What the future holds...

Was chatting with some old friends last night about the new technology around Amazon Go, and while its all so new and exciting, we wondered whether anyone thinks about the long term impact of what this is all leading up to. My friend Y called it the grim "WALLE world" (and she works in robotics!). Perhaps. The more we incentivize humans to disengage with each other and engage with machines only, the grimmer the world gets. Sounds terribly pessimistic, but I can't shake the feeling off.

Voters xenophobia

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong wrote this after Brexit, and I am pasting it here in the American context now when it looks like Trump is going to win:

"Other developed countries also face similar challenges as Britain. We all live in a globalised, interdependent world. The desire to disengage, to be less constrained by one’s partners, to be free to do things entirely as one chooses, is entirely understandable. And yet in reality for many countries disengaging and turning inwards will likely lead to less security, less prosperity, and a dimmer future."

Quoting Rabindranath Tagore...

"Even though from childhood I had been taught that the idolatry of Nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will gain truly their India by fighting against that education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity."

Social Media

When on social media, people can be so frivolous with their own credibility. When re-posting something, they barely give a thought to whether what they're re-posting is accurate or not. In a time where all the information is on your fingertips, why are some people still re-posting stuff like "leaving a chopped onion overnight in your fridge can make it toxic" or "100000 likes will give this little girl a new kidney"...? Perhaps people feel that re-posting something doesn't necessarily mean you're endorsing that statement as true. Wonder why that is... Would you repeat verbally in a face-to-face conversation that same statement?

Discrimination

Abercrombie & Fitch refused a woman a job as a sales person in their store because she insisted on wearing a headscarf and that didn't gel with their "look policy". She sued them for discrimination on religious grounds & the court seems to be on her side.  

Wonder if a woman could sue a store for having a "look policy" in the first place? Is it equal opportunities if a job applicant gets or doesn't get a job based on her attractiveness? Be it a flight attendant or a waitress at Hooters?

Israel, Palestine, why won't you learn from your past?

It's time to re-post an article I had blogged about back in 2011:

http://petty-change.blogspot.sg/2011/07/economists-take-on-israel-palestine.html?m=1

And they do the glossy feminism again….

Those in India may have seen this Femina magazine with the beautiful Indian actress Huma Qureshi on the cover making a feminist statement. Now how many times have we said that the media needs to stop the stereotypical portrayal of beauty…we should cheer for this cover then, shouldn't we?

I would've applauded this effort if it wasn't for the hint of hypocrisy and lack of credibility i felt. Maybe it's the fact that a glossy mag is choosing to take a stand against the glossiness and superficiality of the perception of beauty today. They've air-brushed Huma's already heavily makeup-laden face and arms and then tagged it as 'I don't owe you perfection'. If only they had photographed her in natural light, in a natural setting or even her natural body/ face, this would've been more credible.

I thought of this old post (way back from 2007) about how loosely feminist tag lines are thrown around for commercial reasons these days, but are they really a step forward for us?  

The 2014 India elections

Phew, what an outcome. I admit I wouldn't have voted for Modi even if I were able to vote, and yet I'm feeling inspired today by the decisiveness of the country. We have chosen irrespective of caste and regional differences for the very first time; and that is definitely a turning point in history. 

P.s. Still disappointed that AAP couldn't give us a real third front, but let's put that down to good learning for the first timers.

Fire-Frying Pan Situation

We were in Pune last week for a family reunion & our visit coincided with Modi's big rally at Pune's BJ Medical college. The media was full of coverage of the Modi rally & while everyone knows which newspaper/ news channel is aligned to which wing, the public debates made for some interesting reading/ viewing. 

I'm not a Modi fan. He's too right-winged to be a leader of my choice. But I'm not a  Congress fan either & I have no doubt that the country would run into economic catastrophe under the Gandhi leadership; that the money earmarked under the Food Security Bill will never make it to the poor & there is a multi-crore corruption case around every corner. And this is precisely the reason why Modi has caught the fancy of the nation's urban young. He may not be aligned to the spirit that is the building block of the country, but is there really anyone else, anyone at all, who's likely to change the economic reality of urban India? It's hard to say what really is the biggest crisis in India today - the economic or the social. And its therefore difficult to say whether its more pressing to depose someone from power who is unscrupulous in one area rather than the other.

