Headline in the Times of India, TOI on January 29, 2011 - " Cash strapped Prasar Bharati looks at new ways to generate revenue." Seems that employees of this public sector company are moonlighting for private companies while drawing salaries paid for by the ever suffering taxpayers. More cash is to be generated by marketing its archives containing speeches by Nehru and Jinnah. While some musty professors may be pleased at the prospect can you see cell phone hooked, shopping mall educated youth tweeting with excitement? Headline in TOI, January 30, 2011 - " Cash strapped Indian Railways looks to private players." Seems that having no money for new stocks and maintenance Indian Railways are going to involve private builders to develop properties at five railway stations. This is a monopoly behemoth with vast acres of prime land in every city and town in India which, if developed properly, could yield trillions of rupees in revenue. New Delhi station is filthy, the stairs and over bridges are worn out and one has to go to filthy, unhygienic roadside restaurants to eat. A large building with restaurants, rest rooms, reasonably priced hotel for transiting passengers with a long wait for their next train and shops would pay back its investment in less than 5 years. Not one station has a chemist for essential medicines or shops where one could buy diapers, baby food or sanitary napkins. Why are potential gold mines unable to generate revenue? Seems that the CWG Organising Committee spent Rs 80 million taking 166 people, many of whom were hangers on, for a junket to Beijing for which no report was filed. Criminal beggars all.

Will Mubarak leg it out of Egypt like Ben Ali did out of Tunisia and will that improve living conditions for the people? Egypt and Tunisia, like other Arab countries, suffer from the same disease which is uncontrolled growth in population so that vast numbers of youth are qualifying from university to find no jobs. Rising commodity and food prices make their lives ever more precarious every year and this is not going to change. If Mubarak does go and there are elections there is every chance of the Muslim League coming to power which will mean immediate cut off of all aid from the west as has happened to Gaza with Hamas. If up countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan start diverting more water from the Nile as they are proposing then cultivation could fall and food could become even more scarce than it is today. Israel must be watching the situation with dread. A Muslim League government will surely support Hamas but will it link up with Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon or will the hatred between Sunni and Shia prove too great to resolve? Iran must be ecstatic. It has succeeded in getting its proxy, the Hezbollah in control of Lebanon and its friend Al Maliki has been able to hang on to power in Iraq. Southern Iraq is Shia dominated and has a long border with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The beards in Iran would love to take over the two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia and that dream seems almost within grasp. Iran can now develop nuclear weapons at will and there is nothing Israel or the US can do about it. So will Sunni Arabs team up with Israel against Shia Iran and its proxies? Oil at $ 200 a barrel. Did the Mayans really foresee 21.12.2012?

The great Indian sage, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of the Planning Commission has taken a delegation of 115 including 5 ministers to Davos, Switzerland to present " India Inclusive " at the World Economic Forum. An article in the New York Times outlined the costs of attending this conference. Attendance is by membership only at $ 137000 and everyone must have a ticket at $ 19000 plus tax. For 5 people membership costs $ 527000 plus tickets $ 95000 for a total of $ 622000. Add air fare, hotel stay, food and lots of drinks for parties, which the word " Inclusive " probably signifies, and we are talking a cool $ 1 million. For 115 people it is $ 23 million which is Rs 1.035 billion. So what does the Indian taxpayer get for such a colossal sum of money? Whoever went last year resulted in a drop of 32% in Foreign Direct Investment. Do they think foreigners are such mugs that they do not know about our broken roads, erratic electric supply, archaic labor laws, somnolent courts and, the most important of all, our criminal politicians and thieving civil servants with hands outstretched for bribes? In lists of countries most difficult for business India consistently figures near the top and the reasons given are corruption and inadequate infrastructure. However $ 23 million will buy one hell of a junket. On a tangential note 21 CBI officers have been awarded medals for " distinguished and meritorious " service on the occasion of the Republic Day. What is the point in medals which will not buy a kilo of onions at today's prices? What about another attempt at catching big Q? St. Kitts has been done so what about St. Tropez?

Rats not only are deserting in large numbers but turning on each other. The interim government in Tunisia, led by cronies of ousted president, Ben Ali have issued an international warrant for his arrest. They have also asked foreign governments to freeze his accounts promising people a clean government hence forth. But is this genuine change or time wasting so that people get tired of protesting and the politicians can protect their own ill gotten wealth? In Egypt people are defying government bans on public protests and the president's son and heir, Gamal Mubarak is said to have escaped to London with wife and daughter. Protests have started in Yemen with calls for the president to go. If these dictators want to survive they should study the Iranian model and how Ahmadinejad survived last year's protests after blatantly stealing the elections. He used Basij militia thugs to beat up, threaten and kill protesters. Two men were hanged couple of days ago for the crime of protesting against the regime and human rights activists have been jailed for long terms. Those arrested were tortured in jail and raped. This in a country that touts itself as an Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad has denied that the Holocaust ever took place and has said that 9/11 was an american plot to tarnish muslims. He has stayed awfully quiet, perhaps orchestrating the Hezbollah, which means the army of God, takeover of Lebanon. Meanwhile a suicide bomb in Moscow killed 35 and muslim militants attacked a police post in Thailand killing many. Bombs in Iraq and Pakistan are routine. What kind of God needs an army of psychopaths to protect him?

