down, under and dirty....life on the eastern seaboard
before you read any further, this is not something driven by vengeance but something that is a result of careful observation of how things have been progressing (er progressing...naah going downhill) over the last year and a half.
over this time period i have seen how academic standards have gone below nadir, how merits dont count anymore, how flattery gets you to places and how caressing egos is more important than even knowing nothing about anything.
I am writing this to simply put in words what I have seen in this reputed B school that advertises itself as an educational institution but is comparable to a east european brothel, the only difference is that the stakes are different and the end result is 'socially desirable and acceptable'. what i had expected to see was meritocracy, instead what i found here was flatterocracy......the better you are at that, the better your grade sheet looks, i had expected a place that would ensure free debate, what i found instead were strictures on what one could say, do or write...everything needs to be sanctioned....some freedom of free speech.....free expression.....naah that aint here....sorry wrong address....
I had expected academic engagement with a practical interface and a strong social concern as the course advertises itself, instead what i received here was empty rhetoric, lip sympathy, empty words, callousness, apathy, pathological sense of helplessness and unwillingness to do anything...not even debate....nothing....infact
what i did receive was a smirk as much from the academic elites, the self professed experts as i did from students here....truely a bussiness school indeed, where people are schooled into thinking that life is all about ROI....so here we have it....every action is driven by a strong monetary consideration....everything that one does has to have a placement related interface....courses are floated not for academic fulfillment but to get placed....soon enough people are going to question the rationale of going to the bathroom without any incentive or farting without incentive.....its all about the undying craze for mammon and then off course there is one word that describes the experience.....'hypocrisy'
so despite all the talk and the acts that have nothing to do with morality or ethics, once you give either of these people a stage and a camera flashing on them, most of them have an orgasm the moment they hear about media publicity and when they start speaking, they would even give malcomm x a run for his money....very suave and articulate when it comes to 'talking' about social responsibility..one must listen these guys and gals speaking.....they would actually make a sarah palin look much brighter by all standards....flat out....people here could sell their mothers if it promised an ROI in the form of better grades or better pakage deals....
its all about grades....how you get it is immaterial....but dont be fooled by relying on merits alone....they wont get you far here...you may even end up at the bottom of the charts....you may be the butt of ridicule for speaking the truth here....but then its a wrong setting you choose to speak on any issue of social concern....'social concern' what the fuck...people are bothered only about themselves....and yes if speaking on this topic gets me grades...they would beat even a deep joshi comprehensively.....tell you something...most of them are class A machiavellians but would present themselves as nothing less than a dalai lama, but then dont go by first impressions....never do....ever....i did that sometime back and learnt the hardway around....these people hide behind their vulgar suites to hide their nudity but it just takes a sincere look into their eye sockets to understand how blank they really here and how sold out these people really are....
if you belong to this clan of 'people', (sorry, i didnt want to insult the animal kingdom by calling them as 'animals'). nevertheless in case you feel that am exaggerating...come over...burn money like candle wick (just 5.5 lacs) and feel the experience yourself....i promise you would never forget it....you would have nightmares that would keep things afresh....come over and commit professional, personal, moral, social, ethical suicide....at only 5.5 lacs for 2 years...its an unbeatable package deal....good ROI..isnt it...lose your humanity and become a mammon slave here...or should i call yet another pathological hydra....ready to suck other people dry.....
Sunday, October 25, 2009
WITHIN THE WALL....
I havent lost any land nor have i been displaced this far by a govt project or by a
private entity but then I can still understand what the word sacrifice means. I cannot be forced to make a sacrifice, can I, if that is the case then will it be termed as a sacrifice in the first place.
sacrifice is when I am ready to lose something for a future gain, but then when I end
up losing everything, my land, my house, my birthplace, my village....is there some
cause so great that I could sacrifice it all....and that too happily...when am not even sure of what benefits shall accrue, either to me or the nation...
as a fairly educated person and someone still with a heart that beats for the people
of this nation, I dont intend to take the moral highground in this regard, just that
there has been little or no precedence of 'amicably displaced people' and people who
have happily decided to 'sacrifice' their fertile double or triple productive land for some wads of cash...
am not here taking sides on this issue, because i feel there is no side other than
heeding to my conscience. there also exists no side because the role the govt was
supposed to play was abdicated by it to some corporation or the development mafia as
people refer to it these days. asking people to leave their homes, farmlands and their villages tantamounts to crime, it is criminal to do so and more so to expect people to leave without as much as a protest.
the academia is of the opinion that adequate policy measures, their strengthening and
better implementation would result in amicable displacement and no protests. the
arguement looks wrethched even before i can put in any more clearer words.
let us take an example, something that is now the fate of people in villages in india. say a mining project comes up, land needs to be acquired, by some sheer sinister statistic all these projects come up in areas that have fertile land and well entrenched means of production and survival for the local communities.
as per the trend and the fundamentals of the LAA, 1894 the state has the right to
acquire land at will under the clause of the eminent domain and give some kind of
monetary compensation in return. the problem however is there is no method to
monetise a productive land, neither are people informed or given a choice..its classical top down bureacratic decisions being shovelled down the throats of the people.
before i just make my battle a little bigger, let me finish the saga of deprivation. so the people are asked to move away from the area which on records has been sold to
the company concerned and people have no right to live on that land anymore, some
money is offered which is a case of peanuts for monkeys anyway. some people are
given employment in the factory that comes up, but not as permanent employees but
as temporary labourers, these people do the shovelling, mining work, working in deep
mines all day, up and down the shafts of a mine and come out when the sun has gone
down. in a year or two the people who have been 'employed' are no longer medically fit and end up dead with cancer or whooping cough on account of working in these very mines with no gear or protection that is offered.....
