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2007/1/1 Talking about Why George Bush cannot match Sonia Gandhi
Quote Talking about Why George Bush cannot match Sonia Gandhi?wa=wsignin1.0 2006/11/7 ever dreamt this ?Hi friends lets hope this goona happen in year 2020 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Year : 2020 Place: Two Americans at IBM, USA. Currency Conversion Rate: Rs. 1/- = $ 100/-. Alex : Hi John, you didn't come yesterday to office? John : Yeah, I was in Indian Embassy for stamping. Alex : Oh really, what happened, I heard that nowadays it has become very strict. John : Yeah, but I managed to get it. Alex : How long it took to get it stamped? John : Oh, it was nasty man, long queue. Bill Gates was standing in front of me and they played with him like anything. Thats why it got delayed. I went there at 2 am itself and waited and returned by 4 pm. Alex : Really? In India, it is a matter of an hour to get stamped for USA John : Yeah, but that is because who in India will be interested in coming to USA man, their economy has been booming. Alex : So, when are you leaving? John : Anytime, after receiving my tickets from the client in India and you know, I will be getting a chance to fly Air-India. Sort of dream come true. Alex : How long are you going to stay in India. John : What do you mean by how long. I will be settled in India, my company has promised me that they will process my Hara Patta. Alex : Really, lucky person man, it is very difficult to get a Hara Patta in India. John : Yeah, thats why, I am planning to marry an Indian girl there. Alex : But you can find lots of US girls in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. John : But, I prefer Indian girls because they are beautiful and cultured. Alex : Where did you get the offer, Hyderabad? John : Yeah, salary is good there, but cost of living is quite high, it is Rs. 1000/- for a single room accommodation. Alex : I see, that's too much for US people, Rs. 1/- = $ 100/-. Oh God! What about in Chennai, Mumbai? John : No idea, but it is less than what we have in Hyderabad. It is like the world headquarters of Software. Alex : I heard, almost all the Indians are having one personal Robot for help. John : You can get a BMW car for Rs. 5000/-, and a personal Robot for less than Rs. 7500/-. But my dream is to purchase Ambassador, which costs Rs.200000/- but has got a sexy design. Alex : By the way, who is your client? John : Reddy and Naidu Associates, a pure Indian company, specializing in Embedded Software. Alex : Oh, really, lucky to work in a pure Indian company. They are really intelligent and unlike American Bodyshoppers who have opened their Fly-by-night outfits in India. Indian companies pay you in full even when you are on bench. My friend Paul Allen, it seems, used his bench time to visit Bihar, the most livable place in India, probably world. There you have full freedom and no restrictions. You can do whatever you want! I wonder how that state has perfected that system. John : Yeah man, you are right. I hope our America also follows their footsteps. Alex : How are you going to cope with their language? John : Why not? From my school days I have been learning Hindi as my first language here at New York. At the Consulate they tested my proficiency in Hindi and were quite impressed by my cent percent score in TOHIL i.e. Test of Hindi as International Language. Alex : So, you are going to have fun there. John : Yeah, I will be travelling in the world's fastest train, world's largest theme park, and the famous Bollywood where you can see actors like, Hrithik, and all. Esselworld is also near to Bollywood. Alex : You know, the PM is scheduled to visit US next year, he may then relax the number of visas. John : That's true. Last month, Narayanamurthy visited White House and donated Rs. 2000/- for infrastructure development at Silicon Valley and has promised more if we follow the model of High-Tech City of Hyderabad.Bill Gates also got a chance of meeting him. Very lucky person. Alex : But, Indian government is planning to split Narayanamurthy's Infosys. John : He is a hard worker man, he can build any number of Infosys like this. Every minute he is getting Rs. 1000/-. It seems, if you keep all his money converted as Rs. 100/- notes you can reach Pluto. Alex : OK, Good Luck John. John : Same to you Alex. And don't go to Consulate in a Kurta Pyjama because they will think you are too Indianised and may doubt you will ever come back and hence your Non-Immigrant Visa may get rejected. But don't forget to say "Namaste, aap kaise hai" to the Visa officer at Window 5. It seems he likes that and will not give you a visa if you don't greet him that way. 2006/7/16 who works for India ?The population of Indiais 100 crores. 100,000,00,000 But 19 crores are retired. -19,000,00,000 That leaves 81 crores do the work.
