Comments, blog settings and more thoughts...

Great comment there Jai*. I am glad the first ever comment on this blog is so well-written, crisp and absolutely thought provoking! I totally agree with you about the media taking the back seat instead of doing what they are supposed to do - to stand up for the people and voice our opinion!

I made a slight change to the settings. Anonymous comments can be posted but I have enabled moderation to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, if you know what I mean.

Tomorrow the indian PM Dr. Singh will be attending the G8 summit and is expected to make a strong statement against the attacks. Mere words will not do it but if they are strong it would be a good start for him. The Indian media has however decided to focus on auxillary news. Rediff is filled with articles that quote the so-called party leaders and ministers. Let's examine couple of them, shall we?

Murali Manohar Joshi - Senior BJP leader. - "If Pakistan thinks that country is incomplete without Kashmir, let us make it loud and clear to them that in that case India is also incomplete without Pakistan," the BJP leader thundered.

Huh? What? He might have "thundered" but he sounds like he has just been hit by a lightning. Dude, what you said doesn't even make sense leave alone provoke thought or action! Either that or the reporter screwed up the translation (Hey Rediff - are you letting www.dawn.com reporters report for you too?)

Abu Azmi - Samajwadi Party MP - "Muslims are made to feel as if all of them are terrorists. I would like to tell the government that if 20 lakh Muslims pour onto the streets, it will be very difficult to control the situation," Azmi told reporters.

Great. So what are you implying Mr. MP? Turn this whole thing around and make it a communal issue. That should do wonders. It will shift what little focus the ministry has and worry about how to make peace with this dude so that they don't lose the 20 lakh votes. You are thinking "wait, wait, wait...He never mentioned votes. What are you talking about?" Yes, I am sure they are more worried about the votes and majority balance than possible communal riots.

So what is happening is these leaders are just trying to get back their position in the government. To them this is an opportunity to topple the government, regain power and make more money! What a disgrace!

Former premier of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto says she would close down any terrorist camp operating in the country if she returned to power. Hmm, so you are saying there are terrorist camps that can be closed down? Interesting!

I hope the moronic ministers/leaders don't turn this situation to a communial issue and shift the whole focus. We need focus! Remember the lives that were lost.

I quote Marlon Brando in Superman(1978) - "They can be great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son. "
Unfortunately, we don't have a superman coming to our rescue. It is just us. Do you see the light? Do you see the way? Ask yourselves....

Jai Hind!

*Jai (not real name) is someone I know but we haven't spoken in a very long time till I received his phone call last night. Great surprise! If you haven't read his comments please read it in the posting "Zidane...."

Anger, Zidane, Laloo and Angelina Jolie

So we all get angry. I do. I get angry more often I guess. But I can calm myself down pretty soon too. I can hold a grudge sometimes but anger, eh no. It goes up and then low...Well, that's about my anger level and it ain't going to bring any world peace so moving on.

Did you follow FIFA world cup? I am sure you did unless you are in the US of course. I just don't get it. Question to USA - how can you not be the world champions in the one truly world-wide game but be world champions in everything else. Basketball (nba), football (nfl), baseball (mlb) and ice hockey*(nhl). Oh I know, me me me me!!!! Because....because....you are the only country playing. Sure, that's one way to be world champions. However, I should add that the above games are played at the highest level and I love watching NBA and NFL. Recently, I asked someone "do you follow soccer" and his response was "soccer?...eh no...too slow for me...i watch my son's soccer games". No, his son doesn't play for the US soccer team. He is 7. "too slow for me". Are you kidding me? And you find baseball real fast eh? - no offense to baseball fans. So anyway...

Ok, you followed soccer; then you know what went on in the finals between France and Italy. Italy won, went to penalty shoot up, Zidane got a red card, french fans booed...wait, wait, wait - Zidane got a red card? Hey, didn't you read that Italy won? That's ok, tell us about Zidane. Seriously, that is how the media is treating this news. If you google Italy's victory is gone into history books but Zidane head-butting incident still reigns as top story. Well, alright...let's jump into right way. So why did Zidane head-butt Italy's Materazzi? I have read few reports but the 2 most common reports - 1. Materazzi called Zidane a 'terrorist'. 2. Materazzi insulted Zidane's mother and sister. Materazzi - not cool! So Zidane got pissed and that lead to the infamous head-butting incident. Now that's anger! Does he regret it? Don't know. He got sent off the game which went into PSO and France missed one of their shots and france lost. Who knows. If Zidane was still in, he might have scored that. Anyway.....

So Zidane's got anger. For being called a terrorist or because his mother and sister were insulted. Being called a terrorist...Hmm...not freedom fighters like www.dawn.com likes to write. Damn, we need that anger in India's leadership. Let's get Zidane to pay a visit to the Dr. Singh, Shivraj Patil and laloo Yadav. If they don't listen to him, give them some head-butting treatment. Although, he might want to go easy on Laloo. The guy has eaten up all of Bihar's treasury and lot of central ministry's treasury so might throw up anytime. Ewwww, on that thought. Damn sissy! So message to the indian leadership - wake the F up! Do something. Those are our brothers and sisters that died. Show some anger! Head-butt the sh** out of LeT and SIMI and all those cowards!

