In a shocking incident in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, a 24-year-old woman is battling for her life after she threatened to expose those who kidnapped and raped her.

The victim, from the Shivpuri village of the district, had gone to a local market on Saturday when four men first waylaid and then gangraped her. After she threatened to go to the police, they poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze on Sunday.

This is what I wrote about it then:

Get well, dear lady… and then go get'em. Poor, poor lady! :(:( RT @ndtv: UP shocker: Woman gangraped, set ablaze ndtv.com/article/cities…

—
Arnab Gupta (@arnabhokie) January 15, 2012

Alas, this is what I found today:

The 20-year-old girl from Fatehpur in UP who was gangraped and set on fire on Sunday died in hospital on Wednesday evening. She had suffered about 95 per cent burns and had been in coma ever since.

A life lost. A life lost to violence, violence of an unthinkable degree.

The only positive (if that is possible), even though it’s not clear how many of the accused were arrested:

Three out of 4 suspects have been arrested. The Kanpur police claimed they had arrested one of the four accused in the crime.

But the most amazing sentence, I think, is this one:

The victim from Shivpuri village was allegedly picked up by four men from the local market and allegedly raped.

Is she also allegedly dead?! It’s one thing to protect the rights of the accused, but isn’t it fetching it a bit too far to be talking about the assault itself in this fashion??

Rest in Peace, Madam. Pray the local authorities have enough bones in their spine to see the case through—by putting the culprits behind bars for a long long time.

First, there was the small matter of leeching from a Kenyan business:

Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.

[…] I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents.

And then, there was the matter of vandalizing a competing Maps platform to Google Maps:

Preliminary results show users from Google IP address ranges in India deleting, moving and abusing OSM data including subtle edits like reversing one-way streets.

Two OpenStreetMap accounts have been vandalizing OSM in London, New York and elsewhere from Google’s IP address, the same address in India reported by Mocality.

And this is the company who’s motto is ‘Don’t be Evil’.

[…] At the best of times, TB treatment is difficult, requiring at least 6 months of pill combinations that have unpleasant side effects and must be taken long after the patient begins to feel well.

Because of the mismatch between treatment and symptoms, people often don’t take their full course of drugs — and from that (and some other factors I’ll talk about in a minute) we get multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant, MDR and XDR, TB.

[…] WHO predicted there would be 2 million MDR or XDR cases in the word by 2012.

That was before TDR-TB.

How does this happen? It’s complex, of course, with no single simplistic answer. Often patients will stop taking their medicines when they start feeling better. But the condition of health care professionals is pretty bleak:

A study that we conducted in Mumbai showed that only 5 of 106 private practitioners practicing in a crowded area called Dharavi could prescribe a correct prescription for a hypothetical patient with MDR tuberculosis. The majority of prescriptions were inappropriate and would only have served to further amplify resistance, converting MDR tuberculosis to XDR tuberculosis and TDR tuberculosis.

This needs some serious attention. Tuberculosis is dangerous in India without having the TDR strain over our heads. As I said in my last post—there’re still places to go.

[…] this Friday will mark a full year since the last case of wild poliovirus was detected in India. This is a huge milestone in the history of global health.

Yes, I agree—excellent news! There is much to rejoice over. India has taken painstaking efforts for a few years now at combating polio, and it is an achievement to have at least some control over it.

But while you saw the above news in big lettering, did you see this one?

Over the past 48 hours, news has broken in India of the existence of at least 12 patients infected with tuberculosis that has become resistant to all the drugs used against the disease. Physicians in Mumbai are calling the strain TDR, for Totally Drug-Resistant. In other words, it is untreatable as far as they know.

Not very good news at all, is it? Quite a terrible piece of news, actually—and something that needs to be brought swiftly under control.

Both the above pieces of news were published on the same day—9th Jan—but while the polio achievement was all over the social networks, the TB setback was nowhere to be found even among the uber-connected amongst us.

While it’s great that we’re making progress in strides, let’s not forget, and let’s not brush under the carpet, that we still have places to go.

Last night on “60 Minutes” (HT IndianaJim) President Obama said to interviewer Steve Croft about tax cuts:

Steve, the math is the math. You can’t lower rates and raise revenue, unless you’re getting revenue from someplace else.

