Mudslides in Rio in Brazil where favellas or shanties built on the hill side have slid down claiming hundreds of lives. Of course, the survivors will blame the government for not giving them land and money to build proper houses even though they voted for President Lula who is a socialist. Massacre of 76 men belonging to the CRPF in the jungles of Chattisgarh by Naxals who are helped by the local people. The locals are extremely poor and are angry that the government does not provide for them. Drug gangs have killed thousands in the border areas of Mexico including US consular staff. Apparently it is because of poverty that young men are attracted to the money that drug smuggling brings. Violence and slaughter rage all across the world in developing countries. The reason given is always the same. Poverty. But what causes such poverty in every poor country? Loony liberals and politicians eager to get votes give various reasons such as lack of money for developmental work, corruption at the local level, lack of education, corporates not doing enough social work, lack of rain and everything except the truth which is uncontrolled breeding by the poor. Every time you see a news report about some catastrophe you see masses of pot bellied naked children running around and the mothers complaining about lack of food and money. Whether it is India, Africa or Latin America it is always the same. If the numbers of poor people keep on ballooning at this rate the wealth of the entire world will be insufficient to feed them all. It is time for politicians, perhaps the United Nations, to say in one voice ' Stop breeding.'

So Britain is to have elections next month to elect a new ' mother of parliaments.' They may be white skinned, wearing suits and ties and speaking with public school accents but British politicians are no different when it comes to deceiving the people to get votes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is claiming to be the best man for the job because he has brought the country out of the worst recession forgetting to mention that, as Chancellor for ten years, he was responsible for deregulating banks which precipitated the recession in the first place. David Cameron is promising change by which he means tax cuts forgetting to mention that it was Bush's tax cuts that led to the crisis in the US. The LibDems ( who they? ) are praying for a hung parliament so that they can experience an official car instead of having to take the tube everyday. However, they need not fear. The collective intelligence of the British people is very low proven by the fact that The Sun is the highest selling newspaper. On any given day The Sun has news about how Posh Beckham had sex 5 times to get pregnant again, Rosie in bras, Pam dancing without wearing a bra, Danii looking pregnant and other such matters of national importance. The Sun has been anti Labour for the last few years and has headlines such as ' Brown the Clown ' about the Prime Minister. If Labour loses the elections because of Sun readers then a foreigner, an Australian turned US citizen, will have decided who rules Britain. Seems to me that we have just token democracy. Time to have citizens corporations to speak for the people.

In one of the worst bloodbaths in India, Maoist rebels known as Naxals killed 75 soldiers belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force or the CRPF. These men were returning to camp when they were ambushed. First their ' anti mine ' vehicle was blown up by landmines and then survivors were gunned down. This shows a shocking lack of intelligence, training and lack of proper equipment for the force. Even a schoolboy would tell you not to travel in one vehicle, to have advance scouts, heat sensing equipment which would have picked up the signature of massed terrorists and armour plated vehicles. Yet criminal politicians are given Z security and third grade useless, parasitic civil servants ride around in individual vehicles with policemen, flashing lights and sirens. We have seen news reports and television programs showing how India commandos are extensively trained in jungle warfare. Surely the same kind of training can be given to select CRPF personnel before sending them out to fight heavily armed Naxals who show no hesitation in killing any number of people. Indian police personnel are trained to beat up ordinary people to protect criminal politicians and useless kleptocrats and do not have the discipline, knowledge and fitness to take on a terrorist group such as the Naxals. Is any politician going to resign over this and the news about our defence computers being hacked by the Chinese? Hell, no. Indian politicians have long ago rid themselves of any sense of honor, shame or patriotism. They will cling on to power so as to go on looting as long as possible. No sharam, no izzat.

The Indian government has embarked on an expensive project to provide smart cards for every citizen of the country. The cards will be based on photographs and prints of all ten fingers and contain much personal information such as education, job, earning and so on. We are told that this is to target the poor for financial help and prevent ineligible people from benefiting from such schemes. This will cut out corruption such as inflating employee numbers in government offices. What is not mentioned is how the information will be secured. There is nothing to stop civil servants from selling such information to enemies like Pakistan and terrorists will be able to travel across India with fake smart cards. If the cards fall into police hands the innocent person whose identity was stolen will be brutalised by the police. Is there going to be constant matching of prints against names for all the billion people of India? If not there is nothing to stop a migrant family getting one set of cards in, say, Delhi or Mumbai and then travelling to their village in UP to get another set. In a report called the Shadow in the Clouds researchers from the University of Toronto have shown that Chinese hackers called the Shadow Network have hacked into secret Indian government data including missile systems, Indian embassies abroad and information about government policies. If the Chinese can do it what is to prevent Pakis or anyone else from stealing vital information about identities. Finally, corruption in India is top down and this is not going to stop criminal politicians or uncivil servants from looting the exchequer. This will greatly increase the power of the government and maybe the first step towards dictatorship.

Forget the mafia, democracy is today the home of all the biggest scoundrels in the world. Winning the first election is the key. Once you are in appoint all your thugs to lucrative posts and they will commit any crime to keep you in power. Steal the subsequent elections by beating up the opposition, intimidating people to vote for you and get your thugs to stuff ballot boxes making sure that you win. Mugabe is an extreme case but variations can be seen across the world. Afghanistan's Karzai admitted that there was false voting in his favor but curiously blamed it on foreign election observers. Thailand's Abhisit Vejjajiva got his chair due to the blessings of the Constitutional Court which, in its wisdom, overturned the election victory of Thaksin Sinawatra's party. Thaksin, though elected with large majority of popular votes, was ousted by the army at the behest of the elite. Sometimes it can become embarrassing when the supporters go over the top in showing their support as in Iran where Ahmadinejad won opposition strongholds with margins more than the total number of voters. In India such things happen on a minor scale but on the whole elections pass off peacefully. However, as in other countries most politicians are elected with a minority of votes. If 40% of the people vote and you win with 40% of that because the opposition vote is divided then you won your seat with only 16% of the eligible voters. To avoid such problems the Congress has decided to do away with the people altogether and we have an unelected Prime Minister obeying madam faithfully and keeping the seat warm for sonubaba.

Papers are full of how Sania Mirza is going to marry a Paki who, it seems, has already married another woman in Hyderabad. With the country facing so many problems journalists should not be wasting time on this non event. Sania was a third rate tennis player, never rising above 30 in world rankings. The enormous coverage she gets may be because she is pretty and insisted on wearing little shorts and skirts thus getting up the noses of the beards. To marry a Paki is to betray India but it is her choice. If she wants to spend her life in a failed state she is welcome to do so. The question is how a Paki is allowed to come into India at his will. This morning's headlines say that he has rushed over to sort out claims about his previous marriage. How could he get a visa at such short notice? Will I be allowed to rush into Pakistan and marry any girl I fancy at any time? The government never tires of accusing Pakistan of breeding terrorists at every international forum and yet allows a Paki the freedom of the country. There are Paki singers and actors making money from Bollywood films. Who knows whether they donate a part of their earnings to terrorists such as Indian Mujahiddin or not. Is it any wonder that the Indian government is treated as a joke by countries such as the US and UK. In the recent conference on Afghanistan Indian views were completely ignored and the US is refusing to allow our security agencies to interview Headley. Do the politicians think that they will gain popularity abroad by touching the feet of foreigners. They should understand that they will be, and probably are, despised. As they are at home.

The US is asking India not to participate in the gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan because it wants to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambition. This is the same country that is supplying Pakistan with F 16s, kits to make smart bombs and other military hardware to use against India. It is not asking Pakistan which survives by begging but has the gall to instruct India. India should respond by asking Paki loving Obama to go jump into the Potomac. However India should never spend any money on building the pipeline. Pakistan is a lying treacherous nation and cannot be trusted to keep its end of the bargain. If India becomes dependent on Iranian gas we will be at the mercy of the ISI who will turn off the gas at any excuse. Also Pakistan being full of terrorists the pipeline will be an easy and tempting target for sabotage. Instead India should ask the Pakistanis and Iranians to build the pipeline upto the Indian border with their money and offer to pay market price for any gas that we buy. That way we would have the option of not buying any gas if they try to charge too much. Also after investing billions of dollars on the pipeline the Pakis will think long and hard before interfering with the flow of gas. If they interfere with supply they will displease the Iranians who will have invested precious dollars into the pipeline. We have two very hostile neighbors, China and Pakistan, with nuclear weapons and have little to lose if Iran goes nuclear. If the US wants our cooperation we should drive a very hard bargain. Unfortunately the Congress has been selling us out for 60 years and forms the government at the center.

