In the forces, we have always prided ourselves on taking "Command Decisions", right or wrong. Would we impute motives to every decision going wrong?
We always want others to change all the time. Let's carry out a reality check whether we have been able to change even one thing in ourselves that has been troubling or annoying others. the only one we can really change is ourselves.
Perhaps it is a phase of catharsis, and we'll come out stronger from it. I am an eternal optimist. I do hope that more and more of us Indians start respecting their own discretion and wisdom.
Why do we all have a penchant for believing nonsense that we read in emails without checking facts?
There are emails that are plain annoying : like how Bill Gates would hand out his hard earned dollars, or Nokia handing out mobile phones for forwarded emails, or God threatening to bankrupt and destroy you for NOT forwarding an email with His message.
Then there are emails that are dangerous : like the email advising people to enter their ATM PINs in reverse in case they were being forced to withdraw cash. Apparently, it would trigger an alarm at the local police station who would then catch the criminals in action. Someone gullible enough to follow these instructions could annoy the criminals and then end up seriously injured or even dead !!
And then there are emails which cause national hysteria and mass delusion. Let's start off with my favourite - $1.4 Trillion of India's Black Money held in Swiss Banks. Whoa... awesome. The email goes on about how, if this money is returned to India, Indians won't have to pay tax for decades, how India would become a developed nation overnight.
That India is corrupt, is not arguable. It's a fact. That India is developing rapidly and aspiring to be a developed nation is also a fact. With the rise of the middle classes, and with newer access to information, there is increasing national anger over corruption. The CWG and the 2G Spectrum scandals were the tipping point. This rage was channelled perfectly by activist Anna Hazare, who managed to get the Govt to finally get moving on the Lokpal/Ombudsman issue. After a very long time, all of India rallied together and for a while, it seemed that the people were winning. The Govt was on the back foot, and the civil society was, for the first time, sensing that politicians would finally start serving the people who elected them !!
Enter Baba Ramdev - a Yoga Guru par excellence, this man decided to take the agitation to the next level. Based on similar "information" on black money, given credence by news channels - he demanded that the Govt bring back those Trillions of Dollars stashed away in the Swiss Banks. The comedy of errors that started following his hijacking of the situation robbed Hazare of a lot of respectability and enabled the dirty tricks department of the Government to go into hyper drive. It's almost as if Ramdev was on the payroll of the Govt - brought in to damage the credibility of Anna's movement.
The basis for the $1.4 Trillion is based on reports from the Swiss Banking Report 2006. So, I "Googled" it and hey, the report exists. http://shop.sba.ch/1087_e.pdf (that is a link from the SBA's official website) The word "India" is used twice in the whole report. All it says about India is that there are business opportunities there. No 1.4 Trillion... no nothing. Just because I had some spare time, I also checked the reports for 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Aah.
Perhaps the person who found the Trillion dollars was also the same dumba$$ who found the NASA report that proved beyond doubt that monkeys built the Rama Setu 2 Million years ago.
The real facts and figures will never be known. Swiss banks are notorious for secrecy. The Israelis haven't managed to get complete information on Nazi account holdings for the last 60 years, and those boys are much more determined than our Government will ever be!!
How's this for a fact from the Swiss Bankers Association :
"We take all our statistics from the Swiss National Bank and statistics about 'black money' simply do not exist". "Anyone claiming to have such figures must be forced to identify their source and explain the methodology used to produce them" - James Nason, Head of Internal Communications, SBA - As released by PTI, Sep 13, 2009 02.48pm IST
How's this for a fact as well :
Most of us pay for apartment/land purchases in "white" and "black". It is considered routine and perfectly acceptable. Then there is the issue of getting "kachha receipts" to avoid paying sales tax. If it is OK for the common man to do this with a perfectly clear conscience, why blame the super rich or the politicians for amassing black money? After all, what's good for the goose, must, by definition, be good for the gander or the bigger goose. Gandhi once said "Be the change you want to see". I wonder how many of the anti-black money campaigners will manage to buy an apartment without paying some themselves.
All those who have access to emails, also have access to the internet. It's a generalisation, but not untrue. Most of those who forward emails, do so with the best of intentions. There is a saying - The road to hell is paved with good intentions!! There's a sucker born every minute - just remember that it applies to you every time you forward "facts" without bothering to check them. The information superhighway is crammed with spam. Try not to add to it. For those who still believe that most black money is in Swiss Banks, here's a fun fact : hundreds of millions of dollars required for the IPL came from entities owned by Indian nationals in places like Mauritius and the Caymans. Switzerland is old news.
And lastly, if/before you forward this on, check that what I've said is true...
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