India's Corruption Problem

India is corrupt. It's been that way for as long as I know. I didn't think that was ever going to change, and I was worried that it would stunt the country's growth. How can you change societal problem that is so widespread?

Wikipedia throws it down for us:

Political and bureaucratic corruption in India are major concerns. A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that more than 45% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices successfully.

It's hard to trust a government that allows that much corruption without doing anything about it. It's bad for business. You can't trust anyone, whether they're working for you or whether they're a government official.

My grandfather and uncle run a coconut oil mill in India. They make the best coconut oil in the world. That's a fact. However, they have no desire to expand because any hint of success would lead to unwarranted government harassment. The other problem with expanding is that you can't trust a damn person, even family members. People are greedy and there's no accountability. It's an awful set of circumstances.

Finally, someone has decided to stand up against corruption:

Anna Hazare has quickly become a 21st century Mahatma Gandhi inspiration for millions of Indians fed up with rampant corruption, red tape and inadequate services provided by the state despite the country posting near-double digit economic growth for almost a decade.

Obviously, any Indian protester is going to instantly get compared to Gandhi just as any African-American Civil Rights activist would be compared to MLK or Malcolm X (or Rosa Parks).

Even prominent businessmen are behind this sentiment:

"Democracy means no voice, however small, must go unheard. The anti-corruption sentiment is not a whisper-it's a scream. Grave error to ignore it," Anand Mahindra, one of India's leading businessmen and managing director of conglomerate Mahindra Group, wrote on Twitter.

People are speaking out. It's about time. You can only push people so much until they are going to push back. Now is the time that people feel empowered to share their opinion. An attack on corruption can only help India grow as a nation.

If you're not familiar with Hazare, he was recently jailed and is now fasting:

Hazare, who has struck a nerve with millions of Indians by demanding tougher laws against rampant corruption, had insisted he wants the right to return to a city park where he had originally planned to publicly fast, before he leaves jail.

While some see Hazare as a hero, others see this movement as somewhat hypocritical.

This isn't just a public issue:

Indians have a deep and complicated relationship with corruption. As in any long marriage, it is not clear whether they are happily or unhappily married. The country’s economic system is fused with many strands of corruption and organized systems of tax evasion. The middle class is very much a part of this.

But it goes beyond that. Some of the primary supporters of Hazare were Bollywood stars. However, Bollywood has a shadiness to it as well:

One reason the mafia could get such a firm hold on the film industry in the 1990s was that it had established a business relationship with producers and actors and functioned as an efficient conduit for illicitly transferring their money to safe foreign havens.

Following Mr. Ramdev’s fast, when the government agreed to investigate Indian money hidden in foreign banks, The Times of India ran an intriguing essay that argued that the law should make a distinction between the “black money” of corrupt politicians, earned through kickbacks, and the “black money” of businessmen who had moved their cash abroad years ago to save themselves from unreasonably high tax rates in socialist India. The essay implied that corrupt politicians were the real evil and that the tax-evading businessmen were just smart.

So as you see, there's a dichotomy in views on corruption.

In a society like the United States, it seems like we have a lot less corruption in politics and much more in business. If you're in politics and you're corrupt, you get jail time. If you're a businessman and you avoid taxes, you get vilified.

In India, it's only the politicians that get vilified. This doesn't seem fair and may seem hypocritical. However, why should anyone trust a corrupt government? Why should a hardworking citizen give money to a government it doesn't trust? While I believe there needs to be a full termination of corruption in India, I believe that it will have to begin at the top. After that, you can go after the businessman and even the working man.

Once the government restores the people's faith in it, it can restore its faith in the people.

Race In America

I don’t know if you guys have read Joel Stein’s recent satirist piece on his hometown, Edison, New Jersey, and the burgeoning Indian population there. The article has been put into the public spotlight, at least in the Indian-American community, and journalists, such as CNN’s Rahul Parikh, have vilified Stein for the piece, calling it racist and insulting. This response has forced Stein to add a note to the end of his article claiming that he meant the article as a piece of humor and that he wanted to raise the issue of immigration.

If the article reveals one thing, it is that we are still hypersensitive on issues of race. We see comedians talking about their race and lambasting stereotypes about their people and their culture, and everyone laughs. As soon as someone else makes comments about their race and their culture, it’s not funny. People become defensive.

