Judges And The Poor

A former Supreme Court judge writes:

Most Ninth Schedule statutes were meant to save the wretched from the claws of pro-property dimensions of Part III of the Constitution. Judges must abide by Churchill's dictum: "Humanity, rather than legality, must be our guide".

Crunching The Numbers

I wrote here about the hyperbolic headlines accompanying the IIM placement season and the fact that some graduates are opting to stay back in India. The Hindu article carefully avoided hard numbers. Well, let's look at the actual numbers.

Dollars, pounds and francs don't hold any glamour for them anymore. Big buck offers notwithstanding, they would rather stay put in apna India, thank you very much. This year, about 20-odd students from the three IIMs – Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta have rejected plum international postings.

20 students out of approximately 600. That is a full 3%.

Not Cricket

Not any longer. It isn't just a game any more. Money plays a starring role.

Kunal Dasgupta of Sony, the official broadcaster of the World Cup, agreed that the money spend on advertising will be hugely affected if India is knocked out. He complained, ‘‘The entire format of the 2007 World Cup is flawed. In a 48-day tournament, if a team like Pakistan is already out for playing bad cricket in two matches, there is something really wrong. We were against this format and even told the GCC (the commercial wing of the ICC) to reconsider it. But they refused.

‘‘Now that Pakistan is out, the fun of an India-Pakistan Super 8 match is gone. And if India lose another group match, the Cup will be the biggest flop in India and advertisers will lose value of their investments and we may also lose money even after selling all slots,’’ he said, indicating that advertisers could force the broadcaster to lower rates if India went out. He refused to divulge any financial details.

So a television channel is trying to influence the format of the cricket World Cup. And the world cup is no longer about the best teams winning, but an India-Pakistan match on a Sunday.

Bob Woolmer

What a way to go. Alone in a hotel room far away from home. Totally dejected and no one to share the pain with. All for a game of cricket.

It was horrifying to watch the news break over the news channels on sunday night here. The looped video footage of the scenes with Shoab Akhtar and Mohd Asif and others, making it too obvious that the coach was hardly enjoying a good working relationship with at least some members of the Pakistan team. Still some of them probably felt otherwise as was evidenced by Kamran Akmal and a few others breaking down during the farewell meeting.

There must be many dying every day in other ways that are equally tragic. But we don't know their particular stories and hence don't feel as much. But in this case everything was open. The humiliation of the loss against the weakest of teams. The shattering of the world cup dream. All the hard work - not only for Pakistan but also the illustrious career with SA - down the drain. The shocking death of the affable and mostly cheerful - as far as one could judge on TV - coach. It was hard not to feel sorrowful.

Boosting Religion

Albeit, under the radar. Also, it is news to me the Sri Sri Ravishankar has achieved "enlightenment". Wonder how it feels like. He's eversmiling, so must be good.

Please Don't

Screw up the rich environment along the coast and the nearby ghats by building a coal-based power plant. Coal pollutes big-time.

More Freedom

Governments don't work - can't work. Can never work. So they should get out of everything except law and order, defense, and 'a handful of things'. The handful of things is left artfully unelaborated. Probably would include education, healthcare and so on. Some of the most important things for common citizens.

The questions is: if government can't do anything else straight, why would a libertarian expect it to do well in these important fields?

I need to really read up on libertarianism.

Spine

Lack of it (via Atrios):

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

Q: “But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before.”

This is a US Presidential candidate who will run in 2008. Stumped by a simple question of whether condoms help stop the spread of HIV/STDs. Because his political base - the conservatives - wouldn't forgive him if he agreed.

One Down

The Hindu's editor gets a letter:

I must confess that I was one of those who protested against increased reservation for the OBCs when it was announced. But the two-part article exposes how difficult life can get for those born in a supposedly inferior class. As one aspiring to study law in the hope of making some difference to the widespread administrative malfeasance, I felt truly disheartened on reading the article.

Surely, a dual society prevails in our country — one that has an economic growth of 9 per cent and the other that is stuck in the medieval times. The article has made me realise that I must not go by popular response to the things I see. But it must also be said that it was the media that influenced my thinking that Dalits and OBCs do not deserve reservation in a "modern" society like ours. I only wish I could help and was told how to in more such articles.

Srishti C. Kalro,
Bangalore

So that's one person converted. Only about 310.5 million more people to go.

Free Market At Work

Via Atrios.

Today's pop quiz involves some potentially exciting new products that mortgage bankers have come up with to make homeownership a reality for cash-strapped first-time buyers.

Here goes: Which of these products do you think makes sense?

(a) The "balloon mortgage," in which the borrower pays only interest for 10 years before a big lump-sum payment is due.

(b) The "liar loan," in which the borrower is asked merely to state his annual income, without presenting any documentation.

