The killing of a Muslim Teen-2

The problem with this case is that there were 15 teenagers who obviously have cell phones with them, why did not one of them call police and why did they run back to the mosque to alert their elders while not making sure everybody was safe? Why this group of 15 teenagers did not or could not handle one male with a baseball bat and why did they had the mentality of everybody for himself and ran away, especially the boy who had an argument with the suspect. If they were in a group, they knew each other so what kind of friends abandons their friend in need. The mosque as a community gathering was I believe not able to instill a sense of belonging to a community and it seems the kids were being coerced to attend the all night session. The father of the teen killed believes that it was a hate crime, which I have my doubts because there were nine girls in the group and he could have mowed down some of the girls, but it is not my opinion here. Nobody has asked the teens about the above mentioned relevant questions and it seems that the coward teens just abandon their friend. This just shows that the sense of belonging in a Muslim community is just a myth and when it comes to dangerous situation, the first instinct will be abandon and run. I am just surprised that a group of fifteen teens could not handle a man and did not use their cell phones to call for help while in happier situations, the same teens will record every silly antics and update their status every minute but in this crucial time had their brain frozen. I do hope that the remaining teens would be able to live to regret the events of that night but I have my serious doubts about it.

The killing of a Muslim Teen

Recently in the last week of Ramadan (the Muslim religious month where the Muslims fast from dawn to dusk) a Muslim teenager was killed in Virginia by a Hispanic male who turns out to be living illegally in the country (which I believe is totally irrelevant to the crime). Although I don’t usually write about the criminal actions as it is an everyday occurrence and if I started to do that my whole blog will be about the crimes, but somehow this case attracted my attention. I am not conspiracy theorists, although sometimes I acknowledge that with the sheer amount of evidence and doubt that the conspiracy theorists provide, it is hard not to believe their logic. But back to my post, as I was saying this case was interesting in the sense that the Teen was wearing a hijab and was killed by a Hispanic man and so the Muslim community, including the teen’s family was demanding that the case be tried as a hate crime, while the Police insisted it was a road rage incident, which was gone bad. The killing went like this, a group of around 15 teens including five boys, went to a local restaurant late night around three and during their trip to the restaurant one of the boys had an argument with the driver of a vehicle and the driver out of rage took out a metal baseball bat and chased the kids and ultimately got hold of the girl and kidnapped the girl and reportedly assaulted her and killed her. While the boys ran to the nearby mosque to alert their elders, who came out to search and found out that the said girl was missing.

On the lighter side-Movies-The Assignment (2016) - Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver (2016)

A hit man seeks revenge when he is transformed surgically into a woman. Action movie with good actors but not worth the time. Not recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Railroad Tigers (2016)-Hong Kong-Jackie Chan

A railroad worker leads freedom fighters against Japanese forces in this latest Jackie Chan action comedy. Recommended with caution

On the lighter side-Movies-Enter the Warrior’s Gate (2016-Canada-French)

A teenager who loves video games is transported magically to China where he uses his video gaming skills to master martial arts and fight evil. Recommended with caution.

On the job training

Since many companies are now complaining that they don’t have enough people to fill their jobs and those they have do not match the skills they want, would it not be a practical idea that there should be some sort of on the job training. Instead of this, the companies are clamoring to bring in cheap foreigner to do their job while the U.S. citizens are still looking for jobs. And since I am still looking for a job and interviewing, I have noticed that companies are still trying to look for that perfect candidate who they can hire and provide the least amount of training so that the seat left vacant by the departing employee is not disrupted at all. Sometimes they find it and sometimes the search goes on for months on end. The companies are reluctant to give potential employees on the job training but as my experience tells it , all the jobs require some kind of training since every companies culture wise is different and their style of working is also different. Sometimes I do understand the reluctance of the companies to provide training and sometimes I don’t. And as everybody knows the current U.S. President has had no experience in running for office (as readily acknowledged and documented by many) or having not elected to public office once, the U.S. electors still elected him. So if the U.S. voters (and I will assume many corporate executives) have elected a President who is having an on the job training, so I don’t see any reason not to have on the job training in companies who own revenues are miniscule compared to the U.S. government.

