Articles
- R K Pachauri: Carrying 6 billion hopes
- Dr. RK Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is leading the international campaign against Climate Change for his services to the environment he has recently been awa......read more
- India's Climate Change crusader: Mr. Jairam Ramesh
- India is a fast developing nation but this development comes at a price, the environment. Our interview with him made us aware that Mr. Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and F......read more
- He does not deserve the nobel
- I have developed the art of using money in creative ways to a point where it has become scientific. The deeply unfortunate occupational hazard that accompanies this rather fulfilling pastime is that m......read more
- US & Co
- I have experienced three kinds of news. There is American news, which although accurate, skims past the destruction caused by their troops. There is PAkistani news, which tells us of their 'power' and......read more
- Jaswant Singh on people, politics and partition
- One of India's longest serving politicians, Jaswant Singh's controversial book on Jinnah and India's partition sparked both criticism and praise from people across India and Pakistan. His bold decisio......read more
- Statue-tory warning: Your narcissism is injurious to national health
- At a time when Maharashtra's notorious Vidarbha region witnesses one farmer suicide every 8 hours, when the entire state is frequented by power cuts as a result of the rains playing truant and the sta......read more
- Try
- I am 17 years old. I go to school. I come home. I eat, sleep, study.
I go out on the weekends, avoide my parents and am addicted to facebook.
By a broad standard, I am normal.
Can I c......read more - Theplas in Thailand & pickles in Paris: Say hello to the Indian tourist
- The Indian tourist seems to have earned himself a global reputation. He may don many avatars, but the stereotype he has earned for himself remains like an unsightly splotch on Indians' reputation aboa......read more
- Red tapism in India
- "The Common Man walks into the Passport office for the fifth time in ten days. He is sick of standing in the heat. He is sweaty. He is tired of the never ending trips to try and procure his passport. ......read more
- Naxalites - a burning problem
- The Maoists-Naxalites have been in the news lately. These little understood, much maligned groups, with a common leftist ideology, have been the cause of long-standing violence, arson and disruption. ......read more
- Unity in diversity?
- With hundreds of different ethnicities, myriad religions, thousands of languages, and an infinite set of values, (some of which are diametrically opposite) India could easily be considered the most di......read more
- Every One
- India is a country that is progressing at an astoundingly rapid rate. It has proved itself to be a country to watch out for. Its economy is booming, and its people are continuing to prove their abilit......read more
- The Indian Judiciary: Does the pillar of strength need to be strengthened?
- Do judges in India need to be policed and to what extent? There has recently been focus on the Indian judiciary system. The question has arisen on whether Indian judges need to be policed. The Union C......read more
- Defence, Development & the Indian Economy
- India today occupies a unique position on the world stage. We are perhaps the only country trying to juggle a rapidly advancing economy, an extraordinary array of infrastructural develoments, an inher......read more
- 26/11
- A year on, an overview of the city of Mumbai yields a result no different then what one would have expected. The city continues to be a bustling, shining beacon of India's ascent to global success, w......read more
- Wake up and smell the carbon
- Few years ago, there was only one problem the world had to deal with - the nuclear bomb. Today's youth are growing up in the shadows of three bombs any of which can go off any moment, leading to a rad......read more
- Apocalypse - impossible? Think again!
- 2050, India-a young boy stares at the barren landscape of his hometown, where rising tempartures and water scarcity have made living life a burden. The ganga river has dried up, the once snow capped p......read more
- Congress ka 'raj' Thackeray
- For anyone who doubts that politics is a dirty game, the recent Maharashtra State Assembly polls was an eye-opener. With cousins standing against each other in a family feud of epic proportions and th......read more
- Change after 26/11
- On 26th November, 2008 a catastrophe stuck the city of Mumbai. While the elite class of South Mumbai was dining at 5 star hotels, The Taj Mahal Hotel and the Trident, and the commuters were......read more
- The future of Mumbai
- Milind Deora's victory for the second term in a row has silenced all his critics. In a candid discussion, Mr. Deora spoke to us about the Maharashtra elections, the MNS, chqanges since 26/11 and of hi......read more
- VOTE INDIA
- Over the last few weeks, the nation has been keenly observing the movements of a new found political scion, Varun Gandhi of the BJP. Gandhi's radical views, to say the least, have "shocked" some and "......read more
- 26/11
- Are we so naive that we cannot see that some of the problems are from within our country? We don't see the greater good but act in our own selfish and devious ways......read more
- Arun Jaitley-a candid discussion
- An interview with the General Secretary of the Bhartiya Janta Party, Arun Jaitley gave us an insight into the mind of strategic planner and mast head of this election's opposition party. After years o......read more
- The Criminalisation of Indian Politics
- India boasts of being the largest democracy in the world; with an estimated 671 million eligible to vote for the 15th General elections to be held in April - May 2009. However, over the last 61 years ......read more
- Democracy: As we are made to see it
- What do you think about putting 1.147 billion puzzle pieces together? Indian democracy is just that. It is not as simple and sinless as a puzzle, but putting 1.147 billion thoughts together, fixing th......read more
- Goolam Vahanvati - the youth's role in India's future
- Mr. Goolam Vahanvati, one of the best lawyers in India, tells us we as the youth need to look beyond corruption, he tells us to a look at the larger picture. He says, "You must believe that this is a ......read more
- Indian National Congress: The way forward?
