Not switching to Netscape 8.0

Netscape has released version 8.0 of their Firefox based browser. The UI looks slick and it has nice features like warning while visiting spyware sites and passcard to manage all your passwords. Since it is based on Firefox 1.0.3, you get tabbed browsing and fast rendering with the Gecko engine.
But while taking it on a spin today, there were two things that put me off

When I click on the feeds in bloglines, it does not open anything in the tab
When I open many tabs, the tab which is in focus expands, this reducing the space for other tabs and thus reducing the space for their titles. Now to see the names of the other tabs, you have to click on an icon on the right, which is one additional click.

So I am sticking to Firefox, which does not have these two issues

Free subscriptions may not last

The San Jose Mercury News is the main newspaper of Silicon Valley and according to a news today, its subscription has been falling. Circulation has been falling for other newspapers as well. The reasons cited are competition from Internet and Cable TV. But what is not mentioned is that most of these newspapers are pathetic in quality. You can flip through an issue of Mercury News and find that there is nothing important to read, especially for people who are interested in knowing events happening outside Santa Clara County. The pages are filled with advertisements with some news thrown in as fillers. One of the major reasons why most people buy the newspaper is due to the discount Pizza and grocery coupons they insert in the weekend editions.
You may not get indepth coverage of world issues in Mercury News, but they do have some columns which appeal to people living here. My favourites are Mr. Roadshow and Action Line. The Mercury News staff also has two excellent blogs, Silicon Beat and Good Morning Silicon Valley for people whose lives revolve around technology.
One day they will realize that they are not making money off the print edition and need to charge people for the online edition, like how the New York Times realized

Selective Outrage

It is hard not to notice two contrasting stories that have run side by side during the past week. One is the story about the violent protests in the Muslim world triggered by a report in Newsweek (which the magazine has now retracted) that U.S. interrogators at Guantánamo Bay desecrated a Koran by throwing it into a toilet. In Afghanistan alone, at least 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in anti-American rioting that has been linked to that report. I certainly hope that Newsweek story is incorrect, because it would be outrageous if U.S. interrogators behaved that way.
That said, though, in the same newspapers one can read the latest reports from Iraq, where Baathist and jihadist suicide bombers have killed 400 Iraqi Muslims in the past month – most of them Shiite and Kurdish civilians shopping in markets, walking in funerals, going to mosques or volunteering to join the police.
Yet these mass murders – this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims – have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia. [Outrage and Silence]

True, also when Hindu Gods are desecrated in Saudi Arabia, it is just a law and order problem. But selective outrage is a global problem.

Finally, they can vote

After going through ups and downs, finally the women of Kuwait get the right to vote.

But in spite of the law’s shortcomings, the decision goes a long way toward solidifying the gains that Kuwaiti women have already made. The law essentially enshrines in the Constitution what is already a de facto characteristic of Kuwaiti society: Despite having been denied the right to vote, Kuwaiti women have led their female counterparts in other countries in the Gulf in terms of gender equality. Unlike other women in the region, Kuwaiti women are free to drive, dress as they choose and travel without any restrictions. Women outnumber men in universities and they compose a third of the emirate’s workforce. They also play an active role in the political arena through local and international rights groups and civil society organizations – groups that have played a key role in demanding that the state extend women their rights. The female force can be felt in every sector, from banking to medicine to art and the oil industry. The new law only confirms what was already known: Kuwaiti women are an important part of the fabric of their society.[Empowered women will drive Kuwait into the 21st century]

NPR has an interview with one of the activists.

The enemy within

Sandeep Pandey wants India and Pakistan to give dual citizenship to citizens of both countries as a solution to all problems. Ever heard of something called partition Sandeep ? Now at this point, Musharraf, who has even rejected the idea of soft borders is wondering, “I have to fight hard against these Indians to be their Enemy No. 1”
Ethnic cleansing continues in Kashmir, and even school children are not spared. Infiltration continues, and innocent civilians are murdered. But Mahesh Bhatt is unhappy that he is not able to get Pakistanis to act in his B-movies

Blame it on globalization

Radio Free Europe has an article on gender violence in South Asia and for the article, the reporter Antoine Blua has picked stories of abuse from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. All of them are real horror stories and a shame on society. But towards the end comes a line out of the blue

Coomaraswamy said she believes South Asian men feel threatened by social and cultural changes, partly spread by globalization and the mass media. And women are bearing the brunt of men’s fears. [South Asia: Recent Killings, Violence Underscore Lack Of Progress In Gender Justice]

