Corrupt India

I was a frequest visitor to Mr.Varma's blog, having added a link from my own blog to his. However blogging like anything else is associated with some kinda fashion. We all used to Orkut and now we all Facebook. Saying that we are using this to keep our social lifes alive is lame. Because if that were the case, there was practically no reason to abandon Orkut. Same has happened with Yahoo messenger & Google. However, this post is not about technology and where it is going....

I have started active blogging again...(let see how long i remain active)

I came across a beautiful piece by Mr. Varma here, where he talks about the mis-interperetation of the Lokpal bill. I remember that as india nudge towards the World cup finals and looked promising every other indian on FB had the "Bleed Blue" batch...and soon when the Mr. Hazare went on fast they had "Anti corruption" batches. People would say that this is their way of supporting the cause...but is this really the way? Varma points out in his article that corruption is a symptom and not the diesease itself, which i without doubt agree.

That brings us to the fundamental question why are people corrupt? However, before we can get into that we need to understand a bit better perhaps, what exactly is corruption?

In my view, there is a act of corruption going on, when one gets some undue advantage at anothers cost intentionally. Huh...is that too difficult...Well not really. It is not just about bribes....rules etc...Any act of unjustice that is unpardoned intentionally equates to an act of corruption.

For E.g if i get a mark more than my neighbor for the same answer, just because my mom knows the teacher well ( common in India) and the Teacher did this intentionally...then i am sure the teacher is corrupt. He might not have taken any bribe...but nevertheless he denied someone else something.

Bribes are the next level. I am sure the 1st bribes would have started as a result of favoritism. I have a soft corner for "X" and "X" get some priviledges because of that, Y wants these priviledges so he bribes me ...in terms of money, in terms of praise ( like praising your boss to get a hike) etc...this is where we have the roots of bribe...If machines where to make all the judgements for us based on fixed set of rules...they would be unbaised and which means there would be no way to bribe a machine...For example you cannot bribe the ATM machine to do your transaction faster...But perhaps you can bribe the babu at the bank to ensure that you can get ahead of the queue.

So to add to the suggestions that Varma makes in his blog i would say high use of techonlogy will ensure that there is very little the babu's can do. Will this lead to mass unemployement....Definitly...but then this was earned by the babus by not doing their jobs perfectly when they should have..

Varma says that Govt is involving itself too much into the affairs which it should not. I like the example of 165 licenses to open a hotel ...Well I would say to start with ensure that 164 licenses can be got electronically without human interference...Because in India we have a lot of Internal divide too...The country comes together when we play against Pak a cricket match or when we are at war...Techology infusion at each level is expensive but this is the price we will have to pay for our mistakes in the past.

It is clear that the face of India is going to change in the coming year. I just hope that the face change is for the good...and not just again a fashion thing...like in the past ...

 

 

 

Police, Protests and Death

It is almost a quater of a year since the first protests started in the northern parts of Africa. What started in Tunisia and then quickly spread to major parts of Egypt, thereby tearing apart the tyranny of Hosni Mobarak has now reached the Jordan & Syria. While on one hand Mummer Gaddafi still seems to be defiant about not letting go of the power in Libya, there seems to be a bevy of problems in Uganda where unrest over high food & fuel prices. What does this all show us?

Have the youth and citizens of these countries suddenly realized that they where being tormented and people who ruled them where actually not leaders but leechers....Or is this the "Fist of God" trying to set things right.  It is very sad to see that every day the body count in these battles is increasing, especially in Libya and Syria where the fighting has reached the civilian areas and no respite seems to be visible.

On the other side Nature seems to have also taken a grudge against mankind.....Tusaloosa was halfwiped out by a tornado which is almost a mile wide....It is devastating to see the devastation that it has caused...It just reminds you once again ( after what happened in Japan) that one cannot lock horns with Nature...Its way more powerful.

I guess its high time mankind realizes that we need to start staying together, reduce our conflicts and put aside the differences and build a world that is not just much more friendly for Living but also carries a hope for the future.