Iranian New Year can mark a fresh start in politics, says Obama

 Saturday, March 20, was the beginning of the Persian/Iranian New Year and is celebrated by Iranians and many other people around the world. The American president sent a message on his regard and renewed the offer of an extended hand from United States of America.

This message is very similar to the one sent by Obama exactly a year ago. The effectiveness of such messages coming from the White House might have not been well known. It is now evident that the more the White House extends her hand towards the Islamic Republic of Iran, the more pressure the hardliners in Tehran will face, making it extremely difficult for them to use the so called "great satan" for monopolizing power inside the regime.

Another fortunate event was Obama's hint at the fact that US sanctions should not stop the technology for communication from getting to Iran. This is something the young people really need to bring about any change. For Iranians, this is regarded as Obama's New Year's present for this year. 

Terrorism Abroad is Terrorism at Home - The Pune, India Bombing

On the February 13th, the night before Valentine's Day, a bomb detonated at the German Bakery in Pune, India.  At least nine people died and more than 40 were injured from the blast.

My friend Shama Kaur was sitting in the coffee shop across the street, and this is what she saw.

It was the night before Valentine’s Day, I just finished consulting on cross-cultural relations and decided to go have some kichardi, a healthy easy to digest daal and rice mixture spiced with ginger, garlic and herbs.  Unfortunately, the chef didn’t show up.  So my option was to leave or settle for a cheese and tomato croissant.  I stayed, finished my meal and looked at my clock- 6 p.m. exactly. Content with my meal, I reviewed my schedule and decided to call my friend who just got his first cell phone two days before.  He is a very humble man who gave up his post as an economics professor in order to become more aware of himself and cultivate good values, that is his path.  Looking at him you would never guess he sleeps at the local river cemetery. I walked over to the German Bakery to use the phone, dialed his number and my friend said he would meet me in ten minutes.  Standing there by the phone I watched people walking in and out of the bakery, a few familiar faces whose stories I know, and the Tibetan lady sitting outside her jewelry shop reciting prayers as she passed a mala through her withered fingers.  I wondered how long she had been sitting in that same place, praying on those same beads and chanting the same mantra.  I wondered how long she would continue to sit there.

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The Decade in Pictures

As the decade draws to a close I am still astonished to realize that to many this is the only decade that they truly remember.  This is the decade that they matured in.  This has been a decade where even some of the most beautiful and well intended events have an under current of violence. Even the above picture has violence all around it, since the Iranian government actively pursues suppressing her freedoms.  What she is doing is now illegal and can prevent her from getting any form of an education in Iran because she would now be a 'star student'.

That is not a place people should want to grow up in.

I have included a series of pictures from the decade below, but to get more I recommend visiting The Big Picture.

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Friendly Fire?

The term friendly fire has long been used as a condition where a soldier is accidentally killed by another soldier under the same flag.  Instances such as a comrade accidentally being struck by a stray bullet during the heat of battle, or a training exercise that has gone array.  That is what we have been accustomed to friendly fire meaning, but the War in Afghanistan has arisen a potential new meaning to this word.  What do you call it when soldiers of one country are fighting a war in a foreign land in addition to training said countries troops to fight for themselves, and are then intentionally shot and killed by the troops they are training?

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The Fastest Train in the World

The Fastest Train in the World

China on Saturday unveiled the worlds fastest train with a reported max speed of a blistering 394.2 kilometers per hour (245 mph) and an average speed of 350 kph (217.5 mph).  In comparison the bullet train in Japan travels at 243 kph, and the TGV in France travels at 277 kph.  The train will cover the 1,069 kilometer distance between Guangzhou and Wuhan in a little over three hours.  Before this train it would take roughly 10 hours to cover the 1,069 kilometers.  To put it in perspective, the distance between Atlanta, GA and New York City is 1209 kilometers or 751 miles.  In this new train, you could travel from Atlanta to New York City in three and half hours without even leaving the ground.  That would be truly revolutionary.

