Climate Change Bollywood ishtyle August 7, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Culture, Design, Everything 2.0, Globalisation, Innovation, Leadership Innovation, Nature, Politics, Sustainability, climate change, kleptocracy.Tags: An Inconvenient Truth, Brand India, Capitalism, climate change, demise of capitalism, Ethics, Greed, India, India and China, Kyoto Protocol, Materialism, Sustainable retreat, Thought leadership, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United States, Western Thought
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Let’s use the standard Hindi movie formula of circa 1980 to script our earth’s climate story. Enter Superstar US. The virtuous, street smart, Robin Hood inspired protagonist of our story, replete with his coterie of jazz dancers. And then there’s the poor guy, India. Always trying to emulate the “hero” and competing with him for the “herione’s” attention in college settings. Let’s throw in some masala – subplots, love triangles and the very popular song and dance sequences – with the extras doing their own thing while they dance in the third row.
Quick Gun Murugan
Now compare this with whatever we’ve been seeing in the Climate Change discussions. See the script accurately playing itself out? (Nobody seems to want to ask mother Earth for her point of view). Call it clairvoyance or just plain sensitivity, some of us have been seeing it coming since the mid nineties. Even we couldn’t have guessed the speed of deterioration, although fully knowing the bounty hunter tendencies of the US, we should have been able to. Easily. Shame on us!
Some simple facts from Prem Shankar Jha’s Tehelka article, An Earth On Edge.
1. Till as recently as five years ago, abrupt climate change was on the unthinkable fringe of possibilities predicted by climate scientists. In March 2009, 2,500 scientists from 80 countries assembled at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen. The congress concluded that the findings of the IPCC were out of date. The evidence collected since its fourth report was compiled showed that global warming was ceasing to be human-induced and was becoming self-reinforcing. (more…)
Raju, How could you? January 13, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Corporate terrorism, Corruption, Illusions, Innovation.Tags: Brand India, Business, Culture of India, demise of capitalism, fraud, India, Indian Government, Marketeering, Ramalinga Raju, Satyam Computer Services, Western Thought
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Satyamev Jayate (Sanskrit: “Truth Alone Triumphs”) is purportedly the foundation stone of India’s value systems. The Indian newspapers have been indulging in wordplay about how Satyam means not ‘truth’ but lies. Like every other scam, this too shall die out of public memory and that’s no surprise. What is surprising is that while we keep touting the need for innovation, we’ll do exactly the opposite in Satyam’s case and in every such future occurence.
First let’s look at some ‘facts’.
1. We are expected to believe (media plays Government spokesperson here) that one man is responsible for the Satyam scam and that he kept at it for 7 years without being found out. Yeah! We believe you!
2. The Indian business environment (read regulatory frameworks) encourages entrepreneurship and officials are above board. Corruption is the fault of the citizen and not the government. Yeah! We’re wet behind our ears.
3. The 53,000 employees of one of India’s IT powerhouses does not have even 3 employees that can be elevated to the Board and we need the Government to appoint some ‘untainted’ officers. Yeah! See what happened to Colin Powell?
4. If the Indian Government does not follow the leader (read US Government) by bailing out the company, employees will be on the streets. Yeah! Sure, the company was paying its salaries on receipt of monthly payments from their customers.
5. Statutory auditors are supposed to sign on Company results based on the Chairman’s statement and are not meant to independently verify the accounts. Yeah! Capitalistic businesses will protect the interests of the guys who pays most and therefore they would defintely find private players more attractive to side with.
The truth could be that there are several ‘powerful’ vested interests locked into the company. How many hand-in-glovers are involved in the scam is something I think will unfurl in the weeks/months ahead.
