Take care of infrastructure

As one of the rare few undergraduate students of Indian origin at University of Iowa in late 80s, I was asked a lot of questions about India. For my fellow students, India was this exotic place that they had often heard of but didn't quite know what to make of it (remember this was pre-web). Their impressions ranged from a complete wreck (thanks to fundraising pleas) to a land of palaces and opulence (various movies and stories) to the land from where many of the professors came.  I tended to give them an unvarnished view which made things crazy enough.  The fact that many of these question-answer sessions were conducted during alcohol-fueled late-night bull sessions made for even more craziness.

Anyways, once a friend asked about the fundamental difference between USA and India. And he went further, making sure I did not digress into cultural or historical differences. He wanted to know the difference between the two countries.

Now, remember, this was a long time back and it took me a long while (a few days I think) to come up with the answer - Infrastructure. Oddly enough, I was not so sure about the answer till I said it out loud. Many of my friends were quite disappointed at the boring answer.  A couple even booed me. But every time I reiterated it, I grew convinced that that was it. Yes, there are many other differences between India and USA - culture, language, music, race, history, religion, food... But these differences exist between any pair of countries.

I felt that infrastructure made a huge difference in the way things worked. In USA, there were no shortage of services. If you wanted a telephone (landline), all you had to do was call the phone company and within a few hours things would be working. Back in India, my parents had applied for a phone line in 1981 that had not yet materialized when I left in 1988! In US, the phone bill came in the mail and I would write a check and send it back and there was never a time I didn't receive a bill or the company did not receive their payment.  This was definitely not the case in India.

It was true of many other systems - electricity, water, sewage, gas stations, grocery, credit cards... basically everything. If somehow your car left you stranded on the side of the highway, the highway patrol would help you out by calling a tow-truck or whatever. Things simply worked. And that was exactly what India of the 80s was not. Buying a train ticket was an ordeal. First find the right line (there was a different line for groups of trains) and pray and hope that the train you want to buy the ticket for is not already sold out.  My mom would give me a whole if-then-else scenario before I set off from home.

In Iowa, you could flick on the switch and the lights would come on, turn on the faucet and nice clean drinking water would pour out. I could mail a check for paying my tuition or credit card bill and be very sure that it would be received at the other end. There were toll-free numbers that one could call from any phone (including pay phones) and reach customer service. The highways and other roads were well-marked and kept in pretty good condition. People could afford to wait till the fuel-gauge showed empty before filling up. We could take a lot of things for granted.

Meanwhile, in India, poor infrastructure discouraged people from trusting the system.  No one trusted the mail.  People kept small generators to power the lights, kept water in buckets, hoarded rice, wheat, toilet paper and such things.  And it lead to tribalism.  If you knew the right handshake, the shopkeeper kept a few loaves of bread in the back or the doctor knew someone who miraculously happened to have the right medicine even though none were available in the open market.  And all of this hoarding led to artificial shortages, which led to even more hoarding.

Fast forward a couple of decades and guess what?  Now that India, China and many emerging countries have become more prosperous, they are busy pouring money into building and expanding their infrastructure.  High-speed rail lines, electrification, bridges, roads, hospitals, airports, you name it and it is being built in these two countries at a maddening pace.  Meanwhile, here in US, we are watching the infrastructure built by our ancestors crumble.  There are more than 4000 (no typo) bridges that are in serious need of repair.  We have no high-speed rail worth talking about.  The Congress is busy trying to figure out how to wreck the US Postal Service.  We Americans invented the internet but if you want a speedy net connection at home, US is one of the dead last countries amongst the developed nations!  And the emerging countries are catching up.

So, please, support the maintenance and improvement of our public infrastructure.  Given that our economy has still not fully recovered, this is a good time to get things done for cheap.  Remember, many of the dams and other big things were built during the depression and they have paid for themselves many times over.  If we lose the infrastructure race, we would have an even tougher time competing globally.

Postcard from Europe #5: Love blossoms in unlikely places

This is yet another post from the time when I was living in Germany and traveling around trying to visit every corner of Europe before my return back to US...

This post is not about me or my experiences.  Rather it is the story of the parents of a fellow traveler.  But I was so fascinated by it that it is etched deep in my memory and even today I continue to marvel at it.

I was returning back to Frankfurt on an overnight train from Italy.  A Norwegian girl on the train asked me if the train would stop in Darmstadt (a town south of Frankfurt).  "No", I said, "This is an express train.  But you should have no problem getting a train from Frankfurt.  Why do you want to go there?"  "My grandparents live there".

Now, I was really confused.  Why would a Norwegian girl have grandparents in Germany?  That too so far from Norway?  Something didn't quite add up.  I was definitely not going to dig up a sleeper cell but I didn't stifle my curiosity and asked.  And here is what she said:

My dad was drafted into the German army during World War II when he was a teenager and ended up fighting and getting captured in Norway.  He was in the POW camp when he fell really sick.  Horribly sick.  My mom was a volunteer nurse and it was her job to keep checking on my dad and giving him medicine.  When the war ended, my mom made sure he got sent with a big supply of medicine (he was still not well).  Later, she sent him a care package with more medicine and he wrote to her thanking her.  Later still, he wrote to her that he was now well and hoped to get admission in a university.  Her mom prevailed upon her own father (who happened to be a university professor in Norway) to give this boy admission...

