What Shall I Tell My Children, Who Are White?

This week, June 25th to June 30th 2012 marks some of the most interesting events that took shape in the history of mankind.

Let me review it for you.

Egypt gets a first ever democratically elected president . ( Though powerless)
Obama Care comes into Action.
Barclay Bank admits to manipulating Libor for Interest fixing on loans.
Spain gets a Euro Bail out and markets cheer.

Germany Tear Drops to Italy and Portuguese Peanlty-icked by Spain.
Syria downs Turkish Plane and sends warning signals to NATO. NATO cries like a baby and goes to bed again, thumb sucking included.
Colorado under Fire and Assam under Water.
Oil prices fell to the lowest. Commodities continue to Crash.
China for the first time in decades shows lower then 8% growth.
Indian Rupee falls to its knees.

Wow, what more would you expect from the World Theater. Except the week did not have any romantic story or any Brit or Italian or French sex scandal, to give some finishing touches to the picture.

This marks the end of the first half of this year .

Starting July, Greece, Spain and Italy, government bonds come for redemption and these are all around $15 billion plus each . Thereafter month after month the bonds get redeemed. I am quite anxious to see, where the money will come from or some countries will default.  What is coming in the second half of the show is still more exciting . Like a mystery movie, where right till the last moment, one does not know the end.

US Total Debt : $15 Trillion
Italy and Spain Total Debt : $2.4 Trillion
Greece Total Debt : Euro 350 Billion or say $0.5 Trillion

Where are the Whites Heading To ? ( No racism intended)

What shall I tell my children , who are white?
 White is the color of Hope and Light.

 Keep Watching!

  

Euro 2012, Penalties & Emotional Ecology

Now, if you have been following Euro 2012, then first the British team bowed to Italians on Penalties and then Portuguese got kicked out in Penalties.  While Portugal was my favorite for this tournament and I could have easily bet on them. But as luck would have had it.

Then, if you recall the World Cup 2006, France Vs Italy, won by Italians 5-3 on Penalties.

Penalties are more of Test of Emotional Ecology of the Team, then the Kick Ability of the Team. I reckon, most players during normal coarse of training would shoot 5 out of 5 kicks right into the post. But when it comes to a Real Time Match, things change 180 Deg. Like the English Coach said, how do I create the environment of High power stress, nervousness and uneasiness while coaching the team.

Interestingly, this week, I was also watching interview of the famous British Psychiatrist Steve Peters on " Hard Talk " . Steve is the mental coach for the British Olympiad cyclist team and he has improved the performance of several cyclist , boxers , football players over the years. Now, here is the situation, where a player has to overcome the emotional instability and put all the power and skill into the last shot of this match and get the Goal. But invariably most of the time fails.

When I was watching way back in 2006, the world cup between Italy and France and watched nervous French loosing out to Italians 5-3. I was only thinking, the coach had terribly let down his team. Any coach worth his salt, would have taught his subjects that during a penalty shot, it is not the kick from the foot, but kick from the mind.

Like the English coach says, he cannot emulate the stress environment for his players. This is Bull Shit. One does not emulate the stress environment. This is never going to happen. But one trains the mind to shut to that environment and stand as a man of steel in such a time. And shutting the mind, needs a very rigorous practice, same as practicing ball with the foot. It is practicing ball with the mind.

Shutting the mind to that instant world needs the extra power , which only a mind trainer can provide like Psychiatrist  Steve Peters or alike. Now unless teams are regularly coached on their mind by top psychiatrist  it is mot unlikely that they would emerge as winners.

Further, each of the players should be trained kicking into the goal post, with eyes blindfolded. He should visualize mentally the goal, shut himself and BANG the ball goes into the post.

I know, while playing chess against Mr Advanced Computer, my face, ears , head , eyes would turn Red and I was nervous to even move the cursor. Till one day, I shut my eyes and the whole chess board appeared in front of my eyes and then I would speak out the moves and open a small aperture of my eyes and move the cursor. Voila. Soon, I saw that " LOSE" will show up on the computer player. My current chess global ranking is still very good.

Unless the emotional ecology of the sportsmen and sportswomen are not taken care , the physical fitness and sport superiority is only basic to the job . Besides, diet, fitness, sports training, IQ and emotional ecology needs to be greatly improved for most sportsman. Whether in Football or any other game.