While criminal politicians show off their self importance taking salutes in Republic Day march pasts we wake to the news that Yashwant Sonawane, Additional District Collector in Nashik, Maharashtra was burnt to death by criminals adulterating petrol. A group of men led by one Popat Shinde poured kerosene over Sonawane and set him on fire in front of people in broad daylight. Shinde had criminal cases registered against him in 2006 and 2008 but was obviously still free to carry out such a bestial attack on a government officer. Questions: 1. Are Indians a savage people deluding themselves about 5000 years of civilisation? 2. When a known criminal like Shinde is allowed to carry on with his activities why are we paying extortionate taxes? 3. Is their a special hatred for government officials that fuels such murderous rage? 4. Was Shinde being protected by someone so powerful that he thinks he is immune to any punishment? If so who is this person? Will we ever find out? Recently an IAS couple, Arvind and Tintoo Joshi were found to have Rs 36.2 in cash and Rs 2.63 billion in assets. 18432 officials were surveyed by Center for Good Governance, Hyderabad of which 4808 responded. 80% agreed that it paid to be corrupt. Honest officials are harassed through false complaints and investigations while the crooks get plum postings. 93.1% of IPS, 87.5% of IAS and 80% of IFS officials agreed that criminal politicians always find willing officials to assist them. Finally, it is the wide differences in prices because of the stupid tax system that makes it highly profitable to mix petrol with diesel and diesel with kerosene. What use are all these parades?

With the world's two greatest economists, that is our revered Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, managing the country economics can never be far from the news. The Reserve Bank has just raised interest rates by 0.25% which takes the repo rate to 6.5% and the reverse repo rate to 5.5%. The bank is predicting growth in GDP of 8.5% this fiscal and inflation rate of 7% which is much higher than the modest target of 5.5%. At the same time the RBI is lending over Rs 1 trillion to banks daily as liquidity is so tight that banks have no money to lend. The geniuses who run India want us to grow as fast as China without having any idea on how to control inflation which rises in tandem with growth. This kind of growth makes rich richer while killing the poor with high prices and seems suicidal.China has surplus of over $ 2 trillion which may be used to buy food from abroad or provide subsidies to reduce inflation whereas our government has a total debt of $ 2 trillion, 89% of which is domestic borrowing. The dire condition of the economy is shown by fall in Foreign Direct Investment, FDI in 2010. While FDI in developing countries rose 10% last year India's share fell by 31.5% in absolute numbers. FDI money is usually long term investment by foreign companies and therefore stable as opposed to Foreign Institutional Investment which is hot money invested in shares and bonds which flees in times of trouble. So why are the world's two greatest economists pursuing lemmings policies? To make the naked aam aadmi grateful by distributing cheap low grade food. How else to win elections!

Monkeys would not be able to stage the kind of circus going on in Karnataka. The Governor, Bhardwaj previously of the Congress gang has accused the Chief Minister, Yeddyurappa of the BJP gang of being a thief who has then called the governor a liar. Meanwhile two unknown lawyers, apparently being coached by a third worse gang have filed 18 charges of land grabbing against Yeddyurappa in front of a local court. The BJP called a " bandh " or a state wide shut down yesterday in protest against the governor costing people some Rs. 20 billion in lost earnings. Mr. Y claims that the governor has been relentlessly working to tarnish the image of the BJP government. He also said that the bandh was voluntarily supported and observed by the people. With great respect I would like to point out that Mr. Y is wrong on both counts. The image of Indian politicians cannot be tarnished. They are seen as the most degenerate villains that have ever existed, devoid of any shame, dignity or pride. They are universally feared, hated and despised. Secondly, everyone hates a bandh because normal life becomes impossible. People do not dare to go out for fear of being assaulted by political thugs. All shops are closed so food and medicines cannot be bought. Sick people cannot find a doctor because damage to a car can be expensive. The worst sufferers are the daily laborers who lose a days earnings and vegetable vendors because vegetables perish. The only solution is to get rid of all state governments and municipalities. Divide the country into 700 districts and distribute funds equally with bonuses for progress and population control. Less scum the better.

