A 19 year old Israeli conscript in the army, Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas three years ago and has been kept imprisoned since then. Negotiations are being conducted through Egypt and yesterday Hamas released a video showing the now 22 year old in good health. In return Israel has released nineteen low level Palestinian prisoners. Now that it is established that the young man is alive negotiations can move on to discuss the terms of his release. Seems that Hamas is demanding release of 400-500 high level prisoners, those convicted of murder of Israeli citizens, in exchange for the release of one ordinary young man. There was great rejoicing in Gaza when the nineteen released Palestinians came home. Perhaps the Palestinians should have paused to reflect the message there own leaders are sending to the Israelis and to the world. Hamas leaders are acknowledging that one relatively ' unimportant ' Israeli is equivalent to 400 Palestinians. Israelis are unlikely to forget this equation and in any future conflict and will inflict damage on the Palestinians which reflecting this balance. The biased Europeans have been accusing Israel of war crimes during the last conflict but they should see that it is Hamas itself which accepts that Palestinians are cheap. However politics is based on lies.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF has said that the world wide recession is finally over and we will see growth at the end of this year. China will grow at 9% and India at 6.4%. China has $ 2 trillion dollars in foreign reserves and can throw money at the economy to stimulate demand but it is still dependant on exports mainly to the US and EU. Unemployment in the US continues to grow and people are shy of spending as in the past. Oil prices are firmly above $ 70 a barrel and will quickly rise at the slightest sign of econmic expansion and will thus act as a permanent dampener on any future growth. Japan is still unable to get out of deflation. All governments have run up enormous deficits in order to support failing banks and stimulate lending and at some point will have to address the problem of inflation. Judging by the rise in the Sensex India is a great success story. Companies are hiring again and prices of properties are beginnning to rise once more. No one says anything about the enormous government deficit and the massive borrowing that is required to finance that deficit. With the monsoons having failed food inflation is likely to continue without respite. Perhaps the freeloading press is acting as an agent of the politicians and trying to fool the people to increase spending thereby stimulating growth and increasing tax collections. Can we trust the fifth column? Who knows.

China is celebrating 60 years of communist rule with massive security around Beijing, not against external terrorists as in India, but against its own people. A barbaric and uncivilised people who are proud of a government that is arguably more dangerous than the Nazis. The world has been mesmerised by furious growth of the Chinese economy choosing only to see a source of cheap goods and a possible growing market. This growth has been achieved at the cost of the environment and the lives of little children who have been poisoned by lead, developed kidney failure due to melamine and were killed by shoddy construction that fell while party buildings stood during an earthquake. The Chinese government has used its growing wealth not for the good of the world but to threaten its neighbours, to buy up resources in Africa by bribing corrupt dictators and shielding homicidal regimes such as those in Myanmar and North Korea. Like cockroaches the Han eat everything from sea horses to civets to human fetuses. They like to treat their manhood inadequacies by eating rhino horn or tiger parts putting these magnificent animals in danger. The Nazis were a threat to Europe but the Chinese are a threat to the world. As the old Chinese saying may we wish that they live in very, very interesting times.

An article in the New York Times states that Lashkar e Taiba is active and is planning another attack against India. Why wouldn't they? Since independence the Congress has rewarded Pakistan for killing our citizens and soldiers. Nehru would not allow Cariappa to clear Kashmir of infiltrators, Lal Bahadur Shastri signed away all the territory gained by the heroic sacrifices of our soldiers and airmen using totally inadequate equipment, Indira Gandhi handed over 95 thousand prisoners of war for nothing in return and Rajiv Gandhi would not allow Israeli aircraft refuelling facilities to bomb Paki nuclear installation. Now our most ' honourable ' Prime Minister has rewarded the Pakis in Egypt even though we are yet to mourn the anniversary of the Mumbai massacres. This same Prime Minister is so happy having his photo op with President Obama for the freeloading press back home that he has probably forgotten to ask why the US is increasing its military aid to the Pakis while, at the same time, delivering a sombre speech on the anniversary of 9/11. With the friendly Congress in power it is no wonder that LeT is planning more attacks while Chinese cockroaches continue to violate our border. India managed to survive repeated attacks by muslim marauders and christian killers but will it survive the Congress?

The circus in Honduras continues on. Like in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran President wanted to change the constitution so as to be able to stand for another term. Alarmed by this prospect the Honduran army threw him out of the country in his pajamas. Unable to get back his office he has sneaked into the country and has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy. From here he is making wild allegations of being gassed by the army and is asking his supporters to take to the streets or, in other words, he is trying to start a civil war. He is behaving as though the country is his fief and he is willing to sacrifice any number of lives to get it back. Staging a coup is wrong but it is a greater wrong to change the basic tenets of the constitution so as to cling on to power. In poor countries promise free goodies to the illiterate underclass, get elected, build up a power base by distributing largesse to your supporters at the cost of the economy, change the constitution and stay in power until the country is bankrupt after which flee to a friendly refuge and live in luxury. Papa Doc Duvalier and Mengistu did that, Mugabe is very close to it and Chavez will get there in a few years. The stupid poor who gave power to the scoundrel in the first place end up suffering the most. If this crisis in the Honduras prompts a rethink of ' democracy ' then it will be good. We desperately need citizens' corporations to check politicians and reduce their powers. But will politicians allow that?

The lie that is Indian democracy is fully exposed in Andhra Pradesh where the Chief Minister, YS Rajasekhara Reddy died in a helicopter accident. Now his chamchas are agitating for his son, YS Jaganmohan Reddy,a first time member of parliament, with no experience whatsoever to be made Chief Minister. This will be decided by the Congress high command in Delhi who want someone else in that post. The Reddy chamchas are furious for obvious reasons and burnt two buses yesterday. There is no report of any arrests or heavy punishment for destruction of state property. However, there is great anger because the said chamchas tore up a poster of Congress President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and there are strident calls for these thugs to be expelled from the party. No one is talking about consulting the people on who they would like as their Chief Minister. At the very least Congress Party members in Andhra could be ballotted on who they would like as their leader. Instead the decision will be taken by apparatchiks in secrecy and somebody will be foisted on the people. Said one Mr. Keshav Rao, ' what is the Congress Party without Sonia Gandhi?' Quite so. Precisely what I have been saying all these years. The Congress is a party of footlicking chamchas who will carry out the meanest or the most disgusting act of self abasement to stay in office. We even have a leader at the national level surviving for five years by licking ' madam's ' shoes daily. No sharam, no izzat. Ten thousand years of civilisation and we have zombies swanking around with Z class security. No tears left.

So past president Mr. Jimmy Carter thinks that the vitriol being directed against the present incumbent of the White House, Mr. Barack Obama is racist. President Obama's staff have dismissed these suggestions because they demean the office of the President. One would expect that the President, who was personally elected by a large majority of people of all colours would be above such humiliations and by mentioning openly the word
' racism ' Mr. Carter has done Mr. Obama a disservice by bringing him down to the level of the ordinary black man who is denied service because of his colour. There are definitely a lot of whites who hate Obama only because he is black but then 90% of blacks voted for him, also, only because he is black. In interview after interview black people have expressed great happiness at seeing a black man in the White House, often saying that they had never imgined seeing such an event in their lifetimes. Maybe that is why Mr. Obama laid such importance on bipartisanship because he recognised that there was bound to be white resentment at what the whites would see as black racism. This was the sort of sentiment expressed at the confirmation hearings of Justice Sottomayor. Unfortunately Mr. Carter has undermined his efforts to rise above such pettiness. How often do we cause damage when we mean well?

Amidst all the bad news of lies and treachery at last one piece of good news. Seems that doctors in Chennai and Coimbatore have been able to cure a nine year old girl of thallasaemia by transplanting stem cells from her newly born brother's umbilical cord blood. Thallasaemia is a genetic disorder in which patients are unable to form normal adult heamoglobin and form foetal haemoglobin instead. The red cells carrying this haemoglobin are promptly destroyed by the spleen and the patients need regular transfusions to keep them alive. Since blood contains iron this metal builds up in the children and requires prolonged infusions of a chelating agent to get rid of it. All this is extremely painful for children and distressing for the parents. If this little girl called Thamirabharani stays well then more children could be offered the treatment, eventually curing all the children with this terrible disorder. At Rs. 1 million it would be cheap because of the enormous savings in blood and drugs. Also a lot of blood will be freed up to treat other emergencies. Normally placenta and the cord are thrown away so collecting small amounts of blood should not be a problem. Once established children with sickle cell disease, an extremely painful condition, could also be treated. This is truly a wonderful advance. Sadly implementation will be in the hands of the criminal politicians and the uncivil servants. What hope for the children?

On August 17 hundreds of farmers attacked Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Company in China because their children were being poisoned with lead discharged from the factory. In response authorities sent in hundreds of police surrounding the villages forcing the villagers to flee. Chinese are uncivilised beasts but not so we Indians, right? Turns out that children in Punjab are suffering from uranium poisoning, causing micro cephaly, hydrocephaly and spasticity, from fly ash produced by coal fired power stations.This is especially severe around Bucho Mandi where children have the highest levels, upto 60 times the safe level in one case. This was discovered by Dr. Carin Smit, a South African metal toxicologist who sent samples to a German laboratory for analysis. There was no doubt. She has been warned that her visa may not be renewed. Fellows from the Dept. of Atomic Energy visited the site and found levels ' slightly high ' and ' nothing to worry about '. Indian industry is losing some Rs. 4 trillion a year because of poor and intermittent power supply but this is squarely the fault of the criminal politicians and uncivil servants who have conspired to keep the people poor so that they can lord over the aam aadmi. Yet little children end up paying a horrific price. This was a result of an investigation by the Observer printed in the Guardian Weekly of November 4. Our footlicking press remains silent on this horrible crime but cannot stop saying that Chandrayan moon mission was a failure. Creeps.

