Breaking down Donald Trump’s address

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

The press and wall street have reacted to the President Donald Trump’s address like the kids who were told to eat a bag of candies instead of attending the class. The wall street, the pinnacle of rogue stupidity and callousness reacted quite positively. They think it augurs well for their next quarter. Exactly what did Trump say? I just want to break it down for the purpose of people who haven’t heard it. I have followed Trump’s speech as is and you can look at the transcript if you want to map it back to his words.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/01/full-transcript-president-donald-trumps-first-speech-congress/

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/transcript-donald-trump-congress-speech-full-170301060306943.html

Summary

As it is a fairly long post, I want to start with a summary. I agree with Trump on withdrawal of TPP, need to look at American jobs, need to invest in infrastructure, and need to provide support to veterans. However, this entire speech was littered with flaws. Firstly the numbers don’t add up. Trump has decided to cut taxes for the rich. Then, he wants to spend more on infrastructure and military. Where does the money come from? He is going to touch your social welfare. Secondly, he hasn’t mentioned a word on climate change. Thirdly, he has contradicted himself a lot, especially on the environment front. Overall, it has nothing worthy of greatness. I don’t want to compare it to Trump’s other speeches and say that this one is relatively better. There is a certain basic standard I expect and this one falls short by miles.  The stock market has reacted positively purely on the basis of tax cuts for the rich and deregulation. It is a system that hasn’t learnt any lesson from the Global Financial Crisis.

Let us get to the details now.

1.0 Introduction

In a typical Trump fashion, he started the speech talking about violence in America. For a person who criticised Obama and the democrats for refusing to call Islamic terrorism as it should, he didn’t mention about what was the motivation behind the vandalism of Jewish cemeteries or the shooting in Kansas city. Both were indeed crimes done by Christians, who in some way believed the victims were responsible for their plight. That said, I am ready to give Trump the benefit of doubt on this.

2.0 Identification of the problems

He then went on to speak about the problems facing the United States of America. He got most of the problems spot on. The dwindling middle class, the crumbling infrastructure and the impact on wars are the major areas of concern. To Trump’s credit, he has been getting that story right and it has contributed immensely to his election success. However, there were two points of contention here. The first one is wealth to foreign countries. It is factually incorrect. The wealth actually is with the US companies. It is with the top 1% of the world and most of them lodged in tax heavens. The second one is having wide open borders. Again it is an alternate fact which was purely inserted to build a wall or insult the Mexicans.

3.0 Vision

Trump followed it up with a rhetoric on how he will make America great again. There are two parts to admire, two to fear and one to be really sceptical.  Let me start with the good parts first. The military needs support, especially its veterans. The crumbling infrastructure should be replaced and hopefully by employing people in the US. The parts to be worried about are his attack on drug and inner cities. No country has worked out this drug war strategy well. They have taken medicinal and recreational use out of the equation. Further, this has been used for decades to target innocents. The epidemic is not drug flow but it is drug war. The neglected inner cities comment is an excuse for stop and frisk. It is a direct excuse to mishandle the youth from minority communities. The safety is a direct reflection of poor gun control and the lack of opportunity is a reflection of the dwindling social support. What feels like an inspiring paragraph, is actually a plot to crush the society further. The last bit is the roaring back to life, for the dying industries. The industries that Mr.Trump is talking about here are, fossil fuel, mining and heavy engineering. The loss of jobs for people in these industries is much more nuanced than outsourcing to other countries. Further, these are directly responsible for the environmental hazards which Trump doesn’t believe happens.

4.0 Achievements

Trump then moves on to talk at length about his achievements. This section was filled with threats, rhetoric, good points and loads of alternate facts. I will break this down into individual parts to make assimilation easier. This is an important section as it is easy to either ignore good points or miss the deeper meaning of the problem.

Making Companies investing the US

Trump started by stating a fact on companies which have decided to invest in the United States and stock market gaining momentum. There are two points to note in this. Firstly, he doesn’t say he is responsible for both these items. That also absolves him of any future issues with both these which is bound to happen. All these companies have decided to invest in the United States, but it will not create American jobs as much. The reasons are

  1. There are existing vacancies in the technology sector and specific skills in demand, which the US is unable to fill. This is because of the erosion in public education which has happened over generations.
  2. The unskilled jobs will pay minimum wage to people is not going to help. Most of them are already paid minimum wages and can’t sustain a family with that.
  3. Companies like Intel, Softbank, Lockheed and Walmart will invest heavily in automation, which will result in lesser jobs and not more.
  4. Lockheed already holds a lot of federal contracts for missiles and jet fighters. I am sceptical about this.

This is another age-old technique which comes from trickle down economics. It just doesn’t work.

Cheaper F-35 Fighter Jets

Trump moves on to showcase his negotiation skills with the price reduction of F-35. The reduction in the price of the F-35 should come with a catch phrase. It will either mean the United States government is buying more in order to keep up the revenue or giving them tax grants to stay profitable. Either of which is actually dangerous. If it is the first point, then it means Lockheed is cutting down its margin for additional revenue. An extension to that is the US government is increasing its arsenal. That has never ended up well for some sovereign state, especially in the middle-east. If it is the latter, then the effect is almost the same for the US balance sheet. You have cut the spending and the income which deficit at the same level. My fear is it is both. Lockheed has been given order for more and also given tax cuts. Any half-decent economist will be wary of that move, not Wall Street though.