Today's Sunday Times in India carries an interview with the 17 year old girl who has accused UP Member of the Legislative Assembly, PN Dwivedi and his men of raping her at his house where she worked as a maid servant. On a complaint of theft from Dwivedi's son local police locked her up for 15 days which, naturally, makes forensic proof of rape impossible. Earlier she is reported to have demanded Rs. 5 million as compensation from the government but claimed to have forgotten that in the interview as her brain is not working. Earlier she had also demanded that the MLA be hanged but now wants him to receive the same punishment as he would if he had raped the daughter of a rich man. She keeps harping on her poverty as the cause for rape and expresses a desire to be educated. The whole interview seems contrived and not spontaneous from an illiterate 17 year old. Is someone coaching her hoping to make money out of her horrible ordeal? People have sunk to such levels of depravity that such a situation would not be at all surprising. What about the law on child labor? Why did her father send a vulnerable teenager to work as a maid servant? Poverty cannot be an excuse for parents to abuse their own children. Giving birth does not convey ownership. In every city in India we see women begging with a scrawny baby dangling from their arms as they try to emotionally blackmail us into giving money to feed the hungry baby. Poor people breed with the intention of exploiting their children and until this is punished we will never be rid of poverty. Children must have rights and the first right must be the right not be born.

Under the title " Familial adenomatous polyposis and hypertension " ( Lancet 2012; 375: 1752 ) in the Lancet of May 15, 2010 the authors report the case of a 36 year old man who is found to have high blood pressure which, on investigation, turns out to be due to excess aldosterone secretion from his left adrenal gland in October 2008. He was referred for laparoscopic excision of the gland but when last seen in March 2010 was still waiting to have his duodenum investigated before being operated. An article in the Guardian Weekly of January 7, 2011 says that women delivering babies could be at risk because midwives are under intolerable strain as Britain lacks at least 3500 midwives. This is surely unacceptable as pregnancy is not a disease but a natural condition in healthy young women in the vast majority of cases. The man responsible for the crumbling National Health Service is Tony Blair who chose to waste money on a bunch of useless administrators whose task was to save money by shutting down hospitals and reducing staff while spending money redecorating their offices. This man chose to portray himself as New Labour while following policies that the most right wing Thatcherite would hesitate to advocate. Appearing before the Chilcot enquiry yesterday Blair expressed regret for the deaths in Iraq. There is something reptilian in the way he purses his lips and bends his head trying to appear sincere but looking sinister instead. He should have been asked why he chose to enslave Britain to the US in an illegal war that killed many thousands more than Saddam ever did. Yet Saddam has been hanged while this lying mass murderer is free.

Jean-Claude Duvalier also known as Baby Doc has been arrested and charged with embezzlement on his return to Haiti. Whether he will face trial remains to be seen but it is a sign of the man's arrogance that he dares to return to the country where his father and he ruled with torture and murder for over 50 years. Alberto Fujimori is serving a 25 year prison sentence in Peru for extra judicial killings and Charles Taylor is on trial at special court in the Hague. These are the exceptions. On the whole 99% of politicians escape justice for the crimes they commit because all the associates who have benefited from the crimes work hard to protect their former boss and politicians in other countries are ready to offer refuge in a crisis. Thus Ben Ali has found refuge in Saudi Arabia as did Idi Amin in the past. Pol Pot hid in China while Mengistu Haile Mariam is in Zimbabwe. Musharraf is living in luxury in London while the mass murderer, Tony Blair, whose unquestioning slavish support of George Bush resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands, is apparently trying to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. Thus politicians feel free to loot, torture and kill knowing that some sympathetic brother will offer refuge where they can live out their lives that the looted billions will afford. This perceived immunity encourages beasts like Mugabe to eliminate any opposition and Laurent Gbagbo to threaten UN troops who are trying to protect Ouattara, the victor of last month's elections that Gbagbo refuses to recognise. Politics has become the ultimate refuge for the scoundrel. This is true all over the world.

".... a lot still needs to be done." These words on human rights in China from Chinese President Hu Jintao have been triumphantly seized upon by the Anglo Saxon press as a confession. News readers analyse the words with a we-told-you-so tone which seems to imply that human rights are practiced only in western countries. But is that really the case? Hu Jintao's hosts, the US is by far the worst country in the world when it comes to war crimes and genocide. The only country in the world to have used atomic weapons on Japan, napalm over Korea, dioxin over Vietnam and Laos and now depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Faluja, Iraq there has been an enormous rise in babies born with neural tube, cardiac and skeletal defects. In May last year 15% of 547 babies were born with serious birth defects, 11% were born before 30 weeks and 14% of pregnancies aborted. Rates of cancers have increased. In Vietnam birth defects and cancers have been thoroughly documented. Not only does the US army kill indiscriminately but it also taunts and humiliates the dead. Thus one atom bomb was called " fat boy " and innocent children killed by drones are casually dismissed as " collateral damage " as though they are inanimate objects like tables and chairs. Not just direct killing, of which there is no proper count, but the US is also behind at least half a million Iraqi deaths through the " Oil for food program " which it sponsored. So, if the Chinese kill a few in Tianananmen Square then it is violation of human rights but the US are right to slaughter millions. Spare us the sanctimonious lectures. We demand globalisation of human rights.

