Ph Ds

Many a time the priest's dress acts as a shield against law enforcement and the colored dress of a bishop draws in a lot of money from innocent believers to pay for their extravagant life- style. You said "SELF-MADE Bishop"! Tell me who is not one! There are others who call him a fraud; show me anyone in the church hierarchy who is not a con- man! Nevertheless, most established church heads are more unethical and prone to corruption as well as unlawful acts- only that the law enforcement authorities are scared to go after them fearing repercussions from the government and unscrupulous politicians. They influence politicians by matching each bishop with a political party, canvass votes unfairly by using cops and rigging elections, create issues among people so as to intervene for conciliation and to reap both material profits and sexual favors thereof, manipulate, impersonate, distill and abuse alcohol, steal, rob, plunder, forge documents, evade taxes, flout foreign currency regulations, encroach upon public and private properties, construct buildings where they have no right (pattayam) over the property, lie, conspire, cheat, litigate, bribe, abet and execute hideous crimes, child- traffic, pimp, prostitute, kill and "will not do what" to achieve their mean and criminal ends (viz., to get elected as a bishop/ to amass money and power/ to make unlawful gains/ to harass and punish their critics and so on). They cultivate a group of second- fiddlers to insulate themselves and keep hench-men around them for quotation works and mass propaganda. For all these, there are any number of instances in front of us. Law enforcement officials dare to flex their muscles only by picking on "the single bishops" is the tragic side of the story. 
And the 'Doctor' he uses as prefix is the same as or equivalent to the degrees of most other bishops and priests in Kerala. It has rightly been commented that a Ph D in soft sciences is several bachelor's degrees bundled together. Many developed countries do not assign much importance to Ph Ds other than in hard sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology)- the reason why there are eminent professors in humanities in Harvard and Cambridge with only bachelor's degrees: in soft sciences/ humanities like Philosophy, Theology (a science at all?), History, Political Science and Languages including English, a doctorate is awarded if one completes certain requirements. A bishop of his church has several doctorates, according to Dr. Philipose Mar Chrysostom Valiya Metropolitan (I watched this speech in the Net). Again the quality of a degree is assessed or scrutinized only when considered as a requirement for a specific job or when it becomes an issue. There too, job- seekers and even college professors are said to circumvent rules as murmur persists about places and people that would write doctoral theses for a (huge) fees. Believe me, Muthukad, the Magician has every right to call himself Prof. Muthukad (again, pun intended).
The following, though an anecdote, conveys a serious message in this context:

After watching sales falling off for three straight months at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Sanders (American business- man, best known for founding the fast- food chicken- restaurant chain, KFC) calls upon the Head of a Church (hereinafter referred to as the HOC) to request a favor. The HOC asks, "What can I do?" The Colonel says, "I need you to change the Lord's prayer from, 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken'. If you do it, I'll donate 10 Million Dollars to the church". The HOC replies, "I am sorry. That is the Lord's Prayer and I can not change its words." So the Colonel hangs up. After another month of dismal sales, the Colonel panics and calls again. "Listen your Excellency, I really need your help. I'll give you $50 million dollars if you change the words of the daily prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken'". And the HOC responds, "It is very tempting, Colonel Sanders. The church could do a lot of good with that much money. It would help us support many charities. But, again, I must decline. It is the Lord's Prayer, and I can't change the words". So the Colonel gives up. Again after two months of terrible sales the Colonel gets desperate. "This is my final offer, your Excellency. If you change the words of the daily prayer from, 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken' I will donate $100 million to the Church." "Let me get back to you", said the HOC and he did. On the very next day, the HOC calls together all his bishops and clamours, "I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that KFC is going to donate $100 million to Us." The bishops rejoice at the news. Then one asks about the bad news. The HOC replies, "The bad news is that we lost the Wonder Bread account". Thanks.

Something Personal

The re- branding of “personnel” to “human resources” three decades ago signaled that employees were now resources to be managed like any other capital, such as finances, office equipment and property. The Human Resources Manager sees its role as defining which employees are happy and productive. To do so, they try to influence the corporate culture by creating social engineering experiments in the office to identify employees that are engaged and those that are disillusioned. Seemingly innocent engagement activities like Potlucks, Hawaiian Shirt Wednesdays, Company sing-a-longs and Team-building exercises are not arranged for the enjoyment and benefit of the employees who participate in them, but for Human Resources to identify troubled employees.

A despondent worker, HR believes, is not a productive worker. But the problem with these activities and Human Resources’ monitoring of them is that introverts and those quietly dealing with health or personal issues might not feel up to such activities. Employees viewed as not participating in arranged workplace activities are identified as "troubled" to their managers and human resources personnel, which may precipitate their eventual departure.

Who has yet qualified for his salute?

Rishi Raj Singh- One of a kind: His Royal Heritage.

Who is yet qualified for his salute, especially after he explained he had no intention to disrespect the minister and that he was a guest there like the minister himself?

Not long ago, six months to be exact, the roads in Kerala had turned to be killing fields. Death toll due to accidents had shot up to 13 a day. Accidents in a day had risen to 120. The number of people who were injured stood at 135 a day. It was not hard to see why. A steady uptick in the number of vehicles — Kerala has 2.75 % of India's population, but its people own nearly 10% of the total vehicles — negligence by drivers and pathetic roads have all played a part in turning the state into a motorist's nightmare. For four years, an exasperated government has been scrambling to tackle the issue.

A spate of reforms covering all the stakeholders of the transport sector it introduced bore few results. Accidents continued unabated. In 2012 alone, 4,286 motorists perished on the roads of Kerala.

