Reenita's Wisdom

The mango is so widely available in India, that the fruit itself is named aam which translates from Sanskrit as common. Even though the Indian subcontinent is home to more than a thousand varieties of mango, most Indians identify the fruit with the Alphonso variety.

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Marc Faber, editor of the “Gloom, Boom and Doom report,” was a keynote speaker at Asian Investor magazine’s 5th Annual Investment Summit last week. He had some interesting things to say about the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy vis-a-vis the financial crisis.

Dr. Faber remains pessimistic about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s economic interventions. Excessive credit growth and leverage have driven monetary and economic instability, he says.

“Recently Paul Krugman wrote a 6,000-word article in the New York Times with the title ‘How did economists get it so wrong?’. The title should have been ‘How did I, Paul Krugman, get it so wrong?’.” So says famed bear Marc Faber, also known as Dr Doom, at AsianInvestor‘s recent Southeast Asian Institutional Investor Forum in Bangkok last year.

Read the complete story on Asian Investor’s website.

The only surviving suspect, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, in a photo taken during the attacks.

The media has been closely following the fallout on diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan. It has questioned whether the terrorist attacks on Mumbai last week should lead to stronger action by both India and Pakistan to ferret out these terrorists from their training camps in Pakistan.

Gauhar Ayub Khan, Former Foreign Minister of Pakistan who was interviewed on NDTV today evaded questions about whether Pakistan would or could deal with terrorist groups openly operating on its own soil, by focusing instead on a massive security failure in India. When the NDTV journalist pressed the issue quoting US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s statement today,  “Non-state actors, that’s still a matter of responsibility if in fact it somehow relates to your territory. ” But Khan continued to point to the uselessness of Indian intelligence, its national security and anti terrorist forces. He even suggest that India has orchestrated the killing of its own Top Guns and has “cooked up” information about the 10 Mumbai attackers.

As much as I stand aghast at the lack of sensitivity and intelligence shown by our Mumbai politicians, it amazes me that a man like Khan could be appointed such a high post in any state.

Whose war is this anyway? Mr. Khan… is this not your state’s war against terrorism as much as it is anybody elses’s?  Have you forgotten Benazir Bhutto’s assassination just a few months ago?

Do people like Khan not understand that it is statements like his that inflame the sensitivity of a highly emotional group of people? Mr. Khan..what will we achieve with this attitude? The last thing we need right now is an India-Pakistan war which given the history of hostility between these two neighbors, is always a possibility.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving suspect in the deadly attacks on Mumbai has reportedly given up information, including his name, the identity of his father and details on a three-month training stint in Pakistan, Indian police said Wednesday. He has confirmed that he is from the village of Okara in Pakistan’s Punjab province and that he has spent the last 18 months at training camps run by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba — a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda. (CNN)

Listen to Condoleezza Rice’s words today:

“Non-state actors sometimes operate within the confines a state … and when that is the case, there has to be very direct and tough action against them.”

When it comes to terrorism, it is not just a matter of punishing the crime, but also a matter of preventing the people that continue to plot and plan these events in the future. At this point many nations have expressed a desire to help India in flushing out the people who contribute to the global war against terrorism….Britain, U.S. to name a few. Like all nations, Pakistan also has a responsibility to address this issue fully, transparently and urgently.

Image Credit: Associated Press

About  24 hours ago, I submitted an article to Digg entitled

‘Mumbai Hotel Hostage Situation is Not Yet Under Control’

inspiredeconomist.com — A terror scene that eerily resembles 9/11 has been unfolding in Mumbai since late Wednesday night (November 25th). In spite of the arrival of army commandos, three hours ago, hostages are still being held in Mumbai’s top two hotels.

A number of people commented on the article but one particular comment left me gasping….

“How does it resemble 9/11?

Have any buildings been demolished?? No.

Have any planes been used as weapons of destruction?? No.

Obviously the subject matter is important, but BURIED for inaccurate and sensational headline.”

It amazes me that anyone from anywhere could possibly make such a naive comment!

How does a deadly series of attacks on Mumbai that has spanned beyond 40 hours NOT resemble 9/11? Have Mumbai’s landmark hotels not been destroyed? Does a terrorist necessarily need a plane to exercise as a weapon of mass destruction? Are AK-47s, hand grenades and bombs not enough? How could anyone consider a report of Bombay burning in these last two days either inaccurate or sensational?

Bound by natural human values of greed and self-indulgence, we are all perhaps entitled to live in our own ivory towers. But when disaster strikes should we not stop for a moment to question why the home of 20 million spirited people becomes a terrorist’s playground? Or what possesses a terrorist to turn a city’s monuments and into fortresses of terror?

I never thought that I would see the day when I would watch the news to find out that 30 dead bodies were recovered in the Oberoi hotel yet feel a sense of relief because the news was an indication that things were finally under control. What have we come to? Where do we go from here as we realize tomorrow which of our loved ones have been lost. After all, in this town everyone exists with three degrees of separation.

It pains me as it pains millions of others to see my city go up in flames. And while it is easy to point fingers at the coastguard, the government..our national security…when are we going to point fingers at ourselves? Will we ever question what role large or small, we might have played in molding the mind of the terrorist? The ‘brotherhood of man’ is a concept that society has consistently failed to cultivate. India is certainly no exampl,: although Mahatma Gandhi attempted to unite races and religions, he arguably failed too.

Are we going to continue living in fear for the rest of our days? What can we do as individuals to quell terrorism for good? I would like to invite your opinion.

Highlights of the events can be found on Mumbai Terror Update: 40 Hours Later, the War Continues

Read more on CNN

Read more on NDTV

Jordana Gustafson from SustainLane recently appeared on Roberta Gonzales’ CBS web show with Green Thanksgiving wisdom. I was particularly thrilled as I helped her gather the props from my dining table right before the show. If it weren’t for two brats and homework, I would have escorted her to the studio but the show was great anyway. To view the complete show, click here.