Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm - Publilius Syrus.
Conventional wisdom dictates that people understand the limits of their ability. When someone takes up a job, it is understood that demands and expectations of the same have been reviewed. The foregone conclusion therefore is, that the person will deliver.
When we transitioned from [...]
Mahmoud Darwish, the poet of Palestine, wrote in “State of Siege”: “In a land where the dawn sears - We have become more doltish - And we stare at the moments of victory. There is no starry night in our nights of explosions. Our enemies stay up late; they switch on their light in the intense [...]
“Of course the people do not want war. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can [...]
Christine Fair, South Asia analyst for RAND, suspects that the Mumbai terrorists are homegrown Indian militants, bearing grievances over the way India’s 140 million Muslims are treated by the Hindu majority. “This isn’t India’s 9/11,” she said. “This is India’s Oklahoma City.”
The attackers caught the Indian security forces oblivious and unprepared. “Till now, we were [...]
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote: “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
Prison, the name immediately conjures up images of infamous ones in yesteryears like Bastille, Alcatraz, Newgate, San Quentin and the Devil’s Island. Today we have our share of Guantanamo Bay, Pul Chakri and Abu Ghraibs.
The right to [...]
This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem… Written by an
African Kid:
When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black
And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When [...]
Socrates thought they were the voice of conscience. Iroquois Indians saw them as commands to be followed. Voltaire said they resulted from overeating. Freud defined them as repressed thoughts. Author Robert G. Allen wrote: “The future you see is the future you get”, whereas James Allen said “Dreamers are saviours of the world”. This is [...]
Author and economist John Kenneth Galbraith writes in his book ‘A Journey through Economic Time’: “Ignorance and stupidity in the great affairs of state is not something that is commonly cited. A certain political and historical correctness requires us to assign some measure of purpose of rationality even where, all too obviously, it does not exist.”
The [...]
The word ‘rival’ comes from the Latin ‘rivalis’ meaning ’some one sharing a river’. A water war between two Sumerian city states Lagashand Umma 4500 years ago is recorded on a stone carving showing vultures flying off with the heads of the impoverished and defeated Umma people.
Only history itself can convince one of such a [...]