Seems that when the first bullets hit Ceausescu, the dictator of Rumania, his face showed surprise. He was unable to comprehend how anyone could actually shoot at him. Our Prime Minister also seems unable to comprehend why the Naxal movememnt has grown the way it has. In a speech to state police chiefs on the second day of their three day conclave Dr. Singh said,' It has influence among sizeable sections of civil society, the inelligentsia and the youth.' The reason is very simple, Sir. People hate the state and its three arms - the politicians, the uncivil service and the police. It is not inequality of wealth that is the cause of this hatred but inequality of justice. An ordinary person accused of stealing a thousand rupees often spends years in prison as an ' undertrial ' because he cannot afford bail while Mr. Sukhram, a previous telecoms minister, is enjoying freedom after 14 years inspite of being caught redhanded with millions stuffed into pillows and mattresses. Bernie Madoff confessed to theft and is already serving a 150 year prison sentence while Ramalinga Raju of Satyam, who also confessed, is in ' first class jail ' whatever that is. Dr. Singh also expressed alarm at increasing levels of infiltration of terrorists. Sir, it is your party, the Congress, which has repeatedly turned victory into defeat against Pakistan such as in Tashkent, Shimla and more recently in Egypt. The people of India are extremely tolerant but now they are slowly getting very angry. Be afraid, Sir. Remember Ceausescu.

The serial shoe-thrower Muntader al Zaidi will be released from prison today to a hero's welcome. The entire Arab world sees him as a hero who called the swaggering US President, George W. Bush ' a dog '. This will always remain the defining moment of the Bush presidency, the only US president to have shoes thrown at him. Not an assassin's bullet,, which would wash away all his disastrous mistakes in his own blood and for generations to pen poems about ' Camelot ' so cruelly cut short, but dodging shoes in front of world's cameras while the Iraqi Prime Minister puts out a hand to deflect the flying footwear. What should have been a final farewell with the heartfelt gratitude of the Iraqi people for having rid them of the bad Saddam turned into a fiasco and made Bush into a joke for all time to come. And since he was their president the entire Republican Party has turned into a snarling, rabid pack of canines led by the biggest snarl of all, the former Vice, Dick Cheney. This explains why a nonentity like Joe Wilson has become a celebrity by an act of supreme bad manners showing his lack of class as well as that of his party. Unfortunately people in the US are so terrified by the mother of all recessions and unemployment that all they care about is the future. They do not care that the Republicans are responsible for all the ills plaguing the country. All they want is reassurance for the future. Like all shameless politicians, the Republicans are stoking their terror and blocking all attempts at reform. Considering that they are staunch capitalists they are behaving exactly like our communists. Curious.

When George Bush finished his second term he had to shift to private lodgings and, apparently, has been seen carrying shopping bags and has been heard complaining about picking up dog poo. Not so our politicians. They stay forever in houses costing more than Rs. 2 billion for years with 24 hour security and travel expenses paid for by the taxpayer. Not only that even the daughter who does not occupy any post gets the same privileges. Now in a show of supreme hypocrisy these shameless people are flying economy class to show austerity. I wait to see our footlicking press eulogising these hypocrites in flowery prose and, genetic chamchas that we are, we will applaud oh so gratefully. Meanwhile the Chief Justice India, Mr. K. G. Balakrishnan has said that kleptocrats are consistently escaping punishment for their crimes because investigating agencies have to seek permission before prosecuting any civil servant. 99% of civil servants are criminals or, to put it another way, only those with criminal tendencies seek sarkari jobs. Reminiscent of George Orwell this impunity is afforded by the aptly named Prevention of Corruption Act. Of course, it is all in the service of the aam aadmi.

Indians need to rejoice. Seems that mortality in children under five has dropped from 12.5 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008. This news on page 4. On page 3 picture of a burnt out car with a man holding a long stick kicking the burnt out shell in fury. This is in retaliation to the police who were trying to stop illegal construction in Ghaziabad. Apparently there are 388 illegal colonies in Ghaziabad, just 20 km from Delhi, 188 of them built since 2006. Both these news items relate to the unchecked rise in population in India. While middle and upper classes restrict the number of children to one or two, poor people are going on breeding without any regard for the damage they are doing to the country. They know that since they have the numbers to vote in any scoundrel they are free to beg anywhere, occupy public land, poach rare animals or even steal cars all in the name of poverty. One lady who would proudly proclaim her bleeding heart for the poor wrote an article moaning the decreasing numbers of tigers due to poaching. She would like to do to the poachers what they do to the tigers i.e. chop off their parts and yet she would be enraged if anyone suggested forcing the poor to have few children as they do in China. The clever poor are delighted to take advantage of such stupidity and continue to produce legions of babies with hands outstretched as beggars from birth. Already we are running out of farmland. By 2050 when the population reaches 1.5 billion there will be mass starvation. Will people survive by eating each other?

South Africans are incensed at the gender tests carried out on their star female athlete, Caster Semenya accusing the IAAF of racism. To be sure when an American female tennis player sports muscles bigger than a man's and starts serving at over 200 kmph nobody dare suggest gender tests or performance enhancing drugs which are based on the male sex hormone, testosterone. Marion Jones was unluckily caught by accident when some insider ratted on BALCO. However the South Africans are doing a disservice to all female athletes and to Semenya herself. Any female athlete would be banned for life if she was found to be taking testosterone and Ms Semenya is said to have three times the normal female levels. Records in women's track and field events have not been bettered for over 20 years because increased vigilance by IAAF has made it impossible for female athletes to use performance enhancing drugs. People who are intersex are usually brought up as girls by their parents. If Ms Semenya is truly intersex then she should have her testes removed because undescended testes are precancerous. She should then be given female hormones to make her fully female. South African fury and denial could result in the death of this young lady. That is not racism.

Yesterday at a government girls school in the capital of India, Delhi there was a stampede when rumours spread that there was some sort of electrical short circuit and everyone could be electrocuted. In any other country such a rumour would be laughed off but in India it is not uncommon to hear of high voltage wires falling to the ground in a storm and killing someone. An official enquiry has been announced. Some retired sarkari fellow, who is a friend of some influential politician, will be paid to form a committee, millions of rupees will be wasted, years will pass and by the time the report is ready people will have forgotten about the tragic loss of beautiful young lives. The report will be given to the government at the time and will never be published and the taxpayer will never know what he has paid for. The tragedy happened because the staircase was so narrow that girls got crushed in the rush and died of suffocation and head injuries. The municipality is responsible for checking the standard of construction and safety of buildings but everyone at the municipality is a thief and running after bribes. Municipal workers dig up roads leaving large potholes where drivers of two wheelers are killed or seriously maimed. Manholes are regularly left open and many children die of drowning after falling in. No one is held responsible. No one is charged with murder or punished in any way. All that happens is that some junior fellow is transferred from one department to another. A lot has been written about the Mumbai massacres but the sad fact is that government workers take more innocent lives every year than all terrorists put together. With complete impunity.

A Paki fellow who used to work in the ISI has claimed that the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif has met Osama bin Laden at least five times. Surely it is no surprise. At the time of 9/11 some experts were of the view that the attacks were too detailed and sophisticated to have been planned by a bunch of bearded, murderous fanatics that constituted the Al Qaeda. The logistics, training, planning and financing could only have been done by some national intelligence agency. For instance the first plane hit high so that smoke rising from the burning tower would not obstruct the view of the second plane which came below the smoke and hit the second tower in the middle causing it to collapse earlier and sustain more casualties. The finance was from Pakistan pointing clearly to Paki involvement but the Bush administration continued to pour money into Pakistan allowing it to expand its nuclear arsenal against India. Seems that there is some religious belief in the US that compels the americans to keep on helping muslim Pakistan against Hindu India. After all kafir and heathen mean much the same thing and probably makes US and Pakistan bosom buddies and Indians keep dying for no reason.

A news article in The Guardian Weekly of 21.08.09 by one Xan Rice talks about a 24 year old woman, Wanjiku who gave birth to a boy in Nairobi's Pumwani hospital in Kenya. Her bill for delivery was $ 45 which she was unable to pay because she is a single mother with another child at home. She was locked up in a detention ward with 42 other poor mothers for 8 weeks because the hospital wanted her relatives to pay her bill. The writer is angry at this treatment of a poor mother but does not ask this woman why she got pregnant when she already has a child and cannot hope to feed her baby let alone give it an education. The boy will probably grow up to be a criminal like so many men in Africa. Poor people are no fools. They will come to the hospital, give birth and refuse to pay knowing that the hospital will have to release them in the end because it will run out of space and it will cost the hospital to feed them indefinitely. All over the developing world poor people are breeding without restraint, cutting down forests, poaching big animals to near extinction and killing rare species for bushmeat all in the name of survival. They seem to have no responsibility to their children, to society or to the world which cannot sustain any more. India will reach 1.5 billion by 2050. Agricultural land is disappearing as more houses are built, land will turn to desert as water tables fall and food prices are rising at 20% yoy. The tyranny of the feudal landlords was very bad but the tyranny of the poor will surely deatroy the world.