Draining the Swamp

Trump next moves to the much anticipated draining the swamp mission. His statement (as seen below) is an amazing distraction. On a cursory look, it feels great that he has banned such lobbying. However, if we look deeply we will realise that there is not need for lobbying anymore. He has got the lobbyists in his cabinet now. He has got Rex Tillerson, Steven Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos, Elaine Chao, Gary Cohn, Steve Bannon and Wilbur Ross to name a few in his cabinet. You don’t need lobbyists after this group. They are the swamp.

Deregulation

The next part of the speech talks about de-regulation. The regulation that Trump talks about are the regulations which were put to prevent another financial crisis like 2008. He has removed all regulations protecting the environment. The removal of these regulations is not going increase jobs, it is going to put the industry at risk and susceptible to another recession. It is going to let industries use machines to automate more manual labour. It is going to allow industries to not obey any environmental laws. It is going to put lives of millions at risk. This technique propagated by neo-liberals starting Ayn Rand to Ronald Reagan has never worked and will never work.

North Dakota Access Pipeline

I never thought one can put construction of this pipeline in a sentence and make it is sound positive, but Trump proved me wrong. It would have been a positive initiative if Trump has signed an order to start manufacturing solar cells in America. This particular order will not create any new job apart from the already created ones for the pipelines. The pipeline puts the communities of the water protectors at risk, it threatens the lives of people dependent on that water and it endangers the millions of species living in the river. It is a horrendous move which can be only supported by corporate boot lickers.

TPP

There were two positive points of this segment, one was withdrawal from TPP and another was helping woman entrepreneurs with Justin Trudeau. I am in favour of the US withdrawing from the TPP. This is an ‘a la Nixon’ move which is what got the US into this mess in the first place. It is good to see him collaborate with the charismatic Canadian prime minister. I still don’t know what topics they have in common.

Security and protecting citizens

The citizen protection segment reeks Steve Bannon. It is a facade to crack down on any movement supporting minority rights. It is a direct threat to initiatives like ‘Black Lives Matter’.  The drug treatment part of this is good but not sure who is going to pay for the treatment. I don’t know if it is a coincidence that the mechanics of any progressive move hasn’t been explained by Trump.

Immigration

Trump moved on answering the pleas of American people on immigration. This is another part which is factually incorrect. The US has a problem with unemployment but not with immigration. This statement combines problem, attributes that to his xenophobic fears and provides a solution which only boosts his complex without solving the problem. The net flow of Mexicans into the US is negative. The great wall is not going to stop drugs even if you think drugs are a problem. Further, moving people out is not going to save billions, it is going to hurt the US treasury. The wages will increase if you actually raise the minimum wage.
“As we speak, we are removing gang members, drug dealers and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our citizens.” This reminds me a lot of Rodrigo Duterte, comfortable the most dangerous democratically elected leader in this world. The moment we start accepting the government use words like removing people, it is a matter of time before it gets abused. This is exactly why when Obama passed NDAA, it gets really dangerous. People like Trump can use that to suspend Habeous Corpus on any individual.

ISIS

I have to agree with Trump that ISIS is a civilisation threat and has to be handled effectively. However, that doesn’t extend to the next statement. Every offence that has happened in the United States has come from people outside the country. The country is the land of immigrants except for the native Americans. I am sure there are people belonging to KKK, who are laughing as Trump says these. The interesting point here is that Trump has directed his Department of Defence to develop a plan to destroy ISIS. Didn’t he say he already has one? The biggest point is if Trump is even remotely serious about eliminating radical Islamic Terrorism, then the first country to address is Saudi Arabia. I don’t think any of the western nation is interested in doing that. Saudi Arabia is worse than Iraq or Iran in terms of its policies.

Isreal and Iran

However, the unquestioned support for Isreal is a pity. The policy of Isreal under Benjamin Netanyahu is not much dissimilar to Trump. He is occupying the whole of West Bank providing nil rights to Palestinians. Iran is just as corrupt but far less developed now. It is critical to continue and honour the peace deal which was brokered with Iran. The only additional benefit in Isreal is it has some free press and few more civil rights.

Supreme Court Judges

Finally, on the Supreme Court judges, Trump was all praise for Antonin Scalia.  Mr. Scalia, a Ronald Reagan appointee was a real conservative scumbag. From his history, it does look like Neil Gorsuch would keep up that reputation. Scalia has been known to provide partisan, pro-conservative judgements all through his career. Just because he is dead doesn’t mean he is great. Trump has got to make 20 such appointments.

Policy Plans

Infrastructure Spending

This is another segment which I agree with Donald Trump. It is critical for the US government to initiate public projects, especially on the infrastructure side. The only way to boost a receding economy is by pumping in more money. You can get it back as private sector starts to see the benefits. This is classic Keynesian economic theory and it has worked.

