Happy New Year!!

Wish you a very Happy New Year 2006!!

For those you intested in freedom of information in the middle east and UAE in particular, 2005 was ...quite interesting!!

Still Here!!!

I have been busy lately, with a lot of stuff going on at the same time. Since what i am doing right now involves with "Sales and Marketing" and I do not have enough time to write a new blog, so i decided to recycle one of the older ones. Moreover, I wanted to mention a blog written by ex-googles on their company, both at startup level and beyond.

As per my weekend schedule, and also keeping the mind school starts next week, I visited the Borders bookstore today for a couple of hours. I had been to the bookstore a couple of days ago in downtown, which is much bigger, and re-discovered the book, “The tipping point”. I had seen the book before in the bookshelf but never came around to reading it.

Anyways, I started reading it that day and I continued the book today. It starts out a little boring but picks up very quickly. The book flap reads, “The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social Behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” The book tries to look into the similarities and try to come up with generalizations based under the umbrella topic, “Behavioral sciences”. I have just read the first part of the book, where the author describes three fundamental type of people responsible for tipping point.

The first type of person is the connectors. These are people like our grandmothers; they know each and everybody in the neighborhood and won’t think twice before starting a conversation with the person sitting next to you on a bus journey. These people are socially very active and are the gurus of networking. Each and every one of us knows somebody who is a connector. The author asks the readers to name all their friends and think through whom or how did they meet. The author believes most of his friends become his friends since they were already known to his former roommate, who thus was the connector. I have found the same here also. Most of the friends I know came from one or two persons. I know at least two people, whom everybody seems to know and they know everybody. They are the connectors for the rest of the social circle. As the author says, networking is not like a circle but more like a pyramid.

The second type of person is the Marvels. The best description for these kinds of persons is the data banks. These people know the best deals in town know more facts than regular people and don’t hesitate to give you their opinion on different aspects. They are the ones who e-mail you about a discount sale at the nearby Ben and Jerry’s and also give out discount coupons. Mind you they don’t force their recommendations; they give out information voluntarily and kind of expect you to add some to their data bank.

The last job is the salesmen. These people are tactful in their ability to persuade the general public to act on their recommendations. Almost everybody knows who a salesperson is and what he or she does, so I need not expand on that.

The book goes on to site research on various interpersonal communication patterns and behaviors. I have only read the first part of the book and look forward to read the rest tomorrow or as soon as I can. Surely a must for any one doing market research at any level.

What level is your Organizational Equity?

I found this while going through some old posts i had written a few years ago.
I should re-cycle some of the old blogs, just incase i lose some of the old blogs... :-)


What level is your Organizational Equity?

According to “Build your Organizational Equity” published in “Strategy + Business”, a Booz Allen Hamilton Inc magazine, issue of summer 2003, “organizational equity” is one of the most neglected aspects of career building.

The writer, Art Kleiner, classifies the employees of any organization into two groups. One group, called the “Core group”, consists of the top layer of employees such as CEO, CFO, important personnel such as union leaders. This group is generally the policy making group of any organization and accounts for less than 5 % of the total number of employees working in the organization. The second and less prominent group, accounting for the rest of the organization, is the “transactional group”. The members of this group have no or little-input in the policy matters and basically only transact the policy into implementation. Organizations view such groups are replaceable and largely unimportant to decision making.

So, no one wants to be stuck in the second group. Following orders is boring and does not allow your creativity to emerge. According to the author, the best method of moving from transactional group to core group is to strength your organizational equity, defined as “any share of accumulated wealth, including such intangible forms of social capital as relationships and reputation.”

Now the author gives some good examples, which I have found lead not only to organizational success, but also success in life because the world in which we live in is, after all, a huge organization.

•Fungible Financial Equity: This is the financial part of the equity and is most tangible. Having enough financial assets gives you the choice of starting your own company or not working for sometime. Experts recommend saving enough money, either in saving account or some other method, to sustain yourself and your dependents for at least 9 months without a job. Getting to a threshold is critical since once you achieve that goal, savings become capital and pay large enough dividends for a comfortable lifestyle.

•Rainmaking Equity: This is the ability to be the rainmaker of the organization. Can you achieve something no other person in the organization can such as closing that large contract or building a strong department? Rainmaking qualities are hard to attain but it is not impossible.

•Credential Equity: This is the most visible form of your organizational equity. Degrees and certifications help build this equity. The most evident obstacle is the high-expense and time required to maintain this equity.

•Reputation Equity: The writer explains, “You build your reputation less through the accomplishments you stack up (what you do) than through the way you operate in life (who you are).” Consultants, lawyers, doctors make their careers on this equity.

•Relationship Equity: The most commonly understood quality in organizations, it all depends on ‘who you know and how well do you know vs. what you know’.

•Capability Equity: This is the ability to learn more skills and capabilities to add into your already existing equities. Having capability to learn is widely searched for in interviews.

Categorizing Cultures

I did not know this, but according to the book, "When Cultures Collide, Leading across Cultures", there are three different cultures based on the time management employed. The first two are the Linear Active and Multi-active cultures.

The Linear active do one task at a time, and plan accordingly. In a very linear methodology of working. Examples of such cultures are the germans and Dutch. They do one thing a time, concentrate hard on that thing, and do it within a scheduled time period.

Multi-active are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They are more interested in reality of the situation and they think they get more done this way, than focus on one task. They are more task -concentric, i.e., they would jump around the tasks regardless of the time implications. Examples of such cultures are latin americans, Arabs, and Aficans.

The third type of culture is the Reactive culture. Japanese belong to such division. They change their habit depending on the other person's culture. They prefer to listening to and establish the other's position first, then react to it. These guys are more fexible than the other two cultures.

Ofcourse, needless to say, every individual falls somewhere inbetween the spectrum and these are not rules set on stone. It depends on which position is more comfortable to the individual person.

India | The next wave ????

I am a regular reader of the "Free-Market" magazine, the Economist. This week, the magazine reported the emerging trends of Indian companies towards more high-valued services such as legal document preparations and statergy consulting. Although India has one of the highest graduation numbers in the world, i.e, educated, english-speaking workforce; it lacks some of the very basics in terms of skills needed to work in the global scale.

I have found many a boss complaining about the lack of vision, to think beyond the realm of the task given to the employee. Most Indians would not like me saying it, however the truth is that most of the young programmers have been taught to be "Yes Men" and "Code Monkeys". This is specially true at the graduates rolled out by the lower level universities in India. As somebody I know said it, the advantage in India is simply blunt force. You employee 10 people towards solving a problem that a western educated person could solve in 10 days. You will find that the problem will get solved in 8 days. And you will save money. However, in the high skilled consulting market, it will be hard to establish dominance due to the self imposed constiants of the educational/cultural background. Simple numbers will not do the trick.

Read more at http://www.businessweek.com/ and www.economist.com/busin...

HDTV in Dubai?

I have been looking around to recommend a new television for my parents. Television Technology has rapidly evolved over the last 3 years, to include a number of (confusing) options, not all of which make the best of sense. I am no expert in television technology nor content programming. However, I believe a few features are essential for every new generation, long term television purchase.

One is the size of the television. Needless to say, the bigger the better is almost always correct. The size is always measured in inches for some reason. Larger models have certain dis-advantages including image quality. Which is the second feature to look for. Image Quality. It is measured in various ways, some are pixals that the television can display. The more image has to be enlongated, the worst the quality of the television. These two always play the balancing act in regards to your television purchase. The rest of the factors involved are sound quality, life of the television itself among many others.

Ofcourse, two main types of the televisions are those which are flat screened, i.e, can be put on a wall and those which have a bulky back to them. Like the regular CRTs we all have at home. The other two popular differentiating features are LCD vs Plasma. Plasma being the older technology is more prominent world-over however, it has a shorter lifespan than LCD. LCD used to be very expensive until huge factories started chucking out the glass displays in korea.
Ofcourse, over the last few years HDTV is the feature to upgrade for.