(c) The "option ARM" loan, in which the borrower can pay less than the agreed-upon interest and principal payment, simply by adding to the outstanding balance of the loan.

(d) The "piggyback loan," in which a combination of a first and second mortgage eliminates the need for any down payment.

(e) The "teaser loan," which qualifies a borrower for a loan based on an artificially low initial interest rate, even though he or she doesn't have sufficient income to make the monthly payments when the interest rate is reset in two years.

(f) The "stretch loan," in which the borrower has to commit more than 50 percent of gross income to make the monthly payments.

(g) All of the above.

If you answered (g), congratulations! Not only do you qualify for a job as a mortgage banker, but you may also have a future as a Wall Street investment banker and a bank regulator.

Read more about it in the linked article. Tying it in with something a bit closer to home, the meltdown in the Sensex (and the rest of the global stock market indices) is apparently due to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the US. No I don't have a clue what a subprime mortgage is, so don't ask me.

Nandigram

This is pathetic. The Governor of the state asked:

“the news has filled me with a sense of cold horror”. “What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we have witnessed today?” he asked.

What purpose was served really?

The issue has been too politicised too. The lady is too reckless. And the government is too stubborn. Will this be the beginning of the end for the Left in WB?

Fence Eating The Crop

Officials of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes are themselves prejudiced against the Scheduled Castes apparently. On second thoughts, not much of a surprise there I guess.

Wheels of Justice Grind Too Slowly

Here's a senior advocate in the Madras Courts High arguing that hanging may not be required at all if only more convictions were coming from the higher courts. Instead of the steady drip, drip, drip of delays in hearing the cases on account of frivolous technicalities. Of course, this tactic is not restricted to corruption cases.

Corruption

It is a bit disheartening when one finds people like Ramesh Ramanathan writing for the Freedom Paper. As I was going through his latest article in my mail, the feeling just grew. He seemed to have changed his tune completely. No more people and politicians/governance institutions working together in a partnership? All the blame on the politicians? Not the Ramesh Ramanathan I know (I don't know him personally, only through his writing), I thought. But I'd jumped to conclusions as I found out. Here is the article itself (this is supposed to have appeared in Live Mint, but the online site does not have a link).

Travel Notes

On a recent family trip to the US and UK , we also got a glimpse of Eritria , Ethiopia , Pakistan , Ghana and Morocco . We were “taken” there by the various taxi drivers during our travels. The conversations were honest, stripped of the veneer of diplomatic deceit, possibly because we knew that weren’t likely to meet again.

We learned a lot about their countries. We also discovered some universal qualities of people across societies – more on this later. We learned that Eritria was once a part of Ethiopia and that it got Independence recently, a fact that made the Eritrian very proud, and the Ethiopian very angry. “They took away the ports”, he said testily. Eritrian independence cost Ethiopia the entire coastline of the country, leaving it completely landlocked. We were surprised to hear that Ethiopia is actually not desert, that it has plenty of rainfall, and forests and mountains.

“And what about the famine?” we asked, referring to the calamity that had put Ethiopia on the world map. “It’s them politicians”, he said, continuing, “It’s a great country, with wonderful people and lousy politicians. And because of them, we have hunger and corruption, and one out of 10 children dies. If only we could get rid of them politicians…”

The Ghanaian – Kwesi - was very quiet at first, rejecting our conversational overtures. And then we asked the one question that always breaks the ice, “Is your country beautiful?”

He smiled wistfully and spoke in that delicious thick African accent, “Oh yes! We have everything in Ghana .” And he was right, 500 kilometers of coastline, mountains, plenty of natural resources and arable land. “Unfortunately, we also have politicians”, he said, “and they are looting all our gold and cocoa.”

Our Pakistani driver, Masood, had wanted to be a Bollywood actor, and had even stayed in Bombay for 3 months, working on a film with Urmila Matondkar! “Don’t look at me now”, he said, pointing to his balding head and belly, “I used to be really handsome then”. The producer-director had died unexpectedly, and Masood’s dreams with him. He now drives Sunjay Dutt in Long Island whenever he visits. We rode silently down Van Wyck Expressway, under the newly constructed monorail to the airport.

“How is this monorail affecting your business?” my wife asked him. He snorted, “Behen, you know what the size of the taxi business in New York - in New York alone - is? Billions of dollars. This silly monorail starts somewhere in Queens , in the middle of nowhere. Who is going to take it? The taxi fleet owners have paid off the politicians to make this white elephant. Hundreds of millions of dollars” – he said “dhollars” - “phoof”.

Our last taxi trip was with Tahar, the Moroccan, in London . He arrived ten minutes early. Pacing around, he waved us in, loaded the luggage impatiently and raced off. “The rush, it is too much”, he said, “ten minutes, and you lose thirty minutes in traffic.” I said, “We have plenty of time, no problem”, to which he replied, “Yes, but I haf problem! One more trip, I can make.”

