'Optimist'ize Your Life!
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
“Be an Optimist”, they said
“Smile and look around,
the world is bright
glamorous and beautiful”
Persuaded, I have shed
my pessimist snake-skin,
peeled away my morose face
(even shaved my week-long stubble!)
And now, sporting a silly smile
I have turned, overnight,
a 'born-again optimist'
livin' the good life,
ignoring matters mundane, and
anything beyond instant comprehension
Wishing away all grey clouds of tomorrow
in to the enjoyment of the now
I am an Optimist, therefore I am!
No longer do I trek weekends
run along the beach at dawn
Vocational training? Evening college? No, not for me
With latest sunglasses, lotsa macho stuff
a bike from hell, and boots to fit
No book worth the thrill
of a babe riding pillion
curling her hands 'round me
as we zoom away to the mall
Gotta meet friends, live up the life,
check out movies,
the music, the moves and the shakes
SMS every gimmick there is
beep my way to ephemeral glory
Be the trendsetter, buy that gizmo,
Honest to God, jus' my share
to help the corporates light up their register
while I Optimistize my expenditures
'fterall, they discount my gas, they sure do
If there's anything you should know, hear this from me
Be an Optimist, 'twill change your life!
Hey, but what about
Justice? equality? liberty?
Equity and opportunity
in this fledgling land of ours?
What's that I hear of inflation and subsidies
jus' more of election politics?
Global warming threatening economic growth
Technological obsolescence causing unemployment?
Nuclear imperialism couched in capitalism
(with fringe benefits distributed in the stock market)?
The industry-religion-mafia triangle?
(Whoever heard of that?)
Investment in mutual funds, or is it
fraud in financial markets?
Caring for the young, the aged, and the infirm?
vs money for public safety, hygiene and education?
Stop, stop, stop, Don't tax my brain!
Painful it is even to hear
Why worry about things that matter not to me?
Ignorance is bliss, so they say
and a blissful Optimist I sure am,
So bother me not, my friend dear
with debates and serious arguments
Join the Optimist club, if you dare
But, if you happen to be a wimp
or a 'pink' who 'cares'
take my word, ask the nerd o'er there,
I hear he'd rather be
of all unholy things
a Pessimist!
ps: The Optimist made a career of painting rosy pictures of year-ahead sales and profits to FIIs and laughed all the way to the pessimist's foreclosure!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Global Warming, the Movie - Cycle III
Global Warming, the Movie - Cycle III
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
Ever wondered why no Indian actor or actress ever made it to a James Bond movie? Or, for that matter, an Indian fiction author? Because there is no 'story', no 'plot', no 'real-life conspiracy' to base it on. Get it? So, as a favor to my more illustrious colleagues in the film industry, here is my outline for a 'James Bond' movie. I have named it 'Global Warming, the Movie - Cycle III' (No apologies to Al Gore!). You may want to rename it 'Mother of All Conspiracies'.
Once, there were a group of politicians who, for various reasons not related to character, intelligence, performance, principles (too much of it, of course), fell out of grace and power. Not finding any takers, they decided to get together. In trying to accommodate each other's past, they committed to certain wrongs in the future, so no one among them get away leaving the rest behind. They built up a constituency of the denied – environmentalists ignored and derided by the society, social activists no one cared to lend an ear to, scientists denied their due recognition, union workers suppressed by capitalists and incorrect economic policies, and of course, the poor ignorant farmers believing in the word of God. This motley group now needed someone who could feed their constituency while they staked claim to power. Enter the master strategist (He prefers anonymity). Why not we play a game no one would even dare to conceive?
Behold the birth of the contra strategy! We know businesses using dirty fuels will face increasing pressures to move in to much costlier, cleaner fuel to combat global warming. We know oil and coal-rich countries are loathe to accept global warming. We know our country has vast resources of thorium and our nuclear scientists have succeeded with the thorium cycle (It's not their fault that it happens to be closed-cycle and very low cost, in short 'pareto superior' over existing power technologies). Wouldn't it be ever so stupidly suicidal to introduce new generation nuclear power that is cheaper by the dozen than fossil fuels, global warming notwithstanding? Why not hold it back when there is a more than a nominal 'willingness to pay' to suppress it? Better yet, sell the technology to fossil fuel energy tycoons, oil-rich countries and MNCs of the west for a not inconsiderable sum? ..... And so was born the plan to hoodwink the nation in to selling away its home-grown, thorium-exploiting nuclear technology even while claiming to obtain 'advanced' nuclear technology under a 'nuclear deal' with the US or a 'technology transfer' agreement under the framework of the FCCC (we get carbon credits for 'free'!).
