Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

In the world of inequality, any "....cracy" or "...ism" may only bring the glimpse of that utopian land, but not the real deal. Regards, Sohel Democracy in a world of inequality The system we are exporting is wilting under under egoism's rule Peter Preston Monday May 16, 2005 The Guardian Here's George Bush, playing the crowds from Riga to Tbilisi and waving his "beacon of liberty". It's a wonderful thing, this democracy. And here's Tony Blair, counting his 36% and trying to polish a few wan adjectives. It's a cruel, apathetic thing, this democracy. We see the birth of freedom - in Bucharest or East Berlin - because it makes great TV. We watch misty-eyed as that statue of Saddam topples for the umpteenth time. And then the years of disillusion kick in. East Germans tell pollsters how they hanker for the past. Iraq grits its teeth as the carnage grows and the magic of the ballot fa...

College Libraries Set Aside Books in a Digital Age By RALPH BLUMENTHAL J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times Students in the computer lab at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. HOUSTON, May 13 - Students attending the University of Texas at Austin will find something missing from the undergraduate library this fall. Books. By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the library's 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections to clear space for a 24-hour electronic information commons, a fast-spreading phenomenon that is transforming research and study on campuses around the country. "In this information-seeking America, I can't think of anyone who would elect to build a books-only library," said Fred Heath, vice provost of the University of Texas Libraries in Austin. Their new version is to include "software suites" - modules with computers where students can work collabo...

A sensible article. A serious global effort is needed to be in place well before the unthinkable slams at our deluded door of security. Ignoring this issue, or accepting the undesirable outcomes from mostly man made global warming, when the potential disaster may even wipe out many nations or significant parts of them from the face of the earth with its serious consequences of millions and millions of death in the scale that perhaps the world hasn't witnessed it before, is unacceptable. Regards, Sohel Before the Flood By Sujatha Byravan and Sudhir Chella Rajan One of the paradoxes of global warming is that developing countries, which were not responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the climate and did not reap the benefits of industrialization, will bear the brunt of the consequences. One of these consequences will be rising seas, which in turn will generate a surge of "climate exiles" who have been flooded out of their homes in poor coun...