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Action, Not Birth, Determines Caste – Religion, Politics & Management

bhoot — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:14:43 +0000

I was very pleased with the episodes of Mahabharat this week (Mahabharat 6 & 10 Sep MBC1). There were important lessons and teachings in each episodes. Given the recent uproar created by the infamous l’Express article on castes use in politics, I think it’s important that everyone understands that even in the times of Mahabharat (3000 years ago or so), it was accepted that people can determine their caste, by the job they do: their actions.

Karan told his father that he wants to become a warrior, a Kshatriya, changing from his father’s Shudra job of being charioteer. He will succeed in becoming a great warrior later in the series.

Another good lesson comes from Mama Shakuni to Duryodhan. Some people associate ‘Divide and rule‘ philosophy to colonial English, when the British East India Company used the divisions of small kingdoms in India to their advantage into conquering the big India. However, Shakuni gives the same advice over 3o00 years ago to his nephew. He mentions that together the Pandavas are stronger than he is, but one-on-one, Duryodhan can beat them.

Shakuni suggests that apart from the virtues, conspiracy can prove useful in battle. When the enemy is stronger that you are, you must first identify what your strengths are. Then identify the weaknesses of the enemy so that you can strike there. That’s how Duryodhan is able to beat Bheem by using the latters eating habit. Compare with the SW of SWOT analysis in Management…

Now I think that the politicians in Mauritius are really preaching unité national. After all, they are the models themselves, making coalitions, networks. Each party comprises of cross-religion and castes members. However, for the orthodox people who still vote on castes, they use a divide and rule approach, where it is easier to manage small blocks of the voters, compared to a large group. That’s also the approach in conventional management, where big companies (e.g. GML, Rogers..) have created specialised small firms to handle different activities…

Mauritians do work together well, at least, the youngsters do. I do, my friends from other religions do as well. We accept each other’s cultural differences, and learn the good things from each other, as well pointing the bad sides. E.g. women oppression in distorted ideas from Hinduism and Islam. Let’s hope that the current generation is stronger than the few of us who are still cultivate caste-communial differences negatively…

What makes a good political leader in Mauritius!

bhoot — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:57:03 +0000

I’m rather fed up of listening to the small parties leaders for the oncoming general election. I mean, I said, let’s check out if there’s some party worth voting apart from the 2 big alliances. FSM, MDN, MAM etc… There’s one thing I simply can’t digest is the lack of on-screen skills by their leaders. I mean come, on it’s not hard, you just need these:

La gueule! basically, that’s the ability to talk good of your party and your values no matter. Leaders should be able to answer questions askd to them, comment on their feelings of the day, of their vision with absolute confidence. Stuttering is like saying, ‘don’t vote me, I’m not good enough’
Say what people want to hear and are looking for! What’s the point in saying that you’re going to help the poor as your main argument? Is that appealing to the majority? No, it’s not. Poverty is a problem, but don’t make it your main argument. Nor either say vague things like progress, rights for this class and that… Mauritians like to hear what specific things you’ll do, like the big parties are: e.g. free public transport for some, 200 laureates. Most people are middle class, not poor.
Have relevant and credible arguments! The moment you tell a lie, people are not going to believe you (well, not within the time for election). Same if you counter your own argument. One politician has been saying times and times over that they’re winning and will stay for years. So what? Where’s the argument? Another example is saying that the country is in a very bad shape – which is totally false! What
Appear social, rather than economic! Even if you have the best economic plan for Mauritius, bear in mind that most voters do not understand economy. Ever wondered the reason why the finance minister was ousted? Who understands the impact of reduced corporate tax and even obvious things like CSR! Managers, top people, NGOs do. Do most educated people realise that CSR means a potential of billions of rupees being spent on community service by private companies and NGO’s every year?

Like my previous post(s), I’d love to see a young new party that will unite the good people around Mauritius, combine the small parties if needed, and really bring a revolution.

Youngsters Should Vote and Even Form Parties – General Elections 2010

bhoot — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:15:22 +0000

So many educated young people (I mean under 35) tell me that they don’t vote. The reasons they say is that politicians are all corrupt and useless to vote for any party. But I say isn’t it your duty to choose what politician the country will have? What if just 50,000 voting youngsters think that way?

How about focusing those youngsters into creating a new party, a youngsters party, all around Mauritius. Some people pose as independent candidates. It’s definitely not to win! You need to be in a group to make big changes to the country. Ignore the fact that our Asian culture trains us to think the old people make better leaders. If only one person gets voted in the fictitious ‘Youngsters Revolution’ party (lol), it’ll be a success, cause it’ll encourage more young people to vote, and do come out to do something. The point is that if all the non-voters vote for the same one new party, that party will gain some power in front of the other parties.

You’ll say politics are dirty… it’s just perception. To some politics is a business, mean power, mean social work and more. Who made politics dirty? Who said that the governing politicians are meant to be bad?!

There is a saying however, ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ And one from Spiderman, ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’

1-percent for Employee welfare? Wait, you only get it if you’re fired!

bhoot — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:56:01 +0000

Something’s not right with this force-upon 1% deduction of your salary for a fund that will give you part of your salary in case you lose your job. Now, I’m not saying that the it’s bad to keep getting a salary when you don’t have a job, but taking 1% each month! It’s like overtaxing the private sector.

The government doesn’t seem to have enough of discouraging people from working in the private sector, when they owe most of their money to that sector. With PRB, the ‘fonctionnaires’ have become even lazier than before. Oh, there’s PMS now… but there are stupid rules that prevent educators from working correctly…

When Corporate tax went down, I actually had good hopes of this government and the Finance Minister (and the actual income from taxes went up as a result of this)… But now it seems that they’ve started to do things that may eventually make them lose the next election. Fortunately, there are syndicates who are going to manifest agains the 1-percent this month!