The damn war - Life in South Sudan

"The only certainty is that it will get worse in the coming months, and the women and girls who die will be war casualties. “Those who are dying of gunshots,” Dr. Dut notes, “are fewer than those who are dying of hunger.” - Starvation as a Product of War, Nicholas Kristof

Their crime? Born in South Sudan at worse time in History.

War and crisis in South Sudan didn’t start yesterday or today. Causalities started piling up some time back; world had enough time to avert the crisis. But, ‘South Sudan’ is not China or Japan; neither this conflict has the glamour of Eastern Ukraine nor that of Palestine. Involved parties don't possess nukes and they don't have missiles which can reach any powerful city in the world. What is abundant in this part of world is AK47, starvation and death. Lately starvation cause more death than AK47.

There is a possibility of famine this year; continuous civil war only makes it worse. There is also a supply side constraint as the road from capital Juba is cut off due to fighting and Northern border with Sudan is closed due to disputes. Isolated from nearby regions and abandoned by rest of the world, people in this area are crumbling under the weight of starvation - death looks like a blessing to them.

At the point of time, it is important to reach an agreement on this conflict and bring an end to this. If P5+1 can show half the interest they had to reach a deal with Iran, this crisis can be stopped.

Hope that, Obama's this visit (last as president) will see some kind of deal on this.

Sajeev
References
Starvation as a Product of War, Nicholas Kristof

2006 Mumbai Blasts - Who proved what?

It was on that cursed day - 11th July 2006 - blasts in seven local trains claimed 189 lives (25 more, than Mumbai attacks of 2008) in Mumbai. Apart from breif time - when Yasin Bhatkal was arrested in August, 2013 - this trail was almost out of media radar. As usual prosecution produced mammoth about of paper "...a charge sheet that ran into approximately 10,000 pages; the witness statements of 189 prosecution witnesses, 50 defence witnesses and one court witness; along with other relevant documents such as the chemical analysis report..."(Caravan). Ofcourse its effectiveness will be revealed when MCOCA judge will pronounce verdict and later verdicts by High Court and Supreme Court (as part of appeal process).

I was not so comfortable after reading this report. After 9 years; completing a long trail; we still don't know who did what? Read Caravan report here -> "Nine Years after the Local Train Blasts in Mumbai, There is Little Clarity on Who was Responsible for the Attack"

Sajeev

A Closed Door

Helen Keller once told, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

I think most of us at some point of time saw this closed door. I don’t know how each one of you approached this situation, probably every one may have their own strategy to deal with it. Some people may become so obsessed with the closed door and spend most of the time looking at it; while others may try to open the door one way or other; some others may take a look at that door, turn to another side and open another path.

I believe that, there is a point in trying to open the closed door; but we should never be so obsessed with the closed door that, we miss the other doors available.

Sajeev

The long paper trail at BSNL – Is this the target we are planning to achieve with Digitalization?

Recently I had to go to BSNL Accounts office for settling issues related to an old connection. By the way, I asked for closure, and they are supposed to close, this connection some four years back (which didn’t happen and became the root cause of all troubles.

What was interesting in that office was the amount of paper, company is still consuming. Most officials have their own system, still running on grand old Windows XP and connected to BSNL network. Still they have huge number of physical files in almost all tables; in addition to that, customers have to submit their requests in plain white paper. If anyone needs an acknowledgement slip, then they have to write the request in two papers and keep one with them and submit the other one to the company.

What more, people are still walking here and there in order to move files physically.

Are we supposed to see this in one of the key companies which is supposed to drive Prime Minister’s ambitions broadband connectivity, optical fiber networks and digital India campaign? When company claims that their offices are computerized, what those files are doing there? Isn’t it the time for BSNL, for that matter other government offices, to fully reap the advantage of digitalization?

Look at Airtel, probably they are running a larger system with a quarter of BSNL’s man power.

Sajeev

Stories: Nothing Is Impossible

This is a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive.

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors "This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice- Cream for dessert after dinner each night.
But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it.

It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this! ; question, no matter how silly it sounds "What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinnertime, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start. Now the Engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes he jotted down all sorts of data time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc. In a short time, he had a clue the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup.

All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor. Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became problem - not the vanilla ice cream Eureka!!!!

The engineer quickly came up with the answer "vapour lock". It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapour lock to dissipate. Remember, Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution with a cool thinking.

Don't just say its "IMPOSSIBLE" without putting a sincere effort... Observe the word "IMPOSSIBLE" carefully... Looking closer you will see, "I'M POSSIBLE"... What really matters is your attitude and your perception.

Disclaimer: '#Forwarded' label refers to stories and anecdotes send to me by friends or the ones I came across in net. I neither know the source of these stories nor its correctness. Being said that, I like the story and truly believe that readers will get inspiration/ motivation from these articles.