Unions = stupid herd

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India hit by strike over reforms

I have a pet theory - unions everywhere are stupid. Unions, pilots and cab drivers world over are the same.

I often wonder if the trade unions have always been so stupid or just evolved to be so stupid. World over they seem to do their best to make life miserable for everyone else other than themselves.

In India strikes called by unions and their political supporters (usually, the reds who live in delusion-land) is quite common. The people who are affected by these strikes by government and bank workers are the poorer people who have to work everyday to feed themselves. These daily wages folks are dependent on the public transport, public and private institutions to earn their living. They don't know entitlement - they don't know job security or government pay checks. I wish the government would have the balls to do what Dr. JJ did in Tamilnadu - she fired all striking government workers enmasse. The fired workers went to court and lost their case. The government does not owe you a paycheck. You bloody well work for it. And, if the market is chhanging be prepared to adapt to the changing market.

Here in the US, I was amused by United airlines attendants threatening wildcat strikes to protest against United axing the pension. United had to axe the pension because they are in financial trouble - partly because of the strike they had in summer of 2000, the world economy after 9/11 and general managerial incompetence. The attendants are lucky they have a job and the airline is still flying. So, how does going on strike help them keep their job or improve the airline's financial situation.

Uh-ho! What happened to the Big O?

I never have had issues with Overstock. But, this time it is different. They screwed up and screwed up big. I ordered “Business and its Environment”, 5th Edition on 9/9. The product was supposed to be in stock. And, ever since then the order status shows “In Process”.  Last Thursday I called them regarding the ship date and was told by the Customer Service Agent that it would be shipped end of day. And, when I did not get a shipping notification on Friday, I called them again. This time I was told that the agent do not know if the order had been shipped. She said she will send a message to the warehouse to get an update on the order and that the turn around time from the warehouse is 3-4 days. Imagine a 3-4 day turnaround on order update. Anyway, I told her to include in the message that if they had not shipped the order they should cancel it. She promised that I would get an update from the warehouse in 3-4 days. So, when I had not heard anything from them, I called them again today. This time the agent told me that their order tracking system is down for an upgrade but she “thinks” that my order “would have been shipped”. Still waiting on an order placed on 9/9.

"It seemed like the entire country was for sale."

BBC NEWS | South Asia | KGB book claims spark India row

Yes, we always knew that capitalistic ideology was rife among the politicians - it was always sell to the highest bidder. The high school books teach that the Brits looted India and made it a shell of its former self. Wonder how much have our own politicians looted in the last 50 odd years. It would be an interesting analysis.

Don't know what to make of this

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistanis 'put religion first'

My first thought after reading this news article is that Pakis are atleast honest while Indians have started believing in the lie - the lie of secularism. Now, I won't be surprised by that. Afterall, we have been at it for so long that I would be surprised if we did not "believe" that we are "secular". The reality is still the same - you have different civil laws depending on your religion, holidays for every single religion and get better government handouts if you are part of a "minority". Note that "minority" as defined by the government of india is not necessarily the numerical minority.

BTW, I also noticed that the sample size of the survey is different across India and Pakistan. Next, they going to tell me that they did the Pakistani survey at Madrasa in NWFP on a Friday afternoon and the Indian survey at the Parliament house in Delhi.

Tragedies: How two nations count...

Having been in India and US for a numbber of years and seen how the two nations report tragedies I could not escape noticing the difference.

In early 2001, I remember my American colleague telling me in grave tone that there had been a strong earthquake in Gujarat and about 1000 people were dead. My nonchalance irked him. I told him I would be really happy if the death toll was just 1000. As it turned out it was about 20000 according to estimates.

Then in Spetember of that year I had a chance to see how US reacts and reports tragedies. The first reports regarding the attack on Pentagon said over a few thousand had died and over the next few days it kept dropping to a few hundreds to finally somewhere over 200.

I have seen the same being repeated when the Tsunami hit India and Hurricane Katrina hit the US.

I am not sure which style of reporting is better. The Indian way downplays the tragedy while the American one blows it out of proportion. Maybe, blowing it out of proportion allows to mobilize action and get aid. But, I would rather have something closer to the actual.

Vain gestures

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Tsunami victims still on the streets  

The last week I read this article. And, around the same time I heard that India was sending relief supplies for Hurricane Katrina. Then came the obligatory email comparing Indian response to the Mumbai rains to US government response to Hurricane Katrina. Of course, if hadn’t guessed it, it was lot of chest thumping and how better we are. We Indians are very good at symbolic gestures and chest thumping that generate nothing more than an ego surge.

One year after the Tsunami we have loads of people still living on the streets. I could not miss the irony – the tent colony is called Kargil Nagar, after the Indo-Pak Kargil skirmish. I guess it is their way of showing their patriotism to a nation that has pretty much forgotten them. And, if this is the state of affairs in Tamilnadu, I bet things are worse in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

So, before we use unimportant statistics to show how  better we are lets ask ourselves if we are so better why is it that in pretty much  economic/ quality of comparisons Americans  are ahead of us. And, before you send relief supplies to the US ask if there are folks back home that are in need of them. Finally, the government and the agencies here would have done a lot more for the people affected in the next year than you can expect to happen there in the next decade.

