by Chris Hedges
Syed Fahad Hashmi can tell you about the dark heart of America. He knows that our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or at Guantánamo Bay, but also at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Hashmi is a U.S. citizen of Muslim descent imprisoned on two counts of providing and conspiring to provide material support and two counts of making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to al-Qaida. As his case prepares for trial, his plight illustrates that the gravest threat we face is not from Islamic extremists, but the codification of draconian procedures that deny Americans basic civil liberties and due process. Hashmi would be a better person to tell you this, but he is not allowed to speak.
This corruption of our legal system, if history is any guide, will not be reserved by the state for suspected terrorists, or even Muslim Americans. In the coming turmoil and economic collapse, it will be used to silence all who are branded as disruptive or subversive. Hashmi endures what many others, who are not Muslim, will endure later. Radical activists in the environmental, globalization, anti-nuclear, sustainable agriculture and anarchist movements—who are already being placed by the state in special detention facilities with Muslims charged with terrorism—have discovered that his fate is their fate. Courageous groups have organized protests, including vigils outside the Manhattan detention facility. They can be found at www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org or www.freefahad.com. On Martin Luther King Day, this Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. EST, protesters will hold a large vigil in front of the MCC on 150 Park Row in Lower Manhattan to call for a return of our constitutional rights. Join them if you can.
The case against Hashmi, like most of the terrorist cases launched by the Bush administration, is appallingly weak and built on flimsy circumstantial evidence. This may be the reason the state has set up parallel legal and penal codes to railroad those it charges with links to terrorism. If it were a matter of evidence, activists like Hashmi, who is accused of facilitating the delivery of socks to al-Qaida, would probably never be brought to trial.
Hashmi, who if convicted could face up to 70 years in prison, has been held in solitary confinement for more than 2½ years. Special administrative measures, known as SAMs, have been imposed by the attorney general to prevent or severely restrict communication with other prisoners, attorneys, family, the media and people outside the jail. He also is denied access to the news and other reading material. Hashmi is not allowed to attend group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring and 23-hour lockdown. He must shower and go to the bathroom on camera. He can write one letter a week to a single member of his family, but he cannot use more than three pieces of paper. He has no access to fresh air and must take his one hour of daily recreation in a cage. His “proclivity for violence” is cited as the reason for these measures although he has never been charged or convicted with committing an act of violence.
“My brother was an activist,” Hashmi’s brother, Faisal, told me by phone from his home in Queens. “He spoke out on Muslim issues, especially those dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His arrest and torture have nothing to do with providing ponchos and socks to al-Qaida, as has been charged, but the manipulation of the law to suppress activists and scare the Muslim American community. My brother is an example. His treatment is meant to show Muslims what will happen to them if they speak about the plight of Muslims. We have lost every single motion to preserve my brother’s humanity and remove the special administrative measures. These measures are designed solely to break the psyche of prisoners and terrorize the Muslim community. These measures exemplify the malice towards Muslims at home and the malice towards the millions of Muslims who are considered as non-humans in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The extreme sensory deprivation used on Hashmi is a form of psychological torture, far more effective in breaking and disorienting detainees. It is torture as science. In Germany, the Gestapo broke bones while its successor, the communist East German Stasi, broke souls. We are like the Stasi. We have refined the art of psychological disintegration and drag bewildered suspects into secretive courts when they no longer have the mental and psychological capability to defend themselves.
“Hashmi’s right to a fair trial has been abridged,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Much of the evidence in the case has been classified under CIPA, and thus Hashmi has not been allowed to review it. The prosecution only recently turned over a significant portion of evidence to the defense. Hashmi may not communicate with the news media, either directly or through his attorneys. The conditions of his detention have impacted his mental state and ability to participate in his own defense.
“The prosecution’s case against Hashmi, an outspoken activist within the Muslim community, abridges his First Amendment rights and threatens the First Amendment rights of others,” Ratner added. “While Hashmi’s political and religious beliefs, speech and associations are constitutionally protected, the government has been given wide latitude by the court to use them as evidence of his frame of mind and, by extension, intent. The material support charges against him depend on criminalization of association. This could have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of others, particularly in activist and Muslim communities.”
Constitutionally protected statements, beliefs and associations can now become a crime. Dissidents, even those who break no laws, can be stripped of their rights and imprisoned without due process. It is the legal equivalent of preemptive war. The state can detain and prosecute people not for what they have done, or even for what they are planning to do, but for holding religious or political beliefs that the state deems seditious. The first of those targeted have been observant Muslims, but they will not be the last.
“Most of the evidence is classified,” Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College who taught Hashmi, told me, “but Hashmi is not allowed to see it. He is an American citizen. But in America you can now go to trial and all the evidence collected against you cannot be reviewed. You can spend 2½ years in solitary confinement before you are convicted of anything. There has been attention paid to extraordinary rendition, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib with this false idea that if people are tried in the United States things will be fair. But what allowed Guantánamo to happen was the devolution of the rule of law here at home, and this is not only happening to Hashmi.”
Hashmi was, like so many of those arrested during the Bush years, briefly a poster child in the “war on terror.” He was apprehended in Britain on June 6, 2006, on a U.S. warrant. His arrest was the top story on the CBS and NBC nightly news programs, which used graphics that read “Terror Trail” and “Web of Terror.” He was held for 11 months at Belmarsh Prison in London and then became the first U.S. citizen to be extradited by Britain. The year before his arrest, Hashmi, a graduate of Brooklyn College, had completed his master’s degree in international relations at London Metropolitan University. His case has no more substance than the one against the seven men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, a case where, even though there were five convictions after two mistrials, an FBI deputy director acknowledged that the plan was more “aspirational rather than operational.” And it mirrors the older case of the Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, now under house arrest in Virginia, who has been hounded by the Justice Department although he should legally have been freed. Judge Leonie Brinkema, currently handling the Al-Arian case, in early March, questioned the U.S. attorney’s actions in Al-Arian’s plea agreement saying curtly: “I think there’s something more important here, and that’s the integrity of the Justice Department.”