He waved his arms around, carving and chopping the air like a music conductor as he spoke, the words coming off his tongue like hand-rolled cigarettes.

“Oh, Morocco , beautiful country, we haf everything. Our Mediterranean beaches, our oranges. They are the best in the world. And our pears, you can smell the aroma a mile away.”

He drove frantically, weaving in and out of the narrow London lanes, zipping across the short stretches of motorway, glancing at the clock on his dashboard.

And what about the government?

“Oh terrible! Looters, I tell you. We have oil, gold. But they hide it away, they keep hush about it.”

As we took the exit for the airport, he reached his short, stubby hand across, shook mine vigorously, and said, “I am Tahar. When we reach the airport, there could be some people, they ask who you are. You say that you are my family ok”, he whipped his head around to take in those in the back, wrapping an imaginary rope around the group, “family, ok?”.

I was puzzled. “Why?” I asked. He shook his head, and looked away guiltily, saying, “I not tell the taxi company, this way I keep the entire fare. Times are tough here in London , you see.”

There was an awkward silence for the next few minutes as we drove up to our terminal.

Nobody stopped us, thankfully. As we got out, I asked him, “So, Morocco sounds like a great country, but the government, it is corrupt, has no values, right?” “Ah, absolutely. No values.” He took the fare, climbed back in and drove off to catch his next trip to the airport. Such is the state everywhere in the world: the mirror reflects our own image, but we don’t recognise ourselves.

Toilets In Government Schools

Are very difficult to come by. DH writes about it. And the Primary and Secondary Education Minister says it is just a matter of 2-3 years before the toilets are ready. Kids are really having it tough in Bangalore lately. 2-3 years before they can get toilets in their schools. At least that many years, and most probably many more, before they are able to walk on the street without fear of dogs (since the birth control program lets dogs back on the streets after sterilization).

IIM Placement Season

One could also describe it as the season of lists and mellow wantonness, and silly headlines. Lists as in lists of companies attending the placements. Wantonness as in the big pay packages. And silly headlines like this from today's Bangalore edition of The Hindu (not present online):

IIMB graduates prefer to work in India

Silly because the article hardly justifies it - two graduates are quoted as having decided to stick on in India. Oh well, I'll just recycle an old post. Why not, when they are recycling the headlines.

Hang It All

We're responsible for it aren't we? A reader hits the nail on the head in The Hindu:

Once again, we have drawn a line. On this side of the line are "we, the good and the noble." And on the other side are "they, the bad and the ignoble." Face reality. Aren't we the ones who bestowed on "them" the power through our own political process? Aren't we responsible for what society is today? Are we separate from the rest of society that we now sit in judgment and proclaim: "Those of you, the evil, shall be hanged?" Let us no longer fool ourselves — we and we alone are responsible for the corruption around us.

S.B. Badekila,
Bangalore

Two Quotes

Two unrelated quotes. First from Khushwant Singh in DH:

When it comes to voting, large sections of the Sikh peasantry including those who do not observe Khalsa traditions by chopping their breads, smoking or chewing tobacco and drinking alcohol vote the Akali party because they believe it stands for the Panth.

Very interesting. The next, from The Hindu:

... peddlers of distilled male fantasies like Yash Chopra, Karan Johar and Vidhu Vinod Chopra continue to dabble in dreams.

That sentence rolls off the tongue nicely. Peddlers of distilled male fantasies...

The Budget And The Markets

From Hindustan Times:

The stock markets gave a virtual thumbs down to the Union Budget and the benchmark BSE crashed 541 points to end below the 13,000-point mark on Wednesday in highly volatile trading on selling by funds and investors.

Right. China's markets crashed by 8% yesterday. Following that, the Dow lost 5%. And following that, all world indices are awash with red today, except Norway's. And the budget caused the crash?

Update: et tu The Telegraph?

Palaniappan Chidambaram had looked good at the nets yesterday when he came to the pitch with the India Shining story in the Economic Survey. But today he dropped a sitter.

The stock market howled, driving the sensex down by 540 points after the budget.

The story was mostly correctly told like here and surprisingly here, but a little surprisingly again not here.

Another Nexus

To add to the politician-criminal nexus, police-criminal nexus, now we have the private bank-goonda nexus. The SC does not approve. Difficult to do otherwise.

There is this paragraph in the DH report which sticks out unrelated to anything else in the report:

The court observed that MNBs score over the nationalised banks as they are technically upgraded, efficient and their staff is well-paid. The ‘dead wood’ in the staff can be removed any time unlike government banks, where staff do not have any accountability and fear of being removed from service and therefore their attitude towards the public is pathetic.

(Italics mine.) This, when the whole brouhaha is about private banks using goondas to assault the public!