Seems a bit difficult to understand what is happening in Britain. First there were the deadly suicide bombings on London Underground on what is known as 7/7 in which more than fifty people died. After that we have had a succession of failed attempts, more Pink Panther type than Al Qaeda. 7/7 was followed by train bombs which were duds, then toothpaste and soft drink bombs on airplanes, then cars loaded with fertilisers which merely smelled by did nothing else and now car bombs which were damp squibs. Car bombs have been spectacularly successful in the past in the World Trade Center, in Oklahoma, in Bali and daily in Iraq over the last few years but in London they just sat for the police to find them. How did the police know that those cars had bombs in them because, from what I understand from CNN, there was no phoned warning. I might have forgotten other failed attempts. Then two jokers set themselves on fire and failed to drive through glass doors at Glasgow Airport. Police blew up a car in the car park of the hospital where one of the jokers is being treated for burns. After every failure security goes up to critical, a group called Cobra huddle together and police and politicians give out statements on how deadly the terrorists are. If the terrorists are that deadly how come they keep failing. I can think of only two reasons, 1. they may be using rubbish made in China or 2. the British education system is turning out a bunch of blithering idiots.

I live in a rented flat right at the end of a lane measuring about 400 metres in length. At some unknown time in the past the Municipality decided that the lane was to be cemented with concrete. As with everything done by any government agency it would have taken a considerable amount of time to call for tenders and award the contract to the stupidest person but none of the residents had a clue about the decision until suddenly a few poor labourers started digging up the lane around the middle of March, 2007. Three months have passed and the work is still in progress. The lane has been impassable for three months and it seems that it will take another month. I have been unable to take out my car in all this time which has caused me enormous difficulty. My repeated requests to allow me to drive out once or twice a week have fallen on deaf ears. Instead these sadistic creatures taunt me with big smiles every time they see me walking with bags of groceries or vegetables. I have talked to other residents but have received no support. I have pointed out that if any person developed a heart attack there would be no way of getting the person to hospital because just as we are unable to take out our cars, no ambulance would be able to get in. There is no righteous indignation in North India. Majority of people here have no sense of right or wrong. Lies and immorality provoke no sense of outrage. These coward wimps never protest against official arrogance and wrong doing. Instead their attitude is ' sab chalta hai ' or ' everything goes '. Unforunately these people outnumber Indians from east, west and south and so have been misruling the country since independence. Since the ratio will remain the same for the foreseeable future what hope do we have? Depressing what?

Why is the Congress Party against President Kalam? He is a scientist interested in education. He does not belong to any political party and is probably neutral. Their is no corruption charge against him and, as far as we know, he has not accumulated millions in black money. He is popular and children love him. Apart from his barber the man does not need to change anything to be perfect for the President's post. Why then is the Congress dead set against him? I have a vague memory of him returning a bill which he thought to be against fundamental rights. So is it pure vindictiveness or are the Congress leaders scared of his popularity? What if people people start demanding that every one should be as honest things could quickly get out of hand. Instead Mrs. Gandhi has recommended a faceless apparatchik who will do as she is told and already there are allegations of financial irregularities on her part and of murder against her brother. It is time that the President of India is elected directly by the people so that we are not shamed by little people occupying the highest office. Meanwhile Ms. Mayawati has declared assets of Rs. 520 million and she is the self proclaimed leader of Dalits. 'Dalit' means 'oppressed'. Can a woman with half a billion rupees describe herself as oppressed? Daughter of a postal clerk she used to be a teacher in a govt school. Where did she get so much money? Has she paid taxes on her wealth? Also she has become Chief Minister of UP without standing for election and will get in through the Upper House. As Trinny Lopez sang, 'Woe is me. Shame and scandal in the family.' Despair is our lot.

A congratulatory article, featuring a photograph of the Finance Minister, in an English daily on 23rd June claimed that inflation rate in India has come down to 4.28% and proceeded to give a list of all the items whose prices are holding steady. In an interview with Sharanjit Leyl on the programme, Asia Business Report, on the BBC on 21st June a finance executive ( forget his name ) said that while wholesale inflation has indeed dropped to below 5% consumer inflation was more than 8%. So much for our freeloading press. In the view of this expert India needs to cut down growth rate to 7% from the current 9% for inflation to start falling. This, he said, could be achieved by 1. letting the rupee appreciate further in value, 2. increase interest rates and 3. increase the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks. Already the garment industry is losing customers to China and Bangladesh and further increase in the rupee exchange rate will seriously hit export industries. Also by making imports cheaper domestic producers will also see pricing pressure. Auto sales have fallen because of increasing interest rates and any further increase will hurt all companies. Increasing interest rates and CRR may hit the property bubble and cause a collapse in prices. Since the Enforcers and friends have invested a large portion of their black money in property any collapse in prices will seriously inconvenience them. Yet lies will not convince the aam aadmi who is bleeding because of inflation and elections are coming up. What are the economic terms for a rock, a hard place and the deep blue sea?

Yesterday a fifteen year old boy performed a Caesarian section on a woman in a private nursing home in Tamil Nadu while his doctor parents watched. Apparently the lives of the woman and the baby were endangered because the parents want the boy to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records. An editorial in today's english daily was very indignant about risking a patient's life without informed consent. I fail to understand what the excitement is about. Surely India has the largest number of quacks in the world, people without any knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology or pharmacology calling themselves doctors and prescribing any drug with complete impunity. Fellows with dubious degrees in homeopathy, ayurveda, unani even acupuncture have clinics with huge boards proclaiming Dr. So and so with a string of meaningless letters after their names intended to fool the illiterate and the gullible. A semiliterate fellow owns a large nursing home in posh Saket area of Delhi. The board outside his room says Dr. -- . MD which apparently stands for Managing Director but patients naturally think Doctor of Medicine. Physiotherapists and chemists call themselves doctors and treat anyone with any illness. Sadly the biggest quacks are my surgical colleagues. Most surgeons are stupid enough to think that they can be physicians and do not refuse medical problems such as tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes or coronary artery disease. Mistakes are common and when things get out of hand they quickly get rid of the patient. Everyday we see patients on inadequate, inappropriate or plainly dangerous medicines but there is nothing we can do. As a life member of the Indian Medical Association I have asked the office bearers to improve patient care in the country but no one is interested. For the politicians, who have been unable to provide even basic medical care to the aam aadmi, quacks are heaven sent. If the aam aadmi is stupid whose fault is that? Meanwhile what of our 'Dougie Howser' and his parents? Some people must be ecstatic today, imagine the scope for bribes.











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A fascinating game is in progress. Fellow called Biti Mohanty from Orissa has been charged with rape of a woman. He jumped bail and has gone into hiding such that Rajasthan Police are unable to find him. His father B. B. Mohanty is DGP ( which means Director General of Police? ) of Home Guards in Orissa. Rajasthan Police allege that he was instrumental in his son jumping bail and is actively helping him to avoid arrest. The police obtained an arrest warrant for dad but when they reached Orissa they found that he was on medical leave and they returned without serving the warrant. Today's paper says that the police have obtained another bailable warrant for Biti but, of course, since they have no idea where he is they will be unable to serve the warrant. Meanwhile the woman, whose life was destroyed by the rape, must be laughing her head off at all this fun and games. If I were her I would be mystified as to why another bailable warrant has been issued for a person who has already jumped bail. How can a serving police officer be helping a person charged with a heinous crime? Why is he not being sacked or given other types of punishment such as losing his pension? Will the court take this behaviour as admission of guilt when the fellow is eventually arrested? Meanwhile Mr. Sonia Gandhi, who is effectively running the government, is busy trying to get a female nonentity selected as President of India. Surely India is the funniest country on earth.

Oops the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) failed to get big Q again. This time it seems India will have to foot the bill for Quatrocchi's defence as well. Who cares? What is a few million dollars when we have already spent God knows how many pursuing him through St. Kitts, Malasia and several other very beautiful tourist spots. These Italians sure have taste. Must be a pleasure to have such a worthy opponent who is not only slippery than an olive oiled eel but chooses the most exotic places to get caught in. Imagine if he had surfaced in Zimbabwe or Afghanistan or in the middle of Sahara. No five star hotels, no belly dancers, no beaches with sun tanned naked women. Don't our sleuths and civil servants deserve to relax after all the hard work they put in for the tax payers? Who wants to play with Dawood Ibrahim? He used to live in Dubai which may be a very rich Arab state but can hardly be compared to Buones Aires for entertainment. Now he is hiding in Pakistan which may have very good biryani but is otherwise a very down market. Spoilsport. Big Q, on the other hand, loves to play and in very expensive places. He may have made a lot of money from the Bofors deal but he is putting it to good purpose. By surfacing in exotic places from time to time he is teaching the CBI fellows and lawyers about the places where the rich hang out. This is invaluable knowledge which will help in all the scandals that are to follow. I am not suggesting for a moment that our CBI men are enjoying all this running around. I am sure they will be concentrating on their goal all the time and will have no time for entertainment. Keep at it chaps. After all we Indians love Italians do we not?

