Another week and another refugee crisis in Africa, this time Somalis in Kenya. Independence from colonial powers should have resulted in peace and progress, instead corruption, civil war and AIDS are taking the continent backwards. What makes conflict so brutal in Africa? From Charles Taylor chopping the limbs of infants, to mass rapes in Darfur and cannibalism by the Mau Mau in the Congo the barbaric cruelty seems to surpass medieval times. Omar Bashir is black and indistinguishable from any other African but claims to be Arab as do most Somalis. I do not know if Charles Taylor claims to be caucasian as Liberia because Liberia was established by freed slaves from the US. Why are Africans reluctant to be Africans? I feel this is becuse none of the African languages had a written script. Phoenicians developed hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt but this did not sprad to the rest of Africa. Without writing it is possible to pass on tales of kings and battles by story telling or ballads but it is not possible to develop philosophy, science or literature. Thus I have not heard of any African Confucius or Socrates, any Vedas or Das Kapital, any Shakespeare or Newton. Without written language it is impossible to transmit ideas and impossible to develop a peaceful intellectual dialogue across races and distances and develop a cultural identity. African Americans are a case in point. Brought in as slaves they have adopted the religion and culture of their masters. They are the biggest group in the armed forces and follow orders to commit genocide in Vietnam and Iraq. Only Muhammed Ali had the guts to say that the Vietnam war was not his fight. If Africa is to progress Africans must develop cultural identity and not just nationalistic ones.

Like Americans, Indians have very poor sense of humour. We have few comedy programmes which depend on funny faces and voices to make people laugh. The humour is coarse and is accompanied by typical background music to allert people that they have to laugh. We are completely unable to laugh at ourselves. This is the reason why our politicians are unable to see how others see them. A bunch of criminal windbags preening with self importance they do not see the hatred and contempt they generate. They surround themselves with Z category security and cause traffic chaos for taxpaying honest citizens to feel superior and generate a false sense of security. Yet regularly we see politicians being murdered either by other politicians with Z security or by their relatives who want a share of the loot. They cannot tolerate any criticism and any attempt to poke fun will be ruthlessly suppressed. The British had a fantastic sense of humour and could make fun of anyone without any restriction at all. I think that this trait of being able to prick any pomposity was behind their Raj. Unfortunately I feel Blair lacks this British trait and is the reason for his troubles.

Thankyou Moonlight and a very happy Diwali to you too. I suspect you are young and pray that sanity prevails in the world so that you are able to enjoy many more such Diwalis. Two items of news in national newspapers. A judge takes his wife to a govt. hospital where he damands instant attention from the consultant who is too busy to see her instantly. So he summons him to his chambers and makes him sign an apology on Rs. 10 stamp paper under threat of contempt of court. Why is a judge's wife or indeed a judge more important than any other human being? If a doctor is resuscitating someone should he let that person die to attend the judge's wife? In India a rich man's family can survive his death because they have enough money but a labourer may have a wife, two children and elderly parents dependant on him and his death will reduce them to destitution. Unfortunately a govt hospital is most likely to have such patients and should the doctor have left him to attend to the judge's wife? The second item- Three men were crossing train tracks in the same city and were killed by an oncoming train. No fault of the train driver who could not possibly see these people and stop in time but passengers beat up rail staff and ransacked offices. Unconnected events but shows that people have so much contempt and hatred for the establishment because of the behaviour such as that of the judge.

Writing about the future Asimov visualised a world ruled by an emperor which may seem a regressive vision but it already seems to be happening. Politicians every where are already behaving like kings and passing laws centralising power in their hands. They are also growing increasingly intolerant of dissent or the mildest of criticism. This is glaringly obvious in the US where the Homeland security, Patriot act and the insistence on disregarding or bypassing laws regarding treatment of suspects makes it more like a dictatorship. Bush and his cronies insist that they are right even when they are wrong and to say different is unpatriotic. Not much different from the divine right of kings. What of Britain? With no empire, rise of Asian power, marginalised in Europe and Churchill's ghost still haunting the corridors of Whitehall British establishment is terrified of being reduced to irrelevance. In a sad and desperate attempt to get some recognition in foreign capitals Blair has reduced himself not so much to a poodle but to a lackey treated with disdain ( as in ' yo Blair ') and exagerating a minor threat to a major crisis to gain a little recognition from his master. Britain is not the 51st state but more a neighbourhood of white trash grovelling to be noticed. How long before His Majesty the President of the US? In India politicians are already above the law and citizens have no rights.

