Desi In Toronto

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What started as a young girl’s letter to the editor has since turned into a national debate, all after a New Brunswick elementary school cancelled its daily singing of O Canada.

The anthem was pulled for the start of the 2007 school year at Belleisle Elementary, a school with some 200 students in Springfield.

But after a letter to the local paper, one mother has become the de facto spokesperson on a story that’s exploded across the country.

“I can’t believe we’re fighting this battle,” Susan Boyd said.

Her daughter Kara, 14, wrote the letter, while daughter Julia, 11, attends the school. The girls’ cousin, Private David Greenslade, was killed last year in Afghanistan, and the family sees the anthem as a message of support. “We should be singing the anthem just as loud as ever.”

The decision was made by the school’s principal, who has said parents complained that their children shouldn’t have to take part.

“Sometimes we have students whose parents, because of their beliefs, don’t want their children to participate,” superintendent Zoë Watson told CTV.

Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson called Thursday for the anthem to be reinstated, and Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said he’d consider recommending a change.

“The school should play the national anthem, quite frankly,” he told CTV.

That’s all fine to Ms. Boyd, who wants it made mandatory in all schools and is getting calls of support from coast to coast.

“Just from all over Canada, people are calling,” she said. “I had no idea it would get this far.”

The school management is obviously over-reacting to a complaint. It’s like the complaint about Margaret Atwood’s Hand Maid Tale from one single (idiotic) parent led to the Toronto School Board to review the book that started the whole hullabaloo about the book.

Instead of saying, get more signatures and then we will talk, the above mentioned school tried to be politically correct instead of being smart.

I have no idea what the complaint about Oh Canada would be except for the fact that there is a reference to god in the anthem and that might have led some parents to object to the anthem. Personally, I do not like that reference at all. But this is the national anthem and for that reason alone I am willing to let it slide by.  Am I a hypocrite? Definitely, but I am kind of a sentimentalist that way.

This reminds of the controversy related to the Indian national anthem. In south India some students refused to sing the national anthem (because of religious reasons) and were expelled from school. The school district refused to admit the students to any school in the state and the parents sued. The case went all the way to the supreme court which threw the case out and ruled in the favour of the students saying that not singing the national anthem is not against the law.

Maybe that’s what should happen in Canada. If you do not want to sing the national anthem, you do not have to but, by god, you cannot stop others from singing it!!

Ha ha ha ha ha….this one always makes me laugh!!!

………….and here is another one!!!

I was waiting for a few days before writing anything on Obama. Basically waiting for the mania to die down and see what his policies were going.

I thought the speech he gave at the inauguration was exactly what the country and the world needed to hear. What I got from the speech was “don’t think that just because you have thrown out Bush and his policies, your world will become better”. Exactly the right thing to say. I know his presidency comes with huge expectations but to say he would wave his hand and everything will be solved, is just childish and if anyone voted for him for that reason, is an idiot.

The one thing I detested was seeing Rick Warren sharing the public limelight. This is a hateful and spiteful man and I have no idea why Obama’s administration feels the need to coddle up to him. I also do not understand the need for his administration to seek GOP’s advice on running the country. President Obama, you have been given political capital by the citizen of your country, use it.

Having said that, his executive orders and his policies, so far, are certainly keeping up with his image of a progressive and pro-action president. I mean, he is far more presidential in one week than Bush ever was in 8 years!!

Git-mo? On it’s way out.

Science? Back on the agenda.

Middle East? Tough negotiator assigned.

Restrictions on funding for family planning clinics around the world? Gone.

Opening of offshore drilling? Restricted.

And on and on and on. Just google to find the list.

So for all the people who think Obama is naive and does not what he is doing, well, shut the fuck up and let the man do his job. You can question his policies but you can never bring up the bogus argument that the man does not how to be a leader.

As I said before, Obama has done more to raise the stature of US in one week, than Bush ever did in his 8 years in the office.

Here is his first sit down interview with Al-Arabiya Arab TV Network. Isn’t that gesture stronger than anything done by Bush to calm down the arab world about USA? Here’s hoping his presidency will be a resounding success.

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“Fewer astronauts, more robots” is the call of three European aerospace engineers, Alex Ellery, Joerg Kreidsel and Bernd Sommer. They believe that sending humans in to space to repair the ISS or even Hubble, are wasteful, expensive, and aren’t sending the right message for the space community.

