Same Sex Marriages

The subject is quite hot now days, with Obama and Cameron both positively vouching for the same. Nature forces cannot be challenged by social laws. One has to respect the nature ,the way it is for some people.  No one willingly wants to be a gay or lesbian, but has natural orientation towards it and gets moved automatically towards it.

For long, I have been thinking of forming an opinon and then I thought, let me look around in my own friend circle and see, how it has been for them. I have quite a few gay couple friends and I have quite a few lesbian friends.

As an avid palm reader, it was always a curiosity for me to find out the special mark on the persons hand, which got them into same sex orientation . And finally after some research, I could find that mark. But lately I was looking into the life styles of these people and I found something very interesting.

Same Sex Couples had far more intimacy then normal couples and had a much stronger relationship with their partners.
They were never fighting with one another and since they were of the same sex, they had far more common interest then the opposite sex.
They had more to talk to one another, as the subject of interest were common, say lesbian women could enjoy discussing the latest fashions and perfumes, but with straight oriented couple, the men will have zero interest in women's subjects.
There is no cheating. Partners don't go and sleep around with others. May be less opportunity, but whatever, it is the case.  Hence no tracking of the partner and no secret affairs.
There is no family disputes on property and inheritance.
There is no need of dowry in the Asian sub continent..
The same sex partners are least demanding and have very strong understanding of their partners.
There are no issues of wasteful spending.
Both my gay and lesbian friends have secretly admitted that their sex life is Wow.

And the list goes on and on. There may be some jealousy issues, as I had once read that helper girls who go and work in Hong Kong lean towards lesbianism and are usually very possessive of their mates. One such helper killed her mate, as she found that she had been cheated .

Generally speaking, the gays and lesbians are not a cause of concern. Though, we all find the same sex orientation a little peculiar.

Now with modern science, one can have a child without the man and women in a test tube. So, the issue of having a child is also not worrisome.

Only that the religious contractors find out that life is now possible artificially and hence their business is under challenge and hence they are not willing to bless same sex marriages. But for me, I have no issue for any two people, who have meaningful relationship with one another.

The proportion of such people is less then decimal second zero and it is not that the whole society is under threat. But it may come up with encouraging things in future, like though men or women have straight orientation, but they would still marry their own gender on account of being more comfortable out there.

For their sexual needs, they would copulate with similar group and return home to their own gender family.

There is a whole interesting world waiting to happen out there soon. Keep watching !

Argentina YPF : Reverse Gear Privatization

When Cristina Fernandez signed away the nationalization of YPF in Argentina, it was reverse gear driving.

Oil biz is lucrative and many a Governments around the world survive only on their oil wealth. Including the whole of Middle East OPEC countries and then the famous Venenzula oil company, which drives the full economy of that country and Cuba. Russia also nationalized Grazprom and incarcerated the major shareholder on account of tax frauds.

But to manage a country with oil wealth is different from managing a country with jurisprudence and market economy.

Government does not know, how to do business and is not trained either to run companies. It only knows stamping and signing papers and searching for enough reasons of obstructing business. Hence , no matter how lucrative business it runs, the chance of it being sucked dry is very high.

On the other side, business, which do not continuously invest for growth and are a major part of the economy of a nation, also are cripplers of that country.

The fair position would have been the right constitution of the board and putting  enough state directors to steer private investment and not Government investments.

Now the Government funds, which need to build the state infrastructure like schools, hospitals, highways, goes into running of a company inefficiently.

India did the same thing many years back of nationalizing all the sick running textile companies and for decades these textile mills have sucked the tax payers money with no return to the shareholders.

Bolivia last week did a similar U Turn on a Power plant. Where is all this going to take the South American economy to is not known.

Iran : Nuclear or No-Clear!

Iran is possibly the most advanced technical nation in the middle east. Despite reeling under sanctions for the last many years, it has managed to keep a steady economy and a good pace with technology.

Iranian people are unique, intelligent and very kind. Culturally and traditionally Iranians have been very progressive.

The irony with most Third World Countries is that there are two Parallel Sections of society. One which  still lives in the 18th century world and one which has moved to the current modern world. The large part of rural population in these countries, which includes most of Asian and Middle Eastern countries, still lives with 18th century thinking  And for these masses, it is religion, old traditions and classical lifestyle of keeping their women behind veil more important then the gender equality or a modern society with a developed economy and general upliftment of the masses.

