Friday, February 15, 2008

An intelligent analysis of Obama vs Hillary

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentines Day!



The aimless lovers held hands together and walked under the starry night. The lonely folks moaned their past love; And some drank lamenting how wrong Rumi was to write " lovers don't meet somewhere, they are in each other all along". When the day ended, the torn gift wraps lay around, they all sang in unison to the legends of pop - "Love isn't easy ...".

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

For the stolen generations

In a historic event, Australian government apologized publicly for the treatment of Aborigines of "the stolen generations".
We apologize for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," Rudd said in Parliament, reading from the motion.
It is only symbolic, but nevertheless an important step toward reconciling the race relations. American presidents have never been able to apologize for slavery in the united states - 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, this still hangs over our collective conscience.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Fear of the unknown


I have been watching the controversy around the head scarves in Turkey with curiosity. I have thought long and hard about it - Erdogan's party would like to introduce more religion into politics, so my support for lifting the hijab ban has nothing to do with his party's goals. However, I do believe in liberal democracies and freedom of expression. I also believe that in a free society, people are free to wear whatever they want within reasonable limits. In that sense, I support lifting the ban on head scarves.

I, somewhat, understand the position of the liberals and the secular elite in Turkey; they do not want to turn the clock back on a century of secularism, a tradition that was firmly put in place by Kemal Ataturk. But I think their fears are misplaced, on the contrary, I feel the resentments that could be fed by a perceived religious oppression might generate further extremism than a few educated people wearing hijabs in the campuses.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Obama Phenomenon


Obama wins Maine too. Woohoo...

The waves of change are sweeping across America - the shakeup in the Clinton camp confirms that Hillary's worst fears are coming true.

Obama forges ahead!

The primaries in the three states are the clear indication that Obama's campaign is only gaining strength. Oh. California, if only you had faith in the message of hope, if only you had shown a little bit more courage, Obama would have been on the way to winning the nomination.

On a side note, I was disturbed by the news article in the first page of NY Times, that talked about Obama's drug use during his teen years. There was absolutely no new information, but a caption that will turn heads, right on the day of the crucial primaries. We know that you have endorsed Hillary, but, please, let's reserve this blatant mud-slinging for another time.