Monday, December 15, 2008

Surprising Facts

I was surprised to know -

Daily Planet is a licensed
brothel in Melbourne, Australia. It entered the news in 2003 when it became one of the first brothels listed on a stock exchange. The brothel has won the Australian Adult Industry Award for "Best Brothel Overall" in the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.[1]
Prostitution has been observed in nonhuman animal species, notably in Adelie penguins and in hangingflies.” Penguins are turning to prostitution. But instead of doing it for money, Antarctic dolly-birds are turning tricks to get rocks off their menfolk.” Reports BBC.

Marijuana is an Indian contribution to the world – “Cannabis sativa indica.” J
I am reproducing a piece from
http://www.thc-ministry.net/untoldstory/hemp_5.html that may shed some light on why/how marijuana was banned in the US?
“For the first 162 years of America's existence, marijuana was totally legal and hemp was a common crop. But during the 1930s, the U.S. government and the media began spreading outrageous lies about marijuana, which led to its prohibition. Some headlines made about marijuana in the 1930s were: "Marijuana: The assassin of youth." "Marijuana: The devil's weed with roots in hell." "Marijuana makes fiends of boys in 30 days." "If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marijuana, he would drop dead of fright." In 1936, the liquor industry funded the infamous movie titled Reefer Madness. This movie depicts a man going insane from smoking marijuana, and then killing his entire family with an ax. This campaign of lies, as well as other evidence, have led many to believe there may have been a hidden agenda behind Marijuana Prohibition.
Shortly before marijuana was banned by The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, new technologies were developed that made hemp a potential competitor with the newly-founded synthetic fiber and plastics industries. Hemp's potential for producing paper also posed a threat to the timber industry (see
New Billion-Dollar Crop). Evidence suggests that commercial interests having much to lose from hemp competition helped propagate reefer madness hysteria, and used their influence to lobby for Marijuana Prohibition. It is not known for certain if special interests conspired to destroy the hemp industry via Marijuana Prohibition, but enough evidence exists to raise the possibility.
After Alcohol Prohibition ended in 1933, funding for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Drug Enforcement Administration) was reduced. The FBN's own director, Harry J. Anslinger, then became a leading advocate of Marijuana Prohibition. In 1937 Anslinger testified before Congress in favor of Marijuana Prohibition by saying: "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug in the history of mankind." "Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes." Marijuana Prohibition is founded on lies and rooted in racism, prejudice, and ignorance. Just as politicians believed Harry J. Anslinger to be a marijuana expert in 1937, many people still believe law enforcement officials are marijuana experts. In reality, law enforcement officials have no expert knowledge of marijuana's medical or health effects, but they do represent an industry that receives billions of tax dollars to enforce Marijuana Prohibition.
Before the government began promoting reefer madness hysteria during the 1930s, the word marijuana was a Mexican word that was totally absent from the American vocabulary. In the 1930s, Americans knew that hemp was a common, useful, and harmless crop. It is extremely unlikely anyone would have believed hemp was dangerous, or would have believed stories of hemp madness. Thus, the words marijuana and reefer were substituted for the word hemp in order to frighten the public into supporting Hemp Prohibition. Very few people realized that marijuana and hemp came from the same plant species; thus, virtually nobody knew that Marijuana Prohibition would destroy the hemp industry.”


Monday, December 08, 2008

Imagination of a crazy mind

What if in the year 2009, there is another military coup in Pakistan?

What if it’s guided by the Islamic faction within the armed forces of Pakistan?

What if Pakistan becomes the new Taliban? And impose the sharia law and ban women education and ban people from using cars for private purposes and prevent modernization?
What if they legally bomb all the non Islamic institutions and archeological sites?

What if the media is banned and religious institutions inside Pakistan started calling US, India and Israel as the evil empires of the world?

What if India provides evidence of WMD and nuclear materials going to the hands of the jihadies?

What if India Invades Pakistan with US support?

What if US support India because they become their only friend in the South Asia?

What if the Indian government uses the war to rekindle the nationalism amongst Indians?

What if Indians make a convincing win in the war?

What if Indians get over with their slave mentality?

For all the above to happen, the Pakistan economy should collapse badly because of the US war with Afghanistan. Then it would be a great opportunity for Pakistan’s military leaders who have religious sentiments to blame the west for all the evil and take over.

