Oh this is just so fresh!!! The CEO of the world’s largest corporation is taking adivce from the world’s dirstiest politician!!

The Indian Railways’ ‘turnaround’ man Lalu Prasad Yadav got a pat on the back from global giant GE Transport’s chairman Jeffrey R Immelt who lauded the Railway Minister’s initiatives in achieving this objective.

The visiting chairman of the US mega engineering company told the Railway Minister that he was impressed with the Railways turnaround and wanted to know how it was achieved in such a limited time, ministry sources said.

That said it is surprising that Indian Railways was to turn itself around from years of loss to a profit. Someone (and definitly not Lalu Prasad Yadav) has some sense.

I guess now the MSM (main stream media) will finally shift focus to the good, I mean bad, news from Iraq.

Four people, including a U.S. soldier and two members of a CBS News crew, were killed Monday when a bomb ripped through the U.S. military convoy in which they were traveling.

This was just waiting to happen.

While the Hollywood eye candy with the dark sunglasses is paraded before the paparazzi , the real and serious business of the Cannes Film Festival actually takes place in a cavernous basement next door to the grand movie palace. It is called, brutally, The Market.

………..

The reason you should care is that Hollywood studios now sell more of their product overseas than they do at home. Which means that the movies you are offered at the local multiplex — the action-adventure thriller with Tom Cruise set in showy European capitals, and historical swords-and-sandals epics with Brad Pitt in a tunic — are as likely to be made with an audience in Australia or Germany or Japan in mind.

So, the crap that Hollywood generates is now be shoved down the rest-of-the-world’s throat as the Americans are rejecting it. This is what’s called Marketing.

I like this idea.

The Conservative government will bring in legislation to implement fixed dates for federal elections, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.

Mr. Harper told the chamber of commerce the government will introduce a bill next week calling for fixed election dates every four years.

You know what, I am in favour of elections after every 5 years and not 4. I mean by the time the new government is settled down and start introducing policies (that take effect after 2 - 3 years), it’s back to campaigning. Just like in the USA. Almost as soon as the new government is getting into it’s groove, two years later it’s back to relection game. I like the French system. The government is elected for 7 years (although they too have reverted to 5 years now). Atleast their policies take effect while the government that implemented the policies is in power.

So the debate these days in Toronto is whether we Canadians are working too hard and don’t have enough time to relax.

I come from a culture which really values their free time. In India we used to get 22 days vacation (that’s 4 weeks if you factor in the weekends) right away and that number usually increases with number of years you spend in the company. We were also allowed to take all this vacation in one go. Moreover, we were allowed to carry over our leftover vacation up to a certain limit the next year. Furthermore, if you did not want to take the vacation this year you were reimbursed for a part of the vacation. Mind you this was all 5 years ago I am not sure what the culture is like now.

Apart from the vacation, there were 26 statutory holiday!! That’s right, you’ve read correctly. 26 official days off!!! Of course, this number varied quite a lot as quite a few of the official holidays were determined by the state government and not central government. But you get the idea. Workers in India get a lot of time off. And that’s how it was in United Arab Emirates and that’s how it is in most of Europe.

So when I came here to Canada and was told that the holidays and vacation really don’t amount to half of what I got in India, it was quite an eye opener. And if I ever told my boss that I wanted to take my two weeks at the same time, the eyebrows would go up and I would have to explain why I need the full two weeks.

I don’t mind emphasise on work at all. In fact, that’s what was missing in India. Work ethics in India on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best) is probably a 2. This of course is only in the government sector, the private sector is probably a 4. But the work ethic in Canada is a very subtle whipping from the management. You have to get the work done or you are out. It’s as simple as that. And nothing, absolutely nothing, comes in the way of work. Not the family, not an emergency at home, nothing. And it’s not only the company I work for, I have spoken to my friends and family and they all say the same thing. Working in Canada can drive you nuts at times. Which is probably why weekends are so valued in this part of the world. Unless your boss tells you that you are needed over the weekend as well!!