The Puerto Rican vote

Recently there was a vote for the future of Puerto Rico and it was not the first one to decide whether Puerto Rico will become a state, keep the status quo of being a territory of the United States or just gain independence. And the vote was in favor of seeking Statehood but since only twenty percent (according to some estimates) voted in the non binding election, the result could be called dubious and not reliable at best. This voting was done I believe out of sheer desperate situation that Puerto Rican is now in. And I have also read that there may be another voting on coming on this choice again. Puerto Rico is in a huge debt trap to the tune of more than 50 billion dollars and can’t raise money to retire it since they are mostly lost access to the capital markets. Apart from this, the citizens of that territory have lost faith in their state and since they are citizens of the United States, more and more Puerto Ricans are choosing to leave the state to move to the mainland. And as such, the tax base to fund the budget of Puerto Rico is shrinking. And unless the U.S. Congress agrees to the non binding resolution of at least consider the process of starting the Statehood process, which I don’t see it happening in the current U.S. administration, no amount of votes and election to make it a state, which most people are not in favor of, will change the fortune of Puerto Rico. The only way is to create enough revenue so that Puerto Rico can refinance its debt and buy some time to raise funds from the capital markets while it sorts out its mess with the help of the U.S. government

On the lighter side-Movies-The Lego Batman Movie (2017)-Animated

A loner batman reluctantly accepts a sidekick and help Gotham city fight evil. Highly enjoyable. Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Life (2017)-Jake Gyllenhaal

A life form brought on a spaceship threatens the existence of its inhabitants. Claustrophobic but credible science fiction movie. Recommended with caution

On the lighter side-Movies-Altitude (2017)-Denise Richards, Dolph Lundgren

A plane is hijacked so that a thief can escape in this shaky action movie with good actors but it has been done several times before. Not Recommended

Freedom of Speech Limitations

Freedom of Speech is guaranteed by the 1st amendment to the U.S. constitution in the bill of rights. But that does not mean you can just say anything and think you can get away with it. As one of the U.S. Supreme court many decades ago, you cannot yell Fire! in a crowded theater and claim it to be free speech because there can be deadly consequences for it. Nowadays it seems like Freedom of speech has taken on a whole new meaning and adversaries. In some so called liberal campuses of the Nation’s universities, the students have been vocal enough not to allow conservative speakers to come and address in their universities and in essence stifling the very freedom of speech which the students think the students is their right but they have less tolerance when conservative and ultra nationalists want to speak their mind. On the other hand, the people who do not like the current U.S. President have gone out of their way even to considering supposedly harming the president while trying to hide behind free speech. I know there are people who don’t like the current administration but whatever is the case, he was elected by the majority of people and the election was not considered fraudulent (whatever people otherwise think about it). So despite their apparent displeasure, it is still considered disrespectful to publicly called for harming the President and then realize that the people saying this did not mean it when they are faced with a backlash. One can always put their point across without harming or threatening to harm someone and in the case of the U.S. President, people no matter how much they despise the policies of the current administration should not cross the line and disrespect the Presidency of the United States. As I said before, there is a limit to Free speech and sometimes it is just appropriate not to cross that line and just keep your views to yourself

On the lighter side-Movies-Lucid Dream (2017)-Korea

A journalist tries to find his kidnapped son through the technique of lucid dream. Engaging and entertaining movie. Recommended

The IT outsourcing industry in turmoil-2

Another thing is work ethics as the people in the U.S. want to work tightly on schedule while in India it is a laid back environment. Even if people are working as hard as possible, the remoteness of their outsourced work can affect the quality and end result of work. In the relentless effort to squeeze every dollar out of any savings they can get, this outsourcing trend ends up costing much anguish and anxiety to the people who work with them. But who gives a shit about the U.S. workers when outsourcing is all the rage. I have not travelled mostly on the east coast of the U.S. but reading much about the U.S. I am a staunch believer that outsourcing can be done in the U.S. easily but little bit more expensive. Also in order to ensure that the people in India or any outsourcing center overseas are working to the U.S. specifications, people from the U.S. travel to these places and stay in expensive hotels for weeks on end. So the expenses of monitoring work overseas negates all the expenses incurred in outsourcing the work and if something goes wrong in regards to compliance which does happen, then the fines imposed on them just makes it more meaningless to outsource work. The quality of work created by outsourcing does not justify the amount paid by U.S. companies as the U.S. workers get ripped off with lower quality work for the same amount of work. Hopefully as the new U.S. president raises the cost on outsourcing companies, the domestic based companies will have to find work in the U.S. where there are plenty of people willing to work.