HDTV is High Definetion Television. Nobody would have cared to upgrade to this technology and the manufacturs would have bothered to market it so high in normal circumstances. However, United States of America decided that all terrestial transmissions would have to be in HD technology by the end of 2007 or 2008 I believe. Most cable operators in united states have already started providing content in both HD and normal trasmissions. DVDs are becoming HD-DVDs which can store more content at better quality than DVDs (HD DVD players are coming out early next year, including new Playstation 3 and rumor has it that mircosoft is releasing HD DVD in XBox 360 next year.) For anyone who is interested in technology format wars, you will already know the battle between Blu-Ray and Tosiba HD.

Now, every technology shop i visit in Dubai, Flat screen LCDs and Plasmas with HDTV technology compatable are the norm of the day. However, there is no current HDTV broadcasting available in dubai. The only research i could dig out what this news article which says E-vision has plans to rollout HDTV channels soon. How soon? and will i be better off waiting a couple of years before paying huge amounts of money for some features i will not be able to use?

Most famous Toys in various decades

Reported on slashdot, the toys are mostly of american/europeon origin. Although i dont think the rest of the world does not play with toys, western toy makers and their distributor retailers come into Black during the xmas sales. Thus, the popularity is based on the holiday rush.

However, xmas holidays sometimes have nothing to do with the popularity of a "Toy". ViewMaster 3-D was released in 1938 was one of the most popular toys of 1930's and the most popular scenic reel was of Mecca. I vagly remember seeing something similar to a view master, showing  regilious sites in festival fairs in india during the early 1980's. I am sure such "toys" sell far removed from the demographics they targeted.

Coming back to the current year, this year the  biggest fav. is supposed to be the Xbox Live. However, i will be waiting for Playstation 3 to come out in next spring before deciding which one is better. The Xbox is yet to be released in dubai, however global releases have been going on for quite sometime.

Read more at www.forbes.com/2005/12/...

Secret Dubai diary

Came across this Blog while surfing the net. Looks like somebody who is working at the media city is writing it. It is very interesting and should be a good starting point to anyone interested in life in dubai. I would have recommended my site, however, you already know my blog since you are reading it right now!

Read more at secretdubai.blogspot.co...

New Entry in the Book List on your left side

I have recently purchased this book at Virgin Magastore (at mall of the emirates) in Dubai. You might have noticed the lack of updates in the list. This is primarly due to the fact that i myself did not come across any book worth mentioning during recent times.

Unlike the time i was in san francisco, good book stores are very hard to find in dubai. Although marketed as the future knowledge/services city in the middle-east region, books and avid readers are noticeably absent in this city. The new store at MOE has been opened only a fortnight ago, and is good. Or shall i say, atleast comparable to the bookstores in the western nations. I am a big fan of Borders Bookstore, primarly due to the fact that they have one of the biggest selection of books you would hope for. The Virgin store is very spacious and marketed for the western crowd in dubai.

The books are also priced at international levels, which is very cheap considering that other bookstores in dubai charge atleast 20% extra than the dollar amounts on the books. The only cheap books in dubai are indian editions of some books, which is also a ripoff considering that you are paying in Dhs for something in rupees. Ofcourse books of indian edition are very cheap in india compared to the rest of the world.

The second change in made to the list is not linking the image to amazon bookstore. I decided to post a link to Google Print which allows you to search through the book atleast, incase you are looking for something particular. You can always search for the title in your favoriate bookstore. (You need a google account for searching. If you dont have one, contact me)

Mozilla Firefox Start Page

I am trying the new Google/Firefox plugin that allows me to comment on webpages directly from a popup-style box. In addition, it allows me to look at other blogs referring to the page i am viewing at present. (Notice the link below)

This feature is suprising very similar with one service that was started during the dotcom era. That download allowed you to chat with people of the messenging network (ICQ I think) who were viewing the same page at the same time. The idea was people would read similar stuff have common interests, or least had one commonality which was the webpage. The most fun part was that the software recogized my mail box as a page nobody else was interested in. (I sure hope not!!)

Read more at www.google.com/firefox?...

What Thomas Friedman Says

Continuing with the question of specializations and job security, Thomas Friedman says it best in page 238 of his book, "The World is Flat". He defines "Untouchables" as people whose jobs cannot be outsourced. (And any job that can be outsourced basically means you are competing headon with the rest of the world, not that you will lose your job tommorow!!)

So who are the untouchables, and how do you or your kids get to be one? Untouchables come in four broad categories: workers who are "special", workers who are "specialized", workers who are "anchored", and workers who are "really adaptable".

Special workers are people like Mr.Gates and Michael Jordon. They work in global scale and are top of the pyramid. They need no fear job security because they create their own jobs. Specialized workers are phd or equalivant candidates who will always have demand for their niche skills. Workers who are "anchored" are usually people serving a community and need to be "one-site" year round. These are nurses, doctors, gardeners, firemen, security personnel..you get the idea. Last but not least, Comes the "Adaptable". These are the multi-taskers, the ones who can adapt to any situation and quickly learn to specialize it in. They need to be good in learning and changing their tool sets every so often. Entrepreneurs comes across as likely candidates for this sector. Known to take risks and adapt to circumstances, they will be able to survive in any society.

Thomas Fiedman might be writing the book about outsourcing,, but it is more fundamentally about globalization of human resources. Not natural resources, that is already over. Human resources are the "body shops" of the day. Indian sucess depends on human resources needed to be good IT personnel. American success depends on a large part on the human resouces of innovation and resource planning. You could guess what the chinese and the south east asians depend on. Now what Europe and Africa needs to decide is where does their human potential lie??

Where do you place yourself in this grid??

The basic concept behind the “World is Flat” book is that the flatting of the competitive strengths and weaknesses across the world, mainly thanks to technological advances. The concept is one of globalization as well as the one of capitalism. However, one has to keep in mind that as far as globalization is concerned, it does not limit itself to the capitalism aspects of it even though capitalism gave birth to globalization. Globalization is a concept that does not look the content but only at the process of delivery across the world. It all depends on the extent of “push” behind the content. Just as important are the facts of communism, which in its own way, predicted the globalized world and predicted the struggle between the global worker against the global capitalist. In more ways than one, it is a war that has been fought over the centuries not only in terms of the traders and their workers, or landowners and their peasants, or in the terms of at the levels of kingdoms or nations or even villages. However, now it is a global issue as much as it is a local issue. The stakes have never been higher nor ever been so uncertain. You are competing against the highest paid worker in the most industrialized city of the western world as well as the unpaid worker who is willing to do it just on the basis of hope of gaining something better in future. Lose against the highest paid worker, what you lose is only few notches of living standards. Lose against the unpaid worker, you are out of a job. End of story. The worst part of this dilemma is that the unpaid worker is the hungriest person.

Wars during the yester years of the human history were fought in terms of armies and kings and so on and so forth. Through wars were depended upon the extra wealth of the society as whole, where most efficient country could maintain the necessary forces, the individual is little or no say in the matter. He could live his or her life without much fear of competition apart from his or her neighboring village or town. To be exact, it is a case of monopoly or duopoly. With the advent of global village concept, you have a village completely full of your competitors. Not only that, you have a village where, thanks to ever changing career methodologies, anybody could potentially compete with you – any person who can think to be precise.

In this global working environment, the nature of jobs and skill sets can be arranged on a grid scale. At one end of the horizontal scale is the specialization where as the other end is the newbie in every way possible, a person who knows nothing. Where as the specialist is a person whose strengths lie in only one specific area of expertise, where he or she runs a monopoly; a newbie has yet to learn anything period. In terms of the vertical scale, you have a person who works in one and only one industry at one end of the scale; where as the other end is filled with people who are “jack of all trades”.

100 Oldest Currently Registered Domain Names

Found this link while reading through slashdot.

http://www.jottings.com/100-oldest-dot-com-domains.htm

Notice every few NASDAQ-listed, technology companies registered their domain names back in the year 1985. Xerox, GE, Intel, HP, IBM are a few that are mentioned.