Tax cut for corporations

” My economic team is developing historic tax reform that will reduce the tax rate on our companies so they can compete and thrive anywhere and with anyone” 

This Reagan and Thatcher’s idea has never ever worked. Why don’t you give tax breaks to the poor, so that they can afford more? That won’t work because the moment you give them money, they are going to put it under their bed and it won’t drive growth. The same is true about the Corporations. If you reduce taxes, they will just put more in their pocket. It is not going to help the society anyway. Yes, if you ask Harley or Google, they will ask you to reduce taxes. Further, it is a lie or an alternate fact to say that the US has the highest corporate tax rate.

Foreign Trade

It feels bad, but I agree with Trump on foreign trade as well. This Nixon initiated make somewhere and sell in the US concept has deteriorated the US economy slowly. Countries should protect the local industries and help them bridge the gap before bringing foreign companies into their market. However, when Trump talks about taxing foreign goods heavily, he is going to incite a trade war. You cannot have heavy import duty on necessary products which you don’t manufacture. It is going to be transferred back to the consumers who can’t pay for it. The companies will suffer but your consumers will suffer more.

Health Care

Trump’s plan on health care almost accounts for everything but just doesn’t add up. It had words that most people wanted to hear without actually conveying anything. The core of the plan is, “I hate Obama Care and I am going to repeal it.”. I firmly believe Obama care can be improved and the only way to improve it is by making the rich pay appropriately. Let’s first start by listing down his features of the new plan.

  1. Not mandated
  2. Cheaper premium
  3. More options
  4. Protect all Americans
  5. Everyone including people with pre-existing conditions will have access to health coverage
  6. Purchase your own coverage
  7. Give state Governers the power to decide on Medicaid
  8. Bring down drug prices immediately
  9. Power to buy across state
There are few key points to be noted here.
#1: Access to health coverage doesn’t essentially mean they will be given. This will translate to low premium for people without issues and extremely high (almost unpayable) premium for people with conditions. Most people will have access but can’t essentially buy.
#2 Governers control over Medicaid. With most governors, especially in the Republican states not in favour of Medicaid, what do you think is going to happen? He doesn’t talk about not reducing Medicaid.
#3 When Bernie Sanders tablet the bill to import drugs and bring down drug prices, it was voted out by most Republicans including some sold-out democrats. What is the idea in Trump’s head to bring down drug prices?

Social Welfare

Trump is a master at stating the problem and give a solution which will enhance it. Most of his problem – solution fit are analogous to, “I know you have very little food left to feed your family, I will solve it by taking everything that you have got left.” Before one realises, he would have sold it and made money.  Trump wants to make Child Care accessible and affordable, provide paid family leave, invest in women’s health and promote clear air and water. After saying this, he has come up with executive orders against abortion, removing environmental regulations, and starting the North Dakota access pipeline.

FDA – Deregulation

The story on Megan’s dad John is beautiful. The problem if he deregulates FDA, it will be a blessing for one Megan but it will kill few thousand others. He is setting a dangerous precedent as far as deregulation is concerned.

Education

Again Trump picks up an isolated story and uses that for a policy. I know someone who lived his life eating plain grass but it will work for everyone. The funding for the “school of choice” is a Betsy DeVos pet project. It is a way to take the available funds for schools and transfer them to charter schools and religious schools. I am sure that the religious schools will not include Madarassas. In summary, it is a funding for Christian education.

Social Safety

I just want to know if there is anyone in the US not tired of Trump’s rhetoric on Social Safety. He wants to create a police state. His facts on murder rate are wrong. He didn’t utter a word on the murder of innocent black men or racially motivated murders by white men. He instead points out incidents of violence by illegal immigrants. This is a direct way to instil a bias in people’s minds.

Increased spending in Military

Senator John McCain must have jumped up and down when Trump was talking about military spending. I am sure there is a way to keep US safe without having to spend more on their military. The reason is the USA spends more on their military than the next 7 or 8 countries combined. It doesn’t need more drones. They need to stop intervening in the affairs of sovereign nations. The reason the wars are lasting so long is not because of poor arsenal but because of poor planning and wrong target. The US needs to stop bombing countries in favour of Isreal and Saudi Arabia.
I appreciate Trump when he acknowledges that the US needs lesser wars and not more. However, the actions don’t seem to correlate with those words.
There are two areas though where I sincerely feel the US has to spend. The first one is taking care of its war veterans and the second one is to aid the countries which it has already destroyed. Those two areas definitely need support.

The End.

TN is making Pepsi and Coke cry

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

Few give me more satisfaction than seeing deeply corrupt organisations like Pepsi and Coke suffer. The traders from Tamil Nadu decided to ban sales of soft drinks from Pepsi and Coke. The reason given is that these companies kill local competition and also take water from agriculture. I want to pause my joy and critically analyse the players involved.

The easiest party to shed light is the government of TamilNadu. TamilNadu is a state under serious water crisis. In response to a PIL, the government has filed an affidavit in support of these two companies. Their rationale is they are only diverting excess water to the bottling plant. It is difficult to find a case of more blatant corruption, where authorities have sold themselves to the lobbyists.

The second party is also quite easy, the soft drink manufacturers and their association. Nothing bad can be said about them which is untrue. Firstly, they don’t care about either the environment or their consumers. Secondly, the fact that they are using the age old excuse of providing employment to people suggests that they have run out of ideas. Drug cartels and human traffickers employ people. That cannot be used as a justification. Thirdly, nothing that people are saying is actually false. They have done all that.