To this day, I cannot explain any of it.  It is such a strange happening - two people on either side of an insanely murderous war find love with each other.  I have wondered what happened to her dad at the university in Norway.  Did he have to hide the fact that he was German?  Did the fellow Norwegian students shun him?  Did his love for this girl/woman keep him going when his spirits were down?  Or was he glad to escape from a ruined country that seemed to have no future?

Either which way, I salute the parents of this girl.  As for the girl, I left her at Frankfurt central train station after making sure she knew which train to take.  I had to get back to the office, it was already 8am!

Seeking Osama bin Laden

In just under 6 months, we are going to mark the 10-year anniversary of a pretty big terrorist attack on USA - known by its numeric moniker - 9/11. Because everyone would be writing about it, this post is trying to beat the crowds.

Back in 2001, most Americans got mad at the terrorists and their brethren. We demanded that their lair be attacked and the terrorists be annihilated. So, we launched a "War on Terror". Our first mission was to find Osama bin Laden, a one-time "friend" of America who had gone renegade and was the mastermind behind 9/11. Somehow this "War on Terror" morphed into "Seek WMD in Iraq" to "Topple Saddam Hussein because he cast an evil eye on W's dad" to "Bring democracy to Iraq by appointing a charlatan as PM" to "We cannot leave now - the helipad on the Embassy's roof is not yet finished".

Meanwhile Osama is busy hiding in some cave. Almost 10 years later we have no clue where he is. Not only he is not in the news, he has been forgotten in the land that he terrorized 10 years back. Today, we are terrorized by bankers and the whole credit crisis (was it brought on by the "Shop till you drop" method of providing support for our troops?).

So, dear readers, if you have a clue where we can find Osama, please send a letter to:

Manager, United States of America

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington DC

Marijuana Control - Capitalism v. Communism

It is now official. Californians would have the opportunity to decriminalize marijuana this November by voting for Proposition 19. I am glad for the opportunity. Why? Well, let me count the ways...

We Americans have a prohibition against marijuana aka weed aka ganja. People believe that it is such a harmful substance that mere controls over it (such as minimum age for use) is not enough. It must be permanently banished from our society. Well, try as we might, it has not disappeared. Despite Billions spent on catching the buyers, sellers, smokers and growers and throwing them in jail, we have not made a dent in the popularity or use of weed. Us taxpayers pay for the jails as well.

In one of my entries, I talked about the underpinnings of capitalism - prices and how they act as signals in the overall system. Do you know why Columbus sailed to the New World? He was trying to get to India where the spices were insanely cheap compared to Europe (think 10,000 times cheaper). Now let us see how different societies handle a scarce resource. Of course, in a capitalist system, the price keeps going up till demand drops to the supply available. Under commandist systems, rationing is often used. If there are 1,000 people in a town and the town has only 1,000 gallons of gasoline, allow everyone to purchase only 1 gallon. Sounds fair but is it?

What would happen is that officially the price of gasoline would remain the same but, informally, the price would skyrocket. People who love to race their hotrods would secretively buy the gasoline from the homebodies. Meanwhile, because the price has not increased in the official market, there is no incentive for anyone to create an alternative to gasoline!

So, what is it we should be doing? Well, for one, we should be looking at our experiences with another prohibition - the one against alcohol - that we had between 1920 and 1933. Thanks to the illegalization, retail value of alcohol shot through the roof and a bunch of gangsters became filthy rich overnight. They not only smuggled whiskey from Canada, they also corrupted our society - paying off police, custom agents, tax officials, district attorneys, judges and any other official they came in contact with - and infected our institutions in ways that took years to recover from. How could they get away with bribing such people? Well, the cost of making alcohol and its retail value were so very disparate that the profits were through the roof. It was easy to bribe people with 100 or 1000 times their salary.

But did the alcohol consumption go down? Well, not really. The rich had their loopholes and sources. The poor had moonshine. The middle class bore the brunt of shootouts. Who won? The gangsters!

We have a similar situation with marijuana. There are drug cartels murdering each other and innocent bystanders and killing police officers just to make sure that they control the drug business. The biggest chink in their armor is legalization - exactly what Prop 19 is going to do.

So, PLEASE go and vote and vote for Prop 19. This is a rare opportunity to right a stupid mistake made more than 2 generations back that we all are paying for ever since.

What is Capitalism

The newspapers and magazines are full of dreadful news about the economy. Budget crises are causing pain in many parts of the world. Many people are out of work and they are confused and angry about how this mess came about. Some have even gone ahead and declared the current financial crisis as the first step towards the death of capitalism.

So, what is Capitalism? Well, sometimes it is easier to describe something in terms of what it is not. So, let me tell you about the opposite of Capitalism - Commandism.