The latest Transparency International Figures on Corruption

The latest Corruption Perceptions Index figures are out. As usual, the sandinavian countries are least corrupt, where as the highly-populated and mostly poor countries of Bangladesh and Chad are most lax about their own rules. Of the noteworthy countries, India ranks 88th with rest of this group

Armenia	2.9	2.5 - 3.2	4
Benin	2.9	2.1 - 4.0	5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2.9	2.7 - 3.1	6
Gabon	2.9	2.1 - 3.6	4
India	2.9	2.7 - 3.1	14
Iran	2.9	2.3 - 3.3	5
Mali	2.9	2.3 - 3.6	8
Moldova	2.9	2.3 - 3.7	5
Tanzania	2.9	2.6 - 3.1	8

where as United Arab Emirates takes much higher rank with 30th place. United States is in 17th place.

Given the table, I find it hard to see any common occuring themes effecting the performance except the level of living standards of the majority of the population and size of the population. The statement, "Democracy means less corruption due to the checks and balances" can hardly be proven. Regardless of the method of administration in the state level, access to information and education on how to use it define the strength of a strong moral society.

Dubai, Middle East and the transfer of wealth

In this age of globalization, there are thousand and one ways you could make money. And, thousand and two ways you could lose control of your money. This holds true for every level of the society, the only factors differeniating among the various levels are the size of the effect and pace of change. Of-course, the asian crisis is the biggest and most drastic example in recent memory, I dont know of any such events that might have happened in mid 18 or 19 centruy western europe or america.

I can presently think of two instances where rapid run-off of money happened suddenly. One was in india, last week where an estimated 1.5 Billion US$ left the country, almost all of it was FDI. This was mainly triggered by the fall of indian currency vs the dollar. The corporates were making sure that get the max value for the exchange, and booked their profits couple of weeks ago. The rupee was under pressure mainly due to the high cost of oil prices. Ofcourse, this sudden outflow of money came from the profit taking of stocks, leading to some of the highest drops of SENSEX in recent history. I dont know today's numbers, but i am sure the market will recover surely and most of the fall was an over-due correction in the markets.

The Second example is a slightly more longer term effect, although triggered by sudden events. Here the money left the markets for good, atleast for a long long time. The Event was ofcourse, the sept 9. 11. 2001 event of the twin towers and the money in question is of arab investors in united states and europe. Over the next two years, although most of it almost immediately, money moved gradually back to middle-east from vairous markets. And it is believed, a large chunk of it moved to fund real estate developement, mainly in the Dubai.

Which is where i am right now. In this city, there seems to be huge construction boom. Almost every day, a new 40-something storey building is being built or atleast annonced and every fortnight, a multi-billion dollar construction project being announced. By the end of the decade, these guys will not have any more space to build anything more!! Ofcourse, they have already encountered that problem in certain aspects like the limited beach property available in the city. So they are making three palm shaped land recumation projects (or islands as they call them) and one set of islands ( 300 of them in fact ) shaped like the globe. In addition to these, the city-state is in the process of building the world-biggest tower and mall.

It is not as if the city has no previous property notewhile. Home of the only seven star hotel in the world, and many more attactions, these guys are invested in crazy and crazier projects than you and I could imagine. Like building a 40 ft ski slope in the middle of the desert for skiing purposes.

Infact, it is as if people in this part of the world need not go to any other part of the world at all. All they need to do is to come to dubai for the seven wonders of the world, ski to their heart content, enjoy all the pleasures that any western destination would offer and some more. By the way, did i mention that Dubai is building dubailand, a theme-city which includes a water-park, rides and even a formula one race track. I cant possibly list all the projects out being constucted. Google Dubai Holding for the list of some ofthe projects.

Ofcourse, the process is not without problems. Dubai International financial Exchange, which was recently inarguated, was termed lacklaster in many ways. Most of the projects are not completly vaiable. The cost of living has increased treumenously and higher construction costs are effecting all the projects. The main appoach of the citizens of Dubai is, " We will build them, they will come". They, in this context refers to arabs, muslims, and africans of middle-east and african region, who would prefer to go somewhere nearer to their home and meet people who share similar cultures. However, it is far from proven that they will come. And only time will tell...

AFL-CIO ; The debate on the future of Labour Unions

Since the advancment of capitalism in the western world, a parallel power structure where worker and his or her rights can be heard emerged. Since the early days of industrialisation, the empowerment of workers was seen as a primary factor for the better meant of human society. The furstrations of Maxistism can be felt in the low-lit, industries of cloth, steel, coal etc. It is the difference in how modern society would best benefit the working populations of lower classes. Socialism and Communisim project an worker-owned company, with shakeholder rights the most important factor in the management of the company.

Capitalism, in the era of industries and later, depended on managerial capacities to direct the company to best suit the human populations. However, due to increasing layers of management, the modern companies are run by shareholders themselves. It is the wall streets of the nations that decitate the future of capitalism. And wall street never like Unions. For them, having a stake in the company meant low costs and high revenues. High profits could them to be distributed to all the members of the shareholder community. Thus, the idea of Bush of creating an investor generation. As the dream of the next american socity, each house has investments in the market, thus directly benefiting from higher profits.

And by the way, higher profits can be achived where costs are low. Outsourcing makes low costs with increased quality and efficiency possible. Unions are losing their primary motive to operate. The populations they are committed to serve no lower need them. Outsourcing and high business blend of mind are not the only reasons for the loss of union people.

In a book i am reading called, "Our Modern Times: The New Nature of Capitalism in the Information Age" by Daniel Cohen, the author distinguishes three kinds of human capital: "General" "specific" and "Biographical".

"General" human capital is that which bears on the mastery of a competence that is exterior to the firm and "general" to a certain type of knowledge. This is typically the competence of "professionals" who have left the wage-earning pool for higher ground and whose remuneration (including stock options) has much in common with financial capital remunerations. This is also the competence of CEOs who go from managing one company to managing another, and of the new technological pioneers.

"Specific" human capital is that which comes to bear on "internal" knowledge in the company- knowledge accumulated by a worker through apprenticeship in a certain type of work. Often an individual loses such knowledge when he or she walks out the gate of the company. This capital is the direct heir of managerial capitalism in that it depends on a long-term relationship with the company and is rooted in the heart of shareholder economics.

"Biographical" human capital is in some ways the capital of those who have no other type of capital, even if it is the also at times the true heritage of certain individuals in "upper management" whose sole capital is "knowing human relationships." Most often this is the capital of who can be called the " new proletariat": those who have only their lives to use as "experience." This is nonetheless "capital" in the sense that we have confidence in an individual because he or she is thought to react in an appropriate manner in various unforeseen circumstances. Such capital can become more valuable with time, or it can be lost when a worker is unemployed for a long time.

The General Knowledge worker, the Professionals of our world, are the best placed in the society. These people are educated formally, have a wide range of skills that can be used in various companies and are least likely to remain jobless for long periods of time. The educated, and in our generation worker, makes his or her own career path; jumping jobs and industries whenever required or they wish to do so. The Ultra-mobile, Yupiee culture generation fall into this catogory.

The "specific" worker flowerished under socialist, paper-filled ara of the mid-1900's where rules and regulations were the order of the day. A person needed to be in the company for long period of time to understand the rules and regulations of the company. Seriorship was worshiped. With the advant of mobile worker, seniority is gone - atleast not regarded in the same way.

The Biograpical worker is a self-starter, the entrupurer, and built a resume by the method of working several jobs, proving his or her each time.

The Unions thrived under the specific worker where as the majority of the workers nowadays are the other types. Also globalization has its role. The question now with the unions are what direction would they go for?

Transportation Systems

After a long time, I am sitting at a café and writing a blog. I used to do it a couple of months ago, more like a many months ago. Back in the day, when I was still at the university which I still am in some ways. As mentioned earlier, I moved from San Francisco to another city across the country, which in many ways is equally as interesting to live in, if not more. Of course, I am talking about New York City. Well, as you might have guessed, nobody who is unemployed lives in the New York City. Most families live outside the city and commute to the city. I am presently lodging at a cousin’s place in Stamford, CT, an hour’s distance to the city by train.

