Tax cuts and how the media talks about them

I am not an economist. Neither am I a journalist. However, I understand that the perceptions of people are moulded by media. This much, I imagine you will agree with. So when you read an article like this one, you wonder why the coverage appears to be so biased.

Consider this section: "While about three-fourths of Democrats favor raising taxes on the rich, about half of independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose the idea. Support for cutting everyone's taxes exceeds four in 10 people in every region of the U.S. except the Midwest, where one-third back the proposal. Even among people earning under $50,000 a year — mainstays of the Democratic Party — 43 percent want to continue the tax cuts for all."

Would that not have been better written as
"While about three-fourths of Democrats favor raising taxes on the rich, about half of independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose the idea. 6 in 10 people in every region of the U.S. favour ending the Bush tax breaks. In the Midwest; 7 in 10 people favour ending them. Among people earning under $50,000 a year — mainstays of the Democratic Party — a majority of 57 percent want to end the Bush tax breaks."

Just a thought.

The Tax Return of the humble Indian politician

I have copied here, an article from The Statesman, Web edition. This is rather interesting. It does appear that our politicians have little or no wealth, as they don't seem to pay much taxes. But that does not prevent them from ostentatious display. Read on.

A tale of stellar omissions

Vijay Thakur
NEW DELHI, April 26: Is buying property in the national capital region way beyond your reach? Are taxes eating into your hard-earned income? Such “aam aadmi'” concerns do not bother candidates for the Lok Sabha elections if the affidavits submitted by them to their returning officers while filing nomination papers are anything to go by.
Take the case of Mr Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader projected as the party's prime minister in waiting. He can let you into the secret of owning property in the south Delhi area for as little as Rs 4.40 per square yard or a mere 49 paise per square foot.
For those with tax blues, it might be best to seek some advice from Mr LK Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. In his affidavit, he has not mentioned paying income tax, wealth tax and property tax in 2008-09. All this when he was the leader of the Opposition, drawing a fixed salary, and owns movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 3 crore (not including his spouse's assets of over Rs 50 lakh). The RJD supremo, Mr Lalu Prasad, whose family owns 36 immovable properties, does not fall in the purview of wealth and property tax, according to his declaration. However, Mr Prasad and his wife, Mrs Rabri Devi, owe the income tax department an amount of Rs 26 lakh, which they contest.
Mr Rahul Gandhi has informed the Election Commission that he owns a 4.692 acre farmhouse in Mehrauli which is worth Rs 9,86,244 as on March 31, 2008. This means his 22,700 square yards of land costs only Rs 9.86 lakh. At this value, the price per square yard of his farmhouse would be approximately Rs 4.40 or 49 paise per square foot. However, if property dealers of Mehrauli area are to be believed, Rs 10 lakh would not fetch even a 25 square-yard plot in any inhabited colony of Mehrauli which has water, power and other civic amenities.
Mr Gandhi's affidavit further contradicts his own claim. He has submitted that he is paying property tax of Rs 78,000 per annum on the farmhouse whose value is only Rs 9.86 lakhs. Similar is the case of the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who declared that the approximately 15.75 bigha plot of agricultural land she owns in Sultanpur village and Dera Mandi, is worth a mere Rs 2.19 lakh as on March 31, 2008, that is Rs 14,000 per bigha. Even barren land in remote areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh or Punjab is not available at this price.
Mrs Gandhi has also got her hands on some inexpensive jewellery. She claims to have 2,518 grams of jewellery valued at Rs 11,08,100, or Rs 439 per gram. Mrs. Gandhi also owns 88 kg of silverware valued at about Rs 18 lakh. Mr Advani has Rs 67.56 lakhs in banks and financial and non-banking institutions, another Rs 1.6 lakh of jewellery, and house and apartments worth Rs 2.35 crore. Yet his assets declaration states that he has paid "NIL" income tax, wealth tax, or property tax for the assessment year 2008-09. "If a candidate has written "NIL" in these columns, it means he has not paid any Income tax, property tax and wealth tax," said the returning officer of Gandhi Nagar. "We are not here to check the veracity of it. It is in the public domain, if anybody has any problem he is free to approach the appropriate authorities," the returning officer said.
Even income tax experts find it difficult to digest that a person who has assets of over Rs 3 crore and is earning a substantial salary as leader of the Opposition, has not contributed anything towards income tax, wealth tax or property tax.
"Before commenting on it, we need to see what he has submitted in his I-T returns. One can certainly make lots of tax saving investments, donations, or show expenditure. Without seeing his returns details, we can comment little on it," said Mr Rajesh Kumar, director of finance in a public limited company.
The RJD chief, Mr Lalu Prasad's declaration is similar to Mr Advani's. His family, including his wife, sons and daughters, own more than 36 residential, commercial or agricultural plots. Yet they have not paid any income tax, wealth tax or property tax for the assessment year 2008-09, the affidavit submitted by Mr Prasad reveals. He, however, owes the I-T department Rs 16.26 lakh while Mrs Rabri Devi owes Rs 9.79 lakh.
The story is no different for leaders of other political parties with only a few abiding by the letter and spirit of the Election Commission's model code. The EC might have made the disclosure of assets mandatory for all contesting candidates, but the real picture is not clear as candidates seem to be taking advantage of "technical/legal loopholes and jargons" to hide the actual worth of their assets.
The EC, however, washes its hands of the declarations made by the candidates. "Our job ends after we receive the affidavits from the candidates," said a senior official of the Commission. "The candidate has to declare the assets to the returning officer and we put it in the public domain. If anybody has any objection they can approach the returning officer concerned and file a complaint to the appropriate authorities," said the official.
The EC does not evaluate the declared assets, but since it is in the public domain, the concerned government department may take the initiative to check if the candidates are indulging in tax evasion and take punitive action, the official said.

