When will the Governments stop growing?

 I often start a blog intending to keep it to as few words as possible, but usually end up writing more than my fair share. Interestingly I think the same applies to how the role of national governments have evolved over the years.

  In the beginning they had the simple task of protecting a nations citizen's and maintain order. But now the governments all over the world are involved in almost every sphere of human activity from procreation to death. All this has invariably come at the price of the individual, family and society conceding more powers to the government.  

  The big question is whether the live of an average human person has improved by the Government becoming a provider, and whether our lives would have been better if the government had kept to its original role of being a protector. One obvious advantage of a limited government would be freedom from the thousands of laws that have come into effect, and the new one's being created every day.

 I stop here not wanting to exceed my self imposed limit of words, still wondering when governments will do the same.

Religious Freedom: Is it only applicable to Muslims?

  I don't usually like to write about the ills of another community, but after having heard this story I cannot stop  myself from writing what I feel. But let me say at the outset that I have no ill intention towards the muslim community. I respect them and have only good will towards them. On a personal level I have had several friends from the Muslim community.

  The story is about a poor Christian woman from a village in Pakistan who has been condemned to death by the courts for allegedly blaspheming against the Prophet. Another report on the same is here. After reading about her, I could not help becoming disgusted about the reasoning behind such a verdict.  

  What does the Pakistani State hope to achieve by killing a poor, uneducated woman who  lived  a simple life of a Wife and Mother. Her only crime was trying to say a few words defending her Faith which every Christian (who really follows Jesus) including myself would gladly do without fear. But her own women co-workers have turned that into Blasphemy.

   Now what I find most disconcerting is the fact that the Muslims (Intellectuals, activists and society) who would go up in arms against the slightest taunt against their faith remain silent. So have the mainstream news channels who go crazy even if there is an alleged threat to burn a holy book or a plan to ban the face veil .(I haven't seen any major Muslim organization take a stand against this cruelty nor seen any report in mainstream media. Only a few christian Media have brought this story out. But it is entirely possible that I may have missed something, so forgive me if I have.)

 The Hypocricy involved here is amazing. And this is not an isolated incident, only this is the first time a woman has been condemned. Nor is this confined to Pakistan, most Islamic republics and sultanates have laws like these. Is it that the poor non-Muslim people in Islamic countries are somehow lesser human beings, who are condemned to live in humiliation and fear for their entire lives.

Whatever happens to this poor woman, she can be glad of the fact that she never denied her faith in Jesus. For Jesus has told that whoever affirms to him on earth, He will not deny them before the Father.

The Tyranny of Energy - Part II

   As briefed in my previous post there are  an substantial number of players involved within the energy logistics, and overhead involved at each level. However the presence and operations of multiple players need not be an evil in itself and, cause an unfair price to be levied on the energy consumers. The consumer suffers when any or all of the situations arise with respect to each level of energy logistics.  

1) Endemic inefficiencies within the entities involved in energy logistics.    

2) Monopoly of energy resources, extraction technology, infrastructure and associated services by a single      or group of entities. 

3) Restrictive laws enforced in the name of Energy security.

4) Excessive standardization (of end fuels ) which discourages diversity in energy utilization technologies.

   The above points can be easily illustrated  by asking ourselves a few simple questions. 

 1) The government levies a huge tax on fuels (more than 50% presently), but what is the value of service (with regard to energy) provided by it.

 2) How many companies are there in oil exploration and refining in India? More importantly how many new companies were allowed into these sectors in recent years.

  

 3) If you discover that there is a small oil well (or any other energy resource) in your property, can you use it without fear of government or corporate intervention.

4) If I make a highly efficient car engine which however requires a slight change in fuel composition can I find it.

  

    I am sure you will find that the answers to the questions above will at least partially reveal how enslaved we are to the system for our energy needs.

 

The Tyranny of Energy (cont...)

 To get an idea of the price we pay for access to energy, we must first take a glimpse at the major players involved in energy logistics. For the moment I restrict my scope to solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. I list the entities involved along with a few examples from India below in no particular order of importance.

1) Governments of India and oil exporting countries.

2) Private and Public sector Companies involved in exploring and extracting the energy resources. For eg Coal India, ONGC, Reliance, Cairn Energy are a  few Indian entities that comes immediately to my mind.

3) Private and Public sector companies involved in converting the energy resources to usable form and marketing them. For eg Indian oil, BPCL, HPCL, Reliance are a the most prominent I can think of from India.

4) The transportation companies involved in transferring resources- The Indian railways, merchant navy and tanker fleet.

5) The middle men involved in whole sale and retail of fuels.

6) The labour force involved in energy transportation.

 7) And finally the Consumer.

   An unbiased introspection of the first five elements in this list would give an idea of who gets the lions share of the price we pay for a litre of diesel.

