Boston Marathon Bombing

I am still not able to understand rationale or logic of these bombings. I think lot of answers are yet to come, but still why will anyone from Chechnya will support or sponsor this operation.. is beyond my comprehension. Two suspects of Chechen origin are/were good kids with more or less flawless record. Don't know how they got into this mess. It has to be extremely powerful brainwash to recruit these kids.

Moreover, Why will any Chechen rebel group support this? They already have big and strong enemy in Kremlin. why will they create another powerful enemy who is known to be ruthless when it comes to protecting themselves. Politically it doesn't make any sense.

I can understand Al-Qaida's support behind this operation.. If somehow, they get Chechen rebels involved into this mess or their mess.. and US goes behind Chechen rebels as well.. it will give or rather gift Chechen rebels to Al-Qaida.. But for Chechen rebels.. it is loose loose situation..

Either I am too naive to see the bigger picture here..or there is something wrong with entire story so far.. I simply can't understand logic for Chechen support behind these bombings.. I am sure there is someone else behind this who wants either Chechen Rebels to work with Al Qaida or simply want Chechen rebels to be finished.. there has to be more on this.. I strongly feel that these guys were used as front to do such heinous act.

Lastly, let us say if these two brothers didn't had any support from any terrorist organization and they pulled this entire thing on their own.. then there is fundamentally something wrong with system out here.

If two kids can create such big scare and following events like complete shut down of a city like Boston.. then Congress needs to act and clean up this mess they have created.. If this is the case, then this is even bigger event than Connecticut school shooting incidence couple of months ago. That had more sentimental value but this has even bigger strategic value in terms of scare and terrorism any one can create with available guns and ammunition.. If Congress/Senate failed to pass any gun measure and can ignore the Connecticut School shooting incidence, they definitely can't ignore this event. I hope that they are getting this message loud and clear..

What is this all non sense in the name of God..

There is say in my native language hindi... "Suraj ke upar thooko ge to thook tumhare upar girega" In english translation... "if you spit on Sun, it will come back to you".. almost.. some convicted fellow or moron says something about someone who is ultimate God for you.. your God won't become what the convicted fellow says.. God will remain God.. it is up to you to define your God.. not on some one else..

This is totally relevant for Muslim world.. all the recent events only show their insecurity.. their ignorance.. any tom-dick-harry says anything about Islam or Prophet Muhammad.. doesn't mean Islam or Prophet Muhammad will become what this tom-dick-harry says.. Prophet Muhammad is Prophet Muhammad and will always remain so.. if you think he is supreme God for you he will remain.. He won't become something else.. just because some convicted fellow says something else about him..

Come on guys... wake up.. stop dreaming and come out of your cocoon.. there are seven or eight billion people in this planet earth.. in this era of internet.. you have to face it... you can start picking up fight for every tom-dick-harry's every statement.. and spend life just doing this.. or you can simply ignore it work towards better life for yourself and your fellow citizens.. We can say tens or thousands of things about this situation and blame each other for millions or zillions reasons.. there is no end to it.. just.. just.. Chill.. there is some thing called ignorance.. ignore.. morons.. and move on.. It is such a short life.. such a beautiful earth.. so fortunate to have this life.. enjoy life.. don't destroy life..

I personally, being an atheist.. hate all this violence in the name of god.. Whatever I understand religion.. God is suppose to bring peace to this world.. not the hatred and violence.. if et all he or she exists.. in which ever form..

Sorry about this touchy topic.. but that is the reason for this blog... to express my feelings.. I am against all kind of violence in any form.. I somehow feel that with the progress all around.. we are getting more and more greedy and fearful.. which is driving all this fanatism towards religion..

VIDEO-FUELED ANGER SPREADS

ANTI-U.S. PROTESTS GO BEYOND MIDEAST

By Rick Gladstone

New York Times

Anti-American rage that began this week over a video insult to Islam spread to nearly 20 countries across the Middle East and beyond Friday, with violent and sometimes deadly protests that convulsed the birthplaces of the Arab Spring revolutions, breached two more U.S. embassies and targeted diplomatic properties of Germany and Britain.

The broadening of the protests appeared to reflect a pent-up resentment of Western powers in general and defied pleas for restraint from world leaders, including the new Islamist president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, whose country was the instigator of the demonstrations that erupted three days earlier on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The anger stretched from North Africa to South Asia and Indonesia and in some cases was surprisingly destructive. In Tunis, a U.S.-run school that was untouched during the revolution nearly two years ago was completely ransacked. In eastern Afghanistan, protesters burned an effigy of President Barack Obama, who had made an outreach to Muslims a thematic pillar of his first year in office.

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GAZA CITY: Palestinian Hamas supporters burn a U.S. flag to protest a video ridiculing the Islamic religion.

