Scandinavian countries are top ranked for the liberty of women, not the US. India occupies a place somewhere in the end.
Despite being poorest of the poor, Cuba still fights the USA(not technically). It raises its voice against the USA. Cuba has consistently achieved 90+ percent education since its revolution. The medals it has won per Cuban exceeds that of the USA. One family gets only one soap per month for usage in Cuba. Fidel Castro has escaped death waged by the CIA for as many as 60 odd times, which includes poisoning his cigar, incorporating machine guns in the cameras, and also through Castro's shoes! During the much celebrated Cuban carnival, food crops in fields were poisoned. Children above 7 years do not get milk because of lack of money in treasury. People do not use vehicles because the country cannot afford fuel. It is amazing, that every citizen in this nation has contributed for the revolution. Cuban sports persons are discouraged by the US by denying them visa for participation in events. Clinton rubs off Castro during an International meet's dinner, during his reign. When the Vajpeyee government sent a ship filled with wheat, Fidel Castro received it at the harbor with "Thanks to India, I will feed my people with good quality bread for a week". The US awaits the death of Castro, like China awaits death of The Dalai Lama. Inspite of being such a small country and a struggling one, it fights sternly with dignity against the odds of its neighboring country just 90 miles away. And we, inspite of having the second largest army and rich human resource, nod for others' puppet hands. (I am not favoring a war here)
Daniel Ellsberg, after witnessing the horror during his Vietnam deployment brought out the "Pentagon papers" back in the 1969 which shocked the world and US citizens for the language used by the then President Richard Nixon regarding the Vietnam war. Nixon stepped down soon after, fearing his dismissal from office. In a conversation with an unrelenting army official, he states "You have to think big!" for dropping nuclear bombs during the Vietnam War, which thankfully didn't happen. 2 million Vietnamese and 58,000 American soldiers were killed. Hiroshima, Nagasaaki were devastated by US during World War. How could a decision of dropping a "Fat man" seeing the aftermath of the "Little boy" be made by a "Human Welfare and rights - fighting nation"?!
Newspapers and Media find it hard to cope with the increasing expenses they have to spare for the correspondents to be posted at various locations. They get the news for one-third the prices they have to otherwise shell-out directly from the sources- yeah, mostly manipulated ones. So, the news around the world are far from the facts. In fact, the top newspapers in the USA are claimed to work based on the governmental instructions (it doesn't happen in India alone!) This incident happened back when Hillary Clinton was the first lady. At some women rights meet held in China, Mrs. Clinton faced protests and despise in the form of Human chains from the audience after her arrival. The newspapers around the world described her arrival as a glorifying moment for the program! The Indian lady delegate present at the same program records what she factually witnessed on the day. This is the fate of authenticity of the media.
And the latest - Afghan war Wikileaks.
I have no disrespect for the American citizens. I have much heard that they are peace-loving. It is the government. And without scrupulous inspection of all the atrocities one nation forces over every other affair of the world, (for example, what was the necessity for Mrs.Clinton to be present when Pakistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement?! Was she bearing a witness? It is their job, why not just leave them alone!) we, Indians, have lost the war of finding our true selves. There are umpteen number of things to be learnt from so many nations! Like the Latin American ones, who fight and not show cowardice! I only hope more number of people deviate their attention from an attention-seeking nation and "LOOK" and introspect and give importance to what actually needs importance.
After learning more about Cuba, I think it stands as a role model for the rest of the third-world countries. There is a saying in kannada that the thoughts of philanthropic deeds you do from right hand, shouldn't even reach the left hand. That is called selfless service, which the Cuban citizens do for their motherland. No strings attached.
For all the followers of the West; and the casual followers of anything under the sun without close examination, below is a "Monkey see, Monkey do, Monkey remember" article :
There’s an experiment attributed to Harry Harlow. Five monkeys are placed in a cage, with a ladder and a banana hanging from the ceiling. Whenever a monkey climbs the ladder to grab the banana, all monkeys are sprayed with ice cold water. After a few times, monkeys know better and nobody tries climbing the ladder.
Then, one monkey is replaced. The new arrival wants to get the banana, but as soon as he climbs the ladder, the other four start beating him – they want to stay warm and dry. After a few attempts, the new monkey conforms to the group and stays down. Then, another monkey is replaced and the story repeats itself – when the monkey that was never sprayed with cold water joins the other three. And so on until there is no monkey left who was sprayed with cold water, but still the new arrival gets beaten when he tries to climb the ladder.
Now, the decision was made by team members long gone. There’s nobody on the current team who made the decision, and nobody knows why the decision was made. It just gets passed to the new team members, with no questions asked. It may have been a good decision when it was made, and it may still be a good decision now.
But if you ask “why are we doing this” and the only answer is “the decision was made before we got here”, form your own opinion and don’t be afraid to question the status quo.