Now all that is needed is a 'fall guy' for the entire drama – a 'judge' for namesake, in reality a sacrificial lamb on whom to build the altar of colossal treachery. Someone with a brilliant academic record and meteoric future, someone who fits the bill perfectly and not because he is brown, thin, short and reticent. But first, he must be framed suitably in every crime known to humanity and beyond, and then bundled off to the US for higher studies. The plot is on. The student meanders through his assistantship and eventually finds a summer internship in the corporate world. No points for guessing who his employer is! Wonder of wonders, he makes an impression and passes their test! (Never heard of the 'key', have you?) Shall we anoint him a regulatory, a judge or assign a political future? No, No, most definitely No. First have him fired as a spy and treat him like a criminal on return. Threaten him with arrest, volunteer him every time a 'hit key' comes along (remember he has passed as a 'judge') and deny him repeatedly until he retreats in to a shell to protect his nest egg and his family.
Now the stage is set. Negotiate a secret deal with coal and oil MNCs and oil/coal rich countries that protects their resources and markets by suppressing advanced nuclear power technology. Sell the home-grown closed-cycle thorium power nuclear technology or fusion technology to the CIA-MNC-OPEC combine in a brazen example of 'reverse technology transfer'. (Yeah, something like $10 billion a year in to our stock markets - most of it in to domestic energy companies whose executives fund our campaigns and in which we are well invested - for the next 30 years regardless of who is in power....yeah, they too are 'in' the deal. Also.... that private equity fund.... we will manage it for the goodwill of our environmentalists, scientists and union leaders.... and if at all necessary, an endowed chair for that asshole!). Act holy and green; fund programs furthering energy efficiency and nuclear power. Talk of carbon credits, even subsidize energy-efficient CFL lighting (never mind the power was generated from lignite!) Covertly, invest in uranium commodity markets and have the purveyors of yesterday's technology fund space vehicles ostensibly for lunar exploration for uranium (and when the mission finds no uranium, we may laugh our way to the bank). Wonder of wonders, the strategy even finds favor with Australians who would rather generate power at 2 cents a KWH with their low grade coal deposits!
But what about our getaway? Ahh, that's where we need our judge, No, the spy, I mean the criminal. He too must pay for the wrongs he didn't commit! He serves jail time for 30 years for the sum of our wrongs while we move our kitty away (I am settling in Christmas Islands. How about you?). It also gives sufficient time for the fossil fuel industry to invest in and takeover the next generation energy industry. To cap it all and at the end of the term, we backstab the political right by signing in to a global warming treaty, and have the co-conspirators on the other side either announce the invention of a closed-cycle thorium nuclear power technology or release evidence of the suppression of the superior nuclear technology. That should put the right in to a tizzy as we sail in to the sunset.....
Epilogue: All movie-goers had a gala time and returned home to peaceful sleep. The Cycle IV sequel? The Master Strategist is already working on it.
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
Ever wondered why no Indian actor or actress ever made it to a James Bond movie? Or, for that matter, an Indian fiction author? Because there is no 'story', no 'plot', no 'real-life conspiracy' to base it on. Get it? So, as a favor to my more illustrious colleagues in the film industry, here is my outline for a 'James Bond' movie. I have named it 'Global Warming, the Movie - Cycle III' (No apologies to Al Gore!). You may want to rename it 'Mother of All Conspiracies'.
