Running for ASR Senator

I have a good piece of news to share. I am running as a candidate for Association of Student Representatives Senator. I always wanted to run for an election and go through this election euphoria. I have very strong interest in politics; my dad too knows this since it is clearly written in my ‘janmakundali’, a document that learned scholars prepare for every person based on the position of heavenly bodies such as stars and planets. And this document was prepared when I was less than a year old. I know what you are thinking now. I do not believe so much in it but coincidentally or otherwise, all of the events mentioned in that document seem to be coming true one after another. I do not want to talk about it, it scares me; my dad believes in it very strongly.

When you get a lot of attention, you know how uneasy of a feeling it is, don’t you? Well, when you run for an election, you become the center of attention and when you walk by your election poster and see other people looking at it, lots of things run in your mind. This is a wonderful feeling. It does not really matter so much to me whether or not I win. Of course, if I win, it will be great, my ‘self-confidence will be boosted’ and all, but if I don’t win, I will not be dejected. For me, running as a candidate and standing before everyone to let them know that I am there too, means as much as winning does.

I am strange, strange in the sense that when I feel about something, I feel very strongly about it and want things to happen in certain ways. For instance, when I see a device, a simple or common one such as trash bags and spot designing errors or can see that the design can easily be improved, I feel sorry for all the people who use those trash bags and feel a little dissatisfied with the engineer who possibly designed it. I want to fix things if they need to be fixed. I want to change things if they are not in the best of their forms. My strong desire for working to make things better came from the sorrow situation of my own country Nepal. Right now, it is in a situation as bad as it could be. Lots of things need to be fixed and improved. New and rational policies need to be formulated. A leader needs to be born. Some of educated Nepalese need to sacrifice their fantasies to become leaders. I will need to step up front. I will need to start this from Trinity.

If you want, you can check out the Facebook Group Vote Puru as ASR Senator

Politics is dirty, but I am not.

Life in a Mess

If I were to stare at the mirror for half an hour, I would still be surprised with the way my life has been moving in the last few weeks. The way I have been acting, I will tell you, it is not me. To make the long story short, my life is in a mess. I have been suddenly pounded by tonnes of assignments and projects. It is not that others do not have assignments, the thing is whenever I have a choice for my paper or project topic, I often choose the one which I have absolutely no idea about or is too hot to handle or difficult to get information about. For instance, for my economics country project, I chose Nepal, my country. At first, the choice seemed obvious to me but then later as I set down to do research, I realized retrieving information about Nepal was more difficult than I had thought. There are very very few books on Nepal at Trinity Library, one I found on Nepali politics was from 1970s. Data collection in Nepal is not very scientific and is done mostly by UN groups, the government rarely collects any statistics.

You would not believe that I missed a lot of deadlines for my assignments. I do not have any record for doing so. Even though GPA does not mean much to me personally, I give a heck lot of attention to it since that is how everyone judges a student’s performance and knowledge. And missing exams, which usually happen only thrice a semester could permanently strip you of the prospect of landing an A. If there is any class that I hate so much then it is Ancient Science & Technology. No, Calculus III comes second. And, Macroeconomics comes third. Wwww…is there anything that I even like? It seems no. I am a complainer. I don’t like this system. I want to be on my own and read and study what I want. What do I want? If you ask me what is my favorite subject or discipline, my blank stare at your face might make you uneasy but yeah that is what I would do. I love a lot of disciplines. I have interest in politics, international affairs, stock market, rural and urban planning, all physical sciences, mathematics, philosophy, psychology and many more. I want to gain knowledge and read about all of these areas but no college education, not even those like Brown which do not have a mandatory Common Curriculum requirement would cater to my ‘unusual’ style. I guess, for this you could call me a complainer since I am very hard to be pleased.

I kind of drifted away while writing this. I wanted to talk about the mess my life is in right now. On Monday, I decided I would get some work done on my Ancient Science & Technology Project, which is supposed to be about a dozen pages long and so skipped the class to be in the library. A consequence of bad ‘karma’ you can call it, an important exam was scheduled and an assignment was due the same day. I had not marked my calendars and so I had no idea about these. When I think about it now, I can’t tell if skipping the class did more harm than good since if I had gone, I would have failed it, and that’s for sure. You know who wrote de Architectura Book VI? I didn’t know. What’s a sambuka? What am I talking about? Just few of the terms common in my Ancient Science & Technology class

Things are moving too fast. I am working on my Writing Workshop Paper which is about Federalism in Nepal. I chose this topic because it was interesting and I wanted to know more about it since this issue of federalism is being discussed in the Constituent Assembly in Nepal and is the hottest debate in Nepal right now. I could have easily got away with an easy topic like abortion, gay marriage, capital punishment and other common topics that we have been writing essays on from secondary school. But no, I want to learn about new things. Very Inspiring, I’m impressed you would falsely say. Now, I have got to do a lot of research about this topic. And guess what, there is not a single book in our library on this topic. With the inter-library book loan program that directs you to a page where you have to fill a long form that I do not like, I am all left to the internet. Hope Google Scholar helps. I LOVE Google. Google is such a sweetheart, the BKG (Big Kind Giant); Microsoft is such an evil monopolist and Apple is only for certain type of people, those who can afford big bucks. (As you can tell, my opinions on Microsoft and Apple have nothing to do with this article. I just wanted to say it out.)

Images for my blog

These images are sample pictures present inside any computer. These have been edited.

Who is the Owner of the Ruler?

