India :slashingtongue

Embarrassment : South Africa to cut carbon emissions by 42%

Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 5:47 pm  
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The government of South Africa is going to cut Carbon emissions by a whopping 42%. China too has promised to cut her carbon emissions by 40%. But it is South Africa that is really raising my eyebrows, because, I have got to wonder, is it hot air, or a slap to the face of Western countries?

First, I would like to state the reason why I am more impressed with South Africa’s goal than I am with Chinese’ goal. Even though China has a bigger economy and is going to cut more Carbon if they succeed, they are communist. Whether or not their people like it, they can get it done as long as it is the whim and fancy of their government.

South Africa on the other hand is a free nation. It has a very good democratic system and is a large democratic state. So one would be expecting them to face the problems that other democracies are facing: opposition push back. But they did not!

US is trying to push a bill that is only going to cut emissions by 17%. And even that is too much for the right wing opposition the Republicans. It is the same with India, where the centrist Congress party is being based by the left wing socialist parties and the BJP led religious right wing. If you think Washington is bad, wait till you see the opposition to an agenda in the Indian Sabhas!

So how is this country able to get her houses in order? Is it because the 65% mandate of the ANC is enough for them while a 60% mandate would be disastrous just as it is in the United States with the Democrats? Or is it just a matter of will? The South Africans are willing to go along with it while we Americans are not…

I really feel ashamed that they can do it so easily unlike us. They are not an extremely rich country like we are. They have a higher debt vs GDP ratio than us. Their population is not so educated as us who know that the Earth is becoming warmer.

In my opinion, it is the disregard of the people over here about facts and counter checks. We do not put people in the spotlight and correct the facts. That is why there are leaders like Governor Sarah Palin, who thinks that the Earth is becoming warmer just by itself. That is why we have idiotic politicians that go on TV and can claim, “ Why is Mars and Jupiter becoming hotter? It is because the Sun is becoming hotter.” ( So I guess the Sun’s heat can only be felt by 3 out of eight of the planets for this guy! FYI, he is right but the rest of the planets are in sync with the Sun and is cooling due to the Sun’s cooling phase).

Come on America. We have single-handedly won 2 world wars. We have single handedly propped countries economies up; countries like Japan, Germany, South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, these countries all were literally built from the rubbles of war by the taxes of our forefathers. We are the beacon of hope and freedom. We even are the pioneers of green technology.

So Yes we can cut down out carbon emissions by more than the pathetic goal of 17% that the President has set. The Republicans should be demanding a higher percentage rather than claiming that climate change does not exist and that efforts to curb it would result in a loss of jobs. Lets rally and do the impossible, something only Americans can do.

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Debt watch : Study United Kingdom

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 6:02 pm  
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If America wants to know what is the best method to deal with our debts tomorrow, we should watch with eagerness what is happening in Britain today. Many experts have come out saying that the British has accumulated too much debt in the past 24 months, and there may be consequences.

Experts like Morgan Stanley have suggested that the UK has spent too much in the past couple of years in trying to prop up the economy. It has a tremendous amount of debt; its debt vs GDP ratio is much higher than ours here in the US.

Most experts still agree that the UK would not crash as yet; but an outcome would be that her currency , the Pound Sterling, would have to be weakened . While there would be many businesses that rejoice at that news, it is not all that rosy.

For one, a weakening of the pound would mean a rise in inflation for the local Brits. Imported goods would cost more. Most of the products made in the United Kingdom are, like most countries, made in China. So there would be a rise in prices in Chinese products.

We here, across the Atlantic should take note. While our debt vs GDP is not as bad as it is for Japan, India, Italy or the United Kingdom, we still have more debt than all of them put together. We still have got issues to sort out, like our lack of tax income and our terrible health care problem. We are still borrowing more and more money from the Chinese. A few bad moves in the next few years might make us experience the bad outcome before the United Kingdom.

Of course there are advantages with our system. For one, if we want to, we can virtually produce everything in America. That is something that the United Kingdom can only dream of. Technically speaking, if we lower the value of our dollar, companies would be more interested in opening factories and production centers in America. We have the resources as our country is huge, the United Kingdom does not. Also with full employment as the result of the factories, there would come the demand which would strengthen the dollar back to what it is supposed to be in the long run. We do have a juggernaut of an economy that is much larger than the Brits’.

