Gaddafi Helped Mandela

Image via WikipediaIt is important to maintain perspective.

I have always believed in democracy, and I have never thought of it as some kind of a western thing.

The day 9/11 happened I compared it to the start of something along the magnitudes of the Cold War.

Gaddafi is like Castro in that he saw a lot. He saw colonialism, the Cold War, the aftermath, the War On Terror. This guy stayed in the news for half a century.

I was doing school in Kathmandu. We were amazed about this guy who seemed to drive Reagan crazy. Who i-s this guy? We read up on him.

One of the details that has to be noted is that Gaddafi helped Mandela when nobody helped Mandela. Dick Cheney was opposed to imposing sanctions on the apartheid regime and I don't think he has ever course corrected that stand.

I have often wondered what a Gaddafi like political animal functioning in a democratic set up might look like. Because the world does need people who will speak to the west on their own terms.

I am thinking Imran Khan might emerge that welcome voice, someone who is a democrat, a son of the soil, intelligent beyond belief, and someone who simply can not go corrupt.

Gaddafi was a dictator like Saddam was a dictator. I would not put Castro in the same basket. Castro was never a mass murderer. And the US could learn from some of what Cuba has done in education and health. Castro exported many a doctor to Third World countries over decades.

A new world order asks for personalities like Imran Khan who will ride the world stage on behalf of their peoples, democratically elected, and subject to peaceful recall once every few years.

Imran Khan

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London Has Become Cairo

Image via WikipediaPeople in America who seek to cut government spending in ways that will send the world economy hurtling down into a grand recession should look to London now. And you thought only Third World dictators needed to face street power.

This is not the time for austerity measures. This is the time for a Global Marshall Plan.

No black person before Barack Obama ever became President Of The United States. That was racism. Blaming Obama for what Bush did is racism. Blaming Obama for not having brought forth some kind of a leftist utopia is also racism.

When you disagree with Tea Party fiscal insanity and blatant racism, you support the other guy. That other guy is Barack Obama. There are too many liberals in America who neither oppose the Tea Party nor support Barack Obama and simply sit back and complain. These are people who only get energized whey they are completely thrown out of power. These are people addicted to powerlessness.

You have to learn to be in power. The liberal crowd has much to learn.

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Default Racism

Image via WikipediaAmerica defaulting will throw the global economy into a Grand Recession.

There are people who never made peace with the fact that, oh well, there is a now a black guy in the White House.

The racist white Republicans' hatred for the folks out there in the Third World is so strong, they would be willing to jack up the unemployment rate in America all the way to 29% if that is what it will take to inflict pain on the Third World folks.

This divided government thing is obviously not working. I say give the House back to Barack Obama. Like they kicked Mubarak out in Egypt it is time to kick the Republicans out. March.

The New Yorker: Smash The Ceiling: y the subprime meltdown, skyrocketing oil prices, the Eurozone debt crisis, and even the Tohoku earthquake ...... —a failure to raise the debt ceiling, which would almost certainly throw the economy back into recession ...... the United States doesn’t need, and shouldn’t have, a debt ceiling. Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. There’s no debt limit in the Constitution. ...... Congress can simply vote to lift it, as it has done more than seventy times in the past fifty years. But it’s too strong because its negative consequences (default, higher interest rates, financial turmoil) are disastrously out of proportion to the behavior it’s trying to regulate. For the U.S. to default now, when investors are happily lending it money at exceedingly reasonable rates, would be akin to shooting yourself in the head for failing to follow your diet...... time pressure tends to close minds, not open them. ...... Under time pressure, negotiators tend to rely more on stereotypes and cognitive shortcuts. They don’t consider as wide a range of alternatives, and are more likely to jump to conclusions based on scanty evidence. Time pressure also reduces the chances that an agreement will be what psychologists call “integrative”—taking everyone’s interests and values into account...... by turning dealmaking into a game of chicken, the debt ceiling favors fanaticism ..... “It does not always help to be, or to be believed to be, fully rational, coolheaded, and in control of oneself” when it comes to brinksmanship. It doesn’t, in short, help to be President Obama. That may be why all the deals that have been taken seriously this season rely much more heavily on spending cuts than on tax increases: the deals represent Republican priorities, because the Republicans seem to be more willing than the Democrats to let the country default........ Instead of figuring out ways to raise the debt ceiling, we should simply go ahead and abolish it.

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Reshma 2010 Party Tonight

Image via Wikipedia

I am headed to a party tonight. Reshma 2010 has new offices.

Reshma 2010: New Office: Party: June 21 Monday

Food and Drinks
Monday, June 21st at 6:30 p.m.
The fifth floor of 143-145 Madison Avenue
(between 31st and 32nd Street)
Office opening party!

I am excited.

Full Timer Or Volunteer

I Want To Go Full Time With Reshma 2010

I have thought in terms of going full time with the campaign. But it is very possible the campaign would prefer to have me continue as a volunteer instead. That would be more than fine with me. One, that would mean the campaign is very confident of winning on September 14. Two, the best things I would do as a full timer would be the few things I would do as a volunteer. Meeting ordinary people is the best part of working on a political campaign. Three, going to work some kind of a tech sector job might be best for the startup I intend to work on in about 15 months: I got one very good lead as of now.

Politics is to me what sailing is to Larry Ellison. It is more than a hobby, but it is not my career. I am a Third World guy. I want to devote my work life to help bring more people online. The tech scene is where I belong.

But I must admit the campaign has me excited, and I keep having thoughts of all I would want to do as a full timer. Maybe I should talk them into letting me do the full time thing for 2-3 weeks. But, no matter what, I keep having thoughts I want to share. What if I were to go full time?

Kayak.com

Everyone at Kayak.com does customer service. They are the leading travel website. Everyone on the campaign staff needs to engage with voters on a daily basis.

I would want to work a subway stop for an hour during the evening rush hour every day at work, say 5:30-6:30 PM. Then get back to the office, and make phone calls for an hour from 7-8 PM. Those three hours have to be the core of what I would do as a full timer.

Google.com

Maybe we can not afford to offer free food like Google does, and we can not afford to offer variety like they do. But I have an idea. How about a one item $1.50 cheap lunch? You can get 50 frozen dumplings for $8. That is five lunches. The campaign pays for ketchup and hot sauce. I could get this thing going for an initial capital of $200.

Mango lassi would be free.

Revenue Neutral

I think I could raise $200 per day or more from working the subway stops every single work day.

"Hi. Reshma is running for Congress. Please visit her website and donate $20." (Hand flyer)

I could do that ad infinitum. (Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches)

I would raise the money the campaign would have to dole me out to have me as a full timer.

2 Weeks, 12 Weeks, Or 18 Weeks

It is very possible I sign up and I am sucked in for all of 18 weeks. After September 14 it is going to feel like I am working not just for Reshma but also for Obama.

40 Hours, Or 70 Hours

1 PM to 9 PM is 40 hours a week. But if I were to do a 10-12 stint in the morning from home, doing the blog daily for Reshma thing, and instead of 9 PM, I start leaving at 10, then that is another 15 hours. That is 55. Then you go to an event, and you stick around for a long, long time. Or if you decide to work an extra day closer to September 14, that is closer to 70 hours.

I think at 70 hours it is going to give you that startup feeling.

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