STATUES, GARLANDS AND BEES....

Power-crazed meglomaniac Mayawati's statue spree and the money display knows no bound it seems. She has been in controversy in the past for collecting public donations on her birthdays. But latest extravaganza to celebrate 25 years of BSP’s existence and 76th birth anniversary of founder Kanshi Ram has set a new bar.

Every piece of statistics associated with Behenji is unusually gigantic in nature.

According to IT Deptt.

Preliminary investigations by the I-T sleuths reveal the garland with which she was "fecilitated" recently weighed 65kg, all in Rs 1,000 notes. A wad of one hundred Rs 1,000 notes weighs around 120g. Taking out the weight of the thread in the garland, sleuths say the net mass of the currency "mala" would not be anything less than 60 kg. With inputs gathered from RBI, officials say it would take at least 500 bundles of Rs 1,000 denomination to make the garland.

Both CBI and I-T department had in their investigation earlier unearthed 72 immovable properties and more than 300 donations valued at Rs 13 crore in the name of Mayawati and her family members. The CBI had frozen more than 50 bank accounts with more than Rs 7 crore in them...

Why did Mayawati choose to wear a Rs 5-cr garland {and go on a statue spree} in a rally which was attended by people who earn less than Rs 100 per day, in a state which has the highest population in the country and the lowest human development index (0.388 against a national average of 0.472) ?

Here's a video showing Mayawati being "fecilitated" by her party members with the cash garland

The Statue Spree: Some Shocking Statistics...

A latest RTI by her political opponents reveals that the amount spent by Chief Minister Mayawati on just two of her dream Dalit memorials is roughly 3 per cent of the entire state govt budget or more than the entire budget provision for agricultural projects in the state.

The latest information released by the state government's Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd, the nodal agency for the construction of the memorials reveal that out of a total annual budget of Rs 1,33,000 (one lakh thirty three thousand crore) earmarked for the year 2009 -2010; the UP govt spent a whopping sum of Rs 4436 crore in only two of Mayawat dream projects – the Ambedkar park and Kanshi Ram memorial – both in Lucknow. This comes roughly to 3.3 per cent of the state's total budget or 11 per cent of planned expenditure.

Criticism from Opposition

Opposition has been accusing the BSP for spending over Rs 300 crore of public money on the maha rally. There has been severe criticism from the opposition parties concerning the cash garland controversy. BJP spokesman Hriday Narain Dixit said that it was ‘loot ka paisa’. Congress legislative party leader Pramod Tiwari described it an vulgar display of money power. But what his counterpart, AICC general secretary in-charge of UP, Digvijay Singh said outside the Parliament was perhaps the quotable quote. He said, Mayawati was no more a “Dalit ke beti” but “Daulat ke beti”

What Mayawati says in defence

Mayawati has a clear policy: critics may cry foul but she will continue what she wants to do.She claimed that the expenditure on statues was required because the past governments did not show respect towards Dalit icons in whose memory nothing was ever built. "From all those people criticising installation of my statues, I would like to ask that in which book of law it is written that statues of living persons can not be erected," said Mayawati in an election rally in Lucknow recently

It is also claimed that the money totaled only Rs 21 lakh against speculation of crores {At recent BSP's 25th anniversary celebration} & BSP was not like other opponents who secretly collect funds from capitalists and industrialists to run the party and contest elections.

Decreasing Popularity

Mayawati's BSP did not match expectations in the 2009 general elections. The BSP, which was expected to win more than 35 seats in Lok Sabha from the state of Uttar Pradesh, succeeded in bagging only 20 seats. BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s concern for accommodation of dalits in the party; and Rahul Gandhi’s proclivity to woo dalits into the Congress fold, made Ms Mayawati restless as she perceived intrusions in her political space. Moreover, who knows it might be Mulayam Singh's turn to capture the CM's throne next...

When Bamboo flowers...

The famine affected mother and her son, the rats had eaten most of their harvest crop. The boy died soon after the photo was taken.

“When bamboo flowers, famine, death and destruction follows”, says a tribal legend in Mizoram. Who better than the hardy Mizos would know this, considering that theirs is probably the only land on earth where history is closely intertwined with the mysterious cycle of bamboo flowering? Back in 1959, bamboo flowering in the state set off a chain of events in the rugged hilly state that ultimately led to one of the most powerful insurgencies against the Indian union spanning over two decades.

Once again the legend threatens to become a reality as thousands of rats are rampaging through rice and vegetable fields in Mizoram, adding fuel to the growing fears of famine in the region. International aid agencies have already warned of a serious crisis in this border state of the northeast.

