Wars for Peace... ...And other ridiculous ideas!

Fighting wars to make peace, war against terror OR Terror against War... The Bush era has spawned a series of silly phrases.. And what is more ridiculous is that were actually taking them serious.

Each TRIAL of today's perpetrators of the most heinious crimes, exhibits far more catching Catch 22's than Joseph Heller could have ever imagined.

The US and UN with NATO ordered strikes to kill Gaddafi. Shoot a million dollars worth of missiles - from miles away - in an attempt to free the world of an apparently ruthless dictator. The number of innocents and associates of the dictator killed in a now very commonly used term "collateral damage" gets international pardon, keeping the ultimate goal - the elimination of a Gaddafi, in public vision.

And yet, when the blood thirsty, liberation army troops, who have had to fight the same battle on the ground, find him and inflict the same fate on this target, from close range.... The UN , the International Court of Justice, the Human Rights bodies of this very unjust world, cry foul. Now they want to investigate how, in what manner Gaddafi met his end.

Shoot from close and beat or torture him from close, and it becomes a crime against humanity.

Kill the same person and 200 other people in the vicinity with a missile strike or several of them, and this gets forgotten as a war of terror. It's just Collateral Damage.

We now will spend a few more billion dollars in investigating whether Gaddafi was killed in the right manner?

Wonder how much more they are going to spend on this closed file?

Prevention of Malaria : Eradicating Mosquitoes and other PESTS

This blog is a result of a funny chain reaction... Reading the news of Gaddafis death, I briefly though of George Bush, and thus re-read my earlier blog on Induced Democracies, where I had mentioned a brief gesture from George Bush on his war on Malaria.

It has always struck me as strange, that the development world spends millions on treated mosquito bed nets as a means to preventing malaria. I was re reading my blog on Induced democracy and the so called efforts made by George Bush to eradicate Malaria.

My first thoughts were :
- How much time does an African villager spend indoors in the bed ( if he has one!! )
The answer was about 4-5 hours at the most or about 20%+f the time.

- do Mosquitoes only bite at night?
This seemed to be more of a western concept of sleep discomforts. I've been bitten by mosquitoes at all times in the dAy as well as night. Yes, it's true that when we sleep, we have a lesser chance of defence, and thus the net could help for sure.

I'm not trying to criticise the efforts in reducing exposure to being bitten at night, but if an NGO or development body really needs to prevent mosquito bites, they should do so using several methods :
1. Advocating cleanliness of surroundings
2. Advocating personal hygiene
3. Advocating use of mosquito repellent creams - ideally non toxic herbal creams.
The above would cover villagers from close to 80 or 90 % of their time. The balance could be covered by the use of treated nets.

The first two points above would gradually bring about a reduction in the requirement for all other external repellants.

Till then, let's hope that now that they've got Gaddafi, they can spend a little more of their "WAR ON... budgets" on a war on malaria during daytime as well.

A Hazar Anna Hazares

I often wonder how many of us had heard of Anna Hazare over 6 months ago? ( I can of course practically see those intellects stand up, saying that they knew of this Gandhian from Ralegan Siddhi - in typical 'Silencer' ( the fourth and only idiot in the now famous Three Idiots) fashion!! Well I hadn't heard of him. The first mental visual when I heard the name, was that of a blonde spouse of a Cricketing hero. This is typical of the current mental state I am in. I've been trying to practice thinking 'out of the box', that the thought process starts with the most bizarre, furthest out of the box thoughts. Others laugh. I've got used to me. Thus, once convinced that Anna Hazare was indeed a Gandhian, following principles of Non-violence, making a serious effort to fight corruption, my mindset about the person changed. only to be rudely shaken back, into a box, when lo-and-behold, there stood alongside him, the usual suspects - politicos in orange garbs, tantrics wielding political microphonic megaphones, and of course with some brilliant actors too. ( I refer not to the presence of Aamir Khan, whom I genuinely admire, but to the theatrical skills of former employees of TATA Steel and the Indian Police Force, respectively (without respect!) The antics and drama, brought to the forefront of a genuine fight against corruption, have made this make Anna or Team Anna look terribly monologued! They look like the "Lagaan" cricket team at practice. All running like headless chicken! Making mockery of a genuine Indian concern! A Billion people, plagued by corruption, yet living with it in as though in a marriage (An Indian Marriage at that!! No morally acceptable separation)! I read this in a friends comment on the same subject. You realise that a vast majority of us who have just heard of Anna Hazare, feel some sort of empathy. Millions of us. Yet we seem impotent in being able to effectively do something about it. The standard rhetoric is - If you want to do something about It then cast your vote! Or Join Politics. UGH. Well, until we start Overseas NRI voting for the first option. The second option - not an easy one for many of us who don't play games! The first one is a one time option for a full term and thus makes no sense! It would take a tremendous effort to make any change during the tenure. And that's where the problem with our democracy lies. The incumbent politician rakes in the most he can till the next election. The Hazar Hazares will scream and shout, go on hunger strikes. Can they make a difference? Will they be able to reduce corruption? Or are they going to replace an entrenched corrupt system with another one? The more one sees the hanger ons and the dramatists alongside, the less the Hazar Hazares will be seen behind the real Hazare. Nairobi, Enjoying the wonderful climate ...from Indoors!! October, 17th, Wednesday, 2011