Who is winning?

In my first blog with a political motive, I am touching on a topic that is plaguing mankind today.

Is civilization winning against anarchy.

Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists at this point are dictating how the world should live. Fear pervades the lives of people world over. As soon as people get accustomed to one level of security another attempt to subvert the security measures happens and more security measures are enforced. While I am not complaining about the security measures (I am infact happy about those as they are keeping me alive), but does it not show that the terrorists are winning.

The main aim of the terrorists is to terrorise people. In doing so if they kill a few people it is icing on the cake. The cake in itself is the terror in the minds of people. I first came to US in 1999. At that time air travel was so hasslefree, you could actually come and drop your loved ones right at the boarding area, the security lines were not 2 miles long. The amount of fear these terrorists ahve generated has put the civilized world on the backfoot.

In India a person is afraid in traveling in local trains in Mumbai, is afraid of going to their favourite temples lest they be the next targets of another deadly and despicable terrorist attack.

The terrorists are winning for they have terrorised the people. Their aim is acheived.

I have heard a lot of liberal Muslims time and again claim two things:

1. This is a reaction of the persecution of muslims in the middle east, and in Kashmir and as long as these issues are not resolved such incedents would keep happening.
2. These terrorists are not true Muslims.

My answer to that is:
1. A lot of Hindus have been killed by Islamic terrorists trained in Pakistan. How many Hindus do you see taking up arms and doing similar acts in Pakistan. This line of reasoning is completely wrong. In going for this line of reasoning you are condoning such acts instead of condemning them. Such acts are inexcusable.
2. They claim they are the true Muslims. They are the ones that are broadcast all over. It then becomes the prerogative of the Muslims to make sure that such elements are either completely sidelined by the others or are coverted to true Muslims. As long as they are Muslims their actions will be counted as actions of Muslims. Not all Muslims might agree with them but that does not make them non-muslims.

To the various world goverments:
It is high time the fight is taken to the terrorists, rather than waiting for them to plan their next attack. Burning questions that need to be answered

1.Where does the money to buy all the arms they have come from? Is there a way to stop the flow of that money?
2. Who provides these terrorists with arms? Are the big arms manufacturers not guilty if their arms end up in the hands of terrorists?
3. Who are the patrons of these terrorists? Can they exist without large backings from various governments?
4. What is causing these people to take such extreme steps? Why is that all of sudden such fundamentalist view of the world is becoming so popular? Has globalization magnified the differences in the various parts of instead of flattening them?

I dont claim to have the answers, for I am but one person. I have my ideas of what the reasons are, but not answers for sure.

One thing that I am sure of is that it is high time the war is taken to them and that is why I supported Israels move into Lebanon, but how to do it I am not sure. The questions need to be answered but whether we have the courage to answer them or not would determine who eventually wins.

We are in a midst of war. A war between liberals and fundamentalists, a war between civilization and anarchist. We need to make sure sane thinkers and civilization wins.

I hate flying

Before I came to the states, I had heard about how on time the trains and flights ran. Alas how my images of US were shattered. In the past I have had to wait for trains for hours on the end and the one time I was late by 5 minutes the train left on time.

But this is not about trains. This about my recent trip to Atlanta. My flight back from Atlanta was supposed to take off at 7:00 and get me to Champaign at 7:45 (it is a 1 hr 45 min flight but with the time difference it is just 45 mins). When I reached the airport at 6:00 pm and started checking in I was told that the flight is delayed by an hour. Well not enough time to go back home so I decided I would wait at the airport while my brother and sister in law went out shopping from the airport (they had a 3 hour plan for buting furniture for their new home). I decided I will stay at the airport play a game of CEASER 3 (a really old game) on my new IBM laptop (battery life of 5 hours). At around 8:00 the screen showed another 15 minute delay. It continued till at one time there were 2 flights that were supposed to take off from that same gate at the same time around 9:40. I decided I would like to know what was going on and went to ask the flight agent. From what I could peice together, the flight crew that was supposed to come had been delayed due to a storm at their airport. Since they arrived late the flight was delayed. Also since there was lightning in Atlanta and we had to walk on the Tarmac to get to the flight we could not go till further clearence. After that the flight the other flight from that gate was boarded at 10pm. Then an announcement came that our flight crew needed to be changed (the other it seems had actually not arrived). This caused an additional 30 minute delay and we boarded at around 11 pm. Well I thought atlast we will start flying but the flight did not budge. Apparently due to the 4 hour delay in the flight the Air Traffic Control had bumped our flight out of the list and the flight had to be reinserted. Another 30 minutes. Finally we took off at around 11:30.

I remember my parents had to wait around 5 hours for a SW flight but they got a 200$ flight coupon as compensation. I hope delta has the good sense to do something similar to keep their passengers. But I am sure that hope would be in wain.