Speaking of trains, the only reason why New York or any such city can survive in the booming city population is through good, effective transportation. And Efficient. The transportation system in London is very similar, although much older. I am sure future generations would look at the subway systems of modern cities and would be amazed as we are of the drainage system of the first civilizations. With the technology available in modern transportation systems, especially the pubic transportation systems, I think we did a very good job (wherever it is being done). I am sure more such transportations are needed in more and more developing cities world wide and such systems are being developed. An example is Delhi. If the subway system would not have developed, it would have been impossible for people to survive in the pollutions generated by the citizens of the city. And more and more cities around the world desperately need some kind of public transportation available. Studies have shown that a developed and efficient public transportation could do wonders for both the local economy as well as the health care of the people.

Thus, it is very surprising that more emphasis to public transportation is not been given. Instead developing cities are emphasizing on improvement of present inefficient systems which, more than often not is owned by either the government or private ownership who are more interested in short term view. I wonder who owns the transportation systems in the New York City area. I believe the system is managed by trusts, non-profit organizations, overseen by board members belonging to the all communities. I could not be wrong if the actual maintenance of the system is privatized.

Take a case of Hyderabad, India. Traditionally, the major modes of transportation were private cars, two-wheelers, autorickaws, ricshaws, and finally buses. A local ground train system was present, but ineffiently run and outdated (It did not go to anywhere meaningful). In the last decade, the government introduced a number of changes. One of the main projects in the 90’s was the beautification of the city, including expansion of the road system. Roads were widened wherever possible, both by occupying adjacent land as well as breaking down existing illegal structure. One lane roads became 4 lanes in some areas. However, the general public simply “updated” their transportation modes from 2 wheelers to cars to SUVs. The road system is still bad. On the other hand, the Bus system improvements had some positive effect on the road condition. A multi-layered payment system enabling higher paying customers to pay for added comforts resulted in some improvement in the system. New Types of Buses were introduced catering to various demographics. Talk about a mono-rail system fell through due to politics. The disadvantage with mono-rail is the cost of construction. (It is usually built in the same routes as major highways, thus further disrupting the traffic) As with everything else, a newer system developed which is not as efficient but bypasses the problems created by the old system. Budget Airlines have come up connecting cities which a mono-rail should be plying to. Private ownership has enable capital to flow in without politics and a small section of the society is benefiting from it. If a good pubic system was made possible, with almost the same amount of capital (or even less), more citizens of the country would have benefited. (I am assuming that the cost of transportation that is the ticket price is going to be affordable for the general pubic). However good the budget airline system is, it is a very poor substitute for mordern tranportation systems.

What are the disadvantages of such a transportation system? As with everything, something on paper (or in this case, computer) is very different from actual reality facts. How an impliementation progresses depends on the people who turn it, not the technology used behind it, nor the money attocated to it.

Here I am, After so many Days

Hi Everybody, My Invisible Devoted Readers of My Blog. Thank you for your continued silence over my lack of blogs. ( NO thanks to the handful who have complained about the lack of them). As you might have guessed, I personally would like to take all the blame for the lack of public information from my side.

For a lot of time has passed between posting of my last blog and now, one would expect the whole has changed drastically. In some ways, it has. One never takes death as a joke, the attacks in London leave a sad reminder of Life and Death. But as Life goes, things change very slowly or atleast that is what we presive.

Anyways, for those of you would do not know, I am still looking for a Job. As the gold saying goes, "An Idle Mind is a Devil's Workshop", I have neither being busy nor productive. That does not mean I did nothing. (Atleast that is what i would like to Think)

Anyways, more about that later. I will quickly mention that I have read the book , "Lair's Poker" and am in the process of reading Bill Clinton's "My Life". I am now in East Coast, in New York City. More abut that in later blog.

Hari Puter ( Hari Son)

I have a perfect explaination for the lack of blogs in the recent days. I was too busy listening to Harry Potter Series. I have seen the movies of book one and two when they were released. I dont remember watching book number three, although my roommate said I did watch it. I have listening to the audio book number five, and read the book number four I believe. Anyways, this was before I decided to listen to the whole series Back To Back in view of the upcoming release of the sixth book. I have the whole series in audio book format produced by the BBC.

First of all, the school of Hogswart reminds me of my own school in India, both based on the British System of Schooling, that is, both have houses which you belonged to, competition against each other in sports and other activites. I used to stay at the Dorms at the school, where the system was quite similar with common room and houses. ( Although the houses for school were different from houses for the dorms.) And more importantly, We were an all boys school. It has become a co-ed after I graduated from high school and still is I believe.

Homo economicus; Paul Wolfowitz and World Trade

Couple of Issues came up over the last week about which I wanted to write down. One was this interesting article on the economist about trade and specialization being the reason why Homo sapiens displaced previous members of the genus, such as Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man), and emerged triumphant as the only species of humanity.

This week also saw first major development in terms of trade and commerce between the two big asian nations, India and China. Through mostly symbolic in many ways, I am hoping general world order would see a better world peace and prosperity than during previous globalization periods with nearly one third of the populations cooperating together. Alas, theory is as beautiful as practice is messy. Here is an interesting discussion on slashdot on the same.

And Finally, looks like Paul Wolfowitz is becoming the head of World Bank. I am sure there will be changes in the structure of major institutions of the world inaddition to changes in United States. (In United States, you have social security, karl rove led republican re-emergence, etc where as the rest of the world U.N is going through major transformations, World Banks looks like it is changing, basically anywhere United States can influence any way.) Only time will tell if which of these will be radical transformations and which will sizzle out.

Richie Rich and Rembrandt

Early during my childhood, while I was in my third grade I believe, I was introduced to a comic book called, "Richie Rich: The Poor Little Rich Boy". I don't remember why I was attracted to it at that time, never the less, it was and still is one of my fav. Comic book series. I just kept reading and reading them until, I believe, I must have read the whole series.

The comic was printed in the United States and although I don't know about the author's or publisher history much, I believe Harvey Comics published the comics starting from the 1950's, however gaining wide popularity only in the 1960's onwards. It would be not until late 1980's that I would start reading them. Well, guess what, whenever I go to India, I still sit down and read a couple of the old copies I collected.

The thing that attracted me to the comic was the extravagant lifestyle and un-realistic riches displayed by the kid and his father. A personal robot, statues made of gold, vaults in the estate which were big enough to be houses, helicopters, the mansion had 1000 rooms and growing!! All this, the kid was still called Poor!! Somehow all the money in the world could not buy him much happiness :-(

The comics showed me a world of what money and business could do. And what it could not. In my own childish, innocent way. I cannot say that the series did not influence my career choices to become an business man. Ofcourse, later more stuff influenced my decision when reading Richie Rich was not the most intellectual thing I could do.

Why all this talk about Richie Rich today, now? While I was reading "Morgan : An American financier", I suddenly remembered where I heard the word, "Rembrandt" first in my life. (The book was talking about Morgan collecting around 300 Rembrandts in his lifetime. ) It was in Richie Rich. He had Rembrandts all over his house. And more over, I remember an issue when he tries to convince his mom that the whole mansion needs re-painting since the Rembrandts did not look nice on the walls. He, finally, convinces her saying that her jewels does not look good enough. Some of the mansions described in the Morgan's book sound just like the houses of make believe Richie Rich. I guess Capitalism reached me at a much earlier age than I realized. Through American Comic Books!!

The World might be Flat; but the strategic areas are already taken.

Yesterday I watched charlie Rose interview Thomas L. Friedman about his latest book called, "The World Is Flat : A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century". The interview was very interesting and , as usual, it got me thinking in the various terms in regards to the book, it's premise and the effects of a flat world. Most of the information presented in the book is not unknown to me, however, this book ( I hope) will be a comprevensive introductory material for anybody interested in the future of the world in general and the effects of technology in particular to our daily lifes.

The book was written while the author was interviewing business leaders in india and elsewhere about Outsourcing and its effects on daily lifes of the populations involved in it. Althrough I did not read the book yet, ( I am dying to start reading it), I did buy it just a few minutes ago. I am bound to write some more about the book and its emplications; as well as critic it ( which is by no means an expert cirtic of the book), I would like to write down the 10 forces that flatten the world according to the author.

