Seems that a Professor Dhurandar in Lousiana, USA has found that a comman adenovirus, AD 36 is responsible for obesity in humans. Before this we have OB genes and a hormone called leptin which have been held responsible. Obesity is compatible with a life long enough to produce children therefore one would expect many people to have the OB gene, low levels of leptin and then to be infected with AD 36 and these people would be lucky enough to pile on the pounds with just a slice of bread with a drop of lemon juice. In fact this would be so advantageous that one would have thought that the evolutionary advantage would have humans belonging to this select combination only. In fact with improving technology one could breed such humans and a farm in Lousiana could feed the entire human population. The sad truth is that fat comes from excess intake of calories and fat people eat too much. It is possible that their metabolism being more efficient they need less calories rather like a hybrid car but no one gets fat without eating. Truly fat people all over the world behave in exactly the same way. They deny eating too much, steal food when no one is looking and binge from time to time. They behave exactly like addicts. Unfortunately there seems to be some crazy political correctness which is preventing even scientists from telling the truth. Once truth is accepted and fat people are seen to be food addicts then treatment would probably follow.

Seems that there is a lot of outrage over the distruction in Gaza. The British Bakwas Corporation, BBC keeps showing spokespersons from UN agencies and aid agencies calling for trials of Israeli soldiers for war crimes. Strangely no one seems to be talking about Hamas or Hizbollah. Not a single journalist rushed to Lebanon to ask Hassan Nasrallah why his people fired at least six rockets inot Israel. That is if they can find him when he is hiding in his wife's abaya. Hamas chief Khaled Meshal slinks in the backstreets of Damascus while Hamas leaders in Palestine hide behind the diapers of little children. They do not lead their people but use teenagers and little boys to attack Israeli soldiers. Naturally children will be using school compounds to fire rockets and, also naturally, if Israeli soldiers fire back children are going to die. It is horrible that innocent children have been killed and injured in Gaza. No child should ever have to suffer the kinds of horror the palestinian children have suffered but if Israel is to blame then Hamas cowards are equally to blame. Today in DR Congo one Thomas Lubanga has gone on trial for using child soldiers. If he can be charged with such a crime then Hamas leaders surely deserve to be charged as well. As long as there is no truth in journalism there will be no end to wars. When Hamas were firing rockets no one asked them to stop or held them to account but soon as Israel responded every was crying out for a ceasefire. Seems that anitsemitism is thriving.

It has now been accepted that Britain is officially in a recession which is contraction of the economy for two succeeding quarters. The Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown blamed the global economy, read the US, for the gloomy news seemingly forgetting that he has been the Chancellor of the Exchequer for over a decade. During that time he has enthusiastically carried out the policies of the previous Prime Minister, Tony Blair which were said to belong to New Labour. This involved mass privatisation of everything including the railways, the NHS and the utilities allowing, in the process, private companies to make windfall profits at the cost of the hapless taxpayers. He was a supporter of less regulation for the City allowing market players to do pretty much whatever they wanted and earn huge bonuses for ever reckless gambling with other people's money. Mr. Brown did not learn anything from having to renationalise Railtrack a few years earlier preferring to see it as an exception rather than a portent of things to come. When I worked in the NHS patients were treated as necessary with doctors deciding priorities. Today administrators, with little knowledge, are paid vast amounts to run an ever deteriorating service. True the waiting lists for cataract and hip replacement have come down but you have to wait at least six weeks for an ultrasound which surely is worse than the third world. Mr. Brown is throwing humungous amounts of money into the economy hoping that he can stimulate growth so that he can recoup the expense from rising tax collections in a growing economy. Surely he should have learnt by now that his favourite market has a habit of throwing a spanner at your soft spot when you least expect it.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh has undergone a cardiac bypass surgery this morning at the premier medical institution, All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS. We wish him well and hope that he recovers quickly to lead the Congress Party at the coming general elections in May. He had a similar operation in England about 20 years ago probably also paid by the taxpayer. As he lies in bed while recovering from the operation he could reflect on the state of health care in the country some 61 years after independence in 1947. Of these 61 years the Congress has ruled in about 55 years, the same Congress that is forever shedding tears about the aam aadmi. Check it out. In India an XRay or ECG costs $ 3, a CT scan of the brain $ 30 and an MRI $100. Drugs are so cheap that people travelling to other countries including Pakistan carry their entire requirement of prescription medicines for their total stay. Yet thousands die every year for lack of treatment. Last year a woman was refused admission to a government hospital in Meerut in UP. She delivered under a tree just outside the gates of the hospital. Both mother and child died. Instead of accepting responsibility politicians blame doctors and since they control the media people accept their lies. While you read the newspapers to pass the time Mr. Prime Minister please note the excitement about the Oscar nominations of Slumdog Millionaire which is based on Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia.

