എബൌട്ട്

SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION
There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and prizes.One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something interesting about how he grew it.
The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors'.
"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.
So it is in the other dimensions! Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well.
The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION. IT IS VERY OFTEN A PARTICIPATIVE AND COLLECTIVE PROCESS.

A very happy day for all of us....

Today Vatican declared Sr.Alphonsa as Saint Alphonsa, and all of us are very happy, becuase she lived in Kerala. 

Kunju Muhammadinte Maranam

When my taxi approached the Mannamthuruth St.Joseph's L.P school, I got nervous after seeing a big crowd near the school. When the car slowed down, I lowered one of the glasses of the car to ask someone the reson for the crowd. "Did something happen to my mother?" was the first question that arose in my mind. I saw Polachan and Rathishan taking a quick puff hiding behind Sreedharan's fence (thanks to the banning of smoking in all public places). They told me that 'Kunju Muhammad' died and it is time for his funeral. My breath regained normalcy, as 'it was not my mother', who is not that well these days ad our house is just 20 ft away. Still I felt sad of Kunju Muhammad's demise. I felt as if, one page of my life is fading away, closing a chapter. Why is 'Kunju Muhammad so close to me?. 

His was the one and only shop near my house which sold Wills cigarette, which was my brand then. He had only few selected VIP customers, who bought this cigarette, as it was the most expensive cigarette available in our village at that time. After playing shuttle badminton at the school ground, me, Padua, Paul, Saju and a few others used to frequent his shop to gulp down bottles of locally made plain soda, followed by a Wills cigarette. Very often we did not have the money to give, so a credit account was maintained for each of us at this shop. Once in a while we used to have minor arguments with Kunju Muhammad regarding the small, insignificant (now) descrepancies in the accounts. 

Once his shop is closed, that sheltered our evening gathering, which comprised of smoking pure grass and then singing songs. The empty kerosine drums placed outside the public ration shop used to get transformed into drums. These sessions were very enjoyable. After these sessions, those who wanted to play cards sneaked into Kochouseph's one room mansion, behind this shop. While others indulged in rummy, my main past time was to hallucinate, lying down on the old cot of Kochouseph chettan, which had only coir top.

Once the bridge connecting mannamthuruth to Kochi mainland happened, the traffic through the old ferry road took a nose dive, which in turn affected business of Kunju Muhammad. This forced him to close the shop a few years ago. 

Last time when I met him a couple of months ago, his one leg was swollen due to poor blood circulation, an after effect of diabetics, and day before yesterday was his end of life. I feel as if, someone close has passed away.  May his soul rest in peace. 

Comparison of rates of different builders

Quit smoking..or Get fined...

Smoking is prohibited from Oct 2nd onwards in all public places of India. If you are caught while smoking, the fine is Rs.200. Why?. Last year 900,000 Indians died due to diseases from smoking. I personally see this as a great opportunity for all smokers to quit smoking. See this a s a great opportunity to quit smoking. It is not that difficult. The benefits outweigh the costs.

Volvo Ocean Race is coming to Kochi for the first time

Volvo ocean race is coming to Kochi for the first time. For complete details visit www.cochinoceanrace.com

The official website of Kochi City Police

To my pleasant surprise, I came across this official website of Kochi City Police. It looks very professional. Kudos to those who are behind this useful initiative.

This site is very useful, fully loaded with information. I can even lodge a complaint, track it, register lost items complaints, track them...there are lots of very useful features for the citizens of Kochi. My sincere appreciation to all those behind this initiative. Great work. Keep it up.

eeePC comes to Kochi

ASUS eee PC has reached Kochi. Here is my eee PC placed over my IBM think pad lap top, just to give you a size comparison. eee PC falls into the sub laptop category and already 50 million pieces are sold out worldwide so far. I have been using one for the past four months and I am really delighted with it. When I bought it the price was 17,000 Rs (I bought from Bangalore). Today I enquired with a dealer at Kochi, and the price shquoted is Rs.15,000. The model I have ASUS eeePC 4G comes with a 4GB solid state hard disk, powered by intel Atom processor,the battery life comes to around 7 hours and weighs less than 1 kg, which makes it very handy to carry. It comes with a WiFi connectivity and the intenet browsing spped is much much better than a windows machine. It does not have a CD drive, at the same time comes with three usb ports and a headphone socket.

