Back to Square One

"NATO Secretary—General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was confident the U.S. troop withdrawals will not affect security Afghanistan."

I think he's kidding every reader of that statement. Increasing attacks in Afghanistan can, in general, mean a couple of things:

1. Taliban is losing its rank and file; so, it wants to exert as much pressure as possible on its counterparts before it vanishes
2. Taliban is acquiring both strength and intrepidity; so, it wants to kick everyone out and refill the void of arms with its own

Taliban, as every kid in the world (as Mr. Rasmussen thinks everyone is), knows that the US and NATO will start pulling out troops sooner than later. They can wait for a long time strengthening their ranks, as they once did until 2004 after their fall in 2001. So, if they are weak and burning their last reserves, they would rather wait for their enemies on the Afghan soil to retreat and then take over the government.

So, it is the second point stated above that becomes the reason for a spate in attacks. In such a case, what Mr. Rasmussen says is both naive and insulting to the general public of the world. I am neither suggesting that the NATO should stay there nor that it should pull out, either in phases or otherwise. It is probably too late for such suggestions. He's supposed to be an expert. Of course, he may have said so to prevent spread of panic. But, at least, make the wording a little more believable, less diplomatic and definitely, less stupid.

"Honour" killing? [Update]

[Update] I'll leave analysis to experts of the field, but, it's satisfying to see the "system" working at least against some stupidity and crime. May be a death sentence is harsh, but, it's not for killing, I dare say, "just" three young people but also all their dreams for the future AND to send a message to everyone inclined to be or have been involved in any such brutal murders of their own kin.

"Honour" killing?

Varna system, which gradually, but surely, devolved into the present day caste system, came into being only about 2000 years ago. In fact, there is very little evidence -- the physical division of settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation -- that there was a strict adherence to these rules. The system back then was, according to me, much more commendable than what it is, now. It was based on what a person does, rather than who he is. It is like what we see in corporations today -- a sincere relationship between the Chairman and the Peon. 


In this article, when people say, "We don't want a Constitution or a law that goes against our age-old tradition," I want to punch them in faces and say, "What about the millions of years, before the couple of thousands of years of formation of the bloody caste, when there was no segregation of society?"


[Update: 09/06/2011] I'll leave analysis to experts of the field, but, it's satisfying to see the "system" working at least against some stupidity and crime. May be a death sentence is harsh, but, it's not for killing, I dare say, "just" three young people but also all their dreams for the future AND to send a message to everyone inclined to be or have been involved in any such brutal murders of their own kin.

Parasites

Look at this now. I sincerely hope and pray that everyone involved be brought not just to justice but to gallows. My heart aches with uncontrollable anger and anguish.

Water water everywhere..

Retreating monsoon or North-East monsoon winds bring last-try rains over the Deccan Plateau and the Ghats of India. This happens every year. South-West monsoon that starts in early June brings rain to most parts of the Deccan Plateau, in general. This year, with an anomaly of a cumulative rainfall deficit of about 40% by mid-August and 23% by mid-September, governments got ready to devour on the National Calamity Fund as drought measures almost kicked in. They didn't know what Mother Nature had in store for them.

The retreating monsoon dumped a record-level water in the Krishna and Godavari catchments, which, along with probable poor management of water resources by irrigation officials, led to massive record-floods in the recorded history of the Krishna river. Reservoirs that were full enough to barely cater to the hydroelectric power production during this summer overfilled by a large margin. Over 550 villages drowned, 350+ people lost their lives, Rs. 16,000 Cr+ economic loss, enormous live-stock loss and over 100 million people affected. Stories of individual families are heart-rending. What caused this catastrophe?

Poor water management? Last year, when such rainfall was expected and reservoirs "prepared" for the same by emptying some of their capacities to fill them with flood waters, water managers made a blunder of not closing the gates at the right time, hence losing precious water, to be of use to the Rabi crop, and gaining the wrath of both the people and their "superior" political ranks. This time, may be the same officials had been more careful of emptying the reservoirs, gaining the same of surplus water. If, this is reality, corrections to last year's mistakes should have been made where the problem was, i.e. in timely closure of reservoir gates. However, if space is denied for surplus water in the first place, the havoc is indescribable and so is the stupidity of the officials.

Pure Force Majeure? It is long expected that due to global warming, summers (and winters, of course) will get hotter and rainy periods will receive less rain, overall, but with more number of high-intensity events! High-intensity events create large flows of water into stream and river networks. Water infrastructure is not designed to handle such large flows. It is similar to asking a being to eat more than what it generally takes, in a particular sitting. This is exactly what has happened now.

As I am writing about this, more levees are breached by muddy waters. As the flooded regions drain, officials are facing mud and silt as thick as 25 ft. at some places! It takes months, if not years, for life to get back to normal in some cases. Many lives, however, are permanently changed. In those months or years, it is guaranteed that such events will take place again.

The question that needs to be asked now is `Can we reduce the impact of a similar event?' Of course, by creating larger infrastructure to hold and transmit these flows! With a large number of towns and cities along the large rivers such as the Krishna, it is impossible to increase the width of a channel. Increasing the depth of the channels for them to act as additional reservoirs is technically impossible too. This argument is only technical; I am not even getting into who pays for such an ambitious project (talking about increasing the width of channel, concreting it at weaker sections to prevent breaches and maintaining it for eternity for over 2,000 km. This is only for a single river. Add to that a possibility that this kind of an event can happen anywhere in India and in case of the Brahmaputra, even outside India!). Therefore, the infrastructure remains the same. Does this mean that one needs to vacate the now-occupied lands for the terror of Nature?

The above question, in this regard, changes to `Can we reduce the impact of a similar event, given the existing infrastructure?' There is currently only one suggestion made purely based on strong logic that people, at a large scale, are not following. Rain-water harvesting. It is a broader concept than what most people understand, if at all, about it. I will talk about its depth in a few days. Meanwhile, delve into my scare: what if even the rain-water harvesting doesn't work?

P.S.: I still remember about my will to talk about the roads, but, immediate things first. If you cannot wait, refer to this beautifully written article on roads.

Pilot

Good infrastructure is not easy to plan, construct and maintain. Dealing with the subjectivities first, "good" is something that satisfies the need for which it is made. Take a road, for instance. It should be of such a quality that vehicles can pass at prescribed speeds, hindered by none other than fellow-vehicles, at the least! A pipeline should carry whatever is intended to be sent through it.

However, these days, on Indian roads, there are pedestrians, parked vehicles, commercial and even religious structures. Pipelines (fail to) carry anything that is sent through it! I don't say nothing is working here. For more than a decade, Indian economy has grown at close-to-nine per cent rate, annually. Getting 36 marks is passing the exam, and probably that is the best some X can do under the given circumstances. But, if X is admitted in a better school, may be X will get higher marks with the same effort.

Given (probably very wrongly that) all the other systems and persons are working at their respective bests, and looking just at the transportation sector in India is what I am going to do in my next couple of posts. For a few excerpts, think about this: why is it that you need to reach your destination faster to help others go faster to their destinations? To pose it slightly unequivocally, how is quicker means of transport related to the growth of our country? The answer is straightforward. But, the issues to make transportation faster are not.