Most young Indians I know are clearly convinced by one over the other. I don't understand how. 

The Delhi Protests

Sitting here in Singapore, its quite scary reading online news in India these days. The barbarianism of the perpetrators of the heinous rape case in Delhi frightens me, yes. But what frightens me as much (or more) is the public reaction to the news. My facebook pages & the internet in general is full of people asking for these men to be castrated or tortured or publicly stoned or at the very least, killed.

I don't have sympathy for the men; god no! But why has the news of a savage act turned so many online readers into savages? Why do we suddenly start demanding eye-for-an-eye even so many centuries after the caveman died? It's as barbaric & reflects as badly on a culture that should know better. Maybe its anger. Or frustration. Or the nature of the internet - anonymity always brings out the worst bullies in us.

An economist's take on Israel-Palestine

Read this paper by an economist on the Palestine-Israel conflict. Mahatma Gandhi would've said, "I told you so" (well, perhaps not); but politics and nationalistic fervour do not have the rational approach of an economist or a pacifist, I suppose.

Econometric techniques allow us to empirically test the degree to which violence on each side occurs in response to aggression by the other side. Prior studies using these methods have argued that Israel reacts strongly to attacks by Palestinians, whereas Palestinian violence is random (i.e., not predicted by prior Israeli attacks). Here we show that when nonlethal forms of violence are considered, and when a larger dataset is used, Palestinian violence also reveals a pattern of retaliation: (i) the firing of Palestinian rockets increases sharply after Israelis kill Palestinians, and (ii) the probability (although not the number) of killings of Israelis by Palestinians increases after killings of Palestinians by Israel. These findings suggest that Israeli military actions against Palestinians lead to escalation rather than incapacitation. Further, they refute the view that Palestinians are uncontingently violent, showing instead that a significant proportion of Palestinian violence occurs in response to Israeli behavior. Well-established cognitive biases may lead participants on each side of the conflict to underappreciate the degree to which the other side’s violence is retaliatory, and hence to systematically underestimate their own role in perpetuating the conflict.

It was disturbing

Bin Laden is dead. It should've been a tale of 'good wins over evil' but was not quite. I think it was the image of Americans cheering on the streets that made it ugly. They looked a lot like the jihadis cheering over revenge; thirsting for blood. They were carrying posters of "Osama 0; Obhama 1". There's something savage about a street party when a man gets shot & dies - even when the man is a mass-murderer. Perhaps they were people who lost near & dear ones in 9-11. That would make it more disturbing though.

Being the modern Asian parent

Read this very insightful article in the New Yorker - it's not about parenting at all; but about the science of the mind. Coincidentally, in the same week I read a lot of articles on the superiority of the tiger mom - how a disciplinarian Asian mom raised two very accomplished girls.

Being a modern Asian parent is a tough balancing act, I would imagine. On one hand, we Asians are conditioned to believe - in varying degrees - that softness in parenting is not good. There is the argument that "we had strict parents & we turned out just fine". On the other hand, we have this growing exposure to the western thought of "the parents' job is to instill confidence & love in their child" and their style of treating kids like little adults doesn't come intutively to most Asians - to be honest, I am not entirely convinced it works. Asian parents today don't intend to be the sort who order their child to get A+; but they're also unable to be the sort who sit back and say, 'at least you gave it your best shot' when the child gets a C.

Going back to that article from the New Yorker though, this is probably what really counts:
"He’d been taught to think vertically, moving ever upward, whereas maybe the most productive connections were horizontal. He’d been taught that intelligence was the most important trait. But there weren’t even words for the traits that matter most."

