The Significant Entropy: May 2009

Monday, May 25, 2009

Obama: A Black is the President of US of A

Ever since President Obama became "The President" of USA, every single radio station in the US, every single TV and print media cheered saying "A black has become the President of US for the first time in History". That's true. They also said "With this America has proved to the world that there is no racism in US left anymore". Little did they realize probably that while they were saying this, they were actually being racial. Had they not been racial why would they ever use the word "Black". How would it feel to say a prostitute that one does not consider her a prostitute. I know it's not decent setting this example for comparison but then I am sure it's the same when you compare Obama as being The President but still say "He's black". Here is another burning truth ...which will tell you the truth in US even now ...

The news item is taken from the source : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24prom-t.html?_r=1&ref=us. Here is the full truth:
About now, high-school seniors everywhere slip into a glorious sort of limbo. Waiting out the final weeks of the school year, they begin rightfully to revel in the shared thrill of moving on. It is no different in south-central Georgia’s Montgomery County, made up of a few small towns set between fields of wire grass and sweet onion. The music is turned up. Homework languishes. The future looms large. But for the 54 students in the class of 2009 at Montgomery County High School, so, too, does the past. On May 1 — a balmy Friday evening — the white students held their senior prom. And the following night — a balmy Saturday — the black students had theirs.
Racially segregated proms have been held in Montgomery County — where about two-thirds of the population is white — almost every year since its schools were integrated in 1971. Such proms are, by many accounts, longstanding traditions in towns across the rural South, though in recent years a number of communities have successfully pushed for change. When the actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for last year’s first-of-its-kind integrated prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi, his home state, the idea was quickly embraced by students — and rejected by a group of white parents, who held a competing “private” prom. (The effort is the subject of a documentary, “Prom Night in Mississippi,” which will be shown on HBO in July.) The senior proms held by Montgomery County High School students — referred to by many students as “the black-folks prom” and “the white-folks prom” — are organized outside school through student committees with the help of parents. All students are welcome at the black prom, though generally few if any white students show up. The white prom, students say, remains governed by a largely unspoken set of rules about who may come. Black members of the student council say they have asked school administrators about holding a single school-sponsored prom, but that, along with efforts to collaborate with white prom planners, has failed. According to Timothy Wiggs, the outgoing student council president and one of 21 black students graduating this year, “We just never get anywhere with it.” Principal Luke Smith says the school has no plans to sponsor a prom, noting that when it did so in 1995, attendance was poor.

Students of both races say that interracial friendships are common at Montgomery County High School. Black and white students also date one another, though often out of sight of judgmental parents. “Most of the students do want to have a prom together,” says Terra Fountain, a white 18-year-old who graduated from Montgomery County High School last year and is now living with her black boyfriend. “But it’s the white parents who say no. … They’re like, if you’re going with the black people, I’m not going to pay for it.”

“It’s awkward,” acknowledges JonPaul Edge, a senior who is white. “I have as many black friends as I do white friends. We do everything else together. We hang out. We play sports together. We go to class together. I don’t think anybody at our school is racist.” Trying to explain the continued existence of segregated proms, Edge falls back on the same reasoning offered by a number of white students and their parents. “It’s how it’s always been,” he says. “It’s just a tradition.”

Earlier this month, on the Friday night of the white prom, Kera Nobles, a senior who is black, and six of her black classmates drove over to the local community center where it was being held. Standing amid a crowd of about 80 parents, siblings and grandparents, they snapped pictures and whooped appreciatively as their white friends — blow-dried, boutonniered and glittering in a way that only high-school seniors can — did their “senior walk,” parading in elegant pairs into the prom. “We got stared at a little, being there,” said one black student, “but it wasn’t too bad.”

After the last couple were announced, after they watched the white people’s father-daughter dance and then, along with the other bystanders, were ushered by chaperones out the door, Kera and her friends piled into a nearby KFC to eat. Whatever elation they felt for their dressed-up classmates was quickly wearing off.