The case against Hashmi revolves around the testimony of Junaid Babar, also an American citizen. Babar, in early 2004, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. In his luggage, the government alleges, Babar had raincoats, ponchos and waterproof socks, which Babar later delivered to a member of al-Qaida in south Waziristan, Pakistan. It was alleged that Hashmi allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call conspirators in other terror plots.
“Hashmi grew up here, was well known here, was very outspoken, very charismatic and very political,” said Theoharis. “This is really a message being sent to American Muslims about the cost of being politically active. It is not about delivering alleged socks and ponchos and rain gear. Do you think al-Qaida can’t get socks and ponchos in Pakistan? The government is planning to introduce tapes of Hashmi’s political talks while he was at Brooklyn College at the trial. Why are we willing to let this happen? Is it because they are Muslims, and we think it will not affect us? People who care about First Amendment rights should be terrified. This is one of the crucial civil rights issues of our time. We ignore this at our own peril.”
Babar, who was arrested in 2004 and has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for al-Qaida, also faces up to 70 years in prison. But he has agreed to serve as a government witness and has already testified for the government in terror trials in Britain and Canada. Babar will receive a reduced sentence for his services, and many speculate he will be set free after the Hashmi trial. Since there is very little evidence to link Hashmi to terrorist activity, the government will rely on Babar to prove intent. This intent will revolve around alleged conversations and statements Hashmi made in Babar’s presence. Hashmi, who was a member of the New York political group Al Muhajiroun as a student at Brooklyn College, has made provocative statements, including calling America “the biggest terrorist in the world,” but Al Muhajiroun is not defined by the government as a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is not illegal. And our complicity in acts of state terror is a historical fact.
There will be more Hashmis, and the Justice Department, planning for future detentions, set up in 2006 a segregated facility, the Communication Management Unit, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all the inmates transferred to Terre Haute are Muslims. A second facility has been set up at Marion, Ill., where the inmates again are mostly Muslim but also include a sprinkling of animal rights and environmental activists, among them Daniel McGowan, who was charged with two arsons at logging operations in Oregon. His sentence was given “terrorism enhancements” under the Patriot Act. Amnesty International has called the Marion prison facility “inhumane.” All calls and mail—although communication customarily is off-limits to prison officials—are monitored in these two Communication Management Units. Communication among prisoners is required to be only in English. The highest-level terrorists are housed at the Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, known as Supermax, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners have almost no human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation, replicating the conditions for most of those held at Guantánamo. If detainees are transferred from Guantánamo to the prison in Thomson, Ill., they will find little change. They will endure Guantánamo-like conditions in colder weather.
Our descent is the familiar disease of decaying empires. The tyranny we impose on others we finally impose on ourselves. The influx of non-Muslim American activists into these facilities is another ominous development. It presages the continued dismantling of the rule of law, the widening of a system where prisoners are psychologically broken by sensory deprivation, extreme isolation and secretive kangaroo courts where suspects are sentenced on rumors and innuendo and denied the right to view the evidence against them. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C.
Syed Fahad Hashmi can tell you about the dark heart of America. He knows that our First Amendment rights have become a joke, that habeas corpus no longer exists and that we torture, not only in black sites such as those at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or at Guantánamo Bay, but also at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan. Hashmi is a U.S. citizen of Muslim descent imprisoned on two counts of providing and conspiring to provide material support and two counts of making and conspiring to make a contribution of goods or services to al-Qaida. As his case prepares for trial, his plight illustrates that the gravest threat we face is not from Islamic extremists, but the codification of draconian procedures that deny Americans basic civil liberties and due process. Hashmi would be a better person to tell you this, but he is not allowed to speak.
This corruption of our legal system, if history is any guide, will not be reserved by the state for suspected terrorists, or even Muslim Americans. In the coming turmoil and economic collapse, it will be used to silence all who are branded as disruptive or subversive. Hashmi endures what many others, who are not Muslim, will endure later. Radical activists in the environmental, globalization, anti-nuclear, sustainable agriculture and anarchist movements—who are already being placed by the state in special detention facilities with Muslims charged with terrorism—have discovered that his fate is their fate. Courageous groups have organized protests, including vigils outside the Manhattan detention facility. They can be found at www.educatorsforcivilliberties.org or www.freefahad.com. On Martin Luther King Day, this Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. EST, protesters will hold a large vigil in front of the MCC on 150 Park Row in Lower Manhattan to call for a return of our constitutional rights. Join them if you can.
The case against Hashmi, like most of the terrorist cases launched by the Bush administration, is appallingly weak and built on flimsy circumstantial evidence. This may be the reason the state has set up parallel legal and penal codes to railroad those it charges with links to terrorism. If it were a matter of evidence, activists like Hashmi, who is accused of facilitating the delivery of socks to al-Qaida, would probably never be brought to trial.
Hashmi, who if convicted could face up to 70 years in prison, has been held in solitary confinement for more than 2½ years. Special administrative measures, known as SAMs, have been imposed by the attorney general to prevent or severely restrict communication with other prisoners, attorneys, family, the media and people outside the jail. He also is denied access to the news and other reading material. Hashmi is not allowed to attend group prayer. He is subject to 24-hour electronic monitoring and 23-hour lockdown. He must shower and go to the bathroom on camera. He can write one letter a week to a single member of his family, but he cannot use more than three pieces of paper. He has no access to fresh air and must take his one hour of daily recreation in a cage. His “proclivity for violence” is cited as the reason for these measures although he has never been charged or convicted with committing an act of violence.
“My brother was an activist,” Hashmi’s brother, Faisal, told me by phone from his home in Queens. “He spoke out on Muslim issues, especially those dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His arrest and torture have nothing to do with providing ponchos and socks to al-Qaida, as has been charged, but the manipulation of the law to suppress activists and scare the Muslim American community. My brother is an example. His treatment is meant to show Muslims what will happen to them if they speak about the plight of Muslims. We have lost every single motion to preserve my brother’s humanity and remove the special administrative measures. These measures are designed solely to break the psyche of prisoners and terrorize the Muslim community. These measures exemplify the malice towards Muslims at home and the malice towards the millions of Muslims who are considered as non-humans in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The extreme sensory deprivation used on Hashmi is a form of psychological torture, far more effective in breaking and disorienting detainees. It is torture as science. In Germany, the Gestapo broke bones while its successor, the communist East German Stasi, broke souls. We are like the Stasi. We have refined the art of psychological disintegration and drag bewildered suspects into secretive courts when they no longer have the mental and psychological capability to defend themselves.