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DHAKA: Islamic activists pray during a protest. Anger spread beyond the Middle East to nearly 20 countries.

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ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE: The bodies of four Americans came home.

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CAIRO: A protester braves tear gas, preparing to throw stones.

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AFGHANISTAN: Protesters shout anti-American slogans.

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The State Department confirmed that protesters had penetrated the perimeters of the U.S. embassies in the Tunisian and Sudanese capitals, and said that 65 embassies or consulates had issued emergency messages about threats of violence, and that those facilities in Islamic countries were curtailing diplomatic activity. The Pentagon said it dispatched Marines to protect embassies in Yemen and Sudan. 

The wave of unrest not only increased concern in the West but also raised new questions about political instability in Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle East countries where newfound freedoms, once suppressed by autocratic leaders, have given way to an absence of authority. The protests also seemed to highlight the unintended consequences of U.S. support of movements to overthrow those autocrats, which have empowered Islamist groups that remain implacably hostile to the West. 

“We have, throughout the Arab world, a young, unemployed, alienated and radicalized group of people, mainly men, who have found a vehicle to express themselves,” Rob Malley, the Middle East-North African program director for the International Crisis Group, a consulting firm, said in a telephone interview from Tripoli, Libya. 

In a number of these countries, particularly Egypt and Tunisia, he said, “the state has lost a lot of its capacity to govern effectively. Paradoxically, that has made it more likely that events like the video will make people take to the streets and act in the way they did.” 

Some of the most serious violence targeted the compound housing the German and British embassies in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, causing minor damage to the British property but major fire damage to the German one. The foreign ministers of both countries strongly protested the assault, which The Associated Press said had been instigated by a prominent sheik exhorting protesters to storm the German Embassy to avenge what he called anti-Muslim graffiti on Berlin mosques. 

The police fired tear gas to drive off the attacks in Khartoum, where about 5,000 demonstrators had massed, news reports said, before they moved on to the U.S. Embassy on the outskirts of the capital. 

In Tunis, the U.S. Embassy was assaulted at midday by protesters who smashed windows and set fires before security forces routed them in violent clashes that left at least three dead and 28 injured. Witnesses and officials said no Americans were injured, and most had left earlier. 

The worst damage was inflicted on the American Cooperative School of Tunis, a highly regarded institution that, despite its name, catered mostly to the children of non-American expatriates, nearly half of whom work for the African Development Bank. School officials, who had sent the 650 pupils home early, said a few protesters scaled the fence and dismantled monitoring cameras, followed by 300 to 400 others, who set the building on fire. 

“It’s ransacked,” the director, Allan Bredy, said in a telephone interview. “We were thinking it was something the Tunisia government would keep under control. We had no idea they would allow things to go as wildly as they did.” 

Witnesses in Cairo said protests that first flared Tuesday grew in scope Friday, with protesters throwing rocks and gasoline bombs near the U.S. Embassy and the police firing tear gas. The Egyptian media said more than 220 people had been injured in clashes so far. 

In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, where J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador, and three other Americans were killed Tuesday, militias fired rockets at what they thought were U.S. drones overhead, prompting the government to temporarily close the airport. The bodies of Stevens and the others killed were returned to the United States on Friday. 

In Lebanon, where Pope Benedict XVI was visiting, one person was killed and 25 injured as protesters attacked restaurants. There was also turmoil in Yemen, Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, India, Pakistan and Iraq, and demonstrations in Malaysia. In Egypt, in particular, leaders scrambled to repair deep strains with Washington provoked by their initial response to attacks on the U.S. Embassy, tacitly acknowledging that they erred by focusing far more on anti-American domestic opinion than on condemning the violence. 

 

West on the way to Japan - Part Three-Final

Finally, we come to other side of Atlantic.. North America.. Surprisingly.. there are three very different major countries with different kind of economies..

Starting with Canada.. I guess "All is Well" in that part of north west.. Canada's conservative (as compared to its southern partners) economic policies coupled with sudden burst of energy related activities are giving boom time to the country.. and it is prospering like anything we are yet to see in west.. However, due to sever weather conditions, only very few brave people are willing to relocate to Canada despite several great incentives over there.. I think we all agree that Canada is not going to be Japan any time soon.. Except if Crude oil prices comes to less than $40/barrel.. Which is highly unlikely.. in case that happens, we will re-visit this country later..

Then comes the biggest fish in the West.. our dear beloved (or equally hated by many as well) United States of America.. Which has been biggest and strongest growth driver for long time in wild wild west.. Several things were on US side.. At least from beginning of twentieth Century.. Starting with great minds.. excellent democracy.. abundant resources.. very limited population.. relatively easy immigration policies.. almost none or very few direct hostile attacks... lot of hostile activities in rest of the world...  US took full advantage of all these and many other opportunities.. Very well executed and results were terrific.. It resulted in great infrastructure and US become super power of twentieth century..

