Making it Simple

I was browsing the news and my eye caught on the article about immigration efforts in issuing a National ID card in 2010 to all working Americans or for anyone who wants to work in the U.S. It is a bipartisan effort, if passed, will require everyone to carry a biometric card with fingerprints and other personal information on it. I think that this idea is a good one to implement. With all the latest technologies we have, we should have implemented this years ago. Instead of complaining about illegal immigrants, how they take our jobs, and having to put more forces on our border security to avoid the illegal immigrants, we can start issuing these biometric cards to all workers. Whenever we seek employment, we do need to provide proof of eligibility to work in the US by showing our drivers license and/or social security card along with other required documents. If this biometric card can replace all the cards and papers that we carry, then why not implement it?


Many would argue that carrying such a card is like being treated as a criminal because we have to register with the Government. But even if it is not implemented, are we still not in a long leash with our Government? If you want to drive, you need to have a drivers license; want to work, you need workers permit; you need SSN card for other issues; if you work and not file your taxes, Uncle Sam comes after you anyways. So, to avoid all the identifying cards and to replace it with one biometric card is not all that bad. Yes, one might have to register if he or she is not registered for anything like drivers’ license or SSN card while companies and businesses have to install scanners to process the bio card to make it to work. Everything has a learning curve and once we are down the curve, we will be able to function smoothly.


With one simple card, our wallet size might go down. This card will change the face of how to identify ourselves while boarding planes, getting jobs and bank account, getting driving license or anything to do with identifying ourselves. We are doing that anyways with different cards that we carry around and if we are able to replace it all with one single intelligent card, then why not? I hope congress is successful in passing this as a law so that everyone can get one to make our lives simple. This will get our foot inside the doors in avoiding identity thefts, frauds, illegal immigrants, people who overstay their visas and much more. Most of all, this biometric card cannot be forged or altered and would be a modern common sense solution to all the problems we face with identifying ourselves.

Less Time at School

When I read the news on how many schools across the nation are curtailing the school week from five to four days a week, giving Friday off, I could not help but smile. The one person who will be happy with such a change would be my son. For that matter, all kids would be happy to get a four-day week in school rather than five days. But many parents and many people around the nation feel that children are left behind and are getting less education and are considered to be of lesser priority when it comes to budget cuts and job losses. The idea behind this four-day week is to cut down on budget gaps, cut down on job losses in the Schooling industry. By having a day off during the week, schools will save on power, heating/cooling, bus services, providing meals for the children, maintenance/cleaning for that one day.


Presently, schools in Fairfax County have half-day on Mondays. Instead of the current timings, if school days from Monday to Thursday are made longer, Fridays can be off. Technically, students will be missing half day of school which can be compensated by having an hour extra on the working days. With the latest technologies we have like Internet and Blackboard, which is used in schools, students can be given homework and materials that they can read and work on, on Fridays. I have seen this at work during the snow storm we had a month ago and when schools were closed for more than a week. My son did not miss any school work during those days when schools were closed. Taking this step and making it bigger to implement on Fridays would not be a bad idea.


Before you start pointing your fingers at me to say that schools and children’s education are considered a lesser priority in these difficult economic times, think about the situation and solution for a minute. Students are not losing anything in terms of the education that they receive and it is accounted for. What they will be missing is a meal and play time on Fridays. When we have a bigger situation of closing budget gaps and staving off layoffs in schooling system, I think we can all pull this individual load of dealing with Fridays off. Many might think that they would have to deal with day cares on the day off. Nowadays many employers allow the option of working from home or working extra hours on other weekdays and taking Fridays off. If the government is making it a rule to have Fridays off for schools, then they can certainly do something about working parents working their situation out with their employers. Most European countries have four day work week and have Fridays off (making it a 3-day weekend), so it is about time that we in the USA start looking at that option.

Are Values bemused with Rights?

Last month, a 13-year old, Middle School student in Germantown, Maryland, was sent to counselor’s office for refusing to stand during the pledge of Allegiance. Her parents asked the teacher to apologize for doing so. Later on, because of lawyer’s involvement on the students’ side, ACLU stepped into the matter and asked the teacher to apologize to the student. Out of political pressure, the teacher might apologize but is it not something wrong in this whole picture? While I do agree that the teacher should not have taken such extreme actions on the student and that no one can be forced to participate in a pledge of Allegiance against one’s will and in something that one does not believe in, is there not something called ‘Respect’?


Inculcating good manners should be a part of our schooling systems in addition to teaching the curriculum. Part of it is showing respect to others. While the whole class was standing and saying the pledge out of respect, the girl could have simply stood up rather than sitting. Coming from the land of values – India, I stand quietly whenever any National Anthem is played in a function or gathering. It is out of respect that one shows to their country or belief. The girl could have shown her respect for the country if she is an American and that she would have her say in the near future in a few years down the road. If not, she could have shown respect because America is giving her the opportunity to be in this country and for parting education to her to be a better person. In either case, she has the reason to show her respect for her country.