Sixty two years after independence the Congress led government has suddenly woken upto the value of universal education and has passed a Right to Education bill making it a right for every child to get an education. Is it really for the benefit of the people or just another gimmick to win elections? Poor people do not send children to school because they want children to work so as to augment family income, so will continue as they are doing at present. Millions of government school teachers are very highly paid but are poorly educated and most never turn up for work. They cannot be touched because of very strong unions. Thus children going to government schools learn nothing and are only fit for menial jobs. The bill makes it mandatory for private schools to take 25% of students from poor families. To cater to these children private schools will have to charge more fees from other children or increase class sizes which will mean that fee paying children will get poorer education. Thus this is just a sly, underhand tax on the middle class. The Congress believes in dictatorship of the North Korean kind where power is retained in the same family and like all dictatorships hates the middle class. Its power is derived from doling handouts to the poor from taxpayer money and the glorification of one family to near God like status. Thus it needs the aam aadmi to remain poor and uneducated so that the khas can continue there vice like grip on the jugular of the nation. This is the Indian version of ' democracy.'

To keep the people happy the government of India comes out with jokes from time to time. Yesterday's was a cracker. Seems that the government has decided to set up a committee of senior uncivil servants to examine complaints against senior uncivil servants to root out frivolous complaints. Definition of frivolous is not given. Today when a modest house in Delhi can cost in excess of Rs. 100 million a bribe of Rs. 1 million might be construed as frivolous. Everyone knows that the vast majority of civil servants ( 99.99%? ) are corrupt. The reasons are many. Money is usually collected by the lower ranks who deal directly with the public and is then divided up a chain right upto the politician in charge. If anyone is honest it breaks the chain and reduces income for everybody. Such a person is harassed, threatened or killed. Jobs of civil servants are permanent and they are never sacked, merely transferred to another department but their ingenuity is such that they can make over Rs. 9 billion from even the humble cattle fodder. Promotion is not based on merit but on length of service and such factors as sucking up to politicians, protecting fellow officers from the police and not making mistakes which means not doing anything significant thus reducing the chances of making mistakes. Laws are designed to obstruct people in anything they want to do, whether it is setting up a business, building a house or getting a passport. People have come to accept that they have to pay bribes to get anything done. It follows, therefore, that anyone with money can do anything however illegal. Thus kleptocrats have corrupted the entire population of India.

About 39 ordinary commuters were killed in the suicide attacks on the Moscow underground. Russians are bad people and deserve to be killed including 3,4,5 years old children in a school in Beslan. Anyway they could be orthodox Christians. Buddhists in southern Thailand need to die and as for the Hindus in India they deserve it especially for being kafirs . Oh yes, the Jews are so bad that Israel needs to be wiped off the map. Nubian muslims are black and so they must die in Darfour. Little girls in Afghanistan are extremely bad for wanting to go to school and become human instead of marrying and breeding like sows with udders. Anglosaxons in Britain and the US are very bad for resisting wholesale massacres so they need to die to make them see reason. People in Somalia, Iraq, Indonesia and anywhere must be committing sins so large numbers need to die. Terrified of the Chinese but with so many bad people to kill all over the world where is the time? After all as we keep saying all the time " Islam is a religion of peace." If anyone disagrees then he must die because he must be bad. Jihad all the way and 72 virgins waiting oh so eagerly.

The Australians are shocked by the long sentences passed on Rio Tinto executives charged with taking bribes and industrial espionage in China. Rio Tinto has reacted by sacking all four men and has reaffirmed its intention of continuing to supply raw materials to China. These men were arrested after the Australian government blocked a Chinese firm from a taking over Rio Tinto and Australian mining companies refused to supply China at the lower price demanded by the Chinese. This is clearly revenge for the loss of face suffered by the Chinese. Face is very important to the Chinese because they know that they are uncivilised barbarians. Inventing paper or gunpowder and a double digit economic growth do not prove that a people are civilised. A country ruled by a bunch of ruthless thugs, without rule of law, sacrificing its children to the greed of industrialists and destroying the world's biodiversity by eating every creature is a country of uncivilised savages. The mystery is why did the four plead guilty to the charge of accepting bribes. Did the Chinese promise them token punishment and then break their word? Had they fought all charges they would have exposed the Chinese legal system as the farce that it is. Instead by pleading guilty to one charge they had no defence against the more serious charge of industrial espionage. China's growth is dependent on regular supply of raw materials and Australian companies could easily cause major problems by stopping all exports to China. By surrendering to Chinese bullying Australia is showing that it can be bought. India should use this knowledge when demanding safety of our students in Australia.

The state owned telecom company BSNL is likely to lose Rs. 36.41 billion this fiscal. Since independence this company had monopoly rights all over India except Delhi and Mumbai which are served by another state company, MTNL. With the opening of the telecom sector to private companies BSNL is unable to compete because of its culture of poor service and low productivity. I have a BSNL broadband connection. After many phone calls I agreed to television content over their broadband connection and paid a deposit. However, their set top box did not match the modem supplied by them and they refunded the deposit. It did not occur to them to change the modem to a compatible one. Meanwhile another state owned company Air India is postponing the payment of March salaries to April 7 because they are bankrupt. Again it is overmanned, the workers are unproductive, there is huge corruption and the unions know that they can blackmail the government because politicians are terrified of job losses. However, Air India is not alone in financial difficulties. Most airlines in India have huge accumulated losses. This is because of sky high taxes on airlines and aircraft fuel. The situation is similar to that of oil companies which are accumulating losses because the government will not allow them to sell petrol at market prices choosing to levy nearly 100% taxes instead. Thus the people of India continue to be looted by criminal politicians and thieving uncivil servants. Mother India is having her life blood sucked out by parasites. Nothing she can do.

The Supreme Court, in all its wisdom, has allowed 4% reservation for muslims in government jobs and educational institutions. Meanwhile in UP Ms Mayawati has forced reservation on private institutions. So now there is reservation for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, muslims, OBC or Other Backward Classes and maybe some others that I do not know about. It is gradually becoming a crime to be born an upper caste in India. For example any one of these people can abuse an upper caste person but if that person abuses back then he will receive extra punishment for caste abuse even though he may never have mentioned anything about caste. Today to be born an upper caste is to face a life of discrimination in education, in employment and even in justice. This is apparently in retaliation for ill treatment of lower castes in the past centuries. The politicians are criminal scum but surely the Supreme Court has heard of the dictum that two wrongs do not a right make. Is it any wonder that there is armed insurrection in at least 160 districts in the country which is around 25% of the total. These Naxals, as they are called, are being led by middle class, upper caste educated people. The Home Minister keeps saying that Naxals are the biggest threat to the country but surely, being a lawyer, he should understand that he will never control the threat unless injustice is eradicated. If upper castes feel victimised they will retaliate and they will be very dangerous.

Mr. Arun Kumar, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal University feels that the black economy in India is around 50% of the GDP amounting to around $500 billion. Black money is generated by fake products, smuggling, pirated goods, gambling, prostitution, bribery and other underhand activities. If all the black money was to be declared the government could collect Rs. 7500 billion in taxes. These are all criminal activities and must be carried out surreptitiously limiting their scope. Perhaps the main generators of black money are small businesses, neighborhood shops and property transactions. The government has tried to bring shops and small businesses into the tax net by offering to exonerate them if they paid nominal taxes of Rs. 1500 per year but no one has done so this far. The reason is the total mistrust of government officials. These people believe, perhaps rightly, that once they enter the government trap they will become victims of arbitrary demands for taxes and will end up paying bribes for life. Because of exorbitant stamp and registration charges people usually show half the sale value of properties. Property dealers collect 2% from both buyers and sellers. Deals in excess of Rs. 100 million are common netting a dealer Rs. 4 million in fees. All this is collected in cash so no dealer ever pays tax. One dealer has installed a note counting machine,as found in banks, to count the sheer volume of notes. A lot of this money goes to politicians as payoff which makes them immune to prosecution. Thus the Indian economy is built on the mother of all bubbles and when this bursts the crash will resound for years to come.

Britain must be very happy. India became independent in 1947 and Israel in 1948. Whether Mountbatten or

Balfour the formula for both countries was the same. India had east and west Pakistan on either side while Israel has the West Bank and the Gaza strip. India has been weak and has allowed a fanatic terrorist state to become strong while Israel has been strong and has, for the most part, kept Palestinians under check. Israel's strength lies in its military prowess and the support of the US where it has the most powerful lobby group in the world. Britain, which unfairly struts the world stage as the slave country of the US, has never liked it. The announcement of 1600 new buildings in East Jerusalem during Vice President Biden's visit has resulted in great tension between the US and Israel. The Palestinians have been quick to take advantage and refused to attend Proximity talks unless settlements are stopped and Netanyahu was badly snubbed by President Obama. The US keeps harping on a two state solution to the conflict as if a viable Palestinian state will stop attacks on Israel. Like Hezbollah Hamas is an outreach of Iran and will never settle for a peaceful Jewish state. In fact if Palestine becomes an independent country it will have sovereign rights to import weapons. Even now Iran is supplying weapons to Hamas in Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. An unchecked Palestine will be a million times more dangerous. The only solution that may guarantee safety for Israel is to make Palestine a UN protectorate with permissions to have small arms for policing. Two state solution has resulted in death for Indians and will kill Israel.