81,000,00,000 There are 25 crores in school,
-25,000,00,000 which leaves 56 crores to do the work.
56,000,00,000 Of this there are 22 crores employed by the Central Govt ,
-22,000,00,000 leaving 34 crores to do the work.
34,000,00,000 4 crores are in the Armed Forces,
-4,000,00,000 ! which leaves 30 crores to do the work.
30,000,00,0 00 Take away from above a total of 20 crores people who work
for State Governments
(State Government employees officially do not work!)
-20,000,00,000 and that leaves 10 crores to do the work.
10,000,00,000 Total unemployed are 8 crores
-8,000,00,000 and that leaves 2 crores to do the work.
2,000,00,000 At any given time there are 1.2 crore people in
hospitals, -1,200,00,000 leaving 80 lakhs to do the work.
80,00,000 Now, according to Indian Statistical Institute, there are
79,99,998 people are in prisons throughout the country.
-79,99,998 That leaves just! 2 people to do the work.......
2 You and me!!! And currently YOU are sitting at your computer reading mails .
So I am the only person in our country who is working! And that's why India is surviving!!! Now, please log out and do your job because, for a change, I want to rest. And I don't want India to suffer because of that!
Source: Forwarded through Email
2006/7/7 Why I fired my secretaryLAST WEEK WAS MY BIRTHDAY AND I DIDN'T FEEL VERY WELL WAKING UP THAT
MORNING. I WENT DOWNSTAIRS FOR BREAKFAST HOPING MY WIFE WOULD BE PLEASANT AND SAY, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!", AND POSSIBLY HAVE A PRESENT FOR ME. AS IT TURNED OUT, SHE BARELY SAID GOOD MORNING, LET ALONE "HAPPY BIRTHDAY." I THOUGHT... WELL, THAT'S MARRIAGE FOR YOU, BUT THE KIDS WILL REMEMBER. MY KIDS CAME INTO BREAKFAST AND DIDN'T SAY A WORD. SO WHEN I LEFT FOR THE OFFICE, I WAS FEELING PRETTY LOW AND SOMEWHAT DESPONDENT. AS I WALKED INTO MY OFFICE, MY SECRETARY JANE SAID, "GOOD MORNING, BOSS,HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" IT FELT A LITTLE BETTER THAT AT LEAST SOMEONE HAD REMEMBERED. I WORKED UNTIL ONE O'CLOCK AND THEN JANE KNOCKED ON MY DOOR AND SAID, "YOU KNOW, IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY OUTSIDE, AND IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, LET'S GO OUT TO LUNCH, JUST YOU AND ME." I SAID, "THANKS JANE, THAT'S THE GREATEST THING I'VE HEARD ALL DAY. LET'S GO!" WE WENT TO LUNCH. BUT WE DIDN'T GO WHERE WE NORMALLY WOULD GO. WE DINED INSTEAD AT A LITTLE PLACE WITH A PRIVATE TABLE. WE HAD TWO MARTINIS EACH AND I ENJOYED THE MEAL TREMENDOUSLY. ON THE WAY BACK TO THE OFFICE, JANE SAID, "YOU KNOW, IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY.. WE DON'T NEED TO GO BACK TO THE OFFICE, DO WE?" I RESPONDED, "I GUESS NOT. WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND?" SHE SAID, "LET'S GO TO MY APARTMENT." AFTER ARRIVING AT HER APARTMENT JANE TURNED TO ME AND SAID, "BOSS, IF YOU DON'T MIND, I'M GOING TO STEP INTO THE BEDROOM FOR A MOMENT. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK." "OK." I NERVOUSLY REPLIED. SHE WENT INTO THE BEDROOM AND, AFTER A COUPLE OF MINUTES, TO MY SURPRISE SHE CAME OUT CARRYING A HUGE BIRTHDAY CAKE... FOLLOWED BY MY WIFE, KIDS, AND DOZENS OF MY FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS, ALL SINGING "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". AND I JUST SAT THERE... . . . . . ON THE COUCH... . . . . NAKED. Source : Forwarded through email
2006/7/6 Knowing American HistoryIt was the first day of school and a new student named Pedro Martinez, the son of a Mexican restaurateur, entered the fourth grade.