so isnt this the recipe for death.....mass murder....genocide....mix state apathy
with corporate megalomania for more profits, more cost cutting, more optimisation,
maximum control, no regulation, scant disregard for people.....what do you have....a
nation that is broken....a nation with broken knees can never stand up....
the academia still believes that better regulations will work, it will only help in
ensuring a more pleasant death....or does such a notion exist...'pleasant death'
ahem...sounds like CSR or the same as 'collateral damage'....wonderful PR jargns
that can sell anything. you can sell anyone's soul as well through it, we have excellent people to do that.
the academia and the elite still feel that regulations would save the day, ensure
better practises and there is nothing as wrong as the people who are protesting
against the state managed negligence say it is. they still feel proper procedures would help, the point is asking someone to leave his house/farm/livelihood even
respectfully..(honorable eviction)....what is the recourse the concerned person have
for his livelihood and his socio-economic status...will the state support him...(well the Indian govt is a "wel" "fare" state....but who pays the 'fare')
state managed negligence....now that is the paradigm that has been in place ever
since nehru laid the foundation for the so called 'modern temples' of progress. the
model of development that was followed had no element of socialism in it but had a
very strong stalinist element about it.
so instead of debating the very core assumptions of the model of development being
shovelled down the throats of the people of this nation, we are busy evolving ways
and means to make this system work in as painless a manner as possible but then it
doesnt work that way....or does it???!!!
people are still happy riding the juggernaut totally oblivious of the cries of the people being smashed to smitherens and rather why should they not be...the elites stay unaffected and protected within their high walls, the electricity comes to them from some power plant that may have displaced lakhs of people, water would be coming
through the pipelines through some dams that would have broken the back of
countless local economies, their furniture comes by shredding millions of hectares of
pristine forests (oops, forests have animals, birds, insects as well), so may be they
will have to end up as pets in those homes or a zoo would be made for them all, as
for the insects, they would be fed insecticides and are not welcome, this is also true for most not so good looking animals....i forgot about tribals and other local populations who incidentally happen to depend on nature for their survival...so may be these people will be rehabilitated in some tin sheds and brick homes and provide cheap labor and security guards for the people within the wall.....may be....naah that is the norm.....
so meanwhile we continue to stay within our walls...truly that's a wall ...much
stronger and stable than the berlin wall...its a wall that feeds on the carcass of
conscience, morality and the human spirit. soon however there would be none left to
feed on for these walls and will then the wall turn itself on what is left of these
people.....turn them into zombies may be or something like what was left of men
when the T virus attacked them and turned them into something that wouldnt die but
would feed on whatever that could move.....(RESIDENT EVIL EXTINCTION STYLE)
private entity but then I can still understand what the word sacrifice means. I cannot be forced to make a sacrifice, can I, if that is the case then will it be termed as a sacrifice in the first place.
sacrifice is when I am ready to lose something for a future gain, but then when I end
up losing everything, my land, my house, my birthplace, my village....is there some
cause so great that I could sacrifice it all....and that too happily...when am not even sure of what benefits shall accrue, either to me or the nation...
as a fairly educated person and someone still with a heart that beats for the people
of this nation, I dont intend to take the moral highground in this regard, just that
there has been little or no precedence of 'amicably displaced people' and people who
have happily decided to 'sacrifice' their fertile double or triple productive land for some wads of cash...
am not here taking sides on this issue, because i feel there is no side other than
heeding to my conscience. there also exists no side because the role the govt was
supposed to play was abdicated by it to some corporation or the development mafia as
people refer to it these days. asking people to leave their homes, farmlands and their villages tantamounts to crime, it is criminal to do so and more so to expect people to leave without as much as a protest.
the academia is of the opinion that adequate policy measures, their strengthening and
better implementation would result in amicable displacement and no protests. the
arguement looks wrethched even before i can put in any more clearer words.
let us take an example, something that is now the fate of people in villages in india. say a mining project comes up, land needs to be acquired, by some sheer sinister statistic all these projects come up in areas that have fertile land and well entrenched means of production and survival for the local communities.
as per the trend and the fundamentals of the LAA, 1894 the state has the right to
acquire land at will under the clause of the eminent domain and give some kind of
monetary compensation in return. the problem however is there is no method to
monetise a productive land, neither are people informed or given a choice..its classical top down bureacratic decisions being shovelled down the throats of the people.
before i just make my battle a little bigger, let me finish the saga of deprivation. so the people are asked to move away from the area which on records has been sold to
the company concerned and people have no right to live on that land anymore, some
money is offered which is a case of peanuts for monkeys anyway. some people are
given employment in the factory that comes up, but not as permanent employees but
as temporary labourers, these people do the shovelling, mining work, working in deep
mines all day, up and down the shafts of a mine and come out when the sun has gone
down. in a year or two the people who have been 'employed' are no longer medically fit and end up dead with cancer or whooping cough on account of working in these very mines with no gear or protection that is offered.....
so isnt this the recipe for death.....mass murder....genocide....mix state apathy
with corporate megalomania for more profits, more cost cutting, more optimisation,
maximum control, no regulation, scant disregard for people.....what do you have....a
nation that is broken....a nation with broken knees can never stand up....
