Monday, February 16, 2009

Taking knife to a Tagger-Is it justified ?

Recently in Auckland there was an incident of a 15 year old tagger having been killed with a knife by the home owner after a brief chase. The link is
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10556542

The home owner has since been convicted of manslaughter and been sentenced to 4 years prison term, which he may appeal.

This case has raised a big debate in New Zealand about the justice meted out, whether the home owner was justified in killing the boy and whether the boy deserved what he got.
The debate can be followed on this link
http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/2/13/bruce-emerys-sentence-fair/?c_id=1501154&objectid=10556569

I am very disturbed about the support the home owner is getting from many in New Zealand. He is almost made out to be a hero who in defending his property from petty vandalism, is entitled to give out the capital punishment which the justice system itself has fore-sworn.

The majority opinion expressed seems to be that the kid deserved what he got. I thought death penalty had been abolished in New Zealand. But it appears to be okay when it is administered outside the courts. What next, private vigilantism?

Not an healthy situation to be in. There have also been questions about the kind of parenting the boy has received, coming from a poor family with a single mother who had gone overseas for a job. Parenting however cuts both ways. Remember the home oewner is a parent too. Should he not have been more cool-headed and avoided taking a knife with him?

It is facile to say that he decided to chase the boy, but took with him a knife to protect himself, in case he was attacked. Looks a bit deliberate to me. As deliberate as the kid when he took a spray can with him. One does not excuse the other.

The kid consciously took a spray can to damage some one’s property. The property owner consciously took a knife to damage some one’s body if not life. I wonder which was worse, inspite of who provoked whom and what provoked what. Where is the Christian spirit of showing the other cheek ? Can society be peaceful with such indiscipline and anger ?

Break down of family and society, lack of efective policing because of small number of police doing inessential stuff, police not being on the beat/street to send out a message, police not responding within reasonable time to reports of crime, lenient sentencing, availability of early parole, etc are probably some of the many causes of such incidents.

Very scary to think where we all are going.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Ring a Ring a Roses-All Fell Down

The Basle committee had mandated capital adequacy ratios for banks and many banks had their own rules for recognising impaired loans. But with the introduction of sub-prime, mid-prime, altA, interest only, negative-amortised, option ARM and other such loans the Banks and their regulators moved away from proper recognition of risk and capital backing.

This is as much a failure of Central Banks as any other. Now they are making another great mistake in thinking that tweaking interest rates will be the solution to the crisis.
The Banks are basically insolvent and have no will or resource to carry on their basic business of lending and making profits. Whatever funds are pumped into them will go in a bottomless sinking hole to compensate for the losses already on the books and losses yet to be recognised. This is the sorry state of Banks in US and UK and a few other key western countries today.

In return for the ‘Made in China’ goods exported to USA, the Americans have sent ‘Made in USA’ financial crisis and recession to the whole world. And what Osama Bin Laden failed to do, the Wall Street Wizards have done to USA, i.e bring it to a stand-still.

The crisis started with home loans and the remedy has also to start there. The home buyers who took these toxic mortgages have to be given subsidies to compensate for the loss of equity which can be applied to write down the debt. The funds pumped in should get the Government ownership of the Banks for the near future. Management of the Banks has to be changed with priority to keep to basic Banking. The relief has to be spread to the whole gamut of bank customers and home owners. Those who paid their loans properly could get some tax relief.

I am also wondering whether the world is once again following a wrong trend being set by the Americans in the economic/fiscal fields.

The American brains have been the principal culprits in creating the crisis in the first place by designing exotic financial products which they sold all over the world. BY following that trend the Banks and Financial Institutions have lost all their money and credibility. Now the cure being tried by the Americans, namely, lowering interest rates, pumping money, rescuing troubled lenders (who may not deserve such rescue), throwing big money at the problem etc is again being followed by most of the world.

Is this the right way forward ? This may result in more inflation, higher interest rates and more restraints on the business in the future, deepening the depression. Why not take a pause, let some Banks/institutions fail and the whole field be cleaned out. IN the meantime whatever money is available should be used to help the citizens who are affected, may be by direct assistance to reduce their loans, cash subsidies, increased unemployment benefits, etc.

May be it is the right time to call a meeting like the Bretton Woods conference. One thing that can be immediately decided at such a meeting is to stop all warfare and arms production so trillions can be saved and diverted to nation building everywhere. But we don’t have a strong leader to lead and direct anywhere in the world.

In the absence of such an initiative each affected nation may stumble from step to step and like the nursery rhyme ’round and round and all fell down’.

Hope this does not come true.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Ignore Slumdog, Ignore not Srilanka

Yesterday I saw Slumdog Millionaire and felt it to be a big ‘bakhwas’ i.e. nonsense. I am not concerned about the poverty and crime portrayed in the movie, because such things exist all over the world in different forms and styles. However the movie did not have any worthwhile acting or storyline or emotive scenes. The actor who portrayed the lead character had the most wooden face I have ever seen on the screen and his delivery of line more like mumbling. Anil Kapoor acted awfully. The main premise of the story that a successful contestant will be immediately thrown to the Police to be beaten and interrogated was so unrealistic. May be the producers wanted to take a dig at Gitmo. I think the movie is appealing to Western critics because India and particularly Mumabi is the flavour now. It would be a big tragedy and travesty if this movie gets any Oscars for any thing. I can’t picture this movie in the Oscar league with films like Gone with the Wind, Gandhi, Godfather, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, etc.I hope people realise that this is one more botched Bollywood style movie, made by Britishers and leave it to its own fate in the box office. No need to glorify it with any award.

Sri Lanka becoming an hotspot

It is very concerning to see once again the innocents caught in the cross-fire between the government and the rebels in Sri Lanka. But it has to be admitted that by following a path of military confrontation, the Tigers invited this result eventually. The government would one day win because the rebels could not perpetuate their fund-raising and arms-buying forever, especially when the economic conditions are not good and when the world is getting tired of wars in several corners. The United Nations had effectively withdrawn from peace-making long back and with India pre-occupied with Pakistan and Kashmir, the Sri Lankan rebels did not have much hope of keeping their enclave for long. (The UN has become a Police, investigating Benazir Bhutto's assassination. May be they should also investigate the Mumbai Massacre).

The Sri Lankan government should now make a good offer of peace and protect the Tamil citizens to establish its credibility. However the way things are going on the ground, I am afraid the Sri Lankan Government would keep the Tamils in camps/enclaves for a porlonged time which would not give them any hope of participating/leading better lives in future. I fervently hope that these camps do not turn into sources of deep discontent among the Tamils and lead them to a desperate sitiuaton and start thinking of getting out of Sri Lanka. Then they would flood into India which would be their natural first port of call.

My fear is things could get out of control if the Government does not implement an immediate plan to assimilate the Tamils into the national fabric and reassure the Tamils that Sri Lanka is their country too and they have a future there. Otherwise it could easily escalate into an international incident involving India and several other countries.

May be it is time for the government to offer an amnesty programme so the remaining rebels also could embrace peace.