Just Speak Out

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Feminism in India and TOI

The whole Times of India and Deepika Padukone episode just shows narrow mindedness of so called feminists.

There are two inequalities between men and women – social and physical. Physical inequality was created by nature and will remain forever. We should learn to respect it not disobey it. It is the social inequality we should fight against.

The justification that TOI gave for publishing a private photo of Deepika without her consent is the women equality vis-a-vis men. They asked 'If Shahrukh Khan baring his chest is okay for everyone, why should people object to Deepika's photo?'
This argument is as logical (or illogical) as saying 'If Deepika wears one, why should Shahrukh not wear a brassiere?'

TOI does not stand for feminism, it just diverts our attention from what real feminism stands for, just to get some cheap TRP and generate more profits.

Let us not worry about physical inequality. It is the social inequality for women that everyone and esp. these so called feminists should fight against. Trying to reduce the social inequality is the real feminism. 

These so called feminists like TOI should worry less about right of the women to wear less clothes and worry more about right of the women to have equal opportunities, respect, representation and remuneration in the society, home, politics and the work place. What has TOI done _ever_ in this regard? My guess, nothing. 

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Leaders and people !!

People always get leaders they deserve. We deserve Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil. Bihar deserves Nitin Yadav as it did deserve Lalu. We also deserve Bal Thackaray. If Bal Thackaray can weild some power, that is probably because there are some people who support him. India deserves Naxals because there are people supporting Naxals. Naxals are not just few thousand armed bandits looting government. Naxals are few thousand armed bandits supported by local people! If local people wanted, NAxals/maoists would be no where.

Pakistan deserves Zardari and Gilani and MAvaz Sharif and at the same time Pakistan-Punjab deserves Shahbaz Sharif. Pakistan also deserves hoard of mullahs and religious leaders who promote hate. Pakistan also deserves Taliban. Pakistan also deserve continuous conflicts between various sects/regions/states.

If you see mullahs and religious leaders promoting open hatred against others and Taliban killing minorities, that is probably Pakistani people *silently* approve that !!! Gone are the days when some hundred/thousand armed men could rule a society without its approval.

Because in a society that knows tolerance, these elements would never become powerful. These people will vanish from society the moment enough people desire so !

All the leaders *must* always be reflection of our society !!! Next time, don't blame on the leaders/extremists/military, blame it on the people because they come from people!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Truth

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.
- What did he find? - asked one of the friends.
- A piece of Truth - answered the devil.
The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man's soul - one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.
- Aren't you worried? - said one of his companions. - He found a piece of Truth!
- I'm not worried - answered the devil. - Do you know what he'll do with the piece? As usual, he'll create a new religion. And he'll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth."

- Unknown

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Religious education must be avoided in schools

Few can disagree that young minds need education in humanism and civics, rather than in jihad. Children at an impressionable age need to be educated in the unifying, inclusive and irrefutable principles of humanity and respect for all, rather than the divisive, exclusionist and controversial concepts of jihad and crusade.

Human values are universal. The quintessential principles of morality are rather simple, and they do not require religious teachers to explain them to us. The best moral guide is the simple rule to not do to others what you don’t want others to do to you or to your family.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\06\08\story_8-6-2006_pg3_2

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Two types of muslims

This is not a bashing thread.

I have concluded (from my observation for months) that there are two types of muslims in this world. Na, you are wrong. I am not talking about shia/sunni deobandi/barevli etc.etc.

Two types of muslims are -
1. Talking muslims
2. Walking muslims

Majority of muslims belong to the first type. They will talk and talk and talk on greatness of Islsm, its principles, laugh at other religions, preach fellow muslims, discuss haraam/halaal things endlessly without themselves following them, take each Quran word so literaly that it will embarass a school going kid, preach rubbish things against women and basically can be perfectly called as Hypocrites.

Minority of muslims belong to second type. They themselves try maximum to lead a good life as suggested by Quran. They dont preach others what they dont/cant follow. They worry more about the poor people rather than the dress code. They try to do good things in life rather that worrying/babbering about petty/foolish things.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Governments should be afraid of the people

People should not afraid of the goverments, governments should be afraid of the people.
- V for Vendetta

Chronology of Nepal Events:
http://rediff.com/news/nepal.htm

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Nepal: People destroy king's message boards

Jubilant supporters of the democracy movement in Nepal destroyed the message boards of King Gyanendra after he announced the revival of parliament in the Himalayan kingdom.

Thousands of jubilant supporters of the Seven Party Alliance destroyed the big hoardings bearing the king's message hung in various parts of Kathmandu valley and Ratnapark on Monday night, in front of the Royal palace, local reporters present in the scene said.

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Salaam Nepal! The war however has just begun

History was created in Nepal on Monday night when King Gyanendra conceded the demand of the people to restore democracy. Jubilant Nepalese are celebrating the victory by greeting each other. Nepal Congress leader G P Koirala will lead the new government.