“Hashmi’s right to a fair trial has been abridged,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Much of the evidence in the case has been classified under CIPA, and thus Hashmi has not been allowed to review it. The prosecution only recently turned over a significant portion of evidence to the defense. Hashmi may not communicate with the news media, either directly or through his attorneys. The conditions of his detention have impacted his mental state and ability to participate in his own defense.
“The prosecution’s case against Hashmi, an outspoken activist within the Muslim community, abridges his First Amendment rights and threatens the First Amendment rights of others,” Ratner added. “While Hashmi’s political and religious beliefs, speech and associations are constitutionally protected, the government has been given wide latitude by the court to use them as evidence of his frame of mind and, by extension, intent. The material support charges against him depend on criminalization of association. This could have a chilling effect on the First Amendment rights of others, particularly in activist and Muslim communities.”
Constitutionally protected statements, beliefs and associations can now become a crime. Dissidents, even those who break no laws, can be stripped of their rights and imprisoned without due process. It is the legal equivalent of preemptive war. The state can detain and prosecute people not for what they have done, or even for what they are planning to do, but for holding religious or political beliefs that the state deems seditious. The first of those targeted have been observant Muslims, but they will not be the last.
“Most of the evidence is classified,” Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College who taught Hashmi, told me, “but Hashmi is not allowed to see it. He is an American citizen. But in America you can now go to trial and all the evidence collected against you cannot be reviewed. You can spend 2½ years in solitary confinement before you are convicted of anything. There has been attention paid to extraordinary rendition, Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib with this false idea that if people are tried in the United States things will be fair. But what allowed Guantánamo to happen was the devolution of the rule of law here at home, and this is not only happening to Hashmi.”
Hashmi was, like so many of those arrested during the Bush years, briefly a poster child in the “war on terror.” He was apprehended in Britain on June 6, 2006, on a U.S. warrant. His arrest was the top story on the CBS and NBC nightly news programs, which used graphics that read “Terror Trail” and “Web of Terror.” He was held for 11 months at Belmarsh Prison in London and then became the first U.S. citizen to be extradited by Britain. The year before his arrest, Hashmi, a graduate of Brooklyn College, had completed his master’s degree in international relations at London Metropolitan University. His case has no more substance than the one against the seven men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, a case where, even though there were five convictions after two mistrials, an FBI deputy director acknowledged that the plan was more “aspirational rather than operational.” And it mirrors the older case of the Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, now under house arrest in Virginia, who has been hounded by the Justice Department although he should legally have been freed. Judge Leonie Brinkema, currently handling the Al-Arian case, in early March, questioned the U.S. attorney’s actions in Al-Arian’s plea agreement saying curtly: “I think there’s something more important here, and that’s the integrity of the Justice Department.”
The case against Hashmi revolves around the testimony of Junaid Babar, also an American citizen. Babar, in early 2004, stayed with Hashmi at his London apartment for two weeks. In his luggage, the government alleges, Babar had raincoats, ponchos and waterproof socks, which Babar later delivered to a member of al-Qaida in south Waziristan, Pakistan. It was alleged that Hashmi allowed Babar to use his cell phone to call conspirators in other terror plots.
“Hashmi grew up here, was well known here, was very outspoken, very charismatic and very political,” said Theoharis. “This is really a message being sent to American Muslims about the cost of being politically active. It is not about delivering alleged socks and ponchos and rain gear. Do you think al-Qaida can’t get socks and ponchos in Pakistan? The government is planning to introduce tapes of Hashmi’s political talks while he was at Brooklyn College at the trial. Why are we willing to let this happen? Is it because they are Muslims, and we think it will not affect us? People who care about First Amendment rights should be terrified. This is one of the crucial civil rights issues of our time. We ignore this at our own peril.”
Babar, who was arrested in 2004 and has pleaded guilty to five counts of material support for al-Qaida, also faces up to 70 years in prison. But he has agreed to serve as a government witness and has already testified for the government in terror trials in Britain and Canada. Babar will receive a reduced sentence for his services, and many speculate he will be set free after the Hashmi trial. Since there is very little evidence to link Hashmi to terrorist activity, the government will rely on Babar to prove intent. This intent will revolve around alleged conversations and statements Hashmi made in Babar’s presence. Hashmi, who was a member of the New York political group Al Muhajiroun as a student at Brooklyn College, has made provocative statements, including calling America “the biggest terrorist in the world,” but Al Muhajiroun is not defined by the government as a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is not illegal. And our complicity in acts of state terror is a historical fact.
There will be more Hashmis, and the Justice Department, planning for future detentions, set up in 2006 a segregated facility, the Communication Management Unit, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all the inmates transferred to Terre Haute are Muslims. A second facility has been set up at Marion, Ill., where the inmates again are mostly Muslim but also include a sprinkling of animal rights and environmental activists, among them Daniel McGowan, who was charged with two arsons at logging operations in Oregon. His sentence was given “terrorism enhancements” under the Patriot Act. Amnesty International has called the Marion prison facility “inhumane.” All calls and mail—although communication customarily is off-limits to prison officials—are monitored in these two Communication Management Units. Communication among prisoners is required to be only in English. The highest-level terrorists are housed at the Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, known as Supermax, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners have almost no human interaction, physical exercise or mental stimulation, replicating the conditions for most of those held at Guantánamo. If detainees are transferred from Guantánamo to the prison in Thomson, Ill., they will find little change. They will endure Guantánamo-like conditions in colder weather.
