Feast for Thought

Thursday's events have thrown up a humongous demand for LEADERSHIP. Not only in political space, but in the media as well - while all channels relayed events as is, many of them did not refrain from one-upmanship brownie points with claims like "our reporter was the first...", "these are exclusive pictures..", "we are bringing these to you live...". Several bigwigs had their bytes prominently relayed by starved reporters. A few channels left their ad space and time intact - the viewer is a consumer after all! Media gave themselves a free hand, and have assumed that they are beyond regulation. The watchdog is actually a giant rat greedy for a large piece of the cheese. (The exception seems to be a series of meaningful discussions moderated by Omkar Goswami in a business channel ) We need leaders who can inspire and innovate, and we need change! Since November 4 , I've been trying to compile a list of 'IDEAL 552 ', and find myself ve...

Magsaysay award winner P Sainath writes that "The New York Times notes ruefully in a lead editorial: “Just weeks after the Treasury Department gave nine of the nation’s top banks $125 billion in taxpayer dollars to save them from unprecedented calamity, bank executives are salting money away in billionaire bonus pools to reward themselves for their performance.” Other bailout bandits have held meetings at resorts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars." Read The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park Auto giants, related sectors, and other oversized Inc. have, over decades, "destroyed both existing and potential public transport. The ‘American Dream’ so far as the automobile went was an imposed nightmare. In Detroit itself, you can see the skeletons of a once alive transport system. All across the country, for decades from the 1920s, they bought up public transport systems and shut them down. Trains were shifted from electric to diesel engines. Sometimes, they were simply done a...

If today is Happy Children's Day , I wish you 365 days of happy children, and childhood!

An illustration of how many people end up buying what they don't need (can't use?!) Foreword: You may have received this forward, attributed to 'an old man with old thoughts'. (If you have, please skip to bottom of post). " LATELY, I have been thinking a lot about the Lehman crisis. Spending money that they didn't have and going beyond their means is one of the main reasons for their situation today. In fact that is the cause for the current economic crisis in the US. When I see all this happening, I can only remember the good old days. Then, karz was bad. People looked down upon those who took loans. Parents would not give their daughter's hand in marriage to a man with loans. But of course, the times have changed now. Everyone I know has a loan. The buzz word is EMI (equated monthly installment). Today, you can buy everything on EMI - a house, a television, an i-Pod. In fact I know of someone who just bought a fancy BMW 3 series on EMI, instead of buying ...

A decade from now, this is how I wish to remember November 5 of a certain year. "1. The Government announced the award of  Bharat Ratna  to  Pandit Bhimsen Joshi . The newspapers gave him a 1/2 inch space. No channel resounded with his music. A kid's voice could be heard - Who is he , mom? (Image from India Today site) Salutations to the Maestro. 2. The Ganga has been declared as National River. Best wishes to the Ganga River Basin Authority - may they work with sincerity of purpose to stop pollution and degradation. The newspaper allowed Ganga to take up a little more space. Perhaps one can feel much happier when listening to Bhupen Hazarika's Ganga behti ho kyon 3. (The thought occured that)  the White House in a certain Nation  could be renamed a Half-White House. The newspapers and the channels went disproportionately overboard." Image from infoplease.com