Ubuntu

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after New Year's Eve fun night, I decided to take a New Year's 1st day at ease reading through some stuff and browse some good videos. so landed on Bill Clinton's speech at 2006 UK Labour Party Conference(below). I thought, I will begin new year blog by the sharing this speech.

Although I am not always aligned with Blair's & Clinton's Policies but I do consider them among few smartest & decent politicians in the world and ofcourse very good speakers. What particularly impressive about this speech is that he was talking about human-geno project's finding which highlights how little different we humans are even with so much diversity in our race, religion,.. yet all(including western society) focus on 0.1% difference and ignoring 99.9% similarities we share.

If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person - and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans...
..
Ubuntu means I am because you are.

very impressive speech & content.
would strongly recommend especially last 10mins of the speech.

Good-Bye 2008 and Welcome 2009

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Wo..2008 has been eventful year. So much had happened. But Ofcourse, most of all this year will be remembered for credit crisis and market crush. Everyone knew 'What goes up must come down' but most people thought 'its not now'. 2008 has thought us many lessons and made us realize what we already knew: Our way of life will evolve, expand & shrink with things we do and with things around us.

Hope we would make good use of this experience in 2009 and beyond.

Personally, it’s been a good year for me. 

2008 started with new a job and yet another relocation,

Travelled few far corners of earth,

Stepped onto few uncharted experience,

My investment risk profile has been very high,

I lost few and I gained more,

Hosting Parents and took them around places in Euro-Zone(highlight of my year),

Crossed 3decade of 'joy-ride'/life with no(almost) regrets,

So I do believe, Iam better-off from the year before.

In 2009 I hope: to be patient, risk control, body(/health) control, newness out of new beginning.

Its time of peaceful prayer,

for love, law, labour, loss & gains.

these are the wishes of the coming reign.

to all those who I pissed off: Iam sorry but I had my reasons.

to all those who pissed me off: you are forgiven, but we won't be friends anymore.

to all those who gave a helping hand: thank you, I owe to pass-it-forward.

to all those disappointments I caused: never meant to hurt.

to all those who disappointed me: thank you for making me re-evaluate my expectations.

to all those who owe me money: now is always a good time to give it back. J

be kind and be fair

be patient and be prepared

be nice and be wise

Why not a Political Startup but how?

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Very interesting post on Venturewood -> Why Not A Political Startup.

My comments:

One more supporting hand for the idea. I was reading somewhere that--its time for silent majority act & react (middle-class and non-farmers,..) but how,why,what,who,where,.. is the question(s)!

Few suggestions/questions/cautions:

• Objectives/Goals & strategy:
• We need to create detailed case-study/white-paper why & how it works? I think, its too simple to say- politicians are corrupt and given a choice majority of people would elect non-corrupt individual ignoring other facts & reality. If somehow we can create franchises to built and grow informed citizen with a hope that will translate into best judgement then I think, we might be historically wrong in thinking that way.
• if motivation is power and/or money then we fall into same old crap(may be in different form). To me, its much better for stupid people with bad ideas to run the country then by smart people with bad ideas.
• Organisation has its own culture & objectives and people sign-up to be part of it with their own objectives (and might have different culture believes). how do we reconcile that?
• Politics is very wide spectrum and our idea can be killed very soon since historically market space has been smart enough to manage new-comers, monopoly. M&A will soon change objective & implementation strategy but better returns.
• We will need Gandhi like many individuals (or Steve jobs like popular figure with to-die fan-base)/market leaders/experts for every single issues (education, poverty, political reforms,…). how to create or attract them? align them to overall objective?
• Implementation:
• Once basic principals & ideals are defined (with do’s & don’t’s, what/how to support and not to, based on what!,..). then we will need to gather like-minded people(like TED conference) to brainstorm implementation strategy which would very different for each region/communities/demographic.
• We will then need to gather support/fan-base(brand loyalty) --(like obama's campaign organization) by creating awareness, media strategy, market campaign, website, mailing list, web2.0 communities..to create fan based and NGOs networks to participant to show the presence over time without losing site of initial objectives/goals and implementation strategy.
• Then how do we avoid been (liberal)biased and not to ignore national ground-reality & sentiments? because most people how sign-up would be from similar walk-off life(lack of diversity) thus branding would become problem.
• Returns/Business mobel/Funding:
• Any such venture needs investment and any investor wants to cash-out sometime. How we do that here?
• Bussiness model for ROI and raise captial? via internet among middle-class will be challenging as you can see eCommerce in india has be mostly advertising driven not subscription driven. (so obama like strategy might not work well)
  
