Montek Singh Ahluwalia is one smart guy and has been key in the economic advancement of India. And I like his focus on infrastructure development as key in growth and wealth distribution.
This is an interview with him in front of Fortune 500 company CEOs
Bobby Jindal is elected the youngest governor of Louisiana. He’s of Indian origin. He looks bright and refreshing.
People are willing to break out of their shells and support a candidate an atypical candidate… that’s cool too (off course the disaster called Kathleen Blanco provided her own fall).
I dont fall for labels and havent read too much about his politics and his stands on issues but DAMN…. why did he have to be republican… war supporting one at that.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2029227220071021
This is a direct quote from the US constitution.
“Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.”
Yes, the constitution does provide the president the authority to veto a bill and send it back to the congress. The veto can then be overridden only by a two-third majority in the house where the bill originated.
This is an article about Separation of Powers (a term attributed to Montesquieu). Keep in mind that Separation of Powers is a very different concept than Separation of Church and State and one that is not so straightforward. It is not a perfect system and it has often been argued that a combined Executive and Legislative might be better.
I believe that Bush has exploited the Separation of Powers framework to assume a dictatorial role, while the Legislative has been handicapped, even now, when the democrats have a majority in both houses, to a point where it is unable to pass any meaningful piece of legislation.
So why is so much power vested in one man who is a part of the Executive when the main role of that branch is executing the orders of the Legislative? And given the strong connection that the Executive can have with one party, isn’t this the perfect opportunity for the president to override the basic intent of the constitution when it created the Legislative?
In effect a minority in the house + the president is turning out to be far more powerful than a majority. Is this not a broken system?
Were the framers of the constitution just not able to comprehend that there could be wide and complete disregard of principals on which the it was founded? Or could they not see the deep rooted corruption and fear of persecution that exists among republicans and prevents them from standing up to the president? I think not.
They did provide many checks and balances and yes they created the Judiciary which was meant to interpret the laws and provide a check for both the Executive and Legislative through judicial review.
However, they did not cater for is the complicity of “We the people” in the gross undermining of law and the system of checks and balances. Public opinion plays a huge role in what is deemed lawful and often, consciously or unconsciously will determine its interpretation. Polls don’t mean much but the fact that 24% of the people still approve of Bush’s role as president is something the founding fathers could not have anticipated. We might be screaming and shouting on blogs and going to Ron Paul gatherings but unfortunately a lot of Americans do not realize how serious the implications of the acts of the Bush government are. A lot of them do but have chose to ignore those acts, or in effect have suspended their constitutional rights under the guise of “more pressing problems to be solved”. It’s almost a cliche now but so relevant:
“Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither” – Ben Franklin
This has happened often in times of national crisis like the Great Depression, or the Vietnam War. But now, the motivations of the people who support Bush are very different and have nothing to do with sacrifice and everything to do with strong misguided fears. What those fears are, is a topic in itself and I dont want to get into it at this time… but Bush has used race, nationalism and the fear of a changing world to divert their attention from real issues. Those people are not innocent however, and are fully to blame for allowing this to happen.
Shame on them for letting down the basic principals of liberty and life laid down by the Founding Fathers… they did not see you coming.
Posted in constitution, corruption, politics
Tagged Bush, constitution, executive, law, legislative
I keep going back to this once in a while… it’s brilliant and funny. The writer is pissed that the 2004 GOP convention was in NYC… Lots of great facts too.
Zipper was the cutest and most innocent little guy ever… we loved him so much. He was my mother’s little baby who unlike her other 2 babies, was always with her. Still remember the night he passed away and my parents called me, wailing.
I feel he was so intensely in love with us too… he gave us so much joy. Everytime, any one of me, dad, mom or my brother would come home, he would show his happiness without holding back.
I just logged onto my flickr account today and saw his pic… and I realize how much I miss him. Where ever he is I hope he is happy.
love you zipper.
After 5 days of great movies and a great effort by a lot of people, ISAFF Seattle 2007 came to a close on 7th Oct (also happened to be my birthday). Hats off to all the people who worked hard to make this possible. I got to watch a few movies and enjoyed them a lot. You can see my reviews of a few of the ealier movies here.
The last movie was “10 Questions for the Dalai Lama”… here’s what I thought about it.