The creation of this new train and this railway is all part of a Chinese program to create jobs during the economic downturn.  They plan on increasing their national rail network from 86,000 kilometers to 120,000 kilometers, and have 42 high speed rail-lines by 2012.  This could have a profound affect on the Chinese landscape by connecting the people to all areas of China like never before.

As an outside observer one cannot approve of the governments suppression of dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo who advocate increased rights for the Chinese people, yet one also must appreciate the ability to successfully create national programs that will revolutionize their country while also setting a higher standard for the rest of the world.  By 2012 China will have the second largest rail-line network in the world, only behind the United States, but theirs will have 42 high speed trains and no other country can match that.  Whether you like China or not you must respect this statistic.

To read more about the high speed rail-line go HERE.

To read more about Liu Xiaobo go HERE.

Hyphenated Names May Reduce Infanticide in China

The nail is located directly in the center of her head.

In China an eleven year old girl was found with a nail lodged in her head which went into her brain, and this was no accident.  The nail is presumed to have been in her head for at least 10 years, and now is being identified as the cause of her mental disabilities.  The child, who is being called Pingping (not her real name), is said to have the mental capacity of a three year old.  The theory surrounding this nail is that it was intentionally placed there by a family member when she was an infant with the hope that it would kill the child.

Currently, infanticide is a common practice throughout China and India since each country is putting limitations on the number of children its citizens can have, so that they can control their booming population growth.  China currently has a one child limit per family rule.  When your country has over a billion people it makes sense to want to get more control over population growth, but a problem arises when one sex is preferred over another.  In China and India males are preferred to females, thus when a family is confronted with the reality of only being able to have a female they are not excited.  Most of the time they are not excited because they will no longer be able to have a male to continue the family name.  They now see the female child as the physical death of the family.  Some Chinese would prefer the death of the child over the death of the family name. 

Strangely a good and simple solution to this may be the addition of hyphenated names to China.  This ideas is already being considered to help stifle the confusion of so many people having the same name.  In Beijing over 7,000 people have the same name, I believe it is Zheng Hiu, and another 5,000 or so have the same name starting with the last name Zhang.  To prevent this confusion the government is considering the concept of allowing the parents to combine their names.  Thus Zheng could become Zheng-Zhang, and so on.  If they are considering this proposal to prevent confusion, then they may want to look at it to prevent death.  When the names are combined, both family names have the chance to live on.  

Currently China has a male to female ratio of 120 to 100 when the average has been 108 to 100 for years.  Population control can be good, but the extinction of women should not be part of the strategy to do so.  I do not think that is part of China's strategy, but it is hard to the population to grow without women.  I do not proclaim to know all the reasons for why many Chinese do not want female children, but if one of the problems is the continuation of a family's name I think combining names may be a worth idea to consider.

To read more about Pingping's case go HERE. 

Recently a 29 year old Chinese girl was found to have 26 needles, or nails, inserted into her body.  They were all believed to have been inserted into her not long after she was born by grandparents who were upset she was not a boy.  

All 26 needles were successfully removed.

The Green Revolution Continues

Fighting for Freedom, Fighting to Be Heard. Scenes from the post-election protests six months ago

Today thousands of Iranians protested the oppressive government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from universities all across the country with chants of "death to the dictator" and "You traitor Mahmoud... you destroyed our homeland".  The protesters obviously know that the government will respond with force through the Basij militiamen and the elite Revolutionary Guard of the military just like they did for the protests that followed the controversial re-election of President Ahmadinejad six months ago, yet they also know that they must protest or everything will remain the same.  The people of Iran must continue protesting if they want to change their country.

During the election between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad the people tried to adhere to the democratic process that the government had created, yet to many the election of Ahmadinejad showed that the government had broken their promise of democracy.  The government no longer could be seen as legitimate, so a new one needed to be established.  The protesters are trying to establish this new government, and this is the most organic way to move from a dictatorship to a democracy.  They are obviously in the beginning stages, but you have to start.  These continued protests in the face of a much stronger military and government is instilling one of the most basic attributes of a democracy:  a fear of the people.  