This seems to be some Praful Bidwai kind of logic where everything has to be blamed on United States or on Globalization. So were there no Islamic honor killings before the spread of globalization ? Were there no rapes before the arrival of mass media ? If this is true, rapes should not be happening in globalized countries. But if you look at any evening newscast in United States, it starts with a a few crimes and gruesome child abuse. and what is the explanation for that ?
In another news Christian Aid has come out with a report saying that liberalization is causing the death of Andhra farmers and Alex Singleton at the Globalization Institute has a rebuttal

It is totally regrettable when anyone commits suicide, but the Christian Aid report misses the point. Christian Aid ignores all the millions of lives saved from starvation in India because of liberalization. If saving lives were the point of the report, Christian Aid should be firmly backing liberalization. This report is about backing up ideology.
When the sort of policies Christian Aid advocates were followed in the 1960s and 1970s, India’s economy stagnated and living standards fell. Many starved. Now, by following liberalizing policies, India’s economy is experiencing some of the world’s fastest economic growth. Christian Aid is effectively saying that India should grow more slowly. This would not be in the interests of poverty-relief.
Christian Aid seems to blame the suicides on Britain’s Department for International Development for its support of Andhra Pradesh’s privatization policies. Yet the report says the suicides are by farmers, not by workers at newly-privatized companies. Indeed, because India taxpayers are paying for fewer loss-making state industries, the government has had more money to spend on its priorities – including on helping farmers. [Christian Aid’s report on Indian suicides]

Traffic Problems Everywhere

I used to live in Los Angeles which has the worst traffic in the world. I have lived in Mumbai India, Sao Paulo Brazil and Vancouver Canada and nothing beats Los Angeles. I used to live near I-10 which used to be standstill on a Sunday morning at 5 am and I used to wonder where all these people were going.

The Los Angeles region had the worst traffic congestion in the nation for the 20th year in a row, according to an annual report released Monday. According to the study, rush-hour drivers in metropolitan Los Angeles — which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties — spent an average of 93 hours more in traffic during 2003 than they would have without traffic jams. For a person who works five days a week and never takes a vacation, that’s like being parked on the freeway for 21 minutes every day.
In fact, the average commute in 2003 took nearly twice as long as it should have, costing the average rush-hour driver $1,598 in extra gas and diminished free time throughout the year, according to the report. Those figures were worse for the Los Angeles area than for any other major urban area covered by the report.Los Angeles Ranks Worst in U.S. Traffic Study

Then I moved to San Francisco Bay Area and things improved. Now instead of living in the most congested area, I live in the second most congested area

The Bay Area is ranked near the top in one category most area residents would rather not be recognized for.According to an annual report on commuting times, drivers in the Bay Area suffer through the second-worst traffic jams in the country. This year’s Urban Mobility Report says on average, Bay Area drivers are delayed about 72 hours a year. The annual report says only Los Angeles-area drivers spend more time sitting in traffic jams. They waste an 93 extra hours a year in trafficStudy says Bay Area traffic delays second longest in nation

Now if I am fed up with all this and decide to move back to my home town of Thrissurr, Kerala, things don’t look good their either

Traffic snarls, blaring horns and bad-tempered drivers may soon become the order of the day in Thrissur town if constructive steps are not taken to address the increasing traffic problems.
A major hurdle in traffic management in Thrissur is the absence of corresponding development of roads to the number of vehicles that roll out every year. But it’s not the only one. Lack of proper planning in the construction of junctions and traffic routeing, narrow roads, inadequate parking facilities, the list is almost endless.
With a total area of 101.42 sq km, Thrissur town has a road network of 526 km. Major roads lead to the Swaraj Round, and herein lies the core of the problem. Traffic on the Round has been restricted to one-way from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but even this could prove inadequate in future, according to the police. Parking is another contentious issue on the Round, which needs to be addressedThrissur faces traffic problems

This is what globalization truly is: Anywhere you go in the world, you get the same set of problems.

The Dangerous Game

Finally it takes a Frenchman to say things bluntly

For my part, I know where I stand. Having had the chance, during my investigations into journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder, to observe close up the nature of the ties between the ISI and a number of Islamist groups, such as the Jaish-e-Muhammad and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, linked to the “sacred” cause of Kashmir, I don’t have many illusions as to the sincerity of the Islamabad leaders when they present themselves as the best students in the anti-terrorist class.
I just hope that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice doesn’t have any more illusions than I have, and that when she thanks the Pakistanis for “the difficult work they’ve done,” she knows that she’s trifling with us, and she knows what she’s doing. I hope that when, in order to break the “axis of evil,” the Americans ally themselves with one of the regimes that has at its disposal both weapons of mass destruction and the ideology capable of putting them into action, they are fully aware that they’re playing with fire. And that they’re playing the craziest, most paradoxical and — if they’re not careful — most dangerous diplomatic poker game in contemporary history. [Pakistan’s Chips in a Shady Game]

Bernard-Henri Levy is the author of Who Killed Daniel Pearl?, which is an investigation into the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan.

