Ladies and Gentlemen its 2012. A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of you! Time to be great! Lets do this
Edmund Hillary - "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves".
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About Me
- Soumyajeet
- I'm a MBA student at Hofstra University in Long Island, USA. I'm majoring in marketing. I graduated with a BA in History and Economics from Lafayette College. Love life and new experiences!
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Friday, September 02, 2011
New Twitter Button!
Adding a Twitter button to my posts starting from August 2011 so you can tweet them! Exciting huh?
Also, follow me @soumyajeetghosh
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Monday, August 22, 2011
Analyzing the 2011 London Riots
In a recent interview with BBC2, the British historian David Starkey channelled his inner Enoch Powell and controversially said the following about the London riots
Starkey's comments are definitely rather racist and xenophobic on several levels; political commentators eager to toe the current politically correct climate, denounced him gleefully and failed to see the little merit that his comments had. While classifying the chavs behavior as being "black" is irresponsible, it is true that there is an increased romanticization of "a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture" in the media today so much so that calling oneself a "G" is a badge of honor. The younger generation looks upto celebrities like Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (aka Snoop Dogg), Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (aka T.I.) and the denizens of reality shows like Jersey Shore as role models because they best epitomize the high flying get-rich-quick-and-make-merry lifestyle that attracts them. The media is greatly to blame for creating a sick and poisoned society because they promote the glitz and the glamor of such lifestyles instead of promoting a culture of conservative spending and values.
The gradual disintegration of the old-fashioned family values for various reasons have contributed to the attractability of such celebrities and with it has come a false sense of self-worth and entitlement. Families with new-age values from developed countries worldwide should regard the England riots as a caveat to change the blueprint of their personal family ethos. Several sociologists noted the lack of participation of the South Asian population in the English riots. At the risk of repeating Starkey's mistake of generalizing several ethnic groups, the conservative values imbibed by most of the South Asian children definitely contribute to their mindset of working hard (sometimes perhaps too much) to obtain their goals. I have to mention here though that I do not approve of the claustrophobic traditions of most South Asian cultures but perhaps an amalgamation of different world cultures is required in the changing global society.
Another worrying development is the social unrest because of the increasing unemployment rate. Young and college educated people are disappointed at not finding jobs and are getting increasingly disillusioned. In the meantime, entitlement benefits are staying the way they are leading to a meaningless drain of a country's resources. The socialist system in England has absolutely failed and America is on the fast track to civil unrest unless someone in the government steps up and does the right thing. Jobs need to be created and useful people must be given gainful employment and people living off perks and social welfare should be sent a stern message that they HAVE to learn to fend for themselves.
It will be very interesting to see the reaction of the David Cameron administration. Depending of what you read, the incumbent government has been put to the sword for its financial austerity or lack thereof. Increasing spending is no longer a viable option in cash starved England and the next address from the Chancellor of the Exchequer should surely be interesting. The Prime Minister has already ruled out race, poverty and spending cuts as reasons behind the riots. The punishment meted out to the rioters will be scrutinized worldwide. The administration is really in a no-win situation because regardless of its response it will be castigated by leftists for being too harsh on people stricken by poverty and by rightists for being too lenient to wayward entitled people poisoning society. Cameron has promised more riot-trained troops in case of future reoccurences; the police were found to be severely understaffed this time
Measures must be taken to prevent such future occurences and while security measures could help protect the common citizen it is but a bandaid over a bullet wound unless measures are taken to repair a fractured society. The biggest lessons should start at the school levels where children must learn about their rights and responsibilities as a citizen of a country. The American (private) education system does a rather admirable job of enforcing these values and perhaps the British educators could do worse than look over to their cousins across the pond for a few lessons.
Meanwhile Britain's fractured society remains a source of concern for Cameron's present administration. The Guardian reported on the 16th August:
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A substantial section of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion.
Black and white, boy and girl operate in this language together. This language which is wholly false, which is a Jamaican patois, that’s been intruded in England and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country
Starkey's comments are definitely rather racist and xenophobic on several levels; political commentators eager to toe the current politically correct climate, denounced him gleefully and failed to see the little merit that his comments had. While classifying the chavs behavior as being "black" is irresponsible, it is true that there is an increased romanticization of "a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture" in the media today so much so that calling oneself a "G" is a badge of honor. The younger generation looks upto celebrities like Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (aka Snoop Dogg), Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (aka T.I.) and the denizens of reality shows like Jersey Shore as role models because they best epitomize the high flying get-rich-quick-and-make-merry lifestyle that attracts them. The media is greatly to blame for creating a sick and poisoned society because they promote the glitz and the glamor of such lifestyles instead of promoting a culture of conservative spending and values.
The gradual disintegration of the old-fashioned family values for various reasons have contributed to the attractability of such celebrities and with it has come a false sense of self-worth and entitlement. Families with new-age values from developed countries worldwide should regard the England riots as a caveat to change the blueprint of their personal family ethos. Several sociologists noted the lack of participation of the South Asian population in the English riots. At the risk of repeating Starkey's mistake of generalizing several ethnic groups, the conservative values imbibed by most of the South Asian children definitely contribute to their mindset of working hard (sometimes perhaps too much) to obtain their goals. I have to mention here though that I do not approve of the claustrophobic traditions of most South Asian cultures but perhaps an amalgamation of different world cultures is required in the changing global society.
Another worrying development is the social unrest because of the increasing unemployment rate. Young and college educated people are disappointed at not finding jobs and are getting increasingly disillusioned. In the meantime, entitlement benefits are staying the way they are leading to a meaningless drain of a country's resources. The socialist system in England has absolutely failed and America is on the fast track to civil unrest unless someone in the government steps up and does the right thing. Jobs need to be created and useful people must be given gainful employment and people living off perks and social welfare should be sent a stern message that they HAVE to learn to fend for themselves.
It will be very interesting to see the reaction of the David Cameron administration. Depending of what you read, the incumbent government has been put to the sword for its financial austerity or lack thereof. Increasing spending is no longer a viable option in cash starved England and the next address from the Chancellor of the Exchequer should surely be interesting. The Prime Minister has already ruled out race, poverty and spending cuts as reasons behind the riots. The punishment meted out to the rioters will be scrutinized worldwide. The administration is really in a no-win situation because regardless of its response it will be castigated by leftists for being too harsh on people stricken by poverty and by rightists for being too lenient to wayward entitled people poisoning society. Cameron has promised more riot-trained troops in case of future reoccurences; the police were found to be severely understaffed this time
Measures must be taken to prevent such future occurences and while security measures could help protect the common citizen it is but a bandaid over a bullet wound unless measures are taken to repair a fractured society. The biggest lessons should start at the school levels where children must learn about their rights and responsibilities as a citizen of a country. The American (private) education system does a rather admirable job of enforcing these values and perhaps the British educators could do worse than look over to their cousins across the pond for a few lessons.
Meanwhile Britain's fractured society remains a source of concern for Cameron's present administration. The Guardian reported on the 16th August:
In a speech setting out his analysis of what led to the riots, Cameron highlighted those families across the UK who were dealing with multiple complex social health and economic problems. Lifting them out of extreme worklessness would be regarded as a measure of his success in his wider agenda of fixing Britain's broken society, he said. Cameron said he would put "rocket boosters" on attempts to rehabilitate those 120,000.However, this is easier said than done. Society needs to be restructured at least partly from the core; the politicians in the government and the media have to put aside partisan issues while debating social programmes and be united if England and other similarly afflicted global societies are to be repaired. The powers to be should learn important lessons from the riots and attempt to institute policies to provide an andidote to the poisoned society. Economic issues will no doubt go hand in hand with the success of these programs. Utilitarian solutions for a lot of issues are very important. Big decisions need to be taken throughout the world or else we face a very bleak future indeed.
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Tuesday, August 02, 2011
The New Boys: Sir Alex Ferguson's summer signings 2011-12
Standing left to right: David De Gea, Phil Jones and Ashley Young
David De Gea: Sir Alex is obviously very impressed by the young Spanish stopper to have stumped up such a sizeable fee for him. De Gea has the unenviable task of stepping into the sizeable gloves of the legendary Edwin Van der Sar.
While his pre-season performances have exuded the calmness and composure needed for the Manchester United job, De Gea knows that Manchester United fans are not easily satisfied and any gaffes will lead the fans to want Anders Lindegaard, the present No 2, who has put in a series of extremely impressive performances for the Red Devils in the pre-season tour of the United States. It took Sir Alex 6 seasons to replace Peter Schmeichel and that fact will not be lost on the knight of Old Trafford and the current system of meritocracy at Old Trafford means that he will not be gun-shy in replacing De Gea with Lindegaard, despite the transfer fee.
Whether De Gea's first season puts him on the path to the hallowed ranks of Alex Stepney, Peter Schmeichel and Edwin Van der Sar in the hearts of the Old Trafford faithful or the ignonimity of Fabien Barthez, Mark Bosnich and Massimo Taibi is going to be one of the more interesting storylines of Manchester United's season.
Phil Jones :Phil Jones was having a terrific season with Blackburn Rovers last season before his season ending injury against West Ham. Initially thought to have been brought in as Nemanja Vidic's understudy as well as extra cover for the increasingly injury-prone Rio Ferdinand, he could have a role in the Manchester United starting line-up from the beginning of the season if he is given the holding midfield role. Phil Jones has received rave reviews from Sir Alex Ferguson and if he settles into the role of the midfield destroyer, Manchester United will have made yet another briliant relatively inexpensive signing.
Ashley Young : Some Manchester United fans were scratching their collective heads when Ashley Young joined Manchester United this summer. A tricky and pacy player, Young started his career as a traditional winger before morphing into the role of the second striker. There is a possibility that he might find himself thrown into the starting lineup mix on the left wing, supplanting Nani who is being constantly linked with the likes of Juventus or he might find himself in the excellent rotation of Manchester United's winger. Either way, he has to prove that he is ready to be a part of the biggest team in England and shake of the "slacker" label that he received at Aston Villa for some seemingly lackadaisical performances.
Transfers updated until 5:21 PM EST 8/2/2011.
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Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Conclusions from Manchester United's loss in the 2010-11 Champions League Final and thoughts at the end of the season
a) There is always disgrace in defeat. Barcelona are a really good team who are fantastic at their strengths. However, they're not as celestial as a lot of sports hacks have had us to believe. Manchester United played a formation that played to Barca's strengths which made them look that good.
b) Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest managers of all time but he got his tactics all wrong at Wembley. Clearly lessons were not learnt from the defeat at Rome. Manchester United should not have gone 4-4-2. We were outnumbered in midfield and there was no plan to negate Messi, Xavi or Iniesta. Manchester United made the mistake of setting up a formation that did not have a defensive midfield anchor. Fletcher's absence cannot be should used as an excuse as we knew about his absence with almost half the season to go. Chicharito has had an extraordinary first season in England but I don't see any way in which he could've contributed against a briliant Barcelona side against whom a mismatch in midfield was unadvisable. Putting in even a half fit Fletcher or Scholes would've helped our cause tremendously. In the end, our midfield was overrun in 2009 and 2011 and it is a shame that Sir Alex did not adapt. Chicharito was a spectator for most of the game and received no service at all from the midfielders.
c) At the risk of blasphemy, I venture to say that if Jose Mourinho was the manager of Manchester United, this would not have happened. Jose would've used negative mind tactics and negative tactics a la Copa del Rey and with this Manchester United team he would have surely beat a Barcelona side or at least challenged them more. Sir Alex should've instructed his players to be more aggressive and throw in a few challenges and rattle Barcelona.
d) Manchester United need to sort out the midfield area. A 37 year old Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick aren't the answer to the midfields of the powerhouses of the world. Paul Scholes announced his retirement today, leaving us with no natural creative midfield player. This year's success was the product of a great team effort that was magnified by the ineptitutde of our traditional rivals. Sir Alex will surely not be silly enough to bank on Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool to have periods of incompetence that seemed to plague them during the season. Summer purchases are a must or else Sir Alex's intransigence and the Glazers' alleged tightfistedness will cost Manchester United its place in the club elite. David de Gaea seems to be on his way to Old Trafford and is a very promising keeper. The midfield has to be strengthened and a defensive midfielder and a creative midfielder is a must buy. There are a lot of promising young Academy players but I'm not sure if relying on the likes of Cleverley and Pogba is the smartest idea. I could be left eating by words, and I will not regret it if they turn out to be the next Class of 1992 but I think that it is risky to just bank on them, especially with only one summer of free spending available to all the teams of the world.
e) Leo Messi is a darn good player. An excellent one too. Definitely one of the best five in the world in his present form. However, he's not close to being definitively the greatest player ever (TM). It is impossible to even compare him to Maradona because he plays with the likes of the uber talented Xavi and Iniesta who possess more football IQ than the entire Argentina squad of 1986 sans Diego. Also, I do not agree with the assertion that Messi is even the best player of his generation. Cristiano Ronaldo can lay a very strong claim to that title in addition to several players. Cristiano Ronaldo has excelled in the international stage in addition to playing great in 2 different teams. Messi has only been able to showcase his talents in the Barcelona setup. This isn't a knock on Messi's abilities. It is just a caveat to people eager to christen him as the second coming of Jesus.
