The girl who identified Qasab

It's been 2 years since Mumbai got attacked by Pak sponsored Islamic Terrorists. Justice isn't served yet. Qasab is still alive, living off Indian Tax Payer's money .

Just like any other Indian, I'm also frustrated and angry. Many articles has been written, but this is the story of the brave young girl Devika Rotawan who testified against Qasab. I didn't know this aspect of the trial until now.

In India where rape victims and Bollywood artists are afraid of testifying, this girl deserves all the respect and fame. I'm glad to see that she got some support from local politicians but more can be done.

Let's pray for all the fallen Heroes.
Jai Hind

P.S. To keep things in perspective, I was highly critical of this author once in my earlier posts. I started reading his column and developed respect for his choice of subjects and the style of presentation.

Few things I worry about..

People who know me personally can definitely tell that I'm saddened by midterm poll results cause of my liberal leanings. The verdict isn't a surprise and in a way it didn't hurt as much as I expected. Politics aside, looking at the demographic and landscape there're few things which are really detrimental for America's progress and prosperity in the next decade.

Contempt of educated people
One trend among voting demographic which I think disturbing is the contempt of educated people. They call them and deride them as elitists. As per this demographic, a common man with common sense will be a better legislator than a college educated person. I've a message for people with no High school diploma or GEDs. If you had completed your education, then you 'd have better judgment of people. You might also have learnt about evolution, climate change and also realized that medicare is a govt run organization. Yes, your legislator might be a corrupt man, but sending a person who dropped out of college or high school wouldn't do any better. Sarah Palin serves a good example for this.

Lack of Science and Math Education
When I first came to this country, one of the things which astonished me is the choice of majors available for college students which do not exist in India. Apart from Science, Engineering, Medicine, Business and Law there're so many liberal arts majors like advanced communications, linguistics, anthropology, sports medicine, event management et al. In a good economy, all these graduates landed in a job. But now there're no jobs. Don't get me wrong, schools need teachers with liberal art degrees to teach languages, history et al. But in this economy who exactly needs a fresh Graduate with 'Advanced Communications' major.

Mean while India and other countries are producing engineering graduates like an assembly line All of them might not make quality tech employees, but US is loosing a competitive edge which made it a superior power.

There's a facebook group by name '87x/59(1+x)=(18*7x)*(67-x)...fuck this, I'm going to be a stripper'. This shows how many kids are afraid of math and hate it. The way these kids are taught at school should change. Math and science can be made interesting and these two are vital for nations' supremacy in the knowledge based economy.

Xenophobia
SB 1070 bill of Arizona was partially blocked by federal judge luckily. If not it would've became mandatory for AZ police stop any person for a 'reasonable doubt' and ask for proof of residence. With that Jan Brewer got elected as governor in this election. I wonder how many of AZ citizens saw her only debate on TV. And how many people might realize that this SB 1070 draft was first written at a prison industry conference.

Yes illegal immigration is a problem, no body denied it. Republicans enjoyed the cheap labor for two decades and now they're crying foul. US is a land of immigrants and they contributed to country's prosperity as much a citizens. Remember how many European scientists immigrated to USA and put the Science and Technology on fast track. Problem with this anti immigrant rhetoric is that legal and aspiring immigrants like me are suffering with excess scrutiny and constant visa hassles. I'm not gonna quote any numbers but it's fact that legal immigrants contribute to the economy like any other citizen.

As I mentioned above, not enough US students are graduating with Science and Tech majors. If country drive away smart immigrants, it's a loss for country and gain for India and China. But myopic senators like Grassley are on a mission to pass bills to drive away non-immigrant tech workers from the country.

Welfare
Last week I read this new article about black women with 72% unwed rate. It seems that black women couldn't find a ideal black man to marry and settle down.

To quote a line from the article 'The drug epidemic sent disproportionate numbers of black men to prison, and crushed the job opportunities for those who served their time. Women don't want to marry men who can't provide for their families, and welfare laws created a financial incentive for poor mothers to stay single.'

This welfare should stop. I don't want to pick any race but this is a menace. Again from the article 'Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock.' As you can see, this is a vicious cycle and it should be stopped. If not, this changes the social fabric of the whole next generation.

Women's perception should be changed about two things.
-->It's OK to live on welfare.
-->It's necessary to have kids to even if you don't have means to support them.