“My best friend is white,” said one senior girl, a little glumly. “She’s in there. She’s real cool, but I don’t understand. If they can be in there, why can’t everybody else?”
The seven teenagers — a mix of girls and boys — slowly worked their way through two buckets of fried chicken. They cracked jokes about the white people’s prom (“I feel bad for them! Their prom is lame!”). They puzzled merrily over white girls’ devotion both to tanning beds (“You don’t like black people, but you’re working your hardest to get as brown as I am!”) and also to the very boys who were excluded from the dance (“Half of those girls, when they get home, they’re gonna text a black boy”). They mused about whether white parents really believed that by keeping black people out of the prom, it would keep them out of their children’s lives (“You think there aren’t going to be black boys at college?”). And finally, more somberly, they questioned their white friends’ professed helplessness in the face of their parents’ prejudice (“You’re 18 years old! You’re old enough to smoke, drive, do whatever else you want to. Why aren’t you able to step up and say, ‘I want to have my senior prom with the people I’m graduating with?’ ”).

It was getting late now. KFC was closing. Another black teenager was mopping the floor nearby. A couple of the boys mentioned they had to wash their cars in the morning. Kera had an early hair appointment. The next night, they would dress up and dance raucously for four hours before tumbling back outside, one step closer to graduating. In the meantime, a girl named Angel checked her cellphone to see if any of the white kids had texted from inside their prom. They hadn’t. Angel shrugged. “I really don’t understand,” she said. “Because I’m thinking that these people love me and I love them, but I don’t know. Tonight’s a different story.”

Monday, May 18, 2009

How China Started Economic Downturn

Now, that the world is certain that we are headed for a great recession (and may be another great depression), and the focus is high on who did it ..what caused it ...and remedial actions ... to counteract the recession, it becomes necessary to understand why it has started. I listen to a number of economists on TV or YouTube saying that the economy is spiraling downwards because of wrong policies ...unfair business means etc. To the common man, all of this just translates to more struggle in life. You might run a risk of losing your job sooner or later. One might have difficulty supporting one's family given that the inflation is bound to go up. Since the time it started and Citibank came into headlines for wrong kinds of lending and credit practices, there were other reports that China may cause a fierce problem globally because of its export/import regulations and unfairly manipulating its currency. There were huge amounts of treasury bonds being written off to China. Simply put it meant US people were consuming much more than their capacity and this consumption was being provided by borrowing from China. Allow me to explain what role China has in causing the little problem that all of us face today ...