1. 11/9/89 : The fall of the berlin wall in germany and the start of the end of the bipolar world. Also personal computers came into scene with usable technologies at costs affortable to general public.
   
2. 8/9/95 : The start of the boom of .coms with netscape.
   
3. Work-Flow Software: The applications could start to talk to each other. This is still a force we encounter everyday.
   
4. Open-Sourcing: Linux and the Open source community. The power of individuals in smaller groups has never been greater.
5. Outsourcing: Your credit card call center is handled by a person whose name is longer than Schwarzenegger!!
6. Offshoring: Moving entire factories to other parts of the world. The effects of China.
   
7. Supply-Chaining: Wal-mart effect. If you have taken any business course in recent years, or are in touch with business in anyway, you will know what i mean.
   
8. Insourcing: DHL, UPS, Fedex. They now do everything you ask them to do, and more. The value added servies they started cant easily to replicated and are essential to the globalization.
   
9. In-forming: Yahoo, Google, etc. The explosion of information, both on-demand and distributive. The effect of internet can be really left when i can watch any place in the world, live and know what is going on there. And you though the telegraph was the greatest inventation of communication!!
10. The Steriods: Wireless telecommunications and ultra-mobile world of devices.
    

The author goes on in further chapters talking about some other stuff, which i haven't touched yet, however I will comment on it once I did read it.

In the message boards of charlie Rose, I found the following comments which I think give a fair critic of the view presented by the author.

Part 1 - the missing cycle.
The problem he ignores, and doesn't talk about in his book, is that we in the US have what everyone else in the world wants. We don't have the highest standard of living, but we're pretty close to it. So now as democratization spreads, and older cultures modernize (China, India, Russia), they want the stuff we enjoy. An additional 3 Billion people are now competing for all of the same jobs and they want what we want. The insidious nature of this transformation is that they all are fighting for jobs we don't want, but in the process, they end up taking away the jobs we do want. By that I mean menial tasks like assembly are now in Asia because these jobs don't pay very well. But then the need for Supervisors, Managers, Directors, Chief of operations, etc. materializes. Then because the first plant did well, additional plants get built which divert even more jobs. Then the wages that they receive in their local currency elevates their standard of living which drives up the rate of consumption in their local economy which sparks the local phenomenon of "keeping up with Jones". Eventually their consumption adds to the demand for more production, which creates more jobs, which are not located in the USA. Get it. Do you now see how seemingly innocuous, but truly insidious, this cycle really is for Americans? Mr. Friedman fails to illuminate us on this salient point and fails to acknowledge this cycle in his book.

This cycle is currently underway and as these other citizens of the world fight for their right to own a home, a car, and a TV, their standard of living will rise. Relative to ours, this means Americans will either become the lords over all, or our standard of living will either stagnate or decline. As 3 to 7 Billion over the next 50 years fight to have what we have, major dislocations will devastate the G7. Unemployment in Europe is already in double digits and young able-bodied man and women have no jobs because they have out priced their worth to the global markets. Local wages are too high and taxes are too high. And as a commentary for us in the US, our government is now unraveling the "New Deal" of yester-year and embarking on decreasing taxation as a way to attract foreign capital and investment so that the USA isn't left out of the new third world economic engine. Plus it attracts foreigners to buy our debt, which is keeping us afloat. To put it simply the new global players still need the USA's consumers!

However, what Mr. Friedman doesn't acknowledge is that in the near future the rest of world won't need us. Once we have sold them the technology to build and then show them how to do it, these other countries are on their own. Fortunately, our companies are leading in many areas, but think of these other countries as apprentices. Remember Japan and Germany. Both were decimated after WW II, but as our proteges, they were fast learners and took off all by themselves.

Part 2 - World Population
From an egocentric point of view, Americans are currently biggest consumers on the planet and everybody around the world is serving our need for consumption. Companies are driving down costs to provide better and lower cost goods for us to buy. And they are searching the globe to get this done (this is why Mr. Friedman has a rosy outlook because this is good for us now). However, eventually these other countries rate of consumption will exceed ours and they will serve either their own needs or the needs of their new larger customers (China, India, Russia, Brazil). This will occur in only one generation as the world's population grows by another 3 Billion.


While Mr. Friedman is correct in summarizing the current flattening of the World (Globalization, the new way), his rosy view ignores the impact of the growth in the world's population . The fact that the next doubling of the population will not occur in the USA means that if we don't own it now, we never will. Plus, our little place (USA) on the planet will appear to get smaller and our share of what's going on the world will diminish as China, India, Russia, Brazil, and 80 plus other countries dominate all markets. (These countries will no longer cow-tow to use Americans unless we control their purse strings, which is not likely).

As these 80 plus smaller countries begin to build their infrastructure, they benefit from not having to waste money on rebuilding an existing one since they didn't have one in the first place. So they are in a position to leap frog over older technologies and other mature civilized countries "in a single bound". These new "super countries" will be small and nimble with the ability to adjust like any entrepreneurial company and quickly pick a sector of interest and commoditize it. For example, with the proper irrigation system in place, a little country in Africa could decide to become the world producer of potatoes. Millions of acres of potatoes for the additional 4 Billion mouths to feed in the upcoming expanding global marketplace. Or they could become the world produce of paper clips. The choice is theirs and in a single generation they can obliterate poverty by building their country into a global store as part of the global mall.

Part 3 - World Resources
Another critical point missing from Mr. Friedman's book is that the earth's resources are now be gobbled up at an ever increasing rate. In the last 50 years, the population of the earth doubled from 2.8 Billion to 6.4 Billion and in the next 50 years it will reach over 9 Billion. The impact of this is huge and overhangs all of world's economies. And as a matter of fact, the poorer countries will be in a position to better survive any price inflation due to resource shortages, as they are not yet as dependent upon those resources as the G7. So as the world runs out of stuff the newer countries with their lower standard of living will be better able to do without. Just think about the fact that already 1/3 of the world's population is without potable water. How would an American cope without?

The flattening of the world is now inevitable, however, I don't believe the glass is half full and rising for the USA, I believe that the glass is half-full and leaking. The unknown variable is how our government can adapt to the New World order. Do they have vision to protect our position in the global marketplace? Do they acknowledge the current trends and are preparing for them? How do they plan to maintain our standard of living or are we going to watch it slip away? Lastly, are they simply fighting to keep what we've got and running us into the ground with debt?

You can't get any flatter than that. That's dead flat.

-- source: http://boards.charlierose.com/board/topic.asp?ti=12035

Although I do not agree with the details of the critic, I do agree on the broad sense of the debate that is going on.

In the Missing Cycle section, the critic complains that the rest of the world will not need United states of america. Although I wish it were the case, united states is not going to disappear for a couple of reasons. United States become the global power due to mainly reason, cheif upon them is their attaction to diversity. In history, almost all major powers of their period had diversity in their side. The importance of free exchange of ideas and resources cant be exgagreated. The reason why India and China present a major force against the powerhouse of united states is because they have such huge populations that are divserse themsevles. The vastness of their countries combined with their populations enables them to show diversity in workplace not unlike the united states. It was only when caste systems began to break that India even started to grow beyond the "hindu rate of growth" of 2 to 3%. However the situation is not perfect and could go south at any moment. Where as in United States, diversity is protected by strong institutions and establishments not yet developed in India and China and other competitors. If the immigration polcies focus on other smaller countries where people are willing to come to united states, take advantage of the eductational facilities instead of hoping to attact indians and chinese only, United States can still maintain some of its power. Unfortunely, Indians have enough Indians and Chinese have enough chinese in their countries that immigration is very much a joke. Hey, the simple idea is if i want to work with the workforce of the world, I come to United states to work. The rest can never achieve to attact the best and brightest of the world.

