The Economic Crisis: Deja Vu यू सी

Looking at the current economic scenario and all that is culminating on the world political front i begin to wonder is this really all a random turn of events or is it more . Are we seeing something that we saw before ? is history repeating itself?.
During the great depression of 1929 the world faced a similar situation wherein banks defaulted,stock markets crash and we saw black Tuesday, reality was hit bad . But all was not so bad just 1 year ago (1928) the markets were at their peak and the economy was id to be booming.

Deja Vu You say?

We now stand in midst of another depression but its spread has been faster due to globalisation and the effect of a organised electronic media.And just one year ago we ourselves clamored to put in our hard earned money into booming markets in India as well as the rest of the world markets.Our Stock market indices touched their life highs. The real estate market was also booming with prices in mumbai skyrocketing. With this increased consumerism, increased the availability and utilisation of loans from banks. We had telecallers begging us to take loans and give out credit cards. We spent so much money and energy that oil prices went from 70$ a barrel in august 07 to 160 in june 08. All this had to break somewhere, there were signs of a depression early in 08 with the US sub prime crisis but we just ignored the signs and then the Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy and then we realised that the money that the banks were loaning us were so outspent that they just couldn't repay their investors. and with rumors that ICICI bank had stakes in some of these defunct US companies the uncertainties came into India and with foreign investors pulling their money out so that they could pay back their investors a spiral downfall began.
Are we ever gonna learn from history ??? Our history says we dont.
What followed after the 1929-30 depression was a wave of nationalist movements and uprising where as the people were suffering they for the want of leadership followed anything a person said loudly. As trade slowed down, countries became more isolated from the rest of the world and distrust was built as each accused the other of sabotaging their economies. it was during this period that Hitler rose from being small time political activist to Fuhrer, Mussolini rose along with Stalin,Churchill and Roosevelt. People needed leadership and they had them some right some wrong. The 2nd world war began which actually gave a boost to the frozen economy as these same leaders scared the people into giving up their locked up cash set the wheels roiling so that they could make war on their enemies. Power centres of the world shifted and America began a superpower with the USSR catching up.
It might sound freakish to mention conspiracy theories about the Illuminati but many of the events which have transpired are in line with what the conspiracy theorist mentioned as methods utilised by the Illuminati. They scare the people into believing that there is need to fight ,create and new world order ;they create superpowers and control the world using these superpowers and when they feel they need to shift base they create such paranoia.
I personally would never endorse conspiracy theories but in such dire times we might as well give a thought to them as we now have two new centres of emerging powers one a communist nation and one conservative right wing nation who are in a situation similar to the US and the USSR.

The Amarnath Row -- Are we really that Dumb?

I was searching for information over the net about the recent Amarnath Land Row, and found a lot of websites with articles related to it. All were kind of trying to present a neutral face to the issue, but is the problem really that. Is the problem Religious,Separatist,Political or is it something Else?

The State of J&K is a special state under the Constitution of India, which has been defined under the Article 370. The Article 370 states that the
Central government cannot enforce laws in the state until it has been approved by the State Legislative Council barring laws relating to
Defence, Communication and foreign affairs. Thus the state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, Ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians. One such law is that a non resident cannot own property in the State. This special article has come into force because India has not yet conducted the Plebiscite under UN; as one of the pre-conditions for the same Was that Pakistan should withdraw all Military forces from Kashmir and stop its proxy war with it, was never met.

Now Amarnath Shrine is managed by Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), which was constituted by an Act of the State Legislature in 2000 with His Excellency the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir as its ex-officio Chairman. The Amarnathji Shrine Board is responsible for smooth and trouble free Pilgrimage to the Holy Shrine. Assisted by a Chief Executive officer who is a senior IAS officer and eight distinguished Board Members, the board is Constantly working towards making this journey the most cherished one. One of the responsibility of the board is to undertake for the benefit of Worshippers and pilgrims:

The construction of buildings for their accommodation
The construction of sanitary works; and
The improvement of means of communication.

For that purpose the state government decided to allot 39 hectares of land to the SASB (which is also a State Sponsored dept.) for the above
Purpose. For years the yatris lived in tattered tents with no proper sanitary facilities and the danger of wild animals and terrorists. So the SASB decide To built proper living quarters with Sanitary, security and Medical facilities.