The last and the most important party is the traders’ association. How come after all these years they have realised the impact of these multinational soft drinks manufacturers. They were supportive of these companies when they were distributing fridges. They didn’t support the local producers when Pepsi and Coke bought stock from Indian companies and broke them. They did that just to make people forget these products. Let’s just accept the premise that they have finally come to understand these companies. Even then they aren’t replacing it with something good. They are going to replace it with other carbonated sugary drinks. This just reeks of disguise. It just looks like a deal gone wrong or some other financial issue.

Overall, it is just fun to watch three despicable parties contest it. I just hope this continues for long. It can only be good when multinational companies are held to ransom.

 

Media is poor but that is not the reason to take away their freedom

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When Donald Trump talks about media being biased and bad, it is hard for me to disagree with him. The trouble is he is considering media biased only when they oppose him. He is using that as a justification to sideline them, take away their freedom and spread his alternate facts. Here are my view points on this topic.

Focus on the incorrect problems

The country is facing problems which affect the people. Go to the people and figure out what matters to them and report that. The clothes which Ivanka wears or Trump’s tweet on that is not of any significance to the people. Trump being presidential is not the biggest problem facing the country where millions are in poverty. Media has to bring the right problems and the corruption affecting those to light. It is hard to do that when they themselves are corrupt.

Lack of insights

All the reports are extremely superficial. There are hardly any insights. “Trump says there will be a record high reduction in taxes. The global markets react positively to it.” These are factual statements. There are no insights that people can gain from that. Dig deeper, understand the meaning, dissect the statements and the motivations, to come up with the insights of any value.

Reporting on their philosophical allegiances instead of facts

Media hardly gives credit where it is due. When Trump cancelled TPP, says he will force pharmaceutical companies to fall in line, says he will invest in American jobs, questions if America has been good in the past, he is actually right. Given him credit for that. That will show that you are reporting on truth and not your stupid allegiances. It is important to criticise Obama, Hillary and Trump where due. Fox has to support republicans and CNN has to support democrats irrespective of the facts. This is not journalism. It is you putting loyatly to your empoyer and faith before justice to your profession.

Dumb enough to fall for red herrings

When Trump says shit like ‘Removing Ivanka fashion line from store is wrong’, please do not fall for it. These are red herrings which you focus on, as his team of deplorables led by Steve Bannon is coming up with horrendous policies. Your message is diluted when you concentrate on everything. He distracted the press by attacking them on one side. On the other side, he created a safe passage to come up with more executive orders favouring his billionaire looter friends.

If the mainstream media continues to focus on the wrong elements, they are only going to give more power to idiots.  They are losing the plot by not playing the role of effective defender of liberty in democracy.

The sad reality of the India – Pakistan tussle

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Growing up in India in the 80s and 90s of the previous century, the kids are always taught to hate Pakistan. There are stories in the print and news media about how bad our neighbour behaves. As with everything else, I had decided early on that I will not believe what my government wants me to believe. In a few years, I moved to the UK for studies. There I met some of the best people from Pakistan I had met till that date, one of which was an aunty in Reading to treated me like her own son. I also met some people who have been indoctrinated the other way in Pakistan. 80 years after achieving self-governance rights from the British, the two countries are at loggerheads desperately trying to overthrow each other in the world stage.

Yesterday, I watched the below documentary. I have watched some outrageous ones in the past but nothing has wrecked my sleep as this. So, I do advise people to go through the description before watching the full video. It can be disturbing. Even accounting for exaggeration and bias, the reality is quite haunting. It got me to write this blog about the tussle as I see it.

India sees Pakistan as a country filled with supporters of Hafeez Saeed, Rehman Malik and Taliban. Pakistan sees India as a country filled with RSS and the perpetrators responsible for the distressed Kashmir. The reality is both countries are filled with people desperately trying to make the ends meet and have military who wants to put this fight to an end. I find this tussle rather unwanted and stupid.

Both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, there is no way one is going to gain supremacy over the other. The line of control between the two countries cannot be renegotiated through battlefield victories. Both countries are spending immensely on maintaining security from the other, ignoring the plight of their civilians. Both countries will struggle if they have an unstable neighbour. Further, the Muslims of India are Indians and the Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan are Pakistanis. There is not need for either country to perform a moral drive on the rights of minorities with their neighbour. The last of all, one needs to fast forward 500 years and see what they want in history. Fostering good partnership not only makes economic sense, it makes social and ecological sense.

India needs a stable neighbour in Pakistan. By supporting Pakistan in its growth, India will have a new trading partner. It also works to India’s advantage in its bid to get into becoming a permanent member of the security council. It drastically reduced the military budget, which can be focused on development. It will help the intelligence and security agencies look the India more holistically than what it is able to do now.

Pakistan needs India’s support to prevent itself from being distanced any further internationally. The biggest supporter of Pakistan now is China, which has its fair share of human rights violations. Pakistan has to focus heavily on rebuilding its infrastructure, solve the internal extremist movements and become a thriving democracy. It has a massive income and wealth inequality problem. It needs to relook into the education sector and get more kids educated for a better future. This is not going to happen with Chinese investments as the latter is more interested in investment and return from that. What Pakistan needs it to channel funds it is currently spending on military back to its economic development.

