Eliminating Poverty !

Poverty is the bane of this world. Contrary to popular (and ignorant) perception even the western/developed world has loads of poor people. (I define poor not in the relative sense but in the sense that food and shelter is a constant worry and seldom attained.) But yeah this is a more ugly and visible problem in the 'developing' countries. The whole political game in our country has revolved around the promise of removing it, but have we ever thought on it with a sane mind. What will be the consequences of eliminating poverty, can it be realistically done? As a kid I wished that there be food for all, living conditions and opportunities like what I was blessed with and all other things like health and education. We argue that the world has enough resources and it is through our insane bickering that we have created a virtual scarcity of every basic resource. People find it convenient to blame people/conditions on the state of affairs but ugly reality is that there is no immediate solution. I am not able to come up with any magic solution either. There are two things that I understand that people do need to look into. First the government can/will do only so much, the rate at which problem come up can not be tackled with the resources of the government or a few super rich philanthropist. All the people who have made good of the opportunities have to contribute and help the unfortunate. It does not mean to leave your work or go to educate kids in slums, that might be good too but maybe it is not for everyone. The problem is that this is like killing a few viruses but does not stop their multiplication process. Our efforts should be to eliminate the growth of these problems. I see the role of technology today as something that can reshape the life of numerous. We can help boost the research and help the students and young researchers, provide funds and expertise, help make collaborations. Indians currently spend ~15 bn USD yearly in universties abroad, and a large portion of these students are in such a position to help do this economically as well as providing expertise. If out of millions of us everyone helps one researcher/student we can make India into a educational/technological powerhouse. This as I see it can be the only route of elevation of poverty. Second is to have realistic targets, eliminating poverty has to be defined properly, we have to face it that we cannot have a level field. That would be akin to having a level earth with water (wealth) distributed all over it, submerging the whole of it. It would be both unrealistic, and harmful. But what we can realistically attempt is to bring up the fallen back ones, so that they too can rejoice in the facilities possible today. The solution lies in unity and not just economic measures or schemes.

Perfection

Perfection, the ever eluding, the ever so alluring dream that remains unattainable for almost everyone. Well have we ever thought about how it feels being in that state. Perfection is perhaps invaluable since it is rare and the reason it is rare is that it is a state where even a minor deviation is read by the ever focused eyes trained on the entity in that state. We see an analogy in a pyramid, the tip represents perfection and getting on it is difficult enough, staying on it impossible. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is the need for perfection. We are after all perishable items, we were not built to be perfect and there is no real long term use of attaining this either. The only purpose it serves is perhaps our vanity. The whole problem as I see it is the sheepy nature of mankind, the tendency to follow. The will is not strong enough in most to be able to make sensible decisions and this is the reason that we seek goals which we don't even want for ourselves. Goals which don't affect our happiness are not the ones we should be after and Perfection is one of them.!

Racial Blackmail

White people are deemed rascists and have now been made to believe so and even mortally scared of it. It is a sick thing to do and most white folks are now scared of being associated with it. What they don't realise is that rascism is not a characteristic of a particular race, it is more of a cultural thing and more importantly every race today has elements of it. The world is no more global than it is secure. The people are rascist as a rule rather than exception. Indians are from my experience a rascist lot, we take this to a step further discriminating even within our own race and based on every difference we can find. So are chinese and other folks. The only thing different about white people is that they are industrious and determined. That is the major reason that the white world has made most of the strides for humans and responsible for most technological advancement. They thus are the richest and most powerful lot in general. That being said, it is not as if they are a race that has been wrongly accused, they have plundered the world over and collected resources from them, people as slaves and money among other things. The black or African American community has been wronged by them being made to work as slaves all these years. But if i know my history right, officially changes began in removing slavery in the US as early as 1865 and from early 20th century blacks have had equal rights. Even so more they are being awarded in form of special scholarships, funds and programs. But still there is resentment and a lot of what i would say 'racial blackmail' associated with the situation. Take on the other hand, the slavery in India. The British government took steps towards abolition of slavery as early as 1833, but excluded India from the laws, where slavery and exploitation of it's resources and people were in full flow. Even when they left (being left with nothing to loot and no ability to do so either) there was no real helping hand to help up the one they had trampled so mercilessly. It is a miracle that India has managed to reach the stature it has today. Now even after being dealt with such a poor treatment, I have not seen any resentment in Indian people towards their former oppressors even when they prouldly showcase many of the most precious pieces of our art and wealth as trophies of their exploits. Thinking without a bias, returning these possessions back would be a beginning of compensation for the years of oppression. But Indians have no hope of that and we haven't really pursued that with much vigor mostly. How do you compare the two situations - how were the excesses on the blacks more inhuman to warrant this resentment even after an attempt to compensate them. Or are Indians just meek.

Another example : Come to think of the Jewish use of the past excesses on them and reference to holocaust to get away with their excesses on the Palestinians. Compare that to the Japanese. The Japanese have chosen to rebuild after the bombings and are helping others even rather than use the past as a leverage to get favours and get away with crimes. We have to realise that past has to be forgotten and attempts to help undo the mistakes and help in the recovery is the only sensible thing that can be done. Using this as an excuse for further misdoings will not really help in any way other than bringing the world closer to it's end.