Once, there were a group of politicians who, for various reasons not related to character, intelligence, performance, principles (too much of it, of course), fell out of grace and power. Not finding any takers, they decided to get together. In trying to accommodate each other's past, they committed to certain wrongs in the future, so no one among them get away leaving the rest behind. They built up a constituency of the denied – environmentalists ignored and derided by the society, social activists no one cared to lend an ear to, scientists denied their due recognition, union workers suppressed by capitalists and incorrect economic policies, and of course, the poor ignorant farmers believing in the word of God. This motley group now needed someone who could feed their constituency while they staked claim to power. Enter the master strategist (He prefers anonymity). Why not we play a game no one would even dare to conceive?
Behold the birth of the contra strategy! We know businesses using dirty fuels will face increasing pressures to move in to much costlier, cleaner fuel to combat global warming. We know oil and coal-rich countries are loathe to accept global warming. We know our country has vast resources of thorium and our nuclear scientists have succeeded with the thorium cycle (It's not their fault that it happens to be closed-cycle and very low cost, in short 'pareto superior' over existing power technologies). Wouldn't it be ever so stupidly suicidal to introduce new generation nuclear power that is cheaper by the dozen than fossil fuels, global warming notwithstanding? Why not hold it back when there is a more than a nominal 'willingness to pay' to suppress it? Better yet, sell the technology to fossil fuel energy tycoons, oil-rich countries and MNCs of the west for a not inconsiderable sum? ..... And so was born the plan to hoodwink the nation in to selling away its home-grown, thorium-exploiting nuclear technology even while claiming to obtain 'advanced' nuclear technology under a 'nuclear deal' with the US or a 'technology transfer' agreement under the framework of the FCCC (we get carbon credits for 'free'!).
Now all that is needed is a 'fall guy' for the entire drama – a 'judge' for namesake, in reality a sacrificial lamb on whom to build the altar of colossal treachery. Someone with a brilliant academic record and meteoric future, someone who fits the bill perfectly and not because he is brown, thin, short and reticent. But first, he must be framed suitably in every crime known to humanity and beyond, and then bundled off to the US for higher studies. The plot is on. The student meanders through his assistantship and eventually finds a summer internship in the corporate world. No points for guessing who his employer is! Wonder of wonders, he makes an impression and passes their test! (Never heard of the 'key', have you?) Shall we anoint him a regulatory, a judge or assign a political future? No, No, most definitely No. First have him fired as a spy and treat him like a criminal on return. Threaten him with arrest, volunteer him every time a 'hit key' comes along (remember he has passed as a 'judge') and deny him repeatedly until he retreats in to a shell to protect his nest egg and his family.
Now the stage is set. Negotiate a secret deal with coal and oil MNCs and oil/coal rich countries that protects their resources and markets by suppressing advanced nuclear power technology. Sell the home-grown closed-cycle thorium power nuclear technology or fusion technology to the CIA-MNC-OPEC combine in a brazen example of 'reverse technology transfer'. (Yeah, something like $10 billion a year in to our stock markets - most of it in to domestic energy companies whose executives fund our campaigns and in which we are well invested - for the next 30 years regardless of who is in power....yeah, they too are 'in' the deal. Also.... that private equity fund.... we will manage it for the goodwill of our environmentalists, scientists and union leaders.... and if at all necessary, an endowed chair for that asshole!). Act holy and green; fund programs furthering energy efficiency and nuclear power. Talk of carbon credits, even subsidize energy-efficient CFL lighting (never mind the power was generated from lignite!) Covertly, invest in uranium commodity markets and have the purveyors of yesterday's technology fund space vehicles ostensibly for lunar exploration for uranium (and when the mission finds no uranium, we may laugh our way to the bank). Wonder of wonders, the strategy even finds favor with Australians who would rather generate power at 2 cents a KWH with their low grade coal deposits!
But what about our getaway? Ahh, that's where we need our judge, No, the spy, I mean the criminal. He too must pay for the wrongs he didn't commit! He serves jail time for 30 years for the sum of our wrongs while we move our kitty away (I am settling in Christmas Islands. How about you?). It also gives sufficient time for the fossil fuel industry to invest in and takeover the next generation energy industry. To cap it all and at the end of the term, we backstab the political right by signing in to a global warming treaty, and have the co-conspirators on the other side either announce the invention of a closed-cycle thorium nuclear power technology or release evidence of the suppression of the superior nuclear technology. That should put the right in to a tizzy as we sail in to the sunset.....