So, I am all for increasing our vacation time.

We tend to see the Iraq war through the lens of CNN, FOX, MSNBC etc who have withheld enough information from us to think that war is a world away. But there are some for whom the war is very, very real. This is their story :

War Is Personal: Carlos Arredondo/Age 45/Roslindale, Massachusetts

The term “I’ll Be A Monkey’s Uncle” has suddenly taken a whole new meaning!!

Humans, chimps may have bred after split

Boston scientists released a provocative report yesterday that challenges the timeline of human evolution and suggests that human ancestors bred with chimpanzee ancestors long after they had initially separated into two species.

The suggestion of interbreeding was met with skepticism by paleontologists, who said they had trouble imagining a successful breeding between early human ancestors, which walked upright, and the chimpanzee ancestors, which walked on all fours. But other scientists said the work is impressive and will probably force a reappraisal of the story of human origins. And one leading paleontologist said he welcomed the research as a sign that new genetic information will yield more clues to our deep history than once thought.

I can almost hear anti-evolutionarys’ heads exploding.

Hi Australian Prime Minister. Welcome to Canada.. What do you think of Canada and Australian relationship ?

Howard sings U.S. praises in Ottawa

Mr. Howard, who arrived in Ottawa directly from a triumphal Washington visit, told a joint session of Parliament that he’s an unapologetic friend and ally of the U.S., which he described as a “remarkable and powerful force for good in the world.”

Moreover, Canada, Australia and other nations should deeply appreciate “the decency and hope that the power and purpose of the United States represents to the world.”

And

Those who would like to see Washington playing a lesser role in world affairs should be careful what they wish for, Mr. Howard said, because “a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world. It would leave a world more exposed to terrorism and would leave a more fragile and, indeed, dangerous world.”

The Australian leader’s laudatory remarks about Washington won warm applause from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Conservative MPs and senators. The applause from Liberal benches was not quite as enthusiastic. NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs sat silently.

For the love of god you are addressing the Canadian parliament which is deeply divivded on the role of US in world politics. Pay a little attention to local politics and show a little class.

So, the movie’s going to come out this weekend and the hype around the movie is building up. You can always figure out what’s the next “new” thing by the number of people indulging in the “new” thing on the GO train to work. When PSP came out, there was always someone next to you fidgeting like the person was having a epilepsy attack. When the Harry Potter books came out there was always someone buried deep in the book. And now Da Vinci is everywhere.

To start off I really hated the book. I read it a year ago and the murder mystery and the “clues” to the mystery within the mystery were too much for me. I too like fiction novels and I love murder mysteries but this book was too sugar-coated with “A = B; B = C; therefore A = C” for my liking.

Having said that, I did like the theory in the book that before Christianity as we know became mainstream, a lot of sects within the movement were trying to promote their own agenda. There was a sect which promoted women as divine beings. The woman, because she perpetuates life, was a goddess to be worshipped. That’s what I found to be an exciting idea in the book. The focus of the general public, I have found, is on the Church greed and not on this central theme of the book. I maybe wrong but most people I have spoken to have not really taken to this fact of the book.

Imagine what the possibilities would have been had women played a far more dominant role in one of the major religions of the world in the last 2000 years. For one the sexual revolution would have probably occurred in 100 AD instead of 1960 AD; there definitely would have been less wars; conflicts would have been easier to resolve; machoism would no have existed in the form it does today; bravado would have been different from the male ego that exists today and a whole lot more.

I wonder if this theme would be shown in the movie? It would be a very brave step on behalf of Ron Howard. Imagine showing that the Church was instrumental in suppressing women on a mainstream movie. I think the Church
is going to go into an overdrive trying to suppress this movie.