Commandism says that the people at the top know best. They should be the ones deciding for everyone what should be produced, how to produce it and in what quantities to consume it. How many acres to devote to corn production, what kinds of grapes to grow, how much should be eaten fresh, how many phones, colors of cloth etc. This philosophy underpinned the command-driven economy of Soviet Union, China under Mao and India under the Nehru-Gandhi family. So, what is so wrong about Commandism? Well, for one, there is no one so smart, so prescient, that all these decisions would be flawless. That is not so bad. The worse part is - how would the person on the top know which decision turned out to be a blunder and needs to be fixed? How do the people make sure that the decision making improves over time?

That is where Capitalism has a unique and distinct advantage. Capitalism isn't so much about private property and class tensions and exploitation of labor and resources as it is about pricing. Pricing is the ultimate survey, the ultimate opinion poll, the ultimate discriminator. Capitalism works because people can and do vote with their wallet. If the price of wheat goes up, people would be motivated to change their diets to eat less wheat. Goods tend to flow from low-price areas to high-price areas. Prices, in essence, become signals.

If eggs become popular, their price will go up. This, in turn, would cause certain motivated people to get into the egg business and thus increase the supply (forcing the price down). Others might be motivated invent materials that would help in the egg business, such as egg cartons. Yet others might be interested in promoting other sources of protein which may reduce the demand for eggs. As you can see, none of these actions required any input from the top. There is no "egg czar" to ensure the supply of eggs.

Of course, this also exposes the limits of capitalism. When setting a price, a vendor only looks at costs to itself - not the entire society. For example, if a coal mine is immune from health costs, it can simply ignore that cost. A mine that reduces health risks gets no financial benefit. Similarly, a fishing company doesn't need to fish sustainably if there is no financial benefit to do so. Benefits that cannot be expressed in financial transactions also get the short end of the stick. If the potential financial benefit of an endeavor is too low, or the risk is too large, it too would end up on the bottom of the pile.

The take-home lesson is that while capitalism does have its benefits (and there are many), it also has its limitations. Thinking that capitalism can somehow solve all our problems is a pipe-dream. But thinking that capitalism can somehow die is downright insane. It implies that all human ingenuity and drive and creativity has come to an end. If that is so, it would be best if we cease to exist.

The 3-cent solution

I love listening to NPR (National Public Radio) while driving. Actually, I love listening to NPR no matter where I am. I like "All Things Considered", "Fresh Air", "Car Talk" and many other programs. I think it is the finest station on the dial.

On the other hand, the fundraiser programming drives me up the wall. I hate, hate, hate it. I don't know if the local NPR stations (mine is KQED) have hit on an insidious formula to drive people to donate but it grates me to no end. Every time their pledge drive starts, I hope and pray that it would be over quickly. But of course, it takes far too long. I try to skip to some generic music station but then I manage to miss KQED's programming as well. So, I asked myself - Can the NPR stations raise funds without this fundraising mess?

Well, two things happened. First, I heard on NPR that more than 90% of NPR listeners did not give any money. The second was a really unlikely source - an article on the economics of iPhone applications. By building a simple application that sells for say $1 or $5, the developer is able to get a larger audience and thus is able to make far more total revenue than if the application was priced at say $100.

So, here is what I came up with. One of the reasons that an overwhelming majority of NPR listeners do not contribute is because they can't (or won't) fork over $100 or $350 that the stations keep talking about. And that is the wrong price point to advocate. My idea is very simple - simply send $10 as a "Happy Birthday" gift to your local NPR station on your own birthday. Don't wait for those grating fundraising appeals. Don't wait for any letters. Just write out a check for $10 and mail it in. This works out to 3 cents a day! Get everyone you know to do it. Hopefully we can all listen to NPR uninterrupted by these fundraising appeals...

Happy Birthday Harvey Milk

Today Harvey Milk would have turned 80. That is, if he hadn't been assassinated way back in 1978. Last year, California finally managed to create a Harvey Milk Day, the first of which is today.

I first heard of Harvey Milk in late 80s at my alma mater (University of Iowa). Many of my friends thought of him as an inspiration to do good. But I didn't realize just how positive a man he was till many years later when I read more about him and understood just how viciously gay people were persecuted in United States. He managed to convince a very large group of gay people to out themselves to fight the Briggs Initiative, at a time when hardly anyone did so voluntarily.

I wonder what would have happened if Milk had been around when the AIDS epidemic started. Would he have spearheaded a push to legalize gay marriage? Would he have managed to convince the American public that gays are not a threat to society - rather their persecution and discrimination against them is...

But these are just philosophical questions today.

Happy Birthday Mr. Milk!

Postcard from Europe #4: Where did the Wall go?

Another of my posts about the time I was running all over Europe on weekends...

But first, the background. It was a fall day in 1989 in Iowa City, home to my alma mater, The University of Iowa. I hadn't had time to read any news in about a week so after dinner, I went to the TV Room to see what was happening. I remember switching on the TV and Garrick Utley's face appeared, saying "... believe it or not, ... the Berlin Wall is coming down."

What? Surely this must be a joke! Berlin Wall was right up there with the Great Wall of China and Eiffel Tower! One does not go about in daily life knocking down one of the global constants!