Here is an interesting link my friend sent me about the Zidane incident.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/13/zidane_headbutt_outrage/

On another topic - Angelina Jolie is starring in the movie they are making about Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and murder by pakistani militants. Yeah, I said pakistani militants - that's how it was written in E! news. Go fight with them if you have a problem. So the pakistani militants, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) kidnapped and beheaded this american journalist and they are making a movie based on his wife's best seller. That's great. At the very least american people watching the movie will curse the crap out of pakistani militants! Gee, if only our leadership acts I wouldn't have to resort to this! Shame on you! Wake up, will you!

TGIF!
Jai Hind!

* NHL - whenever played!

Yeah Right!

It is sometimes interesting to read pakistani news websites. The "news" is "reported" in a very amateurish language and sometimes the headlines will have nothing to do the news. Please don't counter-attack by saying that's how I write. If you compare a leading newspaper article with my scribbles, you got issues pal!

So try www.dawn.com. Oh wait, I will get a better link in a second.

The reason I came up on this subject is this - http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/13/top2.htm
hmm...well...hmm...ok read it again and I am sure your reaction is WTF! So I read dawn once in a while and the thing I consistently notice is this - what we term as terrorist will show up as freedom fighters in there. That's a good spin. Whatever makes them happy!

And the website - Jeezaloo! Somebody get them a freaking web developer! Don't center align the whole article. At least don't center align the whole front page of the website. WebDev 101 comments - Not Cool!! It is a damn piece of "news" item, not a classified ad for free Pizzas. And will somebody please tell them it is not cool to put a real annoying color ad between every headline. Seriously, I could eat an HTML book and throw up better crap. For the copyright police - I dont think that is my line but I don't know who to credit it to so chill.

Now I have comments about rediff but dawn needs few web developers, reporters, spell-checkers a.k.a proof-readers and a lot of unbiased approach before being mentioned in the same context of any other newspaper.

A day that will be remembered or forgotten?

Yesterday, as many of us sat in the safety and comfort of our homes, Mumbai the vibrant city of India shook under terrorists attacks. My initial response was anger, frustration and feeling totally helpless. We have yet again seen how ruthless the enemies are. We have yet again seen how the terrorists act cowardly and claim the lives of innocent people. It is not an act of terror but an act of cowardice.

Mumbai has been attacked six times in 12 years. To better illustrate that situation imagine if Oklahoma city bombing happened every 2 years. Yes, the situation is bad, really bad.
Today as I saw the pictures of these truly barbaric acts I began wondering - if a terrorist network with motivated recruits and paid mercenaries can hatch this plan well ahead of time and execute it why a country like India cannot hatch a counter plan and act? Sure we cannot find every terrorist alive but you can find training camps, terrorists leaders, weapons, finance trails and a lot more. When will India act?
This is war and they have directly challenged India. The response should be swift and brutal. Make no mistake. India is very capable to doing that. Only thing it lacks is leadership. Oh yeah, we have always had problem with that. Let's find out why. Some people think the government follows the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Hmmm...Interesting point. Let's refute. So Mahatma Gandhi is a symbol of peace. If the politicians have taken that to heart I guess they should also refrain from bribes. Well...I rest my case. Of course taking bribes is one of the many crimes they do but imagine the ripple effect it can have. Even terrorists might be using the same bribe-entry points to get into our system. Did they ever think about that? No, they are too busy building mansions and hiding bribe money. Shame on them! So coming back to the question of why the leadership doesn't act. Political reasons? Well said. How can you win elections in the world's largest democracy and second most populous country? I am sure there are better ways but for them its a game of words, empty promises, money, lies and deceit. For board game enthusiasts it is pretty much like playing scrabble, poker, monopoly and chess all at once.

How can someone so worried about losing his position care or do anything about the terrorist threats in India? The Home Minister of India shivraj Patil said they knew attacks like these are in the making, just didn't know the time and place. Yeaaaaaaaah, he should blame the terrorists for that. How can they carry attacks without giving the exact place and time. Did they warn the public? Did they do a preemptive attack on the training camps? Did they get the intelligence community to foil this plan? Answers of some of these might be yes but that doesn't change anything. The attacks went on and they have failed. The leadership of India has failed!

Ok they are corrupt and inefficient, the leadership I mean. Phew! Doesn't end there. Some are criminals. Oh yeah. The railway minister Laloo Yadav was in jail because. You know why. Why bother writing about that jackass. So why would a complete moron like him bother to do anything about the security scene is train stations and trains? No reason. He is good to pose to photographs and of course make money. Google him. Some interesting readings.

Ok they are corrupt, inefficient and criminals. What else? They are politicians and have to play politics in everything. My oh my! How could we miss that? Any assertive actions taken by the government will not viewed as good by everyone in the voting bank. They might lose some minority votes. And that should create a problem in the very delicate balance of their majorities and so on. The international community might condemn the pre-emptive attacks but whose ass is on the line? They are not dying in our trains are they? When you try to protect your family and create some noise your neighbor might complain. But you wouldn't care. Would you? No.

Nothing I wrote here is new and that is sad. We know so much and yet do so little. I live far from home and today I miss her more than ever before. I wish I was closer to my family. I wish I was in our country. Today I weep. Today I pray. Today I stand with the victims and the families and voice my opinion. Go India! Go kick some ass!