I Want to Start a War

 Anything Mickey or Donald can do, I can do better. Just superior IQ.

The benefits are immense, as long as I am not fighting personally.

Publicity- the media is dying for a war to start, so their dull lives interviewing local politicians can brighten up.

The ammunitions producers are happy that their Christmas Sale has started.

The army, navy and air force guys are happy they have something to do.

The public instantly forgets all the economic and social problems.

Epstein Files, anyone?

Solving World Problems

 Politicians, or governing bosses by whatever name, have been claiming that they will solve problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, inequity across the world. Not only have these remained unsolved, there are new problems now, like schools becoming shooting ranges, ethnic conflicts, empire-mongering (for want of a better word), and in general, unethical behaviour among many sections of people- not just politicos.

So nature shows its middle finger, once in a while, with climate change, earthquakes, and tornadoes or hurricanes. Major man-made disasters like COVID- no matter WHO is to blame (pun unintended) add to the misery of the hardest hit.

Corporates were thought to be the panacea, because many of them create wealth. But no longer are we sure that this wealth is shared with society, the way it was envisaged. So we compel them to through a gamut of laws including CSR and Sustainability standards etc.

The short point of this piece, is that we have a long way to go in solving problems. And tech is not the answer, all by itself. Human evolution might be. But looking at history, your guess is as good as mine, on when that is likely to happen.

Fallacies

One of the major fallacies that is going around is that education is going to solve all problems. That needs a lot of qualifying, for it to be true.

Education cannot be just a degree, or a string of degrees.

Good human values like concern for people, environment come before education of the degree-adding variety. Or, should be a part of it. Common sense is as valuable as education.

Education of the wrong kind can actually breed a lot of problematic kids/adults.

Good governance has a lot to do with happiness. A reasonable job opportunity according to skills acquired solves most discontent. The lack thereof 's the reason for most migrations, including the current ones. Education should not end up producing an army of overqualified (mostly on paper) people who have aspirations not matched by skills.

Superman is not going to save the earth.

Solving World Problems Part 2

I think I had solved the world's problems before, but I have found a second solution for the biggest one (at this rate, I am afraid there won't be any challenges left, soon). This is the ultimate solution for the biggest global problem- unemployment. No, it is not sitting under a tree meditating, in case you thought that was the solution.

It is this. Every person above age 18 must litigate at all times- meaning, file at least one court case at any point of time. This will create more courts, more clerks in courts, and eventually, jobs for all. We will all be kept busy, and no one will complain of boredom. The cases will go on and on. The malls may shut down, because the litigation will eat away into incomes, and people will not have money to buy anything, nor time to go shopping. Americans already use this idea, but only on a small scale. I am proposing this on a "war footing" across the world.

Media will function well, and another 200 channels can give us live coverage of all ongoing trials. These being more interesting than cricket matches, they will keep the channels busy 24 by 7. Reality shows can be shut down, as nobody will watch them any more. What can be more interesting than watching your own trial's live coverage?

There is only one additional subsidy it would need, to fight cases, and it can be named Rahul Gandhi Bekaaron ko kaam dilanewali Yojana. After all, he deserves to have something in his name.

Solving Grave Problems in a Jiffy

I was thinking. About grave problems that the media tell us we are facing these days. And then, I thought about them for about 30 minutes. And bingo, came up with solutions for all of them. Here they are-

How to Stop Chinese Incursions

-Threaten to exchange our currency for theirs. We get a strong currency, and get rid of the Chinese, at one stroke.

Problem of Import of Oil Leading to Current Account Deficit (CAD)-whatever that is.

-Make Nano the only passenger car that can be sold in India. This solves all the above, in addition to solving the parking issue, and congestion on our roads.

-Another one for the CAD. Ban gold possession by individuals, citing ancient and modern philosophers. We are the land of Buddha, who taught renunciation. The women ,may not vote for you, but that is a calculated risk, because the men might!

If you ban gold, it will automatically boost the bank deposits and stock market investments by Indians, and we don't need FIIs (whatever they are) to do that. Masterstroke, or what!

Paan Singh Tomar

Actually, the title sounded weird, and I put off watching this movie partly due to its title. But in the light of many positive reccos, bought a VCD (poor man's DVD). And was really impressed. The lingo is a bit strange (some rural dialect of Hindi) and takes a bit of getting used to. But a powerhouse performance by Irrfan Khan, that would thrill his fans, and a taut screenplay makes it well worth a watch. And there is a message in it too. That we usually treat sportsmen badly- particularly our athletes.

There have been many good anti-establishment films made by the likes of Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal and so on. Ardh Satya, Aakrosh etc. tackled themes from farmer's problems to corruption and ganglords, and this is another in the category. A bit unusual, like the name of its director, Tigmanshu Dhulia.

Rural India probably has a lot of problems unlike the ones we have (traffic, noise, angst), and this movie makes you aware of some. Sibling rivalry over land is one that is tackled here, without any convincing solution. Like the angry young man who seeks to solve everything by throwing his fists around, the solutions are simplistic. And they may not actually work. Israel-Palestine and Indo-Pak wars are a good example that violence may breed violence endlessly.

Problems and Solutions

We often act as if every problem has an instant solution. Example- India loses a cricket match. Replace the captain, selectors, or a couple of players. Reality is that whoever is playing, has to play well. Also, if a game has winners and losers, someone has to lose, even if both teams have played well.

People are an important part of many solutions, but not the only ones. There may be infrastructure issues, for instance. Indians were always good, relatively, at Maths or Science. But we did not (until recently) have the facilities for them to be able to use these skills, due to flawed economic policies. So while they designed solutions for networking of banks in USA sitting here or on site, we could only bank with third world systems in our banks. Computer imports took years and lot of red tape.

So, we need the environment for people to use their skills, and some organisations (or countries) have these. China came from nowhere to build sports superstars in just a few years, because they focussed on doing so, and removed the bottlenecks that might have existed.

It may be time for us now to get FDI in retail for example, to increase the efficiency of our supply chains and people. Healthy competition may help us improve everything, and consumers may benefit. Maybe, we could try it in higher education too. Let the foreign universities in.

Every problem may have a solution, but it may take hard work to actually implement it, even after you have found one. Sometimes, there are many solutions to a problem.