Increasing Poverty and Disappearing Middle Class in the US: Lou Dobbs

Last updated on: October 5, 2006 at 4:25 pm By Desh Kapoor

Some dire consequences of the slowly but surely increasing disparities in the US as narrated by Lou Dobbs: Real median earnings of full-time working males fell nearly 2 percent last year, according to the Census Bureau, while the real wages of working women fell by 1.3 percent. Despite that, real median household income did manage to rise slightly last year, though that small gain was the first increase in household income since 1999. So what has been keeping our middle class afloat in the face of rapidly rising costs? American families have been living on, as well as in, their homes. More than one-third of homeowners are spending more than 30 percent of their income on the cost of housing, a level that pushes the edge of affordability. Nationwide median home values from 2000-2005 jumped 32 percent, and homeowners have been pulling equity out of their houses in order to keep up with escalating tuition bills, health care costs and energy costs. Read more

India – a Steel Giant of the Future?

Last updated on: October 5, 2006 at 4:14 pm By Desh Kapoor

Here is an interesting news item on how Tata Steel is eyeing a takeover of a large European Steelmaker - Corus. Tata Steel is said to be eyeing Anglo-Dutch steel producer Corus Group. Even as Tata Steel has officially denied any takeover plans, there is mounting speculation that the Tatas are in talks to acquire a majority holding in the company for anything between $8-9 billion (Rs 36,000 crore-41,000 crore).Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg are reportedly working at raising the funds for Tata Steel. Others interested in buying out Corus are Russia's Severstal and Ervaz.Severstal was locked in an intense battle with L N Mittal a few months ago when it bid for control of European steel giant Arcelor.That round went to Mittal. If this deal goes through in favour of the Tatas, it will mean several things.Corus is currently one of the largest steel producers in the world with 18 million tonnes of production capacity spread across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Belgium.With Tata Steel's own capacity at seven million tonnes, the combined entity could potentially be the fifth largest steel producer in the world after Nippon Steel and Posco. What's more, in Europe, Corus is a household name. Read more

Swamy: Aryan Invasion Theory is bunk and the Christian Lobby Agenda in India

Last updated on: October 5, 2006 at 4:08 pm By Desh Kapoor

Subramanian Swamy - the Janata Party leader has also written about the campaign and other actions by other religious groups to undermine the history and strength of Hindus in his book "Hindus Under Siege". He does talk about the falsehood of the Aryan Invasion Theory: Indians are facing a major identity crisis. We need to ask ourselves who we are? What is our core ethos? As a nation, we have been fed so many falsehoods. The whole theory about the Aryan invasion and their creation of Sanskrit and the Vedas, is nothing but British-created falsehood. These historians also claimed that the Saraswati river was a myth until the American satellite Landstat photographed the map and bed of this river. Read more

How Scientists Trash Linguists "Evidence" of Indian History and Why Aryan Invasion is an Incorrigible Lie!

Last updated on: October 5, 2006 at 2:59 pm By Desh Kapoor

A lot is passed off in Indian intellectual circles for India's own history and what happened when. There are some self-congratulatory "experts" who come up with hypothesis and shout about these hypotheses so much and so loud that they themselves start believing in them and term anything contrary to it as blasphemy! Aryan Invasion was one such theory. There was no evidence and no one could assertively say it happened. It was a clever ploy of the missionaries cloaked as "indologists" like Max Muller and British scums who wanted to bring the psyche of the Indian mind under the perennial control of the Western mind. They have succeeded with remarkable success (read the dialog here on this site to understand what I mean)!! Read more

Shrinking of the Middle Class and the Income disparities.

