Friday, December 28, 2012

Can we get any more Neanderthal?

A lot is happening everywhere in the world today, and people are preparing to spend the weekend with their loved ones getting ready for the New Year which is just around the corner. Many organizations will honor people that have done something hroic for the society. CNN, for one, runs a program to honor Heroes over the world and nearly all the folks showcased in that program are true Heroes.

But then, every once in a while, there are assholes (Please pardon my French!) that prove that some humans are actually going backwards in time. first, there was the deranged soul that shot several innocent kids in Newtown (CT), and I thought that it was a new low. But then, I read about the girl who was gang-raped in a Delhi bus on Dec. 16th, then beaten and thrown out to die. After fighting for her life over the past several days, she finally succumbed today to her grave injuries amidst multiple organ failures in Singapore.

Over the past few days, I have been reading comments about the incident and following the news in the Indian/world news media. One friend suggested that the modern clothing was one of the causes for this incident or growing crimes against women in India, while another blamed Indian movies - especially the provocative songs like Sheela ki Jawani or Munni or Halkat Jawani for these increasing crimes. The weird part was that some of these comments came from women, and some from parents who themselves have daughter(s).

India is not alone in seeing these crimes spurt. Just a couple of years back, there was a similar incident in Richmond, California where 6 highschool students gangraped a fellow student after a highschool party where they were all drinking together. Date rape is also a fairly common thing in the wild west. And rape is still a stigma all over the world, which prevents the victims from coming forward to report it. But what makes the case in India more barbaric and deplorable, is the way the girl was treated. Without going into the details (I am sure you can read about the gory details by Googling the news), let me just state that the girl was raped, then beaten with iron rods and then thrown out in the bushes from the moving bus.

The girl fought bravely her sever injuries for several days. During this time, several of the women's group finally decided to stand up and take the up the fight. There have been demonstrations all over the country. My wife and I were talking about the case just a few nights back, and we discussed her remote chances of survival as she struggled with speticemia and organ failures. For the first time, the Indian Government sponsored a civilian to be sent to Singapore for treatment. During her flight, she collaped and the doctors were able to revive her. So, the odds were always against her.

Over the next few days, there will be many discussions, arguments, and demonstrations on this topic. There will be "experts" willing to share their wisdom, and then there will be the news media goons who will keep sensationalizing the event. People will dissect every statement, move including the decision to send her to Singapore. But where do we go from here? Can we really blame the "clothing" or the "movies" for such deplorable acts? Is it not our lack of respect for women that is the real reason? What is the punishment for this crime? Many angry people have said that the perpetuators should be castrated and then tarred! Is that the right thing to do?

Lot of questions and I don't really see any immediate answers. One can't change the mindset by just bringing in laws and rulings. It takes a more sustained effort at a grassroot level - and unfortunately, no body is really talking about that. As a father of two beautiful daughters, I often worry about their safety - but I know I have brought them up well, they are strong, and that they are in a place where women are somewhat respected -- not because of what they wear or how they dance or sing - but just because they are who they are. That said, I am hoping that India can use this incident to come up with a movement to bring back the respect for women in the Indian Society.

I pray that the girl's soul her family can find some peace!!

Friday, December 14, 2012

A new low!!

Today, on the 14th of Dec, United States of America experienced a new low.  Today, a so called crazy guy shot dead twenty kids that had no clue what hit them or why! Twenty kids, who had still not reached ten years of age, were still forming opinions, building dreams about their lives. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time – just a week before Christmas and the start of the holiday season.

There will be several prayers, vigils all over the country, lot of tears ( I believe the president was teary eyed too).  They will call some students or teachers heroes (why do we need heroes for every mishap??). Then there will be additional security enforced in schools all over the country, causing a further overburdening of an already fragile system. And then it will all be forgotten!!   How many of us remember that two weeks back a NFL linebacker shot his girlfriend who was the mother of his three month old kid, before shooting himself. And of course, the recent mass shooting in the sikh gurudwara in Wisconsin or the infamous Columbine incident. Just like people have forgotten what is right and what is wrong.

And then, there will be a Glen Beck or a gun store owner who will stand up and say that this could have been prevented if we had the right guy on the spot with a gun to scare the incumbent. They will claim that guns are not the problem, but instead are the solution. It is so easy to just let the bullets fly – I wonder if they’d be open to putting action into place where their words are, if it was their own family in a similar situation.

Today’s incident is a new low in the western world where we rely on heroes and guns are a constitutional right. I find that last part ironical – it is not a constitutional right to have a job or to be able to marry the person one loves, but it is constitutionally allowed to carry a gun openly.  Our politicians have allowed a lobby to browbeat and hold the entire country hostage to lousy gun control laws. The current gun control laws or the lack there off, are a sham. One can’t buy medicines without allowing the powers-that-be to sniff all over your body, but buying a firearm is a piece of cake.

So what is the solution? My suggestion is simple – ask every politician or person if they would like to see their kids in a similar situation either with a gun or on the side opposite a gun? Most likely, the answer will be No. So then, why allow guns to be openly carried by civilians. If someone is interested in guns, they have the option to join the armed forces or paramilitary forces or become a police office or just go to a shooting range which can be found easily in the US. So, why do we have to own guns and keep them at home? But at the same time, there are valid reason from the other side too. So how do we create a system that meets the need of both sides?

One of the other lows in today’s incident was the killing of the shooter’s mother along with 7 other adults. The very fact that a kid could even consider hurting a woman indicates that there were issues. The idea of hurting one’s mother is totally unheard of in any civil society. I remember my mother telling me a story of the amount of love a mother has for her kids and I will repeat it here – in the fit of rage and inebriation, a teenager stabbed his mother. As she lay bleeding, she asked him to run away telling him to stay safe and take care of himself. She also told him that she’d tell the cops that she had tried to commit suicide. What I learned from this was that a mother would go to any lengths to keep her kids out of trouble – whether it be the right thing to do or not. How can anyone think of hurting, let alone kill, some one that only wishes the best for you!!

I pray for the families of the injured, and for the remaining family of the shooter. And I pray that our leaders come to their senses and place the wellbeing of the public in front of the views put by a lobby.