I totally agree with this statement. I think it would be cheaper and more productive to send drones rather than humans to space missions AS A PRECURSOR to sending human beings. I understand the need to send drones for minial jobs and to undertake missions which are still in a prototype stage, but man needs to be inspired by exploration of the final frontier and drones and Robots can never inspire.

But that does not mean we do not require Robots or artificial intelligence at all. I know there is intense debate about Robots Vs Humans and I am coming on the side of Robots in this debate.

I don’t understand why there is a fear of Robots (and of AI : Artificial Intelligence) when human are inexorably moving in that direction. I know Hollywood has done a great job in showing us how machines can rebel against us but it is, as with everything else in Hollywood, made up. In the future we are all going to be Borgs (hopefully, without the nasty temperament as depicted in Star Trek, to destroy everything in our path). As the link explains, Borgs are an amalgamation of technology (machines, AI etc) and organic beings (that’s us) to better ourselves and our lives. And that is what is going to happen to us.

Why is there a fear of AI and robots? I can only say, fear sells. Fear of communists, of ghosts, of AI, of Liberal media etc. sells and that is what everyone is doing right now.

Ladies and gentlemen…….this is how one Rock’s And Roll’s!!!

One of the places I have always wanted to visit is Israel. It’s been high on the list of places I want to see before I die which includes France, Turkey and Greece.

Since I was in Bahrain and Dubai in late 90s and early 00s, traveling to Europe was considerably easier and cheaper and I did travel quite a lot. England, Italy and Amsterdam were on the list and I was able to see these beautiful countries.

But for various personal reasons was not able to visit the above listed countries.

The reason I could not visit Israel was, however, different. Since Israel is not recognised by Arab countries, I would have been hammered by the customs official upon my return to Bahrain or Dubai. This would have hampered with my job prospects and since our (me and my wife’s) future at that point was not very clear, I did not want to be “blacklisted” by overzealous custom officials. Plus my wife was really not really keen on it.

Israel and it’s history have always been fascinating to me. The culture, the people and the state of Israel seems to hold a unique position in the history of the world. From the atrocities faced by the Jewish people under the Third Reich and the setting up of the Israeli state to the atrocities now being committed by Israelis upon the Palestinians.

Which is the reason why I refuse to visit Israel.

I refuse to spend my dollars in a country that believes in disproportionately killing innocents despite it’s history of being at the receiving end. What Israelis are doing right now may not be a holocaust but it sure is a subjugation of the defenseless.

Yes. There I said it. Palestinians are defenseless. I am not talking about the 50% or so of those killed in this war who are trying to kill Israelis. I am totally for their deaths. Those murdering bastards need to face bullets, Israeli bullets.

But the other 50% (majority of whom are children) who happen to be in Israelis’ “way” while they are trying to kill Hamas murdering bastards, are my concern. And the way Israelis are tackling this war? It is downright wrong. Where is the Israeli ingenuity? Where is their counter intelligence strikes. This is brute force by a bully.

And in the end they are going to occupy Gaza and it’s back to killings of innocent Israelis and counter killing of innocent Palestinians.

And for all those assholes who think Israelis have no influence over US, here is a little tit bit for you :

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wanted to vote for a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza – but the Israeli Prime Minister ‘shamed’ her into abstaining, he has revealed.

Ehud Olmert said the U.S. Secretary of State ‘for reasons we did not really understand wanted to vote in favour of the UN resolution’.

With just ten minutes before the vote last Thursday, he rushed to the phone to call U.S. President George Bush – who he described as an ‘unparalleled friend’ of Israel.

When told that Mr Bush was in Philadelphia making a speech, Mr Olmert said, he replied: ‘I don’t care. I have to talk to him now’.

‘They got him off the podium, brought him to another room and I spoke to him,’ he said in a speech full of political bravado last night.

‘I told him, ‘You can’t vote in favour of this resolution.’ He said, ‘Listen, I don’t know about it, I didn’t see it, I’m not familiar with the phrasing.”

Mr Olmert said he then told Mr Bush: ”I’m familiar with it. You can’t vote in favour.’

‘He gave an order to the Secretary of State and she did not vote in favour of it – a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organised and manoeuvred for.

‘She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged,’ Mr Olmert said.

I have been following the Omar Khadr saga for a while now. I will not bore you with the details of his life which I would rather that you read from the wikipedia entry.

So without much ado, here’s my opinion :

I think that the reaction of the Canadian government (and the public at large ) is one of pathetic, sniveling assholes. Why?

He is a Canadian citizen. We have other countries making successful cases of their citizens (here, here and here) to be moved to their respected countries where they are tried under their laws. So why is this person being ignored by the Canadian government.

