Why are Indians an angry bunch?

 If you browse Indian website’s in their comments section you’ll know where I am coming from. I frequent Rediff.com and NDTV.com for my daily India news feed, and occasionally if I pour into the “comments” on the news article – the vitriol is unbelievable. The anger and shouting is higher especially if it is a news article on a woman celebrity. Add Pakistan in the mix and the poison never ends.

Today’s article on Sania Mirza breakdown on a TV show was startling. The fact that she married a Pakistani, she is a muslim and a woman takes the abuse to a new level. Everyone is angry and wants to rip her apart.

Same is the case with ESPNSTAR.com, the sports website that’s mainly used by Indian. The Barclays Premiere League section is especially amusing. These are a bunch of English football teams battling it out, but Indians abusing other Indians who support other teams is nonsensical. So in the news section team manager of Man Utd says something about the manager of Arsenal; and in the comments a guy in Dombiwali pours venom on an Andhra guy. The conversation then drifts into regional superiority or abusing each other’s parents.

The same goes on in day to day lives - on road, in queues at the movies, in hotels dealing with waiters to name a few scenarios. Courtesy has been blown away in the wind and all we care about is venting on someone for our inner peace. We were supposed to be superior / classy / intellectual human beings. Just about when we became insane – beats me!

If you find the answer to the question - Please!

Is the Election Commission Crazy?

The EC is accusing Mr. Modi of influencing voters. Mr Modi, after casting his vote this morning, walked out of the Ranip polling station in Ahmedabad showing his inked finger to the crowd which had gathered around the polling booth. Later, when he interacted with the waiting media, he brandished his inked finger along with party's lotus symbol. 

Now, it is known fact the Modi will vote for himself. What difference does it make to others if he tells the world that he voted for himself. How is that influencing anybody?

The Congress driven EC is nuts and should focus more on bogus voting and booth capturing in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh rather than making issue of tweet-happy Modi.

Won’t you love to get away by paying just the “cost”?

When Russia started its aggression in Crimea, US President Barack Obama issued a statement saying “There will be a cost associated with Russia’s action”. The statement seemed strange and we dismissed it as one off slip of tongue. Who says there will be costs! More commonly you would say, there will be repercussions, there will be consequence and so on….

But when it comes to American diplomacy, nothing is a slip of tongue, it is a well-rehearsed and carefully planned statement and no one deviates from that. So ever since, be it John Kerry, Jay Carney or Obama a recurring theme has been “costs”. No repercussions, no consequences, not even price; just Cost!

Let’s looks at some simple definitions – Cost is the actual value of a product nothing more nothing less. Price is Cost + Change.

What the Obama administration is posing to the world is that the US won’t sit quite while Russia goes all crazy on Ukraine. But to NOT piss off Russia and especially Vladimir Putin, the message is: there will be a “cost” (or a fair exchange – no penalty) nothing more for their actions. Since there are no free lunches, there will be a cost that Russia will have to pay since they have Crimea (the underline message to Russia is you are getting a discount – no price only cost)

Kerry had a phone conversation with Mr. Lavrov on Thursday in which he “reiterated the United States’ concern about the upcoming referendum and made clear there will be costs if Russia continues to take escalatory steps”

Carney:  We’re not going to rule out individuals or rule out actions, except to say that there will be costs imposed on Russia -- additional costs imposed on Russia if Russia does not change direction

“Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people. We’re united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far,” President Obama said.

The Supreme Court is Scary!

Not because of the powers it can wield, but the kind of people hog places on Supreme Court.

The concept of Supreme Court in the United States is flawed to begin with. When you have Supreme Court justices who are openly republican or democratic, there is no way to expect an unbiased outcome to cases it deals with. Any Tom Dick and Harry can predict what the Supreme Court is going to rule just by looking at the affiliation of the justices and the nature of the case. To top of it the Supreme Court refuses to rule on cases that may broadly change the landscape of the country – things like gay marriage. It takes a piece meal approach as evident from the California ruling.

But my fear of the Supreme Court has nothing to do with all this either.

I was watching the HBO original movie ‘Mohammad Ali’s Greatest Fights’ which deals with the Boxers case, of stripping him of the heavy weight title and sending him to jail for refusing to serve in the military. Watching the 70 and 90 year old justices’ grapple with the problem was bemusing. These guys could barely stay alive, suffered from dementia, all kinds of sickness – at best they should be staying in their hospital beds, not even making decisions on their household groceries! And here they are making decisions that dictates how a country rules!

Given their age, these men come with wealth of experience, I agree. But they are reluctant to change, have stone engraved beliefs that are etched into their character. I found these gentlemen to be out of touch with the reality of the modern world – their judgments on issues of race and marriage is always going to be flawed.

The recent Supreme Court ruling scrapping the Voting right act, is a good example how the Supreme Court is not free of bias.  Citing that we live in a modern world, where the old social issues don't exist, the Supreme Court has aptly demonstrated exactly the opposite.

The US needs a retirement age of 60 for the justices and young blood in the highest court in the land + fire any judges who are hardcore party people.

Need more proof on insanity?

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he believes in the Devil as a living entity, “a real person,” and that the Devil is “smart” and “successful” in today’s world by convincing people to not believe in him or in God.

“I even believe in the Devil,” and “yeah, he’s a real person,” Scalia told writer Jennifer Senior in an interview for New York magazine published on Oct. 6.

Russia and the Arctic Oil

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are between 44 and 157 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and between 770-2990 TCF of undiscovered natural gas in the Arctic Circle, with 61 percent of the total belonging to the Russian Federation.

Arctic is attracting renewed attention among Arctic coastal nations because the world is facing the end of “cheap, easy oil,” while much of the remaining “expensive, difficult oil” is now accompanied by heightened security and economic risks. From that perspective, the Arctic offers a new frontier. The Arctic, is a relatively unexplored region, with only about 270 wells having been drilled offshore in an area of more than 13 million square kilometers.

Russia is now focusing on offshore resources in the Arctic Circle, in continental shelves under less than 500 meters of water. The Russian Arctic offshore includes the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea. While there is no production in the Arctic yet, the Russian Federation sees these latent resources as strategic assets, which accordingly fall under Russian Strategic Law. This law states that only companies in which the Russian Federation has at least 51 percent ownership have the right to control offshore blocks. Companies must also have five or more years of offshore experience in order to be considered. Within these strict parameters, only Rosneft and Gazprom have qualified thus far for offshore operatorship.

Russian government is expected to soon give private companies the right to explore within the offshore blocks. In addition, the Government will likely introduce more tax incentives for Arctic projects in order to make them more palatable for investors. Multinational collaboration, it seems, will be critical for filling technological gaps, distributing the risk, and supplying sufficient capital. For instance, Rosneft has been seeking outside partners for its development efforts in the Barents and Kara Seas even within the current constraints. In 2012, it entered into three major agreements, one with a U.S. company and two with European companies.

Russian companies are interested in “an exchange program”for technical and management employees that would encourage knowledge sharing and strengthen the relationship between the companies so they can grow together in the international arena.