If only Money was edible..

Its hard to admit, but unconstrained capitalism has been a major factor that has contributed to environmental degradation. Even though its not too late to do something about it by way of corrective action, the world over, there are climate skeptics and people such as industrialists who could lose out, who oppose and use their political clout to prevent any corrective measures.

Sadly, it is only the European Union who are taking a stand on this issue. The biggest polluters - the USA, China, and India have said without mincing any words that they are more interested in making money. What their industrialists and political leadership (the mighty warlord George Walter Bush, included - his father was the one who refused to adhere to the decisions of the Rio de Janeiro summit) do not realize is that money is not edible and after the rising sea levels have submerged all agricultural land and sources of drinking water, their money is only as good as toilet paper.

Religious discrimination in India: Now Institutionalized

Until now, the impression I'd had was that India had laws that guaranteed equal rights to people of all faiths and ethnicities and that discrimination was limited to individuals in society. I'd faced discrimination because of my (Roman Catholic) surname only once, in New Delhi from a doctor at a government run health center. But in general at the official level, there used to be not much discrimination.

But today I've come across this news that the Supreme Court has upheld a ban on the sale of meat during a particular festival of the Jain religion in the city of Ahmedabad, which is majority Jain who are vegetarians. They said "there was no need to be over-sensitive about a short restriction especially when it was being done out of respect for the sentiments of a particular section of society, in a multi-cultural country." They also cited a 16th century Mughal emperor who had banned meat consumption for 6 months.

Respecting the different culture and religion of another group is fine, but is imposing their restrictions on everyone else? Aren't there people whose livelihood is being affected here? An autocratic 16th century emperor as an example?

Applying the same standards, if India is truly a multicultural country, the sale of all food and alcoholic beverages may also sought to be banned during the daytime during the period of Ramadan, out of respect to India's Muslim community. The Hindu spring festival of Holi usually falls during Lent, the 40 day period of fasting and abstinence for Christians. Since I was keeping the fast in 2005, I had to stay in my students' hostel room the whole day, as the revelries went on outside. No-one sought to have the Holi festivities banned.

It must be remembered that India's Muslim and Christian communities are centuries old and are not a recent phenomenon that has resulted from immigration or conversion, and so deserve to have their traditions respected as well.

In any case, in my opinion its not fair to impose the restrictions you have on account of your religious affiliation, on anyone else. This leaves me wondering about how free, democratic , and secular that country is (was?).

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P.S. I have to mention this as an example of GOAN multiculturalism: Goenkars, especially Hindu Goenkars, are very considerate to others' feelings. The day Mother Theresa passed away in 1997 happened to fall during the Hindu Ganesh Chaturthi festive season. The day the funeral was aired on state television, there was not one firecracker lit on the streets of Panaji.

In Support of Marine David Mortari

The title of this post may be a bit misleading because I do not approve of American military presence in Iraq in the first place, and of this man's alleged action. Nevertheless I feel that this guy needs to be protected from the bloodthirsty mob who seek to have two wrongs make a right.

I found this video on youtube after reading about it on some news website. You watch and judge for yourself. The guy who throws the dog is called David Mortari. I agree that if the video is infact unedited, it is a really cruel and despicable act and Mr Mortari ought to be brought to book by the marine command, according to their laws and codes of conduct.

Whats worse than this is the reaction of a lot of people baying for this guy's blood. I'm not going to present a link here, but this guy's address and telephone number are being circulated on the internet and there are reports of death threats being made. These people are obviously interested in vengeance and not justice and are in my opinion sicker than the action of Mr Mortari.

I stress that I am against cruelty towards animals, but I would also like to point out that dogs are not an endangered species and all these people would do a great service if they redirected their efforts, albeit without viciousness, towards saving species that are endangered. And if a cruel act bothered them so much, why did none of them display the same reaction when more than 100,000 HUMAN BEINGS have been killed in Iraq? They even had a chance to democratically elect a new president in 2004.