Needless to say, rebellious sportsmen take advantage and always do better in the situation, as they are never nervous about the crowds. It is only the most disciplined players, who lose their shots . Mind Discipline is about submission and rebellion is about non submission. That is also the reason, that most young boys, who are more inclined towards sports are never good in studies. Study needs discipline and Sports needs extra degree of  Freedom.

Remember it is also the mind indiscipline, which creates innovation. Disciplined minds are never trained to question or improve on anything.

No wonder the Indisciplined Italians kicked the Penalties into Brits and have reached as high as Final of Euro 2012. And not to forget that at the end it is always the fate. I give fate sanctity services to the football teams ; www.paybackpalmistry.page.tl

Art Of Living : Jakarta

The Indonesia chapter recently arranged a talk in Bandung by one of the Swami from Art of Living .

The swami as I was told was a software engineer and had relinquished his material world to teach ordinary souls like us the fine art of living! Huh!

How can a person who has relinquished the mundane world go about teaching others the Art of Living?
Makes no sense at all. One has to be into thick of everything to really enjoy life one day at a time . Nevertheless, one of my close friends pulled me to the Talk.

Luckily, we were late and hence escaped part of the discourse. However, for the little I attended, it was more amusing for me then of potential change in my art of living. Here I share some of the points.

Swami told us about the importance of balance in life with everything. Infact, he goes about chanting a shloka from Bhagvat Geeta. And minutes later, he says, he has traveled across India by road lecturing in the last 30 days for 80,000 kms. Huh! Swami ji,  where is the balance ?  Does one need to rush around to lecture, as we ordinary souls life quality will worse, if your discourse was not heard. Please, stop this humbug and do not stress yourself with such painful journeys for us mortals. Please bring the art of living into you and enjoy each bit with balance and proportion.

Second, here is a swami, who is a celebatire ( Single like me) and never seen the complexities of the other half of this world.  Women constitute the better half of this world and the Swami can never know anything about this world, till he actually gets married. How then he qualifies to speak on Art of Living, when he does not know half the world around him. Unless he goes through the pain and pleasures of family life, he can only give lip service to art of living. I am also single, but then I am not going about preaching people the Art of Living.

I actually wanted to tell the organizing committee from Jakarta chapter to get the swami married with a lovely lady in Jakarta, before he returns to India. And then let him come and lecture again after 3 years. And we will also allow his wife to also lecture on his art of living. Let the Truth flow after that.

Swami, then talks about Awareness for destressing yourself and this is one subject which is my forte. It is a subject, which has been very strongly debated both by masters like Jiddu Krishnamurthy and Osho Rajneesh. And Swami got stumped on awareness. I would strongly recommend that all the Teachers and Gurus of Art of Living should first thoroughly read Jiddu and listen to Osho, if they actually want people to learn the art of living. Both these masters have vividly defined Qualitative Enhancement of Expericing Life viz call it The Real Art of Living.

Again, meditation is something which deals with consciousness and supraconsciousness. The mind runs amok, as soon as one starts meditating. Unless the mind is trained first to enjoy the experience, it will always settle with thought streams which are congesting the mind. The mind focuses on sweet thoughts only when it is guided and the supra-consciousness also joins to create a wholesome experience. But this power of sweet thoughts has to be cultivated and no meditation center has ever been able to direct the thought stream to an Orgasmic state via meditation.

Swami did speak a few good things like working 100% on each execution. This is a small sentence, but it is a very big problem in Asia. Most of us, work only 50 to 60% for the execution of any job and the sum total is slip shod execution. Look at any report made by any managers and one finds lack of clarity, lack of conclusion, lack of plan, lack of resources, lack of critical steps and so on. Only the very basic part of any job is executed and the balance 50% then comes back to us and troubles us in one form or the other. Same applies for issues related to daily life. We never want to close the subject with all issues related to it addressed from the inception. We believe that somehow things will happen on their own and it never happens or happens for the worse.

I asked Swami on the significance of Materialism in life and he was quite good with his answer that there has to be a balance between material and spiritual life to have enhanced experience of life. However, while practicing, he himself has relinquished the material life. So, where is the balance then. If Swami was still working as a software engineer and enjoying material wealth and then talking about spiritualism, I can well appreciate. But vice versa is incomprehensible.

Overall, it sounded that the program is not about " Art of Living " but more to do with de stressing exercises and meditation techniques.  This is a certainly misleading name. Because Art of Living would be a very wholesome subject, inclusive of all aspects of life which touch homosapiens. The Branding is good, but the product delivery is questionable.