Anyways, a few years later I was working in Frankfurt and one weekend I decided to go to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state that encompasses the entire northern tier of the ex-East Germany. It is a picturesque city surrounded by a state that feels like Minnesota - lots of lakes, rivers, stiff wind blowing from the north and very sparsely populated.

When I got there, I found that the people of Schwerin were busy trying to undo 40+ years of neglect under Communist rule. They were busy fixing roads, sidewalks, train stations and the like. If you did not keep an eye firmly fixed to the ground, there was a good chance you would run into a protective barrier (this is Germany after all).

That evening I had an even bigger surprise in store. At the youth hostel, I met a couple from ex-East Germany. We ended up playing Trivial Pursuit - German language edition. One of the questions was "In Berlin, U1 [subway] line runs between which two stations?"*

You would expect that this question would be straightforward to answer. However, this question took the most time during the entire evening! First the guy wanted to know when the game was printed. That is when I came to know that U1 line existed before the division of Berlin and each side had their own version of U1 line and a unification of the Berlin subway system was underway. There was quite a bit of arguing around which stations were on U1. Here was a couple who had lived in Berlin as students and had used the subway system to go everywhere and they got really busy recounting all the stations they had used and which ones had tricky exits and they recounted the stores that they had patronized that no longer existed.

That is when I realized how completely the Wall had fallen. In a little over 3 years, this young couple had started to forget their own daily lives to the point that they were forgetting the brands of various daily staples!

Many years later, I saw Good Bye Lenin! As I laughed with the movie, I deeply wished that I had that couple sitting next to me. They would have laughed with me but I feel that they would have had a good cry too...

* I am writing this from memories almost 2 decades old. I am quite confident that there are some errors in my memories...

The ultimate map room

Maps have fascinated me all my life.  As a child, I pored over the family atlas all the time.  But what fascinated me even more were the few pages of historical maps - appended almost as an afterthought to the atlas.  They primarily showed Europe at various points in history and how United States grew through purchase, conquests and claims.  I think there was even a map outlining major battles during the Civil War.  It was a window into history that beguiled me.

I rarely met any kindred spirits while growing up but when I travelled around Europe, I realized that I had ample company amongst dukes and earls and kings.  Many of their palaces have map rooms - perhaps to keep track of their extensive landholdings as well as those of their rivals.  Palazzo Ducale in Venice has an amazing map room which sports 2 humongous globes as well, all of which I admired and at moments imagined had been restored just for my pleasure.

In today's technological age, it has become trivial to find good current maps.  Thanks to Mapquest, Yahoo Maps, Google Maps and others, you can not only see the world map, you can zoom in and out and spot individual streets and ask for directions and even get a satellite view.  Google Earth lets you delve into even greater detail.  I have managed to trace down the exact alleyways that I used to walk when I worked in Connecticut!  But now I wish for a new dimension - the dimension of time.

Imagine, just imagine, if you could call up the map of New York City from any time.  See how the fields in Manhattan island give way to houses and high rise buildings.  Or call up a map of Switzerland and see as new train tracks are laid out and new cantons keep joining the Swiss confederation.  Or see how New Delhi goes from this elegant and sparse new capital for the crown jewel of the British Empire to this bustling gargantuan metropolis in just 70-odd years...

There would be so much to learn from such a map room.  We could track how people moved about, how empires have risen and fallen, how kingdoms have expanded in unexpected ways.  We could also see the morphing of various countries and get a handle on various boundary disputes that plague the world.  We could also see how names of places have changed -Bombay, Londonium, New Amsterdam and Peking becoming Mumbai, London, New York and Beijing.  Imagine the history of the world coming alive as we scan across the globe...

Wouldn't it be wonderful?

Postcard from Europe #3: The Clinton Dividend

Another post from the time in the early 90s when I was working in Germany and traveling on weekends...

16 years back, I was in Bordeaux for a weekend. I was in the mood for some local food. The lady who ran the Youth Hostel knew that my French was limited to "Parle vous Anglais?" so she said "I know this place but..."

Well, I ended up going there, a tiny, tiny place that was filled with regulars. The only one who knew English was the waitress, Marie, whose entire length and breadth of High School English was tested when I asked her to explain what was on the fixed-price menu. She ended up dragging me into the kitchen and showing me the actual vegetables and meats and furiously scribbling down the words as I told her the names in English. Throughout a delectable 6 course meal, the regulars and I had an odd conversation - single words traded back and forth to appreciate and enjoy the food and the wine we were served.

When the meal ended and Marie had a little bit more time, the questions came in more complete form and the conversation turned to the Bill Clinton. You see, just 3 weeks before, Bill Clinton was elected the President of United States. He had really piqued the interests of these folks in Bordeaux. They felt they understood him. They were also quite confused how he could be elected with only 43% of the votes.

That started a whole new conversation on electoral college and the curious way that America held its elections. In the end, when I got up to pay, the owner of the place gave me a hefty 15 Franc discount on 50FF meal and didn't charge for all the wine I drank - because I was so patient with the questions. I call that discount my "Clinton Dividend". I yearn for another such dividend...