The Enforcers are deciding a new tax on the escalation of property prices. Apparently property prices go up if infrastructure is improved in an area and they think that people should be taxed on their good fortune. What about the extortionate taxes that we already pay? If sewers are built so that people can have toilets at home rather than defaecate like animals along railway lines is it not what the government should provide anyway? How do taxes help the aam aadmi? Let us take a very aam couple who work as daily labour in construction of houses in Delhi. They live in a slum and barely survive on a combined income of around Rs. 3000 a month. They want to attend a cousin's wedding in Mumbai in three months' time. These days low cost airlines offer cheap tickets even for Rs. 100 if booked well in advance. Unfortunately, taxes being fixed, the price of a ticket becomes Rs. 1000 which means for a round trip our couple will have to spend Rs. 4000 which they cannot afford. Also the tickets are non refundable which means that if for any reason they are unable to go they lose Rs. 4000, a risk which they cannot take. Rajdhani tickets will also cost about the same so the only form of travel they can realistically afford and avail of is in an unreserved second class where they will have sitting room only and no air conditioning. So taxes on things that the Enforcers claim are luxury, actually deprive the aam aadmi from ever enjoying them. Of course middle and upper classes can also avail of such cheap tickets but surely the difference between middle class and aam aadmi is merely what each can afford. Ergo, if taxes disappear aam aadmis will be able to afford middle class lifestyle and automatically become middle class. Problem is they will not need hand outs any more and the Enforcers will lose their hold. Unthinkable.

Mandira Bedi was a co host at the recent Cricket World cup and, like any beautiful television person, wore separate designer clothes everyday. One of her designer saris featured the flags of all the countries including that of India. Unfortunately for her the fall of her sari resulted in the Indian flag touching her right knee for which a case has been filed against her charging her with insult of the national flag. I remember a little story I read some time ago. When Bhagirath was guiding the Goddess Ganga down the mountain towards the sea her waters disturbed the dhyan (meditation) of a sadhu. He was angered by this and drank up all the water in one gulp. Distressed by this turn of events Bhagirath expressed his sorrow and did penance and was able to melt the sadhu's heart. As was the custom in those days the sadhu wanted to grant him a boon and Bhagirath asked him to free the Goddess. The sadhu was in a bind. Ganga could be freed in one of three ways only. Cutting open his stomach would kill him and would be sinful. The Goddess would be insulted by vomiting or urinating her out and that was unacceptable. So the sadhu made an incision above one knee and the waters of Ganga flowed out again. Since the 'knee' is known as 'jaanu' in Sanskrit so Ganga is also known as Jahnavi. This is the Goddess who was so angered by being asked to leave her normal residence in Heaven and come down to this dirty world that she threatened to jump down hard and shatter the earth to pieces. To prevent this happening Lord Shiva cushioned her jump by taking her onto his head and allowed only one stream to escape so that she could not drown the earth. If Ganga is happy to be known as Jahnavi surely our flag cannot be insulted touching a knee.

Mr. Blair wants Russia to adopt European values and principles. What values is he talking about? Perhaps a little list of what British and West European values are all about will help us understand. 1. Lying about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction raining down on Britain in 15 minutes . 2. Following the US like a poodle into an illegal war resulting in 600 thousand Iraqis slaughtered. 3. Setting up commissions to whitewash state misdeeds. The British are masters at this game. Bring out a retired judge called Lord Whatever who, being paid handsomely with taxpayers money, produces a report of some twenty volumes of waffle that will induce coma in anyone trying to read it. For example reports of many enquiries on Bloody Sunday when British troops massacred unarmed catholics, the Horton enquiry which looked into the suicide of scientist critical of official policy, or the enquiry into the cold blooded murder of the Brazilian electrician, De Menezes, in an underground train. 4. European colonisation of Africa leading to fantastic values like apartheid. Notice how African countries are divided by straight lines cutting across tribes and still producing war and famine to this day. 5. Centuries of savage wars including the two World Wars and even wars lasting a hundred years. 6. Promising ethical foreign policies and then halting an enquiry into bribes paid to a Saudi Prince. 7. Lying, twisting, even threatening poor countries at the WTO negotiations to get extortionate terms of trade. 8. Refusing to ever appologise for many massacres of Indian women and children as in Jalian Wala Bagh. My father talked about Metro Cinema where dogs and Indians were not allowed. Ah yes, Mr. Blair look at your dirty hands before you start preaching values to others

The Americans must think that the people of the world are stupid. They want to set up a Missile Defence Shield in the Czech Republic, right on Russia's, doorstep and are claiming it to be aimed against Iran and North Korea. They were quite happy when the drunken buffoon, Yeltsin was in power and Russia was reduced to bankruptcy by the International Monetary Fund but faced with a strong leader, in Putin, and high oil prices making Russia richer by the day they are trying to create trouble. It was Ronald Reagan who first started this concept of Star Wars type defence shield and, if we are to believe the pundits, drove the old Soviet Union to bankruptcy because of the collosal increase in defence spending. But these are different times. America is tied down in Iraq and its lies will forever be known as the Weapons of Mass Deception. Those old tactics will not work again. I fail to understand what they are saying anyway. Will the radar based in the Czech Republic have an angle of only fifteen degrees aimed at Iran or will it rotate 360 degrees as radars generally do? If they pick up a Russian missile will they not attempt to shoot it down? What if the missile is aimed at some other country and not the US will they let it go? Having made the world infintely more dangerous by their adventures in Iraq they now want to poke the great Bear in its buttocks. If they are that stupid then should India get into a nuclear treaty with them? For once I think that opposition politicians are right to question the whole deal. We should go over every clause, every line and every word to make sure that some future lunatic or moron (take your pick) does not find some excuse, however lame it may be, to attack us.

Times of India. A huge advertisement occupying twothirds of page eleven, from Central Board of Excise and Customs, thanks tax payers for paying Rs. 2.42 trillion in indirect taxes. Under the heading 'Your taxes are working for you' we are given some figures of how some of the money is spent. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Rs. 10.671 billion, Mid-day Meal Scheme Rs. 7.324 b, Integrated Child Development Scheme Rs. 4.761 b, Rural Employment Schemes Rs. 14.800 b, Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme Rs. 6.700 b, Indira Awaas Yojna Rs. 4.040 b, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna Rs. 6.789 b, total Rs. 450.85 billion. With so much money spent you would think that poor people would be plump and happy. Surprise. Next to this huge ad is a three inch news item with the heading 'Child welfare plan to be revamped'. Seems that the number of malnourished children has dropped from 46.7% in 1998-1999 to 45.9% in 2005-2006. The Supreme Court has asked for the Integrated Child Development Scheme to be extended to all children below the age of six years. I find it puzzling why the Court has to be involved at all when we apparently have a Women and Child Development Ministry. So much money spent and still nearly half the children malnourished. I am stupid. I do not understand why.

A total of fourteen people including a policeman died on Tuesday and a further four died yesterday in riots in Rajasthan. The deaths came about as a result of police firing and the murder of a policeman by Gujjars, a community or a caste in Rajasthan. Yesterday a number of policemen went missing and whether they will return safely is in doubt. The trouble came about because Gujjars, who belong to ' Other Backward Classes ' or OBC category, want to be included in the Scheduled Tribes or ST category which is a lower grade in our government caste list. The Gujjars are farmers and cattle rearers and poor. By being downgraded to ST they will be eligible for a higher quota of government jobs reserved for ST and SC ( Scheduled Caste ) sections of society. At present Meenas in Rajasthan are cornering a large number of government jobs because of their ST status and have become quite prosperous. The Meenas do not want to share their spoils with the Gujjars because their share will become smaller and are lobbying to deny the Gujjars. If the Gujjars win will the Meenas start to riot? Will other OBC groups start agitating for similar reclassification? Jats in Hryana want to become OBC, inspite of being of higher caste, because Jats in Rajasthan have been given that privilege. The rewards are huge. Cushy government jobs with little to do and guaranteed pensions. Scope for earning large amounts in black money. Children will get admission to prestigious institutions with poor marks and more. Mayawati, who is a dalit, recently won the UP election. Will Mulayam Singh who is a Yadav see an opportunity to start some trouble? Fortunately Yadavs are a divided community but the potential for trouble is there. The politicians in India have been following a divide and rule policy learnt from the British. Creating states by language, appeasement of minorities, quotas for artificially created castes and so on. The genie is out. Is there any politician capable of putting it back in?

India was ranked thirteenth in the world on Forbes Tax Misery and Reform Index. Lowest n the list were UAE, Qatar, Hongkong, Cyprus and Singapore. Highest were France, Belgium, China, Sweden, and Italy. Nine of the top ten places were occupied by European countries. What Forbes probably did not take into account was the returns on tax. True Europeans pay a lot of tax but they have the luxury of social services, good roads, uninterrupted electricity and clean water for twentyfour hours. Consider water. Areas in Delhi get only ten minutes' of trickle everyday. Everyone has bought large plastic tanks to collect whatever water that comes. Water pumps are then used to raise the water to another tank on the roof of the house. Water has to be bought from tankers at Rs. 100 for 1000 litres. Since the purity of water is dubious every one has a purifying system at home, charcoal filters for the poor and reverse osmosis systems for the rich. Regular power failure means everyone has a generator or invertor to run a few lights and fans. If food rots in the fridge tough luck. Voltage fluctuations result in burning of electric implements such as fridges and televisions. Broken roads wear out car tyres and broken suspensions are common. Children die regularly by falling into open manholes callously left open by municipal workers. We deserve to be first on that list. Forbes please note.

