Just started reading George Orwell's 1984 and the vision i got of the future wasn't really a pleasant one. A bomb as we all know is quite easy to make, take some fertilizer, some acid and you can do a lot of damage to the world. Information and communication is easy to hide and transmit. Our common day terrorist varies from a poor chap dying on the road off hunger, a guerilla in the jungle, a rich sheikh in hiding or a well learned chap in one of the top colleges of the world, he may be black, white, brown, yellow, pink or turqoise...
We are already stripping people on airports, next if someone makes a bomb that can be injected into the blood stream we might be dripping them like cows on a slaughter before letting them board aircraft, or will we start plugging into people's minds to read their thoughts?
Fiction now, maybe fact tomorrow...in this war on terrorism are we going to create super terrorists like we are seeing superbugs now...is 'war' really the answer to terrorism...or could $120bn be used to actually uplift the poor...maybe love and caring is the answer not war
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Every step we take
On our bus ride back from office yesterday I was just wondering, every single thing I do in a day only goes towards degrading the environment. Right from the moment i get up, the toothpaste is made in a way that pollutes the envt, so is the soap...The pumping of the water and the working of the geyser take electricity which means burnt fuel, then comes the newspaper and on and on and on...every single step goes towards degradation and not one thing i do goes towards working for improving the envt. and thats just me...there are billions of me out there...
we are going to have to pay for our sins...and so we are...the air is more polluted and so is the water, the weather is changing patterns, glaciers are melting, our previous generation led a healthier life than us and we better than our coming one; all in all its time we got ready for a big dose of punishment...
and that made me think maybe i don't want to have a kid...i'll probably adopt one...atleast that way he or she or they can't look back one day and said why in god's name did u bring us into this muck...coz i didn't somebody else did...somebody who forgot to use a condom....infact if u've seen that ad where this kid is making a scene in a supermarket and the dad looks helpless and then the punchline comes...sympathy towards those who didn't use a condom (or something like that)...we can show kids with accusing fingers pointing towards their dads...use a condom..save urself the accusation of bringing a child into this world...
we are going to have to pay for our sins...and so we are...the air is more polluted and so is the water, the weather is changing patterns, glaciers are melting, our previous generation led a healthier life than us and we better than our coming one; all in all its time we got ready for a big dose of punishment...
and that made me think maybe i don't want to have a kid...i'll probably adopt one...atleast that way he or she or they can't look back one day and said why in god's name did u bring us into this muck...coz i didn't somebody else did...somebody who forgot to use a condom....infact if u've seen that ad where this kid is making a scene in a supermarket and the dad looks helpless and then the punchline comes...sympathy towards those who didn't use a condom (or something like that)...we can show kids with accusing fingers pointing towards their dads...use a condom..save urself the accusation of bringing a child into this world...
Monday, May 28, 2007
Why Non Violence
After the Baroda incident and the Dera incident, we again need to revisit the question, why was Gandhi against violence, isn't violence a faster and easier way to get what is right?
From what I have understood there are some other aspects which come into play before we get the main answer.
1. What is right and whose right is actually right or put more eloquently one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, if you and I can justify violence for some purpose then so can everybody else. Like one of my naughty uncles in his youth said "I can't be wrong till I admit to be wrong and I refuse to admit that I'm wrong whatever you might say"
2. What does violence breed? The gangster whose kid saw him being shot dead like a dog on the street right before his eyes by the police, or a native in Afghanistan whose house was mistakenly bombed by US forces who are they expected to grow up to love or hate?
Violence in all its totality whether at a broader picture or at the individual level can only breed more hate and violence. Violence is not a solution, it is an event with repercursions going long and farther than the original act.
We used violence in parts to get the British out of the country, we use violence in parts even today to get what we want, we didn't learn then, we haven't learnt now...
From what I have understood there are some other aspects which come into play before we get the main answer.
1. What is right and whose right is actually right or put more eloquently one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, if you and I can justify violence for some purpose then so can everybody else. Like one of my naughty uncles in his youth said "I can't be wrong till I admit to be wrong and I refuse to admit that I'm wrong whatever you might say"
2. What does violence breed? The gangster whose kid saw him being shot dead like a dog on the street right before his eyes by the police, or a native in Afghanistan whose house was mistakenly bombed by US forces who are they expected to grow up to love or hate?
Violence in all its totality whether at a broader picture or at the individual level can only breed more hate and violence. Violence is not a solution, it is an event with repercursions going long and farther than the original act.
We used violence in parts to get the British out of the country, we use violence in parts even today to get what we want, we didn't learn then, we haven't learnt now...
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