Diplomacy & Realpolitik

Another must read book in diplomacy and real politics is Henry Kissinger's  "World Order"; this book seems special because it contextualizes history from Bismarck times to present day Putin.

By the way - the picture of the dead German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck is considered to be the world's first paparazzi photograph.

Opinionated Journalism

I will start this post with two things: I like the show of Keith Olbermann, I have always enjoyed watching his show on MSNBC, and I respect his journalism. Secondly, this post is not a comment on whether it was fair for MSNBC to suspend Keith for his political donations, or should it be legal to stop your employees from political donations. That would be totally different discussions, and as usual I have strong opinions on that issue. Work contracts are always specific to employers and one is almost always aware of the terms when signing the contract.

My opinion on this issue is on a different level. The question for me is what happens when a journalist of a major media house aligns with a political party, or donates to a candidate’s campaign? Nothing wrong if you see this in isolation; it is different if you see in context of MSNBC and transparency. There are media channels which are unbiased, non-aligned and then there are ones that are opinionated, partisan, or ideological. It will again be a different issue to discuss, which one is better? What matters in context of Keith is transparency. It goes against the public face of objective journalism of NBC. It makes NBC say one thing and do exactly opposite. This is the issue here, and this is what concerns me.

It is totally wrong for any channel to say one thing and do another. A popular media channel has a huge potential to influence opinions and it should be rather transparent in what way it does that. Many times people develop their opinions on the facts presented by media, facts that are already influenced by the ideological bent of that media channel. If the channel had a disclaimer then may be some of us would not take the facts at face value and use our own judgment. I have come across many passionate debates where facts from media channel are cited. It is sad to say the least that the debater putting colored facts think they are objective. This is what Keith Olbermann has to understand and I am sure then he will agree with me on this. I am not siding with NBC, but I am putting transparency above everything.

I am happy to see him back on air, and as usual totally enjoyed his ‘comeback’ show.

Bonuses - of bank or Media?

There have already been two countries on the seat of EU Presidency after France, but it seems Nicholas Sarkozy still loves playing the part of EU’s most vocal leader. He has plenty of ideas to be put forward and ensure that France always is the EU’s leading light and lone saviour. Fresh from his summer vacation he made his intention clear of leading the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, and quickly crossed the border to Berlin. His idea, the radical one as it was put, was to eliminate the Bank Bonuses. Even before there could be a debate on the idea, this ‘another’ effort of Sarkozy glossed the headlines. The German election scheduled for September made it easier for Sarkozy to get support of Angela Merkel. This idea does find favour with the thousands who are still jobless, the fallout of the recession.

It is easy to see why Sarkozy is championing the idea? This ‘reform’ even if implemented would not mean much for France. Alongwith Germany, France does not have any major financial centers to be affected. This is totally different for London or New York, where this idea if implemented might see the business migrate elsewhere. None the less, in all the countries this idea, whether implemented or not, makes a bold and popular headline.

This recession has been tough and there could have been few things that could have been done differently. Many radical reforms are needed; these reforms should be for eliminating the possibility of any recurrence and not only for media attention. One such example is crushing blow on tax havens. I am still not sure how ‘offshore banking’ contributed to recession, and how its death will help in making sure recession of this kind will not happen again. Was UBS alone affected by recession?

As I write this, the deliberations of G20’s Finance Ministers in London have just ended. Not surprisingly, the proposal on ‘bank bonuses’ failed to generate a consensus. It is a setback for both French and German Finance ministers, but I am sure they saw it coming. No setback for Sarkozy, he achieved what he wanted. It’s time for Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt to take note.

May I suggest French President to reform the ‘EU subsidy on agriculture’ next?

Counting Years

Five years ago, it was around this time when this blog was born. I needed a platform to share my views on the outcome of Indian election and created this blog, about an year after I got introduced to the blogging. It’s again the same election time in India, the voting exercise is over and results would come in few hours from now. Though I was not in India for the better part of the present government, still I would be sad to see it go. Anyway it would be time for my views on Indian elections and democracy again, that is if I get time.
It seems the shelf life of my blog was not even five years. It is practically dead after going through its life cycle. The post below about my India trip has become so old that by now I have made one more India trip and going on another such trip next week. My blogging was a direct corollary of my reading and opinionating and when I am not blogging, I am not even doing these.
Anyhow, right now I am hooked on BBC, they are showing Indian elections result live.

Water under the bridge

Seems like a new beginning for this blog. After 4 years of blogging, I am exactly where I started, a clean slate and my blog only to me. Lot of things worth blogging happened in the last four months. To quote the line from the movie we all know – “A lot of water has flown over the dam and under the bridge”. Can’t say I would remember all of them at this morning hour, without my cup of tea, but let me try.