The aam aadmi does not exist. The aam aadmi is a myth, a big lie and a gigantic con trick to hide the misdeeds and crimes of the civil servants and politicians. Is there anyone who wants to be an aam aadmi? I f you ask the most helpless, hopeless beggar I am sure he will aspire to be a 'khas' aadmi. Our first Prime Minister, Nehru was an Oxbridge trained barrister. Surely he would have known that in western countries all children must go to school till the age of 16 years. He was a socialist close to Soviet Union yet he failed to notice that Cuba and the USSR had universal education and health care. His cabinet was packed with scholars yet 60% of the population stayed illiterate. It was the tremendous determination and sacrifice of our parents that ensured that we got quality education. Today even poor people understand the value of a good education especially in 'english medium' schools. The explosion of private, fee paying schools means that children now have access to education that was so far denied to them. This is scary for the politicians and civil servants who fear that an educated populace will ask embarassing questions and refuse to be sacrificial sheep called the aam aadmi. So they have changed tack. They are now attacking english as a language of our colonial masters and passing laws which ban the teaching of english till the upper classes in school and make regional languages compulsory. Jyoti Basu, a barrister, did this in Bengal as did Lalu, in Bihar. Karnataka which is the centre of India's software boom has just passed a similar law. The result is an army of graduates who are poor in English and are unemployable. They can only get jobs as teachers in government schools or as clerks. These millions are grateful for the scraps that politicians throw at them and will resist any reforms that upsets the present system. This army of beggars is known as aam aadmi and will never ever be allowed to become khas.

In a speech to the Confederation of Indian Industries ( CII ) on 24th May, the Hon'ble Prime Minister made two points. The first point was that they should refrain from ostentation as in expensive marriage parties. But sir, may I grovellingly ask ' have you never read about the marriage parties of the criminal offspring of your political colleagues?' Goons of the Rustic Buffoon raided car dealers and made off with new cars waiting for delivery. The Southern Fat Lady claimed that her foster ( bastard? ) son should have a marriage befitting Her status and a very fat status it is too. The second point was that they should refrain from price increases through cartelisation. Sir, if I may grovellingly point out, it was the licence permit raj of the Congress Party which allowed Indians to be ripped off for 50 years by giant monopolies. In the sixties you would wait two years for an Ambassador car which cost Rs. 30000. For that much money you could buy land and construct a decent bungalow in Delhi. Even now your government levies huge taxes on plane tickets to force people to use the railways. The ticket price for the Dehradun Shatabdi has just been increased from Rs 535 to Rs. 565 but the train is always late and the coaches are full of cockroaches. I hope you have taken delivery of the seven Embraer luxury jets for yourself and your VVIP colleagues. What's that? It is all for the benefit of the aam aadmi? My grovelling thanks to you sir.

The Comptroller an Accountant General ( CAG ) of India has unearthed a huge paasport racket. Seems 500 passport booklets have gone missing from embassies in Jeddah and Kampala while 400 are missing from the consulate inHouston. 2000 visa stickers are missing from the embassy in Moscow. Delhi, Mumbai and Bareilly passport offices issued 12 passports to nationals of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Booklets stolen from Kolkata office were found in possession of two persons with ISI links. The Criminal Bureau of Investigation has detected 275 fake passports between 1998 and 2002 of which 45 were issued from Bhopal. God alone knows how many have not been detected. In another report CAG has pulled up Ministry of External Affairs for delays in issuing passports to genuine applicants. Seems out of 6.272 million applications between 2001 and 2005, 81% were not issued in time. Nagpur and Bareilly are the best with 51% issued in time, Delhi issued only 8%, Pune 1% while Chandigarh did not issue even one in time out of 680 thousand applications. The government charged Rs. 87.2 million from 80,000 applicants for Tatkal ( fast track ) passports but did not deliver. With money to be made from issuing fake passports to potential terrorists why bother with tax paying citizens. The civil servants are not stupid are they? It is a wonder any of us still alive. Ram Bharose again?

Jacques Chirac has gone without any fuss. Tony Blair is going next month all be it with a little encouragement. Putin has confirmed he is going next year inspite of propaganda on the BBC that he will change the constitution to stay for a third term. Bush also goes next year. Koizumi resigned months after winning majority in general elections. Even in corrupt tatalitarian China we saw Jiang Zemin succeed Deng Xiao Ping and then give way to Hu Jin Tao. Stranger still, there is no son, wife or mistress to take over the position of President or Prime Minister with the help of sycophantic, worthless, violent followers willing to riot and kill to maintain their cash flow. And what about my country, India? We have no way of getting rid of criminal politicians sucking our lifeblood for years and years. Shameless old men with hard, ugly faces lined by decades of lies, larceny and debauch stare at us from newspapers and television sets challenging us to do anything to stop them while we switch channels to hide our shame at our impotence. We seem to have endless millions of men with no talent and little education who depend on these satraps for their money and power and will do anything to ensure that these filthy politicians stay in power for ever. These 'chamchas' are more dangerous than anyone realises. Like cancer cells they are eating away at our society and passing on their putrid genes to another generation. Will we survive?

Thankyou Zornslemon. I used to think that I am the aam aadmi seeing that I pay taxes, obey the law and have tried to teach my children to be truthful, kind and honest. But it seems that I am mistaken. Indian politics has thrived on keeping vast numbers of people uneducated and desperately poor so that they can be exploited during elections and treated like manure at other times. This borne out by the concept of VIP and VVIP whereby politicians surround themselves with AK47 toting commandoes, demand right of way even at Tirupati and kill or beat up anyone who would dare to criticise. Last week goons belonging to the eldest son of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu attacked a newspaper office for printing opinion polls showing that the eldest son is deeply unpopular. Three people died while the police stood by and watched. Is anyone going to hang for this I wonder. In this land of heroic myths the aam aadmi is a mythical beast in whose name you can con the people while you continue to exploit and paratise the people. This beast allows them to continue to tax us at the highest level in the world while buying luxury jets for travel. For the last few months people in South Delhi are receiving just ten minutes of water every day with not a drop every few days. Every family is having to buy water from tankers at Rs. 100 for a thousand litres. Meanwhile our Chief Minister is abroad to attend a conference and no doubt staying pretty cool. We desperately need a citizen's charter which clearly defines the powers of the politicians and puts the aam aadmi as the VVIP. I have some ideas but dare I say them?

The Commerce Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath has written to the Prime Minister to do something about the appreciating rupee. One dollar fetched Rs. 45 a year back but is now worth only about Rs. 40, an appreciation of over 8%. Normally the Reserve Bank or RBI would keep the rupee down by buying dollars in the market and increasing money supply but is unable to do so now because of the high inflation. It has increased interest rates six times in the past one year to bring down inflation but is unable to control liquidity. With so much black money sloshing around controlling liquidity is proving to be impossible. Increasing interest rates will increase the cost of borrowing and hurt the middle classes. Handicapped from all sides the RbI is letting the rupee appreciate hoping that this will control inflation by bringing down costs of imports. This is already causing howls of anguish from the export industries such garments, jewelery and software. The picture is made more interesting by the fact that nine states are up for elections to state assemblies in the next two years and general elections are due in 2009. Gujarat is holding elections this year, Delhi and Rajasthan in 2008, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra in 2009. Elections mean huge spending by candidates for canvassing and dirty tricks which has to be in cash which means liquidity will be out of control for at least two years. I wonder if anyone knows what to do. I have a feeling that things are going to be ' Ram Bharose ' which means God help us.

Apparently there were noisy scenes in parliament which is nothing new seeing the quality of legislators we have. Congress and allies were shouting for the resignation of the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the killing of a woman by some police officers. Police officers have been in the habit of executing criminals vigilante style and then making it look as if a shootout had taken place. Police in India are under total control of politicians. Recently the Supreme Court asked all state governments to free all police from political interference but naturally politicians are refusing. With criminals becoming politicians to control the police and so avoid prosecution they are never going to listen to the Court. Crimes committed by politicians and their thuggish children are routinely covered up as we saw in Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Madhumita and many other murders. The police are paid poorly and have no provision for medical care. A sub inspector I saw for asthma could not afford to buy inhalers costing Rs. 280. Is he not going to take bribes to survive? They are despised by the public and under pressure to reduce the crime rate when criminals are the friends of politicians. When things tend to get out of hand they ambush the person they want and eliminate him. A sick perverted system breeds a sick police force. The biggest joke is that the Congress which ruled this country unbroken for sixty years and is responsible for this mess is shouting for justice. No sharam, na izzat.

Apparently there were noisy scenes in parliament which is nothing new seeing the quality of legislators we have. Congress and allies were shouting for the resignation of the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the killing of a woman by some police officers. Police officers have been in the habit of executing criminals vigilante style and then making it look as if a shootout had taken place. Police in India are under total control of politicians. Recently the Supreme Court asked all state governments to free all police from political interference but naturally politicians are refusing. With criminals becoming politicians to control the police and so avoid prosecution they are never going to listen to the Court. Crimes committed by politicians and their thuggish children are routinely covered up as we saw in Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Madhumita and many other murders. The police are paid poorly and have no provision for medical care. A sub inspector I saw for asthma could not afford to buy inhalers costing Rs. 280. Is he not going to take bribes to survive? They are despised by the public and under pressure to reduce the crime rate when criminals are the friends of politicians. When things tend to get out of hand they ambush the person they want and eliminate him. A sick perverted system breeds a sick police force. The biggest joke is that the Congress which ruled this country unbroken for sixty years and is responsible for this mess is shouting for justice. No sharam, na izzat.