  

Desis and innovative interpretations of the return policy

I have heard a number of stories of desis FOB use the liberal return policies offered by some stores here to their advantage. Back in 95 when I first came to the US I heard a number of stories about desis on short trips to the US buying electronics and returning it in three months (just within the 90 day return policy). I thought it was just some FOB SOBs who indulged in this kind of behavior. Something happened recently that makes me wonder if it is cultural or even genetic.

I heard this American of Pakistani decent mention that he returned a three year old furniture piece to IKEA. And, what more it does not require the original receipt or packing. Just need to make sure IKEA carries the product in its catalog. Now, I love IKEA. I think it is very utilitarian furniture. But, I could not believe that IKEA return policy was better than that of my other favorite – Costco (It has one of the best return policies). So, I started spreading the word. Soon another guy decided to make use of this new knowledge.

He had piece of furniture that he had bought a while back and did not have a place for it in his new home. He called IKEA and was told that they have 45 day return policy. So we decided to ask our buddy how he managed to return the three year old piece.

Turns out the dude goes and buy a new piece (replacement, as he called it). He then returned the old, used, nicked piece with the new receipt. He passed off the old as new. We called it cheating. And, he pretended he had not heard us.

This is no desi FOB. The guy grew up here, went to a great school and holds a decent job  that lets him  afford more than IKEA.

A perfect storm and a few storm in the tea cups

Katrina exposed America's seamy side

Shenoy makes some interesting points. But, the truth is people everywhere are pretty much the same. When they feel they can get away with unlawful activities they will try. Didn't someone say - Integrity has no need for rules. Maybe the looting, shooting and rape did not happen when the tsunami struck India. But, it did happen after Mrs. Gandhi's killing, Rajiv Gandhi's killing, after Babri Masjid and Godhra - the list is endless. Each and every time the perpetrators thought they can get away with it.

Katrina was in many ways a perfect storm - a strong hurricane which was met with complacent public and government machinery. Yes, the federal response was slow but did the state and city officials do enough. Maybe the federal funding for fixing the levee was cut but did the state do enough to protect its citizens? The bickering and finger pointing is something new. And, mama Bush seem to be suffering from "foot in mouth" disease.


The generosity of average American continues to amaze me. Initially I thought the likes of BillG was skewing the national average indicated by Turbotax. But, the last few years has shown me there is more to it. I don't think we Indians come anywhere close to that. We keep money as if we got special permission to take it with us when we go on the last journey.

Democrazy and rule of blah blooms in the desert

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Lawyer denies Saddam confession

First they announce to the media that Saddam confessed. Then, comes the news that he never did. Maybe they were trying the US style - try, sentence and analyze by media even before the trial begins.

Dunno why it is called nano

Apple - iPod nano

"Impossibly small" screams the marketing BS. Now, this ain't the smallest mp3 player or the one with the most features or even one with most features in that size package. Nice try Mr. Jobs. You should have called it Shuffle with display or Shuffle done right.

That said, I am sure that there are going to be a lot of suckers who will fall for this - fall into the cult, like the 1984 Super bowl ad that launched the original Mac and promised save people from existing cult of PC users.

I am sure the name will make my friend who does research in nanotechnology cringe. He feels people, corporations and media confuse miniaturization with nano technology. And, I am sure iPod nano will muddy the waters further.

BTW, what will the next, smaller version of iPod be called? How about... iPod dunno

New Orleans is farther than Baghdad

BBC NEWS | Americas | Viewpoint: New Orleans crisis shames US

The government can send troops to Baghdad to "spread democracy" faster than save its own citizens in the Big Easy. It took them a week to fix the breached levee.

Indifferent about Rediff.com

It is sad. It used to be one of my favourite sites. But, it seem to have gone down the drain - both in content and technology.

This morning I tried send feedback to Ajith Balakrishnan at the email id posted on rediff.com. Here is my letter and what happened afterwards.

To: ajit-balakrishnanATrediff.co.in
Subject: Rediff: New look, same annoying popups and pop unders
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2005 1:26 PM
Hi,
Back in 1996 I first went to Rediff on the Net and loved it. Nowadays, I dread going there. Every time I get to your site I am bombarded with at least three pop-unders and a few popups. And, this is in addition to those irritating psychedelic colored ads that seem to be everywhere on the page.

I understand that you guys are a portal and need to make money by putting ads. But, spend some money on site design, navigation and usability. See how Yahoo does it - they do it well. The new rediff.com site does not address these issues.

The problem has become so bad that I stopped going to rediff.com on a regular basis. Instead, I use msn's start.com to read the rediff feeds.

Please do something about the site usability and those irritating ads.

Thanks

And, the response I got was this

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at crimson.rediff.co.in.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

ajit-balakrishnanATrediff.co.in:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)

--- Enclosed is a copy of the message.

I generally do not give up that easily. So, I went to rediff.com, navigated to the feedback section and tried emailing customer service. And, guess what I got

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mail1.rediff.co.in.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

customersupportATrediff.co.in:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)

--- Enclosed is a copy of the message.

At this point I gave up.

PS: I replaced @ with AT in this posting to save these sorry souls from spam. But, looks like their email box is well protected.