Photo : Over 30% of Mizoram’s forest is covered by bamboo species called Melcanna baccifera, and they flower every 50 years. This flowering is followed by invasion of rats who feed on the seeds and then on to the crops and have caused famine in Mizoram in the past. This phenomenon is called MAUTAM in Mizo.Scientifically speaking the odd phenomena of bamboo flowering, is termed 'gregarious bamboo flowering' because the bamboo clumps flower all at the same time only once in the plants' lifetime. This phenomena spells disaster and causes ecological havoc. The reasons behind this strange occurrence are that bamboo plants die after flowering. And will be after some years before bamboo plants take seed again, leaving bare exposed soil – that spells disaster in mountainous states - and ultimately leading to food scarcity, as the animals depend on bamboo plants. Secondly the rats feed on the flowers and seeds of the dying bamboo tree which activates a rapid birth rate among the rodents, which leads to the huge rat population feeding on agricultural crops in the fields and granaries and causing famine.

“Countless numbers of rats have raided paddy fields and destroyed vegetables, leading to serious problems in almost all the eight districts of the state,” stated C Lalnithanga, a Mizoram government agriculture scientist and plant officer. “Hundreds of families are facing food shortages. Some are barely eking out one meal a day. Crops including rice, maize and vegetables have been wiped out as flowering of bamboo in the region caused an explosion of rodent population,” said a report by Action Aid, an international anti-poverty agency.

Mast bamboo flowering in West Khasi Hills has caused fear to the people of Riangdo area in West Khasi Hills, Meghalaya on 16th April, 2008. Pix by UB Photos.

The rat rampage has not confined itself to bamboo growing areas alone but defying predictions of agricultural scientists who said that areas where bamboo flowering did not take place would be spared as Tawaizo a village in Mizoram bore the brunt of destruction by armies of rats. This small village atop the mountainside of Tawi, the tenth highest mountain in Mizoram at 1,837 meters, experienced a total crop failure due to Mautam or famine caused by gregarious bamboo flowering last year.

A similar occurrence in Mizoram in the late 1950s led to disillusionment and anger when the authorities failed to respond with quick famine relief. This later resulted in the Mizo National Famine Front, an organization created to help people get relief, changing into the Mizo National Front, an ethnic political party which involved the Mizos in a 20-year war of attrition against India which ended only in 1987 with a peace accord. The MNF is now a regional political party that heads the government in Mizoram led by former guerrilla leader Zoramthanga.

Bamboo flowering related famine was recorded in Mizoram in the year 1862 and again in 1911 after the state witnessed similar bamboo flowerings. Incidentally the rare phenomena of bamboo flowering are a cyclical one and occur every 48 years throwing life off gear.

Bamboo grows wildly in 6,000 sq km of Mizoram’s total geographical area of 21,ooo sq km with the state, bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar, harvesting 40 percent of India’s 80 million-ton annual bamboo crops. A thriving economy revolves around bamboo. The pulp and paper industry, construction, cottage industry and handloom, food, fuel, fodder and medicine annually consume about 22 million tons of bamboo.

Though the state government has asked the Center to rush adequate stocks of food grain to curb the crisis the famine may be prevented as most villages are now linked to the main government centers, and also because the "Mizo experience" is always there to remind them of the political outcome of bamboo flowering.

North Korea & The Dictatorship Game

We should be happy that we live in a democratic country where we have the right to voice our opinion freely and elect our leaders. Quite a contrast to our political system is North Korea-a true display of ‘Totalitarian Dictatorship’. North Korea is led by a single party called the Korean Worker’s Party. It is a socialist state, with a state owned economy, entirely Government planned. The North Korean media is one of the most controlled media in the world. In a strict violation to the freedom of expression, the Korean people cannot criticize the government, leader and its policies-making such statements can land them up in a jail and consignment to one of North Korea-“re-education” camps. It is the Govt. which distributes all the radio and television sets, citizens are prohibited to alter them to make it possible to receive broadcasts from other nations, doing so carries draconian penalties. The country is ranked 2nd to last on the World Press Freedom Index. The civil organizations go all gaga over the government and literally worship the cult personalities of Kim Jong-il, the current ruler [see picture] and his late papa, King ll-sung. {Both the Kim's [i.e. the father-son duo] have often been compared to the likes of Hitler and are known through out the world for their dictatorial style} Usually, North Korean citizens are not allowed to freely travel or go abroad. Their lives can be compared to a student facing a dreaded detention, like a bird living in a steel cage or like a person grounded for life. Quite in stark contrast to North Korea is our very own India, where we get to see acrimonious verbal wars between the Centre and the Opposition on various issues of national importance. Our media has been sort of a mobilizer of public opinion and has been a platform for the aam admi to voice their concerns and problems which is the exact opposite of the role of North Korean media. After drawing comparisons between the two nations, I feel truly privileged and lucky to be an Indian, and not a North Korean citizen!!
[With opinions as expressed by Tejas Singh]

So what in case of a Nuclear Accident?

