Why do Indians Argue

I got this feeling after shortly closing a ferocious debate, on an absurd topic, of least importance to myself. Hardly justifiable but still it started, continued ,ran and ended.. not conclusively but with everyone else blaming others.. and finally quitting undecided.. Leaving people happy on a few points which they assume has outsmarted or squared the other fellows.    

                                                  

                                              

It's a human tendency to quiz, poke or nudge in every second conversation which happen in its  surrounding. Whereas its natural in India to indulge in a debate. One can hardly say a thing which is universally acceptable in India. The people can debate(for hours..) on topics which suits them, which of their interests, outside it or even remotely they are not associated with it. Why ? Why does every Indian has a natural tendency of being argumentative. Is it we don't like accepting people who they are, is it we don't like the way we are treated. Why do we demand more, more and more? Why isn't we can't keep our mouth shut even if we don't know what to speak  ?

All one needs is a common gathering of people, a newspaper or chai(tea)..(probably not required.. it merely lengthens the conversations..).An unavailability of newspaper can be met by a intuitive statement from someone, criticising someone.

I feel bad not because we are becoming more and more argumentative, I feel bad because we are becoming more and more Critical :P ... We start speaking harshly alone at start , whose response can be as lightening fast to oppose the statement one made. 

                                         

It can be from a lot of varieties   with people criticising the system, education, resources, governance, etc. People shout when in car on the pedestrians, and when roles reverses they themselves  on road criticise the Car people. Why in different scenarios people tend to be different ? (Yes you can argue, situations do demand different responses :P )

It is not questioning is bad, it's not criticising is faulty, it's not blaming isn't needy. It is more question of relevant anger, Justifiable ambush of thoughts and a knowledgeable reasons of opinions. People need to devote more time seeing the other side of coin. Its better I feel next time onwards before one makes a view point about a specific person, functionary, etc. an equal research work should be there to find the truth. Just a moment for finding reality, enriching knowledge, so once again when someone really indulges in an argument one can certainly appreciate the knowledge one has and amount of effort put in.

It's not that people thinking is wrong, it is just what will make them more RIGHT.

     

 Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find.  

Modern technology

Owes ecology

        An apology.

 

This part of the global issues web site attempts to highlight some of the environmental issues and concerns that have an affect on all of us — from what we do, to what we don’t do.

Biodiversity

The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity, is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognize this as being integral to any approach. In some way or form, almost all cultures have recognized the importance of nature and its biological diversity for their societies and have therefore understood the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Loss Of Biodiversity And Extinctions

It has long been feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. Despite increased efforts at conservation, it has not been enough and biodiversity losses continue. The costs associated with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high. However, sustainable development and consumption would help avert ecological problems.

Nature And Animal Conservation

Preserving species and their habitats is important for ecosystems to self-sustain themselves.

Yet, the pressures to destroy habitat for logging, illegal hunting, and other challenges are making conservation a struggle.

Climate Change Affects Biodiversity

Rapid global warming can affect an ecosystems chances to adapt naturally.

The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change and already seeing lots of changes. Ocean biodiversity is already being affected as are other parts of the ecosystem.

Coral Reefs

One type of ecosystem that perhaps is neglected more than any other is perhaps also the richest in biodiversity—the coral reefs.

Coral reefs are useful to the environment and to people in a number of ways. However, all around the world, much of the world’s marine biodiversity face threats from human and activities as well as natural. It is feared that very soon, many reefs could die off.

Addressing Biodiversity Loss

At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was born. 192 countries, plus the EU, are now Parties to that convention. In April 2002, the Parties to the Convention committed to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity loss by 2010.

Perhaps predictably, that did not happen. Despite numerous successful conservations measures supporting biodiversity, the 2010 biodiversity target has not been met at the global level.

This recognizes that historically:

·         Industrialized nations have emitted far more greenhouse gas emissions (even if some developing nations are only now increasing theirs);

·         Rich countries therefore face the biggest responsibility and burden for action to address climate change; and

·         Rich countries therefore must support developing nations adapt—through financing and technology transfer, for example.

This notion of climate justice is typically ignored by many rich nations and their mainstream media, making it easy to blame China, India and other developing countries for failures in climate change mitigation negotiations.

Development expert, Martin Khor, calculated that taking historical emissions into account, the rich countries owe a carbon debt because they have already used more than their fair quota of emissions.