Our descent is the familiar disease of decaying empires. The tyranny we impose on others we finally impose on ourselves. The influx of non-Muslim American activists into these facilities is another ominous development. It presages the continued dismantling of the rule of law, the widening of a system where prisoners are psychologically broken by sensory deprivation, extreme isolation and secretive kangaroo courts where suspects are sentenced on rumors and innuendo and denied the right to view the evidence against them. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism.
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C.
I tried to keep an open mind, but i was collecting a lot of dirt.
Have you ever noticed that there are always more people on a railway platform than those who are there to take a train. Its true for any form of transport. Its not just
People working at that bus depot or station or even air port there are people who have nowhere to go, the homeless to find these spots tempting, there are the aimlessw loiterers and others of the same inkling. I guess mankind has never ever really lost its wanderlust. We were wanderers and nomads long back and we still are. We came down trees because it was difficult to get to the next tree. Then we had to what lay across the berry bush, on the other bank of the river, the other side of the mountain range, across the sea n then the ocean. Now we want to go across space. Every time some one says we have become decadent, i tend to dissagree. The longer we have this urge to leap over the headge, we are safe we might need to be more circumspect and gentler to the new places but our urge to learn will always keep us safe.
The Flight landed in the middle of a tropical storm, it was raining cats and dogs and a few other species at the airport. Bombay had sent me off with rain and welcomed me back with a downpour. The contrast between Bombay … oops Mumbai and Bangalore is stark, the cities are a studied contrast in growth cycles.
While, Bangalore takes pride in its middle class status and is very clean and green with fresh coats of paint and a new wash, this city at the same time shouts its common man existence, in its grimy ill kept and badly maintained exterior. There are patches of gleaming buildings amidst dirty high rises. When the people of Bangalore are self important and proud the typical Bombay resident is polite nice and help full, but then if you spend two hours a day with your face stuck to some one else’s armpit and another persons ass plastered to you groin personal space and pride become bookish notions. The work space is swanky and has an open plan setup the team charming and friendly with an undercurrent of school yard mischievousness. When I’m with these people I have a constant itch between my shoulder blades expecting a paper taped to my back asking any passerby to “Kick Me”. This veneer of fun and games that overlays every thing hides a truly professional and dedicated work gang. With the number of people working and the outlook Normal Indians have towards BPO’s the task of rebranding and creating an image where by working for us is desirable not just convenient is big and the team has taken it as a challenge.
Signing off, Homeless wet and soaked to the bone, but with a big grin on my face: Shanu
While, Bangalore takes pride in its middle class status and is very clean and green with fresh coats of paint and a new wash, this city at the same time shouts its common man existence, in its grimy ill kept and badly maintained exterior. There are patches of gleaming buildings amidst dirty high rises. When the people of Bangalore are self important and proud the typical Bombay resident is polite nice and help full, but then if you spend two hours a day with your face stuck to some one else’s armpit and another persons ass plastered to you groin personal space and pride become bookish notions. The work space is swanky and has an open plan setup the team charming and friendly with an undercurrent of school yard mischievousness. When I’m with these people I have a constant itch between my shoulder blades expecting a paper taped to my back asking any passerby to “Kick Me”. This veneer of fun and games that overlays every thing hides a truly professional and dedicated work gang. With the number of people working and the outlook Normal Indians have towards BPO’s the task of rebranding and creating an image where by working for us is desirable not just convenient is big and the team has taken it as a challenge.
Signing off, Homeless wet and soaked to the bone, but with a big grin on my face: Shanu
Calvin : You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
Hobbes : What mood is that?
Calvin : Last-minute panic.
I have a faint suspicion. If Genesis, yes the first book of the Old Testament, from the Bible, is correct then we are a huge genetic aberration. Bear with me, the detriments of inbreeding have already been proven by science. Then if Genesis is true, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, so the entire world's population is one inbred population. we are all marrying and procreating with our distant cousins, well except for redneck America, where its mostly first cousins and brothers and sisters still. OK so as we inbreed, there are more and more genetic issues and decreasing intelligence.
Even if evolution is true, the current reserch says, thru the study of mitocondria (something very complicated) that we are all descendents of eight female originators. so there too we are inbred, if a little less, degenerates.
OK by now you must be fuming, at my deductions, well i have positive proof. look at youtube, or any other video channel, and you can see the antics of our species, people standing over airbags while trigering them, running with the bulls, trying to stop cars with sheer will power, and many more. Oh and i have a way of detecting such people too. When ever you hear people utter the statements below, make sure you witness the following from a safe distance.
"I have a great idea"
"I wonder what happens if.."
"You know what, we should do.."
"What can go wrong?"
There are others too which im sure you can add to the list.
Oh and my contribution to the worlds general knowledge, trying to see what a cracker does when put in a beer bottle. That was the closest to a fragmentation grenade i have ever come.
Its been 13 years now, a climb up a cliff face ended in a broken back, i wasn't sure I'd walk again, even sitting up again was distant. looking at the first few days wen the realisation dawned that this was it. at sixteen i was a vegetable, or real close. but it is not the injury i want to talk about, it's what came after. Life for the few years after was always rose tinted. nothing absolutely nothing could go wrong, i was invincible, high speed crashes, climbing the same cliff again, falling in love every day, taking a sabbatical from school, going down a 45 degree slope on a bicycle with doggy brakes, taking apart a scooter, nothing and i mean nothing could hold me back. i had realized that life is fickle it looses interest in the blink of an eye so it was never going to get that chance, again. money was never an issue all that mattered was the next escapade. For example when the first time the doctor told me i could walk, i took off from the bed, that very evening, that had been my prison for the last 6 months, when no one was watching me. The spirit was there, so was determination, but my legs had other ideas after resting for so long they didn't really want to do any work. oh and my nervous system was still drunk. I ended on the kitchen floor with a broken glass and water all over. The noise brought the whole family down on me, listening to them you would have thought i was paralyzed again. so as they yelled at me, i had this stupid smile on my face, as i came off my adrenalin high. Mission accomplished. till 2005 i was a tornado and nothing absolutely nothing could stop me. college was to be conquered. I wanted to leave a trace in every place, every life that i touched. Big bold letters that proclaimed that "Shanu was here" my graffiti on life. Indelible and forever.