Saturday Morning. I walked towards Murchison Computer Lab, a 24 hour quiet study area with my Vector Mechanics for Engineers and Calculus Transcendentals, each of which are nowhere less than five pounds to spend the next several hours computing and understanding nonsense mathematical equations and 3-D graphs. Not having a graphing calculator aggravates the mathematical pain. Unlike last Saturday, the study lounge was relatively vacant and much peaceful, there weren’t any couples there. At least that appeased the mathematical torture that was to come. No sooner than I unpacked my bags and sat down to work on Calculus first, my eyes fell on a shiny metallic ruler left unattended on a table beside me. My initial reaction was a sense of annoyance to these careless kids of rich parents who have plenty to spend on Trinity's outrageously priced stationery items at Barnes and Nobles Bookstore. Next to that table was a pencil that was left behind. Every time I walk in a study lounge, I know I am in the United States because something is left behind and no one cares.

My initial annoyance towards the careless owner of the metallic ruler changed to an uncomfortable feeling when a little unnerving realization came to my mind about how much it resembled my own metallic ruler. I checked my bag and saw the ruler was missing from its usual place. The insinuation was not positive and I didn’t want to believe that the ruler was mine. I did not have a history of carelessness. My memory added some details by recapping the two days earlier scene when I had walked in and had sat on that same table to do my economics assignment. Obviously, I had used the ruler to draw graphs that make little practical sense to me. I checked my bag and realized pencil, eraser, sharpener, few pens and other items were intact but one item was missing- my metallic ruler. It was hard for me to believe that even if I had left my ruler, it would not have remained there for 2 days; it was shiny enough to lure the laptop-thieves if luck had not been on his/her side and could not get his/her hands on any laptop. It was an unpleasant feeling that I could have been careless enough to leave it there. Furthermore, it was a quirky feeling to lay my hands on a ruler that been left behind in a study lounge. My dorm is the second closest dorm to Murchison Study Lounge and it aided my otherwise threshold motivation to go to my room and see if I have left my ruler in the drawer.

It added to my embarrassment when I realized that the ruler was mine. I felt stupid and childish for making generalizations about careless people being rich, I was careless but I am far from rich. I learnt a lesson. And I am glad I am at Trinity since I learn something every day.

Dream. Inspire. Achieve.

What's up with the Pope?

When you realize no one is really paying attention to you or commenting on your Facebook status even though you change it more often than you change your underwear then, you act out of desperation and write something really stupid. Don’t tell me you have not seen people writing controversial statements on their Facebook statuses expecting tonnes of comments.

It seems Pope has been using a lot of Facebook these days, with high privacy settings, of course. What should I make of his Facebook status message which says that the use of condoms would make the ailing situation of AIDS in Africa even worse? Of course, he fulfilled his purpose by drawing out thousands of comments. Did he act out of desperation because for Christians, religion was starting to get limited to Sundays? He caused a stir and uproar among the large population. Even many Catholics must have felt really let down and misrepresented. I mean what is his basis? A person with his authority is in no position to make value judgments. It would be stupid to think he had not foreseen that this mass uproar would be created. Pope must have been watching a lot of Britney and must have learnt from her on how to stage a publicity stunt. Well done the Great Pope, you are a quick learner.

Abstinence? Why should anyone abstain from sex? Sex is a physiological need. Humans are unusual in that they have too less sex. I’m not kidding. If you were to look at scientific evidence of primates and compare bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans, there is a solid link between the size of testicles and frequency of sex per day. The analysis predicts that on average, humans would have sex at least once a day and that is a natural rate, chimps mate several times a day. Again, these rates are normal and early humans might have followed this trend until this notion of abstinence was imposed by religion. Osho and Freud, all they were proposing were what was in nature. And religion boycotted them. Pope is against contraceptives because it is against natural law of sex for reproduction and advocates abstinence. But how the hell is abstinence any more natural? What hypocrisy? The only reason the Pope is against the use of condoms is because of his reluctance to budge against his dogmatic beliefs. Please correct me. It’s not his. The unwillingness to change and upgrade and keep on using Pentium I even though Pentium IV has arrived in the market has been trademark of all religions; this deep conservatism seems to be the common ground of all religions. It is fine with me, if they don’t want to change, they will be left behind.

Federalism in Nepal? What does it mean?

The newest republic of the world-Nepal is in a fragile transitional phase since it is undergoing lots of historic changes. After overthrowing a 240 year old monarchy backed by a 95000 strong Nepalese Army, notorious for their bravery, Nepal became the newest republic of the world. While the proposal to divide Nepal into federal states is being discussed among main political parties, the debate about whether or not to divide Nepal into autonomous federal states with right to self-determination has deepened. With this debate, views have been polarized; one camp believes dividing Nepal into smaller states will compromise the integrity of the nation, while the other camp believes it will help in development and better governance, modeled after the most developed country in the word, United States.

There are three major debates about the introduction of federalism in Nepal. Firstly, there is a debate about whether or not Nepal should be divided into federal states. Secondly, if majority supports federalism then, should the federal states be autonomous with right to self-determination, which in plain language means the individual states could be run independently of the federal government. Thirdly, should these federal states be demarcated according to race and ethnicity of people living in those corresponding states or should it be based on geography, like in the past even though it has proved to be unsuccessful. As a Nepalese youth this issue is important to me since the decisions that will be made now will affect the future generation. More importantly, I am from the southern plains of Nepal, locally known as Madhes which has been marginalized and deprived of equal opportunities for development and representation in the government for centuries. If Nepal decides to have autonomous federal states with right to self-determination then, my region would get equal opportunities for development and representation.

