International politics

How to create your own crisis?

When Robert Swan was 11 yrs of age,  some one, guess a teacher, told him about how the super powers (USA & USSR) have so much of destructive weapons directed towards one another that if they decided to go on a blast party they will be able to destroy the world 3000 times over.   And its by sheer coincidence that within a few days that he saw film featuring a British explorer and he decided that his trip in life is to be in a safer place, the poles perhaps :).  I had this privilege of attending this TiE Chennai organized program at Raintree and managed to listen see the man and get some pics (not clear ones) of the Rob.

I was wondering how this little boy was so impacted by this and his determination to embark on such a challenging project.  How can I forget this friend of mine with whom I had this opportunity to be with in cerebrate,  Sandhosh Kumar?  I was regretting as to why I did not invite Sandhosh for this talk, Rob and he would have got along like crazy.  What is common with these guys?  They have the option of leading a normal life, engage with challenges that life hands out, as though they are not enough they  gravitate towards challenges by risking their life.

I like the positivity (ill used term) of Rob.  I will not die he says.  Even if a huge wave were to hit chennai,  you need not worry as long as you are with me, because nothing will harm you.  This was not told with arrogance, guess you need to understand this statement in the light of what he has achieved.  He has walked the North and the South poles, nearly 30000 kms. And he claims that his passion was to know these places, he hated walking yet he walked the toughest terrain.  He was accompanied by some guys who were professionals in their own right, but their passion was climbing or walking.  His passion was to do something for the earth, for antartica particularly.

Lets see what Rob did, he threw himself into crisis mode.  He risked everything, including his house, which he has lost.  But that was his choice.  He seems unstoppable, thinking on 50 year chunks, not the short term type at all.

I remembered Percy Barnevik of ABB. Who had created a crisis for ABB, forseeing the future and when crisis actually hit ABB they cruised through. People like Rob who have mocked death, and faced it head on by choice, may wink at death when it comes to them.  So with that biggest fear out of their way, they are free to do what they want.  Now Rob is going around, not whipping a frenzy about ozone depletion and environmental concerns.  He is just telling us ‘ Look buddy we just need to insure and make sure the world is taken care of ‘ climate change will  happen, thats a natural process.  Words from the mouth of  guy who has been there, seen it , to be believed.

Its futile to carry the burden of the world upon ones shoulder, the yoke is light.  The world surely is in safe hands.  We, particularly in India and China, have the responsibility to make sure we take good care of it, thats all.  Alternate fuel yes a good solution.  Simple Rob.  I really love you and your talk.

So let me add my bit, think global act local.  Which means don’t hesitate to create you own little crisis in life, rough it out, cut the air conditioner, sweat it out by cycling or walking,  sell your car.  Surely I would like to make a trip to Antarctica with you.  Iam 51, will you take me along with your Rob?  Please. Believe me Iam with you, I have created enough crisis’ for myself wouldn’t mind some more now.

Related Articles

Nobel is Norwegian wood..

nobelI see the look of bewilderment on faces, the hate comments on Face book, the messages on phone…. all on Obama being awarded the Nobel Prize for peace.

What has Obama done?  Nothing may be, apart from talking and making statements and doling out catchy slogans.  “So soon? Too early,” said former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the peace prize in 1983. “He has no contribution so far. He is only beginning to act.”

The one who is beginning to act needs to be recognized, and the one who has acted and gone needs recognition too… well Gandhi missed the bus,  for our consolation lets say he is beyond Nobel.

Now what are the people unhappy about, on Obama being awarded the Nobel, or Obama the American, the successor of Bush being Nobled,  the are they upset with the Nobel committee for the choice.

Apparently, there would have been many in the committee who would have opposed it. The committee that chose President Obama is comprised of five Norwegians, mostly former lawmakers and politicians, who are elected to six-year terms by Norway’s parliament. The committee received 205 nominations for the peace prize this year, more than ever before. The prize also inspired heated debate about whether it would give Mr. Obama a boost at a difficult political moment or be a liability for a president whom opponents have criticized for having more “star power” than substance.

Actually why not Obama?  He is black, has a wife whose roots  can be traced to a slave,  speaks well, he is young with a lot of promise, talks green, uses blackberry….why not Obama.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Mr. Obama had nothing to fear from raised expectations or possible attacks from critics that the prize outstrips his accomplishments, “because this is associated with the content of his work.”

For ‘Nobel’ awarding the prize to Obama means lot more to them  than to Obama or America.  Nobel was just getting tucked on to the furniture as ‘jus another prize’ this little sticking out of the neck has give the ‘Nobel Prize’ some life and tether.

Now I look forward, chewing the finger nails on who is going to get the next Nobel… never has this happened all the 51 years of my life.


Karzar is corrupt and weak – and ready to win

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Quite a puzzle this, for a lay person like me, following international politics Afganistan is seen as a war zone. But elections??? that is the last thing I will associate with Afganistan.

Afganistan will go to polls. Ha!!! Ha!! don’t laugh. If you have read about the rigging in Iran can Afganistan be far behind you may bubble think. But elections are fun, make the rules and break then and come back and rule.

For nations such as these whose economies are lubricated by rigs, from whence cometh forth oil, rigging should not be a problem. We in India are ready to help too.

President Hamid Karzai has embarrassed the Americans. Since the fall of Taliban in 2001 Karzai has presided over a nation which has seen the resurgence of Taliban and the increase in poppy trade.

Karzai over the months have made his people believe in the fate of him coming back again… and its this sense of resignation that will be a damp squib on the demoralised electorate who will keep away from voting. Unless the fire in Iran spreads over through Tweets.

Anyway let us look forward to some change.