But at the dawn of twenty first century (or even earlier) things started declining.. and multiple factors combined to accelerate this decline.. I would say most important was or still is... outlook and thinking of mass population..

if entire population starts following up mob phycology and starts following and taking dumb decisions.. then only GOD save us.. (but only if GOD exists??). It all started with blind wars in middle east and Afghanistan... wars without well defined objectives.. On one hand funds are being cut in schools and teachers are being laid off to save couple of million dollars a year.. on the other hand couple of billion dollars are being spent every day as if it is simple change... Even after spending more than trillion of dollars on these wars.. we are still not sure if we achieved anything or simply created more hatred and fanatism against US.. at the same time sacrificing limited resources on at this crucial juncture on these wars instead of schools and infrastructure of the nation..

At the same time, I would be very cautious and will be clear.. a decade of decline is very short time on overall scheme of things.. There is still lot of good things which can still take back this country to its glory days.. more importantly.. lot of those good or great things doesn't exist in rest of the developed world and even in many of so called emerging economies.. If US can bring its act together we still can change the course and bring things back to normal..

Coming back to Comparison with Japan.. USA is almost exactly opposite of Japanese thinking and culture.. US society is based on consumption.. consumption beyond our means..  However, Japan is more purely driven by exports, savings, manufacturing, work and work and work and work.. In Software engineering terms, if US is R&D/Innovation and development then Japan is QA and Support (oops.. it didn't fit that well..). Though I feel that Japan was hurt more by Chinese manufacturing where as US was hurt more by Indian IT.. I guess, I am not making much sense.. so I will stop now on this.. but lastly, I feel if current condition of US can be compared to any one.. then it has to be UK.. UK was King of nineteenth century and it ultimately lost its prestige and wealth in Wars.. US is almost on same path.. unless we change our course fast enough and focus on our internal situation.. but challenge is that all the economies of world are so tightly integrated that if one country sinks.. it will sync rest of the world as well..

On internal issues.. Any country is on definitive course of decline and demise if their congress takes few minutes to pass budget/grants for wars/army and debates for weeks/months for grants to cash strapped schools and universities.. or sometime they never pass as well.. How bad congress can get when they can't even agree on cuts/spending of 10-15 million dollar where as result of that itself is loss of more than thirty million dollars per day.... loss of payroll and different projects.. What a bunch of morons!!! How careless they can be.. Had it been any organization, all these morons should have been fired or made to work late night till they figure solution to this petty problem.. These kind of examples show how bankrupt a country is..  and what is more to come..  enough of blah blah..

Should we legalize Drugs?

Are we able to prevent drugs consumption by making it illegal? Who has really benefitted from drug illegalization? All the drugs will be cheaper by at least by factor of thousand if they were legal. That means that drugs will be easily sold as over the counter in pharmacies and many more shops in some kind of brands or specifications!!! Very bad situation!!! right..

That also means, no money for drug dealers, corrupt police/Politicians or any one else who is currently benefitting from it. All the money which is currently made by middlemen like gangs, traffickers, police etc would stay in legal hands. Actually it will simply vanish. On top of it, amount of money we spend on prevention could be utilized to educate masses and may be on proper medical care.

Question is.. Are economic benefits worth taking chances of few additional 100Ks more drug addict?

Actually biggest argument against legalization of drugs is that even one innocent life is worth keeping it illegal. Even one life getting spoiled due to legal drugs addiction is worth saving. I agree with both of them. Question is.. Are more lives are saved or lost due to illegal status of drugs? Are we able to prevent lifes of innocent people getting spoiled because of drugs?

In my view societies are loosing more lifes because of illegal status of drugs. I agree that there is no defined way of measuring if-but-else statements about it. As to my best of knowledge these drugs have been illegal right from beginning of normal human evolution.

Are their any examples of any country or state where drugs are legal.. I heard it is almost legal in Amsterdam.. What are the stats in there.. Is every kid who goes to high school is drug addict? I don't think so. What can we learn from these kind of examples if et all they exist...

They say that drug consumption is in-elastic.. means that whatever happens, if some one takes drug they will need it whatever the price of it may be. if price goes high, they will some how manage to arrange that high amount for it.. and this is the problem as it leads to high rate of petty crimes which leads to new petty criminals. Once these petty criminals are caught and they go to jail they turn to be hard core criminals... and ultimately leads to higher amount of bigger crimes..

Despite all these pro-legalization thoughts I still feel shaken by the fact that what will be society look like with legal drugs.. I have kids and I can't imagine them going to grocery store or pharmacy and getting drugs.. just like today's kids try to get Alcohol. At the same time not every kid go out and try to get alcohol.. Lot of it depends on parenting, society and the values kids get. If we and kids can determine and use judgement on alcohol kind of things.. why can't we be left to use same judgement on drugs.. Especially when they can save tens of thousands of lives of innocents..

