Pirates

I have had several discussions about piracy around the Somalian seas with people in the UK. Most of them, unsurprisingly, detest piracy and think that they should be dealt with as soon as possible to ensure freedom in the high seas. This of course is easy to say while living in the UK, getting paid a nice hefty pay-check. The additional benefit of course is that if you want fish, you just go the the supermarket, where it will always be available.

The question is where does the fish come from? Multinationals are useful in bringing the world together. In making sure that you get whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want - as long as you can pay for it. Unfortunately this is all jolly if you live in a thriving economy which is better than most countries. These countries are in a better state because they can mooch off resources from other countries. What if you come from a poor country and your only way of survival was fishing and one fine day a massive trawler comes across and takes more fish in a day that you take in a year. What would you do? Send a petition over youtube to your MP,demonstrate or worse strike? And what if all this fails because your MP gets paid off by the rich companies and he does not have to listen to you?

Would you take arms and try and make just what you think is wrong? Read this interview.

This post in no way condones violence, but it definitely does not agree with the fact that people who take up violence as a last resort are primitive beings who do not know the ways of the civilised world. The western world really needs to understand this. Sharing and caring is not only necessary but also useful.

crossing over

I like this picture on bbc's website. It says so much.

watch out!

Is this your future too?

obama

Is he really what everyone makes him out to be? He's very good at talking, I'll give you that.

hot wash anyone?

This is England

Where are we going?

India, Israel sign $1.4 bn deal for air defence system

It is a pity that the government is so short sighted. Looking at Israel's history, this move is going to aggravate the situation and not diffuse it. When will they learn that you cannot fight terrorism by killing more people and starting wars. If this move is to protect the general public, its terrorism one should worry about and not the 'powerful neighbours'. I do fail to see how buying expensive 'state-of-the-art' air defence systems is going to help with that. Did having a massive army help when attacks in Bombay took place?

update

Hello there,

You still here? I know, I know, it has been a really long time. I have several different excuses but will not waste any of your and my time talking about them. But where have I been might be a good way to update you on my life no?

I am writing my thesis at the moment, my PhD thesis. This is the 300 page document that I have been working on for the last three and half years of my life. It is going ok so far and hopefully in a few months time I will be done with my PhD completely. Besides that, I had gone to India, which was very very nice. I had a great time with the family and enjoyed going back to my roots. A trip back home is never long enough and although I was there for six weeks, it seemed like a short visit indeed. After that, I have been back in Leeds working on the PhD as I mentioned before.

So, as you can see there's nothing really exciting going on... but still I have a lot of stories to share. Give me a few more days and then the blog is going to start again.

Hope everything is going well on your side!

us elections

I am gripped. Procrastination has another epicentre. I hope Obama wins, he seems to bring out a positive energy in people.

fanatics all over again

I don't understand religious wars. They want to uphold the name of god, and are ready to kill for it. Killing for god is nothing but playing god. How come the don't see the irony in that? In India there are a few organisations which do the same. India is the country which won freedom through the non violence movement and the people in power do not seem to grasp that idea at all.

I came across two articles today:
Bajran Dal are openly declaring terrorism.
Raj Thakarey has no grasp about how the economy of a region works.

Pity these guys are the ones running the country. This reminds me of the unfortunate happenings during the Gujrath Riots in 2002. Even there the person in-charge didn't help protect the people who needed protection. Why can't the look beyond such petty fights and focus on development in a country where 60% of the population lives in poverty?

Ginger fest

Ginger hair - It is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin.

History: Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn.

Apparently some still believe that people with red hair are 'weird', which I do not understand. But what is even more astonishing is a Ginger Fest organised in Wolverhampton. Apparently we are supposed to celebrate and not ostracise them.

elephants on drugs

Now this isn't a clever little pun that I concocted but it is in fact the latest news to grip the UK. Well, maybe not grip, but still important enough for it to be published by the BBC.

Elephant on drugs cured in rehab.

What I do not understand is why the traders had to spike him with heroin. Surely, they could have sold the heroin to some fool in the west who wants to 'enjoy life' and used the money to buy a 4x4 or something. But then having an elephant is so much more fun.