What is the colour of death? In Hollywood movies baddies are taken away by black, grotesque shapes while the goody is welcomed by a soft, comforting white light. Is an Iraqi mother likely to feel better that her teenage son has been shot dead by a white all American boy, whose Evangelical parents tie a yellow ribbon around the tree in the front garden, rather than by a filthy bearded terrorist? After the Germans lost the second World War, Nazi leaders were prosecuted at Nuremberg. Serbian leaders are facing prosecution in the Hague while Saddam and his cronies are being tried in Iraq. Yet there were no trials after the US defeat in Vietnam. On the contrary the US maintained sanctions against Vietnam for over 20 years because they wanted to know about soldiers missing in action ( MIAs ) or dead soldiers. Thus dead Americans were deemed to be more important than living Vietnamese. When the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was signed it was envisaged that the nuclear powers will gradually get rid of their weapons and we will move towards a nuclear free world. Instead they have increased their arsenal and are researching newer types of weapons. Clearly they feel that they have a right to kill others without any threat to themselves. US did use nuclear weapons on Japan but they also considered using them on Vietnam and on India during the Bangladesh crisis. Is it any wonder that Asian countries feel the need of developing their own weapons after the repeated atrocities on Asia. So North Korea today, Iran tomorrow. When will they learn that death is colouless?

Dengue in Delhi is no surprise. Delhi is the capital of the country and the seat of the central govt. which has a say in the administration from the days when it used to be a Union Territory. Seven Members of Parliament are elected from the city and it has been granted status of a state so has an Assembly with a State Govt. There are two Municipal corporations the New Delhi Municipal Corporation or NDMC which looks after the VIP part and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or MCD which loots the trash part which means where we live. It is no surprise, therefore , that with so many different scoundrels looting the treasury it is a filthy city. Every monsoon the roads get flooded after little rain because drains are never cleaned. After a light shower roads break up and are not repaired for months. As soon as a road is repaired some agency such as the telephones, water or electricity will dig it up again because they are in league with the contractors. Water supply is erratic and we have to buy water at exorbitant rates from tankers who are in league with the sarkari fellows. Electricity distribution was privatised but the private companies were forced to take on the diseased govt. fellows so power cuts are frequent. Taxes are continually increased but we get no services. Nineteen have died but it is no epidemic. With so many bloodsuckers why grudge a few little mosquitoes.

Dengue outbreak in Delhi. The Health Minister refuses to call it an epidemic. All the noise is about patients admitted to AIIMS and no one knows how many are dying in the slums after heavy doses of antibiotics and steroids by quacks. Of course the Honble Health Minister is busy banning screening of any smoking scenes in films and destroying the morale of the doctors at the same AIIMS. This is being done in a two pronged attack. First by refusing to pay the salaries of junior doctors who had gone on strike to protest against admission of lower caste students with low marks in admission tests. Who benefits from reservations ? The children of politicians because their millionaire parents have put them through fee paying schools. It is another matter that the real have nots have not received even a primary education and hence do not know what higher education means. So we will have an army of 5% doctors to ill treat the people while the politicians go abroad at our expense to get treated. The man who first started this Mandal abomination went to the UK for treatment of his kidney ailment with his security detail. So while people were dying at the hands of 5% doctors this fellow spent Rs. 800 million of tax payers money being treated by white skinned super brahmins.
The second method is to attack the head of AIIMS who is respected by other doctors. What this is meant to achieve God alone knows but it has certainly destroyed the morale at the country's leading medical institution. The biggest tragedy is that this Health Minister is a doctor. No sharam, no izzat.

The truth at last. In a burst of heated anger Musharraf at last spoke the truth when he said that the Paki intelligence agency ISI was under total control of the govt. That is exactly what India has been saying all these years. It is the Paki govt. with Chief Jehadi Musharraf in charge which is responsible for all the terrorism in the world. He came to power in a coup and has tried to don civilian clothes while occupying the post of Commander in Chief. He has been lying consistently about his involvement in terrorism across the world. With Libya out of the picture Pakistan, Iran and Syria are the main sponsors of terrorism. Iran and Syria support Hamas and Hezbollah and are also involved in the continuing violence in Iraq. If the US gets tied down in Iraq then Syria can continue to meddle in Lebanon and Iran can continue with their nuclear programme. However where the Taliban and the Al Qaida are concerned Pakis are providing safe haven, training to new recruits and arms. All these years that Indians were dying because of Paki sponsored terrorists no one cared. Now white skinned NATO troops are being killed western govts. are beginning to notice. This is only the beginning. Many many more white boys are destined to die in Afghanistan and at some point they will realise that Pakis have to be destroyed first. Unfortunately it is going to be even more dangerous as these mad dogs in their hate fuelled rage will wnt to strike out one last time before dying. India being in close proximity and with a weak corrupt govt. will suffer. Still at least the truth is out at last.