The thorn in the flesh of both countries is Kashmir. Both countries look at it as their right. While Pakistan feels it has a moral obligation to the Kashmiris, India believes Kashmir is its sovereign right. As with most other situations, the reality is buried deep and in a different dimension. There are many renowned political experts, who have dug deep into the problem and solution (it is for another blog). Kashmir is a tussle amongst disenfranchised people who want control over their land. Unfortunately, it has become extremely communal. There are three main groups, the Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists of Jammu and Kashmir. The solution has to work for all of them, without any feeling left out or a minority.

The hidden component in the fight is India’s support to the Baluchs. I am in favour of federated governments, where the rights of none get ignored. India can never openly support or arm the Baluch movement. It will never come to the forefront of any negotiation, but I am sure there will be a demand for India to stop its support.

Even considering these two issues, there is actually no strong reason for both countries to collaborate for the greater good of their citizens. The unfortunate part is that the tussle has become a show of strength for the political parties and a red herring for the government to distract everyone from the core issues facing their republics.

Diversity is not …..

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

As I look around the world, I see societies and organisations talking a lot about diversity. Every organisation is claiming and competing to have the most diverse workforce. The company I work for has got a more two-pronged approach, top-down for support and bottom-up for implementation. There are others who try different measures. I do not want to write about how companies should do. I want to talk about my observations and learning from other spaces which can be used in this topic. I should admit my learnings are from seeing the mistakes made in embracing diversity in India.

Diversity is not a policy, it is the culture

Policies have a strict implementation guideline while culture is something ingrained into the DNA of an organisation. Policies are prescriptive while culture is ubiquitous. If you make policies around diversity, over a period it becomes constraining and thereby counter productive. The biggest con of such a policy is that it results in policing. Diversity is best embraced when there is appreciation and admiration and respect for each other. That comes with lot of empathy and less of reprimand. The other issue with making diversity into a policy is that it results in poor measurement and sub-optimisation.

Diversity is not what you see, it is what you don’t

It is very easy to understand diversity based on what you look. The result creates two types of problems. One is we start to label and the other is we ignore the crux of diversity, which is thoughts. It is extremely important to have diversity in thinking as that creates a forum for intellectual exchanges and social progress. Two people looking exactly similar will have totally diverse viewpoints and approaches. People associate themselves lot more with to others of similar thought than colour, race, gender or nationality. Even if those reasons help people create an initial bond, it is very temporary. Diversity should embrace and accommodate multiple thoughts.

Diversity is not how you segregate, it is how you unify

As someone talks about diversity, it is extremely easy to fall into the trap of identification. As pattern seeking mammals, we look out for patterns in different people. The trouble with this is that it never stops. Segregation results in the creation of groups. The last thing any organisation needs is groups of people isolating themselves. What they need are open forums which will unify people. Diversity should always be, how we collectively operate and representation of different groups. It is about how to make everyone comfortable with who they are and respect others for similar reasons.

Diversity is not about listing topics to avoid, it is able enabling free speech

One of the well-documented pitfalls of incorrectly looking at diversity is identifying topics which shouldn’t be discussed. The problem with that approach is, it doesn’t bring change, it just creates a facade of unity. Only free speech and open environment will bring up topics and clear the air. Unless people understand viewpoints, it is difficult for them to coexist. When free speech is prevented and enquiring minds are arrested, it results in a fractured society.

Diversity is not a CSR, it is a social construct

Corporate Social Responsibilities are predominantly marketing or legal compliance activities. It is catastrophic to look at diversity in that angle. It would be better to not bother about diversity than put in the same bucket. It is not like a donation to a charity or a visit to an orphanage. Diversity is a social construct and is paramount for the peaceful coexistence of different people in this society. It is not a program of work which can be picked up for a certain timeframe, achieve certain objectives within a budget. It is a continuous process with immense challenges.

Giving Shobhaa De a taste of her own medicine

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Shobhaa De, an Indian columnist and author recently stirred up a storm by mocking an obese cop and posting his picture on Twitter. The social media trollers along with the cops reacted to that in a very strong way. Then the cop who was actually mocked came out and shared his side of the story. Here is my take on the entire episode.

  1. Body shaming someone is not great irrespective of their gender. I am sure the entire reaction of Shobhaa De would have been different had someone posted picture of her. As an advocate of feminism and equal rights, she has to behave in way more dignified manner.
  2. It is not freedom of expression when you take picture of someone else and post it on social media without their knowledge. You don’t even know this person. It is the kind of mindless behaviour that is causing psychological trauma to millions of people all over the world.
  3. Her second tweet saying ‘No offence intended’ is actually worse than the first. It is a blatant lie. She did mean to offend. She should at least stand up to what she did. It was neither an apology nor ownership. It is not even humour.
  4. People are obese for various reasons. I am sure she didn’t think of posting a picture of one of Mukesh Ambani’s sons when he was obese. Not everyone can afford a Bollywood style dietician.
  5. Finally, she took credit for her despicable act resulting in some decent result. Formation of Isreal doesn’t mean you can justify Holocaust. She then continued with the pun stating that the police need to take fitness seriously.  I am sure that is not a great insight. It doesn’t make her look smart either. It is like someone saying, people should eat healthy food and expect everyone to admire at the insight.