Can someone please explain to me what will be accomplished by guarding the Mexican - US border with troops? What will the US military do with the illegal aliens that they capture? Turn them back? What if they refuse? Kill them or detain them? I have no clue what the Bush administration plan of action is in this diplomatic battle?

From BBC :

Nigeria’s president has told security services to uncover the cause of a deadly blast at a pipeline near Lagos.

A spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo said he had ordered a thorough police investigation and increased protection for other pipelines. Some 2,000 people have died in similar incidents in Nigeria in recent years.

Yeah. Like they have solved all the acts of sabotage and crimes for the previous thousands who have died. And who supports these leaders? Why, it’s the western countries. What a bunch of baloney.

Wonder how the international community will react to this

Concerned over a humanitarian crisis brewing in West Bank and Gaza, India, on Saturday, announced assistance worth $2 million (Rs 100 million) to help the Palestinians reeling under a crippling economic boycott imposed by the West against the Hamas-led government.

The assistance, in response to a request by the Palestinian authorities, will be mostly in the form of medicines and medical supplies.

With the Israel and US and most of the international community blocking aid to the Palestinians this is in basically aligning to Russia’s diplomatic overtures of Hamas. The history of Palestinians and India has always been strong diplomatically so there is no way that help could have been refused if it was requested. Anyway, the form of help is such that the international community is bound to look the other way.

MPAA training police dogs to sniff out DVDs

“FedEx was glad to assist in Lucky and Flo’s first live test in a working situation. They were amazingly successful at identifying packages containing DVDs, which were opened and checked by HM Customs’ representatives. While all were legitimate shipments on the day, our message to anyone thinking about shipping counterfeit DVDs through the FedEx network is simple: you’re going to get caught.”

Kinda makes me thing twice about shipping anything through FedEX. Seriously, this is like training drug dogs to find plastic bags.

Talk about learning from the Republican Party :

Ministers in the new Conservative government have been warned they could be banned from travelling, publicly humiliated or even fired for verbal gaffes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is determined not to have his agenda derailed and his ministers have been made aware they will face punishment for loose-lipped indiscretions.

Opponents might call it muzzling. Tories call it discipline.

Where did I hear that Indian’s are so clannish that they always elect the politician’s sons and daughters. Well, well, well look who’s just turned clannish?

The second — and current — President Bush suggested yesterday that his younger brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would make a “great president.”

If that sounds familiar, the Bush brothers’ father, former president George H.W. Bush, made a similar statement last year, telling CNN’s Larry King that Jeb Bush would be “awfully good” as president.

This ex-pastor really should have kept his trap shut. Think before you say something stupid, man.

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott resigned Wednesday as chairman of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee over remarks he made suggesting Supreme Court judges play God with the law.

His exact controversial comment :

“They (supreme court judges) take on these almost god-like powers. And (McLachlin) said that herself. I didn’t say that.”

And look at this

Harper’s choice of the former pastor for the chairman’s job stirred earlier protest because the MP had defended two Saskatoon policemen convicted of dumping a native man on the outskirts of town in freezing weather, forcing him to walk home.

Graham called it “outrageous” that Harper chose someone who, he said, holds stereotypical views of aboriginals to lead the committee.

I subscribe to the daily article from Wikipedia. And a few days ago an article was listed on, you guessed it, the novel by Robert Heinlein called Starship Troopers.

I first read this novel sometime in 2000. The reason I picked it up was because I had just finished watching the movie and wanted to see if the book (which I had heard was a critically acclaimed book) was as bad as the movie. I was pleasantly surprised. The book was nothing like that god-awful movie. Since then I have read the book 3 times (cover to cover) and I often go through a chapter every now and then.

The most striking (some say controversial) thing about the book is it’s blend of politics and war. The book is littered with argument in favour of going to war where there are international (in the book interspecies) issues. War is preferred to negotiations.

