Regime Change and the Chaos that follows

This has been a favorite theme of the U.S. government, that once you change the regime, everything will fall into place but it does not happen every time or everywhere. If you recall Iraq, we changed the regime, occupied it and then left but the new regime is not as democratic as it was hoped and also it took us nearly a trillion dollars to fix that country. Same thing has happened in Libya, they are still struggling to get a handle of what kind of government they want to form. Now it is the turn of Syria, the U.S. wants to get rid of Assad and bring in the opposition but how would we know they would be any less or more friendly than the present. Just because there is civil war does not mean they will necessarily be U.S. or west friendly. We have tried to change the regime in Cuba and failed, North Korea we are not even trying to do anything there since it is of less strategic importance to us (apart from the tens of thousands of troops stationed there). In Iran, regime change is also on the agenda but it is hard to know what will come next since the days of having a shah type regime there are long gone. The chaos that follows after the regime change is far less predictable. Unless an overwhelming majority of people are supporting a change in a regime, there will never be a successful regime change anywhere in the world no matter what the intelligence agencies say otherwise.

Looking for Peace

If you have seen somewhere long time ago the sign of peace was everywhere, people were yearning for peace and they still do but it is harder and harder to come by. Look at around you, peace is as elusive as ever where different ethnicities are at loggerheads with other ethnicities. In Pakistan, people have been looking for peace a long time, but will not be able to find it anytime soon. So is the case of Afghanistan, where the war is never stopped since the 1979 soviet invasion of it. In Iraq despite the democratic government, bombs keep on exploding how and then. In Syria, we have a full blown civil war and the U.S. and Israel and the world is trying to avert another war in the Middle East with Iran. Even in the cities of the western world, there are crimes going on with people afraid of their lives and property and yearn for a time when they will be able to walk freely anytime of day without free of being victimized (especially in the minority neighborhoods of big cities of U.S.). Peace signs are a good and wishful gesture but it is meaningless when even the democratic governments of the world ignore their citizens’ protests to not go to war. It is at the top that peace should be initiated; otherwise we would always be looking for peace in the wrong places.

Fines and Penalties

There are fines and there are penalties. Whenever I see corporations get hit by fines and penalties, they usually pay them up without acknowledging their mistakes. Maybe it is because they don’t want to go to litigation and waste a lot of time and money only to lose at the end or they don’t want to let out the secrets of the basis of their fines. But if you are not to be blamed then why do you have to pay for the fines in the first place It is just as well the public knows that you have done something wrong and you will want to pay the fine and get over with then to acknowledge the obvious. But now the same thing happens with individuals too, they would rather acknowledge the guilt and pay the fine rather than sit through court proceedings and not know what the outcome is. I have no idea how they decide how much to fine or penalize some company and how do they come up with the formula. But usually the bigger the offense, the bigger the fine. Usually the fines and penalties are there to act as a deterrence for other people not to follow in the same footpath, but there is too much money involved in doing some illegal dealings that corporations and people do it intentionally and then they thing that they will get away with it with a fine. But I believe that only fines and penalties should not be used but also some type of restriction on a corporation’s activity where they made all that money should be implemented so that it is a lesson for others not to do the same.

On the lighter side-Broadway show-The Lion King

This was the first Broadway show I viewed in my life (not necessarily about the money but it did matter) and it was a wonderful delight. Based on the Disney ® movie of the same name, it was surprise with clean theater and good crowd. The costumes were very elaborate and fantastically done, the music and songs was great and acting superb. There were a lot of kids in the theater which showed the appeal of the show. If you happen to be in New York, you should come see this show (although expensive but well worth the cost and experience). Enthusiastically Recommended