Open Letter to California Supreme Court

Well, the citizens of California passed Proposition 8 last year with 52% of the votes. Many felt heartbroken while others, including me, vented that the conservatives were up to their old dirty tricks again. Anyways, the issue is now in the hands of the California Supreme Court, which just last year had ruled that the constitution of the state precluded barring same-sex couples from getting married.

I figured that I should weigh in on the subject and give the justices something to chew on. And here it is.

Dear Judges of the California Supreme Court,

I am a fellow citizen of California and I would like to give you a hand in deciding the knotty problem facing you - the resolution of Proposition 8. Yes, I know that it is a messy situation and I also know that I am no lawyer. I am just a poor farm boy from Iowa and all I have is horse sense.

First of all, let us look at Proposition 8 itself. It essentially says that only marriages between one man and one woman would be recognized by the state of California. There is a problem right there. Imagine if we had a similar law on the books saying that only people of the same race could marry each other. (Hint: We used to have that). Or that only US citizens could marry each other (no non-citizens thank you). Or that only coreligionists could marry each other. What happens when fundamentalist Hindus get involved and they want to ban inter-caste marriages? Does it not sound absurd that the state of California is inserting itself in the matters of the heart?

Second, let us look at the argument put forth by Kenneth Starr - that the citizenary is sovreign and while the citizens may approve dumb propositions, the court cannot ignore the will of the people. Yes, ultimately, the citizens are supreme. I have made that assertion and I stand by it. But can just 52% of them change the constitution? Here in California, we cannot even pass a 0.0001% tax on lollipops without a 2/3rds majority! Yes, the citizenary is sovreign but to assert that 50% + 1 votes is laughable at best - especially when it comes to changing the constitution, the supreme law of the state.

Finally, let us look at the difference between amending the California constitution and revising it. The proponents of Proposition 8 say that it is an amendment, a minimal change that only changes the restrictions on who can get married. But there is a larger principal involved. What Proposition 8 does is change the very nature of our constitution. Proposition 8 says that the government must treat certain people in a fundamentally different manner - not because of any criminal activity or bad behavior but because of who they are. That is a major revision in just about anyone's eyes.

Proposition 8 sets up a dangerous precedent and can easily undermine the core of the spirit of California - Live and let live. We have been an incubator of dreams, of ideas and of passion. Teenagers around the world dream of California. We are a diverse state - home to people of all lineages and thoughts. Enshrining discrimination in the very core of our legal framework cannot be good for us.

Can you stand up for common decency and fight this scourge?

Flip-flop of time

Last Sunday morning I adjusted many clocks - in the stove, in the microwave oven, on the kitchen wall, on the bedroom dresser, in the programmable thermostat and in the car. No, there was no power failure which threw all the clocks off. No, there was no mysterious magnetic storm. No aliens landed in my backyard. The reason was that earlier that day, at 2am precisely, we switched to Daylight Savings Time. So, the twice-yearly ritual of fixing all the clocks took place. There is even a mnemonic to make sure people get it right "Spring forward, Fall back".

On Monday, I drove to work and after parking my car, I had a strong urge to take a nap before going into the office. Every day this week I have had trouble waking up with the alarm clock even though I have been getting enough sleep. What gives?

Well, this one-hour change is a mini jet lag. And it takes a while for the body to synchronize back to the wall clock. During this time, people feel less energetic, less coordinated and are more susceptible to accidents - at home, in the office and on the road.

So, why do we go through this time change if there is such a downside? Well, years ago - back when most people worked on the same schedule, such time changes saved us daylight time in the evening and hence reduced energy consumption. But those days are long over now. We have factories and offices that are open 24-hours a day. Many people work flexible schedules. Many of us interact with people living in other countries. This time-shift business only adds to confusion when you are trying to figure out what time it is on the other side of the globe. And let us not forget what messes get created when various computer systems either fail to account for the time changes or fail to keep up with ever-changing laws in various countries.

Face it people, there was a point in time when daylight saving and the subsequent fiddling with time made sense. But it doesn't any more. This flip-flop in time only causes more headaches. Like many ideas whose time has come and gone, we must retire this concept and go back to fixed time. Perhaps we can put a proposition on the California ballot. Who is with me?

End of the one-child policy

In late 1970s, China embarked on the one-child policy - forcibly limiting couples to one child - in a desperate effort to curb population growth. China's booming population was a runaway train and the government could foresee the upcoming misery and chaos if something wasn't done.  That something was the new policy.  Of course, there were exceptions to the rule - for rural farmers, ethnic minorities, parents of disabled children and, in some cases, where the first child was a girl (after all, it is the sons that carry on the family name everywhere). 

This year marks the 30th anniversary of that policy. Those original singular children have been having their own children for a while. China is no longer the poverty-stricken country of the 70s. It has, through rapid industrialization and transformation into a manufacturing juggernaut, managed to improve its lot tremendously.  Prosperity, at least the financial kind, is everywhere. Yet the policy endures.