The US seems to be perennially debating the ethics of abortion. Abortion is wrong. Whether the baby is sentient at an early stage of pregnancy or able to feel pain is beside the point. This is the old argument about whether animals, fish or insects feel pain. Taking of any life is wrong. However real life is not always that simple. Sometimes a woman may be so desperate that she is has no other avenue except abortion. Let us take a single mother with one child who has become pregnant because she was drunk or forced or plain stupid. She can hardly take care of one child and can in no way take care of another. In desperation she wants an abortion to be able to be a good mother to the child she already has. Antiabortion fanatics want to abolish abortion whatever the circumstances and are ready to kill for their cause. Their mistake is that they think that a human baby's development ends with the end of pregnancy. Not so. Unlike animals who are miniature adults at birth human children are completely undeveloped and do not become similar to adults till around the age of 18 to 20 years. Therefore it is not enough to seek to protect a baby until it is born but this protection must be extended until such time that the child is independent. Which means that antiabortion groups should pay the mother for all the expenses that the child will need. If the mother is unable to work having to look after a new baby and a previous child then they should pay for the whole family. If you feel so strongly about saving babies then pay for their safety. Put your money where your mouth is.

More children killed in China, this time by toxic vaccines. Children were killed last year by melamine mixed in milk powder. This was done to increase its nitrogen content and give the impression of high protein. Three very low ranking persons were sentenced to death. The factory owners and officials escaped. Children were killed in the earthquake in Shinxiang a couple of years ago when schools and nurseries collapsed although buildings housing party offices withstood the earthquake. Protesting parents were beaten up and threatened into silence. Then there was lead in toys. How many children were affected in that one escapes me. Children have been dying of chemical poisoning from factory effluents in various parts. Now, it seems, that tuberculosis and hepatitis vaccines have resulted in the death of at least four children. Chen Tao'an, a former director of information at the Shanxi disease control center, said that he has seen batches of vaccines dumped out in the sun or kept in hot rooms at the Beijing Huawei Biomedical company. He reported these lapses at least thirty times but was ignored. As expected these reports were denied by local officials. The whistleblower may end up in jail. The brutal regime of thugs that runs China depends on runaway growth of the economy and military threats against all its neighbors. It is directly dangerous for its own people and potentially very dangerous for other countries because it may start a war to divert attention if things get tough domestically. Other countries are beginning to object to its trade and currency manipulations. If its economy falters China may implode. I pray that happens.

Congratulations to President Obama. Although a gasbag he has pulled off a remarkable victory by getting the House of Representatives to pass the Senate version of the Healthcare bill this morning. However his joy seems likely to be shortlived because going by current polls the Democrats are likely to suffer heavy casualties in November. If that happens he will become a lame duck for the rest of his term which may not be a bad thing. Seems that the US is now preparing a civilian nuclear deal with Pakistan. This is a failed state parts of which are controlled by some of the most dangerous murderers on the planet. There is the army which probably controls the nuclear weapons. The ISI, a state within a state, runs terrorist organisations like the LeT and supports the Taliban which is killing US and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. There are an assortment of Islamic fanatics and warlords with bands of heavily armed psychos ready to kill or die at any time. For them anything including women, children, schools, hospitals even mosques are legitimate targets. A lot of these are independent entities making money from the opium trade and, as is happening in Mexico where American consular officials were killed recently, will oppose any form of government control because it will interfere with their trade. It was Pakistan that supplied the bomb making knowledge to Iran which will soon become a nuclear weapon state. Obama thinks that by running away from Iraq and Afghanistan he will save the US. He should remember that 9/11 was planned and set up in Pakistan and the Islamic bomb could well come to the US.

His Holiness, the Pope has expressed ' sincere regrets ' for the acts of paedophile priests. He says that the systematic cover up of these ' sinful and criminal acts ' for decades is a ' painful situation .' However, he does not call abuse of little children by people sworn to follow God's word an ' evil ' but he did call yoga an evil because it is connected with Hinduism. Strange are the perceptions of good and evil of these one God fellows. Hindus who do not convert anyone, either by force, abduction or money, are evil because we have many Gods some of which are even female in form. Unfortunately Hindus are under attack from all sides in the one country that they are a majority, that is in India. A man has been arrested and had his bail denied for having printed a picture of Jesus with a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Not a peep or a word from our so called free press yet there was a deluge of garbage about ' freedom of expression ' and ' democracy ' when Hussein, a muslim, paints a naked picture of the Goddess Sarawati for sale. So why is the press so ferocious in its attacks on Hindus? It is because our journalists are a bunch of shameless freeloading beggars and their master is the Congress party. The Congress claims to be secular but actually it practices a policy of divide and rule so as to cling on to power by any means. The largest opposition party is the BJP so the press acts as rottweilers for the Congress by constantly abusing Hindus aiming to harm the BJP by deflating its base. Acting as agents for the Congress by distorting news the press is probably the greatest enemy of the Indian people.

The freeloading press is at it again. Lots of articles about the American/Pakistani terrorist Headley who has pleaded guilty to terror attacks so as to avoid the death penalty. As usual the press is taking the discussion on the wrong track choosing to blame the Americans for not cooperating with India's request to question Headley whereas India had given full access to FBI investigators who wanted to question Kasab the Pakistani captured during the Mumbai attacks. That Americans arrogantly assert their superiority over citizens of other countries has been documented many times. They maintained sanctions against Vietnam, a country they had attacked without provocation, for 25 years because they wanted information about MIAs or dead soldiers. For them dead Americans who engaged in criminal acts of slaughter are more precious than living Asians. That is because they are militarily strong and supported by white slave countries like the UK and Australia. However, it is our fault for being weak. Even after repeated attacks by terrorists from Pakistan we beg for talks with that country. We have proof of direct involvement of Pakistani army officers, Pakistani Foreign Minister sneers that India is begging for talks on bended knees, Indian interests are being completely ignored in Afghanistan but we hold back because America orders us to do so. Noriega, President of Panama was kidnapped by American soldiers, served prison in the US and was then extradited to France but Headley will not be extradited to India. What the press should ask is what hold the Americans have on our politicians. But they will not. After all freeloaders can only obey orders.

As per a WHO-Unicef report 1.1 billion people in the world defaecate in the open of which an overwhelming majority of 638 million are Indians. Why are people so dirt poor that they cannot afford a hole in the ground with some sacking around it for privacy? Because they are illiterate and continue to produce children without any regard to how they are going to feed, clothe or educate them. Politicians are forever telling us what to do but why do they never tell the poor to control childbirth? Because these people can then be classified as BPL or Below the Poverty Line and given cheap grains from ration shops. So what is wrong in feeding the poor? In a report a vigilance committee appointed by the Supreme Court says that the entire system has collapsed is some states. In others licenses for ration shops are available for bribes, rations may be delayed for months, grains are sold for profit in the black market or are sold for prices higher than set by the government. Naturally there is collusion between kleptocrats, transporters and shop owners. Since grand larceny requires a chain of command local politicians must be at the top of the food chain. So what are the gains of unchecked population growth? It provides unlimited cheap labor for the unorganised sector, mainly construction and small scale industries, where the black money is generated. It also gives the politicians an excuse to increase taxes without limit. Why do they want to impoverish people by crippling taxes? So as to buy luxury planes and helicopters for their own use and to keep the people grateful for inadequate, rotting rations. Incredible India.

One James Rickards, former general counsel of the hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management has said that China has the ' greatest bubble in history.' Apparently the Chinese central bank's balance sheet resembles that of a hedge fund, buying dollars and short selling the yuan. Mr. Rickards should know what he is talking about because I seem to remember that LTCM nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by the Fed under Alan Greenspan. Every pundit of economics is critical of China keeping its currency artificially low and buying American securities. This transfers cheap wealth to the US encouraging excessive spending. This, apparently, was the main reason that the markets collapsed in the US. There are strident calls in the US calling on China to revalue its currency which has been pegged to the dollar at around 6.9 for the last three years. Some congressmen are asking for China to be named a ' currency manipulator ' so that extra tariffs can be imposed on its exports to the US. Name calling is likely to play into Chinese hands.The Chinese will act very offended, say that it is an attack on its sovereignty and impose tit for tat tariffs. Many countries will support China and see it as a victim of US, the bully. Instead of name calling the US government should politely inform China that just as the Chinese insist on the right to set the exchange rate of the yuan the US has the right to set the exchange rate of the dollar and set it at whatever level they want. This will have the same effect of making Chinese goods expensive and help the balance of payment. The Chinese will squeal but let them. Unfortunately the US administration is scared of the Wal Marts of the world.

Two men were arrested last weekend in Mumbai planning to set fire to the office of the oil company ONGC. They are said to have been in communication with a certain ' chacha ' or uncle in Pakistan. Police reckon that this uncle is a fellow named Abdul Bashir Khan who escaped to Pakistan in 1993 before he could be arrested for his part in the Mumbai bomb blasts. He is said to be staying in a bungalow belonging to the noted criminal Dawood Ibrahim who lives in Pakistan under the protection of the ISI, the intelligence service. Thus the Pakistan government is protecting an international criminal who is masterminding terrorist attacks in India. Yet today we are told that India is going to hold more talks with Pakistan. This, to me, is completely inexplicable. This is a country whose sole reason for survival is the destruction of India and yet we continue to sweet talk. India does NOT need Pakistan. We should wipe the country from our consciousness completely. Cut of all contacts. No diplomacy, no travel, no telephone communication, no sport unless in international event like the Olympics, no cultural exchange and no trade. Pakis do not exist. Lay landmines along the border so heavily that not even a rat can cross. This will stop terrorists coming in and local bastards from escaping. Prepare a sudden strike capability close to the border and make it crystal clear that any attack will receive a devastating response. Then forget the bastards exist and carry on with life. Sadly as long as the Congress exist so will the Pakis and we will continue to die.