The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history. "Who said ' Give me Liberty, or give me Death?'" She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Pedro, who had his hand up. "Patrick Henry, 1775." "Very good!" said the teacher. "Now, who said, 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth ?'" Again, no response except from Pedro: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863." The teacher snapped at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed! Pedro, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you do!" She heard a loud whisper: " Screw the Mexicans!" "Who said that?" she demanded. Pedro put his hand up. "Jim Bowie, 1836." At that point, a student in the back said, "I'm gonna puke." The teacher glared and asked, "All right! Now, who said that?" Again, Pedro answered, "George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991." Now furious, another student yelled, "Oh yeah? Suck this!" Pedro jumped out of his chair waving his hand and shouting to the teacher, "Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!" Now, with almost a mob hysteria, the teacher said, "If you say anything else, I'll kill you!" Pedro frantically yelled at the top of his voice, "Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001." The teacher fainted, and as the class gathered around her on the floor, someone said, " Oh shit, we're in BIG trouble now!" Pedro whispered, "Saddam Hussein, 2003." Finally, someone threw an eraser at Pedro and another student shouted, " Duck"! The teacher, just waking up and still a bit out of it, asked "Who said that? Pedro: "Dick Cheney 2006!" Source : Forwarded through Email
2006/7/1 Catch the lionHow to catch a Lion >>
----- Newton 's Method: Let, the lion catch you. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Implies you caught lion. Einstein Method: Run in the direction opposite to that of the lion. Due to higher relative velocity, the lion will also run faster and will get tired soon. Now you can trap it easily. Software Engineer Method: Catch a cat and claim that your testing has proven that its a Lion. If anyone comes back with issues tell that you will upgrade it to Lion. Indian Police Method: Catch any animal and interrogate it & torture it to accept that its a lion . Rajnikanth Method : Keep warning the lion that u may come and attack anytime. The lion will live in fear and die soon in fear itself. Jayalalitha Method: Send Police commissioner Muthukaruppan around 2AM and kill it, while it's sleeping ! Manirathnam Method (director): Make sure the lion does not get sun light and put the lion in a dark room with a single candle lighted. Keep murmuring something in its ears. The lion will be highly irritated and commit suicide. Karan Johar Method (director): Send a lioness into the forest. Our lion and lioness fall in love with each other. Send another lioness in to the forest, followed by another lion. First lion loves the first lioness and the second lion loves the 2nd lioness. But 2nd lioness loves both lions. Now send another lioness (third) into the forest. You don't understand right... ok....read it after 15 yrs, then also u wont! Yash Chopra method (director): Take the lion to Australia or US.. and kill it in a good scenic location. Govinda method: Continuously dance before the lion for 5 or 6 days. Menaka Gandhi method: Save the lion from a danger and feed him with some vegetables continuously. George bush method: Link the lion with Osama bin laden and shoot him!!! Ravi Shastri method: Ask the lion to bowl at u. U bat for 200 balls and score 1 run Lion tired and surrenders all the best and be careful if ur trying out any. !! 2006/6/22 Life is More Than the Little Boxes We Live InLife is More Than the Little Boxes We Live In
From the Dimbleby Memorial Lecture given by the former US President at the Institute of Education in London by Bill Clinton 18 December 2001 I am confident that we have the knowledge and the means to make the 21st century the most peaceful, prosperous, interesting time in all human history. The question is whether we have the wisdom and the will. The terrorists who struck the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre believe they were attacking symbols of corrupt power and materialism. My family and I have a different view of that. I was Commander-in-Chief of the people who worked at the Pentagon. My wife represents the people of New York in the Senate. I knew people who were on those airplanes. My daughter was in lower Manhattan. I met one of her friends who lost her fiancé. I talked to victims who lost their loved ones who were Jews and Christians and Hindus and Muslims, who came from every continent, including over 250 from the United Kingdom. To me, all these victims represent the world I worked very hard for eight years to build, a world of expanding freedom, opportunity and citizen responsibility, a world of growth in diversity and in the