China and the United States have been developing a highly symbiotic, and dangerous, relationship. China has since discovered that if it builds its economy on cheap exports, it would allow China to grow much faster than it ever had. It would also allow to create enough jobs to mollify its population. American consumers snapped up these cheap exports — shoes, toys, electronics and the like (and they are still doing it ... just enter a Walmart supercentre anywhere in US and you will realise how)— and China soon found itself owning a huge pile of American dollars. This started happening around a decade ago. Governments don’t like to hold too much cash, simply because it does not pays any return. So the Chinese bought many, many Treasury bonds with their accumulated US dollars. This additional demand for Treasuries was one big reason (there, of course, are many other reasons too) that interest rates fell so low in recent years. Thanks to those low interest rates, Americans were able to go on a shopping spree (they are infamous for it by now) and buy those things, like houses, they couldn’t really afford earlier. China kept lending and exporting, and US simply kept borrowing and consuming. It all worked very nicely, until it became clear what's going to happen to the US and Chinese economy.
Today Chinese decided that they no longer wanted to buy Treasury bonds. The U.S. government’s recent spending for bank bailouts and stimulus may have been necessary to get the economy slowly moving again, but it also raised the specter of eventual inflation, which would definitely damage the value of Treasuries. If the Chinese get unnerved by this, they can instead use their cash to buy the bonds of other countries, which would cause interest rates in US to jump, prolonging the recession. Chinese premiere has said it umpteen number of times that they have lent a huge amount of money to the US and that they were concerned about the safety of their assets. Were China to cut back sharply on its purchase of Treasury bonds, it would send the value of the bonds down, hurting the Chinese, who already own hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth.
Chinese cheap money thus caused the over consumption by the US consumers. In China, the collapse of global trade has eliminated approx. 20 million jobs according to Beijing’s official numbers. If the global economy has to be brought back to a sustainable path, it requires dealing with the imbalances between China and the United States. In the broadest terms, this will mean that Americans must consume less and that Chinese must consume more. But here is the problem. Moving to an economy based more on consumption and less on exports happens to be the policy of the Chinese government. The biggest problem in China’s economy is that the growth is unstable, imbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable. However, the Chinese economy has become even less reliant on household spending, and even more reliant on business and government spending, in recent years.
Another interesting thing about China has been its currency value. Foreign-exchange rates are pretty complex, but the debate over the renminbi is really just a part of the broader issue of the economic imbalances between China and the United States. When a country exports more than it imports, as China has been doing, the value of its currency tends to rise. Exports then become more expensive (and thus decline), while imports become relatively cheap (and so increase). It’s a self-correcting system that, ideally, prevents big trade gaps between countries. But China has frequently intervened in the foreign-exchange markets to hold down the value of the renminbi and keep its exports booming. It has become less aggressive about doing so over the past few years, responding to international pressure, and the renminbi has risen more than 20 percent relative to the dollar. Still, many economists think that it still appears to be undervalued by about 10 to 20 percent. The Chinese tend to take umbrage at this analysis, because it suggests their boom has come at the expense of others.
When economists describe the relationship between China and the United States, it often sounds circular. US saves too little and China saves too much. China exports too much and US consumes too much. The situation can seem to be a reflection of Chinese and American cultures. Americans became hooked on cheap goods and cheap money, and China came to depend on the income from selling those goods. Chinese leaders didn’t set out with a grand plan to create an enormous trade gap but each step along the way seemed to make sense. The authoritarian government could stifle dissent with jobs. Local party leaders were rewarded for presiding over economic growth, and exports were the easiest way to achieve it. Once the export sector was built up, the cost of allowing the renminbi to appreciate was enormous.
The economic boom brought big profits, and companies held on to much of them. The government also increased its savings in last decade by collecting more taxes and, until the financial crisis, ran a budget surplus. And households increased their own savings in the 1990s, in reaction to the dismantling of many bloated state-run companies and the cradle-to-grave benefits. Much like India, when a Chinese citizen is rushed to the hospital after a road accident today, the first stop for the victim’s family is often the bank or whatever he has in his home locker. Many hospitals don’t admit patients until they have paid, and many families have no health insurance. Instead, they insure themselves, by saving.
The imbalances can seem to be overwhelmingly China’s fault. But that’s not truly the case. Just as policy makers in Beijing encouraged the rise in savings and exports, American policy makers took steps that encouraged over consumption. They allowed incomes for most families to stagnate, which made savings a luxury that many couldn’t afford and debt a way to finance rising living standards. US pretended — even argued — that there was no housing bubble.
Even more to the point, China, like the United States, is now paying a price for the two countries’ co-dependent relationship. The cities that experienced tremendous booms over the past decade are struggling with mass unemployment. Millions of recent college graduates, the demographic that often starts protest movements, are unemployed across China. Stocks have fallen more sharply than they have in US. These are the consequences of the unsustainable growth everyone worried about.
Other References:
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/01/21/chinas-economic-downturn-finally-start-to-hurt-other-countries/ and

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=cbadf922-3367-4f02-935f-9a95270e2557

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Tomorrow Will Be No Different (कल फिर से वही आलम होगा)

Another election in India is over and results are out. There will again be a government of uneducated, so called, leaders. They will again fail to bring in changes. There are just a few young faces in the list who will learn how "not to" develop the country and leave it at the mercy of foreign debt ... Alas, when will this end ...
कल फिर से वही आलम होगा
-------------------------------------
आज जीत की खुशियाली है
कल फिर से वही आलम होगा
लोमड़ फिर से जमे हुए हैं
मजलिश में फिर मातम होगा

