Racism Card of Ponting - Letter send to the Editor - MX

Ponting accuses India of racism, wow! (MX 18th Oct). Let's dig out. As we all know, racism is discriminating against, or vilifying, a person because of his/her race. The question here to ask, "was the crowd making monkey noises being racist, or was that just harmless fun? (I am talking about the the first one at Vadhora, which spurred the whole debate).

Ponting says that the monkey's color is dark and so it is aimed at dark-skinned Symonds. What Ponting thinks of the color of the "so called" abusers. Symonds was the only person in the entire Australian team whom the spectators could easily identify with. Moreover, almost all of the West Indian players have always commanded respect from millions of Indian cricket fans for their great cricketing skills and decent behavior. Then what went wrong? As Indian officials said the Indian fans might have targeted Symonds just because of his heated exchanges with Indian bowlers Harbhajan Singh and Shantakumaran Sreesanth. It has got nothing to do with his race.

Cricket was a gentlemen's game until "some teams" made racial slurs and sledging an art and tactics in the field to intimidate their opponents to win few games. So, Ponting, we also hope that that does not happen again in any another cricket match, because it leaves bad taste to everybody's mouth. Let's play decent, good cricket, free of sledging in the field, and that will show the crowds an example. Good luck.

US Sub-prime Mortgage Crunch!

We were hearing a lot about this. The sub-prime credit crunch in US causes recession in US economy (they say that its a 'global' recession).

I was just after it... just to know what really is it.

few reflections: I got the definition for sub-prime credit from Wiki. It goes like this:

Sub-prime lending, also called B-paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, is the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history.

Which means they were lending money to people who were not supposed to get it.

What does that mean? Banks had to lend money to keep the business moving. Thay had already squeezed the elite class (those had money). So they started to sell it to sub-prime class.

Now they are telling that those loans were too risky and not being paid back. In the discussion forum in BBC, a mortgage lender was saying that most of the sub-prime clients were fake! (like, show some building just to get the loan and abandon it and do not pay for it)

So now all the blame goes to the 'sub-prime' clients! The so-called poor in the society. They create the crisis! They are the thief!

It the irony. Every were the poor and weak suffer and accused for all the trouble.

BIG QUESTION is, is that those poor sub-prime clients the real culprits?

I don't think so. The answers would lie between the lines rather than on the line: sub-prime credit crunch.

What I think is this: the US economy was experiencing a kind of vacuum because of their vast spendings - the very principle of consumerism. They spend spend and spend. But the spending was backed by CREDIT rather than what they actually had. (The life and work of most of the Americans are already pledged to these mortgage/credit banks for years to come, as we all know). Further the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also must have squeezed US reserves.

What US govt could do was just print print and print dollars. But in order to support that (support the value of money) they wanted more and more economic activity (demand for dollar. without demand no value! basic demand and supply theory). The govt along with the architects of war and US had carefully lured the 'sub-prime' clients to catch this bait. The so called poor, they caught the bait, most probably for inflated value for a piece of land or housing on a high interest rate.

But this cannot go on for ever. Now all on a sudden the market forces (which was much anticipated) realizes that the value of their assets are overestimated and to be 'adjusted'. US dollar weakens, the value of their assets gone, but the credit and the high interest rate remain the same!

Now, either the 'sub-prime' clients have to work their ass out to repay the loans or be branded as 'thiefs'.

I think, its all a new form of slavery!

Dancing with the Chinese!

The other day I had beautiful trip with Lili and Gourav. We had some good moments of sharing and dance!

Dancing with the CHINESE!

I think its high time to dance with the Chinese. Both India and Chinese are great civilizations and geographical neighbours. They both are poised to become the first and the third largest economies in the world within the next 25 years.

There might have some misunderstandings in the past - some border issues! But it is not unresolvable. Both India and China should have the maturity and wisdom to solve it amicably in the wider interests of both countries.