bonds of community. The deliberate killing of non-combatants has a long history. No region of the world has been spared it and few people have clean hands. In 1095, Pope Urban II urged the Christian soldiers to embark on the First Crusade to capture Jerusalem for Christ. Well, they did it, and the first thing they did was to burn a synagogue with 300 Jews. They then proceeded to murder every Muslim woman and child on the Temple Mount in a travesty that is still being discussed today in the Middle East. Down through the millennium, innocents continued to die, more in the 20th century than in any previous period. In my own country, we've come a long way since the days when African slaves and Native Americans could be terrorised or killed with impunity, but still we have the occasional act of brutality or death because of someone's race, religion or sexual orientation. No terrorist campaign has ever succeeded. Indeed the purpose of terrorism is not military victory, it is to change your behaviour by making you afraid of today, afraid of tomorrow and, in diverse societies like ours, afraid of each other. By definition, a terror campaign cannot succeed unless we become its accomplices and, out of fear, give in. In the years in which I served as President, we worked very hard to prevent a day like 11 September ever happening. Far more terrorist attacks were thwarted at home and around the world than succeeded, and large numbers of terrorists who did commit crimes were brought to justice. We're gonna win this fight – then what? 11 September was the dark side of this new age of global interdependence. If you don't want to live with barbed wire around your children and grandchildren for the next hundred years, then it's not enough to defeat the terrorist. We have to make a world where there are fewer potential terrorists and more partners. And that responsibility falls primarily upon the wealthy nations to spread the benefits and shrink the burdens. There are changes that poor countries have to make within that make progress possible. It's no accident that most of these terrorists come from countries that aren't democracies. If you're never required to take responsibility for yourself, then you're kept in a state of permanent immaturity where it's easy to convince you that your distress is caused by someone else's success. So this is a fight we have to make everywhere. Which will be more important in the 21st century – our differences or our common humanity? Think about how important your differences are to you. Think about how we all organise our lives in little boxes – man, woman, British, American, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Tory, Labour, New Labour, Old Labour, up, down. We have to organise that, but somewhere along the way, we finally come to understand that our life is more than all these boxes we're in. And that if we can't reach beyond that, we'll never have a fuller life. Courtesy of Quote World
2006/3/26 The right formulaSix Tips for Happiness
Advice from Tal Ben-Shahar. 1. Give yourself permission to be human. When we accept emotions -- such as fear, sadness, or anxiety -- as natural, we are more likely to overcome them. Rejecting our emotions, positive or negative, leads to frustration and unhappiness. 2. Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning. 3. Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account. Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is determined by what we choose to focus on (the full or the empty part of the glass) and by our interpretation of external events. For example, do we view failure as catastrophic, or do we see it as a learning opportunity? 4. Simplify! We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time. Quantity influences quality, and we compromise on our happiness by trying to do too much. 5. Remember the mind-body connection. What we do -- or don't do -- with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health. 6. Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.
the brainy fewWhile visiting India, George Bush is invited to tea with Abdul Kalam.
He asks Kalam what his leadership philosophy is. He says that, it is to surround himself with intelligent people.
Bush asks how he knows if they're intelligent.
"I do so by asking them the right questions," says Kalam. "Allow me to demonstrate."
Bush watches as Kalam phones Manmohan Singh and says, "Mr.
Prime Minister, please answer this question: your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister. Who is it?"
Manmohan immediately responds, "It's me, Sir !"
"Correct. Thank you and good-bye" says Kalam. He hangs up and says,"Did you get that, Mr. Bush?" Bush nods: "Yes Mr. President.
Thanks a lot. I'll definitely be using that!" Bush, upon returning to Washington,decides he'd better put Condoleeza Rice to the test.
Bush summons her to the White House and says, "Condoleeza, I wonder if you can answer a question for me."