When the rich become too rich...

If I remember correctly, there was a line from 'The Good Earth' which went.. 'There is a way. When the rich become too rich, and the poor become too poor, there is a way.' These words, authored by Nobel Laureate Pearl Buck might be applicable in the current world. Read on.

The secular fabric of India (and how it is being slowly shredded)

The incidents in Mangalore, a week or so earlier have put us to shame. Well, not really. Here is a quick summary: certain (Hindu) blokes took violent umbrage at (unwed) women dressing in Western clothes and drinking in pubs and consorting with menfolk. Are we really surprised? The supposedly evil Western influence on our society is not new, nor unanticipated. Many, if not most Indians dream of visiting, and perhaps settling in the wondrous land that they perceive 'Amrika' to be. Successive governments in the last two decades have sought business and cultural ties to the West. Such is the measure of our 'success' that the word 'Bangalored' has entered the lexicon as what happens to a job when it is outsources, and Indians now send upwards of 80,000 students each year to the US, more than any other nation. But with this will come the intermingling of cultures and what was once considered profane will perhaps merely be frowned upon.

But allow me to hypothesize something. The wave of prosperity that our ties with the West have brought us are really linked to a tiny urban fraction of India. Noveau rich, you might say. And like most new entrants to the party, they would like to participate more than wholeheartedly. More loyal than the king, so to speak. And so they have embraced the worst of what the West has to offer with no regard for the virtues of self reliance and ingenuity which has made the US what it is. Thus, we have low rise jeans, tank tops and pubs. And eventually, perhaps, we will also have bling and Glocks. But what we have bypassed, and will perhaps never have is the vision of Messrs. Hewlett, Packard, Ferdinand Porsche and Steve Jobs.

