Entries Tagged 'Society' ↓

Somali waters, especially the Gulf of Aden has never been a very safe area for merchant ships. However the pirate attacks on ships have spiked to very dangerous levels in the past two weeks. There was the capture of an Ukrainian vessel and then an attempt to hijack an Indian ship that was unraveled by the Indian Navy. On Saturday, Somali pirates have reached the epitome of their exploits by seizing Sirius Star, a Saudi owned super tanker which is the largest ship ever to be hijacked by pirates.

These conditions have opened up a unique opportunity for the Indian Navy on its quest to become a true Blue Water Navy. After all, the Indian ocean is our own front yard. The United Nations has already made it the duty of its members to fight piracy and hence it is not only legal, but also encouraged by the international community to do the job.

Right now, the only protection by naval forces in the region for the merchant ships are offered by some NATO forces as well as Russian, Malaysian and Indian navies. However, so far these forces have not been effective as evidenced by the the continuing attacks on the merchant vessels. The main reason of the ineffectiveness is that these actions have been sporadic, on an incident to incident basis. This helps the pirates to stay low for a few days until the naval forces retreat to a safe distance and then act again.

One solution to this problem of piracy, across the Indian ocean can be the expansion of the blue water capabilities of the Indian navies. This offers a few advantages. Firstly, it offers a field of protection for merchant ships of all flags to operate without fear and thereby help international trade. This could only help the big time ambitions of many Indian ports to become major international hubs and thereby contribute to our economy.

Secondly, this could be a useful Readiness Operational Exercise (ROX) for the whole navy by keeping its vessels and personnel useful rather than keeping them idle and doing annual naval exercises. Also, with the ongoing expansion of the Navy with the addition of two more Aircraft Carriers – INS Vikrant in 2011 and INS Vikramaditya in 2012 (expected)- and many other Destroyers and Submarines, it could make it easier for the navy to do this.

Finally, this offers India to assert its strength and dominance in the region by controlling the Indian Ocean from coast of East Africa to Australia. Already, India is the only Asian power to operate Aircraft Carriers – INS Viraat- and as a rapidly rising major power in the world, it cannot afford to lose its control of the region and India should do everything that it can to keep the region safe.

Further Reading

1. Forbes- Somali Pirates at Sea
2. LA Times- At war with Pirates on the high sea
3. Blue Water Navy
4. Indian Navy

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Finally after 16 years of corrupt investigation CBI makes 3 arrests in the murder case of sister Abhaya. The arrested people are

• Fr Thomas M Kottur
• Sister Sephy
• Fr Jose Puthrukka

Two priests and a nun are arrested and still the Kottayam Diocese says says they are innocent. If the case was solved 16 years ago, Christians could have saved a lot of public defamation.  Its really disgusting to see the Church still trying to save the culprits.

The case do not end here. There are many others who obstructed justice, and helped the culprits. All should be caught and punished, even if that includes a Bishop.

Abhayas Mother said on TV today that all culprits be brutally killed exactly the same way her daughter was killed. I also feel the same.

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Recent lay offs in the IT industry brought back this topic to the lime light again. The political parties are using this opportunity to crack into the IT industry. But do we really need a trade union in the IT industry ?

If we take a look at the recent protests in front of the IT parks by the communists, the BJP and their feeder organizations, we will understand that those people don’t even have a clue as to what the IT industry is all about. All they speak is a misinterpreted version of the IT industry. Do we want those pseudo leaders to lead us ?

Think about Trade Union flags in front of our IT parks. How intimidating that situation will be to a client coming from the west. Will someone give work to a company knowing that the trade union might stop work any time for even the silliest reasons. We already have such a bad image across the world. Kerala is notorious for its trade unions.

Finally there is a positive side to having trade unions. They help preserve the greenery of Kerala.

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Tuesday, 18 November marks the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre that shocked the world. It has been an incredible story of deception, brainwashing, thirst for meaning for one’s life and human culpability. Let me give you a short history.

The People’s Temple started as a church based on apostolic socialism for all people regardless of color, national origin or past and led by the pastor Jim Jones. After the initial few years in Indianapolis, Jones moved the church to California where it flourished. It became a home for everyone who was fed up with life and the membership soared to the thousands. People were attracted to the cult by the feeling of part of a utopian society that would be a model of sharing in a cut-throat world. They were lured by the charming way that he spoke. Followers were mesmerized by the way talked to them. They all saw him as the savior figure who was likened to God himself.