What's with the One God fellows. They have a common God and a common set of prophets starting with Abraham ( Ibrahim ) with Jews stopping at Moses ( Mousa ), Christians at Jesus ( Eisa ) and Moslems at Mohammad. Mousa and Eisa are very common names among Moslem Arabs. As I understand it God used to hand down his orders through these prophets who would later pass them on to their followers. Many of these prophets did not write down what communication they had received from God and their pronouncements were penned by their followers often decades after their death. Thus their would be several versions of their scriptures depending on the recall of a particular follower. For example their were several versions of the New Testament until the church destroyed all versions except one. However God did communicate with ordinary people on one occasion when he wrote the Ten Commandments in stone which could not be changed. He said ' Thou shalt not kill.' No exceptions. Kill who? Nobody whether heathen, kafir or enemy. Kill what? No animal, bird, fish or even plant. Kill when? At any time.Kill why? For any reason whatsoever. Yet forever Jews, Christans and Moslems have been killing each other and us Hindus because we worship idols. Catholics kill Protestants and Sunnis kill Shias. We Hindus do not kill each other saying my God is bigger, we do not convert and have never waged a Crusade or a Jihad. Yet we are kafirs or heathens.

Seems Amartya Sen feels that homosexuality should be decriminalised in India. Nonone seems to give any thought to the fact that male and female homosexuality are completely different and should not be clubbed together. Consider anatomy. Woman has a vagina which is a very distensible organ capable of accommdating any size of penis. Two lesbians may engage in oral sex or use implements shaped like the male organ and as long as they are careful not to cause injury their act is near physiological. Man has a penis which when excited is hard. Two men may engage in oral sex or one man inserts his organ in tha anal passage of the submissive partner. The anal sphincter is designed for evacuation of faeces but not for the insertion of a hard object and repeated such act causes a patulous, incompetent sphincter resulting in faecal incontinence. The rectum is loaded with bacteria esp. gram negative ones and the dominant partner gets urinary tract infection which is almost unknown in men till they get enlrged prostate over the age of 60 years. Thus while female homosexuality is near physiological the male act is totally abnormal. Lesbians may feel liberated at getting rid of men from their lives but they are actually providing a human shield to the abnormal activities of their male counterparts.

Bush has done it again. He lied about WMDs for inveding Iraq and he lied again in his address on September 11 when he said that the US will win in Iraq. US is a very big loser whatever happens now. If democracy prevails there will be a Shia govt. the leaders of which are friendly and indebted to Iran which means Iran will control all of southern Iraq which borders on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. This will give them a certain leverage on the largest oil producers of the world. The Arabs must be dreading the prospect of Islamic Persians breathing down their necks. The Kurds will see their opportunity and demand de facto independence which will upset Turkey a key Nato ally. Already their are regular bomb blasts in Turkey. If, on the other hand, there is civil war in Iraq the US will be tied down for a long time and Iran will continue to create problems by training and arming militants. They will thus be able to distract the US and continue with their programme to build nuclear weapons. Either way the US loses. Saddam was the best friend the US had. He was undoubtedly a murdering psycho but he was secular in his hatred of jehadis and was an implacable enemy of Iran. Also he was toothless and, therefore, a useful ally to have if the US wanted to bomb the nuclear sites in Iran. Bush may have invade Iraq for his Pop but it will go down in history as ' MOM' i.e. Mess of the Moron.