 -BILL LIMITS LIABILITY OF OPERATOR TO RS 5OO CRORE, ANYTHING ABOVE WILL BE GOVT RESPONSIBILITY

Answers to questions on the nuclear damage bill the Centre withdrew from the Lok Sabha on Monday, 15 March,2010

The Purpose - The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill seeks to set down the mechanisms and rules for claims from liability and payments that may arise because of a nuclear accident that may happen in future as the number of nuclear reactors and power generation will triple in the coming years. Further, it is aimed to pave way for India to join an international liability regime.

Situation Today - Currently, all of the country’s nuclear power reactors and facilities are owned by the government, or by Nuclear Power Corporation and Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (Bhavini) – both PSU’s. Any liability that may arise today due to any mishappening is the responsibility of our government. India has also purchased two nuclear reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu from Russia but the agreement is not clear on the issue. This has meant uncertainty over trans-boundary liability issues.

So why Now? – The Indo – US civilian nuclear agreement allows private players in US to sell nuclear equipment to India. But the companies expressed concerns over the absence of any clear nuclear liability regime in India. Environmental groups believe foreign companies will be reluctant to invest without a liability regime in place because they do not want to run the risk of having to compensate without a cap for a nuclear incident. Without the bill, under the existing legal regime, a company may have to encounter absolute, unlimited and non-delegable liability.

What’s in the Bill – A leaked version circulated by environmentalists indicate that government plans to cap the maximum liability for each nuclear incident to “300 million Special Drawing Rights”($460 million or Rs. 2100 crore). This is lower than the $470 million settlement in Bhopal gas disaster.

If the claims for compensation for nuclear damage exceed SDR 300 million, an additional 300 million SDR may be available through an international convention. The liability of a nuclear power operator (so far only the NPC and Bhavini) for each nuclear incident will be Rs 500 crore. The limit will also apply to private companies if they are allowed entry into the sector.

The central government will be liable for nuclear damage if the liability exceeds the operator’s limit.

What’s the Problem with it? – The bill has generated the controversy that the US firms and other multinational suppliers will go scot free or with too low liability and the Indian government will ultimately pay (the taxpayer’s money) as compensation. Some environmental activists are contrasting the proposed Indian cap of $460 million with the much larger $10 billion pool of funds available in the US to cover liability and provide compensation to the public in the event of a nuclear accident. Some legal experts are arguing that there is no place for a cap on liability under Indian law. Any such legislation would be vulnerable and open to challenge and could be easily struck down as a violation of the environmental jurisprudence established by India’s Supreme Court.

Are the concerns Real? - A clause in the bill appears to allow the nuclear operator to have “a right to recourse” —which would mean the operator could seek assistance — when the nuclear incident has resulted from negligence on the part of a foreign supplier of a material, equipment or service. However, this would have to be reflected in written contracts between the Indian operator (the NPC, for now) and the foreign suppliers. Environmental groups are skeptical, and fear that this will not emerge in actual contracts.

The International Nuclear Liability Regime- The Convention on Supplementary Compensation under the International Atomic Energy Agency provides for an international fund to compensate for nuclear damage in the event of an accident. The convention envisages a two-tier system — the state will ensure availability of at least 300 million SDR, and an international fund for which all participating nations are obliged to contribute. Any country that plans to join will have to ensure its national legislation is consistent with the convention’s provisions. By enacting domestic legislation, India could join the convention and — should the event arise — also seek money from the much larger international fund, which could help India access an additional 300 million SDR.

What’s in Other countries - It varies from country to country. Belgium has set a liability amount of 300 million Euros, and the France 91.5 million Euros, and the UK £40 million. Germany has set unlimited liability though a financial security limit is set at about 2,500 million Euros. Japan also has unlimited liability, but a maximum financial security limit of 60 billion yen.

Our Take - With the sort of ‘under the table deals’ necessary to get the contracts in India, it’s very much possible that the private players drastically cut expenses on safety of the reactors to make the profits. And Rs.500 Crores is too little a liability for a company, if it commits such a dangerous and genocidal act of nuclear accident, considering the long term deadly effects of radiation. Most of the burden will fall on the Indian government. It seems from the bill that the government is openly inviting private players to come and operate in India without any tension of liability or safety of the citizens. Government should think to increase the limit of the liability so that it may prove to be hindrance for the operators for acting irresponsibly. Currently the amount is not more than a formality, a joke on the value of Indian lives.

Nuclear accidents are not uncommon around the world. For information on the nuclear accidents around the world, Click here.

