News & Views: Genetically Modified Food

Today while reading I came across this link -- http://is.gd/F4fJIl

Summary: This editorial opinion says how majority of the scientist says its safe to eat Genetically Modified Foods (GMF), and hence extrapolate that 'We don’t need labels on genetically modified foods'

Opinion: I think there are two points here that needs to be underlined.

1. People need to know what they are reading if they are interested. The right to know/transparency is an important part of the democracy.

2. This is not even 50 years old. To understand the full effects of it you need at-least three generations of a family, the first gen that had started eating GMF, second that was born to them and grew up eating GMF, and the third which had parents who grew up eating GMF and now they are too. Only when this third generation matured to old age can we be sure about its side-affects. Until then we are dealing with theories and probabilities.

.... taking it forward ...

Recently through a FaceBook post I came across this interesting piece by Aftab Ahmed. 

To give you a small summary, he has correctly interpreted the concept of 'halal' and 'haram' income and its usage and then he has put up his view on the Babri-Masjid why it doesn't matter, and yet it matters. 

Although he is partially correct that, "Any big or small event where even it seemed remotely that they are being man-handled they (Muslims) erupt." But the truth is its slightly more complicated. 

There is a vision of India. It is of a democratic and multi-cultural country with no single religion being the state's religion -- Nehru's version of India. And that religion should be practiced in the house in a religious place etc. In short religion and state are different. These are people who call themselves 'secular'  and they believe in being diverse. 

Now there is another vision for India. This calls for a single country with homogeneity, as thought by RSS. It has some contradictions but we will not get into it as of now. In this thought process, religion has a very important role, which to an extent is the seed of the conflict.  Watch this video for more clarity on the type of ideology they propagate.

And if anyone is actually interested then they must read the speeches, books, etc. written by M. S. Golwalkar, the second "Sarsanghchalak" (Supreme chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (wiki link).

If that seems like a lot of work then you can read: "TERRIFYING VISION — M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India" by Jyotirmaya Sharma. The work is quite scholarly, sometimes dry but worthy of reading for anyone who wants to understand why the Babri-Masjid is more of a Nehru's vs Gowalkar's vision of India. All normal people irrespective of being a Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Tribal, religions will only be pawns in this ideological game.

p.s. I think Gandhiji and Swami Viekanand too would have sided with Nehru. But then I have not read much of their work and would love to see some light being shown on them.

Organisations and Leadership

Defining organisations and leadership is important and there are many ways in which it can be done. This is just one of that I think best defines the genes in terms of expectation. 

1 – Organisation of Opportunists

There is an organisation where the dominant behaviour is governed by only one objective, “My well being”. This is an organisation, where a number of individuals have come together to look after their personal benefit! 

When they keep saying different things and sometimes contrary to what they have been recommending but all their actions result in benefiting them, well that’s a classic opportunist. Everyone knows such people can’t be trusted.

With time and observation, it dawns on us that most opportunists are myopic in their vision and understanding of the world. These people cannot bring new thinking and it is above them to rise to situations where leadership and courage is required.

Most of all they cannot develop a thought, these opportunist are only good in terms of riding the momentum of public emotions. When the followers/associates become sentimental they will not come over to bring calm around them, rather they will use that moment and try to build strength. Time and again they will remain opportunist.

2 – Organisation of an Ideology

This organization believes in some fact or fiction or story or whatever. They have a belief, an ideology for which they work. Members here will put their personal needs and wants in second place to the ideology.  

Well, here you are dealing with an orgnisation where the basis to achieve a common goal. The goal is made or prepared considering their ideology, it is based on some principal -- right or wrong is always debatable but there is an underlying motto. .

Leaders with ideology can be people with exceptional ability.

If the organization is driven by the ideology such as --"Justice and Equality for all (and not limited to a certain set of people), if not of past, but for present & future" -- and its members are actually able to implement it then the people can consider themselves as blessed. 

When such organisations is working properly and is fair then you will see many leaders emerging. It can groom a good leader who can evolve to the caliber level of Mahatma Gandhi and Mandela. These days, such people are hard to find but more than that such organisations are difficult to find.

Otherwise it is extremely important to understand what is the core idea or the vision that one would end up supporting. Because it can be as distorted as the KKK, Black Panthers, Taliban, etc. (there are couple of Indian versions as well on all sides -- regional level, religion, caste, sub-caste, etc. ).

