Social Responsibility - Bon Menzies - Australia

Though Whitlamite nostalgia can be a poor guide for contemporary public policy, it is at least understandable that Labor’s true believers remember those years fondly. But when they start indulging in Menzies nostalgia something very odd is going on. In his first speech to Parliament after becoming leader, Kevin Rudd said:

…this modern Liberal Party, is that it is not the Liberal Party of old. If you go back and read what Bob Menzies had to say about social responsibility and social justice, there is no way that Bob Menzies would fit into the world view that we are now being offered. You see, the member for Kooyong recently delivered a speech on Bob Menzies?Ĵ legacy within the Liberal Party on these questions of social responsibility. It is quite clear when you read that clearly that there has been an ocean of change between that Liberal Party and what it stood for, despite our criticisms of it and our disagreements with it at the time, and the market fundamentalism which has overtaken the current Liberal Party.

It’s another example of the strange meme that recontructs the conservative Robert Menzies as some kind of left-leaning social democrat. In a fiscal fact-checking exercise sadly lacking among those making this claim about Menzies, today I visited the economics library at Melbourne University to see just how the Menzies government’s spending levels compared with that of John Howard’s government.

http://andrewnorton.info/2006/12/some-whitlamite-nostalgia-of-my-own/

Some interesting posts on political parties

http://mensch-sein.de/emanzipationhumanum.de/english/politparties.html


http://andrewnorton.info/2006/12/some-whitlamite-nostalgia-of-my-own/

India Today's 60 Greatest Indians of 20th Century - Issue 21 April 2008

List of the 60 greatest Indians

Amartya Sen — Global Indian
Mulk Raj Anand — Free radical
Amrita Sher-Gill — Brush with beauty
Munshi Premchand — Pen drive writer
C.N. Annadurai — Letter and spirit
Jawaharlal Nehru — The architect
Baba Amte — Man of action
P.C. Mahalanobis — The plan man
Bal Gangadhar Tilak — Street fighter
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke — First showman
B.C. Roy — Bengal tiger
Ravi Shankar — Sultan of string
Begum Akhtar — Queen of melody
Prakash Padukone — Feather touch
Bhagat Singh — The patriot
R.K. Narayan — Tale spinner
S.S. Bhatnagar — The catalyst
Raj Kapoor — Dynasty’s child
Bhimsen Joshi — Song and trance
Raja Ravi Varma — Royal touch
Bimal Roy — Romantic realist
Raja Ram Mohan Roy — The modernist
Bismillah Khan — The enchanter
Raja Ramanna — The energiser
B.R. Ambedkar — Eternal fighter
Rajendra Prasad — Son of the soil
C.V. Raman — Bright spark
S. Ramanujan — Perfect equation
Dhirubhai Ambani — Guru of growth
Ramnath Goenka — The kingmaker
Dhyan Chand — Sorcerer’s score
Rukmini Devi Arundale — Poetry in motion
E.M.S. Namboodiripad — The pragmatist
Sarojini Naidu — Civil crusader
Homi Bhabha — Nuclear maharaja
S. Radhakrishnan — Guiding light
Indira Gandhi — Triumph of will
Sachin Tendulkar — Beyond the boundary
J.C. Bose — Ahead of the curve
Sam Manekshaw — Warrior king
Jayaprakash Narayan — Lead factor
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel — Iron in his soul
J.R.D. Tata — Steel in his spine
Satyajit Ray — Universal eye
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — The visionary
Subhas Chandra Bose — Supreme soldier
Lata Mangeshkar — Voice of India
S. Tripathi Nirala — Freedom’s verse
Ram Manohar Lohia — The provocateur
Rabindranath Tagore — At home in the world
M.S. Subbulakshmi — Endless echo
Viswanathan Anand — Lightning kid
M.S. Swaminathan — Roots of change
Verghese Kurien — White knight
Mahatma Gandhi — To Bapu, with love
A.B. Vajpayee — Renaissance man
Milkha Singh — Fast and gentle
Vikram Sarabhai — Master mind
Mother Teresa — Mission possible
Zubin Mehta — Baron of baton

http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/60-greatest-indians-132.html

According to me the notable omissions are religious leaders and founders and developers of RSS.

Mentioning Lohia, Anndurai and not mentioning RSS founder is totally irrational. Even Kanshiram should have made this list.

I invite readers to give their comments

Orkut Discussion - Are we alienating good Indian Muslims?

http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=370&tid=2588956125128056109some posts in the topic

Jordan raven

som of us think theyr terrorists
som of us think theyr mobs
most of us illtreat them
but theyre really goou if u know them well
disciplined god fearing
generous
ive experienced it

ανιηαѕн

Jordan raven
I don't think if there exists any problem at personal level.


My post on 17th March 2008
Narayana Rao
We are friendly with muslims
We do not ill treat muslims we know. About people with whom we do not come in contact there is no question of ill treating them.

The individual level relations and group level problems are independent in India. I have many friends all along for many years as classmates and colleagues in jobs. We never had a problem so far.