Finally, she is expecting media to leave people like Gurmehar Kaur alone. I agree with that but is interesting coming from her mouth. I am sure she will hate it when people troll her. If you break fundamental disciplines then expect people to give you a taste of your own medicine. You are a troller and you will get trolled. I don’t think you deserve sympathies. Feminism and free speech need better advocates than people like you.

 

 

The growing fight against free speech

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

The corner stone for any civilized society is free speech and dissent. The right for the citizens to express themselves orally, it critical for information flow and decision making. If the fundamental rights like free speech, freedom of press, freedom to protest and right to an attorney are suspended, then you end up in an Orwellian society or a dictatorship like North Korea. Much like the labour laws, these rights have been introduced after immense struggle against the monarchies and theocracies of the past. I feel the present generation is frivolously giving it away to save themselves from being offended.

The famous comedian George Carlin, once came up with the seven dirty words which no one uses in the media. Some radio listener decided to get offended by it instead of changing the channel. As result, George Carlin fought a high profile legal battle for a year and finally won it.

George Carlin – Seven Dirty Words Youtube Link

Recently you hear instances of people protesting against others with whom they do not essentially agree. The one for me to remember is people at UC-Berkeley blocking Milo Yiannopoulos from talking in their campus. As much as I am for people protesting, this is not an equivalent situation. Instead of protesting against Milo, an idiot with little scientific knowledge on most subjects, one should focus on showcasing his work. This would bring his bigotry, xenophobia and racism to the front. By preventing him from talking, people have given a bigger forum for him to play a victim. The protesters have lost the opportunity to make the organisers listen to Milo and realise their mistake. The way I would protest this is by making Milo speak, and doing things outside that would drive him and his supporters insane, like showing their love for other human beings, supporting minority rights etc. These are two instances spread of 4 decades of how both the left and right behave. This is a very dangerous trend.

This insanity is not just limited to the United States. One can take plenty of example of the same globally. The furore in the Muslim world over cartoon and a badly made movie on Prophet Mohammed, is another example of stupid reactions preventing freedom of expression. I see that a lot in India, where artworks get banned to prevent people from getting hurt. Any public speech against a movement is brought down by a series of litigations which, will last your life time. Countries like China and North Korea just prevent freedom of speech under the disguise of treason.

I was once sent out of a government building in India, because I referred to a government employee by her name, instead of her role. Apparently in their context, it is not offensive for me to use someone’s name. My point was, if you don’t want people to call you by your name, why do you need one. This is another growing epidemic. People getting offended for everything that behaving like a child. There is no boundary on what will offend people and it is not for the offender to get into their mind to find it out. If you are offended, you should find a way to address it. India lost two of its greatest artists because of this sick attitude, one was painter M.F. Hussain and another was writer Salman Rushdie. The former was to appease offended Hindus and the latter was for Muslims. Art has the power to push boundaries and if people don’t like it, they have an option to walk out.

In Summary, free speech is paramount for opinions to come irrespective of whether they are acceptable or not. In the recent years the left have become more critical of dissent than the right, in the quest of equality and pluralism. It is important to note that what we have today is a result of people who have risked lives for such fundamental rights. It is easy to give them away and land in Orwell’s 1984.

Left to blame

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

“The world is moving towards the extreme right.”
“The right wing fascism is on the ascendency. ”

I am sure all of us have heard of these amazing stories. From the US to Europe to Phillippines, there is a growing movement towards politically and socially conservative parties. If you look for common traits amongst these political parties, we will definitely find racism, bigotry, nationalism, discrimination, violence and an ability to galvanise people. Does this actually mean the people who voted for all these parties fall under the same category? To simplify, do they fall into the Hillary Clinton’s “Basket of Deplorables”? My short answer is “NO”. Here is my explanation on the same.

  • People who voted for the left have moved to the right.
  • People who are winning, are the anti-establishment candidates.

As a product manager, I find a similarity between this thinking and most companies. I have got a great product and users are dumb to not use it and pay for it. This is a very primitive thought process and something which is not grounded in reality. Further, it is a very elitist attitude to the society.

Society is a complex structure of a myriad of species and their needs. Humans have put themselves in prominence, to create kind of a homino-centric model. Not everyone understands economics, geopolitics, theoretical research or different governing models. The common citizen of the world is engrossed in making ends meet. They understand politics with reference to their environment, and as pattern-seeking mammals, we tend to attribute situations to those patterns. This vague abstraction of the human behaviour can be used to explain the current turmoil.

The deep rooted reason for this global shift is fundamentally economical. I suggest people watch the video on Global Trumpism by Political Economist Mark Blyth. Since 70s, the traditional left (especially in the western nations) has moved away from its stronghold and become more centrist. While they have maintained a liberal position from a social perspective, they have become more elitist and ignored the plight of the power and lower middle class. Over the last 35+ years, the base for the left has slowly been eroded.