But allow me to put a little caveat. One must understand that with time and experience, since humans as a species also evolve, individuals will also change and organisations are made up of individuals.

Leadership : Bucketing individual leaders

Broadly there are four types of leaders. I have marked them as Type 1, 2, 3 and 4 for ease of reference:

Type 1: They want power and feel like a king. Power is their only ambition. At times such leaders can be so much of a control freak that they will go to length to discredit their opponents, especially those whom they consider as strong competitors. These are also mostly opportunists who transform into tyrannical. Type 1 does not have any grand plans. And they cannot think beyond 1-to-5 years (in democracy) or whatever period they fancy (dictator). And also they do not evolve in their message to the need of the people or the process of evolvement is too slow.

Type 2: Leaders that want position of power to profit only. From a leadership point these are opportunists. This may sound similar to Type 1, but there is a subtle difference, they don’t care of being a king or king maker or whatever, for them it’s not about positions its money/power or anything that they are aiming for constantly.

When opportunists become leaders they cannot bring radical changes nor will they rise up to a situation when people in general are sentimental. When the public in its emotional moments demand blood, these leaders will become brutal, but they will not dominate continuously by being brutal, that capacity these individuals do not have.

Since they understand their potential they will not aim for the highest office but the second highest or the council that supports the highest office. This is the lot which would shift between power broker and being in position of leadership like a governor, CM, MoS etc.

Type 3: Leaders, who want power in order to write history. It’s not money or power that is the driving factor here. It could be leaving a legacy, or creating history. Usually such people either create institutions or mold an institution to their vision. Off all the characteristic there is one that are crucial here if they are not only in power but they are also the face of power — Good debater/speaker – they will give speech to capture imagination.

If leadership is split between front face and party organizer, and the true leader is more of a party organizer and not in the leader chair himself/herself, then it would be completely ideological driven. There are also times that such leaders, when they get a taste of power, then ideology goes out of the window and they become Type 1 leader i.e. a tyrannical, power hungry leader.

Differentiating the two would be a challenge but I think the easiest way would be to see how they handle the day to day activity and keep an eye on their past actions. That should give you a glimpse of what type the leader is – Mahatma Gandhi/Mandela or Hitler/Chavez.

Type 4: People who are propelled to leadership position and their target is simple one, to stay in that position for as long as they can, even if they have no ability and/or appetite to deliver results for which the power was bestowed upon them. In either case such leadership is usually week

Abstracts - Antifragile, business, religion, introverts

We are living in such an information heavy world that it takes time and real effort to just chaff through many many bytes and words of garbage information to find something interesting. Off late, I have been thinking of sharing the most interesting pieces of articles on a daily/weekly basis where the topics can be as diverse as possible. Alas, haven't been able to do so until today.

Now I plan to share anything that I find interesting here and I would pollute it with my views while providing for the link so that you can enjoy the actual material.


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A Talk Show : This is an all audio show between Nassim N. Taleb and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman on Taleb's book "Anti-Fragile". It is very interesting and must be heard to understand the overall idea if Taleb. If you don't like reading through his book might at least listen to this.

He has some very interesting perspective as well!!!

"Education inhibits risk taking, this is what I don't like academia" -- Nassim Taleb

Listen carefully all the way to the last question because in the end you might just end up understanding anti-fragile better than Nassim Talem as Daniel Kahneman did when he answered for the last question.

Unpredictability is a great thing in life :)

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Memento Mori

This means "remember your mortality."

As legend has it, the phrase dates back to a conquering Roman general. As the general enjoyed Rome's equivalent of a ticker-tape parade, a slave was tasked with standing behind him, whispering "memento mori" into his ear.

The goal was to keep the general from getting too big a head... and possibly losing it in his next battle (because of lack of humility and lack of respect for risk). 


Something we are taught during school but somehow when we are grown up we tend to forget. No point in writing anything on my own, so just copy-pasted the part that I thought was most important.

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An great interview of Asghar Ali Engineer. 

There are few people I would agree with as much as I do with with Mr Engineer on Islam and freedom. Most people may not get the time to read his articles and go through his views. But at a broader level even watching this video is a good option.

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Introverted Kids Need to Learn to Speak Up at School

An interesting read on why parents should encourage their children to communicate. There are some clues on how but no step by step procedure.

If they seem useless to you, then next time onwards don't look at anything with the heading as "Abstracts"

Changing Education Sector

I have just typed some of my thought. My views are not very concrete, its changing based on new input that I come across with time. Anyways read ahead and share your opinion.