The government needs to fear the people.  They need to know that they will be relentless in their pursuit of what is fair and just.  This will prevent the government from attempting to take advantage of or marginalize the public.  The public's opinion can be expressed in more than ways than just the ballot.  However, the people need to know that they must come in peace and use their voices first and foremost.  The government may opt for violence and military force, but the people should hope for change over bloodshed.  The Iranians are peacefully protesting for change, and continued protests will strike fear in the government.  The government can counter military strength, but silencing voices can become much more difficult.

As of today, it is obvious that the government knows they can suppress the protesters through use of the military, disabling cell phone towers and internet service, but only time will tell for how long these tactics will work.  The government may not fear the people now, but you can tell they are fearing them more and more.  Iranians need to continue protesting and fighting for a government that will provide them with a voice.  They truly are the best hope for democracy in the Middle East.

Below are a two videos from todays protests.

For more info on the protests go to the Two-Way HERE and the Huffington Post HERE.

What A Beautiful Record To Break

A large group of Indonesians, 7,000 people to be exact, launched 10,000 Chinese style paper lanterns into the sky today.

This broke the previous record of 3,682 set last January in Colombia.

Records were meant to be broken.  Read more about it at The Times of London HERE.

Mumbai Terrorist Attacks - One Year Later

The Taj Mahal Hotel under siege

"I was told to kill until my last breath."

Azam Amir Kasab, 21, the sole captured Mumbai terrorist

A year and one day ago the city of Mumbai, India had their own terrorist attack.  Ten young Pakistani men from the group Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Army of the Righteous, boarded tiny boats and landed at the Indian port city of Mumbai.  Once there their intentions were to kill at least 5,000 people.  They planned on killing British and American tourists, taking hostages, and then bombing to the ground the Taj Mahal Hotel.  These ten young men had been expertly trained for this attack for six months.  They wanted the world to see the power of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The attacks in Mumbai lasted for three days.  Nine of the terrorists were killed by the police, and one was captured.  166 people died in the attacks, and it could have been much worse if the attackers had not under estimated the strength of the Taj Mahal Hotel.  The 105 year old structure proved to be stronger than their bombs.  The attacks could have been far worse if they were successful with this part of the plan, and then the similarities between the "Indian 9/11" and the American original would be too obvious to ignore.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we can easily find our selves consumed with ourselves, and our families.  "What kind of Turkey will I prepare?"  "What crazy deal will I find on Black Friday?"  This is fine.  We should not ignore ourselves and our families, but we should be able to take the time and acknowledge the significant events that may be occurring around the world at the same time.  Some of them are tragic and some are heroic, but they all warrant at least a flicker of our attention.  The world is big and it moves fast, and we must take the time to see as much of it as we can, the good and the bad.  Otherwise it will pass us by.  We would have remained the same and the whole world would have changed, yet we would be none the wiser.  

Over the weekend, I think we all need to cast an eye towards the attacks that occurred in Mumbai one year ago.

A year ago President-Elect Barack Obama release this statement on the matter.

"President-Elect Obama strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the people of India. These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism. The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks. We stand with the people of India, whose democracy will prove far more resilient than the hateful ideology that led to these attacks," said Brooke Anderson, Chief National Security Spokesperson

It is amazing what can occur in a year or six months, and how it can all fly by.  At some point though we all need to get out of the daze and become more aware.  Becoming more aware of a terrorist attack plotted in Pakistan and implemented in India would probably be a good idea for all Americans who are concerned with our foreign policy towards the Middle East. 

"I was told to kill until my last breath."

For more info on the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks I recommend visiting the Huffington Post's Mumbai Attacks page and to get a better picture of the terror of the attacks I recommend The Big Picture's "Mumbai under attack" page.

