Cherish Your Freedom

I have really been touched by the news this past month of the political turmoil in Iran. The protests and demands for freedom by the Iranian people have both moved and inspired me, probably in the same way that many have been inspired by the labors of those who became the founding fathers of the United States. There are many countries that still fight for even the smallest liberties that many of us of take for granted. Did you know,that out of 103 countries of the world, 43 are still not free? And that actually equals over a third of our world population!

In some of these countries, the population is kept in the dark, denied education and healthcare, and often left in a constant state of fear for life and limb. In others, women are denied education and live an extremely oppressed existence. And in still others, entire tribes or races are the victims of genocide. If what I am writing seems too terrible to think about, well it is terrible! I have to admit that, when I compare my life to the lives of people in countries who still struggle under the yoke of oppression, all of my personal cares and concerns seem very small indeed.

I certainly don't want to imply,that we should feel guilty about the freedoms we benefit from. On the contrary, we should be joyful and grateful for the many liberties we enjoy each and every day, because any of us could have been born in a country where we might never experience the independence and free will we have now.

We enjoy a number of very precious liberties, including the right to speak freely without fear of being arrested, the right to a free press, the right to practice the religion of your choice, the right to a full education, and the right to vote for your candidate of choice. And because these freedoms have been practiced for a long time, it has become an accepted and expected way of living. I just wanted to take this opportunity in lieu of the turmoil going on in our world to say how fortunate those of us who do benefit from such freedoms actually are.

"Freedom" may be a small word, but it carries a huge significance, especially for those who are still fighting for it and for those to whom it is nothing more than a dim hope. I am sure you will agree that we should greet each new day with a sense of humility and gratitude for the privileges and liberties we continue to enjoy, and that we should never take our freedom for granted.

INDIA = (ME > COUNTRY) ? CROUCHING TIGER : LEAPING TIGER.

I was traveling to Delhi on the day when news paper carried a story of Mr.Nandan Nilekani resigning from the board of Infosys in order to dawn the character of a visionary leader as the head of the proposed single ID card development department.
I was , in those days , pretty busy with my own life which was i would say undergoing "QUARTER LIFE CRISIS" and i had no thoughts other than my life's , which had gone hay-wired.But that's a different story.Incidentally i had stopped reading newspaper for a few days now, thanks to google news,but on a train its pretty difficult even now to access google,I suppose we may have to wait for 3G services to be fully operational before we could actually get google on a train.So the newspaper was the last escape from the chatter box sitting just next to me, please don't get ideas ,she was not talking to me but with her boyfriend and that to on her mobile and i was wondering ,when will her balance end so that she may turn silent,but that was not to happen,not on this journey.So coming back onto the news I read it said that Nandan Nilekani will head the team that will initiate the development and implementation of this project and Infosys is the biggest contender in order to bag the tenders for development.The Newspaper said that this project should be considered a milestone project similar to the DMRC (Delhi Metro) that would change the way India is looked upon and Nandan Nlekani would be parallel to the greats like Mr. E. Sreedharan, Managing Director, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, who is credited for the zeal with which Metro Rail in Delhi has developed.
But what the newspaper didn't tell us is that this highly anticipated project will be funded by the world bank and governments strategy of putting a respected corporate leader like Nandan Nilekani , as the chief of the project is merely a stunt to add credibility to the government projects.Why add credibility to the government project is Indian government not self capable??
That is not the point, the high level of corruption in bureaucracy and the Satyam scam are more than enough to be cautious with the system and since internationally there has been so much financial crisis, they are definitely unwilling to put stakes where there is a possibility of risk.
Then the second point which cannot be ignored is that we have hundreds of people trying to get a passport as a valid legal document of there existence and their citizenship of our country and they pay around 1500 to 3500 bucks in order to get that then what is the need to start something new do we in the wake of so many crisis either financial,social or terrorism , have time to invest in the infrastructure in order to develop single ID for all the citizens.
HYPOTHETICAL SOLUTION
Why don't we try something like this lets say passport is a valid legal document nationally and internationally and people are willing to pay in order to get this document then why don't we make it mandatory for everyone to get a passport. Will this not be better than investing in a new infrastructure , creating a system an independent organization and bearing the salary burden of unnecessary people.secondly if you are so interested in a smart card technology then also add a card to the passport and demolish every other identity proof that exists in this country.

What I am seeing is not a mere act of growth for the country but the ministry and bureaucracy in terms of money which may be lost to the country as black money. What these people don' t understand is that it is their nation and they should make it the roaring and leaping tiger similar to the flying Eagle rather than a crouching tiger that is tired of the unethical behavior of its citizens.