From the software angle, it comes with open office (it can open, edit MS office documents and the documents created using open office can be opened with MS office). Then there is skype with audio chat, thunderbird email system. I miss google talk and chrome on eeepc as the linux versions are still not available.  Since the linux loaded on eeepc is proprietory (Asus), I am unable to download and install third party linux applications, unless they are provided by ASUS. This is a handicap. Since it runs on linux, there is literally no virus threat. The booting time is less than 10 seconds (trust me). 

When at home, I connect it to a SAMSUM monitor, and to a logitech mouse and key board. There is nothing to beat it then. Of I forgot to tell you, it comes with a built in camera and two speakers. 

I give lot of presentations to my corporate clients and normally I carry only this computer these days..and power point presentations are a breeze using this machine. Sometimes I am tempted to load windows on to this machine, then I am scared of loosing speed and virus attacks. 

I recommend this machine if most of your work is related to internet browsing, emails,chatting, providing presentations etc. 

They have a winows based version, which comes with windows and the screen is slightly bigger (yes, on my machine sometimes I long for a bigger screen). This model is priced at 25K at Kochi. There are Acer models which are equivalent to this model. 

About the dealers;

As usual, the dealers in Kerala lacks professionalism. Thir only objective is to sell the product to you, and that is the end of it. If you ask any doubt, aprt from the price, they dont understand and will always say 'Sir is in a meeting, please call later'.  Here are some of the contact numbers;

Asus Sales representative Siraz Basheer - 9895180957

Dealers at Kochi Itnetinfocomm 2360820, 9895336171, Accent netwares 9847065671 / 2207257,  Cyberpark 9895200490, Positive systems 9847707620, International marketing company 9249437268, Camry systems (Aluva) 9847174196

My Villa at Autmn woods - progressing

I am really happy with the progress of my Villa at the Autmn Woods project near Kottappuram (Alwaye) , by Mahamandiram constructions. The progress of the project is good and the forecasted completion date is June 2010.  Here is the picture of the No.7, Autmn Woods , which is mine. 50% of the villas are already sold out. 

My dream house project @ Kochi !

I am dreaming about my 'dream house' at kochi for the past 2 years, without any breakthrough. I am in the hunt for a very good architect, who has the patience to understand the customer's needs and at the same time professional enough to keep up the commitments and timelines. So far I contacted two of them. One was perfect about his timelines, and at the same time not willing to really listen to the customer's views. Whatever he draws is the design. For vastu, we have to approach someone else, becuase this guy does not believe in vastu. The other one is the other extreme. He is very down to earth, polite and can listen to the customer, promises a complete solution including conformance to 'vastu', and at the same time very slow and unprofessional when it comes to meeting commitments on time. Now most probably, me and my wife will sketch the design of our dream home, and perfect it with the help of some one. That is the only option left. The net effect ' the dream house, still remains as a dream '.  Something has to happen now, rather the onus is on me to make it happen, as I am sure that the old house in which I am staying cannot withstand the onslaught of one more monsoon. 

I have invested in this project Autmn Woods, near Alwaye

I have invested in this project (bought a villa), and I am really happy with that investment, which is really appreciating. This is very close to Alwaye, N.Parur road, 6 km from Paravur junction. The promoters are mahamdiram constructions 

www.mahamandiram.com 

Wish you a happy Onam

Wish you and all your near and dear ones, a very happy Onam

Room for Hope !