The Visual Decline of Empires & Mozart

This is pretty cool, and educational.  The bubbles grow and explode based on the acquisition and loss of territories.  At the bottom left corner is the date tracker for when these events occurred in history.  Also even though this is cool I felt it needed some music so I added Mozart's "Requiem".  Start the music and then start the video. 

Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

 Mozart's "Requiem"

Architecture of Ancient India

Temple City of Sonagiri Hill

To get more pictures of Indian architecture check out BLDG BLOG, it had a nice post about it, or for further information check out Architecture of India.

Kirti Stambha

Adinatha Temple

Adinatha Temple

Official State Visit & Dinner

Today was a State Visit from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh followed by the first State Dinner under the Obama Administration.  

Here are some pictures.

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Mistresses Can Be Expensive

Chinese officials are being told to get rid of their mistresses in an attempt to avert corruption in the Chinese government.  Qi Peiwen, a Communist party discipline enforcer said,

"It's just not possible to keep a mistress on your salary because maintaining this sort of extravagant lifestyle requires a large amount of cash money,"

Qi then added,

"So what do you do if you don't have the money? Naturally, you'll use the power at your disposal to go find some,"

This is interesting.  China for a while has been known to censor websites, and essentially anything that the Communist Party deems immoral, but this crackdown has nothing to do with immorality.  Mistresses are not bad:  They are just extremely difficult to maintain.  Government salaries are intended to support one household, and not one household plus a mistress.  This added exertion required to satisfy a mistress inclines government officials to live beyond their means, and this is bad for everyone.  Modest means coupled with plenty of power makes for a bizarre and difficult marriage, but that is how many governments try to work.

The Chinese have found that many of their officials have opted to keep their power, and then corruptly use that power to enhance their standard of living.  Supporting a mistress is often the vice for the rich and powerful, and government officials seem to be inclined to corruptly use their power to become rich.  Once they become rich they now can engage in the expensive habit of acquiring and maintaining a mistress.

For those following the United States Congress, and in particular the Republican Party, you may agree that the U.S. Government, or each political party, may need its own discipline enforcer.  The GOP recently has had Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana involved in the D.C. madam scandal, and Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford involved in extra marital affairs.  The Democrats however are no angels on this front either.  Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was involved in his own prostitute scandal, and former Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards had his own extra-marital affair.  What America needs to understand and what the Chinese have realized is that this is not a moral issue, but fiscal one.  Making it a moral issue only causes problems for everyone.  The GOP proclaims to hold the moral high road, and then proceeds to commit more marital infidelities.  To make matters even worse they then decide to remain in public office after everything is made public, and essentially say that their infidelities are not important.  You cannot get both.  You cannot say fidelity is of the utmost importance, then be unfaithful and act like nothing happened.  The Democrats on the other hand do not commonly make marital fidelity their platform, but then feel morally compelled to resign once their misdeeds become public.  This all seems a little backwards to me.  Maybe if we knew what the Chinese knew we would all be a little better off.

Government officials do not get paid enough money to support mistresses, prostitutes, and extra-marital affairs, so the ones who do engage in these activities most likely participated in some sort of corrupt activity in order to obtain the money to do so.  In other words, mistresses, prostitutes, and extra-marital affairs make government officials bad at their jobs.  Government officials need to know this and so do the general public who has the opportunity to elect or remove them.

Maybe in democracies the role of discipline enforcer falls on the voting public?

Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina: He may not have resigned, but his career is over, and I think he knows how expensive mistresses can be.

Armistice Day in Pictures

The Boston Globes great photography blog The Big Picture has collected a series of great pictures to celebrate Armistice Day.  On the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month", in 1918 the armistice was signed to bring a cessation of hostilities on the Western Front and bring an end to World War I.  On this day many of the allied forces celebrate the end of World War I as either Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, or Armistice Day, but we all need to recognize the importance of all the troops of all the countries that fought to create the society we live in.  Here are some of those troops.