Even as the US rolls out the red carpet for Hu Jintao Indians are a worried lot but I think that there is nothing to worry about because China thinks that the US is an ebbing impotent power to be pushed around while promising cooperation on everything. China will never respect intellectual property rights as it uses industrial espionage as long term strategy. China will never open its markets fully to US products. Instead it is reducing exports of rare earths by 30% to force foreign companies to manufacture in China in partnership with local companies so that they can steal industrial know how. On North Korea it will advise restraint because protecting the South keeps the US busy. On human rights, Burma and Tibet it will claim sovereignty. On currency it will accuse the US of trying to devalue the dollar through quantitative easing while on climate it will claim to be a developing country. However the US still has one weapon and that is trade. China is still dependent on exports and the US is still its largest markets. The US should tell Hu bluntly that just as China claims the right to set the value of the yuan vis a vis the dollar the US has the right to do the same for all Chinese goods imported into the US. The US could set a rate of, say, 3 yuans to the dollar which would double the cost of Chinese goods, boost US manufacturing and increase employment. Of course it will cause inflation to jump and retailers like Walmart will howl but the pain will be short term and the gain will be immense. Uncivilised barbarians like the Chinese respect only power and see politeness as a weakness. Power, after all, comes from the barrel of a gun.

Indians may be lacking in many things such as roads, water, sanitation, dependable electric supply, affordable education and healthcare but we never lack for entertainment. Even Bertie Wooster could not compete with our criminal politicians and thieving civil servants in their fumbling incompetence. The Minister of Agriculture has denied any responsibility for the rise in prices of onions and tomatoes as these are under the Prime Minister's Office, PMO. So, turnips and spinach belong to Agriculture but onions and tomatoes to the PMO along with nuclear weapons. The Oil Minister denies any culpability in the rise of petrol price to Rs 62/lit blaming the rise on world prices even as petrol price in the US is still about $ 3.10 a gallon which is around Rs. 32/lit including tax at 14%. The Railways will apparently be asking the Finance Minister for Rs 550 billion because falling growth in revenues means it will be unable to pay for replacement and maintenance. The Minister of Railways says that she is not interested in her ministry and chooses to concentrate on fighting the CPM in Bengal. Our most revered Prime Minister, the world famous economist, says that inflation is the fault of the people because they have become too prosperous and are spending more. Just when we are beginning to be pleased at the confessions of uselessness and planning to dump the whole lot into the garbage dump comes the news that the government has claimed that it is its sole right to appoint PJ Thomas as chief of Vigilance even if he is indicted for corruption in Kerala and the Supreme Court can push off. No wonder surveys show that Indians are world's most optimistic.

Back to inflation. The wholesale price index, WPI has gone up to 8.43% in December and the Reserve Bank, RBI is expected to hike interest rates on 25 January. While China and South Korea are exercised over inflation rates of 3-4% the RBI's target is 5-5.5% in India. So, why is the RBI not taking drastic action to control inflation which is so much higher than its modest target? The reason is that inflation can only be controlled by reducing growth rate which the Congress led government will not allow. Fall in growth rate will leave the Congress with nothing to brag about even as it is seen to be a cesspit of corruption and, more importantly, lower growth means less in tax collections which a desperate Congress cannot afford. Having won the last elections by bribing useless parasitic civil servants and forgiving farmers' loans which left the government bankrupt the Congress needs money for some important state elections coming up in the next two years. Apparently the next budget is going to increase supply of cheap food grains to the aam aadmi from Rs 567 billion to Rs 920 billion. There will be similar rises in expenditure on education. Needless to say a major portion of this money will be creamed off which will pay for election expenses and the Congress will be able to crow about how much it is doing for the aam aadmi. The budget will also increase taxes by bringing lab investigations and tutorials under service tax which can then be blamed on the greedy private sector. First collect money through high taxes creating inflation and then use the same money for charity making the naked aam aadmi so grateful. This is how the Congress has enslaved India since independence. Foolproof.

Tunisian President Ben Ali scarpered to Saudi Arabia with his whole family after 23 years of dictatorship suddenly collapsed in the face of public anger. His mistake was that he was too selfish and refused to share the loot with anyone else. Contrast this with Omar Bongo who was president of Gabon for 42 years from 1967 to 1992 and died in office. He included everyone including the opposition in the loot of the oil wealth of his country. India is a much larger country and offers lot more opportunities for loot. There are 1200 political gangs registered in India of which 200 have no political activity and are sources of money laundering because political gangs are exempt from tax. Two large gangs, the Congress and BJP have some presence in most of the country, the CPM is restricted to Bengal and Kerala while gangs like the DMK are restricted to only one state, Tamil Nadu. This allows leaders of all gangs some chance at making sure that they and at least ten generations following them can live in luxury without doing any work. Of course the pot at the center is much larger than at state level but even a one state gang can dip into the central pot by cooperating with a bigger gang, euphemistically known as " compulsions of coalition politics." Those not strong enough to be near the chief feel sad and so agitate for the creation of a separate state. Thus Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand were carved out of UP, MP and Bihar. The original states kept their ministers and civil servants the same but now the fringe players have their own opportunities. No wonder Telengana fellows were literally in tears for their own feeding trough. Only fair.

