Another week and another refugee crisis in Africa, this time Somalis in Kenya. Independence from colonial powers should have resulted in peace and progress, instead corruption, civil war and AIDS are taking the continent backwards. What makes conflict so brutal in Africa? From Charles Taylor chopping the limbs of infants, to mass rapes in Darfur and cannibalism by the Mau Mau in the Congo the barbaric cruelty seems to surpass medieval times. Omar Bashir is black and indistinguishable from any other African but claims to be Arab as do most Somalis. I do not know if Charles Taylor claims to be caucasian as Liberia because Liberia was established by freed slaves from the US. Why are Africans reluctant to be Africans? I feel this is becuse none of the African languages had a written script. Phoenicians developed hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt but this did not sprad to the rest of Africa. Without writing it is possible to pass on tales of kings and battles by story telling or ballads but it is not possible to develop philosophy, science or literature. Thus I have not heard of any African Confucius or Socrates, any Vedas or Das Kapital, any Shakespeare or Newton. Without written language it is impossible to transmit ideas and impossible to develop a peaceful intellectual dialogue across races and distances and develop a cultural identity. African Americans are a case in point. Brought in as slaves they have adopted the religion and culture of their masters. They are the biggest group in the armed forces and follow orders to commit genocide in Vietnam and Iraq. Only Muhammed Ali had the guts to say that the Vietnam war was not his fight. If Africa is to progress Africans must develop cultural identity and not just nationalistic ones.

Like Americans, Indians have very poor sense of humour. We have few comedy programmes which depend on funny faces and voices to make people laugh. The humour is coarse and is accompanied by typical background music to allert people that they have to laugh. We are completely unable to laugh at ourselves. This is the reason why our politicians are unable to see how others see them. A bunch of criminal windbags preening with self importance they do not see the hatred and contempt they generate. They surround themselves with Z category security and cause traffic chaos for taxpaying honest citizens to feel superior and generate a false sense of security. Yet regularly we see politicians being murdered either by other politicians with Z security or by their relatives who want a share of the loot. They cannot tolerate any criticism and any attempt to poke fun will be ruthlessly suppressed. The British had a fantastic sense of humour and could make fun of anyone without any restriction at all. I think that this trait of being able to prick any pomposity was behind their Raj. Unfortunately I feel Blair lacks this British trait and is the reason for his troubles.

Thankyou Moonlight and a very happy Diwali to you too. I suspect you are young and pray that sanity prevails in the world so that you are able to enjoy many more such Diwalis. Two items of news in national newspapers. A judge takes his wife to a govt. hospital where he damands instant attention from the consultant who is too busy to see her instantly. So he summons him to his chambers and makes him sign an apology on Rs. 10 stamp paper under threat of contempt of court. Why is a judge's wife or indeed a judge more important than any other human being? If a doctor is resuscitating someone should he let that person die to attend the judge's wife? In India a rich man's family can survive his death because they have enough money but a labourer may have a wife, two children and elderly parents dependant on him and his death will reduce them to destitution. Unfortunately a govt hospital is most likely to have such patients and should the doctor have left him to attend to the judge's wife? The second item- Three men were crossing train tracks in the same city and were killed by an oncoming train. No fault of the train driver who could not possibly see these people and stop in time but passengers beat up rail staff and ransacked offices. Unconnected events but shows that people have so much contempt and hatred for the establishment because of the behaviour such as that of the judge.

Writing about the future Asimov visualised a world ruled by an emperor which may seem a regressive vision but it already seems to be happening. Politicians every where are already behaving like kings and passing laws centralising power in their hands. They are also growing increasingly intolerant of dissent or the mildest of criticism. This is glaringly obvious in the US where the Homeland security, Patriot act and the insistence on disregarding or bypassing laws regarding treatment of suspects makes it more like a dictatorship. Bush and his cronies insist that they are right even when they are wrong and to say different is unpatriotic. Not much different from the divine right of kings. What of Britain? With no empire, rise of Asian power, marginalised in Europe and Churchill's ghost still haunting the corridors of Whitehall British establishment is terrified of being reduced to irrelevance. In a sad and desperate attempt to get some recognition in foreign capitals Blair has reduced himself not so much to a poodle but to a lackey treated with disdain ( as in ' yo Blair ') and exagerating a minor threat to a major crisis to gain a little recognition from his master. Britain is not the 51st state but more a neighbourhood of white trash grovelling to be noticed. How long before His Majesty the President of the US? In India politicians are already above the law and citizens have no rights.