When I saw Sri. A.K. Antony's guard of honour photo during his U.S visit, I felt really happy becuase I felt as if there is still room for honesty and integrity. I can vouch for A.K Antony's honesty and integrity from the grapevine of the Sherthalai community, from where Mr.Antony hails from, who has witnessed all stages of his growth, personal and political. They are aware of his humble beginnings. His brother's home, very close to my relatives homes stands further testimony to this (very ordinary small house). It is nice to understand that, even during this period of corruption and greed, honesty and integrity pays rich dividends in the longer run. A.K Antony's commendable performance as the defence minister of India, would have answered all the skeptics, who doubted his political and adminstrative capability, when he was the Chief minister of Kerala. The stone rejected by all, became the cornerstone. Jai..Jai...A.K Antony and the politicians of his genome. 

The ignominious sight !

Yesterday me and Antony were driving near the Kochi high court, adjacent to the sub jail, or is it the sub jail adjacent to the high court (you decide), when we saw this ignominious sight of  two policemen escorting two convicts. Yes indeed, it was more like an escort to some VIP's. These convicts where handcuffed together (hand in hand), and using their free hands, they were on the mobile (sophisticated ones), while the poor policemen were escorting them, as if they are VIP's. Their body language also radiated their VIP status.  The convict's chest up, head high postion radiated confidence, where as the two poor skinny policemen escorting them radiated helplessness. I think, this is a direct reflection of the value system evolving in this part of the world, where the guilty and the convicts are given undue respect than they deserve. Thanks to the press for giving them that kind of an aura. We cannot blame the poor police man, becuase if something happens to him or his family members, there wont be anyone for their rescue, where as behind the convicts, there are power ful hands of the politicians and the mafia to safeguard them. It was indeed an ignonimous sight. 

The farmer's conundrum !

Where have they disappeared...the united colours of Kerala. As Kerala gets evolved as the largest consumer state in India, it does not make much sense in investing in paddy cultivation, if the decision making criteria is just business. Labor is expensive and is very difficult to get. Thanks to the family planning programs and the enhanced literacy levels, which created nuclear, educated citizens, who always aims for a white collared job. No one can blame them for it. The climate is also very unpredictable. The competition from outside is tough. All these, put the farmer in a very tight spot. Most of them are in debt traps, and many of them were ending their lives because of their inability to pay back paltry amounts (most cases less than 500 USD), which they have borrowed from the local mafias at exorbitant interest rates. Then came the corrective action from the thoughtful and mighty political leaders of Kerala. They put a ban on the right of the farmer to choose the crop he wants to cultivate in his own land. That means, if someone owns paddy fields, they cannot convert it into coconut plantations. Here anyone who wears a clean white shirt and dhothi is considered as a capitalist. On top of it, with great good intentions, the government announced a relief of Rs.200,000 (approximately 5000 USD)to the family of those who committed suicides. This acted as an incentive for committing suicides. Hats off to the thoughtfulness of the leaders. In my project management workshops, I quote this as an example for wrong root cause analysis, leading to wrong corrective actions, resulting in undesired results.

Rajagiri Old students meet - 76 batch

Letter to the Carrots !

Yesterday before calling it a day, with great good intentions I made a daily plan for today, which is a Monday. By 7.a.m on this beautiful monday morning with a drizzle outside was really tempting me to continue on the bed. Then started the beep of the inverter, indicating the disruption in the electrical power supply, followed by the humming noise of the neighbor's generator set, which does not any sense of acceptable decibel levels. What a difference between my childhood days here (which is still a hanging around as a wrong nostalgia, which tempted me to come back), where we used to wake up to tunes of the beautiful cuckoos (at least two of them used to use the power supply cable as a resting place, not seen these days, may be they might have fallen into the endangered species of birds). Of course, I am cognizant of the price to be paid for the so called development.

When this is my week's start, I am really depraved with the anti nuclear agreement attitude of the communists who are ruling Kerala, our beloved state now. All of them looks and acts as born pessimists all the time. The self proclaimed leader of the rich comrades gang ... I am really struggling to get his/her name...carrot...no no... Karat, is hell bent on attacking this treaty, when the most respected and knowledgeable persons like APJ Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh etc are creative enough to appreciate the deal. Dear Carrot, as a ordinary citizen of India, I want to know your action plan to provide uninterrupted power supply at affordable rates to the ordinary citizens and the industry of India. Anyone who understands the difference between nuclear fusion and fission (which I learned in 8th standard), knows that nuclear power is the best alternative power source for a country like India. So it will be for the good of the people of this country, if you can either support this nuclear deal or come out with something better, which is implementable in the next five year's time, so that the common man like me, need not suffer, out of your prejudice, incapability and the political vendetta.