The Vibrant Gujarat convention has been a triumph for Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has been promised investments worth some $ 400 billion equivalent to Rs. 15 trillion. Mr. Modi is talking big. He says he is not interested in 8-9% growth that the central government is boasting about but wants growth rates of over 12% for Gujarat. He does not want Gujarat to be compared with any state in India but with South Korea and Japan. The summit is partnered by Japan whose ambassador, Hideaki Domichi said that Gujarat is one of the best states to do business in. In delicious irony Ron Somers, president of US-India Business Council, said that he would like the US to be partner next time. To think that Modi has been denied a US visa on at least two occasions. This is causing the Congress to burn with envy as the gang is at last being exposed as the incubator of corruption that it is. Its excuse for every case of larceny that is exposed is that it is " compulsions of coalition politics " as though it is morally acceptable to cling on to power even if those supporting the Congress are thugs and bandits. Some cases of sleaze, such as Adarsh and CWG, are purely Congress. True to form the free loading Congress pit bull press keeps harping on the Godhra killings choosing to forget the much greater Sikh massacres which have not seen any one of the guilty go to prison let alone be hanged. Yesterday the Supreme Court was forced to ask why when the solicitor general, Gopal Subramaniam informed the court that the government had the details of people with black money but did not want to reveal the details. Hilarious! Who says Indians do not have a sense of humor?

In order to get her retaliation in first Ms Sarah Palin appeared in a video in which she says, " .....There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged apparently apolitical criminal." Like any politician Ms Palin is master of double talk. By using words like "despicable," "deranged" and "apolitical" she attempts to disassociate herself completely from the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. Targeting Gabrielle Giffords district in the cross hairs of a gun sight is no " political rhetoric " but a deliberate attempt at inciting so called " deranged " shooters. Congresswoman Giffords herself predicted that there may be " consequences." Will Ms Palin accuse the Congresswoman of " blood libel " as she lies in a hospital bed with possibly permanent brain damage? What act in our society today can be described as " apolitical." Bankers getting huge bonuses while people lose their homes to foreclosures is political. Holding up benefit payments to the unemployed before Christmas to get tax cuts for the rich is political. Telling lies about old ladies dying of neglect if the healthcare bill goes ahead is political. Not passing campaign finance reform so that vested interests buy up politicians to oppose any attempt at regulation is political. Allowing the rabid right wing NRA to terrify the government with its jihadists is definitely political. At first glance the wild actions of a man who may have lost his child because he is unable to afford health insurance or be mourning his murdered wife because the bankrupt city sacked police personnel may seem apolitical but the conditions were created by politics. From cradle to coffin politics controls our lives and that is the truth Ms Palin.

The killer of Salman Taseer for blasphemy in Pakistan, a fellow called Qadri has become a hero among young lawyers in the country. They showered rose petals on him when he was produced in court and 1000 lawyers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad have signed their support in Qadri's defense. The Paki army has stayed silent on the killing and mullahs refused to lead prayers for Taseer's funeral. Iran has banned girls from wearing jeans, long nails and tattoos in college. Iran has also banned books by Pablo Coelho. In neighboring Iraq, officials have closed down shops selling alcohol and clubs serving alcoholic drinks so dancers have moved to the north in areas controlled by the Kurds where the government has issued licenses to clubs and bars. Algerian army is battling islamists who call themselves Al Qaida in the Maghreb while Yemen is the home of the Al Qaida in the middle east. Somalia has its Al Shabab which has been fighting the government for control of the country. Lebanon has the Hezbollah which has just withdrawn support from the government because a UN tribunal is likely to find them responsible for the murder of Rafik Hariri. Iran and Syria have been supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon which apparently has stockpiles of more than 20000 missiles. As an Israeli official noted during the last war not many countries in the world have so many missiles. Nigeria just had riots between Christians and Muslims in the city of Jos and in Sudan the south is voting to escape the clutches of the Muslim north. Wherever there are more than 100 Muslims in the world there is bloodshed. India has 200 million. What hope is there?

Riots in Tunisia over unemployment and rising food prices have left around 7 people dead. There have been sympathetic riots in Algeria. Pakistan withdrew fuel price rises after public protests. There is only one reason underlying all the protests and that is exploding human population. In some countries in the middle east birth rate is 8 children per woman. It is the poor who breed the most and more children means more mouths to feed. Hunger is unbearable so the poor become increasingly desperate. Poverty becomes an excuse for cutting down trees to clear land for cultivation and provide fuel for cooking resulting in the kind of floods we saw in Pakistan. Falling forest cover leads to global warming which, in turn, leads to more evaporation from the oceans that precipitates as rain as we see in Australia now. Such extreme weather reduces food production leading to rising food prices. Poverty is an excuse for killing wild life for bush meat as in Africa and for sale of animal parts as we see in India. Poverty is an excuse for indiscriminate killings as members of drug gangs as we see in Mexico. Poverty is an excuse for selling daughters to flesh traders to be transported to foreign countries to be abused. Poverty is an excuse for voting for clowns such as Chavez or supporting thugs like Mugabe and Gbagbo. Only about 15% of the land surface of the earth is fit for cultivation. More people means agricultural land being used for building houses and factories. Bleeding hearts keep on moaning about aid to the poor. They should go from door to door and stop people breeding. Or else so many will die there will not be enough land for graves.