Homophobia
By any measure, US respects it's fallen soldiers than any other in the world irrespective of their religion and color. The other day I saw a news report about a hate group 'Westboro Baptist Church' who protest at soldiers funerals. They say, God is killing U.S. troops because our country tolerates homosexuals. This just blew my mind. I'm not sure, how exactly these groups come to these conclusions and where they get funding. Their home page is 'godhatesfags.com'

There's another story of this creepy Asst Attorney General of Michigan who just got fired. Andrew Shirvell stalked and bullied Chris Armstrong, student body president of Univ of Michigan. Andrew started a blog by chrisarmstrong-watch.com. To his defense, this tool says that he's just exercising his first amendment rights. Attorney General Cox didn't fire him for a while as he's a afraid of alienating his conservative base and donors. Just think about it for a second, a state's asst Attorney General bullying a college kid just cause he happened to be gay. As I see it, I think it's just matter of time when Shirvell comes out of his closet.

People like Sarah Palin
Apart from posting (who's the actual writer) fear mongering and mind numbing notes on her facebook page Sarah Palin is also good at throwing red meat to her base. Last week I saw Sarah addressing a christian school on TV. It's pretty much usual fare with her power dressing (read seductive), DWTS with Bristol Palin, inauguration (not necessarily her) yawn... Then she started talking about a state legislation which bans sweets at school and how that law is a totalitarian. As per Sarah, parents should decide what kids should eat and not the government.

I'm no fan of government, but in this case government knows better than many oblivious parents. I've seen parents smoking inside their car with kids and I can assume that what happens at their homes. Obese parents who weigh 450 lbs and get drunk in the morning don't know better than government.

Sarah if you'd known better, your under age daughter wouldn't have got knocked up. It could be a reason that you might've taught her 'abstinence only education' rather than safe sex. And we would've been saved from this on and off wedding drama from Alaskan soap opera.

Women like michele bachmann, christine o'donnell and sharron angle (who didn't get elected fortunately) are other examples of leaders on wrong path with huge following. Their base thinks that these women represent them, the common people of America.

With all these tea party candidates in Senate and house, it's interesting and frightening to see what kind of bills they'll legislate.

Peace

అతి సర్వత్ర వర్జయేత్

ఆంధ్రులు ఆరంభ శూరులు అంటారు. అలాగే ప్రస్తుతం మన రాష్ట్రంలో ఉన్న వేలం వెర్రి ధోరణిని ఎలా వర్ణించాలో తెలియట్లేదు. గత ఐదారు ఏళ్ళల్లో నల్ల ధనం కొకల్లలుగా పెరిగింది, దానికి కారణలు ఏవైనా కావచ్చు. ఆ నల్ల ధనాన్ని పెట్టుబడి పెట్టే మార్గాలు చాలా తక్కువ ఉన్నట్టు ఉన్నాయి.

పూర్వపు రోజుల్లో పెద్దలు సంపాదించిన ఆస్తులు కరగదియ్యటానికి భూస్వాములు మద్రాసు వెళ్లి సినిమాలు నిర్మించే వాళ్ళు. రోజులు మారాయి, 20 ఏళ్ళ క్రితం ఊహించలేనన్ని వ్యాపారాలు, పరిశ్రమలు ఇప్పుడు ఉన్నాయి. కాని ధనికులు, నల్ల ధనం మెండుగా ఉన్నవాళ్లు కేవలం ఇంజినీరింగ్ కళాశాలలు, న్యూస్ చానల్స్ , రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ వ్యాపారాలు మీదే మక్కువ చూపిస్తున్నారు!

నేడు రాష్ట్రం లో 656 ఇంజినీరింగ్ కళాశాలలు ఉన్నాయి, కొత్తగా అనుమతి ఇచ్చిన వాటితో కలిపి 700 కి చేరుకోనుంది. మొత్తం సీట్ల సంఖ్య రెండున్నర లక్షలు. వీటిలో ఎంత మంది నిజమైన ఇంజినీర్లుగా తయారు అవుతారు అనేది ఆలోచించాలి. అసలు ఇన్ని కళాశాలలు లో అధ్యాపకులు ఎక్కడ నుంచి వస్తున్నారు, వాళ్ళ కున్న అర్హతలు ఏంటి అనేది AICTE వాళ్ళకి పడుతున్నట్టుగా లేదు. సెక్యూరిటీ డిపాజిట్ తీస్కుని అనుమతులిచేస్తున్నారు. ఇక్కడ విశేషం ఏంటంటే కొత్త కళాశాలలు వద్దని రాష్ట్ర ప్రభుత్వం వారిస్తుంది. కాని AICTE ఇస్తూపోతుంది.

దేశం మొత్తం లో 3200 కళాశాలలు ఉండగా 700 మన రాష్ట్రం లోనే ఉన్నాయి. ఈ కళాశాలలు అన్ని దివాలా తీయకుండా ఉండాలంటే ఈ సీట్లు అన్ని నిండాలి. అందుకే ఎంసెట్ పరీక్షలో సున్నా మార్కులు వచ్చిన వాళ్ళకి కూడా సీట్లు ఉన్నాయి. (ఈ సున్నా మార్కులకి సీట్ కధ విని మన గవర్నర్ నరసింహన్ గారు నిశ్రేష్టులు అయ్యారు). అంత దిగాజారినా అన్ని సీట్లు నిండట్లేదు.