the academia still believes that better regulations will work, it will only help in
ensuring a more pleasant death....or does such a notion exist...'pleasant death'
ahem...sounds like CSR or the same as 'collateral damage'....wonderful PR jargns
that can sell anything. you can sell anyone's soul as well through it, we have excellent people to do that.
the academia and the elite still feel that regulations would save the day, ensure
better practises and there is nothing as wrong as the people who are protesting
against the state managed negligence say it is. they still feel proper procedures would help, the point is asking someone to leave his house/farm/livelihood even
respectfully..(honorable eviction)....what is the recourse the concerned person have
for his livelihood and his socio-economic status...will the state support him...(well the Indian govt is a "wel" "fare" state....but who pays the 'fare')
state managed negligence....now that is the paradigm that has been in place ever
since nehru laid the foundation for the so called 'modern temples' of progress. the
model of development that was followed had no element of socialism in it but had a
very strong stalinist element about it.
so instead of debating the very core assumptions of the model of development being
shovelled down the throats of the people of this nation, we are busy evolving ways
and means to make this system work in as painless a manner as possible but then it
doesnt work that way....or does it???!!!
people are still happy riding the juggernaut totally oblivious of the cries of the people being smashed to smitherens and rather why should they not be...the elites stay unaffected and protected within their high walls, the electricity comes to them from some power plant that may have displaced lakhs of people, water would be coming
through the pipelines through some dams that would have broken the back of
countless local economies, their furniture comes by shredding millions of hectares of
pristine forests (oops, forests have animals, birds, insects as well), so may be they
will have to end up as pets in those homes or a zoo would be made for them all, as
for the insects, they would be fed insecticides and are not welcome, this is also true for most not so good looking animals....i forgot about tribals and other local populations who incidentally happen to depend on nature for their survival...so may be these people will be rehabilitated in some tin sheds and brick homes and provide cheap labor and security guards for the people within the wall.....may be....naah that is the norm.....
so meanwhile we continue to stay within our walls...truly that's a wall ...much
stronger and stable than the berlin wall...its a wall that feeds on the carcass of
conscience, morality and the human spirit. soon however there would be none left to
feed on for these walls and will then the wall turn itself on what is left of these
people.....turn them into zombies may be or something like what was left of men
when the T virus attacked them and turned them into something that wouldnt die but
would feed on whatever that could move.....(RESIDENT EVIL EXTINCTION STYLE)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
THE PARADOX OF EDUCATION...
my moral awakening was never an issue of concern for me before i realised that i had a certain gift which others woefully lacked or had seen its careful conversion into a vestige.
it is in this light that I sit down to write this piece today. the education system that we all have been exposed has been considered by generations now, to be an extremely sancrosanct subject, one that merits no debate even if one doesnt know how he or she benefits by it or what it does to a person's moral and social dimension.
I shall therefore refrain from calling what I have received this far as education or an intellectual acheivement or the fact that in a few days from now, I shall be a post graduate.
The education that I have so diligently received and followed is woefully inadequate both morally and otherwise when it comes to application.
for instance, let us look at economics per se, it assumes everything that happens is under ceteris paribas or everything staying constant, but then how many things are constant in this world is something that doesnt mandate any research.
then we have this talk of economy of scale that optimises the factors of production and aims at harnessing maximum work by employing the least number of people, while this may make sense in a nation where the mode of work is capital intensive and the population is low, it has been unleashing misery ever since its inception in the indian context where processes have always been labor intensive and very productive too.
we have all been growing up learning how dams are engineering marvels and how the then prime minister of the nation, Mr.Nehru, said that they were the temples of modern india, how many of us today know that the entire damming bussiness has damned the lives of some 50 million indians who have lost homes, fields, entire villages...this is something that our education system doesnt do or may be cant do.
it is accepted without question that whatever the CBSE or the UGC says has to be true but then the essence of any education system is that the current assumptions need to be questioned, in the absence of that what results is that education ends up herding people like cattle who end up belching with every piece that comes their way and hence no growth results.
why would then not people end up being insenstive to the cause of rural india, poor people, malnourished children, sexually abused children, raped women, displaced indigeneous population, submerged villages, custodial deaths of innocent youth, forced disapperances of people whp question the system...... that is a direct outcome of what has been discussed so far
even arundhati roy raises this issue though in a very different tone altogether and this piece doesnt match her angst in any way and rather should be seen as a tactical analysis piece. it is also not that people have absolutely no idea that such problems plague india but then they have faith on the current scheme of events and the academia to settle everything that is going wrong. it is this very faith that needs to be questioned....
people are still stuck and look at the constitution and its preamble with starstruck eyes and are so happy with the very idea of being part of a democracy as the national media and all those endless chapters on civics have taught each one of us. the grandest propaganda and misinformation campaign that is being done lies in our own nation. people are being made to believe that everything is fine with the nation and that there are only a small bunch of miserable people in this country who are so useless that even with free markets they can do nothing and are poor by choice rather than anything else.
slowly instead of citizens of a free nation, we are now only subjects who are being herded and shielded from all that is happening around us, encouraged to conform to the system, the marginalised sections are asked to either shape in or ship out (ship out but where???)
the same education and the way it is presented in front of us since the time we begin this journey is one that lacks objectivity and focus and is aimed at solely finishing off the individuality and the spontaniety amongst us all (most dont realise the process, that's the sinister beauty of the system, it robs your soul yet one feels complete with a paper degree in hand..)
am sounding cynical, am i not, even paranoid but then atleast i know what it is all about or what I am in the first place, i can sense my soul sucked out of my system everyday, the more am a part of it , the more am not a part of myself...its a mortgage all throughout, report cards that tell you what you are capable of, grades that tell you what you are and what not....always a deal, some kind of a barter...
an education that preaches but doesnt have the guts to let children experiment, it binds you down, ties you up and then you are expected to change things....easy said than done, almost 16 years of your life you feel you are getting education, plain and simple but no when it hits you it was nothing but a farce...a deception..some long game which you were always supposed to hide.....a game in which emerging from your hiding place would cost you everything that you thought was yours.....
just give a thought..is it education we receive or indoctrination....
it is in this light that I sit down to write this piece today. the education system that we all have been exposed has been considered by generations now, to be an extremely sancrosanct subject, one that merits no debate even if one doesnt know how he or she benefits by it or what it does to a person's moral and social dimension.