Praful Bidwai: New Theorems

Praful Bidwai has two new theorems. a) Naxalites in 35 districts of India don’t talk to their comrades in the remaining 140 districts and b) if the number of people you murder is numerically less than your opponent, it is OK.
Theorem A, comes from the following statement.

Fears about the ‘Maoist factor’ are, to put it mildly, exaggerated. The Naxalite movement is indigenous. Less than a fifth of the 175 districts affected by it are anywhere near Nepal India’s U-turn for a despot

This makes a fair assumption that comrades in the 35 districts that border Nepal do not interact with their counterparts in other states of India.
So Comrade A1 from Uttar Pradesh meets Comrade B1 from Andhra. After exchanging pleasantries like the number of innocent people they have murdered, Comrade B1 asks for some help. He says that the Andhra police is now hunting them down and the comrades are losing morale and need more arms. Comrade B1 knows that A1 has links with the Maoists in Nepal and wonders if he could help. At this point, A1 shakes his head and says, “Comrade B1, I wish I could help. But that would violate Praful Bidwai‘s theorem A. He wrote recently that only one fifth of the Naxal districts border Nepal are affected by Maoists and since you belong to a district far way, it would not be prudent for me to teach you Nepalese techniques. I may be a murderer, but I am not a proliferator.”
Dejected, Comrade B1 treks through the jungle back to Andhra Pradesh when he is taken out by a police ambush. As his soul flies over the forest canopy, it showers the choicest abuses on Theorem A

Opposing the king does not amount to strengthening the Maoists. Indeed, it can encourage long overdue reform, including land reform, and further decentralization. The Maoists’ methods can be criticized, but not their political platform — a representative, radicalized, democracy. Their violence fades into insignificance beside the excesses of the RNA, which is responsible for a majority of the 11,000 people killed since 1996. India’s U-turn for a despot

Theorem B is simpler to understand. RNA has murdered x people and Maoists have murdered y and since x > y, they should not be blamed. Now if you apply this to Iraq, Saddam has murdered more people than the civilian casualties in the invasion of Iraq and so Saddam, whom Praful Bidwai calls modern day Saladin, should be condemned. But don’t get all goose bumpy here. Invasion of Iraq was done under the leadership of United States, in which case all rules change.

This combat is increasingly following all wars’ dread logic: killing and maiming innocent people, devastating homes, inflicting horrible suffering. What makes it especially loathsome is that it’s being fought in the name of the very people it is turning into a mass of bleeding bodies and severed limbs. If civilians are overtly targeted, the war will become even more unpopular and the anti-war movement more assertive. The demand to bring back US-UK troops will turn into a roar.[The Emperor’s new clothes]

So Theorem B has to be restated: if the number of people you murder is numerically less than your opponent, it is OK, provided you are not America, in which case everything you do is wrong.

Praful Bidwai: In defence of Maoists

Praful Bidwai in defence of Maoists writes

Opposing the king does not amount to strengthening the Maoists. Indeed, it can encourage long overdue reform, including land reform, and further decentralization. The Maoists’ methods can be criticised, but not their political platform — a representative, radicalized, democracy. Their violence fades into insignificance beside the excesses of the RNA, which is responsible for a majority of the 11,000 people killed since 1996. [India’s U-turn for a despot]

I was laughing at the statement describing the future that Maoists will bring to Nepal – “a representative, radicalized, democracy”. There are a bunch of them in India where they live in a democracy and what they don’t do is all of the above. If they believed in democracy, they would stand for elections and try to bring in their reforms. But instead they choose to murder people and destroy public property. Yesterday they raided a mining camp and abducted four officials.

“About 17 gangs, mainly of the PWG, equipped with sophisticated weapons like AK-47 rifles, wireless sets and remote control devices, were reportedly active in Bastar, Dantewada, Dandori, Kanker, Rajnandgaon, Balaghat, Kawardha and Mandla districts,” a police source said. Naxals raze Hindalco camp in Chhattisgarh; abduct 4

Now if these folks are for representative democracy, why do they need to carry AK-47s ? Why do they need to kill policemen and political leaders?. What about the comrades in Nepal ? Narayan Prasad Pokhrel, the chairman of World Hindu Federation-Nepal, was shot dead by the Maoists. If you look at the history of takeovers by Communists, they have always resorted to ethnic cleansing and mass murder. So even by the most lenient standards, one cannot give the Maoists of Nepal any benefit of doubt.
Sandeep has a detailed analysis of Praful Bidwai‘s Maoist cheerleeding.