Book In Your (Re)Views

Written By- Richa Goel

                                                               

We all dream about being successful and being management students want to make it big in the corporate world and the best job that we want to land up at is ‘the C.E.O of a big company’. We all know the advantages and pros of becoming one. So when I came across a book dealing with the temptations of being one, I couldn’t resist it. It was an interesting read and raised some questions which I would like to discuss with you. So here is a book review on the book ‘The Five Temptations of a C.E.O’-a leadership fable by Patrick Lencioni.

The book begins with a troubled protagonist Andrew O’Brien who is the C.E.O of trinity systems for the past year. The next day is the one year anniversary of his promotion and he has to account for the past year’s performance which is not so great before the board. He is nervous and burdened. He leaves his office only to find out that the road he takes for home is closed for repairs. So instead of taking the road which would more time, he plans to go by train. The train is not at all crowded. Well actually there is just one janitor called Charlie sitting across him in the compartment.  He plans to finish his work but is interrupted by Charlie and the conversation begins. Charlie explains the five temptations that every C.E.O has to face in his tenure. 

The first being  ‘choosing status over results’. He states that C.E.O’s tend to be more interested in protecting their career status than making sure that their companies achieve results. They worry more about their level of comfort and status than company’s performance. They are more concerned about their image. The second temptation is ‘choosing popularity over accountability’. C.E.O’s tend to give more importance to be liked by his team rather than holding them accountable or telling them what the actual picture is. This lead to the third temptation which is ‘choosing certainty than clarity’. It is a situation where they don’t wants to be criticized. They are afraid that they may be wrong and they don’t want anybody to tell them that so they stick to what has been said and done. The fourth temptation is ‘to create harmony rather than productive conflicts’. C.E.O’s prefer pleasant and agreeable meetings rather than critical discussions as they think they take up time from the real work but the point is that these conflict meetings lead to best decisions as all the knowledge is out on the table. The fifth and the ultimate temptation is ‘choosing invulnerability over trust’. C.E.O’s are powerful people and being vulnerable around their teams does not seem like a good option. They believe that they lose credibility if their people feel too comfortable challenging their ideas and in return people do not trust their leaders enough to give them an honest opinion.

 Finally after explaining the five temptations Charlie leaves and Andrew seems relieved of the tension of the board meeting and realizes the more important facts . The next day the board meeting is a success and Andrew is honest about a lot of facts about him as well as the organization. Andrew later finds out that Charlie the janitor he met at the train was actually C.E.O of his own company.  But in the end, three years later we find that the company has another new C.E.O and the company is in great shape. When he is being complemented for his work, he explains the board that he did not deserve the credit. It was possible because he had a conversation with Andrew O’ Brien during a train journey.

In conclusion we can say that ultimately C.E.O’s sink to one of the temptations and which leads to their suffering as well as that of the organizations they manage. The book also provides with suggestions and rationales to deal with the five temptations. The book also highlights something more important, it warns that not only does a C.E.O have to avoid these temptations, every individual needs do that. We all have to be clearer about ourselves, our goals, our visions, more trusting towards other people, more open to criticism. We should come in terms with the fact that we can be wrong. Saying the right thing is important even if it means that you have to deal with some tough consequences. Taking bad decisions is better than taking no decisions. Finally, the book is successful in leaving an impression and motivating us to become better individuals that will help us in becoming better managers. 

Decoding The Jargon: Hedging..

Hedge your investments to weather tough times

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What: Hedging allows a risk-free investor to transfer his risks by paying some cost to a risk taker

Why: Hedging is important because it allows its investments as per his risk apetite

How: Some famous instruments of hedging are futures and options that are traded through stock exchanges

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When everything is going your way, it looks natural to get carried away by the upside and completely forget the downside

When you are crossing a road, looking to your left is just as important as looking to your right. This rule could be applied even to your investments. But many investors forget this simple rule when they are standing in the middle of markets going up and down. When everything is going your way, it looks natural to get carried away by the upside and completely forget the downside. Then one fine day, you get knocked down by something coming from the other side. For this simple reason, it is always better to keep your investments hedged if you are not sure if you could survive unexpected knocks.

Think of hedging as a kind of insurance that you buy to protect yourself from unforeseen losses.

Hedging could be used in a wide range of circumstances. The techniques of hedging would be as much relevant to your leaking umbrella as to your investments. You keep the second option ready, just in case. Like insurance, hedging involves participation of a risk-taker and someone who is risk-averse. For transferring the risk or what we call hedging, a risk-averse person has to pay a price to a risk-taker.

Hedging keeps a risk-averse person protected from a negative event while someone else assumes the risk in the hope that the negative may not materialize.

The key to hedging is that it allows limiting of loss on the downside. However, at the same time, the cost involved in hedging leads to reduction of upside potential of profit. The risk-taker makes some profit in terms of the price received from the hedger in case the negative event does not actually materialize.

If Hedging is a reduction of risk at the cost of reduction of potential profit, then why anybody would go for hedging?

