2/26/17

Memes and emojis

An Indian man had to die. This is within just a little over a month of Donald Trump's swearing in as the president of the USA. The roots of racism were buried far underneath the ground all these years. It was there, not totally absent, just out of sight. Ever since he has started being around, there have been several incidents of racism being reported all over the country, not just towards  Indians, towards people of all kinds of ethnicities. And the culmination of that along with no restrictions on guns has resulted in the incident at Kansas city. But there will still be no learning and no steps taken.

Why is it that the Americans want everyone out of their country? Do Indian people look like they just came , made and took jobs from Americans and settled in? No, it's not that easy. Relations and immigration between countries is always a highly controlled matter governed by a vast number of government policies and deals between both countries involved. It was a result of these instated policies and opportunities presented by these agreements that people traveled between the countries. Nobody can just wake up one day and decide," hey, I'm gonna go to American and get a job there" like they are going to get a job in their neighborhood. It takes paperwork, scrutiny, background checks, time and most importantly, the fact that the travel would benefit the US government in some way. Which, in the simplest of the ways, means paying taxes to  the US government. Which, is what a lot of Americans don't seem to get. There are people who think we don't pay taxes. I think my eyes rolled to the back of my head when I first heard this. But it's true. There are people who believe we are just earning money and not paying taxes ,all the while taking their jobs. I mean, if you are in high school and make this statement, I am ready to excuse you and explain it. But when an adult, a working, fully grown adult , and sometimes over 30, makes such statements, I wonder what happened to common sense and thinking before speaking. 

What would happen if there had been no H1B workers in the USA? Life as you know it would never have happened. The technology, the comfort of life all exist because countries united and worked together. I understand there has been misuse of the program in some cases but that's a minor percentage of the companies who have done it. The majority of companies using the H1B program have stuck to the rules. It's not entirely impossible to see that. Everyone is trying to make a life out of this crappy world we are right now in and doing the best we can for friends and family. If it does involve working abroad, meeting new people, creating new ideas, how is that bad? We are social beings, less than dolphins and killer whales though, but still, it's important for human beings to fraternize and collaborate and pursue ideas. 

When a nation progresses, its infrastructure develops, in the natural course of ways, a pride should develop along with it. This seems to have taken a turn for the worse with ego coming in to play. The conservative right wing playing police themselves and the wide array of news articles and videos constantly showing how more Americans have been killed by Americans and the "no gun control" policy than by people from other countries is startling. This development happened because of collaborations with other counties, and with the help of people who came in from other countries. And it did not happen overnight. It built up over the years. And it wasn't common people who just decided to come together and do something- everything is controlled in some way or the other by the governments themselves. This seems to be the point least understood by people who cry blame.

What is it that you mean when you say, "get out of MY country"? That country you are talking about has been shaped and built up over the years by hardworking people from all kinds of nationalities. The life that has been structured for every American is the result of years of hard work by people of all kinds of nationalities. Hypothetically, if after this one incident, all these people just stopped working, do you have any idea what would happen to the global economy, let alone the country's? Do you know how you own life would turn upside down? Hypothetically, if all these jobs were suddenly taken away from people of other nationalities and given to Americans, do you know what kind of a slump in stability you are looking at because the next thing you will do is blame your own government for not training and preparing you enough? Human beings always seek to blame and make excuses when things are rough. It's human nature. Do you know how long it will take to get out of that slump? YEARS! And do you want that? No, because at the same time, you still want to be on the top which is more impossible than anything else in the world. If these people had nothing to lose, they would stop. But they do have things to lose just like Americans too, they want to lead fulfilling lives just like Americans too, they want to reach old age and have stories to tell like Americans too. Don't tell me Americans don't want these things. Every person is just trying to make their way through.  These are things to ponder about- human lives, the common people, the government and understand before making one statement like "get out of my country" and firing a gun. There is something seriously wrong here and the government nor the president seems to be doing anything about it. If anything else, the seeming encouragement is frightening. 


If people in a first world country claim to have guns for safety, I shudder to think what would happen if there was no gun control in third world countries.

P.S. Last weekend we were at New Orleans and a bunch of us were walking through the pavements by the parade and one guy trailing behind. Apparently an old man reveling in the festivities stopped when he saw us and yelled "Fuck you you beggars go back to your country". We didn't hear him but the friend trailing behind saw and heard this. What is this sense of false supremacy that has come to exist? Common sense and humanity have become dwarfed in stupidity and ego. 




2/13/17

Haul Ass



I am caught in the headlights right now. Like a speeding car and a deer crossing the road in front of it suspended in time. I have three choices- make extra efforts to jump back or jump ahead out of the way or stay where I am. Because the moment this suspension in time ends, time will speed up indefinitely and no normal efforts to move out of the way will matter, it has to be way extra than normal. 
Now the driver has three choices too. He can keep plowing ahead, he can careen left or he can careen right. The brakes would never work in time.
So what do you do?
I don’t know how the driver will react, the driver doesn’t know how the deer will react. I may get saved as soon as the time suspension is up or I may get killed as soon as the time suspension is up. Keeping still, going left or right and putting extra efforts wouldn’t matter- I am fucked either way because I don’t know if the driver cares about deer or not.
That’s the thing with life. Consider each moment, dilemma, situation as suspended in time, the outcome of which can be anything, however much you put in efforts or you don’t. People say no, it’s up to you, how you make your life. Sure, it is. But it’s just till taking a decision, just till the point where you decide if you are going forward or backward or staying still. This is where most people’s advice stop: “You should move forward in your life, or keep doing what you are doing and you will succeed one day etc.” The advice doesn’t take into account realities of outcomes of the decisions.
After the decision, you are not in control because you don’t have control over what’s coming toward you. And what’s coming toward you has its own decision to make and take its own course of action- which may leave your ass alive or leave your ass to die.
The only thing you can keep doing in life is keep trying to save your ass and haul ass at the right moments. You are really not in control. The moment you take a new road, you are a part of the people, the cars, the weather, the dogs and everything on that road. Either way, you are fucked somewhere, somehow.

Scared and Safe

 It seems like I go through these sine waves of anxiety and determination. I ride out the waves differently of course. It seems like the anx...