Seems that a six year old girl has become a media darling in China because on her first day in school she declared that she wanted to grow to become a ' corrupt official '. At least in this one area we are way ahead of the Chinese in that we have set up an efficient system to train all 99% of our officials to be corrupt. First there is a tough elimination examination following which there is a four year residential training in the salubrious surroundings of a hill station. Once they qualify they are masters at making black money, sucking upto ministers to the extent that they will even carry ministers' shoes, blocking every kind of progress, buck passing and treating taxpayers with utmost contempt. Their promotions are time bound meaning that they are sure to be promoted after a certain length of service regardless of competence or integrity. They cannot be sacked and shamelessly award themselves the highest pay rises causing useful services like armed forces and police to feel insulted to the point of revolt. You see them in official ambassador cars accompanied by police escorts driving well above the speed limit and tailgaiting any vehicle getting in their way. Naturally the largest numbers of these slimy sleazeballs come from the most criminal states of India. To make any progress the training school must be shut down and best brains recruited directly on merit. To make it attractive get rid of 80% of the useless dross and pay high salaries based on ' hire and fire ' principle. Above all we need citizens' corporations to check their activities and hold them accountable. Pipe dream?

A bipartisan committee of the US Congress, Congressional Research Service has issued a report saying that Pakistan is improving its nuclear arsenal. It already has 60 nuclear warheads and is gradually building towards 100 with only one target in mind and that is India. Before that we had news that it has modified US supplied harpoon missiles to be used against land targets in India. We have constant hand wringing from our Home Minister about the Pakis not doing enough about bringing the terrorists involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to justice. It really is a mystery to me why we go on wasting time on this failed state all of whose people are either terrorists or sympathisers. India does not need Pakistan. We should cut off all diplomatic links with this filthy country, mine the Line of Control so heavily that not even a fly can get through and shoot at anything that moves towards India on land, sea or air. We should have absolutely no contact whether business, cultural or friendly. Just excise it like the pustule that it is and get on with building our country. The war in Afghanistan is going to kill more and more US and NATO troops. Gradually the west will realise that they cannot win this war because of Pakistan and they have to destroy its capabilities if they want a graceful withdrawal from Afghanistan. Obama's popularity is aready falling to low levels and if he wants to win another term he will have to destroy Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and then its military infrastructure. In short he will have to nuke he bastards.

Why should 122 people die of shock or suicide at the death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. YSR Reddy? The death is unexpected but surely that is not reason enough for committing suicide. It appears that Mr. Reddy was very loyal to his friends. When told of the high handed behaviour of a friend he remarked,' He is my friend. When will he throw his weight around if not when I am chief minister?' Is it possible that the people committing suicide took advantage of his protection to rape, murder, loot and grab other people's land and suddenly realised that a new leader may cut them off or even take revenge? To preempt anyone from a different group from gaining power Mr. Reddy's supporters have demanded that his son Mr. JM Reddy, a first time MP, should be made Chief Minister of the state. They have given the example of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi who became Prime Minister of India after the death of his mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, without having any political experience. This has angered the Congress High Command who want to put their man in place. This is what passes as ' DEMOCRACY ' in India where people have no say in who will be chief or prime minister the posts being handed to family members as in feudal times. Mr. Lalu Yadav installed his illiterate, ' angutha chaap ' wife as Chief Minister of Bihar when he was charged with corruption. When the people are treated with such contempt is it any wonder that they are taking up arms against the state? Who will save my India?

A casual article in one of leading english dailies announces that the Finance Minister, Mr. Mukherjee has decided to remove service tax on the transportation of food by rail and waterways. This tax was levied by the same Mr. Mukherjee in this year's budget after the Congress won elections held in May based on its heart breaking love for the aam aadmi. So now there will be no service tax on transport of edible oil, seeds, cereals, pulses,flour, fruits, vegetables, flowers, agricultural goods, fishery, marine produce, meat, poultry, water, tea, coffee and other food items. However this move is mainly rubbish because most fresh foods are moved by road transport which continues to attract service tax. Food inflation is already around 20% year on year so a 10% service tax on food is especially cruel and belies all the promises made by the Congress to win the election. This should have been pointed out by our press who analyse the budget but sadly mainstream newspapers are a propaganda arm of the Congress. They distort perception by printing only favourable stories, ignore all the lies and support Congress pseudo secularism by constantly abusing Hindus. Analyses of the economy by so called experts are falsely optimistic never discussing the dangers unlike in other countries where there is a frank debate about all the pros and cons. India faces dangerous enemies such as China, Naxals and Pakistan but a bootlicking press is probably the greatest danger faced by the country.

In the US a lawyer, Ms. Amrit Singh working for American Civil Liberties Union wanted disclosure of documents regarding prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan under the Freedom of Information Act. When faced with obstruction she and her colleague, one Jameel Jaffer went to court and six years later have been successful in obtaining 130,000 pages of previously secret documents. The bootlicking press has naturally printed the whole article including her picture because she happens to be the daughter of our most VVIP Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh. Mr. Singh, on the other hand, has hidden 28,685 twentyfive year old files which were to be declassified under the Public Record Rules of 1997 in the bowels of his office. One can only surmise that they contain evidence of crimes committed by Congress and other politicians and therefore have to be hidden from view as long as possible, preferably until the criminals have left the earth. Problem is that politicans in India never seem to die of heart attacks, strokes or cancer at a young age even though these are common in the general population. Mr. Singh will no doubt try his best to deny the voters and taxpayers any and all the information contained in the files. What the daughter does for the US is denied to us Indians by the father. Yet the bootlicking press is forever telling us what an honourable man he is.

Seems that India grew 6.2% in the last quarter although exports fell over 20% for 10 months in a row. This is growth of the GDP, the sum total of all goods and services in the country. Food prices have risen over 20% yoy hitting the poor. Is this counted as GDP growth? In this town a shop, some 300 sq. feet, is being sold for Rs. 13 million, a ridiculous amount given that at 7% interest this amount of money will earn around Rs. 75000 a month in a bank without any risk whereas a shop this size may never generate even half that amount. Is this counted as growth in GDP? The government is doling out alms to rural poor at Rs. 100 per day for doing nothing while fiscal deficit is set to reach over 7% probably resulting in increase in interest rates. Is this counted as GDP growth? Indian industries are losing over Rs. 4 trillion a year because of poor power supply which will not improve in a hurry. Meanwhile household electricity bills in Delhi are rising so high that they are almost equal to one person's monthly salary to compensate for all the people who are stealing electricity. Is this counted as growth in GDP? If this is growth then Zimbabwe was the richest country in the world last year when its GDP was doubling every hour? Obviously India is not in that category but the lies are the same.

There has been a lot of smoke recently over whether judges should have to declare their assets publicly. At first the judges resisted but have now given in and it seems that a new bill will be passed to make it a law. This is in revenge for a Supreme Court judgement which made declaration of assets compulsory for every candidate standing for elections. However politicians only file an affidavit with the Election Commission regarding their assets just before elections. Some candidates show that they have nothing and then proceed to spend millions of rupees for campaigning. Now it appears that $ 1.4 trillion are stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks which is 50% more than the GDP of the country. Known for their banking secrecy laws the Swiss have agreed to release the names of at least 4000 names of tax cheats to the American and over 3000 names to the French government but have warned that they will not help the Indian government. This not all. About the same amount of black money is invested in the property market and in the share markets through reverse hawala and Participatory Notes route. Will anything change? Not if the criminal politicians and kleptocrats can help it.

I am proud to be a Hindu. Hindus do not convert and have never fought any war of crusade or jihad. However we are constantly being abused by the pseudo secular Congress and its freeloading press dogs just to get votes of non hindus. Yesterday I went to Haridwar, a most important pilgrimage for us Hindus. The river Ganga flows through this city and it is said that Lord Vishnu took three dips in the river at Hari Ki Paidi which is where most pilgrims take their dips. Ganga is the only holy river in the world and its water stays fresh even after being left for over two years in a bottle. The road to Haridwar was is narrow, congested and full of potholes. Once we reached the car park we were hit by a stench of human excreta. At least fifty buses full of villagers were parked there and the villagers were cooking. washing and defaecating at the same place. The whole area was disgustingly filthy. There is no shade so when it started to rain we got soaked and the car park was ankle deep in mud. Hindu temples are some of the richest in the world yet no attempt is ever made to clean and beautify the sites. There is no accounting of the billions of rupees collected in offerings so all of it is probably being stolen. Haridwar is in the new state of Uttarakhand which has a BJP government which talks Hindutva but does nothing. Contrast this with the state of the art Haj terminal at Delhi Airport.

