' I Think '

the mobile valgus

2010-03-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

“……..I never would've dreamed in a million years I'd see,So many motherfu*kin' people who feel like me, who share the same viewsAnd the same exact beliefs, it's like a fu*kin' army marchin' in back of me, so many lives ITouch, so much anger aimed, in no particular direction, just sprays and sprays………….….”Eminem (Marshall Mathers) in White America

What is leadership??? Can it be summed up in a sentence. Maybe it’s the approval of the people; ah yes! it has to be, The approval of people, the masses, the mob. I always wondered how it would have been in the ancient Rome where the mob rule originated or alteast the term mob rule originated because I have found that mob rule has been a inherent quality of mankind. The mob is always right no matter how bad the “the intellectuals” try to prove otherwise. I have tried to be ;the intellectual till today but I have decided to switch to the other side and try to feel what they do or remain on the fence and see the show.Revolt, Indiscipline , Aggression, Defiance of authority have always been attracting the mob towards these situational leaders and how so often these situational leaders become more powerfull and even more defiant. But why does the mob like them , maybe they get a feeling of emancipation seeing them act in ways that they never could or would. Emancipation from perceived or actual injustice, ill treatment or oppression of the authority. The most people are law abiding and would never try to push the boundaries of discipline and for many reasons ;Laziness ,Fear of repercussions, Respect for authority or the unwillingness to change routine life. But they always have it in their minds, it plays and plays inside their minds of how they want their life to be but never endeavor to fiddle with rules, boundaries or restrains. And the day they see a person from among them act in ways they always wanted to that very common person becomes their ‘leader’ their Idol and this support is mostly irrational;; but wait--who am I to judge what is irrational for what is most rational to one maybe completely irrational for the other and same holds true incase of mindset of groups of people (the mob). Finally it comes down to which mob is in majority and that becomes the norm of the society.You have to feel what its like to be one among the mob to actually understand why they ‘approve’ of something that is so wrong in the eyes of the intellectuals. It’s the feeling of belonging to a common ideology which almost always is molded by some type of oppression of freedom. The intellectuals only see one side of the story; the side which they see through their biased eyes and commit the sin of hypocrisy unknowingly. They advice the sheeple on philosophy and what is right; but they are so wrong because the mob is always right no matter how wrong they are. The authority is for, by and of the mob and the day authority fall from their position of respect, such situational leaders arise and begin the process of leadership change. A successful authority is one that possess the power to either provide resources needed, demanded by the mob or is able to manipulate the mob into thinking they are getting the same.

So the moral of the story is "dont mess with the mob" atleast dont make it so apparent they are able to connect with one another more importantly connect with that situational mob leader.

