Here is an interesting story that might give us a perspective: An elderly man was teaching his grandchildren about life . . He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil---he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.
The other is good ---he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win, Grandfather?"
The Elder simply replied, "The one you feed."
*THE JANTAR MANTAR TAMASHA*
* *
Thanks for enlightening me about Anna Hazare. I also believe he is really a good man, following footsteps of Gandhi.
*But he is acutely naive*. {Not surprising. But how an IPS officer like Kiran Bedi ?}
So naive that he believes that passing a “Lok Pal Bill” would cleanse this country of corruption. And funnily, everybody thinks its the job of Parliament or Government to curb corruption.
We have so many laws and laws that not many countries have. But in no country is the abeyance/violation of Law is as high as in our country. Application of Law is nil. BECAUSE THE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE IS DISHONEST. THE POLICE, CBI, MEDIA, THE JUDICIARY AND EVERYBODY. AND WHO WILL ADMINISTER THE LAW ?
IF I SAY INDIA IS A JUNGLE, ALL WILD ANIMALS WOULD FEEL DEEPLY OFFENDED. TO BE PRECISE, A LAWLESS JUNGLE AT THAT. ONE MORE LAW IS OF NO CONSEQUENCE.
CORRUPTION IS NOTHING. AND ITS NOT JUST TAKING A BRIBE FOR DOING SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE DONE WITHOUT IT. Its like body ache created by fever. So, you treat for fever. Reducing body ache is not the end of all.
CORRUPTION IS ONE OF THE PROBLEMS CREATED BY ABSENCE OF HONESTY & TRUTH. HONESTY & TRUTH AT ALL LEVELS WITH EVERYONE WILL ONLY SOLVE . NO PALL BILL CAN ENSURE THAT. IT HAS TO COME FROM WITHIN FROM EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY. CLEANSING PROCESS SHOULD START FROM EVERY CITIZEN UPWARD TO PARLIAMENT. NOT THE REVERSE. NO PARLIAMENT IN THE WORLD IS STRONG ENOUGH TO CLEANSE PLUS 1 BILLION POPULACE.
POLITICIANS, POLICE & GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ARE BLAMED FOR CORRUPTION. AND WHERE ARE THEY FROM ? NOT FROM ANOTHER PLANET. THEY ARE VERY MUCH FROM THE SOCIETY.
THE PERCENTAGE OF HONEST PEOPLE IS ALARMINGLY GETTING LOWER EVERYDAY.
SO, THE ROT IS WITH US.
THIS COUNTRY HAS NO FUTURE UNTIL
♣ PEOPLE STOP JUMPING QUEUES (THERE IS NO LAW IN ANY COUNTRY FOR QUEUE BUT IN MANY COUNTRIES, NO BODY JUMPS QUEUE)
♣ PEOPLE STOP FOR RED SIGNAL AT TRAFFIC
♣ STOP LYING FOR WORTHLESS ISSUES
♣ STOP BEING STUPIDLY SELFISH
♣ AND *ANOTHER TWO OR THREE THOUSAND SMALL ACTS* WHICH ARE OUT OF DISHONESTY, UNTRUTH & SELFISHNESS.
AND THEN, YOU CAN THINK OF LOK PALL BILL. Otherwise, it will be Lok Fool Bill.
Our country has reached a stage where you are abused if you stop at red signal. You are laughed at if you speak truth or be honest.
AND PEOPLE FIND IT ABSOLUTELY UNAVOIDABLE, HELPLESS TO LIE FOR SILLIEST OF SILLY REASONS.
MANY TIMES, I THINK, THAT OUR COUNTRYMEN DON’T HAVE BLOOD RUNNING IN THEIR VEINS BUT ONLY DISHONESTY & LIES.
CHEATING HAS BECOME A WAY OF LIFE. IF EVERYBODY CHEATS EVERYBODY, NOBODY GETS ANYWHERE. IT IS AS SAME/GOOD AS EVERYBODY REMAINING HONEST BECAUSE WHAT YOU GAIN BY CHEATING IS LOST WHEN YOU ARE CHEATED. BUT OUR FELLOWS WOULD PREFER THE FIRST OPTION. GENETICS !
OUR FELLOWS MAY BE LITERATE OR NOT BUT EVERYBOYD HOLDS A DOCTORATE IN CHEATING.
CORRUPTION HAS REACHED UNTHINKABLE PROPORTION FROM BIRTH TO DEATH.
YOU HAVE TO BRIBE THE HOSPITAL STAFF WHEN A CHILD IS BORN. THAT IS NOTHING. BUT IF YOU DON’T BRIBE, THE CHILD OR MOTHER WILL BE HARMED BY THE DOCTOR HIM/HERSELF. THAT IS SOMETHING & CAN BE ONLY IN INDIA.