When Dhirubhai Ambani died he left behind a vast industrial empire without a clear will about how it will be divided. His elder son Mukesh wanted it all and this was resisited by his younger brother Anil. Eventually a compromise was worked out by their mother and the various assets were divided between the brothers. Mukesh inherited RIL which produces and refines oil whereas Anil got RNRL, a power company. It appears that RIL had a contract to supply gas to RNRL from its offshore fields in Andhra at $ 2.34 per unit which is the same rate it had quoted to the government controlled power company, NTPC. Now, however, RIL wants
$ 4.20 per unit because its capital expenditure was some Rs. 300 billion more than earlier projections. This was disputed by RNRL in the High Court in Mumbai which found in its favour. RIL has appealed to the Supreme Court where the matter rests at present. Curiously the Oil Ministry supports RIL's increased demand whereas the Power Minister wants NTPC to pay the original agreed price. No doubt the Supreme Court will decide in one brother's favour in due course but it is impossible to understand why Mr. Mukesh, being the elder brother, will do anything to harm his younger sibling. Mr. Mukesh is said to be building a 24 storey house for his wife for some Rs. 80 billion and is content to spend hundreds of millions in lawyers' fees just to hurt is own brother. In the land of Rama that is really disgusting.

Michael Jackson's death seems to be getting weirder by the minute. Turns out that his doctor had given him injections of midazolam and lorazepam which are used for minor procedures in hospitals. When these did not work the singer was desperate to get sleep so he was given propofol, an intravenous anaesthetic agent. After this the doctor went to the toilet for a couple of minutes if you believe the doctor or he was on the phone for a couple of hours leaving the singer unattended as per the police version. All this apparently happened before noon. Whichever version turns out to be the truth it shows a shocking lack of basic medical standards. 1. Why was Jackson so desperate to sleep at such an odd hour? 2. Why were injected benzodiazepines completely unsuccessful? It shows that he had been given these drugs regularly and had developed tolerance. 3. Who gives intravenous anaesthetic agents for insomnia? You need to be prepared with endotracheal tube, oxygen and ambu bag and be skilled in inserting an endotracheal tube if necessary which is a difficult skill to master. If anyone has reached a stage where he is unable to sleep without opiates or anaesthetic drugs then he needs to be in hospital under psychiatric and neurologist care. To casually inject a powerful anaesthetic and then walk of to the loo is completely irresponsible. At the very least the doctor should be struck off the register. Is this the kind of health care the Republicans want to protect. They do not have to wait. The ' death panels ' are already here.

The Democrats are a bunch of pussies. Their party controls both the House and the Senate and yet theyare still cowed by rabid right wing Republicans. The Republicans left behind two unsolved wars and the mother of all recessions but are still able to dictate the debate on the Healthcare bill with lies and scaremongering. They have accused the Democrats of being socialist because the government wants to bring medical care to around 47 million americans who have no insurance at present. By their arguments Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the richest men in the world, are also socialist because they are using their wealth to finance treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in the poorer countries of the world through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If rich americans can finance medical care in the third world then why is it wrong for their own government to try and bring medical care to their own citizens? Microsoft has been fined in several countries for its retrictive trade practices, ruthlessly cutting competitors out of the market so Mr. Gates is clearly no socialist. The Democrats should have met Republican aggression head on but they are seen to be in the wrong because they are cowards. Already commentators are suggesting that they will lose seats in 2010 and they deserve to. It would be bad for the Americans but good for us Indians to get rid of the Paki loving Democrats.

The Law Commission has framed a new set of draconian legislation which will put every motorist at the mercy of the corrupt police. It proposes that rash and negligent driving is to be made a non bailable offence and be punished by 10 years in prison. This stupidity will apparently reduce the number of accident deaths on Indian roads. Accidents on Indian roads are because roads are inadequate for the number of motor vehicles, they are full of pot holes, any sarkari idiot such as from the telephone or water departments can dig up a road at whim and leave a broken surface behind and because the aam aadmi is given the right to use roads as public toilets for children or to sell vegetables. Two wheeler drivers are never caught for driving on the wrong side, driving without lights or for zigzagging through traffic and 90% of accidents are the fault of the two wheeler drivers. Yet if there is an accident the motorist is immediately blamed becuse the idiot on the two wheeler is badly hurt or even killed. The response by the police is to arrest the motorist, impound the car and make another speed breaker at the site thus increasing driving hazards. Criminal politicians and kleptocrats want to use any excuse to reduce individual freedoms and keep tax payers in a permanent state of terror. We need to change the Constitution so as to make it an absolute right for all Indians to have the best roads, the best utilities, the best education facilities and the best medical care in the world at the lowest taxes and without being terrorised by our own government.

Yesterday the convicted mass murderer William Calley expressed regret about his role in the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam where at least 500 people died. Then a lieutenant in the US army he was court martialled and sentenced to life in prison only to be pardoned after three years by Richard 'I am not a crook' Nixon. Compare that to the treatment meted out to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay where prisoners, some as young as 16 years, are being routinely tortured. These were people picked up in Afghanistan, their offence being trying to kill American troops. The problem is that Afghans have every moral, legal and God given right to try to kill Americans who are the invaders raping their motherland. Every invader has labelled freedom fighters as terrorists so as to be able to torture and slaughter them. The British did it in India, the Russians did it in Afghanistan and the Americans have been doing it in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. This tactic has failed repeatedly and will fail again unless the Americans adopt the methods used by the Chinese in Tibet. Occupy the land by force, ban foreign reporters, reduce the locals to minority by transferring millions of Han chinese and kill any Tibetan who dares to raise is eyes let alone his voice. Trouble is Americans are prone to lecture others about human rights and do not have millions of Chinese cockroaches to occupy Afghanistan. This could turn out to be Obama's Vietnam.

The Libyans will gradually realise how badly they have been shafted by the Scottish government. The case against Al Megrahi was built on lies and evidence hidden from the defence counsel. His co defendant was released on appeal but Megrahi was kept in prison by Scottish judges on orders of the US ( see the case of the Chagos islanders ). Megrahi had launched a second appeal and this time the lies may have unravelled so he was given this deal. Drop the appeal and you will be released on humanitarian grounds. A man with terminal prostate cancer his desire to be with his family must have weakened his resolve to clear his name and he succumbed. The Libyans played into British hands by greeting him as a hero. Now his conviction remains proven on paper and the British and the US are acting as injured parties. By this one act the British prevented their slave judicial system from being exposed. They have saved enormous amounts of money which would have been required to treat the cancer and they are calling him a mass murderer. Some two decades ago Al Haig, then Secreatary of State, called the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington a
' duplicitous bastard '. Clearly there are many more such bastards in Britain even today.

With death defying courage Afghans have gone out to vote inspite of Taliban mad dogs threatening to cut of fingers marked with indelible ink. Such courage is heroic as well as touching in its naivety. They are voting for Hamed Karzai who has been a resounding failure as president. He has formed alliances with warlords sharing power with the very people who have killed thousands during the civil war. Corruption is uncontrolled and rampant. Most of the aid money is probably usurped by the powerful leaving the poor to scratch the dirt for a living. The Afghan security forces have improved very little and are still useless as a defence shield. The Taliban have made a comeback. Opium cultivation is the highest ever recorded and providing the Taliban with money to buy arms. Ordinary people continue to die and lose limbs in a wretched cycle of violence. Once the hoopla is over and Obama and Clinton have pontificated over the 'historic significance' of the election the Afghans will go back to their wretched lives. Democracy has come to mean a mark on a paper every few years to legitimise the continuing exploitation of the people by scoundrels and narcissistic megalomaniacs. As an Indian I can sympathise.

On tuesday students near Patna in Bihar tried to forcibly occupy seats reserved in advance by passengers in airconditioned compartments of the Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express and were prevented from doing so by security personnel. Enraged by this they burnt airconditioned compartments of the train causing millions of rupees worth of damage and enormous invenience for legitimate passengers. Biharis seem to be brought up with the belief that they can loot from others whatever they fancy and if thwarted are prepared to kill. All trains from Kolkata, except those going east, have to pass through Bihar and passengers are regularly forced to give up their seats to thugs who refuse to pay the fare. Loots and rapes are common and if anyone resists he or she is thrown out of the moving train and mostly killed. Thus there is enormous anger against Biharis in all parts of India. Biharis also continue to produce the largest numbers of children and migrate to every part of the country in search of jobs often outnumbering locals. Thus people like Raj Thackeray and ULFA are easily able to tap into a preexisting resentment very easily. The freeloading press heaps abuse on these people instead of discussing the root causes. Thus the problems continue to fester.

Allegedly a British citizen called Gary McKinnon hacked into NASA and US military computers causing
$ 700000 worth of damage. The Americans have asked for Mr. McKinnon to be extradited to the US to stand trial and the British Home Secretary has agreed. Mr. McKinnon suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism but his many appeals the British courts have been turned down. This is not an isolated incident. We regularly hear of Britain throwing its citizens into US jaws but the opposite does not apply. Americans do not have to answer any charges to the British justice system. Also Britain regularly hands over all the intelligence it gathers to the US but the Americans give only selected bits in return. Seems that Britian has handed over its sovereignty to the US and is merely a slave nation. If that is the case the British government owes it to its citizens to be open about it so they can avoid falling foul of US laws. It is also of vital interest to the rest of the world because Britain continues to occupy, quite unjustly, a veto wielding membership of the UN Security Council. It means in effect that the US actually has two votes and can always find support for whatever it does. This needs to be taken up at the UN General Assembly and then nations should collectively ask Britain to resign its seat. It will be ugly but the world should stand united for justice. Chavez and Ahmadinejad, are you listening?