Honestly I did not comprehend the reasons behind why that student would not stand up or show respect during the pledge. Not wanting to do is one thing but when the entire class is standing up out of respect or out of fear, the one who is not is forced to stand up anyways. Out of political pressure, the teacher might be made to apologize in public but is it not life lessons for the student to show respect – no matter what? Was she trying to stand out, to say that she is cool with not doing what everybody does? Whatever the reason, it still does not warrant an excuse. It might be old fashion to show respect in public but coming from a family where respect is the prime objective, this whole scenario seems to be odd.

Name of the Game

After seeing so much snow on the ground, I could not help but wonder how these Olympians (since they are participating in Winter Olympics, they become Olympians, right?) perform in such cold conditions. Even when I am watching the games with my blanket over me, I would feel the cold breeze and the chillness from the Cypress Mountain. That being said, the winter Olympics is on and is going to end in a week or so. While USA is participating and is on top of the medal counts, NBC is the only channel airing the winter Olympic Games from Vancouver. Even with that, NBC is airing the games only during primetime and not at the time that the game is actually held. Come on, I can understand why the games are aired after the fact, if the games are held in China like in 2008. But people on the West Coast are on the same time zone as Vancouver and yet they watch the games after it has happened. We on the East Coast are also watching the limited coverage that NBC is offering.


So, why all this prejudice in airing Winter Olympic Games when compared to the regular Olympics? Simple reason is that most of the games in Winter Olympics is not really followed by most viewers here and also the participants in those games are not as popular as those in regular Olympics. When I say Phelps, you know exactly who I am talking about but if I say Mancuso, you would be like man, who? Moreover, the news that is aired on TV or radio starts off with the mention of whether USA is in the lead on medal counts or whether US bagged another Gold medal versus the actual sports itself.


Many who follow the winter Olympics do complain about it. The best coverage that the NBC could offer was the accidental death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, Luger, during his trial run. NBC was airing that video quite often and news was read covering different angles and sentiments. In fact, many had complained about the video clip and NBC had to take the video off the air. But ABC took up on the news and is airing it and they have it on their official site as well. Obviously that is what is bound to happen because that is where the money is. Ever since Lindsey Vonn won the Gold in Downhill, she has been the prime focus on the slope events for women. Mancuso is all but forgotten even after her two Silver wins. Next coverage is on Apollo Ohno – how many medals is he going to bag for USA and what his total career medal count going to be? The news and coverage on television is better when the Americans are doing well and are winning medals in the events. When Shawn White won his Gold on Half Pipe, I could see the repeating news and clips being aired even after the game were over. But do we hear about other Gold medal winners from other countries? Maybe their country is airing their videos repeatedly just like we are for our winners. That is the name of the game in the Entertainment world where TRP (target rating point) is the decider of what or who gets coverage.

Snowy Frenzy

Many are chanting the mantra “How long this snow is going to linger on?” We have had a week of no snow storms in the D.C. metro area but we are facing massive obstruction of mammoth snow piles everywhere on any direction that you can lay your eyes on. The two storms that hit us a week and a half ago dumped about two and a half feet of snow on an average and people are stilling plowing their way through the snow. Schools and government offices had been closed for more than a week because snow clearing had become close to impossible. Traffic has become a nightmare (or should I say daymare? Come on, I had to make that up) with the number of lanes reduced to half of what was available to commuters on a normal day. Parking lots for vehicles have become the home for snow piles where all you can see are mounds of snow taking up more than half of the parking spaces.


While the pristine snow covered grounds, trees and houses were soothing to my mind a week back when the snow was still falling and fresh, it has built in anger and frustration into many who have to deal with the aftermath of snow by hauling the snow out of their driveways and parking lots and off of streets and roads. One problem is where do we put the snow that is plowed? Result being, building heaps of snow piles along the roads and along driveways. Drivers at the intersection can hardly see the on coming traffic before making those turns leading to accidents. Now that schools are open, many students are forced to walk on snow covered pathways to get to their schools. Refreezing of melted snow is turning to ice leading to many falls for those who walk on it. Cars are getting stuck on side streets that are barely passable.


Just like the question as to ‘here to dump all this snow’ many are trying to answer the question, ‘how do I show my anger and frustration of this snow’? Case in point is the incident in Loudoun County where one neighbors’ anger pouted on to his street. In Longhouse place in Leesburg (residential street), a Good Samaritan was helping a woman to get her car into her garage while the other cars was stopping behind. A car from the back just went past all the cars that were standing, barely missing the guy who was helping the woman. The driver, Craig Vandusseldorp, would have hit the man but missed him by inches. He was charged with felony assault and reckless driving. He just could not wait a few minutes for the car that was stuck to get off the street. By acting in a haphazard manner, what did he gain? a few tickets and points on his license, marring his driving record, insurance and employment opportunities? Was that worth it?


There were also cases where people are fighting over parking spots. Some people place a chair on the spot to reserve their parking spot and some wanted others to move out of their spot and hence are slicing the tires of the cars so they would move. Why all this rage? The snow will eventually melt and everything will be back to normal in a few days. Until such time, can we not live amicably? Maybe we have to leave a few minutes early to work to beat the traffic and come home a few minutes late after finding a parking spot to park your car. Like some one says, we are one day closer to where we want to be.