Politicians have well understood this and played to this segment of society and overruled the modern society, which actually forms the strength of that nation. The net result is that who are the net contributors to the developed part of developing economies are the sufferers .

Iran is another classical case of the same type. Having thrown the King out, it got the religious Kings take over the country. And when you allow religion to control a society, then either the nation has to be a temple and people live a life of a monk as in Tibet and Bhutan or it becomes a Talibanized state,  like erstwhile Afghanistan . Both cases do not reflect a normal society. Though in case of Iran, its elite have distanced themselves from religion and have lived a progressive life. Much to the dislike of its government.

Now on the nuclear issues. Iran needs to ask itself. If the Nuclear power is worth being marginalized from the whole world. Does it have any sanctity for its people. Will it bring any change into the lives of the common man. Will it lead to the development of the country in anyway or it is the very source of conflict and shall bring about a race in the region for Nuclear Bombs.

India did the same mistake. It went in to test the Nuclear bomb and within days, Pakistan followed with its bomb. Net  result is that now India sits with a nuclear hostile neighbor. What stops tomorrow Saudi, or Egypt or for that matter, even Baharin to start making a nuclear bomb and what stops one of these regimes to then go ahead and misuse the bomb.

Iran has no perceived threat from any country. It does not need a Nuclear Bomb and if its nuclear assets are a matter of concern to the world. It should liberally allow inspection.

Sanction free Iran has the capability to then become as rich and prosperous and advanced as any First World country.  So, is the nuclear power more important or the richness of its people and an advanced country more important.

There is no heroism in making a nuclear bomb. We all learnt it in our Physics in class 12. Uranium enrichment and neutron bombing of the nucleus yields endless heat. All it takes a few centrifuges and a neutron accelerator to make a bomb. What is the big deal about it.

The big heroism of course is like what Lula has done to Brazil. Made it into a roaring flourishing economy with general upliftment of people. Lula will be remembered by history and applauded by the world. Will the Iranian leaders learn from Brazil.

I am also worried about the threats being issued by Israel to Iran. We have all seen that in the name of nuclear non compliance, the Iraq war was triggered and left a very sorry country. Do we really need another war?

Syria : Chicken Hearted Diplomacy!

When it was Libya, France took an initiative  of sky raiding the country and overthrowing " Qaddafi". Europe , US and others supported with the exception of few .

One wonders, if life in Syria is less worth then life of a person in Libya. It is now around a year that people in Syria are fighting against a regime, which has now ruled them for more then half a century. When it was Libya, quickly NATO and others jumped on the wagon and crippled the governing forces. However, in Syria, despite the screaming clamor of help by the people and the breakaway army faction, the world is idling on it.

Yesterday, Kofi Annan made a pitch with Assad and came back empty handed. UN like a lame duck has hardly every been able to bring fruitful results in any conflict zone. Whether it was Somalia, Rwanda or Egypt. If Kofi had any  guts, he should have told Assad that the world has been too much patient and he would surely meet the fate of Qaddafi or Saddam or Hosni, if he did not make a quick exit now. However, he goes and cries for reconciliation , when he clearly sees millions of protesters on the road and hundreds of killings. And why reconciliation with a Dictator ? Is Kofi an ex UN Chief or a Conflict Tourister.

In case of Libya, very quickly the International Criminal Court stepped in and brought a warrant for the capture of Qaddafi on his war crimes. In case of Assad, the ICC does nothing. Who will have faith in ICC henceforth.

The Americans have been giving lip service and no one wants to assign the job to NATO. It is also seen that OIC has no meaning to any of its following countries. All big talks and big blown up budgets, but no one is bothered about the Arab League .

Turkey sits on the fence and watches the drama unfold. No one has the guts to fight Assad.

It is time, when NATO takes over the sky raiding and the rebel army is reinforced. Assad has still time to exit, but not too much.