However, this issue is a fairly complicated issue and it would not be easy to decide on either of them. After Madhesis (people from southern plains of Nepal that I belong to) raised demands for autonomous federal states, such demands started to be raised by regional ethnic groups throughout the nation. Dividing the nation into federal states based on race and ethnicity is not a rational step as it would push Nepal towards disintegration and possible struggle for independence in the future. Also, regional tensions among states would take the form of ethnic conflict which is a big impediment for stability. The political leaders are caught in a lose, lose situation. If they do not agree to the demands of Madhesis who represent almost half of the Nepal’s population, various Madhesi factions have threatened to launch an armed struggle and violent revolutions which would tear the country apart. If they do decide to succumb to Madhesis’ demands, other smaller ethnic groups’ demands would also have to be met since they have issued similar threats too. So, the country would end up being divided into federal states on the basis of ethnicity. Either way, Nepal loses.

My knowledge about federalism and effects of race and ethnicity on stability is insufficient to make detailed critical assessments. However, it can be seen that some optimum situation has to be reached through dialogue that would appease all groups and yet preserve the integrity of the nation apparently with little compromises made against the interests of groups involved. To be able to explain the best solution to the general people is a demanding task and while some experts have started to give their opinions on this matter, Nepalese as a whole are far from convinced. As a junior analyst staying abroad, the best thing I can do is to get my articles published in the leading national dailies.

The quest for Trinity

As my high school education neared its completion, we were handed a self-evaluation form by our guidance counselor, who wrote our recommendation letters for college application. It was pretty big deal since the rumor was that our guidance counselor relied heavily on those self-evaluation forms for writing recommendation letters, allegedly due to his indifference and reluctance to write more than hundred unique reference letters. My seniors had confided in us about his notoriety for indifference and this fact obviously worsened our apprehension while denting our hopes of getting into a good college. The first part of the form had the space for self-description using three words, mind it- no more, no less. And that was how the lofty quest for those three magic words – ‘the Trinity’ began. Soon, all of my classmates seemed to have plunged in introspection for the next few days, trying to identify what three words described them best. If I walked by some quiet places in the evening, I would realize creatures, frozen in space and time in lotus poses were not dogs as popularly believed; instead, they were our own little BNKS ‘Bomjans’, my own classmates, apparently meditating for the Trinity- the three enlightening words.

Those who meditated and indulged in deep introspection came up with pretty reasonable words. Everyone realized that unless their words were fancy, they had to go back into their meditation. Complexity was a virtue. This opened up an academic discussion amongst us involving rich vocabulary and we began to hear unworldly words that were heard once in a blue Moon, and usually reserved for Newsweek articles read few times a year in our General Paper (English) class. We knew simplicity was unacceptable. Settling with simple and three common words to represent one self would have spoken tales of weak vocabulary and an implicit laziness to strive for quest of fancy words. Some even feared quoting common words would hint an aberration from normality and entail the notion of modest ambitions. Upon repeated meditations, many of my friends realized Googling their brains returned simple and common words no matter how hard they tried. The law of economics prevailed and the demand for thesauruses soared. But this was soon overpowered by the scarcity of thesauruses in an elite school, naturally being elite did not help, it was still in Nepal and that mattered the most.

The law of supply dictated the thesaurus market more than the law of demand. The only thesaurus on our floor and possibly the only quality thesaurus in our residence hall, Byasrishi House belonged to my roommate Yunesh. With this, his stock among my friends soared. He had the magic potion that everyone wanted. Defying the law of economics by superimposing it with his generosity, he never charged anyone for the use of his thesaurus. At least he could now quote altruistic as one of his three words. Had it not been for the greed of this fancy word, he could have easily made a fortune. As you can imagine, the line outside our room waiting for his Encarta thesaurus never seemed to end. I often had to squeeze my way out whenever I had to get out of my room. I wish there were some fancy word to describe this phenomenon. Had it not been for the strict discipline of an elite school like Budhanilkantha School, his thesaurus would have easily been tore down by a mob of ‘fancy-word hunters’ as would a sack of rice by a mob of hungry people at a UN camp in Africa.

It did not matter if the word truly represented the person; all it mattered was the word had to be relatively alien and unheard of, most importantly to the guidance counselor. The stranger the word, the better impression it would carve. Benevolent? Not quite. Munificent? Magnanimous? You’re getting there. A sample quoted the three words as “1) inquisitive, 2) innovative and 3) amiable”. Everyone lied. Naturally, ‘Honesty is the best policy’ ones were left behind. The guidance counselor was pretty adept at spotting lies so, he had ruled out words like hard-working, friendly and smart. We overrode this limitation by finding fancy synonyms as alternatives. While friendly was unacceptable, amiable was perfectly acceptable; similarly, while smart and hard-working were unacceptable, ingenious and diligent respectively were acceptable and desirable. The rule of the thumb was that the words would be acceptable if the guidance counselor had to take asylum with the dictionary for at least two of the three words. Of course, more often than not, he took refuge in the dictionary world for all three of the words. As you can imagine, he had the dictionary within arm’s length every time he read our evaluation forms. A student testified seeing an Oxford dictionary fall from his pocket while our guidance counselor was having lunch in the school’s dining hall. If you think by the end of reading these hundred or so evaluation forms, he would have learnt three hundred new words then let me remind you that many of the words were repeated since most of the people thought they were diligent, amiable and ingenious or its synonyms. Obviously, he enriched his synonym bank.

