June 25, 2008
Zimbabwe
It is with disgust I see the ongoing mess in Zimbabwe. For those like me who were in grade school in India and wider British Commonwealth, birth of Zimbabwe it ended the British colonial rule in the world.
Also in India it marked continuation of optimisim that began with independence of India and gained momentum as more countries gained independence. In India we were still worshipping leaders who worked for India's independence, as more contries gained independence they were added to this list. When Rhodesia gained functional independence to become Zimbabwe we celebrated. Some of my friends fathers travelled to setup basic infrastructure like the railways and the central banking system. We even began equating Mugabe to Mahatma Gandhi
But within few years lot of things unravelled, rot in the Indian system became apparent, independence leaders of many countries became despots or deposed in a coup.
What is happening in Zimbabawe is a pattern that happened post colonial era across the world. Only this time in front of the camera
June 22, 2008
Tim Russert
Last week saw the passing away of Tim Russert, with him the last of the three giants who impressed me in the news business are no longer in business. Other two were Peter Jennings who passed away in 2005 and Ted Koppel now semi retired.
Ted Koppel with his semi documentray style covered wide ranging issues,made the viewers learn more about the topics covered (I think many people will remember the series about the slow degradation of a professor afflicted with ALS).
Peter Jennings was a master in delivery an evening was incomplete without a dose of Peter Jennings, with his voice and perfect modulation was a sultan among news anchors.
Tim Russert with his technique depending on probing and research made the guests realize there is no free pass in a democracy.
Russert and Jennings went away, without long good byes typical of this business. Koppel must have felt that he should not overstay his welcome.
The point to be noted as each every day passes the replacements of Jennings, Koppel and lately Russert remind me how great these three were.
Charles Gibson looks like an intern with promise in front of Jennings.
Yesterday Brian Williams ran the Meet the Press for Tim Russert my reaction was, thank god, he won't come back.
Terry Moran , Cynthia and Martin look like well behaving frat boys compared to Koppel in Nightline
June 17, 2008
A Commencement and an end of a term
Last month around the same date, I volunteered my time for CASE commencement ceremony, It was grand affair with music, flowers and commencement speakers. Students would have many events to celebrate the occasion. The newly minted graduates will be called class of 08, they can look forward to annual reunions, great careers, graduate schools and blissful suburban life.
Over the last two weeks I was involved in process of completion of academic year at the GED progarm at Lakewood Schools where I am a volunteer teaching math. The activities were 1)sorting student files into two piles. One pile for students who passed GED during the year, a green sticker was placed on those files and carted away for storage and other pile for students who didn't pass GED , a red sticker was placed on them and kept on active status.
Today (6/18/2008), there was small recognition ceremony for those who graduated during the just concluded academic year, there was no music, no robes, no ceremonical procesion, no robes( infact they were in all types of dresses and bandanas) and no commencement speaker, except for some school district officials. GED graduates will now try to escape minimum wage job, go to community college,probably go to suprevisory level in their current jobs and become islands in their inner city existence.
The difference between CASE and GED Lakewood commencement is very stark, so is the difference in thea chievement of the CASE students and GED students. CASE students were brought up with high expectations, proctected from difficulties of life.Whereas GED students are products of school of hard knocks each of them overcame troubled past, beat low expectation and poverty to manage their first significant acheivement of their life.
Having been thru the commencement and end of the term I am not sure what needs to be applauded