rantlust

Posted by riyer on December 08th 2008 in Developing Nations, Disasters, Government, India, USA
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The Bush administration is about to acknowledge that the $10bln it has spent in aid to Pakistan since 9/11 has been “wasted”. This aid was specifically meant to help the US fight terrorism on the Afghanistan border. The report will further state that Pakistan has used all of that money to “build up its army against India” instead of fighting the Taliban and the terrorists on the Afghan border. Of all the mismanaged projects that is the hallmark of the Bush presidency, this has perhaps the gravest impact in terms of global security. Ridiculous as this may sound, it can be argued that the Bush administration has indirectly (if inadvertently) funded the Mumbai attacks.

After all, a part of the Pakistan Military strategy to build its war machine against India is to fund organizations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) - that is critical for Pakistan to keep the insurgency in Pakistan occupied Kashmir - PoK, going. President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent editorial not withstanding, it is well documented that the LeT is actively supported by the Pakistan military and most notably the ISI. It is well known that the LeT actively recruits in the PoK. The chief of the LeT, Hafiz Saeed, in a speech in Karachi, said “There can’t be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them — cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.” So - funding for the Pakistani military has indirectly supported the LeT operations which has funded the Mumbai attacks.

Most responsible parents will tell you that they supervise what their kids spend their $20 allowance on. How come the Bush administration doesn’t bother to watch over $10bln in aid money. Let us hope the Obama administration does a better job managing our tax dollars and global security.

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Posted by riyer on December 05th 2008 in Agriculture, Animals, Business, Developing Nations, Earth, Economics, Environment, Finance, Food & Wine, Government, Politics, USA
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My cow chewing, seal clubbing friends are going to club me for this and it is very likely that my dear wife may throw me out of the house for this one, but here are some things to note from this very fascinating piece titled “Are Cows Worse than Cars”

So the provocative title of this post is worth considering i.e.
If Al is downing as much meat as he appears to be, does that make him any more of an environmentalist than Sarah Palin - with her renowned Moose Chilli and her assertion that global warming is not man-made.

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Posted by tafkap on March 24th 2007 in Celebrity, Developing Nations, Rants, Sports
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Shashi Tharoor had an opinion piece in the NY Times about cricket and American apathy towards it. I must say that it cannot be one of his stronger attempts at writing (actually the only Tharoor I have read is bits and pieces of ‘India from Midnight to the Millenium’). The bottom line of the piece is - Americans are too brutish to get cricket.

Besides being humorless and filled with bromides, (”And the notion that anyone would watch a game that, in its highest form, could take five days and still end in a draw provokes widespread disbelief among results-oriented Americans.”), the piece also demonstrates a blissful ignorance about baseball while making a facile attempt at comparing it with cricket.

In describing the futility of interesting Americans with cricket, he states:

Why try to sell Kiri Te Kanawa to people who prefer Anna Nicole Smith?

Pray tell, which ‘people’ prefer Kiri Te Kanawa to Anna Nicole Smith? Being too much of boor to have heard of Kiri Te Kanawa before this piece, I’d rather not make the acquaintance of these splendid people myself.

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Posted by anupcs on December 10th 2006 in Developing Nations, Humor, India, Rants, Sex
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That cat’s out of the bag. A study has found that Indian men have small penises. Measurements were made across the board and were taken down to the last millimeter. The BBC article linked to above has the following comment from a Sunil Mehra:

It’s not size, it’s what you do with it that matters

You go Sunil.

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Posted by anupcs on November 29th 2006 in Developing Nations, Movies, Rants, World
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“Bloody Americans,” says a North Korean woman when the lights go out in her apartment. Everything from food shortage to lack of power is blamed on American Imperialism in this isolated country. The propaganda machines run at full strength glorifying the virtues of the Great Leader (the late Kim Il Sung) and his buffoonish son, the Dear Leader or the General (Kim Jong Il). We get a rare inside look into the country that very few people visit (I once looked into going here but it requires a lot of paperwork and a guide has to accompany you the entire time) in an interesting, if not captivating, documentary by the BBC called “A State of Mind” (2003).

The documentary follows two young female gymnasts as they prepare for the Mass Games. The Mass Games is a massive performance with thousands of gymnasts, musicians and dancers to show off the communist and patriotic zeal of the country’s hapless citizens. The goal for the performers is to please the General if he bothers to show up. The daily lives and training regimen of these two girls and their families are shown in this film. The people are fed daily propaganda in the form of a single TV channel and a radio which is installed in every dwelling. The radio cannot even be turned off though the volume can be lowered. The Mass Games has to be seen to be believed shaming the massive productions of most Olympic Games opening ceremonies. Even the children believe that their goal in life is to please the General and that every thing that ails their country is due to the Americans.

[tags]north korea, kim jong-il[/tags]

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Posted by crewcut on August 03rd 2006 in Developing Nations, Disasters, India, Rants, Roads
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Till last weekend, I have never seen any place in India with roads that are consistently good everywhere. At best, you will find a few highway stretches on the Golden Quadrilateral that are of international quality. [Great NYT article on the Golden Quadrilateral.]

Over a 3-day sojourn in Goa, I was amazed by the consistent quality of the road surface everywhere I went. There were small things that together made a big difference. A smooth and even pothole-free surface, clear white lines down the middle and on both sides, and lastly small but very clear and standardised signboards at every junction.

Such a simple formula seemed to transform narrow 2-lane roads into a driver’s paradise. Bangalore roads are a nightmare at best. Most roads, even though they are 4-lanes wide, have pockmarked surfaces and unnerving undulations. The lines drawn down the middle look like they were done by Pablo Picasso.

I gave up looking at Bangalore signboards after I saw one that had three arrows pointing to K R Circle, K H Circle, and K G Road. In addition to the information being useless, the signs at each junction are of different sizes, colours, and formats making the process of finding a road sign among the sea of billboards, ads, and shop signs impossible when you have 5 seconds remaining to catch the green signal.

This is all of course if the roads exist after being dug up by various telephone companies running fibre optic cables, works department building sewers, water authorities installing pipes, electric companies laying cables, and locals tapping new water connections. Normally all this activity happens after a new road has been laid.

I travelled around quite a bit and didn’t see a single instance of road damage anywhere in Goa.

The government always blames the poor condition of Kerala’s roads on the monsoon. The monsoon rains in Goa are of no less intensity but the roads look straight out of America. So much for excuses.

When will our other states learn from Goa?

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Posted by anupcs on May 17th 2006 in Developing Nations, India, Society
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Sad. If you believe what the Economist says in one of its recent print editions. While reading the article, I was surprised by the fact that Goa is India’s richest state. (Mental note to self: be nicer to fellow blogger bab.) Less surprising is the fact that Keralites are at the top in alcohol consumption (though every Keralite rantluster would [and should] disagree).

The left wants to unionize the software programmers. As fellow blogger kinnum might say: “Okay, then.”

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Posted by bab on March 30th 2006 in Cars, Developing Nations
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Thanks to good old sugarcane, Brazil is all set to achieve gasoline independence this year. Most of the new cars sold in Brazil are flex cars which are able to run on ethanol, gasoline and blended mixture of the two. Moreover sugarcane ethanol is cheaper to produce than corn ethanol which is used in United States. Brazil also requires all gas stations to provide atleast one ethanol pump. According to NBC news, sugarcane ethanol will remain cheaper than gasoline as long as gasoline stays over $45 a barrel. More here.

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