Exciting conspiracy theories continue to buzz in my head. First, a fact - Israelis are not stupid. So announcing the building of 1600 new houses in East Jerusalem while Vice President, Joe Biden was officially visiting the country was no accident. Prime Minster, Netanyahu claims to have been blindsided by the right wing Shaas Party but does not deny the statement. So why would Israel choose to insult its closest ally and donor so blatantly? This is no throwing of shoes by a lone journalist but a deliberate insult to the Obama government. Is it because the Israeli government sees the Obama administration as accepting Iran developing nuclear weapons so long as it does not support the Taliban in Afghanistan? That would be an existential threat to Israel. Perhaps Israel would like the Republicans to win big in the November elections so that Obama is hamstrung and then defeated two years later. Israel has been claiming that Iran will be able to develop nuclear warheads in one year's time. Recent reports that Pakistan supplied Iran with centrifuges and drawings of nuclear weapons makes Ahmadinejad a liar in his claims that Iran will never develop nuclear weapons.Israel would like to attack Iran's nuclear facilities as a last resort and would like the support of the US task force based in the Gulf an may want to show Obama as weak. Such a strategy is certainly risky but if the Chinese can send a junior official to shout at Obama in Copenhagen then why can Israel not build houses? If they succeed in removing this Paki lover then good for India I say.

The Medical Council of India has published a list of punishments to be meted out to any doctor accepting any form of gift from pharmaceutical companies. This is like giving aspirin for fever without treating the underlying pneumonia. There are hundreds of pharmaceutical companies in India and a new one opens everyday. A new company surveys the market and finds out which drugs generate the maximum prescriptions and then comes to the market with those same drugs in different brand names. Some drugs are sold under fifty brand names. Obviously it is impossible to remember so many brands so an individual doctor sticks to one or two. To increase sales companies resort to giving gifts ranging from pens to cars and pays for doctors to attend conferences, usually held in scenic resorts. Banning doctors from receiving gifts without reducing the total number of drug companies will solve nothing. Companies will simply deliver the gifts to the doctor's residence or give cash. There seems to be daily assaults on the medical profession. Forcing doctors to serve in rural areas, criminalising gifts and setting up courses to turn out more quacks. There are no such strictures on lawyers who do not turn up for hearings, bribe witnesses, cause riots in courts and are preventing the entry of foreign law firms. Laws are formulated by lawyers and civil servants and passed by politicians. At least doctors do not create diseases but these three groups of people are a disease afflicting the nation yet we can do nothing to punish them. So why are they so vindictive? Is it because people still respect doctors and despise them as gutter slime?

There is so much froth in newspapers about reservations for women in the Parliament that one is in danger of drowning. Every two penny freeloading journalist has an opinion running into many inches. However, there is unanimous agreement on two points, 1. Reservation has been a spectacular success for the dalits because they are demanding even more of it so it must be a good thing even though evidence shows that only a few have been able to corner all the benefits. The demand is so high because reservation makes it easy for dalits to get government jobs of which there are uncounted millions. No study has been done as to the productivity and level of service rendered by these unfit people and since dalits are the most in need of government services they suffer the most. The hatred between castes has only increased because of this perceived injustice by upper castes. 2. Men are the only reason for the suffering of women. India being a patriarchal society women are so tortured that they are forced to murder their own girl babies and burn other women for dowries. By that argument Eichman was not responsible for killing Jews because he was forced by Hitler. Truth is women do not like or trust other women. If they did more women would automatically be elected to Parliament and Hilary Clinton would be the President of the US instead of a Paki loving gasbag. All these reservations are to divide society into little tribes who are warring with each other and easy mislead at election times. The only thing that will get rid of inequality is universal education but that would be dangerous for criminal politicians. Hence all the froth.

Seems that the government is spending Rs. 37.26 billion for buying twelve, yes twelve helicopters for VVIPs or Very Very Important Persons as criminal politicians like to call themselves. This explains why the talk is always of increasing taxes and finding new ways to levy service tax and VAT. Six months ago a return ticket to Vienna from Delhi by a foreign airline cost Rs. 33298 of which the actual ticket cost Rs. 16640, taxes Rs. 11200, Fees Rs. 1300 and Charges Rs. 4158. Thus the total tax and unspecified fees and charges came to Rs. 16658 which was more than the the cost of the ticket. Domestic airlines are forbidden from revealing the breakdown but the tax element is even higher. One economist argued in the Sunday paper that increased taxes on petrol and diesel do not cause inflation because people adjust by spending less on other products which brings down their prices. That has always been the policy of the Congress. Burden the people with crippling taxes in the name of the aam aadmi thus creating more poverty and finding the excuse to increase taxes even more. The poor, in whose name this crime is perpetrated, do not realise that it is because of these taxes they remain in the cattle class and are unable to afford the luxury of flying. Now add in an inflation rate of around 17% and it is easy to see why people have to beg. This is where politicians and kleptocrats dole out cheap rice, free electricity and other goodies which makes the people ever so grateful. Thus the people remain aam while the criminals are khas by contrast with the exchequer at their disposal. Incredible India indeed.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Sweden following a vote by the Swedish parliament describing the killing of Armenians during the First World War as genocide. France did the same last year and a Congressional committee in the US did it last week. Turkey wants to enter the European Union but has an Islamist government so France and Germany are reluctant to admit Turkey as a member for fear of introducing an Islamic trojan horse inside Christian Europe. The army is intensely secular and toppled the previous Islamic party but Prime Minister Erdogan has been extremely clever not to push the army too hard. Instead he has resorted to small incremental gains for his party at the expense of the army. First there was objection to Mr. Gul being elected president but Mr. Erdogan stood firm and Mr. Gul was elected. Then he passed a law withdrawing objections to women students wearing the scarf in colleges if they so wanted. Recently there have been allegations of an attempted coup against the government and senior retired army officers have been arrested. So far no senior serving officer has been charged. Every time the army has yielded its power and image have suffered a decline making the Islamists stronger. Meanwhile Turkey's accession talks with the EU are not due to start until 2015 and Turkey has been forced to recognise Greek Cyprus, although with conditions. With US forces withdrawing from Iraq Kurds in the north of the country will be angling for independent Kurdistan helped by oil money. Are all these events connected? Who knows but it sure is interesting.

India gained independence from the British in 1947 while Israel gained independence, also from the British, in 1948. India fought three wars with Pakistan which we won at the cost of many young lives. After every victory we returned territory gained by the heroics of martyred soldiers without anything in return. Israel, on the other hand, kept all captured territory and bargained some for long standing binding peace accords. Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt for a peace treaty which has held to this day and neutralised Egypt among its Arab enemies. It also signed an accord with Jordan prompting Jordan to give up any claim to the West Bank which it has left to the Palestinians. Israel continues to sit on the Golan Heights because Syria refuses to give the security guarantees that it seeks and also because of Syria's proximity to Iran and its murderous proxy, the Hezbollah. It is also refusing any discussion on Jerusalem. Indeed Israel is building more settlements in east Jerusalem even as Joe Biden is visiting the country. So what has Israel lost? Nothing. Instead, it has gained respect and Arab countries are so terrified of a nuclear armed Iran the one can easily envisage a war with Israel and Arabs on the same side. India on the other hand is held in contempt and threatened on every side. Since there is no respect or fear of punishment Pakis continue to send in terrorists and China threatens every day. Even beggarly Nepal supports the Naxals with arms. Israel bombed nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria while Rajiv Gandhi was scared to do the same to the Pakis. Everyone respects a country with 3 million people and spits on one with a billion.

At a recruitment centre for police constables in Mumbai one person was killed and at least eleven others were injured in a stampede. One hundred thousand application forms had been distributed for recruiting 3600 police constables, the lowest rank in the force. Around 40000 aspirants had gathered at Kalina police grounds to submit their applications when people at the back started pushing forward crushing those at the front. Why would so many apply for a job which is poorly paid, has long working hours in very bad conditions and is despised by the public. The reason is that most are not applying for salaries but the opportunities for taking bribes and becoming rich quickly. A minuscule number would be idealistic and actually have dreams of serving the community but this idealism will quickly evaporate in the harsh reality of life. They will be asked to stand in the hot sun for hours to protect criminal politicians, the very people they should be arresting. They will be asked to risk their lives to arrest terrorists who will then be freed by the courts. They will be asked by their senior officers to cover up crimes committed by the rich and powerful. Senior officers, the Rathores of this world, will expect them to hound a teenage girl into committing suicide after molesting her. They may even be slapped by any filthy two bit politician. Some years back the daughter of the Rustic Bandit slapped a policeman in Mumbai for some imagined slight without any punishment. Politicians pass laws which are written by kleptocrats. They have no interest in an effective and honorable police. So young men risk their lives just to get bribes. Great.