Some where along the way i forgot the lessons i learnt, life became a series of accomplishments instead of the high. i forgot that i had a respite, a second chance. then came the MBA and the pursuit of the golden career. Everyday anxieties, worries and frustrations came back. Wants and needs grew. Where i was happy careening around on a 100 cc bike i wanted one with a 1000 cc. Backpacking and hitching around Rajasthan wasn't enough, i want to drive around the world. then, Life happened, again. The glowing grades and accolades from my professors turned into biting remarks, the healthy back, turned troublesome, and the glowing some times telepathic relationship turned into a burden, for her. Ridiculed by batch mates, reviled by the professors, and sympathized by my friends. I closed up on my self, i couldn't understand what had gone wrong. I knew or thought that i knew i was one step ahead of life. This couldn't happen. Self pity and recrimination meant that i sat there looking at my life disintegrate with morbid fascination. Family aghast, friends horrified and the rest of the world went on while i sat there, closed up in a room for six months caught up in the view. Treatment for depression followed, transforming to lethargy and every thing attendant. I was still not ready to concede that there was some thing wrong with me. All i knew was the world was out to get me, what had i done to deserve this? Then one day a friend came and yelled at me, it was not recrimination, it was not anger or disappointment. she yelled because being the way i was, was hurting her and my other friends. Seeing her yell and cry was an eye opener, pity turned into disgust. I realized that i had lost sight of my life, lessons learnt at a great price. My reprieve all those years back was forgotten. I stopped taking medication, went out for a ride. cleaned out my closet both literally and mentally. I wanted a job, i wanted to work.
It was a second shot, i was wasting it. MBA was gone, done, over. Now i had to move on. I wanted to believe THE FALL was life changing, it gave me insights that would let me enjoy life more. But i returned to the emotional base line that i had taken off from. Career, money, the next bike, the next acquisition and the next material high was all i was worried about. Life and Vini pulled me back to earth. Its been 3 years now, i started at the bottom, Getting payed in peanuts for free lance jobs, then small firms and higher, Ive grown and Ive grown to respect what life was teaching me all those years ago. It is my life, i am the only one who can find happiness, its sitting on the rocks with a friend, its a drinking binge after four years of alcohol free existence and talking stuff over, its the birth of your best buddy's first child, it's talking to some one after ages and feeling like you had never been away, Its a travelling two nights and a wasted afternoon, just to spent a morning on the beach with a friend, its going on a shopping binge with your niece and not worrying about the rest of the month. There has been a house in between, furniture, and assorted other stuff, oh and i wouldn't have survived if it hadn't been for handouts and loans from friends. but I'm getting there. It's my life I'm going to live it my way, I'm going to wake up every day and be happy for it. There is crazy taxi driver or a loose cliff stone around the corner ready to take it all away. I'm determined, not to loose sight of the lessons that my second chance, my grace, taught me, and if i do you are welcome to knock me on the head.
Que Sera Sera.
Some where along the way i forgot the lessons i learnt, life became a series of accomplishments instead of the high. i forgot that i had a respite, a second chance. then came the MBA and the pursuit of the golden career. Everyday anxieties, worries and frustrations came back. Wants and needs grew. Where i was happy careening around on a 100 cc bike i wanted one with a 1000 cc. Backpacking and hitching around Rajasthan wasn't enough, i want to drive around the world. then, Life happened, again. The glowing grades and accolades from my professors turned into biting remarks, the healthy back, turned troublesome, and the glowing some times telepathic relationship turned into a burden, for her. Ridiculed by batch mates, reviled by the professors, and sympathized by my friends. I closed up on my self, i couldn't understand what had gone wrong. I knew or thought that i knew i was one step ahead of life. This couldn't happen. Self pity and recrimination meant that i sat there looking at my life disintegrate with morbid fascination. Family aghast, friends horrified and the rest of the world went on while i sat there, closed up in a room for six months caught up in the view. Treatment for depression followed, transforming to lethargy and every thing attendant. I was still not ready to concede that there was some thing wrong with me. All i knew was the world was out to get me, what had i done to deserve this? Then one day a friend came and yelled at me, it was not recrimination, it was not anger or disappointment. she yelled because being the way i was, was hurting her and my other friends. Seeing her yell and cry was an eye opener, pity turned into disgust. I realized that i had lost sight of my life, lessons learnt at a great price. My reprieve all those years back was forgotten. I stopped taking medication, went out for a ride. cleaned out my closet both literally and mentally. I wanted a job, i wanted to work.
It was a second shot, i was wasting it. MBA was gone, done, over. Now i had to move on. I wanted to believe THE FALL was life changing, it gave me insights that would let me enjoy life more. But i returned to the emotional base line that i had taken off from. Career, money, the next bike, the next acquisition and the next material high was all i was worried about. Life and Vini pulled me back to earth. Its been 3 years now, i started at the bottom, Getting payed in peanuts for free lance jobs, then small firms and higher, Ive grown and Ive grown to respect what life was teaching me all those years ago. It is my life, i am the only one who can find happiness, its sitting on the rocks with a friend, its a drinking binge after four years of alcohol free existence and talking stuff over, its the birth of your best buddy's first child, it's talking to some one after ages and feeling like you had never been away, Its a travelling two nights and a wasted afternoon, just to spent a morning on the beach with a friend, its going on a shopping binge with your niece and not worrying about the rest of the month. There has been a house in between, furniture, and assorted other stuff, oh and i wouldn't have survived if it hadn't been for handouts and loans from friends. but I'm getting there. It's my life I'm going to live it my way, I'm going to wake up every day and be happy for it. There is crazy taxi driver or a loose cliff stone around the corner ready to take it all away. I'm determined, not to loose sight of the lessons that my second chance, my grace, taught me, and if i do you are welcome to knock me on the head.
Que Sera Sera.
I talked to some one from the dark mists of my past. she was a real good friend once long ago. She still is. She taught me some thing real important.