Recently, one of my colleagues introduced me to JTBD and the four forces. I wanted to use those four forces to provide my understanding of the why people voted for Trump this time around. I am using President Donald Trump as an example, but the same can be said about any other developed economy.

screen-shot-2017-03-01-at-10-51-27-am

As you might see from this, it is rather obvious why people either refrained from voting or went towards Donald Trump. For people who claim that Hillary Clinton got more votes, I request you to look at the states she won. She won in states, which haven’t been affected by this crisis, namely California and New York. If you belong to a minority community, you might have mostly refrained than voted for Trump.

This situation is no different from all the other European countries. There is a strong push towards nationalistic parties as the traditional left has decided to sell its followers and get into bed with the rich corporations. Do I believe people like Trump are going to live up to their promise? Definitely, no. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that people are in distress because of the left. The right wing has always remained divisive, nationalistic, racist and economically illiterate. It has remained that way across the globe consistently for decades. The only change to the situation has been the behaviour of left, who have been sold out to the rich. What we are seeing is a rude awakening to that reality? It is right on the ascendency, but the left has to be blamed for it.

Another gun crime – Killing in Kansas

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

Many of you would have come across this story of  Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian engineer who was shot dead in Kansas, US. For people who haven’t here are some of the links to go through.

LA Times
CNN – Widow of the victim speaking
Quartz
Reuters

Before I start, let me tell you that I have nothing but utmost sympathies for the family of the victim and tremendous respect for people who tried to prevent this incident. However, my view on the nature of the issue is slight different.

Adam Purinton, the perpetrator is a 51 year old Navy veteran. I have deliberately ignored his race as I deem it unimportant. I have probably lost half of you now, but continue on if you want to understand the systemic issue underneath. Here are my 4 major reasons for this crime according to me.

  1. He is a Navy veteran, who has been indoctrinated to think in a way
  2. Think of his economic situation
  3. Support for ex-service people
  4. The seriously dumb gun laws

Long back I worked with an army veteran from India. In a casual chat, I could realise his deep rooted hatred for people from Pakistan. He wasn’t able to think beyond his biases to feel the people from the other side of the border have equal needs and wants as him. That brought me to another realisation, it is not possible for him to wage a war with those people if he starts empathising with their situation. I can’t essentially shoot a person down if I start feeling for his family. To take someone’s life for an ideology needs one to be indoctrinated deeply in its favour. There cannot be a moral predicament in a situation of need. Imagine such a person with strong faith in certain ideologies getting hold of weapons. The situation is bound to get out of control soon. The accused in this instance, Adam is one such. He has been trained to attack people of a certain skin tone or religion or both. He was fighting wars against them. All of a sudden, he starts seeing them in his midst and he has weapons. How does that work?

It is easy to attribute every violent behaviour by white people as racist. Racism in most instances is the facade or in some instances is the trigger. I do not believe that Adam has insulted every non-white he has met till date. He is probably facing the same economic turmoil as most dwindling US middle class. The bottom 60% of the society has been ignored for decades and the pent-up grievances are showing up as anger.  Adam has probably seen the US economy move from something that worked for him to something that will never work for him. He finds people whom he has classified as outsiders (as discussed above) living a decent life. How does he act?

The United States of America has been fighting wars for decades now. I can’t remember a time when they were not in war, with a country. What happens to all these war veterans when they go back. It is economically impossible to wage a war continuously and provide the necessary support for the veterans. People who have fought a war, need lot of mental and economic support. If they are not provided, then they are left to act on their instincts, which is most instances is actually quite depressing. Again in this instance, we have a veteran, with a gun, not in the best spirits looking at a person whom he has been taught to kill.  What does he think?

Why is the US congress unable to look at the need for gun control? What is the fascination in holding a gun? Kids shooting in schools, depressed men shooting women, terrorists shooting innocents, random shootings and list goes on. It is time for people to mature and look at the calendar to realise that we are in 2017 and not 1700s. There is no need for common people to have a weapon. If someone needs it, then they can loan it for a purpose e.g. I want to scare animals from my farm etc.

Connecting the dots, you have got a ex-Navy person, who has been indoctrinated to kill brown people or a certain religion, in deep economic crisis, looking at people looking similar to people he killed doing well, has no support from the government and has access to guns. It is the gross failure on the part of the US government which has engaged in series of wars and hasn’t done enough for the veterans or have good gun control laws. Yes, the perpetrator should be brought to justice but so should the system which has failed Srinivas and countless other innocents.

Again, it is sad that we have lost a life and it is worse for that family. As rational people, we need to think through the problem. I do agree that apart from my reasons, there have been lot of other instigators and reasons for this incident. However, unless these systemic risks are addressed, people will be addressing the symptom and not the issue.

A story of tremendous resilience

~ Venki ~ Leave a comment

Year 2008 AD. Many will remember this year for the biggest depression since the Great Economic Depression of 1930s. For me, it was the year of great positives. The biggest one was me marrying Charanya, with that starting a journey of great memories. However, there was one particular action that has haunted from that year onwards. The guilt and anguish associated with it has travelled with me for almost 9 years and across 4 countries. It was the treachery of seeing my wife quit her full-time job in IT and finally getting it back after 9 years of struggle, pain, anger, disappointments, disgust, trauma and undeterred resilience. I am both the perpetrator and witness in this case and here is the story as I saw it.