Hedging is closely connected with the equation of risk-return trade-off. As per the risk-return equation, to generate a higher return you may have to take a higher risk.

A lower risk investment generates a lower return. That’s the normal equation the market follows—it is risk that’s ultimately getting translated into money. Interestingly, all of us have the same appetite for money but all of us may not be having the same appetite for taking risk.

The solution is to go for a compromise. Be satisfied with that much return which is commensurate with your risk-taking appetite. If you never put yourself in a situation offering higher risk than your risk-taking appetite, then you would probably never need to hedge.

But it’s at this point that many slip. The problem is that the equation of risk and return doesn’t come clearly written on the face of your investments. You have to judge for yourself. You may realize only after making an investment that you have entered a wrong lane. Hedging, in a way, provides you a chance to set your investments on the right track, as a result of which you are back to the level of your risk-taking appetite. However, as I said, you have to sacrifice some of the returns on your investments. So, before going for hedging, it is important to make some evaluation based upon its cost and benefit. A long-term investor may decide to ignore any short-term fluctuations rather than sacrifice a part of the profit. It all depends upon individual circumstances.

How can we hedge?

The simplest approach would be to create a natural hedge around your investments. Remember this age-old advice from simpletons: never put all your eggs in the same basket. Diversification works as a natural hedge for your investments. Some of your investments would perform well, some would perform badly but diversification on the whole ensures that you get a balanced return during normal times. But diversification alone can’t always fully protect your investments. A more aggressive approach would be to use derivative instruments for hedging. Many derivative instruments such as options, futures and other derivatives of more exotic kinds are available. Derivatives could be used to hedge a wide range of risks covering stocks and commodities or even currencies and interest rates. For retail investors, derivatives such as futures and options, which are easily tradable on stock exchanges, are most suited. You can hedge your investments by making investments in any of the available derivative instruments. But before that, you should try to understand how different derivative instruments work.

I have always found derivatives a bit puzzling. But for avoiding a sea of risks, you need to make friends with a devil.

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The Master of Cricket-Sir Don Bradman

Sir Donald Bradman of Australia was, beyond any argument, the greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century. Only WG Grace, in the formative years of the game, even remotely matched his status as a player. And The Don lived on into the 21st century, more than half-a-century after he retired. In that time, his reputation not merely as a player but as an administrator, selector, sage and cricketing statesman only increased. His contribution transcended sport; his exploits changed Australia's relationship to what used to be called the "mother country".

Throughout the 1930s and '40s Bradman was the world's master cricketer, so far ahead of everyone else that comparisons became pointless. In 1930, he scored 974 runs in the series, 309 of them in one amazing day at Headingley, and in seven Test series against England he remained a figure of utter dominance; Australia lost the Ashes only once, in 1932-33, when England were so spooked by Bradman that they devised a system of bowling, Bodyline, that history has damned as brutal and unfair, simply to thwart him. He still averaged 56 in the series.

In all, he went to the crease 80 times in Tests, and scored 29 centuries. He needed just four in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, to ensure an average of 100 ­- but was out second ball for 0, a rare moment of human failing that only added to his everlasting appeal. Bradman made all those runs at high speed in a manner that bewildered opponents and entranced spectators.

Though his batting was not classically beautiful, it was always awesome. As Neville Cardus put it, he was a devastating rarity: "A genius with an eye for business." Matthew Engel Essay "He's out!" - to the thousands who read them, whether they were interested in cricket or not, the two words blazoned across the London evening newspaper placards could have meant only one thing: somewhere, someone had managed to dismiss Don Bradman, of itself a lifelong claim to fame.

Sir Donald George Bradman was, without any question, the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games. To start with, he had a deep and undying love of cricket, as well, of course, as exceptional natural ability. It was always said he could have become a champion at squash or tennis or golf or billiards, had he preferred them to cricket. The fact that, as a boy, he sharpened his reflexes and developed his strokes by hitting golf ball with a cricket stump as it rebounded off a water tank attests to his eye, fleetness of foot and, even when young, his rare powers of concentration.

So, with the concentration and the commitment and the calculation and the certainty that were synonymous with Bradman, went a less obvious but no less telling humility. He sought privacy and attracted adulation.

How did anyone ever get him out? The two bowlers to do it most often, if sometimes at horrendous cost, were both spinners - Clarrie Grimmett, who had ten such coups to his credit with leg-breaks and googlies, and Hedley Verity, who also had ten, eight of them for England. Is there anything, I wonder, to be deduced from this? Both, for example, had a flattish trajectory, which may have deterred Bradman from jumping out to drive, something he was always looking to do.