Market Failure, Global Warming and Mr. Arthur C. Pigou

2010-01-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

On 30th October 2006 The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was released though not the first report of its kind but one the most widely discussed. The 700 page report was prepared by a Economist Prof Nicolas Stern for the British Government.
The Report linked climate change with the growing amount green house gases caused by the rapid industrial growth and demands an immediate and effective response from governments around the world to restrict emissions.
Mr. Stern exclaimed “It is the greatest and the widest ranging market failure ever seen”
And to top it of the world faced a major economic recession in the ensuing years; what does it all point to?.
Why has the free market - so often hymned as infallible by right-wing economists - allowed this situation to arise? And why have governments not intervened before now to protect us against this extreme example of market failure?
Co-incidentally another forgotten English Economist predicted these phenomenon in the early 1940’s;Mr.Arthur Cecil Pigou pioneered the study of Market Failure –the branch of economics that explores why free enterprise sometimes fails, during the 1930’s Mr. Maynard Keynes lampooned him as a ‘reactionary’ because of his suggestion that the economic slump would eventually recover on its own accord (the economic depression of 1929). A student of the great Victorian Economist Prof. Alfred Marshall who regarded Pigou as a budding economics genius and even recommended him for his chair at Kings College,Cambridge.
Economics textbook have long contained sections on how free markets fail to deal with the negative spillovers such as pollution,traffic congestion and the likes. Mr. Pigou was never credited for his hypothesis on Free Market spill overs , His then radical ideas of Taxing Polluters and making Health Insurance compulsory were met with indifference: Keynesianism was all the rage then.Mr Pigou said His Goal was to explore ways in which “it now is,or eventually may become,feasible for governments to..promote the economic welfare of their citizens as a whole”
Mr. Pigou drew an important distinction between private and social value of economic activities for eg; A fertilizer factory opening up in a rural area creates employment and wealth for the residents willing to work in the factory but it creates environmental damage and creates potential risk for people who are not getting anything out of the factory. The key to solve this problem as suggested by Mr. Pigou that though government interference towards compensation is an option but In some cases ,the parties concerned might be able to come to a voluntary agreement on how to compensate innocent bystanders in this case the people not working in the factory and the neighboring environment. For Instance a landlord may reduce rents of tenants who have to live over a noisy bar in the hotel.
In the aftermath of 1929 depression Mr. Pigou claimed “The actual occurrence of business failures will be more or less widespread according to whether bankers’ loans are more or less readily available”. Nobody could imagine that a small,obscure part of the credit markets-The SubPrime Mortgage Insutry waould prime the world financial markets to its knees due to shortage of credit.
Today Mr. Pigou’s Intellectual legacy is being rediscovered and Unlike those of Messers ,Keynes and Friedman it enjoys Bi-Partisan appeal ,the Left and Right seem to be in agreement with Pigovian Economics also Leading economist such as Greg Becker, Greg Mankiw joined democrats such as Paul Krugman and Amartya Sen in recommending Pigovian approach ro policy. Much of President Barack Obama’s agenda—Financial Regulation, Cap and Trade (regarding Emmision Caps),Health Care Reforms- are application of Pigovian Principles. A principle that is finding its way into economies aound the world including India with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hinting at Financial Reforms and Credit Market Regulation in Budget 2010. The United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 is another step towards carbon caps for a better management for economic spillovers. At Harvard Greg Mankiw founded the informal Pigou Club for Economists supporting Carbon Tax. His broad views of including the Environment as ‘innocent bystander’ and predicting Markets who ignore these innocent bystanders are doomed to fail have made him more relevant today than ever before. But Mr. Pigou was a optimist and believed the things are never too bad to be meanded. He believed in progress,the power of rational analysis and the ability of well intentioned people,such as himself to effect meaningfull reforms. He didnt put much emphasis on mathematical models for forcasting rather was a practical person; in one of his greatest books ‘The Economies of Welfare’ he wrote “We shall endeavor to elucidate, not any generalized system of possible worlds—But the actual world of men and women as the are found in experience to be”

IRAN ISAREL OBAMA

2009-11-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

Iran is the world's second largest oil producer. That is poised to increase the country's value in the coming decade with the world energy demand expected to double in that period. It has been pursuing a nuclear weapons development programme too since the late 1990s as a measure of deterrence. More so after the recent US-Iraq war, being viewed by the Islamic regime of Iran as America's way of ensuring uninterrupted supply of oil. Some experts call it the US’s next logical step. It already has richest and third richest states in terms of oil reserves -- Saudi Arabia and Iraq under their sphere of influence. But Iran’s efforts towards development of a N-bomb has ruffled feathers in another middle eastern country; Israel considers this a direct threat to its existence. Though at some level their foresight is justifiable.

Three have many instance of crude statements bring made by the Iranian top leadership from time to time including Ayatollah Khomeini describing Israel as the “Cancerous Tumor of the Middle – East”. But things between Israel and Iran was not always that bad .After the Islamic revolution in Iran which toppled the Shah Pahlavi Dynasty relations between Iran and Israel became Sour. The revolutionary were of the view that Israel is illegally occupying the holy land. From the days when Jewish refugees took refuge in Iran east while Persia to save themselves from the wrath of Shalmanesser V and the Babylonians who invaded Israel in late800 BC to the day.

(2)

When Iran supplied Oil to Israel during the Six day war in 1948 which led to the formaticn of the state of Israel since the things have gone from good to bad and now turning worse.
Now America has been a vociferous supporters of Israel since its inception and therefore America too acknowledges Iran as a threat to Israel and world security. This may be only another reason for it to run a clandestine pogrom of its energy security and global dominance. But this has not stopped Iran from adding fuel to the fire; I have been secretly funding and giving political support to Hamas’ in the Gaza strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon; both the terrorist organizations supposedly carrying out Jihad to take out Israel.

President Obama was expected to become the new American peace broker between Israel and The Muslim world but he too has not been very effective. There have been conflicting statements being made by Mr. Barack Hussein Obama on a regular basis, On the one hand he talks about restraining Israel from inciting the wrath of the Arab world and on the others land he shakes hands with the Russians to encircle Iran with its Missile Defense Program. President Obama hopes Russia will find more reasons to go along with U.S. efforts to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Russia publically opposes any Irannian effort to develop nuclear weapon but it is also against imposing new sanctions on Tehran.