"Why, of course, sir. What's on your mind?"
Bush poses the question: "Uhh, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister.Who is it?"
Rice was puzzled and finally asks, "Can I think about it and get back to you?" Bush agrees, and Rice leaves.
Rice immediately calls a meeting of senior senators, and they puzzle over the question for several hours, but nobody can come up with an answer.
Finally, in desperation, Rice calls Colin Powell and explains the problem.
"Mr. Powell, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister. Who is it?" Powell answers immediately, "It's me, of course."
Much relieved, Rice rushes back to the White House, finds George Bush, and exclaims, "I know the answer, sir! I know who it is! It's our Colin Powell!"
And Bush replies in disgust, "Wrong, it's Manmohan Singh!" 2006/3/17 20 ways to say your fly is open!20) The cucumber has left the salad. 19) I can see the gun of Navarone. 18) Someone tore down the wall, and your Pink Floyd is hanging out. 17) You’ve got Windows in your laptop. 16) Sailor Ned’s trying to take a little shore leave. 15) Your soldier ain’t so unknown now. 14) Quasimodo needs to go back in the tower and tend to his bell. 13) Paging Mr. Johnson… Paging Mr. Johnson… 12) You need to bring your tray table to the upright and locked position. 11)Your pod bay door is open, Hal. 10) Elvis Junior has LEFT the building! 9) Mini Me is making a break for the escape pod. 8) Ensign Hanes is reporting a hull breach on the lower deck, Sir! 7) The Buick is not all the way in the garage. 6) Dr. Kimble has escaped! 5) You’ve got your fly set for “Monica” instead of “Hillary.” 4) Our next guest is someone who needs no introduction… 3) You’ve got a security breach at Los Pantalones. 2) I’m talking about Shaft, can you dig it? 1) I thought you were crazy; now I see your nuts. 2006/3/14 Talking about Be Afraid When...
Quote Be Afraid When... 2006/3/13 Collection Laugh ur heart out
After digging to a depth of 100m last yr, Russian scientists found traces of copper wire dating 1000yrs, and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network one Thousand years ago. So, not to be outdone, in the weeks that followed, American scientists dug 200m and headlines in the US papers read: "US scientists have found traces of 2000 yr old OPTICAL FIBERS, and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 yrs earlier than the Russians." One week later, the Indian newspapers reported the following! : "After digging as deep as 500m, Indian scientists have found absolutely NOTHING. They have concluded that 5000 years ago, their Ancestors were already using WIRELESS technology. 2006/3/7 Guess the player ?Try to answer if u can......... based on minimum no of clues...!
Clue no: 1 - In an Historic match between India and England, he served as a captain..... . . . . . . . . . Clue no: 2 - He was the Opening bowler in that match.... . . . . . . . . . . . . Clue no: 3 - He was also the Opening batsman in that match.... . . . . . . . . . Clue no: 4 - He is the one who bowled the last ball of his . . . . . . . . . . . Clue no: 5 - He was the one who faced the last ball of the innings.... . . . . . . . . . Still u didn't get it...... oops..... . . . . . . . . Clue no: 6 - He took the last wicket of the innings..... . . . . . . . . . Clue no: 7 - He was the man of match in that particular match.... . . . . . . . . . Okay atleast after this easy one . . . . . . . Clue no: 8 - He won the match for his team by hitting a sixer in the last ball........ Who is HE .
. . . . . Not yet . . . . . Okay Let the genius answer it.... . . . . . . . It is.......... Recruitment analysisHOW TO RECRUIT THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB?
Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window. 2006/3/6 Bihar's Driving License
2006/3/2 The math problemAt New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set-square, a slide rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney-General John Ashcroft said he believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.
"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Ashcroft said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y'and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer, Isosceles, used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'." When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes". 2006/2/28 India: Asia's Other Superpower Breaks Out
India RisingMessy, raucous, democratic India is growing fast, and now may partner up with the world's richest democracy—America.