Two lies have been very effective in enslaving the people of India. The first is that India is a poor country and the second is that the gap between rich and poor needs to be reduced. To take the second point first it does not matter how much money Tata or Mittal or Ambani has. If I was asked to write 30 billions in numbers I will fail because I am not sure how many zeroes will be needed. I am unable to imagine so much money and so do not aspire to it. I am sure the richest men did not start life thinking of making so much money, it just happened because what they did was so successful. People want basics. A decent apartment, a car, and enough money for food, clothes, utilities, children's expenses and medical emergencies. People mostly want job security so that they can live in peace. Life is anyway so complex that no one has time to dream of being a Bill Gates or a Warren Buffet. Redistribution of wealth is just an excuse to tax us heavily and then plunder the treasury. It is also a good way to keep people poor. Which brings me to the first lie. India is not a poor country, it has been kept poor for over 50 years. Unlike now all the leaders at independence were highly educated and all had been abroad. Surely they had seen that children were required to go to school compulsorily till the age of 16 years. We had a socialist system of govt. which allowed the politicians to control steel, railways, airlines, banks but education, health and food production were left to the private sector. Soviet Union and Cuba had 100% literacy but 60% of our people were kept ignorant so as to exploit them. These lies are still being used to exploit and extort.

Thank you Pipi. Muslims in India from the lower castes who have been horribly persecuted in the past and are still being persecuted today. They hate all hindus and anything that seems to be connected with us. However hatred of hindus is not confined to Indian muslims. I was shocked ot hear Saudi muttawahs abusing hinduism on tv and in Arab News. I had never thought that Saudis would know anything about us but the depth of hatred was intense. However muslims have a concept of Ummah which seems a collective of all muslims and transcends nationality and loyalty. Thus muslims born in Britain are able to plant bombs in trains and buses. Their entire mentality is based on hatred. A couple of days ago sunnis in Iraq killed shia pilgrims from India and Pakistan in cold blood. As I have said in any part of the world there are more than one hundred muslims there is trouble. Strangely there are lots of muslims in Idia and Pakistan who are in the music business. Perhaps they have not realised that ragas have to do with hinduism. Why would they sing for Durga when they keep their women in burqas and discard them like refuse by citing talaq?

'Black dog!' said the Grand Master,'I touch not misbelievers,save with the sword. Comrade take thou the letter from the Jew and give it to me.' : Ivanhoe; Sir Walter Scott.
Antonio: You may as well do anything most hard, As to seek to soften that - than which what's harder? His Jewish heart?' Merchant of Venice; William Shakespeare.
BBC's coverage of the recent Lebanon war was as one sided as it gets. Terms such as 'war crimes' and 'carnage' were used freely esp. after Qana when 20 people died. How many were Hizbollah and how many were civilians we will never know but interesttingly such terms were never used for Iraq even after the massacre in Faluja when white phosphorus was used. I remember the shameful anti Putin propaganda even while innocent children were being slaughtered by Chechen butchers in Beslan. As for the UN, Kofi Anan's term is coming to an end. He has been savaged by Bolton and the Volcker report put his son in more than a spot of bother. How better to get back at the US support of Israel than by accusing them of war crimes. One bearded fellow was so angry that most of the cluster bombs were used in the last 72 hours. Is'nt it better to use these bombs when most of the civilian population had left the area and all who remained were likely to be Hezbollah. Never saw such righteous indignation when the US and UK were liberally using them in Iraq. As for French who were rushing around like headless chicken to save the poor Lebanese but cannot find soldiers to maintain peace. There were some questions of Mitterand and the Vichy govt. What hope for Israel with so many enemies?

In a report last week the Acountant General ( CAG ) said that the money collected from the 3% Education Cess is not being allocated to right recipients and is being misused which is what I always suspected would happen. Now we hear that the govt. is levying an AIDS cess on air tickets. The taxes on air tickets are already at obscene levels and in some cases the tax is higher than the value of the ticket. The low cost airlines are making losses and according to Boeing this is not sustainable. So what happens if the airlines collapse? Who cares. According to the sclerosed politicians air travel is a luxury for the upper classes and therefore not a vote winner. They do not see that for the first time even middle classes are able to afford air travel and will suffer most. So what happens to all the money that is looted and will be be looted in the future? The easiest and perhaps the only asset in which to hide colossal amounts of loot is the housing and building sector. No wonder housing prices are becoming astronomical and the price of land is Rs. 30000 per sq. yard even in the dirtiest of little towns. Once the money is invested in land then one can borrow white money from banks and invest in the share market which explains why the Sensex is touching 12000 from a low of 2900 about a year and half ago. Meanwhile affordable housing is beyond the reach of ordinary people. So what do we do? The onle thing is to beat your head against the wall in frustration at our helplessness. Is it any wonder that people are joining naxals and other separatist groups? Power comes from thae barrel of a gun, as Mao said a long while ago.