If I were the guidance counselor, I would not be surprised with words that did not appear in any dictionaries, after all that would be a testimony that the students indeed meditated and achieved enlightenment in the form of three magical and creative words as meditation entails creativity and originality.

A Death in the Family

Lightning didn’t strike me but I know even if it would have, it could not have been worse. I guess I will start rambling on after few sentences so, I am warning you ahead. I received a call from my home and the news delivered was distressing. I do not call home often, usually they call me. I am trying to live in this little isolated world of my own, divorced from all worldly bonds and emotional attachments. Every call from home creates a little hole to peek in my little isolated world. It’s not that I hate my parents or family. They are the only people I love and they mean to me more than anyone else. This is a normal behavior of an adolescent I guess, normal since I am growing amid an American society.

Life and death are the two biggest mysteries that haunt every human minds, even more so thinking, active and intelligent minds. The only death that I have seen closely is the death of my grandfather. It was an unusual death in many ways, ways that I do not intend to mention here. I was only 14 years old then and the concept of death was alien to me even though I knew that being dead means not being able to find that person on this Earth or in this universe. I was very close to my grandfather and I was his favorite among all cousins that I grew up with, in my large family in my village. It has hardly been 6 years since I lost my grandfather and the pain has not healed yet and it seems I am going to lose my grandmother now. It’s unfair.

Can’t they wait? Death should give me sometime so that I can overcome the pain of losing my grandfather and those childhood days that I spent in his arms listening to folklores. It should give my grandmother sometime so that I can finish my college degree and go back home to see her. The tears in her eyes when I left for the United States have stamped an indelible image in my mind. I vividly remember her words, “You are going so far from me. I do not know if I will ever see you again before I die.” Even though she said these words in a serious tone, I knew this was just an intended humor. Her words have turned true, what an irony. I wish they had not.

My father did not hide anything; he explicitly said, “She is in her last stages. She is confined to bed now and cannot move at all. It seems she will not live for long. Do you have any of her photos?” As a grown-up adolescent, I know about this process of life and death, unlike Siddartha Gautam(Lord Buddha). But my incomprehensibility and inability to understand this process or to reason why this is inevitable is no different than Siddartha Gautam. When someone dies in one’s family, all the knowledge, understanding, rationality and pragmatism goes on a holiday trip to Bahamas, all it matters is that the person, whom they loved so much and who loved them so much would be no more in this world. No one can do without shedding tears.

Jaundice. That is what put her into this situation. This word will become associated with fear and hatred for me throughout my life. I know throughout my college degree and beyond, whenever I will come across this word, I will wage a war against it. I will try to learn everything about it with every opportunity, all its weakness and I will humiliate it. I might not be able to kill it but I will defeat it and will make sure it never invades me or my family in the future. Jaundice is a curable disease if treated properly and in a timely manner, if not, it brings death. Her jaundice was not caused due to contaminated fluid or food; it was due to degeneration of her liver aggravated by her diabetes. Diabetes runs in my family and so does high blood pressure. She was further afflicted by gastrointestinal complications. She moved with a diseased body afflicted by diabetes, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal diseases. Such a lethal combination will bring any mortal down sooner than one can imagine. She battled successfully these years, thanks to her healthy diet and traditional lifestyle in a serene, natural and rural environment.

Living amid strangers, all I can do now is reminisce my childhood days spent with my grandmother and wait for the final call from home. With every trrriinnnnggg now, my heart will skip a beat. The tears have started welling, it’s such a pain I have no one to share my grief with.

Women deserve beatings and rape, survey says

I found this piece so disturbing that I thought you should have a look at it too.

Published as blogs on Timesonline on March 10, 2009
Posted by Jennifer Howze

Women deserve beatings and rape, survey says

The more things change...
So I thought that time was behind us, when a girl could be said to be "asking for it" - "it" being a slap, a beating or rape - because she was wearing a short skirt or talked back. But a new survey conducted for the Home Office shows that one in seven people believe it is acceptable in some circumstances for a man to hit his wife or girlfriend if she is dressed in “sexy or revealing clothes in public”.
A similar number believed that it was all right for a man to slap his wife or girlfriend if she is “nagging or constantly moaning at him”.
It may not surprise you that men and women over age 65 (and who grew up in a different era) believed that a woman should be partly held responsible for being raped or sexually assaulted. The lower social classes tended to agree as well.
There's so much of this story that needs examination: what are we doing about domestic violence, how reliable are these results, how does the way we deal with rape and domestic assault feed into these values, the list goes on....
And when you think about the children in these homes - who grow up believing that a recalcitrant woman just needs a good seeing to, in one way or another - it seems almost inevitable that they will carry on the torch.
But one thing that always occurs to me about domestic violence and rape is how it affords so little power to men. They are incapable of controlling themselves around a V-neck jumper. They can't hold their own in an argument with their partner so they have to roll up their sleeves. How can the people who espouse these ideas think anything other than men are weak, pathetic creatures who are powerless in a world of women? I wonder if that thought occurred to them, if they would condone the behaviour after all.

Remaking of Man

Carrel was one of the man whose visions really impressed me. His book "Remaking of Man" highlights various aspects through which progress of humanity can be accelerated.