After the initial phase of our marriage, we hit a turbulence of our diametrically opposite social beliefs. Opportunity and fate presented in the form of an opportunity to go back to the UK, my adopted homeland back then. Charanya and I discussed the opportunity and decided to to take it up. In hindsight the first mistake, we rushed into moving without looking at options to preserve her job. I attribute that to the deep rooted male chauvinism ingrained in my system. I probably didn’t look at her career the same way as mine. Since it wasn’t a conscious intention, I would have never agreed to this back then. However, it started the journey with obstacles and pitfalls.

It is never easy to give up your financial independence and it is worse when you had to find equilibrium with a man having diametrically opposite views. Both of us realised this early in the phase but with recession at its peak, we were left to weather the storm. I witnessed her cry and breakdown every single day. The pain of not earning and at the same time not seeing light at the end of the tunnel had devastating effects.
It started a series of attempts to get back to a career which satisfies her financially.
Each of the attempt and the associated pain is a story in itself. I will list them to give a feel for the pain.

Attempt #1: Front End Development  May 2009
Attempt #2: Sales  Jul 2009
Attempt #3: Prep for doing an MBA (Study for GMAT) Jul-Nov 2009
Attempt #4: SAP HR Functional (Back to SAP world) Apr – Sep 2010
Attempt #5: SAP Training Nov – Dec 2010
Attempt #6: Recruiter Jan – Feb 2011
Attempt #7: Online retailing Mar 2012 – Mar 2014
Attempt #8: Interior Design Feb 2013 – till date
Attempt #9: Child Care Mar 2016 – Jun 2016
Attempt #10: Software Testing Jul 2016 – till date (Successful)

One might look at it and feel, why did she not continue on anything or focus on one item. As I mentioned before, each of this an attempt is a separate chapter if I have to write this as a book. It was marred with countless rejections, harassment and  insults. Eight years, countless rejections and psychological abuses will dent the confidence of most individuals. She was no exception, however at no point did she contemplate giving up on her career and the fight for financial independence.

The day she got an offer was arguably the best day of my life since our daughter’s birth. It was a testimony to her spirit and endurance. It was a story to tell, not for successful people but for everyone fighting for the first break. However, she took it in her stride, probably the experiences have made her more balanced. She hardly got support from anyone around as far as her career is concerned. People (including me sadly) were only trying to pacify her which in hindsight might have acted as a deterrent than a support.
Here is my learning from this entire experience.

For anyone is a similar situation

1. Fight – That is the best you can do
Irrespective of what Charanya picked up, I never saw her give less than 100%. With nil support from me, she did most of these attempts. From GMAT to SAP to Interior Design to Child Care, she cleared all the exams. When you keep doing your best, somewhere you will get the spark.
2. Never give up – Life is not worth giving up
Failures are part of this painful earth. Sometimes it is unjustifiably biased against you, especially if you a woman fighting in this society. Life is still worth if even if you fight till the end. Not once did I hear Charanya talk about giving up going back to work. It might sound easy and silly for most people, but to her, it was an eluding fruit. She spent countless hours fighting battles and sometimes for my attention.
3. Enjoy the process when you pick up anything new
Every time Charanya picked up or had to pick up a new skill, it was filled with sceptical optimism. As time went by, the percentage of scepticism increased. It is natural for that to happen. However, she somehow managed to enjoy the process of picking up anything new. She worked as an intern/un-paid employee for almost 7 months before getting a job. She just enjoyed the process of doing what she liked.
4. You are good enough
The dent in confidence is the biggest barrier to enjoying life. It is worth remembering that if you have been good enough to live, then you are good enough to try what you want.

For partners

1. Asking them to accept status quo is not supporting
I have asked Charanya to enjoy the present many times, especially when she came to me for support with her goals. To me, it was a question of enjoying life to fullest. I failed to recognise that her enjoyment comes with pushing herself towards the goal. My goal should have been providing a path for her to succeed and not asking her to enjoy the status quo. If you have watched Lord of the Rings, you might remember this line “Come, Mr. Frodo!’ I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.” You should be that Sam as much as possible.
2. It is hard for you to empathise – so shut up
For this entire duration, I thought I was great at empathising with her issue. The reality was, I didn’t get anything. My assumption was purely based on me feeling bad for her and guilty of my mistake. It is not possible for me to actually empathise with her. It is a very sinking feeling and soul crushing feeling, which we cannot fully realise till we go through it. So, it is better to accept that and keep out mouths shut.
3. Block time to support them in their endeavours
Life is filled with a whole bunch of activities that always take priority. There was an added pressure of having to earn enough to ensure I meet the needs of everyone. This meant I never ever bothered to spend time supporting Charanya in her endeavours. It took me 8 years to have the realisation that I can indeed help if I prioritise my time better. Further, as someone closest to the problem, the partners are probably best placed to solve it.
4. No point in feeling guilty till you act on it
Guilt is a very tricky feeling. It gives you pain but not the courage to act. I continued to feel guilty and also sorry for my state(like I didn’t make a mistake). I never acted on it to resolve the situation. It just turned out to be a vicious cycle.
To conclude, it has been a great learning experience for me. I managed to reflect on my actions and hopefully will do different mistakes next. It also gave me an appreciation of what Charanya has done. I am sure I will request her to talk about her experience someday. But for today, I am just relieved like no one else on this planet.