I shall therefore refrain from calling what I have received this far as education or an intellectual acheivement or the fact that in a few days from now, I shall be a post graduate.
The education that I have so diligently received and followed is woefully inadequate both morally and otherwise when it comes to application.
for instance, let us look at economics per se, it assumes everything that happens is under ceteris paribas or everything staying constant, but then how many things are constant in this world is something that doesnt mandate any research.
then we have this talk of economy of scale that optimises the factors of production and aims at harnessing maximum work by employing the least number of people, while this may make sense in a nation where the mode of work is capital intensive and the population is low, it has been unleashing misery ever since its inception in the indian context where processes have always been labor intensive and very productive too.
we have all been growing up learning how dams are engineering marvels and how the then prime minister of the nation, Mr.Nehru, said that they were the temples of modern india, how many of us today know that the entire damming bussiness has damned the lives of some 50 million indians who have lost homes, fields, entire villages...this is something that our education system doesnt do or may be cant do.
it is accepted without question that whatever the CBSE or the UGC says has to be true but then the essence of any education system is that the current assumptions need to be questioned, in the absence of that what results is that education ends up herding people like cattle who end up belching with every piece that comes their way and hence no growth results.
why would then not people end up being insenstive to the cause of rural india, poor people, malnourished children, sexually abused children, raped women, displaced indigeneous population, submerged villages, custodial deaths of innocent youth, forced disapperances of people whp question the system...... that is a direct outcome of what has been discussed so far
even arundhati roy raises this issue though in a very different tone altogether and this piece doesnt match her angst in any way and rather should be seen as a tactical analysis piece. it is also not that people have absolutely no idea that such problems plague india but then they have faith on the current scheme of events and the academia to settle everything that is going wrong. it is this very faith that needs to be questioned....
people are still stuck and look at the constitution and its preamble with starstruck eyes and are so happy with the very idea of being part of a democracy as the national media and all those endless chapters on civics have taught each one of us. the grandest propaganda and misinformation campaign that is being done lies in our own nation. people are being made to believe that everything is fine with the nation and that there are only a small bunch of miserable people in this country who are so useless that even with free markets they can do nothing and are poor by choice rather than anything else.
slowly instead of citizens of a free nation, we are now only subjects who are being herded and shielded from all that is happening around us, encouraged to conform to the system, the marginalised sections are asked to either shape in or ship out (ship out but where???)
the same education and the way it is presented in front of us since the time we begin this journey is one that lacks objectivity and focus and is aimed at solely finishing off the individuality and the spontaniety amongst us all (most dont realise the process, that's the sinister beauty of the system, it robs your soul yet one feels complete with a paper degree in hand..)
am sounding cynical, am i not, even paranoid but then atleast i know what it is all about or what I am in the first place, i can sense my soul sucked out of my system everyday, the more am a part of it , the more am not a part of myself...its a mortgage all throughout, report cards that tell you what you are capable of, grades that tell you what you are and what not....always a deal, some kind of a barter...
an education that preaches but doesnt have the guts to let children experiment, it binds you down, ties you up and then you are expected to change things....easy said than done, almost 16 years of your life you feel you are getting education, plain and simple but no when it hits you it was nothing but a farce...a deception..some long game which you were always supposed to hide.....a game in which emerging from your hiding place would cost you everything that you thought was yours.....
just give a thought..is it education we receive or indoctrination....
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
scorched earth policy, india style of development
what the govt of india has been doing in the name of development would make even a stalin very proud. the scorched earth policy has been given a new and more sinister form by the govt of our nation that has no idea of what the term development means.
genocide is not always gassing people to death or locking them up in concentration camps, cutting people off from their factors of production is also tantamount to crime. it is criminal to take away the lands of people and then speak of compensating them with useless wads of cash that most people especially the indigenous people have no use for.
this needs to be seen in the manner the displacement is so strategically planned and executed with such ruthless efficiency, wherein the wails of people counts for nothing and lost in the entire cacophony of the development war cries sponsored and managed by the govt of our vibrant democracy.....some sort of vibrancy for sure....
as soon as the notification for displacing an area comes up, the area is virtually suffocated in terms of resources and infrastructure development. it is almost as if the area is prepared physically for its systematic annihilation. the stripping of the area and its people becomes a story of untold and unimaginable misery for the people there.
this is classical scorched earth policy where even the basic services are cut off, schools closed, PHC's closed, it is the final nail in the coffin of that area, so when you leave the people with no access, no electricity, no roads, no medical services, seal the handpumps...