Epilogue: All movie-goers had a gala time and returned home to peaceful sleep. The Cycle IV sequel? The Master Strategist is already working on it.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Sane Insane?
Sane Insane?
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
What is sanity? A state of mind?
Behavior consistent with society's norms
and expectations of the inferiors?
Following traditions of the majority
going about the routine timidly,
unobtrusively and unnoticed
so not to raise the ire of households,
neighbors or the powers that be?
Accepting established rules and institutions
stacked against the commons?
Disappearing and dissolving in to the multitudes
of those gone by, in to an oblivion of the ordinary?
And, pray, what is insanity?
Unmitigated, unexpressed frustration
against injustice – stark yet private, gory yet informal;
Anger at denials and insults umpteen
attempts on life, mail fraud, forgery, intimidation
IPR theft, smoking, gassing, witch craft, you name it?
Outrage against relatives
who sold out to enrich themselves
while snaring the family deeper in web?
Fighting every stone cast by neighbors
while living in the glasshouse of an 'executive test'
one did not volunteer for?
Writing one's diary, regurgitating memory,
(even mutterings to oneself to 'register' thoughts and ideas
that would otherwise get smoked out)
before the MNC-CIA combine could get to it,
pry in to your life, your bedroom,
even your memory and preferences
and have the mafia blackmail you,
sift and screen your future,
or whatever is left of it
until finally, all that remains
is an unrecognizable shadow of yourself,
one you wouldn't recognize in the mirror
and you voluntarily step away
from a career among the stars?
Ain't it easy to pull down a dark horse
a genius who dared to dream
the American dream and made it,
but for cold-blooded machinations
of those with an ulterior ideology?
(Not so fast, smart ass!)
Ain't it easier, I reckon,
to bump an ace, show him a failure,
a spy, impotent, even insane
than “suck up” and invite him
with a Mercedes for a signing bonus?
Ain't it easy to delay and force him in to penury
until his work and qualifications lose relevance
and he begs again for a job on his fours?
So I have decided
that in this perverted world of opposites
it wiser to be insane
than follow in the serpentine of the sanes.
Wish me luck as I trudge against the grain,
a lonely soldier, a rebel if you will
in the war against status quo
a war for truth and justice, for opportunity,
an insane voice in the sea of the sanes!
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
What is sanity? A state of mind?
Behavior consistent with society's norms
and expectations of the inferiors?
Following traditions of the majority
going about the routine timidly,
unobtrusively and unnoticed
so not to raise the ire of households,
neighbors or the powers that be?
Accepting established rules and institutions
stacked against the commons?
Disappearing and dissolving in to the multitudes
of those gone by, in to an oblivion of the ordinary?
And, pray, what is insanity?
Unmitigated, unexpressed frustration
against injustice – stark yet private, gory yet informal;
Anger at denials and insults umpteen
attempts on life, mail fraud, forgery, intimidation
IPR theft, smoking, gassing, witch craft, you name it?
Outrage against relatives
who sold out to enrich themselves
while snaring the family deeper in web?
Fighting every stone cast by neighbors
while living in the glasshouse of an 'executive test'
one did not volunteer for?
Writing one's diary, regurgitating memory,
(even mutterings to oneself to 'register' thoughts and ideas
that would otherwise get smoked out)
before the MNC-CIA combine could get to it,
pry in to your life, your bedroom,
even your memory and preferences
and have the mafia blackmail you,
sift and screen your future,
or whatever is left of it
until finally, all that remains
is an unrecognizable shadow of yourself,
one you wouldn't recognize in the mirror
and you voluntarily step away
from a career among the stars?
Ain't it easy to pull down a dark horse
a genius who dared to dream
the American dream and made it,
but for cold-blooded machinations
of those with an ulterior ideology?
(Not so fast, smart ass!)
Ain't it easier, I reckon,
to bump an ace, show him a failure,
a spy, impotent, even insane
than “suck up” and invite him
with a Mercedes for a signing bonus?
Ain't it easy to delay and force him in to penury
until his work and qualifications lose relevance
and he begs again for a job on his fours?
So I have decided
that in this perverted world of opposites
it wiser to be insane
than follow in the serpentine of the sanes.