The comparison with Diego Maradona is insulting to several other all-time great like George Best and more importantly Pele. While I cannot obviously make an objective comparison between Bestie and the little man who looked like a porn producer in his suits during the World Cup, I can say that based on historical evidence, Pele towers over Maradona and Messi will struggle to ever match up to the briliant Brazilian.
f) Despite the defeat, this was Wayne Rooney's coming-out performance on an international stage. While I am confident that he can step up his game even more, this was his first good performance in a non-English Premier League big game. Undoubtedly, his sponsors will be rubbing their hands at the possibility of Shrek's increasing marketability but from a footballing perspective, Manchester United's fans will love that the Premier League's only "world-class" English player resides in Old Trafford.
g) On the subject of Old Trafford strikers, the omission of the Premier League's joint highest scorer Dimitar Berbatov in favor of a broken down Michael Owen shows how little Sir Alex trusts the Bulgarian. The £31 million striker's importance in the earlier parts of the campaign should not be underestimated but it is now clear that he has fallen down the Old Trafford pecking order. Despite his superlative technical skills, the Bulgarian has never really fit into the general pattern of Manchester United's lightning quick play. While his hattricks this season will not be forgotten by the Faithful, his misses throughout his Manchester United career will not be forgotten either. His seemingly lackadaisical attitude has obviously not endeared him with the fans. Berbatov's stay at Old Trafford seems to be snake-bitten; he appeared to be settling into the team earlier in the season but Chicharito's emergence coupled with Wayne Rooney's resurgence banished him to the bench. The FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City was a litmus test for his temperament and he failed miserably. I would be surprised to see him in a Manchester United jersey next season. A summer move to an Italian giant or a mid table English team would do his talent justice. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, congratulations to Edwin Van der Sar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes for their briliant services to Manchester United.
 |
| Edwin, I wish we had bought you after the Great Dane left but you were absolutely briliant. |
 |
| Gary Neville, you embodied the spirit of the Manchester United fans and you were truly Fred the Red. |
Paul Scholes = Legend!
Thank you for the magical
moments. Football is losing a
genius and Manchester United
is losing one of its true legends. A world class player and a great role model, it was a privilege to be a fan growing up watching you play.
The Class of 1992 is almost history. It is now time for new beginnings and fresh faces. The defeat to Barcelona is only a temporary setback. This was the season of Number 19! The 4th European Cup will come soon enough. Glory Glory Man Utd!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
May 10, 2011 Part 1
I have been on a monthlong hiatus from the blog. I intended to share some thoughts about my visit to the Valley and I thought I would make that my "post of the month" before the month became overwhelming. Finals month is never good and this April was particularly bad.
I was terribly shocked at Bryan Hendrickson's death. Very few people at Lafayette knew that Bryan and I had been reasonably close since sophomore-junior year and Luke's text about Bryan's suicide came like a bolt from the blue. Bryan had an unrealistic vision for the world. youZit was a damn good cause but it would never fly in the real world of schedming corporate types. I think suicides leave more questions than answers and I do not think it is ever an option, however unbearable life can become. Every cloud has a silver lining. Life brings forward new challenges and experiences everyday. Giving up should never be an option. Bryan was a great kid and a good friend throughout our interactions. I am sorry that we were not in touch after graduation and I wish I could've helped him.
Visiting the Valley was emotionally taxing because it was taking a trip down memory lane and the bad decisions I made. But the Valley is fun. It has a life of its own and hanging out with my boys is always awesome. I think that someday I can share why some events in the valley will forever remain in my mind but I realized that despite the stagnation, there is a beauty to the place that is inimitable. Going back to places like Big Woodys and CHT is gradually becoming impossible because all I see is people who have refused to move on with their lives as time passes them by.
S & K this song reminded me of you both. Shockingly. I think it is the nostalgia.
Or maybe because you're trying to hard still to be 19. I'd love to be back there but that's not an option. Sometimes it feels like both of you try too hard. Even when you said "Jeet!!" at Big Woodys, it sounded..somehow...too 2010 for me to relate to.
Just driving back sometimes gives me the chills. Especially when the Hawk comes on. But that really is a story for another day!
I was terribly shocked at Bryan Hendrickson's death. Very few people at Lafayette knew that Bryan and I had been reasonably close since sophomore-junior year and Luke's text about Bryan's suicide came like a bolt from the blue. Bryan had an unrealistic vision for the world. youZit was a damn good cause but it would never fly in the real world of schedming corporate types. I think suicides leave more questions than answers and I do not think it is ever an option, however unbearable life can become. Every cloud has a silver lining. Life brings forward new challenges and experiences everyday. Giving up should never be an option. Bryan was a great kid and a good friend throughout our interactions. I am sorry that we were not in touch after graduation and I wish I could've helped him.
Visiting the Valley was emotionally taxing because it was taking a trip down memory lane and the bad decisions I made. But the Valley is fun. It has a life of its own and hanging out with my boys is always awesome. I think that someday I can share why some events in the valley will forever remain in my mind but I realized that despite the stagnation, there is a beauty to the place that is inimitable. Going back to places like Big Woodys and CHT is gradually becoming impossible because all I see is people who have refused to move on with their lives as time passes them by.
S & K this song reminded me of you both. Shockingly. I think it is the nostalgia.
Or maybe because you're trying to hard still to be 19. I'd love to be back there but that's not an option. Sometimes it feels like both of you try too hard. Even when you said "Jeet!!" at Big Woodys, it sounded..somehow...too 2010 for me to relate to.
Just driving back sometimes gives me the chills. Especially when the Hawk comes on. But that really is a story for another day!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why is soccer failing to catch on in the United States
Disclaimer: Written surreptitiously in class
Soccer is a global phenomenon that connects several countries. However, it has not yet gained in popularity in the United States. One of the biggest reasons is cultural factors. Before the recent and ongoing influx of the Hispanic population, there was really no culture of soccer in the United States. Soccer had been largely viewed as a very British sport and America was founded on an anti-Anglo culture. I was reading the excellent The Elusive Fan written by Philip Kotler, Ben Shields and Irving Rein and they analyze why soccer is a really popular sport in the youth level but fails to translate into capturing national interest at the adult level. Professional soccer in the US seems to have the blandness of a youth event which extremely hurts the popularity of the game. Any sport that becomes popular permeates the lower class consciousness. At present soccer is very much ensconced in the middle and upper class. Until soccer permeates lower class consciousness, it will never attain the importance that basketball and football does.
The United States men’s soccer team has failed to create a sense of connection with the fans. Also, American sports is about celebrity athletes – Kobe Bryant hitting a game winning basket in the dying seconds of Game 7 is what excites fans. Soccer is wrongly perceived as a socialist game where there cannot be any standout positions. There is a dearth of identifiable icons in American soccer and the best American players – Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are not marketed in a way that creates public interest. There has been a search for the big American star for several years but there have been several reasons why it has been unsuccessful. A large portion of the blame has to be attributed to the intransigence of the MLS board who refused to allow players like Landon Donovan to leave for higher profile clubs overseas when they were in demand. The MLS has not really thrived under a salary cap system worldwide and some of the most well-supported leagues have an uneven distribution of power. While all American sports are based on a principle of equality and allowing all teams a fair chance at a draft, this system does not translate to soccer. Instead, allowing a team owner to splurge out money for several big stars could raise the profile of the game in the country. I'm ignoring the failed Beckham experiment in this post because Beckham's impact should not be paradigmatic of the effect of starpower on American soccer for various reasons that I shall discuss in a different post.
In addition to this, American soccer lacks storylines because of the lack of effectiveness in communicating with fans and faulty media distribution in general. Media rights should be sold to channels that broadcast games and highlights on a regular basis. Soccer games hardly get airtime and most casual fans are more familiar with overseas players than MLS players. The present structure of the MLS is not at all conducive to growth of the sports. Teams should be vested with the power to negotiate with overseas clubs instead of the MLS. There has to be a revamp of the American soccer system before the sport becomes more popular.
Soccer has several historic rivalries worldwide – River Plate and Boca Juniors in Argentina, Manchester United and Liverpool in England (among others), AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italy and the political and culturally charged Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry in Spain. American soccer has not yet had any answer to that. Part of the reason why soccer is so popular in the rest of the world is because it inspires tribal loyalty among a lot of its fans. For a lot of people it mirrors real life. In Scotland, the Rangers-Celtic derby is still extremely emotive because of the Catholic-Protestant divide. American soccer rules and restrictions hurt the development of the teams. The MLS suffers from undermarketing and lack of benchmarking which would greatly help the visibility of soccer in the United States.
Finally, most Americans see soccer as a slow-paced and low scoring game which is almost the antithesis of basketball. Obviously the rules of the game cannot be changed but better marketing can help differentiate the product for young American adults who are more globally aware of their surroundings. American soccer has had several brand driving moments of late, most recently Landon Donovan’s goal in the World Cup against Algeria. The American soccer sports marketers could definitely capitalize of than brand building moment to improve the profile of the game in the country.
Soccer is a global phenomenon that connects several countries. However, it has not yet gained in popularity in the United States. One of the biggest reasons is cultural factors. Before the recent and ongoing influx of the Hispanic population, there was really no culture of soccer in the United States. Soccer had been largely viewed as a very British sport and America was founded on an anti-Anglo culture. I was reading the excellent The Elusive Fan written by Philip Kotler, Ben Shields and Irving Rein and they analyze why soccer is a really popular sport in the youth level but fails to translate into capturing national interest at the adult level. Professional soccer in the US seems to have the blandness of a youth event which extremely hurts the popularity of the game. Any sport that becomes popular permeates the lower class consciousness. At present soccer is very much ensconced in the middle and upper class. Until soccer permeates lower class consciousness, it will never attain the importance that basketball and football does.
The United States men’s soccer team has failed to create a sense of connection with the fans. Also, American sports is about celebrity athletes – Kobe Bryant hitting a game winning basket in the dying seconds of Game 7 is what excites fans. Soccer is wrongly perceived as a socialist game where there cannot be any standout positions. There is a dearth of identifiable icons in American soccer and the best American players – Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are not marketed in a way that creates public interest. There has been a search for the big American star for several years but there have been several reasons why it has been unsuccessful. A large portion of the blame has to be attributed to the intransigence of the MLS board who refused to allow players like Landon Donovan to leave for higher profile clubs overseas when they were in demand. The MLS has not really thrived under a salary cap system worldwide and some of the most well-supported leagues have an uneven distribution of power. While all American sports are based on a principle of equality and allowing all teams a fair chance at a draft, this system does not translate to soccer. Instead, allowing a team owner to splurge out money for several big stars could raise the profile of the game in the country. I'm ignoring the failed Beckham experiment in this post because Beckham's impact should not be paradigmatic of the effect of starpower on American soccer for various reasons that I shall discuss in a different post.
In addition to this, American soccer lacks storylines because of the lack of effectiveness in communicating with fans and faulty media distribution in general. Media rights should be sold to channels that broadcast games and highlights on a regular basis. Soccer games hardly get airtime and most casual fans are more familiar with overseas players than MLS players. The present structure of the MLS is not at all conducive to growth of the sports. Teams should be vested with the power to negotiate with overseas clubs instead of the MLS. There has to be a revamp of the American soccer system before the sport becomes more popular.
Soccer has several historic rivalries worldwide – River Plate and Boca Juniors in Argentina, Manchester United and Liverpool in England (among others), AC Milan and Inter Milan in Italy and the political and culturally charged Barcelona-Real Madrid rivalry in Spain. American soccer has not yet had any answer to that. Part of the reason why soccer is so popular in the rest of the world is because it inspires tribal loyalty among a lot of its fans. For a lot of people it mirrors real life. In Scotland, the Rangers-Celtic derby is still extremely emotive because of the Catholic-Protestant divide. American soccer rules and restrictions hurt the development of the teams. The MLS suffers from undermarketing and lack of benchmarking which would greatly help the visibility of soccer in the United States.
Finally, most Americans see soccer as a slow-paced and low scoring game which is almost the antithesis of basketball. Obviously the rules of the game cannot be changed but better marketing can help differentiate the product for young American adults who are more globally aware of their surroundings. American soccer has had several brand driving moments of late, most recently Landon Donovan’s goal in the World Cup against Algeria. The American soccer sports marketers could definitely capitalize of than brand building moment to improve the profile of the game in the country.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Parallels between the United States' occupation of Iraq and Vietnam
Modern day nation-building is often influenced by policies, motives and the implementation of those policies by the invaders. The ideal state is “legitimized by its ability to deliver public goods to the population contained within its recognized borders through a differentiated set of centralized institutions ”. Comparing the different policies that different political regimes followed in different countries can provide us with a comparative analysis of the policies that were more or less successful in the various nations.
The ‘Reverse Course’ was the change in US policy in Japan. It was directed towards appeasing the more conservative elements of Japanese society and creating pro-American sentiment in Japanese society. This policy succeeded to a great extent and Japan was a valuable Pacific ally to the United States during the Cold War.
