Is future so scary?

Many old fashioned thinkers as well as environmentalists always scare you with predictions of future by sheer extrapolation of small time happenings. This could be because they really feel that way or they think these type of predictions would caution people to desist from their destructive attitude and activities. Extrapolation seldom works perfectly even in science. From time immemorial, these people have been saying the same, but data appears to contradict the doomsday approach. Life has neither been shortened over time, nor has become miserable, compared to the past.
In fact, according to a 2011 estimate, the global birth rate is 15000 per hour but the death rate is just 6316 per hour indicating a doubling of the population much faster than we have thought. In 1960s it took 33 years for an addition of one billion to our population where as by the end of the last century(1999) it reduced to twelve years and now it's much faster. Remember that this increase in population is happening inspite of voluntary and forced birth control as well as increasing infertility. Among several reasons, considerable reduction in foetal mortality and the significant decline in general death rate, are two important reasons, thanks to advances in medical sciences. Even in such a short period as five years from 2009 to 2014, the death rate has reduced from 8.37 to 7.89 per thousand. This is inspite of the dreaded increase in pollution levels and all negative and fearful attributes to the modern world such as new devastating diseases like HIV. More than fifty years ago, tuberculosis, and epidemics of plague, cholera, small pox, malaria etc were believed to be ringing the death knell for humanity. Recently, HIV and Cancer were predicted to wipe out considerable populations in at least a few countries. But we are on the verge of breakthroughs in treating them and have already succeeded to the extent of lengthening lives. Global warming and melting polar caps are now projected as beginnings of doom for life on earth. In many populous tropical countries, famine like conditions due to shortage of food brought about by monsoon failures and rapid use of arable lands for housing as well as aridity and desertification due to rapid dwindling of fresh water are predicted to take them close to the end. In reality, the standard of living has been considerably and consistently on the increase in such countries. Improved agriculture produces several times increase in food. As more and more problems arise due to anthropogenic activities, newer and newer solutions are discovered. Whenever you think a dead end has been reached, a door always opens up. Some decades ago, a scare was created suggesting a global energy crisis as nonrenewable energy sources were understood to be rapidly depleting. People could not believe that renewable sources would be developed to replace them. Even now some people are skeptic and unconvinced of the non conventional energy sources. I am reminded of the " Theory of compensation" which me and my friend (who is no more), proposed after years of extensive and intensive discussions. We are convinced that everything positive is always accompanied by a negative and everything negative has always a positive accompaniment often not readily visible. It is the incapacity of our brains that does not allow us to visualize the two together. The optimists always try to see the positives and the pessimists the negatives.
If you are unbiased, you will find both positives and negatives in things happening around us. Painting a scary picture of the future or predicting the approach of Doomsday, are really overdoing caution and uncalled for.For some, future has always been, is and would be scary. From the days of civilization, elders have been painting a gloomy picture of the future and praising the past. Young people have been optimistically going ahead and succeeding. This is going to happen all along.

Is honesty genetic?

