Wednesday, June 13, 2007
3 DON'Ts of Libertarian
DON'T tell me what to do AND how to do it.
Because I DON'T give a sh*t.
And DON'T worry, I won't screw up.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
All that was near and dear...
Life has sure come a full circle. One by one, everything that I have ever held close to my heart since I started to know the world around me has been decisively disabled and disintegrated. All that in a freaking 8 months, of solitude. This was ample time for me to become honest with my self and suspicious of everyone (and everything) else. I believe that's the first step to understand, well, almost anything.
Skepticism and distrust. You want to know who or what you are? Well, you just can't do without them. I have found them both here and for this reason, I shall forever be indebted to Canada even if I change to something else from now.
One of those many (now sort of getting monotonous ;) ) realizations came last week when the discussion on Canadian economy spread from the room to the lab with Dharmendra. And that was it- my days of carrying the red flag are over. I mean, I have accepted the points fired out by my opponents against state intervention in economy in the past for the argument sake. But it took me to come to that very Utopian dream of mine- Canada, a country with a successful industry regulated heavily by the government for the welfare of the people- to comprehend how fallacious that dream really was.
You could say the grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side is coming into play here. But that's exactly my point! It IS but natural for us NOT to be satisfied with what we have. And letting us be is what an economy, in order not to be in conflict with the natural order of things, ought to do.
Started off with Dharmendra telling me about a white guy he met on the road who was swearing at the Ottawa civic authorities when his car ran over a puddle in the road. Well, whats the big deal you would ask... we drive over puddles more that on roads in India. Well you need dig a little deeper to answer that puzzle. Meet Dharmendra's neighbours- a Somalian family who came here as refugees- and are doing better than him. The man drives car on hire for a living and he makes sure he DOES NOT earn beyond a certain amount, so that the government considers him eligible for welfare money- and that's a juicy 400-500 dollars per dependant you have in addition to a few other credits- all tax free (now that's a good reason to get frisky all the time!). And that's not all. You get a house for which you don't need to pay anything. You get all the assistance (read for free) from the government for doing any course or joining any class which you think will get you a job. And after you are done, no matter where you apply for a job, the company is obliged to give you a chance because you have NO job history.
How can the government afford all that? Well, that's the reason why some one like Dharmendra from a Hi Tech background drives a smaller and cheaper car than that Somalian lady. Imagine you are a native white guy and both you and your wife work 8-6 everyday at some reputed Telecom firm. You get your son ready for school every morning and then rush to office skipping the breakfast. Your daughter is only 3 and so you send her to a Day Care which takes enough money from you to adopt 100 orphans in Ethiopia. You get a little time to relax in the weekends after you are done taking your kids to the Ice House for their hockey lessons. You pay off the mortgage for your house, the insurance for your car which just happened to increase last month after you were pulled over for over speeding. After all this work at the end of the month the government is at the door- it takes off its hat and says "May I?", and respectfully bites off a huge chuck of your sweat and blood. And where does that go? Oh yeah to things like building roads and highways, paying for schools and hospitals, running the essential services and er... and to pay for the gas for the Toyota Camry the Somalian-lady-next-door- who-does-nothing-except-sitting-all-day-at-home owns. Swearing at the civic authorities fearing the prospect of paying for a change of tyres is the least that white guy could do.
When I was in the 9th grade(that's when we read about the Russian Revolution), if you had asked me if its ok for a guy who has exemplary skills and a guy who is not so blessed with talent enjoy the same kind of life, my answer would probably have been an emphatic 'YES'. Of course hard work can compensate for our weaknesses. But even that doesn't make sense sense here. The only thing which is common to the white family and the Somalian family I described above is that both would think "Why should I work?" Two days back I received a tax rebate of 425 dollars from Revenue Canada. More than the joy to see that money, I made me feel sorry for all those people of this country who were paying me. Who am I to deserve this tax credit? (Of course I could argue, to be fair to myself, against being subject to sales tax I have paid indirectly in the first place)
There are certain other factors which come into play here- like Canada's open handed welcoming of refugees from all parts of the world who immediately become entitled to all sorts of benefits offered by the state- a dead weight on the economy, if you say. Contrast this with the highly competitive Visas to the US, which has ensured over time, to increase the proportion of highly skilled and productive people in the work force there. But I believe this itself is a result of lesser welfare orientation in America, which causes the corporate self-interest to govern the immigration policies as well.