In his book, In Retrospect, McNamara talks about the transition of power from Eisenhower to Kennedy. In a meeting with Kennedy on January 19, 1961, Eisenhower discussed about the problems in South East Asia and particularly focused on Laos. He says that “Eisenhower and [Secretary of State] Herter both got a certain inner satisfaction from laying a potentially intractable problem in Kennedy’s lap ”. McNamara says, however, that there was evidence that at that time, Eisenhower might have felt confused with how the situation should be dealt with at that time and may have acted differently when evidence like the Dien Bien Phu crisis presented itself. He notes that the meeting made a “deep impression on Kennedy and all of them ” and influenced their subsequent approach to Vietnam. McNamara admits that the members of the various administrations should have questioned themselves on “whether the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all of Southeast Asia, whether it would constitute a grave threat to the West’s security, what kind of war would develop in Vietnam if America was to involve itself there, whether they could win the war with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese and whether the aforementioned question needed to be answered before they committed American troops to Vietnam ” In 1961 Kennedy and his advisors, along with Diem’s advisors instituted the Strategic Hamlet program. It was seen as a means of combating communist insurgency. However, the program failed because the Vietnamese did not wish to be forcibly relocated and because they did not want to die for ideologies that they were not interested in.
McNamara talks about several meetings between 1961 and 1964 in which he met South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem. These meeting were sometimes held in locations which were known to the Vietcong and therefore there were several attempts to assassinate McNamara. He has been criticized for holding such meetings but McNamara says that these meetings were their only source of information and allowed them to convey Kennedy’s thoughts to their colleagues in Vietnam and receive recommendations from them about the course of actions that they were taking.
McNamara and Dean Rusk used to give frequent reports to the Congress and the press about the progress of the Vietnam War. There have been subsequent allegations of the government misleading the American people about how the war was progressing but McNamara says that the information that they gave were meant to be accurate. However, in hindsight they proved not to be so because the generals did not know how to ascertain the progress of a battle without battle-lines and therefore used erroneous indicators such as enemy casualties and weapons which did not, in reality, gauge the progress made in battle.
In 1963, after visiting Vietnam, McNamara and Maxwell Taylor handed in a recommendation to Kennedy that opined that while a coup would be unsuccessful, Diem should be made aware of American displeasure of his policies. They made a rough timeline for the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam by 1965. McNamara insinuates that intransigence on Diem’s part to assure America of certain conditions led to some of the conclusions in the report. It is tough to judge if McNamara realized then that Diem was not a great leader but simply the best option that America thought she had in South Vietnam, or whether that realization came from hindsight. The recommendations of the report helped the Kennedy administration because it allowed it to dissociate itself from Diem’s anti-Buddhist activities. After Diem’s assassination, Kennedy increased the number of US troops in Vietnam. Later in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to an escalation in US involvement in Vietnam. McNamara says that while there was no deception, he agrees that he knew that Congress had not “understood the breadth of those powers when it overwhelmingly approved the resolution on August 7, 1964 ”. As a result of the resolution, Johnson was able to expand US forces in Vietnam from 16,000 to 55,000.
McNamara criticizes some of General Westmoreland’s policies. He said that Westmoreland “simply developed a strategy to suit the Army’s preferred modus operandi, force structure, and a doctrine ”. He believed that the American’s better firepower would enable them to destroy the Viet Cong through attrition. However, the Viet Cong used guerilla-style attacks and their superior knowledge of the terrain to counter US attacks. As a result, there was a stalemate in the war. His successor, Creighton Abrams used a less offensive military strategy in which he aimed to teach the South Vietnamese how to defend themselves against Vietcong attacks. This led to less US casualties and increased US success in the war.
L. Paul Bremer was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) which was supposed to oversee the reconstruction process. Even though the CPA was authorized under UN Resolution 1483, on 22 May, 2003 , it was for all practical purposes a functionary of the US Federal government and not responsible to the UN Security Council. Bremer replaced Jay Garner who was the Director of Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). The ORHA’s ambiguous mandate made it unclear as to whether it was an aid and reconstruction body, an interim governing authority, or the civilian adjunct to a military government, ultimately reporting to General Franks and the Pentagon . The problems that the ORHA faced was that it was poorly staffed and that the scale of problems seemed for overwhelm Garner. The ORHA were blamed for numerous problems ranging from the lack of security in the newly formed Iraqi republic to the lack of electricity in Iraq. Garner and the ORHA were also criticized for tolerating the presence of several senior Ba’athists in positions of power. Bremer’s tenure in Iraq will be discussed in detail below but it was not as successful as the Bush administration intended it to be. In fact, there can be a case made for the argument that Bremer was as bad of a person for the job as Garner was.
Bremer mentioned that having lived in three countries occupied by the Germans during World War II, he knew that “governments in exile tend to be viewed with suspicion by those who had remained ”. Despite this knowledge, he appointed only exiles to the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC). He admits to this mistake by saying that “focusing solely on the ILC as the presumptive nucleus of a new representative Iraq was going to create similar concerns among average Iraqis who’d stayed and suffered Saddam’s brutality ”. As an aside, he also remarks that the ILC lacked proper balance between Sunnis and Shias and was overtly biased in representation towards the Kurds and had no Christians, Turks or women. He never mentioned the biases that the exiles may have had. It was extremely surprising to note that despite knowing about the “bolder ambitions” of the exiles, he did not change the composition of the council.
Allawi said that “the CPA was only explicable in terms of a cover for sorting out issues in post-war Iraq because the Americans had no exit strategy. The CPA’s reluctance to internationalize is criticized by Allawi, Packer and Ricks. Packer says that “Bremer saw no reason for internationalize Iraq as time went on, and whenever a colleague – usually British – brought up the UN at a meeting, Bremer would roll his eyes as if the subject were a waste of time ”. In a damning criticism of Bremer and the CPA, George Packer said that it was
essentially forcing the White House and Pentagon to go along with initiatives taken in Baghdad. The CPA was going to fill in all the blanks left empty black in Washington by the war’s visionaries who had imagined that freedom and democracy would appear spontaneously in Iraq.
Bremer presided over some controversial policy initiatives during his tenure as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). CPA Order No. 1 was De-Baathification of Iraqi society. The Baathist Party counted among its ranks a lot of Iraq’s educated people. Despite admitting to not knowing too much about Iraq, Bremer decided to select which Iraqis must stay and which Iraqis must go. The CPA Order No 1 created severe divisions in Iraqi society. Allawi said that De-Ba’athification was equated with ‘de-Sunnification’. He said that de-Ba’athification was “central for the plan to remake Iraq into a new democracy, and to produce a new political culture that would replace the authoritarian and nationalist models of the past ”. Bremer’s defense of this policy indicated that he believed that his policies could change the ancient Iraqi culture. He underestimated the deep roots that the Ba’athist party had developed in its nearly thirty-five years of power in Iraq. Ayad Allawi campaigned against de-Ba’athfication, claiming that people joined the Ba’athist party as a means of obtaining state perks and keeping their jobs. A lot of the advocates of de-Ba’athification were people seeking revenge for acts committed against them during Saddam’s reign or were people who were ideologically opposed to it. However, de-Ba’athification did not “eliminate the presence of Ba’athist sympathizers, or include the egregious cases ”.
CPA Order No 2 was “Dissolution of Entities”. In Bremer’s words, it was -
These included the Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formation, including the Republican Guard, Special Republica Guard, Baath Party Militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam.
Several critics of this order said that it lead to Sunni backlash against the US troops. Ricks writes that Petraeus complained of Bremer’s “clumsy micromanagement ” and of him “developing plans without talking to affected U.S. commanders ”. Bremer defends this decision by saying that a Kurdish leader named Jalal Talabani told him that the decision to disband the army was the best decision that he had taken during his time in Iraq. However, Bremer fails to provide the readers with a more representative view of how the decision played out in Iraq. Bremer also says that this decision was a jointly coordinated with the Pentagon and that it was approved by Washinton, CPA and CENTCOM . Iraq’s security was severely compromised by the disbanding of the army and street crimes were on the rise. Bremer, Allawi, Ricks and Packer acknowledge this although Bremer refuses to blame this on the disbanding of the army. Bremer claims that the army had dissolved itself during the war and that it would be impossible to create a new Iraq that would include the Kurds and the Shi’a, who traditionally did not trust the army, if the old army was not disbanded. However, the disbanding of the Iraqi army was culturally insensitive. Allawi says that the army had a near-mythical role in Iraqi history . He says that one of Bremer’s unstated reasons for disbanding the army was the “belief held in many neo-conservative circles in the USA that the army in Iraq was both an instrument of control and the propagator of an ideology that was aggressive and disruptive to both stability and peace in the Middle East ”. Allawi says that the twin orders of de-Ba’athification and dissolution of the army were seen as important factors that launched the insurgency in Iraq. The Sunni Arab community was extremely affected as dissolution of the army caused their principal source of livelihood to disappear. These two orders, compounded with the CPA and the United States’ government’s resistance against any law that had a religious basis caused fears in Iraq that in the new Iraq, there was no place for the Pan-Arab, nationalist Iraqi. The people who were instrumental in forming both these policies did not consider that a well-equipped Iraqi army might be useful in combating insurgents. From Bremer’s own admission and from his memoirs of his time in Iraq, it is clearly evident that he supported both these policies. However, Allawi said that the blame or credit for the policies should lie elsewhere because both these policies were developed before Bremer assumed office.
Bremer also implemented several economic policies during his time in Iraq. While he speaks of these policies as major steps to helping Iraq become a modern and stable nation, Allawi said that the “raw and unfettered Darwinian capitalism that the more radical of the CPA were trying to promote was totally unsuited for Iraq in its current bankrupt state ”. The Iraqi private sector was deeply divided in its opinions of Bremer’s economic policies. The CPA did not fully understand the dynamics of the Iraqi government and by the end of 2003, “Iraq was governed by a hodgepodge of authorities: the formal and increasingly remote occupation powers at ‘the Palace’, the Governing Council that detested the restrictions placed on it by the CPA and the Cabinet that was controlled by the CPA’s purse”.
The biggest difference between the Rumsfeld, Casey, Abizaid administration and the Gates, Petraeus and Odierno brain trust was that the latter’s vision to change the war in Iraq was by using classic counterinsurgency theories. The immediate effects of the surge have not been so good because there were increased attacks on US troops. However, of late, the number of attacks on US troops has significantly decreased, as Ricks reports. Robert Gates being appointed the Secretary of Defense in the place of the resigning Rumsfeld aided Petraeus. Like Petraeus, Gates believed in the Surge and authorized a change in US strategy.
According to Allawi, Americans had a misconstrued view of Iraqi society after the 9/11 attacks. Most of these views were gleaned from exiles and exit-strategies were based on reports like ‘The Transition to Democracy’ that was compiled by Chalabi and Makiya. Before the invasion of Iraq, most Americans and most of the members of President Bush’s council did not know much about Iraq or its history. Bremer mentions his lack of knowledge about Iraq in the beginning of the book. Post 2006, America’s knowledge about Iraq is extremely politicized which is often extremely different from reality. Allawi said that “the United States had absolutely no idea as to how to actually administer the country, even though the issue of post-war governance of Iraq had been discussed well before the invasion ”.
Here-in lies the biggest difference between the administrations of Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. George H.W. Bush realized the pitfalls of entering Iraq after the first Gulf War. He did not wish to have to rule Iraq and reconstruct the Iraqi nation-state. However, Bush Jr. decided to invade Iraq without realizing the consequences that his actions would have. The several unintended consequences of the decision to topple Saddam’s regime have been discussed at length in this paper. It has also caused America to be directly involved in a complicated political situation in the Middle East.
Allawi said that the CPA did not meet its stated goals. It was unwilling to completely overhaul the Ba'athist legacies but instead tried to solve a major problem by removing prominent figures of the Saddam Hussein regime, thus alienating Sunnis. Iraqi society, according to Allawi, was ‘monolithic ’ and ‘impervious to change ’ and only held together by ‘threat and use of extreme force and brutality’.
After the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, the fissures in Iraqi society only got wider and it became increasingly tough to govern the Iraqis. Allawi notes the failure of the intelligence forces of the Coalition during the insurgency. In the epilogue to his book, Allawi slams the Bush administration saying that they drew their “inspiration from radical conservatism and an unapologetic defence of western – mainly American – values ”. Because of their almost caricature-like view of Middle Eastern culture that made them believe that it would create instability in the world if left to its own devices, the United States should intervene and impose democracy in Iraq. However they failed to take a lot of factors into account – those within Iraq and extra-Iraqi factors that included Arabian countries that did not take kindly to the changes in Iraq. Compounding these problems is that there is no ‘American’ Iraqi party but simply people who want to exploit America’s power in Iraq to their advantage. This is why they have failed to and have ‘lost peace’ in Iraq.