चार मरेंगे इस नुक्कड़ पर
और चौदह की बली चढ़ेगी
कल मरते थे कल भी मरेंगे
बाढ़ भूख की नहीं थमेगी

पाँच बरस पर दिखते थे वो
पाँच बरस पर ही दिखेंगे
रोटी कपड़ा छत की चाहत
कल थी कल भी वहीं रहेंगे

एक भगत हो कोई ऐसा
चुन चुन कर वो सबको मारे
और बुनें हम भारत ऐसा
इज्ज़त से सब नाम पुकारे ।

If You want you can listen to the poem in my voice ...

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Meaning of Winning an Indian Election

Now that congress and allies have won ...and results are still coming .... here is a great cartoon which says what's going to be the status of politicians for the next 5 years ...
(The image is taken from Times Of India newspaper- You Said It section by R K Laxman).
This truly shows the current thinking of the politicians and the attention that the public deserves ...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Eternal Truth of Mortal Life (ज़िंदगी का कड़वा सच)

ज़िंदगी का कड़वा सच
---------------------------
वो हवा से
बातें करता
जा रहा था

ठोकरों से
दुनियां को
भरमा रहा था

चर्चे उसके
हर तरफ़ हीं
हो रहे थे

लोग उसकी
बातें करके
खो रहे थे

क्या पता था
एक दिन है
उसको गिरना

दुनियां की है
ठोकरों मैं
उसको परना

हाय जालिम !
दुनियां ऐसी
क्यूँ बनाई

हर वो अपनी
चीज़ जो थी
है पराई

अपने उसके
आज बेगाने
हुए हैं

हर वो खूबी
जो थी कल तक
निगाहों पर

आज वो सब
बदले पैमाने
हुए हैं

सीखना है
ज़िंदगी से
आज उसको

पाठशाला वही
एक है
जो है चलता

समय की
पाबंदियों से
है परे वो

ख़ुद के अन्दर
जो हमेशा
झांकते हैं

दुनियां को
वो पारखी हीं
जानते हैं

ज़िंदगी की
सीख खट्टी
और मीठी

तपता रखे
आपबीती
की अंगीठी

भूल जाए
शत्रुओं को
याद रखे दोस्ती

वही सूरज
बढ़ता आगे
इस सदी औ हर सदी
---------------------------

Life is typically hard with some people... specially with people who want to do things differently ...different from the regular accepted way of life ... They face a hell lot of troubles ...and during the days of hardships ...all his good qualities which people used to praise about turn into evils ... But he learns ...learns from every fall ...that's a REAL HUMAN BEING... He bounces back after learning ...and the best learning is that you should forget all such people who were against you ...and must remember all your good friends at all times ...Also remember all the difficulties you had and how you overcame them with limited or no resources ...all on your own ...

If you want you can listen to this poem in my voice ...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Know What You Eat: Know Your Nutrition Facts

I came across a new interesting website today. It's amazing and is really beneficial for your daily life and food/nutrition planning. It gives you the information that you want to know about each food item that you take on a daily basis in the simple terms that you can understand. It also tells you if the food has a positive or negative impact on our health if taken in combination with other food items or depending upon how you plan your diet. I think everyone should plan their diet properly to be fit and healthy. I am on my way to be fit and healthy :). I just hope not everyone starts so late... So if you have not been following up with your health ..not doing any exercises ... doing groceries without knowing how much nutrition value each item has ... I think it's high time you should start doing it now. It's always better starting late than never.

So I stumbled upon http://www.nutritiondata.com. It's a site where you can go and look for a particular food item including cereals, fruits, vegetables etc and check their nutrition facts. For example if you eat cooked rice ... see what nutrition it gives you for a bowl of rice...