So the wealthy of India continue their dalliance with the West, unmindful of the smoldering anger of our country's poor, whom we have forgotten. Them, we have sold down the drain by numerous trade agreements which fetter our farmers, by selling agricultural land to contractors and shooting poor people who dared to protest and by selling all the PSUs, instead of trying to make them profitable. Is it surprising, then, if fundamentalists, be them of any faith, can now recruit from the poor and the dispossessed? My friend R told me that everything in India is done to oppress women. I disagree. We have had a miserable record in many respects. Remember sutee? But things are changing for the better, if slowly. The danger is India will be torn apart as the urban rich waltz faster and faster to some Faustian copy of what they perceive the West to be, while the poor lie oppressed and forgotten.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was free speech. This is what Johann Hari said about free speech and how standards at the highest level are being subverted by diplomatic and cultural arm twisting, especially by the Islamic nations. How there are two standards and the media must never transgress by judging conservative societies by a liberal yardstick. This was reprinted in the Statesman, a respected national daily published in Calcutta. To my shame, this immediately resulted in the good (Muslim) citizens of Calcutta protesting (violently). The Statesman has since apologized (why?), but its editor and publisher have been taken into custody. This is what Johann Hari said about the reaction. Read what you will into this. In my opinion, this is another symptom of the cancer that grips our society. The existance of double standards (read the Indian civil code) and the subjugation of women are two equally hideous faces of the same disease. To cure one, you must also work on the other.

So what is wrong with the world?

This is not a question in jest. It is unthinkable that a world which has split the atom, tamed rivers and set rockets to the heavens cannot find the resources to provide food and clean drinking water to much of its population. The accumulation of obscene wealth in what is supposedly the age of 'equality' in the face of worldwide hunger is an outrage that cannot be tolerated. There is no equality in claiming that all men have the same chance when some are born with trust funds and some to parents who are already dying of AIDS. The reasons for this state of affairs are many and widespread, but certainly there is the colossal failure of the self styled intelligentsia to act as such. far from entering an age of enlightenment, humanity has chosen to sink into a comforting brain dead slumber fed by flickering images and reassuring soundbited from their new Gods, who speak in High Def images with DTS surround sound. This self inflicted lobotomisation of much of the world means that 'the people' sleep while their national coffers are being looted by a few rich and unscrupulous wealth. This article tries to answer the question of 'who owns America?'. What is to be done? Get up, move out of your comfort zone, get something done. This article talks about what is wrong in the way that we have allowed our minds and judgements to be taken over and think what we are told to. I have one simple piece of advice for everyone who does not lead a hand to mouth existance: read a book a week.

Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.

This is from Friedrich von Schiller, and yes, you guessed it right, I am, of course referring to Sarah Palin. This rather old interview with Kate Couric underscores what America has escaped.

Are we there yet?

Yes, it would seem that we are.. last night, Obama won the Presidency. Awesome. McCain/Palin lost. Equally awesome. But it is not over for Palin yet.. after displaying the most colossally incompetent brain ever to ask for the White House, she might be asking for it yet again, in 2012. Read on here. Well, are we surprised? Maybe not.. after all there are plenty of people who would find her awesome. Like the person who owns this car. And Cracked thinks that this is what her 2012 campaign ads will be like. But this conservative blog should also provide food for thought. And before we call it a day, take a look at the Telegraph's look at the current Prez, his years in a few memorable pictures.

The purpose of television really comes down to whether the person is likable or not

The title is a direct quote from this NY Times article about a conservative school for grooming "experts" who will then share their opinions with you on prime time TV. Aah, the glories of the information age... aah, statesmanship!, aah journalistic ethics and integrity! aah, expertise!

The elekshun and possibilities of a zombie apocalypse

The most important issue in this elekshun is being totally ignored. And that is making me angry. So, no beating about the bush...

SENATORS MCCAIN AND OBAMA, DO YOU HAVE A STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE?

Why don't people realize that this should be on everyone's mind? We need political leaders who can step up and keep a cool head in case of crises and I am not talking about something like a wimpy thermonuclear faceoff. What if, and no sniggers here, the dead come back to life and do a walkie? Are we prepared to deal with shite like that? Methinks, given our current state of preparedness, or lack thereof.. no. I mean, it could happen. Like, tonight. And if it did, then somethings would look different. Such as these.