Hall of Fame, as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6...

It is no surprise that old fashions and old rules become the new trend after years of disappearance. Now that Oscar best pictures nominees and other nominations were announced a while back and Oscar ballots will be counted on March 2nd and the results are to be announced/aired on March 7th, it is just a matter for the judges to vote on the different categories and have them counted for the final verdict. Where you surprised to see ten movies nominated for best picture? Till 1943, ten or twelve movies were nominated and seeing the amount of work involved in picking the best movie, they curtailed the selection to five for years to come… hm… only till now when the selection is again stretched out to ten movies. The idea behind doing so is to get a variety of movies ranging from high/low budgets, animated movies, not-so-popular ones in the horizon for people to know what other movies are in existence other than the ones that you hear of being the blockbuster hit.


Variety is always good to experience has been the theme for this years Oscar selections for best picture. Different types of food, drinks, relationships and also a different variety of movies that were produced in a year. For this year – 2010 Oscars, the ten movies that were picked has variety in them; from low budget movie on Iraq war – ‘The Hurt Locker’ to animated comedy – ‘Up’, high budget blockbuster hit ‘Avatar’ and sci-fi hit ‘District 9’, get-to-learn movies like ‘Precious’, ‘An Education’ and ‘A Serious Man’, football drama ‘Blind Side’, recession tale ‘Up in the air’ and WW II saga ‘Inglourious Basterds’. Having seen most of these movies, do I qualify to speak about the Oscar selections? Certainly not! I don’t even know how some of these movies get selected for Oscar best pictures.


I certainly did not know about most of the movies, except ‘Avatar’ and ‘Up’, thanks to my son who wanted me to send him to watch it with his friends and ‘Invictus’ (not an Oscar nominee for best picture) because it is about soccer and ‘Inglourious Basterds’, seen many ads of it, I had not heard about the other movies. Having a spectrum of movies listed in the Oscar not only gives information of other movies but also increases the number of viewers to watch Oscar presentations on television. Advertisements can be cramped during the Oscars show on television to make money as the number of viewers would have increased watching the Oscars. Do we need ten movies in the selection? If not for anything, certainly people will start renting these movies to see what had been done to get on the Oscar list. In addition to hit movies, people will see the movies that are not box office hits or never heard of movies. We will just have to wait till March 7th to see the results and make a dash to your nearest Blockbuster to rent them out.

When dreams fail to launch

So the shuttles will stop flying from the USA into space starting this September after it makes its four launches that were scheduled. While I agree that going into outer space and learning about the solar systems and other systems out there will teach a lot and one can relate all of that to mankind itself, it is not about time to give a little focus on earth before you can start to look up? What do I mean by it? As a result of budget policies for the coming year, Obama had cut funds for space programs for NASA and had told NASA to work with private sectors to do any research or launching into space. There are many research divisions, for example, medical science, who do their research not waiting for government to sponsor but depend on private sectors to do the funding so that they can carry out their research, which all told is for the betterment of human kind and to learn more about human existence.


Many who are supporters of space program will argue that what Obama did by halting the funding to NASA, to stop launches will stop them from learning about space and hence the human race. I do support exploration, whether it is space program or ocean research, but when the situation here in the US has come to a point where one has to wonder where the next paycheck is going to come from to pay for the expenses to run a household and when the country is at the brink of depression, when the job losses is at the highest ever – 10%, I would want Obama to funnel all funding to improve the economy here, rather than worry about sending people to moon or further away to Mars.


Sure, the government or the private sectors will speed up the launching if they know of oil deposits or Uranium deposits in Mars, but we don’t know anything of that sort. So until such time we are better off, if everyone starts to look down instead of looking up into space. There is nothing wrong with NASA working with private sectors to help build a taxi service to ferry astronauts into outer space or depend on Russian shuttle to hitch a ride into space. There are shuttles that were built for private parties for a considerable amount just so they can travel into space. There are people out there who have the money to name a star that is being discovered in their name or their bestest. They have the money to fund such programs and NASA can sure use their help to get into outer space for the time-being until we are able to stabilize ourselves in terms of economy here.


I have read about Mars colony project and many fictional stories/books about Mars colony. Even if the U.S. astronauts succeed in going to Mars and in setting up a colony there, they will be working next on stopping other countries from getting there as if Mars is owned by the U.S. If I try to look ahead into the future of this project, all I can see are missiles showering from the heavens above (Mars) when we are fighting down below in Afghanistan or Iraq or any place for that matter. Instead of having to plan for wars from land, sea or air, we would be planning war strategies from outer space as well. In addition to this, are we forgetting that most of U.S is owned by China now? Instead of worrying that if we work with others outside of our country, we will lose the brain power of space programs, let us also work on removing ‘Owned by China’ from the U.S. soil and accept the temporary situation of depending on private sectors and collaborating with other countries for space research.