Headlines in the Times of India- Sun, April 29, page 9: 'Gir deaths: Govt. inaction flayed'. Eight rare Asiatic lions have been killed in the last few weks by poachers with the connivance of forest officials in the Gir forest sanctuary. Mon, April 30, page 11: 'Govt. lacks adequate data on green cover'. Director General of Forest Survey of India, Devendra Pandey admitted that he had no idea of the amount of land covered by forests and plantations in the country. Sun, April 29, page 1: 'Face off with Centre: S.C. backs out'. This was a case brought by the environmentalists who wanted independent experts to man the Forest Advisory Committee but the government refused. As a compromise the Supreme Court suggested one, just one, independent expert but the govt. side refused saying that the Court could not curtail the power of the Executive. As Mandy Rice-Davies so famously said,' They would, wouldn't they.' With millions to be made from cutting down our forests, grabbing tribal lands and selling parts of rare animals who wants a pesky independent expert. Since noone knows how much forest we have we cannot miss it. Homage to Mother India and rape her everyday.

In the last two years the housing market has turned red hot. In south Delhi rubbishy DDA flats which were selling for three and a half million rupees are now selling for ten a half million, an appreciation of 300% in just two years. This has spread to smaller towns giving rise to a building boom. To cool the market the Reserve Bank ( RBI ) first increased interest rates and then increased the Cash Reserve Ratio ( CRR ) for banks to reduce liquidity. Curiously in the last one week the RBI has gone backwards, first by decreasing the CRR and then by transferring home loans to the priority sector for properties costing less than 2 million rupees. Now everyone knows that if a person takes a loan of 2 million he will add another 3 million in black which means that the RBI is facilitating sales of upto 5 million rupees. While this may not mean much in the metro cities it will heat up the market in smaller towns and for small properties in creasing the feel good factor. In recent elections in Uttarakhand, Bengal and Delhi the Congress has done badly but it may do better in the ongoing elections in UP which is the largest state. If the Congress does really well in UP it might call an early general election knowing that if it wins the Hindi or cow belt it can return to power. The asset price bubble should not burst before then. Afterwards who cares. Maybe this move dictated purely by economic indicators but why am I unable to believe?

I thought I knew enough English but I just cannot understand what the phrase 'criminalisation of politics' means. How can politics be criminalised? Physicists invented the atom bomb which killed hundreds of thousands, but can we say criminalisation of physics? Writers have consistently fallen foul of the law for exposing social injustice. Even now there is a fatwa on Salman Rushdie for Satanic verses but can we say the literature has been criminalised. It is the mealy mouthed expression used by the freeloading press which does not want to upset the source of all its freebies. The truth is that a vast number of politicians in India are criminals or, better still, criminals have become politicians. The election in UP is costing one million rupees a day which is way above the limit set by the Election Commission. Plus there are expenses for killing opponents, terrorising people so that they do not come to vote, booth capturing, bribing government teachers who work as election agents and distributing free booze and saris to buy votes. Goons are not cheap so it helps if you have your own salaried goons or cadres in the case of the communists. Only criminals have enough black money and goons on the payroll. Once you win power you can loot the exchequer as you will while the police provide you with Z security to ensure complete safety. Amarmani Tripathy is a candidate while on trial for the murder of Madhumita. I bet no other country has such a strong democracy. Eat your heart out, Bush.

Thankyou Zornslemon. I suppose you are right but I cannot help feeling that waiting outside a marriage venue is such a pointless waste of time. People get married for the sole reason of producing a few brats which happens in due time. There is no need for any skill, any practice and no opponent to spoil your performance. Any idiot can do it and millions in India do just that , unfortunately. As a physician I see many men, dirty, illiterate and with almost no intelligence and yet father of half a dozen children. Even baseball, stupid though it is, needs some skill and practice to defeat opponents. Men love to drink, watch sports and swear, so if all three can be combined it makes for a highly entertaining evening with your mates. But to stand on a Mumbai pavement breathing fumes of passing vehicles, being jostled by rude policemen intent on showing their muscle without any alcohol to sustain you would be my idea of torture. What did these people achieve? What pleasure did they get out of such a fruitless exercise? Lots of people turn out to see the stars on Oscar night which has always seemed to me to be a stupid thing to do but here they got to see nothing. However, it takes all kinds to make the world and if these people obtained pleasure form this harmless activity then they are welcome to it. I may think they are a bunch of loonies but true freedom allows you to be foolish which is a good thing.

Delhi Government Financial Commissioner, Rakesh Mohan, an IAS officer was arrested for accepting a bribe of thirty million rupees from a contractor in exchange of giving him a juicy government contract. Apparently he asked the fellow to buy a house in Los Angeles and then take out a special power of attorney in his son's name so that his son could borrow that amount against the property. Very clever. Bad luck he got caught. First International Curacao Bank was shut down in the Netherlands last year on charges of money laundering but the same fellows started a software firm called Transworld ICT Solutions Pvt Ltd in India which laundered over nine billion dollars for persons in India. The Central Bureau of Investigations ( CBI ) is asking for powers to scrutinise financial accounts of 'highly influential' persons, probably a euphemism for politicians and civil servants. It appears that the CBI is barred fron scrutinising the accounts of these people by ' strict privacy laws '. These people can send any amount of money to Swiss banks without having to answer any question while we have to go running if any two penny government fellow calls us. No wonder there is great pressure for capital account convertibility for the Indian rupee. Make it easier for the villains to tax us into penury and enjoy our money abroad.

Member of Parliament from Gujarat, Katara, was caught trying to take to Canada a woman and her son on diplomatic passports issued to his own wife and son. This woman, a sardarni, had paid one million rupees to an agent to get her to Canada where her husband is living. She thought she was paying for legitimate travel and did not know that she was to be smuggled in. She also did not know that Katara was carrying a load of sildenafil ( sold abroad as Viagra ) with him. Whether he was hoping to impress her or the Canadian babes is not known but possibly being vegetarian he lacked confidence in his own prowess. Wonder what Indian brand of sildenafil he was carrying. There are Manly and Manforce for the weak, Uplift, Erectra and Lifty for the droopy, Target for the short sighted, Religra probably for the religious, penetrating Penegra, Rocky 50 for the soft hearted, and Stallion for the wimps. Niagra, I think, would have just the opposite effect. After all you do not want it to fall and Adams Delite is plain wrong. Should have surely been Eves Delite. The Indian justice system being what it is he will most probably wriggle out of the criminal case against him but I can imagine how let down he must be feeling. All those pills and all those Canadian babes. Wonder what the police have done with the pills. In Punjab this would be described as a classic case of KLPD.

Aishwarya Rai married Abhihek Bacchan yesterday. Thousands of people came from all over to stand on the roads kept back by 500 security men. Hundreds of people protested against Richard Gere kissing Shilpa Shetty. Who are these useless people who have nothing better to do but to hang around outside Bacchan's house or march in procession for an absolutely stupid reason? Is India the only country in the world which is home to thousands of idiots? These must be the same people who drink and beat up their wives, breed half a dozen children and send them out to work to finance there drinking habit, force their wives to abort female foetuses and sell their under age daughters to middle aged men for Rs. 5000. These are also the people who do all the dirty work for politicians, cut down jungles and poach wild animals. They justify their dirty deeds by saying that they need money for food and so are not really responsible. They are ready to follow any politician for some money or a bottle of cheap liquor and ready to kill for a few thusand rupees. It is one thing to have criminal politicians but when you have thousands of mindless idiots who are ready to do anything no matter how illegal or meaningless then it is a frightening situation for the country. Is there any solution? Is the country going to survive without somehow eliminating these creatures?

The shootings at Virginia Tech were horrible. It is hard to imagine the anguish of all the parents who lost their children, not to some incurable disease, but to a madman's bullets. Nothing can be worse than attending your own child's funeral. I cannot even begin to imagine the anguish of Cho's parents. Not only have they the sorrow of their son's death but also the knowledge that their son's name will be spoken forever in tones of hatred. Their guilt must be killing them. If only they had recognised his illness and forced him to get professional help. If only. However I feel that the killings are the fault of the US government and its refusal to control guns. We have seen the campaign against smokers and tobacco companies but nothing aginst the companies manufacturing death in the form of guns and nothing aginst the evil organisation that is the National Rifle Association. Why look outside for the ' axis of evil ' when this is inside the country. It is easy to lecture others about democracy but why do its people need to carry guns? At least the US has an amendment in its constitution but India has no such excuse. Yet increasing numbers are being given licences to carry guns. If the people have to carry guns for protection then what use is the police force and the government?

The kidnapping of BBC correspondent Alan Johnson is tragic and it was sad to see his parents suffering. We have to ask who has been responsible for making jounalists into targets. It was the US who bombed the Serbian tv station during the Kosovo crisis and have bombed AL Jazeera offices in Kabul and Baghdad killing j0urnalists. In Iraq US and UK journalists are said to be embedded with the US army which, to me, sounds like a giant gay orgy. Thus journalists have been seen as part of the US propaganda machine and legitimate targets. After all the British hanged Lord Haw Haw after the war. The BBC churns out constant propaganda. Whatever Bush and Blair, both confirmed liars, say is broadcast without question but anything Russian is criticised. During the Beslan siege even as little children were being slaughtered BBC was trying to blame it on the Russian government and President Putin. It was cynical, cruel and nauseating.Whenever they show anything in India they will show some slum. Thus they may be broadcasting a report on the software industry but they will not show Infosis or Wipro offices but instead will show how some poor child somewhere is missing out. Alaan Johnson's parents should ask Bush and his poodle, Blair what has happened to him.