"Every one has ghosts that haunt them. failed ideas, stupid decisions, things we could have done differently, people we hurt, people who hurt us. these ghosts chase us through life and every day. My ghost made sure that i didn't have a normal relationship the last four years. today i learned
Ghosts will only haunt you if you let them haunt you"
I bury her today, its over finally.
There are only 2 reasons that a person has a large funeral gathering, either he was really loved, or people are there to make sure he is really dead.
Image : Sunshine
From "Stars and Atoms," by Sir Arthur Eddington (Oxford University Press, 1927, p. 41)
During his twenty years on television, Homer Simpson has pursued some interesting business endeavors. But most famously he has made a name for himself as a hapless, but big-hearted, man who always seems to stumble through life by a combination of good luck and compassion from others. And there is another humanistic quality that he always seems to illustrate: a child-like naivety that expresses his good-nature and his undying love for his family. Unfortunately for many, these qualities are not enough to get by in the world - especially during these tumultuous economic times (Note: we are also not cartoons). If we look at The Simpsons, and its main character, we can find some economic guidance - if only by accident. In most cases, practical lessons can be derived from Homer, in the form of ‘what not to do’:
On the Stock Market:
“Buy low and sell high; that’s my motto”.
Sounds easy right? Well, if this were the case, someone as simple as Homer would be able to navigate during the precarious times. But it goes without saying that he has sometimes failed to execute. During one episode, Homer exclaimed (in regards to his involvement in the Pumpkin business):
“This year I invested in pumpkins. They’ve been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they’re going to peak right around January. Then bang! That’s when I’ll cash in.”
Obviously, the humor in this situation is apparent, but the message it conveys could not be more timely: study the market as best as you can; take into consideration the associated aspects of the companies and commodities you invest in; and don’t look at the market like a get-rich-quick scheme. Simple enough, right?
Incentive Based Employment
“Son, if you don’t like your job, you don’t strike, you just go in there every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way.”
“Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers.”
Unemployment rates are the highest they’ve been in decades and it seems that employee productivity is more closely scrutinized than ever. Many people point to American industry (automotive, specifically) as less competitive and innovative than foreign companies. This, coupled with an overall lackadaisical approach to productivity has been pointed out as a major contributor to the poor state of the American Economy.
In the Episode “You Only Move Twice”, Homer is recruited by a ‘Mr. Scorpio’, a nice man that is the head of a secret organization consumed with world domination. Unknowingly, Homer helps Scorpio build a nuclear reactor that is used to power the latter’s weapons arsenal. From this episode we have this little gem:
“Mr Scorpio says productivity is up two percent, and it’s all because of my motivational techniques. Like, donuts. And a possibility of more donuts to come.”
In today’s economy, the employment marketplace is extremely competitive. Individuals are less likely to compare prospective employers based on incentives, but rather continued employment has itself become the incentive to hard work.
Enterprise
“All my life I’ve had one dream, to achieve my many goals.”
“If something’s hard to do, then it’s not worth doing.”
It’s no secret that a lot of wealth is created during a recession. The winners are those enterprising individuals who take calculated risks, work hard, and stay focused. Consequently, they succeed while those around them fail or struggle to stay afloat. These are those times. Homer, according to his above sentiment, would fail - flat on his face. But when you least expect it, from the vault of ‘Homer Genius’ comes this:
“All right, let’s not panic. I’ll make the money by selling one of my livers. I can get by with one.”
Sacrifice: an important virtue in enterprise and in personal finances. Much of the literature that has been created on finance in the last year has stressed cutting out unnecessary spending. Of course, this might be a stretch, but Homer shows that sometimes personal sacrifices are warranted, especially when the well-being of one’s family is at stake. Even, if we only have one liver. (Note: Mint does not, under any circumstances, endorse the selling of vital or semi-vital organs).
Business and Personal Ethics
“Marge, don’t discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel.”
This first quote would be less funny if Homer were able to weasel out of anything. The bottom line, however, at the marketplace or in your personal finances, is to live up to your responsibilities. This will help to curtail any need to weasel out of dodgy situations, ie: collections, bankruptcy loop-holes, foreclosures, et al.
“Oh no! What have I done? I smashed open my little boy’s piggy bank, and for what? A few measly cents, not even enough to buy one beer. Wait a minute, lemme count and make sure…not even close!”"
Homer’s curve is less than steep. There must be an easier solution! Perhaps it requires thinking to oneself, “What would Homer do?” Then, do the polar opposite.
Understanding Cash-flow
Homer: “Look at this Marge, $58 and all of it profit. I’m the smartest businessman in the world.”
Marge: “Its food bill today was $300″
Homer: “Marge, please, don’t humiliate me in front of the money”
Many will remember this episode as the one where the Simpsons have a elephant living in their backyard, and with which Homer has the less-than-brilliant idea to sell elephant rides at $2. After only one day, Marge wisely pointed out that the food bill for the elephant was $300 - more than the day’s total revenue. After realizing this, Homer upped the price to $500/per ride. Consequently, his customers decided to go elsewhere.
Economics 101: If a company continues to lose money, it will eventually go out of business. Marge’s explanation of the cost of food was enough to pull the plug on this business (that likely did not have a business plan anyway). This principle can be applied to an individual’s finances - if you spend more than you make, you’ll eventually be in debt. The longer you keep spending, the more you’ll be in debt.
Innovation, Marketing and Adapting to a Changing Marketplace
“Oh they have Internet on computers now?”
Part of staying relevant, is staying on par with the development and adoption of new technology. For many businesses in the last decade, this has included developing an online portal through which goods and services may be purchased. For others, it may simply offer information and a way to contact businesses. In today’s world, this may mean an immersion to sites like Twitter, where individuals can interact with businesses and each other in new and unconventional ways.
“How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?”
With learning new technology comes learning new skills. They may be one and the same, but in all circumstances, businesses, as well as their employees, continually need to evolve. For the former this may be necessary for growth; for the latter this is necessary to remain employed. The fact of the matter is that individuals across the board ought to always be on the lookout for ways to make themselves more competitive than others through their skill set. For prospective workers, an employer will likely be interested in hiring someone who can take on multiple responsibilities and is well-rounded.