So in a way the people are left with no choice but to leave that place for as the prime minister and bharat ratna awardees in our nation speak, for the greater common good of the nation... a nation that abandons them ,takes their home, land away and gifts to some entity, some corporation....
some nation...some democracy....some human rights....some notion of welfare state....
the scale at which this is happening is horrible and it could happen in only an as morally vacous nation and as insensitive and crass a nation like India....
so when the state displaces people, people dont even have the grace of opposition or protesting when they have lost everything....the govt expects them to pose as poster boys and pin up dolls for the project....expected to smile when their lands have been pillaged, houses bulldozed, livestock killed or driven away.....
this is the true price of development, something that would never be covered by the national media that calls displacement as collateral losses in the march to progress, legalises genocide, govt reports that reduce people to nothing but meaningless numbers....
just an after thought....so when the govt displaces, kills and maims...it is termed as development and when the displaced people retort back, they are called as anti development junkies, anti nationalists and terrorists.....and they receive no compensation ...only bullets.....
genocide is not always gassing people to death or locking them up in concentration camps, cutting people off from their factors of production is also tantamount to crime. it is criminal to take away the lands of people and then speak of compensating them with useless wads of cash that most people especially the indigenous people have no use for.
this needs to be seen in the manner the displacement is so strategically planned and executed with such ruthless efficiency, wherein the wails of people counts for nothing and lost in the entire cacophony of the development war cries sponsored and managed by the govt of our vibrant democracy.....some sort of vibrancy for sure....
as soon as the notification for displacing an area comes up, the area is virtually suffocated in terms of resources and infrastructure development. it is almost as if the area is prepared physically for its systematic annihilation. the stripping of the area and its people becomes a story of untold and unimaginable misery for the people there.
this is classical scorched earth policy where even the basic services are cut off, schools closed, PHC's closed, it is the final nail in the coffin of that area, so when you leave the people with no access, no electricity, no roads, no medical services, seal the handpumps...
So in a way the people are left with no choice but to leave that place for as the prime minister and bharat ratna awardees in our nation speak, for the greater common good of the nation... a nation that abandons them ,takes their home, land away and gifts to some entity, some corporation....
some nation...some democracy....some human rights....some notion of welfare state....
the scale at which this is happening is horrible and it could happen in only an as morally vacous nation and as insensitive and crass a nation like India....
so when the state displaces people, people dont even have the grace of opposition or protesting when they have lost everything....the govt expects them to pose as poster boys and pin up dolls for the project....expected to smile when their lands have been pillaged, houses bulldozed, livestock killed or driven away.....
this is the true price of development, something that would never be covered by the national media that calls displacement as collateral losses in the march to progress, legalises genocide, govt reports that reduce people to nothing but meaningless numbers....
just an after thought....so when the govt displaces, kills and maims...it is termed as development and when the displaced people retort back, they are called as anti development junkies, anti nationalists and terrorists.....and they receive no compensation ...only bullets.....
Thursday, October 15, 2009
case studies on genocide....
some cases of state sponsored violence that will always go unreported....
SPOs killed Madvi Deva of village Gachhanpalli at a rivulet on September 17. Another village’s Patel claimed seeing Deva being buried in the Chintagupha police station compound.
• CRPF men and SPOs cut off the breasts of 70-year-old Dudhi Muye, an invalid who could not walk, and stabbed her to death on September 17.
• CRPF and SPOs caught Madkami Muke of village Gachhanpalli and tied her up with her own sari. They beat, stabbed and shot her husband in front of her. Muke saw the attackers stab and shoot Madvi Joga, 60, in his field. She saw them strip 35-year-old Madvi Hidma, stab and shoot her.
• Also in Gompad village, four of a family — Madvi Bajar, 45, his wife Madvi Subbi, his married daughter, Kartam Kanni, 20, and younger daughter Madvi Mutti, 15 — were killed by SPOs. The attackers cut off the tongue and fingers of Kartam Kanni’s two-year-old son.
• Muchaki Aanda of Bhandarpadar village and his nephew, Madvi Deva, were returning from Andhra Pradesh when the police caught them. They were hacked to death with axes and knives, their bodies dumped near corn fields. Two villagers informed Deva’s mother, Madvi Joge, of their killing.
SPOs killed Madvi Deva of village Gachhanpalli at a rivulet on September 17. Another village’s Patel claimed seeing Deva being buried in the Chintagupha police station compound.
• CRPF men and SPOs cut off the breasts of 70-year-old Dudhi Muye, an invalid who could not walk, and stabbed her to death on September 17.
• CRPF and SPOs caught Madkami Muke of village Gachhanpalli and tied her up with her own sari. They beat, stabbed and shot her husband in front of her. Muke saw the attackers stab and shoot Madvi Joga, 60, in his field. She saw them strip 35-year-old Madvi Hidma, stab and shoot her.
• Also in Gompad village, four of a family — Madvi Bajar, 45, his wife Madvi Subbi, his married daughter, Kartam Kanni, 20, and younger daughter Madvi Mutti, 15 — were killed by SPOs. The attackers cut off the tongue and fingers of Kartam Kanni’s two-year-old son.
• Muchaki Aanda of Bhandarpadar village and his nephew, Madvi Deva, were returning from Andhra Pradesh when the police caught them. They were hacked to death with axes and knives, their bodies dumped near corn fields. Two villagers informed Deva’s mother, Madvi Joge, of their killing.
GEN X..the road ahead..????