But, the main thing is stay cool and elect leaders who will take us through without too much damage. Leaders like Shaun. Perhaps limited to a few melted Cornettos.

PS- thanks to people unknown for borrowed images.

Funny presidential candidates

Obama

McCain

Thanks to CNN

Monuments are built on the backs of slaves...

Empire building usually happens when there is a large surplus of humanity willing to work for horribly low wages. As this article tells you, the wave of prosperity in Dubai, culminating in the most beautiful hotels in the world, is built on the backs of Indian/Pakistani/Afghan migrant workers who are made to work obscene hours for a pittance. Why do they keep coming in such large numbers? Simply because it is even more difficult to get any kind of job back home. In some cases, like those of Afghans, their homes, indeed their whole nation has been ravaged by war. What do people go back to?

One has to think about this: it has long been understood that all economic systems thrive on inequality: there is no way that the rich of the world, or even the not so rich, who shop at Saks cannot possibly maintain their own extravagant lifestyles if we were to provide free immunization against MMR to every child in the world. Or clean drinking water.

One of the fringe benefits of maintaining low intensity conflicts around the world is the constant availability of displaced people (refugees, we called them in a distant past) who will serve as willing (or coerced) warm bodies for labour when we erect our monuments to our own undisputed glory. There is the slight problem of some of tehse displaced people whose lives have been ravaged by conflicts set up and sustained by the great powers that they will turn so angry that some of them will insist on passing on their grief to as many people as possible. But hey, thats what the police state is for!

Prezidunks, wuhs, economies, elekshuns and bailouts.

There it is again. Elekshun time! When all will be forgiven, and we can start anew, clean slate and all. Or not. Take your pick, the US Prez is the de facto leader of much of the world, sits on top of a good 20% of the world's 64 trillion $ economy and wields control over almost 6000 strategic and tactical thermonuclear weapons. The war in Iraq has killed over 4000 Americans. It is interesting the way we say it.. "the war has killed". As if the responsibility for all those lost lives can be placed on the shoulders of some malign, but ot manifest entity. Oh, and speaking of war deaths, that would be about a hundred thousand Iraqis. Indeed, we live in interesting times. There is, of course the subprime lending crisis, which has blown up in our faces. So what is the crisis about anyway? This comic illustrates. No math, no complicated five syllable words. So I happened to see 'Slacker Uprising', Mike Moore's film about the 2004 election. Watch it free here, on the official site. And then go and read the open letter from Moore to all citizens. There is a lot at stake here. Much of these are catchphrases to be used at dinner table conversations: freedom, equality, health, blah-di-blah. But let us not forget that they do mean something real.

There is a food crisis here and people are ignoring it.

I don't know why. But that it the way it seems to be going. There are various reasons why this is so: firstly, the world population is growing with no signs of stopping. Secondly, it costs a lot in terms of foodgrains to nurture a cow or sheep or goat and then kill it for meat. Cheaper to eat those foodgrains in their natural form. Thirdly, the corn diverted for use in ethanol as a substitute for petrol is a horrible drain on food supplies. Fourth.. every bit of agricultural land taken away by misguided governments and converted to industrial land reduces our overall production of food. In this context, the colossal stupidity that the Indian government (both at the Centre and the State level) has displayed in bending over for venal businessmen and setting up SEZs with land taken away from farmers and tax holidays is remarkable. These practices have drained the national food reserves, contributed little to the local economy in terms of well paying jobs and have robbed the exchequer of tax revenue. The only people who benefit are the shareholders and the politicians. A nexus of criminal minds indeed.


The world's food supplies are dwindling rapidly. We need to curtail our use of energy, reduce our love for processed food (read chocolate bars/chips), source things locally and do a lot more. This crisis is real and it is upon us. Read on here. This is a moment when politicians, world leaders and businessmen can get together and act decisively. If not we will be remembered as the generation which inherited a beautiful, thriving planet and did our very best to destroy ourselves and our home.