Your ally China, played a major role to ensure that this agreement is a failure. Why?. They knew that, availability of low cost power is the critical factor for industrialization. If that can be jeopardized, India's growth can be controlled, which will get rid of one of their main competitors in the global market. They are thinking strategically, where as the carrots here, can think only about 'how to win the next election'. Or are you playing the strategic role for China, betraying the entire nation.

Kerala is state ruled by your party. Can you first ensure that Keralites are getting uninterrupted power supply, water and decent roads - before you start playing at international levels. If that sounds a s a big challenge, then start at the panchayath level. Around two years before I applied for a new ration card, and the issue of these new ration cards are not even started yet.. Do something creative first, before criticizing everything out of vested interests and hidden agendas. This negative attitude and the duplicity of the Indian communists we have seen many times in the past...when the tractor came , when computer's came and now when the nuclear power come in. With the demise of Nayanar, the last leader of the communist party in Kerala is gone. The present day millionaire comrades will not be able to rise to the level of APJ Abdul Kalam, Chdambaram and Manmohan Singh - who are beyond the vested interests of the self, which enables them to think for the nation in the long term perspective. Like Achuthananthan's (current chief minister) statement, If development happens here, greenery will be lost, and no tourist will come here...... Let us all laugh and applaud ..

Why a malayalee is different, when in Kerala !

While living in Bangalore, my relationship with my neighbor was contained in a 'Hi' while waiting for lift or while stretching to collect the daily milk from the doorstep (both just extend their heads only, beyond the door - not to reveal the bare body!), or while placing the garbage bags next to the door to be picked up by the garbage collection agency the next day. This kind of a limited relationship has it's own merits and demerits. First merit is ,one has the freedom to choose the way one want to live their life. Nobody interferes with other's life. The negative side being 'lack of help' from any quarter when you are facing a crisis. In Kerala, my home state, it is a totally different story. One of my friend in his blog 'On the Malayalee' has written about the attitude changes of a Malayalee, when he is in his home state.

I must say that, a Malayalee in his home state is forced to (bound to) abide by certain norms of the land. When at home town, you are invited to all the functions in neighbor's and relatives homes. If you do not turn up, it becomes a big complaint which is enough to create a family feud. Added to this, one has to run around for admissions of their kids, paying the bills (still in many places the e-payment facility is not enabled or the concerned person is not aware of it), get the car serviced, book the gas cylinder and follow up several times......

I am at Kerala during the past one week, after my middle east tour. During this past one week, I had to attend one wedding, travel to Chennai in train (as the air tickets have become exorbitant). In the train, unfortunately the A.C duct was focused straight on my bald head, and immediately after coming back I am down with fever. Yesterday my niece, underwent a brain surgery, and just because they are generous in telling me not to come, as I dont have any role to play, I avoided going there with a fever, instead decided to go to the nearest church and pray for her. Yesterday night it rained cats and dogs here and today when we woke up, our house is surrounded by rain water. Now my ordeal of finding out somebody to clear the drainage starts!. Blogging is one way of escaping from unpleasant stuff!. Today morning I spoke to my cousin over the phone, and he is attending two weddings today. One is his friend's daughter's and the other one is 'his mother's, sister's, daughter's, husband's, cousin's, daughter's. Poor chap. My fate is still better.

Luckily I am self employed, and because of that I need not ask for leave to anyone except myself. Even then sometimes I used to loose my cool, thinking about the opportunity cost of my time spent on these trivial stuff. Very often I thank God, for not being in a 9-5 job. How would I have managed these conflicting aspects of like commitment to work Vs commitment to the extended family...which extends beyond your comprehension.