To worldwide acclaim Obama was sworn in as president. On the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, Obama has chosen him as his role model. Like Lincoln Obama is a lawyer and a very good speaker. He is also a very good organiser as his successful campaign and phenomenal fundraising show. As he starts his period in the Oval office he should remember one fact and that is that Lincoln is great only because he won the civil war. Had he lost the war America would have been divided. The North would be a small industrial state and the South would still be practising slavery. Germany would probably have won the war and Martin Luther King would not have been allowed to have any dreams. By winning the war and uniting the country Lincoln laid the foundations of the modern US, the richest and the most powerful country in the world. Obama has no civil war to fight. However he has a very deep recession on his hands and Al Qaeda still flourishing and threatening the world. It remains to be seen if he is able to tell the truth about terrorism and that is that Pakistan is the centre of all terrorists in the world and has to be effectively eliminated or will he continue the same old and tired line of cooperation with the ISI. The Inca callender predicts 21st December 2012 as the day the world ends which will be at the end of the present term. We wish him well and hope that he is successful in his endeavours as president. Otherwise the Inca prediction might well come true.

Do not get what the Arabs are playing at. Egypt is trying to mediate between Israel and Hamas and its proposal includes plans for foreign monitors along the border to prevent smuggling of weapons by Hamas. All the tunnels are ending inside Egypt and Iran is supplying weapons to Hamas through Egypt. Thus Egypt is allowing Iran to use its land for illegal purposes which surely is an insult to its sovereignty. Assad of Syria said, in an interview on the BBC' that Israel's actions will increase extremism and breed terrorists. That is so much rubbish. Public anger and hatred in the Arab world is against its leaders. Oasama bin Laden started his fight against the Saudi Royal family and every Egyptian doctor I have met simply hates the President as a dictator. To save themselves the Arab government divert public anger towards Israel and allow Iran to use their people and land for its own agenda. With US forces withdrawing from Iraq, Iran will be able to dominate the entire gulf oil supply by moving along Saudi and Kuwait borders. It can then try and capture the Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia. It tried to capture Makkah once but failed. Next time maybe not. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons it will have a Persian empire not seen since the days of Darius. Tiny Israel, even with nuclear weapons, is no threat but Iran ia altogether much bigger and formidable.

Read this story a long time ago. Seems that Roosevelt walked into Churchill's room at 10 Downing Street one morning when Churchill was just emerging stark naked from the bathroom. Embarassed FDR turned to go when Churchill said,' Please don't leave Mr. President. After all the Prime Minister of Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States.' This naked surrender has seen successive Prime Ministers of Britain as 'running dog lick spittle of the US' doing whatever their masters across the Atlantic ordered. Blair was portrayed as the poodle of Bush but that would be to insult dogs in general. After dogs have a natural dignity and respond to the love shown by the owner. Blair's abject obedience was akin to that of slaves. Americans have a history of owning slaves and are quite comfortable doing so. Thus Bush addressed Blair as ' Yo, Blair ' much as he would have addressed his favourite slave in the olden days. Some have seen Britain as the 51st state of the US but states in the US have a lot of autonomy which Britain does not enjoy. That explains Britain's humility and support of any American misadventure as in Iraq. Thus it was hilarious to see the anxiety expressed by the BBC reporter this morning because Hilary Clinton did not mention Britain and the ' Special Relationship ' in her speech to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. She mentioned India, China and every European country but not the UK. The fellow's lip was quivering. If the master is getting indifferent what happens to the slave nation?

s soon as a state government is elected all the old senior police and civil service fellows are transferred out and a new set of fellows brought in. These people are not selected according to merit but by the total loyalty they show for the new bunch of crooks. The stage is then set for the politicians to loot, murder and rape with impunity. Canny business men bribe both sides so that they are protected whichever side wins. When a crime is exposed the criminal tries to take Anticipatory Bail to stop police arresting him. This can be taken in any state, way outside the jurisdiction of the crime. If that is not possible because of public outcry, as in the Jessica Lal case, then the criminal is arrested, produced in front of a magistrate with great show and remanded to custody. The fellow then develops mysterious chest pains for which he is transferred to a luxurious nursing home where he lives in 5 star comfort as Mr. Raju of Nagarjuna is doing even now. A divine judge usually finds enough cause to set a paltry bail and free the criminal. The case is frequently delayed often taking years during which time the witnesses are threatened or bribed as in the BMW Nandas case. Eventually the fellow escapes. Even better, for politicians we have first class jails where they are given wall to wall comfort at our expense. And they wonder why politicians, police and judges are despised and mistrusted.

