Facts 2 chage the face of world

2008-12-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

The following article was shocking when I read it first on my Prof. Sabu Sir's blog(http://www.continuousconfusion.blogspot.com/) and though of sharing .... and when I read it again, felt a pain from top to bottom of having had the misfortune of living here and enduring this nonsense..... read it and you wll know...

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Revelation of Swiss bank accounts This is so shocking.......If black money deposits were an Olympics event.... India would have won a gold medal hands down. The second best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. U.S. is not even there in the counting in top five! India has more money in Swiss banks than all the other countries combined! Recently, due to international pressure, the Swiss government agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it. Indian government is not asking for the details...no marks for guessing why? We need to start a movement to pressurize the government to do so! This is perhaps the only way, and a golden opportunity, to expose the high and mighty and weed out corruption! Please read on......and forward to all the honest Indians to.....like somebody is forwarding to you.......and build a ground-swell of support for action!

Is India poor, who says? Ask the Swiss banks. With personal account deposit bank of $1,500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country? DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country's foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each.

This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them. Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India , the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. 'Obviously, these people won't be tourists. They must be travel ling there for some other reason,' believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn't referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who've been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin! Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country's wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?

Black money in Swiss banks -- Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

TOP FIVE

INDIA $1,456 BILLION
RUSSIA $470 BILLION
U.K. $390 BILLION
UKRAINE $100 BILLION
CHINA $96 BILLION

Now do the MATHS - India with $1,456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind -- the loot of the AAM AADMI (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear. What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world's best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of 'Swiss bank accounts,' the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich. In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe.

The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens. Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker -- in his widely celebrated book titled 'Capitalism's Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System' -- estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970. It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world's population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody's guess.

What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means. Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term 'tax havens' suggests. Remember BOFORS and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANYONE WHO CAN SAVE INDIA ?

Barack Obama: The First 21st-century Leader

2008-11-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday Barack Obama made history as the first black man to be appointed President-elect of the US. In the years and months ahead, he will make more history as he tackles unprecedented challenges: two bloody wars, a global financial crisis, the US's tarnished reputation, domestic security and healthcare reform.

But as the euphoria of his victory gives way to the hard work of transitioning to the White House, we should perhaps pause for a moment to reflect on Obama's other achievement: his emphatic arrival as the world's first 21st Century leader.

Let me explain what I mean by this. For much of the 20th century, academics, politicians and business leaders have researched, debated and tried to quantify leadership, the elusive quality that separates great men and women from the merely good. Yet a century on, apart from a few critical moments in history, the ideals of leadership remain little more than theories in textbooks or concepts to be debated in lecture theatres of business schools.

Yet this week, Obama changed the game: he has emerged as the living, breathing exemplar of leadership for our times. The first decade of the 21st Century has been a wake-up call to leaders everywhere: globalisation, war, geopolitical shifts, climate change, financial and economic crisis have rendered the old paradigms of leadership obsolete. Times of rapid change and uncertainty demand new qualities of flexibility, humility, adaptability, resilience and what I call "negative capability" (coping with the unknown).

The first defining event of the 21st Century was, of course, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. During that crisis new leaders emerged, such as Mayor Giuliani, who presented a calm, dignified and moral face of leadership. Yet few other leaders responded to the call to change.

Just after 9/11, I conducted my own research into leadership in crisis. I wanted to find out what effective leaders did to keep their people, communities, and businesses on track during a period of catastrophic change. I surmised that this could yield valuable lessons for leaders during times of less extreme change.

I discovered that change and crisis bring very different leaders than those who flourish in ordinary times - and this is why I believe Obama is the first leader to demonstrate the range of qualities needed to deal with our complex age and conditions.

First, let's examine what some of the most forward-thinking writers of the last century had to say on the subject of leadership. One of the central ideas of leadership in the last half of the 20th century was Max Weber's concept of charismatic leadership. In 1968 the German sociologist wrote that social crisis was precondition for charismatic leadership, a combination of intelligence, purpose, grace under pressure and consideration for their followers.

US academic Noel Tichy built on his work in the eighties and nineties, identifying transformational leaders - courageous, value-driven, visionary people who were comfortable with uncertainty. Transformational leaders emerge in times of crisis or change, in contrast with transactional leaders who manage in steady times, preserving the status quo and strengthening existing structures, cultures and strategies.

Other researchers believed that the measure of a true leader was the ability to display both transformational and transactional styles as the circumstances demanded.

Around the same time, Warren Bennis advanced the argument that in a complex and uncertain world, leadership can only be exercised by self-directed, strong, creative, purposeful and self-actualising leaders - those who have listened to their inner voice. Bennis later added that one of the most reliable indicators and predictors of leadership was the ability to learn from traumatic circumstances: emerging from these 'crucibles' of change, leaders were stronger and with a more defined purpose

In the 1990s, Peter Vaill of Antioch University added that values were the primary organising principle for action in a turbulent climate. When it is impossible to set goals, leaders need to rely on their inner resources, drawing on non-rational as well as rational abilities, in other words, their deepest convictions.