Extorsion comes in many guises in India. In West Bengal it is the Communist party. You have bought a new car, built a house, want your son admitted to a good school, you have to pay, what is known politely, as a donation to the party. In Bombay there are the gangs. Whether Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel or any other Bhai you get a phone call telling you that you have just bought a new car for five million rupees so put fifty thousand in a bag and give it to our man without any trouble because we know which school your son goes to and what he looks like. However no one pays any attention to the biggest extortion that is carried out openly and is ubiquitous. I am talking about transvestites or 'hijras' as they are known in local parlance. If you have a new house, a new baby or if there is a marriage in y0ur house these creatures invariably turn up demanding money with threats and abuses. There is nothing physically wrong with them. They have no handicap, they have no chromosomal or genetic abnormality or any hormonal mixup. They are normal men, usually strong and muscular, clean shaven and dressed either in a sari or in salwar kurta. They will sing and dance off tune, create a lot of noise and will demand huge sums of money. No one dare refuse them because they will use filthy language and may throw rubbish, even faeces, at you. The police will not register any complaint against these horrible creatures. Clearly the municipality, where they are provided the information in the first place, and the police are in with them and you are forced to pay money because these men decide to dress as women. And so it goes on.

At last my daughter received her MBBS certificate from Delhi university. She sat for a qualifying exam back in 1999 and came 84th out of thirty thousand candidates. The results of the test were pasted on a wall of a verandah on the 4th floor. There was no lift and no light. Someone had brought two little candles and I was crawling along the floor to find her roll number. Her high rank ensured that she got into Maulana Azad, supposedly the best medical school in Delhi. The college office is dirty and the staff rude, slack and totally unhelpful. Collection of examination fees is announced on the last day creating panic among the students. After finishing her course she underwent one year's internship following which she should have received her certificate but two years passed and we were still waiting. We visited the college office, a distance of at least 20 kms across Delhi traffic, at least six times without any help. They sent us to Delhi university where the staff are a bunch of snarling barbarians. We went to North Campus and were sent to South Campus, backwards and forwards many times. At last when I showed the copy of the letter from the college they managed to find the certificate. Even so they shouted at me, made me come back at least six times and then went on strike for over a month. I feel like whipping these sub humans till they are begging for mercy. Am I wrong?

The Comptroller and Accountant General of India (CAG) has just said that money marked for education and compulsory rural employment scheme is not reaching the target. It is being stolen. On the other hand the Reserve Bank just increased interest rates and th Cash Reserve Ratio to suck liquidity out of the system so as to being down inflation. these two news items are linked in that vasts amount of stolen or 'black' money is being used to buy property and is being made white by round tripping to invest in the stock market. The phenomenal rise in the prices of both, more than any other country in the world, has also led to a feel good factor raising public spending on durable goods. The RBI will not be able to control inflation until it raises rates to the level that it hurts borrowers and reduces spending thus leading to a recession. This is what happened in 2001. Asset prices had risen towards the end of the 90s until interest rates were so high that banks were giving 14% on fixed deposits and company bonds were paying 18-20%. This led to recession and lowering of interest rates sparking off the present boom. Unless the politicians and civil servants are stopping from looting this boom and bust cycle will continue. Only the people will suffer as they have been doing since independence.

The pressure seems to be really on Robert Mugabe. With hyperinflation and increasingly brutal suppression of the opposition he is rapidly becoming another Idi Amin or Samuel Doe. No one said anything when he massacred the Ndebeles in Matabeleland almost two decades ago and has been killing opponents ever since. Only since he took over white owned farms has the attention suddenly focussed on him. Who cares for a bunch of blacks getting killed anyway. After all we were so kind to them when we had them as slaves. All across Africa thousands of men are getting murdered, women are being raped and children forced into armed conflicts but apart from pious words and well intentioned hand wringing we get nothing. Why no regime change in Sudan inspite of the genocide in Darfur? Is it because the oil there is being controlled by the Chinese who are masters of genocide anyway. From Mao's Great Leap to ethnic cleansing in Tibet today the Chinese have perfected the art of killing and coercing entire populations. Their expertise is not limited to humans only but extends to the animal world. They consume every living thing including tigers, bears, civets even human foetuses. Many species face extinction because of their all consuming appetite. Sadly for us they are our neighbours.

So India is out of the cricket World Cup. Sony which is televising the matches stands to lose a lot of money as rates of commercials come sharply down. Criminals based in Pakistan and the Middle East will also lose a lot of money as few bets will be placed on the remaining matches from the subcontinent. Thankfully DoorDarshan will not be able to make money by robbing Sony and broadcasting Indian matches live without having paid for the rights. This was made possible by a court decision saying that this was in public interest. How a cricket match can be in public interest is hard to imagine but with India losing out such a crime has been averted. Public sector companies such as Door Darshan, BSNL ( telephone ) and MTNL ( telephone in Delhi and Bombay ) have looted the public for years. Until 15 years ago these were monopolies and charged huge amounts for rude and rubbishy service. Door Darshan had only two channels and showed how to use manure in farming during prime time. After Star started transmission it has more than a dozen channels but mostly still showing rubbish. There used to be a waiting list of at least four years to get a phone but now we can get one in a day because of competition by private players. Government companies should have given us the best service but they looted us for years. It is time that Indians booted these fellows out.

India and Pakistan lose to 'lesser' opposition and all hell breaks lose. Mobs go on the rampage and Woolmer is murdered. Walk into any ground during a test match and you will find empty seats all around but one day cricket is a different matter. The grounds are full of yobs who understand little of the finer points of the game and are out to make a nuisance of themselves. They are the same sort of people who go to a football match to fight. Huge bets are placed on matches involving India which means that any loss is not to be tolerated. Because of these idiots sports channels in India show cricket all day long. Star Sports used to show live rugby and other proper sports but since it has been taken over by ESPN we get cricket interspersed with rubbishy American games such as basketball where 9 feet tall freaks try to put a ball into a basket 10 feet off the ground. Most likely India will lose today to Sri Lanka and return home thereby depriving Door Darshan of millions in stolen income. I will not mourn.

Naxals slaughtered over 50 policemen in Chattisgarh while CPM cadres and police shot dead 12 villagers ( villagers claim the actual figure killed runs into scores ) protesting against land acquisition in Bengal. Two sides of the same coin. The reason behind both these events is the deep mistrust and total contempt that people harbour for the state. Common people feel totally powerless in today's India. Politicians, civil servants, the police do whatever they want without consultation or regard for the opinion or feelings of the people. Judges cannot be arrested or charged with any crime, they have to be impeached by Parliament which means they literally are above the law. Civil servants cannot be charged without permission of their superior officers which will never be given because the same superiors are also part of the chain of bribery. Politicians control the police so transfer any officer who starts taking interest in their criminal activities. Only the most abject foot licker will get to be the chief of police. The police are poorly paid and abused by politicians and their thuggish children that they have become totally demoralised and criminalised. Meanwhile we the people pay huge taxes for no returns. Even the dirt poor have to pay taxes. They may not pay any direct taxes but have to pay vast amounts in indirect taxes. Every time they buy anything they have to pay VAT, excise duty, import duty, education cess and God knows what else. Everytime they phone or switch on a light they pay service charge with cess. Everytime they watch a movie they pay entertainment tax. People are most dangerous when they have nothing more to lose. Are we getting there?

Thank you Moonlight. This is the tyranny of democracy. In the past we had kings who thought they were divine and could do anything they liked. However their power meant many others coveted their crowns and they could lose their lives at any time. Louis XVI and Charles I come to mind but there would be countless other examples. Then we had dictators who were just as nuts but without the crown. A lot of them also met premature ends such as Saddam and Ceausescu. With democracy we have no such recourse. Fellows get elected by foul means and claim to have the mandate of the people. It may be a couple of hundred hanging chads out of some 40% of the people who voted but it entitles you to start a war with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Mandate of the people. It allows Blair to support the same war against the opposition of 80% of the people but keep on lying that bombs in the London Underground were unconnected to the Iraq war. In India criminals stand for election because once in government they are in control of the police and can interfere with any investigation. People vote for one set of thugs not because they prefer this lot but because they have no choice and think the other lot may be worse. Politicians can vote any perk for themselves plunder the exchequer and hide behind national security. Tyranny of democracy. What is the solution?

I have said before that money raised by increasing taxes is being put into property and also being transferred abroad by hawala and then brought back through Mauritius and invested in the share market. This accounts for the phenomenal rise in both property and share prices in the last two years. On Friday, the 9th, the news broke that a Mr. Khan of Pune has three and a half billion rupees in Swiss banks which he transferred out through hawala route for the purpose of investing in shares. Some politicians are naturally mixed in it. By sunday the police were backtracking showing that the rot goes very high up indeed. Then we heard that the former Defence Minister in the BJP government Mr. Fernandes has said that he had been instructed by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Vajpai not to touch the Quatrocchi file. By the very next day he was claiming that he had been misunderstood and that Mr. Vajpai had been joking anyway. Soon as the Congress came to power the Central Bureau of Investigation defroze Q's assets held in London. Now that the Congress is in power they have not touched the Tehelka file or investigated the claims of buying coffins from an American company at exorbitant prices during the Kargil war. So it goes on. You scratchee my backee and I will scratchee your most honoured filthy backee. The putrid stink makes me sick but what can you do against people with no sharam or izzat. Last month an American diplomat claimed that India had been 'coerced' into voting against Iran at the IAEA meeting prompting Iran into cutting off gas supplies to India. So easy to blackmail these filthy criminals. This is not just a question of commissions or bribes, this is treason. Hang them I say.

