Monday, July 6, 2009

Federer

What does one make of Roger Federer ? Today on television one sees in him less of a tennis player and more of an icon , a gentleman of class , a world citizen . He has evolved over the years through his conduct on court and outside. Whether it is by design or accident or a twist of public perception , there is no doubt that both on and off court he has a persona far ahead of his contemporaries . A Murray, a Nadal or a Hewitt all with their brawn and court craft remain in the public perception mere good tennis players . Federer , his court movement and coverage and stroke play are something to wonder at . There is a certain fluidity and ease in his foot work and the ability to hit a superb winner at full stretch is not given to all . It calls for God given hand and eye coordination .
After giving a breathtaking exhibition of tennis his post match interviews are also equally entertaining . He acknowledges his accomplishments with a frankness that somehow does'nt smack of smugness or boastfulness . He wonders at his own accomplishments and is not embarrassed to admit it . He is not shy to cry in public either in sadness over a loss or in joy over victory. Sign of a man totally in control of himself !!
His ability to speak fluently in English, French and some other European languages helps him to connect with the spectators and the audience at large . In the modern era of television entertainment , he has the entire range of qualities on and off court to be the model of supreme achievement

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Trouble in paradise

I have been living in Sydney , Australia with my daughter, for the last 3 months . My wife and I have been here to help our daughter out with her second baby born here in March 09. Her first baby too was born here in in 2007. Gopakumar, my daughter's husband has been living here in Sydney for over 10 years. Like all professionally qualified people he has had his fair share of opportunities in the insurance and banking industry. His performance has been recognised and he has risen satisfactorily to head teams of IT professionals from a whole range of European and Asian countries. He could well be living the Professionals' dream in Australia . The Indian professionals I have met here live well close to up market areas with access to beautiful parks and sport centres , world class medical facilities etc etc . I can speak for Sydney where the city has been developed with a great deal of imagination and has some of the best infrastructure in terms of housing , medical facilities roads and pavements and recreation qualifying the city to be among the mot livable in the world.
All this has now come under the scanner follwing the attacks on Indian students during the last 2/3 months .
Like in all civil societies , the world over , Australia has its share of bad eggs !!. There have been reports of bikey gangs (all white) fighting it out with guns and knves even in public places like airports; of car jackings , muggings, drug related violence etc . These reports are daily fare in local newspaper websites. Considering the growing Indian population in Sydney and Melbourne and their importance in the social pecking order, I suppose it was only a question of time before Indians became caught up in the vortex of violent incidents . Some of these involve Indians clashing with other nationalities like Lebanese .This is not to downplay the incidents . It is right to protest and to try to keep the issue in the forefront of law and order issues for the Govt to tackle . Fortunately the Govt does seem to show some desire to sort it out .
Aussies are an aggresive lot and their way of assessing you is to push you . once you stand up to the test you are accepted and all is fine .!!
There is fair amount of support for Indian students in the media ..
Lets not forget , we too live in glass houses.!!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

TALIBAN ARE COMING!TALIBAN ARE COMING!

The media have been shouting themselves hoarse over the Talibanisation in Mangalore . Well now in their life time they will experience the genuine artcle – they are only 500 kms away! Girls will be pulled out of pubs and shot in public . Taliban from Malapuram would be in Mangalore , from the old city of Hyderabad in Hyderabad/Cyberabad ; from Azamgard in delhi; from Bangladesh in kolkatta . The secular parties and the communists are already stirring the pot !!

Will you not then pine for Muthalik ?? Muthalik may well perhaps save the day for us !


Monday, June 8, 2009

Civic sense

I have been living in Sydney these past 3 months with my daughter who is settled here. Coming as I do from Chennai, I am very impressed with the civic aminities and regulations designed to make life secure and comfortable for its citizens . The roads are well laid and pavements evenly laid for citizens to walk in safety . Flowering trees and shrubs line the sides of the pavement . Walking is sheer delight .
Traffic moves in an unhurried pace and drivers respect signals and courtesies. To watch cars at a junction of four roads is a lesson in traffic courtesy . There is no muscling in or intimidating moves; all like a nicely choreographed dance ballet . The respect for pedestrians at a zebra crossing is something to wonder at .
The regulations covering childrens safety in cars is probably more than what parents might be prepared or willing to do on their own!!
The regulations point to a sincere desire on the part of the govt to create an ambience of compliance with safety by its citizens . Here they seem to know more about what is good for its citizens than they themselves !!