So how does all this theory relate to Obama and why do I believe that he is the world's first true 21st century leader?

The answer is that he embodies most of the qualities described by these great writers on leadership.

Although he remains untested in high office, Obama has nevertheless displayed a remarkable breadth of qualities.

As a man, he remains true to the values of his humble background. Raised by a single mother in Hawaii and Indonesia, he was no doubt tested by his circumstances. Yet he has matured into a thoughtful, considerate, inclusive, relaxed and level-headed man. He has shown humility and connectedness with ordinary people, remaining gracious under attack and undistracted by innuendo and smears.

As a charismatic leader, he has revealed a soaring eloquence, fierce intellect, gravitas, passion, conviction and a rare ability to mobilise and inspire diverse groups of people in the US and around the world.

As a transactional leader, he is a consummate professional, intellectual, dynamic, with tenacity, focus, grasp of detail, breadth of knowledge and intellect. His campaign demonstrated superb organisational ability, skilled use of technology, tenacity, focus, grasp of detail and breadth of knowledge.

Most important of all, he has emerged as a beacon of hope, showing unwavering faith in his country and its people. His willingness to step up to the plate, despite threats to his life and deep-rooted problems at home and abroad.

As he said in his victory speech, his aim is to restore the US's enduring ideals of democracy, hope, opportunity and liberty, rather than the recent attractions of wealth and arms. On a more practical level, his challenge is to unite Republicans with Democrats in the new administration, something he appears to be tackling as I write.

What are your views on Obama's leadership? Do you believe he is uniquely well-placed to meet his challenges? Where are his strengths and what are his blind-spots? What resonates with you and what advice do you have for him?

Wisdom On Innovators, Imitators, and Idiots

2008-10-29T03:51:00.003-07:00

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

We're all struggling to make sense of the financial crisis that has spread around the world, to learn some lessons that will guide us as we go forward. One of my worries is that many of us will learn the wrong lessons--specifically, that we will become too conservative and risk-averse, that we will learn to fear creativity rather than embrace it.

It's easy to portray the credit crunch as a case study of creativity run amok. Who's the genius who invented subprime loans? Weren't we all better off before the creation of a $500-trillion market in derivatives, hard-to-understand financial contracts that are at the root of so much of what's gone wrong? Shouldn't we declare, once and for all, that our fascination with "disruptive" technologies, "breakthrough" innovations, and financial "reengineering" does more harm than good?

There’s a "natural progression" to how good new ideas go wrong. First come the innovators, who see opportunities that others don't. Then come the imitators, who copy what the innovators have done. And then come the idiots, whose avarice undoes the very innovations they are trying to use to get rich.

The problem, in other words, isn't with innovation--it's with the idiocy that follows. So how do we as individuals (not to mention as companies and societies) continue to embrace the value-creating upside of creativity while guarding against the value-destroying downsides of imitation? The answer, it seems to me, is about values--about always being able to distinguish between that which is smart and that which is expedient. And that takes discipline. Can you distinguish between a genuine innovation and a mindless imitation? Are you prepared to walk away from ideas that promise to make money, even if they make no sense?

It's not easy--which is why so many of us fall prey to so many bad ideas. "People don't get smarter about things that get as basic as greed.

"You can't stand to see your neighbor getting rich. You know you're smarter than he is, but he's doing all these [crazy] things, and he's getting rich...so pretty soon you start doing it."

Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at the University of Warwick, has a more poetic way of making the same point. Oswald is a pioneer of a field that might be called "happiness economics"--the study of the interplay between money and human satisfaction. His rigorous academic work confirms the advice that we hear in our churches and from our shrinks--the relentless pursuit of wealth may fill your bank account, but it will leave you empty as a human being.

"The curse of humanity is that people feel compelled to look over their shoulders," Professor Warwick told my colleague Polly LaBarre a while back. "Happiness and self-esteem depend on rank and relative income. We are consumed by relativism. If your neighbor drives up in a new Lexus, and you're still driving the Toyota that you were perfectly satisfied with yesterday, you start to become dissatisfied."

So we should use the financial crisis as an excuse to stop taking chances or downsize your ambitions. But do use the crisis as an opportunity to take stock of what really matters--and to stop looking over your shoulder.

Diwali and pollution!!!

2008-10-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

every year d diwali comes n we can see the pollution word in air because of d crackers which r going to be bustted .. is a single day enjoying create that much pollution as its shown by media n all round??? i guess a person who drives a veicle or uses a transport in there regular life creats more pollution than the crackers busstted by him on the estival of light .

what do u say??