Ricks says that the most important events in Iraq are yet to come. Part of the reason justifying this comment is the consensus that there will be Americans in Iraq until at least 2015 . That means that the war is just about halfway through being complete. The long-term consequences of the war are yet to be felt and the success or failure of the surge is not known. The success of the surge will be determined by how much it has been able to change the fundamentals of Iraqi society, whether the surge can be sustained and if Iraq transitions into a successful democracy like Japan did. Success of the surge will vindicate Petraeus’ methods but failure would vindicate those who are in favor of unilateral use of force. Also, the power structure of Iraq will of particular interest to the United States and the rest of the world. As Sunnis become politically and militarily more powerful, Shia political elements will look for allies . Some experts predict that this would point to an increasing Iranian influence which would destabilize the fragile power structure of the Middle East. Another source of concern is Iraq turning into a military state. Ricks says that “Kilcullen, who had moved on to advise Eliot Cohen at the State Department, worried that the classic conditions for a military coup were developing – a venal political elite divorced from the population isolated inside the Green Zone, while Iraqi military outside the zone’s walls grew more capable and also became close to the people ”. With so many possibilities, it is not presumptuous to assert that the most important events in the life of the new Iraqi state are ahead of us instead of behind us.
The ‘Reverse Course’ was the change in US policy in Japan. It was directed towards appeasing the more conservative elements of Japanese society and creating pro-American sentiment in Japanese society. This policy succeeded to a great extent and Japan was a valuable Pacific ally to the United States during the Cold War.
In his book, In Retrospect, McNamara talks about the transition of power from Eisenhower to Kennedy. In a meeting with Kennedy on January 19, 1961, Eisenhower discussed about the problems in South East Asia and particularly focused on Laos. He says that “Eisenhower and [Secretary of State] Herter both got a certain inner satisfaction from laying a potentially intractable problem in Kennedy’s lap ”. McNamara says, however, that there was evidence that at that time, Eisenhower might have felt confused with how the situation should be dealt with at that time and may have acted differently when evidence like the Dien Bien Phu crisis presented itself. He notes that the meeting made a “deep impression on Kennedy and all of them ” and influenced their subsequent approach to Vietnam. McNamara admits that the members of the various administrations should have questioned themselves on “whether the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all of Southeast Asia, whether it would constitute a grave threat to the West’s security, what kind of war would develop in Vietnam if America was to involve itself there, whether they could win the war with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese and whether the aforementioned question needed to be answered before they committed American troops to Vietnam ” In 1961 Kennedy and his advisors, along with Diem’s advisors instituted the Strategic Hamlet program. It was seen as a means of combating communist insurgency. However, the program failed because the Vietnamese did not wish to be forcibly relocated and because they did not want to die for ideologies that they were not interested in.
McNamara talks about several meetings between 1961 and 1964 in which he met South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem. These meeting were sometimes held in locations which were known to the Vietcong and therefore there were several attempts to assassinate McNamara. He has been criticized for holding such meetings but McNamara says that these meetings were their only source of information and allowed them to convey Kennedy’s thoughts to their colleagues in Vietnam and receive recommendations from them about the course of actions that they were taking.
McNamara and Dean Rusk used to give frequent reports to the Congress and the press about the progress of the Vietnam War. There have been subsequent allegations of the government misleading the American people about how the war was progressing but McNamara says that the information that they gave were meant to be accurate. However, in hindsight they proved not to be so because the generals did not know how to ascertain the progress of a battle without battle-lines and therefore used erroneous indicators such as enemy casualties and weapons which did not, in reality, gauge the progress made in battle.
In 1963, after visiting Vietnam, McNamara and Maxwell Taylor handed in a recommendation to Kennedy that opined that while a coup would be unsuccessful, Diem should be made aware of American displeasure of his policies. They made a rough timeline for the withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam by 1965. McNamara insinuates that intransigence on Diem’s part to assure America of certain conditions led to some of the conclusions in the report. It is tough to judge if McNamara realized then that Diem was not a great leader but simply the best option that America thought she had in South Vietnam, or whether that realization came from hindsight. The recommendations of the report helped the Kennedy administration because it allowed it to dissociate itself from Diem’s anti-Buddhist activities. After Diem’s assassination, Kennedy increased the number of US troops in Vietnam. Later in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. The Gulf of Tonkin incident led to an escalation in US involvement in Vietnam. McNamara says that while there was no deception, he agrees that he knew that Congress had not “understood the breadth of those powers when it overwhelmingly approved the resolution on August 7, 1964 ”. As a result of the resolution, Johnson was able to expand US forces in Vietnam from 16,000 to 55,000.
McNamara criticizes some of General Westmoreland’s policies. He said that Westmoreland “simply developed a strategy to suit the Army’s preferred modus operandi, force structure, and a doctrine ”. He believed that the American’s better firepower would enable them to destroy the Viet Cong through attrition. However, the Viet Cong used guerilla-style attacks and their superior knowledge of the terrain to counter US attacks. As a result, there was a stalemate in the war. His successor, Creighton Abrams used a less offensive military strategy in which he aimed to teach the South Vietnamese how to defend themselves against Vietcong attacks. This led to less US casualties and increased US success in the war.
L. Paul Bremer was the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) which was supposed to oversee the reconstruction process. Even though the CPA was authorized under UN Resolution 1483, on 22 May, 2003 , it was for all practical purposes a functionary of the US Federal government and not responsible to the UN Security Council. Bremer replaced Jay Garner who was the Director of Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). The ORHA’s ambiguous mandate made it unclear as to whether it was an aid and reconstruction body, an interim governing authority, or the civilian adjunct to a military government, ultimately reporting to General Franks and the Pentagon . The problems that the ORHA faced was that it was poorly staffed and that the scale of problems seemed for overwhelm Garner. The ORHA were blamed for numerous problems ranging from the lack of security in the newly formed Iraqi republic to the lack of electricity in Iraq. Garner and the ORHA were also criticized for tolerating the presence of several senior Ba’athists in positions of power. Bremer’s tenure in Iraq will be discussed in detail below but it was not as successful as the Bush administration intended it to be. In fact, there can be a case made for the argument that Bremer was as bad of a person for the job as Garner was.
Bremer mentioned that having lived in three countries occupied by the Germans during World War II, he knew that “governments in exile tend to be viewed with suspicion by those who had remained ”. Despite this knowledge, he appointed only exiles to the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC). He admits to this mistake by saying that “focusing solely on the ILC as the presumptive nucleus of a new representative Iraq was going to create similar concerns among average Iraqis who’d stayed and suffered Saddam’s brutality ”. As an aside, he also remarks that the ILC lacked proper balance between Sunnis and Shias and was overtly biased in representation towards the Kurds and had no Christians, Turks or women. He never mentioned the biases that the exiles may have had. It was extremely surprising to note that despite knowing about the “bolder ambitions” of the exiles, he did not change the composition of the council.
Allawi said that “the CPA was only explicable in terms of a cover for sorting out issues in post-war Iraq because the Americans had no exit strategy. The CPA’s reluctance to internationalize is criticized by Allawi, Packer and Ricks. Packer says that “Bremer saw no reason for internationalize Iraq as time went on, and whenever a colleague – usually British – brought up the UN at a meeting, Bremer would roll his eyes as if the subject were a waste of time ”. In a damning criticism of Bremer and the CPA, George Packer said that it was
essentially forcing the White House and Pentagon to go along with initiatives taken in Baghdad. The CPA was going to fill in all the blanks left empty black in Washington by the war’s visionaries who had imagined that freedom and democracy would appear spontaneously in Iraq.
Bremer presided over some controversial policy initiatives during his tenure as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). CPA Order No. 1 was De-Baathification of Iraqi society. The Baathist Party counted among its ranks a lot of Iraq’s educated people. Despite admitting to not knowing too much about Iraq, Bremer decided to select which Iraqis must stay and which Iraqis must go. The CPA Order No 1 created severe divisions in Iraqi society. Allawi said that De-Ba’athification was equated with ‘de-Sunnification’. He said that de-Ba’athification was “central for the plan to remake Iraq into a new democracy, and to produce a new political culture that would replace the authoritarian and nationalist models of the past ”. Bremer’s defense of this policy indicated that he believed that his policies could change the ancient Iraqi culture. He underestimated the deep roots that the Ba’athist party had developed in its nearly thirty-five years of power in Iraq. Ayad Allawi campaigned against de-Ba’athfication, claiming that people joined the Ba’athist party as a means of obtaining state perks and keeping their jobs. A lot of the advocates of de-Ba’athification were people seeking revenge for acts committed against them during Saddam’s reign or were people who were ideologically opposed to it. However, de-Ba’athification did not “eliminate the presence of Ba’athist sympathizers, or include the egregious cases ”.
CPA Order No 2 was “Dissolution of Entities”. In Bremer’s words, it was -
These included the Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formation, including the Republican Guard, Special Republica Guard, Baath Party Militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam.
Several critics of this order said that it lead to Sunni backlash against the US troops. Ricks writes that Petraeus complained of Bremer’s “clumsy micromanagement ” and of him “developing plans without talking to affected U.S. commanders ”. Bremer defends this decision by saying that a Kurdish leader named Jalal Talabani told him that the decision to disband the army was the best decision that he had taken during his time in Iraq. However, Bremer fails to provide the readers with a more representative view of how the decision played out in Iraq. Bremer also says that this decision was a jointly coordinated with the Pentagon and that it was approved by Washinton, CPA and CENTCOM . Iraq’s security was severely compromised by the disbanding of the army and street crimes were on the rise. Bremer, Allawi, Ricks and Packer acknowledge this although Bremer refuses to blame this on the disbanding of the army. Bremer claims that the army had dissolved itself during the war and that it would be impossible to create a new Iraq that would include the Kurds and the Shi’a, who traditionally did not trust the army, if the old army was not disbanded. However, the disbanding of the Iraqi army was culturally insensitive. Allawi says that the army had a near-mythical role in Iraqi history . He says that one of Bremer’s unstated reasons for disbanding the army was the “belief held in many neo-conservative circles in the USA that the army in Iraq was both an instrument of control and the propagator of an ideology that was aggressive and disruptive to both stability and peace in the Middle East ”. Allawi says that the twin orders of de-Ba’athification and dissolution of the army were seen as important factors that launched the insurgency in Iraq. The Sunni Arab community was extremely affected as dissolution of the army caused their principal source of livelihood to disappear. These two orders, compounded with the CPA and the United States’ government’s resistance against any law that had a religious basis caused fears in Iraq that in the new Iraq, there was no place for the Pan-Arab, nationalist Iraqi. The people who were instrumental in forming both these policies did not consider that a well-equipped Iraqi army might be useful in combating insurgents. From Bremer’s own admission and from his memoirs of his time in Iraq, it is clearly evident that he supported both these policies. However, Allawi said that the blame or credit for the policies should lie elsewhere because both these policies were developed before Bremer assumed office.
Bremer also implemented several economic policies during his time in Iraq. While he speaks of these policies as major steps to helping Iraq become a modern and stable nation, Allawi said that the “raw and unfettered Darwinian capitalism that the more radical of the CPA were trying to promote was totally unsuited for Iraq in its current bankrupt state ”. The Iraqi private sector was deeply divided in its opinions of Bremer’s economic policies. The CPA did not fully understand the dynamics of the Iraqi government and by the end of 2003, “Iraq was governed by a hodgepodge of authorities: the formal and increasingly remote occupation powers at ‘the Palace’, the Governing Council that detested the restrictions placed on it by the CPA and the Cabinet that was controlled by the CPA’s purse”.
The biggest difference between the Rumsfeld, Casey, Abizaid administration and the Gates, Petraeus and Odierno brain trust was that the latter’s vision to change the war in Iraq was by using classic counterinsurgency theories. The immediate effects of the surge have not been so good because there were increased attacks on US troops. However, of late, the number of attacks on US troops has significantly decreased, as Ricks reports. Robert Gates being appointed the Secretary of Defense in the place of the resigning Rumsfeld aided Petraeus. Like Petraeus, Gates believed in the Surge and authorized a change in US strategy.
According to Allawi, Americans had a misconstrued view of Iraqi society after the 9/11 attacks. Most of these views were gleaned from exiles and exit-strategies were based on reports like ‘The Transition to Democracy’ that was compiled by Chalabi and Makiya. Before the invasion of Iraq, most Americans and most of the members of President Bush’s council did not know much about Iraq or its history. Bremer mentions his lack of knowledge about Iraq in the beginning of the book. Post 2006, America’s knowledge about Iraq is extremely politicized which is often extremely different from reality. Allawi said that “the United States had absolutely no idea as to how to actually administer the country, even though the issue of post-war governance of Iraq had been discussed well before the invasion ”.
Here-in lies the biggest difference between the administrations of Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. George H.W. Bush realized the pitfalls of entering Iraq after the first Gulf War. He did not wish to have to rule Iraq and reconstruct the Iraqi nation-state. However, Bush Jr. decided to invade Iraq without realizing the consequences that his actions would have. The several unintended consequences of the decision to topple Saddam’s regime have been discussed at length in this paper. It has also caused America to be directly involved in a complicated political situation in the Middle East.