The government has broken the strike by oil executives demanding a pay rise by using the draconian Essential Services Maintenance Act or ESMA. It is also using the same law on the truck companies who are demanding a lowering of diesel prices apparently because they are incurring losses due to the present high prices. By using this law the authorities can arrest, suspend or sack anyone who is on strike even for legitimate demands. Pity the filthy politicians do not use the Act on themselves. Parliament sat for less than 100 days last year and yet they draw their full salaries and allowances costing the country billions. No sharam, no izzat. Meanwhile the government plans to pass a law forbidding live coverage of natural and terrorist events as happened in Mumbai. Apparently the handlers based in Pakistan were watching Indian channels and were directing the terrorists on where to attack. Where were the police officials and the senior secretaries? Why did they not cordon off the area of operations? Why was there no sanitised zone around the commandoes? There is no attempt to punish these useless parasites but the tragedy is being used to decrease press freedom. Rajiv Gandhi tried it once but retreated due to huge protests. Now the Congress thinks it can prevail. Indira Gandhi made herself dictator by proclaiming emergency. Her daughter in law is more cunning.

On 29th December I wrote that the Satyam saga reminds me of Conrad Black and Hollinger but it seems that I was wrong and it is being likened to Enron. If I remember rightly an awful lot of managers of Enron are still in prison and the CEO escaped by dying. In the case of Satyam I doubt that Mr. Raju will be seen in a striped uniform. At first their will be an enquiry which will go on for months after which a case may be filed. Our divine judges are usually in no hurry and so the date may be set after a few years. By this time everyone will have forgotten what it was all about and Mr. Raju will have started some other business. After a decade or so a fine of Rs. 10000 or $200 will be levied on him and things will carry on as before. Fortunately in this case Satyam is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the SEC in the US might have something to say. Satyam stocks have lost 80% of their value hurting US shareholders and trading was suspended yesterday. If the SEC finds Mr. Raju guilty he will have to pay millions of dollars in fines and go to prison in the US for a long time. Hope that happens. It will teach our business tycoons and regulators that globalisation means increased profits as well as genuine punishment.

The Orange revolution in Ukraine was financed by the US. Like Shakashvili in Georgia Yushenko is a US stooge whose only goal is to join NATO and goad Russia. His government has been shambolic and the economy is in tatters. Although anti Russian he wants Russia to supply gas to Ukraine at the same subsidised rate as Bylorussia which is a friend. Gazprom was ready to supply gas at a slightly higher rate but he did not renew the contract which expired on 31st December preferring to steal gas from pipelines supplying western European countries. When the USSR collapsed Russia embraced democracy for the first time. Yeltsin was a drunken buffoon but instead of helping Russia to develop a strong economy and strong institutions the US and the Europeans chose to taunt and humiliate it. So the Russians chose Putin who has confronted the west. Now they do not like it and are whining. The US and the Europeans should embrace Russia because they will need its help. The real enemies are China and Pakistan. Sadly the liars and knaves in charge will not realise it till it is too late.

The world seems to be running on lies. Lie no. 1 - A Palestinian state. There has never been a state or a country called Palestine. It was always a part of Jordan and has been ruled by outsiders such as the Syrians, Ottomans or the British. Lie no. 2 - Somali pirates are have a very good supply of sophisticated weapons. Somalia is a failed state incapable of manufacturing a drawing pin let alone AK47s or RPGs. These weapons are manufactured by billion dollar arms manufacturing companies in the US, UK, China, Russia and other European countries and finding their way into the hands of terrorists everywhere. Thus to control terrorism, piracy and drug wars all we need to do is to look at what the arms companies are doing and control where they supply weapons. Unfortunately governments will do nothing to control their arms companies and will keep lying and people will keep dying. Lie no 3 - Tutsis are victims of the Hutus. The truth is that Hutus are the majority and have been a peaceful agricultural people. Belgium, the colonial power, armed the minority Tutsis and created an army to control the majority Hutus. Thus the Tutsis have been oppressing the Hutus for decades. Even now the Tutsis are fighting and killing thousands in the Congo. Until the politicians and journalists start telling the truththere will never be any end to conflicts.