The second point in global population. It is a known fact that the european populations are dying out while the rest of the world is coming to age. This presents a unquie situation since population growth of one part of the world has never effected the population of any other part of the world. Looking at it in a simplistic microeconomic view, the only way the developed economiocs can survive is when they protect themselves in high levels of income by sheilding themselves in high-paying jobs. They still need to be a part of the global society of commerce and trade, without which they will not benefit from the low cost (compared to their income level) goods and services available. Unfortuentely, this has been ignored by most of the developed countries. They either take the route of complete protectionism thereby leaving out low cost oppertunities or they do not focus on issues that enable these societies to maintain their high income. Right now, the present economic scanieo rewards highly educated individuals regardless of the sector they are in. High educational costs limit the competitiveness of the skilled workforce of the developed world. Again a good immigration policy added with good educational and economic incentives should help the developed world.

The third point made is about global resources. Here I believe the very nature of capitalism, i.e., the in-built tension between the entrupreous and the established corporations/businesses will give us the solution. I personally hope that capitalism would move away from a destrutive emphasis on materialistic goods and services, and focus more on health and happiness of individuals and society. Just like how india and china embraced the wireless technologies without going through the telephone generation, given enough economic incentives more eco-friendly goods and services will be introduced by the market. Just think of the amount of money that was spent on houses during the 19th century and the amount of wastage they endured. Nowadays eco-friendly houses are a common place in some countries and will be so as more and more people demand it. Simple laws of economics of scale.

I have been reading a book called, "Our Modern Times: The New nature of Capitalism in the information age" which looks at the other side of the technological revolution. The human side and how that is impacting the generation at present. I will write about it hopefully in my next posting.

The importance of work

Everybody hates work. Work makes you get up early in the morning, makes you do tasks that you would rather not do, and finally you earn just enough to keep on doing that for the rest of your life. The moment you are born, you have work lined up for you. In the first few years, you work is most intensive. You have to learn to know your body, learn to walk, learn a new language and finally start to understand the social laws and regulations around you. I say, start to learn because it never ends. Not until you die.

You are enrolled in kindergarten, then comes primary, middle and high school. You all know the drill. You work on your studies, hopefully giving you social laws and skills that help you live within the social regulations of your society, i.e., be educated so that you can earn your own "living" in this world. And finally you come out, You have completed your skill set requirements. You have reached a point for which you have been preparing your whole life. The moment when you start paying back your dues. The so-called childhood is over, now face the world. The society starts demanding stuff from you, and you keep satisfaction it. Until you retire at the age of 60-65 years. Then your skill has better uses, (or no more uses) so you try to satisfy them.

I went through all of this for a reason. Suppose and just suppose you don't have to work. You will not earn anything or your earning is just enough for surviving, that is, like cashing out your unemployment benefits.

Suddenly, you have so much time and so little work needed to be done. Some people have no problem being "lazy", and actually welcome it. However, for most people, the average person who has struggled through the previous tasks assigned to him or her by the society suddenly has nothing to do.

It is said that old women are the best matchmakers of the society. They sit around, conference and debate the pros and cons of a prospective couple. If you ask them why they are so bothered with such tasks, they would point to the lack of work as well as they being needed in this industry. Thus, certain sections of the society are assigned informal tasks for the rest of their lives.

What I want to point out is that even tough most people hate formal work, they cant live without it. Until you have lived without a task-reward system, you do not appreciate the necessity of the work ethic in human society.

People say that good old days were better. When everybody was a farmer and stuff. I don't see the difference between those times and now. The amount of time is the same. 24 hours. The number of formal tasks performed varied. You did have less formal tasks to be formed. However, you have informal tasks that needed to be taken care of. An example would be the high children ratio per parent. Raising children was an informal task, which stuck to the task-reward system. An happy child gives happiness to the parents and visa versa.

In the present generation, we survive by the task-reward system. The system of tasks as well as the reward system has become more sophosicated and complex but the fundamentals are the same. It has become very formal, as in salary increases, promotions etc.

What will happen if there is no task/reward system? One can say, communism as well as socialism, both do not have such system at the individual level. They do have it at the societal level or the community level. Such task/reward system does not work at any other level without having it at the individual level. Once a robust and successful reward system (i.e. capitalism) is attained, further advances can be made possible.

I am giving the example of capitalism as a successful reward system with a pinch of salt. Capitalism address the need for reward correctly, however, the mode of the reward/prize itself is under constant debate. It has been reported repeatedly that people in highly capitalistic counties are no more happier than poorer countries which have lower levels of capitalist insticts. Or should I say materialistic insticts.

Coming back to the point, The "lazy people" do not have reward system. Nor do those who do not work. Thus, without motivation, life becomes suddenly every hard. You question each aspect of life, trying to find some kind of reward. The stuff you learnt, the classes you took. The good times as well as the bad times. However the problems with reward system is that it is giving you the rewards as long as you work your tasks, once you stop, the rewards stop. None are carried over from the previous year nor future work is rewarded today in the present society. This society of ours has become an complete results based society. No work means no chance of attaining positive results. No positive results means no rewards. And a person without rewards...Well you figure.

Who controls the Internet?

Yesterday I heard that the photos I had posted on the blog can't be viewed in Dubai. Blocked by the internet providers of Dubai, saying that it is against Islamic culture to view such material. I dont know whom to blame, the internet providers in many countries who censore everything they find "offensive" or the ineffectiveness of the software they use to distinguish among Internet Traffic.

Added to this is the growing pressure by the governmental agencies to control the internet. Everybody from National Governments to United Nations wants some piece of the action. Various intelligence depts, software makers, hackers, you name it; somebody controls some part of the process that others want. The major problems/issues related to the internet are copyright laws ( P2P, mp3's, movie downloads etc), porn, and some political discontent publishing.

The P2P software debate went to the US Supreme Court today. Each side presented the basis of the illegitimacy of the p2p software and its defence. The court is yet to decide.

Life in Exile

I came across a blog, just browsing through the internet. Called Life in Exile, it is about an american family living in Qutar. Reason for moving? Did not like to live under Bush and the american policies. The blog decribes the life in the gulf region ( and dubai, atleast a couple of years ago, is very similar). Make sure to check it out, it sure does broaden your knowledge and understanding in every aspect.

What level is your Organizational Equity?

I found this blog I had written long time ago, wanted to re-publish it again.

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

What level is your Organizational Equity?

According to “Build your Organizational Equity” published in “Strategy + Business”, a Booz Allen Hamilton Inc magazine, issue of summer 2003, “organizational equity” is one of the most neglected aspects of career building.

The writer, Art Kleiner, classifies the employees of any organization into two groups. One group, called the “Core group”, consists of the top layer of employees such as CEO, CFO, important personnel such as union leaders. This group is generally the policy making group of any organization and accounts for less than 5 % of the total number of employees working in the organization. The second and less prominent group, accounting for the rest of the organization, is the “transactional group”. The members of this group have no or little-input in the policy matters and basically only transact the policy into implementation. Organizations view such groups are replaceable and largely unimportant to decision making.

So, no one wants to be stuck in the second group. Following orders is boring and does not allow your creativity to emerge. According to the author, the best method of moving from transactional group to core group is to strength your organizational equity, defined as “any share of accumulated wealth, including such intangible forms of social capital as relationships and reputation.”

Now the author gives some good examples, which I have found lead not only to organizational success, but also success in life because the world in which we live in is, after all, a huge organization.

•Fungible Financial Equity: This is the financial part of the equity and is most tangible. Having enough financial assets gives you the choice of starting your own company or not working for sometime. Experts recommend saving enough money, either in saving account or some other method, to sustain yourself and your dependents for at least 9 months without a job. Getting to a threshold is critical since once you achieve that goal, savings become capital and pay large enough dividends for a comfortable lifestyle.

•Rainmaking Equity: This is the ability to be the rainmaker of the organization. Can you achieve something no other person in the organization can such as closing that large contract or building a strong department? Rainmaking qualities are hard to attain but it is not impossible.

•Credential Equity: This is the most visible form of your organizational equity. Degrees and certifications help build this equity. The most evident obstacle is the high-expense and time required to maintain this equity.

