SUSTAINABLE INEQUALITY: WHAT SAY DEAR MR. SAINATH?

I hate The Hindu! I mean, the news paper. And my friends very well know it. But today I was filled with admiration for one of their great collumnists., P Sainath. Yes, I'm getting extremely impulsive these day's. That's exactly why I'm writing this post post when I really should be practicing on my brand new six strings. And perhapse that's exactly why I got so charged up with the interview of P Sainath on NDTV that while logging into blogger I started typing psainath instead of my id. After a long time some one could actually sensitize me about the glaring inequality in our society today. You can find out more about this great dude on these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Sainath

http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/psainath/

To tell you the truth I wasn't sensitized about inequalities and as I do believe that, inequality is at the core of our society, or any society for that matter. In fact, this once I was so dam pissed at the disastrous interpretations of equality made by most politicians, so enraged by societies inherent way of painting everyone in the same color, that I wanted to get a tattoo at the back of my neck that read, "I!=U". So, I love the inequalities in a society. They are the driver of the society. It is this gradient that makes society flow like the Ganges, metamorphosize(if there's verb like that) and not stagnate like a dead lake. But hearing from the ediot box what Mr Sainath had to say, brought an amazing thought to my mind.. I went euraka! This inequality that I romantisize, as beautiful as it well and truly is, needs to be within limits, for the sake of its own sustainability. That's when I asked myself, am I the first one to coin the term, "Sustainable Inequality"??

Now what on earth is that? I feel its best to explain with an example. I feel destiny is nothing but some mathematics.(Dunno where did that come from) Look, I feel, and we all know, that right now, and for a very long time in our history, at the receiving end of this great inequality has been our good ol' farmer. This cycle is about to change, or shall say the plunging happiness quotient of the farmer is close to getting bottomed out. Right now the world is looking at a very real scare of going without food. Focus in the next few decades will gradually shift to farms, and food production. the equation or rather the 'inequation', is going to change. There are two ways this'll happen. Either we get some sense into our heads, and bring some real focus to the farm sector, or we be the happy go lucky type society.. waiting for the farmer to catch his sickle, leave the harvest and come after us slick urbane types. The former, is what I call 'sustainable inequality'. All it says is, don't strech inequalities to a level where, simply put, it just snaps. I feel, in a broad sense, the society is also a corporation, that to a monopoly. You need to give the remuneration one deserves, cos attrition from the corporation called 'society', leads to birth of the gangsta, the rioter, the terrorist. One way or another the inequity will prevail.

I wish Mr. Sainath would actually come across this post and have the time to comment on this.

I KILLED TWO LOVERS: FEELIN DAM GUILTY :(

Saw two huge cockroaches in the sink when I was about to turn open the tap. They were huge and making love to each other. No way on earth they could have harmed me. But we humans don't have it in us to see the beauty in every creation and love it. So there I was, the antagonist of the love story, standing with a hit spray in my hand. To my human ey0e they appeared too ugly to be spared, and also the prospect of their numerous kiddos forming troops in my home was dreadful. (Despite living in a ground floor flat I've rarely have cockroach menace.) 'Woosshh..' came the spray, the two wouldn't have had the time nor the sense to know what just struck them.. There they lay dead like the lead characters of QSQT. For all the guilt I'm talking about, confronted with the same situation again, I don't think i'll act any dfferent.

U D R

Upload to Download Ratio. A simple way to measure how much information one puts on the Web in return of what the web provides us. Heres the inspiration:

1. We are all always, surrounded by information provided by people. Today our exposure to web increases our exposure to information.

WAIT not just information, 'Knowledge'.

This Knowledge varies with the culture of the Authors.

I've heard many a concerned parents say:
"Internet has ruined my children and exposed them to 'western' influences"

2. From many genuine points of view, chiefly from a logical standpoint, this exposure to the web has detrimental effects on exposed culture(s) and communities which do not contribute to the majority of the content on the web,

I've heard some wise man say..
"Preserving diverse cultures is preserving diverse interpretations of life itself"
So,

3. If we measure the amount of content contributed by individuals (and thus groups of individuals) on the web in relation to the amount they read or absorb i any other form, it could to be a tangible measure of what influence is an individual is having on the web in return to the influence the web has on the individual, thus giving the Upload to Download Ratio or the UDR.

4. Obviously the higher the UDR the higher influence the concerned individual has on the web.

5. Encouraging higher UDR will help the web become a better represented place. Naturally when we take groups of people with common culture into account.. the cultures with a higher UDR are better preserved while being exposed to the web and all its influences.. Good or bad.

6. Further more a software can be written to simply measure the UDR at every connected terminal, and provide the details to not just the individual but also to a central server to analyse the data on a group, population and country level.

information>Knowledge>culture>content>(ratio of content written to content read)>UDR

WE(b) 2.0?

For most, socializing is a natural evolutionary progression. In fact, out of the confines of the house, school was our first platform for socializing... Information not just from a limited source and medium but from various sources syndicated by various people and then is given to us in various forms. Now to my eyes the original source blurs in the layers of syndication in this brave new world. Much like whats happening on the web today.. we are increasingly interacting not with chunks of information or code but effectively with people.

So doesn't it sound like WEB 2.0? Social networking, syndication, wikis, communities facilitating more and more collaboration among people... Are we today observing a replay of our own evolution, as increasingly social beings, in the virtual world? This video sure did get me thinking..



Perhaps theres no better version of the wondrous invention web is. Web 2.0: Same old web, new methodology, new objectives.. socialize, collaborate.. its just a brand new us. WE 2.0?

wat say? C'mon i need some feedback here..

AN INSPIRING STORY- INDIAN WOMEN TO MAINTAIN ORDER IN LIBERIAI

As part of a UN peacekeeping effort Indian women are being deployed in Liberia the war torn country sandwiched between Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. The whole region of west Africa is one of the most volatile regions in the world where even peace keeping soldiers have been found to defying human rights. Now sending Indian women to Monrovia is being seen and anticipated as a very effective way of bringing some order into this country where a whole generation has seen and learnt nothing but bloodshed and violence.

TAJ'S STRUGGLE TO MAKE IT TO TOP SEVEN SHOULD BE SEEN AS A REFLECTION OF GLOBAL ATTITUDES RATHER THAN JUST INDIAN ATTITUDE

The struggle faced by the Taj in the race to the top 7 is certainly a shame to Indians as well as a very grim fact for the entire world.. why so? The fact that the Taj is struggling to make it to the top7 needs to be perceived as the general global attitude. Now certainly the global attitude of the world simply cannot be that of indifference towards India. No country has been the subject of such concentrated global attention ever after Germany during the war I suppose. Then why didn't international vote put this monument of love in the top 7 right from the start? I feel its rather the world's indifference towards love.

What makes Taj wonderful? Its much beyond the splendid and most gigantic aggregate of exquisite marble. The Taj is a wonder in every right because of it's very purpose. It's an expression of eternal passion for ones love. An expression of deep sorrow upon the death of someone you love. This love is certainly getting lesser and lesser apparent in the world today.. certainly rendering the inherent splendor of this, 'teardrop on the cheek of time' very difficult to comprehend to by the contemporary world.

AN AMERICAN TRYING OUT JADOO KI JHAPPEES IN WASHINGTON

Just read it in TOI yesterday. An American in Washington has been going around hugging people for a month, now giving what he calls 'free hugs'. And thats what is written on the placcard he holds while going around giving these free hugs, whose origins it should be noted, can be traced to our very own Munnabhai and his 'Jadoo ki Jhappees' in the original M.B.B.S. version of the movie. Wonder whatever inspired him, it sure is an amazing concept.