Why spend money on science?

Apart from the obvious answer (fund me, I am a good person and deserving of taxpayer support)..... society can only tolerate activities which do not contribute to economic survival beyond a certain critical mass of population and overall economy size. In today's multinetworked world, where we can support Paris Hilton (understand me here, dear reader: every second that you have ever spent reading an article about her, or seen her on TV in some lame reality show has directly or indirectly contributed to her income: hence I do not mean 'support Paris Hilton' in any metaphorical sense.. this is real), we can certainly support some science.

Ok, but shouldn't we support only the science which helps us? Hmmm.. define science which 'helps us'. Most of the great revolutions of recent times have come out of unfettered 'ocean foam' thought. Quantum mechanics has lead to every solid state electronic device that enriches and makes your daily existence possible. It is not possible to classify science as useful and useless, although one might argue that the grant system of research does just that. But one thinks that the world is in very real danger of throttling intellect and exterminating creativity by demanding a clearly measurable outcome from any and every scientific project undertaken. There are no more cases of 'lets see what happens'. Every decent grant proposal is hypothesis driven, and must have a clearly defined and achievable objective. But this fetters thought, and those truly outstanding 'where no one has gone before' experiments may be a thing of the past. That would be a sad day for science indeed. That would be a sad day for humanity.

But do people care? For the most part, no. Hence, of course we are faced with such outrageous nonsense as people saying that the Mars project should be abandoned, because clearly, life originated on Earth, and hence any other planet is boring. So, what is the price we place on space exploration? Here are some answers.

The rejoinder to my arguments: that the economy cannot support such activity is rather untrue. I have no numbers to make my case, but a strong belief that if we (as in the whole world) stopped making guns and paying our CEOs/Presidents/Dictators so much, we would have money for clean water, food, housing, antibiotics for everyone on Earth. And maybe some money left over for stargazers, poets and cultural anthropologists.

Let me finish by mentioning that the dedication in 'Gravitation', by Wheeler, Misner and Thorne, if I remember is to 'the taxpayer who funds research'. Thank you, dear taxpayer.

Shock of the day...

I shouldn't have been shocked, but then this CONSERVATIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA does it for me. Take a look. This is what the page says about Obama.

Guest post: Manmohan Singh - the premier who failed expectations?

From today's Statesman, about the man who would be India's new Nehru..it is a sad day indeed when all of Indian politics seems to be either about caste politics aka Mayawati or the edicts passed from 10 Janpath. Have we completely lost the ability to rise above such pettiness? Is there no one left who speaks not just for a tribe or a community, but for the whole country? This article talks about the failed story that this the prime ministership of Manmohan Singh, once considered a man of bedrock integrity. Perhaps the fault lies in us, for expecting too much from one who obeys the diktat of the Congress' Italian Grande Dame.

Assessing Manmohan
The Doctor Of Deficit Finance Should Realise The Currency Is At Stake
Subroto Roy
The best thing that may be said of the Manmohan Singh premiership is that when it began in May 2004, it seemed, for a short while, refreshing in comparison to the dysfunctional arrogance and brutality displayed by its predecessor. By the last months of the Vajpayee-Advani Government, there were party appointees who had ended all pretence of purportedly Hindu values and were raking it in shamelessly. The Golden Rule of Democracy is “Throw the rascals out”, which is what Indian democracy upheld as it has done time and again. By 2009, India’s electorate will have the chance to decide whether the incumbent government deserves the same fate.