During Nehru's time every Indian passport came with a rubber stamp which forbade travel to South Africa, Albania and Israel. India was a whole hearted supporter of Arabs and the Palestinian cause. Yet every time we had trouble with the Pakis the same Arabs supported the Pakis and declared jihad on India. Even today Saudi Arabia is financing the Islamic terrorists who continue to kill innocent Indians. In the 60s King Hussein of Jordan ordered his army to chase Palestinians out of the kingdom. During the first Gulf war Palestinians living in Kuwait were responsible for all the loot and rape on Kuwaitis forgetting the hospitality they had been receiving for decades. Two years back the Lebanese army had to fight for weeks to get rid of criminal elements from a Palestinian refugee camp. The anti semitic British and Europeans are taking the side of the Palestinians and asking Israel to stop their bombing forgetting that it was Hamas which has been firing rockets into Israel for years. Their argument is that since rocket firing has not stopped inspite of the bombing Israel should just accept status quo which is the most stupid argument I have heard in a long time. 3 million people surrounded by 300 million Arabs, if not for the US they would be wiped out.

In India businesses evolve in a similar way. A person sets up a company privately. As the business improves he goes public and lists his company on the market to raise capital for expansion. At this time he is referred to as a Promoter which is like being God. He appoints the so called independent directors to the board who agree to whatever he says because they are handsomely paid for nodding their heads. Gradually the person dilutes his holding in the company until he is an extremely minority holder but retains his complete control because laws in the country prevent takeover. Satyam is a profitable IT company listed on the Nasdaq. Its Promoter Mr. Raju, who holds just 8.6% of the company, propsed to invest $ 1.6 billion or Rs. 68 billion to buy two property companies belonging to his two sons. According to analysts at today's prices the assets held by both companies would be about half of what Mr. Raju proposed to pay. Needless to say the Board unanimously agreed. Unfortunately other shareholders raised a huge stink and a British company has filed a case in a US court. Satyam shares halved in value in a matter of days. Shocked by the uproar Mr. Raju has cancelled the proposed purchase and is pondering exting the company. I am reminded of Lord Conrad Black who is serving a long prison sentence in the US for treating Hollinger International as his personal property. Could such a thing happen in Incredible India? Rubbish. Next people would be asking for politicians and kleptocrats to be punished. What cheek.

Say you have a grown up daughter studying in university. You give her a handsome allowance which allows her to rent a nice apartment and lead a comfortable life. You find out that she is in love with a criminal who has been involved in murder, robbery and other crimes. You tell her not to associate with the thug but she goes ahead and marries him anyway. So you stop her allowance. The thug comes and threatens your life if you do not pay up. Do you not have a right to shoot at him in self defence or do you give in because your daughter has the right to 'love' anyone she wants? The Palestinians were given billions in international aid but instead of building a viable state the money was wasted due to massive corruption and hostility to Israel. While people starved Soha Arafat went shopping in Paris. Then Ariel Sharon withdrew all settlers from Gaza but instead of voting for peace the Palestinians voted for Hamas, a terrorist organisation committed to the total destruction of Isarael. They are holding an Israeli soldier they kidnapped, encouraging indiscriminate firing of Kassam rockets aimed at civilians and are killing Palestinians belonging to the Fatah group. The Palestinians in Gaza are totally dependent on UN aid for food, fuel and medicines but instead of gratitude they claim that the world should negotiate with Hamas because they have been 'democratically' elected. Democracy does not end with marking a paper. Democracy means rule of law, respect of human rights and peace with neighbours. However Israel must make sure that Palestinians are not seen as victims by the international community by limiting their response to criminals and avoiding any civilian casualty.

The President of Guinea who died a couple of days ago said on tv that he was the head of state for life and that there would never be any transition in that country. Robert Mugabe said in a speech recently ' Zimbabwe is mine. I will never, never, never, never surrender.' Clearly he means that Zimbabwe is his personal property to do as he pleases and the people are his slaves to abey his orders and if they died of hunger or cholera then he did not care. Surely this is not the case in India? After all we loudly maintain that we are the largest democracy in the world by which we mean that elections are held every few years where millions of dispossessed illiterate people are bribed with promises of cheap rice or free electricity to vote for whichever criminal that has the largest number of goons to frighten the electorate. The criminals in India have understood that once you win an election you can control the police and loot the exchequer without any fear of being detected let alone
being brought to trial. The irony is that the police are then guarding the same criminals instead of putting them in handcuffs. Yesterday a Member of the Legislative Assembly, MLA, of UP beat an engineer to death because he refused to donate Rs. 5 million for Mayawati's birthday celebrations and then in total contempt of the law he dropped the body at a police station instead of taking the man to hospital. There are two points here. First the MLA probably thought that the engineer being a sarkari employee must have taken a lot of bribes and would have the necessary black money. The second point is that he must have thought that the police would probably cover up his crime. And to make sure that their loot continues every politicaian makes sure that his criminal children get prominent positions in the parties. The only way to survive would be to have genuine democracy where we the citizens have genuine power. That can only be done by building citizens' corporations who will have the power to challenge politicians and kleptocrats. Of course the filthy crooks will fight never to let that happen.

