Desi In Toronto

January 28, 2007

Conservatism

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 7:53 pm

Aah!! Conservatives. No matter how much you hide, the true conservative nature always srings forth. Here is Harper’s administration demonstrating their maturity:

The Conservatives unveiled three new television ads Sunday attacking Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, a day before members of Parliament return to the House of Commons.

They also criticize Dion’s record as environment minister, charging that greenhouse gas emissions went up and air quality went down under his watch between 2004 and 2006.

In response to the ads, Dion told CBC News, “[Harper] wants to spend all this money to try to attack me in a very negative way, and it’ll backfire.”

“Canadians will not be impressed by that.”

I don’t know about that. I mean if you repeat a lie enough number of times, it becomes a fact. E.g. Kerry was labeled “flip-flopper” when in fact his record was anything but that of a flip flopper. But by the end of the 2004 presidential campaign that’s what he was called by all baring none.

As with everything else Conservatives are attacking the opposition in Canada in exaclty the same way as Republicans do in the USA.

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 9:28 am

I know that bollywood usually makes real woozy movies but over the last few years the industry has started to make a real comeback. And one of the prominent actors participating in this resurgence is the legend Amitabh Bachchan. The doyen of Indian cinema. He made a comeback into cinema more out of need than practice his art but, wow, what a comeback. He gave his best performances since the 70s and early 80s. In 1999 he was named the greatest star of the millennium beating the likes of De Niro and Lawrence Olivier. And now he has another feather in his cap :


Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan has been awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the Legion d’Honneur.

The award was presented to the actor at a function at the French embassy in the Indian capital, Delhi.

Ambassador Dominique Girard said it was in recognition of the “quality and height of his achievement”.

Bachchan topped a 1999 BBC News website poll to find the greatest star of the millennium, beating the likes of Marlon Brando and Charlie Chaplin.

The actor’s career spans almost 40 years. He has acted in more than 140 movies.

Describing him as a “towering Indian personality” and the “number-one actor of Indian cinema”, Ambassador Girard said the award “brings him [Bachchan] into the international legion of world’s greatest artistes”.

In 2000, Bachchan became the first Bollywood star to have a wax statue at Madame Tussaud’s museum in London.

The Legion d’Honneur was instituted in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Among those who have received the award in the past are Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and French actor, Gerard Depardieu.


January 27, 2007

Genius Or Lucky

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 5:11 pm

There had been rumblings in the IT industry that the Moore’s Law in the chip industry is now going to be invalid. As most of you know that the Moore’s Law is:

The most popular formulation is of the doubling of the number of transistors on integrated circuits every 18 months. At the end of the 1970s, Moore’s Law became known as the limit for the number of transistors on the most complex chips. However, it is also common to cite Moore’s Law to refer to the rapidly continuing advance in computing power per unit cost, because increase in transistor count is also a rough measure of computer processing power.

But looks like the man was a genius. Or was he plain lucky? Guess we will never know.

Intel Corp. and IBM have announced one of the biggest advances in transistors in four decades, overcoming a frustrating obstacle by ensuring microchips can get even smaller and more powerful.

The breakthrough, achieved via separate research efforts and announced Friday, involves using an exotic new material to make transistors — the tiny switches that are the building blocks of microchips.

The technology involves a layer of material that regulates the flow of electricity through transistors.

“At the transistor level, we haven’t changed the basic materials since the 1960s. So it’s a real big breakthrough,” said Dan Hutcheson, head of VLSI Research, an industry consultancy.

“Moore’s Law was coming to a grinding halt,” he added, referring to the industry maxim laid down by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years.

The result of Moore’s Law has been smaller and faster chips and their spread into a wide array of consumer products that now account for the bulk of the industry’s $250 billion in annual sales.

Ho…Hmmm

Filed under: Social Studies — agsharma @ 12:33 am

A rant…..

Another racial incident on TV.

The popular British reality show “Celebrity Big Brother” has had plenty of disputes in the past, but none of them have sparked more of a debate outside the walls of the house than the past week’s events. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has been seen as a victim of racism in the house after verbal attacks from her house mates.

And that set the ball rolling. Politicians, media, mothers, fathers, children etc. all got involved on how the show is bringing out the racist in the contestants. The Indian TV news channels had nothing else but the row on Big Brother.


But my question is, what’s new?

Racism exists in all societies. I have faced it here in the “multi-culturistic” society of Toronto. My non-white friends have faced it in Toronto and other parts of Canada and USA.

Everyone is a closet racist.

Heck, no one is more racist than an Indian!! Talk to one north Indian about south Indians and you will hear the words “darkies (in Hindi, of course) “at least 10 times in one minute. Ask an Indian about Africans and you will be shocked and surprised to hear the words “Nigger” from the chocolate folks of the “divine” country.

I think there is nothing wrong in showing the true nature of human beings via TV. I abhor reality TV but if a social issue is on display, hell, let it play out cause that’s what we are….stupid, low brow humans. To have the media jump up and down and salivate on a complete non-issue like this is stupid and degrading to their professions (as if they could be “degraded” further!!). This is exactly what an Indian politician and other personalities need. They will say :

“Those westerners have no culture.”

“These are the western values. We should teach them about values.”

In the meantime in India people are dying of hunger, children are being forced in prostitution, wives are being burnt for lack of dowry, poverty is rampant and spreading. No one gives a shit about that news. Our rich celebrity is being bullied in a show (that paid her a retainer) so let us all rally to her defense.

And, oh the 3 year old girl eating garbage in front of our house, hell, at least she is eating. Switch on the TV.

I think this article has it absolutely right.