This answer reveals a deplorable understanding of either economics or math or both.

His logic is simple and quite correct: lowering taxes has the same effect as giving out discounts at the local shopping mall. Each item costs less (and hence provides less profit for each item sold), but more people buy it (which increases overall revenue). The mall owners are hoping that the loss in profit on each item is offset (and indeed, outweighed) by the increase in revenue by more items sold.

However, Dr. Boudreaux misses (or ignores) two points.

One, there is no guarantee. What happens to the shopkeepers if the increase in items sold does not lead to enough profits to balance the lower profits on each item? Simple: they take a overall hit in earnings. More, can the shopkeeper afford to take this risk when he already has sky-high debts against his name? Should he?

Two, Obama’s quote is at an interview on 60 minutes, which is a very well regarded, national-level, widely watched program. Is Obama, on this show, trying to reach out only to the Economists that view the show? How complicated would it be to explain to the population at large (given the time constraints of the interview and attention constraints of viewers in general) to explain the logic in detail? If his idea is to reach out to the largest possible fraction of viewers, is it wrong on his part to keep the math simple and unambiguous?

The second point above is—well, secondary. The first point, however, is paramount, and something that Dr. Boudreaux simply does not mention in his post.

See, for example, this post from Squashed, which summarizes the incomes and expenditures (again in a simplified manner) of the US economy.

Can Dr. Boudreaux guarantee that such a large deficit can be overcome by not increasing taxes? If he can’t, should be blame Obama for simplifying matters for the benefit of his audience?

(P.S.: I don’t care much for politics in general; I am only miffed at Dr. Boudreaux for glossing over details—while shaming someone else for glossing over details.)

Another terrible loss for humankind this year. Rest in Peace, sir.

(Cross-posted at arnabocean)

Baba Sehgal sang ‘Thanda Thanda Paani’,

… after he copied the entire premise from Vanilla Ice,

… who copied their baseline theme from Queen!

Amazing how so much of India’s ‘hit’ music is directly or indirectly derived from copying someone else. (Note that Vanilla Ice took Queen’s baseline theme, and made a new song; Baba simply copied Vanilla Ice, baseline theme and all.)

P.S.: I’m not saying he isn’t talented—he certainly had his place in the industry. It’s just that—why can’t people make their own songs?!

But to beautify the stadium for the game, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association has roped in a local A division football team that is made up of 5-7 state level players.
[…]
Such is the state of affairs that the footabllers are paid a petty Rs. 2.75 for every seat they clean in a stadium that can hold a 26,000 capacity crowd.

No, don’t tell me it’s about being a poor country with not enough money. It’s not about having the money. It’s about how we use the money that we already have [1,2]. I know, this isn’t a national club, but a local division team. But even they should have better sources of funds than “Rs. 2.75 per seat cleaned”.

Of course, no one watches football (soccer) in India as they watch cricket (edit: and of late, even the soccer craze has been hijacked to an extent by European and Latin American football, which is far superior in quality), but don’t blame cricket for the ailments of other sports either. Cricket is popular—and commercially successful—because we’re actually pretty good at it. We’re terrible at football; we’re terrible at hockey (this account of India’s Olympic successes stops at Moscow 1980—we’ve only recently begun to rediscover ourselves in the midst of a major overall in hockey administration); of course no one wants to watch their teams while they suck at their sport!

If one remembers, India was extremely interested in Tennis for a few years recently when we had players to be proud of—Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, followed by Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj. They were—or promised to be—good, and India flocked to their support. They haven’t been doing anything exceptional for the past few years, and once again, interest in tennis has waned in India. (edit: India even loves football, but how many prefer the Indian kind? How many would instead spend sleepless nights watching the EPL, for example?)

It takes great administration, and foresight, and grit, and patience, to invest in a sport in a country and develop it to a point where it becomes successful enough and commercially viable enough to sustain itself. We don’t lack the talent; we’re a big enough nation, with interests varied enough, to engage in a number of sports (heck, we even have a national rugby team!). But we need the right people to administer the sports—and think more of their charge than of their own pockets.