Some of the basic ills that Dr. Carrel saw in twentieth century society are: rising proletarianism, the utter ignorance of qualitative aspects in favor of quantitative aspects as science advanced and rising tendency of people to value materialism and money more than human values or feelings.[i] The ignorance of qualitative aspects by science in our society is evident by the fact that humans today know more about their external environment than they do about themselves, in terms of their soul, purpose and origin. An American dream is to own a car, an apartment and ensure financial security, all three of which are materialistic. People are driven more by materialistic greed than the desire for collective action in enhancing human values and feelings. However, the evidence for rising proletarianism is mixed in different parts of the world. While developed countries like Scandinavian nations have fairly succeeded in achieving equality among its people, the number of proletarians is still increasing in many under-developed nations.

Dr. Carrel hoped to build an ideal society consisting of a race of perfect humans who possessed qualities such as high intellects, natural immunity, high physical endurance and sound mental health. He also hoped to define specific gender roles, develop a group of specialists with extra-ordinary abilities and end humans’ crave for materialism. I strongly object Dr. Carrel’s idea of defining specific gender roles since it is an explicit form of male chauvinism. Gender roles are socially constructed rather than being innate. I also oppose Dr. Carrel’s military way of training the entire human race to confer desirable physical endurance and natural immunity. This process mechanizes human body and compromises with humans’ freedom. However, I endorse Dr. Carrel’s goal of selecting a group of extra-ordinary people to pursue his goal because such an organized effort could achieve much more than what has been achieved hitherto through various individual or small-scale efforts.

Dr. Carrel assumed that humans are strictly either male or female and that each sex has an innate and distinct nature. He assumed that women have a natural aptitude towards nurturing and caring. But, women have proved their capability in various fields that were reserved exclusively for men such as military. I disagree that women are destined for nurturing roles. In addition, humans are not distinctly male or female as evident by the reiteration of gays that they deviate from the society’s bi-gender system not because of their choice but because of their nature. His second assumption is that human qualities such as intelligence and leadership are hereditary, and are independent of external influences such as social environment. I disagree with his assumption since the link between intelligence and heredity is a highly debated issue devoid of concrete scientific evidence.[ii] Neither Einstein’s son nor Einstein’s father was as intelligent as Einstein. In fact, Einstein’s family except for Einstein was hardly known for its intelligence. Carrel also assumed that the quality of tissues is hereditary while it has been proved that diet and environment are significantly important in determining such characteristics.

Dr. Carrel strongly favored eugenics to produce ‘valuable’ off-springs with desirable characteristics.[iii] He suggested that strengthening of the strong instead of supporting the poor is the key to progress. He hoped to build his new society through the efforts of extra-ordinary individuals committed to pursuing his dream. He also wanted to assign specific gender roles, check divorces and eliminate criminality either by capital punishment or modification of the brain of criminals.[iv]

His suggested means of conducting compatibility tests before marriage devalues and mechanizes the process of marriage by rendering it solely for the purpose of producing desirable off-springs. Also, people with extra-ordinary talents might be forced to work for his vision. Moreover, assigning gender roles and checking divorces compromises human freedom. However, I think capital and corporal punishment for criminals are justified because a criminal dead is a criminal less. Since many of his suggested means compromise human freedom and are unethical and unfair, his goal of building an ideal society seems impracticable.

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[i] . Alexis Carrel, Man, The Unknown (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1935), 1.

[ii] . David Wilson and Roger Keil, "The real creative class," Social & Cultural Geography 9 (2008): 841.

[iii] . John White, “Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education- By Clyde Chittym,” British Journal of Educational Studies 56 (2008): 228.

[iv] . Diane Romm, "Wretched Sisters: Examining Gender and Capital Punishment," International Sociology 23 (2008): 747.

Bibliography

Carrel, Alexis. Man, The Unknown. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1935.

Wilson, David, and Keil Roger. "The real creative class." Social & Cultural Geography 9 (2008): 839-841.

White, John. “Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education- By Clyde Chittym.” British Journal of Educational Studies 56 (2008): 226-228.

Romm, Diane. "Wretched Sisters: Examining Gender and Capital Punishment." International Sociology 23 (2008): 747-754.

Leopold, David. "Socialism and (the rejection of) utopia." Journal of Political Ideologies 12 (2007): 219-237.

Giesecke, Annette Lucia. "Homer's Eutopolis: Epic Journeys and the Search for an Ideal Society." Utopian Studies 14 (2003): 23-40.

Bain, Read. "Asylum/Man the Unknown/Why Keep Them Alive…." American Sociological Review 1 (1936): 814-817.

Rose, Hilary. "Eugenics and Genetics: The Conjoint Twins?." New Formations (2007): 13-26.

Waller, John. "Evolution's inside man." New Scientist 187 (2005): 42-44.

Godin, Benoît. "From Eugenics to Scientometrics: Galton, Cattell, and Men of Science." Social Studies of Science 37 (2007): 691-728.

Constructing Identity through the Internet

The task of defining identity is as complex as the concept of identity itself. Angela Thomas summarizes Butler’s notion of identity as “a performance of fantasy and desire- a pursuit of being and becoming the image of this desire. (Thomas 2007)” Identity is the perception and awareness of how an individual wants others to perceive her against how she is perceived. The internet has added a powerful tool in shaping’s one’s identity. As the popularity of the internet continues to swell, concerns about the impact of the internet on influencing an individual’s identity have been raised. This issue was highlighted when a guy changed his real name as ‘The internet guy’ after gaining popularity with this psuedonym on the internet.  Thomas Erickson, an interaction designer and researcher asserts, “Personal home pages and the World Wide Web are not being used to ‘publish information’; they are being used to construct identity—useful information is just a side effect. (Erickson 1996)” The internet has the most significant impact on shaping an individual’s identity because it provides an ideal platform to identify, construct, express and maturate an individual’s identity.

