How Low Can We Go?

If there is one incident that exposes national character, or lack of it, it is an attack on our soil. The Mumbai attacks provided that, and sure enough, all the dogs are baying for blood, as if things were picture perfect before those miserable 60 hours. But come upon us it did, and in grand style. The event itself was rather gruesome, and the media coverage made a mockery of journalism in the process of presenting "exclusive" specials! How the heck can anyone be excluded in the coverage of a terror attack of national importance?

In the aftermath, in the period of self examination that dutifully follows, the saddest story is that of supposedly bulletproof vests that police personnel wore that weren't able to stop bullets. It is one thing that they carry outdated firepower, but it is an entirely shameful thing that equipment that is supposed to protect their lives fails the very purpose it is there for. Further tests have proved that bullets do indeed pass through these bullet"proof" vests.

This cannot be anything other than a case of rampant corruption, with the manufacturer in cahoots with someone making purchasing decisions within the government of Maharashtra or the government of India. This is a blot on our national character if we aren't just making money illegally, but actually selling death to our own men in uniform, cloaked in an appearance of safety. Can we go lower than this? I'm now betting we can.

The logic of the culprits must be that police don't get shot at that often, so how is anybody going to ever find out if the damn vests are bulletproof or not? The supplier should be made to wear the vests he claims are bulletproof and shot at. That would be fair enough wouldn't it? After all, he should be able to swear by his product, shouldn't he? If he starts saying his prayers as soon as he is strapped into one of his own vests, he deserves to die.

We're fighting an enemy determined to bleed us, because he doesn't have the balls to take us on face to face. There is no way Pakistan can defeat India in any scale of warfare. So, the conniving bastards have come up with ingenious schemes to beat every kind of protest India can lodge, completely absolve themselves of responsibility and have built every instrument of deniability they need to simply say, "Heck, we don't know who did this. Sorry"! And some of us are helping rogue nations like Pakistan kill our poor policemen by issuing vests to them that can't stop their bloody terrorists bullets?

Last night, close to where I live, there was a road accident. An older gentleman on a scooter ran into a dog, got thrown off his scooter and landed on his head, bleeding and going unconscious almost immediately. Of course a group of people came running to lift him up. I called 102 for an ambulance, which rang and rang till someone picked up, and before I could tell him where to send the ambulance, he was giving me two other numbers for the GH ambulance, which I was supposed to call myself. Now, what the f$#k is an emergency number provided for if it becomes a directory service in the moment of need? What is worse, nobody picked up the GH ambulance numbers! Low enough?

The poor man was moved to a bench at the side of the road in front of a tea shop of some sort. When I was busy trying to get help on the phone, one asshole starts giving out visiting cards, with the number of "his" ambulance service we could call. The son of a bitch didn't make one call from his cell phone, supposedly because I was "already calling", and never made a move to do so even after I told him I failed to reach an ambulance service calling the official number. What kind of inhuman gives out visiting cards to people at the scene of an accident trying to make a sale?

We are always ready to become a mob, and that is good when warding off very local threats, but I didn't hear Raj Thackeray unleashing his army on the terrorrists holed up in Mumbai! In fact the son of a bitch hid himself during the entire episode, while the chief minister and his deputy both made asses of themselves and promptly got thrown out of their pompous positions! In the middle of so much nonsense, Ram Gopal Verma paid a visit to one of the "location"s along with the CM and managed to kick up another controversy.

For some strange reason NDTV thought it necessary to give Ram Gopal Verma a chance to redeem himself before his country and he did a brilliant job of putting both his feet into his mouth! Like it was somehow important to give a movie director the chance to explain his presence at the scene of a terror attack when the embers were still hot, NDTV got Srinivasan Jain, who is coyly called "Vasu" by some of his equally incompetent colleagues, to interview this clown Ram Gopal Verma. He was stupid enough to say he came to meet Ritesh, the Chief Minister's son, to narrate a story to him, and since he was leaving somewhere in a hurry, tagged along to tell him the story in the car! Some story that must have been, considering how timely this one is!