As we’ve already seen in politics, public service, and even daily life, we’re too corrupt for our own good [1, 2, 3]. The same applies for sport administration—which, of course, is done by the government, and its politicians. (Cricket administration is equally corrupt—they’ve just managed to be rich enough that they can function despite the corruption.)

And at the end, the people who suffer are those who have to perform manual labour, at the cost of their chosen profession, to buy supplies. Pathetic.

Go read!

Alas. Eden Gardens was virtually empty. This has got the experts worked up once again, as it has been a concern over the past few years that Test cricket is losing interest and relevance in the modern day and age of T20 cricket.

As is the wont, everyone has jumped on to make an analysis of the situation (as, ahem, I am about to). Of the better of them, Harsha Bhogle quips:

Maybe Test cricket ought to be played by fewer teams; maybe, as has been suggested by some former Australian cricketers, you play less, but better, Test cricket; or maybe you seek to market it more humbly.

All of this, I think, is a case of hacking at the symptoms. The issue, I think, can be summed in one sentence: the focus for all cricket administrators has shifted—instead of trying to keep the game healthy, it’s only about making the most money possible. And no, it’s not one and the same. If you’re trying to make money, you make decisions that hurt you in the long run; if you’re trying to do a good job, the money comes in anyway.

Consider the current series: India is playing WI. When did these teams last meet? Only two series ago! Are the two teams very evenly matched, so that back to back test series, in the two nations, would be exciting? No, West Indies is far, far from its days of being a challenging team. Was there a big difference between the pitches at West Indies and in India, which would test the teams’ talents in different conditions? No, the pitches in West Indies, as well as those in India, are slow, low, and without life.

Why, oh WHY, would then hardworking people flock to see this Test series?

Consider the recent past. India went to England for a long series, comprising all forms of cricket. India came home licking its tail. It won, exactly, nothing. It was a big upset by England, over what is currently a “good” Indian side. Immediately following this series, what happened? England came to India for a series. Again, back to back. Well, in this case at least the teams were both good. But did England play Test cricket when in India? No, they played a bunch of ODIs. What difference did that make?

Why, oh WHY, would then anyone care at all about that series?

Consider the current Indian team. How many players have been on the injury list in the recent past? Look it up, it’ll take you a while to make a list. Virtually everyone has missed series because they are injured—even in the current series, where a bunch of players have returned from injury, Zaheer Khan is out with an injury. When was the last time India played with its first choice XI?

Why, oh WHY, would people throng to support its team, when half the team is injured and unable to play to its full potentials?

The focus, as I said, has shifted from running the game well, to making boatloads of money. Shift the focus back, and watch the difference—

• Trim the international ODI schedule. Unless the teams are evenly matched, don’t play long ODI series; it become meaningless and farcical.
• India has stumbled on to the IPL; great! Everyone makes boatloads of money in a short period of time. Keep the international calendar empty before and after the IPL. This allows everyone to participate, without having to miss their national duties, and lets everyone prepare both physically and mentally.
• Space Test series out. Please, no back to back series between the same two teams! Please, no back to back series with no breaks in between!
• Stop trying to make “batting wickets”!! Yes, the crowds love adventurous batting. But without a contest, even that becomes predictable and dull. Good batsmen can bat even on challenging tracks—and now it even becomes thrilling!
• Give players time to rest, recuperate, and recharge their batteries. Cricket is not cricket without its best players!

As with everything else, if the people who run it, and make money out of it, don’t care, it shows. And if no one cares, all the analyses won’t make an iota of difference.

From the same Harsha Bhogle article:

I am increasingly fearful that people talk about the glory of Test cricket like they do about world peace and Mother Teresa: because it is a nice thing to be heard saying.

If you think about it, the line about world peace and Mother Teresa rings true because no one really cares about world peace and poor and destitute children. No wonder!

Make cricket meaningful again; let the fans find a reason to watch. And the stadia will be full once again.

Update: A marquee football (soccer) match (it doesn’t get bigger than East Bengal v. Mohun Bagan in Kolkata football) at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium drew a 90000 strong crowd. As I said, it’s all about meaningful sport. Kolkata is as crazy about cricket too, but they’re a discerning crowd, and the game has to be meaningful.

(HT to Dad for the info about the football game.)