Join for the Earth Hour

Last updated on: March 27, 2009 at 8:46 pm By Desh Kapoor

A little effort from all of us will together make a big difference. I was going through an article and wanted to share some information with you all. The Earth Hour concept started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia with one simple question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change? This one-city environmental campaign has evolved into a grassroots action that has captured global attention. Earth Hour 2009 will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 8.30 pm - 9.30 pm your local time. We have a counter in the header to show the countdown to the Earth Hour (as per the server time - which is according to the US Mountain Time). Starting in New Zealand's remote Chatham Islands, thousands of cities, towns, and landmarks around the world will go dark for Earth Hour on Saturday evening. Up to one billion people worldwide are expected to participate in this global voluntary blackout by switching off their lights for one hour. Read more

US surveillance shows ISI directly supporting Taliban and Jehadis

Last updated on: March 27, 2009 at 7:29 pm By Desh Kapoor

Reports in Wall Street Journal and New York Times suggest that US and Pakistani officials are drawing up new list of targets to neutralize with drone attacks. More and more US administration officials now believe that Taliban and Jehadis are DIRECTLY helped and supported by Pakistani Intelligence agency ISI. The report followed another in the New York Times on Wednesday that said the Taliban's military campaign in southern Afghanistan was aided partly by support from operatives in Pakistan's military intelligence agency. U.S. officials told the Times that proof of the ties came from electronic surveillance and trusted informants. Things are just going to get more and more complicated as we go on.. as the bomb blast this morning demonstrated. Read more

In "Islamic Republic of Pakistan" it is now ISLAMIC vs REPUBLIC

Last updated on: March 27, 2009 at 6:52 pm By Desh Kapoor

The Imam in the mosque in Jamrud, Pakistan began the Friday prayers today and as he recited "Allah-u-Akbar" (God is Great), an explosion went off killing - offficial count - 50 people (unofficial count is upwards of 70). It came hours before Barack Obama was going to announce his new offensive in Afghanistan and Pakistan to crush Al Qaeda. The mosque was frequented by personnel from Frontier Corps and Khasadar force and other people in the area. These forces are the ones which are taking care of the NATO supplies. A month back one militant had died in a shootout between these forces and the militants. This, some say, was the revenge. These militants have looted the NATO supplies, hindered its movement and now are targeting those who are getting them there. What does all this mean? I am sure there are enough "analysts" in Pakistan putting these attacks in the lap of some outside enemy - Mossad, CIA or RAW. But the truth is that there is an internal war going on - between two types of people: Those who love "Islam" vs Those who love "Pakistan". Read more

Why we Believe in God and our inherent arrogance

Last updated on: March 26, 2009 at 7:43 am By Desh Kapoor

Humans have two distinct properties of mind that make them believe in a God. One, the belief in some form of life apart from that experienced in the body. This is a default setting. Second, an "overdeveloped sense of cause and effect". In many different experiments, from many angles, it seems human brain is wired to believe in God. Basically two ingredients are prominent as noted above.. (1) that everything has a purpose and there is a design to everything and (2) the origin of that purpose and design is outside "us" (mind and body).[1] As a person grows, interestingly a shift occurs in the dimension of your religious faith - from centrality of supernatural to centrality of moral dimension. But, importantly, the studies say that Religion and God does remain intact in human mind from cradle to grave... whatever the apparent dimension of it in different stages. Read more

A Horror Story of the Afghan Government

Last updated on: March 26, 2009 at 6:14 am By Desh Kapoor

Many times we do not realize the issues sitting from afar of a country. In Afghanistan there is the threat of Taliban - which is pretty serious - but then where Taliban is not there.. there is corruption. Corruption that is institutionalized by Hamid Karzai and his coterie and also the Western powers, US included. Here is an excellent case study of Dr. Mohammed Atash, the former president of Ariana, Afghanistan’s largest commercial airline - and how he was subjected to hell by Karzai, the politically connected managers, and the Western Companies.. to a position that he ran away from Afghanistan back to the US. Read more

Tata Nano is launched

Last updated on: March 23, 2009 at 10:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

Tata Nano - the much awaited Tata car which will come for Rs 100,00 has been launched finally. The bookings for the first set of 100,000 vehicles are scheduled from April 9-25 and deliveries will start from July 2009. This car is the one car after a long time - since Maruti 800 - which looks at the most likely and the largest segment of population the lower and middle class. The plans are pretty big going forward. Even make the maintenance more accessible and easy to do. [1] In fact, Tata envisions going even further, providing the tools for local mechanics to assemble the car in existing auto shops or even in new garages created to cater to remote rural customers. Read more

Pakistan is a SEPARATE country from India – let's just acknowledge their existence!

Last updated on: March 23, 2009 at 8:37 pm By Desh Kapoor

A comment was made by one reader on the link for the article by Vir Sanghvi here at Drishtikone. The article was about how different India was from Pakistan and how it is not useful to compare both. The commenter, Vinod Dhall, however, suggested that Pakistan is like an "estranged cousin" and India should "help" Pakistan out at this moment of their crisis instead of feeling great looking from this side of the border. Some Indians have been obsessed with Pakistan and our relationship with the country on the Western border. There are a lot of links: Speak the same or similar languages: Gujarati, Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi Have very similar rituals, eating habits and wedding procedures. Have cross-over families amongst the Muslims. Are very similar in outlook in certain areas. These similarities and the historical relation have fawned two types of "Pakistan Lovers" in India: 1. Akhand Bharat proponents: These are the Hindutva folks who keep thinking of an Akhand Bharat from Afghanistan to Assam. Little do they realize that land is not just land. But people as well. And substantial number of people in those areas to the West of our border and specifically in anyplace west of Islamabad are brainwashed Jehadis. To integrate such people into your own country is DISASTROUS, to say the least. Pakistan wanted and fought for an Islamic Republic.. and irrespective whether they thought of such a bunch of people would be gaining strength or not.... it was a certainty given the intolerant streak in Wahabi Islam throughout history. Read more

Last updated on: March 23, 2009 at 1:48 pm By

YES! If 10 other people have committed a crime and got away with it is no justification for turning into a criminal. So many people jump the red light, but the one who's caught is (and must) be fined. BJP would do well to distance itself from Varun Gandhi's comments ASAP. Read more

Drishtikone Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 3

Last updated on: March 23, 2009 at 3:50 am By Desh Kapoor

For this issue, I wanted to experiment with a pdf format for newsletter, along with some commentary on the week gone by. Lots of things are happening in the world.. and we are looking at things very seriously. At Drishtikone, we may be wrong sometime.. but we still try to analyze as much as we can. Please go through the newsletter and share it with your friends, if you feel it is worthy and also let us know how we can improve. More importantly, please let me know if you like the pdf version or the HTML version? What do you prefer? And which adds value? Thanks, Desh Read more

The Current Crises of Understanding of Economic Options and Social Costs

Last updated on: March 22, 2009 at 7:40 pm By Desh Kapoor

Billions have been poured into the economy and billions (realistically, Trillions) will be poured in the months ahead. Yet, there is no light! Read more