And an Issue that now threatens the sovergnity of our country is born.

The land was allotted around June 08 and people got to know of it. A movement started from Kashmir and then spread throughout Jammu. Police had To control the rioters with water cannons and curfews. These people demanded that the land allotted to the SASB be taken back. The reason given was That the move threatened the Eco-system, and the law that only Kashmiri can hold propety.In the back of all these were the signals that the rioters Believed that BJP wanted to change the demographics of the state as was suggested by an Israeli Minister on a state visit very recently.

When you think a little while on this issue you see that how funny the issue really is and how it caused the state government to fall and de-allot the Land. The land belongs to the state government (which is completely barren) it gives it to a state department so that facilities to visitors can be made, The land will be held by the state yet such violent protests.

Who loses if the land is allotted to a state department which will provide lodging facilities to tourists on minimal costs or even free????

think,think,think,think

You might have heard that there are terrorist attacks in the Kashmir valley which are a common thing but have you heard that the Amarnath yatris have ever been attacked? Why?
Do you know the revenues earned by the people and businesses near the routes of the Amarnath yatra??

Why would religion come in the way? Who discovered the Amarnath Caves??

In the volatile situation of the state this land diversion was presented as if the land has been sold to the Shrine board. As of now the economic activity generated due to yatra is one of the major sources of income for Muslims en-route, and with SASB taking over many of these services, a perception was created that those regularly associated with yatra services will be sidetracked and it will now become an exclusively Hindu affair.

The Amaranth yatra is rooted in one of the most syncretism-mixed support structures. The cave where shrine is located was discovered by a Muslim Shepherd in 1850s, since then the pilgrim started. The descendents of the Muslim shepherd and sahdus managed the yatra till 2001 when the SASB took over and is trying to increase its hold on the arrangements.

Remarkably the yatra went on smoothly even at the peak of militancy in Kashmir, barring of course few aberrations here and there.

"The spontaneous breaking out of protest in valley was used by elements, like Syed Ali Shah Gilani, belonging to the extremist faction of Hurriat
Conference, in the valley politics, who went on to fan the fire of separatism during the agitations and further aggravated the situation by calling for boycott of polls to be held in October." says a senior journalist.

Now the Hindu extremist have jumped on the bandwagon and a small issue like jealousy of the oldies against the government has become a nationwide headache. The separatist have now got a new rope to tug on and pull the prevailing peace down.

REVIEW-The Gentlemen's Game

I was watching the first test between India and Srilanka,I had just switched on the television and didn't know much about the match before, it was the 4th day
and there was an LBW call against sehwag and murali was the bowler umpire Mark Benson rejected the appeal that was when Mahela Jayawardhene made a T
sign and the third umpire was called for. I was surprised as it was not a run out call, and the third umpire gave it out,, I thought what the hell!

And Sehwag became the first player to be given out the Review system

The proposed new umpire review system, in which the fielding captain or the batsman can ask for a review of an on-field umpire’s decision, has been put on
trial in the India-Sri Lanka Test series. Each team has the option to review the onfield umpires decision 3 times , it is signalled by making 'T' using both the
hands. The decision is then reviewed by the Third umpire and the decision if overturned is signalled to the onfield umpire.

Underplaying the authority figure on the field will lead to confusion and chaos. Not only will it threaten to ridicule an experienced umpires experience but also will take away the sportsmanship from the game.Many times we see a decisions where technically a player is not out but morally it is the other way around and at the helm of such decisions is the drawback of this review system. This may have been the knee jerk reaction of the ICC to the India-Ozzy test series Down
Under but its future looks bleak.

The system, tried out on the English domestic scene in the Friends Provident trophy, was widely thought to be a failure because not one decision was overturned, and many felt TV umpires were reluctant to go against their on-field colleagues. The technology is not foolproof.The ICC has said the Hawkeye software, which will be used by the TV umpire to judge LBWs, can only be used to track the path of the ball up to the point that it strikes the batsmen. The software I do not think takes into account the deviation due wind,rotation of the ball and the seam whereas the human mind involuntarily takes into account all that.

If the review system continues Umpires will be present on the field only to catch the bowlers cap,Sweaters and to tie shoelaces of the batsman.

I was very unhappy that even Indian captain used the review system. It would have been nice example to set and also to say that they respect the umpires decision after all that hullabaloo down under.