I was deeply shamed watching the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics Vancouver 2010 when the Indian contingent arrived. The number of athletes - 3 and the staff way beyond this number. And the announcer was full of mockery - " a country of 1.1 billion represented by 3 athletes" . I somehow finally digested this fact when i realized that the country did not experience significant winter to compete in winter olympics. But , hey Iran had more than 3 and a lady in Burkha too ;)
However the following news in BBC truly shocked me.
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Indian Olympic team get donated uniforms in Vancouver!!!
Vancouver's Indo-Canadian community has rallied to provide funding and uniforms for India's three-man Winter Olympics team, local press reports say.
The owner of a sports shop donated track suits for the opening ceremonies, saying the rush was on to get the Indian flag embroidered onto the gear.
And a local Punjabi radio station is raising funds for the team - made up of a luger and two skiers.
The luge used by captain Shiva Keshavan is also donated - by lawyers in India.
Five lawyers chipped in 450,000 rupees ($9,700; £6,200) after Keshavan's old luge - held together by duct tape and screws - broke during training in November.
Alpine skier Jamyang Namgial and cross-country skier Tashi Lundup round out the team.
'You're kidding'
TJ Johal, the owner of Sports Unlimited in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, told public broadcaster CBC that he was shocked to hear the team did not have proper uniforms for the opening ceremonies.
"My first reaction was, you're kidding me. They're from India, the land of clothing, and they have no clothes to wear? But that's just how it is in Third World countries," he said.
Shushma Datt, the owner of radio station RJ1200 - which bills itself as Vancouver's Bollywood Station - told the BBC it had raised 8,000 Canadian dollars (£4,875) at an impromptu fundraising event on Wednesday night, and that donations were still coming into a bank account set up for the athletes.
Team captain Shiva Keshavan, 28, who is competing in his fourth Winter Olympics, said he was grateful for all the help.
"To feel this kind of support from our community on the other side of the world from India, it is such a great feeling," he told television network CTV.
Mr Keshavan said he received his first funding of $20,000 (£12,800) from the Indian government last year, after more than a decade of competing.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8513201.stm
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
A farce called American Capitalism
When it comes to defining world largest economies China stands out as Communist and the US is perceived as the Capitalist. Capitalism defines the spirit of entrepreneurship where people are encouraged to be industrious and build organizations. However the American capitalism makes this definition a sham. American capitalism represents some evil design to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few affluent that keep getting wealthier.
The legal and financial obligation and enormity of setting up a business will often scare away anyone with entrepreneurship ambitions. Take a few examples of costs involved in setting up a small business
Gas Station – $250,000
Barber shop franchise - $60,000
Burger Joint - $ 200,000
Tutoring - $50,000
These are some of the examples of businesses one with limited education and a desperate individual would like to do – but he does not have the luxury of setting up such a business all he can do is serve in one of these business taking an hourly paid job. However in a developing nation like India a similar individual could start up his fast food joint or barber shop and earn all the rewards for his hard work and build his own business.
Moving to the higher strata of the society look at the most successful sports franchise the NFL. The NFL is highly successful as an entertainment organization but even more successful in filling up the coffers of the owners and the organization itself. The way the NFL works is it inducts players through a draft and deals with all the players as a whole at the organization level. This frees up the owners the hassle of negotiating contracts with individual players and thus having to pay exorbitantly. The players don’t have the choice of dealing with multiple teams to seek better opportunities until they become free agents. Even worse is the NCAA where each game may rake in upto$2m in tickets alone but the players don’t get anything more than the tuitions. – Now compare this to the Soccer leagues in Europe where players draw massive transfer fees and weekly salaries based on theirs skills and market value.
The examples are multitude …. Hence there is more to this blog…..
The legal and financial obligation and enormity of setting up a business will often scare away anyone with entrepreneurship ambitions. Take a few examples of costs involved in setting up a small business
Gas Station – $250,000
Barber shop franchise - $60,000
Burger Joint - $ 200,000
Tutoring - $50,000
These are some of the examples of businesses one with limited education and a desperate individual would like to do – but he does not have the luxury of setting up such a business all he can do is serve in one of these business taking an hourly paid job. However in a developing nation like India a similar individual could start up his fast food joint or barber shop and earn all the rewards for his hard work and build his own business.
Moving to the higher strata of the society look at the most successful sports franchise the NFL. The NFL is highly successful as an entertainment organization but even more successful in filling up the coffers of the owners and the organization itself. The way the NFL works is it inducts players through a draft and deals with all the players as a whole at the organization level. This frees up the owners the hassle of negotiating contracts with individual players and thus having to pay exorbitantly. The players don’t have the choice of dealing with multiple teams to seek better opportunities until they become free agents. Even worse is the NCAA where each game may rake in upto$2m in tickets alone but the players don’t get anything more than the tuitions. – Now compare this to the Soccer leagues in Europe where players draw massive transfer fees and weekly salaries based on theirs skills and market value.
The examples are multitude …. Hence there is more to this blog…..
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