Anil Kariwala

NDTV surprised me with their Greenathon. An unprecendented concept, most definitely conceived by Nobel Laureate Dr. R.K.Pachauri. A 24-hour live telecast for environment awareness, and exceptionally fine-tuned in such an entertaining way with the who’s who of Bollywoood thrown, that it had the country glued to their TV sets. I did my personal campaign by sending SMSs urging friends to watch the program; and most of them were already watching.

 

Hope this big bang would create some much-needed environment consciousness.  

 

So innocuously, from December 12, 2008, Switzerland would accept people with Schengen Visas. Behind the scenes was Indian pressure, the largest depositors in Swiss banks, $1436 billion!! The Swiss are not contended with the loot from India and other highly corrupt countries, where the poor can’t eat two square meals while bureaucrats, generals, and politicians fill in the Swiss coffers. Its these people who were getting greatly inconvenienced to put on formal records their visit to Switzerland. Out of the 90,000 Indians who visit Switzerland every year, more than 1/3^rd visit every year. All the Indian government could have done easily is to find the purpose for which these 30000 people were going every year, keeping in my that India’s bilateral trade with the landlocked Switzerland is negligible.

 

No chance anymore to do anything. The looters do not need a Swiss visa anymore. They would simply enter via land routes into the “most honest” country, and there would be no records. Bravo!

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
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Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
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How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
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Why is it that people say they ‘slept like a baby’ when babies wake up like every two hours?
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If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
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Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?
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Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
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Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?
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If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
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If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
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Why do they call it an asteroid when it’s outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it’s in your butt?
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Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
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And finally, if you have sex with a prostitute against her will, is it considered rape or shoplifting?

 

The speed at which the financial and economic crisis has happened is mind-boggling. That the origins of the crisis is pure greed is no longer a secret. However, the bigger and the more devastating fall out if greed would be a climate crisis. Unfortunately, the speed of that would be even more mind-boggling. Don’t want to sound like a doomsayer (and would want to be proved wrong) but hopefully some governments would put their act together.

 

We are already talking about climate refugees. Maldives has become the first country in the world to use the term. The highest point of Maldives is 2.5 mtrs high, while the average is just 1 metre. A small rise in the sea level and wipe out the beautiful island of Maldives.

I was having dinner with folks the other day in a really nice restaurant. Next to us was a big group of people sitting and merrily enjoying themselves. I assumed that they would pay heavily, but did not know that they would literally do so. At the end of the dinner the host took out few bundles of notes, counted them on the table and paid off. More than the money, I was amazed at his money counting speed, which would put a cash counting machine to shame.

Good formula! No plastic, no accounts. No accounts, no income tax. No income tax, no government. No government, no hassles. One to oneself. And it shall be great fun.

I, ever the perennial plastic guy would keep being jealous. Can’t even give up plastic money, even though its environment unfriendly, and politician unfriendly. So no chance to see money only in demat form in my life time.

Sometimes I wonder what is really required to implement change. We bloggers and netizens can’t do much ourselves, except giving our opinions on everything under the sun. So here is another one.

 

Can somebody force environment ministers and environment department bureaucrats to travel without air-conditioned cars? They could also be asked to take a dip in the Holy Ganges, every once in a while. I am almost sure that there would actually be no need for any conferences to save the environment and poor Greenpeace (my fellow members) shall be really at peace.

 

I continue to have a premonition that the climate crisis might surprise everybody with its suddenness, which would put the suddenness of the economic crisis of 2008 to shame. Pray that I am proved totally wrong.

Switzerland, the most beautiful, the most peaceful and the most honest country in the world. Really?

 

I am amazed how so few people seem to recognize that whatever Switzerland might be, it is the real cause for poverty and misery in the developing world. Reason: bulk of the money for development is sucked away by politicians and corrupt government servants and businessmen and stashed away in numbered Swiss bank accounts. The money which they won’t be using in their lifetime, and the money for which they can’t declare a legal heir.  

 

Despite the top end Human and natural resources, the real India continues to live in poverty and misery. No prizes for guessing that Indian is the single largest depositor in Swiss Banks. USD 1456 billion!!! Yes, the word is billion, with a B; not a mere million. Million is a number meant for the poor people from US, Sweden and Japan who do not surface anywhere in the pecking order. Swiss bankers won’t even offer a cup of coffee to the impoverished Scandinavians, but would easily do a strip tease for an Indian, Nigerian, Somalian, Bangladeshi and definitely a Pakistani.  

 

The ill-gotten money invariably comes from funds allocated for Health, infrastructure, education or even from coffins of dead soldiers. Yes, coffins!! Indian Army bought coffins for its dead soldiers for $10,000 a piece!!!

 

Not much is really needed to be done for the so-called fights against Terror and Poverty. Switzerland, if it is truly an honest, peaceful and beautiful country should declare that it can’t keep numbered accounts anymore. Anybody who wants to keep or withdraw should do so with his identity; and there would be no need for a war on terror or a fight against poverty.

 

Hope Transparency International is listening. It needs to work more in Switzerland and less in Africa and none in India!

 

Just like “Construct Data Verlag” from Austria, another Scam has been started by “Commercial Online Manuals S de RL de CV”, now from Mexico. These people are as much mis-representers as much Construct Data was, if at all they are different from the original crooks.

 

Their modus operandi is simple. They send you innocuous looking letters on letter heads with bold titles, “Expo guide” or “Fair guide” but their own names mentioned in fine print at the bottom. The name of the fair where you might have recently participated is boldly mentioned and you are asked to update your company details. To prompt you to reply, they deliberately print some of your information incorrectly, like the telephone number or the website address. The impression one gets is that the letter is from the Fair organizers. More often than not most people without reading the fine print would update the information and send the correction in the prepaid envelope.

 

Once you have sent the correction with your signature, the nightmare starts. These people would start sending you invoices, payment reminders and keep calling and pressurizing to pay for what they have claim to be binding contract.

 

These are scamsters. Simply ignore them!! Even if you have fallen into their trap unwittingly, simply refuse to communicate with them or be bothered. There is nothing they can legally do, as they don’t have any legal standing. A contract, where one of the parties misrepresents is never binding.  

 

Nevertheless, if you do receive their Business Reply Envelope, do send some garbage into it, so that they end up paying charges for international post and soon become bankrupt.

 

Our addiction to rubber stamps as country continues to increase. Probably no other country lays as much emphasis (and wrongly placed) on rubber stamps as India does. Until recently, it was possible to print-out a boarding pass at home and proceed to security check at the airport. I discovered last week that the airport security wants you to have the home printed boarding pass rubber stamped by the airline. So I had to go back to the lady at Jet Airways who simply stamped it without giving me as much as a glance.

With the all the mayhem happening the world over and the media showing pictures of gore repeatedly, it’s time to look at some nice and refreshing pictures. My friend Ashok Bengani sent me this link and he is sure that these have been untouched by Photoshop.

 

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5036148-5007115-1,00.html

 

Feel free to enjoy the pictures with family.

Cheers!