Yet, by 2050 when certain emission reductions are needed by, their reduced emissions will still add up to be go over their fair share:

However, rather than continue down the path of unequal development, industrialized nations can help pay off their carbon debt by truly helping emerging countries develop along a cleaner path, such as through the promised-but-barely-delivered technology transfer, finance, and capacity building.

So far however, rich nations have done very little within the Kyoto protocol to reduce emissions by any meaningful amount, while they are all for negotiating a follow on treaty that brings more pressure to developing countries to agree to emissions targets.

In effect, the more there will be delay the more the poor nations will have to save the Earth with their sacrifices (and if it works, as history shows, the rich and powerful will find a way to rewrite history to claim they were the ones that saved the planet).

These issues are explored in more depth here.

Climate Change Flexibility Mechanisms

 

Flexibility mechanisms were defined in the Kyoto Protocol as different ways to achieve emissions reduction as part of the effort to address climate change issues. These fall into the following categories: Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism.

However, these have been highly controversial as they were mainly included on strong US insistence and to keep the US in the treaty (even though the US eventually pulled out). Some of the mechanisms face criticism for not actually leading to a reduction in emissions, for example.

                                      

Image ©: Centre for Science and Environment

It seems there has been a recent interest in associating climate change/global warming with “over population” and that countries such as China and India have to do more to help contain global warming.

Yet rich countries have a lot to do themselves. There were agreed reasons why developing countries were exempt from initial greenhouse gas emission targets: it was the emissions from rich countries that accumulated in the atmosphere for so long to trigger climate change.

 Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.  ~Henry David Thoreau

RTI ACT LIMIT IT TO BOOKS COZ U HAVE NO RIGHTS TO PROBE COPS......RTI ACTIVISTS HELD GULITY FOR DOING SO..AMAZED READ YOURSELF.....

A 32 year old RTI activist  from Rajasthan dreaming of having a corrupt free state has got a reward from the state police itself.

With over 100 RTI complaints lodged by him exposed the corruption in govt. offices and banks across the state made him the core of the activities by the culprits.

over night there were 9 FIRs lodged against him and yeah his family was even tortured... here is a detailed report by NDTV

                                           

Thirty-two year old Goverdhan Singh has paid a heavy price for running a campaign against corruption in his native district of Bikaner. A 100 Right to Information (RTI) applications filed by him exposed corruption in banks and government departments, but things got uncomfortable for Goverdhan when he asked questions about the properties and assets of police personnel. Overnight there were nine FIRs lodged against him. "As soon as I filed an RTI application against the police, they started putting cases against me, so that I stop my activism," said Goverdhan. The police also raided his house, seized his car and locked his office. Goverdhan's family members say they are being constantly harassed. "The police threaten us. They say they will kill my son in an encounter," says Goverdhan's wife. The People's Union for Civil Liberties investigated the matter and came back with a report of extreme police high-handedness, forcing the government to transfer the Bikaner SP. But surprisingly, even now the role of the police is being investigated by the police themselves. "Initially the local police station was probing the case, now it will be probed by a Deputy SP," said Bikaner SP, Habib Khan Goran. Goverdhan is now on the run. He is absconding because he's not sure if he will ever get out of jail if the police catch him. He has also approached the Human Rights Commission.  This issue is not just about one man's RTI activism, but more importantly about whether citizens have the right to ask questions under RTI, even if those questions don't suit the establishment.

and now even the police say they will enquire the role of police

Medical Seats on sale

Suppose u r lying in an O T (operation theatre)  and find that doc. in front of u is incapable of doing anything and u r the unlucky fellow  who are in clutches of that doc..

wait a sec this is not a story which I  m telling u from my mind...It has been proven that our best institute for medicos. AIIMS seats are on sale...not now but they have been for past few years  . I m not declaring but this culprit himself reveals that the seats are on sale... read the shocking investigation done by India today group

In a shocking revelation, Aaj Tak exposed on Thursday how one can make a backdoor entry into the country's most prestigious medical institute - the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

It is admission time and one can easily fall into the trap of touts, who promise a backdoor entry into AIIMS, despite the fact that you may have neither the skills nor the IQ to become a doctor.


                                

Dr P Chandra is one such tout, who runs an admission consultancy firm in Delhi's posh South Extension area, but runs a dirty admission racket at AIIMS and here's what he promises to deliver.