(3)

Lately the Israeli leadership has got quite aggressive towards Iran’s Nuclear development program There have been repots floating in the media about prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planning an air raid on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment plant . A senior pentagon official said it was jus a clear message to the United States and other Countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily.

On the Israel front Obama has been Untypical with respect to past American presidents. Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel appears to be masterminding the effort to force Israel to tone down or better yet force Netanyahu from office’ so as to get more compliant and fearful Israeli leader into the prime – ministers office. In reality Rahm gives cover to Obama dramatic policy shift towards Israel . That new reality is that Israel is no longer an ally of the United states. It is rather an obstacle in the way of better relations with the Muslim world and the Arab nations in particular . This was the obvious after the address to the Muslim world at the Cairo University.--(please add the month i donot reacall when the speech was given)---

President Obama’s obsession to create a positive image of America among the Muslim nation could prove detrimental towards Israels Objective of dominating middle – east affairs’. But his stand on the Iran issue reassures Israel of Americans support ;maybe this is due to the strong Jewish lobby in American Politics which he cannot afford to ignore.

(4)

It is expected that Iran will have nuclear capability by the end of 2009. And with the re-election of the Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad radical who is an outspoken critic of United States Foreign policy and Israel also President Ahmadinejad now boasts of renewed support of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah khameni thing are not looking any better.

And among all this Mr. Obama was surprised with the Nobel Peace Prize,A “surprised” and “deeply humbled” Mr Obama said he doubted he deserved the honour, but vowed to wield it as a “call to action” to lead a united world against its greatest challenges. It is claimed by many that Obama's wilingness to hold a unconditional dialogue with Iran is one of the important reasons for the Peace Prize. But one thing is clear from a question raised by a french newspapers editor,“Could a Nobel Peace Prize laureate decide to attack Iran?” a US-Iran war is not on the cards any time soon.

But sure enough Obama will have a tough time’ with two radical leaders at the opposing camps – But this is the kind of time he’s ben having since his election. Until then it is only hoped that president’s Obama; Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad work something out for the stabilization of the Middle – East.

2009-07-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

On 26 July, the Indian Navy launched its first indigenously built submarine which also happens to be nuclear powered. The INS Arihant, codenamed Advanced Technology Vessel 1 (ATV 1), has been in development since 1983 after being first envisioned by Raja Ramanna in the 1970s (the scientist had also worked on India’s first indigenously built nuclear bomb ‘The Smiling Buddha’). The programme got delayed many times due to bottlenecks in procuring equipment for the nuclear reactor which further intensified after the US sanction in 1998. For almost a decade after that, the programme was kept a secret. Even the hint that Indian scientists were working on a light water reactor came only in early 2007. Till 2008, Indian Navy Chiefs would deny the existence of such a project on record though the nuclear reactor, a miniature version of which is to be fitted into the sub, had gone critical in October 2004 at Kalpakkam.

Currently INS Arihant is undergoing harbour trials in the Bay of Bengal during which time the nuclear reactor will reach its criticality (a stage where the disintegration of uranium with respect to neutrons stabilises). The nuclear powered Submersible Ship Ballistic Missile (SSBN) first began to take shape in 1998 when the steel fabrication work began at Larsen and Tubros’ Hazira fabrication plant.

The nickname of the sub, Baby Boomer, is curious. Is it a snide remark or a compliment? The term is often used to describe someone who was born during the post-WWII baby population explosion in the West. Some consider the term disparaging while most baby boomers consider themselves gifts to the mankind as they were born during a phase when the economy was looking up. Now, with the launch of INS Arihant, has Indian defence begun to look up?

At 112 m long and with water displacement of about 6000 tonnes, the sub may not be a baby, but it’s no giant either. While it surpasses the current Indian fleet of Kilo and Charlie Class subs by 2000 tonnes, is longer than the Charlie Class sub India had taken on lease from Russia by 9 m and at a submerged speed of 24 knots (44 km/h) — otherwise 15 knots (28 km/h) — it matches the USS Ohio Class in speed, the speed is not enough to chase warships. The extra length is to accommodate 4 missile tubes, and its 10 m beam is the same size as that of a Charlie Class sub.