But that’s not what’s controversial about the book. What’s controversial is the fact that (in the book) the populace is divided into a tiered populace. Only those at the top of the tier are permitted to vote and to hold public office. To be able to be permitted to vote or to hold a public office, a person needs to have spent time in the armed forces. That’s what caused a big debate in the 50’s when the book came out (not in the mainstream press as science fiction was read by a small segment of the population in the 50s. Actually it’s still read by a small segment of the population). In the book, all the populace has the right to privacy, right to free speech, right to form unions etc. but only discharged veterans had the right to vote and hold office.

This was, needless to say, a radical idea in the US in the 50’s when the debate of democracy VS communism was at it’s peak. For someone in US to say that democracy as practiced in the US was imperfect was to throw gasoline into a fire. Moreover, at that point the whole debate in science circles was being carried out whether to pursue weapons arming program to deter communism or to pursue peaceful method of intervention. Heinlein, as I found later, was a fierce anti-communist and an ardent support of Nuclear weapons, wrote this book to expound on his theories. His theory that not only should democracies be ready to use violence when required but also that the democracy needs to be "controlled". And that’s basically what caused a huge row.

So, why is it that half century later this book is still being discussed. Because it’s even more relevant now than ever before. What kind of governance is the best governance? Democracy? Communism? Dictatorship? Fascism? Or a mixture of all of them?  I think the true answer is "no one knows". But what I do know is that if any type of government infringes on the right of the individual it is on the right way to the bottom of the hole. The right of the individual is paramount to all. Yes, there have been numerous studies about how we should work for the whole rather than self but that theory has been discredited. And the last 75 years have numerous examples on why the focus on the whole rather than the individual does not work. That rules out communism, fascism and dictatorship.

Democracy has huge problems as well but it’s the best known method to let an individual be within certain limits and those limits are known as laws. Democracy cannot function if the individual ignores the laws and the authorities, within the confines of the laws, punish the offending individual. Who are these authorities? They are elected by the general population. The population decides who amongst them will enforce the law of the land. But that’s where the rub is. Is the general population of the land intelligent enough to elect true leaders? Heinlein says, the answer is no. The population today is allowed to vote the moment they achieve the age of 18. But Heinlein said "prove that you are a true citizen by undergoing these tests (ed: which he, unfortunately, limited to military service only) and then you will be eligible to not only vote but also hold public office." Why is it relevant today? Because we have seen that our leaders today are just the most shinning apples from a box of rotting apples. They misuse their power to the point of being labelled dictators and they continue doing so. And there is no end to it.

I know that the theory that Heinlein expounds is just a theory (it has huge holes in it like would genuine leaders like Mahatma Ghandi who are against all forms of violence be elect able?) but it is an attempt to try and understand how to come up with the best way to govern.

I urge you to read this novel.

4 men beat; rob 91-year-old homeowner

Police in Ottawa are asking for the public’s help after four masked men stormed into the home of a 91-year-old man, tied him up and beat him before making off with his money.

UPDATED. See below.

Do you think this would have been possible 2 years ago :

Anti-war protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday, and one of them, a former CIA analyst, accused him in a question-and-answer session of lying about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Of course, trust the main stream media to media to cover this guffaw dilligently.

When this happens, you know things are going from bad to ugly.

Mob celebrates after helicopter reportedly shot down by missile

A mob of Iraqis quickly gathered near the smoking wreckage yesterday, dancing in celebration at the reported deaths of at least four crew members. Some 250 people, many of them teenagers, jubilantly pumped their fists. When British soldiers arrived in hopes of rescuing the copter crew, the crowd unleashed a hail of stones and hurled firebombs while chanting, “We are all soldiers of al-Sayed” — referring to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who is an ardent foe of foreign troops in Iraq.

This was not an organised death celebration. This was a group of on lookers who were celebrating the death of a perceived enemy. The onlookers became a mob with no instigation by the leaders of the area. When a death is celebrated like this, you know things are going bad despite the wingers’ links on their posts to new schools and hospitals.