Two powerful politicians sentenced to prison in the last few days. In the UK former Labour MP for Bury North, David Chaytor was sentenced to 18 months in prison for receiving 18000 pounds in expenses due to false claims. He claimed compensation for rent on two properties, one of which belonged to his mother and the other to his daughter. That amounts to just Rs. 1.26 million which is peanuts compared to the billions that politicians are stealing in India. Forget prison, not one politician even wants to resign. Raja had to be pushed out, Ashok Chavan claimed that he would only resign if asked by the Congress chief, Yadyurappa is hanging on grimly and Kalmadi is still defiantly travelling the world as the head of the Olympic Committee. There is such a complete lack of sharam and izzat that you wonder if these creatures actually belong to the same human community as you and I. In the US the former House majority leader, Tom Delay who was once the most powerful Republican in Washington, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. His charge was one of money laundering in that he diverted $ 190000 in corporate money to state candidates which helped them to win their seats and, in turn, enabled him to gerrymander the state of Texas and send more Republicans to the US Congress. In India politicians regularly win elections by promising free electricity, rice a Rs. 2/ kilo and color tv sets at tax payers' expense. As usual Congress is the big daddy of loot winning the last general elections by forgiving farmers' loans and giving huge salary increases to useless parasitic civil servants. In India larceny is called helping the aam aadmi.

Reassuring a meeting of non resident Indians on Saturday our most revered Prime Minister said, " We are examining seriously how to make systemic changes that ensure more transparent procedures and safeguards in our governing processes." That is so wonderful to hear but the government is threatening to bring changes to the Right to Information Act to make it more restrictive. Applications will have to be less than 250 words and each complaint will require a separate application. Even now thieving civil servants create as many delays as possible, sometimes forcing people to get a court order to force them to release information. People who have used this law to nail criminals have been killed and not one person has gone to prison for the numerous scams that plague our country. At the same meeting the PM also said that economic growth is expected to be around 9-10% from next year. While this is so heartwarming to hear we would like to know how that is supposed to happen without falling into hyperinflation. Already food inflation 18.32% at a time when prices were supposed to fall due to abundant monsoons. General inflation is also going up due to increase in oil and commodity prices. To prevent inflation from becoming uncontrollable diesel and kerosene are sold at the old prices leading to massive shortfalls for the oil companies. Since the government is the major shareholder of these companies it will lose billions in dividends that these companies used to pay out. There is no guarantee that the weather will be kind next year and oil prices are predicted to go above $ 100. So, sir, how will you square the circle?

Pakistan Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was shot to death by a fanatic because of his opposition to blasphemy laws. Pakistan is awash with guns and such is the fear of extreme right wing hatred that liberals have gone into hiding. Sherry Rehman, a lawmaker opposed to the blasphemy laws has been advised to go abroad after receiving numerous threats. In Tucson, Arizona in the US, Congresswoman Gabrille Giffords, a Democrat was shot in the head and at least 6 people have been killed including a 9 year old girl by 22 year old Jared Lee Lougher. In US too " liberal " is a word of abuse and recent congressional elections saw right wing candidates talking in terms that Pima County Sheriff, Clarence W Dupnik said was " vitriolic rhetoric." Just as Pakistan has a shadowy element, the ISI which lurks in the shadows and controls these fringe groups so the US has its National Rifle Association, NRA encouraging disturbed people to its own agenda. In Pakistan the Jihadi groups have turned against the country and are killing locals so in the US guns smuggled across the border into Mexico are being used by drug gangs to kill US law enforcement officials. Just as the Jihadis use paranoid rubbish to justify killing innocents so the NRA justifies open selling of guns by the idiotic logic, " guns don't kill, people do." Just as the Jihadis use their own interpretation of the scriptures as justification so the NRA twists some amendment for its own vile use. Pakis shout " God is great " while the US motto is " In God we trust." Pakistan economy is broken while the US, while still the richest nation, is trying to get there by giving tax cuts to the rich. Sound like siamese twins, don't they?