There has been a new dawn in the education sector or segment what ever may please you. Its called open online education system.

The reason for writing it down is to clear my own head about my understanding. For last few months I have been following the stories of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). The concept is simple while education is being given to people in schools/colleges for paid. Make everything available to those who would like to learn, have the capacity, patience and all other virtues etc etc but cannot afford it.

The classes are put up by some of the best faculties in the world for free. Anyone can learn from it. The downside is they will not be given any certification from the university or by the professor, this is because it will remain free.

What is more important to understand is that the world's education system might change. There are few things that may actually take place over the next few years, 5 or less is my guess.

During my father's time. being a graduate was a big deal. Over the last few years, I see that most people are doing and Masters and its becoming mandatory to hold some Master's degree. Fancy names are also good but better brands have an edge. A generation ago bachelors degree was good. Now a masters is considered as essential. And then PhD will become a norm..

In the next few years what will become more important is the practical or real life implementation of the course and how fast can you implement your learning. Innovation will be paid more focus that making things lean and being bothered about lean. Flux management and change management will see more role being played. Educational qualification will not be a problem then usability of learning, and understanding what Steve jobs meant by "Stay hungry, Stay foolish" will become the new mantra.

Or my entire understanding could be wrong. In which case. I think there would be more jobless people.

Anyways things either change too soon or too slow. It will be interesting to see what changes shall take place.

Democracy and Crony Capitalism

The story about the crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street is interesting. Of what I had read these demands were made first by Michael Moore.

The story seems a bit exaggerated, but then it can also be the truth. But there is an interesting point to study in terms of democracy. 'Does democracy exist or is it crony capitalism all the way?'

There would be about 3 steps to see it.  

Step one: Choose 10 countries which have functioning democracy for last 2-3 decades. (This will remove rogue states)

Step two: Establish which of the countries have placed maximum information online regarding level of transparency.

Make a grid column and check how each country fares

(1) On bio and financial info of its elected leaders available to the public

(2) Access to voting patterns of each representative at the democratic forum (Senate, Parliament etc.)

(3) Publicly if it’s possible to establish if the close relatives such as spouse, child, father, mother are related to which companies/conglomerates. Listed companies in India/US have to declare who all are on the board of the company and also about individuals/companies that hold more than 1 per cent of the company. 

Step three: The five countries with highest score on democratic transparency can be studied.

(1) Mark what questions were raised by a peoples representative?
(2) Was the question positive or negative for the company/sector/ business
(3) Establishing if the individual has financial interest to the company/sector/business
(4) Also, how a representative vote on laws affecting sectors of an economy against the individual's financial interest in that sector or on a specific company.

P.S.

1. A friend of mine had done a story in 2008 for Economic Times where he sifted through the question hours of Lok Sabha and came out as which national/regional party had questioned for which company/conglomerate. I don't remember if the questions were marked as positive and negative to check the biasness or not.

2. It seems like a lot of work and there will still be scope for error. (Perhaps using the capabilities of the software written in this article -- Palantir -- should make the work relatively possible.)

3. If you have ideas to improve the way in which one should do the story then feel free to share the ideas or if you come across a similar story do share that as well or if you plan to take up the study then feel free to ask for any assistance 




Continued to 

Desertion

Some time back, I was asked a question. "Why is it that when Muslims are beaten up in Israel or in some other country, then there is such hue and cry but the same is not reflected when China does it in Xinjiang’s?"

Well, to be frank, I don't have any straight answer. Although I tried reading and getting some answer somewhere. But there was no success. Based on personal observation there could be multiple factors or a certain combination of these factors.

First of all its not just Xinjiang, most of the countries where there is no freedom of press the report on carnage against the local population does not get limelight. How many countries with no freedom of press has done any reporting?

Then there is "presence factor" or "kinship factor". Allow me to explain with an example. The gulf countries have a sizeable population belonging to India. So even if something is not reported in the media for a few days the information will be transmitted through word of mouth. This may not generate public opinion at a very fast pace.

Similarly, while it is true that most countries claiming to represent the "Muslim Country" did nothing concrete, they did not even lodge a diplomatic protest or condemn it on the international front with the exception of "Turkey". The reason being, Xianjiang has a population which are partially turkic in regions and hence the public opinion of Turkey forced the government to react.