If you go through the time line of his life, you cannot but notice that he is nothing but a child soldier. Forced or coerced or just plain brain washed into hating the West by his parents, this person did what any child would do in such a situation, do what his elders/patriarch/matriarch told him to do.

I am quite sure that Canada recoganises this aspect of child soldier…..wait, I will google it for you….yup, found the bit.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and Minister for International Co-operation and Minister responsible for la Francophonie, Diane Marleau, today announced that Canada will support four projects to protect children in armed conflict…….

………….

“The use of children as soldiers has escalated worldwide due to the advent of light weapons technology, the rise of intrastate conflict, and the increase in guerrilla and rebel forces,” said Mr. Axworthy. “However, those forms of exploitation or deplorable situations that deprive children of their right to fully realize their mental and physical potential, and expose them to hazardous and dangerous situations, contravene a basic human right.”

Canada has actively supported working groups established by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to elaborate two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: One on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, and the other on children in situations of armed conflict.

So this begs the question…..why is the government of Canada (both Liberals and the Conservatives) acting against the law of the land? All because the public opinion is against the Khadr family? If this person has killed soldiers, please, by all means throw the book at him. But do it here in Canada under Canadian law with Canadian judges and Canadian lawyers.

This guy totally deserves it. His music is sublime and very emotive. This is from the film Bombay

Here is another example

and this has a special place in all dance floors!!

and who can forget his patriotism raising song Maa Tujhe Salaam?

Congrats Rahman!!!!

Can we please throw the conspiracy theories about Moon Landings into the gutter?

Here is the reality :

Nearly 40 years after Nasa’s Apollo flights, which put a man on the moon, India’s Chandrayaan mission launched on October 22, 2008, recently did something unique this week it mapped the landing sites of the six Apollo missions on the moon and the process ended on Saturday.

The Apollo flights were launched between July 1969 and December 1972.

This hitherto unknown aspect of the Chandrayaan programme was revealed to TOI on Saturday by a top scientist associated with the Indian moon mission………

………told TOI that that the six Apollo landing sites which were mapped related to those of Apollo 11, 12, 14 15 and 17. The process began on January 7 and ended on January 10. “Our purpose of carrying out this exercise was to validate and confirm the data through global mapping about the moon’s surface and rocks which had been obtained by these Apollo flights,” he said. It may be recalled that Apollo 11 placed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, which became historical because they were the first humans to step on the lunar surface.

Middle East is a pendulum of “Israel is wrong and Palestine is right” and then it’s the other way around so there is no way of saying (like everyone is) that this time Palestinians were wronged. It’s a case (and always has been a case) of them bombing us first.

But one thing that Israel always has had is an upper hand, militarily. With the strong and unconditional support of the US, Israel has a strong military and a strong counter insurgency and spy program. And they have been a target of a ferocious guerrilla campaign from the Palestinians. So no one in their right mind can say anything against a military campaign that Israel has carried out from time to time.

So why is does it feel so wrong this time?

I would venture to say that unlike the previous times when a car carrying suspect terrorist leader would be bombed or an apartment building housing some Hamas leader would be blown, this time, it’s an all out assault.

And the victims are innocent civilians who are being used as shields by Hamas. But why the world is so taken aback by this scenario is that everyone knows that human shields are being used, including Israel, but it almost seems like they don’t care. They don’t care who is affected by this assault as long as they stop the Hamas missiles. And when you read news like this, you know that this attack is wrong on so many levels.

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A similar pause on Wednesday enabled rescue teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter some areas for the first time since Israel’s ground offensive began last weekend after days of air-strikes. In one area, the Committee reported Thursday, its representatives discovered “shocking” scenes including four children next to their mother’s corpses. The children were too weak to stand on their own, the aid organization said.

This just makes me mad. Isn’t this a typical idiotic response from Israelis? Guerrilla attacks answered by  ruthless bombardment of civilian areas. I know Israelis fancy themselves to be really smart cookies, so is this the best these guys can come up with? Kill everything in sight and then not even ask questions later. Then they wonder why there is a blowback. They had better make sure they kill everything everyone else those kids mourning their mother will grow up to be the next generation of Palestinian “terrorists”.