It was in this backdrop that Rishi Raj Singh took charge as the Transport Commissioner of Kerala in June 2013. Even before he eased into the job, Singh, a 1985 batch IPS officer got a taste of the difficulties of the job. Twenty six people died in two separate accidents in north Kerala.

"Those incidents were an eye-opener for me," Singh told ET Magazine. Over the past ten years, road accidents in Kerala had increased to the highest in the country, he says, adding that the rate of accidents could be one of the highest in the world if one accounts for the area of the state — 38,000 sq km. The situation has changed for the better for which the State of Kerala and its people are deeply indebted to Mr. Singh.

**********************************************************************************************************************************

Hailing from a feudal lineage, Rishiraj Singh was born on 10th October 1981 in the world- renowned tourist destination of Jaipur, often referred to as the 'Pink City' that is situated in the culturally and historically rich state of Rajasthan. Rishiraj attended St.Xaviers School in Jaipur and went on to do college at the Fergguson College in Pune, Maharashtra. 
His father was among Rajputana's first graduates and was guardian to half a dozen kings.

While studying Economics Major, Rishi enrolled in Kishor Namit Kapoor's acting lab too. Once in Mumbai's Bollywood, he attended the noted dramatist Nadira Babbar's theatre workshop. In the international talent hunt, 'India's Best Cinestar', hosted by the leading entertainment corporation ZEE Television Network, Rishi made it to the top ten from amongst millions of contestants. In BHOOMI (Homeland), a socio-political drama produced by Shahnab Alam and directed by twice national awardee cinematographer Abhik Mukhopadhya, Rishi plays the protagonist.

A noted player in Volleyball, Basketball and Soccer, Rishiraj has also been a state level swimmer in his student days. It goes on and on... there is much more to his credit...

I wish him THE best.

The Bystander Effect

Missed me? I was in transit. Reached US safe and sound.
Mess with me? I'll give you something for serious reading, then:

The Bystander Effect.

Rape culture, which proliferates despite the spread of anti-rape strategies (which too often teach women how not to be raped, instead of effectively instructing men not to rape), is the primary target of Green Dot’s efforts. As the organization’s website states, it breaks with traditional anti-rape notions which “have focused on victims and perpetrators;” instead investing in the “belief that individual safety is a community responsibility.”

Huffffington Post discovered, speaking with witnesses to Jackie Fuchs' rape, that many were deeply impacted by what they’d seen. They’d spent decades wrestling with their remembrances of that night, the trauma of witnessing sexual violence and the guilt of inaction turning them into victims as well. Dorothy Edwards, formerly the head of the University of Kentucky’s Violence Intervention and Prevention Center, told the Huffington Post she had come across similar stories with surprising frequency in her work. In fact, the most unexpected aspect of her early experiences involved repeated encounters with people who confessed to witnessing rape and other forms of sexual violence without acting.

It’s taken Fuchs (whose stage name, as the original bassist of the legendary band the Runaways was Jackie Fox) nearly 40 years to speak out about her rape by Kim Fowley, the band’s notoriously predatory manager. The sexual assault, which took place when Fuchs was 15 years old, is described in a lengthy Huffington Post piece that provides a deeply disturbing, painstaking account of the attack. It is a difficult but necessary read that is strikingly, sickeningly similar to so many harrowing recent accounts of sexual violation against women, including the Steubenville case and Bill Cosby’s 40-plus alleged victims.

Fuchs, physically immobilized by the drugs she’d essentially been force-fed, dips in and out of consciousness throughout an ordeal that, in many ways, has never fully ended for her, or for those who witnessed it. The most unsettling — and initially baffling — detail of Fuchs’ story is that she was never alone with her attacker. A roomful of bystanders watched, without intervening, as the horrifying scene unfolded in front of them.

Edwards’ anecdotal observances were recently bolstered by a 2013 study conducted by researcher Sarah Nicksa, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Widener University. Nicksa compared witness intervention and report rates for crimes that included sexual assault, physical assault and theft. She found that of the three types of crime, bystanders were least likely either to act or report cases of sexual assault. To understand why respondents behaved differently in cases of sexual violence, Nicksa offered the following insight:

"Sexual assaults often occur in alcohol-infused situations, such as parties or get-togethers. Sexual assaults and rapes are often not considered 'real rapes' by victims, friends, family, or the criminal justice system unless they involved force, violence, and were committed by a stranger with a weapon. So when a bystander is aware of a sexual assault, they may not see it as a problem or an emergency, due to the social norms of their group and setting. They may look around for cues to see if others define it as an emergency, and seeing none, do nothing."

Dorothy Edwards, in an effort to educate bystanders in various dangerous situations to react and intervene, founded the nonprofit Green Dot, Etc. The organization essentially trains students to effectively, and safely, stop situations in which one person is under threat of some sort of abuse or maltreatment. Green Dot's ultimate mission is to “mobilize a force of engaged and proactive bystanders.”

A Guardian article from earlier this year describes some of the methods Green Dot employs:

Trained facilitators start dialogues with students about steps they can take if they see an attack. A variety of techniques are taught – from confronting an attacker directly, to attempting to distract them. Students are taught how to form a physical barrier between attacker and victim so the latter can escape. While not all attacks can be stopped, the Green Dot programme believes that intervening in a safe way can still be a powerful show of support to the victim. They believe that every intervention is a strong statement against violence, fear and victimization. Victims also need to be reassured that the attack wasn’t their fault

'The bystander effect', as it’s repeatedly called, is most often traced to the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, a Queens, New York woman who was stabbed to death on the street while imploring her neighbors for help. (It was later determined that most of the neighbors were unaware of the attack or could not hear her cries.) According to Wikipedia, “the probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders,” and, “the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.”

Thank you.