ఈ కళాశాలలు నుంచి పట్టభద్రులు అవుతున్న వాళ్ళల్లో ఎంత మంది ఉద్యోగానికి పనికొస్తారు అన్నది ప్రస్నార్ధకమే. అందుకే విప్రో, ఇన్ఫోసిస్ లాంటి సంస్థలు కొత్త ఉద్యోగులని ట్రైనింగ్ కి పంపిస్తుంది. కొంత మంది పట్టభధ్రులకి అసలు ఉధ్యొగార్హతలు లేవని ఈ కంపెనీలు తేల్చి చెప్తున్నాయి. వీటి వలన ఇంజినీరింగ్ పట్టా విలువ తగ్గిపోతుంది. స్తాపించిన ప్రతి కళాశాలలో రిజర్వేషన్లు అమలు చేయాలి. ప్రతి రిజర్వేషన్ విద్యార్ధి ఫీజు ప్రభుత్వమే చెల్లించాలి. కాని వీళ్ళల్లో ఎంత మంది నాలుగేళ్ళల్లో పట్టభద్రులు అవుతున్నారు అనే ప్రశ్నకు జవాబు లేదు. ఈ విద్యార్థులు ఎన్నాళ్ళు చదివితే కళాశాలలకు అంత లాభం. కొన్ని కళాశాలలు ఈ ఫీజులు, nri కోటా సీట్లు వేలం తొనే నేట్తుకొస్తున్నాయి.

నేడు ఆంధ్ర దేశం లో 13 న్యూస్ చానల్స్ ఉన్నాయి. 50 కోట్లు ఉంటే ఎవరైనా కొత్త ఛానల్ ప్రారంభించవచ్చు. కాని వాటిలో ప్రసారం చేస్తున్నవి అయితే వార్తలు కావు. పుకార్లు, పక్షపాత కబుర్లు, చర్చల పేరుతో ఏ మాత్రం అర్హత లేని వాళ్ళ మధ్య అరుపులు కేకలు. వీటి వలన ప్రజలకి వార్తల మీద ఉన్న నమ్మకం పోతుంది/పోయింది. tv9 బెదిరింపులు, అక్రమాలు అందరికి తెల్సినవే. ysr మరణం వెనుక అంబానీల హస్తం ఉందని రెండు చానల్స్ ప్రసారం చేసిన పుకార్లు విని ఆయన 'అభిమానులు' రేలైన్సు షాపులని, పనిలో పనిగా పోలీసు వాహనాలని ద్వంసం చేసారు. ఇక స్వామిజీల లీలలు అనే పేరుతో ఆ స్వామిజీల శృంగార కార్యకలాపాలను విచ్చల విడిగా ప్రసారం చేస్తూనే ఉంటారు.

ఇక వీటన్నిటికన్నా ముందు మొగ్గ తొడిగిన వ్యాపారం రియల్ ఎస్టేట్. 2005 -07 కాలం లో భాగ్యనగరం లో ప్రతి ముగ్గురు యువకుల్లో ఒకళ్ళు రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ కొనడం అమ్మడం లోనే ఉన్నారు అనేది అతిశయోక్తి కాకపోవచ్చు. చాల మంది యువకులు, వ్యాపారులు వాళ్ళ ఉద్యోగాలు, వ్యాపారాలు మానేసి రియల్ ఎస్టేట్ దళారులుగా మారారు. స్థలాల ధరలు 3 ,4 వారాల్లో రెండింతలు అయ్యేవి. కోటానుకోట్లు పెట్టుబడులు ప్రవాస భారతీయుల నుంచి వచ్చాయి. బహుళ జాతి సంస్థలు వచ్చాయి. వారి వెంటే ఆక్రమణదారులు, రాజకీయనేతలు వచ్చారు. 2007 లో మాంద్యం మొదలు ధరల పెరుగుదల నిలిచిపోయింది. అప్పటి నుంచి క్రయ విక్రయాలు ఆగిపోయాయి. వేల కోట్లు రూపాయులు ఇలా ఈ స్థలాలు, భవనాల రూపంలో ఆగిపోయాయి. చిన్న చిన్న వ్యాపారులు ఎప్పుడో దివాలా తీసారు. ఒకరికి లాభం వచ్చిందని వంద మంది ఈ వ్యాపారం లోకి వచ్చి చేతులు కాల్చుకున్నారు.

