The head of the Roman Catholic church in Chennai, Archbishop Chinnappa came up with a shocker recently. Speaking on Christmas eve, he urged "all Christians to send their children to only Christian schools". Interestingly, another Archbishop (of Changanacherry in Kerala) issued a similar statement a few days earlier. Obviously this is not a coincidence and there is more to it than meets the eye.
If the statements made by these two men of cloth are not communal, then what is? How absurd can they get?! This, when progressive thinking warrants building an inclusive society. What next, similar statements exhorting Christians to eat only in restaurants run by fellow-Christians? Maybe a directive to all Christians that they should seek employment only in Christian organisations? (So goodbye to the Tatas, Reliance, Infosys, Wipro?) Where will these gentlemen draw a line, when it comes to this kind of thinking? What happens when every religious group starts thinking the same way?
Dangerous, regressive thinking. The sort that is not conducive for a secular society and one that needs to be condemned with the contempt it deserves!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Buddha's enlightenment!
Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment after meditating under a Bodhi Tree.
Looks like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of W.Bengal, and a man named after the Enlightened One, too has attained some enlightenment of sorts! Only it is not clear whether he too meditated under a tree or just woke up from some Rip Van Winkle-kind-of slumber, only to see that the world looks and works differently than in the dreams he had been having!
He says "We have to accept capitalism; where is State capital? This is being realistic in a situation where there is no alternative.” Amazing isn't it? What a profound discovery!! What's next I wonder...a discovery that "people need to work, else they won't be able to earn money" or some such nugget of wisdom?
It's amusing, that when I googled for this, I found The Hindu, a leftist newspaper I no longer read, has reported this! Read the Economic Times article that talks about his predecessor's support for the same.
I think the government's job is to govern. Provide law & order, justice, good education, healthcare etc. Not to interfere with business or "provide" jobs! The latter simply won't work because there's no accountability with the government to run anything efficiently and profitably. We have seen wonderful examples of this in the last several decades and everytime we come in contact with those denizens occupying important positions in those Public Sector companies and government offices. If there is a bunch of more uncaring, corrupt and dehumanised species of humankind available anywhere in this planet, do let me know. This is what socialism ends up creating. Am not saying, that there are not any well-intentioned socialists who mean well, but the system just does not work. And if intentions are everything, then all men are Mahathma Gandhi and all women, Mother Teresa!
No, the yardstick for measuring a succesful state is to, well, see if it has succeeded, for God's sake!! If, after 30 years of ruling the state uninterruptedly, the Communists still haven't got their act together, I don't think they ever will. Hence all these noises about adopting capitalism etc., since all options are fast running out in the rapidly-changing world.
To put it in a nutshell, socialism does not create (or provide opportunities for) wealth-equity as well as capitalism does. Why else did the USSR and the left bloc collapse and not the USA, Germany, Japan and the rest? Mind you, capitalism is not a perfect system and has a lot of problems. But to borrow Churchill's views on democracy and use the same logic, "Capitalism is the worst form of economics except for all those that have been tried before".
Meanwhile, the show, for the CPI (M) and other like-minded political parties, must go on.
Looks like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of W.Bengal, and a man named after the Enlightened One, too has attained some enlightenment of sorts! Only it is not clear whether he too meditated under a tree or just woke up from some Rip Van Winkle-kind-of slumber, only to see that the world looks and works differently than in the dreams he had been having!
He says "We have to accept capitalism; where is State capital? This is being realistic in a situation where there is no alternative.” Amazing isn't it? What a profound discovery!! What's next I wonder...a discovery that "people need to work, else they won't be able to earn money" or some such nugget of wisdom?
It's amusing, that when I googled for this, I found The Hindu, a leftist newspaper I no longer read, has reported this! Read the Economic Times article that talks about his predecessor's support for the same.
I think the government's job is to govern. Provide law & order, justice, good education, healthcare etc. Not to interfere with business or "provide" jobs! The latter simply won't work because there's no accountability with the government to run anything efficiently and profitably. We have seen wonderful examples of this in the last several decades and everytime we come in contact with those denizens occupying important positions in those Public Sector companies and government offices. If there is a bunch of more uncaring, corrupt and dehumanised species of humankind available anywhere in this planet, do let me know. This is what socialism ends up creating. Am not saying, that there are not any well-intentioned socialists who mean well, but the system just does not work. And if intentions are everything, then all men are Mahathma Gandhi and all women, Mother Teresa!
No, the yardstick for measuring a succesful state is to, well, see if it has succeeded, for God's sake!! If, after 30 years of ruling the state uninterruptedly, the Communists still haven't got their act together, I don't think they ever will. Hence all these noises about adopting capitalism etc., since all options are fast running out in the rapidly-changing world.
To put it in a nutshell, socialism does not create (or provide opportunities for) wealth-equity as well as capitalism does. Why else did the USSR and the left bloc collapse and not the USA, Germany, Japan and the rest? Mind you, capitalism is not a perfect system and has a lot of problems. But to borrow Churchill's views on democracy and use the same logic, "Capitalism is the worst form of economics except for all those that have been tried before".
Meanwhile, the show, for the CPI (M) and other like-minded political parties, must go on.
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