When the state pampers people, there would be no drive to work toward bettering yourself. Because you know you are not going to lead any better life if you do. Stagnation hurts. Sometimes more than misery.
You are a farmer/a miner/a fisherman/over 60/a scientist who wants to work alone on some fundamental problems without pressure from industry? Canada is the place for you. Else, look for greener pastures, presumably the US.
Skepticism and distrust. You want to know who or what you are? Well, you just can't do without them. I have found them both here and for this reason, I shall forever be indebted to Canada even if I change to something else from now.
One of those many (now sort of getting monotonous ;) ) realizations came last week when the discussion on Canadian economy spread from the room to the lab with Dharmendra. And that was it- my days of carrying the red flag are over. I mean, I have accepted the points fired out by my opponents against state intervention in economy in the past for the argument sake. But it took me to come to that very Utopian dream of mine- Canada, a country with a successful industry regulated heavily by the government for the welfare of the people- to comprehend how fallacious that dream really was.
You could say the grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side is coming into play here. But that's exactly my point! It IS but natural for us NOT to be satisfied with what we have. And letting us be is what an economy, in order not to be in conflict with the natural order of things, ought to do.
Started off with Dharmendra telling me about a white guy he met on the road who was swearing at the Ottawa civic authorities when his car ran over a puddle in the road. Well, whats the big deal you would ask... we drive over puddles more that on roads in India. Well you need dig a little deeper to answer that puzzle. Meet Dharmendra's neighbours- a Somalian family who came here as refugees- and are doing better than him. The man drives car on hire for a living and he makes sure he DOES NOT earn beyond a certain amount, so that the government considers him eligible for welfare money- and that's a juicy 400-500 dollars per dependant you have in addition to a few other credits- all tax free (now that's a good reason to get frisky all the time!). And that's not all. You get a house for which you don't need to pay anything. You get all the assistance (read for free) from the government for doing any course or joining any class which you think will get you a job. And after you are done, no matter where you apply for a job, the company is obliged to give you a chance because you have NO job history.
How can the government afford all that? Well, that's the reason why some one like Dharmendra from a Hi Tech background drives a smaller and cheaper car than that Somalian lady. Imagine you are a native white guy and both you and your wife work 8-6 everyday at some reputed Telecom firm. You get your son ready for school every morning and then rush to office skipping the breakfast. Your daughter is only 3 and so you send her to a Day Care which takes enough money from you to adopt 100 orphans in Ethiopia. You get a little time to relax in the weekends after you are done taking your kids to the Ice House for their hockey lessons. You pay off the mortgage for your house, the insurance for your car which just happened to increase last month after you were pulled over for over speeding. After all this work at the end of the month the government is at the door- it takes off its hat and says "May I?", and respectfully bites off a huge chuck of your sweat and blood. And where does that go? Oh yeah to things like building roads and highways, paying for schools and hospitals, running the essential services and er... and to pay for the gas for the Toyota Camry the Somalian-lady-next-door- who-does-nothing-except-sitting-all-day-at-home owns. Swearing at the civic authorities fearing the prospect of paying for a change of tyres is the least that white guy could do.