Grimmett was not, in fact, the only wrist-spinner to make the great man seem, at times, almost mortal. Bill O'Reilly was another - Bradman called him the finest and therefore, presumably, the most testing bowler he played against--as were Ian Peebles and Walter Robins; and it was with a googly that Eric Hollies bowled him for a duck in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, when he was within four runs of averaging 100 in Test cricket. Perhaps, very occasionally, he did have trouble reading wrist-spin; but that, after all, is its devious purpose.

By his own unique standards, Bradman was discomfited by Bodyline, the shameless method of attack which Douglas Jardine employed to depose him in Australia in 1932-33. Discomfited, yes--but he still averaged 56.57 in the Test series. If there really is a blemish on his amazing record it is, I suppose, the absence of a significant innings on one of those "sticky dogs" of old, when the ball was hissing and cavorting under a hot sun following heavy rain. This is not to say he couldn't have played one, but that on the big occasion, when the chance arose, he never did.

His dominance on all other occasions was absolute. He could be 250 not out and yet still scampering the first run to third man or long leg with a view to inducing a fielding error. Batsmen of today would be amazed had they seen it, and better cricketers for having done so. It may be apocryphal, but if, to a well-wisher, he did desire his 309 not out on the first day of the Headingley Test of 1930 as "a nice bit of practice for tomorrow", he could easily have meant it.

He knows as well as anyone, though, that with so much more emphasis being placed on containment and so many fewer overs being bowled, his 309 of 70 years ago would be nearer 209 today. Which makes it all the more fortuitous that he played when he did, by doing so, he had the chance to renew a nation and reinvent a game. His fame, like W.G.'s, will never fade.

Spirituality-Higher Self

-Unburden Yourself With Laughter

Gautama Buddha made a profound statement: "Be a light unto yourself". To this, Osho adds another: "Be a joke unto yourself". Osho would say: "I have to tell jokes because you are all religious people, you tend to be serious. I have to tickle you sometimes so that you forget your religiousness, your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth".

Laughter, according to Osho, is multi-dimensional. When you laugh, your body, mind and your being laugh in unison. Distinctions, divisions and the schizophrenic personality disappear. That's why Osho introduced laughter to religion. Seriousness is of the ego whereas laughter is egolessness.

Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life. The serious person is handicapped: He creates barriers. He cannot dance, sing or celebrate. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can go on thinking and pretending that you are religious but you are not. A man burdened by theories becomes serious. A man who is unburdened starts laughing.

The whole play of existence is so beautiful that laughter can be the only response to it. Only laughter can be the real prayer of gratitude. Osho talks about a great Zen master Hotei who was known in Japan as the 'Laughing Buddha'.

Osho said: "Hotei is tremendously significant... more people should be like Hotei; more temples should be full of laughter, dancing and singing. If seriousness is lost, nothing is lost -in fact, one becomes more healthy and whole. But if laughter is lost, everything is lost. Suddenly you lose the festivity of your being; you become colorless, monotonous, in a way, dead. Then your energy is not streaming any more".

But to understand Hotei you will have to be in that festive dimension. If you are too much burdened with theories, concepts, notions, ideologies, theologies, philosophies, you will not be able to realize the significance of Hotei.

Osho warned that taking man's laughter away from him is taking his very life away; it is a form of spiritual castration.

Rewind - The Munich Massacre of 1972

It was 4:30 in the morning on Sept. 5, 1972, when five Arab terrorists wearing track sweat suits climbed the six-foot six-inch fence surrounding the Olympic Village. Although they were seen by several people, no one thought anything was unusual since athletes routinely hopped the fence; moreover, the terrorists' weapons were hidden in athletic bags. These five were met by three more men who are presumed to have obtained credentials to enter the village.
The Palestinians then used stolen keys to enter two apartments being used by the Israeli team at 31 Connollystrabe. Israeli wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund heard a faint scratching noise at the door of the first apartment. When he investigated, he saw the door begin to open and masked men with guns on the other side. He shouted “Hevre tistalku!” ( — Guys, get out of here!) and threw his nearly 300-lb. (135-kg) weight against the door to try to stop the Palestinians from forcing their way in. In the confusion, Coach Tuvia Sokolovsky and race-walker Dr. Shaul Ladany escaped and another four athletes, plus the two team doctors and delegation head Shmuel Lalkin, managed to hide.
Wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, attacked the kidnappers as the hostages were being moved from one apartment to another, allowing one of his wrestlers, Gad Tsobari, to escape. The burly Weinberg knocked one of the intruders unconscious and stabbed another with a fruit knife before being shot to death. Weightlifter and father of three Yossef Romano, 31, also attacked and wounded one of the intruders before being killed. The Arabs then succeeded in rounding up nine Israelis to hold as hostages.
At 9:30, the terrorists announced that they were Palestinians and demanded that Israel release 200 Arab prisoners and that the terrorists be given safe passage out of Germany. The Palestinians were led by Luttif Afif (“Issa”), his deputy Yusuf Nazzal (“Tony”), and junior members Afif Ahmed Hamid (“Paolo”), Khalid Jawad (“Salah”), Ahmed Chic Thaa (“Abu Halla”), Mohammed Safady (“Badran”), Adnan Al-Gashey (“Denawi”), and his cousin Jamal Al-Gashey (“Samir”).
After hours of tense negotiations, the Palestinians, who it was later learned belonged to a Palestenian Liberation Organisation’s(PLO) faction called Black September, agreed to a plan whereby they were to be taken by helicopter to the NATO air base at Firstenfeldbruck where they would be given an airplane to fly them and their hostages to Cairo. The Israelis were then taken by bus to the helicopters and flown to the airfield. In the course of the transfer, the Germans discovered that there were eight terrorists instead of the five they expected and realized that they had not assigned enough marksmen to carry out the plan to kill the terrorists at the airport.
After the helicopters landed at the air base around 10:30 p.m., the German sharpshooters attempted to kill the terrorists and a bloody fire fight ensued. At 11, the media was mistakenly informed that the hostages had been saved and the news was announced to a relieved Israeli public. Almost an hour later, however, new fighting broke out and one of the helicopters holding the Israelis was blown up by a terrorist grenade. The remaining nine hostages in the second helicopter were shot to death by one of the surviving terrorists.