10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, Rick Ray (5/5)
The festival directors had definitely kept the best for the last. The show closed with this great eye-opener, and was followed by a long Q & A session with the director of the movie, Rick Ray, and a pretty interesting (and a little funny too) and passionate group of people. It was great to have the director of the movie right there.
First, about the movie. According to Rick, the movie’s inspiration started with him being approached with a chance to get an audience with the Dalai Lama. He was offcourse delighted by that and thus started the journey. The movie explores his preparation for the meeting and spends a lot of time providing the context and history of Tibet starting from the the Dalai Lama before the current one. It was very interesting to learn about his childhood and how he was selected to be the next Dalai Lama. The real eye opener for me was the role of China in Tibet. The extent of the oppression and blatant disregard for human rights and sovereignty of Tibet was a surprise for me. I knew that Tibet has, for a very long time, been occupied by the Chinese who have caused the Dalai Lama and thousands (maybe millions) to be displaced from their homeland. I didn’t know that this goes back to the 1950s. And that over a million people have been killed during this period. Think about it, a million people killed for defending their rights to a free and respectful life in their own country.
Essentially the Dalai Lama runs a government in exile from Dharamsala, in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. So there was a lot of footage and information about the Chinese occupation of Tibet which was very informative and disconcerting. However, that is not what the movie is about. It is really an introduction to the Dalai Lama. A closeup of his, about habits, his personality and what he stands for. Let me tell you, he is a very funny guy. He is modern and in step with technology and current social norms. He is also very practical and candid. He will cut through the bullshit that is the life of most of today’s political leaders and get to the point. Rick captured this really well in this movie.
Finally the movie gets to the point where Rick meets the Dalai Lama and asks him 10 questions. There is no lightning , no divine intervention, no prophetic voice thundering down from the heavens. Just a simple monk giving practical and genuine answers to the complicated questions that are posed to him. Ironically, the movie, through its description of how great and important the Lama is, succeeded in making him more personable to me.
At one part of the movie, Rick talks about how rich “Brahmin’s” dont have smiles on their face where as poor people, where ever he encounters them, do. So those poor people they are happier. As someone else pointed out in the Q & A session, not all Brahmin’s are rich. Yes I think they have benefitted from exploitation of socially lower classes over thousands of the years but that is a separate discussion and for Rick to assert that is an over simplification. Also the movie did not at all get into the Chinese side of the story. I dont think they have much of a case here but it would have been fair to touch upon that.
Anyways, the movie was followed by a long Q & A session… there were questions about a lot of things like
“Does Dalai Lama feel any regret about involving the CIA in the struggle against the Chinese?”
“What does the average person in China think about the occupation?”
“How does China reconcile the fact that they are a communist country and they have installed their own Panchen Lama after denying the authority of the Dalia Lama to do that?” – btw, you can read more about this here.
And here is Dalai Lama’s website…
One thing I thought when I started blogging here was that I would keep this blog civil and not use language or opinion that could be perceived as petty because that gives people who want to divert attention from the main argument fodder to do so. It’s very hard to do when you hear what these “gentlemen” running for the republican nomination have to say, when you clearly see how shallow and myopic their ideas are and how limited their ability to understand the world is.
Ron Paul is a notable exception. I have never seen a more consistent and logical person. I hope it is not going to be that very fact that keeps him from being the president of the US. Really, he makes everyone (including Obama) look like rhetorical mouth pieces fighting for petty self gratification and power. He makes their words seem like meaningless blabber.
But anyways, that’s not why I started writing this post. I want to put my voice out their with so many others who are just flabbergasted at how America is being fooled into a possible war with Iran… right under our noses, while we scream and shout to oppose it, neo-conservatives and republicans are firstly acting like they have support and second concocting up scenarios and demonizing Iran and Ahmadinejad. They are shamelessly trying to hypnotize the people.
People, please stand up and speak out against this. Bush and Cheney along with people like Rudy, Romney etc will take you to another war. Your sons and daughters will be killed, 10s of thousands of innocent people in Iran will be killed, people all over the world will be tortured, arrested and murdered. The world will be set back, become a much more dangerous place.