It really could have stopped short of an absolutely mayhem on TV if he didn't say he simply tagged along and suddenly, unexpectedly, they were right behind the CM at the Taj hotel, walking over the wreckage of the attacks. When "Vasu" asked Verma if he understood how people felt about him being there, the fool went on to explain how it had already been declared a safe area so he never thought he did anything wrong by being there! I really thought it wouldn't get this low, when he went one lower. He didn't even understand the question! He didn't understand that a famous commercial, glossy, masala film maker like him showing up on TV would make people feel that this matter was being handled in a frivolous matter. Neither did "Vasu" have it in him to rephrase the question so the dope could understand, nor did the dope clear his ears to hear better. It was such a sham and a shame.

Being caught with your pants down is one thing, but there was nothing to prevent Srinivasan Jain from saying, "Look, it looks bloody frivolous when someone like you shows up where people have died in a highly publicised attack which is being referred to as an attack on India, okay? So, please understand that this is not going to go down well with people who are bloody mad at the whole thing right now. This has nothing to do with "safe area" and your bloody narration of how you got dragged to the spot, get it, dopey?!" But he didn't have the words. That's how low our journalism is. Down with our politicians, their actor kids, their stupid directors, and the whole lot of incompetent nincompoops.

Like this wasn't enough already, by their own low slogan "Enough is enough", NDTV keeps quoting Aamir Khan, like he is some icon of national unity. Even Sanjay Dutt has shown up on TV to contribute his share of "I'm angry" without talking a word about how he helped the cause by buying guns from the underworld that went on to bomb Mumbai not that long ago. We can't possibly choose someone less qualified, but then that is why we are India. We love the lows!

Okay, by now, we're ready to start going up, since we feel we have hit rock bottom, right? WRONG! Mr. Naqvi, spokesperson for BJP likens people who protest with candles and flowers to terrorists! Just like that! The CM of Kerala decides to pay a visit to a martyr's father's house and gets thrown out like he should be, but curses the poor slain man's father! R R Patil, the deputy CM of Maharashtra calls the Mumbai attacks a "small incident" and loses his job.

It cannot get lower than this, but we just might make it possible.

Can you afford to have faith?

Joel and Victoria Osteen, some of the best known preachers in the USA, were on Larry King today talking about the importance of faith in times of distress. They spoke about how we shouldn't have a victim mentality and that God has a plan.

It is because people had faith in the stock market that they are in the mess they are in today. It is because they had faith in the real estate market that many are homeless and it is because banks had faith in the American economy that they gave billions of dollars in loans to unqualified buyers.

Faith asks you to believe in something beyond your control. It asks you to trust without question and trust that what you have faith in is a good thing. It is brilliant when it works in your favour, but what happens when it works againt you? That is the wake up call to really start thinking, not putting more faith where it didn't work in the first place! It is amazing how many times people who are quite successful at what they do, particularly in professions where they don't have control over the outcome of their efforts, tell you how important it is to have faith. Those that failed, you never hear from, so you never hear that faith doesn't quite work!

People who lead ordinary lives, without a shot at great riches or success of any stellar sort, often fall for the faith nonsense, thinking that it is God's will whatever comes their way, and that it is God's will whatever doesn't come their way. It is amazing how many times God's will works towards making that guy rich that actually bought the lottery ticket and how his will is limited to one ticket!

Faith is easy to sell, because it is based on fear. It is based on the fear of taking responsibility and on the fear of the rational that tells you point blank that you are nothing but a statistic, a number, and of very little significance beyond that in the larger scheme of things. Fear sells rampantly. If that fear can be shifted onto God, or something equally faith based, then we can play victim of that "higher power" and not bother to acknowledge that we are each nothing but a specimen of humanity and nothing more with a random chance of being happy or sad, successful or not, ugly or beautiful as much as dead or alive.

Those who trust knowledge, though, are much more empowered and capable. Knowledge can be sharpened, and cannot be denied. It is measurable, and it is applicable. It is acquirable and it is transferable. What a currency! If we were to have real faith in God and the power of something as magnificent as creation, I would imagine we were given brains in order to free God from having to think for us all, while we simply clung to faith in Him!