It took several decades for newspaper, radio and television to attract 100 million followers after its advent, but it took less than 5 years for Facebook, a social networking website to attract 175 million active users (Facebook 2009). Socializing network provides a platform for users to expose themselves to the virtual world through personalized pages containing detailed and intimate profile information, images and videos. Many personalized pages even have comment sections where the visitors can leave their feedbacks, allowing the user to cross-check the notion of how she is being perceived against how she wants to be perceived. These feedbacks, if appropriate appeal to the user and end up being a cornerstone in shaping her identity. Facebook reported that at least 15 million users updated their statuses at least once a day; some of whom even changed their statuses more often than their underwear (Facebook 2009). These statuses are a popular form of expressing one’s identity in the form of views as diverse as, ‘The user thinks Israel used excessive force in Gaza…’ to ‘*** wants Obama to pass the economic stimulus plan’.

Through personalized profiles, users get a platform to construct and express their identity. Bloggers admit that through blogging, they discover their views and standpoints on the issues that they were previously unaware of. In Chandler’s study, Tristan confesses, “It [My personal homepage] helps to define who I am. Before I start to look at/write about something then I’m often not sure what my feelings are, but after having done so, I can at least have more of an idea. (Chandler 1998)” It is true that even though certain ideas and notions about an issue are embedded in humans, usually they unaware of such ideas unless they pause to reflect and think about the issue. The internet attempts to make humans assess these embedded notions, a process of identification of one’s identity. The liberty to modify and update their profiles and opinions, allows users to experiment with their identity that is under construction and continuous modification. Chandler suggests, “The rewriting of identities in homepages wipes out those formulations which preceded it. (Chandler 1998)”

With the exponential explosion in the blogosphere and a blog being created for every three babies born on the Earth, the impact of blogs on constructing an individual’s identity cannot be ignored. Blogs, like personalized pages and profiles provide personal space for individuals to express themselves to the rapidly growing online community. In blogosphere, an individual can be himself or herself without any fear of being ridiculed, humiliated or assaulted physically. It is thus no wonder that expression of one’s identity through blogs have proved to be popular among minorities as it allows them to maintain their anonymity at the same time. Minorities such as gays often suppress their identity in the real world due to its biased and unaccepting nature. “David, a gay man in Chandler’s study, reports that his homepage allows him ‘to give a complete definition of how [he] see[s] the gay scene and [his] place in it’…” (Slevin 2000). Such marginalized people find it easier to express their true identity through the internet. The search for ‘The diary of a gay’ is pretty popular with the search giant, Google. The sympathy and suggestions received by marginalized people through the internet add to the maturation and confidence while expressing their identity in the real world.

The role of the internet in maturating identities of people is significant. When people are trying to create an identity, the fear of being alone often scares them and makes them either ambivalent or less vocal of their identity. For instance, the democracy advocates in communist China suppressed their democrat identity in the fear of being alone or executed. The internet provided a platform to these democracy and freedom lovers and china saw an explosion in the number of Chinese bloggers advocating democracy. Many Chinese who had been feigning to be staunch supporters of communists joined in to express their true identity while other Chinese youths were exposed to this alien concept of democracy in communist China. The internet proved to be vital to Chinese democrats in expressing their identity; they no more had to fake their views. Chinese youths resorted to the internet to learn more to shape their identity in contrast to state censored media.  One’s identity is maturated further when one meets people with similar identities who share similar beliefs and opinions. The internet provides the best and an unparalleled platform to meet people with similar interests ranging from Lakers to Harry Potter fans and ‘I am a Mac’s to pet lovers.

The number of personal homepages has spawned astonishingly too. Homepages are personalized spaces that echo the user’s identity. Thomas Erikson comments, “A personal page is a carefully constructed portrayal of a person. (Erickson 1996)” Personal pages are like little holes in one’s wall to let others into one’s world. It is a place to present oneself the way one wants others to perceive oneself, the core base of an individual’s identity. Identity is all about how one wants others to perceive her, validated by the popular saying, ‘you are not the one you think, you are the one others think’. Brown asserts projection of one’s identity through ‘posters, postcards, snapshots [and] sports insignia’  in one’s bedroom has transformed to textual and pictorial representations on personal homepages and profiles on networking sites, blogs or discussion forums (Brown et al. 1994). Many people have highly personalized profiles, akin to one’s bio-data that mirror their identity. These profiles are edited and updated regularly, an insinuation that their identity is being transformed using the tools on the internet. Personalized homepages are indeed the projections of individuals’ identity.

The uses of pseudonyms in discussion forums or in chat-rooms are also a popular form of identity expression. Often, the identity of the individual is implicit in their pseudonyms. Several such names could be located on the internet, some of which are hot_guy, iamprolife, littleprincess, depressedgay and hunk_punk that explicitly reflectt their characteristics. The use of such pseudonyms on the internet provides confidence to express the same in the real world. These pseudonyms are often catchy and appealing, thus they impress, amuse and influence other people very easily. The biggest advantage of the internet in shaping an individual’s identity is that the individual can assess the reaction of others towards their projected identity without any serious repercussions. Socializing networks such as Facebook also exposes an individual to the virtual market containing millions of identities to shop and experiment from without bearing any real cost. It allows an individual to experiment with similar identities and adopt a customized identity that is accepted and appreciated widely. This convenient and inexpensive method to experiment with one’s identity is provided exclusively by the internet.