The capacity of north Indians not to learn anything never ceases to mystify me. They may be from very rich families, may have degrees from highly respected colleges and may have traveled abroad to many parts of the world but they learn nothing. When abroad they curb their nature and try to stay within the law but as soon as their feet touch Indian soil they are back to their aggressive, selfish and dirty ways. They do not learn how to drive properly in lanes, how to park so as not to block access to other vehicles, not to blow their horns without reason, not to throw garbage on to roads, not to use loud speakers at any time, not to block traffic during weddings, not to dig up roads and leave them without repair, not to leave mounds of detritus from construction on roads for days and not to resort to filthy abuse if anyone objects to their behavior however politely. Seems that Delhi has been found to be the best city in India on account of its infrastructure, education and such like. Important though these parameters are the most important component of any city is its people and people in Delhi are probably the most repulsive. They are compulsive liars, show offs and extremely aggressive. The women are no better and will resort to filthy abuse at the slightest imagined provocation. They are totally inconsiderate and worship money to the extent that they will lie, betray even kill for any small profit. Perhaps the worst trait is to harass people for no gain. If you ask directions to an address in Delhi be certain that you will be deliberately sent in the wrong direction. If this is the best city in India then what are the others like?

In the beginning there was man and there was woman. Man went out to work and woman stayed at home and cooked and cleaned and brought up children. Women were exceeding cross and complained incessantly that it was man's world and they had all the fun. Then a group of women stopped shaving their armpits and called themselves ' Feminists.' And they set up great clamor to be the same as men which they called ' Women's Liberation.' So it came about that women went out to work and had many partners which was called ' Sexual Liberation.' As more women worked men found unemployment and stayed at home to cook and clean and bring up children. And they found the change exceeding difficult and women exulted. Soon more and more men stayed at home and women worked. Being of playful nature man wanted to play and one who they called Reve Mobs invented iRobot which did all house work while men played golf, watched football and played with children. And men said to women, ' Darling, if you love me you will buy me the latest iRobot which can clean the bathroom.' And men played some more. And one woman who they called Tigress Toots was pictured with toy boy and everyone laughed and labeled her a ' love rat.' And the judge gave custody of children and big alimony to man. And women were exceeding cross and said,' It is man's world. They have all the fun and we do all the work.' And some women started to shave their armpits and were called ' Neo Feminists.' And they set up great clamor to be same as man and their wish was granted. And lo, man went out to work and women stayed at home and .....

At the Chilcot enquiry, Sir John Chilcot opined that things in Iraq are immeasurably better now than they were. Compared to what? In the seventies Indians used to work in Iraq as they in Dubai today. They say that it was a beautiful modern country with world class infrastructure, free education, free healthcare, night clubs and educated women without burqa. Saddam was enticed into attacking Kuwait and in the reprisal that followed much of the infrastructure was deliberately destroyed. In the following decade the US and UK maintained no fly zones in the north and south of the country preventing Iraq from bringing in supplies for reconstruction. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown said in reply that when Saddam was removed the whole country was in ruins. And why pray was that? It was because of an abomination called " Oil for Food Program " in which select countries plundered Iraq's natural resources and made Iraqis beg for food, medicines and essentials. At least a million people have died in the lost decade and even today children are being born with horrific congenital defects because of depleted uranium used in the munitions. Yet Kuwait, which was always a part of Iraq, was created by the British when forced to withdraw from Mesopotamia just as they divided India and Palestine. If Tibet is a part of China then Kuwait is surely a part of Iraq. However, greed overcame reason and Saddam was removed in an illegal war to loot all the oil. It failed spectacularly and the criminals are having to run with tails between their legs. Where, I wonder, is the honey trap called April Glaspie?

In a first for India, Tata Teleservices has announced that it will compensate customers for failing to meet pre determined levels of service standards. The company has identified five areas where it promises to pay back customers if pre-set levels of service are not met. In another first Tata Docomo, a cell phone service provider, started charging customers per second instead of per minute thus reducing phone bills. It is a real pity that Tata Sky which provides television channels Direct To Home, or DTH, via satellite is still ripping off customers by a pernicious practice called " bundling " in which unpopular channels are packaged with popular ones and the customer charged for the entire package. The customer is not given the option of choosing individual channels according to viewing preference. This has the effect of concealing the number of viewers actively opting to pay for watching certain channels. If the real numbers become common knowledge advertisers will pull all commercials from these channels. To entice viewers these channels will be forced to drop viewership charges and thus will suffer a fall in profits. By bundling them with popular channels the DTH companies disguise viewer numbers and help foreign companies rob Indian customers. E mails to Tata Sky are met with insulting answers such as, the company cannot do anything until the Telecom Regulator, TRAI comes out with guidelines. Indians have a faith in the integrity of Tata companies. It is unfortunate that the management of Tata Sky is so backward compared to Tata Teleservices.

In an effort to reduce its budget deficit the Greek government is cutting by 30% three bonus salary payments its civil servants receive at holiday times, cutting pension benefits and withholding pay rises for civil servants. This has, naturally, led to great anger with unions calling for national strikes. It has taken a financial disaster for the Greeks to realise that civil servants are, for the most part, a useless drain on the treasury. In India the government employs hundreds of millions of people in various capacities. There is the administrative service, an immensely powerful and totally corrupt cancer eating away at the heart of the nation. They award themselves huge salaries, have permanent jobs for life, huge pensions, cheap housing and the best thing of all is that they cannot be charged with crime without permission from superiors. This allows them to steal, extort and betray making them hugely wealthy. Then there are teachers, cleaning staff, non medical hospital staff, bank employees, railways, airways, mines, oil companies, electricity production and distribution companies and companies manufacturing anything from electrical to earth movers. All are heavily paid and mostly corrupt. Government teachers earn over Rs. 20000 as compared to Rs. 10000 for teachers in unregistered private schools, yet the poorest of parents strive to send their children to the private schools because government teachers never turn up for work. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is said have famously remarked that of every rupee spent by the government only 10 paise reach the people. Like cancer these have spread through the veins of the country and, unless destroyed, will kill the nation.

Since becoming president Mr. Obama has lived up to the jibe Nobama in that he has done nothing. Guantanamo is still open. His attempts to try inmates in civilian courts has collapsed. His attempts at bipartisanship resulted in the loss of the seat held by the Kennedys for over 50 years which means that the Democrats cannot now override filibuster in the Senate. The Healthcare plan is probably dead. His plan to set up a body to regulate banks is unlikely to pass. His overtures to Iran have resulted in Iran expediting uranium enrichment and are closer to building a nuclear weapon. His kowtowing to China only resulted in China sending a junior level official to shout at him in Copenhagen, akin to a shoe being thrown a Bush. His middle east peace effort has not prevented Israel's Mossad sending a team to suffocate a senior Hamas official in Dubai. His entire effort in office seems to be geared towards winning a reelection in two years' time. With that in mind he is withdrawing troops from Iraq and wants to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. For that to happen he has to fake a victory and he has roped in Pakistan for the charade. In an attempt to bribe the Pakis he is supplying them with 18 F16 planes, 1000 kits to upgrade their bombs into smart bombs, night vision goggles, drones and a lot more military hardware. The Pakis are hardly likely to use these against their own creation, the Taliban. Instead these will be transferred to the border with India and maybe even used against us. So what is the Congress doing? They have recently allowed the Paki Foreign Secretary to come to India for talks. The least these spineless worms can do is to postpone Obama's visit to India scheduled for later in the year. They should privately tell him to push off. But for that you need a spine and be a patriot.

Riots have broken out in Bangalore because a newspaper published a translation of an article by the Bangladeshi author Tasleema Nasreen that women should refuse to wear the burqa even if it is written in the holy book. Mobs have burnt cars and looted shops forcing the police to open fire. The editor of the paper has been charged with spreading communal hatred. It remains to be seen what the lying, freeloading press makes of that. If the past is anything to go by there will be a lot of hand wringing and articles saying that muslims must be hugged and loved no matter what they do. There will be no abuse as directed against Hindus for objecting to M. F. Hussein's painting a naked picture of the Goddess Saraswati and wanting to sell it. The gratuitous insult ' Hindu Taliban ' was used against the people who objected to this gross provocation. Now however there will be only lies and some long dead skeleton from the past, such as Kabir, will be dug up to provide support to the ' peaceful muslim ' idea. The truth is that in any part of the world where there are more than a hundred muslims there is violence. I am sure the Quran or the Prophet never said to kill indiscriminately in the name of Jihad but that is what muslims do. The most dangerous lie is of course that of the ' moderate muslim.' Like the ' moderate Taliban ' it is a complete oxymoron. Even those who do not actively kill other human support the killer with money, refuge or silent consent. There is only one way this scourge will be banished from the earth and that is the ' war of civilisations.' Or else we are all dead.

