Psychology of Views and Decisions

      What is the routine that you wake up every morning to follow? I bet it involves reading the newspapers. Sure it does. What are you nodding your head for? OK? So you open the papers and what is the first news that you read? Killings, rape and violence. In simpler words it is all the things that the world would be better without and also that you would be better without every morning. After all it is much better to wake up every morning to read happier things. But do the papers realise that? I don't think so.

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      Regularly they feature events that are not so pleasant to either the eye or the emotions on the front page and we like the silent people read them, go through them and the worse it is the better. At times it seems like we have been taken over by a sinister evil that wishes to see all the gory details so brilliantly highlighted in the newspapers. We do not have any control over it.

      But how did it grow so big in the first place that even our superior organs like the brain can't overcome him? Well it is simple now that you ask. It has grown. All the rubbish that we fed it acted like nutrients for it and it bloomed. There are few things in this world and life that we can do.

      And it is these things that we do that define us. Also there are those things that we don't do that define us. As such we are surrounded by options, options good or bad. However what we need to look at is: what is it that we have done and or will do and what would their consequences be? Can they be put into the 'good' circle or the 'bad' circle.

      Whatever we do may not have its effects immediately but it will in the future, you can be sure about that. Thus every time we do something or decide to do something just give it a second's thought and view all the paradigms attached to it. That is all you need to do to lead a good life. Once you have analysed everything, you will choose the right option automatically.

Earth in 2011: Humans and Nature

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      Disasters. Man-made and natural. None of the two are new, they are age old words but they should now be said with a lot more fear. Everywhere you look there is despair that hangs in the air with humans being the rope and the devil himself being the Hangman. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya are the most recent and the most intense examples of man-made disasters. It was man who created the system of ruler. It is a time tested one but it also has its negatives. These negatives are mostly the result of poor leadership. Unlike the earlier days, now a days the leaders give a lot more importance to their own state of well-being.

      The best example of this sort of leadership is that of the infamous Col. Gaddafi. Every news paper has something to report about his banks accounts which are spread all over the world and which the world powers are doing their desperate best to freeze but then we, civilians, don't know the ground reality. We are simply the infant which is fed by the mother, the government being the mother here. Educated, politically aware and smart though we are but it is only those handful of people in the villages, rural areas or the not so developed regions who are asking the questions. What are we doing then? Isn't it our responsibility too? Being responsible global citizens shouldn't we offer help to our brothers who are struggling to achieve some sense of democracy?

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      We aren't doing that but how is it that even with so many educated people in the world, individuals like Gaddafi are able to get away after killing civilians or rebels as he may have labelled them. The US which is the supposed 'Big Brother' of the international community is having trouble in trying to find a quick and efficient solution to the problem. They are trying to get NATO to play a bigger part because they have got their 'own bigger problems' such as the one in Afghanistan. There are about 200 countries in the world and yet only one (read USA) is staking its claim to be a 'Moral Superpower'. Of course it is a claim that is resisted by many.

      US has its own self-interests to take care of first, the most important being OIL. Hence, we can term that claim of theirs as questionable, but who doesn't want to look after their self-interests? China is playing brother to Pakistan to counter India, USA is backing South Korea to counter North Korea. There are many more examples of countries getting involved in the bigger picture to secure their interests. However, what does this lead to? An Afghanistan, if I may say so. It was the US that declared war on Afghanistan with its allies to get the world rid of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. A praise-worthy venture indeed but what happened? Did the dream come true? No. All that remains in Afghanistan is a slightly crippled Taliban getting its money from poppy cultivation opposed by a few warlords here and there.

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      Thus it was a failed operation. It was an operation that cost the tax-payers billions of dollars each day that it continued, yet it still continues. Now we hear that the US is going to slowly and steadily pull out of there. What then? The only thing that is stopping the Taliban from overthrowing the decadent government is the presence of the US troops. Thus, we are heading back to the almost similar past scenario. A half-hearted operation won't do the trick and this is what leaders have realized and hence, we can see the rebels surviving the Libyan Civil War.

      The entire middle-east is in turmoil currently. Each day media reports about protests in different countries. The fight for freedoms has spread like a wildfire. What I feel is that the time has come when military or other dictatorship would be shown the door from the entire middle-east and people would prosper in a free middle-east. Yet there is another aspect of human life that we haven't explored yet. And that is the natural aspect. I wrote about power hungry despots but we are still left with Mother Nature, a topic so vast that even if I type a billion blogs, I won't be able to explain it entirely and do it the justice that it deserves.

NATURE

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      In the last couple of months, we saw earthquakes, horrendous ones. We saw New Zealand suffer and we also saw Japan in despair, a situation that is hadn't been in since the world war. What is all this that is happening all around us? Revenge by mother earth? Is this the beginning of the end? These are some of the questions that 'pollute' the dreams of many. What I feel is that this is not the end. It is merely the start of a new beginning. The earth is starting the process of cleansing. It is cleansing itself from all the harm that we have done and when it does so we will go back to the golden age.

      The process would be tough on all of us. But it is needed. I don't know what it would be like but it would certainly involve earth releasing colossal amounts of energy lying dormant in its dark interiors. Thus we may see a rise in the number of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami but it is all for the good.

      There are many more aspects that need to be analysed but I can't do so in one post so hence I will write another post about this and it will be posted on the next Sunday.

TO BE CONTINUED....

A New Republic For India

      Parliamentary Democracy has been the form of governance in India for the last 61 years, a long time. This has been a long and a rather successful experiment if not an expensive and at times not the most effective. However I feel that the time has come for India to experiment with its Republic. Touch wood, parliamentary democracy has been successful for India with hardly a few incidences such as the one where Indira Gandhi issued the National Emergency, for some people it was dictatorship but for some it was an improvement in the way the system worked. I won't dwell on what it was or what it wasn't or what we couldn't achieve as all this is nothing but what I think and it won't give any solid results. Hence all that we can do is speculate.

       The best example that we can look at and maybe copy is that of France. France has done all sorts of governmental experiments. It has experienced a King, Constitutional Monarchy, Parliamentary Democracy and a Presidential Republic. India needs to remain true to its democratic value which it so often shows off to the rest of the world. Thus the best that India can get would be a Presidential Republic, something similar to USA. But would it be suitable?

      India at present is experiencing what experts may call as the coalition era. It is the time when a democracy has matured and all sections of society are represented at the political level. Thus there is an abundance of political options and alternatives. But this abundance has also taken its toll on the country. And that is the ineffectiveness of the Political System of the country. Parliamentary Democracy involves direct elections. Thus many a different political parties and candidates get elected resulting in no clear majority for a single party which in turn gives rise to the spirit of political 'co-operation'. Everybody wants to be in power. Thus political parties come together to form the government.

      At times this government has a lot more than two political parties involved to get it running which results in parties balancing their positions so as to not offend a member party because if they do so there might be a back clash. The offended party may take away its support resulting in political imbalance and at times resulting in the fall of the government. And we have a new election which results in the same event being repeated again and again.

      A diverse country like India is bound to have a population which is divided on different things. Nothing much can be done about this political imbalance. Only political parties can work harder not caring about their political results but about the economic and regional impact a decision that they take might have. Governments which work for the people never fall but those which work for themselves always fall and we have seen this being repeated again and again. Whenever a government fails to do its job and work efficiently for the people, it losses the next general elections to the opposition.

       Thus it is time that India decided on another form of governance. According to me the a federal government based on the similar lines of USA would be the best. But as I said this is my opinion and others are entitled to theirs. All I want to say is that its time that we get a change from this parliamentary form of democracy.