For over 300 years , captains of industry in Europe and particularly in Britain have practised greedy and nefarious policies in the colonies, bleeding them dry and in the process making millions' poor and destroying local industry . This happened in India thru the 18th, 19th and half of the 20th centuries . It has been well documented how the opuim industry and slavery were encouraged on a large scale across continents thru plantations in India, Mauritius , the West Indies etc . Labour from india was forced to move to work as bonded labour in these countries causing untold misery to thousands of families . .The seed money for many of the top companies in Europe came from such activities . After spending years in India during which he fought illegal wars, took over countries,amassed huge personal wealth Robert Clive retired to England 1760,t the age of 35 with a fortune of GBP 300,000, and a pension of GBP 27,000 per year ! So there is a precedent after all !

It was a combination of state policy , the church and military might that gave the western corporations their huge size and reach which eventually made them bigger than the countries they operated in . The East India Company which wrought havoc in India by building an army , collecting taxes , conquering and subjugating Indian states , looting and pillaging rich Indian treasuries was an extreme case of the unbridled business practices at the time . They not only stole the wealth of the nations but also scientific knowledge and concepts built up over years of study and research . They are known to have passed these stolen concepts as their own !
The US which was a recent player in this game operated primarly in the Middle East , with oil , in the Philipines with agricultural products , in South America with capital, minerals, oil ,agricultural products .
Today, what one sees happening in the banking systen , in the oil cartels etc is nothing new ; but the difference this time is that they have done it to themselves, cheated their own people and impoverised millions in Europe and America. A study of European economic history , would reveal the truth and criminal exploitation behind the wealth of European corporations.
Businesses must be built up by marketing and selling reasonably priced products that have inherent utility to mankind and produced thru fair practices by paying a fair wage and rewarding all stakeholders.Only this is a sustainable model . The business model followed by these multinationals have largely been to market products that best suited them and maximised profits and sell them in captive markets using their nexus with their own govts and that of the colonies . A fair wage and reward for stake holders has been far from the minds of buccaneers and brigands who ran businesses in the colonies . Old habits die hard and have become embedded in the DNA of companies . There is no other explanation for the greed and enormous wealth acquired by the C E O S' and the callous manner they reward themselves with huge bonuses with no feeling of contrition even while their companies collapse.

There are hints of racial arrogance in the way the crises played out and in the immediate aftermath .The same mind set that created a Robert Clive also nurtured Kenneth Lay and Fred Goodwin. Alan Greenspan and George Bush provided the frame work for them to operate and thrive . They deliberately overlooked the need to regulate ?! All of the civil wars going on in Africa have European companies behind them funding and arming groups willing to give them free access to precious stones and minerals in their control. 'blood diamonds' a product of such wars has gained international notoriety and is banned in "legitimate business".

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime" - Balzac

The western, so called developed countries are in turmoil . social unrest is building up and is targetted at the very rich who are seen as having amassed illgotten wealth by stealing from the poor. The rift in the bloc is also acquiring racial overtones. The Brazilian President speaks of 'blue eyed races" being the cause of the melt down ; the French and Germans accuse the Anglo Saxons and so on . Houses of bank chiefs and offices have been attacked in london ; bank staff have been warned to remain as unobtrusive as possible .The media and the politicians are also whipping up the anger, unmindful of where this would end . A transformation in terms of institutional collapse and seething public anger on this scale is unheard of in modern times .Whether the momentum peters out or gathers momentum is for the political system to deal with . So far the rising anger is being given an opportunity to run itself out ; govts are seen to be understanding and indulgent

The G 20 will need to be seen to be ruthless with the erring bankers and to protect the savings and incomes of the common man . A strong regulatory body headed by persons of high integrity , not cronies as in the past should be put in place . Even while toxic assets are being taken care of , toxic attitudes of managers need to be addressed The primacy of holding economic wealth in trust by businessmen ( an idea propounded by Gandhi and whose time has certainly come ) should be established once again . Investment and spending needs to be encouraged to get the economies moving once again . People need to get their jobs back and assets protected

Mahatma Gandhi advised newly elected politicians of free india to think of the poorest of the poor in our coutry and how it would affect them whenever they took a decision . While Gandhi said this with consumate ease with his usual felicity with words, Obama was struggling to get the analogy right during his press conference after the G20 summit. These are the powerful ideas we will need to go back to achieve a degree of social equilibrium . The G 20 need to become part of the change they want to see.

During the last 2 decades one scam after another has been hitting the world corporate sector with unfailing regularity . Pious statements of reform are made , some of the crooks are sent to jail and then it is back to business as usual . will this happen again?