Author: shekhar

Let me be the first to congratulate you, President Obama on becoming the most significant man of our troubled times. Significant not only because you are the first Afro- American President of the USA, but also because you carry with you the hopes and aspirations of billions of people on this planet who have grown to admire and love you in the past few months. Not just in the United States. But with those hopes and aspirations you also carry a greater burden than perhaps any president of the United States has carried. For you have promised a changed world. A world that is more equitable, a world that is fairer, a world that has compassion, a world that cares,
I know that is a lot of responsibility for one man to carry on his shoulders. But with that responsibility comes the energy and strength of the people that are willing to support you in completing and achieving all that you have promised. And you have promised a lot. You have promised change. And while we, the inhabitants of this planet look at change in many many different ways, we all agree that change must be, and will be for the better,
We don’t expect you to be the miracle man. We do not expect you to solve all the world’s problems. But we do look forward to a world leader that energizes the rest of the world to move in a far more compassionate direction. We see in you a heart that will not easily become cynical. We see in you a soul that understands pain, understands poverty, understands the longings of the dispossesed of this world.
We hope you will never forget your own pain, your own longings, your own search for compassion and understanding for yourself. If you do not, then you stand on the threshold of being the most significant leader of our times.
Please do not let us down.

Why does it take over $ 2 billion for the people of the US to decide who their next President will be ? Or conversely, is attention span so limited now, that people need to be bombarded by the media campaigns to constantly be reminded that Obama is a better candidate than McCain or Hilary Clinton ? Personally, I thought that Obama’s 30 minute spot on US TV was complete oversell. It undercuts his message of austerity in the coming decade for the American people.

Once again the people of India, the ordinary citizen, has suffered the politics of hatred. Whether it be the 60 people killed in the awful bomb blasts in Gawhati, or the innocent people attacked and killed in the trains in Mumbai. How do the politicians who provoke such actions to further their own selfish political ends sleep at night ? How can they look at their own families, their own children and not be consumed by the grief they have caused to so many other families ? How do they sleep at night ? I know that politicians did not cause the bombings, but in effect their actions or non actions led to them. Indian politicians are fast becoming self obsessed, self serving demons, who feed on the flesh of their own people.

Obama is being accused of being a socialist, and I think that is right, though I do not think of it as an accusation at all. For the people f the US actually are asking for a change towards a far more regulated capitalism, which is really the definition of socialism. What we are seeing in the US is not a struggle between races anymore but a struggle between the super rich and those that are now living in fear of their jobs and pensions. This is the beginings of a true class struggle within the US. And this struggle is showing itself everywhere in the world – not just in the obvious places. In Europe too, and between the rich and the poor economies in the fight over the World Trade Organizations. I even believe that the confrontation between Islam and Christianity too is a form of a class struggle between the rich and the poor, with poverty and lack of hope driving more and more young people into the arms of fundamentalism.
Is that one of the fall-outs of Globalization too ? ……

Continue reading “Is the world heading to class struggle ?” →

So is Capitalism inherently flawed ? Not inherently, but as all things it works very well in theory, but in practice Capitalism needs a lot of help ! One thing the theory of truly free market economies assumes is just that – a free market with equal access to information so that everyone is making considered decisions. Well, given the complexity of the financial world (which I know as a former chartered accountant is often a deliberately created complexity) it is an assumption that one just cannot make. But much more fundamentally, a true free market theory assumes a continuing flow of wealth back into the economy. Whether in form of saving or consumption, money/wealth by individuals or by organizations is pumped back into the economy. It does not matter whether the money is in form of debt or cash – Capitalism is essentially based on a free barter system, with means of negotiations being cash or credit.
However when large chunks of wealth are pulled out of the economy and put into the ‘hyper economy’ imbalances are created within the economic system……

Continue reading “Hyper Economy : a socialist veiw of capitalism” →

First a very happy Diwali to everyone, and I thought that we should remind ourselves of why there is a tradition to gamble over this festive and religious season. It is so that we all understand the nature of wealth, the nature of the Goddess Laxmi, who cannot be owned/procured for ones own greed. Wealth has it’s own free will and will come and go beyond your own ability to control it. Like the Goddess, you may worship her, but you can never possess her !
So in the time of the Global financial crisis, it is good to think about the nature of wealth. Happy Diwali !