Hostages killed at the airport

(middle row, L-R) wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, age 40; American-born weightlifter David Berger, 28; wrestler Mark Slavin, 18; and weightlifting judge Yacov Springer, 51.

(bottom row, L-R) weightlifter Ze'ev Friedman, 28; track coach Amitzur Shapira, 40; wrestler Eliezer Halfin, 24; shooting coach Kehat Shorr, 53; and fencing coach Andre Spitzer, 27.

At 3 a.m., a drawn and teary-eyed Jim McKay, who had been reporting the drama throughout the day as part of ABC's Olympic coverage, announced: “They're all gone.”
Five of the terrorists were killed along with one policeman, and three were captured. A little over a month later, on Oct. 29, a Lufthansa jet was hijacked by terrorists demanding that the Munich killers be released.
The Germans capitulated and the terrorists were let go, but an Israeli assassination squad was assigned to track them down along with those responsible for planning the massacre. According to George Jonas in “Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team”, eight of the 11 men targeted for death were killed. Of the remaining three, one died of natural causes and the other two were assassinated, but it is not known for sure if they were killed by Israeli agents. The 11 on the list were:

Adwan, Kamal - Chief of sabotage operations for Al Fatah in the disputed territories
Al-Chir, Hussein Abad - PLO contact with KGB in Cyprus
Al-Kubaisi, Dr. Basil Paoud - Responsible for logistics within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Boudia, Mohammed - Linked with European PLO
Daoud, Abu - Admitted member of the Black September Organization
Haddad, Dr. Wadi - Chief terrorist linked with Dr. George Habash
Mahshari, Mohmoud - PLO member and coordinator of Munich incident
Nassir, Kamal - Official PLO spokesman and member of the PLO Executive Committee
Salameh, Ali Hassan - Developed and executed the Munich operation
Yussuf, Abu - High ranking PLO official
Zwaiter, Wael - Cousin to Yasser Arafat, organizer of PLO terrorism in Europe

The Jonas book was the basis for two movies about Munich, “The Sword of Gideon” and Steven Spielberg's 2006 Oscar nominee, “Munich.” In the subsequent publicity about Spielberg's film, reports have discredited the account in Jonas, which was largely based on what the author was told by a former self-described ‘Mossad’ agent, Juval Aviv, who claimed he was the leader of the assassination team. In fact, journalists Yossi Melman and Steven Hartov found that “Aviv never served in Mossad, or any Israeli intelligence organization. He had failed basic training as an Israeli Defence Force commando, and his nearest approximation to spy work was as a lowly gate guard for the airline El Al in New York in the early 70s.”

In contrast to the account of “Operation Wrath of God” offered by Jonas, Mossad agents have told reporters subsequently that no one team was sent to kill a specific list of terrorists.
Meanwhile, the mastermind of the massacre remains at large. Abu Daoud was shot thirteen times on July 27, 1981 in a Warsaw hotel coffee shop, but survived the attack. Daoud was allowed safe passage through Israel in 1996 so he could go to a PLO meeting convened in the Gaza Strip to rescind an article in its charter that called for Israel's eradication. In 1999, Abu Daoud admitted his role in the massacre in his autobiography, Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist.

Daoud, who lives with his wife on a pension provided by the Palestinian Authority, claims his commandos never intended to harm the athletes and blamed their deaths on the German police and the stubbornness of then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. On December 27, 2005, Daoud reiterated that he had no regrets about his involvement in the Munich attack, and that Steven Spielberg's new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.