Europe is gripped by a dioxin scare. Seems that a factory in Germany was manufacturing chemicals and animal feeds under one roof and dioxin got into fats which are mixed in animal feeds, reaching 77 times the legal limit, which then was mixed in feeds for poultry and pigs. Germany has put 4700 farm under quarantine and thousands of chicken will be culled. Although officials are stressing that there is no danger to humans because the chemicals will get diluted several times as it is fed to animals customers in Europe are reducing consumption of chicken, eggs and bacon. European governments are so protective of their own people yet do not hesitate to dump toxic wastes in African countries. France conducted open air tests of nuclear weapons on Mururoa Atoll. The US is way ahead when it comes to poisoning others. Hydrogen bombs on Japan, millions of tons of dioxin dumped on Vietnam as defoliant and depleted uranium and cluster bombs on Iraq. What they are doing to Afghanistan only God knows because the Afghans are too primitive fanatics to realise. There has been a surge in cancers and deformed babies in Vietnam and Iraq yet Europeans do not utter a peep because this is in Asia so who cares. It is also because Asian countries are disunited. China dreams of conquering all of Asia, Pakistan is a country of rabid dogs wanting to kill Indians, middle eastern countries finance these mad dog fanatics and Burma is stuck in a time warp where psychopathic generals have enslaved their own people. Disunity makes Asian countries weak and easy to exploit. Bhopal was not the last disaster. Other Union Carbides are waiting to happen.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation or FAO is warning that food prices have risen sharply in December and are close to levels which resulted in riots 3 years ago. Prices of cooking oils, grains, sugar and meat have risen and will remain high throughout this year. Riots have not occurred yet because rice prices have remained relatively stable. Oil prices are predicted to reach $ 100 a barrel which will add to inflationary pressures and may cause severe problems in poor countries while inhibiting fragile growth in rich ones. Forest fires in Russia, floods in Pakistan and now in Australia have harmed wheat production while unprecedented severe winter in the west is pushing oil prices north. India's Home Minister who was the Finance Minister previously said yesterday, ".....Nor am I sure whether we have at our hand all the tools to control inflation." Chief Economic Advisor, Kaushik Basu agreed, ".... It is utter mistake to think that it is fully within the control of the government to move prices of food up or down." Truth at last. If the government is useless, as I have been saying all these years, then let us get rid of all criminal politicians and thieving civil servants altogether. This will save trillions of rupees, that these scum keep stealing, and distribute it to the people which will allow people to buy what they need. Also by getting rid of the predators people will be much safer as the rapists and murderers are swept into garbage bins where they belong. The only solution for the world is for poor countries to stop population growth and for rich countries to cut down on consumption. Perhaps uncontrolled growth, whether economic or human, is unsustainable.

Attempting to fool the people into believing that criminal politicians and thieving civil servants will now be made accountable the Congress gang is preparing to pass an ordinance which will create a Lokpal comprising of retired judges who will be empowered to inquire into corruption charges against any public servant including the Prime Minister. India probably has more police forces and investigating agencies than any other country in the world but everyone of them is controlled by the same criminal politicians and thieving civil servants which is why not one of the scum has ever been hanged or even jailed. If the ordinance put the Lokpal in sole charge of, say, the CBI whose officers would report only to the judges and face discipline if found lacking in their duties then the ordinance would have some bite and meaning. The stabbing of a MLA in Bihar by a woman he was allegedly raping for two years was because the police refused to register a complaint by the woman. If a case is registered the police deliberately destroy evidence as in the Nithari and Aarushi murder cases. If a case actually comes to trial the judge continues to allow delays for months and years which gives the criminals time to intimidate or bribe witnesses who then refuse to testify as has been seen in the BMW and Tytler cases. Even if convicted and sentenced judges continue to grant bail to the criminal for years as is the case with Sukhram. Even after the criminal convicted of murder is taken to prison politicians arrange premature parole for him to go out drinking in night clubs as was seen with Manu Sharma. We are not fools so do not waste our time with a useless show.

Continuing from last year criminal politicians, brutal useless police and the impotent justice system is again in the news. A member of the Bihar Leglative Assembly or MLA called RK Kesri was stabbed to death yesterday by a woman he was allegedly raping for the last two years. She tried to register a complaint with the police but apparently it was torn up and thrown in her face. Unable to get any justice for the outrage visited on her person she stabbed Kesri who died on his way to the hospital. The poor woman was then so badly beaten up, whether by Kesri's goons or the police is unclear, that she was admitted unconscious in hospital. So, a woman is raped by a politician, refused help by the police, brutally beaten by thugs and will serve time in jail if she survives. No doubt the judge will lecture her on the evil of taking the law into your own hands while handing down a prison term but if people see criminal scum getting away with rape and murder are they not justified in taking just revenge? Is it any wonder that people support Naxals who kill policemen? Now the good news. The Income Tax department has suddenly woken up to the fact that Quattrochi should have paid tax on the commission he received from Bofors in the purchase of its guns during Rajiv Gandhi's period as Prime Minister, some 25 years ago, but the CBI has refused to reopen the case. As a citizen of India I would love to read the details of how the CBI chased big Q over five continents including how the officers enjoyed themselves in billionaire playgrounds such as St.Kitts. Since it was done with billions of our money it would give enormous vicarious pleasure. Such clowns, what a laugh.