I continued to listen to Joel Olsteen and his wife Victoria, to see how deep this rut would run, just out of curiosity, since Larry King is no idiot, even while a vast majority of Americans are. He was smart enough to ask a great question about whether Joel thought being gay was a choice. The idiot actually said YES! And his wife quipped in to say it is not a perfect world but that gay people were quite actually quite nice and wonderful! What a great way of saying they want to keep their follower base secure!

So, here we have faith based people calling gay people imperfect, while hinting perhaps that heterosexual people are somehow closer to perfection and God, while stating that marriage should be between a man and a woman! Knowledge tells us today that being heterosexual or homosexual is an orientation, very much a naturally occuring thing, and if God were to play any part in this, He is by no means getting his act straight!

It's easy to talk about faith when it is working for you. When you have figured out the way to good health, a good economic status, and a routine that doesn't tire you down, it is a fantastic thing to have. When you are out there in the competition, facing an uncertain world, wanting to do better, relying on the chances you are going to take, wanting to succeed, wanting to build something out of yourself, knowledge is a much better companion.

The Wright brothers didn't get their aeroplane to fly with faith. They figured out a way to increase the pressure of air below the wings over the pressure of it above the wings. We win wars by knowing where the enemy is holed up and pounding those locations with ammunition, not by sharpening our rusty swords in the darkness till the enemy's ammunition rains on us. All of humanity's progress in the last two centuries is based on the Industrial revolution. We made more progress in these last two hundred years than we had in the two thousand years before that, only because of science and technology, not because of new religious practices.

Fools who preach faith without putting the onus on knowledge are doing a great disservice to humanity. If bad economic times are a "test" from God, then preachers are a bigger test. I wonder why God would want to test his creations so much if he was so great and perfect and omnipresent. It could very well be that God is all that, and just having fun to see what we would do in each and every situation! I would do that if I were God, but I wouldn't answer a single prayer, except maybe a child's. I would answer a child's prayer just to make it more fun for a young soul. I mean, why screw up a kid's life and fill it with despair when all he wants is a cricket bat?

It is easy to go round and round in circles when you talk about faith, because you can always say every failure is not a let down by faith, but a preparation for a greater success. I haven't heard anyone say that faith limited their success by not giving them enough "tests". In other words, we don't know a damn thing about faith, but want to twist it any which way we can to avoid talking about rational things, which can be boring and rather cruelly honest. If you become a candidate for faith, it will take you in that comforting circle of escape, round and round till you are giddy and full of it.

Faith doesn't have much to offer except a crutch when you are feeling helpless. Knowledge will tell you that statistically, it is absolutely possible, through the choices you make, that you will hit such lows once in a while, and your brain will figure out a way to evaluate the choices you have, and you will have enough of a chance to do better. When you have figured out exactly how you screwed up the last time, having more faith and taking the same route will lead you down to the same low again. You KNOW that, so this time you would take a different route and be a little more pragmatic and informed. That, my friend is knowledge, borne out by experience. That is the kind of person God would be proud of having created.

Have faith in me, I speak the truth here!

Nationalism Misplaced

The nationalists are out in force, demanding a safer India, a stronger India, a more accountable India. The attacks in Mumbai have turned on a fervour that hasn't yet subsided. India is suddenly inflamed and angry, and want results. Our politicians are fair game, and a few heads have already rolled.

But what are our nationalists achieving now that they couldn't have fought for before a bunch of no good, gun toting terrorist pigs decided to attack Mumbai's soft targets? Surprise, surprise! By bringing out their patriotic emotions to the fore, they have given the terrorists exactly the satisfaction they would love to have - the feeling that they are fighting against an entire nation!

Imagine being part of a group that trains to kill and maim, destroy and burn - all in remote hiding places, under the tutelage of shadowy characters with no intellect to understand anything more than violence, and then suddenly being promoted to receive the attention of the world, and the reward of fighting againt a powerful "nation"! That should be a real high in their low lives. What is worse, it will induce them into a delusion of being equal to the task of fighting a nation, and spur them to greater and more spectacular attacks on an enemy that everybody knows is way too powerful, but now seems eligible for attack.