Some speculations in the media about the design of the sub have now proved wrong. The towed sonar at the aft may be like the Akula Class, but the design is neither of Akula II nor of the Graney Class, which have twin hull designs and are powered by reactors with more than double the power of the one used in Arihant. In all probability, the new sub is a result of Russian consultancy based on its experience with Charlie II Class subs and India’s own experience of handling 1500 tonne German HDW 209 Shishumar Class subs in the form of INS Shalki and INS Shankul.

The INS Arihant will be fitted with 6 torpedoes, 6 Agni III ballistic missiles and 6 K 15 missiles [the latter is another well guarded project of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)]. The missile tubes will also be modified to possibly fire Brahmos missiles, which would upgrade Arihant’s Classification from an SSBN to an SSGN (where ‘G’ stands for guided missile).

The fire power of INS Arihant, believed to complete the nuclear deterrent triad of India, is not too awe inspiring without Agni III. The K-15 (misconstrued often as Sagarika), with its 700 km range, is not of much use against Pakistan, let alone China, if in the situation of a war India must hit deep inside the enemy territory.

At the heart of the Arihant is an 85 mW nuclear reactor which will power it for at least 3 decades. It is a light water reactor and is based on Russian design after the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) failed to provide a stable design necessary for a reactor enclosed in a small space. The reactor capability is in stark contrast with capabilities of the Indian first Nuclear reactor ‘The Cirrus” which was a 40 mW heavy water reactor gifted to the BARC by Canada for research. It is propelled by a single 7 blade propeller; the sonar has been supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited. The indigenously built submarine-sonar USHUS has been in use in Sindhughosh Class (kilo Class) submarines for a long time.

INS Arihant: Too little, too late

The country is already too late. After India declared its nuclear doctrine of no first use in 1998, it lacked a water based second strike capability so that it may complete the triad of ground, air and water attack bases. To fill this void, the DRDO pushed forward the development of nuclear capable Brahmos and Akash cruise missiles, which could be launched from a frigate or destroyer. Due to this, the indigenous submarine programme was put on the backburner. But what a submarine second strike capability brings is stealth and deep penetration attack, neither of which was possible with regular attack ships. A diesel-run sub has to emerge from beneath the sea again and again to exhaust the accumulated carbon dioxide (or snorkel), thereby risking visibility and counterattack by the enemy. A nuclear powered sub, on the other hand, has no such constraint of frequent waste disposal. However, Diesel-electric submarines have the advantage of low noise. The coolant pumps and turbo-machinery needed to operate the reactor create a lot of noise in nuclear submarines even at low power levels. Recent technological advances in sound damping, noise isolation, and cancellation — which are incorporated in the INS Arihant — have made nuclear subs quieter and substantially addressed the issue.

The US had developed its first nuclear powered submarine in the early 1960s about the same time as the Soviets. But the Soviet nuclear submarine programme slowed down after the disintegration of the USSR. Now the Chinese have around 100 submarines of which 10 are Nuclear Submarines most of which are products of their indigenous weapons development program ‘Project 48’. China will soon be deploying its Type 95 and Type 96 nuclear sub in the Indian Ocean on account of its recent military closeness with Sri Lanka and Myanmar. To keep up in the arms race, India got into a shopping spree of second-hand arms, ordering aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and Akula Class nuclear submarine Nerpa. The second will arrive by the year-end; to compliment it India decided to produce a few licensed diesel-run submarines, namely, the Scopene subs from the Mazgaon docks. But this is no solution. The countries supplying these have figured out India’s dire need and are seemingly arm-twisting the Government of India by constantly raising the prices of critical components.

Indigenous technology is the way to go but like most of our indigenous defence equipment, the INS Arihant has its share of shortcomings. In 2008, a Sindhughosh Class submarine had collided with a civilian ship off the Diu coast. Investigation revealed that the USHUS sonar navigation had failed to detect the ship as the submarine was surfacing.

The submarine is yet to undergo several more rounds of trial to test its overall efficacy as a stealth war tool. The most critical aspect to be tested is the working (mainly efficiency) of the 80 mW reactor. Once the reactor is found to be performing steadily, for several days and months it will do the rounds of the Vizag harbour while its controls are tested. That will follow high-speed runs in the sea. Then come underwater trials. For the next two years of testing time, the crew will remain unchanged.

SLBMs will be tested from INS Arihant thereafter. It is believed in Navy circles that even after all these tests meet with success, it generally takes about 5 years for the crew to get fully accustomed to the handling of the sub.