The freeloading press continually highlights, what it calls, subsidies on petroleum products. We are told how the Oil Minister, Mr. Deora is fighting to decontrol prices of petrol and diesel at pumps so as to reduce gigantic deficits being piled up by Indian oil companies. That all these are total lies is proven by the fact that petrol costs almost double in India compared to the US where prices are completely free to reflect international prices. So how is it possible that our bleeding heart government is helping us with subsidies and yet we pay double of rich yankees? Of course, what the press never says is that oil is heavily taxed so the so called subsidy is a complete lie. In this year's budget the Finance Minister has further increased taxes on petrol which will probably increase pump prices by another Rs. 3. Apart from the inflationary cost this will do nothing to improve finances of oil companies. The government owns major parts of these companies so will lose out on dividends if they run losses. However all the companies, Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL and ONGC have minority shareholders who will lose dividends and also because stock prices are declining. By getting its money from taxes and foregoing dividends government is looting minority shareholders. Sir Conrad Black is serving a long prison sentence for similarly using Hollinger International money for private luxury. Unfortunately politicians in India are above the law and citizens have no power to hold them to account. It remains to be seen if the minority shareholders have the guts to sue the government and force it to deregulate petrol prices. Only then will the lies be exposed.

M.F. Hussein, a painter of Indian origin, has accepted Qatari citizenship because their are multiple cases filed against him in Indian courts. They were filed by Hindu activists aggrieved by the painting of a naked picture of Goddess Saraswati by Hussein. As usual the freeloading press is distorting the debate by saying that it is all about freedom of expression with vicious abuse aimed at Hindus. We are being painted as ' Hindu Taliban ' thus playing into the hands of all those who think that they will go to heaven by killing Hindu kafirs. Mr. Hussein could have painted any number of naked women but he deliberately chose the Goddess. His aim must have been to provoke and thus get a very high price by selling the painting to the highest bidder. He had put the painting up in an exhibition showing his intentions. If a man bought the painting and used it for sexual fantasies would Mr. Hussein be able to stop him? Thus if the same painting had been executed by a Hindu it would still have been objectionable. We are repeatedly told of how much how much he loves India, his love of all religions and about his knowledge of Hiduism. In that case he could have converted to Hinduism but he chose the citizenship of a Muslim country showing that he is a Muslim fanatic. He could have made it clear that he has no intention of selling the painting and bequeathed it to a Hindu temple so that it would not be defiled after his death. This he chose not to do clearly intending to sell the painting to the highest bidder. The Goddess is above stupid actions by stupid men. His painting cannot insult the Goddess but definitely insults Hindus.

A chart comparing changing values of properties between some cities in India makes fascinating reading. This chart gives a comparison of prices between 2007, first and second halves of 2008 and the first half of 2009. Seems that property prices gained the maximum in Kolkata inspite of all the trouble in Nandigram and the relocation of the Nano car plant to Gujarat. Many industrial projects were cancelled or postponed on seeing the troubles faced by Tata. The property prices went up 14% in the first half of 2008, gaining a total of 40% in the whole of 2008. By June 2009 prices had gained a total of 59% compared to 2007. Why were property prices going up even though industries were pulling out of Bengal and there was a worldwide recession? It may be because general elections were held in May 2009 and people could see that the Commies were going to lose. So people decided to consolidate and hide their black money. Property is the easiest and the safest place to invest black money which maybe why prices have jumped. Yesterday the annual budget was presented with the usual hoopla and freeloading journalists are predicting India to achieve double digit growth rates in the next few years. The black economy in India is equal to or more than the official GDP and if growth reaches double digits then inflation should reach triple digits. If rents of commercial properties are higher in Mumbai than in Manhattan then there must be something majorly wrong somewhere. Can an economy built on the quicksand of black money survive? If we can invent the famous rope trick, why not.

Seems that Toyota has still not been able to understand what caused the sudden acceleration in their cars which resisted all attempts by the driver to stop the car. The brake problems turn out to have been a glitch in the programming which can be corrected in half an hour by reprogramming but they are still trying to work out the accelerator problem according to the testimony in front of Congress. For us, of the older generation, it is like a case of ' I told you so.' Computers are not to be trusted. Software problems are common and a computer often crashes for no accountable reason. There numerous malicious people creating viruses, malware, worms for no reason other than to cause pain to others. In Toyota's case is it possible that someone inserted a virus in the programs controlling accelerators and brakes. Say a disgruntled employee with a grudge against the company or the parts supplier. Or a person employed by a competitor who stands to gain by the fall in sales of Toyota cars. Or even a deviant who is thrilled by pictures of crashed cars. Could the glitch have been caused by electromagnetic radiation from a cell phone tower or even the owner's cell phone. One could argue that all cars today have such components and no other company has experienced problems so far. It may be because no one has been able to work out how to alter programs in cars until now but now that one person has learnt how to do it he could pass it along to others. Much like hackers do. Let us hope that it is just some dirt on the chip and nothing more serious.

In India when a politician, civil servant or a wealthy person commits a crime the ensuing events take the same course every time. The case is handed over to an investigating agency with great fanfare. If an officer actually makes any progress he is transferred, often with a promotion, as has happened in the Madhu Koda case where Ujjwal Chaudhary of the Income Tax Directorate has been transferred to Patna just as he was getting close to politicians with links to hawala criminals. This has been stopped for now by a Public Interest Appeal to the High Court. Often the investigating officers take years without any progress and the case is closed as in Bofors and Rathore cases. At other times the length of time taken for the investigation is used by the culprit to either bribe or threaten witnesses to change their testimonies as happened in the BMW case and the case against Bhagat. Unfortunately Ramalinga Raju of Satyam fame cannot be protected by these tried and tested methods because he made a full confession in public. However even though Bernie Madoff, who also confessed, is already serving a sentence of 150 years Raju is allowed to play badminton in jail while the investigation drags on. Even by Indian standards the non bailable warrant against Sajjan Kumar is a macabre joke. Mr. Kumar has been accused of orchestrating the massacre of sikhs after the shooting of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984, yes 1984. He was on the Congress ticket for last year's elections but had to stand down because of an outcry. With Congress governments in both Delhi and the centre what hope is there that he will be found guilty. Stop the lies. At least save our money.

After recalling millions of vehicles for accelerator and brake problems Toyota may face criminal charges in the US. We have not heard of any recall of Toyota cars in India. And why should there be? Indians are dispensable, right? A few years ago Nokia batteries in certain models of their cell phones were catching fire. We were told to register online and replacement batteries would come by post. They never did. We had to visit Nokia dealers repeatedly and were told that they had run out of supplies. Possibly they were selling the new batteries in the open market and hoped that after wasting so much time and effort people would just give up. Politicians or civil servants were nowhere to be seen. Foreign banks regularly bully and gouge customers. If you cancel your credit card your instructions will be ignored and you will be sent a replacement card against your explicit instructions. Even if you send the new card back they will send you bills for renewal with threats of being blacklisted if you refuse to pay. Foreign banks regularly employ thugs to repossess vehicles with physical violence if the owners have missed paying one instalment of their loans. Price Waterhouse Cooper faced no charges as the auditors of Satyam even though Raju had been looting the company for years. In the US another accounting firm Andersons was liquidated because it failed to spot irregularities at Enron. It is farcical to celebrate Independence and Republic days with marches and a show of missiles when politicians and senior civil servants are ready to polish the white man's shoes. It is this servility that allows China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, anyone to attack us.

In a brutally honest confession Tiger Woods has said that his infidelity was because he thought that with so much money and fame he was ' entitled '. Sense of entitlement is probably responsible for most of the deaths in today's world. Americans refuse any reduction in CO2 production because they are entitled. The British, with US protection, are set to plunder the oil and gas reserves in the seas around the Falkland Islands which belong to Argentina. Because they are entitled. In India criminal politicians can fly with any number of companions and family at tax payers' expense. Chief ministers of states buy luxury aircraft and helicopters while farmers commit suicide. One senior IAS officer in Chattisgarh, B. L. Agrawal has been found to possess over Rs. 930 million in assets. Politicians refuse to entertain any possibility of term limits because they cannot maintain their lifestyles without plundering the exchequer for life. Not just the politician but his murderous children, wife, mistress, whore, all are allotted constituencies so that everyone can enjoy in the pillage. They are all entitled. Manu Sharma is entitled to shoot Jessica Lall dead for refusing to serve him a drink because, as the son of a politician, he has been entitled from birth. Rathore is able to justify tormenting Ruchika's family until the girl commits suicide because, as the chief of police, he was entitled to molest a 14 year old girl. The support and protection he received from his colleagues, superiors and politicians proves that they all supported the notion of entitlement. We, the people, pay with our money, properties and lives.