Why nationalist sentiments come out in the wake of a terrorist attack is beyond me. Attack on India? Please! These are rogues and freak murderers on the loose, causing mayhem. Should these elements really call for anything in reaction that is nationalistic? Do they deserve that exalted emotion in reaction to their ugly schemes? I don't think so, and I don't think our fashionable nationalists who woke up in Mumbai and other cities quite realize how many things there are to fight for that will actually make our lives better and make our nation progress faster.

The reason is - this kind of incident is simple enough for a lot of people to come out of their indifferent existences, and easy enough to collect groups to go let off some steam and have some impassioned conversations. The incidents we have on a daily basis that are highly anti-national like bribery, extortion, corruption, pollution, rank incompetence, rape, and murder are definitely more within touching distance of the common Indian and most certainly within the powers of politicians to fix, but these aren't "sexy" enough for our nationalists. We want bombs, fire, media attention, foreigners talking of support, comparisons to other events worldwide - spectacle! Without these, our nationalism is confined to accepting status quo as "normal". The truth is bribery, extortion, corruption, pollution, rank incompetence, rape and murder aren't bloody normal either, but they happen often enough that we have accepted them as such.

The monotony in statements that come out of Mumbai's residents in massive numbers is numbing. Everybody wants to stand united, everybody thinks this is not just an attack on Mumbai, and everybody thinks our politicians are responsible. We all know our politicians have never been responsible. The rest of the world has sung the same tune, that they must stand shoulder to shoulder with India in this hour of crisis. So, we stand shoulder to shoulder and do what? Watch over the dead bodies? Give the terrorists more to cheer about?

The worst insult to Mother India was Sanjay Dutt on TV saying he was angry! Isn't this the son of a thrice born b&^%h who bought weapons from the underworld? And now, suddenly he is a nationalist? I am all for reformation, and I am proud of this rank idiot for shedding some of his stupidity over the years, but has he earned the right to talk for a nation? Come on, India. Surely we can do better than this.

How about the crisis of character that we have all been marinated in? From the fools who ignore no smoking signs, to the politician who sneers and sniggers when cornered with a straight question, from the trader who demands a price well above maximum retail price to the teacher who doesn't know his subject, we know we have failed as a nation and are decaying on the inside faster than we are shining on the outside. Do we really need a tea company telling us to wake up and vote, when we should be lynching the rascals we voted for the last time who haven't delivered anything they were supposed to?

We have been dumbed down, and we are loving it. We are coccooned in the constant barrage of hype and commercialism that tells us we are doing great when we are not. Being sensitive about our country is not a good substitute for being ignorant and indifferent about what we should be doing as citizens. We are being led like sheep by the "system" that allows a few people to take advantage of weaknesses, loopholes, and distractions, all leading to enormous gain, while the welfare of the nation is systematically destroyed.

The "bulletproof" vests supplied to the men in uniform at the Chatrapati Shivaji Station allowed bullets to pass through them. That is how some of our "heroes" died. Further investigation on dummies with the same vests ended up with smashed dummies - categorically showing that these vests did not do the job they were supposed to! Shouldn't this be big on TV? What a symbolic example of how India has been let down for many, many years and exploited and raped and pillaged by our own selfish people. This won't make news because we don't have the conscience to think of this as being important or sexy enough to be nationalistic.

On the ground, the reality is that we have a failure on many fronts. We were not a great nation to start with and we are not getting there in a hurry. A great nation has people who do their duty as citizens, on all fronts, at all times, not just people who wake up when politically attractive. A great nation does not put up with mediocre performance. A great nation has conscientious people, with a highly developed sense of duty and compassion. We do not have any of the above, and most Indians I know would never put the cause of the nation above a cause of personal betterment. A great nation would never have bowed to the will of hijackers and turned over prisoners to secure the release of an aeroplane and its passengers. India did. So, what the bloody hell are we suddenly so nationalistic about? It really took a bunch of terrorists to wake us up? We should be ashamed of that very fact.