Another sickening aspect of life here is, everyone is interested in you and your affairs and at the same time, nobody is genuinely interested in your well being. There is a limited feeling of sadism inherent in the majority's hearts. They are always in the look out for comparisons of other's lives with their's and their kith and kin's, to ensure that nobody lives better than them. In case that happens, they are not at peace till they do something better. This is the underlying root cause of the gold loving malayalee, who lives in mansions, drives expensive cars, sends their kids to medicine or engineering only by paying huge capitation fees, generating tons of third rate engineers who do not understand the basics of engineering, flashes 3G phones, wven when 3G networks are not available in India yet, and listens to English news, even when they dont understand it. This is a abridged list of idiosyncrasies of the malayalee when in kerala.

Dont mistake me. There are exceptions as well.

Architects

T.G Sivarama Krishna B.Tech,
Sree Ramakrishna Constructions,
Kannachanthodu Road Junction,
Ayyappan Kavu,
Pachalam P.O, Kochi -12,

Phone office - 0091 484 2393537

Mobile phone : 0091 9847038444

Email : sreeramakrishna76@yahoo.co.in

Petro Euro Vs Petro Dollar

Petro-Euro Vs Petro-Dollar - Good Eye opener

Why the Dollar Bubble is about to Burst?
IRAN HAS REALLY DONE IT...more deadlier than the nuclear..

The Voice (issue 264 -) ran an article beginning, ' Iran has really gone and done it now. No, they haven't sent their first nuclear sub in to the Persian Gulf . They are about to launch something much more deadly -- next week the Iran Bourse will open to trade oil, not n dollars but in Euros' This apparently insignificant event has consequences far greater for the US people, indeed all for us all, than is imaginable.

Currently almost all oil buying and selling is in US-dollars through exchanges in London and New York . It is not accidental they are both US-owned.

The Wall Street crash in 1929 sparked off global depression and World War II. During that war the US supplied provisions and munitions to all its allies, refusing currency and demanding gold payments in exchange.

By 1945, 80% of the world's gold was sitting in US vaults. The dollar became the one undisputed global reserve currency -- it was treated world-wide as `safer than gold'. The Bretton Woods agreement was established.

The US took full advantage over the next decades and printed dollars like there was no tomorrow. The US exported many mountains of dollars, paying for ever-increasing amounts of commodities, tax cuts for the rich, many wars abroad, mercenaries, spies and politicians the world over. You see, this did not affect inflation at home! The US got it all for free! Well, maybe for a forest or two.

Over subsequent decades the world's vaults bulged at the seams and more and more vaults were built, just for US dollars. Each year, the US spends many more dollars abroad that at home. Analysts pretty much agree that outside the US , of the savings, or reserves, of all other countries, in gold and all currencies -- that a massive 66% of this total wealth is in US dollars!

In 1971 several countries simultaneously tried to sell a small portion of their dollars to the US for gold. Krassimir Petrov, (Ph. D. in Economics at Ohio University ) recently wrote, 'The US Government defaulted on its payment on August 15, 1971 . While popular spin told the story of `severing the link between the dollar and gold', in reality the denial to pay back in gold was an act of bankruptcy by the US Government.' The 1945 Breton Woods agreement was unilaterally smashed.

The dollar and US economy were on a precipice resembling Germany in 1929.
The US now had to find a way for the rest of the world to believe and have faith in the paper dollar. The solution was in oil, in the petrodollar. The US viciously bullied first Saudi Arabia and then OPEC to sell oil for dollars only -- it worked, the dollar was saved. Now countries had to keep dollars to buy much needed oil. And the US could buy oil all over the world, free of charge. What a Houdini for the US ! Oil replaced gold as the new foundation to stop the paper dollar sinking.

Since 1971, the US printed even more mountains of dollars to spend abroad.
The trade deficit grew and grew. The US sucked-in much of the world's products for next to nothing. More vaults were built.

