The People Falacy of Democracy

The bombers of the Twin Towers and other hijackers on the fateful day of 9/11 hailed from Saudi Arabia. George Bush decided to attack Afghanistan instead. A 'regime change' was effected after the country was pulverized yet again and an ally of the Texan oil lobby was installed as head of state. President Karzai spoke impeccable English while his subjects were mostly tribals from different sectarian politics that mired the country, not well versed in the language or polish the head of state espoused. The disconnect could not have been more stark. After six years of installed democracy, the sponsor super power confesses that Afghanistan is at the tipping point of failure. Interestingly democracy is about people but its implementation is almost never people centric. Democracy is about building solid Institutions and this is where the Republican administration in Washington D.C. got it very wrong. They made the same mistake in Pakistan where they placed complete faith on President Musharraf. Dealing with people and mistaking that as democracy is an easy trap to fall into and it is not unusual that the US has placed faith on more westernized leaders. Involvement with Institutions need a much deeper understanding of the fabric of the nation, its culture and most importantly, its past. American impatience has put two important nations in Asia on the brink.

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Standing up for Honor

It is a running joke amongst my friends about how many times I have seen the movie "A Few Good Men". I saw it again last evening and asked myself the question - "why do I keep seeing this movie so often".

The answer lies in my stand for honor - something that was ingrained in me by one Mr. K.S. Srinivasan, President of a company I worked for. KS, as he was called, handed me my offer letter and in his bid to discourage me from shopping around with it said - "always work for honor, Mr. Majumdar". I've tried to be honest about that aspect of corporate existence ever since.

The film "A Few Good Men" is full of characters, as you would expect in a courtroom drama. There is a victim, a couple of "innocents", a bundle of marines, a fair sprinkling of lawyers and all other garnishing. The single string that passes through each character, irrespective of which side of the story they are in, is their stand for honor - the character to stay faithful to what one believes in life and an unfailing persuasion of that belief. And this goes right from the marines who are accused of killing a weaker marine to the base commander and the defense lawyers (who incidentally do not uniformly believe that their client is innocent but respect their own honors nonetheless). There is just one character in the film who doesn't seem to have honor. It is Private William Santiago. Incidentally, he is the weak marine who gets killed at the base.

The corporate world I live in is mired by questionable ethics and constantly lowering standards of human values. Honor has clearly left the building. It is sometimes necessary to watch A Few Good Men just so I keep my mind clear in these turbulent times.

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"I'm tired of monkeyin' around"

The new year has got off to a racist start - at least on the cricket field. A brown skin, skinny, Asian fellow has been accused of racially abusing a fair (almost) skinned, burly anglo-saxon. This must be the first time that racism has happened in almost the reverse order in which it traditionally has operated. Perhaps the white-men doesn't quite understand the basic nuances of racism. Racism is nothing about races - it is about power and if the Australians are the numero uno cricket team in the world then it is they who wield oodles of it and not the Indians. It is also foolish to attribute a rank to an insult, which by itself is something grossly deplorable. Making a "racist" insult to be of higher severity is opening up the ranks to other "innocuous" insults that can be equally demeaning. This monkey business of insult and insinuation in the name of "sledging" has gone too far. It's time the monkeys looked upto Darwin, took encouragement and moved on with evolution.

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