Global Recession

US is still fighting the Job intake , which it considers the holiest number as measure of  GDP improvement. Month to month, the number fluctuates and the stock market quickly captures it and penalizes the small investors. With an unemployment ratio of only 9% , where wages are as high as $10 per hour, it actually has no reason to crib.
For Europe, there is never a talk on Jobs, because that would show Spain as the leading defaulter with almost 50% of its qualified young workforce without a job and followed by Portugal, Greece , Italy and so on.
If the Developed and Developing world really wants the unemployment to be addressed, then the law on Minimum wages needs to be scrapped altogether. This is the major hurdle for the Industry to hire. let the market forces dictate the wages. One will see that though the average wage per hour might come down , yet the unemployment will fall drastically.

Asia , Americas and Africa don't anyway care about jobs and job creation. The over riding interest is to quickly exploit the situation and let the people struggle to survive.
The revolution in Middle East is taking a good shape, but at the end, how will it change the lives of a common man is still unclear.

For the rich, anyway it does not matter, what happens to the economy. The more the economy struggles, the better is the value of the wealth of a person.

China and India for the first time in last two decades are experiencing slow down. Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Bahrain are all in state of flux. Euro has taken a severe beating and Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain etc are still to shape up. Where is all this leading ?

Global Recession is round the corner. Wait for the prices to drop and ensure that your job remains intact.

Oslo Massacre!

I posted on August 8, 2010 that Norway is the Best Country in the World to Live.

I lay the wreath with millions others on the souls of innocent lives lost for no reason.

The Bombing and the massacre by a Right Wing Fundamentalist has waken up the Norwegian society on the level of frustration that some people have with their governments and the way they redress the frustrations.

A very open society is the one which does not suppress a debate and where the parliament, the right owner of the peoples wishes then shapes the laws and limitations for an overpowering society. It then reflects the true character of a nation. Societies, where not only basic needs are guaranteed by the state , but generally are of above average quality, tend to give the highest order of merit in each of its executions. Sometimes these then tend to be the other extreme , as seen in this particular case.

The very fact that the Police could not show up at the tragedy ground despite multiple help calls, shows that the state is practically non Policed.

The Best states in the world are those, which are least Policed. Hence, I was not surprised that the Police were on a holiday and with their limited force could not really limit the damage. It is well understandable that a society, which does not see much crime or rarely needs police intervention, the security apparatus is largely minimal. Second, the situation in Oslo at the moment, when the massacre took place was one of confusion and chaos. Hence delayed arrival of Police at the crime scene could be well explained by the history and the situation.

The message to the Norwegian Government is not really improving the Policing, but debating the wants of its own people. The Police will anyway improve itself to take care of such situations in future. Who in the world likes Police Sirens disturbing the streets the whole day and night as witnessed in most metro cities.

The Media at the first stage as usual started blaming the Al Qaida Terrorist and Danish Cartoons for the event. It was so clear from the bombing that it could have never been the handiwork of Al Qaida. The bombing of the Norwegian PM office and the ministries could have been only carried out by a Disgruntled Norwegian. A right wing Christian Fundamentalist has now laid the way for Christian Qaida.

The only thing, which I could not understand was that how one single man could manage to shoot more then 70 people. But it also shows that it only takes one single person to cause enough damage to humanity. Whether it was 9/11 or 7/7 or Oslo 77.

Those who swank big armies and big security forces should learn from this that it is not the size of the army or the quality of the arms, which matters, but is the force of Over Powering Debate with unresolved answers , which create more damage. Pen is Mightier Then The Sword In The 21st Century. But if you refuse to listen to the pen, then it automatically explodes sooner or later, as now seen in the case of Norway , Libya, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain etc etc.

Interestingly, when the world came to know that the Person will at best serve 20 years and then be released , it was beyond their understanding that there are societies, where Human Rights Excel Beyond everything else. For countries like US and others, where they have capital punishment need to learn from Norway that after 20 years, a person in prison is a changed person and is no more a threat to society. Also for all those countries, who put big boards on their arrival halls of airport that carrying drugs is punishable by Death. Though are deeply embedded in corruption and human rights abuses themselves. Do they have a right to take away lives of offenders, when the governments themselves are the biggest offenders of human rights and corruption.

Murdoch Mad Masala!

Murdoch has built a global media empire. The sun never sets on the Media empires. They work 24x365 and now they are right there peeping into your bathrooms and bedrooms. The royalty to the politicians to the street vendor all have room on the silver screen of media. How, otherwise can a media business keep its customers glued to the TV or print media and now Internet.