The leading contenders are Mr. Karzai, Mr. Ghani (once a close friend of Karzai) and Dr. Abdullah, a former foreign minister.

Freedom from 'crude tactics' – Get green

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If there is one color the Imams in Iran will be worried about is the color ‘green’. No not the green currency but the real green – the environment hues. If a frontal military intervention is likely to fail waving the ‘green cloth’ is sure to stop the theocrats on their tracks. After all an economy that relies on its natural wealth, oil, that they are endowed with and if its being exploited to hold the world at ransom, its time we sit up.

Thomas L Friedman in his column in NYTimes says this

Oil is the magic potion that enables Iran’s turbaned shahs — “Shah Khamenei” and “Shah Ahmadinejad” — to snub their noses at the world and at many of their own people as well. So, although he presides over an economy that makes nothing the world wants, he can lecture us about how the West is in decline and the Holocaust was a “myth.” Trust me, at $25 a barrel, he won’t be declaring that the Holocaust was a myth anymore.


If the middle east, have rich oil resource right under their feet, its time for the free world to look about and harness the power of sun – solar energy. We need to start right away, clothe ourselves with green, you will surely see that ‘crude tactics’ actually don’t work.

Read Thomas L Friedman writing about this THE GREEN REVOLUTION in NYT

Iran – sacrificing children

I have been giving that cursory glance at the happenings at Iran.  In fact, not with anxiety though, I have following the elections particularly as I got this involved update from my friend Milind Sojwal about the probably outcome of the elections with the hope of Iran seeing the light of the day. This actually made me to take to reading about Iran elections very seriously… Alas the light did not happen the darkenss continuted.   Few of them in Facebook were quite concerned about this and wrote too.

Two days ago I stumbled on this video on Neda, the cute young being shot on the chest
and with her father crying helplessly became the poster child for the protest.
The scene was bizzare and someone managed to capture it in a video – was this all set up? 
I hate to ponder on this question.  Given the desperation of man… one cannot take anything
for granted. But anyway for the moment let beleive that it really happend.
 (watch 10 incredible youtube videos on Iran)

I posted a comment in minekey’ 

The video power of Neda will be more powerful than the atom bomb that blew
apart Hiroshima” at the minekey and got some sane responses.  Eric Pari said
“It’s a tragic event, but I don’t think it will be more powerful than
Hiroshima, not for the western world at least. Medias flood us with
people dying everyday and even if the death of a young woman is tragic
it just cannot be as powerful as a whole city blown away in a fraction
of a second”
And I responded saying ” Oh yes, human life/lives have very little meaning anyway… But he
power of the camera seems to exceed that of a gun… Having said that
the information overload and the attention issues may numb us over a
period of time… Well that when civilization will reach its nadir”

Larry responded saying “What a horrible thing to happen!! It would appear that she may not
even have been part of the demonstration but only an innocent
bystander. Sadly in a country such as Iran, which has a long history
of human rights abuses, demonstrating against the government is
guaranteed to get people killed. What an absolutely beautiful woman,
who should have lived another 60 years. It would be great if this
event did lead to changes, but I doubt that it will ever have the
impact of Hiroshima, one of the most horrible acts ever perpetuated by the west in the
history of mankind. When I saw the video of Neda, I almost threw up,
or passed out, because in addition to the horror of her death, it
brought back seeing my wife lying on her back with blood coming from
her face 3 weeks ago (she lived). To be there and watch that poor
woman die, and nothing anyone could do to help her is terrible.

Oh yes, with so much of imagery floating around the feeling of the viewed gets numbed thereby
allowing the next imagery to wipe out this one, proabably a demo on augmented reality can wipeout Neda from the mind.

I read this article inthe NYT  “The End of the Beginning” by the oped columinst Roger Cohen 
Mr N Ram in his tweets calls this “hyperanalytical, high-falutin, muddled op-ed piece” but
there some interesting points that I want to take from Mr Roger and present it to you out here.

1 Iran’s 1979 revolution took a full year to gestate. The uprising of 2009
has now ended its first phase. But the volatility ushered in by the
June 12 ballot-box putsch of Iran’s New Right is certain to endure over
the coming year. The Islamic Republic has been weakened.
2. All the fudge that allowed a modern society to coexist with a theocracy
inspired by an imam occulted in the 9th century has been swept away,
leaving two Irans at war.
3.
  Iran has squandered a huge opportunity to bridge the gulf between the
regime and an increasingly sophisticated population thirsting for
greater freedom. A vibrant election campaign opened a door. It has been
slammed shut.

4. The first is that the supreme leader’s post — the apex of the structure
conceived by the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — has
been undermined. The keystone of the arch is now loose.

5.  The hypocritical but effective contract that bound society has been broken.
The regime never had active support from more than 20 percent of the
population. But acquiescence was secured by using only highly targeted
repression (leaving the majority free to go about its business), and by
giving people a vote for the president every four years.

6.  A faction loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
fiercely nationalistic and mystically religious, has made a power grab
so bold that fissures in the establishment have become canyons.

7.  They have their way for now, but the
cost to Iran has been immense, and the rearguard action led by Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a father of the revolution, and Mir Hussein
Moussavi, the opposition leader, will be intense.

8.  Iran’s international rhetoric, effective in Ahmadinejad’s first
term, will be far less so now. Every time he talks of justice and
ethics, his two favorite words, video will roll of Neda Agha Soltan’s
murder and the regime’s truncheon-wielding goons at work. The president
may prove too much of a liability to preserve.

9.  at the very peak of its post-revolution population boom, the
regime has lost a whole new generation — and particularly the women of
that generation — by failing to adapt.

Thirty years from the
revolution, the core question of this election was: Must Iran stand
apart from the forces of economic and political globalization in order
to preserve its Islamic theocracy?