Allawi said that the CPA did not meet its stated goals. It was unwilling to completely overhaul the Ba'athist legacies but instead tried to solve a major problem by removing prominent figures of the Saddam Hussein regime, thus alienating Sunnis. Iraqi society, according to Allawi, was ‘monolithic ’ and ‘impervious to change ’ and only held together by ‘threat and use of extreme force and brutality’.
After the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, the fissures in Iraqi society only got wider and it became increasingly tough to govern the Iraqis. Allawi notes the failure of the intelligence forces of the Coalition during the insurgency. In the epilogue to his book, Allawi slams the Bush administration saying that they drew their “inspiration from radical conservatism and an unapologetic defence of western – mainly American – values ”. Because of their almost caricature-like view of Middle Eastern culture that made them believe that it would create instability in the world if left to its own devices, the United States should intervene and impose democracy in Iraq. However they failed to take a lot of factors into account – those within Iraq and extra-Iraqi factors that included Arabian countries that did not take kindly to the changes in Iraq. Compounding these problems is that there is no ‘American’ Iraqi party but simply people who want to exploit America’s power in Iraq to their advantage. This is why they have failed to and have ‘lost peace’ in Iraq.
Ricks says that the most important events in Iraq are yet to come. Part of the reason justifying this comment is the consensus that there will be Americans in Iraq until at least 2015 . That means that the war is just about halfway through being complete. The long-term consequences of the war are yet to be felt and the success or failure of the surge is not known. The success of the surge will be determined by how much it has been able to change the fundamentals of Iraqi society, whether the surge can be sustained and if Iraq transitions into a successful democracy like Japan did. Success of the surge will vindicate Petraeus’ methods but failure would vindicate those who are in favor of unilateral use of force. Also, the power structure of Iraq will of particular interest to the United States and the rest of the world. As Sunnis become politically and militarily more powerful, Shia political elements will look for allies . Some experts predict that this would point to an increasing Iranian influence which would destabilize the fragile power structure of the Middle East. Another source of concern is Iraq turning into a military state. Ricks says that “Kilcullen, who had moved on to advise Eliot Cohen at the State Department, worried that the classic conditions for a military coup were developing – a venal political elite divorced from the population isolated inside the Green Zone, while Iraqi military outside the zone’s walls grew more capable and also became close to the people ”. With so many possibilities, it is not presumptuous to assert that the most important events in the life of the new Iraqi state are ahead of us instead of behind us.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Save the Oceans!
When I sailed with my father, the vastness of the ocean amazed me. To a two year old me, it represented endless possibilities and adventure. I fell in love with her brilliance on a beach one evening in Seychelles when I watched the waves wash away the footsteps of a young couple holding hands and walking away from the beach. At that point of time I was too young to fully comprehend the incredible nature of the moment which mirrored time. The ocean has seen so many lovers and so many broken hearts come by her shore and then walk away with her tides trailing behind them. Some footsteps take longer to be washed away but eventually all footprints left behind are replaced and forgotten. Just like our lives through the journey of time where we desperately spend all our lives trying to leave an imprint which inevitably fades away as time washes away all our actions, good or evil.
Swimming against a strong tide or feeling the waves dance on your toes only to have it turn into a strong wave that threatens to wash you away mirrors life. Fighting it and standing against them strengthens you. Si vis pacem para bellum. In other to earn the right to live with dignity and peace, you need to struggle for it.
Pearl Jam Oceans from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.
There is only one Ocean! Save it for the present and the future generations. The Earth is a unique storehouse of life and even with our advances in technology, we have not yet discovered all her secrets or the origin of the greatest miracle of them all - life. I believe that there exists a life force among all living things and there are greater beings that are the result of our combined energies circling the planet and protecting the life force and the balance of nature. What we're doing is causing a disturbance in the balance of this life force and as a result Mother Gaia (/god you believe in) is trying to restore balance through unnatural phenomenon that is causing great harm to all her children.
From an atheist's point of view, we are disturbing the biotic potential of the planet and thus ruining the ecological balance. Whatever your belief system is, you should respect the gifts of nature. The reason why Earth is habitable is because of her uniqueness and right now we are tethering on the brink of ruining it. The sea covers more than 70% of the Earth's compass. We are causing unbelievable damage to the oceans by trying to exploit la mar economically.
A dead ocean means a dead planet. The oceans regulate the climate of the earth and provide the air that we breathe. In return, we destroy her lifesystems by overfishing and by spilling oil and defiling her purity. Very soon there could be no oceans. And no life.
In his iconic book, the Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway talks about man's place within nature. Santiago kills the marlin out of necessity but we, the human race, are turning into the graceless shovelheaded sharks incapable of controlling our greed and hunger and senselessly mutilating the oceans and all that lies within.
Swimming against a strong tide or feeling the waves dance on your toes only to have it turn into a strong wave that threatens to wash you away mirrors life. Fighting it and standing against them strengthens you. Si vis pacem para bellum. In other to earn the right to live with dignity and peace, you need to struggle for it.
Pearl Jam Oceans from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.
There is only one Ocean! Save it for the present and the future generations. The Earth is a unique storehouse of life and even with our advances in technology, we have not yet discovered all her secrets or the origin of the greatest miracle of them all - life. I believe that there exists a life force among all living things and there are greater beings that are the result of our combined energies circling the planet and protecting the life force and the balance of nature. What we're doing is causing a disturbance in the balance of this life force and as a result Mother Gaia (/god you believe in) is trying to restore balance through unnatural phenomenon that is causing great harm to all her children.
From an atheist's point of view, we are disturbing the biotic potential of the planet and thus ruining the ecological balance. Whatever your belief system is, you should respect the gifts of nature. The reason why Earth is habitable is because of her uniqueness and right now we are tethering on the brink of ruining it. The sea covers more than 70% of the Earth's compass. We are causing unbelievable damage to the oceans by trying to exploit la mar economically.
A dead ocean means a dead planet. The oceans regulate the climate of the earth and provide the air that we breathe. In return, we destroy her lifesystems by overfishing and by spilling oil and defiling her purity. Very soon there could be no oceans. And no life.
You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?
In his iconic book, the Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway talks about man's place within nature. Santiago kills the marlin out of necessity but we, the human race, are turning into the graceless shovelheaded sharks incapable of controlling our greed and hunger and senselessly mutilating the oceans and all that lies within.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thoughts on Green Bay Packers Superbowl XLV Win
Congratulations to the Green Bay Packers on a great season ending with a Superbowl win! The game had a truly great performance by Aaron Rodgers who passed for 304 yards and 3 TDs. Aaron Rodgers probably realized a childhood dream last night and I am sure that it was very fulfilling to answer a lot of his critics. Aaron had had a very interesting journey in the NFL so far. I was really surprised to see how far he had fallen in the NFL draft and in my opinion back then, the Packers had drafted a great quarterback-in-the-making. Then of course came 4 years of anonymity behind America's ultimate ironman Brett Favre. And then, of course, the Favre retirement saga. Aaron Rodgers has developed into an incredibly accurate QB with a great arm. Also, very importantly, he has shown great leadership skills and kept his nose out of trouble - something that is absolutely important in a franchise leader.
Throughout the entire debacle created by Brett and the Packers front-office (I feel that both were to blame. Brett probably deserves more of the blame, but Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy & Co should've handled the situation far better), Aaron Rodgers has been a class-act. Replacing a legend is tough enough, but Aaron had a task far tougher because he had the shadow of Favre looming over his shoulder all the time. The final question from a grand moment in NFL history, the Packers winning another Super Bowl title: Will Green Bay's past quarterback hero in Favre, and its current and future one in Rodgers, ever be able to make amends? The Packer fans will forgive him for his arrogance and his grandstanding. If not this year or next, definitely in a few years. But can Rodgers and Favre ever be friends? The problem in repairing the relationship is that any attempt by Brett to reach out to Aaron will be seen as being manipulative or grandstanding and Aaron has every right to be annoyed at Brett. It isn't quite as bad as Steve Young and Joe Montana but it is something that needs to be worked on. My personal take on the situation is that the old masters - Favre and Montana had a natural human reaction to their usurpers and being pampered athletes who had been mollycoddled for a very wrong time, handled the situations in the worst possible ways.
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Apart from getting the proverbial monkey off Aaron Rodgers' back, this Superbowl win could herald the start of a Packers dynasty. The core of the team is very young. On the offensive side, Greg Jennings, James Jones and Jordy Nelson are excellent young receivers who will continue to improve. In Jennings' case, he could end up being great. Donald Driver is the only receiver among the receiving corps who will be retiring soon and while his contribution to the Packers' organization has been fantastic, he has ready made replacements in James Jones and Jordy Nelson. Jermichael Finley is, in my opinion, the most physically talented receiver among all the tight-ends currently in the NFL (better than Antonio Gates)and will continue to improve as he matures. That the Packers were such a deadly offense in a year in which he missed more than half the season speaks volumes about Aaron Rodgers who will be the Packers' starting QB for the forseeable future. There are some questions with regard to the offensive line and I am sure that the Packers front office will address them in the off-season and in the draft.
Defensively, the Packers were decimated throughout the season but were great throughout. Clay Matthews looks like the real deal and Tramon Williams has emerged as an excellent young cornerback. Charles Woodson cannot be relied upon for much longer, especially in cornerback but a shift to free safety could prolong his career. Nick Barnett, Sam Shields and several other players who form the core of the defense were really good this year and barring unnecessary roster turnover, the unit should be really good for several years to come. On the line, BJ Raji seems like a great draft pick and Cullen Jenkins was very solid. Some reinforcements would be however, welcome.
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In a conversation I had with a friend, I realized my allegiance to the Packers could be slightly incongruous with my devotion to Manchester United. The reason I have been drawn to the Packers is the sense of history and community surrounding the team. Ostensibly, the Packers are the opposite of Manchester United - the poster child for global sports franchising. The bigger difference is in the attitude of players. Packers have had players who are grounded and don't have big egos (apart from Brett Favre) whereas Manchester United fans have revered its flashy, cocky arrogant heroes who weave their magic at Old Trafford. From King Cantona to David Beckham to Cristiano Ronaldo to Dimitar Berbatov, Nani and Ryan Giggs to name a few. The only modern Old Trafford legend who is low-key is the ginger prince Paul Scholes. Obviously there is a cultural difference in the attitude of the fans - American sports fans typically dislike cocky players whereas soccer/futbol/football fans love them.
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I wrote this during my MKT 212 class so you have to pardon some of my fragmented thoughts and sentences.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
2011 Movies-to-watch Wishlist
I hit a bit of a dry spell last year as far as movie-watching goes largely because I was busy with graduation and then moving into Long Island, getting my car etc. Obviously I watched Inception in the theatres but apart from that the only movie I can remember that I watched at a movie theatre is the A-Team and that too because I almost got into a fight in the restroom.
Disclaimer – Yours truly had an extremely pleasant disposition. The fight was an extremely isolated case largely because the guy was being extremely obnoxious. I mean who talks loudly on a cellphone DURING a movie. I thought I should ask him to desist and he took exception to me saying that which is why he confronted me etc etc. What happened? Just gave him a piece of MY mind.
I digress. Coming back to my original point about movies released last year, I’m definitely going to watch Robin Hood, The Fighter and Black Swan but apart from that I really don’t think that I missed much because last year was a slow year for movies. However this year seems to have some promising movies that I am excited about watching:
• The Green Hornet: Don’t really have crazy high expectations for this movie but it could be interesting. Seth Rogen is flirting dangerously with the Jim-Carrey-hackneyed-humor-that-appeals-to-a-smaller-niche-every-year and he doesn’t even have half the same number of good movies as Mr.Carrey does. On a sidenote, I think people really underrate Jim Carrey’s skills in non-comic movies. I think his performances in the Majestic and 23 were extremely good.
• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 On Stranger Tides: Very excited about this movie. Honestly this movie has to suck big time for it not to be enjoyable and I think that the presence of Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz guarantees an enjoyable experience for the casual and objective movie-buff and definitely a fantastic experience for someone who is probably going to go dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow to the movie (this is the year I get in touch with my inner nerd).
• The Roommate: Only February release I am interested in or else I wouldn’t have bothered spending money on this. This hits close to home for me. For those of you who know me from Lafayette, you surely know who I am referring to here.
• Thor: Because Marvel Comics movies have been excellent of late. And because Natalie Portman is in it.
• X-Men First Class: See Thor. Also, X-Men movies have been fantastic in general and I am interested to see how good they will be without Wolverine adding to the movie. Besides, it isn’t a Bryan Singer directed movie so there are plenty of question marks about it.
• Captain America The First Avenger: Just explained why. Besides, I was a comics buff and maybe these 3 movies could convince me to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.
• Green Lantern: Lets see if DC Comics can get into the 2011 comics fun. While Marvel has released excellent movies of late, DC Comics has probably been better. The new Batman movies have been Oscarworthy (Dark Knight>Slumdog Millionaire) and the Spiderman series has been excellent. Of course DC would want to make up for a pedestrian Superman movie and hopefully Green Lantern will herald the start of a new franchise. But Ryan Reynolds….really? Poor choice in my opinion.
