Is there anything called the ‘good Taliban’? The answer to that question will depend upon whom are you asking this question from. If you ask Indians, well, all Taliban is bad. If you ask Pakis, most of them are good. If you ask an Afghan- on second thoughts, don’t. What Afghans think doesn’t really matter, unfortunately. If you happen to ask Americans, their answer will also depend upon when is the question being asked. Till some time back the entire Taliban, possibly along with their kids, women and cattle, was bad for Americans. But times have changed and they now say that some of them are indeed good. But this is not their final position on the matter either. Don’t be surprised if they revert back to their earlier position depending upon where their offer of talks with the so called ‘good Taliban’ leads to.

Posted on February 13th, 2010 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: Af-Pak, Afghanistan, good taliban, India, Kiyani, NATO, offer, talks. Comments: 8

The question here is not just Dr Pachauri or even his ill gotten wealth. The question is of correctness of data. The question is - Whether Copenhagen was a waste of time and money by govts all around the world? The question is - Is the rate at which we are currently emitting and polluting our environment still increase the global temperatures by three degrees by 2050? The question is - Does Maldives and other such small island nations which were considered as being doomed because of melting of glaciers still vulnerable? The question is- How will this ‘error’ affect the market of climate change especially the rates of carbon credits? Well, those are the question which IPCC needs to answer. Surely, if the planet is not as vulnerable as was being made out rates for carbon credits will nose dive though Indian companies which were making a lot of money through this will suffer. But still we do need answers for these questions.

Posted on February 4th, 2010 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: carbon, Change, climate, crdeit, global warming, IPCC, Pachauri, rate. Comments: 7

The kind of punishment Afridi has got which is just a ban for two matches I feel ICC has let him off pretty lightly. And I’m not alone who feels that way. Even Inzamam ul Haq has also said the same thing. If ICC really wants to curb this practice they should’ve been more strict. At the moment this punishment is like ICC is telling Afridi that he was stupid to do it so openly and get caught. Probably they mean that he should be careful when he does this next time. By the way, does this light sentence have anything to do with the match referee being a Sri Lankan, namely Ranjan Madugalle? After all it’s case of a non white player.

Posted on February 2nd, 2010 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: Afridi, ball, cricinfo, Cricket, ESPN, ICC, match, tampering. Comments: 2

The Sri Lankan election results don’t really change anything for the Tamils 300,000 of whom are still languishing in camps. Rajapakse has been non committal on the specifics of future course on this issue though he does keep making politically correct statements like rehabilitation of Tamils is being done on priority and that he will continue to do so. But will anything really change for the these people now that he has won the elections? Quite unlikely. If he didn’t do it in the run upto the elections based on which he could’ve sought their votes it would be rather stupid for anyone to expect him to do so now when he doesn’t really need their support. Well, to be candid, he didn’t really need their support before the elections either as the results have proved beyond doubt whose support is actually required to come to office. And it’s not Tamils.

Posted on January 27th, 2010 under Track the world. Tags: elections, Fonseka, LTTE, Prabhakaran, Rajapakse, results, Sri Lanka, Tamil. Comments: 7

Sometime back when I met a Chinese immigrant settled in Austria I asked him if he supported one party rule in his country. He replied that he sure did. “How else do you control 1.3 billion people?”, he added. Good point for sure. But he had no answer when I asked him if he indeed supported his country’s system of governance why did he have to migrate. To some of us the two issues may not be related to each other. One is about the country as such and the second is about personal growth. And this implies that for some of us the country as such may be okay but it does not really provide ample opportunities for personal growth and satisfaction, however ridiculous it may sound.

Posted on January 25th, 2010 under Best Articles, Track the world. Tags: Avatar, China, dissent, dracgon, Google, Hacking, internet, leadership. Comments: 5

Twenty ten sounds so much better than two thousand and nine. Thank god for small mercies. But while all the newspapers and television channels gloss over the year gone by very few have spoken about the challenges that lie ahead of us. Apart from recapitulating the happenings of 2009 I feel it would be in order to take stock of things as they are today and prepare ourselves for the challenges that face the world. Let’s check out the three major issues one by one.

Posted on January 2nd, 2010 under Track the world. Tags: 2010, challenges, climate change, economy, Muslim, New Year, obama, policies, terrorism. Comments: 4

At an ideological level, in recent times Christians don’t kill Christians, Hindus don’t kill Hindus, Sikhs don’t kill Sikhs and Jews don’t kill Jews. They may have many ideological differences amongst themselves but they generally do not launch a kind of war on others from their own faiths. Sadly, this is not the case with Islam wherein scores of Muslims are murdered by other Muslims on a daily basis. At the second level you find the Muslims also to be on a warpath with Christians, Jews and Hindus too. Both these struggles have rendered the religion not only weak but also evolutionary bankrupt. There was a time when Islamic civilizations of the Middle East were far ahead of the Western empires of the time. That was the time when the very best in scientific and philosophical works were produced by Muslim thinkers. More tolerance for different religious beliefs could be found in Muslim lands than just about anywhere else on this planet. Just look around now and you’ll see that exactly the opposite is true. No creative inventions, works or research can be found forthcoming from Muslim lands. Creativity is being stifled if not being killed.

Posted on December 29th, 2009 under Best Articles, Track the world. Tags: Al Qaeda, conflict, Islam, Osama bin Laden, Shia, Sunni, Taliban, Terror, Wahhabi. Comments: 13

Americans, on their part have been very cagey about Headley from the very beginning when in August this year reports first started coming in of his arrest. They initially linked him only to a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. Later on there were reports of Headley’s links to LeT. Later still, they said that he was an agent of DEA (US agency which fights the drug menace) but now it has become amply clear that not only was he involved in planning and execution of 26/11 attacks he was also on the payroll of CIA. Another very important reason why I’m getting increasingly convinced about US knowing much more about 26/11 than what they told us is the fact that our team which went to US to meet Headley in connection with his involvement in 26/11 attacks was not allowed to do so even as he was being charged for the same offence which was committed here in India. If this is not bizarre I really wonder what is?

Posted on December 21st, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: 26/11, 9/11, agent, attack, headley, Mumbai, rana, terrorist. Comments: 3

Make no mistake, India is the one who could have shown the way to the developed and developing world but we failed, miserably. On the face of it some of you may say that I’m exaggerating but take a closer look and you’ll see that I’m not. Had India not joined hands with China this deal would’ve been a legally binding one for the all countries of this world. Had we done so, South Africa and Brazil, the other two countries because of whom this deal became non binding, would’ve reconsidered their decision leaving China absolutely alone in this world. Had it reached that stage who knows China would have agreed, albeit reluctantly. But we did not do so. What’s worse is that our own media is gloating over the fact that we made good friends with Chinese on this issue. While there is nothing wrong in having good relations with China, if our aim was to do just that we should have gone to Beijing not Copenhagen. In Copenhagen our first priority was to save this planet which we did not fulfill when we joined hands with China to make this deal non binding. Good friends with China on this issue? My left foot. Its more like partners in crime.

Posted on December 20th, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: BASIC, climate change, coastlines, cop15, deal, framing, UN. Comments: 10