Yesterday was World Women's Day and there were the usual people with usual laments about the condition of women in India. On the one hand there were interviews with powerful and successful women who were asked how they had become successful in a man's world on the other we were reminded about the pathetic condition of women married off at an early age, tortured for dowry by the in laws and made to bear children in poor health. There were constant discussions about the millions of girl children being aborted and how men are responsible for all the ills that befall women. Strangely no one talks about the responsibility of women themselves in improving their lot. A woman may be illiterate and helpless but she can talk. Very few men in India involve themselves in raising their children. This gives the mother total and uninterrupted control over how she raises her children. Surely she has unlimited opportunity to teach her children about the value of women and how women should be respected. She should be able to show them educated women around where she lives and on television as examples. Educated women should teach their unfortunate sisters what to whisper in their children's ears as they are growing up. Every time I read about dowry deaths in the newspaper I invariably find women in the torture and killing of an innocent young woman in the most gruesome way imaginable. These mothers and sisters in law are not mere helpless bystanders. They make no attempt to help the unfortunate victim. Instead they actively torture and very often are the ones to pour kerosene on the woman and light the final match. Until women admit their role in the condition of their sex there is no hope.

Yesterday was World Women's Day and there were the usual people with usual laments about the condition of women in India. On the one hand there were interviews with powerful and successful women who were asked how they had become successful in a man's world on the other we were reminded about the pathetic condition of women married off at an early age, tortured for dowry by the in laws and made to bear children in poor health. There were constant discussions about the millions of girl children being aborted and how men are responsible for all the ills that befall women. Strangely no one talks about the responsibility of women themselves in improving their lot. A woman may be illiterate and helpless but she can talk. Very few men in India involve themselves in raising their children. This gives the mother total and uninterrupted control over how she raises her children. Surely she has unlimited opportunity to teach her children about the value of women and how women should be respected. She should be able to show them educated women around where she lives and on television as examples. Educated women should teach their unfortunate sisters what to whisper in their children's ears as they are growing up. Every time I read about dowry deaths in the newspaper I invariably find women in the torture and killing of an innocent young woman in the most gruesome way imaginable. These mothers and sisters in law are not mere helpless bystanders. They make no attempt to help the unfortunate victim. Instead they actively torture and very often are the ones to pour kerosene on the woman and light the final match. Until women admit their role in the condition of their sex there is no hope.

The annual circus called the budget has come and gone. As usual the tax and loot party has been true to form.
Many more services will now come under tax and the Education Cess has been increased to 3%. This will naturally increase cost of services to consumers and industry. All utilities will go up adding to our bills. Already there is heavy taxation on air travel, now there is going to be a cess on air tickets to fund upgrading of small regional airports. Needless to say most of the money will be plundered and people will end up poorer. The joke is that the government is very worried about inflation and the effect it will have on the upcoming election in the biggest state, U.P. In an attempt to reduce inflation it has cut duties on patrol, edible oil and a host of other goods including pet food. Having reduced excise on certain commodities it has increased service tax as though this will have no effect on the economy. The stupidity is mind boggling. When will these people understand that taxes increase prices and inflation. To control inflation the Reserve Bank has increased interest rates and will increase them further in the future. With increasing cement prices, service tax on builders and increasing interest rates the housing market is in for some interesting times. A similar asset price bubble happened around 1995 when speculation in the market reached fever pitch. In 2000- 2001 house prices dropped by around 60% and a lot of people were wiped out. People have such short memories. The Sensex is dropping. Will the housing market follow suit?

Continuing on. Sitting in Tel Aviv and Washington it makes eminent sense in neutralising Iran. It will accomplished by long range bombing without any troops on the ground thus making the entire operation temptingly safe. Once the Iranian air force and retaliatory capacity are taken out the government will be forced to negotiate/surrender or risk severe damage to infrastructure and hardship to its people. The resulting loss of face will cause the hardline govt. to fall or become severely weakened and thus susceptible to regime change in the future. With Iran out of the way Syria will become isolated and forced to accede to demands of ceasing its help to Iraqi militants, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas in Palestine. Without Iran and Syrian support Hezbollah may be dismantled and its 20000 rockets destroyed thus making Israel safer and protecting the present pro western govt of Lebanon. Hamas is already in a corner because of sanctions and its inabilty to pay salaries and keep govt. functioning. Without its backers it will have no option but to give up terrorism and accept Israel's right to exist if it is to play any part in govt. Sure Iran will try to target oil installations in the Gulf and today's newspapers say that Arab governments are installing Patriot missiles to protect their assets. Oil prices will jump to over $100 dollars a barrel and the world economy will crash but if the action is shortlived, as the presumption is, then there will be a quick rebound. What a spectacular fall of dominoes with everyone a winner. Only problem is that no one can see the future and surprises have a habit of kicking you in the backside. Wonder if Sunita Williams will be able to see the fireworks from space.

Legally Iran has every right to enrich uranium. There is no obligation under any treaty it has signed under the NPT or CTBT, may be even DDT, that forbids it the right to enrich uranium. Indeed under NPT the nuclear weapon states were supposed to move towards a nuclear weapon free world which they have steadfastedly refused to do. This is like saying that we are a superior race entitled to kill you but you have no right to retaliate. Seem to think I have heard that one before, from our old friend Adolf. The Security Council is a totally unrepresentative, unjust and perverted creation lording over the world. It has four white countries and a fifth which is the biggest hegemon today ruled by a criminal government not averse to slaughtering its own citizens to stay in power as in Tiananmen Sq. Each member may do as it wishes and avoid censure by using the veto. The most powerful member can totally ignore the council and attack any country it wishes, Grenada, Panama, Iraq. Now this illegal Council is trying to take away Iran's legal right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. I love it. Of course the English news channels are part of the propaganda assault using the old tactics of inspiring fear with outright lies. Iran, of course, is controlled by a coterie of fanatical beards who do not have the intelligence of President Musharraf, swearing eternal allegiance while protecting Al Qaeda. Surprising since Persians are supposed to be very clever. Maybe the really clever ones are in India eg Tata, Godreg and such. How does an illegal body enforce an illegal demand. Bomb the hell out of Iran of course. Suggest we give them 00 prefixes eg 00US and 00UK, licenced to kill. Music please.

Yesterday while Blair was announcing British troop withdrawal from Iraq a bronze statue of Margaret Thatcher was being unveiled in the lobby of the same House of Commons. The big mystery to me is why Blair behaved like Bush's poodle all these years. People who get to be Prime Ministers must have a tremendous hunger for power to sit through years of boring speeches, shake sweaty hands and confer with people with halitosis. Why would Britain be a catamite in a one way sado-masochistic special relationship? Could it be because of the Falklands? Twenty years ago Thatcher was deeply unpopular and would surely have lost the next election. Then the Argentinians attacked Falklands. British trroops were loaded into ferries and cruise ships, sitting ducks in the water, and sent to fight. The Argentine navy dared not leave the port because the Americans were monitoring their movement by satelite and might hve quietly threatened them. Britain won and in the succeeding jingoism Thatcher called and early election and went on to become the Iron Lady. Why did America help Britain against a country in their own backyard? This inspite of Secretary of State, Al Haig calling the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington a 'duplicitous bastard'. What did Thatcher promise in return? After all America did not help the British during the Suez crisis when the prize was huge and it was an impoverished Arab country ruled by Nasser, an avowed Soviet ally. Did Ronald Reagan, everybody's favouite uncle make her sign away the sovereignty of Britain? What a delicious irony.

Good comment. Krishna says do your karma and I will give you result. Since independence the polity has become progressively more corrupt. Although during Nehru's time every politician was a scholar and had been abroad they did not make education free and compulsory choosing instead to keep more than 60% of people illiterate. It is only because people sacrificed to send their children to private schools that the number of illiterates was no higher. Huge sums were allocated to family planning and systematically looted. Socialism allowed politicians to control state assets which gave them huge power over people and the opportunity to make vast illicit fortunes. I remember my parents suffering insults and abuse when trying to get a permit to buy cement to build our house in Calcutta. We applied for telephones in 1986 and got connection in 1990. Politicians charged huge bribes to give out of turn phone or gas connections or permits for petrol pumps. Changing laws meant that no politician or civil servant can be prosecuted. The excuse of poverty has been constantly used for sky high taxes to finance foreign tours for the bastards, their fat ugly wives and drug addled criminal children. High taxes also keep people poor and easy to exploit with lies. People constantly fighting to survive without electricity, water and roads have no energy left to challenge the bastards. The good thing is that India is one of very few countries coming out of colonial tyrrany which has regularly held elections to allow the people to change one set of thugs for another. Countries such as Pakistan, Kenya, Zimbabwi and others have collapsed into dictatorships. This mixture of crime and virtue has meant that India suffers whatever happens in the world but can somehow weather it.