Infact, I was quite impressed by the gentleman, who was the co-ordinator and the follower of swami . This old man was full of liveliness, smile and one could see glow on his face and surely he has gone through the cycle of family life and enjoys life to every moment. So, technically the deliverable of art of living is not so bad. But the delivered is much to be discussed. The closing dinner was nice with some yummy dal and aloo simla mirch ( Capsicum). That was the only best thing about the full event.

I grew up under the foot hills of Himalayas and amongst the sage and saints of Rishikesh. Right from my childhood, I kept debating with these swamis and more I grew , more I was disillusioned with the swamis. I recall a couple of times when I visited Sai Baba ashram in Bangalore and Puttipuri and each time I found Sai Baba to be a below average human being, but went in to create one of the largest followership in the world and huge wealth for himself .  Same is with most other swamis. I was part of Hare Krishna, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Osho Rajneesh, Beetles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and a long list of such masters and still these people had strong philosophy in their talks against the swamis, which give discourses without much of matter . But finally, I am the Guru. Aham Brahmasmi!

Lastly, I asked swami, what was the Ultimate Happiness of a Person : And he promptly replied : " I don`t Know"  And that was really amusing for me. A man who is teaching the world, the art of living does not have a clue on what is the ultimate happiness of a person. When the very first fundamental for art of living would be to deliver happiness to its subject.

Swami and all those reading this blog :

  HAPPINESS IS THE PRODUCT OF QUALITY OF YOUR THOUGHTS. THE SWEETER THE THOUGHTS, HAPPIER THE PERSON. NEGATIVE THE THOUGHTS, WORSE IS THE PERSON. 


Hence ultimate happiness is when one is able to shield himself away from the negative stream of thoughts and creates a perpetual positive thought stream that delivers ultimate happiness. Which also means in time of conflicts, one gathers enough energy from his positive thoughts to force the conflicts to melt away.

Overall, I have not attended the full coarse, so I cannot really write about the experience , but generally speaking most of what is spoken is already known to all of us. Only that we refused to accept and start practicing. If a swami says it , we believe that is word of God and may be is more meaningful now.

Art of living is a very wide subject and generally will depend upon your major interest in life. For me, art of living was to enjoy life to the fullest, which also meant, optimum food, drinks, entertainment, reading, movies, blogging, cooking, traveling, writing , joking, loving, caring , sharing, working etc etc.
I am lucky that I can afford to take a break every 6 months, when I book myself up into a 5 star resort for couple of days and simple dwell into nothing and allow all the negative thoughts to be pushed away then restart all over again. Don't I look Happy !

Optimizing everything in life is the first step to art of living. Eat, Pray, Love .....are the following steps.

Syria and Goofy Annan

Goofy Annan should have thought a million times, before taking up the assignment of special UN envoy for Syria.

Having seen that Assad was already insensitive to the Arab League, and the UN and the security council. How did then Goofy believe that his presence is going to change anything in Syria.

He comes up with a six point peace plan , which then results in a massacre of more then 100 in Houla and again today another 100+ in Hama Province. Not to mention that rebels have equally been brutal in killing the Assad loyalist.

Dear Goofy, at your age, it is better to play Golf or retire and give speeches. To be a conflict resolution specialist, one needs very special power and very special skills.

As soon as the plan fails, one has to immediately call on security council to move naval and air forces close to Syria and give Syrian forces a small trailer and give Assad again a chance to exit. Now the plan has killed more people then brought about Peace.

Further, Charles Taylor case should have been well highlighted by Goofy across the media to sent clear message to Assad, that he might end up in a prision cell for rest of his life. He still has a choice to take his wealth and flee or face consequences.

Libya`s case is still ripe in the minds of people. Only that now the world knows that NATO is too scared to manage Syria and was too fast to move into Libya.

Hillary routinely cries foul on Syria, but has no action plan to stop the situation. Russia and China as usual always stand by the losing side, till they see that the game is almost over and they may not have any influence in the new country, if they would not now support the revolution.

UN should learn a lesson out of this. When diplomacy and talks fail, it has to create a mechanism, where global opinion has to be respected. Which means, it should come out with extra powers for the International court of justice and the prosecutors office. And those countries, which do not carry out the arrest warrant for defaulters are immediately sacked out of UN.