• The Hangover 2: Because the first one was f*n hilarious.
• Kung-Fu Panda 2: We all like cute talking animated pandas who can kick butt......right?
• Transformers Dark of the Moon: This is a movie made for theatres with all the special effects. Definitely will not contain Oscar-worthy acting but I bet the special effects will be incredible. The conspiracy theorists will love this one!
• Winnie the Pooh: Remember the “Do not lose your dinosaur” bit from Stepfather. I didn’t. Just saying. Doubt I’ll get a movie buddy for this one.
Seriously! How cool are May, June and July going to be for movie buffs?
• Happy Feet 2, Puss in Boots and The Greatest Muppet Movie ever made – See Winnie the Pooh.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Haven't even seen Part 1 year although I am sure I will watch it sooner than later. Just want to get this series over with. The movies really ruined the books in my opinion.
Late update:
• Priest: The trailer looked cool and I always watch at least one movie based on which trailer I like best from the first movie of the year I see.
I’m sure I will not be able to catch all these in the theatre just because I will probably be doing my internship and I am sure that I will be convinced to go to some random movies during the school year and being me, I will say yes. But the above seems fun.
Hope you guys are having a fun 2011! Leave comments (unless I am speaking to myself, which I probably am).
Disclaimer – Yours truly had an extremely pleasant disposition. The fight was an extremely isolated case largely because the guy was being extremely obnoxious. I mean who talks loudly on a cellphone DURING a movie. I thought I should ask him to desist and he took exception to me saying that which is why he confronted me etc etc. What happened? Just gave him a piece of MY mind.
I digress. Coming back to my original point about movies released last year, I’m definitely going to watch Robin Hood, The Fighter and Black Swan but apart from that I really don’t think that I missed much because last year was a slow year for movies. However this year seems to have some promising movies that I am excited about watching:
• The Green Hornet: Don’t really have crazy high expectations for this movie but it could be interesting. Seth Rogen is flirting dangerously with the Jim-Carrey-hackneyed-humor-that-appeals-to-a-smaller-niche-every-year and he doesn’t even have half the same number of good movies as Mr.Carrey does. On a sidenote, I think people really underrate Jim Carrey’s skills in non-comic movies. I think his performances in the Majestic and 23 were extremely good.
• Pirates of the Caribbean 4 On Stranger Tides: Very excited about this movie. Honestly this movie has to suck big time for it not to be enjoyable and I think that the presence of Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Penelope Cruz guarantees an enjoyable experience for the casual and objective movie-buff and definitely a fantastic experience for someone who is probably going to go dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow to the movie (this is the year I get in touch with my inner nerd).
• The Roommate: Only February release I am interested in or else I wouldn’t have bothered spending money on this. This hits close to home for me. For those of you who know me from Lafayette, you surely know who I am referring to here.
• Thor: Because Marvel Comics movies have been excellent of late. And because Natalie Portman is in it.
• X-Men First Class: See Thor. Also, X-Men movies have been fantastic in general and I am interested to see how good they will be without Wolverine adding to the movie. Besides, it isn’t a Bryan Singer directed movie so there are plenty of question marks about it.
• Captain America The First Avenger: Just explained why. Besides, I was a comics buff and maybe these 3 movies could convince me to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.
• Green Lantern: Lets see if DC Comics can get into the 2011 comics fun. While Marvel has released excellent movies of late, DC Comics has probably been better. The new Batman movies have been Oscarworthy (Dark Knight>Slumdog Millionaire) and the Spiderman series has been excellent. Of course DC would want to make up for a pedestrian Superman movie and hopefully Green Lantern will herald the start of a new franchise. But Ryan Reynolds….really? Poor choice in my opinion.
• The Hangover 2: Because the first one was f*n hilarious.
• Kung-Fu Panda 2: We all like cute talking animated pandas who can kick butt......right?
• Transformers Dark of the Moon: This is a movie made for theatres with all the special effects. Definitely will not contain Oscar-worthy acting but I bet the special effects will be incredible. The conspiracy theorists will love this one!
You shall be missed...even if you are a complete bitch on the set!
• Winnie the Pooh: Remember the “Do not lose your dinosaur” bit from Stepfather. I didn’t. Just saying. Doubt I’ll get a movie buddy for this one.
Seriously! How cool are May, June and July going to be for movie buffs?
• Happy Feet 2, Puss in Boots and The Greatest Muppet Movie ever made – See Winnie the Pooh.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Haven't even seen Part 1 year although I am sure I will watch it sooner than later. Just want to get this series over with. The movies really ruined the books in my opinion.
Late update:
• Priest: The trailer looked cool and I always watch at least one movie based on which trailer I like best from the first movie of the year I see.
I’m sure I will not be able to catch all these in the theatre just because I will probably be doing my internship and I am sure that I will be convinced to go to some random movies during the school year and being me, I will say yes. But the above seems fun.
Hope you guys are having a fun 2011! Leave comments (unless I am speaking to myself, which I probably am).
Monday, January 10, 2011
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you and your family! May the year be prosperous and bring forth new adventures. Looking forward to sharing some stories this year with you all!
(See I even provided you a coloring page to make up for my late New Year wishes...courtesy ActivityColoringVillage.co.uk)
(See I even provided you a coloring page to make up for my late New Year wishes...courtesy ActivityColoringVillage.co.uk)
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Reactions to Dead Until Dark, sports updates.
I'm not going to lie - I'm sometimes a sucker for cheap and trashy fiction to balance out the "deep" book I'm reading. A few weeks back, I picked up the first 3 books of the Southern Vampire series. Obviously that was a bad time because it was finals-week/week before-period.
Anyways, now that I am back home, I'm pretty much back to being a bum and working out. And I just finished Dead Until Dark. By the way, this is no way the first of a however long series of "reviews". This is more of a one-off thing just coz.
1) The book is nothing like the show. The first season on TV had more for guys and the show definitely has better character development than the book does.
2) Having said that, the book is impressive for trashy fiction. I can see why any woman would love it - it touches on several things women traditionally care about. When Bill tells Sookie - "You can get more skilled but you can never get better" implying she is perfect in a way, that is what every girl - however "cool" or "un-cool" she is, wants to hear after her "first time". Incidentally, I fail to see why girls remember their first time at all. It constitutes a lot of pain and blood and not in the fun way and unless you're getting boned by yours truly, you're probably having some 16 year old bang you who has no idea what he's doing. JK.
3) Charlene Harris gives a FANTASTIC commentary on Southern relationships and the Southern social structure - their views on gays, outsiders etc. Just because a book does not contain the abstract erudition of a Rushdie novel does not mean that it has no intrinstic value.
4) Alan Ball - True Blood's director, has to be credited for reshaping the content to make it more relevant to modern day society. I like that he has prolonged Lafayette Reynolds' character. Not only is Nelsan Ellis a fantastic actor, but he can also infuse a societal element to the show.
5) I am yet to definitively put my finger to which social/political/socio-economic/ethnic group the various "supes"(/supernaturals e.g.:vampires, werewolves,maenads etc) metaphorically are. I've decided that the books treat them as purely mystical creatures whereas the shows slightly politicize certain supernatural groups.
I'm excited to read books 2 and 3. Who knows...maybe I could make this a series of reviews.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* I hate the weather-induced interruptions in Manchester United's schedule. Not only does this make a schedule logjam from the New Year, but it means that we lost our opportunity to catch Chelsea when they were slightly of-form. On the bright side, we have a real winter break and hopefully we will not be worn out by the end of the season and it will help us in our push for European glory.
* How bad of a week is the Giants' punter having? And their special teams unit in general. And even their defense! How could they let the Eagles come back from that deficit. I just enjoy hating on most Philly teams and with the whole Cliff Lee and now the Miracle in the Meadowlands, I'm not really getting too much of an opportunity to do so.
* I weighed in at 182 pounds. Someone's hitting his weight targets! I'm going to take a few pounds off the side before I bulk up again.
Anyways, now that I am back home, I'm pretty much back to being a bum and working out. And I just finished Dead Until Dark. By the way, this is no way the first of a however long series of "reviews". This is more of a one-off thing just coz.
1) The book is nothing like the show. The first season on TV had more for guys and the show definitely has better character development than the book does.
2) Having said that, the book is impressive for trashy fiction. I can see why any woman would love it - it touches on several things women traditionally care about. When Bill tells Sookie - "You can get more skilled but you can never get better" implying she is perfect in a way, that is what every girl - however "cool" or "un-cool" she is, wants to hear after her "first time". Incidentally, I fail to see why girls remember their first time at all. It constitutes a lot of pain and blood and not in the fun way and unless you're getting boned by yours truly, you're probably having some 16 year old bang you who has no idea what he's doing. JK.
3) Charlene Harris gives a FANTASTIC commentary on Southern relationships and the Southern social structure - their views on gays, outsiders etc. Just because a book does not contain the abstract erudition of a Rushdie novel does not mean that it has no intrinstic value.
4) Alan Ball - True Blood's director, has to be credited for reshaping the content to make it more relevant to modern day society. I like that he has prolonged Lafayette Reynolds' character. Not only is Nelsan Ellis a fantastic actor, but he can also infuse a societal element to the show.
5) I am yet to definitively put my finger to which social/political/socio-economic/ethnic group the various "supes"(/supernaturals e.g.:vampires, werewolves,maenads etc) metaphorically are. I've decided that the books treat them as purely mystical creatures whereas the shows slightly politicize certain supernatural groups.
I'm excited to read books 2 and 3. Who knows...maybe I could make this a series of reviews.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* I hate the weather-induced interruptions in Manchester United's schedule. Not only does this make a schedule logjam from the New Year, but it means that we lost our opportunity to catch Chelsea when they were slightly of-form. On the bright side, we have a real winter break and hopefully we will not be worn out by the end of the season and it will help us in our push for European glory.
* How bad of a week is the Giants' punter having? And their special teams unit in general. And even their defense! How could they let the Eagles come back from that deficit. I just enjoy hating on most Philly teams and with the whole Cliff Lee and now the Miracle in the Meadowlands, I'm not really getting too much of an opportunity to do so.
* I weighed in at 182 pounds. Someone's hitting his weight targets! I'm going to take a few pounds off the side before I bulk up again.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Hearts and thoughts they fade....
Its not my fault you are stuck on a shelf. I've moved on. Maybe you should've too. Now look what's left for you....
This is when I thought of when I talked to you today.
Hearts and thoughts they fade....
This is when I thought of when I talked to you today.
Hearts and thoughts they fade....
Friday, July 30, 2010
Nightmare, visas & Community Shield 2010-11
I know I know! I reneged on the promise of daily weekly updates but my life has been hectic. I had intended to write this on the night of my visa appointment but I procrastinated as usual. My visa was approved which means, this Fall, J$$howw is hitting the Big Apple woot! The visa guy was awesome. He was a BoSox fan so I had fun with that. He still thinks (unlike Bill Simmons) that the Red Sox can still make the playoffs. That'll be interesting to see.
Speaking of interesting and fantastic, Avenged Sevenfold's new album Nightmare is simply briliant. Its got to be their best effort thus far and put into the context of the Rev's death, the album should be forever special in the hearts of metalcore fans. I'm thinking of going to an A7x concert on the 29th of August. If I do, catch me there! I'll be signing autographs - just kiddin! It'll be great to hang out with the old crew again.
I'm not going to be going into a lengthy pre-season discussion about Manchester United's prospects this season but all I can say is that I am excited about this young man right here.
Chicharito Hernandez scored in his debut and his speed and his awareness could make him one of the signings of the season! There's been a lot of talk of Özil coming to United and while that would be interesting, I don't think that it would be a disaster if he isn't signed. I think our squad looks great and I'm excited for the new season.
And yes, I know I owe everyone something erudite and essay-ish and I'll get to that by the end of the week. Ciao....enjoy the week.
Speaking of interesting and fantastic, Avenged Sevenfold's new album Nightmare is simply briliant. Its got to be their best effort thus far and put into the context of the Rev's death, the album should be forever special in the hearts of metalcore fans. I'm thinking of going to an A7x concert on the 29th of August. If I do, catch me there! I'll be signing autographs - just kiddin! It'll be great to hang out with the old crew again.
I'm not going to be going into a lengthy pre-season discussion about Manchester United's prospects this season but all I can say is that I am excited about this young man right here.
Chicharito Hernandez scored in his debut and his speed and his awareness could make him one of the signings of the season! There's been a lot of talk of Özil coming to United and while that would be interesting, I don't think that it would be a disaster if he isn't signed. I think our squad looks great and I'm excited for the new season.
And yes, I know I owe everyone something erudite and essay-ish and I'll get to that by the end of the week. Ciao....enjoy the week.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
About my inactivity and life updates
Folks, I'm sorry for not updating more regularly. I've had a lot on my plate these past few months....actually these past four years. Honestly, Lafayette College was a rollercoaster ride but it was fantastic while it lasted. I think I've come to a great country where a lot of people understand and appreciate me and my personality. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated my blog more regularly. This was a fairly popular blog when I was in high school and I intend to start writing again.