Bassam Abu Sharif, a member of the PFLP at the time, said the motive for the operation in Munich was to attract publicity for the Palestinian cause and to win the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The massacre of 11 Israeli athletes was not considered sufficiently serious to merit canceling or postponing the Olympics. “Incredibly, they're going on with it,” Jim Murray of theLos Angeles Times wrote at the time. “It's almost like having a dance at Dachau.”

What I want to highlight here more than the attack is the way Israel took revenge against the attackers. And Israel, following the same ideology, assassinated Hamas leader in Dubai last month by dispatching a team of 11 men. They went to other countries, killing them in their own den. And what we do here, talk and talk and expect other countries to help. Be it Dawood in Dubai or terror leaders in Pakistan and around the world. I feel that they all will die naturally and never from an Indian bullet>>


Get more info at- Complete Book on Munich Massacre
                              The Jewish Library

Rin Turns The Tide With It's New Commercial: A Sneak Peek at Comparitive Ad's

You must have seen the Rin [HUL] V/s Tide[P&G] Commercial frequently aired on television these days...

In the Rin ad, the claim is limited to a whiter wash- ‘Tide se kahin behatar safedi de Rin’ (Rin gives better whiteness than Tide), without getting into specific, feature-to-feature comparison. Almost all detergent ads promise a whiter wash – except that they used to refer to ‘ordinary detergents’ leaving the consumer to figure that they are talking about her brand. The only difference here is that a competitor has been named, and shown brazenly. According to this article [In Economic Times]: ‘this claim is based on laboratory tests done through globally accepted protocols in independent third-party laboratories’.

Here's What Advertising Council of India (ASCI) has to say :-

Some of the other popular Comparitive Ad's

Horlicks V/s Complan Advertisement,

Pepsi V/s Thumbs Up Advertisement

__________________________________

Without solid factual backup, comparative ads only serve to create a ruckus and bring the advertising and the brand(s) into the public eye. It remains to be seen how Tide will react but reports indicate [As per Economic Times] that they may not respond directly.

The ads remain on air with a high frequency for a short period of time, creating a lot of buzz before ASCI or a consumer complaint forces the advertiser to pull the ad off the air. Sometimes it may backfire on the advertiser. It may also repulse a few consumers who don’t like brand bashing preferring for you to speak about your positives rather than the negatives of the competition.

Globally, comparative ads have been around for decades. There’s this classic ad for Penn Tennis Balls from Fallon McElligot which was endearing simply because the comparison was tongue in cheek. And then of course, the ‘Get a Mac’ ads for Apple which take a dig at some of PC’s features and also highlight the positives of Mac OS X. In this light, check out the latest effort from Audi of America. On the back of Car and Driver comparison tests, Audi took on it’s competitors – Lexus, BMW, Mercedes et al.

On the back of another fact – Audi is growing faster than Mercedes, Lexus or BMW – they released another ad, ‘The Spell‘, which again named competing brands directly. The Rin ad, compared to such efforts remains at a claim level. What say?

Source:http://www.lbhat.com/advertising/comparative-advertising-the-debate-is-back/

So, are you a procrastinator?

Written By- Mohd. Tareq Walizada

Indeed, this is a very silly question because we all are. Procrastination is fundamental to human beings. Procrastination is simply the habit of putting off for tomorrow what you can do today. The fact is that nine out of ten of us have this habit. 

We tend to postpone jobs and tasks. The thing about procrastination is that we tend to put off only those tasks that seem unappealing to us. If the task is boring, or monotonous, or involves too much hard work, then it stands a very good chance of getting postponed. It is not because of the lack of time that we do not do the task. On the contrary, we might have plenty of time to do it but we tend to postpone it and justify ourselves saying that we do not have the time for it. The truth is the job becomes more unpleasant the more you postpone it. Fortunately there is a simple technique that will help you stop putting things off.

=>Technique:
Break big jobs down into small manageable tasks. Something that would take only 5-10 minutes to complete. Make it as tiny as you can. Let's say your goal is to lose weight and you decided to work out every day for 30 minutes.

Preferably you could write down your assignment:
"Do one exercise for lower abs 10 times."

Yes, just one exercise, just 10 times. It would take you about 1 or 2 minutes.

The secret is that the most difficult thing is to get started. Once you get started you're 95% most likely to finish the whole 30 minute work-out!

Even if you do one exercise 10 times, it is better than nothing. You wouldn't feel guilty and depressed - you've fulfilled your assignment!

And if you do more you'll feel even better! The trick is to give yourself a really small task: To make a phone call, or to read one page of a
textbook.

And once you get started you will actually find out that you won't mind doing more than you planned!

And remember, “To do something is just to start”.