Why in US the great sporting legends who were kept in pedestal by people mostly end up in some scam and fall to ignominy? Tiger Woods story was shocking. He was one sports person whom I admired.
Guess we should never underestimate the power of the common man or media. One day they keep you in pedestal and the next day they punish you with ignominy. It is true, I admired his sporting talent and skills. What disappointed me was, I had the impression that to reach such levels in golf, you need to have extreme self-discipline. If being perfect in one area is going to bring out the worst in you in some other area, then why glorify such perfectionism? By rewarding such victories aren't we misguiding the society at large and children or the next generation in particular?
There are geniuses who had been extremely successful in their field but had failed in their personal lives. Einstein, Leonardo etc. Even Buffet had a failed marriage. But that I could accept. They failed in personal life, but they continued to be truthful to the field they excelled in. What has happened with Tiger Woods, O.J Simpson and Marian Jones and all are different. They seem to have achieved this status through undesirable means. Somewhere there has been a compromise. For fans like us, its like you have invested in stock that had shown false profits all along when actually it had been making losses :-)
Its good that Tiger Woods has taken a break. Wonderful time for him to reflect on his life rather than running behind media to suppress them from publishing news about him (like he did sometime back).
This episode reminds me of personalities like Amitabh and Rajini. At their career-peak success did destabilize them and as individuals they did succumb to all the wrong habits. But Indian men are clever here. They give the reign of their life to their chosen woman at such times and allow them to steer their life to a more socially acceptable way of living. Jaya Bacchan and Lata Rajinikanth did their roles wonderfully here. Once these men accepted their weakness and fought their way back to family life the media and society at large accepted them and gave them icon status. At some level I also started respecting them because I feel that's the toughest thing to do. Everyone makes mistakes. But to accept, fight back and restore your dignity is a mountainous task. Testing time for Woods now. With his wife leaving and taking away more than half of his wealth will he fight back and restore dignity? Big question?!
December 12, 2009
January 7, 2009
Is India a dump yard for cheap unsafe chinese toys?
Recently I went to Samayapuram temple - a famous goddess temple in a small town near Trichy, Tamilnadu. I could see a lot of shops selling variety of cheap plastic toys. I even bought a few for my friend's kids. Few days after that when I was walking down Jaya Nagar shopping area in Bangalore, I found the same toys sold in some platform shops. I was surprised. It didn't strike me then that they could be the cheap chinese toys flooding our market reaching nooks and corners of the country.
I recently read in magazines and newspapers that the economic downturn has resulted in a decrease in demand for chinese goods in western markets. Since then China has been looking for a place to dump the surplus goods it has in hand. And India
was chosen as a convenient choice and started exporting all those goods here. The government is not indifferent to this and have indeed banned such exports and doing their part to prevent India being China's dump yard. The ban will help to save our domestic industries from becoming extinct, as they cannot compete with these chinese goods price-wise. Also most of the western countries have banned chinese toys because they don't pass the safety standards. Especially, a recent finding reveals that the lead content in most of these toys are too high and pose a great health hazard to kids. So from safety perspective as well a complete ban on such imports is justified.
But how cooperative, are the small merchants and the public, to such ban is the question. Its true that most of the small merchants make a living by selling those goods. Their livelihood would be severely affected. They might have to look for another business to earn a livelihood. Probably the government and NGOs can extend help for them to reestablish.
Ideally people should stop buying such goods. But not always people seem to take the right choice. With import restrictions being in place, it was reported that the demand for certain toys are only increasing and the remaining stocks are selling at very high prices. More awareness has to be created among these people.
For any change to come in , its not enough if just the government and officials are working on it. Every citizen should act in a
responsible way. Only then the country can go in the right direction.
I recently read in magazines and newspapers that the economic downturn has resulted in a decrease in demand for chinese goods in western markets. Since then China has been looking for a place to dump the surplus goods it has in hand. And India
was chosen as a convenient choice and started exporting all those goods here. The government is not indifferent to this and have indeed banned such exports and doing their part to prevent India being China's dump yard. The ban will help to save our domestic industries from becoming extinct, as they cannot compete with these chinese goods price-wise. Also most of the western countries have banned chinese toys because they don't pass the safety standards. Especially, a recent finding reveals that the lead content in most of these toys are too high and pose a great health hazard to kids. So from safety perspective as well a complete ban on such imports is justified.
But how cooperative, are the small merchants and the public, to such ban is the question. Its true that most of the small merchants make a living by selling those goods. Their livelihood would be severely affected. They might have to look for another business to earn a livelihood. Probably the government and NGOs can extend help for them to reestablish.
Ideally people should stop buying such goods. But not always people seem to take the right choice. With import restrictions being in place, it was reported that the demand for certain toys are only increasing and the remaining stocks are selling at very high prices. More awareness has to be created among these people.
For any change to come in , its not enough if just the government and officials are working on it. Every citizen should act in a
responsible way. Only then the country can go in the right direction.
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