Friday, December 5, 2008
Sponsring a child in India
Indian christian charities are after your money to convert Hindus to Christians. Don't ever ever sponsor a child without confirming that the charity has no religious bias. Here (http://www.worldvision.in/?About+Us. ) is one of them which in its fine print admits to be Kristian in nature. Somehow Chrisitian charities have decided to fool masses in India by disguising them as Hindus first. There is a famous politician in Congress called Ambica Soni who is right wing christian but dons bindi a symbol of hindu womenhood and a hindu name to decieve people.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Was Hemant Karkare brave ?
Brave according to classical definition is a person who does an act of self sacrifice "knowing the risks" for greater good. By this definition Hemant Karkare was not brave.
Without sounding too crass I will say he and the rest of team was incompetent. The went to a terrorist situation extremely ill prepared. They were sitting in their patrol car in alley when other policemen went in to kill the terrorists. Unfortunately the terrorist, who were better prepared and trained, came out and seeing them in alley opened fire and killed them. They were caught like a deer in the headlight. It seems they were so ill prepared they couldn't even fire a single bullet (WSJ link). Though hindsight is 20/20 I would assume anyone on the lookout for terrorists at least be ready with loaded guns.
So again I ask the question. Were they brave? Is it brave to send policeman in on dangers way and sit outside in patrol car and wait for the results? Is it brave to get caught unprepared in your task and get killed? Is it brave to get killed when you know you are facing terrorist and you don't even have drawn guns? Their lack of professionalism caused their own death and tens of lives down the road. I refuse to accept them as brave people. I think they were simply incomptent like rest of India.
Without sounding too crass I will say he and the rest of team was incompetent. The went to a terrorist situation extremely ill prepared. They were sitting in their patrol car in alley when other policemen went in to kill the terrorists. Unfortunately the terrorist, who were better prepared and trained, came out and seeing them in alley opened fire and killed them. They were caught like a deer in the headlight. It seems they were so ill prepared they couldn't even fire a single bullet (WSJ link). Though hindsight is 20/20 I would assume anyone on the lookout for terrorists at least be ready with loaded guns.
So again I ask the question. Were they brave? Is it brave to send policeman in on dangers way and sit outside in patrol car and wait for the results? Is it brave to get caught unprepared in your task and get killed? Is it brave to get killed when you know you are facing terrorist and you don't even have drawn guns? Their lack of professionalism caused their own death and tens of lives down the road. I refuse to accept them as brave people. I think they were simply incomptent like rest of India.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Mathematics education in India
Indian mathematics education is a big hype in Japan these days. Lot of books with Indians in beards are there on bookshelves. Given Japanese love of new fads I don't see lasting it for long time but Indians are really feeling "proud" getting seal of approval from Japan for their education system.
I studied in India in a small town in early 90s. I had to struggle finding good text books and teachers. The mathematics ( as well as other ) teachers were pathetic who could not solve anything not in prescribed text. I managed to do OK compared to my less fortunate classmates and went to study at IIT after clearing JEE. For long time I always regretted not getting exposed to good maths texts and teachers. Recently, I was really shocked to see this hype of triumph of broken Indian educational system and Indians gloating. I was moderately successful not because of this system but in spite of it. Also recently the system has even become worse since anyone with any sellable skill is making more money than teaching in India. Hence the quality of teachers in schools has gone down. For example the biology teacher at my younger brothers school was telling them that malaria is actually mosquito larave! The quality of teachers in coaching classes is going up compared to 90s. There is lot more money in private coaching since Indian are obsessed with degrees from famous universities and will push their kids to the extreme to get admitted to them. But as usual the eggheads in Indian government is trying to shut them down. Being suspicious of hypes I searched internet, if indeed India is forcing its way ahead. Here are the results of India/China on one of the tests which tests high schools kids in "out of box" mathematics problems. I think the results are very clear where India stands. India being country of 1 billion has performed miserably. Here is China vs India results. China last 5 years ( three 1st position and 2 2nd positions) and India ( 31st , 25th, 35th, 36th, 14th ).
Shouldn't Japan and hopefully proud India better model Chinese system. Also Japan was always within top 10 in IMO. I think for Japan copying India is race to the bottom.
I studied in India in a small town in early 90s. I had to struggle finding good text books and teachers. The mathematics ( as well as other ) teachers were pathetic who could not solve anything not in prescribed text. I managed to do OK compared to my less fortunate classmates and went to study at IIT after clearing JEE. For long time I always regretted not getting exposed to good maths texts and teachers. Recently, I was really shocked to see this hype of triumph of broken Indian educational system and Indians gloating. I was moderately successful not because of this system but in spite of it. Also recently the system has even become worse since anyone with any sellable skill is making more money than teaching in India. Hence the quality of teachers in schools has gone down. For example the biology teacher at my younger brothers school was telling them that malaria is actually mosquito larave! The quality of teachers in coaching classes is going up compared to 90s. There is lot more money in private coaching since Indian are obsessed with degrees from famous universities and will push their kids to the extreme to get admitted to them. But as usual the eggheads in Indian government is trying to shut them down. Being suspicious of hypes I searched internet, if indeed India is forcing its way ahead. Here are the results of India/China on one of the tests which tests high schools kids in "out of box" mathematics problems. I think the results are very clear where India stands. India being country of 1 billion has performed miserably. Here is China vs India results. China last 5 years ( three 1st position and 2 2nd positions) and India ( 31st , 25th, 35th, 36th, 14th ).
Shouldn't Japan and hopefully proud India better model Chinese system. Also Japan was always within top 10 in IMO. I think for Japan copying India is race to the bottom.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Whom to blame?
Mumbai blast are not just gift from pakistan. It is also gift of a demo(n)cracy. Where vote calculation triumph over sane policy. Indians and Mumbaikars have contributed to this crime in by voting for such people and I think they are bigger culprits. After 10 days people will go on with their life voting for Marthi manoos.
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