I am a rather open person and the only place I shut myself is in the Toilet. So, for me, if media scans me byte by byte, it will still find juicer stories, but unless it makes me famous, who is bothered about poor me. I am not a salable character till some story of mine becomes a sucker on facebook or print media.

Now coming back to the Murdoch's phone tapping and the fall of the newspaper. If one is actually an open person, then usually he would believe that his words, his actions, his deeds are already compatible with the society and any case God is watching him, therefore, if media is also watching, does not really make a big difference. The phone tapping got done by the Police and the conversations were sold to the media in some cases. The Top Cop resigned and he should certainly resign. The police are always good in messing up, whether it is NY or UK or Norway or Afghanistan.

When I surf the web, within seconds, it starts returning advertisements on my search results, it then tracks me for each page I visit and each hyperlink I click etc etc. It follows me through till I log off and if somehow some virus could jump out of the screen, it would have actually made its way into my body and started flashing everything about me to the predators. So , what privacy are we talking about. None, what so ever. The modern man is connected to the internet and the internet is profiling your needs , your personality, your job, your salary, your girlfriends, your virtual sex life, your naughty affairs and all your secrets . In effect it is the " Real Me" , though well described as the " Virtual Me"

Luckily, Murdoch media is only blamed only for Phone Tapping. If a little more research was done, they would have found that it has hacked the computers of each of its subjects and lucidly fancied on the juicer details, which had commercial value.

We are now reaching a stage of Utopian world. Where everything is perfect. Thanks to the technology. No one will be able to hide nothing. No more hypocrisy, no more lies and no more cheating. Instant results will be flashed about the person on the net, Mr Poogle visited the prostitute 14 times, the best price he paid for his last prostitute was $9 for a short stint. He buys viagra online, his favorite site is Playcam, his girlfriend list is 45, well embedded in 587 facebook friends. His matching genes children can be found on Boulevard Corner and he was rated " C" in his performance appraisal. Courtesy : Pikkyleaks.

In a changed world, it is not that one has to make laws more stricter to not permit others to scan your life, but to modify your life to become nice and clean, so that it is like an open book for everyone to read. Murdoch is there everywhere around you now. How much will the people conceal themselves, there is no further scope. Till now, it was God , who was watching you. Now, everyone is watching you.

At the end, I don't really mind, if the politicians whom we trust to deliver the goods and services are regularly scanned for their conduct and job performance . No matter, what technology is used and what means are used.

Sex and the City : Strauss Kahn

What Berlusconi , Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton have different from Strauss Kahn is that they were not charged for sexual assault , but were all in the same circus.

The whole thing about sexual promiscuity needs a global debate and a new positioning. Unless, of course, we all wish to live in a fools paradise of covered up sex values.

There are good things about modern society and there are very good things about modern society. When in medieval age, women was restricted to home and family. The new age is about working women, independent and working alongside men in almost all areas of life.

Now, if one tends to believe that he is larger then the force of nature, otherwise, every area, where men and women have a common platform of interaction, there will be always forces of attraction , which brings people into physical and mental relationships outside their sphere of socially accepted family circle.

Women usually lead men and in no case a man does force jump his way onto a women, without the consent of a women. Unless you are a fool like Strauss Kahn .

In my own case of global travelling, I have experienced many a times, where the chambermaids tried wooing me for a sex stunt and it is only my own values that stop me from the adventures, but this did not mean that I rushed to the nearest court and filed a case of Rape.

I do not know the severity of assault by Strauss Kahn in his advances, but going by the global standards of sex sales, where hotels are notorious haven for out of family sex. Where sex selling is freely advertised in news papers as massage services and Internet offers sex on a click, then the moral and social and legal take of sex and sex charges have to be revisited.

Most women ask me this question, " Why is that men are not faithful to their wife ?" And I always tell them , " God has made men like this , so please ask God" When Strauss Kahn wife supports him after his misdemeanour then it is already a case, where women is ready to be with her man besides his misadventure. We saw the same case of Bill being bailed out by Hillary and hence the values and laws related to sex need a fresh debate.