Seems that everyone from President Obama to my neighbourhood tea stall owner is impressed with the double digit growth of China's economy for the last two decades. Nothing seems to be able to put the brakes on this runaway growth which grew over 10% even in 2009 when the rest of the world was trying to stop the headlong plunge into depression. However political correctness prevents anyone from saying one of the main underlying cause of this growth and it is China's population control. Chinese leaders enforced a one child per family rule since the early 1990s and this has reduced the number of mouths to feed. It is perfectly logical that if the number of poor people declines poverty will decline in parallel. Also having just one child decreases expenses on children, allows both parents time to work and increase consumption helping the economy further. To be sure it was enforced brutally and the preference for boys has meant widespread murder of girl babies with a highly skewed population. However the same thing happens in India where ultrasound is used to determine sex of the unborn child and female fetuses then aborted especially in the north. No one in India talks about uncontrolled population growth especially in the BIMARU states. The talk is of uplifting the poor and the demographic dividend when majority of young people are unemployable because of poor education and lack of knowledge english. Surely no country in the world, no matter how rich, can go on feeding an infinite number of people. However for politicians vast numbers of illiterate naked hungry aam aadmi means easy votes. You feed them some garbage about caste, promise free rice and bingo, you are a big daddy. No food, no water, no education, no electricity and no hope.

While the freeloading keeps repeating in glowing terms how the economy is growing at 7.2% and may reach 8% growth nest fiscal it seems that the government is mulling possibilities of going back to the old system of everyone owning a ration card. In the past every Indian owned a ration card which could buy you substantard rice or wheat and sugar at rates much lower than the open market. The grains were of such poor quality that only the most desperate would avail of their grain rations. However everyone took their quota of sugar every week because you cold strain out bits of glass after the sugar was dissolved. Ration shop owners sold stocks at very high profits in the open market and adulterated the rest to make up the weight. Apparently the criminal politicians have woken up to the fact that 50% of children are underweight and 75% of women are anaemic so the thinking is that everyone should be provided with subsidised food. Food subsidy will rise from Rs. 524.9 billion to Rs. 1368.3 billion, a rise of Rs. 844 billion. At the same time the government is determined to increase indirect taxes, VAT and service tax, from 10% to 12% which was the rate before the financial collapse in 2008. The growth in the economy was only due to the cut in tax rates and increasing indirect taxes at a time when interest rates are also going up will reduce consumption and hurt growth. Also true inflation as measured by the cost of living will jump but, of course, the government only measures the wholesale index which hides the pain. It is the same old plan. Increase poverty by increasing taxes and then dole out alms. It is the tried and tested method for the Congress to win votes but the press would never tell you so.

On February, 8 a two bench Supreme Court heard the appeal of Mulla and others against the death penalty for murdering five people, including one woman, in cold blood about 14 years ago. The victims were working on fields when these men came armed and demanded that they be paid Rs. 10000. Being poor agricultural workers the victims had no money so one person was sent back to the village to bring the money but the villagers could not raise the sum. So the accused took the victims with them, slit their throats and left them to die. The trial court sentenced the four accused to death and the High Court upheld the sentence. The Supreme Court reduced the sentence to that of life. In a long reasoned judgement the judges held that the death penalty should be awarded only for the rarest of the rare cases where special reasons existed for such punishment. While accepting the murder was in cold blood the judges gave reasons for mitigation which included age of the defendants, family, length of incarceration already suffered and poverty. The judges held that a criminal who commits a crime due to economic backwardness is most likely to reform. Not once did the judges mention the victims or their families and what they suffered. These were also desperately poor people who could not raise a lousy Rs. 10000 to save their lives and were murdered while working hard to provide for themselves and their children. What effect the death of a parent will have on the children is hard to imagine. Regarding the length of a life sentence the judges said that it is upto the respective state government to suspend, remit or commute sentences which is chilling. That explains why Manu Sharma, convicted murderer and son of a Haryana politician, was allowed out on bail in the middle of his sentence. Seems that the entire justice system is falling over with sympathy for killers. The victims meanwhile cry out for justice. What a tragic joke.

Lots of learned opinions about the perilous state of the Greek economy. After being elected into office the new government discovered that the deficit is 12.5%, double of what was being thought. Appears that the previous government had fudged its accounts to hide the real extent of the trouble the country was in. Now Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain have been dubbed PIGS as opposed to the BRIC countries of the developing world. Greece's problems are being compounded by the common currency, the Euro which binds different countries with totally different economies into a straitjacket. If Greece had its own separate currency it could have run a bigger deficit, devalued its currency to improve competitiveness and taken IMF help to restructure. Tied to the Euro it is committed to keeping its deficit below 3% and cannot make monetary policy independently. Other countries in the euro zone are in some trouble themselves and reluctant to help. Greece has been told to increase taxes and cut public spending to decrease its deficit, precisely the things it must not do if it is to decrease its pain. People will suffer terribly through no fault of theirs. Taxes and unemployment will rise, benefits and pensions will be tightened and poverty will increase. No wonder the people are furious and are resorting to strikes to protest government policies. However this government is hamstrung and can do nothing. So people should unite to demand punishment for the previous government which brought them to this state. Politicians always get away with crimes. Time to demand a stop.

As I have been saying for years it was always about plundering natural resources around the Falkland Islands. That is why successive British prime minsters have crawled in humble servitude to US presidents. Turns out that there are an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil in the seas around the islands and Britain is going to start digging. Of course they will share the booty with the Americans. This will be the biggest anglosaxon robbery in history. In the first war for the Falkland Islands the Argentinians were thrashed because the US supported Britain and the USSR, as it was then, did not support Galtieri's junta because it was considered right wing. It was a monumental error on par with the sale of Alaska to the US. Now is the golden moment to set things right. Argentina should take the islands back by force which it is entitled to do. Britain is already upto its neck in Afghanistan and, its economy being in the gutter, is in no position to resist. The US is similarly involved in two wars and is also in economic trouble. Russia should help Argentina, which is now a democratic country, with the latest arms and aircraft. This will be nice payback for the US supplying arms to the east european countries to encircle Russia. Of course, the US and Britain will use the illegitimate UN Security Council to try and censure Argentina but Russia can always exercise its veto as the US does to protect Israel. The US and UK can retaliate by refusing to buy Argentinian beef or soya but will soon be begging for oil. If Ms. Kirchner has the guts and times it right she could go down in history as the ultimate hero of Argentina. After all what is sauce for the goose is sauce......

Seems that Mercedes Benz has decided to open retail network in towns smaller than metro cities in India because BMW sold more cars last year than them. Mercedes cars cost Rs. 20 million which is $ 400,000 about three fourths of which will be tax. Only the very wealthy will buy these cars and these people are anything but stupid. Still I wonder why they are willing to pay so much money to the government in the form of tax when they will get only grief in return. Road surfaces get washed out after just one heavy rain and cars scrape their undersides as they fall into huge potholes. Villagers build high speed bumps on so called highways because speeding cars disturb their children defaecating by the roadside. If somebody hits your car you can do nothing to him. Their are no traffic police or highway patrol. Most police are busy guarding criminal politicians and useless, parasitic kleptocrats. The rest just hang around at police stations and will promptly arrest the owner of Mercedes on trumped up charges because he can afford much more in bribes than the other fellow. Insurance is mandatory which allows insurance companies to gouge customers. You may have been paying insurance for years but will lose your entire no claim bonus if you make even a small claim. So the insurance company may actually take twice the amount it spends which is criminal but there is no recourse. A complaint to the Ombudsman will go unanswered because he is a sarkari fellow and does nothing for his exorbitant salary. My advice - buy a car made in India and pay as little tax to the criminals as possible.

Bt brinjal, as genetically modified aubergine is known in India, has been stopped by the minister in charge for the time being. He should ban it forever. Bt cotton was a disaster. The seeds were expensive and the pesticide marketed by the same company was very expensive causing the farmers to take loans in the expectations of bumper crops and profits. Unfortunately the cotton plants may have been resistant to boll weevil but were not resistant to fungus so yields were poor. In any event cotton is a commodity and if every country has a bumper crop the price crashes. Lots of farmers committed suicide. Now we are being asked to cultivate a food plant. As usual the freeloading press is not discussing the major concern and that is whether Monsanto, a US company should be controlling food production int the country. Since Monsanto has the patent it will have monopoly rights thus having a stranglehold on aubergine production. These plants are modified not to produce seeds, the so called terminator technology which was invented by the defence department of the US government. So every year farmers will have to buy seeds from the company. In the long term natural varieties of the plant will die out and the only aubergine available will be from Monsanto. The US is just testing the resolve of the Indian people. Once we give in we will forced to take all food items from Monsanto including wheat and rice. That day India will become a slave country of the US. Not only should we refuse to allow any foreign company control of food production but we should pass a law making it an act of war punishable by hanging. For once our politicians should show some spine.

Lot of froth in newspapers regarding Valentine's Day. Freeloading journalists take great delight in mocking people who see this day as an afront to Indian values. What puzzles me is what is love in today's world. Time was when men would fight duels to the death to protect a woman's honour. Not today. Love has become a four letter word with the same significance as other four letter words. Witness the booming sales of the ' morning after ' pill in India. It is available over the counter and women are using it freely. One anonymous single woman in Delhi claimed to have taken it three times in the past one month. Apart from the danger of diseases no one knows what damage these powerful hormones might be doing to her body. Men, as usual, love Valentine's day. Rs. 100 for a card and Rs. 100 for some roses and you have the girl in bed. Cheaper than any woman hanging around a roadside dhaba. Notice how alcoholics ply you with drinks and drug addicts offer to pay for the first injection of drugs? Women's sexuality seems to be along the same course. Women who have been around and are in a lot of little black books are the most vocal about sexual liberation of women. Unfortunately life always has one big caveat and that is the word ' but '. Women are more educated today and are earning big bucks which is very good but in trying to be the same as men they are only providing cheap entertainment for men. That is surely not the way to win the battle of the sexes.