No wonder Barack Obama talks about economic help to Pakistan and Afghanistan?

But why would BO seek peace when war is good for the US economy. I would safely assume it’s the timing and the commitment of the troops to another war but if India is willing to provide foot soldiers US would be more than happy to sell fighter jets and bombers to India.

Well Indians would eat shit for a while but at least will regain some self esteem. The war with Pakistan would help us shed our slave mentality, the disease that we have been suffering for over 1000 years because of repeated foreign rule.

India fighting Pakistan, Isn’t that brother’s fighting each other? I am just reminded of another Kurukshetram but this time is it going to be Rawalpindi? Time will tell us.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Greed?

The militant attacks in Bombay blatantly show yet again how vulnerable the world has become to the terrorists. The blame game has already begun. Some blame the Pakistanis and some blame the Muslim fundamentalists and some blame the entire Muslim community. Looking at all these things couple of questions arise in my mind. Can we stop these kinds of crazy acts of violence? Is it just to blame people of only one faith for all the maladies in the society?

Evolution follows a simple path of survival of the fittest. It holds good for anything or everything because it is just stating the obvious. In the evolution of human species from animals we took some of the instincts that are inherent in an animal. However we rationalize things that we do unlike animals. We carry the DNA to resist changes in the environment to survive. This basic instinct that is carried in our genes through our evolution from animals to humans is the very source of many problems in the world.

When humans were primitive hunters they fought for their food locally. When the availability of food became scarce because of some natural causes they started traveling and encountered other people. If the new place had abundant food for the new people the society embraced them if not fighting erupted eventually making it the first territorial wars. Even at this stage it was primarily for food.

Humans evolved further and they started exploiting the land not just for food but for other things too. They became greedy and wanted more. This made them to form gangs and groups and then armies in later days. The more they exploited the land, the natural resources, the more they became violent. This is where culture comes into picture. Some people understood the reason behind this and formed strict rules to avoid over exploitation of the natural resources. My speculation is even castes in the Indian society formed because of this reasons.

I would call caste system as the first sociological experiment of the humans. Only one set of people can till the soil for food. Ancient people understood the balance in the ecosystem. People had high regards for the nature, respected it and preserved it. Many rich people intentionally took to poverty after certain age. People praised minimalism. In someway or the other the difference between the rich and the poor was smaller. This brought peace and stability. Territorial wars were fought when people were either unhappy with the over exploiting ruler or severe drought. Sometimes just to keep the army engaged and well trained. In most cases rulers spared civilians as the common people simply don’t care as long as their daily needs are met.

Over a period of time, population growth couldn’t be controlled and availability of limited land made kings to come up with new ideologies to tackle the growing anger amongst people. In my opinion, Buddha who was a king tried the next sociological experiment, “What if everyone becomes a minimalist.” Well his intention was really high. He taught nothing new but dusted off some of the old books with some clarifications and summarizing few detailed rules. Did it succeed? Well at least initially, the experiment proved great in infighting in the country. What it failed to see is the foreign invasion.

The local ideology and social balance started shaking when foreigners couldn’t adapt to the local ideologies and found it tough to understand. The foreigners felt comfortable ruling people whom they understood. So they started the third sociological experiment,” Conversion”. Did they succeed? Like Buddha at least for a short stint in time they definitely had takers.

The new age sociological experiments like Communism, Atheism, etc are also classic examples of how human kind has defined and redefined itself to avoid distorting the balance in nature. Every time some great leader with great intentions comes to make a difference in the society, it goes off balance.

The very reason for this imbalance is the very unpredictable nature of this universe. We, humans are just part of it and we just behave in the same unpredictable manner like this universe. People follow religion or any ideology for that matter that is comfortable to them, mainly to rationalize their incompetence or their losses and sometimes just to kill boredom.

Whenever the nature gets exploited more the very creation of nature, the humans, form the destructive source to bring it back to equilibrium. Today’s world is a classic example of greed. With greed comes utmost poverty and destruction.

In conclusion, to answer my question, we cannot blame one religion or the other for all these deadly attacks but to blame the instability in the society in general. I am confident it cannot be totally prevented but the intensity can be diluted by another sociological experiment to control greed. We need a strong body to fight an infection. What our country needs is a medicine first to improve our resistance to foreign forces.