantation Tamils", taken by the British to work in slave like conditions on plantations. They are still numerous, still poor and sometimes have been unable to overthrow the feudal yoke that has held them down. In many places like Mauritius they are only one among the many people of Indian ethnicity who went there during British rule. In Sri Lanka and Fiji, they have been in violent conflict with local populations. In Mauritius, South Africa, Singapore and the Caribbean, they seem to have reached an amicable settlement with the local populace. Malaysia presents an ambivalence. The Tamils have not expressed their complaints violently, however, the state induced policy of positive discrimination towards Ethnic Malays has not helped. As one Tamil pointed out in a BBC Interview recently, "the Malays have the numbers and get the Jobs, the Chinese have the businesses and get the Money, we don't have squat and get the boot". In Bali, they are bombed by Islamic extremists, for whom Hindus serving Western tourists looks like a Double Bonus time.

There are the Tamil Brahmins. When Ramanujan was first offered a chance to go to England, he refused because his religion forbade crossing seas. From there to now, when the Brahmins are one of the most diasporic and scattered communities in the world, it has been a bitter long march, accompanied by the heart break of leaving a home behind as also by astonishing economic and intellectual successes in lands far and wide. Correctly or wrongly, the leading lights of the pre-independence Tamil Nadu identified Hinduism in general and Brahminism in particular as a strong cause of the suppression of the Tamil people and the dis-proportionate success of the Tamil Brahmin. Over the years, the importance of religious literature (Thiruvilaiyadal, Skanda Puranam, Kamba Ramayanam) was de-emphasized in the Tamil Canon in favor of relatively secular literature (Tirukkural, Silappadikaram, Manimekalai). The upshot of this policy has been the almost complete absence in Tamil Nadu of the kind of communal debauchery and anti-Muslim feeling that is so wide spread in Gujarat and other states of North India (Most, if not all, Tamils who have expressed such ill will to me have tended to be Brahmins living in the West!). The downside of this policy is the fostering of a virulent kind of anti-Brahminism. Although this extremism is a fringe phenomenon, it has nevertheless had a devastating impact on the Brahmins in Tamil Nadu, creating a mentality of being under seige and causing their population proportion to steadily decline for two full generations now, primarily because of migration. As with most stories of voluntary migration, this is a story of loss. Both for the migrants who lose their roots, and for Tamil Nadu, which loses talented and moneyed people, since these are usually the ones that manage to get away. Of course, time changes many things, and anti-Brahminism for its own sake is today not the force it once was. One is hopeful that things will turn course before it is too late.

Then there are the economic migrants. A few seconds after having my toilet flushed for me at the Singapore airport, I was accosted by a couple of guys who asked me if I spoke Tamil. When I said I did, they asked for help filling up the immigration form, which was in English. I got talking to them and learnt that they were migrant workers in South Korea, and were visiting Tamil Nadu after three years. I was curious to know more and after talking to them a long time, I gained their confidence and got the full story. Turns out they were illegal immigrants. They went to South Korea on a tourist visa and never came back. They work brutal hours for a couple of dollars an hour (they asked me how much I got paid, and I was too embarrassed to tell them a straight answer). They consider this to be good pay, and even manage to send most of it back home to support their families. Apparently the South Korean government has taken a humanitarian view of their situation and has offered them a one time chance to visit their families and get back into the country with a no questions asked legal visa. Hence their travel back home. I asked how they managed in South Korea of all places, without knowing English or even Hindi, let alone Korean. The answer was instinctive and instantaneous.

"We are Tamils", said one man. They all shrugged after that, but gave no further explanation. I am a Tamilian. No further explanation was necessary.

Our Many Identities

2006-03-30T17:22:00.000-08:00

Amartya Sen talks against classifying people purely based on their religious identity.

Relative Poverty

2006-03-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

An interesting article about poverty in rich countries, and how it could be just as damaging as poverty in poor countries. Amartya Sen is quoted.

Being relatively poor in a rich country can be a great capability handicap, even when one’s absolute income is high in terms of world standards.

India and its Toilets

2006-03-28T16:26:00.000-08:00

42% of the rural residents in Tamil Nadu have TVs. Only 14% have toilets.

Kissinger on India

2006-03-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

Kissinger writes this piece in the wake of President Bush's visit to India.

Some ideas expounded here are novel, and I have never seen them expressed anywhere else. Kissinger believes that India and America differ in their perception of the world. America believes itself to be the "shining city on the hill" whose ideas are relevant to the entire world. India on the other hand, has no interest in spreading its ideas and is interested only in creating a secure bubble within which its diverse society can thrive.

Hindu society does indeed also consider itself unique but, in a manner, dramatically at variance from America’s. Democracy is not conceived as an expression of Indian culture but as a practical adaptation, the most effective means to reconcile the polyglot components of the state emerging from the colonial past....Huns, Mongols, Greeks, Persians, Afghans, Portuguese and, in the end, Britons, conquered Indian territories, established empires, and then vanished, leaving behind multitudes clinging to the impermeable Hindu culture. The Hindu religion accepts no converts; one is born into it or forever denied its stringencies and its comforts.

Kissinger is supportive of attempts to strenghten ties between the two countries, but believes that the above difference in perception of the world would lead to different responses from the two countries when they are faced with the problems of the world. One strange error is the mention of Sikkim as India's neighbouring country. Sikkim was indeed an Independent kingdom during the time Kissinger served in the Nixon administration. However, it has been a part of India since 1975.