My Experience at BARC

   BARC & DAE could arguably be the greatest places young engineers could hope to work in after they pass out.  And every year the DAE calls fresh engineers from all over India to become nuclear scientists  through their OCES & DGFS programs. I also decided to take this opportunity to realize my greatest passion.  My first attempt at getting through their test failed so I took the next one. I wrote GATE and qualified for the interview. The application process went smoothly and then the wait started for the interview schedule. I got a shock when at last they announced the schedule 11/2 weeks before the interview. The interview was spread over a month with more than 180 candidates interviewed per day.

 Unfortunately train tickets to Mumbai in June had to be booked at least one month before departure to have any hope of reservation. My parents & I were in despair as the waiting list was in the 100's.  Finally my father trusting in my capability & unable to see me lose an opportunity booked an air ticket for me. So I took leave from work & arrived in Mumbai with the dreams & hopes of an average engineer. I was confident that my passion for Nuclear energy & the prayers of my family would see me through.

As directed I arrived accompanied by a relative who was a Mumbaite at the the sprawling BARC training center 8 AM. I was wonder-struck at  the infrastructure & mini town ship I found there. I later realized that I was just at the outskirts of the real BARC.

    At 10 AM we were herded into a huge hall on the 1st floor. It was quite a crowd in there, much more than I had expected. I soon found out that the room was more of a freezer  with more that 30 individual split AC's chilling my bones. Things move at a snail's place inside. The lucky ones with initial registration no's managed to get their certificates verified & get an interview card. I had to wait till 1 PM for mine.

    Despite the waiting & chilling I was happy to finally get interviewed. I expected no waiting since there were supposed to be about 15 or so interview committees for my branch alone. Unfortunately at the interview coordinator told me to go & have lunch & come at 2. I came back as asked only to be asked to wait again outside. The waiting continued for another 2 hours. 

 Finally I was allowed in to confront a panel of 5  BARC  officers around a small round table. It started with simple questions like what I was doing now. They soon realized that I was not really a fresher but an engineer working in a small company. Apparently they didn't take to that fact very much & asked me why I would work for such a low salary. Apparently they didn't know that private companies weren't as generous as BARC. Also they pored through my Btech mark-lists ending the rest of the hope they had in my ability since I had an average % and a few 2nd chance cleared papers.

I tried my best to keep up with with their questions but failed miserably as I wasn't capable of asking questions without atleast a minute of thinking. Half way through the interview I knew it was a lost cause & they knew they were just following protocol by continuing the interview till a set time.

 Finally it was over & I came wanting to leave as soon as got my travel allowance which I was eligible for.  Unfortunately there were about 100 or so candidates there crowded around a room  for the same. Some of them since noon. I again waited but soon found it was cruel to keep my relative waiting just to get some money. We asked the person in charge & he assured that I would get the amount by money order.We left finally at 6 PM. I'm still waiting for my money order. 

    I was thoroughly disappointed by my performance . I knew that what I told them that day was only a fraction of what I knew. I only wished they had at least asked why I had wanted to join BARC. Yes the money & status was unbelievable. But that was non existent compared to the passion I had for making a contribution in the field of  Nuclear  Energy. But they never asked that.

 One advice to all those would be takers of this opportunity is to be prepared to get roughed up in your subject with back to back questions. If you don't know your formulas by heart  you won't survive it.  BARC is obviously for the academically strong & not for the passionately brave. 

  Now I am not surprised why even after 50 odd years of research at BARC & DAE by the brightest minds in the country costing 1000's of crores of rupees we still only produce 3% of our energy from Nuclear power plants, and  import reactors from Russia. I hope one day they will realize that scientific research is more about the passion to contribute something to science and less about academic excellence & pay packets.

  Despite my disappointments, energy research is still my greatest passion, and I have taken to research in energy production from more down to earth resources like biomass.

The Tyranny of Energy

   Mankind has been spending and will continue to spend (for the foreseeable future) a considerable amount of its  blood and treasure for the sole purpose of producing,storing, distributing and using energy. Nothing has caused more transformation in our lives than in the way we use energy. Yet the sad fact is that for a large chunk of earth's population, access to energy is still limited. Worse still is the condition of people who have been adversely affected by the others need (or greed) for energy.

  There are only two know sources of energy on earth. One is the Sun and the other is Geothermal.The former contributes roughly 99% of energy used by man. All the energy resources whether it be fossil fuels, hydel power, or even fire wood is nothing but sun's energy stored on earth through some natural process. An the sun has been bathing the earth with its energy free of charge for millions of years.

  If you look at the larger picture it would seem strange that we pay such a heavy price for something that is given free. But then again we cannot use what is available as such. It needs to be converted to a usable form like electricity or gasoline. So it is only reasonable to  pay the energy seller for all the trouble they took to convert the energy resource into a usable form.

  But are we paying a reasonable price for the energy we use or is energy being used as an instrument to enforce control by the few that have access to energy resources. Is the price demanded by the energy seller,  the government and the middle men in terms of money, human rights and freedom fair to the individual and his family.