Lok Sabha

Manmohan Singh was seriously discussed as the Congress’s putative nominee for PM as early as 2001. The idea brewing at the time with the party’s next generation of wannabe leaders (in their 50s and 60s, where Manmohan was near 70) was that they needed to maintain good relations with the Great White Queen and wait out one term of an inevitable Singh premiership before having a shot at the top job themselves.
What is surprising is Dr Singh appeared never to feel it necessary to educate himself privately on how to retool himself for the necessary transformation from being the archetypal bureaucrat he had been in his working career to becoming the national statesman he wished to be after retirement. It is doubtful, for example, if he ever stood in front of a mirror and practised an extempore political speech in Hindi in preparation for the highest executive post in the country, let aside writing a clear-headed, original vision or mission statement of substance as to where he wished to lead it. As Narasimha Rao’s Finance Minister, he could meekly take orders from his PM; it seemed he wished to continue in the same mode even when PM himself.
Jawaharlal Nehru is supposed to have been a hero of Dr Singh’s ~ but Nehru was a thorough parliamentarian, among the finest anywhere, and someone who always respected the Lok Sabha immensely. Dr Singh, after he lost to VK Malhotra for the South Delhi seat in 1999, made not the slightest effort to enter the Lok Sabha again, even when the Akalis indicated they might not oppose him in a Punjab contest. When asked specifically at a large press conference about not entering the Lok Sabha, Dr Singh murmured words to the effect he had better uses of his time ~ a display, if anything, of the misplaced arrogance of many New Delhi academics and intellectuals. Dr Singh may be the first PM in any parliamentary democracy never to have won a seat in the lower house nor felt a need to do so.
Dr Singh’s bureaucratic expertise assisted him well in the first national crisis that came his way, which was the Tsunami of 26 December 2004. There appeared to be an air of efficiency about the Government’s response and he seemed in his element as commander of bureaucratic forces while working with Pranab Mukherjee in enlisting the military. George W. Bush (not a great geographer or historian) was apparently impressed to see on a map that India had naval forces deployed as far as the Andamans.
By 2005 though, Dr Singh’s bureaucratic mindset had its negative impact. Montek Ahluwalia had been his Finance Secretary when he was Finance Minister. Mr Ahluwalia’s spouse had been a main supporter of Dr Singh’s unsuccessful Lok Sabha attempt. During the Vajpayee Government, Mr Ahluwalia remained a Planning Commission Member for several years before moving to Washington. With Dr Singh as PM, Mr Ahluwalia returned from the USA in mid 2004 to become Deputy Chair at the Planning Commission. Simultaneously with his return, the idea that the American nuclear industry would like to sell “six to eight lightwater reactors” to India arose.
That is as much as is presently known in public. Dr Singh and Mr Ahluwalia may in the national interest want to frankly and precisely explain to the Indian people the full story of the sudden origins of this idea. Certainly, none of the lessons of the Dabhol fiasco a decade earlier seemed to have been learnt, and the Maharasthtra Government (and hence the Government of India) ended up paying some $300 million to General Electric and Bechtel Corporation for Dabhol before any nuclear talks with the USA could begin. Nor had any serious cost-benefit analysis been done or discussion taken place comparing nuclear energy with coal, hydro and other sources in the Indian case.
Indian foreign policy became frozen in its focus on nuclear negotiations with the USA, swirling around Dr Singh’s fife-and-drum welcome at the White House and President Bush’s return visit to India. At the same time arose the issue of Paul Volcker’s UN committee mentioning the name of India’s foreign minister. As The Statesman put it, regardless of the latter’s involvement, “the damage to India's diplomatic reputation in the world” was done and it was inevitable a new foreign minister would be necessary. After dilly-dallying and much 10 Janpath to-and-fro, Dr Singh followed Nehru’s mistake of becoming his own foreign minister. The idea was that this would be temporary but it became almost a year.
Instead of transforming himself towards Indian political statesmanship, Dr Singh advanced other retired bureaucrats’ ambitions on similar career-paths. Foreign policy went out of the MEA’s control and seemingly into the control of the new “National Security Adviser”. Dr Singh, sometimes with MK Narayanan beside him, travelled a large number of countries from Brazil to Finland and Uzbekistan to South Africa and Japan. Dr Singh also found time and willingness to accept honorary degrees from British and Russian universities during these short months.
While Dr Singh seemed thus preoccupied, two of India’s main neighbours underwent massive democratic revolutions (leave aside magnificent Bhutan). Nepal’s people practically stormed their Bastille while Dr Singh and Mr Narayanan visited Germany to discuss BMWs. Pakistan’s democratic forces could hardly believe the cold indifference shown to them by a New Delhi merely following Bush’s support for Pervez Musharraf. While Pakistan and Nepal, and to lesser extent Bangladesh, saw movements towards better governance, Sri Lanka descended towards civil war ~ India’s PM remained obsessed with the magic wand that the nuclear deal was supposed to be.