CAN ANYBODY BE BURIED OR CREMATED WITHOUT BRIBING. IMPOSSIBLE. IN CHENNAI GOVERNMENT GENERAL HOSPITAL, YOU CAN WITESS THE GORY SCENE OF POOR RELATIVES OF A DEAD PERSON GETTING RIPPED APART BY TAXIS FOR CARRYING THE DEADBODY. THAT IS NOTHING. BUT THE TAXI FELLOWS ENSURE FREE GOVERNMENT MORTUARY VAN IS IMMOBILISED SO THAT PEOPLE BECOME HELPLESS AND POTENTIAL TARGET FOR LOOTING. THAT IS SOMETHING.
I CAN’T BUY BANANAS WITHOUT GETTING CHEATED – EITHER ON PRICE OR ON FRESHNESS OR ON VARIETY. BUT I HAVE TO FIRST GET CHEATED. ONLY THEN BANANAS.
A 9 RICHTER EARTHQUAKE COULD NOT KILL EVEN ONE PERSON IN JAPAN BECAUSE ALL BUILDINGS WERE EXACTLY AS PER LAW TO WITHSTAND SUCH QUAKES. NOR DID IT PROMPT A STAMPEDE AND RESULT IN EVEN ONE DEATH.
IN SABARIMALA, MORE THAN 100 DIED IN STAMPEDE BECAUSE ONE JEEP LOST CONTROL. WHAT KIND OF HUMAN BEINGS INDIANS ARE. STAMPEDE IS RESULT OF STUPID SELFISHNESS APART FROM MANY OTHER REASONS – ONLY I WANT TO ESCAPE; SO I RUN AMOK WITHOUT CARING FOR OTHERS AND ALL DIE IN THE PROCESS !!
THE INTELLIGENCE OF AVERAGE INDIAN IS HIGH; BUT THE CROOKEDNESS HAS NO PARALLEL.
AS LONG AS EVERYBODY CHEATS EVERYBODY, THERE WILL BE EQUILIBRIUM AND NO PROBLEM. BUT IF ONE FELLOW IN THE CHAIN CANNOT BE DISHONEST, HE SUFFERS NO END. AND EVENTUALLY BECOMES A MAOIST OR TERRORIST.
IN MY OPINION, MAY BE EXTREME, THIS COUNTRY NEEDS A TEN TIMES BIGGER CHERNOBYL OR FUKUSHIMA TO CURE. MAY BE NOT. BECAUSE 2005 TSUNAMI CHANGED NOTHING.
OR DON’T WORRY. EVERYONE WILL KILL EVERYONE IN A FEW YEARS FROM NOW AND CALM, ALBEIT THAT OF GRAVEYARD, WILL PREVAIL.
*EVEN GOD CANNOT SAVE THIS COUNTRY LET ALONE LOK PALL BILL. WITH DUE RESPECT AND REGARDS TO ANNA HAZARE.*
Yes, nobody disputes that there are all these (and many more) problems with the country, and not just with our country, but with every country.
Is this any reason to not even try? Is the man who says that we should try our best hopelessly naive, or is he just doing his duty as a citizen, to try and improve our society?
If Anna Hazare is naive in his belief that we can at least try to arm our citizens with another tool, I'm happy to go on being naive along with him.
Because the world needs such dreamers, who believe that their work will make a difference...
The issue is - There is no necessity for any new law. the existing laws themselves are very powerful and the real issue is - they are not properly implemented
Take for eg - The recent election. Neither we brought in new law or new officers fro heaven.
The original author who called Anna Hazare naive is actually naive and has not understood the society and human behavior very well hence examples like "Stop jumping queues". A human is conditioned for survival and take the easiest route. The human is like electricity - taking the least resistive route.
If there are just 3 or 5 people in the queue, there is not much incentive to jump the queue; however if the queue consists of hundreds of people then there is more incentive to jump. Except China no country has the population India has; and this giant population presents its own challenges and thwarts good attempts from the politicians and common humans.
In order for things to change, it takes generation. Because apart from human memory, society has a memory too and it takes ages for the society to change. An individual here or there can not change the society, but small changes by all individuals will change.
Human behavior is very complex, and such "email chains" are good like tamil movies - it tugs our emotional hearts. That is the characteristic of the email chains, they simplify or dumb down things and makes things look darn easy.
I would urge people to read Malcolm Gladwell's books. "Tipping Point" is a good one to start. Or read the "Broken Windows Theory" on Wikipedia.
The bill, the email chains, the discussions all have their pros and cons; and they all play a part in changing us. Phoo-phooing any one is naive :-)