I think we had enough of this non-sense and time has come to decide about these issues. We need to re-structure our laws and align them with new realities.. 

Osama Gone.. What next?

Entire US is celebrating demise of Osama. Whereas lot of people in Middle-East are still wondering if he really is dead or not.. To me, most surprising thing was that he was living lavishly rather than hiding..  where as we were all thinking that he is hiding in mountain region of Pakistan or Afganistan. He sure lived like royal in that mansion. I am sure he must have got help from Pakistani Military and or Intelligence. I think Pakistani government did enjoyed his stay as they got billions of dollars of US aid in the name of fighting the war against terrorism along with US.

Okay.. we are done with Osama chapter. Now what? Does it help or make matter worse. Will we be able to get hold of Al-Qaida or it may result in more animosity towards West and US in particular. One thing is sure.. we can't attack any other country in the name of getting Osama. However, in my view we will see many more foot soldiers for Al-Qaida.. Definition of Terrorist and Freedom fighter is very context sensitive and changes based on who is telling the story.. I don't think other than good education in middle-east (objective science based education, rather than religious) anything else can help this situation..  That too will take long time.. In the mean time US and west has to change their attitude towards rest of the world and think more of parters rather than only looking from financial point of view.

Everyone wants to live happily and want to live.. nothing is more important than life at least own life for an individual.. I can only hope that we have better world tomorrow and more peaceful world!!

Libya Air Strikes

Lot of my friends have expressed their opinion about Libya No Fly Zone or Libya Air attacks. Lot of people are shocked to see Noble Peace Prize Winner Obama going for war or going to kill hundreds and thousands of people..
There are different arguments against air strikes.

Primarily, Why only Libya? Why not other countries in middle east where similar protests by population are suppressed without much of noise from western world. Is it just because Libya has more oil and gas than those countries? or those regimes are more friendly to US/West than Col. Gaddafi. Why not similar action in Myanmar (Burma) where "Junta" Regime has killed thousands of people in last decade. There it would have been even more easier to dislodge them. They will simply go if US and West simply stops trading with them. But no body cares about these countries for variety of reasons.

Then, second question is about exit strategy.. We are saying that there won't be any boots on the grounds. CIA is already working with rebels. What does that means. Can we get away without sending any boots on ground. What if all this results in further deterioration in conditions in Libya. What if new government is somewhat similar to Afghanistan's Taliban. There is no guarantee of decent regime if Col. Gaddafi is dislodged. If he some how manages to stay then we are in even bigger trouble. Probably, Libya will become even better sanctuary for Al-Qaeda type organizations.

In my view, there was imminent danger of wiping out couple of cities in Libya by Col. Gaddafi's forces if air strikes were not started. Unfortunately,  I think it was question of number of causalities. Which action will result in how many loss of lives. I guess, result was more in favor of air strikes.

Then about exit strategy. I am assuming with US and western tactical support, Rebels should be able to dislodge Col. Gaddafi and his regime. There is very slight chances that he might survive. I feel that is worth the risk. Also, if some sense will prevail in rebel groups and Libyan mass population, I think something good will come out of it. They are not fighting just to get rid of Col. Gaddafi. Hopefully they are looking for bigger goal of true freedom and democracy in their country/area.

I hope for best and wish them all the best!! 

Can religion bring peace to earth?

Very interesting conversation happened yesterday when two elderly ladies from local church showed up at my house. After our usual hi-hello, they asked me a very simple but powerful question... Do I believe that religion can bring peace to earth?

Well, my answer was equally easy and powerful. I told them that in my view "Religious is root cause of all the wars and evil in this planet. You take out all the religions of world and you might have perfect peace loving planet earth and earthlings"

I guess in modern times, root cause of all the wars and fighting and hatred is religion. Off course I don't blame any single religion. All of them share responsiblity. We can argue about the share of responsiblity but it can't be denied.

Well, then comes the question of origin of these religions. All of them were founded by great great leaders or what we call Gods today. I strongly believe that all the religions and their holy books teach to love everyone else. However, it is the interpretation by the followers and the kaput human brain which makes these religions so dangerous and create so much of hatred instead of peace. Sooner or later everyone will start realizing and try to do something to get rid of all these..

Another thing which drives and feeds religious fanatism is fear and greed.. We go to God in hope that God will return or bless us with all the worldly benefits if we are nice to him. I guess, we just need to be nice to our fellow human beings and rest will be taken care of. Unfortunately this message is often subsided by current religious leaders and instead of that only hatred to other religious groups comes out which ultimately causes all the grief and war and evil in this world.