• its very easy to keep discussing without much impact in market space (thus cause investors unrest and wanting to cash-out sooner with any other possibilities). how to avoid that? and stay invested. 

List will grow without any clear agreeable answers for most of it but certainly its worth discussing with more specific & details. 

Mumbai Tragedy on Jon Stewart's DailyShow

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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Bankrupt Ideology pursuing a Bankrupt strategy..and we sure cannot let these terrorist MoFos control our lives.

Reaction expected, but how to!

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With end of Mumbai terror crisis, now media/people/politicians all are debating about what action should India take? It’s clear the terrorist are Pakistani origin. As I think about it with my little knowledge on foreign policy- India can react:

• like USA- the black-and-white view and go to war with Pakistan. Is it a smart move? I don't think so. It’s almost clear & most experts would agree that the Pakistan government has (atleast no longer) no control-over all of its territory and these militant groups. Also history doesn't support Pakistan’s government when they say 'not-us' & 'we-stand-with-you-and-support-you' but I do believe & trust majority of Pakistani people even those who disagree with US's war-on-terror, has favourable opinion for good relationship with India. So I don't believe both in short-term and long-term this(war with Pakistan) would be any good and would solve nothing if not make it even worse. However I understand, this seems to be popular taking-point now. 

• like Israel- on back of Munich attack Mossad planned & acted out series of target killings of terrorist involved. Its a smart move. should india do something similar? may be (assuming such an act is possible by RAW in short-to-mid-term). But I would be ashamed of such actions from land of Gandhi. Our morals and character are tested not in good time but in bad. 

• like India, as in the past- Continue to do what we do but only just this time, be more smart and learn from mistakes to handle pre-and-post situations. Work for better relationship with Pakistan with increased economic/trade links, intelligent links, supports them to clean-up their politically/ISI/military structures. This is in best interest of both the countries. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s very easy to forget progress made in recent times between India & Pakistan as we live in 24news cycle which doesn't allow us to think. 

And as Gandhi said, 'Anger and intolerance are the twin enemies of correct understanding' and 'Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up'. I sincerly hope common-sense & cool minds in India government will prevail during these testing times.

And Word to Pakistani’s friends/government/media(if anyone listening)-- It doesn't help when all evidence points attacker are from Pakistan, rejecting it only shows age-old 'not-me' response. Instead work with us and be more critical about your decision making as well & accept your shot comings..Please.

Non-violence is the article of faith, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.  And its not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. -- Mohandas Gandhi

Day after thought, to defeat terrorism

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Yesterday I was sad, angry and wrote down (here), what I thought was happening and didn’t happen.

Today with sense, I am eating my words with honest measured reflections & thoughts. With best intelligence, task-force and even if USA acts responsiblily without ‘what’s-in-it-for-us’ foreign policy, will it defeat terrorism!? At best, it can save few more life, might stop some terrorist acts and might defeat terrorist but it will not cure terrorism.

It was very easy for us(atleast for me) to forget recently events before the attack. We had 65% voter turn-out in J&K elections, Pakistan Govt. acknowledged Kashmir’s Mujahideen as terrorist (which never happened before in our history), Pakistan Govt willing for greater trade links with India. India & Pakistan never had better relationship in the past and growing strength-to-strength by the day. Surely my (Indian) government is doing something correct which I am overlooking and not giving credit for.