And what makes me even more mad is this :

(a protester at an anti-Israel rally says “Hitler Didn’t Do A Good Job”)

(a Muslim woman shouts at the opposing rally “go back to the ovens”)

These are your everyday Americans/Canadians who are essentially saying that what happened in the Third Reich was OK. I do not harbour hate towards people, but this is an act I despise and it makes me want to smack these assholes. I really wish that these people are tracked down by the MSM or by a citizen reporter and confronted when there is no crowd around. This is sheer ugliness and they are winning no friends.

And before you say “see it’s the Muslims who are hateful”, see this :

(a group of Israel supportes shouting at anti-Israel crowd : “terrorists” and “….those virgins are waiting for you” and “…..the one people to die to get laid”

And to all the morons (Ezra Levant et al), critisizing Israel is not being anti semitic. Just like calling GW Bush an A Class Moron is not being anti-US.

Essential viewing for fans of Shyam Bengal’s Bharat Ek Khoj.

Brings back memories!!!

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

In another sign of the music industry’s recently announced retreat from a five-year-old antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music. The RIAA long used a company called MediaSentry to troll the Internet in search of people who uploaded large amounts of music.

This company was responsible for:

Is Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG ‘investigator’ MediaSentry operating illegally in your state?

The Massachusetts State police have already banned the company, it’s been accused of operating without a licence in Oregon, Florida, Texas and New York, and now similar charges have been levelled at it in Michigan.

A complaint was filed by a Recording Industry vs The People reader with the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth resulting in confirmation that MediaSentry has no official authorisation to carry out so-called ‘investigations’ there.

“We encourage parties to pursue complaints against unlicensed parties and the local prosecutor,” says the response.

“The prosecutor can prosecute these cases as felonies, with a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine and/or up to four years in prison.”

The Big 4 and their RIAA are already on very shaky ground with MediaSentry.

Not to change the topic but the subject, I am not a big fan of illegal downloads but I still do it.

I recently downloaded the new Guns & Roses album and gave it a listen before deciding if I want to buy it from a store or not. Thank god I gave it a listen before I purchased it. It would have been a waste of money. In the meantime, I downloaded Beck’s Modern Guilt and loved it!! I then downloaded it legally from amazon.

The music industry is really in doldrums as far their current business model is concerned. They really need to ramp up this digital presence in a way that does not seem like we the customers are being screwed out of our money.

<Link To Wikipedia Entry For Orson Scott Card>

Being a fan of science fiction, how can one ignore Orson Scott Card. He has written two Hugo winning books, one of which is amongst my personal favourites, Ender’s Game. Here is a brief synopsis to whet your appetite

It is set in Earth’s future where mankind has barely survived two conflicts with the Formics (an insectoid alien race also known as the “Buggers”) and the International Fleet is preparing for war. In order to find and train the eventual commander for the anticipated third invasion, the world’s most talented children, including the extraordinary Ender Wiggin, are taken into a training center known as the Battle School at a very young age and trained in the arts of war through increasingly difficult games.

The book is very very good. It takes you through the morality issues, the “human” issues and some political issues. The setting created by Card is truly awesome. I know most of the focus is on the BattleSchool described in the book, I loved the virtual game that Ender plays and how he forces the computer to continue beyond it’s limits and how, eventually, it is revealed that the game is tied intrinsically with Ender’s life. And the ending…..wow!!! It was a complete knockout punch by Card. Never had he prepared the reader on what was going to happen.

I read the sequel too, Speaker For The Dead in which Ender has come to terms (or is in the process of coming to terms) with his role in the massacre of an intelligent race in the previous book and now is actually a protector of life.

But the sequel did disturb me a little bit. In the first book the focus was on the action, politics and moral issues. The sequel was all those but there was a heavy dose of spirituality in the book. Spirituality is fine with me but I could not help feel that Card had overdone it. It seemed he was PREACHING even though he never put it in so many words.

And when I read the third book in the series Xenocide, I was convinced that there was something going on with the author (remember this was all before easy access to Internet so I could not look it up).

Now, of course, it is common knowledge that Card is a conservative. He abhors  gays, he loves Bush’s War On Terror and he does not believe in global warming.

When I found this about Card, I have begun to detest his novels. Not Ender’s Game. That one is still pretty good. But the rest of the novels, have lost their meaning.

Here is an author who wrote and explained beautifully what it means to be a human; What it means to preserve life; What it means try and kill another race just because it is different, and then in real life he is all for killing “them because they hate us”.

This hypocrisy is really difficult for me to swallow.

Update : The reason for this post is this article on Card.

Ha ha ha ha ha…………this has got to be the funniest  thing I have seen…..well, funniest thing I have seen this year!!!