Alternately, it has to do some marketing and create a Super club, which identifies members , which are constitutionally well governed and have human rights record. etc etc.

Similarly more clubs, which have poor human rights records and club of corrupt nations etc etc.

If UN wants to be a relevant organization, it has to empower itself, rather then be a leisure lounge for nations.

Meantime, Goofy should be withdrawn from Syria and good Russian and Chinese envoys should be made jointly responsible for peace talks . Let us give a chance to the Red Flags to show the world their worth.

Same Sex Marriages

The subject is quite hot now days, with Obama and Cameron both positively vouching for the same. Nature forces cannot be challenged by social laws. One has to respect the nature ,the way it is for some people.  No one willingly wants to be a gay or lesbian, but has natural orientation towards it and gets moved automatically towards it.

For long, I have been thinking of forming an opinon and then I thought, let me look around in my own friend circle and see, how it has been for them. I have quite a few gay couple friends and I have quite a few lesbian friends.

As an avid palm reader, it was always a curiosity for me to find out the special mark on the persons hand, which got them into same sex orientation . And finally after some research, I could find that mark. But lately I was looking into the life styles of these people and I found something very interesting.

Same Sex Couples had far more intimacy then normal couples and had a much stronger relationship with their partners.
They were never fighting with one another and since they were of the same sex, they had far more common interest then the opposite sex.
They had more to talk to one another, as the subject of interest were common, say lesbian women could enjoy discussing the latest fashions and perfumes, but with straight oriented couple, the men will have zero interest in women's subjects.
There is no cheating. Partners don't go and sleep around with others. May be less opportunity, but whatever, it is the case.  Hence no tracking of the partner and no secret affairs.
There is no family disputes on property and inheritance.
There is no need of dowry in the Asian sub continent..
The same sex partners are least demanding and have very strong understanding of their partners.
There are no issues of wasteful spending.
Both my gay and lesbian friends have secretly admitted that their sex life is Wow.

And the list goes on and on. There may be some jealousy issues, as I had once read that helper girls who go and work in Hong Kong lean towards lesbianism and are usually very possessive of their mates. One such helper killed her mate, as she found that she had been cheated .

Generally speaking, the gays and lesbians are not a cause of concern. Though, we all find the same sex orientation a little peculiar.

Now with modern science, one can have a child without the man and women in a test tube. So, the issue of having a child is also not worrisome.

Only that the religious contractors find out that life is now possible artificially and hence their business is under challenge and hence they are not willing to bless same sex marriages. But for me, I have no issue for any two people, who have meaningful relationship with one another.

The proportion of such people is less then decimal second zero and it is not that the whole society is under threat. But it may come up with encouraging things in future, like though men or women have straight orientation, but they would still marry their own gender on account of being more comfortable out there.

For their sexual needs, they would copulate with similar group and return home to their own gender family.

There is a whole interesting world waiting to happen out there soon. Keep watching !

Argentina YPF : Reverse Gear Privatization

When Cristina Fernandez signed away the nationalization of YPF in Argentina, it was reverse gear driving.

Oil biz is lucrative and many a Governments around the world survive only on their oil wealth. Including the whole of Middle East OPEC countries and then the famous Venenzula oil company, which drives the full economy of that country and Cuba. Russia also nationalized Grazprom and incarcerated the major shareholder on account of tax frauds.

But to manage a country with oil wealth is different from managing a country with jurisprudence and market economy.

Government does not know, how to do business and is not trained either to run companies. It only knows stamping and signing papers and searching for enough reasons of obstructing business. Hence , no matter how lucrative business it runs, the chance of it being sucked dry is very high.

On the other side, business, which do not continuously invest for growth and are a major part of the economy of a nation, also are cripplers of that country.

The fair position would have been the right constitution of the board and putting  enough state directors to steer private investment and not Government investments.

Now the Government funds, which need to build the state infrastructure like schools, hospitals, highways, goes into running of a company inefficiently.

India did the same thing many years back of nationalizing all the sick running textile companies and for decades these textile mills have sucked the tax payers money with no return to the shareholders.

Bolivia last week did a similar U Turn on a Power plant. Where is all this going to take the South American economy to is not known.

Iran : Nuclear or No-Clear!

Iran is possibly the most advanced technical nation in the middle east. Despite reeling under sanctions for the last many years, it has managed to keep a steady economy and a good pace with technology.