In today’s globalized world, either we are victim or observer of such terror attacks. The moment we throw un-measure thousand words in public then we make the mission of the terrorists successful. Since their motivation is to get publicity for good or bad reasons. Media doesn’t help either by providing the kind of horrific visuals.

Although India can proudly claim to be quite inclusive in nature though favouritism has been always an issue, yet these repeated incidents of terror instead of making us immune and indifferent is actually making us apprehensive and panic stricken. So what can be done? Nothing much can be changed if someone is willing to kill him for a cause. Even Moon & Mars cannot be a safe place. Yes Nothing can be done without having a long-term politically solutions, socially policies, roadmap, education, jobs, social justice, tolerance, patients,..which ofcourse isn’t start-end path but a continues effects to make tomorrow better than today.

If each of us continues to do what we are doing without getting greatly influenced by the news and stand with our morals then in long-run terrorism will vanish.
I will try to do my part by not panic and by not posting incomplete blog (which I did yesterday).

PS: very interesting article with good insights @ How to Defeat Terrorism

Yet another attack…and??

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Yet another attack on freedom, It’s nothing new for Mumbai, a city I admire for its courage and resolve. I am sad but more than sad I am angry. I am very angry because, I don’t see or read what my government is doing to stop or atleast control such attacks! 

First it was ordinary people, then multiple attacks across cities, and now attack on foreign diplomats and rich side of the city. From Parliament to Judiciary, everything in this nation is targeted.

for F*@k sake, Cannot we improve human intelligence inside the country? Why cannot RAW(India’s CIA) predict such attacks? Why still don’t have anti-terror wing?

Statistically more people in India die from terrorist attack each year (more than Iraq or any other part of the world). Yet we don’t have any clear roadmap and strong law to stop such attacks or action plan to react to such attacks. Few laws which we have are often used for political purposes thus making it ineffective.

India Inc and Indian public had always found way around bad policy, politicians, corruptions, to achieve sizable growth. And I understanding, Fighting with terrorism should not only be the duty of government but only(or always) people cannot do anything without government framework with honest intentions & effort.

The intelligence gathering in India is very bad. We swung into action after strike takes place and then get relax for another to happen. At national level, there is a need of a high-level anti-terrorist squad, which should have its branch in every state. Intelligence system & anti-terror laws of our nation requires complete overhauling & better implementation and should be outside hands of political establishment.

 

It is also necessary to have a centralised system of information gathering and disbursement. There is a need for one or two toll free phone numbers, which any body can take information from about victims after such strike or in the case of natural calamity. It is far from understanding that why until date government has not thought of such a mechanism for a country like India, which is not only big in geographical term, but has vast population and diversity in the terms of languages as well. It is also necessary that if anybody has any suspicion then he or she can call a toll free number and can share the information with the government. No such method is available. Even if someone finds something suspicious, he chooses to remain quiet, as majority do not want to deal with local ’khaki’ clad. Government must provide an option to those who want to share any information without being harassed. Unfortunately as of now, no such thing exists in our nation.

There is also a need for task-force for handling the situation, which arises after such attacks. It must consist not just security personnel but also doctors, nurses, NGOs. Life can be saved if we have an expert team, rushing at the site to assist the victims & families.

Entire nation is depressed to loss lives but we still put brave face and move ahead. I pray for peace and for the families who lost their loved ones.

Diwali explained..

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Happy Diwali... wish this day brings lights into your life. 

another year to come...

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Birthdays comes and goes in every year
but few remains with us as golden memories
Its a special day to celebrate with loved ones
although, the years carry our age away
every aged year brings happiness

C have been blown off to say good bye to old year
and then the cakes is cut to say welcome to new age
The birthday song sung to forget the world
and the birthday wishes keep pouring to live more

Dine and cakes are served unlimited
Music to remember unforgettable day
'Happy Birthday To You' that is last words that we hear
from each and everyone and again the drums are silent
for another year to come.

moments (un)defined...

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I guess I could be really pissed off about what happened to me, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much; my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... You will someday.