The IT outsourcing industry in turmoil

During the U.S. Presidential campaign, the current President announced that he will restrict the IT immigration visa that is the life line for hundreds of thousands of IT outsourcing companies mostly in India. At that time, there was no way to know that the current U.S. President will win the election. But after his win, things have started to change, even when there is a hint of restricting the H1B Visa for IT companies, the stocks of some of the major Indian Outsourcing companies have gone down and they have been forced to reevaluate their strategy of hiring more U.S. based workers. Since Indian Outsourcing companies get almost 60 percent of their business from the U.S. according to some report, it is natural that they would be affected. And besides these forces out of their control, another thing that I have read is that automation and the new emerging technology of artificial intelligence (A.I) will also have a massive effect on their revenues if they don’t change fast enough from their outsourcing strategy. I had the privilege or you can say the unfortunate opportunity to see the fiasco that outsourcing has been doing to companies both U.S. and foreign. If done right, outsourcing can be good like in the case of clothing and manufacturing but financial outsourcing which the U.S. and foreign companies have done lately is nothing much but a major pain in the ass. With time difference between the U.S. east coast and India in the winter and fall season to 10 hours and in the summer and spring to 9 hours it just becomes a major headache to race ahead to finish your work according to different time schedules.

The Islamic Military Alliance-2

Afghanistan, which has also been hit by terrorists’ activities, is another case in point. Afghanistan has already NATO forces in the country but will it allow the Muslim NATO to come in and fight terrorism, I don’t think so. Egypt is the same, as it battles ISIS inspired groups will not allow Muslim NATO to come to their country. There has also been no mention of how many troops each country will provide and how many weapons they will set aside for this venture. What are the criteria of settling disputes among member nations? The recent spat with Qatar and some gulf states and their supporters is a case in point. The alliance has not even started yet and the members are fighting among themselves. The citizens of the countries who have joined in have no clue what it is all about. Making it an anti Iranian alliance will not help them bit because if they read their history they have been there all along. I am talking about the time when there was the Iran-Iraq war for eight years and all the Arab and Muslim countries and the western alliance supported the Iraqi regime and still the so called anti Iran alliance could not do much damage to the Iranian revolution. So calling it a Muslim NATO or some weird and laughable name when most of the countries defense budgets are negligible and they have their own problems at home will not make the alliance any stronger or threatening.

The Islamic Military Alliance

I have been meaning to write about this so called Islamic Military Alliance (also known as the Muslim NATO, which it is not at all) for a time since its inception but did not have the time to do it. Also there was no clearer picture of what it purpose was, which I don’t believe it does now either. But with the visit of the U.S. President it became a little clearer, although not that much that it was from the start as suspected an Anti Shiite and Anti Iran alliance. Anyway whatever the purpose of it, when it was announced, most of the countries that have become part of it forcibly were not even aware of it. Its headquarters will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and I believe it will be bankrolled by the Saudis too since most of the countries in the so called alliance have a hard time feeding their own population, let alone contribute much to the alliance except their mostly not combat ready troops if and when it is called for. It has been dubbed as the Muslim NATO but there is no mention of where it will operate who will contribute what and how many troops if any and if they will have the permission to enter countries who have been hit hard by terrorism like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent Egypt. I will hardly doubt that Pakistan which is the hardest hit by terrorists attack will allow foreign forces to enter its country and fight alongside Pakistani Troops. There has been no mention of how many troops each country will contribute and what will their sphere of combat. Who will pay for the logistics and financial contribution which I believe will be the rich gulf countries? But with crude oil revenue sliding, how will the rich gulf countries be able to contribute overwhelming funding to this fantastic concept.