 

I highly recommend checking out The Big Picture whenever you can to get great images from around the world on some of our most important issues.

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Democracy in Action

Tomorrow, all across the country Americans will get the chance to vote in House and Senate elections.  The Senate elections in New Jersey and Virginia appear to be of particular interest to most pundits, but the most important election of them all will never occur and falls outside of the lower 48 states, yet does not include Alaska or Hawaii.  The election that never will be should have occurred in Afghanistan.

While America under the Obama Administration decides how to properly deal with the Bush Administration's Middle East foreign policy of spreading democracy to that region through force, we in effect are supporting this policy until we make a different one.  The effectiveness or lack thereof has been on display for quite a while, but the juxtaposition of our elections, and their corrupt/no existent ones should make the flaws of this principle evident to all.  

Last week, under the urging of America, Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to have run-off elections between himself and his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah to stem the calls of corruption in the recent Afghan elections in which he emerged the victor.  Essentially, corruption was rife in many levels of that national election, and the degree of the corruption made America question the type of relationship they intended to have with Afghanistan.  We are trying to build and sustain a democracy, but if they cannot even have a proper election, should we continue to support this country?  This corrupt election asked America, "What are you doing here?"  America paused for a moment and said, "We hope to build a stable democracy."  We had to give democracy another try, so we made Afghanistan give proper elections another try.  The answer we got was a corrupt run-off election.  The corruption was so profound that Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the election, and gave the victory to President Karzai.  Hamid Karzai was declared the winner, and President Obama has urged Hamid Karzai to "write a new chapter" in governing Afghanistan.  This result may be frustrating to those that hope for the spread of democracy, but it should not come as a surprise.

President George W. Bush gave Hamid Karzai a country.  They told him to serve as if he was the elected leader of Afghanistan.  They told him to organize elections, and help create a legitimate democracy in the Middle East.  A democracy in Afghanistan as well as Iraq could create a domino effect and spread democracy around the world.  They told Karzai to help with this and he agreed, yet now he creates corrupt elections and acts more as a king than an elected president.  We may all think that he is wrong for behaving like this, but any other action would have made far less sense.  Why would someone who was given a country work tirelessly to create an institution that could remove him from power instead of exerting the same amount of effort to ensure that he remains in power?  That is the question we need to ask.  If the most powerful country in the world decided to give me a country, I would say nearly anything to ensure that I did not blow it.  Running a country is a great opportunity for anyone, but most of the time there a tons of rules and that can make governing very stressful.  Just look at how much most Presidents age while in office.  However, being given a country without too many established rules could be great, and that is what Hamid Karzai got.  He got to run a country and make all the rules, and who would want to give that up.  Few would, and Mr. Karzai is no different.

As Americans we should not expect everyone to embrace democracy.  It is not inherent in human beings to favor fairness for all over our own selfish desires.  Americans frequently vote based on their own selfish ideals, but so do many other citizens of democracy all over the world.  Democracy is hard, and that is probably why most democracies have emerged after a revolution or civil war.  Not only is it something that requires fighting for, but it is also an internal organic structure.  Each society needs to make their own and they alone need to work at sustaining.  The least democratic idea of all would be to forcefully institute a democracy in another country.  To do so, one country would have to selfishly thrust their beliefs upon another and that runs against nearly every tenant of freedom that most democracies aim to sustain.  You cannot enter a country, appoint a leader, and then proclaim democracy.  It does not work, yet this is where we are.

America systematically erodes democratic principles with our foreign policy, yet tries to sustain a democracy domestically.  This cannot be sustained, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that we are faltering at both.  Thus for those of you who have the opportunity to vote today, you need to know what you are voting for.  Of course you are voting for a person, but are more importantly voting to sustain an institution.  Make sure that the person you vote for works to sustain that institution instead of his own interests.  Otherwise, we may become increasingly more similar to Afghanistan: a quagmire of death, war, and money that kills democracy for the sake of power.