First mention, the loss of one of my favorite TV journalist – the venerable Tim Russert. I still can’t believe that he is no more and I am still living my Sundays. I haven’t watched any episode of ‘Meet the Press’ after him. It is not like Tom Brokaw is any less of a star, but I somehow feel I would be betraying Tim by watching the show without him. It was so ironical to lose him few weeks after that he was put as TIME’s, 100 most influential people with the comment “ the road to white house goes through Tim Russert ” from former NY governor Mario Cuomo. Half the fun of US presidential election has diminished without Tim’s pronounciations. His last being on May 7th just after Indiana and North Carolina primary when he had said this “We now know who the Democratic nominee’s going to be, and no one’s going to dispute it,” Somehow on my blog, as in my life, I didn’t do the things, I most wanted to – Obituary on Tim Russert, and also a piece on Katie Couric leaving NBC.

A month later, two other notable departures from world scene, Tony Snow, former White House press secretary and Randy Pausch, the CMU professor. Both snatched from the world scene by the cruel destiny.

In another blog-world development, we have now the face behind our favourite Waiter. Steve Dublanica he is, and I always thought he would be bit older. I have been one of his early readers from 2004, when he started to blog on blogger. What a journey for him from blogger to national television. Now our club guy may do a re-thinking of anonymity. And hey, someone do tell me if we have the name behind Fake Steve Jobs yet ?

Last mention for this morning, and I would update this on my blogger profile, I have changed my job role. I have never written about my work on my blog, but after a year of toying with sales, I have moved entirely from consulting to sales. There was lot of thinking behind this move and considering the outcomes of all my calculated, planned and carefully thought moves, I just wish the outcome ain’t the same.

In lesser developments, during my numerous flights I discovered this 2007 movie - The Great Debaters. Though a strange choice for in flight movie, it will get added in my best movies list. Thank you Finnair and wait for my hate post on Lufthansa.

For my best book read during travels it has to be – "Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond"

Just after 7 months of buying Nokia 6110 Navigator, I now have the Nokia E71. A vastly improved navigation and other similar features over 6110, though I have to discover most of the other features- the manuals are only in Finnish & Swedish. Also my new DELL D630 is so ancient compared to the Think Pad I had.

All done, I should be back to my normal blogging.

Olympics of China

What a bizarre and surprising Olympic torch run it has been? There was everything in it, except peace, harmony, goodwill and happiness, things that the run symbolizes. The security detail was something that is provided to head of states or may be only to President of US. The most surprising was the scenes played out on the streets of London. One would be forgiven if they thought it was some dictatorial state and not some free democratic country. The glaring part was presence of Chinese security personnel, who were the part of innermost ring of the security bubble, on the streets of London. The Chinese security men were seen beating one of the demonstrators who tried to grab the torch from Konnie Huq, later that person was tackled by police, as with many other demonstrators.

Judging by the comments on several news sites and Youtube, average Chinese citizens have not taken well of these protests. They see it as offending and against their country. May be they don’t know the truth. They have always read, heard and talked what the ruling Communist party wanted? I will not be surprised if those born after 1989 would not know that there was ever a Tiananmen Square incident. I have talked to few of Chinese colleagues, and it so surprising that they don’t even have casual talk among themselves on these issues. I don’t know how many of them know about Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1951. I don’t think any one in China can even read this blog. Till couple of years ago, blogger was blocked in China, may be it still is.

As I write, the scene in San Francisco has yet to unfold. It should not be anything different than that of London or Paris, but news reports say that US has done massive security arrangements. In India, they are barricading the streets for safe run of the torch, but it would be most unfortunate if a single Chinese security person is present on the streets of Delhi. If China can’t trust the local security arrangements, it should not allow its torch to be paraded. Till now the heavy handed security has only refreshed the memories of Tiananmen Square. Perhaps, in place of the Olympic torch, China should have rolled over one of its Tiananmen Tank on the world capitals. It would have been more befitting to Chinese Olympics.

What Russia wants ?

Dust has now settled on the Russian presidential elections, and these days the talks are about invitations to Moscow, or invitations for President 'elect' Dmitry Medvedev to other capitals. The recently concluded elections received widespread media attention, lot of editorials and op-ed columns. I don’t think this was surprising to anyone.

After my earlier post about announcement of Mr Dmitry‘s candidature for the top job, several times I tried to write on the recently concluded elections, but couldn’t. I failed to develop a coherent theme, an unequivocal summary of the elections. I can’t say that by now I have developed a coherent theme, but may be writing this piece may help in shaping my thoughts.

I tried to reason through questions, answers and few assumptions. Let me accept in the very beginning, some of these assumptions have exceptions as always.

The first question:

What is best for a country - a stable government providing stability or a government based on highest principles of democracy? Consider example of Cuba, definitely not a democratic government but one that has given stability for the past many decades, and several other benefits like good national health service, employment, etc.

The second question:

Does a pro-western government based on democratic ideals always successful? Now consider Lebanon, where a pro western government under Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was formed in July 2005. But was this government was able to keep Lebanon away from crises or away from the influence of terrorist organization Hezbollah, despite having Hezbollah members in the cabinet. Hezbollah even caused Israel to bomb Lebanon in summer of 2006.