Inflation

Then suddenly the magic vanished ~ Dr Singh seemed to finally come to a silent private recognition that the economics of the nuclear deal simply did not add up if it meant India importing “six to eight lightwater reactors” on a turnkey basis from the USA or anywhere else. Dr Singh seemed to come out of his self-imposed trance and return a little better to reality. By the time he visited China, although he was as deferential to Hu Jintao in his body language as he had been to Bush and Musharraf and even accepted an indoor guard of honour, he also seemed willing to stand up for India. The Arunachal visit was a reality-check.
Now there is inflation ~ and one year left in the UPA’s term. What the country needs is tough sensible macroeconomics and clean public finance. A pandering profligate budget in February was not a healthy sign. Instructing Mr Ahluwalia to close down the Planning Commission and make it a minor R&D wing of the Finance Ministry would be instead a good step. Instructing the RBI to clean up its bureaucratic wastefulness and prepare itself for institutional independence from the Finance Ministry would be even better. Getting proper financial control over every Union and State government entity spending public money and resources would be most important of all. Such major institutional changes in the policy-making process are what an economist might expect of an economist prime minister who wishes to lead India in the 21st Century. India’s currency is at stake.
The writer is Contributing Editor, The Statesman

John Stewart is right!!

Ok, so why are we talking about this? It would appear that in American politics, being an 'elitist' carries horrible connotations and such a person can never lead the people. Why not? There seems to be an innate assumption that a person who is not 'one of the people' cannot lead them. Well, haven't you heard of the bell curve? Or of a Maxwellian distribution? On second thoughts, you probably haven't heard of the Maxwellian curve. To put it simply: the whole point of electing a leader is to find a person who is better than the rest of us and better suited to guiding the nation. That is a fact that seems to have escaped the political pundits in this country. Sad. Stewart is the ONLY person who has said that he would like a leader who is 'embarrasingly superior' to him. Surely that makes sense, doesn't it? Or maybe you would have just another git in the most important political office in the world making shitty decisions, or rather being manipulated into them.

Democracy is great, but leaders are not supposed to be ordinary! But I don't think that argument is going to pass muster with any number of bigoted, populist fools out there. Well, all I can say is that if you morons do not have the sense to elect decent leaders, you deserve the
shafting that you get!

The Pakistani conundrum.

Benazir is dead. We don't know who killed her. The man who ostensibly rules Pakistan, General Musharraf has asked Scotland Yard to help out with the investigation. Forget all this. Why is it that the subcontinent can never seem to digest democracy for more than a few years without a serious case of the hiccups?

This is probably a relevant question at a time when the catchphrase for a lot of powerful people appears to be 'spreading democracy'. Let me theorize for a moment. Good decisions of governance are made, or should be made on the basis of carefully weighed economic and statistical data. Hence, government should be run by technicians, just like a powerplant. Except that all decisions must be simultaneously moderated and supercharged by a person who has the twin capacities of compassion and vision. Such people are truly rare: they are the ones we call Statesmen. One such person was Bidhan Roy. Pandit Nehru was close to being one. Al Gore might well be one. But unfortunately, such people are hard to find.. it seems to be a paradox in that the people who are best qualified to govern are the least willing to do so.