India - US Nuclear Deal

2006-03-12T12:53:00.001-08:00

In a sign of increasingly close relations between India and the US, the two countries recently signed a nuclear deal that would enable US companies to cooperate with India's civilian nuclear program. In return, India designates 65% of its reactors as civilian and agrees to have the IAEA inspect these facilities.

The deal has come under vicious attack from leading left-wing newspapers like New York Times was well as by right wing commentators like Pat Buchanan. Such bi-partisan attacks make Bush's courage in making the deal during a weak time for his Presidency even more impressive.

Now, finally the deal is getting some traction, and positive opinions. A recent column by Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace argues that non-proliferation concerns should not come in the way of the US Congress approving the deal.

As an Outlook India article points out, watching the deal being made is like watching a hurdles race. The next hurdle is the Congress, where the deal seems to stand a good chance of getting through, once the administration makes it clear that this is a one time exemption specifically for India, and shall not be replicated for any other country. However, there is still a chance of amendments/scuppering of the deal in the face of an assault from the Non-Proliferation lobby.

In an interesting side note, I got a chance to catch up with some old friends from College, who live in India and some who live in the US. The indication seems to be that Indian community which till recently split its loyalty between Democrats and Republicans in a reflection of the larger divide in the general American community, is now turning strongly Republican after Bush's visit to India. By this yardstick, Bush's visit to India must definitely rate as more successful than Clintons.

India - US Nuclear Deal

2006-03-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

In a sign of increasingly close relations between India and the US, the two countries recently signed a nuclear deal that would enable US companies to cooperate with India's civilian nuclear program. In return, India designates 65% of its reactors as civilian and agrees to have the IAEA inspect these facilities.

The deal has come under vicious attack from leading left-wing newspapers like New York Times was well as by right wing commentators like Pat Buchanan. Such bi-partisan attacks make Bush's courage in making the deal during a weak time for his Presidency even more impressive.

Now, finally the deal is getting some traction, and positive opinions. A recent column by Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace argues that non-proliferation concerns should not come in the way of the US Congress approving the deal.

As an Outlook India article points out, watching the deal being made is like watching a hurdles race. The next hurdle is the Congress, where the deal seems to stand a good chance of getting through, once the administration makes it clear that this is a one time exemption specifially for India, and shall not be replicated for any other country. However, there is still a chance of amendments/scuppering of the deal in the face of an assault from the Non-Proliferation lobby.

In an interesting side note, I got a chance to catch up with some old friends from College, who live in India and some who live in the US. The indication seems to be that Indian community which till recently split its loyalty between Democrats and Republicans in a reflection of the larger divide in the general American community, is now turning strongly Republican after Bush's visit to India. By this yardstick, Bush's visit to India must definitely rate as more successful than Clintons.

Damascus Diary

2006-03-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

A brilliant essay detailing the atmosphere in Damascus during the days leading up to the start of riots protesting the Danish Cartoons.

New Delhi

2006-02-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

A very nice article about the Indian capital.

KPS Gill on the Cartoon Controversy

2006-02-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

KPS Gill argues that the Muslim community must rise up in rage against those who are calling for violence as a form of protest against the cartoons.

He also mentions that the radicalization of political discourse and demonization of non-Muslims in islamic countries creates an atmosphere for terrorism, even though it is obvious that terrorists are a miniscule proportion of the Muslim population.

There is an American Indian saying: 'it takes an entire village to raise a single child'. Similarly, it takes a very large community, often entire nations, to raise a single suicide bomber.

Instances of enlighted opinion among the Muslim community have been documented elsewhere. However, they have been drowned by the violence of some of the protests.

BCCI, ICC and the Cricket Crisis

2006-02-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

The story is about the politics of cricket, and India's attempts to muscle into the high table of the game's backroom. One startling insight however, was not about cricket at all:

With Non-Alignment, South-South cooperation and third world-ism, India finds itself burdened by the legacies of history. It realises its natural seat at the high table is not compatible with endless engagement with lesser powers. As in diplomacy, so in cricket: the BCCI wants to play Australia and England more often than it does Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It sees this as a mutually-enriching, profitable enterprise, the old "Asian alliances" be damned.

This, in short, is the dilemma of India's Foreign affairs ministry.

Enlightenment and the Cartoons

2006-02-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Tariq Ali explores the darker side of Enlightenment Philosophy, which is widely cited as in Europe as the driving force behind the Freedom of Expression movement there.

Blacks are inferior to Europeans, but superior to apes.

The quote is attributed to Voltaire, and there are others in similar vein from many different Enlightenment writers. Tariq's argument is that the Cartoons had more to do with this darker side of the Enlightenment Philosophy than it does with the whitewashed and varnished side that seeks to promote Freedom.

Muslims in Indian Armed Forces

2006-02-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

The Government of India is pushing for a survey to find out the the number of Muslims in the Armed Forces. The well thought Rediff article questions this survey and suggests that it is politically motivated. It defends the secular nature of the Army and makes the reasonable point that there are other ethnic minorities who are also underrepresented (like Telugus and Gujaratis). The article also comes out strongly in defending the secular culture within the army, citing examples such as the Army's relatively blemishless record or dealing with communal riots fairly, and its attempts to foster cross religious respect and understanding through construction of "combined prayer halls, called Sarva Dharma Sthal" where all religions are represented.

As a matter of fact, this issue was brought up more than 2 years ago by Frontline. In its typically well researched article, Frontline concludes that there is infact under-representation of Muslims, but that communal recruitment is not the answer.

India at Davos

2006-02-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

India's presentation at the world economic summit recently concluded at Davos created a lot of buzz, receiving universal applause for a professional and slick performance. This Wharton article takes a deeper look at how the Government-Industry partership pulled it off.