As his influence began to grow, he started wielding it for political power. He basically controlled a whole part of California and its politics. Even when reports came up about anomalies, money laundering and other atrocities that happened behind the doors at his temple compound, reputed newspapers like San Fransisco Chronicle were scared to publish them. Things slowly started turning ugly. There were beatings and other torture for followers who wanted to leave or raised objections to the way he did business.

These pressures made him to move his People’s Temple and most of its followers to Jonestown, a newly cleared village deep in the jungle in Guyana a small country in South America bordered by Brazil and Venezuela. That was a very bad decision for many of his followers. It was supposed to be a tropical paradise where his followers had a vibrant community based on equality and love making a living in the old agrarian ways. However, once he reached there, he turned more paranoid and more controlling. More people began suffering his tactics. Some managed to escape and come back to the US and told horror stories of people being held against their wishes at Jonestown.

This led to the fateful events in November of 1978. Congressman Leo Ryan, of California had a lot of his constituents moved to Jonestown and he decided to go over there with his aides, journalists and a few concerned relatives and investigate about the conditions in Jonestown. During the visit, initially everything went well but by the time he was leaving back to the US, many people wanted to get out of Jonestown. Congressman Ryan took a few people with him as it would fit in his airplane and promised to be back. This led Jim Jones to go totally paranoid and berserk. He ordered his guards to go to the airstrip and gun down the Congressman as he was getting ready to take off from there. The gunmen managed to kill the Congressman and a few other journalists who accompanied him for the trip.

Soon after, Jim Jones told everyone that the Guyanese and the American armies are waiting outside their compound and are going to kill everyone. He asked his followers to drink kool-aid laced with cyanide and commit suicide. Little children were injected the poison by their mothers and his followers- some willingly and some forced by gunmen- drank the poison and committed suicide. A total of 919 people died in Jonestown during the incidents on 18, Nov 1978. Please watch this video and fill it in because words cannot describe the hundreds of bodies piled up at the site when authorities reached there the next day.

To put this into perspective, other than the 9/11 incident, this was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster. Leo Ryan became the only Congressman murdered in the line of duty in the history of the United States.

The moral of the story is not to discard this story as another cult of mad people who did something crazy. The fact is, those who died in Jonestown were real people, with families, friends, and loved ones. The best way to appreciate this fact is to read personal reflections by those with direct knowledge of Peoples Temple and its members. Jonestown Institute at San Diego State University is the best source of material, recollections, original audio of the incident (Yes, Jim Jones taped the whole incident before he too killed himself).

Remember this when you see the modern day Jim Joneses who claim to bring joy, love and peace to their followers. When you see these demi-gods, do not be blind and ask questions.

1. Jonestown Institute - San Diego State University
2. Jonestown Incidents
3. CNN on Jonestown
4. MSNBC on Jonestown

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What would you do if  your son drew a picture of yours ? Will you punish him for that ? Will you send him out of the house ?

But this is exactly what happened in a school in Central Travancore. (Sorry guys, roots are in Central Travancore and that’s why I always keep getting stories from there). A 7th STD student was dismissed from the school for drawing a picture of the Principal.

I too could not digest the story first and dug in deeper. The kid was naughty and the teachers had something against him. On the day of the dismissal, one teacher declared “I wont take the class until this crap is out of my class“. Perfect words to describe a 12 year old.

So he went out and stood there. Mean while he drew a picture of the principal on the school wall and gave the credits to a girl (his No 1 Enemy) in his class. When the school authorities started questioning the girl about the picture, he went to them and said its he who drew and not the girl.

The very next day he was dismissed from the school on grounds of misconduct. Do you think this is reason enough to dismiss someone from a school, and that too a 12 year old kid. He was naughty, but that’s how some kids are.

There are many such incidents of little minds being tortured everyday in our schools. But we fail to see the lasting damage it has on these small children.

Our media has keen interest in celebrating child molestations and rape cases. But when will our reporters grow out of the kinky sensationalism and start doing some real journalism ?

Read another incident of cruelty against school children here.

The above story was first reported by :- Kevin Babu

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