#CSR the biggest and most dynamic corporate function of 21st Century (via Jayaribcm’s Blog)

Jayaribcm’s Blog discusses the problems with corruption in India. In this post he discusses the corruption of elections. As I have said before, corruption is not an Indian problem, it a worldwide phenomenon from which the United States is in no way immune. While they fight the fight there, we need to fight our struggle here.

However, there is a particularly disturbing element to the story of election fixing. American officials with the State Department were aware of the purchase of votes in a controversial piece of legislation on a nuclear deal with the United States back in 2008.

Since the United States did not share the information of the bribery and the U.S. benefited from it, there is bound to be suspicion of involvement in the bribery or that there may have been other wrong doing possibly involving the United States.

James Pilant

This is a significant article about election fixing as it is done in India. In the United States we fix elections by removing the poor and minorities from the election rolls on the grounds of non-existent election fraud. It’s the same game and just as evil.

Please take some time and read the whole thing.

From Jayaribcm's Blog

Around the same time when the children were meditating upon for a better world, the villagers were bombarded with blaring music and speech announcing why only one candidate would be the most suitable person for the ensuing election on April 13, 2011 for the Tamil Nadu Legislature. Meagre sum the villagers manage to get, surely is not sufficient for them to survive and when they are offered some few currencies in exchange of their vote they hesitate but agree. The gullible villagers are bribed and then are administered oath on milk, their livelihood they promise upon not to vote to any other candidate, lest… The present government run by DMK is notorious to have brought this system of bribing, in the last bye-election at a place called Thirumangalam near Madurai successfully that they were emboldened to apply the same logic to all other places of Tamil Nadu. The money they could spend is indeed enormous for they spearheaded the movement of corruption leading to one of their party members, a senior cabinet member of the Government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh now imprisoned at Tihar jail, is directly involved in the biggest graft in the world known as 2G scam. This time the Chief Election Commissioner of India Querishi had put a break to the distribution of money to the voters in a state-wide tough measures that had taken the ruling party by surprise & shock that the leader of the ruling party Karunanidhi was forced to say that it was a mini-emergency in Tamil Nadu declared by the Election Commissioner. The voters however keep their fingers crossed, for there’s an inherent fear about the Electronic Voting Machine [EVM], during its stay under lock & key before the results are announced on 13th May 2011, is most likely to be tampered with a remote control device favoring the ruling alliance of DMK & Congress.

Close to the end! (via Redwan’s Almost Daily Blog)

This is a student’s story of the end of the semester, the great amount of time and effort it took to get there and what other students get to do (and he doesn’t).

I have been there and strangely enough, I miss those times. However, I cannot do the old person’s routine of we were tougher, smarter and harder working than kids today. That’s nonsense.

I miss those times because I am in my mid fifties and the time when I was young is appealing in spite of the difficult situations and discouraging mistakes I had to get through.

And I am curious, as a college teacher, sometimes I think it would be good to see it from the other side in this new age of online classes and economic hard times.

I wish our writer all the best, recommend his writing to you, and hope he keeps posting.

James Pilant

I can’t remember when is the last time I published a post. There had been a huge gap in my writing. The reason in obvious. It’s none other than North South University (NSU). In my earliest posts I might have said that “having busiest semester” or “having the greatest amount of pressure”. But those are nothing compared to this semester. This semester is the most … Read More

via Redwan’s Almost Daily Blog

Introducing The Siren’s Who’s Who Directory (via The Siren’s Little Red Book of Secrets)

I doubt that I can surprise anyone with the news that the internet is a dangerous place. From time to time I try to put up a warning of a recent scam or scheme to take people’s money. I hope they have a good effect.

In this case, a victim shares his story. This kind of story is more effective in my mind in warning people and in passing on wisdom, wisdom seldom being free.

Nevertheless, it takes considerable courage in this society to admit you are wrong, that you were taken. The author has my admiration for his moral courage and I appreciate his help in stopping these kinds of internet schemes.

James Pilant

Ok, I admit it. I was duped. My kid was running around yelling, tormenting the dog, and locking himself in to computer cabinet. I wasn’t totally thinking and it sounded good. Today’s lesson only cost me $9.95 and a cancelled credit card. I don’t really use that card anyway. The lesson is about our desire to feel successful and accomplished, to be recognized for our achievements. It is also about mindful response and finding humor in our mistakes. … Read More

via The Siren’s Little Red Book of Secrets

Japan raises nuclear alert (via AlJazeera)

I’ve got several newscasts up on this. But this is a different take on the raised level of alert because it features some interviews with local Japanese.

James Pilant

It’s official: Fukushima now a new Chernobyl as radiation rises to max (via RT)

The situation at the Fukushima plant continues to deteriorate. I do not believe that this situation is going to improve in the near future. At first, there were new catastrophes almost daily. Now, they are weekly but no less severe. Most reports of these disasters have disappeared from the newscasts. The 24 hour news cycle demands new material, fresh scandal. Kirstie Alley falls down while dancing. American Idol may have trouble with its voting system. Yet, international catastrophe and the dangers of nuclear meltdown are still important and still a matter of history. These scandals, these one day news stories, these departures from good taste and sound judgment, plague our public discourse and turn our population into thrill seeking drones. This is neither conducive to democracy or to our hopes of a developing civilization.

James Pilant

Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis To Highest Level 7 (via freeharrypotter)

This is one of the saddest videos I have ever seen. There is film here of a community inside the mandatory evacuation zone. Probably no human beings will ever live there again.

Will any arguments of low death tolls and exposures equivalent to chest x-rays prevail against this vision of land deadly to human life.

What is the cost of thousands of square miles of land that can no longer produce – no factories, no farms, no homes, – nothing.

James Pilant

(This clip is originally from CNN)

Tepco may face $23.6bn in claims, JP Morgan says (via BBC)

Would the Japanese government allow TEPCO to face billions in claims? No. The government has in its power the decision as to whether or not this is a natural disaster (no lawsuit) or a human disaster (negligence – lawsuit).

The Japanese government will decide that this was a natural disaster. Count on it. The government despite TEPCO’s incredible record of poor judgment has little choice. Letting the company go bankrupt would put the Japanese government on the hook for billions in cleanup costs. It also would remove a valuable layer of blame.

The government and the utility company were Siamese twins of disaster. Each facilitated the other’s incompetence. This disaster would not have been possible if either one had acted with competence and judgment. But the intertwined nature of industry and government not only made disaster inevitable but had produced serious incidents in the past that should have been a warning.

Stay tuned for more poor judgment on the part of the Japanese government.

James Pilant

Courtesy of KEZI

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) may face as much as 2 trillion yen ($23.6bn; £14.5bn) in compensation claims, according to JP Morgan.

From further down in the article -

Tepco shares have lost more than 75% of their value since 11 March, in the process hitting all-time lows.

From further down in the article -

Under Japanese law, operators of a nuclear facility can be waived of any liability if the accident is deemed to have been triggered by a natural disaster of an exceptional character.

Whether the current crisis fits that classification will determine the course for Tepco, analysts say.

“A key issue concerning damage compensation is whether the Fukushima nuclear plant accident is considered an unavoidable natural disaster,” said Tomohiro Jikihara of JP Morgan.