Expert, Cóilínn Nunan, wrote in 2003, 'The dollar is the de facto world reserve currency: the US currency accounts for approximately two thirds of all official exchange reserves. More than four-fifths of all foreign exchange transactions and half of all world exports are denominated in dollars. In addition, all IMF loans are denominated in dollars.'
Dr Bulent Gukay of Keele University recently wrote, 'This system of the US dollar acting as global reserve currency in oil trade keeps the demand for the dollar `artificially' high. This enables the US to carry out printing dollars at the price of next to nothing to fund increased military spending and consumer spending on imports. There is no theoretical limit to the amount of dollars that can be printed. As long as the US has no serious challengers, and the other states have confidence in the US dollar, the system functions.'

Until recently, the US-dollar has been safe. However, since 1990 Western Europe has been busy growing, swallowing up central and Eastern Europe .
French and German bosses were jealous of the US ability to buy goods and people the world over for nothing. They wanted a slice of the free cake too.
Further, they now had the power and established the euro in late 1999 against massive US-inspired opposition across Europe , especially from Britain - paid for in dollars of course. But the euro succeeded.

Only months after the euro-launch, Saddam's Iraq announced it was switching from selling oil in dollars only, to euros only -- breaking the OPEC agreement.. Iran , Russia , Venezuela , Libya , all began talking openly of switching too -- were the floodgates about to be opened?

Then aero planes flew into the twin-towers in September 2001. Was this another Houdini chance to save the US (petro) dollar and the biggest financial/economic crash in history? War preparations began in the US But first war-fever had to be created -- and truth was the first casualty.. Other oil producing countries watched-on. In 2000 Iraq began selling oil in euros.
In 2002, Iraq changed all their petro-dollars in their vaults into euros. A few months later, the US began their invasion of Iraq .

The whole world was watching: very few aware that the US was engaging in the first oil currency, or petro-dollar war. After the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, remember, the US secured oil areas first. Their first sales in August were, of course, in dollars, again. The only government building in Baghdad not bombed was the Oil Ministry! It does not matter how many people are murdered -- for the US , the petro-dollar must be saved as the only way to buy and sell oil - otherwise the US economy will crash, and much more besides.

In early 2003, Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela talked openly of selling half of its oil in euros (the other half is bought by the US ). On 12 April 2003, the US-supported business leaders and some generals in Venezuela kidnapped Chavez and attempted a coup. The masses rose against this and the Army followed suit. The coup failed. This was bad for the US .

In November 2000 the euro/dollar was at $0.82 dollars, its lowest ever, and still diving, but when Iraq started selling oil in euros, the euro dive was halted. In April 2002 senior OPEC reps talked about trading in euros and the euro shot up. In June 2003 the US occupiers of Iraq switched trading back to dollars and the euro fell against the dollar again. In August 2003 Iran starts to sell oil in euros to some European countries and the euro rises sharply. In the winter of 2003-4 Russian and OPEC politicians talked seriously of switching oil/gas sales to the euro and the euro rose. In February 2004 OPEC met and made no decision to turn to the euro -- and yes, the euro fell against the dollar. In June 2004 Iran announced it would build an oil bourse to rival London and New York , and again, the euro rose. The euro stands at $1.27 and has been climbing of late.

But matters this month became far, far worse for the US dollar. On 5th May Iran registered its own Oil Bourse, the IOB. Not only are they now selling oil in euros from abroad -- they have established an actual Oil Bourse, a global trading centre for all countries to buy and sell their oil!

In Chavez's recent visit to London ; he talked openly about supporting the Iranian Oil Bourse, and selling oil in euros. When asked in London about the new arms embargo imposed by the US against Venezuela , Chavez prophetically dismissed the US as 'a paper tiger'.

Currently, almost all the world's oil is sold on either the NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange, or the IPE, London's International Petroleum Exchange.
Both are owned by US citizens and both sell and buy only in US dollars. The success of the Iran Oil Bourse makes sense to Europe , which buys 70% of Iran 's oil. It makes sense for Russia , which sells 66% of its oil to Europe . But worse for the US , China and India have already stated they are very interested in the new Iranian Oil Bourse.

If there is a tactical-nuclear strike on - deja-vu - `weapons of mass destruction' in Iran , who would bet against a certain Oil Exchange and more, being bombed too?