That being said,football games are not won on paper. We need to play the game well to win. In this case, anything could go wrong; from bad leadership to counter measures by the Chinese. There are lots of things that could happen.

So it is very essential that we sit back and watch how the British handle their debt problem. If they do it well, we should model ours based on their techniques. If they screw up, we should learn from their mistakes and avoid making them. It is something that is very important for the future of our nation.

We should do our part as a people and read up on the situation. We should be keen about what is going on over there. In that manner, we can vote the person with the right solution into power.

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FOX News : Dangerous perception shown

Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pm  
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After our attack on Frank Gaffney a couple of months ago, a similar kind of rubbish has reappeared once again on FOX News. I think it is something that is meant to influence people’s mentality and I am shocked that there is muted rebuttal to the statements made by Reuel Marc Gerecht.

Before I start off, I would like to stress again my belief that there is problem within Islam. Muslims in the world are not taken aback by what is happening in the name of their religion and they think it is some kind of external, international conspiracy against their religion.

Pakistan today has a perfect example. Hundreds of Pakistanis die due to bomb blasts that the Taliban take responsibility for, but they still think that India and Israel are behind them. They are against the terror attacks, but blames RAW and Mossad (Indian and Israeli intelligence).

That paradigm, in my opinion is right, and I think that Muslim communities around the world must stop thinking that the world, or even the West, is against Islam. I think that until the Muslim world realize that, there is not going to be hope of thawing the frosty relationship that is shared between them today.

That being said, what was said by Gerecht is absolutely rubbish. His stand was not as terrible as the one Frank Gaffney had, but there are parts which does insinuate danger. First I would like to state that I agree with Gerecht that there is a threat internally. However, I do not think it is out of control and is that dangerous yet. It is not organized, basically some street punks that have been radicalized. To be fair, he said he didn’t know.

“(We are) taking a little bit too lightly the danger of Islamic militant propaganda in the United States; the extent to which mosques in the United States can reinforce those attitudes, so it is something that requires a lot more effort I think on the part of the bureau.”

We are not taking it lightly, Mr Gerecht. We know that there is a threat. We know that there are mosques in the US do reinforce those attitude. We would support you if you want to do intelligence work on mosques, which is something that is being done.

However, would you do the same for Churches? There are some crazy churches that believe in America being punished for tolerating homosexuality and abortion. There are also cases where Church pastors who encourage discrimination to gays and even, in extreme cases, incite violence. E.g. Pastor Anderson?

Do you think we would have an open door policy with all? I do not think so. I say, get them all! Flag before religion! I say if we penetrate into one, lets penetrate all communities that pose a harm to our citizens or our country.

“Its very difficult for the FBI which is an Intelligence Agency par excellence to actually pursue leads before crimes are committed. In Intelligence, you have to make certain assumptions, they are not nice assumptions that certain individuals may be guilty even though they haven’t committed the crime. You have to engage in surveillance before the crime is committed.”

Wow! Where in the world has this guy been living? Guantanamo Bay? The FBI always pursue leads before crimes are being committed. ALWAYS! They always are in search of things like new drug routes, potential child sex offenders and so on. It is one thing to assume, it is another to discriminate.

Secondly, what in the world is this guy thinking? Is he going to say that we do to the Muslims today what we did to the Japanese in World War 2? He asks for surveillance, I tell you we have surveillance. How do you think the FBI are catching these suspected terrorists? By guessing? Of course they have infiltrated the Muslim community.

A word has to be said about the terrible hosts at FOX. When people say something as controversial as this, you correct them. In this case, the host Paul Gigot himself can make the assertion that the barbarism of Fort Hood as an act of terrorism. Who said so Paul? Where did you get the facts from? Come on!

That being said, I have a certain amount of respect Paul Gigot. And to be fair, Reuel Marc Gerecht is no Frank Gaffmey.

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Dangerous mentality in Pakistan

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 6:58 pm  
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No country in the past few weeks has been receiving the brunt of terrorism like Pakistan has. So you would think that the public would be very angry with the Taliban and Al Qaeda since their citizens are being killed, right? Get ready to be disappointed.

Firstly, I would like to commend the Pakistani troops who have recently made huge gains on their Western border in Afghanistan. They have made large gains against the Taliban and according to some reports, have driven them back to Afghanistan. Okay so good job guys.

I am also not faulting the work of their intelligence today, their police or other safety officers or any one of their safety organizations. I do understand that just like our guys, they want to keep their country safe. So along with my wishes to our troops, keep up the good work guys.