•Reputation Equity: The writer explains, “You build your reputation less through the accomplishments you stack up (what you do) than through the way you operate in life (who you are).” Consultants, lawyers, doctors make their careers on this equity.

•Relationship Equity: The most commonly understood quality in organizations, it all depends on ‘who you know and how well do you know vs. what you know’.

•Capability Equity: This is the ability to learn more skills and capabilities to add into your already existing equities. Having capability to learn is widely searched for in interviews.

Who holds the Right to Die?

One of the most important events in human history happened is recogization of private property and the lack of control of such property by the kings, emporors, lords among others who previously had regulatory control over the private property of "free humans". This was the seed that lead to higher commerce, the emergence of bourgeoisie and finally to an re-introduction of the bill of rights in the western world. (I am not sure if eastern cultures had anything similar in the broadest sense of the word, I can assume some parties were more favoured by the king than others.) Althrough started out for selected groups/classes of people, during the last 250 years, it has progressed to everybody (atleast in theory) including the animal kingdom(slight changes were made appropirately).

The Universal Decleration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations is the most widely agreed upon set of Human Rights. The declaration's importance is mainly due to the second article which enpowers everybody born on this planet.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

I am more interest in next article which basically states this:

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

So you have no right towards other's right of life nor have any control over their death. Any such offence is legally punishable. (There are ofcourse various ifs and buts, but you get the general idea) Mind you, the right to life, not death. This article does not say weather you have the right to take your own life or not. Sucuide is not discussed here, nor is "ethical murder" by the doctors.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

If I were an lawyer, and let me give an disclaimer that I am not one, I would cite the article 4 and 5 for legal right towards death. That i believe, i am under some kind of torture and I can take or let somebody assist in my death. Facing a brain-dead life under intensive care for the rest of my life, with little hope for recovery would give me the right towards death. I.e., nobody can question weather i am doing something legally wrong or not. Eithically, I would assume that i am doing the right thing. The two reasons which are pro are

1. I have the total control over my body and brain.
2. I am not going to be burden on the society.

The negetive con reason, the main reason why many regilious texts ban sucide, is because of the discomfort, distress caused on people who love you. You have no right to casuse pain (Article 4) on others. And lets look it in more rational way, if everybody decides to die and it is ok, why bother live. So ethically speaking, the correct answer is very hard to decide and can be judged only on a casetocase basis by the persons effected themselves. ( Not lawmakers, nor courts)

I understand this issue is more a battle between lawmakers and the judical system in united States, with huge influences by the regilious right. However, I believe the husband is doing the right thing. Thus, i fully support the decision of the courts not to meddle in the life of Terri Schiavo.

Some Interesting Newspaper Ads

Bail Bonds is such a unique industry

Cnet Rocks, but I like Slashdot better!

Nothing beats that value-added freebie

Saudi and Audi, what a combination!

Shock Advert has always paid off, until recently...

66 Items...One of my Favorites..

Yes, this also...

Values at Front desk, sounds like an hotel in Las Vegas

Consumer Price Index, ah? Sure, with oil prices at 55$, Inflation is a problem even in the short term

Yesterday, I came across a book called Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
by Richard Layard . The books is a multi-disinplinary book between psychology, sociology, applied economics, and other fields about what is defined as happiness and how increased western standards of living had no effect on happiness. I had the chance to read only the first few chapters of the book at the bookstore, however, it did captivate my attention of nearly half an hour. The book describes three main ideas that determine happiness in a person.

1. Status Race: We are more happy earning 100k a year when the average salary is say, 60k a year in the neighborhood than we are earning 150k a year compared to average salary of 180k a year. Most memorable quote i read related to this point.

A man is a very wealthy man if he earns 10 dollars more than his wife's sister's husband.

2. Security: Electrons try to be stable and loose energy/gain energy is achieve this state. In the same way, human beings want stability. They hate insecurity in jobs, in general life and are very unhappy about that. Maybe that is the reason why Japan was so successful during the middle of the cenutry, thanks to its no-firing policy at its companies. People tend to be more happier when they dont have to think about something they dont like.

3. Trust: You dont trust everybody and view each and everyone of them in suspision. This is also why you tend to be happiest among your friends and family, because you trust them. If you dont feel comfortable around them, then you got yourself a problem.

I have a weakness. A useless, harmless (?) weakness for horoscopes. I find them entertaining and ofcourse, do not pay for any service, thus it is harmless. Today, i decided to compile all the horoscopes i could find in one page for tommorow, i.e., saturday 26th 2005.

Let's start with Astrospeak, an Indiatimes website.

Daily Astrological Forecasts by Pt Kewal Anand Joshi

The period is emotion-charged and gives you greater freedom for self-expression. You have more than a fair share of satisfactory moments. Keep a watch over your health.
Tip of the day:You need to make daily exercise a part of your routine-even if you are very busy. Take extra care of your health now. At work, don't depend on anybody. Instead, innovate and work hard on y0our own steam to win success.

Daily Tarot Forecasts by Dr Deepak and Pinky Vaide

You now need to seek tangible, practical solutions. You will come up with something, so not a time for you to give up. Have faith in yourself.

Rediff.com

Your need to continue being persistent for that change within you, determined to get a new and more dynamic platform at your new work. Your temper is short and you are quick to judge, you choose to be peaceful than right! You recognise the difference, what difference does that make. Only positive, forge ahead!

Deccan.com

You see dreams being fulfilled. At home inability to control children leads to frustration. Your lover is likely to leave you confused. You sacrifice personal priorities for others.

Gulfnews.com

Life would be a lot easier if you could just make plans once and be done with it. But with so many changes going on, even simple arrangements benefit from being reorganised frequently. Instead of battling these, you’re better off exploring everything that arises.

The other day, Gulfnews ran a photo series on "A Day In the Life of UAE". I believe this photo showed the wide diversity in the city more than any other photo in the series.

A fisherman peacefully tends his livelihood as Jumeirah life buzzes on around him.

Dubai, more than the whole of UAE, is at the crossroads of development. UAE, a country with no more than a couple of tents, camels, and few human comforts, discovered oil at more or less the same time as its neighboring country, Saudi Arabia. However, the difference between the countries, apart from the size of the population, is the vision of its rulers. Although notperfect, they have successfully brought western investment as well as business tactics into an traditional Islamic culture.

Each country depends on four things for its development. Land, Labour, Capital and finally technology. In-house Technology is only possible if you have the two resources that are needed for it, i.e., Capital and Labour. Land does not play a huge role in technology revolutions of the present day. Land was available, and more importantly, so was capital, thanks to desert atmosphere and oil industry respectively. Both these resources were also available for Saudi Arabia. However the major difference is the way population played a role. Although both countries imported a large expatrite populations for their infrastructure projects, a development of middle class in the UAE has saved it from the problems of its neighbor. A strict control over population demograhics, UAE has successfully is in the process of trasforming its population from unskilled labour to a thriving middle and upper middle class populations of skilled/educated labour. Where Riyadh could not develop a economically successful middle class thanks to its regilious-institutional links, religious tolerance in Dubai, and in general the whole of UAE, has helped the country move towards more secular demograhic.

Modeled after the success of singapore in the east, Dubai managed to be the major trading and torist destination in the middle east. It is one of the few countries that can survive on non-oil revenues after the oil runs out. Now nationalities of nearly all nations of the world live in Dubai, making it in par with cities like London and New York in some ways. I say in some way, because, all said and done, the city-state is ruled by a absoulte monarc. There is a bill of human rights, and reinforeced quite often, but it is not democratic even in the lowest levels of governance. This however will not be premanant, and I believe democarcy in some form will be introducted to UAE citizens ( not everybody can become a citizen, even if you are born there) after this generation of rules. Most of the ruling community has been western educated in europe and united states, making a pr0-capitalist, western model of democarcy almost a sure thing. Almost, is because under this pro-capitalist and pro-western country live some of the same funders of Islamic Jihad against capitalistic western nations. An example of this can be found here.