Importance of bringing up children has always been emphasized in developing good and capable citizens in any country. But the concept of child rearing has not been understood properly by most parents especially in populous, developing countries. Bringing up children the right way, has assumed importance and a high priority these days, as life is becoming increasingly difficult with increasing competition and there is a need for exceptional skills to achieve things and even to survive. Conditions have changed so much and the children have much higher IQs and excellent exposure, old methods of strict and authoritarian regimentation will not only not work but could also become counterproductive. I am addressing this problem especially for people in the third world countries. It has been established that right from foetus stage, learning process starts. In the name of tradition and culture, several unnecessary restrictions and superstitions are imposed and children are not respected and often ill treated or abused . Many in the name of discipline refuse to discuss and explain to children, why they make children do something the way the children don't want or like. Some assume that children cannot understand. It is essential to basically believe that children can understand almost every thing and try to tell them. If they fail to understand,it only means that you don't want them to understand. Good creative thinking can be promoted in children only by treating them equal and discussing with them. They must also be encouraged to discuss their issues with us. We are often tempted to think that good bringing up is just giving the best clothes; best play materials; good school and all expensive facilities. A good upbringing need not have to be expensive at all. How much you care for your children especially mentally, while deciding on things in which they are involved or relevant to them. Same way, in giving them freedom to do what they want except guiding them on what is right and wrong and educating them on the consequences of their actions. At least in India, I can authentically say that parents and elders force children to do only what they want, right from what they buy, dress, eat, and study. In some cases they also decide the persons with whom their child can move or become friendly. It's all due to unwanted fear of their child getting cheated. Whether controlled or given freedom, the child getting cheated is essentially based on its upbringing and circumstances. Many think that obedience is doing everything the way they want by asking them. Obedience is not asking your permission and doing things. Obedience is following right ways and doing right things so that no disrepute is brought either to you or to themselves. The worst aspect of upbringing is the fear of punishment and unwillingness to accept mistakes. I often use to wonder as to what causes children to tell lies and refuse to accept mistakes. The answer I could arrive at was upbringing and environment. The children watch with intent,their parents, other elders and peers especially for their honesty. Sometimes parents force children to tell lies on their behalf, to save them from embarrassment or punishment. This trains them. Further, if a child is honest and accepts its mistake, it is punished often heavily. It is the fear of punishment plus the observation of others' when they commit mistakes that prompts it to tell a lie to escape. When it successfully escaped punishment with a lie, there is a reinforcement on the benefit of dishonesty and continues with it sometimes quite unnecessarily. I am convinced that if honesty is appreciated and either no punishment or minimum punishment such as a warning depending on the mistake, is given children would be encouraged to be honest.Parents need to be extra careful and should not be dishonest when children are watching let alone using them for it. I do agree that it is not easy in a society so far away from honesty in personal, professional and political life to suddenly switch over. It's a pity that although no child is born without honesty by the time it grows the first thing learnt is to tell lies and be dishonest. Criminality could be genetic but not honesty. It's just the training and upbringing.

Would it just be a day dream?

At least to me the reasons attributed to Brexit and the subsequent success of the idea in a referendum are neither convincing nor acceptable. It is a negative decision indicating the impact of the negative and parochial attitude of a group of cynical politicians drawing majority support. In referendums of this type unanimity and not majority should be the deciding factor.The establishment of EU was such a great achievement for humanity just on the heels of merger of East and West Germany inducing people to anticipate a similar happening in Korea which is presently not feasible. I am sure well meaning people around the civilized world would feel sad over any disaggregation or disintegration, be it EU or Srilanka or any part of the world. Separation is several times easier than unification because it is more instinctive, primitive and retrograde. It is like entropy. Evolution and civilization should teach us, more understanding, tolerance and consideration not only for fellow human beings but even for fellow living beings and differentiate us maximum from the early Neanderthal humans.
A country like Britain with all its hegemony of the past should not become parochial and try to split away for selfish reasons. If you resort to referendum mode, no country can function. Fellows in government in Democratic countries should act as knowledgeable representatives of the people and take positive decisions.They should not go to people with a referendum for every decision. Maybe they take this as a plank in fighting the next election. Election should act as a referendum where more than one individual from a party with a choice of plans/ ideas contest and whoever wins finally implement the changes. Divisive and negative forces are more powerful and influential with the masses. Forces of unity; understanding; appreciation and concern have to fight a long battle but need to succeed. When people don't want territories of a country like Ireland/ Scotland to separate from U.K.why they want UK to separate from EU. The noble and far-reaching concept of one world, one people and one government seems just a day dream and next to impossible with even a vestige of the existing generation. Compassion should be the only religion to unite us all.