Wish me luck as I trudge against the grain,
a lonely soldier, a rebel if you will
in the war against status quo
a war for truth and justice, for opportunity,
an insane voice in the sea of the sanes!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Diwali by the Marina!
Diwali by the Marina!
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
Years ago, I wrote to the Tamil Nadu Government years. Perhaps it was lost in the email garbage cleared automatically by the email janitor robot? But then, some things are better appreciated when repeated. Besides, the blog is a perfect medium to post rejected suggestions! The message? Simple: Celebrate Diwali Publicly, Together!
The problem, as I perceive it, is that Chennai is a very congested city. Add tradition, religious fervor and generous Diwali bonuses to this concoction, and what results is an explosion of sound, light and chemicals in a short period of time that pollutes the air and earth and poisons the very young, the minorities and the aged. The scores of fires, explosions and accidents leading in to and on the festival day do no favor to Diwali meant to celebrate the victory of the good over evil. (We could get in to debating what is good and what is evil, but I'll hold that off for another day!). Unmitigated littering of the streets with arsenic-, cadmium-, and strontium-laced cracker waste that contaminate well water and ground water, rooms filled with smoky, poisonous air and painful 1000-wallahs and 10,000-wallahs that put mosquito mats to shame are not what Lord Rama ordered. I daresay the festival is turning more to the liking of Lord Ravana!
But, I am not inciting religious passions here. My purpose is to suggest a better way. Have your Diwali sans the devil. Chennai is blessed with a coast and a wide beach. Let's celebrate by the sea. Choose a Diwali weekend or the weekend immediately after the festival. Ban private fireworks celebration. Instead, organize a public offshore Diwali fireworks display. We could declare the transport system 'free' for the evening and stage a moving offshore display of fireworks that enthralls the throngs for a couple of hours, for the weekend. It need not be entirely or even partly government-sponsored. Many business houses would come forward to participate if the event were correctly promoted. The Marina road could be turned in to a street-side eatery for the evening. It would be a gala public event. An event for the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the religious or for that matter, even the atheist to enjoy. A cosmopolitan festival for a truly cosmopolitan city!
Open your heart. Invite the world to the Chennai Christmas!
Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar
Years ago, I wrote to the Tamil Nadu Government years. Perhaps it was lost in the email garbage cleared automatically by the email janitor robot? But then, some things are better appreciated when repeated. Besides, the blog is a perfect medium to post rejected suggestions! The message? Simple: Celebrate Diwali Publicly, Together!
The problem, as I perceive it, is that Chennai is a very congested city. Add tradition, religious fervor and generous Diwali bonuses to this concoction, and what results is an explosion of sound, light and chemicals in a short period of time that pollutes the air and earth and poisons the very young, the minorities and the aged. The scores of fires, explosions and accidents leading in to and on the festival day do no favor to Diwali meant to celebrate the victory of the good over evil. (We could get in to debating what is good and what is evil, but I'll hold that off for another day!). Unmitigated littering of the streets with arsenic-, cadmium-, and strontium-laced cracker waste that contaminate well water and ground water, rooms filled with smoky, poisonous air and painful 1000-wallahs and 10,000-wallahs that put mosquito mats to shame are not what Lord Rama ordered. I daresay the festival is turning more to the liking of Lord Ravana!
But, I am not inciting religious passions here. My purpose is to suggest a better way. Have your Diwali sans the devil. Chennai is blessed with a coast and a wide beach. Let's celebrate by the sea. Choose a Diwali weekend or the weekend immediately after the festival. Ban private fireworks celebration. Instead, organize a public offshore Diwali fireworks display. We could declare the transport system 'free' for the evening and stage a moving offshore display of fireworks that enthralls the throngs for a couple of hours, for the weekend. It need not be entirely or even partly government-sponsored. Many business houses would come forward to participate if the event were correctly promoted. The Marina road could be turned in to a street-side eatery for the evening. It would be a gala public event. An event for the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the religious or for that matter, even the atheist to enjoy. A cosmopolitan festival for a truly cosmopolitan city!
Open your heart. Invite the world to the Chennai Christmas!
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