Financial Solvency and Living Below Your Means
If not at home, the Simpson patriarch can often be found at Moe’s Tavern, drinking with his buddies. In fact, it seems that Homer is at the pub daily or almost daily. This begs the question: “Is this affordable for the head of a single-income family with four dependents?”
Of course the more Homer blows as a percentage of of his paychecks on Duff, the less he would have to spend on necessities for the family, such as: housing, food, clothing, a retirement fund, insurance and so forth. This is not rocket science, but if this type of behavior became the norm, frustrating intra-marital discussions (intervention) would likely be inevitable. Homer is unabashedly blue collar, and does not likely have the means to a life he is illustrated to be living.
“Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires.”
Obviously not knowing the value of money can set oneself up for financial insolvency. Of course, this is not surprising to hear from the man who drinks daily, finds donuts rewarding, and steals from his own children’s’ piggy banks…
Debt Management
In a recent and timely episode, titled, ‘No Loan Again’, the Simpsons are facing foreclosure. Not surprisingly, Homer’s understanding of a Home Equity Line of Credit is far from comprehensive, and is the primary source of his financial woes:
“It’s a secret thing called a home equity loan. I get all this cash…and the house gets stuck with the bills!”
And, later when discussing the foreclosure with his mortgage broker:
“When you gave me that money, you said I wouldn’t have to repay it ’til the future. This isn’t the future. It’s the lousy, stinking now!”
All good things come to an end. And Homer’s feelings are not uncommon, especially with the credit and real estate markets where they are at. While it may be too late for others, this illustration of mindless spending can serve as a reminder, that debt does not magically go away, and tomorrow will one day come - as will the debt collectors.
Source
Homer Economicus: Using The Simpsons to Teach Economics” Joshua Hall, WVU, Journal of Private Enterprise. 165-177. April 2005
Smile, its good for you.
well all the wars, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and a dozen other and then there is the recession and we haven't even got to our own little turf wars. but you know what i don't care, i really don't. Life goes on it will go on. Every time some one says we have to do this or that to save the planet i can't help laughing at them, you know why, because the planet will be here no matter what we do. It was here before we arrived and it will stay after we have gone or left, what ever the case may be. Its life is going to be measured on a scale that we can never comprehend. So bullshit to you kind sir, what we need to know and do is that if we don't stop and change we blow our legacy to dust. OK rant over.
i want to show some thing to you guys, I've been listening to these songs for some time and every time i do it makes me smile.
http://playingforchange.com/ check out this project. For lack of a better word, its beautiful in its simplicity, some street artistes, a few laptops and a little equipment and we can still create magic. This has to be our legacy, when we leave the planet or fade to dust, this has to be our legacy. its beautiful. I might have exaggerated a little but tell me if these songs don't put a smile on your lips.
the First video is my favourite, happiness is where you find it. oh and second questions why arent these guys
signed up with big studios.
PEACE LADIES AND GENTELMEN - SMILE. NO MATTER WHAT IT IS THAT IS BOTHERING YOU.
IT WILL GO AWAY, TRUST YOUR FRIENDS YOUR FAMILY AND EVERY THING WILL GO AWAY.
I WENT TO CHURCH TODAY, AFTER ALONG TIME. REALLY LONG TIME. I'D SAID I WONT GO TO CHURCH
TILL I SORTED THE SHIT IN MY LIFE AND I HAVE, I STILL HAVE A WAYS TO GO, BUT IM OUT AND I'M GRATEFUL
TO YOU GUYS, TO MY FAMILY AND TO THE BIG GUY UP STAIRS THANKS, REMEMBER
SMILE ALWAYS
Browny Died today, She was 13 years old. It was cancer and it was getting worse but she fought it with the same vigour as she approached life. but it had gotten so bad that we had to put her to sleep. she was proud and a little snotty but she was mine. Im going to miss her.
I rescued a human today. Her eyes met mine as she walked down the corridor peering apprehensively into the kennels. I felt her need instantly and knew I had to help her. I wagged my tail, not too exuberantly, so she wouldn't be afraid.
As she stopped at my kennel I blocked her view from a little accident I had in the back of my cage. I didn't want her to know that I hadn't been walked today. Sometimes the shelter keepers get too busy and I didn't want her to think poorly of them.
As she read my kennel card I hoped that she wouldn't feel sad about my past. I only have the future to look forward to and want to make a difference in someone's life. She got down on her knees and made little kissy sounds at me. I shoved my shoulder and side of my head up against the bars to comfort her.
Gentle fingertips caressed my neck; she was desperate for companionship. A tear fell down her cheek and I raised my paw to assure her that all would be well.
Soon my kennel door opened and her smile was so bright that I instantly jumped into her arms. I would promise to keep her safe. I would promise to always be by her side. I would promise to do everything I could to see that radiant smile and sparkle in her eyes.
I was so fortunate that she came down my corridor. So many more are out there who haven't walked the corridors. So many more to be saved. At least I could save one.
I rescued a human today.
On March 28, if the lights go off in your Cape Town hotel or, close to home, a Seattle hotel restaurant switches to candles, do not be alarmed. It's not an electrical-grid meltdown but a global show of support.
During Earth Hour, citizens of the world are asked to turn off their power for one hour, starting at 8:30 p.m. local time, in a symbolic stance against global warming.
The World Wildlife Fund started the event two years ago in Sydney, with 2.2 million people and thousands of businesses going dark. The next year, more than 400 cities on all seven continents participated. Some high-wattage landmarks even got involved, including the Sydney Opera House and, in New York, the Coke billboard in Times Square and the Empire State Building.
For 2009, so far nearly 1,200 cities — including Chicago, Guatemala City, Vancouver, B.C., Mumbai and Bangkok — in 80 countries have signed on. Group organizers aim for 1 billion people to flick the switch, an achievement they hope to present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Copenhagen this year.