Still there are problems in society. Let us not generalise that we ill treat muslims and that is why there are problems. We do not illtreat them as individuals or as families when we are interacting with them. 11:27 am (7 minutes ago) Aminur Rashid
I fully agree with you

Ek moderator hee duusre moderator kaa dukh samajh sakta hai 11:27 am (6 minutes ago) Aminur Rashid
Let us not generalise that we ill treat muslims

I think thread starter was talking about IC370 in particular and not the real society in general. 11:29 am (5 minutes ago) Liberated Camel™
u guys r deviating from the TOPIC & taking the debate to IM orkut community......

We consider IM as official Orkut IM community for that being the largest and the most active so whatever happens there does affect our opinion. 11:29 am (4 minutes ago) delete Narayana Rao
Thank you
Mr. Aminur Rashid

I hope the discussion will take up from here by bringing this view also into consideration 11:30 am (4 minutes ago) Aminur Rashid
We consider IM as official Orkut IM community for that being the largest and the most active so whatever happens there does affect our opinion.

True. Given that if Orkut is to be believed, IC370 and IM community are the two Indian communities that should be taken as a general public opinion. 11:32 am (2 minutes ago) shivam
@ aminur

well i m not in favour of a debate in this thread......... because debates r futile..... it only creates bitterness.


i m more interested in discussion...... by discussion i mean knowing more about the other side......... 11:34 am (0 minutes ago) MиГир
ATTENTION ATTENTION


THIS HAS BEEN REALLY A GOOD DEBATE AFTER MANY LONG YEARS ..I SEE PPL FRM BOTH SIDESS RAISING A FEW GOOD POINTS . LET US NOT RUIN IT ..

In response to a blog post - Bourgeois Bureaucracy

http://astrangethingcalledlife.blogspot.com/2008/03/bourgeois-bureaucracy.html

In the above blog the following issue is brought up.


If the officials are responsible for every failure then they must also be the ones behind every success of the government... How come the credit of success is always given to the ministers while every failure is the result of an erring official???
How can officials be blamed for govt policies???

The policies are drafted by the cabinet, the officials are responsible only for implementing them... As such the failure of the policies must be seen as lack of foresight on the part of the govt; the only blame that can be leveled against the officials is in the delay of implementing the plans... But then bureaucratic red-tape is a well accepted drawback inherent in such system...



My response to the post in an orkut community discussion is:
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=7753845&tid=2586633211450203329



The post of politicians and bureaucrats is interesting and important.

Bureaucrats are judged by politicians and politicians are judged by people.

Definitely we should have system whereby some bureaucrats are recognized for their exemplary service. Such bureaucrats may be identified by multiple sections of the society, media, politicians, NGOs, and people in general. There can be a committee MPs and MLAs at state level who receive nominations from various people and organizations and declare some awards that recognize bureaucrats. There is no doubt that many of them are doing a fair days work or more than a fairdays work.

When politicians criticize them public there may be some truth in it. And also politicians are trying to deflect the blame from them. But we are there to make our judgments and many sitting MPs, MLAs and ministers are losing elections because of our judgment.

I like the issue raised by you and I am including your post and my reply in this community in my blog on political and social philosophy.

I request to think more into the issue and collect opinion of others also on the issue.

Interest of Youth in Army and Politics

Orkut topic
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=370&tid=2588941956088267428

тєяє bαρ kα bαρ
youth of india not intrested in Army and politics
9:04 pm 15.3.2008

youth of india have lost intrest in joining either Indian army or Indian politics
they rather prefer MNC's having a good salary

where indian army is facing marketing problem India politics is so much defamed that no one wants to join this field


My opinion posted
Narayana Rao
Defence - pay them more
10.31 pm 15.3.2008

At some points some professions become attractive and unattractive professions have to be made more attractive.

If private sector is rolling in profits and paying its employees fat salaries, well tax them and pay more salaries to defence officers. Wealth has to be shared in some logical manner.

It is not lack of interest in politics but going up in politics is tough job and probably only new parties now offer chance to new people. All old parties already have dynasties in each and every constituency in the country. Young persons from nonpolitical families have to come up through parties like BSP. Tough road ahead - tough people are required. It is not every body's job unlike that of private corporate sector/public sector or government job.

Do we need ethics and morals?

Hindustan Times carried a lead editorial on 6.3.2008 with the caption "Courting Denigration".

The editorial says Shiv Sena has a worthy rival in Namita Panda, Orissa state Women's Commission chairperson.

She is disturbed by the fact that incidents of rape, unwed motherhood and trafficking of girls have increased in the state.

Ms Panda's antics bring to mind similar missions undertaken by in the past by a chairperson of the National Women's Commission (NCW). So worried was this repository of Indian samskara ...

Human relationships, unless they are abusive in nature, do not fall within the jurisdiction of women's commissions. They should stick to their role as the custodians of women's rights, not of women's morals.

----------------

Comments

Do we need ethics and morals in the society? If they re needed who has to protect them and strengthen them?

Is Hindustan Times right in ridiculing Ms. Panda?