FROM SURREALITY TO REALITY

    Most of you won't agree to what I feel. Still I would like to bring out my feelings. As times change, fashions change; attitudes change; vocations and avocations change. But certain hackneyed beliefs and unwanted emotions once useful do not change but continue to haunt us. It's time we initiate a change in common thinking.
Countries and border limitations should at present be only for administrative and management purposes. In course of time, restricted movement of people and materials should vanish. No one should have a right to stop someone from entering or leaving a place in any part of the world. Freedom should be real. Most restrictions and limitations are essentially the result of negative thinking that is very difficult to eliminate with most people. This does not amount to a claim to do away totally all rules, regulations and laws. People often do not remember that any regulation or law is in place only to facilitate humanity and not to trouble. Many forget that rules are for us and we are not for rules.  In many places in the world, when any new rule or regulation is thought of, people worry more about misuse than use and put in clauses and restrictions to effectively prevent misuse. Although, in terms of numbers the mis or abusers will be small, negative attitude makes us think only of them than those who would use and be benefited. Negativity is essentially the result of the atmosphere and outlook with which we are brought up from childhood for generations. It's not easy to change to a total positive outlook easily or suddenly.
Though much is talked about globalization, it remains much within the realm of economics and business. No one is serious about globalization in the real sense. Some one being an Indian or American or Australian is merely an accident mostly by birth. Although, legally even by domicile you can, but will still be referred to by birth/ origin. What does it matter whether I am an Indian or American or Indian American or American Indian? What does it matter if my skin color is black or brown or pale? All feel hungry and eat; all feel tired and sleep; all think, feel and react.I am always upset about people talking nationalism and culture. Which nation is bad? Which culture is worthless? Why should I feel proud of my culture being antique? What advantage do I get? Parochialism is the easiest way to fool people especially an important tool in the hands of politicians to meet their needs. I'm at a loss to find even literate people falling an easy prey to such frivolous claims on national spirit; antique culture; richness of language etc., I can not appreciate taking credit or feeling proud of something that doesn't involve any input from me. Apart from living here what is my input for the nation or culture ? Why should I consider my country,my religion, my culture and my language to be superior to others when everyone in this world equally has a right to do so ? I look forward to a future where everyone considers everyone else in the world as equal in every sense and do not discriminate on the basis of region; religion; language or skin color. Let us mutually respect others in entirety. Pride talk about culture, language and land could have been useful those days to unite groups of people and to take them forward evolutionarily . We have now reached a stage of probing possibilities with people willing to immigrate to other planets. To continue with outdated concepts of self pride based on anything and that too with things for which you are least responsible such as culture, language etc is retrograde. Only those who suffer from inferiority complex need to take refuge by claiming superiority in something or the other. Let us move from surreality to reality.