I have recently been accepted for the MBA in Finance at Hofstra University so I'll be in Hempstead from this Fall. Its really near NYC and I'm dying to explore the City that Never Sleeps!
I'm currently deciding which of my shirts to take, what car to get on a lease and things like that. Keep y'allz updated. If you still have a RSS Feed for my blog - thanks! And tell your friends J$$howw is back and not just with airy fairy stuff!
I have recently been accepted for the MBA in Finance at Hofstra University so I'll be in Hempstead from this Fall. Its really near NYC and I'm dying to explore the City that Never Sleeps!
I'm currently deciding which of my shirts to take, what car to get on a lease and things like that. Keep y'allz updated. If you still have a RSS Feed for my blog - thanks! And tell your friends J$$howw is back and not just with airy fairy stuff!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
A Tricky Summer - Evaluating Manchester United's 2009 summer transfer dealings thus far
This is my first sports related post (actually my first post) in a while. Partly because I felt it was absolutely necessary to comment on some of the happenings in the sports world and partly because I felt that I owed an apology to a great man whom I will be mentioning at length in my grad-school essays. On January 11, 2006 yours truly wrote in this blog:
But sadly, it seems that Sir Alex has now simply lost the plot. United are,
despite Sir Alex's excuses of building a young team, being outclassed in every
competition. Chelsea are runaway leaders in the EPL and United's out of Europe.
Sir Alex's signings in the past few years (with the exception of Rio Ferdinand,
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Edwin Van Der Saar
have been big flops. Look at the money spent on players like Veron (bald
incompetent piece of bulls**t), Forlan (nice guy though!) , Barthez ( grrr...he
let the ball in through his legs!!!), Kleberson(duh...), Liam Miller( on loan to
Leeds in the 1st division-that's all I can say) and Eric Djemba Djemba (Ummm so
who's this dude?). All this and the recent acrimonious bust-up with Roy Keane.
OK, Gary Neville's a good skipper, but he's no Roy Keane, we saw that in
United's match against Arsenal where he couldn't be half as inspirational as
Keano. So is it time for Sir Alex to go? ESPN Sportsline 'in-house' experts feel
so. With a cut-throat new owner in the form of the Glazers and the possibilities
of another trophiless season, the future looks really bleak for Sir Alex.
Congratulations Sir Alex, you proved me and the doubters wrong. Since then Manchester United have gone on to win 3 Premier League titles (thus knocking the Scousers of the proverbial 'fucking perch'), a Champions League title, a World Cup and a bunch of minor trophies that we spoilt fans don't even count (like the Carling Cup). Turns out that the experts at ESPN Sportscenter (it used to be Sportsline back then) know a tad bit less than you. In my defence, Djemba-Djemba and Veron were bulls**t but Gaz did turn out to be a pretty good captain. And my Alan Hansen-ish comment about "excuses about building a young team" makes me look extremely stupid in hindsight. Arsene Wenger - therefore there's still hope for your vision but the window of tolerance is decreasing. The Premiership is getting ; Citeh with their money (oil.....cough cough!) and Sparky at the helm could very well challenge your perennial 4th place finish (or so it seems now) and i don't know if the supporters will tolerate a non-Champions League finish.Back to the Red Devils. Cristiano Ronaldo went from being a showpony to being a briliant player , an even bigger prima-donna and a smug little piece of shit. In his shadow, Wayne Rooney has developed into being one of the more underrated talents in the world. The fact that Rooney wasn't mentioned in Real's crazy summer splurge shows that the world has seemingly forgetten the clinical briliance of a man who unselfishly let Cristiano Ronaldo steal his spotlight. All that will change this year because Wazza seems to be ready to take centrestage this season at the Theatre of Dreams.
Unless fans have a ridiculous short-term memory, few will forget his electrifying debut against Fenerbache. However, since them most fans have been more wowed by Cristiano Ronaldo's glamorous style of playing than Rooney's game which is a perfect mixture of skill, determination and graft. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, Rooney can play his favored position and be at his lethal best throughout the season. My bold prediction is that Berbatov and Rooney will form Europe's deadliest strike duo and Madrid will soon be calling (this time unsuccessfully) for the 'other' R in Manchester United's R n R connection. Which brings me to Real Madrid's summer splurge. The Galacticos II project is well and truly underway. Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema have all gone to Real Madrid, who have made a mockery of the international crisis. However, Perez has clearly not learnt from the mistakes of his previous failed "Galacticos" project. When Beckham was brought to Real Madrid during the summer that Makelele was sold, Zidane famously commented - "Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?" Real failed to win a European Cup or a league title in the remainder of the Galacticos I era. The failure to shore up their defence or add a player in the "Makelele role" will cost Real greatly during season. Real's only defensive addition was Raul Albiol and their 4 starters on defence are Cannavaro - a has been whose abilities have sadly been diminished, Ramos - an extremely poor man's Sergio Ramos, Metzelder - probably the most solid defender in the back 4, which tells you how bad they are in the first place and Heinze, who is an above average defender on his best day. The Diarras will be tested but neither has shown the qualities to be a top international defensive midfielder. Iker Casillas is definitely a top goalkeeper but there's only so much that a goalkeeper can do when his back 4 leaks like a two-bit whore after a good night's work. Neither Kaka nor Ronaldo are known for their tracking back abilities and neither is whoever their striker might be - Benzema, Raul, Nistelrooy, Huntelaar or Higuian. Besides, Cristiano Ronaldo's and Kaka's exorbitant salaries will definitely cause a great deal of resentment in the dressing room, especially in the minds of the younger stars who will want a better and more improved deal. Casillas' reaction, in particular, is going to be interesting. Observing Ronaldo's attitude in a team where he is not the centrepiece is going to be very interesting. Unlike Manchester United, he is obviously not going to be deployed as a winger who goes tends to drift towards the centre but more as a traditional goal-scoring winger. His chemistry with Nistelrooy was never fantastic at Manchester United and I'll be surprised if he gels well with a prototypical forward like Raul. Real's embarrassment of riches also means that they will have to off-load players like Sneijder, Robben and the unsettled Van Der Vaart. Selling the latter could be a major mistake because Real do not have a creative midfielder in the Zidane mould and Van Der Vaart is probably their best option in the midfield, even if they do get Alonso. Faliure to buy a Cesc Fabregas or a Xabi Alonso could therefore be the difference between being a ineffective parade of superstars or a lethal attacking team (albeit with a weak defence). More on Real as the season progresses.
Manchester United, meanwhile, have been left with 80 million that they seemingly cannot spend. Sir Alex was reportedly outbid on Benzema and will probably be outbid on Ribery by Real, if Bayern do decide to sell. The media is running amok with stories about Manchester United's new financial impotence to outbid Real and predicting doomsday for the club because a perceived faliure to replace Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo. While Ronaldo's departure might have a significant impact on the team, Tevez has never struck me to be that important of a place. He did play a key role in our 2007-08 campaign but his propensity to run around the park aimlessly like a headless chicken is extremely annoying to the fans who fell in love with King Eric's casual panache. The media frenzy over Benzema is surprising and even more suprising, to me, is the reaction of the Old Trafford faithful, some of whom are questioning Sir Alex's incompetence (!!!) in the transfer market (not quite unlike what I did in 2006 but then I've changed!). Why spend 40 million on a player who is unproven outside of the French Ligue 1? Benzema could be a star or could be like Veron, who could never adjust to the pace of the English game. In fact, that is another risk that Real are running this year. It is highly unlikely that all their transplants will be as effective in La Liga as they were in the league in which they previously played in.
The signings of Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen were fantastic - in my opinion. Valencia is will provide excellent service to Wayne Rooney and, in my eyes, is the perfect upgrade to Park. He has Park's industry combined with a certain degree of talent. Besides he is an absolute dynamo who will track back for defence. Besides, the last time someone gave O'Shea as much trouble as Valencia did in the Wigan game, we signed him up and he turned out to be a half decent player! For those of you who have no idea who I'm talking about, it is Cristiano Ronaldo back when he was an 18 year-old in Sporting Lisbon.
Michael Owen should be Sir Alex's shrewdest piece of business in years. He is a 29 year old former European player of the year who isn't past his prime. True, he's had a bad history of injuries over the past two years and his commitment has been questioned but who would like to play in the circus that Newcastle had become. Also, having mumps does not make you injury prone. I feel Michael Owen can contribute greatly from the bench this season. From what we saw in the game against Malaysia XI, he seems to be well on his way back to being the Michael Owen who was en route to becoming England's greatest ever striker. Personally, I'd love to see him score a last minute winner at Anfield and celebrate in front of the Kop!
Mame Biram Diop looks to be a fantastic striker and a great buy. If he is half as good as his videos make him out to be, he's going to be briliant. Another 20 from Molde maybe? Gabriel Obertan is an interesting signing - Laurent Blanc and even Obertan himself questioned his own mental makeup. However, it is undeniable that Obertan has a great amount of quality in him because one of the world's greatest evaluators of French soccer talent - Arsene Wenger was extremely interested in securing his signature. Interestingly, Wenger was never that keen on Benzema and I am curious as to whether that was because of the price tag or if The Voyeur saw something potentially bust-worthy that the rest of us didn't. I'm excited to see what the Academy can do with Obertan and Mame and if they can be made into good finished products. Our next crop of youngsters are extremely talented and have a great deal of potential - Macheda, Wellbeck, the impressive Petrucci, Posebon (on loan for the season) and now Obertan and Diop leading the pack.
A footnote about Cristiano Ronaldo and Tevez - I admit I was a bit disappointed at first to see Cristiano leave and I expected him to somehow put Manchester United down in his first interviews as a Real Madrid player. However, he has said nothing but positive things about the gaffer, his teammates and about his time at the club which is in sharp contrast to the way Carlos Tevez has behaved since he has left Old Trafford. True, Carlos was given a bad deal by the boss but so was David Beckham and Becks was a Manchester United legend. Besides the way it stands now, Tevez has swapped Manchester United's bench for Manchester City's bench - a move that will definitely not go down too well with the Manchester United fans. Contrary to what was the public perception at the end of the season, the player vilified as being a me-first player during his time at Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo, will be applauded by the Stretford End faithful if/when he returns in a Real Madrid jersey whereas the 'ultimate-team-player-who-would-die-for-the-shirt' Carlos Tevez is going to be booed mercilessly next season at Old Trafford.
A random blurb - I realized that the reason I'm becoming a Manny fan is because he is baseball's answer to Eric Cantona. Think about it - the aloof attitude, the seemingly effortless briliance and the charisma that dazzles the fans. More on baseball and football later.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve/Calcutta 12/24/2008
Why is Christmas Eve so special?
I was having a conversation with my friend Greg Wells and he told me how he feels that Christmas Eve is a very special day in the year. Incidentally, lot of people throughout the world share this view - not just for Christmas Eve, but also for other 'eves'. For example, Friday evenings are almost universally looked forward to (unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to have to work on Saturdays). This is because an 'eve' or 'the day before' holds so much promise of enjoyment for the day/event ahead of it that the anticipation oftens makes it a more enjoyable experience than the actual special day/event.
Very often, the day before a wedding is more enjoyable for the would-be-bride and the would-be-groom than their wedding day (unless you happen to be Britney Spears and your wedding lasts a day, in which case you probably don't care!). Or for a more mundane example - virgins regard sex to be a bigger deal ("Putting pussy on a pedestal" - Forty Year Old Virgin) than it really .
I don't mean to be a sourpuss and say that Christmas isn't that great after all. What I mean to say is that very often planning and waiting for an event can be just as much fun or maybe even more fun than the real thing. For me personally , the buildup to Christmas has usually been very exciting - sometimes even more than Christmas itself.
Which brings me to the second part of my thought for today - Christmas Eve in Calcutta. Many people decry Calcutta as being squalid and stolid. While I agree that some parts of Calcutta can be, well, really squalid, I take offence to the "stolid, dead city" comments. Calcutta is the only city in the world which celebrates festivals of various religious (and commercial, if you consider Christmas to be a commercial holiday) faiths with equal vibrancy. Even my family's maid, who has the vaguest idea of Jesus Christ and who thinks that Christmas is Santa Claus' birthday (personally I find this idea funny and have no intention of disabusing her of the notion) celebrates Christmas! I doubt if you'll find as many enthusiastic people even in front of the Basilca in Rome! Heck the people were so excited that they would have easily got themselves run over by my car (notice how I cleverly shift the blame on the car) had my mother not been making me go slower than the proverbial snail (and even then on Lindsay Street.......). I love Christmas shopping in New Market despite there being obviously better malls to go to nowadays(where I invariably land up in, thanks in part to my mom) because it attracts an incredibly eclectic bunch of people. You can see the Anglo-Indians, the Chinese, the traditional Bengalis (i.e. middle aged women in saris who have as much of a chance of knowing Christmas carols as I do of beating Usain Bolt in a footrace), the non-traditional Bengalis and even women in burqas shopping for Christmas trees. Where else in the world would you find such an assortment of people!