Also one needs to understand on how media covers. When BBC covered the wars in Bosnia or in Chechnya or when it covers Israel/Palestine, its their coverage that makes all the impact. Now in all of these places the reports said the fight is between XYZ and Muslims. If China's or any countries problem is not covered with the same intensity, the impact will not be the same, it mellows down. Add to it ignorance. How will there be any reaction.

There are geo-political mixed with a spice of economic reasons as well. For example, Iran and Pakistan cannot make any statements against China, since it is the Dragon state that protects the two in Security Council.

p.s. It would be a great pleasure if someone can point out other reasons that may have been overlooked

One reason which has not been pointed out or touched above is that of the drawback of the human nature i.e. pride, selfishness, envy, ignorance........

The Mob Psychology

Man is an animal, albeit a social one. We all follow only the “mob psychology.” Best part, most of the time we don’t know that we are following the mob.

Probably we do it to avoid the constant clash of identity, not in all cases but definitely most.

When at home, each of us is an individual, then venturing outside the house, but within the block we identify ourselves with the family or the house. Doesn’t mean that we don’t pay heed the normal identity but to back our self as to ‘who I am?’, we tend to add a secondary identity.

Then once we are in the other part of the town, we tend to identify from out block/colony etc.

The moment one steps out of the city the identity gets bigger too, because while introducing we tend to give the name of the city.

Well just go outside your state or another part of the country and your identity gets promoted. Didn’t get it, the ‘bhaiya’ problem in Mumbai, does that sound familiar?

Take it a step further comes the country, People of Indian Origin (PIO), Ajit Jain may become the next leader of Berkshire, and we (Indians) have been talking about it. Before that we have celebrated every NRI’s achievement from Amartya Sen to Vikram Pandit

.......

Well above was more of an example based on geographical location and the general association we make. There are many others also, from race, religion, language etc.

We (One of my friend and me) define this phenomenon as – “we all are sort of thugs, hence we will always show our strength, be it by numbers of head count, technology, money or by any other means. With that we will also try to get a position that according to that individual is more ‘beneficial.’ And hence, most of ‘us’ (the common people) tend to come together and act as a mob. Not that ‘we’ gain anything out of it; the gainers are the one’s who manipulate and create these mobs (to be more precise, the leaders fuelling the mob psychology).”

Just to give a better instance, Bush’s rhetoric of –“us” and “them” – since 9/11 was an example of building the mob psyche. This worked well enough to get him in the White House the second time. It’s easiest to build on anger and fear. Closer at home we can see, 2002 Gujrat affair (minority bashing; “us & them”), the continuous chaos for years in J&K (again us & them) etc. Though there are times when the manipulators are not able to create any euphoria like the slogan India Shining was a disaster.

And with the coming of election and deteriorating economic conditions, it will not be surprising that the mob psychology will see more light than it should.

The logic of "Cycle"

Well to put in simple terms economic cycles can have two simple comparisons. And its applies to not just economic cycle but to business cycle as well.

The first cycle can be called is the non-market way, or a life’s way. To make it more comparable consider the life cycle of plant, animal or top of the food pyramid humans too. We live a certain number of years and then we die, this is the ultimate statistics. To put it to brutal terms there is no cycle in it; it’s a one way path which ends with death. Ok you need a bigger example then consider communist Russia, or you can look up any monarchs. They all survive for some years or few hundred years max and then get settled in the dust.

Then there is a second type of cycle - the market cycle – which is the natural cycle. Very much like the nature or a complete cycle; the reason mentioning it this way is because it is repetitive in nature, the patterns will be repeated though the time frame may not necessarily be exact. There will be summer, autumn/ monsoon, winter and spring. A country and its economy will have to see it, doesn’t matter if they want to or not.

So the current financial meltdown should not be surprising, since we all are part of this market cycle. The new millennium witnessed financial engineering on an unprecedented level. Complicated financial models were developed to make people reach in short span of time. Then should it be surprising that we have been hit by the draught of credit and flood of pink slips?

This is similar to the excess done by us humans; too much of deforestation or building big dams without considering the biosphere then there will be calamity like massive flood, draught and according to most recent problems that we (humans) have created global warming.

Escaping it is impossible; unless you can figure out a way to escape death, don’t count on getting out of this mess so fast. We all read in school or if not in school then by way of experience we should learn – “You reap what you sow”

Unfortunately public memory is very short. when the time is good rather than taking some of the tough decisions we get greedy; then we tend to forget the lessons learnt a bit too fast.