Some cities and travel businesses are turning the statement into a celebration.
In Seattle, the Fairmont Olympic hotel will host a candlelit dinner in its luxury Georgian restaurant. In Melbourne, the Australian city will host a people-pedal-powered concert. In Athens, a conductor will lead a percussion circle as the Acropolis dims its lights.
Want to join in on the road? Kill the hotel-room lights and TV. Switch from plug to battery at the Internet cafe. Details: www.voteearth2009.org.
This is simply speaking advertising at its best ..... im not a see-scarlet-foaming-at-the-mouth Ferrari fan but for some reason this ad reminds me why i watch formula 1. this just made my day.
Go to work,
send your kids to school,
follow fashion, act normal,
walk on the pavement,
watch TV
save for your old age,
obey the law.
Repeat after me : I am Free
Eh, what's up, doc? - Bugs Bunny
Jumpin' without a parachute? Kinda dangerous, ain't it? - Bugs Bunny
If it's the Captain's Mess, let him clean it up. - Bugs Bunny
Hey, I found Nemo! - Bugs Bunny
Shhhhhhhh! I'm about to defy you. - Bugs Bunny
And remember, 'mud' spelled backwards is 'dum'. - Bugs Bunny
Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive. - Bugs Bunny
Ah, your brother blows bubble gum! - Bugs Bunny
I'll be scared later. Right now I'm too mad. - Bugs Bunny
The way I run this thing you'd think I knew something about it. - Bugs Bunny
Well, it's 5 o'clock somewhere. - Bugs Bunny
OOH! Look at four-legged airplane! - Bugs Bunny
Carrots are devine... You get a dozen for a dime, It's maaaa-gic! - Bugs Bunny
Eeeeeeh, watch me paste that pathetic palooka with a powerful, pachydermous, percussion pitch. - Bugs Bunny
What an embezzle! What an ultramaroon! - Bugs Bunny
I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque! - Bugs Bunny
Don't think it hasn't been a little slice of heaven...'cause it hasn't! - Bugs Bunny
Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending? - Bugs Bunny
Do you happen to know what the penalty is for shooting a fricaseeing rabbit without a fricaseeing rabbit license? - Bugs Bunny
I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season? - Bugs Bunny
Oh, well, we almost had a romantic ending! - Bugs Bunny
My, I'll bet you monsters lead innnnteresting lives. - Bugs Bunny
Of course you realize this means war! - Bugs Bunny
Gee, ain't I a stinker? - Bugs Bunny
Here I go with the timid little woodland creature bit again. It's shameful, but...ehhh, it's a living. - Bugs Bunny
I bet you say that to all the wabbits. - Bugs Bunny
For shame, doc. Hunting rabbits with an elephant gun. Why don't you shoot yourself an elephant? - Bugs Bunny
I know this defies the law of gravity, but I never studied law! - Bugs Bunny
when he passes Underneath next ill jump and steal his lunch...
0 comments Posted by vagabond dreamer at 3:12 AM
They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.
LEST WE FORGET
I found these rules to life by Avi sez, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, gadfly author of The Black Swan, I found the Rules pretty intersting and simple. So here are his "10 rules for surviving an unpredictable world with dignity."
1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
2 Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.
3 It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.
4 Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act — if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.
5 Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’.
6 Learn to fail with pride — and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and error — by mastering the error part.
7 Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words ‘impossible’, ‘never’, ‘too difficult’ too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never take ‘no’ for an answer (conversely, take most ‘yeses’ as ‘most probably’).
8 Don’t read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course, profiles of authors). The best filter to know if the news matters is if you hear it in cafes, restaurants... or (again) parties.
9 Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.
10 Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom (Thanks, Avi!)
Via Boing Boing
I have an orange Sweater, it was brought in a different age, in happier times, but the thing is i love the sweater. it was slightly large for me when i brought it and then one of my friends borrowed it. She is one of the five people on the planet that i will do any thing for, absolutely anything. well she sort of on the heavy side and when she borrowed the sweater it grew even larger for me. but i still wear it the most because it gives me a protected feeling. well one reason was she was very defensive about me, she was always there when i needed some one and hence it keeps reminding me that im cared for, wanted. silly and stupid, may be.
There have been days when i wake up in the morning and wish that the world would turn it self off and go away, never happens, i know, and days where i wish life had a pause button and on those days just picking up the Orange sweater is like a warm hug its been my sole companion on the days when Bangalore seems about ready to bite my head off. is it a very silly feeling? dont know dont care.
:D Deeps miss you babes and stay safe.
OK the Inaugration is over and Bush is out, every one must feel like coming down from a big hangover, right. all that excitement and happiness. now its back to business, there is a new man in the most powerful and recognisable home in the whole world and im sure in private he must be really scared. After all he is human just like you and me and the mess he will have to deal with is a big one. So what happens when tommrow when he is not able to straighten it out and this drags on for another 4 years? most importantly in so many interviews so many americans said that the last eight years were a mess. so i have a question, why did George Bush get a second term? more importantly when he marched into Afganistan, and Iraq and launched Tomahawks at Sudan why didn't some one say some thing?
When The WTC was attacked the people of his country wanted him to do some thing, so he went ahead and did it. Im sure every one involved realised that it wasnt going to be easy, and as i remeber correctly the man in question wanted to follow an isolationist agenda, said America didnt need any one and when 9/11 happened every one said "serves you right".
After the Bombay attacks we all wanted a stronger reaction from the government and howled when we didnt get one, some people i knew bandied about the fact that there were no attacks on US soil after 9/11, but at what cost? and the man who did all that leaves office willified threatened with legal action. So tommrow if and when the Indian leadership went after every suspect with a stick, waded into Pakistan and Bangladesh and may be even Nepal with a big gun, will we want Manmohan Singh tried in court. I dont think Bush deserves the flak he is gettting he was forced into situations by national mandate, the enitre country that is villyfying him now ellected a second time. So Mr Obama all the best of luck to you, i hope you can straighten the mess you inherrited, the entire world is watching with baited breath and to all those booing Bush shame on you.