Transcript of Chandra's conversation with the reporter --

Reporter to Dr P Chandra: Do you believe in god? 
Dr Chandra: I am a god-fearing man. Your daughter is like my daughter. I won't keep your money if I cannot deliver.

Dr Chandra: My commitment to you is for AIIMS.  If your daughter goes to any other institute then I will not charge you anything. The agreement that we have is for AIIMS.

Dr Chandra: AIIMS has two seats which can be manipulated. They are in the general quota. But in PMT, I can't give you an assurance.

Dr Chandra: I can give you assurance for AIIMS but the amount involved would be much higher.

Reporter: If AIIMS is beyond our budget then you can try for other institutes like Lady Hardinge and Maulana Azad. But our first preference would be AIIMS.

                                          

Dr Chandra: AIIMS will cost you Rs 40 lakh. Had it been a doctor then the price would have been Rs 55 lakh.

Reporter: The charges are very high.

Dr Chandra: I know, but I can't do it. Otherwise these people think I have taken a cut. These people are like dogs. They don't care what the status is. They will only see that last year Dr Chandra paid us this much money.

Reporter: The rates are revised every year.

Dr Chandra: Yes, the rates are hiked every year. I am a small cog in the wheel that has many big names involved.  

On being asked if our 'ward' needed to prepare for the entrance test.

Reporter: Shall I tell her what to study and what not to?

Dr Chandra: Tell her to give her exams as usual. We will talk to the Deputy Controller or the Assistant Controller. He will feed in the computer system.

Reporter: He will do it himself?

Dr Chandra: He does it himself.

Reporter: What if there are mistakes? 


Dr Chandra: There will be a lot of mistakes. He does not take the first sheet because it is filled by the child. The original sheet is switched with another solved sheet. Nobody gets to know.

Corruption in India:-

This curse to our country is not only hindering the progress of country, even it is making our country hollow from inside with most of us almost in clutches of this animal which I believe.

Removing it completely is no more than dreaming in day but yeah we can do our part , so let's do it friends ... I need your support to curb this social evil.

We without thinking what consequence will it make not only to us but to society also we take many decisions.

These decisions will effect not our life personally but yeah it can hinder the progress of society.

TODAY MOST OF US WILLINGLY OR UNWILLINGLY ARE PART OF THIS CORRUPTED SOCIETY.

WE EITHER WANT IT TO BE LESS OR GET MORE AND MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED IN IT.

SAY NO ..... LET'S CHANGE THE COMMON MAN PERCEPTION ABOUT IT WHO SUFFERS MOST

What I mean to say is common person is most suffered . We(aam aadmi) believe that there should be less corruption when we are on the giving end but yeah when we are on receiving end we want more and more opportunities to avail this curse .

And yeah it is everywhere ....every department ....every office ...every place...

from education side

we see that it has become a business

top class (upper class) set of the country believe that yeah everything can be purchased with money. This surely has caused people involved in this department have this idea of lucrative money which indeed is a trend in most of the private colleges openly and in govt. colleges under the desk.

And yeah we know our land is capable of producing Einstein and Newton but probably failed to do so because we are unable to provide education to most of them many due to financial woes.

but certainly Indians seems to have developed a new energy equation :-

Yes we are unable to produce good students where on earth are we dreaming of developing India.

It is not only department in India but yeah corruption in it surely hampers development to the greatest extent here are some few examples which became famous for enlightening this well known truth publically .

Case Study: Muder of S.K.Dubey, Dy.G.M.,

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

Location : Koderma in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand

Project : National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Highways Project

Year : November, 2003

•S.K.Dubey 30 year old engineer posted at Koderma to supervise the construction of the

180-km highway under the NHAI’s “Golden Quadrilateral” project.

•Detects a number of mal practices in the highways construction project and tries to

approach his senior organizational officials, does not get the desired response.

•On 11, November, 2002 Dubey, writes to the Prime Minister of India highlighting several

instances of ‘‘loot of public money’’ and ‘‘poor implementation.’’ He requests anonymity

but fearing his complaint may not be disregarded lightly he gives his full identity in his

complaint.

•But tragically the confidentiality of Dubey’s letter and the identity of the ‘whistle blower’

were both violated as Dubey’s letter was passed down from file to file through the

bureaucratic maze.

•In the early hours of 27 November 2003, S.K. Dubey is shot and killed by unidentified

assailants.