These people really have no morals or complexity in their characters. Sometimes they don’t even have a choice because of the commitments they have made to faceless business interests. They are just delivering to those who they have promised on their way to power…
Wow…. Sunday, 2:00PM movies were an excellent example of why I love to watch independent theater. 3 of the 4 short movies/documentaries shown today were excellent. The 4th was nice too.
The theater was almost full, as usual and there was a short introduction by Sahar Zaheer and Farhad Tyabji (I think). One thing I have noticed at this festival was that there are a bunch of people come by themselves, unlike a regular movie where people usually come in groups. Maybe because the content of the movies is more important than the fun of going to the movies with friends.
The theme for the afternoon short movies was “Global Shorts: Love, Dreams and Despair” and the movies tackled issues related to these emotions and South Asians living from all over from Australia to Maldives.
These were the movies and my ratings:
This was an interesting topic and the director and editors did justice to it. It followed 3 second generation Australian Indians (two girls and one guy) as they figured out love, relations, sexuality and their lives. It was hilarious at times, especially when the guy, Sunil busts out something in his imitation Indian accent. I thought the movie was great at capturing the feeling of people who grow up in a country different from their parents. Or even someone like me who has been here for only a part of their lives but has changed in certain ways which put one in contradiction or at odds with the norms back in our home countries. Somehow I think this is so much more easier to see in the Indian diaspora, maybe because they are so many of us, and many of us are so articulate. The folks in this movie certainly were (articulate), and so were their parents and relatives who were a part of the documentary.
It was kinda cool when one of the girl’s mother says she cannot understand dating because she believes that one can give their body, heart and soul completely and truly only once. She also said that she thought that the word “love” was overused in the western culture. I don’t disagree with her but I wish it was used more in India. I wish love was expressed more openly, whether it be between two lovers or between parents and children. It does make a difference in how open and expressive we turn out as individuals.
In conclusion, I think the movie handled the issue very well and was pretty funny. Definitely recommend watching it.
What could be a more boring topic… primary education in the remote areas of Pakistan. However this documentary got a huge applause from the audience. It was well made and aggressive. The movie confronted the issue by actually going to various schools all over Pakistan, in remote rural areas (and some parts of Pakistan are indeed very remote), meeting with teachers, students, officials and politicians in the area. And there was interesting footage of teachers and politicians lying boldly on camera and then their lies being exposed. According to the movie, primary education in Pakistan is in a horrific state and is one of the lowest in Asia and even those children coming to school and getting a supposed education do not meet even the minimum bar expected at their levels. Corruption is rampant in every aspect from building construction to teacher attendance.
We need more movies like this that tackle social issues in an bold way and expose problems in a way that cannot be ignored.
This was a nice movie about a girl from a rich family growing up in Bombay who is kind of detached from the artificial high society life she is growing up in and is attracted to nature and writing. The story wasnt really complete in itself but as with most short movies, the content was in the details. It looked very professionally produced.
I thought the key phrase in the movie was “We dont expose ourselves to everyone, only to a chose few”… and this movie is how that plays out. Very interesting but a little abrupt. The actress, Ira Dubey who plays Koko, the lead in the movie did a good job and is very cute. Also this is going to be the writer/director, Aminta Goyel’s graduate thesis project. Good luck to her.
This was a fantastic short documentary. One of my top two movies from the festival. It was a documentary about contrasts. A man living in Male, Maldives, a tropical, warm and densly populated place dreams of going to the Himalayas where there are wide open spaces, high altitudes and freezing cold tempreatures. He does go and this is a chronical of his travel.
What made this movie so good was the personality of the main character, Muha. He was the most likable and down to earth guy you will come accross. Yet he has this incredible bigness about him. The film totally captured this and his extraordinary journey as he went from sea level to one of the highest points in the world.
In the movie, he touches on the practical aspects such as the preparation and training he underwent, the bouts of altitude sickness and the logistics of his travel. He also talks about his feelings as he encountered people and landscapes on the way and how the journey affected him.
It’s a great film and I highly recommend it.
To all the people making ISAFF happen… thanks and keep it up. Again here is the official site of ISAFF and here is Tasveer’s website
Posted in Cinema, corruption, politics, review, Seattle, South Asia
Tagged arrange, documentaries, film, himalaya, ISAFF, maldives, marriage, movies, Tasveer
Classic… my advise: honey, get something else in place while you can. In the end, only what you earn counts.
Floating Frisbee 