To get its soldiers out of Iraq, to protect Sunni Arab regimes against Shia Persians and protect Gulf oil supplies America will have to bomb Iran. To calm Democrat anger and to appear to have been dragged in unwillingly the US will ask Israel to start proceedings and then take over the main action. Many reports suggest that the targets have been selected and preparations are almost complete. Rumour has it that an Israeli general has said that planes are ready and the selected pilots have been told that they will, in all probability, not be coming back. I think the perfect window will be in spring when heating requirements will be low and the summer driving season still a few months away. Though far away the effect on India will be catastrophic. As the first bomb lands the price of oil will shoot up to $100 a barrel and the Indian economy will go into freefall. With inflation already in double digits prices of everything will go shooting up. Interest rates will have to increase. House prices will crash as increasingly people will be unable to afford loan repayments. Banks will see huge defaults on loans and will be unable to recoup their money because of falling asset values. Already Iran has cut off gas supplies to India because of our vote against its nuclear programme. Factories in Noida are having to generate electricity by using diesel instead of gas and are making losses. Finding itself in deep s*** the govt is buying Russian Sukhois instead of US planes hoping to get a few drops from Sakhalin. Putin will surely want his pound of flesh. Where that leaves the nuclear deal with the US who knows. What karma has cursed us with such politicians?

I read in today's newspaper that Richard Branson is offering $ 25 millions for ideas to reduce greenhouse gases from the earth's atmosphere. Hereby I stake first claim for the prize money with a simple but very effective idea. My idea depends on the fact that carbon dioxide freezes directly to solid dry ice at around minus 40 degrees celsius while oxygen and nitrogen stay as gases till about minus 180 degrees celsius. I propose that a geostationary capsule be sent up to a spot at the margin of earth's gravity. It will dangle two pipes into the earth's atmosphere and a pump will suck air up one pipe and pump down the other back into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide will freeze to dry ice and stay in the capsule while essential oxygen and nitrogen will be returned clean. This dry ice can then be thrown out into space where it will just dissipate. Solar power will keep the pumps working 24 hours a day and hundreds of such capsule may be deployed to reduce greenhouse gases to low levels. Countries will pay according to the amounts of pollution they generate but cost should not be a problem. This is not to replace measures to reduce greenhouse gas production such as using clean fuels and switching to renewable sources of energy such as wind power. There are two dangers to this idea. One, people will become complacent and stop spending on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and two, we might overdo the reduction of carbon dioxide and tip the world into an ice age which would not be very clever. Now my problem will be how to spend so much money.

So the inflation rate is 6.5% when everyone knows that it is above 10%. Food and vegetable prices have increased at least 30% in the last one year. Then there is tax inflation which is not taken into account. For instance tax on patrol is on an ad valorem basis which means that everytime the oil price rises the tax also increases but the tax on air tickets is a fixed which means that when a low cost airline offers tickets for Rs. 10 the customer pays about Rs. 2000 because tax is not calculated on percentage of the price. This blood sucking is because in a coalition government the partners have to be paid astronomical sums for their support. And if you are not in power you cannot plunder. This money paid in cash is 'black' so cannot be deposited in a bank account or invested in any conventional instrument. Part of this money is being invested in property where 60% of the price is paid in cash which means black. This accounts for the phenomenal rise in property prices, upto 300% in some areas. Part of the black money is used for round tripping where the money is transferred abroad through hawala operators and then comes back as Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) or Non Resident Indian (NRI) through Mauritius. This is now white money and can be invested in the share market whcih accounts for the Sensex rising from 3000 to near 15000 today. No other market has given such returns. The Reserve Bank is trying suck the liquidity out of the market but the Finance Ministry is doing the opposite probably because they are terrified of a collapse in both the Sensex and house prices. Question is: can a boom driven by black money continue its growth by morphing into a virtuous cycle?

For us Indians to feel human the first requirement is law and order. At the moment police are controlled by politicians who can murder, rape or plunder the exchequer without any fear. Cases go on for years and many an aggrieved person has died before getting justice. We must have strict laws to ensure that the weakest is protected and the strong are punished severely. All guns must be banned. There is no need for guns in a civilised democracy and India does not have any stupid amendment to encourage this. All cases must finish within two years except those involving complicated international laws. No one will be allowed more than two postponements for any reason. At the moment crooked lawyers keep on asking for further dates for stupid reasons and judges go along. I have been approached many times for false medical certificates so as to postpone a hearing. I always refuse. Anyone who is not ready after two postponements loses automatically. 90% of cases are regarding property and these can be easily resolved without lawyers. The judge will see all the papers ask experts about their authenticity and decide in favour of one. No need for lawyers. However we need a district attorney system where good lawyers will oversee police investigation so that criminal cases are presented perfectly and the guilty cannot escape. We must have fool proof witness and whistle blower protection. Finally what the hell is a First Class Jail? Why should a criminal politician have air conditioned, luxury apartment with food from expensive restaurants for having plundered tax payer's money?

To survive the first change we need is proper law and order. At present politicians, civil servants, judges and relatives therof cannot be arrested or charged. A politician should have immunity for anything he says inside the parliament but definitely not for rape or murder. If a politician were to shoot another of his ilk inside the Houses of Parliament he should still face prosecution as anybody else. Police must be made independent of political interference but answerable to the people. Police salaries, accommodation and medical benefits must be equivalent to those enjoyed by the army. However a special force much like Internal Affairs would investigate the police for every complaint and rogue officers severely punished. State of the art forensic labs must be set up for every police force. Traffic police, criminal division and armed police must be separated. Experts, if necessary, from foreign forces must be brought in to train them. Most importantly they must be trained in manners and to treat everyone with respect and not with abuse and violence as they do now. Civil servants probably cause more damage to us than any other part of the government. They have enormous powers, there are vast numbers of them making it impossible to pinpoint the crooks and their jobs are permanent. They have to be made accountable. They must answer every application or letter within a finite period, say a week. They must approve every application promptly or give valid reasons for refusal. This will reduce opportunities for harassment and bribes. Only one or two persons must handle each file so that crooks will be easily identified and punished. Punishment must be severe including sacking and withdrawal of pensions. Retired officers must be equally punished and guilty officers must be made to pay heavy compensation. We desperately need freedom from the everyday torture from civil servants.

To stop the conservatives from foaming at the mouth let us call them Citizens Management Companies or CMCs instead of trade unions. There should be at least five of these to encourage competition. They should have millions of members across the whole country. Members will pay fees according to salary. Company tax to be reduced to 10% or less and 30% of dividend declared would be paid to the relevant CMC. This would make all pay disputes unnecessary and workers would have an incentive in increasing profitability. Government schools do not work anyway so all these schools to be handed over to private institutions. A certain minimum of the GDP would be handed over to the CMCs who will pay schools for all children thereby ensuring all children regardless of caste or class get the same top class education. If a school fails to deliver the quality required children would be shifted to another one. The same with healthcare. The govt will hand over money to the CMCs who will buy comprehensive health insurance for all. The CMCs will have lawyers who will fight for justice and against all forms of extortion. Since they will be all over the country they will be best suited to match the best candidates to vacancies in jobs. They can facilitate easy movement of people across the country by arranging mortgages, sales and purchase of properties. Since they will have investigated and registered each property as legal people will not be at the mercy of crooked property dealers. Of course all these services will generate revenues which the CMCs will be able to use for other services such as old age care. I feel this is the only way to give genuine power to the people and get corrupt government off our backs.

Thank you Moonlight. Lot of people are pushing for the option of 'none of the above' on all ballot papers in elections. I do not think that it is going to solve the problem. Fewer and fewer people are bothering to cast their votes the world over. In India too educated and middle class people, especially under 30 years of age, have decided that elections are irrelevant because the choice is between different criminals who will continue with the same stupid policies. In India I do not think there is any minimum number that is required to get an MP elected. Theoretically there could be a situation where ninety out of only hundred people vote for a particular politician while five hundred thousand exercise the option of 'none of the others' but the politician will claim a landslide with ninety percent of the vote. No sharam or izzat. In our party system the party which controls the legislature forms the executive. The judiciary though independent is swamped with over 30 million cases still waiting to be heard. Moreover lawyers in India are completely without any ethics, know very little law and routinely take money to lose a cases. Only those students who cannot get into any good course take up law which means that the vast majority are rubbish and will do anything to survive. Besides this Westminster style of government was set up some four hundred years ago and needs to be updated. I think we need a fourth organ whose only assets will be its members and will be independent of politicians. Call them trade unions, citizens councils, whatever. There will be four or five such unions structured like companies with a CEO and a board elected from its members. Run out of space.

Thank you Moonlight. 31st March is not far away and all taxpayers in India are spending sleepless nights trying to figure out how to reduce their tax bills. We slog day and night to earn more money to pay increasing varieties of taxes such as income tax, service tax, value added tax, excise tax, customs duties, property tax, wealth tax and sweet little add ons called education cess, road cess and other excesses that we pay without knowing. Politicians and civil servants spend our money any which way they like without any accountability. Ordinary people have no way of checking on these criminals and voting in another set of crooks every five years does not empower us. This system of legislature, executive and judiciary is clearly not working. We need a fourth organ to represent the people and it can only be trade unions, not the corrupt organisations controlled by political parties that we have now but ones built like MNCs. They will be apolitical and work with companies to increase profits of companies. Company taxes should be brought down to say 10% but 30% of dividends will go to the union. This will give the workers a direct stake in improving productivity and reduce the likelihood of strikes for increased pay. Members will also pay fees depending on salaries. Unions will use this money to buy medical insurance for all, pay school fees for all children in private schools, advise on investments, and maintain a legal team to protect individuals against exploitation and bullying. There is a lot more to it but space is short. People are so fed up with the present system that in most countries fewer people are voting in elections because once the counting is over they have no further say in how the country is run. Power to the people.