I would be accused of being a cynic as people draw towards the end of this piece but then atleast I dont have fanciful flawed notions of misplaced optimism that are dreams of a future that shall not reach if structural re adjustments dont happen.....
the power of youth is a myth, the point is the youth has been neutered as well. the power that is talked about as the youth being the fountain head of progress and bulwark of the nation has been reduced to empty talk as the current gen x has nothing to do with the state of affairs of the nation.
they are happy with status quo and all they do or react is a classical knee jerk reaction, some thing of the model of what a rang de basanti advertised. the youth is too happy with simplistic assessments of what is being done to the nation, they have been brought up to read and memorise the national anthem without understanding what it means, they have no idea of the national song and its meaning, they have no idea what questioning is and they are too happy to live under the utopic idea that they are a part of a vibrant democracy, when in effect they are nothing but poster pieces or pin up dolls to sell and advertise ideas, products of corporations.
the problem is we have two india's today...one india that has receeded into outer space and looks down upon the other india and asks a very simple question, what are these poor people, tribals doing with our furniture lying in those forests, our aluminium, our iron and steel...thye have to be removed..... the nation today has two classes of people, the self proclaimed humans or the neo human race and the marginalised class of sub humans..... the problem with gen x is that it has fallen prey to the wonderful smokescreen that corporations have managed to string up using the very youth power.
the marketing strategy followed uses the youth and their shoulders to hold the smokescreen as well.... the spirit of questioning has to sharpen and become more critical of the system that is in place, only then will the govt of the nation fear the common man, that very common man who is talked about in every speech but is stripped and paraded on the streets, displaced, kicked around at will.....
the questioning culture relating to confusion is a thought that has been bothering here but then as i told him some time back, its not the culture that is creating confusion but what we are asking is....we are yet to begin asking the right kind of questions, till then lets duel with our lances out, the fight has got to be taken to the streets and strengthen the hands of the people feeling the heat of this horribly fallacy called development.... entrepreneurs can come and are most welcome but then operating under constraints that cripple is not a very useful alternative, this is not a 'do nothing' that people should think it is. change happens when you question the very assumptions on which these grand edifices have been built. real change happens when you work with the real people at the grassroots and then feel india and not what the govt tell you it is or the media tells you it is...
go out, reach out and feel india.... time is a constraint...always has been....gandhiji is mocked at, ridiculed but then one question we all must ask ourselves....how could he unite such a diverse nation behind him.....behind this question lies the strength of his idea....one of civil disobedience.... but for that to happen....the corporate cum govt juggernaut has to be stopped in its tracks.....
the power of youth is a myth, the point is the youth has been neutered as well. the power that is talked about as the youth being the fountain head of progress and bulwark of the nation has been reduced to empty talk as the current gen x has nothing to do with the state of affairs of the nation.
they are happy with status quo and all they do or react is a classical knee jerk reaction, some thing of the model of what a rang de basanti advertised. the youth is too happy with simplistic assessments of what is being done to the nation, they have been brought up to read and memorise the national anthem without understanding what it means, they have no idea of the national song and its meaning, they have no idea what questioning is and they are too happy to live under the utopic idea that they are a part of a vibrant democracy, when in effect they are nothing but poster pieces or pin up dolls to sell and advertise ideas, products of corporations.
the problem is we have two india's today...one india that has receeded into outer space and looks down upon the other india and asks a very simple question, what are these poor people, tribals doing with our furniture lying in those forests, our aluminium, our iron and steel...thye have to be removed..... the nation today has two classes of people, the self proclaimed humans or the neo human race and the marginalised class of sub humans..... the problem with gen x is that it has fallen prey to the wonderful smokescreen that corporations have managed to string up using the very youth power.
the marketing strategy followed uses the youth and their shoulders to hold the smokescreen as well.... the spirit of questioning has to sharpen and become more critical of the system that is in place, only then will the govt of the nation fear the common man, that very common man who is talked about in every speech but is stripped and paraded on the streets, displaced, kicked around at will.....
the questioning culture relating to confusion is a thought that has been bothering here but then as i told him some time back, its not the culture that is creating confusion but what we are asking is....we are yet to begin asking the right kind of questions, till then lets duel with our lances out, the fight has got to be taken to the streets and strengthen the hands of the people feeling the heat of this horribly fallacy called development.... entrepreneurs can come and are most welcome but then operating under constraints that cripple is not a very useful alternative, this is not a 'do nothing' that people should think it is. change happens when you question the very assumptions on which these grand edifices have been built. real change happens when you work with the real people at the grassroots and then feel india and not what the govt tell you it is or the media tells you it is...
go out, reach out and feel india.... time is a constraint...always has been....gandhiji is mocked at, ridiculed but then one question we all must ask ourselves....how could he unite such a diverse nation behind him.....behind this question lies the strength of his idea....one of civil disobedience.... but for that to happen....the corporate cum govt juggernaut has to be stopped in its tracks.....
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Page 3 social work...the new 'in' thing
ever wondered what has suddenly happened in the entire social sector, what is the new buzz all about, why is everyone suddenly talking about social work as if the world is nearing the end or something......NO...
In case one hasnt let me take you into this world of social development that is nothing as what it looks like and definitely nothing like what the media tells you it is like.