Our only option appears to be to elect the people most willing to climb to power. And herein lies the second dilemma: it is wise to fear those for whom power itself is an end; it is better to pick those for whom power is a means to an end (hopefully a benign one).

Is there such a thing as a ruling class? Clearly, yes! It has been apparent that only those people who are immoral, amoral, or define their own morality are capable of leadership. Such people are bred and trained by the upper classes, or are thrown up from the lower classes. It is rare to see the moral and restrained middle class to produce leaders of strength. It has been the subcontinent's misfortune that the last few decades have not produced leaders of note.

to be continued..

Ebooks....

I don't like reading books on a computer screen.. apart from the eye strain involved.. I simply love the luxury of sitting back with a well thumbed old paperback. There is that absolute joy of reading which I associate with everything that comes with reading. Back in the old days, this used to be an afternoon trip to Gariahat, or a day trip to College street (or more usually, bunking some classes while at Presi) and rummaging through second hand bookstores. The world's best second hand bookstores are at College Street, Calcutta, especially that amazing stretch, between the College Street Market at one end, and the Ashutosh Prangan of Calcutta University at the other end. For me, that has been my Kabah, and my Benares. That was a holy pilgrimage which I made every day for three glorious years, and I hope to go back to at some point in my life. But these days, it is merely an occasional trip to the District Library, or more normally, an online search on the amazing library at the University which does the job. I must say, for all the convenience, the zero cost, there is something missing.

Amazon plans to offer digital books... a sort of hybrid laptop like device which will mimic a real book, except that the content will be electronic, stored in a disk and displayed on a screen. And this device will communicate with e-resources, and 'update automatically'. Very convenient. But also somewhat scary.

Now, any vision of an Orwellian future scares me as much as anyone else. The fact is that the ubiquitous nature of mass electronic media has made the world a much smaller place, but also a much easier place to police. In this context, I would like to think that the battle between the forces of stability (governments of every description) and the dissenting folks should always be a finely balanced one... if it tilts too far in the direction of anarchy, then we have a breakdown of that which seems to stifle.. and if it falls too far in the other direction, then, why, we have 1984.. all over again. It is in this fine balance that society can live, breathe and even move its arms and legs a little. It is against the overall matrix of homogeneity that the radicals can think of themselves as such.. for if the radicals take the day: they will, in their own time become the same sated bourgeoisie they despise so much.

Hence, while I think that the juggernaut of technical innovation cannot be stopped, it should be met by equal counter-innovation which prevents any form of control over content from becoming absolute. Hence, I raise a toast to the makers of the iPhone, OS X, Vista and other beautiful innovations. and also to the people who spend their time hacking the guts out of them. Finally, here is what some people have to say about this new 'book'.

Snow, grading blues, work and other things

have come together to make me feel a leetil bit under the weather.. pun fully intended. But, I fully intend to bounce back with astute observations about the economy. and words of wisdom for the governments of the day (which, somehow, they always seem to ignore). But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts.. I caught a bit of the Republican CNN Youtube debate... and while Rudy Giuliani comes across as the most reasonable man amongst the GOP lineup, one wonders whether he is the man for the job. On the other hand, my impression of the Democrat race is that Obama might be the right person (observe the use of the gender free term), but compared to Clinton, he is a lightweight. But, back to the GOP, some people just plain scared me... I understand that abortion is a sensitive issue, and it would be nice if people never came to the point where they had to extinguish life. Having said, I think it is important to repair the social fabric which makes teen pregnancies, broken families all too common... but in the short term, abortion should be accessible to whoever needs it, It appears that many doctors in this country do not prescribe birth control medication on request.. because it goes against their faith. This, in my book, is a violation of professional ethics. Anyway, abortion, taxes, illegal immigrants and an unnecessary war. For the most powerful nation in the world, it is a luxury to have 'problems' of this nature, as opposed to the more real problems of widespread HIV, malnutrition and continued war in many other parts of the globe.