Wash your hands, avoid crowds, stay indoors if you have a cold, bla bla bla. Such are the pious recommendations of the Indian government probably having seen how other countries have handled the swine flu outbreak. Unfortunately as usual they have missed the most important and potentially the most deadly source of spread - the food industry. Ganesh chaturthi, Dussehra, Diwali, the festival season is upon us. At this time tons of sweets and dry fruits such as cashew, almonds and walnut are distributed as gift. Unlike fruits and vegitables they will not be washed or cooked therefore any organism on these food items will survive. All sweets and dry fruits are packed by hand. A visit to any shop will show young fellows taking out laddoos and burfis by hand and packing them into boxes following which they wipe their hands on a cloth black with dirt. They scratch, wipe their sweat and noses and then use the same hands for serving customers. In north India people are so barbaric that they may even be serving with their left hands. The government should have used this opportunity to pass a law compelling all shopkeepers to use spoons, ladles or gloves. However laws are formulated by criminal politicians and chamcha kleptocrats and not designed for the common weal. If fortune is against us we could see the mother of all pandemics come october.

A fifty something plus American male called John Yettaw (real name?) swims across a lake in the dead of night, enters the most heavily guarded house in Burma, that of Aung Sang Suu Kyi completely undetected and then refuses to leave. The fellow is detected after two days following which Suu Kyi is sentenced to hard labour reduced to 18 months house arrest in a magnanimous gesture by the slugs who rule Burma. An unknown US senator Jim Webb turns up in Burma and Yettaw is promptly released. Life is not a chocolate commercial that you just swim to the most heavily guarded political prisoner in a foreign country. Clearly the Burmese slugs are ecstatic because Suu Kyi is now barred from standing in next year's fraudulent elections. How did they get an American to play the part? Advertise in a newspaper? ' Wanted stupid looking man to swim to Suu Kyi, ah so ' will certainly not work. So who organised this farce? Do the Americans want something so badly from Burma that they organised this comedy? Or is the foul hand of the murderous Chinese helping their equally murderous brothers to secure rights to Burmese gas? I just hope that our politicians are not so preoccupied with Pakistan that they neglect our malignant eastern neighbour.

Five SC/ST students were expelled from IIT Delhi for not getting required pass grades. They moved the Supreme Court which has asked IIT Delhi to reconsider its decision to expel them because they are from so called backward classes and, therefore, deserved to be helped. These students entered IIT in the quota reserved for backward classes and were clearly not good enough but the Court suggested that the professors at IIT, who are poorly paid, should give them extra tuition to bring them upto standard. No one wants to do extra work without reward. At the same time the professors will not dare to fail any substandard SC/ST students for fear of stirring up a political storm. Most likely they will take the path of least resistance and pass them. Armed with coveted IIT and SC/ST certificates they will then be eligible for high government posts. Imagine these people in charge of building bridges or building the defence systems of this country. It is shocking how the standards of education in India are being systematically dismantled. How long before foreign universities begin to derecognise the IIT brand? The meek may eventually inherit the earth but the bleak have already inherited India.

The Libyan, Al Megrahi convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of a PanAm airliner may be released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Home Secretary because he is suffering from terminal cancer of the prostate. Some American relatives of victims killed in the attack have expressed outrage at this news. No one seems to remember the Iranian passenger airliner shot down over the gulf by an American warship patrolling the area. Surely the radar signature of a passenger airliner slowly gaining altitude after takeoff and a military jet flying at twice the speed of sound would be entirely different. Also most crew of any passenger liner would speak english and therefore could have been verified before being shot down. There is no doubt that it was a deliberate murder of hundreds of civilians. It may have been revenge for alleged Iranian involvement in the Lockerbie bombing. The Americans apparently offered the Iranians a derisory amount as compensation thus insulting and humiliating them. The captain of the ship is still free and no doubt enjoys telling stories of how he personally killed hundreds of Iranians. Is it any wonder that Iranians see the US as the Great Satan and will do anything to manufacture a nuclear weapon. No matter what the propaganda channels like BBC and CNN keep telling us the US better watch out once the Iranians are successful.

The Honb'le Finance Minister has set a target of Rs 4 trillion for direct tax collections this financial year as opposed to Rs. 3.7 trillion last year. ' I know what I am asking is an extremely challenging target given the current economic situation. But it is equally true that if such a target has to be achieved, it can only be done by direct tax,' said Mr. Mukherjee. The surprising thing is that I seem to be the only person in the country who thinks that it is strange for an elected representative of the people to encourage tax officials to go out to harass and bully tax payers into paying more. Isn't this what rajas and zamindars used to do in the past, set an exorbitant tax rate and then send out the pahalwans as collectors? Isn't it what Dawood Ibrahim does now, pay a percent of your earnings for his services? Why is it called extortion and protection racket when Dawood does it and is applauded by the freeloading press when the finance minister does the same thing? It is all in the name of the naked aam aadmi. Sixty two years after independence the aam aadmi remains naked, is easily bribed with promises of handouts with taxpayers' money and then provides the excuse to bully the taxpayers. Whoever thought up this wheeze is surely the greatest con artist the world has ever seen and deserves statues erected in his image. Charles Ponzi was a two bit player compared to this fellow.

In a scathing article ' The swine flu and the cuckoo's nest ' in the Times of India yesterday one Bharat Kewalramani pointed out the callous stupidity of politicians and kleptocrats in India. His daughter had flu and tested positive for Influenza A at a private hospital at which point she was referred to the only government hospital authorised to test for H1N1 in entire Mumbai. The article is logical and although seething with fury is well written. As physicians we have not been given any guidelines to follow in a suspected case of swine flu. Problem is that the monsoon season is the time for seasonal human flu anyway and I am seeing at least 10 cases of flu everyday. Clearly every patient cannot be screened for H1N1, which is said to cost Rs. 10000, as it would be an impossible financial to bear for the government. In any event the government has not allowed public sale of osseltamivir because the rich will buy up all available stocks leaving nothing for the poor. In any event the poor will not be able afford the tests and the cost of ten tablets at Rs. 1000. It would be cheaper to vaccinate the entire population against seasonal human flu. Rich people will pay for the vaccine from private doctors while the poor can queue up at government dipensaries for free shots. If seasonal human flu is eliminated then any patient with flu like symptoms may be tested for H1N1. Unfortunately in India policy is decided not by politicians but by criminal politicians and chamcha kleptocrats.

Amused or bemused, what should we be? The US is the richest country in the world with some of the best brains. There is probably one Nobel laureate per square mile of its territory yet the stupidity of its people continues to amaze us who watch from a distance. The present confusion over Mr. Obama's healthcare plan is truly amazing. The Republicans are presenting the plan as a government takeover of healthcare and loss of choice for ordinary Americans and the people are so ready to accept such lies. They should be asking why healthcare companies, which rake in billions from the misery of people, are so set against the plan that they are spending millions to undermine it. Surely it is not for the benefit of the sick and the poor. If the cost of treating any major illness is to drive you to bankruptcy then surely it is no choice at all. Only about ten years ago Americans visiting India would quickly fly back home for treatment if they fell ill. Today they are happy to be treated here. Lots of Americans visit this small hill town and seem quite happy to be operated, get treated for major infections such as typhoid or deliver babies. Indeed some see doctors and load up on all the medicines they may need before returning home to the US. It is the same kind of stupid irrational fear as the H1N1 panic currently prevailing in India. People are the same everywhere.

With great fanfare the government has announced a new law prescribing greater punishment for those who make spurious drugs and for scientists conducting unsafe and unethical clinical practise. Strangely there is no attempt at punishing widespread abuse by pharmaceutical companies. India has thousands of companies making and selling drugs and new ones are being set up everyday marketing medicines of dubious quality. However the big companies are a much bigger problem. Every company markets commonly used drugs under a different name but not one is interested in very useful old drugs because of low margins. I find three things particularly dangerous. First is the practice of pushing drugs for conditions for which they are not indicated such as ondansetron for any vomiting when it is only for vomiting after chemotherapy. The second is combining two different antibiotics used for completely different infections in one tablet. For instance cefixime used in typhoid with cloxacillin used mainly for skin abscesses. Third is marketing completely different molecules under the same name for instance ceftriaxone which is injectable and cefixime which is a tablet to use the brand value and confuse the doctor. The marketing is targeted mainly towards illiterate doctors such as quacks and those who obtained their degrees with money who constitute 80% of all doctors. Who knows how many people are being killed everyday because of criminal pursuit of profits by the pharma companies but no doubt they cover their backsides by oiling the politicians and kleptocrats. After all it is all for the aam aadmi.

In India teachers work the least number of hours. Two months for summer vacation, another one month for winter and exam holidays, around 40 sundays and various other religious and statutory holidays add upto a total of around 150 days of doing nothing. If teachers worked regular hours like everyone else parents would be free to work fulltime. This would be especially useful for women who would not have to take career breaks to have children. At least teachers are poorly paid. Not so bank officers. After the Sixth Pay Commission last year public sector bank officers are highly paid, work in airconditioned comfort and have large number of holidays. Earned leave, casual leave, medical leave, sundays, half day working on saturdays and all the religious and statutory holidays mean that sarkari bank fellows work less than six months in a year. For instance Valmiki wrote the Ramayana before Lord Rama was born before which he did 40 years of tapsya before which he was a bandit called Ratnakar. Who knows his exact birthday? Yet bank fellows take a holiday every year. So shameless are they that they regularly go on strike for increased salary. They were on strike last two days and there were huge queues in front of banks this morning. The strike must have affected business for two days and milions of people wasted valuable time outside banks today. Every time these selfish shameless people go on strike they should be made to pay for national loss from their own pockets.