The content on the internet is contributing significantly to carve youths and teens’ identity. This is attributed to their profuse use of the internet, while they are still in the vulnerable process of forming an identity. With the newspapers’ waning popularity and audience among youths, the role of the internet in influencing youths are becoming more significant. The exposure and breadth of perspectives on the internet regarding various issues help youths to weigh both sides, develop their own perspective and construct their identity accordingly. Angela Thomas asserts that, “For children, there is no such dichotomy of online and offline, or virtual and real - the digital is so much intertwined into their lives and psyche that the one is entirely enmeshed with the other. (Thomas 2007)” Through the ingenuity of online business companies, the internet is becoming increasingly pervasive in peoples’ lives. Teens are spending more hours on the internet, in a virtual community than with their parents or relatives. Teens are constantly being bombarded with views, opinions and beliefs about myriad of topics some of which are embraced and adopted by them due to their appeal. Thomas further asserts that, “…moreover through the virtual, children are simultaneously engaging in acts of self-reflection, self-fashioning and identity formation. (Thomas 2007)”

The internet is affecting young people the most, and extrapolating the current trend, it is clear that the internet will have a defining role in various spheres of our lives in the future. Even though currently the internet is not universally accessible, the cutting-edge research and technology will soon make it affordable and accessible to even the poor. Its superiority will become unparalleled. Therefore, the impact of the internet on an individual has to be assessed carefully before it becomes too pervasive in everyone’s lives. Studies that have been conducted show mixed results; some warn people to be watchful and rational by minimizing the internet’s use until proved to be harmless while others show that the increased use of the internet contributes to loneliness and withdrawal from the family and real world relationships and values. However studies concur that the internet has a significant role in construction of users’ identity. The internet has to be used wisely and rationally by people if they are to benefit from the privilege of constructing their identity, using a matrix of extremely diverse and rich wealth of information. 

Works Cited

Brown, J, C R Dykers, J R Steele & A B White. “Teenage Room Culture: Where Media and Identities Intersect.” Communication Research 21.6 (1994): 813-27.

Chandler, Daniel. “Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web.” 1998. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html.

Erickson, Thomas. “The World Wide Web as Social Hypertext.” 1996. <http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/SocialHypertext.html>.

“General Growth.” Facebook Press Room. 2009. 28 February 2009. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>.

Slevin, James. The Internet and Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2000.

Thomas, Angela. Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.

“User Engagement.” Facebook Press Room. 2009. 28 February 2009. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>.

A Critique of Insurance Policy in the United States

The insurance policy in the United States be it auto insurance or health insurance is not among the best policies of the United States. These insurance policies are structured in an oblique way and thus incomprehensible to common people and are unjustly structured as in the case of auto insurance. Almost every state in the US requires automobiles to be insured before they can be driven on the streets. And the way insurance costs are charged is unjust. Similarly, health insurance policies are elusive. Even though 80% of Americans are insured, visiting doctors and buying medicines are exorbitantly expensive and often inaccessible to lower middle class and poor Americans.

George (name changed), is a guy from a lower middle class family and his parents have just managed to buy insurance for him. One day, while playing tennis, he was struck on the eye with a speeding tennis ball. Without any second thought, any person would have reported to the nearest clinic and visited the doctor as soon as possible. Taking into account his economic conditions, he decided he would be better off letting it heal naturally. Sadly, even though he was insured, his insurance did not cover dental care or eye care and a single visit to the doctor would cost his parents several dollars and purchase of medicines another few hundred bucks, maybe. A week later, he realized the pain was persisting and could not decide if he should pay the doctor a visit after all.

Several diseases and afflictions can be prevented if they are reported on time and such hesitations to visit doctors are a common thing among poor Americans. George was uninsured even after being insured. Had his parents not paid several hundred dollars on his insurance, he could very well have used a fraction of that money to visit the doctor and purchase required medicines. What is the point of making people buy insurance and not paying for the doctor’s fees or not providing insurance against eyes or teeth? Eyes and teeth are part of a human body too. If insurance cannot cover the insured when they need it and continue to appear elusive, they should receive reimbursements at the termination of their insurance. Tying arrangements, such as limiting the insurance policy if treated by a certain doctor or at certain hospital, which is very common is unjust and egregious example of monopoly. Having health insurance for Americans is by all means a good policy, but making it elusive, expensive and inaccessible is unjust.

The algorithm to compute the insurance costs for automobiles based on probabilities alone is unjust. Mathematics and economics are at work during such computations but ethics is completely out of work, maybe laid off because it poses obstacles in their profit-oriented calculations. The auto insurance amounts are based on gender, age group and in some cases, marital status. It is unethical to make a 19 year old, unemployed son of a poor family pay the same insurance as that of a kid from an affluent family. Their parents do not pay the same taxes but when it comes to paying auto insurance, such differences are overlooked. Paying several hundred out of few thousands is not the same as paying several hundred from several hundred thousand or maybe several millions. If poor Americans cannot purchase insurances because they are too expensive for them, then the state does not care but it when it comes to auto insurance, it is rendered compulsory irrespective of their economic status. The discrimination here is obvious. It implies that the death of a poor American does not concern some other American or the state, but not having auto insurance for all Americans means Americans are driving on unsafe roads where someone with no auto insurance could bump their cars’ backs from behind and not pay for the damages if do not have an auto insurance. Having auto insurance is not bad, but making it compulsory without taking into account economic situations of the insurance purchasers is unethical.

Entropy in humanity

One of the basic laws of physics that always puzzled me has been the entropy that states, “All energy, in an isolated system, moves from an ordered to a disordered state.”