When I was in the 9th grade(that's when we read about the Russian Revolution), if you had asked me if its ok for a guy who has exemplary skills and a guy who is not so blessed with talent enjoy the same kind of life, my answer would probably have been an emphatic 'YES'. Of course hard work can compensate for our weaknesses. But even that doesn't make sense sense here. The only thing which is common to the white family and the Somalian family I described above is that both would think "Why should I work?" Two days back I received a tax rebate of 425 dollars from Revenue Canada. More than the joy to see that money, I made me feel sorry for all those people of this country who were paying me. Who am I to deserve this tax credit? (Of course I could argue, to be fair to myself, against being subject to sales tax I have paid indirectly in the first place)
There are certain other factors which come into play here- like Canada's open handed welcoming of refugees from all parts of the world who immediately become entitled to all sorts of benefits offered by the state- a dead weight on the economy, if you say. Contrast this with the highly competitive Visas to the US, which has ensured over time, to increase the proportion of highly skilled and productive people in the work force there. But I believe this itself is a result of lesser welfare orientation in America, which causes the corporate self-interest to govern the immigration policies as well.
When the state pampers people, there would be no drive to work toward bettering yourself. Because you know you are not going to lead any better life if you do. Stagnation hurts. Sometimes more than misery.
You are a farmer/a miner/a fisherman/over 60/a scientist who wants to work alone on some fundamental problems without pressure from industry? Canada is the place for you. Else, look for greener pastures, presumably the US.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Monologued Tribute
'Periyar' falls short of expectations that 'Bharathi' created as regards the director, Gnanarajasekaran's capabilities. Though retaining the same autobiographical temperament as its predecessor, its as though the camera wasn't big enough to show more than one person at a time. That one person mostly being Sathyaraj donning the role of his role model- E. V. Ramaswamy, in this TN government-sponsored venture, which seems to be a desperate final attempt at bringing the masses back to romanticizing the glory of the original ideological foundations on which the Tamil political legacy has been built upon.
This movie could have as well been a soliloquy staged at some revolving theatre. No other character was really needed. At different phases of the protagonist's life, new faces just come, read out the dialogues as dictated by the director and leave. So painfully prose-like is its narrative. Yes, Periyar's life was an immensely huge repository of intellectual battles, life changing failures, history defining victories and conflicted relationships to be captured in 2 and a half hours of celluloid. But then, movie makers have time and again demonstrated how this can be done tastefully, while making the point that needs to be made.
The movie has its refreshing moments with vintage Sathyaraj using his well known satire comedy to take on God. Though mostly adult humor, it does well to bring out the skepticism that Periyar encouraged as a means of social reform. But if you ask me, that one dialogue of Prakash Raj in 'Iruvar'-
"Vinyaanaththa paththi ketta tamizhanukku theriyaathu, aana Yamanukku vaaganam yennanu ketta yerumakkeda enbaan"
("If you ask the Tamizhan about science, he wouldn't know, but if you ask him what's the mount of Lord Yama, he will immediately tell you it's the buffalo")
-carried more weight in it than the entire 'Periyar' movie.
This movie could have as well been a soliloquy staged at some revolving theatre. No other character was really needed. At different phases of the protagonist's life, new faces just come, read out the dialogues as dictated by the director and leave. So painfully prose-like is its narrative. Yes, Periyar's life was an immensely huge repository of intellectual battles, life changing failures, history defining victories and conflicted relationships to be captured in 2 and a half hours of celluloid. But then, movie makers have time and again demonstrated how this can be done tastefully, while making the point that needs to be made.
The movie has its refreshing moments with vintage Sathyaraj using his well known satire comedy to take on God. Though mostly adult humor, it does well to bring out the skepticism that Periyar encouraged as a means of social reform. But if you ask me, that one dialogue of Prakash Raj in 'Iruvar'-
"Vinyaanaththa paththi ketta tamizhanukku theriyaathu, aana Yamanukku vaaganam yennanu ketta yerumakkeda enbaan"
("If you ask the Tamizhan about science, he wouldn't know, but if you ask him what's the mount of Lord Yama, he will immediately tell you it's the buffalo")
-carried more weight in it than the entire 'Periyar' movie.
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