It tells you get 169 calories per serving of one bowl with no fat and some dietary fiber and some protein. It also tells you that the fullness factor is 2.4 tells an indication of how much full you will feel after having just 1 bowl of cooked rice but at the same time it's not in green zone of target map so it might not be a great meal alone in terms of nutrition.But it's good on calorie ration which is good in terms of carb as you are not accumulating any fat. The glysmic value tells you how much impact this food will have on your blood sugar level.The inflammation factor tells you how positive is this food when eaten alone.

Similarly it also gives you an idea of what is the proten quality contained in this food item and how complete is this item in terms of nutrients gain in the body.

If you want you can also see an in-depth detail of all nutrients contained in the item.

Isn't all this information great?

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Scooby's Health Exercises Are The Best

I was looking for a lot of exercises on websites for my Abs and cardio. Something simple that I could do at home and at the same time should have excellent outputs. From my previous post while watching the video of David losing 400 lbs, I came across another video of Scooby. I must say ... the exercises that Scooby shows in his videos are simply great. I tried his Abs/Cycling and it left me surprised with joy! I'm sure you'd like to watch his videos if you like exercises... Mind it, it might look like it's only for GentleMen, but if you watch it carefully, it's all meant for everyone. For example if you are a female and want to lose weight from your abs (belly) you must watch the last (third) video here in this blogpost...

Here is his basic video ...

And this one tells you how to read labels before doing your groceries ...

And this one takes your breath away ... Just navigate to 6:00 minutes ..to avoid watching the loseit program on iPOD...starting 6:00 minutes in video, he shows you how to do crunches and cycling ...that will work for your abs so much better than any other exercise that you've been doing so far ...

Check out all of Scooby's video's at http://www.youtube.com/user/scooby1961

To understand and plan your calorie needs and your food chart, I suggest you use this : http://crossfitperformance.com/images/FoodChart_Blocks.xls
To know how much calories do you need everyday check any of these :
http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie_calculator.asp
or
http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm

You can use the following excel sheets too :
www.ironteam.net/public/nutrition/Calorie%20Calculator%20v1.2%20team.xls
or
www.brianmac.co.uk/excel/calorie.xls
or
www.chotiwalasayurveda.com/download/calories%20calculator.xls

How one man lost 400 lbs. without surgery

This is simply amazing ... How someone lost and still won ... :D ...

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Save Your Life From Mar

Dedicated to lethargy ...

Save Your Life From Mar
---------------------------
Tring tring tring
I'm the lazy king
'm not here for labor
That's a crazy thing!

My mind wants to work
And heart presses fork
I being a lazy dog
Jus'Drink open the cork!

Focus on the goal
Teaches every soul
But my lazy inner being
Escapeth with the dole!

Tough is the road
Be a croaking toad
Jump on your hind limbs
Break it with your KO'd!

Win Win every war
Breaking every bar
Kill your inner lazy being
To save your life from Mar!
--------------------------------
If you want you can listen to the poem in my voice ...

An Apple's View of The World Around Me!

Though, the place where I live is kinda always cold ...but the spring here is completely enjoyable. People just do not like to stay inside when they see sun shining in the spring.Almost everyone from the family either goes boating or fishing or some kind of sporting activity. The bad part is I have not learned swimming yet and so the "on my own" kind of water sport is out of question for me. But, my camera is my ultimate companion ... I had taken these pictures last Wednesday. I welcome you to the "Apple's view" of the world around me ...

1. An Apple's view of the world!

2. Moon trying to find a place at the dock behind my apartment!

3. But the Moon was covered under the net of the budding trees !!

4. Have you not dreamed about being at such a serene place all alone to find the peace of your mind ?

5. The first rainbow of this spring! After the first heavy rain of the season!

6. No, it's not a passenger railway station. It's a freight station by the dockyard!

7. You can sit and relax and see the boats go around !

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Spring Bloom at Peak ...

Here is the dose for today. Spring here is at the peak ...flowers blooming all around ... :)... Here are a few pics from the shots around my apartment here ... Hope you like them all ...

1. Tulip buds