Dubey’s key complaints included:

• Tenders are called for on the basis of Detail Project Reports (DPR) by design

consultants which are are badly prepared and are unreliable.

• Process of procurement ‘‘completely manipulated and hijacked’’ by the big

contractors ; forged documents are submitted to justify technical and financial

capabilities.

• NHAI officials are in league with big contractors and internal NHAI decisions

are leaked.

• Nearly 10% of contract value is paid as ‘Mobilisation Advance’ to selected

contractors within a few weeks of award of work, for which the NHAI officials

receive illegal gratification or “commissions”. No follow-up to ensure the actual

utilisation of such advances.

• Practice of subletting of contracts or sub-contracting to small petty unqualified

contractors fails to ensure the requisite quality of construction.

`

•Satyendra Dubey’s death and the public outrage, it generated, has led to many

fundamental changes in the whole approach to corruption reporting and administrative

responsiveness.

•The National Media highlighted the brave young engineer’s fight against corruption in

the face of an unresponsive and insensitive bureaucratic administration.

•The Government has framed the draft Whistleblowers Act, formally called The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill

Ø Final approval from the Parliament of India is pending,

Ø Supreme Court of India has issued directions to Government to start the process.

Ø Central Vigilance Commission designated as the competent agency

Ø Complaints or disclosure on any allegation of corruption or of mis-use of office by any employee of the Government can be received.

Ø Central government, Central corporations, Government companies, societies or local authorities and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO) are covered.

While the war against corruption has to be fought globally ,the battles are to be fought locally.

Individual citizens, the small groups in remote villages, the NGOs and other concerned citizen’s groups, large and small corporates, individual public and private organizations, local governments, national governments, international bodies all have to fight against this malaise in their respective spheres of activity.

Specific Action Plans to fight corruption locally and globally

The broad principles of the fight against corruption are well recognized but their impact is diluted in the translation into action at the local level. Specific plans of action to combat corruption to be worked out for local action, keeping in mind the existent circumstances and conditions

Apart from these the following measures are necessary to fight a successful war against corruption in India

•Creation of an Ombudsman at the National and State levels

•Strengthening Local governments

•Strengthening the independent and decentralized nature of vigilance departments

•Fast track judicial courts

Who Says India is a poor Country - Read the Swiss Bank Report

This is so shocking…….wish black money deposits was an Olympics
event….India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best
Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. US is not even there in the
counting in top five !! India has more money in swiss banks than all
the other countries
combined

Recently, due to international pressure, Swiss govt. agreed to
disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective govts
formally asked for it. Indian govt. is not asking for the details…….no
marks for guessingwhy ????

                                   


We need to start a movement to pressurise the govt. to do so !! this

is perhaps the only way, and a golden opportunity, to expose the high
and mighty and weed out corruption !!


Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks With personal account deposit
bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been
misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country’s foreign
debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.

DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS,
IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal
accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been
misappropriated by them.

This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt.
With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This
huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by
exploiting and betraying
them.

                      
Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to

India , the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After
paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12
times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested
in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the
annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are
abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain
the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000
travel very frequently.

“Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be travelling
there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in
tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn’t referring to the
commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of
Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went
into a tailspin!

Just read the following details and note how thesedishonest
industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers,
film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to
name just a few, sucked this country’s wealth and prosperity. This may
be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other
international banks?
                                  

Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006

details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of
following countries:

Top five
India—- $1,456 billion
Russia —$ 470 billion
UK ——-$390 billion
Ukraine - $100 billion
China —–$ 96 billion

Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more
money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot
since 1947:

Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed
by mankind — the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his
brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by
politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen.

The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India
loots with impunity and without any fear.

What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours
has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some
of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian
economy has been stripped of its wealth.



                                            

Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts
operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern
such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ‘Swiss bank
accounts,’ the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course
pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be
a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By
allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the
western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital
from the developing countries to the rich.

In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research
finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held
offshore by rich individuals across the globe.

The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was
managed from some 70 tax havens.
Further,augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker — in his widely
celebrated book titled ‘Capitalism’ s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and
How to Renew the Free Market System’ — estimates that at least $5
trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since
the mid-1970.





It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s
population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing
it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India
is anybody’s guess.

What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked
in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt
means.

                                                   

Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such
places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term
‘tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace
the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy
associated with these bank accounts.