And worse for Bush. It makes sense for Europe , China , India and Japan-- as well as all the other countries mentioned above -- to buy and sell oil in Euro's. They will certainly have to stock-up on euros now, and they will sell dollars to do so. The euro is far more stable than the debt-ridden dollar. The IMF has recently highlighted US economic difficulties and the trade deficit strangling the US-- there is no way out.

The problem for so many countries now is how to get rid of their vaults full of dollars, before it crashes? And the US has bullied so many countries for so many decades around the world, that many will see a chance to kick the bully back. The US cannot accept even 5% of the world's dollars -- it would crash the US economy dragging much of the world with it, especially Britain .

To survive, as the Scottish Socialist Voice article stated, 'the US , needs to generate a trade surplus to get out of this one. Problem is it can't.'
This is spot on. To do that they must force US workers into near slavery, to get paid less than Chinese or Indian workers. We all know that this will not happen.

What will happen in the US ? Chaos for sure. Maybe a workers revolution, but looking at the situation as it is now, it is more likely to be a re-run of Germany post-1929, and some form of extreme-right mass movement will emerge...

Does Europe and China/Asia have the economic independence and strength to stop the whole world's economies collapsing with the US ? Their vaults are full to the brim with dollars.

The US has to find a way to pay for its dollar-imperialist exploitation of the world since 1945.. Somehow, eventually, it has to account for every dollar in every vault in the world.

Bombing Iran could backfire tremendously. It would bring Iran openly into the war in Iraq , behind the Shiite majority. The US cannot cope even now with the much smaller Iraqi insurgency. Perhaps the US will feed into the Sunni v Shiite conflict and turn it into a wider Middle-East civil-war.
However, this is so dangerous for global oil supplies. Further, they know that this would be temporary, as some country somewhere else, will establish a euro-oil-exchange, perhaps in Brussels .

There is one `solution' -- scrap the dollar and print a whole new currency for the US . This will destroy 66% of the rest of the world's savings/reserves in one swoop. Imagine the implications? Such are the desperate things now swimming around heads in the White House, Wall Street and Pentagon.

Another is to do as Germany did, just before invading Poland in 1938. The Nazis filmed a mock Polish Army attack on Germany , to win hearts and minds at home. But again, this is a finger in the dam. So, how is the US going to escape this time? The only global arena of total superiority left is military. Who knows what horrors lie ahead. A new world war is one tool by which the US could discipline its `allies' into keeping the dollar in their vaults.

The task of socialists today is to explain to as many as possible, especially our class, that the coming crisis belongs purely to capitalism and (dollar) imperialism. Not people of other cultures, not Islam, not the axis of evil or their so-called WMDs. Their system alone is to blame.

The new Iranian Oil Bourse, the IOB, is situated in a new building on the free-trade-zone island of Kish , in the Persian Gulf . It's computers and software are all set to go. The IOB was supposed to be up and running last March, but many pressures forced a postponement. Where the pressure came from is obvious. It was internationally registered on 5th May and supposed to open mid-May, but its opening was put off, some saying the oil-mafia was involved, along with much international pressure. ............ ......... ......
In 2007 Crude was trades around 60 usd. Everyone know dollar was getting weaker and weaker day by day. Than US with the help of their two NYMEX & IPE exchange started rising the price of crude by Future trading on crude( called speculation) . Today crude is around 140 usd. It means whole world who were paying 60 usd, now paying 140 usd, means demand of dollar increase to 230% and dollar start again rising.
Even OPEC recently that in hike og crude, 60% contribution is due to speculation (Future market).
Moral of story is USA has & will go to destroy any nation to keep its monopoly of dollar in world.

Fivestar hair cutting

landing at Kochi

My Village Varapuzha - Part 2

My Village - Varapuzha part 1

Tare Zameen Par

Yesterday I saw this movie. It revolves around a boy with learning disabilities. At times slightly dragging. Overall the movie is a good one. It is running at Sridhar.

www.taarezameenpar.com