One more, the orange revolution of Ukraine, enshrined in democratic ideals established President Viktor Yushchenko’s government. We all know what happened two years down the line. Only by the end of last year in Dec 2007, the crisis seems to have tapered off.

Now coming to Russia, elections or no elections, Putin undoubtedly is most popular. He brought stability to the country from the days when the news used to be about corruption and falling rouble. Putin harnessed the oil & gas boom and brought some of the lost prominence back to Russia. Ofcourse while doing all this, he did deviate from democratic principles, mostly in the later states of his presidentship. This is when he fell out with western countries. Though the worst fears of western countries, about Putin altering the Constitution and getting another term for presidentship, didn’t come true, but his choice for putting a puppet president didn’t go well with them.

The question which remains unanswered is, what is best for Russia? A pro-western democratic government that might not be able to provide stability or a semi-democratic government that provides stability and brings back the lost power back to Russia. What the world will be better off - a stable Russia with Putin’s form of government or a democratic government with Russia (assuming it won’t be that stable) ?

It is hard to answer this question without having the benefit of retrospective, but this answer alone will judge the legacy of Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.

Democracy - the Indian way !

I don’t often mention Indian politics on my blog. Not that I am not political, on the contrary, I am strongly political in my views. But when it comes to India, there are so many things to develop upon than politics, that too at the state level.

Much has been said about Indian democracy, said to be one of the world’s biggest and vibrant one. In India, democracy might be what it is defined in dictionaries, but not what it is envisaged as. Some time ago, when Economist termed Indian democracy as patchy, many people didn’t agree. I can’t see why, and the present case in point, one of the Western states of India- Gujarat. It is ruled by the worst person living - leader of the state BJP (a Hindu rightwing party).

Those who don’t know about Narendra Modi or his party BJP would not be able to understand my hatred for him. But he and his party were ruling Gujarat in 2002 - when about 2000 people were massacred.

The immediate reason for writing about him is this excellent article, carried again in Economist. I would just quote the lines from that article

“AS A cheerleader for the emerging India, a giant democracy with—at last—an economy to match, Narendra Modi is a disgrace.”

With the ongoing elections in Gujarat, Modi is again trying to keep his job. I have had only few Gujarati friends, so I don’t exactly understand the Gujarati mindset that elected him with absolute majority in 2002. The Economist article further mentions,

“Its last election, later in 2002, gave Mr Modi a thumping majority, biggest in those districts where the bloodshed was worst.”

The line above totally describes the voting pattern in 2002 elections of Gujarat and the following gives some hint about the average person who casts his/her vote in Gujarat.

“Meanwhile, few commentators have dwelt on the poll's most depressing aspect: Congress's own careful reluctance to mention the 2002 massacre—let alone Mr Modi's alleged part in it. This makes electoral sense. Attacking Mr Modi for failing to protect Muslims might remind Gujaratis why they used to like him so much.”

I don’t trust much the election predictions, not even those made by psephologist. If Narendra Modi gets to keep his job then I guess average voter of Gujarat will have lot of explaining to do.

Few even go so far to suggest that one day this hated person will become the Prime Minister of India. If this happens then the only thing I could do is to give away my Indian citizenship. It would be better than hanging my head in shame for the democracy, which would be India.

The world of politics

In just over a week’s time, the world has seen two major political outcomes, both of which were unexpected to say the least. Spread across two continents, this new development in both the countries is a pleasant surprise for the majority world opinion.

In Venezuela, the infallible Hugo Chavez ultimately had his defeat at the polls. Not only him, but many across the world were certain that Chavez’s plan are going to be reality in Venezuela. If Chavez respects the referendum then it is certain that he would be president only till the end of his second six year term in 2013. His dreams to rule Venezuela for an indefinite term came to a shattering end. So did his policies to turn Venezuela into a socialistic heaven. Though with just 1.4% of vote, the citizens of Venezuela did tell him loud and clear that they still consider the plural constitution of the country paramount to any person.

The next pleasant surprise came in yesterday from Russia. In an unexpected move, Russian president Putin announced his support for Dmitry Medvedev as the next president. Buoyed by the comprehensive victory of Putin’s party in the recent parliamentary election, it was certain that whomever he chooses will be the next president. The surprise in his choice is that he has chosen a pro-business leader over the other candidates, who were from KGB and security agencies. Among all of them, Medvedev, a law graduate and current Chairman of Gazprom would be most acceptable to the western world. Medvedev would still be someone through which Putin can maintain his hold over Kremlin, but this would have been the case with any of his successor. Atleast, with Medvedev, we can be sure of Russia’s economic progress, which will also augur well for the world in large. Though, he was at the forefront of the Russia’s gas supply controversy with Ukraine on the New Year eve of 2006, he has largely presented himself as the votary of economic liberalization and foreign investment.

Collectively, these two political developments are good news going into holiday season. (Yeah, I do believe in capitalism)