Claims that Indian actress Shilpa Shetty was bullied and subjected to racist taunts by other contestants made headlines around the world.

More than 40,000 people complained to British media watchdog Ofcom, questions were asked in the House of Commons and protests were held in India.

“This was in danger of being the most boring BB that we’d had in many years - maybe ever,” Lygo told Broadcast magazine. “We were thinking ‘Oh dear - what can we do?’

“And then suddenly … this argument erupted which was taken on by the media and erupted into this extraordinary story.”
……………..

While one minister accused Channel 4 of passing off racism as entertainment, Mr Lygo said it was “fantastic” the show had sparked a debate on racism in Britain.

“Would I prefer it had been raised in the beautifully controlled perfect way of (current affairs program) Dispatches? Yes - but it’s not going to cause this sort of debate,” he said.

January 14, 2007

Lack Of News?

Filed under: Social Studies — agsharma @ 10:00 pm

This has made news 24/7 for the last few days in the US

What? No more missing white chicks?

<Link>

The families of two boys kidnapped four years apart and found in the same suburban St. Louis apartment said Saturday their rescue was the end of a nightmare.

The boys’ parents clung to them at two news conferences Saturday and focused on their joy at the startling outcome, saying little about the 41-year-old man charged in the case or how the teens were treated.

Man, I swear I am going to hell. Good for the family, though. I would kill myself or the kidnapper if something like this happened to me.

Only In USA

Filed under: Social Studies — agsharma @ 9:58 pm

<Link>

A 27-year-old mother of three has died of water intoxication after competing in a Sacramento radio station contest where people attempted to drink as much water as they could without peeing.

Jennifer Strange was found dead in her suburban Rancho Cordova home shortly after participating in the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest, held by KDND 107.9 on Friday.

Strange had told friends she was hoping to win the prize, a Nintendo Wii video game, for her kids.

It’s not known how much water she consumed but contestants started out drinking 240 millilitres of water every 15 minutes before graduating to larger amounts.

Why, oh why are we so fucking materialistic? Having said that, a free Wii is quite appealing!!

Razzle Dazzle - Indian Style

Filed under: Social Studies — agsharma @ 9:48 pm

So, a movie from Bollywood was screened for the first time in North America.

Two of Indian cinema’s biggest stars took the red carpet in Toronto on Thursday night, thrilling South Asian film fans and sparking many to dub the city Bollywood West.
………………
Organizers billed Thursday evening’s premiere as the first time a Bollywood film has ever debuted outside India.
………………
Both the producers of Guru and Toronto officials have cited the city’s large South Asian community and culture of movie aficionados as reasons for the premiere.

Trying to bring some “Indian” culture to the west, eh? Well, the true introduction to “Indian culture” was :

Indian megastars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai arrived several hours late for the gala premiere of their new film Guru. But the estimated 1,200 fans didn’t seem to mind, devotedly standing and screaming for the two actors outside Toronto’s Elgin Theatre.

(highlighted by me)

See, Indians as a rule never value your time. The higher you are in the social strata, the more ignorant you become to the common person’s value. And that true of Bollywood stars, politicians, bureaucrats etc. etc. etc.

Today’s Youth

Filed under: Society — agsharma @ 4:35 am

This is a really good article on today’s youth.

Teen angst is nothing new, and neither is rebellion. And many indicators show that most young Canadians are doing quite well — graduation rates are up, and teenage pregnancies down. But a significant minority has gone another way. Social shifts are partly to blame, but alarming numbers of these underachievers are coming from the country’s better educated, more privileged families.
………..
Many people in their 20s prefer to put off jumping into the job market for as long as possible, Dr. Korenblum notes, sometimes until 30 or beyond. ”There is a fear of failure and of growing up,” he says.
………..
A recently released Statistics Canada report confirms that young people now are nearly three times more likely to move back home than their parents were: ”Although many parents may be unprepared for this ‘blast from the past,’ an adult child returning home has become a fairly common, predictable event in family life.”

So, what’s wrong with these kids? The thing that struck me in the article was this para….

Today, 63 per cent of high-school students believe that they will have professional careers, as doctors, lawyers or accountants. Yet only 20 per cent actually end up there.

And that’s what is inherently wrong with the society. I firmly believe this “angst” is not today’s youth problem rather a problem created by parents and the society as a whole. The pressure to conform to an image (especially successful parents’ image) is incredible. And when the children do not become what their parents hoped for, trouble begins. I went through this and I think I managed to dig myself out of the hole. But I remember staring into the abyss of “non-achievement” and almost took that path. And taking the path is far easier than anchoring down and taking some responsibility for your life. Parenting is not easy but to assume your kids will be everything you were and judge them with that criteria is absolutely wrong.

January 1, 2007

Who Is Your Daddy Now?

Filed under: Uncategorized — agsharma @ 8:50 am

This is a description of Saddam Hussein’s execution. The curious part came somewhere in the middle of the article.

The general prosecutor asked Mr. Hussein to whom he wanted to give his Koran. He said Bandar, the son of Awad al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court who was also to be executed soon.

The room was quiet as everyone began to pray, including Mr. Hussein. “Peace be upon Mohammed and his holy family.”

Two guards added, “Supporting his son Moktada, Moktada, Moktada.”

Mr. Hussein seemed a bit stunned, swinging his head in their direction.

They were talking about Moktada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose militia is now committing some of the worst violence in the sectarian fighting; he is the son of a revered Shiite cleric, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, whom many believe Mr. Hussein ordered murdered.

“Moktada?” he spat out, mixing sarcasm and disbelief.

Is Moktada al-Sadr the new leader/dictator/saviour of Iraq? If that lunatic is, then Iraq is completely in doldrums.

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