గుడ్డిలో మెల్ల లాగ పైన చెప్పిన మూడు అంశాల్లో సంతోషించదగ్గ విశేషం ఏమిటంటే, ఈ మూడు రంగాలు చాల మంది నిరుద్యోగులకి జీవనోపాధిని కల్పిస్తున్నాయి. కాని ఈ మూడు రంగాల్లో ఎన్ని సంస్థలు లాభసాటిగా ఉంటాయి, అసలు ఎన్ని నిలదొక్కుకుంటాయి అన్నది కాలమే చెప్తుంది.

మన రాష్ట్ర ప్రజలు ఈ వేలం వెర్రి ధోరణిని ఎంత త్వరగా వీడితే అంత మంచిది.

Art Laffer strikes back

Folks, the snake oil salesman is back. Art Laffer wrote this brilliant op-ed (not!) in WSJ on 06/06 how the economy is gonna collapse if Bush Tax cuts expire this year. Yes, it's bunch of misrepresented facts and twisted logic. Bloggers and other columnists blasted him aptly. I'm not surprised that WSJ published this op-ed. Lately that paper looks like propaganda page for right wingers and tea party. Links at the end of blog.

I've one question about this 'Tax cuts for the wealthy' theory. Conservatives argue that less tax on the corporate profits and rich stimulates economy and create more jobs. Actually it's a good theory. But only on paper. Post great depression and Milton Friedman era, this might've made sense as the jobs are created in Manufacturing sector. Corporate profits might've created more jobs.

Now, how many Manufacturing jobs exist in USA? Everything was moved to china and third world countries by 80s. Automotive jobs moved to Canada and Mexico. 80s and 90s experienced boom of tech jobs and call center jobs. But by the start of new millennium all the possible tech jobs're moved to India and other countries.

Where exactly are these new jobs are created, and it's pretty much a fact that Bush tax cuts only helped rich people. Bush inherited a 236Bil surplus budget from Clinton, implemented tax cuts and he blessed the country with 400Bil deficit. He also threw in a depression as a good measure. And two wars, oh I digressed!

Most of the income tax paid in USA is paid on Capital gains. It's not on income. So an average guy on street making 100G per annum will pay somewhere between 25 to 35% tax based on his location, martial status, kids and other factors. But if a millionaire makes that 100G in capital market, he'll only pay 15%(long term). You see the disparity. Now Obama wants to increase it to 20%, conservatives are crying foul.

Corporate profits, it's a different game altogether. Creative accounting will be in full throttle here and there're off shore tax havens. Exxon Mobil didn't pay a single penny as income tax as they paid taxes in different countries. See this Frontline Story to learn more about tax havens.

Before I finish my rant, I want to say few things about Laffer's greatest contribution to the world, 'Laffer curve'

Quoting wikipedia, 'the Laffer curve is a theoretical representation of the relationship between government revenue raised by taxation and all possible rates of taxation'. So it shows that, if tax rate is 0, tax revenue will be zero and if tax rate is 100% the tax revenue will be zero. What it wouldn't tell you is what's that sweet spot what's the win-win tax rate for tax payer and government.

But I couldn't comprehend, what's that Laffer discovered which I didn't know already. Any tax payer with an Economics 101 class can guess that. Sometimes a liberal arts degree and right connections makes a mediocre person a great economist.

Peace

Media Matters fact check on Laffer's commentary

Barry Ritholtz, dissection of Laffer's op-ed

Asha Banglore's commentary

My previous blog about Art Laffer

Image from wikipedia commons

The new face of BP

The situation in Gulf is getting worse day by day. It might take few years to clean the whole mess. But it might take at least a decade for the local economy to recover from this. It's like another Katrina sans Bush.

Public is outraged at BP, and many of them are venting out in different creative ways. Folks at logomyway.com started a contest, asked people on interwebs to create a new BP logo. As expected they didn't disappoint. Here're the contributions. Of all the submissions this one caught my attention. I'm gonna vote for this

For the starters, this is a mashup of an iconic picture from Vietnam war. Read about it here.


I see that BP engineers are trying hard to fix this. All the outraged people have to understand that high level C suite people makes decision that screw up safety and preparedness. But now the technical and engineering staff are under spotlight fixing this. Media and boneheaded pundits jump in and picture them as borderline incompetent.

But with the kind of remarks BP CEO is making, this criticism and public outrage is not unwarranted. He should really STFU and let his staff do the thing. It really makes me angry whenever BP executives say 'legitimate claims'.

Kids, if you're reading this..I'm sorry to break it to you. I'm afraid that Spongebob might not make it.

pic courtesy sir mitchell

Jokes aside, my condolences to the families of 11 BP employees who lost their lives in this explosion.
Peace.