Reading the freeloading press one would assume that India is the only country in the world without any difficulty resulting from the recession affecting the rest. Our growth is going to be around 7%, Sensex is climbing ever higher and the government will soon come out with a way to sell parts of public sector companies. Thank God the Congress won the election is the feeling conveyed. The gems are in the little bits. If Anil Ambani is to be believed RIL, his brother's company, is deliberately underproducing gas to keep prices high to maximise profits. The monsoon is around 40% deficient in the whole country and with food inflation over 20% year on year the aam aadmi can expect major hunger. Sugar prices are expected to double because farmers have moved away from cane production. This is because the last government banned export of sugar in 2007 because of high prices and then the prices fell so low that farmers switched crops. Inflation is at minus 1.58% and exports have fallen 9 months in a row. Public sector banks have accumulated Rs. 440 billion of non performing assets or bad loans. Yet so stupid is the press after admitting that problems were many one pundit cheerfully wrote that everything will be fine because Dr. Manmohan Singh has always been a lucky Prime Minister. Excuse me but Dr. Singh has been prime minister only once when he did nothing except sign a one sided nuclear deal with the US which is going nowhere unless we bend to the US demand to sign the NPT and the CTBT. If only we had a free press.

There seems to be a consensus among paper pundits that this is going to be an Asian century and that Asian economic growth will ultimately make Asia stronger than the US and Europe. Seems to me that they are taking bits from here and there and put together a picture. The US is one country and although Europe consists of many the European Union has made it the second largest economy in the world. The EU is now trying to formulate a common defence and diplomatic policy which, if the member states can agree, will make it enormously strong. Asia, on the other hand, is a geographic collection of totally disparate states which will never form a strong union. There is Australia which sees itself as a white country and supports the US blindly in any misadventure. In any future diagreement between Asia and the US or EU it will surely join the white men's club. The Jihadists will attack any soft target wherever they find it whether in India or in Indonesia diverting attention away from growth and trade towards self defence. Then there is China. A brutal uncivilised people feared and hated by all its neighbours. Like a cancer it is growing exponentially consuming vast quantities of natural resources without caring for the source or natural damage it is causing in the process. It is building its armed forces and is planning to use force to take over natural resources such as oil in the Spratly Islands and water from Tibet. By the end of this century there might just be Asian rubble left.

Seems like Venezuela is slaloming down towards becoming a basket case. Over the years its oil wealth had only enriched a few while keeping the majority in poverty so the people voted in Hugo Chavez who promised a more equitable distribution of public wealth. He brought in Cuban doctors and teachers and ensured poor people had education and health care they could afford. He nationalised the oil industry so that the billions earned from this national asset went to the state and not into the pockets of the robber barrons. This enraged the robbers who felt so aggrieved that they organised a coup which failed miserably and Chavez won the next election comfortably. He blamed the US for the coup and turned into a paranoid buffoon using his country's oil wealth to support leftist governments in Latin America. There is evidence that he is supporting guerillas against the Columbian government because it is a friend of the US and he sees it as a traitor. Unfortunately oil prices fell and suddenly he cannot finance his social schemes. Crime has become uncontrollable. He is suddenly realising that once you relaese the genie of expectations you cannot bottle it again. He nationalised rice mills and is ranting against pharma companies for high prices. His goons have been attacking tv and newspaper offices for criticising him much like his friend, Ahamadinejad, is doing in Iran. Perhaps the lesson is that once you bribe the people it becomes standard and impossible to stop. Is it happening to India too?

The lot of women in India is bad but nowhere is it as bad as in the north and west including Delhi. The preference for boys is so intense that in Haryana there are just 822 girls to 1000 boys. This means that large numbers of young men can find no girl to marry. One way is to buy a girl from poorer part of India such as the north east and then share her between several brothers. The young woman is made to do all the housework and raped by one of the brothers in turn. Such misery is hard to imagine. Seems that an alternative is to exchange girls between families. If a family has a son as well as a daughter then they demand that the groom's family give a girl to the son in exchange. The groom's family will then give any girl they have even if she is 11 or 12 years old. Yet even in this shortage of girls the evil of dowry still persists. The greed for material wealth is such that the grooms family tries to gouge whatever it can and will torture the young woman if their demands are not fulfilled. Often the girl will be killed or will commit suicide unable to bear the torture. The shocking thing is that it is women who are the prime movers in this systematic degradation of other women. Is it because they want to avenge the rough treatment they underwent in their youth or something genetic like the totally irrational love of gold among Indian women it is hard to tell. Sadly it is probably the girls killed off before birth who are lucky.

Harry Truman was a mass murderer. Kennedy was a serial philanderer. Richard 'I am not a crook' Nixon resigned. Ford played golf while Carter dithered. Ronald Reagan was dementing in his second term so Nancy ran the country with the aid of seances. George Junior and Uncle Dick have been a total disaster so I fail to understand the hostility towards Sarah Palin. Sure she is rambling and incoherent but it is nothing that cannot be solved by a little intellectual makeover. India has the complete solution to all her problems. We have the best private tutors in the world at chinese melamine prices. After all our teachers do not teach in class so as to give private tuitions in private. They are great at it. So come and stay in India, Sarah, between november and march. Great weather, great food and learn everything from geography to economics to politics. Our chamcha politicians and press will give you such a build up as you have never dreamed of in your life. On your way back shop at Dubai, watch a few football World Cup matches in South Africa and have a few beers in Georgia and you will be feted as a seasoned authority on world affairs when you return home. After all americans still think that the world stretches between Coney Island and Sunset Boulevard. So come on Sarah. Let your presidential quest begin in the land of the famous rope trick and, in four years, you will do to the Paki loving Democrats what you did to that moose. And you are way prettier than that Bobby Jindal.

Private airlines in India have called a strike on August 18 because they are running up huge losses and cannot continue to function. Airline fuel is heavily taxed, upto 30% in some states as opposed to 4% elsewhere in the world. In the past when the sarkari Indian Airlines was the only option it was cheaper to fly to Bangkok or Hong Kong than from Delhi to Kerala. Private airlines introduced competition and brought down costs by decreasing aircraft turnaround time. Now the filthy hand of the government came to play. Even if airlines sold tickets cheaply, say at Rs. 100, the tax was calculated at the original price of the ticket so the customer ended up paying Rs.2000. Add another Rs. 400 as airport improvement tax and air travel becomes much more expensive than first class train fare so forcing people to travel by train. This meant that first class passengers could be fleeced to subsidise second class travel. Of course, the politicians claimed it was all for the aam aadmi but it only allows politicians to run trains to their localities at huge losses only to gain votes. The great news is that the Air India-Indian Airlines combine has losses of around Rs. 40 billion because of overmanning, unnecessarily high salaries and pure thieving. So now it is a question of allowing Air India to fail or reduce taxes and allow all airlines to flourish. With fiscal deficit out of control it may be difficult to throw taxpayer money at the corrupt airline. Is it possible that corruption at many levels can produce a good result?

Read a pundit who opined that we have a Westminster by which he probably meant a system that originated in Britain amid the violence of the Magna Carta and the civil war in which Charles I lost his head. Britain has always been a monarchy and even today the monarch is not allowed into the House of Commons reminiscent of the times when the King could have your head chopped off. The British, therefore, evolved an adversarial system of government and we have made it worse. Our government consists of criminal politicians who immediately annoint themselves as VIPs and VVIPs and kleptocrats who believe that their brief is to keep the people under control and not to serve them. It is time that we got rid of a system that treats the taxpayer with contempt and passed laws that forces our government to serve us. The VIP system is an abomination and must be junked. Every letter must be answered within seven days. Every application must be approved within one month or clear written explanations must provided as to why it has been refused. Better still let sarkari fellows actually do our work. For instance get the tax fellows to file our returns every year. Why should have to pay an accountant to file our return and then live in fear of being summoned to the tax office to answer questions? Our passports and driving licenses should be renewed at home by a fellow who will come by appointment. Any lapse would be punished by deductions in salary. Becoming naxals is not the answer. Let us force the sarkari fellows to work and maybe all the garbage will not be so eager to stand for elections.

The unrest in South Africa's townships are due to broken promises. More than one person, interviewed on tv, claimed that they had been promised houses. These are people living in shacks and would never have the money to pay for one square yard of land never mind an entire house. This means that some politician had promised free houses to poor people to get votes. This seems to be the pattern across the entire developing world. Institutions such as the World Bank say that poor people must be lifted out of poverty. The only way to do so is to educate every child in the country. Unfortunately it is the poor who continue to produce large number of children when they clearly cannot afford to feed, clothe and educate them. The reason they produce so many is that they can send the children out to work and enjoy their earnings. They do not see any advantage in education. After twelve years of school and four years of college the child may earn a lot but may not share with his parents so the parents opt for profit now rather than uncertain wealth in the future. Poor uneducated people have no regard for their children, their country or the climate. They want to squeeze as much out of the system and their ever increasing numbers mean that crooked politicians will promise whatever they want. Clearly this cannot go on. No country can go on throwing freebies at ever increasing poor. China recognised the danger and forced a one child policy derided by every pundit and bleeding heart. This may be why China has managed to grow at 9% even in such a severe recession. The Chinese may be like cockroaches but there may be something to learn even from them.