But today, there are strains on the horizon. The demand for sons has not dropped as the government had hoped and so there is an acute shortage of young women for the men to marry. Also, long term macro-economic forces are at work. As the population shrinks, the Chinese economic clout may get blunted. But there is a bigger worry - especially for the communist party that continues to have a monopoly on the political life in China.

Recently, there have been two tragedies that have shaken the Chinese population. The first was an earthquake in Sichuan which destroyed a lot of buildings and other infrastructure but it had a special affinity for shoddily built schools. Tens of thousands of school-going children died. The second was man made - mixing melamine with milk powder which has led to tens of thousands of children to hospitals and a handful of deaths. Both of these tragedies have disproportionately struck children and often the parents are old enough that having another child is difficult.

This has led to widespread anger amongst the parents. In Sichuan, parents refused to back down from demands that the people involved in the shoddy construction of schools be brought to justice. The government acted more swiftly regarding the melamine scandal and many involved are behind bars. But this has exposed a weakness in the communist party's grip. When an only child is harmed due to negligence of the government, the parents can no longer be restrained by the fear of what may happen to them.

Thus I believe that the Chinese government would end the one-child policy to defuse a potentially difficult situation down the road when another tragedy exposes the limits of the government's powers.  The question now is - are the Chinese, burnt by the global turmoil, willing to risk having another child?

1984 - A bad memory

I saw a movie last night - Amu.  The movie starts off light-heartedly before delving into the social unrest and murder (some would say massacre) that took place in wake of Indira Gandhi's assasination.  Now, most movies on social unrest, while interesting and impactful and engaging, do not suck me in as much as this movie because the events happened a long time back.

But this happened in front of my own eyes!  I was in high school and living in New Delhi and...  Well, the torrent of memories flash before my eyes...

I remember 31 Oct 1984 as if it happened yesterday.  Like any ordinary day, I went to school and came back home about 3pm by public bus.  BBC had already announced that Indira Gandhi was dead though the Indian media was deferring to the government which simply said that doctors were working on her.  I remember having my late lunch when my dad came home unexpectedly and he was so worked up!  He dragged me and my mom to the roof and we could see smoke billowing on the horizon from many fires in every direction.  We lived in Defence Colony (a residential area originally intended for retired military personnel) at the time and during the next 15 days it felt that we were on a military base.  There were uniformed and armed soldiers on every corner!

We were lucky.  There were no riots or mayhem in our little bubble.  But just 100 feet outside of Defence Colony, shops were burned and people murdered - all because they happened to be Sikh, the same religion as the murderers of Indira Gandhi.

Life came back to normal pretty soon.  Schools reopened and the debris from the riots swept away and the buses worked again.  But the people who incited the riots, those who wore the police uniforms and did not lift a finger to protect the people from the mobs and the political leaders who were complicit have basically escaped.  One of the accused, Kamal Nath, even serves in the cabinet of the first Sikh prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh!

On the surface things look good but I wonder what is festering beneath the placid surface of the Indian society.  Is this normalcy or simply a prelude to a bigger disaster which would unfold at the next opportunity?

The scar near my shoulder

The other day I watched a talk given by Larry Brilliant at TED.  The talk is from back in 2006 in which he talks about preventing future epidemics and then also talks about smallpox and how he helped rid India of smallpox, working there in the early 70s.  When he showed pictures of people with the smallpox blisters, it triggered a memory...

While Larry was helping WHO fight smallpox, I was in first grade in India and our entire school was vaccinated against smallpox in one day.  The doctor set up his station in a long corridor and we all queued up, rolling up our sleeves and getting vaccinated on the upper forearm near the shoulder.  I have always been afraid of needles and was physically trying to bolt from the queue.  My teacher, Shashi Dhamija, intercepted me and showed me a similar picture of someone suffering from smallpox and convinced me that getting vaccinated is not such a bad idea.  As a result, I too have the scar (an irregular circle)  that I had seen on the upper arms of my parents, my aunts and uncles and my cousins.  Not quite a merit badge, it is a reminder that we have been enlisted as soldiers in the fight against smallpox.

The other day I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) and there was a lengthy article about children in USA who are not getting immunized against measles, mumps, chickenpox and the rest. And these are not children of poor parents who either cannot afford the vaccinations or do not grasp the utility of such vaccinations. These are children of well-educated, well-off people who think that vaccines are either dangerous and cause various diseases/illnesses/syndromes such as autism or that these diseases are caused by the vaccines themselves!

I felt angry at these parents because I feel that they are risking their children's health, both short- and long-term, and they are also risking the health of the population in general (by diluting the herd immunity). I am not saying that vaccines do not carry risks or errors are not made or that certain vaccines are losing their potency. But thinking that vaccines simply do not work and it is all a conspiracy perpetuated by a vast cabal of doctors, researchers and vaccine makers is, well, asinine.

It took an army of doctors, nurses and social workers to go door to door all over the globe, educating people regarding the benefits of vaccination and immunizing people and teaching them about the symptoms to eradicate smallpox.  It was a momentous feat - tackling a disease that used to kill millions and corralling the last remnants of the virus to a few freezers in a handful of labs.  With the right vaccines and the right infrastructure, we can reduce many diseases to the same fate as smallpox, locked in a freezer.  But it requires volunteers - to join the ranks of the immunized - which seem to be in short supply these days.  And to add insult to injury, it is not just the ill-educated who are shirking.  Please, get the word out.  Go out and get vaccinated!