What is the colour of death? In Hollywood movies baddies are taken away by black, grotesque shapes while the goody is welcomed by a soft, comforting white light. Is an Iraqi mother likely to feel better that her teenage son has been shot dead by a white all American boy, whose Evangelical parents tie a yellow ribbon around the tree in the front garden, rather than by a filthy bearded terrorist? After the Germans lost the second World War, Nazi leaders were prosecuted at Nuremberg. Serbian leaders are facing prosecution in the Hague while Saddam and his cronies are being tried in Iraq. Yet there were no trials after the US defeat in Vietnam. On the contrary the US maintained sanctions against Vietnam for over 20 years because they wanted to know about soldiers missing in action ( MIAs ) or dead soldiers. Thus dead Americans were deemed to be more important than living Vietnamese. When the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was signed it was envisaged that the nuclear powers will gradually get rid of their weapons and we will move towards a nuclear free world. Instead they have increased their arsenal and are researching newer types of weapons. Clearly they feel that they have a right to kill others without any threat to themselves. US did use nuclear weapons on Japan but they also considered using them on Vietnam and on India during the Bangladesh crisis. Is it any wonder that Asian countries feel the need of developing their own weapons after the repeated atrocities on Asia. So North Korea today, Iran tomorrow. When will they learn that death is colouless?

Dengue in Delhi is no surprise. Delhi is the capital of the country and the seat of the central govt. which has a say in the administration from the days when it used to be a Union Territory. Seven Members of Parliament are elected from the city and it has been granted status of a state so has an Assembly with a State Govt. There are two Municipal corporations the New Delhi Municipal Corporation or NDMC which looks after the VIP part and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or MCD which loots the trash part which means where we live. It is no surprise, therefore , that with so many different scoundrels looting the treasury it is a filthy city. Every monsoon the roads get flooded after little rain because drains are never cleaned. After a light shower roads break up and are not repaired for months. As soon as a road is repaired some agency such as the telephones, water or electricity will dig it up again because they are in league with the contractors. Water supply is erratic and we have to buy water at exorbitant rates from tankers who are in league with the sarkari fellows. Electricity distribution was privatised but the private companies were forced to take on the diseased govt. fellows so power cuts are frequent. Taxes are continually increased but we get no services. Nineteen have died but it is no epidemic. With so many bloodsuckers why grudge a few little mosquitoes.

Dengue outbreak in Delhi. The Health Minister refuses to call it an epidemic. All the noise is about patients admitted to AIIMS and no one knows how many are dying in the slums after heavy doses of antibiotics and steroids by quacks. Of course the Honble Health Minister is busy banning screening of any smoking scenes in films and destroying the morale of the doctors at the same AIIMS. This is being done in a two pronged attack. First by refusing to pay the salaries of junior doctors who had gone on strike to protest against admission of lower caste students with low marks in admission tests. Who benefits from reservations ? The children of politicians because their millionaire parents have put them through fee paying schools. It is another matter that the real have nots have not received even a primary education and hence do not know what higher education means. So we will have an army of 5% doctors to ill treat the people while the politicians go abroad at our expense to get treated. The man who first started this Mandal abomination went to the UK for treatment of his kidney ailment with his security detail. So while people were dying at the hands of 5% doctors this fellow spent Rs. 800 million of tax payers money being treated by white skinned super brahmins.
The second method is to attack the head of AIIMS who is respected by other doctors. What this is meant to achieve God alone knows but it has certainly destroyed the morale at the country's leading medical institution. The biggest tragedy is that this Health Minister is a doctor. No sharam, no izzat.