The Congress party controls both the state government in Delhi and the central one and both are situated in the same city, New Delhi. Both governments are desperate to raise more money. At the centre because of the fiscal deficit which is likely to increase next fiscal and in the city because of the coming Commonwealth games. The lies are raining down on us. We are told that Delhi has too many cars and congestion charges, like the one in London, should be levied on cars coming in from outside the city. To emphasize, the freeloading press trumpets the fact that more than one hundred thousand cars were sold last month which makes a million and a half in the entire year. China sold more than fourteen million last year. London probably has ten times as many cars as Delhi and much better public transport. Problem is that collecting charges will cause even worse jams than now.The central government wants to raise prices of petrol and diesel at the pump so the freeloading press keeps on repeating that fuel subsidies must be removed. The fact is that petrol in the US is still around Rs. 30 a litre with taxes whereas we are already paying Rs. 50, all of which is tax. So there is no subsidy on petrol. However increasing fuel prices will make food inflation, already running at 18%, soar and hit the aam aadmi which the Congress is sworn to protect. So where does all the money raised in sky high taxes go? A quick look at neighbouring Haryana gives the answer. Here the civil servants from the electricity department have gone to Brazil during carnival time to study their transmission engineering. Lies cost money. Sadly the people pay.

Rajapeksa is following the time tested path towards dictatorship. First he uses his armed forces to decimate the Tamil Tigers. All captured and surrendering Tamil Tigers are carefully executed and a great Sinhala victory proclaimed. There is much rejoicing but he wants to hog all the kudos so he decides to fire his army chief who won the victory. Fonseca then stands against Rajapeksa in the presidential elections held recently and is soundly beaten, whether by fair means or foul we do not know. After all the Sri Lankans are still worshiping their hero so he faces no opposition. However the international community is accusing him of war crimes in indiscriminate shelling of ordinary Tamils and murder of unarmed Tamil Tigers. Despite his bravado he is scared of facing a situation like Omar Bashir of Sudan wherein he is branded a criminal and an international warrant is issued for his arrest. So he has to remove the man who has first hand knowledge of all the crimes committed on the Tamil people. Fonseca has been arrested and even before any trial we are told that he will be sent to jail for five years. Unfortunately memories of victims do not fade so easily and Rajapeksa will have to face elections again. To escape justice he will have to find ways to stay president for life. Perhaps he could ask Robert Mugabe how it is done.

Further to my last posting our most revered and esteemed Defence Minister has said that India will go ahead with talks with the Pakis inspite of the fact that infiltrations of terrorists across from Pakistan has increased recently. This is the man who is responsible for the defence of the country and he is quite comfortable with Paki terrorists as he is with Chinese cockroaches infiltrating across our borders. This inspite of the fact that the Paki foreign minister said a few days back that India has come on bended knees for resumption of talks. The Pakis know that the Congress is in power and has been doing ' bhai bhai ' with our enemies for over 60 years. They not only turn the other cheek but bend over in complete servility when ordered to do so by their white masters in the west. This time the US has ordered our government to make peace with Pakistan and our most respected elected
politicians have obliged. We remember that Bofors is a Swedish company and Quattrochi is Italian. We remember that Chandraswami and Narasimha Rao were in New York, US of A when Adnan Khashoggi got pally. Apparently big Q's son is offering his services for setting up business contacts in India and well he might. When you accept envelopes from the whites they surely keep records and you are sold for life. So if our policies are crafted in Washington or Brussels we should be thankful that they are not being crafted in Beijing. Perhaps the blackmailers have a bigger weapon. Is it true that someone is a poof and they know it. Wonder who it can be?

Unconditional surrender. India has offered to restart talks with Pakistan even though the Pakis have done nothing to arrest the planners of the Mumbai attacks. They have lied, stalled, evaded and even threatened India but we are going to hold talks with them anyway. I had suspected something was afoot when the freeloading journalists of leading english dailies started a campaign on how to love Pakis from the beginning of the year. Then came the completely false outcry over the rejection of Paki cricket players by the owners of IPL franchises. Lies came thick and fast on how the Pakis were snubbed completely ignoring the fact that the owners of the various teams had every right to spend their money as they chose without having to explain their actions. Couple of days ago a conference was held in London where it was agreed that talks should be held with ' good ' taliban as a preparation for the withdrawal of NATO and US troops from Afghanistan. India was thanked politely for the hundreds of millions of dollars we have spent in the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan and then told to push off. Our concerns that securing Afghanistan will leave the taliban and LeT free to send terrorists into India was met with a shrug. After all lives of white people are more important than our lives. Apparently the Americans exerted pressure on our government to make friends with the Pakis so that the Pakis can divert more troops to the western front. As usual our government caved in. I would dearly love to know what it is that the whites have on our politicians that they can blackmail them at will. Whatever it is we did NOT gain independence in 1947.

Sir Terry Pratchet, the British author has offered himself as a case for the study of assisted suicide because he has the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease. Read a couple of his books many years ago and found them to be strange but funny. Debate has been going on about assisted suicide or euthanasia for more than two decades and as yet no consensus has emerged on whether it should be made legal. And rightly so. It is legal in a few countries but not in others so, for example, the British have been going to Switzerland to be able to end their lives. This is not just an enormously emotional subject but a legal minefield because the scope for abuse is unlimited. If a person has left a genuine ' living will ' stating the conditions under which they would like a premature end to their lives it is one thing but very often it is only when a person is discovered with an incurable condition that they decide that they need assistance to die. Is it really because of intolerable suffering or is it because of depression or because the person does not want to be a burden on loved ones or because relatives are suggesting this course to get their hands on property or maybe because of subtle changes in the brain due to the primary illness who is to decide? As a physician I have no idea as to how assisted suicide can be made into law while protecting the very vulnerable terminally ill person. One thing I know for sure is that no doctor should ever be involved in this. Our job must always be to serve the patient and not play God. Would I want my life to be terminated if I have terminal cancer or Alzheimer's? Absolutely.

The situation in Mumbai is getting complicated. First we had the Shiv Sena wanting Biharis to get out. Then we had the present Congress government in Maharashtra saying that anyone applying for a new license to drive taxis in Mumbai must be proficient in Marathi. Now Rahul Gandhi has stirred things up nicely by saying that during the attacks on Mumbai in 2008 commandos from Bihar and UP fought to save Mumbai. The Shiv Sena have riposted by saying that it was an insult to all Marathis because many brave marathi officers had died fighting the terrorists. There is some resentment against Hindi in India. Many people feel that Hindi has been made the official language of India to give undue advantage to the Hindiwallahs who are looked down upon because of their tendency to have large numbers of children even today. Hindiwallahs are not asked learn to any other Indian language but others have to learn Hindi because central government work is done in that language. Also Hindi politicians like Lalu Prasad and Mayawati never talk about improving the conditions of other states. In fact when Lalu was the Railway Minister all he did was increase rail services and jobs in Bihar. So it is very hypocritical for Hindiwallahs to talk about India for all Indians. Reminds me of a story told to me by a Tamil doctor working in Saudi Arabia. He came to Mumbai and got into a taxi but then could not communicate. The doctor knew only Tamil and English while the taxi driver knew only Hindi and Marathi. After struggling for a few minutes the doctor said in exasperation, kalam arabi ( speak arabic ) ? And the driver said, aiwa ( yes ).

In the past few months every detail of all the affairs of Tiger Woods have been given wide coverage. Numerous women are claiming to have had sex with him and providing details to journalists. There are certain aspects of human behaviour which should be intensely private for instance what one does in the bedroom or the bathroom. Revealing such intimate details shows how low class and cruel people are, low class because they it is very, very cheap to jump into bed with a married man and cruel because such details are bound to hurt his wife and children when they grow up to understand. A few days back came the details of John Terry's affair with the then girl friend of his team mate. Terry was already married and this woman was in a relationship with another man. Now, apparently, she is preparing to reveal details to some tabloid for a large sum of money, thus twisting the knife into Terry's wife and her ex boyfriend. Making money from sex is prostitution, yet feminists who are outraged about honest prostitutes have nothing to say about this sly method. It is not just adults who are hurt by this disgusting behaviour but children probably more so. If they get divorced we will be given every detail of how one partner tries to get as much money out of the other. For most people marriage has become an entertaining activity, a party where you are the centre of attention and get to dress up in fancy clothes and wear a diamond ring. No wonder people of same sex also want to join the party. The time has probably come to stop marriages. People may just live together with compulsory prenuptuals laid down by law taking into account the interests of any children that may have been born. At least we could get rid of the lawyers.