But for now the India has joined a exclusive club of countries who have developed a nuclear submarine. The hulls of two more ATVs have been completed by L&T at its Hazira facility and are to be transported to the Ship Building Centre for assembly soon after the Arihant vacates dock space। And with the breaking of coconut on its hull, India’s precious ($ 2.9 b) ‘Baby Boomer’ propels its way in the country’s maritime area with the promise that it will be more aggressive than what is being politically called a “technology demonstrator”.

Edited by Surajit Dasgupta.

The Economic Crisis: Deja Vu यू सी

2008-10-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Looking at the current economic scenario and all that is culminating on the world political front i begin to wonder is this really all a random turn of events or is it more . Are we seeing something that we saw before ? is history repeating itself?.
During the great depression of 1929 the world faced a similar situation wherein banks defaulted,stock markets crash and we saw black Tuesday, reality was hit bad . But all was not so bad just 1 year ago (1928) the markets were at their peak and the economy was id to be booming.

Deja Vu You say?

We now stand in midst of another depression but its spread has been faster due to globalisation and the effect of a organised electronic media.And just one year ago we ourselves clamored to put in our hard earned money into booming markets in India as well as the rest of the world markets.Our Stock market indices touched their life highs. The real estate market was also booming with prices in mumbai skyrocketing. With this increased consumerism, increased the availability and utilisation of loans from banks. We had telecallers begging us to take loans and give out credit cards. We spent so much money and energy that oil prices went from 70$ a barrel in august 07 to 160 in june 08. All this had to break somewhere, there were signs of a depression early in 08 with the US sub prime crisis but we just ignored the signs and then the Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy and then we realised that the money that the banks were loaning us were so outspent that they just couldn't repay their investors. and with rumors that ICICI bank had stakes in some of these defunct US companies the uncertainties came into India and with foreign investors pulling their money out so that they could pay back their investors a spiral downfall began.
Are we ever gonna learn from history ??? Our history says we dont.
What followed after the 1929-30 depression was a wave of nationalist movements and uprising where as the people were suffering they for the want of leadership followed anything a person said loudly. As trade slowed down, countries became more isolated from the rest of the world and distrust was built as each accused the other of sabotaging their economies. it was during this period that Hitler rose from being small time political activist to Fuhrer, Mussolini rose along with Stalin,Churchill and Roosevelt. People needed leadership and they had them some right some wrong. The 2nd world war began which actually gave a boost to the frozen economy as these same leaders scared the people into giving up their locked up cash set the wheels roiling so that they could make war on their enemies. Power centres of the world shifted and America began a superpower with the USSR catching up.
It might sound freakish to mention conspiracy theories about the Illuminati but many of the events which have transpired are in line with what the conspiracy theorist mentioned as methods utilised by the Illuminati. They scare the people into believing that there is need to fight ,create and new world order ;they create superpowers and control the world using these superpowers and when they feel they need to shift base they create such paranoia.
I personally would never endorse conspiracy theories but in such dire times we might as well give a thought to them as we now have two new centres of emerging powers one a communist nation and one conservative right wing nation who are in a situation similar to the US and the USSR.

The Amarnath Row -- Are we really that Dumb?

2008-08-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was searching for information over the net about the recent Amarnath Land Row, and found a lot of websites with articles related to it. All were kind of trying to present a neutral face to the issue, but is the problem really that. Is the problem Religious,Separatist,Political or is it something Else?

The State of J&K is a special state under the Constitution of India, which has been defined under the Article 370. The Article 370 states that the
Central government cannot enforce laws in the state until it has been approved by the State Legislative Council barring laws relating to
Defence, Communication and foreign affairs. Thus the state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, Ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians. One such law is that a non resident cannot own property in the State. This special article has come into force because India has not yet conducted the Plebiscite under UN; as one of the pre-conditions for the same Was that Pakistan should withdraw all Military forces from Kashmir and stop its proxy war with it, was never met.

Now Amarnath Shrine is managed by Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), which was constituted by an Act of the State Legislature in 2000 with His Excellency the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir as its ex-officio Chairman. The Amarnathji Shrine Board is responsible for smooth and trouble free Pilgrimage to the Holy Shrine. Assisted by a Chief Executive officer who is a senior IAS officer and eight distinguished Board Members, the board is Constantly working towards making this journey the most cherished one. One of the responsibility of the board is to undertake for the benefit of Worshippers and pilgrims:

The construction of buildings for their accommodation
The construction of sanitary works; and
The improvement of means of communication.

For that purpose the state government decided to allot 39 hectares of land to the SASB (which is also a State Sponsored dept.) for the above
Purpose. For years the yatris lived in tattered tents with no proper sanitary facilities and the danger of wild animals and terrorists. So the SASB decide To built proper living quarters with Sanitary, security and Medical facilities.