After all, what's the point in having mistrust between two world players of the upcoming world when they have to live very next to each other?

As somebody said, "the best way to eliminate your enemy is to make him/her your friend!"

Lily (she is actually "Yao") agreed with us completely. She is a lovely gal (all the Chinese guys I met here are beautiful... I don't understand why WE didn't understand them early) . If the yellow and the brown are united, there's more chances of hope and prosperity in the world (at least in 'their part of the world'.. hi hi).

I've started to learn Chinese.

Zai Chian (bye bye)

Blue Print of Success (in the words of Jesus!)

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Carefully read these words of Jesus:


He said to them: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast our demons; they will speak new languages; they will pick up snakes in their hands and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick; and they will recover.
(Mark 16: 15-18)

This passage is interpreted in many ways, especially, in relation to the need of evangelization and with respect to the mode of evangelization. If we can consider Jesus as a triumphant victor at the scene of ascension, we can also interpret this passage in relation to his personal success. If we are willing to see it in the new light of positive thinking, we will be able to find the secrets of Jesus’ personal success through this important commission. Jesus’ words can be understood and interpreted like this:

This is the good news: You can be saved or can win in your personal life, if you are ready to dream and believe. The signs or characteristics of those winners will be the following:

They will have the positive attitude. They will cast out the demons, that is, they will cast away all negative attitudes. They will start to speak a new language of positive thinking.

They will have the positive vision. They will pick up risks and challenges in their lives, which are as dangerous as snakes in appearance. Even if they fail for a few times, they will successfully come out of it, for none of the dangerous drinks can hurt them.

They will choose the positive actions that they will lay their hands on the sick so that the fruits of their success shall go into the hands of the poor and the needy in the society. It is done through selfless service and charity.

This is the simple plan of Jesus for those aspire for great successes in their lives.

Positive Attitude
Positive vision
Positive action

For all these three notions, there is one thing in common. They all are positive. This ‘positiveness’ is the fundamental orientation of Jesus. It is the positive approach of Jesus towards his life.

Church Apology

During a friendly chat, my beloved auxiliary bishop of Melbourne pointed out that the Church had made an official apology regarding the Cathedral event. The Church did apologize for the 'the language and remarks made by the priest'.

The text goes like this: Monsignor Tomlinson said “I apologise unreservedly for the language and remarks made by the priest. I have spoken to him and as you would imagine he is very distressed by what has taken place and deeply regrets the way in which he reacted to the behaviour of the youths.”

That is a good thing which I was not aware till date. It was in the official website of the Melbourne Archdiocese and dated 27th July. I wrote my article on 28th.

But this apology was not made public by any of the leading media groups. That's selective reporting!

However, there were no efforts from the part of Church to make clear its position by reiterating its position in the mainstream media.

I'm sorry for not reading the official response of the Church at its website. But the circumstances in which I wrote the letter remain the same - Church did not have the visibility in denouncing the remarks made by the Dean and the philosophy behind it in public.

Ballarat!

We - Gourav, Lili n me had a wonderful trip to Ballarat - the Gold capital of Victoria, yesterday. It was wonderful! We spend almost all day at the 'Sovereign Hills', where they have re-created and re-enacted the 18th cent. Ballarat, during the gold-rush.

The most beautiful experience was the time we spend with Maurine and Laurine - the gracious lady actors at the Hills. They were sooooo warm and hospitable. We enjoyed talking to them. Thank you ladies for making our trip memorable.

iNdIa - ChArgeS AhEAd

Here is an impressive edition of Time Magazine on India (note on all editions, except US ). It is a special report on India as it celebrates its 60th Independence Day (on August 15).

As an Indian, I feel proud of it - what is been said in the magazine. It is not that we need a compliment from a magazine to acknowledge what we are, rather it is because that they are able to see the history and spirit of India from 'corrected' point of view.

I wish the Australian media could reach there before yesterday!