Desi In Toronto

Every now and then I come across a post I have written in a parallel universe. Here is one of them.

Stephen Harper, plump and soft as a double roll of Cottonelle. A man who has spent his entire adult life, after leaving school with a degree in economics, either as a spoiled politician or as a spoiled ideologue in the loving embrace of a right wing think tank. Stephen Harper. A man who is unlikely to ever develop a callus on his hands unless it comes from clutching pennies. This twee, over-fed poofter has the little salted nuts to look into the lens of the camera and portray himself as one of the “ordinary, working people”. And that would be opposed to the “ivory tower” justice experts. Well lets just tell the truth Steve, you haven’t much in common with the justice experts because you’re trying to make your career by skirting the law. But you sure do know the ivory tower, it’s your every aspiration. You fancy yourself the philosopher king, the grand leader of men.

And what is your solution to crime? The prison industrial complex north. Life for 14 year olds, longer terms, stiffer penalties. After all, look how well crime has been reduced down south using the very model you hope to import. But then preventing crime isn’t really the issue, is it? It really comes down to plain old meanness. You don’t give a tinkers damn about preventing crime, or resolving the social issues that cause crime. Nope. You just want to play the big tough guy and punish folks you look down upon. That’s why we hear this bullshit line about the Liberals coddling prisoners from you and your twittering cohorts.

You really have to read the whole post. I insist.

Lynching is alive and kicking in India. 

A day after the tragic death of Graziano Trasmissioni Chief Executive Officer LK Chaudhary inside the factory and at the hand of his own employees, 136 sacked employees have been arrested.

The incident has stunned the corporate world and raised a disturbing question: could the tragedy have been averted if the police had reached on time?

Chaudhary, say his friends, was a mild mannered man. The 48-year-old CEO of Graziano Trasmissioni led a 1000-strong work force. The violence on Monday inside the plant not only claimed Chaudhury’s life, it also sent 26 of his employees to the hospital including 10 who are in the ICU.

Mob mentality is a really dangerous thing especially so in India where passions can be raised quickly. And boneheaded statements from politicians like this really do not help.

Describing the killing of L.K. Chaudhury, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an Italy-based company Graziano Transmissioni in Greater Noida as a fallout of the “simmering discontent among the workers,” the government on Tuesday said, this should serve as a warning for managements.

“It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion,” Minister of Labour and Employment (Independent charge) Oscar Fernendes told journalists here.

There are disparities in the wages of permanent employees, contract and temporary workers. The workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever that had happened in Greater Noida, he said.

Only an uneducated fool or a pandering politician could say something so monumentally stupid. Never mind that the company carried out a legit action by firing workers it does not need. I am sure that workers must have been peeved, after all they are the ones who lost their lively hood, but does that really justify beating and killing the management?

This is one aspect I really hate about us Indians. We get inflammed, incensed very easily with deadly consequences. Am wrong in picking on Indians? Probably. But history says something else. 

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