Let me also assert here, that there is no such man in this world, ( Ok, there are few ) who is not longing to have sex outside his family. Blame it on the new world. Blame it on the new life. Blame it on whatever, but do come out and talk about the need for an understanding the marital position after sex outside the family, whether by men or by women.

The Fall Of Divinity of one man , one women is the price we have to pay for the modern life. Unless of course, we choose to accept that all women outside their home will wear a Burqa and men and women will be separated by arms length . So, choice is yours, to return to medieval ages and be content with women locked up in the home or a free independent women leading her way to a nice beautiful world and suitably aligning herself to the changing moral values. What was morally corrupt till yesterday is morally fit today.

And what happens on the Judgement Day ? Well with the whole world aligned into one value, then either God has to sent all and one to Heaven or all to Hell. Whichever way, United We Stand.

Khushwant Singh , a leading Indian journalist recently was asked at the age 90. " What did he regret most ?" And he replied that ," He did not sleep with enough women. he wished , he could have slept with more " Oh Lord, Give us this Day , our daily......................... And there be Heaven on Earth..........Amen.

Govenments!

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read newspaper you are misinformed." ; -Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Parliament.... ; But then I repeat myself.; -Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man, standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

- George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money..; -G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ; -P..J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases; If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And If it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! ; -P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean >> Politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap...except when Parliament does it. -Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ;> -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong; enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson

Global Government Reforms : Taxation N Policing

The two arms of any Government which are most abused in any country of the world are : Police and Revenue Department.

Both are extremely important to run the Government, which provides services in a lawful environment. But in both the cases, the Person executing the powers vested onto them slips into a maglomaniac personality , believing that he is now the Gift of God to mankind. Since the systems do not provide for checks and balances , where the society at large controls the bureaucrats ( and not the politicians ) , the bureaucrats tend to get away with wrongs.

Study the case of any government in the world and you will find the biggest litigator is the Government itself. Fighting almost all its own citizens either on Tax or land disputes or politically motivated charges or simple vendetta.

In Third World, the most corrupt are the Revenue Department and the Police. The revenue department rather then looking at tax payers as the customers who are financing the budget of the government treats them like defaulters. The tax laws itself are made so complicated, that it goes through series of expert interpretations, before any sense can be made out of it.

Taxation does not need tons and tons of books and volumes of interpretations. Tax on sales is already big enough . Income tax, service tax , etc etc are all unnecessary intrusion into the personal lives of people. No person wants that any other person should know and least the Government should know the income made by him.

Again look around you and almost everything that you buy , sell, use is taxed and taxed multiple times. And if this was not enough, then the little earning out of your hard work is again taxed. The tax goes into finance the government employees and all its social projects. The Military which is supported by the tax of its own people, then goes onto attack its own people as now being seen in Syria , Libya, etc. In many African countries and Third world countries, these armies routinely plunder their own people. Should there not be a law which prohibits army firing its own people and if so the army chief facing ICC.

When it comes to Policing, it is still more interesting. An Institution , which was build to keep law and order in the society has now become the most feared institution. Ask a child, what he thinks of a policeman and he would comment him as the monster. It is also the institution, which no one in the Third world Trust. In Indonesia, they have saying, " If you go to report to the police the loss of your two chickens, you will end up loosing your goat". But this is true for most third world countries.

However, having said that , it does not mean that there are no good Revenue Officers or Good Police Officers. In fact a lot of people still fear God and don't want to indulge in obstructive activities , however, get carried away by the system. And that is why , whatever sense is still there in these department still prevails.

In both cases, the next level of redressal is "Judiciary" . The situation being such that in most Islamic nation, one would rather trust the Sharia Law to be a quick and fair system of Judiciary. For the non Islamic countries, the laws are drawn from the 15th and 16th century and most of the laws are such , where the Colonial powers made to rule over their subjects and are still carried down.

It is about time, when Governments have an introspection and review both the Revenue collection systems and Policing. The Revenue department should stop this business of continued notices for payment collection on account of misinterpretation of laws and work on collecting payments on sales of goods and services.

The Policing, altogether needs an overhaul. Police for Criminals and police for general law and order cannot be the same. General policing has to be the extended hand of Government, which is helping the public. At the outset, it should have a Uniform change. Because the current uniform whatsoever only brings a stereotyped personality of the user. A rather long subject and I will write more about it later.