TCO - How to think like a Capitalist

There you are standing in the computer store trying to decide between two printers, A and B. Both have the same features, same warranties, same manufacturer and can be expected to last 5 years. The difference? A costs $50 and B $100 and B costs about 1 cent per page to print while A costs 5 cents a page (special paper). Which one should you buy?

Well, you could do "eeny meeny miney moe" or you could employ a capitalist tool called "Total Cost of Ownership" or TCO. This is a good measure of true cost. For example, you print about 10 pages a week or roughly 500 pages a year. So, over the lifetime of the printers, you would be printing 2500 pages. So, A would cost you $50 + 2500 x 5 cents or $175 while B would set you back $100 + 2500 x 1 cent or $125. I guess the cheaper printer would come out more expensive! Of course, if all you do is print one page a week or roughly 250 pages over the 5 year period, the TCO would be $62.50 and $102.50 respectively.

The above example is, of course, extremely simplistic. In real life, you may be comparing completely different technologies or different services with different guarantees etc. You may not even be able to predict your own behavior! But, if you compute TCO consistently, you can get a good feel for the costs and perhaps it would force you to figure out exactly how much you are going to use your new purchase.

So, big deal! Why is it so important? Well, TCO is a tool that we should employ in our daily lives but we don't. For example, many of us do not realize how much that must-have sweater really costs when you carry a balance on your credit card. Similarly, when we buy an inexpensive jacket that lasts just a year or two, we may end up paying a lot more in the long run than buying an expensive but durable jacket.

Another time we should employ TCO is when we are buying a car. We often pay far more attention to the price than to the costs of regular maintenance, fuel, insurance and what the vehicle would fetch when we want to replace it with a newer car.  You will find that the initial cost of the car (the purchase price) gets swamped by these"extras".  Similarly, when you renting or buying a residence, try to figure the costs of heating and cooling.  You will find that a well-insulated house is worth some extra dollars.

Anyways, keep TCO in mind the next time you are shopping for anything or even deciding whether to drive your own car or a rental on a road trip.  The results just might shock you...

Postcard from Europe #2

Long time back I was once traveling from Germany to Greece by train and ferry and I met a bunch of American college students who were going my way. We traded stories and tips on places to stay and things to do. We changed trains in Milan and had some time to kill. One of the fellow travelers looked up a sheet of paper from her backpack and got really excited. "There is a McDonald's right outside the station! We don't have to go far!".

Huh?

Well, as it turns out, the beautiful Milano Centrale was right across the street from a McDonald's. But weren't we coming from the land of McDonald's? We could always have a happy meal back home. But, the Golden Arches beckoned my fellow Americans and despite my pleas to look elsewhere, they went off for cheeseburger and coke. I browsed through a few shops and soon had my hands on panini and gelato. We gathered up in the park right outside McDonald's where we compared notes.

I hate to gloat (well, maybe just a little bit...) but I think I came out far ahead in our quest for good food. My fellow travellers discovered to their horror that they had just spent a rather large amount of money (Italian Lire were confusing) on the food that they thought would be fairly inexpensive while I not only came out cheaper, but my food was not "icky" or "weird".

The lesson was not forgotten by them when we disembarked from our next train in Brindisi and found a small trattoria just a few blocks off the beaten path where the food was good, portions were large and the price was very very sweet.

But why is all this important? Well, back in 2000, the American people (s)elected a guy that they would feel comfortable drinking beer with. And less than 8 years later, we are in deep trouble. Now, we have two candidates - John McCain who, despite his "maverick" moniker, is in lockstep with the outgoing guy on most issues and Barak Obama who seems to be a step in a new direction. Now, there are many Americans who feel that Obama is an untested choice and thus feel that they should stick with a familiar face. Well, my good friends, this is not the time to grope for the familiar. The scrutiny of Obama over the last two years has revealed a guy who is a decent choice. No, he cannot fix all the problems faced by our country right away. But at least he has a good head on his shoulders and a team of advisors that anyone should be proud of.

As my fellow travellers learned, reaching for the familiar doesn't always get you the best deal. You do want a good deal, don't you?

Colin Powell speaks... But did he say enough?

I don't have to tell you that the biggest political news over the weekend was Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama for the presidency of USA.  Rightly or wrongly, Colin Powell is considered an influential person in American politics.  He was the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the first Black) under Papa Bush, Secretary of State (the first Black) under Baby Bush and he is associated with the selling of the current Iraq War at the UN.

Colin Powell made quite a spirited effort to denounce the "Obama is Muslim" strategy of McCain/Palin ticket by saying "So what if?  There is an American soldier who is buried in Arlington National Cemetary who died fighting for US in Iraq and he was Muslim."  But is this really news to him?