- We citizens of India are not in the mood to listen to comments like "Bade bade sheharo mein chotte chotte cheese hote rehte hain". The youth want to see some degree of accountability in the entire pol......read more
- Jyotiraditya Scindia-India's tomorrow
- We arrived at 27 Safdarjung Road, home to one of the most promising and visionary leaders in this country. Part of the Congress youth brigade Mr. Jyotiraditya Scindia, having studied at Harvard and St......read more
- Omar Abdullah - our hope for change
- Mr. Omar Abdullah one of the few leaders in this country who commands respect and does not demand respect, speaks to us about his vision for India. He is one of the most protected men in India with si......read more
- PAKISTAN: at the brink of destruction?
- Two twins, India and Pakistan separated at birth due to numerous complications, travelled through a long journey since partition. This difficult path took off in August 1947, when, after having surviv......read more
- Third Front - an illusion?
- We the youth of India desire change and to some the Third front is the only option to provide this change, which makes the Third Front seem as a serious contender. On the other side of the spectrum mo......read more
Article of the month
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He does not deserve the nobel
I have developed the art of using money in creative ways to a point where it has become scientific. The deeply unfortunate occupational hazard that accompanies this rather fulfilling pastime is that money tends to get wasted in creative ways too. It's entertaining but also profoundly stupid.
Text: Akshat Goel
Skylar: Maybe we could go out for coffee sometime?
Will: Great, or maybe we could go somewhere and just eat a bunch of caramels.
Skylar: What?
Will: When you think about it, it’s just as arbitrary as drinking coffee [or giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee obviously does not share this sentiment. Its shock announcement of the Peace Prize recipient for 2009 as President Barack Hussein Obama represented for me the ultimate way to misuse a pleasant sum of money and was greeted with surprise and incredulity in global circles.
Only rarely has the prize been so blatantly partisan and motivated by political pressures. In 2002, the Prize was awarded to Jimmy Carter in what was considered a European protest at the Bush regime’s conduct of the Iraq war. In 2005, it was awarded to Mohamed el-Baradei after the noted international diplomat indulged himself by going mano-e-mano with Washington’s finest on the issue of the international nuclear order. There is a very important difference between these two individuals and Obama - the award was not awarded to them for a collection of words handed to them by paid speechwriters. Mr Obama’s award followed a series of moving speeches made at various international forums to the tune of how the ‘people of the world’ should make cohesive efforts to reduce nuclear proliferation and weaponization. This is decidedly not a very creative topic to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Compare this to past luminaries (some of my favourites) who have won Prizes for various accomplishments: Mohammed Younis (Peace 2006) for revolutionizing loan systems through the Grameen Bank model, John Nash (Economic Sciences 1994) for the creation of game theory, Oe Kenzaburo (Literature 1994) for his writing on Japan, and Ken Arrow (Economic Sciences 1972) for conceptualizing the impossibility theorem- and these are just the ones that I like. In stark contrast, “his [Obama’s] extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” fail to impress me. All he has done is talk, after all. .
Among others Greenpeace and Ken Saro Wiwa talked, but were not given a Nobel Prize. Trying to list all the names here would be a waste of precious column space. These organizations and people were and are entities of action. I have no detectable passion for the environment whatsoever. We could kill every species of tree known to us and I would (before I asphyxiate) be relatively indifferent to it. But even so I was touched (touched is a bit extreme, I felt some emotion at best) when I read about Greenpeace’s Don’t Make A Wave Committee. Vaclav Havel’s work against totalitarianism and Ken Saro Wiwa’s passionate writings, speeches and films against a repressive regime stealing the livelihood of his people make no less of an impact on me as do the work of hundreds of other humanitarians over the past century. .
Mr. Nobel’s will (even though I am no legal expert) expressly states that the other prizes be given for ‘inventions’ and other explicit forms of progress in the fields of physics, chemistry, medical sciences, literature, and economics. The implication is that, transitively, for a nominee to receive the Peace Prize, his work should have had observable effects. It should represent a considerable progression in its field. I do not believe this to be the case. .
It does not make sense, to me, that a grant of this magnitude be thrown away to not only a person who obviously does not need the money to continue his work. (Presidents of the USA while in office and most after having left office tend to be able to get by without an additional one million kronor.) President Obama’s work while worthy of respect and international regard has brought about no great tangible change in the world order. To think that the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the time of his reception was managing no less than two wars as the Commander-in-Chief of the second largest standing army in the world, is ironic and ridiculous.
One must also question the jurisprudence behind the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s ability to present the award in the first place: rarely is there legal basis for an essentially legislative body (in this case, the Norwegian Parliament which appoints the committee) to administer what is essentially a legal document (Alfred Nobel’s will) This is a debate which has often been thrown under the cover since the inception of the Nobel Prize. The Norwegians feared that a prolonged argument on the issue would result in the money being lost.
Moreover, the 2009 list of nominees was the largest ever. Mr. Obama had a 1/205, or a 0.487804878048780487804878049 % chance of receiving the award, to add to which he was the underdog. The Committee is famously tight-lipped about the reasons for its choices, which makes this process extremely arbitrary in the eyes of the external viewer anyway.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that Mr. Obama’s idealism and powerful rhetoric is a rare and wonderful quality in the modern international political arena. It’s just that he hasn’t got much done yet, and there were 204 others who needed that money more than him. In the words of Lech Walesa, “Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast -- he hasn’t had the time to do anything yet.”