But the most important group of people seem to be thinking differently. The public! Yes, the public! CNN and other news agencies went around asking the question, who do you think is responsible. Very rarely are the words Al Qaeda or the Taliban mentioned.

So who do they think is bombing their buildings? It surprised me initially, but not many of my South Asian friends; India. Yes, the majority of Pakistanis think that India is being the spate of bombings in their country! As if that is what a country with nuclear power amongst their arsenal would do! Fund terrorism!

This could be the screwed up mentality of the South Asians. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Indians did exactly the same thing. Rather than working together to solve the issue of terrorism, a majority of Indians blamed Pakistan and wanted them to be punished!

Also on that list of suspects on the list of Pakistanis are the Israelis. That shows how much hate there is in the Muslim world for Israel..It is absolutely ridiculous that Israel from so far away would want to bring down Pakistan, a country that has not done anything to Israel.

Some more sensible Pakistanis blame the foreign fighters. They cannot take the fact that a Pakistani would want to attack Pakistan. This is half true. There are many foreigners in Pakistan that engage in terror related activities. One of the suspects is a Saudi mass murderer named Osama bin Laden!

But the fact is that there are many terrorists out there that are from Pakistan. The scary thing is that if Pakistanis do not acknowledge that there are local terrorists those local terrorists would strike again and again. They can strike locally or globally.

Like Americans when it comes to our federal deficit, they just would not want to blame their administration in the 80s that started all this mess. Al Qaeda began with training from the much-feared Pakistanis intelligence agency, the ISI. This was funded by the President Reagan’s administration whose aim was to get rid of the communists in Afghanistan. Until and when they come to realize that aspect of truth, we can forget about dealing with terrorism within Pakistan.

I hope that the Pakistanis come to their senses and take the cancer out of their country. It is for the sake of Pakistan and the world.

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Get ready for a weaker dollar

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 4:42 pm  
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I am not being a skeptic here. I am not painting a picture of doom. I am going one above what the President and his economic advisors say. I am also following the trend of the Dollar which has sunk to 15 month lows amidst a cloud of economic good news.

Basically, I am basing this on the President’s wish to boost exports and cut the trade deficit. I think that this could be good and this could spell jobs in the short and the middle term. However, are we really ready to get things coming from Tennessee rather than Tokyo or, Boston rather than Beijing?

To make things exportable, we need to have the top technology or the bottom price. So while we have certain rights and America dominates in sectors that requires technology such as bio-technology, medicine and green technology, many of these are easily copied overseas and they would compete with us in that field.

E.g. We created drugs that slow down AIDS, India created the same drug at 1/10th the cost. We were pioneers of green technology, yet America is not the biggest producers China is. In the same way, we have been overtaken by the Singaporeans and the South Koreans in the production of bio-medical industries. So that is a problem with these sectors contributing to the export numbers.

So to export more things, we got to make our production cheaper. To do that, we got to increase productivity dramatically which is very unlikely; Or we got to weaken our currency. That is more likely to happen.

First lets see the cons of having a weaker currency. We would see inflation increase. Expect to see oil and gold prices rising. Things would be more expensive and the bite may be painful when it happens. It would most likely drag over sometime, which would be unpopular with the populace as they would feel the pinch and would cause the ruling party to lose elections. It would also make imports more expensive. Again, something that would not be popular with the American population.

Another impact could be coming from immigration. A weaker dollar could shun immigration. While this may be music to former Representative Tom Tancreado’s ears , it is actually not a great thing. A lot of talent in America today comes from overseas. India and Eastern Europe give us a lot of IT professionals. Asians dominate sciences in our country. So this could be a commonly neglected aspect of having a weaker dollar.

There are pros of having a weaker dollar too. First and foremost, it would make American labor cheaper. When American labor becomes cheaper, more investors would like to open their factories or places of production. That would lead to higher employment. More people get employed means more demand which would allow more people to set up shop here and the positive cycle carries on. So a weaker dollar means more jobs.

A weaker dollar would may also increase interest rates. This could be a good or bad measure. For one, with higher interest rates, we encourage savings and lending to start-ups. With a lower interest rate, we encourage spending. That I leave it up to the readers to decide.

So I wish to inform the readers, get ready for a weaker dollar. How are we going to do that? I think the readers should know better than we on that. I also hope that you share your ideas with us.

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