The Republican Party and the Bushes have been using this strategy for years.  There was the "Cadillac-driving Black Welfare Queen" during Reagan's campaign and Willie Horton during Papa Bush's campaign.  In 2002, the Republicans questioned the patriotism of Max Cleland, a guy who lost both his legs in the Vietnam War.  Baby Bush and his surrogates used similar tactics to question Purple Hearts awarded to John Kerry during his military service in the Vietnam War.

Has Mr. Powell truly changed his mind?  Or is he a Johnny-come-lately just so that he can say that he supported Obama?  Has he realized that the Republican party has treated him as a prop (much like they have used Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas)?

If Colin Powell really has had a change of heart, he should do the honorable thing between now and November 4 -- Vigorously campaign for the Obama/Biden ticket by pointing out that John McCain and Sarah Palin are not good for our country.  They would rather demonize their opponent than support good ideas that improve our country.  And Mr. Powell needs to reiterate that the Iraq War, enthusiastically supported by John McCain, was a folly of the first order.  His ex-boss got it completely wrong and there is no other way to look at it.

But the question remains, would he?  I guess just a couple of weeks would make it crystal clear...

Protect "Traditional Marriage"?

Year:  1939.  Location:  Varanasi, India.

A young man had his heart set on marrying this young woman.  They were both single and had known each other for a long time (they were in school together).  But there was one hitch.  He was of Agrawal sub-caste while she was of Mahuri sub-caste.  When the other Agrawals in Varanasi heard about the intentions of this young man, they warned him.  They told him that what he was doing was against God's will and if he did do it, he would be excommunicated...

Year:  1958  Location:  Virginia, USA

Another young man had his heart set on marrying this young woman.  He was White, she was "Colored".  And in Virginia in those days, anti-miscegination laws were in effect and such a union was a no-no.  Well, they ended up getting married which landed them in hot water with the law and they had to move out of the state as a penalty.  Well, they still had family and friends in Virginia and so ultimately, they sued the state... 

Year:  2006  Location:  California, USA

Two lesbian women have been a couple (in their hearts and in the eyes of their friends) for the last 53 years.  They are growing old and frail and want to make it official.  But while Califonia's constitution seems to support the women in their quest, the laws require that a marriage recognized by the state have a man and a woman.  So they took their pleas to the California Supreme Court...

I think you have a clear idea where I am going with this.  People fall in love and want to get married and live the married life.  They are not asking for favors such as free housing or a car or even compelling people (other than their friends) to attend the wedding.  They are looking for that piece of paper that makes it all official.  They don't want to sneak around and lie that they are not a couple.  They want to climb the rooftops and yell "Yes, we are a couple".  They want the right to hold hands in public and to hold each other.

The first story has a happy ending.  The couple not only got married but also had 6 kids, the first of which was my father.  Yes, they were excommunicated but they managed to survive and thrive.

The second story also has a happy ending.  Richard and Mildred Loving were able to convince the US Supreme Court to overturn the Virginia laws (and laws in 15 other states) regarding inter-racial marriages.

The third story has a happy ending as well.  In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to get married.  Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon celebrated by getting married in San Francisco with the mayor officiating.

But the third happy ending has a dark epilogue.  There is a constitutional amendment on the ballot (Proposition 8) that would slam the door shut on same-sex couples.  But they have a seductive slogan - They are trying to protect "traditional marriage".

I wonder how my grandparents' lives would have turned out if they had succumbed to the pressure exerted by the "traditional marriage" folks.  Don't you?

Please say NO on Proposition 8.

It's a small world...

Last weekend, I made Ghee (aka Clarified Butter). Now, before you marvel at my cooking abilities, please note that making Ghee is a fairly simple exercise. It consists primarily of two steps:

A. Buy unsalted butter.

B. Cook the butter at low heat till all the moisture is cooked off, leaving just the fat behind.

But wait, there is actually another step. You see, butter consists primarily of three things - fat, water and a small amount of protein. If you try step B in turbo mode, the protein burns and gives the Ghee a smell and taste you would not relish (Trust me, I have done it). Many people just throw the protein residue away and enjoy the rest. But, back when I was a kid, my mom introduced me to this delicacy (called Mehran in Hindi) and I have enjoyed it ever since.

So, there I am, in my kitchen, keeping an eye on the pot with the butter and making sure nothing sticks to the bottom when I am reminded of a conversation from way back...

Back when I was living in Germany, I went to see the Meissen porcelain factory one weekend and as always, Monday was the day I updated my colleagues on my weekend travels. When I mentioned that I had "Meissen Wedding Soup", Wolfgang Uhlig piped up "Do you know the critical ingredient for it?" Well, I didn't so Wolfgang continued "You see, when you cook butter, you get this fried mass that is made only near Meissen..." Of course, I knew exactly what he was talking about and when I mentioned that I have eaten it all my life, he could not believe it! He thought that it was something so unique to the area around Meissen that he had never met anyone who could even figure out how it was made or had a name for it. And there I was, a guy raised in India, who had not only eaten it and had seen it being made, I even knew a word for it!

So, back to the present. Here I am, making Ghee and Mehran in Silicon Valley and instead of being reminded of India or of my mom's cooking, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a German guy... The world is indeed a small place. Don't you think so?