Remove Bullying and Destroy Corruption.

School bullies rob younger and weaker children of whatever catches their fancy, be it their lunch, toys or money. The weak and timid merely surrender whatever they have to avoid a beating or other forms of torment.
The situation is not much different for the majority of the people, for they are weak and the bullies are the bureaucrats and political leaders. In this notorious brigade one can also include police officials, teachers, purchase officers, inspectors etc in most institutions.

Not all are bad but the bullies form a dominant majority.

Nowadays no social interaction is complete without a reference to corruption.
Everyone protests and I am flooded with emails asking us to protest and support Anna Hazare etc. Everyone expects that this social activist’s efforts at getting the right legislation passed by parliament after 42 years will free us from the heavy yoke of our own government's corruption. While this is a significant move, it is sadly just a minuscule step in putting the evil genie of corruption back into the lamp. Talk s cheap and assuages our feeling of guilt that while we complain we do nothing. Well conceived strategies and plans implemented sincerely by committed people only will yield results.
Here are some thoughts on the analysis and some proposed solutions if carried out by the second wave of mass protests led by people like Mr. Hazare will solve a lot.

________________________________________

People love to attack the symptom rather than the disease. The root cause of the disease of corruption, is the massive number of laws vesting dangerous punitive powers in almost every officer in the government. Even the junior-most officer can put in jail any member of the public with a snap of their fingers. Another root cause is the ability to obstruct normal personal, social and business life. The harried citizens have to spend huge resources of money and time in legal fees, bribes and the courts to prove their innocence or to get what is rightly due to them as envisaged in our constitution.


To make matters worse there is no system to redress complaints of the people. Where and to whom can the frustrated and exhausted citizen turn to?
In addition to throwing the legal book at citizens , many government officials cruelly leverage the media to their advantage and hammer the oppressed people by issuing malicious statements in the newspapers and television about the person being charged with some offense or the other.
Often destroying reputations and lives thoughtlessly, the media's focus unfortunately has shifted from providing balanced news to entertainment, and nothing entertains more than the whiff of scandal.


Preventing corruption is better than trying to cure it. Here are some ways to mitigating the menace of corruption;

1. Reduce discretionary and instant punitive powers of individual officers by 95%.
2. Introduce an effective system to redress complaints of the citizens and this should form part of the senior officers duties and action taken must be open to public scrutiny.
3. Various and relevant trade associations, guilds and organisations working in tandem with the various bar councils review ALL laws over the next five years and withdraw, modify or add laws that are needed. More than 70% of the laws are irrelevant or outdated and unduly complex and sometimes even convoluted.
4. Introduce universally that unless genuine and valid objections are raised applications to government departments and officers will be deemed to be automatically sanctioned for most routine things.

Reduce the powers of government and other officers to bully, that is to act arbitrarily to arrest people, shut down businesses, etc for most matters and instead follow a system of due process of law. The offender should be given a notice and permitted to defend themselves.

It must be appreciated that bullies are impatient people and pursue instant gratification. Deny them this right to bully, harass, obstruct and destroy and most of the frivolous or mischievous cases of harassment will die a natural death.

True, a few offenders may escape the net of the law but surely a countless more innocents will also escape the harassment of corrupt officials.

Foot in Mouth Disease?

My friend Seema calls me an expert. My chest always puffed up with pride, until one day she shared with me her definition of an 'expert'.
An expert is someone who is never in doubt but frequently in error!!

I realised a little late in the day that she was merely being polite for an ailment which can be labelled as 'foot in mouth' disease.

Upon this great realisation, I was curious to determine if I belonged to a small group or a larger community that had been afflicted with this malady. I am glad to inform you that this problem is quite common but lays dormant until triggered by any of the following phenomena;

A powerful trigger for turning into an expert is to get elected to office. Does not matter which office, any office will do. Even getting elected to the management committee of a housing society or your local club will bestow upon you the crown of all knowledge.

Some acquire money, some are born with it, and some have it thrust upon them. Wealth thrusts people into the world of experts. It does not matter whether it was plundered , earned, or acquired in the old fashioned way, that is to inherit it, the person is instantly transformed into an expert.

The third way to become an expert is to become the boss of some poor creatures at work. The boss knows everything.

The fastest and most certain way to gain expertise is of course to get married. You will immediately acquire an expert. Whether this makes your life better is questionable, but it will certainly make it interesting, at least for a while.

Last but no less powerful and all pervasive mother of all expert sources is to become a parent. No one knows better than a parent. As the quote goes "You may fool some people all the time, you may fool all the people some of the time but you can never fool Mom." Parents apparently wear the crown of all knowledge.

Before you begin to feel sorry for all these different types of experts and the great burden they have to bear in the upliftment of mere mortals you may want to review the mumblings or should I say bumblings of some other great experts;

• We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet. -
  Hewlett Packard excuse to Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computers instead.


• I think there's a world market for about maybe five computers. -
  Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM


• Everything that can be invented has been invented.
  Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899


• 640K memory for a computer ought to be enough for anybody -
  Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981


• There will never be a bigger plane built. - A Boeing Engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that carried ten people.


• Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. -
  Marechal Ferdinand, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.


• We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out. -
  Decca Executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles


• There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. -
  Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977


• This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. - Western Union, memo, 1876


• No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?
  David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920's


• Who wants to hear actors talk? -
  H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927


• While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it is an impossibility. -
  Lee DeForest, inventor


• Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.
  Lord Kelvin English scientist, 1899 ( William Thomson)