Every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, there's a star. Not a person but a country. One country impresses the gathering of global leaders because of a particularly smart Finance minister or a compelling tale of reform or even a glamorous gala. This year there was no contest. In the decade that I've been going to Davos, no country has captured the imagination of the conference and dominated the conversation as India in 2006. While China's rise is already here and palpable—it has grown at almost 10 percent since 1980—India's is still more a tale of the future, but a future that is coming into sharp focus. A much-cited 2003 study by Goldman Sachs projects that over the next 50 years, India will be the fastest-growing of the world's major economies (largely because its work force will not age as fast as the others). The report calculates that in 10 years India's economy will be larger than Italy's and in 15 years will have overtaken Britain's. By 2040 it will boast the world's third largest economy. By 2050 it will be five times the size of Japan's and its per capita income will have risen to 35 times its current level. Predictions like these are a treacherous business, though it's worth noting that India's current growth rate is actually higher than the study assumed.
"India is home to 40 percent of the world's poor and has the world's second largest HIV population"
Anyone who has actually been to India will probably be puzzled. "India?" he or she will say. "With its dilapidated airports, crumbling roads, vast slums and impoverished villages? We're talking about that India?" Yes, that, too, is India. The country might have several Silicon Valleys, but it also has three Nigerias within it, more than 300 million people living on less than a dollar a day. India is home to 40 percent of the world's poor and has the world's second largest HIV population. But that is the familiar India, the India of poverty and disease. The India of the future contains all this but also something new. You can feel the change even in the midst of the slums. India's growth is messy, chaotic and largely unplanned. It is not top-down but bottom-up. It is happening not because of the government, but largely despite it. India does not have Beijing and Shanghai's gleaming infrastructure, and it does not have a government that rolls out the red carpet for foreign investment—no government in democratic India would have those kinds of powers anyway. But it has vast and growing numbers of entrepreneurs who want to make money. And somehow they find a way to do it, overcoming the obstacles, bypassing the bureaucracy. "The government sleeps at night and the economy grows," says Gurcharan Das, former CEO of Procter Gamble in India.
"The government sleeps at night and the economy grows"
There are some who argue that India's path has distinct advantages. MIT's Yasheng Huang points out that India's companies use their capital far more efficiently than China's; they benchmark to global standards and are better managed than Chinese firms. Despite being much poorer than China, India has produced dozens of world-class companies like Infosys, Ranbaxy and Reliance. Huang attributes this difference to the fact that India has a real and deep private sector (unlike China's many state-owned and state-funded companies), a clean, well-regulated financial system and the sturdy rule of law. Another example: every year Japan awards the coveted Deming Prizes for managerial innovation, and over the last four years, they have been awarded more often to Indian companies than to firms from any other country, including Japan. The Indian state has been a roaring success on one front. India's democracy is a wonder to behold. One of the world's poorest countries, it has sustained democratic government for almost 60 years. And this is surely one of the country's greatest strengths when compared with many other developing countries. If you ask the question "What will India look like politically in 25 years?" we know the answer: like it does today—a democracy, probably with a coalition government. Democracy makes for populism, pandering and delays. But it also makes for long-term stability. (In case President Bush is looking for some answers for Iraq, he should recall that the British were able to stay in India for 200 years and built lasting institutions of government throughout the country, and that India got very lucky with its first generation of leaders. Men like Nehru may not have understood economics, but they deeply understood political freedom.) If the Indian state has succeeded in one crucial dimension, it has failed in several others. In the 1950s and 1960s, India tried to modernize by creating a "mixed" economic model, between capitalism and communism. This meant a shackled and overregulated private sector, and a massively inefficient and corrupt public sector. The results were poor, and in the 1970s, as India became more socialist, they became disastrous. In 1960 India had a higher per capita GDP than China; today it is less than half of China's. That year it had the same per capita GDP as South Korea; today South Korea's is 13 times larger. The United Nations Human Development Index gauges countries by income, health, literacy and other such measures. India ranks 124 out of 177, behind Syria, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. Female literacy in India is a shockingly low 54 percent. Despite mountains of rhetoric about helping the poor, by any reasonable comparison, India's government has done too little for them.