A case that has caused a lot of debate in the US recently concerns one Prof. Gates, an African American, who found himself unable to open his front door. A woman saw him fumbling with the key and called the police who arrested him despite the professor showing the officer his identity. The professor accused the police of being racist although a black officer said that the professor over reacted and that he would have done the same thing. Even though they have a black president African Americans feel that they are not respected by the whites. It may be because Africans treat each other worse all across Africa. You look across the huge continent and all you see is famine, filth, corruption, murder and mayhem. People judge you by how your politicians and senior civil servants behave and how they treat their own countrymen. An example was the digustingly shameless footlicking that was on show when Hillary Clinton visited India. The way every idiot was fawning on her was cringe making. Worse is on show in Nepal where a British actress, Joanna Lumley, is being called a goddess because she campaigned for retired Gurkha soldiers to be allowed to stay in Britain. When the Prime Minister thanked her for helping his own people settle in Britain he is, in effect, saying that Nepal is dung heap of a country. Contrast that with the way Israeli leaders are dealing with Secretary of Defence, Gates, and the middle east envoy, Mitchell, visiting the country and you know why jews have survived centuries of persecution to be so powerful today.

There is serious unrest in townships in South Africa. Black South Africans feel they have been waiting too long to see any material benefit to their lives even though ANC has been in uninterrupted power for almost two decades. After Nelson Mandela things have been going steadily downhill. Although an educated man Thabo Mbeki is said to have been too autocratic and unwilling to listen to anyone. Crime was allowed to get out of hand. A Medical Research Council study found that about a quarter of all men admitted to having raped a woman at some time and one in twenty admitted to doing it more than once. That is a shocking statistic. Mbeki's denial of HIV allowed AIDS to become an epidemic and this encouraged tuberculosis to become a leading killer. From MDR TB we now have XDR or extreme drug resistant TB. Mbeki's support of Mugabe has been the main reason why this murderous monster is still in power in Zimbabwe. Eventually Mbeki lost the confidence of the ANC and was forced to resign. Jacob Zuma is now the President, a man who managed to dodge rape and corruption charges and says he took precaution against HIV by taking a shower. A polygamist who sings violent songs to energise his supporters he now has to confront rebellion by his own people. Couple of days ago he warned that anyone indulging in violence will be severely dealt with. Isn't that what Mugabe says?

Yesterday it was the turn of the Kurds to hold elections in the autonomous zone in the northern third of Iraq and as usual there are allegations of vote rigging. However election cheating is the least of the problems facing the Kurds, the Iraqi government and the Americans. Since the Americans established a no fly zone over the north of Iraq the Kurds have prospered. How much of it is due to Kurdish enterprise in a land locked region and how much is because of money spent on their development is impossible to judge because everything in the english press is likely to be propaganda put out by the Americans and the British. Anyway prosper they have and Talabani, the President of Iraq, is a Kurd. The Kurds are aspiring to an independent state with oil income from Kirkuk to make them rich. However, as everything in the middle east, it is probably not that simple. Sunnis and Turkmen people living in the Kirkuk area want a share of the oil wealth and this may result in civil war once the American forces leave. Turkey in the north is dead against an independent Kurdistan and will not hesitate to send in its troops. If civil strife breaks out it will have a ready made excuse. The only restraint on Turkey would be serious negotiations with a view to full EU membership but that is not going to happen. Two founding members, Germany and France, seem to be against it and if Turkey feels rejected it not pay heed to any calls for restraint. Obama can pull troops out of Iraq but he may not be able to get Iraq off his plate.

Another election and another robbery, this time in Kyrgyzstan. Before that it was in Iran, before that in Kenya and before that in Zimbabwe. It is impossible to remember all the smaller countries in Africa where elections are blatantly rigged. It follows the same dreary pattern. The opposition cries foul. Crowds come on to the streets. The Election Commissioner, who has been appointed by the incumbent claims that elections were fair. The cheat claims it as a triumph of democracy and then lets lose the police to kill and beat up opposition supporters into submission. The international community goes through a phase of handwringing and then says let us get on with it for the sake of the poor and the cheat always wins in the end. Subtler version occurred in Georgia and, of course, we should not forget the hanging chads and a hung supreme court. Presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have taken the preliminary steps by getting rid of the mandatory two term limits and we wait for the same disgusting hypocrisy to play out in these countries. Perhaps alarmed by events in other countries Hondurans took pre emptive action by throwing the incumbent president out of the country in his pajamas when he tried to hold a referendum to allow him to stand for another term. Now, however, all the countries are united in their support for the ousted president and have threatened severe sanctions against Honduras. Seems shocking that politicians everywhere are ready to do business with cheats and dictators but gang up if you try preventive measures. All politicians are crypto dictators and fascists.

The worst of all scenarios is here. The monsoon has failed over large parts of India, mainly the grain producing areas. This means that electricity production will fall hitting industrial production in turn. Rise in food prices will hit the poorest sections of society causing famine. Already over 40% of our children are malnourished and any further reduction in food will surely result in deaths. It is not a question of simply buying food from other countries. After dishing out bribes to win the elections the government is strapped for cash. It has to borrow over Rs 4 trillion from the markets and already the bank chiefs are warning of hardening of interest rates. Desperate ministers keep reassuring us that the monsoon is only late and it will be alright in the end. The real joker is the housing market. There has been no correction in property prices as have occured in other countries. The reason is that Indians buy properties by paying more than half the price in cash or black money to avoid exorbitant taxes. The rest may be mortgage. This sets a lower limit on prices as the owner cannnot afford foreclosure under any circumstances as he will lose all the money paid in cash. The housing bubble is, therefore, very much intact. The politicians were hoping that a good monsoon stimulating rural demand combined with economic recovery in the rest of the world will cover up their sins. Fortune, it seems, is not as forgiving. As always we have to rely onn crossed fingers. Ram bharose.

Seems that former President of India Abdul Kalam was physically searched while boarding a Continental Airline flight to the US including taking of his shoes. Righteous indignation pouring out. But why? The US has no concept of VIP or VVIP wherein elected criminals are protected by elite commandoes and allowed to flout all rules with scant thought. In Delhi, our capital city, the roads around the US embassy are restricted for Indians. If stop walking the embassy security will ask you to move on and if you argue that the road belongs to us Indians the Delhi Police will beat you up. Many thousands of Indians have died to terrorists but can we restrict Americans around our embassy in Washington? When our Prime Minister visits the US he does not merit any mention in their newpapers but Hillary Clinton was all over our newspapers and television news channels with politicians and kleptocrats competing with each other to be photographed with her. A leading english daily of yesterday has her on pages one, twice on page 7 and once on page 11. Americans know that India is a nation of chamchas led by criminals and boot lickers. After all their companies are paying huge bribes and must have proofs so they can do what they like. Finally it was the last Congress led government which refused a second term to Mr. Kalam. The Americans know that too.

The Taliban in Afghanistan have captured an American soldier and released his video on the internet. He is very young and in the video says that he does not think he will return back home. It is gut wrenching to watch and must have killed his parents. The Pentagon has said that releasing the video was an act of propaganda and against international norms. Trouble is that the American army has no moral authority to preach to anyone else when they have been torturing Afghans at Bagram Air Force base for years. In the initial assault on the country they allowed Dostum's forces to kill hundreds of unarmed prisoners . Even now indiscriminate bombing of suspected hideouts are killing thousands of innocent Afghans. Predator drones regularly bomb targets in Waziristan killing civilians. It is to be hoped that no one among the captors has served in Bagram prison or had a brother killed by the Americans. No doubt Americans will spend lots of money to buy intelligence about the young man's whereabouts and if possible to secure his release and one hopes they will be successful. If the soldier dies then the responsibilty will rest squarely Bush/Cheney policy of using torture and brutality in their fight against terror. Maybe that is why Cheney has been so aggressive of late.

Seems to me there is a simple rule about building statues and monuments. They are best constructed after death. For instance Mount Rushmore still stands as monument to past US Presidents without any objection while the statue of Abraham Lincoln seated on a chair at Lincoln memorial is a must for tourists to Washington. Likewise the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square will probably stand for another century and if anything happens to these monuments the respective government will probably spend public funds to get them repaired. India has its fair share of statues to various dead personalities of the past from Mahatma Gandhi to Rabindra Nath Tagore who are revered to this day. The problem arises if you build statues and monuments to yourself during your lifetime especially with public money. We all saw what happened to Saddam's statue in Baghdad. When it was toppled delighted Iraqis hit it with shoes and slippers. Eventually Saddam was hanged. Ceausescu built a huge palace for himself in Bucharest, Ruamania. He and his wife were shot as common criminals. People who build statues of themselves should remember they will die in a few years while their statues will last a long time. They will remain as invitations to future generations to show their contempt as they think fit.

Seems that our esteemed Prime Minister has promised his Paki counterpart that in future terror talks will be delinked from peace talks. Not sure what this means. Does it mean that the Pakis have succeeded in making itself equal to India as victims of terror? Or does it mean that we will be discussing peace and brotherhood of man with them while the ISI sends more mad dogs into India to kill our innocents? Why after 62 years of constant murders do we fail to understand that every Paki is a terrorist, if not active then as supporter? The Paki Prime Minister, Gilani said later that Dr. Singh was ' magnanimous.' That is a terrifying word because it seems to indicate that India has given away something major to the benefit of Pakistan. Yet to the surprise of all Dr. Singh claimed later that peace talks are conditional on Pakistan taking action against terrorists. Is our Prime Minister saying different things to different people? If so which is the truth? Meanwhile Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is coming to India. No doubt she is carrying a message from her Paki loving boss urging India to talk peace with Pakistan because the life of one American soldier is more important than the whole of India. No doubt, also, our boot licking politicians and kleptocrats will tug there forelocks and accept her dictat instead of telling her to go jump. Wonder who is more dangerous- our enemies or our politicians.

