The Brave Pedestrian

Bicycle: the Charkha of Climate Conservation A fairly large proportion of us agree that taking concrete measures to combat global warming is  an idea whose time has come.  I feel public opinion on this issue is currently like a super-saturated solution where crystallization is eminently possible, but is not happening for want of exciting thought-leadership. There is no dearth of good ideas floating around as to how we can reduce energy consumption and fuel combustion.  This is a point that many of my fellow-bloggers have made. There are a multiplicity of views as to what overall direction to take, which is causing some confusion. I would like to simplify things by submitting that Climate Change is caused primarily by technologies based on combustion-based energy — primarily thermal-generated electricity and combustion-engines of vehicles. And so I believe that the way forward is to choose technologies that minimise dependence on combustio...

July 1, 2006: There’s a myth that what’s good for your country, your community, your neighbourhood is good for you.  “Hum tho tumhare hi bhalai chahte hain, beta!’,  says  desh aur   samaaj.  And, most of the times, you take it on faith that it’s completely true, because, after all, d esh aur samaaj ka izzat karna hi apni sanskuti hai. I’d like to say that there’s a lot of bullshit in that belief. In fact, it’s at most only 50% true. And here’s why: It is common knowledge that the interests of individuals, even in the same household, often conflict. The grandparents may need peace and quiet for their own wellbeing, but the 8-year-old kid may need to make noise and enjoy jumping around for his mental and physical well-being and growth. The parents of the kids may need some privacy and space, but the children and the aged folk may need them to be available all the time. And some situations pit the individual against the entire household. The adolescent daug...

Every schoolchild is taught that there are three organs of state, namely Legislature, Executive & Judiciary. What they don't teach is that there is a fourth organ -- a secret one: CORPORATES. Companies. Also known as Big Business. They are the ruling classes. We The People are the masses. Unknown to us, the corporate sector is closely involved with every legislature that is elected, and every government that is formed. It funds every political party in mostly secret ways, and  it extracts its price in ways that you and I will never realize. Companies get a huge advantage from being a "legal person", from having huge budgets for giving bribes to political parties, individual legislators and government officials. The sort of white-collar criminality that companies routinely get away with is so large and so widespread, that it is invisible. For instance, telecom, power, insurance and building construction companies have made cheating customers into such a rout...