"Nearly a fifth of the members of the Indian Parliament have been accused of crimes, including embezzlement, rape and murder"
Is this a problem with democracy? Not entirely. Bad policies fail whether pursued by dictators or democrats. But there are elements of democracy that have hurt, certainly in a country with rampant poverty, feudalism and illiteracy. Democracy in India too often means not the will of the majority but the will of organized minorities—landowners, powerful castes, farmers, government unions and local thugs. (Nearly a fifth of the members of the Indian Parliament have been accused of crimes, including embezzlement, rape and murder.) These groups are usually richer than most of their countrymen, and they plunder the state's coffers to stay that way. It is ironic, for example, that India's Communist Party does not campaign for growth to lift the very poor but rather works to maintain the relatively privileged conditions of unionized workers. As these power plays go on, the great majority's interests—those 800 million who earn less than $2 a day—often fall through the cracks. Most Americans would probably be surprised to learn that India is, by all accounts, the most pro-American country in the world. The Pew Global Attitudes Survey, released in June 2005, asked people in 16 countries whether they had a favorable impression of the United States. A stunning 71 percent of Indians said yes. Only Americans had a more favorable view of America (83 percent). The numbers are somewhat lower in other surveys, but the basic finding remains true: Indians are extremely comfortable with, and well disposed toward, America. The real stumbling block to a deep Indo-U.S. relationship will come not from Washington but New Delhi. While Singh and some others at the top of the Indian government see the world clearly, and see the immense opportunities it opens up for India, many others are blinded by their prejudices. For many Indian elites, it has been comfortable and comforting to look at the world from the prism of a poor, Third World country, whose foreign policy was neutral, detached (and, one might add, unsuccessful). They understand how to operate in that world, whom to bargain with, whom to beg from and whom to be belligerent with. But a world in which India is a great power, in which it moves confidently across the global stage, and in which it is a friend and partner of the most powerful country in history—that is an altogether new and unsettling proposition. "Why is the United States being nice to us?" several such doubters have asked me repeatedly. Even now, in 2003, they were searching for the hidden hand. China's Mandarin class has been able to rethink its country's new role as a world power with skill and effectiveness. So far, India's Brahmins have not shown themselves the equals of their neighbor.
"Today it is India's moment. It can grasp it and forge a new path for itself"
The danger for India is that this moment might not last forever. The world turns and India will have its ups and downs. But today it is India's moment. It can grasp it and forge a new path for itself. Along that road lies a genuine and deep relationship between the planet's largest democracy and its wealthiest democracy. Until now, this has merely been a slogan. It could actually become a reality, and who knows what such a world might look like? India: Asia's Other Superpower Breaks Out - Newsweek World News - MSNBC.com
Outsourcing Homeland securityHomeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff raised eyebrows today by announcing that the United States would outsource all of it homeland security operations to a little-known North Korean firm called Jim Kong-Il Inc.
Coming just days after the controversial decision to allow several major U.S. ports to be run by a company based in the United Arab Emirates, the outsourcing of the nation’s homeland security functions to an obscure company based in an Axis of Evil country struck some in Washington as ill-timed at best.
But Chertoff vigorously defended the decision in a Washington press conference this afternoon, calling Jim Kong-Il Inc. the "right firm for the job," adding, “I looked into the company and it seems okay.” When asked exactly how thoroughly he had vetted the North Korean firm, Chertoff said, “Well, I mean, I haven’t Googled it or anything but you just have to trust me on this one.” Almost nothing is known about the North Korean company that is about to control the U.S.’s entire homeland security apparatus, nor about its highly reclusive founder, the mercurial Jim Kong-Il. In an official statement released today, Jim Kong-Il said that his company’s first official act on behalf of the U.S. would be to collect all of the nation’s nuclear fuel rods. “It is of utmost importance that America’s nuclear fuel rods do not fall into the wrong hands,” his statement read. “Therefore, we will collect all of those fuel rods and ship them to North Korea immediately.” Elsewhere, Vice President Dick Dick Cheney admitted having a beer at lunch before advocating the invasion of Iraq.
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