Resistance to change

In India and probably many other poorer countries, often there is a resistance to change and unwillingness to take risks. It could be due to a certain uncertainty and fear for new things. This is called neophobia. For instance when gas stove and cooking gas were introduced, people were scared of accepting it for quite sometime. This is true of everything new in the market. Even tubeless tyres took quite a long time to be accepted. I can go on with innumerable examples. But the point is, people in general are unwilling to experiment with new things until the usefulness is proved, for fear of wasting money. It's not mere poverty but often due to the concept of prudence and frugality inculcated from childhood. Some could even have neophobia.
When people resist change even in things they use, how can we expect them to accept major changes in policy governance etc. This is probably the reason for some politicians who offered"change" as the main plank in their campaigns during the bygone election in Tamil Nadu to have failed miserably. Faith, reassurance, confidence and proven virtues in the electorate's favor decide electoral victory. Elitist opinion is pessimistic, as according to them the claimants lack all the above virtues and choosing one or the other would be a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea or jumping from frying pan into the fire. The entire system of governance needs radical changes and the process of elections too has to change. Since political parties and the elected positions have become regular professions by themselves instead of being an avocation for people, why not make every one desirous of entering politics and contesting election to undergo special training program designed for the specific needs of politics? It's not enough to set up ombudsman bodies like"Lok Ayukta" . In the past in India, several commissions to enquire into alleged corruption and nepotism were appointed but nothing tangible resulted. Even when a court of law convicts some one, either the person escapes through managed appeal judgement or undergoes a notional punishment after which he/she  enjoys the ill-gotten wealth. Why can't the ill-gotten wealth be confiscated? There are some very influential and powerful people who have practiced scientific corruption and earned wealth that can take care of several generations of their families. Yet they are regarded next to God by the vulnerable sections of society who are happy with the few pieces of bones thrown to them,not from their pockets but out of taxpayers money when they ruled. How to change the politics, politicians and political system of this country which is chronically sick due to indiscipline; dishonesty and extreme selfishness. A miracle has to occur or we have to wait for the future generations to rise in revolt against the misdeeds of the earlier generations. Till then we have Hobson's choice during elections and change for the better would have to remain a dream.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Politicians particularly in India survive only due to the extremely short lived memory of people. Proliferation of political parties in this country is rivalled only by bacteria. Most if not all the parties are personality based and not on any policy or principle. In India, the number of political parties is more than the number of castes and communities, because each community or caste or religion is represented by as many people with some influence in their group. Each emerged as a leader in the locality and initially attaches to a political party especially the one in power, to start wielding influence over the local government officials, police etc. Based on popularity, the political party gives them position and makes them contest elections. The moment one feels that he/ she has a following, demands are made to the parent party. If the parent party is unable to oblige, a new party with a name and flag similar to the parent organization is formed and starts functioning as a letter head unit most of the time while trying to make feeble noises when possible. All this is to demand a price for the ensuing election.   If only one could recall what all a leader said or wrote over a period of time and what he/she does today, nothing could be more shocking. Politicians seem to have developed a philosophy of their own, in which nothing is wrong as long as it serves their purpose. Alignment during election has no basis other than winning some seats. Promises made through manifesto and also during campaign need to be forgotten once election results are announced. During campaign, they appear to be bundles of virtues while their opponents are evil personified.
It is time that democracy is meaningfully functional and not ludicrously functional. In India, we tend to abuse freedom and make a mockery of democracy by allowing literally hundreds of parties without any policy or principle different from others and making criminals contest elections and become so called leaders. They use all foul means including bribing voters. The political parties vie with each other in announcing freebies if they come to power, out of exchequer and not from their pockets. They print their pictures and give their names for what rolls out of the taxpayers coffers. They do not want to empower the people by giving them jobs and earning for their needs. They want to retain them as beggars so that they will always be dependent and be their slaves. Since all laws of the land have to be made by such people we have no redemption. The only ray of hope is the activism of the election commission and judiciary who even if it is out of their way, take laws into their hands in the interest of the country and its gullible public to set things right to the extent feasible. I really don't know whether there is light at the end of the tunnel or the smart political class will effectively prevent activism of the autonomous election commission and the judiciary.
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Familiarity breeds contempt

Anything common, anything frequent and anything abundant looses its interest, it's attraction and it's value. If something has to retain its interest, value and glamour it has to be somewhat rare and infrequent. Take typically the case of aluminum and gold. Why gold is so valuable than aluminum? Simply the question of abundance. Aluminum is twice as abundant as iron. But you may not be aware that it was more precious than gold and silver in the 19th century because it was so hard to obtain then. It is said tat Napoleon III reserved a prized set of aluminum cutlery for very special guests at banquets while less favored guests used gold knives and forks. In 1884, USA just to show off its industrial prowess, capped the Washington monument with a six pound pyramid of Aluminium. But things changed as its availability increased.
Emperors, Kings and for that matter popular actors and important people should appear in public less frequently, to retain their importance and value. If they are seen all the time everywhere, people loose interest to even look at them. This is applicable to many things. If everyone walks naked, there would be no interest in life. It's true for blogs and other posts as well. That's why, I decided to write less frequently. In fact, a friend of mine used to forward jokes, interesting information, pictures and videos which I used to immediately see, respond and even forward to others, but as it started coming more frequently and every day, I slowly stopped opening and lost interest. This is what is understood by saying " familiarity breeds contempt ". Now a days, you need to be always and in everything short and sweet. If you write voluminously in the name of blogs, no one would like to read. So let me stop here.