Yesterday, I went shopping for Christmas presents and I heard strains of Jim Reeves' White Christmas being played. Incidentally, for those of you wondering about the weather, playing "White Christmas" in Calcutta is extremely ironic in Calcutta because we haven't had a White Christmas since the Ice Age! But the ultimate annual Christmas irony in Calcutta, in my opinion, is that the best Christmas cakes are sold at Nahoums , a Jewish confectionary. There is such a tremendous sense of togetherness in the city and an all-encompassing sense of elation throughout the city that I feel that if Buddy the Elf and Santa Claus needed some Christmas spirit, they shouldn't have been in New York, but in the streets of Calcutta.
The title of today's blogpost should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra because it is the wording is reminiscent of 'Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24' .Paul O'Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra explained the story behind Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 in an interview published on ChristianityToday.com:
I was having a conversation with my friend Greg Wells and he told me how he feels that Christmas Eve is a very special day in the year. Incidentally, lot of people throughout the world share this view - not just for Christmas Eve, but also for other 'eves'. For example, Friday evenings are almost universally looked forward to (unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to have to work on Saturdays). This is because an 'eve' or 'the day before' holds so much promise of enjoyment for the day/event ahead of it that the anticipation oftens makes it a more enjoyable experience than the actual special day/event.
Very often, the day before a wedding is more enjoyable for the would-be-bride and the would-be-groom than their wedding day (unless you happen to be Britney Spears and your wedding lasts a day, in which case you probably don't care!). Or for a more mundane example - virgins regard sex to be a bigger deal ("Putting pussy on a pedestal" - Forty Year Old Virgin) than it really .
I don't mean to be a sourpuss and say that Christmas isn't that great after all. What I mean to say is that very often planning and waiting for an event can be just as much fun or maybe even more fun than the real thing. For me personally , the buildup to Christmas has usually been very exciting - sometimes even more than Christmas itself.
Which brings me to the second part of my thought for today - Christmas Eve in Calcutta. Many people decry Calcutta as being squalid and stolid. While I agree that some parts of Calcutta can be, well, really squalid, I take offence to the "stolid, dead city" comments. Calcutta is the only city in the world which celebrates festivals of various religious (and commercial, if you consider Christmas to be a commercial holiday) faiths with equal vibrancy. Even my family's maid, who has the vaguest idea of Jesus Christ and who thinks that Christmas is Santa Claus' birthday (personally I find this idea funny and have no intention of disabusing her of the notion) celebrates Christmas! I doubt if you'll find as many enthusiastic people even in front of the Basilca in Rome! Heck the people were so excited that they would have easily got themselves run over by my car (notice how I cleverly shift the blame on the car) had my mother not been making me go slower than the proverbial snail (and even then on Lindsay Street.......). I love Christmas shopping in New Market despite there being obviously better malls to go to nowadays(where I invariably land up in, thanks in part to my mom) because it attracts an incredibly eclectic bunch of people. You can see the Anglo-Indians, the Chinese, the traditional Bengalis (i.e. middle aged women in saris who have as much of a chance of knowing Christmas carols as I do of beating Usain Bolt in a footrace), the non-traditional Bengalis and even women in burqas shopping for Christmas trees. Where else in the world would you find such an assortment of people!
Yesterday, I went shopping for Christmas presents and I heard strains of Jim Reeves' White Christmas being played. Incidentally, for those of you wondering about the weather, playing "White Christmas" in Calcutta is extremely ironic in Calcutta because we haven't had a White Christmas since the Ice Age! But the ultimate annual Christmas irony in Calcutta, in my opinion, is that the best Christmas cakes are sold at Nahoums , a Jewish confectionary. There is such a tremendous sense of togetherness in the city and an all-encompassing sense of elation throughout the city that I feel that if Buddy the Elf and Santa Claus needed some Christmas spirit, they shouldn't have been in New York, but in the streets of Calcutta.
The title of today's blogpost should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra because it is the wording is reminiscent of 'Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24' .Paul O'Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra explained the story behind Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 in an interview published on ChristianityToday.com:
... We heard about this cello player born in Sarajevo many years ago(Thank you Wikipedia for your spirit of sharing, which saves me search time!)
(Vedran Smailović) who left when he was fairly young to go on to become a
well-respected musician, playing with various symphonies throughout Europe. Many decades later, he returned to Sarajevo as an elderly man—at the height of the Bosnian War, only to find his city in complete ruins. I think what most broke this man's heart was that the destruction was not done by some outside invader or natural disaster—it was done by his own people. At that time, Serbs were shelling Sarajevo every night. Rather than head for the bomb shelters like his family and neighbors, this man went to the town square, climbed onto a pile of rubble that had once been the fountain, took out his cello, and played Mozart and Beethoven as the
city was bombed. He came every night and began playing Christmas carols from
that same spot. It was just such a powerful image—a white-haired man silhouetted
against the cannon fire, playing timeless melodies to both sides of the conflict
amid the rubble and devastation of the city he loves. Some time later, a
reporter traced him down to ask why he did this insanely stupid thing. The old
man said that it was his way of proving that despite all evidence to the
contrary, the spirit of humanity was still alive in that place.
It is exactly 94 years since the Christmas truce of 24th December, 1914- the almost unbelievable day on which soldiers of rival countries fraternized with each other during World War in no-man's land on the Western Front. The world has moved on and we have become more realistic (cynical?) and today we find ourselves at the brink of a war that might involve weapons that are capable of unimaginable. I do not ever want to come back home and, like Vedran Smailović, find my city destroyed and my childhood memories shattered. The troops of various countries throughout the world - in troubled areas like Afghanistan, Kashmir and Iraq, do not deserve to be away from their family and friends on Christmas Day. They do not deserve to face the possibility of dying on Christmas Day, when they should be at home, celebrating with their loved ones. I doubt if many of them are looking forward to a White Christmas - for inclement conditions make fighting more dangerous.
Today, Christmas has a secular and universal meaning- one of family, togetherness, sharing, caring and goodwill. These aren't ideals to live up to just for one day - these are ideals that we should abide by everyday. Think of Vedran Smailović and think of the millions affected by the conflicts in the world today. We, the members of global community, owe it to them to stand up united against people who threaten to destroy the fabric of civilization through their violence.
We are at a very important time in our history and how we act will determine the course of our history henceforth.
To me, Christmas is about hope and belief. As a kid, I believed in Santa Claus and because I believed that he was keeping a list, I tried to be nice all year. And I hoped that I would get the presents I wanted because I was such a nice boy throughout the year. What we hope for today can become real tomorrow if we believe it to be possible. Just imagine that there really is Santa Claus somewhere in the North Pole, keeping tabs on us and rewarding us at the end of the year for being "nice"!
Merry Christmas everyone! Have a great day!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Changes
Dear Readers,
Over the past few days I have been looking over the blog and reminiscing about it. When I first started this blog, I had no idea which direction it was headed or why I intended to take the trouble to write a blog. All I knew was that I felt that somehow my high school curriculum and activities had stifled the writer in me so much that I had a placed a self-imposed writer's block over myself that I was struggling to remove. I guess the blog started off as a mouthpiece for my post-St.James' School sentiments including the posts that sparked off the once infamous Blog Wars and then I decided to share my two cents about the sporting events around the world that interested me.
None of these posts were masterpieces (nor do I presume any of the subsquent posts were) but sometime during these years, something happened because of which I felt that I could write again. I do not mean writing stupid essays for high-school paperswhere the bar that is set for the class reeks of mediocrity, and where creativity and ideas are discouraged - I mean that I could connect with writing again and feel the emotions that pulse through any well-written literary work. This blog has been very therapeutic in that regard. But a negative effect of this invigoration is that I have digressed to writing about abstract topics instead of sharing opinions and views with you all.
This is going to change. I am going to continue writing essays and I always will - but I have decided to share my views about contemporary issues, and with more regularity.
I am grateful for all the encouragement that I have received from you all thus far, and I am humbled to receive praise from you all - especially because a lot of you are very talented authors yourself.
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Soumyajeet Ghosh
PS: I would like to tell you folks one last thing. I have started working on my first book - whether I will finish it next year or in 20 years remains to be seen but I do hope it comes along well. I shall keep you all updated about it.
Over the past few days I have been looking over the blog and reminiscing about it. When I first started this blog, I had no idea which direction it was headed or why I intended to take the trouble to write a blog. All I knew was that I felt that somehow my high school curriculum and activities had stifled the writer in me so much that I had a placed a self-imposed writer's block over myself that I was struggling to remove. I guess the blog started off as a mouthpiece for my post-St.James' School sentiments including the posts that sparked off the once infamous Blog Wars and then I decided to share my two cents about the sporting events around the world that interested me.
None of these posts were masterpieces (nor do I presume any of the subsquent posts were) but sometime during these years, something happened because of which I felt that I could write again. I do not mean writing stupid essays for high-school paperswhere the bar that is set for the class reeks of mediocrity, and where creativity and ideas are discouraged - I mean that I could connect with writing again and feel the emotions that pulse through any well-written literary work. This blog has been very therapeutic in that regard. But a negative effect of this invigoration is that I have digressed to writing about abstract topics instead of sharing opinions and views with you all.
This is going to change. I am going to continue writing essays and I always will - but I have decided to share my views about contemporary issues, and with more regularity.
I am grateful for all the encouragement that I have received from you all thus far, and I am humbled to receive praise from you all - especially because a lot of you are very talented authors yourself.
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Soumyajeet Ghosh
PS: I would like to tell you folks one last thing. I have started working on my first book - whether I will finish it next year or in 20 years remains to be seen but I do hope it comes along well. I shall keep you all updated about it.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monsoons in Bengal & Economies of scale
Sitting on a rock in southern-most tip of India, Cape Comorin, à la Swami Vivekananda and watching the monsoon clouds thunder into the mainland, one can almost picture them to be terrible but benevolent invaders, in their chariots of storm driven by black stallions, coming to free the oppressed inhabitants of the land of the fire-breathing summer king. Yet, in a few weeks, the overflowing tears of Mother Ganges bear witness as liberator turns into oppressor as the invaders inundate the land and destroy the seasonal crop…..
The poet’s eye catches only the romantic magnificence or the wanton destruction of the Indian monsoon. Many a prosaic article about monsoon can begin with an ode to monsoon followed by a tear-jerking account of the misery and occasional ruin that the season leaves behind but very few capture anything more than the grandiose events of the season.
Yes, there are economies of scale in the monsoon season that the poetic eye, in its search for opulence, often misses – watching the scorched and drooping roses in Kalimpong, starved of rain throughout summer, rapidly lapping up small droplets of rain and then opening up their petals in gratitude; sitting in a village and watching small children splash about in small pools of rainwater to break the monotony of the croaking frogs and chirping crickets while village women carrying huge pails of water deftly step through mud and slime and make their way home; or spotting an crow try its best to shake off the water from its feathers, indignantly cawing all the time, while a stray duck swims around indifferently in a nearby pond. However, to experience natural economies of scale, one need not travel to relatively obscure rural places or have to be lucky enough to spot one in person – all you need to do is watch children sail their paper-boats through the muddy puddles of Calcutta. The wide eyed children watch the boats maneuver through the eddies of the microcosmic sea, often playing god to prevent a boat from capsizing or setting it back to course if it does fall over. The peals of laughter from the children that result from the unmitigated delight that they experience from this extremely inexpensive source of entertainment – paper boats whose ability to sail the ‘high seas’ is due to deft childish fingers and the same uneconomical amounts of rain that provide the glitzy glamour to the season that people love to talk about. People often say that one must learn to appreciate the small things in life but sometimes big things help to precipitate a chain reaction that makes these small things possible.
The poet’s eye catches only the romantic magnificence or the wanton destruction of the Indian monsoon. Many a prosaic article about monsoon can begin with an ode to monsoon followed by a tear-jerking account of the misery and occasional ruin that the season leaves behind but very few capture anything more than the grandiose events of the season.
Yes, there are economies of scale in the monsoon season that the poetic eye, in its search for opulence, often misses – watching the scorched and drooping roses in Kalimpong, starved of rain throughout summer, rapidly lapping up small droplets of rain and then opening up their petals in gratitude; sitting in a village and watching small children splash about in small pools of rainwater to break the monotony of the croaking frogs and chirping crickets while village women carrying huge pails of water deftly step through mud and slime and make their way home; or spotting an crow try its best to shake off the water from its feathers, indignantly cawing all the time, while a stray duck swims around indifferently in a nearby pond. However, to experience natural economies of scale, one need not travel to relatively obscure rural places or have to be lucky enough to spot one in person – all you need to do is watch children sail their paper-boats through the muddy puddles of Calcutta. The wide eyed children watch the boats maneuver through the eddies of the microcosmic sea, often playing god to prevent a boat from capsizing or setting it back to course if it does fall over. The peals of laughter from the children that result from the unmitigated delight that they experience from this extremely inexpensive source of entertainment – paper boats whose ability to sail the ‘high seas’ is due to deft childish fingers and the same uneconomical amounts of rain that provide the glitzy glamour to the season that people love to talk about. People often say that one must learn to appreciate the small things in life but sometimes big things help to precipitate a chain reaction that makes these small things possible.
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