Last updated on: October 5, 2006 at 8:34 am By Desh Kapoor

In my post on the Impressions from my visit, I mentioned my thoughts. Anurag, has correctly questioned my enthusiasm of India. There are many things that need changing and just some actions that seem encouraging don't change the country as such. We, as a country, are going nowhere until lots of things change. And disparity amongst the rich and poor is one of those things. I did mention the high price of the apartments in Delhi and Mumbai - which are obviously matched by higher and higher salaries. There was an issue on salaries in Business Today while I was there which mentioned how salaries for Sr. Managerial talent started from Rs 1 crore and rose to as much as Rs 10 crores in Investment Banking! Now, here is an incident which brings out the starkness of the comparison.. Read more

Asinine South Asian policies and mindset of US Officials

Last updated on: October 4, 2006 at 3:32 pm By Desh Kapoor

Sometimes the US officials just act outside of their own clothing.. they just think they can say whatever pleases them without regard for the proper situation analysis. Here is this Crocker guy- who is the US Ambassador to Pakistan. He thinks India should not play the "Blame Game" in public. Well.. the Indian investigation authorities are simply coming out with their findings and letting people know why and how it all happened! It is no different than the 9-11 investigations and the sharing of their results with the public .. is it? Read more

Impressions from my Visit to India

Last updated on: October 4, 2006 at 3:06 pm By Desh Kapoor

Just returned back from India yesterday. It was an interesting visit where I found several things that gave me hope and many that still bring despair. Let me start with some quick observations: 1. Metro in Delhi was absolutely cool. I travelled from Karol Bagh to Civil Lines in 14 minutes flat! Compare this with my many trips on U-Specials to the DU and it was such a God send! Most people observe order there in the Metro. If only we could have the Delhi airport built the same way as the Rajiv Chowk Metro station we would be much better off! I personally believe that just the creation - not a good job of it - was enough of a miracle knowing what Delhi is like with folks - whose land was acquired - full of political connections and the tough job of creating such a huge thing in the heart of a busy city! That it was done in such a good way is an even greater achievement! 2. Bangalore was a disappointment! It is where Delhi was a decade ago! They have a flyover being built near the airport for last 6 years and its still not complete.... meanwhile Delhi has built a Metro and several flyovers! If it wasnt for the weather, there would be no reason to be in Bangalore at all. The lack of any movement towards CNG - which helped Delhi's air tremendously - is not going to help this weather very long anyways. 3. I went to Vaishno Devi after a long time. Last time I went was in 1999. A lot has changed. On my first visit the climb was tough - I guess in mid 1990's - as there wasnt much around. Then Gulshan Kumar came in and helped build some basic infrastructure. That was a relief as you found some soda and snacks stand at every turn. This commercialisation has reached its peak (nadir?) with shops all over the place.... The worst thing was the proliferation of the horses to take people up there.. and the mess their poop and pee wreaks on the ground. There is literally not an inch on the way where you dont step on horse poop! The smell is just so disgusting and nauseating! I can understand that everyone needs to have a livelihood but not at the cost of the basic decent living for everyone else! Read more

The Club of "99"

Last updated on: September 27, 2006 at 7:17 am By Desh Kapoor

Here is a story that I got from another of those emails you get from friends... very well written it is... Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while A lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?" The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies." Read more

Hitler's painting on Sale

Last updated on: September 26, 2006 at 7:03 pm By Desh Kapoor

Hitler was an artist.. not many folks know this... but he was a good painter. Kind of ironic for an artist to have such a heart that he had! Now his paintings are going on sale.. A collection of 21 watercolours thought to have been painted by Adolf Hitler are due to go under the auctioneer's hammer at a sale rooms in Cornwall today. The paintings and sketches, some signed A Hitler, and others AH, are judged to be authentic because they are similar to other work by the Nazi dictator, who once dreamed of being a fine artist. They are expected to fetch up to £3,000. Read more

India and its contrasts!

Last updated on: September 26, 2006 at 6:11 pm By Desh Kapoor

Writing this email from India - I got an email from a friend and it had a lot of numbers about India.. bringing out the many contrasts that this young country-oldest civilization presents! NOTE: 1 crore = 10mn; 1 lac = 0.1mn; $1 = about Rs.45 India is world's 2nd largest exporter of rice, and world's 5th largest exporter of wheat Over past 5 years, on average 15,000 farmers have committed suicide every year (i.e., 4-5/day) due to poverty and indebtness. An Indian farmer household has an average debt of Rs 12,585 - 82% farmer households in Andhra Pradesh, 74.5% in Tamil Nadu, 65.4% in Punjab, 61.1% in Karnataka, 54.8% in Maharashtra, etc. live in debt. Read more

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