And an Issue that now threatens the sovergnity of our country is born.

The land was allotted around June 08 and people got to know of it. A movement started from Kashmir and then spread throughout Jammu. Police had To control the rioters with water cannons and curfews. These people demanded that the land allotted to the SASB be taken back. The reason given was That the move threatened the Eco-system, and the law that only Kashmiri can hold propety.In the back of all these were the signals that the rioters Believed that BJP wanted to change the demographics of the state as was suggested by an Israeli Minister on a state visit very recently.

When you think a little while on this issue you see that how funny the issue really is and how it caused the state government to fall and de-allot the Land. The land belongs to the state government (which is completely barren) it gives it to a state department so that facilities to visitors can be made, The land will be held by the state yet such violent protests.

Who loses if the land is allotted to a state department which will provide lodging facilities to tourists on minimal costs or even free????

think,think,think,think

You might have heard that there are terrorist attacks in the Kashmir valley which are a common thing but have you heard that the Amarnath yatris have ever been attacked? Why?
Do you know the revenues earned by the people and businesses near the routes of the Amarnath yatra??

Why would religion come in the way? Who discovered the Amarnath Caves??

In the volatile situation of the state this land diversion was presented as if the land has been sold to the Shrine board. As of now the economic activity generated due to yatra is one of the major sources of income for Muslims en-route, and with SASB taking over many of these services, a perception was created that those regularly associated with yatra services will be sidetracked and it will now become an exclusively Hindu affair.

The Amaranth yatra is rooted in one of the most syncretism-mixed support structures. The cave where shrine is located was discovered by a Muslim Shepherd in 1850s, since then the pilgrim started. The descendents of the Muslim shepherd and sahdus managed the yatra till 2001 when the SASB took over and is trying to increase its hold on the arrangements.

Remarkably the yatra went on smoothly even at the peak of militancy in Kashmir, barring of course few aberrations here and there.

"The spontaneous breaking out of protest in valley was used by elements, like Syed Ali Shah Gilani, belonging to the extremist faction of Hurriat
Conference, in the valley politics, who went on to fan the fire of separatism during the agitations and further aggravated the situation by calling for boycott of polls to be held in October." says a senior journalist.

Now the Hindu extremist have jumped on the bandwagon and a small issue like jealousy of the oldies against the government has become a nationwide headache. The separatist have now got a new rope to tug on and pull the prevailing peace down.

REVIEW-The Gentlemen's Game

2008-08-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

I was watching the first test between India and Srilanka,I had just switched on the television and didn't know much about the match before, it was the 4th day
and there was an LBW call against sehwag and murali was the bowler umpire Mark Benson rejected the appeal that was when Mahela Jayawardhene made a T
sign and the third umpire was called for. I was surprised as it was not a run out call, and the third umpire gave it out,, I thought what the hell!

And Sehwag became the first player to be given out the Review system

The proposed new umpire review system, in which the fielding captain or the batsman can ask for a review of an on-field umpire’s decision, has been put on
trial in the India-Sri Lanka Test series. Each team has the option to review the onfield umpires decision 3 times , it is signalled by making 'T' using both the
hands. The decision is then reviewed by the Third umpire and the decision if overturned is signalled to the onfield umpire.

Underplaying the authority figure on the field will lead to confusion and chaos. Not only will it threaten to ridicule an experienced umpires experience but also will take away the sportsmanship from the game.Many times we see a decisions where technically a player is not out but morally it is the other way around and at the helm of such decisions is the drawback of this review system. This may have been the knee jerk reaction of the ICC to the India-Ozzy test series Down
Under but its future looks bleak.

The system, tried out on the English domestic scene in the Friends Provident trophy, was widely thought to be a failure because not one decision was overturned, and many felt TV umpires were reluctant to go against their on-field colleagues. The technology is not foolproof.The ICC has said the Hawkeye software, which will be used by the TV umpire to judge LBWs, can only be used to track the path of the ball up to the point that it strikes the batsmen. The software I do not think takes into account the deviation due wind,rotation of the ball and the seam whereas the human mind involuntarily takes into account all that.

If the review system continues Umpires will be present on the field only to catch the bowlers cap,Sweaters and to tie shoelaces of the batsman.

I was very unhappy that even Indian captain used the review system. It would have been nice example to set and also to say that they respect the umpires decision after all that hullabaloo down under.