Did i confuse you...or did i hit a cord, nevertheless i shall continue with my scuba diving mission today...
there has been a sudden revival of the urban conscience for the poor of this nation, suddenly airwaves are abuzz with rich wives of major corporate households doing some kind of charity or the other, opening foundations and the like. several of these foundations have come into existence over a very short period of time. nothing wrong with philantrophy per se, but what bothers me is the sudden interest in the welfare of the poor, the very poor who are at the receiving end of those very corporations policies who have now opened a new shop of returning things to society. once you have a talk with the people heading these charities, one immediately realises that it is all about the image of self righteousness that is at the crux of the entire exercise, some sort of a brand building by doling some freebies to the poor, some clothes for the poor, some peanuts thrown here and there that is lapped up by a media that these people control nevertheless. there is no motivation or clarity on what should be done or even realisation of what is the problem in the first place.
social work is today being run by the wives of bureacrats or those of major corporate households. people who have never even felt what poverty is or what is its true face are infact writing books, quoting from schumpeter and the likes to put forward their points or idea which in any case are hijacked from some book or the other. point is these books become best sellers and these people get covered by the media extensively. as i said the media is anyway controlled by these very people, so their works or should i call them fabrications end up getting the attention of the media that offlate resembles a hungry street dog running after every passing car and grabbing anything that comes its way as news....some kind of 4th estate.
the relevance of the 4th estate today doesnt stand questioned, in fact there is nothing to question, no body questions dead bodies that would want to pass of as vigorous entities. a better question would be, does the 4th estate or for that matter any estate exist independently in this nation that is marketed as an ideal democracy in the world arena but has neither an honest media, accountable judiciary, at best a blind executive and a horrible bureacratic machinery. together these work in close confluence with major corporations and serve as extensions of that nebulous hydra headed monster that is so pervasive yet invisible, with all these estates serving as the eyes and ears for the master that they serve.
this enslavement is complete once when the oppressor tries to get into the garb of a protector, and believe me a benevolent beast is a dangerous one as at the end of the day he could very well deny it all saying that it was never his job anyway in the first place and that he was simply trying to play a small role while it should have been the role of the state in the first place. this is at the same time a self serving and a highly misleading statement as well. self serving as it absolves them of any mistake that would and will happen, and misleading because there is nothing like a state or a welfare state anymore. it has been sold, bought and re sold several times over by the very free market forces that these corporations and now their version of benevolent capitalism owes itself their existence.
these half baked attempts at throwing crumbs to a society that has been systematically pillaged by these very corporations and now want to hide amidst the entire garb of sustainable development and Corporate social responsibility. with empty talks of the triple bottom line taking precedence and helping these corporations get hold of effective media,
THE TROIKA OF POWER, POLEMICS AND POLARISATION APPEARS TO BE COMPLETE.
In case one hasnt let me take you into this world of social development that is nothing as what it looks like and definitely nothing like what the media tells you it is like.
Did i confuse you...or did i hit a cord, nevertheless i shall continue with my scuba diving mission today...
there has been a sudden revival of the urban conscience for the poor of this nation, suddenly airwaves are abuzz with rich wives of major corporate households doing some kind of charity or the other, opening foundations and the like. several of these foundations have come into existence over a very short period of time. nothing wrong with philantrophy per se, but what bothers me is the sudden interest in the welfare of the poor, the very poor who are at the receiving end of those very corporations policies who have now opened a new shop of returning things to society. once you have a talk with the people heading these charities, one immediately realises that it is all about the image of self righteousness that is at the crux of the entire exercise, some sort of a brand building by doling some freebies to the poor, some clothes for the poor, some peanuts thrown here and there that is lapped up by a media that these people control nevertheless. there is no motivation or clarity on what should be done or even realisation of what is the problem in the first place.
social work is today being run by the wives of bureacrats or those of major corporate households. people who have never even felt what poverty is or what is its true face are infact writing books, quoting from schumpeter and the likes to put forward their points or idea which in any case are hijacked from some book or the other. point is these books become best sellers and these people get covered by the media extensively. as i said the media is anyway controlled by these very people, so their works or should i call them fabrications end up getting the attention of the media that offlate resembles a hungry street dog running after every passing car and grabbing anything that comes its way as news....some kind of 4th estate.
the relevance of the 4th estate today doesnt stand questioned, in fact there is nothing to question, no body questions dead bodies that would want to pass of as vigorous entities. a better question would be, does the 4th estate or for that matter any estate exist independently in this nation that is marketed as an ideal democracy in the world arena but has neither an honest media, accountable judiciary, at best a blind executive and a horrible bureacratic machinery. together these work in close confluence with major corporations and serve as extensions of that nebulous hydra headed monster that is so pervasive yet invisible, with all these estates serving as the eyes and ears for the master that they serve.
this enslavement is complete once when the oppressor tries to get into the garb of a protector, and believe me a benevolent beast is a dangerous one as at the end of the day he could very well deny it all saying that it was never his job anyway in the first place and that he was simply trying to play a small role while it should have been the role of the state in the first place. this is at the same time a self serving and a highly misleading statement as well. self serving as it absolves them of any mistake that would and will happen, and misleading because there is nothing like a state or a welfare state anymore. it has been sold, bought and re sold several times over by the very free market forces that these corporations and now their version of benevolent capitalism owes itself their existence.
these half baked attempts at throwing crumbs to a society that has been systematically pillaged by these very corporations and now want to hide amidst the entire garb of sustainable development and Corporate social responsibility. with empty talks of the triple bottom line taking precedence and helping these corporations get hold of effective media,
THE TROIKA OF POWER, POLEMICS AND POLARISATION APPEARS TO BE COMPLETE.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
where art thou
Here i am sitting within these walls that have been stifling my creativity, forcing me to question every night before I call it a day here, what is it that I am actually doing here. it is a question on which am not even allowed to delve upon courtesy the baggage of redundancy that I have been made to carry ever since I stepped into these erstwhile hallowed gates.