Iranian people are unique, intelligent and very kind. Culturally and traditionally Iranians have been very progressive.

The irony with most Third World Countries is that there are two Parallel Sections of society. One which  still lives in the 18th century world and one which has moved to the current modern world. The large part of rural population in these countries, which includes most of Asian and Middle Eastern countries, still lives with 18th century thinking  And for these masses, it is religion, old traditions and classical lifestyle of keeping their women behind veil more important then the gender equality or a modern society with a developed economy and general upliftment of the masses.

Politicians have well understood this and played to this segment of society and overruled the modern society, which actually forms the strength of that nation. The net result is that who are the net contributors to the developed part of developing economies are the sufferers .

Iran is another classical case of the same type. Having thrown the King out, it got the religious Kings take over the country. And when you allow religion to control a society, then either the nation has to be a temple and people live a life of a monk as in Tibet and Bhutan or it becomes a Talibanized state,  like erstwhile Afghanistan . Both cases do not reflect a normal society. Though in case of Iran, its elite have distanced themselves from religion and have lived a progressive life. Much to the dislike of its government.

Now on the nuclear issues. Iran needs to ask itself. If the Nuclear power is worth being marginalized from the whole world. Does it have any sanctity for its people. Will it bring any change into the lives of the common man. Will it lead to the development of the country in anyway or it is the very source of conflict and shall bring about a race in the region for Nuclear Bombs.

India did the same mistake. It went in to test the Nuclear bomb and within days, Pakistan followed with its bomb. Net  result is that now India sits with a nuclear hostile neighbor. What stops tomorrow Saudi, or Egypt or for that matter, even Baharin to start making a nuclear bomb and what stops one of these regimes to then go ahead and misuse the bomb.

Iran has no perceived threat from any country. It does not need a Nuclear Bomb and if its nuclear assets are a matter of concern to the world. It should liberally allow inspection.

Sanction free Iran has the capability to then become as rich and prosperous and advanced as any First World country.  So, is the nuclear power more important or the richness of its people and an advanced country more important.

There is no heroism in making a nuclear bomb. We all learnt it in our Physics in class 12. Uranium enrichment and neutron bombing of the nucleus yields endless heat. All it takes a few centrifuges and a neutron accelerator to make a bomb. What is the big deal about it.

The big heroism of course is like what Lula has done to Brazil. Made it into a roaring flourishing economy with general upliftment of people. Lula will be remembered by history and applauded by the world. Will the Iranian leaders learn from Brazil.

I am also worried about the threats being issued by Israel to Iran. We have all seen that in the name of nuclear non compliance, the Iraq war was triggered and left a very sorry country. Do we really need another war?

Syria : Chicken Hearted Diplomacy!

When it was Libya, France took an initiative  of sky raiding the country and overthrowing " Qaddafi". Europe , US and others supported with the exception of few .

One wonders, if life in Syria is less worth then life of a person in Libya. It is now around a year that people in Syria are fighting against a regime, which has now ruled them for more then half a century. When it was Libya, quickly NATO and others jumped on the wagon and crippled the governing forces. However, in Syria, despite the screaming clamor of help by the people and the breakaway army faction, the world is idling on it.

Yesterday, Kofi Annan made a pitch with Assad and came back empty handed. UN like a lame duck has hardly every been able to bring fruitful results in any conflict zone. Whether it was Somalia, Rwanda or Egypt. If Kofi had any  guts, he should have told Assad that the world has been too much patient and he would surely meet the fate of Qaddafi or Saddam or Hosni, if he did not make a quick exit now. However, he goes and cries for reconciliation , when he clearly sees millions of protesters on the road and hundreds of killings. And why reconciliation with a Dictator ? Is Kofi an ex UN Chief or a Conflict Tourister.

In case of Libya, very quickly the International Criminal Court stepped in and brought a warrant for the capture of Qaddafi on his war crimes. In case of Assad, the ICC does nothing. Who will have faith in ICC henceforth.

The Americans have been giving lip service and no one wants to assign the job to NATO. It is also seen that OIC has no meaning to any of its following countries. All big talks and big blown up budgets, but no one is bothered about the Arab League .

Turkey sits on the fence and watches the drama unfold. No one has the guts to fight Assad.

It is time, when NATO takes over the sky raiding and the rebel army is reinforced. Assad has still time to exit, but not too much.