Some political insights

Had some political insights today, maybe they make sense or I am just a conspiracy theorist. With much further ado, here they are:

1. The raid on Ahmed Chalabi's house might just have been staged. Let's say you have a chosen candidate for presidency. But the people who are supposed to elect him think he is too close to the US or does not belong to them. So you publicly cut off his funding. Then you raid his house. He then denounces the "occupying army" and says that Iraq should be left to Iraqis (like him). Sounds possible?

2. This one is about Saudi Arabia. You are the House of Saud. You have the largest oil reserves in the world. You have a family which wants to be in power over there, preferably perpetually. What is the best way to do it? Make sure you propagate the most extreme form of Islam among your population. That way, the US and other western nations can never risk having a democratic government in that country.

The lost art of thinking

Heard something on NPR a day or two back, a political professor was commenting about the current US administration's attitude towards the public in general has been "Don't worry, just do your shopping, big Daddy will do the thinking and acting and taking care of you". Seemed very true.

That got me thinking about a more general issue: Are we losing the art of thinking? I mean thinking in an introspective way, as opposed to worrying, arguing, debating. Looking at ourselves, looking at the world around us,evaluating what we see, hear and feel. I feel there are multiple levels of reaction to external stimuli: The first is the "gut" reaction, which is the most superficial reaction. The political system, the business world with their advertisements all appeal to this gut. Should we really pay twice the intrinsic worth of an item because of a logo it happens to have? Our self-esteem is sought to be defined in terms of the fancy car we drive, the designer or pseudo-designer clothes we wear. For girls, it is also the kind of body they have, as close to "perfect" as they can be. Is that really all a human being is worth?

If you took away Michael Jordan's shaved head, earrings and Nike shoes, he would still be an amazing basketball player. That is what he is intrinsically. But if you look at him being marketed, it is those externals that are made to seem important. Not the sheer hard work and toughness, both mental and physical, that it takes to compete and excel in a sport with people half your age.

The other level of reaction, whose demise I am currently mourning, is the second level of reaction. That level where you look beyond the outer fluff and understand/appreciate the core of something. It could be a politician's speech, where you hear the words and then stop to think and compare them with what truths you already know and what actions by that person you have already seen. You then collate them together and find out whether those words are actually meaningful or just words. It would enable you look past a drug manufacturer's blue or purple pill ads and ask yourself whether you are actually qualified to make a decision on which pill is the best for you. If you think you can make an informed judgment, then you compare what the pill offers more than a cheaper alternative. If you come up with nothing, then you realize that a plain white pill could cure your body just as effectively as a purple one.

TechEd at San Diego

Decided (a while back) to go to the TechEd confenrence at San Diego, CA. My company was not sending me so I decided to go on my own. They were nice enough to give me free admission to the conference. Signed up for duties at our team's booth for two afternoons. My first such conference. I am reasonably excited about it. Most of the other people who are going are PMs. I am the only developer from our team.

Got called in late last night for some last minute issues with the Demo. Finally got things working at 3 am. Got to work at noon, and again was called over to the other building for a couple of hours. Seems like I have paid my dues before going to the conference :-)

My spouse is not very happy at work. Slogs like crazy, feels she does not get appreciated. Was advising her to change jobs. No point busting your butt and not getting recognition for it.

Paying more attention

Decided yesterday that I would write one letter a month to my parents back home. Somehow email seems to have destroyed the old fashioned art of letter writing. There is something very personal, very special about a handwritten letter. Email is very impersonal. Easy, convenient to reply to, but misses the human factor.

It has been so long since I wrote something of significant length with a pen that I feel strange doing it. My hands shake a little, the handwriting seems to be a stanger's. Wierd when your own handwriting becomes strange to you. You write something, and then you wonder, did I write that? Seems disembodied.

Sitting in office

I am sitting in my office, looking at my wife sitting on the other side of the table. She was gently giving me some grief because my first blog post did not mention her. She just finished eating some popcorn, which is one of her incentives to come to my office. She just loves the stuff. Someday, we should psycoanalyze this. I am pretty sure I spelt the second last word in the previous sentence wrong. Should have a h somewhere in there.

Have not called up my parents in a while. Feeling guilty about it. Should call them up tonight.

A childhood friend coming over

Shunti is coming over to our place. Last met him two years ago in India. He got married since then. Will be great to get together again. We first met when we were in 6th Grade (in India, we call it 6th Standard). We shifted over from a different school. There were four of us who would sit together, Shunti,Amit Jain, Satyan and myself. Second last bench of the middle row. Had a lot of fun.