Mumbai Terror Attacks - few weeks later

I am a big fan of Arundhati Roy; although I don't quite agree with all her views (her anti-globalisation stance, for example). But I thought this article by her on the Mumbai terror attacks hit very close to home & was very thought provoking. I agree with the essence of what she observes, that India is completely in denial that the problem could be within (irrespective of whether or not the ISI was involved).

PS: I don't agree though that the Taj is an icon of the inequalities & injustice in India. I think its an icon of the 'good life'; the opportunities & dreams that make Mumbai the city it is.

Veil of a different kind

The other day, I was watching a *makeover* reality show on tv (yes, I do such things when H is away and I can't sleep) and I thought it hideous how cosmetic enhancements are packaged in such shows as a solution to poor self-confidence, sinking romantic relationships & just unhappiness in general.

I won't say I'm opposed to cosmetic surgeries (a good friend of ours had a terrible road accident & I'm glad her face could be re-constructed). But I do have a certain disdain for the thought that one's physical appearance could be a source of unhappiness. While I worry quite often about how I look, its been just that -- a worry; never an unhappiness.

I guess the pressure to look a beauty-stereotype is much higher on the girls today than it was while I was growing up; and I'm glad it allowed me and my friends to appreciate our individuality. Yet, I wonder if I would've felt differently about cosmetic surgery if I was born with a giant hairy mole on my face :)

While in Dubai, I had written this post about my mixed feelings on the subject of women in veils. I couldn't help thinking of that post while watching the show. Maybe this is yet another case of social pressure forcing women into wearing this veil of a different kind.

The Glass Ceiling

We had this discussion at work the other day: In this day & age, do women still have a disadvantage in their workplace, on account of their gender?

Personally, I have never in my career of 5 years felt discriminated against by my bosses or my colleagues; because I'm a woman.

Yet, there are more subtle disadvantages that I think a woman faces in the course of her career; the biggest of them being the social expectations of getting married & having babies. I know many good female students from my b-school who opted out of careers in order to raise families. The ones who are still in careers & are married, clearly have a preference for 'less stressful' jobs so that they could be home in time to enjoy a quality married life. It certainly is a matter of personal choice & priorities; but is it not also a matter of social conditioning which forces women to see 'home-making' as their role?

The thing about the glass ceilings is that, its easy to miss it even if you're directly under it.

How true

From a wall of the FDR Memorial in DC....'More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars'...

Just another thought

There are plenty, who believe that God exists.

Why then so few, who act on that belief?

Veil

This is one debate which is always in the news in the Muslim countries: Should the veil be banned for being suppressive to women; or should the veil be allowed as a statement of religious freedom & secularism?

Personally, I wish women wouldn’t have to veil themselves, but I think every society comes with its box of ‘social taboos’. Many Indian women for example, wouldn’t be as comfortable wearing a pair of shorts as European women; because it would be considered too 'western' in their social circles. But these women might well be as little (or as much) subversive as the European women. Maybe the veil and feminism are two separate issues that could easily get confused. Or maybe these seemingly cosmetic shackles are closely linked to the bigger issues?

Some more Khalil Gibran...

He is my absolute favourite poet & writer...Khalil Gibran just had a way with words. This short parable is from the collection 'The Wanderer', and is titled 'Garments':

Upon a day Beauty and Ugliness met on the shore of a sea. And they said to one another, "Let us bathe in the sea." Then they disrobed and swam in the waters. And after a while Ugliness came back to shore and garmented himself with the garments of Beauty and walked away. And Beauty too came out of the sea, and found not her raiment, and she was too shy to be naked, therefore she dressed herself with the raiment of Ugliness. And Beauty walked her way.

And to this very day men and women mistake the one for the other. Yet some there are who have beheld the face of Beauty, and they know her notwithstanding her garments. And some there be who know the face of Ugliness, and the cloth conceals him not from their eyes.

PS: Did you notice that Gibran has portrayed Beauty as a 'her' and Ugliness as a 'him' :)

PPS: Here's an older post on Khalil Gibran, and another one here.