it is said that the grass looks green on the other side but in my case the grass on either side is rotten, the only difference being that it stinks on one side and its made to look fragrant on the other side by the PR machinery, a powerful tool especially in the hands of bigots and ambivalent institutes that are ruthlessly vacous when it comes to issues pertaining to practising ethics but are most vocal when it comes to talking about them.
it is but the dream of every student who is academically driven and wants to carve a niche for himself or herself to be a part of an elite instutute that is supposed to add on to what the person knows, feels or atleast give him an orientation, something thta would decide the future course of his life, unlike what several people sitting out of these elite institutes believe, there exists an elite vaccum over here, one that is camoflauged very well indeed, something these institutes have become experts at, the art of manipulation, coercion of free thought and truth.
these academic institutes are the new forms of manipulation and coercion that are using education as cover for indoctrination and re engineering, systematically stifling the free souls who enter these places and either aim at burning them out or turn them into automatons, the vast army of unthinking, self serving brats that are being manufactured by institutes all across. these automatons are desired by corporations who anyway dont need people who would question but people who would follow and keep their spirits chained for the monetary figure that is thrown at them. just like dogs are happy to have a piece of a bone after a hard day, in the same way these automatons are happy and too grateful to their masters for the generous pay check they receive each month.
ever wondered why people no longer even talk about issues that are plaguing the country, the answer is simple, they are not allowed to think or question, people who question are either silenced forever or the spirit within them killed with so much inertia that is added on them with each passing day. people today have seceded themselves from what is happening to the nation and this is a direct by product of a system that has sold its central tenets to the corporate capitalism mafia.
the role of education was always to facilitate and nurture, teachers were always expected to act as mentors and not as iron clad instructors. that is the sad reality of the teaching fraternity as well who have consigned themselves to a world of utopia where all that matters is writing more thesis papers, presentations and awards. academic involvement seems to have emerged as a substitute for not doing anything punitive or realistic. i would take the privilege of calling them as the new fat cats of the society, the aspiring and media hungry noveau elite. there is a difference in these new academic stalwarts as they project themselves and the academic wizards of the earlier times.
the latter were statesmen as well and were media shy, they wanted their work to speak for themselves and they never wanted the media around and become their mouth piece. their works inspired an entire generation and exhorted people to action and even these academicians were at the forefront of proposing new interventions and willing to take it up further as well. we thus have examples of a kalam or a kasturirangan , a vikram sarabhai and others....what we have as of now as our dear professors are nothing but moth balls, worms who have decided never to come out of the cocoon they have weaved around themselves. their notion of the world is something utopic, an ideal world where everyone exists in peace. what they actually forget is that peace has a price and are they willing to even understand what peace means and what the price for peace means in the first place....
high time they do and stop branding institutions without delving on the content that these institutes offer in the first place
it is said that the grass looks green on the other side but in my case the grass on either side is rotten, the only difference being that it stinks on one side and its made to look fragrant on the other side by the PR machinery, a powerful tool especially in the hands of bigots and ambivalent institutes that are ruthlessly vacous when it comes to issues pertaining to practising ethics but are most vocal when it comes to talking about them.
it is but the dream of every student who is academically driven and wants to carve a niche for himself or herself to be a part of an elite instutute that is supposed to add on to what the person knows, feels or atleast give him an orientation, something thta would decide the future course of his life, unlike what several people sitting out of these elite institutes believe, there exists an elite vaccum over here, one that is camoflauged very well indeed, something these institutes have become experts at, the art of manipulation, coercion of free thought and truth.
these academic institutes are the new forms of manipulation and coercion that are using education as cover for indoctrination and re engineering, systematically stifling the free souls who enter these places and either aim at burning them out or turn them into automatons, the vast army of unthinking, self serving brats that are being manufactured by institutes all across. these automatons are desired by corporations who anyway dont need people who would question but people who would follow and keep their spirits chained for the monetary figure that is thrown at them. just like dogs are happy to have a piece of a bone after a hard day, in the same way these automatons are happy and too grateful to their masters for the generous pay check they receive each month.
ever wondered why people no longer even talk about issues that are plaguing the country, the answer is simple, they are not allowed to think or question, people who question are either silenced forever or the spirit within them killed with so much inertia that is added on them with each passing day. people today have seceded themselves from what is happening to the nation and this is a direct by product of a system that has sold its central tenets to the corporate capitalism mafia.
the role of education was always to facilitate and nurture, teachers were always expected to act as mentors and not as iron clad instructors. that is the sad reality of the teaching fraternity as well who have consigned themselves to a world of utopia where all that matters is writing more thesis papers, presentations and awards. academic involvement seems to have emerged as a substitute for not doing anything punitive or realistic. i would take the privilege of calling them as the new fat cats of the society, the aspiring and media hungry noveau elite. there is a difference in these new academic stalwarts as they project themselves and the academic wizards of the earlier times.
the latter were statesmen as well and were media shy, they wanted their work to speak for themselves and they never wanted the media around and become their mouth piece. their works inspired an entire generation and exhorted people to action and even these academicians were at the forefront of proposing new interventions and willing to take it up further as well. we thus have examples of a kalam or a kasturirangan , a vikram sarabhai and others....what we have as of now as our dear professors are nothing but moth balls, worms who have decided never to come out of the cocoon they have weaved around themselves. their notion of the world is something utopic, an ideal world where everyone exists in peace. what they actually forget is that peace has a price and are they willing to even understand what peace means and what the price for peace means in the first place....
high time they do and stop branding institutions without delving on the content that these institutes offer in the first place
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