You're Fired [2/365]

In parts of India, unless you have a job in a PSU or with the Central Government, you are a loser.

I know several people (related and otherwise) who have continued to study well into their late 20's, piling up post graduate degrees like it was going out of style, aiming only to work with PSU's. It is after all 'a job for life'. They crave the security, the easy pace of work, the pension benefits, gratuity and all the other perks of being a government employee. Working anywhere else is a stigma.

Anti-austerity demonstrators in central Madrid earlier this year. New government has announced freeze on public sector pay and minimum wage. Photograph Arturo Rodriguez/AP

So, when I read about how the unemployment rates are going through the roof across Europe, I struggled to understand how 'developed' economies can flounder. (Read article)
With a continent that failed to check it's spending and a currency that is struggling to keep up with the dollar, the great European honeymoon is almost over. 

The staggering number of jobless in Spain, (at 4.42 million is equal to the population of Greater Boston or the combined population of Meghalaya and Goa) the slide is inevitable. Add this to the five million of the jobless whose benefits have run out, and you have an entire economy that is teetering on bankruptcy. 
As the crisis deepens, the need of the hour are aggressive reforms in the labour market and a tighter rein-in of the government expenditure. 

Many hundreds of miles (or kilometers) away, many in the Subcontinent still prefer to play it by ear. Waiting for that cushy government job.    

Dire Straits or Dead Traits [1/365]

For folks in the Middle east, Iran is to the ME what China is to India.

Tenacious and formidable, while most of the Arabs would like to torpedo Iran into oblivion, you gotta love the way they have stood their ground (and their food).


While I believe in the power of non-violence, I also know that we cannot use a 'one-size-fits-all' approach towards people/nations that harm your interests. Throughout history, we have seen how a submissive approach towards oppressive regimes can actually corrode every bit of your nationalism. 

On the 2nd of Jan, 2012, India lodged a 'strong protest' against the way one of it's diplomat was treated while in the custody of Chinese authorities. (Read article)

On the same day, Iran concludes its 10 day naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz, by successfully test-firing the latest of it's long range missile- Qadar. (Read article)


While we can debate endlessly on how a diplomatic approach is better than a military approach, we can also see how the truth is actually as far as the east is from the west.


The demure Indian approach of registering protests and compiling dossiers even when the proof is in the pudding, is ineffective. 
On the other hand, Iranian brinkmanship is proving to be expensive and tiresome. 


When are our leaders going to wake up and grow some balls of their own?
Our colonial hangover makes us resort to diplomatic posturing that is intended to scare, designed to satisfy but ultimately achieving nothing. 
The uniquely feeble way that we've treated every terrorist (nation) in the past is proof of the diplomatic impotency that we've inherited from the days of the Raj. 


Why can't Iran have nukes? 
When the government and its military leaders have managed to keep Osama and his motley bunch out of the country, keep her borders secure, all while keeping her citizens happy and prosperous and it's economy stable, I don't see why the West is constantly scared about Iran creating or having a nuke. Again, if China can have it, why can't Iran? 
And if I were to presume that Iran already has one, then it earns brownie points in my book for the way it has not threatened it's neighbors or the West, the same way the US of A did with the Russians back during the Cold War.


So while the West have been obsessed about 'Weapons of mass destruction', they forget about the billions of aid that have flowed to a nation like Pakistan (a.k.a former home of Osama)

Double standards, anyone?