While everyone lauds China's economy it remains one of the most barbaric countries in the world. Its people are enslaved by a murderous regime which thinks nothing of driving tanks over innocent people. It is not surprising, therefore, that they are attracted towards equally brutal and crooked dictators probably feeling comfortable in such company. China has always been a haven for the Pol Pots of this world and today is the chief supporter of assorted thugs such as in Burma, North Korea and Sudan. It has paid billions of dollars to these thugs and in exchange is plundering the natural resources of these countries. China has over 50000 workers in Algeria, an oil producing state ruled by the dictator Bouteflike. For over a decade this brotherhood of bastards has worked wonderfully to the advantage of all except for the exploited people of Burma, North Korea and Africa who are dying of hunger. Suddenly this comfortable brotherhood has been shaken up by another bunch of rabid killers, the Al Qaeda. After the recent killing of muslim Uighers in Xinjiang province Al Qaeda has issued an invitation to its followers to kill Chinese workers in Africa. In panic China has issued an advisory to its people working in Africa. Must confess that I shall enjoy this one.

The British like to say that they are not overtly religious. This makes them less emotional and more logical in their thinking and how they run their country. They proudly point to falling attendances in their churches as evidence and sneer at Americans whose religious fanaticism interferes in rational discussion about subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. Yet every year around this time a bunch of Protestants, called the Orange Order, march through Catholic areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland dressed as clowns in orange coloured clothing and heavily protected by the police. This, apparently, is to commemorate some sort of victory in battle over the Catholics in the distant past. To Catholics this is a painful reminder of British brutality, of potato famines and bloody sunday and naturally they react to this blatant taunting by throwing stones and sticks. This gives the police an excuse to beat up the Catholics and vilify them as thugs. Sure the Protestants have the right to dress up as clowns and march up and down like idiots all year if they so desire but there is no need to go through Shankill Road just to goad the Catholics. By their incredible brutality the British have managed to bring Sinn Fein under control but the IRA could yet revive unless they feel they are respected as citizens. Brutality built an empire in the past and it seems to still guide official British policy.

In August, 2006 Prof. Sabharwal, head of department of political science of Madhav College, Ujjain was beaten to death during student elections in front of other students. Inspite of so many witnesses the six accused have been freed by the sessions judge because the prosecution ' miserably failed ' to prove its case. Meanwhile there is tension in Kashmir because police destroyed evidence in the case of rape and murder of two young women. No surprise. Police in India are under the control of politicians who are villainous scum. Poorly paid and demoralised they are vilified by the people who see them as enemies. Half the police are used for guarding politicians instead of arresting and hanging the criminals. If they do arrest a criminal politicians interfere to get him off. They are used as collectors as in organised crime. Their main work is to create traffic obstructions and then collect fines from motorists. In Delhi traffic fines have been increased from Rs. 100 to Rs. 1000. Previously you paid a bribe of Rs. 50 to be let off but now you have to pay at least Rs. 500. It is a win win solution. The government earns more without being cursed for increasing taxes. The earning of the entire police force has jumped because the money is shared all the way up the chain thus effectively increasing police pay without increasing government expense. By keeping the entire force dependent on immoral income the politicians keep their hands on the leash. The public cannot complain because we are told that this is being done to reduce accidents and save lives. So why are Indian roads so hazardous? It is because everyone gets a licence by paying touts and hence no one knows how to drive. Who is in charge of driving licences? The police of course. Beautiful.

The Wall Street Journal, India has an article which says that the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI is formulating a policy to tackle corruption in India. They are trying to decide whether to go after the top officials or the two penny clerks because, apparently, the government is worried about India's image as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. What a laugh. It is the Congress party which has been in power for 52 of the 62 years since independence and is solely responsible for corrupting the entire social fabric. Corruption is how they maintain their hold on power and they will do anything to keep it. If they are serious I have a few suggestions. Make the police and all the investigative agencies autonomous answerable to committees with public participation. Pass a law that all cases must finish within two years. When cases take decades the accused very often die before the verdict. Shut down the IAS school and recruit top officials from the market. Cut down the number of kleptocrats by 80%. Pay them not to come to work. This instantly cuts down the number of thieves and stops dilution of responsibility. Stop bribing journalists so that the press is free and not freeloading as at present. Pass a law so that no first degree relative of an elected politician may stand for elected office until 25 years have passed from the day the politician leaves office. Will it happen? Not a hope. It is like asking a cat to guard your milk.

China has promised to execute as terrorists all those who take part in protests in its muslim province of Xinjiang. Uighars, who are muslims, killed some Han Chinese in rioting and now the Han are demanding revenge. They obviously do not see anything wrong in the migration of huge numbers of Han people so that the Uighers are becoming a minority in their own province. The same tactic has worked very well in Tibet where the locals are now a minority in their own land and are employed as menials by their Han masters. In Sri Lanka, doctors who had reported about Tamil civilian casualties have said that they were forced to do so by the Tigers. After months in prison, where they must have been given the third degree, it is not much of a surprise. Meanwhile at least 200 innocent Tamils die everyday of disease and beatings in the concentration camps that they are confined in. In Iran the Basij militia continue to beat up anyone protesting against the stolen elections. It is so easy for those in power. Commit any crime, do anything you like and if people protest then they are either criminals or terrorists. Yes Naxals are terrorists because of the methods they have adopted but why have people resorted to armed struggle 62 years after independence against their own government? After all Congress won the elections in May and so claim support of the people. Pity the people who have no choice.

Reacting to President Sarkozy's attempt to ban the burqa in France a hardline Islamic cleric, Anjem Chaudhary has called Mr. Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni a prostitute. Writing on Islam4UK website he says, 'Sarkozy may be content with being wed to a prostitute who flaunts her body to the world believing it to be righteous conduct, but he is reminded that a Muslim is not this shallow and depraved.' Mr. Chaudhary should be reminded that it is depraved to abuse a man's wife especially since she is unlikely to retaliate. It is also very depraved to take advantage of life in a liberal western country where freedom of speech allows dissent even if it is totally disgusting. Would he dare to criticise rulers of any muslim country while living there? I would advise Mr. Chaudhary to travel to the middle east where buying 'wives' is the norm. In the middle east it is customary to pay money to the father of a girl and rich old men frequently pay large sums to marry 17 or 18 year old girls. It was common to see girls of that age being admitted to hospital with hysterical illness just to avoid a dirty old man. Mr. Chaudhary should know that, for the rest of the world, a prostitute is a woman who is bought for sexual purpose. How does he categorise the wives of the middle east? Difficult, no?

The coup in Honduras that deposed Jose Zelaya as President has united every political villain in the world. The UN General Assembly which can never agree on anything of benefit to the world was unanimous in its condemnation as was the Organisation of American States. No one is condemning Zelaya who was trying to corrupt the constitution to stand for another term. Chavez and Morales have already done it. Politicians all over the world are united in their belief that winning an election gives them the power to ride roughshod over every rule of decency. Firstly, very few politicians actually have any mandate at all. People have become so sick of lying scoundrels who have the money to become candidates that vast numbers do not bother to vote. Getting 50% of the 60% who bother to vote gives you only some 30% of the total and is no mandate at all. Yet politicians all over are united in their belief that an election victory is an advance acceptance by the public of any corruption that they wish to carry out. Thus Berlusconi used the parliament for immunity from prosecution for bribery and other charges. The MP's expenses scam in Britain is another example. In poorer countries elections are made meaningless by bribes to the poor majority in the form of cheap food or free electricity that the country can ill afford. Having squandered Venezuela's oil wealth Chavez is in a frenzy. Indian politicians love the poor who give them the excuse to tax us to death. Also competition to survive brings down the price of labour helping companies to make huge profits. Democracy has become a shangrila for villains. We need citizen's corporations to cut down on the power of politicians to end the world.

Seems that Nepal government is thinking of issuing trousers without pockets to all employees at the country's airports. Shows that there is still some innocence and honour left in Nepal. It shows that the amounts of bribes must be small to fit into trouser pockets. Secondly, the government believes that such a simple stratagem as taking away pockets will stop bribes because people are not really criminals. Unfortunately, such simple tactics will fail spectacularly in India because our kleptocrats are career criminals. Why would a person choose to become a civil servant, pushing endless files, cheating, lying, sucking upto bosses for promotions or a lucrative transfer or carrying shoes of politicians on their heads unless the person is useless and is getting in through the backdoor of reservation or is a congenital criminal wanting to get rich quick? If pockets are eliminated in India kleptocrats will think nothing of using their chaddis or even their orifices. It would be impractical to check all chaddis and orifices everyday. Also our kleptocrats think big and steal in tens of millions. Whenever an official is arrested we learn of bank boxes full of cash, many properties and luxury cars. Indians are said to hold about $ 1.5 trillion in numbered accounts abroad. No wonder we are always voted one of the most corrupt countries in the world.