Seems that the government has decided on elections in May when its term ends. With oil and commodity prices rock bottom the politicians are sure of inflation falling and remaining in the comfort zone. Petrol prices have been reduced by Rs. 5 and will probably be reduced further in January to generate a feel good factor. Actually even with petrol at Rs. 55 a litre inflation had fallen from 13% to around 8% so reducing price at this point is ill judged. Instead the government should have built up an oil pool account so as to be able to absorb future shocks. Reducing prices at this time reduces government income because oil companies are state owned anyway. Meanwhile excise duties have been reduced to stimulate the domestic market. Falling income and job losses means that people are cutting back on spending which impacts indirect tax collections. Add to that the Sixth Pay Commission increases in salaries of sarkari fellows and the write off of farmers' loans worth some 700 billion rupees then we are left with severe fall in government revenues with increasing spending. This means that they intend to print more notes which will devalue the rupee and cause severe inflation in the future or they will borrow from the market causing severe liquidity crisis. Either way it seems to me that we are in for horrible times by this time next year. Please tell me that I am wrong.

Of all the events of last week the shoe incident was probably the most instructive. Living in a cocoon of security Bush and western leaders of his ilk never understand how much they are despised in the rest of the world. Since they control the major news networks they constantly portray themselves as civilised while abusing anyone who dares to disagree. These nations have been responsible for the greatest genocides in history, from the two world wars to Hiroshima to Guantanamo and renditions and yet they go around claiming to be the civilised world and lecturing others about democracy and human rights. For the first time a man had the guts to throw shoes at Bush and make sure he understood. I was impressed at the way Bush ducked although he was completely unprepared. Much like Tendulkar ducking to a Brett Lee bouncer while keeping his eyes on the ball the whole time. Afterwards Bush made light of the incident. He said that it was a greater insult for the Iraqi Prime Minister which is true. He also said that he bore no grudge which probably is a lie. Wonder what the chances are that this man will survive for two years. A knife or a bullet in the back in present day Baghdad is easy and Americans are vindictive. Any satta fellow care to offer odds?

Very clever fellow wrote a story in the paper. Appears that in a town there was only one rich man who owned a large shop where everyone went to buy stuff. The shop had a huge plate glass window. One day vandals broke the window. Instantly the man had to appoint short term security. A local glass firm got the order to manufacture a similar window. Then transporters earned money to bring it over and lastly fitters were paid to fix the glass sheet in place. With so many people earning it would appear to be good for the local economy but apparently it is bad and is known as broken window economics. A large chunk of Inida's economy functions in similar fashion. Take water. In Delhi you get water for only 30 to 60 minutes a day. Everyone large plastic tanks on the ground and pumps to raise the water to the everhead tank. Some days there is not a drop of supply when tankers charge Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 for 1000 litres. Since the water is polluted everyone has UV filters costing Rs. 6000. These days people are istalling reverse osmosis machines to eliminate heavy metals costing upto Rs. 15000. Frequently taps get air block so plumbers have to be begged to unblock them. In summer Delhi reaches 45 degrees Celsius so water is life literally. When I hear of politicians boasting about growth I wonder how much is broken window.

Politicians in India are generally filthy, thieving degenerates thoroughly loathed by the people. Paradoxically you will always find fervent supporters willing to fight opponents to the death for the same ugly fellows. It has been evolving for 60 years since independence. First keep more than 60% of people illiterate and dirt poor. Then divide them according to language, caste status. Call them aam aadmi with great contempt. Promise them rice at Rs. 2 or free electricity for their votes and instantly 60% of the population are converted to beggars. They will then touch your feet with gratitude for the crumbs you throw them. A few will cleverly become followers ready to commit any crime for you so anyone foolish enough to criticise can be severely beaten up. Having created the aam aadmi use that excuse to tax the middle classes to the hilt. Fill the civil services with trash like you whose function will be harass people and make life so difficult that they will be so busy trying to survive they will not have time to mount a challenge. Deny them basic services like water, electricity, schools, roads and health care and people are rushing around like zombies to see that children can get to school and old parents die a painless death. All very subtle. No need for the KGB but very effective all the same.