Indian Ambassador S S Mukherjee told the visiting media just a few hours before the victory, "I am humbled by the Nepalese who have spoken so abundantly in favour of democracy."

"It is the first successful non-violent movement of the 21st century in South Asia, which will set an example for the world," said a lawyer Gopal Chintan, one of the supporters of the movement.

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What they say of him ..

His magnificent example of personal sacrifice and dedication in the face of oppression was one of his many legacies to our country and to the world. He showed us that it was necessary to brave imprisonment if truth and justice were to triumph over evil.
–Nelson Mandela

He was the only ray of light to help us through these darkest days.
-Khan Abdul Gafar Khan

Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.
-Albert Einstein

“Gandhi resisted evil with as much vigor and power as the violent resister, but he resisted with love instead of hate. True pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He was right, he knew he was right, we all knew he was right. The man who killed him knew he was right. However long the follies of the violent continue, they but prove that Gandhi was right. 'Resist to the very end', he said, 'but without violence'. Of violence the world is sick. Oh, India, dare to be worthy of your Gandhi.”
-Pearl S. Buck

Noam Chomsky and his views

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20060124.htm

* Human beings are facing now some of the greatest threats in human history. There has been nothing like this. I mean, there have been two major crises which literally threaten survival. The most serious one is [1] nuclear war. That is a very serious problem. It is not discussed anywhere near seriously enough. But if you look at the literature of strategic analysts and others who pay attention to this, many of them regard the crisis as greater now than at any time during the Cold War.

The second is [2] environmental catastrophe. That is a longer term. Nuclear war could take place tomorrow by accident. Environmental catastrophe is longer term, but it is coming and it is serious. And no one knows exactly what the effects will be. But they could be very serious.

* The Bush administration is the most dangerous administration that has ever existed in the U.S. I mean, it is taking actions which significantly increase the threat of destruction of species in both of the domains that we are talking about. It is also taking actions which increase the threat of terror, which is quite serious. It is not nuclear war but it is very serious, and they are doing it quite consciously.

* The invasion of Iraq was an outright war crime. It is a clear, explicit war crime. It had no pretext, no justification and there was a reason for it: the reason was to take control of Iraq's enormous oil resources and to strengthen U.S. power in the region. I mean it is well understood by strategic analysts and international affairs specialists and has been for 50 years, that the reason the U.S. wants to control Middle East oil is not to gain access to the oil. They can do that through market processes - the oil is going to be sold, and anybody can buy it. The point is to have a strategic weapon against their rivals, meaning against Europe and Northeast Asia.

* There is also right now the insurgency which is violent and brutal, but it was elicited by the invasion. Iraq hadn't had any suicide bombers for probably a millennium, but now they have them all the time. The U.S. intelligence and the Israeli and Saudi intelligence have analyzed very closely the foreign fighters in Iraq. There are very few. It is maybe 10 percent of the insurgents. But almost none of them had any terrorist record. They are under extremely close surveillance. Their people were mobilized by the war. It was expected that the war would mobilize potential militants, ultimately terrorists, and they would spread around the world.

* If you're not interested in reducing terror such as the Bush administration which doesn't care about terror, then you do exactly what bin Laden wants. Take a look at these studies by U.S. government specialists on terror. What they point out is that the best ally that Osama bin Laden has is George Bush. He does exactly what bin Laden wants. He does react with violence and terror against the populations who Osama bin Laden is trying to appeal to. Sure, it's as if he is following a script written by Osama bin Laden. Terror is a serious problem. Terrorism is getting worse. But there are sensible ways to deal with it.

* The way to terminate the threat of nuclear weapons is to take two steps. One of them is to control, to have an international control over the development of any fissile materials and have a bank somewhere under international control with all fissile materials produced or stored. And if any country wants them for legitimate purposes - nuclear energy, then release them. That proposal has been at the U.N. for years, I think it was 1993, [that] it was proposed. But the U.S. has blocked it.

It finally came to a vote in November 2004. That's probably the most important vote that the U.N. ever took. The vote came out 174 to 1. The U.S. voted against it. Two countries abstained: Israel and Britain.

* The non-nuclear states agreed not to develop nuclear weapons and the nuclear states agreed that they would eliminate nuclear weapons. Have they done it? None of them have done it. And the U.S. isn't believed. The U.S. simply says -those under Bush for the first time - it says the provisions of the treaty don't apply to us. Well, O.K. if the nuclear states are not going to live up to their side of the bargain, then the non-nuclear states are not going to do it, either.

* The U.S. is for the moment dominating the world by force. I mean, in the dimension of violence the United States is unparalleled. I mean, it has about half of the total world military spending; it's far more advanced in things like space, which is the next dimension of military warfare. The U.S. has about 95% of the expenses and in fact, is the only country that is trying to keep space for military purposes

Friday, March 24, 2006

John Adams, the first vice president and second president of the United States wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, in 1780 :

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”