My dad watches Russell Peters, a comic, whose material relies heavily on exploiting Indian stereotypes. He loves it. However, as soon as someone else makes a joke about him or Indian people, he gets defensive. Heck, even I have made a joke about him or Indian people, and he has lectured me about it. This to me is symptomatic of how people of different races and cultures feel in general. People assume that jokes that involve their race are meant to be insulting.

Then, how is it okay to laugh at comics who are making jokes about their race and their experiences with race? To use my dad again, he often watches Chris Rock specials. He laughs hysterically. To me, his stance on this issue is hypocritical. How is it okay to laugh at someone else, if someone can’t laugh at you? This, to me, is the main issue in this article.

Joel Stein is not only someone who is making light of the presence of a large Indian population in India, he is also not Indian. As a result, many of his observations are being taken as having racially charged motivation. He may have meant to raise an issue such as immigration, but he did not express this sentiment in the right way. I am aware that he was trying to infuse humor into the piece, but it lacked the tact to raise an issue.

Personally, I saw the humor in his article. I found it funny. However, I did not see how it would raise questions about immigration on its own. Perhaps, if he had added his note before the critical response or better written his piece, the article could have led conversations in that direction, but given that he has already received a hostile response, it will head towards issues of race.

In all likelihood, not much will be made of this article. It will not become an issue pushed more than it already has been. Perhaps, it should be though. Perhaps, we should push the issue of race back in the national spotlight. Perhaps, something like this would help shape people’s perceptions about race. In the last couple weeks, the issue of race has been put into the public spotlight. We’ve seen it rear its head in the Lebron James free agency, the Tea Party movement, and now this article.

The issue of race was not solved in the Civil Rights movement. We do not live in a cosmopolitan society. Racism is still prevalent, and many policies, ideologies, and actions are shaped heavily by racist thought and perception. It doesn’t help that we live in a society that is hell-bent on being politically correct. By masking our real feelings on issues such as race, we are keeping them in our subconscious rather than in the open. Only by discussing these sentiments can we move towards a peaceful society.

The New India

India is in great need of infrastructure. If you have been there, you will see that while improvements are being made every day, a long effort will be needed to bring its cities up to Western standards. I will probably have to go to India in December, and I will provide a more thorough assessment of the situation.

India 1, Rest Of The World 0

While the world is suffering through this economic crisis, India continues to prosper:

India's economy grew at an annual rate of 8.6% in the three months to March, largely thanks to growth in manufacturing, official data has shown.

That marked an increase on the 6.5% growth seen in the previous quarter.

Finance Minister:

"I expect the current economic momentum to remain," Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after the figures were released.

At least some country I like is actually doing well.

Maoists Attack in India

I'll have to read up on them.

Guilty: Mumbai Gunmen

I wonder if a diplomatic crisis will occur if the death penalty is given.

Religion Kills

A stampede at a Hindu temple in Northern Uttar Pradesh has caused the deaths of at least 63 people:

Police in India have lodged a case of criminal negligence against the managers of a Hindu temple where at least 63 people died in a stampede.

Dozens more were injured when the gate of the temple in northern Uttar Pradesh collapsed leading to a stampede.

All of the dead identified so far are women and children, police say. The temple gate was still being built.

Here's CNN's coverage of the incident:

This is not the first time that there's been a stampede at a temple in India. Just unfortunate that this kind of thing continues to happen.

Terrorists Don't Want Peace

India's External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna, had this to say about the Pune blast:

It seems that peace talks are vital to stability in the region or else war might seem like a more realistic resort.

The Diplomat: India Invites Pakistan To Talk

As many of you know, India and Pakistan have a long history and recent relations between the two countries have not exactly been friendly. With Pakistani based terrorists focused on India as well as fears that Pakistan is harboring terrorists, India has been growing its arms, spurring a race for arms between the two country. Both countries have nuclear arms. However, India has offered Pakistan an opportunity to talk:

"Though little progress has been made in India's efforts to get Islamabad to crack down on India-focused militants operating on Pakistani soil, India's concerns over Taliban appeasement in Afghanistan are driving New Delhi toward engagement with Islamabad," said Stratfor, which provides strategic intelligence on security and geopolitical affairs.

"India knows the only way it can edge into the Afghanistan dialogue and hope to influence the Taliban negotiations is to first reopen a diplomatic channel with Pakistan," it said in its news analysis on India’s offer of talks with Islamabad.

This is a very significant development, but it remains to be seen whether anything will be done. I doubt that Pakistan will agree to anything beyond the talks.