It has been quite a while since i blogged, and since i like to analyze why, the plain reason is that i did not find anything interesting to blog about. Maybe i did, however did not feel that i considered it important enough to write about it. Also you need to type it out which means work and alas, i am lazy. I did write some thing every long the other day for an email, so i have not lost the habit of writing.

Let me note down the points i need to wite about and then we can discuss each in detail, atleast as much as possible.

1. Charlie Rose: One of my favirote shows on the television, Charlie Rose is a talk show telecast at midnight in the local pubic television channel. Charlie interviews the prominant leaders/newsmakers/authors etc on his one hour show daily monday to friday. Apart from award winning jornalisic capabilities, his show features a dark room with single table and a couple of chairs for the participants. There are no people shooting the show since it is done remotely through the studio/recording room. This atmosphere allows a very intimate interview process, where charlie approachs his guest towards more personal/informative questions rather than interogating them. The website is http://www.charlierose.com

2. Morgan An Amercian Financier: Recently I brought two books, One called the Titan and the second one called Morgan An Amercian Financier. I started reading the second first and found it very informative biography.

For those of you who don't know, J. Peirpoint Morgan was one of the most prominant financier, or investment banker as one would call such a profession, along with his father Junius Morgan. Both father and son combo, the elder based in london and the younger in new york, successfully transferred much needed capital from european markets to the newly emerging industrial age of the states. It was the period between 1870's to 1920's that majority of the industrial ventures took place including railways, coal extraction, and oil. Called the gilded age due to the vast income differencials between the wealthy (who earned about 1 to 2 million dollars per year average) and the general working class ( whose wages topped off around 500$ per year), it would have been a very interesting place and time to be in the banking and money management sector.

However, few selected people sucessded in the profession and J. Peirpoint Morgan was one of them. Generally known companies of today such as General Electric and U.S. Steel were literally founded and nutured by him. Due to the anti-trust laws of the late 1920's ( which we still use against microsoft and other monoploies), the House of Morgan lost prominance into smaller companies such as Morgan Stanley and J.P.Morgan. ( I am not sure of J.P.Morgan but Morgan Stanley for sure)

In many aspects, the dot com boom and bust ( and infact the preceeding boom of the 1990's when capital from the rest of the world invested in markets of united states) is very much like the booms and busts during the railway construction period. Early in 2000, when i arrived in united states, and silicon valley, I heard an economic history professor comparing the railway boom to the bot com boom, among other booms and busts in recent history. I read further about the economic cycles of united states while taking of the classes at the university called "Economic History of United States" What I learnt in that one semester was only an overview, more like an introduction of sorts to economics cycles. What this book descibes in the most detailed method possible through the lives of the Morgan family and friends, as well as the businesses they were involved in, how life would have been during that time. The economic cycles, the personal drama, the money side of things, the greedness as well as the philanthropic side of the american elite. It is a story of how the american elite find a place in the books of history and how new york emerges at first as financial powerhouse comparable to old europe, and after the second world war, becomes the undisputed leader as financial capital of the world.

I knew "Blog" meant "Weblog", however, i did not know the difference between an online journal and a weblog. This Yahoo! Asks question cleared that for me!! Sometimes they do have some interesting research.

Lying in bed, I started to think of the differences between childhood and adult life in the modern world. Ofcourse, there are similarities between both phases of life, you are after all the same person. What I was wondering was about the experiences of higher stress in adult life than during childhood. There are many reasons that one can discuss at length but what I started thinking about is the effect of higher education on the thought process as an adult.

As an adult, you gather information about the whole around you. But as a child, you do the same. The differences is ofcourse in the nature of information, i.e., more inquisitive nature of a child learning perhaps languages and early human customs and traditions followed by adults surrounding him compared to gathering of information in a more structured manner as an adult. And considering that the amount of work a brain does is the same during both periods of the time, same 24 hours per day, I wonder what is the major difference between a child and an adult.

opinion seems to come first and foremost in my mind. I seem to have an opinion on everything from the Palestine-Israel war and Kashmir to how I want my hot tea to what is the best method to run a company. Opinion forming is encouraged in higher education, if you don't have an opinion, then you don't know knowledge in that matter and visa versa. You need to have a opinion on the discovery of United States by Columbus, why slave plantations worked in certain parts of the world where as they failed in others, why were salves liberated. I could go on and on about various issues the society expects an educated, well informed adult to have. The society at large determines your evaluation by the opinions you give. The more variety of subjects you have opinions about, the better. The more informed your opinions are, the better.

In the quest of finding more information, knowledge and thus more opinions, human beings routinely fall into categories that speak more about them as a society than as individuals. A typical scenario played out nowadays is if you are against war, you are against American soldiers in the war. Or even worst still, if you are against bush, you are against democracy in the united states. The race towards becoming more "opinionated" is leading to becoming more "stereotyped".

Stereotyping can have both negative aspects as well as positive ones. In the positive side, you expect say, "teachers and nurses to be honest and friendly" where as "lawyers and salesperson to be dishonest and untrustworthy". And we are repeatedly taught that more information would lead to less stereotyping. Tell that to an three year old. He or she might not even know the word stereotype, but would act in a manner that would put all the educated and opinionated world to shame.

For those of who don't know, I am unemployed (Between jobs as they say, or temporary unemployment, or working unemployed.) Two conclusions can be derived from that statement. One, I need a job. Two, I have a lot of time to think.

I will go into the second statement as the first statement is self-evident. Since my graduation, I have been thinking, (not that I did not before, but more thinking for the sake of thinking than broader task-oriented thinking i.e. how do I finish this essay etc) in almost very direction a mind can go. However most of the thinking, for me now, is career based and what steps I need to take to further attain a better, more enriched life. I do not take this matter lightly, since any misstep can prove to be costly in the long run.

From my point of view, looking at the future at this time and space, I see two paths of career. One is pure academic and the second option is industry. Academic careers are more theory based, a lot of thinking and more towards a position of "distribution of knowledge" either it be in research based firms and division or general academic positions such as professors. The second part is industry. What I mean by industry is "taking the theory and putting it into practice" or atleast try to do the same. This is the path chosen by many; because it gives you something that the other path does not. Instant income. By choosing a path of finding a job; and hoping to make a career from that job; people assume they would get constant stream of income and hopefully, fulfill their desires through their continued progression in the society. Those in the academic side have similar purpose, however, their advancement in the fields of knowledge depend on their personal advancement of knowledge and learning. Both paths have their own pros and cons, of which I will not indulge into, purely because I don't know much about the pros and cons.

As with everything you think about, the particular time and space around you is of the upmost importance, since great ideas are purely unattaible dreams in an hostile environment.The difference between learning institutions in United States and India is the amount of importance theory places in the role. United States's learning institutions place a premium on practical nature of the theory, where as the countries like India, the importance is given to the theory part. Once again, the debate between which method of learning is important is wide and the views are varied.

Since I have learnt from both ends of the spectrum, I am torn inbetween them even more. Although the ideas of practical nature of knowledge attainment as in learn-as-you-work nature appeal to me in certain subjects like general business, subjects like economics and even basic computer science need a strong theorical basis before you can advance to higher stages of the field. I have been able to get a compromise between the two different ergs I routinely face by deciding to do both. My ideal career path would have a full time work and a part-time study period. Need not be 6 units of study, maybe 3. Maybe just going and learning some "creative arts" course. Ofcourse any course that would advance enrichment of my life would be welcome.

Ofcourse higher education like an masters or PhD can be full time study and part time work if need be. Frankly, all this thought process came into about because I miss the study atmosphere with class rooms and lectures etc. Maybe later in life, I might be comfortable working only, or my job would provide all the enrichment I am talking about, I don't know.

Taking a slightly bigger view of the situation, I am reminded of the dialog used in Good will Hunting, the movie where Robin Williams (Sean, a psychiatrist) talks to Matt Damon (Will Hunting, a genius student). From the time I heard it first till today, this conversation and the movie reminded me the limitations of books, knowledge and modern education.

Sean: Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me... fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me?
Will: No.
Sean: You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about.
Will: Why thank you.
Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.
Will: Nope.
Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right?
[Will nods]
Sean: You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.