With the start of 2011 much is being written about the present growth rate of India's economy and its prospects going forward. Writers, including economists and business leaders, choose to focus solely on the consumer driven growth in manufacturing and services without saying anything about fiscal deficit, current account deficit, growing government debt and external factors such as the rise in commodity prices including oil and food. Every forecast is based on the great middle class said to number 300 million and the rise in spending power due to rising salaries. Certainly there is evidence of a consumer spending boom but is it really by those who are in productive employment? Since exact figures are not available in India we can guess that 20-30 million are in high salaried jobs. Another 20 or so million are criminal politicians and useless parasitic civil servants whose incomes are from theft and crime. Then there are the land speculators who have successfully pushed up property prices to absurd levels resulting in a knock on rise in rents which is also an unproductive means of income. The total of these 3 groups comes to around 100 million and if we add in the children we may reach close to 300 million. There has definitely been a rise is sales of durable goods but that is purely because of a drop in prices. Twenty years ago a 21" color tv cost Rs. 36000, today a 26" flat screen LCD tv costs Rs. 22000. A VCR cost Rs. 40000, today a DVD costs Rs. 4000. People who have to survive on real incomes are finding it increasingly impossible due to inflation. Can growth continue indefinitely if based on unproductive wealth?

Last year ended without any politician or civil servant being arrested or charged for the innumerable cases of theft and malfeasance that were exposed and the new year starts with a more horrific tale of rape of a minor girl in UP. A member of the Legislative Assembly, MLA in UP belonging to the BSP party led by the dalit queen Ms Mayawati, a fellow called Purushottam Dwivedi, is alleged to have raped a 17 year old dalit girl. This is just a week after another another MLA of the BSP, Guddu Pandit was arrested on a charge of kidnapping. To compound the victim's misery Dwivedi's son Mayank got her arrested on a charge of stealing money and other articles from his father's house. The girls father is in hiding after receiving threats and the girl still languishes in jail where the police are pressuring her to withdraw her complaint. Apparently Ms Mayawati has sacked Dwivedi from the Assembly and asked the police and the CBI to investigate the rape allegation. Is there any use examining the girl for rape after more than 2 weeks have elapsed? It will not be possible to collect semen samples for corroboration and DNA matching. The CBI investigation into Rathore's torture of the girl he molested is still fresh in our minds so it would be stupid to expect anything to come of this case. Police forces are controlled by state governments and function as armed extensions of the party in power. It was the UP police which messed up the investigation into the Nithari killings so that there is no case against Pandher, the owner of the house. Finally, what does one say about a son who lies to protect a rapist father? Euthanasia before he becomes a politician for the safety of other girls in future?

On December 30 Kodachrome ended its last processing facility in Kansas and probably the death of photographic films. Old fashioned film loaded cameras became obsolete when digital cameras became available at cheap rates for everyone. Any idiot could point and shoot relying on his camera to focus accurately, to adjust for dark or bright illumination and zoom in on subjects. Suddenly photography was no longer for the lover of the art who was prepared to lug around a bagful of camera, assorted lenses, filters and flash, someone who would walk for miles and wait for hours to get a beautiful picture. Get a digital camera, take any number of shots knowing that unwanted pictures can be deleted without any expense and then enhance pictures on the computer with softwares such as Photoshop. While every technical advance has its advantages there is always a downside. It may be very convenient to store innumerable photos on the hard disk of a computer or on some remote data storage site but this may be accessible only to the person who owns the computer or has a password protected account with one of the giant multinational service provider. All such photos will be lost on the death of the person and with that a historical record of the life of the photographer and all the people who were precious to him. Even today old faded black and white photos of famous people are sold at auctions for vast sums of money proving the importance of recorded memory. These are not just important from a nostalgic point of view but very often provide valuable historical evidence. It maybe time for a timeout on so called progress.

Today is the start of a new year and a new decade. Like every year fireworks and drink soaked hugs greeted the stroke of midnight. Every year celebrations seem to get a bit more frenetic as if people are trying to forget the terrible events of last year and praying that there lives will improve next year although knowing deep inside that things will continue as before. The reason is that the world and every government in it is now in the control of liars who are determined to win power even if at the cost of their children's future. It is not just buffoons like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire, dangerous though they are, but seemingly respectable politicians who swear by democracy and patriotism. And there in lies the danger to the world which people recognise but are powerless to stop. Republicans in the US succeeded in blackmailing President Obama into prolonging tax cuts for the rich while howling about government debts. Countries across Europe are cutting public service salaries, pensions and social services while increasing student fees to reduce government debts. There is no punishment for the politicians and bankers who allowed, even encouraged wanton profligacy leading to economic disaster. Freak weather causing death and destruction will continue because of denial by the rich and uncontrolled breeding by the poor. In India criminal politicians and thieving civil servants will continue to loot the exchequer with impunity. Hindus will continue to be abused by vile pseudo secularists helped by the mindless actions by the selfish Shiv Sena. So, a Happy New year to everyone until the hangover sets in.