Us will have to nuke Iran. That is the only way they will be able to leave Iraq and save american lives. Iran is moving as fast as possible to develop nuclear weapons which will make them invincible and able to dominate the entire Gulf area and posibbly oil supply. Saddam was the best friend the americans had but now they can only lose. If peace happens the Shias will control Iraq which will give Iran influence and access right upto the borders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. If the troubles continue Iran has shown what it can do through the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Also seems to me that whenever the americans want to test new weapons they choose to do it in Asia. Thus we had atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, napalm in Korea and Vietnam, dioxin in Vietnam and depleted uranium in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now they need to test a new generation of tactical nukes a Iran is in Asia. They give amusing names to their bombs such as Fat Boy, Daisy Cutter and so on so that their victims will die happy and innocent children blown to bits are called collateral damage like tables, chairs or garbage. Unfortunately Asian countries are so blinded by hatred against each other that they are oblivious. Iran watch out.

The govt has last published some rules for cablewallahs when they have been in business for over 10 years. There are still no rules for DTH ( satellite tv ). About four years ago the second son of the Media Tycoon visted India and rumour has it that he made offers to politicians that they could not refuse. The reason is that at present there is no way of knowing which channel people are watching and the total number of subscribers are presumed to watch every channel which is absurd. So every channel is charging subscrition and selling commercial time thus short changing both consumers as well as advertisers. Now the Supreme Court has mandated the set top box by first of January so the govt is isuing guidelines for cablewallahs after we have had to tolerate torture for years. The cablewallah would suddenly change channels or the signal would suddenly disappear and complaints would be treated with contempt. Last night I was watching a football match when the commentary suddenly changed to Hindi. Watching a Premier League match with Hindi commentary is hoorible for two reasons. One, the commentators are clearly not in the stadium but somewhere in India probably Jhumritalia. Second, all terms such as goal, offside, centre forward, foul, penalty etc are in English and have no translation. Nothing we can do as the cable system is based on monopoly and the politicians have been blocking DTH.

India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world but why? Law and order are maintained by the police, the judiciary and by lawyers. If you visit any court in India you will find scores of lawyers in dirty black jackets sitting under trees and tin sheds on broken chairs or benches. No other profession practices in such surroundings and only two professions have touts standing outside trying to catch clients. One is the law profession and the other is prostitution. Is it any wonder that lawyers are hated and despised and regularly make news for rape, cheating and swindling. I cannot make any comment about the judiciary for fear of being in contempt but would like to point out that judges are recruited from lawyers and where in the world can yopu obtain 'anticipatory bail'. Imagine getting bail in anticipation of committing a crime. One of the collaborators in a Delhi murder obtained anticipatory bail from Manipur. As for the police they are a mafia in uniform. They are brutal, crooked and feared by the people. It suits the politicians and civil servants to have an ieffective police because they continue to loot with impunity. Unlike the pampered and increasingly corrupt defence forces the police are paid a pittance, are treated like servants by ministers and do not even have medical cover even though they risk their lives a lot more than the army in peace time. A police inspector cannot afford asthma inhalers for Rs. 280 so I do not know how to treat him. I am told by a friend that when the Southern Fat Lady phones the police chief stands up. That India still survives is a tribute to the sick police.

15th August was celebrated as Independence Day. All crooked politicians were in lecture mode. People travelling from Jaipur to Delhi were trapped in a massive traffic jam for at least six hours because the toll booth had been shut down because some idiot was giving a speech. Imprisoned in cars for six hours to celebrate independence. It is time to reduce the power of the poiticians and civil servants. Politicians think that they are entitled to behave as emperors when in fact they have been elected to serve the people. In a democracy the terms VIP and VVIP are abominations. They have to be amd to understand that they are SERVANTS of the people and not masters as they seem to think. They do not own roads, railways or any of the public assets. We do. They promise free electricity, free water, cheap rice to win elections when they have no right to benefit from handouts of our tax money. Recently this fellow won a state election promising free colour tvs to everyone of the electorate. Who is going to pay for this? If he uses tax money then it is criminal plunder and he should be put away. If he or his party is to pay then he is breaking the ceiling on election spending and his win should be declared void. A few years ago the Southern Fat Lady spent millions of public funds for the marriage of her foster son when everyone knows that he is her bastard son from the Film Star. Stop the plunder now I say.