Am I going mad or is there something seriously wrong with our entire system? My son just opened an account in one of our large private banks. First we recieved a letter giving us an account number and a customer id number which, the letter said, is very important and must be kept secret. Inside there was a sealed paper which has the pin number for the ATM card. The instruction says that once the sealed envelope is opened the four digit number printed inside must be memorised and the envelop destroyed. A few days later we received another envelope containing a cheque book, an ATM card and two more sealed envelopes containing secret numbers to be memorised for phone banking and net banking. Five numbers just for one account. To take advantage of varying interest rates and investment opportunities one may open three or four such accounts which would mean remembering fifteen to twenty numbers. Then there is the mandatory PAN or Permanent Account Number for filing income tax returns, a passport number, driving licence number, numbers on your car number plates, your telephone number and perhaps telephone numbers of spouse and children. Some of these such as telephone numbers have ten to twelve digits. Only some one like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man could possibly remember so many ridiculous numbers. So either we genetically engineer brilliant but autistic people or the scientists have to come up with an encrypted system based on biometrics which would entail remembering just one number and would be impossible to hack into. We could be talking about the first trillionaire of the world.

Driving from Delhi to Gurgaon yesterday I was surprised to see that all the buidings on both sides of the road were empty and partially demolished. Previously these same buildings had housed upmarket shops selling everything from clothes to jaccuzzis and fancy restaurants. Apparently all these buildings were unauthorised ( Indian political euphemism for illegal ) and were demolished by order of the courts. My question is why were these buidings allowed to be built in the first place? Which politicians and civil servants took bribe to allow them to be built? Have they been punished? Stupid questions. Today we read in the papers that well known politicians owe at least Rupees 50 million in back rent and the Supreme Court has had to intervene. Non Resident Indians or NRIs, as the Indian diaspora is known in official lingo, are an unhappy lot. They have written to the President saying that the awards dished out at the recent held Pravasi Divas were rigged and went to friends of the Minister involved. There are many other tales of political and beureaucratic crimes but the space here is too short too make a list of all. So what is being done to address this problem. One Minister has banned the tv channel AXN for showing sexy ads. I have not seen them but can imagine that they must have had scantily dressed women. The human body was designed by 3 billion years of evolution or by God according to your taste. It is a thing of mind boggling complexity and efficiency. It is also beautiful. An Indian politician concerned about morals. I would laugh if it was not so tragic.

The annual circus called the Budget is here again. We are told that all tax exemptions will be withdrawn no doubt increasing the burden yet again. We are also told that expenditure on primary education will be reduced. At the same time ministers had a meeting with industrialists to start reservation of jobs in the private sector for low caste candidates. Even from the gutter politicians of India this kind of cynical contempt for the people is hard to digest. Reservation helps only those children who have passed high school and is of no benefit to the vast army of illiterates. It helps the drug taking, violent children of politicians and civil servants and divides people along caste lines. Divide and rule was learnt from the British and the Congress has been using it for the last 60 years with other parties joining in. At the same time the son of a police official from Orissa has skipped bail after being charged for rape of a foreigner. The father denies any knowledge of the whereabouts of his son and rest of the police force seems helpless. I am sorry I do not buy it. Sack the father, cancel his pension and keep him jail until the son shows up and then give him life for skipping bail. It is this callous indifference to justice and fair play that gives rise to the grisly rape and murder of children in Noida. Is it any wonder that the police have made a mess of the evidence and the killers may go free? Was it done on purpose? Were politicians involved perhaps?

Yesterday's headline that India has 63% of all cases of rabies in the world is no surprise. India probabaly has the largest number of HIV cases and certainly has the largest number of 'chamchas' in the world. Of course rabies is preventable if one takes a course of vaccines immediately. Each dose costs Rs. 290 so five doses along with doctor's fees and a shot of Tetanus Toxoid comes to nearly Rs. 2000 over one month. This may seem a small amount to prevent a certain death but for labourers earning Rs. 150 a day it is a severe financial strain. If the dog is obviously rabid, dies within a week of the bite or the bite is in the head/neck area then Rabies Immunoglobulin is mandatory costing Rs. 14000 for an adult. No hope for a poor man. The solution seems simple get rid of feral dogs, cats and monkeys esp. dogs whose numbers are growing. It can be done in a very humane manner taking care that the animals do not suffer in the least and with today's technology that would be easy but a group of stone hearted, selfish people led by this female politician will not let that happen saying it is cruelty to annimals. They want to immunize, vasectomize millions of feral dogs at tax payers expense. This in a country where people go hungry. I think we should make these callous people pay for vaccines for the poor and then we shall see how much they love annimals.

I like to start the day with a large cup of tea and a look at the daily newspapers. Every day the news is depressing. Children murdered and cannibalised in Noida, people killed in battles between communists and farmers in Bengal over land acquisition, a sixteen year old girl killed by spurned suiter, Biharis killed in Assam by anti Hindi terrorists, unknown number killed in Somalia by U.S. bombing of phantom Al Qaeda, and of course the ever present Iraq. Yesterday was the same and no doubt tomorrow will also bring a new list of murder and mayhem, only the countries may be different. Old timers like to talk about the 'good old days' but were the old days really so good. History is replete with wars and revolutions. There was the thiry year wars, the hundred year wars, the French revolution, the October revolution and countless others. Then there were the heroes. Achilles, Hannibal, Alexander, Nepoleon, Robin Hood, Patton, warriors all. A visit to the room exhibiting the instruments of torture at the Tower of London will illustrate what I mean. War, rape and plunder were a way of life, a million today carry the genes of Chengis Khan. I think that sociopaths, psychos and assorted nutters are born in every generation since the beginning of time. In the olden days a war would happen every 30 or so years when all the nutters gathered at one place and hacked at each other with swords. When all were cleared out people lived in peace. Today they use missile from a distance or use remote controlled devices. I suggest that an island be set aside under UN control. All nutters will go there and fight only with swords or small arms. Neocons can devise strategy. UN will cordon off the island so that only the severly wounded will be allowed out. This way the nutters can satisfy their urge to kill while we wimps carry on with our peaceful if mundane.

You can walk into a room and say that you love to listen to Engelbert Humperdinck, or eat raspberry yoghurt or wear a kilt in bed and chances are that although the majority might think you slightly weird you will find a kindred spirit. But can anyone walk into a room and say that he likes to torture and murder children and eat their organs? Across the Jamuna river from Delhi police have discovered the bones of upto thirty children and women who were raped, tortured, murdered and then had their organs eaten by two men. One was an English school and college educated Sikh and the other his illiterate man servant from the north. For years people of this area, who are mostly very poor, have been complaining of missing children and women but the police the police simply shrugged their shoulders saying that the children must have run away from home. When the remains were discovered and parents recognised the clothes of their missing children they, understandably, were incensed. Not for them any psychiatric help or support from politicians who promise the moon before elections. They were beaten up with truncheons and U.P. government officials are conducting expensive DNA tests to see if they deserve compensation of 100 to 200 dollars for each dead child. We are constantly being told how how proud we should be of the progress the country is making. Perverted monsters who enjoy necrophilia and cannibalism have always existed and will continue to exist in the future but how does one such monster find another one like himself in a population of one billion? I would greatly appreciate an answer to this mystery.

For Indians it is that time of the year again. It is that stupid circus called the 'Budget' when all sorts of people go cap in hand to the Finance Minister who sits like a God promising to be magnanimous with the tax payers money while increasing taxes every year. We wake up to learn that another forty odd services will attract tax no doubt to finance luxurious living and foreign travel for the politicians and their foot-washing civil servants. Meanwhile in the south Delhi colony of Vasant Kunj water supply has dwindled to about 300 litres per family per day. This inspite of opening of a new wateer treatment plant and grandiose promises of 24 hour water supply for all. Supply did improve for a few days thus decimating the trade of water tankers. No doubt money changed hands and the water supply has been reduced to levels less than what we used to get. So bought 2000 litres of water this very morning for Rs. 210 of which ten rupees is service tax. I think he should have charged more, perhaps he forgot the 3% education cess. My suggestion still stands. Put 100% service tax on all medical services and when people die in great numbers then start a 10% tax on cremation, plus 3% education cess. Clean up on tax collection and reduce population in one fell swoop. Meanwhile a politician has suggested that the sexual torture and serial killing of thirty children in Noida, on the outskirts of Delhi, is a minor event. Of course it is. For these vultures who are sucking our blood for the last sixty years. It is shocking that some old people who have memories of British occupation say that life was better in those days.

Moonlight thankyou for your wishes. I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year and hope that you find reward for your efforts. I had gone to Bahrain for a month and returned the day Saddam was hanged after a kangaroo trial. All his fault really. Had he put up a bit of a fight and taken just five hundred Americans in the first days of the attack the Americans would have given up. He could have flooded the desert with oil and set fire to it when American tanks rolled in, he could have mined the highway, he could have targeted the first and last vehicles of the supply convoys and then attacked the trapped soldiers in the middle or he could have booby trapped his palaces to take as many enemy as possible. He definitely should have blown himself up with his captors but he did nothing. He did not even bother to switch off the lights on the highways so that the Americans had a clear drive on beautifully signposted highways straight on to Baghdad. I think it is disgusting that you hand over your country to invaders without any resistance whatsoever. Maybe dictators are not so clever after all. Maybe he was more afraid of his generals than he was of the Americans, hoping they would never find him or convinced that they would not dare to kill him against Arabic opinion. In the event the Americans were clever enough to find him and stupid enough to get him lynched by Shia militia after a grossly unfair trial presided over by a Kurd. Shows a Texan redneck is no cleverer than a murdering dictator. At least Saddam was brave at the end and has left a big headache for his enemies in the form of a video.