It took me a while to grasp the significance of this law. I realized it was very much different than other thermodynamics or statics laws. This thermodynamics law, in fact has a very large scope and its interpretation has far-ranging ramifications. To state clearly, it implies that everything moves from order to disorder. A well organized system would shift from stability to chaos and this is always true according to this law. Laws are phenomena that have been observed to be true every single time no matter how the experiment is performed. Moreover, I can provide you evidence that this law holds true in our everyday life too.

Today I came across a news article that deeply moved me. This politically charged move to attack Sri Lankan cricketers by masked gunmen while they were on a tour in Pakistan was one of the egregious examples of how dirty politics can get. Several policemen were killed and many players injured. After all, why did they do this? Did they spread this chaos to prove the entropy law correct? What would gunned mask-men know of entropy law? Why would Tutsi mass-murder thousands of Hutus in Rwanda? Why would Nepal’s ‘madhesi’ armed groups abduct, torture and kill common people and journalists? Why would the United States torture imprisoned, alleged criminals in Guantanamo? Why would Tamil Tiger rebels use civilians as human shields? Why would Hamas continue to fire rockets and spread terror and use human shields too? Why would a ray of light travel at a speed of 3.00*10^8 m/s?

I know even to the average minds, the answer is apparent and a single one. These are all laws, fundamental principles of nature, they happen because that is what should happen. Every system, Sri Lankan system, Hamas’ Gazan system, Madhesi system, Rwandan system and all other systems have to follow this entropy law. Every system has to move from order to disorder. Chaos is unavoidable. The United States may attack Iraq to remove tyrant leader Saddam, but remember even the super-power, United States cannot violate the entropy law; Iraq, even without Saddam after the United States’ interference would move from stability to chaos. It is inevitable. What happened in East Europe and Russia was also a consequence of this entropy law. The rise of the communists, the USSR and with it, the mass murder of millions of political prisoners in little known secret political camps in remote regions of the USSR was a move from order to disorder. Lenin wanted to move the political and economical system from order to perfection, he thought with the might of thousands of armed humans, he could overrule this natural principle. He missed out the constraint that he was indeed a human, a part of this dystopian law. What happened in post-Soviet Union collapse was another testimony to this entropy law. Factories closed, people lost jobs, hunger and political turmoil spread and the system broke down, in other words, the system moved from order to chaos.

I believe the validity and universality of this law means disaster and dispels a stark dystopian vision for humanity because no matter how much humans will progress, innovate or create, there will always be some other forces that will bring chaos to this system. If the United States sends spacecrafts to the Moon and builds skyscrapers like Twin Towers there will always be natural forces (some might call it evil) to spread chaos and bring those towers down. Entropy law cannot be violated. If the world, as a whole progresses then people like Hitler will be born to prevent Entropy principle from being violated. Human structures will be brought down. The resources present on this Earth will be used to build arsenals, bombs to destroy other resources. Self-annihilation is inevitable and unavoidable. This is duality of life. Tamil Tiger rebels will continue to rebel and destroy resources, Israel will continue to shatter Palestinian buildings, universities, infrastructures, American planes will continue to bombard Pakistani tribal areas, Iraqi suicide bombers will continue to target foreign troops, Madhesi armed groups will continue to extort donations and kill people, a ray of light will continue to travel at a speed of 3.00*10^8 m/s. The world as a system will continue to move from order to disorder. George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and other dystopian’ visions will continued to be reached. Entropy law cannot be violated. Chaos is inevitable.

Domestic Violence in Nepal

Incidents of domestic violence are very common in Nepal. As a Nepali, if you have not seen it or it has not occurred in your home, you probably know someone who has been severely affected by it. What surprised me with this incident in Nepalgunj was not that she was burnt alive with kerosene. I always wonder why she always has to burnt with kerosene while she is still alive. There are so many other ways of killing person. This incident is rather unusual. Tell me, usually who puts the kerosene and burns her? You're right. Of course, her mother-in-law. Who else could it be?

In this incident of Nepalgunj, it is her own husband. Her mother-in-law is nowhere in the picture. These are the kinds of incidents that demean us as Nepalese, as humans. I have never seen someone putting a dog or a cat or any other animal for that purpose on fire, no matter how annoyed one gets. Wait, I indeed have seen naughty little kids putting dog's tail on fire and the dog runs and spins which lights the fire even more, since it regulates and enhances the supply of oxygen for combustion of dog's tail. Not only naughty children, even some adults are part of this activity, if not, they join in to laugh at the canine creature's helplessness.

But wait, a woman is a human. A dog is a dog. The most shocking of all in this incident is that the husband was convicted but was sentenced to six months in jail. Six months for burning a human alive? Even stealing and theft could land a petty criminal for few years in jail. This is equivalent to murder. Long live the justice system of Nepal. 'Nyaya na paye Gorkha janu' (Go to Gorkha if you are denied justice). After the influx of communist guerrillas, Gorkha exists no more.

A man, talking about a stereotypical Nepalese husband, a husband can come drunk at night and beat her woman, set her on fire and could get away with six months in prison. I thought punishments were to deter criminals from repeating the crime and to deter other potential criminals. I wonder how strongly would six months deter anyone from setting a woman on fire. This violence against women can not go on like this. It has to stop. We have to act as responsible humans, as responsible men and as responsible women. We can not wait for some foreign organization or personality to come and work to stop this.

Read this: http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2009/03/2/ConstitutionSupplement/15712